Oh! are you so cold yourself as to
believe you are acting generously to her in this? Go back to her, or she
will die!"
The old woman took fire as she spoke, and many of the signs of age were
for the time obliterated. Some of the power and brilliancy of her youth
shone again in her eyes; her form seemed to acquire a different and
statelier contour. In the earnestness of her speech, involuntary
gestures accompanied her words; free from all exaggeration, and so truly
and gracefully fitted to her meaning as to be virtually invisible. But
Bressant was not won by it: his expression grew more ugly and repellent
with every successive sentence.
"You fool!" said he, coming one heavy step nearer, and frowning down
upon her; "I warned you away; I told you to be silent. You've meddled
with what was no concern of yours; you've thrust yourself where you had
no right to come--"
"No right!" she interrupted, with an intensity of indignant emphasis
that seemed adequate to smite to the ground the towering figure that
faced her. Then, clasping her hands, and in a voice of yearning,
ineffable tenderness, she added, "Oh, I have prayed for you, and wept
for you, and loved you so! For your own sake, my darling, do not use
such words to me!" Here she held out her arms, and tears ran hot down
her faded cheeks.
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