"I haven't
forsaken you."
It was really, in its effort against weakness, a generous
assurance, and had the success of the impulse not, happily, been
great, it would have touched him to pain more than to pleasure.
But the cold charm in her eyes had spread, as she hovered before
him, to all the rest of her person, so that it was for the minute
almost a recovery of youth. He couldn't pity her for that; he
could only take her as she showed--as capable even yet of helping
him. It was as if, at the same time, her light might at any
instant go out; wherefore he must make the most of it. There
passed before him with intensity the three or four things he wanted
most to know; but the question that came of itself to his lips
really covered the others. "Then tell me if I shall consciously
suffer."
She promptly shook her head. "Never!"
It confirmed the authority he imputed to her, and it produced on
him an extraordinary effect. "Well, what's better than that? Do
you call that the worst?"
"You think nothing is better?" she asked.
She seemed to mean something so special that he again sharply
wondered, though still with the dawn of a prospect of relief.
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