Page:Clermont - Roche (1798, volume 3).djvu/32

This page needs to be proofread.

"Farewell Mademoiselle, (continued she, rising) tis time for me to leave you, for I hear the servants retiring to rest, heaven bless you and protect you."

Madeline locked the door after her with a trembling hand, and involuntarily shuddered as she turned from it at finding herself alone in a chamber so gloomy, and so remote from every one as her present one was. Her spirits were too much agitated, in consequence of her conversation with Agatha, to permit her to sleep; and, even if inclined to do so, she could not think of reposing on a bed where she had so lately seen the corpse of her friend; whenever she glanced at it, it was with a kind of terror, as if she almost expected to have beheld again upon it the same ghastly figure.

Within the chamber was a closet which contained a small selection of books; determined on sitting up the night, Madeline took one from it, with a hope that it would divert her thoughts and prevent her attention from dwelling on what distressed her; but this