Walter paused, unable to proceed.

Aram's brow worked; he turned aside; he made no answer; his head dropped
on his bosom, and his eyes were unmovedly fixed on the earth.

"Reflect," continued Walter, recovering himself, "Reflect! I have been
the mute instrument in bringing you to this awful fate, in destroying the
happiness of my own house--in--in--in breaking the heart of the woman
whom I adored even as a boy. If you be innocent, what a dreadful memory
is left to me! Be merciful, Aram! be merciful. And if this deed was done
by your hand, say to me but one word to remove the terrible uncertainty
that now harrows up my being. What now is earth, is man, is opinion, to
you? God only now can judge you. The eye of God reads your heart while I
speak, and in the awful hour when Eternity opens to you, if the guilt has
been indeed committed, think, oh think, how much lighter will be your
offence, if, by vanquishing the stubborn heart, you can relieve a human
being from a doubt that otherwise will make the curse--the horror of an
existence. Aram, Aram, if the father's death came from you, shall the
life of the son be made a burthen to him, through you also?"

"What would you have of me? speak!" said Aram, but without lifting his
face from his breast.

"Much of your nature belies this crime.--You are wise, calm, beneficent
to the distressed. Revenge, passion,--nay, the sharp pangs of hunger, may
have urged to one deed; but your soul is not wholly hardened: nay, I
think I would so far trust you, that, if at this dread moment--the clay
of Madeline Lester scarce yet cold, woe busy and softening at your
breast, and the son of the murdered dead before you;--if at this moment