The International Monthly, Volume 4, No. 4, November 1, 1851Various
History
The International Monthly, Volume 4, No. 4, November 1, 1851
Various
Art, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- History -- Periodicals
Mrs. Hazleton made no answer to her dear friend's questions, and the high
constable, taking a little step forward, said, "I beg pardon, Mrs.
Warmington, for intruding into your house; but I have been ordered to
apprehend this lady, and to have her person and her carriage strictly
searched, without giving the opportunity for the concealment or destruction
of any thing. It seems to me that Mrs. Hazleton has something bulky in that
left hand pocket. As I do not like to put my hand rudely upon a lady, may I
ask you, Madam, to let me see what that pocket contains?"
Without the slightest hesitation, but with a good deal of curiosity, Mrs.
Warmington advanced at once and took hold of the rich silk brocade of the
prisoner's gown.
"Out, woman!" cried Mrs. Hazleton, with the fire flashing from her eyes;
and she struck her.
But Mrs. Warmington did not quit her hold or her purpose. "Good gracious,
what a termagant!" she exclaimed, and at once thrust her right hand into
the pocket, and drew forth the vial which had been sent by the surgeon to
Lady Hastings.
"Dear me!" exclaimed Mrs. Warmington. "Why, this is the very bottle I saw
you mixing stuff in this morning, when you seemed so angry and vexed at my
coming into the still-room.--No, it isn't the same either; but it was one
very like this, only darker in the color."
"Ha!" said Mr. Atkinson. "Madam, will you have the goodness to put a mark
upon that bottle by which you can know it again?--Scratch it with a diamond
or something."
"Oh, poor I have no diamonds," said Mrs. Warmington. "My dear, will you
lend me that ring?"
Mrs. Hazleton gave her a withering glance, but made no reply; and Marlow
pointed to two peculiar spots in the glass of the bottle, saying, "By those
marks it will be known, so that it cannot be mistaken." His words were
addressed to Mr. Atkinson; for he felt disgusted and sickened by the
heartless and insulting tone of Mrs. Warmington towards her former friend.
At the sound of his voice--for she had not yet looked at him--Mrs. Hazleton
started and looked round. It is not possible to tell the feelings which
affected her heart at that moment, or to picture with the pen the varied
expressions, all terrible, which swept over her beautiful countenance like
a storm. She remembered how she had loved him. Perhaps at that moment she
knew for the first time how much she had loved him. She felt too, how
strongly love and hate had been mingled together by the fiery alchemy of
disappointment, as veins of incongruous metals have been mixed by the great
convulsions of the early earth. She felt too, at that moment, that it was
this love and this hate which had been the cause of her deepest crimes, and
all their consequences--the awful situation in which she there stood, the
lingering tortures of imprisonment, the agonies of trial, and the bitter
consummation of the scaffold.
"Oh, Marlow, Marlow," she cried--in a tone for the first time
sorrowful--"to see you mingling in these acts!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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