Part 5 (2/2)
The ht he saw the e he had sustained to the machinations of his spouse, who, he did not doubt, was disposed to feather her own nest, at the expense of him and his heirs, and ith the same honest intention, had already secreted, for her private use, those inconsiderable jehich of late had at different ti Aroused by these senti means to visit her cabinet in secret, and, if possible, to rob the robber of the spoils she had gathered to his prejudice, without coht end in domestic turmoils and eternal disquiet
While the husband exercised his reflection in this ination to rest in idleness and sloth Her observations touching the loss of the chain were such as a suspicious woman, biassed by hatred and envy, would naturallyof such value, so carefully deposited, should vanish without the connivance of its keeper, and without much expense of conjecture, divined the true manner in which it was conveyed The sole difficulty that occurred in the researches of her sagacity, was to know the gallant who had been favoured with such a pledge of Wilheline, she never drea Ferdinand in that odious perspective In order to satisfy her curiosity, discover this happy favourite, and be revenged on her petulant rival, she prevailed upon the jeweller to eht upon the stair, without the knowledge of any other person in the faave private admittance to some lover as the author of all the losses they had lately suffered, and that they ht possibly detect hi that it would be ih the heedlessness and indiscretion of youth, she e the secret, so as to frustrate their aim
A Swiss, in whose honesty the Ger hired for this purpose, was posted in a dark corner of the staircase, within a few paces of the door, which he was directed to watch, and actually stood sentinel three nights, without perceiving the least object of suspicion; but, on the fourth, the evil stars of our adventurer conducted hie to the apartment of his Dulcinea, honal, which consisted of two gentle taps on her door, he was immediately admitted; and the Swiss no sooner saw him fairly housed, than he crept softly to the other door, that was left open for the purpose, and gave ience, however, he could not convey so secretly, but the lovers, ere always vigilant upon these occasions, overheard a sort of commotion in the jeweller's chaenious enough to comprehend
We have formerly observed that our adventurer could not reat risk of being detected, and the expedient of the chimney he had no inclination to repeat; so that he found himself in a very uncomfortable dilemma, and was utterly abandoned by all his invention and address, when his ue, aloud, in an apology, i, that he had mistaken the door, and that his intention was to visit her father, touching a ring belonging to the young Count Melvil, which she knew Fathom had put into his hands, in order to be altered
Ferdinand, seizing the hint, availed hi the door, pronounced in an audible voice, ”Upon ine I came hither with any disrespectful or dishonourable motive I have business with your father, which cannot be delayed till to-morroithout manifest prejudice tohim at these untimely hours, and it has beenpardon forwas farther fron to violate that respect which I have always entertained for you and your father's family”
To this remonstrance, which was distinctly heard by the Ger at the door, the young lady replied, in a shrill accent of displeasure, ”Sir, I am bound to believe that all your actions are conducted by honour; but you ive me leave to tell you, that your mistake is a little extraordinary, and your visit, even to ether unseasonable, if not mysterious As for the interruption I have suffered inmy door unlocked, and blame myself so severely for the omission, that I shall, to-uilty of the like for the future, by ordering the passage to be nailed up; , you will instantly withdraw, lest my reputation should suffer by your continuance in ive you an opportunity to repeat the co entreated you once ently opened the door, and, at sight of the German and his wife, who, he well kneaited for his exit, started back, and gave tokens of confusion, which was partly real and partly affected The jeweller, fully satisfied with Fathohter, received him with a coave hi in that apartment, and desired to be informed of what had procured him the honour to see him at such a juncture
”My dear friend,” said our adventurer, pretending to recollect himself with difficulty, ”I am utterly ashamed and confounded to be discovered in this situation; but, as you have overheard what passed between Mademoiselle and iveintruded upon your family at these hours, I must now tell you that o so much misrepresented to hisdiscord in private faant spendthrift, who had not only consumed his remittances in the ed a pernicious appetite for garee, that he had lost all his clothes and jewels at play In consequence of such false information, she expostulated with him in a severe letter, and desired he would trans a family stone, for which she expressed an inestientleman, in his answer to her reproof, endeavoured to vindicate himself from the aspersions which had been cast upon his character, and, with regard to the ring, told her it was at present in the hands of a jeweller, in order to be new set according to her own directions, and that, whenever it should be altered, he would send it hoood lady took for an evasion, and upon that supposition has again written to hih the letter arrived but half an hour ago, he is deter with the , for which, in compliance with the impetuosity of his temper, I have taken the freedom to disturb you at this unseasonable hour”
The German paid implicit faith to every circumstance of his story, which indeed could not well be supposed to be invented exte was iratulating hinal deliverance from the snare in which he had fallen
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
THE STEP-DAME'S SUSPICIONS BEING AWAKENED, SHE LAYS A SNARE FOR OUR ADVENTURER, FROM WHICH HE IS DELIVERED BY THE INTERPOSITION OF HIS GOOD GENIUS
Though the husband sed the bait without further inquiry, the penetration of the as not so easily deceived That sa, rather inflaency, she herself had once profited by the sa her doubts to the father, she resolved to double her attention to the daughter's future conduct, and keep such a strict eye over the behaviour of our gallant, that he should find it very difficult, if not impossible, to elude her observation For this purpose she took into her pay an old ht sour disposition, who lived in a house opposite to her own, and directed her to follow the young lady in all her outgoings, whenever she should receive froreed tobefore this scheme succeeded to her wish The door of communication betwixt Wilhel nailed up by the jeweller's express order, our adventurer was altogether deprived of those opportunities he had hitherto enjoyed, and was not at all mortified to find hian to be tiresoreeable But the case was far otherith his Dulcinea, whose passion, the reater violence, like a fire, that, froreater force, and flames with double fury
Upon the second day of herher unhappiness in being deprived of those s which constituted the chief joy of her life, and entreating hi the delicious commerce in an unsuspected place This intimation she proposed to convey privately into the hand of her lover, during his next visit to the family; but both were so narrowly eyed by the n i to church, repaired to the house of a co also her confidant, undertook to deliver the billet with her own hand
The she-dragon en which was displayed from theimmediately put on her veil, and followed Wilhelmina at a distance, until she saw her fairly housed She would not even then return froht of the door, with a view offurther observations In less than fivelady disappeared, the scout perceived her co out, accompanied by her comrade, from whom she instantly parted, and bent her way towards the church in good earnest, while the other steered her course in another direction The duenna, after a moment's suspense and consideration, divined the true cause of this short visit, and resolved to watch the motions of the confidant, whoed, and froe was delivered
Fraught with this intelligence, the rancorous understrapper hied her home to the jeweller's wife, andat the same time her own conjectures on that subject Her employer was equally astonished and incensed at this information She was seized with all that frenzy which takes possession of a slighted woman, when she finds herself supplanted by a detested rival; and, in the first transports of her indignation, devoted theeance Nor was her surprise so much the effect of his dissihed against him, not as the most treacherous lover, but as thethe smiles of such an aard dohile he enjoyed the favours of a woman who had numbered princes in the train of her admirers For the brilliancy of her attractions, such as they at present shone, she appealed to the decision of her minister, who consulted her own satisfaction and interest, by flattering the other's vanity and resentment; and so unaccountable did the depravity of our hero's judgan to believe there was soallant was not in reality her professed aders, whose passion he favoured with his mediation and assistance
On this notion, which nothing but mere vanity could have inspired, in opposition to so hty presu the affair to a fuller explanation, before she would concert any measures to the prejudice of our adventurer, and forthwith despatched her spy back to his lodgings, to solicit, on the part of Wilhelmina, an immediate answer to the letter he had received This was an expedition hich the old ly dispensed, because it was founded upon an uncertainty, which ht be attended with troublesome consequences; but, rather than be the otiation so productive of that sort of reeable to all of her tribe, she undertook to e and effect the discovery, in full confidence of her own talents and experience
With such a fund of self-sufficiency and instigation, she repaired to the acade for Mr Fathom, was introduced to his apart a billet to the jeweller's daughter The artful agent having asked, with the o-between, if he had not lately received aanswered in the affirave him to understand, that she herself was a person favoured with the friendshi+p and confidence of Wilhelmina, whom she had known froenuine style of a prattling dry nurse, she launched out in encomiums on his Dulcinea's beauty and sweetness of te many simple occurrences of her infancy and childhood; and, finally, desiring a more circumstantial answer to that which she had sent to him by her friend Catherina In the course of her loquacity she had also, according to her instructions, hinted at the misfortune of the door; and, on the whole, performed her cue with such dexterity and discretion that our politician was actually overreached, and, having finished his epistle, committed it to her care, with many verbal expressions of eternal love and fidelity to his charer, doubly rejoiced at her achieveratified her reat exultation, and, delivering the letter, the reader will easily conceive the transports of that lady when she read the contents of it in these words:--
”ANGELIC WILHELMINA!--To forget those ecstatic scenes we have enjoyed together, or even live without the continuation of that mutual bliss, were to quit all title to perception, and resign every hope of future happiness No! my charmer, while loith the resolution of a man, our correspondence shall not be cut off by the machinations of an envious stepenerous passion; and, now that age and wrinkles have destroyed what little share of beauty she once possessed, endeavours, like the fiend in paradise, to blast those joys in others, from which she is herself eternally excluded Doubt not, dear sovereign oflove, how to frustrate hermoments, the remembrance of which noarms the breast of your ever constant FATHOM”
Had our hero murdered her father, or left her a disconsolate , by effecting the death of her dear husband, therethe Christian virtues of resignation and forgiveness; but such a personal outrage as that contained in this epistle precluded all hope of pardon, and rendered penitence of no signification His atrocious criave a loose to her resentment, which became so loud and tempestuous, that her inforan to repent of having coence which seemed to have such a violent effect upon hex brain
She endeavoured, however, to allay the agitation, by flattering her fancy with the prospect of revenge, and gradually soothed her into a state of deliberate ire; during which she detereance on the delinquent In the zenith of her rage, she would have had immediate recourse to poison or steel, had she not been diverted from her er of engaging in such violent measures, and proposed a more secure scheme, in the execution of which she would see the perfidious wretch sufficiently punished, without any hazard to her own person or reputation She advised her to inforal fidelity, and impart to him a plan, by which he would have it in his power to detect our adventurer in the very act of practising upon her virtue
The lady relished her proposal, and actually resolved to ive notice of the appointht personally discover the treachery of his pretended friend, and inflict upon him such chastiseest, when inflamed by that species of provocation Had this project been brought to bear, Ferdinand, in all likelihood, would have been disqualified froue; but fate ordained that the design should be defeated, in order to reserve him for more important occasions
Before the circuood fortune to meet his Dulcinea in the street, and, in the midst of their mutual condolence on the interruption they had suffered in their correspondence, he assured her, that he would never give his invention respite, until he should have verified the protestations contained in the letter he had delivered to her discreet agent This allusion to a billet she had never received, did not fail to alar explanation, in which he so accurately described the person of the er, that she forthwith comprehended the plot, and communicated to our hero her sentiments on that subject