After Dark

by Wilkie Collins

  EPILOGUE TO THE THIRD STORY.

  I have now related all that is eventful in the history of SISTER ROSE.To the last the three friends dwelt together happily in the cottageon the river bank. Mademoiselle Clairfait was fortunate enough to knowthem, before Death entered the little household and took away, in thefullness of time, the eldest of its members. She describes Lomaque,in her quaint foreign English, as "a brave, big heart"; generous,affectionate, and admirably free from the small obstinacies andprejudices of old age, except on one point: he could never be inducedto take his coffee, of an evening, from any other hand than the hand ofSister Rose.

  I linger over these final particulars with a strange unwillingness toseparate myself from them, and give my mind to other thoughts. Perhapsthe persons and events that have occupied my attention for so manynights past have some peculiar interest for me that I cannot analyze.Perhaps the labor and time which this story has cost me have especiallyendeared it to my sympathies, now that I have succeeded in completingit. However that may be, I have need of some resolution to part at lastwith Sister Rose, and return, in the interests of my next and FourthStory, to English ground.

  I have experienced so much difficulty, let me add, in deciding on thechoice of a new narrative out of my collection, that my wife has lostall patience, and has undertaken, on her own responsibility, to relieveme of my unreasonable perplexities. By her advice--given, as usual,without a moment's hesitation--I cannot do better than tell the story of

  THE LADY OF GLENWITH GRANGE.