Marie Havet, _née_ Dupré, was much surprised and somewhat concerned
on the evening of the day upon which Louise had found, to her almost
uncontrollable joy and relief, that Henri was still alive and in Paris
when her sister, looking very grave and with signs of tears and past
agitation upon her face, drew her aside for a conversation, which, said
Louise, must be held absolutely in private. Marie's conscience instantly
smote her. She was going to be scolded for saying nothing about the
Baron's visit.
"Marie," Louise began, "you may have observed that I returned from
the war depressed, not joyous and elated as one returning home after
many perils and who has received certain honours and rewards might be
expected to be. Did it never occur to you and to my father that this was
so?"
"It occurred to both of us, sister, that you were naturally depressed,
that your career of success and glory should be already over and that
you must return to the ordinary dull routine of home and of the sex to
which you belong."
"You were mistaken in the reason, sister. I am tired to death of my
uniform, and of masquerading as a man. I shall thank God to be a woman
once more as the Seigneur created me. But that is another matter. My
depression was due to reasons very different. You may remember to have
seen here a certain Baron Henri d'Estreville."
Marie flushed and sat down. Her scolding was coming, then; Louise had
somehow heard of the Baron's visit. This was a matter Louise would not
easily forgive.
"Yes, I remember him. He came with Monsieur de Tourelle, the finest
fencer in Paris, who nevertheless was unable to have the better of our
little Louise."
"Bah!--let that pass. With this D'Estreville I fell in love, Marie--why,
there is no reason to look surprised. We are women both, you and I; you
were not ashamed to love and to marry, why should not I have loved?"
"It is true--it is true," Marie murmured.
"More strange is the fact that the Baron should have returned my love;
the darling of Paris, he had been called, Marie; every woman adored
him; yet he condescended to feel for me a different sentiment, a pure
and deep affection such as no other woman had hitherto inspired in him;
imagine it, Marie!"
"Dear Louise, it does not surprise me," said Marie, touched.
"Me, it surprises--delights--transforms. By this circumstance I have
been made to see clearly how poor a thing it is that a woman should
desire to masquerade as a man; so clearly that now--even though my
love-dream is over--I must return to my own sex. I shall never see Henri
again, Marie; he lies buried beneath the snows of Russia; I am widowed
before I am a wife."
"Louise, what are you saying? Do you imply that D'Estreville is dead,
that he died in the war? that----"
"Alas, there is little doubt. Why look you so, Marie? You have not heard
otherwise--alas! that is impossible--can you wonder that I returned
dejected from the war?"
"Poor Louise!" said Marie, and stopped to think very earnestly. Here was
a very difficult question set for her decision. Louise knew nothing,
after all, of Henri's visit; was not even aware that he was alive. Would
it be better to leave her in ignorance, for her career's sake, or for
her heart's sake tell her the good news? There was no doubt as to which
alternative old Dupré would choose were he to be asked for his opinion.
Marie was proud of her sister's career as a soldier and honestly sorry
that it should end, thus, at its beginning. The Emperor would see to it
that a new war should follow quickly upon the disastrous campaign just
ended; Louise would have plenty of opportunity to rise.
But Louise seemed to have wearied of "masquerading"; she desired to be
a woman once more; she had become transformed by love. Would this phase
pass and ambition for a soldier's glory dawn again at the first bugle
call?
"You will forget your sorrow, maybe," she ventured, "when the trumpet
sounds for a new war, which will be soon enough; you will desire to
return where glory awaits you."
"Not so, sister; I have done with glory; it is love that I want. I will
tell you a secret; when I became substitute for Karl it was indeed in
part for your sake, that you might be spared the pain of separation;
but there was another motive besides, for I desired to go where Henri
went--ah! I deceived you, Marie; forgive me; it is a devilish thing
when sisters deceive one another!"
Marie felt very uncomfortable.
"Sometimes it is not possible--for the sake of others to tell the whole
truth," she stammered. "We both have my father to consider, Louise. You
could not well have confessed to him this other motive."
"No, you are wrong; it is cowardly to deceive thus; it would have been
better if I had braved my father from the first, as you did, sister; you
were braver than I and more honest; you made no pretence in the matter
of your love for Karl; I think it is not in your nature to deceive. If
Henri had lived I should have married him, Marie, and you should have
assisted me to persuade my father to forgive me." Louise looked keenly
at her sister; Marie felt her eyes penetrate to her very soul.
"Louise, you kill me with these words, say not another one, it is
needless. I am on your side, sister. It is true that we withheld the
truth from you--oh yes, I perceive that you know all; like my father, I
was proud of your success and thought only of your career, also--before
Heaven I thought and hoped you had forgotten Henri; if it is not so and
you still love him----"
"Yes, I still love him, Marie--what would you have, does one forget love
so quickly? I would exchange all the military glory in the world for
one kiss from his lips. My father is mad and you were mad, sister; do
you think Henri could be alive and in Paris and I not know? You shall
help me to prepare my father's mind, Marie, for whether he approves or
disapproves, I must go my own way in this matter!"
"But I deceived you, Louise--am I forgiven?" cried Marie, ashamed and
distressed to realise how poor a part she had played in this comedy.
Louise took her sister in her arms and kissed her--the first embrace
these two had exchanged for many a year. "There," she laughed; "you see
how true it is that I am a woman again; as for forgiving--bah!--there
is a great deal of my father's madness in you, sister; in your heart
of hearts you are as anxious as he for my career and as disappointed
as he will be that I have so fallen away from your high ideals as to
have fallen in love. Be comforted, Marie--you deceived me with the best
motives, no harm has come of it, and you have confessed in time to save
your soul and preserve my respect--_eh bien!_ all is well!"
Nevertheless Marie approached her father with considerable trepidation
when the moment came to speak of this matter of Louise; for Marie had
stipulated that, as punishment for her offence, the task should be left
to her.
"Father," she said, "we have been mistaken, you and I. We had hoped
and we believed that my sister Louise ceased to exist from the day of
conscription, but alas! I have discovered that Louise lives, it is
Michel Prevost who has ceased to exist."
"What mean you?" said the old man, frowning.
"It is this Baron d'Estreville, she has seen him, my father; it has been
as you feared. She has spoken to me of him. She loves him."
"_Sapristi!_ it is impossible! That any one should love a man more than
honour and glory and a career--_cent mille diables!_--it is impossible!"
"It is true--she is a woman, what would you have? it is better to
recognise the fact, father; it is not her fault. I too found that I was
a woman, and you forgave me."
"That was different. You were always a fool, Marie; but here was one
after my own heart, a woman, by misfortune of birth, but able to put
the best of men to shame. And a fine career well begun! We will argue
with her, Marie, she shall be wise. Stay--yes, that is better--I will
pick a quarrel with this fool, and call him out. _Sapristi!_ my old arm
is still strong enough to slice the rogue; let him but show his face
here once again--he shall be taught that----"
"It is useless, my father; Louise will have her own way; she is man
enough for that! What matters is that we have deceived the Baron and
that she will know it."
"_Mon Dieu_, let her know it--what then? Am I ashamed that I would
defend her from that which strikes at her true advantage? God forbid.
Let him know also or not know, what care I?"
"They have met and it is certain that she knows we have hidden the truth
from him."
"Good! let him know it also. If he is an honourable man he will not
sit still under so vile a deception. _Sapristi_, I have lied to him;
let him call me out!" Old Dupré laughed aloud, delighted with his own
astuteness. His eyes were aflame with the light of battle. "Thanks be to
Heaven!" he said, "I shall fight one more duel before I die!"
From this bellicose attitude Marie found herself quite unable to move
her father. On the contrary, he seemed so delighted with the situation
in which he now found himself that he would speak to her of little else
than this, and Marie found that she had, after all, rendered her sister
no more signal a service than to place within the category of possible
things that which assuredly neither of them would until this day have
contemplated as in any degree likely, a duel between old Dupré and the
lover of his daughter. Moreover, to the astonishment of his assistants,
old Pierre forthwith arrayed himself for the arena and practised his
fencing with each in turn until his limbs were so stiff with the
unwonted exercise that he could hold his foil no longer.
"_Mais_, Monsieur!" exclaimed Havet, perspiring with the exertion to
which the old man's unexpected activity had condemned him, "you are as
skilful and as nimble as a youth of thirty."
"Aha! you find me so? _Sapristi_, that is well, _mon ami_. After a few
days you will find me invincible, and that is well also, for, _entre
nous_, there is hope that I shall be called out. _Imaginez, mon enfant!_
another fight before I die! Truly, Heaven is kind to me!"
Old Pierre did not think Heaven quite so kind on the morrow, however,
when he discovered that his limbs were so stiff that he was unable to
get out of his bed. But this circumstance did not in the least affect
his spirit or quench the enthusiasm with which he looked forward to the
fight which he had now persuaded himself to regard as inevitable.