"
This was not the kind of a reply expected, and Durant changed his discourse
from an insinuating tone to a direct manner.
"I perceive it will be necessary for me to render my meaning more explicit,
and I now change the form of my query, and beg to know how you would
probably feel, were you compelled to witness the burning of your lover at
the stake?"
A momentary paleness blanched the cheek of the fair girl, as this heartless
interrogation was fully comprehended, but recovering herself quickly from
the rude shock, she replied:
"I doubt not the sight would be a harrowing one, but I do not anticipate
such an unlikely event."
"Pardon me, but I may as well tell you at first, that this fate is in store
for you."
"Why do you persist in this attempt at refinement of cruelty? Bad as you
are, I give you credit for too much humanity to believe your words are more
than an idle threat, which you have no intention of putting into
execution."
"Then you have given me credit for more humanity than is justly my due; for
I never was more earnest in my life, and it is my fixed determination to do
exactly what I have intimated."
Ellen, who had all the time been really alarmed, now gave way, in her
reduced strength of body, to the feelings which, until now, she had kept in
subjection; and, changing her tone, commenced pleading with the miscreant:
"Mr.
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