Page:Authors daughter v1.djvu/120

heard one day from an acquaintance that Gerald Staunton had returned from Sierra Leone dying, as might have been expected after so many years of that deadly climate. She could not control her emotion till her informant withdrew. She ordered her carriage without delay, and hastened to his lodgings to see him before he died and to implore his forgiveness. Very pale she looked in her widow's weeds; very agitated and tearful. Gerald, who was not actually dying but very dangerously ill, was very nearly frightened into his grave by the sudden apparition, which implored his forgiveness for all the mischief and injury she had caused him. So far as he could understand the wrong he had suffered, he forgave the suppliant; but his mind wandered often, and he could scarcely recognise her, and when he did, it was as Lady Eveline of Gower's Court, and not Lady Eveline Derrick. She would not leave him in this critical state; she was determined to remain as his nurse till he died or till he recovered. What were mother or children or even reputation to her now compared to him? She was his now, if he would accept of her, or his if he would wait for her if he survived; if he died, she would die with him. Everything was forgotten except that she loved him and that he loved her.