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62 BLACK SHEEP.him well enough to sacrifice herself for him also ?Might he not escape from the toils which wereclosing around him into a new, a glorious liberty,into a life of wealth, and pleasure, and love?She had yielded so immediately to the first influencehe had tried to exert overher;she had admittedhim so readily to an intimacyto whose impropriety,accordingto the strict rules of society,she had unhesitatingly avowed herself awareand indifferent; she had evinced such undisguisedpleasure in his society, and had accepted his unscrupuloushomage so unscrupulously, that hehad as much reason as a coarse-minded man needhave desired for building up a fabric of the mostpresumptuous hope.As these thoughts swept over him, Routhturned from the window, and began again tostride up and down the room.His dark facecleared up, the hot blood spread itself over hissallow cheek, and his deep-set eyes sparkled witha sinister light. The desperate expedient to whichhe had resorted on the previous day had gainedhim time, and time was everything in the gamehe designed to play.The discovery would not