[Herb of Grace by Rosa Nouchette Carey]@TWC D-Link bookHerb of Grace CHAPTER XXXVII 12/19
She and Mr.Carlyon are never apart; he can do nothing without her." "He looks quite aged and broken, and no wonder: he has known so much trouble, and David was his only son." Dinah secretly marvelled at Elizabeth's wonderful self-control and calmness.
During those trying days no one saw her shed tears: it seemed as though her grief was too deep and sacred for outward manifestation. But when Dinah gently hinted at her surprise, Elizabeth looked at her almost reproachfully. "I thought you would have understood, Die," she returned in a low voice.
"David, my David, is a saint in paradise, and one must be still and reverent in one's grief.
When one has to mourn all one's life, there need be no excitement." And then she murmured, "I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me;" and then, as Dinah took her sister's hand and kissed it almost passionately in her love and sympathy, one of the old beautiful smiles lighted up Elizabeth's face. "I was as one who dreamed," she said later on; and indeed it was a strange dual life that she lived.
There were the quiet hours when she knelt beside the coffin--when her thoughts seemed winged, and carried her to the still land where her beloved walked in green pastures and beside still waters; when in fancy she seemed to hear far-off echoes of melodious voices; when for David's sake she would feel comforted and at rest. "He did not want to die," she would say to herself--"life was sweet to him--but God gave him grace to offer up his will, and then peace came. Darling--darling," laying her cheek against the coffin, "you will never suffer again--no more pain or weariness--no more conflict and temptation--only fuller life and more faithful service--for His servants shall serve Him, and they shall see His face." Elizabeth marked those words with a red cross on the margin of her Bible on the day David died. But there was another reason for Elizabeth's self-control and unselfishness.
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