Quotation from: Villette

Written by: Charlotte Bronte


I smiled then over this dose of maternal tenderness, coming from the
ruddy old lady of the Seven Hills; smiled, too, at my own
disinclination, not to say disability, to meet these melting favours.
Glancing at the title-page, I found the name of "Pere Silas." A fly-
leaf bore in small, but clear and well-known pencil characters: "From
P. C. D. E. to L--y." And when I saw this I laughed: but not in my
former spirit. I was revived.


A mortal bewilderment cleared suddenly from my head and vision; the
solution of the Sphinx-riddle was won; the conjunction of those two
names, Pere Silas and Paul Emanuel, gave the key to all. The penitent
had been with his director; permitted to withhold nothing; suffered to
keep no corner of his heart sacred to God and to himself; the whole
narrative of our late interview had been drawn from him; he had avowed
the covenant of fraternity, and spoken of his adopted sister. How
could such a covenant, such adoption, be sanctioned by the Church?
Fraternal communion with a heretic! I seemed to hear Pere Silas
annulling the unholy pact; warning his penitent of its perils;
entreating, enjoining reserve, nay, by the authority of his office,
and in the name, and by the memory of all M. Emanuel held most dear
and sacred, commanding the enforcement of that new system whose frost
had pierced to the marrow of my bones.

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Old Dominion University CS Dept
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