He
started from the bedside, and covered his face with his hands, as if to
hide it from those dead eyes.
Such a scene as has been described could not but have a powerful effect
upon any one who retained aught of humanity; and the grief of the son,
whose natural feelings had been blunted, but not destroyed, by an evil
life, was much more violent than his outward demeanor would have
expressed. But his deep repentance for the misery he had brought upon his
parent did not produce in him a resolution to do wrong no more. The sudden
consciousness of accumulated guilt made him desperate. He felt as if no
one had thenceforth a claim to justice or compassion at his hands, when
his neglect and cruelty had poisoned his mother's life, and hastened her
death.
Thus it was that the Devil wrought with him to his own destruction,
reversing the salutary effect which his mother would have died exultingly
to produce upon his mind. He now turned to Ellen Langton with a demeanor
singularly calm and composed.
"We must resume our journey," he said, in his usual tone of voice. "The
sun is on the point of rising, though but little light finds its way into
this hovel."
Ellen's previous suspicions as to the character of her companion had now
become certainty so far as to convince her that she was in the power of a
lawless and guilty man; though what fate he intended for her she was
unable to conjecture.
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