More Than the Bitterness of Death

He to whom
I gave my heart with all its wealth of love,
Forsakes me for another.--MEDEA.

"Oh my heart! my heart!" moaned Sybil, as she sank down upon the floor
of that spare-room, the door of which she had bolted, to secure herself
from intrusion.

"Oh, my heart! my heart!" she wailed, pressing her hand to her side like
one who had just received a mortal wound.

"Oh, my heart! my heart!" she groaned, as one who complains of an
insupportable agony. And for some moments she could do no more than
this. Then at length the stream of utterance flowed forth, and-"He loves me no longer! my husband loves me no longer!" she cried in
more than the bitterness of death. "He loves that false siren in place
of me, his true wife. He gives her all the tender words, all the warm
caresses he used to lavish on me. His heart is won from me. I am
desolate! I am desolate, and I shall die! I shall die! But oh, how much
I must suffer before I can die, for I am so strong to suffer! Ah, how I
wish I might die at once, or that suicide were no sin!"

But suddenly, out of this deep abasement of grief, blazed up a fierce
and fiery anger. She started from her recumbent position, and began to
walk wildly up and down the floor, beating her hands together, and
exclaiming distractedly: "But why should I die in my youth, and go down to the dark grave, to
make room for her, the traitress! to make room in the heart of my
husband and the home of my fathers for her, the--! Oh! there is no word
bad enough to express what she is! And shall she live to bloom and
smile and brighten in the sunshine of his love, while I moulder away in
the earth? Oh!" she cried, striking her hands violently together, "there
is madness and more than madness in the thought! I will not die alone;
no, no, no, no, so help me, just Heaven! I will not die alone. Oh,
Samson was a brave man as well as a strong one when he lifted the
pillars of the temple, and willingly fell beneath its crumbling ruins,
crushing all his foes. I will be another sort of Samson; and when I
fall, I too will pull down destruction upon the heads of all who have
wronged me!"