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Collins, Wilkie, 1824-1889

"No Name"

I left none of them doubtful; I
left none of them out."
She slowly reached her hand to the copy of the Instructions, and slowly
folded it up again, in the shape in which it had been presented to her.
"I am much obliged to you, Mr. Pendril." With those words, she bowed,
and gently pushed the manuscript back across the table; then turned to
her sister.
"Norah," she said, "if we both of us live to grow old, and if you ever
forget all that we owe to Michael Vanstone--come to me, and I will
remind you."
She rose and walked across the room by herself to the window. As she
passed Mr. Clare, the old man stretched out his claw-like fingers and
caught her fast by the arm before she was aware of him.
"What is this mask of yours hiding?" he asked, forcing her to bend to
him, and looking close into her face. "Which of the extremes of human
temperature does your courage start from--the dead cold or the white
hot?"
She shrank back from him and turned away her head in silence. She would
have resented that unscrupulous intrusion on her own thoughts from any
man alive but Frank's father. He dropped her arm as suddenly as he had
taken it, and let her go on to the window.


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