I wont cast them off because we are too fine and grand for
them.'
'I never thought of that. I only was afraid of your getting into
silly ways, and your papa did not wish us to be intimate there. And
now you see he was right, for good friends would not have led you to
such disobedience--and by stealth, too, what I should have thought
you would most have hated.'
Albinia had been far from intending these last words to have been
taken as they were. Sophy hid her face, and cried piteously with an
utter self-abandonment of grief, that Albinia could scarcely
understand; but at last she extracted some broken words. 'False!
shabby! yes--Oh! I have been false! Oh! Edmund! Edmund! Edmund! the
only thing I thought I still was! I thought I was true! Oh, by
stealth! Why couldn't I die when I tried, when Edmund did?'
'And has life been a blank ever since?'
'Off and on,' said Sophy. 'Well, why not? I am sure papa is
melancholy enough. I don't like people that are always making fun, I
can't see any sense in it.'
'Some sorts of merriment are sad, and hollow, and wrong, indeed,'
said Albinia, 'but not all, I hope. You know there is so much love
and mercy all round us, that it is unthankful not to have a cheerful
spirit. I wish I could give you one, Sophy.'
Sophy shook her head. 'I can't understand about mercy and love, when
Edmund was all I cared for.'
'But, Sophy, if life is so sad and hard to you, don't you see the
mercy that took Edmund away to perfect joy? Remember, not cutting
you off from him, but keeping him safe for you.
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