"Dear trusting girl! would you indeed deprive yourself of all defenses
thus? But, my Nora, did you suppose when I took you to my bosom that I
had intrusted your peace and safety and honor only to a scrap of
perishable paper? No, Nora, no! Infidelity to you is forever impossible
to me; but death is always possible to all persons; and so, though I
could never forsake you, I might die and leave you; and to guard against
the consequences of such a contingency I surrounded you with every legal
security. The minister that married us resides in this county; the
witness that attended us lives with you. So that if to-morrow I should
die, you could claim, as my widow, your half of my personal property
and your life-interest in my estate. And if to-morrow you should become
impatient of your condition as a secreted wife, and wish to enter upon
all the honors of Bradenell Hall, you have the power to do so!"
"As if I would! As if it was for that I loved you! oh, Herman!"
"I know you would not, love! And I know it was not for that you loved
me! I have perfect confidence in your disinterestedness. And I hope you
have as much in mine."
"I have, Herman. I have!"
"Then, to go back to the first question, why did you wound me by saying,
that though I had married you, you knew you never could be owned as my
wife?"
"I spoke from a deep conviction! Oh, Herman, I know you will never
willingly forsake me; but I feel you will never acknowledge me!"
"Then you must think me a villain!" said Herman bitterly.
"No, no, no; I think, if you must have my thoughts, you are the
gentlest, truest, and noblest among men."
"You cannot get away from the point; if you think I could desert you,
you must think I am a villain!"
"Oh, no, no! besides, I did not say you would desert me! I said you
would never own me!"
"It is in effect the same thing."
"Herman, understand me: when I say, from the deep conviction I feel,
that you will never own me, I also say that you will be blameless."
"Those two things are incompatible, Nora! But why do you persist in
asserting that you will never be owned?"
"Ah, dear me, because it is true!"
"But why do you think it is true?"