After a
moment he said, "I believe Aglauron to be as free from prejudice as
any man, and most true and honorable; yet who can judge in this matter
but ourselves?"
"No one shall judge," said Emily; "but I want counsel. God help me! I
feel there is a right and wrong; but how can my mind, which has never
been trained to discern between them, be confident of its power at
this important moment? Aglauron, what remains to me of happiness,--if
anything do remain; perhaps the hope of heaven, if, indeed, there be a
heaven,--is at stake! Father and brother have failed their trust. I
have no friend able to understand, wise enough to counsel me. The only
one whose words ever came true to my thoughts, and of whom you have
often reminded me, is distant. Will you, this hour, take her place?"
"To the best of my ability," I replied without hesitation, struck by
the dignity of her manner.
"You know," she said, "all my past history; all do so here, though
they do not talk loudly of it. You and all others have probably blamed
me. You know not, you cannot guess, the anguish, the struggles of my
childish mind when it first opened to the meaning of those words,
Love, Marriage, Life.
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