Page:Lady Anne Granard 2.pdf/102

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100
LADY ANNE GRANARD.

to my sorrow for poor Riccardini (ever my warm friend and a truly good man) to become amenable to blame for any action of ours, however well intended."

At a stated hour in the evening, Isabella, no longer loath, accompanied the doctor, and she then saw the Marchese, who praised the latter for his happy thought in bringing her countrywoman to his adored wife, who had been better throughout the day, and he graciously promised a great reward to the young woman who had benefitted her. This passed in the anteroom, for the Marchesa always insisted that more than one attendant at a time made her feel worse.

Twice in the twenty-four hours, for seven or eight days, did she thus receive Isabella, and converse, at second hand, with Glentworth, communicating her regret for having promised her mother, and still greater regret that she had not been absolved (as she might have been by the pope) from her bonds. "Alas!" said she, "I mourned so sincerely, and had borne so much, I believed that I could never love again; but, since my marriage, every circumstance of my wedded life brought back the very man from whom I was, in a two fold sense, for ever separated. Di Morello loved me as his country loves, with a fervour flattering to its object, therefore especially sweet to the heart of woman; but mine perversely refused to enjoy it—the 'what would Glentworth say? how would he have looked and smiled?' (he has a charming smile, you know, my dear), were questions continually arising; and though I