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344 THE HAUNTED MAN |
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upward, found a friend. I made him—won him—bound him to me ! We worked together, side by side. All the love and confidence that in my earlier youth had had no outlet, and found no expression, I bestowed on him."
"Not all," said Redlaw, hoarsely.
"No, not all," returned the Phantom. "I had a sister."
The haunted man, with his head resting on his hands, replied " I had ! " The Phantom, with an evil smile, drew closer to the chair, and resting its chin upon its folded hands, its folded hands upon the back, and looking down into his face with searching eyes, that seemed instinct with fire, went on:
" Such glimpses of the light of home as I had ever known, had streamed from her. How young she was, how fair, how loving! I took her to the first poor roof that I was master of, and made it rich. She came into the darkness of my life, and made it bright. —She is before me !"
" I saw her, in the fire, but now. I hear her in music, in the wind, in the dead stillness of the night," returned the haunted man.
"Did he love her?" said the Phantom, echoing his contemplative tone. "I think he did, once. I am sure he did. Better had she loved him less—less secretly, less dearly, from the shallower depths of a more divided heart!"
" Let me forget it!" said the Chemist, with an angry motion of his hand. " Let me blot it from my memory ! "
The Spectre, without stirring, and with its unwinking, cruel eyes still fixed upon his face, went on:
"A dream, like hers, stole upon my own life."
" It did," said Redlaw.
" A love, as like hers," pursued the Phantom, " as my inferior nature might cherish, arose in my own heart. I was too poor to bind its object to my fortune then, by any thread of promise or entreaty. I loved her far too well, to seek to do it. But, more than ever I had striven in my life, I strove to climb! Only an inch gained, brought me something nearer to the height. I toiled up! In the late pauses of my labour at that time,—my sister (sweet companion !) still sharing with me the expiring embers and the cooling hearth,—when day was breaking, what pictures of the future did I see ! "
" I saw them, in the fire, but now," he murmured. " They come back to me in music, in the wind, in the dead stillness of the night, in the revolving years."
" —Pictures of my own domestic life, in after-time, with her who was the inspiration of my toil. Pictures of my sister, made |
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