Notwithstanding his natural
courage, the Master was considerably affected by a concurrence of
circumstances so extraordinary. "She died expressing her eager desire
to see me. Can it be, then," was his natural course of reflection--"can
strong and earnest wishes, formed during the last agony of nature,
survive its catastrophe, surmount the awful bounds of the spiritual
world, and place before us its inhabitants in the hues and colouring of
life? And why was that manifested to the eye which could not unfold its
tale to the ear? and wherefore should a breach be made in the laws
of nature, yet its purpose remain unknown? Vain questions, which only
death, when it shall make me like the pale and withered form before me,
can ever resolve."
He laid a cloth, as he spoke, over the lifeless face, upon whose
features he felt unwilling any longer to dwell. He then took his place
in an old carved oaken chair, ornamented with his own armorial bearings,
which Alice had contrived to appropriate to her own use in the pillage
which took place among creditors, officers, domestics, and messengers of
the law when his father left Ravenswood Castle for the last time.
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