"Read it." And as her father took from the table a letter, Fanny
grasped his arm tightly, and then stood with the immovable rigidity
of a statue. She had already prophesied the worst. The cold, and, to
her, cruel words, were like chilling ice-drops on her heart. She
listened to the end, and then, with a low cry, fell against her
father, happily unconscious of further suffering. To her these brief
sentences told the story of unrequited love. How tenderly, how
ardently he had written a few months gone by! and now, after a long
silence, he makes to her a mere incidental allusion, and asks a
"respectful remembrance!" She had heard the knell of all her dearest
hopes. Her love had become almost her life, and to trample thus upon
it was like extinguishing her life.
"Fanny! Love! Dear Fanny!" But the distressed father called to her
in vain, and in vain lifted her nerveless body erect. The oppressed
heart was stilled.
A cry of alarm quickly summoned the family, and for a short time a
scene of wild terror ensued; for, in the white face of the fainting
girl, all saw the image of death.
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