End of the world -- Fiction; Epidemics -- Fiction; Science fiction; Twenty-first century -- Fiction
to Raymond gave no clue for discovery; it assured him, that she was in
no danger of wanting the means of life; she promised in it to preserve
herself, and some future day perhaps to present herself to him in a
station not unworthy of her. She then bade him, with the eloquence of
despair and of unalterable love, a last farewell.
All these circumstances were now related to Adrian and Idris. Raymond
then lamented the cureless evil of his situation with Perdita. He
declared, notwithstanding her harshness, he even called it coldness,
that he loved her. He had been ready once with the humility of a
penitent, and the duty of a vassal, to surrender himself to her; giving
up his very soul to her tutelage, to become her pupil, her slave, her
bondsman. She had rejected these advances; and the time for such
exuberant submission, which must be founded on love and nourished by
it, was now passed. Still all his wishes and endeavours were directed
towards her peace, and his chief discomfort arose from the perception
that he exerted himself in vain. If she were to continue inflexible in
the line of conduct she now pursued, they must part. The combinations
and occurrences of this senseless mode of intercourse were maddening to
him. Yet he would not propose the separation. He was haunted by the
fear of causing the death of one or other of the beings implicated in
these events; and he could not persuade himself to undertake to direct
the course of events, lest, ignorant of the land he traversed, he
should lead those attached to the car into irremediable ruin.
After a discussion on this subject, which lasted for several hours, he
took leave of his friends, and returned to town, unwilling to meet
Perdita before us, conscious, as we all must be, of the thoughts
uppermost in the minds of both. Perdita prepared to follow him with her
child. Idris endeavoured to persuade her to remain. My poor sister
looked at the counsellor with affright. She knew that Raymond had
conversed with her; had he instigated this request?—was this to be the
prelude to their eternal separation?—I have said, that the defects of
her character awoke and acquired vigour from her unnatural position.
She regarded with suspicion the invitation of Idris; she embraced me,
as if she were about to be deprived of my affection also: calling me
her more than brother, her only friend, her last hope, she pathetically
conjured me not to cease to love her; and with encreased anxiety she
departed for London, the scene and cause of all her misery.
The scenes that followed, convinced her that she had not yet fathomed
the obscure gulph into which she had plunged. Her unhappiness assumed
every day a new shape; every day some unexpected event seemed to close,
while in fact it led onward, the train of calamities which now befell
her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account