When she is gone the master-key to the past will be lost.'
'But she will be spared for many years, I hope, spared to sympathise
with my happiness, and with Lesbia's.'
My dearest girl, we cannot hope that. The thread of her life is worn
very thin. It may snap at any moment. You cannot look seriously in your
grandmother's face, and yet delude yourself with the hope that she has
years of life before her.'
'It will be very hard to part, just as she has begun to care for me,'
said Mary, with her eyes full of tears.
'All such partings are hard, and your grandmother's life has been so
lonely and joyless that the memory of it must always have a touch of
pain. One cannot say of her as we can of the happy; she has lived her
life--all things have been given to her, and she falls asleep at the
close of a long and glorious day. For some reason which I cannot
understand, Lady Maulevrier's life has been a prolonged sacrifice.'
'She has always given us to understand that she was fond of Fellside,
and that this secluded life suited her,' said Mary, meditatively.
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