Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 4, 2025
He waited three quarters of an hour; then he resolved to surprise Madame de la Chanterie and come upon her suddenly before she expected him. He invented a lie to excuse himself, saying that his watch was wrong; for which purpose he set it on twenty minutes. Then he went downstairs, making no noise, reached the door of the salon, and opened it abruptly.
But, madame," he added, turning to Madame de la Chanterie, "if all Paris had seen me, I should rejoice in it. Nothing can ever mark my gratitude to you. I am yours forever; I belong to you utterly. Command me as you will and I obey. I owe you my life, and it is yours." "Well, well, young man!" said the kind Alain, "then be wise, be virtuous, only, work; but do not attack religion in your books.
Can it be that God reserves such trials, such cruel tests, for those of his creatures who are to sit on the morrow of their death at his right hand?" said the good Alain, quite unconscious that he was artlessly expressing the whole doctrine of Swedenborg on the angels. "And you tell me," said Godefroid, "that in prison Madame de la Chanterie was put with "
Then the National Assembly decreed the dissolution of the Grand Council, the parliament, and all the law offices so dearly bought. "The young household, increased by a daughter, was soon without other means than those settled upon Madame de la Chanterie by her father-in-law.
The solemnity of Madame de la Chanterie now seemed to him a secret dignity with which she bore some great misfortune. But still, in spite of the explanations which Godefroid gave himself, he could not help fancying there was an air of mystery about those sober figures.
None of these gentlemen living here thinks of himself when he does good. All vanity, all pride, all self-love, must be stripped off, and that is hard to do, yes, very hard." Godefroid bade him good-night, and returned to his own room, deeply affected by this narrative. But his curiosity was more whetted than satisfied, for the central figure of the picture was Madame de la Chanterie.
Godefroid's curiosity was excited to the highest degree by this first entrance on his new life. When they returned to the salon after breakfast, he was left alone; Madame de la Chanterie retired to the embrasure of a window and held a little private council with her four friends. This conference, entirely devoid of animation, lasted half an hour.
"We may well distrust all human prudence when we think of the infinite precautions taken by Madame de la Chanterie in marrying her only daughter.
We meet at first with a certain Godefroi who reaches middle age without obtaining any permanent satisfaction out of his life, and who thinks of burying himself in some quiet quarter of Paris where he can dwell unknowing and unknown. An accident introduces him to a kind of lay community whose presiding spirit is a Madame de la Chanterie, and whose members are a priest and three old gentlemen.
As he stood there he heard the heavy sound of the massive porte-cochere closing. Two men were leaving the hotel de la Chanterie. If the reader has fully understood the character of this old house he will know that it was one of the ancient mansions of the olden time. Manon, herself, when she called Godefroid that morning, had asked him, smiling, how he had slept in the hotel de la Chanterie.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking