w. At this her eyes grew bigger even than before, and
she tried to talk some more, and when I shook my head she took hold of my
arm and began drawing me away, and I went and we got on the cars, and she
took me to a house and into a room where she took away my basket and put
me in a chair, and took off first her hat, then my own, and showed me the
two heads in a glass, and then looked at me so hard that I cried out,
'Sister,' which made her jump up and put her hand on her heart, then look
at me again harder and harder, till I remembered way back in my life, and
I said:
"'When I was a little girl I had a sister they called my twin. That was
before I lived in the woods with the gipsies. Are you that sister grown
up? The place where we played together had a tall fence with points at
the top. There were flowers and there were bushes with currants on them
all round the fence.'
"She made a sudden move, and I felt her arms about my neck. I think she
cried a little. I didn't, I was too glad. I knew she was that sister the
moment our faces touched, and I knew she would care for me, and that I
needn't go back into the streets any more. So I kissed her and talked a
good deal and told her what I've been telling, and she tried to answer,
tried as you did to write, but all I could understand was that she meant
to keep me, but not in the place where we were, and that I was to go out
again. But she fixed me up a little before we went out, and she bought
me some things, so that I looked different. Then we went into another
house, where she talked with a woman for a long time, and then sat down
with me and moved her lips very patiently, motioning me to watch and try
to understand. But I was frightened and couldn't. So she gave up and,
kissing me, made motions with her hands which I understood better; she
wanted me to stay there while she went away, and I promised to if she
would come back soon. At this she took out her watch. I was pleased with
the watch, and she let me look at it, and inside against the cover I saw
a picture. You know whose it was."
The depths to which her voice sank, the trembling of her tones, startled
Ransom. Had she been less unfortunate, he would have moved to a different
seat, but he could not show her a discourtesy after so pitiful a tale.
But the nod he gave her was a grave one, and her cheek flushed and her
head fell, as she softly added: "It was the first time I ever saw a face
I liked--you won't mind my s
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