I
think I could see you depart, knowing that it was for ever, without a
tear, were this sin not upon your head."
"Your words are cruel, Kate; but you can not speak to my spirit in
language more severe than it speaks momentarily to itself. I never knew
anything of punishment before; and the first lesson is a bitter one.
Your words touch me but little now, as the tree, when the axe has once
girdled it, has no feeling for any further stroke. Forbear then, dear
Kate, as you love yourself. Brood not upon a subject that brings pain
with it to your own spirit, and has almost ceased, except in its
consequences, to operate upon mine. Let us now speak of those things
which concern you nearly, and me not a little--of the only thing, which,
besides this deed of death, troubles my thought at this moment. Let us
speak of our future hope--if hope there may be for me, after the stern
sentence which your lips uttered in part even now."
"It was for you--for your safety, believe me, Mark, that I spoke; my own
heart was wrung with the language of my lips--the language of my cooler
thought.
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