recollect
the past; and I am wrong--oh, very wrong--thus to dwell on ideas that
sadden and depress instead of raising and invigorating my enfeebled
mind. Had I gone on thus weakly indulging regrets, I might, indeed, have
fallen ill,--for I am by no means so at present. No, no," continued the
unfortunate parent, placing her fingers upon the wrist of her left
hand, "my fever has left me,--my pulse beats tranquilly."

Alas! the quick, irregular, and hurried pulsation perceptible beneath
the parched yet icy skin allowed not of such flattering hopes; and,
after pausing in deep and heartfelt wretchedness for a short space, the
unhappy Madame de Fermont thus continued:

"Wherefore, O God of Mercies, thus visit with thine anger two wretched
and helpless creatures, utterly unconscious of having merited thy
displeasure? What has been the crime that has thus drawn down such heavy
punishments upon our heads? Was not my child a model of innocent piety,
as her father was of honour? Have I not ever scrupulously fulfilled my
duties both as wife and mother? Why, then, permit us to become the
victims of a vile, ignoble wretch,--my sweet, my innocent child more
especially? Oh, when I remember that, but for the nefarious conduct of
this notary, the rising dawn of my daughter's existence would have been
clear and unclouded, I can scarcely restrain my tears. But for his base
treachery we should now be in our own home, without further care or
sorrow than such as arose from the painful and unhappy circumstances
attending the death of my poor brother. In two or three years' time I
should have begun to think of marrying my sweet Claire, that is, if I
could have found any one worthy of so good, so pure-minded, and so
lovely a creature as herself. Who would not have rejoiced in obtaining
such a bride? And further, after having merely reserved to myself a
trifling annuity, sufficient to have enabled me to live somewhere in the
neighbourhood, I intended, on her marriage, to bestow on her the whole
of my remaining possessions, amounting to at least one hundred thousand
crowns; for I should have been enabled to lay by something. And, when a
lovely and beautiful young creature, like my Claire, gifted with all the
advantages of a superior education, can, in addition, boast of a dowry
of more than one hundred thousand crowns--"

Then, as she again returned to the realities of her present position,
altogether overcome by the painful contrast, Madame de