Though she was not of this
world, she was still a woman, and had nursed her children in her arms.
She bent over the infant by the soft impulse of nature, tenderly, with no
interested thought. But the child saw her; was it possible? He turned his
head towards her, and flickered his baby hands, and cooed with that
indescribable voice that goes to every woman's heart. Lady Mary felt such
a thrill of pleasure go through her, as no incident had given her for
long years. She put out her arms to him as his mother snatched him from
his little bed; and he, which was more wonderful, stretched towards her
in his innocence, turning away from them all.
"He wants to go to some one," cried the mother. "Oh look, look, for God's
sake! Who is there that the child sees?"
"There's no one there,--not a soul. Now dearie, dearie, be reasonable.
You can see for yourself there's not a creature," said the grandmother.
"Oh, my baby, my baby! He sees something we can't see," the young woman
cried. "Something has happened to his father, or he's going to be taken
from me!" she said, holding the child to her in a sudden passion. The
other women rushed to her to console her,--the mother with reason, and
Jervis with poetry. "It's the angels whispering, like the song says." Oh,
the pang that was in the heart of the other whom they could not hear! She
stood wondering how it could be,--wondering with an amazement beyond
words, how all that was in her heart, the love and the pain, and the
sweetness and bitterness, could all be hidden,--all hidden by that air in
which the women stood so clear! She held out her hands, she spoke to
them, telling who she was, but no one paid any attention; only the little
dog Fido, who had been basking by the fire, sprang up, looked at her, and
retreating slowly backwards till he reached the wall, sat down there and
looked at her again, with now and then a little bark of inquiry.
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