She soon convinced
him of this, when his prolonged silence left it doubtful whether he
contemplated an answer.
"Why are you silent? do you fear to speak? Have no fears now. We have no
time for fear. We must be active--ready--bold. Feel my hand: it trembles
no longer. I am no longer a weak-hearted woman."
He again doubted her sanity, and spoke to her soothingly, seeking to
divert her mind to indifferent subjects; but she smiled on the endeavor,
which she readily understood, and putting aside her aunt, who began to
prattle in a like strain, and with a like object, she again addressed
her uncle.
"Doubt me not, uncle: I rave no longer. I am now calm--calm as it is
possible for me to be, having such a sorrow as mine struggling at my
heart. Why should I hide it from you? It will not be hidden. I love
him--love him as woman never loved man before--with a soul and spirit
all unreservedly his, and with no thought in which he is not always the
principal. I know that he loves another; I know that the passion which I
feel I must feel and cherish alone; that it must burn itself away,
though it burn away its dwelling-place.
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