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 inspire tenderness which cannot properly be returned."

"Your precepts, your advice, my dear madam (said Madeline), I will treasure up as I would the means of felicity: oh, how gratefully do I feel your kind solicitude about me."

By this time they had reached the chateau, and its gloom and stillness formed a melancholy contrast to the gaiety and splendour of the preceding evening, and increased the dejection of Madeline's spirits; a dejection partly owing to her conversation with the Countess. She was shocked to hear of the depravity of mankind; and shuddered least she should find de Sevignie one of the worthless characters the Countess had described to her. "Yet, no (she cried to herself, trying to dispel the horror such an idea gave rise to), 'tis impossible; vice could never lurk beneath an appearance of such integrity and candour."