Morley Ernstein; or, the Tenants of the HeartJames, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
General
Morley Ernstein; or, the Tenants of the Heart
James, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
Fiction
Helen made no reply, but retired to her chamber as she had said, and
after having paid the boy from Sheffield, wrote a long letter to her
brother, and another to Juliet Carr. To the first she told all that
had taken place between herself and Mr. Carr, regarding the fortune
which he said was unjustly withheld from them. She entered into the
whole of her own recollections, and the facts which induced her to
believe that there was some ground for the statements of the old
lawyer, and at the same time she informed her brother of her
approaching return to London. The most important intelligence of the
whole, however, was conveyed in a postscript of a few words, to the
following effect:--"You need no longer be under any apprehension
regarding the consequences of an act that you lately committed, which
you once told me of. Both the papers were destroyed before my own
eyes, by a man who seemed to know something of you, and who had
obtained possession of them in the commission of another crime."
The letter to Juliet was upon other topics, though she noticed briefly
all that had occurred at Yelverly, and stated that she was about to
return to London, accompanied by Mr. Carr. In the end of the letter
she said--"Count Lieberg has been here, and has justified too sadly
the opinion which Sir Morley Ernstein and Lady Malcolm entertained of
him. He has insulted me cruelly, dear Juliet; and, I do not know why,
but since I have had your friendship, and the support and protection
of one who is, I know, very dear to you, my spirit has risen, even in
spite of much sadness; and those insults which, a few weeks ago, I
looked upon as a part of my fate, a misery that I was born to endure,
I now feel angry and indignant at, and my heart burns within me. It
seems as if being admitted to call myself your friend, has given me,
back a dignity of feeling that misery and friendlessness had before
taken from me. The poor teacher of music and of drawing, who could
hardly gain enough, by her utmost labour, to keep herself and her
brother from absolute want, seemed to consider herself, as well as to
be considered by others, as merely a being to be pursued by the wicked
and licentious, and with no other task before her, than to struggle
and resist, till age came to relieve her from any share of
attractions, without feeling the least anger or surprise at views and
proposals the most degrading. Now, however, it is different, and I
feel the insult that this man has offered me to the very heart.
Nevertheless, my dear Juliet, you must, on no account, mention this to
Sir Morley Ernstein; we both know his noble and his generous nature
too well to doubt that it might, and very probably would, produce a
quarrel between him and the other, which might end fatally. Just in
the proportion as I am unprotected, poor, and without any claim to the
generosity and friendship of any one, would he think himself called
upon to resent an injury and an evil inflicted upon her to whom he has
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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