"No, Mrs. Noah," and Maddy's voice was strangely unnatural, as she
lifted up her head, revealing a face so haggard and white that Mrs.
Noah was frightened, and asked in much alarm if anything new had
happened.
"No, nothing; I was going to say that I'd rather stay a little longer
where there are signs and sounds of life. I should die to be alone at
Honedale to-morrow. I may die here, I don't know. Do you know that
to-morrow will be the bridal?"
Yes, Mrs. Noah knew it; but she hoped it might have escaped Maddy's
mind.
"Poor child," she said again, "poor child, I mistrust you did wrong to
tell him no!"
"Oh, Mrs. Noah, don't tell me that; don't make it harder for me to
bear. The tempter has been telling me so, all day, and my heart is so
hard and wicked, I cannot pray as I would. Oh, you don't know how
wretched I am!" and Maddy hid her face in the broad, motherly lap,
sobbing so wildly that Mrs. Noah was greatly perplexed, how to act, or
what to say.
Years ago, she would have spurned the thought that the grandchild of
the old man who had bowed to his own picture should be mistress of
Aikenside; but she had changed since then, and could she have had her
way, she would have stopped the marriage, and, bringing her boy home,
have given him to the young girl weeping so convulsively in her lap.
But Mrs. Noah could not have her way. The bridal guests were, even
then, assembling in that home beyond the sea. She could not call Guy
back, and so she pitied and caressed the wretched Maddy, saying to her
at last: "I'll tell you what is impressed on my mind; this Lucy's got the
consumption, without any kind of doubt, and if you've no objections to
a widower, you may----"
She did not finish the sentence, for Maddy started in horror. To her
there was something murderous in the very idea, and she thrust it
quickly aside. Guy Remington was not for her, she said, and her wish
was to forget him. If she could get through the dreaded to-morrow, she
should do better. There had been a load upon her the whole day, a
nightmare she could not shake off, and she had come to Lucy's room, in
the hope of leaving her burden there, of praying her pain away. Would
Mrs. Noah leave her a while, and see that no one came?
The good woman could not refuse, and going out, she left Maddy by the
window, watching the sun as it went down, and then watching; the
wintry twilight deepen over the landscape, until all things were
blended together in one great darkness, and Jessie, seeking for her
found her at last, fainting upon the floor.