''
While they were advancing towards the house,
the General and his wife expected their arrival
with breathless anxiety. They were seated in a
superb drawing-room, the General behind a large
chandelier, which shaded opposite to his face,
threw all the light to the other side of the table,
so that he could observe any person placed there,
without becoming the subject of observation in
turn. On a heap of cushions, wrapped in a glittering
drapery of gold and silver muslins, mingled
with shawls, a luxury which was then a novelty in
Europe, sate, or rather reclined, his lady, who,
past the full meridian of beauty, retained charms
enough to distinguish her as one who had been formerly
a very fine woman, though her mind seemed
occupied by the deepest emotion.
``Zilia,'' said her husband, ``you are unable for
what you have undertaken---take my advice---retire---
you shall know all and every thing that
passes---but retire. To what purpose should you
cling to the idle wish of beholding for a moment
a being whom you can never again look upon?''
``Alas!'' answered the lady, ``and is not your declaration,
that I shall never see him more, a sufficient
reason that I should wish to see him now---should
wish to imprint on my memory the features and
the form which I am never again to behold while
we are in the body? Do not, my Richard, be more
cruel than was my poor father, even when his
wrath was in its bitterness.
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