THE SLEEP OF MADEMOISELLE MOINEAU
"We must make the best of it," said Madame de Sainfoy. "To be practical
is the great thing. I know you agree with me."
She had a dazzling smile, utterly without sweetness. Madame de la
Marinière said it was like the flashing of sunbeams on ice; but it had a
much more warming and inspiring effect on Urbain.
"It is one of the few consolations in life," he said, "to meet with
supreme good sense like yours."
They were standing together in one of the deep windows of the Château de
Lancilly; a window which looked out to the garden front towards the
valley and La Marinière. A deep dry moat surrounded the great house on
all sides; here, as on the other front, where there were wings and a
courtyard, it was approached by a stiff avenue, a terrace, and a bridge.
But this ancient and gloomy state of things could not be allowed to
continue. An army of peasants was hard at work filling up the moat,
laying out winding paths in the park, making preparations for the
"English garden" of a thousand meaningless twists leading to nowhere,
which was the Empire's idea of beauty. Monsieur and Madame de Sainfoy
would have no rest till their stately old château was framed in this
kind of landscape gardening, utterly out of character with it. It was
only Monsieur Urbain's experience which had saved trees from being cut
down in full leaf, to let in points of view, and had delayed the
planting in hot September weather of a whole forest of shrubs on the
sloping bank, where the moat had once been.
The interior of the house, too, was undergoing a great reformation.
Madame de Sainfoy had sent down a quantity of modern furniture from
Paris, the arrangement of which had caused the worthy Urbain a good deal
of perplexity. He had prided himself on preserving many ancient
splendours of Louis XIV, XV, XVI, not from any love for these relics of
a former society, but because good taste and sentiment alike showed him
how entirely they belonged to these old rooms and halls, where the
ponderous, carved chimney-pieces rose from floor to painted ceiling,
blazoned with arms which not even the Revolution had cut away. But
Madame de Sainfoy's idea was to sweep everything off: the tapestries,
which she considered grotesque and hideous, from the walls; the rows of
solemn old chairs and sofas, the large screens and heavy oak tables, the
iron dogs from the fireplace, on which so many winter logs had flamed
and died down into a heap of grey ashes. All must go, and the old
saloon must be made into a modern drawing-room of the Empire.
Madame de la Marinière, being old-fashioned and prejudiced, resented
these changes, which seemed to her both monstrous and ungrateful. She
was angry with her husband for the angelic patience with which he bore
them, throwing himself with undimmed enthusiasm into the carrying out of
every wish, every new-fangled fancy, that Hervé and Adélaïde de Sainfoy
had brought from Paris with them. If he was disappointed at the bundling
off into garret and cellar of so much of Lancilly's old and hardly-kept
glory, he only showed it by a shrug and a smile.
"If one does not know, one must be content to learn," he said. "A modern
fish wants a modern shell, my dear Anne. I may have been foolish to
forget it. The atmosphere that you enjoy gives Adélaïde the blues. Come,
I will quote Scripture. 'New wine must be put into new bottles.'"
"Then, on the whole, it was a pity Lancilly was not burnt down," said
his wife.
"Ah, Lancilly! Lancilly will see a few more fashions yet," he said.
And now he stood, quite happy and serene, in the cold sunshine of
Adélaïde's smile, and together they watched the earthworks rising
outside, and he agreed with her as to the necessity of being modern in
everything, of marching with one's time, regretting nothing, using the
present and making the best of it. She was utterly materialist and
baldly practical. Her manners were frank and simple, she had suffered,
she had studied the world and knew it, and used it without a scruple for
her own advantage. The time and the court of Napoleon knew such women
well: they had the fearless dignity of high rank, holding their own, in
spite of all the Emperor's vulgarity; and the losses and struggles of
their lives had given them a hard eye for the main chance, scarcely to
be matched by any _bourgeois_ shopkeeper. And with all this they had a
real admiration for military glory. Success, in fact, was their God and
their King.
Far down below in the park, within sight of the windows, Monsieur de
Sainfoy was strolling about, watching the workmen, and talking to them
with the pleasant grace which always made him popular. With him was
young Angelot, who had walked across with his father on that and several
other mornings. It seemed as if Uncle Joseph and Les Chouettes had lost
a little of their attraction, since Lancilly was inhabited. Angelot
brought his gun, and Cousin Hervé, when he had time and energy, took
his, and they had an hour or two's sport round about the woods and
marshes and meadows of Lancilly. Once or twice Monsieur de Sainfoy
brought the young man in to breakfast; his father was often there, in
attendance on the Comtesse and her alterations. She took very little
notice of Angelot, beyond a smile when he kissed her hand. He was of no
particular use, and did not interest her; she was not fond of his
mother, and thought him like her; it was not worth while to be kind to
him for the sake of his father, whose devotion did not depend, she knew,
on any such attentions.
Angelot was rather awed by her coldness, though he said nothing about
it, even to his mother. And after all, he did not go to Lancilly to be
entertained by Madame de Sainfoy. He went for the sake of a look, a
possible word, or even a distant sight of the girl whose lovely face and
sad eyes troubled him sleeping and waking, whose presence drew him with
strong cords across the valley and made the smallest excuse a good
reason for following his father to Lancilly. But he never spoke to
Hélène, except formally and in public, till that day when he lingered
about with his cousin in the park, watching the men as they dug the
paths for the English garden, while Madame de Sainfoy and Monsieur
Urbain talked good sense high up in the window.
Presently two figures approached the new garden, crossing the park from
the old avenue, and Monsieur de Sainfoy went to meet them with an air of
cordial welcome.
"Who are those people?" said the Comtesse, putting up her eyeglass.
"It is my brother Joseph and his little daughter," Urbain answered. "He
has his gun, I see, as usual. I suppose he was shooting in this
direction."
"Does he take the child out shooting with him? He is certainly very
eccentric."
Urbain shrugged his shoulders. "Poor dear Joseph! A little, perhaps.
Yes, he is unlike other people. To tell you the truth, I am only too
glad when his odd fancies spend themselves on the management of
Henriette."
"Or mis-management! He will ruin the child. He brought her here the
other day, and she appeared to me quite savage."
"Really, madame! Poor Henriette! She is a sociable child and clever,
too. My wife and Angelot are very fond of her. I think she must have
been shy in your presence."
"Oh, not at all. She talked to Hervé like a grown-up woman. I was
amused. When I say 'savage,' I mean that she had evidently been in no
society, and had not the faintest idea how a young person of her age is
expected to behave. She was far more at her ease than Hélène, for
instance."
"Ah, dear madame! there is something pleasing, is there not, in such a
frank trust in human nature! The child is very like her father."
"Those manners may be pretty in a child of six," said Madame de Sainfoy,
"but they are quite out of place in a girl of her age--how old is she?"
"I don't exactly know. Twelve or thirteen, I think."
"Then there is still some hope for her. She may be polished into shape.
I shall suggest to your brother that she come here every day to take
lessons with Sophie and Lucie. I dare say she is very ignorant."
"I am afraid she is. What a charming idea! How like your kindness! My
brother will certainly accept your offer with enthusiasm. I shall insist
upon it."
"He will, if he is a wise man," said Madame de Sainfoy. They both
laughed: evidently the wisdom of Monsieur Joseph was not proverbial in
the family. "Mademoiselle Moineau is an excellent governess, though she
is growing old," she went on. "I have known her make civilised women out
of the most unpromising material. I shall tell your brother that I
consider it settled. It will be good for Sophie and Lucie, too, to have
the stimulus of a companion."
"You are not afraid that--You know my brother's very strong opinions?"
"Do you think a child of twelve is likely to make converts?" she said,
with an amused smile. "No, cousin. The influence will be the other way,
but your brother will not be foolish enough, I hope, to consider that a
danger."
Urbain shook his head gently: he would answer for nothing. He murmured,
"A charming plan! The best thing that could happen to the child."
"A pity, too," said Madame de Sainfoy, looking out of the window, "that
she should grow up without any young companions but your son. Where are
they going now?"
"I don't know," said Urbain.
For a moment they watched silently, while Angelot and Henriette left the
others in the garden, and walked away together, turning towards the
château, and then disappearing behind a clump of trees.
"I know," said the Comtesse. "I told Hervé something of this plan of
mine, and he approved highly: he has an old family affection for your
brother. He is sending the young people to find Sophie and Lucie; they
are out walking in the wood with Mademoiselle--Hélène is reading Italian
in her own room."
She seemed to add this as an after-thought, and the faintest smile
curled Monsieur Urbain's lips as he heard her. "No danger, dear
Comtesse," he felt inclined to say. "My boy's heart is in the woods and
fields--and he is discreet, too. You might even trust him for five
minutes with that beautiful, silent girl of yours."
Had Madame de Sainfoy made some miscalculation as to her daughter's
hours of study? or was it Hélène's own mistake? or had the sunshine and
the waving woods, the barking of dogs, the chattering of workmen, all
the flood of new life outside old Lancilly, made it impossible to sit
reading in a chilly, thick-walled room and tempted the girl irresistibly
to break her mother's strict rules. However it may have happened--when
Angelot and Riette, laughing and talking, entered the wood beyond the
château, not only square Sophie and tall Lucie and their fat little
governess, but Mademoiselle Hélène herself, were found wandering along
the soft path, through the glimmering maze of green flicked with gold.
Sophie and Lucie were good-natured girls, enchanted to see the new
little cousin. They admired her dark eyes, the delicate smallness of her
frame, a contrast with their own more solid fairness. In their family,
Hélène had taken all the beauty; there was not much left for them, but
they were honest girls and knew how to admire. Riette on her side,
untroubled with any shyness or self-consciousness, quite innocent of the
facts that her dress was old-fashioned and her education more than
defective, was delighted to improve her acquaintance with the new
cousins. She could tell them a thousand things they did not know. To
begin with, Lancilly itself, the woods, the walled gardens and courts,
even the staircases and galleries of the house--all was more familiar to
her than to them. She and Angelot had found Lancilly a splendid
playground, ever since she was old enough to walk so far; they had spent
many happy hours there in digging out rabbits, catching rats,
birds-nesting, playing _cache-cache_, and other charming employments.
She enlarged on these in the astonished ears of Sophie and Lucie,
walking between them with linked arms, pulling them on with a dancing
step, while they listened, fascinated, to the gay little spirit who led
them where she pleased. It did not seem so certain, to look at the three
young girls, that Madame de Sainfoy was right as to influence. But no
political talk, no party secrets, escaped from the loyal lips of Riette.
A word of warning from Angelot--a word which her father would not have
dreamed of saying--had closed her mouth on subjects such as these. She
could be friendly with her cousins, yet true to her father's friends.
"Let us go to the great garden," she said. "Have you seen the sundial,
and the fish-ponds? You don't know the way? Ah, my dear children, but
what discoveries you are going to make!"
"Sophie--Lucie--where are you going? Come back, come back!" cried
Mademoiselle Moineau, who was pacing slowly behind with Angelot and
Hélène.
But Sophie and Lucie could not stop if they wished it; an impetuous
little whirlwind was carrying them along.
"To the garden--to the garden!" they called out as they fled.
Mademoiselle Moineau was distracted. She was fat, she was no longer
young; she could not race after the rebellious children; and even if she
could, it was impossible to leave Hélène and Angelot alone in the wood.
"Where are they going?" she said helplessly to the young man.
He explained amiably that they were perfectly safe with his little
cousin, who knew every corner of the place, and while Mademoiselle
Moineau groaned, and begged that he would show her the way to the
garden, he ventured a look and smile at Hélène. A sudden brightness came
into her face, and she laughed softly. "Henriette might be your little
sister," she said. "You are all alike, I think--at least monsieur your
uncle, and madame your mother, and Henriette, and you--"
"Yes--I've often thought Uncle Joseph ought to be my mother's brother,
not my father's," said Angelot.
He dared not trust himself to look very hard at Hélène. He kept his
lightness of tone and manner, the friendly ease which was natural to
him, though his pulses were beating hard from her nearness, and though
her gentle air of intimacy gave him almost a pang of passionate joy. How
sweet she was, how simple, when for a moment she forgot the mysterious
sadness which seemed sometimes to veil her whole nature! Angelot knew
that she liked and trusted him, the strange young country cousin who
looked younger than he was. She thought him a friendly boy, perhaps. Her
eyes, when she looked at him, seemed to smile divinely; they were no
longer doubtful and questioning, as at first. He longed to kneel down on
the pine-needles and kiss the hem of her gown; he longed, he, the
careless sportsman, the philosopher's son, to lay his life at her feet,
to do what she pleased with. But Mademoiselle Moineau was there.
They walked on in the vast old precincts of Lancilly, following the
children. It was all deep shade, with occasional patches of sunshine;
great forest trees, wide-spreading, stretched their arms across sandy
tracks, once roads, that wandered away at the back of the château:
through the leaves they could see mountains of grey moss-stained roof
and the peaked top of the old _colombier_. All the yards and buildings
were now between them and the house itself. Along by a crumbling wall,
once white, and roofed with tiles, they came to the broken-down gate of
the garden. It was not much better than a wilderness; yet there were
loaded fruit-trees, peaches, plums, figs, vines weighed down with masses
of small sweet grapes, against the ancient trellis of the wall.
Everywhere a forest of weeds; the once regular paths covered with burnt
grass and stones and rubbish; the fountain choked and dry.
Mademoiselle Moineau groaned many times as she hobbled along; the
walking was rough, the way seemed endless, and the garden, when they
reached it, a sun-baked desert. Angelot guided them to the very middle,
where the old sundial was, and while he showed it to Hélène, the little
governess sat down on a stone bench that encircled a large mulberry
tree, the only shady place in the garden. They could hear the children's
voices not far off. Hélène sat down near Mademoiselle Moineau. Angelot
went away and came back with a leaf filled with fruit, to which Hélène
helped herself with a smile. As he was going to hand it to Mademoiselle
Moineau, she put out a hand to stop him.
"She is asleep," she whispered.
It was true. The warmth, the fatigue, the sudden rest and silence, had
been too much for the little lady, who was growing old. Her eyes were
shut, her hands were folded, her chin had sunk upon her chest; and even
as Angelot stared in unbelieving joy, a distinct snore set Hélène
suddenly laughing.
"I must wake her," she said softly. "We must go, we must find the
children."
"Oh no, no!" he murmured. "Let the poor thing rest--see how tired she
is! The children are safe--you can hear them. Do not be so cruel to
her--and to me."
"_I_ cruel?" said Hélène; and she added half to herself--"No--other
people are cruel--not I."
Angelot did not understand her. She looked up at him rather dreamily, as
he stood before her. Perhaps the gulf of impossibility between them kept
her, brought up and strictly sheltered as she had been, from realising
the meaning of the young man's face. It was very grave; Angelot had
never before felt so utterly in earnest. His eyes were no longer sleepy,
for all the strength of his nature, the new passion that possessed him,
was shining in them. It was a beautiful, daring face, so attractive that
Hélène gazed for a speechless moment or two before she understood that
the beauty and life and daring were all for her. Then the pale girl
flushed a little and dropped her eyes. She had had compliments enough in
Paris, had been told of her loveliness, but never with silent speech
such as this. This conquest, though only of a young cousin, had
something different, something new. Hélène, hopeless and tired at
nineteen, confessed to herself that this Angelot was adorable. With a
sort of desperation she gave herself up to the moment's enjoyment, and
said no more about waking Mademoiselle Moineau, who snored on
peacefully, or about finding the children. She allowed Angelot to sit
down on her other side, and listened to him with a sweet surprise as he
murmured in her ear--"Who is cruel, then, tell me! No, you are not, you
are an angel--but who are you thinking of?"
"No one in particular, I suppose," the girl answered. "Life itself is
cruel--cruel and sad. You do not find it so?"
"Life seems to me the most glorious happiness--at this moment,
certainly."
"Ah, you must not say those things. Let us wake Mademoiselle Moineau."
"No," Angelot said. "Not till you have told me why you find life sad."
"Because I do not see anything bright in it. Books tell one that youth
is so happy, so gay--and as for me, ever since I was a child, I have had
nothing but weariness. All that travelling about, that banishment from
one's own country--ill tempers, discontent, narrow ways, hard
lessons--straps and backboards because I was not strong--loneliness, not
a friend of my own age--and then this horrible Paris--and things that
might have happened there, if my father had not saved me--" She stopped,
with a little catch in her breath, and Angelot understood, remembering
the Prefect's talk at Les Chouettes, a few days before.
This was the girl they talked of sacrificing in a political marriage.
"But now that you are here--now that you have come home, you will be
happy?" he said, and his voice shook a little.
"Perhaps--I hope so. Oh, you must not take me too much in earnest,"
Hélène said, and there was an almost imploring look in her eyes. She
added quickly--"I hope I shall often see madame your mother. What a
beautiful face she has--and I am sure she is good and happy."
This was a fine subject for Angelot. He talked of his mother, her
religion, her charity, her heroism, while Hélène listened and asked
childish questions about the life at La Marinière, to which her evening
visit had attracted her strangely. And the minutes flew on, and these
two cousins forgot the outside world and all its considerations in each
other's eyes, and the shadows lengthened, till at last the children's
voices began to come nearer. Mademoiselle Moineau snored on, it is true,
but the enchanting time was coming to an end.
"Remember," Angelot said, "nothing sad or cruel can happen to you any
more. You are in your own country; your own people will take care of you
and love you--we are relations, remember--my father and mother and my
uncle and Riette--and I, Hélène!"
He ended in the lowest whisper, and suddenly his slight brown hands
closed on hers, and his dark face bent over her.
"Never--never be sad again! I adore you--my sweet, my beautiful--"
Very softly their lips met. Hélène, entirely carried out of herself, let
him hold her for a moment in his arms, then started up with flaming
cheeks in consternation, and began to hurry towards the gate.
At the same moment the three young girls came down the path towards the
sun-dial, and Mademoiselle Moineau, waking with a violent start, got up
and hobbled stiffly forward into the sunshine.
"Where are you, my children?" she cried. "Sophie, Lucie, it is quite
time to go back to your lessons--see, your sister is gone already. Say
good-by to your cousins, my dears--"
[Illustration: SUDDENLY HIS SLIGHT BROWN HANDS CLOSED ON HERS.]
"We may all go back to the château together, madame, may we not?"
said Angelot with dancing eyes, and he hurried the children on, all
chattering of the wonderful corners and treasures that Henriette had
shown them.
But Mademoiselle Hélène flew before like the wind, and was not to be
overtaken.
In the meanwhile, Madame de Sainfoy consulted Cousin Urbain about her
new silk hangings for the large drawing-room, and also as to a list of
names for a dinner, at which the chief guests were to be the Baron de
Mauves, the Prefect of the Department, and Monsieur le Général Ratoneau,
commanding the troops in that western district.
"And I suppose it is necessary to invite all these excellent cousins?"
Madame de Sainfoy asked her husband that evening, when the cousins were
gone.
"Entirely necessary, my dear Adélaïde!"