Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics

ages ago. What is your name, my gentle angel?”

Hailing his softened tone and manner, his daughter fell upon

her knees before him, with her appealing hands upon his breast.

“O, sir, at another time you shall know my name, and who my

mother was, and who my father, and how I never knew their hard,

hard history. But I cannot tell you at this time, and I cannot tell

you here. All that I may tell you, here and now, is, that I pray to

you to touch me and to bless me. Kiss me, kiss me! O my dear, my

dear!”

His cold white head mingled with her radiant hair, which

warmed and lighted it as though it were the light of Freedom

shining on him.

“If you hear in my voiceI don’t know that it is so, but I hope it

isif you hear in my voice any resemblance to a voice that once

was sweet music in your ears, weep for it, weep for it! If you touch,

in touching my hair, anything that recalls a beloved head that lay

on your breast when you were young and free, weep for it, weep

for it! If, when I hint to you of a Home that is before us, where I

will be true to you with all my duty and with all my faithful service,

I bring back the remembrance of a Home long desolate, while your

poor heart pined away, weep for it, weep for it!”

She held him closer round the neck, and rocked him on her

breast like a child.