ore than thirty years. He told Nathan he wanted to mow the
burial-ground up on the hill that morning. From that high and silent
spot he could see the long white road up from the settlement on one
side and down to the covered bridge on the other side. He sat under the
pine-tree, his scythe against the stone wall behind him, his clinched
hands between his knees. Sitting thus, he watched the road and the
slow crawl of the shaky old carriage. ... After it had passed the
burying-ground and was out of sight, he hid his face in his bent elbow.

It was some ten years afterward that word came to Eldress Hannah that
Athalia Hall was dying and wanted to see her husband; would he come to
her?

"Will you go, Brother Lewis?" Eldress asked him, doubtfully.

"Yee, if you think best," he said.

"I do think best," the old woman said.

He went, a bent, elderly man in a gray coat, threading his wavering way
through the noisy buffet of the streets of the city where Athalia had
elected to dwell. He found her in a gaudy hotel, full of the glare of
pushing, hurrying life. He sat down at her bedside, a little breathless,
and looked at her with mild, remote eyes.

"Do you forgive me, Lewis?" she said.

"I have nothing to forgive, sister," he told her.

"Don't call me that!" she cried, with feeble passion.

He looked a little bewildered. "Yee," he said, "I forgive you."

"Oh, Lewis!--Lewis!--Lewis!" she mourned; "this is what I have done!"
She wept pitifully. His face grew vaguely troubled, as if he did not
quite understand.... Then, abruptly, the veil lifted: his eyes dilated
with pain; he passed his hand over his forehead once or twice and
sighed. Then he looked down at the poor, dying face that once he had
loved.

"Why, 'Thalia!" he said, in a surprised and anguished voice; suddenly
he put his arm under the restless head. "There, there, little Tay; don't
cry," he said, and smiled at her.

And with that she was content to fall asleep.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Way to Peace, by Margaret Deland

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