_Laura_!' And I came to myself--and
found her looking at me. It was like getting back after a journey,
and for a second I was a little dazed, and Cora kept on laughing
at me, and I felt myself getting red. I made some silly excuse
about thinking your house had been repainted--and she laughed
louder than ever. I was afraid then that she understood--I wonder
if she could have? I hope not, though I love her so much I don't
know why I would rather she didn't know, unless it is just my
_feeling_ about it. It is a _guardian_ feeling--that I must keep
for myself, the music of these angels singing in my heart--singing
of You. I hope she did not understand--and I so fear she did. Why
should I be so _afraid_?" . . .

. . . . "Two days since I have talked to You in your book after
Cora caught me staring at your door and laughed at me--and ten
minutes ago I was sitting beside the _actual_ You on the porch! I
am trembling yet. It was the first time you'd come for months and
months; and yet you had the air of thinking it rather a pleasant
thing to do as you came up the steps! And a dizzy feeling came
over me, because I wondered if it was seeing me on the street
_that_ day that put it into your head to come. It seemed too much
happiness--and risking too much--to let myself _believe_ it, but I
couldn't help just wondering. I began to tremble as I saw you
coming up our side of the street in the moonlight--and when you
turned in here I was all panic--I nearly ran into the house. I
don't know how I found voice to greet you. I didn't seem to have
any breath left at all. I was so relieved when Cora took a chair
between us and began to talk to you, because I'm sure I couldn't
have. She and poor Ray had been having one of their quarrels and
she was punishing him. Poor boy, he seemed so miserable--though he
tried to talk to me--about politics, I think, though I'm not sure,
because I couldn't listen much better than either of us could
talk. I could only hear Your voice--such a rich, quiet voice, and
it has a sound like the look you have--friendly and faraway and
wistful. I have thought and thought about what it is that makes
you look wistful. You have less to wish for than anybody else in
the world because you have Yourself. So why are you wistful? I
think it's just because you _are_!

"I heard Cora asking you why you hadn't come to see us for so
long, and then she said: `Is it because you dislike me? You look
at me, sometimes, as if you di