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406 A STRANGE CHANCE.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
+ Chapter, Iii.
Elizabeth , prepared to withdraw . To avoid distressing George , she was compelled to leave himfor he could not have borne to see her
, day and night in attendance upon him , without ever knowing unbroken rest . So she quitted himand was wakeful and restless
, out of his sight . Her room adjoined his , and when there her hearing was always on the strain to catch every sound in his chamber .
She might occasionally sleep , but her slumbers were short and troubled . * Every moment spent out of his presence seemed to
her a precious thing lost for ever . It would so soon be ended nowshe would fain have caught every breath which passed his
, lips . She would have been glad , too , to escape the pain of bidding him farewell even for a few hours ; these temporary partings
foreshadowed too mournfully that longer separation which was inevitable .
The third evening after this conversation a visitor was standing at George Gilbert ' s bedside . She had thrown off her bonnet , but
her travelling dress and cape were still on , for having been told by Elizabeth that he was sinking so rapidlythat several times during
, the day they had thought death would be immediate , she had hurried to his chamber . The secret of George ' s being first attracted
by the golden hair of the little boy he adopted , was revealed by the _" quantity of fair hair , the same in hue and brightness , which
covered with thick braids the back part of the visitor ' s head . Strongly in contrast with that hardness and inflexibility of
_countenance which George had sometimes been tempted to look upon in himself as a cursewas the face of this visitor . It seemed only a
, softening medium through which everything dwelling within the soul revealed itself . An evil thought , if you could imagine
anything * evil to exist for a moment behind what seemed so entirely pure , would spread into its clearness like a foreign and unnatural
gloom , and so betray itself ; while all religion , and love , and beautiful ; thought would shine out of it with a holy and harmonious light .
The very blood , which with remarkable mobility flushed into her cheeks and brow if she spoke even a few words with more than
usual earnestness , or if her attention or sympathies were silently aroused , suggested the idea of light . Instead of a feverish heat
burning in the skin , it seemed a crimson glow , visible through it . And as her face faithfully expressed moments , so had it recorded
years . It contained the history of a life , the daily food and breath of wounding which had 1 had been acted love so , and beni upon gnly which that they all sorrows had left , however only " the deep foot and
-, prints of angels" behind them . And though Augusta was no longer young , as a certain general loss of roundness , and a faint
_percejDtible lining and fading of the features betrayed , no mental youthfulness had departed from her . Her soul had lost nothing of
youth , save its errors . As she entered with Elizabeth , George ' s eyes were closed , and they moved so silently that they did not
attract his notice . Elizabeth gently roused him , and then said ,
406 A Strange Chance.
406 A STRANGE CHANCE .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Feb. 1, 1861, page 406, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01021861/page/46/
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