Belle-Rose — page 61: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

50 So HOST ILGUStONE, =. 2 . Pa rh af Fit oO ee Pt a 7 ne ee felt happy at your success, and proud to have placed my affections on i caat one who deserved them. In solitude my mind has matured, my friend. The future which we have dreamed of together, and which we have ~— promised one another to reach, is still sweet to me, and itistoward —~ it that my illusions turn when I wish to taste an hour of tranquil hap- piness. Hope lulls my heart as a mother does her child. Claudine, oe my friend, the confidante of my dreams, often animates them with her joyous words, and gives them all the deceitful hopes of reality. The dawn finds us oftentimes talking in low tones along the hedges where- the birds chatter; many times the twilight surprises us still in the mead- ows, walking with clasped hands, and together we watch the golden ~~ bands extinguished, and gaze at the last smile of the sun which lights — up the tops of the poplars. She has your name upon her lipsand ~~ embraces me; it is in my heart, and I-am silent. As to my father, he takes up his time in informing himself about the price of securities so as to increase his fortune, which I find too large already. He assures me that it is for my happiness, and I cannot make him hear reason on the subject. He purchases hay one day, and wheat the next—then he sells the whole at a large profit. Itis for my dowry, he tells me. It — is a strange thing ; the persons who are most attached to us act ac- cording to their fancy when they believethey act for ourgood, and work to satisfy their own taste when they pretend to work for our happi- ness. I should like to lengthen this letter in order to delay the mo- — ment when I must talk to you about the affair which touches both of us most closely. But what good would result from it? Willitnot always be necessary far me to force my mind to instruct you about it? —— — Honesty requires it. When you shall have read this letter tothe end, ~ you will weep over me, over yourself, but you will pardon me. My will has submitted to the evil, it has not brought it about. You know my father’s reply to your proposition ; since that day he has never conversed with me about your love and your hopes; only, when the progress which you were making in the esteem of your chiefs was spo- — ken of, he said that he was not astonished at it and that you were ca-— -pable of succeeding in anything. At these times I felt an extraordi- nary desire to embrace him. Some time ago, M. de Malzonvilliers, on ) returning from a journey which he had made to Calais, introduced me ~~ to a young gentleman of good appearance. -A secret instinct—anin- ~~ stinct of the heart no doubt—told me that this young seigneur did not come to Malzonvilliers on commercial affairs, and I felt my heart con-- _ tract, ‘T’his young nobleman had a very keén wit, and altogether the air of aman of good family; but you could see that he spoke before reflecting, and that above all he was occupied with pleasure and frivo- ~~ lous things. He remained eight or ten days at the chateau, during which it was impossible for me to go out walking with Claudine, un- less [ went in the morning very early, or in the evening while the ~~ stranger was paying a visit to the nobility of St. Omer. Attheendof = — this time the gentleman went away: I scarcely had time to breathe when a grave seigneur replaced him at the chateau. The latter wasas sedentary as the other was active; he had akind disposition, and though suffering from old wounds, a noble and easy carriage. His — discourse was playful, but always honest—his manners polite, andyou — felt attracted by the expression of his physiognomy, while at thesame == time you were seized with respect at the sight of his gray mustache and some scars which furrowed his bald forehead. This seigneur was = ~~ - a - ’ ae am a --- comicbooks.com — * e -— > - £34 255% ° oe 2 ae . <a s, o~w a” ee