Chapter 22 - Page 2

bridegroom started, and his lip blanched. Recovering himself,
however, on the instant, he answered with a suavity that became so
happy a man,--

"Death!--as such an offense merits," he said.

"Death and dissection," continued the operator. "It is seldom that law
loses sight of eventual utility in a malefactor. Bigamy, in a man, is a
heinous offense!"

"More so than celibacy?" asked Lawton.

"More so," returned the surgeon, with undisturbed simplicity. "One who
remains in a single state may devote his life to science and the
extension of knowledge, if not of his species; but the wretch who
profits by the constitutional tendency of the female sex to credulity
and tenderness, incurs the wickedness of a positive sin, heightened by
the baseness of deception."

"Really, sir, the ladies are infinitely obliged to you, for attributing
folly to them as part of their nature."

"Captain Lawton, in man the animal is more nobly formed than in woman.
The nerves are endowed with less sensi bility; the whole frame is less
pliable and yielding; is it therefore surprising, that a tendency to
rely on the faith of her partner is more natural to woman than to the
other sex?"

Wellmere, as if unable to listen with any degree of patience to so
ill-timed a dialogue, sprang from his seat and paced the floor in
disorder. Pitying his situation, the reverend gentleman, who was
patiently awaiting the return of Caesar, changed the discourse, and a
few minutes brought the black himself. The billet was handed to Dr.
Sitgreaves; for Miss Peyton had expressly enjoined Caesar not to
implicate her, in any manner, in the errand on which he was dispatched.
The note contained a summary statement of the several subjects of the
surgeon's directions, and referred him to the black for the ring. The
latter was instantly demanded, and promptly delivered. A transient look
of melancholy clouded the brow of the surgeon, as he stood a moment, and
gazed silently on the bauble; nor did he remember the place, or the
occasion, while he mournfully soliloquized as follows:--

"Poor Anna! gay as innocence and youth could make thee was thy heart,
when this cincture was formed to grace thy nuptials; but ere the hour
had come, God had taken thee to Himself. Years have passed, my sister,
but never have I forgotten the companion of my infancy!" He advanced to
Sarah, and, unconscious of observation, placing the ring on her finger,
continued, "She for whom it was intended has long been in her grave, and
the youth who bestowed the gift soon followed her sainted spirit; take
it, madam, and God grant that it may be an instrument in making you as