"Oh, you do not understand it, Julia. You do not know, then, that

you are the daughter of a rich merchant--the only daughter--that

you have servants to wait on you, and a carriage at command--that

you can wear fine silks, and have all things that money can buy,

and a rich man's daughter desire. You don't know these things,

Julia, eh?"

"Yes, Edward, I hear you say so now, and I hear mamma often say

the same things; but still I don't see--"

"You don't see why that should make a difference between yourself

and your poor cousin, eh? Well, but it does; and though you don't

see it now, yet it will not be very long before you will see, and

understand it, and act upon it, too, as promptly as the wisest

among them. Don't you know that I am the object of your father's

charity--that his bounty feeds me--and that it would not be seemly

that the world should behold me on a familiar footing of equality

or intimacy with the daughter of my benefactor--my patron--without

whom I should probably starve, or be a common beggar upon the

highway?"

"But father would not suffer that, Edward."

"Oh, no! no!--he would not suffer it, Julia, simply because his own

pride and name would feel the shame and disgrace of such a thing.

But though he would keep me from beggary and the highway, Julia,

neither he nor your mother would spend a sixpence or make an effort

to save my feelings from pain and misery. They protect me from the

scorn of others, but they use me for their own."

The girl hung her head in silence.

"And you, too," I added--"the time will come when you. too, Julia,

will shrink as promptly as themselves from being seen with your

poor relation. You--"

"No! no! Edward--how can you think of such a thing?" she replied

with girlish chiding.

"Think it!--I know it! The time will soon be here. But--obey your

mother, Julia. Go! leave me now. Begin, once the lesson which,

before many days, you will find it very easy to learn."

This was all very manly, so I fancied at the time; and then

blind with the perverse heart which boiled within me, I felt not

the wantonness of my mood, and heeded not the bitter pain which I

occasioned to her gentle bosom. Her little hand grasped mine, her

warm tears fell upon it; but I flung away from her grasp, and left

her to those childish meditations which I had made sufficiently

mournful.




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