'
Then she burst forth--
'I cannot go. I shall stay here. My work is here; my heart is here. How
can I go? You thought it worth your while to stay here and work, why
should not I?'
The momentary gleam in his eyes died out, and again he said coldly--
'This work was clearly mine. I am needed here.'
'Yes, yes!' she cried, her voice full of pain; 'you are needed, but
there is no need of me.'
'Stop, stop!' he said sharply; 'you must not say so.'
'I will say it, I must say it,' she cried, her voice vibrating with
the intensity of her feeling. 'I know you do not need me; you have your
work, your miners, your plans; you need no one; you are strong. But,'
and her voice rose to a cry, 'I am not strong by myself; you have made
me strong. I came here a foolish girl, foolish and selfish and narrow.
God sent me grief. Three years ago my heart died. Now I am living again.
I am a woman now, no longer a girl. You have done this for me. Your
life, your words, yourself--you have showed me a better, a higher life,
than I had ever known before, and now you send me away.
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