then,
perceiving Rose, who timidly pressed close to the paling, she seized her
by the arm, and seemed to scold her severely, and notwithstanding some
energetic words addressed to her by Mdlle. de Cardoville, she hastily
carried off the orphan, who with weeping eyes, turned several times to
look back at Adrienne; whilst the latter, after showing the interest
she took in her by expressive gestures, turned away suddenly, as if to
conceal her tears.

The passage in which the witness stood, during this touching scene, was
situated on the first story. The thought immediately occurred to the
sempstress, to go down to the ground-floor, and try to get into the
garden, so that she might have an opportunity of speaking to the fair
girl with the golden hair, and ascertaining if it were really Mdlle. de
Cardoville, to whom; if she found her in a lucid interval, she might say
that Agricola had things of the greatest importance to communicate, but
that he did not know how to inform her of them. The day was advancing,
the sun was on its decline, and fearing that Florine would be tired
of waiting for her, Mother Bunch made haste to act; with a light step,
listening anxiously as she went, she reached the end of the passage,
where three or four stairs led down to the landing-place of the press
room, and then formed a spiral descent to the ground-floor. Hearing
voices in the pressroom, the sempstress hastened down the stairs, and
found herself in a long passage, in the centre of which was a glass
door, opening on that part of the garden reserved for the superior.
A path, bordered by a high box-hedge, sheltered her from the gaze of
curious eyes, and she crept along it, till she reached the open paling;
which, at this spot, separated the convent-garden from that of Dr.
Baleinier's asylum. She saw Mdlle. de Cardoville a few steps from her,
seated, and with her arm resting upon a rustic bench. The firmness
of Adrienne's character had for a moment been shaken by fatigue,
astonishment, fright, despair, on the terrible night when she had
been taken to the asylum by Dr. Baleinier; and the latter, taking a
diabolical advantage of her weakness and despondency, had succeeded
for a moment in making her doubt of her own sanity. But the calm, which
necessarily follows the most painful and violent emotions, combined
with the reflection and reasoning of a clear and subtle intellect, soon
convinced Adrienne of the groundlessness of the fears inspired by t