There they settled down for a brief period to enjoy the simple country life of the neighborhood.
Lilith, world-weary and heart-sick, felt the benign and soothing influence of nature around her, and resigned herself to rest—if rest might be granted her.
It was now eighteen months since she had been driven from her home. In all this time she had never once heard from her husband, and only once had she heard of him; and that was when she learned from Madame Von Bruyin that Mr. Hereward had been appointed Secretary of Legation to the Court of ——. Since that day, fifteen months ago, no sign of his existence had appeared to her. In vain she searched all the insular and continental papers. His name never by any chance appeared in any paper.
Did Lilith resign all hope of ever hearing of him, seeing him, being reconciled to him again?
Ah, no! Though hope was only torture now, she could not help but entertain it. A thousand times she had said to herself:
“There is not the slightest possibility of such happiness for me. I am dead to my husband! Yes, I am dead to him, as I could never have been had only a natural death divided us, and not a spiritual one. I shall never meet him again, neither in this life nor the life to come.”
But though she continually said this to herself, and though she tried to school her heart to believe it, yet, yet, she could not resign hope, for “While there is life there is hope”—“Hope springs eternal in the human breast.” And so, though hope was anguish, she could not give it up.
One lovely day, near the last of September, Lilith was sitting alone in the little parlor of their lodgings. She had drawn her chair to the window to sit and enjoy the fine view of mountain, lake and wood stretched out before her.
The breakfast table was set, but Madame Von Bruyin, who was a late riser, had not come down.
While Lilith sat there gazing from the window, and waiting for her patroness, the old postman for that neighborhood came up the garden walk, and seeing her at the window, nodded pleasantly, and stopped to deliver his mail.