He
gave me a father's blessing, and declared on his honour that the fief
of Roche-Mauprat would never be accepted by Edmee, and sent me a
considerable sum of money exclusive of the income due me in the future.
The abbe expressed the same mild censure, together with still warmer
exhortations. It was easy to see that he preferred Edmee's tranquility
to my happiness, and that he was full of genuine joy at my departure.
Nevertheless he had a liking for me, and his friendship showed itself
touchingly through the cruel satisfaction that was mingled with it. He
expressed envy of my lot; proclaimed his enthusiasm for the cause of
independence; and declared that he himself had more than once felt
tempted to throw off the cassock and take up the musket. All this,
however, was mere boyish affectation; his timid, gentle nature always
kept him the priest under the mask of the philosopher.
Between these two letters I found a little note without any address,
which seemed as if it had been slipped in as an after-thought. I was not
slow to see that it was from the one person in the world who was of real
interest to me. Yet I had not the courage to open it. I walked up and
down the sandy beach, turning over this little piece of paper in my
hands, fearful that by reading it I might destroy the kind of desperate
calm my resolution had given me. Above all, I dreaded lest it might
contain expressions of thanks and enthusiastic joy, behind which I
should have divined the rapture of contented love for another.
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