'
"'O, yes,' I answered,--or rather sneered, for I was uncontrollably
indignant through all this,--'if you mean _that_, very likely. I am not
talking lovers' metaphysics, but practical common-sense. He does not
know the one thing at present essential for him to know; and he will
abandon you, spurn you,--his love turned to scorn, his passion to
contempt,--when he reads what I shall write him if you refuse to do what
I demand!'
"I expected to see her cower before me. Conceive, then, if you can, my
sensations when she cried, 'Stop, madam! Say what you will to me;
insult, outrage me, if you please, and have not the good breeding and
dignity to forbear; but do not presume to so slander him. Do not presume
to accuse him, who is all nobility and greatness of soul, of a
sentiment so base, a prejudice so infamous. Study him, madam, know him
better, ere you attempt to be his mouth-piece.'
"As she uttered these words, a horrible foreboding seized me, or, to
speak more truthfully, I so felt the certainty of what she spoke, that a
shudder of terror ran over me. I thought of him, of his character, of
his principles, of his insane sense of honor, of his terrible will under
all that soft exterior,--the hand of steel under the silken glove; I saw
that if I persisted and she still refused to yield I should lose all. On
the instant I changed my attack.
"'It is true,' I said, 'having asked you to become his wife, he will
marry you; he will redeem his pledge though it ruin his life and blast
his career, to say nothing of the effect an unending series of outrages
and mortifications will have upon his temper and his heart.
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