Her warm heart and tender tact had shown her that obtrusive
attempts to take care of him would only be harassing, so she only
took care to secure him food and rest in his own house whenever it
was possible, and that however low her own hopes might be, she would
not add to his burden; and now Terry was so much better that she
could well receive him cheerily, and talk of what Terry had that day
eaten, so joyously, as almost to conceal that no one was better at
the Hall.
"I will come with you," she said; "I might do something for poor
Fanny," as the bell began to toll for little Joshua's funeral.
Fanny Reynolds, hearing some rumour of her boy's illness, had
brought Drake to her home three days before his death. The poor
little fellow's utterances, both conscious and unconscious, had
strangely impressed the man, and what had they not awakened in the
mother? And when the words, so solemn and mysterious, fell on those
unaccustomed ears in the churchyard, and Fanny, in her wild
overpowering grief, threw herself about in an agony of sorrow and
remorse, and sobbed with low screams, it was 'the lady' whom she
viewed as an angel of mercy, who held her and hushed her; and when
all was over, and she was sinking down, faint and hysterical, it was
'the lady' who--a little to the scandal of the more respectable--
helped Drake to carry her to the Rectory, the man obeying like one
dazed.
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