Agnes, or, Beauty and Pleasure — page 398: what you’re looking at

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

| ——S ee 390 sister returning from her gambollings in the gar- den ; and she hastened forward to bestow a caress upon the loved child to whom she almost con- sidered that she stood in the light of a mother. But Ah! on approaching the casement, whom should she bebold before her but Edgar Mar- eellin P Amazement seized upon the young girl: but joy was so unmistakably blended with this look of astonishment, that the Frenchman mentally ejacu- lated, while rapture thrilled through bis heart, “She loves me!—she still loves me! Beautiful Corinna ! she still loves me !” “Oh! is it you, Monsieur!” exclaimed the Neapolitan damsel, her cheeks now glowing with blushes, but joy still dancing in her large dark eyes. “ Yes, dearest Corinna—it is I!’ he responded — your own Edgar, who has never ceased to think of you! No, never, my well-beloved!— and blessed be the day which thus brings us to- gether again !” Her, hand was already clasped in his own ; and he now pressed it to his lips. She did not imme- diately disengage it, although it was the first time that those lips had ever touched her flesh; and while the blushes still burnt upon her cheeks, the light of innocent joy was still dancing in her superb black eyes. “And I too have thought of you, Edgar,” she tremulously murmured. ‘ Where have you been? Why — why did you not endeavour to see me again P” “Ob, Corinna !” he ejaculated, “ rather leé me ask why you quitted that neighbourhood so sud- denly, and why you never wrote to me?” ““ Hdgar,” she rejoined, with downcast and sad- dened look, “it was poverty which compelled us to leave that neighbourhood !—and if I did not write to you it was because I feared to be deemed guilty of an indiscretion—to be looked upon as too bold—in a word, to be thought unmaidenly in my conduct &: “ Ob, Corinna!” exclaimed Marcellin, “ did you not know that I loved you? Ah! [I certainly had not gone to the extent of making a positive and formal avowal; because I felt that our posi- tions were for the time being, false, peculiar, and delicate! But, Oa! if my language took not the form of love, at least it was redolent thereof !— if it embodied itself not into love’s shape, it must at least have wafted the whisperings of love’s spirit! Ob, yes, Corinna! you knew that I loved you !” “TI thought it—I hoped it,’ responded the young girl, in a timid and tremulous tone, and still with looks that were bashfully cast down- ward. “Oh! and you loved me in return P” ejaculated Edgar Marcellin, his countenance lighting up with a joy the radiance of which rendered its masculine beauty perfectly godlike in appearance. “ Tell me, Corinna—tell me, my beloved—do you enter- tain towards me a similar feeling now P Oh, yes, I read it in those eyes !—yes, ’tis the language of love which they speak! Oh, dearest Corinna ! you know not the amount of happiness which you are infusing into my heart!” fie now strained the Neapolitan girl to his breast, und imprinted kisses upon her cheeks: but AGNES; OR, BEAUTY ANP PLEASURE, atill mingled with all his fervour, there seemed to be that sense of respect towards herself which in- variably accompanies the true and honourable love which a young man entertains towards a youthful maiden. Gently disengaging herself from Marcellin’s embrace, after having for a few moments received his caresses, Corinna said, “Ah! you must not think, Edgar, that it was without pain I received the sudden mandate from my father’s lips to pre- pare for immediate removal, on that night when we left the neighbourhood of Leicester Square! And since then, Edgar, we have gone through so much trouble, and suffered so very much!—we have experienced fearful vicissitudes s——Oh } heaven! I cannot bear to look back and think of it all!” “Poor Corinna!’ murmured Marcellin. do you now live here ?” “Yes—with an angel in human shape, whom heaven sent to redeem us from the depth of misery!—a young lady named Miss Evelyn,’ added Corinna, her looks full of gratitude towards the image of her benefactress. * Ah! it was doubtless this young lady with whom I just now beheld you walking?” said Mar- cellin. “Yes—we have only very recently returned from the Regent’s Park,” replied Corinna. “ From whence I followed you,’ added Marcel- lin. ‘Ah! then, dearest Corinna, you did not see me—you did not recognise me——” “ But Edgar? Ob, no!” exclaimed Corinna; “ for if I had seen you, I should have assuredly testified my joy. Iamno hypocrite and no deceiver; and I should have at once told Miss Evelyn the exact truth. But wherefore did you not accost me?— why adopt these stealthy means to obtain an in- terview with me ?” inquired Corinna, now recol- lecting that Edgar had introduced himself to her presence by means of the open casement, and that he had not entered the villa through the more proper medium of the front door. “Ah, look at me, Corinna!” he said, in a mournful voice: “behold how altered in my ap- pearance I am!” “You have discarded your moustache and your beard,” responded the young girl; “but never- theless I knew you ina moment! And what has this to do with + “ Look at me again, Corinna!” interjected Mar- cellin: “look at my toiles—-my apparel!” he added bitterly, Until this moment the refugee’s daughter had no eyes for anything that was disagreeable: she had been content to gaze only on Ndgar’s handsome countenance, and to observe the joy which was shining in his own eyes. But now that her at- tention was so specially directed to his apparel, she flung a glance over his entire person; and she felt shocked at the contrast which his appearance presented with that which it afforded when first she knew him. ‘You too, then, have suffered, my poor Hdgar !” she said, now of her own accord offering her hand and pressing his own with a sympathizing fond- ness, “Yes—I have suffered, Corinna,” he replied; “and most uniustly have I been made to suffer! Oe ET (E J Comilcbooks “See you and recognise you in the Park, | ' | ~~ om