At this charming and sincere assimilation of herself to Miss Adrienne, the sempstress forgot almost everything she had suffered, so exquisitely sweet and consoling were her emotions.If some poor creatures, fatally devoted to sufferings, experience griefs of which the world knows naught, they sometimes, too, are cheered by humble and timid joys, of which the world is equally ignorant.The least word of true tenderness and affection, which elevates them in their own estimation, is ineffably blissful for these unfortunate beings, habitually consigned, not only to hardships and to disdain, but even to desolating doubts, and distrust of themselves.
"Then it is agreed that you will go, to-morrow morning to this young lady's house?" exclaimed Mother Bunch, trembling with a new-born hope.
"And," she quickly added, "at break of day I'll go down to watch at the street-door, to see if there be anything suspicious, and to apprise you of what I perceive."
"Good, excellent girl!" exclaimed Agricola, with increasing emotion.
"It will be necessary to endeavor to set off before the wakening of your father," said the hunchback."The quarter in which the young lady dwells, is so deserted, that the mere going there will almost serve for your present concealment."
"I think I hear the voice of my father," said Agricola suddenly.
In truth, the little apartment was so near Agricola's garret, that he and the sempstress, listening, heard Dagobert say in the dark:
"Agricola, is it thus that you sleep, my boy? Why, my first sleep is over; and my tongue itches deucedly."
"Go quick, Agricola!" said Mother Bunch; "your absence would disquiet him.On no account go out to-morrow morning, before I inform you whether or not I shall have seen anything suspicious."
"Why, Agricola, you are not here?" resumed Dagobert, in a louder voice.
"Here I am, father," said the smith, while going out of the sempstress's apartment, and entering the garret, to his father.
"I have been to fasten the shutter of a loft that the wind agitated, lest its noise should disturb you."
"Thanks, my boy; but it is not noise that wakes me," said Dagobert, gayly; "it is an appetite, quite furious, for a chat with you.Oh, my dear boy, it is the hungering of a proud old man of a father, who has not seen his son for eighteen years."
"Shall I light a candle, father?"
"No, no; that would be luxurious; let us chat in the dark.It will be a new pleasure for me to see you to-morrow morning at daybreak.It will be like seeing you for the first time twice." The door of Agricola's garret being now closed, Mother Bunch heard nothing more.
The poor girl, without undressing, threw herself upon the bed, and closed not an eye during the night, painfully awaiting the appearance of day, in order that she might watch over the safety of Agricola.However, in spite of her vivid anxieties for the morrow, she sometimes allowed herself to sink into the reveries of a bitter melancholy.She compared the conversation she had just had in the silence of night, with the man whom she secretly adored, with what that conversation might have been, had she possessed some share of charms and beauty--had she been loved as she loved, with a chaste and devoted flame! But soon sinking into belief that she should never know the ravishing sweets of a mutual passion, she found consolation in the hope of being useful to Agricola.At the dawn of day, she rose softly, and descended the staircase with little noise, in order to see if anything menaced Agricola from without.