MILADI AND M. DESTOURNIER
"But what are you to do with this nice house? Why, the Governor's is
hardly better. Will you live here and not at the post? And how pretty
the furnishings are?"
Rose's face was wreathed in smiles, and the dimples played hide-and-seek
in a most entrancing manner.
"Yes, I am to live here. And you, and Wanamee, and Nugava, and----"
She clapped her hands and jumped up and down, she pirouetted around with
grace and lightness that would have enchanted the King of La Belle
France. Where did she get this wonderful harmony of movement. His eyes
followed her in admiration. She paused. "And what part is to be given to
me?"
"This. And Wanamee will have the room between, to be within call."
His cheek flushed. How was he to get his secret told?
"And this will be yours, M'sieu. I know it on account of the books. And
I can come in here and you shall teach me to read some of the new
things. I have been very naughty and lazy, have I not. But in the
winter one cannot roam about. Oh, how delightful it will be!"
She looked up out of such clear, happy eyes. How could he destroy her
delight--he knew it would.
"There will be some one else here," he began.
"Not Pere Jamay. He is with Madame a good deal. I do not like his sour
face when he frowns upon me. And--oh, you will not have me sent to
France and put in a convent. I would kill myself first."
"No, no. It is not the priest. I am not over in love with him myself. It
is some one sweet and pretty, and that you love----"
"That I love"--wonderingly.
He took both her hands in his.
"Rose," with tender gravity, "I am going to marry Madame Giffard."
She stiffened up and looked straight at him, the glow on her cheek
fading to marble paleness.
"_Petite_, you did love her dearly. You will love her again for my sake.
No, you shall not go away in this angry mood. Do you not wish me to be
happy?"
"Miladi belongs to her husband, who is dead. When she goes to heaven he
will be there, and you two--well, one must give up. Do you not remember
that Osaka murdered his wife because she went away from him and married
another brave?"
He was amused at her passion.
"I will give her up then. It is only for this life. And she needs some
one to care for her. Why are you so opposed to it, when you used to
love her? She will be like a mother to you."
"I do not want any mother," proudly. "And she does not love me now. Oh,
one can feel it just like a blast of unfriendly wind. And when she has
you she will not care for any one else."
"But I can care for you both. You know you belong to me. And sometime,
when new people cross the ocean, some brave, fine young fellow will love
you and want to marry you."
"I will not marry him."
"Oh, my little girl, be reasonable. We shall all be happy here together.
And you will grow up to womanhood and learn many things that will please
you and be of great service. And will go to France some day----"
"I will not go anywhere with her. Unclasp my hands. I do not belong to
you any more, to no one, I am----"
She burst into a passion of weeping. In spite of her struggles he
clasped her to his heart and kissed the throbbing temples, that seemed
as if they would burst.
"Oh, Rose, my little one, whom I love as a child, and always shall love,
listen to me and be comforted."
"She will not let you love me. She will want me to be sent to France and
be put in a convent. Father Jamay said that was what I needed. Oh, you
will see!"
The sobs seemed to rend her small body. He could feel the beating of her
heart and all his soul was moved with pity, although he knew her grief
was unreasonable.
"And you are willing to make me very unhappy, to spoil all my pleasure
in the new home. Oh, my child, I hardly thought that of you."
She made another struggle and freed herself. She stood erect, it seemed
as if she had grown inches. "You may be happy with her," she said, with
a dignity that would have been amusing if it had not been sad, and then
she dashed out of the room.
He sat down and leaned his elbow on the table, his head on his hand. He
had gathered from several things miladi had suggested, that she was
rather indifferent to the child, but he did not surmise that Rose had
felt and understood it. No one had a better right than he, since in all
probability her parentage would remain unknown. He would not relinquish
her. She should be a daughter to him. He realized that he had a curious
love for the child, that she had attracted him from the first. In the
years to come her beauty and winsomeness would captivate a husband, with
the dowry he could give her.
For several days he saw very little of her. He was busy and miladi was
exigent. Rose wandered about, sometimes to the settlement, watching the
busy women dressing skins, making garments, cutting fringes, and
embroidering wampum for the braves. The tawny children played about, the
small papooses, strapped in their cases of bark, blinked and
occasionally uttered wearisome cries. Or she rowed about in her canoe,
often with Pani, for the river current was rather treacherous. Then she
scudded through the woods like a deer, winding in and out of the stately
columns that were here silver-gray, there white; beech and birch, dark
hemlocks, that not having space to branch out, grew up tall with a head
almost like a palm. Insects hummed and shrilled, or whirred like a tiny
orchestra. Now and then a bird flung out a strain of melody, squirrels
ran about, and the doe came and put its nose in her hand. She had tied a
strip of skin, colored red, about its neck, that no one might shoot it.
The rich, deep moss cushioned the ground. Occasionally an acorn fell.
She would sit here in dreamy content by the hours, often just enjoying,
sometimes puzzling her brains over all the mysteries that in the years
to come education would solve. So few could read, indeed books were only
for the few.
Then she ran up and down the rocks, hid in the nooks, came out again in
dryad fashion. She had been wont to laugh and make echoes ring about,
but now her heart, in spite of all she could do, was not light enough
for that. Wanamee was sore troubled by her reticence, for she was too
proud to make any complaint. Indeed, she did not know what to complain
of. In her childish heart everything was vague, she could not reason,
she could only feel that something had been snatched out of her life and
set in another's. She would henceforth be lonely.
"Miladi wants to see you," said Wanamee one morning. "She wonders why
you do not run in as you used. And she has something joyful to tell
you."
Rose shut her lips tightly together and stamped on the floor.
"Oh, _ma petite_, you have guessed then! Or, perhaps M'sieu told you.
Miladi is to marry him, and they are to go to the nice new house he is
building. They are to take you and me and Pani. And he will have the two
Montagnais, who have been his good servants. We shall get out of this
old, tumble-down post station, and be near the Heberts. Then M'sieu is
getting such a nice big wheat field and garden."
Rose was drawing long breaths. She would not cry or utter a complaint.
Wanamee approached her, holding out both hands.
"Do not touch me," she entreated, in a passionate tone. "Do not say
anything more. When I am a little tranquil I will go and see her. I know
what she wants me to say--that I am glad. There is something just here
that keeps me from being glad," and she pressed her hands tightly over
her heart. "I do not know what it is."
"Surely you are not jealous of miladi? They are grown-up people. And
M'sieu told her yesterday--I heard them talking--that you were to be a
child to them, that they would both love you. Miladi has been irritable,
and not so gay as she used, but she is better now, and will soon be her
olden self. She was very nice and cheerful this morning, and laughed
with the joy of other days. Oh, child, do not disturb it by any
tempers."
Wanamee's eyes were soft and entreating.
"Oh, you need not fear," the child exclaimed, proudly. "Now I will go."
She tapped at miladi's door, and a very sweet voice said--"Come, little
stranger."
She opened it. Miladi was sitting by the small casement window, in one
of her pretty silken gowns, long laid by. There was a dainty rose flush
on her cheek, but the hand she held out was much thinner than of yore,
when in the place of knuckles there were dimples.
"Where have you been all these days when I have not seen you, little
maid? Come here and kiss me, and wish me joy, as they do in old France.
For I am going to take your favorite as a husband, and you are to be our
little daughter."
Rose lifted up her face. The kiss was on her forehead.
"Now, kiss me," and she touched the small shoulder with something like a
shake, as she offered her cheek.
It was a cold little kiss from lips that hardly moved. Miladi laughed
with a pretty, amused ripple.
"In good sooth," she said merrily, "some lover will teach you to kiss
presently. Thou art growing very pretty, Rose, and when some of the
gallants come over from Paris, they will esteem the foundling of Quebec
the heroine of romance."
The child did not flush under the compliment, or the sting, but glanced
down on the floor.
"Come, thou hast not wished me joy."
"Madame, as I have not been to France I do not know how they wish joy."
"Oh, you formal little child!" laughing gayly. "Do you not know what it
is to be happy? Why, you used to be as merry as the birds in singing
time."
"I can still be merry with the birds."
"But you must be merry for M. Destournier. He wishes you to be happy,
and has asked me to be a mother to you. Why, I fell in love with you
long ago, when you were so ill. And surely you have not forgotten when I
found you on the gallery, in a dead faint. You were grateful for
everything then."
Had she loved miladi so much? Why did she not love her now? Why was her
heart so cold? like lead in her bosom.
"I am grateful for everything."
"Then say you are glad I am going to marry M. Ralph, who loves me
dearly."
"Then I shall be glad you are to marry him. But I am sorry for M.
Giffard, in his lonely grave."
"Oh, horrors, child! Do you think I ought to be buried in the same
grave? There, run away. You give me the shivers."
Rose made a formal little courtesy, and walked slowly out of the room,
with a swelling heart.
Miladi told of the scene to her lover daintily, and with some
embellishments, adding--"She is a jealous little thing. You will be
between two fires."
"The fires will not scorch, I think," smiling. "She will soon outgrow
the childish whim."
In his secret heart there was a feeling of joy that he had touched such
depths in the little girl's soul. Miladi was rather annoyed that he had
not agreed to send her to some convent in France, as she hoped. But in a
year or two she might choose it for herself.
They went up to the chapel to be married. The Governor gave the bride
away. She was gowned just as Rose had seen her that first time, only she
was covered with a fine deerskin cloak, that she laid aside as they
walked up the aisle, rather scandalizing the two Recollet fathers. She
looked quite like a girl, and it was evident she was very happy.
Then they had a feast in the new house, and it was the first occasion of
real note there had been in Quebec. Rose was very quiet and reserved
among the grown folks, though M. de Champlain found time to chat with
her, and tell her that now she had found real parents.
After this there was a busy season preparing for the winter, as usual,
drying and preserving fruits, taking up root vegetables and storing
them, gathering nuts, and getting in grains of all kinds. Now they kept
pigs alive until about midwinter, and tried to have fresh game quite
often. The scurvy was practically banished.
As for Rose, the marriage made not so much difference. She was let very
much alone, and rambled about as she listed, until the snows came.
Occasionally she visited Marie, but everything was in a huddle in the
small place, and the chimney often smoked when the wind was east. But
Marie seemed strangely content and happy. Or she went to the Gaudrions,
which she really liked, even if the babies did tumble over her.
She went sometimes to the classes the Governor's wife was teaching, and
translated to the Indian children many things it was difficult for them
to understand.
Madame de Champlain would say--"Child, thou ought to be in the service
of the good God and His Virgin Mother. He has given thee many
attractions, but they are to be trained for His work, not for thy own
pleasure. We are not to live a life of ease, but to deny ourselves for
the sake of the souls of those around us."
"I think oftentimes, Madame, they have no souls," returned the daring
girl. "They seem never able to distinguish between the true God and
their many gods. And if they are ill they use charms. Their religion, I
observe, makes them very happy."
"There are many false things that please the carnal soul. That is what
we are to fight against. Oh, child, I am afraid the evil one desires
thee strongly. Thou shouldst go to confession, as we do at home, and
accept the penances the good priests put upon thee."
Confession had not made much headway with these children of the new
world. Father Jamay, to his great disgust, found they would tell almost
anything, thinking to please him with a multitude of sins, and they went
off to forget their penance. So it was not strongly insisted upon.
Madame de Champlain was a devote. In her secret heart she longed for the
old convent life. Still she was deeply interested in the plans of the
Recollet fathers, who were establishing missions among the Hurons and
the Nipissings, and learning the languages. She gave generously of her
allowance, and denied herself many things; would, indeed, have given up
more had her husband allowed it.
Captain Pontgrave came in to spend the winter, brave and cheerful,
though he had lost his only son. While the men exchanged plans for the
future, and smoked in comfort, Madame was often kneeling on a flat stone
she had ordered sent to her little convent-like niche, praying for the
salvation of the new world to be laid at the foot of God's throne, and
to be a glory to old France. But the court of old France was revelling
in pleasure and demanding furs for profit.
Destournier occasionally joined the conclave. His heart and soul were in
this new land and her advancement, but his wife demanded his company
most of his evenings. She sat in her high-backed chair wrapped in furs
listening to his reading aloud or appearing to, though she often drowsed
off. But there was another who drank in every word, if she did not quite
understand. The wide stone chimney gave out its glowing fire of great
logs, sometimes hemlock branches that diffused a grateful fragrance
around the room. On a sort of settle, soft with folds of furs, Rose
would stretch out gracefully, or curl up like a kitten, and with
wide-open eyes turn her glance from the fascinating fire to the reader's
face, repeating in her brain the sentences she could catch. Sometimes it
was poetry, and then she fairly revelled in delight.
After a few weeks she seemed to accept the fact of the marriage with
equanimity, but she grew silent and reserved. She understood there was a
secret animosity between herself and miladi, even if they were outwardly
agreeable. She had gathered many pretty and refined ways from Madame de
Champlain, or else they were part of the unknown birthright. She had
turned quite industrious as well, the winter day seemed dreary when one
had no employment. She read a good deal too, she could understand the
French, and occasionally amused herself translating.
When the spring opened the Governor and several others went to the new
trading post and town, Mont Real. There really seemed more advantages
here than at Quebec. There was a long stretch of arable land, plenty of
fruit trees, if they were wild; a good port, and more ease in catching
the traders as they came along. There, too, stray Indians often brought
in a few choice furs, which they traded for various trifles, exchanging
these again for rum.
Rose drew a long breath of delight when the spring fairly opened, and
she could fly to her olden haunts. Oh, how dear they were! Though now
she often smuggled one of M. Ralph's books and amused herself reading
aloud until the woods rang with the melodious sounds.
Miladi liked a sail now and then on the river, when it was tranquil. She
did not seem to grow stronger, though she would not admit that she was
ill. She watched Rose with a curious half-dread. She was growing tall,
but her figure kept its lithe symmetry. Out in the woods she sometimes
danced like a wild creature. Miladi had been so fond of dancing in M.
Giffard's time, but now it put her out of breath and brought a pain to
her side. She really envied the bright young creature in the grace and
rosiness of perfect health.
This summer a band of Jesuits came to the colony. They received a rather
frigid welcome from the colonists, but the Recollets, convinced that
they were making very slow advance in so large a field, opened their
convent to them, and assisted them in getting headquarters of their own.
And the church in Quebec began to take shape, it was such a journey to
the convent services at the St. Charles river.
There followed a long, cold winter. Miladi was housed snug and warm, but
she grew thinner, so that her rings would not stay on her slim fingers.
There had been troubles with the Indians and at times M. Destournier was
obliged to be away, and this fretted her sorely.
There was a great conclave at Three Rivers, to make a new treaty of
peace with several of the tribes. A solemn smoking of pipes, passing of
wampum, feasts and dances. And then, as usual, the influx of traders.
Madame de Champlain desired to return to France with her husband, who
was to sail in August. The rough life was not at all to her taste.
"Oh," said miladi, eagerly, when she heard this, "let us go, too. I am
tired of these long, cold winters. I was not made for this kind of life.
If M. Giffard had lived a year longer he would have had a competency;
and then we should have returned home. Surely you have made money."
"But mine is not where I can take it at a month's notice. I have been
building on my plantation, weeding out some incompetent and drunken
tenants, and putting in others. Pontgrave is going. Du Pare is much at
the new settlement at Beaupre. It would not be possible for me to go,
but you might."
"Go alone?" in dismay.
"It would not be alone. Madame de Champlain would be glad of your
company."
"A woman who has no other thought but continual prayers, and anxieties
for the souls of the whole world."
"Another year----"
"I want to go now"--impatiently.
She was like a fretful child. He looked in vain now for the charms she
had once possessed.
"I could not possibly. It would be at a great loss. And I am not
enamored of the broils and disputes. How do I know but some charge may
be trumped up against me? The fur company seize upon any pretext. And
even a brief absence might ruin some of my best plans. Marguerite, I am
more of a Canadian than a Frenchman. The Sieur has promised to interest
some new emigrants. I see great possibilities ahead of us."
"So you have talked always. I am homesick for La Belle France. I want no
more of Canada, of Quebec, that has grown hateful to me."
Her voice was high and tremulous, and there burned a red spot on each
cheek.
"Then let me send you. You should stay a year to recuperate, and I may
come for you."
"I will take Rose."
"If she wishes. But I will not have her put in a convent."
"She is like a wild deer. Do you mean to marry her to some half-breed?
There seems no one else. The men who come on business leave wives
behind. There is no one to marry."
"You found some one," he returned good-naturedly, smoothing her fair
hair.
"Can you find another?"
"She is but a child. There need to be no hurry."
"She has outgrown childhood. To be sure, there is Pierre Gaudrion, who
hangs about awkwardly, now and then."
"She will never marry Pierre Gaudrion. She is of too fine stuff."
"A foundling! Who knows aught about her? Most Frenchmen like a well-born
mother for their children."
"She is in no haste for a husband. But do not let us dispute about her.
You excite yourself too much. Think seriously of this project. The Sieur
will see you safely housed when once you are there."
He turned and went out. She fell into a violent fit of weeping. She
could coax anything out of Laurent, poor Laurent, who might have been
alive to-day but for the friendship he thought he owed M. Destournier.
And they might now be in Paris, where there were all sorts of gay
goings-on. This life was too stupid for a woman, too cold, too lonely.
And a wife should be a husband's first thought. Ralph was cold and
cruel, and had grown stern, almost morose.
He walked over to the plantation. By one of the log huts Rose stood
talking to an Indian woman. Yes, she was no longer a child. She was tall
and shapely, full of vigor, glowing with health, radiant in coloring,
yes, beautiful. There was much of the olden time about her in the smiles
and dimples and eagerness, though she was grave in miladi's presence.
Yet neither was she a woman. The virginal lines had not wholly filled
out, but there was a promise of affluence that neither my lady nor the
Madame possessed. For the lovely Helene had devote written in every line
of her face, a rapt expression, that seemed to lift her above the
ordinary world. The souls of those she came in contact with were the
great thing. And though the Sieur was a good Catholic, he was also of
the present world, and its advancement, and had always been inspired
with the love of an explorer, and of a full, free life. He could never
have been a priest. He had the right view of colonization, too. Homes
were to be made. Men and women were to be attached to the soil to make
it yield up the bountiful provision hidden in its mighty breast.
And miladi! There had been so few women in his life that he knew nothing
of contrast, or analysis. Some of the men took Indian wives for a year
or so: that had never appealed to him. He had been charmed by Madame
Giffard from the very first meeting with her, but she was another man's
wife, and she loved her husband. The pretty coquetries were a part of
the civilized world over in France and meant only a graceful desire to
please. Then in her sorrow he pitied her profoundly, and felt that he
owed her the highest and most sacred duty.
But as he studied Rose now, and thought of a suggested lover in Pierre
Gaudrion, his whole soul rose in revolt. And the other thought of
sending her away was equally distasteful. Why, she was the light and
sweetness of the settlement. In a different fashion, she captured the
hearts of the Indian women, and taught them the love of home-making,
roused in some of them intelligence. How did she come by it? There was
Wanamee.
He did not dream that he had awakened a desire for knowledge in the
girl's breast and brain. But she had gone beyond him in the lore of the
sea and the sky, and the romance of the trees, that to him were
promising materials for houses and boats. They were her friends. She
could translate the soft murmur that ran through their leaves, or the
sweet, wild whistle of the wind that blew in from the river or down from
the high hills,--from the ice and snow of the fur country. And sometimes
he had seen her run races with the foaming river, where it whirled and
eddied and fretted against a spur of the mighty rocks. All her life,
from the day he found her on the rocks, seemed to pass before him in one
great flash. He exulted that she belonged to no one, that he had the
best right to her. He could not have told why. Heaven had denied him a
child of his very own, and he had learned that miladi considered babies
a wearisome burthen, fit only for peasants and Indian women.
Did the saintly and beautiful Helene think so as well? he wondered. He
had learned a good deal about womankind since his marriage, but he made
a grand mistake, he had learned only about one woman; and she was not
the noblest of her kind.
Rose turned suddenly and saw him in that half-waiting attitude. There
was little introspection, or analysis, in those days; people simply
lived, felt without understanding. She had outgrown her first feeling of
aversion. In a vague fashion she realized that miladi needed protection
and care that no one but M. Destournier could give her. She was sorry
she could not ramble about, that she never brightened up, and sung and
danced any more. And this was why she, Rose, did not want to grow old
and give up the delights of vivid, enchanting exercise.
Why miladi was captious and changeful, never of the same mind twice, she
could not understand. What suited her to-day bored her to-morrow. She
gave up trying to please, though she was generally ready and gracious.
But she remarked it was the same way with M. Ralph, and he bore the
captiousness with so sweet a temper that she felt moved to emulate him.
In the depths of her heart there was a great pity, and it was sweet to
him, though neither ever adverted to it.