being alone, that she resolved to pretend an amendment in her health, and put on a cheerfulness (which was far from her heart) in order to make it probable that company was now agreeable to her, and so to keep us always in her apartment.
"But her passions were too violent to be artful; and she could not have continued this long, had not her brother's arrival given a new turn to all our affairs.
"The suddenness of her recovery, which the Marquis thought was owing to Vieuville's lively conversation, was really the result of her seeing the passion I had inspired him with: she was quite enlivened with the imagination that this new lover would make me forget Dumont, and thought her virtue could stand any test but that of seeing him another's. This was the reason she appeared so eager for me to marry Vieuville; and indeed she spoke truth, when she so often declared that her own happiness depended on my returning her brother's love. Dumont's leaving us at that time still contributed to the fully persuading her that it would be impossible for me to resist the charms of the young and beautiful Vieuville; my obstinately refusing him was such a disappointment to her hopes, that at first she could hardly forbear giving vent to her passions, and quarrelling with me on that account. But after he was irretrievably married, and she knew it was impossible ever to bring about that scheme, Dumont's absence and her own returning health enabled her seriously to set about the conquering her passion; which, in a ;ottle time, she thought she had so effectually got the better of, that she fancied she could even converse with the Chevalier with great indifference. My brother's ecstasies on her recovery were not to be expressed; and he now thought of nothing but completing his own happiness by contributing to that of his friend, and letting
