The Evil Genius: A Domestic Story — page 213: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

202 THE EVIL GENIUS. signs of depression and fatigue to find their way to tue surface. The captain was quiet, the captain was kind; neither by word nor look did he warn Catherine that the continuity of their in- timacy was in danger of being broken—and yet, her spirits sunk when they met at the open door. He led her to achair, and said she had come to him at a time when he especially wished to speak with her. Kitty asked if she might remain with them. He put his hand caressingly on her head: ‘‘ No, my dear; not now.” The child eyed him for a moment, conscious of something which she had never noticed in him before, and puzzled by the discovery. She walked back, cowed and silent, to the door. He followed her and spoke to Mrs. Presty. ‘‘ Take your grandchild into the garden; we will join you there in a little while. Good- bye for the present, Kitty.” Kitty said good-bye mechanically, like a dull child repeating a lesson. Her grandmother led her away in silence. Bennydeck closed the door, and seated himself by Catherine. ‘T thank you for ycur letter,” he said. ‘‘If such a thing is possible, it has given me a higher opinion of you than any opinion that I havc held yet.” She looked at him with a feeling of surprise so sudden and so overwhelming that she was at a loss how to reply. The last words which she expected to hear from him when he alluded to her confession were the words that had just passed his lips. ‘¢You have owned to faults that you have committed, and de- ceptions that you have sanctioned,” he went on, “‘ with nothing to gain, and everything to lose, by telling the truth. Who but a good woman would have done that ?” There was a deeper feeling in him than he had ventured to ex- press. It betrayed itself by a momentary trembling in his voice. Catherine drew a little closer to him. ‘“You don’t know how you surprise me, bow you relieve me,” she said, warmly, and pressed his hand. In the eagerness of her gratitude, in the gladness that had revived her sinking heart, she failed to feel that the pressure was not returned. ‘‘ What have I said to surprise you?” he asked. ‘* What anxi- ety have I relieved without knowing it >?” ‘‘T was afraid you would despise me.” ‘Why should I despise you ¢” ‘‘Have I not gained your good opinion under false pretenses? Have I not allowed you to admire me and to love me, without telling you that there was anything in my past life which I had reason to regret? Even now, I can hardly realize that you ex- cuse and forgive me; you, who have read the confession of my worst faults; you, who know the shocking inconsistencies of my character——” ‘‘ Say at once,” he answered, ‘‘ that I know you to be a mortal creature. Is there any human character, even the noblest, that is always consistently good °” ‘‘One reads of them sometimes,” she suggested ‘‘in books.” ‘“‘ Yes,” he said, ‘‘in the worst books you could possibly read ~ the only really immoral books written in our time.” CORMICLOOKS. EO im