Page:Clermont - Roche (1798, volume 4).djvu/158

This page needs to be proofread.

"No (replied she, withholding the hand he attempted to take); upon the bosom which cannot pity me, I will not lean."

"You are now prejudiced against me (said D'Alembert); my professions, therefore, you would disregard; but I trust the period will shortly arrive in which you will believe me sincere when I say, that the esteem, the tenderness, your virtues merit, I feel for you. Will you now permit me (cried he, after a pause), to go and acquaint the Marquis with the happiness which awaits my son?"


Anxious to be relieved from his presence, Madeline desired him to do as he pleased, and he directly left her. The agonies of her soul then burst forth, and in tears and broken exclamations she vented her feelings. In this situation her father surprised her:—Pale, trembling, the very picture of melancholy and despair, he approached her.