Ever and anon he
pressed it to his lips; then hugged it to his breast again, murmuring
that it was warmer now; and as he said it, he looked in agony to those
who stood around, as if imploring them to help her.
She was dead, and past all help, or need of it The ancient rooms she had
seemed to fill with life, even while her own was waning fast--the garden
she had tended--the eyes she had gladdened--the paths she had trodden,
as it were, but yesterday--could know her never more.
She had been dead two days. She died soon after daybreak. They had read
and talked to her in the earlier portion of the night, but as the hours
crept on she sunk to sleep. They could tell, by what she faintly uttered
in her dreams, that they were of her journeyings with the old man; they
were of no painful scenes but of people who had helped and used them
kindly, for she often said, "God bless you!" with great fervor. Waking,
she never wandered in her mind but once, and that was of beautiful music
which she said was in the air. God knows. It may have been.
Opening her eyes at last, from a very quiet sleep, she begged that they
would kiss her once again. That done, she turned to the old man with a
lovely smile upon her face--such, they said, as they had never seen, and
never could forget--and clung with both arms about his neck. They did
not know that she was dead, at first.
She would like to see poor Kit, she had often said of late.
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