The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 25: what you’re looking at

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

6 REYNOLDS’ WORKS Five years had Clarine passed in the comparative solitude of that chateau without a single lady acquaintance, and with only the occasional visits of the priest to break in upon the monotony of this mode of life. During all that while it never seemed to have struck her father that he was keeping her out of that society which one of her years might naturally be supposed to crave. But all of a sudden he one day asked her whether she felt her mode of existence lonely. She re- plied in the negative; and she spoke the truth, — she had erown accustomed to it. He nevertheless hinted at his intention to procure her some suitable female companionship, and he even went so far as to express a regret that he had not done so before. This was saying a great deal for Monsieur Volney, and Clarine, so little accustomed to such expressions from her father’s lips, regarded the observation as one indi- cative of the utmost love and kindness. . Several weeks went by after that little conversation, the subject of which appeared to have totally escaped Monsieur Volney’s memory. He took his solitary walks as usual, shut himself up in his study as much as heretofore, and left his daughter as completely to her own resources as ever. But during this interval Clarine herself seemed likewise to have ceased to think of her father’s transient promise, for instead of her spirits suffering from a prolonged monotony of the life she was leading, they grew gayer and more cheerful than they were before. Thus, when one day, at the expiration of six weeks or a couple of months, her father told her with his accustomed abruptness that she would now at length have female companionship, she looked as if taken by surprise, and even as if the announcement afforded her not the slightest pleasure. But she was accustomed to pay implicit obedience to her sire’s wishes, and she therefore offered not a syllable of objection; while he, on his part, did not seem to notice that the communication was received with less satisfaction than it might have been. The announcement itself was made as the result of some little conversation which had taken place between Monsieur Volney and the village priest. It appeared that a young and beautiful English lady of rank, attended by two female domestics, had arrived at the village, on her way to seek some other part of the Pyrenees as a temporary residence. Being an invalid, she was detained by indisposition for some days (E(0) CORNICIOOKS