And then I would pillow with thee,
To-morrow, morrow, morrow!
Was it?—It was!—Yes, it was the voice of her love, her life, her long-lost Theodore De Willoughby!!! How should she reach him? Forty times she ran round and round her chamber, with agitated eyes and distracted tresses.
Here we must pause a moment, and express our surprise at the negligence of the sylphs and sylphids, in permitting the ringlets of heroines to be so frequently dishevelled. O ye fat-cheeked little cherubims, who flap your innocent wings, and fly through oceans of air in a minute, without having a hair of your heads discomposed,—no wonder that such stiff ringlets should be made of gold!
At length Hysterica found a sliding pannel. She likewise found a moth-eaten parchment, which she sat down to peruse. But, gentle reader, imagine her emotions, on decyphering these wonderful words.
MANUSCRIPT
—— Six tedious years —— —— and all for what? —— —— —— —— —— —— No sun, no moon. —— —— Murd —— —— Adul —— —— because I am the wife of Lord Belamour. —— —— then tore me from him, and my little Hysterica —— —— —— —— —— Cruel Stiletto! —— —— He confesses that he put the sleeping babe into a basket —— —— sent her to the Baroness de Violenci —— —— oaken cross —— —— Chalk —— —— bruised gooseberry —— —— —— —— —— I am poisoned —— —— a great pain across my back —— —— i —— j —— k —— —— Oh! —— Ah! —— Oh! —— —— —— ——
Fascinante Peggina Belamour.
This then was the mother of our heroine; and the MS. elucidated, beyond dispute, the mysteries which had hitherto hung over the birth of that unfortunate orphan.
We need not add that she fainted, recovered, passed through the pannel, discovered the dungeon of her Theodore; and having asked him how he did,