Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

CHAPTER X.

"Farewell! I never more will see

Those eyes, but hide, far off my pain;
And thou wilt have forgotten me,

Or smile thou see'st me not again

Live happy, in thy happier lot;

And I will strive, (if't so must be)

To think 'tis well to be forgot,

Since it may keep a pang from thee."

BARRY CORNWALL.

As Aline was passing to her own room, she had occasion to cross a gallery, where the sound of song reached her ear. It was the Italian girl singing to the young Seytons, who formed a circle around her; they with their fairy forms, and fair elfin locks, prettily con

trasting with the dark, not lovely, but interesting young being-the poor pupil, who was suffered, when released from the severe master, or the exigeant company she was employed to amuse, to lend her services for the entertainment or improvement of the children of the family.

She stopped her song when Aline, her handkerchief to her eyes, would have passed hastily by, but was stopped by one of the little party, who begged her to stay and listen to one song from Lucia, whilst the child fixed her gaze curiously on her sister's swollen eyelids, and woe-struck countenance.

"Go on, Lucia!" she cried.

But no-Lucia was silent and turned away, suddenly saying she must go-and she departed abruptly, to tell Signor Angelo, with a kind of malicious elation, that she had seen the pale, young lady whom he loved and she hated, pass by, her eyes red with weeping.

"And pray why do you hate her Lucia ?"

asked the elder Italian, who with Madame C. was in the room with Angelo.

"Because he loves her," she laconically answered, placing herself on a stool at the young man's feet, as he sat dejectedly leaning his head upon his hand.

"Because he loves her," she continued, glancing up to his face with a look of a sullen child," and will not speak to me."

Angelo lifted up his face suffused with a deep blush and frowned upon the child; and withdrawing, with a gesture of impatience, the hand of which she had caressingly taken possession, said sternly,

"Tacete!" whilst the other man laughed loud, exclaiming coarsely,

"So Lucia has guessed your secret, Amico! well who knows what your begli occhi may do for you never be faint hearted-carry her off to Italy, and train her into a prima donna. She sings like an angel and would make a sensation

VOL. I.

H

at the Russian Opera next year; as the Signora Alina she will make your fortune.

Angelo rising with a still more stern tone, and a gesture of disgust, repeated the same command, and left the room.

He entered his apartment, and, having sadly meditated for a few moments, sat down to write.

[blocks in formation]

That evening whilst Aline was singing a duet with Signor Angelo, Lord Mervyn at his post of observation, though at a greater distance than usual, she suddenly turned as pale as death, and fainted in the arms of the Italian.

In the general dismay, for the first moment she was allowed to remain there like a broken lily -he standing motionless the while with a mild, sweet, blissful expression on his countenance.

But the next, he was rudely relieved of his burden by Lord Mervyn, who pierced through the circle which was forming round the senseless form, and almost dragged her from his support.

"Carry her into the air!" exclaimed one of the party, and Mervyn bore her, followed by Lady Adelaide, into the conservatory. Ere however he reached it, Aline had begun to revive and open her eyes. Her first movement was to plunge her hand into her bosom, murmuring,

[ocr errors]

My letter-where is my letter? ah !" and then with an expression half of relief, half of fear, she pressed her hand upon it, as if for the protection of some treasure there concealed; then struggling to free herself from Lord Mervyn's support, said hurriedly,

"I am better-I am quite well."

A quick, suspicious glance shot across Lord Mervyn's countenance, as he heard the words, and noted the movement into which she had been betrayed. He looked as if he fain would have forced away the protecting hand, and torn the suspected treasure from its snowy sanctuary.

But even if he had so dared, Lady Adelaide and others were now with them; her father

« ZurückWeiter »