FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   246   247   248   249   250   251   252   253   254   255   256   257   258   259   260   261   262   263   264   265   266   >>  
rgave you long ago, Dorothy. You had my full forgiveness before you asked it." He lifted the weeping girl to her feet and the two clung together in silence. After a pause Dorothy spoke:-- "You have not asked me, John, why I betrayed you." "I want to know nothing, Dorothy, save that you love me." "That you already know. But you cannot know how much I love you. I myself don't know. John, I seem to have turned all to love. 'However much there is of me, that much there is of love for you. As the salt is in every drop of the sea, so love is in every part of my being; but John," she continued, drooping her head and speaking regretfully, "the salt in the sea is not unmixed with many things hurtful." Her face blushed with shame and she continued limpingly: "And my love is not--is not without evil. Oh, John, I feel deep shame in telling you, but my love is terribly jealous. At times a jealousy comes over me so fierce and so distracting that under its influence I am mad, John, mad. I then see nothing in its true light; my eyes seem filled with--with blood, and all things appear red or black and--and--oh! John, I pray you never again cause me jealousy. It makes a demon of me." You may well know that John was nonplussed. "I cause you jealousy?" he asked in surprise. "When did I--" But Dorothy interrupted him, her eyes flashing darkly and a note of fierceness in her voice. He saw for himself the effects of jealousy upon her. "That white--white Scottish wanton! God's curse be upon her! She tried to steal you from me." "Perhaps she did," replied John, smilingly, "of that I do not know. But this I do know, and you, Dorothy, must know it too henceforth and for all time to come. No woman can steal my love from you. Since I gave you my troth I have been true to you; I have not been false even in one little thought." "I feel sure, John, that you have not been untrue to me," said the girl with a faint smile playing about her lips; "but--but you remember the strange woman at Bowling Green Gate whom you would have--" "Dorothy, I hope you have not come to my dungeon for the purpose of making me more wretched than I already am?" "No, no, John, forgive me," she cried softly; "but John, I hate her, I hate her! and I want you to promise that you too will hate her." "I promise," said John, "though, you have had no cause for jealousy of Queen Mary." "Perhaps--not," she replied hesitatingly. "I have never thought," the gi
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   246   247   248   249   250   251   252   253   254   255   256   257   258   259   260   261   262   263   264   265   266   >>  



Top keywords:
Dorothy
 

jealousy

 

things

 

promise

 

thought

 

continued

 

Perhaps

 

replied

 

henceforth

 
lifted

forgiveness

 

smilingly

 

Scottish

 

wanton

 

silence

 

effects

 

weeping

 
forgive
 
wretched
 
purpose

making

 

softly

 

hesitatingly

 

dungeon

 

playing

 

untrue

 

remember

 

Bowling

 
strange
 

flashing


blushed
 
limpingly
 

telling

 
terribly
 
fierce
 
jealous
 

hurtful

 

turned

 
However
 
drooping

unmixed
 

regretfully

 

speaking

 
distracting
 
nonplussed
 

surprise

 

darkly

 

interrupted

 

betrayed

 

influence