"As I before said, you left me at Venice, to my extreme grief and misery. I could not, however, endure my existence without receiving further information respecting you than was contained in an occasional cold formal letter written by you to me; by force of prayers and supplications I prevailed on Inès, your waiting-maid, to send me a minute detail of all your proceedings. You would scarcely credit the perseverance, promises, and temptations, I was compelled to employ ere I could win over this cold and inanimate person to enter into my wishes sufficiently to undertake to write me a regular account of every day's transactions. You may judge a little by that how absorbing and all-engrossing was my attachment for you!" "Alas!" said Paula, "I know not whether to execrate, pity, or admire your devotion." "I probably deserve at once pity, hatred, and admiration," pursued Iris, boldly. "But to proceed. From Inès I learnt the ardent court paid you by Charles de Brévannes, and that public report asserted (though falsely) that you repaid his love. Your mind and heart were, however, entirely engrossed by Raphael, of whom you daily conversed with your aunt--and in Inès's presence--but during this time of fascination and deep passion on your part Raphael was grossly deceiving you." "Raphael!--Raphael deceive me!--Oh, no! no! 'tis another vile falsehood on your part, invented for some base purpose!" "Nay, then, you shall have the proof of his perfidy! His motive in visiting Venice was to release himself from his vows to you, he having pledged his faith to a young Greek of Zante, named Cora. Oh, I will prove this to you ere I have done! Well, he was fully aware of the confidence you reposed in me, and he gave me credit for a degree of influence over your mind which I was far from possessing--but listen to my tale: it was to me, then, he first whispered the history of his capricious falsehood, beseeching of me to communicate it to you with all possible care and skilfulness; from my lips he fancied the tidings of his perjury would sound less cruel!" "But his duel with De Brévannes?" "You shall know all about that directly; let me proceed. As I listened to the false and cowardly excuses of Raphael, a feeling of mingled rage and delight took possession of my soul." "Delight?" "Yes, even so!--for to me those whom you love are almost equally hateful with those who I am aware are your enemies." "Surely the fiend himself must have taken possession of your bosom. Oh! accursed was the day in which my eyes first beheld you!"