that was his ideal.
She did not believe much of this, but, following her natural instinct,
she assumed the dangerous task of consolation, until, as Madame d’Argy
grew better, she discontinued her daily visits, and Fred, in his turn,
took a habit of going over to Fresne without being invited, and spending
there a good deal of his time.
“Don’t send me away. You who are always charitable,” he said. “If you
only knew what a pleasure a Parisian conversation is after coming from
Tonquin!”
“But I am so little of a Parisienne, or at least what you mean by that
term, and my conversation is not worth coming for,” objected Giselle.
In her extreme modesty she did not realize how much she had gained in
intellectual culture. Women left to themselves have time to read, and
Giselle had done this all the more because she had considered it a duty.
Must she not know enough to instruct and superintend the education of
her son? With much strong feeling, yet with much simplicity, she spoke
to Fred of this great task, which sometimes frightened her; he gave her
his advice, and both discussed together the things that make up a good
man. Giselle brought up frequently the subject of heredity: she named
no one, but Fred could see that she had a secret terror lest Enguerrand,
who in person was very like his father, might also inherit his
character. Fears on this subject, however, appeared unfounded. There was
nothing about the child that was not good; his tastes were those of his
mother. He was passionately fond of Fred, climbing on his lap as soon as
the latter arrived and always maintaining that he, too, wanted a pretty
red ribbon to wear in his buttonhole, a ribbon only to be got by sailing
far away over the seas, like sailors.
“A sailor! Heaven forbid!” cried Madame de Talbrun.
“Oh! sailors come back again. He has come back. Couldn’t he take me away
with him soon? I have some stories about cabin-boys who were not much
older than I.”
“Let us hope that your friend Fred won’t go away,” said Giselle. “But
why do you wish to be a cabinboy?”
“Because I want to go away with him, if he does not stay here--because I
like him,” answered Enguerrand in a tone of decision.
Hereupon Giselle kissed her boy with more than usual tenderness. He
would not take to the hunting-field, she thought, the boulevard, and the
corps de ballet. She would not lose him. “But, oh, Fred!” she cried, “it
is not to be wondered at that he is so fond of you! You spoil him!
You will be a devoted father some day; your vocation is evidently for
marriage.”
She thought, in thus speaking, that she was saying what Madame d’Argy
would like her to say.
“In the matter of children, I think your son is enough for me,” he said,
one day; “and as for marriage, you would not believe how all women--I
mean all the young girls among whom I should have to make a choice--are
indifferent to me. My feeling almost amounts to antipathy.”
For the first time she ventured to say: “Do you still care for
Jacqueline?”
“About as much as she cares for me,” he answered, dryly. “No, I made a
mistake once, and that has made me cautious for the future.”
Another day he said:
“I know now who was the woman I ought to have loved.”
Giselle did not look up; she was devoting all her attention to
Enguerrand.
Fred held certain theories which he used to talk about. He believed in
a high, spiritual, disinterested affection which would raise a man above
himself, making him more noble, inspiring a disgust for all ignoble
pleasures. The woman willing to accept such homage might do anything she
pleased with a heart that would be hers alone. She would be the lady
who presided over his life, for whose sake all good deeds and generous
actions would be done, the idol, higher than a wife or any object of
earthly passion, the White Angel whom poets have sung.
Giselle pretended that she did not understand him, but she was divinely
happy. This, then, was the reward of her spotless life! She was the
object of a worship no less tender than respectful. Fred spoke of the
woman he ought to have loved as if he meant to say, “I love you;” he
pressed his lips on the auburn curls of little Enguerrand where his
mother had just kissed him. Day after day he seemed more attracted
to that salon where, dressed with more care than she had ever dressed
before, she expected him. Then awoke in her the wish to please, and she
was beautiful with that beauty which is not the insipid beauty of St.
Agnes, but that which, superior to all other, is seen when the face
reflects the soul. All that winter there was a new Giselle--a Giselle
who passed away again among the shadows, a Giselle of whom everybody
said, even her husband, “Ma foi! but she is beautiful!” Oscar de
Talbrun, as he made this remark, never thought of wondering why she was
more beautiful. He was ready to take offense and was jealous by nature,
but he was perfectly sure of his wife, as he had often said. As to Fred,
the idea of being jealous of him would never have entered his mind. Fred
was a relative and was admitted to all the privileges of a cousin or a
brother; besides, he was a fellow of no consequence in any way.
While this platonic attachment grew stronger and stronger between Fred
and Giselle, assisted by the innocent complicity of little Enguerrand,
Jacqueline was discovering how hard it is for a girl of good birth, if
she is poor, to carry out her plans of honest independence. Possibly she
had allowed herself to be too easily misled by the title of “companion,”
which, apparently more cordial than that of ‘demoiselle de compagnie’,
means in reality the same thing--a sort of half-servile position.
Money is a touchstone which influences all social relations, especially
when on one side there is a somewhat morbid susceptibility, and on the
other a lack of good breeding and education. The Sparks, father and
daughter, Americans of the lower class, though willing to spend any
number of dollars for their own pleasure, expected that every penny
they disbursed should receive its full equivalent in service; the place
therefore offered so gracefully and spontaneously to Mademoiselle de
Nailles was far from being a sinecure. Jacqueline received her salary on
the same footing as Justine, the Parisian maid, received her wages, for,
although her position was apparently one of much greater importance and
consideration than Justine’s, she was really at the beck and call of a
girl who, while she called her “darling,” gave her orders and paid her
for her services. Very often Miss Nora asked her to sew, on the plea
that she was as skilful with her fingers as a fairy, but in reality that
her employer might feel the superiority of her own position.
Hitherto Miss Nora had been delighted to meet at watering-places a
friend of whom she could say proudly, “She is a representative of the
old nobility of France” (which was not true, by the way, for the title
of Baron borne by M. de Nailles went no farther back than the days of
Louis XVIII); and she was still more proud to think that she was now
waited on by this same daughter of a nobleman, when her own father had
kept a drinking-saloon. She did not acknowledge this feeling to herself,
and would certainly have maintained that she never had had such an idea,
but it existed all the same, and she was under its influence, being very
vain and rather foolish. And, indeed, Jacqueline, would have been very
willing to plan trimmings and alter finery from morning to night in
her own chamber in a hotel, exactly as Mademoiselle Justine did, if she
could by this means have escaped the special duties of her difficult
position, which duties were to follow Miss Nora everywhere, like her own
shadow, to be her confidant and to act sometimes as her screen, or even
as her accomplice, in matters that occasionally involved risks, and were
never to her liking.
The young American girl had already said to her father, when he asked
her to give up her search for an entirely satisfactory European suitor,
which search he feared might drag on forever without any results: “Oh!
I shall be sure to find him at Bellagio!” And she made up her mind that
there he was to be sought and found at any price. Hotel life offered her
opportunities to exercise her instincts for flirtation, for there she
met many specimens of men she called chic, with a funny little foreign
accent, which seemed to put new life into the wornout word. Twenty times
a day she baited her hook, and twenty times a day some fish would
bite, or at least nibble, according as he was a fortune-hunter or a
dilettante. Miss Nora, being incapable of knowing the difference, was
ready to capture good or bad, and went about dragging her slaves at
her chariot-wheels. Sometimes she took them rowing, with the Stars and
Stripes floating over her boat, by moonlight; sometimes she drove
them recklessly in a drag through roads bordered by olive-groves and
vineyards; all these expeditions being undertaken under-pretence of
admiring the romantic scenery. Her father was not disposed to interfere
with what he called “a little harmless dissipation.” He was confident
his daughter’s “companion” must know what was proper, she being, as he
said, accustomed to good society. Were not all Italian ladies attended
by gentlemen? Who could blame a young girl for amusing herself? Meantime
Mr. Sparks amused himself after his own fashion, which was to sit
comfortably, with his feet up on the piazza rail of the hotel, imbibing
strong iced drinks through straws. But in reality Jacqueline had no
power whatever to preserve propriety, and only compromised herself by
her associations, though her own conduct was irreproachable. Indeed she
was considered quite prudish, and the rest of the mad crowd laughed
at her for having the manners of a governess. In vain she tried to say
words of warning to Nora; what she said was laughed at or resented in a
tone that told her that a paid companion had not the right to speak as
frankly as a friend.
Her business, she was plainly told one day, was to be on the spot in
case any impertinent suitor should venture too far in a tete-a-tete,
but short of that she was not to “spoilsport.” “I am not doing anything
wrong; it is allowable in America,” was Miss Nora’s regular speech on
such occasions, and Jacqueline could not dispute the double argument.
Nora’s conduct was not wicked, and in America such things might be
allowed. Yet Jacqueline tried to demonstrate that a young girl can not
pass unscathed through certain adventures, even if they are innocent in
the strict sense of the word; which made Nora cry out that all she said
was subterfuge and that she had no patience with prejudices.
In vain her young companion pointed out to her charge that other
Americans at Bellagio seemed far from approving her conduct. American
ladies of a very different class, who were staying at the hotel, held
aloof from her, and treated her with marked coldness whenever they met;
declaring that her manners would be as objectionable in her own country,
in good society, as they were in Italy.
But Miss Sparks was not to be put down by any argument. “Bah! they are
stuck-up Bostonians. And do you know, Jacqueline, you are getting very
tiresome? You were faster yourself than I when we were the Blue Band at
Treport.”
Nora’s admirers, sometimes encouraged, sometimes snubbed, when treated
cavalierly by this young lady, would occasionally pay court to the
‘demoiselle de compagnie’, who indeed was well worth their pains; but,
to their surprise, the subordinate received their attentions with great
coldness. Having entered her protest against what was going on, and
having resisted the contagion of example, it was natural she should
somewhat exaggerate her prudery, for it is hard to hit just the right
point in such reaction. The result was, she made herself so disagreeable
to Miss Sparks that the latter determined on getting rid of her as
tactfully as possible.
Their parting took place on the day after an excursion to the Villa
Sommariva, where Miss Sparks and her little court had behaved with their
usual noise and rudeness. They had gone there ostensibly to see the
pictures, about which none of them cared anything, for Nora, wherever
she was, never liked any one to pay attention to anybody or to look at
anything but her own noisy, all-pervading self.
It so happened that at the most riotous moment of the picnic an old
gentleman passed near the lively crowd. He was quite inoffensive,
pleasant-mannered, and walked leaning on his cane, yet, had the statue
of the Commander in Don Juan suddenly appeared it could not have
produced such consternation as his presence did on Jacqueline, when,
after a moment’s hesitation, he bowed to her. She recognized in him a
friend of Madame d’Argy, M. Martel, whom she had often met at her house
in Paris and at Lizerolles. When he recognized her, she fancied she had
seen pass over his face a look of painful surprise. He would surely tell
how he had met her; what would her old friends think of her? What would
Fred? For some time past she had thought more than ever before of what
Fred would think of her. The more she grew disgusted with the men she
met, the more she appreciated his good qualities, and the more she
thought of the honest, faithful love he had offered her--love that she
had so madly thrown away. She never should meet such love again, she
thought. It was the idea of how Fred would blame her when he heard
what she pictured to herself the old gentleman would say of her, that
suddenly decided her to leave Bellagio.
She told Mr. Sparks that evening that she was not strong enough for such
duties as were required of a companion.
He looked at her with pity and annoyance.
“I should have thought you had more energy. How do you expect to live by
work if you are not strong enough for pleasure?”
“Pleasure needs strength as well as labor,” she said, smiling; “I would
rather work in the fields than go on amusing myself as I have been
doing.”
“My dear, you must not be so difficult to please. When people have to
earn their bread, it is a bad plan. I am afraid you will find out
before long that there are harder ways of making a living than lunching,
dancing, walking, and driving from morning to night in a pretty
country--”
Here Mr. Sparks began to laugh as he thought of all he had had to do,
without making objections, in the Far West, in the heroic days of his
youthful vigor. He was rather fond of recalling how he had carried his
pick on his shoulder and his knife in his belt, with two Yankee sayings
in his head, and little besides for baggage: “Muscle and pluck!--Muscle
and pluck!” and “Go ahead for ever!” That was the sort of thing to be
done when a man or a woman had not a cent.
And now, what was Jacqueline to do next? She reflected that in a very
short time she had attempted many things. It seemed to her that all she
could do now was to follow the advice which, when first given her
by Madame Strahlberg, had frightened her, though she had found it so
attractive. She would study with Madame Rochette; she would go to the
Milan Conservatory, and as soon as she came of age she would go upon the
stage, under a feigned name, of course, and in a foreign country. She
would prove to the world, she said to herself, that the career of an
actress is compatible with self-respect. This resolve that she would
never be found wanting in self-respect held a prominent place in all her
plans, as she began to understand better those dangers in life which are
for the most part unknown to young girls born in her social position.
Jacqueline’s character, far from being injured by her trials and
experiences, had gained in strength. She grew firmer as she gained in
knowledge. Never had she been so worthy of regard and interest as at
the very time when her friends were saying sadly to themselves, “She is
going to the bad,” and when, from all appearances, they were right in
this conclusion.
CHAPTER XVII. TWIN DEVILS
Jacqueline came to the conclusion that she had better seriously consult
Madame Strahlberg. She therefore stopped at Monaco, where this friend,
whom she intended to honor with the strange office of Mentor, was
passing the winter in a little villa in the Condamine quarter--a cottage
surrounded by roses and laurel-bushes, painted in soft colors and
looking like a plaything.
Madame Strahlberg had already urged Jacqueline to come and make
acquaintance with her “paradise,” without giving her any hint of the
delights of that paradise, from which that of gambling was not excluded,
for Madame Strahlberg was eager for any kind of excitement. Roulette now
occupied with her a large part of every night--indeed, her nights had
been rarely given to slumber, for her creed was that morning is the time
for sleep, for which reason they never took breakfast in the pink villa,
but tea, cakes, and confectionery were eaten instead at all hours until
the evening. Thus it happened very often that they had no dinner, and
guests had to accommodate themselves to the strange ways of the family.
Jacqueline, however, did not stay long enough to know much of those
ways.
She arrived, poor thing, with weary wing, like some bird, who, escaping
from the fowler’s net, where it has left its feathers, flies straight to
the spot where a sportsman lies ready to shoot it. She was received
with the same cries of joy, the same kisses, the same demonstrations of
affection, as those which, the summer before, had welcomed her to the
Rue de Naples. They told her she could sleep on a sofa, exactly like the
one on which she had passed that terrible night which had resulted in
her expulsion from the convent; and it was decided that she must stay
several days, at least, before she went on to Paris, to begin the
life of hard study and courageous work which would make of her a great
singer.
Tired?--No, she was hardly tired at all. The journey over the enchanting
road of the Corniche had awakened in her a fervor of admiration which
prevented her from feeling any bodily needs, and now she seemed to have
reached fairyland, where the verdure of the tropics was like the hanging
gardens of Babylon, only those had never had a mirror to reflect back
their ancient, far-famed splendor, like that before her eyes, as she
looked down upon the Mediterranean, with the sun setting in the west in
a sky all crimson and gold.
Notwithstanding the disorder of her travelling-dress, Jacqueline allowed
her friend to take her straight from the railway station to the Terrace
of Monte Carlo. She fell into ecstasies at sight of the African cacti,
the century plants, and the fig-trees of Barbary, covering the low
walls whence they looked down into the water; at the fragrance of the
evergreens that surrounded the beautiful palace with its balustrades,
dedicated to all the worst passions of the human race; with the sharp
rocky outline of Turbia; with an almost invisible speck on the horizon
which they said was Corsica; with everything, which, whether mirage or
reality, lifted her out of herself, and plunged her into that state
of excited happiness and indescribable sense of bodily comfort, which
exterior impressions so easily produce upon the young.
After exhausting her vocabulary in exclamations and in questions, she
stood silent, watching the sun as it sank beneath the waters, thinking
that life is well worth living if it can give us such glorious
spectacles, notwithstanding all the difficulties that may have to be
passed through. Several minutes elapsed before she turned her radiant
face and dazzled eyes toward Wanda, or rather toward the spot where
Wanda had been standing beside her. “Oh! my dear--how beautiful!” she
murmured with a long sigh.
The sigh was echoed by a man, who for a few moments had looked at her
with as much admiration as she had looked at the landscape. He answered
her by saying, in a low voice, the tones of which made her tremble from
head to foot:
“Jacqueline!”
“Monsieur de Cymier!”
The words slipped through her lips as they suddenly turned pale. She had
an instinctive, sudden persuasion that she had been led into a snare. If
not, why was Madame Strahlberg now absorbed in conversation with three
other persons at some little distance.
“Forgive me--you did not expect to see me--you seem quite startled,”
said the young man, drawing near her. With an effort she commanded
herself and looked full in his face. Her anger rose. She had seen the
same look in the ugly, brutal face of Oscar de Talbrun. From the Terrace
of Monte Carlo her memory flew back to a country road in Normandy,
and she clenched her hand round an imaginary riding-whip. She needed
coolness and she needed courage. They came as if by miracle.
“It is certain, Monsieur,” she answered, slowly, “that I did not expect
to meet you here.”
“Chance has had pity on me,” he replied, bowing low, as she had set him
the example of ceremony.
But he had no idea of losing time in commonplace remarks--he wished to
take up their intimacy on the terms it had been formerly, to resume the
romance he himself had interrupted.
“I knew,” he said in the same low voice, full of persuasion, which gave
especial meaning to his words, “I knew that, after all, we should meet
again.”
“I did not expect it,” said Jacqueline, haughtily.
“Because you do not believe in the magnetism of a fixed desire.”
“No, I do not believe any such thing, when, opposed to such a desire,
there is a strong, firm will,” said Jacqueline, her eyes burning.
“Ah!” he murmured, and he might have been supposed to be really moved,
so much his look changed, “do not abuse your power over me--do not make
me wretched; if you could only understand--”
She made a swift movement to rejoin Madame Strahlberg, but that lady was
already coming toward them with the same careless ease with which she
had left them together.
“Well! you have each found an old acquaintance,” she said, gayly. “I beg
your pardon, my loveliest, but I had to speak to some old friends, and
ask them to join us to-morrow evening. We shall sup at the restaurant
of the Grand Hotel, after the opera--for, I did not tell you before,
you will have the good luck to hear Patti. Monsieur de Cymier, we shall
expect you. Au revoir.”
He had been on the point of asking leave to walk home with them. But
there was something in Jacqueline’s look, and in her stubborn silence,
that deterred him. He thought it best to leave a skilful advocate to
plead his cause before he continued a conversation which had not
begun satisfactorily. Not that Gerard de Cymier was discouraged by
the behavior of Jacqueline. He had expected her to be angry at his
defection, and that she would make him pay for it; but a little skill on
his part, and a little credulity on hers, backed by the intervention of
a third party, might set things right.
One moment he lingered to look at her, admiring her as she stood in
the light of the dying sun, as beautiful in her plain dress and her
indignant paleness, while she looked far out to sea, that she might
not be obliged to look at him, as she had been when he had known her in
prosperity.
At that moment he knew she hated him, but it would be an additional
delight to overcome that feeling.
The two women, when he left them, continued walking on the terrace side
by side, without a word. Wanda watched her companion out of the corners
of her eyes, and hummed an air to herself to break the silence. She saw
a storm gathering under Jacqueline’s black eyebrows, and knew that sharp
arrows were likely to shoot forth from those lips which several times
had opened, though not a word had been uttered, probably through fear of
saying too little or too much.
At last she made some trifling comment on the view, explaining something
about pigeon-shooting.
“Wanda,” interrupted Jacqueline, “did you not know what happened once?”
“Happened, how? About what?” asked Madame Strahlberg, with an air of
innocence.
“I am speaking of the way Monsieur de Cymier treated me.”
“Bah! He was in love with you. Who didn’t know it? Every one could see
that. It was all the more reason why you should have been glad to meet
him.”
“He did not act as if he were much in love,” said Jacqueline.
“Because he went away when your family thought he was about to make his
formal proposal? Not all men are marrying men, my dear, nor have all
women that vocation. Men fall in love all the same.”
“Do you think, then, that when a man knows he has no intention of
marrying he should pay court to a young girl? I think I told you at the
time that he had paid court to me, and that he afterward--how shall I
say it?--basely deserted me.”
The sharp and thrilling tone in which Jacqueline said this amused Madame
Strahlberg.
“What big words, my dear! No, I don’t remember that you ever said
anything of the sort to me before. But you are wrong. As we grow older
we lay aside harsh judgments and sharp words. They do no good. In your
place I should be touched by the thought that a man so charming had been
faithful to me.”
“Faithful!” cried Jacqueline, her dark eyes flashing into the cat-like
eyes of Madame Strahlberg.
Wanda looked down, and fastened a ribbon at her waist.
“Ever since we have been here,” she said, “he has been talking of you.”
“Really--for how long?”
“Oh, if you must know, for the last two weeks.”
“It is just a fortnight since you wrote and asked me to stay with you,”
said Jacqueline, coldly and reproachfully.
“Oh, well--what’s the harm? Suppose I did think your presence would
increase the attractions of Monaco?”
“Why did you not tell me?”
“Because I never write a word more than is necessary; you know how lazy
I am. And also because, I may as well confess, it might have scared you
off, you are so sensitive.”
“Then you meant to take me by surprise?” said Jacqueline, in the same
tone.
“Oh! my dear, why do you try to quarrel with me?” replied Madame
Strahlberg, stopping suddenly and looking at her through her eyeglass.
“We may as well understand what you mean by a free and independent
life.”
And thereupon ensued an address to which Jacqueline listened, leaning
one hand on a balustrade of that enchanted garden, while the voice of
the serpent, as she thought, was ringing in her ears. Her limbs shook
under her--her brain reeled. All her hopes of success as a singer on the
stage Madame Strahlberg swept away, as not worth a thought. She told her
that, in her position, had she meant to be too scrupulous, she should
have stayed in the convent. Everything to Jacqueline seemed to dance
before her eyes. The evening closed around them, the light died out, the
landscape, like her life, had lost its glow. She uttered a brief prayer
for help, such a prayer as she had prayed in infancy. She whispered
it in terror, like a cry in extreme danger. She was more frightened
by Wanda’s wicked words than she had been by M. de Talbrun or by M. de
Cymier. She ceased to know what she was saying till the last words, “You
have good sense and you will think about it,” met her ear.
Jacqueline said not a word.
Wanda took her arm. “You may be sure,” she said, “that I am thinking
only of your good. Come! Would you like to go into the Casino and look
at the pictures? No, you are tired? You can see them some evening. The
ballroom holds a thousand persons. Yes, if you prefer, we will go home.
You can take a nap till dinner-time. We shall dine at eight o’clock.”
Conversation languished till they reached the Villa Rosa.
Notwithstanding Jacqueline’s efforts to appear natural, her own voice
rang in her ears in tones quite new to her, a laugh that she uttered
without any occasion, and which came near resulting in hysterics. Yet
she had power enough over her nerves to notice the surroundings as she
entered the house. At the door of the room in which she was to sleep,
and which was on the first story, Madame Strahlberg kissed her with one
of those equivocal smiles which so long had imposed on her simplicity.
“Till eight o’clock, then.”
“Till eight o’clock,” repeated Jacqueline, passively.
But when eight o’clock came she sent word that she had a severe
headache, and would try to sleep it off.
Suppose, she thought, M. de Cymier should have been asked to dinner;
suppose she should be placed next to him at table? Anything in that
house seemed possible now.
They brought her a cup of tea. Up to a late hour she heard a confused
noise of music and laughter. She did not try to sleep. All her faculties
were on the alert, like those of a prisoner who is thinking of escape.
She knew what time the night trains left the station, and, abandoning
her trunk and everything else that she had with her, she furtively--but
ready, if need were, to fight for her liberty with the strength of
desperation--slipped down the broad stairs over their thick carpet and
pushed open a little glass door. Thank heaven! people came in and went
out of that house as if it had been a mill. No one discovered her
flight till the next morning, when she was far on her way to Paris in
an express train. Modeste, quite unprepared for her young mistress’s
arrival, was amazed to see her drop down upon her, feverish and excited,
like some poor hunted animal, with strength exhausted. Jacqueline flung
herself into her nurse’s arms as she used to do when, as a little girl,
she was in what she fancied some great trouble, and she cried: “Oh,
take me in--pray take me in! Keep me safe! Hide me!” And then she told
Modeste everything, speaking rapidly and disconnectedly, thankful to
have some one to whom she could open her heart. In default of Modeste
she would have spoken to stone walls.
“And what will you do now, my poor darling?” asked the old nurse, as
soon as she understood that her young lady had come back to her, “with
weary foot and broken wing,” from what she had assured her on her
departure would be a brilliant excursion.
“Oh! I don’t know,” answered Jacqueline, in utter discouragement; “I am
too worn out to think or to do anything. Let me rest; that is all.”
“Why don’t you go to see your stepmother?”
“My stepmother? Oh, no! She is at the bottom of all that has happened to
me.”
“Or Madame d’Argy? Or Madame de Talbrun? Madame de Talbrun is the one
who would give you good advice.”
Jacqueline shook her head with a sad smile.
“Let me stay here. Don’t you remember--years ago--but it seems like
yesterday--all the rest is like a nightmare--how I used to hide myself
under your petticoats, and you would say, going on with your knitting:
‘You see she is not here; I can’t think where she can be.’ Hide me now
just like that, dear old Modeste. Only hide me.”
And Modeste, full of heartfelt pity, promised to hide her “dear child”
from every one, which promise, however, did not prevent her, for she
was very self-willed, from going, without Jacqueline’s knowledge, to see
Madame de Talbrun and tell her all that had taken place. She was hurt
and amazed at her reception by Giselle, and at her saying, without any
offer of help or words of sympathy, “She has only reaped what she has
sown.” Giselle would have been more than woman had not Fred, and a
remembrance of the wrongs that he had suffered through Jacqueline, now
stood between them. For months he had been the prime object in her life;
her mission of comforter had brought her the greatest happiness she had
ever known. She tried to make him turn his attention to some serious
work in life; she wanted to keep him at home, for his mother’s sake, she
thought; she fancied she had inspired him with a taste for home life. If
she had examined herself she might have discovered that the task she had
undertaken of doing good to this young man was not wholly for his sake
but partly for her own. She wanted to see him nearly every day and to
occupy a place in his life ever larger and larger. But for some
time past the conscientious Giselle had neglected the duty of strict
self-examination. She was thankful to be happy--and though Fred was a
man little given to self-flattery in his relations with women, he could
not but be pleased at the change produced in her by her intercourse with
him.
But while Fred and Giselle considered themselves as two friends trying
to console each other, people had begun to talk about them. Even Madame
d’Argy asked herself whether her son might not have escaped from the
cruel claws of a young coquette of the new school to fall into a worse
scrape with a married woman. She imagined what might happen if the
jealousy of “that wild boar of an Oscar de Talbrun” were aroused; the
dangers, far more terrible than the perils of the sea, that might
in such a case await her only son, the child for whose safety her
mother-love caused her to suffer perpetual torments. “O mothers!
mothers!” she often said to herself, “how much they are to be pitied.
And they are very blind. If Fred must get into danger and difficulty for
any woman, it should not have been for Giselle de Talbrun.”
CHAPTER XVIII. “AN AFFAIR OF HONOR”
A meeting took place yesterday at Vesinet between the Vicomte de
Cymier, secretary of Embassy at Vienna, and M. Frederic d’Argy,
ensign in the navy. The parties fought with swords. The seconds of
M. de Cymier were the Prince de Moelk and M. d’Etaples, captain in
the--th Hussars; those of M. d’Argy Hubert Marien, the painter.
M. d’Argy was wounded in the right arm, and for the present the
affair is terminated, but it is said it will be resumed on M.
d’Argy’s recovery, although this seems hardly probable, considering
the very slight cause of the quarrel--an altercation at the Cercle
de la Rue Boissy d’Anglas, which took place over the card-table.
Such was the announcement in a daily paper that met the eyes of
Jacqueline, as she lay hidden in Modeste’s lodging, like a fawn in its
covert, her eyes and ears on the alert, watching for the least sign of
alarm, in fear and trembling. She expected something, she knew not what;
she felt that her sad adventure at Monaco could not fail to have its
epilogue; but this was one of which she never had dreamed.
“Modeste, give me my hat! Get me a carriage! Quick! Oh, my God, it is my
fault!--I have killed him!”
These incoherent cries came from her lips while Modeste, in alarm,
picked up the newspaper and adjusted her silver spectacles upon her nose
to read the paragraph. “Monsieur Fred wounded! Holy Virgin! His poor
mother! That is a new trouble fallen on her, to be sure. But this
quarrel had nothing to do with you, my pet; you see they say it was
about cards.”
And folding up the Figaro, while Jacqueline in all haste was wrapping
her head in a veil, Modeste, with the best intentions, went on to say:
“Nobody ever dies of a sword-thrust in the arm.”
“But you see it says that they are going to fight all over again--don’t
you understand? You are so stupid! What could they have had to quarrel
about but me? O God! Thou art just! This is indeed punishment--too much
punishment for me!”
So saying, she ran down the many stairs that led up to Modeste’s little
lodging in the roof, her feet hardly touching them as she ran, while
Modeste followed her more slowly, crying: “Wait for me! Wait for me,
Mademoiselle!”
Calling a fiacre, Jacqueline, almost roughly, pushed the old woman into
it, and gave the coachman the address of Madame d’Argy, having, in her
excitement, first given him that of their old house in the Parc Monceau,
so much was she possessed by the idea that this was a repetition of
that dreadful day, when with Modeste, just as now, she went to meet
an irreparable loss. She seemed to see before her her dead father--he
looked like Fred, and now, as before, Marien had his part in the
tragedy. Could he not have prevented the duel? Could he not have done
something to prevent Fred from exposing himself? The wound might be no
worse than it was said to be in the newspaper--but then a second meeting
was to take place. No!--it should not, she would stop it at any price!
And yet, as the coach drew nearer to the Rue de Varenne, where Madame
d’Argy had her winter residence, a little calm, a little sense returned
to Jacqueline. She did not see how she could dare to enter that house,
where probably they cursed her very name. She would wait in the street
with the carriage-blinds pulled down, and Modeste should go in and ask
for information. Five minutes passed--ten minutes passed--they seemed
ages. How slow Modeste was, slow as a tortoise! How could she leave her
there when she knew she was so anxious? What could she be doing? All she
had to do was to ask news of M. Fred in just two words!
At last, Jacqueline could bear suspense no longer. She opened the
coach-door and jumped out on the pavement. Just at that moment Modeste
appeared, brandishing the umbrella that she carried instead of a stick,
in a manner that meant something. It might be bad news, she would know
in a moment; anything was better than suspense. She sprang forward.
“What did they say, Modeste? Speak!--Why have you been such a time?”
“Because the servants had something else to do than to attend to me. I
wasn’t the only person there--they were writing in a register. Get back
into the carriage, Mademoiselle, or somebody will see you--There are
lots of people there who know you--Monsieur and Madame d’Etaples--”
“What do I care?--The truth! Tell me the truth--”
“But didn’t you understand my signals? He is going on well. It was only
a scratch--Ah! Madame that’s only my way of talking. He will be laid up
for a fortnight. The doctor was there--he has some fever, but he is not
in any danger.”
“Oh! what a blessing! Kiss me, Modeste. We have a fortnight in which we
may interfere--But how--Oh, how?--Ah! there is Giselle! We will go to
Giselle at once!”
And the ‘fiacre’ was ordered to go as fast as possible to the Rue
Barbet-de-Jouy. This time Jacqueline herself spoke to the concierge.
“Madame la Comtesse is out.”
“But she never goes out at this hour. I wish to see her on important
business. I must see her.”
And Jacqueline passed the concierge, only to encounter another refusal
from a footman, who insisted that Madame la Comtesse was at home to no
one.
“But me, she will see me. Go and tell her it is Mademoiselle de
Nailles.”
Moved by her persistence, the footman went in to inquire, and came back
immediately with the answer:
“Madame la Comtesse can not see Mademoiselle.”
“Ah!” thought Jacqueline, “she, too, throws me off, and it is natural.
I have no friends left. No one will tell me anything!--I think it will
drive me mad?”
She was half-mad already. She stopped at a newsstand and bought all the
evening journals; then, up in her garret, in her poor little nest under
the roof-which, as she felt bitterly, was her only refuge, she began to
look over those printed papers in which she might possibly find out the
true cause of the duel. Nearly all related the event in almost the exact
terms used by the Figaro. Ah!--here was a different one! A reporter who
knew something more added, in Gil Blas: “We have stated the cause of
the dispute as it has been given to the public, but in affairs of this
nature more than in any others, it is safe to remember the old proverb:
‘Look for the woman.’ The woman could doubtless have been found enjoying
herself on the sunny shores of the Mediterranean, while men were drawing
swords in her defense.”
Jacqueline went on looking through the newspapers, crumpling up the
sheets as she laid them down. The last she opened had the reputation
of being a repository of scandals, never to be depended on, as she well
knew. Several times it had come to her hand and she had not opened it,
remembering what her father had always said of its reputation. But where
would she be more likely to find what she wanted than in the columns
of a journal whose reporters listened behind doors and peeped through
keyholes? Under the heading of ‘Les Dessous Parisiens’, she read on the
first page:
“Two hens lived in peace; a cock came
And strife soon succeeded to joy;
E’en as love, they say, kindled the flame
That destroyed the proud city of Troy.
“This quarrel was the outcome of a violent rupture between the two
hens in question, ending in the flight of one of them, a young and
tender pullet, whose voice we trust soon to hear warbling on the
boards at one of our theatres. This was the subject of conversation
in a low voice at the Cercle, at the hour when it is customary to
tell such little scandals. M. de C-----was enlarging on the
somewhat Bohemian character of the establishment of a lovely foreign
lady, who possesses the secret of being always surrounded by
delightful friends, young ladies who are self-emancipated, quasi-
widows who, by divorce suits, have regained their liberty, etc.
He was speaking of one of the beauties who are friends of his friend
Madame S----, as men speak of women who have proved themselves
careless of public opinion; when M. d’A----, in a loud voice,
interrupted him; the lie was given in terms that of course led to
the hostile meeting of which the press has spoken, attributing it to
a dispute about the Queen of Spades, when it really concerned the
Queen of Hearts.”
Then she had made no mistake; it had been her flight from Madame
Strahlberg’s which had led to her being attacked by one man, and
defended by the other! Jacqueline found it hard to recognize herself in
this tissue of lies, insinuations, and half-truths. What did the paper
mean its readers to understand by its account? Was it a jealous rivalry
between herself and Madame Strahlberg?--Was M. de Cymier meant by the
cock? And Fred had heard all this--he had drawn his sword to refute
the calumny. Brave Fred! Alas! he had been prompted only by chivalric
generosity. Doubtless he, also, looked upon her as an adventuress.
All night poor Jacqueline wept with such distress that she wished that
she might die. She was dropping off to sleep at last, overpowered by
fatigue, when a ring at the bell in the early morning roused her. Then
she heard whispering:
“Do you think she is so unhappy?”
It was the voice of Giselle.
“Come in--come in quickly!” she cried, springing out of bed. Wrapped
in a dressing-gown, with bare feet, her face pale, her eyelids red, her
complexion clouded, she rushed to meet her friend, who was almost as
much disordered as herself. It seemed as if Madame de Talbrun might also
have passed a night of sleeplessness and tears.
“You have come! Oh! you have come at last!” cried Jacqueline, throwing
her arms around her, but Giselle repelled her with a gesture so severe
that the poor child could not but understand its meaning. She murmured,
pointing to the pile of newspapers: “Is it possible?--Can you have
believed all those dreadful things?”
“What things? I have read nothing,” said Giselle, harshly. “I only
know that a man who was neither your husband nor your brother, and who
consequently was under no obligation to defend you, has been foolish
enough to be nearly killed for your sake. Is not that a proof of your
downfall? Don’t you know it?”
“Downfall?” repeated Jacqueline, as if she did not understand her. Then,
seizing her friend’s hand, she forcibly raised it to her lips: “Ah! what
can anything matter to me,” she cried, “if only you remain my friend;
and he has never doubted me!”
“Women like you can always find defenders,” said Giselle, tearing her
hand from her cousin’s grasp.
Giselle was not herself at that moment. “But, for your own sake, it
would have been better he should have abstained from such an act of
Quixotism.”
“Giselle! can it be that you think me guilty?”
“Guilty!” cried Madame de Talbrun, her pale face aflame. “A little more
and Monsieur de Cymier’s sword-point would have pierced his lungs.”
“Good heavens!” cried Jacqueline, hiding her face in her hands. “But I
have done nothing to--”
“Nothing except to set two men against each other; to make them suffer,
or to make fools of them, and to be loved by them all the same.”
“I have not been a coquette,” said Jacqueline, with indignation.
“You must have been, to authorize the boasts of Monsieur de Cymier. He
had seen Fred so seldom, and Tonquin had so changed him that he spoke in
his presence--without supposing any one would interfere. I dare not tell
you what he said--”
“Whatever spite or revenge suggested to him, no doubt,” said Jacqueline.
“Listen, Giselle--Oh, you must listen. I shall not be long.”
She forced her to sit down; she crouched on a foot stool at her feet,
holding her hands in hers so tightly that Giselle could not draw them
away, and began her story, with all its details, of what had happened
to her since she left Fresne. She told of her meeting with Wanda; of the
fatal evening which had resulted in her expulsion from the convent;
her disgust at the Sparks family; the snare prepared for her by Madame
Strahlberg. “And I can not tell you all,” she added, “I can not tell
you what drove me away from my true friends, and threw me among these
people--”
Giselle’s sad smile seemed to answer, “No need--I am aware of it--I know
my husband.” Encouraged by this, Jacqueline went on with her confession,
hiding nothing that was wrong, showing herself just as she had been, a
poor, proud child who had set out to battle for herself in a dangerous
world. At every step she had been more and more conscious of her own
imprudence, of her own weakness, and of an ever-increasing desire to
be done with independence; to submit to law, to be subject to any rules
which would deliver her from the necessity of obeying no will but her
own.
“Ah!” she cried, “I am so disgusted with independence, with amusement,
and amusing people! Tell me what to do in future--I am weary of taking
charge of myself. I said so the other day to the Abbe Bardin. He is the
only person I have seen since my return. It seems to me I am coming back
to my old ideas--you remember how I once wished to end my days in the
cell of a Carmelite? You might love me again then, perhaps, and Fred and
poor Madame d’Argy, who must feel so bitterly against me since her son
was wounded, might forgive me. No one feels bitterly against the dead,
and it is the same as being dead to be a Carmelite nun. You would all
speak of me sometimes to each other as one who had been very unhappy,
who had been guilty of great foolishness, but who had repaired her
faults as best she could.”
Poor Jacqueline! She was no longer a girl of the period; in her grief
and humiliation she belonged to the past. Old-fashioned forms of
penitence attracted her.
“And what did the Abbe Bardin tell you?” asked Giselle, with a slight
movement of her shoulders.
“He only told me that he could not say at present whether that were my
vocation.”
“Nor can I,” said Giselle.
Jacqueline lifted up her face, wet with tears, which she had been
leaning on the lap of Giselle.
“I do not see what else I can do, unless you would get me a place as
governess somewhere at the ends of the earth,” she said. “I could teach
children their letters. I should not mind doing anything. I never
should complain. Ah! if you lived all by yourself, Giselle, how I should
implore you to take me to teach little Enguerrand!”
“I think you might do better than that,” said Giselle, wiping her
friend’s eyes almost as a mother might have done, “if you would only
listen to Fred.”
Jacqueline’s cheeks became crimson.
“Don’t mock me--it is cruel--I am too unworthy--it would pain me to
see him. Shame--regret--you understand! But I can tell you one thing,
Giselle--only you. You may tell it to him when he is quite old, when he
has been long married, and when everything concerning me is a thing of
the past. I never had loved any one with all my heart up to the moment
when I read in that paper that he had fought for me, that his blood had
flowed for me, that after all that had passed he still thought me worthy
of being defended by him.”
Her tears flowed fast, and she added: “I shall be proud of that all the
rest of my life! If only you, too, would forgive me.”
The heart of Giselle was melted by these words.
“Forgive you, my dear little girl? Ah! you have been better than I. I
forgot our old friendship for a moment--I was harsh to you; and I have
so little right to blame you! But come! Providence may have arranged all
for the best, though one of us may have to suffer. Pray for that some
one. Good-by--‘au revoir!”
She kissed Jacqueline’s forehead and was gone, before her cousin had
seized the meaning of her last words. But joy and peace came back to
Jacqueline. She had recovered her best friend, and had convinced her of
her innocence.
CHAPTER XIX. GENTLE CONSPIRATORS
Before Giselle went home to her own house she called on the Abbe Bardin,
whom a rather surly servant was not disposed to disturb, as he was just
eating his breakfast. The Abbe Bardin was Jacqueline’s confessor, and he
held the same relation to a number of other young girls who were among
her particular friends. He was thoroughly acquainted with all that
concerned their delicate and generally childish little souls. He kept
them in the right way, had often a share in their marriages, and in
general kept an eye upon them all their lives. Even when they escaped
from him, as had happened in the case of Jacqueline, he did not give
them up. He commended them to God, and looked forward to the time of
their repentance with the patience of a father. The Abbe Bardin had
never been willing to exercise any function but that of catechist; he
had grown old in the humble rank of third assistant in a great parish,
when, with a little ambition, he might have been its rector. “Suffer
little children to come unto me,” had been his motto. These words of
his Divine Master seemed more often than any others on his lips-lips
so expressive of loving kindness, though sometimes a shrewd smile would
pass over them and seem to say: “I know, I can divine.” But when this
smile, the result of long experience, did not light up his features, the
good Abbe Bardin looked like an elderly child; he was short, his
walk was a trot, his face was round and ruddy, his eyes, which were
short-sighted, were large, wide-open, and blue, and his heavy crop of
white hair, which curled and crinkled above his forehead, made him look
like a sixty-year-old angel, crowned with a silvery aureole.
Rubbing his hands affably, he came into the little parlor where Madame
de Talbrun was waiting for him. There was probably no ecclesiastic in
all Paris who had a salon so full of worked cushions, each of which was
a keepsake--a souvenir of some first communion. The Abbe did not know
his visitor, but the name Talbrun seemed to him connected with an
honorable and well-meaning family. The lady was probably a mother who
had come to put her child into his hands for religious instruction. He
received visits from dozens of such mothers, some of whom were a little
tiresome, from a wish to teach him what he knew better than they, and
at one time he had set apart Wednesday as his day for receiving such
visits, that he might not be too greatly disturbed, as seemed likely to
happen to him that day. Not that he cared very much whether he ate his
cutlet hot or cold, but his housekeeper cared a great deal. A man may
be a very experienced director, and yet be subject to direction in other
ways.
The youth of Giselle took him by surprise.
“Monsieur l’Abbe,” she said, without any preamble, while he begged her
to sit down, “I have come to speak to you of a person in whom you take
an interest, Jacqueline de Nailles.”
He passed the back of his hand over his brow and said, with a sigh:
“Poor little thing!”
“She is even more to be pitied than you think. You have not seen her, I
believe, since last week.”
“Yes--she came. She has kept up, thank God, some of her religious
duties.”
“For all that, she has played a leading part in a recent scandal.”
The Abbe sprang up from his chair.
“A duel has taken place because of her, and her name is in all men’s
mouths--whispered, of course--but the quarrel took place at the Club.
You know what it is to be talked of at the Club.”
“The poison of asps,” growled the Abbe; “oh! those clubs--think of all
the evil reports concocted in them, of which women are the victims!”
“In the present case the evil report was pure calumny. It was taken up
by some one whom you also know--Frederic d’Argy.”
“I have had profound respect these many years for his excellent and
pious mother.”
“I thought so. In that case, Monsieur l’Abbe, you would not object to
going to Madame d’Argy’s house and asking how her son is.”
“No, of course not; but--it is my duty to disapprove--”
“You will tell her that when a young man has compromised a young girl by
defending her reputation in a manner too public, there is but one thing
he can do afterward-marry her.”
“Wait one moment,” said the Abbe, who was greatly surprised; “it is
certain that a good marriage would be the best thing for Jacqueline.
I have been thinking of it. But I do not think I could so suddenly--so
soon after--”
“Today at four o’clock, Monsieur l’Abbe. Time presses. You can add
that such a marriage is the only way to stop a second duel, which will
otherwise take place.”
“Is it possible?”
“And it is also the only way to bring Frederic to decide on sending in
his resignation. Don’t forget that--it is important.”
“But how do you know--”
The poor Abbe stammered out his words, and counted on his fingers the
arguments he was desired to make use of.
“And you will solemnly assure them that Jacqueline is innocent.”
“Oh! as to that, there are wolves in sheeps’ clothing, as the Bible
tells us; but believe me, when such poor young things are in question,
it is more often the sheep which has put on the appearance of a wolf--to
seem in the fashion,” added the Abbe, “just to seem in the fashion.
Fashion will authorize any kind of counterfeiting.”
“Well, you will say all that, will you not, to Madame d’Argy? It will be
very good of you if you will. She will make no difficulties about money.
All she wants is a quietly disposed daughter-in-law who will be willing
to pass nine months of the year at Lizerolles, and Jacqueline is quite
cured of her Paris fever.”
“A fever too often mortal,” murmured the Abbe; “oh, for the simplicity
of nature! A priest whose lot is cast in the country is fortunate,
Madame, but we can not choose our vocation. We may do good anywhere,
especially in cities. Are you sure, however, that Jacqueline--”
“She loves Monsieur d’Argy.”
“Well, if that is so, we are all right. The great misfortune with many
of these poor girls is that they have never learned to love anything;
they know nothing but agitations, excitements, curiosities, and fancies.
All that sort of thing runs through their heads.”
“You are speaking of a Jacqueline before the duel. I can assure you that
ever since yesterday, if not before, she has loved Monsieur d’Argy, who
on his part for a long time--a very long time--has been in love with
her.”
Giselle spoke eagerly, as if she forced herself to say the words that
cost her pain. Her cheeks were flushed under her veil. The Abbe, who was
keen-sighted, observed these signs.
“But,” continued Giselle, “if he is forced to forget her he may try
to expend elsewhere the affection he feels for her; he may trouble the
peace of others, while deceiving himself. He might make in the world
one of those attachments--Do not fail to represent all these dangers to
Madame d’Argy when you plead the cause of Jacqueline.”
“Humph! You are evidently much attached, Madame, to Mademoiselle de
Nailles.”
“Very much, indeed,” she answered, bravely, “very much attached to
her, and still more to him; therefore you understand that this marriage
must--absolutely must take place.”
She had risen and was folding her cloak round her, looking straight into
the Abbe’s eyes. Small as she was, their height was almost the same; she
wanted him to understand thoroughly why this marriage must take place.
He bowed. Up to that time he had not been quite sure that he had not
to do with one of those wolves dressed in fleece whose appearance is
as misleading as that of sheep disguised as wolves: now his opinion was
settled.
“Mon Dieu! Madame,” he said, “your reasons seem to me excellent--a duel
to be prevented, a son to be kept by the side of his sick mother, two
young people who love each other to be married, the saving, possibly, of
two souls--”
“Say three souls, Monsieur l’Abbe!”
He did not ask whose was the third, nor even why she had insisted that
this delicate commission must be executed that same day. He only bowed
when she said again: “At four o’clock: Madame d’Argy will be prepared
to see you. Thank you, Monsieur l’Abbe.” And then, as she descended the
staircase, he bestowed upon her silently his most earnest benediction,
before returning to the cold cutlet that was on his breakfast table.
Giselle did not breakfast much better than he. In truth, M. de Talbrun
being absent, she sat looking at her son, who was eating with a good
appetite, while she drank only a cup of tea; after which, she dressed
herself, with more than usual care, hiding by rice-powder the trace of
recent tears on her complexion, and arranging her fair hair in the way
that was most becoming to her, under a charming little bonnet covered
with gold net-work which corresponded with the embroidery on an entirely
new costume.
When she went into the dining-room Enguerrand, who was there with his
nurse finishing his dessert, cried out: “Oh! mamma, how pretty you are!”
which went to her heart. She kissed him two or three times--one kiss
after another.
“I try to be pretty for your sake, my darling.”
“Will you take me with you?”
“No, but I will come back for you, and take you out.”
She walked a few steps, and then turned to give him such a kiss as
astonished him, for he said:
“Is it really going to be long?”
“What?”
“Before you come back? You kiss me as if you were going for a long time,
far away.”
“I kissed you to give myself courage.”
Enguerrand, who, when he had a hard lesson to learn, always did the same
thing, appeared to understand her.
“You are going to do some thing you don’t like.”
“Yes, but I have to do it, because you see it is my duty.”
“Do grown people have duties?”
“Even more than children.”
“But it isn’t your duty to write a copy--your writing is so pretty. Oh!
that’s what I hate most. And you always say it is my duty to write my
copy. I’ll go and do it while you do your duty. So that will seem as if
we were both together doing something we don’t like--won’t it, mamma?”
She kissed him again, even more passionately.
“We shall be always together, we two, my love!”
This word love struck the little ear of Enguerrand as having a new
accent, a new meaning, and, boy-like, he tried to turn this excess of
tenderness to advantage.
“Since you love me so much, will you take me to see the puppet-show?”
“Anywhere you like--when I come back. Goodby.”
CHAPTER XX. A CHIVALROUS SOUL
Madame D’Argy sat knitting by the window in Fred’s chamber, with that
resigned but saddened air that mothers wear when they are occupied in
repairing the consequences of some rash folly. Fred had seen her in his
boyhood knitting in the same way with the same, look on her face, when
he had been thrown from his pony, or had fallen from his velocipede. He
himself looked ill at ease and worried, as he lay on a sofa with his arm
in a sling. He was yawning and counting the hours. From time to time his
mother glanced at him. Her look was curious, and anxious, and loving,
all at the same time. He pretended to be asleep. He did not like to see
her watching him. His handsome masculine face, tanned that pale brown
which tropical climates give to fair complexions, looked odd as it rose
above a light-blue cape, a very feminine garment which, as it had no
sleeves, had been tied round his neck to keep him from being cold. He
felt himself, with some impatience, at the mercy of the most tender,
but the most sharp-eyed of nurses, a prisoner to her devotion, and made
conscious of her power every moment. Her attentions worried him; he knew
that they all meant “It is your own fault, my poor boy, that you are in
this state, and that your mother is so unhappy.” He felt it. He knew as
well as if she had spoken that she was asking him to return to reason,
to marry, without more delay, their little neighbor in Normandy,
Mademoiselle d’Argeville, a niece of M. Martel, whom he persisted in not
thinking of as a wife, always calling her a “cider apple,” in allusion
to her red cheeks.
A servant came in, and said to Madame d’Argy that Madame de Talbrun was
in the salon.
“I am coming,” she said, rolling up her knitting.
But Fred suddenly woke up:
“Why not ask her to come here?”
“Very good,” said his mother, with hesitation. She was distracted
between her various anxieties; exasperated against the fatal influence
of Jacqueline, alarmed by the increasing intimacy with Giselle, desirous
that all such complications should be put an end to by his marriage,
but terribly afraid that her “cider apple” would not be sufficient to
accomplish it.
“Beg Madame de Talbrun to come in here,” she said, repeating the order
after her son; but she settled herself in her chair with an air more
patient, more resigned than ever, and her lips were firmly closed.
Giselle entered in her charming new gown, and Fred’s first words, like
those of Enguerrand, were: “How pretty you are! It is charity,” he
added, smiling, “to present such a spectacle to the eyes of a sick man;
it is enough to set him up again.”
“Isn’t it?” said Giselle, kissing Madame d’Argy on the forehead. The
poor mother had resumed her knitting with a sigh, hardly glancing at the
pretty walking-costume, nor at the bonnet with its network of gold.
“Isn’t it pretty?” repeated Giselle. “I am delighted with this costume.
It is made after one of Rejane’s. Oscar fell in love with it at a first
representation of a vaudeville, and he gave me over into the hands of
the same dressmaker, who indeed was named in the play. That kind of
advertising seems very effective.”
She went on chattering thus to put off what she had really come to say.
Her heart was beating so fast that its throbs could be seen under
the embroidered front of the bodice which fitted her so smoothly. She
wondered how Madame d’Argy would receive the suggestion she was about to
make.
She went on: “I dressed myself in my best to-day because I am so happy.”
Madame d’Argy’s long tortoise-shell knitting-needles stopped.
“I am glad to hear it, my dear,” she said, coldly, “I am glad anybody
can be happy. There are so many of us who are sad.”
“But why are you pleased?” asked Fred, looking at her, as if by some
instinct he understood that he had something to do with it.
“Our prodigal has returned,” answered Giselle, with a little air of
satisfaction, very artificial, however, for she could hardly breathe,
so great was her fear and her emotion. “My house is in the garb of
rejoicing.”
“The prodigal? Do you mean your husband?” said Madame d’Argy,
maliciously.
“Oh! I despair of him,” replied Giselle, lightly. “No, I speak of a
prodigal who did not go far, and who made haste to repent. I am speaking
of Jacqueline.”
There was complete silence. The knitting-needles ticked rapidly, a
slight flush rose on the dark cheeks of Fred.
“All I beg,” said Madame d’Argy, “is that you will not ask me to eat
the fatted calf in her honor. The comings and going of Mademoiselle de
Nailles have long ceased to have the slightest interest for me.”
“They have for Fred at any rate; he has just proved it, I should say,”
replied Giselle.
By this time the others were as much embarrassed as Giselle. She saw it,
and went on quickly:
“Their names are together in everybody’s mouth; you can not hinder it.”
“I regret it deeply-and allow me to make one remark: it seems to me
you show a want of tact such as I should never have imagined in telling
us--”
Giselle read in Fred’s eyes, which were steadily fixed on her, that he
was, on that point, of his mother’s opinion. She went on, however, still
pretending to blunder.
“Forgive me--but I have been so anxious about you ever since I heard
there was to be a second meeting--”
“A second meeting!” screamed Madame d’Argy, who, as she read no paper
but the Gazette de France, or occasionally the Debats, knew nothing of
all the rumors that find their echo in the daily papers.
“Oh, ‘mon Dieu’! I thought you knew--”
“You need not frighten my mother,” said Fred, almost angrily; “Monsieur
de Cymier has written a letter which puts an end to our quarrel. It is
the letter of a man of honor apologizing for having spoken lightly,
for having repeated false rumors without verifying them--in short,
retracting all that he had said that reflected in any way on
Mademoiselle de Nailles, and authorizing me, if I think best, to make
public his retraction. After that we can have nothing more to say to
each other.”
“He who makes himself the champion to defend a young girl’s character,”
said Madame d’Argy, sententiously, “injures her as much as those who
have spoken evil of her.”
“That is exactly what I think,” said Giselle. “The self-constituted
champion has given the evil rumor circulation.”
There was again a painful silence. Then the intrepid little woman
resumed: “This step on the part of Monsieur de Cymier seems to have
rendered my errand unnecessary. I had thought of a way to end this sad
affair; a very simple way, much better, most certainly, than men cutting
their own throats or those of other people. But since peace has been
made over the ruins of Jacqueline’s reputation, I had better say nothing
and go away.”
“No--no! Let us hear what you had to propose,” said Fred, getting up
from his couch so quickly that he jarred his bandaged arm, and uttered a
cry of pain, which seemed very much like an oath, too.
Giselle was silent. Standing before the hearth, she was warming her
small feet, watching, as she did so, Madame d’Argy’s profile, which was
reflected in the mirror. It was severe--impenetrable. It was Fred who
spoke first.
“In the first place,” he said, hesitating, “are you sure that
Mademoiselle de Nailles has not just arrived from Monaco?”
“I am certain that for a week she has been living quietly with
Modeste, and that, though she passed through Monaco, she did not stay
there--twenty-four hours, finding that the air of that place did not
agree with her.”
“But what do you say to what Monsieur Martel saw with his own eyes, and
which is confirmed by public rumor?” cried Madame d’Argy, as if she were
giving a challenge.
“Monsieur Martel saw Jacqueline in bad company. She was not there of
her own will. As to public rumor, we may feel sure that to make it as
flattering to her tomorrow as it is otherwise to-day only a marriage is
necessary. Yes, a marriage! That is the way I had thought of to settle
everything and make everybody happy.”
“What man would marry a girl who had compromised herself?” said Madame
d’Argy, indignantly.
“He who has done his part to compromise her.”
“Then go and propose it to Monsieur de Cymier!”
“No. It is not Monsieur de Cymier whom she loves.”
“Ah!” Madame d’Argy was on her feet at once. “Indeed, Giselle, you are
losing your senses. If I were not afraid of agitating Fred--”
He was, in truth, greatly agitated. The only hand that he could use was
pulling and tearing at the little blue cape crossed on his breast, in
which his mother had wrapped him; and this unsuitable garment formed
such a queer contrast to the expression of his face that Giselle, in her
nervous excitement, burst out laughing, an explosion of merriment which
completed the exasperation of Madame d’Argy.
“Never!” she cried, beside herself. “You hear me--never will I consent,
whatever happens!”
At that moment the door was partly opened, and a servant announced
“Monsieur l’Abbe Bardin.”
Madame d’Argy made a gesture which was anything but reverential.
“Well, to be sure--this is the right moment with a vengeance! What does
he want! Does he wish me to assist in some good work--or to undertake to
collect money, which I hate.”
“Above all, mother,” cried Fred, “don’t expose me to the fatigue of
receiving his visit. Go and see him yourself. Giselle will take care of
your patient while you are gone. Won’t you, Giselle?”
His voice was soft, and very affectionate. He evidently was not angry at
what she had dared to say, and she acknowledged this to herself with an
aching heart.
“I don’t exactly trust your kind of care,” said Madame d’Argy, with a
smile that was not gay, and certainly not amiable.
She went, however, because Fred repeated:
“But go and see the Abbe Bardin.”
Hardly had she left the room when Fred got up from his sofa and
approached Giselle with passionate eagerness.
“Are you sure I am not dreaming,” said he. “Is it you--really you who
advise me to marry Jacqueline?”
“Who else should it be?” she answered, very calm to all appearance.
“Who can know better than I? But first you must oblige me by lying down
again, or else I will not say one word more. That is right. Now keep
still. Your mother is furiously displeased with me--I am sorry--but
she will get over it. I know that in Jacqueline you would have a good
wife--a wife far better than the Jacqueline you would have married
formerly. She has paid dearly for her experience of life, and has
profited by its lessons, so that she is now worthy of you, and sincerely
repentant for her childish peccadilloes.”
“Giselle,” said Fred, “look me full in the face--yes, look into my eyes
frankly and hide nothing. Your eyes never told anything but the truth.
Why do you turn them away? Do you really and truly wish this marriage?”
She looked at him steadily as long as he would, and let him hold her
hand, which was burning inside her glove, and which with a great effort
she prevented from trembling. Then her nerves gave way under his long
and silent gaze, which seemed to question her, and she laughed, a laugh
that sounded to herself very unnatural.
“My poor, dear friend,” she cried, “how easily you men are duped! You
are trying to find out, to discover whether, in case you decide upon
an honest act, a perfectly sensible act, to which you are strongly
inclined--don’t tell me you are not--whether, in short, you marry
Jacqueline, I shall be really as glad of it as I pretend. But have you
not found out what I have aimed at all along? Do you think I did not
know from the very first what it was that made you seek me?
“I was not the rope, but I had lived near the rose; I reminded you of
her continually. We two loved her; each of us felt we did. Even when you
said harm of her, I knew it was merely because you longed to utter her
name, and repeat to yourself her perfections. I laughed, yes, I laughed
to myself, and I was careful how I contradicted you. I tried to keep you
safe for her, to prevent your going elsewhere and forming attachments
which might have resulted in your forgetting her. I did my best--do me
justice--I did my best; perhaps sometimes I pushed things a little far
in her interest, in that of your mother, but in yours more than all; in
yours, for God knows I am all for you,” said Giselle, with sudden and
involuntary fervor.
“Yes, I am all yours as a friend, a faithful friend,” she resumed,
almost frightened by the tones of her own voice; “but as to the
slightest feeling of love between us, love the most spiritual, the
most platonic--yes, all men, I fancy, have a little of that kind of
self-conceit. Dear Fred, don’t imagine it--Enguerrand would never have
allowed it.”
She was smiling, half laughing, and he looked at her with astonishment,
asking himself whether he could believe what she was saying, when he
could recollect what seemed to him so many proofs to the contrary. Yet
in what she said there was no hesitation, no incoherence, no false note.
Pride, noble pride, upheld her to the end. The first falsehood of her
life was a masterpiece.
“Ah, Giselle!” he said at last, not knowing what to think, “I adore you!
I revere you!”
“Yes,” she replied, with a smile, gracious, yet with a touch of sadness,
“I know you do. But her you love!”
Might it not have been sweet to her had he answered “No, I loved her
once, and remembered that old love enough to risk my life for her, but
in reality I now love only you--all the more at this moment when I see
you love me more than yourself.” But, instead, he murmured only, like
a man and a lover: “And Jacqueline--do you think she loves me?” His
anxiety, a thrill that ran through all his frame, the light in his eyes,
his sudden pallor, told more than his words.
If Giselle could have doubted his love for Jacqueline before, she would
have now been convinced of it. The conviction stabbed her to the heart.
Death is not that last sleep in which all our faculties, weakened
and exhausted, fail us; it is the blow which annihilates our supreme
illusion and leaves us disabused in a cold and empty world. People walk,
talk, and smile after this death--another ghost is added to the drama
played on the stage of the world; but the real self is dead.
Giselle was too much of a woman, angelic as she was, to have any courage
left to say: “Yes, I know she loves you.”
She said instead, in a low voice: “That is a question you must ask of
her.”
Meantime, in the next room they could hear Madame d’Argy vehemently
repeating: “Never! No, I never will consent! Is it a plot between you?”
They heard also a rumbling monotone preceding each of these vehement
interruptions. The Abbe Bardin was pointing out to her that, unmarried,
her son would return to Tonquin, that Lizerolles would be left deserted,
her house would be desolate without daughter-in-law or grandchildren;
and, as he drew these pictures, he came back, again and again, to his
main argument:
“I will answer for their happiness: I will answer for the future.”
His authority as a priest gave weight to this assurance, at least
Madame d’Argy felt it so. She went on saying never, but less and less
emphatically, and apparently she ceased to say it at last, for three
months later the d’Etaples, the Rays, the d’Avrignys and the rest,
received two wedding announcements in these words:
“Madame d’Argy has the honor to inform you of the marriage of her son,
M. Frederic d’Argy, Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, to Mademoiselle de
Nailles.”
The accompanying card ran thus:
“The Baroness de Nailles has the honor to inform you of the
marriage of Mademoiselle Jacqueline de Nailles, her
stepdaughter, to M. Frederic d’Argy.”
Congratulations showered down on both mother and stepmother. A
love-match is nowadays so rare! It turned out that every one had always
wished all kinds of good fortune to young Madame d’Argy, and every
one seemed to take a sincere part in the joy that was expressed on the
occasion, even Dolly, who, it was said, had in secret set her heart
on Fred for herself; even Nora Sparks, who, not having carried out
her plans, had gone back to New York, whence she sent a superb wedding
present. Madame de Nailles apparently experienced at the wedding all the
emotions of a real mother.
The roses at Lizerolles bloomed that year with unusual beauty, as if
to welcome the young pair. Modeste sang ‘Nunc Dimittis’. The least
demonstrative of all those interested in the event was Giselle.
ETEXT EDITOR’S BOOKMARKS:
A familiarity which, had he known it, was not flattering
A mother’s geese are always swans
As we grow older we lay aside harsh judgments and sharp words
Bathers, who exhibited themselves in all degrees of ugliness
Blow which annihilates our supreme illusion
Death is not that last sleep
Fool (there is no cure for that infirmity)
Fred’s verses were not good, but they were full of dejection
Great interval between a dream and its execution
Hang out the bush, but keep no tavern
His sleeplessness was not the insomnia of genius
Importance in this world are as easily swept away as the sand
Music--so often dangerous to married happiness
Natural longing, that we all have, to know the worst
Notion of her husband’s having an opinion of his own
Old women--at least thirty years old!
Pride supplies some sufferers with necessary courage
Seemed to enjoy themselves, or made believe they did
Seldom troubled himself to please any one he did not care for
Small women ought not to grow stout
Sympathetic listening, never having herself anything to say
The bandage love ties over the eyes of men
The worst husband is always better than none
This unending warfare we call love
Unwilling to leave him to the repose he needed
Waste all that upon a thing that nobody will ever look at
Women who are thirty-five should never weep
End of Project Gutenberg’s Jacqueline, Complete, by Th. Bentzon (Mme. Blanc)