“To dare to joke of her!”
“‘Her!’ Verily, Clifton, any one to hear you breathe ‘her!’ with your full soul’s volume poured into the little word, would think there was but one ‘her’ in the world! Archy, you take a very strange interest in that girl. Are you sure that you are not in love with her?”
“In love with her! Nonsense—she is a child!”
“Well then, are you sure you should not be in love with her, if she were a woman?”
“Ridiculous! She is a low-born girl!”
“Oh I forgot! I beg pardon! You demonstrated that to me before.”
“And, besides, sir, please to remember that all my love and faith are due to my cousin, Miss Clifton; and that she has my whole heart! I love, admire, honor, my beautiful betrothed bride—nor for her proud sake will I brook that any one should think it possible that I could even in thought fail in full loyalty to my liege lady! But, Frank! my soul’s dear brother! as I tell you everything, I will tell you this! that I feel the very deepest interest in Catherine’s welfare! If you ask me why—I tell you I do not know! It surprises and confounds myself! But from the first moment I looked upon her noble face, I felt that interest stir within my deepest soul. And it has never since ceased!”
“I swear you are enamored of her!”
“Preposterous, Frank! you make me angry! It is a very different thing from being enamored of her, let me tell you! There is my beautiful, but cold and scornful bride, up at Clifton! Well, I am the most patient of all adoring slaves! I wait upon her sovereign eyes all day long! I am proud to submit to her whims—to do her lightest bidding, and pick up her lap-dog—or to obey her severest command, and exile myself from her gracious presence all day long! But now observe the difference! I feel a deep, strong, strange interest in Kate. I cannot account for it. I feel a sort of unratified right of property in her. I wish to do her good. But I wish that all the good she may ever possess in the world, may come from only me! and that for all good things with which I cannot supply her, she may suffer the want rather than owe their possession to another! Very like love, is it not? But I wish to control her destiny! I wish to have her in my power!—in all honor, however! It galls me to think that I have no right of authority or guardianship over her! I ardently desire such a right! I long to have the disposal of her person and fate! I crave with a frantic craving, to have more than a father’s—more than a husband’s—more than a master’s right over her! I would to God she were born mine—my own—body, soul and spirit! My own to use or abuse—to crown or kill, as I listed!” exclaimed Clifton, passionately, while his cheeks and very lips were white and dry, and his eyes burned with a fierce, consuming, inward fire. And forgetting all things real, he felt as in a vision, a girl’s spirit swoop down upon his bosom, and a dream voice murmur in his ear—“Oh! if it will give you one instant’s joy to press me strongly to your heart—crush me to death in the fold, and my soul will exhale in rapture to Heaven.” The fervid vision came and passed like lightning, and Clifton roused himself from reverie, with a smile and a sneer, saying—“Very like love, all that! is it not?”
But as Frank did not reply, and as they had now arrived at the gate leading into the yard, the conversation ceased.