And yet she feared to wake him and was almost glad that he was
unconscious. In the solitude she could gaze on him to her heart’s
desire, she could let her eyes look their fill, and no one could say her
nay. He must be very tired, she thought, and she vaguely wondered why
she felt no bodily weariness, when her soul was so heavy.
She sat still and watched him. It might be the last time, she thought,
for who could tell what would happen to-morrow? She shuddered as she
thought of it all. What would Beatrice do? What would Sister Paul say?
How much would she tell of what she had seen? How much had she really
seen which she could tell clearly? There were terrible possibilities in
the future if all were known. Such deeds, and even the attempt at such
deeds as she had tried to do, could be judged by the laws of the land,
she might be brought to trial, if she lived, as a common prisoner, and
held up to the execration of the world in all her shame and guilt. But
death would be worse than that. As she thought of that other Judgment,
she grew dizzy with horror as she had been when the idea had first
entered her brain.
Then she was conscious that she was again looking at the Wanderer as he
lay back asleep in his tall chair. The pale and noble face expressed the
stainless soul and the manly character. She saw in it the peace she had
lost, and yet knew that through him she had lost her peace for ever.
It was perhaps the last time. Never again, perhaps, after the morning
had broken, should she look on what she loved best on earth. She would
be gone, ruined, dead perhaps. And he? He would be still himself. He
would remember her half carelessly, half in wonder, as a woman who had
once been almost his friend. That would be all that would be left in him
of her, beyond a memory of the repulsion he had felt for her deeds.
She fancied she could have met the worst in the future less hopelessly
if he could have remembered her a little more kindly when all was over.
Even now, it might be in her power to cast a veil upon the pictures in
his mind. But the mere thought was horrible to her, though a few hours
before she had hardly trembled at the doing of a frightful sacrilege. In
that short time the humiliation of failure, the realisation of what she
had almost done, above all the ever-rising tide of a real and passionate
love, had swept away many familiar landmarks in her thoughts, and had
turned much to lead which had once seemed brighter than gold. She hated
the very idea of using again those arts which had so directly wrought
her utter destruction. But she longed to know that in the world whither
he would doubtless go to-morrow he would bear with him one kind memory
of her, one natural friendly thought not grafted upon his mind by her
power, but growing of its own self in his inmost heart. Only a friendly
memory--nothing more than that.
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