A Silver Brand — page 80: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

49 A SILVER BRAND. formed that danger of some sort threatens me, and. I have not been allowed to leave the house at all. 1 should not have come to-day but for Auntie Pen.” “Danger to you?” repeated Nat, in a perplexed tone. And then he glanced again toward the straight, prim figure by the window. But her head never moved, her eyes were fixed upon the book. So he repeated more earnestly: “How can there be any danger for you, my child, in this secluded, lonely spot?” Lina shrugged her shoulders. | “Don’t ask me. Haven’t Ialways told you I was a being of mystery? Haven’t I said, again and again, that lam either an enchanted princess, or an Undine, or a sprite of some sort, to whoma startling change may come any moment. I don’t think anything would really astonish me, not even to find myself some morning in a strange land, a beggar, ora queen. What you tell me about this humming-bird has filled me with a strange and yearning sympathy. I think I can understand some- thing of its homesick longings, its vague yearn- ings, its dim revealings of another and different life belonging to it, but never found. Poor nestling! No wonder the honey provided in a common vessel lacked the ambrosia of the amber-drop sipped from the fragrant heart of the rose and honeysuckle. - Do you suppose he dreamed about liberty, and-so pined, and died?” . How innocent and beautiful she looked, standing before him, still holding the hat with its new ac- quisition turned so that she could look down upon it, her head drooping, her eyes downcast. The taxidermist’s heart yearned over her as he gazed. “My child,” he answered, “do you think I will ' say yes, when you are already associating yourself with that soulless creature? You must put away your dréams, if they will make you pine and droop also. Jam sorry I brought the bird to you. Why can’t you take these trivial pleasures without look- ing into them for.a sorrowful meaning?” “Oh, you musn’t think I don’t like this darling, (elo) / comicbooks