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Dead!' he exclaimed, 'Good God! when did he die?' 'He is reported to have died about five weeks since,' replied La Voisin. 'Did you know the Marquis, sir?' 'This is very extraordinary!' said St. Aubert without attending to the question. 'Why is it so, my dear sir?' said Emily, in a voice of timid curiosity. He made no reply, but sunk again into a reverie; and in a few moments, when he seemed to have recovered himself, asked who had succeeded to the estates. 'I have forgot his title, monsieur,' said La Voisin; 'but my lord resides at Paris chiefly; I hear no talk of his coming hither.' 'The chateau is shut up then, still?' 'Why, little better, sir; the old housekeeper, and her husband the steward, have the care of it, but they live generally in a cottage hard by.' 'The chateau is spacious, I suppose,' said Emily, 'and must be desolate for the residence of only two persons.' 'Desolate enough, mademoiselle,' replied La Voisin, 'I would not pass one night in the chateau, for the value of the whole domain.' 'What is that?' said St. Aubert, roused again from thoughtfulness. As his host repeated his last sentence, a groan escaped from St. Aubert, and then, as if anxious to prevent it from being noticed, he hastily asked La Voisin how long he had lived in this neighbourhood. 'Almost from my childhood, sir,' replied his host. 'You remember the late marchioness, then?' said St. Aubert in an altered voice. 'Ah, monsieur!--that I do well. There are many besides me who remember her.' 'Yes--' said St. Aubert, 'and I am one of those.' 'Alas, sir! you remember, then, a most beautiful and excellent lady. She deserved a better fate.' Tears stood in St. Aubert's eyes; 'Enough,' said he, in a voice almost stifled by the violence of his emotions,--'it is enough, my friend.' Emily, though extremely surprised by her father's manner, forbore to express her feelings by any question. La Voisin began to apologize, but St. Aubert interrupted him; 'Apology is quite unnecessary,' said he, 'let us change the topic. You was speaking of the music we just now heard.' 'I was, monsieur--but hark!--it comes again; listen to that voice!' They were all silent; At last a soft and solemn-breathing sound Rose, like a stream of rich distilled perfumes, And stole upon the air, that even Silence Was took ere she was 'ware, and wished she might Deny her nature, and be never more Still, to be so displaced.* *Milton.
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