Intuitively, however, he
knew that look was the harbinger of death, and when Edith told him
what Nina had said, he felt that ere the morning came his broken
lily would be gone.
Slowly the evening wore on, and one by one the family retired,
leaving Arthur and Edith alone with the pale sleeper whose
slumbers ended not until near the midnight hour; silently, sadly,
Arthur and Edith watched her, she on one side, he upon the other,
neither speaking for the sorrow which lay so heavy at their
hearts, She was very beautiful as she lay there so motionless, and
Arthur felt his heart clinging more and more to his fair, childish
wife, while his conscience smote him cruelly for any wrong he
might have done to her. She was going from him now so fast, and as
the clock struck twelve the soft blue eyes unclosed and smiled up
in his face with an expression which, better than words could do,
told that she bore no malice toward him, nothing but trusting
faith and confiding love. He had been kind to her, most kind, and
she told him so again, for she seemed to know how dear to him such
testimonial would be when she was gone.
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