'Because she—she loved me.'
There was another involuntary groan, and a brief silence.
'Where are her papers? Give them me, and go,' said Howel imperatively.
Rowland put a neatly-sealed packet on the table, on which was written, 'For my husband, Howel Jenkins;—to the care of my brother, Rowland Prothero. Janetta Jenkins.'
'This, too, she left for you,' said Rowland, putting the small Testament, originally her mother's, on the table. Again the stony lips trembled, the eyes softened. 'Howel, Howel, for her sake!' once more ventured Rowland.
There they lay—the letter, the packet, the Testament. All that was left to him of the once bright, loving, and lovely creature, who had been devoted to him all her life.
He turned the leaves of the Testament mechanically; touched the packet—shuddered; then leaning his head upon his folded arms on the table, burst into an uncontrollable agony of grief.
'She is—she was—where?' he said, after a short interval, rising from his seat, and beginning to pace the cell.
'Her soul is in heaven, I hope and believe; her body rests in Llanfach churchyard, under the large hawthorn bush near the vicarage gate.'
Often and often had Howel gathered Netta bunches of May from that very tree that now sheltered her remains.