The Mysteries of Udolpho

'Displeasing!'--said the nun, with emphasis.--'We are idle talkers;

we do not weigh the meaning of the words we use; DISPLEASING is a poor

word. I will go pray.' As she said this she rose from her seat, and with

a profound sigh quitted the room. 'What can be the meaning of this?' said Emily, when she was gone. 'It is nothing extraordinary,' replied sister Frances, 'she is often

thus; but she had no meaning in what she says. Her intellects are at

times deranged. Did you never see her thus before?'

'Never,' said Emily. 'I have, indeed, sometimes, thought, that there was

the melancholy of madness in her look, but never before perceived it in

her speech. Poor soul, I will pray for her!'

'Your prayers then, my daughter, will unite with ours,' observed the

lady abbess, 'she has need of them.'

'Dear lady,' said Mademoiselle Feydeau, addressing the abbess, 'what is

your opinion of the late Marquis? The strange circumstances, that have

occurred at the chateau, have so much awakened my curiosity, that I

shall be pardoned the question. What was his imputed crime, and what the

punishment, to which sister Agnes alluded?'

'We must be cautious of advancing our opinion,' said the abbess, with

an air of reserve, mingled with solemnity, 'we must be cautious of

advancing our opinion on so delicate a subject. I will not take upon me

to pronounce, that the late Marquis was criminal, or to say what was

the crime of which he was suspected; but, concerning the punishment our

daughter Agnes hinted, I know of none he suffered. She probably alluded

to the severe one, which an exasperated conscience can inflict. Beware,

my children, of incurring so terrible a punishment--it is the purgatory

of this life! The late Marchioness I knew well; she was a pattern to

such as live in the world; nay, our sacred order need not have blushed

to copy her virtues! Our holy convent received her mortal part; her

heavenly spirit, I doubt not, ascended to its sanctuary!'

As the abbess spoke this, the last bell of vespers struck up, and

she rose. 'Let us go, my children,' said she, 'and intercede for the

wretched; let us go and confess our sins, and endeavour to purify our

souls for the heaven, to which SHE is gone!'

Emily was affected by the solemnity of this exhortation, and,

remembering her father, 'The heaven, to which HE, too, is gone!' said

she, faintly, as she suppressed her sighs, and followed the abbess and

the nuns to the chapel.