He then told Ursula (what she had not dared to verify) that Madame de
Portenduere had gone to dine at Rouvre.
"And Savinien too?" she asked.
"Yes."
Ursula was seized with a little nervous tremor which made the abbe
quiver as though a whole Leyden jar had been discharged at him; he
felt moreover a lasting commotion in his heart.
"So we shall not go there to-night," he said as gently as he could;
"and, my child, it would be better if you did not go there again. The
old lady will receive you in a way to wound your pride. Monsieur
Bongrand and I, who had succeeded in bringing her to consider your
marriage, have no idea from what quarter this new influence has come
to change her, as it were in a moment."
"I expect the worst; nothing can surprise me now," said Ursula in a
pained voice. "In such extremities it is a comfort to feel that we
have done nothing to displease God."
"Submit, dear daughter, and do not seek to fathom the ways of
Providence," said the abbe.
"I shall not unjustly distrust the character of Monsieur de
Portenduere--"
"Why do you no longer call him Savinien?" asked the priest, who
detected a slight bitterness in Ursula's tone.
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