Agnes, or, Beauty and Pleasure — page 378: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

379 AGNES; OR, BEAUTY AND PLEASURE. power of self-control and all presence of mind, “Then beware of the vengeance you will pro- sprang up from her seat to rush between them or voke!” responded the quadroon: and her eyes to seek assistanco. | flashed vivid lightnings. ‘ Forth from my lips “Ah! you would remain here?” ejaculated shall go the declaration that you are a murderer; Emily, thus addressing her husband; and there | —a murderer in intent—a base cowardly assassin, was again a withering sarcasm in her tone. “Is | who sought to doom his own wife to the most hor- it to listen to the drivellings of your grandsire P— | rible of deaths! Yes—all this will I proclaim! or to father the child of which your cousin will | It shall reach tae ears of justice—it shall render soon become the mother P” your name infamous throughout the world! Now, A cry burst from Winifred’s lips: then she made Gustavus, will you come with me?—because the an effort to speak—at the same time making an | very next moment that the word No issues from endeavour likewise to thrust her hand into the! your lips, will I raise my voice to proclaim what bosom of her dress. But a faintness suddenly | you are!” came over her—she tottered to a sofa, and sank thereon, deprived of consciousness. Gustavus, electrified by the declaration which the quadroon had made, flung his startled looks upon his cousin as she thus staggered towards that sofa; and it was with utter consternation and dismay that he beheld the evidence of the truth of the assertion thrown out from the lips of his wife. Gustavus was confounded; and he stood with staring eyes riveted upon the inanimate form of | his cousin, who now lay stretched upon the sofa. His face was ghastly pale: it seemed as if some calamity more hideous and borrible than any which as yet in his life-time he had known, had just smit- | ten him. “But no!” he suddenly ejaculated: “ Winifred cannot be guilty! Depend upon it she is mar- ried !” “« Married P” eehoed the quadroon—but there was utter ecornfulness in her voice. “ And why, therefore, do they call her Miss Barrington?” “True! my God, ’tis true!’ cried Gustavus. “But, Oh! it must have been some stupendous treachery that could have made Winifred its vic- tim! Never was there a purer soul!—never were there better principles innate in the heart of wo- man! Yes—pure and virtuous = “ Bnough of this ridiculous eulogy!” interposed the quadroon, seizing her husband violently by the arm. ‘“’Tis better that she should be lying there unconscious now !—’twill avoida scene! Come with me, Gustavus!” added Emily in a peremptory tone: “come with me at once, demand! This is no place for you—and you owe me all possible atonement !” “Emily, I will not go with you,” responded her husband. ‘f No—lI will not!” “Ah! we shall see!” ejaculated the quadroon. “ Now will I breathe in your ear the few words to which you would not ere now suffer me to give utterance. Murderer in intention! you shall obey me, or I hand you over to the grasp of justice! The English law takes cognizance of a crime com- mitted in an English colony!” Gustavus was smitten with the truth of the words just spoken: he again became as white as a sheet; and he gasped forth, “No, Emily—you would not persecute me to such an extent!—you would not be so cruel!” “ Once again, Gustavus, let me tell you that this is no place for you! Come with me—and let us calmly and deliberately speak of our own position, and decide how we are to act and on what terms we shall live for the future.” “All that is settled in a moment, Emily!” said Gustavus, with a species of doggedness in his tone. “T will not live with you!” ese mei iimemiiiee ic ct einemeis emectmipmmitaan $$$ gee Gustavus reflected that it would be much better not to provoke a scandal in the house. A glance thrown at his cousin, showed him that she was still deprived of consciousness ; and though he now thought far less highly of her than he had pre- viously done, yet he was loath to have bis name associated with the dread term murderer in her hearing. He thought too of his grandfather, whose feelings he was likewise anxious to spare; and moreover he knew that Emily was perfectly capable of fulfilling her threat by handing him over to the grasp of justice. All things considered, he saw at a glance that it was better to placea seal on Emily’s lips, at least for the present; and he said, “I will go with you—I will go with you, Emily, if you will allow me to put one question to my cousin!” “And what is that question?” demanded the quadroon. * T would ask her the name of her seducer,” re- joined the young man, “that I might know on whor a signal vengeance is to be wreaked !” ‘Tis useless!” said the quadroon firmly. “ You are not to become the champion of your cousin,— you who are bound to devote your lite unto an- other!” “ Another time,” thought Gustavus to himself, “TI will learn the truth of all this!’’—then bending his eyes upon Emily, he said with mingled dogged. ness and fierceness, ‘I am ready to follow you, Madam. Lead the way.” * Madam ?"” echoed the quadroon, for amoment starting with indignation—while the rich red blood mantled in her ckeeks throuzh the transparent duski- ness of her skin, and she flung a liyhtning glance upon her husband. “But no matter!” she mut- tered between her brilliant teeth; “I will conquer —1I will subdue him! I will make him crouch at my feet! I will now so completely break his spirit that never more shall he be enabled to assert his own will in opposition to mine!” Gustavus beheld the angry aspect of his wife ; but little reeked he for it now: other thoughts and considerations were in his mind; and it was ina mood of gloomy sullenness that he accompanied her from the house. Winifred awoke to consciousness; and as she sat up on the sofa where she had been lying, she glanced vacantly around the room, with the idea that she had been passing through the phases of some wi'd dream; but full soon did the conviction break upon her that all she remembered, and all she was then thinking of, consisted of the sternest realities; and clasping her hands together with the most poignant anguish, she murmured, “ And he too!—he now looks upon me as a lost, degraded, fallen creature! But all thie shall end! — yes, Comilcbooks a a LL LT, ce a et et. tet: A tt OC LE LL LLL LN LE CL LE LLL LI LL LL 8 om