Though she’s as like to this one as a crab is like to an apple,
I can tell what I can tell.—King Lear
Often a first grief, where sorrow was hitherto been a stranger, is but the foretaste to many another, like the first hailstorm, after long sunshine, preluding a succession of showers, the
clouds returning after the rain, and obscuring the sky of life for many a day.
Those who daily saw Mrs. Fulmort scarcely knew whether to attribute her increasing invalidism to debility or want of spirits; and hopes were built on summer heat, till, when it came, it prostrated her strength, and at last, when some casual ailment had confined her to bed, there was no rally. All took alarm; a physician was called in, and the truth was disclosed. There was no formed disease; but her husband’s death, though apparently hardly comprehended, had taken away the spring of life, and she was withering like a branch severed from the stem. Remedies did but disturb her torpor by feverish symptoms that hastened her decline, and Dr. Martyn privately told Miss Charlecote that the absent sons and daughters ought to be warned that the end must be very near.
Honor, as lovingly and gently as possible, spoke to Phœbe. The girl’s eyes filled with tears, but it was in an almost well-pleased tone that she said, ‘Dear mamma, I always knew she felt it.’
‘Ah! little did we think how deeply went the stroke that showed no wound!’
‘Yes! She felt that she was going to him. We could never have made her happy here.’
‘You are content, my unselfish one?’
‘Don’t talk to me about myself, please!’ implored Phœbe. ‘I have too much to do for that. What did he say? That the others should be written to? I will take my case and write in mamma’s room.’
Immediate duty was her refuge from anticipation, gentle tendance from the sense of misery, and, though her mother’s restless feebleness needed constant waiting on, her four notes were completed before post-time. Augusta was eating red mullet in Guernsey, Juliana was on a round of visits in Scotland, Mervyn was supposed to be in Paris, Robert alone was near at hand.