When the abbe arrived in the evening La Bougival met him at the door.
"Ah, monsieur!" she cried; "I don't know what's the matter with mademoiselle; she is--" "I know," said the abbe sadly, stopping the words of the poor nurse.
He then told Ursula (what she had not dared to verify) that Madame de Portenduere had gone to dine at Rouvre.
"And Savinien too ?" she asked.
"Yes." Ursula was seized with a little nervous tremor which made the abbe quiver as though a whole Leyden jar had been discharged at him; he felt moreover a lasting commotion in his heart.
"So we shall not go there to-night," he said as gently as he could; "and, my child, it would be better if you did not go there again.
The old lady will receive you in a way to wound your pride.

Monsieur Bongrand and I, who had succeeded in bringing her to consider your marriage, have no idea from what quarter this new influence has come to change her, as it were in a moment." "I expect the worst; nothing can surprise me now," said Ursula in a pained voice.

"In such extremities it is a comfort to feel that we have done nothing to displease God." "Submit, dear daughter, and do not seek to fathom the ways of Providence," said the abbe.
"I shall not unjustly distrust the character of Monsieur de Portenduere--" "Why do you no longer call him Savinien ?" asked the priest, who detected a slight bitterness in Ursula's tone.
"Of my dear Savinien," cried the girl, bursting into tears.

"Yes, my good friend," she said, sobbing, "a voice tells me he is as noble in heart as he is in race.

He has not only told me that he loves me alone, but he has proved it in a hundred delicate ways, and by restraining heroically his ardent feelings.