Camilla had no utterance, yet could not resist this urgency, and gently through the opening of the curtain, put forth her feeble hand.
He seemed affected to agony; he held it between each of his own, and while softly he uttered, 'O ever—unchangeably generous Camilla!' she felt it moistened with his tears.
Too weak for the new sensation this excited, she drew it away, and the violence of her emotion menacing an hysteric fit, Mrs. Marl came back to her, and wringing his hands as he looked around the room, he tore himself away.
CHAPTER XI
Means to still Agitation
Declining all aid, Camilla continued in the same position, wrapt up, coveting the dark, and stifling sighs that were rising into sobs, till she heard a gentle tap at her door.
She started, but still hid herself: Mrs. Marl was already gone; Peggy answered the summons, and returned to the bedside, with a note in her hand, begging Camilla to take it, as it came from the gentleman who was to have read the prayers.
'Is he then gone?' cried she, in a voice announcing deep disappointment.
'Yes, he went directly, my dear Lady.'