Volume I Part 23 (2/2)

”I do believe you, Paullus. I did believe that, ere you spoke it. First, then, I set you free-and free you are henceforth, forever.”

”But wherefore?”

”Because you are betrayed. Because I know all that fell out last night.

Because I know darker villainy plotted against you, yet to come; villainy from which, tramelled by this oath, no earthly power can save you.

Because, I know not altogether why or how, my mind has been changed of late completely, and I will lend myself no more to projects, which I loathe, and infamy which I abhor. Because-because-because, in a word, I love you Paullus! Better than all I have, or hope to have on earth.”

”But you must not,” he replied, gravely yet tenderly, ”because”--

”You love another,” she interrupted him, very quickly, ”You love Julia Serena, Hortensia's lovely daughter; and she loves you, and you are to be wedded soon. You see,” she added, with a faint painful smile, ”that I know everything about you. I knew it long since; long, long before I gave myself to you; even before I loved you, Paul-for I have loved you, also, long!”

”Loved me long!” he exclaimed, in astonishment, ”how can that be, when you never saw me until the day before yesterday?”

”Oh! yes I have,” she answered sadly. ”I have seen you and known you many years; though you have forgotten me, if even, which I doubt, you ever noticed me at all. But I can bring it to your mind. Have you forgotten how, six summers since, as you were riding down the Collis Hortulorum, you pa.s.sed a little girl weeping by the wayside?-”

”Over a wounded kid? No, I remember very well. A great country boor had hurt it with a stone.”

”And you,” exclaimed the girl, with her eyes flas.h.i.+ng fire, ”you sprang down from your horse, and chastised him, till he whined like a beaten hound, though he was twice as big as you were; and then you bound up the kid's wound, and wiped away the tears-innocent tears they were-of the little girl, and parted her hair, and kissed her on the forehead. That little girl was I, and I have kept that kiss upon my brow, aye, and in my heart too! until now. No lips of man or woman have ever touched that spot which your lips hallowed. From that day forth I have loved you, I have adored you, Paullus. From that day forth I have watched all your ways, unseen and unsuspected. I have seen you do fifty kind, and generous, and gallant actions; but never saw you do one base, or tyrannous, or cowardly, or cruel-”

”Until that fatal night!” he said, with a deep groan. ”May the G.o.ds pardon me! I never shall forgive my self.”

”No! no! I tell you, no!” cried the girl, impetuously. ”I tell you, that I was not deceived, if I fell; but I did not fall then! I knew that you loved Julia, years ago. I knew that I never could be yours in honor; and that put fire and madness in my brain, and despair in my heart. And my home was a h.e.l.l, and those who should have been my guides and saviours were my destroyers; and I am-_what I am_; but in that you had no share. On that night, I but obeyed the accursed bidding of the blackest and most atrocious monster that pollutes Jove's pure air by his breath!”

”Bidding,” he exclaimed, starting back in horror, ”Catiline's bidding?”

”My father's,” answered the miserable girl. ”My own father's bidding!”

”Ye G.o.ds! ye G.o.ds! His own daughter's purity!”

”Purity!” she replied, with a smile of sad bitter irony. ”Do you think purity could long exist in the same house with Catiline and Orestilla?

Paullus Arvina, the scenes I have beheld, the orgies I have shared, the atmosphere of voluptuous sin I have breathed, almost from my cradle, had changed the cold heart of the virgin huntress into the fiery pulses of the wanton Venus! Since I was ten years old, I have been, wo is me! familiar with all luxury, all infamy, all degradation!”

”Great Nemesis!” he cried, turning up his indignant eyes toward heaven.

”But, in the name of all the G.o.ds! wherefore, wherefore? Even to the worst, the most debased of wretches, their children's honor is still dear.”

”Nothing is dear to Catiline but riot, and debauchery, and murder! Sin, for its own sake, even more than for the rewards its offers to its votaries! Paullus, men called me beautiful! But what cared I for beauty, that charmed all but him, whom alone I desired to fascinate? Men called me beautiful, I say! and in my father's sight that beauty became precious, when he foresaw that it might prove a means of winning followers to his accursed cause! Then was I educated in all arts, all graces, all accomplishments that might enhance my charms; and, as those fatal charms could avail him nothing, so long as purity remained or virtue, I was taught, ah! too easily! to esteem pleasure the sole good, pa.s.sion the only guide! Taught thus, by my own parents! Curses, curses, and shame upon them! Pity me, pity me, Paullus. Oh! you are bound to pity me! for had I not loved you, fatally, desperately loved, and known that I could not win you, perchance-perchance I had not fallen. Oh! pity me, and pardon--”

”Pardon you, Lucia,” he interrupted her. ”What have you done to me, or who am I, that you should crave my pardon?”

”What have I done? Do you ask in mockery? Have not I made you the partaker of my sin? Have not I lured you into falsehood, momentary falsehood it is true, yet still falsehood, to your Julia? Have I not tangled you in the nets of this most foul conspiracy? Betrayed you, a bound slave, to the monster-the soul-destroyer?”

Arvina groaned aloud, but made no answer, so deeply did his own thoughts afflict, so terribly did her strong words oppress him.

”But it is over-it is over now!” She exclaimed exultingly. ”His reign of wickedness is over! The tool, which he moulded for his own purposes, shall be the instrument to quell him. The pitfall which he would have digged in the way of others, shall be to them a door whereby they shall escape his treason, and his ruin. You are saved, my Arvina! By all the G.o.ds! you are saved! And, if it lost me once, it has preserved me now-my wild, unchangeable, and undying love for you, alone of men! For it has made me think! Has quenched the insane flames that burned within me! Has given me new views, new principles, new hopes! Evil no more shall be my good, nor infamy my pride! If, myself, I am most unhappy, I will live henceforth, while I do live, to make others happy! I will live henceforth for two things-revenge and retribution! By all the G.o.ds! Julia and you, my Paullus, shall be happy! By all the G.o.ds! he who destroyed me for his pleasure, shall be destroyed in turn, for mine!”

”Lucia! think! think! he is your father!”

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