The Young Duchess; or, Memoirs of a Lady of Quality — page 353: what you’re looking at

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

THE YOUNG DUCHESS; OR, MEMOIRS OF A LADY OF QUALITY. Her humour had hitherto been gay, and even at moments merry, as she chatted with Azaline on the topic which the coloured lithograph seemed to have engendered. But now all in a moment a shade came over her countenance—her looks grew profoundly pensive, until she absolutely ap- peared to have fallen into a blank despondency. Azaline surveyed her attentively for upwards of & minute: compassion and curiosity were in the looks of the beautiful young lady; and Edward _ Walpole—the unseen and unsuspected witness, who was still riveted to the spot—thought that never had the charming Azaline appeared more truly lovely in his eyes than at this moment. ‘““ My dear friend,” Miss Osborne at length said, in a soft voice, as she laid her hand upon that of Lady Amesbury, “you must not give way to gloomy ideas. You know that I am here to render you gay and cheerful—it is for this pur- pose that I yielded to your wish, and postponed my departure Y “I know it, Azaline—I know it !—and you are very, very kind!” said Lady Amesbury. “ In- deed, I love you so dearly and so fondly, that there are times when I feel I onght to have no ae from you—but that Ishould unbosom my- s nL ‘‘Give me not your confidence on any point,” interrupted Miss Osborne earnestly, ‘ without the maturest consideration. If you cherish any secret cause of grief, think not that I have any undue euriosity P “No, Azaline—I would not wrong you thus! You are all kindness and goodness—strange and peculiar in views—but, Oh! how excellent- hearted! But I, Azaline—there are times when my brain seems to be confused—and though I see clearly with my outward eyes, my mental vision gets clouded and misty ” ‘“Come, cheer up,” cried Azaline, starting from the sofa. ‘Shall I dance to youn? shall I sing ?” “No, dear friend: sit down,” said Lady Ames- bury, gently but firmly; and there was something in her look and her tone which made Azaline comply with her request, or rather command. ‘I feel that I must speak to you of the past,” she continued. ‘‘Yes—I do not know why—but I cannot restrain myself. There is a secret here, Azaling "——and she laid her hand upon her heart —‘ which has been to me the cause of indescrib- able -‘misery—a secret dating from many years back——” -.., . ne . ‘“Many years, my dear.:friend?? interposed Azaline. Why, you are but thirty-five |” “But what if I speak of a date belonging to that period when girlhood was ripening into womanhood ?—when I was eighteen or nineteen, for instance?—and that was when you were a mere infant, my sweet friend |” ‘‘And does your, heart possess a sorrow,” in- quired Azaline, in a soft voice, “which goes back 9 to ‘that ‘date? Ah! L,,yill confess my earliest rma orion with, regard ;to you were associated ysome vague floating idea that you were not _ altogether happy{t"2 °=7" , ‘When you -were young, Azaline, you were ‘far more intelliggnt an@- observing than other girls,” said Lady Amesbury ; “and it is no won- der if your mind should have acquired such an impression concerning. me. Oh, yes! I have in- deed canse for ‘brief and anguish—almost for 339 despair! We were speaking just now of love. Did any woman ever love as I loved? And yet —strange caprice! ’twas one ntuch older than myself! But still I loved him dearly—and I was so blindly confident in his rectitude that 1 believed all the reasons he alleged as necessary for the concealment of our love! Ah, Azaline! you do not already think too well of human nature ; but your ideas on that point will possibly receive a still severer shock when I tell you how cruelly I was deceived—how infamously beguiled—how treacherously wronged! Oh, the idea is still madness !” ‘Quit the subject, dear friend!” cried Azaline entreatingly. . ““No, no!” responded Lady Amesbury, with feverish excitement: ‘‘I must pursue the theme unto the end! Listen then!—hear of what ini- quity man is capable! Listen, I say—and shudder and tremble—Oh! and weep for me like- wise, when you learn that never was a deceit more stupendous than that which was practised upon me! For he to whom my young heart was so deyotedly given—he was already the husband of another!” “Oh, this was infamous!” exclaimed Azaline; “infamous beyond all the power of language to describe or the imagination to conceive !” ‘‘And have you comprehended me, my dear friend?” asked Lady Amesbury; ‘have you un- derstood me in the fullest sense? It may be that you have not; for your mind is so pure : ‘‘T did indeed dread to arrive at the worst pos- sible conclusion,” answered Azaline: “ but now I can no longer donb » “Oh, I was more to be pitied than to be blamed!” pursued Lady Amesbury; “for I was so young—so confiding—so loving—that every advantage might be taken of that inexperience and that devotion on my part! Thus he beguiled me—and when it was no longer possible for me to conceal my condition from the eyes of my mother, I besought him, my seducer, to delay not the act of justice which he was bound to render me. Then it was that he was necessitated to reveal the truth!—he was a married man! Conceive my despair! No!—you cannot!”—and Lady Amesbury, burying her face in her kerchief, sobbed under the influence of those terrible recol- lections of the past. ‘“*T can imagine, my dear friend,” rejoined Azaline, in a soft and compassionating tone, ‘that of all beings who deserve sympathy for their earthly sorrows, you stood in need of it more than any !” . “T flung myself at my mother’s feet,” resumed Lady Amesbury, ‘‘and confessed everything It was jmpossible to conceal it from the knowledge of my father likewise. But what was to be done? To seek to punish my seducer would have been to expose my own disgrace; and the more prudent alternative was adopted—namely, that of hushing up the matter. Ze who was the author of all this wrong and fearful mischief, was only too anxious and ready on his own side that it should be hushed up; and measures were taken accord- ingly. But I will not dwell upon the details; suffice it to say that I became a mother, and that my seducer, being possessed of ample means, pro- vided the requisite funds for the maintenance of the unfortunate offspring that was to be repu- ONOKO) Colin