A Fair Emigrant, Chapters III-V [pp. 83-106]

A FAIR EMIGRANT.
Bawn left her seat and knelt by his bed, laying her head on
the pillow beside his.
"Do not talk so," she said, "if you would not kill me. You
are going to be well, and then we will forget and be happy. And
I must read those letters, though not until you bid me. I have a
presentiment that in the course of my years I shall meet those
people who spoiled my father's life; and I should like to know
all about it."
"Dreams, my darling-dreams. How should you ever meet
with them; and what could come of it but pain?"
"I don't know how I shall meet them, but I have a long time
to live in this world, and they are in it, too-some of them, surely
-and there is no knowing how things may happen. And as for
pain, there might be pain, indeed, but the truth might come out
of it."
"Well, dear, I feel that I have no right to deny your request
in the matter, having told you so much as I did. You know the
worst, and, if your mind will run on the subject, it may be well,
as you say, that all the circumstances should be known to you.
Open the casket when you like, and make your own of the contents."
"May I speak to you of this again when I have done so?"
"Dear, I would rather not. My life has been lived, my burden borne. Peace has come to me at last, and I will not give it
away again. Make what use you please of your knowledge in
after-years, but smile and prattle to me now while I am with you.
I have done with the past, and let us think of it no more."
Bawn was afraid to move her head lest he should see the tears
dripping down her cheeks. His perfect peace, forgivingness,
satisfaction, wrung her heart more than the most bitter complaints could have done. The peace of approaching death was
upon him, though Bawn would not have it so. How sweet it
would be when he should get quite well and would talk like this
about what in former days had been a horror not to be shared or
softened! After a long time of silence she ventured to withdraw her head from the pillow and steal a look at his face. She
thought he had fallen asleep, and so he had; only she need not
have feared to awake him, for, though his eyes were fast closed,
his spirit was already awake in the sunshine of eternity.
[Oct.,
88