The whole earth was as brilliant and joyous as if
it had never been furrowed by graves.
Laura lived some days after my interview with her. She sent me no
message, and I did not go to see her. From the garret-windows of our
house, which was half a mile distant from Laura's, I could see the
windows of the room where she was lying. Three tall poplar-trees
intervened in the landscape. I thought they stood motionless so that
they might not intercept my view while I watched the house of death.
One morning I saw that the blinds had been thrown back and the windows
opened. I knew then that Laura was dead.
The day after the funeral I gave Frank his letters, his miniature, and
the locket which held a ring of his hair.
"Is there a fire?" he asked, when I gave them to him; "I want to burn
these things."
I went to another room with him.
"I'll leave everything here to-day; and may I never see this cursed
place again! Did she die, do you know, because I held her promise that
she would be my wife?"
He threw the papers into the grate, and crowded them down with his
boot, and watched them till the last blackened flake disappeared. He
then took from his neck a hair chain, and threw that into the fire
also.
"It is all done now," he said.
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