The unpleasant impression
which these conferences were calculated to leave upon my mind was fast
wearing away, when there occurred a circumstance, slight indeed
in itself, but calculated irrepressibly to awaken all my worst
suspicions, and to overwhelm me again with anxiety and terror.
I had one day left the house with my cousin Emily, in order to take
a ramble of considerable length, for the purpose of sketching some
favourite views, and we had walked about half a mile when I perceived
that we had forgotten our drawing materials, the absence of which
would have defeated the object of our walk. Laughing at our own
thoughtlessness, we returned to the house, and leaving Emily outside,
I ran upstairs to procure the drawing-books and pencils which lay
in my bed-room. As I ran up the stairs, I was met by the tall,
ill-looking Frenchwoman, evidently a good deal flurried; "Que veut
Madame?" said she, with a more decided effort to be polite, than I
had ever known her make before. "No, no--no matter," said I, hastily
running by her in the direction of my room. "Madame," cried she, in a
high key, "restez ici s'il vous plait, votre chambre n'est pas faite."
I continued to move on without heeding her. She was some way behind
me, and feeling that she could not otherwise prevent my entrance, for
I was now upon the very lobby, she made a desperate attempt to seize
hold of my person; she succeeded in grasping the end of my shawl,
which she drew from my shoulders, but slipping at the same time upon
the polished oak floor, she fell at full length upon the boards.
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