The Freemason's Daughter: A Novel — page 139: what you’re looking at

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

130 THE FREEMASONS DAUGHTER. mad. Those cries, which make me dread to sleep— I am broken—quite broken; and Gilbert Grindem chuckles as he counts his ill-got wealth—laughs at my: . - misery—defies my threats—and will be as deaf to my prayers as I for years have been to the voice of con- science and repentance. I am rightly punished—rightly punished,” he added. ‘‘ God has deserted me—I have failen beyond His reach.” Nothing but the deep despair—the partial insanity— of the speaker, superinduced by the cruel treatment he had undergone, could have excused the impious words which the poor old man gave utterance to. Scarcely had they escaped him, than the enormity of his offence struck him. Falling upon his knees, he wrung his hands, exclaiming— | “Forgive me, Architect of the universe! Forgive Thy unworthy creature! No, Thou hast not deserted me! Were I buried deeper in the earth than the foun- dation-stone of that proud Temple where Thy name was worshipped, Thou couldst raise me up to light—break my fetters with Thy strong hand, and set my body free.” Our readers will perceive that the clerk prayed in the symbolical language of that order to which we have more than once alluded. Comforted with the turn of thought his mind had taken, the old man remained upon his knees absorbed in silent prayer. ‘The expression of his countenance, like the ruffled face of ocean, when the breath of (SO ecomnuicloooks