THE SORCERESS.
THE SORCERESS.
A Novel.
BY
M R S. O L I P H A N T,
AUTHOR OF
“THE CHRONICLES OF CARLINGFORD,”
“THE CUCKOO IN THE NEST,”
ETC., ETC.
IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. II.
LONDON:
F. V. WHITE & Co.,
31, SOUTHAMPTON STREET, STRAND, W.C.
1893.
(ALL RIGHTS RESERVED)
PRINTED BY
TILLOTSON AND SON, BOLTON,
LONDON, NEW YORK, AND BERLIN.
| CONTENTS: I., II.III.IV.V.VI.VII.VIII.IX.X.XI.XII.XIII.XIV.XV.XVI.XVII.XVIII. |
THE SORCERESS.
CHAPTER I.
It was perhaps a very good thing for Bee at this distracting anddistracted moment of her life, that her mother’s illness came in to fillup every thought. Her own little fabric of happiness crumbled down abouther ears like a house of cards, only as it was far more deeply foundedand strongly built, the downfall was with a rumbling that shook theearth and a dust that rose up to the skies. Heaven was blurred out toher by the rising clouds, and all the earth was full of the noise, likean earthquake, of the falling walls. She could not get that sound out ofher ears even in Mrs. Kingsward’s sick room, where the quiet waspreternatural, and everybody spoke in the lowest tone, and every stepwas hushed. Even then it went on roaring, the stones and the raftersflying, the storms of dust and ruin blackening the air, so that Beecould not but wonder that nobody saw them, that the atmosphere was notthick and stifling with those debris that were continually fallingabout her own ears. For everything was coming down; not only the idoland the shrine he abode in, but heaven and earth, in which she felt thatno truth, no faith, could dwell any longer. Who was there to believe in?Not any man if not Aubrey; not any goodness, any truth, if not his—notanything! For it was without object, without warning, for nothing atall, that he had deserted her, as if it had been of no importance: withthe ink not dry on his letter, with her name still upon his lips. Agreat infidelity, like a great faith, is always something. It is tragic,one of the awful events of life in which there is, or may be, fate; anevil destiny, a terrible chastisement prepared beforehand. In such acase one can at least feel one’s self only a...