Pagina 272 de 1118

But none of her anticipations were verified: her parents and

family, with the usual artful policy in such cases, maintained a

perfect silence with regard to the subject of her meditations;

they regarded her with looks of contemptuous pity, and appeared

to avoid all conversation with her, as if she had rendered

herself unworthy of it. A mysterious anathema appeared to hang

over her, and to keep at a distance every member of the

household. If, wearied with this proscription, she endeavoured to

enter into conversation, they made her understand indirectly,

that by obedience alone could she regain the affections of the

family. But this was precisely the condition to which she could

not assent: she therefore continued in her state of

excommunication, which unhappily appeared to be, at least

partially, the consequence of her own conduct.