When it was finished, he came to her and said:
"It's all ready. Come and lie down, and I'll cover you up."
She got to her feet slowly, for she was in pain greater than she knew, so
absorbed was her mind in this new life suddenly enveloping her, and then
she said in a low voice: "No, not yet; I can't yet. I want to sit here.
I've never felt the night like this before. It's wonderful, and I'm not
nearly so cold now. I know I oughtn't to be cold at all, in the middle of
summer like this." She paused, and seemed lost in contemplation of the
sky. After a moment she added: "I never knew I could feel so far away
from all the world as I do tonight. But the sky seems so near, and the
moon and the stars so friendly."
"You haven't slept out of doors as I have hundreds of times," he
answered. "The night and I are brothers; the stars are my little cousins;
and the moon"--he giggled in his boyish way--"is my maiden aunt. She's so
prudish and so kind and friendly, as you say. She's like an aunt I
had--Aunt Samantha. She was my father's sister. I used to love her to
visit my mother. She always brought me things, and she gave them to me as
if they were on silver dishes--like a ceremony. She was so prim, I used
to call her Aunt Primrose. She made me feel as if I could do anything I
liked and break any law I pleased. But all the time, like a saint in a
stained-glass window, she always seemed to be saying, 'Yes, you'd like
to, but you mustn't.
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