They now again recurred to the subject of the Countess and her letter. The Marchioness expressed her wishes to set off with all possible expedition to England, and within ten days it was fixed they should depart. Matilda heard this determination with a sigh, which did not pass unobserved, though they forbore to notice it; they concluded however she should be left to herself until the next morning, that their opinions might not appear to influence her. For herself, the idea of her obscure birth was a severe mortification; she considered her friends De Bouville and De Bancre as so much her superiors, that she could no longer treat them with that easy familiarity she had been accustomed, though she little thought the former was acquainted with her whole story.
In the evening came the Countess of Bouville and her family, with Madame De Nancy and her sister. After the first compliments, "Bless me! (cried Mademoiselle De Bancre) what in the world, ladies, haveyou
