I
have been sent abroad, in the confidence of the highest--to the highest.
Don't turn from me. I am offering you no bribe, Clarence, only your
deserts. Come with me. Leave these curs behind, and live the hero that
you are!"
He turned his blazing eyes upon her.
"If you were a man"--he began passionately, then stopped.
"No! I am only a woman and must fight in a woman's way," she interrupted
bitterly. "Yes! I intreat, I implore, I wheedle, I flatter, I fawn, I
lie! I creep where you stand upright, and pass through doors to which
you would not bow. You wear your blazon of honor on your shoulder;
I hide mine in a slave's gown. And yet I have worked and striven and
suffered! Listen, Clarence," her voice again sank to its appealing
minor,--"I know what you men call 'honor,' that which makes you cling to
a merely spoken word, or an empty oath. Well, let that pass! I am weary;
I have done my share of this work, you have done yours. Let us both fly;
let us leave the fight to those who shall come after us, and let us
go together to some distant land where the sounds of these guns or the
blood of our brothers no longer cry out to us for vengeance! There are
those living here--I have met them, Clarence," she went on hurriedly,
"who think it wrong to lift up fratricidal hands in the struggle, yet
who cannot live under the Northern yoke.
Pages:
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169