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168 another point of view, and was never weary of congratulating her on having found out a rich and noble father. Ah! who has not suffered from a similar annoyance, so easily felt, but so difficult to be described! How often have I had my ideal destroyed, my pleasant imaginings checked and debased, by the ill-timed remark that changed their whole bearing! Heaven knows, the observation was true enough; still there are two ways of putting a fact, and one prefers that which lends a little enchantment to the view.

Now that Francesca was about to leave France, she felt a softening of the heart towards Madame de Soissons. Hitherto she had chiefly dwelt on her unkindness and neglect; but absence, like charity, covers a multitude of sins; and the thought now paramount was, that she should see her no more.

She made a thousand excuses for her conduct—she even exaggerated the temptations by which she was surrounded. Her memory went back to the pleasant intercourse of their early days—and memory is a most affectionate faculty; somewhat of tenderness is inseparable from the past, and she earnestly desired to bid her former friend farewell. In this spirit was the following letter written:—