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 almost tenderly, let me send for some divine!"

"How conscious is this retreat," she cried, "of the weakness of your cause! Ah! why thus try to bewilder a poor forlorn traveller, who is dropping with fatigue upon her road? and to fret and goad her on, when the poor tortured wretch languishes to give up the journey altogether? Why not rather, more generously, more like yourself, aid her to attain repose? to open her burning veins, and bid her pent up blood flow freely to her relief? or kindly point the steel to her agonized heart, whose last sigh would be ecstacy if it owed its liberation to your pitying hand! Oh Harleigh! what vain prejudice, what superstitious sophistry, robs me of the only solace that could soothe my parting breath?"

"What is it Elinor means?" cried Harleigh, alarmed, yet affecting to speak lightly: "Has she no compunction for the labour she causes my blood in thus perpetually accelerating its circulation."