THE HOUSE OF MOURNING.
Ella Hastings was dead. The deep-toned bell proclaimed it to the people
of Dunwood, who, counting the nineteen strokes, sighed that one so
young should die. The telegraphic wires carried it to her childhood's
home, in the far-off city; and while her tears were dropping fast for
the first dead of her children, the fashionable mother did not forget
to have her mourning in the most expensive and becoming style. The
servants in the kitchen whispered it one to the other, treading softly
and speaking low, as if aught could disturb the slumber of her who lay
so motionless and still, unmindful of the balmy summer air which kissed
her marble cheek. The grief-stricken husband repeated it again and
again as he sat by her side in the darkened room; and only they who
have felt it, can know with what a crushing weight they fell upon his
heart, the three words--"She is dead!"
Yes, Ella was dead, and Eugenia Deane, with hypocritical tears, upon
her cheek, gathered fresh, white rosebuds, and twining them in the
golden curls which shaded the face of the beautiful dead, dared even
there to think that _Howard Hastings was free_; and as she saw the
silent grief of the stricken man, who, with his head upon the table,
sat hour after hour, unmindful of the many who came to look on what had
been his wife, her lip curled with scorn, and she marveled that one so
frivolous as Ella should be so deeply mourned. Once she ventured to
speak, asking him some trivial thing concerning the arrangement of
affairs, and without looking up, he answered, "Do as you like, until
her mother comes. She will be here to-morrow."
So, for the remainder of the day, Eugenia flitted from the parlor to
the chamber of death, from the chamber of death to the kitchen, and
from the kitchen back again to the parlor, ordering the servants,
admitting visitors, and between times scolding Dora for "being so
foolish as to cry herself sick for a person who, of course, cared
nothing for her, except as a waiter!"
Since the night of her mother's death, Dora's heart had not been half
so sore with pain. The girlish Ella had been very dear to her, and the
tears she shed were genuine. To no one else would the baby go, and
after dinner was over, the dinner at which Eugenia presided, and of
which Mr. Hastings could not be induced to partake, she went into the
garden with her little charge, seating herself in a pleasant
summer-house, which had been Ella's favorite resort. It was a warm,
drowsy afternoon, and at last, worn out with weeping, and the fatigue
of the last night's watching, she fell asleep, as the baby had done
before. Not long had she sat thus, when Mr. Hastings, too, came down
the graveled walk, and stood at the arbor door. The constant bustling
in and out of Eugenia annoyed him, and wishing to be alone, he had come
out into the open air, which he felt would do him good. When his eye
fell on Dora, who was too soundly sleeping to be easily aroused, he
murmured, "Poor child! she is wearied with so many wakeful nights;"
then fearing lest the slender arms should relax their hold and drop the
babe, he took it gently from her, and folding it to his bosom, sat down
by her side, so that her drooping head could rest upon his shoulder.
For two long hours she slept, and it was not until the baby's waxen
fingers gave a vigorous pull to her short thick hair, that she awoke,
feeling greatly surprised when she saw Mr. Hastings sitting near.
"I found you asleep," he said, by way of explanation, "and knowing how
tired you were, I gave you my arm for a pillow;" then, as the baby
wished to go to her, he gave it up, himself going slowly back to the
lonesome house, from which Ella was gone forever.
The next morning, the mother and her three youngest daughters, all
draped in deepest black, arrived at Rose Hill prepared to find fault
with everything which savored at all of the "horrid country." Even
Eugenia sank into nonentity in the presence of the cold city-bred
woman, who ignored her existence entirely, notwithstanding that she
loudly and repeatedly expressed so much affection for the deceased.
"Perhaps your daughter wrote to you of me (Miss Deane); we were great
friends," she said, when they stood together in the presence of the
dead, and Mrs. Grey's emotions had somewhat subsided.
"Possibly; but I never remember names," returned the haughty lady,
without raising her eyes.
"There are so few people here with whom she could be intimate,"
continued Eugenia, "that I saw a great deal of her."
But to this Mrs. Grey made no reply, except to ask, "Whose idea was it
dressing Ella in this plain muslin wrapper, when she had so many
handsome dresses? But it don't matter," she continued, as Eugenia was
about to disclaim all participation in that affair. "It don't matter,
for no one here appreciates anything better, I dare say. Where's the
baby? I haven't seen that yet," she asked as they were descending the
stairs.
"She's with Dora, I presume," answered Eugenia; and Mrs. Grey
continued--
"Oh, the nurse girl, whom Ella wrote so much, about. Send her in."
But Eugenia was not one to obey orders so peremptorily given, and, for
a long time, Madam Grey and her three daughters waited the appearance
of the nurse girl, who, not knowing that they were in the parlor,
entered it at last, of her own accord, and stood before them with such
a quiet, self-possessed dignity, that even Mrs. Grey treated her with
far more respect than she had the assuming Eugenia, whose rule, for the
time being, was at an end. Everything had been done wrong; and when Mr.
Hastings spoke of having Ella buried at the foot of the spacious
garden, in a quiet, grassy spot, where trees of evergreen were growing,
she held up her hands in amazement at the idea that her daughter should
rest elsewhere than in the fashionable precincts of Greenwood. So Mr.
Hastings yielded, and on the morning of the third day, Dora watched
with blinding tears the long procession winding slowly down the avenue,
and out into the highway towards the village depot, where the shrieking
of the engine, and the rattling of the car bell would be the only
requiem tolled for Ella Hastings, as she was borne rapidly away from a
spot which had been her home for one brief year.
The little Ella was in Dora's arms, and as she, too, saw the handsome
steeds and moving carriages, she laughed aloud, and patted the
window-pane with her tiny baby hands. Dear little one! she did not
know--would never know, how much she was bereaved; but Dora knew, and
her tears fell all the faster when she thought that she, too, must
leave her, for her aunt had said to Mr. Hastings, that after the
funeral Dora must go home, adding, that Mrs. Leah would take care of
Ella until his return. So, when the hum of voices and the tread of feet
had ceased, when the shutters were closed and the curtains dropped,
Eugenia came for her to go, while Mrs. Leah came to take the child, who
refused to leave Dora, clinging so obstinately to her neck, and crying
so pitifully, that even Eugenia was touched, and bade her cousin remain
until Mr. Hastings came home. So Dora stayed, and the timid servants,
as they sat together in the shadowy twilight, felt not half so lonely
when they heard her gentle voice singing the motherless babe to sleep.