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Page 11
CHAPTER V.
BETWEEN TWO WORLDS.
Dr. Penn was with George this day, and was to be with him to the last.
His duty was taken by a curate.
I will not attempt to describe my feelings at this terrible time, but
merely narrate circumstantially the wonderful events (or illusions, call
them which you will) of the evening.
We sat up-stairs in the blue room, and Harriet fell asleep on the sofa.
It was about half-past ten o'clock when she awoke with a scream, and in
such terror that I had much difficulty in soothing her. She seemed very
unwilling to tell me the cause of her distress; but at last confessed
that on the two preceding nights she had had a vivid and alarming dream,
on each night the same. Poor Edmund's hand (she recognized it by the
sapphire ring) seemed to float in the air before her; and even after she
awoke, she still seemed to see it floating towards the door, and then
coming back again, till it vanished altogether. She had seen it again
now in her sleep. I sat silent, struggling with a feeling of
indignation. Why had she not spoken of it before? I do not know how long
it might have been before I should have broken the silence, but that my
eyes turned to the partially-open window and the dark night that lay
beyond. Then I shrieked, louder than she had done--
"Harriet! _There it is!_"
There it was--to my eyes--the detached hand, round which played a pale
light--the splendid sapphire gleaming unearthlily, like the flame of a
candle that is burning blue. But Harriet could see nothing. She said
that I frightened her, and shook her nerves, and took pleasure in doing
so; that I was the author of all our trouble, and she wished I would
drop the dreadful subject. She would have said much more, but that I
startled her by the vehemence of my interruption. I said that the day
was past when I would sacrifice my peace or my duty to her whims; and
she ventured no remonstrance when I announced that I intended to follow
the hand so long as it moved, and discover the meaning of the
apparition. I then flew downstairs and out into the garden, where it
still gleamed, and commenced a slow movement towards the gate. But my
flight had been observed, Nelly, by Robert, our old butler. I had
always been his favourite in the family, and since my grief, his humble
sympathy had only been second to that of Dr. Penn. I had noticed the
anxious watch he had kept over me since the trial, with a sort of sad
amusement. I afterwards learnt that all his fears had culminated to a
point when he saw me rush wildly from the house that night. He had
thought I was going to drown myself. He concealed his fears at the time,
however, and only said--
"What be the matter, Miss Dorothy?"
"Is that you, Robert?" I said. "Come here. Look! Do you see?"
"See what?" he said.
"Don't you see anything?" I said. "No light? Nothing?"
"Nothin' whatever," said Robert, decidedly; "it be as dark as pitch."
I stood silent, gazing at the apparition, which, having reached the
gate, was slowly re-advancing. If it were fancy, why did it not vanish?
I rubbed my eyes, but it was there still. Robert interrupted me,
solemnly--
"Miss Dorothy, do _you_ see anything?"
"Robert," I said, "you are a faithful friend. Listen! I see before me
the lost hand of your dead master. I know it by the sapphire ring. It is
surrounded by a pale light, and moves slowly. My sister has seen it
three times in her sleep; and I see it now with my waking eyes. You may
laugh, Robert; but it is too true."
I was not prepared for the indignant reply:
"Laugh, Miss Dorothy! The Lord forbid! If so be you do see anything, and
it should be the Lord's will to reveal anything about poor dear Master
Edmund to you as loved him, and is his sister, who am I that I should
laugh? My mother had a cousin (many a time has she told me the story) as
married a sailor (he was mate on board a vessel bound for the West
Indies), and one night, about three weeks after her husband had--"
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