DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22217#0260
248
THE BERWICK BURR.
Some months after the trial, the house in which Dinah King
served was broken into and robbed. Although the plunder
was mostly of a kind not easily hidden or carried away, no
trace of it was got, and the thieves were never heard of. After
a decent interval Dinah discovered that the work of that house
was too heavy for her, and gave notice to leave. When she
did go she left the town, and Smeaton disappeared with her.
Had she gone alone, perhaps no suspicion would have been
roused, but his reputation was already tainted, and the result
was another intimation to us to look after the pair, as it was
rumoured that they had gone to Edinburgh. The very day
on which this message arrived a young lady appeared at the
Office asking for me, and giving her name as Miss Aimers.
As she appeared weak and faint, she was allowed to wait my
arrival. When I saw her face my first thought was—" How
young and how sweet to have death written on her face \" Yes,
death was written there—in the pale, sunken cheeks and waxy
lips; in the deep lustrous eyes, and in the gasping and panting
for breath which necessitated every sentence she uttered being
broken in two. A word or two introduced her, and then I
distinctly recalled the former case with Smeaton, and a thrill
of pity ran through me as I looked on that wistful face and
eager pair of eyes, and listened to her story.
" Every one is prejudiced against him but me," she said with
strange calmness. "Look at me. I am dying. I know it,
and yet I am calm and fearless. I could even be happy were
it not for him, and the thought of him being lost to me through
all eternity. I could not exist in heaven sundered from him.
It would not be heaven to me. Oh, sir ! you have seen much
misery and much wickedness, but you know that a woman is
not always blind even when she loves with all her soul. He
is not so bad; but he is easily influenced and led away. If
he is taken and put in prison, through that fearful woman, will
you remember that ? And if I should not be allowed to see
him, or if I am taken away before then, will you give him a
message from me?"
I bowed, for I could not speak.
" Tell him I have never lost faith in the goodness of his
heart, that I shall love him for ever, and that heaven will
never be heaven to me without him beside me. Will you tell
him to think of that—sometimes—when he is alone; and of
the sweet, happy hours we spent together when we were but boy
and girl, full of innocent glee and love, before he was contami.
THE BERWICK BURR.
Some months after the trial, the house in which Dinah King
served was broken into and robbed. Although the plunder
was mostly of a kind not easily hidden or carried away, no
trace of it was got, and the thieves were never heard of. After
a decent interval Dinah discovered that the work of that house
was too heavy for her, and gave notice to leave. When she
did go she left the town, and Smeaton disappeared with her.
Had she gone alone, perhaps no suspicion would have been
roused, but his reputation was already tainted, and the result
was another intimation to us to look after the pair, as it was
rumoured that they had gone to Edinburgh. The very day
on which this message arrived a young lady appeared at the
Office asking for me, and giving her name as Miss Aimers.
As she appeared weak and faint, she was allowed to wait my
arrival. When I saw her face my first thought was—" How
young and how sweet to have death written on her face \" Yes,
death was written there—in the pale, sunken cheeks and waxy
lips; in the deep lustrous eyes, and in the gasping and panting
for breath which necessitated every sentence she uttered being
broken in two. A word or two introduced her, and then I
distinctly recalled the former case with Smeaton, and a thrill
of pity ran through me as I looked on that wistful face and
eager pair of eyes, and listened to her story.
" Every one is prejudiced against him but me," she said with
strange calmness. "Look at me. I am dying. I know it,
and yet I am calm and fearless. I could even be happy were
it not for him, and the thought of him being lost to me through
all eternity. I could not exist in heaven sundered from him.
It would not be heaven to me. Oh, sir ! you have seen much
misery and much wickedness, but you know that a woman is
not always blind even when she loves with all her soul. He
is not so bad; but he is easily influenced and led away. If
he is taken and put in prison, through that fearful woman, will
you remember that ? And if I should not be allowed to see
him, or if I am taken away before then, will you give him a
message from me?"
I bowed, for I could not speak.
" Tell him I have never lost faith in the goodness of his
heart, that I shall love him for ever, and that heaven will
never be heaven to me without him beside me. Will you tell
him to think of that—sometimes—when he is alone; and of
the sweet, happy hours we spent together when we were but boy
and girl, full of innocent glee and love, before he was contami.