I am
bound by a chain that nothing can break, and my husband is a
scoundrel. You would be frightened if you knew half the extent of
his villainy. Oh! do not shake your head. I ought not to be
suspected of exaggeration when I speak in this style of a man whom
I once loved so devotedly. For I loved him, alas!--even to
madness--loved him so much that I forgot self, family, honor, and
all the most sacred duties. I loved him so madly that I was
willing to follow him, while his hands were still wet with my
brother's blood. Ah! chastisement could not fail to come, and it
was terrible, like the sin. This man for whom I had abandoned
everything--whom I had made my idol--do you know what he said to
me the third day after my flight from home? 'You must be more
stupid than an owl to have forgotten to take your jewels.' Yes,
those were the very words he said to me, with a furious air. And
then I could measure the depths of the abyss into which I had
plunged. This man, with whom I had been so infatuated, did not
love me at all, he had never loved me. It had only been cold
calculation on his part. He had devoted months to the task of
winning my heart, just as he would have devoted them to some
business transaction. He only saw in me the fortune that I was to
inherit. Oh! he didn't conceal it from me. 'If your parents are
not monsters,' he was always saying, 'they will finally become
reconciled to our marriage.
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