In the family assembled round the lifeless form that had so long been the centre of their domestic circle, grief showed itself under various forms. The calm and manly sorrow of the son; the saint-like feelings of his wife; the youthful agitation of Mary; the weak superstitious wailings of the sisters; and the loud uncontrolled lamentations of the daughters; all betokened an intensity of suffering that arose from the same source, varied according to the different channels in which it flowed. Even the stern Lady Maclaughlan was subdued to something of kindred feeling; and though no tears dropped from her eyes, she sat by her friends, and sought, in her own way, to soften their affliction.
The assembled guests, who had not yet been able to take their departure, remained in the drawing-room in a sort of restless solemnity peculiar to seasons of collateral affliction, where all seek to highten the effect upon others, and shift the lesson from themselves. Various were the surmises and speculations as to the cause of the awful transition that had just taken place.
"Glenfern was nae like a man that wad hae gaen aff in this gate," said one.
"I dinna ken," said another; "I've notic'd a chainge on Glenfern for a gey while noo."
"I agree wi' you, sir," said a third. "In my mind Glenfern's been droopin' very sair ever since the last tryst."
"At Glenfern's time o' life it's no surprisin'," remarked a fourth, who felt perfectly secure of being fifteen years his junior.
"Glenfern was na that auld neither," retorted a fifth, whose conscience smote him with being years his senior.
"But he had a deal o' vexation frae his faemily," said an elderly bachelor.
"Ye offen see a hale stoot man, like oor puit freend, gang like the snuff o' a cannel," coughed up a pthisicky gentleman.
"He was aye a tume, boss-looking man ever since I mind him," wheezed out a swollen asthmatic figure.