This time the piercing cry filled his ears; it
seemed to deaden his brain. He fell in the field near the
cottage. Hours afterward the children out at play found him
lying in the dank grass that fringed the pond under the alder
trees.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The first faint flush of dawn, a rosy light, broke in the eastern
sky, a tremulous, golden shimmer was on the lake as the sunbeams
touched it. The forest birds awoke and began to sing; they flew
from branch to branch; the flowers began to open their "dewy
eyes," the stately swans came out upon the lake, bending their
arched necks, sailing round the water lilies and the green
sedges.
The sun shone out at length in his majesty, warming and
brightening the fair face of nature--it was full and perfect
day. The gardeners came through the park to commence their work;
the cows out in the pasture land stood to be milked, the busy
world began to rouse itself; but the fatal secret hidden beneath
the cold, dark water remained still untold.
Chapter XLI
The sun shone bright and warm in the breakfast room at
Earlescourt.
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