Have I ever murmured? I have sought
only to repay your love by obedience. Speak to me, dearest mother! I
implore you speak to me! Tell me, can you ever repent relenting in
this instance? O mother! you will not hesitate; you will not indeed;
you will bring joy and content to our long-harassed hearth! Tell me
so; I beseech you tell me so! I wish, oh! how I wish, that you would
comply from the mere impulse of your own heart! But, grant that it
is a sacrifice; grant that it may be unwise; that it may be vain; I
supplicate you to make it! I, your child, who never deserted you, who
will never desert you, pledging my faith to you in the face of heaven;
for my sake, I supplicate you to make it. You do not hesitate; you
cannot hesitate; mother, you cannot hesitate. Ah! you would not if you
knew all; if you knew all the misery of my life, you would be glad;
you would be cheerful; you would look upon this as an interposition of
Providence in favour of your Venetia; you would, indeed, dear mother!'
'What evil fortune guided our steps to Italy?' said Lady Annabel in a
solemn tone, and as if in soliloquy.
'No, no, mother; not evil fortune; fortune the best and brightest,'
exclaimed her daughter, 'We came here to be happy, and happiness we
have at length gained.
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