‘I assure you, Miss Venetia, it is only an hour,’ said Pauncefort, ‘and nothing could have happened. Now do try to go to sleep, that is a dear young lady, for I am certain sure that they will all return in the morning, as I am here. I was telling my lady just now, I said, says I, I dare say they are all very wet, and very fatigued.’
‘They would have returned, Pauncefort,’ said Venetia, ‘or they would have sent. They are not at Sarzana.’
‘La! Miss Venetia, why should they be at Sarzana? Why should they not have gone much farther on! For, as Vicenzo was just saying to me, and Vicenzo knows all about the coast, with such a wind as this, I should not be surprised if they were at Leghorn.’
‘O Pauncefort!’ said Venetia, ‘I am sick at heart!’
‘Now really, Miss Venetia, do not take on so!’ said Pauncefort; ‘for do not you remember when his lordship ran away from the abbey, and went a gipsying, nothing would persuade poor Mrs. Cadurcis that he was not robbed and murdered, and yet you see he was as safe and sound all the time, as if he had been at Cherbury.’
‘Does Vicenzo really think they could have reached Leghorn?’ said Venetia, clinging to every fragment of hope.
‘He is morally sure of it, Miss Venetia,’ said Pauncefort, ‘and I feel quite as certain, for Vicenzo is always right.’
‘I had confidence about Sarzana,’ said Venetia; ‘I really did believe they were at Sarzana. If only Captain Cadurcis would return; if he only would return, and say they were not at Sarzana, I would try to believe they were at Leghorn.’
‘Now, Miss Venetia,’ said Pauncefort, ‘I am certain sure that they are quite safe; for my lord is a very good sailor; he is, indeed; all the men say so; and the boat is as seaworthy a boat as boat can be. There is not the slightest fear, I do assure you, miss.’
‘Do the men say that Plantagenet is a good sailor?’ inquired Venetia.
‘Quite professional!’ said Mistress Pauncefort; ‘and can command a ship as well as the best of them. They all say that.’
‘Hush! Pauncefort, I hear something.’
‘It’s only my lady, miss. I know her step,’
‘Is my mother going to bed?’ said Venetia.
‘Yes,’ said Pauncefort, ‘my lady sent me here to see after you. I wish I could tell her you were asleep.’
‘It is impossible to sleep,’ said Venetia, rising up from the bed, withdrawing the curtain, and looking at the sky. ‘What a peaceful night! I wish my heart were like the sky. I think I will go to mamma, Pauncefort!’
‘Oh! dear, Miss Venetia, I am sure I think you had better not. If you and my lady, now, would only just go to sleep, and forget every thing till morning, it would be much better for you. Besides, I am sure if my lady knew you were not gone to bed already, it would only make her doubly anxious. Now, really, Miss Venetia, do take my advice, and just lie down, again. You may be sure the moment any one arrives I will let you know. Indeed, I shall go and tell my lady that you are lying down as it is, and very drowsy;’ and, so saying, Mistress Pauncefort caught up her candle, and bustled out of the room.
Venetia took up the volume of her father’s poems, which Cadurcis had filled with his notes. How little did Plantagenet anticipate, when he thus expressed at Athens the passing impressions of his mind, that, ere a year had glided away, his fate would be so intimately blended with that of Herbert! It was impossible, however, for Venetia to lose herself in a volume which, under any other circumstances, might have compelled her spirit! the very associations with the writers added to the terrible restlessness of her mind. She paused each instant to listen for the wished-for sound, but a mute stillness reigned throughout the house and household. There was something in this deep, unbroken silence, at a moment when anxiety was universally diffused among the dwellers beneath that roof, and the heart of more than one of them was throbbing with all the torture of the most awful suspense, that fell upon Venetia’s excited nerves with a very painful and even insufferable influence. She longed for sound, for some noise that might assure her she was not the victim of a trance. She closed her volume with energy, and she started at the sound she had herself created. She rose and opened the door of her chamber very softly, and walked into the vestibule. There were caps, and cloaks, and whips, and canes of Cadurcis and her father, lying about in familiar confusion. It seemed impossible but that they were sleeping, as usual, under the same roof. And where were they? That she should live and be unable to answer that terrible question! When she felt the utter helplessness of all her strong sympathy towards them, it seemed to her that she must go mad. She gazed around her with a wild and vacant stare. At the bottom of her heart there was a fear maturing into conviction too horrible for expression. She returned to her own chamber, and the exhaustion occasioned by her anxiety, and the increased coolness of the night, made her at length drowsy. She threw herself on the bed and slumbered.
She started in her sleep, she awoke, she dreamed they had come home. She rose and looked at the progress of the night. The night was waning fast; a grey light was on the landscape; the point of day approached. Venetia stole softly to her mother’s room, and entered it with a soundless step. Lady Annabel had not retired to bed. She had sat up the whole night, and was now asleep. A lamp on a small table was burning at her side, and she held, firmly grasped in her hand, the letter of her husband, which he had addressed to her at Venice, and which she had been evidently reading. A tear glided down the cheek of Venetia as she watched her mother retaining that letter with fondness even in her sleep, and when she thought of all the misery, and heartaches, and harrowing hours that had preceded its receipt, and which Venetia believed that letter had cured for ever. What misery awaited them now? Why were they watchers of the night? She shuddered when these dreadful questions flitted through her mind. She shuddered and sighed. Her mother started, and woke.
‘Who is there?’ inquired Lady Annabel.
‘Venetia.’
‘My child, have you not slept?’
‘Yes, mother, and I woke refreshed, as I hope you do.’
‘I wake with trust in God’s mercy,’ said Lady Annabel. ‘Tell me the hour.’
‘It is just upon dawn, mother.’
‘Dawn! no one has returned, or come.’
‘The house is still, mother.’
‘I would you were in bed, my child.’
‘Mother, I can sleep no more. I wish to be with you;’ and Venetia seated herself at her mother’s feet, and reclined her head upon her mother’s knee.
‘I am glad the night has passed, Venetia,’ said Lady Annabel, in a suppressed yet solemn tone. ‘It has been a trial.’ And here she placed the letter in her bosom. Venetia could only answer with a sigh.
‘I wish Pauncefort would come,’ said Lady Annabel; ‘and yet I do not like to rouse her, she was up so late, poor creature! If it be the dawn I should like to send out messengers again; something may be heard at Spezzia.’
‘Vicenzo thinks they have gone to Leghorn, mother.’
‘Has he heard anything!’ said Lady Annabel, eagerly.
‘No, but he is an excellent judge,’ said Venetia, repeating all Pauncefort’s consolatory chatter. ‘He knows the coast so well. He says he is sure the wind would carry them on to Leghorn; and that accounts, you know, mother, for George not returning. They are all at Leghorn.’
‘Would that George would return,’ murmured Lady Annabel; ‘I wish I could see again that sailor who said they were at Lerici. He was an intelligent man.’
‘Perhaps if we send down to the bay he may be there,’ said Venetia.’
‘Hush! I hear a step!’ said Lady Annabel.
Venetia sprung up and opened the door, but it was only Pauncefort in the vestibule.
‘The household are all up, my lady,’ said that important personage entering; ”tis a beautiful morning. Vicenzo has run down to the bay, my lady; I sent him off immediately. Vicenzo says he is certain sure they are at Leghorn, my lady; and, this time three years, the very same thing happened. They were fishing for anchovies, my lady, close by, my lady, near Sarzana; two young men, or rather one about the same age as master, and one like my lord; cousins, my lady, and just in the same sort of boat, my lady; and there came on a squall, just the same sort of squall, my lady; and they did not return home; and everyone was frightened out of their wits, my lady, and their wives and families quite distracted; and after all they were at Leghorn; for this sort of wind always takes your open boats to Leghorn, Vicenzo says.’
The sun rose, the household were all stirring, and many of them abroad; the common routine of domestic duty seemed, by some general yet not expressed understanding, to have ceased. The ladies descended below at a very early hour, and went forth into the valley, once the happy valley. What was to be its future denomination? Vicenzo returned from the bay, and he contrived to return with cheering intelligence. The master of a felucca who, in consequence of the squall had put in at Lerici, and in the evening dropped down to Spezzia, had met an open boat an hour before he reached Sarzana, and was quite confident that, if it had put into port, it must have been, from the speed at which it was going, a great distance down the coast. No wrecks had been heard of in the neighbourhood. This intelligence, the gladsome time of day, and the non-arrival of Captain Cadurcis, which according to their mood was always a circumstance that counted either for good or for evil, and the sanguine feelings which make us always cling to hope, altogether reassured our friends. Venetia dismissed from her mind the dark thought which for a moment had haunted her in the noon of night; and still it was a suspense, a painful, agitating suspense, but only suspense that yet influenced them.
‘Time! said Lady Annabel. ‘Time! we must wait.’
Venetia consoled her mother; she affected even a gaiety of spirit; she was sure that Vicenzo would turn out to be right, after all; Pauncefort said he always was right, and that they were at Leghorn.
The day wore apace; the noon arrived and passed; it was even approaching sunset. Lady Annabel was almost afraid to counterorder the usual meals, lest Venetia should comprehend her secret terror; the very same sentiment influenced Venetia. Thus they both had submitted to the ceremony of breakfast, but when the hour of dinner approached they could neither endure the mockery. They looked at each other, and almost at the same time they proposed that, instead of dining, they should walk down to the bay.
‘I trust we shall at least hear something before the night,’ said Lady Annabel. ‘I confess I dread the coming night. I do not think I could endure it.’
‘The longer we do not hear, the more certain I am of their being at Leghorn,’ said Venetia.
‘I have a great mind to travel there to-night,’ said Lady Annabel.
As they were stepping into the portico, Venetia recognised Captain Cadurcis in the distance. She turned pale; she would have fallen had she not leaned on her mother, who was not so advanced, and who had not seen him.
‘What is the matter, Venetia!’ said Lady Annabel, alarmed.
‘He is here, he is here!’
‘Marmion?’
‘No, George. Let me sit down.’
Her mother tried to support her to a chair. Lady Annabel took off her bonnet. She had not strength to walk forth. She could not speak. She sat down opposite Venetia, and her countenance pictured distress to so painful a degree, that at any other time Venetia would have flown to her, but in this crisis of suspense it was impossible. George was in sight; he was in the portico; he was in the room.
He looked wan, haggard, and distracted. More than once he essayed to speak, but failed.
Lady Annabel looked at him with a strange, delirious expression. Venetia rushed forward and seized his arm, and gazed intently on his face. He shrank from her glance; his frame trembled.
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