Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 1).djvu/148

This page needs to be proofread.

apartment. "Dear unhappy creature!"—added he, "I have destroyed her peace, my fatal love has undone her; in humble obscurity she might have been happy, and I have dragged her into wretchedness."

"My dear master (said Ernest) do not reproach yourself on her account; your wife cannot, ought not to blame you, whatever the circumstances may be that renders your union improper; to her you have always done your duty. If she is unhappy, you are not to blame; the offence against your father was designed to promote her happiness as well as your own, why it has failed, we are not to inquire; but remember this, that the same voice which bid you 'fly' from your wife, pronounced the words 'Pardon and peace;' if there is credibility in one, there is in the other."

Ferdinand raised his head, and looking earnestly in his face, "There is an implication in your words that shock me, that would fill me with the most torturing apprehensions, but that I know the impossibility of there being