Note 415 — Chapter XII
Reading edition
Two remarkable and short passages of his, not quoted in the special notice of him, may be given—one in English, because of its remarkable anticipation of the state of mind of Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey; the other in French, as a curious "conclusion of the whole matter." They are both from Marianne.
"I had resolved not to sleep another night in the house. I cannot indeed tell you what was the exact object of my fear, or why it was so lively. All that I know is that I constantly beheld before me the countenance of my landlord, to which I had hitherto paid no particular attention, and then I began to find terrible things in this countenance His wife's face, too, seemed to be gloomy and dark; the servants looked like scoundrels; all their faces made me in a state of unbearable alarm. I saw before me swords, daggers, murders, thefts, insults. My blood grew cold at the perils I imagined."
"Enfin ces agitations, tant agréables que pénibles, s'affaiblirent et se passèrent. L'âme s'accoutume à tout; sa sensibilité s'use: et je me familiarisais avec mes espérances et mes inquiétudes."