? ? ? ? 'Oh, the river!' she cried passionately. 'Oh, the river!'
? ? ? ? 'Hush, hush!' said I. 'Calm yourself.'
? ? ? ? But she still repeated the same words, continually exclaiming, 'Oh, the river!' over and over again.
? ? ? ? 'I know it's like me!' she exclaimed. 'I know that I belong to it. I know that it's the natural company of such as I am! It comes from country places, where there was once no harm in it - and it creeps through the dismal streets, defiled and miserable - and it goes away, like my life, to a great sea, that is always troubled - and I feel that I must go with it!' I have never known what despair was, except in the tone of those words.
? ? ? ? 'I can't keep away from it. I can't forget it. It haunts me day and night. It's the only thing in all the world that I am fit for, or that's fit for me. Oh, the dreadful river!'
? ? ? ? The thought passed through my mind that in the face of my companion, as he looked upon her without speech or motion, I might have read his niece's history, if I had known nothing of it.
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