" 'My chief residence,' said the Marquis, 'is in a distant province, but I have a chateau near the borders of the forest.... I shall sometimes visit you,' continued he, 'and I lament that I cannot at present invite Madame La Motte, and her fair friend to my chateau, but it is undergoing some repairs.' " Being tricked out for murder, no doubt. But wait a minute: what makes the Marquis so friendly all of a sudden? "Fair friend" -- does he mean Adeline? Why was La Motte defending him to her yesterday? He was none too happy to see him on Sunday!
The Marquis is a very insinuating personality. Also he appears to own La Motte, for reasons we're left to imagine for ourselves (debt or blackmail). Soon he is a frequent caller at the abbey, where Adeline is momentarily charmed by his infectious manner. But that's nothing compared to the stirrings caused by the second appearance of Theodore, who comes up on her in the forest with an obscure warning: " 'I fear you are deceived,' said he, 'I fear there's danger near you.' " Just then, La Motte steps into the path, and Theodore is cut short, arranging to meet Adeline at the same spot "an hour earlier tomorrow" as he slips off into the trees.
The next day's a dismal one. Louis is due back with his regiment at P-------, and his final interview with Adeline is too pathetic for words. Yes, the fawn makes an appearance. Then Adeline is kept waiting until nightfall at the appointed spot in the forest, but Theodore never shows up. Oppressed by conjecture and injured feelings, she returns to the abbey and falls into "harrassed slumbers, such as but too often haunt the couch of the unhappy." There follows a sequence of three ominous dreams --and thus concludes the first of ROTF's three volumes. Let me leave Alli's readers this morning with the epigraph for volume two:
----- "When these prodigies
"Do so conjointly meet, let not men say,
"These are their reasons; they are natural;
"For I believe they are portentous things"
JULIUS CÆSAR I.iii.28-31
The Marquis is a very insinuating personality. Also he appears to own La Motte, for reasons we're left to imagine for ourselves (debt or blackmail). Soon he is a frequent caller at the abbey, where Adeline is momentarily charmed by his infectious manner. But that's nothing compared to the stirrings caused by the second appearance of Theodore, who comes up on her in the forest with an obscure warning: " 'I fear you are deceived,' said he, 'I fear there's danger near you.' " Just then, La Motte steps into the path, and Theodore is cut short, arranging to meet Adeline at the same spot "an hour earlier tomorrow" as he slips off into the trees.
The next day's a dismal one. Louis is due back with his regiment at P-------, and his final interview with Adeline is too pathetic for words. Yes, the fawn makes an appearance. Then Adeline is kept waiting until nightfall at the appointed spot in the forest, but Theodore never shows up. Oppressed by conjecture and injured feelings, she returns to the abbey and falls into "harrassed slumbers, such as but too often haunt the couch of the unhappy." There follows a sequence of three ominous dreams --and thus concludes the first of ROTF's three volumes. Let me leave Alli's readers this morning with the epigraph for volume two:
----- "When these prodigies
"Do so conjointly meet, let not men say,
"These are their reasons; they are natural;
"For I believe they are portentous things"
JULIUS CÆSAR I.iii.28-31
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