Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1878 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER IX. The end was nearer than even the doctors had expected. Frankie caught cold on the journey, and two or three days after his departure a broken-hearted letter came from his poor mother saying that they were at an hotel in Dublin; they could get no further, for Frankie was dangerously ill. It was the first time she had ever admitted that there was danger in his illness, and when Mr. Blair gave the letter to Nessa to read, he said': "It was a matter of months before, now I am afraid it is a matter of days. Poor Jane!" Poor Jane, indeed! Even while Mr. Blair was speaking she was sitting in dumb despair in the darkened hotel bed-room holding her dead son's hand in hers. The end had come, the end of all her brightest hopes, the end of all her tenderest affections. Suddenly, --in a moment. And already of the old sweet time nothing was left but memory. How could she believe it? Ah, poor Jane, poor Jane! But at Castle Blair they did not yet know this, and neither Mr. Blair nor Nessa had thought it necessary to communicate to the children the bad news they had received of little Frankie's state. On the contrary, Nessa kindly devoted herself to cheering and amusing them in order that they might feel as little as possible the disappointment of not accompanying their cousin. And though she was little accustomed to the society of children, she had a wonderfully practical way of doing whatever she made up her mind had to be done. What she did she seemed to do by a sort of instinct, much as the birds sing, and the flowers grow; and somehow she generally succeeded. In this instance she succeeded marvellously. "Winnie and Murtagh began to forget the trouble into which Frankie's words had thrown them. When they were alone and quiet it came back...
