3.20.2005

"La Motte had now passed above a month in this seclusion; and his wife had the pleasure to see him recover tranquility and even cheerfulness. [....] But the satisfaction which La Motte's cheerfulness diffused around him was of short continuance; he became suddenly gloomy and reserved; the society of his family was no longer grateful to him; and he would spend whole hours in the secluded parts of the forest, devoted to melancholy and secret grief. He did not, as formerly, indulge the humour of his sadness, without restraint, in the presence of others; he now endeavoured to conceal it, and affected a cheerfulness that was too artificial to escape detection."

At this point La Motte is the most sympathetic character in the novel, but his shifty addict behavior is going to make it tough on everyone else. "Week after week elapsed, and the same unknown cause sealed the lips and corroded the heart of La Motte. The place of his visitation in the forest had not been traced. Peter had frequently examined round the spot where his master disappeared, but had never discovered any recess which could be supposed to conceal him. The astonishment of the servant was at length raised to an insupportable degree, and he communicated to his mistress the subject of it."

Mme. La Motte is really upset by this change in her husband. "Comparatively speaking, she had never known affliction till now: she had abandoned her dearest friends and connections--had relinquished the gaieties, the luxuries, and almost the necessities of life;--fled with her family into exile, an exile the most dreary and comfortless; experiencing the evils of reality, and those of apprehension, united: all these she had patiently endured, supported by the affection of him, for whose sake she suffered. Though that affection, indeed, had for some time appeared to be abated, she had borne its decrease with fortitude: but the last stroke of calamity, hitherto withheld, now came with irresistible force--the love, of which she lamented the loss, she now believed was transferred to another," namely Adeline. This suspicion will soon estrange Mme. La Motte from her young charge, leaving Adeline without a single person she can call her friend.

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