I was speaking to my heart, Jack!--It was then at my throat.--And what is
all this for?--These shy women, how, when a man thinks himself near the
mark, do they tempest him!
***
Is all ready, Dorcas? Has my beloved kept her word with me?--Whether are
these billowy heavings owing more to love or to fear? I cannot tell, for
the soul of me, of which I have most. If I can but take her before her
apprehension, before her eloquence, is awake--
Limbs, why thus convulsed?--Knees, till now so firmly knit, why thus
relaxed? why beat you thus together? Will not these trembling fingers,
which twice have refused to direct the pen, fail me in the arduous
moment?
Once again, why and for what all these convulsions? This project is not
to end in matrimony, surely!
But the consequences must be greater than I had thought of till this
moment--my beloved's destiny or my own may depend upon the issue of the
two next hours!