By this time we overtook our father, at the portico of the mansion. Here the mystery was heightened, for no uncle stood there to welcome his relatives, but in his place a head servant, or groom of the chamber, who, calling my father by name, invited us to follow him; but now, losing all patience, he rudely seized the man by the shoulder, exclaiming:
“Say, fellow, is my brother, your master, sick, that I see him not here to welcome us?”
“Sir,” replied the servant, evasively, “my lady awaits you.”
So saying, he threw open the doors of a large and luxuriously furnished apartment, ushering us into the presence of a lady of dignified demeanor, but who seemed almost lost amid a pile of velvet cushions upon which she was reclining, and instantly the mystery was solved, our forebodings realized, for she was attired in widow’s weeds.
“Great heaven!” exclaimed my father, “can it be possible, then, that my brother is——”
“Alas! no more,” said the lady, rising and taking his hand. “It is scarcely three months since my poor husband died of the fever.” Then, in soft, purring tones, like those of a cat, she added, “It was the will of God; we may not repine. You will pardon me, my brother, that I forebade my servants to give you this sad news; but, out of respect to my late husband’s memory, I desired to be the first to break to you the sorrowful intelligence, at the same time to bid you and your sons welcome to this house.” Then, seeing that our father’s heart was too full of grief to reply, she said, as she folded my brother and me, one after the other, in her arms:
“These, then, are my charming nephews? Let me embrace you, dear boys. You are noble fellows, and shall find as good a home in this house as if your poor, dear uncle had been saved to us.”
“Madam, my sister,” replied my father, “your conduct towards us has been kind and thoughtful, still my grief is too keen and new; craving your pardon, I would be alone for a time.”
“It would have been unpardonable, my brother, had I not foreseen this desire,” she replied, striking a small Chinese gong suspended from the ceiling. “Go,” she said to the servant who answered the summons, “conduct my brother and his sons to the rooms prepared for them.”
The apartments to which we were conducted were situated in another wing of the building, upon the ground floor, and consisted of two bedrooms and a large sitting-room. They all had French windows opening into the grounds, and had evidently been carefully and thoughtfully prepared for our reception. Leaving our parent to give full vent to his grief, for the death of a brother to whom he had been passionately attached, we boys (who had never known our uncle, and could not, therefore, so keenly feel his loss) went to our own chamber, which, by the way, was of ample size, and fitted up as both sitting and bedroom.