mellowed, perfect: take the crimson-peach—take Louis Moore!'
"'But' (savagely) 'you shall not have him—he shall not have you.'
"'I would die before I would have another. I would die if I might not have him.'
"He uttered words with which this page shall never be polluted.
"She turned white as death: she shook all over: she lost her strength. I laid her down on the sofa; just looked to ascertain that she had not fainted—of which, with a divine smile, she assured me; I kissed her, and then, if I were to perish, I cannot give a clear account of what happened in the course of the next five minutes: she has since—through tears, laughter, and trembling—told me that I turned terrible, and gave myself to the demon; she says I left her, made one bound across the room—that Mr. Sympson vanished through the door as if shot from a cannon—I also vanished, and she heard Mrs. Gill scream.
"Mrs. Gill was still screaming when I came to my senses: I was then in another apartment—the oak-parlour, I think: I held Sympson before me crushed into a chair, and my hand was on his cravat: his eyes rolled in his head—I was strangling him, I think: the housekeeper stood wringing her hands, entreating me to desist; I desisted that moment, and felt at once as cool as stone. But I told Mrs. Gill to fetch the Red-House Inn chaise instantly, and informed Mr. Sympson he must depart from Fieldhead the instant it came: though half-frightened
