Montresor. In a few minutes her brave
husband joined them. While talking of his late victorious and
happily-completed homeward-bound voyage, he spoke with great regret
of the threatened absence from England of his late colleague on the
battle-field of the ocean, his old friend Captain Ross.
"How--whither is he going?" asked his wife, in a tone of interest.
Montresor replied, "The ill state of Lady Sara's health requires a
milder air, and poor Ross means to take her without loss of time to
Italy. I met him this morning, in despair about the suddenness of
some alarming symptoms."
Thaddeus too well divined that this increased indisposition owed its
rise to his recent return to town, and inwardly petitioning Heaven
that absence and her husband's devoted tenderness might complete her
cure, he could not repress a sigh, wrung from his respectful pity
towards her, in this deep bosom-struggle with herself.
No one present except the future partner of his own heart marked the
transient melancholy which passed over his countenance. She, who had
suspected the unhappy Lady Sara's attachment, loved Thaddeus, if
possible, still dearer for the compassion he bestowed on the meek
penitence of the unhappy victim of a passion often as inscrutable as
destructive.
When the party descended to dinner, Miss Dorothy, who sat next to the
Count Sobieski, rallied him upon the utter desertion of one of his
most pertinacious allies or adversaries--she did not know which to
call the fair delinquent.
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