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Page 27
"In that chateau, I first saw the light of day, and there I spent my
happy childhood and youth.
"The estate of Rossillon had been bequeathed by the will of my
grandfather, to his two sons. The elder, the present Count de
Rossillon, inherited the larger portion; my father, the younger son,
the smaller share.
"My father was a Bonapartist, and at the time of his marriage held a
high rank in the army. During his absence from the country, my mother
resided at the chateau with her brother-in-law, the Count.
"One day in June, news arrived of the sudden death of my father. It was
communicated to my mother, by the messenger who brought it, without
precaution. That night, one hour after, I was ushered into an orphaned
existence and my mother took her departure from the world. Think of
me, Ad�le, thus thrown a waif upon the shore of life. Yet, though born
in the shadow of a great sorrow, sunlight struck across my path.
"The faithful _bonne_, who had taken care of my mother in her infancy
and had never left her, now took charge of me. She watched over me
faithfully and filled up my childhood with affectionate attention and
innocent pastime. My uncle, the Count, who had never been married,
loved, petted, and indulged me in every wish. When I grew old enough,
he secured a governess well qualified to teach and discipline me.
Under her care, with the aid of masters in Latin, music, and drawing,
from Amiens, I went through the course of instruction considered
necessary for young ladies at that time.
"I was at your age my Ad�le when I first met your father. He was not
the bronzed and careworn man you see him now. Ah! no. He was young and
gay, with a falcon glance and, black wreathing locks hanging over his
white, smooth brow. His father was of noble blood, and sympathized
warmly with the dethroned Bourbons. He was no lover of the great
Consul. The political troubles in France had operated in ways greatly
to impoverish his house.
"He owned and occupied only the remnant of what had been a large
estate, adjoining that of the Count de Ros.
"While acquiring his education, your father, except at occasional
intervals, was six years from home, and it so happened that I never
met him in my childhood. Indeed, the families were not on terms of
intimacy. On his return from the University, I first saw him. _Eh!
bien!_ It is the same old story that you have heard and read of, in
your books, my Ad�le. We became acquainted, I will not stop now, to
tell you how, and soon learned to love each other. Time passed on, and
at last your father sought the consent of my uncle, to our marriage.
But he put aside the proposition with anger and scorn. He thought that
Claude Dubois was neither distinguished nor rich enough to match his
niece. In his heart, he had reserved me for some conspicuous position
in the great circle at Paris, while I had given myself to an obscure
youth in Picardy.
"Your father was too honorable to ask me to marry him without the
consent of the Count, and too proud to take me in his poverty. So one
day, after his stormy interview with my uncle, he came to me and said
he was going away to endeavor to get fame, or wealth, to bestow upon
me and make himself more worthy in the eyes of the Count de Rossillon.
Yet he wished to release me from any feeling of obligation to him, as,
he said, I was too young and had too little acquaintance with life and
society to know fully my own heart. It would not be right, he thought,
to bind me to himself by any promise. I told him my affection for him
would never change, but acquiesced in his arrangements with a sad and
foreboding heart. In a few weeks, he embarked for India.
"Then my uncle roused himself from the inertia of his quiet habits and
made arrangements for a journey through France and Italy, which he
said I was to take with him.
"I received the announcement with indifference, being wholly occupied
with grief at the bitter separation from your father. The change
however proved salutary, and, in a week after our departure, I felt
hope once more dawning in my heart.
"The country through which we travelled was sunny and beautiful, veined
with sparkling streams, shadowed by forests, studded with the olive
and mulberry, and with vines bearing the luscious grape for the
vintage. The constant change of scene and the daily renewal of objects
of interest and novelty, combined with the elasticity of youth,
brought back some degree of my former buoyancy and gayety. My uncle
was so evidently delighted with the return of my old cheerfulness, and
exerted himself so much to heighten it in every way, that I knew he
sincerely loved me, and was doing what he really thought would in the
end contribute to my happiness. He judged that my affection for your
father was a transient, youthful dream, and would soon be forgotten;
he fancied, no doubt, I was even then beginning to wake up from it. He
wished to prevent me from forming an early and what he considered an
imprudent marriage, which I might one day regret, unavailingly.
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