And therein the little lady showed herself a person of wisdom. For none
of them had yet reckoned with that one great element in Lali's character
--that thing which is the birthright of all who own the North for a
mother, the awe of imagination, the awe and the pain, which in its finest
expression comes near, very near, to the supernatural. Lali's mind was
all pictures; she never thought of things in words, she saw them; and
everything in her life arrayed itself in a scene before her, made vivid
by her sensitive soul, so much more sensitive now with health failing,
the spirit wearing out the body. There was her malady--the sick heart
and mind.
A new sickness wore upon her. It had not touched her from the day she
left the North until she sang "The Chase of the Yellow Swan" that first
evening after Frank's return. Ever since then her father was much in her
mind--the memory of her childhood, and its sweet, inspiring friendship
with Nature. All the roughness and coarseness of the life was refined
in her memory by the exquisite atmosphere of the North, the good sweet
earth, the strong bracing wind, the camaraderie of trees and streams and
grass and animals.
Pages:
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99