They passed the summer at Germigny-l’Evec in the lodge on the terrace
above the winding Marne. The little house at Houlgate kept its shutters
up all through the hot months. It is true that the health of Madame
Gigon was none too good. It is true too that she might have benefited by
the sea air. Although Lily mentioned the migration once or twice as the
summer advanced she did not insist upon it. Madame Gigon, it appeared,
preferred the house where she had always passed her summers, and Lily
was content to remain there as the weeks passed through June and into a
hot and breathless July. It seemed that, for the first time, she was
tired. Indolent by nature, she had reserves of energy which could be
roused when the occasion arose. But it appeared that this occasion was
not one of sufficient importance; so she remained quietly, reading,
walking by the Marne; sometimes in the early morning when the weather
was not too hot, she even rode one of the Baron’s horses along the paths
of the wood on the opposite side of the river near Trilport.
For diversion the pair were visited by Jean who came romping down from
St. Cyr for a brief holiday now and then, always looking handsome and
behaving with the ferocity appropriate to a budding cavalryman. Ellen
came too, but her visits tired her cousin, especially during the hot
months. While she was there Lily pretended that she did not ride because
Ellen made riding impossible for her. Ellen insisted upon riding at top
speed. She searched for stone walls to jump. She even swam her horse
through the Marne on one hot morning in July. Unlike Lily she made no
effort to preserve her complexion. She became as tanned as an Indian and
as hard as an athlete. Jean admired her enormously, and together they
careered wildly across country; for Ellen sat her saddle lightly and as
well as any man. Indeed she was as good as a boy for a companion. She
even enjoyed the risqué barracks jokes which Jean told her. She listened
to the ballads he sang, the bawdy ballads of the cavalry, old songs
filled with the traditions of Napoleon’s army ... the same ballads which
Lily sang to herself as she dressed for the last ball ever given at
Cypress Hill.
Ellen could swear too, in English or in bad French. They became great
friends. Lily saw them off in the mornings from her window, looking
after them with an expression of mingled envy and regret in her dusky
blue eyes. She must have envied the pair their youth. She was jealous of
Ellen as she was always jealous of any one for whom Jean showed
affection.
But an end came to the early morning excursions when Ellen in August
sailed for New York to spend a month with her mother and father. They
lived in a little house on Long Island; for Hattie Tolliver, since her
children had become successful, no longer kept a rooming house in
Manhattan.
“Pa is content now,” Ellen said. “He’s got a horse and a garden and
chickens. That’s what he always wanted. Ma is too. But it’s different
with her. She ought to have another complete family of children. She’s
never gotten over being a mother. She wants us to stay with her always.
She can’t bear having us grown up.”
It was true. The more successful her children became, the less Hattie
Tolliver saw of them.
“It is a warning,” said Ellen, “never to be too fond of your children.”
She laughed ironically. “And yet, if it hadn’t been for Ma, I don’t
suppose I’d be where I am ... or Fergus or Robert either. She brought us
up well. She made us ambitious.” And she concluded the speech with the
remark that “it was a damned funny world anyway.” She had never seen any
one who was content.
There had been a time, even a little while before, when she might have
said that Lily was the supreme example of contentment, but that time
seemed to have passed. Lily was clearly unhappy during that summer. She
became more grave and quiet. She was content only when the Baron came
down to stay for a week or two and rode with her through the mists of
the early summer mornings. When he had gone again, the vague
restlessness returned.
Madame Gigon grew to be more and more of a care; and added to the
calamities, Criquette on short notice gave birth to a family of puppies
of which it appeared the black and tan at the farm was the father.
Somehow Madame Gigon took this as a betrayal on the part of the hitherto
virginal Criquette. She complained of it as if Criquette had been her
own daughter, as indeed she might well have been for the affection and
care lavished upon her by the blind old woman. She succumbed completely
to her arthritis and lay most of the day in a chair under the clipped
linden trees, wearing an injured, fretful air when Lily was not by her
side to talk or read to her. Indeed it appeared that between the riotous
visits of Jean and Nellie a grayness had descended upon the lodge.