The Price He Paid — page 287: what you’re looking at

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

978 GABRIELLE’S RETURN.—RETROSPECTIVE. principles—yet I broke - with my past, and gave the required promise.” | The baron’s voice vibrated strangely; his quick, short breathing betrayed the emotion these painful reminiscences aroused within him. Gabrielle hung on his words in a great tension of suspense; but she did not venture to interrupt the story. He had withdrawn his arm from her now; and when he spoke again, 1t was in a dull, hollow tone. “Krom that time forth my career is known to you and to the world. I became the minister’s secretary, became his confidential friend, and, finally, his son- in-law. His potent influence overcame ail the ob- stacles which stand in the path of a nameless com- moner struggling upward, and when once the road was clear before me, I had only to exert the natural powers I possessed. The constant influence of my father-in-law, whom I sincerely revered, that of the circle in which I lived, did the rest. I must go onward, without looking back—and onward I went. The way was steep, and led over the ruins of former shrines, but I reached the goal. I have lived great and honored—to end in this way !” “But it is only a lie, a wicked calumny which has brought about. your fall!” broke in Gabrielle. “This must and shall be clearly shown.” Raven shook his head gloomily. “Can I compel that belief which the world does not willingly accord me? I have already heard from Rudolph Brunnow’s mouth that I have for- feited all claim to confidence. He, indeed, can meet any charge with an unruffled brow; no defense set up by him would pass unnoticed, for his past, his whole life te8tifies for him—mine condemns me. The man who has abjured his convictions may also have betrayed his friends. The curse of that fatal] hour, wherein I proved untrue to myself, weighs on me now, and makes me powerless to refute the calumny which works my fall.” “And who are they who turn against you?” cried Gabrielle, with a burst of indignation. “The very men for whom you have toiled, for whom you have sacrificed all. Oh, the base ingratitude!” EOmichbooks:co