“Lovers?—a Montague and Capulet folly? No! His family and yours have always been the best friends. In short, Alma, neither Lord Elverton nor myself, nor any of our friends have the least personal objection whatever either to Captain Montrose himself or to any of his family. I can assure you of that, if it can give you any satisfaction.”
“Oh, it does—it does, mamma! God bless you for that tribute to Norham’s worth! Oh, mamma, you have told me what the objection is not—oh, tell me what it is! I might find a way—”
“Alma,” interrupted the lady, in a deep, low, stern voice, “many months ago I warned you that love and marriage were not for you; many months ago I warned you, if you would escape the heaviest curse that could hurl a soul to perdition, to avoid the friendship of woman, and the love of man—DID I not?”
“Yes, you did—you did! but why, WHY, my mother?” demanded Alma, with her hands still tightly clasped and extended, and her eyes still fixed upon the face of her mother.
“Alma,” commenced the lady, in a voice of almost awful solemnity, “if I might be permitted to do so, I would willingly spare you the anguish of hearing the words that I must speak; but destiny is stronger than I am—stronger than all are!”
“Say on, my mother. Oh, say on! If there is anything I ought to know, let me hear it—never mind the pain!” prayed Alma, with her clasped hands.
“But, oh! must it be my tongue that tells you at last, Alma, that your parents’ marriage proved the most awful calamity that could have crushed any two human beings! That your birth was a curse to Hollis Elverton—a curse to me, and deeper still, a curse to you! That your love lighting upon any human being would be the darkest misfortune that could fall upon them! That your marriage with any man would be the direst catastrophe that could blight him—”
Her dreadful words were interrupted by a wild, half-suppressed shriek from Alma, who buried her face in her open hands for a moment, and then raising her head, cried:
“Mother, I must be marble!—yes, marble! I cannot be flesh and blood as others, or your words would kill me!”
“And you are not flesh and blood as others! but something set apart, accursed, that must not join heart or hand with any other human being!”