Come to me
anon, I will anoint and prepare my beryl and my divining mirror. Thou
shall thyself behold some of the mysteries touching which I have warned
thee beforetime. About noon return to my chamber."
Rodolf withdrew into his own apartment. His countenance looked anxious
and disturbed. He sat down, but his restlessness seemed to increase.
His posture was not the most easy and graceful that might be desired,
nor calculated to set off his personal advantages, though now become the
more needful, if, as the seer predicted, he should wive ere
night--albeit his bride were yet unsought--nor wooed, nor won! Nothing
could be more destructive to that easy self-satisfaction, that seductive
and insinuating carriage, so essential to the fine gentleman of every
age. There was a sort of angular irregularity in his movements, neither
pleasant nor becoming; and his agitation so far overcame his better
breeding that he really did cram his beard between at least three of his
fingers. His rapier had, moreover, poked its way through his cloak, and
the bright shoe-roses were nigh ruined, from the sudden crossings and
disarrangements they had undergone.
Pages:
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457