"Or what--what mean you by that word, that look, Mark? I do not
understand you; why speak you in this way, and to me?" exclaimed the
maiden, passionately interrupting him in a speech, which, though
strictly the creature of his morbid spirit and present excitement, was
perhaps unnecessarily and something too wantonly indulged in.
"Forgive me, Katharine--dear Katharine--but you little know the madness
and the misery at my heart."
"And have you no thought of mine, Mark? this deed of yours has brought
misery, if not madness, to it too; and speech like this might well be
spared us now!"
"It is this very thought, Kate, that I have made you miserable, when I
should have striven only to make you happy. The thought, too, that I
must leave you, to see you perhaps never again--these unman--these
madden me, Katharine; and I feel desperate like the man striving with
his brother upon the plank in the broad ocean."
"And why part, Mark? I see not this necessity!"
"Would you have me stay and perish? would you behold me, dragged perhaps
from your own arms before the stern judge, and to a dreadful death? It
will be so if I stay much longer.
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