Fabiola : or, The church of the catacombs - Digital Repository Services

to know that at her age it was only
suitors, mid independently of other reasons this would have been
ii to determine; her to remain single.
run DAUGH1
her fortune that attracted
Young Lesealle, her nephew was, at that time, in Paris,
studying for the bar. lie had often recourse to Aunt Medc's
purse when his extravagant love of amusement and expense involved
him in pecuniary difficulties. After a few years' resi-
dence in Paris, young Lescalle found himself provided, indeed,
v.-illi diplomas, but with no means of existence but his own
talents which he was intelligent enough not to rate very highly.
Such being the case he gladly accepted his aunt's offer to purchase
for him an attorney's office in his native town. From that
moment Toussaint Lescalle entirely changed his habits of lite:
he married, and became steady and hard working the dissipated
students of the Ecole de Droit was transformed into a respectable
man of business, and was very severe upon those who ventured
to live as be had done in past days. It was rather amusing
to hear him find fault with Mis3 M?de for her charitalM LUU.gence
towards people who fell into distress through their cwn
extravagance.
In 1819, the birth of Rose gave Mdlle. Lescalle a feel ing of intense
happiness. When she looked at the helpless little creature
just come into the world, all the tenderness and depth of feeling
in her nature was called forth; all that sort of motherly affec-
tion which is dormant in many a woman's heart and is ready to
spend itself in its rich abundance on some object near and dear
to it, which Providence, sometimes lale in life, places in its way
Holding the baby in her arms, she hastened to her nephew's
room, and said: "Toussaint, if you feel any gratitude at al. for
the affection I have always shown you, do grant me what I am
going to ask."
What is it, dear old aunt? There is nothing I would not do
for you."
"
Let me bring up your little girl."
" "
What! would you really wish that, aunty?
"Yes; I want to take her and her nurse to The Capucins.
You and your wife could come and see her as often as you liked.
Do let me have her, my dear nephew; I have set my heart upon
it."
"This is a very sudden thought, Aunt Mede' you never said
anything about it before. How came "
you to think of it now?
" When I saw her, ancl kissed her, I understood tor the first
time the deep love one can have for a littl' child. It was quite
anew emotion; and then the thought came into my mind that
of her '
you would let me take charge
M. Lescalle rapidly resolved m his mind the merits of this
proposal, and then said, "Well, tor my part Aunt Mede. I see
no objection to what you wish. The child will be better off with
you than with any one else, that I am sure of. If you can settle
it with my wife, you can rely on my consent."
Madame Lescalle did not long resist the earnest entreaties of
h.-;r husband's aunt, and Mise Mede carried off the baby in tri-
umph to her country house.
From that moment her life, which had been so long a solitary
one, underwent a great change. She loved little Rose with an
intense .'iff xjtiou, which filled her heart with overflowing delight.
R!ie w: s h T joy, her thought, ber care of every instant; and that
i unhling
house, which had been before so silent and so
still, was soon enlivened by the sound of childish laughter and
the pattering of infant feet.
Mise Mode's country house had formerly been the ancient and
f.imous Convent of the Capuchins of La Ciotat. It was built on
u slanting part of a beach, beneath which the waves of the Med-
iterranean were continually breaking against a belt of small rocks,
ju^t rising above the surface of the water. The situation was
beautiful, and the terrace and the garden looked on a magnificent
view of the coast on both sides, and on an unlimited expanse of
d"ep blue sea.
This spot had been well chosen for a convent. We never feel
so strongly God's greatness and our own littleness as when we
ir i/r> on the boundless sky and the fathomless ocean.
It \vns in this de.lifrhtfiil snot, in the midst, of t.hn Irwpliest.
works of nature, nnd under the loving p.nd fostering care of hn
aunt, lhai KM e
i;t
pi the lime of her childhood. In he
eleventh year, M. Lesralle de--;