Page:Glenarvon (Volume 2).djvu/317

 little trembling page, my Zerbellini, welcome to my heart," he answered: "I knew you would not fail; but I have waited for you till every bright illusion of hope has been changed into visions of despondency and fear. We meet now: but is it indeed to part no more! Glenarvon is your's, and shall never be severed from you."

"Ah! triumph over yourself and me," she cried, clasping her hands in agony. "Ask any sacrifice but this. Do not make me contemptible to you and to myself." Calantha, the time for safety is past: it is too late now. I have linked my soul to your's; I love you in defiance of myself; I know it to be guilt, and to be death; but it must be. We follow but the dark destiny that involves us: we cannot escape from fate. For you alone I live:—be now but mine. They tell you of misery, of inconstancy, of lovers' perjuries, from the olden time; but you shall prove them false. You leave much, it is