And you must
sanction them."
"Never!" she exclaimed, emphatically.
"Then we part for ever," cried Lord Roos. "No matter what the pang may
be--nor what befals me--I will go. Farewell for ever, Countess!"
"Stay!" she cried. "We must not part thus."
"Then you consent?" he exclaimed. "Luke Hatton receives his orders from
you?"
"Ask me not that question!" she cried, with a shudder.
"If her ladyship will but sign this," said Luke Hatton, holding towards
her the paper on which the names were written, "it will suffice for me."
"You hear what he says, Frances. You will do it?" cried Lord Roos. "'Tis
but a few strokes of a pen."
"Those few strokes will cost me my soul," she rejoined. "But if it must
he so, it must. Give me the pen."
And as Lord Roos complied, she signed the paper.
"Nov you may go," said Lord Roos to Luke Hatton, who received the paper
with a diabolical grin. "You may count upon your reward."
"In a week's time, my lord," said Luke Hatton, still grinning, and
shifting his glance from the half-fainting Countess to the young
nobleman; "in a week's time" he repeated, "you will have to put on
mourning for your wife--and in a month for your mother-in-law."
And with a cringing bow, and moving with a soft cat-like footstep, he
quitted the room, leaving the guilty pair alone together.
END OF VOL. I.
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Star-Chamber, Volume 1
by W. Harrison Ainsworth
*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STAR-CHAMBER, VOLUME 1 ***
***** This file should be named 12396.
Pages:
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275