Agnes, or, Beauty and Pleasure — page 35: what you’re looking at

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

AGNES; OR, BEAUTY AND PLEASURE. —_—_ tance which might be attached to those words themselves. In short, may not both Edgar and myself run the utmost risks while beneath this roof ?—may not the Marchioness seek our deaths, so that she may by one blow as it were remove from her path those only whom she may have at all to dreadP Yes—and therefore perhaps the possession of this antidote is after all no mean advantage; and the artifice of La Dolfina to sell her drug, may prove of more service to me than she could well have foreseen at the time! But still it is not of poison on/y that I must beware! Lucrezia can wield the dagger:—she has shown that she can doso! I must not always trust to vigilance and wakefulness—no, nor even to the security of locks and bolts; for treachery, so | slumber. subtle and insidious as hers, can overcome all such difficulties and set all such barriers at defiance. Nor dare I think of removing my patient else- whera! Here he must remain for the present: it were death to disturb him in his preseut state! But, Ob! howcan I surround him with additional defences beyond my own vigilance—my own wake. fulness? What can I do to inspire terror in the soul of Lucrezia—or to overawe her? Ah! that 37 CHAPTER Vu. THE WOUNDED NAN. Hours passed away—and Ciprina continued to watch by the couch on which Edgar Marcellin reposed. He slept serenely: two or three times he had opened his eyes since the potion was ad- ministered ; he seemed to have a glimmering re- collection of Ciprina—for he looked up at her countenance with a species of vacant surprise: then he gazed slowly around the room—but failing to recognise if, he turned his regards again upon the young lady, and then sank off into a renewed This, as we have said, happened three or four times in the course of several hours: but on each occasion Ciprina noticed that tho eyes of athe young Frenchman were brighter and clearer and that his looks dwelt for a longer period upon her countenance. In the meanwhile she had not seen the Mar- chioness. She chose not to quit her own suite of apartments: she resolved to bestow all her aotten- tion and care upon Edgar Marcellin, and she was portrait, of which she now stands so much in| afraid to quit the side of his couch even for dread ! shall in this respect serve my purpose !” It was while seated by the couch whereon Edgar Marcellin reposed, and between eight and nine o'clock in the morning, that Ciprina made these reflections. ‘To Antonia the secret of Edgar’s presence had already been revealed. accompanied Dy an intimation similar to that which had been given to La Dolfina,—to the effect that the wound was received in a quarrel with some other person. Antonia was discreet and asked no questions; nor did she even betray by her countenance that she wondered how the French gentleman had come thither: though her curiosity was naturally ex- cited to learn whatsoever details there might be in the background in respect to the mysterious occurrence. “ Antonia, come with me,” said Ciprina, a few minutes after the idea had struck her ia reference to the portrait of Lucrezia Borgia. ‘“ There is something I am about to do—a whim to gratify— and in which you can assist me.’ Ciprina and the handmaiden issued forth from the suite of apartments,—the young lady again taking care to lock the door, so that the Mar- chioness should have no opportunity, so far as buman foresight could avail, of penetrating thither in the meantime. Straight to the picture-gallery did Ciprina lead the way; and assisted by An- tonia, she took down the portrait of Lucrezia Borgia. By the transposition of some other pic- ture from a place whence it could be well spared, the vacancy caused by the removal of the portrait was filled up; and thus no gap would strike the eye of any one entering into that gallery. portrait itself was borne to Ciprina’s own suite of epartments; and there it was suspended to the wall of one of the rooms,—Antonia assisting her Yes—the idea is good; and her fears|a minute. She was nevertheless exceedingly anxious, as the reader may suppose, to leara whatsoever explanations there might be to give in reference to the whole train of circumstances con- nected with Giulio’s murder, which were only now for the first time beginning to develop themselves to Ciprina’s knowledge. Whether tho Mar- chioness would give her these explanations or not, she could not tell: but even if she were confi: dent that Lucrezia di Mirano would reveal every- thing, she nevertheless would not abandof the side of her patient’s couch and seck the apart- ments of the Marchioness to receive those expla- nations, ‘Has her ladyship left her own rooms yet ?” inquired Ciprina of Antonia, between two and three o’clock in the afternoon. “No, signora,’ answered the handmaiden:: “her ladyship is somewhat indisposed, I believe, after the fatigues of last night’s entértainment. Her ladyship has not therefore quitted her bou- doir—as I just now learnt from Teresa whom I met upon the stairs,” “* At all events,” thought Ciprina to herself, “I am glad Lucrezia does not come hither to seek me! And yet it was hardly to be expected that she would unless indeed she were inspired by some malignant or treacherous intent: for now = believe that woman to be capable of every ini- quity and heavens! how my opinion of her is changed within the last few hours !” As these reflections passed through Ciprina’s mind, she perceived that Edgar Marcellin was turning upon the couch, and that his eyelids were The | wavering asif about to be opened. She now at once dismissed Antonia from the room on some pretext—for she did not wish the girl to be pre- sent at @ moment when Edgar Marcellin might mistress in the task, and wondering what species | perhaps recover the fuculty of speech and begin of whim could possibly be receiving its gratif- cationin such a proceeding as this. alluding to the occurrences which had prostrated kim there. And now again did Edgar gaze up with an air of surprise into Ciprina’s countenance. That he recognised her was almost a certainty: bué that his ideas were still too much confused to Ghook (©) co 5}