THE SONG-BIRD'S NEST.
Joy seldom kills. Before the female figure, whose apparition at the
window had thrown the girl, so strangely fallen under O'Hara's
protection, into her second swoon, had time to trip down the stairs, the
attack had spent itself, even without the intervention of the
brandy-flask of him whose name was not Beelzebub. The sensitive creature
was smothered with kisses by her friend, the while the two male
observers of the situation looked on and at each other with a comical
stare of envy. The newcomer was a slender, willowy woman, of a
meridional cast of countenance--hair rich and dark in hue, features
proud and delicately chiselled, and complexion swarthy. She was tall in
stature and gracefully built, but rather inclined to the meagre, and
seemed as if she had aged before her time. She might not have been more
than twenty-three, but she looked as if verging on thirty, and yet there
was quite a youthful impetuosity in her manner, and springiness in her
movements, as she literally devoured her little friend in her embraces.
In the middle of this tantalizing greeting, he whom we shall call
Friezecoat, for want of an introduction, called out in his rough and
ready voice:
'Ho, ho, my pets! I protest against this, unless we lords of creation
are admitted into the arrangement.'
The brunette turned a look of chilling surprise at him, as if
questioning who was this intruder who spoke so familiarly. Then, holding
the little girl of the chestnut hair, whom she saluted as Song-bird, at
arm's-length, as if to examine the Song-bird's plumage, she exclaimed:
'Berthe, you little fool, why did you faint? How do you account for
coming home thus?'
The only answer Berthe made was to lean her head forward on her friend's
breast and burst into tears.
'How like that woman is to Marguerite _la modiste_!' whispered O'Hara to
Friezecoat. 'I'm not astonished at her she calls Berthe having mistaken
the body in the Morgue.'
'Oh, Caroline dear, then you are alive!' said little Berthe, at length
finding words amid her sobs.
'Alive!--yes, really alive, _ma mignonne_, and I shall be chastising you
presently to prove it, if you don't dry those tears. Why do you weep?'
'I went into the Morgue to see the body of a girl who had drowned
herself, and, oh! it was so like you; and then, you know, Caroline,
you've been away those three days.'
'And have I never been at Choisy-le-Roi for three days before?
Giddy--giddy girl, you've been to the Morgue. Don't tell this to the
grand-père.'
'Yes, and I have had such a fright. Don't frown, Caroline. I thought
'twas you I saw laid out, and when I awoke I was in a carriage with
those gentlemen, who have been very kind to me and brought me home.'
The brunette bowed graciously to Friezecoat and O'Hara, and said:
'I thank you infinitely, messieurs, for your kindness to my young
friend; and if you'll have the goodness to wait a little, I'll call my
grandfather, and he will thank you too, and pay for this vehicle.'
'Madame, you offend me,' said Friezecoat gruffly.
'Pardon,' said the brunette, colouring a deep red; 'I see I have made a
mistake. At least, gentlemen'--with an emphasis on the latter word--'you
will step up to our apartment until grandfather returns you thanks in
person.'
The four mounted by broad stairs to the third story, and entered a
small, lightsome chamber, neatly furnished. The scent of violets was in
the air. The window was draped with white curtains, the walls were hung
with engravings of military subjects, a cottage pianoforte lay open at
one side of the window, a comfortable armchair was set at the other,
while high in a wicker-cage a throstle fluttered in the rosy light
between. Plaster busts of the first and third Napoleons were set on
brackets, and flanked a large print of the Imperial House, from its
founder and Josephine, Marie Louise, the King of Rome, and Hortense
Beauharnais, down to the youthful Prince Imperial, in his uniform as
corporal of Grenadiers of the Guard.
After motioning them to seats, the girls disappeared into an inner room,
and almost immediately a tall, old man, with head held erect, white hair
and moustaches lending him a venerable appearance, the chocolate-coloured
ribbon of the St. Helena medal in his button-hole, stood in its doorway.
'Messieurs,' said the old man, advancing stiffly, 'you have been kind to
my grand-daughter, and I, Victor Chauvin, officer of the First Empire,
thank you. I am at your service for any duty you can ask me in return;'
and the rigid body was bent with soldierly angularity in what was
intended to be a very ceremonious bow.
'And we--that is, the men of our country--are always at the service of
distressed females without expecting or asking any return,' said
Friezecoat as formally.
'What countryman are you, sir?'
'We are Irish.'
O'Hara regarded Friezecoat with surprise. How had this bizarre personage
discovered his nationality? He forgot that he had heard him speak.
'Ah! lusty comrades as ever I met at assault on battery or bottle. I
knew some of them in the Legion in the Man's time,' said the old
soldier.
'The man--who was he?'
'Who was he? There was only one man in this century, and his name was
Napoleon. Sir, I'm afraid you've learned history from Père Loriquet;'
and the old soldier smiled.
'Yes, he was a man.'
'Sir, shake hands with me for that,' said Victor Chauvin, evidently
flattered. 'But you must let the old soldier show his gratitude for your
kindness to his child. I insist on it.'
'Well, if you will have it so, tell us why your grand-daughter is called
the Song-bird, and we're repaid?'
'Because she sings like the nightingale; no, that's too sad. Like a
canary; but that's a prisoner. I have it--like the morning-lark, for its
song, fresh and pure, goes up to God's gates! Berthe, enter.'
At the call, our young acquaintance, the traces of her recent
infirmities entirely removed, came radiantly into the room, smiling with
an arch smile.
'Berthe, my Song-bird, treat those gentlemen, who, you have told me,
have been so good to you, to a sample of your voice.'
'What shall I sing?' asked Berthe, approaching the piano.
'Sing the romance that friend Bénic wrote for you--_le Vieil
Irlandais_--for these gentlemen are from that brave and faithful land;
ay, brave and faithful, for it has known how to carry the sword without
taking the cross from its hilt.'
The girl skilfully passed her fingers over the instrument, executing a
tremulous prelude, and in a soft, sweet voice, trilled, to a pathetic
air, the following touching verses, the old soldier joining in at the
refrain which ended each:
Mon fils, écoute un vieillard centenaire.
Tu nais à peine et moi je vais mourir,
Fuis, sans retour, par l'exil volontaire,
Le sol ingrat qui ne peut te nourrir.
Sur ce navire, où la foule s'élance,
Tu vas vogeur vers les États-Unis;
Dans ces climats, au sein de l'abondance,
Vivent heureux vingt peuples réunis.
Des flots de l'Atlantique
Ne crains pas le courroux;
Émigré en Amérique,
Ton sort sera plus doux.
Au jour naissant tu commençais l'ouvrage,
Sous un ciel gris, pendant un rude hiver;
J'ai vu faiblir ta force et ton courage
A défricher les champs d'un duc et pair.
Jamais ses pas n'ont foulé son domaine,
Loin de l'Irlande il voyage en seigneur.
Infortuné, la disette est prochaine,
Quitte à jamais ce séjour du malheur.
Des flots, etc.
En cultivant des savanes fertiles,
Garde ta foi, si tu veux prospérer;
Fais tes adieux a nos sillons stériles;
Sans espérance il faut nous séparer.
Prends cet argent, fruit de longs sacrifices,
Au centenaire un peu de pain suffit,
La mer est belle, et les vents sont propices;
Pars, mon enfant, ton aiëul te bénit.
Des flots, etc.[11]
There were tears in the woman's soft voice, and when she finished there
were tears in the eyes of at least one of her listeners.
'Thanks, mademoiselle,' cried O'Hara, with emotion; 'thanks for that
little tribute to the sorrows and affection of poor Ireland. He who
wrote it knew the land, at least, in spirit.'
'He has never been there, sir, has not my friend, Laurent Bénic; he is
but a humble carpenter, but he has learned to love the green Erin, the
younger sister of our France, as I have.'
'Is that the Bénic who wrote "Robert Surcouf," a rattling corsair
ballad?' demanded Friezecoat.
'The same, sir.'
'Will you ask Mademoiselle Berthe to make me a copy of it, words and
music, and will you allow me to send her a present of some of our Irish
music in return?'
'Certainly; shall we not, Berthe?' Berthe smiled happily. 'And I'll ask
you, sir, to come to hear her play your country's music. He who has been
kind to the old soldier's grand-daughter is welcome to the old soldier's
hearth.'
Shortly afterwards the two Irishmen, who had made such a rare rencontre,
bade their farewells to the Frenchman and his grand-daughter, and left.
'He's a regular old brick, that Chauvin,' said Friezecoat on the
doorstep, 'and I'll remember that song to his grand-daughter. If she
wasn't my sister to-day, she may be something nearer some day.
Good-night.'
'You're going, and you've not told me----'
'Not to-night. Search the side-pocket of that coat, and you'll find
fifty francs in it. _Au revoir._'
And this strangest of strange characters jumped into the
hackney-carriage and disappeared by a street leading to the Panthéon,
leaving O'Hara in a brown study in the brown shadows of the Rue de la
Vieille Estrapade.
He was roused from his reverie by an affectionate whine, now become
familiar. It was the dog, forgotten when they entered the house, and who
had been lying patiently by its threshold. He returned the creature's
welcome with a caress, and determined, as he had fallen in with him so
curiously, and as he had shown so lively a sense of gratitude and
fidelity--much more than humanity usually permits itself to be betrayed
into--to take Pat back to his lodgings and adopt him. He did not fear
the Caudine forks now, for he had the grand passport, the jingling gold,
in his pocket, and the old pride returned to his port and the jovial
defiance to his eye. Gaily he strode down by the Rue Soufflot to the
Boulevard St. Michel--we believe he might even have been heard whistling
'Rory O'More,' to the huge delight of the dog, who capered at his
heels--until he reached the café of _la Jeune France_, where he came to
a dead stop on the pavement, as if debating something in his mind.
'No,' he said at last, 'I shan't go in; I'll see, for once, if I can
keep a good resolution when I have the means of breaking it. Egad, this
is a day of adventures for me. If half these things were written down
in a story, the world would say the author was a lunatic, or imagined he
was writing for fools!'
Not the least grateful surprise awaited him at his hotel in the Rue du
Four when he re-entered. It was a letter of credit for twenty pounds
from a debtor in Ireland, which the _concierge_, who knew the
handwriting, smilingly slipped into his fingers.