"If your communication concerns my father, speak, sir; if not,"--she
paused, and he took up the sentence-"If not, Constantia casts me off for ever! Yet," he added, in a tone of
insulting pity, "I would spare your feelings, for you have been a most
affectionate child."
"Sir," interrupted Constance, "I hope I am too true a daughter to hear
those taunts with patience: your insinuations I despise, and I defy
you to utter an accusation against him that could summon a tint of
crimson to my cheek!"
"But I could speak that which would make the red cheek pale,
lady--what think you of--of--of MURDER?"
Constantia's eye gleamed for a moment, like a meteor, and then it became
fixed and faded; her form assumed the rigidity of marble, and at each
respiration her lips fell more and more apart. The villain became
alarmed, and, taking her hand, would have led her to a seat; but his
touch recalled her to herself: she darted from him to the centre of the
room, and there, her arm extended, her fine head thrown back, every
feature, as it were, bursting with indignation, she looked like a
youthful priestess denouncing vengeance on a sinful world.
"If I could curse," she said, "you should feel it heavily; but the evil
within you will do its own work, and my soul be saved from sin. Away!
away! And you thought to fright me with that horrid sound! My dear, dear
father!"
"I declare before Heaven," interrupted Burrell, "it is to save him I
speak! The damning proofs of his guilt are within my hold. If you
perform the contract, neither tortures nor death shall wring them from
me; if you do not--mark me--I will be revenged!"
"Silly, wicked that I was," exclaimed Constance, "not to command you
before him instantly, that the desperate lie might be sent back into
your throat, and choke you with its venom! Come with me to my
father!--Ah, foul coward! you shrink, but you shall not escape!--To my
father instantly!"
Burrell would have restrained her, but it was impossible. Finding that
he did not move, she was rushing past him, when he arrested her progress
for an instant, saying,-"Since you will thus dare the destruction of your only parent, it is
fitting you know of whose murder he is accused." He drew nearer to her,
so near that she felt his hateful breath upon her cheek, as, like the
serpent in the garden of Eden, he distilled the deadly poison into her
ear. A slight convulsion, succeeded by an awful paleness, passed over
her countenance; but, rallying, she darted on him another look of
defiance and scorn, and flew to her father's chamber.