valancourt led her to the plane-tree on the terrace, where he had first ventured to declare his love, and where now the remembrance of the anxiety he had then suffered, and the retrospect of all the dangers and misfortunes they had each encountered, since last they sat together beneath its broad branches, exalted the sense of their present felicity, which, on this spot, sacred to the memory of st.
aubert, they solemnly vowed to deserve, as far as possible, by endeavouring to imitate his benevolence,--by remembering, that superior attainments of every sort bring with them duties of superior exertion,--and by affording to their fellow-beings, together with that portion of ordinary comforts, which prosperity always owes to misfortune, the example of lives passed in happy thankfulness to god, and, therefore, in careful tenderness to his creatures.
soon after their return to la vallee, the brother of valancourt came to congratulate him on his marriage, and to pay his respects to emily, with whom he was so much pleased, as well as with the prospect of rational happiness, which these nuptials offered to valancourt, that he immediately resigned to him a part of the rich domain, the whole of which, as he had no family, would of course descend to his brother, on his decease.
the estates, at tholouse, were disposed of, and emily purchased of mons.quesnel the ancient domain of her late father, where, having given annette a marriage portion, she settled her as the housekeeper, and ludovico as the steward; but, since both valancourt and herself preferred the pleasant and long-loved shades of la vallee to the magnificence of epourville, they continued to reside there, passing, however, a few months in the year at the birth-place of st.aubert, in tender respect to his memory.