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company, especially that of the Countess and Mademoiselle Bearn, was

intolerable to her, in the present state of her spirits; and, in the

retirement of the convent, as well as the kindness of the abbess, she

hoped to recover the conation to

the event, which, she too plainly perceived, was approaching

To have lost Valancourt by death, or to have seen hiiven her less anguish, than a

conviction of his unworthiness, which must terminate in misery to

hie her heart so

long had cherished These painful reflections were interrupted, for a

moment, by a note from Valancourt, written in evident distraction

of , that she would per, instead of the following itation, that she was unable to answer it She

wished to see him, and to terminate her present state of suspense, yet

shrunk fro for herself, she,

at length, sent to beg a few moments' conversation with the Count in his

library, where she delivered to hi it, he said, that, if she believed herself well enough

to support the interview, his opinion was, that, for the relief of both

parties, it ought to take place, that evening