第58章

"I mean that what she said suggested the design which has brought me to Naples," he answered."While I believed that the phantom had appeared to me as the fatal messenger of death, there was no comfort--there was misery, rather, in hearing her say that no power on earth should make her desert me, and that she would live for me, and for me only, through every trial.But it was far different when we afterward reasoned together about the purpose which the apparition had come to fulfill--far different when she showed me that its mission might be for good instead of for evil, and that the warning it was sent to give might be to my profit instead of to my loss.At those words, the new idea which gave the new hope of life came to me in an instant.I believed then, what I believe now, that I have a supernatural warrant for my errand here.In that faith I live; without it I should die._She_never ridiculed it, never scorned it as insanity.Mark what Isay! The spirit that appeared to me in the Abbey--that has never left me since--that stands there now by your side, warns me to escape from the fatality which hangs over our race, and commands me, if I would avoid it, to bury the unburied dead.Mortal loves and mortal interests must bow to that awful bidding.The specter-presence will never leave me till I have sheltered the corpse that cries to the earth to cover it! I dare not return--Idare not marry till I have filled the place that is empty in Wincot vault."His eyes flashed and dilated--his voice deepened--a fanatic ecstasy shone in his expression as he uttered these words.

Shocked and grieved as I was, I made no attempt to remonstrate or to reason with him.It would have been useless to have referred to any of the usual commonplaces about optical delusions or diseased imaginations--worse than useless to have attempted to account by natural causes for any of the extraordinary coincidences and events of which he had spoken.Briefly as he had referred to Miss Elmslie, he had said enough to show me that the only hope of the poor girl who loved him best and had known him longest of any one was in humoring his delusions to the last.How faithfully she still clung to the belief that she could restore him! How resolutely was she sacrificing herself to his morbid fancies, in the hope of a happy future that might never come!

Little as I knew of Miss Elmslie, the mere thought of her situation, as I now reflected on it, made me feel sick at heart.

"They call me Mad Monkton!" he exclaimed, suddenly breaking the silence between us during the last few minutes, "Here and in England everybody believes I am out of my senses except Ada and you.She has been my salvation, and you will be my salvation too.

Something told me that when I first met you walking in the Villa Peale.I struggled against the strong desire that was in me to trust my secret to you, but I could resist it no longer when Isaw you to-night at the ball; the phantom seemed to draw me on to you as you stood alone in the quiet room.Tell me more of that idea of yours about finding the place where the duel was fought.

If I set out to-morrow to seek for it myself, where must I go to first? where?" He stopped; his strength was evidently becoming exhausted, and his mind was growing confused."What am I to do? Ican't remember.You know everything--will you not help me? My misery has made me unable to help myself."He stopped, murmured something about failing if he went to the frontier alone, and spoke confusedly of delays that might be fatal, then tried to utter the name of "Ada"; but, in pronouncing the first letter, his voice faltered, and, turning abruptly from me, he burst into tears.

My pity for him got the better of my prudence at that moment, and without thinking of responsibilities, I promised at once to do for him whatever he asked.The wild triumph in his expression as he started up and seized my hand showed me that I had better have been more cautious; but it was too late now to retract what I had said.The next best thing to do was to try if I could not induce him to compose himself a little, and then to go away and think coolly over the whole affair by myself.

"Yes, yes," he rejoined, in answer to the few words I now spoke to try and calm him, "don't be afraid about me.After what you have said, I'll answer for my own coolness and composure under all emergencies.I have been so long used to the apparition that I hardly feel its presence at all except on rare occasions.