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Diamond Questions North Wind 377
love you all the same. I shouldn't like you to look ugly, you know. But I shouldn't believe it a bit."
" Not if you saw it?"
" No, not if I saw it ever so plain."
"There's my Diamond! I will tell you all I know about it then. I don't think I am just what you fancy me to be. I have to shape myself various ways to various people. But the heart of me is true. People call me by dreadful names, and think they know all about me. But they don't. Sometimes they call me Bad Fortune, sometimes Evil Chance, sometimes Ruin; and they have another name for me which they think the most dreadful of all."
"What is that?" asked Diamond, smiling up in her face.
" I won't tell you that name. Do you remember having to go through me to get into the country at my back?"
"Oh yes, I do. How cold you were, North Wind! and so white, all but your lovely eyes! My heart grew like a lump of ice, and then I forgot for a while."
"You were very near knowing what they call me then. Would you be afraid of me if you had to go through me again?"
" No. Why should I? Indeed I should be glad enough, if it was only to get another peep of the country at your back."
" You've never seen it yet."
"Haven't I, North Wind? Oh! I'm so sorry! I thought I had. What did I see then?"
"Only a picture of it. The real country at my real |
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