'Now, Venetia! dearest Venetia!' she said, ''tis past; we are at
home.'
Venetia leant upon her mother, but made no reply.
'Upstairs, dearest,' said Lady Annabel: 'a little exertion, a very
little.' Leaning on her mother and Lord Cadurcis, Venetia ascended the
staircase, and they reached the terrace-room. Venetia looked around
her as she entered the chamber; that scene of her former life,
endeared to her by so many happy hours, and so many sweet incidents;
that chamber where she had first seen Plantagenet. Lord Cadurcis
supported her to a chair, and then, overwhelmed by irresistible
emotion, she sank back in a swoon.
No one was allowed to enter the room but Pauncefort. They revived her;
Lord Cadurcis holding her hand, and touching, with a watchful finger,
her pulse. Venetia opened her eyes, and looked around her. Her
mind did not wander; she immediately recognised where she was, and
recollected all that had happened. She faintly smiled, and said, in a
low voice 'You are all too kind, and I am very weak. After our trials,
what is this, George?' she added, struggling to appear animated; 'you
are at length at Cherbury.'
Once more at Cherbury! It was, indeed, an event that recalled a
thousand associations. In the wild anguish of her first grief, when
the dreadful intelligence was broken to her, if anyone had whispered
to Venetia that she would yet find herself once more at Cherbury, she
would have esteemed the intimation as mockery.
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