She had
friends in Paris, and must keep up appearances for Adolphe's
sake, not to mention her own, and so could not possibly live
in a cheap out-of-the-way quarter.
As for Therese, she was of infinitely small account in the
family. She was plain, not too amiable, nor particularly
clever, and inclined to be _devote;_ and, as in spite of
positive and negative failings, she also had to eat and be
clothed as well as her handsome fair brother, she could be
regarded as nothing else than a burden in the economical
household.
"You ask me what I shall do with Therese?" said Madame Linders
one day to a confidential friend. "Oh! she will go into a
convent, of course. I know of an excellent one near Liege, of
which her aunt is the superior, and where she will be
perfectly happy. She has a turn that way. What else can I do
with her, my dear? To speak frankly, she is _laide a faire
peur_, and she can have no _dot_ worth mentioning; for I have not
a sou to spare; so there is no chance of her marrying."
Therese knew her fate, and was resigned to it. As her mother
said, she had a turn that way; and to the Liege convent she
according went, but not before Madame Linders' death, which
took place when her daughter was about seven-and-twenty, and
which was, as Therese vehemently averred, occasioned by grief
at her son's conduct.
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