She was attacked by a slow fever, and when she yielded to the persuasion
of Annette to send for medical advice, the physicians prescribed little
beside air, gentle exercise and amusement: but how was this last to be
obtained? She, however, endeavoured to abstract her thoughts from the
subject of her anxiety, by employing them in promoting that happiness in
others, which she had lost herself; and, when the evening was fine, she
usually took an airing, including in her ride the cottages of some of
her tenants, on whose condition she made such observations, as often
enabled her, unasked, to fulfil their wishes.
Her indisposition and the business she engaged in, relative to this
estate, had already protracted her stay at Tholouse, beyond the period
she had formerly fixed for her departure to La Vallee; and now she
was unwilling to leave the only place, where it seemed possible, that
certainty could be obtained on the subject of her distress. But the time
was come, when her presence was necessary at La Vallee, a letter from
the Lady Blanche now informing her, that the Count and herself, being
then at the chateau of the Baron St. Foix, purposed to visit her at La
Vallee, on their way home, as soon as they should be informed of her
arrival there. Blanche added, that they made this visit, with the hope
of inducing her to return with them to Chateau-le-Blanc.
Emily, having replied to the letter of her friend, and said that she
should be at La Vallee in a few days, made hasty preparations for the
journey; and, in thus leaving Tholouse, endeavoured to support herself
with a belief, that, if any fatal accident had happened to Valancourt,
she must in this interval have heard of it.
On the evening before her departure, she went to take leave of the
terrace and the pavilion. The day had been sultry, but a light shower,
that fell just before sun-set, had cooled the air, and given that soft
verdure to the woods and pastures, which is so refreshing to the eye;
while the rain drops, still trembling on the shrubs, glittered in the
last yellow gleam, that lighted up the scene, and the air was filled
with fragrance, exhaled by the late shower, from herbs and flowers and
from the earth itself. But the lovely prospect, which Emily beheld from
the terrace, was no longer viewed by her with delight; she sighed deeply
as her eye wandered over it, and her spirits were in a state of such
dejection, that she could not think of her approaching return to La
Vallee, without tears, and seemed to mourn again the death of her
father, as if it had been an event of yesterday. Having reached the
pavilion, she seated herself at the open lattice, and, while her
eyes settled on the distant mountains, that overlooked Gascony, still
gleaming on the horizon, though the sun had now left the plains below,