[CHAPTER XXVIII.]
THE SHADOW OF ORPHANAGE AND SORROW.
"Thou didst set thy foot on the ship, and sail
To the ice-fields and the snow;
Thou wert sad, for thy love did naught avail,
And the end we could not know....
Oh, I spoke once and I grieved thee sore;
I remember all that I said—
And now thou wilt hear me no more, no more
Till the sea gives up its dead."—Jean Ingelow.
The golden summer days fled fast, and the Winans family remained at Rosemont until they were to go to their Washington home to make ready for Ethel's marriage early in December.
Lord Chester had not yet returned to America, as the lawsuit was not decided yet, but the date of the marriage remained unaltered, for Ethel had indignantly disclaimed any desire to break her engagement because of the altered prospects of her betrothed.
So while they rested at Rosemont they had much to look forward to in the near future, only they talked of it but little, for each had secret sorrows that weighed heavily on their hearts. Precious had one in the inability to tear from her mind the thought of the man so soon to become her sister's husband, and Earle had one of the same character in his stifled love for willful Ladybird, who had used him so cruelly. Senator Winans was pained because he was so soon to lose his elder daughter, and his wife, while she shared this sorrow, had another grief very near her gentle heart.
In the forty years of life that had passed over her golden head in mingled sunshine and shadow the senator's lovely, graceful wife had never been known to turn traitor to a friendship, or to shirk a duty, however hard. In her noble nature all the elements of constancy and self-sacrifice were exquisitely blended to form a model woman, whether in prosperity or adversity.
So it was not strange that her peculiar interest in Ladybird Conway had drawn her maternal instincts strongly toward the capricious but adorable little beauty.