"
"Yet turn, dear Miriam! Look on me once more! take my hand! since you
act from necessity, do nothing from anger--turn and take my hand."
She turned and stood--such a picture of tearless agony! She met his
gentle, compassionate glance--it melted--it subdued her.
"Oh, would Heaven that I might die, rather than do this thing! Would
Heaven I might die! for my heart turns to you; it turns, and I love you
so--oh! I love you so! never, never so much as now! my brother! my
brother!" and she sunk down and seized his hands and wept over them.
"What, Miriam! do you love me, believing me to be guilty?"
"To have been guilty--not to be guilty--you have suffered remorse--you
have repented, these many long and wretched years. Oh! surely repentance
washes out guilt!"
"And you can now caress and weep over my hands, believing them to have
been crimsoned with the life-stream of your first and best friend?"
"Yes! yes! yes! yes! Oh! would these tears, my very heart sobs forth,
might wash them pure again! Yes! yes! whether you be guilty or not, my
brother! the more I listen to my heart, the more I love you, and I
cannot help it!"
"It is because your heart is so much wiser than your head, dear Miriam!
Your heart divines the guiltlessness that your reason refuses to credit!
Do what you feel that you must, dear Miriam--but, in the meantime, let
us still be brother and sister--embrace me once more.
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