She threw a heap
of clothes on the ground, rolled up her sleeves and grasped her bat;
and her loud pounding could be heard in the neighbouring gardens. The
meadows were empty, the breeze wrinkled the stream, at the bottom of
which were long grasses that looked like the hair of corpses floating
in the water. She restrained her sorrow and was very brave until night;
but, when she had gone to her own room, she gave way to it, burying her
face in the pillow and pressing her two fists against her temples.
A long while afterward, she learned through Victor's captain, the
circumstances which surrounded his death. At the hospital they had bled
him too much, treating him for yellow fever. Four doctors held him at
one time. He died almost instantly, and the chief surgeon had said:
"Here goes another one!"
His parents had always treated him barbarously; she preferred not to see
them again, and they made no advances, either from forgetfulness or out
of innate hardness.
Virginia was growing weaker.
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