FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173  
174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   >>   >|  
e, you have an opportunity of declaring on the ground your perfect innocence of the charge; at least, such, I fancy, would be what I should do, in a like event. I would say, 'My Lord, it is your pleasure, under a very grave and great misconception, to desire to take my life. I have stood here for you once, and will do so again, as many times as you please, till either your vengeance be satisfied or your error recognized; simply repeating, as I now do, that I am innocent.' In this way you will show that personal risk is nothing with you in comparison with the assertion of a fact that regards another far more nearly than yourself. I will not dispute with you which line is the better one; but, so much will I say, This is what 'the World' would look for." The word was a spell! Cashel felt himself in a difficulty perfectly novel; he was, as it were, arraigned to appear before a court of whose proceedings he knew little or nothing. How "the World" would regard the affair, was the whole question,--what "the World" would say of Lady Kilgoff,--how receive her exculpation. Now Linton assuredly knew this same "World" well; he knew it in its rare moods of good-humor, when it is pleased to speak its flatteries to some popular idol of the hour; and he knew it in its more congenial temper, when it utters its fatal judgments on unproved delinquency and imputed wrong. None knew better than himself the course by which the "Holy Office" of slander disseminates its decrees, and he had often impressed Roland with a suitable awe of its mysterious doings. The word was, then, talismanic; for, however at the bar of Conscience he might stand acquitted, Cashel knew that it was to another and very different jurisdiction the appeal should be made. Linton saw what was passing in his mind, for he had often watched him in similar conflicts, and he hastened to press his advantage. "Understand me well, Cashel; I do not pretend to say that this is the common-sense solution of such a difficulty; nor is it the mode which a man with frankness of character and honorable intentions would perhaps have selected; but it is the way in which the world will expect to see it treated, and any deviation from which would be regarded as a solecism in our established code of conduct." "In what position will it place _her?_ That's the only question worth considering." "Perfect exculpation. You, as I said before, receive Kilgoff's fire, and protest your entire i
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173  
174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Cashel

 

question

 
difficulty
 

Kilgoff

 

Linton

 

exculpation

 

receive

 

imputed

 

decrees

 
acquitted

impressed
 

delinquency

 

jurisdiction

 
utters
 
judgments
 

unproved

 

appeal

 
Roland
 

mysterious

 
slander

talismanic

 
disseminates
 
Conscience
 

Office

 

suitable

 

doings

 
Understand
 

solecism

 

established

 
conduct

regarded
 

expect

 

treated

 

deviation

 

position

 

protest

 

entire

 

Perfect

 

selected

 
hastened

conflicts
 
advantage
 

temper

 

similar

 

passing

 
watched
 

pretend

 

character

 

frankness

 

honorable