She could not but judge it to be highly
improper, for a young Woman to be living among absolute
Strangers, with no one to regulate her conduct, or protect her
from the insults to which, in her defenceless situation, She was
exposed. She therefore looked forward with impatience to the
Tuesday night.
It arrived. Antonia listened anxiously to the Carriages, as they
rolled along the Street. None of them stopped, and it grew late
without Leonella's appearing. Still, Antonia resolved to sit up
till her Aunt's arrival, and in spite of all her remonstrances,
Dame Jacintha and Flora insisted upon doing the same. The hours
passed on slow and tediously. Lorenzo's departure from Madrid
had put a stop to the nightly Serenades: She hoped in vain to
hear the usual sound of Guitars beneath her window. She took up
her own, and struck a few chords: But Music that evening had lost
its charms for her, and She soon replaced the Instrument in its
case. She seated herself at her embroidery frame, but nothing
went right: The silks were missing, the thread snapped every
moment, and the needles were so expert at falling that they
seemed to be animated. At length a flake of wax fell from the
Taper which stood near her upon a favourite wreath of Violets:
This compleatly discomposed her; She threw down her needle, and
quitted the frame. It was decreed that for that night nothing
should have the power of amusing her. She was the prey of Ennui,
and employed herself in making fruitless wishes for the arrival
of her Aunt.
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