Page 1207 - bleak-house

ing round a bar of the iron gate and seeming to embrace it.
She lay there, who had so lately spoken to my mother. She
lay there, a distressed, unsheltered, senseless creature. She
who had brought my mother’s letter, who could give me the
only clue to where my mother was; she, who was to guide
us to rescue and save her whom we had sought so far, who
had come to this condition by some means connected with
my mother that I could not follow, and might be passing be-
yond our reach and help at that moment; she lay there, and
they stopped me! I saw but did not comprehend the solemn
and compassionate look in Mr. Woodcourt’s face. I saw but
did not comprehend his touching the other on the breast to
keep him back. I saw him stand uncovered in the bitter air,
with a reverence for something. But my understanding for
all this was gone.
I even heard it said between them, ‘Shall she go?’
‘She had better go. Her hands should be the first to touch
her. They have a higher right than ours.’
I passed on to the gate and stooped down. I lifted the
heavy head, put the long dank hair aside, and turned the
face. And it was my mother, cold and dead.

1207