I didn't hurt you, Damie, did I? You may
depend upon it, it shall not happen again as long as I live--never
again!--never! Oh, mother! Oh, father! I shall be good, I promise you!
Oh, mother! Oh, father!"
She could say no more; but she did not weep aloud, although it was plain
that her heart was almost bursting. Not until Black Marianne burst out
crying did Amrei weep with her.
They returned home, and when Damie said "Good night," Amrei whispered
into his ear:
"Now I know that we shall never see our parents again in this world."
Even from making this communication she derived a certain
satisfaction--a childish pride which is awakened by having something to
impart. And yet in this child's heart there had dawned something like a
realization that one of the great ties in her life had been severed
forever, the thought that arises with the consciousness that a parent is
no longer with us.
When the lips which called thee child have been sealed by death, a
breath has vanished from thy life that shall nevermore return.
While Black Marianne was sitting beside the child's bed, the little one
said:
"I seem to be falling and falling, on and on. Let me keep hold of your
hand."
Holding the hand fast, she dropped into a slumber; but as often as Black
Marianne tried to draw her hand away, she clutched at it again. Marianne
understood what this sensation of endless falling signified for the
child; she felt in realizing her parents' death as if she were being
wafted along, without knowing whence or whither.
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