He said not a word, but lay with his face turned toward her. They wished
to carry her away, but he gently reproved them.
“Wait!” he murmured. “In a short time you will carry away another also.
Wait.”
They waited.
An hour before midnight all was over. They had passed--those pure
spirits, from a world which was uncongenial to a fairer world and a
purer clime.
They were buried side by side in the Brandon vaults. Frank then
returned to London. Mrs. Thornton went back to Holby. The new rector was
surprised at the request of the lady of Thornton Grange to be allowed
to become organist in Trinity Church. She offered to pension off the old
man who now presided there. Her request was gladly acceded to. Her zeal
was remarkable. Every day she visited the church to practice at the
organ. This became the purpose of her life. Yet of all the pieces two
were performed most frequently in her daily practice, the one being
the Agnus Dei; the other, the [Greek: teleutaion aspasmon] of St. John
Damascene. Peace! Peace! Peace!
Was that cry of hers unavailing? Of Despard nothing was known for some
time. Mr. Thornton once mentioned to his wife that the Rev. Courtenay
Despard had joined the Eleventh Regiment, and had gone to South Africa.
He mentioned this because he had seen a paragraph stating that a Captain
Despard had been killed in the Kaffir war, and wondered whether it could
by any possibility be their old friend or not.
At Brandon Hall, the one who had been so long a prisoner and a slave
soon became mistress.
The gloom which had rested over the house was dispelled, and Brandon
and his wife were soon able to look back, even to the darkest period of
their lives, without fear of marring their perfect happiness.
THE END.
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Cord and Creese, by James de Mille