t you from contending with yourself.
Tell me--how is it with you?"

"Cassandra, the jaws of hell are open. If you are satisfied with the
end, I must be."

* * * * *

After I was married, I went to Belem. But Mrs. Somers never forgave
me; and Mr. Somers liked Desmond no better than he had in former
times. Neither did Adelaide and Ann ever consider the marriage in any
light but that of a misalliance. Nor did they recognize any change
in him. It might be permanent, but it was no less an aberration which
they mistrusted. The ground plan of the Bellevue Pickersgill character
could not be altered.

In a short time after we were married we went to Europe and stayed two
years.

These last words I write in the summer time at our house in Surrey,
for Desmond likes to be here at this season, and I write in my old
chamber. Before its windows rolls the blue summer sea. Its beauty
wears a relentless aspect to me now; its eternal monotone expresses no
pity, no compassion.

Veronica is lying on the floor watching her year-old baby. It smiles
continually, but never cries, never moves, except when it is moved.
Her face, thin and melancholy, is still calm and lovely. But her
eyes go no more in quest of something beyond. A wall of darkness lies
before her, which she will not penetrate. Aunt Merce sits near me with
her knitting. When I look at her I think how long it is since mother
went, and wonder whether death is not a welcome idea to those who
have died. Aunt Merce looks at Verry and the child with a sorrowful
countenance, exchanges a glance with me, shakes her head. If Verry
speaks to her, she answers cheerfully, and tries to conceal the grief
which she feels when she sees the mother and child together.

Ben has been dead six months. Only Desmond and I were with him in his
last moments. When he sprang from his bed, staggered backwards, and
fell dead, we clung together with faint hearts, and mutely questioned
each other.

"God is the Ruler," he said at last. "Otherwise let this mad world
crush us now."

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MORGESONS***

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