"Did they?" she said, with a cold sneer, "he is, too - at least as far as church and state can make him; but I am no more his wife at heart than I am Satan's.Truly of the two I should prefer the latter, for then I should be wedded to something grand - a fallen angel; as it is, I have the honor to be wife to a devil who never was an angel?"At this shocking statement Sir Norman looked helplessly round, as if for relief; and Miranda, after a moment's silence, broke into another mirthless laugh.
"Of all the pictures of ugliness you ever saw or heard of, Sir Norman Kingsley, do tell me if there ever was one of them half so repulsive or disgusting as that thing?""Really," said Sir Norman, in a subdued tone, "he is not the most prepossessing little man in the world; but, madame, you do look and speak in a manner quite dreadful.Do let me prevail on you to calm yourself, and tell me your story, as you promised.""Calm myself!" repeated the gentle lady, in a tone half snappish, half harsh, "do you think I am made of iron, to tell you my story and be calm? I hate him! I hate him! I would kill him if Icould: and if you, Sir Norman, are half the man I take you to be, you will rid the world of the horrible monster before morning dawns!""My dear lady, you seem to forget that the case is reversed, and that he is going to rid the world of me,", said Sir Norman, with a sigh.
"No, not if you do as I tell you; and when I have told you how much cause I have to abhor him, you will agree with me that killing him will be no murder! Oh, if there is One above who rules this world, and will judge us all, why, why does He permit such monsters to live?""Because He is more merciful than his creatures," replied Sir Norman, with calm reverence, - though His avenging hand is heavy on this doomed city.But, madame, time is on the wing, and the headsman will be here before your story is told.""Ah, that story! How am I to tell it, I wonder, two words will comprise it all - sin and misery - misery and sin! For, buried alive here, as I am - buried alive, as I've always been - I know what both words mean; they have been branded on heart and brain in letters of fire.And that horrible monstrosity is the cause of all - that loathsome, misshapen, hideous abortion has banned and cursed my whole life! He is my first recollection.As far back as I can look through the dim eye of childhood's years, that horrible face, that gnarled and twisted trunk, those devilish eyes glare at me like the eyes and face of a wild beast.As memory grows stronger and more vivid, I can see that same face still - the dwarf! the dwarf! the dwarf! - Satan's true representative on earth, darkening and blighting ever passing year.I do not know where we lived, but I imagine it to have been one of the vilest and lowest dens in London, though the rooms I occupied were, for that matter, decent and orderly enough.Those rooms the daylight never entered, the windows were boarded up within, and fastened by shutters without, so that of the world beyond I was as ignorant as a child of two hours old.
I saw but two human faces, his" - she seemed to hate him too much even to pronounce his name - "and his housekeeper's, a creature almost as vile as himself, and who is now a servant here; and with this precious pair to guard me I grew up to be fifteen years old.My outer life consisted of eating, sleeping, reading - for the wretch taught me to read - playing with my dogs and birds, and listening to old Margery's stories.But there was an inward life, fierce and strong, as it was rank and morbid, lived and brooded over alone, when Margery and her master fancied me sleeping in idiotic content.How were they to know that the creature they had reared and made ever had a thought of her own -ever wondered who she was, where she came from, what she was destined to be, and what lay in the great world beyond? The crooked little monster made a great mistake in teaching me to read, he should have known that books sow seed that grow up and flourish tall and green, till they become giants in strength.Iknew enough to be certain there was a bright and glad world without, from which they shut me in and debarred me; and I knew enough to hate them both for it, with a strong and heartfelt hatred, only second to what I feel now."She stopped for a moment, and fixed her dark, gloomy eyes on the swarming floor, and shook off, with out a shudder, the hideous things that crawled over her rich dress.She had scarcely looked at Sir Norman since she began to speak, but he had done enough looking for them both, never once taking his eyes from the handsome darkening face.He thought how strangely like her story was to Leoline's - both shut in and isolated from the outer world.Verily, destiny seemed to have woven the woof and warp of their fates wonderfully together, for their lives were as much the same as their faces.Miranda, having shook off her crawling acquaintances, watched them glancing along the foul floor in the darkness, and went moodily on.
"It was three years ago when I was fifteen years old, as I told you, that a change took place in my life.Up to that time, that miserable dwarf was what people would call my guardian, and did not trouble me much with his heavenly company.He was a great deal from our house, sometimes absent for weeks together; and Iremember I used to envy the freedom with which he came and went, far more than I ever wondered where he spent his precious time.
I did not know then that he belonged to the honorable profession of highwaymen, with variations of coining when travelers were few and money scarce.He was then, and is still, at the head of a formidable gang, over whom he wields most desperate authority -as perhaps you have noticed during the brief and pleasant period of your acquaintance.""Really, madam, it struck me that your authority over them was much more despotic than his," said Sir Norman, in all sincerity, feeling called upon to give the - well, I'd rather not repeat the word, which is generally spelled with a d and a dash - his due.
