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Conrad, Joseph, 1857-1924

"Chance"

Fyne, she knew mother--who
was so kind to me. I was staying in the country, in a cottage, with Mr.
and Mrs. Fyne. It was there that we met. He came on a visit. He
noticed me. I--well--we are married now."
She was thankful that his eyes were shut. It made it easier to talk of
the future she had arranged, which now was an unalterable thing. She did
not enter on the path of confidences. That was impossible. She felt he
would not understand her. She felt also that he suffered. Now and then
a great anxiety gripped her heart with a mysterious sense of guilt--as
though she had betrayed him into the hands of an enemy. With his eyes
shut he had an air of weary and pious meditation. She was a little
afraid of it. Next moment a great pity for him filled her heart. And in
the background there was remorse. His face twitched now and then just
perceptibly. He managed to keep his eyelids down till he heard that the
'husband' was a sailor and that he, the father, was being taken straight
on board ship ready to sail away from this abominable world of
treacheries, and scorns and envies and lies, away, away over the blue
sea, the sure, the inaccessible, the uncontaminated and spacious refuge
for wounded souls.


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