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June 20th 1895

If the world had turned round and gone the wrong way the turn things have taken could not have surprised me more.  Alice Shepard of all people!  Alice the saintlike, the angelic Alice who of all people we thought would be the last to pain or hurt any one, especially her mother.  But I must come to the point and begin at the beginning or rather at the end but to me the beginning.  Last evening we were sitting out on the piazza after

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June 21st 1895   121

When she felt as if some strange new feeling had come into her life she would lean up against the wall and with her head against the cold wallpaper would clasp her hands and in a passionate quiet stand thus.  Yes, the wallpaper was cold compared to the burning heart within her, but it was a comfort to her to stand thus, it make her imagine that perhaps the wall had some life in it and would feel the throbbing of her heart, or hear the little short gasps ^[[of breath]] that escaped her.  She would run her hand down the edge of the curtain perhaps and little tiny thrills would run down her back or up her legs till -