Most will say that I should have turned and walked away from
both. But I, who have always been simple and slow of wit, I fear, and
perhaps foolish as to certain principles, now felt ice pass through all
my veins as my resolution came to me.
I could not declare against the woman who had thus sworn against me.
With horror I saw what grotesque injustice was done to me. I broke out
into a horrible laughter.
I had said that I had come for my punishment, and here it was for me to
take. I had told Orme that one day I would pay him for my life. Here now
was Orme's price to be paid! If this girl had not sinned with me, she
had done so by reason of me. It was my fault; and a gentleman pays for
his fault in one way or another. There seemed to me, I say, but one way
in which I could pay, I being ever simple and slow of wit. I, John
Cowles, without thinking so far as the swift consequences, must now act
as the shield of the girl who stood there trembling, the girl who had
confessed to her rival her own bitter sin, but who had lied as to her
accomplice in her sin!
"It is true," I said, turning to Ellen. "I am guilty. I told you I
deserved no mercy, and I ask none.
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