There seemed naught between her and the uplifting blueness, and naught of the earth was near but the dove's deep-throated cooing and the laughter of her Grace's children floating upward from the garden of flowers below.
"I lie upon the brink," she said--"upon the brink, sister, and methinks my soul is too near to God's pure justice to fear as human things fear, and judge as earth does.

She said I did no wrong.

Yes, I knew." "And knowing," her sister cried, "you came to me _that afternoon_!" "To stand by that which lay hidden, that I might keep the rest away.
Being a poor creature and timorous and weak--" "Weak! weak!" the duchess cried, amid a greater flood of streaming tears--"ay, I have dared to call you so, who have the heart of a great lioness.

Oh, sweet Anne--weak!" "'Twas love," Anne whispered.

"Your love was strong, and so was mine.
That other love was not for me.