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No. 45.]

THE BEAU MONDE;

OR

Monthly Journal of Fashion.

EUPHROSYNE.

LONDON, SEPTEMBER 1, 1834.

"I HAD scarcely given the last twist to my turban, when a distant clamour in the street drew me to the window, and made me espy a veiled female, whose uncertain gait and faltering steps had attracted the notice of a troop of foolish boys, and made them follow her with loud hootings. It was impossible not to set down in my mind one so carefully wrapped up and so fearful of being recognised, as the partner of my guilt coming to demand the wages of her iniquity; and all that baffled my utmost power of conjecture was the change from Sophia's wonted boldness of demeanour, to the apparent timidity and helplessness palpably manifested by my approaching visitor. I could only attribute the phenomenon to Sophia's dismissal from Chrysopulo's family, branded with the marks of public disgrace; on which account I immediately sallied forth to offer her a safe conduct to my abode. My surprise was still increased, when, tendering my ally the protection of my arm, I first saw her hesitate, then shuddering, withdraw her hand already clasped in mine, and at last only suf fered herself to be dragged into my habitation, after the terror produced by the insults of the gathering mob had as it were entirely deprived her of consciousness; but my astonishment only rose to its highest . pitch, when tearing off the cumbrous veils, in order to give the fainting maiden some air, I beheld, instead of the daring Sophia, the gentle, the reserved Euphrosyne herself, who scarcely on recovering her senses had time to cast her eyes around her, ere, again sinking down to the ground, she struck her face against the floor, and began wringing her hands with every symptom of the bitterest anguish.

The cause of her having quitted her home I was at a loss to conjecture, but the effect it had of bringing her to mine I hailed at first as a highly fortunate circumstance. Thus would my triumph be blazoned forth without my word being broken. When, however, 1 witnessed the excess of my fair one's grief, contrasted as it was with my own joy, I too felt moved, tried to assuage her sorrow by every expression of pity and concern, and as soon as she seemed able to speak, ventured to inquire what had caused her coming forth thus unattended and forlorn, at the very time I supposed all Smyrna collected to witness her brilliant nuptials?

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'My nuptials,' echoed she with a smile of bitterness, now first suffering her voice to strike my ear,— when my dishonour is the universal theme!' The universal theme!' repeated I,-truly dismayed in my turn. may Heaven's direst curse alight upon her who has divulged it! That was myself,' replied Euphrosyne, and your curse has struck home! I remained mute with surprise. 'Could I rejoined my mistress, 'to dishonour add deceit? Could I bring a dower of infamy to the man so noble, so generous, that even after my fright

NO. XLV. VOL. IV.

[VOL 4.

ful tale he spurned me not away from him;-to the man who deigned in pity to affirm, that my avowal of my involontary shame rendered me worthier in his eyes, and gave him a stronger assurance of my fidelity, than if I had come to his arms as spotless in body as in mind?' -' And who,' added I, 'after this sublime speech, ended by rejecting you.' 'Ha no!' cried Euphrosyne, it was I who rejected him it was I who refused to carry reproach into the house of a stranger, and who for that crime was threatened by my own friends with being cast off, and thrown upon the wide world, helpless and unprotected!-But' added she, covering her face with her hands, and sobbing more bitterly than before, 'I suffered not the threat to grow into a reality; I waited not to be turned out of doors. I resolved at once upon the only step which was left me; I asked permission to go to our church, in order that in my fervent prayers Heaven might inspire me how to act, and, when alone and in the street, tried to find out your abode, and to seek refuge where alone I had claims!' What then,' exclaimed I, from your very threshold you had determined whatever happened-to cross mine? and it was not the shouts of the mob only. ? I fancied that when, in compasAnd could I ex

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I felt you shrinking from my touch, sion, I seized hold of your hand.' ecute the resolve which I have owned, and not shudder at the thoughts of its baneful consequences?'

"These now began to present themselves to my own mind also, in long and fearful array. At first, indeed, the surprise on beholding Euphrosyne thus unexpectedly, the consciousness of my own iniquities, the exultation at seeing its triumph sealed without the smallest violation of my promise, and the sympathy excited by my mistress's evident sufferings, together with a thousand other mixed and indescribable sensations, had induced a momentary forgetfulness of all those reports against Euphrosyne's character which had encouraged me to prosecute my plan, had made that plan receive its fulfilment, and had in their turn been confirmed by my very success. But on hearing, not only of an act so uncalled-for as Euphrosyne's spontaneous disclosure of her shame, so wanton as her refusal of her still urging suitor, and so strange as her deliberately leaving her husband for her despoiler, the truth -dimmed for a moment-seemed again to burst upon me, and with increased evidence, I now conceived that even my crime might only be the pretence, rather than the real reason of Euphrosyne's renouncing an advantageous match. Her former dishonour again rising to my mind, lent even her present conduct the colouring of artifice; and if I thought it hard upon me that an assignation proposed by my mistress herself-and that assignation too, proposed by her as not only the first, but also the last, for which I could hope-should end her inflicting upon me the burden of her permanent support, I thought it harder still to be thus heavily visited

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in consequence of the sins of others. That shelter, therefore, which I had gladly granted Euphrosyne, while it only seemed accidental and transient, I now began to grudge her, when it appeared purposely sought as the beginning only of a sojourn which was to have no end; and the burthen of this permanent society was what I determined to ward off to the utmost of my power.

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To give my real reason for so doing, was impossible, On reviewing every past circumstance, I felt that from the first wording of the assignation to the close of the inview, the successive incidents had been so conducted as to leave me, with every presumptive evidence, not one positive proof of Euphrosyne's having given her consent to my stolen pleasures. No argument against my compliance with her wishes, founded upon her complying too readily with mine-however valid in itself— I therefore knew would be admitted; and as to the report of her prior guilt with others,-even my own vanity shrunk from suffering an imputation so odious to lessen the merit of my victory, or the value of my prize besides I read in the streaming eyes, piteously fixed upon mine, pangs too acute still to increase them by a reproach which must inflict equal agony whether just or unfounded, Appearing, therefore, to speak more from tendernerness for her whom I addressed, than for myself, Euphrosyne,' said I, 'it was unwise, methinks, to divulge what but for your own spontaneous avowal might have remained an inscrutable secret; it was a thousand times more unwise still, when you found that by an unexampled privilege this deterred not your suitor, yourself to refuse him; but it seems to me the very height of folly willingly to court every form of disgrace, where, as it appears, you still may enjoy every species of distinction. You cannot justify your conduct in casting without necessity such stain upon your family. Hasten, then, to repair the mischief while you still are in time; return home immediately, as if you had only offered up a hurried prayer in the church, and obviate by your ready acceptance of the worthy Agyropoli all the impending consequences of your thoughtless and precipitate step.'

Alas! I addressed one who, wholly bewildered by her own feelings, heeded not, perhaps heard not my words. Euphrosyne, fixing upon me an eye at once vacant and supplicating, continued to preserve an unbroken, and, as I thought, stubborn silence, until at last I deemed it necessary to use terms more decisive and peremptory. Taking two or three hasty strides across the room, as if still to increase the ferment of my already heated blood: Euphrosyne,' cried I, 'it is impossible you can stay with me. I myself am a wanderer on the face of the globe,-to-day here,-to-morrow perhaps flying to the earth's furthest extremity, Your remaining under my uncertain roof can only end in total ruin to us both. I must insist upon your quitting my abode, ere your own be no longer accessible to your tardy repentance.'

Ah no!' now cried Euphrosyne, convulsively clasping my knees: be not so barbarous! Shut not your own heart against her, against whom you have barred every once friendly door. Do not deny her whom you have dishonoured the only asylum she has left, If I cannot be your wife, let me be your servant, your drudge. No service, however mean, shall I recoil from when you command. At least before you I shall not

have to blush. In your eyes I shall not be, what I must seem in those of others: I shall not from you incur the contempt, which I must expect from my former companions; and my diligence to execute the lowest offices you may require, will earn for me, not wholly as a bare alms at your hands, that support which, however scanty, I can elsewhere only receive as an unmer. ited indulgence. Since I did a few days please your eye, I may still please it a few days longer: --perhaps a few days longer, therefore, I may still wish to live; and when that last blessing, your love, is gone by,— when my cheek, faded with grief, has lost the last attraction that could meet your favour, then speak, then tell me so, that, burdening you no longer, I may retire and die!'

Spite of the tears of sincere sympathy with which I answered this speech, the conviction that all might still be by diligence hushed up, was going to make me urge more strenuously than before Euphrosyne's immediate return, when a new incident took place, which wholly changed my inclinations and my feelings.

This was no less than a sudden and forcible invasion of my lodgings by the maiden's relations. It had soon been discovered by them, that instead of going to the church, she had come to my abode; and her friends had thereupon walked forth in a body to claim the stray lamb, and to carry it back to the fold,

Chrysopulo himself indeed was not of the party; it only consisted of half-a-dozen of his first and second cousins; but this posse broke in upon me unceremoniously enough, just as I was urging my mistress by every motive in heaven and upon earth, not to delay her departure another minute, and immediately proceeded to effect by force, what I was only trying by persuasion.

My readers already know how little I liked the interference of strangers in my concerns, and how apt I was to act in opposition to their wishes and counsels, from no other motive but to assert my independence, or to show my daring: they will not therefore be much surprised to hear that this unlooked-for incident caused a sudden and entire revolution in my sentiments, and that, from wishing Euphrosyne to go, while she expressed a wish to stay, I now would have detained her by force, even if she had wished to go. Taking hold, therefore, of the maiden by one arm, while Chrysopulo's friends were pulling her away by the other, I swore that nothing short of death should make me give up a persecuted angel, which had thought fit to seek my protection; and as Euphrosyne herself, when appealed to, seemed to sanction my proceedings, by drawing her veil over her blushing features, her friends were at last induced by the gestures which accompanied my words, to give up all further attempts at violent measures.

In truth they rejoiced in their vile hearts at having it to say, that an insurmountable resistance had baffled all their efforts. Euphrosyne had early been left an orphan; her nearest of kin were all dead; and, though the more distant relations, to whose lot it fell to protect her, would have upheld their fair cousin most sedulously in the world, while they had any chance of deriving an additional lustre from her establishment, they were willing enough to drop the connection, as soon as her situation was likely to reflect discredit on their name. However loud and boisterons, therefore, might be the wish they expressed of restoring the fugitive to her family, there lurked not the less satisfaction at the bottom

when they found her resolved not to go: and while they pretended to feel exceedingly hurt at Euphrosyne's refusal they took her at her word with the utmost alacrity, or rather suffered her mere silence to stand for a denial. Devoutly lifting up their eyes to heaven, and drawing discordant groans from their flinty bosoms, they turned away from one whom they saw so irreclaimably abandoned, and hurried out of the house, lest she should change her mind ere they went out of hearing. When, however, they found themselves safe, as they thought, in the street, they stopt to announce for the benefit of all who passed by, their determination to renounce so unworthy a namesake. Thenceforth they were to regard the nameless profligate as among the departed, and, happen what might, never more to inquire after her fate; and to their credit be it spoken, they adhered in that instance most religiously to their human and pious vow.

My undisturbed possession of Chrysopulo's fair cousin therefore, was now a matter settled; and the lofty, the admired Euphrosyne, who that very morning might still have beheld all Smyrna at her feet, saw herself before mid-day installed in the lodging of a roving adOf her venturer, as his avowed and public mistress!

maid Sophia the lovely girl could give no account. While Chrysopule continued in hopes of seeing the affair hushed up, he abstained from rousing the anger of this fiend, by expressing his suspicions; but the moment Euphrosyne herself had made public her adventure, Sophia, no longer feeling safe in the family, had disappeared; nor had she since been heard of; but her louring fate was the least of my cares. The foremost at present was the payment of the sums I had won. The addition to my establishment permitted me not to be unmindful of my interests. As soon, therefore, as I had said and performed whatever seemed most calculated to dispel Euphrosyne's settled gloom, I immediately walked to the meeting place of our Society, and found its members in council assembled. My first salutation was a demand upon each: but, to my unutter. able dismay, the first answer was a loud and universal burst of laughter at my presumption. As soon as this peel of merriment had subsided a little, I was told that I might think myself well off in having nothing to pay instead of to receive, and on demanding a further explanation, I learned that the infernal Sophia had been beforehand with me, and, the instant she left the house of Chrysopulo, had gone round to all my companions, in the first place indeed to inform them of my success with Euphrosyne, but, in the next, to comfort them with the assurance that neither my vanity nor my fortune could derive any advantage from my triumph, as it had only been the consequence of my fair one's prior frailties, of those frailties which my confidant had solemnly sworn to me never to divulge. Every person present therefore called out a drawn wager;' and I was deemed disqualified from claiming a single para! What could I do with a bad cause, and a parcel of fellows each to the full as sturdy as myself? Only this, to renounce with a good grace what I clearly saw I should never obtain, and to join in the laugh at my own impudence; of which,' I observed, it was worth while at any rate to try the effect' But tolerably as I had contrived to preserve my good humour with my strapping companions, the case became different when, returning to Euphrosyne, I met Sophia coming at full

speed, to receive from those who had just mocked me the reward of her treachery. Great as was the disap. pointment experienced in my purse, it seemed nothing to the wound inflicted on my pride. The fate of a lovely female had been connected with mine by links even more indissoluble than those of matrimony, since a divorce could not restore her to her home, and this partner of my life had been branded by infamy;-and by her in whom she had most confided! The insulting epithets still rang in my ear, which had been showered on my mistress, through the spite of the infernal Sophia. So conscious, indeed, was this wicked girl of her iniquity, that, far from seeming to harbour any thoughts of enforcing her still unsettled claims on her first employer, the moment I appeared in her sight she tried to make her escape, but it was too late! • Wretch !' cried I, thus then you have performed your promise. Now behold in what way I perform mine? And hereupon I seized her by the wrist, and retorting upon her, in the midst of the gaping crowd, every disgraceful epithet which her malignancy had drawn down upon Euphrosyne, I terrified the vile woman into fainting, and then left her to recover in the filth of Smyrna's foulest kennel! Thanks to this cool immersion she tarried not to revive; but no sooner did the fury think herself safe from my wrath, than setting up a hellish laugh, Wipe clean your Euphrosyne,' cried she, 'ere you bespatter others with the dirt you have gained!' and then walked off with threatening gesture-alternately wishing me joy of my prize, and auguring me the reward of my guilt. Heated as I was by passion, her curses made my blood run cold, and in return I would have chilled for ever the noisome tide in her own viper veins with a home thrust of my dagger,----had I not been prevented that time, by the mob, from crushing the reptile.

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But its venomed bite left a print in my heart which no power could efface! To fail in all my schemes both of profit and of pride; to be burdened with the whole weight of my mistress's existence, while bereft of all esteem for her character; to feel myself the victim of her deceit or the sport of her caprice, when her real tenderness had already been prostituted ;---and more than that, to find the shame which I had hoped to bury in the inmost recesses of my own bosom, divulged to all the world; to be pointed at with derision by those very companions over whom I had made sure to triumph---were tortures beyond my strength to bear; or at least, to bear alone.; and the embers of affection for my new inmate still glowing in my breast, when I last left my home, seemed all extinguished ere I again crossed my treshold. If, however, I only return to my abode with the determination of making my guest a partaker in all the sufferings drawn down by her last insane act upon myself, it was also with the full intent to keep the cause of my behaviour locked for ever within my own swelling heart! Why indeed dwell without necessity upon the painful thoughts of an infamy, of which I was unable to bring the proof, and despaired of extorting the confession! Under her former playfulness of manner Euphrosyne had always concealed great decision of character. She had shrunk from going home to a husband or from staying with friends whose reproach she must fear, or whose forbearance endure. Me alone she had considered as accountable for whatever home and felicity my offence had deprived her of elsewhere; and

to me she had come for refuge, as to the only person who still owed her protection: but she had come oppressed with the sense of her dishonour; she had come with such deep anguish at the heart, that, had the fruitfulness of her imagination still broke forth amid her glowing shame into the smallest bud of sprightliness or fancy, she would have thought it a duty to crush the tender blossoms, as weeds whose rank luxuriance ill became her fallen state. Nothing but the most unremitting tenderness on my part could in some degree have revived her drooping spirits.

But when after my excursion and the act of justice on Sophia in which it ended, I re-appeared before the still trembling Euphrosyne, she saw too soon that that cordial of the heart must not be expected. One look she cast upon my countenance, as I sat down in silence, sufficed to inform her of my total change of sentiments; ----and the responsive look by which it was met, tore for ever from her breast the last seeds of hope and confidence. Like the wounded snail, she shrunk within herself, and thenceforth cloaked in unceasing sadness, never more expanded to the sunshine of joy. With her buoyancy of spirits, she seemed even to lose all her quickness of intellect, nay all her readiness of speech; so that, not only fearing to embark with her in serious conversation, but even finding no response in her mind to lighter topics, I at last began to nauseate her seeming torpor and dulness, and to roam abroad even more frequently than before a partner of my fate remained at home, to count the tedious hours of my absence; while she-poor miserable creature---dreading the sneers of an unfeeling world, passed her time under my roof in dismal and heart-breaking solitude.

Had the most patient endurance of the most intemperate sallies been made to soothe my disappointment and to soften my hardness, Euphrosyne's angelic sweetness must at last have conquered: but in my jaundiced eye her resignation only tended to strengthen the conviction of her shame: and I saw in her forbearance nothing but the consequence of her debasement, and the consciousness of her guilt. Did her heart,' thought I, 'bear witness to a purity on which my audacity dared first to cast a blemish, she could not remain thus tame, thus spiritless, under such an aggravation of my wrongs; and either she would be the first to quit my merciless roof, or at least she would not so fearfully avoid to give me even the most unfounded pretence for denying her its shelter,----she must merit her sufferings to bear them so meekly!'

Hence, even when moved to real pity by gentleness so enduring, I seldom relented in my apparent sternness. In order to conquer, or at least to conceal sentiments which I considered as effects only of weakness, I even forced myself on these occasions to increased severity. Unable to go the length of parting from a friendless outcast, even though----conformable to her own terms-the continuance of my love was to have given the measure of her stay, I almost banished myself entirely from my own home, and plunged more headlong than ever into extravagance and dissipation. Unto this period I had quaffed my wine, to enjoy its flavour: I now drank to drive away my senses. Unto this period I had gamed to beguile an idle hour: I now played to produce in my spirits a brief intoxication. I stayed out while I was able to renew my stake, and only re-. turned home when utterly exhausted by my losses.

Nay, when Euphrosyne, after sitting up alone all night, saw me return-pale and feverish-in the broad glare of the next morning, it was often only to be pursued by all the spleen collected during my nocturnal excesses. Yet she tarried on: for to me she had sacrified her all, and though in me she found nothing but a thorn, yet to that thorn she clung, as to that on which alone now hung her whole existence !

Euphrosyne was wont to keep in readiness for me a hot cup of coffee, when I came in from my nightly revels. After gambling, it served as a restorative; but after drinking, it was the only thing capable of allying the sort of temporary madness, with which wine always affected my irritable brain. One morning, when alternate losses at dice and libations to Bacchus had sent me home half frantic, instead of finding my mistress as usual all alacrity to minister the reviving draught, to chafe my throbbing temples, and to perform what other soothing offices her awe of me permitted, I found her lying on the floor in a swoon. I only thought her asleep; but, on attempting to lift her up, her features were bruised and her face besmeared with blood. Unnerved by excess and shaking with agitation, my arm, however, was wholly unable to support even her light weight, and I let her drop again. She thought I did so on purpose, for, raising her head with great effort, she fixed on my countenance her haggard tearless eyes, and clasping her hands together, for the first time vented her anguish in audible words. 'I had been warned,' she cried, with half stifled emotion, How?' said I.

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That morning,' answered she, when unexpectedly you appeared among us in the meadow, you were scarcely out of sight when the cause of your coming was discussed. We agreed-foolish girls, as we were, -that chance alone had not brought you to that place, and drew lots to find out where lurked the secret attention. I got the prize, if prize it could be called! A friend some years older than myself, observed my emotion, " Euphrosyne," she whispered, "if you care not for that stranger, frolic with him as you like; but if ever he should gain your affections, O! avoid him like a pestilence. From the moment that he knows himself the master of your heart, he will treat it as wayward children do their toys; he will not rest until he has broken it. "

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This was but the first warning, and only given by a human voice,' continued my mistress : 'A higher admonition came straight from heaven! You know the marble image found in our field, which now adorns our garden. Once, they say, it was flesh and blood,— a hapless maiden like myself; but, alas, less susceptible, and therefore turned into stone. On the night of your outrage, as I rose from my prayer-from the prayer, which at that time I neither neglected nor felt afraid to utter---a deep hollow moan issued from its snowy bosom! another and a louder shriek was heard when I spoke to Argyropoli; and one still more dismal than the former rent the air, when I left my kinsman's roof to fly to your arms!'

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And warned even by an insensible stone,' I cried, you would not see the precipice?'

Ah!' exclaimed Euphrosyne, reproach me with anything but my love. It was that which, in spite of every circumstance, that should have opened my eyes, still kept me blind.'

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