He fell across the door, which caused the
difficulty in opening it. Mrs. Rusk found she had not strength to force it
open. No wonder she had given way to terror. I think I should have almost
lost my reason.
Everyone knows the reserved aspect and the taciturn mood of the house, one
of whose rooms is tenanted by that mysterious guest.
I do not know how those awful days, and more awful nights, passed over. The
remembrance is repulsive. I hate to think of them. I was soon draped in the
conventional black, with its heavy folds of crape. Lady Knollys came, and
was very kind. She undertook the direction of all those details which were
to me so inexpressibly dreadful. She wrote letters for me beside, and was
really most kind and useful, and her society supported me indescribably.
She was odd, but her eccentricity was leavened with strong common sense;
and I have often thought since with admiration and gratitude of the tact
with which she managed my grief.
There is no dealing with great sorrow as if it were under the control of
our wills. It is a terrible phenomenon, whose laws we must study, and to
whose conditions we must submit, if we would mitigate it.
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