Page:The Castle of Wolfenbach - Parsons - 1854.djvu/265

 Paris. He pathetically laments all his past crimes, and acknowledges the mercy and goodness of God: calls upon her to forgive and pray for him; cautions her against the allurements of the world, and takes an everlasting leave of her; meaning from the hour he receives one line from her, to inform him, that she has recovered a mother, and is happy in her present prospects, to shut up his correspondence and connexion with the world for ever."

This letter affected Matilda greatly; she remembered the care he had taken of her youth, though she shuddered when she considered him as the murderer of her father. "Unhappy man, (cried she) may God afford you penitence and peace in this life, and endless happiness in the world to come!" She promised the Marquis to write an answer the following morning, and he undertook to enclose it.

She joined her friends; but the letter had given so melancholy a turn to her thoughts, that every one took notice of her dejection; and judging it to arise from another cause, every one was anxious to dispel it, and raise her spirits.

At supper they all met. Matilda glanced her eyes once towards the Count, and observed joy seemed to animate his whole frame; from thence she derived hope, that he was not very displeasing to her mother. When they retired for the night, the Countess was silent: Matilda of course asked no questions.

The next morning the Countess held a long conversation with her two Neapolitan friends; at the conclusion of which, the Count and her daughter was sent for. They attended, both visibly agitated. After they were seated, the Countess addressed herself to her child: "My dear Matilda, the Count has done you the honour to express a very warm attachment to you, and has requested me to authorise his addresses, without which permission you have refused to listen to him. I expect you answer me with sincerity, will my consent, my sanction to his addresses meet