'It is in your power to effect both results,' said her companion.
'It is useless to recur to that subject,' said Venetia. 'Plantagenet
knows my feelings towards him, but fate has forbidden our destinies to
be combined.'
'Then he will never return to England, and never be happy. Ah,
Venetia! what shall I tell him when we meet? What message am I to bear
him from you?'
'Those regards which he ever possessed, and has never forfeited,' said
Venetia.
'Poor Cadurcis!' said his cousin, shaking his head, 'if any man ever
had reason to be miserable, it is he.'
'We are none of us very happy, I think,' said Venetia, mournfully. 'I
am sure when I look back to the last few years of my life it seems
to me that there is some curse hanging over our families. I cannot
penetrate it; it baffles me.'
'I am sure,' said Captain Cadurcis with great animation, 'nay, I would
pledge my existence cheerfully on the venture, that if Lady Annabel
would only relent towards Cadurcis, we should all be the happiest
people in the world.'
'Heigho!' said Venetia. 'There are other cares in our house besides
our unfortunate acquaintance with your cousin. We were the last people
in the world with whom he should ever have become connected.'
'And yet it was an intimacy that commenced auspiciously,' said her
friend.
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