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What claim had any man, seeing what the lives of men are, to this pitiful sacrifice of reticence, this rending of the veil of merciful, wise secrecy from an innocent young head? None. Not the shadow of a claim. She tossed away her former scruples. They sailed from her on the faint hot breeze lightly as thistledown.
Polly went, wondering, but fearing little. Miss Lucy's face was too radiant to betoken anything unpleasant. Dr. Dudley held out his arms, and the little girl ran into them. "Glorious news, Thistledown! It is all settled! 'Aunt Jane' has no right to you whatever!" "Oh!" she gasped, and went suddenly white. The Doctor dropped into a chair, and took her in his lap, letting her lean against him.
Polly was a quaint little figure in the long mackintosh, and it tripped her feet once or twice, until the doctor drew it from her and threw it across his arm. The thunder had been lighter for some minutes; but as they halted at the entrance before going out a tremendous crash jarred the building. "Not afraid, Thistledown?" smiled Dr. Dudley, as he wrapped her again in the long cloak.
She wrote a word upon the air with her finger, and made a flourish under the word. So flowery was the flourish that it span her round, right round upon her toes, and she faced her watchers again. The committee jumped, for the blind ran up, and outside the window, at the end of a strange perspective of street, the trees of some far square were as soft as thistledown against a lemon-coloured sky.
At the threshold she nearly ran into his arms. "Why such haste, Thistledown? Have you and Colonel Gresham quarreled?" "Oh, no! I'm going after David. Do you care if he leaves the office for just a little while?" "Certainly not. Tell him from me that he can come." If the Doctor felt any surprise, neither his voice nor his face showed it.
They would nestle in crevices, like bits of thistledown caught in a grass-tuft, and would there sun themselves and chirrup. So many hundreds were there, and their shadows so multiplied them, that they seemed less like birds than like some dream of a bird heaven essential birdhood.
Then the lecture ended, and questions were asked, and individuals of the company wandered at will, the light dresses of the ladies sweeping over the hot grass and brushing up thistledown which had hitherto lain quiescent, so that it rose in a flight from the skirts of each like a comet's tail.
"Well, there hasn't but two died; the rest'll live," said Fly, swinging one of them around by its tail, as if it had been a tame cherry. Just then Grace came and stood in the parlor doorway. "O, fie!" said she; "what work! Ma doesn't allow that cage in the parlor. You just carry it out, Fly Clifford." Miss Thistledown Flyaway looked up at her sister shyly, out of the corners of her eyes.
He kept throwing uneasy glances towards her while the horses were brought out, and Esmeralda strolled about in a patch of sunshine, and picked her steps gingerly over the muddles, like a model of fastidious care. She sprang to the saddle, light as thistledown, and curved her graceful throat with a complacent toss, as the groom smoothed her skirt, bringing the white stain into full prominence.
I thought something would go wrong with 'ee up here, and I couldn't bide in bed no more than thistledown on the wind, that I could not! Well, what's happened, fie upon 'ee? 'Nothing. 'Ewes all as I left 'em? 'Yes. 'Any lambs want bringing in? 'No. The shepherd relit the fire, and went out among the sheep with a lantern, for the moon was getting low. Soon he came in again.
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