"Were I to consider myself
alone, I would starve sooner than touch the sacred deposit; but to
allow you, Margaret, to suffer, and to suffer for me--to take
advantage any longer of your disinterested affection and devoted
fidelity--would be base selfishness. God has at last taught me that I
was but sacrificing you to my pride, and I must hasten to make
atonement. I will endeavour to raise money on this jewel. You know old
M. Simon? Notwithstanding his mean appearance and humble mode of
living, I am persuaded he is a rich man; and though parsimonious in
the extreme, he is good-natured and obliging whenever he can be so
without any risk of loss to himself.'
The next day, in pursuance of her project, the abbess, accompanied by
Margaret, repaired to the house of M. Simon. 'I know, sir,' she said,
'from your kindness to some friends of mine, that you feel an interest
in the class to which I belong, and that you are incapable of
betraying a confidence reposed in you. I am the Abbess of Vatteville.
Driven forth from the plundered and ruined abbey, I am living in the
town under an assumed name.
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