"
"Sister!" said Mrs. Woffington. "Oh, do not mock me! Alas! you do not
know what you say. That sacred name to me, from lips so pure as yours.
Mrs. Vane," said she, timidly, "would you think me presumptuous if I
begged you to--to let me kiss you?"
The words were scarce spoken before Mrs. Vane's arms were wreathed round
her neck, and that innocent cheek laid sweetly to hers.
Mrs. Woffington strained her to her bosom, and two great hearts, whose
grandeur the world, worshiper of charlatans, never discovered, had found
each other out and beat against each other. A great heart is as quick to
find another out as the world is slow.
Mrs. Woffington burst into a passion of tears and clasped Mabel tighter
and tighter in a half-despairing way. Mabel mistook the cause, but she
kissed her tears away.
"Dear sister," said she, "be comforted. I love you. My heart warmed to
you the first moment I saw you. A woman's love and gratitude are
something. Ah! you will never find me change. This is for life, look
you."
"God grant it!" cried the other poor woman. "Oh, it is not that, it is
not that; it is because I am so little worthy of this. It is a sin to
deceive you. I am not good like you. You do not know me!"
"You do not know yourself if you say so!" cried Mabel; and to her hearer
the words seemed to come from heaven. "I read faces," said Mabel.
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