silence and
dejection. Madame Cheron, attributing her melancholy solely to the
circumstance of her being removed to a distance from her lover, and
believing, that the sorrow, which her niece still expressed for the
loss of St. Aubert, proceeded partly from an affectation of sensibility,
endeavoured to make it appear ridiculous to her, that such deep regret
should continue to be felt so long after the period usually allowed for
grief.

At length, these unpleasant lectures were interrupted by the arrival of
the travellers at Tholouse; and Emily, who had not been there for many
years, and had only a very faint recollection of it, was surprised at
the ostentatious style exhibited in her aunt's house and furniture; the
more so, perhaps, because it was so totally different from the modest
elegance, to which she had been accustomed. She followed Madame Cheron
through a large hall, where several servants in rich liveries appeared,
to a kind of saloon, fitted up with more shew than taste; and her aunt,
complaining of fatigue, ordered supper immediately. 'I am glad to find
myself in my own house again,' said she, throwing herself on a large
settee, 'and to have my own people about me. I detest travelling;
though, indeed, I ought to like it, for what I see abroad always makes
me delighted to return to my own chateau. What makes you so silent,
child?--What is it that disturbs you now?'

Emily suppressed a starting tear, and tried to smile away the expression
of an oppressed heart; she was thinking of HER home, and felt too
sensibly the arrogance and ostentatious vanity of Madame Cheron's
conversation. 'Can this be my father's sister!' said she to herself; and
then the conviction that she was so, warming her heart with something
like kindness towards her, she felt anxious to soften the harsh
impression her mind had received of her aunt's character, and to shew
a willingness to oblige her. The effort did not entirely fail; she
listened with apparent cheerfulness, while Madame Cheron expatiated
on the splendour of her house, told of the numerous parties she
entertained, and what she should expect of Emily, whose diffidence
assumed the air of a reserve, which her aunt, believing it to be that
of pride and ignorance united, now took occasion to reprehend. She knew
nothing of the conduct of a mind, that fears to trust its own powers;
which, possessing a nice judgment, and inclining to believe, that every
other person perceives still m