After a pause he said gently, that he hoped she would sit with Mrs.
King and himself at the funeral on Wednesday.
Helena caught her hands together convulsively; "I go? Oh, no, no! I
am not going."
The doctor was greatly distressed. "I know it is hard for you, but I'm
afraid Samuel and his wife will be so hurt if you don't come. They
know the boy was fond of you--you were always so good to him. I don't
like to urge you, because I know it pains you but--"
"Oh, I can't--I can't!"
She turned so white that William had not the heart to say anything
more. But that same kind heart ached so for the father and mother,
that he was grateful to her when he saw her on Wednesday, among the
people gathering at the church. "Just like her unselfishness!" he said
to himself.
All Old Chester, saddened and awed, came to show its sympathy for the
stricken parents, and its pity, if nothing more, for the dead boy. But
Helena, ghastly pale, had no room in her mind for either pity or
sympathy. She heard Mr. Dilworth's subdued voice directing her to a
pew, and a few minutes afterwards found herself sitting between Dr.
and Mrs. King. Martha greeted her with an appropriate sigh; but Mrs.,
Richie did not notice her. There was no sound in the waiting church
except once in a while a long-drawn breath, or the faint rustle of
turning leaves as some one looked for the burial service. The windows
with their little border of stained glass, were tilted half-way open
this hot morning, and sometimes the silence was stirred by the brush
of sparrows in the ivy under the sills. On the worn carpet in the
chancel the sunshine lay in patches of red and blue and purple, that
flickered noiselessly when the wind moved the maple leaves outside; it
was all so quiet that Helena could hear her own half-sobbing breaths.
After a while, the first low note of the organ crept into the
stillness, and as it deepened into a throbbing chord, there was the
grave rustle of a rising congregation. Then from the church door came
the sudden shock of words: "I am the Resurrection and the Life, saith the Lord."
Helena, clutching at the back of the next pew, stood up with the rest.
Suddenly she swayed, as though the earth was moving under her feet....
The step of the bearers came heavily up the aisle. Her eyes fled from
what they carried--("oh, was he so tall?")--and then shuddered back
again to stare.