Except a gentleman be with her, one Mr. Belford, continued Mrs. Smith,
who has been the best friend she has had.
If Mr. Belford be with her, surely I may--but pray step up, and let Mr.
Belford know that I shall take it for a favour to speak with him first.
Mrs. Smith came up to me in my new apartment. I had but just dispatched
your servant, and was asking her nurse if I might be again admitted? Who
answered, that she was dozing in the elbow chair, having refused to lie
down, saying, she should soon, she hoped, lie down for good.
The Colonel, who is really a fine gentleman, received me with great
politeness. After the first compliments--My kinswoman, Sir, said he, is
more obliged to you than to any of her own family. For my part, I have
been endeavouring to move so many rocks in her favour; and, little
thinking the dear creature so very bad, have neglected to attend her, as
I ought to have done the moment I arrived; and would, had I known how ill
she was, and what a task I should have had with the family. But, Sir,
your friend has been excessively to blame; and you being so intimately
his friend, has made her fare the worse for your civilities to her. But
are there no hopes of her recovery?
The doctors have left her, with the melancholy declaration that there are
none.
Has she had good attendance, Sir? A skilful physician? I hear these
good folks have been very civil and obliging to her.
Who could be otherwise? said Mrs. Smith, weeping.--She is the sweetest
lady in the world!
The character, said the Colonel, lifting up his eyes and one hand, that
she has from every living creature!--Good God! How could your accursed
friend--
And how could her cruel parents? interrupted I.--We may as easily account
for him, as for them.
Too true! returned me, the vileness of the profligates of our sex
considered, whenever they can get any of the other into their power.
I satisfied him about the care that had been taken of her, and told him
of the friendly and even paternal attendance she had had from Dr. H. and
Mr. Goddard.
He was impatient to attend her, having not seen her, as he said, since
she was twelve years old; and that then she gave promises of being one of
the finest women in England.
She was so, replied I, a very few months ago: and, though emaciated, she
will appear to you to have confirmed those promises; for her features are
so regular and exact, her proportions so fine, and her manner so
inimitably graceful, that, were she only skin and bone, she must be a
beauty.
Mrs. Smith, at his request, stept up, and brought us down word that Mrs.
Lovick and her nurse were with her; and that she was in so sound a sleep,
leaning upon the former in her elbow-chair, that she had neither heard
her enter the room, nor go out. The Colonel begged, if not improper,
that he might see her, though sleeping. He said, that his impatience
would not let him stay till he awaked. Yet he would not have her
disturbed; and should be glad to contemplate her sweet features, when she
saw not him; and asked, if she thought he could not go in, and come out,
without disturbing her?
She believed he might, she answered; for her chair's back was towards the
door.
He said he would take care to withdraw, if she awoke, that his sudden
appearance might not surprise her.
Mrs. Smith, stepping up before us, bid Mrs. Lovick and nurse not stir,
when we entered; and then we went up softly together.
We beheld the lady in a charming attitude. Dressed, as I told you
before, in her virgin white. She was sitting in her elbow-chair, Mrs.
Lovick close by her, in another chair, with her left arm round her neck,
supporting it, as it were; for, it seems, the lady had bid her do so,
saying, she had been a mother to her, and she would delight herself in
thinking she was in her mamma's arms; for she found herself drowsy;
perhaps, she said, for the last time she should be so.
One faded cheek rested upon the good woman's bosom, the kindly warmth of
which had overspread it with a faint, but charming flush; the other paler
and hollow, as if already iced over by death. Her hands white as the
lily, with her meandering veins more transparently blue than ever I had
seen even her's, (veins so soon, alas! to be choked up by the congealment
of that purple stream, which already so languidly creeps, rather than
flows, through them!) her hands hanging lifelessly, one before her, the
other grasped by the right-hand of the kind widow, whose tears bedewed
the sweet face which her motherly boson supported, though unfelt by the
fair sleeper; and either insensibly to the good woman, or what she would
not disturb her to wipe off, or to change her posture: her aspect was
sweetly calm and serene: and though she started now and then, yet her
sleep seemed easy; her breath, indeed short and quick; but tolerably
free, and not like that of a dying person.
In this heart-moving attitude she appeared to us when we approached her,
and came to have her lovely face before us.
The Colonel, sighing often, gazed upon her with his arms folded, and with
the most profound and affectionate attention; till at last, on her
starting, and fetching her breath with greater difficulty than before, he
retired to a screen, that was drawn before her house, as she calls it,
which, as I have heretofore observed, stands under one of the windows.
This screen was placed there at the time she found herself obliged to
take to her chamber; and in the depth of our concern, and the fulness of
other discourse at our first interview, I had forgotten to apprize the
Colonel of what he would probably see.
Retiring thither, he drew out his handkerchief, and, overwhelmed with
grief, seemed unable to speak; but, on casting his eye behind the screen,
he soon broke silence; for, struck with the shape of the coffin, he
lifted up a purplish-coloured cloth that was spread over it, and,
starting back, Good God! said he, what's here?
Mrs. Smith standing next him, Why, said he, with great emotion, is my
cousin suffered to indulge her sad reflections with such an object before
her?
Alas! Sir, replied the good woman, who should controul her? We are all
strangers about her, in a manner: and yet we have expostulated with her
upon this sad occasion.
I ought, said I, (stepping softly up to him, the lady again falling into
a doze,) to have apprized you of this. I was here when it was brought
in, and never was so shocked in my life. But she had none of her friends
about her, and no reason to hope for any of them to come near her; and,
assured she should not recover, she was resolved to leave as little as
possible, especially as to what related to her person, to her executor.
But it is not a shocking object to her, though it be to every body else.
Curse upon the hard-heartedness of those, said he, who occasioned her to
make so sad a provision for herself!--What must her reflections have been
all the time she was thinking of it, and giving orders about it? And
what must they be every time she turns her head towards it? These
uncommon genius's--but indeed she should have been controuled in it, had
I been here.
The lady fetched a profound sigh, and, starting, it broke off our talk;
and the Colonel then withdrew farther behind the screen, that his sudden
appearance might not surprise her.
Where am I?--said she. How drowsy I am! How long have I dozed? Don't
go, Sir, (for I was retiring,) I am very stupid, and shall be more and
more so, I suppose.
She then offered to raise herself; but being ready to faint through
weakness, was forced to sit down again, reclining her head on her chair
back; and, after a few moments, I believe now, my good friends, said she,
all your kind trouble will soon be over. I have slept, but am not
refreshed, and my fingers' ends seem numbed--have no feeling! (holding
them up,)--'tis time to send the letter to my good Norton.
Shall I, Madam, send my servant post with it?
O no, Sir, I thank you. It will reach the dear woman too soon, (as she
will think,) by the post.