apathetic temperament, communicated to her farewell so much of
the appearance of genuine feeling, that the young soldier returned to
his country, and to his military duties, imbued with the blissful
assurance that, whatever unworthy doubts had been suggested occasionally
by fallacious appearances, the heart of his fair betrothed was as
faultless as her person, and exclusively devoted to himself. So wholly
had the "sweet sorrow" of that farewell absorbed his every faculty, that
it was not till he was miles from St Hilaire on his way to the coast,
that Walter remembered la petite Madelaine; remembered that he had
bid HER no farewell; that she had slipt away to her own home the last
evening of his stay at St Hilaire, unobserved by all but an old _bonne_,
who was commissioned to say Mademoiselle Madelaine had a headache,
and that she had not reappeared the next morning, the morning of his
departure. "Dear little Madelaine! how could I forget her?" was the next
thought to that which had recalled her. "But she shall live with us
when we are married." So having laid the flattering unction to his
conscience, by that satisfactory arrangement for her future comfort,
he "whistled her image down the wind" again, and betook himself with
redoubled ardour to the contemplation of Adrienne.

And where was la petite Madelaine?--What became of her, and what
was she doing that livelong day? Never was she so much wanted at St
Hilaire--to console--to support--to occupy the "fair forsaken;" and
yet she came not. "What insensibility--what ingratitude! at such a
time!"--exclaimed the parents of the lovely desolate--so interesting
in her becoming character of a lone bird "reft of its mutual heart,"
so amiable in her attempted exculpation of the neglectful Madelaine!
"She does not mean to be unkind--to be cruel--as her conduct
_seems_"--_sweetly_ interposed the meek apologist.--"But she is
thoughtless--_insouciante_--and you know, chere Maman! I always told
you la petite Madelaine has no sensibility--Ah Ciel!"----That mine
were less acute!--was, of course, the implied sense of that concluding
apostrophe--and every one will feel the eloquence of the appeal, so
infinitely more affecting than the full-length sentence would have been.
If vagueness is one great source of the sublime--it is also a grand
secret in the arcana of sensibility.

But we may remember that poor little Madelaine had slipt away to her own
home the preceding evening, pleading a