Oh! when I remember that, while I sit here
in comfort, perhaps my poor boy lies dead in some savage place, and all
along of that girl: there, her very name is ratsbane to me. I tremble
all over when I hear it."
"I'll not say anything, nor do anything to grieve you worse, mother,"
said Kate tenderly; but she sighed.
She whose name was so fiercely interdicted in this house was much spoken
of, and even pitied elsewhere. All Sevenbergen was sorry for her, and
the young men and maidens cast many a pitying glance, as they passed, at
the little window where the beauty of the village lay "dying for love."
In this familiar phrase they underrated her spirit and unselfishness.
Gerard was not dead, and she was too loyal herself to doubt his
constancy. Her father was dear to her and helpless; and but for bodily
weakness, all her love for Gerard would not have kept her from doing
her duties, though she might have gone about them with drooping head and
heavy heart. But physical and mental excitement had brought on an attack
of fever so violent, that nothing but youth and constitution saved
her. The malady left her at last, but in that terrible state of bodily
weakness in which the patient feels life a burden.
Then it is that love and friendship by the bedside are mortal angels
with comfort in their voice, and healing in their palms.
But this poor girl had to come back to life and vigour how she could.
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