Doctor Cupid: A Novel
night, that are rather akin to the noises of the day: the sound, for
instance, of wheels outside upon the lonely road, a sound that does not
die away, gradually muffled and fading into the distance, but that
ceases suddenly on the air--ceases, only to be succeeded by the noise of
a vague, subdued stir in the house itself. But Peggy kneels on. The only
noise that she heeds is that of the beckoning rose-branch that calls
continually, 'Come, come!'
She has buried her face in the bed-clothes, praying always; and as she
lifts it again she becomes aware that in the doorway, left ajar to give
Prue more air and ease in breathing, some one is standing, some one
standing at the dead of the night, looking in upon her. But still she
kneels on. She is quite past fear. Is she wandering, like Prue? Is it
some heavenly messenger that has come out of pure pity to her help? If
it be so, it wears the homely human form, the form of one with whom she
once sat under a hawthorn bower, with her happy head upon his breast.
As her solemn, haggard eyes meet his, he advances into the room, and
kneels down beside her. They exchange no word. Their hands meet in no
greeting; only they kneel side by side, until the morning. And at
morning, when the first dawn-streak makes gray the chinks of the
window-shutters, Prue, true to her infallible instinct, wakes up out of
her trance; and, opening her eyes, cries with a loud, clear voice:
'Is it morning? Then there is another day gone. Forty days gone--forty
days!' and so, lifting her face to Peggy to be kissed, as she has done
all her life, before addressing herself to sleep, she closes her eyes,
and turns her face on the pillow with a satisfied sigh; and on that
satisfied sigh her soul slips away.
Speak softly, for Prue is asleep--asleep as Franky Harborough sleeps, as
all they sleep, the time of whose waking is the secret of the Lord God
Omnipotent.
* * * * *
Her little world have long prophesied that Prue would die, and now she
is dead--dead, and, restless as she was, laid to rest in her moss-lined
grave. With the live green moss environing her, with the bride-white
flowers enwrapping her from dreamless head to foot, she has gone--gone
from sofa and settle and garden--gone soon from everywhere, save from
Peggy's heart. And he who is the alone lord and owner of that great
heart does not grudge its place to the poor little figure seated for
ever by that warm fireside; and if, as time goes on, he knows that the
Prue so perennially enthroned there--the Prue of whom in after-days
Peggy's children are taught to talk with lowered voices, as of some
thing too sweet and sacred for common speech--is not the real Prue who
fretted and repined, and loved to madness here on earth, he does not own
it even to himself.
* * * * *
_Postscript._--About six months after the death of Prue Lambton, the
attention of the readers of one of the graver monthlies was arrested by
the appearance in its pages of a short ode, the melody of whose
versification, the delicate aroma of its fancy, the quaint beauty of its
imagery, and the truth and freshness of its feeling, called to their
minds the best of the Elizabethan lyrics. It was anonymous, and was
addressed 'To Prue in Heaven.'
THE END.
_J. D. & Co._
_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, _Edinburgh_.
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| Transcriber's Note:-- |
| |
| Punctuation errors have been corrected. |
| |
| The following suspected printer's errors have been addressed.|
| |
| Page 57. ever changed to over. |
| (tumbling over each other). |
| |
| Page 108. percedence changed to precedence. |
| (to grasp at a precedence). |
| |
| Page 206. schnsuchtsvoll changed to sehnsuchtsvoll |
| (Das Herz wuchs ihm so sehnsuchtsvoll) |
| |
| Page 297. yon changed to you. |
| (you made me think). |
| |
| Page 309. astonied changed to astonished. |
| (to have her astonished eyes). |
| |
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