The most superficial observer might have read the aristocratic pride of his soul in the haughty curl of his short upper lip,--the harshness of his domineering character in the lines that marked his forehead,--and the cruel sternness of his disposition in the expression of his entire countenance. Without absolutely scowling as he lay on that bed of death, his features were characterized by an inexorable severity which seemed to denote the predominant influence of some intense passion--some evil sentiment deeply rooted in his mind. Two persons leant over the couch to which death was so rapidly approaching. One was a lady of about twenty-five: the other was a youth of nineteen. The former was eminently beautiful; but her countenance was marked with much of that severity--that determination--and even of that sternness, which characterized the dying nobleman. Indeed, a single glance was sufficient to show that they stood in the close relationship of father and daughter. Her long, black, glossy hair now hung disheveled over the shoulders that were left partially bare by the hasty negligence with which she had thrown on a loose wrapper; and those shoulders were of the most dazzling whiteness. The wrapper was confined by a broad band at the waist; and the slight drapery set off, rather than concealed, the rich contours of a form of mature but admirable symmetry. Tall, graceful, and elegant, she united easy motion with fine proportion; thus possessing the lightness of the Sylph and the luxuriant fullness of the Hebe. Her countenance was alike expressive of intellectuality and strong passions. Her large black eyes were full of fire, and their glances seemed to penetrate the soul. Her nose, of the finest aquiline development,--her lips, narrow, but red and pouting, with the upper one short and slightly projecting over the lower,--and her small, delicately rounded chin, indicated both decision and sensuality: but the insolent gaze of the libertine would have quailed beneath the look of sovereign hauteur which flashed from those brilliant eagle eyes. In a word, she appeared to be a woman well adapted to command the admiration--receive the homage--excite the passions--and yet repel the insolence of the opposite sex. But those appearances were to some degree deceitful; for never was homage offered to her--never was she courted nor flattered. Ten years previously to the time of which we are writing--and when she was only fifteen--the death of her mother, under strange and mysterious circumstances, as it was generally reported, made such a terrible impression on her mind, that she hovered for months on the verge of dissolution; and when the physician who attended upon her communicated to her father the fact that her life was at length beyond danger, that assurance was followed by the sad and startling declaration, that she had forever lost the sense of hearing and the power of speech.