Western Reserve chronicle and weekly transcript of the times. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1854-1855, 1855-01-31

I
there was that in Estella which no on,
could withstand-such. depth, such gen
: tleness, such fervor, such childish faith
: and albeit she had been brought VI
abroad, and was therefore only half al
English woman, the truth and trust o
her nature were stronger than even Mrs
Malahide's prejudices; so far giving
: way for once to her own instinct, she
) folded the girl to her heart, and kisseC
her again and blessed her.
, Jessie HILBERT was delicate She wa:
ordered to the seaside; and Brighton be
ing convenient on many accounts, Mrs
!; HILBERT took her there, Notwithstanding
the presence of Malahide, who was rath
er "out, " than sought after by the fam
lily. So she packed up carpet bag full
of tracts; and, it being Paul's vacation
time, they all went down together-poor
Jessie growing paler and paler every day.
Mrs. HILBERT had heard nothing of Es
tella.
The correspondence between her and
her sister was too slight and formal &c
suffer them 10 enter into details and
when she arrived at Brighton with her
daughter, and saw a tall, graceful, for
eign-looking girl among the Malahide
girls, teaching one Italian and another
singing, and showing the rules of per-
spective to a third, and explaining the
meaning of architecture to a fourth, she
neither asked her name nor dreamed OF
her condition but treated her as the
HILBERT world in England does treat gov
ernesses - with silence and contempt,
passing her by as something too low to
demand the rights of courtesy. Estella,
frightened at Mrs. Hibberl's iron severity,
prayed that her real name might not be
told-a prayer Mrs. Malahide was only
too glad to comply with. Once, indeed,
Mrs. HILBERT condescended to say:
4" You seem to have a rather superior
kind OF goyerness there, Mrs. Malahide, F"
in an acid tone that seemed to end the
matter and ask no confirmation. So Mrs.
Malahide made no reply, and the matter
was dropped.
Estella sat among the children like a
young Madonna with such a prodigality
of generous giving-both of love and
mental wealth, both of worldly gifts and
intellectual advantages-she was so fond,
so devoted, 50 happy in the joys ofothers,
so penetrated with love-that even Mrs.
Hilbert watched her with a strange kind
of interest, as if new experience was
laid out before her. Jessie clung to Es-
tella like sister. happy only in her so
ciety, and seemed to feel for the first
time in her life what was the reality OF
affection and Paul treated her now as
a princess and now as child, now with
a tender reverence that was most beau
tiful and touching, and now with a GER
tain manly prudence and tyranny. They
both loved her with all their hearts, and
were never happy away from her.
Jessie grew paler and paler every day:
she was thin and had transparency in
her flesh painfully eloquent; her slight
hand showed the day light almost purely,
through, and her eyes were large and
hollow-ihe white of them pearl-colored
and clear. She complained little; an1
dying away, one scarcely knew why.
There was general look of fading and
show of lassitude and weakness, as il
the essence of her life were slowly evap-
Grating; as if she were resolving back
10 the ETHEREAL elements which had mel
together for brief season in her. She
was dying, she often said, from the de-
sire to die; for the want of motive Of
life; she had nothing TO live for.
Mrs. Hilbert nursed her daughter as
any such woman nursed fading girl
with conscientiousness, but with hardi-
ness /; doing her duty, but doing it with.
out a shadow of tenderness. She had
the best advice Brighton could afford,
and she took care that the medicines
were given at the exact hour prescribed.
! Fruit and good books were there in
abundance but all wanted the living
spirit.
i On Estella fell the weight of conso-
lation and no one could have fulfilled its
duties better. 1t was the spring time
now, and she would go out into the fields
and lanes, and bring home large punches
of forget-me nots, and primroses, and
daisies, with sprays of the wild rose
and of the honeysuckles-and she sang
so the dying girl, and sometimes brought
her sketching-book and sketched the Gus.
toms of Italy, the palaces of Genoa, and
the famous watersheds of Venice and
, she would sit and talk 10 her of Italy
and tell her all that would most interes
, her, being the most unlike the life o
D home. And she would tell her anecdote:
= of Italian history and wild stories o
Italian romance and when they woulC
a talk of graver things-of the poetry o
f the old Church, of its power in the past
t of its marvellous union Of wickednes
: and virtue and they would speak of tn