“He feels it is for my welfare,” she said, “but he does not know poor Gil.”
The whispered mention of Gil’s name sent a thrill through her, and, with a smile of hope and love upon her worn, pale face, she sat dreaming of him, and mentally praying that no mishap might accompany their flight.
At last, feeling flushed and hot, she drank from the jug of water which Janet had left unchanged.
There was a peculiar taste in it, but her thoughts were too much occupied to pay much attention, and, taking her seat by the window, she sat, watching the darkness coming on of this the last day in her old home.
How the old happy hours of the past came back to torture her with their recollections; and now she told herself it would have been better that she should have died young, in peace and innocency, ere she knew the bitter heart-grievings of the present. For in these last hours her breast was racked by contending emotions; the love of parent fought hard with the stronger, more engrossing love of the maiden for the man of her choice, but the latter won.
Agitated as she was, it seemed to her that she grew feverish and thirsty—a thirst she turned to the water-vessel more than once to assuage, but without effect; and at last, with a curious, excited sensation upon her, mingled with weariness, she went to the glass to find that her checks were flushed, and that there was a strange dilated look about her eyes, whose unusual lustre startled her.
“I have had too little sleep lately,” she said, with a sad smile, as she thought of the long, restless nights she had passed; and at last she threw herself upon the bed, and closed her eyes, just as a tap was heard upon the panel of the door.
“Come in, Janet,” she said, as she unclosed her eyes to gaze round at the confusion that reigned with half-packed garments, and upon a couch her wedding-dress, facing her like the flaccid shade of herself lying upon a bier.
There was something very weird in that dress, and it seemed to influence her with thoughts of death which made her shudder.
“I be come to try on the wedding robe again, mistress,” said Janet. “I did alter those strings and that fastening, and now it will fit you well.”