"Save them,--oh, save them!--their strife is mortal!"
He shook her from him with a glance of abhorrence, and the maiden fell
heavily on the floor. He was preparing to enter when the door flew open,
and a form rushed through in the gaudy apparel of the officer. He leaped
on the floor, and, ere Holt could utter a word, he heard him descending
the stairs with great precipitation.
"Whom hast thou concealed in thy bedchamber?" inquired the almost
frantic father. Constance sat on the ground, her head resting on the
chair beside which she had fallen. She wept not, but her heart was full
even to bursting.
"What is the name of thy paramour?--Thou hast been somewhat eager,
methinks, to accomplish thine own and a father's disgrace?"
This cutting address roused her. She replied, but in a firm tone--
"A stranger,--an exile. Misfortune appeals not to woman's heart
unalleviated. He threw himself on my protection; and where the feelings
own no taint, their purity is not sullied,--even in a lady's
bedchamber!"
A glance of insulted pride passed over her beautifully-formed features.
It was but for a moment. The agony of her spirit soon drank up the
slender rill her feelings had gushed forth, and she stood withered and
drooping before the angry frown of her father.
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