Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 3).djvu/234

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who lay fronting the door, at his entrance gave a sudden shriek, and fainted. They advanced hastily to assist her, and in the same moment both recognized the unfortunate young woman, notwithstanding the alteration of her person, and the improbability of her being near Vienna, and both exclaimed, "Louisa! Good Heavens! Louisa!"

"How," said Heli, "do you know her too?"

They were too busy in getting water and other things to restore her, immediately to attend to him; but when she began to show signs of returning life, Ferdinand turned to him—"We do indeed know this lady, one of the most unfortunate of her sex. We left her a few months back under the protection of a worthy family, far from hence. How, or by whom she was brought here, is very extraordinary."

Louisa, for her it was, opened her eyes.—"The shadows are gone," said she, faintly, "or was it the phantom of my brain?"