Resolutely, with cold,
clinched hands, she tried to begin. As the first familiar words passed
her lips, Frank came back to her from the sea, and the face of her dead
father looked at her with the smile of happy old times. The voices
of her mother and her sister talked gently in the fragrant country
stillness, and the garden-walks at Combe-Raven opened once more on her
view. With a faint, wailing cry, she dropped into a chair; her head fell
forward on the table, and she burst passionately into tears.
Captain Wragge was on his feet in a moment. She shuddered as he came
near her, and waved him back vehemently with her hand. "Leave me!" she
said; "leave me a minute by myself!" The compliant Wragge retired to
the front room; looked out of the window; and whistled under his breath.
"The family spirit again!" he said. "Complicated by hysterics."
After waiting a minute or two he returned to make inquiries.
"Is there anything I can offer you?" he asked. "Cold water? burned
feathers? smelling salts? medical assistance? Shall I summon Mrs.
Wragge? Shall we put it off till to-morrow?"
She started up, wild and flushed, with a desperate s elf-command in her
face, with an angry resolution in her manner.
Pages:
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380