Wherefore would
you pursue the youth, arms in your hands, hatred in your heart, and
horrible threatenings upon your lips? Why put yourself into the hands of
this fierce monster, as the sharp instrument to do his vengeance and
gratify his savage malignity against the young and the gentle? If you
would do no murder, not so he. He will do it--he will make you do it,
but he will have it done. Approach me not--approach me not--let me
perish, rather! O God--my uncle, let him come not near me, if you would
not see me die upon the spot!" she exclaimed, in the most terrified
manner, and with a shuddering horror, as Rivers, toward the conclusion
of her speech, had approached her with the, view to an answer. To her
uncle she again addressed herself, with an energy which gave additional
emphasis to her language:--
"Uncle--you are my father now--you will not forget the dying prayer of a
brother! My prayer is his. Keep that man from me--let me not see
him--let him come not near me with his polluted and polluting breath!
You know not what he is--you know him but as a stabber--as a hater--as a
thief! But were my knowledge yours--could I utter in your ears the foul
language, the fiend-threatenings which his accursed lips uttered in
mine!--but no--save me from him is all I ask--protect the poor
orphan--the feeble, the trampled child of your brother! Keep me from the
presence of that bad man!"
As she spoke, she sank at the feet of the person she addressed, her
hands were clasped about his knees, and she lay there shuddering and
shrinking, until he lifted her up in his arms.
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