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Here Chactas for a moment became silent. Tears rolled from his blind eyes down his withered cheeks. "Oh René, my son," he said, "you see that Chactas is very foolish in spite of his reputation for wisdom! Why do men still weep, even when age has blinded their eyes? Every night Atala came to see me, and a strange love for her was born in my heart.
I was a slave, and was born in Atala County, Mississippi, near the town of Rockford, on the third day of March, 1833. My father and mother both being slaves, of course my pedigree is not traceable, by me, farther back than my parents. Our family belonged to a man named Kirkwood, who was a large slave-owner.
"Well, madame, this child, named Atala, ran away from her father, and came to live close by here with an old German of eighty at least, named Vyder, who does odd jobs for people who cannot read and write.
They had heard of Chateaubriand, but, with a truer instinct than that of the would-be Neo-Catholics, whose heads are crammed with all sorts of delusions, they mistrusted him. A Tertullian enlivening his Apologeticum with Atala and René was not calculated to command their confidence.
I shall be beaten " "Come, come, Atala," said the Baron, "this lady is my wife we must part " "She! As old as that! and shaking like a leaf!" said the child. "Look at her head!" and she laughingly mimicked the Baroness' palsy. The stove-fitter, who had run after the girl, came to the carriage door. "Take her away!" said Adeline. The man put his arms round Atala and fairly carried her off.
Most important among her works is a set of several orchestral suites, while a violin concerto and other pieces are more in line with her efforts as a performer. Her opera, "Atala," met with considerable success when given at Lille in 1892.
I never look at that shop near the Chinese baths, with its tapestry hangings of Florida jessamine, and filled with magnolias, without seeing the forest glades of the New World, described by the author of Atala, opening themselves out before me. Then, when this study of things and this discourse of reason begin to tire you, look around you! What contrasts of figures and faces you see in the crowd!
In half an hour, during which Baron Hulot talked to Lisbeth of nothing but little Atala Judici for he had fallen by degrees to those base passions that ruin old men she set him down with two thousand francs in his pocket, in the Rue de Charonne, Faubourg Saint-Antoine, at the door of a doubtful and sinister-looking house. "Good-day, cousin; so now you are to be called Thorec, I suppose?
First she went over all those that have Italian endings, such as Clara, Louisa, Amanda, Atala; she liked Galsuinde very well, and Yseult or Léocadie still better. Charles wanted the child to be called after her mother; Emma opposed this. They ran over the calendar from end to end, and then consulted outsiders.
Atala's mother had strongly advised her daughter on this occasion. Frederick was occasionally violent, notwithstanding that he was very amorous; and, besides, a Russian prince had presented himself. In short, Mlle. Atala persisted in her determination and positively refused to see Frederick. Frederick made frightful threats, especially against the mother.
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