I shall never forget the awful mysterious feelings I had then.'
'And could she speak to you?' said Helen; 'did she know you?'
'Yes, she gave me one of her own smiles, and said something in a very
low voice.'
'Tell me a little more, Lizzie,' said Helen, 'for I have thought very
much about her lately. Can you remember her before she was ill?'
'Oh yes,' said Elizabeth, speaking slowly, and pausing now and then;
'I remember her well; I sometimes fancy I can hear her voice and her
step at night, when she used to come up to the nursery to see us in
bed. I always used to listen for her; and when she began to grow
weak, and could not come up so many stairs, I used to lie and cry for
half an hour. And now, when I am reading the same books with the
children that I read with her, things that she said to me come back
upon me.'
'Do you think,' said Helen, 'that you are as like her as Uncle Edward
once said you were?'
Elizabeth paused; 'possibly,' said she, 'in eyes, nose, and mouth;
but, Helen, I do not think there ever could be anyone really like our
mother; I was much too young to know all that she was whilst she was
alive, but as I have grown older, and compared what I have seen of
other people with what I recollect of her, I have grown certain that
she must have been the most excellent, sensible, clever, kind,
charming person that ever lived.
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