"Go away,
I say; I don't want to see you any more."
"I will go to the end of the world if you
wish it," he answered, with a strange firmness.
He picked up his jacket which he had dropped
on the ground, then turned slowly, gave her
mother long look, an infinitely sad and hopeless
one, and went. Her bosom heaved violently
--remorse, affection and filial duty wrestled
desperately in her heart.
"No, no," she cried, "why do you go? I did
not mean it so. I only wanted--"
He paused and returned as deliberately as he
had gone.
Why should I dwell upon the days that followed--
how her heart grew ever more restless,
how she would suddenly wake up at nights and
see those large blue eyes sadly gazing at her,
how by turns she would condemn herself and
him, and how she felt with bitter pain that she
was growing away from those who had hitherto
been nearest and dearest to her. And strange
to say, this very isolation from her father made
her cling only the more desperately to him. It
seemed to her as if Bjarne had deliberately
thrown her off; that she herself had been the
one who took the first step had hardly occurred
to her. Alas, her grief was as irrational as her
love. By what strange devious process of
reasoning these convictions became settled in her
mind, it is difficult to tell. It is sufficient to
know that she was a woman and that she loved.
She even knew herself that she was irrational,
and this very sense drew her more hopelessly
into the maze of the labyrinth from which she
saw no escape.
Pages:
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86