But he respects both, feeling that it is better to
make a virgin soil than to try to make the old name grow in a soil that
had been darkened with so much blood and misfortune as this.
April 27th, Tuesday.--It was with a delightful feeling of release from
ordinary rules, that Middleton found himself brought into this connection
with Alice; and he only hoped that this play-day of his life might last
long enough to rest him from all that he had suffered. In the enjoyment
of his position he almost forgot the pursuit that occupied him, nor might
he have remembered for a long space if, one evening, Alice herself had
not alluded to it. "You are wasting precious days," she suddenly said.
"Why do you not renew your quest?"
"To what do you allude?" said Middleton in surprise. "What object do you
suppose me to have?"
Alice smiled; nay, laughed outright. "You suppose yourself to be a
perfect mystery, no doubt," she replied. "But do not I know you--have
not I known you long--as the holder of the talisman, the owner of the
mysterious cabinet that contains the blood-stained secret?"
"Nay, Alice, this is certainly a strange coincidence, that you should
know even thus much of a foolish secret that makes me employ this little
holiday time, which I have stolen out of a weary life, in a wild-goose
chase.
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