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CHAPTER IX
I REPENT
I laid the manuscript down, consoled to find that my father had had a peep into that mysterious world, and that he knew Mr. Raven.
Then I remembered that I had never heard the cause or any circumstance of my father's death, and began to believe that he must at last have followed Mr. Raven, and not come back; whereupon I speedily grew ashamed of my flight. What wondrous facts might I not by this time have gathered concerning life and death, and wide regions beyond ordinary perception ! Assuredly the Ravens were good people, and a night in their house would nowise have hurt me! They were doubtless strange, but it was faculty in which the one was peculiar, and beauty in which the other was marvellous ! And I had not believed in them ! had treated them as unworthy of my confidence, as harbouring a design against me ! The more I thought of my behaviour to them, the more disgusted I became with myself. Why should I have feared such dead ? To share their holy rest was an honour of which I had proved myself unworthy ! What harm could that sleeping king, that lady with the wound in her palm, have done me ? I fell a longing after the sweet and stately stillness of their two countenances, and wept. Weeping I threw myself on a couch, and suddenly fell asleep. |
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