Page:Eliot - Adam Bede, vol. III, 1859.djvu/188

178 he was come. But a voice caught his ear: he could not shut out the words:

"The cart is to set off at half-past seven."

It must be said—the last good-by: there was no help.

In ten minutes from that time, Adam was at the door of the cell. Dinah had sent him word that she could not come to him, she could not leave Hetty one moment; but Hetty was prepared for the meeting.

He could not see her when he entered, for agitation deadened his senses, and the dim cell was almost dark to him. He stood a moment after the door closed behind him, trembling and stupified.

But he began to see through the dimness—to see the dark eyes lifted up to him once more, but with no smile in them. God, how sad they looked! The last time they had met his was when he parted from her with his heart full of joyous, hopeful love, and they looked out with a tearful smile from a pink, dimpled, childish face. The face was marble now; the sweet lips were pallid and half-open, and quivering; the dimples were all gone—all but one, that never went; and the eyes—O! the worst of all was the likeness they had to Hetty's. They