Agnes, or, Beauty and Pleasure — page 23: what you’re looking at

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

ae te AGNES; OF, BEAUTY AND PLEASURE. and he was once more in the gardens of the Mirano | He did not choose to risk a second | a footing that enabled him to scale ‘it; mansion. time the peril, if any there were, of entering by the front portals and passing through the court- yard, as in the first instance he had done on this evening of which we are writing,—although, for the reasons which he had given to Signor Paoli, he did not actually think there was any very great danger in such a course. Still he adopted the safer method ; and therefore, as we have just said, he scaled the wall. He walked about in the gardens for another hour, until he beheld the windows of the supper-rooms on the ground floor gorgeously illuminated, and the figures of the entering company casting their shadows upon the semi-transparent draperies. “‘Now,” he said, “it is time to act !’—and as he muttered these words to himself, he felt that | he was nerved with the strength of an iron resolu- tion. Perhaps some of our readers may have all this” time been wishing to know whether Edgar Mar- cellin had thought much of Ciprina, or oa he entertained any particular wish to see her. will endeavour to gratify this feeling of curiosity wheresoever it may exist. Edgar was devotedly | in love with Corinna Paoli; and he only thought whom he had indulged in a passing amour. His attachment to Corinna was sufficiently strong, genuine, and sincere, to induce him to wish to escape all temptation on the part of the syren- | Besides, even if. his love for-the refugee’s daughter were less pure | the drawer whence he had taken it: friend of Lucrezia di Mirano. and chaste than it was, he had weightier pur- poses in his mind than that of amatory dalliance | with a young lady whom for many months he had | Thus Edgar | almost entirely ceased to think of. Marcellin was troubling himself not at all with the image of the beauteous wanton in whose society he had passed such delicious hours and in | whose charms he had revelled in the villa of the | Vale of Arno, at the commencement of the year. Having settled this point, we hope to the satis- faction of the most curious portion of our readers, wo will now fellow the young Frenchman in the . s j proceedings which he entered upon, so soon | as he was convinced that the tide of guests had poured from the saloons to the banqueting-suite. By means of one of the false keys which he pos- sessed, he re-entered the mansion by the same door that some little while back had afforded egress alike for himself and the Neapolitan. The passage was threaded: he passed into the vestibule by the glass-door—a lacquey was standing there— but the man instantaneously withdrew into the court-yard in the discreetest way in the world; for he thought that it was some favoured lover of his mistress who knew full well what he was about and had the best of all possible rights to be there—namely, such rights as an amatory hint and a pass-key might have been enabled to afford. Marcellin ascended the staircase ; the plan which Lisetta had given him of the interior arrange- ments of the mansion was vividly fresh in his me- mory ; he therefore experienced not the slightest difficulty in finding his way to Lucrezia’s boudoir. 15 —— such should prove the case, he bad no doubt tnat a withdrawal would follow as discreetly as in the instance just named. But it was not so. Lights | were burning in the boudoir—but no one was | there. Edgar now drew forth a small skeleton key from his pocket; and without an instant’s hesita- tion he proceeded to open a large wardrobe which stood in an elegant toilet-chamber communicating from the boudoir, and beyond which was Lucrezia’s bedroom, That wardrobe was lofty :—in its up- |permost part it had an array of pegs to which several sumptuous dresses were suspended. At the bottom part was a row of drawers, which on trial | Proved to be locked. But Edgar was fully pre- pared for this circumstance: the instructions given | him by Lisetta had been most carefully minute, and the keys which he possessed about his person were calculated to answer any emergency that might arise. Thus the drawers were speedily |Opened; and in’ one of them Edgar Marcellin found a pistol-ease. He opened it, and beheld two ' pistols of most exquisite m@nufaoture,—the handles being curiously inlaid with mother-of-pearl. “The same, the very same!” ejaculated Edgar, ity | the moment his eyes settled upon these weapons, of Ciprina as of a fashionable courtesan with | He then took up one in his hand; and after scrutinizing it for nearly a minute, he discerned a mark which seemed as if it had been made by the point of a pin ona particular part of the inlaid _ mother-of-pearl. “It was this!’ he muttered to himself. He looked at the other pistol—but only for a few moments, and for curiosity’s sake. He re- turned it to the case, which he consigned back to but the pistol which bore the mark on the mother-of-pearl he secured about his person. He then proceeded to open enother drawer; and this he found to contain several valuable Cashmere shawls and other costly articles of female raiment. Edgar dived his hands down beneath these objects, as if he were search- ing for something else. And so in sooth he was:— nor did he search in vain; for: from the very bot- tom of the drawer he drew forth a complete suit of male apparel, consisting of a frock-coat, a waist- coat, and pantaloons. As he unrolled these gar- ments, which were made of dark cloth, he at once perceived that they were of the most elegant fashion; and his imagination in a moment enabled him to jadge what would bs the appearance of the fair one to whom the apparel belonged. He did not however linger many moments over his survey of the costume; but having satisfied himself that it was the one of which he was in search, he rolled it up in the smallest convenient compass for re- moval, As he was closing the drawer, he caught a glimpse of an elegant pair of patent leather Wellington boots in a corner of the wardrobe; and close by there was a hat-box which upon inspec- tion was found to contain a lady’s riding-hat, decorated with a graceful plume of feathers. But Edgar Marcellin was satisfied with possessing the suit of clothes; and having closed the wardrobe, he retreated from the dressing-chamber. He was now again in the elegantly-furnished boudoir, on the table of which there were writing materials. He sat down, and ina feigned hand He thought it quite probable that there might be | penned the following note :— 8 “aa s‘maid or two in the bower of love; and i | Ghboo mm a C@ 5}