was informed that the
governor had a letter to give her from her aunt. She flew to Port Louis,
careless on this occasion of appearing in her homely garment. Maternal hope
and joy subdued all those little considerations, which are lost when the
mind is absorbed by any powerful sentiment. Monsieur de la Bourdonnais
delivered to her a letter from her aunt, who informed her, that she
deserved her fate for having married an adventurer and a libertine; that
misplaced passions brought along with them their own punishment, and that
the sudden death of her husband must be considered as a visitation from
heaven; that she had done well in going to a distant island, rather than
dishonour her family by remaining in France: and that, after all, in the
colony where she had taken refuge, every person grew rich except the idle.
Having thus lavished sufficient censure upon the conduct of her niece, she
finished by a eulogium on herself. To avoid, she said, the almost
inevitable evils of marriage, she had determined to remain in a single
state. In truth, being of a very ambitious temper, she had resolved only to
unite, herself to a man of high rank; and although she; was very rich, her
fortune was not found a sufficient bribe, even at court, to counterbalance
the malignant dispositions of her mind, and the disagreeable qualities of
her person.

"She added, in a postscript, that, after mature deliberation, she had
strongly recommended her niece to Monsieur de la Bourdonnais. This she had
indeed done, but in a manner of late too common, and which renders a patron
perhaps even more formidable than a declared enemy: for, in order to
justify herself, she had cruelly slandered her niece, while she affected to
pity her misfortunes.

"Madame de la Tour, whom no unprejudiced person could have seen without
feeling sympathy and respect, was received with the utmost coolness by
Monsieur de la Bourdonnais; and when she painted to him her own situation,
and that of her child, he replied, 'We will see what can be done--there are
so many to relieve--why did you affront so respectable a relation?--You
have been much to blame.'

"Madame de la Tour returned to her cottage, her bosom throbbing with all
the bitterness of disappointment. When she arrived, she threw herself on a
chair, and then flinging her aunt's letter on the table, exclaimed to her
friend, 'This is the recompense of eleven years of patient expectation!' As
Madame de la Tour was the only p