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upon his knees, calling out, in extreme agitation, "Miss Ellis! Miss Ellis! you will not assemble the servants to see me groveling upon the earth?"
Greatly shocked, she desisted from her purpose. His look was aghast, his frame was in a universal tremour, and his eyes were wild and starting. Her wrath subsided at this sight, but the most conflicting emotions rent her heart.
"I see," he cried, in a tremulous voice, and almost gnashing his teeth, "I see that you have been defamed, and that I have incurred your abhorrence!—I have my own, too, completely! You cannot hate me more than I now hate—than I shrink from myself! And yet—believe me, Miss Ellis! I have no deliberate hardness of heart!—I have been led on by rash precipitance, and—and want of thought!—Believe me, Miss Ellis!—believe me, good Miss Ellis!—for I see, now, how good you are!—believe me—"
He could find no words for what he
