My own thoughts concerning her! She was giving them back to me—with the poignant wistful gloom, the intense pathos of the young that is so touching, in the young you love so lacerating. Did I ever say that there are no women to-day who wear the hair shirt, like the radiant girl wife of Jacopone da Todi? Blind fool that I have been!
"But my darling girl," I seized both her cold little hands, "don't worry about me. I am old and tough—seasoned to the fortunes of life—and to the misfortunes, too. It is sad, very sad, but it is nothing. It's you I am thinking of. Things happen, my dear. Life is like that. There is a lot of happiness and serenity in it. But you must not let this bite into your soul—it will pass, Alicia—it has passed already. I want you to return to your happy blissful self—the self that has made me—all of us—so happy—so very happy."
"I ask nothing more or better, Uncle Ranny," she pressed my hands with quick intense little movements, "than to be near you, to work and to—to serve you—that is all I ask in the world!"
Almost I had committed the unpardonable sin—almost I had taken advantage of her mood and of her grief, taken her to my heart and poured out the words of love that a hundred, hundred times had overflowed my heart and clamored for utterance. A pretty head of a family, a fine protector of the young I should then have been!
With a tremulous movement I put both her hands together between my own and whispered to her lest my voice should betray me.
"That is exactly what I want you to do, my dearest girl—live quietly and happily near me, be happy until the—the supreme happiness comes to you—until—" I added with a painful laugh, "the Prince in the fairy tale—comes along—to claim you."
It was the hardest utterance of my life, but I felt a flash of triumph to have uttered it.
"The Prince in the fairy tale," Alicia repeated slowly, looking rapt before her, "he came long ago—I have had more than I deserve—so much, so much, that I often tremble to think of it. All the Prince and all the fairy tale I want, or shall ever want."
For one instant I thrilled from head to foot. A darkness filled my being for a moment and then it was rayed and forked by the lightnings of a strange intoxication.
"You can't mean, Alicia," I breathed huskily from a parched throat, "you—that it is me—that you—"