Belle-Rose — page 249: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

— _——- 238 | THE RENUNCIATION. despair tcrtured her. Finally, overcome by so many emo- tions, she ended by closing her eyelids and going to sleep _ , near Suzanne. - CHAPTER XXXV. THE RENUNCIATION. The nocturnal confessions of Gabrielle had drawn her and Suzanne more closely together. At the end of three weeks it seemed as if they had always known each other. Nothing could change Gabrielle’s resolution; she was driven at the same time by fear and despair. As soon as her intention to take the vail was known in the convent, the superior ordered the hastening of all the preparations for the ceremony. The family was notified, the friends invited, and the day chosen. Gabrielle’s noviciate was not terminated, but a dispensation was obtained from the Archbishop of Paris, and nothing any longer stood in the © way of her pronouncing the vows. Gabrielle’s misfortune had turned aside Suzanne’s thoughts from their natural course. She forgot her own troubles at the sight of so much youth allied to so much grief. An unexpected visit obliged her to recall them. The evening before the day on which Mademoiselle de Mesle was to renounce the world for devoting herself to God, Madame d’Albergotti was informed by a sister that Monsieur de Charny was waiting for her in the parlor. ‘‘Already a month has passed, madame,’’ Monsieur de Charny said to her, saluting her respectfully, ‘‘since Mon- sieur de Louvois regretfully sent you. to the convent, where he would certainly not have-sent you if reasons of state had not constrained him to do so.’’ ‘If the regret was as keen as you say, monsieur, it seems to me that the minister could readily rid himself of — it. 79 ‘Ah! madame, how little you know the harsh laws — which power imposes on those who exercise it! Above the minister’s will, there are reasons of state; Monsieur de -Louvois hoped at least that the atmosphere of this place would induce you to take the vail. But, in defect of pro- fession for that, he has even pushed. kindness so far as to make you an offer of entering his aa you have re- fused everything.’’ ‘. ho Eomicbooks.co