The six sisters of the valleys : an historical romance - University Library

THE MOTHER'S GRAVE. 33
tomed place, though convinced of its fruit-
lessness. Her mother, whom she had
tended for years, and who had lain there
since she was able to remember, had gone
She stood alone in that home of infancy.
Overcome with these feelings she rushed
to the broken framework of the bed, and
fell by its side.
" My mother ! thou art indeed gone
It seems like a cruel dream. What will
become of thy helpless child ? Is that voice
silent which taught me so lovingly ?
my mother ! I kneel where once I knelt ; but
I see thee not, I hear thee not, for thou art
dead !" With these words she cast herself
on the bed, and wept bitterly.
After the paroxysm of grief had sub-
sided, Ardoine hastened to the spot where
her mother had been buried. She had trodden
those paths from childhood, she had played
beneath that aged cypress, now the sole
funereal record of the past ; but never had
she anticipated that she should seek it as
VOL. IT. D
!