"He ought to be dead," said Grace.
"Yes, it would be better for her than to hear anything else of him! He
had nothing of his own, so there would have been a long waiting, but his
father and brother would not hear of it, and accused us of entrapping
him, and that angered my father. For our family is quite good, and we
were very well off then. My father had a good private fortune besides
the Rectory at Beauchamp; and Lady Alison, who had been like a mother
to us ever since our own died, quite thought that the prospect was good
enough, and I believe got into a great scrape with her family for having
promoted the affair."
"Your squire's wife?"
"Yes, and Julia and Ermine had come every day to learn lessons with her
daughters. I was too young; but as long as she lived we were all like
one family. How kind she was! How she helped us through those frightful
weeks!"
"Of your sister's illness? It must have lasted long?"
"Long? Oh longer than long! No one thought of her living. The doctors
said the injury was too extensive to leave any power of rallying; but
she was young and strong, and did not die in the torture, though people
said that such an existence as remained to her was not worth the anguish
of struggling back to it. I think my father only prayed that she might
suffer less, and Julia stayed on and on, thinking each day would be the
last, till Dr. Long could not spare her any longer; and then Lady
Alison nursed her night after night and day after day, till she had worn
herself into an illness, and when the doctors spoke of improvement,
we only perceived worse agony. It was eight months before she was even
lifted up in bed, and it was years before the burns ceased to be painful
or the constitution at all recovered the shock; and even now weather
tells on her, though since we have lived here she has been far better
than I ever dared to hope."
"Then you consider her still recovering?"
"In general health she is certainly greatly restored, and has strength
to attempt more, but the actual injury, the contraction, can never be
better than now. When we lived at Richmond she had constantly the best
advice, and we were told that nothing more could be hoped for."
"I wonder more and more at her high spirits. I suppose that was what
chiefly helped to carry her through?"
"I have seen a good many people," said Alison, pausing, "but I never did
see any one so happy! Others are always wanting something; she never is.
Every enjoyment seems to be tenfold to her what it is to other people;
she sees the hopeful side of every sorrow. No burthen is a burthen when
one has carried it to her."