'But I _must_ be forgiven for telling
you that I cannot, will not, abandon every hope of seeing him again.
If you knew the pictures of happiness I sometimes draw, in which you
and he are the chief actors, I am sure they would please instead of
paining you. I sometimes fancy him returned; I go through in
imagination your marriage; I feel a real delight in fancying myself
placing your hand in his at the altar; I'--- Here the speaker was
interrupted. Her companion, clasping her suddenly for support, had,
overcome with emotion, fainted in her arms!
From that day Mrs Hardman forbore all allusion to her lost son.
That summer went by, and grief had made such inroads on Mrs Hardman's
mind, that her health gradually declined. Catherine also was weaker
than she had ever been for a continuance previous to her last
illness. Besides the disfigurement the disease had made in her
countenance, grief had paled her complexion and hollowed her cheek.
Yet she kept up her spirits, and was a source of unfailing
consolation to Mrs Hardman, who gradually weaned her from her
father's house to live entirely at Coote-down, where Dodbury also
spent every hour he could spare from business.
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