sion, the still glowing animated enthusiasm of his manner, gave back to her soul all those vivid emotions it was calculated to feel, all that it had so long lain under the prohibition of feeling. Again life appeared to her under a new aspect; again a vague and undefinable sensation of delight thrilled o'er every sense; but it was like the sunbeam which ushers in the gloom of a gathering cloud, which gleams for a moment in dewy rays, then sinks beneath the vapoury mass. Her connection, her indissoluble connection, with de Sor ville rushed on her recollection. The indifference with which the duke had alluded to that connection, and the world's suspicions that she was attached to the latter while on the point of giving her hand to the former, raised in her agitated bosom a variety of emotions, each more painful, more distressing, than that by which it was preceded. To disappoint the world, by shewing herself superior to its malicious. efforts to destroy her happiness, was the CHAP. XXXII. E qual sorte e la mia de pena in pena METASTASIO. TO annihilate the budding hopes of envious malice; to crush suspicion in its infancy; to conceal the secret and corroding sorrow of her heart from the eye of public observation; to support that strength and equanimity of mind requisite to carry her through with the conquest of her warring feelings, Imogen fled from the influence. of reflection, and plunged into that vortex which the world calls pleasure. She had hitherto resigned herself to its power in the utter deficiency of those greater, those profounder enjoyments which her warm soul was created to feel; now she became the willing slave of its laws to save herself from that bondage whose shackles she felt would twist round the heart's most vital fibres. "From pleasure," said she, "I can al66 ways free myself; but, should I suffer a "sentiment again to pervade my soul, to "fill my imagination, to fasten on my "heart"-She paused abruptly-though her exclamation was but mental, she dared not pursue the idea, for many a sweet and dangerous sensation clung to her as she proceeded in the argument. Had Imogen listened to the documents of reason, of prudence, they would have told her, You deceive yourself-there is but one step left for you: retire from the scene where you still delight to loiter; retire from the object whom you still delight to behold; and become the partner of him on whose bosom only thou canst lay thy head in safety, whose mild nature will moderate the ardor of thine, for whom thou art destined, and by whom thou art beloved. But what are the documents of reason when opposed to the sophistry of passion in an enamoured heart? Imogen dared not attempt a self-investigation, and continued deceived, because she wished to be so.. The circle at the hotel de St. Dorval continued daily to extend, and the entertain. ments of its hostess became more numerous. and more brilliant; while her society was equally sought at home, or courted abroad. At the former the duke de Beauvilliers no longer appeared, after his first night's introduction: but in public he was frequently met by the countess de St. Dorval; in the brilliant crowd of fashion they were seldom closely asssociated. Yet not always did chance or premeditation preserve this distance between the novice of St. Dominick and the Minstrel of Provence; there were moments of sweet community, when in the interchange of a few words all the cloquence of sentiment betrayed itself; when thought met thought, and the eye became a conductor to the soul's effusion ; when in a broken sentence, a simple mo |