y depressed, and then thought of him with much less anguish
than she had done since they parted. Among some other requests, which
were interesting to her, because expressive of his tenderness, and
because a compliance with them seemed to annihilate for a while the pain
of absence, he entreated she would always think of him at sunset. 'You
will then meet me in thought,' said he; 'I shall constantly watch the
sun-set, and I shall be happy in the belief, that your eyes are fixed
upon the same object with mine, and that our minds are conversing. You
know not, Emily, the comfort I promise myself from these moments; but I
trust you will experience it.'

It is unnecessary to say with what emotion Emily, on this evening,
watched the declining sun, over a long extent of plains, on which she
saw it set without interruption, and sink towards the province which
Valancourt inhabited. After this hour her mind became far more tranquil
and resigned, than it had been since the marriage of Montoni and her
aunt.

During several days the travellers journeyed over the plains of
Languedoc; and then entering Dauphiny, and winding for some time among
the mountains of that romantic province, they quitted their carriages
and began to ascend the Alps. And here such scenes of sublimity opened
upon them as no colours of language must dare to paint! Emily's mind was
even so much engaged with new and wonderful images, that they sometimes
banished the idea of Valancourt, though they more frequently revived
it. These brought to her recollection the prospects among the Pyrenees,
which they had admired together, and had believed nothing could excel
in grandeur. How often did she wish to express to him the new emotions
which this astonishing scenery awakened, and that he could partake
of them! Sometimes too she endeavoured to anticipate his remarks, and
almost imagined him present. She seemed to have arisen into another
world, and to have left every trifling thought, every trifling
sentiment, in that below; those only of grandeur and sublimity now
dilated her mind, and elevated the affections of her heart.

With what emotions of sublimity, softened by tenderness, did she meet
Valancourt in thought, at the customary hour of sun-set, when, wandering
among the Alps, she watched the glorious orb sink amid their summits,
his last tints die away on their snowy points, and a solemn obscurity
steal over the scene! And when the last gleam had faded, she turned