"Then, Mollie, behold your husband!"
With a theatrical flourish he whipped off slouched hat, flowing beard
and wig, dropped the disguising cloak, and stood before her
revealed--Dr. Guy Oleander!
She gave one gasping cry, no more. She stood looking at him as if
turning to stone, her face marble white--awfully rigid--her eyes
starting from their sockets. The man's face was lighted with a sinister,
triumphant glow.
"Look long, Mollie," he said, exultantly, "and look well. You see your
husband for the first time."
And then Mollie caught her gasping breath at the taunt, and the blood
rushed in a dark, red torrent of rage and shame to her fair face.
"Never!" she cried, raising her arm aloft--"never, so help me Heaven! I
will sit in this prison and starve to death! I will throw myself out of
yonder window into the black, boiling sea! I would be torn to pieces by
wild horses! I will die ten thousand deaths, but I will never, never,
never be wife of yours, Guy Oleander!"
Her voice rose to a shriek--hysterical, frenzied. For the instant she
felt as though she were going mad, and she looked it, and the man
recoiled before her.
Pages:
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225