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"Yes; I will prove the truth of my affection by submitting to a decree which cuts me to the very heart. Take back your promise. I will quit the monastery this very day. I have a relation, abbess of a convent in Estramadura: to her will I bend my steps, and shut myself from the world for ever. Yet tell me, father, shall I bear your good wishes with me to my solitude? Will you sometimes abstract your attention from heavenly objects to bestow a thought upon me?"
"Ah! Matilda, I fear that I shall think on you but too often for my repose!"
"Then I have nothing more to wish for, save that we may meet in heaven. Farewell, my friend! my Ambrosio! And yet, methinks, I would fain bear with me some token of your regard."
"What shall I give you?"
"Something—any thing—one of those flowers will be sufficient." [Here she pointed to a bush of roses, planted at the door of the grotto.] "I will hide it in my bosom,and,
