Agnes Vol. 2 — page 257: what you’re looking at

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

250 de-causp; “and she herself has a most distin guished appearance. She is quite young — |! should not think that she is above eighteen o: nineteen ” “ About nineteen, I should conceive,” responded the other; “but assuredly no more. Ah! whe are those that are now entering her box,—that gentleman with the moustache, with the pretty ligbt-haired gir] leaning on bis arm P” “Thoy also are strangers: I nevor saw them before.” . The lady whose entrance into tho box had pro duced such an immense sensation and elicited s: many encomiums upon her beauty—some of whieh by the bye, reached her own ears-—was none other than Floribel Lister. She had resolved to create & sensation at Turin—and she succeeded. She had taken a box at the theatre, and sho had pur- posely entered late, so that her triumph—if such we may call it—weuld be all the more complote by attracting all eyes from the proceedings on the stage and rivoting thom upon herself. And truly she was wondrously beautiful!—never had she appeared to groater advantage! She was entering as it wore from a new starting-point in her career ; and assuredly the lustre of her own charms en- veloped her as it were with a perfect halo of rap- turous dazzling light on this occasion. As she slowly looked round upon the company, she was suddenly struck on beholding the counte-. nance of Sir Alexander Holcroft ; and then still more astonished was she on perceiving the pretty face of Carlotta, the daughter of the governor of the Apeunine fortress. “Ah!” she thought to herself; “ DBagno was not strong enough nor sufficiently well barred to prevent young Cupid from helping his votary to effect an escape! But what will Carlotta say to me after the trick that I played her when I accomplished my own escape P” Sir Alexander bowed with a friendly familiarity to Floribel ; and then Carlotta, having exchanged a hasty Whisper with her companion, nodded with am expression of countenance which was as much as to imply that she harboured no ill-will towards her former friend and confidante of the fortress. Floribel made them a slight but perceptible sign to join ber in her own box ; and as they had merely engaged two seats in the front part of the am- pbitheatre, and were somewhat crowded, they lost not a moment in accepting Floribel’s invitation. Lo her box they accordingly repaired; and it was with a aly smile, but also with a blush upon the cheeka, that the pretty Carlotta gave her hand to loribel, at the same time saying, “ You be- haved very wickedly to me—but I forgive you. Alexander desires it—and besides, I conceived a liking for you from the very first.” “My doar Carlotta,” answered Floribel, “I should indeed be very sorry to lose your friend- ship: Iam therofore glad that you have not with- drawn it. Pray be seated.” “By what name are we to know you?” whie- pered Sir Alexander Holeroft. “Perchance you are no longer the Signora Ciprina ?” ) “No,” reaponded Floribel. “The namo has ac- quired ton great a notoriety in its unfortunate association with the .nfamous Lucrezia di Mirano.” “Then perheps you are again Floribel Lister ?” asid the Be, onet, with a smile. | AGNRS; OR, BRAUTY AND PLBARUER. re ere ee ene ee — ww ere ee “No. I think you are aware of some reasons whieh make me wish to lose my identity. IJ have obtained a new passport, having uno farther use for the one you favoured me with in the Apennines and I am now Flora Lovel.” “ And a sweet pretty name it is,” said Holcroft. ‘The ivitials are still the same—F. L. Then Flora is as sweetly melodious as Floribel ; and Lovel is certainly more euphonious than Lister. I will therefore lose no time in whispering to my pretty Carlotta that she is not to know you as tho Signora Ciprina, but as an English Jady bearing the name of Flora Lovel. Ah! by the bye, is it to be Mra. Lovel ?” Assuredly,” résponded Floribel : and then sho added with an arch smile, “I am a widow, of course !—and mind therefore that you thus reproe- sent me.” | *T shall not fail,” answered the Baronet. “ You saw what a sensation your presence created, and it will be your own fault if in the course of a vory few days you do not have all the sodblesse of Turin sighing at your feet.” Sir Alexander Holoroft now whispered a few words to Carlotta ; and she said with an amiable amite to Floribel, “I transfer to Madame Fora Lovel the friendship which I experionced for the Signora Ciprina.” “Thanke, my dear friend,” wae the response. “And so at last you contrived to outwit your father and mother, and the savage Crudulla, and all those lynx-eyed sentinels f”’ “Yes-—-I outwitted them,” replied Carlotta: and then she added with a sigh, “But sometimes I think that my poor father and mother must bo very unhappy on account of my flight—and—ani —~I wish I could write and tell them that I am married but evory day something occurs to prevent Alexander from fulfilling the necessary formulas 7 ‘What is it that you are saying?” asked tho Barcnot, with a glance of uncasiness at Carlotta and then of significancy at Floribel. ‘“ You know, my dear girl, that everything will soon be all right. I have faithfully promised you ” “ And after all,” said Floribel, “a thoatre is not precisely the place to discuss the subject :” but still she could not help experiencing u sentiment of deep compassion for the artless, ingenuous young creature whom she knew to have been be- guiled by the unprincipled man of the world who had never fora moment intended to make her his wife, * Where are you staying, my dear Mrs. Lovel ?” inquired the Baronet. : “ At the Hotel de France,” was the reply. “ Tho Hotel de France?” ejaculated Holcroft : “we also are staying there! But when did you arrive ?” “Only the day before yesterday,” answered Floribel. “ And you P” “This evening. And do you purpose to make a long sojourn in Turin?” asked the Baronet. « But perhaps I ought not to put such a question ?. It may all depend upon circumstances? Is if not so ?” “ Yes,” rejoined Floribel; and she darted , pig nificant look at Holeroft. “ But I am dying, ue continued, “to hear how you contrived to , the escape of my friend Carlotta,” COLMUG OL d)O)6) S eo