[CHAPTER XVI.]
CLOUDS WITH SILVER LININGS.
TO the surprise of all his watchful friends, an unexpected change occurred in the Squire. At the grave side, he stood "more than conqueror," though his hair had become white, and his stately figure drooped a little. Twice some mortal agony had convulsed his frame, and he had insisted on knowing its meaning, which with reluctance his physician told him, but which information he wished concealed from all others.
He became cheerful and bright; not quite as before his great sorrow, but with a chastened sweetness that was more equable if less demonstrative. He carefully attended to the business of the estate, and urged on the execution of every contemplated improvement, letting Guy drive him in the pony-carriage, where he admitted that his bodily strength would no longer carry him.
A few months passed. Everyone seemed dreamy and restless, as if fresh changes were pending, and no one dared whisper a fear or fancy to another.
Evelyn was always with her father, and one day as she sat by his side, he had just time to warn her as tenderly as he could, that he was going to join his beloved wife, that God had graciously granted his heart's desire, and soothed away all his sorrow; that she, his and her mother's Evelyn, must think of them henceforth reunited in the home above, leaving her to represent them in blessing and caring for all around her, and fulfilling their wishes as she might feel able and willing, in any future unfolding that her guardians might lay before her.
Evelyn gazed awe-stricken on her dear father's calm pale face. With his hand on her head, and a blessing on his lip, and a smile of infinite content overspreading his countenance, he waited the last pang that would ever rend his frame, and so passed away. Rapid and fatal disease of the heart was the message which had come to tell him of soon rejoining the wife so dearly loved and prized, and Evelyn Hazelwood was an orphan indeed.
Very simple was the will, yet a marvel of its kind; no great surprise to some, especially the worthy sexton, who professed to much prescience of things to come, but a very great one to the parties chiefly interested.