Crime and Consequences [pp. 749-759]

SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.
repeatedly urged by her relations to accept of an asylum with them, but she had refused to abandon me.
She was as wretched as one could be who was free
firom all crime, and bowing, with unmurmuring meekness, to the hand that chastised her. She had nothing
but her own unequalled goodness to sustain her. I had
forgotten even to be kind, and yet she would not abandon me. But the time had now come when it was necessary that she should look to her friends for the bare
necessaries of life; and the state of her health too required comforts and assistance not to be procured by
poverty. For the present, therefore, she consented to
remove, with our boy, to her fatlier's house. I did not
accompany her, for I was fully aware that my society
would be tolerated there only for her sake; and sunk
as I was in my self-esteem, and justly degraded in the
eyes of others, my pride could not brook aniy manifestation of the feelings entertained towards me. From
the physician who attended her, I had daily reports of
my wife's health, which became more and more precarious. How could it be otherwise? Had I not destroyed her peace of mind?-had I not violated the sanctuary of her love?-had I not poisoned the source of
her being? and with her wrung heart, must she not
pine away, till merciful Heaven reclaimed its unequalled creation? My child too but what claim had I to
a husband's or a flathler's name?
One evening, as I sat in a room at a tavern, my temporary place of abode, gloomily reflecting on my situation-recurring, in agony of soul, to the happiness that
I had forever cast firom me, and painfully endeavoring
to suggest to myself some plan by which I might retrieve, in part, my fallen fortunes, there was a knock at
the door, and Roberts entered the room. He had been
absent for some time, in one of the northern states, and
he now approached me with seeming joy, and as if he
anticipated from me an equally cordial welcome. His
presence, however, was any thing but pleasing to me.
I was largely indebted to him for money lost and loaned
at cards; and when did debtor meet his creditor with
joy at his heart? Besides, I had begun to feel, that but
for my association with this mnan, I should never have
plunged into the vortex that had overwhelmed me. He
was aware of nmy coldness, and broke out with-"Why,
W., my dear fellow, what is the matter? Is this the
way you receive an old friend after a six months' absence? But you seem to be in the dumps; has any
thing unusual occurred to fret you?"
" WVhy do you put such a question?" replied I; "do
you not know that I am a ruined man-that every
thing I could call my own has been torn from me-that
1 am a wanderer, covered with shame, heaped wxvithl obloqluy, steeped in poverty? and do you expect, under
such circumstances, to find my heart bounding with
joy, or my face mantled with smiles? To be plain with
you, Roberts, I was thinking of you just as you nade
your appearance, and I will tell you what was passing
in my mind. Memory had gone back to the time of
our first acquaintance, when I was in possession of all
most valued by man wealth, that seemed scarcely to
have a limit-a reputation, unhreathed upon by reproach-the affections of one whose equal I have never
met, and the unspeakable blessing of a pure conscience.
All, save one, of these have fled-perhaps that too is
gone; and all this is your work. Yes, sir, yours! But
ed to play; but
n e the vile pur me on, by sti une would not
uld retrieve all,
a upon my cre s such as these,
can hardly sup come."
had a long ride
my intention to
house. But the
nd as a fi-iend I
offended at the
ke every allow and I feel it my
mewhat calmed
nto trouble, and
fortune, the first
th a comfortable
e upon the mat w my prescrip da; we will talk
nd the odds are
plan which, if
11 set all things
e from you, will
ed had been pro your wife, W.,
And you, I sup at her father's?
Wy the bye, the
rigid about this
hundred has he
wd, that your re fting saint. Let
u entirely desti
ot plid you."
ind me. Have
n by which you
,,
what means do I
on?"
Le shall find the
well as yours, is
I that I entrusted
w left me in the
Ild, has smashed,
td. But I started
often reduced to
t you perceive, I
ue, I am a single
upon me-otherseriously; but I
scold my friends,
prompt, the more
nay actions. Let
thing to yourself.
a
a
d
t
P
t~
g
It
h
"Utryrtely"rpidI
"ryordbsallpi?
yo adotis"
"TeY aepidtesle.
, What say you to turning merchal I "
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