"Josephine! Josephine!"
No answer.
"I want to speak to you. I am frightened. Oh, do not be alone."
A choking voice answered, "Give me a little while to draw my breath."
Rose sank down at the door, and sat close to it, with her head against
it, sobbing bitterly. She was hurt at not being let in; such a friend as
she had proved herself. But this personal feeling was only a fraction of
her grief and anxiety.
A good half hour elapsed ere Josephine, pale and stern as no one had
ever seen her till that hour, suddenly opened the door. She started at
sight of Rose couched sorrowful on the threshold; her stern look relaxed
into tender love and pity; she sank, blushing, on her knees, and took
her sister's head quickly to her bosom. "Oh, my little love, have you
been here all this time?"--"Oh! oh! oh!" was all the little love could
reply. Then the deserted one, still kneeling, took Rose in her lap, and
caressed and comforted her, and poured words of gratitude and affection
over her like a warm shower.
They rose hand in hand.
Then Rose suddenly seized Josephine, and looked long and anxiously down
into her eyes.
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