Continents of hail and darkness, the polar seas--all
earth's distance, could never have parted me from him; but now I live in
the same world with him, and the everlasting walls blacken between us.
Those looks may shine on the dull earth and senseless stones, but not on
me; on uncaring eyes, but not on mine; though for one moment of their
lavished wealth, I could cheaply give a life without them; never again,
never, never, never shall their love come to me.
_Annie_. Who would have thought she could cherish in secret a grief like
this? Dear sister, we all believed you had forgotten that sad affair
long ago,--we thought that you were happy now.
_Helen_. Happy?--I am, you were right; but I have been to-day down to
the very glen where we took that last lovely walk together, and all the
beautiful past came back to me like life.--I _am_ happy; you must count
me so still.
_Annie_. With what I have just now heard, how can I?
_Helen_. It is this war that has parted us; and so, this is but my part
in these noble and suffering times, and that great thought reaches
overall my anguish. But for this war I might have been--hath this world
such flowers, and do they call it a wilderness?--I might have been, even
now, you know it, Annie, his wife, his wife, _his_.
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