unwilling to lose the last
spark of hope that glittered among the ruins of his despair, and resisted
all the importunities of his wife, who pressed him to consult the welfare
of his daughter's soul, in the fond expectation of finding some expedient
to lure back the chain and its possessor. In the meantime Wilhelmina was
daily and hourly exposed to the mortifying animadversions of her mamma,
who, with all the insolence of virtue, incessantly upbraided her with the
backslidings of her vicious life, and exhorted her to reformation and
repentance. This continual triumph lasted for many months, till at
length, a quarrel happening between the mother and the gossip at whose
house she used to give the rendezvous to her admirers, that incensed
confidante, in the precipitation of her anger, promulgated the history of
those secret meetings; and, among the rest, her interviews with Fathom
were brought to light.

The first people who hear news of this sort are generally those to whom
they are most unwelcome. The German was soon apprised of his wife's
frailty, and considered the two females of his house as a couple of
devils incarnate, sent from hell to exercise his patience. Yet, in the
midst of his displeasure, he found matter of consolation, in being
furnished with a sufficient reason for parting with his helpmate, who had
for many years kept his family in disquiet. He therefore, without
hazarding a personal conference, sent proposals to her by a friend, which
she did not think proper to reject; and seeing himself restored to the
dominion of his own house, exerted his sway so tyrannically, that
Wilhelmina became weary of her life, and had recourse to the comforts of
religion, of which she soon became enamoured, and begged her father's
permission to dedicate the rest of her life to the duties of devotion.
She was accordingly received in this convent, the regulations of which
were so much to her liking, that she performed the task of probation with
pleasure, and voluntarily excluded herself from the vanities of this
life. It was here she had contracted an acquaintance with Mademoiselle
de Melvil, to whom she communicated her complaints of Fathom, on the
supposition that he was related to the Count, as he himself had often
declared.

While the young lady rehearsed the particulars of this detail, Renaldo
sustained a strange vicissitude of different passions. Surprise, sorrow,
fear, hope, and indignation raised a most tumultuou