“I am very ignorant of these matters,” said the abbess, at length; “but however distant from the court we may be, however remote from the interests of the world we may be placed, we have very sad examples of what you have related. And one of our boarders has suffered much from the vengeance and persecution of the cardinal!”
“One of your boarders?” said Milady; “oh, my God! Poor woman! I pity her, then.”
“And you have reason, for she is much to be pitied. Imprisonment, menaces, ill treatment—she has suffered everything. But after all,” resumed the abbess, “Monsieur Cardinal has perhaps plausible motives for acting thus; and though she has the look of an angel, we must not always judge people by the appearance.”
“Good!” said Milady to herself; “who knows! I am about, perhaps, to discover something here; I am in the vein.”
She tried to give her countenance an appearance of perfect candor.
“Alas,” said Milady, “I know it is so. It is said that we must not trust to the face; but in what, then, shall we place confidence, if not in the most beautiful work of the Lord? As for me, I shall be deceived all my life perhaps, but I shall always have faith in a person whose countenance inspires me with sympathy.”
“You would, then, be tempted to believe,” said the abbess, “that this young person is innocent?”
“The cardinal pursues not only crimes,” said she: “there are certain virtues which he pursues more severely than certain offenses.”
“Permit me, madame, to express my surprise,” said the abbess.
“At what?” said Milady, with the utmost ingenuousness.