The Bronze Statue, or, The Virgin's Kiss — page 92: what you’re looking at

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

90 rapidly did ths various phases and inci- dents of the.evening’s adventures sepa- rate themselves from the chaotic con- fusion into which her swoon had thrown | them; and as they settled down into their proper places in her brain, she was enabled to follow that thread of oc- currences which, commencing with her escape from the haunted apartment, terminated at the point when she be- held a spectral form emerge from be hind the Bronze Statue. Thus, within a few minutes from the recovery of her senses, she arrived at the conviction that she had been labor- ing under no dream,—unless indeed the eS THE BRONZE STATUE. ears,—a voice so low, plaintive, and tremulous that in its tone it 1s even more reassuring than in its words: for hypocrisy and guile never simulated 80 much tenderness mingled with touch- ing melancholy as was expressed 1n the former—whereas deceit and treachery are so easily woven into language. ‘Maiden, fear nothing! It was no being of another world that you beheld ere now, and whose too abrupt appear- ance terrified you so profoundly : but it was, alas! an unhappy woman who hath drunk so deeply of the cup of af- fliction that her individual woes and wrongs would outweigh the accumula- ted miseries of millions! Fear no- appearance of the being clothed in the garments of the grave were a delusion conjured up by a disordered imagina- tion. a - > = = . > m = ri ; a = nh - — - » = ~ > o ate ra - r at : v. _— — medion a a == - ~-z- - a = = = —- - a > + - 6 ad “ o~ o, 7 il E Fe si _ o » . r - = — s = oe = = ll - —— Ss 2. os = = * -- aie ee 2. oem 4 : " : ~ ‘ ~ » ° ? rar & ~~ 7 ~ ri ~~ me — a - ° = = S ~ me n =’ - = = . e . = - ae % i . - me = - - = = - = ° a - . ~ aad eo . - —- — a - “> -~ . - hd : ill ~ - > at FS _— - a ~ om —. a ¢ 4 = eS ~ “ thing, therefore. gentle maiden, at the hands of one who would sooner perish than injure a hair of thy beauteous head !’ Ses oe F. 4 = ete cm OO ey A le ip s = ‘ ¢ . le ~ Struck by the reasonableness of this conjecture, Angela opened her eyes and gazed slowly around. But she was no longer in the apartment where she had fainted: and moreover, instead of awaking to consciousness upon the damp, slimy pavement, she was seated in an arm-chair. -Some one, then, had. removed her while she was in a swoon; and was it. a friend or an enemy? was it a kind hand which had succored her, | or one that would turn the key of cap- | tivity upon her again? | With lightning speed, and almost | with the same searing effect, did these thoughts flash through her brain? She dreaded the worst—the very worst: her mind, still attenuated by the lingering influence of the swoon, was far more sensitive to the cruellest apprehensions than susceptible of the anodyne of hope- ful reflections. Shudderingly she a rain cast her eyes around to ascertain where she wus. A lamp—not the one which had fallen from her hand when her senses abandoned her—burnt upon a table, amidst various mechanical imple- ments, jars filled with liquids and mine- sizes. The breeze came refreshingly upon the maiden’s countenance from a loop-hole in the wall facing her; and the zephyr, as it cooled her throbbing brows and fanned her cheeks now flush- ing with the excitement of alarm and suspense, played kissingly with the soft pale tresses that had become dishevelled mm En a .. N Thus spoke the voice: and Angela, rising slowly from her seat, turned to- wards the door which was behind her, and from which direction the words came. Something white gleamed in the midst of the obscurity which shroud- ed the passage beyond the threshold ; -and a shudder passed over Angela’s trame as the outlines of that same form which had already so cruelly terrified her, gradually developed themselves to her view. The figure advanced—the maiden, ashamed of her fears and thinking of the sweet, plaintive voice which she had heard, mustered up all her courage—and, with slow and mea- sured tread, the same being that had scared her entered the apartment. But there was nothing terrible—no- thing ghastly in her appearance now! he delusion which had agitated her traits into spectral horror to the imagi- nation of the young maiden, was dissi- pated ; and all the feelings of alarm and consternation which had ere now ruled Angela’s mind, gave way to a boundless sympathy and an immense commisera- tion as she contemplated the woman who had proclaimed herself to be so surpassingly unhappy. hat she was of gentle birth and rearing, her manners and her language bespoke ; and her countenance, though deadly pale and bitterly care-worn, re- tained the traces of beauty. ‘That isto say—her delicate profile was excellent; eset os 7 oy — ° > “ > oo = > ~ Mec CSO oe with the swoon. Where was she, then ?—to what apartment of Altendorf Castle had she her teeth were white, even, and well preserved ; and her eyes were of a fine . blue, although in ‘their depths naught been borne ‘—and whose hands hadj|save woe and the heart’s desolation conveyed her thither ? were expressed. What herage might But, hark! a voice steals upon her!be, it was scarcely possible to conjec- - = * “oF oe —_- _—- f ral substances, and brushes of ia rem == ef 1a > eS sae: ate aie rere + ee comicbooks.com