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394 RIGHT OR WRONG.
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.
_ -«» *• ( Concluded From Page 339.)
44 ' Anne , Anne / he said reproachfully , as he led me along the passage , 4 this is wearing yourself out . There is nothing to be
alarmed at . Alice , they tell' me , has "been asleep for hours , you sleeping by her , so at least the servants tried to persuade me , but I
fear only watching ; watching , fretting , making yourself miserable with fancied fears . There is nothing to be alarmed at , I repeat , in
her fainting-fit of to-day ; your doctor attributes it to her long seclusion from light and the open air . He assures me she will regain
her strength as soon as we reach Guernsey . But you , good Heaven ! ' he exclaimed in an altered tone , as we now entered the
are lighted ill drawing are room ill , ? ' what ails you , Anne , my dearest ? you
, you very 44 And truly I presented a ghastly spectacle , as a passing glimpse in the glass over the mantel-piece revealed to me . Years seemed to
have done their work in the course of those few hours ; my features were pinched and rigid , my eyes sunk , my voice was changed even ,
and sounded harsh to myself wlien I attempted to reply . "' It is nothing , Eustace , nothing of consequence . The shock
and 44 4 anxiet Still ther y about e were my no sister reasonable have naturall grounds y for affected such excessive me / alarm /
" ' Not to an indifferent person , but to me you do not know how " pxecious 1 know that it but child too is well to me / , he what said a s bitterl acred charge y , and I drawing consider away her /
his arm , commenced pacing up and down the room . " I sat motionless : I was thinking dreamily of the fair sleeping
face upstairs , of the cold snake that in my delirious fancy I felt coiled up near my heart , of the vow pronounced a year before ,
of my plighted faith to him , of his accusations against myself , of 44 the £ Anne great !' gulf now yawning between us .
44 441 ' Did looked you at understand him with what haggard I said eye j s ust , but now still ?' did not speak .
' - ' Yes . ' ' ' Is it ever to be thus ? Consider , Anne , it is no light thing
which is now at stake ! I may seem to you jealous , exacting , but when . I give my love whole , earnest , unalloyed , I look for love equal
in return . 1 admire your devotion to your sister : God forbid that I should seek to diminish aught from your duty to her . Yet even
duty may become an exaggerated sentiment , hurtful to its very object . Your love for me—your duty , if you like best so to call
it—need not withdraw you from the care you promised your poor mother to bestow upon Alice ; on the contrary it ought to be your
help and stay in the fulfilment of that promis _' e . Only I claim to be associated with you in this , as in all the other sorrows , or pleasures ,
or responsibilities of our lives . Have I not told you often—answer me , Anae , my own Anne still—have I not told you that our happiness
would be secure so long as your reliance in me remained unshaken ?'
_« ' I bout my head _unirniutively , for my lips would frame no sound .
394 Right Or Wrong.
394 RIGHT OR WRONG .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Aug. 1, 1859, page 394, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01081859/page/34/
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