Ishmael, or In The Depths
Page 41He stole his arm around her waist, and as he drew her to his heart,
murmured: "Why should you not enjoy all the wealth, rank, and love to which you
are entitled as my wife?"
"Ah! dear Herman, I cannot tell why. I only know that I never shall!
Bear with me, dear Herman, while I say this; After I had learned to love
you; after I had grieved myself almost to death for your absence; when
you returned and asked me to be your wife, I seemed suddenly to have
passed from darkness into radiant light! But in the midst of it all I
seemed to hear a voice in my heart, saying: 'Poor Moth! you are basking
in a consuming fire; you will presently fall to the ground a burnt,
the great difference between us; of your old family, high rank, and vast
wealth; and of your magnificent house, and your stately lady mother and
fine lady sisters, I knew that though you had married me, I never could
be owned as your wife--"
"Nora, if it were possible for me to be angry with you, I should be so!"
interrupted Herman vehemently; "'you never could be owned as my wife!' I
tell you that you can be--and that you shall be, and very soon! It was
only to avoid a rupture with my mother that I married you privately at
all. Have I not surrounded you with every legal security? Have I not
possible for me to turn rascal, and become so mean, and miserable, and
dishonored as to desert you, you could still demand your rights as a
wife, and compel me to yield them!"
"As if I would! Oh, Herman, as if I would depend upon anything but your
dear love to give me all I need! Armed against you, am I? I do not
choose to be so! It is enough for me to know that I am your wife. I do
not care to be able to prove it; for, Herman, were it possible for you
to forsake me, I should not insist upon my 'rights'--I should die.
Therefore, why should I be armed with legal proofs against you, my
generous abandonment she drew from her bosom the marriage certificate,
tore it to pieces, and scattered it abroad, saying: "There now! I had
kept it as a love token, close to my heart, little knowing it was a
cold-blooded, cautious, legal proof, else it should have gone before,
where it has gone now, to the winds! There now, Herman, I am your own
wife, your own Nora, quite unarmed and defenseless before you; trusting
only to your faith for my happiness; knowing that you will never
willingly forsake me; but feeling that if you do, I should not pursue
you, but die!"