Page:The Country-House Party.djvu/62

54 'Then I began thinking of my lost Laura, and a heavy sigh escaped me. Long years ago she left me, and even yet on such a night as this her memory becomes a pain, because so much beauty could be, and she not here to know or see. The woman whom I had forgotten moved to me, and put her hand on mine for a moment.

You are in trouble," she said, so low, so tenderly, that somehow I spoke to her of Laura. It was sweet to speak of my loss to such a sympathetic listener. It was a great happiness to be able to recall my love: even for one hour to dispel the long years of silence that had gathered around her where she lay enshrined in my lonely heart.

'As I told my brief story Mrs. Barnes laid her soft chin in her hand, and gazed out into the night. I saw the moonlight glitter on the kind tears which fell upon her cheek, and when I ended she sighed heavily and still turned her eyes away.

And yet you would not have missed loving her," she whispered. "Short as your happiness was, it was so dear that the love of it has lasted