I knew by a sort of intuition that she was unaware
of Amroth and only aware of myself. She seemed startled and surprised at
the sight of me, and I wondered in what form I appeared to her; in a
moment she spoke, and her voice was low and thrilling.
"I am so glad," she said in a half-courteous, half-distracted way, "to
find some one in the place to whom I can speak. I seem to be always
moving in a crowd, and yet to see no one--they are afraid of me, I
think; and it is not what I expected, not what I am used to. I am in
need of help, I feel, and yet I do not know what sort of help it is that
I want. May I stay with you a little?"
"Why, yes," I said; "there is no question of 'may' here."
She came up to me with a sort of proud confidence, and looked at me
fixedly. "Yes," she said, "I see that I can trust you; and I am tired of
being deceived!" Then she added with a sort of pettishness, "I have
nowhere to go, nothing to do--it is all dull and cold. On earth it was
just the opposite. I had only too much attention and love.... Oh, yes,"
she added with a strange glance, "it was what you would probably call
sinful.
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