Everything about her, from the gentle eyes
and supple figure, to the long and simple dress she wore, seemed to
him more becoming and picturesque than anything he had ever seen. At
the back of his mind flashed a vision: an angelic being all in
white.....
For her own part, Mary also felt a shock. From the first glimpse there
could be no doubt that he was in fact her brother. She knew this not
by any cold comparison of features, but by the sudden love and pity
that welled up in her own heart. Love because, whatever his faults and
follies (these too she sensed), he was her brother, a fellow orphan
and lonely, wayward soul. Her womanly instinct recognized this at
once. Pity, because she saw in his eyes the rising of a passion that
could never be fulfilled. He was in love with her. This she knew with
equal certainty.
Still holding tightly to the reins, he came forward. Remembering his
pretext for coming, he began to speak stiffly of escaped prisoners and
official duties. She listened, hearing not so much the content of his
words, as reading in his voice and manner the confirmation of what she
had intuitively sensed.
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