Strona 13 z 483

Everyone loved Elizabeth. The passionate and almost reverential

attachment with which all regarded her became, while I shared it,

my pride and my delight. On the evening previous to her being

brought to my home, my mother had said playfully, "I have a

pretty present for my Victor-tomorrow he shall have it." And

when, on the morrow, she presented Elizabeth to me as her

promised gift, I, with childish seriousness, interpreted her

words literally and looked upon Elizabeth as mine-mine to

protect, love, and cherish. All praises bestowed on her I

received as made to a possession of my own. We called each other

familiarly by the name of cousin. No word, no expression could

body forth the kind of relation in which she stood to me-my more

than sister, since till death she was to be mine only.

Chapter 2