He had heaped so many reproaches on her mother for bringing another girl into the world that the poor woman had descended to the grave with a confused idea that she was to blame.
Sisily had a strange nature, reticent, yet tender.

She had loved her mother passionately, and feared and hated her father because he had treated his wife so harshly.

She had been the witness of it all--from her earliest childhood to the moment when the unhappy woman had died with her eyes fixed on her husband's implacable face, but holding fast to her daughter's hand, as though she wanted to carry the pressure of those loving fingers into the grave.
A clock on the mantel-piece ticked loudly.

But it was the only sound which disturbed the quietness of the room.

The representatives of the family eyed one another with guarded indifference.