Rhoda Fleming -- Volume 5

up the key of Dahlia's bed-room, and said, "Unlo

ly Rhoda t

ur door open

sick with a sudden frig

enemy was here; but th

a's a

d; and asked, "Was there no lett

ms, seeking to check the co

r! none? not any? Oh

musical interjection and inte

r?" said Rhoda, despising

house! Where

ped? what was it yo

know. I'm blind. I was

it told me to hope.

minute. See him. It is father's wish. Come only fo

this morning, Rhoda. I can't hop

," said Rhoda, doubting that

her hands dumb

and keeps it," said Rhoda, cli

me? Oh, my letter!" D

eard below calling for Dahlia to descend. He came th

threat that sprang an answ

nding and said softly, "

esitation, he as

he remarked with an attempt at kindliness of tone. "What's th

ht as he stood in the doorway. "Say," she co

am Fleming gr

ather," said Rhoda. "You ha

that he was not angry), "that letter's where it ought to be. I've puzz

that might be uttered, heard this. Passin

meful old man! Can you look on me? Fathe

, stumbling backwar

visiting me or I visiting you-I shall see a respected creature, and not what you have been and want to be. You have racked the household with fear and shame for years. Now come, and carry out what you've begun in the contrary direction. You've got my word o' command, dead woman or live woman. Rhoda, take one elbow of your sister. Your aunt's coming up to pack her box. I say I'm determined, and no one stops me whe

ell have spok

ut great as was that power within her, it was overmatched by his brutal resolution to take his wife away. No argument, no irony, no appeals, can long withstand the iteration of

uld you have

's roar of this unans

ow, utterly forgetting the part

e a man when you've m

ut to the foot

'm in the midst of enemies; but I say I do love my wife, and I've come for her, and have her I will. No

the forlorn woman made her way to the bedroom. All the house was silent.

"Father, you know that yo

, my lass,

ll die,

ye, I

ll die,

of her better and above a husband? Hear reason, and

at her open hands, as if she

the man of medicine takes the patient's wrist. And in the silence c

hat's happened. Here's the man, I see. He dodged me cleverly

he position of things in the house. Rhoda spoke

ain his views of his duty and his daughter's duty. By the kitchen f

armer. "He's righted her before the world, and I thank him;

bert, "and I say too, shall,

bert!" Rhoda cr

step 'twixt me and my

t downright murder-tha

ke the hand of

arry me?" thun

en; and she was just half dead and had no will of her own; and some one set you to hunt her down. I tell

his wif

" Robert

Sedgett hoarsely; "I've com

know how it was done. I see you've got a cart outside and a boy at the horse's head. The h

great breath

e of spirits, with which she filled a small glass, and handing t

ur house, Mr. Fl

daughter's husband, remem

taken her off-mark that," Sedgett struck in. "Now,

He went into the passage shouting fo

on'y a short five minutes to pray by herself, which you will

th the box, then, m

lia's door was shut, that she mi

were Dahlia's lips, so tight the clutch of her hands, that s

forsake you

th shut eyes, and

on him who interferes and lifts his hand against me when I perform my sacred duty as a father. Place there! I'm going to open the door. Rhoda, see to your sister's bonnet and things. Ro

ed at Rhoda, but had no re

hrew the doo

eard passing among the ill-discerned forms, and the farmer went out to them. Robert listened keenly, but the

wn at home; a poor thing he shipped off to America, thinking himself more cunning than devils or angels: and she got put out at a port, owing to stress of weather, to defeat the man's wickedness! Can't I prove it to you, sir, he's a married man, which none of us in our vil

t into a gl

Boulby! haven't you

r little cunning groom down to Warbeach just two weeks back to make inquiries about that villain; and the groom left me her address, in case, my dear, when the poor creature-his true wife-crawled home, and we knew of her at Three- Tree Farm and knew her story.

and by the shadowy rays she beheld old Anthony leaning against the ho

e a sound of wh

ur-kitchen, and finding it empty, stamp

nestly to Mr. Fleming, who held his head low, stupefied, and aware only of the fact that it was a gentleman imparting to hi

man who had just reason to spurn him. He had sold her as a slave is sold; he had seen her plunged into the blackest pit; yet was she miraculously kept pure for him, and if she could give him her pardon, might still be his. The grief for which he could ask no compassion had

e love was his highest development. He had heard that Dahlia, lost to him, was free. Something like the mortal yearning to look upon the dead risen to life, made it impossible for him to remain absent and in doubt. He was ready

Waring and Mrs. Boulby to the farm, that exalted woman w

ting-room, when, after an interval, William Fleming said

without variation, in the room where the men were. Words were indistinguishable. Thrice, after calling to Dahlia and getting no response, she listened again, and awe took her soul at last, for, abhorred as he was by her, his power was felt: she comprehended something of that earnestness which made the offender speak of his wron

courage, even at the bare thought that he might have done this. Feeling that Dahlia was saved, and thenceforth at liberty to despise him and torture him,

nd she was half glad, for she had a fear that in the quick revulsion of her sister's feelings, mere earthly

t's wickedness, which had vindicated all one hoped for from Above; as also the narration of the stabbing of her boy, and the heroism and great-heartedness

he complexion of circumstances as rapidly as circumstances themselves changed, but it

t one particle of comprehension, except of the fact that his behaviour was extraordinary. He understood that every admission made by Edward with such grave and strange directness, would justly have condemned him to punishment which the culprit's odd, and upright, and e

ok about outside for t' other." Robert answer

t he might be waiting to

light upon one of that breed, and they skulk in a hurry. Mr. Fleming, for the sake of your h

when there was shame on

printed simply on

the hand of his lost one, his beloved, who was in the house, breathing the same air with him; was perhaps in the room above, perhaps sitting impatiently with clasped fingers, waiting for the signal to unlock

nd was that of a gentle but troubled face-a soul afflicted, yet hoping because it had been told to hope, and half conscious

ad tasted shrewd and wasting grief of late. Robert

behaved so badly down at Fairly, you may have thought she sent me, and it

her whom he loved near him, it was absolutely out of his power for him to comprehend that his wish to break fr

t spoke to

pleading for Edward was so hearty. "Yet why should I always think differently fro

e in coming. She felt that he was unconvinced. But suddenly

a down

bosom by the command, and it was gladness. She ran up and

e came n

re. Come, com

t one fa

ia! D

ravel endlessly on. Rhoda knelt, and

e. I know you do not doubt me now. List

; and now a doubt came s

" rang h

me, and neither to father nor to lover

of the bed, inanimate, and

many tribulations, have no fear for this gentle