Anna Lombard, page 209 by Victoria Cross
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ry of what we have done for another, far more often than the memory of what that one has done for us, that softens us in reflection. And when love is poured out as mine for Anna, for one who longs for it, demands it, lives by it, and gives back tenfold, there is an intoxication and delight in the exchange, enough to fill two of the blankest lives.
Anna made such a wonderful companion. I had felt that she would do so, during all the time I had known her; but I had never realized what a mere, poor foreshadowing that broken-up companionship had been of the perfect, smooth, intimate union in the life lived day by day, night by night with her.
When she accompanied me to my office, I found she was of more use to me than my three clerks together. She had such a gift of grasping the sense and import of things. It was never any trouble to explain to her. Whatever mental nut, as it were, was offered to her, her intellect seemed to grip it at once and split it open; and the kernel, neat and round, was lying before you. I have found this to be a very rare gift. The brain that can do and create, can form ideas and hold opinions is less uncommon than the one which can really understand. As a rule, explaining to one's subordinate what has to be done and how it is to be done, is so much effort and attended with so little, success, that to do the work one's self is the lighter task. One day I had spent the whole morning in endeavoring to put my assistants in the way of making for me a precis of some native evidence, which was required for the following day; and the result was an intolerably confused document, utterly useless to me or the court. I told them to leave the matter alone; that I would see to it myself in the afternoon; and, having already an impossible amount of work on hand, that prospect did not improve my temper. Tired and savage, I drove home to luncheon, not without a delightful consciousness that for an hour at least I should have perfect rest and peace, arid found Anna, as usual, waiting in the coo