The door-bell broke the stillness
just then. Dr. Woodburn was wanted. Bidding Beth a hasty but tender
good-bye, he hurried off at the call of duty. Beth sat gazing at the
coal-fire in silence after her father left. Poor dear old father! What
a touching story it was! He must have suffered so, and yet he had buried
his sorrow and gone about his work with smiling face. Brave, heroic
soul! Beth fell to picturing it all over again with that brilliant
imagination of hers, until she seemed to see the tall woman, with her
beautiful dark eyes and hair, coming down the stairs, just as he had
seen her. She seemed to hear the March winds moan as he stepped out into
the night and left the beautiful young wife, pale in death. Then she
went to the window and looked out at the stars in the clear sky, and the
meadow tinged with the first frost of autumn; and the pine-wood to the
north, with the moon hanging like a crescent of silver above it. It was
there, at that window, Arthur had asked her to be his wife. Poor Arthur!
She was glad her father did not know. It would have pained him to think
she had refused the son of the woman he had loved.
Beth lingered a little, gazing at the clear frosty scene before her,
then rose with a firm look on her face and went up to her room.
Pages:
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90