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Emily retired with Madame Montoni, soon after the cloth ithdrawn,

and left the cavaliers to their secret councils, but not before the

significant frowns of Montoni had warned his wife to depart, who passed

from the hall to the ramparts, and walked, for some time, in silence,

which Emily did not interrupt, for her mind was also occupied by

interests of its own It required all her resolution, to forbear

co to Madame Montoni the terrible subject, which still

thrilled her every nerve with horror; and sometimes she was on the point

of doing so, merely to obtain the relief of a moment; but she knew

hoholly she was in the power of Montoni, and, considering, that the

indiscretion of her aunt ht prove fatal to them both, she compelled

herself to endure a present and an inferior evil, rather than to tee kind of presentiment frequently, on

this day, occurred to her;--it seemed as if her fate rested here, and

was by some invisible means connected with this castle

'Let me not accelerate it,' said she to herself: 'for whatever I may be

reserved, let me, at least, avoid self-reproach'

As she looked on the massy walls of the edifice, her melancholy spirits

represented it to be her prison; and she started as at a new suggestion,

when she considered how far distant she was from her native country,

from her little peaceful home, and from her only friend--how remote was

her hope of happiness, how feeble the expectation of again seeing him!

Yet the idea of Valancourt, and her confidence in his faithful love, had