According to my promise, I send you an account of matters here. Poor
Mrs. Norton was so very ill upon the road, that, slowly as the hearse
moved, and the chariot followed, I was afraid we should not have got her
to St. Albans. We put up there as I had intended. I was in hopes that
she would have been better for the stop: but I was forced to leave her
behind me. I ordered the maid-servant you were so considerately kind as
to send down with her, to be very careful of her; and left the chariot to
attend her. She deserves all the regard that can be paid her; not only
upon my cousin's account, but on her own--she is an excellent woman.
When we were within five miles of Harlowe-place, I put on a hand-gallop.
I ordered the hearse to proceed more slowly still, the cross-road we were
in being rough; and having more time before us than I wanted; for I
wished not the hearse to be in till near dusk. I got to Harlowe-place
about four o'clock. You may believe I found a mournful house. You
desire me to be very minute.
At my entrance into the court, they were all in motion. Every servant
whom I saw had swelled eyes, and looked with so much concern, that at
first I apprehended some new disaster had happened in the family. Mr.
John and Mr. Antony Harlowe and Mrs. Hervey were there. They all helped
on one another's grief, as they had before done each other's hardness of
heart.
My cousin James met me at the entrance of the hall. His countenance
expressed a fixed concern; and he desired me to excuse his behaviour the
last time I was there.
My cousin Arabella came to me full of tears and grief.
O Cousin! said she, hanging upon my arm, I dare not ask you any
questions!--About the approach of the hearse, I suppose she meant.
I myself was full of grief; and, without going farther or speaking, sat
down in the hall in the first chair.
The brother sat on one hand of me, the sister on the other. Both were
silent. The latter in tears.
Mr. Antony Harlowe came to me soon after. His face was overspread with
all the appearance of woe. He requested me to walk into the parlour;
where, as he said, were all his fellow-mourners.