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Page 34
The two ladies were out together; resting on a garden seat, after
a walk round the grounds.
They exchanged a few trivial words relating to the beauty of the
day, and then said no more. Possessing the same consciousness of
what she had seen in the trance which persons in general possess
of what they have seen in a dream--believing in the vision as a
supernatural revelation--Clara's worst forebodings were now, to
her mind, realized as truths. Her last faint hope of ever seeing
Frank again was now at an end. Intimate experience of her told
Mrs. Crayford what was passing in Clara's mind, and warned her
that the attempt to reason and remonstrate would be little better
than a voluntary waste of words and time. The disposition which
she had herself felt on the previous night, to attach a
superstitious importance to the words that Clara had spoken in
the trance, had vanished with the return of the morning. Rest and
reflection had quieted her mind, and had restored the composing
influence of her sober sense. Sympathizing with Clara in all
besides, she had no sympathy, as they sat together in the
pleasant sunshine, with Clara's gloomy despair of the future.
She, who could still hope, had nothing to say to the sad
companion who had done with hope. So the quiet minutes succeeded
each other, and the two friends sat side by side in silence.
An hour passed, and the gate-bell of the villa rang.
They both started--they both knew the ring. It was the hour when
the postman brought their newspapers from London. In past days,
what hundreds on hundreds of times they had torn off the cover
which inclosed the newspaper, and looked at the same column with
the same weary mingling of hope and despair! There to-day--as it
was yesterday; as it would be, if they lived, to-morrow--there
was the servant with Lucy's newspaper and Clara's newspaper in
his hand!
Would both of them do again to-day what both had done so often in
the days that were gone?
No! Mrs. Crayford removed the cover from her newspaper as usual.
Clara laid _her_ newspaper aside, unopened, on the garden seat.
In silence, Mrs. Crayford looked, where she always looked, at the
column devoted to the Latest Intelligence from foreign parts. The
instant her eye fell on the page she started with a loud cry of
joy. The newspaper fell from her trembling hand. She caught Clara
in her arms. "Oh, my darling! my darling! news of them at last."
Without answering, without the slightest change in look or
manner, Clara took the newspaper from the ground, and read the
top line in the column, printed in capital letters:
THE ARCTIC EXPEDITION.
She waited, and looked at Mrs. Crayford.
"Can you bear to hear it, Lucy," she asked, "if I read it aloud?"
Mrs. Crayford was too agitated to answer in words. She signed
impatiently to Clara to go on.
Clara read the news which followed the heading in capital
letters. Thus it ran:
"The following intelligence, from St. Johns, Newfoundland, has
reached us for publication. The whaling-vessel _Blythewood_ is
reported to have met with the surviving officers and men of the
Expedition in Davis Strait. Many are stated to be dead, and some
are supposed to be missing. The list of the saved, as collected
by the people of the whaler, is not vouched for as being
absolutely correct, the circumstances having been adverse to
investigation. The vessel was pressed for time; and the members
of the Expedition, all more or less suffering from exhaustion,
were not in a position to give the necessary assistance to
inquiry. Further particulars may be looked for by the next mail."
The list of the survivors followed, beginning with the officers
in the order of their rank. They both read the list together. The
first name was Captain Helding; the second was Lieutenant
Crayford.
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