yet were a secrot to the entire city. He looked like man who was asking a favor, when he argued that, owing to a change of circumstances, he must ask for some alteration in the settlement that he intended to make.
“Entirely absorbed in the desperate part which he had been called upon to play by Mariette, Pascual began to reject with an assumed arrogance the views and the reasonable offers of Mr, Delaunay. Trembling he pre- tended to require the lnst farthing that had been first anentioned should be paid to him! and he inflicted upon himself the misery—the poor wretch !—of higgling about the most paltry details, about shillings, pence, and even farthings, and he did this 20 well, that the merchant at last started out of bis chair, rashed toward him and said in a terrible passion-
“God forgive me, Sir, but you seem to me to chaffer about the hand of my daughter?
“Sit) replied Pascual, while cold drops of agony poured down his face, ‘marriage I have always looked upon asa matter of business, and F want, therefore, to make the best bargain I can.’
“Very well, Sir. observed Delaunay ; ‘but this T have to ay, that this is a merchanilize in which T do not deal, and therefore I ean strike no bargain with you. Begone, Sir!”
T go,’ stammered forth Poscual,
“ At the same moment Maurice, the brother of Mas riette, ran toward him, either for the purpore of striking, him, or of preventing him from leaving the room, when the young maiden stopped him, by crying out in a feigned tone of indignation, mixed with contempt—
“Do not touch him, Maurice. He is neither worthy of your anger, nor of mine. Let him go; for I now love him no more.”
«Pascual ran from the hatl of Mr. Delaunay to betake himeclf to a amall hotel in the environs of Poictiers, The next morning he recived a message from Maurice, and, as he never thought of defending bimsclf, was wounded. It was intimated to him that, wounded as he waa, he should instuntly quit Poictiers,
“One night, and « few hours before hie departure, a ‘woman vcited, and followed by an old nurse, entered seeretly into his chamber. The young man, astonished by this mysterious visit, uttored first a cry of fear, and then of joy—and then he knelt down in toars at the fect of Mariette!
“+Pascunl,’ said Mudemoiselle Delaunay, ‘swear to me that you will have palience and courage."
“61 owear it,’ answered Pascual.
“<Bwear always to love, and without secking ever again to see me.”
“eT swear it?
«+ Farewell, then, and haste away, You are a noble being, and [love you,”
“Mariette? timidly asked the wretched young man, ‘+ will our sacrifice repair the wrongs that fortune has done to your father 2"
«Yen
««« Will your hand save his honor?”
|* Ves.’
«¢ And will it make your mother’s future life hoppy ?”
“Yon!
- « Will your brother’s name be respected 1”
«Yen!
“«« And will you atl yet esteem me?
“Yes!
¢You have then no more need of me, T go?
« Aa Marictte was about ta depart she stopped at the threshold of the door, and turned toward Pascual, whose sobs of grief reached her ear.
«+« Pascual, friend, said she, ‘long since, you heard from me the first whisper of lovereceivo to-day my first and my last kiss of affection.”
Pascual knelt before her, and he kissed the forchead of the noophyte, ‘he two martyrs embraced.
“The following week Marictte became the Baroness Grandet. The wife, or rather the nurse, of a husbend, whose only struggle in life was to postpone, amid pains and sickness, the final moment of his departure for another workl. Pascual, however, kept the frightful promise be had made; he never again saw her, be never sought to sce her aguin. And this Pascual— about whom I have told you such a long and tedious story is—mysclf!”
“Yous and what then brings you back to Poictiers ?””
“For the first time for three years—three long yenrs, I received yesterday a letter—ono single word from Mariette. She has deigned to write to me, * Come,’ and. here Lam, She suflers, perhaps. She in unhappy. In short, Mariette, calls me, and T am—kere.”
We arrived at the moment in the town of Poicticrs. Tho horses advanced with slow paces up the street of the Deux-Pilicrs; in that pretty street in which Pascual had adored Mariette. I began to look at the number on each house, and I was not long in decyphering “No. 15.” At that moment there occurred something very extraordinery. A young lady of ravishing beauty op- peared on a sudden at one of the open windows of the habitation of which I epeuk, and the first sight of this angelic being made my fellow traveller tremble with emotion.
“Mariette!” It was Mariette, who was dressed in black, and who wore the weepers of a widow. What a misfortune! what happiness!
Poor Pascual wept with joy. Atmost motionless from astonistunent and delight, he placed his band upon his eyes, upon his mouth, and then stretched it tuward Marictte, as if he would send to her a kiss impregnated ‘hb his (ears, At the same i: nt the lovely widow
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