You cannot dread any further disclosure, because I can have no interest in your ruin or your shame: and what evil could ensue the confession of the foulest murder, even before a bench of magistrates, more dreadful than that which will inevitably follow the practice of the least concealment to me, or the least undue disclosure to others?
You cannot easily conceive the emphatical solemnity with which this was spoken.

Had he fixed piercing eyes on me while he spoke; had I perceived him watching my looks, and labouring to penetrate my secret thoughts, I should doubtless have been ruined: but he fixed his eyes upon the floor, and no gesture or look indicated the smallest suspicion of my conduct.
After some pause, he continued, in a more pathetic tone, while his whole frame seemed to partake of his mental agitation.
I am greatly at a loss by what means to impress you with a full conviction of the truth of what I have just said.

Endless are the sophistries by which we seduce ourselves into perilous and doubtful paths.

What we do not see, we disbelieve, or we heed not.

The sword may descend upon our infatuated head from above, but we who are, meanwhile, busily inspecting the ground at our feet, or gazing at the scene around us, are not aware or apprehensive of its irresistible coming.