What was the use of making
herself wretched? Victoria ought to have come long, long ago, or not at
all.
But the blue eyes would look at her, even when her own were shut; and
always there was the faint light in the mirror, which seemed to come
through the door.
At last Saidee could not longer lie still. She had to get up and open
the door, to see what her sister was really doing. Very softly she
turned the handle, for she hoped that by this time Victoria was asleep;
but as she pulled the door noiselessly towards her, and peeped into the
next room, she saw that one of the lamps was burning. Victoria had not
yet gone to bed. She was kneeling beside it, saying her prayers, with
her back towards the door.
So absorbed was she in praying, and so little noise had Saidee made,
that the girl heard nothing. She remained motionless on her knees, not
knowing that Saidee was looking at her.
A sharp pain shot through the woman's heart. How many times had she
softly opened their bedroom door, coming home late after a dance, to
find her little sister praying, a small, childish form in a long white
nightgown, with quantities of curly red hair pouring over its shoulders!
Sometimes Victoria had gone to sleep on her knees, and Saidee had waked
her up with a kiss.
Just as she had looked then, so she looked now, except that the form in
the long, white nightgown was that of a young girl, not a child. But the
thick waves of falling hair made it seem childish.
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