Part 1 of 2
“HEAR, then, what I am going to tell you. The closet, which adjoins my chamber at La Vallee, has a sliding board in the floor. You will know it by a remarkable knot in the wood, and by its being the next board, except one, to the wainscot, which fronts the door. At the distance of about a yard from that end, nearer the window, you will perceive a line across it, as if the plank had been joined; — the way to open it is this: — Press your foot upon the line; the end of the board will then sink, and you may slide it with ease beneath the other. Below, you will see a hollow place.”
St Aubert paused for breath, and Emily sat fixed in deep attention. “Do you understand these directions, my dear?” said he. Emily, though scarcely able to speak, assured him that she did. “When you return home, then,” he added with a deep sigh —
Précis
As M St Aubert lay dying far from his Gascony home, he made his daughter Emily promise that when she returned there, alone, she would look underneath a certain floorboard in a particular room, and draw out from the cavity whatever she found there. At this point, however, both he and Emily were overcome by emotion. (56 / 60 words)
Part Two
AT the mention of her return home, she burst into convulsive grief, and St Aubert himself wept with her. After some moments, he composed himself. “My dear child,” said he, “be comforted. When I am gone, you will not be forsaken — I leave you only in the more immediate care of that Providence, which has never yet forsaken me. Do not afflict me with this excess of grief; rather teach me by your example to bear my own.” He stopped again, and Emily, the more she endeavoured to restrain her emotion, found it the less possible to do so.
St Aubert, who now spoke with pain, resumed the subject. “That closet, my dear, — when you return home, go to it; and, beneath the board I have described, you will find a packet of written papers. Attend to me now, for the promise you have given particularly relates to what I shall direct. These papers you must burn — and, solemnly I command you, without examining them.”
Précis
M St Aubert asked Emily to help him face his approaching death without excessive grief, and having mastered his own emotion and calmed Emily a little, went on with his last instructions. He asked Emily to empty a certain under-floor cavity, and burn whatever she found there – stressing most particularly that everything should be burnt unread. (57 / 60 words)