Ah! to see the Queen!"
Her hands folded tightly together across her brow, she looked the very
embodiment of reverent expectation, and the blushing roses on her
cheeks, the lovelight in her eyes seemed to deepen for an instant, and
then pale slightly, as she turned to me only to see me bury my head in
my hands, holding back the cry of stifled hope that often before had
leaped to my lips, but never had before so nearly passed them.
"Oh, Bradford," she cried, "would you mind so much! I would soon be back
again. And then, you know, this awful telegraphic work would be over,
and we could be happy together without a thought of that cold, far-away
Mars!"
We talked on together till the dusky night had begun to gather its
shadows about us, and Mars, that marvellous spot of light from whose
untouched continents the waves of magnetic oscillation might even then
be starting on their pathless transit across the abyss of space,
destined for my ear, began to shine above us.
It was clear to me now that Mr. Dodan had been carefully nursing in his
daughter a desire to see England and the Queen, and her own little
birthplace, and that he had formed a resolution to separate us, for his
daughter's best interests, as he thought.
I suffered from a very proud, sensitive nature, perhaps unwholesomely
intensified by the lonely life I had led, and a peculiar sense of my
difference from other people.
This revelation, so unwelcome, so fraught with painful anticipations,
roused my pride to a sharp climax of revolt, disdain and defiance.
Pages:
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178