My dream is
dead. It could not live when it was betrayed. And it was all I
had. Oh, laugh at me--mock me! I know that I am ridiculous! What
of it? It never could have hurt you! Why must you creep in like
this to hear me and put me to shame? Oh, I love you--I will say
it, laugh as you will. Is it such a strange thing that I should
have a heart like other men? This will make sport for you! I, who
love you better than my life, better than any other man in the
world can love you, will be a jest to you all your life. I love
you--and yet I think I could hate you--you have destroyed my
dream--you have done me deadly wrong."
"Jasper! Jasper!" cried Alice, finding her voice. His anger hurt
her with a pain she could not endure. It was unbearable that
Jasper should be angry with her. In that moment she realized that
she loved him--that the words he had spoken when unconscious of
her presence were the sweetest she had ever heard, or ever could
hear. Nothing mattered at all, save that he loved her and was
angry with her.
"Don't say such dreadful things to me," she stammered, "I did not
mean to listen. I could not help it. I shall never laugh at you.
Oh, Jasper"--she looked bravely at him and the fine soul of her
shone through the flesh like an illuminating lamp--"I am glad that
you love me! and I am glad I chanced to overhear you, since you
would never have had the courage to tell me otherwise.
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