The blood of Ralph boiled within him at this
latter speech of the ruffian, in which he avowed a spirit of such dire
malignity, as, in its utter disproportionateness to the supposed offence
of the youth, could only have been sanctioned by the nature which he had
declared to have always been his prompter; and, at its close, the arm of
the youth, grasping his weapon, was involuntarily stretched forth, and
an instant more would have found it buried in the bosom of the
wretch--but the action did not escape the quick eye of his companion,
who, though trembling with undiminished terror, was yet mistress of all
her senses, and perceived the ill-advised nature of his design. With a
motion equally involuntary and sudden with his own, her taper fingers
grasped his wrist, and her eyes bright with dewy lustres, were directed
upward, sweetly and appealingly to those which now bent themselves down
upon her. In that moment of excitement and impending terror, a
consciousness of her situation and a sense of shame which more than ever
agitated her, rushed through her mind, and she leaned against the side
of the closet for that support for which her now revived and awakened
scruples forbade any reference to him from whom she had so recently
received it.
Pages:
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471