"
"Oh!" cried Mabel, "I shall bless you every hour of my life." Her
countenance brightened into rapture at the picture, and Mrs. Woffington's
darkened with bitterness as she watched her.
But Mabel reflected. "Rob you of your good name?" said this pure
creature. "Ah, Mabel Vane! you think but of yourself."
"I thank you, madam," said Mrs. Woffington, a little touched by this
unexpected trait; "but some one must suffer here, and--"
Mabel Vane interrupted her. "This would be cruel and base," said she
firmly. "No woman's forehead shall be soiled by me. Oh, madam! beauty is
admired, talent is adored; but virtue is a woman's crown. With it, the
poor are rich; without it, the rich are poor. It walks through life
upright, and never hides its head for high or low."
Her face was as the face of an angel now; and the actress, conquered by
her beauty and her goodness, actually bowed her head and gently kissed
the hand of the country wife whom she had quizzed a few hours ago.
Frailty paid this homage to virtue!
Mabel Vane hardly noticed it; her eye was lifted to heaven, and her heart
was gone there for help in a sore struggle.
"This would be to assassinate you; no less. And so, madam," she sighed,
"with God's help, I do refuse your offer; choosing rather, if needs be,
to live desolate, but innocent--many a better than I hath lived so--ay!
if God wills it, to die, with my hopes and my heart crushed, but my hands
unstained; for so my humble life has passed.
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