CHAPTER XIV.
COLONEL SCHUYLER RETURNS.
“Oakwood, May 25th, 18—.
“Colonel Schuyler:—Your sister, Mrs. Sinclair, is lying very low, and desires to see you as soon as possible.
“Respectfully, Edith Lyle.”
This short epistle found Col. Schuyler in Florence, and brought him back to England at once. During the winter and the early spring Mrs. Sinclair had been failing, and when May came, the change in her for the worse was so perceptible that she asked Edith to write for her brother, whom she wished to see once more. To Edith the thought of losing her kind mistress was terrible, for, aside from the genuine love she bore the lady, she knew that losing her involved also the loss of the home where she had been so happy, and she dreaded to encounter the curious suspicions she would have to meet alone and unprotected.
“What will you do when I am gone?” Mrs. Sinclair said to her one day when speaking of her approaching decease, and as Edith made no reply, except to cover her face with her fingers, through which the tears trickled slowly, she went on: “You seem to me like a daughter, and I shrink from the thought of leaving you alone. If it were possible I would make you independent, but at my death the Oakwood property reverts to a nephew of my husband’s, and I cannot control it. I can, however, do something for you, and will. Edith, I have never mentioned the subject to you before,—but, was there not,—did not my brother offer himself to you last summer when he was here?”
“Yes,” came faintly from Edith; and Mrs. Sinclair continued:
“And you refused him, subject, I believe, to a reconsideration?”
“I refused him, and with no thought of reconsideration on my part. My decision was final,” Edith said; and Mrs. Sinclair continued: