Agnes, or, Beauty and Pleasure — page 93: what you’re looking at

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

a AGNES; OR, BEAUTY AND PLEASURE. ——_—_——— - — -~_— —+-— CHAPTER XV. ANTONIA. REcALLING the attention of the reader to the Mirano mansion, we must now proceed to observe that Edgar Marcellin slept soundly throughout the night on which Ciprina and Charles De Vere were carried off inthe way that has already been go minutely described. It was under the influence of La Dolfina’s soporific medicament that the young Frenchman slumbered on so deeply and so uninterruptedly; and it was not until between eight and nine o’clock in the morning that he opened his eyes. Being accustomed to find Ci- prina seated by the side of the couch when he awoke, he was somewhat surprised that she was not now at her usual post; and then as his thoughts were rapidly collecting themselves, he remembered that he ought to have seen Charles De Vere during the past night. It naturally oc- curred to him that as he had fallen asleep Ciprina did not choose to awake him for that interview with the young English gentleman; and Edgar felt inclined to be bitterly annoyed at what he could not help looking upon as an over-anxious care on Ciprina’s part for his health. Impatient to iearn whether Charles had been—and if so, what he had said, and when he was coming again, —Edgar Marcellin agitated upon the side-table the glass which contained the refreshing beverage he was wont to partake of: but all was still in the adjacent apartment. Then he noticed that the door of communication between the two chambers was shut ; and he grew more and more surprised —for this was the first time that the circumstance had occurred! He descended from his couch— opened the door—and called Ciprina. There was no answer. He looked into her chamber : she was not there—and the bed evidently had not been occupied all night. Marcellin proceeded into the boudoir, and thence into the ante-room; but no Ciprina was to be seen. What could be the cause of this disappearance? Ah! it suddenly struck Edgar that Ciprina might have gone to pay an- other visit to La Dolfina on his behalf; and per- ceiving no other solution for the mystery, he re- tired to his own room. “Ts it possible,” he asked himself, “that I could have suffered a relapse during the past night, —that Ciprina therefore. sat up with me—and that alarmed at my condition, she has now.gone to consult that woman to whose art and skill I have already been indebted? And yet I do not feel as if I had suffered any such relapse. On the con- trary, it seems to me that I am far better than I could have expected I might almost say that I feel as if I were nearly approaching towards con- valescence.”’ Half-an-hour elapsed, during which Edgar Mar- cellin lay in his bed in a feverish state of excite- ment; for though he fancied that he had ac- counted for Ciprina’s absence, yet there was a vague undefined uneasiness in his mind, which he however sought to attribute to the attenuating effects of illness. At length he ejaculated, “ By heaven, it is strange she does not return!”—and again springing from his couch, he enveloped him- 85 ———. i self in a dressing-gown, tor he could no Jonger re- main in bed. He passed into the boudoir; and then he fan- cied that he heard a gentle knocking at the outer door of the ante-room. He flew thither. The door was locked—the key was inside—how there- fore was it possible that Ciprina could have quitted the suite of apartments? At the same instant an idea struck him like the recollection of a horrible vision. It was the tale which he had heard of a secret means of communication with that ante- room; and he fancied that some new treachery on the part of Lucrezia di Mirano might possibly have been at work. But at the same time that this thought flashed through his imagination, his hand was already turning the key in the lock: the door opened— and Antonia made her appearance. Your young mistress?” demanded Edgar hastily : “the Signora Ciprina—where is she ?” Antonia looked astonished at the question; and she said, “The Signora Ciprina? I left her here last night, signor zy “Come in!—come in, for heaven’s sake!” in- terjected Edgar, with feverish impatience; and it was almost with violence that he dragged Antonia into the room from the threshold where she had stopped short, transfixed by surprise at the ques- tion which Marcellin had put to her. “ You left your mistress here, you say ?” “Yes, signor,” was the response. “At what o’clock?” demanded Edgar, with increasing impatience. “At about midnight—in company with that English gentleman " “Ah! Mr. De Vere?” ejaculated Marcellin, ‘Then he came ?—you brought him hither ?” “Yes, signor,” rejoined Antonia, who was now becoming frightened as well as astonished. “ But, good heavens! what has happened ?—has the sig- nora disappeared P” “ Antonia!”’ interrupted Marcellin, “some foul treachery has been at work! You know the reason for which the threads were stretched along the walls of these rooms.” “Scarcely, signor,” cried Antonia. “ Are any of those threads broken? JDid you hear the bell ring in the night P” “No, no,” answered Edgar. “Those strings, you know, are only in the boudoir and the bed- chambers—but not in this ante-room! It was through fear of secret doors being fitted in the walls of either of those rooms But did not your mistress tell you P” No, signor,’ responded Antonia. ‘‘ My mis- tress was wont to issue her orders—I obeyed them—and that was all. She was but little accus- tomed to give explanations; and I never sought them. I certainly wondered to see all those strings arranged in the boudoir and the bed-rooms, communicating with a bell over the Signora Ci- prina’s couch: but I fancied it was to—to—guard against a surprise on the part of the sbirrs, aa you had fought a duel o “ Well, at all events, you see that they were precautions of some kind?” ejaculated Marcellin. “* And you were placed for a couple of nights run- ning to sleep in this ante-room, in a couch which you were wont to make up against that wall se Ghook EL 5}