tHE MOVK. 73 



'' The first open rupture I had with her was for complying with 

 a custom I always detested, and which if anything can justify, it 

 must be wrinkles and nj^liness. Laura had the finest complexion of 

 any woman I had seen in Pai'is ; her skin was transparent white- 

 ness, and health had tinged her cheek with a bloom which mingled 

 with the lily on her countenance. To improve so much beauty was 

 impossible ; but to hide it under a mask of rouge was little short 

 of madness. 



" Laura would be a woman of fashion, and it was impossible to 

 obtain that distinction without complying with its injunctions in 

 eveiy particular. This, together with other circumstances, tended 

 to make me very unhappy ; but still I did not entertain a doubt of 

 her honour, till one day as I was sitting in my study, a sen^ant 

 brought me a letter, wliich I inadvertently opened without examining 

 the address. It was an assignation from a villain, who, having 

 wheedled Laura into play, and having won of her a large sum which 

 she found herself unable to pay, had made proposals on her chastity 

 as a means of repa>nnent. I trembled with rage ; but my passion 

 being a little subdued, I determined, for once in my life, to employ 

 artifice. I sealed up the letter, and forwarded it to Laura by a 

 trusty messenger, whom I told to wait for an answer. Her reply 

 was brief, but to me it spoke daggers; it contained but these words: 

 ' I will certainly meet thee.' 



'* Here my worst suspicions were most awfully verified. I was 

 paralysed with rage ; every faculty seemed suspended. Did she 

 ever love ? I inwardly inquired — had those bright eyes ever beamed 

 with fond affection, as she met me from my morning's walk, when 

 I first hailed her as my own and lovely wife ? — had all the pleasures 

 I had enjoyed with her been a dream ? — could such words be the 

 requital of sincere love ? No ; it could not be ! But then the 

 ;\nswer — * I will certainly meet thee !' 



'* I sank into* a detennined, gloomy desperation, more, terrible 

 tlian the wildest transport of passion. From that moment Laura 

 was doomed to die !" Here rising from his chair in a paroxysm of 

 wildness, he exclaimed — " And that night I executed my bloody 

 purpose ! for I thought it a duty, though a savage one, to sacrifice 



K 



