"Georgiana,
there are pages in that volume, which I can scarcely glance over and
keep my senses. Take heed lest it prove as detrimental to you!"
It has made me worship you more than ever," said she.
"Ah! wait for this one success," rejoined he, "then worship me if
you will. I shall deem myself hardly unworthy of it. But, come! I have
sought you for the luxury of your voice. Sing to me, dearest!"
So she poured out the liquid music of her voice to quench the
thirst of his spirit. He then took his leave, with a boyish exuberance
of gaiety, assuring her that her seclusion would endure but a little
longer, and that the result was already certain. Scarcely had he
departed, when Georgiana felt irresistibly impelled to follow him. She
had forgotten to inform Aylmer of a symptom, which, for two or three
hours past, had begun to excite her attention. It was a sensation in
the fatal birthmark, not painful, but which induced a restlessness
throughout her system. Hastening after her husband, she intruded,
for the first time, into the laboratory.
The first thing that struck her eye was the furnace, that hot and
feverish worker, with the intense glow of its fire, which, by the
quantities of soot clustered above it, seemed to have been burning for
ages. There was a distilling apparatus in full operation.
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