Page:Clermont - Roche (1798, volume 1).djvu/47

This page needs to be proofread.

"Ah! how kind (said she, rising and taking the basket from Madeline), is Mr. Clermont! heaven will requite him for his goodness: won't you come in, Mam'selle; 'tis a warm day, and I am sure you must be tired by your walk; all my folks, old and young, are gone to the vineyard (it was now the vintage season), and I am a little lonely or so in their absence."

"Your guest is better?" cried Madeline, entering as she spoke, and taking a chair.

"Yes, Mam'selle, heaven and your father be praised for that; he is a fine youth, and it would be a pity indeed if any thing ailed him long. I must, now that I have so good an opportunity, show you, Mam'selle, a little picture, which I think belonged to him, as my Claude found it near the spot where he fell." So saying, she opened a drawer, from whence she took the picture, and presented it to Madeline, who, the moment she cast her eyes upon it, recollected it to be the same she had seen in the hands of the stranger; and this convinced her of what indeed