Agnes, or, Beauty and Pleasure — page 270: what you’re looking at

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

AGNES; OB, BEAUTY AND PLEASURE. CHAPTER XLV. SCENES AT THE HOTEL. Wes must now return to Floribel—alias, Flora Lovel—-whom we .left at the moment when she bad finished her afternoon toilet and had returned to her sitting-room to await the presence of Hector Hardress. The appointmentsbe had given him was for three o'clock ; and punctually at that bour he was announced. Floribel was seated on the sofa, from which she rose with a serious ex- pression of countenance to receive him: she did not proffer her hand—she merely inclined her head distantly—and she spoke not a word. The young patrician was evidently not altogether prepared for such a reception as this ; and he exclaimed, “ Why euch coolness, beauteous Floribel ?” “Permit me to reply by a question,” she said ; “and it shall be to ask you why you address me in these terms of intimacy ?” “In one word,” rejoined Hector, “have you not comprehended that I love you, and that I have traced you all the way from Florence to Turin, to throw myself at your feet and declare my pas- sion ?” ; “When I left Florence, upwards of three weeks back,” replied Floribel, “Mrs. Hardress was in perfect good health; and I should think that if she had died in the interval you would at least be in ts ournipg.” “It is my misfortune to be married,” responded Ifector; “and it has been your misfortune to be deluded by a false marriage. Besides, after all, according to the report which generally prevails in Florence, the lovely Floribel when passing under the name of Ciprina, was not very cruel ;— and pardon me for adding that this same report avers that more than one was blessed with her favours.” “Not for a moment do I attempt to deny it,” rejoined that voluptuous personification of pleasure, who maintained the most perfect self-possession : “but this is no reason wherefore I should receive the visits of Mr. Hardress !” “ Neither would I so far insult you, Floribel, by advancing it asareason. I love you—end that is sufficient! Twelve days ago I left Florence in search of you: by some means—which [ need not now pause to relate—I obtained a clue which made me hope that I had got upon your track: I followed it up—I was successful—and I am now here.” “And immediately upon your arrival,” said Fioribel, “you intrude upon tae privacy of my chamber in a manner, which—no matter what I way be—was, to say the least of 1t, most ungen- tlemanly—most unbandsome !” “You speak harshly and severely, Floribel said Hector. “Have { been wrovg to entertain the hope that if we met I might possibly be en- abled to render myself agreeable to you F” ‘Perhaps you presume, Mr. Hardress,” inter- jected Floribel, “on the fact of having given me a ride in your travelling-carriage from the Apen- nines to Fiorence? But surely such a poor miserable favour as that which you thus bestowed upon me, could scarcely justify you in your own eyes——_”’ “No! no!” said Hector, with a deep sense of humiliation: “I am not presuming on that ground. But I really did flatter myself that you would aceept the homage of my love! Ah, start not, Floribel!—you are adorable! you are eminently beautifal !” “You are not the first who has told me this,” said Floribel, with a peculiar smile. “ You to me of love? In plain terms, Mr. Hardress—do you seek me as a mistress >” “You know that [am married, Floribel,” said Hector; “and enough has been already said bee tween us to show that while on the one hand you are fully aware that I cannot woo you asa wife, I on the other hand have an equal consciousness that it is not the first time you have been sought on terms which are not altogether consistent with the most prudish notions of morality. But pray be merciful towards me! Do you wish to see me at your feet ?” “Let us come to the point, Mr. Hardress,” in- terrupted Floribel. “ You seek me as a mistress, What terms have you to propose tome? Do you mean to abandon your wife on my account?” “Tf it will smooth away any difficulties, Flori- bel, and ease your mind at all,” said Heetor,—* for when I bethink me, it is quite possible you may have some compunctions considering that you were acquainted with Cicely before I married her and that she was a friend of yours 3 “Well, sir, proceed. How do you mean to ease my conscience ?” “ Of course what I am going to tell you is sacred between us,” observed Hector: “but my wife and I have come to a thorough understanding r * Ab, indeed!” ejaculated Floribel. “And what a pleasant understanding this must be!”—then being smitten with a feeling of curiosity, she en- couraged her visitor to proceed by means of a sweet smile, at the same time saying, “ Do tell me all this, Mr. Hardress; because unless you admit me fully into your conficence, I shall not possibly know how to decide upon the point. Cicely, you tell me, has come to an understanding with you?” “Yes—a most amicable understanding; and henceforth we are both to do exactly as we like,— I to follow my course—she to pursue her’s.” “ Ah! this isindeed interesting !” said Floribel; and still more encouraging became her smile. “Do you mean me to understand, Hector I beg your pardon, Mr. Hardress “ “For heaven’s sake recall not the word!” ejacu- lated the young patrician, drawiog bis chair closer to the lady: for he felt as if she had thrown out his Christian name at him as an avuwal that she was yielding after a due period of prudish hesita- tion. “Well then, I will call you Heetor,” shoe said, enveloping him for a moment es it were ip the luminousness of her bewitching regards. “ But this srrangement which you have effected with your wife,—do you mean me to understand tbat you have positively sgreed between you that while you may take a mistress, she is at liberty to take a lover ?” “Strange as it may appear, this is precisely what I do mean,” answered Hector, devouring her with his looks. “Ob, then, you are almost.as good as free to court me in this sense?” exclaimed Fioribel. boo (E(0)