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A Lady of Quality | Frances Hodgson Burnett | |
The doves sate upon the window-ledge and lowly cooed and cooed |
Page 3 of 7 |
"I lie upon the brink," she said--"upon the brink, sister, and methinks my soul is too near to God's pure justice to fear as human things fear, and judge as earth does. She said I did no wrong. Yes, I knew." "And knowing," her sister cried, "you came to me THAT AFTERNOON!" "To stand by that which lay hidden, that I might keep the rest away. Being a poor creature and timorous and weak--" "Weak! weak!" the duchess cried, amid a greater flood of streaming tears--"ay, I have dared to call you so, who have the heart of a great lioness. Oh, sweet Anne--weak!" "'Twas love," Anne whispered. "Your love was strong, and so was mine. That other love was not for me. I knew that my long woman's life would pass without it--for woman's life is long, alas! if love comes not. But you were love's self, and I worshipped you and it; and to myself I said--praying forgiveness on my knees--that one woman should know love if I did not. And being so poor and imperfect a thing, what mattered if I gave my soul for you--and love, which is so great, and rules the world. Look at the doves, sister, look at them, flying past the heavenly blueness--and she said I did no wrong." Her hand was wet with tears fallen upon it, as her duchess sister knelt, and held and kissed it, sobbing. "You knew, poor love, you knew!" she cried. |
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A Lady of Quality Frances Hodgson Burnett |
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