Like all villains of his caste, he was a coward, and trembled
with quaking fear before the flashing eye and resolute look of the excited
girl.
"Now, vile, degraded, polluted _thing_! you go from my presence never to
return. Hold! not just yet, I have a parting word to say before you leave.
I confess, with self-abasement, that I once loved you, and with deep
humiliation, amounting to agony, that that love was the cause of my ruin.
The vail is now torn from my eyes, and I behold you as you are, a
corrupted, debased, unfeeling demon, in the human form; and I would not
even touch you with my finger's end, so deep is my detestation and
abhorrence of your depravity! Aye, sir, even for _me_ your very touch is
defiling! But if ever you whisper a word concerning the relation you once
sustained toward _me_, be it but so loud as your breath, I will as surely
destroy you as I now stand before you! Remember and beware! for I call God,
and angels, and earth to witness this my vow! One so lost as _you_, shall
not couple _my_ name with his!"
She paused a moment, as if to collect her energies for a last effort, and
then continued:
"Into the darkness of this moonless, starless, sky-beclouded night, you
shall soon be driven. May it faintly prefigure the unending blackness of
that eternal night you have chosen as your future portion.
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