"
It was his second letter from Mrs. Wade; the first had been a mere
note, asking if he could bear to hear from her, and if he would let
her know of his health. He replied rather formally, considering the
terms on which they stood; and, indeed, it not gratify him much to
be assured of the widow's constant friendship.
CHAPTER XXVII
Something less than a year after his marriage, Glazzard was summoned
back to England by news of his brother's death. On the point of
quitting Highmead, with Ivy, for a sojourn abroad, William Glazzard
had an apoplectic seizure and died within the hour. His affairs were
in disorder; he left no will; for some time it would remain
uncertain whether the relatives inherited anything but debt.
Eustace and his wife took a house in the north of London, a modest
temporary abode. There, at the close of March, Serena gave birth to
a child.
During the past year Glazzard had returned to his old amusement of
modelling in clay. He drew and painted, played and composed, at
intervals; but plastic art seemed to have the strongest hold upon
him. Through April he was busy with a head for which he had made
many studies--a head of Judas; in Italy he had tried to paint the
same subject, but ineffectually. The face in its latest development
seemed to afford him some satisfaction.
One morning, early in May, Serena was sitting with him in the room
he used as a studio.
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