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 time at Verona, I shall flatter myself with a hope of having the pleasure of your company and Mademoiselle Clermont's."

"Do not indulge such a hope (said the Countess); for, be assured, my good friend, it would end in disappointment. There is but one journey which I can now look forward to."

The solemnity of her voice and manner, gave them no room to doubt the nature of the journey she alluded to.

"My dear friend (cried Madame Chatteneuf) you will really infect me with your gloom, and I shall begin my long and fatiguing journey with quite a heavy heart. At your time of life you may well look forward to many years. And, as I know of none whose continuance in life is more anxiously desired, so neither do I know of any who should more fervently desire that continuance themselves than you should, possessed as you are of every blessing which