Nellie Netterville; or, One of the Transplanted, Chapter III-V [pp. 175-190]

Nellie Netterville.
"That is the very thing," cried
Hamish eagerly. "God love you,
madam! Do you not see that the
only real comfort you could give
them would be the allowing them to
try at least and comfort you?"
"Bid them pray, then, for the safe
journey of my loved ones," she answered hoarsely-" that is the only
real comfort they can give me."
"And why, then, couldn't we pray
all together?" cried Hamish, struck
suddenly by a bright idea. "Why
wouldn't you let them come up here,
madam? I warrant you they would
pray as the best of them never prayed before, if they only seen your ladyship's honor kneeling and praying in
the midst of them."
"I-I cannot pray-I cannot even
think," she answered, laying her
head once more on her folded arms,
like a weary or a chidden child. "Go
you, good Hamish, and pray yourself
with them down-stairs."
"In the kitchen, is it?" said Hamish, with a considerable portion of
irony in his voice. "Faix, my lady,
and it's queer thoughts we'd have,
and queer prayers we would be saying, there, with the pot forenent us,
boiling on the fire, and Cromwell's
black rogues of troopers coming and
going, and flinging curses and scraps
of Scriptures (according to their
usual custom) in equal measure at
our heads. No! no! my lady,"
he continued vehemently, "if you
would have us pray at all, it must be
here-here where the cross will mind
us of a Mother who once stood at its
foot, and who was even more desolate than you are; a Mother silent
and heart-broken-not because her
Child had gone before her into exile,
from whence He might any day return, but because she saw Him dying
-dying in the midst of torturesand forsaken so entirely that it
might well have seemed to her (only
she knew that never could- be) as if
God as well as man had utterly abandoned Him."
"You are right, Hamish; you are
right," cried Mrs. Netterville suddenly, touched to the quick by his
voice and eloquence. "Go you
down at once, good Hamish, and
bid them come here directly. I
shall be ready by the time they are
assembled."
As Mrs. Netterville spoke thus,
she rose from the floor, and then, all
at once perceiving the strange disorder of her attire, she began hastily
to gather up her tresses, previous to
placing her widow's coif upon them.
Hamish waited to hear no more,
but instantly left the room to do her
bidding. As he walked rapidly toward the lower part of the mansion,
he drew a long sigh of relief, like
one who has just got rid of a heavy
burden, as in truth he had; for he
felt that he had gained his point,
and that whatever his mistress might
have yet to suffer, she w'as safe, at all
events, from the effects of that first
great shock of sorrow which had
threatened to overturn her intellect.
When he returned to announce
that the household was assembled
and waiting for her further orders
he found her kneeling at the priedieu, in all the grave composure of
her usual manner. She did not trust
herself, however, to look round, but
merely signed to him that they should
come in; and the instant the noise
and bustle of their first entrance had
subsided, she commenced reading
from her open missal.
But the very sound of her own
voice in supplicatory accents seemed
to break the spell which had hitherto been laid upon her faculties. She
fairly broke down and burst into a
flood of tears. This was more than
enough for the excitable hearts
around her, and the room was filled
179