The _bal champetre_ was gay and brilliant, as such festal scenes are at
Paris. A lovely night in the midst of May, lamps below and stars above;
the society mixed, of course. Evidently, when Graham has singled out
Frederic Lemercier from all his acquaintances at Paris to conjoin with
the official aid of M. Renard in search of the mysterious lady, he had
conjectured the probability that she might be found in the Bohemian world
so familiar to Frederic; if not as an inhabitant, at least as an
explorer. Bohemia was largely represented at the _bal champetre_, but
not without a fair sprinkling of what we call the "respectable classes,"
especially English and Americans, who brought their wives there to take
care of them. Frenchmen, not needing such care, prudently left their
wives at home. Among the Frenchmen of station were the Comte de Passy
and the Vicomte de Breze.
On first entering the gardens, Graham's eye was attracted and dazzled by
a brilliant form. It was standing under a festoon of flowers extended
from tree to tree, and a gas jet opposite shone full upon the face,--the
face of a girl in all the freshness of youth. If the freshness owed
anything to art, the art was so well disguised that it seemed nature.
The beauty of the countenance was Hebe-like, joyous, and radiant; and yet
one could not look at the girl without a sentiment of deep mournfulness.
She was surrounded by a group of young men, and the ring of her laugh
jarred upon Graham's ear. He pressed Frederic's arm, and directing his
attention to the girl, asked who she was.
"Who? Don't you know? That is Julie Caumartin. A little while ago her
equipage was the most admired in the Bois, and great ladies condescended
to copy her dress or her coiffure; but she has lost her splendour, and
dismissed the rich admirer who supplied the fuel for its blaze, since
she fell in love with Gustave Rameau. Doubtless she is expecting him
to-night. You ought to know her; shall I present you?"
"No," answered Graham, with a compassionate expression in his manly face.
"So young; seemingly so gay. How I pity her!"
"What! for throwing herself away on Rameau? True. There is a great deal
of good in that girl's nature, if she had been properly trained. Rameau
wrote a pretty poem on her which turned her head and won her heart, in
which she is styled the 'Ondine of Paris,'--a nymph-like type of Paris
itself."
"Vanishing type, like her namesake; born of the spray, and vanishing soon
into the deep," said Graham. "Pray go and look for the Duval; you will
find me seated yonder."
Graham passed into a retired alley, and threw himself on a solitary
bench, while Lemercier went in search of Madame Duval. In a few minutes
the Frenchman reappeared. By his side was a lady well dressed, and as
she passed under the lamps Graham perceived that, though of a certain
age, she was undeniably handsome. His heart beat more quickly. Surely
this was the Louise Duval he sought.
He rose from his seat, and was presented in due form to the lady, with
whom Frederic then discreetly left him. "M. Lemercier tells me that you
think that we were once acquainted with each other."
"Nay, Madame; I should not fail to recognize you were that the case. A
friend of mine had the honour of knowing a lady of your name; and should
I be fortunate enough to meet that lady, I am charged with a commission
that may not be unwelcome to her. M. Lemercier tells me your nom de
bapteme is Louise."
"Louise Corinne, Monsieur."
"And I presume that Duval is the name you take from your parents?"
"No; my father's name was Bernard. I married, when I was a mere child,
M. Duval, in the wine trade at Bordeaux."
"Ah, indeed!" said Graham, much disappointed, but looking at her with a
keen, searching eye, which she met with a decided frankness. Evidently,
in his judgment, she was speaking the truth.
"You know English, I think, Madame," he resumed, addressing her in that
language.
"A leetle; speak un peu."
"Only a little?"
Madame Duval looked puzzled, and replied in French, with a laugh, "Is it
that you were told that I spoke English by your countryman, Milord Sare
Boulby? _Petit scelerat_, I hope he is well. He sends you a commission
for me,--so he ought; he behaved to me like a monster."
"Alas! I know nothing of Milord Sir Boulby. Were you never in England
yourself?"
"Never," with a coquettish side-glance; "I should like so much to go. I
have a foible for the English in spite of that _vilain petit Boulby_.
Who is it gave you the commission for me? Ha! I guess, le Capitaine
Nelton."
"No. What year, Madame, if not impertinent, were you at Aix-la-
Chapelle?"
"You mean Baden? I was there seven years ago, when I met le Capitaine
Nelton, _bel homme aux cheveux rouges_."
"But you have been at Aix?"
"Never."
"I have, then, been mistaken, Madame, and have only to offer my most
humble apologies."
"But perhaps you will favour me with a visit, and we may on further
conversation find that you are not mistaken. I can't stay now, for I am
engaged to dance with the Belgian of whom, no doubt, M. Lemercier has
told you."
"No, Madame, he has not."
"Well, then, he will tell you. The Belgian is very jealous; but I am
always at home between three and four; this is my card."
Graham eagerly took the card, and exclaimed, "Is this you're your own
handwriting, Madame?"
"Yes, indeed."
"_Tres belle ecriture_," said Graham, and receded with a ceremonious bow.
"Anything so unlike her handwriting! Another disappointment," muttered
the Englishman as the lady went back to the ball.
A few minutes later Graham joined Lemercier, who was talking with De
Passy and De Breze.
"Well," said Lemercier, when his eye rested on Graham, "I hit the right
nail on the head this time, eh?"
Graham shook his head.
"What! is she not the right Louise Duval?"
"Certainly not."
The Count de Passy overheard the name, and turned. "Louise Duval," he
said; "does Monsieur Vane know a Louise Duval?"
"No; but a friend asked me to inquire after a lady of that name whom he
had met many years ago at Paris." The Count mused a moment, and said,
"Is it possible that your friend knew the family De Mauleon?"
"I really can't say. What then?"
"The old Vicomte de Mauleon was one of my most intimate associates. In
fact, our houses are connected. And he was extremely grieved, poor man,
when his daughter Louise married her drawing-master, Auguste Duval."
"Her drawing-master, Auguste Duval? Pray say on. I think the Louise
Duval my friend knew must have been her daughter. She was the only child
of a drawing-master or artist named Auguste Duval, and probably enough
her Christian name would have been derived from her mother. A
Mademoiselle de Mauleon, then, married M. Auguste Duval?"
"Yes; the old Vicomte had espoused _en premieres noces_ Mademoiselle
Camille de Chavigny, a lady of birth equal to his own; had by her one
daughter, Louise. I recollect her well,--a plain girl, with a high nose
and a sour expression. She was just of age when the first Vicomtesse
died, and by the marriage settlement she succeeded at once to her
mother's fortune, which was not large. The Vicomte was, however, so poor
that the loss of that income was no trifle to him. Though much past
fifty, he was still very handsome. Men of that generation did not age
soon, Monsieur," said the Count, expanding his fine chest and laughing
exultingly.
"He married, _en secondes noces_, a lady of still higher birth than the
first, and with a much larger _dot_. Louise was indignant at this, hated
her stepmother; and when a son was born by the second marriage she left
the paternal roof, went to reside with an old female relative near the
Luxembourg, and there married this drawing-master. Her father and the
family did all they could to prevent it; but in these democratic days a
woman who has attained her majority can, if she persist in her
determination, marry to please herself and disgrace her ancestors. After
that _mesalliance_ her father never would see her again. I tried in vain
to soften him. All his parental affections settled on his handsome
Victor.
"Ah! you are too young to have known Victor de Mauleon during his short
reign at Paris, as _roi des viveurs_."
"Yes, he was before my time; but I have heard of him as a young man of
great fashion; said to be very clever, a duellist, and a sort of Don
Juan."
"Exactly."
"And then I remember vaguely to have heard that he committed, or was said
to have committed, some villanous action connected with a great lady's
jewels, and to have left Paris in consequence."
"Ah, yes; a sad scrape. At that time there was a political crisis; we
were under a Republic; anything against a noble was believed. But I am
sure Victor de Mauleon was not the man to commit a larceny. However, it
is quite true that he left Paris, and I don't know what has become of him
since." Here he touched De Breze, who, though still near, had not been
listening to this conversation, but interchanging jest and laughter with
Lemercier on the motley scene of the dance.
"De Breze, have you ever heard what became of poor dear Victor de
Mauleon?--you knew him."
"Knew him? I should think so. Who could be in the great world and not
know _le beau_ Victor? No; after he vanished I never heard more of him;
doubtless long since dead. A good-hearted fellow in spite of all his
sins."
"My dear Monsieur de Breze, did you know his half-sister?" asked Graham,
--"a Madame Duval?"
"No. I never heard he had a half-sister. Halt there; I recollect that I
met Victor once, in the garden at Versailles, walking arm-in-arm with the
most beautiful girl I ever saw; and when I complimented him afterwards at
the Jockey Club on his new conquest, he replied very gravely that the
young lady was his niece. 'Niece!' said I; 'why, there can't be more
than five or six years between you.' 'About that, I suppose,' said he;
'my half-sister, her mother, was more than twenty years older than I at
the time of my birth.' I doubted the truth of his story at the time; but
since you say he really had a sister, my doubt wronged him."
"Have you never seen that same young lady since?"
"Never."
"How many years ago was this?"
"Let me see, about twenty or twenty-one years ago. How time flies!"
Graham still continued to question, but could learn no further
particulars. He turned to quit the gardens just as the band was striking
up for a fresh dance, a wild German waltz air; and mingled with that
German music his ear caught the sprightly sounds of the French laugh, one
laugh distinguished from the rest by a more genuine ring of light-hearted
joy, the laugh that he had heard on entering the gardens, and the sound
of which had then saddened him. Looking towards the quarter from which
it came, he again saw the "Ondine of Paris." She was not now the centre
of a group. She had just found Gustave Rameau, and was clinging to his
arm with a look of happiness in her face, frank and innocent as a
child's; and so they passed amid the dancers down a solitary lamplit
alley, till lost to the Englishman's lingering gaze.