angelic sweetness, and above all, much piety. This is not all; Jacques, you
know, owes to his long practice in business affairs an extreme penetration;
he soon saw that this young woman, for she was young and very pretty, M.
l'Abbe--that this young and pretty woman was not made for a servant, and
that, to principles most virtuously austere, she added solid
accomplishments very diversified."

"Ah, indeed, this is strange," said the abbe, much interested. "I was
entirely ignorant of these circumstances; but what is the matter, my good
M. Ferrand? You seem to be suffering."

"In truth," said the notary, wiping the cold sweat from his brow, "I have a
slight headache, but it will soon pass away."

Polidori shrugged his shoulders and smiled. "Observe, M. l'Abbe," he added,
"that Jacques is always thus when any one unveils his hidden charities; he
is so hypocritical on the subject of the good he does! Happily, I am here,
and justice shall be done him. Let us return to Cecily. In her turn she had
soon found out the excellence of his heart, and, when he interrogated her
as to the past, she confessed to him that, a stranger, without resources,
and reduced by the misconduct of her husband to the most humble condition,
she regarded it as a boon from heaven that she had been enabled to enter
the house of a man so venerable as M. Ferrand. At the sight of so much
misfortune, resignation, virtue, Jacques did not hesitate; he wrote to the
native country of this unfortunate, to ascertain the truth of her story:
the answer confirmed it in every particular; then, sure of not misplacing
his benefactions, Jacques blessed Cecily as a father, sent her back to her
own country with a sum of money which will enable her to wait for better
days, and the chance of improving her condition. I will not add a word of
praise for Jacques; the facts are more eloquent than my words."