Two Years Ago, Volume I by Charles Kingsley
page 89 of 421 (21%)
page 89 of 421 (21%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
will be young things, Lord. Spare them but one night more--and yet He
did not spare my two--they had no time to repent, and have no time for ever, evermore!" And she stands looking out over the sea; but she has lost sight of everything, save her own sad imaginations. Her eyes open wider and wider, as if before some unseen horror; the eyebrows contract upwards; the cheeks sharpen; the mouth parts; the lips draw back, showing the white teeth, as if in intensest agony. Thus she stands long, motionless, awe-frozen, save when a shudder runs through every limb, with such a countenance as that "fair terror" of which Shelley sang-- "Its horror and its beauty are divine; Upon its lips and eyelids seem to lie Loveliness like a shadow, from which shine, Fiery and lucid, struggling underneath, The agonies of anguish and of death." Her mother comes out from the cottage door behind, and lays her hand upon the girl's shoulder. The spell is broken; and hiding her face in her hands, Grace bursts into violent weeping. "What are you doing, my poor child, here in the cold night air?" "My two, mother, my two!" said she; "and all the poor souls at sea to-night!" "You mustn't think of it. Haven't I told you not to think of it? One would lose one's wits if one did too often." |
|