“I think you are a fiend, and I only wish you had left me to die in the land of strangers, where my mother died, instead of bringing me up for crimes like this. And I tell you I will never dip my hands in human blood.”
“Really, young man, you are getting to be quite complimentary in your style of address,” sneered the heartless villain, an angry glow suffusing his yellow and wrinkled face.
“I do but speak the truth, sir; and I would have you distinctly understand that I will never stain my soul with the crime of murder. And I begin to think that I have taken the wrong way after all to gain my honorable name that you tell so much about. You have inspired my heart with hatred—from my infancy, as it were—toward every legally born child, making me feel like an outcast and a beggar. I believe if I had gone bravely and openly to him whom you say is my father, with the proofs in my hand, he might have been willing to recognize me equally with his son. But you have always bribed me to hatred and revenge. Oh! if my mother had only lived to teach me to be upright and truthful, I would have blessed her, even had she been unable to give me an honorable name.”
Squire Moulton’s heart was boiling with wrath at the boy’s bold and defiant language, and cursing himself for a fool for revealing his plans to him, he retorted bitterly:
“Oh, ho, my fine young man! it’s all very nice to imagine a man like Mr. Ellerton to be so generous and noble. A man in his position you know is apt to be willing to acknowledge his own dishonor. I advise you to proceed to him at once and see what kind of a reception he will give you.”
Imagination cannot picture the expression of that vile man’s face as he made this sarcastic and taunting reply. It seemed as if all the evil passions of his nature had concentrated themselves into one look of convulsive fear, hate, and malice, while his wicked heart beat with terror lest his tool—his dupe—should reveal everything, and thus thwart every chance for vengeance upon his despised foe.
He saw it would not do to break with Ralph; he had trusted in him to such an extent that he was necessary to help him. He resolved to work upon his evil passions again. It would not do to let him madly plunge both of them into ruin by one false step. But he felt almost as if he could strike him dead as young Ralph looked him full in the face and replied to his last taunt.
“I shall at least make the trial,” Ralph said, firmly. “I have done evil enough already without having a dead man haunting me all the days of my life. I have sworn that Dora shall be my wife; and I am willing to do anything reasonable to win her. I shall force her into a marriage, and teach her to love me afterward. But as for murder, ugh! I will not do it!”
“I tell you, Ralph, you shall not do anything so rash as to go, as you intend, to Mr. Ellerton. You would only get kicked and scorned for your pains, and perhaps be arrested; then how will you marry your lady-love? Besides, I think you are rather overlooking the wrong he has done your mother, and that you also forget that he has known of your own existence, and willfully deserted you all these years. Are you willing to forgive and forget all this?” asked the crafty man.
“I know all this,” replied his nephew, with a weary sigh, as he realized the force of his uncle’s remarks.