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The Voice of the People, a novel by Ellen Glasgow |
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Book 5. The Hour And The Man - Chapter 6 |
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_ BOOK V. THE HOUR AND THE MAN CHAPTER VI It was the afternoon of election day, and Eugenia sat in her drawing-room with Sally Bassett. Outside there was the sound of tramping feet, for the people were giving him burial. They had been passing so for half an hour and they still went on, on, on--he was going to his grave in state. "There are the drums," said Sally, turning her ear. "All Virginia has come to town, I believe. The whole city is in mourning, and by and by they will put up his statue in the Capitol Square--but if he had lived, would he have had the senatorship?" "Ah, who knows?" said Eugenia. She played idly with the spoon of her teacup, her eyes on the coals. "As you say--who knows?" murmured the other. "And, after all, it is perhaps better that he died just now. He would have tried to lift us too high, and we should have fallen back. He was a hero, and the public can't always keep to the heroic level." There were tears in her voice. Eugenia turned from her and said nothing. After, Sally had gone she still sat with her cup in her hand before the fire. Her child was rolling on the floor at her feet, but she did not stoop to him. She was not thinking--she was merely resting from emotion--as she would rest for the remainder of her days. The sound of tramping feet died away. The cars passed once more, and along the block a boy went whistling a tune. Everything was beginning again--everything would go on as it had gone since the dawn of time, and she would go with it. The best or the worst of it was that she would go happily--neither regretting nor despairing, but filled to the finger-tips with the cheerful energy of a busy life. Suddenly she caught up her child with a frantic rapture and held him to her bosom, kissing the small hands that reached up to her lips. This was her portion, and even to-day she was content. An hour later Dudley found her sitting there when he entered, and as he straightened himself against the mantel he looked down on her with an affectionate gaze. "He was a great man," he said simply, and his generous spirit rang in his voice. "Yes, he was a great man," repeated Eugenia. She looked up at her husband as he stood before her--buoyant with expectation, mellowed by the glow of assured success. He smiled into her face, and she smiled back again with quick tenderness. Then she bent above her child and kissed his lips, and the sunlight coming from the day without shone in her eyes. [THE END] _ |
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