FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48  
49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   >>   >|  
t--a woman! She cast her childhood off like a disguise--I saw another man look at her and I saw her look at him! Something was born in me then after all the slow, sombre years--and I wanted--love! I think a madness overcame me, for, blinded and almost beside myself--I spoke to her--that child-woman, and told her how it was with me. She is the sort that wins your heart secrets by a glance of her tender eyes. And then----" Then came sharp words; disconnected and flashing like flame; but Ann Walden read on while her brain beat and ached. "It was I she loved. I had aroused her--she saw only one man in the world--me! "She lay in my arms--I kissed her. "I took her with me on a long drive through the mountains--there was a dying woman and my dear love carried the poor soul unto the parting of the ways with such divine tenderness as I had never before beheld. She sang and almost played with her until the sad creature forgot her death pangs. It was the most beautiful thing I ever saw--that dying hour was perhaps the only joyous hour the woman ever had known--and my sun-touched darling gave it to her! "We were married on our way home. I wanted to speak at once, but Queenie pleaded. She did not wish, just in her own first moment of joy, to hurt the sister who was mother to her as well as sister. I listened, but I realized that my child-wife was afraid! That was it. With all her brave, splendid characteristics, Ann Walden is one to call forth fear. I felt myself shrinking hourly from confession. She is all judge; she can be just, but she cannot, I think, be merciful. Hers it is to carry out the law, not sympathize with those who fall under the law. She makes cowards of us all! She is too detached to reach humanity, or for humanity, erring, sinning humanity, to reach her. "The call came--I had to come to the sick and dying. I made half peace with myself by telling Ann Walden that I could not carry out our compact. I told her, what is the hardest thing for any man to tell a woman--that I did not love her. I could not love her! and that it was her sister I loved. I meant to explain everything later and confess--I expected to be back in a day or so--but I am here still and the chances are I must stay on for a long time, and I may lose my life; conditions are terrible, and only once a week a doctor comes! "She, Ann Walden, is not the hard judge alone. I must not give you a wrong impression. When I to
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48  
49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Walden

 

sister

 

humanity

 
wanted
 

mother

 

merciful

 

sympathize

 
cowards
 

afraid

 

characteristics


splendid

 

confession

 
listened
 

hourly

 

realized

 
shrinking
 

impression

 

confess

 

expected

 

chances


conditions
 

terrible

 
doctor
 

explain

 

detached

 

erring

 

sinning

 

hardest

 
telling
 

compact


disconnected
 

flashing

 

secrets

 

glance

 
tender
 

kissed

 

aroused

 

Something

 
disguise
 

childhood


sombre

 

blinded

 

madness

 

overcame

 
touched
 

darling

 

joyous

 

beautiful

 
pleaded
 

Queenie