“She would not wish me to do anything that is so repugnant, so painful to me.”
“Have you no desire to look at her kind, placid face once more?”
“I wish to remember it as in life,—not rigid and repulsive in death.”
“She looks so tranquil you would think she was sleeping.”
“No,—no! Don’t ask me. I never saw but one corpse, and that was of a sailor drowned in mid ocean, and I shall never be able to forget its ghastliness and distortion as it lay on deck, under sickly moonshine.”
“Mrs. Gerome, you must follow Elsie’s body to the grave. Believe that I have good reasons for this request, and grant it.”
She shook her head.
“Your habits of seclusion have subjected you to uncharitable remarks, and your absence from the funeral would 263 create more gossip than any woman can afford to give grounds for. There is a rumor that you are deranged, and the best refutation will be your quiet presence at the grave of your faithful nurse.”
She straightened herself, haughtily.
“Seven years ago I turned my back upon the world, and scorned its verdict.”