With an eager and inquiring look ; but not with wonder . At first it was alarmed and serious ; then , it changed into a strange , wild , dreadful smile of recognition of his thoughts ; then , there was nothing but her clasped hands on her brow , and her bent head , and falling hair . Though the power of Omnipotence had been his to wield at that moment , he had too much of its diviner property of Mercy in his breast , to have turned one feather 's weight of it against her . But he could not bear to see her crouching down upon the little seat where he had often looked on her , with love and pride , so innocent and gay ; and , when she rose and left him , sobbing as she went , he felt it a relief to have the vacant place beside him rather than her so long-cherished presence . This in itself was anguish keener than all , reminding him how desolate he was become , and how the great bond of his life was rent asunder . -LSB- Illustration : When suddenly , the struggling fire illuminated the whole chimney with a glow of light ; and the Cricket on the Hearth began to Chirp ! -RSB- The more he felt this , and the more he knew he could have better borne to see her lying prematurely dead before him with her little child upon her breast , the higher and the stronger rose his wrath against his enemy . He looked about him for a weapon . There was a gun hanging on the wall . He took it down , and moved a pace or two towards the door of the perfidious Stranger 's room . He knew the gun was loaded . Some shadowy idea that it was just to shoot this man like a wild beast seized him , and dilated in his mind until it grew into a monstrous demon in complete possession of him , casting out all milder thoughts , and setting up its undivided empire . That phrase is wrong . Not casting out his milder thoughts , but artfully transforming them . Changing them into scourges to drive him on . Turning water into blood , love into hate , gentleness into blind ferocity . Her image , sorrowing , humbled , but still pleading to his tenderness and mercy with resistless power , never left his mind ; but , staying there , it urged him to the door ; raised the weapon to his shoulder ; fitted and nerved his fingers to the trigger ; and cried `` Kill him ! In his bed ! '' He reversed the gun to beat the stock upon the door ; he already held it lifted in the air ; some indistinct design was in his thoughts of calling out to him to fly , for God 's sake , by the window -- When suddenly , the struggling fire illuminated the whole chimney with a glow of light ; and the Cricket on the Hearth began to Chirp ! No sound he could have heard , no human voice , not even hers , could so have moved and softened him .
The artless words in which she had told him XXXXX her love for this same Cricket were once more freshly spoken ; her trembling , earnest manner at the moment was again before him ; her pleasant voice -- oh , what a voice it was for making household music at the fireside of an honest man !
At In about against for of than that to with