Mrs. Yeats , the housekeeper , said the attack was not serious and asked me to wait in the blue parlour , but I preferred to sit down on the steps of the big , arched front door . It was an evening in June . Woodlands was very lovely ; to my right was the garden , and before me was a little valley abrim with the sunset . In places under the big trees it was quite dark even then . There was something unusually still in the evening ... a stillness as of waiting . It set me thinking of the last time Mr. Lawrence had been ill ... nearly a year ago in August . One night during his convalescence I had watched by him to relieve the nurse . He had been sleepless and talkative , telling me many things about his life . Finally he told me of Margaret . I knew a little about her ... that she had been his sweetheart and had died very young . Mr. Lawrence had remained true to her memory ever since , but I had never heard him speak of her before . `` She was very beautiful , '' he said dreamily , `` and she was only eighteen when she died , Jeanette . She had wonderful pale-golden hair and dark-brown eyes . 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 XXXXX my arms .
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