The Weird Sisters: A Romance. Volume 2 (of 3)

In Three Volumes. VOL. II.
LONDON: TINSLEY BROTHERS, 8, CATHERINE ST., STRAND. 1880.
CHARLES DICKENS AND EVANS, GREAT NEW STREET, LONDON.
TO EDMOND POWER, ESQ., OF SPRINGFIELD, Whose kindness to Mine and to Me I SHALL NEVER FORGET WHILE I AM.
After giving way to the feelings which had overwhelmed him in the passage, and which had almost betrayed him at the bedside, Grey, by a great effort, collected himself and walked soberly and deliberately until he found the grand staircase of the Castle. This he descended, and when he reached the bottom hastily sought the courtyard, and from the courtyard the grounds.
I thought it would have killed me in that room. I wish it had, he whispered to himself, as he passed aimlessly over the short dry grass. No, no, no, no, no! I must not think of it. I must think of something else.
He was now beyond the range of the Castle windows, in a little fern-clad hollow above a miniature cove.
Who said I was a coward? he demanded, in a loud harsh voice, looking fiercely round on the cool silver river that lisped soft whispers at his feet and made low melodious concord of its rippling surge, filling the ear with memories of the far-off sea.
Who said I was a coward? He repeated the question to the grave oaks standing above him, motionless and voiceless against the opal ocean of the unclouded sky.
No coward. I never quailed. I never winced. I held up my head as fearlessly as any undaunted soldier kneeling upon his coffin facing the firing-party. I was not afraid of anything. I only thought I should die there and then. I am sorry I did not die.
He seemed to imagine himself in a dock, and the huge oaks the grave and grey jury empanelled to try him, and the sweet low voice of the river the indictment that never ceased to sound.
I own I quailed when I heard his first words from the threshold, but that was when he accused me of what I have done. He had once more dropped his voice to a cautious whisper.