I seemed to long for the very pang which
I knew the sight of the grave would give me.
It is of course impossible for me to linger over that cruise, or to
record any of the incidents that took place at the ports at which we
touched and landed. My recovery, or rather my partial recovery, was
slower than the doctor had anticipated. Weeks and months passed, and
still there seemed but little improvement in me.
The result was that I was obliged to yield to the importunities of my
mother, and to the urgent advice of Dr. Finch, to remain on board
Sleaford's yacht during the entire cruise, and afterwards to go with
them to Italy.
Absence from England gave me not the smallest respite from the grief
that was destroying me.
My parting with my mother was a very pathetic one. She was greatly
changed, and I knew why. The furrows Time sets on the face can never
be mistaken for those which are caused by the passions. The struggle
between pride and remorse had been going on apace; her sufferings had
been as great as my own.
It was in Rome we parted.
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