He, on the contrary, dreamt
of her sitting watching and smiling by his bedside, as her gentle
self had been many a morning; and when she saw him awake (so it
fell out in the dream), she smiled still more sweetly, and
bending down she kissed him, and then spread out large, soft,
white-feathered wings (which in no way surprised her child--he
seemed to have known they were there all along), and sailed away
through the open window far into the blue sky of a summer's day.
Leonard wakened up then, and remembered how far away she really
was--far more distant and inaccessible than the beautiful blue
sky to which she had betaken herself in his dream--and cried
himself to sleep again.
In spite of her absence from her child, which made one great and
abiding sorrow, Ruth enjoyed her seaside visit exceedingly. In
the first place, there was the delight of seeing Elizabeth's
daily and almost hourly improvement. Then, at the doctor's
express orders, there were so few lessons to be done, that there
was time for the long exploring rambles, which all three
delighted in. And when the rain came on and the storms blew, the
house, with its wild sea-views, was equally delightful.
It was a large house, built on the summit of a rock, which nearly
overhung the shore below; there was, to be sure, a series of
zig-zag tacking paths down the face of this rock, but from the
house they could not he seen. Old or delicate people would have
considered the situation bleak and exposed; indeed, the present
proprietor wanted to dispose of it on this very account; but by
its present inhabitants this exposure and bleakness were called
by other names, and considered as charms.
Pages:
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350