Alice, or the Mysteries — Complete

								

"And," thought she, as she gazed, "this fair creature did not live to
know the fame of her son, to rejoice in his success, or to soothe his
grief. And he, that son, a disappointed and solitary exile in distant
lands, while strangers stand within his deserted hall!"
The images she had conjured up moved and absorbed her; and she continued
to stand before the picture, gazing upward with moistened eyes. It was
a beautiful vision as she thus stood, with her delicate bloom, her
luxuriant hair (for the hat was not yet replaced), her elastic form,
so full of youth and health and hope,--the living form beside the faded
canvas of the dead, once youthful, tender, lovely as herself! Evelyn
turned away with a sigh; the sigh was re-echoed yet more deeply. She
started: the door that led to the study was opened, and in the aperture
was the figure of a man in the prime of life. His hair, still luxuriant
as in his earliest youth, though darkened by the suns of the East,
curled over a forehead of majestic expanse. The high and proud features,
that well became a stature above the ordinary standard; the pale but
bronzed complexion; the large eyes of deepest blue, shaded by dark brows
and lashes; and more than all, that expression at once of passion and
repose which characterizes the old Italian portraits, and seems to
denote the inscrutable power that experience imparts to intellect,
constituted an ensemble which, if not faultlessly handsome, was
eminently striking, and formed at once to interest and command. It was
a face, once seen, never to be forgotten; it was a face that had long,
half unconsciously, haunted Evelyn's young dreams; it was a face she
had seen before, though, then younger and milder and fairer, it wore a
different aspect.
Evelyn stood rooted to the spot, feeling herself blush to her very
temples,--an enchanting picture of bashful confusion and innocent alarm.
"Do not let me regret my return," said the stranger, approaching after a
short pause, and with much gentleness in his voice and smile; "and think
that the owner is doomed to scare away the fair spirits that haunted the
spot in his absence."
"The owner!" repeated Evelyn, almost inaudibly, and in increased
embarrassment; "are you then the--the--"
"Yes," courteously interrupted the stranger, seeing her confusion, "my
name is Maltravers; and I am to blame for not having informed you of my
sudden return, or for now trespassing on your presence. But you see
my excuse;" and he pointed to the instrument. "You have the magic that
draws even the serpent from his hole. But you are not alone?"
"Oh, no! no, indeed! Miss Merton is with me. I know not where she is
gone. I will seek her."
"Miss Merton! You are not then one of that family?"
"No, only a guest. I will find her; she must apologize for us. We were
not aware that you were here,--indeed we were not."
"That is a cruel excuse," said Maltravers, smiling at her eagerness: and