Page:Clermont - Roche (1798, volume 2).djvu/9

 the dangers to which such conduct exposed him.

"Oh, de Sevignie! (she cried aloud, speaking in the agitation of her soul, ) would to Heaven we had never met, since by meeting, we have only become sources of wretchedness to each other; painful as is our separation, that pain to me would be mitigated, did I know you were in any degree happy; but while I imagine you miserable, peace must continue a stranger to my breast."

She paused, for at this instant a deep sigh, from the innermost recesses of the grotto, pierced her ear, and made her start with terror from her seat. Though she had early been taught to contemn the weakness which gives rise to superstition; and, though in the hour of composure she derided it, yet there were moments when her spirits were exhausted, such a moment as the present, in which it found admission to her breast.