Explore "The Insane Root" by Rosa Praed on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
'Mademoiselle will remain,' said the Pacha. 'Remove these things, Soranza, lower the lights, and leave us undisturbed.'
Soon the two were alone--the old man and the girl. Isàdas did not go back to his couch, but sat in the armchair between the table and the fire, the flames of which leapt and shone upon the broken splinters of glass. The girl took a low stool at his feet. Her breast was heaving. As he looked down at her, she was emboldened to place her hands upon the arm of his chair and to lift her face nearer his. Then, as the softer expression in his eyes deepened, she put one timid hand upon his knee, and pleaded gently, --'Excellence, I know you believe that you are going to die--Doctor Marillier has told me--and that is why you broke the glass when you called us up here to drink the Emperor's health with you for the last time, as you fancy. But oh! Excellence, life and death are in God's hands, and none may tell the day on which his Maker will call him. Let me stay with you to-night, Excellence, and help you to fight this fear which has seized you; then the morning will come and find you living still under the protection of Our Lady and the blessed saints. For has not God said by His Psalmist to those who put their trust in Him, "He shall give His angels charge over thee.there shall no evil befall thee, nor any plague come nigh thy dwelling."