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I did not need to be guided to the well-known room, to which I had

so often been summoned for chastisement or reprimand in former days

I hastened before Bessie; I softly opened the door: a shaded light

stood on the table, for it was now getting dark There was the

great four-post bed with as as of old; there the toilet-

table, the armchair, and the footstool, at which I had a hundred

times been sentenced to kneel, to ask pardon for offences by me

unco to

see the slim outline of a once dreaded switch which used to lurk

there, waiting to leap out i neck I approached the bed; I opened the curtains and

leant over the high-piled pillows

Well did I reht the

fas

of vengeance and hushes the proe and aversion I had

left this woman in bitterness and hate, and I came back to her noith no other es,

and a strong yearning to forget and forgive all injuries--to be

reconciled and clasp hands in amity

The well-known face was there: stern, relentless as ever--there was