Page:Madame Rolland (Blind 1886).djvu/48

38 withhold her entrance into the room, whence she had been carried, served but too clearly to tell the tale. Presently she managed to escape unperceived, and, rushing back to her mother, flung herself on the bed in a transport of grief, and pressing her mouth to the cold, livid lips, tried to inhale death and perish with her.

With that mother ended the careless, sweet, happy, springtime of Manon's life. It was she who had shielded her from all rough contact with the world, down to those trivial interruptions of domestic life which eat out the heart of time; it was she who had created around her an atmosphere of exquisite peace and purity, interposing as a shield between her and the tainted manners of the time; and now that the young tree had grown tall and lusty, the fencing shelter was removed, and adverse winds were presently to try what it was made of.