Justine’s Grief and Her Mother’s Death

Poor girl! she wept when she quitted our house: she was much altered since the death

of my aunt; grief had given softness and a winning mildness to her manners, which had before

been remarkable for vivacity. Nor was her residence at her mother’s house of a nature

to restore her gaiety. The poor woman was very vacillating in her repentance. She sometimes begged

Justine to forgive her unkindness, but much oftener accused her of having caused the deaths

of her brothers and sister. Perpetual fretting at length threw Madame Moritz into

a decline, which at first increased her irritability, but she is now at peace for ever.

She died on the first approach of cold weather, at the beginning of this last winter.