Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth

“ Carolyn was vain and proud and scornful—so vain and proud and scornful that she did not know—could not imagine that that very haggard face—haggard with sorrow for the estrangement and the separation, would be a stronger appeal, make a deeper impression upon the heart of her lover, than all the glory of her beauty had ever done. And thus vanity, pride and scorn punish their subject, not only by depriving her of very much respect and affection she would otherwise have, but by making her insensible of that love and esteem that really does surround her. ”

“ Come to my bosom! Don’t grieve!”
“‘Grieve,’ sir!” exclaimed the imperious girl, elevating her queenly head, “we do not grieve for a traitor! We pronounce sentence on him, and execute it!”
“True! true! my noble girl! There spoke your mother’s daughter! Yet—” suddenly cried the old gentleman, as by a quick recollection and revulsion of feeling, “what a devil of a kettle of fish this is, my dear! Blame the fellow, what are we to do? Deuce take the man—what are we to say to the people down stairs? Say, Carolyn! Woman’s wit is quick! Can you think of anything?” ”

“ You cannot bear your burden alone! Few human beings can! Tell me, darling?”
“Oh, Kate! It was the last thing he asked me! I must comply with his wish!”
“Zuleime! I am about to cast away all reserve! I am about to tell you the name of him I love so madly. It is Archer Clifton, your cousin—your sister’s betrothed! There! I have thrown open the very sanctuary of my heart to you. I have shown its secret sin and shame! Now, will you confide in me!”
“Dear Kate! Dearest Kate! My own secret’s without reserve, but not another’s.”
Catherine arose and took the seat by the mourner’s side. ”

“ And when I tell you that I love your daughter Zuleime, I mean that I love her sincerely and earnestly, with my whole heart and soul—and that I shall love her to the last hour of my life!”
“Bah! bah! It’s all tom-foolery, I tell you! You get yourself shut up in a country house with a pretty girl, and of course you fall in love with her! To be sure! What else could you do? It’s expected of you! You’d disappoint us if you didn’t! But it is such love as will not outlast your journey to your regiment.”
“It will outlast my life! I know it will! I feel it will!” said Frank, earnestly, vehemently. ”

“ And the devil fled from her.
“You do not answer me, Catherine. My dear girl, I have so much confidence in your rectitude of mind! Advise me!”
“Dear Miss Clifton, never, as you value your whole life’s peace and rectitude—never, for any purpose whatever—under any temptation whatever—consent to marry a man you do not love; never, as you hope for earthly content—as you trust in God—never put an insurmountable object between yourself and one you love! How criminal to become a wife, while you love another living man! How terrible to find out, when it is too late, that he loves you still! ”

“ And what old father of a family, with two grown daughters, and a young wife, all under eighteen years of age, and all beauties, has not enough combustible material to burn the house down, or set his own temper on fire?—yet such was the kindness of his heart, that even when in violent anger, stamping up and down the floor, grasping desperately at his own white temple locks with both hands, and vociferating in stentorian tones—it was all, as Frank afterwards said, shooting with blank cartridges—he never said a word, or did a thing, to wound a single soul. ”

“ So sudden, so mighty—so appalling was this burst of passion, that for a moment after it was over, Cabell and Fairfax stood as if transfixed with astonishment. Then Cabell, in the frankest way in the world, held out his hand, exclaiming—
“I like that! D—d if I don’t! Come, Clifton—I was wrong, forgive me! give me your hand! By my soul, I like a man that will stand up for—there! by all that’s fatal, I had liked to have tripped again!”
“Understand me, sir,” said Archer Clifton, sternly. “You know me to be on the eve of marriage with our cousin. ”

“ As for herself, she would, with the grace of God, turn out this dangerous bosom guest, so divinely fair as to seem like an angel of light rather than the tempting demon that it was! And to do this effectually, she must break every tie that held her to that fair illusive life she had lately led. She must forsake every association connected with her sin and folly. She loved Mrs. Clifton—loved her first for herself alone, and then as the mother of—one whose name she dared not now to breathe even to herself. She enjoyed the congenial society and occupations at White Cliffs and at Hardbargain. ”

“ I have spoiled my own life, and should spoil yours if I should live. Ah, it is a dreadful thing to occasion the death of any one! it is an awful thing to cause the death of a father. I caused the death of the most loving father that ever lived. And dearest Frank! though in the struggle, in the bitterness of poverty, in the pangs of hunger and of cold, and in the pain and debility of illness, the feeling of compunction has been diverted, yet—had health returned with prosperity—remorse would then have darkened all my life ”

“ You are not forever secure of Catherine. Our moods of mind, and our views of things, change with time. And however the maiden may feel or think now, if you hesitate for years between your pride and love, she will naturally arrive at the conclusion that many a generous hearted woman has come to before her, and say to herself, ‘Well, I cannot be happy myself, but my life must not, therefore, be wasted—I can make some one else happy,’ and being scorned by one she loves, give herself away to one who loves her. ”

“ Zuleime, upon the whole, I think that you were rash to attempt suicide. Your position and prospects are not so bad. If Major Cabell is anxious to possess you, now that he supposes you to be a maudlin, love-sick girl, grieving yourself to death over the grave of your lover, he will be quite as willing to marry you a year hence, when he knows you to be the widow of Captain Fairfax—for that, I understand, was his rank when he fell. Come, girl, live! Acknowledge your marriage, like a truthful woman! Bring your child into God’s world like a Christian woman! ”

“ It was only the next day that his mother learned from him how deceptive was the seeming convalescence of his wife—how from the day of their embarkation her strength declined—how for weeks their hearts fluctuated between hope and fear, as with the changes of her flattering disease she seemed better or worse—how when all thought of life was gone, but one earthly hope possessed her soul—to die at home;—of the waning of that last hope—of the death at sea—and, finally, of the lone grave in the ocean isle, where slept the mortal remains of the haughtiest beauty that ever trod the halls of a palace. ”

“ Do you think a girl of her age, can feel any lasting love, or grief, or enduring passion of any sort at all? Pooh, pooh! I tell you if her lap-dog were killed, she would blubber and weep as much over its death, as she does over this other puppy’s fate! But, once for all, Mr. Clifton, I tell you I do not intend to be put off, or in any way annoyed by this girl’s grief and petulance. It is not well for you, her, or myself, that it should be indulged. ”

“ Georgia Clifton entered Zuleime’s room. The poor girl was sitting in an arm-chair near the window, idle, as was never her habit before, with her hands lying languidly one over the other, and her eyes fixed upon vacancy.
The beauty went to her with her soft, winning way, and took her hand, and stole her arm over her shoulder, and said, tenderly—
“Zuleime, my love, do not sit here by this open window. Let me close it, and lead you to the sofa.”
There is nothing so quiet as despair, except death. There is nothing so docile as despair often is. ”

“ Oh, Heaven! what shall I do?” said Catherine, in despair.
“Swear, and I will believe you,” he answered, mockingly.
“Oh! why will not my simple word do? Oh! do you think I would tell a falsehood even to save my life?”
“Do I? Does not an astute diplomatist, like you, know that I know a woman who can be false, treacherous, hypocritical;—who, so young, can plot so well, and succeed so entirely;—can also tell a falsehood to conceal her baseness?” he answered, looking down upon her in insufferable scorn. ”

“ A shuddering sigh shook her bosom; her lips parted in a light, rosy smile; color dawned upon her cheeks, and light beamed on her brow. Alarmed, and remembering the physician’s warning that a premature awakening might be fatal, he cautiously laid her down again, and anxiously watched her countenance. She did not awake; nor did the light depart from her brow; nor the color from her cheeks; nor the smile from her lips. “How she loves me. Her soul as well as her person is mine. How she loves me, even in sleep—even in this trance-sleep, with all her senses locked. How she loves me—my Kate! ”

“ No matter who’s right and who’s wrong—who’s sinned against, and who’s sinning, the gentleman has to do the penance! There! kiss me, and be off with you!—and hark ye, Carolyn! don’t forget to kneel down and pray Heaven to give you the grace of a meeker temper!”
Carolyn Clifton went to her room and retired to bed, to heat her pillow with her feverish head, to wet it with her hot tears—to sigh, and groan, and toss, and sob all night. This bitter, bitter quarrel, was the first trouble the girl had ever had in all her favored life. ”

“ Clifton’s cheerfulness infected all the party—both upon this evening and afterwards. Her decline was so gradual, so painless, that she never took to her bed—but when weakest, sat in the easy-chair in the parlor, often with a little light knitting in her hands, that she would leisurely work upon, or drop into her lap, to be resumed at pleasure, while she conversed with Catherine and Major Clifton, or listened while one of them read, or both sang. There never were more pleasant, serene days, than these of the invalid’s gentle decay. ”