Golden Hill

It struck him that he’d never been so happy, but was wise enough to understand that his happiness consisted largely of hope. Their meeting in the ruin had been intimate and strange, and had sustained his spirit for days; but quickly they’d reverted to their easy pretence of being boys with a mystery on their hands. So they spoke only of where Maria

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“Oh, good.… You didn’t bring my granddaughter with you?” “After the divorce, she went with her mom. I looked up her file. She lived into her eighties and died in Year 105.” “Too bad I never met her.… How old were you when your sentence ended?” “Nineteen.” “What did you do then?” “Everything. At first, with no other way out, I kept up the swindles,

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William felt the little girl beaming because she was the subject of so much attention. He could also feel the bright red and yellow color of the leaves outside the window and the heightened emotion of the woman across from him. He’d never had this level of molecular awareness before, never felt so much in a single moment. William had always evaded

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One of the thoughts that, as I don’t in the least shrink now from noting, used to be with me in these wanderings was that it would be as charming as a charming story suddenly to meet some one. Some one would appear there at the turn of a path and would stand before me and smile and approve. I didn’t ask more than that – I only asked that he should

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