The Mysteries of Udolpho | Page 9

That some stranger had been in the fishing-house,
during her absence, her lute, and the additional lines of a pencil, had
already informed her: from the purport of these lines it was not
unreasonable to believe, that the poet, the musician, and the thief were
the same person. But though the music she had heard, the written lines
she had seen, and the disappearance of the picture, formed a
combination of circumstances very remarkable, she was irresistibly
restrained from mentioning them; secretly determining, however, never
again to visit the fishing-house without Monsieur or Madame St.
Aubert.
They returned pensively to the chateau, Emily musing on the incident
which had just occurred; St. Aubert reflecting, with placid gratitude, on
the blessings he possessed; and Madame St. Aubert somewhat
disturbed, and perplexed, by the loss of her daughter's picture. As they
drew near the house, they observed an unusual bustle about it; the
sound of voices was distinctly heard, servants and horses were seen
passing between the trees, and, at length, the wheels of a carriage rolled

along. Having come within view of the front of the chateau, a landau,
with smoking horses, appeared on the little lawn before it. St. Aubert
perceived the liveries of his brother-in-law, and in the parlour he found
Monsieur and Madame Quesnel already entered. They had left Paris
some days before, and were on the way to their estate, only ten leagues
distant from La Vallee, and which Monsieur Quesnel had purchased
several years before of St. Aubert. This gentleman was the only brother
of Madame St. Aubert; but the ties of relationship having never been
strengthened by congeniality of character, the intercourse between them
had not been frequent. M. Quesnel had lived altogether in the world;
his aim had been consequence; splendour was the object of his taste;
and his address and knowledge of character had carried him forward to
the attainment of almost all that he had courted. By a man of such a
disposition, it is not surprising that the virtues of St. Aubert should be
overlooked; or that his pure taste, simplicity, and moderated wishes,
were considered as marks of a weak intellect, and of confined views.
The marriage of his sister with St. Aubert had been mortifying to his
ambition, for he had designed that the matrimonial connection she
formed should assist him to attain the consequence which he so much
desired; and some offers were made her by persons whose rank and
fortune flattered his warmest hope. But his sister, who was then
addressed also by St. Aubert, perceived, or thought she perceived, that
happiness and splendour were not the same, and she did not hesitate to
forego the last for the attainment of the former. Whether Monsieur
Quesnel thought them the same, or not, he would readily have
sacrificed his sister's peace to the gratification of his own ambition; and,
on her marriage with St. Aubert, expressed in private his contempt of
her spiritless conduct, and of the connection which it permitted.
Madame St. Aubert, though she concealed this insult from her husband,
felt, perhaps, for the first time, resentment lighted in her heart; and,
though a regard for her own dignity, united with considerations of
prudence, restrained her expression of this resentment, there was ever
after a mild reserve in her manner towards M. Quesnel, which he both
understood and felt.
In his own marriage he did not follow his sister's example. His lady was
an Italian, and an heiress by birth; and, by nature and education, was a

vain and frivolous woman.
They now determined to pass the night with St. Aubert; and as the
chateau was not large enough to accommodate their servants, the latter
were dismissed to the neighbouring village. When the first
compliments were over, and the arrangements for the night made M.
Quesnel began the display of his intelligence and his connections;
while St. Aubert, who had been long enough in retirement to find these
topics recommended by their novelty, listened, with a degree of
patience and attention, which his guest mistook for the humility of
wonder. The latter, indeed, described the few festivities which the
turbulence of that period permitted to the court of Henry the Third,
with a minuteness, that somewhat recompensed for his ostentation; but,
when he came to speak of the character of the Duke de Joyeuse, of a
secret treaty, which he knew to be negotiating with the Porte, and of the
light in which Henry of Navarre was received, M. St. Aubert
recollected enough of his former experience to be assured, that his
guest could be only of an inferior class of politicians; and that, from the
importance of the subjects upon which he committed himself, he could
not be of the rank to which he pretended to belong.