I saw him in a few
moments hurrying along the path which led to my brother's. I had
no power to prevent his going, or to recall or to follow him. The
accents I had heard were calculated to confound and bewilder. I
looked around me, to assure myself that the scene was real. I
moved, that I might banish the doubt that I was awake. Such
enormous imputations from the mouth of Pleyel! To be stigmatized
with the names of wanton and profligate! To be charged with the
sacrifice of honor! with midnight meetings with a wretch known to
be a murderer and thief! with an intention to fly in his company!
What I had heard was surely the dictate of frenzy, or it was built
upon some fatal, some incomprehensible mistake. After the horrors
of the night, after undergoing perils so imminent from this man, to
be summoned to an interview like this!--to find Pleyel fraught with
a belief that, instead of having chosen death as a refuge from the
violence of this man, I had hugged his baseness to my heart, had
sacrificed for him my purity, my spotless name, my friendships, and
my fortune! That even madness could engender accusations like
these was not to be believed.
Pages:
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464