Mademoiselle de Watteville, who lived alone on her estate of lesRouxey, riding, hunting, refusing two or three offers a year, going toBesancon four or five times in the course of the winter, and busyingherself with improving her land, was regarded as a very eccentricpersonage. She was one of the celebrities of the Eastern provinces.
Madame de Soulas has two children, a boy and a girl, and she has grownyounger; but Monsieur de Soulas has aged a good deal.
"My fortune has cost me dear," said he to young Chavoncourt. "Reallyto know a bigot it is unfortunately necessary to marry her!"
Mademoiselle de Watteville behaves in the most extraordinary manner."She has vagaries," people say. Every year she goes to gaze at thewalls of the Grande Chartreuse. Perhaps she dreams of imitating hergrand-uncle by forcing the walls of the monastery to find a husband,as Watteville broke through those of his monastery to recover hisliberty.
She left Besancon in 1841, intending, it was said, to get married; butthe real reason of this expedition is still unknown, for she returnedhome in a state which forbids her ever appearing in society again. Byone of those chances of which the Abbe de Grancey had spoken, shehappened to be on the Loire in a steamboat of which the boiler burst.Mademoiselle de Watteville was so severely injured that she lost herright arm and her left leg; her face is marked with fearful scars,which have bereft her of her beauty; her health, cruelly upset, leavesher few days free from suffering. In short, she now never leaves theChartreuse of les Rouxey, where she leads a life wholly devoted toreligious practices.
PARIS, May 1842.
THE END.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
ADDENDUM
The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.
Beauseant, Vicomtesse de Father Goriot The Deserted Woman
Genovese Massimilla Doni
Hannequin, Leopold Beatrix Cousin Betty Cousin Pons
Jeanrenaud The Commission in Lunacy
Nueil, Gaston de The Deserted Woman
Rhetore, Duc Alphonse de A Bachelor's Establishment A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Scenes from a Courtesan's Life Letters of Two Brides The Member for Arcis
Savaron de Savarus The Quest of the Absolute
Savarus, Albert Savaron de The Quest of the Absolute
Schinner, Hippolyte The Purse A Bachelor's Establishment Pierre Grassou A Start in Life The Government Clerks Modeste Mignon The Imaginary Mistress The Unconscious Humorists
Tinti, Clarina Massimilla Doni