Thus every thing being fixed for her undoing, she spent the best part of
the day in preparing for the rendezvous: nothing was omitted in the
article of dress, which might heighten her charms and secure her
conquest:--the glass was consulted every moment, and every look and
various kind of languishment essayed, in order to continue in that which
she thought would most become the occasion. As she ordinarily past a
great deal of time in this employment, Louisa was not surprized that she
now wasted somewhat more than usual; and the discourse they had together
while she was dressing, and all the time of dinner, being very much on
the ball and the company who were at it, her thoughts were so much taken
up with the remembrance of du Plessis, that she perceived not the hurry
of spirits which would else have been visible enough to her in all the
words and motions of the other, and which increased in proportion as the
hour of her appointment drew nearer.
At length it arrived, and a servant came into the room and acquainted
Louisa a gentleman desired to speak with her; she was a little
surprized, it being usual for all those who visited there to expect
their reception from Melanthe; but that lady, who doubted not but it was
the same person the count had mentioned in his letter, prevented her
from saying any thing, by immediately giving orders for the gentleman to
be admitted.
But with what strange emotions was the heart of Louisa agitated, when
she saw monsieur du Plessis come into the room! and after paying his
respects to Melanthe in the most submissive manner, accosted her, with
saying he took the liberty of enquiring of her health after the fatigue
of the last night; but, added he, the question, now I have the happiness
of seeing you, is altogether needless; those fine eyes, and that
sprightly air, declare you formed for everlasting gaiety, and that what
is apt to throw the spirits of others into a languor, serves but to
render yours more sparkling.
Louisa, in spite of the confusion she felt within, answered this
compliment with her accustomed ease; and being all seated, they began to
enter into some conversation concerning the state with which the
Magnifico's of Venice are served, the elegance with which they entertain
strangers, and some other topics relating to the customs of that
republic, when all on a sudden Melanthe starting up, cried, bless me! I
had forgot a little visit was in my head to make to a monastery hard
by:--you will excuse me, monsieur, continued she, I leave your partner
to entertain you, and fancy you two may find sufficient matter of
conversation without a third person. She had no sooner spoke this than
she went out of the room, and left Louisa at a loss how to account for
this behaviour, as she had not before mentioned any thing of going
abroad. She would have imagined her vanity had been picqued that
monsieur du Plessis had particularized her in this visit; but as she
seemed in perfect good humour at going away, and knew she thought it
beneath her to put any disguise on her sentiments, she was certain this
sudden motion must have proceeded from some other cause, which as yet
she could form no conjecture of.
This deceived lady, however, was no sooner out of the room, than
monsieur du Plessis drawing nearer to Louisa, how hard is my fate,
madame, said he, in a low voice, that I am compelled to tell you any
other motive than my own inclination has occasioned my waiting on
you:--heaven knows it is an honour I should have sought by the lowest
submissions, and all the ways that would not have rendered me unworthy
of it; but I now come, madame, not as myself, but as the ambassador of
another, and am engaged by my word and honour to plead a cause which, if
I succeed in, must be my own destruction.
Louisa was in the utmost consternation at the mystery which seemed
contained in these words: she looked earnestly upon him while he was
uttering the latter part, and saw all the tokens of a serious perplexity
in his countenance, as well as in the accents with which he delivered
them; but not being willing to be the dupe of his diversion, thought it
best to answer as to a piece of railery, and told him, laughing, she
imagined this was some new invention of the frolics of the season, but
that she was a downright English-woman, understood nothing beyond plain
speaking, and could no ways solve the riddle he proposed.
What I say, may doubtless appear so, madame; replied she, and I could
wish it had not been my part to give the explanation; but I cannot
dispense with the promise I have made, and must therefore acquaint you
with the history of it.
After the ball, continued he, monsieur the count de Bellfleur desired me
to accompany him to his lodgings, and, as soon as we were alone, told
me, he had a little secret to acquaint me with, but that, before he
revealed it, he must have the promise of my assistance. As he spoke this
with a gay and negligent air, I imagined it a thing of no great
consequence, or if it were, he was a man of too much honour, and also
knew me too well to desire or expect I would engage in any thing
unbecoming that character: indeed I could think of nothing but an amour
or a duel, tho' I was far from being able to guess of what service I
could be to him in the former. I was, however, unwarily drawn in to give
my word, and he then made me the confident of a passion, which, he said,
had received its birth from the first moment he beheld the Belle
Angloise, for by that term, pursued he, bowing, he distinguished the
adorable Louisa: that he had made some discovery of his flame, but that
finding; himself rejected, as he thought, in too severe a manner, and
without affording him opportunity to attest his sincerity, he had
converted his addresses, tho' not his passion, to a lady who, he
perceived, had the care of her, acting in this manner, partly thro'
picque at your disdain, and partly to gratify his eyes with the sight of
you, which he has reason to fear you had totally deprived him of but for
this stratagem. He confessed to me that he found the object of his
pretended ardours infinitely more kind than she who inspires the real
ones: but this gratification of his vanity is of little consequence to
his peace;--he engaged me to attend you this day, to conjure you to
believe his heart is incapable of being influenced by any other charms,
and whatever he makes shew of to Melanthe, his heart is devoted wholly
to you,--begs you to permit him to entertain you without the presence of
that lady, the means of which he will take care to contrive; and charged
me to assure you, that there is no sacrifice so great, but he will
readily offer it to convince you of the sincerity of his attachment.
This, madame, added he, is the unpleasing task my promise bound me to
perform, and which I have acquitted myself of with the same pain that
man would do who, by some strange caprice of fate, was constrained to
throw into the sea the sum of all his hopes.
The indignation which filled the virtuous foul of Louisa, while he was
giving her this detail of the count's presumption, falsehood, and
ingratitude, prevented her from giving much attention to the apology
with which he concluded. Never, since the behaviour of mr. B----n at
mrs. C--g--'s, had she met with any thing that she thought so much
merited her resentment:--so great was her disdain she had not words to
express it, but by some tears, which the rising passion forced from her
eyes:--Heaven! cried she, which of my actions has drawn on me this
unworthy treatment?--This was all she was able to utter, while she
walked backward and forward in the room endeavouring to compose herself,
and form some answer befitting of the message.
Monsieur du Plessis looked on her all this while with admiration: all
that seemed lovely in her, when he knew no more of her than that she was
young and beautiful, was now heightened in his eyes almost to divine, by
that virtuous pride which shewed him some part of her more charming
mind. What he extremely liked before, he now almost adored; and having,
by the loose manner in which the count had mentioned these two English
ladies, imagined them women of not over-rigid principles, now finding
his mistake, at least as concerning one of them, was so much ashamed and
angry with himself for having been the cause of that disorder he was
witness of, that he for some moments was equally at a loss to appease,
as she who felt was to express it.
But being the first that recovered presence of mind; madame, I beseech
you, said he, involve not the innocent with the guilty:--I acknowledge
you have reason to resent the boldness of the count; but I am no
otherwise a sharer in his crime than in reporting it; and if you knew
the pain it gave my heart while I complied with the promise I was
unhappily betrayed into, I am sure you would forgive the misdemeanor of
my tongue.
Sir, answered she, I can easily forgive the slight opinion one so much a
stranger to me as yourself may have of me; but monsieur the count has
been a constant visitor to the lady I am with, ever since our arrival at
Venice; and am very certain he never found any thing in my behaviour to
him or any other person, which could justly encourage him to send me
such a message:--a message, indeed, equally affrontive to himself, since
it shews him a composition of arrogance, vanity, perfidy, and every
thing that is contemptible in man.--This, sir, is the reply I send him,
and desire you to tell him withal, that if he persists in giving me any
farther trouble of this nature, I shall let him know my sense of it in
the presence of Melanthe.
Monsieur du Plessis then assured her he would be no less exact in
delivering what she said, than he had been in the observance of his
promise to the other, and conjured her to believe he should do it with
infinite more satisfaction. He then made use of so many arguments to
prove, that a man of honour ought not to falsify his word, tho' given to
an unworthy person, that she was at last won to forgive his having
undertaken to mention any thing to her of the nature he had done.
Indeed, the agitations she had been in were more owing to the vexation
that monsieur du Plessis was the person employed, than that the count
had the boldness to apply to her in this manner; but the submission she
found herself treated with by the former, convincing her that he had
sentiments very different from those the other had entertained of her,
rendered her more easy, and she not only forgave his share in the
business which had brought him there, but also permitted him to repeat
his visits, on condition he never gave her any cause to suspect the mean
opinion the count had of her conduct had any influence on him.