Page:The genius - Carl Grosse tr Joseph Trapp 1796.djvu/392

 I arrived at the gate of the cloister, just as the nuns were at prayers, I rung the bell, and the porter coming up to me, I asked her, casting a sheepish look on the direction of the letter, if there was not a certain Marchioness de Grandez there, I had got a letter for her?

—"Poor lady!" began the talkative sister, "I am glad there is some joyful news for her. The letter, I suppose, comes from her husband! Poor thing! she almost devours his letters before she has read them!"

—"But pray, what kind of a woman is that Marchioness?"

—"A very great lady, I assure you master; so sweet, so-mild, so virtuous—"

—"Only think!" interrupted I with an air of simplicity.

—"When her ladyship first came, she did nothing but weep. She was quite pining away, and the other ladies could hardly get a word out of her mouth. What ails you madam? What's the matter? every one would ask her, and there Is not one that had not wished to know the secret."