- Vice, Said She, Ought At Lead To
Blush, And Hide Itself As Much As Possible From View, Left By Being
Tolerated In Public It Should Become A Fashion.
Horatio was so much taken up with admiring the justness of her
sentiments, that awed by them, as it were, he could not yet, tho'
mask'd, make any discovery of his own:
She was about entering into a
discourse with him concerning the first motives which had rendered some
persons she pointed out to him unhappy in the marriage-state, which
perhaps might have given him an opportunity for explaining himself, when
a lady richly dress'd came up to them, and giving Horatio a sudden pluck
by the arm; villain! cried she. Madam, returned he, strongly amazed. Is
the trifling conversation of Sanserre, resumed she, or this little
creature to be preferred to a woman of that quality you have dared to
abuse? - but this night has convinced her of your perfidy: - she sends you
this, continued she, giving him a slap over the face as hard as she
could, and be assured it is the last present you will ever receive
from her.
She had no sooner uttered these words than she flew quick as lightning
out of the room, leaving Horatio in such a consternation both at what
she said and did, as deprived him even of the thought of following her,
or using any means to solve this riddle. - He was in a deep musing when
mademoiselle Charlotta, possessed that moment with a passion she till
then was ignorant of, said to him; I find, Horatio, you have wonderfully
improved the little time you have been in France, to gain you a
multiplicity of mistresses; but I am sorry my inadvertency in talking to
a man so doubly pre-engaged, should cause me to be reckoned among the
number. In speaking this she turned away with a confusion which was
visible in her air, and the scarlet colour with which her neck was dyed.
By heaven! cried he, in the utmost agitation, I know so little the
meaning of what I have just now heard, that it seems rather a dream than
a reality. O the deceiver! returned she, a little slackening her pace,
will you pretend to have given no occasion for the reproach you have
received: - great must have been your professions to draw on you a
resentment such as I have been witness of; - but I shall take care to
give the lady, whoever she is, no farther room for jealousy on my
account; and as for mademoiselle Sanserre, I believe the stock of
reputation she has will not suffer much from the addition of one more
favourite to the number the world has already given her.
The oddness of this adventure, and the vexation he was in to find
Charlotta seemed incensed against him for a crime of which he knew
himself so perfectly innocent, destroyed at once all the considerations
his timidity had inspired, and aiming only to be cleared in her
opinion; - if there be faith in man, cried he, I know nothing of what I
am accused: no woman but your charming self ever had the power to give
me an uneasy moment; - it is you alone have taught me what it is to love,
and as I never felt, I never pretended to that passion for any other.
Me! replied Charlotta, extremely confused; If it were so, you take a
strange time and method to declare it in; - but I know of no concern I
have in your amours, your gratitude, or your perfidy; and you had better
follow and endeavour to appease your enraged mistress, than lose your
time on me in vain excuses.
Ah mademoiselle! cried he, how unjust and cruel are you, and how severe
my fate, which not content with the despair my real unworthiness of
adoring you has plunged me in, but also adds to it an imputation of
crimes my soul most detests: - I never heard even the name of the lady
you mentioned till your lips pronounced it; and if it be she I danced
with, I protest I never saw her face: and as for the meaning of the
other lady's treatment of me, it must certainly be occasioned by some
mistake, having offered nothing to any of the sex that could justify
such a proceeding.
All the time he was speaking Charlotta was endeavouring to compose
herself. - The hurry of spirits she had been in at the apprehensions of
Horatio's having any amorous engagements, shewing her how much interest
she took in him, made her blush at having discovered herself to him so
far; and tho' she could not be any more tranquil, yet she thought she
would for the future be more prudent; to this end she now affected to
laugh at the dilemma into which she told him he had brought himself, by
making addresses in two places at the same time, and advised him in a
gay manner to be more circumspect.
Thus was this beautiful lady, by her jealousy, convinced of her
sensibility; and as difficult as Horatio found it to remove the one, he
found his consolation in the discovery of the other.
From the time he had been disengaged from mademoiselle Sanferre, he had
retired with Charlotta to one corner of the room; and the greatest part
of the company being in a grand dance, the others were taken up in
looking on them, so that our young lovers had the opportunity of talking
to each other without being taken much notice of; but several of the
masquers now drawing nearer that way, prevented Horatio from saying any
thing farther at that time, either to clear his innocence or prosecute
his passion; and Charlotta, glad to avoid all discourse on a subject she
thought herself but ill prepared to answer, joined some ladies, with
whom she stayed till the ball was near concluded.
Horatio after this withdrew to a window, and flickered behind a large
damask curtain, threw himself on a sopha he found there, and ruminated
at full on the adventure had happened to him, in which he found a
mixture of joy and discontent:
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 23 of 100
Words from 22578 to 23617
of 102800
