The old hall of Belmont had been decorated for many a feast since the
times of its founder, the Intendant Talon; but it had never contained a
nobler company of fair women and brave men, the pick and choice of their
race, than to-day met round the hospitable and splendid table of the
Bourgeois Philibert in honor of the fête of his gallant son.
Dinner was duly and decorously despatched. The social fashion of New
France was not for the ladies to withdraw when the wine followed
the feast, but to remain seated with the gentlemen, purifying the
conversation, and by their presence restraining the coarseness which was
the almost universal vice of the age.
A troop of nimble servitors carried off the carved dishes and fragments
of the splendid pâtisseries of Maître Guillot, in such a state of
demolition as satisfied the critical eye of the chief cook that the
efforts of his genius had been very successful. He inspected the dishes
through his spectacles. He knew, by what was left, the ability of the
guests to discriminate what they had eaten and to do justice to his
skill. He considered himself a sort of pervading divinity, whose
culinary ideas passing with his cookery into the bodies of the guests
enabled them, on retiring from the feast, to carry away as part of
themselves some of the fine essence of Maître Gobet himself.
At the head of his table, peeling oranges and slicing pineapples for the
ladies in his vicinity, sat the Bourgeois himself, laughing, jesting,
and telling anecdotes with a geniality that was contagious. “'The gods
are merry sometimes,' says Homer, 'and their laughter shakes Olympus!'”
was the classical remark of Father de Berey, at the other end of
the table. Jupiter did not laugh with less loss of dignity than the
Bourgeois.
Few of the guests did not remember to the end of their lives the
majestic and happy countenance of the Bourgeois on this memorable day.
At his right hand sat Amélie de Repentigny and the Count de la
Galissonière. The Governor, charmed with the beauty and agreeableness of
the young chatelaine, had led her in to dinner, and devoted himself
to her and the Lady de Tilly with the perfection of gallantry of a
gentleman of the politest court in Europe. On his left sat the radiant,
dark-eyed Hortense de Beauharnais. With a gay assumption of independence
Hortense had taken the arm of La Corne St. Luc, and declared she would
eat no dinner unless he would be her cavalier and sit beside her! The
gallant old soldier surrendered at discretion. He laughingly consented
to be her captive, he said, for he had no power and no desire but to
obey. Hortense was proud of her conquest. She seated herself by his
side with an air of triumph and mock gravity, tapping him with her fan
whenever she detected his eye roving round the table, compassionating,
she affirmed, her rivals, who had failed where she had won in securing
the youngest, the handsomest, and most gallant of all the gentlemen at
Belmont.
“Not so fast, Hortense!” exclaimed the gay Chevalier; “you have captured
me by mistake! The tall Swede--he is your man! The other ladies all know
that, and are anxious to get me out of your toils, so that you may be
free to ensnare the philosopher!”
“But you don't wish to get away from me! I am your garland, Chevalier,
and you shall wear me to-day. As for the tall Swede, he has no idea of a
fair flower of our sex except to wear it in his button-hole,--this
way!” added she, pulling a rose out of a vase and archly adorning the
Chevalier's vest with it.
“All pretence and jealousy, mademoiselle. The tall Swede knows how
to take down your pride and bring you to a proper sense of your false
conceit of the beauty and wit of the ladies of New France.”
Hortense gave two or three tosses of defiance to express her emphatic
dissent from his opinions.
“I wish Herr Kalm would lend me his philosophic scales, to weigh your
sex like lambs in market,” continued La Corne St. Luc; “but I fear I am
too old, Hortense, to measure women except by the fathom, which is the
measure of a man.”
“And the measure of a man is the measure of an angel too scriptum est,
Chevalier!” replied she. Hortense had ten merry meanings in her eye,
and looked as if bidding him select which he chose. “The learned Swede's
philosophy is lost upon me,” continued she, “he can neither weigh by
sample nor measure by fathom the girls of New France!” She tapped him
on the arm. “Listen to me, chevalier,” said she, “you are neglecting me
already for sake of Cecile Tourangeau!” La Corne was exchanging some
gay badinage with a graceful, pretty young lady on the other side of the
table, whose snowy forehead, if you examined it closely, was marked with
a red scar, in figure of a cross, which, although powdered and partially
concealed by a frizz of her thick blonde hair, was sufficiently distinct
to those who looked for it; and many did so, as they whispered to each
other the story of how she got it.
Le Gardeur de Repentigny sat by Cecile, talking in a very sociable
manner, which was also commented on. His conversation seemed to be
very attractive to the young lady, who was visibly delighted with the
attentions of her handsome gallant.
At this moment a burst of instruments from the musicians, who occupied a
gallery at the end of the hall, announced a vocal response to the toast
of the King's health, proposed by the Bourgeois. “Prepare yourself for
the chorus, Chevalier,” exclaimed Hortense. “Father de Berey is going to
lead the royal anthem!”
“Vive le Roi!” replied La Corne. “No finer voice ever sang Mass, or
chanted 'God Save the King!' I like to hear the royal anthem from the
lips of a churchman rolling it out ore rotundo, like one of the Psalms
of David. Our first duty is to love God,--our next to honor the King!
and New France will never fail in either!” Loyalty was ingrained in
every fibre of La Corne St. Luc.
“Never, Chevalier. Law and Gospel rule together, or fall together! But
we must rise,” replied Hortense, springing up.
The whole company rose simultaneously. The rich, mellow voice of
the Rev. Father de Berey, round and full as the organ of Ste. Marie,
commenced the royal anthem composed by Lulli in honor of Louis Quatorze,
upon an occasion of his visit to the famous Convent of St. Cyr, in
company with Madame de Maintenon.
The song composed by Madame Brinon was afterwards translated into
English, and words and music became, by a singular transposition, the
national hymn of the English nation.
“God Save the King!” is no longer heard in France. It was buried with
the people's loyalty, fathoms deep under the ruins of the monarchy. But
it flourishes still with pristine vigor in New France, that olive branch
grafted on the stately tree of the British Empire. The broad chest and
flexile lips of Father de Berey rang out the grand old song in tones
that filled the stately old hall:
“'Grand Dieu! Sauvez le Roi!
Grand Dieu! Sauvez le Roi!
Sauvez le Roi!
Que toujours glorieux.
Louis Victorieux,
Voye ses ennemis
Toujours soumis!'”
The company all joined in the chorus, the gentlemen raising their cups,
the ladies waving their handkerchiefs, and male and female blending in
a storm of applause that made the old walls ring with joy. Songs and
speeches followed in quick succession, cutting as with a golden blade
the hours of the dessert into quinzaines of varied pleasures.
The custom of the times had reduced speechmaking after dinner to a
minimum. The ladies, as Father de Berey wittily remarked, preferred
private confession to public preaching; and long speeches, without
inlets for reply, were the eighth mortal sin which no lady would
forgive.
The Bourgeois, however, felt it incumbent upon himself to express his
deep thanks for the honor done his house on this auspicious occasion.
And he remarked that the doors of Belmont, so long closed by reason of
the absence of Pierre, would hereafter be ever open to welcome all
his friends. He had that day made a gift of Belmont, with all its
belongings, to Pierre, and he hoped,--the Bourgeois smiled as he
said this, but he would not look in a quarter where his words struck
home,--he hoped that some one of Quebec's fair daughters would assist
Pierre in the menage of his home and enable him to do honor to his
housekeeping.
Immense was the applause that followed the short, pithy speech of the
Bourgeois. The ladies blushed and praised, the gentlemen cheered and
enjoyed in anticipation the renewal of the old hospitalities of Belmont.
“The skies are raining plum cakes!” exclaimed the Chevalier La Corne
to his lively companion. “Joy's golden drops are only distilled in the
alembic of woman's heart! What think you, Hortense? Which of Quebec's
fair daughters will be willing to share Belmont with Pierre?”
“Oh, any of them would!” replied she. “But why did the Bourgeois
restrict his choice to the ladies of Quebec, when he knew I came from
the Three Rivers?”
“Oh, he was afraid of you, Hortense; you would make Belmont too good
for this world! What say you, Father de Berry? Do you ever walk on the
cape?”
The friar, in a merry mood, had been edging close to Hortense. “I love,
of all things, to air my gray gown on the cape of a breezy afternoon,”
replied the jovial Recollet, “when the fashionables are all out, and
every lady is putting her best foot foremost. It is then I feel sure
that Horace is the next best thing to the Homilies:
“'Teretesque suras laudo, et integer ego!'”
The Chevalier La Corne pinched the shrugging shoulder of Hortense as he
remarked, “Don't confess to Father de Berey that you promenade on the
cape! But I hope Pierre Philibert will soon make his choice! We are
impatient to visit him and give old Provençal the butler a run every
day through those dark crypts of his, where lie entombed the choicest
vintages of sunny France.”
The Chevalier said this waggishly, for the benefit of old Provençal, who
stood behind his chair looking half alarmed at the threatened raid upon
his well-filled cellars.
“But if Pierre should not commit matrimony,” replied Hortense, “what
will become of him? and especially what will become of us?”
“We will drink his wine all the same, good fellow that he is! But Pierre
had as lief commit suicide as not commit matrimony; and who would not?
Look here, Pierre Philibert,” continued the old soldier, addressing him,
with good-humored freedom. “Matrimony is clearly your duty, Pierre;
but I need not tell you so: it is written on your face plain as the way
between Peronne and St. Quintin,--a good, honest way as ever was trod
by shoe leather, and as old as Chinon in Touraine! Try it soon, my boy.
Quebec is a sack full of pearls!” Hortense pulled him mischievously
by the coat, so he caught her hand and held it fast in his, while he
proceeded: “You put your hand in the sack and take out the first that
offers. It will be worth a Jew's ransom! If you are lucky to find the
fairest, trust me it will be the identical pearl of great price for
which the merchant went and sold all that he had and bought it. Is not
that Gospel, Father de Berey? I think I have heard something like that
preached from the pulpit of the Recollets?”
“Matter of brimborion, Chevalier! not to be questioned by laymen! Words
of wisdom for my poor brothers of St. Francis, who, after renouncing the
world, like to know that they have renounced something worth having!
But not to preach a sermon on your parable, Chevalier, I will
promise Colonel Philibert that when he has found the pearl of great
price,”--Father de Berey, who knew a world of secrets, glanced archly at
Amélie as he said this,--“the bells of our monastery shall ring out such
a merry peal as they have not rung since fat Brother Le Gros broke his
wind, and short Brother Bref stretched himself out half a yard pulling
the bell ropes on the wedding of the Dauphin.”
Great merriment followed the speech of Father de Berey. Hortense rallied
the Chevalier, a good old widower, upon himself not travelling the plain
way between Peronne and St. Quintin, and jestingly offered herself
to travel with him, like a couple of gypsies carrying their budget of
happiness pick-a-back through the world.
“Better than that!” La Corne exclaimed. Hortense was worthy to ride on
the baggage-wagons in his next campaign! Would she go? She gave him her
hand. “I expect nothing else!” said she. “I am a soldier's daughter, and
expect to live a soldier's wife, and die a soldier's widow. But a truce
to jest. It is harder to be witty than wise,” continued she. “What is
the matter with Cousin Le Gardeur?” Her eyes were fixed upon him as he
read a note just handed to him by a servant. He crushed it in his hand
with a flash of anger, and made a motion as if about to tear it, but did
not. He placed it in his bosom. But the hilarity of his countenance was
gone.
There was another person at the table whose quick eye, drawn by sisterly
affection, saw Le Gardeur's movement before even Hortense. Amélie was
impatient to leave her seat and go beside him, but she could not at the
moment leave the lively circle around her. She at once conjectured that
the note was from Angélique des Meloises. After drinking deeply two
or three times Le Gardeur arose, and with a faint excuse that did not
impose on his partner left the table. Amélie rose quickly also, excusing
herself to the Bourgeois, and joined her brother in the park, where the
cool night air blew fresh and inviting for a walk.
Pretty Cecile Touraugeau had caught a glimpse of the handwriting as she
sat by the side of Le Gardeur, and guessed correctly whence it had come
and why her partner so suddenly left the table.
She was out of humor; the red mark upon her forehead grew redder as she
pouted in visible discontent. But the great world moves on, carrying
alternate storms and sunshine upon its surface. The company rose from
the table--some to the ball-room, some to the park and conservatories.
Cecile's was a happy disposition, easily consoled for her sorrows. Every
trace of her displeasure was banished and almost forgotten from the
moment the gay, handsome Jumonville de Villiers invited her out to the
grand balcony, where, he said, the rarest pastime was going on.
And rare pastime it was! A group of laughing but half-serious girls were
gathered round Doctor Gauthier, urging him to tell their fortunes by
consulting the stars, which to-night shone out with unusual brilliancy.
At that period, as at the present, and in every age of the world, the
female sex, like the Jews of old, asks signs, while the Greeks--that is,
the men--seek wisdom.
The time never was, and never will be, when a woman will cease to be
curious,--when her imagination will not forecast the decrees of fate
in regard to the culminating event of her life and her whole
nature--marriage. It was in vain Doctor Gauthier protested his inability
to read the stars without his celestial eye-glasses.
The ladies would not accept his excuses: he knew the heavens by heart,
they said, and could read the stars of destiny as easily as the Bishop
his breviary.
In truth the worthy doctor was not only a believer but an adept in
astrology. He had favored his friends with not a few horoscopes and
nativities, when pressed to do so. His good nature was of the substance
of butter: any one that liked could spread it over their bread. Many
good men are eaten up in that way by greedy friends.
Hortense de Beauharnais urged the Doctor so merrily and so
perseveringly, promising to marry him herself if the stars said so, that
he laughingly gave way, but declared he would tell Hortense's fortune
first, which deserved to be good enough to make her fulfil her promise
just made.
She was resigned, she said, and would accept any fate from the rank of a
queen to a cell among the old maids of St. Cyr! The girls of Quebec hung
all their hopes on the stars, bright and particular ones especially.
They were too loving to live single, and too proud to live poor. But she
was one who would not wait for ships to land that never came, and plums
to drop into her mouth that never ripened. Hortense would be ruled by
the stars, and wise Doctor Gauthier should to-night declare her fate.
They all laughed at this free talk of Hortense. Not a few of the ladies
shrugged their shoulders and looked askance at each other, but many
present wished they had courage to speak like her to Doctor Gauthier.
“Well, I see there is nothing else for it but to submit to my ruling
star, and that is you, Hortense!” cried the Doctor; “so please stand up
before me while I take an inventory of your looks as a preliminary to
telling your fortune.”
Hortense placed herself instantly before him. “It is one of the
privileges of our dry study,” remarked he, as he looked admiringly on
the tall, charming figure and frank countenance of the girl before him.
“The querent,” said he gravely, “is tall, straight, slender, arms long,
hands and feet of the smallest, hair just short of blackness,
piercing, roving eyes, dark as night and full of fire, sight quick, and
temperament alive with energy, wit, and sense.”
“Oh, tell my fortune, not my character! I shall shame of energy, wit,
and sense, if I hear such flattery, Doctor!” exclaimed she, shaking
herself like a young eagle preparing to fly.
“We shall see what comes of it, Hortense!” replied he gravely, as with
his gold-headed cane he slowly quartered the heavens like an ancient
augur, and noted the planets in their houses. The doctor was quite
serious, and even Hortense, catching his looks, stood very silent as he
studied the celestial aspects,
“Carrying through ether in perpetual round
Decrees and resolutions of the Gods.”
“The Lord of the ascendant,” said he, “is with the Lord of the seventh
in the tenth house. The querent, therefore, shall marry the man made for
her, but not the man of her youthful hope and her first love.
“The stars are true,” continued he, speaking to himself rather than to
her. “Jupiter in the seventh house denotes rank and dignity by marriage,
and Mars in sextile foretells successful wars. It is wonderful,
Hortense! The blood of Beauharnais shall sit on thrones more than one;
it shall rule France, Italy, and Flanders, but not New France, for
Saturn in quintile looks darkly upon the twins who rule America!”
“Come, Jumonville,” exclaimed Hortense, “congratulate Claude on the
greatness awaiting the house of Beauharnais, and condole with me that I
am to see none of it myself! I do not care for kings and queens in the
third generation, but I do care for happy fortune in the present for
those I know and love! Come, Jumonville, have your fortune told now,
to keep me in countenance. If the Doctor hits the truth for you I shall
believe in him for myself.”
“That is a good idea, Hortense,” replied Jumonville; “I long ago hung my
hat on the stars--let the Doctor try if he can find it.”
The Doctor, in great good humor, surveyed the dark, handsome face and
lithe, athletic figure of Jumonville de Villiers. He again raised his
cane with the gravity of a Roman pontifex, marking off his templum in
the heavens. Suddenly he stopped. He repeated more carefully his survey,
and then turned his earnest eyes upon the young soldier.
“You see ill-fortune for me, Doctor!” exclaimed Jumonville, with bright,
unflinching eyes, as he would look on danger of any kind.
“The Hyleg, or giver of life, is afflicted by Mars in the eighth house,
and Saturn is in evil aspect in the ascendant!” said the Doctor slowly.
“That sounds warlike, and means fighting I suppose, Doctor. It is a
brave fortune for a soldier. Go on!” Jumonville was in earnest now.
“The pars fortunae,” continued the Doctor, gazing upward, “rejoices in
a benign aspect with Venus. Fame, true love, and immortality will be
yours, Jumonville de Villiers; but you will die young under the flag of
your country and for sake of your King! You will not marry, but all the
maids and matrons of New France will lament your fate with tears, and
from your death shall spring up the salvation of your native land--how,
I see not; but decretum est, Jumonville, ask me no more!”
A thrill like a stream of electricity passed through the company. Their
mirth was extinguished, for none could wholly free their minds from
the superstition of their age. The good Doctor sat down, and wiped his
moistened eye-glasses. He would tell no more to-night, he said. He had
really gone too far, making jest of earnest and earnest of jest, and
begged pardon of Jumonville for complying with his humor.
The young soldier laughed merrily. “If fame, immortality, and true love
are to be mine, what care I for death? It will be worth giving up life
for, to have the tears of the maids and matrons of New France to lament
your fate. What could the most ambitious soldier desire more?”
The words of Jumonville struck a kindred chord in the bosom of Hortense
de Beauharnais. They were stamped upon her heart forever. A few years
after this prediction, Jumonville de Villiers lay slain under a flag of
truce on the bank of the Monongahela, and of all the maids and matrons
of New France who wept over his fate, none shed more and bitterer tears
than his fair betrothed bride, Hortense de Beauharnais.
The prediction of the Sieur Gauthier was repeated and retold as a
strangely true tale; it passed into the traditions of the people, and
lingered in their memory generations after the festival of Belmont was
utterly forgotten.
When the great revolt took place in the English Colonies, the death of
the gallant Jumonville de Villiers was neither forgotten nor forgiven by
New France. Congress appealed in vain for union and help from Canadians.
Washington's proclamations were trodden under foot, and his troops
driven back or captured. If Canada was lost to France partly through the
death of Jumonville, it may also be said that his blood helped to save
it to England. The ways of Providence are so mysterious in working out
the problems of national existence that the life or death of a single
individual may turn the scales of destiny over half a continent.
But all these events lay as yet darkly in the womb of the future. The
gallant Jumonville who fell, and his brother Coulon who took his “noble
revenge” upon Washington by sparing his life, were to-day the gayest of
the gay throng who had assembled to do honor to Pierre Philibert.
While this group of merry guests, half in jest, half in earnest, were
trying to discover in the stars the “far-reaching concords” that moulded
the life of each, Amélie led her brother away from the busy grounds near
the mansion, and took a quiet path that led into the great park which
they entered.
A cool salt-water breeze, following the flood tide that was coming up
the broad St. Lawrence, swept their faces as Amélie walked by the side
of Le Gardeur, talking in her quiet way of things familiar, and of home
interests until she saw the fever of his blood abate and his thoughts
return into calmer channels. Her gentle craft subdued his impetuous
mood--if craft it might be called--for more wisely cunning than all
craft is the prompting of true affection, where reason responds like
instinct to the wants of the heart.
They sat down upon a garden seat overlooking the great valley. None of
the guests had sauntered out so far, but Amélie's heart was full; she
had much to say, and wished no interruption.
“I am glad to sit in this pretty spot, Amélie,” said he, at last, for
he had listened in silence to the sweet, low voice of his sister as she
kept up her half sad, half glad monologue, because she saw it pleased
him. It brought him into a mood in which she might venture to talk of
the matter that pressed sorely upon her heart.
“A little while ago, I feared I might offend you, Le Gardeur,” said she,
taking his hand tenderly in hers, “if I spoke all I wished. I never did
offend you that I remember, brother, did I?”
“Never, my incomparable sister; you never did, and never could. Say
what you will, ask me what you like; but I fear I am unworthy of your
affection, sister.”
“You are not unworthy; God gave you as my only brother, you will never
be unworthy in my eyes. But it touches me to the quick to suspect others
may think lightly of you, Le Gardeur.”
He flinched, for his pride was touched, but he knew Amélie was right.
“It was weakness in me,” said he, “I confess it, sister. To pour wine
upon my vexation in hope to cure it, is to feed a fire with oil. To
throw fire into a powder magazine were wisdom compared with my folly,
Amélie: I was angry at the message I got at such a time. Angélique des
Meloises has no mercy upon her lovers!”
“Oh, my prophetic heart! I thought as much! It was Angélique, then, sent
you the letter you read at table?”
“Yes, who else could have moved me so? The time was ill-chosen, but I
suspect, hating the Bourgeois as she does, Angélique intended to call me
from Pierre's fête. I shall obey her now, but tonight she shall obey
me, decide to make or mar me, one way or other! You may read the letter,
Amélie, if you will.”
“I care not to read it, brother; I know Angélique too well not to fear
her influence over you. Her craft and boldness were always a terror to
her companions. But you will not leave Pierre's fête tonight?” added
she, half imploringly; for she felt keenly the discourtesy to Pierre
Philibert.
“I must do even that, sister! Were Angélique as faulty as she is fair, I
should only love her the more for her faults, and make them my own. Were
she to come to me like Herodias with the Baptist's head in a charger, I
should outdo Herod in keeping my pledge to her.”
Amélie uttered a low, moaning cry. “O my dear infatuated brother, it is
not in nature for a De Repentigny to love irrationally like that! What
maddening philtre have you drank, to intoxicate you with a woman who
uses you so imperiously? But you will not go, Le Gardeur!” added
she, clinging to his arm. “You are safe so long as you are with your
sister,--you will be safe no longer if you go to the Maison des Meloises
tonight!”
“Go I must and shall, Amélie! I have drank the maddening philtre,--I
know that, Amélie, and would not take an antidote if I had one! The
world has no antidote to cure me. I have no wish to be cured of love for
Angélique, and in fine I cannot be, so let me go and receive the rod
for coming to Belmont and the reward for leaving it at her summons!” He
affected a tone of levity, but Amélie's ear easily detected the false
ring of it.
“Dearest brother!” said she, “are you sure Angélique returns, or is
capable of returning, love like yours? She is like the rest of us, weak
and fickle, merely human, and not at all the divinity a man in his fancy
worships when in love with a woman.” It was in vain, however, for Amélie
to try to persuade her brother of that.
“What care I, Amélie, so long as Angélique is not weak and fickle to
me?” answered he; “but she will think her tardy lover is both weak and
fickle unless I put in a speedy appearance at the Maison des Meloises!”
He rose up as if to depart, still holding his sister by the hand.
Amélie's tears flowed silently in the darkness. She was not willing to
plant a seed of distrust in the bosom of her brother, yet she remembered
bitterly and indignantly what Angélique had said of her intentions
towards the Intendant. Was she using Le Gardeur as a foil to set off her
attractions in the eyes of Bigot?
“Brother!” said Amélie, “I am a woman, and comprehend my sex better than
you. I know Angélique's far-reaching ambition and crafty ways. Are you
sure, not in outward persuasion but in inward conviction, that she loves
you as a woman should love the man she means to marry?”
Le Gardeur felt her words like a silver probe that searched his heart.
With all his unbounded devotion, he knew Angélique too well not to feel
a pang of distrust sometimes, as she showered her coquetries upon every
side of her. It was the overabundance of her love, he said, but he
thought it often fell like the dew round Gideon's fleece, refreshing all
the earth about it, but leaving the fleece dry. “Amélie!” said he, “you
try me hard, and tempt me too, my sister, but it is useless. Angélique
may be false as Cressida to other men, she will not be false to me! She
has sworn it, with her hand in mine, before the altar of Notre Dame. I
would go down to perdition with her in my arms rather than be a crowned
king with all the world of women to choose from and not get her.”
Amélie shuddered at his vehemence, but she knew how useless was
expostulation. She wisely refrained, deeming it her duty, like a good
sister, to make the best of what she could not hinder. Some jasmines
overhung the seat; she plucked a handful, and gave them to him as they
rose to return to the house.
“Take them with you, Le Gardeur,” said she, giving him the flowers,
which she tied into a wreath; “they will remind Angélique that she has a
powerful rival in your sister's love.”
He took them as they walked slowly back. “Would she were like you,
Amélie, in all things!” said he. “I will put some of your flowers in her
hair to-night for your sake, sister.”
“And for her own! May they be for you both an augury of good! Mind and
return home, Le Gardeur, after your visit. I shall sit up to await your
arrival, to congratulate you;” and, after a pause, she added, “or to
console you, brother!”
“Oh, no fear, sister!” replied he, cheeringly. “Angélique is true as
steel to me. You shall call her my betrothed tomorrow! Good-by! And now
go dance with all delight till morning.” He kissed her and departed for
the city, leaving her in the ball-room by the side of the Lady de Tilly.
Amélie related to her aunt the result of her conversation with Le
Gardeur, and the cause of his leaving the fête so abruptly. The Lady de
Tilly listened with surprise and distress. “To think,” said she, “of
Le Gardeur asking that terrible girl to marry him! My only hope is, she
will refuse him. And if it be as I hear, I think she will!”
“It would be the ruin of Le Gardeur if she did, aunt! You cannot think
how determined he is on this marriage.”
“It would be his ruin if she accepted him!” replied the Lady de Tilly.
“With any other woman Le Gardeur might have a fair chance of happiness;
but none with her! More than one of her lovers lies in a bloody grave
by reason of her coquetries. She has ruined every man whom she has
flattered into loving her. She is without affection. Her thoughts are
covered with a veil of deceit impenetrable. She would sacrifice the
whole world to her vanity. I fear, Amélie, she will sacrifice Le Gardeur
as ruthlessly as the most worthless of her admirers.”
“We can only hope for the best, aunt; and I do think Angélique loves Le
Gardeur as she never loved any other.”
They were presently rejoined by Pierre Philibert. The Lady de Tilly and
Amélie apologized for Le Gardeur's departure,--he had been compelled to
go to the city on an affair of urgency, and had left them to make his
excuses. Pierre Philibert was not without a shrewd perception of the
state of affairs. He pitied Le Gardeur, and excused him, speaking most
kindly of him in a way that touched the heart of Amélie. The ball went
on with unflagging spirit and enjoyment. The old walls fairly vibrated
with the music and dancing of the gay company.
The music, like the tide in the great river that night, reached its
flood only after the small hours had set in. Amélie had given her
hand to Pierre for one or two dances, and many a friendly, many a half
envious guess was made as to the probable Chatelaine of Belmont.