ve, that good sense and noble integrity are not always
sufficient to cope with folly and narrow cunning; and her heart was pure
enough to allow her, even at this trying moment, to look with more pride
on the defeat of the former, than with mortification on the conquests of
the latter.

Madame Cheron pursued her triumph. 'He has also thought proper to tell
me, that he will receive his dismission from no person but yourself;
this favour, however, I have absolutely refused him. He shall learn,
that it is quite sufficient, that I disapprove him. And I take this
opportunity of repeating,--that if you concert any means of interview
unknown to me, you shall leave my house immediately.'

'How little do you know me, madam, that you should think such an
injunction necessary!' said Emily, trying to suppress her emotion, 'how
little of the dear parents, who educated me!'

Madame Cheron now went to dress for an engagement, which she had made
for the evening; and Emily, who would gladly have been excused from
attending her aunt, did not ask to remain at home lest her request
should be attributed to an improper motive. When she retired to her own
room, the little fortitude, which had supported her in the presence of
her relation, forsook her; she remembered only that Valancourt, whose
character appeared more amiable from every circumstance, that unfolded
it, was banished from her presence, perhaps, for ever, and she passed
the time in weeping, which, according to her aunt's direction, she ought
to have employed in dressing. This important duty was, however, quickly
dispatched; though, when she joined Madame Cheron at table, her eyes
betrayed, that she had been in tears, and drew upon her a severe
reproof.

Her efforts to appear cheerful did not entirely fail when she joined the
company at the house of Madame Clairval, an elderly widow lady, who had
lately come to reside at Tholouse, on an estate of her late husband. She
had lived many years at Paris in a splendid style; had naturally a gay
temper, and, since her residence at Tholouse, had given some of the most
magnificent entertainments, that had been seen in that neighbourhood.

These excited not only the envy, but the trifling ambition of Madame
Cheron, who, since she could not rival the splendour of her festivities,
was desirous of being ranked in the number of her most intimate friends.
For this purpose she paid her the most obsequious attention, and made
a point of being di