ss the slaves
of rash or intemperate humors. He had been reared in too stern a school
to let mere temper master him; but his long practised self-restraint
deserted him here. In his eagerness to carry his point, he was borne
away beyond all his prudence, and once launched into the sea of his
confessions, he wandered without chart or compass. Besides this, there
was that strange, morbid sense of vanity which is experienced in giving
a shock to the fears and sensibilities of another. The deeper the tints
of his own criminality, the more terrible the course he had run in life,
so much the more was he to be feared and dreaded. If he should fail to
work upon her affections, he might still hope to extract something from
her terror; for who could say of what a man like him was not capable?
And last of all, he had thrown off the mask, and he did not care to
retain a single rag of the disguise he so long had worn; thus was
it, then, that he stood before her in all the strong light of his
iniquities,--a criminal, whose forfeitures would have furnished Guilt
for fifty.

"Shall I go on?" said he, in a voice of thick and labored utterance, "or
is this enough?"

"Oh, is it not enough?" cried she, bitterly.

"You asked me to tell you all,--everything,--and now that you 've
only caught a passing glimpse of what I could reveal, you start back
affrighted. Be it so; there are, at least, no concealments between us
now; and harsh as my lesson has been, it is not a whit harsher than if
the world had given it I 've only one word more to say, girl," said he,
as he drew nigh the door and held his hand on the lock; "if it be your
firm resolve to reject this fortune, the sooner you let me know it the
better. I have said all that I need say; the rest is within your own
hands; only remember that if such be your determination, give me the
earliest notice, for I, too, must take my measures for the future."

If there was nothing of violence in the manner he uttered these
words, there was a stern, impassive serenity that made them still more
impressive; and Lizzy, without a word of reply, buried her face between
her hands and wept.

Davis stood irresolute; for a moment it seemed as if his affection had
triumphed, for he made a gesture as though he would approach her; then,
suddenly correcting himself with a start, he muttered, below his breath,
"It is done now," and left the room.

CHAPTER XIV. SOME DAYS AT GLENGARIFF

The little Hermitag