[Pagingmon-developer] Ittle question that he would have courted t

[Tomberlin G. <ste...@lo...>]

Ly hurry after his uncle and aunt. He found the former at the door of
the old stable--whence issued wild screams and cries. Several priests
and attendants were there now, and the kind Dean with Lucas was trying
to induce Aldonza to relax the grasp with which she embraced the body,
whence a few moments before the brave and constant spirit had departed.
Her black hair hanging over like a veil, she held the inanimate head to
her bosom, sobbing and shrieking with the violence of her Eastern
nature. The priest who had been sent for to take care of the corpse, and
bear it to the mortuary of the Minster, wanted to move her by force; but
the Dean insisted on one more gentle experiment, and beckoned to the
kindly woman, whom he saw advancing with eyes full of tears. Perronel
knelt down by her, persevered when the poor girl stretched out her hand
to beat her off, crying, "Off! go! Leave me my father! O father, father,
joy of my life! my one only hope and stay, leave me not! Wake! wake,
speak to thy child, O my father!" Though the child had never seen or
heard of Eastern wailings over the dead, yet hereditary nature prompted
her to the lamentations that scandalised the priests and even Lucas, who
broke in with, "Fie, maid, thou mournest as one who hath no hope." But
Dr Colet still signed to them to have patience, and Perronel somehow
contrived to draw the girl's head on her breast and give her a motherly
kiss, such as the poor child had never felt since she, when almost a
babe, had been lifted from her dying mother's side in the dark stifling
hold of the vessel in the Bay of Biscay. And in sheer surprise and sense
of being soothed she ceased her cries, listened to the tender whispers
and persuasions about holy men who would care for her father, and his
wishes that she should be a good maid--till at last she yielded, let her
hands be loosed, allowed Perronel to lift the venerable head