ved for a man who had robbed him of the miserable right
of persecuting Astraea. Had I simply made her unhappy by awakening a
passion in her heart, and then abandoning her upon the discovery of her
situation (which was exactly what he appeared to have calculated upon),
he would have forgiven me; he might have even been grateful to me for
having humiliated her, and cast her helpless at his feet. But the crime
I had committed in loving her too well to forsake her, admitted of no
palliation. He could extract nothing out of it but vengeance. The
sleepless hostility with which the Indian follows the trail of his foe,
is not more vindictive and persevering than the feelings of hatred with
which he coiled himself up for the spring which he was nursing all his
strength to make upon me. He had not yet been able to get out of the
house--but he was coming! No inducements, no arguments, founded on mercy
or justice, could move him to sue for a dissolution of the marriage. He
was determined to hold that horror over our heads, so that the vulture
should tear our hearts, and shriek "despair!" in our ears forever and
ever. He had the power in his own hands to embitter our whole lives, and
could distill the last dregs of the poison that was to rack and madden
us.

I did not expect any other sort of treatment from him. To me he was
still the same crooked fiend he had ever been. So far as I was
concerned, he was perfectly consistent; and although I secretly admired
the relenting spirit he exhibited toward Astraea, recognizing in it the
elements of a tenderness which circumstances had stunted, as nature had
stunted his person, I could not help feeling that his malice, now that
it could avail him nothing except the gratification of a wanton revenge,
fully justified henceforth any reprisals opportunity might enable me to
make. It plucked out all commiseration, and obliterated the injury (if
injury there were) of which he complained.

It seemed to me, that of all three it was I who had the greatest reason
to complain. Ignorant of the existence of his claim upon Astraea, and
meeting her as a free agent, I had formed this attachment, and won her
love before I became acquainted with the position in which she was
placed. What right had he to complain, if, having kept his rights hidden
from the world, he found me unknowingly trespassing upon them? The law
might certainly hold me responsible, but moral claim upon me I felt he
had none.

We eagerly