The Mysterious Key and What It Opened
E-text prepared by David Garcia, Beginners Projects, Lee Ann Rael, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team The Mysterious Key and What it Opened By L. M. Alcott Chapter I THE PROPHECY _Trevlyn lands and Trevlyn gold, Heir nor heiress e'er shall hold, Undisturbed, till, spite of rust,
"I SHALL love your mother very much, Charles, but do you think she
will love me?" said a graceful young creature, leaning with an air
of tender confidence upon the arm of her companion, and looking
earnestly in his face. She was a little above the ordinary stature,
with a form so delicate as to appear almost fragile, a pure
semi-transparent skin, and a cheek--
"Like the apple-tree blossom,
By the dew-fountain fed,
Was the bloom of her cheek,
With its white and its red."
Eyes of heaven's own blue beamed with love and delight, as they
wandered over the frank, honest face of the young man, who stood
looking down into them, as they reflected back his own image. He
could not love himself without harm to himself, but he could gaze
on, and love to gaze for ever upon the image of himself pictured in
those dear eyes, and yet be innocent.
"Love you, Ellen? How can she help loving you?"
"I do not know why any one should love me," was the artless reply.
"I do not know how any one can help loving you."
E-text prepared by David Garcia, Beginners Projects, Lee Ann Rael, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team The Mysterious Key and What it Opened By L. M. Alcott Chapter I THE PROPHECY _Trevlyn lands and Trevlyn gold, Heir nor heiress e'er shall hold, Undisturbed, till, spite of rust,