Page:Zanoni.djvu/107

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BOOK II.

ART, LOVE, AND WONDER.


CHAPTER I.

Centauri, e Sfingi, e pallide Gorgoni.[1]

One moonlit night, in the Gardens at Naples, some four or five gentlemen were seated under a tree, drinking their sherbet, and listening, in the intervals of conversation, to the music which enlivened that gay and favourite resort of an indolent population. One of this little party was a young Englishman, who had been the life of the whole group, but who, for the last few moments, had sunk into a gloomy and abstracted reverie. One of his countrymen observed this sudden gloom, and, tapping him on the back, said, "What ails you, Glyndon? Are you ill? You have grown quite pale — you tremble. Is it a sudden chill? You had better go home: these Italian nights are often dangerous to our English constitutions."

  1. Centaurs, and Sphinxes, and pallid Gorgons.