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Finally, patting the my leave of them with kisses, I shrank away and fell down exhausted into a large old velvet chair

My head throbbed and I felt ain, but with all my force I sed my tears for their sake I had no choice

Sybelle had gone back to the piano, and striking the keys she began the Sonata again This ti out the notes in a beautiful low , and prancing, and sto with Sybelle's time

I sat forith my head in my hands I wanted my hair to come down and hide me from all eyes, but for all its thickness it was only a head of hair

I felt a hand on my shoulder and I stiffened, but I could not say a word, lest I'd start crying again and cursing with all ht I was silent

"I don't expect you to understand," he said under his breath

I sat up He was beside me, seated on the arm of the chair He looked down at me

I made my face pleasant, all smiles even, and ht I was talking to hi but love

"How could you do it? Why did you do it? Do you hate s that you knoill never, never believe Don't lie to me for Pandora's sake or their sake I'll care for theeance, didn't you, Master, you did it for hate?"

"How could I?" he asked in the saenuine voice of love talking tofor love, I have done this for it I did it for love and for you I did it for all the wrongs done you, and the loneliness you've suffered, and the horrors that the world put upon you when you were too young and too untried to kno to fight thee a battle with a full heart I did it for you "

"Oh, you lie, you lie in your heart," I said, "if not with your tongue You did it for spite, and you have just revealed it all too plainly toyou wanted to make of me I wasn't the clever rebel who could stand up to Santino and his band of monsters, and I was the one, after all those centuries, that disappointed you yet again and horribly because I went into the sun after I saw the Veil That's why you did it You did it for vengeance and you did it for bitterness and you did it for disappoint horror is you don't know it yourself You couldn't bear it that my heart swelled to burst when I saw His Face on the Veil You couldn't bear it that this child you plucked from the Venetian brothel, and nursed with your own blood, this child you taught from your own books and with your hands, cried out to Him when he saw His Face on the Veil "

"No, that is so very very far from the truth it breaks my heart " He shook his head And tearless and white as he was, his face was a perfect picture of sorrow as though it was a painting he had done with his own hands "I did it because they love you as no one has ever loved you, and they are free and have within their generous hearts a deep cunning which doesn't shrink froed in the same furnace asto endure I did it because norance had not defeated him I did it because they were your chosen ones, utterly perfect, and I knew that you would not do it, and they would come to hate you for this, hate you, as you once hatedit, and you would lose theive in

"They are yours now Nothing separates you And it's my blood, ancient and powerful, that's filled them to the brim with power so that they can be your worthy companions and not the pale shadow of your soul which Louis alas

"There is no barrier of Master and Fledgling between you, and you can learn the secrets of their hearts as they learn the secrets of yours "

I wanted to believe it