THE HEART OF LOVE.
"And now," began the Sieur Angelot, when they were out in the sunshine,
the choicest blessing of God, and had left the bare, gloomy room behind
them, "and now, _petite_ Jeanne, let us find thy Indian mother."
Was there a prouder or happier girl in all Old Detroit than Jeanne
Angelot? The narrow, crooked streets with their mean houses were
glorified to her shining eyes, the crowded stores and shops, some of
them with unfragrant wares, and the motley crowd running to and fro,
dodging, turning aside, staring at this tall, imposing man, with his
grand, free air and his soldierly tread, a stranger, with Jeanne Angelot
hanging on his arm in all the bloom and radiance of girlhood. Several
knew and bowed with deference.
M. Fleury came out of his warehouse.
"Mam'selle Jeanne, allow me to present my most hearty and sincere
congratulations. M. St. Armand insisted if the truth could be evolved it
would be found that you belonged to gentle people and were of good
birth. And we are all glad it is so. I had the honor of being presented
to your father this morning;" and he bowed with respect. "Mademoiselle,
I have news that will give thee greatest joy, unless thou hast forgotten
old friends in the delight of the new. The 'Adventure' is expected in
any time to-day, and M. St. Armand is a passenger. I beg your father to
come and dine with him this evening, and if thou wilt not mind old
graybeards, we shall be delighted with thy company. There will be my
daughter to keep thee in countenance."
"M. St. Armand!" Jeanne's face was in an exquisite glow and her voice
shook a little. Her father gave a surprised glance from one to the
other.
M. Fleury laughed softly and rubbed his hands together, his eyes shining
with satisfaction.
"Ah, Monsieur," he exclaimed, "thou wilt be surprised at the friends
Mam'selle Jeanne has in Old Detroit. I may look for thee at five this
evening?"
They both promised.
Then Jeanne began to tell her story eagerly. The day the flag was
raised, the after time when she had seen the brave General Wayne, the
interest that M. St. Armand had taken in having her educated, and how
she had struggled against her wild tendencies, her passionate love of
freedom and the woods, the birds, the denizens of the forests. They
turned in and out, the soldiers at the Citadel saluted, and here was
Pani on the doorstep.
"Oh, little one! It seemed as if thou wert gone forever!"
Jeanne hugged her foster mother in a transport of joy and affection.
What if Pani had not cared for her all these years? There were some
orphan children in the town bound out for servants. To be sure, there
had been M. Bellestre.
Pani did not receive the Sieur Angelot very graciously. Jeanne tried to
explain the wonderful things that had happened, but Pani's age and her
limited understanding made it a hard task. "Thy mother was dead long
ago," she kept saying. "And they will take thee away, little one--"
"Then they will take you, too, Pani; I shall never leave you. I love
you. For years there was no one else to love. And how could I be
ungrateful?"
She looked so charming in her eagerness that her father bent over and
kissed her. If her mother had been thus faithful!
"I shall never leave Detroit, little one. You may take up a sapling and
transplant it, but the old tree, never! It dies. The new soil is
strange, unfriendly."
"Do not tease her," said her father in a low tone. "It is all strange to
her, and she does not understand. Try to get her to tell her story of
the night you came."
At first Pani was very wary with true Indian suspicion. The Sieur
Angelot had much experience with these children of the forests and
wilderness. He understood their limited power of expansion, their
suspicions of anything outside of their own knowledge. But he led her on
skillfully, and his voice had the rare quality of persuasion, of
inducing confidence. In her French _patois_, with now and then an Indian
word, she began to live over those early years with the unstudied
eloquence of real love.
"Touchas is dead," interposed Jeanne. "But there is Wenonah, and, oh,
there is all the country outside, the pretty farms, the houses that are
not so crowded. In the spring many of them are whitewashed, and the
trees are in bloom, and the roses everywhere, and the birds singing--"
She paused suddenly and flushed, remembering the lovely island home with
all its beauty.
He laughed with a pleasant sound.
"I should think there would need to be an outside. I hardly see how one
can get his breath in the crowded streets," he answered.
"But there is all the beautiful river, and the air comes sweeping down
from the hills. And the canoeing. Oh, it is not to be despised," she
insisted.
"I shall cherish it because it has cherished thee. And now I must say
adieu for awhile. I am to talk over some matters with your officers, and
then--" there was the meeting with his wife. "And at five I will come
again. Child, thou art rarely sweet; much too sweet for convent walls."
"Is it unkind in me? I cannot make her seem my mother. Oh, I should love
her, pity her!"
There were tears in Jeanne's eyes, and her breath came with a great,
sorrowful throb.
"We will talk of all that to-morrow."
"Thou wilt not go?" Pani gave her a frightened, longing look, as if she
expected her to follow her father.
"Oh, not now. It is all so wonderful, Pani, like some of the books I
have read at the minister's. And M. St. Armand has come back, or will
when the boat is in. Oh, what a pity to be no longer a child! A year ago
I would have run down to the wharf, and now--"
Her face was scarlet at the thought. What made this great difference,
this sense of reticence, of waiting for another to make some sign? The
frank trust was gone; no, it was not that,--she was overflowing with
trust to-day. All the world was loveliness and love. But it must come to
her; she could not run out to it. There was one black shadow; and then
she shivered.
She told Pani the story of the morning.
The Indian woman shook her head. "She is not a true mother. She could
not have left thee."
"But she thought she was dying. And if I had died there in the woods!
Oh, Pani, I am so glad to live! It is such a joy that it quivers in me
from head to foot. I am like my father."
She laughed for very gladness. Her mercurial temperament was born of the
sun and wind, the dancing waters and singing birds.
"He will take thee away," moaned the woman like an autumnal blast.
"I will not go, then," defiantly.
"But fathers do as they like, little one."
"He will be good to me. I shall never leave you, _never_."
She knelt before Pani and clasped the bony hands, looked up earnestly
into the faded eyes where the keen lights of only a few years ago were
dulling, and she said again solemnly, "I will never leave you."
For she recalled the strange change of mood when she had repeated her
full name to Miladi of the island. She was her father's true wife now,
and though Jeanne could not comprehend the intricacies of the case, she
could see that her father's real happiness lay in this second marriage.
It took an effort not to blame her own mother for giving him up. That
handsome woman glowing with life in every pulse, ready to dare any
danger with him, proud of her motherhood, and, oh, most proud of her
husband, making his home a temple of bliss, was his true mate. But
though Jeanne could not have explained jealousy, she felt Miladi would
not love her for being the Sieur Angelot's daughter. It would be better
for her to remain here with Pani.
The Sieur had a deeper gravity in his face when he returned to the
cottage.
The interview with Sister Veronica had been painful to both, yet there
was the profounder pity on Angelot's side. For even before her husband
had gone to the North she had begun to question the religious aspect of
her marriage. If it was unholy, then she had no right to live in sin.
And during almost two years' absence her morbid faith had grown
stronger. She would go to him and ask to be released. She would leave
her child in her place to make amends for her sad mistake.
Circumstances had brought about the same ending by different means. Her
nurse and companion on her journey had strengthened her faith in her
resolve. Arrived at Montreal she received still further confirmation of
the righteousness of her course. She had been an unlawful wife. She had
sinned in taking the marriage vow. It was no holy sacrament, and she
could be absolved. So she began her novitiate and was presently received
into the order. She fasted and prayed, she did penance in her convent
cell, she prayed for the Sieur Angelot that he might be converted to the
true faith. It was not as her husband, but as one might wrestle for any
sinful soul. And that the child would be well brought up. She had known
Berthe Campeau, sister Mary Constantia, a long while before she heard
the story of the little girl who had come so mysteriously to Detroit,
and who had been wild and perverse beyond anything. One day her name had
been mentioned. Then she asked the Abbe to communicate with Father
Rameau for particulars and had been answered. Here was a new work for
her, to snatch this child from evil ways and bring her up safely in the
care of the Church. She gained permission to go for her, and here again
circumstances seemed to play at cross purposes.
The Sieur Angelot understood in a little while that whatever love had
inspired her that night she had besought him to rescue her from a life
that looked hateful to her young eyes, the passion that influenced her
then was utterly dead, abhorrent to her. Better, a thousand times
better, that it should be so. He could not make that eager, impetuous
girl, whose voice trembled with emotion, whose kisses answered his,
whose soft arms clung to his neck, out of this pale, attenuated,
bloodless woman. Perhaps it was heroic to give all to her Church. Even
men had done this.
"And thou art happy and satisfied in this calling, Mignonne," he half
assumed, half inquired.
Did the old term of endearment touch some chord that was not quite dead,
after all? A faint flush brought a wavering heat to her face.
"It is my choice. And if I can have my child to train, to keep from
evil--" her voice trembled.
He shook his head. "Nay, I cannot have her bright young life thrust into
the shadow for which she has no taste. She would pine and die."
"I thought so once. I should have died sooner in the other life. It is
God and his holy Son who give grace."
"She will not forsake her duty to the one who has taken such kindly care
of her, the Pani woman."
"She can come, too. Give me my child, it is all I ask of you. Surely you
do not need her."
Her voice was roused to a certain intensity, her thin hands worked. But
it seemed to him there was something almost cruel in the motion.
"I cannot force her will. It is as she shall choose."
And seeing Jeanne all eager interest in the doorway of the old cottage,
he knew that she would never choose to shut herself out of the radiant
sunlight.
"Here is the old gift for you, my child;" and he clasped the chain with
its little locket round her neck.
Pani came and looked at it. "Yes, yes," she said. "It was on thy baby
neck, little one. And there are the two letters--"
"It was cruel to prick them in the soft baby flesh," the Sieur said,
smilingly. "I wonder I had the courage. They alone would prove my right.
And now there is no time to waste. Will you make ready--"
"I am not often asked among the quality," and her face turned scarlet.
"I have no fine attire. Wilt thou be ashamed of me?"
She looked so radiant in her girlish beauty, that it seemed to him at
the moment there was nothing more to desire. And the delicious archness
in her tone captivated him anew. Consign her to convent walls--never!
Mam'selle Fleury took charge of Jeanne at once and led her through the
large hall to a side chamber. Not so long ago she was a gay, laughing
girl, now she was a gravely sweet woman, nursing a sorrow.
"It was a sudden summons," she explained. "And we could not expect to
know just when the child grew into a maiden. Therefore you will not feel
hurt, that I, having a wider experience, prepared for the occasion. Let
me arrange your costume now. I had this frock when I was of your age,
though I was hardly as slim. How much you are like your father, child!"
"I think he was a little hurt that I had nothing to honor you with,"
Jeanne said, simply.
"Monsieur Loisel was saying that you needed a woman's hand, now that you
were outgrowing childhood."
She drew off Jeanne's plain gown; and though this was simple for the
fashion of the day, it transformed the child into a woman. The long,
pointed bodice, the square neck, with its bordering of handsome lace,
showing the exquisite throat sloping into the shoulders and chest, the
puffings that fell like waves about the hips and made ripples as they
went down the skirt, the sleeves ending at the elbow with a fall of
lace, and her hair caught up high and falling in a cascade of curls,
tied with a great bow that looked like a butterfly, changed her so that
she hardly knew herself.
"O, Mam'selle, you have made me beautiful!" she cried, in delight. "I
shall be glad to do you honor, and for the sake of M. St. Armand; but my
father would love me in the plainest gown."
Mam'selle smiled over her handiwork. But Jeanne's beauty was her own.
She had grown many shades fairer during the winter, and had not rambled
about so much nor been on the water so often. Her slim figure, in its
virginal lines, was as lissome as the child's, but there was an
exquisite roundness to every limb and it lent flexibility to her
movements. A beautiful girl, Mademoiselle Fleury acknowledged to
herself, and she wondered that no one beside M. St. Armand had seen the
promise in her.
The Sieur Angelot had been presented to the guest so lately returned
from abroad.
"I desire to thank you most heartily, Monsieur St. Armand," M. Angelot
began, "for an unusual interest in my child that I did not know was
living until a few weeks ago. She is most enthusiastic about you.
Indeed, I have been almost jealous."
St. Armand smiled, and bowed gracefully.
"I believe I shall prove to you that I had a right, and, if my discovery
holds good, we are of some distant kin. When I first heard her name a
vague memory puzzled me, and when I went to France I resolved to search
for a family link almost forgotten in the many turns there have been in
the old families in my native land. Three generations ago a Gaston de la
Touche Angelot gave his life for his religious faith. Those were
perilous times, and there was little chance for freedom of belief."
"He was my grandfather," returned the Sieur Angelot gravely. "We have
been Huguenots for generations. More than one has died for his faith."
"And he was a cousin to my father. I am, as you see, in the generation
before you. And I am glad fate or fortune, as you will, has brought
about this meeting. When I learned this fact I said: 'As soon as I
return to America I shall search out this little girl in Old Detroit and
take her under my care. There will be no one to object, no one who will
have a better right.' I am all curiosity to know how on your side you
made the discovery."
There was a rustle of silken trains in the hall. Madame Fleury entered
in a stiff brocade and a sparkle of jewels, Mam'selle in a softer,
though still elegant attire, and Jeanne, who stood amazed at the eyes
bent upon her; even her father was mute from very surprise.
"Oh, my sweet Jeanne," began M. St. Armand, smilingly, "thou hast
strangely outgrown the little girl I used to know. Memory hath cheated
me in the years. For the child that kept such a warm place in my heart
hath grown into a woman, and not only that, but hath a new friend and
will not need me."
"Monsieur, no one with remembrance in her heart can so easily give up an
old friend who made life brighter and happier for her, and who kindled
the spark of ambition in her soul. I think even my father owes you a
great debt. I might still have been a wild thing, haunting the woods and
waters Indian fashion, and, as one might say, despising civilized life,"
smiling with a bewitching air. "I thank you, Monsieur, for your interest
in me. For it has given me a great deal of happiness, and no doubt saved
me from some foolish mistakes."
She had proffered him her dainty hand at the beginning of her speech,
and now with a charming color she raised her eyes to her father. One
could trace a decided likeness between them.
"Monsieur St. Armand has done still more," subjoined her father. "He has
taken pains while in France to hunt up bygone records, and found that
the families are related. So you have not only a friend but a relative,
and I surely will join you in gratitude."
"I am most happy." She glanced smilingly from one to the other.
Mam'selle Fleury watched her with surprise. The grace, ease, and
presence of mind one could hardly have looked for. "It is in the blood,"
she said to herself, and she wished, too, that she had made herself a
friend of this enchanting girl.
Then they moved toward the dining room. M. Fleury took in Jeanne as the
honored guest, and seated her at his right. The Sieur Angelot was beside
the hostess. The conversation in the nature of the startling incidents
was largely personal and between the two men. Mam'selle Fleury was
deeply interested in the adventures of the Sieur Angelot, detailed with
spirit and vivacity. Jeanne's varying color and her evident pride in her
father was delightful to witness. That he and this elegant St. Armand
should have sprung from the same stock was easy to believe. While the
gentlemen sat over their wine and cigars Mam'selle took Jeanne to the
pretty sitting room that she had once visited with such awe. It was
odorous with the evening dew on the vines outside and the peculiar
fragrance of sweetbrier.
"What an odd thing that you should have been carried off by Indians and
taken to your father's house!" she began. "And this double
marriage--though the Church had annulled your mother's. We have heard of
the White Chief, but no one could have guessed you were his child. It is
said--your mother desires you--" Mam'selle hesitated as if afraid to
trench on secret matters, and not sure of the conclusion.
"She wishes me to go into the convent. But I am not like Berthe Campeau.
I should fret and be miserable like a wild beast in a cage. If she were
ill and needed a nurse and affection, I should be drawn to her. And
then, I am not of the same faith."
"But--a mother--"
"O Mam'selle, she doesn't seem like my mother. My father kissed me and
held me in his arms at once and my whole heart went out to him. I feel
strange and far away from her, and she thinks human love a snare to draw
the soul from God. O Mam'selle, when he has made the world so beautiful
with all the varying seasons, the singing birds and the blooms and the
leaping waters that take on wonderful tints at sunrise and sunset, how
could one be shut away from it all? There is so much to give thanks for
in the wide, splendid world. It must be better to give them with a free,
grateful heart."
"I have had some sorrow, and once I looked toward convent peace with
secret longing. But my mother and father said, 'Wait, we both shall need
thee as we grow older.' There is much good to be done outside. And one
can pray as I have learned. I cannot think human ties are easily to be
cast aside when God's own hand has welded them."
"And she sent me to my father. I feel that I belong to him;" Jeanne
declared, proudly.
"He is a man to be fond of, so gracious and noble. And his island home
is said to be most beautiful."
Jeanne gave an eloquent description of it and the two handsome boys with
their splendid mother. Mam'selle wondered that there was no jealousy in
her young heart. What a charming character she had! Why had not she
taken her up as well, instead of feeling that M. St. Armand's interest
was much misplaced? She might have won this sweet child's affection that
had been lavished upon an old Indian woman. At times she had hungered
for love. Her sister was away, happily married, with babies clinging to
her knees, and the sufficiency of a gratified life.
Jeanne was sitting upon a silken covered stool, her round arm daintily
reclining on the other's knee. The elder bent over and kissed her on the
forehead.
"You belong to love's world," she said.
Then the gentlemen entered. Mam'selle played on the harpsichord, and
there was conversation until it was time to go.
"You will come again," she exclaimed. "I shall want to see you, though I
know what your decision will be, and I think it right. And now will you
keep this gown as a little gift from me? You may want to go elsewhere.
My mother and I will be happy to chaperon you."
Jeanne looked up, wide-eyed and grateful. "Every one has always been so
good to me," she rejoined. "Then I will not take it off. It will be such
a pleasure to Pani. I never thought to look so lovely."
Both gentlemen attended her home, and gave her a tender good night.
Pleasant as the evening was Pani hovered over a handful of fire. Jeanne
threw some fir twigs and broken pieces of birch bark on the coals, and
the blaze set the room in a glow. "Look, Pani!" she cried, and then she
went whirling round the room, her eyes shining, her rose red lips parted
with a laugh.
"It is a spirit." Pani shook her head and her eyes, distended, looked
frightened in the gleam of the fire. "Little Jeanne has gone, has gone
forever."
Yes, little Jeanne had gone. She felt that herself. She was gay, eager,
impetuous, but something new had stolen mysteriously over her.
"Little Jeanne can never go away from you, Pani. Make room in your lap,
so; now put your arms about me. Never mind the gown. Now, am I not your
little one?"
Pani laughed, the soft, broken croon of old age.
"My little one come back," she kept repeating in a delighted tone,
stroking the soft curls.
The next morning M. St. Armand came for a long call. There was so much
to talk over. He felt sorry for the poor mother, but he, too, objected
strenuously to Jeanne being persuaded into convent life. He praised her
for her perseverance in studying, for her improvement under limited
conditions. Then he wondered a little about her future. If he could have
the ordering of it!
That afternoon Father Rameau came for her. A ship was to sail the next
day for Montreal, and her mother would return in it. But when he looked
in the child's eyes he knew the mother would go alone. Had he been
derelict in duty and let this lamb wander from the fold? Father Gilbert
blamed him. Even the mother had rebuked him sharply. Looking into the
child's radiant face he understood that she had no vocation for a holy
life. Was not the hand of God over all his children? There were strange
mysteries no one could fathom. He uttered no word of persuasion, he
could not. God would guide.
To Jeanne it was an almost heart-breaking interview. Impassioned
tenderness might have won, to lifelong regret, but it was duty, the
salvation of her soul always uppermost.
"Still I should not be with you," said Jeanne. "I should take up a
strange life among strangers. We could not talk over the past, nor be
the dearest of human beings to each other--"
"That is the cross," interrupted the mother. "Sinful desires must be
nailed to it."
And all her warm, throbbing, eager life, her love for all human
creatures, for all of God's works.
Jeanne Angelot stood up very straight. Her laughing face grew almost
severe.
"I cannot do it. I belong to my father. You sent me to him once. I--I
love him."
The mother turned and left the room. At that instant she could not trust
herself to say farewell.