“There are some people who would not take much interest in it,” Catherine continued, “but you do. I think you are like me, Hester. We were kept apart by circumstances; perhaps it is possible we might have been kept apart on purpose. He”—Catherine made a pause before and after, and said the word with a sob—“never understood me. They say he was—afraid of me, never could trust me with what he really wished. Alas, alas! It must have been my fault—”
“Oh no, no!”
“Ah, yes, yes. I had rather think that; and there is a great deal that is base in me. I could not but laugh even at that story of Emma—even now. Human nature is so strange—it is a farce. I am not angry though, not at all: all things seem floating off from me. I could think we were floating away altogether, you and I—”
“You are not well. You are doing too much. I should like to send for the doctor.”
“I believe in no doctors. No, no; I am quite well, only tired with the day’s work and ready for rest.”
And the silence resumed its sway. She laid herself back as before—her pale head against the dark curtains stood out like ivory. Some time afterwards she sighed two or three times heavily, then there was no sound at all. The fire burned cheerfully, the lamp shed its steady glow upon Hester’s book, to which after this talk she did not, as may be supposed, pay very much attention. But Catherine did not like a vacant watcher, and the book was a kind of safeguard, protecting her from the sense of an eye upon her. Perhaps an hour passed so. A chill crept into the room like nothing Hester had ever felt before, though all was still, serenely warm and bright to outward appearance. She rose softly at last and touched Catherine’s hands, that were folded in her lap, to wake her. It was from them the cold had come that had crept to her heart.
There was, then, no need that Catherine Vernon should ever live in cramped rooms, in another house from that in which she had been born. When they carried her out from it a week after, the whole population came out to meet the procession, and followed her weeping, lining the path, filling the streets. Her misfortunes, and the noble courage with which she had stood up against them at the end, brought back all the fullness of the love and honour with which she had been regarded when she first became supreme in the place, and all bounty flowed from her. There was not anyone connected with her, high or low, not only the poor Vernons who had snarled and scoffed while they accepted her favours, but the very men of money who had of late taken upon themselves the air of patronising Catherine, but was proud to be able to repeat now, on the day of her burying, what she had said to them, and how they had come in contact with her. The doctors were not clear as to how she died. She had never been suspected of heart disease, or any other disease. But it was her heart somehow, with or without a medical reason for it, that had failed her. The last touch, those who loved her thought, had been too much. Derision such as she had delighted in in other circumstances, had overtaken the last tragic occurrence of her life. Catherine had not been able to bear the grim mockery, the light of a farce upon that tragedy of her own.
And as for Hester, all that can be said for her is that there are two men whom she may choose between, and marry either if she pleases—good men both, who will never wring her heart. Old Mrs. Morgan desires one match, Mrs. John another. What can a young woman desire more than to have such a possibility of choice?
Colophon
Hester
was published in 1883 by
Margaret Oliphant.
This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
David Reimer,
and is based on transcriptions produced in 2015 by
Delphine Lettau, Dianne Nolan, and The Online Distributed Proofreaders Canada Team
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans from
Google Books.
The cover page is adapted from
Young Girl Seated,
a painting completed in 1896 by
Thomas Dewing.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
The League of Moveable Type.
The first edition of this ebook was released on
January 5, 2025, 11:40 p.m.
You can check for updates to this ebook, view its revision history, or download it for different ereading systems at
standardebooks.org/ebooks/margaret-oliphant/hester.
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