that evening, and eat some fruit and pastry in a summer-house belonging
to the gentleman he was visiting, and requested to bring some of
the ladies with her, Charlotte being her favourite, was fixed on to
accompany her.

The mind of youth eagerly catches at promised pleasure: pure and
innocent by nature, it thinks not of the dangers lurking beneath
those pleasures, till too late to avoid them: when Mademoiselle asked
Charlotte to go with her, she mentioned the gentleman as a relation,
and spoke in such high terms of the elegance of his gardens, the
sprightliness of his conversation, and the liberality with which he ever
entertained his guests, that Charlotte thought only of the pleasure she
should enjoy in the visit,--not on the imprudence of going without her
governess's knowledge, or of the danger to which she exposed herself in
visiting the house of a gay young man of fashion.

Madame Du Pont was gone out for the evening, and the rest of the ladies
retired to rest, when Charlotte and the teacher stole out at the back
gate, and in crossing the field, were accosted by Montraville, as
mentioned in the first CHAPTER.

Charlotte was disappointed in the pleasure she had promised herself
from this visit. The levity of the gentlemen and the freedom of
their conversation disgusted her. She was astonished at the liberties
Mademoiselle permitted them to take; grew thoughtful and uneasy, and
heartily wished herself at home again in her own chamber.

Perhaps one cause of that wish might be, an earnest desire to see the
contents of the letter which had been put into her hand by Montraville.