MADAME AGAIN
"You dear child," cried Madame embracing Jeanne rapturously. "You cannot
imagine how desolate I have been at losing you. I was frantic when I
learned you were left behind. We went back for you, but you had gone. Ma
foi! You should have waited for our return."
"Your story being so amiably verified," said the provost beaming upon the
girl, "I am happy to say there is no reason why you should not return to
your relatives. I am charmed to have assisted in reuniting you to your
honored family."
"We will never forget it," said the lady sweetly. "If we are ever so
fortunate as to have the opportunity to repay the obligation, rest assured
that we will gladly use it. My sweet child, is this your brother? The
Orderly spoke of him as we came down."
"Yes," said Jeanne hesitatingly. She was not at all pleased at the turn
affairs had taken, and did not relish the idea of being once more in the
hands of Madame. "Yes, this is Dick, Uncle Ben. You know that he bears
your name also: Richard Benjamin Vance."
She drew near Dick as she spoke, standing between Madame and her brother,
and addressing herself to her uncle only.
"Richard, I am glad to see you," said Mr. Vance, seizing the boy's hand
and speaking so heartily that Dick was bewildered. "A prisoner, they tell
me. Come! this won't do. We must have you with us for Clarisse to take
care of. She is a fine nurse!"
"I do not want to go," said Dick weakly. The long wait was beginning to
tell upon him. "After the way that my sister has been treated I prefer
to trust to the mercy of my enemies than to receive any benefits from you."
"My dear boy, has the little one been speaking of our differences? There
were some, I believe. She is headstrong and self-willed, but what would
you? I desire to admonish her for disobedience as a mother might, and
she grieves me by thinking that I do not love her, but I adore her! You
shall both come to us, and you shall see for yourself."
"Yes," said Mr. Vance after a low conversation with the provost. "I have
arranged with the officer here that you shall come with us to be taken
care of. When you are well, then you must return to him. Orderly, can you
get some one to assist me in lifting my nephew to the carriage?"
So in spite of themselves the brother and sister were placed in charge
of their uncle and his wife. The carriage bowled rapidly over the rough
streets and at last stopped before a large residence on the summit of one
of the hills.
The building was long and low roofed, built after the Southern fashion
with wide halls and broad galleries running the entire length of the
house. It looked very inviting even to Jeanne who hovered protectingly
over her brother.
"She shan't misuse Dick," she declared, over and over again. "She shan't
harm him."
Dick was carried carefully into a large room and placed in a clean white
bed. A bright fire blazed upon the hearth and its heat was very welcome
after the ride in the chill November air.
The boy, exhausted from his suffering and weak from loss of blood,
fainted as they placed him on the couch and Mr. Vance hurriedly summoned a
physician. Jeanne found herself pushed to one side while Mr. and Madame
Vance worked over the unconscious lad, but when she saw that their
ministrations were for his benefit she was content that it should be so.
The most unremitting attention and constant care were what the boy
required declared the physician when he had made an examination. The
long ride in the rough car and exposure to chill, rendered the best of
nursing imperative.
"If he does not have it he will die," he said. "Or if his wound breaks
out afresh it will be fatal."
"He shall not die," cried Madame, with an adorable air of concern. "I will
care for him myself, doctor. He shall have the best of care."
"I do not doubt it, Madame, with you for his attendant," said the
physician, gallantly. "I leave him in good hands."
Jeanne saw with gratitude that Madame Vance did really give the best of
care to her brother, and she gladly forgave the treatment to which she had
been subjected. Occasionally she even forgot her intention of calling her
aunt "Aunt Clarisse," and the old "Cherie," came to her lips.
"Ole missus done got huh claws on yer ergain," Snowball said to Jeanne
one morning. The negro girl had been enthusiastic in her greetings. "I
wuz moughty sorry ter see yer kum back ter huh ergain."
"I could not help it, Snowball. I know that she does not like me any
better than she used to, but she is certainly kind to Dick and he needs
that now. Even mother could not nurse him more tenderly."
"She done got sum crotchet in huh haid," grumbled Snowball. "Done yer be
tuk in, lill' missy. She up ter sumthing."
The girl's words filled Jeanne with alarm. She had sometimes had the same
thought, but when she saw Madame's devotion to her brother, she dismissed
the idea from her mind.
One day she sat by Dick's bedside alone. Madame had lain down for a little
rest, although the boy was not yet out of danger.
"Jeanne," said the weak voice of her brother presently.
"Yes, Dick," and the girl hastened to his side. "What is it?"
"I wonder and wonder," said the boy, in a far away voice, "why you told me
what you did about Cherie. She is so good, so kind. The sweetest woman
that I ever knew besides my mother! Why, why did you tell me such awful
things of her, Jeanne? They are not true."
Jeanne was aghast at the question. She stood, unable to answer, fearing
to excite him by telling the truth and yet unwilling for him to be under
the impression that her story was false.
"Tell me," said Dick, weakly. "Why did you do it? I think of it always.
It was not like you, Jeanne."
"Don't ask me, Dick," pleaded Jeanne, falling on her knees beside him.
"Wait until you are well and then we can talk it over."
"You dally," cried Dick, his eyes bright with fever. "I see how it is!
You fibbed to me, Jeanne. I know you did."
"No, Dick, I did not," cried Jeanne, heartbroken at the thought that Dick
could believe such a thing of her. "Listen, and I will tell you all about
it. Snowball can tell you too, if you do not believe me. But you will be
quiet, Dick, won't you? You will be very, very quiet."
"You are not taking a very good way to get your brother well," exclaimed
Madame, entering abruptly. "I will have to forbid you the room if you
excite him like this. Can't you let your tales of me wait until he is
strong enough to bear them?"
"Are they true?" asked Dick, looking up at her with eager eyes. "They are
not, are they?"
"Yes," cried Jeanne, indignantly. "They are true, Dick! As true as I live!
Why should I tell you a falsehood?"
"Are they?" and Dick's eyes lingered on his aunt's questioningly.
"Dear boy," said Madame, caressing him, "believe what the little one tells
you. Is she not your sister? Poor Cherie would rather die than to say
aught against her. Think what you like."
"I knew it," and Dick breathed a sigh of relief. "I knew that you could
not be so wicked and cruel."
"Dick, Dick," cried his sister passionately. "You must believe me. It is
true. All that I tell you and more. Oh, Dick, turn away from that wicked
woman! Don't let her touch you! I will take care of you."
"I will leave you, Dick, my soldier boy," said the lady holding him close
to her. "Your sister can take care of you, as she says. There! I will go."
"No; I want you, Cherie," and the boy held her as tightly as his poor weak
hands would allow. "I don't want Jeanne, I want you." Exhausted by the
excitement he sank back unconscious on his pillow.
Madame's eyes flashed triumphantly at the girl.
"Go," she said in her honey sweet accents which to the sensitive ear of
the girl were full of bitterness. "Go, and let me repair the mischief you
have done. Blame yourself if this proves too much for him. His death will
be upon your shoulders."
With white face Jeanne crept from the room, and lay without the door while
her aunt summoned aid. After a time the lady joined her.
"Unhappy girl," she said, "you have almost killed your brother. It is due
to my skill alone that he lives. I forbid you to enter his room again
until he is beyond danger. If you try to see him I cannot answer for the
consequences. Or perhaps you would rather he would die than to live and
to care for me more than for you. Did you see how he turned from you to
me? How did you like that?"
"Aunt Clarisse," answered Jeanne, every word of the woman going to her
heart like the stab of a knife, "save him, and I will ask nothing more. He
may love you best----" her voice faltered. "Only save him."
"I am going to," said Madame with emphasis. "Do you want to know why,
my dear? Because I took a fancy to Monsieur Dick when you used to talk
so about him. I adore a soldier! Had you been a boy I might have loved
you. When the Orderly told us that you were here with your brother I
came down because I wanted to see him for myself. I saw him, petite.
He is the picture of what my own boy would have been had he lived. I
would not have come on your account, you little mudsill! You might have
been sent to Libby prison for all I cared, but I wanted Dick. I want him
for myself. He cares for me now. By the time he is well he will adore me.
Nay; he will be so fond of me that he will give up father, mother and even
that beloved Union of which you prate so much because I wish it. You
shall see!"
"You will do this? Aunt Clarisse, you cannot. Dick believes in you now,
but he will never love you better than he does mother. And he never will,
no matter how much he likes you, give up his country."
"We shall see," and the lady laughed unpleasantly. "You would have said
yesterday that he loved you better, wouldn't you? Yet see! to-day he
prefers me. He shall yet wear the gray of my own South."
Shaking her finger at the girl with pretended playfulness she reentered
Dick's room leaving Jeanne full of misery.