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emotion at her daughter's abrupt confession, now listened with equally imperturbable composure to Walter's rather hurried and confused attempts at excusing what was, in the strict sense, inexcusable; and to his frank and manly professions of attachment to her daughter, and of his desire, if he might be received as a son by that daughter's mother, to prove, by every act of his future life, his sense of such generous forgiveness. Having heard him to the end, with the most exemplary patience and faultless good-breeding, Madame du Resnel begged to assure Monsieur Barnard, that, "so far from assuming to herself any right of censure over him or his actions, past, present, or to come, she begged leave to assure him she was incapable of such impertinent interference; and that, with regard to the lady who had ceased to be her daughter on becoming the wife of Monsieur Barnard, she resigned from that moment all claims on the duty she had violated, and all control over her future actions. Les effets appartenant a Mademoiselle Madelaine du Resnel--[poor little Madelaine, few and little worth were thy worldly goods!]--should be ready for delivery to any authorised claimant." "Au reste"--Madame du Resnel had the honour to felicitate Monsieur and Madame Barnard on their auspicious union, and to wish them a very good morning--an adieu sans au revoir--with which tender conclusion she dropped a profound and dignified curtsy, and with her attendant daughters (who dutifully followed the maternal example) passed through the gate of the Manoir, and closed it after her, with no violence, but a deliberate firmness, that spoke to those without more convincingly than words could have expressed it--"Henceforward, and for ever, this barrier is closed against you." That moment was one of bitterness to the new-made wife--to the discarded daughter; and, for a time, all the feelings that had led to her violation of filial duty--all the excuses she had framed to herself for breaking its sacred obligations--all the "shortcomings" of love she had been subjected to in her own home--and all--ay, even all the love, passing speech, which had bound up her life with Walter Barnard's--all was forgotten--merged in one absorbing agony of distress, at the sudden and violent wrench-asunder of Nature's first and holiest ties. She clung to the side-post of the old gate that opened to her paternal domain--to the house of her fathers. She kissed the bars that excluded
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