F. Colburn (Francis Colburn) Adams
Chapter 66
a stillness as of the tomb. Our ghost is victor.
CHAPTER VIII.
WHAT TAKES PLACE BETWEEN GEORGE MULLHOLLAND AND MR. SNIVEL.
THE man who kissed and bore away the prostrate girl was George
Mullholland.
"Oh! George-George!" she whispers imploringly, as her eyes meet his;
and turning upon the couch of her chamber, where he hath lain her,
awakes to consciousness, and finds him watching over her with a
lover's solicitude. "I was not cold because I loved you less-oh no!
It was to propitiate my ambition-to be free of the bondage of this
house-to purge myself of the past-to better my future!" And she lays
her pale, nervous hand gently on his arm-then grasps his hand and
presses it fervently to her lips.
Though placed beyond the pale of society-though envied by one
extreme and shunned by the other-she finds George her only true
friend. He parts and smooths gently over her polished shoulders her
dishevelled hair; he watches over her with the tenderness of a
brother; he quenches and wipes away the blood oozing from her
wounded breast; he kisses and kisses her flushed cheek, and bathes
her Ion-like brow. He forgives all. His heart would speak if his
tongue had words to represent it. He would the past were buried-the
thought of having wronged him forgotten. She recognizes in his
solicitude for her the sincerity of his heart. It touches like sweet
music the tenderest chords of her own; and like gushing fountains
her great black eyes fill with tears. She buries her face in her
hands, crying, "Never, never, George, (I swear it before the God I
have wronged, but whose forgiveness I still pray,) will I again
forget my obligation to you! I care not how high in station he who
seeks me may be. Ambitious!--I was misled. His money lured me away,
but he betrayed me in the face of his promises. Henceforth I have
nothing for this deceptive world; I receive of it nothing but
betrayal--"
"The world wants nothing more of either of us," interrupts George.
More wounded in her feelings than in her flesh, she sobs and wrings