s before. When Emily was
convinced that the bracelet was really gone, she blushed, and became
thoughtful. That some stranger had been in the fishing-house, during
her absence, her lute, and the additional lines of a pencil, had already
informed her: from the purport of these lines it was not unreasonable
to believe, that the poet, the musician, and the thief were the same
person. But though the music she had heard, the written lines she had
seen, and the disappearance of the picture, formed a combination of
circumstances very remarkable, she was irresistibly restrained from
mentioning them; secretly determining, however, never again to visit the
fishing-house without Monsieur or Madame St. Aubert.

They returned pensively to the chateau, Emily musing on the incident
which had just occurred; St. Aubert reflecting, with placid gratitude,
on the blessings he possessed; and Madame St. Aubert somewhat disturbed,
and perplexed, by the loss of her daughter's picture. As they drew near
the house, they observed an unusual bustle about it; the sound of voices
was distinctly heard, servants and horses were seen passing between the
trees, and, at length, the wheels of a carriage rolled along. Having
come within view of the front of the chateau, a landau, with smoking
horses, appeared on the little lawn before it. St. Aubert perceived the
liveries of his brother-in-law, and in the parlour he found Monsieur and
Madame Quesnel already entered. They had left Paris some days before,
and were on the way to their estate, only ten leagues distant from La
Vallee, and which Monsieur Quesnel had purchased several years before
of St. Aubert. This gentleman was the only brother of Madame St.
Aubert; but the ties of relationship having never been strengthened by
congeniality of character, the intercourse between them had not been
frequent. M. Quesnel had lived altogether in the world; his aim had been
consequence; splendour was the object of his taste; and his address
and knowledge of character had carried him forward to the attainment of
almost all that he had courted. By a man of such a disposition, it is
not surprising that the virtues of St. Aubert should be overlooked; or
that his pure taste, simplicity, and moderated wishes, were considered
as marks of a weak intellect, and of confined views. The marriage of his
sister with St. Aubert had been mortifying to his ambition, for he had
designed that the matrimonial connection she formed should