AN UNWELCOME LOVER.
Louis Marsac stood a little dazed as the slim, proudly carried figure
turned away from him. He was not much used to such behavior from women.
He was both angry and amused.
"She was ever an uncertain little witch, but--to an old friend! I dare
say lovers have turned her head. Perhaps I have waited too long."
There was too much pressing business for him to speculate on a girl's
waywardness; orders to give, and then important matters to discuss at
the warehouse before he made himself presentable at the dinner. The
three years had added much to Marsac's store of knowledge, as well as to
his conscious self-importance. He had been in grand houses, a favored
guest, in spite of the admixture of Indian blood. His father's position
was high, and Louis held more than one fortunate chance in his hand.
Developing the country was a new and attractive watchword. He had no
prejudices as to who should rule, except that he understood that the
French narrowness and bigotry had served them ill. Religion was, no
doubt, an excellent thing; the priests helped to keep order and were in
many respects serviceable. As for the new rulers, one need to be a
little wary of too profound a faith in them. The Indians had not been
wholly conquered, the English dreamed of re-conquest.
Detroit was not much changed under the new regime. Louis liked the great
expanse at the North better. The town was only for business.
He had a certain polish and graceful manner that had come from the
French side, and an intelligence that was practical and appealed to men.
He had the suavity and deference that pleased women, if he knew little
about poets and writers, then coming to be the fashion. His French was
melodious, the Indian voice scarcely perceptible.
In these three years there had been months that he had never thought of
Jeanne Angelot, and he might have let her slip from his memory but for a
slender thread that interested him, and of which he at last held the
clew. If he found her unmarried--well, a marriage with him would advance
her interests, if not--was it worth while to take trouble that could be
of no benefit to one's self?
Was it an omen of success that she should cross his path almost the
first thing, grown into a slim, handsome girl, with glorious eyes and a
rose red mouth that he would have liked to kiss there in the public
street? How proud and dignified she had been, how piquant and daring and
indifferent to flattery! The saints forfend! It was not flattery at all,
but the living truth.
The next day he was very busy, but he stole away once to the great oak.
Some children were playing about it, but she was not there. And there
was a dance that evening, given really for his entertainment, so he
must participate in it.
The second day he sauntered with an indifferent air to the well known
spot. A few American soldiers were busy about the barracks. How odd not
to see a bit of prancing scarlet!
The door was closed top and bottom. The tailor's wife sat on her
doorstep, her husband on his bench within.
"They have gone away, M'sieu," she said. "They went early this morning."
He nodded. Monsieur De Ber had met him most cordially and invited him to
drop in and see Madame. They were in the lane that led to St. Anne's
street; he need not go out of his way.
He was welcomed with true French hospitality. Rose greeted him with a
delighted surprise, coquettish and demure, being under her mother's
sharp eye. Yes, here was a pretty girl!
"My husband was telling about the wonderful copper mines," Madame began
with great interest. "There was where the Indians brought it from, I
suppose, but in the old years they kept very close about it. No doubt
there are fortunes and fortunes in them;" glancing up with interest.
"My father is getting a fortune out of them. He has a large tract of
land thereabout. If there should be peace for years there will be great
prosperity, and Detroit will have her share. It has not changed much
except about the river front. Do you like the Americans for neighbors as
well as the English?"
Madame gave a little shrug. "They do not spend their money so readily,
my husband says."
"They have less to spend," with a short laugh. "Some of the best English
families are gone. I met them at Quebec. Ah, Madame, there is a town for
you!" and his eyes sparkled.
"It is very gay, I suppose," subjoined Rose.
"Gay and prosperous. Mam'selle, you should be taken there once to show
them how Detroit maids bloom. There is much driving about, while here--"
"The town spreads outside. There are some American farmers, but their
methods are wild and queer."
"You have a fine son, Madame, and a daughter married, I hear. Mam'selle,
are many of the neighborhood girls mated?"
"Oh, a dozen or so," laughed Rose. "But--let me see, the wild little
thing, Jeanne Angelot, that used to amuse the children by her pranks,
still roams the woods with her Pani woman."
"Then she has not found a lover?" carelessly.
"She plays too much with them, Monsieur. It is every little while a new
one. She settles to nothing, and I think the schooling and the money did
her harm. But there was no one in authority, and it is not even as if M.
Loisel had a wife, you see;" explained Madame, with emphasis.
"The money?" raising his brows, curiously.
"Oh, it was a little M. Bellestre left," and a fine bit of scorn crossed
Madame's face. "There was some gossip over it. She has too much liberty,
but there is no one to say a word, and she goes to the heretic chapel
since Father Rameau has been up North. He comes back this autumn. Father
Gilbert is very good, but he is more for the new people and the home for
the sisters. There are some to come from the Ursuline convent at
Montreal, I hear."
Marsac was not interested in the nuns. After a modicum of judicious
praise to Madame, he departed, promising to come in again.
When a week had elapsed and he had not seen Jeanne he was more than
piqued, he was angry. Then he bethought himself of the Protestant
chapel. Pani could not bring herself to enter it, but Jeanne had found a
pleasing and devoted American woman who came in every Sunday and they
met at a point convenient to both. Pani walked to this trysting spot for
her darling.
And now she was fairly caught. Louis Marsac bowed in the politest
fashion and wished her good day in a friendly tone, ranging himself
beside her. Jeanne's color came and went, and she put her hands in a
clasp instead of letting them hang down at her side as they had a moment
before. Her answers were brief, a simple "yes" or "no," or "I do not
know, Monsieur."
And Pani was not there! Jeanne bade her friend a gentle good day and
then holding her head very straight walked on.
"Mam'selle," he began in his softest voice, though his heart was raging,
"are we no longer friends, when we used to have such merry times under
the old oak? I have remembered you; I have said times without number,
'When I go back to La Belle Detroit, my first duty will be to hunt up
little Jeanne Angelot. If she is married I shall return with a heavy
heart.' But she is not--"
"Monsieur, if thy light-heartedness depends on that alone, thou mayst go
back cheerily enough," she replied formally. "I think I am one of St.
Catharine's maids and in the other world will spend my time combing her
hair. Thou mayst come and go many times, perhaps, and find me Jeanne
Angelot still."
"Have you forsworn marriage? For a handsome girl hardly misses a lover."
He was trying to keep his temper in the face of such a plain denial.
"I am not for marriage," she returned briefly.
"You are young to be so resolute."
"Let us not discuss the matter;" and now her tone was haughty,
forbidding.
"A father would have authority to change your mind, or a guardian."
"But I have no father, you know."
He nodded doubtfully. She felt rather than saw the incredulous half
smile. Had he some plot in hand? Why should she distrust him so?
"Jeanne, we were such friends in that old time. I have carried you in my
arms when you were a light, soft burthen. I have held you up to catch
some branch where you could swing like a cat. I have hunted the woods
with you for flowers and berries and nuts, and been obedient to your
pretty whims because I loved you. I love you still. I want you for my
wife. Jeanne, you shall have silks and laces, and golden gauds and
servants to wait on you--"
"I told you, Monsieur, I was not for marriage," she interrupted in the
coldest of tones.
"Every woman is, if you woo her long enough and strong enough."
He tried very earnestly to keep the sneer out of his voice, but hardly
succeeded. His face flushed, his eyes shone with a fierce light. Have
this girl he would. She should see who was master.
"Monsieur, that is ungentlemanly."
"_Monsieur!_ In the old time, it was Louis."
"We have outgrown the old times," carelessly.
"I have not. Nor my love."
"Then I am sorry for you. But it cannot change my mind."
The way was very narrow now. She made a quick motion and passed him. But
she might better have sent him on ahead, instead of giving him this
study of her pliant grace. The exquisite curves of her figure in its
thin, close gown, the fair neck gleaming through the soft curls, the
beautiful shoulders, the slim waist with a ribbon for belt, the light,
gliding step that scarcely moved her, held an enthralling charm. He had
a passionate longing to clasp his arms about her. All the hot blood
within him was roused, and he was not used to being denied.
There was one little turn. Pani was not sitting before the door. Oh,
where was she? A terror seized Jeanne, yet she commanded her voice and
moved just a trifle, though she did not look at him. He saw that she had
paled; she was afraid, and a cruel exultation filled him.
"Monsieur, I am at home," she said. "Your escort was not needed," and
she summoned a vague smile. "There is little harm in our streets, except
when the traders are in, and Pani is generally my guard. Then for us the
soldiers are within call. Good day, Monsieur Marsac."
"Nay, my pretty one, you must be gentler and not so severe to make it a
good day for me. And I am resolved that it shall be. See, Jeanne, I have
always loved you, and though there have been years between I have not
forgotten. You shall be my wife yet. I will not give you up. I shall
stay here in Detroit until I have won you. No other demoiselle would be
so obdurate."
"Because I do not love you, Monsieur," and she gave the appellation its
most formal sound. "And soon I shall begin to hate you!"
Oh, how handsome she looked as she stood there in a kind of noble
indignation, her heart swelling above her girdle, the child's sweetness
still in the lines of her face and figure, as the bud when it is just
about to burst into bloom. He longed to crush her in one eager embrace,
and kiss the nectar of her lovely lips, even if he received a blow for
it as before. That would pile up a double revenge.
Pani burst from the adjoining cottage.
"Oh," she cried, studying one and the other. "_Ma fille_, the poor
tailor, Philippe! He had a fit come on, and his poor wife screamed for
help, so I hurried in. And now the doctor says he is dying. O Monsieur
Marsac, would you kindly find some one in the street to run for a
priest?"
"I will go," with a most obliging smile and inclination of the head.
Jeanne clasped her arms about Pani's neck, and, laying her head on the
shrunken bosom, gave way to a flood of tears.
"_Ma petite_, has he dared--"
"He loves me, Pani, with a fierce, wicked passion. I can see it in his
eyes. Afterward, when things went wrong, he would remember and beat me.
He kissed me once on the mouth and I struck him. He will never forget.
But then, rather than be his wife, I would kill myself. I will not, will
not do it."
"No, _mon ange_, no, no. Pierre would be a hundred times better. And he
would take thee away."
"But I want no one. Keep me from him, Pani. Oh, if we could go away--"
"Dear--the good sisters would give us shelter."
Jeanne shook her head. "If Father Rameau were but here. Father Gilbert
is sharp and called me a heretic. Perhaps I am. I cannot count beads any
more. And when they brought two finger bones of some one long dead to
St. Anne's, and all knelt down and prayed to them, and Father Gilbert
blessed them, and said a touch would cure any disease and help a dying
soul through purgatory, I could not believe it. Why did it not cure
little Marie Faus when her hip was broken, and the great running sore
never stopped and she died? And he said it was a judgment against
Marie's mother because she would not live with her drunken brute of a
husband. No, I do not think Pere Gilbert would take me in unless I
recanted."
"Oh, come, come," cried Pani. "Poor Margot is most crazed. And I cannot
leave you here alone."
They entered the adjoining cottage. There were but two rooms and
overhead a great loft with a peaked roof where the children slept.
Philippe lay on the floor, his face ghastly and contorted. There were
some hemlock cushions under him, and his poor wife knelt chafing his
hands.
"It is of no use," said the doctor. "Did some one summon the priest?"
"Immediately," returned Pani.
"And there is poor Antoine on the Badeau farm, knowing nothing of this,"
cried the weeping mother.
The baby wailed a sorrowful cry as if in sympathy. It had been a puny
little thing. Three other small ones stood around with frightened faces.
Jeanne took up the baby and bore it out into the small garden, where she
walked up and down and crooned to it so sweetly it soon fell asleep. The
next younger child stole thither and caught her gown, keeping pace with
tiny steps. How long the moments seemed! The hot sun beat down, but it
was cool here under the tree. How many times in the stifling afternoons
Philippe had brought his work out here! He had grown paler and thinner,
but no one had seemed to think much of it. What a strange thing death
was! What was the other world like--and purgatory? The mother of little
Marie Faus was starving herself to pay for the salvation of her
darling's soul.
"Oh, I should not like to die!" and Jeanne shuddered.
The priest came, but it was not Father Gilbert. The last rites were
performed over the man who might be dead already. The baby and the
little girl were brought in and the priest blessed them. There were
several neighbors ready to perform the last offices, and now Jeanne took
all the children out under the tree.
Louis Marsac returned, presently, and offered his help in any matter,
crowding some money into the poor, widowed hand. Jeanne he could see
nowhere. Pani was busy.
The next day he paid M. Loisel a visit, and stated his wishes.
"You see, Monsieur, Jeanne Angelot is in some sort a foundling, and many
families would not care to take her in. That I love her will be
sufficient for my father, and her beauty and sweetness will do the rest.
She will live like a queen and have servants to wait on her. There are
many rich people up North, and, though the winters are long, no one
suffers except the improvident. And I think I have loved Mam'selle from
a little child. Then, too," with an easy smile, "there is a suspicion
that some Indian blood runs in Mam'selle's veins. On that ground we are
even."
Yes, M. Loisel had heard that. Mixed marriages were not approved of by
the better class French, but a small share of Indian blood was not
contemned. When it came to that, Louis Marsac was not a person to be
lightly treated. His father had much influence with the Indian tribes
and was a rich man.
So the notary laid the matter before Pani and his ward, when the funeral
was over, though he would rather have pleaded for his nephew. It was a
most excellent proffer.
But he was not long in learning that Jeanne Angelot had not only dislike
but a sort of fear and hatred for the young man; and that nothing was
farther from her thoughts. Yet he wondered a little that the fortune and
adoration did not tempt her.
"Well, well, my child, we shall not be sorry to have you left in old
Detroit. Some of our pretty girls have been in haste to get away to
Quebec or to the more eastern cities. Boston, they say, is a fine place.
And at New York they have gay doings. But we like our own town and have
all the pleasure that is good for one. So I am glad to have thee stay."
"If I loved him it would be different. But I think this kind of love has
been left out of me," and she colored daintily. "All other loves and
gratitude have been put in, and oh, M'sieu, such an adoration for the
beautiful world God has made. Sometimes I go down on my knees in the
forest, everything speaks to me so,--the birds and the wind among the
trees, the mosses with dainty blooms like a pin's head, the velvet
lichens with rings of gray and brown and pink. And the little lizards
that run about will come to my hand, and the deer never spring away,
while the squirrels chatter and laugh and I talk back to them. Then I
have grown so fond of books. Some of them have strange melodies in them
that I sing to myself. Oh, no, I do not want to be a wife and have a
house to keep, neither do I want to go away."
"Thou art a strange child."
M. Loisel leaned over and kissed her on the crown of her head where the
parting shone white as the moon at its full. Lips and rosy mouths were
left for lovers in those days.
"And you will make him understand?"
"I will do my best. No one can force a damsel into marriage nowadays."
Opposition heightened Louis Marsac's desires. Then he generally had his
way with women. He did not need to work hard to win their hearts. Even
here in spite of Indian blood, maids smiled on the handsome, jaunty
fellow who went arrayed in the latest fashion, and carried it off with
the air of a prince. There was another sort of secret dimly guessed at
that would be of immense advantage to him, but he had the wariness of
the mother's side as well as the astuteness of the father.
A fortnight went by with no advantage. Pani never left her charge alone.
The rambles in the woods were given up, and the girl's heart almost died
within her for longing. She helped poor Margot nurse her children, and
if Marsac came on a generous errand they surrounded her and swarmed
over her. He could have killed them with a good will. She would not go
out on the river nor join the girls in swimming matches nor take part in
dances. Sometimes with Pani she spent mornings in the minister's study,
and read aloud or listened to him while his wife sat sewing.
"You are not easily tempted," said the good wife one day. "It is no
secret that this young trader, M. Marsac, is wild for love of you."
"But I do not like him, how then could I give him love?" and she glanced
out of proud, sincere eyes, while a soft color fluttered in her face.
"No, that could not be," assentingly.
The demon within him that Louis Marsac called love raged and rose to
white heat. If he could even carry her off! But that would be a foolish
thing. She might be rescued, and he would lose the good opinion of many
who gave him a flattering sympathy now.
So the weeks went on. The boats were loaded with provision, some of them
started on their journey. He came one evening and found Jeanne and her
protector sitting in their doorway. Jeanne was light-hearted. She had
heard he was to sail to-morrow.
"I have come to bid my old playmate and friend good-by," and there was a
sweet pathos in his voice that woke a sort of tenderness in the girl's
heart, for it brought back a touch of the old pleasant days before he
had really grown to manhood, when they sat under her oak and listened to
Pani's legendary stories.
"I wish you _bon voyage_, Monsieur."
"Say Louis just once. It will be a bit of music to which I shall sail up
the river."
"Monsieur Louis."
The tone was clear and no warmth penetrated it. He could see her face
distinctly in the moonlight and it was passive in its beauty.
"Thou hast not forgiven me. If I knelt--"
"Nay!" she sprang up and stood at Pani's back. "There is nothing to
kneel for. When you are away I shall strive to forget your insistence--"
"And remember that it sprang from love," he interrupted. "Jeanne, is
your heart of marble that nothing moves it? There are curious stories of
women who have little human warmth in them--who are born of strange
parents."
"Monsieur, that is wrong. Jeanne hath ever been loving and fond from the
time she put her little arms around my neck. She is kindly and
tender--the poor tailor's lonely woman will tell you. And she spent
hours with poor Madame Campeau when her own daughter left her and went
away to a convent, comforting her and reading prayers. No, she is not
cold hearted."
"Then you have taken all her love," complainingly.
"It is not that, either," returned the woman.
"Jeanne, I shall love thee always, cruel as thou hast been. And if thou
art so generous as to pray for others, say a little prayer that will
help me bear my loneliness through the cold northern winter that I had
hoped might be made warm and bright by thy presence. Have a little pity
if thou hast no love."
He was mournfully handsome as he stood there in the silvery light.
Almost her heart was moved. She said a special prayer for only one
person, but Louis Marsac might slip into the other class that was "all
the world."
"Monsieur, I will remember," bowing a little.
"Oh, lovely icicle, you are enough to freeze a man's soul, and yet you
rouse it to white heat! I can make no impression I see. Adieu, adieu."
He gave a sudden movement and would have kissed her mouth but she put
her hand across it, and Pani, divining the endeavor, rose at the same
instant.
"Mam'selle Jeanne Angelot, you will repent this some day!" and his tone
was bitter with revenge.
Then he plunged down the street with an unsteady gait and was lost in
the darkness.
"Pani, come in, bar the door. And the shutter must be fastened;" pulling
the woman hastily within.
"But the night will be hot."
"It is cooler now. There has been a fresh breeze from the river. And--I
am sore afraid."
It was true that the night dews and the river gave a coolness to the
city at night, and on the other side was the great sweep of woods and
hills.
Nothing came to disturb them. Jeanne was restless and had bad dreams,
then slept soundly until after sunrise.
"Antoine," she said to the tailor's little lad, "go down to the wharf
and watch until the 'Flying Star' sails up the river. The tide is
early. I will reward you well."
"O Mam'selle, I will do it for love;" and he set off on a trot.
"There are many kinds of love," mused Jeanne. "Strange there should be a
kind that makes one afraid."
At ten the "Flying Star" went up the river.
"Thou hast been a foolish girl, Jeanne Angelot!" declared one of the
neighbors. "Think how thou mightst have gone up the river on a wedding
journey, and a handsome young husband such as falls to the lot of few
maids, with money in plenty and furs fit for a queen. And there is, no
doubt, some Indian blood in thy veins! Thou hast always been wild as a
deer and longing to live out of doors."
Jeanne only laughed. She was so glad to feel at liberty once more. For a
month she had virtually been a prisoner.
Madame De Ber, though secretly glad, joined the general disapproval. She
had half hoped he might fancy Rose, who sympathized warmly with him. She
could have forgiven the alien blood if she had seen Rose go up the
river, in state, to such a future.
And though Jeanne was not so much beyond childhood, it was settled that
she would be an old maid. She did not care.
"Let us go out under the oak, Pani," she exclaimed. "I want to look at
something different from the Citadel and the little old houses,
something wide and free, where the wind can blow about, and where there
are waves of sweetness bathing one's face like a delightful sea. And
to-morrow we will take to the woods. Do you suppose the birds and the
squirrels have wondered?"
She laughed gayly and danced about joyously.
Wenonah sat at her hut door making a cape of gull's feathers for an
officer's wife.
"You did not go north, little one," and she glanced up with a smile of
approval.
For to her Jeanne would always be the wild, eager, joyous child who had
whistled and sung with the birds, and could never outgrow childhood. She
looked not more than a dozen years old to-day.
"No, no, no. Wenonah, why do you cease to care for people, when you have
once liked them? Yet I am sorry for Louis. I wish he had loved some one
else. I hope he will."
"No doubt there are those up there who have shared his heart and his
wigwam until he tired of them. And he will console himself again. You
need not give him so much pity."
"Wenonah!" Jeanne's face was a study in surprise.
"I am glad, Mam'selle, that his honeyed tongue did not win you. I wanted
to warn, but the careful Pani said there was no danger. My brave has
told some wild stories about him when he has had too much brandy. And
sometimes an Indian girl who is deserted takes a cruel revenge, not on
the selfish man, but on the innocent girl who has trusted him, and is
not to blame. He is handsome and double of tongue and treacherous.
See--he would have given me money to coax you to go out in the canoe
with me some day to gather reeds. Then he could snatch you away. It was
a good deal of money, too!"
"O Wenonah!" She fell on the woman's neck and kissed the soft, brown
cheek.
"He knew you trusted me, that was the evil of him. And I said to Pani,
'Do not let her go out on the river, lest the god of the Strait put
forth his hand and pull her down to the depths and take her to his
cave.' And Pani understood."
"Yes, I trust you," said the girl proudly.
"And I have no white blood in my veins."
She went down to the great oak with Pani and they sat shaded from the
afternoon sunshine with the lovely river stretching out before them. She
did not care for the old story any more, but she leaned against Pani's
bosom and patted her hand and said: "No matter what comes, Pani, we
shall never part. And I will grow old with you like a good daughter and
wait on you and care for you, and cook your meals when you are ill."
Pani looked into the love-lit, shining eyes.
"But I shall be so very, very old," she replied with a soft laugh.