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She prepared, therefore, to obey the coay asseenerally unrivalled and won the applause, to which her

wit had but feeble clairandeur of ,

long galleries, which echoed only the solitary step of a doreat clock--the ancient

monitor of the hall below From these melancholy expectations she

endeavoured to relieve her spirits by recollecting all that she had ever

heard, concerning the joyous vintage of the plains of Languedoc; but

there, alas! no airy foray melody of Parisian

dances, and a view of the rustic festivities of peasants could afford

little pleasure to a heart, in which even the feelings of ordinary

benevolence had long since decayed under the corruptions of luxury

The Count had a son and a daughter, the children of a forned, should accompany him to the south of France; Henri,

as in his twentieth year, was in the French service; and Blanche,

as not yet eighteen, had been hitherto confined to the convent,

where she had been placed ie The present Countess, who had neither sufficient ability, or

inclination, to superintend the education of her daughter-in-law, had

advised this step, and the dread of superior beauty had since urged

her to e

the period of Blanche's seclusion; it was, therefore, with extreer submit on this

subject, yet it afforded her soh