You have her
letter under her own hand, demanding the surrender of it; and, in yet
more full evidence of her purpose, here is the contract which she has
this morning subscribed, in presence of this reverence gentleman, with
Mr. Hayston of Bucklaw."
Ravenswood gazed upon the deed as if petrified. "And it was without
fraud or compulsion," said he, looking towards the clergyman, "that Miss
Ashton subscribed this parchment?"
"I couch it upon my sacred character."
"This is indeed, madam, an undeniable piece of evidence," said
Ravenswood, sternly; "and it will be equally unnecessary and
dishonourable to waste another word in useless remonstrance or reproach.
There, madam," he said, laying down before Lucy the signed paper and the
broken piece of gold--"there are the evidences of your first engagement;
may you be more faithful to that which you have just formed. I will
trouble you to return the corresponding tokens of my ill-placed
confidence; I ought rather to say, of my egregious folly."
Lucy returned the scornful glance of her lover with a gaze from which
perception seemed to have been banished; yet she seemed partly to have
understood his meaning, for she raised her hands as if to undo a blue
ribbon which she wore around her neck.
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