With what deep,
unbroken attention she listened to her companion's enthusiastic
delineation of his character and career! What multiplied questions did
she not ask him, and how eagerly, how amply, how affectionately he
satisfied her just and natural curiosity! Hours flew away while they
indulged in this rare communion.
'Oh, that I could see him!' sighed Venetia.
'You will,' replied Plantagenet; 'your destiny requires it. You will
see him as surely as you beheld that portrait that it was the labour
of a life to prevent you beholding.'
Venetia shook her head; 'And yet,' she added musingly, 'my mother
loves him.'
'Her life proves it,' said Cadurcis bitterly.
'I think it does,' replied Venetia, sincerely.
'I pretend not to understand her heart,' he answered; 'it is an enigma
that I cannot solve. I ought not to believe that she is without one;
but, at any rate, her pride is deeper than her love.'
'They were ill suited,' said Venetia, mournfully; 'and yet it is one
of my dreams that they may yet meet.'
'Ah, Venetia!' he exclaimed, in a voice of great softness, 'they had
not known each other from their childhood, like us. They met, and they
parted, alike in haste.'
Venetia made no reply; her eyes were fixed in abstraction on a
handscreen, which she was unconscious that she held.
Pages:
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417