Agnes, or, Beauty and Pleasure — page 376: what you’re looking at

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

— 568 “Ab, then, Winifred!” said Gustavus, with something of a subdued fierceness in his accents, “I have indeed become unto you an object of aversion! You cannot forgive my perfidy—you ere vindictive 2 “‘ Vindictive, Gustavus?” exclaimed Winifred ; *T vindictive! Ob, no! no! eately-formed hand again made a movement But”—and her deli- | towards the bosom of her dress, and then she re- strained herself in whatsoever she was about to do. ** You have ceased to love me,” said Gustavus; “and the only hope which has brought me across the seas is destroyed! Better, better far, that I had hurled myself from the precipice down which the guilty Emily in the madness of her despair sought the path to oblivion! But I will not live! Winifred, I love you. For the last two months I have been asking myself why it was that I was never completely happy with Emily—why it was. that in my own self there was something which inspired her with that mistrust which engendered all those watchings and followings, all that super- version and surveillance, all those plots and machinations, which constituted the monstrous tyranny of her conduct towards me. And I have found that it was because I loved her not with that pure and sacred passion which a husband should experience towards a wife. And why not? Because I loved another. And that other, Winifred, was an}? ‘ ** Gustavus !” she exclaimed, with a sort of horror in her looks; “ this is language to which I cannot listen !” “ You cannot, Winifred?” cried Gustavus. “But such words, coming from the lips of a female, signify that she loves another! Ab, is it so, Winifred! Yes, yes!—you love another !— and Oh, therefore you never, never loved me!” At this moment the door opened; and the ser- vant-maid looked into the room for an instant, saying, ‘Miss Barrington, if you please, a lady But the domestic stopped short, as if the lady whom she was about to announce had either im- periously silenced her with a gesture, or else had laid upon her a strong hand to pull her back from the doorway. Be this at it might, certain it was that the girl abruptly disappeared—a lady entered —she was closely veiled—and she closed the door behind her. She was well but plainly dressed ; and though her countenance was utterly concealed by the sable veil, yet her figure—her height—her carriage—in a word, her entire bearing, struck Gustavus with a horrible consternation. At the same instant a wild suspicion flashed through Winifred’s mind. The lady advanced a few paces from the door ; and stopping short, she threw back her veil with startling abruptness, The consternation on the part of Gustavas was only too well justified by the fact: the vaguely wild suspicion of Winifred was as rapidly confirmed. For it was the qua- droor Emily who stood before them ! her seat: rition of the dusky daughter of Jamaica—for an wards my poor grandfather and myself ! ——— a ees—™ AGNIS; OR, BEAUTY AND PLEASURE, ee a with the calm resolution of one who was determined to bring matters to a climax, rather than leave be- hind aught that might torture with suspense or excite a hope which might end in bitterest dis- appointment. CHAPTER LXXlI, TIE DRIVE, |GuUSTAVUS was riveted to the spot in speechless dismay—horror paralysing all the purposes of his soul. ‘he quadroon’s eyes flashed not forth fires as was their wont during former scenes of excite. ment and crisis: but they now burnt with a steady lustre, which was all the more fearfully luminous on account of being so sinister. Her lips were firmly compressed: her entire attitude was that of resolution inexorable on her own side and irresistible on the part of any other. As for Winifred, she had mechanically sprung up from she now stood gazing upon the appa- apparition did she really seem to be! Thus was it that under the influence which the startling event produced upon her, Winifred stood in the attitude that most naturally denoted the mingled bewilderment and terror to which she was a prey. She forgot at the moment everything connected with herself, and the necessity of so disposing her posture and carriage as to conceal the secret to which we have before alluded. The quadroon gazed fixedly upon Gustavus for nearly a minute, as if to rivet bim with the fasci- nating power of a serpent: and then she slowly bent her eyes upon Winifred. A slight start might have been perceptible on the part of tha quadroon as her looks settled upon Wirifred, then she gazed with a steady scrutiny—and then she averted her eyes, while her rich red lips wreathed for a moment with a smile that was barely comprehensible, but which might have been that of mingled scorn and triumph, “Gustavus,” she said,—and now the young man himself started with a violent abruptness, as if he were a corpse being galvanized into sud- den vitality, — “Gustavus, it is no apparition whom you behold; but your wife Emily who has come across the seas to claim you as a husband, and who demands that you at once follow her hence !” The youth gazed upon her with an indescribable expression of mingled misery and horror in his looks: for though he was no longer under the influence of a preternatural terror, yet did he re- gard her as if it were his evil genius that was now confronting him face to face. Winifred had re- sumed her seat, painfully wondering how this scene would end—but with feelings too excited to allow her to reflect upon the possibility that she might have betrayed the secret of her own cons dition. “Miss Barrington,” said Emily, —“ for I believe you are still Miss Barrington—at least the ser- vant spoke of you as such’—and here there was another slight smile of irony curling the qua- droon’s rich red lips,—“ towards you I have no animosity. I know that you did not invite your cousin hither—I know likewise that he has scarcely been half-an-hour in your company . therefore I have no ill-feeling - “Oh, Madam!” said Winifred, “ from all thaé I have heard, you entertain no good feeling t- But lot Comilcbooks com