Page:Francesca Carrara 1.pdf/186

182 strong, from native sympathy. Evelyn's faults were, therefore, of a kind eminently calculated to disgust one whose mind was so high-toned and so ideal. Still, there were times when she bitterly reproached herself, and thought, "I ought to have seen these faults before, or I ought to be blind to them now;" and by a sort of compromise with her conscience, resolved to make up in fidelity what she wanted in tenderness.

Previous, however, to their following the court to CompeigneCompiegne [sic], Monsieur de Mercœur having gone to join the army, the Duchesse resolved on passing a week at the Carmelite Convent.

The superstition which once taught us to believe that prayer and penance brought down their blessing on some beloved one, was at least a kindly one. The affections of earth grew at once more tender and more spiritual, thus elevated and purified by an intercourse with heaven. The court was dissipated, worldly, false,—even as human nature has ever been from the beginning, and will be even unto the end; but there, also, human nature asserted its better part, and its deeper feelings and had its higher hopes. Many a young and lovely woman, whose feet knew but the pleasant paths of prosperity, and whose ear was familiar but with the voice of the flatterer, would voluntarily