De second stripe, — Pete, he
tell me, — he tell me dis evenin' — and it war wet; and it war
wet enough before he got through. He war mad, I reckon;
certain Mass' Ed'ards, he war mad."
"_Wet?_" said I.
"Laws, Miss Daisy," said Margaret, " 'tain't nothin'. Them
whips, they draws the blood easy. Darry, he don't mind."
I have a recollection of the girl's terrified face, but I
heard nothing more. Such a deadly sickness came over me that
for a minute I must have been near fainting; happily it took
another turn amid the various confused feelings which
oppressed me, and I burst into tears. My eyes had not been wet
through all the hours of the evening and night; my heartache
had been dry. I think I was never very easy to move to tears,
even as a child. But now, well for me perhaps, some element of
the pain I was suffering found the unguarded point — or broke
up the guard. I wept as I have done very few times in my life.
I had thrown myself into Mammy Theresa's lap, in the weakness
which could not support itself, and in an abandonment of grief
which was careless of all the outside world; and there I lay,
clasped in her arms and sobbing.
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