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"Too late," cried I, "what do you mean? It is not too late to take you from
this deserted place, and conduct you to---"
My own loss, which I had forgotten as I spoke, now made me turn away, while
choking grief impeded my speech. I threw open the window, and looked on the
cold, waning, ghastly, misshaped circle on high, and the chill white earth
beneath--did the spirit of sweet Idris sail along the moon-frozen crystal
air?--No, no, a more genial atmosphere, a lovelier habitation was surely
hers!
I indulged in this meditation for a moment, and then again addressed the
mourner, who stood leaning against the bed with that expression of resigned
despair, of complete misery, and a patient sufferance of it, which is far
more touching than any of the insane ravings or wild gesticulation of
untamed sorrow. I desired to draw her from this spot; but she opposed my
wish. That class of persons whose imagination and sensibility have never
been taken out of the narrow circle immediately in view, if they possess
these qualities to any extent, are apt to pour their influence into the
very realities which appear to destroy them, and to cling to these with
double tenacity from not being able to comprehend any thing beyond. Thus
Lucy, in desert England, in a dead world, wished to fulfil the usual
ceremonies of the dead, such as were customary to the English country
people, when death was a rare visitant, and gave us time to receive his
dreaded usurpation with pomp and circumstance--going forth in procession
to deliver the keys of the tomb into his conquering hand. She had already,
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