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A Lady of Quality | Frances Hodgson Burnett | |
Wherein a deadly war begins |
Page 7 of 7 |
"I was thrown to them," she wailed piteously, "and they harried me-- and left the marks of their great teeth--and of the scars I cannot rid myself--and since it was my fate--pronounced from my first hour- -why was not this," clutching her breast, "left hard as 'twas at first? Not a woman's--not a woman's, but a she-cub's. Ah! 'twas not just--not just that it should be so!" Anne slipped from her bed and ran to her, falling upon her knees and clinging to her, weeping bitterly. "Poor heart!" she cried. "Poor, dearest heart!" Her touch and words seemed to recall Clorinda to herself. She started as if wakened from a dream, and drew her form up rigid. "I have gone mad," she said. "What is it I do?" She passed her hand across her brow and laughed a little wild laugh. "Yes," she said; "this it is to be a woman--to turn weak and run to other women--and weep and talk. Yes, by these signs I AM a woman!" She stood with her clenched hands pressed against her breast. "In any fair fight," she said, "I could have struck back blow for blow--and mine would have been the heaviest; but being changed into a woman, my arms are taken from me. He who strikes, aims at my bared breast- -and that he knows and triumphs in." She set her teeth together, and ground them, and the look, which was like that of a chained and harried tigress, lit itself in her eyes. "But there is NONE shall beat me," she said through these fierce shut teeth. "Nay I there is NONE! Get up, Anne," bending to raise her. "Get up, or I shall be kneeling too--and I must stand upon my feet." |
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A Lady of Quality Frances Hodgson Burnett |
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