She pressed her lips to Love's pale brow solemnly, as we kiss the dead, murmuring:
"I would sacrifice my very life to purchase any good for him!"
The man Franklin gazed on in keen sympathy for the girl and bitter disdain of the cruel woman, but he did not dare to utter a word lest he should make matters worse.
Mrs. Ellsworth's eyes flashed triumphantly at her easy victory over the broken-hearted girl.
"Very well. You have made a wise decision. You would only come to bitter grief by opposing me," she asserted, loftily; and added: "Now you must go. Here is ten dollars; take it, and go back on the first train to your mother in Richmond."
The girl clung to her husband, sobbing:
"Oh, let me stay and be his slave! I love him so I can not leave him!"
Franklin dared not open his lips, but his blood boiled at the cruel scene that followed, when Mrs. Ellsworth tore the weeping wife from her husband with resolute hands and harsh, cruel words, thrusting her outside the door as she cried:
"Go, now—leave the house at once, or I will send him instantly to an idiot asylum! What! you will not take my money? High airs for a pauper upon my word!"
She slammed the door, shutting the wretched young wife out into the hall, and turned fiercely upon Franklin.