376 IN A WINTER CITY.
thoughts; aU that had gone before : and he knew
that she was not a woman who would bear pity,
and, that she was best left thus in soUtude.
Like a caged animal she paced to and fro the
long length of the stone terrace.
She was aU alone.
The flower-like radiance of the declining day
shone everywhere arotmd, the birds sang, the
dreamy beUs rang in the Ave Maria from hUl to
hiU, aU was so still, so peaceful, so beautiful;
yet with the setting of the sun, his life might
go out in darkness.
In her great misery, her soul was purified.
The fire that consumed her burned away the
dross of the world, the aUoy of selfishness and
habit and vain passions. " Oh, God ! give me
his Ufe, and I wiU give him mine! *' she cried in
her heart aU through those terrible hours; and
yet recoUed in teiTor from the uselessness and
daring of her prayer. What had she ever done
that she could merit its fulfilment ?
He might have been hers, all hers; and she
had loved the base things of a worldly great¬
ness better than himself. And now he lay
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