With a few drops of this, in a vase of
water, freckles may be washed away as easily as the hands are
cleansed. A stronger infusion would take the blood out of the cheek,
and leave the rosiest beauty a pale ghost."
"Is it with this lotion that you intend to bathe my cheek?" asked
Georgiana, anxiously.
"Oh, no!" hastily replied her husband- "this is merely superficial.
Your case demands a remedy that shall go deeper."
In his interviews with Georgiana, Aylmer generally made minute
inquiries as to her sensations, and whether the confinement of the
rooms, and the temperature of the atmosphere, agreed with her. These
questions had such a particular drift, that Georgiana began to
conjecture that she was already subjected to certain physical
influences, either breathed in with the fragrant air, or taken with
her food. She fancied, likewise- but it might be altogether fancy-
that there was a stirring up of her system: a strange, indefinite
sensation creeping through her veins, and tingling, half-painfully,
half-pleasurably, at her heart. Still, whenever she dared to look into
the mirror, there she beheld herself, pale as a white rose, and with
the crimson birthmark stamped upon her cheek. Not even Aylmer now
hated it so much as she.
To dispel the tedium of the hours which her husband found it
necessary to devote to the processes of combination and analysis,
Georgiana turned over the volumes of his scientific library.
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