43/62 This was to the familiar house in Wilton Square. She was better dressed than in former days, but still untidy. Emma was out making purchases, but could not be many minutes. In the kitchen the third sister, Jane, was busy with her needle; at Richard's entrance she rose from her chair with evident feebleness: her illness of the spring had lasted long, and its effects were grave. The poor girl--she closely resembled Emma in gentleness of face, but the lines of her countenance were weaker--now suffered from pronounced heart disease, and the complicated maladies which rheumatic fever so frequently leaves behind it in women. |