"I thought it might be what you wished me to see and went up to read
the names."
"Do not spare. Never fear. Let me hear the very words."
"On one face of the block there was a name--
'WILLIAM SEDHURST,
_AGED_ 27,
DIED MAY 13, 1729.'
On the other side was this inscription:--
'MARY,
ONLY DAUGHTER OF GEORGE SEDHURST, ESQUIRE,
_AGED_ 19,
DIED AUGUST 1st, 1729.
_Love is strong as Death.
Sorrow not as others that have no Hope_.'
In smaller letters down below, 'This epitaph is at her own special
request.'
"Sir," continued Aurelia, "it was very curious. I should not have
observed those words if it had not been that a large beautiful
butterfly, with rainbow eyes on its wings, sat sunning itself on
the white marble, and Fay called me to look at it."
"Her message! May I ask you to repeat it again?"
"The texts? 'Love is strong as death. Sorrow not as others that
have no hope.'"
"Did you call them Scripture texts?"
"Yes, sir; I know the last is in one of the Epistles, and I will look
for the other."
"It matters not. She intended them for a message to me who lay in
utter darkness and imbecility well befitting her destroyer.
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