Page:Dellada - The Woman and the Priest, 1922.djvu/216

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THE WOMAN AND THE PRIEST

by our flight and our sin, we had to sacrifice ourselves for them."

But she seemed not to understand, caught only one word, and shook her head as before.

"Conscience? Of course I have a conscience, I am no longer a child! And my conscience tells me that I did wrong in listening to you and letting you come here. What is to be done? It is too late now; why did not God make you see things clearly at first? I did not go to your home, but you came to mine and played with me as if I had been a child's toy. And what must I do now? Tell me that. I cannot forget you, I cannot change as you change. I shall go away, even if you will not come with me—I want to try and forget you. I must go right away, or else…"

"Or else?"

Agnes did not reply; she leaned back in her corner and shivered. Something ominous, like the dark wing of madness, must have touched her, for her eyes grew dim and she raised her hand with an instinctive movement as though to brush away a shadow from before her face.

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