Mademoiselle Charlotta Was Gone To Bed; But Being Rouzed By The
Accident, No Sooner Was Informed By The Surgeons, Who Were Immediately
Sent For, That There Was Nothing Dangerous In The Hurts Her Father Had
Received, Than She Blessed Heaven For Making Horatio The Instrument Of
His Preservation.
The sense the baron seemed to have of this obligation,
and the praises he bestowed on the gallant manner
In which the young
gentleman came to his relief, made her almost ready to flatter herself
that fate interested itself in behalf of their love; and indeed monsieur
the baron, notwithstanding the haughtiness of his nature, had the most
just notions of gratitude; and to testify it to Horatio, would have
refused him scarce any thing except his daughter. But however that
should happen, she still found more and more excuses for indulging the
inclinations she had for him; and tho' she yet had never given him any
such assurances, yet she resolved in her own mind, to live only for him.
The baron being obliged to keep his bed for several days, Horatio had a
pretence for repeating his visits to him during this time of his
confinement, and afterwards went often by invitation; the other, besides
the obligation he had to him, finding something extremely pleasing in
his conversation, to which (not to take from Horatio's merits) the
obsequiousness he found no difficulty in himself to behave with towards
a Man of his age, his quality, and above all, the father of Charlotta,
not a little contributed.
The lovers had now frequent opportunities of entertaining each other
both at Paris and St. Germains: nor were any of those demonstrations
which virtue and innocence permitted, wanting between them, to render
them as perfectly easy as people can possibly be, who have yet something
to desire, and much to fear. But as smooth as now their fortune seemed,
they knew not how soon a storm might rise, and give a sudden
interruption to that felicity they enjoyed. - The charms of Charlotta
were every day making new conquests; and among the number of those who
pretended to admire her, how probable was it that some one might be
thought worthy by her father, and she be compelled to receive the
addresses of a rival. These were reflections too natural not to occur to
them both, and whenever they did, could not fail of embittering those
sweets the certainty of a mutual affection had otherwise afforded.
They had now no trouble from monsieur de Coigney; his father, in order
to make him forget a hopeless passion, had found an employment for him
which obliged him to go many leagues from Paris; and once the
conversation already mentioned at the baron's, his sister and
mademoiselle Charlotta, by command of their respective parents, as well
as their own inclinations, broke off all correspondence, nor even spoke
to each other, unless when happening to meet in a visit, there was no
avoiding it; and then it was in such a distant manner, and with so much
indifference, that none would have imagined they ever had been intimate
friends and companions.
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