Yet she trembled at these rebellious expressions, almost as soon as they
were uttered, and, by degrees, Mary succeeded in bringing her sister's
mind nearer to the situation of her own. Time went on, and their usual
hour of repose arrived. The brothers and their brides, entering the
married state with no more than the slender means which then sanctioned
such a step, had confederated themselves in one household, with equal
rights to the parlor, and claiming exclusive privileges in two sleeping-
rooms contiguous to it. Thither the widowed ones retired, after heaping
ashes upon the dying embers of their fire, and placing a lighted lamp
upon the hearth. The doors of both chambers were left open, so that a
part of the interior of each, and the beds with their unclosed curtains,
were reciprocally visible. Sleep did not steal upon the sisters at one
and the same time. Mary experienced the effect often consequent upon
grief quietly borne, and soon sunk into temporary forgetfulness, while
Margaret became more disturbed and feverish, in proportion as the night
advanced with its deepest and stillest hours. She lay listening to the
drops of rain, that came down in monotonous succession, unswayed by a
breath of wind; and a nervous impulse continually caused her to lift her
head from the pillow, and gaze into Mary's chamber and the intermediate
apartment. The cold light of the lamp threw the shadows of the furniture
up against the wall, stamping them immovably there, except when they were
shaken by a sudden flicker of the flame. Two vacant arm-chairs were in
their old positions on opposite sides of the hearth, where the brothers
had been wont to sit in young and laughing dignity, as heads of families;
two humbler seats were near them, the true thrones of that little empire,
where Mary and herself had exercised in love a power that love had won.
The cheerful radiance of the fire had shone upon the happy circle, and
the dead glimmer of the lamp might have befitted their reunion now.
While Margaret groaned in bitterness, she heard a knock at the street
door.