A long time they sat together that night, while Richard told her
how lonely he had been without her, and asked her many questions
of Nina's last days.
"Did she send no message to me?" he said. "She used to like me, I
fancied."
Edith did not know how terrible a message Nina had sent to him,
and she replied, "She talked of you a great deal, but I do not
remember any particular word. I told her I was to be your wife."
and Edith's voice trembled, for this was but a prelude to what she
meant to say ere she bade him good night. She should breathe so
much more freely if she knew her bridal was not so near, and her
sister's death was surely a sufficient reason for deferring it.
Summoning all her courage, she arose, and sitting on Richard's
knee, buttoned and unbuttoned his coat in a kind of abstracted
manner, while she asked if it might be so. "I know I promised for
New Year's night," she said, "but little Nina died so recently and
I loved her so much, May it be put off, Richard--put over until
June?"
Edith had not thought of this in Florida, but here at home, it
came to her like succor to the drowning, and she anxiously awaited
Richard's answer.
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