"Beast!" she cried, and struck him in the face. And ere he had recovered from the surprise of the blow, she glided from the room.
Seating himself on the foot of the bed, his eyes rolling in the vacancy of intoxication, he began to mutter words like these,—
"I'd a-better have cut you up, when I had you on the dissectin' table—I had. 'Beast.' You've served the devil for very small wages, Arthur Conroy! Ha, ha,—its a queer world."
Shall we ever see Herman and Godiva, Conroy and Dermoyne again?
[CHAPTER III.]
THE DREAM-ELIXIR.
The Twenty-Fourth of December was a happy day with Randolph Royalton. One happy day, after a long month devoted to agony and despair! Early morning light, found him in an upper chamber of the mansion, near the window, his form half concealed among the curtains, but his pale countenance, fully disclosed. There was thought upon his broad white forehead, relieved by the jet-black hair, an emotion of unspeakable tenderness,—passion,—in his large, clear blue eyes, and all the while upon his lips, an expression in which hatred mingled with contempt. For three images rose before him,—his future, and that was hard to read, and buried him in thought,—Eleanor, young and beautiful, and willing to become his own, and that filled his eyes with the light of passion,—his Brother, whom he had left helpless and insensible in a distant chamber, and who had met all his offers of fraternal love with withering scorn, and that thought curled his lip with mingled hatred and contempt.
In his hand he held a letter, which had just been delivered by Mr. Hicks, and before him were two huge trunks, one bearing the name of "Randolph Royalton, Heidelberg," and the other the name of "Esther Royalton, Hill Royal, S. C." These trunks which had just arrived in a mysterious manner, had been placed in his room by the hand of a servant.
On his way south, about a month before, Randolph had left his trunk in Washington, and hurried home, eager to see his father. When Esther was brought to Washington, by her brother and her purchaser, her trunk was brought with her from Royalton. And when Randolph and Esther escaped from Washington, they took their trunks with them as far as Philadelphia, where they left them in their eagerness to escape from their pursuers.