The Wine of Astonishment (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1919 edition. Excerpt: ... chapter xv: against odds It was a very quiet funeral, with a service at the house for only the relatives and nearest friends. Christopher had but few relatives, he thought, but it was astonishing how the brief lines in the paper had served to disinter old connections. There came faces and names he but vaguely remembered, and unfamiliar cousins pressed his hands. It was a horrible nightmare. Rosalie Day saved him all she could. She shrank from death, but she had been the dead woman's near friend--long had it been known that Mrs. Day's name on a committee would bring a cheque from Mrs. Stanley--and she owed her many a kindness and quiet favor. She took charge capably and she shielded Christopher. And she and Evelyn sat beside him in the darkened room, withdrawn from the group in the wide drawing rooms, gazing through another door at the black coffin in its wilderness of bloom. She was intensely sorry for the quiet, self-contained young man. And Evelyn broke down utterly at the graveside, in a mingled agony at the finality of death, the immensity of Christopher's loss, and sorrow of Mrs. Stanley's going. It was too pitiful, out there in the raw March wind, lowering the coffin to its last resting place She was haunted by an image of the dead woman's face as it had been in life, only a week ago, as she had moved slowly about her room, bringing out the pictures she had wished Evelyn to see. Such pathetic transparency in her poor design Evelyn had been as gentle as she could, but she thought now, shuddering from the sound of the clergyman's calm voice, that if she had only known, she would have buoyed her up with such kind, false hope It would have made her so happy Now she was gone.... And Christopher had said that she had spoken of her, ...