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twg_000000036100 | upstairs or downstairs. There are so many rooms and closets, so much heavy furniture, and such accumulations of lumber, that it would require a week to search this old house thoroughly. Do you see, now, what I mean? I do, but not all, she answered. And how, papa, do you account for her finding herself on the sofa in the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036101 | dressing room, which we had searched so carefully? She came there after you had searched it, still in her sleep, and at last awoke spontaneously, and was as much surprised to find herself where she was as any one else. I wish all mysteries were as easily and innocently explained as yours, Carmilla, he said, laughing. And so we may | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036102 | congratulate ourselves on the certainty that the most natural explanation of the occurrence is one that involves no drugging, no tampering with locks, no burglars, or poisoners, or witchesnothing that need alarm Carmilla, or anyone else, for our safety. Carmilla was looking charmingly. Nothing could be more beautiful than her tints. Her beauty was, I think, enhanced by that graceful | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036103 | languor that was peculiar to her. I think my father was silently contrasting her looks with mine, for he said: I wish my poor Laura was looking more like herself; and he sighed. So our alarms were happily ended, and Carmilla restored to her friends. IX. The Doctor As Carmilla would not hear of an attendant sleeping in her room, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036104 | my father arranged that a servant should sleep outside her door, so that she would not attempt to make another such excursion without being arrested at her own door. That night passed quietly; and next morning early, the doctor, whom my father had sent for without telling me a word about it, arrived to see me. Madame accompanied me to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036105 | the library; and there the grave little doctor, with white hair and spectacles, whom I mentioned before, was waiting to receive me. I told him my story, and as I proceeded he grew graver and graver. We were standing, he and I, in the recess of one of the windows, facing one another. When my statement was over, he leaned | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036106 | with his shoulders against the wall, and with his eyes fixed on me earnestly, with an interest in which was a dash of horror. After a minutes reflection, he asked Madame if he could see my father. He was sent for accordingly, and as he entered, smiling, he said: I dare say, doctor, you are going to tell me that | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036107 | I am an old fool for having brought you here; I hope I am. But his smile faded into shadow as the doctor, with a very grave face, beckoned him to him. He and the doctor talked for some time in the same recess where I had just conferred with the physician. It seemed an earnest and argumentative conversation. The | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036108 | room is very large, and I and Madame stood together, burning with curiosity, at the farther end. Not a word could we hear, however, for they spoke in a very low tone, and the deep recess of the window quite concealed the doctor from view, and very nearly my father, whose foot, arm, and shoulder only could we see; and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036109 | the voices were, I suppose, all the less audible for the sort of closet which the thick wall and window formed. After a time my fathers face looked into the room; it was pale, thoughtful, and, I fancied, agitated. Laura, dear, come here for a moment. Madame, we shant trouble you, the doctor says, at present. Accordingly I approached, for | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036110 | the first time a little alarmed; for, although I felt very weak, I did not feel ill; and strength, one always fancies, is a thing that may be picked up when we please. My father held out his hand to me, as I drew near, but he was looking at the doctor, and he said: It certainly is very odd; | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036111 | I dont understand it quite. Laura, come here, dear; now attend to Doctor Spielsberg, and recollect yourself. You mentioned a sensation like that of two needles piercing the skin, somewhere about your neck, on the night when you experienced your first horrible dream. Is there still any soreness? None at all, I answered. Can you indicate with your finger about | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036112 | the point at which you think this occurred? Very little below my throathere, I answered. I wore a morning dress, which covered the place I pointed to. Now you can satisfy yourself, said the doctor. You wont mind your papas lowering your dress a very little. It is necessary, to detect a symptom of the complaint under which you have | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036113 | been suffering. I acquiesced. It was only an inch or two below the edge of my collar. God bless me!so it is, exclaimed my father, growing pale. You see it now with your own eyes, said the doctor, with a gloomy triumph. What is it? I exclaimed, beginning to be frightened. Nothing, my dear young lady, but a small blue | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036114 | spot, about the size of the tip of your little finger; and now, he continued, turning to papa, the question is what is best to be done? Is there any danger?I urged, in great trepidation. I trust not, my dear, answered the doctor. I dont see why you should not recover. I dont see why you should not begin immediately | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036115 | to get better. That is the point at which the sense of strangulation begins? Yes, I answered. Andrecollect as well as you canthe same point was a kind of center of that thrill which you described just now, like the current of a cold stream running against you? It may have been; I think it was. Ay, you see? he | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036116 | added, turning to my father. Shall I say a word to Madame? Certainly, said my father. He called Madame to him, and said: I find my young friend here far from well. It wont be of any great consequence, I hope; but it will be necessary that some steps be taken, which I will explain by-and-by; but in the meantime, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036117 | Madame, you will be so good as not to let Miss Laura be alone for one moment. That is the only direction I need give for the present. It is indispensable. We may rely upon your kindness, Madame, I know, added my father. Madame satisfied him eagerly. And you, dear Laura, I know you will observe the doctors direction. I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036118 | shall have to ask your opinion upon another patient, whose symptoms slightly resemble those of my daughter, that have just been detailed to youvery much milder in degree, but I believe quite of the same sort. She is a young ladyour guest; but as you say you will be passing this way again this evening, you cant do better than | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036119 | take your supper here, and you can then see her. She does not come down till the afternoon. I thank you, said the doctor. I shall be with you, then, at about seven this evening. And then they repeated their directions to me and to Madame, and with this parting charge my father left us, and walked out with the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036120 | doctor; and I saw them pacing together up and down between the road and the moat, on the grassy platform in front of the castle, evidently absorbed in earnest conversation. The doctor did not return. I saw him mount his horse there, take his leave, and ride away eastward through the forest. Nearly at the same time I saw the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036121 | man arrive from Dranfield with the letters, and dismount and hand the bag to my father. In the meantime, Madame and I were both busy, lost in conjecture as to the reasons of the singular and earnest direction which the doctor and my father had concurred in imposing. Madame, as she afterwards told me, was afraid the doctor apprehended a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036122 | sudden seizure, and that, without prompt assistance, I might either lose my life in a fit, or at least be seriously hurt. The interpretation did not strike me; and I fancied, perhaps luckily for my nerves, that the arrangement was prescribed simply to secure a companion, who would prevent my taking too much exercise, or eating unripe fruit, or doing | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036123 | any of the fifty foolish things to which young people are supposed to be prone. About half an hour after my father came inhe had a letter in his handand said: This letter had been delayed; it is from General Spielsdorf. He might have been here yesterday, he may not come till tomorrow or he may be here today. He | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036124 | put the open letter into my hand; but he did not look pleased, as he used when a guest, especially one so much loved as the General, was coming. On the contrary, he looked as if he wished him at the bottom of the Red Sea. There was plainly something on his mind which he did not choose to divulge. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036125 | Papa, darling, will you tell me this? said I, suddenly laying my hand on his arm, and looking, I am sure, imploringly in his face. Perhaps, he answered, smoothing my hair caressingly over my eyes. Does the doctor think me very ill? No, dear; he thinks, if right steps are taken, you will be quite well again, at least, on | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036126 | the high road to a complete recovery, in a day or two, he answered, a little dryly. I wish our good friend, the General, had chosen any other time; that is, I wish you had been perfectly well to receive him. But do tell me, papa, I insisted, what does he think is the matter with me? Nothing; you must | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036127 | not plague me with questions, he answered, with more irritation than I ever remember him to have displayed before; and seeing that I looked wounded, I suppose, he kissed me, and added, You shall know all about it in a day or two; that is, all that I know. In the meantime you are not to trouble your head about | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036128 | it. He turned and left the room, but came back before I had done wondering and puzzling over the oddity of all this; it was merely to say that he was going to Karnstein, and had ordered the carriage to be ready at twelve, and that I and Madame should accompany him; he was going to see the priest who | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036129 | lived near those picturesque grounds, upon business, and as Carmilla had never seen them, she could follow, when she came down, with Mademoiselle, who would bring materials for what you call a picnic, which might be laid for us in the ruined castle. At twelve oclock, accordingly, I was ready, and not long after, my father, Madame and I set | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036130 | out upon our projected drive. Passing the drawbridge we turn to the right, and follow the road over the steep Gothic bridge, westward, to reach the deserted village and ruined castle of Karnstein. No sylvan drive can be fancied prettier. The ground breaks into gentle hills and hollows, all clothed with beautiful wood, totally destitute of the comparative formality which | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036131 | artificial planting and early culture and pruning impart. The irregularities of the ground often lead the road out of its course, and cause it to wind beautifully round the sides of broken hollows and the steeper sides of the hills, among varieties of ground almost inexhaustible. Turning one of these points, we suddenly encountered our old friend, the General, riding | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036132 | towards us, attended by a mounted servant. His portmanteaus were following in a hired wagon, such as we term a cart. The General dismounted as we pulled up, and, after the usual greetings, was easily persuaded to accept the vacant seat in the carriage and send his horse on with his servant to the schloss. X. Bereaved It was about | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036133 | ten months since we had last seen him: but that time had sufficed to make an alteration of years in his appearance. He had grown thinner; something of gloom and anxiety had taken the place of that cordial serenity which used to characterize his features. His dark blue eyes, always penetrating, now gleamed with a sterner light from under his | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036134 | shaggy grey eyebrows. It was not such a change as grief alone usually induces, and angrier passions seemed to have had their share in bringing it about. We had not long resumed our drive, when the General began to talk, with his usual soldierly directness, of the bereavement, as he termed it, which he had sustained in the death of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036135 | his beloved niece and ward; and he then broke out in a tone of intense bitterness and fury, inveighing against the hellish arts to which she had fallen a victim, and expressing, with more exasperation than piety, his wonder that Heaven should tolerate so monstrous an indulgence of the lusts and malignity of hell. My father, who saw at once | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036136 | that something very extraordinary had befallen, asked him, if not too painful to him, to detail the circumstances which he thought justified the strong terms in which he expressed himself. I should tell you all with pleasure, said the General, but you would not believe me. Why should I not? he asked. Because, he answered testily, you believe in nothing | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036137 | but what consists with your own prejudices and illusions. I remember when I was like you, but I have learned better. Try me, said my father; I am not such a dogmatist as you suppose. Besides which, I very well know that you generally require proof for what you believe, and am, therefore, very strongly predisposed to respect your conclusions. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036138 | You are right in supposing that I have not been led lightly into a belief in the marvelousfor what I have experienced is marvelousand I have been forced by extraordinary evidence to credit that which ran counter, diametrically, to all my theories. I have been made the dupe of a preternatural conspiracy. Notwithstanding his professions of confidence in the Generals | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036139 | penetration, I saw my father, at this point, glance at the General, with, as I thought, a marked suspicion of his sanity. The General did not see it, luckily. He was looking gloomily and curiously into the glades and vistas of the woods that were opening before us. You are going to the Ruins of Karnstein? he said. Yes, it | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036140 | is a lucky coincidence; do you know I was going to ask you to bring me there to inspect them. I have a special object in exploring. There is a ruined chapel, aint there, with a great many tombs of that extinct family? So there arehighly interesting, said my father. I hope you are thinking of claiming the title and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036141 | estates? My father said this gaily, but the General did not recollect the laugh, or even the smile, which courtesy exacts for a friends joke; on the contrary, he looked grave and even fierce, ruminating on a matter that stirred his anger and horror. Something very different, he said, gruffly. I mean to unearth some of those fine people. I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036142 | hope, by Gods blessing, to accomplish a pious sacrilege here, which will relieve our earth of certain monsters, and enable honest people to sleep in their beds without being assailed by murderers. I have strange things to tell you, my dear friend, such as I myself would have scouted as incredible a few months since. My father looked at him | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036143 | again, but this time not with a glance of suspicionwith an eye, rather, of keen intelligence and alarm. The house of Karnstein, he said, has been long extinct: a hundred years at least. My dear wife was maternally descended from the Karnsteins. But the name and title have long ceased to exist. The castle is a ruin; the very village | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036144 | is deserted; it is fifty years since the smoke of a chimney was seen there; not a roof left. Quite true. I have heard a great deal about that since I last saw you; a great deal that will astonish you. But I had better relate everything in the order in which it occurred, said the General. You saw my | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036145 | dear wardmy child, I may call her. No creature could have been more beautiful, and only three months ago none more blooming. Yes, poor thing! when I saw her last she certainly was quite lovely, said my father. I was grieved and shocked more than I can tell you, my dear friend; I knew what a blow it was to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036146 | you. He took the Generals hand, and they exchanged a kind pressure. Tears gathered in the old soldiers eyes. He did not seek to conceal them. He said: We have been very old friends; I knew you would feel for me, childless as I am. She had become an object of very near interest to me, and repaid my care | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036147 | by an affection that cheered my home and made my life happy. That is all gone. The years that remain to me on earth may not be very long; but by Gods mercy I hope to accomplish a service to mankind before I die, and to subserve the vengeance of Heaven upon the fiends who have murdered my poor child | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036148 | in the spring of her hopes and beauty! You said, just now, that you intended relating everything as it occurred, said my father. Pray do; I assure you that it is not mere curiosity that prompts me. By this time we had reached the point at which the Drunstall road, by which the General had come, diverges from the road | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036149 | which we were traveling to Karnstein. How far is it to the ruins? inquired the General, looking anxiously forward. About half a league, answered my father. Pray let us hear the story you were so good as to promise. XI. The Story With all my heart, said the General, with an effort; and after a short pause in which to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036150 | arrange his subject, he commenced one of the strangest narratives I ever heard. My dear child was looking forward with great pleasure to the visit you had been so good as to arrange for her to your charming daughter. Here he made me a gallant but melancholy bow. In the meantime we had an invitation to my old friend the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036151 | Count Carlsfeld, whose schloss is about six leagues to the other side of Karnstein. It was to attend the series of fetes which, you remember, were given by him in honor of his illustrious visitor, the Grand Duke Charles. Yes; and very splendid, I believe, they were, said my father. Princely! But then his hospitalities are quite regal. He has | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036152 | Aladdins lamp. The night from which my sorrow dates was devoted to a magnificent masquerade. The grounds were thrown open, the trees hung with colored lamps. There was such a display of fireworks as Paris itself had never witnessed. And such musicmusic, you know, is my weaknesssuch ravishing music! The finest instrumental band, perhaps, in the world, and the finest | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036153 | singers who could be collected from all the great operas in Europe. As you wandered through these fantastically illuminated grounds, the moon-lighted chateau throwing a rosy light from its long rows of windows, you would suddenly hear these ravishing voices stealing from the silence of some grove, or rising from boats upon the lake. I felt myself, as I looked | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036154 | and listened, carried back into the romance and poetry of my early youth. When the fireworks were ended, and the ball beginning, we returned to the noble suite of rooms that were thrown open to the dancers. A masked ball, you know, is a beautiful sight; but so brilliant a spectacle of the kind I never saw before. It was | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036155 | a very aristocratic assembly. I was myself almost the only nobody present. My dear child was looking quite beautiful. She wore no mask. Her excitement and delight added an unspeakable charm to her features, always lovely. I remarked a young lady, dressed magnificently, but wearing a mask, who appeared to me to be observing my ward with extraordinary interest. I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036156 | had seen her, earlier in the evening, in the great hall, and again, for a few minutes, walking near us, on the terrace under the castle windows, similarly employed. A lady, also masked, richly and gravely dressed, and with a stately air, like a person of rank, accompanied her as a chaperon. Had the young lady not worn a mask, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036157 | I could, of course, have been much more certain upon the question whether she was really watching my poor darling. I am now well assured that she was. We were now in one of the salons. My poor dear child had been dancing, and was resting a little in one of the chairs near the door; I was standing near. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036158 | The two ladies I have mentioned had approached and the younger took the chair next my ward; while her companion stood beside me, and for a little time addressed herself, in a low tone, to her charge. Availing herself of the privilege of her mask, she turned to me, and in the tone of an old friend, and calling me | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036159 | by my name, opened a conversation with me, which piqued my curiosity a good deal. She referred to many scenes where she had met meat Court, and at distinguished houses. She alluded to little incidents which I had long ceased to think of, but which, I found, had only lain in abeyance in my memory, for they instantly started into | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036160 | life at her touch. I became more and more curious to ascertain who she was, every moment. She parried my attempts to discover very adroitly and pleasantly. The knowledge she showed of many passages in my life seemed to me all but unaccountable; and she appeared to take a not unnatural pleasure in foiling my curiosity, and in seeing me | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036161 | flounder in my eager perplexity, from one conjecture to another. In the meantime the young lady, whom her mother called by the odd name of Millarca, when she once or twice addressed her, had, with the same ease and grace, got into conversation with my ward. She introduced herself by saying that her mother was a very old acquaintance of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036162 | mine. She spoke of the agreeable audacity which a mask rendered practicable; she talked like a friend; she admired her dress, and insinuated very prettily her admiration of her beauty. She amused her with laughing criticisms upon the people who crowded the ballroom, and laughed at my poor childs fun. She was very witty and lively when she pleased, and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036163 | after a time they had grown very good friends, and the young stranger lowered her mask, displaying a remarkably beautiful face. I had never seen it before, neither had my dear child. But though it was new to us, the features were so engaging, as well as lovely, that it was impossible not to feel the attraction powerfully. My poor | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036164 | girl did so. I never saw anyone more taken with another at first sight, unless, indeed, it was the stranger herself, who seemed quite to have lost her heart to her. In the meantime, availing myself of the license of a masquerade, I put not a few questions to the elder lady. You have puzzled me utterly, I said, laughing. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036165 | Is that not enough? Wont you, now, consent to stand on equal terms, and do me the kindness to remove your mask? Can any request be more unreasonable? she replied. Ask a lady to yield an advantage! Beside, how do you know you should recognize me? Years make changes. As you see, I said, with a bow, and, I suppose, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036166 | a rather melancholy little laugh. As philosophers tell us, she said; and how do you know that a sight of my face would help you? I should take chance for that, I answered. It is vain trying to make yourself out an old woman; your figure betrays you. Years, nevertheless, have passed since I saw you, rather since you saw | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036167 | me, for that is what I am considering. Millarca, there, is my daughter; I cannot then be young, even in the opinion of people whom time has taught to be indulgent, and I may not like to be compared with what you remember me. You have no mask to remove. You can offer me nothing in exchange. My petition is | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036168 | to your pity, to remove it. And mine to yours, to let it stay where it is, she replied. Well, then, at least you will tell me whether you are French or German; you speak both languages so perfectly. I dont think I shall tell you that, General; you intend a surprise, and are meditating the particular point of attack. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036169 | At all events, you wont deny this, I said, that being honored by your permission to converse, I ought to know how to address you. Shall I say Madame la Comtesse? She laughed, and she would, no doubt, have met me with another evasionif, indeed, I can treat any occurrence in an interview every circumstance of which was prearranged, as | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036170 | I now believe, with the profoundest cunning, as liable to be modified by accident. As to that, she began; but she was interrupted, almost as she opened her lips, by a gentleman, dressed in black, who looked particularly elegant and distinguished, with this drawback, that his face was the most deadly pale I ever saw, except in death. He was | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036171 | in no masqueradein the plain evening dress of a gentleman; and he said, without a smile, but with a courtly and unusually low bow: Will Madame la Comtesse permit me to say a very few words which may interest her? The lady turned quickly to him, and touched her lip in token of silence; she then said to me, Keep | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036172 | my place for me, General; I shall return when I have said a few words. And with this injunction, playfully given, she walked a little aside with the gentleman in black, and talked for some minutes, apparently very earnestly. They then walked away slowly together in the crowd, and I lost them for some minutes. I spent the interval in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036173 | cudgeling my brains for a conjecture as to the identity of the lady who seemed to remember me so kindly, and I was thinking of turning about and joining in the conversation between my pretty ward and the Countesss daughter, and trying whether, by the time she returned, I might not have a surprise in store for her, by having | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036174 | her name, title, chateau, and estates at my fingers ends. But at this moment she returned, accompanied by the pale man in black, who said: I shall return and inform Madame la Comtesse when her carriage is at the door. He withdrew with a bow. XII. A Petition Then we are to lose Madame la Comtesse, but I hope only | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036175 | for a few hours, I said, with a low bow. It may be that only, or it may be a few weeks. It was very unlucky his speaking to me just now as he did. Do you now know me? I assured her I did not. You shall know me, she said, but not at present. We are older and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036176 | better friends than, perhaps, you suspect. I cannot yet declare myself. I shall in three weeks pass your beautiful schloss, about which I have been making enquiries. I shall then look in upon you for an hour or two, and renew a friendship which I never think of without a thousand pleasant recollections. This moment a piece of news has | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036177 | reached me like a thunderbolt. I must set out now, and travel by a devious route, nearly a hundred miles, with all the dispatch I can possibly make. My perplexities multiply. I am only deterred by the compulsory reserve I practice as to my name from making a very singular request of you. My poor child has not quite recovered | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036178 | her strength. Her horse fell with her, at a hunt which she had ridden out to witness, her nerves have not yet recovered the shock, and our physician says that she must on no account exert herself for some time to come. We came here, in consequence, by very easy stageshardly six leagues a day. I must now travel day | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036179 | and night, on a mission of life and deatha mission the critical and momentous nature of which I shall be able to explain to you when we meet, as I hope we shall, in a few weeks, without the necessity of any concealment. She went on to make her petition, and it was in the tone of a person from | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036180 | whom such a request amounted to conferring, rather than seeking a favor. This was only in manner, and, as it seemed, quite unconsciously. Than the terms in which it was expressed, nothing could be more deprecatory. It was simply that I would consent to take charge of her daughter during her absence. This was, all things considered, a strange, not | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036181 | to say, an audacious request. She in some sort disarmed me, by stating and admitting everything that could be urged against it, and throwing herself entirely upon my chivalry. At the same moment, by a fatality that seems to have predetermined all that happened, my poor child came to my side, and, in an undertone, besought me to invite her | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036182 | new friend, Millarca, to pay us a visit. She had just been sounding her, and thought, if her mamma would allow her, she would like it extremely. At another time I should have told her to wait a little, until, at least, we knew who they were. But I had not a moment to think in. The two ladies assailed | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036183 | me together, and I must confess the refined and beautiful face of the young lady, about which there was something extremely engaging, as well as the elegance and fire of high birth, determined me; and, quite overpowered, I submitted, and undertook, too easily, the care of the young lady, whom her mother called Millarca. The Countess beckoned to her daughter, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036184 | who listened with grave attention while she told her, in general terms, how suddenly and peremptorily she had been summoned, and also of the arrangement she had made for her under my care, adding that I was one of her earliest and most valued friends. I made, of course, such speeches as the case seemed to call for, and found | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036185 | myself, on reflection, in a position which I did not half like. The gentleman in black returned, and very ceremoniously conducted the lady from the room. The demeanor of this gentleman was such as to impress me with the conviction that the Countess was a lady of very much more importance than her modest title alone might have led me | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036186 | to assume. Her last charge to me was that no attempt was to be made to learn more about her than I might have already guessed, until her return. Our distinguished host, whose guest she was, knew her reasons. But here, she said, neither I nor my daughter could safely remain for more than a day. I removed my mask | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036187 | imprudently for a moment, about an hour ago, and, too late, I fancied you saw me. So I resolved to seek an opportunity of talking a little to you. Had I found that you had seen me, I would have thrown myself on your high sense of honor to keep my secret some weeks. As it is, I am satisfied | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036188 | that you did not see me; but if you now suspect, or, on reflection, should suspect, who I am, I commit myself, in like manner, entirely to your honor. My daughter will observe the same secrecy, and I well know that you will, from time to time, remind her, lest she should thoughtlessly disclose it. She whispered a few words | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036189 | to her daughter, kissed her hurriedly twice, and went away, accompanied by the pale gentleman in black, and disappeared in the crowd. In the next room, said Millarca, there is a window that looks upon the hall door. I should like to see the last of mamma, and to kiss my hand to her. We assented, of course, and accompanied | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036190 | her to the window. We looked out, and saw a handsome old-fashioned carriage, with a troop of couriers and footmen. We saw the slim figure of the pale gentleman in black, as he held a thick velvet cloak, and placed it about her shoulders and threw the hood over her head. She nodded to him, and just touched his hand | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036191 | with hers. He bowed low repeatedly as the door closed, and the carriage began to move. She is gone, said Millarca, with a sigh. She is gone, I repeated to myself, for the first timein the hurried moments that had elapsed since my consentreflecting upon the folly of my act. She did not look up, said the young lady, plaintively. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036192 | The Countess had taken off her mask, perhaps, and did not care to show her face, I said; and she could not know that you were in the window. She sighed, and looked in my face. She was so beautiful that I relented. I was sorry I had for a moment repented of my hospitality, and I determined to make | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036193 | her amends for the unavowed churlishness of my reception. The young lady, replacing her mask, joined my ward in persuading me to return to the grounds, where the concert was soon to be renewed. We did so, and walked up and down the terrace that lies under the castle windows. Millarca became very intimate with us, and amused us with | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036194 | lively descriptions and stories of most of the great people whom we saw upon the terrace. I liked her more and more every minute. Her gossip without being ill-natured, was extremely diverting to me, who had been so long out of the great world. I thought what life she would give to our sometimes lonely evenings at home. This ball | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036195 | was not over until the morning sun had almost reached the horizon. It pleased the Grand Duke to dance till then, so loyal people could not go away, or think of bed. We had just got through a crowded saloon, when my ward asked me what had become of Millarca. I thought she had been by her side, and she | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036196 | fancied she was by mine. The fact was, we had lost her. All my efforts to find her were vain. I feared that she had mistaken, in the confusion of a momentary separation from us, other people for her new friends, and had, possibly, pursued and lost them in the extensive grounds which were thrown open to us. Now, in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036197 | its full force, I recognized a new folly in my having undertaken the charge of a young lady without so much as knowing her name; and fettered as I was by promises, of the reasons for imposing which I knew nothing, I could not even point my inquiries by saying that the missing young lady was the daughter of the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036198 | Countess who had taken her departure a few hours before. Morning broke. It was clear daylight before I gave up my search. It was not till near two oclock next day that we heard anything of my missing charge. At about that time a servant knocked at my nieces door, to say that he had been earnestly requested by a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000036199 | young lady, who appeared to be in great distress, to make out where she could find the General Baron Spielsdorf and the young lady his daughter, in whose charge she had been left by her mother. There could be no doubt, notwithstanding the slight inaccuracy, that our young friend had turned up; and so she had. Would to heaven we | 60 | gutenberg |
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