Hubert's Wife / A Story for You

E-text prepared by Roger Frank and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
Entered, according to an act of Congress, in the year 1873, by KELLY, PIET & COMPANY, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.

It was the night after the funeral. Ellice Lisle, the loving wife, devoted mother, kind mistress, and generous friend, had been laid away to rest; over her pulseless bosom had been thrown the red earth of her adopted Virginia, and, mingled with its mocking freshness, was the bitter rain of tears from the eyes of all who had known the lowly sleeper. Even Nature joined the general weeping; for, though the early morning had been bright and beautiful, ere the mourners' feet had left the new-made grave, the skies had lowered, and a gentle rain descended.
You have pity upon me, O Heaven, and you weep for me, O earth, had exclaimed Duncan Stuart Lisle, as, leading his little Hubert by the hand, he turned away from his lost Ellice.
As night deepened, the rain increased, and the darkness became intense. The house-servants, timid and superstitious, had all congregated in Aunt Amy's cabin. Amidst their grief, sincere and profound, was yet a subject of indignation, which acted as a sort of safety-valve to their over-much sorrowing.
A nice, pretty piece of impudence it was, to be sure, when she hadn't been in the house for five year, to 'trude herself the minute Miss Ellice's breath had left her precious body, the poor dear! ejaculated Chloe, the cook, who was intensely black, and fat to immensity.
Much as ever Massa Duncan 'peared to notice her, not'standing she make herself so 'ficious, said Amy, who looked more the Indian than African.
He never set eyes on her but once, said young China, the favorite housemaid, whose dialect and manners were superior to those of the other servants, only just once, and that was when she looked at him so long and fierce-like he couldn't actually keep his eyes down.