"Thought is free, as sages tells us--

Free to rove, and free to soar;

But affection lives in bondage,

That enthrals her more and more."

JEAN INGELOW.

An old friend lived in the neighbourhood who remembered Fanny's father,

and was very anxious to see her again, though not able to leave the

house. So the first day that it was fine enough for Mrs. Curtis to

venture out, she undertook to convey Fanny to call upon her, and was off

with a wonderfully moderate allowance of children, only the two youngest

boys outside with their maid. This drive brought more to light about

Fanny's past way of life and feelings than had ever yet appeared.

Rachel had never elicited nearly so much as seemed to have come forth

spontaneously to the aunt, who had never in old times been Fanny's

confidante.

Fanny's life had been almost a prolonged childhood. From the moment of

her marriage with the kind old General, he and her mother had conspired

to make much of her; all the more that she was almost constantly

disabled by her state of health, and was kept additionally languid

and helpless by the effects of climate. Her mother had managed her

household, and she had absolutely had no care, no duty at all but to be

affectionate and grateful, and to be pretty and gracious at the dinner

parties. Even in her mother's short and sudden illness, the one thought

of both the patient and the General had been to spare Fanny, and she had

been scarcely made aware of the danger, and not allowed to witness the

suffering. The chivalrous old man who had taken on himself the charge of

her, still regarded the young mother of his children as almost as much

of a baby herself, and devoted himself all the more to sparing her

trouble, and preventing her from feeling more thrown upon her by her

mother's death.

The notion of training her to act alone never even

occurred to him, and when he was thrown from his horse, and carried

into a wayside-hut to die, his first orders were that no hurried message

might be sent to her, lest she might be startled and injured by the

attempt to come to him. All he could do for her was to leave her in the

charge of his military secretary, who had long been as a son to him.

Fanny told her aunt with loving detail all that she had heard from Major

Keith of the brave old man's calm and resigned end--too full of trust

even to be distressed with alarms for the helpless young wife and

children, but committing them in full reliance to the care of their

Father in heaven, and to the present kindness of the friend who stood by

his pillow.

The will, which not only Rachel but her mother thought strangely

unguarded, had been drawn up in haste, because Sir Stephen's family had

outgrown the provisions of a former one, which had besides designated

her mother, and a friend since dead, as guardians. Haste, and the

conscious want of legal knowledge, had led to its being made as simple

as possible, and as it was, Sir Stephen had scarcely had the power to

sign it.




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024