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Miss Sharp had left the piano and came over to me--

"I am afraid you did not like that," she said--"I am so sorry"--her

voice was not so cold as usual

"Yes I did--" I answered--"forgivean awful ass--I--I--love

music tremendously, you see--"

She stood still for amyself by the table, my

crutch had fallen Then she put out her hand

"Can I help you to sit down again?"--she suggested

And I let her--I wanted to feel her touch--I have never even shaken

hands with her before But when I felt her guiding me to the chair, the

maddest desire to seize her calasses, to kiss those beautiful blue eyes they hid--to

hold her fragile scrap of a body tight against my breast, to tell her

that I loved her--and wanted to hold her there, mine and no one else's

in all the world----My God! what a--I must crush this

nonsense--I est I have

ever felt about a woain--things seemed to become blank for

a minute and then I heard Miss Sharp's voice with a tone--could it be of