Page:Clermont - Roche (1798, volume 3).djvu/239

 horrid suggestions which had lately pervaded it.

"Oh! was my father acquainted with them, (cried she to herself), never, never would he forgive me. Ah! how can I forgive myself—Ah! how support, without betraying it, the pain I must ever feel, for having thought unjustly of him."

"You seem well acquainted with the affairs of this family?" said she, sitting down, and making an effort to appear composed.

"Yes, very well acquainted with them indeed, (replied the housekeeper, significantly shaking her head); I have lived in it almost ever since I was born; for my parents dying when I was very young, my aunt, who was housekeeper, took me immediately under her protection."

It now occurred to Madeline, that the domestic who had liberated her unhappy grandmother might still be living; and anxious, if she was, to pay her the tribute of