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Show 370 niCHAfl.D llURDIS. -if m derision-if with a foreknowledge of what I come to say-then, I must 011ly acknowledge the justice of your scorn and submit myself to your indignation." "Of what you came to sny, Mr. Clifton 1" slowly replied the 11alf-hcsituting listener. "Speak it out then, sir, I pray youlet me hear what you cnme to speak. And in your revelations do not give me credit for too great a foreknowledge, or you mny make your story too costive for the truth. Proceed, sir! listen ." "You seem already to have 1tcard something to my disadvantage, Colonel Grafton. It is my misfortune that you have not heard all that you might have lH~ard -nll that you must hear. It is my misery that my lips alone must tell it.'' rrhc unfortunate young mnn paused for an instant, as if under the pressure of emotions too painful for speecl1. He then resumed:- " I come, sir, to make a painful confession; to tell you that I have imposed upon you, Colonel Grafton-dreadfully imposed upon you-in more respects than one." "Go on, sir." "My name, sir, in the first place, is not Clifton, but-" "No matter, sir, whn.t it is! Enough, on that point, that it is not what you call it. But the letters, sir-what of them 1 How came you by letters of credit and introduction from my known and tried friends in Virginia 1" "They were forged, sir." "\Veil, I migl1t haYc known that without asking. 'fhe one im11osition fairly implies the other." "But not by me, Colonel Grafton." "They were used by you, and you knew them to be forged, sir. If your new code of morality can find a di£l'erence between the guilt of making the lie, and that of employing it when made, I sha1l be informed, sir, if not pleased. Go on with your story, which seems to concern me; and, considering tl1e manner of its beginning, the sooner you bring it to an end the better. What, may I ask, did you propose to yourself to gain by this imposition 1" "At first, sir, nothing. I was the creature-the base instrument of tho baser malice of another. ·w·ithout any object my· CAPTtVlTY . 371 t;('}f, at ftrst, 1 was weak l 1 the unworthy obj,ects of m:~~~~.'l' to abor thus criminally for "d l1i nt!t ind·e ed I I:..., or anotl '1,1 . . 1· ' lCr. .. liS IS well-this is better an )e ('I", Sir; ut go 011 _go on." "But :vhen my impo!:iitiou, sir, had proved so far successful as ~o brmg me to the knowledge and the confidence of our fannly-whcn I CHme to know tlJe trcasnre you possessZa. in the person of your lovely daughter_, "St~y, ~ir -n ot n. word of liet·. ITer name must not paRs your lips m my hcanng, m~lcss you would have me strike you to my feet, for yonr profmuty and presumption. Jt is wonderful to me, now, how I can forbear ." n Your blow, though it crushed me into the earth, could not humble me more, Colonel Grafton, than my own conscience has already done .. I am not unwilliug that you should strike. I came here ~hiS day to. submit, without complaint or prayer, ~o. any pumshm~nt _wh1ch you might deem it due to your InJured honor to mf!Jct. But, ~s a part of the reparation which I propose to make to you, it is my earnest desire that ou should hear me out." y . "Reparation, sir-reparation! Do you talk to me of reparation- you that have stolen into my bosom, like an insidious ser~ent, a~d tainted the happiness, and poisoned all the springs of JOY wh1ch I ~1ad there. 'rell your story, sir-say all that you deem essential to make your vi1lany seem less, but do not dare to speak of reparation for wrongs that you can not repair -wounds that no art of yours, artful though you have proved yourself, can ever heal." "I do not hope to repair-! feel that it is beyond my power to heal them. I do not come for that. I come simply to declare the truth-to acknowledge the falsehood-and, in forbearing to continue a course of evil, and in professing amendment for the future, to do what I can for the atonement of what is evil in the past. 'l'o repair my wrongs to you and yours, Colo_n~l Grafton, is not within my hope. If it were, sir, my hmmhty would be less than it is, and, perhaps, your indulgence greater." "Do not trust to that, sir-do not trust to that. But we will spare unnecessary words. Your professions for the future are |