He was about to go to his father, to
receive his congratulations on his death, and to say to him that
now the sooner he too died the better, that the creditors might
have the property, everybody be paid, and they two and his mother
be together for always. But first, before he set out, he must have
one sight of Lady Joan, and in that hope was now hovering about the
towers of the castle. He was slowly circling the two great ones of
the gateway, crossing a figure of eight over the gallery where
stood the machinery of the portcullis, when down he dropped, and
lay bruised and heavy, unable by fiercest effort of the will to
move an inch from the spot. He was making the reflection how
foolish it was to begin to fly before assuring himself that he was
dead, and was resolving to be quite prudent another time, when he
felt as if a warm sunny cloud came over him, which made him open
his eyes. They gradually cleared, and above him he saw the face of
his many dreams--a little sadder than it was in them, but more
beautiful.
Cosmo had so much of the childlike in him that illness made him
almost a very child again, and when he saw Joan's face bending over
him like a living sky, just as any child might have done, he put
his arms round her neck, and drew her face down to his. Hearts get
uppermost in illness, and people then behave as they would not in
health. More is in it than is easily found. There is such a dumb
prayer in the spirit to be _taken_!
Till he opened his eyes Lady Joan had been unable to satisfy
herself whether the pale, worn, yet grand-looking youth could
indeed be the lad Cosmo, and was not at all prepared for such
precipitate familiarity: the moment she was released, she drew back
with some feeling, if not of offence, yet of annoyance.
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