Pardon me for saying it, you know not of what you
speak. Yes! however sincere may be the expression of your feelings to me
this moment, I shudder to think on whom your memory dwelt even this hour
but yesterday. I never will peril my happiness on such a chance; but
there are others who do not think as I do.'
'Miss Dacre! save me! If you knew all, you would not doubt. This moment
is my destiny.'
'My dear Duke of St. James, save yourself. There is yet time. You have
my prayers.'
'Let me then hope----'
'Indeed, indeed, it cannot be. Here our conversation on this subject
ends for ever.'
'Yet we part friends!' He spoke in a broken voice.
'The best and truest!' She extended her arm; he pressed her hand to his
impassioned lips, and quitted the house, mad with love and misery.
CHAPTER XVIII.
_Joys of the Alhambra_
THE Duke threw himself into his carriage in that mood which fits us
for desperate deeds. What he intended to do, indeed, was doubtful,
but something very vigorous, very decided, perhaps very terrible. An
indefinite great effort danced, in misty magnificence, before the vision
of his mind.
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