All else seemed to have been washed away. On her breast lay a knot of
white roses--white roses in this winter desert.
One man present, seeing the look of wonder in the clergyman's eyes, said
quietly: "My--my wife sent them. She brought the plant from Quebec. It
has just bloomed. She knows all about her."
That man was Harry Delong. The keeper of his home understood the other
homeless woman. When she knew of Blanche's death she said: "Poor girl,
poor girl!" and then she had gently added, "Poor Jacques!"
And Jacques, as he sat in a chair by the fire four days after the
tragedy, did not know that the clergyman was reading over a grave on
the hillside, words which are for the hearts of the quick as for the
untenanted dead.
To Jacques's inquiries after Blanche, Soldier Joe had made changing and
vague replies. At last he said that she was ill; then, that she was very
ill, and again, that she was better, almighty better--now. The third day
following the funeral, Jacques insisted that he would go and see her.
The doctor at length decided he should be taken to Weir's Tavern, where,
they declared, they would tell him all. And they took him, and placed
him by the fire in the card-room, a wasted figure, but fastidious in
manner and scrupulously neat in person as of old. Then he asked for
Blanche; but even now they had not the courage for it.
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