But this
morning I suddenly remembered a book which I had seen in the hands
of the workmen at the factory, and which I had often laughed over.
So, while I was out this morning I entered a book-shop, and
purchased the volume. That's it, there on the corner of the
mantel-shelf. Take it and see."
Pascal obeyed, and noticed with surprise that the work was
entitled, "The Indispensable and Complete Letter-writer, for Both
Sexes, in Every Condition of Life."
"Now turn to the page I have marked," said Madame Ferailleur.
He did so, and read: "(Model 198). Letter from a young lady who
has promised her dying father to renounce the man she loves, and
to bestow her hand upon another." Doubt was no longer possible.
Line for line and word for word, the mistakes in spelling
excepted, the note was an exact copy of the stilted prose of the
"Indispensable Letter-writer."
It seemed to Pascal as if the scales had suddenly fallen from his
eyes, and that he could now understand the whole intrigue which
had been planned to separate him from Marguerite. His enemies had
dishonored him in the hope that she would reject and scorn him,
and, disappointed in their expectations, they had planned this
pretended rupture of the engagement to prevent him from making any
attempt at self-justification. So, in spite of some short-lived
doubts, his love had been more clear-sighted than reason, and
stronger than appearances.
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