midnight
I pray that death instead of shame may be the portion of the next generation , and I look at George 's boys only to wonder which of them is the happy one who shall some day lie dead at his brother 's feet . Are you surprised at my resolution never to marry ? The fatal prophecy is rich in its fulfillment ; none of our name and blood are safe ; and the day might come when I too should have to call upon my children to curse me for their birth , -- should have to watch while the burden which I could no longer bear alone pressed the life from their mother 's heart . '' Through the tragedy of this speech I was conscious of a faint suggestion of comfort , a far-off glimmer , as of unseen home-lights on a midnight sky . I was in no mood then to understand , or to seek to understand , what it was ; but I know now that his words had removed the weight of helpless banishment from my spirit -- that his heart , speaking through them to my own , had made me for life the sharer of his grief . Presently he drew his shoulders together with a slight determined jerk , threw himself back upon the grass , and turning to me , with that tremulous , haggard smile upon his lips which I knew so well , but which had never before struck me with such infinite pathos , `` Luckily , '' he said , `` there are other things to do in life besides being happy . Only perhaps you understand now what I meant last night when I spoke of things which flesh and blood can not bear , and yet which must be borne . ''