She made one motion as
though about to lift it, and then recoiled, as if from herself,
in a sort of horror.
"My God! What is this man urging me to do? How can I ever
fulfill that fatal promise?"
"Madame, you torture me!" said Ormiston, whose face showed what
he felt. "You must keep your promise; so do not drive me wild
waiting. Let me - "
He took a step toward her, as if to lift the mask himself, but
she held out both arms to keep him off.
"No, no, no! Come not near me, Malcolm Ormiston! Fated man,
since you will rush on your doom, Look! and let the sight blast
you, if it will!"
She unfastened her mask, raised it, and with it the profusion of
long, sweeping black hair.
Ormiston did look - in much the same way, perhaps, that Zulinka
looked at the Veiled Prophet. The next moment there was a
terrible cry, and he fell headlong with a crash, as if a bullet
had whined through his hart.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE INTERVIEW.
I am not aware whether fainting was as much the fashion among the
fair sex, in the days (or rather the nights) of which I have the
honor to hold forth, as at the present time; but I am inclined to
think not, from the simple fact that Leoline, though like John
Bunyan, "grievously troubled and tossed about in her mind," did
nothing of the kind.
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