Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1872-02-28


threatening, the cemetery was mile from
town, AMI the road TO it desperately bad
one after a rain. Everybody who enter.
tanned any interest on the subject-all
the friends aud acquaintances Of the
Blounts, that is TO say-looked anxioGsly
in the morning paper to see il there was
notice, but none appeared; and it was
generally understood during the course of
the morning that the funeral was appoint
ed for the following day. About noon,
however, there was burial-paper carried
round the funeral would take place at
three O'Clock P. NJ. 1t soon transpired,
further, that Mr., Blount had with dlflicul-
ty been induced to consent to this change
of arrangement, on the representations of
the physicians attending his wife, that,
unless the body of her daughter was re-
moved from the house very socn, they
could not answer for her sanity, so vio-
lent was her grief and her remorsc.
"No wonder Mrs. Blount feels rcmorse !"
said Laura Ashby, as her brother sat
down beside her in the carriage to 90 to
the funeral She is Just as much Emily's
murderer as if she had taken a knife and
cut her throat"
Then, with all the cloquence Of grief
and Indignation, Laura proceeded to re-
late to her brother (who had returned
home only two days previously, after a
long absence, and consequently was not
informed in the matter of the social gos-
sip Of j the whole history of the
"match" over which Mrs. Blunt had
made so much rejoicing, and which had
ended so tragcally.
80 Duncan if you had seen her smile,
her face, as she looked up at me just be-
i fore"
The girl paused-her voice choked in
tears.
"And she died of disease of the heart
it is thought ?" asked Duncan, who wa,
physician and naturally felt an interes
in the subject of so unusual and sudden ;
death, but had no opportunity Of speakin!
to his sister about it before. as she ha(
not been at home from the time Of Emily
, death until she returned half an hour be
fore, to change her dress for the funeral
"Of course it was disease of the heart,
: she answered. "The doctors said So
aud what else could it have been? The,
were trying every thing to recover he
: yesterday morning for the doctors though
at first that it might be merely a fainting
, fit. But knew better | knew the in
! stant | looked at her that she was dead
+. She was just as cod and rigid then--an,
it had not been ten minutes since she wa
speaking to me-just as cold and rigid o
she is now. | want you to see her, Dun
a can; she looks so loyeIy!'
The carriage stopped at this moment
They alighted, and, entering the house
d Laura led the way at once into the bac
drawing-room, where the body of Emil
Blount was lying. 1t was before tn
days of burial-cases, and the top ofth
coffin had not yet been put on the full
length figure was visible, In all the mock
ing glory of her bridal array.
: "How beautiful |" was Duncan Ashhy
first thought, as his eye rested on it /; an
then, with sudden, shap pain that su'
{ prised himself he remembered sngI
line ofpoetry he had lately seen quote
! in some novel he had been reading
"Death holds not long his fairest guest unclanl
ed,'
: The young man had been studying di'
ease and death in all their numberles
; forms, in the hospitals Of Paris, until lik
u too many of his profession, he had com
u to regard she human body simply as
: curious piece of mechanism animated b
the vital principle. But he could NJ
/
'' look at the form before him in this colo
/ abstract manner. He could only gaze o
h it as vision of beauty such as he ha
{ never beheld before. There was not tn
5 faintest shade of deaths livid hue on th
: pure whiteness of the face; no sinking {
u sharpness of feature there was ever
J none of that peculiar expression aroun
the lips, and in the fall Of the eyelasht
upon the cheek, which is the most invar
e able signct set by Death upon his victim
n And yet it did not look like life, eithe
V In both form and face there was rgiC
st ness resembling marble more than flesh
It and the complexion was unnaturally tin
II less bloodlessly transparent as Parial
# 1t seemed a thing that belonged neithe
y to death nor to life-but, rather, to th
IF realm Of the beautiful in art; like
"Some bright creation the Grecian chisel'
~ Ascold, as pale, as passionless, as perfect
ID How long Duncan Ashby remained
q, rapt contemplation Of that lovely moul
- IL - L-..a LII LIZ.