He kissed her on both cheeks--a fully sufficient
answer to her request, and shuffled out of the room in his old slippers;
which, thanks to Sophie's filial attentions, still held together with
dying faith fulness.
The rest of the day the two sisters passed together--Cornelia working
upon her sister's wedding-dress, and Sophie guiding her by directions
and suggestions. Not since they first began to grow apart, had there
been between them so great an appearance of sisterly love and
cordiality. Yet, if Cornelia allowed herself to think at all, it must
have seemed, in the light of her purpose regarding Bressant, as if she
was preparing a shroud rather than a wedding-garment. Or, perhaps, as
she observed the change which even so brief and light an illness had
made in Sophie's delicate face, there may have lurked, in the secret
places of her mind, a darker and guiltier thought than that. But let not
our condemnation be too unconditional, lest the precedent come home,
some day, to ourselves. It may astonish us, hereafter, to discover how
many of our most respectable acquaintances are murderers--only in
thought!
But Sophie's condition seemed steadily to improve, and, by the morning
of the 30th, the professor apprehended no danger but from imprudence.
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