After the house was finished the Admiral lived but five years and Madam never allowed anything to be changed or renewed. If told that anything was fading or wearing, she replied--“I am fading also, just wearing away. They will last my time.” However the house yet had an air of comfortable antique grandeur and it was a favorite place of resort to all who had had the good fortune to win the favor of the Admiral’s widow.
As they were nearing the Temple house, Madam said: “The old man who opens the door was the Admiral’s body servant. He has great influence with your aunt; speak pleasantly to him.” At these words the carriage stopped and the old man of whom Madam had spoken threw open the door and stood waiting their approach. He recognized Madam Annis and said with a pleasant respect--“Madam will take the right-hand parlor,” but ere Madam could do so, Mistress Temple appeared. She came hastily forward, talking as she came and full of pleasure at the visit.
“You dear ones!” she cried. “How welcome you are! Where is Antony? Why didn’t he come with you? How is he going to vote? Take off your cloaks and bonnets. So this is the little girl I left behind me! You are now a young lady, Kate. Who is the favored sweetheart?” These interjectory remarks were not twaddle, they were the overflow of the heart. Josepha Temple meant everything she said.
Physically she was a feminine portrait of her brother, but in all other respects she was herself, and only herself, the result of this world’s training on one particular soul, for who can tell how many hundred years? She had brought from her last life most of her feelings and convictions and probably they had the strength and persistence of many reincarnations behind them. Later generations than Josepha do not produce such characters; alas! their affections for anyone and their beliefs in anything are too weak to reincarnate; so they do not come back from the grave with them. Josepha was different. Death had had no power over her higher self, she was the same passionate lover of Protestantism and the righteous freedom of the people that she had been in Cromwell’s time; and she declared that she had loved her husband ever since he had fought with Drake and been Cromwell’s greatest naval officer.