E. B. Browning.
Crystal never moved as she heard the sound of the closing door. Only once she tried to cower away from him, but he would not release his hold; and, as his strength and purpose made themselves felt, she stood there dumb and cold, until, suddenly overcome by his tenderness, she laid her head on his breast with a sob that seemed to shake her girlish frame.
“Raby, Raby! oh, I can not bear this.” Then in a tone of anguish, “I do not deserve it.”
“No,” he said, calmly, and trying to soothe her with grave kisses; “you have been a faithless child, and deserve to be punished. How do you propose to make me amends for all the sorrow you have caused me?”
“Oh, if I could only die,” she answered, bitterly; “if my death could only do you good. Raby, the trouble of it has nearly killed me; you must not, you must not speak so kindly to me.”
“Must I not, my darling; how does a man generally speak to his future wife?” and as she trembled and shrunk from him, he went on in the same quiet voice, “if you are so ready to die for me, you will not surely refuse to live for me. Do you think you owe me nothing for all these years of desertion, Crystal; was there any reason that, because of that unhappy accident—a momentary childish passion, you should break my heart by your desertion?”
“I could not stay,” she answered, weeping bitterly; “I could not stay to see the ruin I had made. Oh, Raby, let me go, do not forgive me; I have been your curse, and Margaret’s, too!”
“Then come back and be our blessing; come back in your beauty and youth to be eyes to the blind man, and to be his darling and delight. Crystal, I am wiser now—I shall make no more mistakes; indeed, I always loved you, dear; poor Mona was no more to me than any other woman.”
“You loved me, Raby?”
“Yes, most truly and deeply; but you were so young, my sweet; and I did not think it right to fetter your inexperienced youth—you were so unconscious of your own rare beauty; you had seen so few men. ‘Let her go out into the world,’ I said, and test her power and influence. I will not ask her to be my wife yet. How could I know you would never change, Crystal—that your heart was really mine?”