Page:Teleny, or The Reverse of the Medal, t. II.djvu/182

 clasped in such a thrilling embrace, those two massy lobes of flesh, as white as newly-fallen snow; the smothered sound of their ecstatic bliss, overcame for a moment my excruciating jealousy, and I got to be excited to such an ungovernable pitch that I could hardly forbear from rushing into that room. My fluttering bird—my nightingale, as they call it in Italy—like Sterne's starling—was trying to escape from its cage; and not only that, but it also lifted up its head in such a way that it seemed to wish to reach the key-hole.

"My fingers were already on the handle of the door. Why should I not burst it and have my share in the feast, though in a humbler way, and like a beggar go in by the back entrance?

"Why not, indeed!

"Just then, the lady whose arms were still tightly clasped round the man's neck, said,—

Bon Dieu! how good it is! I have not felt such intensity of rapture for a long time.'

"For an instant I was stunned. My fingers relinquished the handle of the door, my arm fell, even my bird drooped down lifeless.

"What a voice!