Page:Clermont - Roche (1798, volume 1).djvu/65

 nience. Severely however was his generous nature wounded at being compelled to speak in this manner; and as the words passed his lips, he averted his looks from de Sevignie, whose faded cheeks were instantly flushed by a pale hectic. Had Clermont seen a probability of his daughter's attachment ending happily, he would not have acted as he now did; but of this he beheld not the remotest prospect; for though de Sevignie appeared by his looks to admire her, and by his delay in the valley (now that he was sufficiently recovered to leave it), to be attached to her company, not a word expressive of that admiration or attachment ever escaped him: even if he had declared a passion, there would still have been a bar to Madeline's happiness from her father's ignorance of de Sevignie's real situation and circumstances; both which it was obvious he wished to conceal, as Clermont had more than once introduced a conversation calculated to lead to the mention of them, from which, with