But my joy had never come, and it is hard to go away without that one draught .-- And you!" "I went so far once as to buy poison.

But neither had I tasted any happiness, and I could not help hoping." "And you still wait--still hope ?" Ida made no direct answer.

She gazed far off at the indistinguishable border-land of sea and sky, and when she spoke it was in a softened tone.
"When I was here last, I was seven years old.

Now I am not quite nineteen.

How long I have lived since then--how long! Yet my life did not really begin till I was about eleven.