Page:Clermont - Roche (1798, volume 4).djvu/82

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'Ah, if you could but make me believe that, I could tell you something would astonish you.'

'When a woman once begins to waver, we are sure of our point: I soon prevailed on my little companion to open her whole budget.

'Tis now some months (said she), since the Count St. Julian first entered Lord Dunlere's castle. Returning from Italy, he met with an accident near it which induced my Lord to offer him a lodging till able to continue his journey. The moment he and my lady Geraldine beheld each other, they were mutually smitten; and, in consequence of this attachment, they both devised a thousand excuses for his staying in the castle long after he was expected to leave it. At length he departed. Never shall I forget the wailing and weeping his going occasioned; my Lady Geraldine became but the shadow of herself, and wandered about like a ghost.