eir preoccupation, their disquiet, and
their retired life.

Madame de Tecle, who reproached herself with the misfortunes of her
daughter, as her own work, and who condemned herself with an unspeakable
bitterness, did not cease to search, in the midst of those ruins of the
past and of the present, some reparation, some refuge for the future. The
first idea which presented itself to her imagination had been to separate
absolutely, and at any cost, the Countess from her husband. Under the
first shock of fright which the duplicity of Camors had inflicted upon
her, she could not dwell without horror on the thought of replacing her
child at the side of such a man. But this separation-supposing they could
obtain it, through the consent of M. de Camors, or the authority of the
law--would give to the public a secret scandal, and might entail
redoubled catastrophes. Were it not for these consequences she would, at
least, have dug between Madame de Camors and her husband an eternal
abyss. Madame de Tecle did not desire this. By force of reflection she
had finally seen through the character of M. de Camors in one day--not
probably more favorably, but more truly. Madame de Tecle, although a
stranger to all wickedness, knew the world and knew life, and her
penetrating intelligence divined yet more than she knew certainly. She
then very nearly understood what species of moral monster M. de Camors
was. Such as she understood him, she hoped something from him still.
However, the condition of the Countess offered her some consolation in
the future, which she ought not to risk depriving herself of; and God
might permit that this pledge of this unfortunate union might some day
reunite the severed ties.

Madame de Tecle, in communicating her reflections, her hopes, and her
fears to her daughter, added: "My poor child, I have almost lost the
right to give you counsel; but I tell you, were it myself I should act
thus."

"Very well, mother, I shall do so," replied the young woman.

"Reflect well on it first, for the situation which you are about to
accept will have much bitterness in it; but we have only a choice of
evils."

At the close of this conversation, and eight days after their arrival in
the country, Madame de Tecle wrote M. de Camors a letter, which she read
to her daughter, who approved it.

"I understood you to say, that you would restore to your wife her
liberty if she wished to resume it. She neither wishes, nor coul