It was really
inconceivable that the means of secret revolutionary organisations
should have failed so inexcusably to preserve her son. But in reality
the inconceivable that staggered her mind was nothing but the cruel
audacity of Death passing over her head to strike at that young and
precious heart.
Miss Haldin mechanically, with an absorbed look, handed me my hat. I
understood from her that the poor woman was possessed by the sombre and
simple idea that her son must have perished because he did not want
to be saved. It could not have been that he despaired of his country's
future. That was impossible. Was it possible that his mother and sister
had not known how to merit his confidence; and that, after having done
what he was compelled to do, his spirit became crushed by an intolerable
doubt, his mind distracted by a sudden mistrust.
I was very much shocked by this piece of ingenuity.
"Our three lives were like that!" Miss Haldin twined the fingers of both
her hands together in demonstration, then separated them slowly, looking
straight into my face. "That's what poor mother found to torment herself
and me with, for all the years to come," added the strange girl. At that
moment her indefinable charm was revealed to me in the conjunction of
passion and stoicism.
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