"If he will not listen to you, Gabriella, he would not be persuaded though an angel spoke."
"Why do you care about my soul?" asked the prisoner, lifting his head from his knees, and rolling his bloodshot eyes upon me.
"Because you are my father," I answered,—overcoming my trepidation, and speaking with fervor and energy,—"because my mother prayed for you, and my Saviour died for you."
"Your mother!" he exclaimed; "who was she, that she should pray for me?"
"My mother!" I repeated, fearing his mind was becoming unsettled; "if you have forgotten her, I do not wish to recall her."
"I remember now,—her name was Rosalie," he said, and a strange expression passed over his countenance. "I was thinking of my poor Therésa."
He looked at Richard as he spoke, and something like parental tenderness softened his features. Degraded as he was, unworthy as it seemed he must ever have been of woman's love, I could not help a pang of exquisite pain at the thought of my mother's being forgotten, while Therésa was remembered with apparent tenderness. When I met him in the Park, he expressed exceeding love for me for her sake,—he spoke of her as the beloved of his youth, as the being whose loss had driven him to desperation and made him the wretch and outcast he was. And now, no chord of remembrance vibrated at her name, no ray of fondness for her child played upon the sacrifice I was offering. It was a sordid deception then,—his pretended tenderness,—to gain access to my husband's gold; and I turned, heart-sick and loathing away. As I did so, I caught a glimpse of a book that looked like the Bible on a little table, between the bed and the wall. With an involuntary motion I reached forward and opened it.
"I am so glad," I cried, looking at Richard. "I wanted to bring one; but I thought I would ask permission."
"Yes," exclaimed St. James, with a ghastly smile, "we all have Bibles, I believe. Like the priest's blessing, they cost nothing."
"But you read it, father!" said Richard, anxiously. "You cannot fail to find light and comfort in it. You cannot be altogether lonely with such a companion."