"What a dreary New-Year's Day!" resumed Madame de Vatteville, in a melancholy tone.
"Oh, why can I not help you, dear mistress?" exclaimed Margaret, suddenly starting from her reverie. "Cheerfully would I lay down my life for you!"
"And why can I not return in any way your devoted attachment, my poor Margaret?"
At this instant, two loud and hurried knocks at the door startled them both from their seats: and it was with a trembling hand Margaret opened it to admit the old porter, and a servant with a letter in his hand.
"Thank you, thank you, M. Thiebaut: this letter is for my mistress." But the inquisitive old man either did not or would not understand Margaret's hint to him to retire, and Madame de Vatteville was obliged to tell him to leave the room.
"Not a penny to bless herself with, though she has come to a better apartment!" muttered he, enraged at the disappointment to his curiosity—"and yet as proud as an aristocrat!"
The abbess approached the casement, broke the seal with trembling hand, and read as follows:
"I have at length been able to treat with a merchant for the article in question, and have, after much difficulty, obtained a sum of 25,000 francs—far beyond any thing I could have hoped. But the sum is to be paid in installments, at long intervals. It may therefore be more convenient for you, under your peculiar circumstances, to accept the offer I now make of a pension of 1500 francs, to revert after your decease to the servant whom you mentioned as so devotedly attached to you. If you are willing to accept this offer, the bearer will hand you the necessary documents, by which you are to make over to me all further claim upon the property placed in my hands; and on your affixing your signature, he will pay you the first year in advance.
Simon."
"What a worthy, excellent man!" joyfully exclaimed the abbess; for, in the noble integrity of her heart, she had no suspicion that he could take advantage of her circumstances.
However Simon settled the matter with his conscience, the abbess, trained in the school of adversity to be content with being preserved from absolute want, passed the remainder of her life quietly and happily with her good Margaret, both every day invoking blessings on the head of him whom they regarded as a generous benefactor. Madame de Vatteville lived to the age of one hundred, and her faithful Margaret survived only a few months the mistress to whom she had given such affecting proofs of attachment.