Part 71 (2/2)
”And say nothing that you'll live to regret?”
”I promise, Mary.”
”Please!”
With a lingering look of sympathy for brother and sister, Mrs. Lee softly left the room.
Lee stood gazing through the window across the s.h.i.+ning waters of the river whose mirror but a few months ago had reflected the distorted faces of John Brown and his men at Harper's Ferry. It had come, the vision he had seen as he looked on the dark stains that fateful morning.
He dreaded this interview with his sister. He knew the views of Judge Marshall, her husband. He knew her own love for the Union.
She was struggling for control of Her emotions and her voice was strained.
”You've--you've heard this awful news from Richmond?”
”Yes,” he answered quietly. ”And I've long felt it coming. The first thunderbolt struck us at Harper's Ferry. The storm has broken now--”
”What are you going to do?”
She asked the question as if half afraid to p.r.o.nounce the words. Lee turned away in silence. She followed him and laid a hand on his arm.
”You'll let me tell you all that's in my heart, my brother?”
The soldier was a boy again. He took his sister's hand and stroked it as he had in the old days at Stratford.
”Of course, my dear.”
”And remember that we _are_ brother and sister?”
”Always.”
She clung to his hand and made no effort now to keep back the tears.
”And that I shall always believe in you and be proud of you--”
A sob caught her voice and she could not go on. He pressed her hand.
”It's sweet to hear you say this, Annie, in the darkest hour of my life--”
She interrupted him in quick, pa.s.sionate appeal.
”Why should it be the darkest hour, Robert? What have you or I, or our people, to do with the madmen who are driving the South over the brink of this precipice?”
Lee shook his head.
”The people of the South are not being driven now, my dear--”
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