Page:Lady Anne Granard 1.pdf/238

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
LADY ANNE GRANARD.
233

storm ran so high that no reward could induce one man on board to save the gentleman, who, in the confusion, fell overboard. I will honestly confess that this circumstance brought you and your kindness more strongly to my mind than might otherwise have been the case. You may perhaps remember my dear sister wove an armlet of her own hair, and that of our buried mother, which she insisted on clasping round my arm; it had, for a long time, occupied my wrist, though somewhat too wide, and by this memento of her love I was actually preserved; for Arthur, I know not how, got his fingers into it and kept me up. It is true, both would have been lost if two of the very men who had refused to venture for money had not volunteered to rescue him.

"'This happened in the Channel during the late gales: we are now——'"

"I read about it—Tom shewed me the place in the paper where the Honourable Lieutenant Hales saved the Viscount Meersbrook, returning from Persia; but there was not one word about the bracelet; no, not a syllable!"

Mrs. Gooch spoke the last words in great anger, and Mrs. Palmer, wiping her eyes, said, "Poor things! their love and their danger is very affecting; the bracelet signified nothing."

"Indeed, I think it signified a great deal; for I helped to weave it myself, that I did, and was sent out of the room when Frederic pulled off his jacket to have it put on; and I am quite sure Lord Meersbrook