Page:Clermont - Roche (1798, volume 1).djvu/51

Madeline never obeyed a wish of her father's more readily; tying on her straw hat, she proceeded almost directly to the cottage with her osier basket upon her arm, well filled, and covered with a napkin. The cottage door lay open, but Janette (as in general was the case) was not there; neither was she nor any other person in the little room it opened into. Madeline, not willing to depart without seeing her, proceeded to an apartment which looked into the garden, and was divided from the one she had left by a long passage, at the door of which she tapped; it was instantly opened by Janette, and Madeline was entering, when the appearance of de Sevignie, who had not, she imagined, yet left his room, seated in a wrapping gown at an open window, as if to inhale the balmy and refreshing sweetness of the air, made her suddenly start back. Janette, however, prevented her retreating entirely:—"Lord, Mam'selle, don't be frightened (cried she), 'Tis only Monsieur de Sevignie you see, who has left his chamber this morning for the