Young girls
were not plentiful in that neighborhood, I knew. Besides, some
secret instinct told me that this was my daughter: I knew that she
would sleep in the chamber under mine, because that was the only
habitable guest-room in the whole house. In the dead of night I left
my room and went below and entered the chamber of the young girl. I
went first to the toilet table to see if among her little girlish
ornaments, I could find any clue to her identity. I found it in a
plain, gold ring--the same that I had intrusted to the old nurse.
Some strange impulse caused me to slip the ring upon my finger. Then
I went to the bed and threw aside the curtains to gaze upon the
sleeper. My girl--my own girl! With what strange sensations I first
looked upon her face! Her eyes were open and fixed upon mine in a
panic of terror. I stooped to press my lips to her's and she closed
her eyes in mortal fear, I carried nothing but terror with me! I
withdrew from the room and went back, sobbing, to my chamber. My
poor girl next morning unconsciously betrayed her mother. It had
nearly cost me my life."
"When the Le Noirs came home, the first night of their arrival they
entered my room, seized me in my bed and dragged me shrieking from
it!"
"Good heaven! What punishment is sufficient for such wretches!"
exclaimed Traverse, starting up and pacing the narrow limits of the
cell.
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