Page:Ethel Churchill 2.pdf/319

Rh surrounded by gaiety and festival. But when they went to tread down the earth, it seemed to her like sacrilege; and, forgetting every thing in one strong emotion, she sprang forward to prevent it. The effort was too much; and, for the first time, she sank back in the arms of the servants in strong hysterics! She was carried home quite exhausted; the only sign she gave of consciousness was, that when they were about to take her to the room which had formerly been her own, she raised her head, and feebly insisted on being taken to her uncle's. Every thing there was peculiarly his, and there she had gazed, for the last time, on his inanimate features; in that room she could call up his image more distinctly than elsewhere. The presence of the dead was around her, and it was dearer than aught else in the world beside.