Page:The Wanderer (1814 Volume 5).pdf/51

 Then, addressing Juliet, "If you dare assert," he said, "that you are not my wife, your perjury may cost you dear! If you have not that hardiness, hold your tongue and welcome. Who else will dare dispute my claims?"

"I will!" cried Harleigh, furiously. "Walk this way, Sir, and give me an account of yourself! I will defend that lady from your inhuman grasp, to the last drop of my blood!"

"Ah, no! ah, no!" Juliet now faintly uttered; but the man, interrupting her, said, "Dare you assert, I demand, that you are not my wife? Speak! Dare you?"

Again she bowed down her face upon her hands,—her face that seemed bloodless with despair; but she was mute.

"I put you to the test;" continued the man, striding to the end of the gallery, and opening the last door: "Go into that chamber!"

She shrieked aloud with agony uncontrollable; and Harleigh, with an emo-