With only a dim and partial recollection of some great agony passed, she raised her eyes and stretched forth her arms, murmuring, in tender, pleading tones:
“Ralph, my friend, my savior, you do not believe me guilty? You know me so thoroughly; you always trusted me; you are sure that I am innocent?”
“Margaret,” he said, in a voice of the deepest pain, “I pillowed your head here above your mother’s bosom; had I not believed you guiltless of any deeper sin than inconstancy of affection, I should not have laid you in this sacred place.”
“Inconstancy! Ralph?”
“Fear nothing, poor girl! it is not for me to judge or blame you. You were but a child when our betrothal took place; you could not have known your own heart; I was twelve years your senior, and I should have had more wisdom, justice, and generosity than to have bound the hand of a child of fourteen to that of a man of twenty-six. We have been separated for three years. You are now but seventeen, and I am in my thirtieth year. You have discovered your mistake, and I suffer a just punishment. It is natural.”
“Oh, my God! my God! my cup overflows with bitterness!” moaned the poor maiden, in a voice almost inaudible from anguish.
“Compose yourself, dear Margaret. I do not reproach you in the least; I am here to serve you as I best may; to make you happy, if it be possible. And the first step to be taken is to restore to you your freedom.”
“Oh, no! Oh, Lord of mercy, no! no! no!” she exclaimed, in an agony of prayer; and then, in sudden self-consciousness, she flushed all over her face and neck with maiden shame, and became suddenly silent.
“Dear Margaret,” said Ralph, in a tone of infinite tenderness and compassion, “you have suffered so much that you are scarcely sane. You hardly know what you would have. Our betrothal must, of course, be annulled. You must be free to wed this lover of your choice. I hope that he is, in some measure, worthy of you; nay, since you love him, I must believe that he is so.”
“Oh, Ralph, Ralph! Oh, Ralph, Ralph!” she cried, wringing her hands.