'Nothing; but that to see you brought her not only hither, but to England.'
'Blessed may she be!' cried Eugenia, fervently, 'and rewarded where rewards are just, and are permanent!'
Camilla zealously joined in the prayer, yet besought to know if she might not be informed of the view to which she alluded?
'We must go, then,' said Eugenia, 'into the house; my poor frame is yet feebler than my mind, and I cannot support it unaided while I make such a relation.'
Camilla, affrighted, now gave up her request; but the generous Eugenia would not leave her in suspense. They went, therefore, to a parlour, where, shutting the doors and windows, she said, 'I must be concise, for both our sakes; and when you understand me, we must talk instantly of other things.'
Camilla could give only a tacit promise; but her air shewed she would hold it sacred as any bond.
'The idea which brought over this inestimable Parent, and which brought her, at a moment when she knew me to be alone, to this sad house, these sad arms ... Camilla! how shall I speak it? It was to exonerate me from my vows, as forced! to annul all my engagements, as compulsatory! and to restore me again ... O, Camilla! Camilla! to my Parents, my Sisters, my Uncle, my dearly-loved Cleves!'
She gasped almost convulsively; yet though Camilla now even conjured her to say no more, went on: 'A proposal such as this, pressed upon me by one whose probity and honour hold all calamity at nought, if opposed to the most minute deviation from right—a proposal such as this ... ah! let me not go back to the one terrible half instant of demur! It was heart-rending, it was killing! I thought myself again in the bosom of my loved family!'—
'And is it so utterly impossible? And can it not yet be effected?'—
'No, my dear Sister, no! The horrible scenes I must go through in a public trial for such a purpose—the solemn vows I must set aside, the re-iterated promises I must break,——no, my dear Sister, no!... And now, we will speak of this no more.'