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- 7735
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:52.921Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
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- 7693
- text
- had touched the secret monochord within his breast, by an apparent
magic, precisely similar to that which had moved the stringed tongue of
her guitar to respond to the heart-strings of her own melancholy
plaints. The deep voice of the being of Isabel called to him from out
the immense distances of sky and air, and there seemed no veto of the
earth that could forbid her heavenly claim.
During the three days that he had personally known her, and so been
brought into magnetic contact with her, other persuasions and potencies
than those direct ones, involved in her bewildering eyes and marvelous
story, had unconsciously left their ineffaceable impressions on him, and
perhaps without his privity, had mainly contributed to his resolve. She
had impressed him as the glorious child of Pride and Grief, in whose
countenance were traceable the divinest lineaments of both her parents.
Pride gave to her her nameless nobleness; Grief touched that nobleness
with an angelical softness; and again that softness was steeped in a
most charitable humility, which was the foundation of her loftiest
excellence of all.
Neither by word or letter had Isabel betrayed any spark of those more
common emotions and desires which might not unreasonably be ascribed to
an ordinary person placed in circumstances like hers. Though almost
penniless, she had not invoked the pecuniary bounty of Pierre; and
though she was altogether silent on that subject, yet Pierre could not
but be strangely sensible of something in her which disdained to
voluntarily hang upon the mere bounty even of a brother. Nor, though she
by various nameless ways, manifested her consciousness of being
surrounded by uncongenial and inferior beings, while yet descended from
a generous stock, and personally meriting the most refined
companionships which the wide world could yield; nevertheless, she had
not demanded of Pierre that he should array her in brocade, and lead her
forth among the rare and opulent ladies of the land. But while thus
evincing her intuitive, true lady-likeness and nobleness by this entire
freedom from all sordid motives, neither had she merged all her feelings
in any sickly sentimentalities of sisterly affection toward her so
suddenly discovered brother; which, in the case of a naturally
unattractive woman in her circumstances, would not have been altogether
alluring to Pierre. No. That intense and indescribable longing, which
her letter by its very incoherencies had best embodied, proceeded from
no base, vain, or ordinary motive whatever; but was the unsuppressible
and unmistakable cry of the godhead through her soul, commanding Pierre
to fly to her, and do his highest and most glorious duty in the world.
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