, 1872-12-08

| E0uIEQs 4l&IAu16 169 04as6A2A u1hA3 AuY H.
qniries, she replied evasivaly and without sstis-
flying her curiosity. Still, it was impossible,
after two months to keep hidden, either from
the three Cruchots or from Madame
| Des Grassins, the fact Of Eugenie's
seclusion. There came time when pretexts
we're failing to account for her constant absence.
Then, without it's being possible to know BY
whom the secret had been betrayed, the whole
town learned that since New Years Day, Made-
| moiselle Grandet had been, by her fathers
without fire; that Nanon made delcacies for
her, and carried them to her at night; and they
even knew that the young woman could see and
nurse her mother only while her father was ont
Of the house. = Grandets conduct was then
put him outalde the pale Of the law,
as it we're, remembered his t1easons,
and his hard acts. and e1communicated
him. When he went by, every one pointed at
him, and whispered. When his daughter went
accompanied by Nanon, all the residents stood
at the windows, to look curiously at the behavior
OF the rich heiress, and at her face, where an
gelic melancholy and mildness we're portrayed.
nothing to her. Did not she see the map Of the
world the little beach, tue garden, and the bit Of
wall and did she not she recall to her lipB the
honey that loving kisses had left there
For For some ZONE time, as vel 4n aa, her father,
talked about her in the city. Re
igious, and pure before God, her conscience
and her love helped her to bear with patience her
fathers anger and vengeance. But profound
sorrow came to silence all others. Day by day,
her mother-a mild and tender creature, who
was adorned with the radiance her soul emitted
as it neared the grave-was wearing away.
Eugene often reproached herself with having
been the innocent cause Of the painful, the slow
though quieted by her mother, bound her all the
more closely to her love. Every morning, SO
soon as her father had gone out, she came to the
head OF her mother'B bed, and there Nanon
brought her her breakfast. But poor Eugenie,
sad, and suffering from her mothers pains,
called Nanon's attention to her tace by silent
gesture, wept, and did not dare to speak Of her
cousin. Madam Grandet Was compelled first of
all, to say to her: "Where is he? Why does
not he write n =,
tsLet US think OF him, my mother" answered
Euge9je, " and not speak Of him. You suffer,
you more than all others"
ssAn others meant 90 him.
ss My children said Madame Grandet, sf do
me to contemplate with joy the end Of my suf
ferings."
The words Of this woman were always holy
and Christian. When, as she was breakfasting,
her husband came to walk about her room, she
said to him, during the early months Of the
mildness, but with the frmness Of q woman to
whom approaching death gave the courage she
had lacked during her life.
"Sir, I thank you for the intel est you take in
my health, replied she when he had asked her
the most common of questions; shut, if you
want to make my last moments less bitter, and
to relieve my sutferings, take your daughter
back into your favor show yourself Chris
tian, q husband, and father"
When Grandet heard these words, he sat down
by the bed, and behaved like man who, seeing
the coming of q shower, quietly gets under
shelter in an archway he listened to his wife in
silence, and made no reply. When the most
touching the tenderest, the most religious en-
treaties had been made to him, he said: 81 You
are little pale to-day, my poor wife," The
most utter forgetfulness Of his daughter seemed
to be engraved On his stony forehead and his
compressed lips: He Vas not even moved by the
tears which his indefinite answers whose word
ing was hardly varied, caused to flow down the
white face Of his wife.
May God forgive you, sir" said she, " rs 7
do. You will deed mercy some day."
Since his wife's sickness, he had not dared to
use his terrible s:Ta ia, ia, ia ~ But still his
despotism had not been disarmed by that angel
OF mildness, whose ugliness disappeared day by
day, driven of by the expression Of the moral
qualities which came to blossom on her face
She was all soul The spirit Of prayer seep2sd
to purify and lessen the coarser characteristics
Of her face, and made it radiant. Who has not
noticed the phenomenon of that TRANSPORTATION
on holy faces, when the temperament Of the
soul finally triumphs over the most roughly
~AA+V
animation due to the nobility aud the purity
of lofty thoughts? The sight Of this
transformation, wrought by the sufferings which
were consuming the remnants Of existence in
this woman. acted, though but slightly, on the
old cooper, whose character remained Of bronze
If his speech was no longer contemptuous, an
imperturbab1e silence. which saved his superior
it,: as head OF a family, controlled his conduct.
If his faithful Nanon made her appearance at
market, straightway some mocking remarks,
some complaints, about her master, buzzed
about her ears ; but, though public opinion
openly condemned Father Grandet, the servant
defended him out of pride for the house.
''Well," said she to those who wero abusing
the good man, "do not we all get harder as We
grow old ? Why cannot you let that man toughen
. little? So hush up your lies. Mademoiselle
lives like queen. She is alone2 Well, it is
her own fancy. Besides, my masters have good
reasons."
TO be continued ,aeu ,reek.1