"I shall not run away from any love that may come," answered the girl, in the same tone.
Margaret remained looking into the fire, oppressed by a startled sense of helplessness. In the light fine quality of her niece's voice she had heard a strong note of deliberation, a tense but resolute choice of danger, and the older woman wondered if the power of her own years and wifehood had any power to help this child. How far she had ever influenced her, beyond the practical happening of life, she had never been sure, and now she perceived suddenly that beyond such things she had never influenced at all.
Margaret had never conceived it possible that there might be lands "East of the sun and West of the moon"; but to understand Anne one must find such lands, and they were far—too far from happy Margaret's own well-lighted world; her kindly but heavy feet could never climb their unsubstantial stairways.
She turned suddenly and took Anne's pale face between her hands. "Child! Child!" she said, "I am afraid for you."
Anne did not lift her eyes, and the expression of her face remained closed and remote. It was evident that she had submitted herself unwillingly to the enfolding hands, and Margaret released her.
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