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"No, (he replied), chance merely brought him to it, and hospitality and kindness detained him in it. By accident (said he), I got acquainted with the officers quartered here soon after my arrival, and they introduced me to the inhabitants, whose politeness and attention have from day to day induced me to put off my departure.—And for once (glancing at Madeline), I have reason to be happy at following the bent of inclination. Though I never dared to think (said he) of again intruding on the hospitality of Monsieur Clermont, yet a thousand times on the airy wings of fancy I have been transported to his cottage, to the side of his Madeline, listening in imagination to the soft pathos of that voice, which had power to thrill through every fibre of my heart; oh, happy and delightful days when I was not indebted to illusion for the sound! never has the remembrance of them been absent from my thoughts; compared to them, how insipid appear those I now pass. Tell me, (he continued, gazing on her with the most