The Monk Read Online Free PDF Page B

you love me! I shall consider your obedience as a proof of your affection; you shall hear from me to-morrow, and so farewell. But pray, cavaliers, may I not enquire your names?”
    “My friend’s,” replied Lorenzo, “is the Condé d’Ossorio, and mine Lorenzo de Medina.”
    “ ’Tis sufficient. Well, Don Lorenzo, I shall acquaint my sister with your obliging offer, and let you know the result with all expedition. Where may I send to you?”
    “I am always to be found at the Medina palace.”
    “You may depend upon hearing from me. Farewell, cavaliers. Segnor Condé, let me entreat you to moderate the excessive ardour of your passion. However, to prove that I am not displeased with you, and prevent your abandoning yourself to despair, receive this mark of my affection, and sometimes bestow a thought upon the absent Leonella.”
    As she said this, she extended a lean and wrinkled hand; which her supposed admirer kissed with such sorry grace and constraint so evident, that Lorenzo with difficulty repressed his inclination to laugh. Leonella then hastened to quit the church: the lovely Antonia followed her in silence; but when she reached the porch, she turned involuntarily, and cast back her eyes towards Lorenzo. He bowed to her, as bidding her farewell; she returned the compliment, and hastily withdrew.
    “So, Lorenzo!” said Don Christoval as soon as they were alone, “you have procured me an agreeable intrigue! To favour your designs upon Antonia, I obligingly make a few civil speeches which mean nothing to the aunt, and at the end of an hour I find myself upon the brink of matrimony! How will you reward me for having suffered so grievously for your sake? What can repay me for having kissed the leathern paw of that confounded old witch? Diavolo! She has left such a scent upon my lips, that I shall smell of garlick for this month to come! As I pass along the Prado, I shall be taken for a walking omelet, or some large onion running to seed!”
    “I confess, my poor count,” replied Lorenzo, “that your service has been attended with danger; yet am I so far from supposing it to be past all endurance, that I shall probably solicit you to carry on your amours still further.”
    “From that petition I conclude, that the little Antonia has made some impression upon you.”
    “I cannot express to you how much I am charmed with her. Since my father’s death, my uncle the duke de Medina has signified to me his wishes to see me married; I have till now eluded his hints, and refused to understand them; but what I have seen this evening——”
    “Well, what have you seen this evening? Why surely, Don Lorenzo, you cannot be mad enough to think of making a wife out of this grand-daughter of ‘as honest a pains-taking shoemaker as any in Cordova’?”
    “You forget, that she is also the grand-daughter of the late marquis de las Cisternas; but without disputing about birth and titles, I must assure you, that I never beheld a woman so interesting as Antonia.”
    “Very possibly; but you cannot mean to marry her?”
    “Why not, my dear condé? I shall have wealth enough for both of us, and you know that my uncle thinks liberally upon the subject. From what I have seen of Raymond de las Cisternas, I am certain that he will readily acknowledge Antonia for his niece. Her birth therefore will be no objection to my offering her my hand. I should be a villain, could I think of her on any other terms than marriage; and in truth she seems possessed of every quality requisite to make me happy in a wife—young, lovely, gentle, sensible——”
    “Sensible? Why, she said nothing but Yes, and No.”
    “She did not say much more, I must confess—but then she always said Yes or No in the right place.”
    “Did she so? Oh! your most obedient! That is using a right lover’s argument, and I dare dispute no longer with so profound a casuist. Suppose we adjourn to the comedy?”
    “It is out of my power. I only arrived last