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me, I was permitted to attend her home. What was my surprize to discover in the person of her father, my ancient schoolmaster, old Michael Andrews! Fortunately for me, however, I had been so completely changed in appearance by the forming hands of time, that he did not recognize me; and even had this not been the case, the condition of the old man himself was such, that I was secure from any fear of detection. His mind and memory were in great part gone. He still contrived, mechanically as it were, to teach the “accidence” to three white-headed urchins, belonging to the neighborhood, and in this way, with the industry of his daughters, the family procured a tolerable livelihood. I was treated kindly by the old people, and had certainly made some impression on Emily—the maiden I had accompanied. I lingered for some hours in her company—and, though timid, uneducated and girlish in a great degree, I was fascinated by her beauty, her gentleness, and the angelic smile upon her lips. It was late in the day when I left the house of old Andrews. He had heard my name, and showed no emotion. He had evidently forgotten all the circumstances of my boyhood in connexion with himself. I could then venture to return—to repeat my visits—to see once more, and when I pleased, the sweet object, whose glance had aroused in my bosom an emotion of sense and sentiment entirely unknown to it before. We did meet, and each returning day found me on the same route. Our intimacy increased, until she became my own—and was my victim. CHAPTER V. That girl was the most artless—the most innocent of all God’s creatures. Strange! that she should be condemned as a sacrifice to the wishes of the worst and wildest. But, it was her fate, not less than mine! Need I say that I—whose touch has cursed and contaminated all whose ill fortunes doomed them to any connexion with mine—I blighted and blasted that innocence, and changed the smile into the tear, and the hope into the sorrow, of that fond and foolishly confiding creature. We were both, comparatively, children. She was, indeed, in all respects a child—but I—I had lived years—many years of concentrated wickedness and crime. To do wrong was to be myself—it was natural. That I should deceive and dishonor, is not therefore matter of surprize; but that there should be no guardian angel—no protecting shield for the unwary and the innocent, would seem to manifest an unwise improvidence in the dispenser of things. A few months of our intimacy only 18 MARTIN FABER Simms-MFaber final pages:Layout 1 4/10/08 11:50 AM Page 18 had elapsed. In the quiet and secluded bower where we had first met, she lay in my arms. I had wrought upon her imagination to the utmost. With a stern sense and consciousness, all the while, of what I was doing, I had industriously aroused all the natural passions of her bosom. Her lips were breathing and burning beneath my own. Her bosom was beating violently against mine. My arm encircled and clasped her closely. There was a warm languor in the atmosphere—the trees murmured not—the winds were at repose—no warning voice rose in the woods—no tempest blackened in the sky—the shrill scream of a solitary bird at that moment might have broken the spell—might have saved the victim. But the scream came not—the fates had decreed it—body and soul, the victim was mine. She was no longer the pure, the glad, the innocent and unstained angel I had first known her. Her eyes were now downcast and fearful—her frame trembled with all the consciousness of guilt. She gave up all to her affection for one so worthless—so undeserving as myself: yet, even then, she had won none of my affections, though loving me, even as the young and morning flower may be seen to link and entwine itself with and about the deadly and venomous nightshade. Mine were the professions of the momentary passion, which I had taught her to believe, and which, for the time, I had actually believed myself. But only for a time. Our intercourse was continued in this way for several months. The consequences now began to threaten Emily with exposure, and she hourly besought me to provide...

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