

544 Monthly Review of Literature. 



secured my egress from it ? Without your aid, I could not have effected the 

 objects to which you refer. But let that pass ; I am not here to listen to 

 your tragical reminiscences. I am come for money, and must have it quickly/ 



" I declared that he had taken all my funds at Annandale Castle, and that 

 I had no more. 



"'What! can you not ask your husband? He is still too short a time 

 married to have ceased to be uxorious enough to be generous to you ; ' and 

 he looked at me in a way that brought the blood to my cheeks. 



" * But there is no occasion to have recourse to his liberality,' said he, 

 * while these baubles can be converted into money/ taking up the diamonds 

 that lay scattered around ; ' they will do quite as well.' 



" 'They must not cannot be yours ! ' said I ; ' they are the family jewels, 

 in which I have only a life-interest.' 



" ' Bah, bah ! ' answered he, ' I stand on no such idle ceremony.' 



" As he spoke, he gathered up the scattered diamonds, placed them in the 

 case, and put it within his coat, which he buttoned over it. In vain I im- 

 plored him not to take them, and promised to send him money the very next 

 day. He was deaf to my entreaties ; and, having said, that shortly he would 



call again, and be presented to milord, he rang the bell, and, when the omesm 

 tic arrived, took a respectful leave of me, and departed. 



" I am utterly confounded, and so agitated by contending emotions, that 

 I am incapable of thinking. Though the jewels are of great value, ray hus- 

 band attaches even more importance to them from the number of years they 

 have been in the family, than from their intrinsic worth. How shall I be 

 able to conceal that I no longer possess them ? How get off appearing at 

 court to-morrow ? I am all in a tremor ! I must lie down, for my head 

 swims, and I can scarcely support myself. 



" Delphine, I would prefer death to seeing this wretch intrude himself into 

 the presence of my husband, to remind me of a crime I would give worlds to 

 forget, and the memory of which, ever since I became a wife, is more hateful 

 to me than ever. Think of a miscreant, stained with theft with murder 

 finding himself beneath the roof of an honourable man, and / tacitly sanc- 

 tioning his monstrous effrontery by my silence ! O God, have pity on me ! 



" Lord Annandale found me so ill when he returned, that he was the first 

 to propose my abandoning all thought of going to the drawing-room to-day. 



" This is a reprieve ; but, alas ! a brief one ; for in ten days more there 

 will be another, and I shall be expected to go. The kindness of my husband 

 melts me to tears, and this was the man I judged so harshly ! How my 

 heart reproaches me ; and how I wish I were more worthy of his affection ! 



" When Claudine asked me last night for the diamonds to fasten on my 

 dress, I felt my cheeks glow as I told her that I had locked them up. 



" ' Madame la comtesse's illness was very sudden,' observed she ; * for I 

 thought I had not seen sa seigneurie so well for a long time as just before 

 that gentleman arrived.' 



'* I was painfully conscious that I again changed countenance. 



" ' It was strange, madame la comtesse,' resumed she, ' that the tones of 

 his voice, and the air of that gentleman quite startled me by reminding me 

 of that terrible man who came to le chateau d' 'Annandale.' 



" Think how I trembled ! 



" ' One often does see such strange resemblances/ continued she. ' This 

 gentleman is about the same height, but he has no whiskers ; and then he has 

 not a patch over his eye. Enfin, this is a grand seigneur, and the other was 

 like a mendicant. Still one reminds me of the other/ 



" How I writhed, while she spoke ! I think I can perceive but it may be 

 only my timid sense of guilt that suggests the apprehension that she already 

 associates in her mind the visit of this man, my sudden indisposition, and the 

 disappearance of the diamonds. 



