The Wide, Wide World by Elizabeth Wetherell
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page 7 of 1092 (00%)
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she was asleep or no, and with the half-acknowledged intent to
rouse her at all events, Ellen knelt down by her side, and laid her face close to her mother's on the pillow. But this failed to draw either word or sign. After a minute or two, Ellen tried stroking her mother's cheek very gently and this succeeded, for Mrs. Montgomery arrested the little hand as it passed her lips, and kissed it fondly two or three times. "I haven't disturbed you, Mamma, have I?" said Ellen. Without replying, Mrs. Montgomery raised herself to a sitting posture, and lifting both hands to her face, pushed back the hair from her forehead and temples, with a gesture which Ellen knew meant that she was making up her mind to some disagreeable or painful effort. Then taking both Ellen's hands, as she still knelt before her, she gazed in her face with a look even more fond than usual, Ellen thought, but much sadder too; though Mrs. Montgomery's cheerfulness had always been of a serious kind. "What question was that you were asking me a while ago, my daughter?" "I thought, Mamma, I heard papa telling you this morning, or yesterday, that he had lost that lawsuit." "You heard right, Ellen he has lost it," said Mrs. Montgomery, sadly. "Are you sorry, Mamma? does it trouble you?" |
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