Page:Bianca, or, The Young Spanish Maiden (Toru Dutt).djvu/3

266 her last days. His daughter did not follow. She knew she could do nothing to console him. God even cannot, sometimes. Let the mourner remain alone with the Divine Comforter: He will give him peace and strength to bear the sorrow. Bianca entered her own room. She sat by the window; a book lay open on the table; her eye fell upon it; Inez was very fond of it; it was Tennyson’s In Memoriam. The first lines Bianca came upon were

How often had she heard Inez repeat these lines in her soft silvery voice!

She closed the book and looked out of the window. Where was Inez now? Beneath the cold earth:—She so delicate was now sleeping quietly in the wild churchyard with nothing between her and the inclement sky, but a thin oak-plank, and the newly turned sod. Bianca’s heart se serra convulsively at the thought. Why should she so strong be housed from the weather in a warm, lighted room, while pale Inez lay cold and stiff in the lonely grave-yard? She looked with drear despair at the drizzling snow and rain. Her large eyes were dilated; she opened the window (it was a glass door) and stept out into the garden. She smiled, it was a strange, peculiar smile, 'I am like you now Inez dear,' murmured she, and sat down on the soaked