Ah! I was but an African trooper in your sight, but in my own I was your
equal. You only saw a man to whom your gracious alms and your gentle
charity were to be given, as a queen may stoop in mercy to a beggar; but
I saw one who had the light of my old days in her smile, the sweetness
of my old joys in her eyes, the memories of my old world in her every
grace and gesture. You forget! I was nothing to you; but you were so
much to me. I loved you the first moment that your voice fell on my ear.
It is madness! Oh, yes! I should have said so, too, in those old years.
A madness I would have sworn never to feel. But I have lived a hard life
since then, and no men ever love like those who suffer. Now you know
all; know the worst that tempts me. No famine, no humiliation, no
obloquy, no loss I have known, ever drove me so cruelly to buy back my
happiness with the price of dishonor as the one desire--to stand in my
rightful place before men, and be free to strive with you for what they
have not won!"
As she heard, all the warmth, all the life, faded out of her face; it
grew as white as his own, and her lips parted slightly, as though to
draw her breath was oppressive. The wild words overwhelmed her with
their surprise not less than they shocked her with their despair.
An intense truth vibrated through them, a truth that pierced her and
reached her heart, as no other such supplication ever had done. She
had no love for him yet, or she thought not; she was very proud, and
resisted such passions; but in that moment the thought swept by her that
such love might be possible.
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