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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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'I am certain of it. I have only to tell her so, and she is sure to come.' 'You are very lonely when you go downstairs, now?' Dora whispers, with her arm about my neck. 'How can I be otherwise, my own love, when I see your empty chair?' 'My empty chair!' She clings to me for a little while, in silence. 'And you really miss me, Doady?' looking up, and brightly smiling. 'Even poor, giddy, stupid me?' 'My heart, who is there upon earth that I could miss so much?' 'Oh, husband! I am so glad, yet so sorry!' creeping closer to me, and folding me in both her arms. She laughs and sobs, and then is quiet, and quite happy. 'Quite!' she says. 'Only give Agnes my dear love, and tell her that I want very, very, much to see her; and I have nothing left to wish for.' 'Except to get well again, Dora.' 'Ah, Doady! Sometimes I think - you know I always was a silly little thing! - that that will never be!' 'Don't say so, Dora! Dearest love, don't think so!' 'I won't, if I can help it, Doady. But I am very happy; though my dear boy is so lonely by himself, before his child-wife's empty chair!' It is night; and I am with her still. Agnes has arrived; has been among us for a whole day and an evening. She, my aunt, and I, have sat with Dora since the morning, all together. We have not talked much, but Dora has been perfectly contented and cheerful. We are now alone. Do I know, now, that my child-wife will soon leave me? They have told me so; they have told me nothing new to my thoughts-but I am far from sure that I have taken that truth to heart. I cannot master it. I have withdrawn by myself, many times today, to weep. |
