237 



THE VISITATION. 



She stood before me 



With sweet sad brow, like the wan moon at midnis'ht." 



Blackwoo(rs Magazine. 



Having promised an explanation to the Lady Octavia, I shunned 

 every casual engagement that might insensibly encroach upon the period 

 which I had devoted to the important declaration I was about to make. 

 In the absence of his mistress a lover divides minutes into seconds with 

 surprising facility ; the pulses of his heart assist him in the calculation, 

 and for this very reason it is often a successful match against time. My 

 disposition was on this occasion by no means favourable to a philosophical 

 abiding of time and season — of fitness and opportunity — and long before 

 the given hour I was restlessly promenading before the window of her 

 Ladyship's boudoir, and sending glances of inquiry through the 

 flowering exotics and silken draperies of the embrasure. But the former 

 were agitated by the west wind only, which pillaged them of their odours 

 as it swept by, and the latter remained as immovable as though no fair 

 hand had ever displaced them to reveal a vision of loveliness to my eyes. 

 After many fevered turns and many tumultuous chidings of the lazy- 

 footed hours — after fifty times looking at my repeater and comparing it 

 with the church, eager to detect a mistake in the movements of either, 

 I was suddenly relieved from suspense ; seven o'clock sounded from the 

 neighbouring steeple, and was immediately re-echoed by the silver chimes 

 of a time-piece within the house. The illimitable period was over. I flew 

 up the steps, thundered at the door, and, as a privileged and an expected 

 visitor, in a single second found myself in the drawing-room. A delicious 

 twilight, artificial it is true, but exquisitely in unison with the mood of 

 my mind, saluted me upon entrance, and the sweet incense of odoriferous 

 blossoms freighted the air with perfume ; the Lady stood pensively at 

 the further end of the room, gazing abstractedly at the window, where 

 a profusion of sweet shrubs with their fragrance invited the sense. She 

 appeared not to notice my entrance. I sprung forward with an ex- 

 clamation of rapture — the lady turned on me a sweetly mournful aspect — 

 heaven and earth ! what did I behold ! not the features of the Lady 

 Octavia — not the proud — the dazzling — the beautiful Octavia, but the 

 gentle — the graceful — the tender — the spiritual countenance of lanthe — 

 of one whom I had long and fondly loved — one whom I had wooed and 

 worshipped as the cynosure of my hopes, the mistress of my heart, the 

 bride of my choice, but whom, by foul treachery, I had lost in the very 

 blossom of expectancy. 



I must explain ere I proceed. The malignant whispers of an offended 

 toad-eater magnified the extravagancies of my conduct at a period when 

 youth, fashion, and fortune combined to slacken the reins of discretion ; 

 my temporary embarrassments were represented as final involvements. 

 Colonel M. first questioned, then quarrelled, "and in a moment of violent 

 excitement we parted ; my union with his daughter was broken ofF, but 

 not before I had renewed the pledge of my faith, my affection, my heart 

 and hand to the dear and confiding girl, who never for an instant credited 

 the calumnies by which my peace was destroyed. I went abroad, and 

 plunged, reckless. Into the dissipation of the continent; prudence 

 abandoned me in my despair, and a fatal entanglement of my property left 

 me no prospect of a speedy return. I forsook Paris in disgust with 



