And on the morning of the third day Traverse took leave of his mother and Clara, and for the first time left home to go into the great world. Doctor Day accompanied him in the old green gig as far as Staunton, where he took the stage.
As soon as they had left the house Marah Rocke went away to her own room to drop a few natural tears over this first parting with her son. Very lonely and desolate the mother felt as she stood weeping by the window, and straining her eyes to catch a distant view of the old green gig that had already rolled out of sight.
While she stood thus in her loneliness and desolation, the door silently opened, a footstep softly crossed the floor, a pair of arms was put around her neck, and Clara Day dropped her head upon the mother's bosom and wept softly.
Marah Rocke pressed that beautiful form to her breast, and felt with dismay that the doctor's sweet daughter already returned her boy's silent love!
CHAPTER XXIV.
CAPITOLA'S MOTHER.
A woman like a dew-drop she was purer than the purest,
And her noble heart the noblest, yes, and her sure faith the surest;
And her eyes were dark and humid like the depth in depth of lustre
Hid i' the harebell, while her tresses, sunnier than the wild grape's cluster,
Gushed in raven-tinted plenty down her cheeks' rose-tinted marble;
Then her voice's music—call it the well's bubbling, the bird's warble.
—Browning.