We looked
round at this disturbed party, guessing very likely what the subject of
their talk had been, to which, however, Miss Ethel did not allude: but,
announcing that she had intended to depart without disturbing the two
gentlemen, she bade us farewell and good night. "I wish I could say a
merry Christmas," she added gravely, "but none of us, I fear, can hope
for that." It was evident that Laura had told the last chapter of the
Colonel's story.
Madame de Floras rose up and embraced Miss Newcome, and, that farewell
over, she sank back on the sofa exhausted, and with such an expression of
affliction in her countenance, that my wife ran eagerly towards her. "It
is nothing, my dear," she said, giving a cold hand to the younger lady,
and sate silent for a few moments, during which we heard Florac's voice
without crying Adieu! and the wheels of Miss Newcome's carriage when it
drove away.
Our host entered a moment afterwards; and remarking, as Laura had done,
his mother's pallor and look of anguish, went up and spoke to her with
the utmost tenderness and anxiety.
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