She slipped in, and dropped her head upon his shoulder and sobbed.
Startled and very much annoyed, he gently tried to raise her head and
put her away.
But she only clung the closer, and sobbed the more.
"Rosa! don't! don't, child! Let us have no more of this! It is sinful
and dangerous! For your own sake, Rosa, retire to your room!" he gently
expostulated.
"Oh! you love me no longer! You love me no longer!" vehemently exclaimed
the siren. "That cruel woman has compelled you to forsake me! I told you
she would do it, and now she has done it."
"'That woman,' Rosa, is my beloved wife, entitled to my whole faith; yet
not even for her will I forsake you; but I will continue to care for
you, as a brother for a sister. But, Rosa, this must cease," he gravely
added.
"Oh, do not say that! do not! do not fling off the poor lonely heart
that you have once gathered to your own!" and she clung to him as
closely and wept as wildly as if she had been in earnest.
"Rosa! Rosa!" he whispered eagerly, and in great embarrassment, "my
child! be reasonable! Reflect! you have a husband!"
"Ah! name him not! He robbed and left me, and I hate him," she cried.
"And I have a dear and honored wife whose happiness I must guard. Thus
you see we can be nothing to each other but brother and sister. A
brother's love and care is all that I can offer you, or that you should
be willing to accept from me," he continued, as he gently smoothed her
fair hair.
"Then give me a brother's kiss," she sighed. "That is not much to ask,
and I have no one to kiss me now! So give me a brother's kiss, and let
me go!" she pleaded, plaintively.
He hesitated for a moment, and then bending over her, he said: "It is the first, and for your own sake it must be the last, Rosa!"
he pressed his lips to hers.
It was the last as well as the first; for at the meeting of their
lips, they were stricken asunder as by the fall of a thunderbolt!
And Sybil, blazing with wrath, like a spirit from the Lake of Fire,
stood between them!
Yes! for she looked not human--with her ashen cheeks, and darkened brow,
and flaming eyes--with her whole face and form heaving, palpitating,
flashing forth the lightnings of anger!
"SYBIL!" exclaimed her husband, thunderstruck, appalled.
She waved her hand towards him, as if to implore or command silence.
"I have nothing to say to you," she muttered, in low and husky tones,
as if ashes were in her throat. "But to YOU!" she said, and her voice
rose clear and strong as she turned and stretched out her arm towards
Rosa, who was leaning in a fainting condition against the wall--"TO YOU,
viper, who has stung to death the bosom that warmed you to life--TO YOU,
traitress, who has come between the true husband and his wife--TO YOU,
thief! who has stolen from your benefactress the sole treasure of her
life--TO YOU I have this to say: I will not drive you forth in dishonor
from my door this night, nor will I publish your infamy to the world
to-morrow, though you have deserved nothing less than these from my
hands; but in the morning you must leave the house you have desecrated!
for if you do not, or if ever I find your false face here again, I will
tread down and crush out your life with less remorse than ever I set
heel upon a spider! I will, as I am a Berners! And now, begone, and
never let me see your form again!"