FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128  
129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   >>   >|  
back--drawn by pure depth of sympathy and ardour of affection--not daring to intrude my presence openly upon you, but unable to resist the temptation of catching one glimpse through the window, just to see how you were: for I had left you apparently in great affliction, and I partly blamed my own want of forbearance and discretion as the cause of it. If I did wrong, love alone was my incentive, and the punishment was severe enough; for it was just as I had reached that tree, that you came out into the garden with your friend. Not choosing to show myself, under the circumstances, I stood still, in the shadow, till you had both passed by.' 'And how much of our conversation did you hear?' 'I heard quite enough, Helen. And it was well for me that I did hear it; for nothing less could have cured my infatuation. I always said and thought, that I would never believe a word against you, unless I heard it from your own lips. All the hints and affirmations of others I treated as malignant, baseless slanders; your own self-accusations I believed to be overstrained; and all that seemed unaccountable in your position I trusted that you could account for if you chose.' Mrs. Graham had discontinued her walk. She leant against one end of the chimney-piece, opposite that near which I was standing, with her chin resting on her closed hand, her eyes--no longer burning with anger, but gleaming with restless excitement--sometimes glancing at me while I spoke, then coursing the opposite wall, or fixed upon the carpet. 'You should have come to me after all,' said she, 'and heard what I had to say in my own justification. It was ungenerous and wrong to withdraw yourself so secretly and suddenly, immediately after such ardent protestations of attachment, without ever assigning a reason for the change. You should have told me all-no matter how bitterly. It would have been better than this silence.' 'To what end should I have done so? You could not have enlightened me further, on the subject which alone concerned me; nor could you have made me discredit the evidence of my senses. I desired our intimacy to be discontinued at once, as you yourself had acknowledged would probably be the case if I knew all; but I did not wish to upbraid you,--though (as you also acknowledged) you had deeply wronged me. Yes, you have done me an injury you can never repair--or any other either--you have blighted the freshness and promise of youth,
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128  
129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
discontinued
 

opposite

 

acknowledged

 

resting

 

ungenerous

 
glancing
 
justification
 

standing

 
withdraw
 

carpet


burning

 

gleaming

 
longer
 

coursing

 
restless
 

excitement

 
closed
 
bitterly
 

upbraid

 

senses


evidence

 

desired

 

intimacy

 

deeply

 

wronged

 

blighted

 

freshness

 

promise

 

injury

 

repair


discredit

 
assigning
 

reason

 

change

 

attachment

 
immediately
 

suddenly

 
ardent
 

protestations

 
matter

enlightened
 

subject

 
concerned
 
silence
 

secretly

 

slanders

 
incentive
 

punishment

 
discretion
 

partly