RETURN OF TWO FUGITIVES
"Aline, dear child!"
"Yes, dear aunt."
"I do not think I will leave Marthe to-day, the pain is so bad; but I do
not like to disappoint old Mere Leroux. No one's hens are laying but
mine, and I promised her an egg for her fete day. She is old, and old
people are like children, and very little pleases or makes them
unhappy."
Aline folded her work.
"Do you mean you would like me to go? But of course, dear aunt."
"If you will, my child. Take your warm cloak, and be back before
sundown; and--Aline----"
"Yes," said Aline at the door.
"If you see Mathieu Leroux, stop and bid him 'Good-day.' Just say a
word or two."
"I do not like Mathieu Leroux," observed Aline, with the old lift of the
head.
Mlle Ange flushed a little.
"He has a good heart, I 'm sure he has a good heart, but he is
suspicious by nature. Lately Madelon has let fall a hint or two. It
does not do, my child, to let people think one is proud, or--or--in any
way different."
Aline's eyes were a little startled.
"What, what do you mean?" she asked.
"Child, need you ask me that?"
"Oh!" she said quickly. "What did Madelon say?"
"Very little. You know she is afraid of her father, and so is Jean
Jacques. It was to Marthe she spoke, and Marthe says Mathieu Leroux is
a dangerous man; but then you know Marthe's way. Only, if I were you, I
should bid him 'Good-day,' and say a friendly word or two as you pass."
As Aline walked down to the village at a pace suited to the sharpness of
the February day, Mlle Ange's words kept ringing in her head. Had Mlle
Marthe warned her far more emphatically, it would have made a slighter
impression; but when Ange, who saw good in all, was aware of impending
trouble, it seemed to Aline that the prospect was threatening indeed.
All at once the pleasant monotony of her life at Rancy appeared to be at
an end, and she looked into a cloudy and uncertain future, full of the
perils from which she had had so short a respite.
When she came to the inn door and found it filled by the stout form of
Mathieu Leroux she did her best to smile in neighbourly fashion; but her
eyes sank before his, and her voice sounded forced as she murmured,
"Bonjour, Citizen."
Leroux' black eyes looked over his heavy red cheeks at her. They were
full of a desire to discover something discreditable about this stranger
who had dropped into their little village, and who, though a patriot's
wife, displayed none of the signs by which he, Leroux, estimated
patriotism.
"Bonjour," he returned, without removing his pipe.
Aline struggled with her annoyance.
"How is your mother to-day?" she inquired. "My aunt has sent her a
new-laid egg. May I go in?"
"Eh, she 's well enough," he grumbled. "There is too much fuss made
over her. She 'll live this twenty years, and never do another stroke
of work. That's my luck. A strong, economical, handy wife must needs
die, whilst an old woman, who, you 'd think, would be glad enough to
rest in her grave, hangs on and on. Oh, yes, go in, go in; she 'll be
glad enough to have some one to complain to."
Aline slipped past him, frightened. He had evidently been drinking, and
she knew from Madelon that he was liable to sudden outbursts of passion
when this was the case.
In a small back room she found old Mere Leroux crouched by the fire,
groaning a little as she rocked herself to and fro. When she saw that
Aline was alone, she gave a little cry of disappointment.
"And Mlle Ange?" she cried in her cracked old voice.
"My aunt Marthe is bad to-day; she could not leave her," explained
Aline.
"Oh, poor Ma'mselle Marthe--and I remember her straight and strong and
handsome; not a beauty like Ma'mselle Ange, but well enough, well
enough. Then she falls down a bank with a great stone on top of her,
and there she is, no better than an old woman like me, who has had her
life, and whom no one cares for any more."
"Oh, Mere Leroux, you should n't say that!"
"It's true, my dear, true enough. Mathieu is a bad son, a bad son.
Some day he 'll turn me out, and I shall go to Madelon. She 's a good
girl, Madelon; but when a girl has got a husband, what does she care for
an old grandmother? Now Charles was a good son. Yes, if Charles had
lived--but then it is always the best who go."
"You had another son, then?" said Aline, bringing a wooden stool to the
old woman's side.
"Yes, my son Charles. Ah, a fine lad that, and handsome. He was M.
Rene's body servant, and you should have seen him in his livery--a fine,
straight man, handsomer than M. Rene. Ah, well, he fretted after his
master, and then he took a fever and died of it, and Mathieu has never
been a good son to me."
"M. Rene died?" asked Aline quickly, for the old woman had begun to cry.
Mere Leroux dried her eyes.
"Ah, yes; there 's no one who knows more about that than I. He was in
Paris, and as he came out of M. le duc de Noailles's Hotel, he met M. de
Breze, and M. de Breze said to him, 'Well, Rene, we have been hearing of
you,' and M. Rene said, 'How so?' 'Why,' says M. de Breze (my son
Charles was with M. Rene, and he heard it all), 'Why,' says M. de Breze,
'I hear you have found a guardian angel of quite surpassing beauty. May
I not be presented to her?' Then, Charles said, M. Rene looked straight
at him and answered, 'When I bring Mme Rene de Montenay to Paris, I will
present you.' M. de Breze shrugged his shoulders, and slapped M. Rene
on the arm. 'Oho,' said he, 'you are very sly, my friend. I was not
talking of your marriage, but of your mistress.'
"Then M. Rene put his hand on his sword, and said, still very quietly,
'You have been misinformed; it is a question of my marriage.' Charles
said that M. de Breze was flushed with wine, or he would not have
laughed as he did then. Well, well, well, it's a great many years ago,
but it was a pity, a sad pity. M. de Breze was the better swordsman,
and he ran M. Rene through the body."
"And he died?" said Aline.
"Not then; no, not then. It would have been better like that--yes, much
better."
"Oh, what happened?"
"Charles heard it all. The surgeon attended to the wound, and said that
with care it would do well, only there must be perfect quiet, perfect
rest. With his own ears he heard that said, and the old Marquise went
straight from the surgeon to M. Rene's bedside, and sat down, and took
his hand. Charles was in the next room, but the door was ajar, and he
could hear and see.
"'Rene, my son,' she said, 'I hear your duel was about Ange Desaix.' M.
Rene said, 'Yes, ma mere.' Then she said very scornfully, 'I have
undoubtedly been misinformed, for I was told that you fought
because--but no, it is too absurd.'
"M. Rene moved his hand. He was all strapped up, but his hand could
move, and he jerked it, thus, to stop his mother; and she stopped and
looked at him. Then he said, 'I fought M. de Breze because he spoke
disrespectfully of my future wife.' Yes, just like that he said it; and
what it must have been to Madame to hear it, Lucifer alone knows, for
her pride was like his. There was a long silence, and they looked hard
at each other, and then Madame said, 'No!'--only that, but Charles said
her face was dreadful, and M. Rene said 'Yes!' almost in a whisper, for
he was weak, and then again there was silence. After a long time Madame
got up and went out of the room, and M. Rene gave a long sigh, and
called Charles, and asked for something to drink. Next day Madame came
back. She did not sit down this time, but stood and stared at M. Rene.
Big black eyes she had then, and her face all white, as white as his.
'Rene,' she said, 'are you still mad?' and M. Rene smiled and said, 'I
am not mad at all.' She put her hand on his forehead. 'You would
really do this thing?' she said. 'Lower our name, take as wife what you
might have for the asking as mistress?' M. Rene turned in bed at that,
and between pain and anger his voice sounded strong and loud. 'Whilst I
am alive, there 's no man living shall say that,' he cried. 'On my soul
I swear I shall marry her, and on my soul I swear she is fit to be a
king's wife.'
"Madame took her hand away, and looked at it for a moment. Afterwards,
when Charles told me, I thought, did she wonder if she should see blood
on it? And then without another word she went out of the room, and gave
orders that her carriages were to be got ready, for she was taking M.
Rene to Rancy."
"Oh, no!" said Aline.
"Yes, my dear, yes; and she did it too, and he died of the journey--died
calling for Mlle Ange."
"Oh, did she come?"
"Charles fetched her, and for that Madame never forgave him."
"Oh, how dreadful!"
"Yes, yes, it is sad; but it would have been a terrible mesalliance. A
Montenay and his steward's daughter! No, no, it would not have done; one
does not do such things."
Aline got up abruptly.
"Oh, I must go," she said. "I promised I would not be long. See, here
is the egg."
"You are in such a hurry," mumbled the old woman, confused. She was
still in the past, and the sudden change of subject bewildered her.
"I will come again," said Aline gently.
When she was clear of the inn she walked very fast for a few moments,
and then stopped. She did not want to go home at once--the story she
had just heard had taken possession of her, and she wanted to be alone
to adjust her thoughts, to grow accustomed to kind placid Mlle Ange as
the central figure of such a tragedy. After a moment's pause she took
the path that led to the chateau, but stopped short at the high iron
gates. Beyond them the avenue looked black and eerie. Her desire to go
farther left her, and she leaned against the gates, taking breath after
the climb.
The early dusk was settling fast upon the bare woods, and the hollow
where the village lay below was already dark and flecked with a light or
two. Above, a little yellowish glow lurked behind the low, sullen
clouds.
It was very still, and Aline could hear the drip, drip of the moisture
which last night had coated all the trees with white, and which to-night
would surely freeze again. It was turning very cold; she would not
wait. It was foolish to have come, more than foolish to let an old
woman's words sting her so sharply--"One does not do such things." Was
it her fancy that the dim eyes had been turned curiously upon her for a
moment just then? Yes, of course, it was only fancy, for what could
Mere Leroux know or suspect? She drew her cloak closer, and was about
to turn away when a sound startled her. Close by the gate a stick
cracked as if it had been trodden on, and there was a faint brushing
sound as of a dress trailing against the bark of a tree. Aline peered
into the shadows with a beating heart, and thought she saw some one
move. Frightened and unnerved, she caught at the scroll-work of the
gate and stared open-eyed, unable to stir; and again something rustled
and moved within. This time it was plainly a woman's shape that flitted
from one tree to the next--a woman who hid a moment, then leaned and
looked, and at last came lightly down the avenue to the gate. Here the
last of the light fell on Marguerite de Matigny's face, showing it very
white and hollow-eyed. Aline's heart stood still. Could this be flesh
and blood? Marguerite here? Not in the flesh, then.
"Marguerite," she breathed.
Marguerite's hand came through the wrought-work and caught at her. It
was cold, but human, and Aline recovered herself with a gasp.
"Marguerite, you?"
"And Aline, you? I looked, and looked, and thought 't was you, and at
last I thought, well, I 'll risk it. Oh, my dear!"
"But I don't understand. Oh, Marguerite, I thought you were a ghost."
"And wondered why I should come here? Well, I 've some right to, for my
mother was a Montenay. Did you not know it?"
"No. But what brings you here, since you are not a ghost, but your very
own self?"
"Tiens, Aline, I have wished myself any one or anything but myself this
last fortnight! You must know that when I was set free--and oh, ma
cherie, I heard it was your husband who saved me, and of course that
means you----"
"Not me," said Aline quickly. "He did it. Who told you?"
"The Abbe Loisel. He knows everything--too much, I think! I don't like
him, which is ungrateful, since he got me out of Paris."
"Did he? Where did you go then?"
"Why, to Switzerland, to Bale, where I joined my father; and then,
then--oh, Aline, do you know I am betrothed?"
"My dear, and you are happy?"
Marguerite screwed up her face in an unavailing attempt to keep grave,
but after a moment burst out laughing.
"Why, Aline, he is so droll, and a countryman of your own. Indeed, I
believe he is a cousin, for his name is Desmond."
"And you like him?"
"Oh, I adore him," said Mlle Marguerite calmly. "Aline, if you could see
him! His hair--well, it's rather red; and he has freckles just like the
dear little frogs we used to find by the ponds, Jean and I, when we were
children; and his eyes are green and droll--oh, but to make you die of
laughing----"
"He is not handsome, then?" said Aline, laughing too.
"Oh no, ugly--but most adorably ugly, and tall, and broad; and oh,
Aline, he is nice, and he says that in Ireland I may love him as much as
I please, and no one will think it a breach of decorum."
"Marguerite, you are just the same, you funny child!"
"Well, why not--it's not so long since we saw each other, is it? Only a
few months."
"I feel as if it were centuries," said Aline, pressing her hands
together.
"Ah, that's because you are married. Ciel! that was a sensation, your
marriage. They talked--yes, they talked to split your ears. The things
they said----"
"And you?"
"You are my friend," said Mlle de Matigny with decision. "But I must go
on with my story. Well, I was at Bale and betrothed, and then my father
and Monsieur my fiance set off to join the Princes, leaving me with Mme
de Montenay, my great-aunt, who is ever so old, and quite, quite mad!"
"Oh, Marguerite!"
"Yes, but she is. Imagine being safe in Bale, and then coming back
here, all across France, just because she could not die anywhere but at
the Chateau de Montenay in Rancy-les-Bois."
"She has come back?"
"Should I be here otherwise?" demanded Marguerite pathetically. "And
the journey!--What I endured!--for I saw guillotines round every corner,
and suspicious patriots on every doorstep. It is a miracle that we are
here; and now that we have come, it is all very well for Madame my aunt,
who has come here to die, and requires no food to accomplish that end;
but for me, I do not fancy starving, and we have nothing to eat in the
house."
"Oh, my poor dear! What made you come?"
"Could I let her come alone? She is too old and too weak; but I ought
to have locked the door and kept the key--only, old as she is, she can
still make every one do as she wants."
"You are not alone?"
"Jean and Louise, her old servants, started with us; but Jean got
himself arrested. Poor Jean, he could not pretend well enough."
"And Louise?"
"Oh, Louise is there, but she is nearly as old as Madame."
"You must have food," said Aline decidedly. "I will bring you some."
"Oh, you angel!" exclaimed Marguerite, kissing her through the bars.
"When you came I was standing here trying to screw up my courage to go
down to the inn and ask for some."
"Oh, not the inn," said Aline quickly; "that's the last place to go. I
'm afraid there 's danger everywhere, but I 'll do what I can. Go back
to the chateau, and I 'll come as soon as possible."
"Yes, as soon as possible, please, for I am hungry enough to eat you, my
dear. See, have n't I got thin--yes, and pale too? I assure you that I
have a most interesting air."
"Does M. my cousin find pallor interesting?" inquired Aline teasingly.
"No, my dear; he has a bourgeois's taste for colour. He compared me once
to a carnation, but I punished him well for that. I stole the vinegar,
and drank enough to make me feel shockingly ill. Then I powdered my
cheeks, and then--then I talked all the evening to M. de Maille!"
"And my cousin, M. le Chevalier, what did he do?"
Marguerite gave an irrepressible giggle.
"He went away, and I was just beginning to feel that perhaps he had been
punished enough, when back he came, very easy and smiling, with a sweet
large and beautiful bouquet of white carnations, and with an elegant bow
he begged me to accept them, since white was my preference, though for
his part he preferred the beauteous red that blushed like happy love!"
"And then?"
Marguerite's voice became very demure.
"Poor grandmamma used to say life was compromise, so I compromised; next
morning I did not drink vinegar, and I wore a blush pink bud in my hair.
M. le Chevalier was pleased to admire it extravagantly."
Aline ran off laughing, but she was grave enough before she had gone
very far, for certainly the situation was not an easy one. She racked
her brains for a plan, but could find none; and when she came in, Mlle
Marthe's quick eyes at once discerned that something was wrong.
"What is it, child?" she said hastily. "Was Mathieu rude?"
"My dear, how late you are," said Mlle Ange, looking up from her
needlework.
"Not Mathieu?" continued Marthe. "What has happened, Aline? You have
not bad news? It is not Jacques?" and her lips grew paler.
"No, no, ma tante."
"What is it, then? Speak, or--or--why, you have been to the chateau!"
she said abruptly, as Aline came into the lamplight.
"Why, Marthe, what makes you say that?" said Ange, in a startled voice.
"The rust on her cloak--see, it is all stained. She has been leaning
against the iron gates. What took you there, and what has alarmed you?"
"I--I saw----"
"A ghost?" inquired Marthe with sharp sarcasm.
Ange rose up, trembling.
"Oh, she has come back! I know it, I have felt it! She has come back,"
she cried.
"Ange, don't be a fool," said Marthe, but her eyes were anxious.
"Speak then, Aline, and tell us what you saw."
"It is true, she has come back," said Aline, looking away from Mlle
Ange, who put her hands before her eyes with a little cry and stood so a
full minute, whilst Marthe gave a harsh laugh, and then bit her lip as
if in pain.
"Come back to die?" Ange said at last, very low. "Alone?"--and she
turned on Aline.
"No, a niece is with her. It was she whom I saw. I knew her in
Paris--in prison; and, ma tante, they have no food in the house, and I
said I would take them some."
"No food goes from this house to that," said Marthe loudly, but Ange
caught her hand.
"Oh, we can't let them starve."
"And why not, Angel, why not? The old devil! She has done enough
mischief in the world, and now that her time has come, let her go. Does
she expect us, us, to weep for her?"
"No, no; but I can't let her starve--you know I can't."
Marthe laughed again.
"No, perhaps not, but I could, and I would." She paused. "So you 'd
heap coals of fire--feed her, save her, eh, Angel?"
"Oh, Marthe, don't! For the love of God, don't speak to me like
that--when you know--when you know!"
Marthe pulled her down with an impulsive gesture that drew a groan from
her.
"Ah, Ange," she said in a queer, broken voice; and Ange kissed her
passionately and ran out of the room.
There was a long, heavy pause. Then Marthe said:
"So you've heard the story? Who told you?"
"Mere Leroux, to-night."
"And a very suitable occasion. Who says life is not dramatic? So Mere
Leroux told you, and you went up to the chateau to see if it was
haunted, and it was. Ciel, if those stones could speak! But there 's
enough without that--quite enough."
She was silent again, and after awhile Mlle Ange came back, wrapped in a
thick cloak and carrying a basket.
Aline started forward.
"Ma tante, I may come too? It is so dark."
"And the dark is full of ghosts?" said Ange Desaix, under her breath.
"Well, then, child, you may come. Indeed, the basket is heavy, and I
shall be glad of your help."
Outside, the night had settled heavily, and without the small lantern
which Mlle Ange produced from under her cloak, it would have been
impossible to see the path. A little breeze had risen and seemed to
follow them, moaning among the leafless boughs, and rustling the dead
leaves below. They walked in silence, each with a hand on the heavy
basket. It was very cold, and yet oppressive, as if snow were about to
fall or a storm to break. Mlle Ange led the way up a bridle-path, and
when the grey pile of the chateau loomed before them she turned sharply
to the left, and Aline felt her hand taken. "This way," whispered Ange;
and they stumbled up a broken step or two, and passed through a long,
shattered window. "This way," said Ange again. "Mon Dieu, how long
since I came here! Ah, mon Dieu!"
The empty room echoed to their steps and to that low-voiced exclamation,
and the lantern light fell waveringly upon the shadows, driving them
into the corners, where they crowded like ghosts out of that past of
which the room seemed full.
It was a small room, and had been exquisite. Here and there a moulded
cupid still smiled its dimpled smile, and clutched with plump, engaging
fingers at the falling garland of white, heavy-bloomed roses which
served it for girdle and plaything. In one corner a tattered rag of
brocade still showed that the hangings had been green. Ange looked
round mournfully.
"It was Madame's boudoir," she said slowly, with pauses between the
sentences. "Madame sat here, by the window, because she liked to look
out at the terrace, and the garden her Italian mother had made. Madame
was beautiful then--like a picture, though her hair was too white to
need powder. She had little hands, soft like a child's hands; but her
eyes looked through you, and at once you thought of all the bad things
you had ever done or thought. It was worse than confession, for there
was no absolution afterwards." She paused and moved a step or two.
"I sat here. The hours I have read to her, or worked whilst she was
busy with her letters!"
"You!" said Aline, surprised.
"Yes, I, her godchild, and a pet until--come then, child, until I forgot
I was on the same footing as cat or dog, petted for their looks, and
presumed to find a common humanity in myself and her. Ah, Marraine, it
was you who made me a Republican. Oh, my child, pride is an evil god to
serve! Don't sacrifice your life to him as mine was sacrificed."
She crossed hastily to the door as she spoke, and they came through a
corridor to the great stairs, where the darkness seemed to lie in solid
blocks, and the faint lantern light showed just one narrow path on which
to set their feet. And on that path the dust lay thick; here drifted
into mounds, and there spread desert-smooth along the broad, shallow
steps, eloquent of desolation indescribable. But on the centre of the
grey smoothness was a footmark--very small and lonely-looking. It seemed
to make the gloom more eerie, the stillness more terrible, and the two
women kept close together as they went up the stair.
At the top another corridor, and then a door in front of which Ange
hesitated long. Twice she put out her hand, and twice drew back, until
at last it was Aline who lifted the latch and drew her through the
doorway. Darkness and silence.
Across that room, and to another. Darkness and silence still. At the
third door Ange came forward again.
"It is past," she said, half to herself, and went in before Aline.
Whilst the west was all in darkness, this long east room fronted the
rising moon, and the shimmer of it lay full across the chamber, making
it light as day. Here the dust had been lately disturbed, for it hung
like a mist in the air, and its shining particles floated all a-glitter
in the broad wash of silver. Full in the moonlight stood a great
canopied bed, its crimson hangings all wrenched away, and trailing to
the dusty floor, where they lay like some ineffaceable stain of rusting
blood. On the dark hearth a handful of sticks burned to a dull red ash,
and between fire and moon there was a chair. It stood in to the hearth,
as if for warmth, but aslant so that the moon shaft lay across it.
Ange set down the lantern and took a quick step forward, crying,
"Madame!" Something stirred in the tattered chair, something grey
amongst the grey of the shadows. It was like the movement of the roused
spider, for here was the web, all dust and moonshine, and here, secret
and fierce, grey and elusive, lurked the weaver. The shape in the chair
leaned forward, and the oldest woman's face she had ever seen looked at
Aline across the moted moonlight. The face was all grey; the bony ridge
above the deep eye-pits, the wrinkled skin that lay beneath, the
shrivelled, discoloured lips--plainly this was a woman not only old, but
dying. Then the lids lifted, and Aline could have screamed, for the
movement showed eyes as smoulderingly bright as the sudden sparks which
fly up from grey ash that should be cold, but has still a heart of flame
if stirred. They spoke of the indomitable will which had dragged this
old, frail woman here to die.
Through the silence came a mere thread of a voice--
"Who is it?"
"I am Ange Desaix."
The shrivelled fingers picked at the shrouding shawl. Aline, watching
uneasily, saw the pinched face fall into a new arrangement of wrinkles.
The mouth opened like a pit, and from it came an attenuated sound. With
creeping flesh she realised that this was a laugh--Madame was laughing.
"Ange Desaix, Ange Desaix,--Rene's Angel. Oh, la belle comedie!"
"Madame!" the sound came like a sob, and in a flash Aline guessed how
long it was since any one had named Rene de Montenay before this woman
who had loved him. After the silence of nearly forty years it stabbed
her like a sword thrust.
Again that faint sound like the echo of laughter long dead:
"My compliments, Mlle Desaix. Will you not be seated, and let me know
to what I owe the pleasure of this visit? But you are not alone. Who
is that with you? Come here!"
Aline crossed the room obediently.
"Who are you?" said the faint voice again, and the burning eyes looked
searchingly into her face.
Something stirred in Aline. This old wreck of womanhood was not only of
her order, but of her kin. Before she knew it she heard her own voice
say:
"I am Aline de Rochambeau."
Ange Desaix gave a great start. She had guessed,--but this was
certainty, and the shock took her breath. From the chair a minute, tiny
hand was beckoning.
"Rochambeau, Rochambeau. I know all the Rochambeau--Rene de Rochambeau
was my first cousin, for I was a Montenay born, you know. He and his
brother were the talk of the town when I was young. They married the
twin heiresses of old M. de Vivonne, and every one sang the catch which
M. de Coulanges made--
Fiers et beaux, les Rochambeau;
Fiere et bonnes, les belles Vivonne.'
Whose daughter are you?"
Aline knelt by the chair and kissed the little claw where a diamond
shone from the gold circlet which was so much too loose.
"Rene de Rochambeau was my grandfather," she said.
"Well, he would have thought you a pretty girl. Beauty never came amiss
to a Rochambeau, and you have your share. We are kinsfolk,
Mademoiselle, and in other circumstances, I should have wished--have
wished--" she drew her hand away impatiently and put it to her head.
"Who said that Ange Desaix was here? Why does she come now? Rene is
dead, and I have no more sons; I am really a little at a loss."
The words which should have sounded pathetic came in staccato mockery,
and Aline sprang up in indignation, but even as she moved Mlle Ange
spoke.
"Let the past alone, Madame," she said slowly. "Believe, if you can,
that I have come to help you. You are not alone?"
"I have Louise, but she--really, I forget where she is at present, but
she is not cooking, for we have nothing to cook. It is as well that I
have come here to die, since for that there are always conveniences.
One dies more comfortably chez soi. In fact, unless one had the honour
of dying on the field of battle, there is to my mind something bourgeois
about dying in a strange place. At least, it has never been our habit.
Now I recollect when Rene was dying--dear me, how many years ago it is
now?"
"It is thirty-seven years ago," said Ange Desaix in low muffled tones.
"Thank you, Mademoiselle, you are quite correct. Well, thirty-seven
years ago, you, with that excellent memory of yours, will recall how I
brought my son Rene here, that he might die at home."
"Yes," said Ange. "You brought him home that he might die."
The slight change of words was an accusation, and there was a moment's
silence, broken by an almost inaudible whisper from Mlle Ange.
"Thirty-seven years. Oh, mon Dieu!"
The tremulous grey head moved a little, bent forward, and was propped by
a shaking hand, but Madame's eyes shone unalterably amused.
"Yes, my dear Ange, he died--unmarried; and I had the consolations of
religion, and also of knowing that a mesalliance is not possible in the
grave."
Ange Desaix started forward with a sob.
"And have you never repented, Madame, have you never repented? Never
thought that you might have had his children about your knees? That
night, when I saw him die, I said, 'God will punish,' and are you not
punished? You have neither son nor grandson; you are childless as I am
childless; you are alone and the last of your line!"
The sudden fire transfigured her, and she looked like a prophetess.
Madame de Montenay stared at her and fell to fidgeting with her shawl.
"I am too old for scenes," she said fretfully. "Rene was a fool--a
fool. I never interfered with his amusements, but marriage--that is not
an affair for oneself alone. Did he think I should permit? But it is
enough, he is dead, and I think you forget yourself, Ange Desaix, when
you come to my house and talk to me in such a strain. I should like to
be alone."
The old imperious note swelled the thin voice; the old imperious gesture
raised the trembling hand. Even in her recoil Aline felt a faint thrill
of admiration as for something indomitable, indestructible.
Ange swept through the door.
"Ah!" she said with a long shuddering breath, "ah, mon Dieu! mon Dieu!"
All her beautiful dreamy expression was gone. "Ah! what a coward I am;
even now, even now she frightens me, cows me," and she leaned panting
against the wall, whilst Aline closed the door.
Out of the darkness Marguerite came trembling.
"Aline, what is it?" she whispered. "I heard you, and came as far as
the door, and then, Holy Virgin, is n't she terrible? She makes me cold
like ice, and her laugh, it 's--oh, one does not know how to bear it!"
Mlle Ange turned, collecting herself.
"Is it Louise?" she asked.
"No, I am Marguerite de Matigny. Louise is in the corridor."
"Let us come away from here," said Aline, taking the lantern, and they
hastened through the two dark rooms, meeting Louise at the farthest
door. She was a tall, haggard woman, with loose grey hair and restless,
terrified eyes. Mlle Ange drew her aside, whispering, and after a
moment the fear went out of her face, leaving a sallow exhaustion in its
place.
"It is a miracle," she was saying as Aline and Marguerite joined them.
"The saints know how we got here. I remember nothing, I am too tired;
and Madame,--how she is not dead! Nothing would hold her, when the
doctor told her she had a mortal complaint. If you know Madame, you
will know that she laughed. 'Mon Dieu,' she said to me, 'I have had one
mortal complaint for ten years now, and that is old age, but since he
says I have another, no doubt he is right, and the two together will
kill me.' Then she said, 'Pack my mail, Louise, for I do not choose to
die here, where no one has ever heard of the Montenay.' 'But,
Mademoiselle,' I said, and Madame shrugged her shoulders. 'But the
Terror,' I said, and indeed, Ma'mselle, I went on my knees to her, but
if you think she cared! Not the least in the world, and here we are,
and God knows what comes next! I am afraid, very much afraid,
Ma'mselle."
"Yes, and so am I," whispered Marguerite, pinching Aline's arm. "It is
really dreadful here. La tante mad, and this old house all ghosts and
horrors, and nothing to eat, it is triste,--yes, I can tell you it is
triste."
"We will come again," said Aline, kissing her, "and at least there is
food here."
"Yes, take the basket, Louise," said Mlle Ange, "and now we must go."
"Oh, no, don't go," cried Marguerite. "Stay just a little--" but Louise
broke in----
"No, no, Ma'mselle, let them go. Madame would not be pleased. I
thought I heard her call just now." She shrugged her shoulders
expressively, and Marguerite released her friend with a little sobbing
kiss.
"Come, Aline," said Mlle Ange with dignity, and they went down the
echoing stair in silence.
Neither spoke for a long while. Then amongst the deeper shadows of the
wood Aline heard a curiously strained voice say:
"So you are Rochambeau, and noble?"
"Yes."
"Marthe said so from the first; she is always right."
"Yes."
A little pause, and then Ange said passionately:
"What made you give that name? Are you ashamed to be called Dangeau?"
"She was so old, and of my kin; I said the name that she would know.
Oh, I do not know why I said it," faltered Aline.
"Does he know it, Jacques?"
"Yes, oh yes!"
"He knew before you were married?"
"Yes, always; he has been so good."
"So good, and you his wife, and could deny his name! I do not understand
you, Aline de Rochambeau."
Aline flushed scarlet in the darkness. Her own name spoken thus seemed
to set a bruise upon her heart.
"It was not that," she cried: "I do not know why I said it, but it was
not to deny--him."
Her voice sank very low, and something in it made Ange halt a moment and
say:
"Aline, do you love Jacques?"
Aline's hand went to her breast.
"Yes," she said under her breath, and thought the whole wood echoed with
the one soft word.
"And does he know that too?" The questioning voice had sunk again to
gentleness.
"No, no--oh, no."
"Poor child," said Agnes Desaix, and after that they spoke no more.