United States or Uruguay ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Walter was greatly affected it took him by surprise; nothing in Aram's ordinary demeanour betrayed any facility to emotion; and he conveyed to all the idea of a man, if not proud, at least cold. "You do not suffer bodily pain, I trust?" asked Walter, soothingly. "Pain does not conquer me," said Aram, slowly recovering himself. "I am not melted by that which I would fain despise.
Again Aram's face worked, and his lip quivered; but he conquered his passion with a surprising self-command, and answered mildly, "I do not know, Houseman, whether I shall receive any marriage portion whatsoever: If I do, I am willing to make some arrangement by which I could engage you to molest me no more.
This made the chief part of the evidence against Aram; the minor points we have omitted, and also such as, like that of Aram's hostess, would merely have repeated what the reader knew before. And now closed the criminatory evidence and now the prisoner was asked, in that peculiarly thrilling and awful question What he had to say in his own behalf?
Walter had already released his gripe, and said, in a muttered voice, "My passion misled me; violence is unworthy my solemn cause. God and Justice not these hands are my avengers." "Your avengers!" said Aram. "What dark words are these? This warrant accuses me of the murder of one Daniel Clarke. What is he to thee?" "Mark me, man!" said Walter, fixing his eyes on Aram's countenance.
At this supreme moment, when now it seems that everything is surely well, the one man in the world who knows Eugene Aram's secret has become, by seeming chance, a guest in the vicarage; and even while Ruth places her hand upon her lover's heart and softly whispers, "If guilt were there, it still should be my pillow," the shadow of the gathering night that darkens around them is deepened by the blacker shadow of impending doom.
I scarcely recognize your very appearance. The elastic spring has left your step there seems a fixed furrow in your brow. These clouds of life are indeed no summer vapour, darkening one moment and gone the next. But my young friend, let us hope the best. I firmly believe in Aram's innocence firmly! more rootedly than I can express. The real criminal will appear on the trial.
Raised as her spirits had been by the haughty and earnest tone of Aram's exhortation, Madeline now, though she turned deadly pale, though the earth swam round and round, yet repressed the shriek upon her lips as those horrid words shot into her soul. "You! murder! you! And who dares accuse you?" "Behold him, your cousin!"
We will not tax the patience of the reader, who seldom enters with keen interest into the mere dialogue of love, with the blushing Madeline's reply, or with all the soft vows and tender confessions which the rich poetry of Aram's mind made yet more delicious to the ear of his dreaming and devoted mistress.
If Bronson had not been there he might possibly instead have handed them over to Mr. Aram, and this story would never have been written. But he could not do that now. Mr. Aram's affairs had become the property of the New York newspaper. He turned to his friend doubtfully. "What do you think, Bronson?" he asked.
Aram and Walter had only met twice before since the interview we recorded, and each time Walter had taken care that the meeting should be but of short duration. In these brief encounters, Aram's manner had been even more gentle than heretofore; that of Walter's, more cold and distant. And now, as they thus unexpectedly met at the door, Aram, looking at him earnestly, said: "Farewell, Sir!
Word Of The Day