"His rudeness! his rudeness!" said Katherine, her eyes streaming with tears. "Oh, my poor friend--my poor friend!" She did not tell her sister all that her husband had said to her. Mary was, of course, very anxious to hear how Oliver was, but Katherine only said that Charles had seen him and found him very ill. The doctor who was in attendance on him had promised to write if he thought it advisable for him to have a change to the country.
The next morning the two sisters were sitting together when the postboy's horn sounded. They started up simultaneously, awaiting a letter from the doctor.
No letter arrived, only a narrow parcel, clumsily sealed, addressed to Miss Hor-neck in a strange handwriting.
When she had broken the seals she gave a cry, for the packet contained sheet after sheet in Goldsmith's hand--poems addressed to her--the love-songs which his heart had been singing to her through the long hopeless years.
She glanced at one, then at another, and another, with beating heart.
"Ah! I knew it, I knew it! He loves me--he loves me as I love him--only his love is deep, while mine was shallow! Oh, my dear love--he loves me, and now he is dying! Ah! I know that he is dying, or he would not have sent me these; he would have sacrificed himself--nay, he has sacrificed himself for me--for me!"
She threw herself on a sofa and buried her face in her hands.
"My dear--dear sister," said Katherine, "is it possible that you--you----"
"That I loved him, do you ask?" cried Mary, raising her head. "Yes, I loved him--I love him still--I shall never love any one else, and I am going to him to tell him so. Ah! God will be good--God will be good. My love shall live until I go to him."
"My poor child!" said her sister. "I could never have guessed your secret. Come away. We will go to him together."
They left by the coach that day, and early the next morning they went together to Brick Court.
A woman weeping met them at the foot of the stairs. They recognised Mrs. Abington.
"Do not tell me that I am too late--for God's sake say that he still lives!" cried Mary.
The actress took her handkerchief from her eyes.
She did not speak. She did not even shake her head. She only looked at the girl, and the girl understood.