.

You see"-- dropping into a great velvet chair--"having been of no serious consequence to anybody for so many years--to be told, suddenly, that I--that I count so vitally with men--a man like you--" She sank back, drew one small hand across her eyes, and rested a moment; then leaning forward, she set her elbow on one knee and bracketed her chin between forefinger and thumb.
"_You_ don't know," she said, smiling faintly, "but, oh, the exalted dreams young girls indulge in! And one and all centre around some power-inspired attitude of our own when a great crisis comes.

And most of all we dream of counting heavily; and more than all we clothe ourselves in the celestial authority which dares to forgive.

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