Page:Tragical history of Jane Arnold (1).pdf/22

This page has been validated.

22

and murderer of his daughter, who was impatient to join her in that it silent grave. The anger and indignation, that the old gentleman felt at the first appearance of Percival, soon gave way to pity. After their first emotion had subsided, and they were tranquil enough to converse, Mr Arnold learnt from Henry, that for a length of time after he arrived in India, he had formed the resolution of becoming an alien to his family his affairs were so prosperous as to render it next to an impossibility that he should ever want any pecuniary assistance from them; and for the purpose of estranging himself, lie never answered any of the letters he received from England—indeed the reproaches with which those from his father and Rosetta wire filled, and which lie did not no how to defend, made him adhere more and more strictly to the plan lie had marked out for himself. But at length remorse seized on his soul. The image of Jane haunted his nightly dreams and his waking thoughts: his behaviour to her, and his aged father, now appeared to him in the most culpable light; he became a sincere penitent, and resolved to return to England, and make what reparation was in his power to those lie had so deeply wronged. About a fortnight after he had embarked on his homeward passage, as he was standing one evening on the deck, absorbed in his own reflections, a female figure glided by him and pronounced his name in an awe-inspiring voice; he started and looked around; the figure