"Harry," said Agnes, "this is my friend, Maria Semple; and Maria, this
is Harry Deane." And Harry looked with frank eyes into Maria's eyes, and
in a moment they knew each other. What was this strange impression made
by a look? Not a word was spoken, but the soul salutation through
meeting eyes was a far more overwhelming influence than any spoken word
could have evoked. Then came the current forms of courtesy, and the
happy tones of low laughter slipping in between the mingling of voices,
or the soft tinkling of glass and china, and everyone knows that as soon
as talking begins the divine gates close. It mattered not, Maria knew
that something wonderful had happened to her; and never in all her
subsequent life could she forget that breakfast under the clematis
vines.cross body bags
Swiftly the hot, still hours of the mid-day passed. The city was torpid
in the quivering heat. There was no stir of traffic--no lumbering sound
of loaded wagons--no noise of shouting drivers--no footsteps of
hurrying men. The streets were almost empty; the very houses seemed
asleep. Only the cicadas ran from hedge to hedge calling shrilly; or now
and then a solitary trumpet stirred the drowsy air, or, in the vicinity
of the prisons, the moaning of the dying men, made the silence terribly
vocal.cross body bags
"Let us go into the house," said Agnes, "it will be cooler there." And
they took Maria's hands and went to the shaded parlor. Then Harry drew
some cool water from the well, and as they drank it they remembered the
men in the various prisons and their pitiful need of water at all times.cross body bags
"They are the true heroes," said Agnes; "tortured by heat and by cold,
by cruel hunger and more cruel thirst, in all extremities of pain and
sorrow, they are paying their life blood, drop by drop, like coin, for
our freedom."cross body bags
"And when our freedom is won," answered Harry, "we will give to the dead their due. They, too, have saved us."
