Emily withdrew to her own room, that she might compose her spirits and

remove the traces of her tears, which would encourage the censorious

remarks of the Countess and her favourite, as well as excite the

curiosity of the rest of the family. She found it, however, impossible

to tranquillize her mind, from which she could not expel the remembrance

of the late scene with Valancourt, or the consciousness, that she was to

see him again, on the morrow. This meeting now appeared more terrible to

her than the last, for the ingenuous confession he had made of his

ill conduct and his embarrassed circumstances, with the strength and

tenderness of affection, which this confession discovered, had deeply

impressed her, and, in spite of all she had heard and believed to his

disadvantage, her esteem began to return. It frequently appeared to her

impossible, that he could have been guilty of the depravities, reported

of him, which, if not inconsistent with his warmth and impetuosity,

were entirely so with his candour and sensibility. Whatever was the

criminality, which had given rise to the reports, she could not now

believe them to be wholly true, nor that his heart was finally closed

against the charms of virtue.

The deep consciousness, which he felt as

well as expressed of his errors, seemed to justify the opinion; and,

as she understood not the instability of youthful dispositions, when

opposed by habit, and that professions frequently deceive those, who

make, as well as those, who hear them, she might have yielded to the

flattering persuasions of her own heart and the pleadings of Valancourt,

had she not been guided by the superior prudence of the Count. He

represented to her, in a clear light, the danger of her present

situation, that of listening to promises of amendment, made under the

influence of strong passion, and the slight hope, which could attach

to a connection, whose chance of happiness rested upon the retrieval

of ruined circumstances and the reform of corrupted habits. On these

accounts, he lamented, that Emily had consented to a second interview,

for he saw how much it would shake her resolution and increase the

difficulty of her conquest.

Her mind was now so entirely occupied by nearer interests, that she

forgot the old housekeeper and the promised history, which so lately had

excited her curiosity, but which Dorothee was probably not very anxious

to disclose, for night came; the hours passed; and she did not appear

in Emily's chamber. With the latter it was a sleepless and dismal

night; the more she suffered her memory to dwell on the late scenes with

Valancourt, the more her resolution declined, and she was obliged

to recollect all the arguments, which the Count had made use of to

strengthen it, and all the precepts, which she had received from her

deceased father, on the subject of self-command, to enable her to act,

with prudence and dignity, on this the most severe occasion of her

life. There were moments, when all her fortitude forsook her, and when,

remembering the confidence of former times, she thought it impossible,

that she could renounce Valancourt. His reformation then appeared

certain; the arguments of Count De Villefort were forgotten; she readily

believed all she wished, and was willing to encounter any evil, rather

than that of an immediate separation.




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