Agnes, or, Beauty and Pleasure — page 231: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

-once and returnec to Vienna AGNES; OR, BEAUTY AND PLEABURR. the street, with the young lady at the church, was fully and completely established. Charles De Vere was riveted to the spot behind the stately column: the thought never struck him that he might be guilty of impropriety in playing the part of eaves- dropper, or that he was now actually violating the pledge he had inwardly taken not to seek to fathom the mystery until it should suit the pur- poses of the lady herself to clear it up. “Ves, Silvio—l am here,” was the answer which she had given to the ejaculation of the in- dividual by whom she was accosted. “Is not this the most fitting place,” she asked, in a voice of profonndest sorrow, “for one so guilty and so wretched as I, to frequent ?” “ Ginevra, dearest Ginevra !” responded Silvio, whose voice was that of quite a young man | —and Charles felt convinced it was the same which he had likewise heard on the night of memorable adventures; so that ke was now en- abled to identify Silvio with the cloaked indivi- dual who had answered him so abruptly when he bad inquired his way, and who had afterwards come up at the moment when he was speaking to the elderly female. “‘ Why do you abandon your- self to all this grief? You surely love me no longer % * Heaven knows that I ought not to love you, Silvio!” she replied; “for this love of our’s has been fatal to my happiness—and what is infinitely worse, fatal to the welfare of my immortal soul! But you, Silvio—what are you doing here? Why are you still in Naples? Methought that after the message [ sent you by my aunt, you would have done me this last favour—you would have fled at 7? “What, Ginevra! and leave everything in 4 state of frightful uncertainty?” exclaimed Silvio: but though his accents were exclamatory from the impulse of his emotions, his utterance was guardediy low. “Tell me—I beseech you, tell me, Ginevra! what have you done with the child ?” “Do not ask me, Silvio!’ she vehemently re- sponded: “you shall never know! No, no! I will not place that dear innocent within your reach! Heaven and yourself, Silvio, alone can tell—unless indeed my aunt was the accomplice of your design - “Ginevra, do you suspect me?” “ Alas! I fear that I have only too much reason to suspect something dreadful! Why was it that an idea of the kind seemed suddenly to flash in unto my mind, as if heaven itself thus abruptly placed me on my guard, that I might save the poor innocent babe P” “Ginevra!” interrupted the young man, “ be- ware what course you are pursuing! You have become headstrong and self-willed—and you may possibly ruin everything! You are placing me on the brink of a frightful precipice; you have already walked up to the very edge of it yourself! You will not be counselled nor advised a “If you mean, Silvio,” answered Ginevra, in accents of mingled sorrow and reproach, “that I suddenly became mistrustful of the designs of my aunt and yourself in reference to the poor babe, you are right! I will sooner dare everything— discovery, dishonour, and disgrace " “ And you are daring all these!” interjected Silvio vehemently ;—“ not merely daring them in than anything ! ‘ <<. -_—_—___- -—_- -— \ yeyee ——t a your own person, dat actually invoking them ae it were upon my head! All this is terrible, Ginevra!—and it is enough to drive me mad! You ask me why Iam still in Naplesi—and L tell vou that I cannot depart hence so long as by your own conduct you are perilling everything. You know that I could not seek you at your own mansion; but remembering that you were in the habit of frequenting this church, I came hither in the hope of meeting you. And we have met! I might have written—but letters were useless in my ignorance of what your present thoughts and intentions might be —useless also in my ignorance of what you have done with our child! When | the night before last you so suddenly broke away from your aunt and myself 2 Were you not whispering to my aunt, Silvio?” inquired Ginevra; “and what, under existing cir- cumstances, could you have had to say to her that I might not overhear? Oh, a terrible suspicion flashed to my mind!” ** Ginevra, did you—did you really think ”’—and Silvio gasped,—“did you really think that I was capable ——” “Heaven knows if I wrong you!” responded Ginevra; “and your conscience can acquit you if I have done you this much injury. Butall the anxiety of a mother—though a guilty and a miserable one—was suddenly excited in my bosom; and I acted under that impulse! Now listen to me, Silvio! The babe is safe—I know that it is— and so soon as my mind shall have somewhat re- covered frorn all the fearful shocks it has recently experienced, I will take measures to place it in other keeping where the secret shall be inviolabiy maintained. On this head, therefore, you have nothing to fear. You must deem me mad if you suppose that I am not as deeply interested as yourself in throwing the darkest veil possible over everything.” “ Ah! now you are speaking rationally, dearest Ginevra!’”’ said the young man in a tone which implied great mental relief. ‘Oh, my beloved mn * Silence, Silvio! silence!” interrupted Ginevra firmly. ‘ We stand beneath a sacred roof and in | the neighbourhood of a holy fane. Words expres- | sive of a guilty love musé not here issue from our ‘lips—no, nor elsewhere, Silvio'—never, never again! But if you wish that my mind should ‘speedily recover somewhat of its lost strength, se that I may be enabled to take the final measures which are requisite for the insurance of the safety of our secret, you will at once solemnly pledge yourself to depart from Naples—to return in all haste to Vienna ‘ed ' “Ob! suffer me, Ginevra,” interjected Silvio, |in accents of earnest entreaty, “to kaow where our babe now is, and to learn what intentions you | entertain concerning that innocent for the future ? Am I not its father? have I not a right sf “ Silvio,” rejoined Ginevra, “all the right to dispose of that babe rests with me, its guilty and unhappy mother! Ah, if you knew how terrine is the weight which lies upon my soul, you would pity me my God! you would pity me! | feel as if the gates of heaven were for ever closed against me i “Oh, it is this—it is this, Ginevra!” ex- claimed Silvio passionately, “ which I fear more ” oie —_—$ ew - ee SS COMmmcooolkxs + - - - /?/ —.._O000 OO OimM