She knows the
house perfectly, and will call the servants from the annex to provide
you both with refreshment until I join you a little later." Satisfied
from Hooker's manner that they knew nothing of his later interview with
Pinckney, he turned away and ascended to his own room.
There he threw himself into an armchair by the dim light of a single
candle as if to reflect. But he was conscious, even then, of his own
calmness and want of excitement, and that no reflection was necessary.
What he had done and what he intended to do was quite clear, there was
no alternative suggested or to be even sought after. He had that sense
of relief which comes with the climax of all great struggles, even of
defeat.
He had never known before how hopeless and continuous had been that
struggle until now it was over. He had no fear of tomorrow, he would
meet it as he had to-day, with the same singular consciousness of being
equal to the occasion. There was even no necessity of preparation for
it; his will, leaving his fortune to his wife,--which seemed a slight
thing now in this greater separation,--was already in his safe in San
Francisco, his pistols were in the next room. He was even slightly
disturbed by his own insensibility, and passed into his wife's bedroom
partly in the hope of disturbing his serenity by some memento of their
past.
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