But how could she be Sidney Richmond ? `` I do n't understand , '' he said perplexedly . `` Oh ! '' Sidney threw out her hands in a burst of passionate protest . `` No , and you never will understand -- I ca n't make you understand . '' `` I do n't understand , '' said John Lincoln again . `` Can you be Sidney Richmond -- the Sidney Richmond who has written to me for four years ? '' `` I am . '' `` Then , those letters -- '' `` Were all lies , '' said Sidney bluntly and desperately . `` There was nothing true in them -- nothing at all . This is my home . We are poor . Everything I told you about it and my life was just imagination . '' `` Then why did you write them ? '' he asked blankly . `` Why did you deceive me ? '' `` Oh , I did n't mean to deceive you ! I never thought of such a thing . When you asked me to write to you I wanted to , but I did n't know what to write about to a stranger . I just could n't write you about my life here , not because it was hard , but it was so ugly and empty .
So I wrote instead XXXXX the life I wanted to live -- the life I did live in imagination .
Lincoln Richmond about at because for in of to years