'Not think of him!' exclaimed Venetia, with extraordinary energy. 'Of what else? For what do I live but to think of him? What object have I in life but to see him? I have seen him, once.'
'Ah!'
'I know his form by heart, and yet it was but a shade. Oh, what a shade! what a glorious, what an immortal shade! If gods were upon earth they would be like my father!'
'His deeds, at least, are not godlike,' observed Lord Cadurcis dryly, and with some bitterness.
'I deny it!' said Venetia, her eyes sparkling with fire, her form dilated with enthusiasm, and involuntarily withdrawing her arm from her companion. Lord Cadurcis looked exceedingly astonished.
'You deny it!' he exclaimed. 'And what should you know about it?'
'Nature whispers to me that nothing but what is grand and noble could be breathed by those lips, or fulfilled by that form.'
'I am glad you have not read his works,' said Lord Cadurcis, with increased bitterness. 'As for his conduct, your mother is a living evidence of his honour, his generosity, and his virtue.'
'My mother!' said Venetia, in a softened voice; 'and yet he loved my mother!'
'She was his victim, as a thousand others may have been.'