joined the company. He entered the room bowing, smiling and hopping;
then he looked from one to another without saying a word. But Alfred
went to him and said:
"They say that monsieur le marquis is very fond of hunting; you like it
too, no doubt, monsieur?"
"Yes, oh, yes! I go hunting," replied Mignon, scratching his nose.
"Are you a good shot?"
"Shot! No! oh, no! I never shoot."
"What on earth do you go hunting for, then?"
"Why, I carry the ladies’ umbrellas."
"What! Do the ladies hunt, too?"
"Oh, yes! Cornélie often brings down hares."
"And her sister?"
"Eudoxie doesn’t shoot, but she follows the hunt; the movement of the
horse is very good for her nerves.--Ah! I beg pardon, I think my nieces
called me; I may have forgotten a box!"
Mignon hurried from the salon, and Robineau said to his friends:
"You will agree, messieurs, that it would be difficult to find an uncle
more attentive! In fact, Cornélie tells me to take him for a model."
"Never fear, Robineau; I assure you that they will train you as well as
they have him."
After a long hour, during which Monsieur Férulus did nothing but go from
the dining-room to the kitchen, the ladies appeared at last, escorted by
Mignon, and followed by the marquis. There was nothing extraordinary in
the costumes of the two sisters. Edouard was surprised that they had
been able to spend so long a time in making so little change in their
dress; but Eudoxie began by saying:
"Don’t look at us, messieurs, we must be perfectly horrid, shocking!
That stupid girl has no idea about dressing the hair, and then we feared
keeping you waiting. We hurried and have sacrificed all coquetry!"
"In heaven’s name, how long does their toilet last when they take time
about it?" whispered Alfred; while Férulus exclaimed:
"It seems to me that I see Venus and Psyche!"
They took their places at the table; this time Alfred was beside
Eudoxie. But Edouard was in no wise jealous; he was beside the haughty
Cornélie, who deigned sometimes to smile amiably upon him.
"My château is not yet what it will be before long," said Robineau,
gazing fondly at his future bride; "but I shall try to make your stay
here agreeable; my friends will second me with all their power. Thanks
to your presence, mesdames, I fancy that we shall see them here more
frequently; for, heaven is my witness, that since we arrived, they have
been here very little; early in the morning they leave the house, and do
not return until dinner time."
"Are you gentlemen fond of riding?" said Eudoxie.
"The exercise is very healthful," said the marquis; "it’s a pity that
one wears out one’s boots and small-clothes. I have been trying for a
long time to find something economical to replace them."
"To replace small-clothes, monsieur le marquis?"
"No, only the boots. I believe that I have discovered the ancient
foot-gear of the Phoceans; it would be very becoming to those men who
have well-shaped legs!"
"It is not simply for the pleasure of riding that these gentlemen scour
the country every morning," said Robineau with a mischievous air.
"Do they hunt?" said the marquis.
"No--no--that is to say, they do hunt if you call it so, but it is a
sort of game which--which----"
"Pray explain yourself, monsieur!" said Cornélie; "we do not understand
you."
"It seems to me, Monsieur de la Roche-Noire," said Edouard, "that these
ladies are hardly likely to care about knowing where we go."
"Ha! ha! Look, mesdames, the poet is blushing already!" replied
Robineau, laughing; "it is well that you should know that we have a
sorceress in the neighborhood."
"A sorceress," exclaimed Eudoxie in dismay, while Mignon ceased to play
with his fork for a moment and looked at Robineau.
"A sorceress," said Cornélie, with a scornful air; "bah! I don’t believe
in sorceresses myself!"
"You understand, mesdames, that it is simply a figure of speech."
"No matter," said Eudoxie; "if she tells fortunes, I shall go to consult
her; where does she live?"
"About two leagues from here, in a pretty little valley surrounded by
mountains, near the village of Chadrat."
"She should have an owl, a screech owl, and a black cat," said Mignon.
"I have seen none of those things," said Alfred, with a smile; "but by
way of compensation, she has the loveliest eyes in the world, teeth as
white as snow, and an extremely sweet voice."
"Oh! mon Dieu! what a portrait!" cried Cornélie spitefully; "it would
seem that monsieur has looked at her very closely."
"Is she a young girl, then?" said Eudoxie.
"Yes, mesdames," replied Robineau, "she is rather a good-looking young
girl, although I see nothing extraordinary about her; a peasant, a
goatherd, in fact, who, according to what the peasants hereabout say,
casts spells upon animals; and I am inclined to think that she has cast
one upon these gentlemen."
"Aha! so she’s a young girl," rejoined Eudoxie, glancing at Alfred; "and
it is to her side that these gentlemen bend their steps? I begin to
understand."
"Well, I do not understand at all what pleasure one can take in talking
to goatherds," said Cornélie disdainfully.
"If you had heard her speak, mademoiselle," said Edouard, "you would
consider us very pardonable. She is not a mere peasant like the other
girls one meets in these mountains; she is a young woman with refined
and gracious manners, a keen and delicate wit, a sweet and touching
voice, who expresses herself as well as one who has received the best
education."
"Oh, monsieur! how warm you get!" said Cornélie with a satirical air.
"You are this extraordinary damsel’s true knight, I see!"
"I do her justice, mademoiselle; that is all."
"I beg pardon, monsieur," said Eudoxie; "but if this goatherd is really
such a person as you describe, she must indeed be a sorceress; for I
should like to know who could have taught her to talk and express
herself differently from the other country girls? unless she has not
always lived here in the mountains, unless she is a deserted Ariadne."
"The deduction is extremely judicious!" said Férulus; "she cannot have
learned without a teacher; and except my boarding-school, which she
never attended, I know of no masters of arts in this neighborhood."
"I agree, mesdames," said Alfred, "that there is, in truth, something
hard to explain in respect to this girl; but in my opinion that adds to
the charm of her personality."
"The charm of a cowherd! She must be most seductive!" said Cornélie,
with a sarcastic smile.
"Mademoiselle," said Edouard, "pray have a little compassion for a
person whom you do not know!"
"Oh! I see that one would be very ill-advised to speak ill of her before
you, messieurs! I leave you your shepherdess! But I confess that I
should never have suspected that two young men of such excellent tone
could be attracted by such a rustic character!"
"For my part, I say that we must see her in order to form a just
estimate of her," said the marquis; "I shall go hunting in that
direction."
"Monsieur le marquis is right," said Férulus; "we should not speak
without knowledge. Everybody talks about the fair Helen, but few people
know that she had five husbands: Theseus, Menelaus, Paris, Deiphobus and
Achilles; that she was hanged in the Isle of Rhodes by the women
servants of Polyxo; and that, during the war of which she was the cause,
eight hundred and eighty-six thousand men died on the side of the Greeks
and six hundred and seventy-six thousand on the side of the Trojans."
"Oh! mon Dieu! he has got onto history again!" said Eudoxie to Alfred.
"Monsieur," said Cornélie to Férulus, "Greek and Roman names make my
ears ache; pray talk to us about more modern things."
Monsieur Férulus bowed and swallowed a glass of burgundy, to wash down
this little snub. Meanwhile, Robineau, to demonstrate his affection to
his future bride, tenderly pressed her foot with his; but Mademoiselle
Cornélie gave a little shriek and exclaimed:
"Dear me! who is treading on my foot like that? Is it you, monsieur?"
Robineau turned crimson and stammered:
"Yes, I confess that I wanted to make you understand----"
"I don’t like to have people tread on my feet! You hurt me terribly! I
beg that you won’t do it again."
Robineau, covered with confusion, looked at the floor, uncertain whether
he should or should not throw himself at Cornélie’s feet; at last, to
relieve himself from his embarrassment, he turned the conversation once
more upon the subject of Isaure.
"To return to the young girl of the mountains, mesdames, the most
surprising thing about her is that she lives all alone near a place
which is the terror of the people of the next village. That place is a
house called the White House."
"Why, what happens in the White House, pray?" asked Eudoxie.
"What happens there!" replied Robineau; "oh! nobody knows; but it seems
clear that something happens there. It is uninhabited and yet lights are
seen in it; sounds are heard and yet no person is seen! That is very
strange, is it not?"
"It is terrifying," said Mignon.
"It is utterly absurd," said Cornélie.
"However, mesdames, the said shepherdess is the only person who is not
afraid of the White House, and she lives close beside it. That is rather
surprising for a young girl, eh?"
"A clever trick!" said Eudoxie; "of course her lover lives in the house,
and she knows very well that he isn’t the devil."
"Her lover!" exclaimed Edouard; and, struck by the widow’s suggestion,
he suddenly became pale, and trembled visibly.
"Oh! mon Dieu! how you frighten me, monsieur!" said Cornélie; "I thought
that you had an attack of hysteria."
"I beg pardon, mademoiselle, but I don’t know--I had a sudden flush."
"No one would have suspected it, for you are as pale as a ghost!"
"Come, come, my dear Edouard," said Alfred, who had observed his
friend’s perturbation, "let us drop the White House, which does not
deserve so much of our attention, and let us drink a glass of champagne
to the health of these ladies."
As he spoke, he tried with his eyes to tranquillize and reassure
Edouard, who soon recovered himself, realizing that he was foolish to be
disturbed by a word spoken at random by someone who had never seen
Isaure. But that cruel word had wounded him to the heart.
To put an end to a conversation which was painful to him, and to revenge
himself in some measure upon Robineau, Edouard said to him:
"But, Monsieur de la Roche-Noire, do you, who are so well acquainted
with everything curious or extraordinary in the neighborhood, do you
know all that your own château contains?"
"My château? Why, now it contains a most illustrious family, and some
most adorable ladies!"
"That is very well, but it is not all; you are unaware, I see, that
there is a phantom, a ghost in this old château!"
"A ghost under my roof!" cried Robineau, changing color in his turn.
"A ghost!" repeated all the members of the La Pincerie family; and Uncle
Mignon, in his terror, dropped upon his knees the cup of coffee he was
just putting to his lips.
"Faith, I knew nothing about it," said Alfred.
"Nonsense, it is a joke, a piece of mischief on Monsieur Edouard’s
part," rejoined Robineau, making an effort to smile.
"No, indeed; that is, if we are to believe your servants; for I confess,
for my own part, that I have seen nothing; but your groom declares that
the North Tower is visited at night by a phantom; and Vincent, your
gardener, claims to have met in the garden, in the evening, a mysterious
personage who fled at his approach. That at least is what François, your
valet, told me, and he asked me if it were I who had been in the tower
and in the garden at night."
Robineau, seeing that Edouard was speaking seriously, could not conceal
the emotion which this news caused him.
"What!" he cried, "my servants have seen all this and have said nothing
to me about it! You know so many things, Monsieur Férulus--how does it
happen that you did not know this?"
"Monseigneur," said Férulus, "I had had wind of these vague rumors; but
it seemed to me that it was useless to mention them to you until I was
certain that there was something extraordinary in them."
"Why useless, pray? Am I not the owner of this château? Should I not be
told first of everything that happens here?"
"_Recte dicis_, monseigneur; but no thief has entered the château, since
nothing has been stolen. In that case it must have been a ghost that
they saw. But are there ghosts? That is the question. The Egyptians, the
Gauls, the Vandals and the Ostrogoths affirm----"
"Monsieur Férulus, this is not a question of Ostrogoths! I want an
explanation of what my servants saw that was extraordinary.--François,
tell my groom and my gardener to come here; summon the concierge too,
and the whole household, that will be the best way."
François went off to collect his fellows, while Cornélie said to
Robineau:
"Really, monsieur, you display an interest, an eagerness, in this
matter!--I can well believe that you do not believe in ghosts! Ah! mon
Dieu! a cowardly man is a pitiful creature!"
"Certainly, mademoiselle, my courage is well known; my friends can tell
you that we passed the night in the mountains, in a wretched hovel, the
door of which had no lock."
"Yes, mademoiselle," observed Alfred, "and that night La Roche-Noire did
some things--which I would not have done."
"To be sure," said Robineau, compressing his lips. "As for ghosts, I do
not believe in them the least in the world. But I propose to find out
why my servants presume to spread reports which are utterly absurd."
"Oh! yes, monsieur," said Eudoxie; "we must find out what it is, for I
am afraid of everything; and it would be a shameful thing to bring us to
a château inhabited by ghosts."
"Indeed, it would be dishonorable," said Uncle Mignon in an undertone,
as he followed the company, who left the table to repair to the salon,
where all the servants soon arrived in a body, in accordance with their
master’s orders.
"Which of you is it who saw something or somebody at night in the North
Tower?" asked Robineau, perching himself gracefully in a large
easy-chair, while the ladies and the two young men talked together on an
enormous couch at a little distance.
The servants looked at one another for some time without replying; at
last Benoît stepped forward and said:
"I believe it was me, monseigneur."
"You see! he is uncertain about it already," said Férulus; "_oculos
habent et non videbunt_!"
"Monsieur Férulus," said Robineau testily, "why do you speak Latin to my
people? You know very well that they don’t understand it! Parbleu! if I
chose, I could speak Latin to them too; and even cookery Latin, which
would be much more within their reach."
"Monseigneur, I was quoting a passage of Scripture."
"You are a terrible man with your passages! But, when one is with
ladies, one should never use a dead language."
Férulus bowed, and seated himself in a corner of the salon, whence he
ogled Jeannette. Robineau resumed his examination.
"Tell me, Benoît, what it was that frightened you?"
"Frightened! Oh! I wasn’t frightened, monseigneur! I was just surprised,
that’s all!"
"He is lying like a tooth-puller!" cried Mademoiselle Cheval; "he was so
frightened that when he told us about it the next day he was still as
pale as a turnip."
"Yes," said Cunette, who was standing behind his comrades, because he
had dined and did not feel very firm upon his legs, which fact he was
terribly afraid that his master would discover; but which did not
prevent his persisting in talking all the time. "Yes, he was frightened!
He pretends to be brave, and he hasn’t any marrow in his bones!"
"Hold your tongue, you others, and let Benoît speak.--What was it you
saw at night?"
"Monseigneur," said Benoît, "I was at my window because I couldn’t
sleep."
"Well, you ought to sleep," said Cunette. Robineau made a threatening
gesture and the concierge said no more.
"I happened to look at the old tower, where no one lives, and I saw a
light in the windows on top."
"In the first place, there ain’t any windows on top, because the
platform’s there," said Cunette under his breath.
"What did that light do?" inquired Robineau with keen interest.
"What did it do! It went back and forth; and then I didn’t see it any
more, monseigneur."
"Which one of you has been in the old tower at night with a candle, my
men?"
"Not me," said all the servants in chorus.
"In that case, this is very peculiar," said Robineau.--"And you,
Vincent, whom did you meet in the garden?"
The gardener came forward with his customary air of ill humor, wearing
his livery which was hardly recognizable, it was so stained and covered
with dirt, and exclaimed:
"Who did I meet? Pardi! If I knew who it was, it would be all right; but
you see I don’t know."
"You ought to have called for help, and to have arrested the person who
dared to walk in my garden at night without my permission."
"Oho! I ought to have done that! I can’t do everything all alone!
Besides, I couldn’t run, my clothes are too tight for that!"
"How is this? Is this your livery, ruined like this already, Monsieur
Vincent?"
"You shouldn’t give me a color so easy to dirt, master, if you want me
to plant and dig and water flowers; that’s the trouble!"
"My friends," continued Robineau, addressing his servants, "as you don’t
know just what it was that frightened you, I will let it go at that for
to-day; but the next time that you hear anything, or see anything
suspicious in the château, I order you to find out instantly what it is,
under pain of being discharged; because I do not choose that anyone in
my service shall be afraid.--Go."
All the servants took their leave, and Robineau walked toward the
ladies, saying:
"It seems to me that I talked to them rather decidedly."
"It seems to me, monsieur, that you have made a great deal of noise over
nothing," said Cornélie.
"I am not so brave as my sister," said Madame de Hautmont, "and I am
sure that I shall dream to-night of imps and will-o’-the-wisps, in spite
of myself. And then, too, this château has such a Gothic appearance! In
pity’s name, Monsieur de la Roche-Noire, do not give us rooms very far
from these gentlemen, for if I should hear anything in the night, if I
should be afraid, who would come to my assistance?"
"Have no fear, madame," said Alfred, "my room also opens on the large
gallery; my door is almost opposite yours; at the slightest sound I
shall hasten to offer you my services."
"Ah! that is very nice, monsieur; I place myself under your safeguard,
under your protection!"
Cornélie glanced furtively at her sister and Alfred, saying in an
undertone:
"How convenient it is to be afraid!"
To afford an agreeable diversion to the guests, Monsieur Férulus came
forward with his poem, and proposed to read it. But the dinner had
lasted until late in the evening. The La Pincerie family was fatigued.
Monsieur le marquis was already beginning to snore in his armchair, and
they concluded that it was preferable to send him to snore in his bed.
Everybody retired, each one armed with a candle, the light of which
gleamed like a minute point in the vast corridors of the château. One
after another, each light disappeared; and just as happens when paper is
consumed by fire, all those luminous streaks vanished and left absolute
darkness behind.
XXIII
ANXIETY.--JEALOUSY
For a fortnight the La Pincerie family had been settled at the Château
of La Roche-Noire, where Robineau did his utmost to provide varied
entertainment for his guests; nevertheless, the time passed rather
monotonously. The ladies, who rose as late in the country as in the
town, did not descend until the breakfast hour; then they went up to
their rooms again, to devote themselves to their toilet, and that lasted
until noon. Then they met in the salon, and chatted there, or strolled
about the gardens. Several times Robineau suggested an excursion among
the mountains; but if the weather was fine, Eudoxie was afraid of the
heat; if it was overcast, she was afraid of dampness or rain. But if by
chance she resolved to defy the elements, then it was Cornélie who
refused to go out, because she suspected that Alfred would be her
sister’s escort; and she was not at all desirous to be always on the arm
of her fiancé, with whom she seemed to feel that she would have plenty
of time to be alone in the future.
As for Edouard, the presence of the La Pincerie family did not prevent
his going every morning to see Isaure; he simply returned to the château
a little earlier; but they never saw him at breakfast, which fact was a
subject of constant jesting for Robineau; whereas the ladies, terribly
scandalized at the idea that anyone could prefer riding or a goatherd to
their society, treated Edouard with much coolness, and constantly hurled
epigrams at him, to which the young man listened with a courteous
indifference which served only to increase the irritation of the
marquis’s daughters.
Monsieur de la Pincerie, who had declared himself so devoted to hunting,
and who passed an hour every morning examining his gun, had not yet
found himself in a sufficiently hardy and active condition to take the
field; and although Robineau had purchased a very fine new rifle, he
seemed in no hurry to use it. As for Uncle Mignon, he was always ready
to do whatever anyone wanted; he had become so accustomed to that, that
the excellent man would have thought that he was ill if he had felt any
will of his own.
The ladies ordinarily went up to their apartments an hour before dinner,
to change their dresses. Monsieur Férulus did all that lay in his power
to remain at table a long while, wherein Uncle Mignon seconded him
warmly. When they returned to the salon, the whist table was prepared,
and monsieur le marquis did not allow five minutes’ interval between
dinner and the game. Mignon, Monsieur Férulus and Robineau made up
Monsieur de la Pincerie’s table. As La Roche-Noire played very badly, he
was usually scolded throughout the game; and if he chanced to turn his
head or to say a word to the ladies, who were talking with the young men
at a short distance, the marquis would say to him with much temper:
"Pray attend to what you are doing, monsieur! You are not playing with
the ladies, but with us!"
Thereupon Robineau would bow submissively and falter:
"I beg pardon, that is true! I was absent-minded!"
But as it began to bore him terribly to play whist every evening, and to
be scolded from seven o’clock until ten, Robineau hastened forward the
moment of his marriage, because he hoped to enjoy life a little more
then.
Nothing more had been heard of ghosts or of nocturnal noises; Robineau
laughed and joked with the widow when she said that she was still
afraid. For several days, however, Eudoxie seemed less nervous, and
evidently relied greatly upon the support of her neighbor. It is true
that Alfred, who, in accordance with his promise, had ceased to go to
Isaure’s house, did what he could to foster a slight inclination for the
languorous Eudoxie, whose only ambition was to find someone with whom
she could exchange sighs.
It was the middle of September, and the days were growing short and the
mornings cool. Edouard often reached Isaure’s cottage before the people
at the château were thinking of rising. Happy only when he was at the
young girl’s side, he always saw her with renewed delight, and found it
harder to leave her. Each day Edouard discovered some new attraction in
the woman who had won his affection. Isaure’s pure and ingenuous heart
poured itself out freely into her lover’s; she, too, was evidently happy
to love him, and their mutual love seemed to wax greater with every
instant. But, when Edouard said to her:
"As we love each other so dearly, why should we not belong entirely to
each other, why should we have to separate every day?" Isaure sighed and
made no reply; but her eyes, turning toward the White House, seemed to
indicate that thence came the obstacle which lay in the path of their
happiness.
That mystery tormented Edouard; it was painful to him to think that
Isaure had secrets from him; he could not doubt that she loved him, and
yet jealousy crept into his heart. Of whom could he be jealous? Isaure
was incapable of deceiving him; he was sure of that when he was with
her; but when they were apart, new ideas assailed him, and in spite of
himself, what Eudoxie had said came often to his mind.