Page:Francesca Carrara 2.pdf/229

226 you unconscious offence?—unconscious, indeed, it must have been."

"None, dear child!" said he, taking her hand; "but misery makes me restless. I feel, too, as if the very sight of me must cast a gloom over you! I often hear your voices, and that of my gentle Lucy, mingled together in cheerful converse; and I shrink from the pleasure it gives me—I dread lest it should be punished on you!"

"Nay," interrupted Guido, "this is being too fanciful. We will run the risk," added he, smiling, "of any judgment you may bring down upon us."

"You speak like a boy," replied Arden, almost angrily, "who imagines that doubt is wisdom. My whole past has taught me the mysterious influences which unite our destinies together. Blessings wait on the steps of one, while curses follow in the path of another. To whom have I ever brought good? My sister pined away in the home which I urged her to enter; my first friend, through my act, became a broken-down exile in his old age; the only woman I ever loved I forced to a violent and dreadful death; my eastern master perished as soon as he befriended his fatal slave. I seek to repair my former crimes, and