THE SILENT POOL
I
The woods were unusually still. Not a sound broke the delicious hush
which lay over this summer's morning, when Fernande de Courson made her
way stealthily through the tangled undergrowth, avoiding the trodden
paths and the clearings, flitting in and out among the trees like some
young elf at play. The mischievous light which was scarcely ever wholly
absent from her eyes was more apparent to-day than it had ever been
before. She was wearing a white dress; her arms and shoulders were bare,
and on her way she had gathered an armful of bluebells, there where they
grew thickest with long stalks and giant bells, on the fringe of the
wood.
It was still very early in the morning, so early that the bluebells were
dripping with dew, and the sun came slanting in through the trees,
making the vivid green of tiny elm and birch leaves gleam like emeralds
and suffusing the gummy tips of the young chestnut with a vivid crimson
glow. The carpet of last year's leaves made a soft swishing sound under
the girl's feet; from the branches overhead the birds peeped down on the
intruder with quaint inquisitiveness in their tiny, beady eyes, and now
and then there would come a louder rustle, a murmur through the trees as
a frightened squirrel hopped from bough to bough, fleeing at the
approach of the human foe. But the human foe, clad all in white, and
with the morning sun touching her fair curls with living gold, did not
pause in order to gaze up at white-throat or finch; she did not hearken
to the call of the mating linnet, nor did she watch the squirrels in
their flight. She had heard something last night which had caused her to
rise very early this morning and to start out for a walk in the woods,
armed with a sheaf of bluebells and a very arsenal of feminine wiles.
A week had gone by since she had pledged her faith that she would make
the untamed bear of La Vieuville dance to her piping. Since then she had
quietly but with marvellous perseverance studied the ground whereon she
desired to lay her trap for the catching of the unwary beast. During
that week she had had to endure some ridicule from her father, a few
gibes from her aunt, and renewed scowls from Laurent. But she was not to
be deterred, and none of her kinsfolk--not even Laurent--had the least
idea what was going on in that young head, nor what mischief was brewing
behind the mocking glance of her blue eyes.
Fernande de Courson had spent that week trying to find out something
definite about "the General's" habits and movements during the day. That
had been an easy task. Anyone in the district could have told her that
the hero of Austerlitz and Hohenlinden, and of a hundred other fights,
toiled down from the Château of La Vieuville up on the height to his
foundries in the valley below, every morning at seven o'clock, and
returned home again every evening at nine. That he took a short cut
across the fields between the edge of the wood and the foundry, walking
rather slowly across the rough ground, and dragging his wounded leg
slightly toward the end of his journey.
Any one could have told Fernande de Courson that Ronnay de Maurel could
be found every day and all day, either in one of the workshops or else
in the small office which he had fitted out for himself, and from whence
he supervised the administration of his huge estate and of the works
which supplied the Emperor's army with the material wherewith to conquer
the world and subjugate the enemies of France. Any one, too, could have
added that when "the General" was not at the foundry, he was sitting in
the back kitchen of the Château of La Vieuville, trying to cheer in his
rough way the monotonous hours of a confirmed invalid.
All these facts Fernande had learned in four-and-twenty hours. It took
her a week to find out something more. That something was the fact that
"the General" was mightily fond of shooting, and that during the winter
he had often been seen with a gun on his shoulder and a dog at his
heels, at break of day, roaming through the moors and forests of La
Frontenay, dragging his wounded leg at the close of two or three hours'
hard tramping, and often returning with a young deer slung across his
shoulders, or a few snipe, or pheasant, or golden plover swinging round
his belt. But in the springtime of the year, when the close season set
in and the gun had to be laid aside, M. de Maurel did not discontinue
his wanderings, and there were many who averred that at break of day
"the General" could still be seen wending his way towards the woods, his
dog at his heels, his breakfast in his wallet. People said that he was
overfond of pushing as far as the silent pool, which was close to the
boundary that separated the domain of La Frontenay from that of Courson.
"They say that his heart is always with the army," so Fernande's
informer told her, "and that he goes daily to the silent pool, in order
to listen if the pigeons of St. Front are cooing--for, indeed, 'tis a
sure sign, Mademoiselle, that if the pigeons coo, great sorrow or
disaster, or even death, awaits the one who hears them; and to the
General sorrow and disaster to himself only means sorrow and disaster to
the Emperor. They say that he sits for hours beside the pool, and if he
does not hear the pigeons, he goes away satisfied."
It was in Villemor itself that Fernande had gleaned this information.
She had driven in one day in Père Lebrun's carriole, sitting upon the
pile of vegetables which he was taking into the town. Père Lebrun was a
cultivator who owned a bit of land of his own whereon he grew cabbages
which he sold when and how he could; he also owned an old nag and a
broken-down carriole, and once a week--when the weather was
propitious--he drove into Villemor--a matter of eight kilomètres--and
combined pleasure with business, by going to see his sister, who lived
in the village of La Vieuville, on the way to Villemor. This Fernande
learned while she sat on the pile of Père Lebrun's cabbages. She had
desired to be driven into the town for the sake of a few commissions
which she had to do there; but thoughts of Ronnay de Maurel were never
absent from her mind now, and as soon as the pointed roofs of La
Vieuville came in sight, she led Père Lebrun to talk of the inmates of
the old château. And Père Lebrun was as ready for gossip as is a peach
to fall from the tree when it is ripe. One word set him going, and he
had a great deal to tell of old M. Gaston's eccentricities and
miserliness, as well as of "the General" and his queer, rough ways. But
though he spoke much, he could only quote hearsay, and Fernande was
waxing impatient, when Lebrun suddenly told her that his sister Adèle
Lapin did the ménage daily at the château, and that all his information
about the two eccentric dwellers thereof came from her.
Whereupon Fernande discovered that her commissions in the town would
easily keep for another day, and, moreover, that riding in a carriole on
the top of a pile of cabbages made her sick. She demanded to be put down
at the door of Mme. Adèle Lapin, declaring that she would wait there
until Père Lebrun had finished his business in Villemor and came to pick
her up at his sister's house before driving back to Courson.
The result of this change of plans was a wealth of information gleaned
from Mme. Adèle's voluble talk. She knew all about old M. Gaston, who,
indeed, was very ill, and all about "the General," who was as savage, as
morose and as shy as a bear. But Lapin, her husband, worked at a farm
the other side of the La Frontenay woods, and when he went to his work
at break of day, he nearly always met M. Ronnay tramping through the
thickets, and once or twice he had seen him sitting beside the silent
pool. Other people had seen him, too, and they said that he sat so still
that undoubtedly he was listening for the cooing of the pigeons of St.
Front.
And Fernande de Courson drove home that afternoon in Père Lebrun's
carriole feeling like a soldier on the eve of battle. She hardly spoke
to anyone the whole of that evening, and Laurent had serious cause to
complain of her lack of responsiveness. She pleaded fatigue from her
expedition and went early to bed. But the next morning she was up
betimes and tramping soon after sunrise in the direction of the woods of
La Frontenay.
II
Women have often, as a sex, been comprehensively accused of not being
truthful--of being full of deceit or at best of guile. It is averred
that women will stoop to ways and means for gaining their own ends which
men will disdain to utilize for theirs. Be that as it may, this
chronicle, not being a dissertation, nor yet an argument one way or the
other, but a faithful transcription of events, it behoves us to say that
Fernande de Courson did sprain her ankle just as she was skirting the
silent pool and treading through the tangle of wild iris and budding
meadowsweet; also, that the sprain caused her acute agony; that the
water of the pool looked deliciously cool and healing, and that she had
no other thought at the back of her mind but the desire to alleviate the
pain, when she took off her shoe and her stocking, soaked her
handkerchief in the cold water and then laid it as a compress round her
ankle.
To say that Ronnay de Maurel was at the time very far from her thoughts
would perhaps be putting it a little too strongly; but he was far
enough--shall we say?--from her immediate mental vision to cause her
considerable surprise by his sudden appearance through the thicket,
right in front of her, whilst she was reclining full length on a carpet
of moss with the sheaf of bluebells held to her face and an impish glint
of sunlight playing with the tendrils of her fair hair and with the tips
of her bare toes.
Now de Maurel, had he seen her before she caught sight of him, would
undoubtedly have beaten a precipitate retreat. But he was apt to walk
along buried in his own thoughts--thoughts of Prussian or Italian
campaigns for the most part--and seeing little but the dome of leaves
above him, or the squirrels that ran away at his approach; nor did he
expect to see anyone beside the pool. At times, certainly, a labourer or
a charcoal burner, or a couple of children violet-poaching, would cross
the small clearing at the far end of the water; but, as a rule, he had
the place to himself, and loved it for its loneliness and its solitude.
Whilst Fernande not only did expect to see someone here, but after the
pain in her foot had become easier, every one of her senses became on
the alert to catch the sound of a footfall that might be drawing nigh.
She heard the approach of a heavy footstep from quite a considerable
distance; it was unmistakable, because of the slight dragging sound
caused by one leg being weaker than the other.
She had only just the time to arrange her gown in its most becoming
folds, to decide on the exact position of the sheaf of bluebells and of
her outstretched arm, and to assure herself that the sunlight was,
indeed, playing with her hair and with her toes in just the manner she
desired.
Then she closed her eyes and waited.
There is nothing on earth more difficult or more tantalizing to do than
to wait with eyes closed while something is going on around which one
would give the world to see. Twenty times and more in the space of a
few minutes did Fernande positively ache with the longing to open her
eyes. She heard the heavy, unequal step approaching, she heard the
smothered exclamation which proclaimed impatience at seeing someone in
possession of the lonely spot ... she heard the stealthy approach of her
quarry--the pause not a step or two away from her, and almost felt the
hot breath which came and went from his nostrils as he stooped in order
to look at her.
But she had the strength of mind to wait until she was quite sure that
dark, scowling, inquiring eyes were close to her face; then she opened
her own.
At once the man drew himself up and retreated as if the glance from
those blue eyes had struck him in the face. Yet there was nothing very
formidable in the pathetic, white-clad figure reclining there upon the
moss, and with its poor injured foot swathed in a half-dried bit of
gossamer rag. Fernande watched the retreating ogre until he had fairly
turned to go; then she said in a quaking voice, and with a sigh that
would have rent a heart of stone:
"Oh, I'm in such pain!"
Then she closed her eyes again.
There was a pause, during which even birds and squirrels seemed to have
passed the word "Silence!" round. Only a slight flutter among the young
leaves overhead disturbed the perfect stillness of this fateful moment.
Fernande's entire hope of success rested on the efficacy of her last
heartrending appeal.
For a second or two the ogre appeared to hesitate. Then a halting voice
broke the spell of expectancy which had fallen over the woods.
"Can I be of any help?"
And the dragging, heavy footstep was once more audible as it approached
quite close to her. Again Fernande sighed, more woefully than before.
"Alas!" she moaned, "I am utterly helpless. But...."
She raised herself upon her elbow, looked round her in perfect
bewilderment, passed her hand once or twice over her forehead, and
finally made up her mind to allow her blue eyes to rest on de Maurel.
"M. de Maurel!" she murmured, with the most profound astonishment that
human voice can possibly express.
"Mademoiselle," he responded with obvious embarrassment, "I chanced to
be passing by.... You seem to be in pain.... Is there aught that I can
do?"
"There is, Monsieur," she replied unblushingly. "I fear that I have
broken my ankle. I am in great pain, and very far from home. My name is
Fernande de Courson...."
"I know that, Mademoiselle," he broke in simply.
"We are cousins," she suggested demurely.
"At your service."
"Then I pray you help me to get up."
Had Ronnay de Maurel been asked to hoist up on his shoulder a cannon
which weighed a couple of tons, he would have felt less puzzled how to
proceed than he did now, when an exquisite thing which looked as if it
might break at the slightest touch asked him to help her to raise
herself from the ground.
He was, as usual, dressed in blouse and rough breeches. He had no cap on
his head, and his feet were encased in heavy riding-boots. For a second
or two he looked round him with pathetic helplessness, as if he expected
the dwellers of the forest to come to his aid in this awful dilemma. But
no one came, and the lovely creature, whose tiny bare foot looked like
an exquisite flower, was appealing--oh, so piteously, for help!
"Alas, Monsieur!" she said, "an you'll not come to my assistance, I
shall have to wait till some chance passer-by prove more full of pity
than you. It is six kilomètres from here to the Château of Courson and I
am breakfastless."
Her voice--the tone of which appeared to Ronnay de Maurel like the
singing of a nightingale--broke in her plucky effort to keep back the
tears of mortification and of pain. He suddenly felt like a brute to
stand by and see her suffer so.
"I wish I could help you, Mademoiselle," he said tentatively, "but I am
so clumsy, so rough. I should spoil your gown and...."
"Eh, _mon cousin_," she retorted, "I would sooner have a spoiled gown
than remain here till noonday. Give me the support of your arm and I
will try to raise myself. Perhaps, with the aid of your stick, I might
then be able to hobble home."
Thus admonished, Ronnay de Maurel, stooping low, held out his arm, and
the exquisite creature placed one tiny hand upon it, then coolly bade
him hold the other. Mechanically he obeyed, thinking all the while that
the lovely fingers--slender and velvety like the petals of a lily--would
be crushed to pieces in his grasp.
But they remained unscathed, and every succeeding moment he felt her
hold tightening upon his arm, whilst a delicious fragrance as of spring
air laden with blossom seemed to come from her entire person, and the
soft tendrils of her fair hair brushed against his cheek like a fairy's
kiss.
"I don't think that I shall be able to walk," said Fernande ruefully, as
she clung more firmly with both her hands to his arm.
"Will you try?" he suggested. "Lean on me and let me support you. Don't
be afraid. Perhaps if you held the stick with one hand and...."
"And," she interposed decisively, in perfectly matter-of-fact tone, "if
you will put your arm round my waist, I think that perhaps...."
He did as he was told, and felt the whole weight of her lissom body
against his arm.
"There, now," she said, "if I can put my foot to the ground...."
She tried. But the movement wrung a cry of pain from her lips. She fell
back against the broad shoulder which was so conveniently held for her
support and leaned her head against it. She closed her eyes as if ready
to swoon. De Maurel was ready to anathematize Heaven for perpetrating
such wanton cruelty against a being so perfect and so frail.
A pair of blue eyes that were swimming in tears were turned dolefully up
to him.
"I fear me that I shall have to remain breakfastless, after all,"
murmured Fernande, with lips that quivered like those of a child about
to cry. "I pray you leave me, dear cousin. You cannot afford to waste
your time over the ailments of an insignificant person like me. Perhaps
you may find some one in the village good enough to take a message over
to my father by and by, asking him to send Père Lebrun's carriole
hither. But oh! I pray you haste! I shall be so desperately hungry ere
the carriole come."
"Mademoiselle Fernande," rejoined de Maurel earnestly, "you have, I've
no doubt, every excuse for looking upon me as an ill-mannered cur, but
none, I think, for imagining that I am an inhuman wretch. Nothing would
induce me to leave you here ... in this lonely spot ... alone and in
pain...."
"But how am I to get home, dear cousin?" she queried, darting a glance
on him from under the fringe of her dark lashes that would have
tantalized a saint.
"An you will grant me leave," he said simply, "I will carry you."
"Carry me?" she exclaimed. "Why, it is six kilomètres to the château!"
"If it were twenty I could carry you thither," he interposed with that
quaint smile which was wont to lighten his stern face like sunshine on a
troubled sea.
Strangely enough and quite unaccountably, Fernande felt a quick blush
rising to her cheeks under the look which accompanied that smile.
"Why," he added simply, "you weigh less than a bird."
"Less than one of the pigeons of St. Front, perhaps," she retorted
gaily.
"They were of stone," quoth he dryly.
"Ah! you know the legend, too?"
"Of course," he said. "I was born at La Frontenay."
"Have you ever heard the pigeons cooing, then?"
"Yes," he replied curtly. "Once."
"When was that?"
"The day," he said, "before an infernal bomb was hurled by an assassin
at Napoleon Bonaparte, the idol of France, and his precious life was
only saved by a miracle."
Fernande had been leaning with both hands upon de Maurel's arm all this
while; but at these words, which he spoke with renewed roughness, she
drew back quickly as if she had been stung. Strangely enough, she
appeared quite able to stand on her injured foot now, and equally
strangely he failed to notice this. For a second or two a look that was
nothing short of hate crept into her eyes, and the flush which rose to
her cheeks was one of hot anger and of defiance.
He did not flinch under her gaze, even though he would gladly have
recalled the foolish speech which had escaped his lips and which
obviously had wounded her. Indeed, he could not help but see that the
allusion to the aborted conspiracy against the life of Bonaparte planned
by the Royalists of Normandy had stung her pride to the quick, and
already he was cursing himself for a clumsy lout, and trying to find in
his limited vocabulary words wherewith to win her pardon.
But for the space of a few seconds, at any rate, he knew that she stood
before him in avowed enmity, and Fernande had to close her eyes lest he
should read in them that hatred and contempt which she felt and which
she knew that she would always feel for this traitor to his King and to
his caste. She had to force herself to remember the rôle which she had
set herself to play, to force herself to think of this abominable
regicide as a tool for furthering the very cause which he was now
helping to crush; and there was a marvellous fund of energy and of
enthusiasm lurking in the heart of this child--a marvellous power of
duplicity and of self-control, there where her patriotism and her
ideals guided her.
As she closed her eyes the hot flush fled from her cheeks, leaving them
pale and transparent, and with a pearly shadow cast over them by the
drooping fringe of her lashes.
"Mademoiselle Fernande," exclaimed de Maurel, overwhelmed with shame and
contrition at his own brutality.
But already Fernande had recovered her self-possession; and even before
the first words of abject self-abasement had passed his lips, she
uttered a low moan of pain and tottered as if about to fall. She would
have fallen--no doubt most gracefully--had not his arm proved to be once
more so conveniently near.
"'Twas cruel, _mon cousin_," she murmured feebly, "to speak such words,
whilst I am too weak to raise my voice in defence of those I love."
"Mademoiselle Fernande," he said appealingly, "I said just now that I
had never given you cause to call me an inhuman wretch. Until a while
ago I could have asserted on my soul that I had never been cruel to a
woman in my life. Now you see me shamed beyond endurance. Will you
believe me when I say that I would give twenty years of my life to unsay
the thoughtless words I spoke just now? Mademoiselle Fernande, will you
deign to forgive a poor wretch who hath never had a knowledge of soft
words, but who would sooner have bitten out his tongue ere he uttered
the senseless ones which have so justly angered you?"
Ronnay de Maurel's head was bent, in utter humility and remorse, while
he spoke, or he could not have failed to note the look of triumph which
shot out of the girl's eyes from beneath her half-closed lids, or the
swift sigh of satisfaction which escaped her parted lips.
"We'll call those words unsaid, dear cousin," she said softly. "I know,
alas! that between your political aims and our own there is an abyss of
divergent ideals! You and your party have the power now--we are humbled
and helpless--and must, therefore, rely on your generosity not to
embitter the joy which we felt when we trod once again the soil of our
beloved country, after years of poverty and of exile."
"Protestations would come ill from me," he murmured. "You would scorn
them--and justly, too--after my unwarrantable transgression."
"You will have to be patient with us, _mon cousin_. We may have erred in
the past, we may be foolish and misguided now, but you must try and
remember always that every one of our actions is guided solely by our
love of France--by the burning patriotism which helped us to endure
exile and untold misery for the sake of our beliefs and of our
aspirations. Mistaken we may be; but until you have heard the advocacy
of our cause, I pray you do not judge us as harshly as you have
obviously been led to do."
"Mademoiselle Fernande...."
"Nay, dear cousin, let us not dwell on that sad subject any longer. See!
the sun is high in the heavens--the birds are singing a deafening anthem
of joy ... and," she added archly, "I am still breakfastless."
Again de Maurel had to chide himself for a clumsy and selfish lout. For
himself he would gladly have continued to dwell on the sad subject,
seeing that it was being argued by an exquisite creature with the
rosiest of lips and the most enthralling voice he had ever heard, even
whilst she leaned her ethereal form against his arm, and cast an
occasional look on him from out a pair of eyes as limpid and as blue as
the sky. But the word "breakfastless" once more struck him with remorse.
To think that this beautiful and diaphanous being could suffer hunger,
discomfort, even pain, seemed to him the most monstrous outrage in the
whole scheme of creation.
"God forgive me," he said, "for a thoughtless dolt. I was forgetting the
flight of time. Now, Mademoiselle Fernande, if you will trust yourself
to me...."
"Do you really mean," she queried, "that you will carry me all the way
to Courson?"
"If you will let me."
She threw him a mute glance of gratitude, which somehow seemed to addle
his brain in a manner which he thought strangely unaccountable, but not
altogether unpleasant.
"Oh, my flowers!" she suddenly exclaimed ruefully. "I had taken such
trouble to pick them!"
The sheaf of wild hyacinth was lying in a disordered mass of blue at her
feet.
"_Mon cousin_, I pray you pick them up for me!" she added with a pretty
tone of appeal.
At once he was down on his knees; it seemed practically impossible that
he should disobey the slightest of her commands, and, mechanically, he
gathered together the bunch of bluebells and handed it up to her. He was
strangely awkward in the accomplishment of this task, and when he looked
up to her again, a mischievous light was dancing in her eyes.
"You think me a clumsy oaf, I'll warrant," he said, while that ghost of
a smile which became him so well lit up his face in response. "'Tis the
first time in my life I've waited on a lady, and...."
As she took the flowers from him her fingers closed for a moment over
his hand.
"'Tis most gallantly you do it, Sir Knight," she said graciously.
She held the sheaf of flowers in both her arms and buried her face in
the tangle of blue. It was amazing how little pain the sprained ankle
was causing her at this moment; nothing more perfect or more graceful
could be imagined than the picture which she presented, standing thus in
her white gown beside the silent pool, with the spikes of the wild iris
framing her knees, behind her a background of tender green and russet
branches. Her broad-brimmed hat hung against her shoulder, and its black
velvet ribbon, tied round her neck, enhanced still further the perfect
whiteness of her throat.
"God's masterpiece, indeed!" thought Ronnay de Maurel, as, despite
himself, his eyes would feast themselves on the exquisite apparition,
wandering in rapt admiration from the golden crown of her fair hair to
that tiny bare foot which stood half buried in a bed of moss.
Suddenly he perceived that her white dress was soiled, there where it
had come in contact with the sleeve of his blouse. He could have cursed
loudly in an agony of contrition, and in a moment a hot flush of intense
mortification spread over his forehead. He would have given worlds to be
able to strip off that horrible blouse before he ventured once more to
touch that fragrant and delicate creature, whose airy white robe his
work-stained hands had sullied. Unfortunately he was not certain whether
his shirt was not in holes. Never in his life had Ronnay de Maurel felt
so deeply shamed.
"I am afraid ... I ... I fear," he stammered, and looked down ruefully
on his hands and blouse.
"That you have dirtied my frock," she broke in with a laugh. "Well, you
know, dear cousin, that our meeting was impromptu, else, I am sure, you
would have donned more suitable attire. Believe me, that in moments of
pain an invalid takes no heed of a kind healer's clothes. _Allons!_" she
added gaily, "will you carry me pick-a-back, or...."
"In my arms, if you will permit."
Indeed, he lifted her from the ground as if she were a weightless fairy
or a bird.
"Will you deign to put one arm round my shoulder?" he said. "There! Is
that comfortable?"
"Quite," she murmured, as she snuggled like a white kitten against him.
"You are not afraid?"
"Afraid?" she exclaimed. "Of what?"
To this query he made no reply, but started on his way. It was six
kilomètres to Courson, through the woods first, and then across the
fields. To Ronnay de Maurel ever afterwards it seemed as if the distance
had been less than one. Leaving the pool on his right, he struck the
footpath among the trees, treading softly and warily on the carpet of
leaves and moss, lest his clumsy, dragging gait should cause her pain.
She lay quite quiescent in his arms, holding the sheaf of bluebells so
that it lay between her face and his. The dewy petals brushed against
his cheek and mouth, and he was conscious of the delicious fragrance
which filled his nostrils and of the cool dewdrops which moistened his
lips. Her face he could not see, only the pellucid tendrils of her hair,
as the soft breeze that murmured through the woods made them flutter in
the sunshine. And he could see the little foot, half swathed in its
gossamer bandage, each delicate toe so like the petal of a rose. He felt
neither weight nor fatigue; he would have walked thus through life,
thinking that it had suddenly become marvellously fair. Once or twice he
asked her if she was comfortable, and she always answered: "Very
comfortable, I thank you!" But she never asked him if he were fatigued.
She knew that he was not. Once, when he put the question, he was not far
from Courson, and the wood was already far behind, and through the veil
of bluebells he could just see that her eyes were closed. He thought
that she slept. From the earth close to his feet a lark rose, singing
its joyous anthem, and fluttered upwards into the heavenly blue above.
III
It took Ronnay de Maurel two hours to reach the village of Courson. The
château was half a kilomètre further on. Never had he cursed its
circular, pointed roofs as heartily as he did to-day. He would have
liked to push them to the outermost confines of the earth.
"Where are we now?" Fernande asked softly.
"Very near home," he replied.
"I must have been asleep."
"I hope you have."
"And you are not tired?"
"No, I am not tired," he said curtly.
All the while that he had tramped with his burden through the woods and
across the fields, he had felt contented with only the squirrels and the
birds around him to mock him for his heavy gait, his stained blouse and
muddy boots. The sight of the first cottage of Courson suddenly took all
the zest out of his spirit. Self-consciousness returned, and with it his
full measure of wrath against his kinsfolk, whom of a truth he had no
mind to meet again--not while his fatigue, of which he suddenly became
conscious, and the additional mudstains on his clothes after the long
tramp, placed him at such obvious disadvantage. Their presence, he felt,
would jar upon his mood to a degree which he felt he could not endure.
Fernande, who had been silently watching him from behind the bunch of
bluebells, saw the scowl which gradually gathered on his brow and chased
away that strange rapt look and the sunny smile, which she had noted
with such satisfaction every time that she contrived to catch a glimpse
of his face. Her womanly instinct had been so unerring up to now, the
success of her undertaking so assured, that she had no mind to mar it by
a false move in the end.
"_Mon cousin_," she said suddenly, just as de Maurel, avoiding the main
village street, had struck through an orchard and along a by-path, which
led to a postern gate in the boundary wall of the château, "_mon
cousin_, by your leave, an you'll take me as far as the Lodge, I could
try and walk up the avenue to the château--alone."
"But there's no one at the Lodge," he said, "and the avenue is over
long."
"Annette will be at the Lodge," she argued; "she goes thither every
morning to air the rooms. The door will be open. I could slip in.... No
one would see us...."
Now that she suggested just what he would have liked to do, he was ready
with opposition.
"I should not like to leave you. You might be in pain again," he said.
"Oh, my ankle is much better! It has had two hours' rest. I can wait at
the Lodge till Annette comes."
Mechanically he had obeyed, and turned back in the direction of the main
gates of the park. The Lodge--a small stone pavilion--was just inside
the gates.
"We don't want to be spied from the château, do we, _mon cousin_?" added
the young girl, whilst a ripple of laughter, musical as the song of a
lark, helped to chase away the last lingering remnant of de Maurel's
moodiness. "_Ma tante_ would be vastly shocked, for my hair is
dishevelled, and my gown wet and stained. Laurent would be angry and
father would scold...."
She paused and suddenly uttered an exclamation of dismay.
"Holy Virgin! what have I done?"
"What is it?" he asked. "Mademoiselle Fernande, what is it? Are you in
pain?"
"No. No, it is not that. My foot is so much better ... but ... but...."
She seemed ready to cry, and just now he felt that he would curse loudly
and long if he saw her in distress.
"In Heaven's name, Mademoiselle Fernande," he implored, "I entreat you
to tell me what troubles you."
"My shoe and my stocking," she murmured in a weak, trembling voice. "I
left them beside the pool."
Ronnay de Maurel literally gave a gasp of horror. A calamity such as
this seemed to him to be beyond the confines of possibility.
"Beside the pool!" he exclaimed aghast. "Impossible!"
"How impossible?" she retorted impatiently. "I haven't my shoe and
stocking on, have I?"
He took a peep at the bare, rosy toes, which vied in delicacy with the
apple-blossom overhead.
"You certainly have not!" he replied.
"Well? And have you got them in your pocket, _mon cousin_?"
Sighing with regret, he vowed that he had not.
"Then I must have left them by the pool," she concluded.
"I'll go and fetch them," he said at once.
"And walk another dozen kilomètres to-day?"
"When shall I bring them?" was all that he said by way of rejoinder.
"Well, it will have to be soon ... that is if you really think that you
wouldn't be too tired to go and fetch them.... But, you know, Mme. la
Marquise is so rigid in the matter of decorum ... she will be so angry
when she hears that I have lost my shoe ... and she will scold me ...
and...."
We may take it that de Maurel was far too unversed in the usages of
feminine amenities to notice how hopelessly the lovely creature in his
arms was floundering in the mazes of her own rhetoric; he was obviously
far too unsophisticated to suggest that if Mme. la Marquise was, indeed,
so rigid in the matter of decorum, she would hardly approve of his
walking in at Courson one day with her niece's shoe in one pocket and
her stocking in the other. Just for a moment Fernande had a slight qualm
of anxiety. She had engineered this final move in her campaign on the
spur of the moment, and she had not had the time to think it out in
detail. But, indeed, her fears were futile. De Maurel did not even
notice the glaring discrepancy in the tale of Mme. la Marquise's
supposed attitude towards the proprieties. As a matter of fact, the
thought that Fernande should be scolded for having lost her stocking was
so horrible, that his one idea now was a longing to get to the Lodge, to
deposit his fair burden--if possible in Annette's charge--and then to
start running at once, as fast as his wounded leg would allow--in search
of the two precious articles.
The calamities which might overtake Fernande in the interval--her
father's wrath, her aunt's reproaches--were so awful to contemplate,
that poor Ronnay felt a cold sweat breaking out upon his forehead.
Fortunately the incident did not weaken the power of his arms. He
reached the Lodge without untoward accident; the gates, luckily, were
open and there was no one about. Fernande declared that she was now not
only able to stand, but also to hobble as far as the Lodge parlour, and
to sit quietly there until Annette arrived, when she would forthwith
proceed to the château, where, no doubt, every one was devoured with
anxiety about her.
How thankful was de Maurel that the park of Courson was so lonely and
deserted. He would have hated it if prying eyes had been nigh when, with
infinite precaution, he lowered his precious burden to the ground. It
was terrible to see how he had crushed her gown, and, alas! the
bluebells hung their tiny heads in a very drooping fashion.
"I thank you, _mon cousin_," she said, as leaning against the stone
pillar of the porch she held out her hand to him. He knew quite well
that he ought then to have taken that little hand, which was as white
and delicate as a snowflake, and that he ought to have kissed the tips
of those flower-like fingers. But had he not boasted a brief while ago
that he did not know the art of kissing a lady's hand? This was so true,
that at this moment, when he would have bartered his life for the
pleasure of pressing his lips against that hand, he could only murmur a
few meaningless and clumsy words. His whole bearing became awkward and
ungainly; he was self-conscious, furious with himself, angered against
that world which had shut him out from its reserved precincts.
He threw one quick look of appeal to the young girl, encountered her
glance of indulgent mockery, muttered a hasty farewell, and then turned
abruptly on his heel.
Fernande remained standing in the porch until the tall, massive figure
with the curious, dragging gait had disappeared beyond the gates of the
park; then--oh, shame! unblushing shame!--she executed a pirouette upon
that sadly injured foot. She stretched out her arms with a gesture of
triumph, and threw back her head, filling her lungs with the
intoxicating air of this glorious spring morning. Her eyes were dancing
with glee, the quick breath came and went through her full, parted lips,
and there was a glow of excitement upon her cheeks.
IV
The paths were too rough for Fernande to attempt to go back shoeless to
the château, so she waited in the porch, leaning against the pillar, in
the same attitude wherein she had received de Maurel's final clumsy
farewell; she waited with her own triumphal thoughts for company, for
close on half an hour, when she suddenly spied Laurent walking briskly
down the drive toward the Lodge.
She called to him and he uttered a cry of obvious relief.
"We were all getting so anxious," he shouted breathlessly, as soon as he
was near enough to make himself heard. "It is nearly eleven o'clock.
Matthieu said that he saw you walking through the orchard soon after
daybreak. Where have you been, Fernande?"
"I went for a walk in the woods," she replied simply; "incidentally I
sprained my ankle. Look!" she added, holding up her skirt and pointing
her bare foot at him.
"Ye gods!"
"You are quite right there, Laurent," she said earnestly, "the gods had
much to do with my sprained ankle. In fact, they have been busy with me
all the morning."
"What do you mean?"
"I will tell you what I mean, as soon as I have a stocking and a shoe
upon this foot--and not before. So if you are devoured with curiosity,
my dear cousin, I pray you find Annette and tell her to bring me the
wherewithal to clothe my injured foot with decency. It is getting blue
with cold."
"Yes, yes!" he retorted. "I'll go immediately; but do tell me first, I
entreat...."
"I'll tell you nothing till my foot is clad," she responded firmly.
Now Laurent de Mortain was pastmaster in the knowledge of feminine moods
and caprices, wherein his elder brother was so woefully ignorant. He did
not stop to argue the point. That something unusual had happened,
besides the sprained ankle, was, of course, plainly writ on Fernande's
glowing cheeks and in her glittering eyes; but that she did not mean to
tell him anything about it for the present was equally plainly marked
round the lines of her obstinate little mouth. Therefore, Laurent, with
a shrug of his shoulders and a muttered: "As you will!" at once turned
on his heel and walked rapidly back towards the château in obedience to
his lady's commands.
And Fernande was once more left alone in the porch of the Lodge, gazing
after the retreating figure of a man. In this instance she could watch
an elegant and graceful retreat--a springy gait, the knightly bearing of
a well-groomed head. She could not help but compare the two brothers,
greatly to the advantage of Laurent--vastly to the detriment of the
uncouth creature whose stained and shabby blouse had soiled her white
gown.
"I said that the bear would soon be dancing to my piping," she mused,
"and he is standing on his hind legs now, ready to begin...."
"But," she added, and here her thoughts became confused and unruly, "the
bear would not have gone to fetch Annette; he would have put his great
strong arms round me and carried me to the château. And oh! how I should
have hated him for it!" she concluded, with a little shudder as she
smoothed out the creases in her muslin gown.
V
All that Fernande vouchsafed to say, once she was duly shod, was that
the Château of Courson might expect the visit of M. le Comte de Maurel
that self-same afternoon. Mme. la Marquise was incredulous and M. de
Courson angry. Laurent looked very glum and remained silent and morose
all through dinner.
"_Mais enfin_, Fernande," he had asked a score of times, "what actually
did happen?" And a score of times he had received the same answer:
"Nothing has happened to anger you, dear cousin. I met M. de Maurel in
the woods and suggested to him that he should renew his visit to us. To
this suggestion meseemed that he agreed. He may come this afternoon ...
but he is rude and obstinate ... so who can tell?"
When he pressed her for fuller explanations, she gave him a curt answer
and a haughty little look, two things which poor Laurent never could
bear patiently.
Mme. la Marquise thought that Fernande was over-confident. "Your wish is
father to your thought, my child," she said. "Why should Ronnay come at
your simple bidding?"
"I don't know why he should, _ma tante_," rejoined the young girl
imperturbably, "but somehow I think that he will."
And in order to proclaim her faith in her own prophecy, she went and
changed her soiled gown after dinner for an entirely fresh and very
dainty one.