"
"But, unhappy child, wait for the end!"
Hubertine now thought of the past, and was angry with herself, as she
now reflected, more bitterly than ever before, that Angelique had
been brought up in such ignorance. Again she predicted to her the
hard lessons of the reality of life, and she would have liked to have
explained to her some of the cruelties and abominations of the world,
but, greatly embarrassed, she could not find the necessary words. What
a grief it would be to her if some day she were forced to accuse herself
of having brought about the unhappiness of this child, who had been kept
alone as a recluse, and allowed to dwell in the continued falsehood of
imagination and dreams!
"Listen to me, dearest. You certainly would not wish to marry this young
man against the wish of us all, and without the consent of his father?"
Angelique had grown very serious. She looked her mother in the face, and
in a serious tone replied:
"Why should I not do so? I love him, and he loves me."
With a pang of anguish, Hubertine took her again in her arms, clasped
her tenderly, but convulsively, and looked at her earnestly, but without
speaking. The pale moon had disappeared from sight behind the Cathedral,
and the flying, misty clouds were now delicately coloured in the heavens
by the approach of the dawn.
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