Word: vain
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Dates: during 1880-1889
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...light in his room until very late at night. It is a very sad case. I hope and pray that I may be able to exert a good influence over this young man. If I can reform at least one erring soul, I shall not have come here in vain...
...which cause a life-time's regret that might be averted with but a single word from It. Often It sees two lives that might make one, gradually becoming estranged through trifling, thoughtless error. Then, indeed, It forces open its cold lips to shriek the needed warning. Alas! how vain such efforts are! Have you not, on some winter night, when you were rushing along through the driving snow, been startled by a low, mournful wail? Have you not felt inclined to stop and see what was the cause of it? Well might it be, indeed, could you but understand...
...knows but that It has aspirations for some active, ardent sphere? Who knows but that It bravely struggles against a feeling that will come up, of a lot that is unjust? Of an ugliness, - no, not an ugliness, - a homeliness that is unfair? And are there not vain yearnings, useless regrets? Who can say? But is there not a pathos in this being so willingly unselfish, so mutely self-sacrificing...
...strayed too far, alas! and found myself, not as I had supposed, within call of the mansion, but in unknown, unexplored forest depths. I called, but I could elicit no response. In dumb despair I hurried through unfamiliar paths, hoping to regain the clearing. In vain! Fate had ordained otherwise. Weary, helpless, I abandoned myself to my tears, and they did not desert me. I wept until I remembered that crying injured the complexion, and then I sat upright and looked about me. The sun was sinking in the west; my heart was sinking in my breast. (There! I never...
...have been devoured. It was a man's voice; and, so great was my presence of mind, even in these adverse circumstances, that I thought how decollete I must look, for the creature had sadly torn my garments and had split open one of my boots. I tried in vain to rise...