‘What dreadful crimes may they not have perpetrated in this house! in this very chamber!’ She once more reflected, and again her terrors arose to a pitch almost insupportable.
The light in her lamp, which had for some time only been faintly glimmering, now suddenly died away, and our heroine was left in utter darkness. How she longed for the morning, and that she had some female companion near her in that dismal place, if it was only the repulsive old woman; some one to whom she could speak; but silent and dreary was everything around her, it was like being confined in a tomb. She had kept the embers of the fire together as long as she could, but that had also become extinguished, and the room felt cold as it was dismal and cheerless.
At length she crept into the bed with her clothes on, and covered her head with the counterpane, filled with a sensation of terror, she found it utterly impossible to conquer. She endeavored to sleep; but her mind was too much distressed to suffer her to succeed, and she tossed to and fro in a state of agitation, which no one but those who have been placed in a similar situation, can form an adequate idea of. The interview she had had with Blodget, rushed upon her memory, and she recollected every word that he had spoken, and which had given her every reason to apprehend the worse consequences from his determination. Even the sight of that inhuman man inspired her with a feeling of horror no language can do justice to, and she dreaded a meeting with him as much as she would have done the most fearful calamity which could have befallen her.
‘But I will be firm,’ she reflected; ‘I will muster up all my woman’s fortitude, strong in the defence of her honor, to meet him, and oppose his importunities in a manner that shall deter him from proceeding to violence. Providence surely will not forsake me in this moment of bitter trial, but will throw its protecting shield over me, and defeat the brutal designs of the libertine and the miscreant! Yes, I will put my trust in Heaven, and prepare to meet my heavy trials with a firmness and resolution becoming of me!’
These thoughts somewhat composed her spirits, and after a short time spent in further rumination, she did at last sink into a disturbed slumber, in which she remained until the sun had risen in the eastern horizon.
She arose, not in the least refreshed, and had not been up many minutes when she heard the key turning in the lock, and soon afterwards the old woman entered with the breakfast.
She placed them on the table, and then fixed upon our heroine a scrutinizing look, and shook her head.
‘Well,’ said she, in her usual disagreeable tones;—‘pale cheeks and red eyes; no sleep again, I suppose, it puzzles me how you young women can live without rest? when I was your age, nothing could ever prevent my sleeping.’
‘When the mind is oppressed with such unprecedented and heavy sorrows as those that disturb mine,’ answered Inez—‘if it is not entirely insensible, sleep may be courted in vain.’
‘Pho! how very melancholy and dismal you do look, to be sure,’ answered the old woman; ‘any one would imagine that you had experienced all the troubles in the world; but stop till you become my age, and then you may have cause to complain.’