ld have been united some months
since, had not unavoidable impediments retarded the accomplishment of
their mutual wishes."

A clamorous shout, and a burst of trumpets now announced the approach of
Aguilar to Granada, and Lisarda with giddy steps sallied out, leaving
Theodora to the undisturbed enjoyment of her gloomy reflections. The
unfortunate child of Monteblanco had now the most unequivocal proof of
her lover's baseness and treachery: Gomez Arias was faithless, but what
an aggravation of guilt attached to his infidelity! His cold, heartless
villainy seemed to surpass all power of conception, and Theodora for
some time remained like one striving to recall the fleeting illusion of
a horrid dream. Then she clasped her hands fearfully over her swollen
eyelids; a few large drops fell on her cold marbled hands, and in those
eyes flashed the wild resolution of despair.

A bitter smile now gently curled those parched and pallid lips, and she
raised her trembling fingers to her forehead, expressing all the passive
agonies of an absent mind. Then suddenly, as if actuated by a powerful
impulse, she sprung upon her feet: she cautiously drew towards the
casement in a listening attitude, and the names of Aguilar and Gomez
Arias which floated in lengthening sound along the air, threw additional
excitement on her already distracted feelings. But one day more, and she
was to witness the completion of her lover's union with her rival. What
a train of frightful associations this image brought to mind!

Dreadful was the conflict that Theodora had to sustain, and in that
unequal warfare, her whole frame underwent an appalling change: her eyes
glistened, and her hands shook violently, as she threw back with a
resolute movement the tresses of her redundant hair. Again she stopped
as if brooding over some frightful design; her throat became swollen
with hysteric affection; the blood that hitherto had seemed congealed in
its source, rushed with impetuosity down its wonted channels, and the
blue veins through which the little rivulet of life had gently flowed,
now became dark and turbid as the mountain stream. Her eyes shot the
lurid flashes of madness; a wild laugh broke the harmony of the purest
voice; and a malignant curl usurped the place where heavenly smiles had
habitually sat.

Theodora, that soft and seraphic being who but a short time since, rich
in the charms of native grace and loveliness, had been the star of a
happy home, a