Days, weeks, and months passed over, after an assurance so pleasing to
her wishes, without any confirmation of the repeated vows he had made;
and receiving from him no account of the reasons that delayed him, she
began to reproach herself for having placed too much confidence in
him;--the more time elapsed, the more cause she had to doubt his
sincerity, and believe her misfortune real:--in fine, it was near half a
year that she languished under a vain expectation of seeing, or at least
hearing from him.--Sometimes she imagined a new object had deprived her
of his heart; but when she called to mind the many proofs he had given
her of the most unparallell'd generosity that ever was she could not
think that if he even ceased to love her, he could be capable of leaving
her in so cruel a suspence:--no, said she to herself, he would have let
me know I had no more to depend on from him:--paper cannot blush, and as
he is out of the reach of my upbraidings, he would certainly have
acquainted me with my fate, confessed the inconstancy of his sex, and
exerted that wit, of which he has sufficient, to have excused his
change:--I will not therefore injure a man whom I have found so truly
noble:--death, perhaps, his deprived me of him; the unrelenting sword
makes no distinction between the worthy and unworthy;--and the brave,
the virtuous du Plessis, may have fallen a victim in common with the
most vulgar.

These apprehensions had no sooner gained ground in her imagination, than
she became the most disconsolate creature in the world. The abbess took
advantage of her melancholy, as knowing the occasion of it, and began to
represent, in the strongest terms, the instability of all human
expectations:--you may easily see, my dear child, said she, that
monsieur either no longer lives, or ceases to live for you:--young men
are wavering, every new object attracts their wishes;--they are