Shut the doors, Charles, and keep them out.'
So the doors were shut and bolted, and then Arthur lay listening with
that intensity which so quickens one's hearing, that the faintest sounds
are distinct at great distances. He heard the trampling footsteps as the
people came crowding in, and the tread of horses' feet as sleigh after
sleigh drove up the avenue, and once, with a shudder, he said:
'That is the hearse. I am sure of it.'
Then all was still, and listen as he might he could not distinguish the
faintest sound until the services were over and the people began to
leave the house.
'There,' he said, with a sigh of relief; 'it will soon be over. Bring me
my clothes, Charles. I am going to get up and see the last of this poor
woman. God help her, whoever she was.'
He was beginning to feel a great pity for the woman whose coffin they
were putting in the hearse, which moved off a few rods, and then stopped
until the open sleigh came up, the sleigh in which Frank Tracy sat,
muffled in his heavy overcoat, for the day, though bright and sunny, was
cold, and a chill March wind was blowing. Dolly had taken refuge in a
headache which had prevented her from being present at the funeral and
kept her from going to the grave as her husband had wished her to do.
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