Page:The Monk, A Romance - Lewis (1796, 1st ed., Volume 1).djvu/101

 you remain in possession of the benefits of society, and that a society composed of the most estimable of mankind."

"Father! father! 'tis that which causes any torment. Happy had it been for me, had my life been passed among the vicious and abandoned; had I never heard pronounced the name of virtue. 'Tis my unbounded adoration of religion; 'tis my soul's exquisite sensibility of the beauty of fair and good, that loads me with shame—that hurries me to perdition. Oh! that I had never seen these abbey-walls!"

"How, Rosario? When we last conversed, you spoke in a different tone. Is my friendship then become of such little consequence? Had you never seen these abbey-walls, you never had seen me. Can that really be your wish?"

"Had never seen you?" repeated the novice, starting from the bank, and grasping the friar's hand with a frantic air—"You! you! Would to God that lightning had blasted them before you ever