"
Darke paused a moment, and then gazed with a strange mixture of gloom
and tenderness upon the gray woman.
"Perhaps you, too, madam," he said, speaking in a low tone, "may be
ignorant of a part of my history. You know the worst--but not all. You
shall know every thing. Listen; and I beg you will not interrupt me.
About ten years ago, I chanced to be at Dinwiddie Court-House, a few
miles only from this spot; and one day a certain Mr. George Conway
visited the courthouse to receive a considerable sum of money which was
to be paid to him."
At the words "a certain Mr. George Conway," uttered by the speaker, in
a hoarse and hesitating voice, I very nearly uttered an exclamation.
That name, which General Davenant's recent narrative had surrounded
with so many gloomy associations, produced a profound effect on me, as
it now escaped from this man's lips; and had it not been for
Nighthawk's warning pressure on my arm, I should probably have betrayed
our vicinity. Fortunately I suppressed the rising exclamation; it had
attracted no attention; and Darke went on in the same low tone:--
"I was in the clerk's office of Dinwiddie when the money I refer to was
paid to Mr. Conway. It amounted to about ten thousand dollars, and as I
had at that time no business in the region more important than hanging
around the tavern, and drinking and playing cards--as, besides this, I
was at the end of my resources, having lost my last penny on the night
before, at the card-table--the idea occurred to me that it would not be
a bad plan to ride after Mr.
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