Some of its brightness was reflected in her eyes, as, with a
step less discreet and deferential than that which usually
characterized her approaches to her mother's bedchamber, she passed on
to a half-closed door, tapped lightly upon it, and then pushed it wide
open.
"Ah, my daughter, what tidings do you bring?"
"He has come!" declared the girl, proclaiming with unaffected gladness
what was at that moment a great event in her life.
"He!"
The chilly palm which the elder lady had extended, without rising, for
the customary greeting, was not so chilly as the tone with which she
uttered this offending pronoun. Helene, suddenly remembering with deep
self-reproach the grief that her mother must feel in the loss of her
old friend, took the cold fingers in both her warm white hands, and
whispered tenderly:
"She has gone!"
Madame DeBerczy was not overcome by this intelligence. She had indeed
learned the sad truth from Tredway, who had been despatched to
"Bellevue" by the Commodore immediately upon the death of his wife.
Consequently, at this moment, her heart did not suffer so much as her
sense of propriety--which her enemies asserted was a more vital organ.
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