With an icy shiver, she clung closer to Hugh, as if he could indeed do
battle with the king of terror stealing slowly into that room.
"Somebody say 'Our Father,'" she whispered, "I can't remember how it
goes."
"Do you forgive and love everybody?" Alice asked, sighing as she saw the
bitter expression flash for an instant over the pinched features, while
the white lips answered: "Not Adah, no, not Adah."
Alice could not pray after that, not aloud at least, and a deep silence
fell upon the group assembled around the deathbed. 'Lina slept at last,
slept quietly on Hugh's strong arm, and gradually the hard expression on
the face relaxed, giving way to one of quiet peace, and Densie, watching
her anxiously, whispered beneath her breath: "See, the Murdock is all
gone, and her face is like a baby's face. Maybe she would call me mother
now."
Poor Densie! Eagerly she waited for the close of that long sleep, her
eye the first to note that it was ended, and 'Lina awake again. Still
the silence remained unbroken, while 'Lina seemed lost to all else save
the thoughts burning at her breast--thoughts which brought a quiver to
her lips, and forced out upon her brow great drops of sweat, which
Densie wiped away, unnoticed, it may be, or at least unrebuked. The
noonday sun of May was shining broadly into the room, but to 'Lina it
was night, and she said to Alice, now kneeling at her side: "It's
growing dark; they'll light the street lamps pretty soon, and the band
will play in the yard, but I shall not hear them. New York and Saratoga
are a great ways off, and so is Terrace Hill. Tell him I meant to
deceive him, but I did love him. Tell Adah I do forgive her, and I would
like to see her, for she is my half-sister. The bitter is all gone. I am
in charity with everybody, everybody. May I say 'Our Father' now? It
goes and comes, goes and comes, forgive our trespasses, my trespasses;
how is it, Hugh? Say it with me once, and you, too, mother."
She did not look toward Densie, but her hand fell off that way, and
Densie, with a low cry began with Hugh the soothing prayer in which
'Lina joined feebly, throwing in ejaculatory sentences of her own.
"I forgive Densie Densmore; I forgive Adah, Adah, everybody. Forgive my
trespasses then as I forgive those that trespass against me. Bless Hugh,
dear Hugh, noble Hugh. Forgive us our trespasses, forgive us our
trespasses, our trespasses, forgive my trespasses, me, forgive,
forgive."
It was the last word which ever passed 'Lina's lips, "Forgive, forgive,"
and Hugh, with his ear close to the lips, heard the faint murmur even
after the hands had fallen from his neck where in the last struggle they
had been clasped, and after the look which comes but once to all had
settled on her face. That was the last of 'Lina, with that cry for
pardon she passed away, and though it was but a deathbed repentance,
and she, the departed, had much need for pardon, Alice and the
half-acknowledged mother clung to it as to a ray of hope, knowing how
tender and full of compassion was the blessed Savior, even to those who
turn not to Him until the river of death is bearing them away. Very
gently Hugh laid the dead girl back upon the pillow, and leaving one
kiss on her white forehead, hurried away to his own room, where, unseen
to mortal eye, he could ask for knowledge to give himself aright to the
God who had come so near to them.