Atlas Nightshade

Day 132

“You will say, however, that, in the second instance, there was

no elopement as imagined. Certainly not—but are we prepared to

say that there was not the frustrated design? Beyond St.

Eustache, and perhaps Beauvais, we find no recognized, no open,

no honorable suitors of Marie. Of none other is there any thing

said. Who, then, is the secret lover, of whom the relatives (at

least most of them) know nothing, but whom Marie meets upon the

morning of Sunday, and who is so deeply in her confidence, that

she hesitates not to remain with him until the shades of the

evening descend, amid the solitary groves of the Barrière du

Roule? Who is that secret lover, I ask, of whom, at least, most

of the relatives know nothing? And what means the singular

prophecy of Madame Rogêt on the morning