"Then the nymphs and the reapers--dancing together on 'the short-grassed
green,' the sweetest, gayest show--"
She breathed the words out softly. "Then, suddenly--"
She sat up stiffly and struck her small hands together:
"Prospero starts and speaks. And in a moment--without warning--with 'a
strange, hollow, and confused noise'"--she dragged the words
drearily--"
they heavily vanish. That"--she pointed, shuddering, to the
child's foot--"was for me the sign of Prospero."
Ashe looked at her with anxiety, finding it indeed impossible to laugh
at her.
She was very pale, her breath came with difficulty, and she trembled
from head to foot. He tried to draw her into his arms, but she held him
away.
"That first year I had been so happy," she continued, in the same voice.
"Everything was so perfect, so glorious. Life was like a great pageant,
in a palace. All the old terrors went. I often had fears as a
child--fears I couldn't put into words, but that overshadowed me. Then
when I saw Alice--the shadow came nearer. But that was all gone. I
thought God was reconciled to me, and would always be kind to me now.
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