Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 2).djvu/150

 "To a mind resolved like your's, Madam (replied Ferdinand) I have no more to urge, and shall most readily attend you to the destined place when it shall appear convenient to you."—She bowed, and looking on the Count with a tearful eye, rose and retired.

"Come, my friend (said Ferdinand to the Count, perceiving that he was fixed in a profound reverie, with all the marks of extreme sorrow on his features) come, assert that fortitude so becoming in a noble mind, and which for many years has supported you: How delighted would you have felt under the pressure of your sufferings had life and liberty been offered to you on the single condition of the Lady Eugenia's retiring from the world: Would the alternative have admitted of the least hesitation? Certainly not: And can you now repine that she has the power of her own election, and in her own words, 'only prefers her duty to Heaven to her earthly happiness with you?' Let us both unite as fellow sufferers to comfort each other."