I have a little ivory miniature of her . When I die it is to be given to you , Jeanette . I have waited a long while for her . You know she promised she would come . '' I did not understand his meaning and kept silence , thinking that he might be wandering a little in his mind . `` She promised she would come and she will keep her word , '' he went on . `` I was with her when she died . I held her in my arms . She said to me , ` Herbert , I promise that I will be true to you forever , through as many years of lonely heaven as I must know before you come . And when your time is at hand I will come to make your deathbed easy as you have made mine . I will come , Herbert . ' She solemnly promised , Jeanette . We made a death-tryst of it . And I know she will come . '' He had fallen asleep then and after his recovery he had not alluded to the matter again . I had forgotten it , but I recalled it now as I sat on the steps among the geraniums that June evening . I liked to think of Margaret ... the lovely girl who had died so long ago , taking her lover 's heart with her to the grave . She had been a sister of my grandfather , and people told me that I resembled her slightly . Perhaps that was why old Mr. Lawrence had always made such a pet of me . Presently the doctor came out and nodded to me cheerily .
I asked him how Mr. XXXXX was .
Herbert Jeanette Lawrence Margaret death-tryst evening geraniums heart mind years