"My bosom glow'd; the subtle flame
Ran quick through all my vital frame;
O'er my dim eyes a darkness hung;
My ears with hollow murmurs rung.
"In dewy damps my limbs were chill'd;
My blood with gentle horrors thrill'd:
My feeble pulse forgot to play;
I fainted, sunk and died away!
"EUPHEMIA."
Thaddeus threw the verses and the medallion together on the table,
and sat for a few minutes considering how he could extricate himself
from an affair so truly farcical in itself, but which might be
productive of a very distressing consequence to him.
He was thinking of at once giving up the task of attending either of
the sisters, when his eyes falling on the uncomplaining but
melancholy features of his poor friend, he exclaimed, "No; for thy
sake, gallant Butzou, I will brave every scene, however abhorrent to
my heart."
Well aware, from observation on Miss Euphemia, that this seeming
tenderness which prompted an act so wild and unbecoming originated in
mere caprice, ha did not hesitate in determining to return the things
in as handsome a manner as possible and by so doing, at once crush
the whole affair. He felt no pain in forming those resolves, because
he saw that not one impulse of her conduct sprung from her heart. It
was a whim raised by him to-day, which might be superseded by another
to-morrow.
But how different was the case with regard to Lady Sara! Her
uncontrolled nature could not long brook the restraints of
friendship.
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