"Not so," said Charlotte; "I have sought this spot as I knew it was a favourite one with you. I felt you would be here, and that I must see you. I know not wherefore, but a presentiment of evil is upon me. I feel as if I spoke to thee this night for the last time."
There was a wildness in the manner of Charlotte Clopton, as she said this, which increased the anxiety of her admirer, and, as he saw that she was really suffering from some sudden feeling of illness, he again entreated her to seek the house. She, however, again refused. "I have sought this opportunity to speak to you," she said, "for I felt I must do so; nay, I feel as if I should die unless I unburthened myself to one I so highly esteem, one to whom I owe so much, one so noble and so good; nay, were it to any but to thee, (generous and sweet in disposition as thou art, William Shakespeare,) I should shame to say so much. But well I know that none can know thee and refrain from loving; can trust thee and repent."
To say that the youthful poet could hear this from a being so beautiful, and not forget all the resolutions he had previously made to subdue and conceal his passion, would be to describe one of those over-perfect mortals existing only in the imagination of the prudish.
William Shakespeare was no such perfection of a hero; he had sought to quench his love's hot fire,
"Lest it should burn above the bounds of reason."
The intense feelings of youth, however, and which in after-life led him so forcibly to pourtray the passion he felt, now completely overcame all his prudential resolves.
The being he had thought so much above him, and in secret loved, had confessed her feelings. He was instantly lost to every thing but his love for her. Its hopelessness, its seeming treachery towards his new and generous friend, all were forgotten as he gazed upon Charlotte and returned her vows. And yet, what was this love, so pure, so unselfish, so unlikely ever to meet with reward? It rather lacked, even at its commencement, the rapturous intoxication of hope, and seemed, even at the moment of its mutual confidence, to partake of the bitterness of certain disappointment.
Whilst the various groups had been enjoying themselves in the grounds, the heavens had become gradually overcast, till one entire portion was mantled with the darksome veil now rapidly extending; distant rumbling peals, too, like the sound of heavy ordnance from afar, and large heavy drops of rain, gave notice of the coming storm. This, together with the renewed sound of music, warned the revellers around again to seek the shelter of the Hall, and, as Charlotte Clopton heard her name called, the lovers too felt that they must part. Yet still they lingered, and had more to say.
The voice of Martin, however, calling upon Charlotte, who had now been suddenly missed from amongst the guests, and sought for in the house, recalled them to the necessity of separating. Their parting seemed a sad one, and although the feeling of illness Charlotte had previously felt had now partially left her, she still felt a sensation of langour and a weight upon her spirits she could not account for.
Her lover observed this, and that her cheek, ordinarily so full of bloom, was deadly pale, giving her dark brown tresses a still darker shade, and he parted from her with an ill divining soul.