The Disowned — CompleteLytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
General
The Disowned — Complete
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
English fiction -- 19th century
“Man, man,” said Glendower, “tempt me no more: let them die! At present
the worst is death: what you offer me is dishonour.”
“Heavens, how uncharitable is this! Can you call the mere act of
accepting money from one who loves you dishonour?”
“It is in vain that you varnish your designs,” said Glendower, stopping
and fixing his eyes upon him. “Do you not think that cunning ever
betrays itself? In a thousand words, in a thousand looks which have
escaped you, but not me, I know that, if there be one being on this
earth whom you hate and would injure, that being is myself. Nay,
start not: listen to me patiently. I have sworn that it is the last
opportunity you shall have. I will not subject myself to farther
temptation: I am now sane; but there are things which may drive me mad,
and in madness you might conquer. You hate me it is out of the nature of
earthly things that you should not. But even were it otherwise, do you
think that I could believe you would come from your voluptuous home to
these miserable retreats; that, among the lairs of beggary and theft,
you would lie in wait to allure me to forsake poverty, without a
stronger motive than love for one who affects it not for you? I know
you: I have read your heart; I have penetrated into that stronger
motive; it is your own safety. In the system of atrocity you proposed
to me, you are the principal. You have already bared to me enough of
the extent to which that system reaches to convince me that a single
miscreant, however ingenious, cannot, unassisted, support it with
impunity. You want help: I am he in whom you have dared to believe that
you could find it. You are detected; now be undeceived!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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