AT ST. ELPHÈGE
All afternoon of the day of his arrival at St. Elphège, lofty clouds had
been moving in threatening masses across the sky. When the Lecours were
rejoicing together at supper, a storm came on, producing a raw, wet
evening, which was not unwelcome to the reunited family, for it kept
them undisturbed.
Old Lecour, to denote his satisfaction at his son's return, brought
forth his fiddle and played some of the merry airs of the Province, an
action which touched Germain's heart.
"Is this the noble," exclaimed he to himself, as he looked, with a heart
full of affection, at the roughly-dressed, homely figure, "whom I would
produce to the Noailles, the Montmorencys and the Vaudreuils, as my
father? Perhaps not; but I would offer him before sounder judges as
their superior." But notwithstanding his goodwill, there is a limit
where content is impossible in such things.
The Versailles _élégant_ could not but see in everything about him an
inevitable contrast with his late life. He felt unable to re-accustom
himself to the low-ceiled chambers, the rude appliances, the rough
dress, the country manners, the accent and phrases of his
family--things in respect of which he had at one time believed them
quite superior. Whole-heartedly concealing his impressions and his
dejection, however, he made himself as pleasant as possible. Madame had
thrown open her parlour, a rare occurrence.
When the rain began to beat against the windows, the old man called in
the Indian dwarf, and with his assistance made a fire of logs which
crackled merrily in the fireplace and threw cheerful, light and warmth
upon the circle.
Madame lit her precious sconces of wax tapers for the first time since
her daughter's wedding, and all drew closer to listen to the accounts
which came from the lips of the long-absent son. The father put his
violin aside, seated himself in his tall-backed arm-chair and gazed
alternately into the fire and at his son's face. The mother hung upon
her favourite's words and movements as mothers ever will. The convent
girl, his youngest sister, worshipped him with eyes and ears--to her he
was the hero of her family, whom she could measure in the lists against
the vaunted brothers of her proud Quebec school-mates, Lanaudières,
Bleurys, la Gorgendières, Tonnancours and those others, who, familiar
with the doings of the Castle, looked down upon the trader's daughter.
"What about this new name?" said the mother at length; "they have given
you a title in France?"
"Not at all, mother," he replied.
"But they call you 'Monsieur de Lincy,' you say."
"It is not a new name; it is the real one of the family--you are
entitled to it as well as I."
"What does that mean, son Germain? Have we been ignorant of our own
name?"
"It means that we are gentlepeople--and that in my father there, you
behold the real or principal Chevalier de Lincy. I am but the younger
Chevalier."
The family, at this announcement, gave voice to a mutual cry. The father
looked up and said soberly--
"You mistake, my son."
"In no respect, dear father. I have learnt our descent in France, and am
glad to inform you that you are what you deserve to be--a noble."
"There, François Xavier!" exclaimed the wife. "You are not going to deny
it."
"Many good stocks forget their origin in going out to the colonies,"
added Germain. "You, sir, crossed the sea at a very early age."
"At twelve years old," asserted the merchant.
"You were too young to make those inquiries which I have completed. You
knew little of your parents."
"My father was a butcher of Paris; I know that."
"That is an error, sir. Those you regarded as your parents were but
foster-parents, though they bore the same name."
"Who, then, do you pretend was my father?" cried the merchant in
amazement. "There was no question of that matter before I left France."
"Because your mother had died, and your father, who was a poor man,
though a gentleman, had departed for service in the East Indies, and
there was heard of no more."
"In any event I do not care about these things. I shall always remain
the Merchant Lecour," the old man said, with steady-going pride.
"But François Xavier!" cried his wife. "Have you no care about your
children and me? Is it nothing to us if we are _noblesse_? Will you be
forever turning over skins and measuring groceries when you ought to
have a grand house and a grand office, like the gentry of the North-West
Company at Montreal, who dine with the Governor, and are yet no better
off than you? I am sure _they_ are no Chevaliers de Lincy".
"I cannot believe it, wife. I know where I came from, and that I was
nothing but a boy sent out with the troops by the magistrates of
Paris"--Germain started--"then a poor private, and by good conduct at
length a _cantineer_ of the liquor. Chevaliers are not of those grades,
as I well enough know, and I never heard of any good from a man getting
out of his place."
The convent girl looked up in suspense at her hero for reply.
"Listen, father," exclaimed Germain with a kind of gaiety, appreciating
the melancholy humour of the situation, "I have not only traced you up,
but shall show you the evidence. Carry in my little box while I bring
the black one."
They brought the boxes in, and the small one--that with the gilt coat of
arms, from which Germain had taken his passport at Quebec--was put on
the table. Germain unlocked it, and brought out the de Lincy
genealogical tree.
"Here," said he to his father, while the family crowded to look over
their shoulders, "you are the son of this one; I have seen and read your
baptismal register which records it, in the Church of St.
Germain-des-Prés."
"True--that was my parish," the old man answered. "Are you certain that
my father was not----?"
"Positive."
"Very well, then," old Lecour answered, somewhat reluctantly.
"What a romance!" the married daughter cried.
"I am about to show you some precious relics of our past," Germain
continued. "See what a store of parchments. Here are grants of
_noblesse_ from the King, grants of titles, dispensations signed by the
Popes--do you know what these are?" he cried, taking out and putting on
his breast a couple of beautiful jewels, standing up as he did so.
"Tell us!"
"This," said he, "is the Commander's Cross of St. Louis; and that the
Order of the Holy Ghost."
While they pushed forward in excitement to look closer at the
decorations, he bent, lifted the lid of the large black box and with
both hands raised before them an oil portrait of a gentleman in full
wig, velvet coat and ruffles.
"That," said he, surveying it with becoming pride, "is our ancestor
Hypolite LeCour de Lincy. Sir," said he, laughingly turning to his
parent, "behold your father against your will."
"Bravo, Monsieur my son," cried Madame Lecour.
"Now I can make my old man dress like a gentleman. The next time I go to
Montreal, Lecour--or rather my Chevalier--I shall spend some of your
money on a peruke and a scarlet coat for you."
"Holy Mary, save me!"
"About that please the ladies, father," Germain put in; "but there is
another matter. Who drew your marriage contract?"
"D'Aguilhe, the notary," his mother returned.
"Is he of St. Elphège?"
"Yes."
"He has, of course, omitted mention of your nobility."
"He knew of none," said the merchant.
"Then we must go to him with our titles, and he must rectify it
to-morrow."
"As you please, if it will suit you better," the merchant murmured.
"I must be a Prince, for I create nobles," pronounced Germain, shaking
with fevered laughter, as he drew the sheets over him in the state bed
that night. His merriment was a pitiful cover for his desperation. In
his favour it is well to remember the dictum of Schopenhauer: that the
English are the only nation who thoroughly realise the immorality of
lying; and we must also keep in mind that the extent of his disorder was
a measure of the power of that passion which was its cause. Better
things were yet in him.