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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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St. Clare had called her to show a statuette that he had been buying for her; but her appearance, as she came on, impressed him suddenly and painfully. There is a kind of beauty so intense, yet so fragile, that we cannot bear to look at it. Her father folded her suddenly in his arms, and almost forgot what he was going to tell her. “Eva, dear, you are better nowadays,- are you not?” “Papa,” said Eva, with sudden firmness, “I’ve had things I wanted to say to you, a great while. I want to say them now, before I get weaker.” St. Clare trembled as Eva seated herself in his lap. She laid her head on his bosom, and said, “It’s all no use, papa, to keep it to myself any longer. The time is coming that I am going to leave you. I am going, and never to come back!” and Eva sobbed. “O, now, my dear little Eva!” said St. Clare, trembling as he spoke, but speak- ing cheerfully, “you’ve got nervous and low-spirited; you mustn’t indulge such gloomy thoughts. See here, I’ve bought a statuette for you!” “No, papa,” said Eva, putting it gently away, “don’t deceive yourself!- I am not any better, I know it perfectly well,- and I am going, before long. I am not nervous,- I am not low-spirited. If it were not for you, papa, and my friends, I should be perfectly happy. I want to go,- I long to go!” “Why, dear child, what has made your poor little heart so sad? You have had everything, to make you happy, that could be given you.” |
