I
dare say Price asked him while he was writing.'
'What's this?' asked Mr. Kendal, coming to the 'presentiment.'
She hesitated, afraid both of him and of Maurice, but there was no
alternative. 'Poor Gilbert!' she said. 'It was a cry or call from
his brother just at last. It has left a very deep impression.'
'Indeed!' said his father, much moved. 'Yes. Edmund gave a cry such
as was not to be forgotten,' and the sigh told how it had haunted his
own pillow; 'but I had not thought that Gilbert was in a condition to
notice it. Did he mention it to you?'
'Yes, not long after I came, he thinks it was a call, and I have
never known exactly how to deal with it.'
'It is a case for very tender handling,' said Maurice.
'I should have desired him never to think of it again,' said Mr.
Kendal, decidedly. 'Mere nonsense to dwell on it. Their names were
always in Edmund's mouth, and it was nothing but accident. You
should have told him so, Albinia.'
And he walked out of the room.
'Ah! it will prey upon him now,' said Albinia.
'Yes, I thought he only spoke of driving it away because it was what
he would like to be able to do. But things do not prey on people of
his age as they do on younger ones.'
'I wonder if I did right,' said Albinia. 'I never liked to ask you,
though I wished it. I could not bear to treat it as a fancy. How
was I to know, if it may not have been intended to do him good? And
you see his father says it was very remarkable.
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