It was for you she
asked, and made your father send for you, and poor I hoped you would
come. And, dearest, her last act was to write a few words to you, and
trust them to her who she knew loved you better than heart can utter.
Since it was her wish, let us try and read them together, the last words
of a saint (I have never seen them), and, if they do not prove words of
love, then I will let you think you were not a good brother to her you
and I, and poor, poor Edward, have lost."
He made a sad sign of assent; and Julia rose and got the enclosure. But,
as Jane's last written words reappeared on the scene in a somewhat
remarkable way, I will only say here, that both these poor young things
tried in vain to read them, and both in turn burst out sobbing, so that
they could not: so they held the paper and tried to see the words out of
their streaming eyes. And these two mourners had the room to themselves
till midnight; for even Mrs. Dodd's hostility respected Alfred then; and
as for Julia, she was one of those who rise with the occasion: she was
half wife, half angel from Heaven to her bereaved lover through all those
bitter hours.
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