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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER A SHAMEFUL DECEPTION. Discovering, a little while afterward, that her godmother was asleep, Mariette, who up to that time had kept the letter from Louis Richard ? the scrivener's only son ? carefully concealed in her lap, broke the seal and opened the missive. An act of vain curiosity on her part, for, as we have said, the poor girl could not read. But it was a touching sight to see her eagerly gaze at these, to her, incomprehensible characters. She perceived with a strange mingling of anxiety and hope that the letter was very short. But did this communication, which was marked Very urgent on a corner of the envelope, contain good or bad news ? Mariette, with her eyes riveted upon these hieroglyphics, lost herself in all sorts of conjectures, rightly thinking that so short a letter after so long a separation must contain something of importance, ? either an announcement of a speedy return, or bad news which the writer had not time to explain in full. Under these circumstances, poor Mariette experienced one of the worst of those trials to which persons who have been deprived of the advantages of even a rudimentary education are exposed. To hold in one's hand lines that may bring you either joy or sorrow, and yet be unable to learn the secret To be obliged to wait until you can ask a stranger to read these lines and until you can hear from other lips the news upon which your very life depends, ? is this not hard ? At last this state of suspense became so intolerable that, seeing her godmother continued to sleep, she resolved, even at the risk of being cruelly blamed on her return, ? for Madame Lacombe's good-natured fits were rare, ?to hasten back to the scrivener; so she cautiously rose from her chair so as not to wake the sick woman, and tiptoed to the...
| ISBN-13 | 9780217442619 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10 | 0217442617 |
| Weight | 0.82 Pounds |
| Dimensions | 9.00 x 6.00 x 0.56 In |
| List Price | $19.99 |
| Format | Paperback |
|---|---|
| Pages | 248 pages |
| Publisher | |
| Published On | 2009-08-01 |
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