"It were vain to wish it," said the model. "In all that labyrinth of

midnight paths, we should have found one another out to live or die

together. Our fates cross and are entangled. The threads are twisted

into a strong cord, which is dragging us to an evil doom. Could the

knots be severed, we might escape. But neither can your slender fingers

untie these knots, nor my masculine force break them. We must submit!"

"Pray for rescue, as I have," exclaimed Miriam. "Pray for deliverance

from me, since I am your evil genius, as you mine. Dark as your life has

been, I have known you to pray in times past!"

At these words of Miriam, a tremor and horror appeared to seize upon her

persecutor, insomuch that he shook and grew ashy pale before her eyes.

In this man's memory there was something that made it awful for him to

think of prayer; nor would any torture be more intolerable than to be

reminded of such divine comfort and succor as await pious souls

merely for the asking; This torment was perhaps the token of a native

temperament deeply susceptible of religious impressions, but which had

been wronged, violated, and debased, until, at length, it was capable

only of terror from the sources that were intended for our purest and

loftiest consolation. He looked so fearfully at her, and with such

intense pain struggling in his eyes, that Miriam felt pity.

And now, all at once, it struck her that he might be mad. It was an idea

that had never before seriously occurred to her mind, although, as soon

as suggested, it fitted marvellously into many circumstances that

lay within her knowledge. But, alas! such was her evil fortune, that,

whether mad or no, his power over her remained the same, and was likely

to be used only the more tyrannously, if exercised by a lunatic.

"I would not give you pain," she said, soothingly; "your faith allows you

the consolations of penance and absolution. Try what help there may be

in these, and leave me to myself."

"Do not think it, Miriam," said he; "we are bound together, and can

never part again." "Why should it seem so impossible?" she rejoined.

"Think how I had escaped from all the past! I had made for myself a

new sphere, and found new friends, new occupations, new hopes and

enjoyments. My heart, methinks, was almost as unburdened as if there had

been no miserable life behind me. The human spirit does not perish of a

single wound, nor exhaust itself in a single trial of life. Let us

but keep asunder, and all may go well for both." "We fancied ourselves

forever sundered," he replied. "Yet we met once, in the bowels of the

earth; and, were we to part now, our fates would fling us together again

in a desert, on a mountain-top, or in whatever spot seemed safest. You

speak in vain, therefore."




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