'Oh, James!' she fondly said, 'should I have been less brave? While you and Florence were spared to me, ruin might have done its worst.' Mr. Hunter turned his face away: strangely wrung and haggard it looked just then. 'What a mercy that it is over!'
'All but, I said,' he interrupted. And the words seemed to burst from him in an uncontrollable impulse, in spite of himself.
'It is the only thing that has marred our life's peace, James. I shall soon be at rest. Perfect peace! perfect happiness! May all we have loved be there! I can see——'
The words had been spoken disjointedly, in the faintest whisper, and, with the last one died away. She laid her head upon her husband's arm, and seemed as if she would sleep. He did not disturb her: he remained buried in his own thoughts. A short while, and Florence was heard at the door. Dr. Bevary was there.
'You can come in,' called out Mr. Hunter.
They approached the bed. Florence saw a change in her mother's face, and uttered an exclamation of alarm. The physician's practised eye detected what had happened: he made a sign to the nurse who had followed him in, and the woman went forth to carry the news to the household. Mr. Hunter alone was calm.
'Thank God!' was his strange ejaculation.
'Oh, papa! papa! it is death!' sobbed Florence, in her distress. 'Do you not see that it is death?'
'Thank God also, Florence,' solemnly said Dr. Bevary. 'She is better off.'