'You have my forgiveness, then,' said Emily, 'and my sincere wishes for
your recovery.' 'And only for my recovery?' said Morano, with a sigh. 'For your general
welfare,' added Emily. 'Perhaps I ought to be contented with this,' he resumed; 'I certainly
have not deserved more; but I would ask you, Emily, sometimes to think
of me, and, forgetting my offence, to remember only the passion which
occasioned it. I would ask, alas! impossibilities: I would ask you to
love me! At this moment, when I am about to part with you, and that,
perhaps, for ever, I am scarcely myself. Emily--may you never know the
torture of a passion like mine! What do I say? O, that, for me, you
might be sensible of such a passion!' Emily looked impatient to be gone.
'I entreat you, Count, to consult
your own safety,' said she, 'and linger here no longer. I tremble
for the consequences of Signor Verezzi's passion, and of Montoni's
resentment, should he learn that you are still here.' Morano's face was overspread with a momentary crimson, his eyes
sparkled, but he seemed endeavouring to conquer his emotion, and replied
in a calm voice, 'Since you are interested for my safety, I will regard
it, and be gone. But, before I go, let me again hear you say, that you
wish me well,' said he, fixing on her an earnest and mournful look.
Emily repeated her assurances. He took her hand, which she scarcely
attempted to withdraw, and put it to his lips. 'Farewell, Count Morano!'
said Emily; and she turned to go, when a second message arrived from
Montoni, and she again conjured Morano, as he valued his life, to quit
the castle immediately. He regarded her in silence, with a look of fixed
despair. But she had no time to enforce her compassionate entreaties,
and, not daring to disobey the second command of Montoni, she left the
corridor, to attend him.
He was in the cedar parlour, that adjoined the great hall, laid upon
a couch, and suffering a degree of anguish from his wound, which few
persons could have disguised, as he did. His countenance, which was
stern, but calm, expressed the dark passion of revenge, but no symptom
of pain; bodily pain, indeed, he had always despised, and had yielded
only to the strong and terrible energies of the soul. He was attended by
old Carlo and by Signor Bertolini, but Madame Montoni was not with him. Emily trembled, as she approached and received his severe rebuke,
for not having obeyed his first summons; and perceived, also, that
he attributed her stay in the corridor to a motive, that had not even
occurred to her artless mind.