he had plumed himself on his rejection, and thrown
away the last chance.

Should he ever see Amabel again? He groaned and went back to the
deserted rooms.

CHAPTER 37

And see
If aught of sprightly, fresh, or free,
With the calm sweetness may compare
Of the pale form half slumbering there.
Therefore this one dear couch about
We linger hour by hour:
The love that each to each we bear,
All treasures of enduring care,
Into her lap we pour.
--LYRA INNOCENTUM

The brother and sisters, left at home together, had been a very sad and
silent party, unable to attempt comforting each other. Charlotte's
grief was wild and ungovernable; breaking out into fits of sobbing, and
attending to nothing till she was abashed first by a reproof from Mr.
Ross, and next by the description of Amabel's conduct; when she grew
ashamed and set herself to atone, by double care, for her neglect of
Charles's comforts.

Charles, however, wanted her little. He had rather be let alone. After
one exclamation of, 'My poor Amy!' he said not a word of lamentation,
but lay hour after hour without speaking, dwelling on the happy days he
had spent with Guy,--companion, friend, brother,--the first beam that
had brightened his existence, and taught him to make it no longer
cheerless; musing on the brilliant promise that had been cut off;
remembering his hopes for his most beloved sister, and feeling his
sorrow with imagining hers. It was his first grief, and a very deep one.
He seemed to have no comfort but in Mr. Ross, who contrived to come to
him every day, and would tell him how fully he shared his affection and
admiration for Guy, how he had marvelled at his whole character, as it
had shown itself more especially at the time of his marriage, when his
chastened temper had been the more remarkable in so young a man, with
the world opening on him so brightly. As to the promise lost, that,
indeed, Mr. Ross owned, and pleased Charles by saying how he had hoped
to watch its fulfilment; but he spoke of its having been, in truth, no
blight, only that those fair blossoms were removed where nothing could
check their full development or mar their beauty. 'The hope in earthly
furrows sown, would ripen in the sky;' Charles groaned, saying it was
hard not to see it, and they might speak as they would, but that would
not comfort him in thinking of his sister. W