THE PRIVATE INTERVIEW.
It was with an expression of almost triumphant satisfaction that Mme. de
Beaumesnil watched her maid depart.
The poor mother felt sure now of at least an hour alone with her
daughter.
Thanks to this happiness, a faint flush overspread her pallid cheeks,
her dim eyes began to sparkle with a feverish light, and the intense
prostration gave place to an unnatural excitement, for the countess was
making an almost superhuman effort to profit by this opportunity to talk
with her daughter alone.
The door had scarcely closed upon the attendant when Madame de
Beaumesnil said:
"Mademoiselle, will you have the goodness to pour into a cup five or six
spoonfuls of that cordial there on the mantel?"
"But, madame, you forget that the physician ordered you to take this
medicine only in small doses," protested Herminie, anxiously. "At least,
it seems to me I heard him give those directions yesterday."
"Yes, but I am feeling much better now, and this potion will do me a
wonderful amount of good, I think--will give me new strength, in fact."
"Madame la comtesse is really feeling better?" asked Herminie, divided
between a desire to believe Madame de Beaumesnil and a fear of seeing
her deceived as to the gravity of her situation.
"You can scarcely credit the improvement I speak of, perhaps. The sad
rites you witnessed a few minutes ago frightened you, I suppose, and
very naturally. But it was only a precaution on my part, for the
consciousness of having fulfilled my religious duties, and of being
ready to appear before God, gives me a serenity of soul to which the
improved condition of which I speak is doubtless due, at least in some
measure. I feel sure, too, that the cordial I asked you for just now,
but which you refuse to give me," added Madame de Beaumesnil, smiling,
"would do me a great deal of good, and enable me to listen once again to
one of the songs which have so often assuaged my sufferings."
"As madame insists, I will give her the cordial," said Herminie.
And the young girl, reflecting that a larger or smaller dose of the
cordial would probably make very little difference, after all, poured
four spoonfuls into a cup and handed it to Madame de Beaumesnil.
The countess, as she took the cup from Herminie, managed to touch her
hand, then, rejoiced to have her daughter so near her, sipped the
cordial very slowly and then gave such a sigh of weariness as to almost
compel Herminie to ask:
"Is madame la comtesse fatigued?"
"Rather. It seems to me that if I could sit bolt upright for a little
while I should be more comfortable, but I am hardly strong enough to do
that."
"If madame la comtesse would--would lean upon me," said the young girl,
hesitatingly, "it might rest her a little."
"I would accept your offer if I did not feel that I was imposing upon
your kindness," replied Madame de Beaumesnil, delighted at the success
of her little ruse.
Herminie's heart swelled almost to bursting as she seated herself upon
the side of the bed and pillowed the invalid's head upon her daughter's
bosom.
As they found themselves for the first time in each others' arms, so to
speak, the mother and daughter both trembled with emotion. Their
position prevented them from seeing each others' faces; but for that
Mme. de Beaumesnil, in spite of her vow, might not have been able to
guard her secret any longer.
"No, no, there must be no guilty weakness on my part," thought Madame de
Beaumesnil. "My poor child shall never know this sad secret, I have
sworn it. Is it not a piece of unlooked-for good fortune for me to be
the recipient of her affectionate care, which I owe to her kindness of
heart rather than to filial instinct, of course?"
"Oh, I would rather die than allow my mother to suspect that I know I am
her daughter," thought Herminie, in her turn. "Possibly she is ignorant
of the fact herself. Perhaps it was chance, and chance alone, that
brought about my present relations with Madame de Beaumesnil; perhaps I
am really only a stranger in her eyes."
"I thank you, mademoiselle," said Madame de Beaumesnil, after a while,
but without venturing a glance at Herminie. "I feel more comfortable,
now."
"Will madame la comtesse allow me to arrange her pillows for her before
she lies down again?"
"If you will be so good," replied Madame de Beaumesnil, for would not
this little service keep her daughter beside her a few seconds longer?
Mademoiselle and madame la comtesse! If one could but have heard the
tone in which the mother and daughter interchanged these cold and
ceremonious appellations which had never before seemed so icy in
character!
"I have to thank you once again, mademoiselle," said the countess, after
she had lain down. "I find myself more and more comfortable, thanks to
your kind attentions. The cordial, too, seems to have done me good, and
I feel sure that I shall have a very comfortable night."
Herminie glanced dubiously at her hat and mantle. She feared that she
would be dismissed on the maid's return, for it was quite likely that
Madame de Beaumesnil would not care to hear any music that evening.
Unwilling to renounce her last hope, the young girl said, timidly:
"Madame la comtesse asked me to bring some selections from 'Oberon' this
evening, but perhaps she does not care to listen to them."
"Quite the contrary, mademoiselle," said Madame de Beaumesnil, quickly.
"You know how often your singing has mitigated my sufferings, and this
evening I am feeling so well that music will prove, not an anodyne, but
a genuine pleasure."
Herminie cast a quick glance at Madame de Beaumesnil, and was struck by
the change in that lady's usually drawn and pallid countenance. A slight
colour tinged her cheeks now, and her expression was calm, even smiling.
On beholding this metamorphosis, the girl's gloomy presentiments
vanished. Hope revived in her heart, and she almost believed that her
mother had been saved by one of those sudden changes so common in
nervous maladies.
So inexpressibly pleased and relieved, Herminie took her music and
walked to the piano.
Directly over the instrument hung a portrait of a little girl five or
six years of age, playing with a magnificent greyhound. She was not
pretty, but the childish face had a remarkably sweet and ingenuous
expression. This portrait, painted about ten years before, was that of
Ernestine de Beaumesnil, the Comtesse de Beaumesnil's legitimate child.
Herminie had not needed to ask who the original of this portrait was,
and more than once she had cast a timid, loving glance at this little
sister whom she did not know, and whom she would never know, perhaps.
On seeing this portrait now, Herminie, still under the influence of her
late emotion, felt even more deeply moved than usual, and for a minute
or two she could not take her eyes off the picture. Meanwhile, Madame de
Beaumesnil was tenderly watching the girl's every movement, and noted
her contemplation of Ernestine's portrait with keen delight.
"Poor Herminie!" thought the countess. "She has a mother and a sister,
and yet she will never know the sweetness of those words: my sister--my
mother."
And furtively wiping away a tear, Madame de Beaumesnil said aloud to
Herminie, whose eyes were still riveted upon the portrait:
"That is my daughter. She has a sweet face, has she not?"
Herminie started as if she had been detected in some grievous crime, and
blushed deeply as she timidly replied:
"Pardon me, madame; I--I--"
"Oh, look at it, look at it all you please," exclaimed Madame de
Beaumesnil, hastily. "Though she is nearly grown now, and has changed
very much in some respects, she still retains that same sweet, ingenuous
expression. She is not nearly as handsome as you are," said the poor
mother, with secret pride, and well pleased to be able to thus unite her
two daughters in the same comparison, "but Ernestine's face, like yours,
possesses a wonderful charm."
Then, fearing she had gone too far, Madame de Beaumesnil added, sadly:
"Poor child! Heaven grant she may be better now!"
"Are you really very anxious about her health, madame la comtesse?"
"She has not been at all well for some months past. She grew so rapidly
that we were very anxious about her. The physicians advised us to take
her to Italy, but my own health would not permit me to accompany her.
Fortunately, the latest reports from her are very encouraging. Poor,
dear child! She writes every day a sort of journal for me. You can not
imagine anything more touching than her artless confessions. I will let
you read some extracts from these letters. You will love Ernestine,
then; you could not help loving her."
"I am sure of that, madame, and I thank you a thousand times for your
promise," said Herminie. "As the last news received from your daughter
is so reassuring, pray do not worry any more about her. Youth has so
many chances in its favour anywhere, and under the beautiful skies of
Italy she is sure to recover her health."
A bitter thought flitted through Madame de Beaumesnil's mind.
Remembering the expensive journey, the constant care, and the heavy
outlay Ernestine's feeble health had necessitated, the countess asked
herself with something closely akin to terror what Herminie would have
done--poor, deserted creature that she was!--if she had found herself in
Ernestine's position, and if her life could have been saved only by the
assiduous care and expensive travel which the wealthy alone can command.
This thought excited in Madame de Beaumesnil's breast a still keener
desire to know how Herminie had overcome the many difficulties of her
precarious position, for the countess had known absolutely nothing in
regard to the girl's life up to the time when a mere chance had brought
the mother and daughter together.
But how could she solicit these revelations without betraying herself?
To what agony she might subject herself by asking her daughter for the
story of her life!
This reflection had always prevented Madame de Beaumesnil from
questioning Herminie, heretofore, but that evening, either because the
countess felt that the apparent improvement in her condition was a
precursor of the end, or because a feeling of tenderness, increased by
the events of the evening, proved too strong for her powers of
resistance, Madame de Beaumesnil resolved to question Herminie.