“Oct. 20.—My dearest Lea is laid in her coffin. It has been a day of bitter anguish. All have tried to console, but
‘Console if you will, I can bear it,
’Tis a well-meant alms of breath:
But not all the preaching since Adam
Can make Death other than Death.’”[381]
“Oct. 21.—Hubert has been summoned away by his parents,—very miserable to go, poor boy. There has been a terrible storm all day, which has seemed more congenial than the lovely sunshine yesterday.
“In the evening Mrs. Peters had put lights in the room, and I went to look at my dearest Pettie in her coffin. The ‘afterglow’ had come on. All her old beauty had come back to her. There was not a wrinkle on her lovely dignified old face. Her snow-white hair just showed at the edge of her pretty little crimped cap: all was peace and repose. It comforted me to see her, and we surrounded her coffin with large branches of Michaelmas daisies, enlivened by sprays of fuchsia, and the autumn lilies which she loved.”
“Oct. 23.—In the morning I went into her room to see my dearest Pettie for the last time. Lady Darnley had sent a box of lovely flowers, and I laid them round her. The marvellous beauty of her countenance continued: it was the most sublime majesty of Death:—
‘That perfect presence of His face,
Which we, for want of words, call Death.’[382]
“John[383] came in to see her too, but can think of nothing but his own future. That does not seem to occur to me—not yet: I can think of nothing but her wealthy past, so rich, so overflowing in deeds of love, in endearing ways which drew all hearts to her, in noble, simple trust and faith, in heart-whole devotion and self-abnegation for the Mother and me.
