"Elinor," he said, "I must see Algernon. I cannot die until I have seen
him. But mark me, Elinor, you must not be present at our conference. You
must not see him."
With quivering lips, and a face paler than usual, his wife promised
obedience, and Grenard Pike was despatched to Norgood Hall to make known
to Algernon Hurdlestone his dying brother's request, and to call in,
once more, the aid of the village doctor.
As Elinor watched the grim messenger depart, she pressed her hands
tightly over her breast to hide from the quick eye of the miser the
violent agitation that convulsed her frame, as the recollection of
former days flashed upon her too retentive memory.
"Surely, surely," she thought, "he will never come. He has been too
deeply injured to attend to a verbal summons from his unnatural
brother."
Although strongly impressed that this would be the case, the desire of
once more beholding the love of her youth, though forbidden to speak to
him, or even to hear the sound of his voice, produced a state of
feverish excitement in her mind which kept alive her fears, without
totally annihilating hope.
The misty, grey dawn was slowly breaking along the distant hills, when
Grenard Pike, mounted upon a cart-horse which he had borrowed for the
occasion, leisurely paced down the broad avenue of oaks that led through
the park to the high road.
Pages:
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94