Even as it is” Even as it was, she could not command her voice.

In the sad moonlight, she clasped him by the neck, and laid her

Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics

face upon his breast. In the moonlight which is always sad, as the

light of the sun itself isas the light called human life isat its

coming and its going.

“Dearest dear! Can you tell me, this last time, that you feel

quite, quite sure, no new affections of mine, and no new duties of

mine, will ever interpose between us? I know it well, but do you

know it? In your own heart, do you feel quite certain?”

Her father answered, with a cheerful firmness of conviction he

could scarcely have assumed, “Quite sure, my darling! More than

that,” he added, as he tenderly kissed her: “my future is far

brighter, Lucie, seen through your marriage, than it could have

beennay, than it ever waswithout it.”

“If I could hope that, my father!”

“Believe it, love! Indeed it is so. Consider how natural and how

plain it is, my dear, that it should be so. You, devoted and young,

cannot fully appreciate the anxiety I have felt that your life should

not be wasted” She moved her hand towards his lips, but he

took it in his, and repeated the word.

“wasted, my childshould not be wasted, struck aside from

the natural order of thingsfor my sake. Your unselfishness

cannot entirely compreh