'
'You amaze me!'
Venetia sighed, and then resumed, but in a tone mournful and low, and
yet to a degree firm.
'You have been away five years, Plantagenet.'
'But you have pardoned that.'
'I never blamed you; I had nothing to pardon. It was well for you to
be away; and I rejoice your absence has been so profitable to you.'
'But it was wicked to have been so silent.'
'Oh! no, no, no! Such ideas never entered into my head, nor even
mamma's. You were very young; you did as all would, as all must do.
Harbour not such thoughts. Enough, you have returned and love us yet.'
'Love! adore!'
'Five years are a long space of time, Plantagenet. Events will happen
in five years, even at Cherbury. I told you I was changed.'
'Yes!' said Lord Cadurcis, in a voice of some anxiety, with a
scrutinising eye.
'You left me a happy child; you find me a woman, and a miserable one.'
'Good God, Venetia! this suspense is awful. Be brief, I pray you. Has
any one--'
Venetia looked at him with an air of perplexity. She could not
comprehend the idea that impelled his interruption.
'Go on,' Lord Cadurcis added, after a short pause; 'I am indeed all
anxiety.'
'You remember that Christmas which you passed at the hall and walking
at night in the gallery, and--'
'Well! Your mother, I shall never forget it.
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