o break forth with more violence; and her sorrow
far too selfish and unsubmissive to be soothed either by the thought of
Him Who sent it, or of the peace and rest to which that beloved one was
gone; and as once the anxiety for her brother had swallowed up all care
for her mother, so now grief for her mother absorbed every consideration
for Frederick; so that it was useless to attempt to persuade her to make
any exertion for his sake. Nothing seemed in any degree to tranquillize
her except Aunt Geoffrey's reading to her; and then it was only that
she was lulled by the sound of the voice, not that the sense reached
her mind. But then, how go on reading to her all day, when poor Fred was
left in his lonely room, to bear his own share of sorrow in solitude?
For though Mr. and Mrs. Langford, and Uncle and Aunt Roger, made him
many brief kind visits, they all of them had either too much on their
hands, or were unfitted by disposition to be the companions he wanted.
It was only Aunt Geoffrey who could come and sit by him, and tell him
all those precious sayings of his mother in her last days, which in her
subdued low voice renewed that idea of perfect peace and repose which
came with the image of his mother, and seemed to still the otherwise
overpowering thought that she was gone. But in the midst the door would
open, and grandmamma would come in, looking much distressed, with some
such request as this--"Beatrice, if Fred can spare you, would you just
go up to poor Henrietta? I thought she was better, and that it was as
well to do it at once; so I went to ask her for one of her dresses, to
send for a pattern for her mourning, and that has set her off crying
to such a degree, that Elizabeth and I can do nothing with her. I wish
Geoffrey was come!"

Nothing was expressed so often through the day as this wish, and no one
wished more earnestly than his wife, though, perhaps, she was the only
person who did not say so a dozen times. There was something cheering in
hearing that his brother had actually set off to meet him at Allonfield;
and at length Fred's sharpened ears caught the sound of the carriage
wheels, and he was come. It seemed as if he was considered by all as
their own exclusive property. His mother had one of her quick, sudden
bursts of lamentation as soon as she saw him; his brother, as usual,
wanted to talk to him; Fred was above all eager for him; and it was only
his father who seemed even to recollect that his wife