She was surprised that Lucie stayed so inconsiderately, and at length became seriously uneasy at her delay.

But her anxiety was for a time diverted, by the appearance of Jacques, who came in haste from the fort, with the intelligence which father Gilbert had just communicated, that La Tour was at liberty, and then on his homeward voyage.
Mad.

de la Tour immediately left the cottage, persuaded that Lucie must have returned without her.

She had not proceeded far, when she encountered father Gilbert, walking with his usual slow and measured steps, and a countenance perfectly abstracted from every surrounding object.

She had never spoken with the priest, for her peculiar tenets led her to regard his order with aversion; nor had she before particularly noticed him.