A thousand thoughts filled the mind of George Delmé.
He thought of Laura! of his own Acmé!
With swimming glance, he looked round the chamber.
It was almost without furniture, and without ornament. In a niche, and within a glass case, was placed the skeleton of a dumb favourite of Petrarch's.
Suddenly George Delmé felt a faintness stealing over him:--and he turned to bare his forehead, to catch the slight breeze from below redolent of sweets.
This did not relieve him.
A sharp pain across the chest, and a fluttering at the heart, as of a bird struggling to be free, succeeded this faintness.
Another rush of blood to the head:--and a snap, as of some tendon, was distinctly felt by the sufferer.
His mouth filled with blood.
A small blood-vessel had burst, and temporary insensibility ensued.