fell upon me--I
saw you! No wonder I shivered, when you met me. I saw you. Then my sun
sickened and went out, and my hopes crumbled, and my youth shrivelled
and perished forever; and the wide world is a rayless dungeon, and the
girl Beryl is buried so deep, that the Angels of the Resurrection will
never find her!--and I?--I am only a withered, disgraced woman, hurled
into a den; trampled, branded; with a soul devoured by despairing
bitterness, with a broken heart, a brain on fire! If you had drawn a
knife across my throat, or sent a bullet through my temples, my spirit
might have rested in the Beyond, and I could have forgiven that which
hastened me to heaven; but you strangled my hopes, and mutilated my
youth, and dishonored my father's name!--You robbed me of my stainless
character, and cast me among outlaws and fiends!--Worse yet, oh!
blackest of all your crimes!--you have almost throttled my faith in
Christ. You have torn away my hold upon the eternal God! You are the
curse of my life. You wish you had never set your eyes on me? Take
courage, finish your work; the best of me is utterly dead already, and
when you have taken my blood, and laid my polluted body in a convict's
shallow grave, your enmity will be satiated. Then I, at least, I shall
be free from my hideous curse. If there be any comfort left me, it
lurks in the knowledge that when you succeed in convicting me, the same
world will no longer hold us both."

Was it the fever of disease, or incipient madness that blazed in her
eyes, flamed on her cheeks, and lent such thrilling cadence to her pure
clear voice? Was she a consummate actress, or had he made a frightful
mistake, and goaded an innocent girl to the verge of frenzy? Some
occult influence seemed clouding his hitherto infallible perceptions,
melting his heart, paralyzing his will. He walked up and down the
floor, with his hands clasped behind him, then came close to the
prisoner.

"If I have unjustly suspected and persecuted you, may God forgive me!
If I have wronged you by suspicion and accusation of a crime which you
did not commit, then my atonement shall be your triumphant vindication.
I would give a good deal to know that your hands are as pure as they
look, and innocent of theft and murder. Tell me--tell me the truth. I
will save you, I will give you back all that you have lost, and tenfold
more. For God's sake, for your own sake, and for mine, I entreat you to
tell me the truth. Did you go ba