Your family is perfectly well, said Mr. Kirwin with
gentleness; and someone, a friend, is come to visit you.
I know not by what chain of thought the idea presented itself, but it
instantly darted into my mind that the murderer had come to mock at my
misery and taunt me with the death of Clerval, as a new incitement for
me to comply with his hellish desires. I put my hand before my eyes,
and cried out in agony,
Oh! Take him away! I cannot see him; for God s sake, do not
let him enter!
Mr. Kirwin regarded me with a troubled countenance. He could not help
regarding my exclamation as a presumption of my guilt and said in
rather a severe tone,
I should have thought, young man, that the presence of your father
would have been welcome instead of inspiring such violent repugnance.
My father! cried I, while every feature and every muscle was relaxed
from anguish to pleasure. Is my father indeed come? How kind, how
very kind! But where is he, why does he not hasten to me?
My change of manner surprised and pleased the magistrate; perhaps he
thought that my former exclamation was a momentary return of delirium,
and now he instantly resumed his former benevolence. He rose and
quitted the room with my nurse, and in a moment my father entered it.
Nothing, at this moment, could have given me greater pleasure than the
arrival of my father. I stretched out my hand to him and cried,
Are you then safe and Elizabeth and Ernest?
My father calmed me with assurances of their welfare and endeavoured, by
dwelling on these subjects so interesting to my heart, to raise my
desponding spirits; but he soon felt that a prison cannot be the abode of
cheerfulness. What a place is this that you inhabit, my son!
said he, looking mournfully at the barred windows and wretched appearance
of the room. You travelled to seek happiness, but a fatality seems
to pursue you. And poor Clerval
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