428 DECAY AND DESOLATION. 



If news of death were really on the road to us, as our Dove 

 was now thoroughly persuaded, they travelled, like a hearse, 

 slowly. Tidings none at all reached us of my uncle ; but howso- 

 ever it might fare with him, his house seemed more than ever 

 stricken with death-like symptoms of decay. 



In the garden the ordinary touches of autumn were invested, 

 to me, with more gloomy hues than they had ever worn before. 

 Frosts had been sharp and early, and the dahlias, as they hung 

 black and drooping over the middle walk, seemed to mourn for 

 the admiring master, who, in his own pride, had so often 

 propped them up in theirs. 



But amidst these deepening tokens of decay, within doors 

 and without, one was, to me at least, more perceptible, more 

 heart-saddening than them all. Lucy, my little cousin, of 

 whom I was to take care she, too, in her early spring-time, 

 was overtaken by autumnal blight.' The cough the hectic flush 

 the sparkling eye the childish beauty, wearing now almost 

 unearthly bloom, now a faded pallor, which bespoke too plainly 

 its true character, all these told me, though hardly would I 

 believe their tale, that I should not long have my little cousin 

 to take care of. 



One cheerless rainy afternoon in November we were all as 

 usual in the kitchen ; Dolly seated by the dull fire, darning 

 stockings ; Caleb, opposite, reading a religious tract ; I and 

 Lucy standing by the window watching the heavy rain-drops 

 and the light brown feathery leaves falling in a mingled shower 

 from a deciduous cypress, which stood on the grass-plot 

 opposite. Presently, there came a ring at the garden-gate a 

 ring low and half-fearful, as if the bell were pulled by a timid 

 or unwilling hand. Keeper barked loudly ; but it seemed to 

 me as if there was more of recognition than of anger in his voice. 

 We just saw the top of a hat a gentleman's hat above the 

 close high gate. "It's papa!" cried Lucy " it must be 

 papa !" Dolly's stocking fell from her hand ; but she sat still 

 she couldn't, or she didn't dare to move. I said nothing ; but 



