Septimius Felton or the Elixir of Life Author:Nathaniel Hawthorne General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1880 Original Publisher: Houghton, Mifflin Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you c... more »an select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: "A married woman is no sister; nothing but a married woman till she becomes a mother; and then what shall I have to do with you ?" He spoke with a certain eagerness to prove his case, which Hose could not understand, but which was probably to justify himself in severing, as he was about to do, the link that connected him witli his race, and-making for himself an exceptional destiny, which, if it did not entirely insulate him, would at least create new relations with all. There he stood, poor fellow, looking on the mirthful throng, not in exultation, as might have been supposed, but with a strange sadness upon him. It seemed to him, at that final moment, as if it were Death that linked together all; yes, and so gave the warmth to all. Wedlock itself seemed a brother of Death; wedlock, and its sweetest hopes, its holy companionship, its mysteries, and all that warm mysterious brotherhood that is between men; passing as they do from mystery to mystery in a little gleam of light; that wild, sweet charm of uncertainty and temporarihess, -- how lovely it made them all, how innocent, even the worst of them; bow- hard and prosaic was his own situation in comparison to theirs. He felt a gushing tenderness for them, as if he would have flung aside his endless life, and rushed among them, saying, -- " Embrace me! I am still one of you, and will not leave you ! Hold me fast! " After this it was not particularly observed that both Septimius and Sybil Dacy had disappeared from the party, which, however, went on no less merrily without them. In truth, the habits of Sybil Dacy...« less