It was just three years since I had left Crown Anstey. Lord Winter told
me I should have some weeks to myself, but he was so incessantly
occupied I never liked to ask for them.
I had never seen or heard anything of Crown Anstey since I left it. At
Harden Manor all was the same, unchanged and unaltered.
One morning, when I went into the library, a letter lay waiting for me.
I saw that it was Coralie's handwriting, and my first impulse was to
burn it unread. Why should she write to me again? Her letters only
pained me. I threw it aside and began to work--in the busy occupation of
the morning I forgot all about it.
I did not open it until evening. It was from Coralie, but it only held
these few words:
"Edgar--My boy--my beautiful boy--is dying. Come to me; for if I
lose him I shall die, too. In my distress I would rather have you
near me than any one else.
CORALIE TREVELYAN."
Was it true, or was it an invention? Poor little Rupert dying! Why, no
one had even told me he was ill. Perhaps I had better go. No mother
could be so cold and so wicked as to feign death for her only child.
Lord Winter raised no objections.
"It was not very convenient," he said, but of course he "must bow to
necessity."
I was in time to catch the mail train. Eight o'clock found me the next
morning in London, and, without waiting for rest or refreshment, I
started at once for Crown Anstey.
It was only too true. I found my old home full of the wildest confusion;
women were weeping and wringing their hands--the whole place was in
disorder.
I was shown into the library, and in a few minutes Coralie came to me. I
hardly recognized her; her face was white, her eyes were dim with long
watching and bitter tears.
"I knew you would come," she said. "He is dying, Edgar; nothing in the
world can save him. Come with me."
I followed her to the pretty chamber where little Sir Rupert lay. Yes,
he was dying, poor child! He lay on the pretty, white bed; a grave-faced
doctor was near; the nurse, Sarah Smith, sat by his side.
His mother went up to him.
"No better! No change!" she cried, wringing her hands. "Oh, my God! must
I lose him? Must he die?"
He was my unconscious rival; his little life stood between me and all I
valued most, yet I knelt and prayed God, as I had never prayed before,
that He would spare him. I would have given Crown Anstey twice over for
that life; but it was not to be.
"Do not disturb him with cries," said the doctor to his mother; "he has
not long to live."
She knelt by his side in silence, her face colorless as that of a marble
statue, the very picture of desolation, the very image of woe.
So for some minutes we sat; the little breath grew fainter and more
feeble, the gray shadow deepened on the lovely face.
"Mamma!" he cried. "I see! I see!"
She bent over him, and at that moment he died.
I can never forget it--the wild, bitter anguish of that unhappy woman,
how she wept, how she tore her hair, how she called her child back by
every tender name a mother's love could invent.
It was better, the doctor said, that the first paroxysm of grief should
have full vent. All attempts at comfort and consolation were unavailing.
I raised her from the ground, and when she saw my face she cried:
"Oh, Edgar! Edgar! it is my just punishment!"
I did my best to console her. I told her that her little child would be
better off in heaven than were he master of fifty Crown Ansteys. But I
soon found that my words fell on deaf ears; she was unconscious.
"I do not like the look of Mrs. Trevelyan," said the doctor. "I should
not be surprised to find that she has caught the fever herself. If so,
in her present state of agitation, it will go hard with her."
He was right; before sunset Coralie lay in the fierce clutches of the
fever, insensible to everything.
I do not like dwelling on this part of the story; it is so long, long
since it all happened, but the memory of it stings like a sharp pain.
Clare came to nurse her, and everything that human science and skill
could suggest was done to save her. It was all in vain.
We buried the little child on the Tuesday morning, when the sun was
shining and the birds were singing in the trees, and on the Saturday
they told us his mother could not live.
It was early on the dawn of the Sunday morning when they sent for me.
She was dying, and wished to speak to me.
I went into her room. Clare knelt by her side. She turned her white face
to me with a smile.
"Edgar," she said, "I am glad you have come. I want to--to die in your
arms. Bend down to me," she whispered. "I want to speak to you. Will you
forgive me? I can see now how wrong I was, how wicked to love you so
much, and how wicked to tell you so. Will you forgive me, and now that I
am dying say one kind word to me, and tell me you can respect me in
death?"
I pillowed that dying head on my arm, and told her I should only
remember of her what had been kind and good.
"You will only remember that I loved you, Edgar, not that I was
unwomanly and wicked?"
"I will forget everything, except that you were my dear cousin and dear
friend."
"You will marry Agatha," she said, faintly, "and bring her home here. I
hope you will be happy; but, oh! Edgar--Edgar--when she is your wife,
and you are so happy together, you will not forget me; you will stroll
out sometimes when the dew is falling to look at my grave and say, 'Poor
Coralie! how well she loved me--so well--so dearly!' You will do that,
Edgar?"
My tears were falling warm and fast on her face.
"Are these your tears? Then you care a little for me. Ah, then, I am
willing to die!"
And so, with her head pillowed on my arm, and a smile on her lips, she
died.
We buried her by the side of Miles Trevelyan. After life's fitful fever
she sleeps well.
From the first hour of her illness the doctor had no hope for her. I
learned afterward that for some time before the child took the fever she
had been ailing and ill.
It was such a strange life. Thinking over it afterward, it seemed to me
more like romance than reality.
A year passed before the dream of my life was fulfilled and Agatha came
to Crown Anstey. I need not to say how happy we were.
Lady Trevelyan is the most beloved and popular lady in the county; our
children are growing up good and happy; we have not a care or trouble in
the world, and the sharpest pain I have is the memory of Coralie.
[The end.]