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Hichens, Robert Smythe, 1864-1950

"A Spirit in Prison"

I gave because secretly I realized the hunger I
was sharing. And often, having satisfied your hunger, I was left to
starve, no longer in company, but entirely alone.
"I needed great things, perhaps, but I needed them expressed in little
ways; and I needed little cares, little attentions, little
thoughtfulnesses, little preventions, little, little, absurd
kindnesses, tendernesses, recognitions, forgivenesses. Perhaps,
indeed, even more than anything magnificent or great, I needed the so-
called little things. It is not enough for a woman to know that a man
would do for her something important, something even superb, if the
occasion for it arose. Such an occasion probably never would arise--
and she cannot wait. She wants to be shown at every moment that some
one is thinking kindly of her, is making little, kind plots and plans
for her, is wishing to ward off from her the chill winds, to keep from
pricking her the thorns of the roses, to shut out from her the shadows
of life and let in the sunbeams to her pathway.


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