AN UNDERSTANDING.
“Keep cool, and you command everybody.”
When France realized that Napoleon III had fallen, she turned and rent
his memory. No dog, it appears, may have his day, but some cur must needs
yelp at his heels. Indeed (and this applies to literary fame as to
emperors), it is a sure sign that a man is climbing high if the little
dogs bark below.
And the little dogs and the curs remembered now the many slights cast
upon them. France had been betrayed--was ruined. The twenty most
prosperous years of her history were forgotten. There was a rush of
patriots to Paris, and another rush of the chicken-hearted to the coast
and the frontier.
The Baron de Mélide telegraphed to the baroness to quit Fréjus and go to
Italy. And the baroness telegraphed a refusal to do so.
Lory de Vasselot fretted as much as one of his buoyant nature could fret
under this forced inactivity. The sunshine, the beautiful surroundings,
and the presence of friends, made him forget France at times, and think
only of the present. And Denise absorbed his thoughts of the present and
the future. She was a constant puzzle to him. There seemed to be two
Denise Langes: one who was gay with that deep note of wisdom in her
gaiety, which only French women compass, with odd touches of tenderness
and little traits of almost maternal solicitude, which betrayed
themselves at such moments as the wounded man attempted to do something
which his crippled condition or his weakness prevented him from
accomplishing. The other Denise was clear-eyed, logical, almost cold, who
resented any mention of Corsica or of the war. Indeed, de Vasselot had
seen her face harden at some laughing reference made by him to his
approaching recovery. He was quick enough to perceive that she was
endeavouring to shut out of her life all but the present, which was
unusual; for most pin their faith on the future until they are quite old,
and their future must necessarily be a phantom.
“I do not understand you, mademoiselle,” he said, one day, on one of the
rare occasions when she had allowed herself to be left alone with him.
“You are brave, and yet you are a coward!”
And the resentment in her eyes took him by surprise. He did not know,
perhaps, that the wisest men never see more than they are intended to
see.
“Pray do not try,” she answered. “The effort might delay your recovery
and your return to the army.”
She laughed, and presently left him. It is one thing to face the future,
and another to sit quietly awaiting its approach. The majority of people
spoil their lives by going out to meet the future, deliberately
converting into a reality that which was only a dread. They call it
knowing the worst.
The next morning Mademoiselle Brun, with a composed face and blinking
eyes, mentioned casually to Lory that she and Denise were going back to
Corsica.
“But why?” cried Lory; “but why, my dear demoiselle?”
“I do not know,” answered Mademoiselle Brun, smoothing her gloves. “It
will, at all events, show the world that we are not afraid.”
De Vasselot looked at her non-committing face and held his peace. There
was more in this than a man's philosophy might dream of.
“When do you go?” he asked after a pause.
“To-night, from Nice,” was the answer.
And, as has been noted, Denise and mademoiselle arrived at Bastia in the
early morning, and drove to the Casa Perucca, in the face of more than
one rifle-barrel. Mademoiselle Brun never asked questions, and, if she
knew why Denise had returned to Perucca so suddenly, she had not acquired
the knowledge from the girl herself, but had, behind her beady eyes, put
two and two together with that accuracy of which women have the monopoly.
She meekly set to work to make the Casa Perucca comfortable, and took up
her horticultural labours where she had dropped them.
“One misses the Château de Vasselot,” she said one morning, standing by
the open window that gave so wide a view of the valley.
“Yes,” answered Denise; and that was all.
Mademoiselle went into the garden with her leather gloves and a small
basket. The odd thing about her gardening was, that it was on such a
minute scale that the result was never visible to the ordinary eye.
Denise had, it appeared, given up gardening. Mademoiselle Brun did not
know how she occupied herself at this time. She seemed to do nothing, and
preferred to do it alone. Returning to the house at midday, mademoiselle
went into the drawing-room, and there found Denise and Colonel Gilbert
seated at the table with some papers, and a map spread out before them.
Both looked up with a guilty air, and Denise flushed suddenly, while the
colonel bit his lip. Immediately he recovered himself, and rising, shook
hands with the new-comer.
“I heard that you had returned,” he said, “and hastened to pay my
respects.”
“We were looking at the plans,” added Denise, hurriedly. “I have agreed
to sell Perucca to Colonel Gilbert--as you have always wished me to do.”
“Yes; I have always wished you do it,” returned Mademoiselle Brun,
slowly. She was very cool and collected, and in that had the advantage
over her companions. “Has the colonel the money in his pocket?” she asked
with a dry smile. “Is it to be settled this afternoon?”
She glanced from one to the other. If love is blind, he certainly tampers
with the sight of those who have had dealings with him. Denise was only
thinking of Perucca. She had not perceived that Colonel Gilbert was
honestly in love with her. But Mademoiselle Brun saw it. She was
wondering--if this thing had come to Gilbert twenty years earlier--what
manner of man it might have made of him. It was a good love. Mademoiselle
saw that quite clearly. For a dishonest man may at any moment be tripped
up by an honest passion. Which is one of those practical jokes of Fate
that break men's hearts.
“You know as well as I do,” said Colonel Gilbert, with more earnestness
than he had ever shown, “that the sooner you and mademoiselle are out of
the island the better.”
“Bah!” laughed mademoiselle. “With you at Bastia to watch over us, mon
colonel! Besides, we Peruccas are invincible just now. Have we not burnt
down the Château de Vasselot?”
Gilbert winced. Mademoiselle wondered why.
“I want it settled as soon as possible,” put in Denise, turning to the
papers. “There is no need of delay.”
“None,” acquiesced mademoiselle. She wanted to sell Perucca and be done
with it, and with the island. She was a woman of iron nerve, but the
gloom and loneliness of Corsica had not left her at ease. There was a
haunting air of disaster that seemed to brood over the whole land, with
its miles and miles of untenanted mountains, its malarial plains, and
deserted sea-board. “None,” she repeated. “But such transactions are not
to be carried through, in a woman's drawing-room, by two women and a
soldier.”
She looked from one to the other. She did not know why one wanted to buy
and the other to sell. She only knew that her own inclination was to give
them every assistance, and to give it even against her better judgment.
It could only be, after all, the question of a little more or a little
less profit, and she, who had never had any money, knew that the
possession of it never makes a woman one whit the happier.
“Then,” said the colonel with his easy laugh--for he was inimitable in
the graceful art of yielding--“Then, let us appoint a day to sign the
necessary agreements in the office of the notary at Bastia. I tell you
frankly I want to get you out of the island.”
The colonel stayed to lunch, and, whether by accident or intention, made
a better impression than he had ever made before. He was intelligent,
easy, full of information and _o rara avis!_ proved himself to be a man
without conceit. He never complained of his ill-fortune in life, but his
individuality thrust the fact into every mind, that this was a man
destined for distinction who had missed it. He seemed to be riding
through life for a fall, and rode with his chin up, gay and _debonnaire_.
Mademoiselle Brun felt relieved by the thought that the end of Corsica,
and this impossible Casa Perucca, was in sight. She was gay as a little
grey mouse may be gay at some domestic festival. She sent the widow to
the cellar, and the occasion was duly celebrated in a bottle of Mattei
Perucca's old wine.
With coffee came the question of fixing a date for the signature of the
deed of sale at the notary's office at Bastia. And instantly the mouse
skipped, as it were, into a retired corner of the conversation and
crouched silent, watching with bright eyes.
“I should like it to be done soon,” said the colonel, who, at the
suggestion of his hostess, had lighted a cigarette. He seemed more
himself with a cigarette between his fingers to contemplate with a dreamy
eye, to turn and twist in reflective idleness. “You will understand that
my future movements are uncertain if, as now seems possible, the war is
not over.”
“But surely it is over,” put in Denise, quickly.
The colonel shrugged his shoulders.
“Who can tell? We are in the hands of a few journalists and lawyers,
mademoiselle. If the men of words say 'Resist,' we others are ready. I
have applied to be relieved of my command here, since they are going to
fortify Paris. Shall we say next week?”
“To-day is Thursday--shall we say Monday?” replied Denise.
“Make it Wednesday,” suggested Mademoiselle Brun from her silent corner.
And after some discussion Wednesday was finally selected. Mademoiselle
Brun had no particular reason why it should be Wednesday, in preference
to Monday, and, unlike most people in such circumstances, advanced none.
“We shall require witnesses,” she said as the colonel took his leave. “I
shall be able to find two to testify to the signature of Denise.”
The colonel had apparently forgotten this necessity. He thanked her and
departed.
“And on Wednesday,” he said, “I shall in reality have the money in my
pocket.”
During the afternoon mademoiselle announced her intention of walking to
Olmeta. It would be advisable to secure the Abbé Susini as a witness, she
said. He was a busy man, and a journey to Bastia would of necessity take
up his whole day. Denise did not offer to accompany her, so she set out
alone at a quick pace, learnt, no doubt, in the Rue des Saints Pères.
“They will not shoot at an old woman,” she said, and never looked aside.
The priest's housekeeper received her coldly. Yes the abbé was at home,
she said, holding the door ajar with scant hospitality. Mademoiselle
pushed it open and went into the narrow passage. She had not too much
respect for a priest, and none whatever for a priest's housekeeper, who
kept a house so badly. She looked at the dirty floor, and with a subtle
feminine irony, sought the mat which was lying in the road outside the
house. She folded her hands at her waist, and still grasping her cheap
cotton umbrella, waited to be announced.
The Abbé Susini received her in his little bare study, where a few
newspapers, half a dozen ancient volumes of theology and a life of
Napoleon the Great, represented literature. He bowed silently and drew
forward his own horsehair armchair. Mademoiselle Brun sat down, and
crossed her hands upon the hilt of her umbrella like a soldier at rest
under arms. She waited until the housekeeper had closed the door and
shuffled away to her own quarters. Then she looked the resolute little
abbé straight in the eyes.
“Let us understand each other,” she said.
“Bon Dieu! upon what point, mademoiselle?”
Mademoiselle was still looking at him. She perceived that there were some
points upon which the priest did not desire to be understood. She held up
one finger in its neutral-coloured cotton glove, and shook it slowly from
side to side.
“None of your theology,” she said; “I come to you as a man--the only man
I think in this island at present.”
“At present?”
“Yes, the other is in France, recovering from his wounds.”
“Ah!” said the abbé, glancing shrewdly into her face. “You also have
perceived that he is a man--that. But there is our good Colonel Gilbert.
You forget him.”
“He would have made a good priest,” said mademoiselle, bluntly, and the
abbé laughed aloud.
“Ah! but you amuse me, mademoiselle. You amuse me enormously.” And he
leant back to laugh at his ease.
“Yes, I came on purpose to amuse you. I came to tell you that Denise
Lange has sold Perucca to Colonel Gilbert.”
“Sacred name of--thunder,” he muttered, the mirth wiped away from his
face as if with a cloth. He sat bolt upright, glaring at her, his
restless foot tapping on the floor.
“Ah, you women!” he ejaculated after a pause.
“Ah, you priests!” returned Mademoiselle Brun, composedly.
“And you did not stop it,” he said, looking at her with undisguised
contempt.
“I have no control. I used to have a little; now I have none.”
She finished with a gesture, describing the action of a leaf blown before
the wind.
“But I have put off the signing of the papers until Wednesday,” she
continued. “I have undertaken to provide two witnesses, yourself if you
will consent, the other--I thought we might get the other from Fréjus
between now and Wednesday. A boat from St. Florent to-night could surely,
with this wind, reach St. Raphael to-morrow.”
The abbé was looking at her with manifest approval.
“Clever,” he said--“clever.”
Mademoiselle Brun rose to go as abruptly as she had come.
“Personally,” she said, “I shall be glad to be rid of Perucca for
ever--but I fancied there are reasons.”
“Yes,” said the priest, slowly, “there are reasons.”
“Oh! I ask no questions,” she snapped out at him with her hand on the
door. On the threshold she paused. “All the same,” she said, “I do ask a
question. Why does Colonel Gilbert want to buy?”
The priest threw up his hands in angry bewilderment.
“That is it!” he cried. “I wish I knew.”
“Then find out,” said mademoiselle, “between now and Wednesday.”
And with a curt nod she left him.