"That night, when it became impossible to remain longer without

trespassing--when all the other guests had gone--I consented to

be taken home in Mr. Edgerton's carriage. Had I dreamed that Mr.

Edgerton was to have been my companion, I should have remained

all night before I would have gone with him, knowing what I knew,

and feeling the mortification which I felt. But my mother assured

me that I was to have the carriage to myself--it was she who had

procured it;--and it was not until I was seated, and beheld him

enter, that I had the least apprehension of such an intrusion.

Edward! it is with a feeling almost amounting to horror, that I am

constrained to think that my mother not only knew of his intention

to accompany me, but that she herself suggested it. This, I say

to YOU! You will find the reasons for my suspicions in the letters

which I enclose. It is a dreadful suspicion--at the expense of

one's own mother! I dare not believe in the dark malice which it

implies.--I strive to think that she meant and fancied only some

pleasant mischief.

"I shudder to declare the rest! This man, your friend--he whom you

sheltered in your bosom, and trusted beyond all others--whom you

have now taken into your house with a blindness that looks more

like a delusion of witchcraft than of friendship--this impious man,

I say, dared to wrap me in his embrace--dared to press his lips

upon mine!

"My cheek even now burns as I write, and I must lay down the pen

because of my trembling. I struggled from his grasp--I broke the

window by my side, and cried for help from the wayfarers. I cried

for you! But, you did not answer! Oh, husband! where were you? Why,

why did you expose me to such indignities?

"He was alarmed. He promised me forbearance; and, convulsed with

fright and fear, I found myself within our enclosure, I knew not

how; but before I reached the cottage I became insensible, and

knew nothing more until the pangs of labor subdued the more lasting

pains of thought and recollection.

"You resolved to leave our home--to go abroad among strangers, and

Oh! how I rejoiced at your resolution. It seemed to promise me

happiness; at least it promised me rescue and relief. I should at

all events be free from the persecution of this man. I dreaded the

consequences, either to you or to him-self, of the exposure of his

insolence. I had resolved on making it; and only hesitated, day by

day, as my mother dwelt upon the dangers which would follow. And

when you determined on removal, it seemed to me the most fortunate

providence, it promised to spare me the necessity of making this

painful revelation at all. Surely, I thought, and my mother said,

as this will put an effectual stop to his presumption, there will

be no need to narrate what is already past. The only motive in

telling it at all would be to prevent, not to punish: if the previous

one is effected by other means, it is charity only to forbear the

relation of matters which would breed hatred, and probably provoke

strife. This made me silent; and, full of new hope--the hope that

having discarded all your old associates and removed from all your

old haunts, you would become mine entirely--I felt a new strength

in my frame, a new life in my breast, and a glow upon my cheeks as

within my soul, which seemed a guaranty for a long and happy term

of that love which had begun in my bosom with the first moments of

its childish consciousness and confidence.




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024