"
Startled by her voice, Lord Roos instantly turned, and regarded her with
haggard looks.
"You here, Frances?" he exclaimed; "I did not expect you so soon."
"I came before the hour, because--but you seem greatly agitated. Has
anything happened?"
"Little more than what happens daily," he replied. "And yet it _is_
more; for the crisis has arrived, and a fearful crisis it is. O,
Frances!" he continued vehemently, "how dear you are to me. To preserve
your love I would dare everything, even my soul's welfare. I would
hesitate at no crime to keep you ever near me. Let those beware who
would force you from me."
"What means this passion, my Lord?" inquired the Countess.
"It means that since there are those who will mar our happiness; who,
jealous of our loves, will utterly blight and destroy them; who will
tear us forcibly asunder, recking little of the anguish they occasion:
since we have enemies who will do this; who will mortally wound us--let
us no longer hesitate, but strike the first blow. We must rid ourselves
of them at any cost, and in any way."
"I will not affect to misunderstand you, my Lord," the Countess replied,
her beautiful features beginning to exhibit traces of terror. "But has
it arrived at this point? Is the danger imminent and inevitable?"
"Imminent, but not inevitable," Lord Roos rejoined. "It _can_ be
avoided, as I have hinted, in one way, and in one way only. There is a
letter I have just received from my wife; wherein, after her usual
upbraidings, remonstrances, and entreaties, she concludes by saying,
that if I continue deaf to her prayers, and refuse to break off entirely
with you, and return to her, our 'criminal attachment,'--for so she
terms our love--should be divulged to the deluded Earl of Exeter, who
will know how to redress her wrongs, and avenge his own injured honour.
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