Page:"The Mummy" Volume 2.djvu/185

Rh fie! is this your strength of mind? I am ashamed of you. Is it the part of a man of courage to shrink from such a slight reverse? However, I am still your friend, and if you will follow my advice —"

"Avaunt! demon!" cried Father Morris; "tempt me no more! Ruin hangs upon thy words, and it is thy advice that has destroyed me."

"Say rather, your own evil passions," returned the Mummy.

"Fiend!" exclaimed the monk; "was it not by thy advice Rosabella rejected the address I had prepared for her, and determined to deliver her own sentiments extempore."

"Such an expression of her genuine feelings was likely to produce ten times the effect of a studied address. The oration of Lord Edmund was from the feeling of the moment, and you saw its power was magical."

"And it was not by your desire that the fool Lord Noodle seconded her, instead of Lord Gustavus, as I had intended?"

"A ridiculous fool was more likely to put