Page:Glenarvon (Volume 1).djvu/53

 bloody purpose, he placed the infant in her arms, and bade her take pity on its helpless innocence. "See thy own—thy brother's image in those eyes—that smile," he whispered; "ah! can you have the heart?" But Lady Margaret turned from the child in haughty displeasure, thrusting it from her as if afraid to look on it; and, for many days, would not vouchsafe to speak to the weak instrument of her criminal ambition. Yet he, even he, whose life had been one continued course of profligacy, who had misused his superior talents to the perversion of the innocence of others, and the gratification of his own ungoverned passions, shuddered at the thought of the fearful crime which he had engaged himself to commit!

His knowledge of human nature, and particularly of the worst part of it, was too profound to depend upon any personal or immediate aid from Lady Margaret: he, therefore, conceived a project