“No! no! you know I never sleep in the day! If you would never bother yourself with my peace and comfort, mamma, we should be on better terms. I am not a baby, or a—husband!”
She was not sorry for her ill humor or for the long gap between the last article and noun, when left to herself.
She lay upon a bed of thorns, each of which was endued with intelligent vitality. Earth was a waste. Heaven had never been. Hate herself for it as she might she had never, in all her rueful existence, known suffering comparable to that condensed into the three little minutes she had lived twelve hours ago.
When Hetty had come up to bed her face was beautiful with a strange white peace, at sight of which Hester held her breath. Coming swiftly, but without bustle, across the room, she kneeled by the bed and gathered the frail form in the dear, strong arms that had cradled it a thousand times. Her eyes sparkled, her lips were parted by quick breaths, but she tried to speak quietly.
“Precious child! you should be asleep. But I am glad you are not, for I have a message for you. We—you and I—are to take no anxious thought for to-morrow, or for any more of the to-morrows we are to spend together. March told me to say that and to give you this!” laying a kiss upon her lips. “For he loves me, Hester, darling, and you are to live with us! Just as we planned, ever and ever so long ago! But what day dream was ever so beautiful as this?”
For one of the three awful minutes Hester thought and hoped she was dying. The frightened blood ebbed back with turbulence that threw her into a spasm of trembling and weeping. She recollected pushing Hetty away, then clutching her frantically to pull her down for a storm of passionate kisses given between tearless sobs. Then she gave way to wheezing shrieks of laughter, which Hetty tried to check. She would not let her move or speak after that.
“How thoughtless in me not to know that you were too much unnerved to bear another shock—even of happiness!” said the loving nurse. “No! don’t try to offer so much as a word of congratulation. It will keep! All we have to do to-night is to obey the order of our superior officer, and not think—only trust!”
In the morning there was no opportunity for speech-making. A night of suffering had beaten Hester dumb.
“Nobody could be surprised at that!” cooed Hetty, as she rubbed and bathed the throbbing spine. “If I could but pour down this aching column some of my redundant vitality!”
Hester detested herself in acknowledging the fervent sincerity of the wish. Hetty would willingly divide her life with her, as she had said yesterday that she meant to divide her fortune.