Page:The Wanderer (1814 Volume 1).pdf/452

 eyes of Ellis, now turned towards her, with an expression in which all that was not surprise was resentment; while Elinor, seeming suddenly suspended, faintly pronounced, "Ellis—deluding Ellis!—what is it you say?"

"I am no deluder!" cried Ellis, yet more eagerly: "Rely, rely upon my plighted honour!"

Harleigh now looked utterly confounded; but Ellis only saw, and seemed only to breathe for Elinor, who recovering, as if by miracle, her complexion, her voice, and the brightness of her eyes, rapturously exclaimed, "Oh Harleigh!—Is there, then, sympathy in our fate? Do you, too, love in vain?"—And, from a change of emotion, too sudden and too mighty for the shattered state of her nerves, she sunk senseless upon the floor.

The motive to the strange protestations of Ellis was now apparent: a poniard dropt from the hand of Elinor as she fell, of which, while she spoke her farewell, Ellis had caught a glance.