causing her so much uneasiness, but what can I say to console her?  I will at best be generous; Edgar’s sorrow is like my own; as he suffers for me, I suffer for another; I cannot see his anguish, so like my own, without profound pity; this pity will doubtless inspire me with eloquence enough to persuade him to remain in France and not break his mother’s heart by desertion.  Besides, I have promised, and Madame de Meilhan relies upon me.  How beautiful is maternal love!  It crushes the loftiest pride, it overthrows with one cry the most ambitious plans; this haughty woman is subjugated by grief; she calls me her daughter; she gladly consents to this marriage which, a short time ago, she said would ruin her son’s prospects, and which she looked upon with horror; she weeps, she supplicates.  This morning she embraced me with every expression of devotion and cried out:  “Give me back my son!  Oh, restore to me my son!...  You love him, ... he loves you, ... he is handsome, charming, talented....  I shall never see him again if you let him go away; tell him you love him; have you the cruelty to deprive me of my only son?” What could I say? how could I make an idolizing mother understand that I did not love her son?...  If I had dared to say, “It is not he that I love, it is another,” ... she would have said:  “It is false; there is not a man on earth preferable to my son.”  She wept over the letter that Edgar wrote me before leaving.  Valentine, this letter was noble and touching.  I could not restrain my own tears when I read it.  Finally, I was forced to yield.  I am to accompany Madame de Meilhan to Havre; I hope we will reach there before the steamer leaves!...  Edgar will not go to America, ... and I!...  Oh, why is he the one to love me thus?...  She has come for me!  Adieu; write to me, my dear Valentine, ...  I am so miserable.  If you were only here!  What will become of me?  Adieu!

IRENE DE CHATEAUDUN.

XXIX.

IRENE DE CHATEAUDUN to MME. LA VICOMTESSE DE BRAIMES,
Hotel de la Prefecture, Grenoble (Isere).

Paris, Aug. 2d 18—.

It is fortunate for me to-day, my dear Valentine, that I have the reputation of being a truthful person, professing a hatred of falsehood, otherwise you would not believe the strange facts that I am about to relate to you.  I now expect to reap the fruits of my unvarying sincerity.  Having always shown such respect for truth, I deserve to be believed when I assert what appears to be incredible.

What startling events have occurred in a few hours!  My destiny has been changed by my peeping through a hole!!  Without one word of comment I will state exactly what happened, and you must not accuse me of highly coloring my pictures; they are lively enough in themselves without any assistance from me.  Far from adding to their brilliancy, I shall endeavor to tone them down and give them an air of probability.