A LOVE FROM THE GRAVE.
His marriage with Charlotte achieved, John Lebrenn, his sister, his wife
and Madam Desmarais took up their abode in the modest dwelling on Anjou
Street. Here also was Lebrenn's smithy, now for two months transformed
into an armorer's shop, for he had received an order for guns for the
volunteers, and, with his companions, set about the work with a will.
On the evening of May the 30th, in the year of his marriage, Lebrenn was
looking over the newspapers while he rested from the heavy labors of the
day, when his wife, sad and engrossed, came to him, saying to herself:
"No--painful though the confidence be, my last talk with the poor child,
and my tender attachment for Victoria, will not permit me to postpone
it--" Then, aloud to her husband, she began:
"I have for long hesitated, my friend, over the communication I am about
to make to you. But the interest I feel in Victoria compels me to-day to
speak. Closer knowledge of your sister's character has shown me, my
friend, that you do not over-state when you say that, despite the
youthful degradation she perforce underwent, her heart has remained
pure. And yet I very wrongly harbored an evil thought against her. Now
I have the proof of my mistake. I attributed to jealousy the change we
noticed coming over her. I thought to myself that Victoria, used to
concentrate upon you all her tenderness, to share your life, might feel
toward me that sort of sisterly jealousy which the best and bravest of
sisters feel in spite of themselves toward the wife of an idolized
brother. I blush for my error, my friend, but still it was pardonable.
Do you recall that shortly after our wedding we began to remark in your
sister a growing sadness and taciturnity? Did she not seem by turns
happy and saddened at our intimacy? Has she not appeared almost
continuously under the empire of some secret brooding?"
"True; for long I have noticed in Victoria a sort of capricious
changefulness of spirit which contrasted strongly with her ordinary
equability. Thus, after having taken upon herself the task of evening
lessons for our three apprentice boys and little Oliver, the orphan lad
whom we took in, who, in spite of his eighteen years, knows no more than
the younger boys, my sister suddenly declared she was going to stop the
lessons and leave Paris; and without a word of explanation, at that."
"You remember, John, how bitter were her farewells at leaving us?"
"Happily, at the end of barely a week, Victoria returned, and--strange
contradiction--insisted upon resuming her functions as school mistress."
"But her sadness, her sighs, the decline of her health proved only too
well the persistence of her secret anguish. I said to myself, 'The
courageous woman is fighting with all her might against her sisterly
jealousy. In vain she tried to flee. Drawn again to us by her
tenderness for John, she prefers to live with us and suffer.' But no, my
friend, I was in error. I am now positive of it."
"To what cause, then, do you attribute Victoria's deep dejection and
chagrin?"
"I shall surprise you, my friend, in revealing the burden--it is love!"
Mute with astonishment, John looked at his wife at first without
answering her. Then, sadly smiling, and shaking his head incredulously,
he said:
"Charlotte, you mistake. Victoria has had but one love in her life. He
whom she loved to distraction is dead. She will be faithful to that
flame to the tomb."
"You related to me the sad story of Victoria and Maurice, the young
sergeant in the French Guards, killed by his disgraceful punishment.
But, recall to mind that two or three days after our marriage, when you
presented Oliver and the three apprentices, whom she wished to teach to
read, to her, she suddenly shuddered, and cried as in great
bewilderment--'Good God! Is it a vision, or is it a specter? 'Tis he,
'tis Maurice I see again!'"
"I remember the circumstance. And instantly coming to herself, Victoria
told us she had had a spell of dizziness; but said no more on the
subject."
"So, noticing her embarrassment, her downheartedness, we did not insist
on knowing from her the real cause of so strange an incident; but a few
days after this first meeting with Oliver, a remarkable change began to
manifest itself in your sister's manner."
"That is all true; but what do you conclude from it?"
"I conclude, my friend, that it was in amazement at something in
Oliver's appearance that your sister uttered the wandering words which
startled us. I now believe the words expressed the surprise, mingled
with affright, into which she was thrown by the striking resemblance
between Oliver and Sergeant Maurice. And finally, the resemblance is
explained by what I have discovered;--Oliver is Maurice's brother!"
"Strange, strange indeed!" muttered John. "But tell me, how did you come
by the discovery?"
"As you know, we had to bring Oliver into the house, so as to have him
close by us, as he is suffering from some languorous malady which
renders him unable, despite his courage and willingness, to work in the
shop. The unhappy boy, undermined by a slow fever, is in a deplorable
state of weakness."
"The physician attributes it to his rapid growth. Oliver is, in fact,
hardly eighteen. He has grown fast lately; this would explain his
temporary lassitude."
"The physician, it seems to me, is deceived there. I shall tell you why,
my friend. Just now, in coming from the shop, I crossed the garden. I
saw Oliver seated under the yoke-elm bower, apparently sunk in mournful
revery. His eye was fixed, his face bathed in tears. On seeing me he
furtively tried to wipe his eyes. His features revealed mental
suffering; it was easy to see that all was not physical in his malady.
'Oliver,' I said, seating myself close beside him, 'the cause of your
illness is not the one the doctor gives. You feel some great
disappointment, you hide it from us--that is wrong. My husband cares for
you like a father, why do you not confide your trouble to him?' He
seemed as much pained as surprised at my penetration; the embarrassed
answers he gave were not sincere. He attributed his sorrow to the
loneliness he felt in being left an orphan, without any relatives."
"Such a reply from Oliver surprises me. Has he not often shown by his
manner the most touching recognition of our kindnesses toward him? We
make him forget, he says, the unhappiness of his orphanhood; we surround
him with a family's attention."
"No doubt he was hiding the truth from me, my friend. Then I spoke to
him of the family he mourned. He eagerly seized upon the topic, as if
glad of an avenue of escape from the new questions he feared I would put
to him. He gave me many details of his parents. I learned that his
furthest memories went back only ten or twelve years, when he was a boy
of six or seven. He remembered that his brother Maurice wore the uniform
of the French Guards, and came often to see their mother, a poor
lace-weaver."
"There can no longer be any doubt!" cried Lebrenn, greatly amazed. "And
indeed, by dint of much turning about of my early memories, which are
greatly confused as I was then only a child, meseems that Sergeant
Maurice, whom I saw often at the house as my sister's betrothed, did, in
fact, resemble Oliver."
"So, my friend, what is there astonishing in the fact that Victoria,
finding again, so to speak, Maurice in his younger brother, should yield
despite herself to the reawakening of a sentiment which always ruled her
so strongly? A strange sentiment, against which Victoria rebels,
although in vain, for a thousand reasons, among them the difference in
years between herself and Oliver. Victoria, although still young and in
the ripeness of her beauty, might be his mother. The slow malady which
is gnawing at Oliver's heart has no other cause than a secret and mad
love for our sister Victoria."
These last words of Charlotte's, recalling to him many circumstances
previously insignificant, forced conviction upon Lebrenn. He felt as one
crushed, under the weight of the revelation, and presaging its sad
consequences, cried, "Charlotte, Charlotte, what sorrows I foresee--if
your suspicions are well founded! And what is worse, I believe you speak
sooth."
"My friend, my suspicions are but too well founded. They explain the
sadness of our poor sister; they explain her heart's anguish, the cause
of which has eluded us. Alas, her grief arises from the conflict between
her reason and this strange passion, so incomprehensible at first
glance. And still, one can see how her love for Maurice, lasting beyond
the grave, would predispose her toward a similar sentiment for his
brother, who reflects so perfect an image of the departed. On the other
hand, no more is it really strange that Oliver, drawn to your sister by
her many proofs of interest in him, by her beauty, by the loftiness of
her spirit and the nobility of her character, should end in becoming
seriously enamored of her. His love, which seeks to hide itself from all
eyes, and which hardly dares acknowledge itself, thinking it could never
be returned, will consume him, and perhaps carry him to the grave."
John was silent for some moments. "The affair is so delicate," he said
at length, "that I would not venture upon taking it up with Victoria,
confident though I am of her attachment to me. We must, then, see to
Oliver, and seek to snatch him from his wild passion. I shall have to
hasten into execution a project I had already formed for his future.
Everything about the boy seems to indicate military inclinations. A long
time before his illness I observed during the Section drills not only
his aptitude in the handling of arms, but with what insight he seemed to
anticipate, as it were, the manoeuvres, and with what precision he
executed them."
"Indeed, you have often told me of it, my friend. There are in Oliver,
you say, the makings of an officer."
"I wished to wait, before proposing to him to enrol, until his health
was completely restored. But, although his convalescence must, indeed,
be allowed time for, I think I shall now push forward his engagement in
whatever corps of the army is most to his liking. The distractions of
the trip to join his regiment, the change of scene, the soldier's life,
will, I doubt not, by awakening in Oliver his martial talents, exercise
a salutary influence over his health. He will feel his mind grow
gradually calmer in the measure that he finds himself further and
further removed from Victoria. And lastly, she, no longer having Oliver
daily before her, will succeed, I hope, in mastering this fatal love.
'Twould be a happy solution."
The conversation of John and his wife was broken in upon by the entrance
of Madam Desmarais. The lady seemed quite uneasy, and said to her
son-in-law in alarm:
"My God! What is going on in Paris to-night? They are beating the
assembly! The streets are all excitement and hubbub. I was hardly able
to get back home, for the crowds. Have we another _day_ to fear?"
"According to what you say, dear mother, there probably will be a _day_
to-morrow," replied John, smiling. "But it will be as peaceful as it
will be imposing, and will, I hope, insure the safety of the Republic."
"May God hear you, my dear John. I know what faith one can place in your
words. Nevertheless, I can not help but tremble when I think of your
being engaged in these struggles, which may at any time end in
massacre."
Gertrude, the old servant of the family, who had followed Madam
Desmarais and her daughter to their new dwelling, just then entered and
said to John: "Monsieur, your foreman Castillon is in the entry. He
wishes me to tell you he would like to speak with you."
"Go and tell him he may come in, my good Gertrude."
"Charlotte and I will leave you," said Madam Desmarais. "If you go out,
John, come and see us before you leave."
"Certainly, dear mother." Then addressing his wife, John added,
significantly, "If you see Victoria before I do, keep silence on the
subject of our talk."
"Speaking of Victoria, my children, I must say that the change in her
health seems serious."
"We share your fears, good mother. Without a doubt, Victoria is
suffering from some secret sorrow. But you know what reserve we must
proceed with if we wish to win our sister's confidence. Depend upon us,
mother, and until John or I have seen you, say nothing to Victoria which
could lead her to suppose that we have remarked the change which
afflicts us--alas, with all too much cause."
"You may count upon my discretion," replied Madam Desmarais. She and her
daughter then left the room, and soon Castillon, foreman to John
Lebrenn, was engaged in conversation with his master.