Morano, who, in the next moment, appeared. His
compliments she received in silence, and her cold air seemed at first to
discompose him; but he soon recovered his usual gaiety of manner,
though the officious kindness of M. and Madame Quesnel Emily perceived
disgusted him. Such a degree of attention she had scarcely believed
could be shewn by M. Quesnel, for she had never before seen him
otherwise than in the presence of his inferiors or equals.

When she could retire to her own apartment, her mind almost
involuntarily dwelt on the most probable means of prevailing with the
Count to withdraw his suit, and to her liberal mind none appeared more
probable, than that of acknowledging to him a prior attachment and
throwing herself upon his generosity for a release. When, however,
on the following day, he renewed his addresses, she shrunk from the
adoption of the plan she had formed. There was something so repugnant to
her just pride, in laying open the secret of her heart to such a man
as Morano, and in suing to him for compassion, that she impatiently
rejected this design and wondered, that she could have paused upon
it for a moment. The rejection of his suit she repeated in the most
decisive terms she could select, mingling with it a severe censure
of his conduct; but, though the Count appeared mortified by this, he
persevered in the most ardent professions of admiration, till he was
interrupted and Emily released by the presence of Madame Quesnel.

During her stay at this pleasant villa, Emily was thus rendered
miserable by the assiduities of Morano, together with the cruelly
exerted authority of M. Quesnel and Montoni, who, with her aunt, seemed
now more resolutely determined upon this marriage than they had even
appeared to be at Venice. M. Quesnel, finding, that both argument and
menace were ineffectual in enforcing an immediate conclusion to it, at
length relinquished his endeavours, and trusted to the power of Montoni
and to the course of events at Venice. Emily, indeed, looked to Venice
with hope, for there she would be relieved in some measure from the
persecution of Morano, who would no longer be an inhabitant of the same
house with herself, and from that of Montoni, whose engagements would
not permit him to be continually at home. But amidst the pressure of her
own misfortunes, she did not forget those of poor Theresa, for whom she
pleaded with courageous tenderness to Quesnel, who promised, in slight
and general