But in another moment her head had
regained its steady poise and a great change had passed over her
manner.
"Mr. Blake," said she, "you are good; how good, I alone can know and
duly appreciate who have lived in your house this last year and seen
with eyes that missed nothing, just what your surroundings are and
have been from the earliest years of your proud life. But goodness
must not lead you into the committal of an act you must and will
repent to your dying day; or if it does, I who have learned my duty
in the school of adversity, must show the courage of two and forbid
what every secret instinct of my soul declares to be only provocative
of shame and sorrow. You would take me to your heart as your wife; do
you realize what that means?"
"I think I do," was his earnest reply. "Relief from heart-ache,
Luttra."
Her smooth brow wrinkled with a sudden spasm of pain but her firm lips
did not quiver.
"It means," said she, drawing nearer but not with that approach which
indicates yielding, "it means, shame to the proudest family that
lives in the land. It means silence as regards a past blotted by
suggestions of crime; and apprehension concerning a future across
which the shadow of prison walls must for so many years lie. It
means, the hushing of certain words upon beloved lips; the turning of
cherished eyes from visions where fathers and daughters ay, brothers
and sisters are seen joined together in tender companionship or
loving embrace.
Pages:
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205