He needed no explanation
of my interruption, neither was he startled or incensed by it, and he
seemed more like one reluctantly obeying some sudden restraining
impulse of his own than yielding to that of another.
"No," he said, "I must not cut short a single flicker of that bright
spirit; the wondrously beautiful vessel that it glorifies will be cold
clay soon enough! ashes from which no future Phoenix shall arise. O,"
he exclaimed, "this sacrifice is too great, too great! and for nothing!
Even had she perished on the destined altar, an accepted sacrifice,
it were too great! But I tore her from home and friends, and life itself,
for this,--for nothing! O Destiny, thou art a subtle adversary, and
infinite are thy devices for our overthrow! But I never reckoned on
such an impediment as this heart-weakness."
Then approaching me, he laid a hand upon my shoulder, and said: "As
the representative of the young, hopeful, living world she is about
to leave, I called you here that you and she might look your last upon
each other.
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