Your
will shall be law at Ashwood so long as I am there. If you would like to
join us in Italy, you have only to say the word. We shall be delighted to
have you.'
Emily could read no more. 'Join them in Italy!' She dashed the letter into
the fire, and an intense hatred of them both pierced her heart and brain.
It was the kiss of Judas. Oh, those hateful, lying words! To live here with
her aunt until they came back, to wait here quietly until she returned in
triumph with him--him who had been all the world to her. Oh no; that was
not possible. Death, death--escape she must. But how? She had no more
chloral. Suddenly she thought of the lake. 'Yes, yes; the lake, the lake!'
And then a keen, swift, passionate longing for death, such as she had not
felt at all the night before, came upon her. There was the knowledge too
that by killing herself she would revenge herself on those who had killed
her. She was just conscious that her suicide would have this effect, but
hardly a trace of such intention appeared in the letter she wrote; it was
as melancholy and as brief as the letter she had torn up, and ended, like
it, with a request that Dandy should be well looked after. She had only
just directed the envelope when she heard the servant coming to take away
the tea-things.
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