Walter Grierson has told you a falsehood, and
his motive for it is adequate to his nature. Since he gave me the order
for the locket, he has learnt that you are to inherit the whole fortune
of your father, on the condition that you are to marry him; and his love
for Agnes has been overborne by another feeling--the desire to possess
your wealth. Neither the one nor the other of these feelings could he
manufacture, or even modify, any more than he could charm the winds into
silence, or send Jove's bolt back to its thunder-cloud; and now, look
you, his game is this: if you succeed to the money, he will marry
without loving you; if not, he will marry the woman he loves--Agnes
Ainslie."
"You alarm me, Paul," said she, involuntarily holding forth her arms, as
if she would have stopped his speech.
"And you cannot help your alarm," said he calmly; "neither can I help
_not_ being alarmed by your alarm."
"Oh, you trifle with my feelings," she cried, with a kind of wail.
"What have all these strange thoughts to do with this situation in which
I am placed? Even though all things are pre-ordained, neither of us can
be absolved from doing our duty to God and ourselves."
"Absolved!" echoed Paul. "Why, Rachel, look you, we are forced to do it,
or not to do it, precisely as the motive culminates into action, but we
are not sensible of the compulsion; and so am I under the necessity to
tell you that Walter Grierson is playing false with you, according to
the inexorable law of his nature.
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