The Mysteries of Udolpho

After dinner, St. Aubert stole from the room to view once more the old

chesnut which Quesnel talked of cutting down. As he stood under its

shade, and looked up among its branches, still luxuriant, and saw here

and there the blue sky trembling between them; the pursuits and events

of his early days crowded fast to his mind, with the figures and

characters of friends--long since gone from the earth; and he now felt

himself to be almost an insulated being, with nobody but his Emily for

his heart to turn to.

He stood lost amid the scenes of years which fancy called up, till the

succession closed with the picture of his dying wife, and he started

away, to forget it, if possible, at the social board.

St. Aubert ordered his carriage at an early hour, and Emily observed,

that he was more than usually silent and dejected on the way home; but

she considered this to be the effect of his visit to a place which spoke

so eloquently of former times, nor suspected that he had a cause of

grief which he concealed from her.

On entering the chateau she felt more depressed than ever, for she more

than ever missed the presence of that dear parent, who, whenever she

had been from home, used to welcome her return with smiles and fondness;

now, all was silent and forsaken.

But what reason and effort may fail to do, time effects. Week after week

passed away, and each, as it passed, stole something from the harshness

of her affliction, till it was mellowed to that tenderness which the

feeling heart cherishes as sacred. St. Aubert, on the contrary, visibly

declined in health; though Emily, who had been so constantly with him,

was almost the last person who observed it. His constitution had never

recovered from the late attack of the fever, and the succeeding shock

it received from Madame St. Aubert's death had produced its present

infirmity. His physician now ordered him to travel; for it was

perceptible that sorrow had seized upon his nerves, weakened as they had

been by the preceding illness; and variety of scene, it was probable,

would, by amusing his mind, restore them to their proper tone.

For some days Emily was occupied in preparations to attend him; and he,

by endeavours to diminish his expences at home during the journey--a

purpose which determined him at length to dismiss his domestics. Emily

seldom opposed her father's wishes by questions or remonstrances, or she

would now have asked why he did not take a servant, and have represented

that his infirm health made one almost necessary. But when, on the eve

of their departure, she found that he had dismissed Jacques, Francis,

and Mary, and detained only Theresa the old housekeeper, she was

extremely surprised, and ventured to ask his reason for having done so.

'To save expences, my dear,' he replied--'we are going on an expensive

excursion.' The physician had prescribed the air of Languedoc and Provence; and St.

Aubert determined, therefore, to travel leisurely along the shores of

the Mediterranean, towards Provence.