souls brothers. Impossible was not a word that had been often said to be
in her life; and to come out of a world in which everything could be
changed, everything communicated in the twinkling of an eye, and find a
dead blank before her and around her, through which not a word could go,
was more terrible than can be said in words. She looked piteously upon
them, with that anguish of helplessness which goes to every heart, and
cried, "What is impossible? To send a word--only a word--to set right
what is wrong? Oh, I understand," she said, lifting up her hands. "I
understand that to send messages of comfort must not be; that the people
who love you must bear it, as we all have done in our time, and trust
to God for consolation. But I have done a wrong! Oh, listen, listen to
me, my friends. I have left a child, a young creature, unprovided
for--without any one to help her. And must that be? Must she bear it, and
I bear it, forever, and no means, no way of setting it right? Listen to
me! I was there last night,--in the middle of the night I was still
there,--and here this morning. So it must be easy to come--only a short
way; and two words would be enough,--only two words!"

They gathered closer and closer round her, full of compassion. "It is
easy to come," they said, "but not to go."

And one added, "It will not be forever; comfort yourself. When she comes
here, or to a better place, that will seem to you only as a day.

"But to her," cried Lady Mary,--"to her it will be long years--it will be
trouble and sorrow; and she will think I took no thought for her; and she
will be right," the penitent said with a great and bitter cry.

It was so terrible that they were all silent, and said not a
word,--except the man who had loved her, who put his hand upon her arm,