"
He got up, taking the candle in his hand.
"Well, if that's your idea, mother, I'm sorry, but you can just put it out
of your head once and for all. I'd rather be buried alive than stay in
this hole. I _would_ be buried alive if I stayed."
She looked up at him. He was so tall, so handsome, _and so distant_--
some one who had no connection with her at all. She too got up, putting
her little hand on his arm.
"Then are we, all of us, to count for nothing at all?"
"Of course you count," he answered impatiently, irritated by the pressure
of her fingers on his coat. "You'll see plenty of me. But you can't
possibly expect me to live here. I've completely wasted my beautiful young
life so far--now apparently you want me to waste the rest of it."
"Then," she said, coming nearer to him and dropping her voice, "take me
with you."
"Take you with me!" He stepped back from her. He could not believe that he
had heard her correctly. "Take _you_ with me?"
"Yes."
"Take you with me?"
"Yes, yes, yes."
It was the greatest surprise of his life. He stared at her in his
amazement, putting the candle back upon the table.
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