The rigidity of her face and figure smote Lucy Ellen like a blow . She threw out her bleached little hands and spoke with a sudden passion utterly foreign to her . `` Cecily , I want to marry him . I -- I -- love him . I always have . I never thought of this when I promised . Oh , Cecily , you 'll let me off my promise , wo n't you ? '' `` No , '' said Cecily . It was all she said . Lucy Ellen 's hands fell to her sides , and the light went out of her face . `` You wo n't ? '' she said hopelessly . Cecily went out . At the door she turned . `` When John Edwards asked me to marry him six years ago , I said no for your sake . To my mind a promise is a promise . But you were always weak and romantic , Lucy Ellen . '' Lucy Ellen made no response . She stood limply on the hearth-rug like a faded blossom bitten by frost . After Cromwell Biron had gone away the next evening , with all his brisk jauntiness shorn from him for the time , Lucy Ellen went up to Cecily 's room .
She stood for a moment in the narrow doorway , with the lamplight striking upward XXXXX a gruesome effect on her wan face .
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