The Argosy — page 391: what you’re looking at

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

368 My Saturdays. “ Do you fancy,” he said scornfully, ‘that a dying hunchback is going to make love to her, or to take her visit for anything but gracious charity? Go to her, and tell her that I shall soon be beyond the reach and the need of her pity and help, but that I need her now. Tell her that those few mad words which broke from me that night were true—/¢rve ; but they only told the truth—they did not mean a request, scarcely even a wish. I am hers, for life and death ; but if I were to live, I would never ask her to be mine, she need not fear me. Ask her to come, that I may see her once more.” I asked her and she came. She sat down by his bed, while I withdrew to the window ; and as his poor thin hand lay on the coverlet, she clasped it in her own warm fingers, as frankly as a sister. On her wrist she wore the bracelet. He looked at it with a smile. ‘“T am so glad I kept hold of it.” “It has cost you too much,” she answered. “It has cost me nothing,” he replied. ‘I am used to bodily pain ; I rather like it, it is a change from the other; and what is life to such as 1?” She looked down, and her lips trembled. “To lie here and hold your hand, and look at that bracelet, which tells me that I have been able to do something for you—is all that I can desire on this side of the grave.” ‘Tt is not much,” said Charlotte. “It is more than I have ever had before. You can scarcely realise how intensely lonely my life has been, with the great barrier of separation always between me and other men. As soon as I began to realise what any joy would be like, I had to go on and realise that it was not for me. That has been hard work sometimes.” “It was hard,” she murmured. ‘“‘T have always been lonely, and hungry, and out in the cold,” he went on, dreamily. ‘‘ Now I feel as if the sun were shining on me— just a little glint, before it sets and the moon rises—the pale moon of Paradise, that gleams on scentless flowers.” ‘‘ Paradise seems dim and pale to you,” said Charlotte, brokenly, “because earth has been so dreary that you cannot believe in happi- ness. Oh, Herman, I cannot bear to let you go so, Live for my sake, and I will make life bright for you, until we are ready to go hand-in-hand to the deeper brightness beyond.” She threw herself on her knees beside the bed, and gazed into his eyes. ‘Ts it possible?” he said, a slow ecstasy gathering in his face. ‘‘ Yes, it is possible,” she answered fervently. ‘I will care for you, love you, make you happy; I will be your wife.” ‘* All for me,” he said, laying his hand on her head. ‘* What for you ?” ‘The joy of doing it. Herman, it would make me happy.” “No,” he answered, as his smile faded; ‘it would not. Not Eomichbooks.co m