Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 3).djvu/13

 a peasant girl as a servant: We were expected, and therefore received with kindness. To one accustomed from childhood to retirement, this solitude had nothing in it so frightful as to create terror or disgust. I was charmed with the mildness, the placid content that pervaded the countenance of my new friends, and not only strove to appear pleased, but really felt a degree of pleasure in my mind, that I might hope to have cheerful companions. My father watched my looks with visible anxiety; and when he saw me enter into conversation with a lively unembarrassed air, I observed the instantaneous effect it had upon him: Every feature was illumined with satisfaction; he seemed as if a weight had been removed, which had before heavily oppressed his spirits, and from which he had scarcely an expectation of being freed.

"In the evening, when we were for a few minutes alone, he asked me, "if I could reconcile myself to reside with the Abbe Bouville and his mother?" I answered in the