Pickwick Abroad: A Companion to the Pickwick Papers — page 182: what you’re looking at

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

ye; 166 oy fag “ Be it as you say, Anastasie,” betarod | Wendée suseeptibl e hea Germilly; “ only, ; during your absence, let. informed me, had vainly sor ‘me not be left in anxiety and s suspense con- cerning your health and welfare.” p «J will write to you constantly,” was my answer: and we then bade each other farewell. Ina few days I left Paris, and lived for some time in a secluded manner in the neighborhood of Saint Germain- -en- laye. * At length the time approached when I was to become a mother. You, for whom this narrative is penned, may not be aware that there are houses ‘in Paris kept by wo- men called sages femmes, in which the frail one’ may conceal her shame, and usher into the world that offspring which else- where would be the proclamation of her | liserace. Houses of mystery and silence | are those asylums—useful to the scion of the noble family; as well as to the member of the poorer classes—and endowed with every comfort which the most fastidious Jady could require, as well as every requi- site to ensure the maintenance of that “ecresy which the sage femme was never Jnown to betray. Alas! to swhat.a tax has dot the ingenuity of man from time to time peen put, in order to discover means, not so much to prevent crimes, as to veil their consequences ; and sad is the conviction for the contemplation of posterity, that as ci- vilization and social improvement progress in reference to laws, luxuries, and the’in- ventions of art and science, so does the ave- rage amount of turpitude increase in pro- portion ! “In‘the silence and darkness of a cold win- ter’s night, I left my peaceful retreat in the neig hborhood of Saint Germain-en- laye, and repaired in a hired:vehicle to the private asylum which my mother had selected as a safe retreat wherein her daughter could bring forth and conceal the fruits of her frailty. I shall pass over all trivial circum- stances connected with that event; suffice it to say, that the child, which might. have published my shame, survived not its birth, and that I did not reer A, its speedy re- ‘moval to the tomb. The only acquainiance that I formed in the house of the sage femme was. that. of a PICKWICK ABROAD. MED 0 rn ik Her cousin, she \ ght her seducer, in order to take. ample vengeance upon the head of him who had. wronged lis r lative ; and he occasionally visited her.to soothe her ‘sufferings, and hold out prospects of happi- ness in. future., We did not reveal our names to each other ; but we were intimat 3 and a casual acquaintance — on ne into a strict friendship. The room of this young person was it ate at one end of a passage, and min the other ; and we were the only aera any apartments whose doors. opened. red that corridor, which communicated with the rest of the house: by means of a flight of stairs in the middle. Whenever her cousin called upon her, he invariably advertised her of bis visit through the medium of: the sage-femime, before he ventured up stairs, fearful that any other inmate of the house might be with his relative, | But one morn- ine he ealled, and not finding the sage-feimme in her own room as usual, he ascended the stairs, without giving notice of his presence in the house—advanced up the passage— aud was about to knock at the door of his cousin’s room, When I issued from my OWD apartment. Judge of my surprise—my agony—and my despair, when I found my: self face to face with Alphonse Germilly ! . “What do Isee?” cried the young man: “ ism it possible ! 2 You—Anastasie—you here!” and in a moment the whole truth flashed to his mind. “Oh! now I compre- hend the motives of your pretended visit to your aunt, who lives far—very far off—and the delay ‘which you r eq! uested, ere you gave me a decided angnye ry fe “ Alphonse ! Alphons “ « spare your reproaches ; I canneé bear era LN? “Oh! this is the overt whom you have so often spoken to. ‘me? cried the object ot Alphonse’s visit, now rushing from her own apartment. to ascertain the cause of the dis- turbance in the “passage, and addressing herself to.me: “and you, Alphonse—you have found the mistress you adored !” “«True—too true!” murmured Germilly, paring his hands across his brow; then, all manly feeling giving way to_ the. tide’ of erief and disappointment, he nye phi bit- young woman who had also suffered herself | terly. to be. betrayed by the seductive language of a villain. But she was far more virtuous than I ;—she mourned her crime with tears, with sighs, and with aneuish,—and she had fondly Toved the wretch sho had. broken “ For God’s sake calm yourself” ¢ beled I, overcome with shame and sorrow. “ Your seducer! your seducer,. Apidae —who is he? speak!” cried Alphonse, atter a long pause. “speak, I say—and may my Eboo (E(0) () (CO) SS