The Seamstress; or, The White Slave of England — page 137: what you’re looking at

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

eee ee 130 you fidence in Him !” “‘T do, Charles,’ responded the dyimg maiden, in a voice of heavenly softness and with a look of angelic sweetness: “and I pray that he will com- fort you all when I am taken from you!” “You shall live, Virginia—you shall live!” ex- claimed Charles, in the wild frenzy of his anguish. “We have sent for the most eminent physicians— they will be here shortly—and we will take you to the south of France, my angel—to a genial clime where you will recover. And by the time the warm breath of April favs the trees as they put forth their verdure x * Ah! then the flowers of Spring will be grow- ing upon my grave!” said Virginia, in a low soft tone and with a tear glistening in her deep blue eye. The grief of the Duchess became so agonizing and that of Charles so frantic as this melancholy response fell upon their ears, that Mr. Lavenham, whose mental anguish was equally acute, although less violent, was compelled to implore them to moderate their feelings for the sake of the dying girl. “Yes—again I implore you, dear mother,” said Virginia, with the mingled meekness of an angel and resignation of a martyr-saint, “ not to weep for me! Again I beseech you, Charles, not to give way to this unavailing woe on my account! You will but embitter my last hour—my last mo- ments for I feel that they are numbered! Let me thank God that I have known so much hap- piness and become the object of so much tender love at the close of existence! Mother, dear mo- ther — may heaven bless you! Father, beloved father God will reward you for all that you have suffered! I knew that you were imnocent a secret voice whispered within my soul that you were guiltless! And you, Charles—my well- beloved, my worshipped one may. heaven’s choicest blessings be showered upon you ee “ Never, Virginia—never!” exclaimed the young man, passionately. “I cannot live without you: ——my heart will break O God! it is breaking now! You must not die, Virginia—you cannot leave me thus! I have sought you everywhere— I have wandered in every direction to find you— and now at last we meet Oh! do not leave me, my angel—my adored one !” “Calm yourself -—~ moderate your afiliction. __ Charles, I implore you!” said Virginia, the tears streaming from her eyes. “I am going to another world where we shall mect again—hereafter But in the meantime, you will be happy in this rn “ No—that is impossible!” cried Charles vehe- mently, as he pressed to his heart the thin white hand of the: dying girl, “I swear, my angel, never to prove faithless to thy memory T will cherish thine image, my beauty—my well-beloved ; —and soon—Oh! soon, will I sleep by thy side in the grave !” “ Charles-—you promise, then, that you will not forget me?’ murmured Virginia, in a voice that was broken by emotion and so low as to be searcely audible: and at the same time a gleam ot joy appeared upon her countenance. “Ah! it is sweet to die thus in the assurance of thy love and with my parents by my side——’’ “ Dying !—Oh! heavens—she is indeed dying !”’ moaned the Duchess in bitter agony. ~ —— ee ee ee ——— en eee anenuenmcnammemeeemenamapedeannmedateaememteeeeeeete deme THE SEAMSTRESS. from us yet: let us put our hope and con- | LL LLL LL LEE LLL LA St ENE “The physicians!—why do they not come 2” exclaimed Lavenham, now rushing distractedly towards the door, “Stay!” said the feeble but still sweetly har- monious voice of Virginia: “do not leave me, dear father the arrival of the physicians will not arrest the advance of death! The moment is approaching———draw nearer still, beloved parents moderate your affliction, dearest, dearest Charles f She ceased: the dews of death were plastering the hair upon her forehead —the delusive glow had fled from her cheeks, leaving them marble pale—and her lips remained slightly parted when the last words which she had power to articulate fell faintly from them. The Duchess fell upon her knees and pressed one of Virginia’s hands to her agonizing bosom— while Julius Lavenham held the other to his lips and covered it with the tears that ramed down in blinding torrents from his eyes. The Marquis of Arden had quitted his kneel- ing posture, and, was now supporting in his arms the drooping form which he had raised from the pillow. Virginia’s head reposed upon his breast —and with her dying eyes she was gazing up fondly ito his countenance. Oh! the ineffable tenderness—the holy adoration of that last look, which infused some of its own resignation into the © heart of the afflicted young man! At all events it subdued the wild frenzy of his grief ;—and with an earnest, deep, soul-stirring gaze of boundless love were his eyes fixed upon the maiden’s chang- ing features! Nearly a minute thus passed in a silenve that was already partaking of the solemnity of death, when an ejaculation of ineffable anguish burst from the lips of the Marquis of Arden, and thrilled hke an electric shock through every vein of the Duchess and Julius Lavenham. For if carried to their souls the rending conviction that all was over and that Virginia was no more ! CH ts THE CATASTROPHE, APTER XLII. ly was nine o'clock in the evening when the Duchess of Belmont and the young Marquis of Arden returned to the ducal mansion in Grosvenor Square. My. Lavenham had stayed at the cottage, with the resolution of not abandoning the remains of his daughter until the grave should close over them. The Duchess had only been mduced to tear herself away from the mournful scene by the earnest representations of Mr. Lavenham and her son-in-law, both of whom reminded her that the strangest suspicions would arise were she to re- main absent from Belmont House, and that those suspicions might lead to the exposure of her secret with regard to the parentage of the deceased Vir- ginia. It was however in a condition of the deepest, most woe-begone despondency that her Grace consented to follow the counsels of her old friend and the young Marquis; and as she accom- panied the latter home to Grosvenor Square, she said more than once, ina low and ominous tone, “ Charles, this is a blow which I shall not long survive !|” a Rr nn