'I hope, Sir,' said Devereux, very humbly, 'you have forgiven me.'
The doctor took his hand and shook it very hard, and said, 'There's
nothing--we're both in sorrow. Everyone--everyone is sorry, Sir, but you
more.'
Devereux did not say anything, being moved, as I suppose. But he had
drawn his cloak about his face, and was looking down.
'There was a little message--only a word or two,' said the doctor; 'but
everything of hers is sacred.'
He turned over some papers in his desk, and chose one. It was in Lily's
pretty handwriting.
'I am charged with this little message. Oh, my darling!' and the old man
cried bitterly.
'Pray, read it--you will understand it--'tis easily read. What a pretty
hand it was!'
So Devereux took the little paper, and read just the words which
follow:--
'My beloved father will, I hope, if he thinks it right, tell Captain
Richard Devereux that I was not so unkind and thankless as I may
have seemed, but very grateful for his preference, of which I know,
in many ways, how unworthy I was. But I do not think we could have
been happy; and being all over, it is a great comfort to friends who
are separated here, that there is a place where all may meet again,
if God will; and as I did not see or speak with him since my dear
father brought his message, I wished that so much should be said,
and also to say a kind good-bye, and give him all good wishes.
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