e omen even in the very name of her child; and she
could not resist the persuasion that her final destiny would, in some
degree, be connected with her fanciful appellation. The physicians,
for hopeless as Lady Annabel could not resist esteeming their
interference, Venetia was now surrounded with physicians, shook their
heads, prescribed different remedies and gave contrary opinions; each
day, however, their patient became more languid, thinner and more
thin, until she seemed like a beautiful spirit gliding into the
saloon, leaning on her mother's arm, and followed by Pauncefort, who
had now learnt the fatal secret from, her mistress, and whose heart
was indeed almost broken at the prospect of the calamity that was
impending over them.

At Padua, Lady Annabel, in her mortified reveries, outraged as she
conceived by her husband, and anxious about her daughter, had schooled
herself into visiting her fresh calamities on the head of the unhappy
Herbert, to whose intrusion and irresistible influence she ascribed
all the illness of her child; but, as the indisposition of Venetia
gradually, but surely, increased, until at length it assumed so
alarming an aspect that Lady Annabel, in the distraction of her mind,
could no longer refrain from contemplating the most fatal result, she
had taught herself bitterly to regret the failure of that approaching
reconciliation which now she could not but believe would, at least,
have secured her the life of Venetia. Whatever might be the risk
of again uniting herself with her husband, whatever might be the
mortification and misery which it might ultimately, or even speedily,
entail upon her, there was no unhappiness that she could herself
experience, which for one moment she could put in competition with the
existence of her child. When that was the question, every feeling
that had hitherto impelled her conduct assumed a totally different
complexion. That conduct, in her view, had been a systematic sacrifice
of self to secure the happiness of her daughter; and the result of all
her exertions was, that not only her happiness was destroyed, but her
life was fast vanishing away. To save Venetia, it now appeared to Lady
Annabel that there was no extremity which she would not endure; and if
it came to a question, whether Venetia should survive, or whether
she should even be separated from her mother, her maternal heart now
assured her that she would not for an instant hesitate in preferring
an e