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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Fairy Fingers, by Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Fairy Fingers
+       A Novel
+
+Author: Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie
+
+Release Date: February 21, 2008 [EBook #24664]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAIRY FINGERS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Julia Miller and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+FAIRY FINGERS.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_IN PRESS:_
+
+BY THE AUTHOR OF THIS VOLUME,
+
+THE MUTE SINGER;
+A Novel.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+FAIRY FINGERS.
+
+A Novel.
+
+BY
+
+ANNA CORA RITCHIE,
+
+AUTHOR OF "THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN ACTRESS," "MIMIC LIFE,"
+"TWIN ROSES," "ARMAND," "FASHION," ETC.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Labor is Worship."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NEW YORK:
+
+CARLETON, PUBLISHER, 413 BROADWAY.
+
+MDCCCLXV.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by
+GEO. W. CARLETON.
+
+In the Clerk's Office of the District Court
+for the Southern District of New York.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+CHAPTER                                       PAGE
+
+I. Noblesse,                                     7
+
+II. The Cousins,                                17
+
+III. Madeleine,                                 24
+
+IV. Proposals,                                  38
+
+V. Heart-beats,                                 43
+
+VI. Unmasking,                                  55
+
+VII. A Crisis,                                  68
+
+VIII. Flight,                                   79
+
+IX. The Empty Place,                            94
+
+X. The Humble Companion,                       109
+
+XI. Pursuit,                                   116
+
+XII. The Sister of Charity,                    121
+
+XIII. Weary Days,                              131
+
+XIV. Diamonds and Emeralds,                    139
+
+XV. The Embroidered Handkerchief,              148
+
+XVI. A Voice from the Lost One,                155
+
+XVII. "Chiffons,"                              166
+
+XVIII. Maurice,                                173
+
+XIX. The Aristocrats in America,               179
+
+XX. The Incognita,                             186
+
+XXI. The Cytherea of Fashion,                  195
+
+XXII. Meeting,                                 200
+
+XXIII. Noble Hands made Nobler,                213
+
+XXIV. Feminine Belligerents,                   226
+
+XXV. The Message,                              237
+
+XXVI. Meeting of Lovers,                       241
+
+XXVII. Count Tristan's Policy,                 249
+
+XXVIII. Lord Linden's Discovery,               254
+
+XXIX. A Contest,                               260
+
+XXX. Bertha,                                   268
+
+XXXI. A Surprise,                              278
+
+XXXII. The Nobleman and Mantua-maker,          283
+
+XXXIII. Madame De Gramont,                     294
+
+XXXIV. Half the Wooer,                         298
+
+XXXV. A Revelation,                            305
+
+XXXVI. The Suitor,                             311
+
+XXXVII. A Shock,                               314
+
+XXXVIII. The Mantua-maker's Guests,            323
+
+XXXIX. Ministration,                           330
+
+XL. Recognition,                               340
+
+XLI. Unbowed,                                  345
+
+XLII. Double Convalescence,                    352
+
+XLIII. Outgeneralled,                          357
+
+XLIV. A Change,                                364
+
+XLV. Reparation,                               375
+
+XLVI. A Mishap,                                380
+
+XLVII. Inflexibility,                          387
+
+XLVIII. The New England Nurse,                 392
+
+XLIX. Ronald,                                  405
+
+L. A Secret Divined,                           409
+
+LI. Seed Sown,                                 415
+
+LII. A Lover's Snare,                          420
+
+LIII. Resistance,                              426
+
+LIV. An Unexpected Visit,                      431
+
+LV. Amen,                                      435
+
+LVI. The Hand of God,                          442
+
+LVII. Conclusion,                              453
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+FAIRY FINGERS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+NOBLESSE.
+
+
+They were seated in the drawing-room of an ancient château in
+Brittany,--the Countess Dowager de Gramont and Count Tristan, her only
+son,--a mansion lacking none of the ponderous quaintness that usually
+characterizes ancestral dwellings in that locality. The edifice could
+still boast of imposing grandeur, especially if classed among "fine
+ruins." Within and without were harmoniously dilapidated, and a large
+portion of the interior was uninhabitable. The limited resources of the
+count precluded even an apologetic semblance of repairs.
+
+The house was surrounded by spacious parks and pleasure-grounds, in a
+similarly neglected condition. Their natural beauty was striking, and
+the rich soil yielded fruits and flowers in abundance, though its only
+culture was received from the hands of old Baptiste, who made his
+appearance as gardener in the morning, but, with a total change of
+costume, was metamorphosed into butler after the sun passed the
+meridian. In his button-hole a flower, which he could never be induced
+to forego, betrayed his preference for the former vocation.
+
+The discussion between mother and son was unmistakably tempestuous. A
+thunder-cloud lowered on the noble lady's brow; her eyes shot forth
+electric flashes, and her voice, usually subdued to aristocratic
+softness, was raised to storm-pitch.
+
+"Count Tristan de Gramont, you have taken leave of your senses!"
+
+A favorite declaration of persons thoroughly convinced of their own
+unassailable mental equilibrium, when their convictions encounter the
+sudden check of opposition.
+
+As the assertion, unfortunately, is one that cannot be disproved by
+denial, the count sank resignedly behind the shield of silence. His
+mother returned to the attack.
+
+"Do you mean me to understand that, in your right mind, you would
+condescend to mingle with men of business?--that you would actually
+degrade yourself into becoming a shareholder, or manager, or director,
+or whatever you please to term it, in a railway company?--_you_, Count
+Tristan de Gramont! The very proposal is a humiliation; to entertain it
+would be an absurdity--to consent, an impossibility. I repeat it, you
+have taken leave of your senses!"
+
+"But, my dear mother," answered the count, with marked deference, "you
+are forgetting that this railway company chances to be an American
+association; my connection with it, or, rather, its very existence, is
+not likely to be known here in Brittany,--therefore, my dignity will not
+be compromised. The only valuable property left us is the transatlantic
+estate which my roving brother purchased during his wanderings in the
+New World, and bequeathed to my son, Maurice, for whom it is held in
+trust by an American gentleman. The members of the association, who
+desire to interest me in their speculation, assert that the proposed
+railroad may pass directly through this very tract of land. Should that
+be the case, its value will be greatly increased. At the present moment
+the estate yields us nothing; but the advent of this railroad must
+insure an immense profit. We estimate that, by judicious management, the
+land may be made to bring in"--
+
+His mother interrupted him with a haughty gesture. "_'Speculation!'_
+_'yield!'_ _'profit!'_ _'bring in!'_ What language to grow familiar to
+the lips of a son of mine! You talk like a tradesman already! My son,
+give up all idea of this plebeian enterprise!"
+
+The count did not answer immediately. He seemed puzzled to determine
+what degree of confidence it was necessary to repose in his stately
+mother. After a brief pause, he renewed the conversation with evident
+embarrassment.
+
+"It is very difficult to make a lady, especially a lady of your rank,
+education, and mode of life, understand these matters, and the
+necessity"--
+
+"It ought to be equally difficult to make the nobleman, my son,
+comprehend them," answered the countess, freezingly.
+
+The count rejoined, as though driven to extremity, "It is the very fact
+of my being a nobleman, that has made these people, Americans as they
+are, and despisers of titles as they profess to be, seek me with
+eagerness. The _prestige_ of my _title_, and the promise of obtaining
+some privileges respecting Maurice's Maryland estate, are all that I can
+contribute toward the success of their undertaking. It is true I am a
+nobleman; but even rank, my dear mother, must have the means of
+sustaining its existence, to say nothing of preserving its dignity. Even
+rank is subject to the common, vulgar need of food and raiment and
+shelter, not to mention the necessity of keeping horses, carriages,
+domestics, and securing other indispensable but money-consuming
+luxuries. Our narrow income is no longer sufficient to meet even our
+limited expenditures. The education of Maurice at the University of
+Paris, and your own charities, have not merely drained our purse, but
+involved us in debt. I hail the offer made me by this American company,
+because it may extricate us from some very serious difficulties. I am
+much mortified at your resolute disapproval of the step I contemplate."
+
+Count Tristan de Gramont was a widower, the father of but one child. It
+must not be supposed that, although he seriously purposed embarking in a
+business enterprise, he had failed to appropriate a goodly share of that
+pride which had both descended by inheritance, and been liberally
+instilled into his mind by education. His character was strongly stamped
+with the Breton traits of obstinacy and perseverance, and he was gifted
+with an unaristocratic amount of energy. When an idea once took
+possession of his brain, he patiently and diligently brought the embryo
+thought to fruition, in spite of all disheartening obstacles. He was
+narrow-minded and selfish when any interests save his own and those of
+his mother and son were at stake. These were the only two beings whom he
+loved, and he only loved them because they were _his_--a portion of
+_himself_; and it was merely himself that he loved through them. In a
+certain sense, he was a devoted son. His education had rendered him
+punctilious, to the highest degree, in the observance of all those forms
+that betoken filial veneration. He always treated his august mother with
+the most profound reverence. He paid her the most courteous
+attentions,--opened the doors when she desired to pass, placed
+footstools for her feet, knelt promptly to pick up the handkerchief or
+glove she dropped, was ever ready to offer her his arm for her support,
+and seldom combated her opinions.
+
+The first time he had openly ventured to oppose her views was in the
+conversation we have just related.
+
+She looked so regal, as she sat before him in a richly carved antique
+chair, which she occupied as though it had been a throne, that, in spite
+of the blind obstinacy with which she refused to see her own interests
+and his, Count Tristan could not help regarding her with admiration.
+
+She was still strikingly handsome, notwithstanding the sixty winters
+which had bleached her raven locks to the most uncompromising white.
+Those snowy tresses fell in soft and glossy curls about her scarcely
+furrowed countenance. Her forehead was somewhat low and narrow; the
+face, a decided oval; the nose, almost straight; the eyes almond-shaped,
+and of a jetty blackness, flashing out from beneath brows that were
+remarkable for the fine, dark line that designated their arch. The mouth
+was the least pleasing feature,--it was too small, and unsuggestive of
+varied expression; the lips not only lacked fulness, but wore a
+supercilious curl that had become habitual.
+
+Her form was considerably above the medium height, and added to the
+sense of grandeur conveyed by her presence. Her carriage was erect to
+the verge of stiffness, and her step too firm to be quite soundless.
+Advancing years had not produced any unseemly _embonpoint_, nor had her
+figure fallen into the opposite extreme, and sharpened into meagre
+angularity; its outline retained sufficient roundness not to lose the
+curves or grace.
+
+She had made no reply to her son's last remark, which forced him to
+begin anew. He thought it politic, however, to change the subject.
+
+"You remember, my mother, that some seven of our friends are engaged to
+dine with us to-morrow. I trust you will not disapprove of my having
+invited two American gentlemen to join the party. After the letters of
+introduction they brought me, I was forced to show them some attention
+and"--
+
+He paused abruptly, without venturing to add that those gentlemen were
+directors of the railway company of which he had before spoken.
+
+"My son, you are aware that I never interfere with your hospitalities,
+but you seem to have forgotten that my Sêvres china is only a set for
+twelve, and I can use no other on ceremonious occasions. With Bertha and
+Madeleine we have one guest too many."
+
+"That is a matter readily arranged," replied the count. "Madeleine need
+not appear at table. She is always so obliging and manageable that she
+can easily be requested to dine in her own room. In fact, to speak
+frankly, I would _rather not_ have her present."
+
+"But, should she be absent, Bertha will be annoyed," rejoined Madame de
+Gramont.
+
+"Bertha is a simpleton! How strange that she does not see, or suspect,
+that Madeleine always throws her into the background! I said a while
+ago, my mother, that _your charities_ had helped to drain our purse, and
+this is one which I might cite, and the one that galls me most. Here,
+for three years, you have sheltered and supported this young girl,
+without once reflecting upon the additional expense we are incurring by
+your playing the benefactress thus grandly. It is very noble, very
+munificent on your part; still, for a number of reasons, I regret that
+Madeleine has become a permanent inmate of this château."
+
+"Madeleine was an orphan," replied the countess, "the sole remaining
+child of the Duke de Gramont, your father's nephew. When she was left
+homeless and destitute, did not the _honor of the family_ force me to
+offer her an asylum, and to treat her with the courtesy due to a
+relative? Have we not always found her very grateful and very
+agreeable?"
+
+"I grant you--very agreeable--_too_ agreeable by half," returned the
+count; "so agreeable that, as I said, she invariably throws your
+favorite Bertha into the shade. I confess that the necessity of always
+reserving for this young person, thrust upon us by the force of
+circumstances, a place at table, a seat in the carriage, room upon every
+party of pleasure, makes her presence an inconvenience, if not a
+positive burden. And will you allow me to speak with great candor? May I
+venture to say that I have seen you, my dear mother, chafed by the
+infliction, and irritated by beholding Bertha lose through contrast with
+Madeleine?"
+
+His mother replied with animation: "Bertha is my grandniece,--the
+granddaughter of my only sister; the ties of blood, if nothing more,
+would bind me more closely to her than to Madeleine. Possibly there may
+have been times when I have not been well pleased to see one so dear,
+invariably, though most inexplicably, eclipsed. Bertha may shine forth
+in her most resplendent jewels,--her most costly and exquisite Parisian
+toilet; Madeleine has only to enter, in a simple muslin dress, a flower,
+or a knot of ribbons in her hair, and she draws all eyes magnetically
+upon her."
+
+"That is precisely the observation I have made," answered Count Tristan;
+"and, my mother, have you never reflected how seriously your _protégée_
+may interfere with our prospects respecting Maurice?"
+
+The countess started. "Impossible! He could not think of Madeleine when
+a union with Bertha would be so much more advantageous."
+
+"Youth does not think--it chooses by the attraction it experiences
+towards this or that object," answered the count. "Before Maurice last
+returned to the university, nine months ago, his admiration for
+Madeleine was unmistakable. Now that he is shortly to come home, and for
+an indefinite period,--now that our plans must ripen, I have come to the
+conclusion that Madeleine must be removed, or they will never attain
+fruition; she must not be allowed to cast the spell of her dangerous
+fascination over him; something must be done, and that before Maurice
+returns; in a fortnight he will be here."
+
+Before the countess could reply, a young girl bounded into the room,
+with a letter in one hand, and a roll of music in the other.
+
+It would be difficult to find a more perfect type of the pure blonde
+than was manifested in the person of this fair young maiden. The word
+"dazzling" might be applied without exaggeration to the lustrous
+whiteness of a complexion tinged in the cheeks as though by the
+reflection of a sea-shell. Her full, dewy lips disclosed milky rows of
+childlike teeth within. Her eyes were of the clearest azure; but, in
+spite of their expression of mingled tenderness and gayety, one who
+could pause to lay the finger upon an imperfection, would note that
+something was wanting to complete their beauty;--the eyebrows were too
+faintly traced, and the lashes too light, though long. The low brow,
+straight, slender nose, the soft curve of the chin, the fine oval of the
+face, were obviously an inheritance. At a single glance it was
+impossible not to be struck with the resemblance which these classic
+features bore to those of the countess. But the sportive dimples,
+pressed as though by a caressing touch, upon the cheeks and chin of the
+young girl, destroyed, even more than the totally opposite coloring, the
+likeness in the two countenances. The hair of the countess had been
+remarkable for its shining blackness, while the yellow acacia was not
+more brightly golden than the silken tresses of Bertha,--tresses that
+ran in ripples, and lost themselves in a sunny stream of natural curls,
+which seemed audaciously bent on breaking their bounds, and looked as
+though they were always in a frolic. In vain they were smoothed back by
+the skilful fingers of an expert _femme de chambre_, and confined in an
+elaborate knot at the back of Bertha's small head; the rebellious locks
+_would_ wave and break into fine rings upon the white brow, and lovingly
+steal in stray ringlets adown the alabaster throat, ignoring
+conventional restraint as sportively as their owner.
+
+Bertha de Merrivale, like Madeleine, was an orphan, but, unlike
+Madeleine, an heiress. The Marquis de Merrivale, Bertha's uncle, was
+also her guardian. He allowed her every year to spend a few months with
+her mother's relatives, who warmly pleaded for these annual visits. Her
+sojourn at the château de Gramont was always a season of delight to
+Bertha herself, for she dearly loved her great-aunt, liked Count
+Tristan, enjoyed the society of Maurice, and was enthusiastically
+attached to Madeleine.
+
+"A letter! a letter from Maurice!" exclaimed Bertha, dancing around her
+aunt as she held out the epistle.
+
+The countess broke the seal eagerly, and after glancing over the first
+lines, exclaimed, "Here is news indeed! We did not expect Maurice for a
+fortnight; but he writes that he will be here to-morrow. How little time
+we shall have for preparation! And I intended to order so many
+improvements made in his chamber, and to quite remodel"--
+
+"Oh, of course, everything will have to be remodelled for the Viscount
+Maurice de Gramont! Nothing will be good enough for _him_! Every one
+will sink into insignificance at _his_ coming! We, poor, forlorn
+damsels, will henceforth be of no account,--no one will waste a thought
+on _us_!" said Bertha.
+
+"On the contrary," replied her aunt, "I never had your happiness more in
+my thoughts than at this moment. Be sure you wear your blue brocade
+to-morrow, and the blue net interwoven with pearls in your hair, and
+that turquoise set which Maurice always admired."
+
+"Be sure that I play the coquette, you mean, as my dear aunt did before
+me," answered Bertha, merrily. "No, indeed, aunt, that may have done in
+_your_ day, but it does not suit _ours_. We, of the present time, do not
+wear nets for the express purpose of ensnaring the admiration of young
+men; or don our most becoming dresses to lay up their hearts in their
+folds. I am going to seek Madeleine to tell her this news, and I have
+another surprise for her."
+
+"What is it?" inquired the countess, in an altered tone.
+
+"This great parcel of music, which I sent to Paris to obtain expressly
+for her. But I have something else which she must not see to day,--this
+bracelet, the exact pattern of the one my uncle presented to me upon my
+last birthday, and Madeleine shall receive this upon her birthday; that
+will be _to-morrow_."
+
+As she spoke, she clasped upon her small wrist a band of gold, fastened
+by a knot formed of pearls, and gayly held up her round, white arm
+before the eyes of the count and countess.
+
+The latter caught her uplifted hand and said gravely, "Bertha, music and
+bracelets are very appropriate for _you_, but they do not suit
+Madeleine. Madeleine is poor, worse than poor, wholly dependent upon"--
+
+"There you are mistaken, aunt," returned Bertha, warmly. "As _I_ am
+rich, she is not poor;--that is, she will not always be poor, and she
+shall _not_ be dependent upon any one--not even upon _you_. I mean to
+settle upon her a marriage portion if she choose to marry, and a
+handsome income if she remain single."
+
+"Very generous and _romantic_ on your part," replied the countess,
+ironically; "but, unfortunately for her, you have no power at present
+over your own property; you cannot play the benefactress without the
+consent of your guardian, and that you will never obtain."
+
+"But if I marry, I will have the right," answered Bertha, naïvely.
+
+"You will have the consent of your husband to obtain, and that will be
+equally difficult."
+
+"That is true, but I am not discouraged. I suppose when I am of age I
+shall have the power, and I need not marry before then. I am sixteen,
+nearly seventeen; it will not be so _very_ long to wait, and I am
+determined to serve Madeleine."
+
+"Many events may occur to make you change you mind before you attain
+your majority. Meanwhile you are fostering tastes in Madeleine which are
+unsuited to her condition. I know you think me very severe, but"--
+
+"No, no, aunt, you are never severe toward me; you are only too kind,
+too indulgent; you spoil me with too much love and consideration; and it
+is because you _have_ spoiled me so completely that I mean to be saucy
+enough to speak out just what I think."
+
+Bertha seated herself on the footstool at her aunt's feet, took her hand
+caressingly, and with an earnest air prattled on.
+
+"It is with Madeleine that you are severe, and you grow more and more
+severe every day. You speak to her so harshly, so disdainfully at
+times, that I hardly recognize you. One would not imagine that she is
+your grandniece as much as I am,--that is, _almost_ as much, for she was
+the grandniece of the Count de Gramont, my uncle. You find incessant
+fault with her, and she seems to irritate you by her very presence. Oh!
+I have seen it for a long time, and during this last visit I see it more
+than ever."
+
+"Bertha!" commenced her aunt, in a tone which might have awed any less
+volatile and determined speaker.
+
+"Do not interrupt me, aunt; I have not done yet, and I _must_ speak. Why
+do you put on this manner towards Madeleine? You _do put it on_,--it is
+not natural to you,--for you are kind to every one else. And have you
+not been most kind to her also? Were you not the only one of her proud
+relatives who held out a hand to her when she stood unsheltered and
+alone in the world? Have you not since then done everything for her?
+Done everything--but--but--but _love her_?"
+
+"Bertha, you are the only one who would venture to"--
+
+"I know it, aunt,--I am the only one who would venture, so grant me one
+moment more; I have not done yet. Madeleine cannot be an incumbrance,
+for who is so useful in your household as she? Who could replace her?
+When you are suffering, she is the tenderest of nurses. She daily
+relieves you of a thousand cares. When you have company, is it not
+Madeleine who sees that everything is in order? If you give a dinner, is
+it not Madeleine who not only superintends all the preparations, but
+invents the most beautiful decorations for the table,--and out of
+nothing--out of leaves and flowers so common that no one would have
+thought of culling them, yet so wonderfully arranged that every one
+exclaims at their picturesque effect? When you have dull guests,--guests
+that put me to sleep, or out of patience,--is it not Madeleine who
+amuses them? How many evenings, that would have been insufferably
+stupid, have flown delightfully, chased by her delicious voice!"
+
+"You make a great virtue of what was simply an enjoyment to herself. She
+delights as much, or more, in singing than any one can delight in
+hearing her."
+
+"That is because she delights in everything she does; she always
+accomplishes her work with delight. She delighted in making you that
+becoming cap, with its coquettishly-disposed knots of violet ribbons;
+she delighted in turning and freshening and remaking the silk dress you
+wear at this moment, which fits you to perfection, and looks quite new.
+She delighted in embroidering my cousin Tristan that pretty velvet
+smoking-cap he has on his head. She delighted in making me the wreath
+which I wore at the Count de Caradaré's concert the other evening, and
+which every one complimented me upon. It was her own invention;--and did
+not you yourself remark that there was not a head-dress in the room half
+as beautiful? Everything she touches she beautifies. The commonest
+objects assume a graceful form beneath her fingers. The "_fingers of a
+fairy_" my cousin Maurice used to call them, and, there certainly is
+magic in those dainty, rapidly-moving hands of hers. They have an art, a
+skill, a facility that partakes of the supernatural. Madeleine is a
+dependent upon your bounty, but her magic fingers make her a very
+valuable one; and, if you would not think it very impertinent, I would
+say that we are all _her debtors_, rather than _she ours_. There, I have
+done! Now, forgive me for my temerity,--confess that you have been too
+severe to Madeleine, and promise not to find fault with her any more."
+
+"I will confess that she has the most charming advocate in the world,"
+answered the countess with affection.
+
+"Madeleine must not see this bracelet until to-morrow; so I must hasten
+to lock it up," resumed the young girl; "after that I will let her know
+that our cousin will be here to honor her birthday. How enchanted she
+will be! But she makes entirely too much of him,--just as you all do.
+The instant she hears the news, away she will fly to make preparations
+for his comfort. I shall only have to say, 'Maurice is coming,' and what
+a commotion there will be!"
+
+Bertha tripped away, leaving the countess alone with her son.
+
+"Is she not enchanting?" exclaimed the former, as Bertha disappeared.
+"Maurice will have a charming bride."
+
+"Yes, _if_ the marriage we so earnestly desire ever take place."
+
+"IF? IF? I intend that it _shall_ take place. It is my one dream, my
+dearest hope!" said the countess.
+
+"It is mine also," replied the count; "and yet I have my doubts--my
+fears; in a word, I do not believe this union ever _will_ take place if
+Madeleine remain here."
+
+The countess drew herself up with indignant amazement. "What do you
+mean? Do you think Madeleine capable of"--
+
+"I do not think Madeleine capable of anything wrong; but she has such
+versatility of talent, she is so fascinating, her character is so
+lovable, that I think those talents and attractions capable of upsetting
+all our plans and of making Maurice fall deeply in love with her."
+
+"But is not Bertha fascinating, and lovely as a painter's ideal?" asked
+the countess.
+
+"Yes, but it is not such a striking, such an impressive, such a
+bewitching, bewildering style of beauty," replied her son. "Mark my
+words: I understand young men. I know what dazzles their eyes and turns
+their heads. If Maurice is thrown into daily communication with Bertha
+and Madeleine, it is Madeleine to whom he will become attached."
+
+"It must not be!" said the countess, emphatically, and rising as she
+spoke. "It shall not!"
+
+"I echo, it shall not, my mother. But we must take means of prevention.
+It is most unfortunate that Maurice returns a fortnight before we
+expected him. I had my plans laid and ready to carry into execution
+before he could arrive. Now we must hasten them."
+
+"What is your scheme?" asked his mother.
+
+"Madeleine has other relations, all richer than ourselves. I purpose
+writing to each of them, and proposing that they shall receive her, not
+for three years, as we have done, but that they shall each, in turn,
+invite her to spend three months with them. They surely cannot refuse,
+and her life will be very varied and pleasant, visiting from house to
+house every three months, enjoying new pleasures, seeing new faces,
+making new friendships. And her relatives will, in reality, be our
+debtors, for Madeleine is the most charming of inmates. She is always so
+lively, and creates so much gayety around her; she has so many resources
+in herself, and she is so _useful_! In fact, we are bestowing a valuable
+gift upon these good relatives of hers, and they ought to thank us, as I
+have no doubt they will."
+
+The countess approved of her son's plan to rid them of their dangerously
+agreeable inmate, and the count, without further delay, sat down to pen
+the projected epistles.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE COUSINS.
+
+
+Bertha's prediction was verified, and the whole château was thrown into
+confusion by preparations for the coming of the young viscount. Old
+Baptiste forsook his garden-tools for the whole day, to play in-door
+domestic. Gustave, who daily doubled his _rôle_ of coachman with that of
+_valet_, slighted his beloved horses (horses whose mothers and
+grandmothers had supplied the de Gramont stables from time immemorial)
+to cleanse windows, brighten mirrors, and polish dingy furniture.
+Bettina, the antiquated _femme de chambre_ of the countess, who also
+discharged the combined duties of housekeeper and housemaid, flew about
+with a bustling activity that could hardly have been expected from her
+years and infirmities. Elize, the cook, made far more elaborate
+preparations for the coming of the young viscount than she would have
+deemed necessary for the dinner to be given to her master's guests. This
+band of venerable domestics had all been servants of the family before
+the viscount's birth, and he was not only an idol among them, but
+seemed, in a manner, to appertain to them all.
+
+The countess, alone, did not find the movement of gladness around her
+contagious. The coming of Maurice before the departure of Madeleine,
+distressed her deeply; but small troubles and great were incongruously
+mingled in her mind, for, while she was tormented by the frustration of
+her plans, she fretted almost as heartily over that set of Sêvres
+porcelain which, with the addition of her grandson, would not be
+sufficient for the expected guests, even if Madeleine dined in her own
+chamber. Besides, the arrival of Maurice made _that_ arrangement out of
+the question. He would certainly oppose her banishment, just as Bertha
+had done; and the day, unfortunately, was Madeleine's birthday. This
+circumstance would give her cousins additional ground for insisting upon
+her presence at the festive board. The countess saw no escape from her
+domestic difficulties, and was thoroughly out of humor.
+
+Before Madeleine had awoke that morning, Bertha had stolen to her
+bedside and clasped the bracelet upon her arm. Light as was Bertha's
+touch, it aroused the sleeper, and she greeted her birthday token with
+unfeigned gratitude and delight. But Madeleine had few moments to spend
+in contemplation of the precious gift. She dressed rapidly, then
+hastened away to make the château bright with flowers, to complete
+various preparations for the toilet of her aunt, to perform numerous
+offices which might be termed menial; but she entered upon her work with
+so much zest, she executed each task with such consummate skill, she
+took so much interest in the employment of the moment, that no labor
+seemed either tedious or debasing.
+
+Maurice de Gramont had just completed his twenty-first year when he
+graduated with high honor at the University of France. After passing a
+fatiguing examination, he had gladly consented to act upon his father's
+suggestion, and devote a few weeks to enjoyment in the gay metropolis.
+The count had no clew to the cause of his sudden return to Brittany.
+
+"Aunt, aunt! There is the carriage,--he is coming!--Baptiste, run and
+open the gate!" cried Bertha, whose quick eyes had caught sight of a
+coach which stopped at the farther end of a long avenue of noble trees,
+leading to the château.
+
+Baptiste made all the speed which his aged limbs allowed; Gustave
+hastened to throw open the front door; Bertha was on the porch before
+the carriage drew up; the count and countess appeared at the entrance
+just as Maurice sprang down the steps of the lumbering vehicle.
+
+His blue eyes sparkled with genuine joy, and his countenance glowed with
+animation, as he embraced his grandmother warmly, kissed his father,
+according to French custom, then turning to Bertha, clasped her extended
+hands and touched either cheek lightly with his lips. She received the
+cousinly salutation without any evidence of displeasure or any token of
+confusion.
+
+As the maiden and youth stood side by side, they might easily have been
+mistaken for brother and sister. The same florid coloring was remarkable
+in the countenances of both, save that the tints were a few shades
+deeper on the visage of Maurice. His eyes were of a darker blue; his
+glossy hair was tinged with chestnut, while Bertha's shone with
+unmingled gold; but, like Bertha's, his recreant locks had a strong
+tendency to curl, and lay in rich clusters upon his brow, distressing
+him by a propensity which he deemed effeminate. His mouth was as ripely
+red as hers, but somewhat larger, firmer, and less bland in its
+character. His eyebrows, too, were more darkly traced, supplying a want
+only too obvious in her countenance. The resemblance, however,
+disappeared in the forehead and classic nose, for the brow of Maurice
+was broad and high, and the nose prominent, though finely shaped.
+
+His form was manly without being strikingly tall. It was what might be
+designated as a noble figure; but the term owed its appropriateness
+partly to his refined and graceful bearing.
+
+"My dear father, I am so glad to see you!--grandmother, it is refreshing
+to find you looking as though you bade defiance to time;--and you, my
+little cousin, how much you have improved! How lovely you have grown! A
+year does a great deal for one's appearance."
+
+"Yours, for instance," replied Bertha, saucily. "Well, there was
+abundant room for improvement."
+
+Maurice replied to her vivacious remark with a laugh of assent, and,
+looking eagerly around, asked, "Where is Madeleine?"
+
+"Madeleine is busy as usual," answered Bertha. "I warrant she is in some
+remote corner of the château, mysteriously employed. She does not know
+that you have arrived."
+
+"And is she well? My father never once mentioned her in his letters. And
+has she kept you company in growing so much handsomer during the last
+year?"
+
+"_Her_ beauty needed no heightening!" exclaimed Bertha, affectionately.
+"But she develops new talents every day; she sings more delightfully
+than ever; and lately she has commenced drawing from nature with the
+most wonderful ease. You should see the flowers she first creates with
+her pencil and then copies with her needle! I really think her needle
+can paint almost as dexterously as the brush of any other artist."
+
+The count exchanged a look with his mother, and whispered, "Do stop
+her!"
+
+The latter turned quickly to her grandson, and said, "Are you and Bertha
+determined to spend the morning out of doors? Come, let us go in."
+
+As they entered the drawing-room, the countess pointed to a seat beside
+her.
+
+"Maurice, leave your chattering little cousin, and sit down and give us
+some account of yourself. What have you been doing? How have you been
+passing your time?"
+
+Maurice obeyed; Bertha placed herself on the other side of her aunt; the
+count took a chair opposite.
+
+"Behold a most attentive and appreciating audience!" cried Bertha. "Now,
+Mr. Collegian and Traveller,--hero of the hour!--most noble
+representative of the house of de Gramont! hold forth! Let us hear how
+you have been occupying your valuable time."
+
+"In the first place, I have been studying tolerably hard, little cousin.
+It seems very improbable, does it not? The midnight oil has not yet
+paled my cheeks to the sickly and interesting hue that belongs to a
+student. Still the proof is that I have passed my examination
+triumphantly. I will show you my prizes by and by, and they will speak
+for themselves. Next, I have joined a debating society of young students
+who are preparing to become lawyers. Our meetings have afforded me
+infinite pleasure. At our last reunion, I undertook to plead a cause,
+and achieved a wonderful success. I had no idea that language would flow
+so readily from my lips. I was astonished at my own thoughts, and the
+facility with which I formed them into words, and they say I made a
+capital argument. I received the most enthusiastic congratulations, and
+my associates, in pressing my hand, addressed me, not as the Viscount de
+Gramont, but as the _able orator_. I really think that I could make an
+orator, and that I have sufficient talent to become a lawyer."
+
+"A lawyer!" exclaimed the countess with supreme disdain. "What could
+introduce such a vulgar idea into your head? A lawyer! There is really
+something startling, something positively appalling in the vagaries of
+the rising generation! A lawyer! what an idea!"
+
+"It is something more than an _idea_, my dear grandmother: it is a
+project which I have formed, and which I cherish very seriously,"
+replied Maurice.
+
+"A project,--a project! I like projects. Let us hear your sublime
+project, Mr. Advocate," cried Bertha.
+
+"The project is simply to test the abilities which I am presumptuous
+enough to believe I have discovered in myself, and to study for the bar.
+My father wrote me that he intended to become a director in a railway
+company, and descanted upon the advantage of embarking in the
+enterprise. He also confided to me, for the first time, the real state
+of our affairs,--in a word, the empty condition of our treasury. Why
+should my father occupy himself with business matters and I live in
+idleness? Once more, I repeat, I am convinced I have sufficient ability
+to make a position at the bar, and with my father's consent, and yours,
+grandmother, I propose to commence my law studies at once."
+
+"A pettifogger! impossible! I, for one, will never countenance a step so
+humiliating! It is not to be thought of!" replied his grandmother, in a
+tone of decision.
+
+"No, Maurice, your project is futile," responded his father. "My joining
+this railroad association is quite a different matter. I shall in
+reality have nothing to do. It is only my name that is required;
+besides, America is so far off that nobody in Brittany will be aware of
+my connection with the company. Your becoming a lawyer would be a public
+matter. I cannot recall the name of a single nobleman in the whole list
+of barristers"--
+
+"So much the better for me! My title may, _in this solitary instance_,
+prove of service to me. It may help to bring me clients. People will be
+enchanted to be defended by a viscount."
+
+"You conjure up a picture that is absolutely revolting!" cried the
+countess, warmly. "_My grandson_ pleading to defend the rabble!"
+
+"Why not, if the rabble should happen to stand in need of defence?"
+
+"Why not?--because you should ignore their very existence! What have you
+and they in common?"
+
+Maurice was about to reply somewhat emphatically, but noticing his
+grandmother's knitted brow, and his father's troubled expression, he
+checked himself.
+
+The countess added, with an air of determination that forbade
+discussion, "Maurice, you will never obtain my consent, never!"
+
+"But if I may not study for the bar, what am I to do?" asked the young
+man with spirit.
+
+"Do?" questioned the countess, proudly. "What have the de Gramonts done
+for centuries past? Do nothing!"
+
+"_Nothing?_ Thank you, grandmother, for your estimate of my capacities
+and of the sluggish manner in which my blood courses through my veins.
+Doing _nothing_ was all very well in dead-alive, by-gone days, but it
+does not suit the present age of activity and progress. In our time
+everything that has heart and spirit feels that labor is a law of life.
+Some men till the earth, some cultivate the minds of their fellow-men,
+some guard their country's soil by fighting our battles; that is, some
+vocations enable us to live, some teach us how to live, and some render
+it glorious to die. Now, instead of adopting any of these pursuits, I
+only wish to"--
+
+"To become a manufacturer of fine phrases, a vender of words!" replied
+the countess, disdainfully.
+
+"An advantageous merchandise," answered Maurice,--"one which it costs
+nothing, to manufacture but which may be sold dear."
+
+"Sold? You shock me more and more! Never has one who bore the name of de
+Gramont earned money!" replied the countess, with increased _hauteur_.
+
+"Very true, and very unfortunate! We are now feeling the ill effects of
+the idleness of our ancestors. It is time that the new generation should
+reform their bad system," replied Maurice.
+
+"Maurice"--began his father.
+
+"My dear father, let me speak upon this subject, for I have it greatly
+at heart. I have an iron constitution, buoyant spirits, a tolerably good
+head, a tolerably large heart, an ample stock of imagination, an
+unstinted amount of energy, and an admiration for genius; now, all these
+gifts--mind, heart, imagination, spirit, energy--cry out for
+action,--ask to vindicate their right to existence,--need to find vent!
+_That_ is one ground upon which I plant my intention to become a lawyer.
+Another is that a man of my temperament, liberal views, and tendencies
+to extravagance, also needs to have the command of means"--
+
+"Have we ever restricted you, Maurice?" asked his father, reproachfully.
+
+"No, it is only yourselves you have restricted. But do you suppose I am
+willing to expend what has been saved through your economy? Until lately
+I never knew the actual state of our finances. Now I see the necessity
+for exertion, that I may be enabled to live as my tastes and habits
+prompt."
+
+"That you may obtain by making an advantageous marriage," remarked the
+countess, forgetting at the moment that Bertha was present.
+
+"What! owe my privileges, my luxuries, my very position, to my wife?
+Never! Every manly and independent impulse within me rises in arms
+against such a suggestion; while the emotion I experienced when I felt I
+could become something _of myself_,--that I had talents which I could
+employ,--that I had a future before me,--renown to win,--great deeds to
+achieve,--filled me with a strange joy hitherto unknown. I tell you, my
+father, there is a force and fire in my spirit that must have some
+outlet,--must leap into action,--_must_ and _will_!"
+
+"It shall find an outlet," replied the countess, "without making you a
+hired declaimer of fine words,--a paid champion of the low mob. Let us
+hear no more of this absurd lawyer project. The matter is settled: you
+will never have your father's consent, nor mine."
+
+"Then I warn you," exclaimed Maurice, starting up, and speaking almost
+fiercely. "You will drive me into evil courses. I shall fall into all
+manner of vices for the sake of excitement. If I cannot have occupation,
+I must have amusement, I shall run in debt, I may gamble, I may become
+dissipated, I may commit offences against good taste and good morals,
+which will degrade me in reality; and all because you have nipped a
+pure intention in the bud. The root that bore it is too vigorous not to
+blossom out anew, and the chances are that it will bring forth some less
+creditable fruit. You will see! I do not jest; I know what is in me!"
+
+"Content! we will run the risk!" replied the countess, trying to speak
+cheerfully.
+
+The grave manner of Maurice and his impressive tone, as he stood before
+her with an air half-threatening, half-prophetic, made her experience a
+sensation of vague discomfort.
+
+"We will trust you, for you are a de Gramont, and cannot commit a
+dishonorable action. Now, pray, go to your room and make your toilet. We
+are expecting guests to dinner."
+
+Maurice turned away without uttering another word, without even heeding
+the hand which Bertha stretched in sympathy towards him; and, with a
+clouded brow and slow steps, ascended to his own apartment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+MADELEINE.
+
+
+"Fourteen at table, and the Sêvres set only sufficient for twelve! Truly
+it _is_ untoward, but I wish, my dear aunt, you would not let it trouble
+you so much. If you will allow the two extra plates to be placed before
+Bertha and myself, we will endeavor to render them invisible by our
+witchcraft. Do compliment us by permitting the experiment to be tried."
+
+"Bertha is entitled to the best of everything in my mansion," answered
+the countess, unsoothed by this proposition.
+
+"_That_ I admit," was Madeleine's cordial reply; "but to meet this
+unlooked-for emergency, I thought you might possibly consent to let her
+exert her witchery in making an intrusive plate disappear from general
+view."
+
+"And you, it seems, are quite confident of possessing witchcraft potent
+enough to accomplish the same feat!"
+
+Madeleine, without appearing to be hurt by the taunting intonation which
+pointed this remark, replied frankly, "I suppose I must have been guilty
+of imagining that I had; but, indeed, it was unpremeditated vanity. I
+really did not reflect upon the subject. I was only anxious to get over
+the dilemma in which we are placed by these troublesome plates."
+
+"Not _premeditated_ vanity, I dare say," remarked the countess, dryly;
+"only vanity so spontaneous, natural, and characteristic that
+_premeditation_ is out of the question."
+
+Madeleine remained silent, and went on with her task, dexterously
+rolling around her slender fingers her aunt's soft, white curls, and
+letting them lightly drop in the most becoming positions.
+
+The toilet of the countess for her son's dinner-party was in process of
+completion.
+
+She wore a black velvet dress, which, after being on duty for a fabulous
+number of years, and finally pronounced past all further active service,
+had been resuscitated and remodelled, to suit the style of the day, by
+Madeleine. We will not enter into a description of the adroit method by
+which a portion of its primitive lustre had been restored to the worn
+and pressed velvet, nor particularize the skilful manner in which the
+corsage of the robe had been refashioned, and every trace of age
+concealed by an embroidery of jet beads, which was so strikingly
+tasteful that its double office was unsuspected. Enough that the
+countess appeared to be superbly attired when she once more donned the
+venerable but rejuvenated dress.
+
+The snow-white curls being arranged to the best advantage, Madeleine
+placed upon the head of her aunt a dainty cap, of the Charlotte Corday
+form, composed of bits of very old and costly lace,--an heir-loom in the
+de Gramont family,--such lace as could no longer be purchased for gold,
+even if its members had been in a condition to exchange bullion for
+thread. This cap was another of the young girl's achievements, and she
+could not help smiling with pleasure when she saw its picturesque
+effect. The countess, in spite of the anxious contraction of her dark
+brows, looked imposingly handsome. Hers was an old age of positive
+beauty,--a decadence which had all the lustre of
+
+      "The setting moon upon the western wave."
+
+It was only when her features were accidentally contrasted with those of
+such a mild, eloquent, and soul-revealing face as the one bending over
+her that defects struck the eye,--defects which the ravages of time had
+done less to produce than the workings of a stern and haughty character.
+
+But Madeleine's countenance how shall we portray? The lineaments were
+of that order which no painter could faithfully present by tracing their
+outline correctly, and no writer conjure up before the mind by
+descriptive language, however minutely the color of eyes, complexion,
+and hair might be chronicled. Therefore our task must necessarily be an
+imperfect one, and convey but a vague idea of the living presence.
+
+It was a somewhat pale face, but pure and unsallow in its pallor. The
+vivid blood rushed, with any sudden emotion, to cheek and brow, but died
+away as quickly; for late hours, too little sunlight, fresh air, and
+exercise, forbade the flitting roses to be captured and a permanent
+bloom insured. The hue of the large, dreamy eyes might be called a light
+hazel; but that description fails to convey an impression of their rare,
+clear, topaz tint,--a topaz with the changing lustre of an opal: a
+combination difficult to imagine until it has once been seen. The
+darkly-fringed lids were peculiarly drooping, and gave the eyes a look
+of exceeding softness, now and then displaced by startling flashes of
+brilliancy. The finely-chiselled mouth was full of grave sweetness,
+decision, and energy, and yet suggestive of a mirthful temperament. The
+forehead was not too high, but ample and thoughtful. The finely-shaped
+head showed the intellectual and emotional nature nicely balanced.
+Through the long, abundant chestnut hair bright threads gleamed in and
+out until all the locks looked burnished. They were gathered into one
+rich braid and simply wound around the head. At the side, where the
+massive tress was fastened, a single cape jasmine seemed to form a clasp
+of union. A more striking or becoming arrangement could hardly have been
+devised.
+
+Madeleine was somewhat above the ordinary stature, and her height,
+combined with the native dignity of her bearing, would have given her an
+air of stateliness, but for the exceeding grace which dispelled the
+faintest shadow of stiffness,--a stiffness very noticeable in the formal
+carriage of the countess.
+
+The wardrobe of the young girl was necessarily of the most limited and
+uncostly character; and, though she was dressed for a ceremonious
+dinner, her attire consisted merely of a sombre-hued barege, made with
+the severest simplicity, and gaining its only pretension to full dress
+by disclosing her white, finely-moulded neck and arms. Her sole ornament
+was the bracelet which had been Bertha's birthday gift.
+
+While giving the last, finishing touches to her aunt's toilet, Madeleine
+talked gayly. Hers was not one of those bright, silvery voices which
+make you feel that, could the sounds become visible, they must _shine_;
+but there was a rich depth in her tones, which imparted to her lightest
+words an intonation of feeling, and told the hearer that her vocal
+chords were in close communication with her heart. Though her
+countenance did not lack the radiance of youthful gladness, there was so
+much thought mingled with its brightness that even her mirth conveyed
+the impression that she had suffered and sorrowed.
+
+The only daughter of the Duke de Gramont, at eighteen she suddenly found
+herself an orphan and wholly destitute. Her father was one of that large
+class of impoverished noblemen who keep up appearances by means of
+constant shifts and desperate struggles, of which the world knows
+nothing. But he was a man of unquestionable intellect, and had given
+Madeleine a much more liberal education than custom accords to young
+French maidens of her rank.
+
+The accident of his birth the Duke de Gramont regarded as a positive
+misfortune, and daily lamented the burden of his own nobility, for it
+was a shackle that enfeebled and enslaved his large capacities.
+
+He once said to his young daughter, "You would have been far happier as
+a peasant's child; I should have had a wider field of action and
+enjoyment as an humble laborer; we should both have been more truly
+_noble_. I envy the peasants who have the glorious privilege of doing
+just that which they are best fitted to do; who are not forced to
+_vegetate_ and call vegetation existence,--not compelled to waste and
+deaden their energies because it is an aristocratic penalty,--not doomed
+to glide into and out of their lives without ever living enough to know
+life's worth."
+
+Such words sank into Madeleine's spirit, took deep root there, and,
+growing in the bleak atmosphere of adversity, bore vigorous fruit in
+good season.
+
+She had known only the intangible shadow of pomp and luxury, while the
+substance was actual penury. But her inborn fertility of invention, her
+abundant resources, her tact in accommodating herself to circumstances,
+and her inexhaustible energy, had endowed her with the faculty of making
+the best of her contradictory position, and the most of the humblest
+materials at her command.
+
+Though she had several wealthy relatives, the Countess de Gramont was
+the only one who offered her unsheltered youth an asylum. Perhaps we
+ought not to analyze too minutely the motives of the noble lady, for
+fear that we might find her actuated less by a charitable impulse than
+by pride which would not allow it to be said that her grandniece ever
+lacked, or had to solicit, a home. Be that as it may, the orphan
+Madeleine became a permanent inmate of the Château de Gramont.
+
+Her gratitude was deep, and found expression in actions more eloquent
+than words. She was thankful for the slightest evidence of kindness from
+her self-constituted protectors. She even exaggerated the amount of
+consideration which she received. She was not free from the hereditary
+taint of _pride_; but in her it took a new form and unprecedented
+expression. The sense of indebtedness spurred her on to discover ways by
+which she could avoid being a burden upon the generosity of her
+benefactors,--ways by which her obligations might be lightened, though
+she felt they could never be cancelled. She became the active, presiding
+spirit over the whole household; her skilful fingers were ever at work
+here, there, and everywhere; and her quick-witted brain was always
+planning measures to promote the interest, comfort, or pleasure of all
+within her sphere. The thought that an employment was menial, and
+therefore she must not stoop to perform it, never intruded, for she had
+an internal consciousness that she dignified her occupation. What she
+accomplished seemed wonderful; but, independent of the rapidity with
+which she habitually executed, she comprehended in an eminent degree the
+exact value of time,--the worth of every minute; and the use made of her
+_spare moments_ was one great secret of the large amount she achieved.
+
+The toilet of the countess for the dinner was completed, but she kept
+Madeleine by her side until they descended to the drawing-room.
+
+Madeleine had not yet welcomed Maurice, who had retired to his chamber
+to dress before she was aware of his arrival. When she entered the
+_salon_ with the countess, he was sitting beside Bertha, but sprang up,
+and, advancing joyfully, exclaimed, "Ah! at last! I thought I was never
+to be permitted to see the busy fairy of the family, who renders herself
+invisible while she is working her wonders!"
+
+He would have approached his lips to Madeleine's cheek, but the countess
+interfered.
+
+"And why," asked Maurice, in surprise which was not free from a touch of
+vexation,--"why may I not kiss my cousin Madeleine? You found no fault
+when I kissed my cousin Bertha just now!"
+
+"That is very different!" replied the countess, hastily.
+
+"Different! What is the difference?" persisted Maurice.
+
+"There is none that I can discover. Both are equally near of kin,--both
+my cousins,--both second cousins, or third cousins, some people would
+call them; the one is kin through my grandmother, the other through my
+grandfather. What _can_ be the difference?"
+
+"_My will_ makes the difference!" answered the countess, in a severe
+tone. "Is not _that_ sufficient?"
+
+"It ought to be so, Maurice," Madeleine interposed, without appearing to
+be either wounded or surprised at her aunt's manner. "If not, I must add
+_my will_ to my aunt's." Then, as though in haste to change the subject,
+she said, extending her hand, "I am very, _very_ glad to see you,
+Maurice."
+
+"You have not changed as much as my pretty Bertha here," remarked
+Maurice. "She has gained a great deal in the last year. But you,
+Madeleine, look a little paler than ever, and a little thinner than you
+were. I fear it is because you still keep that candle burning which last
+year I used to notice at your window when I returned from balls long
+after midnight. You will destroy your health."
+
+"There is no danger of _that_," answered Madeleine, gayly. "I am in most
+unpoetically robust health. I am never ailing for an hour."
+
+"Never ailing and never weary," joined in Bertha. "That is, she never
+complains, and never admits she is tired. She would make us believe that
+her constitution is a compound of iron and India-rubber."
+
+Maurice took a small jewel-case from his pocket, and, preparing to open
+it, said, "Nobody has yet asked why I am here one fortnight before I was
+expected. Has curiosity suddenly died out of the venerable Château de
+Gramont, that none of the ladies who honor its ancient walls by their
+presence care to know?"
+
+"We all care!" exclaimed Bertha.
+
+"That we do!" responded Madeleine. "Why was it, Maurice?"
+
+"The reason chiefly concerns you, Madeleine."
+
+"Me! You are jesting."
+
+"Not at all; I came home because I remembered that to-day was your
+twenty-first birthday. I would not be absent upon your birthday, though
+I did not know that your reaching your majority was to be celebrated by
+a grand dinner."
+
+"Madeleine's birthday was not thought of when your father invited his
+friends to dinner," remarked the countess, curtly.
+
+Maurice went on without heeding this explanation.
+
+"I have brought you a little birthday token. Will you wear it for my
+sake?"
+
+As he spoke, he opened the case and took out a Roman brooch.
+
+Madeleine's eyes sparkled with a dewy lustre that threatened to shape
+itself into a tear. Before she could speak, Bertha cried out,--
+
+"A dove with a green olive-branch in its mouth,--what a beautiful
+device! And the word '_Pax_' written beneath! That must be in
+remembrance that Madeleine not only bears peace in her own bosom, but
+carries it wherever she goes. Was not that what you intended to suggest,
+Cousin Maurice?"
+
+"You are a delightful interpreter," replied the young man.
+
+"Yet she left me to read the sweet meaning of her own gift," said
+Madeleine, recovering her composure. "See, a band of gold with a knot of
+pearls,--a '_manacle of love_,' as the great English poet calls it,
+secured by purity of purpose."
+
+As she fastened the brooch in her bosom, she added, "I am so rich in
+birthday gifts that I am bankrupt in thanks; pray believe _that_ is the
+reason I thank you so poorly."
+
+The countess impatiently interrupted this conversation by summoning
+Maurice to her side.
+
+As he took the seat she pointed out, he said, in an animated tone, "I
+have not told you all my good news yet. Listen, young ladies, for some
+of it especially concerns you. On my way here, I encountered the
+equipage of the Marchioness de Fleury. She recognized me, ordered her
+carriage to stop, and sent her footman to apprise me that she was on her
+way to the Château de Tremazan, and to beg that I would pause there
+before going home, as she had a few words to say to me. I gladly
+complied. At the château I found quite a large and agreeable company. I
+need not tell you that the amiable host and hostess received me with
+open arms."
+
+The countess remarked, approvingly, "Our neighbors the Baron and
+Baroness de Tremazan are among the most valued of my friends. I have no
+objection to their making much of you."
+
+"Nor have I," answered Maurice, vivaciously. "But, to continue"--
+
+Bertha interrupted him: "I have so often heard the Marchioness de Fleury
+quoted as a precedent, and her taste cited as the most perfect in Paris,
+that I suppose she is a very charming person;--is she not?"
+
+A comical expression, approaching to a grimace, passed over the bright
+countenance of Maurice, as he answered, "_Charming?_ I suppose the term
+is applicable to her. At all events, her toilets are the most charming
+in the world: she dresses to perfection! In her presence one never
+thinks of anything but the wonderful combination of colors, and the
+graceful flowing of drapery, that have produced certain artistic effects
+in her outward adorning. She is style, fashion, elegance, taste
+personified; consequently she is very _charming as an exhibition of the
+newest and most captivating costumes_,--as an inventor and leader of
+modes that become the rage when they have received her stamp."
+
+"But her face and figure,--are they not remarkably handsome?" asked
+Bertha.
+
+"Her figure is the _fac-simile_ of one of those waxen statues which are
+to be seen in the windows of some of the shops in Paris, and would be
+styled faultless by a mantua-maker, though it might drive a sculptor
+distracted if set before him as a model. As for her face, the novel
+arrangement of her hair and the coquettish disposition of her
+head-ornaments have always so completely drawn my attention away from
+her countenance, that I could not tell you the color of her eyes, or the
+character of any single lineament."
+
+"Perhaps, too," suggested Madeleine, "she is so agreeable in
+conversation, that you never thought of scanning her features."
+
+"Of course she is agreeable,--that is, in her own peculiar way; for she
+has an archly graceful manner of discussing the only subjects that
+interest _her_, and always as though they must be of the deepest
+interest to _you_. If you speak to her of her projects for the winter or
+the summer, she will dwell upon the style of dress appropriate in the
+execution of such and such schemes. If you express your regret at her
+recent indisposition, she will describe the exquisite _robes de chambre_
+which rendered her sufferings endurable. If you mention her brother, who
+has lately received an appointment near the person of the emperor, she
+will give you a minute account of the most approved court-dresses. If
+you allude to the possibility that her husband (for such is the rumor)
+may be sent as ambassador to the United States, she will burst forth in
+bitter lamentations over the likelihood that American taste may not be
+sufficiently cultivated to appreciate a Parisian toilet, or to comprehend
+the great importance of the difficult art of dressing well. If you give
+the tribute of a sigh to the memory of the lovely sister she lost a year
+ago, she will run through a list of the garments of woe that gave
+expression to her sorrow,--passing on to the shades of second, third,
+and fourth mourning through which she gradually laid aside her grief.
+You laugh, young ladies. Oh, very well; but I declare to you she went
+through the catalogue of those mourning dresses, rehearsing the periods
+at which she adopted such and such a one, while we were dancing a
+quadrille. In short, the Marchioness de Fleury is an animated
+fashion-plate!--a lay-figure dressed in gauze, silk, lace, ribbon,
+feathers, flowers, that breathes, talks, dances, waltzes!--a
+mantua-maker's, milliner's, hair-dresser's puppet, set in motion,--not a
+woman."
+
+"Has she really no heart, then?" questioned Bertha.
+
+"I suppose that, anatomically speaking, a bundle of fibres, which she
+courteously designates by that name, may rise and fall somewhere beneath
+her jewel-studded bodice; but I doubt whether the pulsations are not
+entirely regulated by her attire."
+
+"You are too severe, Maurice," remarked his grandmother, rebukingly.
+"The Marchioness de Fleury is a lady of the highest standing and of
+great importance."
+
+"Especially to the Parisian modistes who worship her!" replied Maurice.
+"But, while we are discussing the lady herself, I am forgetting to tell
+you her reasons for delaying me half an hour. It was to inquire whether
+you would be disengaged to-morrow morning, as she purposes paying you a
+visit to make a proposition which she thinks may prove agreeable to the
+Countess de Gramont and Count Tristan."
+
+"We are ever proud to receive the Marchioness de Fleury," responded the
+countess, graciously.
+
+"I dare say you think I have emptied my budget of news," Maurice went
+on; "but you are mistaken: several bits of agreeable intelligence remain
+behind. At the Château de Tremazan, I saw three of our relatives on the
+de Gramont side, Madame de Nervac, the Count Damoreau, and M. de
+Bonneville. They inquired kindly after you, Madeleine, and I told them
+you were the most"--
+
+The countess interrupted him with the inquiry, "Are they upon a visit of
+several days?"
+
+"I believe so. Now for the last, most pleasant item. As there are so
+many lively young persons gathered together at the château, some one
+proposed an impromptu ball. Madame de Tremazan seized upon the idea, and
+commissioned me to carry invitations to the Countess dowager de Gramont,
+Mademoiselles Madeleine and Bertha, and Count Tristan, for the evening
+after to-morrow. I assured her in advance that the invitations would be
+accepted;--was I not right?"
+
+"Oh, yes," replied Bertha; "I am so glad!"
+
+"We will enjoy a ball greatly!" exclaimed Madeleine.
+
+"And so will I!" said Maurice. "I engage Madeleine for the first
+quadrille, and Bertha for the first waltz."
+
+"And we both accept!" answered his cousins, with girlish delight.
+
+"Not so fast, young ladies," interrupted the countess. "It is quite out
+of the question for you to attend a ball of such magnificence as may be
+expected at the Château de Tremazan."
+
+"And why not, aunt?" asked Bertha, in a disappointed tone. "You surely
+will not refuse your consent?"
+
+"I deny you a pleasure very unwillingly, dear child, but I am forced to
+do so. You did not expect to appear at any large assemblies while you
+were in Brittany, and you have brought no ball-dress with you. You have
+nothing ready which it would be proper for you to wear at such a
+brilliant reunion; for the de Tremazans are so rich that everything will
+be upon the most splendid and costly scale. Mademoiselle Bertha de
+Merrivale cannot be present upon such an occasion, unless she is attired
+in a manner that befits her rank and fortune. I, also, have no dress
+prepared."
+
+"What a pity, what a pity!" half sighed, half pouted Bertha.
+
+"It is too bad, too provoking!" ejaculated Maurice.
+
+"If there be no obstacle but the lack of a ball-dress for yourself and
+for Bertha, aunt," remarked Madeleine, "we may console ourselves; for we
+will go to the ball."
+
+"Oh, you dear, good, ingenious Madeleine!" exclaimed Bertha, throwing
+her arms around her cousin. "I wonder if the time ever _will_ arrive
+when you have not some resource to extricate us from a difficulty?"
+
+"Madeleine forever! Long live Madeleine!" shouted Maurice, with
+enthusiasm.
+
+"And now, good, fairy godmother, where is the robe of gold and silver to
+deck your Cinderella?" asked Bertha.
+
+"I did not promise gold and silver apparel; you must be content
+with a toilet simple, airy, fresh, and spring-like as yourself.
+And for you, aunt, I will arrange an autumn arraying,--a costume
+soft, yet bright, like the autumn days which the Americans call
+'Indian summer,'--something which will almost make one wish to fall
+into the sere and yellow leaf of life in the hope of resembling you."
+
+"But how is it possible to make two ball-dresses between this time and
+night after next?" inquired the countess, evidently not at all averse
+to the project, if it could be carried into execution.
+
+"I answer for the possibility!" replied Madeleine.
+
+"Yes, Madeleine answers for it!" repeated Maurice.
+
+"Madeleine answers for it!" echoed Bertha; "and you know Madeleine has
+_the fingers of a fairy_; she can achieve whatever she undertakes. But
+your own dress, Madeleine?"
+
+"Do not be uneasy about that; we will think of that when the others are
+ready."
+
+"But if you do not wear a dress that becomes you?" persisted Bertha.
+
+"Why, then I shall have to look at yours, and, remembering that it is my
+handiwork, be satisfied."
+
+"There is no one like you, Madeleine!" burst forth Maurice,
+uncontrollably,--"no one! You never think of yourself; you"--
+
+"But, as some one is always good enough to think of me, I deserve little
+credit on that account," rejoined Madeleine.
+
+"Who could help thinking of you?" murmured Maurice, tenderly.
+
+The countess had not heard the enthusiastic encomium of Maurice, nor his
+last, involuntary remark. The young man had risen and joined his
+cousins. His father had taken the vacant seat beside the countess, and
+was talking to her in a low tone. From the moment he learned that
+Madeleine's relatives were accidentally assembled at the Château de
+Tremazan, he had determined to seize that favorable opportunity, and
+send them the letters requesting that they would by turns offer a home
+to their poor and orphan relative. These letters, though written upon
+the day previous, fortunately had not yet been posted. Count Tristan
+whisperingly communicated his intention to his mother, and received her
+approval.
+
+Their conversation was interrupted by the entrance of M. Gaston de Bois,
+who invariably arrived before other guests made their appearance. M. de
+Bois was such a martyr to nervous timidity, that he could not summon
+courage to enter a room full of company, even with some great
+stimulating compensation in view. On the present occasion, though only
+the family had assembled, his olive complexion crimsoned as he advanced
+towards the countess, and his expressive, though irregular and not
+strictly handsome features became almost distorted; he unconsciously
+thrust his fingers through his hair, throwing it into startling
+disorder, and twisted his dark moustache until it stood out with
+sufficient ferocity to suit the face of a brigand in a melodrama.
+
+But the most painful effect of this bewildering embarrassment evinced
+itself when he attempted to speak. His utterance became suddenly
+impeded, and, the more violent his efforts to articulate, the more
+difficult it seemed for him to utter a distinct sentence. He was
+painfully near-sighted; yet he always detected the faintest smile upon
+the countenance of any one present, and interpreted it into an
+expression of derision.
+
+These personal defects, however, were liberally counterbalanced by
+mental attributes of a high order. His constitutional diffidence caused
+him to shun society; but he devoted his leisure to books, and was an
+erudite scholar, without ever mounting the pompous stilts of the pedant.
+All his impulses were noble and generous, though his best intentions
+were often frustrated by that fearful self-consciousness which made him
+dread the possibility of attracting attention. There was a slight shade
+of melancholy in his character. Life had been a disappointment to him,
+and he was haunted by a sense of the incompleteness of his own
+existence.
+
+His estate joined that of the Count de Gramont, and was even more
+impoverished. Gaston de Bois led a sort of hermit-like life in the
+gloomy and empty château of his ancestors. He chafed in his confinement,
+like a caged lion ready to break loose from bondage. But the lion freed
+might take refuge in his native woods, while Gaston, if he rushed forth
+into the world, knew that his bashfulness, his stammering, his
+near-sightedness, would render society a more intolerable prison than
+his solitary home.
+
+At the Château de Gramont he was a frequent guest, for the countess and
+her son held him in the highest esteem.
+
+After saluting his host and hostess, he warmly grasped the hand of
+Maurice, and then addressed Madeleine, with but little hesitation
+apparent in his speech; but when he turned to Bertha, and essayed to
+make some pleasant remark, he was suddenly seized with a fit of hopeless
+stammering.
+
+The beaming smile with which Bertha greeted him was displaced by an
+expression almost amounting to compassion. Madeleine, with her wonted
+presence of mind, came to his aid; finished his sentence, as though he
+had spoken it himself; and went on talking _to him_ and _for him_, while
+he regarded her with an air of undisguised thankfulness and relief.
+
+Between Madeleine and Gaston de Bois there existed that sort of
+friendship which many persons are sceptical that a young and attractive
+woman and an agreeable man can entertain for each other without the
+sentiment heightening into a warmer emotion. But love and friendship are
+totally distinct affections. A woman may cherish the truest, kindliest
+friendship for a man whom it would be impossible for her to love; nay,
+in whom she would totally lose her interest if he once presented himself
+in the aspect of a lover; and we believe a certain class of men are
+capable of experiencing the same pure and kin-like devotion for certain
+women.
+
+M. de Bois felt that he was comprehended by Madeleine,--that she
+sympathized with his misfortunes, appreciated the difficulties of his
+position, and, without pretending to be blind to his defects, always
+viewed them leniently: thus, in her presence he was sufficiently at ease
+to be entirely himself; his _amour propre_ received fewer wounds, and he
+was conscious that he appeared to better advantage than in the society
+of other ladies.
+
+Madeleine, on her side, had more than once reflected that there was no
+one to whom she could more easily turn to impart a sorrow, intrust a
+secret, solicit a favor, or receive consolation and advice,--no one in
+whom she could so thoroughly confide, as M. de Bois.
+
+Gaston had only commenced to regain his self-possession when the two
+American gentlemen, Mr. Hilson and Mr. Meredith, were announced.
+
+The countess received them with a freezing formality which would have
+awed any visitors less unsuspicious of the cause of this augmented
+stateliness.
+
+They were both gentlemen who held high positions in their own country;
+they had brought letters to Count Tristan de Gramont, with a view of
+enlisting his interest in the railway company of which we have before
+spoken; they had been cordially received by him, and invited to partake
+of his hospitality; it therefore never occurred to either of them that
+the haughty demeanor of the countess was designed to impress them with a
+sense of their inferiority.
+
+Mr. Hilson was what is termed a "self-made" man,--that is, he owed
+nothing to the chances of birth; he had received little early
+cultivation, but he had educated himself, and therefore all the
+knowledge he had acquired was positive mental gain, and brought into
+active use. He had inherited no patrimony, and started life with no
+advantages of position; but he had made his own fortune, and earned his
+own place in the social sphere. He had been one of the most successful
+and scientific engineers which the United States ever produced, and was
+now the president of an important railroad, and a highly influential
+member of society.
+
+Mr. Meredith was born in the State of Maryland,--a "man of family," as
+it is styled. He had not encountered the difficulties and experienced
+the struggles of his associates; his was therefore a less strong, less
+highly developed, character. He had travelled over the larger portion of
+Europe, yet preferred to make his home in America; he had once retired
+from business, but, finding that he was bored to death without the
+necessity for occupation, connected himself with the railroad company of
+which Mr. Hilson was president.
+
+The other guests were gentlemen residing or visiting in the
+neighborhood. They were the Marquis de Lasalles, the Count Caradore,
+Messieurs Villiers, Laroche, and Litelle. The two former, being the most
+important personages, occupied seats at table on the right and left of
+the countess. Gaston de Bois was well pleased to find himself beside
+Madeleine; for he was opposite to Bertha, and could feast his eyes upon
+her fair, unclouded face, and now and then he spoke to her in glances
+which were far more eloquent than his tongue.
+
+Mr. Hilson sat on the other side of Madeleine. A few naturally suggested
+questions about his native land unloosed his tongue, and she soon became
+deeply interested in the information he gave her concerning
+America,--the habits, views, and aspirations of its people.
+
+After listening for some time, she almost involuntarily murmured, with a
+half-sigh, "I should like to visit America."
+
+There was something in her own nature which responded to the spirit of
+self-reliance, energy, and industry, which are so essentially American
+characteristics.
+
+Bertha sat between the Marquis de Lasalles and Maurice. She was in the
+highest spirits, and looked superlatively lovely. The brow of the
+countess gradually smoothed as she noticed how gayly the heiress chatted
+with her cousin.
+
+The two plates which intruded into the Sêvres set had been a terrible
+eyesore to Madame de Gramont at first; but Madeleine's suggestion had
+been acted upon,--they were placed before the young ladies, and, as the
+countess rose from the table, she comforted herself with the reflection
+that they had escaped observation.
+
+The gentlemen accompanied the ladies to the drawing-room, and then
+Maurice lured Madeleine to the piano, and was soon in raptures over the
+wild, sweet melodies which she sung with untutored pathos. His
+grandmother could scarcely conceal her vexation. Approaching the singer,
+she took an opportunity, while Bertha and Maurice were searching for a
+piece of music, whisperingly to suggest that Baptiste was old and
+clumsy, and the Sêvres set in danger until it was safely locked up
+again.
+
+Madeleine murmured, in return, "I will steal away unnoticed and attend
+to it."
+
+She stole away, but not unperceived, for one pair of eyes was ever upon
+her. She found so much besides the valuable china that demanded
+attention, and her aid was so heartily welcomed by the old domestics,
+who had become confused by the multiplicity of their duties, that it was
+late in the evening before she reappeared in the drawing-room. The
+guests were taking their leave.
+
+"I am highly flattered by the interest you have expressed in my
+country," said Mr. Hilson, in bidding her adieu. "If you should ever
+visit America, as you have expressed the desire to do, and if you should
+pass through Washington, as you certainly will if you visit America,
+will you not promise to apprise me? Here is my address?" and he placed
+his card in her hands.
+
+Madeleine looked not a little surprised and embarrassed at this
+unexpected and informal proceeding, which she knew would greatly shock
+the countess; but, taking the card, answered, courteously, "I fear
+nothing is more unlikely than that I should cross the ocean; but, if
+such an unlooked-for event should ever occur, I promise certainly to
+apprise you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+PROPOSALS.
+
+
+On the morrow, at the usual hour for visitors, the count and his mother
+sat in the drawing-room awaiting the promised guest. Maurice, at Count
+Tristan's solicitation, had very unwillingly consented to postpone his
+customary equestrian exercise, and was sauntering in the garden,
+wondering over the caprice that prompted his father to desire his
+presence at the expected interview. The tramp of hoofs broke his
+revery; and a superb equipage, drawn by four noble horses,
+postilion-mounted, dashed up the long avenue that led to the château. He
+hastened to the carriage-door, and aided the Marchioness de Fleury to
+alight.
+
+The living embodiment of graceful affability, she greeted him with a
+volley of slaying smiles; then, with an air which betrayed her
+triumphant certainty of the execution done, glided past him into the
+drawing-room, almost disappearing in a cloud of lace, as she made a
+profound obeisance to the countess, and partially rising out of her
+misty _entourage_ in saluting Count Tristan.
+
+Her voice had a low, studied sweetness as she softly syllabled some
+pleasant commonplaces, making affectionate inquiries concerning the
+health of the countess, and simulating the deepest interest as she
+apparently listened to answers which were in reality unheard. Ere long,
+she winningly unfolded the object of her visit. Her brother, the young
+Duke de Montauban, had prayed her to become his ambassador. He recently
+had the felicity of meeting the niece of the Countess de Gramont,
+Mademoiselle Bertha de Merrivale. He had been struck and captivated by
+her grace and surpassing beauty; he now charged his sister to apprise
+the family of Mademoiselle Bertha that he sought the honor of her hand
+in marriage, and hoped to obtain a favorable response to his suit.
+
+The consternation created by those words did not escape the quick eyes
+of the marchioness. The count half rose from his seat, white with
+vexation, then sat down again, and, making an attempt to hide his
+displeasure, answered, in a tone of forced courtesy,--
+
+"Though Mademoiselle Bertha de Merrivale is my mother's grandniece, we
+have no control over her actions or inclinations. Her uncle, the Marquis
+de Merrivale, who is her guardian, is morbidly jealous of any influence
+exerted over his niece, even by relatives equally near."
+
+The Countess de Gramont, though she also had been greatly disconcerted,
+recovered herself more quickly than her son, and answered, with such an
+excess of suavity that it had the air of exaggeration,--
+
+"We feel deeply indebted for the proposed honor. An alliance with a
+nobleman of the high position and unblemished name of the Duke de
+Montauban is all that could be desired for my niece; but, as my son has
+remarked, her guardian is very punctilious respecting his rights, and
+would not tolerate an interference with her future prospects. I beg you
+will believe that we are highly flattered by the proposal of the Duke
+de Montauban, though we have no power to promote his suit."
+
+Maurice could not help wondering why his father looked so thoroughly
+vexed, and why his grandmother made such an effort to conceal her
+displeasure by an assumption of overacted gratification.
+
+The Marchioness de Fleury betrayed neither surprise, disappointment, nor
+emotion of any kind, except by gently tapping the ground with the
+exquisitely gaitered little foot that peeped from the mazes of her ample
+drapery.
+
+She answered, in the most honeyed voice, "Oh! I was misinformed, and I
+knew that your charming niece was at this moment visiting you."
+
+Then, spreading her bespangled fan, and moving it gently backward and
+forward, though the day was far from sultry, she dismissed the subject
+by asking Maurice if he had delivered Madame de Tremazan's invitations
+to the ball.
+
+Almost before he had concluded his reply, she rose, and, with the most
+enchanting of smiles, courtesied, as though she were making a reverence
+in a quadrille of the Lancers, and the lace cloud softly floated out of
+the room, the human being it encircled being nearly lost to sight when
+it was in motion.
+
+Maurice could not resist the impulse to turn to his father, and express
+his amazement that the complimentary proposals made for Bertha by the
+Marchioness de Fleury had been so definitely declined, adding, "If my
+little cousin had been already engaged, you could not more decidedly
+have shut the door upon the duke."
+
+The count bit his lips, and strode up and down the room.
+
+The countess replied, "We have other views for Bertha,--views which we
+trust would be more acceptable to herself; but here she comes, and I
+have a few words to say to her in private. Take a turn with your father
+in the park, Maurice, while I talk to your cousin."
+
+She gave the count a significant glance as she spoke.
+
+Father and son left the room as Bertha entered.
+
+For some minutes the two gentlemen walked side by side in silence.
+Finding that his father did not seem inclined to converse, Maurice
+remarked, abruptly,--
+
+"Now that the visit of the marchioness is over, I shall take my
+postponed ride, if you have no further need of me."
+
+"I _have_ need; let your horse wait a few moments longer," replied the
+count. "Can you conceive no reason why we did not for one instant
+entertain the proposition of the Marchioness de Fleury?"
+
+"None: it was made entirely according to rule; and, if you will allow me
+to say so, common courtesy seemed to demand that it should have been
+treated with more consideration."
+
+"Suppose Bertha's affections are already engaged?" suggested the father.
+
+"Ah, that alters the aspect of affairs; but it is hardly possible,--she
+is so young, and appears to be so heart-free."
+
+"Still, I think she has a preference; and, if I am not mistaken, her
+choice is one that would give us the highest satisfaction."
+
+"Really!" ejaculated Maurice, unsuspiciously. "Whom, then, does she
+honor by her election?"
+
+"A very unworthy person!" rejoined the count, in a tone of irritation,
+"since he is too dull to suspect the compliment."
+
+"You cannot mean"--began Maurice, in confused amazement, but paused,
+unwilling to finish his sentence with the words that rose to his lips.
+
+"I mean a most obtuse and insensible young man, walking by my side, who
+has learned to interpret Greek and Latin at college, but not a woman's
+heart."
+
+"Impossible! You are surely mistaken. Bertha has only bestowed upon me a
+cousinly regard," answered Maurice, evidently more surprised and
+embarrassed than pleased by the unexpected communication.
+
+"I presume you do not expect the young lady herself to make known the
+esteem in which she holds you, undeserving as you are? You must take our
+word for her sentiments. What this alliance would be to our falling
+house, I need not represent; it is not even necessary that you should
+enter into the merits of this side of the question. You must see that
+Bertha is beautiful and lovable, and would make the most delightful
+companion for life. Is this not so?"
+
+"Yes, she is beautiful, lovable, and would make a delightful companion,"
+answered Maurice, as though he echoed his father's words without knowing
+what he said.
+
+"Is she not all you could desire?"
+
+"All,--all I could desire as--as--as a _sister_!" replied Maurice.
+
+"But the question is now of a wife!" rejoined the count, angrily. "Are
+you dreaming, that you pore upon the ground and answer in that strange,
+abstracted manner?"
+
+Maurice looked up, as if about to speak, but hesitated, dubious what
+reply would be advisable.
+
+The count went on.
+
+"Maurice, your grandmother and I have this matter deeply at heart.
+Besides, Bertha loves you; you cannot treat her affection with disdain.
+Promise me that you will at once have an understanding with her, and let
+this matter be settled. It must not be delayed any longer. Why do you
+not reply?"
+
+"Yes,--you are right. I ought to have an understanding with her,--_I
+will have!_" replied Maurice, still in a brown study.
+
+"That is well; and let it be as soon as possible,--to-day, or to-morrow
+at the latest,--before this ball takes place,--before you meet the
+Marchioness de Fleury again."
+
+Maurice answered, hastily, "You need not fear that I desire any delay.
+You have put an idea into my head which would make suspense intolerable.
+I will speak to her without loss of time. And now will you allow me to
+wish you good-morning? My horse has been saddled for an hour."
+
+Saying this, he walked toward the stable and called to Gustave, who at
+once appeared, leading the horse. The viscount vaulted upon its back,
+and, starting off at full gallop, in a few moments was out of sight.
+
+His father was mystified, doubtful of the real feelings of Maurice, and
+uncertain what course he meant to pursue, but well assured that he would
+keep his word; and, if he did, it would be impossible for him to
+introduce this delicate subject without compromising himself,--nay,
+without positively offering himself to Bertha. The very mention of such
+a theme would be a proposal; and, with this consolatory reflection, he
+returned to the château.
+
+As he passed the drawing-room, he caught a glimpse of Bertha, sitting at
+his mother's feet. The latter was holding both of the young girl's
+hands, and talking to her earnestly. Bertha's countenance wore an
+expression of maidenly confusion and perplexity which, even if the count
+had not been aware of his mother's intentions, would have betrayed the
+nature of her discourse.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+HEART-BEATS.
+
+
+Maurice must have found his equestrian exercise particularly agreeable
+upon that day, for he returned to the château so late that no one saw
+him again until the family assembled at dinner.
+
+Bertha was unusually silent and _distrait_, not a single smile rippled
+her slumbering dimples, and she answered at random. She did not once
+address Maurice, to whom she usually prattled in a strain of merry
+_badinage_, and he evinced the same constraint toward her.
+
+As soon as the ladies rose from table, Madeleine retired to her own
+chamber. Her preparations for the morrow demanded all her time. The
+count retreated to the library. Maurice and Bertha were on the point of
+finding themselves _tête-à-tête_, for the countess just remembered that
+she had a note to write, when her little plot to leave the cousins
+together was frustrated by the entrance of the Marquis de Lasalles.
+
+The clouds suddenly melted from Bertha's countenance when the dull old
+nobleman was announced. She greeted him with an air of undisguised
+relief, as though she had been happily reprieved from an impending
+calamity. The lively warmth of her salutation attracted the marquis to
+her side, and he remained fascinated to the spot for the rest of the
+evening. The countess was too thoroughly well-bred to allow herself to
+look annoyed, or, even in secret, to acknowledge that she wished the
+marquis elsewhere; but she was disconcerted, and puzzled by the
+unaccountable change in Bertha's deportment.
+
+So passed the evening.
+
+The next morning, when Bertha appeared at breakfast, every one, Maurice
+perhaps excepted, remarked that she seemed weary and dispirited. Her
+brilliant complexion had lost something of its wonted lustre; her
+usually clear blue eyes looked heavy and shadowed; her rosy mouth had a
+half-sorrowful, half-fretful expression. It was evident that some
+nightmare preyed upon her mind, and had broken the childlike sound
+sleeping that generally visited her pillow. When the ball that was to
+take place that evening was mentioned, she brightened a little, but
+quickly sank back into her musing mood.
+
+"You must give me some assistance this morning, Bertha," said
+Madeleine, as she poured a few drops of almond oil into a tiny cup.
+"Your task shall be to gather, during your morning walk, this little
+basket full of the greenest and most perfect ivy leaves you can find,
+and bring them to the _châlet_. Then, if you feel inclined to aid me
+further, I will show you how to impart an emerald brilliancy to every
+leaf by a touch of this oil and a few delicate manipulations."
+
+"I suspect you are inventing something very novel and tasteful,"
+remarked Bertha, with more indifference than was natural to her.
+
+"You shall judge by and by," replied Madeleine, as she left the room,
+with the cup in her hand.
+
+She carried it, with her work, to a dilapidated summer-house, embowered
+by venerable trees. Madeleine's taste had given a picturesque aspect to
+this old _châlet_, and concealed or beautified the ravages of time. With
+the assistance of Baptiste, she had planted vines which flung over the
+outer walls a green drapery, intermingled with roses, honeysuckle, and
+jasmine; and, within doors, a few chairs, a well-worn sofa, a table, and
+footstool gave to the rustic apartment an appearance of habitableness
+and comfort. This was Madeleine's favorite resort when the weather was
+fine, and not a few of the magic achievements of her "fairy fingers" had
+been created in that romantic and secluded locality. There was glamour,
+perhaps, in the sylvan retreat, that acted like inspiration upon hands
+and brain.
+
+Bertha usually flitted about her as she worked, wandering in and out,
+now and then sitting down for a few moments, and reading aloud, by fits
+and starts, or occasionally taking up a needle and making futile efforts
+to busy herself with the womanly implement, but always restless, and
+generally abandoning her attempt after a brief trial; for Bertha frankly
+confessed that she admired industry in her cousin without being able to
+practise it in her own person.
+
+This morning, however, Madeleine sat alone; the fleecy tarlatan, that
+rolled in misty whiteness around her, gradually assuming the shape of
+female attire. Bettina had been despatched to Rennes on the day previous
+to procure this material for Bertha's ball-costume, and had not returned
+until late in the evening; yet the dress was cut out and fitted before
+Madeleine closed her eyes that night. The first auroral ray of light
+that stole into her chamber the next day fell upon the lithe figure of
+the young girl folding tucks that were to be made in the skirt,
+measuring distances, placing pins here and there for guides; and, as the
+dawn broke, she sat down unwearily, and sent her needle in and out of
+the transparent fabric with a rapidity of motion marvellous to behold.
+
+After a time, the rickety door of the _châlet_ was unceremoniously
+pushed open, and old Baptiste entered. He deposited a basket filled with
+ivy leaves upon the table, and said that Mademoiselle Bertha desired him
+to gather and deliver them to Mademoiselle Madeleine.
+
+"Has she not taken her usual walk this morning, then?" asked Madeleine,
+in surprise.
+
+"No, mademoiselle; Mademoiselle Bertha only came to me as I was weeding
+the flower-beds, and immediately went back to the château. Have I
+brought mademoiselle enough ivy?"
+
+"Quite sufficient, thank you; but I did not mean to consume your time,
+my good Baptiste. I thought Mademoiselle Bertha would take pleasure in
+selecting the ivy herself."
+
+"Mademoiselle Madeleine knows how glad I always am to serve her,"
+answered Baptiste.
+
+For another hour Madeleine sat alone, singing, in a soft murmur, as she
+sewed, while
+
+      "Her soul was singing at a work apart
+      Behind the walls of sense."
+
+The sound of a manly step upon the pathway silenced her plaintive
+melody. The next moment the vines, that formed a verdant curtain about
+the otherwise unprotected casement, were gently drawn back, and a face
+appeared at the window.
+
+"I thought I should find you here on this bright morning, Mademoiselle
+Madeleine. May I en--en--enter?" asked Gaston de Bois, speaking with so
+much ease that his only stammer came upon the last word.
+
+"If you please."
+
+"A noble slave of the needle," he continued, still looking in at the
+window. "The daughter of a duke, with the talents of a dressmaker!
+_Where_ will ge--ge--genius next take up her abode?"
+
+"Genius--since you are pleased to apply that sublime appellation to my
+poor capacities for wielding the most familiar and harmless weapon of my
+sex--is no respecter of persons, as you see. You are an early visitor
+to-day, M. de Bois. Of course, you are on your way to the château?"
+
+"I have let--let--letters for the count. He intrusted me
+yes--es--esterday with a package to take with me to the Château de
+Tremazan, where I was engaged to pass the evening, and I have brought
+him the replies. But before I play the postman, let me come in and talk
+to you, since you are the only person I can ever manage to talk to at
+all."
+
+"Come in then, and welcome."
+
+Gaston accepted the invitation with alacrity. He took a seat, and,
+regarding her work, remarked, "This must be for to-night's ball; is it
+your own dress?"
+
+"Mine? All these tucks for a dress of _mine_? No, indeed, it is
+Bertha's, and I hope she will like the toilet I have planned; each tuck
+will be surmounted by a garland of ivy, left open at the front, and
+fastened where it breaks off, on either side, with blush roses. Then
+among her luxuriant curls a few sprigs of ivy must float, and perhaps a
+rose peep out. You may expect to see her looking very beautiful
+to-night."
+
+M. de Bois sighed, and remained silent for a moment. Then he resumed the
+conversation by asking, "And the dress will be ready in time?"
+
+"Before it is needed, I trust, for it is now well advanced. Fortunately
+my aunt's dress was completed last night. But it was not new,--only a
+fresh combination of materials that had already been employed. Yet she
+was kind enough to be highly pleased."
+
+"Well she might be! You are always wor--wor--working for the good of the
+whole family."
+
+"What other return can I make for the good I have received?" replied
+Madeleine, with emotion. "Can I ever forget that, when I was left alone
+in the world, without refuge, without friends, almost without bread, my
+great-aunt extended to me her protection, supplied all my wants,
+virtually adopted me as her own child? Can I offer her too much
+gratitude in return? Can I lavish upon her too much love? No one knows
+how well I love her and all that is hers! How well I love that dwelling
+which received the homeless orphan! People call the old château dreary
+and gloomy; to me it is a palace; its very walls are dear. I love the
+trees that yield me their shade,--the parks that you no doubt think a
+wilderness,--the rough, unweeded walks which I tread daily in search of
+flowers,--this ruined summer-house, where I have passed hours of
+delicious calm,--all the now familiar objects that I first saw through
+my tears, before they were dried by the hand of affection; and I reflect
+with joy that probably I shall never quit the Heaven-provided home which
+has been granted me. I have been so very happy here."
+
+"Real--eal--eally?" asked Gaston, doubtingly. "I fancied sometimes, when
+I saw the Countess and Count Tristan so--so--so severe to you, that"--
+
+"Have they not the right to find fault with me when I fail to please
+them? That is only what I expect, and ought to bear patiently. I will
+not pretend to say that sometimes, when I have been misunderstood, and
+my best efforts have failed to bring about results that gratify them,--I
+will not say that my heart does not swell as though it would burst; but
+I console myself by reflecting that some far off, future day will come
+to make amends for all, and bring me full revenge."
+
+"Re--re--revenge! You re--re--revenge?" cried Gaston, in astonishment.
+
+"Yes, _revenge_!" laughed Madeleine. "You see what a vindictive creature
+I am! And I am positively preparing myself to enjoy this delightful
+revenge. I will make you the confidant of my secret machinations. This
+old château is lively enough now, and the presence of Bertha and Maurice
+preserve to my aunt the pleasant memory of her own youth. But by and by
+Maurice will go forth into the world, and perhaps we shall only see him
+from time to time, at long intervals. Bertha will marry"--
+
+At these words M. de Bois gave a violent start, and, stammering
+unintelligibly, rose from his seat, upsetting his chair, walked to the
+window, brought destruction upon some of Madeleine's vines by pulling
+them violently aside, to thrust out his head; then strode back, lifted
+the fallen chair, knocking down another, and with a flushed countenance
+seated himself again.
+
+Madeleine went on, as if she had not noticed his abrupt movement.
+
+"Solitude and _ennui_ might then oppress the Countess and even Count
+Tristan, and render their days burdensome. I am laying up a store of
+materials to enliven these scenes of weariness and loneliness. I have
+made myself quite a proficient in _piquet_, that I may pass long
+evenings playing with the count; I have noted and learned all the old
+airs that his mother delights to hear, because they remind her of her
+girlhood, and I will sing them to her when she is solitary and
+depressed. I will make her forget the absence of the dear ones who must
+leave such a void in her life; in a thousand ways I will soften the
+footsteps of age and infirmity as they steal upon her;--that will be the
+amends time will bring me,--that is the _revenge_ I seek."
+
+"Ah! Mademoiselle Mad--ad--adeleine, you are an angel!"
+
+"So far from an angel," answered Madeleine, gayly, "that you make me
+feel as though I had laid a snare, by my egotism, to entrap that
+ill-deserved compliment. Now let us talk about yourself and your own
+projects. Do you still hold to the resolution you communicated to me in
+our last conversation?"
+
+"Yes, your advice has decided me."
+
+"I should have been very impertinent if I had ventured to give you
+advice. I can hardly be taxed with that presumption. We were merely
+discussing an abstract question,--the use of faculties accorded us, and
+the best mode of obtaining happiness through their employment; and you
+chose to apply my general remarks to your particular case."
+
+"You drew a picture which made me feel what a worth--orth--orthless
+mortal I am, and this incited me to throw off the garment of
+slothfulness, and put on armor for the battle of life."
+
+"So be it! Now tell us what you have determined upon."
+
+"My unfortunate imped--ed--ediment is my great drawback. Maurice hopes
+to become a lawyer; but that profession would be out of the
+ques--es--estion for me who have no power to utter my ideas. I could not
+enter the army, for what kind of an officer could I make? How should I
+ever manage to say to a soldier, 'Go and brave death for your
+coun--oun--ountry'? I should find it easier to do myself than to say it.
+Some diplomatic position I _might_ possibly fill. As speech, according
+to Talleyrand, was given to men to disguise their thoughts, a man who
+st--st--stammers is not in much danger of making known his private
+medita--a--ations."
+
+"That is ingenious reasoning," replied Madeleine. "I hope something will
+grow out of it."
+
+"It is grow--ow--ing already. Yesterday, at the Château de Tremazan, I
+had a long interview with the Marquis de Fleury. He expects to be sent
+as ambassador to the United States. We are old friends. We talked, and I
+tol--ol--old"--
+
+"You told him your views," said Madeleine, aiding him so quietly and
+naturally that her assistance was scarcely noticeable. "And what was
+concluded upon? for your countenance declares that you have concluded
+upon something. If the marquis goes to America, you will perhaps
+accompany him?"
+
+"Yes, as sec--sec--sec--"
+
+"As secretary?" cried Madeleine. "That will be an admirable position.
+But America--ah! it is a long, long distance from Brittany! This is good
+news for you; but there are two persons to whom it will cause not a
+little pain."
+
+"To who--o--om?" inquired Gaston, with suppressed agitation.
+
+"To my cousin Bertha, and to me."
+
+"Mademoiselle Ber--er--ertha! Will _she_ heed my absence?
+She--she--she,--will she?" asked Gaston, confusedly.
+
+"Yes--but take care; if you let me see how deeply that idea affects you,
+you will fail to play the diplomat in disguising your thoughts, for I
+shall divine your secret."
+
+"My secret,--what--what secret? What is it you divine? What do you
+imagine? I mean."
+
+"That you love Bertha,--love her as she deserves to be loved?"
+
+"I? I?" replied M. de Bois, trying to speak calmly; but, finding the
+attempt in vain, he burst forth: "Yes, it is but too true; I love her
+with my whole soul; I love her passionately; love her despairingly,--ay,
+_despairingly_!"
+
+"And why _despairingly_?"
+
+"Alas! she is so rich!" he answered, in a tone of chagrin.
+
+"True, she is encumbered with a large and _un_-encumbered estate."
+
+"A great misfortune for me!" sighed Gaston.
+
+"A misfortune which you cannot help, and which Bertha will never
+remember when she bestows her heart upon one who is worthy of the gift."
+
+"How can she ever deem _me_ worthy? Even if I succeed in making myself a
+name,--a position; even if I become all that you have caused me to dream
+of being,--this dreadful imped--ed--ediment, this stammering which
+renders me ridiculous in the eyes of every one, in her eyes even,
+will"--
+
+"Your stammering is only the effect of timidity," answered Madeleine,
+soothingly. "Believe me, it is nothing more; as you overcome your
+diffidence and gain self-possession, you will find that it disappears.
+For instance, you have been talking to me for some time with ease and
+fluency."
+
+"To _you_, ah, yes; with _you_ I am always at my ease,--I have always
+confidence. It is not difficult to talk to one for whom I have so much
+affection,--_so much_, and yet not _too much_."
+
+"That proves fluent speech possible."
+
+"But to any one else, if I venture to open my heart, I hesitate,--I get
+troubled,--I--I stammer,--I make myself ridic--ic--iculous!"
+
+"Not at all."
+
+"But I do," reiterated Gaston, warmly. "Fancy a man saying to a woman
+he adores, yet in whose presence he trembles like a school-boy, or a
+culprit, 'I--I--I--lo--ov--ov--ove you!'"
+
+"The fact is," began Madeleine, laughing good-naturedly.
+
+"_There! there!_" cried M. de Bois, with a gesture of impatience and
+discouragement; "the fact is, that you laugh yourself,--_you_, who are
+so forbearing!"
+
+"Pardon me; you mistook"--
+
+"You could not help it, I know. It is precisely that which discourages
+me. And yet it is very odd! I have one method by which I can speak for
+five minutes at a time without stopping or hesitating."
+
+"Indeed! Why, then, do you not always employ that magical method in
+society?"
+
+"It would hardly be admissible in polite circles. Would you believe
+it?--it is very absurd, but so is everything that appertains to us
+unfortunate tongue-tied wretches."
+
+"Tell me what your method is."
+
+"I--I--I do not dare; you will only laugh at me again."
+
+"No; I promise I will not."
+
+"Well, then, my method is to become very much animated,--to lash myself
+into a state of high excitement, and to hold forth as though I were
+making an exordium,--to talk with furious rapidity, using the most
+forcible expressions, the most emphatic ejaculations! Those unloose my
+tongue! My words hurl themselves impetuously forward, as zouaves in
+battle! Only, as you may conceive, this discourse is not of a very
+classic nature, and hardly suited to the drawing-room,--especially, as I
+receive great help, and rush on all the faster, for a few interjections
+that come under the head of--of--of swear--ear--earing!"
+
+"_Swearing?_" was all Madeleine could say, controlling a strong
+inclination to merriment.
+
+"Yes, downright swearing; employing strong expletives,--actual oaths!
+Oh, it helps me more than you can believe. But just imagine the result
+if I were to harangue Mademoiselle Bertha in this style! She
+would--would--"
+
+"Would think it very original, and, as she has a joyous temperament, she
+might laugh immoderately. But she likes originality, and the very oddity
+of the discourse might impress her deeply. Then, too, she is very
+sympathetic, and she would probably be touched by the necessity which
+compelled you to employ such an extraordinary mode of expression."
+
+"Ah, if that were only true!"
+
+"I think it _is_ true."
+
+"Thank you! thank you!"
+
+Madeleine was opening a skein of silk, and, extending it to M. de Bois,
+she said: "Will you assist me? It is for Bertha I am working. Will you
+hold this skein? It will save time."
+
+Gaston, well pleased, stretched out his hands. Madeleine adjusted the
+skein, and commenced winding.
+
+"Besides, who knows?" she went on to say. "It seems to me very possible
+that the very singularity of such an address might captivate her, and
+give you a decided advantage over lovers who pressed their suit in
+hackneyed, stereotyped phrases."
+
+"You think so?"
+
+"I should not be surprised if such were the case, because Bertha has a
+decided touch of eccentricity in her character."
+
+"If I only dared to think that she had ever given me the faintest
+evidence of favorable regard!"
+
+"When she sees you embarrassed and hesitating, does she not always
+finish your sentences?"
+
+"Is it pos--pos--pos--" stammered Gaston.
+
+"Possible?" said Madeleine. "Yes, I have observed that she invariably
+does so if she imagines herself unnoticed. I have besides remarked a
+certain expression on her transparent countenance when we talked of you,
+and she has dropped a word, now and then,"--
+
+"What--what--what words? But no, you are mocking me cruelly! It cannot
+be that she ever thinks of me! I have too powerful a rival."
+
+"A rival! what rival?" asked Madeleine, in genuine astonishment.
+
+"The Viscount Maurice."
+
+The silken thread snapped in Madeleine's hand.
+
+"You have broken the thread," remarked M. de Bois; "I hope it was not
+owing to my awkward hold--old--olding."
+
+"No, no," answered Madeleine, hurriedly, and taking the skein out of his
+hand, but tangling it inextricably as she tried to draw out the threads.
+
+"You--you--you--think my cousin Maurice loves Bertha?" she asked, hardly
+aware of the pointedness of her own question.
+
+"I do not exactly say _that_; but how will it be possible for him to
+help loving her? Good gracious, Mademoiselle Madeleine! what have I said
+to affect you? How pale you have become!"
+
+Madeleine struggled to appear composed, but the hands that held the
+snarled skein trembled, and no effort of will could force the retreating
+blood back to her face.
+
+"Nothing--you have said nothing,--you are quite right, I--I--I dare
+say."
+
+"Why, you are just as troubled and embarrassed as I was just now."
+
+"I? nonsense! I'm--I'm--I'm only--only--"
+
+"And you stammer,--you actually stammer almost as badly as I do!"
+exclaimed Gaston, in exultation. "Ah, Mademoiselle Madeleine! I have
+betrayed to you _my_ secret,--you have discovered _yours_ to me!"
+
+"Monsieur de Bois, I implore you, do not speak another word on this
+subject! Enough that, if _I had a secret_, there is no one in the world
+to whom I would sooner confide it."
+
+"Why, then, do you now wish to hide from me the preference with which
+you honor your cousin?"
+
+Madeleine replied, in a tremulous tone, "You do not know how deep a
+wound you are probing, how heavy a grief you"--
+
+"Why should it be a grief? What obstacle impedes your union?"
+
+"An insurmountable obstacle,--one that exists in my own heart."
+
+"How can that be, since that heart is his?"
+
+"Those to whom I owe everything," replied Madeleine, "cherish the
+anticipation that Maurice will make a brilliant marriage. Even if my
+cousin looked upon me with partial eyes, could I rob my benefactors of
+that dearest hope? Could I repay all their benefits to me by causing
+them such a cruel disappointment? I could never be so ungrateful,--so
+guilty,--so inhuman. Therefore, I say, the obstacle lies in my own
+heart: that heart revolts at the very contemplation of such an act. I
+pray you never to speak to me again on this subject; and give me your
+word that no one shall ever know what I have just confided to you,--I
+mean what you suspect--what you suspect, it may be, _erroneously!_"
+
+"I promise you on the honor of a gentleman."
+
+"Thank you."
+
+A step was heard on the path leading to the summer-house.
+
+Gaston looked towards the open door and said, "It is the count."
+
+At the same moment he withdrew to the window.
+
+Madeleine, who had risen, resumed her seat, and, as she plied her
+needle, half buried her agitated face in the white drapery which lay in
+her lap.
+
+The count entered with downcast eyes, and flung himself into a chair.
+He had not perceived that any one was present. Madeleine found it
+difficult to command her voice, yet could not allow him to remain
+unaware that he was not alone.
+
+After a brief interval, she said, in a tolerably quiet tone, "I am
+afraid you have not chosen a very comfortable seat. I told Baptiste to
+remove that chair, for its legs are giving signs of the infirmities of
+age."
+
+At the sound of her voice the count glanced at her over his shoulder,
+and said, brusquely, "What are you doing there?"
+
+"Playing Penelope, as usual."
+
+The count returned harshly, "Always absorbed in some feminine frippery,
+just as if"--
+
+"Just as if I were a woman!" answered Madeleine, forcing a laugh.
+
+"A woman in your position should find some less frivolous employment."
+
+Madeleine replied, in a tone of badinage that would have disarmed most
+men, "How cruelly my cousin pretends to treat me! He actually makes
+believe to scold me when I am occupied with the interests of his
+family,--when I am literally _shedding my blood_ in their behalf!" she
+added playfully, holding towards him the white dress upon which a slight
+red stain was visible; for the needle grasped by her trembling hands had
+pricked her.
+
+"Good heavens, Madeleine! when will you lay aside those intolerable airs
+and graces which you invariably assume, and which would be very charming
+in a young girl of sixteen,--a girl like Bertha; but, in a woman who has
+arrived at your years,--a woman of twenty-one,--become ridiculous
+affectation?"
+
+M. de Bois, enraged at the injustice of this rebuke, could control
+himself no longer, and came forward with a lowering visage. The count
+turned towards him in surprise.
+
+"Ah, M. de Bois, I was not aware of your presence. I must have
+interrupted a _tête-à-tête_. You perceive, I am, now and then, obliged
+to chide."
+
+Gaston answered only by a bow, though his features wore an expression
+which the count would not have been well pleased to see if he had
+interpreted aright.
+
+"But," continued the latter, "we are most apt to chide those whom we
+love best, as you are aware."
+
+"I am a--a--ware," began M. de Bois, trying to calm his indignation, yet
+experiencing a strong desire to adopt his new method of speaking
+fluently by using strong interjections.
+
+The count changed the subject by asking, "Did you deliver the letters,
+of which you had the goodness to take charge, to the Count Damoreau,
+Madame de Nervac, and Monsieur de Bonneville?"
+
+"Our relatives!" exclaimed Madeleine, unreflectingly. "Have you
+forgotten that you will see them to-night at the ball? But I beg pardon;
+perhaps you had something very important to write about."
+
+"It _was_ very important," answered the count, dryly.
+
+"I im--im--imagined so," remarked M. de Bois, "by the sensation the
+letters created. Madame de Nervac turned pale, and the Count Damoreau
+turned red, and M. de Bonneville gnawed his nails as he was reading."
+
+"Had they the kindness to send answers by you, as I requested?"
+
+"Yes, the object of my early vi--vi--visit was to deliver them. I heard
+Mademoiselle Madeleine singing as I passed the _châlet_, and paused to
+pay my respects."
+
+He drew forth three letters, and placed them in the count's hand.
+
+The latter seized them eagerly, and seemed inclined to break the seals
+at once, but changed his mind, and putting them in his pocket, said,
+"Shall I have the pleasure of your company to the château?"
+
+M. de Bois could not well refuse.
+
+He left the _châlet_ with the count, but, after taking a few steps,
+apologized for being obliged to return in search of a glove he had
+dropped. He went back alone. Madeleine was occupied with her needle as
+when he left her. There were no traces of tears upon her cheeks; there
+was no flush, no expression of anger or mortification upon her serene
+countenance.
+
+M. de Bois regarded her a moment in surprise, for he had expected to
+find her weeping, or looking vexed, or, at all events, in a state of
+excitement.
+
+"Is the count often in such an amiable temper?" he asked.
+
+"No; pray, do not imagine _that_; he is evidently troubled to-day. You
+saw how preoccupied he was. Something has gone wrong, something annoys
+him. He did not mean to be harsh."
+
+"And _you_ can excuse him? Well, then _I_ cannot! I felt as though I
+must speak when he rated you so unreasonably. And, if I had spoken, I
+should certainly have had my tongue loosened by swearing; perhaps I
+shall yet"--
+
+"Pray, M. de Bois," urged Madeleine, "do not try to defend me, or
+allude to what you unfortunately heard. It will only make my position
+more trying."
+
+"So I fear; but I have something to say to you. _You_ have given _me_
+good counsels; you must listen to some I have to give you in
+return,--but not now. You are going to the ball to-night?"
+
+"Yes, certainly."
+
+"Perhaps I may find an opportunity of talking to you there."
+
+Saying these words, he picked up the glove, and hastened to rejoin the
+count, who was too much absorbed in his own thoughts to remark the
+length of his friend's absence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+UNMASKING.
+
+
+Madeleine, left alone in the old _châlet_, remained for some time
+absorbed in her work, which progressed rapidly. The ivy leaves were
+dexterously polished, and a graceful garland laid above every tuck of
+the transparent white dress. The last leafy band was nearly completed,
+when the door again creaked upon its rusty hinges, and the young girl,
+looking up, beheld Maurice.
+
+"Is not Bertha here?" he asked, in a tone that sounded very unlike his
+usual cheerful voice. "I came to seek her, and felt sure she must be
+with you."
+
+"I have not seen her since early morning," answered Madeleine. "She
+promised to bring me this basket full of ivy leaves, but sent Baptiste
+instead."
+
+"I looked for her in the library, the _boudoir_, the drawing-room, and
+the garden, before I came here," Maurice continued, in the same grave
+tone. "She has disappeared just at the moment when I have made up my
+mind to have an understanding without further delay."
+
+Madeleine's speaking countenance betrayed her surprise, for it seemed
+strange that Maurice should desire an especial interview with his
+cousin, whom he saw at all hours; and stranger still that he appeared to
+be so much disturbed.
+
+"How serious you look, Maurice! Are you troubled? Has anything occurred
+to cause you unhappiness?"
+
+"I can have no disguises from you, Madeleine. I am thoroughly sick at
+heart. In the first place, my father and my grandmother have violently
+opposed my determination to embark in an honorable and useful career of
+life;--_that_ threw a cloud over me almost from the hour I entered the
+château. I tried to forget my disappointment for the moment, that no
+shadow might fall upon your birthday happiness; besides, I clung to the
+hope that I might yet convince them of the propriety, the policy, the
+actual necessity of the step I propose to take. My father, yesterday,
+stunned me with a piece of intelligence which renders me wretched, yet
+forces me to act. I have given him my promise; there is no retreat. I
+must bring this matter to a climax, be the sequence what it may; and yet
+I dread to make the very first movement."
+
+"I am too dull to read the riddle of the sphinx, and your words are as
+enigmatical. I have not begun to find their clew," replied Madeleine,
+pausing in the garland she was forming, and letting the ivy drop
+unnoticed around her.
+
+The first impulse of Maurice was to gather the fallen leaves; the second
+prompted him gently to force the dress, she was so tastefully adorning,
+out of her hands, and toss it upon the table.
+
+"I see your task is nearly completed, and Bertha's toilet for the ball
+will be sufficiently picturesque to cause the Marchioness de Fleury to
+die of envy; can you not, therefore, rest from your labors, good fairy
+dressmaker, and talk awhile with me? I need consolation,--I need
+advice,--and you alone can give me both."
+
+"I?" Madeleine spoke that single word tremulously, and a faint flush
+passed over her soft, pale face.
+
+"_You_, Madeleine, you, and _you_ only!"
+
+"There is Bertha, at last," she exclaimed, rising hastily, and
+approaching the door. "Do you not see her blue dress yonder through the
+trees? Bertha! Bertha!" and, leaving Maurice, she went forth to meet
+Bertha.
+
+"Where have you hidden yourself all the morning, little truant? Why!
+what has happened to distress you? Your eyes look as though you had been
+weeping. Dear Bertha! what ails you?"
+
+"I could not bear it any longer," almost sobbed Bertha, laying her head
+upon her cousin's shoulder. "I could not help coming to you, though I
+wanted to act entirely upon my own responsibility, and I had determined
+not even to consult you, for I am always fearful of getting you into
+trouble with my aunt."
+
+Madeleine was so completely mystified that she could only murmur half
+to herself, "More enigmas! What can they mean?"
+
+Then, passing her arm around Bertha's slender waist, they walked to the
+summer-house. The position of Bertha's head caused her bright ringlets
+completely to veil her face, and it was not until after she entered the
+_châlet_, and shook the blinding locks from before her eyes, that she
+saw Maurice. She drew back with a movement of vexation and confusion
+never before evinced at his presence,--clung to Madeleine as though for
+protection, and seemed on the point of bursting into tears.
+
+"Maurice came here expecting to find you with me," observed Madeleine.
+"He wanted to speak to you."
+
+"Did he?--yes, I know he did. I know what he is going to say; I kept out
+of his way on purpose, until I could make up my mind about it all; I
+mean, I thought it best to postpone; but it does not matter,--I would
+rather have it over; no,--I don't mean _that_,--I mean"--
+
+Bertha's perturbation rendered any clearer expression of her meaning out
+of the question.
+
+Madeleine took up the dress, which Maurice had flung upon the table, and
+said, "When you return to the house, Bertha, will you not come to my
+room and try on your dress? It is just completed."
+
+"Stay, stay, Madeleine!" exclaimed Bertha and Maurice together.
+
+"You see, we _both_ desire you to stay," added Maurice; "therefore you
+cannot refuse. We have no secrets from you,--have we, Bertha?"
+
+"_I_ had none until yesterday; but my aunt is inclined to be so severe
+with Madeleine, that I feared I might make mischief by taking her into
+my confidence. Do not go, Madeleine. Sit down, for you _must_ stay. If
+you go, I will go with you; and Maurice wants to speak to me,--I mean, I
+want to speak to him,--that is to say, he intends to"--
+
+Madeleine resumed her seat.
+
+"Since you so tyrannically insist upon my remaining, I will finish this
+garland while you are having your mysterious explanation."
+
+Maurice approached Bertha with a hesitation which had some slight touch
+of awkwardness. Feeling that it was easier to induce _her_ to break the
+ice than to take the first step upon this delicate ground himself, he
+remarked, "You wanted to speak to me; what did you desire to say, my
+dear little cousin?"
+
+Bertha looked up innocently into his face, as though she was scanning
+his features for the first time.
+
+"What my aunt says is all very true. You _are_ exceedingly handsome; I
+never denied it, except in jest; and you _are_ decidedly agreeable,
+except now and then; and you _have_ a noble heart,--I never doubted it;
+and a fine intellect,--though I do not know much about _that_; and any
+woman might be proud of you,--that is, I dare say most women would."
+
+"And I have a little cousin who is an adroit flatterer, and who is
+herself beautiful enough for a Hebe, and whose fascinations are
+sufficiently potent to captivate any reasonable or unreasonable man."
+
+"Oh! but that is not to the point. I did not mean that we should
+exchange compliments. What I want to say is that such an attractive and
+agreeable young man as you are will naturally find hosts of young girls,
+who would any of them be proud to be chosen as his wife."
+
+"And you, with your grace and beauty, your lovable character, and your
+large fortune, will have suitors innumerable, from among whom you may
+readily select one who will be worthy of you."
+
+"But that is not to the point either! I told my aunt that I was not
+insensible to all your claims to admiration. I assure you I did you
+ample justice!"
+
+"You were very kind and complimentary, little cousin; but I said as much
+of you to my father. I gave him to understand that I acknowledged you to
+be one of the most charming beings in the world, and that I thought the
+man to whom you gave your hand would be the happiest of mortals, and
+that I did not believe _that man_ could value you more as a wife than I
+should as a sister."
+
+"_A sister! A sister!_ Oh! I am so glad!--a _sister_? You do not really
+love me, then?"
+
+"Have I said that?"
+
+"You have said the same thing, and I am overjoyed! I can never thank you
+half enough!"
+
+"_You_ do not love _me_ then?" asked Maurice.
+
+"I love you with all my heart! I never loved you half as well as at this
+moment!--that is as--as--a _brother_; for you love me as a _sister_,
+while my aunt declared you hoped to make me your wife,--that you were
+crazily in love with me, and that if I refused you, I should ruin all
+your future prospects, for the blow would almost kill you. I cannot tell
+you how chagrined I was at the deplorable prospect. And it's all a
+mistake,--is it not?"
+
+"My father assured me that you had formed the most flattering attachment
+for me. Is that a mistake also?" inquired Maurice, skilfully avoiding
+the rudeness of a direct reply to her question.
+
+"Oh! I never cared a straw for you except as the dearest cousin in the
+world!"
+
+"But why," asked Maurice, resuming his usual gay tone of raillery, "why,
+if I am the incomparable being you pretend to think me, why are you so
+particularly averse to becoming my wife? What do you say to that? I
+should like to have an explanatory answer, little cousin; or else you
+must take back all your compliments."
+
+"Not one of them!" replied Bertha, merrily. "I am so charmed with you at
+this moment that I feel inclined to double their number. Yet there is a
+reason why I should have refused you, even if you had offered yourself
+to me."
+
+"Is it because you like somebody else better?"
+
+"No, no," answered Bertha, hastily; "how can you suggest such an idea?
+But I suppose _you do so because that is your reason_ for desiring to
+refuse my hand?"
+
+"I shall be obliged to think my suggestion correct, unless you tell me
+why you are so glad to escape becoming my wife."
+
+"It was because," said Bertha, approaching her rosy mouth to his ear,
+and speaking in a low tone, "because there is another woman, who is far
+more worthy of you, who would make you a better wife than I could, and
+who--who does not exactly _hate_ you."
+
+"Another woman?"
+
+"Hush! do not speak so loudly. There is nothing in the world I desire so
+much as to see that other woman happy; for there is no one I love half
+so well."
+
+"The garland is finished!" Madeleine broke in, starting up abruptly, for
+she had caught the whispered words. "Come, Bertha, we must hasten back
+to the château. I must try on your dress immediately."
+
+"Oh, since it is finished, we have plenty of time," said Bertha. "It is
+quite early in the day yet, and Maurice and I are deeply interested in
+our conversation. We were never before such fast friends and devoted
+cousins."
+
+"Never," replied Maurice.
+
+"But the dress may need some alteration," persisted Madeleine. "Pray,
+pray come!"
+
+She spoke almost imploringly, and in an excited tone, which the mere
+trying on of a dress did not warrant.
+
+"Oh, you dear despot! I suppose you must be obeyed."
+
+Bertha snatched the ivy-garlanded dress, and bounded away. Madeleine
+would have followed, but Maurice seized her hand detainingly.
+
+"One moment, Madeleine,--grant me one moment!"
+
+"Not now. Bertha will be waiting for me!" And she made an effort to free
+her imprisoned hand.
+
+"You shall tell her that you were taken captive, and she will forgive
+you, if it be only for the sake of your _jailer_. There's vanity for
+you!"
+
+"But my arrangements for this evening are not all completed. It is
+growing late, Maurice; I entreat you to release me; I _cannot_ remain--I
+_must_ go!"
+
+"Not until I have spoken to you. The time has come when you must hear
+me."
+
+Madeleine felt that there was no escape, and, forcing herself to assume
+an air of composure, answered, "Speak, then; what can you have to say,
+Maurice, to which I ought to listen?"
+
+"Must I tell you? Have you not divined? Must I show you my heart? If no
+responsive pulse in your own has revealed to you what is passing in
+mine, I am truly unfortunate,--I have been deceived indeed!"
+
+"Maurice, Maurice! for the love of Heaven"--
+
+"You do well to say for the love of Heaven; for I love Heaven all the
+better for loving a being who bears the impress of Heaven's own glorious
+hand! Yes, Madeleine, ever loved,--loved from the first hour we met."
+
+The rustling of silk interrupted his sentence. Madeleine tremblingly
+withdrew her hand. The Countess de Gramont stood before them! Her tall
+figure dilated until it seemed to shut out all the sunlight beyond; her
+countenance grew ashy with suppressed rage; her black eyes shot out
+glances that pierced like arrows; not a sound issued from her
+tightly-compressed lips.
+
+Maurice, recovering himself, tried to assume an unconcerned air, and
+stooped to gather some of the ivy leaves scattered around him. Madeleine
+bowed her head as a culprit who has no defence to make, and no hope of
+concealment to cling to as a last refuge.
+
+The countess broke the painful silence, speaking in a hollow, scornful
+tone: "I am here at an unfortunate moment, it seems!"
+
+There was no reply.
+
+"Perhaps I ought to apologize for disturbing you," she continued,
+sarcastically.
+
+"Not at all--not at all," said Maurice, who felt that it was his duty to
+answer and shield Madeleine, as far as possible, from his grandmother's
+displeasure.
+
+"Why, then, is Madeleine covered with confusion? Why did she so quickly
+withdraw her hand? How--how came it clasped in yours?"
+
+"Is she not my cousin?" answered Maurice, evasively. "Have I no right to
+show her affection? Must I renounce the ties of blood?"
+
+"It is not you, Maurice, whom I blame," said the countess, trying to
+speak less sternly. "It is Madeleine, who should not have permitted this
+unmeet familiarity. I well know by what arts she has lured you to forget
+yourself. The fault lies with her."
+
+For the first time the countess beheld a flash of indignation in the
+eyes Madeleine lifted from the ground.
+
+"Madame--aunt!" she began.
+
+The countess would not permit her to proceed.
+
+"I know what I say! You have too much tact and quickness not to have
+comprehended our hopes in regard to Maurice and Bertha; and it has not
+escaped my notice that you have sought, by every artful manoeuvre in
+your power, to frustrate those hopes."
+
+"I?" ejaculated Madeleine, aghast at the charge, and too much bewildered
+to be able to utter a denial.
+
+"Yes, _you!_ Have you not sought to fascinate Maurice by every species
+of wily coquetry? Have you not"--
+
+"Grandmother!" cried Maurice, furiously.
+
+"Be silent, Maurice,--it is Madeleine to whom I am addressing my
+remarks, and her own conscience tells her their justice."
+
+"Aunt, if ever by word, or look, or thought"--
+
+"Oh! it was all done in the most apparently artless, natural,
+_purposeless_ manner! But the same end was always kept steadily in view.
+What I have witnessed this morning convinces me of your aims. Your
+movements were so skilfully managed that they scarcely seemed open to
+suspicion. The most specious coquetry has governed all your actions. You
+were always attired more simply than any one else; but by this very
+simplicity you thought to render yourself remarkable, and attract a
+larger share of attention. You always pretended to shun observation,
+that you might be brought into more positive notice. You affected to
+avoid Maurice, that he might feel tempted to follow you,--that he might
+be lured to seek you when you were alone, as you were a moment
+ago,--that he might"--
+
+Maurice could restrain his ire no longer. He broke forth with
+vehemence,--"Grandmother, I cannot listen to this injustice. I cannot
+see Madeleine so cruelly insulted. Were it my mother herself who spoke,
+I would not stand by and see her trample thus upon an innocent and
+defenceless heart."
+
+Madeleine turned to Maurice beseechingly. "Do not utter such words to
+one whom you are bound to address with reverence;--do not, or you will
+render my sufferings unendurable!"
+
+"Your _sufferings_?" exclaimed the countess, catching at a word that
+seemed to imply a reproof, which galled the more because she knew it was
+deserved. "Your _sufferings_? That is a fitting expression to drop from
+your lips! I had the right to believe that, far from causing you
+_suffering_, I had put an end to your suffering when I threw open my
+doors to admit you."
+
+"You misunderstood me, aunt. I did not intend to say"--
+
+"You have said enough to prove that you add ingratitude to your other
+sins. And, since you talk of _sufferings_, I will beg you to remember
+the sufferings you have brought upon us,--you, who, in return for all
+you have received at my hands, have caused my very grandson to treat me
+with disrespect, for the first time in his life. _Your_ sufferings? I
+can well conceive that she who creates so much affliction in the house
+that has sheltered her,--she who so treacherously pierces the hearts
+that have opened to yield her a place,--she who has played the viper
+warmed upon almost a mother's bosom,--she may well have sufferings to
+wail over!"
+
+Madeleine stood speechless, thunderstruck, by the rude shock of these
+words. The countess turned from her, and, preparing to leave the
+_châlet_, bade Maurice give her his arm. He silently obeyed, casting a
+look of compassionate tenderness upon Madeleine. But she saw it not; all
+her vast store of mental strength suddenly melted away! For the first
+time in her life she was completely crushed, overwhelmed,--hopeless and
+powerless. For a few moments she remained standing as motionless as one
+petrified; then, with a heart-broken cry, dropped into a seat, and
+covering her face with her hands, sobbed convulsively,--sobbed as though
+all the sorrows of her life were concentrated in the anguish of that
+moment, and found vent in that deluge of tears,--that stormy whirlwind
+of passion! All the clouds in the firmament of her existence, which she
+had, day after day, dispelled by the internal sunshine of her patient,
+trustful spirit, culminated and broke in that wild flood. Hope was
+drowned in that heavy rain; all the flowers that brightened, and the
+sweet, springing herbs that lent their balm to her weary pilgrimage,
+were beaten down into the mire of despair. There was no ark, no Ararat;
+she was alone, without refuge, on the waste of waters.
+
+Her heavy sobs prevented her hearing the entrance of Bertha, and it was
+only when the arms of the young girl were fondly twined about her, that
+she became aware of her presence.
+
+"Madeleine, dear, dear Madeleine! What has happened? Why do you weep
+thus?"
+
+"Do not speak to me, Bertha!" replied Madeleine in a stifled voice. "You
+cannot, cannot help me; there is no hope left,--none, none! My father
+has died to me again to day, and I am alone once more!--alone in a
+desert that has no place of shelter for me, but a grave beneath its
+swathing sands!"
+
+Her tears gushed forth with redoubled violence.
+
+"Do not treat me so cruelly! Do not cast me off!" pleaded Bertha, as her
+cousin tried to disengage herself from her encircling arms. "If you are
+wretched, so am I--_because_ you are! Only tell me the reason for this
+terrible sorrow. I was awaiting you in your room; but, as you did not
+come, I felt sure my cousin Maurice had detained you."
+
+At those last words an involuntary cry of intense suffering burst from
+Madeleine's lips.
+
+"Then I saw my aunt and Maurice returning together, and Maurice appeared
+to be talking in an excited manner, and my aunt looked blacker than any
+thunder-cloud. Still you did not come, and I went in search of you. Tell
+me why I find you thus?--you, who have always borne your griefs with
+such silent fortitude. What _has_ my aunt said or done to you?"
+
+"She has ceased to love me,--she has ceased to esteem me,--she even
+repents of the benefits she has conferred upon me."
+
+"No, no, Madeleine; you are mistaken."
+
+"Oh, I am not mistaken,--my eyes are opened at last. The thin, waxen
+mask of assumed kindness has melted from her face! I am a burden to
+her,--an encumbrance,--an offence. She only desires to be rid of me!"
+
+"You,--the fairy of good works in her household? What could she do
+without you? It is only excitement which makes you imagine this."
+
+"I never guessed, never dreamed it before; but I have wilfully deceived
+myself. _Now_ all is too clear! A thousand recollections rise up to
+testify to the truth; a thousand suspicions, which I repulsed as
+unworthy of me and of her, return to convince me; words and looks,
+coldness and injustice, slights and reproaches start up with frightful
+vividness, and throw a hideous light upon conduct I never dared to
+interpret aright."
+
+"What looks? what words? what actions?" asked Bertha, though her heart
+told her with what a catalogue she could answer her own question.
+
+"They could not be rehearsed in an hour or in a day. But it is not to my
+aunt alone that my presence is offensive. Cousin Tristan also chafes at
+the sight of his dependent relative. I have seen it when I took my seat
+at table; I have seen it when room was made for me in the carriage; I
+have seen it on numberless occasions. His glances, his accents, his
+whole demeanor, have seemed to reproach me for the place I occupied, for
+the garments I wore, for the very bread I ate,--the bread of bitter,
+bitter charity! And oh!" she groaned, "_must this be so still?_ _Must_ I
+still accept these bounties, which are begrudged me? _Must_ I still be
+bowed to the dust by the weight of these charities? Alas! I _must_,
+because I have nothing of my own,--because I am nothing of myself!"
+
+"Madeleine! one of these days"--
+
+Madeleine did not heed her. "Oh, my father! my father! To what torturing
+humiliations you subjected me in bequeathing me nobility with poverty!
+Well may you have wished that you had been born a peasant! Had I been a
+peasant's child, I might have lived by, and rejoiced in, honest labor!
+Had I been the daughter of a mechanic, I might have gained my bread by
+some useful trade. Had I even been the child of some poor gentleman, I
+might have earned a livelihood by giving lessons in music, in drawing,
+by becoming a governess, or teaching in a school. But, the daughter of
+the Duke de Gramont, it is one of the curses of my noble birth that I
+must live upon charity,--charity unwillingly doled out and thrown in my
+face, even when I am receiving it with meekness!"
+
+"But, Madeleine, if you will but listen to me"--
+
+Madeleine went on bitterly. "And I am young yet,--young and strong, and
+capable of exertion; and I have dared to believe that, while one is
+young, some of the benefits received could be repaid by the cheerful
+spirit of youth,--by the performance of needful offices,--by hands ever
+ready to serve, and a heart ever open to sympathize; but, if I am an
+encumbrance, an annoyance while I am _young_, what an intolerable burden
+I must become when youth passes away! Then I shall either be repulsed
+with aversion, or sheltered with undisguised reluctance,--forced to
+remember every moment that the hospitality I receive is an _alms_! Oh!
+it is too horrible! Death would be a thousand times preferable."
+
+"And you can forget how dreadful it would be for us, who love you, to
+lose you?"
+
+"I forget _everything_, except the misery of my own degraded position! I
+ask for nothing save that God, in his mercy, will free me from it, I
+care not how! I look despairingly on all sides, and see no escape! I am
+bound, hand and foot, by the chains of my own noble birth, and shut
+within the iron walls of circumstance. I struggle vainly in my
+captivity; no way of freedom is open to me! And yet I can never again
+resign myself to passive endurance."
+
+"If you only knew how wretched you make me by talking in this strain!"
+
+"I make you wretched, as I have made all others, by my presence
+here,--yes, I know it! You see how ungrateful, how selfish misery has
+rendered me, since I am cruel even to you whose pure love I never
+doubted."
+
+Before Bertha could make a fresh attempt to console her cousin, Baptiste
+entered, bearing a letter. He looked dismayed when he beheld Madeleine's
+face of woe, and Bertha's tearful countenance; but the latter checked
+his glance of inquiry by asking abruptly what he wanted.
+
+Still regarding Madeleine with an expression of deep concern, he
+replied, "The _vâlet_ of Count Damoreau has just left this letter for
+Mademoiselle Madeleine, and desired that it should be delivered to her
+at once."
+
+"Very well; that will do."
+
+Bertha took the letter, and motioned to Baptiste to withdraw.
+
+"What _can_ Count Damoreau have to write to you about? Do open the
+letter and tell me."
+
+"Not now, Bertha. Leave me to myself for a little while. I scarcely know
+what I am doing or saying. I entreat you to leave me!"
+
+"Madeleine, if I were in trouble, I would not send you from me."
+
+"Go, if you love me! And you--_you_, at least, _do_ love me!"
+
+"_If_ I love you? I will even leave you to prove that I do; but it is
+very hard."
+
+Bertha walked slowly away, taking the path that led from the château. In
+a few moments she paused, turned suddenly, and quickened her steps in
+the opposite direction, prompted by an impulse to seek Maurice and tell
+him of Madeleine's grief. Perhaps he might have the power to console
+her.
+
+Count Tristan had been prevented opening the letters which M. de Bois
+had delivered. When the two gentlemen reached the château, several
+visitors were awaiting the count, and their stay was protracted. The
+instant his guests took their leave, he hastened to the library, which
+his mother entered at the same moment. He listened impatiently as she
+briefly recounted the scene which had taken place in the summer-house.
+
+"The time has come when we must put an end to this madness," answered
+the count; "and I trust that I hold the means in my hands. These are the
+replies of Madeleine's relations."
+
+He broke one of the seals, and glanced over the contents of the letter,
+gnawing his under lip as he read.
+
+"Well, my son, what reply?"
+
+"This letter is from M. de Bonneville. He writes that his château is
+only large enough for his own family,--that it would be a great
+inconvenience to have any addition to his home circle; and _we_--I
+suppose _we_ have not been inconvenienced for the last three years"--
+
+"I am not astonished at such a reply from M. de Bonneville. I expected
+nothing else. Give me Madame de Nervac's letter. She is a charming
+woman, whom every one admires and respects, and I know her kindness of
+heart."
+
+The count handed the letter. His mother opened it, and read,--
+
+     "MY DEAR COUSIN:
+
+     "Are you not aware that a woman of any tact, who has still
+     some claims to admiration, could hardly commit the absurd
+     _faux pas_ of establishing in her own house, and having
+     always by her side, a person younger and handsomer than
+     herself? To consent to your proposition concerning Madeleine
+     would therefore be a suicidal act"--
+
+"This is insupportable!" ejaculated the count. "It seems that we are to
+be forced into continuing to bear this burden, though it may bring us
+to ruin. What insupportable vanity Madame de Nervac betrays! You see
+what her kindness of heart is worth!"
+
+"There is still one letter to open," remarked his mother, clinging to a
+faint hope.
+
+"Oh, it will be a repetition of the others,--you may be sure of that!"
+He tore it open angrily; but, glancing at the first lines, exclaimed,
+"What do I see? Have we found one reasonable and charitable person at
+last? The Count Damoreau writes,--
+
+     "'A thousand thanks, my dear cousin for the opportunity you
+     afford me of being useful to that lovely and unfortunate
+     relative of ours. I have always regarded her with admiration
+     and affection, and always appreciated the noble generosity
+     which prompted your kindness to the orphan.'"
+
+"The count is a man endowed with most excellent judgment," remarked the
+countess with complacency.
+
+Her son continued reading the letter,--
+
+     "'I am at this moment about to make a number of necessary
+     repairs in my château, which will cause me to absent myself
+     for some time. I shall probably spend a year or two on the
+     continent.'"
+
+"So much the better! He will doubtless take Madeleine with him,"
+suggested the countess.
+
+Count Tristan in an altered tone read on,--
+
+     "'As I shall travel entirely _en garçon_, of course it will
+     be impossible for Madeleine to accompany me, but an
+     admirable opportunity presents itself for placing her in a
+     situation that is very suitable. My friend, Lady Vivian, of
+     Edinburgh, who forms one of the party here, is in search of
+     an humble companion. I have spoken to her ladyship
+     concerning Madeleine. She made some slight demur on account
+     of the young lady's attractive person, but finally consented
+     to offer her this situation.'"
+
+"A de Gramont hired out as an humble companion! What an indignity!"
+ejaculated the countess.
+
+The count continued reading,--
+
+     "'I will myself write to Madeleine and apprise her of what I
+     have done, and present the many advantages of such a
+     position.'"
+
+"She must not receive the letter!" said the countess, earnestly. "She is
+capable of accepting this offer for the sake of wounding us. But Count
+Damoreau has insulted us grossly. How has he dared to entertain such an
+offer for a member of our family,--one in whose veins flows the same
+untainted blood? Why do you not speak, my son? But indignation may well
+deprive you of speech!"
+
+"I can only say that in _some manner we must at once rid ourselves of
+Madeleine_."
+
+"I would rather see her dead than in a situation which disgraced her
+noble name," answered the countess, violently.
+
+"I quite agree with you," returned the count, with a sardonic look;
+"but, unfortunately, life and death are not in our hands!"
+
+As he spoke, there was a gleam in his malignant eye, almost murderous.
+His foot was lifted to crush the worm in his path, and, could he have
+trodden it out of existence in secret, the deed would have been
+accomplished with exultation. His hatred for Madeleine had strengthened
+into a fierce passion as his fears that Maurice loved her threatened to
+be confirmed. Far from sharing his mother's indignation at the proposal
+of Count Damoreau, he had made up his mind to force Madeleine into
+acceptance, if no other presented itself for freeing the château from
+her presence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+A CRISIS.
+
+
+Count Tristan was in the heat of argument with his haughty mother, when
+the door of the library opened, and Madeleine entered. One who had
+beheld the tempestuous burst of grief, the torrent of tears, the
+heart-rending despair that convulsed her frame but half an hour before,
+in the little _châlet_, would scarcely have recognized the countenance
+upon which the eyes of the Countess de Gramont and her son were now
+turned. Not the faintest shadow of that whirlwind of passionate anguish
+was left upon Madeleine's face, unless it might be traced in the great
+calm which succeeds a heavy storm; in the death-like pallor which
+overspread her almost rigid features; in the steady light that shone
+from her soul-revealing eyes; in the firm outline of her colorless
+lips; in the look of heroic resolve which imparted to her noble
+lineaments a higher beauty than they ever before had worn.
+
+She approached Count Tristan with an unfaltering step, holding a letter
+in her hand. That letter had given a sudden check to her vehement
+sorrow, and restored her equilibrium.
+
+"I have received this communication from Count Damoreau."
+
+As she spoke, she extended the epistle to the count, who for one instant
+quailed before her clairvoyant eyes. It seemed as though a prophetic
+judgment spoke out of their shining depths.
+
+He took the letter mechanically, without opening it. His gaze was
+riveted, as though by a magnetism too powerful for him to resist, upon
+her purposeful countenance.
+
+Madeleine went on,--
+
+"Count Damoreau tells me that you and my aunt desire to withdraw your
+protection from me; that you feel I have sufficiently long enjoyed the
+shelter of your roof; that you wish to provide me with some other
+asylum."
+
+There was no hesitation in her voice as she uttered these words. She
+spoke in a tone rendered clear and quiet by the dignity of self-respect.
+
+"Count Damoreau had no authority to write in such a strain to you,"
+observed the countess, with asperity.
+
+"There is his letter. He informed me that he has the Count Tristan's
+authority. To prove it, he encloses the letter yesterday delivered to
+him by M. Gaston de Bois."
+
+Count Tristan was too thoroughly confounded to attempt any reply. He was
+painfully aware of the unmistakable character of that epistle.
+
+"Count Damoreau announces to me," continued Madeleine, undisturbed,
+"that he is unable to comply with your request, and extend an invitation
+for me to join his family circle; and that my other relatives have also
+declined to accede to a solicitation of yours that they should by turns
+receive me as an inmate. He adds that his friend, Lady Vivian, is
+seeking an humble companion to accompany her to Scotland; and he trusts
+that I will thankfully accept this situation."
+
+"It is an insult,--a deliberate insult to us and you!" broke forth the
+countess.
+
+Madeleine's lips trembled with a half smile.
+
+"I do not deem it an insult to myself: I am as thankful as Count
+Damoreau can desire me to be; but I decline his well-intentioned
+offer."
+
+Count Tristan ground his teeth, and cast upon Madeleine a glance of fury
+and menacing detestation. Their eyes met, and she returned the look with
+an expression which simply declared she recognized what was passing in
+his mind.
+
+"You did right to decline: I should never have permitted you to accept,"
+remarked the countess, in a somewhat softer tone.
+
+She deemed it politic to conciliate Madeleine for the present, fearing
+that she might be driven to take some humiliating step which would cast
+a reflection upon her kindred.
+
+"I regret that my son has acted hastily. If you conduct yourself with
+the propriety which I have the right to demand, you will still find a
+home in the Château de Gramont, and in myself the mother I have ever
+been to you."
+
+"Mother!" at that word Madeleine's glacial composure melted. "A
+_mother!_--oh, my aunt, thank you for that word! You do not know how
+much good it does me to hear it from your lips! But the Château de
+Gramont can never more be my home. That is settled: I came to tell you
+so."
+
+"What do you mean?" asked the count, with a gleam of ill-disguised
+satisfaction.
+
+"I mean that I purpose shortly to quit this mansion, _never to return_!"
+
+"Then you _do_ intend to accompany Lady Vivian to Scotland?" he
+inquired.
+
+"You--my niece--_a de Gramont_--become the humble companion of Lady
+Vivian!" exclaimed the countess, in wrathful astonishment. "Can you even
+contemplate such an alternative?"
+
+"No, madame," returned Madeleine, with an emphasis which might have been
+interpreted into a tone of pride. "I shall _not_ become the humble
+companion of any lady."
+
+"With whom do you expect to live?" demanded the count.
+
+"I shall live alone."
+
+"_Live alone_, at your age,--without fortune, without friends? It is
+impracticable,--impossible!" replied her aunt, decisively.
+
+"I have reached my majority. I shall try to deserve friends. I have some
+small possession: the family diamonds of my mother still remain to me."
+
+"But your noble name."
+
+"Rest assured that it will never be disgraced by me!"
+
+"I tell you that your project is impossible," maintained the countess,
+resolutely. "I forbid you to even attempt to put it into execution. I
+forbid you by the gratitude you owe me. I forbid you in the name of all
+the kindnesses I have lavished upon you!"
+
+"And do you not see, my aunt, it is because I would still be grateful
+for these kindnesses that I would go hence? From the moment I learned I
+was a burden to you, that my presence here was unwelcome, this was no
+longer my home. If I leave you now, the memory of your goodness only,
+will dwell in my heart. If I were to remain longer, each day my presence
+would become more intolerable to you; each day your words and looks
+would grow colder and harsher; each day I should feel more degraded in
+my own eyes. _You_ would spoil your own benefactions: _I_ perhaps, might
+forget them, and be stained with the crime of ingratitude. No, let us
+now part,--now, while I may still dare to hope that you will think of me
+with tenderness and regret,--now, while I can yet cherish the
+recollection of the happy days I have passed beneath your roof. My
+resolution is taken: it is unalterable. I could not rest here. You will,
+perhaps, accord me a few days to make needful preparations; then I must
+bid you farewell."
+
+She turned to quit the room, but encountered Maurice and Bertha, who had
+entered in time to hear the last sentence.
+
+Bertha, on leaving her cousin, had sought Maurice and told him of
+Madeleine's prostrating sorrow. They hastened back to the _châlet_
+together, but she had disappeared. They were in search of her when they
+entered the library.
+
+"Bid us farewell, Madeleine?" cried Bertha. "What do you mean? Where are
+you going? Surely you will never leave us?"
+
+"I must."
+
+"But my aunt will not let you; Cousin Tristan will not let you; Maurice
+will not let you. Speak to her, some of you, and say that she shall not
+go."
+
+"Bertha," answered the count, "you do not know all the circumstances
+which have caused Madeleine to form this resolution; and, if my mother
+will pardon me for differing with her, I must say, frankly, that I
+approve of the course Madeleine has chosen. I honor her for it. I think
+she acts wisely in remaining here no longer!"
+
+Then Maurice came forward boldly, and placing himself beside Madeleine,
+with an air of manly protection, spoke out,--
+
+"And _I_ agree with you, my father. I honor Madeleine for her
+resolution. I think she acts wisely in remaining here no longer."
+
+"O Maurice, Maurice! how can you speak so? Don't let her go, unless you
+want to make me miserable!" pleaded Bertha.
+
+Madeleine's hueless face was overspread with a brilliant glow as she
+cast upon Maurice one hasty look of gratitude.
+
+"I speak what I mean. Madeleine cannot, without sacrificing her
+self-respect, accept hospitality which is not freely given,--protection
+which is unwillingly accorded. She cannot remain here as an inferior,--a
+dependent; one who is under daily obligation,--who is merely tolerated
+because she has no other place of refuge. My father, there is only _one_
+position in which she _can_ remain in the Château de Gramont, and that
+is as an equal; as its future mistress; as your daughter; _as my wife!_"
+
+The countess was stricken dumb with rage; and a sudden revulsion of
+feeling toward the shrinking girl, whose deep blushes she interpreted
+into a token of exultation, made her almost as willing to drive her
+forth, no matter whither, as her son himself.
+
+Bertha, with an exclamation of delight, flung her arms joyfully about
+Madeleine's neck.
+
+"Maurice, are you mad? Do you forget that you are my son?" was all that
+the count could gasp out, in his indignant amazement.
+
+"It is as your son that I speak; it is as the inheritor of your
+name,--that name which Madeleine also bears."
+
+"You seem to have forgotten"--began his father.
+
+Maurice interrupted him,--
+
+"I have not forgotten that I have not reached my majority, and that your
+consent is necessary to render Madeleine my wife."
+
+(Our readers are doubtless aware that the law in France fixes the
+majority of a young man at twenty-five, and that he has no power to
+contract marriage or to control property until that period.)
+
+"But, believe me, my father, even if this were not the case, I should
+not desire to act without your approval, and I know I could never induce
+Madeleine to forego your consent to our union. But what valid objections
+can you have? You desired that Bertha should become my wife. Is not
+Madeleine precisely the same kin to me as Bertha? Is she not as good, as
+beautiful?"
+
+"Oh, a thousand times better and lovelier!" exclaimed Bertha, with
+affectionate enthusiasm.
+
+"There is but one difference: she is poor and Bertha is rich. Think you
+Bertha's fortune could have one feather's weight in deciding my choice?
+I thank Heaven for teaching me to account it more noble, more honorable,
+to ask what the woman I would marry _is_, than to inquire what she
+_has_."
+
+His father made a vain attempt to speak. Maurice went on without
+noticing the futile effort.
+
+"But this is not all: I dare to hope that Madeleine's heart is mine,
+while Bertha's is not. My father, you requested that Bertha and I should
+have an understanding with each other; and we have had one. Bertha has
+told me that she does not love me. Is it not so, Bertha?"
+
+"I told you that I loved you with all my heart, as the dearest, most
+delightful cousin in the world!" answered Bertha, naïvely.
+
+"Just as I love you!" replied Maurice, smiling upon her tenderly. "But,
+as a lover, you definitely rejected me,--did you not?"
+
+"Oh, yes; just as you refused me. We are perfectly agreed upon that
+point," she rejoined, with childlike frankness and simplicity.
+
+"For shame, Maurice!" said the countess, in a tone of angry rebuke.
+
+"Grandmother, hear me out. For once my heart must speak, even though it
+may be silent forever after. I feel that my whole future destiny hangs
+upon the events of this moment. You love me as a de Gramont should love;
+you love me with an ambition to see me worthy of my name,--to see that
+name rendered more lustrous in my person. How far that is possible, my
+father's decision and yours this hour will determine. I am ardent,
+impetuous, fond of excitement, reckless at times,--as prone, I fear, to
+be tempted to vice as to be inspired by virtue. If you withhold your
+consent to my union with the only woman I can love,--if you drive me to
+despair,--I am lost! Every pure and lofty aspiration within my nature
+will be crushed out, and in its place the opposite inclination will
+spring. I warned you before, when you thwarted the noblest resolution I
+ever formed. There is yet time to save me from the evil effects of that
+disappointment, and to spare me the worst results of _this_. If you
+grant me Madeleine"--
+
+"Maurice, for pity's sake!" supplicated Madeleine, extending her clasped
+hands toward him.
+
+Maurice caught the outstretched hands in his, and bent over her with an
+expression of ineffable love irradiating his countenance.
+
+"Do not speak yet, Madeleine; do not answer until you have heard
+me,--until you have well comprehended my meaning. You do not know the
+thousand perils by which a young man is beset in Paris,--the siren lures
+that are thrown in his way to ensnare his feet, be they disposed to
+walk ever so warily. You do not know that your holy image, rising up
+before me, shining upon the path I trod, and beckoning me into the right
+road when I swerved aside, has alone saved me from falling into that
+vortex of follies and vices by which men are daily swallowed up, and
+from which they emerge sullied and debased. You do not know that, while
+I am here beside you, listening to the sound of your voice, holding your
+hand, gazing upon your face, I feel like one inspired, who has power to
+make his life glorious and keep it pure! Madeleine, would you have me
+great, distinguished? I shall become so if it be your will. Would you
+have me lift up our noble name? It shall be exalted at your bidding.
+Would you reign over my soul and keep it stainless? It is under your
+angel guardianship. Madeleine, best beloved, will you not save me?"
+
+Madeleine only answered with a look which besought Maurice to forbear.
+
+"Is your rhapsody finished at last?" asked Count Tristan, scornfully.
+"Is any one else to be permitted to speak?"
+
+"It seems there is but one person whose voice is of any importance to
+your son," sneered the countess, "and that is Madeleine. It is for _her_
+to speak; it is for her to accomplish her work of base ingratitude; it
+is for her to give the last finishing stroke to the fabric she has
+secretly been laboring to build up for the last three years."
+
+Madeleine--who, when the voice of Maurice was sounding in her ears, had
+been unable to control the agitation which caused her breast to heave,
+and her frame to quiver from head to foot, while confusion flung its
+crimson mantle over her face--grew suddenly calm when she heard these
+taunts. The same icy, pallid quietude with which, but a few moments
+before, she entered the library, returned. She withdrew the hands
+Maurice had clasped in his, lifted her bowed head, and stood erect,
+preparing to reply.
+
+"Speak!" commanded the count, furiously. "Speak! since _we_ are nothing
+and nobody here, and _you are everything_. Since you are sole arbiter in
+this family, speak!"
+
+Madeleine could not at once command her voice.
+
+The countess, arguing the worst from her silence, cried, with
+culminating wrath, "Speak, viper! Dart your fangs into the bosom that
+has sheltered you: it is bared to receive the deadly stroke; it is ready
+to die of your venom! Nothing remains but for you to strike!"
+
+"Take courage, dearest Madeleine," whispered Bertha. "They will not be
+angry long. Speak and tell them that you love Maurice as he loves you,
+and that you will be the happiest of women if you become his wife."
+
+"Well, your answer, Mademoiselle de Gramont?" urged the countess.
+
+"It will be an answer for which I have only the pardon of Maurice to
+ask," said Madeleine, speaking slowly, but firmly. "Maurice, my cousin,
+I shall never be able to tell you,--you can never know,--what emotions
+of thankfulness you have awakened in my soul, nor how unutterably
+precious your words are to me. Thus much I may say; for the rest, _I can
+never become your wife!_"
+
+"You refuse me because my father and my grandmother have _compelled_ you
+to do so by their reproaches,--their _menaces_, I might say!" cried
+Maurice, wholly forgetting his wonted respect in the rush of tumultuous
+feelings. "This and this only is your reason for consigning me to
+misery."
+
+The fear that she had awakened unfilial emotions in the bosom of Maurice
+infused fresh fortitude into Madeleine's spirit.
+
+"No, Maurice, you are wrong. If my aunt and Count Tristan had not
+uttered one word on the subject, my answer to you would have been the
+same."
+
+"How can that be possible? How can I have been so deceived? There is
+only _one_ obstacle which _can_ discourage me, only one which can force
+me to yield you up, and that is an admission, from your own lips, that
+your affections are already bestowed,--that your heart is no longer
+free."
+
+Madeleine, without hesitation, replied in a clear, steady, deliberate
+tone, looking her cousin full in the face, and not by the faintest sign
+betraying the poniard which she heroically plunged into her own devoted
+breast,--
+
+"My affections are bestowed; my heart is _no longer free!_"
+
+"Madeleine, Madeleine! you do not love Maurice,--you love some one
+else?" questioned Bertha, in sorrowful astonishment.
+
+Maurice spoke no word. He stood one moment looking at Madeleine as a
+drowning man might have looked at the ship that could have saved him
+disappearing in the distance. Then he murmured, hardly conscious of his
+own words,--
+
+"And I felt sure her heart was mine! O Madeleine! may you never know
+what you have done!"
+
+"Forgive me if you can, Maurice. Be generous enough to pardon one who
+has made you suffer. A bright future is before you. The darkness of this
+hour will gradually fade out of your memory."
+
+"Say, rather, that you have taken from me my future,--withdrawn its
+guiding star, and left me a rayless and eternal night. But why should I
+reproach you? What right had I to deem myself worthy of you? You love
+_another_. All is spoken in those words: there is nothing more for me to
+say, except to thank you for not discarding me without making a
+confession which annihilates all hope."
+
+There was a dignity in his grief more touching than the most passionate
+outburst would have been. Even his grandmother, in spite of her joy at
+Madeleine's declaration, was not wholly unmoved as she contemplated him.
+Count Tristan's exultation broke through all polite disguise,--
+
+"Madeleine has atoned for much of the past by her present conduct; it
+has restored her in a measure to"--
+
+Madeleine, as far as her gentle nature permitted, experienced an
+antipathy toward Count Tristan only surpassed by that which he
+entertained for her. The sound of his voice grated on her ears; his
+commendation made her doubt the wisdom and purity of her own act; his
+approval irritated her as no rebuke could have done. Without waiting for
+him to conclude his sentence, she grasped Bertha's hand, whispering, "I
+cannot stay here; I am stifling; come with me."
+
+They left the room together, and took their way in silence to
+Madeleine's chamber. Bertha carefully closed the door, and, drawing her
+cousin down into a seat, placed herself beside her, and strove to read
+her countenance.
+
+"Madeleine, is it possible? How mistaken I have been! You do not love
+our cousin Maurice. Poor Maurice! It is a dreadful blow to him. And you
+love some one else. But whom? I know of no gentleman who comes here
+often,--who is on an intimate footing at the château,--except"--
+
+A painful suspicion for the first time shot through her mind, and made
+her pause. Could it be Gaston de Bois whom Madeleine preferred? She
+always treated him with such marked courtesy. There was no one else,--it
+must be he! Bertha could not frame the question that hovered about her
+lips, though to have heard it answered in the negative would have made
+her heart leap for joy.
+
+Madeleine was too much absorbed by her own reflections to divine those
+of her cousin.
+
+"At all events," said Bertha, trying to rally and talk cheerfully,
+though she could not chase that haunting fear from her thoughts, "my
+aunt is no longer angry with you, and cousin Tristan was well pleased.
+They will treat you better after this, and your home will be happier."
+
+"_My home?_" ejaculated Madeleine, in a tone that made Bertha start.
+
+"Yes, yours, until you exchange it for that of the favored lover, of
+whose name you make such a mystery."
+
+"_That will never be!_"
+
+"Never? Does he not love you, then? But I know he does,--he must. Every
+one loves you; no one can help it,--you win all hearts!"
+
+"_Count Tristan's, for instance_," remarked Madeleine, bitterly.
+
+"Ah, not _his_, that is true. How wickedly he looked at you when Maurice
+pictured how dear you were to him! I noticed Cousin Tristan's eyes, and
+they frightened me. He looked positively fiendish; and when Maurice
+said"--
+
+To hear those precious words Maurice had spoken,--those words which she
+could never more forget,--repeated, was beyond Madeleine's powers of
+endurance: she sprang up, exclaiming, "Do not let us talk of these
+matters any more to-day, Bertha. It is growing late,--almost six
+o'clock. It is time for you to dress for dinner. And you have not
+forgotten the ball to-night?"
+
+"I could not bear to go now. I am sure Maurice will not go; and
+you,--would you go, even if we did?"
+
+"You will not refuse me a favor, Bertha, though it may cost you some
+pain to grant it? Go to this ball, and persuade, entreat Maurice to go.
+If you do not, you will draw down my aunt's displeasure upon me anew,
+for she will know why you remain at home,--especially as it will be
+impossible for me to appear in public to-night."
+
+"I would do anything rather than have my aunt displeased with you again;
+and then there is the beautiful dress you have taken such pains to
+make."
+
+"I should be very much disappointed if you did not wear it this evening.
+Now let us prepare for dinner."
+
+As she spoke, Madeleine commenced her own toilet. Bertha stood looking
+at her as she unbound her long silken hair, and, after smoothing it as
+carefully as was her wont, rapidly formed the coronal braid, and wound
+the rich tress about the regal head.
+
+"I cannot comprehend you, Madeleine: you are a marvel to me. A couple
+of hours ago you were almost frantic with grief,--I never saw any one
+weep so immoderately; and now you are as serene as though nothing had
+happened. If your lips were not so very, very white, and your eyes had
+not such a fixed, unnatural look, I could almost think you had forgotten
+that anything unusual had occurred."
+
+"Forget it yourself, dear, and make ready for dinner."
+
+Bertha obeyed at least part of the injunction, still wondering over
+Madeleine's incomprehensible placidity.
+
+The young maidens entered the dining-room together. Maurice came in
+late. The meal passed almost in silence, though the Countess and Count
+Tristan made unusual efforts to keep up a conversation.
+
+Bertha was right in imagining Maurice had lost all inclination to appear
+at the ball. When she brought up the subject, he answered impatiently
+that he did not intend to go. His grandmother heard the remark, and made
+an especial request that he would change that decision and accompany
+them. Bertha added her entreaties; but Maurice seemed inclined to rebel,
+until she whispered,--
+
+"If you stay at home, my aunt will say it is Madeleine's fault, and she
+will be vexed with her again. Madeleine begged you would spare her this
+new trial, and bade me entreat you to go."
+
+Maurice looked across the table, for the first time during dinner, and
+found Madeleine's eyes turned anxiously upon him.
+
+"I will go," he murmured.
+
+His words were addressed rather to her than to Bertha. A scarcely
+perceptible smile on the lips of the former was his reward.
+
+No comment was made upon Madeleine's determination to remain at home.
+But the tone of the countess to her niece, when she was officiating as
+usual at her aunt's toilet, was gentler than she had ever before used.
+Not the faintest allusion to the events of the morning dropped from the
+lips of either.
+
+At last the carriage drove from the door, and Madeleine was left alone
+with her own thoughts. The mask of composure was no longer needed, yet
+there was no return of the morning's turbulent emotion.
+
+Are not great trials sent to incite us to great exertions, which we
+might not have the energy, the wit, perhaps the _humility_, to
+undertake, but for the spurring sting of that especial grief? Madeleine
+had resolutely looked her affliction full in the face; had grown
+familiar with its sternest, saddest features; had bowed before them,
+and dashed the tears from her eyes, to see more clearly as that sorrow
+pointed out a path which all her firmness would be taxed in treading,--a
+path which she had never dreamed existed for her, until it had been
+opened, hewn through the rocks of circumstance by that day's heavy
+blows, that hour's piercing anguish.
+
+Her greatest difficulty lay in the necessity of concealing the step she
+was about to take from her aunt, whose violent opposition would throw a
+fearful obstacle in the way. It was easier to avoid than to surmount
+such a barrier; but if it could not be avoided, it _must_ be surmounted.
+In that decision she could not waver.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+FLIGHT.
+
+
+Can there be a more dreary solitude, to a mind writhing under the throes
+of some new and hidden sorrow, than a brilliant ballroom? The stirring
+music jars like harshest discord upon the unattuned ear; the glaring
+lights dazzle the pained vision until utter darkness would seem
+grateful; the merry voices and careless laughter catch a tone of bitter
+mockery; the gayly apparelled forms, the faces decked with soulless
+smiles, are more oppressive than all the apparitions with which a
+fevered imagination can people the gloomiest seclusion. Maurice soon
+found the festive scene at the Château de Tremazan intolerable, and took
+refuge in the illuminated conservatory, the doors of which were thrown
+invitingly open. It was mid-summer, but the flowers had been restored to
+brighten their winter shelter during the fête. He had thought to find
+himself alone; but yonder, bending over richly-tinted clusters of
+azaleas and odorous heliotropes, a group of youthful heads unconcernedly
+thrust their lifeless chaplets in challenging contrast with nature's
+living loveliness, while flowing robes recklessly swept their floral
+imitations against her shrinking originals. In a different state of mind
+Maurice might not have been struck by the incongruous contact of the
+painted semblance with the blushing reality; but now it reminded him too
+keenly that the sphere within which he was bound, a social Ixion upon
+the petty wheel of conventionalism, was one grand combination of
+artificial trivialities and senseless shams. Goaded beyond endurance by
+the reflection, he impatiently made his escape into the open air.
+
+Bertha had never mingled with a gay crowd in so joyless a mood. The
+presence of the heiress created no little sensation; but good-breeding
+kept its manifestation within such delicate limits that she was
+unconscious of its existence. She was not even aware that it was a sign
+of her own importance when the Marchioness de Fleury glided up to Count
+Tristan, on whose arm Bertha was leaning, and, in a softly cadenced
+voice, asked if she had not the pleasure of seeing Mademoiselle de
+Merrivale. In reply, the count presented Bertha. As she returned the
+courtesy of the marchioness, she could not help remembering the
+declaration of Maurice, that he had never perused the countenance of the
+distinguished belle, because his attention was irresistibly riveted upon
+the wondrous details of her toilet: for Bertha found her own eyes
+involuntarily wandering over the graceful folds of the amethyst velvet,
+and the exquisite disposition of the _point de Venise_ by which it was
+elaborately ornamented; the artistic head-dress in perfect accordance
+with the costly robe, and the Cleopatra-like drops of pearls which
+seemed to have been showered over the wearer from brow to foot.
+
+Bertha's eyes were too ingenuous not to betray their occupation; but
+those of the marchioness seemed only to be looking, with the most
+complimentary expression of interest, into the face of her new
+acquaintance, while, in reality, she was scanning Bertha's picturesque
+attire, and longing to discover by what tasteful fingers it had been
+contrived; examining the polished ivy intertwined among her bright
+ringlets, and the half-blown roses just bursting their sheaths in a
+glossy covert of amber tresses; and wondering that a coiffure with such
+poetic taste could have existed unknown in Brittany. As the marchioness
+stood, dropping sweet, meaningless words from her dewy lips, Bertha's
+hand was claimed by the Duke de Montauban, and she was led to the dance.
+
+She was moving through the quadrille with a languid, unelastic motion,
+very unlike her usual springing step, when she caught sight of M. de
+Bois, standing at a short distance, with his face turned toward her. The
+smile that accompanied her bow of greeting drew him nearer. As the dance
+ended, and her partner was reconducting her to the countess, M. de Bois
+overcame his timidity sufficiently to join her.
+
+"Where is Mademoiselle Mad--ad--adeleine?" he inquired. "I have not seen
+her."
+
+"She is not here. She would not come," sighed Bertha, stopping abruptly,
+though they had not quite reached her chaperone's side.
+
+"Is she ill? She told me this morning that she would certainly be here.
+Has anything happened?" asked M. de Bois, speaking as distinctly as
+though he had never stammered in his life, and throwing off, in his
+growing excitement, all the awkwardness of his constitutional
+diffidence.
+
+Bertha could not but remark his anxious expression, and a suspicion,
+which she had essayed to banish, once more took possession of her mind.
+But she loved Madeleine with such absolute devotion, that this vague,
+uncomfortable sensation was quickly displaced by a purer emotion.
+Glancing at the countess to see that she was not within hearing
+distance, she disengaged her arm from that of the duke, with a bow which
+he interpreted into a dismissal, and then, turning eagerly to M. de
+Bois, recounted to him, in a low, hurried tone, the occurrences of the
+morning. She fancied she heard words which sounded very like muttered
+imprecations. He was perhaps putting into practice his new method of
+loosening his tongue, and doubtless imagined that the emphatic
+utterances were inaudible.
+
+Bertha went on. "It was a terrible blow to Maurice! He felt so sure
+until then that Madeleine loved him; so did I. But we were both
+mistaken. It is plain enough now that she does _not_."
+
+"What makes it plain? How can you be sure?" asked M. de Bois, becoming
+more and more disturbed.
+
+"Her own declaration has placed the fact beyond doubt. She even
+confessed that she loved another."
+
+Her listener did not attempt to conceal his consternation at these
+words.
+
+"Mademoiselle Madeleine said she loved another! She, who would not stoop
+to breathe a word which was not the strictest truth,--_she told you so?_
+You heard it yourself? You are _certain, very certain_, Mademoiselle
+Bertha?"
+
+"I dare say that I ought not to have repeated this to you," replied
+Bertha, who now experienced some self-reproach at betraying her friend's
+secret to one whom it, perhaps, so deeply concerned; "but I am very
+certain that Madeleine distinctly rejected Maurice, and, when he
+attributed her refusal to his grandmother's and his father's disapproval
+of his suit, she denied that she was influenced by them, and confessed
+that her heart was not free,--that she had bestowed it upon another."
+
+"By all that is heroic, she is a noble woman!" exclaimed M. de Bois,
+fervently. "She has the grandest nature! She is incom-com-com"--
+
+"Incomparable," said Bertha, finishing his sentence, and checking a
+sigh. "Yes, I never knew any one like her. She has no equal."
+
+"I don't exactly say _that_. I don't mean _that_. She is not
+su-su-superior--to"--
+
+Bertha did not assist him by completing _this_ disjointed phrase, even
+if she suspected what he desired to say.
+
+At that moment Count Damoreau approached, accompanied by a gaunt,
+overdressed lady, with harsh and forbidding features.
+
+"Lady Vivian is looking for Mademoiselle de Gramont. Did she not
+accompany you?" inquired the count.
+
+"She intended to do so, but changed her mind."
+
+"She received a letter from me to-day,--did she not?" continued Count
+Damoreau.
+
+"Yes, I remember delivering one to her myself, which Baptiste said was
+brought by your valet."
+
+"Did she not apprise you of its contents?"
+
+"No. I was not present when she opened the letter."
+
+"Then you do not know how she received my proposition?" remarked Lady
+Vivian, in a grating voice. "I begin to be a little doubtful myself how
+it will do. Is your cousin as handsome as they say she is?"
+
+"In my eyes she is the most beautiful person in the world," answered
+Bertha, in a tone of admiration the sincerity of which could not be
+mistaken.
+
+Lady Vivian looked vexed, and replied, "That's a pity. Beauty is a
+decided objection in such a position."
+
+"I beg your ladyship's pardon," returned Bertha, with spirit; "but I
+cannot perceive that my cousin's position renders her beauty
+objectionable."
+
+"Beauty is very suitable to you, my dear; but for an humble companion"--
+
+"An _humble companion_? Madeleine is not my aunt's humble companion, nor
+mine. She is"--
+
+"To become _mine_, I believe!" rejoined Lady Vivian, brusquely. "And I
+already begin to regret that I acceded to Count Damoreau's wishes."
+
+"Madeleine your ladyship's humble companion? _That_ she shall never be.
+O Count Damoreau! how _could_ you have suggested such an idea? I would
+go on my knees to implore her not to consent! I am sure your ladyship
+will find yourself mistaken."
+
+Bertha, as she said these words, bowed with a degree of hauteur which no
+one had ever seen her assume, and, taking M. de Bois's arm, approached
+her aunt with a troubled countenance. Before the Countess de Gramont
+could ask the cause of her evident disquietude, she said,--
+
+"I wish we could go home, aunt: I am wearied to death. I cannot enjoy
+anything to-night. And that horrid Lady Vivian has made me so angry,
+talking of Madeleine as her humble companion! Such impertinence! Surely
+you would never permit anything of the kind?"
+
+"Never! I do not wonder you were indignant. But do you really wish to
+go?"
+
+"Oh, yes. I am stifling here. I never was at such a dull ball. Pray,
+pray take me home!"
+
+Her aunt could not refuse a request so vehemently urged, and begged M.
+de Bois to seek Maurice. Fearing that Madame de Tremazan would be
+mortified by their early departure, the countess took an opportunity to
+leave the ballroom, accompanied by her niece and son, without attracting
+the observation of the hostess. M. de Bois joined them in the
+antechamber, with the intelligence that Maurice was nowhere to be found.
+After a second search, and half an hour's delay, the carriage started
+without him.
+
+As soon as they reached the château, Bertha bade her aunt good-night,
+and hastened to Madeleine's chamber. Madeleine, who did not anticipate
+her speedy return, and had not heard her light foot upon the floor, was
+sitting beside a small table, her head supported by her hands, and bent
+over some object which she contemplated with intense interest. At the
+sound of Bertha's voice she hastily closed the lids of a couple of
+ancient-looking caskets, which stood before her, and rose from her seat.
+
+"Is it you, Bertha? How soon you have returned!"
+
+"Yes; I was glad to get away. The ball was wretchedly stupid; and, after
+that disagreeable Lady Vivian irritated me by talking of you, I could
+not stay. She seemed to have the audacity to expect that you would
+become her humble companion. _You!_ our noble, _doubly noble_ Madeleine,
+the humble companion of any one, but especially of such a coarse person
+as Lady Vivian! It was unendurable."
+
+"It is very possible that Count Damoreau assured her I would accept the
+proposition she made me through him," was Madeleine's calm reply.
+
+"But you never could have entertained it for a moment?"
+
+"No. There is the answer I have just written to Count Damoreau. You may
+read it."
+
+Bertha glanced over the letter approvingly. As she laid it upon the
+table, she noticed the caskets.
+
+"What are these, Madeleine?--jewel-cases?"
+
+"They were my mother's diamonds. They have been in the family, I can
+hardly tell you for how many generations."
+
+"Do let me see them."
+
+Bertha opened one of the cases. A necklace, brooch, and ear-rings of
+brilliants sparkled within. The precious stones emitted a clear lustre
+which would have caused a connoisseur at once to pronounce them of the
+first water; but their setting was quaint and old-fashioned. The
+necklace was composed of diamonds _fleur-de-lis_, divided by emerald
+shamrock-leaves. A single _fleur-de-lis_, surrounded by the emerald
+shamrock, formed the brooch and ear-rings.
+
+"Some of your ancestors must have come from the emerald isle: so, at
+least, we may infer from this shamrock."
+
+"Yes, my great-great-great-grandfather married the beautiful Lady
+Katrine Nugent, and these were her bridal jewels. You see that the
+shamrock of Erin is mingled with the _fleur-de-lis_ of France."
+
+Bertha unclosed the other case. It held a bracelet and a tiara-shaped
+comb. The shamrock and lily were blended as in the necklace.
+
+"These diamonds are very lustrous," said Bertha, clasping the bracelet
+admiringly upon her delicate wrist. "But what are you doing with them,
+and at this time of night?"
+
+"Looking at them," answered Madeleine, with some hesitation. "I have not
+seen them before for years."
+
+"You shall wear them for your bridal _parure_, Madeleine."
+
+Madeleine tried to laugh.
+
+"Then I should carry my whole fortune on my back; all that remains of my
+ancient house I should bear, snail-fashion, upon my head and shoulders.
+No, little dreamer, of two facts you may rest assured: one is that I
+shall never wear these jewels; the other that I never shall be a bride.
+Come, let me undress you; your blue eyes are so sleepy they are growing
+gray as the heavens at twilight."
+
+The Château de Tremazan was seven miles from his father's mansion, but
+Maurice, after his abrupt exit from the conservatory, walked leisurely
+home. The next morning, before the count had risen, his son entered the
+room, in travelling attire, to make the communication that he had
+ordered the carriage to drive him to Rennes, in time to meet the early
+train that started for Paris. He trusted his father would offer no
+objection, and would make the traveller's apologies to the ladies of the
+household, for avoiding the pain of leave-taking. Count Tristan approved
+of the journey; and, a few moments later, Maurice leaped into the coach,
+glancing eagerly up at a window, surrounded by a framework of jasmine
+vines; but no face looked forth; no hand waved a farewell and filled the
+vernal frame with a living picture.
+
+The intelligence of his sudden departure was received differently by the
+three ladies. The countess was inclined to be displeased that he had
+foregone the ceremony of an adieu. Any shortcoming in the payment of the
+full amount of deference, which she considered her due, was a great
+offence. Of late, Maurice had several times wounded her upon this tender
+point, and her sensitiveness was thereby increased.
+
+Bertha was loud in her lamentations over the disappearance of her
+cousin. Her deep chagrin revived the hopes of Count Tristan and his
+mother, and awakened the welcome suggestion, that he, in reality, held a
+tenderer place in her heart than she had ever admitted to herself.
+
+Madeleine's face instinctively brightened when she heard that Maurice
+was gone; his departure smoothed away a difficulty from the path she was
+about to tread. Count Tristan watched her closely, and was perplexed by
+the gleam of genuine satisfaction that illumined her countenance. For
+the first time he was half deceived into the belief that the passion of
+Maurice was unrequited. He had been puzzled in what manner to interpret
+Madeleine's determined rejection of her cousin. He was unable to
+comprehend a purity of motive which his narrow mind was equally
+incapable of experiencing. He finally attributed her conduct partly to a
+dread of her aunt's and his own displeasure, partly to a desire to
+render herself more highly valued by Maurice, and to gain a firmer hold
+upon his affections.
+
+M. de Bois was an early visitor on the day after the ball, but never had
+he seemed more ill at ease, or found more difficulty in controlling his
+restless nervousness, or in expressing himself intelligibly. When he
+heard that Maurice was on his way to Paris, he dashed down an antique
+vase by his sudden movement of vexation, and, in stooping to gather the
+fractured china, upset the stand upon which it had stood. This
+manifestation of awkwardness, of course, increased his _mal-aise_; and,
+although the countess remained as unmoved as though she wholly ignored
+the accident, he could not recover his equanimity. Madeleine left the
+drawing-room with the fragments of the vase in her hand, and did not
+return. After a prolonged and unsatisfactory visit, M. de Bois took his
+leave.
+
+As he issued from the château, Baptiste dropped his spade and followed
+him, keeping at a short distance behind, until he neared the gate; then
+the old gardener approached, looking cautiously around to see that he
+was not observed, stealthily held out a note, whispering, "Mademoiselle
+Madeleine bade me give this to monsieur," turned on his heel, and walked
+away as rapidly as though he feared to be pursued.
+
+The note contained these words:--
+
+     "A friend in my great emergency is indispensable to me. I
+     have no friend in whom I can confide but you. I shall be at
+     the little _châlet_ to-morrow morning, at five o'clock.
+
+                                   "MADELEINE M. DE GRAMONT."
+
+A radiant change passed over the shadowed features of Gaston de Bois, as
+he read these lines. That one so self-reliant as Madeleine proffered him
+her confidence, trusted him, appealed to him for aid, was surely enough
+to raise him in his own esteem; and he almost forgot the recent
+mortification caused by an unfortunate awkwardness and miserable
+diffidence, which seemed the haunting demons of his existence.
+
+Impatience chased all slumber from his eyes that night, and the dawn had
+scarcely broken when he hastened to the _châlet_ to await the coming of
+Madeleine. The appointed time had just arrived, as the watch he
+constantly consulted informed him, when she entered the summer-house.
+Their interview, occupied but half an hour; but, when M. de Bois left
+the _châlet_, his countenance wore an expression of earnestness,
+responsibility, and composure, totally opposite to its usual
+characteristics.
+
+Madeleine, as she tripped back through the dew, smiled with moist
+eyes,--a smile of gratitude rather than of pleasure. More than once she
+drew a long breath, as though some heavy pressure had been lifted from
+her breast; and, as she dashed away the tears that gathered in her eyes,
+she seemed eagerly looking into the distance, as though a mist had
+rolled from before her steps, and she now saw her way clearly. All was
+silent in the château, and she reached her chamber unperceived.
+
+That day passed as usual, and another, and another. Madeleine never once
+alluded to the determination which she had announced to her aunt as
+unalterable, and the countess was satisfied that her niece had spoken
+under the influence of excitement, without any fixed purpose; and
+gradually dismissed from her mind the fear that her dependent relative
+would take some rash and dignity-compromising step.
+
+Bertha had not forgotten that Madeleine had declared the Château de
+Gramont was no longer her home; but as the latter went through the daily
+routine of her wonted avocations as though they were always to continue,
+and as no change was apparent in her manner, save that she was more
+silent and meditative, and her once ready smiles grew rarer, Bertha,
+also, was lulled into the belief that her cousin had abandoned her
+intention.
+
+Count Tristan fell into no such error. Madeleine's preoccupied mien, her
+unwonted reserve, the tender sadness with which she sometimes gazed
+around her, as though bidding farewell to dear, familiar objects,
+assured him that she had not spoken lightly, and that her threat would
+be carried into execution at no distant period. Well was it for her that
+he had come to this satisfactory conclusion, for it spared her further
+persecution at his hands.
+
+On the fourth morning after the departure of Maurice, Bertha entered
+Madeleine's chamber, according to her custom,--for the young maidens
+always descended to breakfast together. Her room was empty.
+
+"She has not waited for me to-day," thought Bertha, hurrying down, and
+expecting to find Madeleine in the breakfast-room.
+
+The countess and her son were at table, but Madeleine was not there.
+
+"Has Madeleine breakfasted?" inquired Bertha, cutting short her morning
+salutations.
+
+The answer was in the negative.
+
+"Have you not seen her?" she asked.
+
+"No, not this morning," replied the countess.
+
+"I suppose she is taking an early walk," continued Bertha. "It seems odd
+that she does not come back, for she is never late."
+
+Bertha seated herself, but the coffee remained untasted before her; and
+her head was constantly turned towards the window which commanded a view
+of the garden and park. Gustave passed, and she cried out to him,--
+
+"Gustave, have you seen Mademoiselle Madeleine, this morning?"
+
+"No, mademoiselle."
+
+"Why, where _can_ she be?" exclaimed Bertha, impatiently. "If you will
+excuse me, aunt, I will go in search of her. Since she has not broken
+her fast yet, we will breakfast together, as usual." And away darted
+Bertha into the garden.
+
+The countess had not attached any importance to Madeleine's absence, and
+resumed the conversation with her son.
+
+Through Count Tristan's mind the suspicion at once had flashed that
+Madeleine was gone, and he chuckled inwardly at the verification of his
+own unspoken predictions. A quarter of an hour passed, and then he
+beheld Bertha coming rapidly from the direction of the _châlet_. He felt
+no surprise in observing that she was alone. The windows of the
+breakfast-room opened to the ground, and she entered by one of
+them,--her face crimsoned, her fair hair unbound and floating over her
+shoulders, for she had been running.
+
+"I cannot find Madeleine!" she faltered out. "It is very strange! She is
+not in the _châlet_, nor in the garden. I have called until I am hoarse.
+I picked up this handkerchief in the _châlet_,--it is marked 'G. de
+Bois,' yet it is three days since M. de Bois was here; and Madeleine and
+I have spent every morning since then at the _châlet_. When could M. de
+Bois have dropped this handkerchief there?"
+
+The count took the handkerchief from her hand, and examined the mark
+without comment: he could not trust his voice at that moment.
+
+"I presume Madeleine will be here presently, to account for herself,"
+remarked the countess, not apparently discomposed. "Take your breakfast,
+Bertha; there is no need of your fasting until she chooses to make her
+appearance."
+
+Bertha obediently sat down, sipped her coffee for a few moments, and
+then, declaring that she wanted nothing more, left the room and returned
+to Madeleine's apartment. It was in perfect order, but so it was always;
+the bed was made, but Madeleine was in the habit of making her own bed;
+there was no sign of change. Bertha opened the wardrobe,--the dresses
+Madeleine usually wore were hanging within; she wandered about the room,
+examining every nook and corner, hardly conscious of what she was
+doing,--what she expected to find or to miss. All at once she remarked
+that a few books, which were favorites of Madeleine and once belonged to
+her father, had been removed from the table; but what of that?--they
+had probably been placed somewhere else. Continuing her almost
+purposeless search, Bertha now drew out the drawers of the bureau: they
+usually held Madeleine's linen; they were empty! In violent agitation
+the kneeling girl sprang to her feet; her undefined fear was taking
+shape. She ran to the antechamber and looked for a little trunk which
+had come to the château with Madeleine: it was no longer there!
+
+Bertha darted down the stair and rushed into her aunt's presence,
+sobbing out in agony of grief,--"She has gone! Madeleine has gone! I
+know she has gone, and she will never, never return to us! Her dresses
+are there; everything you have given her is there; she has only taken
+with her what she had when she came to the château, and she has surely
+gone!"
+
+Count Tristan pretended to laugh at Bertha's fears, and maintained that
+Madeleine would presently walk in, and feel very much flattered by the
+sensation she had created, and by her cousin's lamentations over her
+supposed flight; adding, jocosely, that it was not easy for a young lady
+to disappear in that dramatic manner, except from the pages of a novel.
+
+The countess, who began to be alarmed, desired her son to ring the bell.
+Gustave appeared in answer, and, after being closely questioned, was
+desired to summon the other domestics. Bettina and Elise promptly obeyed
+the command. Their answers were precisely the same as those of Gustave:
+they had not seen Madeleine; they could not imagine where she was.
+
+"Baptiste,--where is he?" asked the countess.
+
+Baptiste was in the garden.
+
+"I am going out,--I will speak to him myself, and also institute further
+inquiries to satisfy our dear little Bertha; but I warn her that her
+dreams of a romantic adventure, and the flight of a young lady from an
+ancient château and her natural protectors, will probably meet with a
+sudden check by Madeleine's walking in from a long ramble."
+
+Thus speaking, the count left Bertha to be consoled by his mother, and
+went forth in search of Baptiste. Count Tristan well knew that, although
+the domestics were all warmly attached to Madeleine, the devotion of
+Baptiste was unsurpassed. The count did not, for one instant, doubt that
+she had really gone. Some assistance she must have had, and Baptiste's
+was the aid she would naturally have selected. He chose to interrogate
+the old man himself, to _prevent his giving_ rather than to extract
+information from him.
+
+The simple-hearted gardener was not an adept in deception. He was
+digging among his flower-beds when his master approached him, and it did
+not escape the nobleman's observation that the spade went into the
+ground and was drawn out again with increased rapidity as he drew near,
+and that the head of Baptiste, instead of being lifted to see who was
+coming, was bent down as though he wished to appear wholly engrossed in
+his occupation.
+
+"Baptiste?"
+
+"Monsieur?"
+
+The tremulous voice in which that one word was uttered, and his guilty
+countenance, scarcely raised as he spoke, were enough to convict him.
+
+"Has Mademoiselle Madeleine passed you in walking out, this morning?"
+
+"No, monsieur. I have been very busy, monsieur; these flower-beds are in
+a terrible state; it is not easy for one pair of hands to keep them even
+in tolerable order. I have not noticed who passed. I don't generally
+look about me,--I"--
+
+"Oh, very well; we thought perhaps you might have seen Mademoiselle
+Madeleine to-day, as she must have walked out; but, as you know nothing
+at all about her, I will inform the countess and Mademoiselle Bertha."
+
+"I am much obliged to monsieur," replied Baptiste, gratefully.
+
+He could not conceal his thankfulness at escaping the cross-examination
+which he had anticipated with the dread natural to one wholly
+unpractised in dissimulation.
+
+"This handkerchief of M. de Bois was found in the _châlet_," continued
+the count. "I suppose he sometimes strolls over here in the morning, at
+an hour too early for visiting; it is very natural, as we are such near
+neighbors."
+
+"As monsieur says, it would be very natural."
+
+The count had gained all the information that he desired, and without
+letting Baptiste suspect he had betrayed his secret. That Madeleine had
+actually fled, that M. de Bois had lent his aid, and that Baptiste had
+been taken into their confidence, was indubitable.
+
+The count returned to the château, and joined his mother, who was making
+vain attempts to soothe Bertha. The only comfort to which she would
+listen was the assurance that, if Madeleine had really gone, she would
+be traced and entreated to return to her former home.
+
+The count now thought it politic to assume an air of the deepest
+concern.
+
+"I am grieved to bring you such unsatisfactory news; but Baptiste knows
+nothing,--he has not seen Madeleine. I am very much shocked, but the
+fear that she has really left us forces itself upon me. I will order my
+horse and ride over to Rennes. She probably obtained a conveyance last
+night or this morning to take her there, as it is the nearest town; and
+then, by railroad or stage-coach, she must have proceeded upon her
+journey."
+
+"But how could she have obtained a conveyance if none of the servants
+were in her confidence? She must have walked, though it is five miles;
+but that cannot be, for she could not have carried her trunk. Some one
+_must_ have aided her. Oh, who _can_ it be?"
+
+Bertha wiped her streaming eyes with the handkerchief in her hand; it
+was the handkerchief found in the _châlet_,--that of Gaston de Bois. It
+seemed to answer her question. She hesitated for some moments before she
+could persuade herself to communicate her suspicion; but her strong love
+for Madeleine, and her desire that she should be restored to them,
+prevailed. She handed the handkerchief to Count Tristan.
+
+"Before you go to Rennes, will you not return this handkerchief to M. de
+Bois? As it was picked up in the _châlet_, he must have been there
+lately,--possibly this morning. Perhaps he knows something of
+Madeleine's flight. Oh, he _must_ know!--he must! Make him tell
+you,--implore him to tell you!"
+
+The count took the handkerchief, saying, "It is an admirable suggestion
+of yours, my dear Bertha. I will go to M. de Bois at once. Meantime, do
+not spoil your beautiful eyes with weeping. Never fear,--we will have
+Madeleine back shortly; and if you will only be consoled, I promise to
+forgive her all the anxiety she has occasioned us."
+
+Count Tristan found M. de Bois at home, burrowing among musty volumes,
+which were the daily companions of his solitude. When he received his
+handkerchief, a violent fit of stammering rendered the words he
+attempted to utter wholly incomprehensible, and the count made no effort
+to understand them. He proceeded to inform M. de Bois of Madeleine's
+sudden disappearance, and of the great unhappiness it had caused, adding
+that he came to him as a neighbor, to ask his advice concerning the best
+method of tracking the fugitive.
+
+If M. de Bois offered any counsel (which his guest pretended to imagine
+he did), the impediment in his speech increased to such an extent that
+his suggestions were unintelligible. His perturbation might have passed
+for surprise at the startling intelligence so abruptly communicated;
+but it could hardly be translated into sorrow or sympathy, and was a
+very imperfect simulation of astonishment.
+
+"I am going to Rennes, for the purpose of making inquiries at the
+railroad depôt. Will not that plan be a good one?" asked the count.
+
+"Ver--ver--ery good," stammered M. de Bois.
+
+"Can you think of any mode that will facilitate my search?"
+
+"I fear not,--none at all; I am very dull in such m--m--matters."
+
+The count took his leave, congratulating himself that his neighbor had
+not been subjected to the scrutiny of the Countess de Gramont or Bertha,
+and especially of Maurice, whose absence at this crisis he looked upon
+as doubly fortunate.
+
+Count Tristan returned to the château with as dejected a mien as he
+could assume.
+
+Bertha was watching at the window, and ran out to meet him. "What news?
+When did M. de Bois lose his handkerchief? When did he last see
+Madeleine?"
+
+"Dear child, I am deeply pained not to bring more cheering information.
+M. de Bois must have dropped his handkerchief some days ago,--the
+morning after the ball; he has not been here since; he has no
+recollection of the circumstance; he has not seen Madeleine at all."
+
+"Was he not amazed to hear that she had gone?"
+
+"Very much confounded; the shock quite bewildered him. We consulted
+about the best means of tracing her at Rennes. You may rest assured that
+M. de Bois was totally ignorant of her intention to leave us. And, if
+you will allow me to make a suggestion, I would charge you not to let
+him suspect, when you meet, that you for a moment imagine he was in
+Madeleine's confidence. It would be highly indelicate,--the very
+supposition would be derogatory to her dignity. _I_ have said all that
+was necessary to him, and, as he had nothing to do with the affair, it
+is a topic which cannot with propriety be touched upon again."
+
+"Assuredly not," coincided the countess. "Madeleine, with all her
+faults, would not so entirely forget her own self-respect as to have a
+clandestine understanding with a young man. I cannot believe she would
+disgrace herself and us by such unmaidenly conduct."
+
+"Unmaidenly! Would it be unmaidenly?" questioned Bertha, innocently. "If
+it would be an impropriety to confide in M. de Bois, then Madeleine
+certainly has not made him her confidant. Oh, my poor Madeleine! It is
+dreadful to think that she must have gone away alone,--quite alone!"
+
+"You may well call it _dreadful_, Bertha. An occurrence of this kind has
+never blotted the annals of our family! What will be said of her and of
+us? Such a step, taken by a woman of her birth, will set hundreds of
+tongues discussing our domestic concerns; our names will be bandied
+about from lip to lip; our affairs will be in all sorts of common
+people's mouths. Hasten, for heaven's sake, my son, and find Madeleine
+before this story gets wind."
+
+Count Tristan dutifully obeyed,--that is to say, he assumed an
+appearance of compliance, for in a few moments he was galloping toward
+Rennes.
+
+Evening set in before he returned. His long absence had kindled in the
+minds of the countess and Bertha a hope that he had discovered some
+clew, and the latter had worked herself up to such a pitch of excitement
+that she almost anticipated the return of Madeleine in Count Tristan's
+company. Her disappointment when, at last, he entered, looking weary and
+dejected, was proportionate to her expectations. He had made all
+possible search,--_so he said_,--and no information concerning the
+fugitive could be gathered; she was gone! He feared they must now wait
+patiently until they heard from her. She would doubtless write soon,--a
+letter might come at any moment. Very possibly she had changed her mind
+in regard to Lady Vivian's offer, and had accepted it without
+communicating her intention, because she feared her aunt's displeasure.
+This was the most likely explanation of her sudden departure. He had
+called at the Château de Tremazan, and Lady Vivian had left for Scotland
+two days after the ball. Madeleine was doubtless at this moment on her
+way to Edinburgh.
+
+The count, though he made this assertion with an air of perfect
+credence, did not, for a moment, believe that such was Madeleine's
+destination; but he thought to check persistent inquiries which might
+accidentally bring to light some fine thread that would lead to the
+discovery of her retreat.
+
+"Oh, if she goes to Lady Vivian, we will make her return at once,--will
+we not, aunt?" asked Bertha, catching eagerly at this new hope. "But
+Madeleine told me distinctly that she had no intention of accepting Lady
+Vivian's offer."
+
+"There would be no harm in changing her mind," observed the count. "You
+will find that she has done so; therefore, give yourself no more
+uneasiness at present."
+
+Bertha would very gladly have followed the count's advice; but, even if
+she had made the effort, it would have been impossible to drive anxiety
+for Madeleine out of her thoughts. Several times during the evening she
+started up, thinking that she heard her voice; if a step echoed in the
+antechamber, she turned eagerly to the door, her blue eyes greatening
+with expectation. Once, when the roll of wheels sounded in the distance,
+she uttered a cry of joy and rushed out upon the porch. Every moment she
+grew more and more restless and feverish; and when the usual hour for
+retiring came, she wandered into Madeleine's room, instead of her own,
+and once more minutely examined the whole chamber. There might, perhaps,
+be a note somewhere which she had overlooked: after the most diligent
+search, none was to be found. There were pens, ink, and paper upon the
+little table which Madeleine generally used, but not a word of writing
+was visible.
+
+The sight of pen and ink suggested an idea which had not before occurred
+to Bertha. She sat down and wrote to Maurice. She poured out all her
+grief upon paper, and it was soothed as if dropped into words upon the
+blank sheet before her. How often a full heart has had its burden lifted
+and lightened at the pen's point, as if the sorrow it recorded grew less
+heavy beneath the calming touch of that potent instrument!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE EMPTY PLACE.
+
+
+It chanced that Bertha's letter to Maurice was posted the next morning
+without the knowledge of Count Tristan and his mother; not, however,
+through any preconcerted arrangement on the part of Bertha. Her
+character was so frank, so transparent,--her actions were always so
+unveiled,--her thoughts flowed in such an instinctive current toward her
+lips,--that the idea of concealment could have no spontaneous existence
+in her mind. She made no allusion to the letter until it was gone; but
+that was purely accidental, though not the less fortunate. Had Count
+Tristan been aware that such a letter had been written, it would never
+have reached its destination.
+
+It was somewhat singular that the count, whose code of honor would have
+forced him to resent, at the sword's point, the faintest hint that he
+could be guilty of an unworthy action, would not have scrupled to
+intercept a letter, to distort a fact (we use the mildest phrase), to
+stoop to any deception, to be guilty of any treachery, if he were
+powerfully prompted by what he termed family considerations,--which
+simply meant his own personal interest.
+
+He had determined to keep Maurice in ignorance of Madeleine's flight as
+long as possible, that the chances of discovering her retreat might be
+diminished; and great was the wily schemer's consternation when he
+learned that Bertha had unadvisedly frustrated his plans by writing to
+her cousin.
+
+Madeleine's value had never been estimated to its just height until her
+place was empty. It is not in human nature to prize that which we
+possess to its full worth, until it is "lacked and lost!" Alas! in how
+many households there moves, with noiseless feet, some placid, patient,
+yet potent spirit, with hands ever ready to toil, or soothe; a smile
+ever kindled to comfort or encourage; a voice that "turns common words
+to grace," imparting hope and dispensing joy; a presence full of
+helpfulness and peace; a being, grown familiar to our eyes by every
+day's association, whom we carelessly greet, or jostle against
+unheeding, or thrust aside impatiently, never dreaming that our
+working-day mortal, could she cast off this garment of clay, would stand
+revealed one of God's holy messengers commissioned to minister!--that
+is, _never until_ we suddenly find her place empty, yet trace the touch
+of her delicate fingers, the print of her light footsteps everywhere
+around us, and feel the dreary void made in our hearts by her absence,
+and recognize, too late, that we have entertained an angel unawares.
+
+Throughout the Château de Gramont there was no one, save Count Tristan,
+who did not make some such reflection (though vague and undefined,
+perhaps) while thinking of Madeleine. The ancient domestics seemed
+completely lost without her guiding hand,--her spirit of order
+systematizing and lightening all their duties. Everything was in
+confusion, everything went wrong. Dearly as they loved her, they had
+never before realized that Mademoiselle Madeleine had been of so much
+importance and assistance to them all.
+
+The countess missed her every moment; and, interested as were her
+regrets, they were not unmingled with some faint self-reproach when she
+remembered how lightly she had prized her services. The antiquated
+_femme de chambre_ had never appeared so clumsy, purblind, and stupid;
+and the more her stately mistress chided her, the more bewildered
+Bettina became, the more blunders she committed.
+
+Even a bearing as majestic as that of the noble lady could not
+neutralize the caricaturing effect of a robe pinned awry; curls with
+long straight ends standing out porcupine fashion; a cap obstinately
+bent upon inclining to one side; and a collar with a strong tendency to
+avoid a central position.
+
+As for Bertha, naturally restless, excitable, and untutored in the art
+of calming the agitation of her mind by active employment, she could do
+nothing but wander in and out of her aunt's apartment; stand at the
+window watching for the postman, beating the devil's tattoo upon the
+panes; counting the hours, fretting over their insupportable length, and
+breaking out, at intervals, into piteous lamentations.
+
+It was with difficulty that she could be persuaded to appear at table,
+and she scarcely tasted food. Glancing up at the faded flowers in the
+hanging baskets suspended before the windows, and to the withered
+bouquets in the tall vases that stood on either side,--baskets and vases
+which Madeleine had ever kept freshly supplied,--Bertha could scarcely
+restrain her tears, as she murmured mournfully,--
+
+"Ah, I know now what the English poet's Ophelia meant, when she said all
+the violets withered when her father died! All our flowers faded when
+Madeleine went!"
+
+Baptiste, who was standing beside her chair, rubbed his eyes, and the
+sigh, that would not be checked, was audible to her quick ears. She
+turned to give him a glance which recognized his sympathy, and noticed
+that there was no gay-looking blossom in his button-hole that day. This
+was an unmistakable expression of sorrow on the part of Baptiste; for he
+never assumed the compulsory office of butler without asserting his
+preference for his legitimate vocation of gardener by a flower in his
+coat. Bertha had never seen him dispense with the floral decoration
+before, and she comprehended its absence but too well.
+
+Her nervous disquietude increased every hour, and caused her aunt a
+species of petty martyrdom resembling the torture of perpetual
+pin-pricking, the incessant buzzing and stinging of a gnat, the endless
+creaking of rusty door-hinges,--minor miseries often more unendurable
+than some great mental or physical suffering. But although the patience
+of the countess was wearied out, Bertha was too great a favorite to be
+rebuked. Count Tristan discreetly fled the field, and thus avoided his
+share of the infliction.
+
+Bertha's letter reached Maurice the day after it was written, and found
+him in a state of such torpid despondency that any summons to action,
+even the most painful, was a blessing. He had felt that the only chance
+of combating his sorrow, and preventing its obtaining full mastery over
+all his faculties, was to work off the sense of depression by hard
+study,--to battle against it with the arms of some engrossing
+occupation; but how could he spur himself up to study without an
+object?--and he was as far as ever from obtaining his father's consent
+to fitting himself for the bar, or for any other professional pursuit.
+No,--there was only one pursuit left open to him, the pursuit of
+pleasure, and he had not sufficiently recovered from his late shock to
+start off in chase of that illusive phantom. Bertha's letter roused him
+out of this miserable, mind-paralyzing apathy. In the very next train
+which left for Rennes he was on his way back to Brittany.
+
+It was the fourth day after Madeleine's departure. Those days had seemed
+months to Bertha, the weariest months of her brief, glad life. She was
+standing at a window that commanded the road,--her favorite post, and
+the only locality where she ever remained quiet for any length of
+time,--when the carriage in which Maurice was seated drove up the
+avenue. With a joyful exclamation she rushed out of the room, darted
+down the stair, through the hall, into the porch, and had greeted
+Maurice before any one but the old gardener knew that he had arrived.
+
+"You have heard from her?" were her cousin's first words, gaspingly
+uttered.
+
+"No, not a line. She will never write; she will never come back! O
+Maurice! I have lost all hope," sighed Bertha.
+
+"Dear Bertha, we will find her! Let her go where she may, I will find
+her!--be sure of that. I will not rest until I do."
+
+His grandmother, attracted by Bertha's exultant ejaculation, had
+followed her, though with more deliberate steps, and now appeared. The
+cruel words the countess had spoken to Madeleine were ringing in the
+ears of Maurice, and he saluted his noble relative respectfully, but not
+with his usual warmth.
+
+"I am glad you have come back to us, Maurice. Bertha is so lonely."
+
+The lips of Maurice parted, but some internal warning checked the bitter
+words before they formed themselves into sound. He bowed gravely, and,
+entering the house, remarked to Bertha,--
+
+"You wrote that all the servants had been examined?"
+
+"Yes, all; and they know nothing of Madeleine's flight."
+
+"That is _impossible_. One of them at least must have some knowledge."
+
+Maurice rang the bell. It was Bettina, who replied. Gustave, she said,
+was in the stable, and Baptiste in the garden. The answers of the _femme
+de chambre_ to the young viscount were clear and unhesitating: no one
+could doubt, for a moment, that she was wholly ignorant of Madeleine's
+movement; and her tone and manner evinced, as forcibly as any language
+could have done, how deeply she mourned over her absence. Elise was next
+summoned, and her replies were but a repetition of Bettina's.
+
+"I will not send for Gustave and Baptiste," he observed, dismissing the
+two female domestics,--"I will walk out and see them."
+
+"And I will go with you," said Bertha.
+
+The countess was too well pleased to see the cousins together to object.
+
+Gustave was grooming a horse as they passed by the stable. He paused in
+his work to welcome the viscount, and added, in the same breath,--
+
+"Monsieur will find it very dull at the château, now. It does not seem
+like the same place since Mademoiselle Madeleine left!"
+
+"Have you no idea how she went, Gustave? Some of you surely must know!"
+
+"I know nothing, monsieur. When they told me that Mademoiselle Madeleine
+was gone, it was as though a thunder-bolt had struck me. I have never
+felt good for anything since!"
+
+There was too much sincerity, too much feeling in his tone for Maurice
+to doubt him, or deem further questioning necessary. He walked sadly
+away, accompanied by Bertha.
+
+Baptiste was busied near the little _châlet_; he seemed to hover about
+it constantly of late. He was aware of the return of his young
+master,--he had bowed to him as he was descending from the carriage.
+When Bertha and her cousin approached the venerable domestic, his
+trepidation was too obvious to escape their notice. He was pruning the
+luxuriant growth of some of the vines Madeleine had planted, and the
+hand which held his knife shook and committed unintentional havoc among
+the blossoming branches.
+
+"Baptiste, come in; I have something to talk to you about," said
+Maurice, entering the _châlet_ with Bertha.
+
+How painfully that pleasant little retreat reminded him of Madeleine!
+For a moment he was overpowered, and dropped into a chair, covering his
+eyes with his hands; perhaps because he could not bear the sight of
+objects which called up such agonizing recollections; perhaps because
+his eyes were dim with too womanish a moisture.
+
+"Dear Maurice," said Bertha, bending over him compassionately, "if
+Madeleine only knew how wretched she has made us both, surely she would
+not forsake us so cruelly."
+
+Maurice, by a gesture, prayed her to sit down. Baptiste stood in the
+doorway; his attitude betokened a reluctance to enter, and a desire to
+be quickly dismissed. After a long interval, the viscount, slowly
+raising his head, was again struck by the perturbed mien of the
+guileless old man, whose native simplicity, warmth, and ingenuousness
+would have melted any mask he attempted to assume. Maurice had almost
+abandoned all expectation that he would receive any information from the
+domestics; but he now experienced a sudden renewal of hope.
+
+"Baptiste," he said, scrutinizing the ancient gardener closely, "do you
+not know where Mademoiselle Madeleine is?"
+
+"No, monsieur."
+
+The reply was uttered in a tone of genuine sadness.
+
+"You cannot even guess?"
+
+"No, monsieur."
+
+"Do you know how she left here?"
+
+"No, monsieur."
+
+"Baptiste, you are not speaking falsely?--you are not trifling with me?
+If you _are_, you can hardly know how cruelly you are adding to my
+sorrow."
+
+"I have spoken the exact truth, monsieur."
+
+"I am sure he has, Maurice," interrupted Bertha. "I never knew Baptiste
+to utter even a _white lie_: he has as great a horror of falsehood as
+Madeleine herself."
+
+Baptiste looked at her gratefully.
+
+"Then you know _nothing at all_," ejaculated Maurice, in a tone of
+discouragement. "You did not help Mademoiselle Madeleine in any way? She
+must have had some assistance; but from _you_ she had none? You did not
+even know that she intended to leave us?"
+
+Baptiste hesitated; his mouth twitched,--his eyes were fixed upon the
+ground.
+
+"Why do you not answer, Baptiste?" asked Bertha. "You _did not_ know
+that Mademoiselle Madeleine was going,--did you?"
+
+"Yes, mademoiselle."
+
+The answer was spoken almost in a whisper.
+
+"_You knew it?_ And why, _why_ have you not told us this before?" she
+almost shrieked out.
+
+"No one asked me that question, mademoiselle; and Mademoiselle Madeleine
+requested me not to give any information concerning her which I could
+possibly, and without uttering a falsehood, avoid."
+
+Maurice sprang up and laid his hand upon the old man's shoulder.
+
+"Speak _now_ then! You cannot avoid telling us all you know! You were
+aware that she was going; you assisted her flight. _How_ did you aid
+her? _What_ did you do? _What_ do you know?"
+
+"Very little, monsieur. I did very little and know very little. The
+evening before Mademoiselle Madeleine left, she came to me in the
+garden; she asked me if I would do her a favor. I would have done her a
+thousand. Did I not owe her enough? Was it not she who watched beside my
+bed when I had that terrible rheumatic fever two years ago? Did she not
+pour out my medicine with her own white hands? Did she not talk to me
+when I was racked with pain, until I thought the room was full of
+heavenly music, and I forgot I was suffering? Did she not keep me from
+cursing God when the pangs were so sharp that I felt I was tortured
+beyond my strength? Did she not tell me why all anguish of soul or body
+should be borne patiently? Was there, oh, was there _anything_ I would
+not have done for Mademoiselle Madeleine? When she left the château, was
+her loss greater to any one than it was to me? And she would not have
+gone if she could have staid any longer. I was sure of _that_. When she
+said she must go, I knew she _must_, and I never even dared to pray her
+to remain."
+
+It was seldom that Baptiste spoke so much, for he was taciturn by
+nature; but the emotion, forcibly suppressed for so many days, once
+breaking bondage, burst forth into a torrent of words.
+
+"You did well, Baptiste,--good, faithful old man! Mademoiselle Madeleine
+needed a friend; and I thank Heaven she had one like you. Do not think
+we blame you; only tell us all you know. She came to you the evening
+before she left: what favor did she ask?"
+
+"Mademoiselle Madeleine only asked, monsieur, that I would come to her
+room when the house was all quiet, that night, and carry down her trunk
+and place it in the _châlet_. I could not help saying, 'Oh,
+Mademoiselle Madeleine, are you going to leave us?' She answered, 'I
+_cannot_ stay, Baptiste. I am _compelled_ to go. You are the only person
+here who is aware of my intention. When I am gone do not give any
+information concerning me that you can possibly, and without uttering a
+falsehood, avoid. It will be better that no one should know I had your
+aid.' Those were her exact words, monsieur."
+
+"Go on,--go on!" urged Maurice, as the narrator paused.
+
+"When the house was all quiet, I put off my shoes and stole softly to
+Mademoiselle Madeleine's room. She opened the door, and, without
+speaking, pointed to the little trunk. Old and weak as I am, I had no
+trouble in carrying it. It was light enough. It could not have held
+much."
+
+"Did she not bid you adieu, then?" asked Bertha.
+
+"Just as I was stooping to lift the trunk, Mademoiselle Madeleine
+stretched out her hand and took mine. I felt her warm, soft touch the
+whole day after. She did not say adieu, but she looked it. She looked as
+though she were blessing me and thanking me. I never saw a face that
+said so much,--so much that went to my very soul and comforted me! When
+she let go my hand, I took up the trunk and carried it out. She closed
+the door behind me without a sound, and I brought the trunk here that
+night and left it. That is all I know, monsieur."
+
+"But how was the trunk conveyed hence?"
+
+"I do not know, monsieur."
+
+"Did you see Mademoiselle Madeleine the next morning?" inquired Bertha.
+
+"No, mademoiselle. I could not help going to the _châlet_ the first
+thing when I came out to work. I pushed the door open and looked in; the
+trunk was not there, and I knew that Mademoiselle Madeleine was gone
+too!"
+
+"But did not Mademoiselle Madeleine drop some hint, even the faintest,
+of her plans?" asked Maurice, earnestly.
+
+"I have told monsieur every word Mademoiselle Madeleine spoke to me on
+the subject."
+
+"_Some one_ must have aided her further! Who could it be? _Who could it
+possibly be?_" mused Maurice.
+
+Baptiste was certain he knew who alone it could be; and he was pondering
+within himself whether he had the right to mention the note Madeleine
+had ordered him to deliver to M. de Bois. Her request had been that he
+would give no information he could honestly avoid; if it _could_ be
+avoided, it was plain, then, that the intelligence ought not to be
+communicated.
+
+"Has monsieur done with me?" he asked, as Maurice stood reflecting in
+silence.
+
+"Yes, if you have nothing further to tell me."
+
+"Nothing further, monsieur." Saying these words, Baptiste withdrew.
+
+"After Madeleine was missed," said Bertha, when the old gardener was
+gone, "I was the first person who came to the _châlet_. I found a
+handkerchief lying just by this table. It was marked G. de Bois."
+
+"Gaston de Bois! Then it is clear _he_ was Madeleine's confidant. He
+promoted her flight!"
+
+"So I thought, at first," rejoined Bertha; "but it seems this is not so.
+Your father took him the handkerchief, and he could not tell when or
+where he had lost it. He was amazed to hear that Madeleine had left us,
+and disclaimed all knowledge concerning her."
+
+"Who, then, could it have been? But I will see M. de Bois myself."
+
+"First let me tell you"--began Bertha, and faltered.
+
+"Why do you hesitate? For Heaven's sake, dear Bertha, tell me everything
+which can throw the faintest glimmer of light upon the path Madeleine
+has taken."
+
+"I do not know how to say what I was thinking; perhaps I ought not to
+allude to it at all; yet it seems as if it must be true. Do you not
+remember that Madeleine confessed she had bestowed her affections upon
+_some one_? Since they were not given to you, as I once believed, I
+cannot help imagining that perhaps she might--might have meant"--
+
+"Gaston de Bois?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Maurice did not answer, and Bertha could say no more. There was a
+painful struggle going on in her mind, though less torturing than that
+which convulsed the spirit of her cousin.
+
+When he had somewhat recovered himself, he said,--
+
+"At all events I will see M. de Bois. If there is nothing to be learned
+from him, if he really knows nothing concerning Madeleine's departure, I
+must seek information at Rennes. There is no time to lose. I will call
+upon M. de Bois at once."
+
+The cousins parted at the door of the _châlet_. Bertha turned toward the
+château, pausing on her way to talk with Baptiste; Maurice went in the
+direction of his neighbor's residence.
+
+Count Tristan's visit had taken M. de Bois aback, chiefly because he was
+confounded by a new proof of his own awkwardness (stupidity, he plainly
+termed it) in leaving his handkerchief behind him, as a witness of his
+presence at the _châlet_. But there was no such confusing testimony to
+destroy his composure when he received Maurice. Besides, he had ample
+time to collect himself; for he was walking in the park when his valet
+announced that the young viscount was awaiting him in the library. He
+had looked forward to the return of Maurice to Brittany as soon as the
+latter heard of Madeleine's mysterious disappearance. M. de Bois knew
+that it would be more difficult to prevent her being traced by her
+cousin than by any other person, and that it was by him Madeleine
+herself most feared to be discovered. Gaston was therefore fully on his
+guard against betraying her confidence.
+
+Maurice, on his part, was keenly sensible of the difficulty of his
+undertaking. He could not openly inquire of M. de Bois whether Madeleine
+had apprised him of her intentions. The very question would have a
+tendency to compromise his cousin, by suggesting that she was capable of
+holding clandestine communication with a young gentleman. Then, too, if
+M. de Bois was really the object of her attachment, he might not be
+aware of the preference with which she honored him; and it would be the
+height of indelicacy for Maurice to allow him to suspect a circumstance
+which her modesty would scrupulously conceal. He was sitting in the
+library pondering over the embarrassments of his position, when his host
+entered. The gentlemen greeted each other with wonted cordiality.
+
+"Did you return from Paris to-day?" asked M. de Bois. "Have you just
+come?"
+
+"About an hour ago. I came to you at once to"--
+
+M. de Bois interrupted him. It was the policy of the former to lead the
+conversation, that he might avoid direct questions.
+
+"Had you heard that Mademoiselle de Gramont had left the château?"
+
+"Yes; my cousin Bertha wrote to me, and"--
+
+Again M. de Bois seized upon the thread of conversation.
+
+"Have you no news from Mademoiselle Madeleine?--no letter?"
+
+"None," sighed Maurice, convinced that, as M. de Bois plunged into the
+subject in this straightforward, calm manner, he could not possibly be
+in her confidence.
+
+The host went on.
+
+"Has not Count Tristan been able to obtain any trace of her?"
+
+"Thus far, none at all! What _could_ have become of her! Where _could_
+she have gone!" exclaimed Maurice; but not in a tone of interrogation,
+for he now felt assured that M. de Bois could not answer.
+
+"One thing is certain; what Mademoiselle Mad--ad--adeleine has done must
+have been prompted by a noble motive. She could not cause you all this
+sorrow unless she imagined herself compelled to take the step which we
+must all lament."
+
+"You are right, you only do her justice!" rejoined Maurice.
+
+"What course do you propose to ado--op--opt?" inquired M. de Bois, with
+a perfectly natural air of friendly interest.
+
+"I hardly know what to do. I should be thankful for any advice. I shall
+first visit the Prefecture at Rennes, to see if she obtained a passport.
+She could not surely run the risk of attempting to travel without one.
+If the passport be for Great Britain, I may go to Scotland. Possibly she
+may have changed her mind, and accepted Lady Vivian's offer,--do you not
+think so?"
+
+"It does not appear to me likely. She definitely decli--i--ined."
+
+"Did she tell you so? Did she speak to you on the subject?" asked
+Maurice, hastily.
+
+For the first time during the interview, M. de Bois betrayed a slight
+disquietude, but he quickly collected himself and answered,--
+
+"I heard Lady Vivian speak to Mademoiselle Bertha of the offer she had
+made her cousin, and after that, Mademoiselle Mad--ad--adeleine told me
+she had declined the prop--op--oposition. But, if you imagine she has
+changed her mind, would not a letter to Lady Vivian answer every
+pur--ur--urpose?"
+
+"No; if she should be there, I must see her, and use arguments which
+would have no force upon paper. _She must be there!_ Where else could
+she be? I will start for Scotland to-night. Now I must bid you adieu."
+
+"If you are going back to the château, I will accompany you. I must make
+my _adieux_ to the ladies. I leave for Paris to-morrow."
+
+"Indeed! Do you make a long stay?"
+
+"Prob--ob--obably. The Marquis de Fleury had promised me a
+secretaryship, if he were sent as ambassador to America. It is uncertain
+when he may get the appointment, but he has offered me the post of
+confidential sec--ec--ecretary at once."
+
+"And you have accepted?"
+
+"Gladly."
+
+"Ah, M. de Bois, how I envy you! _You_ will have an object in life,
+while _I_, who feel as though a pent-up volcano were roaring within me,
+am condemned to let my struggling energies smoulder beneath the ashes of
+my father's autocratic will! You have heard of his opposition to my
+studying for the bar? What is to become of me if I am deprived of every
+stimulating incentive to action?--especially now--now that"--he checked
+himself suddenly. He was not aware that M. de Bois had been informed by
+Bertha of Madeleine's rejection, and Maurice could not dwell upon his
+own disappointment to one who might be a rival.
+
+"Count Tristan may gradually be brought to contemplate your wishes with
+more favor."
+
+"Hardly; but come--if you will accompany me, let us go."
+
+Bertha, who had been waiting impatiently for the return of Maurice, did
+not fly to meet him when she saw M. de Bois walking by his side, as they
+approached the château. The countess was in the drawing-room when the
+gentlemen entered, and her majestic presence stemmed the stream of
+inquiries that was ready to gush from Bertha's lips.
+
+M. de Bois, who during his interview with Maurice had been so
+self-possessed that the impediment in his speech was scarcely
+observable, was seized anew and cast into chains by his invisible enemy.
+The captive struggled in vain; the avenues of speech were barricaded;
+all his limbs were shackled; his movements became uncertain and
+spasmodic, menacing tables, chairs, vases, which, had they been gifted
+with consciousness, must have trembled at his approach; his nervous
+fingers thrust themselves into his hair, and threw it into ludicrous
+disorder; his countenance was suffused with scarlet; he stammered out
+something about bidding adieu, which the ladies were evidently at a loss
+to comprehend, until Maurice explained that M. de Bois expected to start
+on the morrow for Paris, where he purposed to take up his residence.
+
+"We shall regret losing so valued a neighbor!" observed the countess,
+condescendingly.
+
+Bertha made no remark, though she looked as though she wished to speak,
+and could not summon resolution. She took an opportunity, while the
+countess was conversing with their guest, to whisper to her cousin,--
+
+"You asked M. de Bois, and he could give you no information concerning
+Madeleine?"
+
+"None at all," replied Maurice in a low tone. Then, turning to the
+countess, he said aloud, "I also must bid you adieu, my grandmother; I
+am going immediately to Rennes; if I obtain the information there, which
+I think probable, I shall start at once for Scotland and seek Lady
+Vivian."
+
+"You have not consulted your father, Maurice," the countess answered,
+with an emphasis which was intended to remind him that he was not a free
+agent.
+
+"I must beg you to make my apologies to him."
+
+Maurice, though he treated his grandmother with deference which left her
+no room for complaint, could not force himself to assume his wonted air
+of affection; his love for her had waned from the hour he listened to
+the unjust accusation, the reproaches, the contumely she had heaped upon
+the innocent and unfortunate orphan placed at her mercy. The softening
+veil had fallen from her character, and disclosed its harsh, proud
+selfishness and policy. He now knew that she had offered her destitute
+relative shelter, not from any genuine, womanly feeling of tenderness
+and compassion, but simply because she deemed it humiliating to allow
+one who bore her name to be placed in a doubtful and friendless
+position. All Madeleine's gentleness, cheerfulness, diligence to please,
+had failed to melt her aunt's impenetrable heart and make it expand to
+yield her a sacred place; the countess had misinterpreted her highest
+virtues,--grossly insulted her by attributing shameful motives to her
+most disinterested conduct, and destroyed all the merit of her own
+benefactions by reminding the recipient of her indebtedness. Maurice
+felt that, truly to venerate a person, he must be moved by esteem for
+noble qualities possessed. The recent revelation of his grandmother's
+actual attributes estranged and revolted him, until it became difficult
+to treat her with even the outward semblance of reverence.
+
+When the viscount bade farewell, M. de Bois also took his leave.
+
+"You will write to me as soon as you reach Edinburgh?" pleaded Bertha to
+her cousin.
+
+"I will certainly write," answered Maurice; "meantime comfort yourself
+with the assurance that I will not relinquish my search until Madeleine
+is restored to us."
+
+And Bertha did solace herself with that pledge, for hope was a dominant
+characteristic of her buoyant temperament.
+
+The monotonous round of blank, weary days that ensued was happily
+broken, before the week closed, by the promised letter from Maurice.
+Bertha, whose only exciting occupation consisted in watching for the
+arrival and distribution of letters, was in possession of the precious
+missive before her aunt and Count Tristan were aware of its arrival. She
+tore it open, and, glancing through the contents, uttered a cry of joy
+that rang through the château, and reached the ears even of the countess
+and her son in the library. The next moment Bertha burst into the
+apartment, laughing and crying, waving the letter triumphantly over her
+head, and exclaiming, in a voice now stifled with sobs, now broken by
+hysterical mirth,--
+
+"She is found! she is found! Maurice has traced her! Oh, my dear, dear
+Madeleine, I shall see her again!"
+
+Her blinding tears, or her overwhelming transport, prevented her
+noticing the totally different effect produced upon her two relatives by
+this rapturously uttered communication. The face of the countess
+expressed a haughty satisfaction that her noble family had been spared
+some impending disgrace; but Count Tristan's black brows contracted; his
+malignant eyes flashed fiercely; he ground his teeth with suppressed
+rage as he snatched the letter out of Bertha's hand. She flung her arms
+about her aunt, and laid her head lovingly upon her unsympathetic bosom,
+as though she must caress some one in the exuberant outburst of her joy!
+Meanwhile the count perused the letter.
+
+"My son, let me hear what Maurice says."
+
+Count Tristan read,--
+
+     "I hasten to send you good news, my dearest Bertha. At
+     Rennes I visited the Prefecture to examine the list of
+     passports, knowing that Madeleine must have obtained one to
+     travel unmolested. I found that her passport had been taken
+     out for England. This confirmed my impression that she had
+     joined Lady Vivian in Scotland. The passport which, as you
+     are aware, requires two responsible witnesses, was signed by
+     Messrs. Picard and Bossuet. I sought those gentlemen to
+     extract further information from them, but, singularly
+     enough, both had left Brittany the day after Madeleine. I
+     cannot conceive how she obtained their signatures, for
+     surely she had no acquaintance with them. Following this
+     clew I started immediately for Edinburgh, and arrived here
+     on Wednesday evening. I had no difficulty in finding the
+     residence of Lady Vivian. She is in London, but is expected
+     home shortly. I had an interview with her venerable
+     housekeeper, who answered all my inquiries with great
+     patience. From her I learned that Lady Vivian was
+     accompanied by a young French lady whom she had recently
+     engaged as a _dame de compagnie_. The housekeeper could not
+     remember her foreign name, but when I mentioned Mademoiselle
+     de Gramont, she said it sounded like that. She had been
+     informed that the young lady was very accomplished and
+     belonged to an excellent family; also that Lady Vivian had
+     first heard of her during her late visit in Brittany. In
+     answer to the question whether this young lady arrived with
+     Lady Vivian in London, the housekeeper replied that she did
+     not,--she had joined her ladyship only a few days ago. Thus
+     I feel certain that Madeleine is found. I leave for London
+     at once, and, not many days after you receive this letter,
+     you may expect to see us both; for I will never cease my
+     supplications until Madeleine yields and returns with me to
+     the Château de Gramont. I know what joy this intelligence
+     will give you, my dear little cousin, and my joy is
+     increased by the reflection of yours."
+
+The count broke off without reading the concluding lines of the letter,
+and remarked,--
+
+"Maurice came to a hasty conclusion. If Lady Vivian's _dame de
+compagnie_ should prove to be Madeleine, as it _may_ be, there is no
+certainty that she will yield to his persuasions and return to us.
+Madeleine is very obstinate and self-willed. You must pardon me, Bertha,
+for throwing a damper upon your hopes, but I would spare you too severe
+disappointment."
+
+"I shall _not_ be disappointed. I feel sure Maurice has discovered
+Madeleine: _that_ is all I ask for the present. You may be right about
+her refusing to return here,--I dare say you are; but _that_ will not
+make me miserable, which I should be if we could not find her at all. I
+mean to ask my uncle's permission to allow Madeleine to reside with us.
+I do not see how he can refuse, and he is very indulgent; so that,
+whether Madeleine consents to return here, or not, we shall not be
+wholly parted."
+
+Bertha did not suspect into what a fury her words were lashing the
+count, nor did she divine the machinations already at work within his
+perfidious spirit to defeat her kindly purpose.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE HUMBLE COMPANION.
+
+
+Rapidly as Maurice travelled from Edinburgh to London, the distance
+seemed interminable to his impetuous spirit. Multitudes of arguments
+were driven through his mind in long array, and he was impatient to
+prove their power in persuading Madeleine to return. Was it possible
+that she could refuse to see their force? If calm reasoning, if
+entreaties and prayers failed to move her, he would test the potency of
+a threat,--she should learn that he had vowed never to return to his
+paternal home, never to forgive those who had driven her forth by their
+cruelty, until _she_ had proclaimed their pardon by again taking up her
+abode at the Château de Gramont. Madeleine, who shrank from all strife,
+who moved in an atmosphere of harmony, which seemed to envelop her
+wherever she went, would not lift her hand to sever the sacred bond of
+union between father and son, grandmother and grandchild. Whatever
+anguish it might cost her to yield, however great her sacrifice, she
+would endure the one and accept the other rather than become the
+instrument that, with fatal blow, struck such an unholy severance.
+
+Maurice vividly pictured to himself his approaching interview under a
+tantalizing variety of circumstances. Now he imagined that he saw
+Madeleine only in the presence of her new friends,--that she was cold
+and reserved, and allowed him no opportunity of uttering a word that
+could reach _her_ ear alone. Now he fancied she had granted him a
+private interview,--that she was sitting by his side, but resolute,
+unconvinced, unmoved, while he besieged her with arguments, appealed to
+her with all the passionate fervor that convulsed his soul, portrayed in
+darkest colors the fearful results of her inflexibility. Now he painted
+her overwhelmed by his reasoning, melted by his application, terrified
+by that terrible menace, and finally consenting to his petition.
+
+It was past ten o'clock when the train reached the London terminus. The
+loquacious Edinburgh housekeeper had informed him that Lady Vivian was
+the guest of Lady Augusta Langdon. The lateness of the hour forbade a
+visit that night; yet, after having engaged a room at Morley's hotel, he
+could not help strolling in the direction of Grosvenor Square, and was
+soon searching for the number he had written upon his tablets. It was
+easily found, and Maurice stood before one of the most sumptuous of the
+magnificent edifices which adorn that aristocratic locality. The windows
+were thrown open, and the richly embroidered lace curtains drawn back,
+for the evening was more than usually sultry. He crossed to the opposite
+side of the street, and took up a position which enabled him to
+distinguish forms moving about the spacious drawing-room. With what
+straining eyes and breathless anxiety he scrutinized them! Now he saw a
+lady of noble carriage walking to and fro,--_that_ might be Lady
+Langdon; by and by he caught sight of a gaunt, ungainly figure, and
+recognized Lady Vivian. Who would have believed that a glimpse of that
+angular, unsymmetrical form could ever have called such radiance to the
+eyes of a young and handsome man?--could have kindled such a glow upon
+his cheeks?--could have quickened his pulses with so joyful a motion?
+
+Not long after, a group of young ladies clustered together, just beneath
+the chandelier, to examine some object which one of them held in her
+hand; and now the heart of Maurice throbbed so tumultuously that its
+beats became audible. He had singled out one maiden whose height and
+graceful proportions distinguished her from her companions,--Madeleine!
+Her face was turned from him; but surely that statuesque outline, that
+slender, flexible throat, that exquisitely-shaped head, about which he
+thought he traced the coronal braid that usually crowned her noble
+brows,--these could belong to Madeleine only! Could he fail to recognize
+them anywhere or at any distance? The longer he gazed the more certain
+he became that it was she herself,--that she was found at last! How
+eagerly he watched to see her turn, and render "assurance doubly sure"
+by revealing her lovely countenance! She remained some time in the same
+position; then the little group dispersed, and she glided away, but not
+in the direction of the window. The eyes of Maurice never moved from the
+place where she had disappeared, though he was conscious of attracting
+the attention of passers-by, and now and then a whispered comment of
+derision fell upon his ear.
+
+Several equipages drove up to Lady Langdon's door, and her guests
+gradually departed. Soon after the drawing-room was deserted, the lights
+were extinguished, the windows closed. Other lights brightened the
+casements above. Still Maurice remained riveted to the spot,
+unreasonably hoping to behold Madeleine for one fleeting moment again.
+By and by, one window after another grew dark; but not until the last
+light went out could he force himself to turn away and retrace his steps
+to the hotel.
+
+"Will the dawn never come?" How often that question rises involuntarily
+to the lips, through the long night of expectation that precedes a
+wished-for day! _Time_--that is, the sense of its duration--is but
+another word for _state_,--state of mind. The length or briefness of the
+hour is so completely governed by the mood of one's spirits that it
+becomes easy for those who have learned this truth from experience to
+conceive a thousand years but as a day to the blessed,--a day of
+torture, an age to the miserable; and to comprehend that _time itself_
+can have no existence, and its computation must be replaced by _state_
+in the eternal hereafter where we shall live in the spirit only.
+
+"Will the dawn never come?" Maurice repeated hundreds of times as that
+night dragged its leaden, lagging feet with the slow movement of
+centuries.
+
+The dim, late London morning came at last to bring with it a new
+perplexity. It would be a breach of etiquette to call upon Lady Vivian
+at too early an hour; yet, how was Maurice to curb the headlong rush of
+his impatience until the prescribed period for ceremonious visits
+arrived? A stranger in London, it might be supposed that the numberless
+noteworthy objects by which he was environed might have diverted his
+attention; but one engrossing thought so completely filled his whole
+being that it rendered him blind to all the marvels of art or beauties
+of nature. Yet to remain imprisoned at the hotel was out of the
+question. He concluded to spend his morning in Hyde Park, chiefly
+because it was not far distant from Grosvenor Square. But the
+attractions of the noble park, through which he listlessly sauntered,
+and of the adjacent Kensington Gardens, to which he unconsciously
+extended his rambles, were entirely lost upon the abstracted wanderer.
+Grand old trees, romantic walks, delicious flowers, had no existence for
+him; the whole world was one great, hueless, formless void, in which he
+beheld nothing but the spectral image mirrored in his own soul.
+
+He had decided not to pay his visit until after one o'clock; but, before
+the sun reached its meridian, he absolved himself from the propriety of
+waiting, and, with rapid steps, once more took his way to Lady Langdon's
+residence.
+
+The door was opened by a solemn footman.
+
+"Is Lady Vivian at home?"
+
+"Not at home, sir."
+
+"Is Mademoiselle de Gramont--I mean the young lady who accompanied Lady
+Vivian--at home?"
+
+"Not at home, sir."
+
+"Can you tell me when I shall be likely to find them?"
+
+"Her ladyship gave no orders on the subject, sir."
+
+Maurice stood perplexed, and hesitating.
+
+"Your card, if you please, sir," suggested the demure domestic.
+
+"No, I will call again by and by."
+
+Maurice walked directly back to the park. His suspense was intolerable;
+he could only endure it for another hour, and then returned to Lady
+Langdon's.
+
+The same staid attendant reappeared at his knock.
+
+"Has Lady Vivian returned?"
+
+"Not returned, sir."
+
+"Can you tell me when I may depend upon seeing her? I call upon a matter
+of great importance."
+
+The stately footman looked as though he were pondering upon the
+propriety of making any satisfactory answer to this question.
+
+Maurice repeated the inquiry with such an anxious intonation, such a
+perturbed air, that the stolid domestic, accustomed to behold only the
+conventional composure which allows no pulse to betray its beating, was
+moved out of the even tenor of his way by astonishment.
+
+"Lady Vivian went with my lady and a large party to Hampton Court. Their
+ladyships will probably spend the day."
+
+"The day!" exclaimed Maurice, in an accent of consternation.
+
+The footman evidently thought that he had proffered more than sufficient
+information, and made a dignified attempt to put a close to the
+interview, by extending his hand, and saying, "I will see that your card
+reaches her ladyship."
+
+"No, there is no need of my leaving a card: I shall return. At what hour
+does Lady Langdon dine?"
+
+"At seven, sir."
+
+"I will take the liberty of calling after dinner."
+
+The footman looked as though he decidedly thought it was a liberty, and
+Maurice turned slowly away from the closing door.
+
+What could be done to shorten the endless hours that stretched their
+weary length between that period and evening? Hampton Court! What was to
+prevent his going to Hampton Court? He might meet Lady Vivian and
+Madeleine, there; nothing was more likely, since they were to spend the
+day. His spirits revived as he signalled an empty cab, and requested to
+be driven as rapidly as possible to Hampton Court. He took no note of
+the length of time occupied in reaching his destination: it was a relief
+to be in motion, and to know that every moment brought him nearer a
+locality where the lost one might be found.
+
+Was he more likely to encounter her in the palace or in the grounds? he
+asked, internally, as he sprang out of the cab. He would try the palace
+first. He strode through its magnificent apartments, one after another,
+without noticing their gorgeous grandeur, without glancing at their
+superb decorations, without wasting a look upon the wondrous products of
+brush, or chisel, or loom. His disconcerted guide paused before each
+world-renowned master-piece in vain; Maurice hurried on, and silenced
+him by saying that he was in search of a friend.
+
+Neither Lady Vivian nor Madeleine was to be seen. They were doubtless
+rambling in the beautiful pleasure-grounds.
+
+Maurice took his way through noble avenues of trees,--through groves,
+gardens, conservatories,--without letting his eyes dwell upon any object
+but the human beings he passed. Still no Madeleine. He made the tour of
+the palace the second time, and then traversed the grounds once more.
+The result was the same. Lady Vivian must have returned home.
+
+It was growing late. He reëntered his cab, and ordered the driver to
+take him to Morley's Hotel; paid the exorbitant price which the man,
+knowing he had to deal with a stranger, demanded, and took refuge in his
+chamber, without remembering that he had not broken his fast since
+morning, until a waiter knocked at the door to know if he would dine.
+
+Yes; dinner might assist in whiling away the time. But it helped less
+effectually than he had anticipated; for to dine without appetite is a
+tedious undertaking. His own busy thoughts supplied him with more than
+sufficient food, and precluded all sense of hunger.
+
+Maurice had but a slight acquaintance with Lady Vivian. An evening visit
+certainly was not _selon les regles_; but all ceremony must give way
+before the urgency of his mission. He compelled himself to wait until
+nine o'clock before he again appeared in Grosvenor Square.
+
+That imperturbable footman again! The very presence of the automaton
+chilled and dispirited the impatient visitor.
+
+"Is Lady Vivian at home?"
+
+"Her ladyship is indisposed and has retired, sir."
+
+"Can I see Mademoiselle de Gramont?"
+
+"Whom, sir?"
+
+"The young lady who accompanies Lady Vivian."
+
+"She is with Lady Vivian; but I will take your card, sir."
+
+Maurice had no alternative and handed his card.
+
+"Say that I earnestly beg to see her for a few moments."
+
+Did he imagine that human machine could deliver a message which conveyed
+the suggestion that any one very earnestly desired anything in creation?
+
+The viscount was ushered into the drawing-room. A long interval, or one
+Maurice thought long, elapsed before the messenger returned.
+
+"The ladies will be happy to see you, sir, to-morrow, at two o'clock."
+
+Another night and another morning to struggle through, haunted by the
+murderous desire of killing that which could never be restored,--_time!_
+But here, at least, was a definite appointment,--a fixed period when he
+should certainly see Madeleine; this was a great step gained.
+
+He had heard some gentlemen, at the hotel, loud in praise of Charles
+Kean's impersonation of "King John," which was to be represented that
+evening, and the recollection of their encomiums decided him to visit
+the Princess' Theatre.
+
+Our powers of appreciation are limited, governed, crippled or expanded,
+by the mood of the moment, and a performance, which might have roused
+him to a high pitch of enthusiasm at another time, now seemed dull and
+tedious. But duller and more tedious still was the night that followed.
+And when morning came, how was he to consume the hours between breakfast
+and two o'clock? He must go somewhere; must keep on his feet; must give
+his restless limbs free action. He bethought him of St. Paul's and
+Westminster Abbey. These majestic edifices were associated with the
+memory of those who had done with time, and might assist him in the
+time-annihilating process which was then his chief object. He was
+mistaken; he could not interest himself in monuments to the dead; he was
+too closely pursued by a living phantom. He walked through the aisles,
+the chapels, the crypt, with as much indifference as he had wandered
+through Hyde Park, and Kensington Gardens, and Hampton Court.
+
+The appointed hour drew near, at last, and with rising excitement he
+ordered the coachmen to drive to Grosvenor Square, number ----. It was
+just two,--hardly two, perhaps. The inevitable footman received his
+card, with the faintest _soupçon_ of a grin, and conducted him to the
+drawing-room.
+
+Lady Vivian entered a few moments afterwards. She was delighted to see
+him,--very flattered at his visit. When did he come to London? Would he
+make a long stay? How did he leave their friends in Brittany?
+
+Maurice replied as composedly as possible to her inquiries, and then
+asked, "May I be allowed to see Mademoiselle de Gramont?"
+
+"Mademoiselle de Gramont!" exclaimed Lady Vivian, raising her bushy
+eyebrows.
+
+"Yes, she is with you. She is engaged as your humble companion,--is she
+not?"
+
+"No, I have not the pleasure of her acquaintance."
+
+If a bullet had passed through Maurice, he could not have sprung from
+his seat with a wilder bound, and hardly have dropped back more
+motionless.
+
+Lady Vivian looked at him in amazement,--asked what had happened. Was he
+ill? Would he take anything? He had been very much fatigued, perhaps. He
+was so very pale! She felt quite alarmed; really it was distressing.
+
+Making a desperate effort to recover from the stunning blow, he faltered
+out, "I heard that you made Mademoiselle de Gramont a proposition to"--
+
+"To become my humble companion? Yes, I did so at the request of Count
+Damoreau. But she definitely declined, and I felt much relieved, for she
+was entirely too handsome for that position. Shortly afterward I heard
+of a young person who suited me much better. I thought it was a mistake
+of the footman's, last night, when he said you desired to see the young
+lady who accompanied me. It was somewhat singular to have one's humble
+companion included in a visit to one's self! Now I comprehend that you
+thought she was your cousin. I hope you are feeling better; your color
+is coming again."
+
+Maurice was not listening. He had lost Madeleine anew. The agony of a
+second bereavement, the mystery that enveloped her fate, the dreadful
+uncertainty of tracing her, pressed upon him and rent his soul with
+fiercer throes than before. Muttering some hurried apology, he rose,
+staggered toward the door, and, to the amazement of the stoical footman,
+who was greatly scandalized thereby, the pertinacious stranger fairly
+reeled past him into the street.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+PURSUIT.
+
+
+Maurice, when he took his abrupt leave of Lady Vivian, did not return to
+the hotel. He felt as though he could not breathe, could not exist, shut
+within four walls, with the oppressive weight of his new disappointment
+crushing and stifling his spirit. He traversed the streets with a rapid
+pace, not knowing nor caring whither he went, if he only kept in motion.
+His own torturing thoughts pursued him like haunting fiends, driving him
+mercilessly hither and thither, and he sped onward and onward, as though
+by increased celerity he could fly from his intangible persecutors.
+
+Now sprang up the tantalizing suggestion, that, as Lady Vivian had never
+seen Madeleine, the latter had presented herself under a feigned name,
+for the sake of concealing her rank, and baffling the friends who sought
+to discover her abode. Was not _that_ very possible, very natural? He
+recalled the tall, finely-moulded form, of which he had caught a glimpse
+in Lady Langdon's _salon_, and for awhile he cherished this chimera;
+then its place was usurped by one more painful: Madeleine was perhaps
+travelling alone, subjected by her very beauty to the curious scrutiny,
+the heartless insults of brutal men; and, perchance, through her
+ignorance of the world, trapped into some snare from which she could
+never be extricated unharmed. Then his mind was filled with the horrible
+idea that, in her friendliness and despair, finding no place of refuge
+on earth, she had flung away her burdensome life with violent hands.
+Nothing was more improbable than that a being endowed with her
+self-controlled, serene, sorrow-accepting temperament, should be driven
+to such an act of unholy madness. Yet Maurice allowed the frightful
+fantasy to work within his brain until it clothed itself with a shape
+like reality, and drove him to the verge of distraction.
+
+Where could she have gone? _Where? oh, where?_
+
+Hundreds of times he asked himself that perplexing question! All the
+pursuing demons seemed to shout it in his ears, and defy him to answer.
+If she had escaped the perils he most dreaded, where had she hidden
+herself? Perhaps she had only taken out a passport for England, with a
+view of throwing those who sought to track her steps, off the right
+scent. If she had gone to England, her passport must have been _viséd_
+as she passed through Paris. If it had not been presented at the _bureau
+des passeports_, she must have remained in Paris. If she had conceived
+any plans by which she thought to earn a livelihood, where could they so
+well be carried into execution? In that great city she might reasonably
+hope to be lost in the crowd, and draw breath untraced and unknown. If
+she had left the metropolis, the fact could easily be ascertained by
+examining the list of passports. Maurice walked on and on, until
+gradually the clamorous city grew silent, and the streets were deserted.
+Besides the vigilant police, only a few, late revellers, with uncertain
+steps, and faces hardly more haggard than his own, passed him, from time
+to time. Still he walked, carrying his hat in his hand, that the
+night-breeze might cool his fevered brow.
+
+There was a stir of wheels again, a waking-up movement around him;
+shop-windows lifting their shutter-lids, and opening their closed eyes;
+men and women bustling forward, with busy, refreshed morning faces.
+Another day had dawned and brought its weight of anguish for endurance.
+Maurice had paced the streets all night. The light that struck sharply
+upon his bloodshot eyes first made him aware of the new morning. The
+season for action then had arrived; the night had flown as a hideous
+dream. He did not know into what part of London he had wandered, but
+hailed a cab, sprang in, and gave the order to be driven to Morley's.
+The distance seemed insupportably long. He was now tormented by the fear
+that he should not reach his destination in time to take the first train
+for Dover. When he alighted at the hotel, he learned that in less than
+an hour the train would start. He dashed off a few, incoherent,
+sorrowful lines to Bertha, hastily crammed his clothes into his trunk,
+paid his bill, drove to the station, and secured a seat one moment
+before the railway carriages were in motion.
+
+After he had crossed the channel, and entered a railway coach at Calais,
+utter exhaustion succeeded to his state of turbulent wretchedness.
+Nature asserted her soothing rights, and poured over his bruised spirit
+the balm of sleep. With reviving strength came renewed hope, and when he
+awoke at the terminus, in Paris, he was inspired with the conviction
+that he should find Madeleine in that vast metropolis,--a conviction as
+firm as the belief he had entertained that he would behold her in
+Scotland, and afterwards that he would discover her in London. He
+hastened to the _bureau des passeports_, and examined the list. No
+passport had been _viséd_ to which her name was attached. It was then
+certain that she was still in Paris. But what method could he devise for
+a systematic search? He thought of the argus-eyed, keen-scented police,
+who, with the faintest clew, can trace out any footprint once made
+within the precincts of the far-spreading barriers; but could he drag
+his cousin's name before those public authorities? Could he describe her
+person to them, and enter into details which would enable them to hunt
+her down like a criminal? Delicacy, manly feeling, forbade. He must seek
+her himself, unaided, unguided; and a superstitious faith grew strong
+within him that, through his unremitting search, never foregone, never
+relaxed, he would discover her at last.
+
+His plan was sufficiently vague and wild. He resolved to scour Paris
+from end to end, scanning every face that passed him, until the light
+shone upon hers, and kindled up once more his darkened existence.
+
+When he last returned from Brittany, he had engaged one small, plain
+apartment in the Rue Bonaparte, the _Latin_ quarter of the city,--a
+favorite locality of students. Here he again took up his abode, or,
+rather, here he passed his nights; he could scarcely be said to have a
+dwelling-place by day. From dawn until late in the evening he wandered
+through the streets, peering into every youthful countenance that
+flitted by him, quickening his pace if he caught sight of some graceful
+female form above the ordinary stature, and plunging onward in pursuit,
+with his heart throbbing madly, and his fevered brain cheating him with
+phantoms. His search became almost a monomania. His mind, fixed
+strainingly upon this one, all-engrossing object, lost its balance, and
+he could no longer reason upon his own course, or see its futility, or
+devise a better. The invariable disappointment which closed every day's
+search, by some strange contradiction, only confirmed him in the belief
+that Madeleine was in Paris, and that he would shortly find her there;
+that he would meet her by some fortunate chance; would be drawn to her
+by some mysterious magnetic instinct. Every few days he visited the
+_bureau des passeports_, to ascertain whether her passport had been
+presented to be _viséd_.
+
+To the friends he daily encountered he scarcely spoke, but hurried past
+them with hasty greeting, and a painfully engrossed look, which caused
+the sympathetic to turn their heads and gaze after him, wondering at the
+disordered attire and unsettled demeanor of the once elegant and
+vivacious young nobleman, who had graced the most courtly circles, and
+was looked upon as the very "glass of fashion and mould of form."
+
+Maurice had been nearly a month in Paris, passing his days in the manner
+we have described, when, for the first time, he encountered Gaston de
+Bois. The former would have hastened on, with only the rapid salutation
+which had grown habitual to him, but M. de Bois stopped with
+outstretched hand, and said,--
+
+"Where have you hidden yourself? I have been expecting to see you ever
+since I came to Paris; but I could not discover where you
+lod--od--odged."
+
+"My lodgings are in the Rue Bonaparte, numero --," returned
+Maurice, abruptly; "but I am seldom at home."
+
+"You will allow me to take my chance of finding you?" asked M. de Bois,
+forcibly struck by his friend's altered appearance. "Or," he added, "you
+will come to see me instead? I am at the Hotel Meurice at present."
+
+"Thank you," said Maurice, absently, and glancing around him at the
+passers-by as he spoke. "Good-morning."
+
+M. de Bois would not be shaken off thus unceremoniously. He was too much
+distressed by the evident mental condition of the viscount. He turned
+and walked beside him, though conscious that Maurice looked annoyed.
+
+"When we parted, did you go to Scotland, as you pro--o--po--sed?"
+inquired Gaston.
+
+"Yes; but Lady Vivian was in London. I sought her there. She knew
+nothing of my cousin. I returned to Paris; for I am sure Madeleine is
+here."
+
+"Here?" almost gasped M. de Bois, stopping suddenly.
+
+Maurice walked on without even noticing the strange confusion that
+arrested his companion's steps.
+
+The latter recovered himself and rejoined him, asking, in as unconcerned
+a tone as he could command, "What has caused you to think so?"
+
+"I am certain of it;--her passport was taken out for England, but it has
+not been _viséd_ in Paris. She must be here still, and I know that I
+shall find her. I have walked the streets day after day, hoping to meet
+her, and I tell you I shall--I must!"
+
+M. de Bois, whose equanimity had only been disturbed for a moment, shook
+his head sorrowfully, saying, "I fear _not_; it does not seem likely."
+
+"To me it _does_. Fifty times I have thought I caught sight of her, but
+she disappeared before I could make my way through some crowd to the
+spot where she was standing. This will not last forever,--ere long we
+shall meet face to face."
+
+"I hope so! I heartily hope so! I would give all I possess, though that
+is little enough, to have it so!"
+
+These words were spoken with such generous warmth, that Maurice was
+moved. He had not before noticed the change in his Breton neighbor,--a
+change the precise opposite to the one which had taken place in himself,
+yet quite as remarkable.
+
+Gaston's address was no longer nervous and flurried; he had gained
+considerable self-command and repose of manner. The air of uncomfortable
+diffidence, which formerly characterized his deportment, had
+disappeared, and given place to a manly and cheerful bearing.
+
+"If he loves Madeleine," thought Maurice, "how can he look so calm while
+she is--God only knows where, and exposed to what dangers?"
+
+"Have you heard from Mademoiselle Ber--er--ertha?" asked M. de Bois,
+with some hesitation.
+
+"Yes, several times. My cousin Bertha was broken-hearted at the news I
+sent her from London; but I trust that soon"--
+
+He did not conclude his sentence: his wan face lighted up; his restless,
+straining eyes were fastened upon some form that passed in a carriage.
+Without even bidding M. de Bois good morning, he broke away and pursued
+the carriage; for some time he kept up with it, then Gaston saw him
+motion vehemently to a sleepy coachman, who was lazily driving an empty
+fiacre. The next moment Maurice had opened the door himself and leaped
+into the vehicle; it followed the carriage the young viscount had kept
+in view, and soon both were out of sight.
+
+The imagination of Maurice had become so highly inflamed that forms and
+faces constantly took the outline and lineaments of those ever-present
+to his mind. And when, after some exhausting pursuits, he approached
+near enough for the illusive likeness to fade away, or when the shape he
+was impetuously making towards was lost to sight before it could be
+neared, he always felt as though he had been upon the eve of that
+discovery upon which all his energies were concentrated.
+
+After their accidental encounter Gaston de Bois called upon Maurice
+repeatedly, but never found him at home.
+
+Bertha continued to write sorrowful letters teeming with inquiries.
+Maurice answered briefly, as though he could not spare time to devote to
+his pen, but always giving her hope that the very next letter would
+convey the glad intelligence which she pined to receive. Four months was
+the limit of her yearly visit to the Château de Gramont, and the period
+of her stay was rapidly drawing to a close. She wrote that in a few days
+her uncle would arrive and take her back to his residence in Bordeaux.
+The language in which this communication was made plainly indicated that
+she would rejoice at the change. She touched upon the probability of
+seeing Maurice before she left; but he was unmoved by the
+half-invitation; nothing could induce him to leave Paris while he
+cherished the belief that Madeleine was within its walls.
+
+Count Tristan wrote and urged him to return home; but the summons was
+unheeded. He could not have endured, while his mind was in this terrible
+state of incertitude, to behold again the old château, which must
+conjure up so many harrowing recollections. Then, too, his natural
+affection for his father and his grandmother was embittered by the
+remembrance of their persecution of Madeleine. Until she had been
+found,--until he could hear from her own lips (as he knew he should)
+that she harbored no animosity towards them,--he could not force himself
+to forgive their injustice and cruelty. She alone had power to soften
+his heart and cement anew the broken link.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE SISTER OF CHARITY.
+
+
+The marvellous change in the bearing of Gaston de Bois, by which Maurice
+was struck, had been wrought by a triad of agents. A man who had passed
+his life in indolent seclusion, who had plunged into a tangled labyrinth
+of abstruse books, not in search of valuable knowledge, but to lose in
+its mazes the recollection of valueless hours; who had allowed his days
+to drag on in aimless monotony; who had fallen into melancholy because
+he lacked a healthy stimulus to rouse his faculties out of their
+life-deadening torpidity; who had allowed his nervous diffidence to gain
+such complete mastery over him that it tied his tongue, and clouded his
+vision, and confused his brain; who had despised himself because he was
+keenly conscious that his existence was purposeless and
+profitless;--this man, subjected to the sudden impetus of an occupation
+for which his mental acquirements and sedentary habits alike fitted him,
+found his new life a revelation. He had emerged from the dusty, beaten,
+grass-withered path his feet had spiritlessly trodden from earliest
+youth, and entered a field of bloom and verdure where the very stir of
+the atmosphere exhilarated, where the labor to be performed called
+dormant capacities into play and tested their strength, where each day's
+achievement gave the delightful assurance of latent powers within
+himself hitherto unrecognized,--in a word, where his manhood was
+developed through the regenerating virtue, the glorious might, the
+blessed privilege of _work!_
+
+The second cause which had contributed to bring about the happy
+metamorphosis in Gaston de Bois sprang out of the hope-inspiring words
+Madeleine had dropped on that day which closed so darkly on the duke's
+orphan daughter. Those few, passing, precious words had fallen like
+fructuous seed and struck deep root in Gaston's spirit; and, as the
+germs shot upward, every branch was covered with blossoms of hope which
+perfumed his nights and days. He dared to believe that Bertha did not
+look upon him with disdain,--that she sympathized with the misfortune
+which debarred him from free intercourse with society,--that a deeper
+interest might emanate from this compassionate regard. The possibility
+of becoming worthy of her no longer appeared a dream so wild and
+baseless; but he was too modest, too distrustful of himself, to have
+given that golden dream entertainment had it not been inspired by
+Madeleine's kindly breath.
+
+The third cause which combined with the two just mentioned to
+revolutionize his character will unfold itself hereafter.
+
+The more cognizant M. de Bois became that powerful influences were
+vivifying, strengthening, and bringing order out of confusion in his own
+mind, the more troubled he felt in pondering over the disordered mental
+condition of Maurice. During a whole month after their accidental
+encounter in the street he called repeatedly at the lodgings of the
+viscount, but never once found him at home. Half discouraged, yet
+unwilling to abandon the hope of an interview, he persisted in his
+fruitless visits. One morning, to his unbounded satisfaction, when he
+inquired of the _concierge_ if M. de Gramont was within, an affirmative
+answer was returned. Gaston could hardly credit the welcome
+intelligence, and involuntarily repeated the question.
+
+"Ah, yes, poor young gentleman! he's not likely to be out again soon!"
+replied his informant, in a pitying tone.
+
+Without waiting for an explanation of the mysterious words, M. de Bois
+quickly ascended to the fifth story, and, being admitted into the
+antechamber by a neat-looking domestic, knocked at the door of the
+apartment which was indicated to him.
+
+The voice of a stranger bade him enter. He turned the doorknob with
+shaking hand. The room was so small that it could be taken in at a
+single glance. It was a plain, almost furniture-less apartment. In the
+narrow bed lay Maurice. His eyes--those great, blue eyes which so
+strongly resembled Bertha's--were glittering with the wild lights of
+delirium; fever burned on his cheeks and seemed to scorch his parched
+lips. The fair, clustering curls were matted and tangled about his brow;
+his arms were tossing restlessly about. He sprang up into a sitting
+posture as Gaston appeared at the door, and gazed at him eagerly; then
+stared around, peering into every corner of the chamber, as though in
+quest of some one. Those searching glances were followed by a look of
+blank despair that settled heavily upon his pain-contracted features as
+he sank back and closed his eyes.
+
+Beside the bed sat a woman, clad in the shapeless dress of black serge,
+and wearing the widely projecting white bonnet and cape, black veil,
+white band across the brow, and beneath the chin, which compose the
+attire of a sister _de bon secours_. She was one of that community of
+self-abnegating women, who, bound by holy vows, devote their lives to
+the care of the suffering, and are the most skilful, tender, and zealous
+nurses that France affords.
+
+Just beyond the good "sister" stood a young man, poring over a piece of
+paper, which had the appearance of a medical prescription: a
+spirited-looking youth, whose harmonious and intellectual cast of
+features was heightened to rare beauty by richly mellow coloring, and
+the silken curves of a beard and moustache unprofaned by a
+razor,--curves softly traced above the fresh, rubious lips, and
+gracefully deepening about the cheeks and chin,--curves that disappear
+forever when the civilized barbarism of shaving has been accepted.
+
+He came forward when M. de Bois entered, and accosted him in an earnest,
+rapid tone.
+
+"I hope, sir, you are a friend of this gentleman. Am I right in my
+supposition?"
+
+"Yes--yes--what--what has happened?" asked M. de Bois, his countenance
+plainly betokening his alarm.
+
+"I occupy the adjoining apartment," continued the stranger. "My name is
+Walton. Three nights ago I was startled by the sound of some object
+falling heavily near my door, followed by a deep groan. I found this
+gentleman lying on the ground, apparently insensible. I carried him into
+his chamber, laid him upon the bed, and summoned the _concierge_. The
+name inscribed upon her book is the Viscount Maurice de Gramont, and his
+last residence the château of his father, Count Tristan de Gramont, in
+Brittany, near Rennes. I took upon myself the responsibility of calling
+a physician,--Dr. Dupont,--and, through his advice, of engaging this
+good 'sister,' one of the '_soeurs de bon secours_,' as a nurse. Dr.
+Dupont wrote to his patient's father; but no answer has been received. I
+have been with your friend very constantly. You perceive he has a raging
+fever; he talks a great deal, but too incoherently to be able to answer
+any questions or to give any directions."
+
+This information was communicated with a quick, energetic intonation,
+while the speaker stood fanning Maurice, and preventing the hand which
+he flung about from striking against the wall. There was a confident
+rapidity in the stranger's movements, a vigorous manliness and
+self-dependence in his bearing, strikingly dissimilar to the deportment
+which usually characterizes young Parisians at the same age. Though he
+spoke the French language with fluent correctness, a slightly foreign
+accent betrayed to M. de Bois that he was not a native of France.
+
+Gaston thanked him as warmly as his troublesome impediment permitted,
+and said that he would himself write to the Count de Gramont. Then,
+bending over his friend, took his hot, unquiet hand, and spoke to him
+again and again. His voice failed to touch any chord of memory and cause
+it to vibrate in recognition. Maurice was muttering the same word over
+and over; Gaston hardly needed to bow his head to catch the imperfect
+sound; he knew, before he heard distinctly, that it was the name of
+"Madeleine."
+
+"Had you not better write your letter _immediately_?" asked young
+Walton. "Will you walk into my room? I do not see any writing materials
+here. Mine are at your service."
+
+Gaston, as he followed the stranger into the adjoining chamber, could
+not but be struck by the easy, off-hand, decided manner in which he
+spoke, and the promptitude with which he desired to accomplish the work
+to be done.
+
+Mr. Walton's sitting-room, which was separated from his bed-chamber, was
+much larger than the apartment of Maurice. It had an air of great
+comfort, if not of decided elegance, and testified to the literary and
+artistic taste of its occupant. The walls were decorated with fine
+photographic views, and some early efforts in painting. Here stood an
+easel, holding an unfinished picture; there an open piano; further on a
+convenient writing-table; in the centre another table covered with books
+and portfolios; materials for writing and sketching were scattered about
+with a bachelor's disregard for order.
+
+"I will clear you a space here," said he, sweeping the contents of one
+table upon another, already overburdened. "Everything is in confusion;
+for I have been working at odd moments. I could not make up my mind to
+go to the studio. I would not leave that poor fellow until somebody
+claimed him. What an interesting face he has! If he were only better, I
+would make a sketch. His countenance is just my beau ideal of the young
+Saxon knight in a historical picture I am painting. A man always finds
+materials for art just beneath his hand, if he only has wit and thrift
+to stoop and gather them as he goes. But I fear I am interrupting you.
+Make yourself at home. I will leave you while you are writing. Really, I
+cannot express how glad I am that you have come at last. I have been
+looking for you--that is, for somebody who knew M. de Gramont--every
+moment for two days."
+
+After drawing back the curtains to give M. de Bois more light, and
+glancing around to see that he was supplied with all he could require,
+the young artist returned to the apartment of Maurice.
+
+Ronald Walton was born of South Carolinian parents,--their only child.
+His boyhood was not passed in a locality calculated to develop artistic
+instincts, nor had his education afforded him artistic advantages, nor
+had he been thrown into a sphere of artistic associates; yet from the
+time his tiny fingers could hold brush or pencil he had seized upon
+engravings of romantic scenery, copied them upon an enlarged scale, and
+painted them in oil, to the astonishment of his parents and friends.
+When his young companions extracted enjoyment from fish-hook and gun,
+and hilariously filled game-bags and fishing-baskets, he sat quietly
+drinking in a higher, more humane delight before his easel. These
+tastes, as they strengthened, caused his father, though a liberal and
+cultivated man, severe disappointment. At times he was even disposed to
+place a compulsory check upon his son's artist proclivities; but the
+soft, persuasive voice of the gentle, refined, clear-sighted mother
+interposed. She had made the most loving study of her child's character,
+and had faith in his fitness for the vocation he desired to adopt. She
+pleaded that his obvious gift might be tested, and proved spurious or
+genuine, before it was trampled under foot as unworthy of recognition;
+and her heart-wisdom finally prevailed.
+
+Ronald was sent to Paris to study under a distinguished master. During
+three years he had made golden use of his opportunities. He was
+remarkable among his fellow-students for his indomitable perseverance,
+and his power of concentrating all his thoughts upon his work. He
+experienced a desire to attain excellence for _its own sake_, not for
+the petty ambition of _excelling others_. Thus he became very popular
+among his associates, and excited their admiration without ever
+awakening the jealousies of wounded self-love. Though he had determined
+to devote his life to art, from the conviction that it was the vocation
+for which he came commissioned from the Creator's hand, there was
+nothing morbid in his passion for his profession. It was a healthy love
+of the beautiful in outward form, springing from the love of all which
+the beautiful typifies, combined with a strong impulse to represent and
+perpetuate the haunting images of varied loveliness which constantly
+floated through his brain.
+
+The young Carolinian was called an enthusiast even by his French
+fellow-students, with whom enthusiasm is an inheritance; but his
+enthusiasm was allied to a severely critical taste,--a rare combination;
+and being grafted upon the tree of _practicability_, indigenous to the
+soil of his young country, it brought down his ideal conceptions into
+actual execution.
+
+The philosopher of the present day scouts at _enthusiasm_; but what
+agent is half so mighty in giving the needful spur to genius? Enthusiasm
+kindles a new flame in the chilled soul when the ashes of disappointment
+have extinguished its fires; enthusiasm reinvigorates and braces the
+spirit that has become weary and enervated in the oppressive atmosphere
+of uncongenial _entourage_; enthusiasm is the cool, refreshing breeze of
+a warm climate and the blazing log of a cold. Ronald's unexhausted
+enthusiasm was the secret fountain whose waters nourished laurels for
+him in the gardens of success.
+
+M. de Bois, when he had concluded his letter, found the art-student at
+the bedside of Maurice.
+
+"I will post your letter, if you please," said Ronald; "then I will make
+a moment's descent into the studio, or some of those noisy madcaps will
+be rushing here after me. I will return, however, before long, if you
+have no objection."
+
+Hardly waiting for M. de Bois's courteous, but rather slowly-expressed
+acknowledgment, he hurried away.
+
+For a couple of hours Gaston sat beside Maurice, listening to his
+indistinct ravings, and tracing out that striking likeness to a
+countenance he had studied too closely for his own peace. Now and then
+he exchanged a word or two with the good "sister," as she moistened the
+lips, or bathed the brow of the sufferer.
+
+The doctor came, but pronounced his patient no better, and threw out a
+hint that he had some fears the fever was taking the form of typhus;
+adding a warning in regard to the danger of infection. That intelligence
+had no influence upon Gaston, who resolved to pass as many hours as
+possible with his friend. Nor did it affect Ronald Walton, when he
+returned and heard the physician's verdict.
+
+The two young men for the next four days alternately shared the duties
+of the holy "sister."
+
+The postal arrangements between Paris and Rennes chanced, at that
+moment, to be very imperfect; the letter of Dr. Dupont never reached its
+destination, and that of M. de Bois was delayed on its route. It was not
+until the fifth day after it was posted that Count Tristan, who obeyed
+the summons with all haste, arrived in Paris. His son had never once
+evinced sufficient consciousness to recognize Gaston de Bois, but, the
+instant the count was ushered into the room, was seized with a fit of
+frenzy, and broke forth in a torrent of reproaches, upbraided his father
+with the ruin and death of Madeleine, charged him with having wrought
+the destruction of his own son, and warned him that he had brought utter
+desolation upon his ancestral home.
+
+Dr. Dupont, who entered the room during this paroxysm, suggested to the
+count the propriety of withdrawing. The latter, although every word
+Maurice uttered inflicted a deadly pang, could not, at first, be induced
+to tear himself away. The doctor was resolute in pronouncing his
+sentence of banishment, and declared that the viscount's life might be
+the sacrifice if he were subjected to further excitement.
+
+We will not attempt to portray the poignant sufferings of the count,
+who, in spite of his wiliness and worldliness, was passionately attached
+to his only child,--the central axis upon which all his hopes, his
+schemes, his whole world moved.
+
+Several times, while the invalid was sleeping, his father ventured to
+steal into the chamber; but, by some strange species of magnetism, his
+very sphere seemed to affect the slumberer, who invariably awoke, and
+recognized, or partially recognized him, and burst out anew in violent
+denunciations, to which respect would never have allowed him to give
+utterance, except under the stimulus of delirium. The count writhed and
+shrank beneath the fierce stabbing of those incisive words, and, in his
+ungovernable grief, flung himself beside the son, whom he feared death
+would shortly snatch from his arms, pouring forth assurances Maurice
+would once have hailed as words of life, but which now fell powerless
+upon his unheeding ears. While Count Tristan's overwhelming anguish
+lasted, there was no promise he would not have made to purchase his
+son's restoration, and no promise he would not have broken, if interest
+prompted, when the peril was past.
+
+After one of these agitating interviews, the doctor's edict entirely
+closed the door of the patient's chamber against the count, who was
+forced to admit the wisdom of the order.
+
+Gaston de Bois and Ronald Walton, between whom a pleasant intimacy was
+springing up, continued to watch by the bed of Maurice. Another
+fortnight passed, and though he lay, as it were, in a grave of fire, the
+doctor's prediction of typhus fever was not verified. At the expiration
+of this period, Ronald was the first to notice a favorable change, and
+to discover that the invalid had lucid intervals which showed his reason
+was reascending her abdicated throne. But he abstained from pointing out
+the improvement to Gaston, fearing that, in his joy, he might
+communicate the consolatory intelligence to the count, who would then
+insist upon seeing his son, and possibly reproduce the evil results by
+which his former visits had been attended.
+
+Maurice had ceased to moan and mutter, and lay motionless as one
+thoroughly exhausted. He slept much, waking for but a few moments, and
+sinking again into a species of half-lethargy. There was something
+inexpressibly sweet and pleasant in his present calmness; his mind
+seemed to have been mysteriously soothed and satisfied; the turbulent
+waves, that dashed him hither and thither against the sharp rocks of
+doubt and fear, had subsided. His features, especially when he slept,
+wore an expression of the most serene contentment.
+
+The _soeur de bon secours_, who had watched him through the night, had
+yielded her place to the "sister," who assumed the office of nurse
+during the day. Gaston entered soon after, and, finding the patient
+gently slumbering, sat down beside his bed. After a time, Maurice
+stirred, drew a long breath, and slowly opened his eyes. They met those
+of his watcher. For some time the invalid gazed at him without speaking,
+and then said, in a tone that was hardly audible,--
+
+"M. de Bois."
+
+"My dear Maurice--dear friend--you are better,--you know me at last,"
+exclaimed Gaston, joyfully.
+
+"I knew you before; you have been the most faithful of friends and
+nurses. I knew you quite well, and I knew _her_ too!"
+
+Gaston bounded from his chair, breathing so hard that he could scarcely
+stammer out, "Her! who--o--o--om do you me--e--ean?"
+
+"Madeleine," replied Maurice, confidently.
+
+"Mademoiselle Mad--ad--adeleine; you are dream--eaming!"
+
+"No! I thought so at first, and the dream was so sweet that I would not
+break it by word or motion, fearing that I should discover it was not
+reality. But it was no _dream_. Night after night,--how many I do not
+know--I could not count,--I have seen Madeleine beside me! When the good
+'sister' moved about the room, in the dim light of the _veilleuse_, in
+spite of her coarse, unshapely garb, I recognized the outlines of
+Madeleine's form; notwithstanding the uncouth bonnet, and the white
+bandage that concealed her hair and brow, and, passing beneath her chin,
+almost hid her face, I recognized the features of Madeleine. I watched
+her as she glided about the room, and with her delicate, noiseless,
+rapidly moving touch created the most perfect order around her. I heard
+her as she softly sang sweet anthems, and I could not mistake the voice
+of Madeleine. I felt her hand, her cool, fresh, velvety hand, upon my
+burning forehead, and it soothed me deliciously. I lay with closed eyes
+as she bathed my temples, and passed her fingers through my hair to
+loosen its tangles. I was afraid of frightening her away, or finding I
+saw but a vision. The water she held to my lips was nectar; when she
+smoothed my pillow, all pain passed from the temples that rested upon
+it, throbbing with agony before, and I sank into a sweet slumber,--not
+unconscious slumber: I knew that I was sleeping; I knew that Madeleine
+sat there, filling the place of the sister of charity; I knew that when
+I opened my eyes I should see her,--_and I did_, again and again. I
+never once spoke to her; I feared some spell would be broken if I
+breathed her name. In the morning she disappeared; but I knew she would
+come again at midnight, when all was quiet, and the light was carefully
+shaded. M. de Bois, my dear Gaston, I tell you _I have seen Madeleine!_"
+
+M. de Bois sat still, looking too much astounded to utter a word.
+
+"I see you cannot believe me," Maurice continued. "She never came while
+you were here, and so you think it is a dream. A happy dream! a dream
+full of the balm of Gilead! for she has cured me! My brain was a burning
+volcano until her hand was laid upon my brow, and I gazed in her face,
+and knew it was no phantom. Do not look so much distressed, my dear
+Gaston. I am perfectly in my senses."
+
+M. de Bois did not contradict him. Perhaps he remembered the good rule
+of never opposing a sick man's vagaries. After a pause he said,--
+
+"Maurice, since you are quite yourself, would you not like to see your
+father?"
+
+The wan face of Maurice flushed slightly.
+
+"Is he here?"
+
+"Yes, he has been here for more than a fortnight. The doctor forbade his
+entering. Will you not see him now?"
+
+The invalid assented languidly. He had perhaps spoken too much and
+overtaxed his strength.
+
+The joy of Count Tristan was deep and voiceless when he was once more
+permitted to embrace his son. He was so fearful of touching upon some
+painful chord, and of again hearing those frantic ravings, that he had
+no language at his command. Maurice, in a faint tone, inquired after his
+grandmother and Bertha, and then seemed too weary to prolong the
+conversation. Glad at heart, as the count could not but feel, at the
+wonderful improvement in his son, he was ill at ease in his presence,
+and seemed always to have some haunting dread upon his mind. It was a
+relief when the doctor forbade his patient to converse, and hinted that
+the count should make his visits very brief.
+
+The next day, when M. de Bois entered, Maurice greeted him in a mournful
+tone.
+
+"She did not come last night. I watched for her in vain. The 'sister,'
+yonder, went as usual at midnight, and came back in the morning; but,
+during the night, a stranger took her place."
+
+What could M. de Bois answer? He gave a sigh of sympathy, but did not
+attempt to make any comment.
+
+"She knows perhaps that my father is here, and she will come no more for
+fear of being discovered. But I have _seen her_, Gaston! I know I have
+seen her! I could not have lived if I had not. And her countenance was
+not sad,--it wore a look of patient hope that lent a glory to her face.
+The very remembrance of that saint-like expression put to shame the
+despair to which I have yielded."
+
+"I--I--I--am"--
+
+M. de Bois could get no further. If he meant to use any argument to
+persuade Maurice that it was only a vision, conjured up by his fevered
+imagination, which he had seen, the attempt would have been vain.
+Maurice clung to the belief that he had really beheld Madeleine, and
+that conviction soothed, strengthened, and reanimated him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+WEARY DAYS.
+
+
+Up to this period of his life the vigorous constitution of Maurice had
+suffered no exhausting drain. His habits had been so regular, his mode
+of life so simple, that his fine _physique_ had been untrifled with,
+uninjured. As a natural sequence, the first inroads made upon its
+strength were rapidly repaired. The fever once conquered, in a week he
+was sufficiently convalescent to walk out, leaning on the arm of Gaston
+de Bois, or Ronald Walton. His gait was feeble, his form attenuated, his
+countenance had lost its ruddy glow,--the lines had sharpened until
+their youthful, healthful roundness was wholly obliterated; but the
+nervous, untranquil expression had passed away from his face, and the
+restless glancing from side to side had left his eyes. Through the
+stimulating medium of fresh air and gentle exercise he gathered new
+vitality, and the promise of speedy restoration was daily confirmed.
+
+His favorite resort was the _atelier_ of the celebrated master under
+whose direction Ronald was studying his art. Seated in the comfortable
+arm-chair devoted to the use of models, Maurice often remained for
+hours, watching the busy brushes and earnest faces, among which the
+genius-lighted countenance of the young Carolinian shone conspicuously.
+On one of these occasions, after sitting for some time lost in thought,
+when he chanced to turn his head Ronald surprised him by crying out,--
+
+"My dear fellow, don't move! Keep that position another moment,--will
+you? I am making a sketch of your head. It has just the outline I want
+for my Saxon Knight after the battle."
+
+Maurice could not but smile at this evidence of the national trait of
+the young American, who seized upon every material within his reach for
+the advancement of his art. Ronald's words, too, struck him,--"After the
+battle!" Well might he resemble one who had passed through a severe
+conflict; but it was also one who was prepared to fight valiantly anew,
+and not disposed to succumb to the army of adverse circumstances arrayed
+against his peace.
+
+It was not possible for a young man, endowed with the impressible
+temperament of Maurice, to be thrown into constant communication with
+an associate as full of vigorous activity as Ronald Walton, without
+being stirred and inspired by the contact. The force, decision,
+aptitude, promptness, which distinguished Ronald, had constituted him a
+sort of prince among his fellow-students, who gave him the lead in all
+their united movements, without defining to themselves his claim to
+supremacy. Ronald's character was not free from imperfections; but its
+very faults were essentially national,--were characteristics of that
+"fast-running nation" which is "indivertible in aim," and incredulous of
+the existence of the unattainable. His dominant failing was a
+self-dependence, which, in a weaker nature, would have degenerated into
+self-sufficiency, but just stopped short of that complacent, puerile
+egotism, which narrows the mind, and rears its own opinions upon a
+judgment-seat to pronounce verdicts upon the rest of the world. He never
+doubted his ability to scale any height upon which he fixed his eyes; he
+laughed at obstacles; he did not believe in impossibilities; what any
+other man could accomplish, that he had an internal conviction he might
+also achieve; and he held the faith of the poet-queen that all men were
+possible heroes.
+
+These attributes were precisely those most calculated to impress and
+charm Maurice, and he regarded Ronald with unbounded admiration, mingled
+with a sickening sense of regret when he reflected upon the trammels
+which reined in the ready impulses and crushed the instinctive
+aspirations which were wrestling within himself.
+
+Count Tristan, as soon as his son was sufficiently restored to travel,
+suggested that he should return with him to Brittany; but Maurice
+betrayed such uncompromising reluctance to this proposal that his father
+thought it wise not to press the point.
+
+Though the count had escaped a calamity, which even to contemplate had
+almost driven him out of his mind,--though his son's life was spared,
+and his restoration to vigorous health assured,--at times the father
+felt as if that son were lost to him forever. An inexplicable reserve
+had risen up and thrust them asunder. In the count's presence Maurice
+was always abstracted and pensive; he uttered no complaints, made no
+petitions. He had come to the conclusion that both were useless; but his
+opinions and wishes were no longer frankly, boldly, iterated. He and his
+father stood upon different platforms, with an invisible, but an
+insurmountable barrier looming up between them. Count Tristan, albeit
+irritated, galled, grieved, could discover no mode of reëstablishing the
+olden footing. After spending a month in Paris, he returned to
+Brittany, his mind filled with discomforting forebodings, to which he
+could give no definite shape.
+
+Maurice was once more left in the great, gay capital, his own
+master,--at liberty to plunge into whatever sea of dissipation, to float
+idly down whatever tide of pleasure lured him. But he wronged himself
+when he warned his father, some months previous, that if he were
+debarred from studying a profession, he might seek excitement, or
+oblivion, in impure channels, and waste his exuberant energies in
+degrading pastimes. He spoke on the spur of some vague, restless impulse
+within him, that clamored for an outlet; but he misjudged himself in
+imagining that he could be compelled to drown the memory of his
+disappointment in the wine-cup, the vortex of the gaming-table, or the
+more fearful maelstrom of siren allurements. To a young heart which has
+not been sullied by familiar contact with evil, there is no ægis so
+invulnerable to the assaults of those deadly enemies, who make their
+attacks in the fascinating garb of licentious liberty, as a strong,
+pure, life-absorbing attachment. He who wears the shield of a first,
+stainless affection, carries Ithuriel's spear in his hand, and, at a
+single touch, the sensual enchanter in his path, however resplendent its
+disguise, drops the fair-featured mask and shining mantle, and stands
+revealed in native hideousness. The image of Madeleine, ever present to
+Maurice, drew around him a protecting circle which nothing vile could
+enter, and, wherever his own eyes turned, it seemed to him that her
+heavenly eyes followed. Could he profane their holy gaze by fixing his
+upon scenes of captivating degradation and rose-crowned vice?
+
+Day after day, as his strength returned, it was but natural that he
+should grow more and more weary of monotonous indolence, and more and
+more impatient to escape from its depressing, deadening thraldom. The
+happy change, which a settled occupation had effected in Gaston de Bois,
+seemed to add to the discontent of his friend. Sometimes he was on the
+point of starting for Brittany, and making a fresh appeal to his father;
+then he was withheld by the dread that an angry discussion would be the
+only sequence. He knew that his father's pride, sustained by that of his
+grandmother, was unconquerable, and that the sentence, which condemned
+him to a dreary, inert, and profitless existence, would only be
+pronounced upon him anew.
+
+Since his illness he had entirely abandoned his vain search for
+Madeleine. He always felt as though he had seen her, albeit, when he
+attempted to reflect upon the likelihood that she had actually sat
+beside his couch, and watched over him during his illness, reason
+essayed to efface the impression which could hardly have been made by
+the fingers of reality. Even granting that Madeleine, on leaving
+Brittany, had joined the sisterhood, and proposed to devote her life to
+holy offices, for which she was richly dowered by nature, was there not
+a novitiate to be passed? How could she so soon have entered upon her
+sacred duties? And if by some mysterious dispensation she had been
+absolved from the probation of a novice, how could she have learned that
+he was ill? How could she have come to him so promptly? Was it probable
+that Mr. Walton, an entire stranger, had, by mere accident, selected a
+nurse from the very society which she had joined? These questions, and
+others equally difficult to answer, sprang up constantly in his mind,
+and found no satisfactory solution. Yet the conviction that he had
+actually beheld her remained unshaken.
+
+Bertha had been apprised by her aunt of the dangerous illness of
+Maurice, and had written to him when he was unable to read her letters.
+As soon as he was convalescent, they were placed in his hands.
+
+"My dear Gaston, write a line to my cousin for me," begged Maurice,
+feeling that he had not strength to reply, and little dreaming what a
+thrill of joy ran through Gaston's frame at that request.
+
+M. de Bois wrote,--wrote with an eloquence that could never have found
+utterance through his tongue.
+
+If we may judge from the number of times Bertha perused that letter, or
+if we may draw an inference from her wearing it about her person
+(probably that she might be able to refresh her memory with its
+information concerning her cousin), the epistle was either very
+difficult of comprehension, or it had some witching spell which drew her
+eyes irresistibly to its cabalistic characters.
+
+She had not recovered her wonted buoyancy. Beneath her uncle's roof she
+pined for Madeleine hardly less than at the Château de Gramont.
+
+The Marquis de Merrivale, her guardian, was a bachelor. The chief object
+of his existence was an endeavor to "take life easy," and guard himself
+from all vexations and discomforts. His next aim was to pamper the
+cravings of an epicurean appetite, but always with such judicious
+ministry that his digestive organs might not be impaired thereby. He was
+good-natured on principle, because it was too much trouble to get
+excited and vexed. His equanimity was seldom disturbed, save by his
+cook's failure in the concoction of a favorite dish.
+
+Count Tristan had drawn largely on his invention when he informed the
+Marchioness de Fleury that Bertha's uncle was exceedingly tenacious of
+his rights, and jealous of the interference of his niece's relatives in
+regard to any future alliance she might form. The marquis never dreamed
+of troubling his brain with such a minor matter as matrimony. He was
+inclined to be governed entirely by Bertha's predilection,--to leave the
+affair wholly to her, throwing off the trouble with the responsibility.
+He could have no objection to see her affianced to the Duke de
+Montauban,--he would have had none to her union with Maurice de Gramont.
+He found it sufficient pleasure to have his bright-faced niece sitting
+opposite to him at table, so long as she was gay and had a good
+appetite. If he had thwarted her wishes he would have accused himself of
+making a base, unkinly attempt to injure her digestion by causing her
+annoyance. He considered himself quite incapable of so unworthy, so
+harmful so cruel an action.
+
+When she returned from the Château de Gramont, he was discomposed at
+finding that she brought back a clouded visage, and seemed perfectly
+indifferent to the choicest dainties which he caused to be set before
+her as the most striking mark of his affection. Indeed, he became so
+uncomfortable when she rejected these delicate attentions day after day,
+that his mind was gradually prepared to look favorably upon a
+proposition which Bertha had resolved to make.
+
+She had been at home about a month; they were dining,--that is, her
+uncle was enjoyingly partaking of the meal that rounded his day, while
+Bertha's fork played with the oyster _paté_ on her plate, dividing it
+into tiny bits, but never lifting one to her mouth. The marquis, after
+descanting warmly upon the excellence of the _paté_, which he highly
+relished, interrupted his eulogium by saying,--
+
+"My dear child, you have not tasted a morsel of this incomparable
+_paté_! It is a triumph of culinary art! If you will just oblige me by
+touching a small piece to your lips; the paste is so light it will
+magically melt! Really, you _must eat_!"
+
+"I cannot, uncle."
+
+"Try, try; it disturbs me greatly to see you sitting there looking so
+gloomy. It will really hurt my digestion, and that would be a frightful
+calamity. Don't you like Lucien's cooking? I think him a treasure; but
+if you cannot relish what he prepares he shall receive his dismissal."
+
+"I dare say I should like the cooking in Paris better than any other,"
+remarked Bertha, treacherously assailing her uncle in his vulnerable
+point.
+
+"Paris! what are you talking about? We cannot have our dinners sent from
+Paris and kept warm on the road,--can we?"
+
+"But we might go to Paris and take our dinners," she rejoined,
+coaxingly.
+
+"Bless my heart! What an idea! It is a day's journey! Think of the
+trouble and discomfort of getting there!"
+
+"Think of the new inventions of the Parisian _cuisine_; for they invent
+new dishes, my Cousin Maurice has told me, as often as they originate
+new fashions for dress. There are abundance of novel dishes every day
+issuing from the brains of accomplished cooks,--dishes of which you have
+never even heard. You really ought to taste some of them."
+
+"That's a consideration,--positively it is. I must reflect upon it!"
+replied her uncle.
+
+"And Maurice seems to cling to the idea that my Cousin
+Madeleine"--continued Bertha.
+
+"There, there, my dear; that will do! don't touch on that unpleasant
+subject, especially at dinner; it will certainly injure your digestive
+organs, and give you the blues for the rest of the day. I assure you, my
+child, all low spirits come from indigestion. I am convinced indigestion
+is one great cause of all the sadness and sorrow, and, I dare say, of
+all the sin in the world."
+
+"It seems to me change of air must be very beneficial," replied Bertha,
+recovering from the false step she had been on the point of making.
+
+"Very wisely remarked! Change of air is beneficial, and gentle exercise
+is beneficial: both stimulate the digestive faculties and keep up their
+healthy action. And you really think, my dear, you would like to taste
+some of those new Parisian dishes?"
+
+"I should indeed!"
+
+"Then you shall. I look upon it as criminal, in the present low state of
+your appetite, to thwart its faintest craving. Of course we cannot
+procure anything fit to sustain nature on the road to Paris, but I can
+make Pierre pack up a basket of refreshments, and a bottle of old wine,
+so that we shall not be poisoned on the way. If we can only make the
+journey comfortably, I have no objection to investigate the gastronomic
+novelties of which you have heard. I could take Lucien with us, that he
+might learn some new mysteries in his art."
+
+"To be sure you could. When shall we start, dear uncle? I am so anxious
+to go! When shall we start?"
+
+"There! there! Don't get excited about it; that will interfere with the
+gastric juices. Let us conclude our dinner quietly. Try a wing of that
+pheasant, while we discuss the matter with wholesome calmness."
+
+Bertha allowed herself to be helped to the wing, and tried to force down
+a few morsels for the sake of humoring the generously inclined _bon
+vivant_, who grew more and more genial and amiably disposed as he sipped
+his Château Margaux. Fine wine invariably had a softening, expansive
+effect upon his character, and, after a few glasses, he honestly looked
+upon himself as one of the most tender-hearted, soberly inoffensive, and
+morally disposed of mortals.
+
+If Bertha had openly proposed to him that they should spend a few weeks
+in Paris for the gratification of any praiseworthy intention of her own,
+or of any harmless whim, he would have unhesitatingly refused, and
+opposed any number of objections to the proposition; but she had
+introduced the subject in its most favorable light, and was sure of a
+victory.
+
+A few days later, the Marquis de Merrivale and his niece, attended by
+her maid, his valet and cook, were on their way to the metropolis. The
+marquis, having instituted many inquiries with the view of discovering
+what hotel rejoiced in the possession of the most scientific cook,
+concluded to engage a suite of apartments at the hotel _des Trois
+Empereurs_.
+
+The meeting between Bertha and Maurice was as full of tenderness as
+though they had been in reality what their strong family resemblance
+caused them to appear, brother and sister.
+
+"No word from Madeleine yet?" was Bertha's first inquiry,--hardly an
+inquiry, for she knew what the answer must be.
+
+Then Maurice told her of the _soeur de bon secours_ who had sat by his
+bed night after night.
+
+"Could it really have been Madeleine?" she asked, breathlessly.
+
+"M. de Bois seems to think not; yet I am unshaken in my conviction that
+it was she herself."
+
+"But why did you not speak to her?"
+
+"A feeling which I can scarcely define withheld me. At first I thought I
+was dreaming, and that the dream would be broken if I spoke or moved.
+Then I felt sure Madeleine was there, but that she believed herself
+unrecognized, and if I showed that I knew her she would leave me,--leave
+me when I could not follow, and must again have lost all trace of her.
+It was such a luxury, such a joy to feel her by my side! It was her
+presence and not the skill of the physician which restored me."
+
+"And you never once betrayed yourself?"
+
+"No. What seems most singular is that from the very day I mentioned to
+M. de Bois that I had seen her, she came no more. Yet how could she have
+learned, or divined, that I knew her?"
+
+"That circumstance, dear Maurice, makes it all look like a dream. As
+soon as the fever left you the phantom it conjured up disappeared."
+
+Maurice shook his head, unconvinced, and Bertha was too willing to be
+deceived herself to attempt to persuade him that he was in error.
+
+The Marquis de Merrivale now entered. Maurice, whom he had only known
+slightly, rose in favor when the epicure found that the young Parisian
+could give all requisite information concerning the best restaurants in
+Paris; and the viscount reached a higher summit of esteem, when he
+promptly promised to put Lucien _en train_ to familiarize himself with
+certain valuable culinary discoveries. Maurice knew enough of the
+character of the marquis to be confident that his stay in the metropolis
+would be determined by the amount of comfort he enjoyed, and the quality
+of the dinners set before him.
+
+Bertha's next visit was from M. de Bois, and could she have banished
+from her mind a vague impression that he loved Madeleine, or was beloved
+by her, the interview would have afforded her unmitigated happiness.
+
+M. de Bois had not yet gained sufficient mastery over himself to command
+his utterance in the presence of the woman who had most power to confuse
+him. He still stammered painfully; but he could not help remarking that,
+even as Madeleine had said, Bertha finished his broken sentences,
+apparently unaware that she was doing so. And her greeting, surely it
+had been far from cold. And did she not say, with a soft emphasis which
+it almost took away his breath to hear, that it seemed an age since they
+met? Had she then felt the time long? And did she not drop some
+involuntary remark concerning the dulness of Brittany after he and
+Maurice left? Had she not coupled him with her cousin? Might he not dare
+to believe that Madeleine was right, and Bertha certainly did not scorn
+him?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+DIAMONDS AND EMERALDS.
+
+
+"I wish you would go, Maurice. Do, for my sake!" pleaded Bertha,
+twisting in her slender fingers a note of invitation. "The Marquis de
+Fleury was one of the first persons who called upon my uncle, and he
+made a very favorable impression. Then Madame de Fleury has nearly
+crushed me beneath an avalanche of sweet civilities. I fancy that a
+humming-bird drowned in honey must experience sensations very similar to
+mine in her presence. Is it not the Chinese who serve as the greatest of
+delicacies a lump of ice rolled in hot pastry? The condiment with which
+she feeds my vanity reminds me of this singular and paradoxical dainty.
+If you penetrate the warm, sugared, outer crust, you find ice within.
+But, as my uncle does not anticipate Chinese diet at the table of the
+marchioness, he desires me to accept her invitation; and, as you are
+invited, I wish _you_ to do the same, that I may have some familiar face
+near me."
+
+"Gaston de Bois will be there," returned Maurice, "and so will the young
+American student, Ronald Walton, whom I presented to you; they are my
+dearest friends; pray let them represent me, little cousin."
+
+But Bertha was obstinate; her character had a strong tincture of
+wilfulness, the result of invariably having her pleasure consulted, and
+always obtaining her own way. She did not relinquish her entreaties
+until Maurice, who had not lived long enough to be skilled in the art of
+successfully denying the petition of a person who will take no refusal,
+or of plucking the waspish sting out of a "no," consented to be present
+at the dinner.
+
+The Marquis de Fleury had learned, through his secretary, that
+Mademoiselle Merrivale and her guardian were in Paris. Though the
+matrimonial proposition of the marchioness on behalf of her brother, the
+Duke de Montauban, had been so unfavorably received by Bertha's
+relatives in Brittany, and though Bertha herself, when she met the duke
+at the Château de Tremazan, had treated him somewhat coldly, the young
+duke was too much enamored of the fair girl herself,--to say nothing of
+a tender leaning towards her attractive fortune,--to be discouraged by a
+passing rebuff. His relatives hailed the anticipated opportunity of
+making the acquaintance of Bertha's guardian, and were prompt in paying
+their devoirs. An invitation to dine followed quickly on the footsteps
+of the visit.
+
+We pass over the days that preceded the one appointed for the dinner
+party; they were unmarked by incidents which demand to be recorded.
+
+The bond of intimacy between Ronald and Maurice was drawn closer and
+closer each day. Little by little the latter had communicated the
+history of his own trials; his father's determined opposition to his
+embracing a professional career; his attachment to Madeleine; her
+unaccountable rejection of his hand; her sudden disappearance, and the
+mad pursuit, which terminated by casting him insensible at Ronald's
+door, and brought to his succor one who not only watched beside him with
+all the devotion of a brother, mingled with the tenderness of womanhood
+itself, but whose buoyant, healthy tone of mind had infused new hope and
+vigor into a broken, despondent, prostrate spirit.
+
+Ronald Walton was placed in an advantageous position in Paris by the
+very fact of being an American. His intellect, talents, manners, person,
+fitted him to grace the most refined society; and, coming from a land
+where distinctions of rank are not arbitrarily governed by the accident
+of birth, but where men are assigned their positions in the social scale
+through a juster, higher, more liberal verdict, the young Carolinian
+gained facile admission into the most exclusive circles abroad, and even
+took precedence of individuals who made as loud a boast of noble blood
+and hereditary titles as though the concentrated virtues of all their
+ancestors had been transmitted to them through these dubious mediums.
+
+Ronald, as the intimate friend of Maurice de Gramont, had received an
+invitation to the dinner given by the Marchioness de Fleury to the
+relatives of the viscount.
+
+The young men entered Madame de Fleury's drawing-room together, and,
+after having basked for a few seconds in smiles of meridian radiance,
+and been inundated by a flood of softly syllabled words, moved away to
+let the beams of their sunny hostess fall upon new-comers.
+
+Maurice glanced around the room in search of his cousin.
+
+"She has just entered the antechamber," said Ronald, comprehending his
+look. "Her Hebe-like face this minute flashed upon me."
+
+While he was speaking, Bertha and her uncle were announced, and advanced
+toward their hostess.
+
+The low genuflection of the marchioness had been responded to by
+Bertha's unstudied courtesy, and the lips of the young girl had just
+parted to speak, when she suddenly gave a violent start, and uttered a
+cry as sharp and involuntary as though she had trodden upon some
+piercing instrument. As she tottered back, her dilated eyes were fixed
+upon Madame de Fleury in blank amazement.
+
+"What is it, my dear? Are you ill?" asked her uncle with deep concern.
+
+Bertha did not reply, but still gazed at the marchioness, or rather her
+eyes ran over the lady's toilet, and she clung to her uncle's arm as
+though unable to support herself.
+
+"I am afraid you really are ill," continued the Marquis de Merrivale.
+"Something has disagreed with you; it must have been the truffles with
+which that pheasant we had for _déjeuner_ was stuffed. I toyed with them
+very timidly myself."
+
+"Pray sit down, my dear Mademoiselle de Merrivale," said Madame de
+Fleury, leading her to a chair which stood near. "Sit down while I order
+you a glass of water."
+
+She turned to address a servant, but Bertha stretched out her hand,
+almost as though she feared to lose sight of her. "Don't go! Don't go!
+Let me look! Can they be hers? Let me look again!"
+
+Madame de Fleury, as unruffled as though these broken exclamations were
+perfectly natural and comprehensible, bent over Bertha caressingly,
+laying the tips of her delicately gloved fingers on her shoulder. Bertha
+wistfully examined the bracelet on the lady's arm, then fixed her eyes
+upon the necklace, brooch, and ear-rings, and lastly upon the tiara-like
+comb, about which the hair of the marchioness was arranged in a
+dexterous and novel manner.
+
+Madame de Fleury was gratified, without being moved by the faintest
+surprise that her toilet had produced such an overpowering sensation.
+Bertha's emotion did not appear to her in the least misplaced or
+exaggerated.
+
+"You admire this set of diamonds and emeralds very much, then?" she
+asked, complacently.
+
+"The _fleur-de-lis_ and shamrock," faltered Bertha, "where--where did
+they come from?"
+
+Interpreting the unceremonious abruptness and singularity of the
+question into a spontaneous tribute paid to her costly ornaments, the
+marchioness graciously answered,--
+
+"This _parure_ was a delicate attention from M. de Fleury. Not long
+after he presented these diamonds to me, by a very strange coincidence
+Vignon sent this dress for my approval. You observe how dexterously the
+device of the necklace is imitated. Can anything be more perfect than
+these lilies and shamrock leaves?"
+
+Bertha hastily glanced at the rich white silk robe, trimmed with
+_revers_ of pale violet, upon which the lilies and shamrock were
+embroidered with some species of lustrous thread, which counterfeited
+not only the design but the sparkle of the gems. The marchioness went
+on,--
+
+"Was it not odd that Vignon, famed as she is for novelties, should have
+chanced upon a dress which so exactly matched my new set? It quite makes
+me a convert to the science of animal magnetism. My mind, you see, was
+_en rapport_ with hers. Indeed she says so herself, for she could not
+otherwise explain the sudden inspiration which caused her to plan this
+trimming. M. de Fleury wanted me to have these jewels set anew; but I
+would not allow them to be touched,--this old-fashioned setting is so
+remarkable, so unique. Probably there is not another like it to be found
+in Paris: _that_ is always vantage ground gained over one's
+jewel-wearing adversaries."
+
+The marchioness, once launched upon her favorite stream of talk, would
+have sailed on interminably, had not the announcement of new guests
+floated her upon another current.
+
+"I hope the spasms are going over, my dear," said the Marquis de
+Merrivale, who was really distressed by Bertha's supposed illness. "It
+was very clever to divert observation by talking about dresses and
+jewels; but the truffles did the mischief. I knew well enough what was
+the matter with you."
+
+"No--no; it was those jewels," replied Bertha, who had not yet recovered
+her self-possession. "Those diamonds and emeralds were Madeleine's!"
+
+"Madeleine's!" ejaculated Maurice, who had approached her on witnessing
+her unaccountable agitation. "Good heavens! is it possible?"
+
+"Yes, they were Madeleine's,--they were her mother's jewels and had been
+in her family for generations. Madeleine showed them to me only a few
+nights before she left the Château de Gramont. I am sure of them. I
+would have recognized them anywhere."
+
+"Then at last--at last, oh thank God--we shall trace her! She must have
+sold those jewels for her support. We must learn from whence Madame de
+Fleury purchased them," returned Maurice, with a voice trembling with
+exultation.
+
+"Madame de Fleury said they were a _cadeau_ from the marquis," replied
+Bertha. "Come, let us find him,--let us ask him at once."
+
+Bertha rose with animation and took her uncle's arm.
+
+"Where are you going, my dear? Pray do not excite yourself again,"
+pleaded her solicitous guardian. "Pray keep cool. Dinner must shortly be
+served, and you will not be in a fit state to do justice to the
+sumptuous repast which I have no doubt awaits us,--some of those novel
+inventions, perhaps, which you were so anxious to taste. I see people
+are not scrupulously punctual in Paris,--it is ten minutes after the
+time. Possibly we are waiting for some guest who has not sufficient good
+taste to remember that viands may be overdone through his culpability."
+
+"I must speak to M. de Fleury," said Bertha. "Let us get nearer to him,
+that I may seize the first opportunity when he ceases talking to that
+pompous-looking old gentleman who has the left breast of his coat
+covered with decorations."
+
+"Well, well, take it quietly--keep cool--don't get your blood into a
+ferment,--that's all I ask."
+
+Her uncle led her across the room, accompanied by Maurice.
+
+Diplomat and courtier were inscribed on every line of the wrinkled
+countenance of the Marquis de Fleury. He never took a step, or gave a
+look, or scarcely drew a breath, by which he had not some object to
+accomplish, some interest to promote. An oppressive suavity of manner,
+an exaggerated politeness encased him in an impenetrable armor, and
+prevented the real man from ever being reached beneath this smooth
+surface. Impulses he had none. The slightest motions of his wiry frame
+were studied. When he walked, he slid along as though he could not be
+guilty of so positive an action as that of planting his feet firmly upon
+what might prove "delicate ground." When he bowed, a contraction of
+sinews worthy of an _acrobat_ allowed his head to obtain an unnatural
+inclination, suggestive of a complimentary deference which humbled
+itself to the dust and kissed the garment's hem. Straightforwardness in
+word, thought, or action was to him as incomprehensible as it was
+impossible. He was a great general, ever standing on the political or
+social battle-field; skilful manoeuvres were the glory of his
+existence, and flattery the magical weapon never laid aside by which he
+gained his victories.
+
+Madame de Fleury was thirty years his junior. He had purposely selected
+a young, pretty, harmless, well-dressed doll, as the being best suited
+to further his ends in the great world. He admired her sincerely. She
+reached the exact mental stature and standard which he looked upon as
+perfection in womanhood, and her absolute despotism in ruling the modes
+and creeds of the _beau monde_ were to him the highest proof of her
+superiority over the rest of her sex.
+
+Though he was engaged in a conversation with the emperor's grand
+chamberlain, which seemed deeply interesting to both parties, M. de
+Fleury broke off instantly when Bertha, with her uncle and Maurice,
+approached.
+
+"You are so radiant to night, Mademoiselle de Merrivale," remarked the
+courtier, "that all eyes are fixed upon you. It is cruel of you to
+dazzle the vision of so many admirers!"
+
+Bertha, without paying the slightest attention to these fulsome words,
+replied, "Will you pardon me, M. de Fleury, if I ask an impertinent
+question?"
+
+"How could any question from such sovereign lips become other than a
+condescension? The queen of beauty commands in advance a reply to the
+most difficult problem which she can propound."
+
+Bertha, with an impatient toss of her head, as though the buzz of this
+nonsensical verbiage stung her ears, plunged at once into the subject.
+
+"That set of diamonds and emeralds which Madame de Fleury wears to-night
+were presented to her by you. Will you have the goodness to tell me from
+whence you procured them?"
+
+For M. de Fleury to have given a direct answer, even in relation to such
+an apparent trifle, would have been contrary to his nature; besides, it
+was one of his rules not to impart information without learning for what
+object it was sought.
+
+"You admire them?" he replied, evasively. "I am delighted, I am charmed
+with your approval of my taste. I shall think more highly of it forever
+after. The setting of the jewels is old-fashioned; but Madame de Fleury
+found it so novel that I could not prevail upon her to have it
+modernized."
+
+"But you have not told me how the jewels came into your possession."
+
+"Oh, very naturally, very naturally, lovely lady! They were not a fairy
+gift; they became mine by the very prosaic transaction of purchase."
+
+Maurice could restrain himself no longer.
+
+"My cousin is particularly desirous of learning through what source you
+obtained them. She has an important reason for her inquiry."
+
+This explanation only placed the marquis more upon his guard.
+
+"Ah, your captivating cousin thinks they look as though they had a
+history? Yes, yes; jewels of that kind generally have. Does the design
+strike you as remarkable, Mademoiselle de Merrivale?"
+
+"Very remarkable,--and I have seen it before. I could not forget it. I
+wished to know"--
+
+Dinner was announced at that moment, and the Duke de Montauban came
+forward and offered his arm to Bertha.
+
+M. de Fleury, with lavish apologies for the interruption of a
+conversation which he pronounced delightful, begged the Marquis de
+Merrivale to give his arm to Madame de Fleury, named to Maurice a young
+lady whom he would have the goodness to conduct, glided about the room
+to give similar instructions to other gentlemen, and, selecting an
+elderly lady, who was evidently a person of distinction, led the way to
+the dining-room.
+
+Maurice stood still, looking perplexed and abstracted, and quite
+forgetting that he had any ceremonious duty to perform. Ronald, who from
+the time he had watched beside the viscount's sick-bed had not
+relinquished his friendly _surveillance_, noticed his absence of mind,
+and, as he passed him, whispered,--
+
+"My dear fellow, what is the matter? You are dreaming again. Rouse
+yourself! Some young lady must be waiting for your arm."
+
+"Ronald," exclaimed Maurice, "something very singular has happened.
+Madame de Fleury is wearing Madeleine's family jewels!"
+
+"Bravo! That is cheering news, indeed! You will certainly be able to
+trace her now,--never fear! But you must get through this dinner first;
+so pray collect your scattered senses as expeditiously as possible."
+
+Elated by these words of encouragement, and the hilarious tone in which
+they were uttered, Maurice shook off his musing mood, and proffered his
+arm to the niece of Madame de Fleury, whom he now remembered that the
+marquis had desired him to conduct.
+
+During the dinner this young lady pronounced the handsome cavalier, who
+had been assigned to her, tantalizingly _distrait_, and secretly wished
+that the artistic _maître d'hôtel_ of her aunt had decorated the table
+with a less novel and attractive central ornament; for it seemed to her
+that the eyes of Maurice were constantly turned upon the miniature
+cherry-tree, of forced hot-house growth, that rose from a mossy mound
+in the centre of the festive board. The diminutive tree was covered with
+superb fruit, and girdled in by a circle of Liliputian grape-vines, each
+separate vine trained upon a golden rod, and heavily laden with luscious
+grapes, bunches of the clearest amber alternating with the deepest
+purple and richest crimson. Among the mosses of the mound were scattered
+the rarest products of the most opposite seasons; those of the present
+season being too natural to pamper the artificial tastes of luxury.
+Truly, the arrangement was a charming exemplification of nature made
+subservient to art; but was it this magnet to which the eyes of Maurice
+were so irresistibly attracted? He chanced to be seated where his view
+of the hostess was partially intercepted by the hot-house wonder, and he
+was seeking in vain to catch a glimpse of those jewels which had been
+Madeleine's.
+
+Bertha was placed nearer the marchioness, and the Duke de Montauban
+could not help noticing that her gaze was frequently fixed upon his
+sister; but being one of those men who are thoroughly convinced that
+what the French term "_chiffons_" is the most important interest of a
+woman's life, he consoled himself with the reflection that Mademoiselle
+de Merrivale was deeply engrossed by a contemplation of Madame de
+Fleury's elaborate toilet, and that her absent manner had this very
+feminine, reasonable, and altogether to be tolerated apology.
+
+When Madame de Fleury and her guests swept back into the drawing-room,
+Monsieur de Fleury and the grand chamberlain were again closely engaged
+in some political battle. Maurice, after waiting impatiently for a
+favorable moment when he might come between the wordy belligerents,
+whispered to Ronald,--
+
+"I am tortured to death! I shall never get an opportunity to ask the
+marquis about those jewels. My cousin was questioning him on the subject
+when dinner was announced; but he seemed to treat her inquiries as of so
+little importance that she was quite baffled in obtaining information."
+
+"Why not attack him in a straightforward manner?" answered the positive
+young American. "Walk up to him and ask plainly for a few moments'
+private conversation. Give him the reason of your inquiries, and demand
+an answer. Bring him to the point without any fancy fencing about the
+subject."
+
+"I fear it will look very strange," replied Maurice, hesitating.
+
+"What matter? Are you afraid of _looking strange_ when you have a worthy
+object to accomplish? The information you need is of more importance
+than mere looks. It thoroughly amazes me to see the awe in which a
+genuine Parisian is held by the dread of appearing singular! One would
+imagine that all originality was felony, and that to catch the same
+key-note of voice, to move with the exact motion, and tread in the
+precise footprints in which every one else speaks, moves, walks, was the
+only evidence of honesty. What is a man's individuality worth, if it is
+to be trodden out in the treadmill tramp of senseless conventionality?"
+
+Maurice glanced at his friend admiringly. He had observed on more than
+one occasion that although Ronald was thoroughly versed in all the
+nicest rules of etiquette, he had a way of breaking through them at his
+pleasure, and always so gracefully that his waiving of ceremony could
+never be set down to ignorance or ill-breeding.
+
+The viscount literally, and without delay, followed his friend's advice,
+and soon succeeded in drawing M. de Fleury aside.
+
+"Permit me to explain to you Mademoiselle de Merrivale's anxiety about
+those jewels," said Maurice. "You have, perhaps, heard the name of
+Mademoiselle Madeleine de Gramont, my cousin on my father's side. Some
+six weeks ago she suddenly left the Château de Gramont, and has not
+communicated with her family since. Those jewels were hers. She must
+have sold them. We are exceedingly anxious to discover her present
+residence and induce her to return to my grandmother's protection. If
+you could inform me from whence the jewels came, it would facilitate my
+search."
+
+The marquis had no definite motive for concealment beyond the dictates
+of his habitual caution. This explanation satisfied him in regard to the
+reasons which prompted inquiry; and being desirous of getting rid of
+Maurice, and of resuming the conversation he had interrupted, replied,
+with an assumption of cordiality,--
+
+"It gives me great pleasure to be the medium of rendering the slightest
+service to your illustrious family. Those diamonds were brought to me by
+the Jew Henriques, from whom I now and then make purchases. I did not
+inquire in what manner they came into his possession; but, not intending
+to be cheated as to their precise worth, I had them taken to Kramer, in
+the Rue Neuve St. Augustin, and a value placed upon them. I paid
+Henriques the price those trustworthy jewellers suggested, instead of
+the exorbitant one he demanded. This is all the information I am able to
+afford you on the subject."
+
+"May I beg you to favor me with the address of this Henriques?"
+
+"Certainly, certainly, with pleasure; but I warn you that you will not
+get much out of him. He is the closest Israelite imaginable; and a
+golden ointment is the only '_open sesame_' to his lips."
+
+M. de Fleury wrote Henriques' street and number on his card, and handed
+it to Maurice.
+
+Meantime Gaston de Bois, in spite of the pertinacious attentions of the
+Duke de Montauban, had approached Bertha, and would have drawn her into
+conversation had she not exultingly communicated to him the discovery
+she had made concerning Madeleine's jewels. Was it the sudden mention of
+that name which threw M. de Bois into a state of almost uncontrollable
+agitation? Why did he flush, and stammer, and try to change the subject,
+and, stumbling with suppressed groans over his words, as though they had
+been sharp rocks, talk such unmitigated nonsense? Why did he so soon
+steal away from Bertha's side? Why did he not approach her again for the
+rest of the evening? Could it be that her first suspicion was right, and
+that he loved Madeleine? If not, why should her name again have caused
+him such unaccountable emotion?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE EMBROIDERED HANDKERCHIEF.
+
+
+Maurice lost no time, the next morning, in seeking out the crafty old
+Jew. Henriques was a vender of jewels that came into his hands through
+private sources. There was considerable risk in his traffic; for it was
+just possible some of the precious stones transferred to him might have
+been acquired in a manner not strictly legal. Perhaps it was not part of
+his policy to acquaint himself with the history of gems which he bought
+at a bargain and reaped an enormous profit in selling; for, when Maurice
+endeavored to extract some information concerning the diamonds purchased
+by the Marquis de Fleury, the Jew protested entire ignorance in regard
+to their prior ownership; stating that they were brought to him by one
+of his _confréres_, of whom he asked no questions,--that he had
+purchased them at a ruinous price, and resold them to the marquis
+without a centime's benefit: a very generous proceeding on his part, he
+asserted; adding, with a ludicrous assumption of importance, that he
+highly esteemed the marquis, and now and then allowed himself the
+gratification of favoring him in business transactions.
+
+"But the name of the person from whom your friend received the jewels is
+certainly on his books, and, however numerous the hands through which
+they may have passed, they can be traced back to their original owner,"
+observed Maurice.
+
+"Not so easily, monsieur, not so easily. Purchaser has nothing to do
+with original owner. Jewels worth something, or jewels worth
+nothing,--that's the point; names of parties holding the articles of no
+consequence."
+
+"But you certainly inquire from what source the jewels offered you
+proceed?"
+
+"Never make impertinent inquiries,--never: would drive away customers.
+If monsieur has any jewels for sale, shall be happy to look at them;
+disposed to deal in the most liberal manner with monsieur."
+
+"Thank you. My object is simply to discover a friend to whom the jewels
+you sold to the Marquis de Fleury once belonged. It is indispensable
+that I should learn through whose hands they came into your possession."
+
+"Ah!" said the cunning Jew, placing his skinny finger on one side of his
+hooked nose, as if reflecting; then glancing at Maurice out of the
+corners of his searching eyes, he asked, "Party would like to be
+discovered?--or would said party prefer to remain under the rose?"
+
+"Possibly the latter."
+
+"Just so; that gives interest to the enterprise. But when party objects
+to being traced, difficulties spring up; takes time to overcome them;
+always a certain cost."
+
+"If you mean that I shall offer you compensation for your trouble, I am
+ready to make any in my power: name your price."
+
+"Price? price? not to be named so hastily; depends upon time consumed,
+amount of labor, obstacles party concerned may throw in the way. Other
+parties will have to be employed to seek out party who presented himself
+with the jewels; enumeration requisite to induce communicativeness; may
+turn out party had the jewels from another party, who obtained them from
+another; shall have to track each party's steps backward to party who
+was the original possessor."
+
+"Take your own course. I am unskilled in these affairs," answered
+Maurice, frankly; "all I ask is that you learn for me _where_ the lady
+whose family jewels passed through your hands now resides. Name the cost
+of your undertaking."
+
+The wily Jew fastened his keen, speculative eyes upon his anticipated
+prey, as he replied, slowly, "Cost?--can't say to a certainty; thousand
+francs do to begin."
+
+He heard the faint sigh, of which Maurice was himself unconscious, and
+drew a correct inference.
+
+From the hour that the viscount had been made aware of the true state of
+Count Tristan's finances, he had reduced all his own expenses, allowed
+himself no luxuries, no indulgencies, nothing but the barest
+necessities, that his father's narrow resources might not be drained
+through a son's lavishness. The young nobleman had not at that moment a
+hundred francs at his own command. He had no alternative but to apply to
+Count Tristan for the sum required by the Jew.
+
+"My means are very limited," returned Maurice, with a great waste of
+candor. "I must beg you to deal with me as liberally as possible. The
+amount you demand I hope to obtain and bring you in a few days. In the
+meantime you will commence your inquiries."
+
+"Assuredly,--just so; commence putting matters in train at once;
+possibly may have some clew between thumb and finger when monsieur
+returns with the money; nothing to be done without golden keys: unlock
+all doors; carry one into hidden depths of the earth. Shall be obliged
+to advance funds to pay parties employed. Have the goodness to write
+your name in this book."
+
+Maurice wrote down his name and address, and took his leave, once more
+elated by the belief that he was on the eve of discovering Madeleine's
+retreat.
+
+The letter to his father written and dispatched, he sought Bertha, and
+gave her full particulars of his interview with the Jew, delicately
+forbearing to mention the compensation he expected.
+
+Bertha, as sanguine of success as her cousin, was gayly discussing
+probabilities, when the Marquis de Merrivale entered.
+
+"Young heads laid together to plot mischief, I wager!" remarked the
+nobleman, jocosely; for he was in a capital humor, having just partaken
+of an epicurean _dejeuner à la fourchette_ at the celebrated "Madrid's."
+
+"We are talking about our Cousin Madeleine. Maurice has a new plan for
+prosecuting his search," said Bertha. "Ah, dear Madeleine! Why did she
+forsake us so strangely? How could she have had the heart to cause us so
+much sorrow?"
+
+"My dear child, it was probably her _liver_ not her _heart_ that was in
+fault. Her heart, I dare say, performed its grave duties properly, and
+should not be aspersed; some bilious derangement was no doubt at the
+bottom of her singular conduct. The greatest eccentricities may all be
+traced back to _bile_ as their origin. Regulate the bile and you
+regulate the brain from which mental vagaries proceed. If some judicious
+friend had administered to your cousin Madeleine a little salutary
+medicine, and forced her to diet for a few days, she would have acted
+more reasonably. Talking of diet, that was a princely dinner the Marquis
+de Fleury set before us. He is really a very able and estimable member
+of society,--understands good living to perfection. I cordially
+reciprocate his wish that a lasting bond of union should exist between
+us. His brother-in-law, the young Duke de Montauban, is enchanted with
+my little niece. I say nothing: arrange between yourselves; but, by all
+means, marry into a family which knows how to value a good cook; take a
+young man who has had his taste sufficiently cultivated to distinguish
+of what ingredients a sauce is composed. Don't despise a blessing that
+may be enjoyed three hundred and sixty-five times every year,--that's
+my advice."
+
+Bertha had not attached any importance to the attentions of the young
+duke; but her manner of receiving this suggestion,--the
+
+                      "half disdain
+    Perched on the pouted blossom of her lip,"--
+
+convinced Maurice that, if she favored any suitor, her inclinations did
+not turn towards the duke.
+
+"The Duke de Montauban is not ill-looking," Maurice remarked, to decoy
+her into some more open expression; "and he is sufficiently
+agreeable,--do you not think so?"
+
+"I never thought about him," she replied, somewhat petulantly. "If I
+chance to look at him I never think of any one but his tailor and his
+hairdresser, without whom I verily believe he would have no tangible
+existence."
+
+"An accomplished tailor and a skilful _coiffure_ are all very well in
+their way," observed her uncle; "but a scientific _cook_ is the grand
+necessity of a man's life,--a daily need,--the trebly repeated need of
+each day; and the education of a cook should commence in the cradle. If
+this point received the attention which it deserves from sanitarians,
+there would be fewer digestive organs out of order, and consequently
+fewer police reports, and a vast diminution of eccentric degradation,
+and moping madness and suicide, and horrors in general."
+
+Bertha and Maurice did not dispute this sweeping assertion; for they
+knew it would entail upon them the necessity of encountering a battalion
+of arguments, which the marquis delighted to call into action to defend
+the ground upon which he took up his favorite position.
+
+Count Tristan's reply to Maurice, enclosing a check for the thousand
+francs, was received a few days later. Maurice returned to the Jew with
+the money. The latter rejoiced him by vaguely hinting that there was a
+prospect of successful operation; but the matter would occupy time. The
+viscount would be good enough to call again in a week.
+
+Maurice was too unsuspicious and too unskilled in transactions of this
+nature to doubt that the Jew was dealing with him in good faith. Instead
+of a week, he returned the next morning, and repeated his visits
+regularly every day. The Jew diligently fanned his hopes, assuring him
+that old Henriques was not to be baffled, though the parties through
+whose hands the jewels had passed were almost unapproachable. Very soon
+the merciless Israelite notified the young nobleman that further funds
+would be requisite, and Maurice writhed under the cruel compulsion which
+forced him to make a second application to his father.
+
+Bertha had been a fortnight in Paris when the anniversary of her
+birthday, which for the first time had been forgotten, was in a singular
+manner recalled to her mind. A small package had been received for her
+at her uncle's residence in Bordeaux, and had been promptly forwarded to
+Paris. The outer cover was directed in the handwriting of her uncle's
+_concierge_; on the inner, a request, that if Mademoiselle de Merrivale
+were absent the parcel might be immediately forwarded to her, was
+written in familiar characters. Bertha had no sooner caught sight of
+them than she cried out,--
+
+"Madeleine! It is the handwriting of Madeleine!"
+
+She tore open the paper with trembling hands. There was no note,--not a
+single written word,--but before her lay a handkerchief of the finest
+texture, and embroidered with the marvellous skill which belonged alone
+to those "fairy fingers" she had so often watched.
+
+Vainly might we attempt to convey even a faint idea of her tumultuous
+rapture,--of the tears of ecstasy, the hysterical laughter, the dancing
+delight, with which she greeted her uncle and Maurice, who entered a few
+moments after the package was received. She kissed the handkerchief
+moistened with her tears, waved it exultingly over her head, kissed it
+again, and wept over it again, while the marquis and her cousin stood
+looking at her in speechless astonishment.
+
+"Madeleine! Madeleine! it is from Madeleine!" at last she found voice to
+ejaculate. "See, that is her handwriting," pointing to the paper cover;
+"and this is her work; her 'fairy fingers' send me a token on my
+birthday. I am seventeen to-day, and no one has remembered it but
+Madeleine. She thinks of me still; she never forgets any one; she has
+not forgotten me!"
+
+Maurice caught up the paper in which the handkerchief had been
+enveloped, and with throbbing pulses eagerly examined the handwriting.
+
+"See, Maurice," Bertha continued, joyfully, "in the corner she has
+embroidered my name, surrounded by a wreath of forget-me-nots,--for
+_she_ does not forget. The crest of the de Merrivales is in the opposite
+corner; and this,--why this looks like the bracelet I gave her on her
+last birthday. How wonderfully she has imitated the knot of pearls that
+fastened the golden band! And this corner, Maurice, look,--this is in
+remembrance of you,--of your birthday token to her. Do you not see the
+design is a brooch, and the device a dove carrying an olive-branch in
+its mouth, and the word 'Pax' embroidered beneath?"
+
+Maurice looked, struggling to repress the emotion that almost unmanned
+him. Pointing to the stamp upon the envelope which had contained the
+handkerchief, he said,--
+
+"It is postmarked Dresden."
+
+"Dresden? Dresden? Can Madeleine be in Dresden?" returned Bertha. "Ah,
+uncle, can we not go there at once? We shall certainly find her.
+Yes,--we must go. I am tired of Paris,--let us start to-morrow."
+
+"Dresden, my dear!" cried her uncle, in a tone of unmitigated disgust.
+"Why, the barbarians would feed us upon _sour kraut_, and give us
+pudding before meat! Go to Dresden? Impossible! Not to be thought of!
+Paris was a wise move,--we have enjoyed the living amazingly; but trust
+ourselves to those tasteless German cooks? We should be poisoned in a
+couple of days. Keep cool, my dear, or you will make yourself ill by
+getting into such a violent state of excitement just after breakfast.
+How do you suppose the important process of digestion can progress
+favorably if your blood is agitated in this turbulent manner?"
+
+Bertha was about to answer almost wrathfully, but Maurice interrupted
+her.
+
+"_I_ will go, Bertha. Madeleine must be in Dresden. At last she has sent
+us a token of her existence, a token of remembrance, thank Heaven!"
+
+"Go! go! go at once!" was Bertha's energetic injunction.
+
+Maurice pressed her hand tightly, and bowing to the marquis, without
+attempting to utter another syllable, took his leave, carrying with him
+the envelope which bore Madeleine's handwriting.
+
+After having his passport _viséd_, he returned to his apartment to make
+rapid preparations for starting that evening. Very soon Gaston de Bois
+entered, evidently in a state of ill-concealed perturbation.
+
+"Mademoiselle Bertha tells me you are going to Dresden."
+
+"Yes, to seek my cousin. Look at the post-stamp upon that envelope.
+Madeleine is in Dresden."
+
+"How can you be sure of that?" asked Gaston.
+
+"She writes from Dresden; can anything be clearer?" returned Maurice,
+confidently.
+
+"It is not clear to me that she is there. I wish I could persuade you
+against taking this jour--our--ourney."
+
+"That is out of the question, Gaston; so spare yourself the trouble of
+the attempt."
+
+"But the journey will be use--use--useless," persisted M. de Bois.
+
+"How can you know that?" inquired Maurice, quickly.
+
+"I think so; it is my impression, my conviction."
+
+"It is not mine, and nothing can prevent my making the experiment,"
+answered Maurice, decidedly.
+
+Gaston looked as thoroughly vexed as though he were responsible for the
+rash actions of his friend; but he knew that Maurice was inflexible
+where Madeleine was concerned, and that all entreaties would be thrown
+away unless he could sustain them by some potent reason; and _that_ it
+was not in his power to proffer. He made no further opposition, but
+remained fidgeting about the room in the most distracting manner,
+hindering the preparations of Maurice, stumbling over articles scattered
+on the floor, now and then stammering out a broken, unintelligible
+phrase, and altogether seeming wretchedly uncomfortable, yet unwilling
+to leave until he saw the obstinate traveller in the _fiacre_ which
+drove him to the railway station.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+A VOICE FROM THE LOST ONE.
+
+
+A few days after the departure of Maurice for Dresden, the Duke de
+Montauban made a formal proposal for the hand of Mademoiselle de
+Merrivale. French etiquette not allowing a suitor the privilege of
+addressing the lady of his love, except through some kindred or friendly
+medium, his pretensions were of course made known to Bertha by her
+uncle. She received the communication with a fretful tapping of her
+little foot, and a toss of her gamboling, golden ringlets, which bore
+witness to her undisguised vexation and saucy disdain. The
+uncompromising manner in which she declined the proposed honor, threw
+her guardian, who had strengthened himself to enact the part of Cupid's
+messenger, by a somewhat liberal repast, into a state of astonishment
+which threatened alarming disturbance to his laboring digestive
+functions.
+
+"Really, my dear, you speak so abruptly that you make me feel quite
+dyspeptic. What possible objection can you have to the young duke?"
+
+"A very slight one, according to the creed which governs matrimonial
+alliances in our enlightened land," returned Bertha, pouting through her
+sarcasm. "My objection is simply that he is not an object of the
+slightest interest to me."
+
+"But the match is such a suitable one that interest will come after it
+is consummated," answered her uncle.
+
+"I do not intend to marry upon _faith_," retorted Bertha; then she broke
+out petulantly, "In a word, uncle, I do not intend to marry a man who is
+so insipid that I could not even quarrel with him; whom I could not
+think of seriously enough to take the trouble to dislike; to whom I am
+so thoroughly indifferent that for me he has no existence out of my
+immediate sight."
+
+"There, there; keep cool, my dear. Nobody intends to force you to marry
+him. I did not know that it was necessary to be able to dislike a man,
+and to have a capacity for quarrelling with him, to fit him for the
+position of a husband. A very unwholesome doctrine. Emotion is
+particularly prejudicial to the animal economy. I thought the cultivated
+taste which the de Fleurys so evidently possess might have some weight
+with you. That dinner they gave us was unsurpassable, and"--
+
+"If I am to marry to secure myself superlatively good dinners, I had
+better unite myself to an accomplished cook at once," replied Bertha,
+demurely.
+
+"That's very tart, my dear. All acids disagree with me, and your
+acidulated observations are giving me unpleasant premonitory symptoms."
+
+Bertha noticed that the _bon vivant_ had in reality began to puff and
+pant as though he were suffering from an incipient nightmare. Being so
+thoroughly habituated to his idiosyncrasy that she had learned to regard
+it leniently, she made an effort to recover her good humor, and
+answered,--
+
+"I know my kind uncle will not render me uncomfortable by pressing this
+subject; but, in the most courteous manner, will let the Duke de
+Montauban understand that I do not intend to marry at present."
+
+"Make you uncomfortable," rejoined the marquis, struggling for breath;
+"of course, I would not for the world! Do you take me for an old brute?
+And I have just made arrangements to drive you to the _Bois de Boulogne_
+and dine at Madrid's this evening. A pretty state you would be in to do
+justice to a dinner which promises to place in jeopardy the laurels even
+of M. de Fleury's cook."
+
+"We will strike a bargain," returned Bertha, with her wonted gayety. "If
+you will agree not to mention the Duke de Montauban, I will agree to do
+justice to the dinner at Madrid's."
+
+"I am content; we will drop the duke and discuss the dinner."
+
+The attentions of Madame de Fleury's brother to the heiress had been too
+marked and open for his suit and its rejection to remain a secret.
+Gaston de Bois heard Bertha's refusal commented upon, and there was a
+buzz in his ears of idle speculations concerning the origin of her
+caprice. Was it some blissful, internal suggestion, which diffused such
+a glow of happiness over his expressive countenance when he next saw
+Bertha? Was it some hitherto uncertain ground of encouragement made sure
+beneath his feet, which so wondrously loosened his tongue from its dire
+bondage? Was it some aerial hope, taking tangible shape, which imparted
+such an air of ease and elation to his demeanor? Gaston stammered less
+every day,--his impediment disappearing as his self-possession
+increased. On this occasion he was only conscious of a slight difficulty
+in utterance to rejoice at its existence, for it rendered delightfully
+apparent Bertha's thoughtfulness in catching up words upon which he
+hesitated, and concluding sentences he commenced, as though she read
+their meaning in his eyes. Gaston had not seen her in so buoyant a mood
+since they parted at the Château de Gramont. But the tide of her
+exuberant gayety suddenly ebbed when she noticed the look of pain with
+which he involuntarily responded to one of her chance questions. She had
+asked if he thought it probable Maurice would find Madeleine in Dresden.
+Again that singular expression on his countenance; again that sudden
+change of color at Madeleine's name; again that involuntary starting
+from his seat, with a return of the olden habit which placed fragile
+furniture in danger! Was it the remembrance that Madeleine was lost to
+them which occasioned M. de Bois's sudden depression? Was it an
+overwhelming sense of doubt concerning the result of Maurice's mission,
+which made his response to Bertha's inquiry so vague, his sentences so
+disjointed? Once more Bertha asked herself whether he were not, after
+all, the lover Madeleine had refused to mention. Yet, if this were the
+case, how could Gaston have appeared so much less anxious and less
+concerned at her flight than Maurice, who loved her with unquestionable
+ardor? Why had M. de Bois aided so little in the search for her present
+habitation? The young girl could not reconcile such apparent
+contradictions, and while she sat perplexing herself by futile efforts
+to unravel these mysteries, M. de Bois was equally puzzled to rightly
+interpret her silence and abstraction.
+
+The interview which, at its opening, had been as bright as a spring
+morning, closed with sudden April shadows; and there was an April
+mingling of smiles and tears upon Bertha's countenance when she retired
+to her chamber, after M. de Bois's departure, and pondered over his
+strange expression when her cousin was mentioned. Why, if Madeleine was
+his choice, was his manner toward herself so full of tenderness? Why was
+it that she never glanced at him without finding his eyes fastened upon
+her face? Why had he so much power to draw her irresistibly towards him?
+Why did his step set her heart throbbing so tumultuously? Why did his
+coming cause her such a thrill of delight, and his departure leave such
+a sense of solitude?--a void that no one else filled, a pain that no
+other presence soothed.
+
+Meantime Maurice had reached Dresden and was searching for Madeleine,
+almost in the same vague, unreasonable manner that he had sought her in
+Paris. But the mad course upon which he had again started, and which
+might have once more unbalanced his mind, met with a sudden check. The
+day after his arrival in Dresden he received a note, which ran thus:--
+
+     "Madeleine is not in Dresden. She entreats Maurice to
+     discontinue a search which must prove fruitless. Should the
+     day ever come, as she prays it may, when her place of refuge
+     can become known to him, no effort of his will be required
+     for its discovery. Will not Maurice accept the pains of the
+     inevitable present and wait for the consolations the future
+     may bring forth with the hope and patience which must
+     sustain her until that blessed period shall arrive?"
+
+Maurice was almost stupefied as he read these lines. He crushed the
+paper in his nervous fingers to be certain that it was tangible; he
+compared the writing with the one upon the envelope which he had taken
+from Bertha. If that were Madeleine's hand, so was this. He looked for a
+postmark; there was none; the letter had been brought by a private
+messenger, and yet Madeleine was not in Dresden! How could this be?
+That, in some mysterious manner, she became acquainted with his
+movements was unquestionable. Her thoughts then were turned to him,--her
+invisible presence followed him. It was some joy, at least, to know that
+he lived in her memory.
+
+Maurice, without a moment's hesitation, without letting his own personal
+suffering weigh in the balance of decision, without allowing his mind to
+dwell upon the probabilities of tracing Madeleine through this new clew,
+resolved to comply with her request.
+
+When he returned to Paris and placed her letter in Bertha's hands, and
+told her his determination, she impetuously urged him not to be guided
+by their cousin's wishes. She pleaded that Madeleine was sacrificing
+herself from a mistaking sense of duty; that, if her place of abode
+could only be revealed, Bertha's own supplications might influence her
+to abandon her present project, and to accept the home which Bertha,
+with the full consent of her uncle, could offer.
+
+Maurice listened not unmoved, but unshaken, in his selected course. He
+felt that a woman of Madeleine's dignity of character,--a woman of her
+calm judgment,--a woman who could look with such steady, tearless eyes
+upon life's realities,--a woman who would not have trodden in flowery
+ways though every pressure of her foot crushed out some delicious aroma
+to perfume her life, if the "stern lawgiver, duty," summoned her to a
+flinty road, and pointed to a glorious goal beyond,--such a woman,
+having deliberately chosen her path, having tested her strength to walk
+therein, having pronounced that strength all-sufficient, deserved the
+tribute of confidence, and an even blind respect to her mandates.
+Besides, compliance with her wishes was a species of voiceless, wordless
+communication with her; it was sending her a message through some
+unknown and mysterious channel.
+
+Maurice presented this in its most vivid colors before Bertha's eyes;
+but in vain. She was too wayward, too unreasonable, too full of
+passionate yearning for the presence of Madeleine, too sensible of an
+innate weakness that longed to lean upon Madeleine's strength, to see
+the justice and wisdom of the conclusion to which Maurice had arrived.
+
+As soon as their painful interview was closed by the entrance of the
+marquis, Maurice sought the old Jew and ordered him to prosecute his
+search no further. Henriques, who had already extracted a considerable
+sum from the young nobleman, and looked upon the transaction as a safe
+investment calculated to yield a certain profit for some months to come,
+was very unwilling to relinquish his promised gain. He assured the
+viscount that he had lately received information of the greatest
+importance; the party to whom the jewels had originally belonged had at
+last been tracked; the undertaking was on the very eve of success. To
+abandon it was a refusal to grasp the prize almost within their clutch.
+Whether the cunning Jew spoke the truth, or fiction, mattered little;
+for Maurice, in spite of these alluring representations, did not allow
+himself to be tempted to violate Madeleine's express command. He had, as
+it were, accepted his fate, and cast away the arms with which men war
+with so-called "destiny;" struggle and rebellion were over. To "_wait_"
+in patience was all that remained.
+
+But what was to be done with his existence? In the plenitude of youthful
+health and strength, was his life to ebb away, like an unreplenished
+stream, flowing into nothingness? His days became more and more
+wearisome; the hours hung more and more heavily upon his hands; the feet
+of time sounded with iron tramp in his ears, yet never appeared to move
+onward.
+
+"In his eyes a cloud and burthen lay;" a shadowy sorrow dropped its pall
+of darkness over his mind and obscured his perception of all awakening,
+quickening inspirations; a smouldering fire within him withered up every
+vernal shoot of impulse and turned all the spring-time foliage of
+thought and fancy sere. His voice, his look, his mien, betrayed that an
+ever-living woe encompassed him with gloom.
+
+Ronald fruitlessly strove to rouse him from this state of supine
+despondency. The active employment, the all-engrossing interest which
+would have medicined his unslumbering sorrow, were remedial agents
+denied by his father's unwise decree. As a substitute, though of less
+potency, Ronald strove to inspire him with his own strong love for
+literature. The young American had a passion for books which were the
+reflex of great minds. His quick hearkening to the voices breathing from
+their pages, and made prophetic by some sudden experience; the ready
+plummet with which he sounded their depths of reasoning; the sentient
+hand with which he plucked out their truths and planted them in his own
+rich memory, to grow like trees filled with singing-birds: these had
+rendered his communings with master-spirits one of the noblest and most
+strengthening influences of his life. What wonder, when literature was
+so bounteously distributed over his native land that it made itself
+vocal beneath every hedge,--enriched the humblest cottage with a
+library,--found its way, in the inexpensive guise of magazines, a
+welcome visitant at every fireside,--poured out its treasures at the
+feet of rich and poor, liberally as the liberal sunshine, freely as the
+free air?
+
+Maurice, educated in a different atmosphere, at the same age as Ronald,
+was a stranger to the companionship of written minds, save those to
+which his college studies had formally presented him; and his dark
+unrest rendered it difficult for him to follow his friend into the
+teeming Golconda of literature, and to gather the gems spread to his
+hands. And when, at last, Ronald's enthusiasm proved contagious and
+kindled Maurice to seek out some great author's charm, it too often
+chanced that he stumbled upon passages that irritated him, and increased
+his moody discontent. We instance one of these occasions as illustrative
+of many others.
+
+Ronald, whose busy brush had been brought to a stand-still by an
+unusually dark day, when he returned to his apartments, found his friend
+reading Bulwer's "Caxtons." Maurice was leaning with both elbows upon
+the table, his fingers plunged through his disordered hair, his brows
+almost fiercely contracted, and his wan face bent over the volume before
+him.
+
+"I found some grand pictures in that book," remarked the young artist.
+"Which are you contemplating?"
+
+"No pictures. I have not your eye for pictures," answered Maurice, with
+something more than a touch of impatience. "I am moved, haunted,
+tormented by truths which have more power than all the ideal pictures
+pen ever drew, or brush ever painted. You place me here before your
+library, you lure me to read, and every book I open utters words that
+make my compulsory mode of existence a reproach, a disgrace, a misery to
+me. Read this, for instance: 'Life is a drama, not a monologue. A drama
+is derived from a Greek word which signifies _to do_. Every actor in the
+drama has something to do which helps on the progress of the
+whole,--that is the object for which the author created him. _Do your
+part_ and let the _Great Play_ go on!' _Do? do?_" continued Maurice, in
+an excited tone as he finished the quotation; "it is a torment worthy of
+a place in Dante's Inferno to know that there is nothing one is
+permitted to _do_! I too am an actor in the Great Drama; but I have no
+part to play save that of lay figure, motionless and voiceless; yet,
+unhappy, not being deprived of sensibility, I am goaded to desperation
+by inward taunting because I can do nothing."
+
+"The play is not ended yet," answered Ronald, with as much cheerfulness
+as he could command, for his friend's depression affected his
+sympathetic nature. "We may not comprehend our _rôles_ in the beginning;
+we may have to study long before we can thoroughly conceive, then
+idealize, then act them."
+
+"I could bear that mine should be a sad, if it were only an active one,"
+returned Maurice, again fixing his eyes upon the book.
+
+Ronald could make no reply to a sentiment so thoroughly in accordance
+with his own views. He constantly pondered upon the possibilities
+through which his friend might be freed from the shackles that bound him
+to the effeminate serfdom of idleness; but the magic that could unrivet
+those fetters had not yet been revealed. Still he was sometimes stirred
+by a mysterious prescience that they would be loosened, and through his
+instrumentality.
+
+Ronald's nature was essentially practical without being prosaic. The
+rich ore of poetry, inseparable from all exquisitely fine organizations,
+lay beneath the daily current of his life, like golden veins in the bed
+of a stream, shining through the crystal waters that bore the most
+commonplace objects on their tide. He thoroughly accepted that
+interpretation of the Ideal which calls it a "divine halo with which the
+Creator had encircled the world of reality;" but while he instinctively
+lifted all he loved into supernal regions and contemplated them in the
+glorious spirit-light that heightens all beauty, he lost sight of none
+of the stern actualities of their existence. His imagination had
+fashioned a hero out of Maurice, and he had thrown his person in heroic
+guise upon canvas; yet he clearly beheld and mourned over the morbid
+tendency that was weakening his mind and threatened to render his
+character and his life equally unheroic.
+
+Only a few days after the conversation we have just narrated, when
+Maurice entered Ronald's sitting-room he found the student with an open
+letter in his hand. As he lifted his eloquent, brown eyes from the paper
+a glittering moisture beaded their darkly fringed lashes, and an
+expression of ineffable tenderness looked out from their lustrous
+depths. The letter was from his mother,--one of those messengers of deep
+affection which transported him into her presence, placed him, as he had
+so often sat in his petted boyhood, at her feet, to listen to her holy
+teachings, and be thrilled to the very centre of his being by her words
+of love. During his three years of separation, at a period when the
+expanding mind is most impressible, these letters, weekly received, had
+surrounded him with a heavenly aura which seemed breathed out through a
+mother's ceaseless prayers, and had kept his life pure, his spirit
+strong, his heart uplifted; had preserved him from being hurried by the
+wild, ungoverned impulses of youth, rendered more infectuous by the
+volcanic fires of genius, into actions for which he might blush
+hereafter.
+
+It was one of the undefined, unspoken sources of sympathy between Ronald
+and Maurice, that the guarding hand of _woman_, influencing them from a
+distance, preserved the bloom, the freshness, the pristine purity of
+both their souls, even in the polluted atmosphere of a city where
+immorality is an accepted evil. Maurice, who had never known a mother's
+hallowing affection, gained his strength through his early attachment to
+a maiden whom no man could love without being ennobled thereby; and
+Ronald, whose heart had never yet awakened to the first pulse of
+tenderness which drew him towards one he would have claimed as a bride,
+owed his powers of resistance to as strong, as passionate devotion to a
+mother who united in her person all the most glorious attributes of
+womanhood, and whose idolizing love for her child was tempered by wisdom
+which placed his spiritual progress above all other gain. While he was
+struggling to win laurels in art's arena, she strove to bind upon his
+brow a crown whose gems were heavenly truths,--a crown the pure in
+spirit alone could wear.
+
+Blessed the son who has such a mother! Safe and blessed! His foot shall
+tread upon the serpent that lies hidden beneath the tempting flowers in
+his path, ere the reptile can sting him; his hand shall resolutely put
+away the cup of pleasure from his lips when there is poison in the
+chalice; he shall walk through the fire of evil lusts unscathed! No
+laurel that wreaths his brow shall render it too feverish, or too proud,
+to lie upon that mother's bosom with the glad, all-confiding, satisfied
+sense which made its joy when it lay there in guileless boyhood. That
+mother's love shall smooth for him the rough ways of earth, and place in
+his hand the golden key that opens heaven.
+
+As Maurice took his seat beside Ronald, the latter, hastily sweeping his
+handkerchief across his eyes, said with a vehement intonation,--
+
+"I have come to a sudden determination! I am going back to America. The
+trip is nothing,--ten days over and ten back,--a mere trifle! I can
+spend a couple of months with my parents and be back in time for autumn
+work. Instead of sending my picture, which is nearly completed, I will
+present it in person."
+
+Maurice sighed as he answered, "They will be proud of your work! Happy
+are they who have work to do, and who do it faithfully!"
+
+"That is a sentiment worthy of an American," rejoined Ronald; "indeed,
+you have unconsciously stolen it from one of our most distinguished
+American writers, who says, 'To have something to do and _to do it_ is
+the best appointment for us all.'[Footnote: Hillard's "Italy."] The
+extent to which I have insensibly Americanized you is very evident. A
+thought has just struck me: you are weary and melancholy, and seem to
+grow much paler and thinner every day. It will revive and strengthen you
+to accompany me. Come, let us go together!"
+
+"Let us fly to the moon!" answered Maurice, half scornfully. "Ronald,
+_why_ do you always forget that although we have lived precisely the
+same number of years, and I may be said to have lived so much longer
+than you, if we count time by sorrows that make long the days,--though
+we have both passed our twenty-first anniversary, you, as an American,
+have obtained your majority, and are a free agent, while the law of
+France renders me still a minor for four years? You know I cannot stir
+without my father's consent; and, of course, that is unattainable."
+
+"Unattainable if you choose to imagine that it is, and will not seek for
+it," answered Ronald, rebukingly. "The wisest poet that ever penned his
+inspiration, says,--
+
+               'Our doubts are traitors
+    And make us lose the good we oft might win
+    By fearing to attempt!'
+
+Do not let your traitorous doubts frighten you from the trial."
+
+Maurice smiled away his rising irritability, and replied, "I think,
+Ronald, your mind is so full of poetic arrows that one could not take a
+step, or lift a finger, or draw a breath, without your being able to hit
+him with a verse."
+
+"A verse may hit him who a sermon flies!" retorted Ronald, laughingly.
+"And a man is easy to hit who sits down with folded hands, like him of
+whom my rhythmic shaft has just made a target. But, to speak seriously,
+do you wonder that true thoughts, beautiful thoughts, which have been
+thrown into the music of verse, keep their haunting echoes in some
+stronghold of memory, and surge up to the lips when a stirring incident
+causes the gates of the mind to vibrate? Why, the very proof of the
+poet's genuine inspiration, his chiefest triumph lies in this, that he
+speaks a familiar truth, a common word of hope, a little word of
+comfort, a simple word of warning, with such potency that it strikes
+deeper into the soul than any other adjuration can reach; it defies us
+to forget; it takes the sound of a prophecy, and thrills our hearts and
+governs our actions in spite of ourselves. So much in defence of my
+poetic memories. Now be generous enough to admit that poetry is usually
+mingled with a large proportion of prosaic common sense which resolves
+itself into action. My scoffed-at poetry interprets itself into this
+matter-of-fact prose: unless you have the courage, the energy to ask
+your father's consent to your accompanying me to America, you will not
+get it; and if you ask you _may_ get it; and if you accompany me it may
+profit you. Come,--what say you? I shall be ready to start next week."
+
+"So soon?" ejaculated Maurice, who, often as he had witnessed the
+promptitude with which the young American moved, could not yet
+familiarize himself with his national rapidity of action and decision.
+
+"You call it _soon_? Why, if I had said day after to-morrow it might
+have been termed _soon_; but it seems to me a week is time enough to
+prepare for a journey around the world. Come, you have half an hour
+before the post closes,--dash off your letter and let it go at once."
+
+As he spoke, he cleared his writing-table of the books and papers by
+which it was encumbered, and placed a chair for Maurice. The latter, who
+was always carried onward by the rushing current of his friend's strong
+will, wrote, on the spur of the moment, a letter more calculated to
+impress his father than any deliberately studied epistle. The restless
+and gloomy state of mind under which Maurice labored, revealed itself in
+this impulsive effusion with a force which might not have found its way
+into a calmer communication.
+
+The frequent applications for money which Maurice had been compelled to
+make, that he might meet the demands of the old Jew, were not without
+their influence in preparing Count Tristan to look favorably upon his
+son's solicitation. The count imagined that the sums so constantly
+demanded were squandered in the manner habitual to gay young men in
+Paris. He had experienced much difficulty in complying with his son's
+last request, and became painfully aware that it would not much longer
+be in his power to supply him at the same extravagant rate. As a natural
+consequence, he hailed the proposition to travel, which might break off
+any unfortunate connections, or _liaisons_, he might have formed in
+Paris, and without their aid, divert his troubled mind. Then, the
+present would be a favorable opportunity for Maurice to visit his estate
+in Maryland, and to learn something further of that railway company
+which seemed of late to have suspended its operations.
+
+Maurice was not less astounded than overjoyed upon receiving his
+father's prompt and unconditional consent to his proposed trip. He at
+once carried the letter to Bertha. She was too generous to oppose a step
+which promised to be advantageous to her cousin, yet she could not
+contemplate their inevitable separation without sincere sorrow.
+
+"I wish I were going with you!" she sighed. "It seems to me everybody is
+going to America. Have you not heard that the Marquis de Fleury has just
+received the appointment of ambassador to the United States? I wish my
+uncle would let me travel to some foreign country. I am weary of this
+Parisian, ball-going life."
+
+"Has Monsieur de Fleury received his appointment at last? I had not
+heard of it. Who told you?" inquired Maurice.
+
+"M. de Bois, this very morning."
+
+"Gaston goes with him, I presume?"
+
+"Yes, he said so."
+
+"That is an unexpected pleasure,--that is really delightful!" exclaimed
+Maurice, enthusiastically.
+
+Bertha did not reply; but she certainly looked inclined to pout, and as
+though she had no very distinct perception of the delight in question.
+
+In a few days Maurice and Ronald were on the great ocean.
+
+A fortnight later the Marquis and Marchioness de Fleury, and the
+secretary of the former, M. de Bois, were also on their way to the New
+World.
+
+Bertha worried her uncle by her sad face, listless manner, and low
+spirits, to say nothing of her loss of appetite (to his thinking the
+most important feature of her _malaise_), until he was convinced that
+she had lost all interest in Paris, and that her sadness would be
+increased by a longer sojourn in the gay capital. When she admitted
+this, he kindly inquired if she desired to travel.
+
+"Yes, _very much_," was her reply.
+
+Whither would she go? To Italy? To England? To Russia?
+
+"No,--to America!"
+
+_America!_--land of savages!--land of Pawnees and Choctaws!--land where
+cooking must be in its crude infancy! Her uncle would not listen to such
+a barbarous proposition; and, finding that he could obtain no other
+answer from his wilful and incomprehensible ward, he carried her back to
+Bordeaux, consoling himself with the reflection that although the visit
+to Paris had not been permanently advantageous to his niece, the
+culinary knowledge acquired by Lucien was a full compensation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+"CHIFFONS."
+
+
+"Chiffons!" "_talking chiffons!_" "_writing chiffons!_"--will any one
+have the goodness to furnish us with a literal yet lucid interpretation
+of this enigmatical form of speech so incessantly employed in the
+Parisian _beau monde_? Among the translatable words of the French
+language,--among the expressive terms which cannot be rendered by
+equally significant expressions in our own more copious tongue,--among
+the phraseology invented to convey ideas which the phrases themselves
+certainly do not suggest,--the common application of this curt little
+word "_chiffons_" holds a distinguished place. Look for "_chiffons_" in
+the dictionary, and you will see it simply defined as "_rags_;" yet
+"_chiffons_" represent the very opposite of rags feminine, and conjure
+up a multitudinous army of feminine fashions, fripperies, fancies,
+follies, indispensable aids and adjuncts of the feminine toilet.
+
+We have headed this chapter "_chiffons_," and given an imperfect
+definition of the term, as a sign-post of warning to masculine
+readers,--a hint that this is a chapter to be lightly skimmed, or
+altogether skipped, for it unavoidably treats of "_chiffons_," which the
+necessities of the narrative will not allow us to suppress.
+
+The Marquis de Fleury had been appointed ambassador from the court of
+Napoleon the Third to the United States of America.
+
+Madame de Fleury's state of mind, in spite of the consolation afforded
+by a number of strikingly original costumes, which she innocently
+flattered herself would prove very effective during a sea-voyage, was
+deplorable. Terror inspired by the perils of the deep was only surpassed
+by intense grief excited by her compulsory banishment to a land where,
+she imagined, the invading feet of modiste and mantua-maker had not
+trodden out all resemblance to the original Eden; a land where the women
+probably attired themselves with a leaning to antediluvian simplicity,
+or in accordance with strong-minded proclivities, and the men were,
+doubtless, too much engrossed by politics and business to be capable of
+appreciating the most elaborate toilet that could be fashioned to
+captivate their eyes; a land, in short, where taste was yet unborn, and
+where it was ignorantly believed that the chief object of apparel was to
+perform, on a more extensive scale, the use of primitive fig-leaves and
+furs.
+
+To prevent her from falling into the clutches of American barbarians,
+Madame de Fleury secured two French maids as a _bodyguard_. Into the
+hands of one, skilled in the intricate mysteries of hair-dressing, her
+head was unreservedly consigned; the other, versed in more varied arts,
+had entire charge of the rest of her person. But these _aides-de-camp_
+of the toilet were deemed insufficient for the guardianship of her
+charms. The moment her sentence of exile was pronounced, she had
+summoned the incomparable Vignon to her presence, and piteously painted
+the difficulties which must beset her path when she was remorselessly
+torn from within reach of the creative fingers of the artist
+_couturière_. Vignon had unanticipated comfort in store: the most
+accomplished of her assistants,--one who had exhibited a skill in design
+and execution positively marvellous,--had several times expressed a
+strong inclination to establish herself in America, and would gladly
+make her _debut_ in the New World under the patronage of the
+marchioness. This information threw Madame de Fleury into such
+ecstasies that all the waves of the Atlantic, which had been ruthlessly
+tossing their wrecks about her brain, were suddenly stilled, and she
+declared that Mademoiselle Melanie must make her preparations to sail in
+the same steamer; for the knowledge that she was on board would render
+the voyage endurable. The marchioness complacently added that she felt
+so much strengthened by these tidings, that she could now look forward
+to meeting, with becoming fortitude, the trials incident upon her
+residence among a semi-civilized nation.
+
+We need hardly relate how soon, after reaching Washington, the fair
+Parisian discovered that civilization had made astounding progress if it
+might be estimated by the deference paid to "_chiffons_;" nor need we
+portray her astonishment at finding that American women "_of fashion_"
+were not merely close copyists of extreme French modes, but that they
+exaggerated even the most extravagant, and hunted after the newest
+styles with the national energy which their countrywomen of a nobler
+class expended upon nobler objects; and were more ready to deform or
+ignore nature, and swear allegiance to the despotic rule of the
+Crinoline Sovereign, than any Parisian belle under the sun.
+
+Madame de Fleury's royal sway over the empire of "_chiffons_" was soon
+as thoroughly established in Washington as it had been in Paris. Dress,
+or head-dress, bodice, bonnet, mantle, gaiter, glove, worn by her,
+multiplied itself in important imitations, and every feminine chrysalis
+sent forth its ballroom butterfly in a livery to match. Whatever style,
+shape, color, she adopted, however extraordinary, became the rage for
+that season, and disappeared from sight, totally banished by her regal
+command, at the inauguration of the next.
+
+At one period no skirt could sweep the pavement, or lie in rich folds at
+the bottom of a carriage, unadorned by an imposing flounce that almost
+covered the robe; a little later, the one sober flounce was driven into
+obscurity by twenty coquettish small ones; and these were displaced by
+primly puffed bands; which gave way to fanciful "keys" running up the
+sides of the dress (where they seemed to have no possible right); and
+those vanished when double skirts commenced their brief reign; to be
+dethroned by a severe-looking quilted ruffle marching around the hem of
+the dress and up the centre to the throat; and this grave adornment
+suddenly found its place usurped by an inundation of fantastic
+trimmings, jet, bugles, _passementerie_, velvet or lace. So much for
+skirts!
+
+Then the bodices:--_now_ nothing was to be seen but the "square cut"
+which revealed the fine busts of beauties in the days of Charles
+II.,--now graceful folds _a coeur_ sentimentally ruled the day,--now
+infant waists became a passion, and the most maternal forms aped the
+juvenility borrowed from their babies. Then for sleeves: at one time
+they were wide and long and cumbrous, forbidding every trace of the most
+rounded member beneath; then they took the form of antique drapery,
+disclosing the arm almost nude, save for the transparent lace of the
+undersleeve,--then the close, tight fit of the Quaker left all but a
+distorted outline to the imagination.
+
+And bonnets: at one moment the tiniest bird's-nest of a hat, embowered
+in feathers and buried in lace, was perched on the back of the head,
+reminding one of Punch's suggestion that it could be more conveniently
+carried upon a salver by a domestic walking behind; a little later, the
+only bonnet admissible closed around the face like a cap, laces and
+feathers had disappeared, a few tastefully disposed knots of ribbon, or
+a single flower, were the only adornments: but hardly had Good Sense
+nodded approvingly at the graceful simplicity with which heads were
+covered, when, lo! the bonnets shot up like bright-hued coal-scuttles,
+over which a basket of buds and blossoms had been suddenly upset, and
+went through a variety of fantastic transformations wholly
+indescribable.
+
+So with other articles of attire. Mantles that had established for
+themselves a natural and convenient length suddenly grew down to the hem
+of the dress; basques, high in favor, were routed by Zouave jackets;
+girdles were at one moment drawn down with tight pressure until they
+barely surmounted the hips, the next were allowed to take an almost
+natural round (as far as their fitting locality went), and next were put
+wholly to flight by pointed Swiss belts, with enormous bows, and long,
+flowing ends,--while these, in turn, were chased from the field by
+picturesque scarfs.
+
+Then as regards the disposition of that native veil of unsurpassable
+beauty which adorns the head of woman: now, all locks were braided low
+at the back of the head, almost lying upon the neck; now they surmounted
+the crown and rose in stories higher and higher; now they sprang into a
+pair of wings from either side of the temples; now they were clustered
+in a tuft of disorderly curls above the brow; now smoothed and
+bandolined close to the face and knotted with an air of quiet simplicity
+behind the ears.
+
+Whichever of these modes the Parisian queen of "_chiffons_" rendered
+graceful in her own person, every fair one, with the slightest
+aspiration to _style_, strengthened her claims to be thought fashionable
+by scrupulously assuming. What wonder that Mademoiselle Melanie, prime
+minister to the absolute sovereign, could scarcely receive the crowd of
+clients that thronged her doors?
+
+She hired a spacious mansion, near the capitol, and furnished it with
+consummate taste. She combined the vocation of mantua-maker with that of
+milliner, and supplied all the materials she employed from an assortment
+of her own selection. This was one secret of her astonishing success,
+for it gave her control over the entire apparel of her customers.
+Regarding herself as responsible for the _tout ensemble_ of each toilet
+that issued from her hands, and her reputation as at stake if any
+defective touch marred the general result of her adorning, she exerted a
+thoroughly despotic sway over those whom she undertook to dress, and
+refused, in the most positive, yet most courteous manner, to allow them
+to follow the dictates of their own faulty fancies. As a skilful artist
+examines a picture in the best light, that all its beauties may be
+revealed, she placed each one of her subjects in the most favorable
+aspect, studied her closely, searched out every fine point which might
+be heightened, and pondered over every defect which might be concealed.
+She had the rare gift of knowing how to embellish nature, how to bring
+forth all the capacities of a face and form, and how to modify the
+fashion of the day to the requirements of the wearer, instead of
+slavishly following an arbitrary mode, and thereby sacrificing all
+individuality of beauty. Dress became high art in her hands. Wondrously
+harmonious were the effects produced. Blondes looked softer and purer
+than ever before, without becoming insipid; brunettes grew more
+_piquante_ and brilliant; nondescripts gained force and character;
+pallid faces caught a reflection of rose tints; too ruddy complexions
+were toned down by paling colors, and sallow skins found their ochre hue
+mysteriously neutralized. Angular shapes were draped so gracefully that
+unsymmetrical sharpness disappeared; too ample forms exchanged their air
+of uncouth corpulence for a well-defined roundness; low statures seemed
+to spring up to a nobler altitude, and women of masculine height sunk
+into feminine proportions. In short, Mademoiselle Melanie was not a
+mantua-maker, or milliner,--she was the genius of taste, the artful
+embodier of poetry in outward adorning.
+
+Her own person was strikingly attractive; but the severest simplicity
+characterized her attire. Her manners, though affable, were exceedingly
+reserved; without any apparent effort, she repressed the familiarity of
+the vulgar, and rebuked the patronizing airs of the assuming, winning
+instinctive deference even from the ill-bred.
+
+By her workwomen she was almost worshipped. Young herself, she impressed
+them with the sense that notwithstanding her lack of advantage over them
+in point of years, her superior skill and knowledge entitled her to be
+their head. She sympathized with their griefs, inquired into their
+needs, sometimes ignored their short-comings, but never their
+sufferings, and took care that the thread which helped fashion a lady's
+robe should not be drawn with such weary and overworked hands that, in
+the language of Hood, it sewed a shroud at the same moment.
+
+She was seldom seen in the streets; and, when her duties called her, she
+went forth closely veiled. But her distinguished air, the simple
+elegance of her apparel, and the dignified grace of her movements could
+not escape admiration.
+
+She soon found a carriage of her own indispensable, and selected an
+unostentatious equipage; but allowed herself the indulgence of a pair of
+superb horses, because she chanced to be an appreciating judge of those
+noble animals: a rather unusual knowledge for a _couturière_.
+
+She seldom walked or drove alone. She was usually accompanied by one of
+her assistants, a young Massachusetts girl, with whom she had been
+thrown into accidental communication shortly after her arrival in the
+United States.
+
+The history of Ruth Thornton is one every day repeated, but not less
+touching because so far from rare. Born and bred in affluence which
+emanated from the daily exertions of her father, his death left his
+widow and three orphan daughters destitute. The eldest early assumed the
+burdens of wifehood and maternity. Ruth was the second child. A girl of
+high spirit, she quickly laid aside all false pride, and earnestly
+sought to earn the bread of those she loved by the labor of her fair
+young hands, until then strangers to toil. But where was remunerative
+occupation to be found? Needy womanhood so closely crowded the few open
+avenues of industry that it seemed as though there was no room for
+another foot to gain a hold, another hand to struggle. To become a
+teacher, or governess, was Ruth's first, most natural endeavor; but,
+month after month, she sought in vain for a situation. She possessed a
+remarkable voice and very decided musical talent. The idea of the
+concert-room next suggested itself; but her naturally fine organ lacked
+the long cultivation that could alone fit her to embark upon the career
+of a singer. Her mind then turned to the stage; but, setting aside the
+difficulty of obtaining engagements, even to fill some position in the
+lowest ranks of the profession, she had no means, no time, to go through
+a long course of requisite study, or to procure herself the costly
+wardrobe indispensable to such a profession. She pondered upon the
+possibility of entering that most noble institution, the New York School
+of Design for Women. Here was meet work, hope-fanning, life-saving work
+for feminine hands: engraving on wood or steel; coloring plates for
+illustrated works; sketching designs for fashions to be used in
+magazines, or patterns for carpets, calicoes, paper-hangings, etc. But,
+on inquiry, she learned that a year's study would be needful before she
+could hope to gain a modest livelihood through the medium of the
+simplest of these pursuits. From whence, in the meantime, could her
+mother, her sister, and herself derive their support? Next, she resolved
+to resort to her needle; yet how small was the likelihood of keeping it
+employed! and how poor the pittance it could earn as an humble
+seamstress! True, she might learn a trade; but how was she to exist
+meantime?
+
+She stood erect in the midst of this desert of difficulties, perplexed
+but undismayed, and still believing in, and steadfastly seeking for, the
+work allotted to such weak hands as hers.
+
+There is something magnetic in unflagging energy, and untiring hope;
+they mysteriously attract to themselves the materials which they most
+need. By a seeming accident, Ruth heard that an assistant housekeeper
+was required at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York. Her high-born
+relatives learned with horror that one of their kin, the daughter of a
+gentleman who had held an honorable position in their community,
+contemplated filling this menial position. But, in spite of their
+disapproval, Ruth presented herself as an applicant for the post, and
+though her youth (for she was hardly twenty) was an objection, her
+services were accepted; and she entered forthwith upon her lowly duties.
+
+We need not dwell upon the manifold and humiliating trials to which she
+was subjected,--trials to which the loveliness of her person largely
+contributed. Like a true American maiden, well-disciplined,
+self-reliant, and of strong principles, she found protection within
+herself, and bade defiance to dangers which might have proved fatal to
+one whose early training had been less productive of strength.
+
+It was while Ruth was meekly discharging these humble duties that she
+became acquainted with Mademoiselle Melanie.
+
+On arriving in New York, Madame de Fleury had taken up her residence for
+a few days at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, and, as though she feared to lose
+sight of Mademoiselle Melanie, requested her to do the same. A severe
+indisposition, which caused the latter to seek feminine aid, threw her
+in communication with the housekeeper of the hotel and her young
+assistant. Mademoiselle Melanie quickly became interested in the sweet,
+pale, patient face hovering about her bed, and did not fail to note the
+air of refinement which seemed at variance with her position. In less
+than four and twenty hours the young French _couturière_ had learned the
+history of the young American housekeeper, and resolved, if she
+prospered in America, to remove this lovely girl from her present
+perilous position to one less exposed.
+
+Six months later Ruth received a letter from Washington making her an
+offer to become one of the assistants of Mademoiselle Melanie, and
+gratefully accepted the proposal. Mademoiselle Melanie found her young
+_employée's_ health too delicate for an exhausting apprenticeship to the
+needle, and employed Ruth in copying and coloring sketches of costumes
+which the accomplished _couturière_ herself designed. As she became more
+and more conversant with the noble character of her _protegée_ the
+spontaneous attachment she had conceived for her grew stronger, and Ruth
+Thornton became her constant companion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+MAURICE.
+
+
+On their arrival in America Ronald took Maurice to his southern home,
+where he was received with a cordial hospitality that strengthened and
+confirmed the tie of brotherhood between the young men.
+
+We will not attempt to portray the meeting between Ronald and his
+parents,--a meeting so full of joy that its throbs quickened into the
+pulse of pain, as though clay-compassed hearts were hardly large enough
+to endure the ecstasy of such a reunion. Nor will we dwell upon the
+proud elation with which Ronald's first ambitious attempt in art was
+contemplated by his parents. Their praises might simply have testified
+that love appreciates; the hand that wrought might have sanctified even
+a feeble work to their sight; but colder judgments pronounced Ronald's
+initiatory achievement a pledge of power, and all the more decisive
+because the execution of the youthful hand obviously had not kept pace
+with the strong conception of the fervid brain.
+
+We pass on to the effect produced upon Maurice by his sojourn in
+Ronald's transatlantic home.
+
+Many a pang did the youthful Frenchman endure as he noted the thorough
+and genial understanding which seemed to exist between the southern
+youth and his father. Maurice was amazed by Mr. Walton's unfailing
+recognition that his son was a responsible being; by the confidence he
+reposed in him; by the unequivocal manner in which he placed him upon a
+footing of equality, even while guiding him by his counsels,--counsels
+offered as the results of a larger experience, yet never so compulsorily
+urged as to check his son's freedom of decision. Maurice, marked, too,
+the earnest interest with which Mr. Walton entered into all Ronald's
+projects, albeit some of them appeared too wild and high-reaching to be
+easy of accomplishment; beheld how readily the paternal hand was
+stretched out to soften the ordeals through which the neophyte must
+inevitably pass, and was moved by the touching frankness with which the
+noble-minded parent repeatedly congratulated himself that he had not
+permitted his own predilections to force Ronald into a field of action
+repugnant to his tastes.
+
+When Maurice instinctively compared this liberal, high-toned father's
+mode of influencing his son with the tyrannous control of the haughty
+count, and contrasted Ronald's untrammeled position with his own state
+of dependent nonentity, he felt that unstruggling submission to the
+cruel decree which doomed him to waste those fresh, strong, aspiring
+years of his life in hopeless idleness was a weakness rather than a
+virtue.
+
+He was only spared from passing a judgment upon his father, more correct
+than filial, by throwing the blame of his conduct upon the shackling
+customs, and false opinions, and arbitrary laws of his native land. He
+could not but be forcibly struck by the wide dissimilarity between the
+usages and views of life which distinguished the two nations. In
+America, he saw men, self-made and self-educated, at an age when young
+Frenchmen have scarcely begun to be aware that they have any independent
+existence, rising to prominent and honorable positions, taking a bold
+part in public affairs, and asserting by their achievements the maturity
+of their brains. He saw men, who had been forced by circumstances to
+commence their lives of toil and self-support at fifteen and eighteen, a
+few years later not only gaining their own livelihood, but contributing
+to the maintenance of their families, and laying the foundation of
+future fortune. He saw artistic tastes, literary talents, professional,
+legislative, and military abilities, brought to opulent fruition in men
+but a few years his senior; and though every one seemed to work at high
+pressure, every one appeared to live rapidly, crowding each day with
+actions, still men _lived_, lived _consciously_, planting along the
+pathway of their pilgrimage the landmarks of positive deeds; and they
+sowed, and reaped, and rejoiced in their harvests, and if some of them
+grew old faster than their European brethren, their age was at least
+enriched by varied memories, vast experiences, manifold mental gains,
+that testified to the value of their lives.
+
+And was it imperative, Maurice asked himself, that the accident of noble
+blood should paralyze a man's volition, and that the bearing of a noble
+name should render his life inertly ignoble? He recognized that, in the
+seeming curse which condemned man to "work," God had hidden the richest
+blessing, even as he buried golden veins in the dark bosom of the earth.
+"Labor was privilege," and gave its sweetest flavor to the daily cup of
+life.
+
+As for Ronald, though he loved his country with the enthusiasm which
+characterized all his affections, he had never been fully cognizant of
+the advantages it possessed over the land in which he had lately
+sojourned until he saw them through the eyes of Maurice.
+
+Nothing is more true than that _we can render no service to another by
+which we are not served ourselves_, served spiritually, therefore
+_actually_, and in the highest sense; and not merely in his new
+appreciation of the land of his birth, but in numerous other ways,
+Ronald was the unconscious gainer by the helpful influence he exerted
+over his friend. The youthful Mentor confirmed himself in grand and
+vital truths while imparting them to Maurice; his own noble resolves
+were quickened into activity while he sought to infuse them into the
+mind of another; his own spirit acquired strength while he was
+endeavoring to render his companion strong of soul. Ronald's character
+was perhaps more affluent and expansive, had more force and fixedness of
+purpose, than that of Maurice, yet it derived fresh vigor from the less
+hopeful, less confident nature upon which it acted.
+
+Though Maurice owed much to the young art-student, he soon owed more to
+that gentle but potent hand by which Ronald had been moulded, refined,
+and spiritualized. Ronald's mother opened wide her large heart and her
+loving arms to take in the motherless youth thrown by an apparent
+accident within her sphere.
+
+Mrs. Walton was one of those beings to whom life is a poem, read it in
+sorrow or gladness, read it whatever way you will, because all things to
+her mind had a divine significance; she knew that nothing had either its
+_end_ or _origin_ here, and felt that the very day-dreams and
+aspirations of impulsive youth descended by influx from those supernal
+regions in which all _causes_ exist, though we darkly behold them
+through _effects_ ultimated upon our earthly plane. Her eyes were never
+bent upon the ground, to search out stumbling-blocks of doubt, but
+looked up Godward until the heavens grew less distant, and earth's
+perplexing mysteries were solved; and daily joys and daily pains only
+acquired importance through their bearing upon the joys and pains of
+eternity; and celestial light, flowing through her pure thoughts,
+reflected its mellow glory upon her humblest surroundings, and tinged
+them with ineffable beauty.
+
+Maurice, who had been so deeply impressed by Ronald's attributes and
+aims, quickly recognized the fountain-head from whence flowed the living
+waters he had drank, and, humbly bending to quaff at the same stream,
+became conscious that his whole being was vitalized and renewed. The
+great ends of existence, for the first time, became apparent to him; and
+as he learned to look upon the present and temporal as only of moment
+through their effect upon the future and eternal,--as he renounced a
+senseless belief in the very names of _chance_ and _accident_, and
+yielded to the conviction that the simplest as the gravest occurrences
+all tend to lay some stone in the great architectural edifice which
+every man is building for his own dwelling-place in the hereafter,--his
+trials, by some wondrous transmutation, wore a holy aspect, and gently
+into his unfolding spirit stole the comforting assurance that those very
+trials might be the fittest, the strongest, the _appointed_ instruments
+to hew out the pathway he panted to tread, and carve for him a future
+which could never have been wrought by such tools as the velvety hands
+of prosperity hold in their feeble grasp.
+
+The morbid melancholy into which Maurice had fallen, and which deepened
+with his vain pondering over the mysterious fate of Madeleine, rolled
+from his spirit before the breath of hope,--hope breathed through
+sunshine, from the lips of a woman whose sympathetic voice, tender
+looks, and quick comprehension of his emotions insensibly melted away
+reserve, and drew out all his confidence. He could talk to Mrs. Walton
+of Madeleine with an absence of _reticence_, an unchecked gush of
+feeling, which would not have been possible when he conversed with
+Ronald, or with any one but a woman, _and such a woman_.
+
+Far from advising him, as a worldly-wise counsellor would have done, to
+struggle against a passion which did not promise to prove fortunate, she
+bade him cherish the image of the one he so ardently loved with perfect
+trust, that if that woman were indeed his _other self_,--that _separate
+half_ which makes man's full complement,--he would, in spite of all
+adverse circumstances, be drawn to her, by mysterious and invisible
+cords, until their union was consummated.
+
+Mrs. Walton entertained the not irrational belief that as "either sex
+alone is _half_ itself," and "each fulfils defects in each," there was
+created for every male soul some feminine spirit, whose heart was
+capable of responding to the finest pulses of his; one who could meet
+his largest requirements; one who could alone render his being perfect,
+his true manhood complete; one whom he might never meet on earth, and
+yet who lived for him. This great truth (for as such he accepted it) was
+a glorious revelation to Maurice. He cast out the remembrance that
+Madeleine had said she loved another, or only recalled her declaration
+to feel certain that she had mistaken her own heart, or that he had
+misconstrued the language she had used. She became more vividly present
+than ever to his mind, and the constant thought that now confidently and
+happily wound itself about her seemed to him to annihilate material
+distances and bring their spirits into close communion.
+
+Maurice passed two delightful months beneath the hospitable roof of Mr.
+and Mrs. Walton. The period which Ronald had allowed himself for a
+holiday drew to a close. The sense of unoccupied power had begun to
+render him restless, and it was with elation which might have appeared
+tinctured with ingratitude by those who did not comprehend the
+mysterious workings of his untranquil ambition, that he prepared for his
+return to that foreign land where he could enjoy advantages for the
+prosecution of his art-studies unattainable in a young country.
+
+When Maurice embarked for America with Ronald, it was understood that
+they were to return to Europe together; but one morning, when the latter
+casually announced his intention of securing their passage on board of a
+steamer about to sail from New York, Maurice turned to him and said
+abruptly,--
+
+"Ronald, one berth will be sufficient."
+
+"My dear fellow, what do you mean?" inquired Ronald, only half
+surprised.
+
+"It is impossible for me," replied Maurice, "to return to my life of
+indolence and _supposed gayety_. A snake might more easily crawl back
+into his cast-off skin. I have breathed this free, exhilarating,
+vitalizing atmosphere, and the convention-laden air of Paris would
+stifle me. I have written to my father and announced that I propose
+remaining in Charleston. That is not all: he forbade my studying law in
+Paris, because his sapient Breton neighbors would have been scandalized
+by a viscount's taking so sensible a step; but possibly I may prepare
+myself for the bar at this distance, without subjecting my father to the
+annoyance of their disapproval. The period required for study is
+shorter, and I shall have a wider field in which to practise. I cannot
+be prepared to enter upon the duties of my profession much before the
+time when, according to the laws of France, I shall reach my majority;
+meanwhile I study, we will say, _for amusement_. I study as other men
+hunt, fish, boat, skate. What do you think of my plan?"
+
+Ronald grasped him warmly by the hand.
+
+"It is just what I expected of you, Maurice! When we first met, and I
+was so strongly attracted to you, an internal prescience whispered that
+you had within you the very qualities which are asserting their
+existence to-day."
+
+"They might have been _in_ me, Ronald," answered Maurice with emotion;
+"but I fear they would never have been brought _out_ but for your
+agency. I never can be grateful enough that we have been thrown
+together! I never can sum up the good you have done me! I stood in such
+great need of just the influence you and your mother"--The voice of
+Maurice trembled, and he was unable to proceed.
+
+Ronald broke the somewhat embarrassing silence by saying,--
+
+"In short, you have come to the conclusion that my mother is right in
+her faith, and whatever we actually need for our spiritual advancement
+is invariably sent, if we will but preserve ourselves in a state of
+reception. All that you still lack will be supplied in the same way, if
+you can but believe."
+
+"_I do believe_," answered Maurice, in a tone of greater solemnity than
+the occasion seemed to demand; but there was a world of meaning in those
+three words. We should be obliged to employ many if we attempted to
+express a tithe of what he had recently learned to _believe_ through
+the instrumentality of a noble thinker.
+
+A week later, Ronald folded his mother to his throbbing heart, and
+tenderly bade her adieu; but, without feeling that he should be parted
+from her by their material separation. Strange to say, his farewell to
+his father and Maurice was shadowed by a nearer approach to sadness and
+a more definite sense of sundering. Possibly their spirits had less
+power than his mother's to annihilate space and follow him whithersoever
+he went.
+
+Maurice was induced to linger a few days longer as the guest of his new
+friends, and his presence prevented the void left by the departure of a
+beloved and only son from being too keenly felt. At the commencement of
+a new week the young viscount removed to Charleston. That city was only
+a few miles distant from the residence of Ronald's parents. Mr. Walton
+had made his visitor acquainted with an eminent lawyer, who consented to
+receive Maurice de Gramont as a student.
+
+Count Tristan at first violently opposed his son's step, but he could
+not, with any show of reason, forbid his studying law as a _pastime_.
+The count's affairs became more and more entangled, and he grew more
+desirous than ever that his son should contract a wealthy marriage. The
+hope that Maurice might woo and win one of those numerous heiresses,
+who, Frenchmen imagine, abound in the Southern El Dorado, alone
+reconciled the haughty nobleman to his son's sojourn in America.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE ARISTOCRATS IN AMERICA.
+
+
+While Maurice was applying himself to study with a zeal and sense of
+enjoyment wholly new to him, Bertha was passing through various stages
+of ennui, and testing the patience, or rather the digestive powers, of
+that sorely discomforted _bon vivant_, her uncle. Day after day she grew
+more capricious, unreasonable, unmanageable.
+
+The distressed marquis came to the conclusion that his disturbed animal
+economy could only be restored by an amicable separation from his niece.
+But in vain he bestowed his smiles, and his _dinners_, upon the
+multitudinous suitors by whom the young heiress was besieged; her
+autocratic decree condemned him to the cruel duty of closing the
+sumptuous repasts by the _dessert_ of a dismissal to each lover in turn,
+without extending to any the faintest hope that his sentence might be
+reversed. Finally the marquis became a confirmed dyspeptic; the joy of
+his life was quenched when his appetite failed, beyond the resuscitating
+influence of _absenthe_ and other fashionable stimulants; the glory of
+his festive board had departed, and he was haunted by the conviction
+that the unnatural conduct of his niece would bring his whitening hairs,
+through sorrow and indigestion, to the grave.
+
+A small but dearly prized respite from his trials was granted him when
+Bertha paid her yearly visit, of four months, to her relatives in
+Brittany. Her stay, however, was never extended beyond the wonted
+period, for she found her sojourn at the Château de Gramont
+unmitigatedly dull. The reception of letters from Maurice, addressed to
+his father, alone relieved the tediousness of the hours; but these
+welcome messengers were infrequent, brief, and somewhat cold. They left
+Bertha so unsatisfied that before the close of the first year of her
+cousin's absence she opened a correspondence with him herself. The
+initiative letter was suggested by pleasant tidings, which she hastened
+to send. It was written immediately after the eighteenth anniversary of
+her birthday, and communicated the agreeable intelligence that upon that
+day she had again received a token of remembrance from their beloved
+Madeleine.
+
+A yearly gift, bearing the impress of those "fairy fingers," was the
+only sign Madeleine gave that she lived and remembered.
+
+Three years passed on, and upon each birthday, wherever Bertha chanced
+to be, in Bordeaux, in Paris, in Brittany, a small parcel was
+mysteriously left with the _concierge_ of the house where she was
+residing. The package was always addressed in Madeleine's handwriting,
+and contained some exquisite piece of needle-work, but no letter, and it
+bore no mark of post or express. It was invariably delivered by private
+hand. At least, it rendered certain the consolatory facts, not only that
+Bertha was unforgotten, but that Madeleine was cognizant of all her
+movements.
+
+No sooner had the heiress reached her majority than she prepared to
+carry into execution a plan which for a long period had been silently
+forming itself in her mind. Her earnest desire to visit America had been
+secretly, but systematically, strengthened by Count Tristan. He well
+knew that the Marquis de Merrivale would never be induced to become her
+escort; and, what was more likely than that she should seek the
+countenance and protection of her other relatives?
+
+He played his cards so adroitly that Bertha, without once suspecting his
+machinations, wrote to him, on the very day that closed her twenty-first
+year, and invited the countess and himself to accompany her upon an
+American tour. She took care delicately to make a stipulation that the
+expenses of the projected trip should devolve upon her. The count
+concealed his exultation under an air of well-acted reluctance, and
+required much persuasion before he could be taught to look with favor
+upon this _unexpected_ and _sudden_ proposition.
+
+There was no simulation in the dismay, the horror with which Bertha's
+proposal was greeted by the countess. How was she to breathe in a land
+where hereditary claims to rank were unknown?--where distinctions of
+_brains_ not _blood_ were alone recognized?--where a man might rise to
+the highest position, as ruler of the realm, though his father chanced
+to be a mechanic, and his grandfather's existence was untraceable? For a
+time, Bertha's entreaties and the count's representations were equally
+impotent; the countess was inexorable. But her son was not to be
+baffled; he found an avenue through which her heart could be reached,
+and her resolution undermined. It lay in the suggestion that Bertha's
+strong inclination to visit America sprang from a desire again to behold
+Maurice, and that the result of their meeting, after so long a
+separation, might be in the highest degree felicitous. Bertha, he urged,
+during the absence of Maurice, had probably learned that he was dearer
+to her than she imagined; and, if Maurice had reason to believe that she
+crossed the ocean for the sake of rejoining him, could he remain
+insensible to such a proof of devotion? The countess bowed her haughty
+head to a sacrifice which vitally compromised her dignity.
+
+One of the objects of the count's visit to America was to learn
+something further of the railroad company with which he was connected.
+For a time its operations had been suspended, owing to a financial
+crisis,--a sort of periodical American epidemic that, like cholera,
+sweeps over the land at intervals, making frightful ravage for a season,
+and departing as mysteriously as it came. The elastic nation, never long
+prostrate, had risen out of temporary difficulties and depression with a
+sudden bound, and prosperity walked in the very footprints of the late
+destroyer.
+
+Mr. Hilson had lately announced to Count Tristan that the railway
+association was again in full activity, and that the mooted question of
+the direction which the road ought to take would, ere long, be decided.
+He added that, according to his judgment, the left road was indubitably
+the more desirable. Should that road be chosen, it would pass through
+the property owned by the Viscount de Gramont. We have already alluded
+to the immense difference in the value of the estate which the advent of
+the railroad would insure.
+
+Bertha had no difficulty in obtaining the Marquis de Merrivale's
+approval of the contemplated trip.
+
+Early in the spring the party embarked upon one of those superb steamers
+that sweep across the ocean like floating cities, pulsating with
+multitudinous life.
+
+The passage was so smooth that Bertha thoroughly enjoyed the strange,
+new existence, and found such ever-varying beauty in the gorgeous
+sunsets, and the resplendent moonlight, that she even forsook her berth
+to see "Aurora draw aside her crimson curtain of the dawn;" in short she
+was in an appreciating mood throughout the voyage, and her happy state
+allowed her to ignore all the _désagreméns_ of the sea. The countess
+also, as she sat upon the deck in a comfortable arm-chair,--which she
+occupied as though it were a throne, and received the homage of
+fellow-passengers, who were obviously struck and awed by her majestic
+deportment,--pronounced the transit more endurable than she anticipated.
+
+Maurice had gone to New York to welcome the voyagers, and when the
+steamer neared the land he was the first person who bounded upon the
+deck. Bertha caught sight of him, and as she sprang forward and threw
+herself into his arms, weeping with joy and heartily returning his warm
+embrace, the countess and her son exchanged looks of exultation which
+showed that they had not reflected upon the vast distinction between the
+frank greeting of brother and sister, and the meeting of possible
+lovers.
+
+A slight, irrepressible shadow passed over the beaming countenance of
+Maurice as he turned from Bertha to welcome his father and grandmother.
+The cloud flitted by in an instant, and only betrayed that the past was
+unforgotten; while the look of manly confidence and self-possession, by
+which it was replaced, told that the present and the future could not be
+subject to by-gone storms.
+
+After the first salutations were over, the countess scanned Maurice from
+head to foot, to note what changes had been wrought by his residence in
+a country which she held in such supreme contempt. The slight curl and
+quivering of the lip, which accompanied her survey, bespoke that it was
+not entirely satisfactory. In the first place, his apparel displeased
+her. The care that he had once bestowed upon his toilet betrayed a
+slight leaning to the side of foppishness; _now_, his attire gave him
+the air of a man of business, rather than of mere pleasure. His bearing
+was more confident than in former days, his movements more rapid, his
+tone more animated and decisive, his whole manner more energetic. His
+face was slightly careworn, his brow had lost something of its unruffled
+smoothness, and the fresh carnation tints had faded out of his
+complexion; but the wealth of expression his countenance had gained
+might atone for heavier losses. In repose, his features wore a shade of
+habitual sadness; but that disappeared the moment he spoke, and was
+rather an air of reflection than of sorrow. Indeed, all gloom had
+vanished from his spirit soon after his arrival in America. The
+hope-inspiring ministry of Ronald's mother, first and engrossing study,
+and ceaseless occupation next, had effectually medicined his growing
+melancholy. Maurice had not felt himself a homeless exile during his
+four years' sojourn in a foreign land. The Château de Gramont was less
+dear to him than the quiet, unpretentious, but affection-brightened home
+where he was always welcomed as a son.
+
+When his stately grandmother, after so long a separation, once more
+appeared before him, the cold dignity, repelling hardness, and
+self-venerating pride of her demeanor struck him all the more painfully
+because it conjured up, in contrast, a vision of soft humility,--the
+gentle strength, the intellectual power, the refined tenderness of the
+lovely woman who realized his ideal of maternity.
+
+It almost seemed as though the countess had some internal perception
+that Maurice weighed her in the balance of a new judgment, and found her
+wanting; for she shrank beneath his gaze, and turned from him with a
+sense of sickening disappointment.
+
+Bertha, while she was struck by the marked alteration in Maurice, noted
+the change with undisguised admiration. To _her_ eyes he was a thousand
+times more attractive than ever, and she told him so without a shadow of
+bashful hesitation.
+
+The young French demoiselle had made up her mind to be charmed with
+America, and little is required to satisfy those who are determined to
+be pleased. How much of her enthusiasm was legitimately excited, and how
+much was the spontaneous kindling of her own bright spirit, we will not
+attempt to describe. Be it enough to say, that she frequently declared
+her most sanguine expectations were far surpassed.
+
+The countess, on the other hand, looked through a distorted medium which
+filled her with disgust. She was horrified at the publicity of
+hotel-life in New York. She could not tolerate the careless ease of the
+persons with whom she was thrown into accidental communication,--the
+confidence with which the very servants ventured to accost her. The
+absence of awe, the lack of head and knee bending, in her august
+presence, appeared a tacit insult. She was puzzled to reconcile the
+freedom with which she was constantly addressed with the great deference
+paid to her _sex_. While her _rank_ was almost ignored, the mere fact of
+being _a woman_ commanded an amount of consideration unsurpassed by the
+veneration paid to titled womanhood in her own land. Nothing, however,
+shocked her more than the liberty accorded to young American maidens.
+She found it impossible to comprehend that, educated as responsible
+beings, the strict _surveillance_ over girlhood's most trivial actions,
+which is deemed indispensable in France, ceased to be a matter of
+necessity in America.
+
+Immediately upon his arrival in New York the count had placed himself in
+communication with Mr. Hilson; and, a few days later, received a letter
+informing him that at a recent meeting of the managers of the ---- ----
+Railway Association a committee of nine had been chosen to decide upon
+the most suitable direction of the new road. The committee was to give
+in its decision at the end of a fortnight. Mr. Hilson regretted to add
+that he feared the majority were in favor of the road to the _right_. He
+concluded by suggesting that it might be well for the count to visit
+Washington, and exert over members of the committee any influence, that
+he could command, to secure a majority of votes in favor of the road
+which would prove so advantageous to his son's property.
+
+The count resolved to act at once upon Mr. Hilson's suggestion. When he
+proposed to his mother and Bertha that they should start the very next
+day for Washington, the countess, for the first time since her arrival,
+expressed herself gratified. At the seat of government she would meet
+the French ambassador and his wife (the Marquis and Marchioness de
+Fleury), and possibly, in the circle in which they moved, she might
+encounter foreigners with whom it would not be repugnant to associate.
+
+Bertha heard Count Tristan's announcement with such bright gleamings of
+the eyes, such happy flushings of the cheeks, that the sudden radiance
+which overspread her countenance set Maurice wondering over the emotions
+that caused her to so warmly welcome this unanticipated change of
+locality.
+
+The revery into which he had fallen was broken by his father. The count
+launched into a discussion upon the management of property in America,
+then glided into the subject of the Maryland estate, and finally
+suggested that it would be advisable for his son to grant him a power of
+attorney which would place him in a situation to act as his
+representative in any case of emergency. Maurice unhesitatingly
+expressed his willingness to comply with this request, and the legal
+instrument was drawn up without delay. Upon receiving the document, the
+count assured his son that there was no probability that the power would
+be required, and voluntarily pledged himself not to make use of it
+without apprising Maurice.
+
+Count Tristan's words and intentions were wholly at variance. His
+affairs in Brittany had become so frightfully entangled, that it was
+absolutely necessary for him to be able to command a considerable sum to
+redeem his credit; and he saw no means by which this desirable end could
+be obtained, except by a mortgage upon his son's estate. One of his
+strongest motives in visiting America was to effect this purpose; but he
+earnestly desired to conceal from Maurice the step he projected,
+trusting to his own skill in under-hand management for the smoothing
+away of difficulties before there was a necessity for explanation.
+
+Maurice accompanied the count, his mother, and Bertha to Washington, and
+there bidding them adieu returned to Charleston.
+
+His preparatory studies being now completed, he was received as junior
+partner by the gentleman who had initiated him into the mysteries of his
+profession.
+
+It chanced that Mr. Lorrillard had large possessions in certain iron
+mines in Pennsylvania, which gave promise of yielding an immense profit.
+He had conceived a high esteem for the young viscount, and, with a view
+of promoting his interests, represented to him the advantage of
+purchasing a few shares, which could at that moment be favorably
+secured. Maurice had no funds at his command; but Mr. Lorrillard
+suggested that the viscount could easily procure the ten thousand
+dollars needful by a mortgage upon his Maryland estate, and even offered
+to give him a letter to Mr. Emerson,--a personal friend residing in
+Washington,--who, as the estate was wholly unembarrassed, would
+willingly loan the money upon this security. It was hardly possible for
+Maurice to have resided so long in America without being slightly bitten
+by the national mania for speculation, and he gladly accepted the offer
+of his principal, and retraced his steps to Washington.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE INCOGNITA.
+
+
+Maurice arrived in Washington without having apprised his father of his
+purposed visit. Count Tristan received him with ill-concealed
+embarrassment; but the young viscount was too ingenuous himself, and
+therefore too unsuspicious of others, for him to attribute his father's
+discomposure to any source but surprise at his unexpected appearance. If
+Maurice noted an absence of pleasure in the count's constrained
+greeting, he was too much accustomed to the formal and undemonstrative
+manners of the aristocracy to dwell upon the lack of warmth.
+
+The count had taken up his residence at Brown's hotel. He chanced to be
+sitting alone when his son was ushered into the drawing-room. The
+opportunity was a favorable one for Maurice to communicate to his father
+the object of his visit.
+
+After the first salutations were over, he inquired, rather abruptly,
+"Have you seen Mr. Hilson? What does he say in regard to the
+probabilities that the railroad will take the direction which we so much
+desire?"
+
+"Our prospects are tolerably good," returned the count; "but we need to
+exert ourselves, and, possibly, you may be of service. The committee
+that has the decision in its hands consists of nine persons. Out of
+these, four have declared their preference for the road to the right,
+and are immovable. Our friends, Meredith and Hilson, who are on the
+committee, vote, of course, for the left road; then there are two rival
+bankers, Mr. Gobert and Mr. Gilmer, who are bitterly opposed to each
+other, and generally vote in opposition one to the other; we must bring
+some agency into play which will induce them, for once, to vote alike."
+
+"That seems indispensable; but is it possible?" questioned Maurice.
+
+"I trust so. Mr. Gobert is the banker of the Marquis de Fleury, who
+exerts unbounded power over him. One word from the marquis, and Gobert's
+vote is secured. The marquis, as every one is aware, can always be
+approached through Madame de Fleury. Obtain _her_ promise that we shall
+have Mr. Gobert's vote, and it is ours! The marchioness, I fear, may not
+have forgiven Bertha's rejection of her brother's suit; but, as both
+parties are still unmarried and unengaged, if she can only be convinced
+that Bertha's refusal was mere girlish caprice, and that there is still
+hope of the young duke's success, she will be ready enough to serve us."
+
+"But is there hope?" inquired Maurice, quite innocently.
+
+The wily schemer replied by a glance half-angry, half-contemptuous; but,
+without making any other answer, went on.
+
+"The other banker, Mr. Gilmer, I am seeking the means to influence. I
+have no doubt that I shall find them. The ninth member of the committee
+is Mr. Rutledge, quite a young man, the only son and heir of a
+Washington millionnaire. I learn, from M. de Bois, that Rutledge is
+deeply enamored of the sister of Lord Linden."
+
+"I beg pardon, but you have not yet told me who Lord Linden is; and it
+is so unusual to hear _lords_ mentioned in this country that my ears are
+quite unattuned to the sound of a title."
+
+Another hasty look from the count might have been interpreted into one
+of slight disgust. His son was far more Americanized than he could have
+desired. He went on, with increased haughtiness.
+
+"The English ambassador to the United States married a sister of Lord
+Linden, and his lordship and a younger sister accompanied them to
+Washington. Mr. Rutledge aspires to the hand of this young lady,--so
+says M. de Bois, who is intimately acquainted with her brother. If she
+can be interested in our plans the vote of Mr. Rutledge is easily
+secured."
+
+Maurice could not help laughing.
+
+"It is, _in reality_, the votes of _women_, then, that are to determine
+the direction of this road? I ought hardly to be surprised at _that_;
+for, if they have feeble voices in other lands, they have very decided
+ones in America. But how is the young lady in question to be reached?"
+
+"That is what I am pondering upon," resumed his father. "I shall form
+some plan, you may be sure; and no time must be wasted in carrying it
+into execution. I have already ventured to touch upon the subject to
+Lord Linden, but have not said anything definite. It is a difficult
+affair to conduct delicately; yet the obtaining of these votes is of
+such vital importance that we must strain every nerve to secure them."
+
+"Certainly, since it will more than treble the value of the property,"
+observed Maurice, placidly. "By the by, I presume you have had no
+occasion to use the power of attorney which I gave you? Just at this
+moment it is very fortunate for me that the estate is wholly
+unencumbered."
+
+The count grew ashy pale; but Maurice did not observe his change of
+color, nor mark the hesitating tone in which he replied, "Very
+fortunate, of course,--very fortunate, indeed;" and then, looking at his
+watch, he added, "It is time for your grandmother and Bertha to return.
+Lord Linden and M. de Bois escorted them to the capitol. You must be
+impatient to see them."
+
+"In regard to this property, Mr. Lorrillard informs me," resumed
+Maurice; but the count interrupted him.
+
+"A visit to Madame de Fleury is now the first step to be taken; _there_
+you may be useful; you are such a decided favorite of hers, that your
+advocacy may be inestimable. Suppose you call at once, and learn at what
+hour she will receive your grandmother, Bertha, and myself. A visit from
+you will open the way."
+
+"I will call with pleasure," answered Maurice. "I have a letter from Mr.
+Lorrillard to his friend Mr. Emerson, which I should like to deliver
+without delay. It is a matter of business. Mr. Lorrillard thinks that,
+as my estate is wholly unencumbered"--
+
+"We can talk of that at another time," replied the count, hurriedly.
+"Suppose you pay your visit to the marchioness at once. It is hardly
+worth while waiting for the ladies; no one can tell when they may
+return."
+
+Maurice, though he could not interpret the count's singular manner,
+could not even remotely divine the meaning of its abruptness and
+confusion, felt himself checked in his proposed communication. He
+experienced no uneasiness; he had not the faintest conception that the
+count was dealing doubly with him, and that his very first act, on
+reaching Washington, had been to mortgage the estate of his son for so
+large amount that, but for the advent of the railroad, upon which he
+confidently calculated, the mortgage must prove ruinous to the
+interests of the landholder.
+
+Had Maurice been aware of this fact, he would not for a moment have
+contemplated delivering to Mr. Emerson Mr. Lorrillard's letter, in which
+it was distinctly stated that the property of the viscount was without
+lien.
+
+Further discussion between the father and son was prevented by the
+entrance of the countess, accompanied by Lord Linden, and followed by
+Bertha and Gaston de Bois.
+
+Maurice, as he saluted his grandmother, was gratified to observe that,
+albeit her air was by no means less stately, it was more satisfied and
+complacent. Though titled nobility had no native existence in the
+semi-civilized land, she rejoiced to find that it was sometimes
+_imported_. She had at last encountered an individual with whom she
+could associate without derogation. The French, as all the world knows,
+have a national antipathy towards the English; but a nobleman, even
+though he chanced to be an Englishman, was hailed by the Countess de
+Gramont, upon American soil, as a God-send. Lord Linden was not aware of
+the compliment implied by the unwonted graciousness of her demeanor, and
+the tone of _almost_ equality in which she addressed him.
+
+Maurice comprehended the altered expression that softened his
+grandmother's countenance, but was struck and amazed by the wonderful
+radiance of Bertha's face. Her eyes shone as though a veritable sun
+lived behind those azure heavens, and almost annihilated their color by
+its brightness; her lips were eloquent with a voiceless happiness they
+did not care to hide, yet could not speak; the laughing dimples played
+perpetually about her softly suffused cheeks; her elastic feet almost
+danced, so airy was their tread; about her whole presence there was a
+buoyant glow that seemed to encompass her with an atmosphere of light
+and warmth.
+
+She had not attempted to disguise her joy on again meeting Gaston de
+Bois; and, though he had paid them repeated visits during their sojourn
+in Washington, there was always the same deepening of the hue upon
+Bertha's cheek; the same flood of sunshine brightening over her face;
+the same softening of the tones of her voice; the same quickened rise
+and fall of her fair bosom when he approached.
+
+And he,--did he not note these betraying indications of his own power?
+Did they strike no electric thrill through his rejoicing soul? If they
+did, he was too much bewildered by a happiness so unexpected to search
+out calmly the hidden meaning of these precious signs.
+
+The change in the deportment and character of M. de Bois, which we
+described at its commencement, was now fully confirmed; and though the
+blood still sprang too rapidly into his face, and his breathing grew
+labored with emotion, and his manner, especially in Bertha's presence,
+was slightly confused, it was the confusion of elation rather than
+embarrassment. The self-control he had acquired had almost overcome his
+propensity to stammer, and Bertha was unreasonable enough to half regret
+that she could no longer finish his sentences, and thus prove how
+instinctively she divined his thoughts.
+
+Maurice greeted her, as was his cousinly wont after a separation, with a
+kiss on either cheek; but, for the first time, she shrank from his
+touch, and her ingenuous eyes involuntarily glanced toward Gaston, then
+were quickly cast down; and the mutinous ringlets that had, as usual,
+escaped from bondage, were a welcome veil, as they fell over her face.
+
+"Why, little Bertha, has an absence of four years made you forget that
+we are cousins?" asked Maurice, in surprise at her manner.
+
+"No--no," she answered, shaking back the curls, and looking up brightly
+in his face; "and I am rejoiced that you have come to Washington: it is
+a delightful place; I am charmed with everything I see."
+
+Did Bertha reflect how much the charm of a locality depends upon our own
+internal condition? Was she aware that any place, however tame and dull,
+becomes delightful through the presence of one who creates in us a state
+receptive of enjoyment?
+
+Maurice expressed his intention of calling upon Madame de Fleury; Lord
+Linden and M. de Bois proposed to accompany him. The three gentlemen
+took their departure together. But soon after they left the hotel,
+Maurice changed his mind; and, telling his companions that he had some
+business to transact which required immediate attention, apologized for
+leaving them, adding that he would call upon Madame de Fleury an hour
+later, and hoped he might have the pleasure of meeting them there.
+
+M. de Bois proposed to Lord Linden that they, also, should postpone
+their visit.
+
+"As you please," answered his lordship, languidly. "I am perfectly at
+leisure. I will go wherever you are going,--it does not matter where; I
+am indifferent to place."
+
+Lord Linden always _was_ at leisure, and always indifferent, and not
+unfrequently attached himself to Gaston de Bois, and seemed disposed to
+accompany him wherever he went.
+
+His lordship was one of that vast race of _blasé_ young noblemen whose
+opportunities of enjoyment had never been circumscribed, except by the
+absence of the capacity to enjoy, and who, as a natural sequence, were
+continually oppressed with a sense of satiety, enervated by the noonday
+sunshine of unbroken prosperity, and thoroughly weary of their own
+existence. When his brother-in-law had been appointed ambassador to
+America, he had accompanied him to the United States with a vague idea
+that he would be thrown in contact with warlike tribes of Indians, the
+aborigines of the soil, whose novel and barbarous usages might afford
+him some mediocre measure of excitement. We need hardly picture his
+disappointment.
+
+The ambassadors from foreign courts and their suites were as a matter of
+course, thrown into constant communication with each other, and the
+secretary of the French ambassador and the brother-in-law of the English
+formed an acquaintance which ripened into an approach to intimacy. There
+was no particular affinity between them, but Lord Linden liked M. de
+Bois's society because he was a patient listener, and Lord Linden was
+the opposite to taciturn; and Gaston, though he sometimes, as in the
+present instance, felt his lordship an encumbrance, had too often been a
+victim to ennui not to sympathize with a fellow-sufferer.
+
+"Mademoiselle de Merrivale has a remarkably attractive face," said Lord
+Linden. "I do not particularly fancy blondes; there is too much
+milk-and-water and crushed rose-leaves in their general make-up; but, if
+a blonde could, to my eyes, enter the charmed circle of the positively
+beautiful, I would give her admission."
+
+Gaston, who had fallen into a pleasant revery, was quickly roused by
+this observation, and exclaimed, with an indignant intonation, "Not
+admit a _blonde_ into the circle of the beautiful? Can anything be
+lovelier than the countenance you have just looked upon?"
+
+"Yes," replied the nobleman, musing in his turn.
+
+"I think I could show you a face that would make Mademoiselle de
+Merrivale's sink into the most utter insignificance."
+
+"Is your beauty a Washington belle?" inquired Gaston, half-scornfully.
+
+"I do not know,--I do not know anything about her. I merely spoke
+figuratively when I said _I could show you_,--for I certainly could
+_not_, at this moment; but I allude to the most peerless being that ever
+captivated the eyes of man. In her, indeed, one could realize the poet's
+thought,--
+
+        "'All beauty compassed in a female form.'"
+
+"And who is this incomparable divinity?" asked Gaston, still with a
+touch of sarcasm in his voice.
+
+"Who is she? That is more than I know myself. We were thrown together by
+an accident,--quite an every-day occurrence in this headlong-rushing,
+pell-mell, neck-breaking land, where the people contemplate railroad
+catastrophes and steamboat explosions with as cool indifference as
+though they were a necessary part of a traveller's programme."
+
+"You were thrown in contact with your beauty, then, by a railroad
+collision, or were blown together through the bursting of a boiler?"
+remarked Gaston interrogatively, and more because civility seemed to
+demand the question than because he took any especial interest in the
+narrative.
+
+"Yes, quite a stirring incident. I felt alive for a month after. I was
+travelling from New York to Washington, in such a listless and used-up
+state that, in my desperation, I seriously pondered upon the amount of
+emotion that could be derived from jumping off the train, at the risk of
+one's neck. As I was glancing restlessly around, suddenly a face rose
+before me that riveted my eyes. It was a countenance unlike any I had
+ever seen. Though features and outline were faultless, in these the
+least part of its beauty was embodied. There was an eloquence in the
+rapid transitions of expression that melted one into another; there was
+a dreamy thoughtfulness in the magnificent hazel eyes. They were not
+exactly hazel either,--they reminded one of a topaz. I hardly know what
+name to give to their hue. But it is useless to attempt to describe such
+a face and form. I might heap epithet upon epithet, and then leave you
+without the faintest conception of the bewildering loveliness of their
+possessor."
+
+"You succeeded in becoming acquainted with the lady?" inquired Gaston,
+now really interested.
+
+"That good fortune was brought about by one of those ill winds, which,
+for the proverb's sake, must blow good to some one. It could not have
+been accomplished by any effort of my own, for there was an air of quiet
+dignity about the lady that no gentleman could have ventured to ruffle
+by too marked observation, far less by presuming to address even a
+passing remark. We were about half way between Philadelphia and
+Baltimore, when suddenly a terrific shock was felt, followed by a
+dashing of all humanity to one side of the cars, and a great crash. We
+had run into another train, were thrown off the track, and, in a moment
+more, upset."
+
+"Since you were longing for excitement," observed Gaston, "this
+agreeable little variety must have gratified you."
+
+"Yes, it was well enough in its way, not being positively fatal to
+existence. You may conceive the confusion and the difficulty of getting
+upon one's feet. How the people scrambled out of the cars I do not
+exactly know; for a short time I was too much stunned to see anything
+distinctly. I remember nothing clearly until somebody helped me up, and,
+in trying to move my left arm, I discovered that it was broken."
+
+"How unfortunate! And you lost sight of the lady?"
+
+"It would have been unfortunate if I _had_ lost sight of her; but I did
+not. The passengers were huddled together in a most primitive inn by the
+road-side. There I beheld her, moving about, quite unharmed, quieting a
+child here, assisting a young mother there, doing something helpful
+everywhere. There chanced to be a surgeon in the cars, who, happily, was
+uninjured. He saw my predicament, for I was suffering confoundedly, and,
+upon examining my arm, said that it must be set at once. He called upon
+several persons to aid him. Some were too much occupied with their own
+distress; some too bewildered; and some shrank from the task. But, to my
+supreme joy (it was worth breaking an arm for such a piece of good
+luck), the lady I just mentioned came forward, and offered her services!
+She tore my handkerchief and her own into bandages, produced needle and
+thread from her little travelling reticule, and sewed them together. She
+assisted the surgeon in the most skilful but the calmest manner. What
+could I do but express my gratitude? This was the opening to a
+conversation. We were detained several hours at the inn before a train
+arrived to take us on our journey. I had always detested these American
+cars, where all the travellers sit together in pairs; but now I rejoiced
+over them, for I managed to obtain a seat beside her. We conversed,
+without pause, during the whole way to Washington; and what propriety
+and good sense she evinced! Her beauty had deeply impressed me, but her
+conversation struck me even more. Such elevated thoughts dropped
+spontaneously from her lips, and so naturally, that she did not seem to
+be aware that there was anything peculiar about them. It was enough to
+drive a man distracted; I confess that it did me!"
+
+"She came to Washington then?"
+
+"Yes; and here we were forced to part. I begged that she would allow me
+the privilege of calling to thank her. In the most suave, lady-like, but
+resolute manner,--a manner that silenced all pleading,--she declined.
+But she had inadvertently admitted that she resided in Washington.
+_That_ has kept me here ever since. I have been searching for her these
+six months."
+
+"And you have never met her again?"
+
+"No, I have sought her in the highest circles; for, from her
+distinguished and even aristocratic air, her exceeding cultivation and
+good-breeding, I infer that she is a person of standing. It was somewhat
+singular that a lady of her unmistakable stamp should have been
+travelling alone; but that is not unusual in this country. In spite of
+all my efforts, I have never been able to encounter her again. I
+examined the strips of the fine cambric handkerchief with which my arm
+was bound, hoping to find a name. Upon one strip the letter 'M' was
+daintily embroidered. I have those strips yet carefully preserved."
+
+"Do you think she was an American lady?"
+
+"No, assuredly not. Though she spoke the English language very purely,
+and as only a scholar could have conversed, a slight accent betrayed
+that she was a foreigner; French, or Italian, I imagine. If I could only
+behold her once again, I should not be so miserably tired of everything
+and so bored by my own existence. Washington is killingly dull. By the
+way, the de Fleurys give a grand ball on Monday. I hear that there is
+great anxiety prevalent in the _beau monde_ on the score of invitations.
+Of course, Mademoiselle de Merrivale will be there. Her face must create
+a sensation. What a piece of good fortune it would be if I could see it,
+at this very ball, contrasted with that of my lovely incognita! _There_
+is a day-dream for you! I never attend a ball, or any large assembly,
+without a vague anticipation of finding her in the crowd. I should like
+to hear _your_ candid opinion if you saw those two faces placed side by
+side."
+
+The response which Gaston made to this remark, and which expressed
+certain convictions of his own, was not uttered aloud.
+
+It is one of love's happy prerogatives that the countenance best beloved
+gains to the lover's eye a charm beyond that with which any other face
+is endowed, even when he is forced to admit _that_ dearest visage is
+surpassed in point of positive, calculable, tangible beauty.
+
+    "A man may love a woman perfectly,
+    And yet by no means ignorantly maintain
+    A thousand women have not larger eyes:
+    Enough that she alone has looked at him
+    With eyes that, large or small, have won his soul."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+THE CYTHEREA OF FASHION.
+
+
+Maurice had so unceremoniously parted from Lord Linden and M. de Bois
+because he suddenly remembered that Mr. Lorrillard had impressed upon
+him the necessity of making his arrangements with Mr. Emerson without
+delay, as the present was a peculiarly favorable moment for purchasing
+shares in the mines whose iron he hoped to convert to gold.
+
+The viscount presented himself at Mr. Emerson's office, and delivered
+Mr. Lorrillard's letter. This latter gentleman was held in such high
+esteem that an introduction of his was certain of meeting with the
+utmost consideration. Mr. Emerson, after only a brief conversation with
+Maurice, informed him that he was ready to make the desired loan upon
+the security offered, and begged that he would call the next morning,
+when the necessary formalities would at once be gone through.
+
+Gratified by his visit and elated by the prospect of effecting a
+business transaction of so much importance, never dreaming of the fatal
+sequence which might be the result, Maurice drove to the residence of
+the French ambassador. It was not Madame de Fleury's reception-day, but
+by some mistake he was ushered into her drawing-room. In a few minutes,
+Lurline, a confidential _femme de chambre_, whom Maurice had often seen
+in Paris,--a being all fluttering ribbons and alluring smiles and
+graceful courtesies and coquettish airs,--made her appearance.
+
+"Madame has received the card of monsieur _le vicomte_," she began, with
+a sugary accent and soft manner, which reminded one strongly of the
+tones and deportment of her mistress. "Madame would not treat monsieur
+as a stranger, and therefore sent _me_,"--here, with her head on one
+side, she courtesied again, bewitchingly,--"to say that we have a new
+valet,--an ignorant fellow, for it is impossible to procure a decent
+domestic in America,--and this untrained creature has to be drilled into
+_les usages_: he has forgotten that madame only receives on Saturday.
+Madame, however, would see _M. le vicomte_ at any time that was
+possible."
+
+"I am delighted to hear you say so," returned Maurice, "for I am very
+desirous of having the pleasure of paying my respects."
+
+"Madame is preparing for a _matinée_, at the Spanish Embassy. She is
+just _coiffé_, and monsieur should see what a magnificent head I have
+made for her. Notwithstanding my success with her head she is at this
+moment in deep distress: her dress has not yet arrived; we expect it
+every moment! Madame's agitation is overpowering. She is quite unequal
+to encountering a disappointment of this crushing nature. She begs
+monsieur will excuse"--
+
+Before she could finish the sentence, the marchioness herself appeared,
+wrapped in a delicate, rose-colored _robe-de-chambre_, prodigally
+adorned with lace and embroidery.
+
+"My dear M. de Gramont, I meant to excuse myself; but as I am forced to
+wait for that tantalizing dress, a few moments with you, _en attendant_,
+will divert my thoughts. I had heard from M. de Bois, that the Countess
+de Gramont and her son, with Mademoiselle de Merrivale, are honoring
+Washington by their presence; but I was informed that _you_ were not
+here. You see I paid you the compliment of inquiring."
+
+As she spoke, she glanced at the mirror opposite, and arranged the long
+sprays of feathery flowers that were mingled with her braided tresses.
+
+"I am highly flattered at not being forgotten," replied Maurice. "I only
+arrived this morning, and hastened to pay my respects."
+
+"And you ought to be very much flattered that I can spare you an
+instant, at such a critical moment. Here is my toilet for this _matinée_
+at a dead stand-still, because that tiresome dress has not come. It is
+one I ordered expressly for the occasion, and, I assure you, it is a
+perfect triumph of art,--a victory gained over great obstacles. Let me
+tell you, nothing is more difficult to manage than an appropriate
+costume for a _matinée_. One's toilet must be a delicate compromise
+between ball attire and full visiting dress, but Mademoiselle Melanie
+has hit the _juste milieu_; and succeeded in carrying me through all the
+perils of Scylla and Charybdis. Oh, dear! oh, dear!" (stamping her tiny
+slippered foot) "will that dress never come?"
+
+"It must be very trying!" said Maurice, endeavoring to assume a tone of
+sympathy.
+
+"Trying? it is _killing_! Imagine my state of mind. I cannot go
+_without_ this dress: all my other toilets have been seen more than once
+in public; and this one was sure to create a sensation,--was planned for
+this very occasion!"
+
+"I fear my visit is inopportune, and ought to be shortened," replied
+Maurice, for the agitated manner and troubled look of Madame de Fleury
+made him feel that he must be an intruder. "I will only remain long
+enough to know if you will receive my grandmother, my father, and my
+cousin, Mademoiselle Bertha, to-morrow; they are very"--
+
+"Hush!" cried Madame de Fleury, raising her finger and listening with an
+eager countenance. "Was that not a ring? Patrick is opening the door.
+Hush! let me listen! It is the dress,--it must be the dress!" and she
+made several rapid steps toward the door, but returned to her seat as
+the servant passed through the entry with empty hands. "This is
+terrible! I have not my wits about me; I do not know what I am doing or
+saying!"
+
+"I am truly concerned," observed Maurice, who had risen to depart. "May
+I tell the Countess de Gramont that you will receive her to-morrow?"
+
+"To-morrow? Yes, certainly. I do not remember any engagement, but I can
+think of nothing at this moment. If that tormenting dress would only
+arrive! I fear it will never be here! It is the first time Mademoiselle
+Melanie ever disappointed me; she is punctuality itself. This waiting is
+torture, and completely upsets me,--turns my brain; it will throw me
+into a nervous fever. You, insensible men, cannot feel for such a
+position; you do not know the importance of a toilet."
+
+"We must be very dull if we do not know how to appreciate those of
+Madame de Fleury," replied Maurice, bowing courteously. "Pray, do not
+include me in the catalogue of such sightless individuals. I will bid
+you adieu until to-morrow, when you will allow me to accompany my
+grandmother?"
+
+"You are always welcome. Pray tell the countess I shall be charmed to
+see her, and say the same to that cruel Mademoiselle Bertha,--though I
+ought not to forgive her treatment of my brother. Say to her that he is
+yet unconsoled. Good gracious! That dress certainly is not coming! If it
+were to arrive at this moment I should be obliged to hasten; and to give
+the _finishing_ touches to a toilet in a hurried and discomposed manner
+is to run the risk of spoiling the general effect. What _can_ have
+happened to Mademoiselle Melanie? Hark! is not that some one? Did you
+not hear a ring? I am not mistaken; some one _did_ come in. It is the
+dress at last!"
+
+The marchioness started up joyfully, with clasped hands, and an
+expression of deep gratitude. A servant entered with a note; she
+snatched it petulantly and tossed it into the card-basket unopened.
+
+"How vexatious! Only a note! It is _too_ cruel! I shall never, never
+pardon Mademoiselle Melanie if she disappoints me. But that's easy
+enough to say, difficult enough to carry into execution. In reality I
+could not exist without her; and Mademoiselle Melanie knows _that_ as
+well as I do. She is so sought after that her exhibition-rooms are
+crowded from morning until night. It is now a favor for her to receive
+any new customers, and I believe she has some thirty or forty workwomen
+in her employment. Of course, you have heard of Mademoiselle Melanie?"
+
+"I have not had that pleasure; she is a mantua-maker, I presume,"
+returned Maurice, repressing a smile.
+
+"I suppose that is what, strictly speaking, we must call her; but she is
+the very Queen of Taste, the Sovereign of Modistes. She has a genius
+that is extraordinary,--it is magic,--it is inspiration! A touch of her
+hand transforms every one who approaches her. What figures she has made
+for some of these American women! What charms she has developed in them!
+What an air and grace she has imparted to their whole appearance! She
+makes the most vulgar look elegant, and the elegant, divine! Another
+ring. Now Heaven grant it may be the dress at last!"
+
+The marchioness was again disappointed: it was only another note, which
+shared the fate of the former.
+
+"Oh, I shall not survive this!" she ejaculated, dropping into an
+arm-chair; "and that horrid little Mrs. Gilmer will triumph in my
+absence. You know Mrs. Gilmer?"
+
+"I have not that honor," returned Maurice, who, impatient as he was to
+take his leave, found it impossible to depart while the marchioness
+chose to detain him.
+
+"She attempts to pass herself off for a belle, and even tries to take
+precedence of _me_, ignoring all the customs of good society; but,
+doubtless, the poor thing is actually ignorant of them, and should be
+pardoned and pitied for her ill-breeding. She is the wife of Gilmer, the
+rich banker. It is to Mademoiselle Melanie that she is indebted for all
+her social success. Mademoiselle Melanie positively _created_ her, and
+she never wears anything made by any one else. It is all owing to
+Mademoiselle Melanie that the men surround her as they do, and try to
+persuade themselves that she is pretty. Pretty! with her turn-up nose,
+and colorless hair and eyes. Her husband is immensely rich; and, as
+wealth rules the day in this country, she takes good care that the depth
+of his purse shall be known; for that purpose she loads herself with
+diamonds,--always diamonds. She has not the least idea of varying her
+jewels; even Mademoiselle Melanie could not make her comprehend that
+art. I wonder she does not have a dress contrived of bank-notes! _That_
+would be novel, and it would also prove a capital way of announcing her
+opulence!"
+
+"A rather dangerous costume!" returned Maurice, laughing.
+
+"At all events it would be original; and, as originality is sure to
+produce an effect, the saucy little _parvenue_ might afford to follow my
+advice, even though it came from an enemy."
+
+Maurice could not help exclaiming with a comical intonation,--for there
+was something irresistibly ludicrous in the puny fierceness of the
+dressed doll,--"An enemy!"
+
+"Oh, there is no concealment about it!" exclaimed Madame de Fleury with
+the air of a Liliputian belligerent. "It is open warfare; we are at
+swords' points, and all the world knows our animosity. And Mrs. Gilmer
+has the impertinence to pretend that our _styles_ are quite similar, and
+that the same modes become us. She even declares that such has been
+Mademoiselle Melanie's verdict, and from the judgment of Mademoiselle
+Melanie nobody dares to appeal."
+
+"This Mademoiselle Melanie is a Parisian, I presume?" asked Maurice,
+more because it seemed polite to say something, than from any interest
+in the answer to his question.
+
+"Could she be anything else?" replied Madame de Fleury, with enthusiasm.
+"Could a being gifted with such wondrous taste have been born out of
+Paris? She is a _protegée_ of Vignon's; and, when I was exiled,
+Mademoiselle Melanie came to America with me. She instantly became
+known. There is a Mr. Hilson here, to whom she probably brought letters,
+for he has taken the deepest interest in trumpeting her fame. She has
+created a perfect furor."
+
+"Hilson?" repeated Maurice, musingly. "A gentleman of that name visited
+Brittany before I left. I wonder if it can be the same person."
+
+"Very likely, for he has been abroad. I have heard him mention Brittany.
+Well, this Mr. Hilson was so infatuated with--hush! That is a ring!"
+
+While Madame de Fleury listened in breathless expectation, Lurline
+opened the door and announced, "The dress of madame has arrived!"
+
+"Ah! at last! at last! What happiness! I am saved, when I had almost
+given up all hope! Monsieur de Gramont, you will excuse me! _Au
+revoir!_"
+
+Before Maurice could utter his congratulations upon the advent of the
+dress, she had glided out of the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+MEETING.
+
+
+The tangled web Count Tristan had woven for others began to fold its
+meshes around himself, and to torture him with the dread that he might
+be caught in his own snare. From the moment Maurice arrived in
+Washington,--an event the count had not anticipated,--his covert use of
+the authority entrusted to him was menaced with discovery. To a frank,
+straightforward character, the very natural alternative would have
+suggested itself of explaining, and, as far possible, justifying the
+step just taken; but to a mind so full of guile, so wedded to wily
+schemes as the count's, a simple, upright course would never have
+occurred. The fear of exposure threw him into a state of nervous
+irritability which allowed no rest, and he was compelled to pay the
+price of deception by plunging deeper into her labyrinths, though every
+step rendered extrication from the briery mazes more difficult.
+
+On the morrow Maurice accompanied his grandmother, Bertha, and Count
+Tristan to the residence of the Marchioness de Fleury. Count Tristan's
+_malaise_ evinced itself by his unusually fretful and preoccupied
+manner, his querulous tone, and a partial forgetfulness of those polite
+observances of which he was rarely oblivious. He allowed his mother to
+stand, looking at him in blind amazement, before he remembered to open
+the door; was very near passing out of the room before her, and scarcely
+recollected to hand her into the carriage. His abstraction was partially
+dissipated by her scornful comment upon the contagious influences of a
+plebeian country; but to recover himself entirely was out of the
+question.
+
+On reaching the ambassador's mansion, the visitors were disconcerted by
+the information that Madame de Fleury "_did not receive_."
+
+"She will receive us!" answered Maurice, recovering himself. "We are
+here by appointment." And, passing the surprised domestic, he ushered
+his grandmother into the drawing-room. Bertha and Count Tristan
+followed.
+
+The servant, with evident hesitation, took the cards that were handed to
+him, and retired. The door of the _salon_ chanced to remain open, and
+rendered audible a whispered conversation going on in the entry.
+
+"I dare not disturb madame at this moment; she would fly into a terrible
+rage. You know she never allows her toilet to be interrupted!"
+
+These words, spoken in a female voice, reached the ears of the visitors.
+
+"But the gentleman says it is an _appointment_. What's to be done? What
+am I to answer?" was the rejoinder in rough male tones.
+
+"You are a blockhead,--you have no management," replied the first voice.
+"I will arrange the matter without your stupid interference."
+
+Lurline now courtesied herself into the room, and, after bestowing an
+arch glance of recognition upon the viscount, addressed the countess.
+
+"I am _desolée_ to be obliged to inform madame that Madame de Fleury is
+at this moment so much absorbed by her toilet that I fear I shall have
+no opportunity of making known the honor of madame's visit. My mistress
+has made an engagement to go to the capitol to hear some distinguished
+orator. It is madame's _débût_ in spring attire this season. Madame's
+dress, bonnet, and mantle have this moment been sent home. A more
+delicately fresh toilet _de printemps_ cannot be conceived; it will
+establish the fact that spring has arrived. But madame has not yet
+essayed her attire and assured herself of its effect. I trust _madame la
+comtesse_ will deem this sufficient apology for not being received."
+
+As she concluded, Lurline simpered and courtesied, and seemed confident
+that she had gracefully acquitted herself of a difficult duty.
+
+"Not receive us when we are here by invitation?" ejaculated the
+countess, angrily. "Is Madame de Fleury aware that it is the Countess de
+Gramont and her family who are calling upon her?"
+
+"There must be some mistake," interposed Maurice; then, turning to the
+_femme de chambre_, he added, "I beg that you will deliver these cards
+to the marchioness and bring me an answer."
+
+"How am I to refuse monsieur?" replied Lurline, hesitating, yet
+softening her unwillingness to comply by a volley of sidelong glances.
+"Monsieur is not aware that he is placing me in a most delicate
+position. It is against madame's rules to be disturbed when her toilet
+is progressing: it requires her concentrated attention,--her whole mind!
+Still, if monsieur insists, I will run the risk of madame's displeasure.
+Monsieur must only be kind enough to wait, and allow me to watch for a
+favorable moment when I can place these cards before madame."
+
+With a low salutation, and a coquettish movement of the head that set
+all her ribbons fluttering, the _femme de chambre_ made her exit.
+
+"Not receive us? Make us wait?" exclaimed the countess, wrathfully;
+"truly, Madame de Fleury has profited by her sojourn among savages! This
+is not to be endured! Let us depart at once!"
+
+"My dear mother," began Count Tristan, soothingly, "it will not do to be
+offended, or to notice the slight, if there be one; but, I am sure, none
+is intended. It is absolutely _indispensable_ that I should see the
+countess, and get her to present this letter to the Marquis de Fleury,
+and also that I should obtain her promise that she will influence him to
+secure the vote of Mr. Gobert. Pray, be courteous to the marchioness
+when she makes her appearance, or all is lost."
+
+"What degradation will you demand of me next? How can you suppose it
+possible that I can be courteous? I tell you I am furious!"
+
+"But you do not know all that depends upon obtaining these votes. Think
+of this railroad,--of the vital importance of the direction it takes!
+Think of the Maryland property, which is almost all that is left to
+us"--
+
+"Have I not again and again begged you not to meddle with
+railroads,--not to occupy yourself with business matters which a
+nobleman is bound to ignore?"
+
+"And by obeying you, as far as I could, and only acting in secret, I
+have nearly ruined myself," answered the count, with growing excitement.
+
+At this moment the loud ringing of a bell was heard, accompanied by the
+voice of Lurline, speaking in tones of great tribulation.
+
+"Patrick! Patrick! do you not hear the bell? Come here quickly! What's
+to be done? Such a calamity! It's dreadful! dreadful!"
+
+Count Tristan started up, and went to the door to question the _femme de
+chambre_, fearing that the calamity in question might be of a nature
+sufficiently serious to prevent the much-desired interview.
+
+Lurline was standing in the hall; she wore her hat and shawl, and was
+giving directions to a domestic in the most rapid and flurried manner.
+
+"Will Madame de Fleury receive us?" inquired the count, anxiously.
+
+"I told monsieur that I could not promise him, and, now that this
+misfortune has befallen us, it is thoroughly impossible even to make
+your presence here known to madame. Who could have anticipated such a
+_contretems_? Never before has Mademoiselle Melanie allowed a dress to
+issue from her hands which did not fit _à merveille_, and there are two
+important alterations to be made in this before it can be worn. Madame
+is in despair; she will go out of her senses; it will give her a brain
+fever!"
+
+"Can we not have the pleasure of seeing her for a few moments, when her
+toilet is completed?" inquired Maurice.
+
+"Ah, there it is! _When_ her toilet is completed? Will it be completed
+in time for her to reach the senate at the hour proposed? Monsieur will
+pardon me, but I have not a moment to spare."
+
+Turning to Patrick, she added, "I am forced to go out to purchase some
+ribbons. I have left madame in the hands of Antoinette. Madame is in
+such a state that one might weep to see her! Take care not to admit any
+one, except the Countess Orlowski, who accompanies your mistress to the
+senate. I will be back presently."
+
+The Countess de Gramont rose up majestically.
+
+"Let us depart, my son! Never more will I cross this threshold,--never
+enter this house where I have been insulted!"
+
+"No insult was intended," replied Count Tristan, nervously. "Even if it
+were, we are not in a position to be cognizant of insults; we should be
+forced to ignore them. I cannot leave without entreating the marchioness
+to deliver this letter to Monsieur de Fleury, herself: it _must_ be
+done,--and _to-day_. There is not an instant to lose."
+
+"And you can stoop so low,--you can demean yourself to such a degree?
+What a humiliation!"
+
+"Humiliations are not to be taken into consideration where _ruin_ stares
+us in the face!" he answered, violently.
+
+"Is it _so very important_?" inquired Bertha, struck by the count's
+angry manner.
+
+"Of more importance than I can explain to you!"
+
+"Oh, then let us stay, aunt! We must make allowances for Madame de
+Fleury's ruling passion. Her toilet first, all the world afterward!"
+
+A carriage just then drove to the door, and attracted the attention of
+Bertha, who was standing by the open window.
+
+"What magnificent horses! and what a neat equipage! All the appointments
+in such admirable taste! A lady is descending. I suppose it must be the
+Countess Orlowski. What a dignified air she has! What a graceful
+bearing! I wish I could see her face. She must be handsome with such a
+perfect figure. Yes,--I am right,--it _is_ the Countess Orlowski, for
+the servant has admitted her."
+
+As the lady was passing through the hall, she said to the domestic, "No,
+you need not announce me; I will go at once to the chamber of Madame de
+Fleury."
+
+At the sound of that voice, the shriek of joy that broke from Bertha's
+lips drowned the amazed exclamation of Maurice. In another instant,
+Bertha's arms were around the stranger, and her kisses were mingled with
+tears and broken ejaculations, as she embraced her rapturously.
+
+Maurice stood beside them, struggling with emotion that caused his manly
+frame to vibrate from head to foot, while his dilated eyes appeared
+spellbound by some familiar apparition which they hardly dared to
+believe was palpable.
+
+There is a joy which, in its wild excess, paralyzes the faculties, makes
+dumb the voice, confuses the brain, until ecstasy becomes agony, and all
+the senses are enveloped in a cloud of doubt. Such was the joy of
+Maurice as he stood powerless, questioning the blissful reality of the
+hour, yet in the actual presence of that being who was never a moment
+absent from his mental vision.
+
+"Madeleine! Madeleine! My own Madeleine! Have we found you at last? Is
+it really you?" sobbed Bertha, whose tears always flowed easily, but now
+poured in torrents from their blue heavens.
+
+And Madeleine, as she passionately returned her cousin's embrace,
+dropped her head upon Bertha's shoulder, and wept also.
+
+"Madeleine!"
+
+At that tremulously tender voice her face was lifted and turned toward
+Maurice,--turned for the first time for nearly five long years; and yet,
+at that moment, he felt as though it had never been turned away.
+
+Bertha involuntarily loosened her arms, and Madeleine extended her hand
+to Maurice. He clasped it fervently, but his quivering lips gave forth
+no sound. One irrepressible look of perfect joy from Madeleine's
+luminous eyes had answered the impassioned gaze of his; one smile of
+ineffable gratitude played over her sweet lips. For an instant the eyes
+were raised heavenward, in mute thanksgiving, and then sought the
+ground, as though they feared to reveal too much; and the smile of
+transport changed to one of grave serenity, and the wonted quietude of
+her demeanor returned.
+
+The countess and Count Tristan had both risen in speechless surprise,
+but had made no attempt to approach Madeleine, whom Bertha now drew into
+the room.
+
+"Madeleine! I cannot believe that I am not dreaming," cried the latter;
+"I cannot believe that I have found you!--that it is really you! And you
+are lovelier than ever! You no longer look pale and careworn; you are
+happy, my own Madeleine,--you are happy,--are you not? But why have you
+forgotten us?"
+
+"I have never forgotten--never--never _forgotten_!" faltered Madeleine,
+in a voice that had a sound of tears, answering to those that glittered
+in her eyes.
+
+Maurice had not released her hand, and, bending over her, made an effort
+to speak; but at that moment the stern voice of the countess broke in
+harshly,--
+
+"How is it that we find you here, Mademoiselle de Gramont? Where have
+you hidden yourself? What have you done since you fled from my
+protection?"
+
+"Yes, what have you done?" chimed in Count Tristan. "How is it that we
+find you descending from a handsome equipage and elegantly attired?"
+
+"I have done nothing for which I shall ever have to blush!" answered
+Madeleine, with a dignity which awed him into silence.
+
+"It was needless to say _that_, dear Madeleine," cried Maurice, whose
+powers of utterance had returned when he saw Madeleine about to be
+assailed. "No one who knows you would _dare to believe_ that you ever
+committed an action that demanded a blush."
+
+Madeleine thanked him with her speaking countenance. Perhaps it was only
+fancy, but he thought he felt a light, grateful pressure of the hand he
+held.
+
+"But tell us where you have been!" continued Bertha, affectionately.
+"You look differently, Madeleine, and yet the same; and how this rich
+attire becomes you! You are no longer poor and dependent then,--are
+you?"
+
+"I am no longer poor, and no longer dependent!" answered Madeleine, in a
+tone of honest pride.
+
+"Is it possible?" exclaimed the count and his mother together.
+
+"But how has all this happened?" Bertha ran on. "Oh! I can divine: you
+are married,--you have made a brilliant marriage."
+
+At those words a suppressed groan, of unutterable anguish, struck on
+Madeleine's ear; and the hand Maurice held dropped from his grasp.
+
+"Speak! do speak! dear Madeleine!" continued Bertha. "Tell us all your
+sufferings,--for you must have suffered at first,--and all your joys,
+since you are happy now. And tell us how you chance to be here,--here in
+America, as we are; and how it happens that you are calling upon the
+Marchioness de Fleury, at the same time as ourselves; and why you expect
+to be received by her, though she will not receive us."
+
+Before Madeleine could reply, and she was evidently collecting herself
+to speak, Lurline, who had just returned from executing her commission,
+passed through the hall. The door of the drawing-room stood open; she
+caught sight of Madeleine, and ran toward her, exclaiming joyfully,--
+
+"Oh, what good fortune! How rejoiced my poor mistress will be! She did
+not dare to hope for this great kindness! I am so thankful! I will fly
+to announce to her the good news!"
+
+She hurried away, leaving Madeleine's relatives more than ever amazed by
+these mysterious words.
+
+Count Tristan was the first to break the silence. Ever keenly alive to
+his own interest, he saw a great advantage to be gained if he had
+interpreted the language of the _femme de chambre_ rightly.
+
+In an altered tone, a tone of marked consideration, he asked, "You are
+well acquainted with the Marchioness de Fleury?"
+
+"_Very well!_" replied Madeleine, with an incomprehensible emphasis,
+while a smile that had a faint touch of satire flitted over her face.
+
+"She receives you?" questioned the count.
+
+"Always," answered Madeleine, smiling again.
+
+"She esteems you?" persisted the count.
+
+"I have every reason to believe that she does."
+
+"And you have influence with her," joined in Bertha, suspecting the
+count's drift, and feeling desirous of aiding him.
+
+"I think I may venture to say I have."
+
+"Oh, how fortunate!" cried Bertha; "you maybe of the greatest service to
+our cousin, Count Tristan." She took the letter out of his hand, and
+placing it in Madeleine's, added, "Beg Madame de Fleury to read this
+letter, and obtain her promise that she will use her influence with the
+Marquis de Fleury to cause Mr. Gobert,--Gobert, that's his name, is it
+not?" appealing to the count,--"to cause Mr. Gobert to vote as herein
+instructed. See, how well I have explained that matter! I really believe
+I have an undeveloped talent for business."
+
+"The letter should reach Madame de Fleury this morning. The appeal
+should be made to the marquis _to-day_,--_this very day!_" urged the
+count.
+
+"It shall be!" replied Madeleine, with quiet confidence.
+
+The countess here interposed.
+
+"What, my son, you are willing to solicit the interference of
+Mademoiselle de Gramont, without knowing how and where she has passed
+her time, how she has lived since she fled from the Château de Gramont?
+I refuse my consent to such a proceeding."
+
+"Aunt,--madame," returned Madeleine, in a gently pleading voice, "do not
+deprive me of the pleasure of serving you. Humble and unworthy
+instrument that I am, leave me that happiness."
+
+"If the marchioness would only grant me a few moments' interview this
+morning," said Count Tristan, who evidently doubted the strength of
+Madeleine's advocacy.
+
+"I promise that she _will_ grant you an interview this morning," replied
+Madeleine, interrupting him.
+
+The _femme de chambre_ now reëntered and said, "Madame is impatient at
+this delay; every moment seems an hour."
+
+"Say that I will be with her immediately," answered Madeleine. She then
+addressed the count: "Have no fears,--you may depend upon me; the
+countess will receive you the moment her toilet is completed."
+
+Madeleine once more embraced Bertha, once more extended her hand to
+Maurice, who stood bewildered, dismayed, looking half petrified, and
+passed out of the room.
+
+As soon as she had disappeared, Bertha broke forth joyously, "Well,
+aunt, what do you think _now_ of our Madeleine? Is not this magic? Is
+not this a fairy-like _denouement_? She disappears from the Château de
+Gramont as though the earth had opened to swallow her; no trace of her
+could be discovered for nearly five years, and suddenly she rises up in
+our very midst, a grand lady, enveloped in a cloud of mystery, and
+working as many wonders as a veritable witch. She leaves us poor,
+friendless, dependent; she returns to us rich, powerful, and with
+influential friends ready to serve those who once protected her. But I
+think I have found the key to the enigma. Did we not hear strict orders
+given that none but the Countess Orlowski should be admitted? Well,
+Madeleine was at once allowed to enter: it follows, beyond doubt, that
+she is the Countess Orlowski."
+
+This version of Madeleine's position seemed to strike both the countess
+and her son as not merely possibly, but probably, correct.
+
+"I always thought," returned the count, "that Madeleine was a young
+person who, in the end"--
+
+His mother finished the sentence, in a tone of pride, "would prove
+herself worthy of the family to which she belongs."
+
+The loud ringing of the street door-bell attracted the attention of the
+group assembled in the drawing-room. A well-known voice exchanged a few
+words with the servant, and Gaston de Bois entered. His manner was
+unusually perturbed, and he looked around the room as though in search
+of some one.
+
+The instant he appeared, Bertha exclaimed, "Oh, M. de Bois! M. de Bois!
+We are all so much rejoiced! Madeleine, our own Madeleine, is found at
+last! She is here,--here in this very house, at this very moment!"
+
+"I--I--I knew it!" answered M. de Bois, with a mixture of embarrassment
+and exultation.
+
+"You knew it? How could you have known it?" asked Maurice, eagerly.
+
+"I saw her car--ar--arriage at the door."
+
+"_Her_ carriage? She has a carriage of her own, then?" inquired the
+count.
+
+"Yes, and the most superb horses in Washington."
+
+"You knew, then, that she was here?" cried Maurice, with emotion; "you
+knew it, and you never told us?"
+
+"I knew it, but I was forbidden to tell you. I hoped you would meet; I
+felt sure you would. I did not know how or when; but, from the moment
+you put your foot in this city, I looked for this meeting. I was
+strongly impelled to bring it about, but my promise withheld me."
+
+"Of course, you could not break a promise; that explanation is quite
+satisfactory," remarked Bertha. "I am sure you would have given us a
+hint but for your promise."
+
+"I almost gave one in spite of it. I found it harder to keep silent than
+I used to find it to speak; and that was difficult enough."
+
+"But have the goodness to unravel to us this grand mystery," demanded
+the count. "Madeleine is married--married to Count Orlowski, the Russian
+ambassador."
+
+"A nobleman of position!" added the countess.
+
+"How did this come about?" inquired the count.
+
+M. de Bois looked stupefied.
+
+"Who--who--said she was married?" he gasped out. "Why do you imagine
+that she is mar--ar--arried?"
+
+"She is _not_--_not_ married then? _Say she is not!_" broke in Maurice,
+hanging upon the reply as though it were a sentence of life or death.
+
+"No--no--not married at all--not in the least married."
+
+Maurice did not answer, but the sound that issued from his lips almost
+resembled the sob of hysteric passion.
+
+"Tell us quickly all about her!" besought Bertha, impatiently.
+
+"Yes, speak! speak!" said the countess, imperiously.
+
+"Speak!" echoed the count.
+
+"Gaston, my dear friend, pray speak,--speak quickly!" Maurice besought.
+
+"I wi--is--ish I could! That's just what I wa--an--ant to do! But it's
+not so easy, you bewil--il--ilder me so with questions. But the time has
+come when you must know that she has the hon--on--onor--the honor--the
+honor to be"--
+
+"Go on, go on!" urged Maurice.
+
+"I wish I could! It's not so easy to expla--plai--plain."
+
+The rustling of a silk dress made him turn. The Marchioness de Fleury,
+in the most captivating spring attire, stood before them.
+
+"Ah! here is Madame de Fleury, and she will tell you herself better than
+I can," said M. de Bois, apparently much relieved.
+
+The marchioness saluted her guests with excessive cordiality, softly
+murmured her gratification at their visit, and added apologetically,--
+
+"I must entreat your pardon for allowing you to wait; it was not in my
+power to be more punctual; a terrible accident--the first of the kind
+which has ever occurred to me--is my excuse. Do not imagine, my dear
+viscount," turning to Maurice with a fascinating smile, "that I had
+forgotten my appointment; but, at the Russian embassy, yesterday, I was
+prevailed upon to promise that I would be present at the senate to-day
+to hear the speech of a Vermont orator, a sort of Orson Demosthenes, who
+has gained great renown by his rude but stirring eloquence. We ladies
+have been promised admission (which is now and then granted) to the
+floor of the house, instead of being crammed into the close galleries.
+It will be a brilliant occasion. I invited the Countess Orlowski to
+accompany me. If all had gone well I should have been ready to receive
+your visit before she came."
+
+The brow of the countess smoothed a little as she answered, "I felt
+confident, madame, that there must have been _some_ explanation."
+
+"Ah! I fear you are displeased with me," resumed Madame de Fleury,
+playfully. "But I will earn my pardon. You will be compelled to forgive
+me; M. de Fleury meets me at the capitol, and I will deliver this letter
+of the count's into his hand, and make him promise, blindfold, to
+consent to any request that it may contain."
+
+"Madame," returned the count, bowing to the ground, "I shall never be
+able to express my gratitude. You can hardly form a conception of the
+favor you are conferring upon me. That letter is of the highest
+importance, and my indebtedness beggars all expression."
+
+"To be frank with you, count," answered Madame de Fleury, "you owe me
+nothing. You are only indebted to the advocate you chose,--one whom I
+never refuse,--one to whom I feel under the deepest obligation,
+especially this morning,--one who is so modest that she can seldom be
+induced to ask me a favor, or to allow me to serve her. Thus, you see,
+it is but natural that I should seize with avidity upon this
+opportunity."
+
+The count looked at his mother triumphantly; and, as the face of the
+marchioness was turned toward Bertha, he whispered, "Shall I not tell
+her that Madeleine is our niece?"
+
+The countess seemed disposed to consent, for the words of Madame de
+Fleury had gratified as much as they astonished her.
+
+The marchioness addressed the Countess de Gramont again. "I trust,
+madame, that you will allow me to waive ceremony, and take a liberty
+with you, since it is in the hope of being some service. I should like
+to reach the capitol before the oration commences; and, if this letter
+must be delivered to M. de Fleury immediately, my going early will
+enable me to have a few moments' conversation with him, which I probably
+shall not get after the orator rises. Will you excuse me, if I tear
+myself away? And will you give me the pleasure of your company to-morrow
+evening? To-morrow is my reception-day, and some of my friends honor me
+in the evening. I am _desolée_ at this apparent want of courtesy, but I
+am sure you see the necessity."
+
+The countess bowed her permission to Madame de Fleury's departure, and
+the count overwhelmed her with thanks. The countess would herself have
+taken leave, but anxiety to learn something further of Madeleine, caused
+her to linger.
+
+The marchioness now addressed her valet, who was standing in the hall
+waiting orders.
+
+"Patrick, when Madame Orlowski calls, beg her to pardon my preceding her
+to the capitol; say that I will reserve a seat by my side."
+
+"Then the lady who just visited you was _not_ Madame Orlowski?" inquired
+the count, more puzzled than ever.
+
+"No, indeed; she is worth a thousand Madame Orlowski's!"
+
+The count's glance at his mother seemed again to ask her permission to
+allow him to announce that Madeleine was their relative.
+
+"We felt certain that she was one of the magnates"--began the count.
+
+The marchioness interrupted him.
+
+"She is better than that; she has all the magnates of the land--that is
+the female magnates--at her feet. The foreign ladies swear by her, rave
+about her; and, as for the Americans, they are demented, and would
+gladly pave her path with gold,--that being their way of expressing
+appreciation. Madame Manesca passes whole mornings with her,--Madame
+Poniatowski talks of no one else. She enchants every one, and offends no
+one. For myself, I have only one fault to find with her,--I owe her only
+one grudge; if it had not been for her aid, that impertinent little Mrs.
+Gilmer would not have had such success in society. If I could succeed in
+making her close her doors against Mrs. Gilmer, what a satisfaction it
+would be! Then, and then only, should I be content!"
+
+The count could restrain himself no longer.
+
+"We are highly gratified to hear this, madame. It concerns, us more
+nearly than you are aware; the lady is not wholly a stranger to us; in
+fact, she--she"--
+
+"Indeed? she was so little known in Paris that you were fortunate in
+finding her out. I appreciated her there, but I did not know how much
+actual credit was due to her, for she had not then risen to her present
+distinction. I confess she is the one person in America without whom I
+could not exist."
+
+"Is it possible?" exclaimed the countess.
+
+"And I cannot be grateful enough to her," continued the marchioness,
+"for her visit this morning, for she never goes out, or, so seldom, that
+I did not dare to expect, to even _hope_ for her presence; yet her
+conscientiousness made her come; she suspected that I was in difficulty,
+and hastened here."
+
+"It is like her; she was always charming, and so thoughtful for others!"
+observed the count, as complacently as though this were an opinion he
+had been in the habit of expressing for years.
+
+"You may well say charming," responded Madame de Fleury; "and what
+knowledge she possesses of all the requirements, the most subtle
+refinements of good society! What polished manners she has! What choice
+language she uses! What poetical expression she gives to her sentiments!
+I often forget myself when I am talking to her, and fancy that I am
+communicating with a person of the same standing as myself; and, without
+knowing what I am doing, I involuntarily treat her as an equal!"
+
+"_An equal?_ Of course, most certainly!" answered the countess, aghast.
+
+The amazement of the count, Maurice, and Bertha, sealed their lips.
+
+"Her taste, her talent, her invention is something almost supernatural,"
+continued the marchioness, enthusiastically; for, now that she was
+launched upon her favorite theme, she had forgotten her haste. "She sees
+at a glance all the good points of a figure; she knows how to bring them
+out strongly; she discovers by intuition what is lacking, and
+dexterously hides the defects. I have seen her convert the veriest dowdy
+into an elegant woman. And, when she gets a subject that pleases her,
+she perfectly revels in her art. Look at this dress for instance,--see
+by what delicate combinations it announces the spring."
+
+The marchioness was struck with the consternation depicted in the
+countenances of her visitors.
+
+Bertha was the only one who could command sufficient voice to falter
+out, "That dress, then"--
+
+"It is her invention," replied the marchioness, triumphantly. "Any one
+would recognize it in a moment, as coming from the hands of
+Mademoiselle Melanie. Though she has such wonderful creative fertility,
+her style is unmistakable. There was never mantua-maker like her!"
+
+"_A mantua-maker! a mantua-maker!_" exclaimed the countess and her son
+at once, in accents of disgust and indignation.
+
+"Ah, I see you do not like to apply that epithet to her, and you are
+right. She should not be designated as a mantua-maker, but a great
+artist,--a true artist,--a fairy, who, with one touch of her wand, can
+metamorphose and beautify and amaze!"
+
+At that moment, a servant announced that the Countess Orlowski waited in
+her carriage, and desired him to say that she feared she was late.
+
+"You will excuse me then?" murmured the marchioness. "I must hasten to
+execute my mission for Mademoiselle Melanie, since it was she who so
+warmly solicited me to undertake this delicate little transaction, and I
+would not disappoint her for the world. Pray, do not forget to-morrow
+evening. _Au revoir._"
+
+She floated out of the room, leaving the countess and her son speechless
+with rage and indignation.
+
+Bertha and Maurice stood looking at each other, and then at M. de Bois,
+the only one who expressed no surprise, but seemed rather more gratified
+than moved when he beheld the countess sink back in her chair, and apply
+her bottle of sal volatile to her nose. The shock to her pride had been
+so terrible, that she appeared to be in danger of fainting.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+NOBLE HANDS MADE NOBLER.
+
+
+After the Marchioness de Fleury had departed, leaving her astonished
+guests in her drawing-room, M. de Bois was the first to break the
+silence.
+
+"And you, Mademoiselle Bertha, are you also horrified at this
+rev--ev--evelation?" he asked.
+
+"I?" answered Bertha, making an effort to collect herself. "No, I can
+never be horrified by any act of Madeleine's, for she could never be
+guilty of an action that was unworthy. I am only so much astonished that
+I feel stunned and confused, just as Maurice does; see, how bewildered
+he looks!"
+
+The countess had now recovered her voice, and said, in a tone trembling
+with indignation, "It is _infamous_!"
+
+"A degradation we could never have anticipated!" rejoined Count Tristan.
+
+"She has disgraced her family,--disgraced our proud name forever!"
+responded the countess.
+
+"Do not say that, aunt!" pleaded Bertha. "She has not even used your
+name, though it is as rightfully hers as yours. Do you not observe that
+she has only allowed herself to be called by her middle name, and that
+every one speaks of her as Mademoiselle Melanie?"
+
+Bertha, as she spoke, bent caressingly over her aunt, and took her hand.
+But the attempt to soften the infuriated aristocrat was futile.
+
+The countess replied, with increasing wrath, "I tell you she has
+humiliated herself and us to the last degree! She has brought shame upon
+our heads!"
+
+Gaston de Bois was walking up and down the room, thrusting his fingers
+through his hair, flinging out his arms spasmodically, and, now and
+then, giving vent to a muttered ejaculation, which sounded alarmingly
+emphatic. When he heard these words, he could restrain himself no
+longer. He came boldly forward, and planting himself directly in front
+of the countess, unawed by her forbidding manner, exclaimed,--
+
+"No, madame; that I deny! Mademoiselle de Gramont has brought no shame
+upon her family!"
+
+"She no longer belongs to my family!" retorted the countess. "I disown
+her henceforward and forever!"
+
+"And you do rightly, my mother," added the count. "We will never
+acknowledge her, never see her again! Maurice and Bertha, we expect that
+you will abide by our determination."
+
+Maurice did not reply; he stood leaning against the mantel-piece, lost
+in thought, his eyes bent down, his head resting upon his hands.
+
+Bertha, however, answered with spirit. "I make no promise of the kind.
+Nothing could induce me to cast off my dear Madeleine!"
+
+M. de Bois seized her hand, and, involuntarily carrying it to his lips,
+said, with mingled enthusiasm and veneration, "You are as noble as I
+thought you were! I knew you would not forsake her!"
+
+Bertha raised her eyes to his face with an expression which thrilled
+him, as she answered, "You will defend her, M. de Bois; you, who can
+perhaps disperse the cloud of mystery by which her life has been
+enveloped for the last four years. You will tell my aunt how Madeleine
+has lived,--what she has done. You will tell us _all about her_."
+
+"That I will, gladly!" replied he. "That is, _if I can_. I never in my
+life so much desired the pow--ow--ower of spee--ee--eech!"
+
+He broke off, and, in an undertone, gave vent to certain exclamations
+which indistinctly reached the ears of the countess and Bertha.
+
+Their amazed looks did not escape his notice, and he continued: "Ladies,
+I ought to ask your pardon; possibly my expressions have sounded to you
+somewhat profane; I am under the sad necessity of using very strong
+language. I cannot loosen my tongue except by the aid of these forcible
+expletives, and I must--_must_ speak! For I, who have known all
+Mademoiselle Madeleine's noble impulses, can best explain to you her
+con--on--onduct."
+
+The last word, which was the only one upon which he stammered, was
+followed by another emphatic ejaculation.
+
+Bertha, without heeding this interruption, asked, "And have you known
+where Madeleine was concealed all this time?"
+
+"Yes, mademoiselle, I knew."
+
+"And it was you who assisted her to leave Brittany?"
+
+"It _was_ I! That was about the first good action which brightened my
+life, and--and--and"--(another muttered oath to assist his articulation)
+"and I hope it was only a commencement."
+
+"Tell us--tell us everything quickly," prayed Bertha.
+
+"Mademoiselle Madeleine, when she determined to leave the Château de
+Gramont,--when she resolved to cease to be dependent,--when, in spite of
+her noble birth, which was to her only an encumbrance, she purposed to
+gain a livelihood by honest industry,--confided her project to me. And
+what good she did me in making me feel that I was worthy enough of her
+esteem to be trusted! She first committed to my charge her family
+diamonds, her sole possession, and ordered me to dispose of them"--
+
+"Her diamonds! those which have been in her family for generations! What
+sacrilege!" cried the countess, in accents of horror.
+
+"Pardon me, madame; it would have been sacrilege, she thought, and so
+did I, if she had kept them when their sale could have prevented her
+being the unhappy recipient of the unwilling _charity_ of her
+relatives."
+
+"Go on--go on!" urged Bertha. "How did she leave the château? How could
+she travel?"
+
+"I obtained her a passport, for it would have been running too great a
+risk if she had attempted to travel without one. The passport had to be
+signed by two witnesses. Fortunately, two of my friends at Rennes were
+about to leave the country; I selected them as witnesses, because they
+could not be questioned; I told them the whole story, and bound them to
+secrecy. We took out the passport for England to divert pursuit; but,
+Mademoiselle Madeleine only went to Paris, and it was not necessary that
+her passport should be _viséd_ if she remained there."
+
+"But the diamonds,--they were those Madame de Fleury wore and which I
+recognized!" exclaimed Bertha.
+
+"I made a false step there; but it was just like me to bungle,"
+continued Gaston. "I knew that the Jew, Henriques, often had
+transactions with the Marquis de Fleury. I took the diamonds to another
+Jew from whom I concealed my name, and suggested his taking them to
+Henriques, hinting that the marquis would probably become their
+purchaser. The marquis is a _connoisseur_ of jewels; and, as you are
+aware, at once secured them. The sum realized was sufficient to supply
+the simple wants of Mademoiselle Madeleine for years. But this did not
+satisfy her,--her plan was to work. When she heard that the diamonds
+were in M. de Fleury's possession, she embroidered a robe upon which the
+lilies and shamrock were closely imitated, and took her work to Vignon,
+Madame de Fleury's dressmaker. Vignon was amazed at the great skill and
+taste displayed in the design and execution, and offered to give the
+embroiderer as much employment as she desired. Madame de Fleury being
+the most influential of Vignon's patrons, the dress was exhibited to
+her. She was at once struck and charmed by the coincidence that allowed
+her to become the possessor of a dress upon which the exact design of
+her new jewels had been imitated. She asked a thousand questions of
+Vignon, who gladly monopolized all the credit of inventing this novel
+pattern. From that moment Mademoiselle Madeleine's 'fairy fingers'
+commenced their marvels under the celebrated _couturière's_ direction,
+and Vignon daily congratulated herself upon the mysterious treasure she
+had discovered. Mademoiselle Madeleine now determined to remain in Paris
+incognita. She worked night and day, scarcely allowing herself needful
+rest; but, alas! she worked with a ceaseless heartache,--a heartache on
+your account, Maurice, for she knew how wildly you were searching for
+her; and when you fell ill"--
+
+Maurice interrupted him: "It was she who watched beside me at night! I
+knew it! I have always been convinced of it. Was I not right?"
+
+"I was bound not to tell you, but there can be no need of concealment
+now. Yes, you _are_ right. When the _soeur de bon secours_ we had
+engaged to take care of you during the day, left, and would have been
+replaced, according to the usual custom, by another to watch through the
+night, we told her no watcher was needed before morning. Mademoiselle
+Madeleine made herself a garb resembling that worn by the sisterhood;
+and, every night, when the good sister we had hired left, Mademoiselle
+Madeleine took her place. We thought your delirium would prevent your
+recognizing her."
+
+"Probably it did, at first," returned Maurice; "but, for many nights
+before I spoke to you; I was conscious, I was sure of her presence."
+
+"When you did speak, I was startled enough," resumed Gaston; "and it was
+a sad revelation to Mademoiselle Madeleine; for, when your reason was
+restored, she could not venture any more to come near you."
+
+"Did she go to Dresden? How came my birthday handkerchief to be sent
+from Dresden?" asked Bertha.
+
+"That was another piece of stupidity of mine. You see what a blockhead I
+have been. Mademoiselle Madeleine wished to send some token of assurance
+that she thought of you still; but it was necessary that you should not
+know she was in Paris. I had the package conveyed to a friend of mine in
+Dresden, and desired him to remove the envelope and send the parcel to
+Bordeaux, though you were in Paris at the time. It would not have been
+prudent to let you suspect that Mademoiselle Madeleine was aware of your
+sojourn in the metropolis. But, when the postmark induced Maurice to
+start for Dresden, I saw what a fool I had been. It was just like me to
+commit some absurdity,--I always do! I could not dissuade Maurice from
+going to Dresden; but Mademoiselle Madeleine wrote a note which I
+enclosed to my friend, and desired to have it left at the hotel where
+Maurice was staying. After that I was more careful not to commit
+blunders. The other birthday tokens, you received, Mademoiselle Bertha,
+I always contrived to send you by private hand; thus, there was no
+postmark to awaken suspicion."
+
+"But how came Madeleine here in America?" inquired Bertha.
+
+"When the Marquis de Fleury was appointed ambassador to the United
+States, Mademoiselle Madeleine learned that Madame de Fleury sorely
+lamented her hard fate, and mourned over the probability that she would
+be obliged to have all her dresses sent from Paris. This would be a
+great inconvenience, for she often liked to have a costume improvised
+upon the spur of the moment, and completed with fabulous rapidity.
+Mademoiselle Madeleine had frequently thought of America, and felt that
+the new country must present a field where she could work more
+advantageously than in Paris. She desired Vignon to suggest to Madame de
+Fleury that one of the assistants in her favorite _couturière's_
+establishment,--the one with whose designs Madame de Fleury was already
+acquainted,--might be tempted, by the certainty of the marchioness's
+patronage, to visit America. Madame de Fleury was contented, and
+immediately proposed that Mademoiselle Melanie should sail in the same
+steamer. Vignon allowed two of her work-women to accompany her. The sum
+Mademoiselle Madeleine had realized from her diamonds enabled her to
+hire a modest house in Washington, and to furnish it tastefully. On her
+arrival she sent for Mr. Hilson. Perhaps you remember him, Mademoiselle
+Bertha? He once dined at the Château de Gramont."
+
+Here the count uttered an exclamation of violent displeasure, but M. de
+Bois went on,--
+
+"He had requested Mademoiselle Madeleine if she ever visited America to
+let him know. He called upon her at once, and she frankly told him the
+story of her trials, and the conclusion to which they had forced her. He
+highly approved of her energy, her zeal, and spirit. She made him
+promise to keep her rank and name a secret. He brought his wife and
+daughter to see her, and they became her stanch, admiring, and helpful
+friends. Through them alone, she would quickly have been drawn into
+notice; but a more powerful medium to popularity was at work. The
+sensation produced by Madame de Fleury's toilets caused all Washington
+to flock to the exhibition-rooms of 'Mademoiselle Melanie,' who was
+known to be her _couturière_. Soon, it became a favor for 'Mademoiselle
+Melanie' to receive new customers. She was forced to move to the elegant
+mansion where she now resides. It is one of the grandest houses in
+Washington, and Mademoiselle Melanie has only one more payment to make
+before it becomes her own. The fact is, people have gone crazy about
+her. Those who seek her merely upon business, when they come into her
+presence, are impressed with the conviction that she is not merely
+their equal, but their superior, and treat her with involuntary
+deference. She is rapidly becoming rich, and she has the glory of
+knowing that it is through the labor of her own dainty hands, her own
+'fairy fingers!'"
+
+"Oh, all she has done was truly noble!" said Bertha, with enthusiasm.
+
+"It was disgraceful!" cried the countess, fiercely. "She might better
+have starved! She has torn down her glorious escutcheon to replace it by
+a mantua-maker's sign. She has stooped to make dresses!--to receive
+customers! Abominable!"
+
+M. de Bois, for a moment forgetting the courtesy due to the rank and
+years of the countess, replied indignantly, "Madame, did she not make
+_your_ dresses for three years? Have you not been one of her customers?
+An unprofitable customer? The _profit_ was the only difference between
+what she did at the _Château de Gramont_ and what she does in the city
+of Washington!"
+
+"Sir!" exclaimed the countess, giving him a look of rebuke, which was
+intended to silence these unpalatable truths.
+
+"You are right, M. de Bois," answered Bertha, not noticing the furious
+glance of her aunt. "That was a random shaft of yours, but it hits the
+mark, and strikes me as well as my aunt; yet I thank you for it; I thank
+you for defending Madeleine; I thank you for befriending her. I shall
+never forget it--never!"
+
+Bertha frankly stretched out her hand to him; he took it with joyful
+emotion.
+
+"Whom would she have to defend her if I did not, since her family
+discard her? Since even an able young lawyer utters not a word to plead
+her cause?" he added, looking reproachfully at Maurice. "But she shall
+never lack a defender while I live, for I love her as a sister! I
+venerate her as a saint. To me she is the type of all that is best and
+noblest in the world! The type of that which is greater, more valuable
+than glory, more useful than fame, more _noble_ than the blood of
+countesses and duchesses--_honest labor!_"
+
+Bertha's responsive look spoke her approval.
+
+"And what do I not owe her, myself?" continued M. de Bois. "It was her
+words, long before her sorrows began, which rendered me conscious of the
+inert purposelessness of my own existence. It was the effect produced
+upon me by those words which made me resolve to throw off my sluggish,
+indolent melancholy and inactivity, and rise up to be one of the world's
+'_doers_,' not '_breathers_' only. The change I feel in myself came
+through her; even the very power of speaking to you thus freely comes
+through her, for she encouraged me to conquer my diffidence, she made me
+despise my weak self-consciousness, and I cannot offer her a sufficient
+return; no, not if I took up arms against the whole world, her own
+family included, in her defence! In my presence, no one shall ever
+asperse her nobility of word, deed, or act!"
+
+Bertha's speaking eyes thanked him and encouraged him again.
+
+In spite of the manifest rage of the countess he went on,--
+
+"But Mademoiselle Madeleine now holds a position which needs no
+champion. She has made that position herself, by her own energy and
+industry, and the unimpeachable purity of her conduct. In this land
+where _labor_ is a _virtue_, and the most laborious, when they combine
+intellect with industry, become the greatest,--in this land it will be
+no blot upon her noble name, (when she chooses to resume it) that she
+has linked that name with _work_. She will rather be held up as an
+example to the daughters of this young country. No one, except Mr.
+Hilson, not even her zealous patron, and devoted admirer, Madame de
+Fleury, yet knows her history; but every one feels that she merits
+reverence, and every one yields her spontaneous veneration. The young
+women whom she employs idolize her, and she treats them as the kindest
+and most considerate of sisters might. Some among them belong to
+excellent families, reduced by circumstances, and she has inspired them
+with courage to work, even with so humble an instrument as the needle,
+rather than to accept dependence as inevitable. She is fitting them to
+follow in her footsteps. If her relatives scorn her for the course she
+has pursued, she will be fully compensated for their scorn by the
+world's approval."
+
+All eyes had been riveted upon Gaston, as he spoke, and no one perceived
+that Madeleine was standing in the room, a few paces from the door.
+Bertha's exclamation first made the others conscious of her presence.
+
+"Madeleine! we know all! Oh, what you must have suffered! How noble you
+have been! Madeleine, you are dearer to me than ever, far dearer!"
+
+The tears that ran softly down Madeleine's cheeks were her only answer.
+
+Bertha, as she wiped them away, said, "These are not like the tears you
+shed that sorrowful day in the _châlet_, that day when you must have
+first made up your mind to leave us. Do you remember how you wept then?
+Those were tears of agony! You have never wept such tears since,--have
+you, Madeleine?"
+
+"No, never!"
+
+"I could not then comprehend what moved you so terribly; but, at this
+moment, I understand all your sensations. Now that we have met again
+there must be no more tears. You know that I am of age now; I am
+mistress of my own fortune; and you and I must part no more! You must
+come and share what is mine. You must have done with work, Madeleine."
+
+"That cannot be, my good, generous Bertha; my day of work has not yet
+closed."
+
+"Bertha!" exclaimed the countess, who, until then, had stood trembling
+with anger, and unable to command her voice. "Bertha, have you quite
+forgotten yourself? Remember that you are under my guardianship, and I
+forbid your having any association with Mademoiselle de Gramont."
+
+Madeleine advanced with calm dignity towards the countess, and said
+quietly,--
+
+"Madame--aunt"--
+
+The countess interrupted her imperiously.
+
+"Aunt! Do you _dare_ to address _me_ by that title? _You_--a
+_dressmaker!_ When you forgot your noble birth, and lowered yourself to
+the working-classes, making yourself one with them,--when you demeaned
+yourself to gain your bread by your needle, bread which should have
+choked a de Gramont to eat,--you should also have forgotten your
+relationship to me, never to remember it again!"
+
+"If I did not forget it, madame," answered Madeleine, with calm
+self-respect, "I was at least careful that my condition should not
+become known to you. I strove to act as though I had been dead to you,
+that my existence might not cause you mortification. I could not guard
+against the accident which has thrown us together once more, but for the
+last time, as far as my will is concerned."
+
+"This meeting was not Mademoiselle Madeleine's fault," cried M. de Bois,
+coming to the rescue. "It was my folly,--another blunder of mine! I was
+dolt enough to think that you had only to see her for all to be well;
+and, instead of warning Mademoiselle Madeleine that you were in
+Washington, I kept from her a knowledge which would have prevented your
+encountering each other. It was all my imprudence, my miscalculation! I
+see my error since it has subjected her to insult; and yet what I did,"
+continued he more passionately, and regarding Maurice, as he spoke, "was
+for the sake of one who"--
+
+Madeleine, seized with a sudden dread of the manner in which he might
+conclude this sentence, broke in abruptly,--
+
+"Were I not indebted to you, M. de Bois, for so many kindnesses, I might
+reproach you now; but it was well for me to learn this lesson; it was
+well for me to be certain that my aunt would discard me because I
+preferred honest industry to cold charity."
+
+"Discard you?" rejoined the countess, furiously. "Could you doubt that I
+would discard you? Henceforth the tie of blood between us is dissolved;
+you are no relative of mine! I forbid you to make known that we have
+ever met. I forbid my family to hold any intercourse with you. I appeal
+to my son to say if this is not the just retribution which your conduct
+has brought upon you!"
+
+The count answered with deliberation, as though he was pondering some
+possibility in his wily mind; as if some idea had occurred to him which
+prevented his fully sharing in his mother's wrath, or, rather, which
+tempered the expression of his displeasure,--
+
+"Madeleine's situation has rendered this the most proper and natural
+course open to us. She could not expect to be formally recognized. She
+could not suppose it possible, however much consideration we might
+entertain for her personally, that the Countess de Gramont and her
+family should allow it to be known that one of their kin is a
+dressmaker! Madeleine is too reasonable not to see the impropriety (to
+use a mild word) there would be even in such a suggestion."
+
+"I see it very plainly," answered Madeleine, not unmoved by the count's
+manner, which was so much gentler than his mother's, and not suspecting
+the motive which induced him to assume this conciliatory tone.
+
+The count resumed: "We wish Madeleine well, in spite of her present
+degraded position. If circumstances should prolong our stay in
+Washington, or in America,--and it is very possible they may do so,--we
+will only request her to remove to California or Australia, or some
+distant region, where she may live in desirable obscurity, and not run
+the risk of being brought into even _accidental_ contact with us."
+
+"No,--no!" exclaimed Bertha, vehemently. "We shall not lose her
+again,--we must not! _You_ may all discard her, but _I_ will not! I will
+always acknowledge her, and I must see her! She is dearer to me than
+ever; I will not be separated from her!"
+
+Did Bertha see the look of admiration with which M. de Bois contemplated
+her as she uttered these words?
+
+The countess asked in an imperious tone,--
+
+"Bertha, have you wholly forgotten yourself? I will never permit this
+intercourse,--I forbid it! If _you_ are willing to brave my displeasure,
+I presume Madeleine, ungrateful as she has proved herself to be, for the
+protection I granted her during three years, will not so wholly forget
+her debt as to disregard my command."
+
+How often Madeleine had been reminded of that debt which her services at
+the Château de Gramont had cancelled a hundred times over!
+
+Before she could respond to her aunt's remark, Bertha went on,--
+
+"You do not comprehend my plan, aunt. Madeleine, of course, must give up
+her present occupation; there is no need of her pursuing it; I am rich
+enough for both. She shall live with me and share my fortune. Madeleine,
+you will not refuse me this? For nearly five years I have mourned over
+our separation, and wasted my life in the vain hope of seeing you again.
+You would be ashamed of me if you knew in what a weak, frivolous, idle
+manner, I have passed my days, while you were working so unceasingly,
+and with such grand results. I shall never learn to make good use of my
+hours except under your guidance. Long before I reached my majority I
+looked forward gladly to the time when I should be a free agent and
+could share my _fortune_ with you. My aunt knows that I communicated my
+intention to her before you left the Château de Gramont. And now,
+Madeleine, my own best Madeleine,--you will let the dream of my life
+become a reality,--will you not? Say yes, I implore you!"
+
+Bertha had spoken with such genuine warmth and hearty earnestness that a
+colder nature than Madeleine's must have been melted. She folded the
+generous girl tenderly and silently in her arms, and, after a pause,
+which the countenance of her aunt made her aware that the proud lady was
+on the eve of breaking, answered, sadly,--
+
+"It was worth suffering all I endured, Bertha, to have your friendship
+tested through this fiery ordeal, and to know that your heart cannot be
+divided by circumstances from mine. But your too liberal offer I cannot
+accept; the path I have marked out I must pursue until I reach the goal
+which I am nearing. An incompleteness in the execution of my deliberate
+plans would render me more miserable than I am to-day in being cast off
+by my own family."
+
+"Do not speak such cruel words," returned Bertha. "They do not cast you
+off; that is, _I_ do not, and never will; and I am sure"--
+
+She turned to look at Maurice, who had stood silent through the whole
+scene, leaning upon the mantel-piece, his head still resting on his
+hand, and his eyes fixed upon Madeleine. His mind was too full of
+conflicting emotions for him to speak; above all other images rose that
+of the being whom Madeleine had declared she loved. Did she love him
+still? Was he here? Did he know her condition? Was M. de Bois, whom she
+had entrusted with her secret,--M. de Bois, who had protected and aided
+her,--the object of her preference? Maurice could not answer these
+torturing questions, and the happiness of once more beholding the one
+whom he had so long fruitlessly sought, made him feel as though he were
+passing through a strange, wild dream, which, but for _one doubt_, would
+have been full of ecstasy.
+
+When Bertha appealed to him by her look, he could no longer remain
+silent.
+
+"You are right, Bertha; Madeleine is to me all that she ever was. I am
+as proud of her as I have ever been; more proud I could not be! _To
+renounce her would be as impossible as it has ever been._"
+
+Madeleine, who had appeared so firm and composed up to that moment,
+trembled violently; her heart seemed to cease its pulsations; a cold
+tremor ran through her veins; a mist floated before her eyes; exquisite
+happiness became exquisite pain! She turned, as though about to leave
+the room, but her feet faltered. In a second, M. de Bois was at her
+side, and gave her his arm; she took it almost unconsciously. The voice
+of her aunt restored her as suddenly as a dash of ice-water could have
+done.
+
+"Your father's commands and mine, then, Maurice, are to have no weight.
+We order you to renounce all intercourse with this person, whom we no
+longer acknowledge as a relative, and you unhesitatingly declare to her,
+in our very presence, that you disregard our wishes. This, it seems, is
+the first effect of Mademoiselle de Gramont's renewed influence, which
+we have before now found so pernicious."
+
+"Do not fear, madame," answered Madeleine; "I will not permit"--
+
+"Make no rash promise, Madeleine,"--interrupted Maurice. "My father's
+wishes and my grandmother's must ever have weight with me; but when I
+honestly differ from them in opinion, I trust there is no disrespect in
+my saying so. Blindly to obey their commands would be to abnegate free
+agency and self-responsibility."
+
+"I have not forgotten," said the countess, freezingly, "that the first
+disrespect towards me of which you were guilty was originated by
+Mademoiselle de Gramont. I perceive that she is again about to create a
+family feud, and separate father and son, grandmother and grandchild.
+All her noble sentiments and heroic acting have ever this end in view.
+During the period that she concealed herself from us she has evidently
+never lost sight of this great aim of her existence, and has closely
+calculated events, and bided her time that she might manoeuvre with
+additional power and certainty. She has not disgraced us enough; she is
+planning the total downfall of our noble house, no matter whom it buries
+in the ruins. It is not sufficient that we have to blush for the
+_dressmaker_, who would exchange the device graven upon her ancestral
+arms for that of a scissors and thimble; but she is laboring to bring
+her disgrace nearer and fasten it more permanently upon us."
+
+M. de Bois, who felt that Madeleine was clinging to his arm, as though
+her strength was failing, answered for her,--
+
+"The daughter of the Duke de Gramont has not become less noble, madame,
+through her noble industry. She has not brought to her own, or any other
+cheek, a blush of genuine shame. I, who have watched over her from the
+hour that she left the Château de Gramont, claim the proud privilege of
+giving this testimony. No duchess has the right to hold her head higher
+than the Duke de Gramont's orphan daughter."
+
+Before any one could reply, he led Madeleine from the room, and out of
+the house. The movement which Maurice and Bertha, at the same moment,
+made to follow her was arrested by the countess. Before they had
+recovered themselves, Madeleine was seated in her carriage, and had
+driven away. M. de Bois was walking rapidly to his hotel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+FEMININE BELLIGERENTS.
+
+
+Madeleine's residence was one of the most superb mansions in Washington:
+a spacious house, built of white stone, and located within a few
+minutes' walk of the capitol. She was in the habit of seeking the
+beautiful capitol-grounds every fine morning, before the busy city was
+astir, accompanied by Ruth Thornton. The matinal hour devoted to this
+refreshing walk was to both maidens the calmest and happiest of the
+twenty-four. In that peaceful hour they gained strength to encounter the
+petty vexations and _désagrément_ incident to the at once humble and
+important vocation they had adopted.
+
+Buried deep in Madeleine's heart there was ever a sadness that could not
+be shaken off, but she turned the sunny side of her existence toward
+others, and kept the shadow of her great sorrow for herself alone;
+therefore her mien was ever tranquil, even cheerful. Possibly, she
+suffered less than many whose griefs were not so heavy, because her
+meek, uncomplaining spirit tempered the bleak wind that blew over her
+bowed head, and rounded the sharp stones that would have cut her feet on
+their pilgrimage, had they stepped less softly. Thus she carried within
+herself the magic that drew from waspish circumstance its sharpest
+sting.
+
+The morning after Madeleine's rencontre with her relatives, a group of
+young women were sitting busily employed around a large table in
+Mademoiselle Melanie's workroom.
+
+Mademoiselle Victorine, the forewoman, and Mademoiselle Clemence, her
+chief assistant, were the only foreigners. They had been in Vignon's
+employment, and had accompanied Madeleine to America. The other
+workwomen Madeleine had selected herself. Many of them were young girls,
+well born, and bred in luxury, who had been compelled by sudden reverses
+to earn a livelihood. Madeleine often wondered how so many of this class
+had been thrown in her way. In reality, the class is a frightfully
+numerous one, and she had an intuitive faculty of discovering those of
+whom it was composed. Not only did her instinctive sympathy attract her
+toward them, but Mr. Hilson, who was an active philanthropist, had been
+largely instrumental in pointing out young women who aspired to become
+self-helpers. Madeleine took an affectionate interest in teaching them
+a trade which almost rose to the dignity of a profession in her hands.
+She became their friend, adviser, and comforter, and thus experienced
+the delicious consolation of creating happiness for others after her own
+happiness had received its death-blow.
+
+The room in which the busy needle-women were sitting, was the farthest
+of a suite of apartments opening into each other, on the second story.
+These apartments were somewhat lavishly furnished, but in the strictest
+good taste, and the eye was charmed by a profusion of choice plants
+blossoming in ornamental flower-vases, placed upon brackets on the wall;
+or of orchids floating in pendant luxuriance from baskets attached to
+the ceiling. Then, Madeleine had not forgotten the picturesque use so
+often made of the ivy in her native land, and had trained the obedient
+parasite to embower windows, or climb around frames of mirrors, until
+the gilt background gave but a golden glimmer through the dark-green
+network of leaves.
+
+Each room was also supplied either with portfolios containing rare
+engravings, with musical instruments, or a library.
+
+Rich dresses were displayed upon skeleton frames in one apartment;
+mantles and out-of-door wrappings were exhibited in another; bonnets and
+head-dresses were exposed to admiring view in a third.
+
+Near the window, not far from the table which was surrounded by the
+sewing-women, stood a smaller table where Ruth was engaged, coloring
+designs for costumes.
+
+The gossip of the Washington _beau monde_, very naturally furnished a
+theme for the lively tongues of the needle-women. They picked up all the
+interesting items of fashionable news that dropped from the lips of the
+many lady loungers who amused themselves by spending their mornings at
+Mademoiselle Melanie's exhibition-rooms, giving orders for dresses,
+bonnets, etc., examining new styles of apparel, discussing the most
+becoming modes, or idly chattering with acquaintances who visited
+Mademoiselle Melanie upon the same important mission as themselves.
+
+Mademoiselle Victorine generally led the conversation at the
+working-table, or, rather, she usually monopolized it. It was a source
+of great exultation to her if she happened to have a piece of news to
+communicate; and this now chanced to be the case.
+
+"Something very important is to take place in this house, probably this
+very day!" she began, with a consequential air. "If Mademoiselle
+Melanie has a fault, it is that she makes no confidants; and I think I
+am fully entitled to her confidence. I should like to know what she
+could have done without _me_?"
+
+"What, indeed?" exclaimed several voices, for every one was anxious to
+propitiate the forewoman by bestowing upon her the flattery which was
+essential to keep her in an equable state of mind.
+
+"When we think of the marvels," continued Mademoiselle Victorine, "that
+issue from these walls; the splendid figures that go forth into the
+world out of our creative hands,--figures, which, could they be seen
+when they rise in the morning, would not be recognizable,--we have cause
+for self-congratulation. And Mademoiselle Melanie gets all the credit
+for these metamorphoses; though, we all know, she does _nothing_
+herself; that is, she merely forms a plan, makes a sketch, selects
+certain colors, and that is _all_! The execution, the real work, is
+mine--_mine!_ I appeal to you, young ladies, to say if it is not
+_mine_?"
+
+"Yes, certainly," said Abby, one of the younger girls; "but without
+Mademoiselle Melanie's sketch, without her ideas, her taste, what
+would"--
+
+"There--there; you talk too fast, Mademoiselle Abby; you are always
+chattering. I say that without _me_ Mademoiselle Melanie would never
+have attained her present elevated position; without _me_ this
+establishment would never have been what it now is,--a very California
+of dressmaking. And, in a little more than four years, what a fortune
+Mademoiselle Melanie has accumulated! That brings me back to the point
+from which I started. Does any one know what is to happen shortly?" she
+inquired, with an air of elation at being the only repository of a
+valuable secret.
+
+"No--no--what is it?" asked numerous voices.
+
+"Well, Mademoiselle Ruth, do you say nothing?" inquired the triumphant
+forewoman. "Are you not anxious to know?"
+
+Ruth, without lifting her head from the sketch she was coloring,
+answered, "Yes, certainly, unless it should be something with which
+Mademoiselle Melanie does not desire us to be acquainted."
+
+"Oh, hear the little saint!" returned Victorine. "She does not care for
+secrets,--no, of course not! She is only jealous that any one should
+know more than herself. She would not express surprise, not she, if I
+told her Mademoiselle Melanie is about to pay down ten thousand
+dollars--the last payment--upon the purchase of this house, which makes
+it hers."
+
+Mademoiselle Victorine concluded with a violent shake of the brocade she
+was trimming.
+
+"But did you learn this from good authority?" asked Esther, a slender,
+pale-faced girl.
+
+"The very best. I heard Mrs. Hilson say so to some ladies whom she
+brought to introduce here; and you know Mr. Hilson transacts all
+business matters for Mademoiselle Melanie. Mrs. Hilson told her friends
+that Mademoiselle Melanie's establishment was a perfect mint and fairly
+coined money. When I heard this assertion I said to myself, 'How little
+people understand that without _me_ Mademoiselle Melanie would never
+have founded an establishment that was compared to a mint--never!' Yet
+_she_ gets all the credit."
+
+"But you see"--began Esther.
+
+Victorine interrupted her.
+
+"What a chatterbox you are, Mademoiselle Esther! You will never get on
+with that work if you talk so much. Those festoons want spirit and
+grace; you must recommence them, or the dress will be a failure, I warn
+you! For whom is it? I have forgotten."
+
+"It is Mrs. Gilmer's, and she expects to wear it at the grand ball to be
+given by the Marchioness de Fleury."
+
+"She will be mistaken!" said Victorine. "I know that she will not be
+invited. The marchioness hates her; Mrs. Gilmer is the only rival whom
+Madame de Fleury takes the trouble to detest; and it makes me indignant
+to see a lady of her superlative fascinations annoyed by this little
+upstart American. One must admit that Mrs. Gilmer is very pretty; her
+figure scarcely needs help, and she is so vivacious, and has so much
+_aplomb_, so much dash, that the notice she attracts renders her
+alarmingly ambitious. Still, for her to dare to contrast herself with
+the French ambassadress is intolerable presumption, and I rejoice that
+she will get no invitation to the ball."
+
+"How do you know that she will not be invited?" asked Esther.
+
+"How do I know all that I _do_ know? It is odd to notice with what
+perfect lack of reserve the ladies who visit us talk. They chatter away
+just as if they thought we were human working-machines, without ears, or
+brains, or memories. This singular hallucination makes it not difficult
+to become acquainted with certain secrets of fashionable life which one
+_clique_ would not make known to another _clique_ for the world."
+
+"But this tittle-tattle"--Esther began.
+
+"Chût, chût," cried the forewoman. "How you chatter, Mademoiselle
+Esther; one cannot hear one's self speak for you! Somebody has just
+entered the exhibition _salon_; who is it? Mrs. Gilmer, as I'm alive! M.
+de Bois is with her; she has come to try on her dress, I suppose. She
+may spare herself the pains, for she will not wear it at Madame de
+Fleury's ball."
+
+Ruth, whose duty it was to receive visitors, and to summon Victorine, if
+they had orders to give, rose and entered the adjoining apartment.
+
+Mrs. Gilmer was one of those light-headed and light-hearted women, who
+float upon the topmost and frothiest wave of society, herself a
+glittering bubble. To win admiration was the chief object of her life.
+The breath of flattery wafted her upward toward her heaven,--that
+rapturous state which was heaven to her. To be the _belle_ of every
+reunion where she appeared was a triumph she could not forego; and there
+were no arts to which she would not stoop to obtain this victory. Madame
+de Fleury was a woman of the same stamp, but with all the polish, grace,
+and refined coquetry which the social atmosphere of Paris imparts; and
+though she had far less personal beauty than Mrs. Gilmer,--less mind,
+less wit,--her capacity for using all the charms she possessed gave her
+vast advantage over the fair-featured young American.
+
+When Ruth entered the _salon_, Mrs. Gilmer was too much interested in
+her conversation with M. de Bois to notice her, and continued talking
+with as much freedom as though she was not present.
+
+"I have set my heart upon it!" said she, "and I tell you I _must_
+receive an invitation to this ball. Madame de Fleury positively _shall
+not_ exclude me. I have already set in motion a number of influential
+pulleys, and I am not apt to fail when I make an earnest attempt."
+
+"I am quite aware of that," answered M. de Bois, gallantly.
+
+"Oh, what a love of a dress! What an exquisite design!" exclaimed Mrs.
+Gilmer, stopping delighted before a robe which had been commenced, but
+was thrown over one of the manikins, with a sketch of the completed
+costume attached to the skirt. "The blending of those pale shades of
+green and that embroidery of golden wheat, with a scarlet poppy here and
+there,--the effect is superb! Then the style, as this sketch shows, is
+perfectly novel. I am enchanted! Miss Ruth, I must have that dress! _At
+any price_, I must have it!"
+
+"It is to go to New Orleans, madame," replied Ruth. "It was ordered by
+Mrs. Senator la Motte, and is to be worn at some grand wedding."
+
+"No matter--I tell you _I must have it!_ Where is Mademoiselle
+Victorine?"
+
+Ruth summoned the forewoman. Victorine advanced very deliberately, and
+her bearing had a touch of patronage and condescension.
+
+Mrs. Gilmer pleaded hard for the possession of the dress; but
+Mademoiselle Victorine appeared to take the greatest satisfaction in
+making her understand that its becoming hers was an impossibility. The
+more earnestly Mrs. Gilmer prayed, the more inflexible became the
+forewoman. As for _repeating_ a design which had been invented for one
+particular person, _that_, she asserted, was against all rules of art.
+The original design might be feebly, imperfectly copied by other
+mantua-makers, but its duplicate could not be sent forth from an
+establishment of the standing of Mademoiselle Melanie's.
+
+Mrs. Gilmer, whose white brow was knitted with something very like a
+frown, remarked that she would talk to Mademoiselle Melanie on the
+subject, by and by.
+
+"Mademoiselle Melanie does not usually reverse _my_ decisions," replied
+the piqued forewoman, with an extravagant show of dignity.
+
+"We shall see!" retorted Mrs. Gilmer. "Now let me choose a head-dress
+for the opera to-night; something original. What can you invent for me?"
+
+"Really," answered Victorine, who was not a little irate at the
+suggestion that there _could_ be any appeal from her verdict; "I do not
+feel inspired at this moment; I am quite dull; nothing occurs to me out
+of the usual line."
+
+"Oh! you _must_ think!" pleaded the volatile lady. "Invent me something
+never before seen; something with flowers will do; but let me have
+_impossible_ flowers,--flowers which have no existence, and which I
+shall not behold upon every one's else head. Price is no object; my
+husband never refuses me anything! Especially," she added in a lower
+tone, to M. de Bois, "when he is _jealous_; and I find it very useful,
+absolutely _necessary_, to begin the season by exciting a series of
+Othello pangs through which he becomes manageable. I feed the jealous
+flame all winter, and add fresh fuel in the spring, when I wish to
+indulge in various extravagances."
+
+"A very diplomatic arrangement," remarked M. de Bois.
+
+"What a bonnet! What a beauty of a bonnet! what deliciously adjusted
+lace! How was it ever made to fall in such folds, over that bunch of
+moss roses; peeping out of those quivering leaves, touched with
+dew-drops?"
+
+"That bonnet belongs to _Madame de Fleury_," said Victorine, with a
+malicious emphasis.
+
+"Ah, indeed!" returned Mrs. Gilmer, changing color. "I wonder what would
+become of Madame de Fleury were it not for her toilets! If she were
+despoiled of her gay plumage, a very insipid, commonplace looking
+personage would remain. I must say, it is rather singular," she
+continued, growing warm in spite of herself, "but if I ever happen to
+look at anything particularly worth noticing, I am _always told_ it is
+for _Madame de Fleury_! Is Mademoiselle Melanie in her drawing-room? Is
+she accessible at this moment?"
+
+"She has just come in; Mademoiselle Ruth will conduct you to her,"
+answered Victorine, with an offended air.
+
+"M. de Bois, I will be back soon," said Mrs. Gilmer to her escort.
+"There are books in abundance in yonder library,--rather an
+extraordinary piece of furniture for a dressmaker's _salon_, but,
+Mademoiselle Melanie has so much tact, she foresaw that they might be
+useful on some occasions."
+
+Mrs. Gilmer followed Ruth to Madeleine's own apartments, which were on
+the first floor. Victorine returned to the room where the sewing-women
+were at work. Gaston selected a book and seated himself in a comfortable
+arm-chair.
+
+He had hardly opened the volume when the Marchioness de Fleury entered,
+accompanied by Lord Linden.
+
+As she descended from the carriage she had found his lordship
+promenading up and down before the house. He was overjoyed at this
+unlooked-for opportunity to obtain admission.
+
+Madame de Fleury saluted Gaston with one of her most gracious smiles.
+
+Victorine, catching sight of the marchioness, hurried forward, saying to
+Ruth,--
+
+"Do not trouble yourself, Mademoiselle Ruth, I will have the honor of
+attending upon Madame de Fleury."
+
+"That is right, Mademoiselle Victorine; but I am going to intrude into
+your _atelier_ of mysteries, and see what _chef d'oeuvres_ you have in
+progress."
+
+Judging from Madame de Fleury's tone, one might easily have supposed
+that she alluded to pictures or statues, and was about reverently to
+enter the studio of some mighty genius, and wonder over his achievements
+in marble or on canvas. The apartment she invaded was one which
+visitors were not usually invited, or expected, to enter.
+
+The gentlemen were left together.
+
+"I am in luck!" said Lord Linden in an unusually animated tone. "My dear
+M. de Bois, I am the happiest of men! I have encountered my unknown
+beauty at last! She passed me in a private carriage, which stopped here
+and was dismissed. I saw her enter this house not a quarter of an hour
+ago. She did not perceive me, and had disappeared before I could accost
+her; but I determined to keep watch until she made her exit, and then
+either to renew my acquaintance or to follow her home and learn where
+she lived. She shall not give me the slip again."
+
+"Are you sure you have not made some mistake? I do not think there is
+any lady here, at this moment, except Mrs. Gilmer, whom I accompanied."
+
+"I am perfectly certain I could not be mistaken. I shall make some
+excuse for remaining here; I will select a shawl or mantle for my
+sister, who is one of this celebrated Mademoiselle Melanie's customers,
+and who will not be displeased at such an unprecedented attention."
+
+Before M. de Bois could reply, the marchioness returned with Victorine.
+
+"And you say my dress for this evening will be done in an hour? That is
+delightful! I am impatient to test its effects. I am half inclined to
+wait until it is finished, and take it home with me."
+
+"It shall be completed _within_ the hour; I am occupied upon it
+_myself_," answered Victorine, with a fawning manner, very different
+from that by which the banker's wife had been kept in subjection.
+
+"What an original idea!" cried Madame de Fleury, pausing before the
+uncompleted dress which had attracted the admiration of Mrs. Gilmer.
+"What an exquisite conception! Those blades of golden wheat and those
+scarlet poppies make the most perfect trimming for these ravishing
+shades of green; just the colors that become me most. That dress is a
+triumph, Mademoiselle Victorine!"
+
+"The design is Mademoiselle Melanie's, but the _cut_, the _execution_,
+they are _mine_," said the forewoman, complacently.
+
+"And for whom is the dress intended? But I need hardly ask,--I am
+determined that it shall be _mine_."
+
+"It was to be sent to New Orleans to Madame la Motte, wife of the
+distinguished senator. But, I beg to assure madame that she cannot
+judge of this attire; it is nothing now. In a few days, when it is
+completed, then madame will be able to see that we have surpassed
+ourselves in that dress."
+
+"You have, indeed!" ejaculated Madame de Fleury, with fervor. "But I
+claim it. You must invent something else for Madame la Motte.
+Mademoiselle Melanie surely will not refuse me."
+
+"If the decision depended upon _me_, the dress would assuredly become
+Madame de Fleury's; although the design has been sent to Madame la
+Motte, and has met with her approbation; but Mademoiselle Melanie is so
+frightfully conscientious, she would not disappoint a customer, or break
+her word, or give a design promised one person to another for a kingdom.
+She is quite immovable, obstinately unreasonable on these points."
+
+"But I _must_ have that dress," persisted the marchioness. "I cannot be
+happy without it! I will implore Mademoiselle Melanie; she will drive me
+to despair should she refuse."
+
+"Mrs. Gilmer saw it a few moments ago, and was so enchanted that she did
+her utmost to make me promise that the dress should be hers."
+
+"_Hers_, indeed! That impertinent little _parvenue_!" replied Madame de
+Fleury. "I would never forgive Mademoiselle Melanie if she consented to
+anything of the kind. I suppose the banker's wife imagines this delicate
+green would tone down her milk-maid complexion. But she shall not try
+the experiment."
+
+At this moment Mrs. Gilmer herself reëntered. The marchioness pretended
+not to be aware of her presence, and, turning to the dress in question,
+remarked,--
+
+"Yes, this dress _must_ be one of the twelve that I shall order to take
+with me to Maryland. Twelve will suffice for one week. I hear Mr.
+Meredith's estate could bear comparison with our European country
+residences; the toilets of his guests should do honor to their host."
+She went on, addressing herself to Gaston. "There are but thirty guests
+invited, and I hear that great indignation is felt by _certain persons_
+who are not included in the number."
+
+Madame de Fleury's shaft was directed towards Mrs. Gilmer, who was
+writhing with vexation, at not forming one of the select party.
+
+Mrs. Gilmer heard, and bit her lips with suppressed rage.
+
+"Twelve dresses!" cried Lord Linden. "Twelve new dresses for seven
+days?"
+
+"Quite a moderate supply; but I could not possibly get through the week
+with less," answered Madame de Fleury, serenely. "You are invited of
+course?"
+
+Lord Linden replied in the affirmative.
+
+"And you, M. de Bois?" inquired the marchioness innocently, though she
+was quite aware that he would repeat his lordship's answer, for she had
+been consulted in regard to the guests whom it would gratify her to
+meet.
+
+Mrs. Gilmer, who was choking with vexation, sought revenge in one of
+those petty manoeuvres which women of the world thoroughly understand.
+She paused, in the most natural manner, before the hat which she had
+just extolled, and which she had been informed was designed for Madame
+de Fleury, and said aloud,--
+
+"What a pretty bonnet! Admirably suited to hide the defects of an
+uncertain complexion, and hair of no color, neither light nor dark. It
+is not too gay or coquettish either; just the thing for a woman of
+thirty, who has begun to fade."
+
+"I beg pardon, madame, it is intended for Madame de Fleury," answered
+Victorine, reprovingly, and not immediately comprehending the
+intentional spite of Mrs. Gilmer's remark.
+
+"Indeed!" returned the latter, still speaking as though she had no
+suspicion of the presence of the marchioness; "will it not be rather
+_young_ for her? It seems to me that these colors are a _little too
+bright_ for a person of _her age_."
+
+"Madame de Fleury is present, and may overhear you," whispered
+Victorine, warningly.
+
+"Ah, indeed! I did not perceive her; much obliged to you for telling me,
+for she conceals her age so well that I would not mortify her by letting
+her suppose that I am aware of her advanced years," continued the
+malicious little lady in a very audible tone.
+
+Madame de Fleury was, in reality, but twenty-five, and particularly
+sensitive on the subject of her age, or rather of her youth. She
+expected to be taken for twenty-two at the most, and had been furious
+when Mrs. Gilmer talked of her bonnet as suitable to a person of thirty;
+but when her spiteful rival had the audacity to suggest that Madame de
+Fleury had even passed that decisive period, she could scarcely contain
+her rage. By a sudden impulse she turned and faced the speaker. Both
+ladies made a profound courtesy, with countenances expressive of mortal
+hatred.
+
+Lord Linden could not help whispering to Gaston, "Feminine belligerents!
+Those courtesies were exchanged after the manner that men exchange
+blows. It is very strange," he continued, looking about. "I do not see
+my fair incognita, though she certainly entered here. I fancy the
+marchioness intends to depart; I prefer to linger awhile. There are
+several _salons_ yonder; I will steal off quietly and take refuge where
+I can watch who passes."
+
+Lord Linden had hardly disappeared before the marchioness remarked to
+Victorine, "You said my dress would be ready in an hour, Mademoiselle
+Victorine? I will take a short drive and return in that time. Let
+Mademoiselle Melanie know that I particularly wish to have an interview
+with her. I must see her about that unfinished dress which certainly
+shall not go to New Orleans."
+
+She courtesied once more very profoundly to Mrs. Gilmer and departed,
+quite forgetting Lord Linden, who was well pleased not to be missed.
+
+"Mademoiselle Melanie will not be so unjust as to let Madame de Fleury
+have that dress after refusing it to me," observed Mrs. Gilmer tartly.
+"If she is, I _never more_"--
+
+The threat was nipped in the bud, for she well knew no one could replace
+the sovereign modiste, and that the loss of Mrs. Gilmer's custom would
+not in the least affect Mademoiselle Melanie, who daily refused a crowd
+of applicants.
+
+Recovering herself, the banker's wife concluded by saying, "Madame de
+Fleury is to return in an hour; very well; I will call somewhat later to
+learn Mademoiselle Melanie's decision. If the dress is not mine it
+certainly must not be Madame de Fleury's. We shall see if Mademoiselle
+Melanie's boasted justice is found wanting, or if she acts up to her
+professions."
+
+M. de Bois conducted Mrs. Gilmer to her carriage, and returned to the
+_salon_; for he had an especial reason for desiring to see Madeleine;
+but, having called during the hours which she scrupulously devoted to
+her vocation, he did not feel at liberty to intrude in her private
+apartments.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+THE MESSAGE.
+
+
+Shortly after M. de Bois returned to the exhibition _salons_, Madeleine
+entered the workroom. Gaston could see her moving about among the young
+girls, distributing sketches, making smiling comments upon the
+occupation of this one and that; pointing out defects or praising
+execution. Every face seemed to brighten when it was turned toward her,
+and every countenance wore an unmistakable expression of affection. We
+might, perhaps, except that of Mademoiselle Victorine, whose high
+opinion of her own abilities made her somewhat jealous of Madeleine's
+supremacy. Yet, even she experienced an involuntary reverence for the
+head of the establishment, though golden dreams of some day leaping into
+her place were ever floating through the Frenchwoman's plotting brain.
+
+Beside the table where Ruth was painting, Madeleine made the longest
+pause. She seemed disposed to converse with her young favorite; and Ruth
+smiled so gratefully that M. de Bois was half reconciled to the delay,
+though he had an important reason for wishing to exchange a few words
+with Madeleine as soon as possible. The interval before she passed out
+of the room to return to her boudoir appeared sufficiently tedious.
+Gaston followed her and said,--
+
+"Will you grant me a few moments, or are you very busy this morning?"
+
+"Busy always," replied Madeleine, extending her hand to welcome him;
+"but seldom _too_ busy to lack time for my best friend. Will you come to
+my own little sanctum?"
+
+The room to which Gaston followed her offered a striking contrast, in
+point of furniture, to those which they had just left. Madeleine's
+boudoir, though it had an air of inviting comfort, was adorned with
+almost rigid simplicity. The only approach to luxury was a tiny
+conservatory, she had caused to be built, rendered visible by glass
+doors.
+
+Madeleine took her seat before a small rosewood table, and with a pencil
+in her hand, and a piece of drawing-paper before her, said, "You will
+not mind my sketching as we talk. I have an idea floating through my
+head, and I want to throw it off on paper; I can listen and answer, just
+as well, with my fingers occupied."
+
+Well might Gaston contemplate her in silent and wondering admiration.
+Neither her countenance nor her manner betrayed any trace of the
+suffering she must have endured on the day previous. She seemed to have
+completely banished its recollection from her thoughts. M. de Bois was
+fearful of touching upon the subject, it seemed so wholly to have
+vanished from her mind; yet his errand compelled him.
+
+"What courage, what perseverance you possess, Mademoiselle Madeleine! It
+is incredible,--inexplicable," he said, at last, as he watched the
+delicate fingers moving over the paper.
+
+"There you err," answered Madeleine, brightly. "It is, at least, very
+_explicable_, for it is in working that I find my strength, my
+inspiration, my consolation! It was _work, incessant work_, which
+sustained me when I determined to take a step from which my weaker,
+frailer part shrank. A step which utter wretchedness first suggested to
+me; which seemed terribly galling, oppressively revolting; which I
+ventured upon with inconceivable pain. Yet, as you have seen, I was
+enabled, in time, to look upon that step with resignation; I afterwards
+contemplated it with pride; I now regard it with positive pleasure. This
+could never have been had I not resolved to resist all temptation to
+brood over grief, and turned to work as a refuge from sorrow."
+
+"And it is really true, then, that you, a lady of noble birth, dropping
+from so high a sphere into one not merely humble, but laborious, find
+your vocation a pleasure at last."
+
+"It is most true," said Madeleine lifting her beautiful eyes, with such
+a radiant expression that the genuineness of her reply could not be
+doubted. "When one has, for years, lived upon the bare suffrage of
+others, no matter how dear,--when one has had no home except that which
+was granted through courtesy, compassion, charity,--you cannot conceive
+how delicious it is to dream of independence, of a home of one's own!
+And this sweet dream has become reality to me more speedily and more
+surely than my most sanguine hopes dared to anticipate. Think, in what a
+rapid, an almost miraculous manner my undertaking has prospered; by what
+magic my former life (that of an aristocratic lady who employed herself
+a little, but without decided results) has been exchanged for the
+delights of a life of active use, bringing forth golden fruition! In a
+word, how suddenly my poverty has been turned to wealth,--at all events,
+to the certain promise of opulence. And the most delightful sense of all
+is the internal satisfaction of knowing that I have done this _myself_,
+unaided; save, indeed, by the kindness, the counsel, the invisible
+protection of such a friend as you are, and such a friend as Mr. Hilson
+has proved."
+
+"We have done nothing--but watch and admire."
+
+"Nothing?" answered Madeleine, with gentle reproach. "Who helped me
+carry out all my projects? When a man's hand was needed, who stretched
+out his? but always with such prudence and delicacy that I could not be
+compromised. How helpless I should have been in Paris without you! And
+how many mistakes might I not have committed in America without Mr.
+Hilson's aid! Little did he think, when he dined at the Château de
+Gramont, with a noble family, and asked one of its members to promise
+that if she ever visited America she would apprise him of her presence
+there,--little could he imagine how soon she would make a home in his
+native land, and of what inestimable aid his friendship would be to
+her."
+
+"He has been truly serviceable," answered Gaston. "His advice was always
+good, and in nothing better than in deciding you to take this house,
+which you, at first thought too magnificent; he was wise, also, in
+persuading you to furnish it so luxuriously. He comprehended, better
+than you or I did, that a certain amount of pomp and show would make a
+desirable impression upon the inhabitants even of a republican country."
+
+"Yes, I have cause to thank him for that counsel. And when I reflect
+that this house, which I at first thought too splendid, will soon become
+my own, I can hardly believe my good fortune. To-day, or to-morrow, I am
+to make the last payment of ten thousand dollars, and the house will be
+mine, clear of all incumbrance. I have the money ready, and probably
+before night it will be paid. This very morning, when I returned home,
+as I entered the door, I could not but pause suddenly, and say to
+myself, 'Is this no dream? Have I a home of my own, at last? Will this
+elegant mansion to-day become mine, and through the toil of'"--
+
+"'Fairy fingers,'" interrupted Gaston.
+
+"Something magical, I am inclined to admit," returned Madeleine, gayly.
+"But had it not been for the earnest counsels of Mr. Hilson, I should
+never have felt justified in living in my present style; he convinced me
+that the money I expended in surrounding myself with all the elegances
+of life was laid out at interest; and I suppose he is right; these
+elegances have perhaps drawn the rich to my door."
+
+"What was it that drew the poor?" asked Gaston. "You have tried to keep
+your charities as secret from me as your noble birth was kept from
+others, but accident has made me acquainted with more than you are
+aware. I know with what liberal hands you have succored the needy."
+
+"Those who have endured the sharp sting of poverty themselves may well
+feel for the poor," replied Madeleine. "And yet, I do little enough for
+my poor human sisters and brothers; but we are gossiping very idly. Did
+you not say that you particularly wished to speak to me? It was not
+simply to make these sage reflections, was it?"
+
+"No; but I shrank from touching upon the subject while you seemed so
+serene and happy. I could not bear to recall the painful interview with
+your family yesterday, when they--they--they"--
+
+"When they cast me off!--spurned me as one degraded! Do not fear to
+speak out. My aunt is implacable,--I might have known that she would
+be,--and Count Tristan is the same."
+
+"What matter? You have no need of their affection. And yet, the day will
+come when they will all seek you, and be proud and glad to claim you. I
+say it, and I feel it!"
+
+Madeleine shook her head.
+
+"And they did not _all_ throw you off. Was not Mademoiselle Bertha just
+what she always is? And was not Maurice,--though he appeared to be so
+completely overwhelmed that he could not command his voice,--was he not
+the same as ever?"
+
+"_Was_ he the same, think you?" asked Madeleine, eagerly.
+
+"Yes, I am sure of it; and I come here to-day as his messenger,--or,
+rather, as the herald of his coming."
+
+Madeleine trembled, in spite of herself. The thought of beholding
+Maurice once more, of conversing with him, of listening to him, affected
+her too strongly for her to be able even to _assume_ indifference.
+
+M. de Bois regarded her with an air of exultation.
+
+"I have judged you rightly, then, and you are unchanged. Maurice is not
+less dear to you than"--
+
+Madeleine's hand, appealingly lifted, checked him.
+
+For a few moments she remained silent. When her tranquillity was
+somewhat restored, she said slowly, but in an altered tone,--
+
+"You are the messenger of Maurice; what did he request you to say to
+me."
+
+"He commissioned me to let you know that he earnestly desired an
+interview with you, at once,--and alone,--free from interruption. He
+entreats you to receive him to-day. I promised, as soon as I could make
+known to you his petition, that I would return to him with your
+answer;--he awaits it impatiently. What answer shall I give him?"
+
+"He may come," answered Madeleine, in a tone of suppressed emotion.
+
+"I will tell him that he may be here in an hour?" said Gaston
+interrogatively, for he saw the mighty struggle Madeleine was making to
+control herself, and thoughtfully desired to give her some little time
+for preparation.
+
+Madeleine bowed her head in acquiescence.
+
+Gaston had too much delicacy to prolong the conversation. He bade her
+adieu and at once sought Maurice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+MEETING OF LOVERS.
+
+
+M. de Bois lost no time in communicating to Maurice the result of his
+visit. He found the young viscount awaiting him with torturing
+impatience. Gaston had scarcely said that Madeleine would receive her
+cousin in an hour, when Maurice, without heeding the last words, caught
+up his hat, convulsively grasped his friend's hand, and, without
+uttering a syllable, hurried forth.
+
+He was acquainted with Madeleine's residence,--he had sought it out the
+night previous,--and thither he now hastened. He bounded up the street
+door-steps, but paused a moment as his hand touched the bell. Was he
+again about to look upon that face which he had sought with such
+fruitless, but frenzied ardor? He thought of those days when all
+creation became a blank because that heaven-lit countenance no longer
+shone upon him. His brain and heart throbbed and beat at those
+tumultuous recollections until both seemed mingled in one wild motion.
+
+He comprehended Madeleine's character so well that he knew he should
+find her tranquil and self-possessed; and was he about to enter her
+presence as voiceless and unmanned as during their brief rencontre the
+day previous?
+
+He turned to descend the steps in the hope of collecting his scattered
+faculties, by walking awhile, but the very thought of delaying, even for
+a few moments, an interview for which he had so long pined caused him
+too sharp anguish for endurance; he seized the bell, and rang with as
+sudden an impulse as though he feared the mansion before which he stood
+would vanish away, and he would awake from one of the old dreams by
+which he had been haunted.
+
+The door opened and he was at once conducted to Madeleine's boudoir.
+
+Madeleine was still sitting before the little table where Gaston de Bois
+had left her. The sketch she had commenced lay before her, and the
+pencil beside it; but though she had not moved from her seat, the
+drawing had not received an additional touch.
+
+As Maurice entered she rose, and advanced toward him, stretching out
+both her hands. Closely clasping those extended hands, he gazed upon her
+with an expression of rapture. For a moment, the large, clear windows of
+her soul opened as naturally and frankly as ever; but his look was so
+full of unutterable tenderness that over her betraying eyes the lids
+dropped suddenly, and her face crimsoned, it might be with happiness
+which she felt bound to conceal.
+
+Madeleine was the first to speak; but the only words she murmured were,
+"Maurice!--my dear cousin!"
+
+How her accents thrilled him! How they brought back the time when that
+voice, which made all the music of his existence, was suddenly hushed,
+and awful silence took its place, leaving the memory of departed tones
+ever sounding in his aching, longing ears!
+
+"Madeleine!--have I found you at last? Oh, how long we have been lost to
+each other!"
+
+"_You_ have never been lost to _me_," answered Madeleine involuntarily;
+but the words were hardly spoken when she repented them.
+
+"I know it; M. de Bois kept you informed of my movements. But, ah,
+Madeleine, how could you be aware of my anguish, and so cruelly refuse a
+sign by which I might learn that you were near me?"
+
+"I had no alternative. I could not have carried out the project I had
+formed, and which"--Madeleine paused, and looked around her somewhat
+proudly, then added, "and which you now see crowned with success, if I
+had run the risk of your tracing me. You would have opposed my
+undertaking,--do you not feel that you would? Answer that question,
+before you reproach me."
+
+"Yes, you are right, Madeleine; I fear I should have opposed your
+enterprise. And yet, believe me, I honor it,--I honor you all the more
+on account of that very undertaking. Thank Heaven, I have lived long
+enough in this land, where men (and women too) have sufficient courage
+to use their lives, and senseless idlers are the exceptions; to realize
+that man's work and woman's work are alike glorious; that labor is
+dignified by the hand that toils; and that you, Madeleine, the daughter
+of a duke,--you, the duchess-mantua-maker, have reached a higher
+altitude through that very labor than your birth could ever command."
+
+"Maurice,--my cousin, my dear, dear cousin!--these words compensate me
+for all my trials and struggles. I hardly dared to dream that I should
+hear them for your lips. Ah, to-day,--to-day when I am about to
+accomplish one of the ends for which I have most earnestly
+toiled,--to-day when I shall become full possessor of this mansion,
+henceforth a home of my own,--this day will ever be full of precious
+memories to me; it will be written upon my book of life moistened with
+the sweetest tears I ever shed,--tears of gratitude and joy."
+
+"You are to purchase this magnificent mansion? Is it possible?" asked
+Maurice, for the first time looking around him. "How can you have
+achieved this, Madeleine? You have had some friend who aided you,
+and"--he paused abruptly.
+
+"I _have_ had friends, Maurice, warm and devoted friends," answered
+Madeleine, simply.
+
+"But," he resumed, and hesitated, "how--how has all this been brought
+about? Ah, Madeleine, I have not forgotten, I cannot forget the sad
+revelation you made to me in Brittany. He whom you love,--it is
+_he_,--_he_ who has protected you, who has enjoyed the exquisite
+happiness of aiding you by his advice, and by his own means perhaps"--
+
+Maurice uttered these words excitedly and almost in a tone of reproach.
+
+"No, Maurice," returned Madeleine, growing ghastly pale, and speaking
+with an effort which gave her voice a hollow, unnatural sound. "He whom
+I love has never aided me,--I have received no assistance from him,--I
+have given him no right to offer any."
+
+"He whom you love!" repeated Maurice with culminating anguish. "Then you
+love him,--you _do_ love him still? Answer me, Madeleine. Do not torture
+me by suspense! Answer me,--you love him still?"
+
+"_As ever!_" replied Madeleine, and an irrepressible blush chased the
+ashy whiteness of her cheeks.
+
+"And he is _here_,--here in America,--here in Washington?" asked
+Maurice.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And you see him? You have seen him perhaps this very day?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And he loves you,--loves you as much as ever?"
+
+Madeleine silently bowed her head, but the radiant light that overspread
+her countenance answered more unmistakably than the affirmative action.
+
+"Ah, Madeleine, can you think, can you believe that his love equals
+mine? You do not answer; speak, I implore you! _Do_ you believe that
+_he_ has loved you as _I_ love you?"
+
+Madeleine felt impelled to reply because she deemed it best for Maurice
+to be confirmed in his error. In a low, tremulous tone, and with her
+eyes swimming in the soft lustre of a half-formed tear, she murmured,
+"Yes."
+
+"No! no! It cannot be!" burst forth Maurice. "No woman was ever loved
+_twice_ with such absorbing devotion. You cannot be to him what you are
+to me! You cannot have saved him from all the perils from which you have
+saved me! Ah, Madeleine, since you have been selected to fill the place
+of a guardian angel to me, why, why was my love rejected? Why did
+another rob me of your heart? Why were you willing to unite your fate to
+his and not to mine?"
+
+"Maurice," said Madeleine, regaining some degree of composure, "I shall
+never forget the noble offer you made me when I was a desolate outcast;
+I shall never forget the joy it gave me,--the gratitude it caused
+me,--the good it did me, at the very moment when I was forced, _ay
+forced_ to reject that offer. But had there been no other barrier could
+I have consented to become a burden to you? I,--poor and
+friendless,--_could_ I have consented to draw down the anger of your
+family upon you? _Could_ I have consented to separate you from them?--to
+make a lasting feud between you? Say, Maurice, would you have had me do
+this?"
+
+"I would have had you leave me still a hope upon which I could have
+existed, until I had fitted myself to enter an honorable profession;
+until I had a prospect of earning an independence through that
+profession; until I had the right to say to you (as I now might, were
+you but mine in heart), Madeleine, I have waited patiently, and toiled
+earnestly,--will you share my narrow means, my almost poverty? Will you
+be my wife? We might have been exiles, so to speak, for we should
+perhaps have been cast off by our own kindred, and might never have
+returned to our native land; but your presence would have made this new
+country,--this young Hercules of lands,--this land full of sinews, bones
+and muscle, not yet clothed with rounded symmetry of outward form, but
+fresh and strong and teeming with promise, a true home to us. Its vast,
+ever-growing mind would have given new expansion to our own mental
+faculties. We should have grown spiritually, and reached nobler heights
+together. If we had griefs to endure, grief itself would have been sweet
+to me if we drank it from the same cup. All this might have been,
+Madeleine, if you had loved me as I love you."
+
+Madeleine passed her hand over her eyes as if to shut out some picture
+of blinding brightness conjured before them by his words; and, looking
+up with forced serenity, said,--
+
+"Maurice, though I cannot be your wife, do you refuse to let me take the
+place of a sister?--a sister who loves you with the most tender
+affection,--who will rejoice in your joy and share your sorrow, and look
+upon her own life as brighter if she brightens yours? Since it has been
+the will of Heaven that we should meet again before the time I proposed
+arrived, there is no need that we should become strangers to each other.
+Because I cannot be _all_ that you desire, you will not reject such
+affection as I _can_ offer you?"
+
+"Reject it? No, _rejection_ has only emanated from your side," he
+continued bitterly. "I was and am unworthy of your affection, your
+confidence; but what you will grant I will thankfully receive, too poor
+not to feel enriched even by your coldest regard."
+
+"Will you prove that to me, Maurice?"
+
+"Yes; how can I do so?"
+
+"By promising that you will never have a sorrow which you do not confide
+to me; by promising that you will never doubt my ready sympathy; more
+yet,--by giving me an invaluable privilege,--one which will make me
+proud indeed. Do not be offended, Maurice; but--but--should you ever
+need means to carry out any enterprise (and you know, in this land, how
+many offer themselves), I would claim the privilege of being your
+banker, and joining in your undertaking as freely as if I were indeed
+your sister."
+
+"You, Madeleine? Can you imagine that I could force myself to consent to
+this? You are already rich then?"
+
+"I am becoming rich,--I have laid the foundation of wealth. But tell me
+that you do not reject my sisterly regard, my devotion"--
+
+"Would he whom you love permit this devotion?"
+
+"Yes," answered Madeleine, smiling gravely.
+
+"It would not render him wretched? It would not exasperate him?"
+questioned Maurice.
+
+"No."
+
+"He is not jealous, then?"
+
+"Yes, I fear he is,--very jealous; but not of _you_."
+
+"And yet, he has cause," returned Maurice, with violence which he could
+not control; "more cause than I trust he has of being jealous of any
+other man; and there may be, _must_ be other men who aspire to love you.
+Your position, Madeleine, must expose you, at times, to impertinence;
+you must need protection."
+
+"I have a talisman within which protects me ever," answered Madeleine.
+
+"Ah, I know,--the love you bear _him_, my rival! Let us not speak of
+him. I cannot endure it; let us ever banish him from our conversation."
+
+"I did not mean to make you suffer," said Madeleine, soothingly.
+
+Before he could reply, Victorine entered with a mysterious air. Her
+countenance intimated that she had a matter of the utmost importance
+upon her mind.
+
+Habituated to some of the little, pleasant, and _supposed to be_
+harmless customs of her own country, she could not comprehend that
+Mademoiselle Melanie appeared to have no lovers, that she entertained no
+gentleman in particular. M. de Bois was so openly her _friend_ that
+mystery never attached itself to his visits. Mr. Hilson was a frequent
+visitor, but he was a married man, whose wife and daughters were among
+the most zealous of Mademoiselle Melanie's patrons. Victorine was always
+on the _qui vive_ for the accession of a lover, as a necessary appendage
+to one in Mademoiselle Melanie's position; and, at this moment, she felt
+as though she had a clew to some intrigue.
+
+Instead of speaking in an audible tone, she approached Madeleine, and
+glancing dubiously at Maurice, said, in a whisper, "Mademoiselle, I have
+something to communicate."
+
+"What is it?" asked Madeleine, without the slightest embarrassment.
+
+"A gentleman desires to see Mademoiselle Melanie immediately, and _in
+private_," whispered Victorine. "He particularly said _in private_, and,
+evidently he is very desirous of not being seen. He was quite confused
+when that stupid valet ushered him into the exhibition-rooms; but
+fortunately, I came to his assistance. He was so anxious to escape
+observation that he _would_ follow me downstairs; I therefore ushered
+him into Mademoiselle's private drawing-room."
+
+"Did you not ask his name?" inquired Madeleine, quietly.
+
+"He would not give his name, mademoiselle. He said I must deliver you
+this note when no one was by, or slip it in your hand unperceived."
+
+She spoke in a whisper, and gave the note with her back turned to
+Maurice, probably supposing that he was not aware of its delivery.
+Madeleine broke the seal quite openly. At the first line, however, she
+changed color, and was visibly disturbed. Victorine, who was watching
+her closely, exulted in secret. Maurice perceived Madeleine's agitation
+with surprise and pain. A suspicion that the letter was from his rival
+could not be escaped.
+
+"What is it?" he asked, impulsively.
+
+"I cannot tell you," replied Madeleine, hastily refolding the letter.
+
+"Can you not tell me from whom this letter comes?"
+
+"No--no!" she replied with unusual vehemence.
+
+"Alas! I know too well," returned Maurice sadly. "But why should you be
+agitated and troubled by what he says? What right has he to give you
+pain?"
+
+"You must leave me--leave me at once!" cried Madeleine, nervously.
+
+Victorine was enchanted; the plot thickened! Here was a mystery, and she
+held the clew to it! It was very plain that Mademoiselle Melanie did not
+wish these two gentlemen to meet.
+
+"Victorine, you will conduct monsieur"--said Madeleine. "I do not wish
+him to leave by the front entrance; you will conduct him through the
+garden."
+
+There was a private entrance into the street through the large garden at
+the back of the house; but this was the first time that Victorine had
+ever received an order to show any visitor out by that way, and she felt
+she was beginning to be admitted to Mademoiselle Melanie's
+confidence,--an honor for which she had long sighed.
+
+Maurice was about to remonstrate, but Madeleine said to him,
+imploringly, "Can you not trust me? Will you not consent to my wishes,
+and trust to their being explained some future day?"
+
+Maurice, though tormented by the keenest pangs of jealousy, could not
+resist this appeal.
+
+"I trust you ever, Madeleine," he replied, taking up his hat. "When may
+I see you again?"
+
+"When you choose; you are always welcome; but go now. Show monsieur
+_through the garden_, Victorine."
+
+Victorine smiled a mysterious assent. Maurice followed her out of the
+room, but Madeleine's intention was unexpectedly frustrated.
+
+The visitor whom Victorine had ushered into the drawing-room had
+followed her unnoticed to the small entry which led into Madeleine's
+boudoir. The forewoman and Maurice had only taken a few steps when they
+encountered him.
+
+Maurice exclaimed in astonishment, "Good heavens, my father!"
+
+"You here, Maurice," returned the count in a severe tone.
+
+"Are you not here, my father?"
+
+"That is different," answered the count, hiding his annoyance beneath a
+frigid air. "You heard what your grandmother said. She would be
+indignant if she knew of this visit, and you must be aware that it does
+not meet with _my_ approval."
+
+"Have I reason to think so when I find you here also?" replied Maurice,
+in a manly tone.
+
+"I come as the head of the family, and to talk upon a family matter of
+great importance. I do not, however, wish that my visit here should be
+known to any one. You understand me,--it is not to be mentioned."
+
+"Be assured I shall not mention it," said Maurice, bowing and moving
+onward.
+
+As the gentlemen had met, Victorine concluded there was now no need of
+showing the way through the garden entrance. She opened the door of the
+boudoir to admit Count Tristan, and then led the way to the entrance
+from the street. Maurice did not comprehend why Madeleine's orders were
+disregarded; for he never suspected that his father was the writer of
+the note.
+
+At the sound of a footstep on the stair, the viscount raised his head,
+and caught sight of a gentleman who had commenced descending, but
+suddenly turned back, as though he also did not wish to be seen. He
+could not, however, disappear before Maurice had recognized Lord Linden.
+
+Why should Lord Linden have so rapidly retreated when he thought he
+might be seen? Could this languid, _blasé_ nobleman be the man Madeleine
+loved? Could she have been acquainted with him in France? When could
+their acquaintance have commenced? Why had she never mentioned him? It
+was very singular.
+
+Maurice left the house he had entered with such joyous sensations, sadly
+and slowly. Madeleine was found at last, yet Madeleine was again lost to
+him!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+COUNT TRISTAN'S POLICY.
+
+
+When Count Tristan was ushered into Madeleine's presence, he was
+received, not perhaps with warmth, but with marked courtesy. Nothing in
+her greeting betrayed that his past conduct was remembered, and yet
+nothing in her manner indicated that their relationship was unforgotten.
+Her demeanor was simply that which would have been natural and
+appropriate in receiving, beneath her own roof, one who was almost a
+stranger.
+
+The count had been completely disconcerted by the unexpected meeting
+with his son; his wily smoothness was too much ruffled for him to couch
+his first words in polite language; he could not forbear saying,--
+
+"I entertained the hope that my visit would be private; it is very
+unfortunate that I encountered Maurice; it will give him cause to think
+that I am opposed to his grandmother's course." He smoothed over this
+slip of the tongue by adding, "And, certainly, so I am! I disapprove of
+her excessive rigor; her conduct toward you does not meet with my full
+sanction."
+
+It was the unintentional expression of Madeleine's countenance, perhaps,
+which made Count Tristan remember that his own conduct had strongly
+resembled that of his mother. But his auditor spoke no word; she was too
+kind to utter her thoughts, and too frank to say what she did not think.
+
+The count went on,--
+
+"I could not yield to my strong impulse yesterday, and defend you; it
+would not have done; my mother would only have been exasperated. I was
+forced apparently to agree with her. The sacred title of 'mother,'
+which is never to be forgotten, compelled me to yield her this
+respect,--a respect due alike to her years and to her position. But, now
+that we are alone, I may tell you how pained, how grieved I was at the
+occurrences of yesterday."
+
+"I no longer think of them," replied Madeleine.
+
+"As I said," continued the count, "when you left us so mysteriously in
+Brittany, however troubled we might have been at your sudden step,
+however anxious about your welfare, it was useless to be indignant,
+since you thought your course the right one, and you were ever
+conscientiousness personified; besides it should always be taken into
+consideration that, come what might, you are still our relation; the
+ties of blood are indissoluble. I said to my mother, 'It can never be
+forgotten that Madeleine is your niece.'"
+
+"I would have had her forget it," replied Madeleine. "I preserved my
+incognita, and kept at a distance from you all that you might not be
+wounded by the remembrance."
+
+"But be sure, Madeleine, that I, for one, cannot forget our
+relationship, nor cease to treat you as my niece."
+
+Madeleine could not but be touched by this unexpected declaration. She
+answered, gratefully, "It is more than I ask, yet I thank you."
+
+"Yes," returned the count, "and to prove to you how far I am from
+looking down upon you,--how much I honor your position, and how highly I
+esteem you,--how thoroughly I comprehend your character, and the
+readiness with which you always serve others,--I come here to-day to ask
+a favor at your hands."
+
+"Is it possible?" exclaimed Madeleine, delightedly. "You make me truly
+happy. Can I, indeed, serve you? You could scarcely have spoken words
+that had more power to gladden me."
+
+"That is precisely what I imagined," answered the count, complacently.
+"Now let me explain the matter. You have often heard me speak of the
+property left to Maurice by his uncle. It is now almost our sole
+possession. Its value depends upon the railroad which may or may not run
+through that portion of the country. A committee of nine persons has
+been selected to decide whether this road shall run to the right or
+left. If they choose the road to the right, the property of Maurice will
+not be benefited, and--and--and--I cannot enter into particulars,
+but--but--it is almost valueless. If they choose the left road, the
+value of the estate will be so much increased that it will yield
+us,--that is, will yield my son something very handsome. Of this
+committee, Mr. Hilson and Mr. Meredith will vote for the left road, and,
+through the influence of Madame de Fleury, for which I am indebted to
+you, M. de Fleury's banker, Mr. Gobert, will also vote for the left:
+that secures us three votes."
+
+"How glad I am that I was able to accomplish something to serve you!"
+said Madeleine.
+
+"There is much more, I trust, that you will be able to accomplish. The
+votes of Mr. Gilmer and Mr. Rutledge must be gained,--the only two which
+it seems possible to obtain; for the other gentlemen are inflexible in
+their decision. Mrs. Gilmer is one of your customers. I hear that she
+raves about you; if that is the case, you can do anything with her, and
+_she_ will manage her _husband_. Have you no mode of winning her over to
+our side?"
+
+Madeleine pondered a moment, then answered gayly,--
+
+"Yes, I have at my command one method that is certain,--_perfectly
+certain_. Mrs. Gilmer is very desirous of receiving an invitation to
+Madame de Fleury's ball. The marchioness has left her out on purpose.
+Mrs. Gilmer has made numerous efforts, but, thus far, unsuccessful ones,
+to obtain this invitation; if I could secure it for her she would gladly
+repay me by inducing her husband to vote as you desire."
+
+"Bravo! Bravo! we shall succeed; for you can surely obtain the
+invitation. Madame de Fleury herself said that she was enchanted at the
+opportunity of obliging you,--that she could not do too much to show her
+great consideration."
+
+"Yes; but you can scarcely comprehend the difficulty of persuading her
+to consent to invite Mrs. Gilmer. She mortally detests her, and I could
+offer few petitions which she would be less likely to grant. Still, I
+will use strong arguments,--powerful inducements. I will endeavor to
+think of some temptation which she cannot resist."
+
+"That is just what I believed you would do, my dear Madeleine," said the
+count, taking her hand.
+
+Madeleine withdrew it, though not too abruptly. The contact gave her,
+magnetically, as it were, a painful impression.
+
+"But how," she asked, "is Mr. Rutledge to be reached?"
+
+"Through you,--through _you_ again, my kind, good Madeleine," answered
+the count, hilariously.
+
+"Through _me_? I do not know him except by name. He is a bachelor;
+therefore there is no wife who can be induced to become a mediator."
+
+"No, there is no wife, to be sure, but there is a lady-love whom he
+hopes to make his wife, and she, also, is one of your patrons; it is the
+sister of Lord Linden; you might solicit her, or you might obtain her
+influence through his lordship."
+
+"Through his lordship? That is not possible," replied Madeleine,
+decisively.
+
+"Surely it may be," remarked the count, "since you are acquainted with
+him, and I have faith in your powers of persuasion."
+
+Madeleine looked very much astonished as she answered, "What has made
+you imagine that I have any acquaintance with Lord Linden?"
+
+"I saw him upstairs in one of your _salons_, sitting in a comfortable
+arm-chair, as though he were very much at home, reading a book."
+
+Madeleine looked confounded.
+
+"Lord Linden?"
+
+"Yes; you will therefore admit that it was quite natural for me to
+suppose that he had the _entrée_ here?"
+
+"I did not know that he was in the house!" returned Madeleine,
+ingenuously. "He has never been here before to my knowledge. I once was
+thrown in contact with him in travelling from New York to Washington.
+The cars met with an accident and he broke his arm; I, being unhurt, was
+of some little assistance; but I have never seen him since."
+
+"Then it is a most fortunate chance," resumed Count Tristan, "that
+brings him here. Through him you can influence his sister,--through her
+the vote of Mr. Rutledge will be secured, and these two votes gained;
+the road to the left will be chosen, and for this I shall be wholly your
+debtor. Truly, Madeleine, you are the fairy Maurice used to call you in
+old times; for you have the power, the gift of working wonders, and you
+always _had_!"
+
+"Cousin Tristan,"--began Madeleine, seriously, then paused; "do you
+allow me still to call you so?"
+
+"Yes,--yes, undoubtedly; and especially when we are alone. Call me
+_cousin_, certainly; but what did you wish to say?"
+
+"You must find some other advocate as far as Mr. Rutledge is concerned.
+I fear I have not sufficient influence with Lady Augusta Linden to make
+this request, or to induce her to grant it, or to prevent her thinking
+the petition itself an impertinence."
+
+"That does not matter; you can manage the affair through Lord Linden,
+and the opportunity presents itself this very moment, since he is
+here,--here under your own roof."
+
+"I cannot see him,--I particularly desire not to see him; there are
+reasons which must prevent my asking any favor at his hands. It is
+totally out of my power to do what you desire."
+
+"But it is of the greatest importance, Madeleine; this opportunity must
+not be thrown away. What would Maurice think if he believed that you
+refused to serve him at such a critical moment?"
+
+"Maurice, if he knew all which I could tell him, would be the first to
+forbid my appealing to Lord Linden. I pray you to seek some other means
+of influencing Mr. Rutledge; he cannot be reached through me."
+
+"I have no other!" cried the count, with desperate energy. "My sole
+dependence is upon you. And, Madeleine, this is not the mere question of
+gain: more than I dare confide to you depends upon the decision of that
+committee."
+
+Madeleine made no response, but her manner plainly manifested that she
+was not prepared to retract what she had said.
+
+"Madeleine," continued the count, with ill-disguised anger, and feeling
+that he had no alternative but to make a confession which humbled him to
+the dust, "this property was held in trust by me; my difficulties, my
+embarrassments, have been overwhelming: they have brought me to the
+verge of absolute ruin. A man may be placed in positions where he is
+forced into actions from which he would otherwise shrink; this was my
+case. I obtained from Maurice a power of attorney which he thinks I have
+never used,--but--but--impelled by my troubles, and without his
+knowledge, I have been induced,--women cannot understand business
+matters; it was a course that could not be avoided,--I have been forced
+to compromise the interest of Maurice; I have been compelled to mortgage
+his estate so heavily that it is valueless unless this road augments its
+present worth. Do you not see what is at stake? Will you not exert
+yourself to save me, to save Maurice from the mortification of knowing
+that I have committed an action which might be misconstrued,--which
+might be condemned,--might be considered,"--the count paused, overcome
+with shame.
+
+Madeleine hesitated; for the sake of Maurice she could endure to be
+misunderstood,--she could submit to place herself in a position which
+humbled and compromised her.
+
+The count saw that her resolution was shaken, and he did not lose his
+advantage.
+
+"Remember that Maurice is beginning life; he has imbibed the sanguine
+spirit of the land in which he has lately lived. What a sudden and
+crushing blow to him will be the revelation that awaits him! Can _you_
+bear to contemplate its effect? _I_ cannot. Answer, Madeleine; he has
+suffered much, much for _your_ sake: will you, will you make him suffer
+more?"
+
+"No!" answered Madeleine, firmly. "Come what may, I will see Lord
+Linden, and obtain his influence with his sister _if I can_."
+
+"There spoke the Madeleine of other days!"
+
+Madeleine interrupted him: "Spare me your praises; I do not deserve
+them. If Lord Linden is here, as you say, I will see him at once."
+
+"That is right; you are prompt as ever. I will take my leave. It may not
+be well for him to see me here. Success to you, Madeleine! But you
+always command success. It is a condition of your existence."
+
+The count withdrew, and Madeleine, with a sad countenance, only waited
+until the street door closed upon him, to keep her promise and seek Lord
+Linden.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+LORD LINDEN'S DISCOVERY.
+
+
+Lord Linden, who had resolved not to leave the house until he had
+discovered his incognita, waited with laudable patience, closely
+scanning every lady who passed through the adjoining apartments. His
+position did not command a view of the workroom. An hour passed, and he
+began to get puzzled. The non-appearance of the lady who had entered the
+house was inexplicable, unless she resided there. His perplexity was
+momentarily increasing, when he saw Count Tristan in conversation with
+the forewoman. They left the apartment together. It then occurred to
+Lord Linden that there might be other exhibition-rooms in the lower
+story, and he had better reconnoitre. He had made up his mind to do
+this, and was descending the stair, when he caught sight of Maurice de
+Gramont and involuntarily retreated. What was Count Tristan doing here?
+What brought his son here? Neither of the gentlemen were accompanied by
+ladies. He returned to his former station, uncertain what step to take
+next. Just then, Victorine passed through the apartment on her way to
+the workroom. He accosted her and inquired if there were exhibition
+rooms on the lower floor. She informed him that the first story was
+reserved by Mademoiselle Melanie for her own use.
+
+Lord Linden returned to his arm-chair, and had just made up his mind
+that the lady of whom he was in search had visited Mademoiselle Melanie
+in her own apartments and left the house again, when he was startled,
+astounded, and overjoyed by the sight of the very being he sought,
+tranquilly approaching him.
+
+Madeleine looked serious, even sad; for she had consented to stoop to an
+action which mortified her deeply.
+
+Lord Linden was so thoroughly amazed at her sudden appearance that he
+could not move,--could not collect himself to address her.
+
+She courtesied, and said, with grave sweetness,--
+
+"I was only informed a few moments ago of your presence here, my Lord."
+
+Lord Linden rose and stammered out, "Is it possible? Do I really behold
+you? This morning I saw you enter this house. I gained my admission as
+Madame de Fleury's escort, and lingered in the hope of seeing you after
+she left."
+
+Lord Linden did not know how to proceed. He had expected to encounter
+his incognita wearing her hat and mantle. He had supposed that her visit
+to the residence of the celebrated _couturière_ was to make some
+purchase. To behold her so apparently at home bewildered him.
+
+Madeleine perfectly comprehended his perplexity, and, with the utmost
+composure, attempted to clear away the mist from his mind by saying,--
+
+"I beg pardon; I was not aware that you accompanied Madame de Fleury. As
+I have the honor of numbering Lady Augusta Linden, your lordship's
+sister, among my customers, I thought"--
+
+"Customers? Your customers? You, then, are"--
+
+"Mademoiselle Melanie, the mantua-maker," answered Madeleine with an
+unfaltering voice.
+
+"_You?_ Can it be?"
+
+Pointing in the direction of the workroom, she answered with a
+half-smile, "Yonder are a number of witnesses who can testify to my
+identity."
+
+Lord Linden, trying to conceal the shock he had received, and gazing
+upon her with admiration, exclaimed, in an impassioned tone,--
+
+"Ever since I first met you, when you were returning from"--
+
+"From New York," broke in Madeleine, "where I went to choose silks and
+velvets and other feminine paraphernalia for the use of my customers."
+
+Lord Linden was again discomfited. After a moment he went on,--
+
+"I have sought you everywhere. I was certain I should find you in the
+first drawing-rooms in Washington."
+
+"You find me in a _salon_ which a great many ladies visit before they
+enter those drawing-rooms."
+
+"It is incredible!"
+
+"To me it seems very comprehensible," answered Madeleine stoically.
+
+He looked into her lovely countenance and continued, with increasing
+fervor,--
+
+"I have never ceased to think of you. No other woman has had power to
+efface your image. Having known you, without ever suspecting who and
+what you are"--
+
+Madeleine interrupted him.
+
+"Now that you are aware _who_ I am and _what_ I am, my lord, it becomes
+easier to dissipate any illusion which owes its origin to a mystery with
+which you were pleased to surround me."
+
+"To _exchange_ my illusions, perhaps, for others, more captivating, more
+poetic," resumed the nobleman.
+
+"Do you talk of poetry, my lord, to a mantua-maker?"
+
+"Say, rather, to one who, in spite of her vocation, inspires me with the
+most absolute veneration. I swear to you--But no, my actions, not my
+words, must prove my admiration. You shall find me ever at your command.
+I shall count it the greatest happiness of my life to devote myself to
+your service."
+
+"My lord, you tempt me to put your words to the test."
+
+"Do so, I pray you. It is what I most desire."
+
+"By a singular chance," said Madeleine, "one of those marvellous
+coincidences which sometimes occur in real life, but which look like
+fiction when they are related in books, an opportunity presents itself
+that may enable you to prove the sincerity of your protestations. You
+must understand that I am a woman of business. But that is easily
+comprehended, as I am a woman who toils for her daily bread. I take
+great interest in the decision of the committee of a certain railroad
+company, one of the members of which I desire to influence."
+
+Lord Linden looked stupefied, and almost as if he thought Madeleine were
+making a jest of him. But her grave manner contradicted that suggestion.
+
+She went on as tranquilly as before,--
+
+"They are to decide, at their next meeting, whether a certain railroad
+shall take the direction to the right or left. I desire that the left
+road should be chosen."
+
+Lord Linden still regarded her as though he were too completely
+astounded to make any comment.
+
+"Certain members of the committee will, I am aware, vote for the left
+road. I wish to secure the vote of Mr. Rutledge."
+
+"Mr. Rutledge!" exclaimed Lord Linden. "I know him well."
+
+"He is the warm admirer of Lady Augusta Linden," observed Madeleine. "It
+is even reported that he aspires to her hand."
+
+Lord Linden showed plainly that he was astonished to find one in
+Madeleine's position so conversant with the affairs both of the business
+world and the _beau monde_.
+
+Madeleine proceeded,--
+
+"If any influence can be used with Mr. Rutledge to induce him to vote
+for the left road, it will cause me gratification, I cannot explain of
+what nature. You have spoken, my lord, of desiring to serve me. I have
+very frankly pointed out in what manner it was possible that you might
+confer a favor upon me. If I could enter into full particulars, this
+request would lose its singularity. As that cannot be done, I can only
+entertain the hope that you will believe it has an interpretation which
+I should not blush to reveal."
+
+"That I feel,--of that I am certain," returned the nobleman, earnestly.
+"No one could look at you and doubt the nobility of your actions and
+motives. I am almost hardy enough to venture to promise Mr. Rutledge's
+vote. Will you permit me to return here after I have spoken with him,
+and report to you the result of my advocacy?"
+
+Before Madeleine could reply, Mrs. Gilmer entered the adjoining room.
+
+Madeleine rose, and, courtesying to her visitor, said,--
+
+"Your lordship will excuse me; my duty requires that I should leave you
+and attend to this lady."
+
+She glided out of the room, but Lord Linden continued to watch her, as
+though he could not force his eyes away.
+
+It was some time before he made his exit.
+
+Mrs. Gilmer was looking very much depressed. She had begun to believe
+that it was very possible she would receive no invitation to Madame de
+Fleury's ball.
+
+"Ah, Mademoiselle Melanie," said she, as Madeleine entered; "you will
+sympathize with me. I have never had such a mortification before. I knew
+Madame de Fleury's enmity, but I could not believe her so cruel, so
+_inhuman_. She is thoroughly devoid of feeling, and has determined to
+leave me out of her invitations. I actually induced the Russian
+ambassadress, with whom she is very intimate, to intercede for me. I
+have just seen Madame Orlowski, and she tells me Madame de Fleury
+refused point blank. She resisted Madame Orlowski's most urgent
+entreaties, and will not yield to any one; I have no longer any hope. I
+shall be excluded from this ball, of which all Washington is talking.
+How am I to survive such a slight?"
+
+"It, however, may still be possible," said Madeleine, smilingly, "to
+obtain you an invitation."
+
+"You think so? You really think so?" cried Mrs. Gilmer, in joyful
+surprise. "Do not raise my hopes to the highest pitch to cast them down
+again unless you want to make me ill for a month. Who could have the
+power to obtain me an invitation after the Russian ambassadress has been
+refused?"
+
+"It sounds very presumptuous to say so, but _I_ may have."
+
+"_You?_ My dear Mademoiselle Melanie,--_you?_ I can well believe it.
+Madame de Fleury adores you; she owes all her success to you. Oh, I know
+it, well enough, though you may pretend to be ignorant of what you have
+done for her. And you seriously think you can get me this invitation?
+You will positively make the effort?"
+
+"I will use my best endeavors, and I am pretty sure I shall succeed; but
+it is to be the return for a favor which I desire you to grant me."
+
+"A favor? You can ask none that I will not grant in return for this
+invitation," replied Mrs. Gilmer, eagerly.
+
+Madeleine could scarcely repress a smile, tinged with a slightly
+scornful expression.
+
+"You American ladies are said to be all-powerful with your husbands;
+you, no doubt, have great influence with Mr. Gilmer?"
+
+"I fancy I have," said Mrs. Gilmer, tossing her graceful head. "I
+arrange matters so as to have him in my power. I know his weak points,
+and I make it a rule to play upon them until I obtain everything I
+desire. Just at this moment, he is in a particularly favorable state: he
+is frantically jealous; though, between ourselves, I never give him real
+cause. I only excite his jealousy to use it as a valuable weapon against
+himself. Tell me quickly what favor you desire."
+
+"Mr. Gilmer is a member of a committee which is to decide upon the
+course a certain railroad is to take. I wish to secure his vote for the
+left road."
+
+"How odd! What difference can it make to you?"
+
+"It would occupy too much time to explain that, and might not interest
+you. The important question is, can he be induced to vote for this left
+road?"
+
+"I dare say; I do not doubt it,--that is, if you are really in earnest,
+and can promise me my invitation to the ball in exchange for his vote."
+
+"The one depends upon the other," replied Madeleine. "I had the good
+fortune to secure the vote of Mr. Gobert, the banker of Monsieur de
+Fleury, and"--
+
+"Mr. Gobert votes for the left road? Ah, that increases the difficulty.
+My husband makes a point of never voting as he does,--never! It is
+enough that Mr. Gobert votes one way for him to vote the other."
+
+"That is singular; they are both bankers, and I thought they were
+friends."
+
+"It is because they are both bankers that they are the bitterest
+enemies. Talk of the jealousies of women, of artists, of men of genius,
+of nations! Those are nothing to the jealousy of these rival
+capitalists, who are engaged in a perpetual strife to excel each other.
+If Mr. Gobert gives a ball that costs two thousand dollars, Mr. Gilmer
+gives one that costs four thousand. If Mr. Gobert builds a superb house,
+Mr. Gilmer builds a palace. It is a steeple-chase of vanity, in which
+the conqueror has for the only price of his victory the delight of
+seeing his rival conquered."
+
+"Then you find the difficulty of reconciling Mr. Gilmer to vote for the
+left road beyond your skill?"
+
+"No,--no,--I do not say _that_. I do not admit _that_, by any means. But
+Mr. Gobert is a great obstacle."
+
+"But one which the pleasure of attending this ball will enable you to
+surmount?"
+
+"Yes, I trust so. There is a way,--there is a sacrifice I can make; and
+I will not hesitate for such an object. My husband detests, without the
+slightest cause, a gentleman who visits me frequently: now, if I
+promised not to receive this obnoxious, but very delightful individual
+(whom I care nothing about), I think Mr. Gilmer, in return, would be
+willing, for once, to cast, his vote on the same side as his enemy. It
+would need some such grave inducement, some such unquestionable
+sacrifice on my part."
+
+"That sacrifice may also be a prudent action," observed Madeleine.
+
+"Oh, I do not know about that," replied the thoughtless woman of
+fashion; "a woman is expected to have admirers; they only render her
+more valuable in the eyes of her husband. I should not consent to offend
+this devoted friend without some strong incentive. But to insure being
+present at Madame de Fleury's ball, I would agree to anything. So, it is
+a bargain: if I obtain you my husband's vote, you obtain me this
+invitation?"
+
+"That is our compact," answered Madeleine.
+
+"Agreed. I shall return home with a light heart; you have cheered me
+wonderfully; I am inclined to be so amiable to all the world, my husband
+included, that all the world and my husband are your debtors. When shall
+I receive the good news that you have conquered Madame de Fleury?"
+
+"At whatever time you think you will be prepared to send me the
+intelligence that you have vanquished Mr. Gilmer."
+
+"That will be this evening, before my husband goes to his club."
+
+"By this evening, then, I will have procured you the invitation."
+
+"Remember, I depend upon you. Good-morning."
+
+Mrs. Gilmer departed in high good-humor, leaving Madeleine reflecting
+with regret upon the tools which harsh circumstance seemed to force her
+to use.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+A CONTEST.
+
+
+When Mrs. Gilmer took her leave, Madeleine returned to the seclusion of
+her own boudoir, having first given orders that she should be apprised
+when Madame de Fleury made her appearance.
+
+Madeleine was unnerved by the agitating incidents of the morning. There
+are days into which emotions which might fill years are crowded. It was
+long since she had felt oppressed by such a sense of lassitude and
+melancholy. Her interview with Maurice had stirred all the tenderest
+chords of her spirit, yet left them vibrating sadly. The mysterious
+visit of Count Tristan had perplexed her mind with ominous forebodings.
+She could scarcely be said to have seen through his machinations, yet
+she had an instinctive disbelief in his sincerity, and the uprightness
+of his motives,--a disbelief which she vainly tried to conceal from
+herself. More painful still had been her conversation with Lord Linden;
+she could not fail to perceive that he assumed the attitude of a lover,
+and she felt humbled at having _apparently allowed_, or rather
+_ignored_, such a position. Lastly, her late _bargaining scene_ with
+Mrs. Gilmer had disturbed Madeleine's sense of delicacy; and a similar
+scene remained to be enacted with Madame de Fleury.
+
+Madeleine involuntarily rubbed her eyes, as though she were trying to
+wake from a confused dream. She could not believe that she had really
+entangled herself in this web of plotting, and at the bidding of Count
+Tristan! She feared that she had acted too impulsively,--that she had
+made unwarrantable use of her power. Then she remembered the look of
+deep distress upon Count Tristan's face as he made his half confidences;
+she recalled his assurances that without her interposition Maurice would
+not only be ruined, but that disgrace must attach itself to his father's
+name. She had promised her aid, had half gained the victory, and must
+not retreat now when the only portion of her work which remained to be
+accomplished consisted in compelling a fashionable puppet to send an
+invitation to a rival whom she detested. There was nothing objectionable
+in the act itself; yet Madeleine, during these calm reflections, shrank
+from the part she was playing, and revolted against being mingled up
+with stratagems, however innocent.
+
+This revery was broken by the announcement that Madame de Fleury had
+arrived, and was at that moment trying on her dress.
+
+When Madeleine entered the apartment, Madame de Fleury was standing
+before a mirror, evidently admiring her new costume, and in great
+good-humor. She turned to Madeleine gayly, and said,--
+
+"Mademoiselle Melanie, this dress is perfection! This corsage sets off
+my figure beautifully! And what exquisite apologies for sleeves you have
+invented! My arm is one of my best points, and the tinier the sleeve
+the better. Then the looping of this lace dress through these miniature
+chaplets of wild roses is very original; the whole effect is wonderfully
+airy and poetic. This is one of your great triumphs; you have really
+surpassed yourself."
+
+As she spoke, she turned around and around, complacently contemplating
+her reflected image from various points of view.
+
+"I am particularly gratified at having pleased you, madam," said
+Madeleine, with more gravity than was usual to her when she accosted her
+light-brained customers.
+
+Madame de Fleury, without noticing her serious mien, commenced
+disrobing. Victorine folded up the dress and placed it in a _carton_.
+
+"I mean to take the dress with me," said the marchioness. "Mademoiselle
+Victorine, have the goodness to desire my servant to place that _carton_
+in the carriage."
+
+As Victorine prepared to obey, Madeleine motioned her to desist, and
+said, "Not yet; leave the dress for a few moments. You may retire."
+
+The forewoman reluctantly left the room, looking puzzled, curious, and
+indignant.
+
+"What? Is some alteration needful?" asked Madame de Fleury. "Have you
+some fresh inspiration? Has a new idea that will improve the dress
+suddenly struck you?"
+
+Without replying to these questions, Madeleine looked earnestly at the
+marchioness, who was now resuming her bonnet, and asked,--
+
+"You are, then, satisfied with my work, madame?"
+
+"Satisfied? that is a cold word. I am transported!"
+
+"And if," continued Madeleine, "for that dress I should require a
+price"--
+
+"Oh, whatever you please," replied the marchioness, lightly. "Take me
+prisoner, gag me, plunder me, what you will, I shall not complain: the
+dress is worth it; and we have never had any discussion in regard to
+prices."
+
+"But the price in question is not one that can be paid with money; the
+price I place upon this dress is the granting of a favor,--a favor most
+precious to me."
+
+"A favor? you have only to speak. Do you want an office for a friend? A
+recommendation for some ambitious compatriot to the emperor? A pardon
+for some exiled transgressor? Anything possible to the wife of the
+French ambassador is at your service; you have but to speak."
+
+"My petition is somewhat easier to grant; for I only ask a few words
+from you in writing."
+
+As she said this, Madeleine opened a desk, and placed upon it a sheet of
+note-paper, a gold pen, and an inkstand. Then she paused, and said,
+hesitatingly,--
+
+"Yet, though I ask but these few written words, in full compensation for
+that dress, the materials of which as well as the work being mine, I
+fear to make my petition known, for I feel that it will cost you much to
+comply with my wishes."
+
+"Nonsense! speak plainly," said Madame de Fleury, smoothing her ribbons
+with caressing touches.
+
+"I would solicit an invitation to your ball for one of your
+acquaintances who, as yet, has received none, and who chances to be one
+of my customers."
+
+"Is that all? We are enacting much ado about nothing," said the
+marchioness, seating herself smilingly at the desk. "You shall have the
+invitation, modest and mysterious petitioner. What name shall I write?"
+
+"Mrs."--Madeleine faltered.
+
+"Go on," cried the marchioness, who had commenced her note with the
+usual formula.
+
+"Mrs. Gilmer!" responded Madeleine.
+
+Madame de Fleury threw down the pen and started up.
+
+"Mrs. Gilmer! Invite Mrs. Gilmer to a ball from which I have purposely
+excluded her? Invite her when I have the satisfaction of knowing that
+she is dying of mortification because she cannot get an
+invitation?--when I have steeled myself against the solicitations of
+Madame Orlowski? Never! I would rather bear the weight of all the years
+which she impertinently added to my age."
+
+Madeleine, who was fully prepared for this burst, said, very quietly,
+and approaching the marchioness,--
+
+"Madame, it is not long since you assured me that it would be a positive
+happiness to be able to render me a service."
+
+"And I mean it. I would gladly serve you, but not by inviting Mrs.
+Gilmer to my ball: that is a little too much to demand."
+
+"But this is the service I most need; a service for which I would be
+deeply grateful,--for which I could never sufficiently thank you,--which
+would attach me to you as nothing in the past has ever done."
+
+"The offer of your gratitude and the promise of your attachment are,
+certainly, very touching," said Madame de Fleury, with a scornful
+petulance which she had never before evinced toward Madeleine; "but I
+beg leave to decline the indebtedness. You have forced me to remember,
+for the first time, that when a lady in my station deals with a person
+in your sphere, it is possible to be _too_ kind, _too_ condescending,
+_too_ ready to forget necessary distinctions, and thus to draw upon
+one's self the consequences of that forgetfulness. You have given me a
+lesson, mademoiselle, by which I shall profit: in future I shall
+remember the distance between us."
+
+She walked toward the work-room and called Victorine, who immediately
+responded to the summons.
+
+Pointing to the _carton_, the indignant lady gave the order, "Have that
+dress placed in my carriage."
+
+"No!" said Madeleine, addressing Victorine, commandingly. "Let the dress
+remain where it is."
+
+"What do you mean, mademoiselle?" asked the marchioness, in angry
+astonishment.
+
+"That dress is still mine!" answered Madeleine.
+
+"Yours?"
+
+"It is mine, and we will each keep that which belongs to us,--_you_ the
+privilege of your rank; I, the results of my labor, however humble."
+
+"Do I understand you rightly? Have you the hardihood to say"--
+
+Madeleine interrupted her,--
+
+"That I refuse to part with that dress for gold, or for any compensation
+you can offer, except the one already named,--an invitation for Mrs.
+Gilmer to your ball."
+
+"She shall never have one! I have said it, and nothing can change my
+resolution."
+
+"Nor mine! We are in the same position, madame, in spite of the
+_difference of our stations_," answered Madeleine, with cold sarcasm.
+"Nothing can change my resolution."
+
+"But the dress is mine!" cried Madame de Fleury. "I will prove that it
+is mine; but we will settle that question afterward. Meantime, I order
+you, Mademoiselle Victorine, to have that dress placed in my carriage."
+
+"I order you not to touch it!" said Madeleine.
+
+Madame de Fleury now became so much exasperated that she seemed to be on
+the point of seizing the dress and carrying it off in her arms.
+
+Madeleine perceived her intention, and, suddenly lifting the dress out
+of the _carton_, rolled it up rapidly, for the materials were light.
+
+"I prove to whom the dress belongs, madame, by disposing of it _thus_!"
+
+And with the most perfect tranquillity, she flung the disputed prize
+into the fire! It was burning brightly, for the day was cool, though
+spring had commenced.
+
+The marchioness, for a moment, was stunned; but, as the flames caught
+the lace, she cried out, "Save it! save it! It is burning! What an
+infamous action! What a crime! It has killed me!"
+
+She dropped upon the sofa, and was seized with one of those hysterical
+paroxysms which French women designate as an _attaque de nerfs_.
+
+Victorine, with a great display of distress, flew to the sufferer,
+loosened the strings of the bonnet which she was recklessly
+crushing,--held a bottle of sal volatile to her nose (for the
+Frenchwoman was always prepared for similar pleasant excitements, and
+carried a vial in her pocket), and commenced rubbing the lady's hand
+with great energy.
+
+"Save,--save the dress! Do not let it burn!" Madame de Fleury gasped out
+between her sobs.
+
+"The dress is beyond saving, madame," replied Madeleine; "it no longer
+exists."
+
+At this moment the marchioness suddenly recovered.
+
+"And you have destroyed it? You have destroyed a toilet which would have
+made me talked of for a week! It is abominable,--it is disgraceful,--it
+is _criminal_!"
+
+Madame de Fleury always used the strongest terms where matters of the
+toilet, the most important interests of her life, were in question.
+
+"What am I to wear this evening? What is to become of me?"
+
+The marchioness wrung her hands, and wept in genuine tribulation. She
+sunk back again upon the sofa, as though prostrated by her crushing
+sorrow.
+
+Madeleine allowed the grief of the fine lady to expend itself in
+incoherent lamentations, and then said, in an icy tone,--
+
+"Madame, do you desire to appear to-night in a dress which far surpasses
+the one I have destroyed?"
+
+The marchioness was sobbing so violently that she could only answer by a
+movement of the head.
+
+"Do you desire to wear a dress which has been refused to others?--a
+dress which Mrs. Gilmer used every argument to induce me to finish for
+her, but in vain?--a dress which I would even have refused _you_, with
+whose wishes I have ever been ready to comply?"
+
+"What--what dress? What do you mean?"
+
+"I refer to the dress the design of which you so much admired this
+morning,--the dress which is to be sent to New Orleans for Madame la
+Motte."
+
+"But that dress is not finished; it is hardly commenced; only the
+embroidery is completed. Mademoiselle Victorine told me it could not be
+done under three days."
+
+"It shall be finished for _you_, if you so please, before it is time for
+you to dress for this evening's assembly."
+
+"But that cannot be; it is not possible; it is four o'clock now; it
+would be a miracle!"
+
+"Not quite," returned Madeleine, quietly. "In past days I was said to
+have the fingers of a fairy, and you shall admit that magical power
+remains to me. I repeat, the dress shall be completed, if you desire it,
+to-night."
+
+"But you have sent the design to Madame la Motte, who has approved of
+it, and, I hear, you are bound not to furnish a duplicate to any one."
+
+"True, I must run the risk of losing the confidence of a patron for the
+first time in my life. I will tell Madame la Motte the truth, and
+furnish her with another equally elaborate dress,--not a very easy
+matter, as it must leave here in three days by express, and a new design
+must not only be planned, but executed, within that time. I may lose
+Madame de la Motte's patronage,--her esteem; but that will be the price
+I pay for the favor I seek at your hands."
+
+"The favor!" repeated the marchioness, abstractedly.
+
+In her bewilderment and grief caused by the destruction of the dress,
+she had forgotten, for the moment, all that had just taken place.
+
+Madeleine pointed to the note which the marchioness had commenced, and
+said,--
+
+"The invitation for Mrs. Gilmer."
+
+"Ah! Mrs. Gilmer!" cried Madame de Fleury, as though she had been stung
+by the name.
+
+"As you remarked, it is four o'clock," continued Madeleine; "the dress
+ought to be at your house by half past nine; there is scarcely time for
+any one who only _pretends_ to be a fairy to accomplish the work. Four
+o'clock: it _is_ just possible that I have promised too much,--that is,
+if we lose many minutes. Have you decided to write me the invitation?"
+
+"You do not give me time for reflection," said Madame de Fleury,
+hesitating.
+
+"You scarcely give _me_ time," returned Madeleine, "to perform what I
+have promised; the moments are precious."
+
+"You are sure the dress can be completed if--if I give you this
+invitation?"
+
+"Yes, madame, if it be given _at once_. See," pointing to the clock,
+"five minutes have flown already, and in every moment we are to do the
+work of an hour. There is the pen."
+
+Madame de Fleury took it reluctantly.
+
+"That detestable Mrs. Gilmer will triumph so much!"
+
+"You triumph in having obtained the dress that was refused to her, and
+has been refused to many others. But time flies, and I shall not be
+able, with all the magical aid for which I am given credit, to keep my
+word. Victorine, while Madame de Fleury is writing, apprise the young
+ladies to put by, as rapidly as possible, all other work, and be ready
+to take in hand that which I will give them directly. We want our whole
+force; let me find every one prepared to aid."
+
+Victorine left the room to execute these orders.
+
+Madame de Fleury seated herself and dipped the pen in ink.
+
+"If you knew what it costs me to consent," she began.
+
+"If I did _not_ know," rejoined Madeleine, "I should not have offered to
+make a sacrifice of so much importance. A few moments more and it will
+be too late to decide,--your consent will be of no avail."
+
+"Ah, that is true," cried Madame de Fleury, writing rapidly.
+
+She left the note unfolded on the desk, and, as she rose, said in a tone
+of ludicrously mingled petulance and elation, "You have conquered! But I
+shall have my dress!"
+
+"Be sure of it!" answered Madeleine.
+
+Victorine now announced that all other work had been laid aside, and the
+young ladies awaited Mademoiselle Melanie's commands.
+
+"Go--go--go! or you will be too late!" urged Madame de Fleury, hurrying
+away.
+
+Madeleine hastened to the work-room, and distributed portions of the
+dress to different needle-women. After giving a number of minute
+directions, and making known that she would return in a couple of hours
+to see what progress was made, she retired to write to Mrs. Gilmer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+BERTHA.
+
+
+If Madeleine had been asked which of her relatives would first have
+sought her after the unexpected _rencontre_ at Madame de Fleury's, she
+would have answered, "Bertha,"--Bertha, whose devotion had been so
+unflagging, so open, so daring. But on the day which succeeded that
+stormy interview, Count Tristan and Maurice had visited Madeleine, yet
+Bertha remained absent; another day passed, and still she came not.
+
+The Countess de Gramont had resolved, at least, to postpone a meeting
+she might not be able wholly to prevent. She formed her plans so
+dexterously that Bertha was chained to her side, fretting through the
+tedious hours, yet powerless to secure a moment's freedom.
+
+Exasperation caused Bertha sleepless nights; and on the third morning
+she rose with the sun, summoned her maid, sent for a carriage, and was
+on her way to Madeleine's residence some three hours before it was
+likely that the slumbers of the countess would be broken.
+
+Madeleine was preparing for her matinal walk, when her cousin was
+announced.
+
+After the first joyous greetings were over, Bertha said, with tender
+delight,--
+
+"And now that I have found you, my own Madeleine, I mean to come to see
+you every day."
+
+Madeleine shook her head sadly. "Madame de Gramont will never permit
+that."
+
+"How can she help it if I choose to order all my dresses made here? The
+choice and discussion of becoming attire shall occupy as much of my time
+as it does of Madame de Fleury's. I mean to become her rival and almost
+ruin myself in splendid toilets,--that is, unless you accept my
+proposition."
+
+"What proposition, Bertha?"
+
+"To give up your--your--your--What shall I call it? Your
+_occupation_,--your _vocation_,--I have a great mind to say your
+'_trade_,' that the word may shock you. Live with me; travel with me; go
+where I go. Will you not consent?"
+
+"No," answered Madeleine, gently, but resolutely.
+
+"Do not decide hastily. You cannot know how much I need you, Madeleine.
+Your counsels were indispensable to me even in days when I had no secret
+to confide: now--now"--
+
+"Now you _have_ a secret? Is it indeed so?"
+
+Bertha nodded, paused awhile, then went on abruptly,--
+
+"I have been pestered to death by men who aspired to my hand, and my
+uncle declares there is no possibility of my finding peace until I make
+some choice."
+
+"And you intend to secure peace upon his terms? Possibly among those who
+aspired to your hand there is one who has discovered the entrance to
+your heart."
+
+"Among those who have aspired,--ah, there is the difficulty! Among those
+there is none."
+
+"Then you love one who has never aspired?"
+
+"I fear so," answered Bertha, ingenuously, and yet blushing deeply.
+
+Madeleine looked troubled; she had long entertained a pleasant hope
+which she saw about to vanish.
+
+"And you have loved him,--how long?" she asked, gravely.
+
+"Oh, a very short time; only since day before yesterday," replied
+Bertha.
+
+This answer added to Madeleine's discomposure. There was no hope for
+Gaston de Bois.
+
+"Why do you look so sorrowful?" inquired Bertha, noticing her cousin's
+expression.
+
+"I am thinking of one who has loved you long, with such devotion, with
+such self-abnegation, with such an ardent desire to become worthy of
+you, that I could not but sigh over his disappointment. But this sudden
+affection of yours may not be very deep."
+
+"Ah, but it _is_! And as for suddenness, when I say I have only loved
+him since day before yesterday, I mean that I only then discovered how
+much I cared for him."
+
+"And how came you to know that he was dear to you?"
+
+"You will be very much shocked when I answer that question; but you
+always said I was eccentric. I first felt that I loved him when I saw
+him getting into a great rage, and when I positively fancied that I
+caught the sound of a horrible oath, which he uttered in an undertone!"
+
+"That _is_ original! I never before heard of a young lady being inspired
+by love for a young man when he was angry, or when he was profane."
+
+"Ah, but he was angry in a good cause," returned Bertha, earnestly. "It
+was righteous indignation, and it was the violence with which he
+defended one whom I love, that won my heart completely."
+
+"Whom did he defend?" asked Madeleine, unsuspiciously.
+
+"_You_,--_you_, my own, best Madeleine, and for _that_ I loved him. It
+was so wonderful, knowing how constitutionally diffident he is, to see
+him so courageous. And when I remembered how he used to hesitate and
+stammer, it seemed marvellous to hear him talk on with an ease, a
+fluency, a fervor truly eloquent. I never ask to listen to finer
+oratory. My aunt, in spite of her indignation, was confounded into
+silence. Count Tristan could not say a word, and Maurice looked as
+though amazement alone kept him from throwing himself in his friend's
+arms, and I fear I almost felt like doing the same."
+
+"It was Gaston de Bois, then?" cried Madeleine, with sudden transport.
+
+"Yes. Who else could it be? And he was so comical at the same time that
+he was so pathetic! At first I almost felt like laughing at his odd
+gesticulations. And then he talked so nobly, so grandly, that I felt
+like weeping; and you know it is my nature to laugh and to cry in spite
+of myself. I have made up my mind that I could never love anybody who
+could not make me do both _at once_, just as he did, in such a comically
+pathetic manner."
+
+"How shall I thank you? Gaston de Bois is my best, my truest, friend!"
+said Madeleine, rapturously.
+
+"I know _that_ well enough! Once I feared he might be the mysterious
+individual whom you loved; but he said himself that you were a sister to
+him; and I almost leapt for joy at those words. A sister never fills the
+_whole_ of a man's heart,--does she?"
+
+"Not such a heart as Gaston de Bois'. He will tell you himself who
+occupies the sovereign place in that heart when he knows that he may
+speak."
+
+"But how is he to know? You must promise me not to tell him, not to give
+him even the faintest hint, of what I have communicated. Promise me that
+you will not."
+
+"I promise. But you forget how diffident M. de Bois is, how distrustful
+of his own merits. He will not easily believe that you _can_ think of
+him. And, meantime, you"--
+
+"Will suffer. Yes, I know it; but I should suffer more if I were guilty
+of an unmaidenly action. So you will keep your promise?"
+
+"I will keep it faithfully."
+
+It was time for the cousins to part. Bertha returned to the hotel with a
+lighter heart, because she had transferred its weighty secret to
+another's keeping. But Madeleine's joy was mingled with forebodings that
+Gaston de Bois would not suspect his own happiness for a long, sad
+period, if ever.
+
+When she went forth, it was long past the hour usually devoted to her
+walk. The capitol grounds were gay with promenaders. Madeleine and Ruth
+attracted more attention than was agreeable, and, after a short ramble,
+turned homeward.
+
+As they passed out of the gates, the first person they met was Gaston de
+Bois. He bowed, hesitated, seemed half inclined to walk on without
+speaking, but changed his mind and joined them.
+
+It was long since Madeleine had seen him apparently so ill at ease or so
+distressed. She smiled as she reflected how quickly three little words
+(which she, alas! was forbidden to speak) would change that perturbed
+look to one of ineffable happiness.
+
+For a few moments he walked moodily by her side, replying at random to
+her casual remarks. It chanced that Ruth was not conversant with the
+French language, and Madeleine, struck by his abstracted air, inquired
+in that tongue whether he had any cause for vexation.
+
+Gaston answered, vaguely, that he was troubled; he did not himself know
+with how much real cause. A moment after, he mentioned her interview
+with Count Tristan, and, stammering a little in his old fashion, asked
+whether she would deem it a great liberty if he desired to know the
+object of the count's visit.
+
+A moment's reflection convinced Madeleine that M. de Bois would not have
+made this inquiry out of sheer, causeless curiosity; and she made known
+to him the count's request concerning the votes which she was to exert
+herself to obtain. Gaston caught eagerly at her words, and exclaimed,--
+
+"Valueless? Are you sure Count Tristan said the property of Maurice
+would be valueless but for the advent of this railroad?"
+
+"Yes," replied Madeleine; "I am quite sure that such was his assertion.
+But why do you ask? What has happened? Nothing to compromise Maurice?"
+
+"I do not yet definitely know; but, if it be what I suspect, what I
+fear, it will compromise him wofully."
+
+"Pray be explicit," said Madeleine, becoming alarmed. "Tell me what you
+positively know, and what you fear. Remember, Maurice is my cousin."
+
+"Would he were more! But that wish now is vain. In a word, then, I have
+no faith in Count Tristan. I believe him capable of unscrupulous actions
+which might ruin his son. At the club, last night, a group of gentlemen
+chanced to be conversing near me. The name of Maurice de Gramont
+attracted my attention. A Mr. Emerson asserted that he had just made a
+discovery which convinced him that the Viscount de Gramont was a young
+man regardless of honor; and added that he intended, without delay, to
+commence legal proceedings against him. As soon as I could control my
+indignation, I informed Mr. Emerson that the Viscount de Gramont was my
+friend, and I could not allow his name to be used with disrespect
+without demanding an explanation."
+
+"And he gave you one?" inquired Madeleine, greatly agitated.
+
+"He did not give me one. At first he was inclined to treat my request
+cavalierly. But, upon my persisting, he replied that neither place nor
+time served to discuss a business matter; adding that he would be at his
+office on the morrow, at twelve o'clock, and, if I chose to call at that
+hour, the whole matter would be made known to me; remarking,
+significantly, that he had no intention of keeping the transaction from
+the public."
+
+"What could he mean?"
+
+"_That_ I can only surmise. But a few hours will make all clear."
+
+"To gain a few hours' time may be of the utmost importance," answered
+Madeleine. "Try to see Mr. Emerson _at once_. Learn the meaning of his
+words, and return to me with the intelligence."
+
+"Ah, Mademoiselle Madeleine, you are always so prompt! I should have
+lingered until twelve without"--
+
+"Go! Go at once, and come back to me quickly! You have said enough to
+awaken a horrible suspicion. I do not dare to let my mind dwell upon the
+frightful possibility that suggests itself."
+
+M. de Bois bade her good-morning as precipitately as she could desire,
+and hastened upon his mission.
+
+When Madeleine reached her home she said to Ruth, "I am unfit for my
+usual duties to-day. Ruth, I have long intended that you should occupy a
+more active and prominent position in this establishment. Do you not
+feel yourself competent to do so?"
+
+Ruth returned affectionately,--
+
+"I have studied diligently under your tuition; sometimes I fancy that I
+have almost mastered some of the rules, and fathomed some of the
+mysteries, of your art."
+
+"To-day, then," rejoined Madeleine, "I mean that you shall wholly take
+my place. I have faith in your ability."
+
+Ruth retired, well pleased at the confidence reposed in her; and
+Madeleine entered her boudoir to await, with a sense of dread which she
+could ill repress, the return of Gaston de Bois.
+
+The clock had just struck twelve when he was announced. One glance at
+his pale face hardly left Madeleine courage to ask,--
+
+"What has happened?"
+
+"The worst, the very worst that I deemed possible, and I have been able
+to accomplish nothing. I feel like a brute to bring you these ill
+tidings a single hour before you are compelled to know them."
+
+"Do not keep me in suspense!" urged Madeleine.
+
+M. de Bois went on, "Maurice obtained a loan of ten thousand dollars
+from Mr. Emerson. The security given was upon this Maryland property,
+which Maurice declared to be free of all mortgage; and, no doubt, he
+thought it was so."
+
+"And, alas! it is not?"
+
+"So far from clear that Mr. Emerson yesterday learned the estate was
+mortgaged to its full value. Count Tristan, who held in his hands a
+power of attorney, has doubtless made use of the instrument without his
+son's knowledge."
+
+"Did you not explain this to Mr. Emerson in defence of Maurice?"
+
+"Assuredly; but Mr. Emerson received my assertion with open incredulity.
+He is determined to write to Maurice and inform him of his discovery,
+and also to commence legal proceedings at once."
+
+"Should these ten thousand dollars be paid into the hands of Mr.
+Emerson, would they not prevent his sending the threatened letter to
+Maurice, or taking any other steps?" inquired Madeleine, eagerly.
+
+"Undoubtedly; but how are we to command ten thousand dollars?"
+
+Madeleine smiled an inexpressibly happy smile, opened her desk, took out
+a paper, and said,--
+
+"I had arranged to make the last payment upon this house yesterday; the
+sum due was ten thousand dollars: by some mistake, the person who was to
+receive this money did not keep his appointment. He will, doubtless, be
+here to-day. A few hours later, I might no longer have had these funds
+under my own control. See how fortunate it is that I urged you to act
+promptly!"
+
+"Mademoiselle Madeleine, what--what do you intend to do?"
+
+"Is not my intention plain and simple enough? Here is a check for ten
+thousand dollars; draw the money at once, and place it in Mr. Emerson's
+hands."
+
+"But the payment for your house?"
+
+"Cannot be made. We have no time for further discussion."
+
+"Mademoiselle Madeleine, you are"--
+
+"Very impatient and very imperative when I issue orders that I intend to
+have obeyed? Admitted. You need not waste time in summing up the
+catalogue of my imperfections."
+
+Gaston took the check and was preparing to depart, when Madeleine
+delayed him.
+
+"Mr. Emerson must not know that these funds are furnished by me. What an
+endless theme for gossip and speculation would be afforded by the very
+suggestion that the fashionable mantua-maker came to the assistance of
+the young nobleman! Let Mr. Emerson understand that this money is paid
+by one of Maurice's relatives. That will be sufficient."
+
+"Good," returned Gaston; "and if he should conclude that it was supplied
+by Maurice's grandmother, all the better. If I said a relative, and
+Madame de Gramont were not supposed to be the person, there is no one
+but Mademoiselle Bertha; and Mr. Emerson might infer--I mean, it would
+be natural to suppose"--
+
+"You are right. We must guard against such a false step. Surely, no name
+at all is necessary; but I leave the matter to your discretion; pray
+hasten."
+
+Without further discussion, Gaston set out to execute his agreeable
+mission. He reached Mr. Emerson's office too late to stop the threatened
+letter; it had already been despatched.
+
+The young viscount was sitting in his father's drawing-room, at the
+hotel, musing upon the mournful singularity of his own fate, and the
+mystery that still enveloped Madeleine, when this letter was placed in
+his hands. He was, at first, too completely wonder-struck to experience
+a high degree of indignation. He thought he must have mistaken the
+meaning of what he read. But no; the words were plain enough; the
+accusation plain enough; the threat of legal proceedings to be
+instituted against him plain enough. Still, he was too much amazed to be
+able to give credence to the communication. He seized his hat, with the
+intention of hurrying to Mr. Emerson, and demanding an explanation. As
+he opened the door, his father entered.
+
+"What has disturbed you so much?" asked Count Tristan, noticing his
+son's disordered mien.
+
+"Nothing that will prove of consequence," returned Maurice, glancing
+over the open letter. "There is some vexatious mistake which will easily
+be explained away. And yet, the language of this letter is grossly
+insulting."
+
+The count's secret guilt kept him in a constant state of torturing fear,
+and he now vainly endeavored to conceal his alarm.
+
+He gasped out, "That letter--let me see it!"
+
+Before Maurice could hand the letter, it was eagerly snatched by the
+count. His face grew livid as he read,--his white lips were tightly
+compressed,--but could not shut in the sound of a convulsive groan.
+
+Maurice, not suspecting the true cause of his father's agitation, went
+on,--
+
+"The language is rude; the accusation is made in the most unmannerly
+style, and as if its justice were beyond doubt; but business men, in
+this country, are usually abrupt, and, when they are annoyed, not too
+courteous; one must get accustomed to their manner. My dear father, do
+not let this mistake affect you too deeply; it will easily be rectified.
+But, first, let me explain the transaction."
+
+The count dropped his head without speaking, but again the sound of a
+half-suppressed groan was audible.
+
+"An opportunity offered," continued Maurice, "for the advantageous
+employment of ten thousand dollars. Mr. Lorrillard suggested my raising
+the money through Mr. Emerson, on the security of the Maryland estate."
+
+The count staggered and sank into a chair. The hour of discovery then
+had arrived,--there was no escape! Like those hopeless culprits before
+the eternal judgment-seat, he could have cried out to the mountains to
+fall upon him and hide him.
+
+Maurice was too much alarmed by his father's appearance to go on. The
+death-like pallor of his face had given place to a purple hue; his veins
+seemed swollen; his blood-shot eyes appeared to be starting from their
+sockets; his stalwart frame shivered from head to foot; he clutched the
+table as though for support, and his head dropped heavily upon it.
+
+"My dear father," exclaimed Maurice, "do not let the mistake move you
+thus. I will go to Mr. Emerson at once"--
+
+The count's face was lifted for an instant, as he cried in a tone of
+intense agony, "No, no! Not for the world!"
+
+His head fell again; he could not bear the unsuspicious gaze of the son
+whom he had wronged, and in whose presence he sat, a self-condemned
+criminal.
+
+"Surely it is the fitting course," replied Maurice. "I will make him
+retract his words."
+
+"Impossible!" was all the count could ejaculate, still with bowed head.
+
+"But I will prove it very possible!" returned Maurice, in a tone of
+determination. "Mr. Emerson cannot use such language with impunity.
+Though he threatens that the affair shall be made public, he cannot act
+so rashly as to carry out that menace, and upon a mere surmise of some
+kind. If there is any _publicity_, he shall publicly retract."
+
+"Impossible! Impossible!" the count groaned forth again.
+
+"That will soon be decided," answered Maurice, moving toward the door.
+
+The count started up.
+
+"Stay! do not go yet! You do not know what you are doing! Stay! I forbid
+you to go!"
+
+Maurice had such thorough confidence in his father's probity, that his
+suspicions were not aroused even by this vehement language. He only
+imagined that the very suggestion of a dishonorable action associated
+with his son's name affected Count Tristan thus powerfully.
+
+"But it is absolutely necessary that immediate notice should be taken of
+this letter," argued Maurice. "If I had been guilty of the act of which
+I have been accused, I could never have lifted my head again, and I feel
+degraded by the very suspicion. Do not detain me, I entreat you."
+
+"There is something you must hear before you go!" the count whispered
+hoarsely.
+
+For the first time an indefinable dread stole into the mind of Maurice.
+He put down his hat, and, approaching his father, could only echo the
+words,--
+
+"Something I must hear?"
+
+"You should have consulted me," the count continued, speaking with great
+effort.
+
+"True, and I meant to do so, had I not been prevented. But the
+transaction was simple enough. My estate is unmortgaged. I had given you
+a power of attorney, but I knew that it had not been used; you told me
+so yourself, scarcely an hour before I requested Mr. Emerson to make me
+this loan."
+
+"No--no,--I did not say _that_;--you misunderstood me,--I did not say
+_that_,--I never said _that!_ You only _inferred_ it! I could not be
+answerable for your _inferences_," returned the count, in the tone of a
+man defending himself.
+
+"Great heavens! What does this mean?" exclaimed Maurice "I cannot have
+misunderstood you? You cannot have used the power of attorney?"
+
+The count was silent, but the shame and confusion depicted upon his
+countenance were a fearful answer.
+
+It was some minutes before Maurice could rally sufficiently to take a
+clear view of his own position. His first impulse caused him to turn to
+his father in an excess of rage; but the broken, contrite, abject
+demeanor of the latter silenced the angry reproaches that were bursting
+from his son's lips.
+
+The count was the first to break the silence.
+
+He said, in a pleading, exculpatory tone,--
+
+"There was no other way; matters had gone terribly wrong with me in
+Brittany; we were reduced to worse than poverty; I was frightfully
+entangled; nothing remained but a mortgage upon your property."
+
+"What Mr. Emerson writes me in this letter is true, then?" was all
+Maurice could utter; but his tone pierced his father as deeply as the
+sharpest reproaches.
+
+The count assented.
+
+Maurice, unable longer to control himself, broke forth, "And I shall not
+only be forced to endure the blighting suspicion of being guilty myself,
+but I must bear the terrible certainty that my father is so!"
+
+The count only murmured in broken accents, "Oh, if the committee should
+select the left road!"
+
+Maurice caught eagerly at the faint hope, and after a few moments'
+reflection, replied in a voice which, in spite of its coldness, was not
+without a touch of pity,--
+
+"I must see Mr. Emerson, and make an effort to postpone his present
+intentions until the decision is made."
+
+"It will be against us!" cried the count, vehemently. "Mr. Rutledge has
+made up his mind to vote for the road to the right; that one vote would
+have saved us! But we are too unfortunate; there is no longer a chance
+left!"
+
+Maurice went forth without replying.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+A SURPRISE.
+
+
+The severe mental suffering that he endured during the half hour that
+was occupied in walking from Brown's hotel to the office of Mr. Emerson,
+may easily be conceived. On reaching that gentleman's place of business,
+Maurice learned that he was not within, but would probably return
+immediately. The young viscount was painfully conscious that the clerks
+answered his inquiries with a pointedly cold brevity. He saw them glance
+at each other, and one of them shrugged his shoulders, and gave a low
+whistle as Maurice seated himself to wait. The blood mounted to his face
+at this indignity, and rage took the place of mortification; but he
+could only nerve himself to endure with assumed composure the scorn he
+so little deserved. It was half an hour before Mr. Emerson entered.
+
+"The business which brings me here is so important that I took the
+liberty of waiting," said Maurice, rising.
+
+Mr. Emerson answered, stiffly,--
+
+"Have the goodness to walk into my private apartment."
+
+Maurice obeyed.
+
+Mr. Emerson was one of those reserved men who never choose the
+initiative in any transaction. He motioned Maurice to take a chair, then
+seated himself in the attitude of a listener.
+
+"I am placed in a position which renders explanation very difficult,"
+commenced the viscount.
+
+Mr. Emerson assented by a half bow, but did not in any manner assist the
+speaker.
+
+"Nothing could have astonished me more than the letter I have just
+received from you," continued Maurice.
+
+Mr. Emerson lifted his eyebrows a little incredulously, and crossed his
+legs, but still played the auditor only.
+
+Maurice, galled by his supercilious manner, said, in a tone of
+irritation of which he repented a moment afterward, "I presume that you
+had no doubt that my conduct justified your letter?"
+
+"None," replied Mr. Emerson, with quiet severity.
+
+"You were wrong, you did me the greatest injustice," cried Maurice, "and
+yet unless you can credit this fact upon my bare assertion I have no
+means of convincing you."
+
+Mr. Emerson smiled sarcastically.
+
+"You do not seem to me desirous, sir, of learning in what manner this
+mistake has arisen, even if I could make it clear."
+
+"You are right," returned Mr. Emerson; "I do not see that it is a matter
+which further concerns me."
+
+"But it concerns my honor"--began Maurice, angrily.
+
+He was checked by another contemptuous smile from Mr. Emerson.
+
+"I see, sir, you are not disposed to allow me to defend myself, or to
+encourage me to enter into any explanation."
+
+"I have said that the matter no longer concerns me."
+
+"Then I will not occupy your time with a vain attempt to change your
+opinion of me, but will proceed at once to the request I have to make."
+
+"I shall feel obliged by your doing so," said Mr. Emerson, in a manner
+which intimated that he wished to close the interview.
+
+"All I ask," proceeded Maurice, "is that you will take no further steps
+until"--
+
+"I have no further steps to take," interrupted Mr. Emerson, frigidly.
+
+Maurice looked puzzled, but, imagining that Mr. Emerson did not choose
+to understand him, he added, "I mean, in plain language, that you will
+not make the affair public, and that you will not institute legal
+proceedings until"--
+
+"The repayment of the money loaned, obviated the necessity for legal
+proceedings," returned Mr. Emerson, in the same cold manner.
+
+"The _repayment_?" exclaimed Maurice, in amazement; "what _repayment_?
+what money?"
+
+"The ten thousand dollars loaned to you by me, _somewhat rashly_, and
+without examining a security which proved to be valueless."
+
+In spite of Maurice's astonishment at this unexpected communication, the
+arrow of this reproach did not miss its mark, but he only said,--
+
+"Am I to understand that these ten thousand dollars have been repaid?"
+
+"They were repaid about an hour ago."
+
+"Repaid? Who could have repaid them? How is it possible?" Maurice
+uttered these words to himself rather then addressed them to Mr.
+Emerson.
+
+But the latter answered briefly, "The Countess de Gramont."
+
+"My grandmother? Impossible! It was not in her power; she knew nothing
+of the transaction."
+
+Mr. Emerson continued, without noticing this assertion,--
+
+"A quarter of an hour ago I despatched a clerk to Brown's hotel, with a
+receipt for the money."
+
+"My grandmother!" repeated Maurice, musingly, and unable to credit the
+possibility of her interference.
+
+"You will find the information I have given you correct," said Mr.
+Emerson, rising.
+
+The hint was too marked to remain unnoticed by Maurice, in spite of his
+bewilderment, and he also rose.
+
+"If I had been aware of this fact I should not have trespassed upon your
+time, sir; for, it is not difficult to perceive that you have formed an
+opinion of my character which cannot readily be altered."
+
+"I judge men by their actions rather than by their words and manners: a
+very homely rule, sir, but one which is not subject to change at my time
+of life."
+
+The bow which closed this sentence was too pointedly a parting
+salutation to be mistaken. Maurice returned it, and, without another
+word, went forth. He hurried to Brown's hotel in the hope of unravelling
+the mystery.
+
+Meantime, the Countess de Gramont had been thrown, by the reception of
+Mr. Emerson's letter, into a state of excitement almost equal to that of
+Maurice. Over and over again she read the few lines acknowledging the
+sum of ten thousand dollars sent by her, and the information that the
+legal proceedings about to be instituted against the Viscount de Gramont
+would be arrested.
+
+The letter was in English; thus her difficulty in comprehending its
+contents was increased, and, though she was tolerably conversant with
+the language, she imagined that she must have misunderstood the words
+before her.
+
+The countess requested Bertha to read and translate the letter.
+
+"Aunt," cried Bertha, "what is this about ten thousand dollars? You
+cannot have sent this gentleman ten thousand dollars, and yet he makes
+you a formal acknowledgment that the money has been received. There must
+be some error."
+
+"The error itself is an impertinence," returned the lady. "Does this low
+person imagine that the Countess de Gramont meddles with business
+matters?--with the sending of money and the receiving of receipts?"
+
+At that moment Maurice entered, and his grandmother, taking the letter
+from Bertha, and placing it in his hand, accosted him with no little
+asperity of tone.
+
+"What is the meaning of this?"
+
+He glanced over the letter hurriedly and replied, "It is of you that I
+should ask that question, my grandmother, and I must also ask how I am
+to thank you for making me so deeply your debtor, and at a moment when,
+for the first time in my life, my honor was implicated!"
+
+"Your _honor_ implicated? _Your honor? The honor of a de Gramont?_ What
+do you mean?"
+
+"Had you not, in some inexplicable manner, become aware of my position,
+and paid those ten thousand dollars with such liberality and
+promptitude, I should have been--I cannot bear the thought! The very
+remembrance of the position from which I have been extricated cuts me to
+the soul."
+
+"Are you mad, Maurice?" demanded the countess. "_I_ pay ten thousand
+dollars for you? What do I know about money?"
+
+"Then the money was not sent to Mr. Emerson by you?" inquired Maurice,
+more bewildered than ever.
+
+"Mr. Emerson? Who is Mr. Emerson? I never heard of the person."
+
+Maurice turned to Bertha. The idea at once suggested itself that she had
+used her aunt's name to conceal her own generosity.
+
+"And you, Bertha,--do you also disclaim all knowledge of the
+transaction?"
+
+"Yes, I only wish I _had_ known."
+
+"It was not you, then?" replied Maurice, more and more astonished. "Who
+could it have been? I have no intimate friend in Washington but Gaston
+de Bois, and he has not the power to do me this service."
+
+"Was he aware of the circumstances which made you need this sum?" asked
+Bertha.
+
+"He certainly knew something of the transaction, but I do not think"--
+
+"That is enough!" she replied, joyfully. "If he knew anything about it,
+I know from whom the money came. There is but one person who could have
+sent it; and that is Madeleine!"
+
+"Madeleine?"
+
+"Yes, Madeleine,--our own, generous Madeleine," returned Bertha. "M. de
+Bois is her trusted friend and counsellor."
+
+The Countess de Gramont rose up majestically, white with rage.
+
+"But what _right_ has she, the mantua-maker, the tradeswoman, to make
+use of _my_ name? How did she dare even to allow it to be suspected
+that I had ever come in contact with a person who has so demeaned
+herself? It is unpardonable audacity!"
+
+"You little know the full value of the service she has rendered me!"
+exclaimed Maurice, unheeding his grandmother's anger.
+
+"A service which you must not and shall not stoop to accept. Never will
+I consent to that," returned the countess, fiercely. "Would you profit
+by her ignoble labor? Has your residence in this plebeian land bowed you
+as low as that?"
+
+"If," replied Maurice, "it be a blow to my pride to be forced to accept
+her aid (for it has been tendered in a manner which cannot now be
+declined), it is a blow which has lifted me up, not bowed me down. It
+has made me feel that a great spirit which humbles itself and bends
+meekly to circumstance and does not regard any toil, nearest to its
+hand, as too lowly,--that spirit has truest cause for pride, since it
+earns the privilege of serving others. You have yet to learn that
+Madeleine's timely assistance has saved, not me alone, but our whole
+family from _disgrace_,--ay, positive _disgrace_! If you would know more
+on that subject, I refer you to my father. For myself, I will seek
+Madeleine and discover whether she has indeed made me so greatly her
+debtor."
+
+The countess would have detained him; but Maurice was gone before she
+could speak.
+
+He had alluded to his father as involved in this mysterious affair,
+which the countess was now tremblingly desirous of solving. She sought
+Count Tristan. He was in the drawing-room, where Maurice had left him.
+He sat beside the table,--his hands clinched, his head bowed, his face
+rigid in its expression of stony despair. He looked like a man who
+awaited the sentence of death.
+
+The entrance of the countess scarcely roused him; nor did he hear, or
+rather heed, her first address. But when she placed the letter, received
+from Mr. Emerson, in his hand, and asked him if he knew what it meant,
+he sprang from his seat with a sudden burst of half-frantic joy.
+
+"Who has done this?" he almost shrieked out.
+
+"Who indeed?" returned his mother. "It has been suggested that it may be
+one of the evidences of Madeleine's presumption. I can scarcely credit
+it. I can scarcely believe she would have the audacity to use my name,
+or occupy herself with the affairs of my family. Yet there is no one
+else"--
+
+"It is like her! It is she! And may Heaven bless her for it!" cried the
+count, stirred by a sudden impulse of genuine gratitude. "I must have
+confirmation! I must go to her at once!"
+
+"Yes, go to her," replied his mother; "but let it be to inform her that
+we disdain her bounty; that we are astonished at her temerity in
+offering it; and that we hope never to hear from her again."
+
+Count Tristan had left the room before his mother had finished
+speaking,--an act of disrespect of which he had never before been
+guilty. Exasperated by his manner even more than by that of Maurice, and
+dreading the result of their interview with Madeleine, the countess
+resolved herself to take a step which would make her niece conscious of
+her true position and of the light in which her presumption was viewed
+by her aunt. She determined to follow her son to Madeleine's residence
+and to give her a lesson, in the presence of the count and Maurice,
+which would be the last he would ever need.
+
+She had rung the bell to order a carriage, when Bertha entered. Learning
+her destination and its object, Bertha expressed her intention of
+accompanying her; and to this the countess could not object.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+THE NOBLEMAN AND MANTUA-MAKER.
+
+
+As we are already aware, Madeleine absolved herself from her usual
+duties for one day, and made Ruth her representative in the working
+department. In spite of Madeleine's habitual self-control, she
+experienced some slight stirrings of irritation when Victorine, who
+deemed herself a privileged person, intruded upon her privacy.
+
+"Pardon, mademoiselle," began the consequential forewoman. "I should not
+have ventured to disturb you, but there is a matter of importance to be
+settled. Madame Orlowski has come in person to order six ball-dresses;
+and she is not satisfied to decide upon the varieties of style that will
+most become her without consulting Mademoiselle Melanie herself. She
+insisted upon my bringing you this message."
+
+"You have done wrong," answered Madeleine, somewhat less gently than was
+her wont.
+
+"But in a case of such great importance"--began Victorine, flushing
+angrily.
+
+Madeleine interrupted her with a slight touch of sarcasm in her tone:
+"It is, no doubt, inconceivable to you that my mind should be occupied
+with matters of even _greater_ importance than six ball dresses for one
+lady. Still, I must be tyrannical enough to request you to believe so,
+and not to allow me to be molested again. At all events," she added, her
+good-humor returning, "I venture to hope that I have not often subjected
+you to tyranny or caprice."
+
+"No, no, certainly not," responded Victorine, a little mollified. "And
+since it was _so obvious_ that mademoiselle had _something upon her
+mind_, I have exerted myself as much as possible to prevent her being
+annoyed."
+
+"Thank you; have the goodness to send Robert here."
+
+This order was so pointedly a dismissal that the forewoman had no excuse
+to linger. She left the room thoroughly convinced that Mademoiselle
+Melanie was in love,--in love at last! The house would soon be gayer;
+Mademoiselle Melanie would leave the business more in her forewoman's
+hands; the pleasant change so long desired was coming about; but she
+could not rest until she discovered the object of Mademoiselle Melanie's
+attachment. One thing was certain: there was romance and mystery about
+the whole affair, and this lent zest to the Frenchwoman's enjoyment.
+
+Victorine not only summoned Robert, but stole after him on tiptoe to the
+door of Madeleine's boudoir to hear what order was given. She distinctly
+caught these words:--
+
+"You will admit no one but the Count de Gramont and M. Maurice de
+Gramont."
+
+"The Count de Gramont and his son!" said Victorine to herself, as she
+hurried back to her satins and velvets; "Oh, this is decidedly getting
+interesting,--Mademoiselle Melanie aims high,--and, in spite of her
+prudence and propriety, she--well, well, we shall see! It's always still
+water that runs deepest. The Count de Gramont and his son! Dear me,
+Mademoiselle Melanie would do better if she made me her _confidante_ at
+once."
+
+Victorine, as she excused Mademoiselle Melanie to the Countess Orlowski,
+could not help dropping a hint that Mademoiselle Melanie might not in
+future be so wholly at the command of her customers,--she would receive
+more visitors of her own,--there were noblemen from her own country who
+were to have free access.
+
+When Madame Orlowski departed and the forewoman returned to the
+work-room, these inuendoes were repeated, and caused no little
+excitement among the group of young women, who revered Madeleine almost
+as though she were a patron saint, and they the most devout Catholics.
+Ruth was highly indignant; but to have admonished the circulator of the
+intelligence, by even the faintest reproach, would have been to make
+matters worse, and to induce Mademoiselle Victorine to defend her rash
+assertions by still rasher ones.
+
+Madeleine was not destined to enjoy the uninterrupted solitude she so
+much desired, for Robert had scarcely received his orders to admit no
+one, when he returned to the boudoir with a card in his hand. He
+presented it with hesitation in spite of the large bribe he had
+received.
+
+"His lordship insisted upon my taking his card to Mademoiselle," he said
+apologetically.
+
+"You should not have transgressed my orders," answered Madeleine, with
+some show of impatience. "I have given you the names of the only persons
+whom you were to admit to-day."
+
+"I understand _that_, mademoiselle, but his lordship would not be
+denied, and said that he called upon a matter of the greatest
+importance, and that he knew Mademoiselle Melanie would see him."
+
+Madeleine could not, after this, refuse to allow Lord Linden to enter;
+he no doubt brought her some information concerning the vote which she
+had charged him to obtain.
+
+Lord Linden's countenance, which usually wore a moody, discontented
+expression, was bright with expectation, as he entered Madeleine's
+presence.
+
+"You will pardon," he began, "my refusing to accept your servant's
+denial; I based my hopes of forgiveness upon the good tidings which I
+bring. My advocacy, or rather my sister's (but that is _entre nous_),
+has not been used in vain with Mr. Rutledge; he had definitely made up
+his mind to cast his vote differently, but his gallantry could not
+withstand a fair lady's solicitation;--he is too thoroughly an American
+for _that_, and you may depend upon his vote."
+
+"I am more deeply grateful to you than you can imagine! I thank you
+heartily!" exclaimed Madeleine, extending her hand with impulsive
+frankness, but the action was checked almost as quickly as made. For a
+moment she had forgotten the difference of station which she wished him
+to believe existed between them.
+
+"Do not withdraw your hand," he pleaded, making an attempt to imprison
+that hand in his own. But he had the good taste instantly to abandon his
+intention when he saw Madeleine's reluctance. "As you will; I am more
+than satisfied by the assurance that I have a claim upon your
+gratitude."
+
+"You have, indeed, my lord; I am truly grateful."
+
+"I will only ask in return," commenced his lordship, "that you will
+listen to me for a few moments; that you will allow me to tell you what
+is in my mind,--my heart."
+
+Madeleine saw that the evil hour could not be escaped, or postponed, and
+she answered with calm dignity which would have awed a man less under
+the dominion of passion, "You are at liberty to speak, my lord; yet what
+is there of _importance_ which your lordship can have to say to the
+_mantua-maker_?"
+
+Lord Linden, at first, found it difficult to avail himself of the
+privilege so frigidly given; but he soon collected himself.
+
+"The mantua-maker? How little that title seems to belong to you! The
+proudest, the noblest lady could not have inspired me with the respect,
+the veneration I feel for you."
+
+"_Respect_ is peculiarly grateful to one in my position;" answered
+Madeleine pointedly.
+
+This answer seemed to suggest that he might be forgetful of the respect
+due to her, and confused him for a moment; but such an opportunity as
+the present was not to be lost. He went on with renewed animation.
+
+"From the first moment that I met you,--from the moment when, during
+that memorable journey, you shone forth as the guardian angel of all the
+suffering--and especially mine"--
+
+Madeleine tried to restrain him again, by saying, with a forced smile,--
+
+"_An angelic mantua-maker!_ You have a great faculty of _idealizing_, my
+lord. I believe the extent of my services to you consisted in the
+sacrifice of an old pocket-handkerchief, torn into strips for a bandage,
+and the use of my own especial implement, a needle, with which the
+bandages were sewed."
+
+"I have those strips yet," replied the nobleman with ardor. "I shall
+never part with them,--they are invaluable to me; for, from the moment
+we met, I loved you!"
+
+Madeleine was about to answer, but he frustrated her intention and went
+on,--
+
+"You were lost to me for six months, yet I could not forget you. I
+sought you unceasingly, and thought to find you in the society
+of--of--of those who are not, in reality, your superiors--not your
+equals even; I found you at last--but let me pass that over; since I
+have had the happiness of seeing you again, every moment has increased
+my admiration,--my devotion."
+
+Madeleine would have interrupted him, but was again prevented.
+
+"If I had not the misfortune to be a nobleman, if I were not accountable
+to my family for the connection I formed, I would say to you, 'Will you
+honor me by becoming my wife?' Never have I met a woman who united in a
+higher degree all the attributes which are most beautiful in my
+eyes,--all that man could desire in a companion,--all the charms of
+person, intellect, soul!"
+
+Madeleine took advantage of a moment's pause, for his lordship found it
+sufficiently difficult to proceed, and replied, with glacial dignity,--
+
+"Were all your compliments as merited as you perhaps persuade yourself
+to imagine them to be, they would not alter the fact, my lord, that
+_you_ are a nobleman and _I_ a dress-maker."
+
+"True," replied Lord Linden, undaunted by her chilling demeanor; "and it
+is not easy to break the iron bonds of conventionality. But, if the
+difference of our rank prevents my enjoying the triumph of presenting
+such a woman to the world as my wife, it does not prevent my renouncing
+the whole world for her,--it does not prevent my devoting my life to
+her,--my sharing with her some happy seclusion where I can forget
+everything except my vow to be hers only."
+
+This time Madeleine allowed him to conclude without word or movement.
+She sat with her eyes fastened upon the ground, and though a bright,
+crimson spot burned on either cheek, her manner was as calm as though
+the offer just made her were full of honor. When it was unmistakable
+that he had finished speaking and awaited her answer, she said, in a
+firm voice, the mild serenity of which could not fail to penetrate the
+breast of the man who had just insulted her,--
+
+"In other words, my lord, you have in the most delicate phrases in which
+infamy can be couched,--in phrases that are as flowers to hide the
+serpent beneath them, given me to understand that were I of your own
+rank you would address me as a man of honor might, and expect me to
+listen to you; but, as I am but a mantua-maker and you are a nobleman,
+you offer me _dishonor_ in place of honor, and expect that I shall
+accept it as befitting my position."
+
+"You use harsh language, my dear Mademoiselle Melanie,--language that"--
+
+"That clearly expresses your meaning, and therefore sounds harshly. I am
+accustomed to speak plainly myself, and to strip of their flowery
+_entourage_ the sentiments to which I listen. It may be an ungraceful
+habit, but it is a safe one. I am persuaded that if vice were always
+called by its true name, shame, misery, and ruin would darken fewer
+lives."
+
+"Your candor is one of your greatest charms," said Lord Linden, who was
+deeply impressed by her singular and open treatment of a proposition
+which it had cost him a struggle to make.
+
+"I am glad that you approve of my frankness, for I must be franker
+still. When I asked you a favor I was impelled by motives which may
+perhaps be explained to you hereafter; I was exceedingly unwilling to
+make the request which you so promptly accorded,--but the strength of
+those motives urged me to set aside prudence and reserve. I will not
+pretend to conceal that I feared you might be placed upon a footing of
+less restraint through the performance of the service I solicited at
+your hands, and that you might make your visits more frequent than I
+should be inclined to permit,--but I did not dream that the price you
+set upon the performance of this act of kindness was the privilege of
+offering me an insult."
+
+"An insult? You do not imagine--you cannot suppose that I had any such
+intention?"
+
+"You have spoken too plainly, my lord, to leave anything to my
+_imagination_; possibly, however, you may be acquainted with some fine
+phrase, unknown to me, in which you would couch what I have plainly
+styled, and as plainly comprehend to be an insult. Your advocacy with
+Mr. Rutledge has brought about a result which will benefit one
+who--who--who has the strongest claims upon me, and, under ordinary
+circumstances, I should have been your debtor. As it is, you and I are
+quits! The privilege of insulting me will suffice you! And now, my lord,
+you will excuse me, if, being a woman who earns her livelihood and whose
+time is valuable, I bring this interview to a close."
+
+Madeleine, as she spoke, rose and courtesied, and would have passed out
+of the room; but Lord Linden, forgetting himself for a moment, prevented
+her exit by springing between her and the door.
+
+"You will not leave me without, at least, one word of pardon?"
+
+"I have said we were quits. You demanded a price for the service you
+rendered me; I have paid it by listening for the first time to language
+which, had I a father, or a brother, could not have been addressed to me
+with impunity; I have neither."
+
+"Let me, at least, vindicate myself. You do not know to what lengths
+passion will drive a man."
+
+"You are right, I never knew until now; I have learned to-day. Allow me
+to pass without the necessity of ringing for a servant."
+
+"First you must hear me," exclaimed Lord Linden, almost beside himself
+at the prospect of her leaving him in anger, and closing her doors
+henceforward against him. "I know how contemptible I must seem in your
+eyes. I read it in your countenance; I have no excuse to offer, except
+the plea that my love for you overleapt the bounds of all discretion."
+
+"I ask for no excuse," answered Madeleine, freezingly.
+
+"I only plead for forgiveness; I only entreat that you will forget the
+error of which I have been guilty, that you will allow me to see you
+again; that you will permit me to endeavor to reinstate myself in your
+esteem."
+
+"My lord, our intercourse is at an end. The service you have rendered me
+it is no longer in my power to refuse, but you have received its full
+equivalent. I can spare no more time in the discussion of this subject.
+Once more, I request you to let me pass without forcing me to ring the
+bell."
+
+"I obey you, but on condition that I may return, if it be but once more.
+Promise to grant me one more interview, and I leave you on the instant;
+I implore you not to refuse."
+
+He approached her, and before Madeleine was even aware of his intention,
+seized her hand.
+
+The door opened; M. Maurice de Gramont was announced just as Madeleine
+snatched away the hand Lord Linden had taken, but not before the action
+had been noticed by Maurice.
+
+He paused at the sight of the nobleman, but Madeleine relieved and
+rejoiced by the presence of her cousin, unreflectingly hastened toward,
+and greeted him with a beaming face.
+
+Lord Linden's astonishment was eloquently portrayed upon his
+countenance. His hostess, recovering her presence of mind, turned to the
+nobleman, and bowing as courteously as though she had no cause for
+indignation, wished him good-morning. Her tone seemed to imply that he
+was taking his leave when Maurice entered. Lord Linden had no
+alternative but to withdraw.
+
+Maurice, whose heart was swelling with deep gratitude, with increased
+tenderness, with exalted admiration, experienced, at the sight of Lord
+Linden, a sickening revulsion of feeling.
+
+This nobleman, then, was received by Madeleine in her own especial
+apartment, the doors of which were only opened to her particular
+friends; he was alone with her, and his unusually agitated manner
+betrayed that he had been conversing upon some subject of the deepest
+interest. Madeleine, too, looked paler than usual, and the troubled
+expression which had displaced the wonted placidity of her countenance
+was, doubtless, owing to this unanticipated interruption.
+
+As Lord Linden made his exit, he glanced at Maurice at once haughtily
+and inquiringly. What was this young man, of his lordship's own rank,
+doing here, in the boudoir of the mantua-maker? What claim had he to
+admission? Must he not be upon an intimate footing? for, had not
+Madeleine extended her hand to him without reserve, and as though she
+were greeting one who was far from a stranger?
+
+"A lover!" exclaimed Lord Linden to himself as he closed the door; "a
+rival to whom she listens in spite of her bewitching prudery. It is
+incomprehensible! and yet it has inspired me with new courage; I will
+not leave him an undisputed field."
+
+He had approached the street-door when he reflected that something might
+be learned from Mademoiselle Melanie's _employées_. He turned back and
+went upstairs to the exhibition rooms.
+
+Ruth Thornton received him; and, at his request, displayed shawls,
+mantles, scarfs innumerable. He had desired to see these articles on the
+plea of making a selection for his sister. Hardly looking at them, he
+purchased one of the most extravagant, while making an attempt to lure
+Ruth into conversation. She replied simply and politely, but appeared to
+be only interested in her occupation, and quite to ignore the occasional
+gallantry of his remarks. He was on the point of desisting, when
+Victorine, who had been attending to customers in another apartment,
+chanced to look into this room, saw Lord Linden, recognized him as the
+gentleman with whom she had noticed Mademoiselle Melanie earnestly
+conversing on the day previous, and at once came forward as though to
+assist Ruth. The latter had been rendered very uncomfortable by the
+deportment of his lordship, and was only too glad to retire, leaving
+the forewoman alone with Lord Linden.
+
+The nobleman added so largely to his purchase that Lady Augusta's
+astonishment must be greatly excited by the number of shawls and scarfs
+which her brother deemed it possible for a lady to bring into use during
+a season.
+
+As may be supposed, it was not difficult to lure the lively Frenchwoman
+into talking of the head of the establishment; and she very speedily
+gratified Lord Linden by communicating as much of Mademoiselle Melanie's
+history as she herself knew. But had Mademoiselle Melanie lovers? Or was
+her vestal-like demeanor genuine? This was difficult and delicate ground
+to tread upon; yet his lordship was too much in earnest not to venture a
+step or two.
+
+The wily Victorine now assumed a mysterious air, for she entertained a
+suspicion that the gentleman did not make inquiries without being deeply
+interested in the answers. It would be impossible to relate precisely
+_what_ she said. Her confidences were given more by inuendoes and arch
+glances and knowing shakes of the head, which suggest so much, because
+they leave so much to the imagination. Lord Linden received the
+impression that Mademoiselle Melanie, though much admired by the
+opposite sex, had conducted herself with exemplary decorum _until
+lately_; but, of late, certain mysterious proceedings had become known
+to the forewoman of which she did not wish to speak too unreservedly.
+
+The handsome black lace shawl which Lord Linden begged Victorine to
+accept delighted her to a point which won further confidence; for, while
+folding it up with caressing touches, and thanking the donor with that
+grace which belongs to her nation, she admitted that there was a certain
+M. de Gramont who was enamored of Mademoiselle Melanie, and for whom the
+latter had evinced a marked preference, though Mademoiselle Melanie
+evidently wished to act with all possible discretion, and keep his
+attentions from the eyes of the public.
+
+Be it understood, that with Victorine's lax ideas of morality, keeping
+an _affaire de coeur_ from the eyes of the public was all that was
+necessary to preserve the honor of a woman who chose to indulge in a
+_liaison_.
+
+Lord Linden had no alternative but to believe that Mademoiselle Melanie,
+in spite of her air of exquisite purity, and the chaste dignity which
+characterized all her words and actions, was, after all, not
+inaccessible. It was (he reflected) as much out of the question for the
+Viscount de Gramont to marry a mantua-maker as it was for Lord Linden to
+marry her; as a natural sequence, their intentions must be the same; and
+it remained to be proved which would be the successful lover.
+
+He quitted the house enraged with himself for having been deceived;
+indignant with Madeleine for her successful acting; furious with
+Maurice, because he looked upon him as a rival; determined to seize an
+early opportunity of quarrelling with him, and resolved to find some
+pretext to gain admission to Mademoiselle Melanie's presence through the
+aid of her obliging forewoman.
+
+Let us return to Maurice, whom we left in Madeleine's boudoir. When the
+door had closed upon Lord Linden, he said, in a wounded tone,--
+
+"I thought only especial friends were admitted to this sanctum of yours.
+I did not know, Madeleine, that you were acquainted with Lord Linden."
+
+"He came to bring _Mademoiselle Melanie_ an important piece of
+information; and one which concerns you, Maurice."
+
+Maurice was exasperated, rather than soothed, by this intelligence, and
+answered, hastily,--
+
+"I am sorry for it. He belongs to a class of men whom I hold in supreme
+contempt;--a _blasé_ idler, whose chief occupation in life is to kill
+time. Madeleine, forgive me! What a brute I am to speak so harshly when
+I come to thank you! But the sight of that senseless _roué_ in your
+boudoir, and apparently upon a familiar footing, has made an idiot of
+me. I will not pay you so bad a compliment as to suggest that _he_ is
+the mysterious lover whom you have refused to name. But why is he here
+to-day? Why did I see him here yesterday? Why did he, yesterday, when he
+caught sight of me, suddenly disappear, as though desirous of eluding
+observation?"
+
+"Maurice, if there be true affection between us," said Madeleine,
+gently, and laying her delicate white hand upon his, "if there be true,
+_cousinly_ affection between us, we should trust each other wholly, and
+_in spite of appearances_. Though it is easy for me to explain _why_ I
+admitted Lord Linden to a private interview, it may not always be
+equally easy to give you explanations; and we may bring great future
+sorrow upon each other if either give entertainment to a doubt."
+
+"No, Madeleine, I can never doubt that all you do is well and wisely
+done. Would that I had no cause to doubt your affection for me; no cause
+to be distracted by jealousy when I see any other man allowed
+privileges which I long to claim as mine alone! But how is it possible
+to love you, and not to be hourly tormented by the position in which I
+am placed? Since you have rejected me as a lover, could I even be known
+to the world as your cousin, I might, at least, have the joy of
+protecting you. Must that, too, be denied me?"
+
+"Yes, Maurice. Do you not know how important it is that our relationship
+should remain undivulged, unsuspected?"
+
+"No; I cannot see the importance! I cannot submit to such an
+interdiction! Let my grandmother and my father say what they will, I am
+not bound to yield to so unnatural a request!"
+
+"You will yield to it as my petition, Maurice. Think of it as a favor, a
+sacrifice I ask of you. If you refuse me, I shall believe that you feel
+I have no right to ask favors."
+
+"No right? There you touch me deeply! Madeleine, I am here to-day to
+learn whether you have not laid me under the deepest obligation--whether
+it was not by you"--
+
+Madeleine, though she was not a little discomposed by learning that her
+recent interference in his behalf was suspected, had presence of mind
+left to endeavor to divert his thoughts. She interrupted him by saying,
+in a lively tone,--
+
+"I have made several vain attempts to explain Lord Linden's presence
+here, and you will not permit me to do so, though his visit concerns
+yourself. Have you no curiosity? I am half inclined to punish you for
+your indifference."
+
+Before Maurice could reply, Count Tristan de Gramont was announced.
+
+"It is _you_ whom I have to thank,--you, good, generous, noble
+Madeleine, I am sure it is!" said he, excitedly. "It is your hand which
+has saved me and my son from the precipice over which we were suspended!
+I could scarcely credit the good news."
+
+"If you talk of good news," replied Madeleine, "I have some to give you
+which I have just received from Lord Linden. Mr. Rutledge has promised
+his vote for the left road."
+
+The count looked at her as though he could not trust his ears; then he
+said, in a tremulous voice that broke into a childish sob, "It is all
+wonder! You are the Fairy they called you, the magician,--the--the--the"--
+
+Robert opened the door and announced the Countess de Gramont and
+Mademoiselle de Merrivale.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+MADAME DE GRAMONT.
+
+
+The countess entered the room casting disdainful glances around her.
+
+Madeleine, who could not suspect the object of her visit, accosted her
+in astonishment.
+
+"You, madame, beneath my roof; this is an unhoped-for condescension!"
+
+"Do not imagine that I come to be classed among your customers, and
+order my dresses of you," returned the countess, disdainfully, and
+waving Madeleine off as the latter advanced toward her.
+
+Bertha felt strongly inclined to quote from a former remark of Gaston de
+Bois, and retort, "You have done that already, and the transaction was
+not particularly profitable," but she restrained herself.
+
+"Nor do I come," continued the imperious lady, "as one who stoops to be
+your visitor! I came to rebuke impertinence, and to demand by what right
+you have dared to make use of my name as a cloak to give respectability
+to _charities_ forced upon your poor relations."
+
+Madeleine was silent.
+
+"Then the aid which came to me at such an opportune moment _was_ yours,
+Madeleine?" said Maurice. "It was you who saved me from worse than
+ruin?"
+
+Still no answer from Madeleine's quivering lips.
+
+"Do not force her to say,--do not force her to acknowledge her own
+goodness and liberality," said Bertha, "we all know that it _was_ she,
+and she will not deny it. Does not her silence speak for her?"
+
+"You thought, perhaps," resumed the countess, even more angrily than
+before, "that because my son has flown in the face of my wishes, and has
+mingled himself up with business matters, and because Maurice has chosen
+to degrade himself by entering a profession,--you thought that you might
+take the liberty of coming to his assistance, in some temporary
+difficulty, and might also be pardoned the insolence of using my name;
+but I resent the impertinence; I will not permit it to pass uncorrected!
+I will write to the person whom you have deceived and let him know that
+the name of the Countess de Gramont has been used without her authority.
+I shall also inquire at whose suggestion he ventured to address an
+epistle to me."
+
+"No need of that, madame," said M. de Bois, who had entered the room in
+time to hear this burst of indignation. "_I_, alone, am to blame for the
+liberty of using your name. Knowing how desirous Mademoiselle de Gramont
+was to conceal her relationship to your family, I suggested that the
+money indispensable to her cousin should be sent in such a manner that
+it might be supposed to come from you. I also took the responsibility of
+suggesting to Mr. Emerson that it would be well to send a line to you,
+enclosing a receipt for the sum paid into his hands by me; one of my
+motives was to insure that the news of its payment would at once reach
+Maurice."
+
+"You presumed unwarrantably, sir," replied the countess. "You presumed
+almost as much as did Mademoiselle de Gramont, in supposing that she
+could use the money acquired in a manner so degrading to our _noble
+house_ for the benefit of my grandson."
+
+"That money, madame," rejoined M. de Bois, warmly, "has saved the honor
+of your _noble house_! I will leave you to learn of Count Tristan how it
+was imperilled, and how it would have been sullied but for Mademoiselle
+Madeleine's timely aid."
+
+"It has been _sullied_," began the countess.
+
+"Not by Mademoiselle de Gramont," returned M. de Bois. "Once more, I
+tell you that she has saved your escutcheon from a stain which could
+never have been effaced. And for this act you spurn her, you scorn her
+generosity; you tell her she is not worthy of rendering you a service,
+instead of bowing down before her as you,--as we all might well do, in
+reverence and admiration; thanking Heaven that such a woman has been
+placed in the world, as a glorious example to her own sex, and an
+inspiration to ours. The burden of her nobility has not crushed the
+noble instincts of her heart, or paralyzed her noble hands. But you do
+not know all yet; you owe her another debt"--
+
+"Another debt?" Count Tristan was the first to exclaim.
+
+"Yes," continued M. de Bois, in a tone of pride, "through her influence,
+the influence of the duchess-mantua-maker, the votes you could never
+otherwise have secured have been obtained; the committee met an hour
+ago, and the road to the left, which you so much desired, has been
+decided upon, and this, this too, you owe to Mademoiselle Madeleine's
+exertions."
+
+Neither Maurice nor Count Tristan was allowed to speak, for M. de Bois
+went on without pause,--
+
+"And do you deem _this, too_, madame, an impertinence, a presumption, a
+crime, upon the part of your niece? Do you say that this is a favor
+which you desire to reject? Happily it is not in your power! And now,
+after she has been cast off, despised, and denounced by you and your
+son, you are bound to come to her with thanks, if not to implore her
+pardon."
+
+"Sir," answered the countess, "you have forgotten yourself in a manner
+which astonishes me, and must astonish all who hear you; and henceforth,
+I beg you to understand"--
+
+Bertha prevented the sentence of banishment, which the countess was
+about to pronounce against M. de Bois, from being completed, by saying,
+abruptly,--
+
+"You will readily understand, M. de Bois, that we are so much surprised
+that astonishment deprives us of fitting words."
+
+Maurice now turned to Madeleine and said, with the emotion of a
+genuinely manly nature which is not ashamed to receive a benefit,--
+
+"To owe you so much is not oppressive to me, Madeleine. There is no
+being on earth, man or woman, to whom I would so willingly be indebted.
+I know the happiness it confers upon you to be able to do what you have
+done. I know your thankfulness is greater even than mine; though how
+great that is, even you cannot"--
+
+"What, Maurice!" broke in the countess; "are you so thoroughly without
+pride or self-respect that you talk of accepting the bounty of
+Mademoiselle de Gramont? You consent to receive this charity doled out
+by the hands of a _mantua-maker_?"
+
+Maurice grew livid with suppressed anger at this new insult, because it
+was levelled at Madeleine, rather than at himself.
+
+"My grandmother, when you are calmer, and when I myself am calmer, I
+will speak to you on this subject."
+
+"How pale you look, Madeleine!" cried Bertha, suddenly. "Surely you are
+ill!"
+
+These words caused Maurice and M. de Bois to spring to the side of
+Madeleine. Her strength had been over-taxed by the emotions of the last
+few days, and it suddenly gave way. It was by a strong effort of
+volition that she prevented herself from fainting. Maurice, who had
+caught her in his arms, placed her tenderly in a chair, and for a moment
+her beautiful head fell upon his shoulder; but she struggled against the
+insensibility which was stealing over her, and feebly waved her hand in
+the direction of a small table upon which stood a tumbler and a carafe
+of water. M. de Bois poured some water into the glass and would have
+held it to her lips; but Maurice took the tumbler from him, and, as
+Madeleine drank, the delight of ministering to her overcame his alarm at
+her indisposition, and sent shivering through his frame a thrill of
+almost rapture.
+
+In a few moments she lifted her eyes over which the lids had drooped
+heavily, and, trying to smile, sat up and made an effort to speak; but
+the pale lips moved without sound, and her countenance still wore a
+ghastly hue.
+
+"Are you better, my own dear Madeleine? What can I do for you?" asked
+Bertha, who was kneeling in front of her.
+
+Madeleine murmured faintly,--
+
+"I would like to be left alone, dear. Forgive me for sending you away. I
+shall soon be better when I am alone."
+
+"Impossible, Madeleine!" cried Maurice, his arm still about her waist.
+"You will not ask _me_ to leave you."
+
+Perhaps she only at that moment became conscious of the supporting arm;
+for she gently drew herself away, and the palest rose began to tinge her
+ashy cheek; but it deepened into a sudden crimson flush, as she saw the
+eyes of the countess angrily fixed upon her.
+
+"Yes, Maurice, do not refuse me. I am better,--I am quite well." And she
+rose up, forcing her limbs to obey her will. Then, leaning on Bertha's
+shoulder, whispered, "I entreat you, dear, to make them go,--make them
+_all_ go; I cannot bear more at this moment. Spare me, if you love me!"
+
+"O Madeleine, how can you?" began Bertha.
+
+But M. de Bois, who had perfect reliance in Madeleine's judgment, felt
+certain that she herself knew what was best for her, and said,--
+
+"Mademoiselle de Gramont will be better alone. If she will allow me, I
+will apprise Miss Thornton of her indisposition, and we will take our
+leave."
+
+Madeleine smiled assent, and sank into her seat; for her limbs were
+faltering.
+
+M. de Bois could not have uttered words better calculated to induce the
+countess to take her leave. She had no desire to be found in the boudoir
+of the mantua-maker by any of Madeleine's friends. She said,
+commandingly,--
+
+"Bertha--Maurice--I desire you to accompany my son and myself.
+Mademoiselle de Gramont, though my errand here is not fully
+accomplished, I wish you good morning."
+
+Neither Bertha nor Maurice showed the slightest disposition to obey the
+order of the countess, but Madeleine said, pleadingly,--
+
+"Go--go--I pray you! You cannot help me so much as by going."
+
+They both began to remonstrate; but she checked them by the pressure of
+her trembling fingers, for each held one of her hands, and said,
+pleadingly,--
+
+"Do not speak to me now,--another time,--when you will; but not _now_."
+
+There was something so beseeching in her voice that it was impossible to
+resist its appeal. Bertha embraced her in silence; Maurice pressed the
+hand that lay in his to his lips; and both followed the countess out of
+the room.
+
+Count Tristan took the hand Maurice had relinquished, and, giving a
+glance at the retreating figure of the countess, commenced speaking; but
+Madeleine interrupted him with,--
+
+"Another time, I beg. Leave me now."
+
+Just then Gaston de Bois entered, accompanied by Ruth, and, reading
+Madeleine's wishes in her eyes, placed his arm through that of the
+count, and conducted him out of the room, closing the door behind him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+HALF THE WOOER.
+
+
+Count Tristan was about to hand Bertha into the carriage which the
+countess had entered, when the young girl paused, with her tiny foot
+upon the step. She shrank from a discussion with her aunt who was in a
+high state of indignation. Madame de Gramont's wrath was not only
+directed against Gaston de Bois, but she was exasperated by Bertha's
+interference just when the haughty lady had been on the point of making
+him feel that he would no longer be ranked among the number of her
+friends and welcome visitors. While Bertha's foot still rested upon the
+step, she glanced over her shoulder and saw Gaston standing beside
+Maurice. Her decision was made. She looked into the carriage and said,--
+
+"You will have the kindness to excuse me from accompanying you, aunt; I
+will take advantage of the beautiful day and walk home with Maurice."
+
+Having uttered these words, she drew back quickly and tripped away
+before the answer of the countess could reach her. Maurice walked on one
+side of her, and what was more natural than that Gaston should occupy
+the place on the other side?
+
+For a brief space all three pursued their way in silence, then Bertha
+made an effort to converse. Maurice answered in monosyllables and those
+were followed by deep sighs. Gaston seemed to be hardly more master of
+language, though his taciturnity had a different origin; it was
+occasioned by the unexpected delight of finding himself walking beside
+Bertha, who constantly lifted her sweet face inquiringly to his, as
+though to ask why he had no words.
+
+Maurice was in a perplexed state of mind which caused him a nervous
+longing for entire seclusion. Even sympathy, sympathy from those who
+were as dear to him as Bertha and Gaston, jarred upon his highly-strung
+nerves.
+
+All at once, he stopped and said,--
+
+"Gaston, I will leave you to conduct Bertha home; I fancy you will not
+object to the trust," and trying to simulate a smile, he walked away.
+
+Gaston, left alone with Bertha, quickly regained his power of speech.
+They were passing the Capitol; how lovely the grounds looked in their
+spring attire! The day, too, was delicious. The opportunity of seeing
+Bertha alone was a happiness that might not soon return.
+
+"These grounds are Mademoiselle Madeleine's favorite promenade,"
+remarked M. de Bois. "Have you ever seen them?"
+
+Bertha made no reply, but she moved toward the gate and they entered. A
+short silence ensued, then she said abruptly, "What an heroic character
+is Madeleine's!"
+
+"A character," returned Gaston, tenderly, "which exerts a holy influence
+upon all with whom she is thrown in contact, and works more good,
+teaches more truth by the example of a patient, noble, holy life than
+could be taught by a thousand sermons from the most eloquent lips." He
+paused, and then continued in a tone of deep feeling, "_I_ may well say
+so! I shudder to think what a weak, useless, self-centred being I should
+have been but for her agency."
+
+"You seem far happier," replied Bertha, smiling archly, "than you did in
+Brittany! And this change was wrought by"--
+
+"Mademoiselle Madeleine! It was she who made me feel that we are all too
+ready with our peevish outcries against the beautiful world in which we
+have been placed; too ready to complain that all is sadness and sorrow
+and disappointment, when the gloom exists _within_ ourselves, not
+_without_ us; it is from ourselves the misty darkness springs; it is we
+ourselves who have lost, or who have never possessed, the secret of
+being happy, and we exclaim that there is no happiness on the face of
+the globe! It is we ourselves who are '_flat_, _stale_, and
+_unprofitable_,' not our neighbors; though we are sure to charge them
+with the dulness and insipidity for which we, alone, are responsible."
+
+Bertha answered, "One secret of Madeleine's cheerfulness is her
+unquenchable _hope_. Even in her saddest moments, the light of hope
+never appeared to be extinguished. It shone about her almost like a
+visible halo, and illumined all her present and her future. Have you not
+remarked the strength of this characteristic?"
+
+"That I have!" he replied with warmth. "And it forced upon my conviction
+the truth of the poet's words that '_hope_ and _wisdom_ are akin'; that
+it is always wise to hope, and the most wise, because those who have
+most faith, ever hope most. She taught me to hope when I was plunged in
+the depths of despair!"
+
+Bertha blushed suddenly, as though those fervently-uttered words had
+awakened some suggestion which could not be framed into language.
+
+"This seat is shady and retired, and commands a fine view of the
+garden," remarked Gaston, pausing. There was an invitation in his
+accents.
+
+Bertha, half unconsciously seated herself, and Gaston did the same. Then
+came another pause, a longer one than before; it was broken by Bertha,
+who exclaimed,--
+
+"You defended Madeleine nobly and courageously! and how I thanked you!"
+
+"I only did her justice, or, rather, I did her far less than justice,"
+returned Gaston.
+
+"Yet few men would have dared to say what you did in my aunt's
+presence."
+
+"Could any man who had known Mademoiselle Madeleine as intimately as I
+have had the honor of knowing her, through these four last painful years
+of her life, could any man who had learned to reverence her as I
+reverence her, have said less?"
+
+"But my aunt, by her towering pride, awes people out of what they
+_ought_ to do, and what they _want_ to do; at least, she does _me_; and
+therefore,--therefore I honored you all the more when I saw you had the
+courage to tell her harsh truths, while pleading Madeleine's cause so
+eloquently."
+
+Gaston was much moved by these unanticipated and warmly uttered
+commendations. He tried to speak, but once again relapsed into his old
+habit of stammering.
+
+"Your praises are most pre--pre--pre"--
+
+Bertha finished his sentence as in by-gone days. "Precious, are they
+indeed? I am glad! I am truly glad that they are precious."
+
+M. de Bois, notwithstanding the happiness communicated by this frank
+declaration, could make no reply. What _could_ he answer? And what right
+had he to give too delightful an interpretation to the chance
+expressions of the lovely being who sat there before him, uttering words
+in her ingenuous simplicity, which would have inspired a bolder, more
+self-confident man, with the certainty that she regarded him with
+partial eyes.
+
+His gaze was riveted upon the ground, and so was hers. Neither spoke.
+How long they would have sat thus, each looking for some movement to be
+made by the other, is problematical. The double reverie was broken by a
+well-known voice, which cried out,--
+
+"Ah, M. de Bois, you are the very man I wanted to see. Good-morning,
+Mademoiselle de Merrivale."
+
+Lord Linden and his sister, Lady Augusta, stood before them. M. de Bois
+instantly rose, and Bertha invited Lady Augusta to take the vacant
+place. Lord Linden had already seized Gaston's arm, and drawn him aside.
+
+"My dear fellow," began the nobleman, "Do you know that I have been
+vainly seeking you for a couple of days! I am in a most awkward
+predicament; but I suppress particulars to make a long story short; in a
+word, I have discovered the fair unknown! I expected,--you know what
+sort of woman I expected to find."
+
+"Perfectly," answered Gaston, laughing, "a walking angel, minus the
+traditional wings. I remember your description. Perhaps the lady grows
+more earthly upon a better acquaintance?"
+
+"No, not by any means. I found her more enchanting than ever; but hang
+it, unless you had seen her, you could not comprehend how I could have
+made such a confounded mistake. This lovely being is--is--is--don't
+prepare to laugh. I shall be tempted to knock you down if you do, for
+really my feelings are so much interested that I could not bear even a
+friend's ridicule."
+
+"Well, go on," urged M. de Bois. "The lady in question is,--not an
+angel, unless it be a fallen one; that I understand; good; then _what_
+is she?"
+
+"A _mantua-maker!_" exclaimed Lord Linden, in accents of deep
+mortification.
+
+Well might he have been startled by the change that came over Gaston's
+countenance; the merriment by which it had been lighted up suddenly
+vanished; he looked aghast, astounded, and his features worked as though
+with ill-suppressed rage.
+
+"I see you are amazed: I thought you would be! You did not take me for
+such a greenhorn! But, in spite of her trade,--her _profession_, as it
+is considerately called in this country,--she is the most peerless
+creature; any man might have been duped."
+
+"And her name?" inquired Gaston, in an agitated voice, though he hardly
+needed the confirmation to his fears contained in Lord Linden's answer.
+
+"Mademoiselle Melanie!"
+
+"Good heavens! how unfortunate!" exclaimed Gaston, not knowing what he
+was saying.
+
+"Unfortunate," repeated Lord Linden; "you may well say _that_. But as
+marrying her is out of the question, there may possibly be an
+alternative"--
+
+"_What_ alternative? _What do you mean?_" demanded Gaston, turning upon
+him fiercely.
+
+"It does not strike me that my meaning is so difficult to divine,"
+replied the other, lightly. "When a woman is not in a position to become
+the wife of a man who has fallen desperately in love with her, there is
+only one thing else that he will very naturally seek to"--
+
+"Forbear, my lord! I cannot listen to such language," cried Gaston,
+angrily. "You could not insult a pure woman, no matter in what station
+you found her, by such a suggestion. I will not believe you capable of
+such baseness."
+
+Lord Linden looked at him in questioning amazement; then answered,
+somewhat scornfully,--
+
+"Really, I was not aware that instances of the kind were so rare, or
+that your punctilious morality would be so terribly shocked by an
+every-day occurrence. If the lovely creature herself consents to my
+proposition, I consider that the arrangement will be a very fair one."
+
+"Consents?" echoed Gaston, lashed into fury. "Do you know of whom you
+are speaking? This Mademoiselle Melanie is one of the noblest,--that is
+to say, one of the most noble-minded, and one of the most chaste of
+women."
+
+"You have heard of her then? Perhaps seen her?" inquired Lord Linden,
+eagerly. "As for her vaunted chastity, that is neither here nor
+there,--that _may_ or _may not_ be fictitious. I have heard from the
+best authority that she receives the private visits of titled admirers,
+whose attentions can hardly be of a nature very different from mine. You
+see, it is fair game, and if I succeed"--
+
+"For Heaven's sake stop!" said Gaston, losing all control of his temper.
+Then reflecting that this very energy in defending her might compromise
+Madeleine, he said, more calmly, "I beg your lordship to pause before
+you insult Mademoiselle Melanie. I know something of her history. She
+bears an unblemished name; she has a highly sensitive, a most delicate
+and refined nature. Could she deem it possible that any man entertained
+toward her such sentiments as those to which you have just given
+utterance, it would almost kill her."
+
+Lord Linden's lips curled sarcastically, but he did not feel disposed to
+communicate how completely Mademoiselle Melanie was already aware of
+those sentiments. He now essayed to put an end to the conversation by
+saying,--
+
+"I shall bear your remarks in mind; though the accounts we have heard of
+the fair mantua-maker differ materially."
+
+"Who has dared to slander her?" demanded Gaston, with an air which
+seemed to assert his right to ask the question.
+
+"I have not said that she has been slandered. I see we are not likely to
+understand each other; let us join the ladies."
+
+As he spoke, he walked toward Lady Augusta and Bertha. His sister rose
+and made her adieu.
+
+When Lord Linden and Lady Augusta had passed on, Gaston was surprised to
+see that Bertha did not appear desirous of returning to the hotel. She
+sat still, and, when he approached her, drew her dress slightly aside,
+as though to make room for him to resume his seat. Could he do otherwise
+than comply? She sat with her head bent down. The shining ringlets
+falling in rich, golden showers, partly concealed her face. She was
+tracing letters upon the gravel-walk with her parasol. Gaston was too
+much moved by his painful conversation with Lord Linden to start any
+indifferent topic; and Bertha's manner, so different from her usual
+frank, lively bearing, made it still more difficult for him to know how
+to accost her.
+
+At last, without raising her eyes, she said, "You and Lord Linden were
+having a very animated discussion. At one time I began to be afraid that
+you were quarrelling."
+
+"We certainly never differed more. I doubt if we shall ever be friends
+again."
+
+This assertion was uttered so earnestly that Bertha involuntarily looked
+up into Gaston's face. It was flushed by his recent anger, and the
+expression of his countenance betokened perplexity mingled with
+vexation.
+
+What woman ever saw the man she loved out of temper without seeking to
+pour oil upon the troubled waters, even at the risk of being charged
+with her sex's constitutional curiosity? for an attempt to soothe
+includes a desire to fathom the secret cause of annoyance. If there be
+women who are not stirred by impulses of this kind they are cast in
+moulds the very opposite to that of Bertha.
+
+She said, in a soft and winning tone, "Has he done you wrong?"
+
+"He has grossly wronged one whom I esteem more highly, perhaps, than any
+woman,--any being living," answered Gaston, firing up at the
+recollection of Lord Linden's insinuations; then he corrected himself.
+"I should have said any--any oth--oth--other--but"--
+
+"It was a woman--a lady, then, whom he wronged?" inquired Bertha,
+betraying redoubled interest at this inadvertent admission.
+
+Gaston perceived that he had said too much; but, in adding nothing more,
+he did not extricate himself from the difficulty. His silence could only
+be interpreted into an affirmative.
+
+"And one whom you esteem more highly than all others?" persisted Bertha.
+"Whom do you esteem so highly as Madeleine? Surely it could not have
+been Madeleine? Lord Linden did not speak disrespectfully of Madeleine?"
+
+Gaston had gone too far for concealment. "He spoke of Mademoiselle
+Melanie, the mantua-maker; but I warrant I have silenced him!"
+
+"Madeleine is very happy in the possession of such a true friend as you
+are! one upon whom she can always lean,--always depend,--one who can
+never fail her! Yes, she is very, very happy! When I heard you defending
+her before my aunt, I said to myself, 'Oh that I had such a friend!'"
+
+Would not Gaston de Bois have been the dullest of mortals if those words
+had failed to infuse a sudden courage into his heart?
+
+He replied with impetuous ardor, "Would--would that you could be induced
+to accept the same friend as your own! Would that he might dare to hope
+that some day, however distant, you would grant him a nearer, dearer
+title! Would that he might believe such a joy possible!"
+
+Bertha spoke no word, made no movement, but sat with her eyes bent on
+the ground. Her manner emboldened Gaston to seize her hand; she did not
+withdraw it from his clasp; then he comprehended his joy, and poured out
+the history of his long-concealed passion with a tender eloquence of
+which he never imagined himself capable.
+
+If, when he awoke that morning from a dream in which Bertha's lovely
+countenance was vividly pictured, some prophetic voice had whispered
+that ere the sun went down he would have uttered such language, and she
+have listened to it, he would not have believed the verification of that
+delightful prediction within the bounds of possibility. Yet, when the
+happy pair left the capital grounds to return to the hotel, Gaston
+walked by the side of his betrothed bride.
+
+It is true that the wealthy heiress had lured on her self-distrusting
+lover to make a declaration which he had not contemplated; but who will
+charge her with unmaidenly conduct? The most modest of women are daily
+doing, unaware, what Bertha did somewhat more consciously. Shakespeare,
+who read the hearts of women with the penetrating eyes of a seer, and
+who never painted a heroine who was not the type of a class, pictured no
+rare or imaginary order of being in his beauteous Desdemona,--
+
+              "A maiden never bold,
+    Of spirit so still and quiet that her motion
+    Blushed at herself,"--
+
+who was yet "_half the wooer_." And there is no lack of men who can
+testify (in spite of the feminine denial which we anticipate) that they
+owe their happiness (or misery) to some gentle, timid girl who was
+nevertheless "_half the wooer_."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+A REVELATION.
+
+
+Bertha was too happy as she walked toward the hotel, to dread the
+rebukes which she had good reason to anticipate from the countess. For a
+young lady to traverse the streets alone with a gentleman, however
+intimate a friend, was, according to the strict rules of French
+etiquette, a gross breach of propriety. And, though the escort of a
+gentleman was deemed allowable in the purer and less conventional
+society of the land in which they were sojourning, Bertha knew that her
+supercilious aunt considered all customs barbarous but those of her
+refined native country.
+
+The countess was sitting in her drawing-room, evidently in a state of
+high excitement, when Bertha and Gaston entered. Count Tristan appeared
+to be endeavoring to palliate his recent conduct by a series of
+contradictory statements, and a garbled explanation of the events which
+had placed Maurice in a dubious position; but his mother had sufficient
+shrewdness to detect that his object was to deceive, not to enlighten
+her.
+
+The appearance of Bertha and Gaston gave inexpressible relief to the
+count, and his satisfaction betrayed itself in a singularly unnatural
+and childish manner. He kissed Bertha on both cheeks as though he had
+not seen her for a long period, asked her how she did, shook hands
+warmly with Gaston as if they had not parted a couple of hours before,
+offered them chairs, put his arm about Bertha, and drew her to him, as
+though he were making her his shield against some imaginary assailant.
+
+"What is the meaning of this prolonged absence, Bertha?" demanded the
+countess, without appearing to notice M. de Bois. "Where have you been?
+Why did you not return immediately? Where is Maurice?"
+
+"The day was so fine," answered Bertha, trying to speak with some show
+of dignity and composure, but failing lamentably, "that I thought I
+would enjoy a walk in the capitol grounds. We met Lady Augusta and Lord
+Linden. Maurice did not return with us."
+
+"Are you aware of the singular impropriety of your behavior,
+Mademoiselle de Merrivale? Is it possible that a niece of mine can have
+become so perfectly regardless of all the rules of decorum?"
+
+"Will you excuse me for the present, aunt?" interrupted Bertha,
+retreating toward the door in a rather cowardly fashion. "I leave M. de
+Bois to--M. de Bois wishes to"--
+
+Gaston had risen and opened the door for her to pass, with as much
+self-possession as though bashfulness had not been the tormenting evil
+genius of his existence. His look reassured her, and, without finishing
+her sentence, she disappeared.
+
+The countess rose with even more than her wonted stateliness, and was
+about to follow her niece; but M. de Bois, pretending not to perceive
+her intention, closed the door and said,--
+
+"There is a communication which I desire to have the honor of making to
+Madame de Gramont and Count Tristan."
+
+"You can make no communication to which I feel disposed to listen,"
+answered the countess haughtily, and advancing toward the door.
+
+"I regret to hear the aunt of Mademoiselle de Merrivale say so, as I
+have this morning ventured to solicit the hand of that young lady in
+marriage, and have received a favorable answer to my suit, as well as
+permission to request the approval of her relatives."
+
+The countess sank into the nearest chair. She knew that her consent was
+a mere form, and that Bertha could dispose of her hand in freedom.
+
+Count Tristan, still speaking in a confused, incoherent manner,
+exclaimed,--
+
+"Bless my soul! How astonishing! The game's up, and Maurice has lost his
+chance! Bertha's fortune is to go out of the family! It's very puzzling.
+How did it all come about? De Bois, you sly fellow, you lucky dog, I
+never suspected you. Managed matters quietly, eh? Should never have
+thought you were the man to succeed with a pretty girl."
+
+"Really," returned Gaston good-humoredly, "I am almost as astonished as
+you are by Mademoiselle de Merrivale's preference. Let me hope that the
+Countess de Gramont and yourself will render my happiness complete by
+approving of Mademoiselle Bertha's choice."
+
+"Of course, of course; there's nothing else to be done; we have lost our
+trump card, but there's no use of confessing it! Very glad to welcome
+you as a relative, sir; very happy indeed; everything shall be as
+Mademoiselle de Merrivale desires."
+
+Count Tristan uttered these disjointed sentences, in the flurried,
+bewildered manner which had marked his conduct since Gaston entered. A
+stranger might easily have imagined that the count was under the
+influence of delirium; for his face was scarlet his eyes shone with
+lurid brightness, his muscles twitched, his hands trembled nervously,
+and he was, to all appearance, not thoroughly conscious of what he was
+doing.
+
+His mother's look of rebuke was entirely lost upon him, and he rattled
+on with an air of assumed hilarity which was painfully absurd.
+
+Gaston was disinclined to give the disdainful lady an opportunity of
+expressing her opposition to his suit, and, pretending to interpret her
+silence favorably, he took his hat, and said, "I thank you for the
+cordial manner in which my proposition has been received; I hope to have
+the pleasure of visiting Mademoiselle de Merrivale this evening; I wish
+you a good-morning."
+
+The door had closed upon him before the countess had recovered herself
+sufficiently to reply.
+
+That evening, before paying his proposed visit to Bertha, M. de Bois
+sought Madeleine, to make her a participator in the happiness which she
+had so truly predicted would, one day, be his. He also purposed, if
+possible, to put her on her guard against the advances of Lord Linden.
+At the door he encountered Maurice, who with unaffected warmth,
+congratulated him upon his betrothal.
+
+When the servant answered their ring, both gentlemen were denied
+admission. Mademoiselle Melanie was not well, and had retired.
+
+"Are you going back to the hotel?" asked Gaston, as they left the door.
+
+"No, not until late. I hardly know what I shall do with myself; I may go
+to the reading-rooms."
+
+As their roads were different, they parted, and Maurice, not being able
+to select any better place of refuge, took his way to the reading-rooms
+most frequented by gentlemen of the metropolis. He was fortunate in
+finding an apartment vacant. He sat down by the table, took up a
+newspaper, though the words before him might have been printed in an
+unknown tongue, for any sense they conveyed.
+
+He had been sitting about half an hour, musing sadly, when Lord Linden
+sauntered through the rooms. The instant he observed Maurice, he
+advanced toward him, and unceremoniously took a seat at the same table.
+This was just the opportunity which the _piqued_ nobleman had desired.
+Maurice returned his salutation politely, but with an occupied air which
+seemed to forbid conversation. But Lord Linden was not to be baffled. He
+opened a periodical, and, after listlessly turning the leaves, closed
+it, and, leaning over the table in the direction of Maurice, said, with
+a sarcastic intonation,--
+
+"I hope you had an agreeable visit, M. de Gramont."
+
+Maurice looked up in surprise.
+
+"I beg pardon,--I do not comprehend. To what visit do you allude?"
+
+"When we last met," returned Lord Linden, in the same offensive manner,
+"I left you in charming company; the lovely mantua-maker, you know!--the
+very queen of sirens!"
+
+Maurice flushed crimson and half started from his chair, then sat down
+again, making a strong effort to control himself, as he answered coldly,
+"I am at a loss to comprehend the meaning of the language in which you
+are pleased to indulge."
+
+"'Pon my life, that's going too far; especially as I feel not a little
+aggrieved that your inopportune entrance cut short my visit. And you
+seemed to be a decided favorite. Deuced lucky! for she is the handsomest
+woman in Washington. Come, be frank enough to confess that you think so,
+and I'll admit that I think her the most beautiful woman upon the face
+of the globe."
+
+"My frankness," returned Maurice, sharply, "forces me to confess that
+this conversation is particularly distasteful to me. The lady in
+question"--
+
+Lord Linden interrupted him with a light laugh. "Lady? Oh! I see you
+adopt the customs and phraseology of the country in which you live; and
+_here_, a mantua-maker is, of course, a lady; just as a respectable
+boot-black is, in common parlance, an accomplished gentleman."
+
+"My lord,"--began Maurice, angrily; but Lord Linden would not permit him
+to continue.
+
+"Oh, don't be offended; I suppose you are a naturalized foreigner; you
+are quite right to accept the manners of the country you adopt; it is
+the true diplomatic dodge. And, besides, I admit that the _lady_ in
+question might anywhere be mistaken for a thorough lady. She has all the
+points which betoken the high-bred dame. I'll not quarrel with the term
+you use! All I ask is fair play, and that you will not attempt to
+monopolize the field."
+
+"Lord Linden," replied Maurice, unable to endure this impertinence any
+longer, "once more I beg to inform you that you are using language to
+which I cannot listen. I will not permit any man to speak of that lady
+in the manner which you have chosen to employ. I shall consider it a
+personal insult if you persist."
+
+"Indeed! Have matters gone so far? Really, I did not suspect that the
+ground was already occupied, and that the _lady_ whose mantua-making and
+millinery are the admiration of all Washington, had a protector by whom
+her less favored acquaintances must expect to be taken to task."
+
+These words were spoken in a tone sufficiently caustic to render their
+meaning unmistakable.
+
+"She has protectors, my lord,--legal protectors,--who are ready to prove
+their right to defend her," replied Maurice, with severity, and rising
+as he spoke.
+
+All considerations of prudence,--the wishes of Madeleine and of his
+family,--were forgotten at the moment: she was insulted, and he was
+there to defend her; that was all he remembered.
+
+Lord Linden, though he could not but be struck by the tone and manner of
+the viscount, echoed the words, "The right?"
+
+"Yes, the _right_, as well as the _might_. Mademoiselle Melanie, the
+mantua-maker, is in reality Mademoiselle Madeleine Melanie de Gramont,
+the daughter of the late Duke de Gramont, and the second cousin of my
+father, Count Tristan de Gramont."
+
+"Good heavens! of what gross stupidity I have been guilty! How shall I
+ever obtain your pardon?"
+
+Without answering this question, Maurice went on.
+
+"You have forced me to betray a secret which my cousin earnestly desired
+to keep; but it is time that her family should refuse their countenance
+to this farce of concealment. I, for one, will not be a party to it any
+longer. I will never consent to calling her, or hearing her called, by
+any but her true title, and I do not care how soon that is proclaimed to
+the world."
+
+"M. de Gramont," said Lord Linden, whose embarrassment was mingled with
+undisguised joy, "I am overwhelmed with shame, and I beg that you will
+forget what I have said. My apology is based upon the error under which
+I was laboring. I make it very humbly, very gladly, and trust the
+Viscount de Gramont will accept it generously. Without being able to
+conceive the circumstances which have placed a noble lady in a position
+which has caused me to fall into so grave a mistake, I shall only be too
+proud, too thankful, to make the one reparation in my power,"--
+
+Lord Linden had not finished speaking, but Maurice was disinclined to
+hear any more or to prolong the interview, and said, frigidly, "I am
+bound to accept your apology; but your lordship can hardly expect that I
+can find it easy to forget that my cousin, Mademoiselle de Gramont, has
+been regarded by you in an unworthy light. Good-evening."
+
+Feigning not to see Lord Linden's outstretched hand, and disregarding
+his attempt to exculpate himself further, Maurice walked out of the
+reading-room, leaving the nobleman too much elated by the discovery of
+Madeleine's rank to experience a natural indignation at her cousin's
+cavalier treatment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+THE SUITOR.
+
+
+Lord Linden, when the Viscount de Gramont abruptly left him, returned to
+his lodgings, and, in spite of the lateness of the hour, wrote to
+Madeleine, implored her pardon for the presumption into which he had
+been lured by his ignorance of her rank, and formally solicited her
+hand. That night the happy nobleman's dreams, when he could sleep, and
+his waking thoughts when he courted slumber in vain, had an auroral
+tinge hitherto unknown. As soon as the sound of busy feet, traversing
+the corridor, announced that the much-desired morning had at last
+arrived, he rang his bell, gave his letter into the hands of a sleepy
+domestic, and ordered it to be delivered immediately.
+
+What was the next step which propriety demanded? To see Mademoiselle de
+Gramont's relatives, to make known his suit to them, and to solicit
+their approval.
+
+He considered himself fortunate in finding both Madame de Gramont and
+Count Tristan at home. The former received him with as much cordiality
+as her constitutional stiffness permitted, but the latter appeared to be
+in a half-lethargic state; he scarcely rose to welcome his visitor,
+spoke feebly and indistinctly, and, as he sank back in his seat, leaned
+his flushed face upon his hands.
+
+"My visit is somewhat early," remarked Lord Linden, "but I was impatient
+to see you, for I came to speak of your niece, Mademoiselle de Gramont."
+
+The count looked up eagerly.
+
+Madame de Gramont replied before her son could speak, "The person whom
+you designate as my niece has forfeited all right to that title, and is
+not recognized by her family."
+
+"I nevertheless venture to hope," returned the nobleman with marked
+suavity, "that, under existing circumstances, the alienation will only
+be temporary."
+
+The countess broke out angrily: "The impertinence of this young person
+exceeds all bounds! She gave us to understand that she possessed, at
+least, the modesty to hide her real name, and had no desire to disgrace
+her family by proclaiming that it was borne by a person in her degraded
+condition; but this, it seems, is only another evidence of her duplicity
+and covert manoeuvring; she has taken care that your lordship should
+become acquainted with a relationship which we can never cease to
+deplore."
+
+"You do her wrong," replied Lord Linden, with becoming spirit; "I regret
+to say she so scrupulously concealed her rank that I was led into a
+great error,--one for which I now desire amply to atone. It was from M.
+Maurice de Gramont that I learned the true name of the so-called
+Mademoiselle Melanie."
+
+"Maurice!" cried the countess and her son together.
+
+"I received the information from him last evening," said Lord Linden,
+"and I have now come to solicit the hand of Mademoiselle de Gramont in
+marriage."
+
+The suggestion that Madeleine could thus magically be raised out of her
+present humiliating condition, and that all her short-comings might be
+covered by the broad cloak of a title, took such delightful possession
+of the haughty lady's mind that there was no room even for surprise.
+While Count Tristan was vehemently shaking hands with Lord Linden, and
+stammering out broken and unintelligible sentences, his mother said
+gravely,--
+
+"We consider your lordship, in all respects, an acceptable _parti_ for a
+member of our family. I have ever entertained for Mademoiselle de
+Gramont the strongest affection, in spite of her lamentable
+eccentricities. But these I would prefer to forget."
+
+"Yes, that's it! That's the trump card now!--forget,--forget all about
+it!" cried Count Tristan, hilariously. He had recovered his power of
+utterance, yet spoke like a man partially intoxicated. "Let the past be
+forgotten, bury it deep; never dig it up! There are circumstances which
+had better not be mentioned. I myself have been mixed up with the
+affair; of course, I was an innocent party; I beg you to believe so.
+It's all right--quite right--quite right!"
+
+Though it was so evident that Count Tristan's mind was wandering,--at
+all events, that there was no connection in his ideas,--his mother could
+not stoop to admit any such possibility, and said sternly,--
+
+"My son, your language strikes me as singular. Lord Linden, of course,
+comprehends that he has our consent to his union with Mademoiselle de
+Gramont; but we also wish him to understand we expect him to remove his
+wife to his own country, or some other land where her history will not
+be known. Upon this condition we will pardon our relative's vagaries,
+and give our sanction to her nuptials."
+
+Lord Linden was not a man who could, with any complacency, consent to
+have conditions enforced upon him by the family of the lady whom he
+selected as his wife; his pride was quite as great as theirs; but before
+he had obtained Madeleine's consent to his suit, it was politic to
+preserve the favor of those who could influence her decision.
+
+Turning to Count Tristan, he observed, "I sent a letter to Mademoiselle
+de Gramont this morning, and I hope to be honored by an answer during
+the day. Would it be asking too much if I begged that you would see the
+lady, and inform her of the flattering reception which Madame de Gramont
+and yourself have given my proposals?"
+
+"I will go at once," replied Count Tristan. "An open visit, of course;
+no need of concealment now! Where's my hat? What has become of it? It's
+got a trick lately of getting out of the way."
+
+Count Tristan, though his hat stood on the table before him, tottered
+across the room, looking about in a weak, flurried way. His mother was
+not willing to attribute his singularly helpless, troubled, and childish
+demeanor, to the perturbed state of his brain, and said severely, though
+addressing her words to Lord Linden,--
+
+"Count Tristan's gratification at the intelligence you have
+communicated, and his desire to serve your lordship, appear to have
+somewhat bewildered him. He was always very much attached to
+Mademoiselle de Gramont."
+
+"Attached to her? Certainly! _Certainly!_" replied the count. "Though
+she did not always think so! I was devotedly attached to her when she
+imagined quite the contrary! This is my hat, I believe."
+
+He took up Lord Linden's.
+
+"I beg pardon,--_that_, I think is mine," replied his lordship; and
+then, indicating the one upon the table which Count Tristan apparently
+did not see, asked, "Is not this yours?"
+
+"I suppose so; it cannot be any one's else; there are only two of us. I
+wish you a good-morning."
+
+With a forced, unnatural laugh, he left the room.
+
+Count Tristan's deportment, in general, was almost as calm and stately
+as that of his august mother; though it was only a weak reflex of hers;
+accordingly the change in his demeanor surprised Lord Linden
+unpleasantly; but he took leave of the countess without endeavoring to
+solve an enigma to which he had no clew.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+A SHOCK.
+
+
+Count Tristan, on reaching Madeleine's residence was ushered into her
+boudoir. He found her reclining upon the sofa, with a book in her hand.
+She had not entirely recovered from her indisposition, and wisely
+thought that one of the most effectual modes of battling against illness
+was to divert the mind: an invaluable medicine, too little in vogue
+among the suffering, yet calculated to produce marvellous amelioration
+of physical pain. As all _matter_ exists from, and is influenced by,
+spiritual causes, the happy workings of this mental ministry are very
+comprehensible. Madeleine invariably found medicinal and restorative
+properties in the pages of an interesting and healthful-toned volume
+which would draw her out of the contemplation of her own ailments. She
+had trained herself, when the prostration of her faculties or other
+circumstances rendered it impossible for her to read, to lie still and
+reflect upon all the blessings that were accorded to her, to count them
+over, one by one, and _compel_ herself to estimate each at its full
+value. In this manner she successfully counteracted the depression and
+unrest that attend bodily disease, and often succeeded in lifting her
+mind so far above its disordered mortal medium that she was hardly
+conscious of suffering, which was nevertheless very real. Sceptical
+reader! you smile in doubt, and think that if Madeleine's wisdom and
+patience could accomplish this feat, she was a rare instance of
+womanhood. Try her experiment faithfully and then decide!
+
+Madeleine only partially rose when Count Tristan entered.
+
+"My dear niece,--my dearest Madeleine,--I hope you are not ill?"
+
+Although the count spoke with an air of exaggerated affection, his
+manner was far more self-possessed than when he left the hotel. The
+fresh air had revived him. Madeleine was not struck by any singularity
+in his deportment.
+
+"Not exactly ill, yet not quite well," she answered, without pretending
+to respond to his oppressive tenderness; "and I was trying to forget
+myself."
+
+"That was always your way, Madeleine; you are always forgetting yourself
+and remembering others. I always said so. I always appreciated your
+beautiful traits. The time has come when your whole family will
+appreciate them, and rejoice that you are restored to us. My mother is
+in a very different frame of mind to day; you must forget all that took
+place yesterday. You must forgive the past, and accept the hand of
+reconciliation which she extends to you."
+
+"Is it possible that the Countess de Gramont has charged you to say this
+for her?"
+
+"This, and a great deal more. She opens her arms to you; hereafter you
+two are to be as mother and daughter."
+
+Count Tristan spoke with so much earnestness, that probably he had
+succeeded in believing his own liberally invented statements.
+
+"It seems very strange," returned Madeleine; "yet I thank the countess
+for her unlooked-for cordiality. I do not know what good angel has
+opened her heart to me; but I am grateful if she will give me a place
+there."
+
+"The good angel in question was Lord Linden," answered the count, quite
+seriously. "His lordship called this morning. I left him with my
+mother."
+
+"Lord Linden?"
+
+"Yes, it was at his suggestion that I hastened here; not that I thought
+any influence of mine was needed; but just now it is well to keep in
+with every one, and you must oblige me by permitting Lord Linden to
+imagine that it was through my advocacy you were induced to look
+favorably upon his suit."
+
+"That is impossible."
+
+"Not at all; a mere suggestion in your letter will have the desired
+effect. You have not answered Lord Linden's letter yet,--have you."
+
+"No,--I intend to reply this morning, and"--
+
+"That's right! You will grant me this favor, I know you will! Say that
+_after having conversed with me_, you accept the offer of his hand."
+
+"I mean to decline it in the most definite manner."
+
+"Decline?" cried Count Tristan, breathing hard, while his face rapidly
+changed color; for at one moment it was overspread with a death-like
+pallor, and then, suddenly grew purple. "Decline? Such a thing is not to
+be thought of; you are jesting?"
+
+"I was never more serious in my life."
+
+"But you will think better of the matter; you will listen to reason; you
+will reverse your decision," pleaded the count, his nervous incoherence
+and confusion increasing as he grew more and more agitated. "It's for
+the honor of the family to say 'yes,' and therefore 'yes' is the proper
+_answer_,--eh, Madeleine? Don't joke any more, my dear; it troubles me;
+it gives me such a throbbing and heavy weight in my brain. All's
+right,--is it not?"
+
+Count Tristan lay back in his chair, and continued muttering, though his
+words were no longer comprehensible.
+
+Madeleine now began to be alarmed, and, approaching him, said kindly,
+"Can I give you anything? You are not well. Let me order you a glass of
+wine."
+
+He stared at her with vacant, glassy eyes, while his lips moved and
+twitched without giving forth any distinct sounds. He lifted up his arms
+in appeal; they dropped suddenly, as if struck by a giant's invisible
+hand, and his head fell forward heavily.
+
+Madeleine, greatly terrified, spoke to him again and again, shook him
+gently by the shoulder, to rouse him,--tried to lift his head; the face
+she succeeded in turning toward her was frightfully distorted; white
+foam oozed from the lips; the eyes were suffused with blood. She had
+never before seen a person in a fit, but instinct told her the nature of
+the seizure.
+
+Her violent ringing of the bell quickly brought servants to her
+assistance, and she ordered Robert to summon Dr. Bayard with the utmost
+haste.
+
+This distinguished physician pronounced the attack apoplexy; and, after
+applying those remedies which recent discoveries in science have proved
+most efficacious, ordered the patient to be undressed and put to bed.
+
+Madeleine's own chamber was prepared for the count's use. The attack was
+of brief duration, and he recovered from its violence soon after the
+physician arrived, but remained exhausted and insensible.
+
+Another critical case required Dr. Bayard's immediate attendance, and
+after giving Madeleine minute directions, he took his leave, saying that
+he would return in a couple of hours.
+
+Then Madeleine, who had been engrossed by the necessity of promptly
+ministering to the sufferer, remembered that the count's family should
+at once be made aware of his condition. What a frightful shock the
+countess would receive when she heard of her son's state! And Maurice
+and Bertha,--would they not be greatly alarmed? How could intelligence
+of the calamity be most gently communicated? Should Madeleine write? A
+note bearing the tidings might startle his mother too much. Madeleine
+saw but one alternative,--it was to go in person and break the sorrowful
+news as delicately as possible. She did not waste a moment in pondering
+upon the manner in which the haughty countess might receive her, but
+ordered her carriage, and drove to the hotel, leaving Count Tristan
+under the charge of Ruth, and Mrs. Lawkins, the housekeeper.
+
+Arrived at her destination, Madeleine ordered her servant to inquire for
+the Viscount de Gramont. He was not at home. Was Mademoiselle de
+Merrivale at home? The same reply. Was the Countess de Gramont at home?
+Madeleine could not help hoping that a negative would again be returned,
+for she grew sick at heart at the prospect of encountering her aunt
+alone. The countess was within.
+
+Madeleine's card was requested. She had none. What name should the
+servant give? Here was another difficulty: she was only known as
+"_Mademoiselle Melanie_;" she could not make use of her real name;
+besides, she feared that the countess would deny her admission if made
+aware who was her visitor. But something must be done. Madame de Gramont
+had issued orders that prevented any guest from entering her presence
+without permission. Madeleine asked for a sheet of note-paper, and, with
+her pencil, hastily wrote,--
+
+"Madeleine entreats the Countess de Gramont to see her for a moment. She
+has a matter of importance to communicate."
+
+The servant returned almost immediately, and, replacing the note in
+Madeleine's hand, said, "The Countess de Gramont desires me to say that
+she is engaged."
+
+"It is absolutely necessary that I should see Madame de Gramont,"
+replied Madeleine. "I will bear the blame of her displeasure if you will
+show me to her apartment."
+
+"The lady is very rigid, ma'am. I don't dare."
+
+"She will be angry at first, I admit," returned Madeleine; "but her
+dissatisfaction will not last when she knows upon what errand I have
+come. I can confidently promise you _that_. Perhaps you will consider
+this money sufficient compensation for her displeasure, should I prove
+wrong; and if I am right, you can keep it in payment for having served
+me."
+
+She handed him a piece of gold, which the man took with so little
+hesitation it left no doubt upon Madeleine's mind that he was well
+acquainted with the nature of a bribe.
+
+"I'll do what I can, ma'am, if you will take the blame," replied he.
+
+Madeleine alighted, followed him to the door of the room which he
+designated as the drawing-room of the countess, and then desired him to
+retire; he obeyed with well-pleased alacrity.
+
+The young girl had been trembling from agitation until that moment; but
+there was necessity for calmness in executing her mission. She opened
+the door with a firm hand, and entered the apartment with unfaltering
+steps.
+
+The countess was sitting with her back turned to the entrance; she did
+not perceive Madeleine until the latter stood beside her.
+
+Madame de Gramont pushed back her chair with a repellant gesture, and,
+before her niece could speak, asked indignantly, "What is the meaning of
+this intrusion? Did you not receive my message, Mademoiselle de Gramont,
+and understand that I declined to see you?"
+
+"I received it, madame," returned Madeleine, mildly and mournfully; "but
+I feel sure you will pardon an intrusion I could not avoid when you
+learn the cause which brings me here."
+
+"I can divine your errand, Mademoiselle de Gramont; you probably imagine
+that, because I permitted my son to say that your marriage with Lord
+Linden would, _after a proper interval_, allow me to acknowledge you
+once more as a relative, your mere acceptance of his lordship's hand
+entitles you to seize upon any frivolous excuse to force yourself upon
+my privacy. You are mistaken. I have no intention of recognizing _the
+mantua-maker_, and I forbid her to make any attempt to hold the most
+transient intercourse with me. I have already said, I will receive Lady
+Linden when I meet her in another country, where her history is unknown;
+but not until then. And now I must request you to retire, or you will
+compel me to leave my own apartment."
+
+Madeleine had made one or two fruitless attempts to interrupt the
+countess; but now, as the latter moved toward the door, about to put her
+threat into execution, the young girl sprang after her and said,
+beseechingly,--
+
+"I implore you not to go until you hear me! I did not come to speak of
+myself at all. I came in the hope of sparing you too severe a shock."
+
+"Very generous on your part, but somewhat misjudged, as your unwelcome
+presence has given me as great a shock as I could well sustain."
+
+"Ah, aunt,--Madame de Gramont,--do not speak so harshly to me! I have
+scarcely strength or courage left to tell you; I came to speak of--of
+Count Tristan."
+
+"My son seems to have chosen a somewhat singular messenger, and one who
+he was well aware would be far from acceptable," returned the countess,
+wholly unmoved.
+
+"He did not send me; I came myself; He is not aware of my coming,
+for--for"--
+
+Madeleine's voice failed her, and the countess took up her words.
+
+"_For_ you desired to make me fully sensible of the length to which you
+carried your audacity. So be it! I am satisfied! Mademoiselle de
+Gramont, for the second time I request you to retire."
+
+"I cannot, until I have told you that Count Tristan is--is not, not
+quite well; that is, he became indisposed at my house."
+
+"In that case, it would have appeared to me more natural, and certainly
+more proper, if he had returned to his old residence, and spared me the
+pain of being apprised of his indisposition by an unwelcome messenger."
+
+"He had no choice, or, rather, I had none. I feared to have the news
+broken in a manner that might alarm you too much, and therefore I would
+not even trust myself to write. Count Tristan was seized with,--I mean
+was taken ill while conversing with me. He is not in a state to return
+home at present, and I came to beg that his mother or his son will go to
+him."
+
+"I comprehend you, Mademoiselle de Gramont; you were always politic in
+the highest degree. You know how to make the best of opportunities. You
+find my son's temporary indisposition an admirable opportunity to lure
+his relatives to your house, and to make known to the world your
+connection with them. Your well-laid, dramatic little plot will fail.
+Your good acting has not succeeded in alarming me, and I see no reason
+why Count Tristan de Gramont, in spite of his sudden illness, should not
+send for a carriage and return to the hotel. By your own confession, the
+step you have taken is unwarranted; for you admitted that my son was not
+aware of your intention."
+
+"Because he was too ill to be aware of it, madame," replied Madeleine,
+with an involuntary accent of reproach.
+
+The cold and cruel conduct of the countess did not render her niece less
+compassionate, less fearful of wounding; but it inspired her with the
+resolution, which she had before lacked, to impart the fearful tidings.
+
+"He is too ill to be moved at this moment. I sent for medical aid at
+once, and everything has been done to restore him."
+
+"_Restore him?_ What do you mean?" almost shrieked the countess, now
+becoming painfully excited, and struggling against her fears, as though,
+by disbelieving the calamity which had befallen her son, she could alter
+the fact. "Why do you try to alarm me in this manner? It is very
+inconsiderate! very cruel! You do it to revenge yourself upon me! Where
+is Maurice? Where is Bertha? I must have some one near me on whom I can
+depend! Why am I left at your mercy?"
+
+"I asked for Maurice and Bertha before I attempted to force my way to
+you," returned Madeleine. "I was told that neither was at home. Pray do
+not allow yourself to be so much distressed. I have no doubt that we
+shall find Count Tristan better."
+
+"_We_ shall find! What do you mean by _we_ shall find?" sternly demanded
+the countess, whose grief and alarm did not conquer her pride, though
+her voice trembled as she asked the question.
+
+"My carriage is at the door: I thought I might venture to propose that
+you would enter it, and return with me to my house, that no time might
+be lost." Madeleine said this with quiet dignity.
+
+"_Your_ carriage? And you expect me to be seen _with you_, in _your_
+carriage? I cannot comprehend your object, Mademoiselle de Gramont. What
+possesses you to try to exasperate me by your insolent propositions?"
+
+"Pardon me; I did not mean to add to your trouble; if my suggestion was
+injudicious, disregard it. Nothing can be easier than to send for
+another carriage. Will you allow me to ring the bell for you to do so?
+And, since you would not wish to be seen in my company, I can leave the
+house before you."
+
+"And you expect me to follow? You expect that I will order the carriage
+to drive to the residence of _Mademoiselle Melanie_, the
+_mantua-maker_?"
+
+"You need only say, 'Drive to ---- street, number ----.' My errand here
+is at an end. I pray you to pardon me, if I have executed it clumsily.
+My sole intention was to spare you pain, and I almost fear that I have
+caused you more than I have shielded you from."
+
+Madeleine was retiring, but the countess called her back.
+
+"Stay! You have not told me all yet. What is the matter with my son? Was
+it a fainting fit? I never knew him guilty of the weakness of fainting."
+
+It was difficult to answer this question without explaining the grave
+nature of the attack. Madeleine was silent.
+
+"Did you not hear me? Why do you not answer?"
+
+"The doctor did not call it a fainting fit," was Madeleine's vague
+response. "Yet Count Tristan was in a state of insensibility, and had
+not spoken when I left him."
+
+"Why did you leave him, then? How could you have been so neglectful?"
+The countess burst out as though it was a relief to have some
+one on whom she could vent her wrath. "If he is seriously ill,--so
+ill as to continue insensible,--you should have remained by his
+side, and not left him to the improper treatment of strangers:
+it is abominable,--outrageous!"
+
+"I will gladly hasten back. Pray be composed, madame, and let us hope
+for a favorable change. I expect to find him better. Before you reach
+the house, his consciousness may have returned."
+
+Madeleine retired, without waiting for any further comment; for she had
+an internal conviction that whatever she did or said would be unpleasant
+to her aunt in her present troubled state.
+
+There was no perceptible alteration in the condition of Count Tristan.
+Ruth, who was sitting by his side, said he had scarcely stirred. His
+face still wore a purplish hue, and his glassy, bloodshot eyes, though
+wide open, were vacant and expressionless. He lay as still as if
+deprived of sensation and motion.
+
+Madeleine had been at home nearly an hour before she heard the carriage
+which contained the countess stop at the door. Madame de Gramont, even
+in a case of such extremity, was not able to complete her arrangements
+hurriedly.
+
+Madeleine, when she went forth to receive her relative, was much
+relieved to find her accompanied by Bertha.
+
+Bertha threw herself in Madeleine's arms, whispering, "Is he _very_
+ill?"
+
+"Yes, I fear so," answered Madeleine, in too low a voice for the
+countess to hear. Then turning to Madame de Gramont, she inquired,
+gently, "Do you wish to go to him at once?"
+
+"For what other purpose have I come?" was the ungracious rejoinder.
+
+Madeleine led the way to the apartment, and motioned Ruth to withdraw.
+
+The countess walked up to the bed with a firm step, as though nerving
+herself to disbelieve that anything serious was the matter.
+
+"My son!" she said, in a voice somewhat choked, but which expressed
+confidence that he would immediately reply, "My son! why do you not
+answer me?"
+
+She took his hand; it remained passive in hers; his eyes still stared
+vacantly. His mother more tightly grasped the hand she held, shook it a
+little, and called out to him again in a hoarser tone; but there was no
+answer.
+
+Bertha burst into tears, and knelt down sobbing by the bed.
+
+"Hush!" said the countess, angrily. "You will disturb him. Why do you
+cry so? It is nothing serious,--nothing _very_ serious;" and she looked
+around appealingly, her eyes resting, in spite of herself, upon
+Madeleine.
+
+"We must hope not," said the latter, now venturing to draw near. "The
+doctor will be here again shortly, and, if you would permit me to
+advise, I would suggest that Count Tristan should remain undisturbed."
+
+"I only ask that he will speak to me once!" exclaimed the countess, in
+peevish distress. "A _mother_ may demand that! Do you not hear me, my
+son? Why, why will you not answer?"
+
+Her voice was raised to a high pitch, but it did not seem to reach the
+ears of the insensible man.
+
+Voices in the entry attracted Madeleine's attention; the sound of
+well-known tones reached her ears, and she hastily left the room.
+
+The servant was communicating to Maurice the sad event which had just
+taken place. Madeleine beckoned her cousin to follow to her boudoir,
+and, in a few words, recounted what had just taken place.
+
+Maurice had listened, too completely awe-stricken for language, until
+Madeleine rose and asked, "Will you not go to him now, Maurice?"
+
+Then he ejaculated, "How mysteriously all things are ordered, Madeleine!
+Truly you are the ministering angel of our family!"
+
+As Maurice, with Madeleine, entered the chamber where Count Tristan lay,
+the countess experienced a revulsion of feeling at beholding them side
+by side, and cried out, in a louder tone than seemed natural in that
+chamber at such a moment,--
+
+"Maurice! Maurice! I have wanted you so much to advise me! You see your
+father's condition: he does not seem to recognize us; but it cannot be
+anything serious. The great point is to make arrangements for removing
+him at once to the hotel. You must attend to that; I wish no time to be
+lost."
+
+Maurice was gazing in dumb anguish upon his father's altered face, and,
+though no tears moistened his eyes, his frame shook with emotion far
+more painful to man than weeping is to woman.
+
+"You will see to his immediate removal," repeated his grandmother,
+authoritatively, finding that he did not notice her request.
+
+"That cannot be done with safety, I feel certain," answered Maurice.
+
+"But he cannot remain here," persisted the countess. "He must be taken
+to the hotel, where I can watch by him."
+
+"You would not have the attempt made at the risk of his life?" remarked
+Maurice, with more sternness than he intended.
+
+Madeleine gently interposed.
+
+"Dr. Bayard, the physician who was called in, promised to return in a
+couple of hours: he must be here shortly: will it not be best to ask his
+opinion? And if he says Count Tristan cannot yet be removed with safety,
+I entreat, madame, that you will allow me to place this suite of
+apartments at your disposal and his. They are wholly disconnected with
+the rest of the house, and you can be as private as you desire."
+
+"Do you expect _me_ to remain under this roof? _Your roof?_ Do you
+imagine that I will allow my son to remain here, even in his present
+condition? Oh, this is too much! This would be more terrible than all
+the rest! I could not humble myself to endure _that!_"
+
+The countess spoke in a perfect agony of mortification.
+
+Madeleine only replied, "There is no necessity for a decision until you
+have consulted the physician."
+
+Maurice thought it wise to echo her words; the countess was partially
+soothed, for the time being, and sat down to await the coming of Dr.
+Bayard.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+THE MANTUA-MAKER'S GUESTS.
+
+
+Around Count Tristan's bed were grouped in silence his four nearest of
+kin, waiting for the physician who was to decide upon the possibility of
+removal. The countess sat erect and motionless by her son's head. Her
+countenance wore a look of granite hardness, as though she were fighting
+her grief with _Spartan_-like determination which would not let her
+admit, even to herself, that any anguish preyed upon her heart. Maurice
+sat at the foot of the bed, mournfully watching the spasmodic movements
+of his stricken father: they were but feeble and few. Madeleine had
+placed herself upon the other side of the couch. Her instinctive
+delicacy prompted her to withdraw as far as possible from the countess.
+Bertha had softly stolen to Madeleine's side, and sat silently clasping
+her hand, and leaning against her shoulder; for hers was one of those
+clinging, vine-like natures that ever turn for support to the object
+nearest and strongest.
+
+This was the disposition of the group when Ruth Thornton entered the
+room on tiptoe and placed a card in Madeleine's hand.
+
+"Did you tell him what had occurred?" whispered Madeleine.
+
+"I did, and he still begged to see you."
+
+Though Ruth spoke in a low voice, Bertha was so near that she heard her
+reply, and it caused her, almost unconsciously, to glance at the card.
+
+"Say that I will be with him directly," said Madeleine.
+
+"It is M. de Bois. I will go with you," murmured Bertha, rising at the
+same time as her cousin.
+
+The countess did not move her eyes, but Maurice turned his head to look
+after them. Madeleine could never pass from his presence without his
+experiencing a sense of loss which inflicted a dull pang.
+
+M. de Bois had been ushered into Madeleine's boudoir. He had not
+anticipated the happiness of seeing Bertha. When she entered, his start
+and flush of joy, and the gently confident manner in which he took her
+hand, and drew her toward him, might well have surprised Madeleine; but
+that surprise was quickly turned to positive amazement, for Bertha's
+head drooped until its opulent golden curls swept his
+breast,--and--and--(if we record what ensued be it remembered that
+constitutionally bashful men, stirred by a sudden impulse, have less
+control over their emotions than their calmer brothers)--and--in another
+second, his own head was bent down, and his lips lightly touched her
+pure brow, just where the fair hair parting ran on either side, in
+shining waves. Truly was that first kiss
+
+      "The chrism of Love, which Love's own crown
+      With sanctifying sweetness did precede."
+
+Gaston's ideas of what amount of tender demonstration punctilious
+decorum permitted a lover, had finally undergone an alarming
+modification, through the corrective influence of the social atmosphere
+he had inhaled during the last few years. In his own land the limited
+privileges of an accepted suitor do not extend thus far until the day
+before a wedding-ring encircles the finger of a bride. Is it on this
+account that the Parisian _Mrs. Grundy_, dreading some irresistible
+temptation, never allows affianced lovers to be left alone?
+
+Bertha's conceptions of propriety must also have been in a very
+unsettled state; for, albeit "to her brow the ruby mounted," that first
+kiss seemed to her to lie there as softly as an invisible gem, and she
+did not withdraw her head, nor look up reproachfully, nor utter one word
+of chiding.
+
+Gaston noticed Madeleine's wonder-struck look, and said, "You did not
+know, then, Mademoiselle Madeleine, how happy I am?"
+
+Then Bertha escaped from the arm that encircled her, and nestling in her
+cousin's bosom, faltered out, "I was so much troubled about Cousin
+Tristan that I could not tell you."
+
+"One of my most cherished hopes has become reality!" returned Madeleine,
+fondly. "M. de Bois knows how much I have wished for this consummation;
+and I think you have known it, Bertha, ever since you made me a certain
+confession."
+
+"What? Mademoiselle Bertha confessed to you, and you kept me in
+ignorance?" cried Gaston, reproachfully.
+
+"I did _as I would be done by_,--an old rule that wears well, and keeps
+friendships golden."
+
+There was a significance in Madeleine's look comprehended by Gaston. It
+warned him that any confidence which she had reposed in him must be
+sacred, even from his betrothed bride.
+
+Dr. Bayard was announced, and Madeleine conducted him to the chamber
+occupied by her suffering guest, and withdrew.
+
+It strikes us that Madeleine's interpretation of the rules of decorum
+must also have suffered by her residence in America; for she very coolly
+left the lovers to themselves, and, passing through the dining-room,
+walked into the garden.
+
+When she reëntered her boudoir she found Gaston and Bertha conversing as
+happily as though no sorrow found place upon the earth, or certainly
+none beneath that roof; but, since the world began, lovers have been
+pronounced selfishly forgetful of the rest of mankind. We have our
+doubts, however, whether their being wholly wrapped up in each other
+deserves so harsh a name as _selfishness_, since that very closeness of
+union renders souls richer and larger, and gives to each additional
+power to receive and communicate happiness, while thoroughly selfish
+people lack the capacity to impart good gifts, and are content with
+being recipients.
+
+Madeleine had just seated herself opposite to the lovers, and was
+thinking what a pleasant picture to contemplate were those two radiant
+countenances, when Maurice entered with the physician.
+
+"I fear, sir, you look upon my father's state as very critical?"
+
+"Very," replied Dr. Bayard, who was a man of such acknowledged ability
+that he could afford to be frank without being suspected of a desire to
+magnify the importance of a case under his treatment. "Apoplexy may be
+produced by various causes, hereditary disposition, high living, or
+anxiety of mind, or all united. I cannot decide what was the origin of
+Count Tristan de Gramont's seizure. One side is entirely paralyzed, and
+the other slightly."
+
+"Can he be removed to his hotel with safety?" inquired Maurice.
+
+"Assuredly not. The risk would be very great. It should not be
+encountered if there is any possibility of his remaining here for the
+present."
+
+He looked questioningly toward the mistress of the house.
+
+Madeleine promptly replied, "These apartments are entirely at the
+service of Count Tristan and his family, if they will honor me by
+occupying them."
+
+"That is well," returned the doctor. "Let the count remain undisturbed
+until he is convalescent. I will see him again in the evening."
+
+Dr. Bayard took his leave, and Maurice turned to Madeleine,--
+
+"This is most unfortunate. It is a great burden to be thrown upon you,
+Madeleine."
+
+She interrupted him quickly. "You could hardly have spoken words less
+kind, Maurice. If this shock could not have been spared your father, I
+am thankful that it fell beneath my roof. He will be more quiet here
+than in a hotel, and can be better tended. If the countess will permit
+me, I will gladly constitute myself his chief _garde malade_. I have had
+some experience"--
+
+That inadvertent remark increased the agitation of Maurice, and he
+answered, in a voice tremulous from the rush of sad recollections, "Who
+can testify to that better than _I_? Do you think I have forgotten the
+good _soeur de bon secours_ whose movements I used to watch, and whose
+features, dimly traced by the feeble light of the _veilleuse_, I never
+ceased to gaze upon, as she moved about my bed?"
+
+Madeleine smiled and sighed at the same moment, and then remarked,
+perhaps to turn the conversation,--
+
+"But your grandmother,--I fear it will be very difficult to obtain her
+consent to Count Tristan's remaining under my roof."
+
+"She cannot desire to risk my father's life!" returned Maurice, somewhat
+angrily. "I may as well tell her what is decided upon, at once."
+
+Madeleine detained him.
+
+"First let me explain to you the arrangements I propose making. If the
+countess will condescend to remain here, I will have the drawing-room,
+which opens into the room Count Tristan occupies, made into a
+bed-chamber for her. The apartment beyond is the dining-room. This
+little boudoir can be converted into a chamber for you. There is an
+apartment upstairs which I will occupy; and, as Bertha cannot remain at
+the hotel alone, I shall be truly happy if she will share my room, or
+that of the countess."
+
+"Yours! yours!" exclaimed Bertha. "Oh, what a pleasant arrangement! And
+how quickly and admirably you have settled everything, just as you
+always used to do; and nobody could ever plan half so well!"
+
+"It will be your turn to play the hostess, and to them all!" cried
+Gaston. "Who would have believed such a revolution of the great wheel
+possible! That's what I call _compensation in this world_; for few
+things, I know, can make you happier; and nothing can strike such a
+severe blow at the pride of the Countess de Gramont as to find herself
+the compulsory guest of the relative she has despised and persecuted."
+
+Gaston, in his ardor and desire to see Madeleine avenged, had forgotten
+the presence of the viscount; but Madeleine's look of reproach and her
+glance toward her cousin recalled his presence to the mind of her
+enthusiastic defender.
+
+"I beg pardon, Maurice," said he; "I ought not to have spoken
+disrespectfully of the countess; that is, while you were by."
+
+"I understand and can pardon you, Gaston. Now I must go to my
+grandmother and learn what she says; for I can see Madeleine's 'fairy
+fingers' are impatient to commence their magical preparations for our
+comfort."
+
+He spoke sadly; though his words were half gay in their import.
+
+Very few minutes elapsed before Maurice returned, accompanied by the
+countess. She swept into the room, towering as majestically as though
+she could rise above and conquer all the assailing army of circumstances
+arrayed against her.
+
+Madeleine made a movement toward the door.
+
+"Remain! I wish to speak to you, Mademoiselle de Gramont," cried the
+countess in her most icy tone.
+
+"Permit me first to request Miss Thornton to watch beside Count Tristan.
+He ought not to be left alone."
+
+Madeleine had been more thoughtful of the patient than his mother, and
+the latter could not detain her.
+
+"Are you positive that your father cannot be moved? I am not convinced
+that it is out of the question."
+
+The countess addressed these words to Maurice.
+
+"The physician has just declared that the risk would be too great. That
+question, then, is definitely settled. It only remains for you to say
+how far you will accept Madeleine's hospitable proposition."
+
+"_Hospitable!_ Do not talk of _hospitality_ but of _degradation!_ What
+will be said when it is known that Count Tristan de Gramont was
+sheltered, during his illness, by his _mantua-maker relative!_--his
+_tradeswoman niece!_ There is only one condition upon which I can be
+forced to consent."
+
+Here Madeleine reëntered, and the countess accosted her.
+
+"Mademoiselle de Gramont, the tide of fortune has, for the moment, set
+against our ill-fated house, and our humiliation can scarcely be more
+complete. You are aware that the physician you have employed (and with
+whom I trust you are not in league) says that my son cannot be removed
+without danger."
+
+"Yes, madame, and I hope Maurice has communicated the suggestion which I
+have hesitatingly, but very gladly, made for your accommodation."
+
+"He has done so," replied the countess, with undiminished stateliness.
+"As for myself, it is asking too much,--it is an impossibility that I
+should stoop to take up my abode here; but, while my son lies in his
+present state, which I am told is alarming (though I believe I am
+misinformed), I, as his mother, should feel bound to visit him though it
+were in a pest-house. Your offer is declined for myself and Mademoiselle
+de Merrivale. Maurice gives me to understand that he considers his place
+to be by his father's side, night and day; therefore for him it will be
+accepted upon certain conditions; upon these only can I allow my son and
+grandson to remain beneath your roof."
+
+"Name them, madame. I will promptly, joyfully comply with your wishes if
+it be in my power to do so."
+
+"You will immediately close your establishment, that none of the
+transactions of the trade which has sullied your rank may go on within
+these walls; and you will at once make known to the public your intended
+nuptials with Lord Linden."
+
+"I never had the remotest intention, madame, of becoming the wife of
+Lord Linden."
+
+"Has he not offered you his hand?"
+
+"Yes, and but for the accident which has wholly diverted my thoughts, he
+would have received a distinct refusal before now."
+
+"What reason can you advance for declining so eligible an offer?"
+
+"The same I gave at the Château de Gramont, nearly five years ago. My
+affections belong to another."
+
+Madeleine spoke with fervor, as though she experienced a deep joy in
+thus proclaiming her constancy. Maurice, with a stifled sigh, turned
+from her, and pretended to be gazing at the flowers in the conservatory.
+
+"And may we, at last, be favored," demanded the countess, scornfully,
+"with the name of this unknown lover, who has been able to inspire you
+with such a rare and romantic amount of constancy?"
+
+"It is one, madame, I cannot now mention with any more propriety than I
+could have done years ago."
+
+"Then it must be one of which you are ashamed! But how can I doubt that?
+Has he not allowed you to become a tradeswoman? Has not the whole affair
+been a disgraceful and clandestine one? You may well refuse to mention
+his name! It can only be one which your family can object to hear."
+
+"You are right in one respect, madame: it is one which they object to
+hear; but, as I shall never be the wife of any other man,--yet never, in
+all probability, the wife of _that one_,--let the subject of marriage be
+set aside. In regard to closing this establishment, you are hardly
+aware, madame, what you request. It would not be in my power to close it
+suddenly, granting that I had the will to do so. I should not merely
+throw out of employment some fifty struggling women, who are at present
+occupied here, but would prevent my keeping faith in fulfilling
+engagements already made. I will not dwell upon the great personal loss
+that it would be to me. I should be glad to believe you are convinced of
+the impossibility of my complying with your wishes."
+
+"Do you mean to say that you actually refuse?"
+
+"I am compelled to do so; but I will exert myself to render your visits
+private. I will devise some method by which you will be entirely
+shielded from the view of those who come here on business."
+
+"You presume to think, then, that in spite of your insolent refusal, I
+will allow my son to remain here?"
+
+Madeleine felt that she could say no more, and looked beseechingly
+toward Maurice, who exclaimed,--
+
+"My father must remain here, for he cannot be removed. I gladly accept
+my cousin's kind offer, and will remain to watch beside my father.
+Bertha and yourself can continue to live at the hotel and visit him as
+often as you feel inclined."
+
+"Let me go! Let me go! I am suffocating! I stifle in this house!" burst
+forth the countess, as though she were really choking. "I cannot remain.
+Bertha, I want you. Maurice, give me your arm,--let me get away
+quickly."
+
+Maurice reconducted his grandmother to the hotel, almost without their
+exchanging a word by the way. Bertha accompanied them, but she walked
+behind with Gaston de Bois.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+MINISTRATION.
+
+
+Maurice, exasperated as he was at his grandmother's insolence to his
+cousin, well knew that any attempt to soothe Madame de Gramont, or even
+to reconcile her to the inevitable, would be fruitless. Her domineering
+spirit could not bow itself to be governed, even by the pressure of
+inexorable circumstance; she strove to control events by ignoring their
+existence, and to break the force of her calamity by encasing herself in
+an iron mail of resistance, which, she thought, no blows could
+penetrate. This was her state when she hastened to her own chamber, and
+was about to lock herself in, under the conviction that she could shut
+out the phantom of misery which seemed to dog her steps.
+
+"I will return this evening, and let you know how my father progresses,"
+said Maurice, as she was closing the door.
+
+She reopened it without moving her hand from the silver knob. "Then you
+persist in going back to that house?"
+
+"Would you have me leave my father without a son's care? I shall remain
+at Madeleine's while it is necessary for my father to stay there."
+
+Maurice spoke with a decision that admitted no argument.
+
+The countess shut her door, and the sound of the turned key was
+distinctly audible. How she passed the succeeding hours no one knew; she
+was not heard to move; she answered no knock; she took no notice of
+Bertha's petition that her dinner might be brought to her; she was not
+again seen until the next morning.
+
+There is no proverb truer than the one which suggests that even an ill
+wind blows some one good. Bertha was the gainer by her aunt's seclusion:
+she had full liberty, and for a large portion of the time she did not
+enjoy her freedom _alone_.
+
+Madeleine had been actively employed during the absence of Maurice. Her
+first step was to send for an upholsterer. Other arrangements followed
+which quickly converted the drawing-room into a comfortable bed-room.
+She herself proposed to take such rest as she found needful upon the
+sofa in her boudoir.
+
+The upholsterer had arrived, and Madeleine had no little difficulty in
+making him comprehend her plan of completely shutting off the staircase
+which led to the exhibition and working rooms above, by means of
+drapery. She had felt bound thus far to consult the countess' desire for
+privacy. A separate entrance from the street was out of the question,
+but the draperies were to be disposed in such a manner that the instant
+Madame de Gramont and her family passed the threshold they were
+completely secluded.
+
+Madeleine was standing in the hall giving her orders, when Maurice
+reappeared. Finding her occupied, he passed on to his father's chamber.
+
+It was now six o'clock. Dinner was served for three persons. Madeleine
+summoned her housekeeper and requested her to watch beside Count Tristan
+while his son dined.
+
+On entering the count's room Madeleine assured herself that there was no
+change in the patient's condition, and then said, "Come, Ruth, dinner is
+served; come, Maurice, if you assume the office of _garde malade_, I
+must take care that your strength is not exhausted."
+
+Her cheerfulness dispelled some of the heavy gloom that hung about
+Maurice, and he rose and followed her. She led the way through the
+apartment which had been the drawing-room, and pointing to the bed,
+said,--
+
+"That is for you; this is your bed-chamber."
+
+"Mine? I do not expect to need a bed; I mean to sit up with my father."
+
+"Yes, to-night; but not every night," she added, with playful
+imperativeness. "I shall not allow _that_, and you see I have taken the
+reins into my own hands, and show that a little of the de Gramont love
+of rule has descended to me with its blood."
+
+They entered the dining-room. Maurice was struck by the air of combined
+simplicity and elegance which characterized all the appointments. The
+dinner, too, was simple, but well-cooked. Maurice had no appetite at
+first, but was soon lured to eat,--everything placed before him appeared
+so inviting. Then, it was delightful to see Madeleine sitting quietly
+opposite to him, looking even lovelier than she did in those happy,
+happy, by-gone days in the ancient château! Ruth's pretty and pleasant
+countenance at another time might have been an addition; but we fear
+that Maurice at that moment, did not appreciate the presence of a very
+modest and attractive young girl who reflected in her own person not a
+few of Madeleine's virtues. The repast was of brief duration; but
+Madeleine was the one who partook of it most sparingly. She enjoyed so
+much seeing Maurice eat that she could not follow his example.
+
+Maurice and Madeleine returned to Count Tristan's apartment together.
+Soon after, Dr. Bayard paid another visit, but expressed no opinion.
+Maurice went back to the hotel to keep his promise to his grandmother.
+There was no response when he knocked at her door; no reply, though he
+spoke to her, that she might hear his voice and know who was there.
+
+Bertha and Gaston were sitting together. Albeit the conversation in
+which they were engaged appeared to be singularly absorbing, the latter
+said,--
+
+"Do you return immediately to Mademoiselle Madeleine's? If so, I will
+accompany you; and, as I suppose you will watch beside your father, we
+will sit up together."
+
+Maurice assented and they set forth; that is, as soon as Bertha, who
+detained them, first upon one plea and then upon another, would permit.
+
+But when Madeleine learned Gaston's friendly proposition, she answered,
+"We shall not need you. Maurice is hardly experienced enough for me to
+trust him just yet. I intend to sit up to-night; to-morrow night Maurice
+must rest, at least part of the night, and then, M. de Bois, we will be
+glad to claim you as a watcher."
+
+There was no appeal from Madeleine's decision. She exerted a mild
+authority which was too potent for argument.
+
+After Gaston departed, Madeleine, for a brief space, left Maurice alone
+with his father. When she stole back to her place at the head of the
+bed, she was attired in a white cambric wrapper, lightly girded at the
+waist; a blue shawl of some soft material fell in graceful folds about
+her form. She had entered with such a soundless step, that when Maurice
+saw her sitting before him, he started, and his breath grew labored, as
+though, for a second, he fancied that he gazed upon some unreal shape.
+The flowing white drapery, and the delicate azure folds of the shawl
+helped the illusion, which her musical voice would scarcely have
+dispelled, but for the sense of reality produced by the words she
+uttered.
+
+"It is just eleven; that is the hour at which the medicine was to be
+given."
+
+She took up the cup and administered a spoonful of its contents, before
+Maurice had quite recovered himself.
+
+The silence which followed did not last long. Madeleine began to
+question Maurice concerning his life in America, his opinions, his
+experiences, the people he had known and esteemed; and he responded, in
+subdued tones, by a long narrative of past events.
+
+It was the first time that Maurice had been called upon to watch beside
+a bed of sickness, and his was one of those vivacious temperaments to
+which sleep is so indispensable that an overpowering somnolence will
+fling its charms about the senses, and bear the spirit away captive,
+even in the soul's most unwilling moments. Five o'clock had struck when
+Madeleine perceived that her companion's eyes had grown heavy, and that
+he was making a desperate struggle to keep them open. With womanly tact
+she leaned her elbow on the bed, and rested her forehead on her hand, in
+such a manner that her face was concealed, and thus avoided any further
+conversation. In less than ten minutes, the sound of clear but regular
+breathing apprised her that Maurice had fallen asleep.
+
+When she looked up, at first timidly, but soon with security, Maurice
+was lying back in his arm-chair--his hands were calmly folded together,
+his head drooped a little to one side, the rich chestnut curls (for his
+hair had darkened until it no longer resembled Bertha's golden locks)
+were disordered, and fully revealed his fair, intellectual brow; the
+pallor of his face rendered more than usually conspicuous the chiselling
+of his finely-cut features; the calm, half-smiling curve of his
+handsome mouth gave his whole countenance an expression of placid
+happiness which it had not worn, of late, in waking hours. Madeleine sat
+and gazed at him as she could never have gazed when his eyes might have
+met hers; she gazed until her whole soul flashed into her face; and if
+Maurice had awakened, and caught but one glimpse of the fervent radiance
+of that look, he would surely have known her secret.
+
+There is intense fascination to a woman in scanning the face that to her
+is beyond all others worth perusing, when the soft breath of sleep
+renders the beloved object unconscious of the eyes bent tenderly upon
+his features. No check is given to the flood of worshipping love that
+pours itself out from her soul; then, and perhaps _then only_, in his
+presence, she allows the tide of pent-up adoration to break down all its
+natural barriers. However perfect her devotion at other times, there
+_may_, there always _does_ exist a half-involuntary _reticence_, a
+secret fear that if even her eyes were to betray the whole wealth of her
+passion, it would not be well with her. Men are constitutionally,
+unconsciously _ungrateful_; give them abundance of what they covet most
+and they prize the gift less highly than if its measure were stinted.
+And women have an instinct that warns them not to be too lavish. Those
+women who love most fervently, most deeply, most _internally_, seldom
+frame the full strength of that love into words, or manifest it in looks
+even; that is, in the waking presence of the one who holds their entire
+being captive.
+
+Maurice slept on, though the streets had long since become noisy, and
+door-bells were ringing, and there was a sound of hammering in the entry
+(the upholsterer at work), and steps could be distinguished passing up
+and down the stair.
+
+Madeleine, who at one period of her life had been used to night vigils,
+hardly felt fatigued; but she knew that she must hoard her strength if
+she would have it last to meet prolonged requirements. She touched
+Maurice softly; but he was not aroused until she had made several
+efforts to break his slumber. He looked about him in bewilderment, and
+then at the white-robed figure before him as though it were an
+apparition.
+
+"It is I, and no ghost," said Madeleine. "The morning has come; go and
+lie down for a couple of hours to refresh yourself,--I will do the same.
+Mrs. Lawkins will stay with your father."
+
+"Have I really been asleep?" asked Maurice, in a tone of mortification.
+"Asleep, while you were waking? What a stupid brute I am!"
+
+"Have brutes easy consciences? for that is said to be man's best
+lullaby. You must consider yourself still subject to my orders. Go and
+lie down. You shall be called to breakfast at nine o'clock; that will
+give you two hours' rest. As for me, I shall fall asleep in a few
+moments."
+
+Maurice yielded.
+
+Madeleine did _not_ fall asleep quite as soon as she predicted; but,
+after a time, she sank into a refreshing slumber. At nine o'clock the
+ringing of the alarum she had taken the precaution to set, awoke her.
+She stole to Maurice's door, but had to knock several times before she
+could arouse him; he was again enjoying that blessing which he had
+lately professed to despise.
+
+"What is it? Who is there?" he cried out, at last.
+
+"It is I, Madeleine. Nine o'clock has just struck. We will breakfast as
+soon as you are ready to come into the dining-room."
+
+She returned to her boudoir and made a hasty toilet, substituting, for
+her simple white wrapper, another, somewhat richly embroidered, and
+trimmed with pale blue ribbons. We reluctantly venture upon the
+suggestion, for it would indicate a decided weakness, quite unworthy of
+Madeleine's good sense; but there is just a possibility that she
+remembered she was to breakfast once more with her lover, and her
+artistic eye selected the most becoming morning-dress in her possession.
+
+Ruth had breakfasted some hours before; Madeleine and Maurice sat down
+to table alone. In spite of the grief which lay in the depths of both
+their hearts, it must be avowed that both experienced a sense of calm
+felicity which made them shrink from contemplating the past, or looking
+forward to the future; the delicious _present_ was all sufficient.
+Maurice wondered at himself,--was almost angry with himself,--and then
+he looked across the table and wondered no longer.
+
+Madeleine was less astonished at her own pleasant emotions. Partly
+through discipline, and partly through temperament, she always caught up
+all the sunshine of the passing hour, even though she did not lose sight
+of the clouds that lay in the distant horizon. And how often the present
+beams had pierced their way through thick darkness to reach her!
+
+"Come and tell me what you think of my invention," said she, as they
+rose from the table and opened the door which led into the hall.
+
+The upholsterer had already completed his work. A crimson drapery was
+suspended from the ceiling to the ground, along the whole length of the
+entry, and entirely shut out the staircase. At the street door this
+drapery was so skilfully arranged that a person visiting the apartments
+on the first floor could, at once, pass out of sight.
+
+"Will not these curtains render this portion of the house quite
+secluded? I hope they will make your grandmother feel less aversion to
+coming here."
+
+"What resources you have, Madeleine! And how kindly you employ your
+fertile ingenuity! _Who_ would have thought of such an arrangement?"
+
+"Why _any one_ who took the trouble to sit down and think about the
+matter at all! Possibly some people might not have been in the habit of
+exercising their ingenuity enough to do that; but _any one_ who took the
+trouble to reflect how the desired object could be accomplished would
+have seen the difficulties melt away."
+
+"Under the touch of 'Fairy Fingers,'" returned Maurice, admiringly.
+
+"Ah, that is an old superstition of yours which you have not quite
+outlived. Will you not go to your grandmother now? She may be expecting
+you, and must be anxious for news."
+
+"She showed great anxiety last night," replied Maurice, bitterly.
+
+"Maurice, we have no right to judge her! Unless we ourselves have
+experienced her sensations, we cannot even comprehend her state. Speak
+to her this morning as though you had parted in all affection yesterday;
+and bring her here, if you can. For her own sake try to bring her."
+
+Shortly after Maurice left, Madeleine received another letter from Lord
+Linden. Finding that she did not reply to the first, he had called upon
+her twice on the day previous; but, greatly to his mortification, had
+been denied. Later in the day, his wounded vanity was somewhat soothed
+by learning the calamity which had befallen Count Tristan, at
+Madeleine's house; though his lordship could hardly deem even such an
+event sufficient excuse for her tardiness in replying to a letter of so
+much importance. In reality, Madeleine had entirely forgotten her suitor
+and his letter. She glanced hastily over his second epistle, and,
+without further delay, wrote a few frigid lines conveying a definite
+refusal of the proposed honor with which he had followed his proposition
+of dishonor.
+
+It is needless to describe Lord Linden's emotions when this response
+reached him. Madeleine's language was so cuttingly cold, yet so full of
+dignity, that he could only curse the rash blindness which could have
+permitted him to make dishonorable advances to such a woman. He ordered
+his trunk to be packed, and left Washington by that afternoon's train.
+
+Bertha had not seen Madame de Gramont from the time she locked herself
+in her chamber until the breakfast hour, next day. The maid Mademoiselle
+de Merrivale brought with her from Paris was in the habit of attending
+the countess as punctiliously as she did her own mistress; but her
+services were, for the first time, dispensed with on the night previous.
+Bertha was oppressed by a vaguely uncomfortable sensation when she
+entered the room where breakfast awaited her, and found the apartment
+vacant. In a few moments the countess entered.
+
+How frightfully old she had grown in a single night! Her step, which
+used to be so firm and measured, was feeble, uncertain, and heavy.
+Sixty-six years had not bowed her straight shoulders; but now they
+stooped. The blow of an iron hand had bent them at last! Her features
+had grown sharp and hard, and the lines looked as though they had been
+cut to twice their usual depth; the mouth appeared to have fallen, the
+corners pressing downward; one might have thought that tears had scalded
+away the lustre and dimmed the vision of the dark eyes that yesterday
+flashed with such steel-like brilliancy. The soft, white locks, that
+were usually arranged with so much skill, hung partially uncurled, and
+scarcely smoothed about her face, adding to the desolation of her whole
+appearance.
+
+Bertha was impressed with greater awe than she had ever experienced
+toward her aunt in the latter's most imperious moments; yet the young
+girl mustered courage to advance and embrace her,--more timidly,
+perhaps, but also more tenderly than was her wont. The countess
+permitted her own cold lips to sweep Bertha's forehead; but they could
+hardly be said to press upon it a kiss.
+
+As they sat at table, Bertha, whose tongue had a gift for prattling,
+could not make an effort to speak. The countess had not tasted food
+since the light, noonday repast of the day previous, yet she now
+swallowed her cup of coffee as though it nearly choked her, and tried,
+in vain, to force down a few morsels of bread. Nothing would have
+induced her to depart from the custom of her country where coffee and
+bread are considered all-sufficient for the first meal.
+
+They had returned to the drawing-room when Maurice entered. The countess
+greeted him with an inclination of the head, but asked no questions.
+
+"My father seems to be in the same state," said he. "There was no change
+during the night; he does not appear to suffer; but, as yet, he is not
+conscious."
+
+Madame de Gramont made no reply, but her breast visibly heaved.
+
+"Did you sit up?" asked Bertha. "Are you not very much fatigued? Did
+Madeleine watch also? Is she not very weary?"
+
+"Not very; nor am I." Then he turned to his grandmother. "Will you come
+with me to see my father? You will find that every arrangement possible
+has been made for your privacy."
+
+The lips of the countess curled scornfully, but she rose and passed into
+her chamber.
+
+"I must make ready also," cried Bertha, flying out of the room. "I am so
+glad that we are to go."
+
+She returned wearing her bonnet and mantle. It was sometime before the
+countess reëntered, prepared to depart.
+
+Maurice had ordered a carriage, and they were soon at Madeleine's door.
+
+If the countess noticed the draperies which closed off a portion of the
+house, she gave no sign of doing so.
+
+Madeleine was sitting beside Count Tristan, but rose to yield her place
+to his mother. Madame de Gramont only betrayed that she was aware of her
+niece's presence by a slight movement of the head, while her eyes looked
+past her toward the passive figure lying on the bed. She took the vacant
+seat with a sort of frozen quietude, and her limbs seemed to settle
+themselves rigidly into positions where they remained immovable.
+
+Madeleine at once retired, knowing that her presence must be galling to
+the proud relative whom circumstance thus forced into contact with her;
+nor did she reënter the room again while the countess was there. Maurice
+remained with his father and grandmother, but Bertha stole away to
+Madeleine's boudoir.
+
+M. de Bois, who had called to inquire after the count, and to know of
+what service he could be, found the cousins together. Madeleine, whose
+wealth of energy rendered idleness, when it could be avoided, another
+name for weariness, had seated herself at her desk, and was making
+sketches for Ruth to copy. Bertha sat beside her, destroying pencils in
+her awkward attempt to sharpen them. Madeleine did not desist from her
+occupation, but Bertha's was quickly at an end.
+
+She and her lover conversed for a while; then Gaston offered to show her
+Madeleine's conservatory, and then they passed into the garden. What
+wonder that they found unknown charms in the opening flowers! Was it not
+a spring morning? And was there not spring in their hearts? Was it not
+life's blossoming season with them?
+
+At noon luncheon was served; and Madeleine, in remembrance of her
+guests, had given such especial instructions to Mrs. Lawkins that the
+luncheon closely resembled the _déjeuner à la fourchette_ served at that
+hour in France. As Bertha was still in the garden, Madeleine passed into
+the conservatory and called her.
+
+"Will you not go in, Bertha, and see if you can induce the countess to
+accompany you and Maurice to the dining-room? Say that I will remain
+with Count Tristan while they take luncheon."
+
+Bertha went on her errand, but quickly returned with Maurice.
+
+"My aunt does not seem disposed to eat."
+
+In reality Bertha had received no answer from the countess. Did
+Madeleine expect that Madame de Gramont would break bread under her
+roof? The haughty aristocrat would sooner have perished of hunger.
+
+"Then we will go to table together," replied the hostess, disappointed,
+in spite of herself. "M. de Bois, you will join us?"
+
+The meal passed off very quietly, but very pleasantly. Bertha and Gaston
+were happy enough in each other to have thought a repast of bread and
+cheese a banquet. Maurice could not but be penetrated by the charm of
+sharing Madeleine's home; and, at table, where she presided with such
+graceful ease, he never forgot that it was in _her_ home he was
+dwelling. Madeleine herself could not gaze upon the little circle of
+beloved ones, from whom she had been so long separated, and who were now
+so singularly drawn around her, without feeling supremely happy. In the
+midst of sorrow there are often given, to soften and render it
+endurable, passing flashes of absolute joy.
+
+When they rose from table Maurice returned to his father's chamber. His
+grandmother still sat erect and statue-like in her chair as though she
+had not moved.
+
+The hours flew by only too rapidly with Bertha, however they might have
+dragged in the sick-chamber. M. de Bois, also, must have lost all
+consciousness of time, for he did not propose to take his departure, and
+could Madeleine, even by a hint, dismiss him from her own house?
+
+"Past five o'clock," said she, looking up from her drawing. "Bertha,
+pray ask Maurice to come to me."
+
+When Maurice obeyed the summons, Madeleine remarked, showing him her
+watch, "You see how late it is; I fear the countess will become
+exhausted for want of food. It is in vain to hope that she could be
+induced to dine here; had you not better conduct her home and return?"
+
+"Yes, certainly; it would be the wisest plan; how thoughtful you are!"
+
+"Shall I send for a carriage? I fear she would not enter mine, or I
+would order that."
+
+"I suppose not; it is wonderful to what cruel and inconsistent length
+she carries her pride."
+
+"It is not our place, Maurice, to measure its length or analyze its
+workings. There is Robert in the hall; tell him to call a carriage."
+
+When the carriage arrived, the countess, Bertha and Maurice, drove away
+together.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+RECOGNITION.
+
+
+With electric rapidity flashed the news through Washington that
+Mademoiselle Melanie, the fashionable dressmaker, was a lady of rank,--a
+heroine,--a being hardly inferior to those disguised princesses who
+figure in popular fairy tales. Numberless romantic stories were
+fabricated and circulated, and the startling and improbable motives
+assigned for her incognita bore witness to the fertile imagination of
+the American public.
+
+It may well be imagined that there was but one all-engrossing theme
+discussed in the working-rooms of Mademoiselle Melanie's establishment.
+Mademoiselle Victorine was not a little disgusted when she learned that
+a secret of such moment had been so successfully concealed from her. But
+the quick-witted foreigner had too much tact to betray her ignorance by
+evincing astonishment in the presence of the _employées_, or the patrons
+of Mademoiselle Melanie. On the contrary, Mademoiselle Victorine gave
+them to understand that she had all along been the repository of
+Mademoiselle de Gramont's secrets, and knew more of her past history and
+future plans than was yet suspected.
+
+Madeleine's thoughtful kindness prompted her to make a brief explanation
+to Ruth Thornton, whom she had so long treated as a friend, or younger
+sister. Ruth was moved and gratified by the unsought confidence; but her
+genuine, up-looking veneration for Madeleine could not be increased by
+the knowledge that she was the daughter of the late Duke de Gramont.
+Madeleine concluded her narrative by saying,--
+
+"One may be very poor, and very dependent, and yet be the daughter of a
+duke; and even a duke's daughter may find it less irksome to earn her
+own bread than to eat the bread of charity."
+
+Ruth asked, tremblingly, "But now will all go on as before? Will your
+noble relatives permit you to continue your present life?"
+
+"My relatives can exert no influence which will turn me from the path I
+have chosen," replied Madeleine, divining her young _protegée's_
+thoughts. "While Count Tristan remains in my house, _you_ will act as my
+representative. When he is restored, or, rather, when he is no longer my
+guest, I shall resume my former duties."
+
+Ruth's sinking heart was lifted up by this assurance, and the cloud that
+had gathered upon her sweet face passed away, and left it as placid as
+Madeleine's own. Madeleine's tranquillizing influence over others was
+one of her most remarkable traits. She was not merely calm and
+self-possessed herself, but her presence communicated a steadfast,
+hopeful calmness that was irresistible.
+
+The _beau monde_ had decided that as Mademoiselle de Gramont's family
+had claimed her, she would unhesitatingly abandon her humble occupation,
+and assume her legitimate position in the social sphere; and great were
+the lamentations over the noble _couturière's_ supposed abdication of
+her throne.
+
+The next question to be settled was whether her former patrons should
+recognize and visit her as an equal, ignoring their previous
+acquaintance. Madame de Fleury was the first to reply to that query. We
+will not make ourselves responsible for the assertion that she was
+prompted by purely disinterested motives, and the unqualified admiration
+with which Mademoiselle Melanie had long since inspired her. It is _just
+possible_ that other incentives had their weight in her light head, and
+that believing herself about to be deprived of the inventive genius
+which had rendered her toilet the glory and delight of her life, she
+might have determined to preserve Mademoiselle Melanie's friendship that
+she might secure her advice on all important occasions. Be that as it
+may, Madame de Fleury immediately left cards for Mademoiselle de
+Gramont, and her example was followed by the Countess Orlowski, and a
+host of other ladies, who conscientiously walked in her footsteps.
+
+The morning of the third day after Count Tristan's seizure passed much
+in the same manner as the second. Maurice conducted his grandmother and
+Bertha to Madeleine's residence. The countess was as silent, as frigid,
+as immovable as before. She took the same seat, kept the same unbent
+position, appeared to be as completely abstracted from what was passing
+around her, as on the day previous. Madeleine absented herself, and
+Bertha soon stole to her side. M. de Bois, whose vigils, it appeared,
+had not fatigued him sufficiently for extra repose to be requisite,
+joined them at an early hour.
+
+About noon, Maurice hastily entered Madeleine's boudoir and said, "I
+think there is some change in my father; his face is much paler and his
+eyes appear to be wandering about with a faint sign of consciousness;
+the motion of his right hand is restored, for he has lifted it several
+times. Pray come to him, Madeleine."
+
+"I only banished myself in the fear that my presence would not be
+agreeable to the countess," replied Madeleine. "Do you think it will not
+now pain her to see me?"
+
+"I cannot tell, but you _must_ come."
+
+Madeleine obeyed.
+
+The countess had risen and was bending over the bed.
+
+"My son! Tristan, my son! do you not hear your mother?" she cried, in a
+hollow, unnatural voice.
+
+His eyes still gazed restlessly about, with a helpless, hopeless,
+supplicating look.
+
+"My dear father," said Maurice, taking the hand which the count had
+again lifted and let fall.
+
+No sign of recognition followed.
+
+"What do you think of his state, Madeleine? Is he not better?"
+
+His cousin softly drew near, and taking in her own the hand Maurice had
+dropped, said, "You know us, Count Tristan, do you not?"
+
+His eyes, as though drawn by her voice, turned quickly, and fastened
+themselves upon her face; his hands made a nervous clutch, his lips
+moved, but the sounds were thick and indistinct, yet the first syllable
+of her name was audible to all.
+
+"Do not try to speak," said Madeleine, soothingly; "you have been very
+ill; you are still weak; do not endeavor to make any exertion."
+
+He continued to look at her beseechingly, and to clasp her hand more and
+more tightly,--so tightly that it gave her positive pain, and his
+quivering lips again made a fruitless effort to utter her name.
+
+"Tristan, my son!" exclaimed the countess, motioning Madeleine to move
+aside.
+
+Madeleine attempted to obey, but could not release her hand from its
+imprisonment.
+
+Count Tristan did not appear to hear, or rather to recognize the voice
+of his mother, although she continued to address him in a loud tone, and
+to beg, almost to command, him to listen to her. Maurice also spoke to
+him, but without making any impression on his mind. There was no meaning
+in his gaze when it rested on the faces of either; but his eyes, the
+instant they fell upon Madeleine's countenance, grew less glassy, more
+_living_, and through them the darkened soul looked dimly out.
+
+Whatever might have been the internal sufferings of the countess, they
+did not conquer her stoicism. She resumed her seat, and her lips were
+again sealed; their close compression and ashy hue alone told that the
+torture of the mental rack upon which she was stretched had been
+augmented.
+
+As soon as Madeleine felt the count's hand relaxing its firm grasp, she
+withdrew hers, though he made a faint attempt to detain her. As she
+retired from the bed, his eyes followed her, and his lips moved again.
+
+"You are not going, Madeleine?" questioned Maurice. "My father evidently
+knows you,--wants you near him; you are the only one he recognizes; do
+not leave us!"
+
+Was that low, stifled sound which reached their ears, in spite of the
+firmly-compressed lips of the countess, an inward sob or groan?
+
+As Madeleine sat down, Dr. Bayard entered. Maurice related what had
+passed, and the doctor requested Madeleine to address the patient. That
+he made an effort to reply was unmistakable. Dr. Bayard then spoke to
+the count, but without attracting his attention. He desired Maurice to
+accost him, but no better result ensued. He signified to the countess
+that she should do the same; but the agony of beholding her son
+recognize, cling to one toward whom she entertained the bitterest
+enmity, while the voice of his mother--his mother who loved him with all
+the strength of her proud nature--was unheeded, became intolerable. She
+rose up, not quickly, but with all her wonted stateliness, and with a
+firm and measured pace walked out of the room. She had no definite
+purpose,--she did not know where she was going, or where she wished to
+go,--but she could not abide the sight forced upon her eyes in that
+chamber.
+
+"Maurice, attend your grandmother," whispered Madeleine.
+
+Maurice had not thought of stirring, but he rose and opened the door of
+the adjoining room.
+
+"Leave me! I would be alone!" said the countess, as he entered.
+
+He returned to his father's side.
+
+Dr. Bayard was giving his orders to Madeleine. A crisis had just passed,
+he said. Count Tristan was better; there was reason to hope that he
+would recover. One side was still paralyzed and there was partial
+paralysis of the tongue. His mind, too, was in a torpid state, but might
+gradually awaken. As Madeleine was the person whom he recognized, it
+would be well for her to remain near him and minister to his wants.
+Madeleine was more than content.
+
+An hour passed and the countess did not return to her son's bedside.
+Maurice, at Madeleine's suggestion, ventured to intrude upon her. She
+appeared to be lost in a deep revery, and did not raise her eyes at his
+approach.
+
+"I fear you are not well, my grandmother; will you not allow me to
+conduct you home?"
+
+"I am _well_," she answered bitterly, "but I will go. My presence is of
+no use here; my own son ignores it!"
+
+She spoke as though the invalid had refused to recognize her for the
+express purpose of adding a fresh insult to those which an evil fortune,
+a malicious chance (to use her own expressions), had heaped upon her
+head.
+
+Without again visiting her son's chamber, she entered the carriage which
+Maurice had ordered; he took his seat opposite to her, and neither
+remembered, until they entered the hotel, that Bertha was left behind.
+
+"I was thinking so much of my poor father that I quite forgot Bertha,"
+he said, apologetically. "I will return for her at once."
+
+"Yes, go, go!" was all the countess replied.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+UNBOWED.
+
+
+Maurice did not suspect how Bertha was employed at that moment, and how
+much his heart would have had cause to rejoice if she proved successful
+in her undertaking. She was so happy herself in her betrothed that she
+was possessed by a strong desire to make some effort by which a like
+felicity might be secured to Madeleine. It had been one of the
+day-dreams of Bertha's girlhood that she and Madeleine should receive
+their wedding rings in the same hour. Gaston was entreating his
+_fiancée_ to name a period, even though it might be some months hence
+(only a few days before, we think, he declared himself content with
+knowing that he might hope for this crowning joy _at the most distant
+date_), when he might call her his.
+
+Bertha replied, tantalizingly, "The time depends upon Madeleine, not
+upon me. She must name the day."
+
+"May she, indeed?" asked M. de Bois, joyfully, for he was convinced that
+he could influence Madeleine's decision.
+
+"Yes, she will name it in naming the day for her own wedding. I have
+always intended that we should be married together."
+
+M. de Bois's countenance fell.
+
+"But Mademoiselle Madeleine is not even engaged."
+
+"Is she not? Are you sure?"
+
+"Quite sure," returned Gaston.
+
+"But she loves some one,--does she not?" questioned Bertha, artfully.
+
+"She has said she did," was the cautious response.
+
+"Then, if she loves some one, we have only to find out who it is and
+bring them together, and get them to understand each other, and help
+them to fix the day. Would not that be charming?"
+
+"Yes, very," replied M. de Bois; but he sighed as he spoke, remembering
+how improbable it was that anything of the kind would take place.
+
+Bertha had a suspicion that he must have some knowledge of Madeleine's
+mysterious lover, and her idea of the perfect confidence that ought to
+exist not only between husband and wife, but a lover and his betrothed
+bride, would of itself have been sufficient inducement to make her
+endeavor to discover the secret.
+
+"You have been near Madeleine all these years that she has been lost to
+us."
+
+"Yes, happily for _me_; and if she can only say happily for _her_, I
+should be proud as well as thankful."
+
+"She does,--I am sure she does say so," responded Bertha,
+affectionately. "What could she have done without you? It was because
+you were so much to Madeleine that you became so much to--to--that is
+so--so--I mean"--
+
+Many a sentence of Gaston's had she finished when his words became
+entangled through confusion; it was but a fair return for him to
+conclude this one of hers, though perhaps he did so in a manner that
+added to her embarrassment.
+
+Bertha recovered herself, and shook back her curls as though they were
+in fault. Then looking up archly in Gaston's face she said,--
+
+"And if I wanted an excuse for what I have done, could I have found a
+better?"
+
+"Not easily," returned the delighted lover, "and I excuse you for a
+piece of bad taste which has rendered me the happiest and proudest of
+men."
+
+"But we were talking of Madeleine," persisted Bertha; "you know every
+one whom she knows,--do you not?"
+
+"What, all her patrons? Heaven forbid!"
+
+"No,--no,--you are very tantalizing,--I did not mean those. I mean the
+persons who visit her: you know them all?"
+
+"Most of them, I believe."
+
+"Then you must be acquainted with this invisible lover of hers!"
+
+Now was M. de Bois puzzled. Bertha saw the advantage she had gained.
+
+"You must have seen him,--you must know all about him,--and _I must
+know_ also. Not to satisfy my curiosity,--do not imagine _that!_--I am
+not in the least curious; but because I want to assist Madeleine. I want
+to judge whether nothing can be done to bring about her union with him."
+
+"Nothing,--I fear, nothing," replied M. de Bois, sadly.
+
+"Then you _do_ know who he is? There, you have admitted that you did!"
+
+"Are you laying snares for me, then, sweet Bertha? But I shall not let
+you exult over my falling into one of these well-laid traps. I only said
+I feared nothing could be done to bring about Mademoiselle Madeleine's
+union with any one."
+
+"But you know whom she loves?"
+
+"She has never told me."
+
+"But you at least _suspect_?"
+
+"What right have I to _suspect_? And you know I am _dull_,--I did not
+even suspect _whom_ her cousin Bertha loved."
+
+Bertha hung her head for a moment, but quickly returned to the attack.
+
+"Tell me, at least, whom you think Madeleine _prefers_."
+
+"I have no right to do that,--it would not be fair to Mademoiselle
+Madeleine,--she would never forgive me!"
+
+"Ah, then you and I may have secrets from each other? That is the
+inference I shall draw if you refuse," said Bertha, provokingly.
+
+This was a most distasteful suggestion to Gaston, who had a masculine
+touch of jealousy in his composition,--just enough to make him desire to
+monopolize Bertha _entirely_. He was not willing that she should have a
+thought which she could not communicate to him; to hide anything from
+him was to rob him! Was his an exceptional case, or are men in general
+as _exigeant_?
+
+"Well, you do not answer?" Bertha observed.
+
+"I should be grieved if I had not your _whole_ confidence, now and
+ever," he replied.
+
+"So shall I be if I have not yours. Should one exact more than one is
+willing to give? Tell me who it is that you suspect Madeleine of loving.
+Tell me at once!"
+
+"I cannot,--I have no right!"
+
+"I think you have no right to withhold the knowledge from me."
+
+"I think so too," answered Gaston, sorely perplexed; "and yet I must not
+tell you! Will you not be generous enough to pity me, and ask me no
+more?"
+
+Bertha only pouted at this appeal; but Gaston must have found some means
+of soothing her, for, by and by, she said, coquettishly,--
+
+"Of course, I only wanted to know on Madeleine's account and on yours."
+
+"_Mine?_" exclaimed Gaston.
+
+"Yes, _yours_; because if I had discovered who this lover was, I might
+have given him some valuable hints, and all might come right very
+quickly; as it is, you may have to wait a long time for a bride."
+
+"I? Why, I am not Mademoiselle Madeleine's lover!"
+
+"No, but you are very dependent upon him. You cannot encircle your
+bride's finger with a wedding-ring until he passes one on the taper
+finger of his."
+
+"Bertha, that is unreasonable!" remonstrated Gaston.
+
+"All the more womanly! Of course it is unreasonable; I never laid claim
+to being _reasonable_; but, on the other hand, I am obstinate. When
+Madeleine names the day for her marriage she names the day for mine."
+
+"But if she should never marry, and that is possible."
+
+"Then _I never shall!_" said Bertha, with a petulant little air of
+determination which looked only too real.
+
+M. de Bois had no opportunity at that moment to test the effect of his
+newly-acquired eloquence, for Maurice entered.
+
+"Bertha, will you believe that I have escorted my grandmother home and
+actually forgotten you? The carriage waits, and I am deputed to see you
+safely to the hotel."
+
+"Do you suppose I shall accept as an escort one who thought me of too
+little importance to bear me in mind?" asked Bertha, who was not wanting
+in feminine tact, that sixth sense of womanhood, which becomes
+wonderfully quickened when love sharpens the faculties.
+
+Gaston joined in; "My dear fellow, you could scarcely hope to be treated
+civilly after such a confession. But I will do my utmost to relieve you
+in this unpleasant predicament. Mademoiselle Bertha refuses you as an
+escort--but, as she cannot return alone, I will take your place."
+
+"And you may dismiss your carriage," returned Bertha. "I prefer to
+walk."
+
+"And you really will not let me accompany you?" asked Maurice. "What
+will my grandmother say?"
+
+"No doubt we shall hear _that_ when we reach the hotel," was the young
+lady's saucy reply.
+
+But they did _not_ hear; for the countess had closed her door, and did
+not open it again until she summoned Adolphine to undress her.
+
+The watchers beside Count Tristan that night were Madeleine and Maurice.
+The count was somewhat restless and often muttered unintelligible words;
+but he continued to recognize Madeleine and seemed pleased to have her
+near him. Maurice did not fall asleep again; he and Madeleine talked, in
+whispers, the whole night through, with the exception of those brief
+intervals when the count was awake. The themes of conversation were so
+abundant, so self-increasing, there was always so much which remained
+untold, that the topics of interest appeared to be inexhaustible.
+
+Madeleine had given orders that Ruth and Mrs. Lawkins should commence
+their watch at five o'clock; but she could hardly believe that hour had
+arrived when the housekeeper entered, followed by Ruth. Maurice declared
+that he was not in the slightest degree fatigued, or sleepy, and did not
+need rest; but Madeleine, with smiling imperativeness, ordered him to
+bed; and certainly Maurice, when he obeyed, slept remarkably sound for a
+man who was not in the least fatigued or sleepy, and who was inclined to
+battle against sleep because he could not bear to lose the consciousness
+of being beneath the same roof as the one so long loved, so long and
+vainly sought; and because it was a joy inexpressible to lie still and
+think over all the words she had just uttered, and to picture her face
+until it seemed actually before him. Yet, in spite of this delightful
+occupation, inexorable sleep would suddenly fling her mantle over his
+senses, and even refused to grant him the happiness of continuing his
+blissful dreams in her own realm.
+
+Maurice sought his grandmother the next morning, at the usual hour, and
+carried her the tidings that Count Tristan moved his limbs more freely,
+and that he had even spoken several words which could be comprehended.
+She gave no sign of preparing to accompany her grandson, and, after
+waiting awhile, he asked,--
+
+"Will you and Bertha be ready soon? It is later than usual."
+
+"I shall not go," replied the countess slowly, and as though it cost her
+a great effort to force out the words.
+
+Maurice made no remonstrance; he well knew that to endeavor to alter a
+resolution of hers would be a fruitless attempt.
+
+"And you, Bertha?" he inquired.
+
+Bertha looked toward the countess: "Perhaps you would not like me to
+leave you?"
+
+"_All leave me!_" she almost groaned out. "Why not you?"
+
+"I will stay with my aunt," replied Bertha, without hesitation.
+
+And she remained all day beside the afflicted, but ever haughty,
+countess. They did not converse, for the latter rarely spoke, even in
+answer to Bertha's questions, and Bertha could invent no mode of
+arousing and amusing her.
+
+M. de Bois, not finding Bertha at Madeleine's, came to the hotel; but
+his presence was obviously very distasteful to the countess. She did not
+withdraw, she would have suffered martyrdom (as she did) rather than
+commit the impropriety of leaving Bertha alone with her lover; but she
+sat with knitted brows, her stony eyes turned scrutinizingly upon them,
+listening to and passing judgment upon every word they uttered, and
+looking a rebuke if Bertha ventured to smile. The icy chill of such a
+presence rendered Bertha and Gaston so thoroughly uncomfortable, that
+the young girl, although she was one of those beings who could hardly
+bear to live out of the sight of those she loved best, felt relieved
+when Gaston rose and bade her adieu. His visit had been brief, yet it
+seemed longer than all the combined hours they had passed together
+during the last three days. The visage of the countess relaxed somewhat
+after Gaston had gone, but she remained lost in thought without further
+noticing her niece. Bertha was, at least, spared the nervous unrest
+produced by those piercing eyes ever upon her.
+
+Unfortunately Bertha's resources for self-diversion were of the most
+limited description. Hers was a social, a wholly dependent nature; she
+could not, like Madeleine, create her own amusement, and make her own
+occupation. She tried to read, but could not fix her attention; she
+tried to embroider, but quickly threw down her work; she could only
+wander in and out of the room, now watching at the window as though she
+expected some one; now sitting down and jumping up again; now turning
+over books and papers, and looking about for something, she did not know
+what, until she had thrown the room into complete disorder; and
+certainly her restless flitting backward and forward would have half
+distracted any one less absorbed than the countess. During one of
+Bertha's fits of contemplation at the window, she exclaimed,--
+
+"Here comes Maurice, at last! I thought he would never be here!"
+
+"I think my father is decidedly improving," said Maurice, as he entered.
+"I feel certain he recognized me to-day, and I thought he attempted to
+pronounce my name."
+
+A faint light gleamed in the eyes of the countess at these words, but it
+was quenched by those which followed.
+
+"Madeleine, he always seems to know, and he evidently likes to have her
+near him. His eyes wander after her when she leaves the room, and
+to-day, I thought he tried to smile when she returned."
+
+"He is better then; it will soon be possible to move him; he can soon
+have that care which _should_ be most acceptable to every son, and, I
+trust, has ever been to mine."
+
+The countess made this assertion proudly, in spite of the deep wound she
+had received through her son's recognition of Madeleine; she had tried
+to forget that blow, or to persuade herself that it had not been dealt.
+
+Maurice did not know what answer to make, and remained silent.
+
+"Aunt, you would not think of having cousin Tristan brought here until
+he is nearly well,--that is, well enough to walk about,--would you?"
+asked Bertha; and her accents expressed her disapproval of such an
+attempt.
+
+"He shall come the very moment that it is possible! Do you suppose that
+I would submit to his remaining where he is one instant longer than is
+absolutely necessary?"
+
+No reply to this declaration was needed or expected. Maurice returned to
+Madeleine's house with a sense of thankfulness that the count's seizure
+had taken place where it did.
+
+Gaston and the housekeeper were the watchers beside the count that
+night, taking the places of Madeleine and Maurice at midnight,--this
+exchange having now become the established rule for alternate nights.
+
+In spite of the iron-like constitution, and iron-like character of the
+countess,--in spite of her valiant, her desperate struggles,--her
+strength began to fail under the pressure of her hidden sorrow. She was
+unwilling to admit that she was subject to bodily any more than to
+mental infirmities. She belonged to that rare class described by the
+poet when he speaks of one who
+
+                         "Scarce confesses
+    That his blood flows, or that his appetite
+    Is more to bread than stone."
+
+And though she had been suffering for days from a low nervous fever,
+neither her words nor actions gave the slightest indication that she was
+not in her usual health. But, one morning, when she endeavored to rise,
+her limbs refused to support her,--her head swam,--it was with
+difficulty that she poured out a glass of water to cool her parched and
+burning lips, and she was so fearful of falling (there seemed something
+positively awful to her in the possibility of _prostration_, perhaps on
+account of the fall it typified) that she staggered back to bed and
+there remained.
+
+Neither Bertha's persuasions, nor those of Maurice, could induce her to
+allow a physician to be summoned. Maurice suggested Dr. Bayard, who was
+attending Count Tristan, but the countess was even more opposed to him
+than to any other medical attendant. Was he not aware of her
+relationship to the _mantua-maker_? Had he not seen Count Tristan
+recognize that humble and degraded relative when he did not know his own
+mother?--his own son? No,--she never allowed physicians to approach her;
+she never had need of them; she had none now, so she affirmed.
+
+Bertha was not particularly well fitted to preside in a sick-room, and
+her maid, Adolphine, was versed in the arts of the toilet alone. She
+could have made the most charming cap for an invalid, but would have
+proved particularly clumsy in smoothing a pillow for the head by which
+the cap was to be worn. Yet the countess obstinately refused to have a
+proper attendant engaged. She wanted nothing, she said, except to be
+left to herself,--not to be disturbed,--not even to be accosted.
+
+The position of Maurice grew far more painful than ever. He could no
+longer devote himself exclusively to his father. Even though he could,
+in reality, do nothing for his grandmother, yet he felt bound to pass a
+portion of the day by her side; for Bertha was too much distressed and
+too inefficient to be left with no assistance save that of her frivolous
+maid. Madeleine longed to seek her aunt, and make some few, needful
+arrangements for her comfort; but she could not doubt that her presence
+would do more harm than good. All that she could effect was to instruct
+Maurice, as far as possible, in the requirements of a sick-room, and to
+have prepared, in her own kitchen, the light food suitable to an
+invalid, which it would be difficult to obtain in a hotel. Every day
+delicate broth, beef tea as clear as amber, panada, simple jellies, and
+choice fruit were sent to Bertha for her aunt, without the knowledge of
+the countess; indeed, the only nourishment the invalid tasted was
+provided by the thoughtful Madeleine.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+
+DOUBLE CONVALESCENCE.
+
+
+A fortnight passed on. At its close the vigorous constitution of the
+countess, united to her powerful volition, gained a victory over her
+malady. She had remained unshaken in her resolution not to receive
+medical advice; she had taken no remedies,--used no precautions; yet
+the fever had been conquered. Her strength began to return, and she
+insisted upon leaving her bed, and being dressed, not as befits an
+invalid, but in her usual precise and _soigné_ style. Adolphine timidly
+suggested that a wrapper would be more comfortable than her ordinary
+attire, and a morning cap would allow her to repose her head. The
+countess awed her into silence by remarking:
+
+"I keep my chamber no longer. I shall dress in a manner suitable to the
+drawing-room."
+
+During the progress of the tedious toilet, it was more than once
+apparent that she was battling against a sense of faintness; but even
+this discomfort did not induce her to allow a single pin to be less
+conscientiously placed, a single curl less carefully smoothed. Adolphine
+did not dare to betray that she perceived the failure of her mistress'
+strength, and had not courage to offer her a glass of water. When the
+folds of her heavy black silk dress were adjusted, her collar and
+sleeves, of rich lace, arranged, her girdle tightly clasped with a
+buckle of brilliants which was an heirloom, and her snowy hair
+ornamented with a Parisian head-dress of mingled lace, velvet, and
+flowers, she contemplated herself in the mirror as complacently as
+though she perceived no change in her shrunken, haggard, altered
+features, and rose up to proceed to the _salon_.
+
+Her first steps were so feeble and uncertain that Adolphine started
+forward involuntarily, to offer her arm; but a look from her mistress
+made her draw back, and the tread of the countess grew firmer as she
+entered the drawing-room. She did not sink into the nearest seat, but
+crossed the apartment to the arm-chair which she was accustomed to
+occupy; but she had hardly sat down, before her eyes closed and her head
+fell back; her face was as white as that of the dead. Adolphine caught
+up a bottle of cologne; but she stood in such fear of the countess, that
+without using the restorative she ran to summon Bertha. Bertha
+approached her aunt in great alarm, but sprinkled the cologne on her
+face with lavish hands, applied it to her nostrils, and bathed her
+temples. In a few moments Madame de Gramont opened her eyes and said,--
+
+"A little on my handkerchief, Bertha. Adolphine carelessly forgot to
+give me any."
+
+Her proud, unconquered spirit would not admit the passing insensibility
+of its mortal part. There was nothing to be done except for her niece
+and maid to appear unconscious of the weakness which she herself
+ignored. Adolphine placed a footstool beneath her mistress' feet and
+retired. Bertha went to the window and looked out,--a favorite amusement
+of hers, as we are aware.
+
+The fortnight had been one of severe privation and discipline to her.
+She had not once seen Madeleine, for she could not have left her aunt,
+except when Maurice was with her, and the countess would not have
+permitted her niece to go forth unprotected by Maurice or her maid, and
+the latter could not be spared. The escort of Bertha's affianced husband
+Madame de Gramont would have considered highly improper.
+
+Gaston's visits, though he came every day, were brief and
+unsatisfactory; for the countess, who could not forbid them, (as she
+felt inclined to do), ordered the large folding-doors which divided her
+chamber from the drawing-room to be left open, and desired Adolphine to
+take her work into the latter apartment. Conversation in an ordinary
+tone was quite audible to the countess, and could not but be heard by
+Adolphine, who had a tolerable knowledge of English. What lover cares to
+converse to more than one listener?
+
+Bertha pined for the fresh air,--for a drive in the country, or, better
+still, a stroll in the capitol grounds with Gaston; but this latter was
+a happiness almost as far out of her reach as the paradise which she
+deemed it foreshadowed.
+
+The countess had grown highly irascible during her illness, and as
+Bertha and her maid were the only ones upon whom she had a chance of
+venting her spleen, she spared neither. She experienced a sick longing
+for her native land; she more than ever detested the republican country
+in which she was sojourning, and she heaped upon Bertha the bitterest
+reproaches as the instigator of the exile which had been followed by so
+many calamities. The countess never condescended to remember that her
+wealthy young relative had liberally borne all expenses since they left
+the Château de Gramont, where its owners had no longer the means of
+residing. Of this fact she might be supposed to be ignorant, as she
+never vouchsafed a thought to _money matters_; it, however, had been
+made known to her by Count Tristan before she consented to the journey;
+but the _trivial circumstance_ was quickly forgotten.
+
+While Bertha was dreamily looking out of the window, and wondering when
+she would be freed from this prison-like life, she heard the door open,
+and turned quickly, hoping to greet the all-brightening presence. It was
+Robert, Madeleine's servant, who entered bearing a silver salver. Bertha
+had not supposed that the countess would, without warning, occupy her
+usual place in the drawing-room, and had not guarded against Robert's
+being seen. The young girl was so much discomposed that she stood
+motionless, aghast, expecting some terrible outburst from her aunt.
+Robert had admitted the countess at each of her compulsory visits to the
+residence of "Mademoiselle Melanie," and it seemed hardly possible that
+she would not recognize him again. Bertha ought to have known Madame de
+Gramont better than to have supposed she would have stooped to bestow
+glances enough upon a servant of Madeleine's, or, indeed, any servant,
+to know his features. Robert placed the salver upon the table, and
+either because he was naturally a silent man, or because the presence of
+the countess struck him dumb, or because he had no message to deliver
+that morning, retired without speaking. Bertha looked anxiously at her
+aunt; the immobility of her features was reassuring.
+
+The salver bore a pitcher of admirably prepared chocolate, made by
+Madeleine herself, a plate carefully covered with a napkin, containing a
+delicate species of Normandy cake, to which the countess had been
+particularly partial in Brittany (Madeleine had remembered the recipe),
+and a dish of enormous strawberries, served, according to the French
+custom, with their stems. It occurred to Bertha, for the first time,
+that perhaps there was a cipher upon Madeleine's plate which would
+betray from whence it came; she examined a spoon before she ventured to
+present the tray to her aunt. The silver only bore the letter "M."
+Bertha, considerably relieved, but still flurried by the peril she had
+just escaped, placed a small table before Madame de Gramont, then poured
+out and handed her the chocolate in silence, fearing to provoke some
+question.
+
+The countess, who was growing faint again, gladly accepted the
+nourishing beverage, and even ate several cakes. She seemed to enjoy
+them, for it was long since she had spoken in so pleasant a tone as when
+she remarked,--
+
+"These cakes remind me of our noble old château; one would hardly
+suppose that they would be found in America."
+
+Bertha suspected who had made the cakes, and, to draw her aunt's
+attention away from them, said,--
+
+"What delicious strawberries! And how fragrant they are!"
+
+The countess took one by the stem, and dipped it in the sugar, but with
+a disparaging look. It was large and juicy, and possessed a rich flavor
+and an aromatic odor which French strawberries can seldom boast; but the
+countess would not have admitted the superiority even of American fruit
+over that of her own country, and after tasting a few of the
+strawberries returned to the cake which reminded her of her forsaken
+home.
+
+How fared it with Count Tristan during the fortnight in which he had not
+seen his august mother? Under judicious and tender care, he had
+steadily, rapidly improved. His mental faculties had been sufficiently
+restored for him to recognize every one around him, but his memory was
+still clouded, and his thoughts sadly confused. He had partially
+recovered his articulation, though his speech continued to be thick and
+at times unintelligible. His limbs also had been partly freed from the
+thraldom of paralysis, but were still heavy and numb, as though they had
+long worn chains. He clung to Madeleine more eagerly than ever, and
+seemed to be disturbed and uncomfortable except when she was near him.
+He had a vague consciousness that she was the medium through which all
+good flowed in to him, and often repeated, as he held her hand,--
+
+"You,--you--yes, you, Madeleine, you saved us all! Good angel--good
+angel!"
+
+That her ministry in the sick-room was so grateful to the sufferer was
+not surprising; for a gentle, efficient hand which knows precisely how
+to make a pillow yield the best support,--a low, soft, yet encouraging
+voice,--a cheerful, yet sympathizing face,--a soundless step,--garments
+that never rustle,--movements that make no noise,--are among the chief
+blessings to an invalid.
+
+The count seemed less happy at the sight of his son; his mind was
+haunted by an undefined fear that there was something Maurice would
+learn which would make him shrink from his father,--which would disgrace
+both; the sufferer had quite forgotten that the discovery he dreaded had
+already been made. When he looked at Maurice he often muttered the
+words,--
+
+"Unincumbered,--no mortgage,--of course it's all right,--power of
+attorney untouched,--leave all to me!"
+
+At other times he would plead, in broken sentences, for pardon, and
+denounce himself as a villain who had ruined his only son.
+
+It was a somewhat singular coincidence that the very morning the
+countess had risen and dressed for the first time for a fortnight, Count
+Tristan appeared to be so much more restless than usual that Madeleine
+suggested he should be conducted to her boudoir. Maurice assisted him to
+rise, enveloped him in a comfortable _robe de chambre_, and, with the
+help of Robert, led him to that pleasant, peace-breathing apartment,
+where she had arranged an easy-chair with pillows, had opened the doors
+of the conservatory to admit the odorous air, and had shaded the windows
+that the light might be softened to an invalid's eyes.
+
+He smiled placidly and gratefully as he looked toward the flowers, and
+stretched out his hand to Madeleine. She took her place on a low seat,
+her little sewing-chair, and, unbidden, sang some of the wild, old
+strains to which he had often listened in the ancient château. The sigh
+he heaved was one of pleasure, as though his heart felt too full, but
+not of care. Madeleine sang on, ballad after ballad, for she could not
+pause while he appeared to be so calmly happy, and her voice only died
+away as she felt the hand that clasped hers relax its hold, and, looking
+up, she found that her patient was gently slumbering.
+
+Maurice had sat listening and gazing as one spellbound, but Madeleine
+roused him by saying,--
+
+"It is long past your usual hour for visiting your grandmother. Had you
+not better go? I think it likely your father will sleep some time. The
+change of scene and the fresh air have lulled him into a tranquil
+slumber."
+
+"And your voice had nothing to do with his rest?" asked Maurice,
+tenderly.
+
+"Any old crone's would serve as well for a lullaby," she answered,
+playfully. "Now go, and be sure you find out whether the countess liked
+the chocolate and those Normandy cakes."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+OUTGENERALLED.
+
+
+Madame de Gramont welcomed Maurice that morning with more animation than
+she had evinced during her illness. He did not anticipate finding her in
+the drawing-room; and was even more surprised to see her not in an
+invalid's _déshabille_, but dressed for visitors; not reclining, but
+sitting up almost as stiffly as in the days of her grandeur. He
+congratulated her upon her convalescence with mingled warmth and
+astonishment.
+
+"Thank you, I am quite well," she replied; though her colorless lips and
+wan, sunken face solemnly contradicted the words. "How is your father?"
+This question was asked apparently with newly-awakened anxiety; for of
+late she had made no inquiries, but listened in silence to Maurice's
+daily report, and turned sullenly from him as though he were responsible
+for its unfavorable nature.
+
+He now answered in an unusually cheerful tone,--
+
+"My father is better, much better, to-day; improving fast, I think."
+
+Some of the old triumphant light flashed out of the countess' black eyes
+as she ejaculated,--
+
+"Thank God! Then he can be brought here at once!"
+
+Maurice perceived his mistake too late. He had not foreseen that the
+countess would have drawn this conclusion from the intelligence just
+communicated.
+
+"My dear grandmother, you cannot think of desiring to remove my father
+at present?"
+
+"Cannot think of it? What other thought fills my mind night and day? He
+_must_ be removed from that house. I say _must_, the very instant his
+life would not be perilled by the attempt. Better that it should have
+been placed in jeopardy than that he should have remained there thus
+long."
+
+"We will talk of this when he is more decidedly convalescent," returned
+Maurice, perceiving that some generalship must be employed to protect
+his father. "I will let you know how he progresses, and we will make all
+the necessary arrangements for his change of abode in due season."
+
+The countess was too shrewd not to see through this answer, and she was
+quite competent to return Maurice's move by generalship of her own; for,
+in the battle of life, it is the tactics of womanhood that oftenest win
+the day. She allowed the conversation to drop; and Maurice secretly
+rejoiced at her having, as he supposed, yielded the point. He chatted
+awhile with Bertha; then his eyes chanced to fall upon the salver which
+Madeleine had prepared. It called to mind her request.
+
+"What have you here? Chocolate? Did you find it well made?"
+
+The countess took no notice of the inquiry.
+
+"These are very fine strawberries," persisted Maurice. "Did you enjoy
+them? And these cakes,"--he tasted one,--"used to be favorites of
+yours."
+
+The countess checked a rising sigh; for her aversion to betraying even a
+passing emotion was insuperable. "They reminded me of Brittany," she
+said, involuntarily.
+
+"You liked them, then? They are to your taste?" questioned her grandson,
+hoping to be able to tell Madeleine that her labors had been rewarded.
+
+But the countess answered coldly,--
+
+"I find very little in this country, even though the object be imported,
+which is to my taste."
+
+She did not open her lips again until Maurice was taking his leave. Then
+she said,--
+
+"Has your father's physician been to see him to-day?"
+
+"No; he had not come when I left, though it was past his usual hour."
+
+"Let him know that I wish to see him," ordered the countess.
+
+Had Maurice suspected her object he would not have replied so
+cordially,--
+
+"I am truly glad that you will accept medical aid at last. You look very
+feeble."
+
+The countess considered such a suggestion an insult; and drew herself up
+as she replied,--
+
+"You are mistaken. I am far from feeble. Feebleness does not belong to
+my race. My strength does not forsake me readily; it will last while I
+last. Still you may inform your father's physician that I desire to see
+him."
+
+"I will send him to you at once. You shall certainly see him to-day."
+
+"Thank you."
+
+These two words were spoken dryly by the countess, and with an emphasis
+which might have struck Maurice and caused him to suspect her intentions
+and possibly to frustrate them, had he not been so thoroughly convinced
+that her own state required medical care, and had he not known that her
+stoical fortitude made it easier for her to suffer than to admit that
+she _could_ suffer.
+
+Maurice found Madeleine where he had left her. The count had just
+awakened, much refreshed. He was softly stroking her head and saying
+with the same indistinct utterance, "Good angel! good angel!"
+
+At the sight of Maurice the old troubled look passed again over his
+face, and he whispered hoarsely,--
+
+"He shall never know. Never, never let him know. It would kill me! kill
+me!"
+
+Maurice had told Madeleine how much better he had found his grandmother,
+and was giving her the gratifying intelligence that Madame de Gramont
+had said the cakes reminded her of Brittany (the highest praise possible
+for her to bestow on anything), when the doctor entered.
+
+His patient, he said, had made marvellous progress; but that was owing,
+in a great measure, to admirable nursing; and he nodded approvingly to
+Madeleine.
+
+"If physicians had only at their disposal a train of well-informed,
+efficient, conscientious nurses to distribute among their patients,
+medical services might be of some use in the world; but, as it is, we
+might make a new application of the old proverb, that God sends us
+dinners, and the devil sends us cooks who make the dinners valueless; a
+physician gives his orders and prescriptions, and a careless nurse
+renders them null."
+
+Dr. Bayard was not a man who dealt in compliments, even in a modified
+form; he was sagacious, abrupt, straightforward, and at times spoke his
+mind rather sharply. He had been impressed by Madeleine's unremitting
+care of his patient, and, in declaring that the count's convalescence
+was, in a large degree, due to her prudence and vigilance, he simply
+said what he thought.
+
+"I am glad to see you have removed your charge to this room," he
+continued. "Change of scene and of air is always good, when practicable.
+I recommend a short drive to-morrow. I never keep an invalid imprisoned
+one hour longer than is necessary."
+
+Maurice delivered his grandmother's message; and Dr. Bayard promised to
+call upon her before his return home. The claims upon his time, however,
+were so numerous that it was evening before he reached Brown's hotel.
+The countess would not, even to herself have admitted that she could be
+subject to such an unaristocratic sensation as impatience; but we are
+unable to hit upon any other word to express the state of unquiet
+anxiety with which she awaited his coming.
+
+He was announced at last.
+
+At that hour in the day, it was not unnatural for Dr. Bayard to be in a
+great hurry to get home to his dinner; and consequently his manners were
+even more blunt and informal than usual. Without losing a minute, he
+took a seat in front of the lady whom he supposed to be his patient,
+looked scrutinizingly into her face and said,--
+
+"Well, and what's the matter? A touch of fever, I suspect. We shall soon
+bring that under."
+
+Without further ceremony he placed his fingers on her wrist.
+
+The countess drew her hand away, as though something loathsome had dared
+to pollute her; and the bright red fever spot on either cheek deepened
+into the crimson of wrath.
+
+"Sir, I am perfectly well. I did not send for you to ask your advice
+concerning myself."
+
+Dr. Bayard drew back his chair an inch or two, but made no apology.
+
+"I am the mother of Count Tristan de Gramont whom you are attending."
+
+Dr. Bayard bowed.
+
+"I hear that he is much better."
+
+"Much better," was the physician's laconic reply.
+
+"It would no longer be dangerous for him to be removed from his present
+most unfit abode," the countess asserted rather than interrogated.
+
+Dr. Bayard, in answering the queries of patients, or those of their
+families, did not follow the practice of physicians in general, but
+adhered to the exact truth. He replied, "It would not be dangerous,
+madame, but it would be unwise,--confounded folly, I might say. He is
+very comfortable where he is, and he has capital care. I do not believe
+there is such another nurse as Mademoiselle Melanie in Christendom."
+
+If fiery arrows ever flash from human eyes, as some who have felt their
+wound declare they do, such darts flew fast and thick from the eyes of
+the countess as she regarded him.
+
+"Sir, it is not a question of nurses. A mother is the fittest person to
+watch beside her son."
+
+Dr. Bayard differed with her, but did not give her the benefit of his
+private opinion.
+
+"As Count Tristan is in a state to be removed, I will give orders to
+have him brought here to-morrow. I suppose it is too late to-night?"
+observed the countess.
+
+"I have already said that I do not see the necessity of his being moved
+at all, until he is perfectly restored," persisted the doctor.
+
+"It is enough that I see it!" remarked the countess, frigidly. "I
+believe my inquiries only extended to asking your medical opinion as to
+the _danger_ not the _propriety_ of moving my son."
+
+"Then I have nothing more to say," replied the physician, rising. "I
+have already stated that his removal, if advisable in other respects,
+would not be dangerous. Allow me to wish you good-evening."
+
+Though Dr. Bayard's visit had highly irritated Madame de Gramont,
+exultation prevailed over all other emotions.
+
+Bertha had been present during the interview, and albeit she was filled
+with grief at the prospect of Madeleine's sorrow and mortification, she
+had not the moral courage to remonstrate.
+
+The countess was up betimes on the morrow. It may be that her strength
+had really returned; it may be that excitement supplied its place; but
+there was no recurrence of the feebleness which she had not been able
+wholly to conceal on the day previous. Before Bertha was dressed for
+breakfast her aunt had sent to borrow her writing-desk (having no
+correspondents, the countess did not travel with one of her own), and
+Bertha experienced a heart-sickening foreboding at the request. When she
+entered the drawing-room, Madame de Gramont was writing slowly and
+elaborately, as though she were preparing some document which was to
+pass into the hands of critical judges; but she never wrote in any other
+manner. A hasty, impulsive, dashing off of words and ideas would have
+lacked dignity. The whole character of the haughty lady might easily
+have been read in the stiff but elegant hand, the formal and carefully
+constructed phrases, the icy tenor of her simplest missive.
+
+She folded the note, told Bertha where to find her seal with the de
+Gramont arms, impressed it carefully upon the melted wax, desired Bertha
+to ring the bell, and bade her send the note at once to Maurice. The
+countess could not have stooped to name to the servant the residence of
+the mantua-maker.
+
+Though Madame de Gramont expected that her command would be instantly
+obeyed, she was too little used to attend to household matters, or
+bestow a thought upon the comfort of others, to give any orders
+concerning her son's room, or even to reflect that additional care in
+its preparation was needed for an invalid.
+
+Count Tristan had passed the best night with which he had been favored
+since his attack. He had slept so uninterruptedly that Gaston and Mrs.
+Lawkins (whose turn it was to replace Madeleine and Maurice) had
+followed the invalid's example and travelled with him to the kingdom of
+Morpheus.
+
+In the morning he expressed a desire to rise. The first words he uttered
+showed that his articulation was clearer. Madeleine had arranged the
+pillows in his arm-chair and placed it where he could look into the
+conservatory. He walked into the boudoir supported only by Maurice.
+There was a rare amount of stamina, a wondrously recuperative power in
+the de Gramont constitution, as was manifested both by mother and son.
+
+When the count was comfortably seated, Madeleine placed before him a
+little table with his breakfast so neatly arranged that merely to look
+at it gave one an appetite. She served him herself, and the tranquil
+pleasure he felt in receiving what he ate from her hands was
+unmistakable. His own hands were still weak and numb, and she cut up the
+delicate broiled chicken, and broke the bread, disposed his napkin
+carefully, and then steadied the cup of chocolate which he tried to
+carry to his lips. Maurice stood watching her, just as he always did;
+for it was difficult for him to remove his eyes from her face when she
+was present, though, in truth, when she was absent he saw her before him
+hardly less distinctly.
+
+The trio was thus agreeably occupied when the note of the countess was
+placed in the hands of Maurice. His consternation vented itself in an
+irrepressible groan, which made Madeleine and the count look up.
+
+The latter trembled with alarm, and, his haunting fear coming back, he
+asked, in a terrified tone,--
+
+"What has happened? What do they want? What would they make you believe?
+No harm of me,--you wont! you wont! Here's Madeleine will make all
+right!"
+
+"Do not trouble yourself," said Madeleine, soothingly; "there are no
+business matters to fret you now."
+
+Her sweet, quieting voice, or the assurance, calmed him, and he repeated
+once more, for the thousandth time, "Good angel! good angel!"
+
+"It is a note from my grandmother," said Maurice, biting his lips. "She
+has seen Dr. Bayard, and insists on carrying out certain views of hers,
+and she informs me that she has his permission to do so."
+
+Madeleine had not nerved herself against this blow; it fell heavily upon
+her; she could not at once resign the precious privilege of ministering
+to her afflicted relative; and she could not hope that the countess
+would allow her to approach him if he were removed to the hotel.
+
+"Surely she will not be so cruel! It will harm him,--it will retard his
+recovery."
+
+"I will see her, at once, and try what argument and remonstrance can
+do," replied Maurice.
+
+And he set forth on his difficult mission.
+
+A moment's reflection convinced Madeleine that if the countess had
+received the doctor's consent, she would prove inexorable. There was no
+resource but to submit as patiently as possible. Count Tristan must be
+reconciled to the change, and to effect that was the task now before
+her. She tried to break the news gently; she told him his mother had not
+seen him of late because she had been ill; and now, hearing he was so
+much better, she desired him to return to the hotel that he might be
+nearer to her.
+
+The count answered peevishly, "No--no,--I'll not go! I'm better
+here,--better with you, my good angel!"
+
+"But if Madame de Gramont is determined," said Madeleine, "I have no
+right, no power to resist her authority."
+
+"Can I not stay? Let me stay!" he pleaded, pathetically.
+
+"I would be only too thankful if you could; but you know the wishes of
+the countess cannot be disregarded."
+
+"I cannot go! It will kill me if I go back! I am better here. I'm safe
+with you! I'll not go!"
+
+He seemed so much distressed that Madeleine dismissed the subject by
+saying, "Maurice has gone to see his grandmother; we need not torment
+ourselves until he returns."
+
+The count was easily satisfied, and the remembrance of his trouble soon
+faded from his mind. Madeleine asked him if she should sing, and he
+nodded a pleased assent. She could not give voice to any but the saddest
+melodies, for a sorrowful presentiment that she would never sing to him
+again, filled her mind. She continued to charm away his cares by the
+witchery of her accents until Maurice returned. The result of his
+advocacy was quickly told. The countess was inflexible, and awaited her
+son.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+A CHANGE.
+
+
+The strongest heart will sometimes betray that it is overtaxed through
+the pressure of a sorrow which appears trivial contrasted with the
+stupendous burdens it has borne unflinchingly; the firmest spirit is
+sometimes crushed at last, by the weight of a moral "feather" that
+breaks the back of endurance. Madeleine's courage proved insufficient to
+encounter calmly this new trial. She could not see that poor, wretched,
+brain-shattered sufferer, that proud man bowed to the dust, clinging to
+her with such a strange, perplexed, yet steady grasp, and know that she
+could no longer tend, amuse, and soothe him! Her composure was forsaking
+her, and she could only hurriedly whisper to Maurice,--
+
+"I will pack your father's clothes; make him comprehend that we have no
+alternative; reconcile him if you can. Since he must go, it had better
+be at once; the countess is no doubt anxiously expecting him."
+
+She passed into the count's room, gathered together all his wearing
+apparel, and knelt down beside his trunk. Her heart swelled as though
+it would burst; she bowed her head upon the trunk she was about to open,
+and sobbed aloud!
+
+Madeleine's tears were not like Bertha's,--mere summer rain which sprang
+to her eyes with every passing emotion, and fell in sun-broken showers
+that freshened and brightened her own spirit. Madeleine seldom wept, and
+when the tears came, they sprang up from the very depth of her true
+heart, in a hot, bitter current which was less like the bubbling of a
+fountain than the lava bursting from a volcano. It is ever thus with
+powerful, yet self-controlled natures, and Madeleine's equanimity in the
+midst of trials which would have prostrated others, was not a lack of
+keen, quick sensibility, but an evidence of the supremacy she had gained
+by discipline over her passions.
+
+Madeleine wept and wept, forgetting the work before her, the time that
+was passing, the necessity for action! All the tears that she might have
+shed during the last few weeks, if it were her nature to weep as most
+women weep, now rushed forth in one passionate torrent. She did not hear
+a step approaching; she was hardly conscious of the encircling arm that
+raised her from the ground, nor was she startled by the voice that
+said,--
+
+"Madeleine! my own Madeleine! Is it you sobbing thus?"
+
+"I feel _this!_ O Maurice, I feel _this!_ My aunt has never had power to
+make me feel so much since that day in the little _châlet_ when my eyes
+were opened,--when she cast me off, and I stood alone in the world."
+
+"Ah Madeleine, dearest and best beloved, if you had only loved me
+then,--if I could only have taught you to love me,--you would not have
+stood alone! I should have battled against every sorrow that could come
+near you; or, at least, have borne it with you. O Madeleine, why could
+you not love me?"
+
+For one instant Madeleine was tempted to throw herself in his arms and
+confess all. The high resolves of years of self-denial were on the verge
+of being broken in one weak moment; but the very peril, the very
+temptation calmed her suddenly. She brushed away her tears, and, gently
+withdrawing the hand Maurice held, said, in broken accents,--
+
+"I have caused you too much pain in other days, Maurice. I should not
+have added more by allowing you to witness my weakness. Help me to be
+strong; for you see I have sore need of help."
+
+"All that I can offer, Madeleine, you reject," said Maurice,
+reproachfully. "My heart and life are yours, and you fling them from
+you."
+
+"Maurice, my cousin, my best friend, spare me! I have no right to listen
+to this language."
+
+"But the right to hear it from the lips of another," retorted Maurice
+bitterly.
+
+"Be generous, Maurice. For pity's sake, do not speak on that subject."
+
+There was so much anguish depicted in Madeleine's face that Maurice was
+conscience-stricken by the conviction that his rashly selfish words had
+caused her additional pain.
+
+"This is a poor return, Madeleine, for all the good you have done my
+father,--all the good you have done me,--you have done us all. You see
+what a selfish brute I am! My very love for you, which should shield you
+from all suffering, has, through that fatal selfishness, added to your
+sorrow. Can you pardon me?"
+
+"When you wrong me, Maurice, I will; but that day has yet to come. Leave
+me for a few moments, and I will complete what I have to do here and
+join you."
+
+Maurice complied, but slowly and reluctantly, and looking back as he
+left the room.
+
+Madeleine wept no more; she bathed her face and smoothed her disordered
+hair, and then collected all the articles scattered about, placed them
+carefully in the trunk, shut it and locked it, looked about to see that
+nothing was forgotten, ordered her carriage, and with a composed mien
+entered the little boudoir.
+
+Maurice must have used some potent argument with his father which
+reconciled him to his change of habitation, or made him comprehend that
+resistance was useless, for when Robert announced that the carriage was
+at the door, and Madeleine brought the count's coat to exchange for his
+dressing-gown, he allowed her to assist him, only repeating the term of
+affection so often on his lips.
+
+The count was ready, and Madeleine signed to Maurice not to linger. He
+gave his arm to his father, and they passed through the entry. Madeleine
+preceded them; she opened the street door herself; father and son passed
+out, but without bidding her adieu. The steps of the carriage were let
+down; just as Maurice was assisting his father to ascend them, the count
+drew back with native politeness and said,--
+
+"Madeleine first."
+
+Madeleine was still standing in the doorway ready to wave her
+handkerchief as the carriage drove off.
+
+"Come, Madeleine, come! come! We are waiting for you!" cried the count.
+
+Maurice expostulated in vain; his father insisted that Madeleine should
+go with them.
+
+"Only get into the carriage, my dear father, while I speak with her."
+
+"Get in before a lady? No--no! We are not backwoodsmen,--are we? Come,
+Madeleine, come!"
+
+Madeleine saw that argument would not avail with the count; his mind was
+not sufficiently clear; it only had glimpses of reason which allowed him
+to comprehend by fits and starts.
+
+Ever quick of decision, she said cheerfully, "Yes, in one moment," and
+withdrew; but before Maurice had divined her intention, returned,
+wearing her bonnet and shawl, and sprang into the carriage.
+
+"Drive into the country," was Madeleine's order to the coachman.
+
+Maurice looked at her with inquiring surprise.
+
+"Dr. Bayard said a drive would do your father good. We can first take a
+short drive, then return, and go to the hotel."
+
+Count Tristan looked happy. The motion of the carriage was agreeable to
+him, and the fresh air revived him; he gazed eagerly out of the window
+as though the commonest objects had caught the charm of novelty. His
+pleasure was of brief duration; for when they had driven about a mile,
+prudence suggested to Madeleine that it would be well to return before
+the patient became fatigued. She pulled the check-cord, and herself gave
+the order, "To Brown's hotel."
+
+Count Tristan paid no attention to the command. The hotel was quickly
+reached; the carriage stopped; Maurice descended and handed out his
+father.
+
+"Let me hear good news of you," said Madeleine to Count Tristan,
+encouragingly, and kept her seat.
+
+Leaning heavily on his son's arm, the count mounted the hotel steps, but
+he did not comprehend Madeleine's words as an adieu, and turned to speak
+to her, thinking she was beside him. The coachman was closing the
+carriage-door preparatory to driving away.
+
+"Madeleine! Madeleine!" cried out the count, stretching his hand
+imploringly toward her. "Madeleine, come! come!"
+
+Madeleine perceived that Maurice was remonstrating with his father, and
+trying to lead him on, but that the count would not move, and still
+cried out, "Come! come!" in a voice of piteous entreaty.
+
+Curious strangers began to collect; Madeleine knew that if the scene
+continued even a few moments, a crowd would gather, and all manner of
+inquiries be made of her coachman, the hotel-keepers, the servants. She
+leaped out of the carriage, hastened to the count's side, and said,--
+
+"I will go upstairs with you; the assistance of Maurice may not be
+sufficient; lean on my arm also."
+
+And Count Tristan did lean upon her, for his limbs were too feeble to
+ascend a long flight without difficulty.
+
+The door of the countess's _salon_ was but a few paces from the top of
+the stair. Madeleine paused, took the count's hand affectionately in
+hers, and pressed it several times to her lips, saying,--
+
+"Now I must bid you adieu. It would not be agreeable to the countess to
+see me. She would think my coming with you impertinent. You will not
+force me to bear the pain of seeing her displeasure? Bid me adieu and
+let me go!"
+
+The count, easily swayed by her persuasive voice, and inspired with a
+vague dread of his mother's anger, kissed her forehead, and did not
+remonstrate, but stood still and watched her gliding swiftly down the
+stairs.
+
+Maurice had whispered to her, "I will be with you as soon as possible,
+Madeleine. Be brave, for my sake!"
+
+The countess had only betrayed her anxious expectancy by changing her
+usual seat to one where she could watch the door, and by looking up
+eagerly every time it opened. When, at last, Maurice entered, supporting
+Count Tristan, there was a gleam of mingled joy and triumph in his
+mother's eye. It was doubtful whether the triumph of having compelled
+obedience to her commands, and of having wrested her son from Madeleine,
+did not surpass the joy she experienced in beholding that son once
+again.
+
+From her greeting, a stranger would hardly have imagined that when she
+saw him last his life was in imminent peril, and that she had rushed
+from his presence overcome by grief and mortification. She now received
+him as though she had cheated herself into the belief that she was doing
+the honors in her ancestral château, and that his brief absence had no
+graver origin than some ordinary pleasure party.
+
+"Welcome, my son, welcome!" said she, kissing him on either cheek. "We
+have missed you greatly; you are thrice welcome for this brief
+separation."
+
+Count Tristan returned her salutation, but looked strangely
+uncomfortable, as though the atmosphere oppressed and chilled him.
+
+"Dear cousin Tristan, I am so glad to see you better; you will soon be
+quite well again," said Bertha, embracing him far more warmly than his
+mother had done.
+
+The countess made no allusion to his illness; she preferred wholly to
+forget the past.
+
+Maurice led his father to an arm-chair, and asked Bertha to bring a
+pillow. Under Madeleine's tuition Maurice had become quite expert in
+promoting an invalid's comfort, and yet he now failed to arrange the
+pillow satisfactorily. Perhaps his father's chair was not easy, or the
+one to which he was accustomed was more commodious, or Maurice was more
+clumsy than usual; for though Bertha also lent her aid, the count kept
+repeating, fretfully,--
+
+"It's not right,--it does not support my shoulders! You can't do it!
+Leave it alone! Leave it alone!"
+
+They desisted, and sat down beside him.
+
+The countess had no faculty of starting conversation, and Bertha's merry
+tongue had of late lost its volubility; she had so often irritated her
+aunt by her remarks that she had become afraid to speak. Maurice was too
+sad to be otherwise than taciturn. Thus the reunited little family sat
+in solemn silence. Count Tristan looked around him drearily for a while,
+and then having for a moment lost recollection of what had just taken
+place, exclaimed disconsolately,--
+
+"Where is Madeleine?"
+
+These unfortunate words roused the countess. She rose up as loftily as
+in her proudest, most unchastened days, and approaching him, asked, in a
+rebuking voice,--
+
+"For _whom_ do you inquire, my son? Am I to understand that a mother's
+presence is not all-sufficient for her own child? Is not hers the place
+by his side? If that place has been, for a season, usurped, should he
+not rejoice that she to whom it legitimately belongs occupies it once
+more?"
+
+The count looked awed, and did not attempt to reply. Maurice perceived
+that he must exert himself to shield his father from as much discomfort
+as could be warded off, and inquired, without directly addressing either
+the countess or Bertha,--
+
+"Is my father's room prepared for him? But I suppose that it is. His
+drive must have fatigued him, and I think he would like to retire."
+
+The countess disclaimed any knowledge of the state of the apartment,
+signifying that she was not in the habit of occupying herself with
+matters of this nature. Bertha was equally ignorant, but said she would
+go and see. Maurice prevented her by going himself.
+
+The room looked as though it had not been entered since the day when he
+had packed up his father's clothes to move them to Madeleine's, and that
+was more than a fortnight ago. There was some delay in getting a
+chambermaid; servants are always busy, yet never to be had in an
+American hotel; after several ineffectual attempts, he obtained the
+services of an Irish girl; and he induced Adolphine to lend her aid,
+that the room might be aired, swept, and put in order more rapidly.
+Adolphine was rather a hinderance to the bustling Irish help, for a
+Parisian lady's-maid knows one especial business, and knows nothing
+else, however simple; she is an instrument that plays but one tune, and
+she boasts of her _speciality_ as a virtue. In something more than an
+hour Adolphine announced that the apartment of _M. le Comte_ was in
+readiness.
+
+Count Tristan was very willing to retire, and after Maurice had played
+the valet without assistance, his father seemed disposed to sleep, and
+Maurice closed the blinds and sat down quietly until he perceived that
+the invalid had fallen into a deep slumber. Henceforth he was to watch
+beside him, when watching was needed, alone! Those blessed nights,
+shorter and sweeter than the happiest dreams, when he had sat in the
+pale light, with that beautiful face beaming opposite to him,--that soft
+voice sounding melodiously in his ears,--they were gone, never to
+return!
+
+At that very moment Madeleine herself was haunted by the same
+reflections. When she drove home alone, and reëntered her house, how
+desolate and dreary it appeared! How empty and lonely seemed those
+apartments so lately occupied by the ones nearest of kin and dearest to
+her heart! She wandered through the rooms, up and down, up and down,
+with restless feet, pondering upon the singular events of the last few
+weeks; she had not before had leisure to dwell upon them. Was it indeed
+true that her roof had sheltered Count Tristan de Gramont?--Count
+Tristan de Gramont, whose persecutions in other days, had driven her
+from his own roof, and whose hatred had embittered and blighted her
+life? And had he learned to depend upon her? to love her? To talk to
+her, even when his mind wandered, of _gratitude_, as though that emotion
+was ever uppermost in her presence? And Maurice, her dear
+cousin,--Maurice, the beloved of her soul, who must never know that he
+was all in all to her,--had he been her guest for more than two weeks?
+And had she been permitted the joy of promoting his comfort in a
+thousand little, unnoted, womanly ways? Had he sat at her table? Had
+they watched together, night and day, by his father's bed?--talking
+through the night hours, unwearied when the morning broke, unwilling to
+welcome the first rays of the sun, because their sweet, inexhaustible
+converse came to an end? Had they shared the happiness of ameliorating
+Count Tristan's melancholy state, and seeing him daily improve? And now
+it was all over: she must resume her old course of life, her temporarily
+laid aside labors! To muse too long upon departed happiness would unfit
+her for those. Even the sad joy of recollection was denied her.
+
+She sent for Mrs. Lawkins and directed everything to be restored to its
+usual order. The draperies in the entry were to be taken down;--no, let
+them remain; Madeleine had been accustomed to see that portion of the
+house divided from the rest; let them stay. In passing through the
+drawing-room she noticed Maurice's trunk, which he had not thought of
+packing. Though it gave her many a pang, because she was forced to
+realize more keenly that he was surely gone, it was also with a sense of
+pleasure that she collected together the articles belonging to him and
+packed them carefully. Hers was a nature peculiarly susceptible to the
+pure delight of serving, aiding, sparing trouble to those whom she
+loved. The meanest household drudgery, the severest labor, the most
+prosaic making and mending, would have gained a charm and been idealized
+into pleasures, if they contributed to the well-being of those dear to
+her; but, when performed for the one more precious than all others, they
+became positive joys.
+
+She left Mrs. Lawkins busied in the arrangement of the apartments, and
+went upstairs to the workroom, which she had not entered for nearly
+three weeks. She had not seen any of her _employées_, except Ruth, and
+Mademoiselle Victorine, since they all had learned her rank. Her
+unexpected appearance created a great commotion. No one but Ruth had
+expected to behold her in that apartment again. The women all rose
+respectfully; but an unwonted restraint checked the expression of
+gratification which her presence ever imparted. Madeleine smilingly bade
+them to be seated; then passed around the table and spoke to every
+needle-woman in turn, inquiring after the personal health of each, or
+asking questions about her family,--for she knew the histories of all;
+and then learning particulars concerning the work that had been done,
+and the work in hand.
+
+The obsequiousness of Mademoiselle Victorine was perfectly overwhelming,
+yet she experienced no little disappointment. She had made up her mind
+that since Mademoiselle Melanie was known to be Mademoiselle de Gramont,
+she would never again be able to appear among her workwomen, even to
+superintend their labors, and a large portion of the resigned power must
+be delegated to the accomplished forewoman. Ruth Thornton, Madeleine's
+favorite, as Victorine considered her, was in the way; but what were a
+French woman's wits worth if they could not devise some method of
+removing a dangerous rival?
+
+Madeleine lingered long enough to be _au courant_ to the present state
+of affairs, and she found that the business of the establishment had so
+much increased during her seclusion, that every day, a host of orders
+had to be declined. This overwhelming influx of patronage was partially
+attributable to the reports circulated concerning Mademoiselle Melanie's
+romantic history, and also to the strong desire of the public (a
+democratic public) to secure the honor of procuring habiliments from the
+establishment of a dress-maker whose father was a duke.
+
+Madeleine had taken a seat near Ruth, and was listening to Mademoiselle
+Victorine's _histories_ and suggestions, when Robert made known that
+Monsieur Maurice de Gramont begged to see Mademoiselle Melanie.
+
+Maurice had left his father as soon as he slept; he was impatient to
+return to Madeleine. He was tortured by the remembrance of her burst of
+grief, and her bitter words. The forced composure by which they were
+succeeded could not hide from him the deep wound she had received.
+Though the period which had elapsed since his father was conducted from
+Madeleine's house was so brief, the rooms, grown familiar to Maurice,
+already wore a different aspect; he actually felt hurt that Madeleine
+could have made the change thus rapidly. Men are so unreasonable!
+Maurice resembled his sex in that particular. Then, too, he found his
+trunk packed, and he knew by whose hand that duty had been performed.
+Doubtless, he was grateful? Not in the least! It seemed to him that
+Madeleine was in too much haste to remove the last vestige of his
+sojourn near her. When she entered the drawing-room he was standing
+contemplating the neatly filled trunk, and was cruel enough to say,--
+
+"You used your _old magic_ to make ready for us, Madeleine, and you
+have used it again to efface all our footprints here. I can hardly
+persuade myself that I occupied this room."
+
+Madeleine felt the implied reproach; but without answering the unmerited
+rebuke, she asked, "Is your father doing well?"
+
+"He is sleeping at this moment; but it is very evident that he is going
+to have a sorrowful time; he will miss you so much; and my grandmother
+is as cold and hard as though her illness had petrified her more
+completely than ever."
+
+That was another observation to which Madeleine could find no reply.
+Without essaying to make an appropriate answer, she said, "It will never
+do to let the whole burden of nursing your father devolve on you,
+Maurice; you will be broken down. May I plan for you? You need an
+experienced _garde malade_. It would be difficult, at short notice, to
+procure any so reliable, and so well versed in the duties of a nurse as
+Mrs. Lawkins. Then, too, your father is accustomed to see her near him;
+and a familiar face will be more welcome than a stranger's. Do you think
+it would be wrong to engage her without your grandmother's knowing that
+she had been in my employment?"
+
+"I have no scruples on that head," returned Maurice; "but there are
+others which I cannot readily get over. She is your house-keeper, and I
+have heard you say she was very valuable to you. I know that it is
+exceedingly difficult to obtain good domestics in this country; you
+cannot replace her at once. How can you spare her?"
+
+"Easily,--easily; do not talk of that. I will speak to her and she will
+go to you to-morrow morning. Meantime, I advise you to inform the
+countess that a nurse is coming. One charge more: your father is so much
+better that instead of wearing yourself out by sitting up with him, it
+would be wiser to have a sofa, upon which you could take rest, placed
+beside his bed. M. de Bois will gladly take his turn in watching, but
+after a few nights, I think Count Tristan will need no one but Mrs.
+Lawkins."
+
+"Ah, Madeleine"--
+
+Madeleine interrupted him. "One word about the delicacies which you
+cannot readily procure in a hotel, and which it would deprive me of a
+great happiness if I could not send. As the countess is now up, and
+might see and recognize Robert, I will order him to deliver the salver
+to the waiter who attends upon your rooms. Would it not be advisable to
+say a few words to this man to prevent any inadvertent remark in the
+presence of your grandmother?"
+
+"Well thought of. How do you keep your wits so thoroughly about you,
+Madeleine? How do you manage to remember everything that should be
+remembered, and at the right moment?"
+
+"If I do,--though I am not disposed to admit that such is the case,--it
+is simply through the habit of taking the trouble to _think at all_, to
+reflect quietly upon what would be best, what is most needed,--a very
+simple process."
+
+"And, like a great many other simple but important processes, rare just
+because it _is so simple_," remarked Maurice, with great justice.
+
+During this conversation Maurice and Madeleine had been standing where
+she found him on entering the room; but he had not resolution to tear
+himself quickly away, and said,--
+
+"Let me sit a little while in your boudoir, and talk to you, Madeleine.
+_I_ have not been able to reconcile myself so quickly to my own change
+of abode as you seem to have done to our departure from yours."
+
+Was it not surprising that such a noble-minded man as Maurice could make
+an observation so ungracious, so ungenerous, and one which in his heart
+he knew was so unjust, to the woman he loved? Yet it would be difficult
+to find a lover who is incapable of doing the same. Why is it that men,
+even the best, are at times stirred by an irresistible prompting,
+themselves, to wound the being whom they would shield from all harm
+dealt by others with chivalric devotion? Let a woman commit the
+slightest action that can, by ingenious torturing, be interpreted into a
+moment's want of consideration for the feelings of her lover, and all
+his admiration, his tenderness, his reverence, will not prevent his
+being cruel enough to stab her with some passing word that strikes as
+sharply as a dagger.
+
+"You think me a true philosopher, then?" replied Madeleine, gravely. But
+she added, in a lower and less firm tone, while a soft humility filled
+her mild eyes, "Do you think _I am reconciled_, Maurice?"
+
+"Do you not think I am a heartless, senseless brute to have grieved you?
+Do not look so sorrowful! You make me hate myself! Ah, you did well not
+to trust your happiness to my keeping; I was not a fit guardian."
+
+It was far harder for Madeleine to hear him say _that_ than to listen to
+an undeserved reproach; but she led the way to her boudoir without
+replying, and for the next hour Maurice sat beside her, and they
+conversed without any jarring note breaking the harmony of their
+communion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV.
+
+REPARATION.
+
+
+Maurice, with as much _nonchalance_ as he could assume, informed his
+grandmother that he had engaged a _garde malade_ to assist in the care
+of his father. When good Mrs. Lawkins made her appearance the next
+morning, looking as plump, rosy and "comfortable" as English nurses (and
+house-keepers) are wont to look, the countess merely bestowed upon her a
+passing glance and then took no further notice of her presence. It never
+occurred to Madame de Gramont to inquire into the fitness of this person
+for her position and duties. Besides, the countess seldom addressed a
+"hireling," except to utter a command or a rebuke. Maurice was greatly
+relieved when he perceived his grandmother's perfect indifference to the
+individual whom he had selected. Mrs. Lawkins had been thrown "into a
+flutter" by Madeleine's cautions and the prospect of being obliged to
+parry a series of cross-questions; but the reception she received
+quickly restored her equanimity. Count Tristan was sitting near his
+mother; the worthy house-keeper made her obeisance to both in silence,
+then turned to Maurice for directions.
+
+"You have brought your trunk with you?" inquired the latter.
+
+"I left it in the entry, sir."
+
+The count looked up at the sound of that voice. Immediately recognizing
+one whose association in his mind with Madeleine struck the chord which
+vibrated most readily, he exclaimed, in a piteous tone, "Madeleine!
+Madeleine! Why don't she come? Wont Madeleine come soon?"
+
+Maurice, Bertha, and Mrs. Lawkins were filled with consternation at
+these words, which they imagined must arouse the suspicions of the
+countess; but she had not condescended to waste sufficient attention
+upon the domestic her son had hired to perceive that Count Tristan's
+ejaculations had any connection with her presence. The disdainful lady's
+eyes sparkled with anger at the unexpected mention of one whose name she
+desired never more to hear. She drew her chair close to Count Tristan's
+and said in harsh accents,--
+
+"I trust, my son, that you have no wish ungratified? When your _mother_
+is by your side, _whom_ else _can_ you desire?"
+
+Count Tristan was too easily cowed by her manner to venture a reply,
+even if his disordered intellect could have suggested any appropriate
+answer.
+
+"I rejoice at your restoration to me," continued his mother; "and the
+filial duty I have the right to expect prompts me to believe that you
+also rejoice at our reunion."
+
+The invalid looked very far from rejoicing; but the countess solaced
+herself by interpreting his silence into an affirmative.
+
+From that time he never breathed Madeleine's name in his mother's
+presence; but those who watched beside him, often heard it murmured when
+he slept, or just as he wakened, before full consciousness was restored.
+
+From the day that he returned to the hotel, he sank into a state of deep
+dejection. He would sit or lie for hours with his eyes wide open,
+without apparently seeing or hearing what passed around him, while an
+expression of despair overshadowed his deeply furrowed countenance.
+
+The manifest weakness of his brain was a severer trial to Madame de
+Gramont than his enfeebled bodily condition; but she dealt with it as
+with her other trials; she would not acknowledge to herself the
+existence of his mental malady; she refused to admit that he lacked
+power to reason, at the very moment when she was exerting the species of
+authority she would have employed to keep an unreasoning child in check.
+The idea that it would be well to divert his mind, and render the hours
+less tedious, never occurred to her, or, if it did, she was totally at a
+loss to suggest any means of pleasantly whiling away the time. Her own
+health had not wholly recovered from its recent shock; the slow fever
+still lingered in her veins, but the daily routine of her life was as
+unchanged as though her strength had been unimpaired.
+
+Dr. Bayard had ordered his patient to drive out every day, and the
+countess considered it her duty to accompany him. The pillows which Mrs.
+Lawkins carefully placed for the support of the invalid were almost as
+much needed by his mother; but she sat erect, and drew herself away from
+them, as though the merest approach to a reclining posture would have
+been a lapse from dignity. The count no longer gazed out of the window
+with that calm look of enjoyment which Maurice and Madeleine had
+remarked; he usually closed his eyes, or fixed them on his son, sitting
+opposite, with a mournfully appealing look, which seemed to ask,--
+
+"Can no help come to me? Will it _always_ be thus?"
+
+Week after week passed on. Maurice, in spite of his unremitting
+attention to his father, found time to pay daily visits to Madeleine.
+
+She no longer made her appearance in the exhibition-rooms, or saw the
+ladies who came to her establishment, upon business; but when Count
+Tristan was removed she had no gracious plea for excusing herself to
+those who called as visitors. She received them with graceful ease and
+dignified composure. Not one of them had courage or inclination to make
+the faintest allusion to the past, or to their acquaintance with her as
+"Mademoiselle Melanie." It was Mademoiselle de Gramont in whose presence
+they sat. Even Madame de Fleury had too much perception to venture to
+ask her advice upon questions of the deepest interest,--namely, the most
+becoming shapes for new attire, the selection of colors, the choice of
+appropriate trimmings, or some equally important matter which engrossed
+that troubled lady's thoughts, and caused her many wakeful nights.
+
+After Count Tristan and Maurice returned to the hotel, Bertha escaped
+from imprisonment. When she informed her aunt that she was suffering
+from want of fresh air, the countess requested her to accompany Count
+Tristan and herself upon their daily drive; but Bertha maintained that
+driving would do her no good; she detested a close carriage; she wanted
+more active exercise,--she would take a brisk walk with her maid. Madame
+de Gramont would assuredly have mounted guard over her niece in person,
+were it not that the fatigue experienced even after a couple of hours'
+driving, admonished her that she lacked the strength for pedestrianism.
+Bertha was allowed to go forth attended only by Adolphine. Her walk
+always lay in one direction, and that was toward the residence of
+Madeleine; and, strange to say, she never failed to encounter M. de
+Bois, who was always going the same way! These invigorating promenades
+had a marvellous effect in restoring Bertha's faded color and vanished
+spirits; and in the small, sad circle of which the stern-visaged
+Countess de Gramont formed the centre, there was, at least, one radiant
+face.
+
+About this time the quiet monotony of Maurice's life was broken by a
+letter from his partner, Mr. Lorrillard. This gentleman had only
+recently learned from Mr. Emerson the painful circumstances which had
+taken place in connection with the loan made to the Viscount de Gramont
+at Mr. Lorrillard's suggestion. Mr. Lorrillard prided himself upon being
+too good a judge of character and upon having studied that of Maurice
+too thoroughly, not to feel confident that some satisfactory
+explanation could be given to occurrences which wore a very dubious
+aspect. He wrote kindly, yet frankly, to Maurice, requesting to know
+whether the account of the transaction which he had received was
+thoroughly correct, and more than hinting his certainty that all the
+facts had not been brought to light. Maurice was sorely perplexed; but,
+in spite of his strong desire to shield his father, he finally decided
+that Mr. Lorrillard was entitled to a full explanation, and that his own
+position would never be endurable while a suspicion shadowed his name.
+He despatched Mr. Lorrillard the following letter.
+
+     "_My dear Sir_:--
+
+     "I cannot but be touched by the confidence you repose in me.
+     I do not thank you less because you have done me the common
+     justice which is due from one man to another. When I
+     received the loan from Mr. Emerson, I as firmly believed
+     that the security I gave him was unquestionable, as he did.
+     I had been led to think that the power of attorney in my
+     father's hands had not been used. I was mistaken. I pass
+     over Mr. Emerson's proceedings, which, however severe, were
+     authorized by the light in which he viewed my conduct. The
+     ten thousand dollars he loaned me were, at once, repaid him
+     by the generosity of one of my relatives, Mademoiselle
+     Madeleine de Gramont, whose debtor I remain. My father's
+     dangerous illness has detained me in Washington. The instant
+     he is sufficiently convalescent I purpose returning to
+     Charleston to resume my professional duties.
+
+              "I am, my dear sir,
+                "Yours, very truly,
+                  "MAURICE DE GRAMONT."
+
+Mr. Lorrillard was highly gratified by the simple, ingenuous, yet manly
+tone of this letter, and well pleased to find his impressions correct.
+He immediately despatched an epistle to Mr. Emerson which convinced the
+latter that he could only conciliate a valued friend by making every
+possible reparation.
+
+A few days later Maurice was surprised by Mr. Emerson's card. He could
+not converse with him in the presence of Count Tristan and Madame de
+Gramont, and was obliged to receive him in the general drawing-room of
+the hotel.
+
+When Maurice entered, Mr. Emerson extended his hand and said, with an
+air of frankness,--
+
+"I am a just man, M. de Gramont, and I came to make you an apology. My
+friend, Mr. Lorrillard, has convinced me that I ought to have paused
+before I yielded to the conviction that one whom he esteemed so highly
+had wilfully taken advantage of my credulity. I am now convinced that
+you were not aware that your property was mortgaged, and I come to tell
+you so."
+
+"You have again made me your debtor," replied Maurice, not a little
+gratified. "I give you my word, as a gentleman, that I had not the
+remotest suspicion the property in question was encumbered. I have no
+right to complain of the severity of your treatment; it was justifiable
+under the circumstances."
+
+"Hardly," replied the other. "But I shall esteem it a privilege to make
+all the reparation in my power. Of course you are aware that the
+railroad mentioned passes through your property, and that the estate has
+already doubled its former value? I came here to say that I am ready not
+only to loan you the ten thousand dollars you originally requested me to
+advance, but a larger sum, if you so desire."
+
+What a sensation of thankfulness and relief those words caused Maurice!
+He would not only be enabled to repay Madeleine the amount she had so
+generously loaned, but he would be in a situation to meet the heavy
+expenses which his father and grandmother were daily incurring! Count de
+Gramont had never given his son entire confidence, and the latter was
+not aware of the _exact_ state of the count's affairs; but Maurice had
+too much cause to believe that they were in a ruinous condition. He had
+only recently become acquainted with the mortifying fact that, from the
+time his father left the Château de Gramont, Bertha had been the banker
+of the whole party.
+
+"I will meet your offer as frankly as it is made," answered Maurice,
+after a moment's reflection. "If you feel justified in loaning me
+fifteen thousand dollars, instead of ten, upon the former security, I
+will esteem it a great favor."
+
+"Willingly; come to my office to-day, at any hour you please, and we
+will settle the matter. Make haste, for I must write to Lorrillard by
+this evening's mail, and I desire to inform him, in answer to his
+somewhat caustic letter, that I have made the _amende honorable_."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+A MISHAP.
+
+
+Madeleine was accustomed to see Maurice at a certain hour every day, and
+looked forward to that period with such joyous expectation that a sense
+of disquiet, amounting to positive pain, took possession of her mind
+when the time passed without his making his appearance. She could not
+help reflecting how sad and long the days would grow when she could no
+more listen for his welcome step, and feel her heart bounding at the
+sight of his handsome countenance; and yet such days must come, and must
+be borne with the rest of life's burdens.
+
+That was his ring at the bell,--those were his firm, rapid steps! His
+face glowed so brightly when he entered the little boudoir that
+Madeleine exclaimed,--
+
+"Your father must be much better! You carry the news written in shining
+characters in your eyes."
+
+Maurice related what had passed between himself and Mr. Emerson, to whom
+he had just paid the promised visit, and concluded by saying,--
+
+"Now, dearest Madeleine, I am enabled to repay your most opportune loan,
+but not able to tell you from what misery and disgrace you saved me."
+
+He laid a check upon the table as he spoke.
+
+Madeleine was silent, and looked uncomfortable. Maurice went on,--
+
+"You cannot _conceive_ my happiness at being so unexpectedly able to pay
+this debt, though that of gratitude must ever remain uncancelled."
+
+"At least, Maurice, I will not _deprive_ you of the happiness, since it
+is one; and perhaps you will be more pleased when you know that this
+money will enable me to make the last payment upon this house, which
+will now become wholly mine. It has grown more dear to me than I
+imagined it could ever become,--more dear through the guests whom it has
+sheltered, and the associations with which it is filled. I never thought
+of making it mine with so much joy."
+
+"You will remain here then? You will continue your occupation?" asked
+Maurice.
+
+"Yes, undoubtedly."
+
+"But," persisted Maurice, "do you not look forward to a time when you
+will have another home?"
+
+"I see no such time in the dim future," she returned. "Perhaps I may
+become so rich that the temptation to retire will be very great; but as
+I cannot live unemployed I shall first be obliged to discover some
+other, wider, and nobler sphere of usefulness."
+
+"But the home I mean," continued Maurice, with an air of desperation,
+"is the home of another,--the home of one whom you love. Do you not look
+forward to dwelling in such a home?"
+
+Madeleine's "No" was uttered in a low tone, but one of unmistakable
+sincerity.
+
+"How can that be?" exclaimed Maurice, at once troubled and relieved.
+
+"Do not try to read the riddle, Maurice. You will be happier in setting
+it aside as one of life's mysteries which will be revealed in the great
+day. Will you listen to a new song which I have been learning?"
+
+"Will I listen? Will a hungry beggar gather the crumbs falling from a
+rich man's table?"
+
+Madeleine laughed and seated herself at the piano. The new song only
+made Maurice desire to hear some of the old ones, and then other new
+ones, and she sang on until an unexpected and startling interruption
+destroyed all the harmony of the hour. But that occurrence we will
+relate in due season. We must first return to the hotel which Maurice
+had left before his usual hour, that he might pay a visit to Mr. Emerson
+previous to calling upon Madeleine.
+
+The palatable delicacies which Madeleine daily sent to the invalids
+always reached the hotel at an hour when Maurice had promised to be at
+home. Robert had strict orders to deliver the salver to one of the hotel
+servants, and never to appear before the countess. This morning,
+however, the arrival of a large number of travellers had occupied all
+the domestics; not a waiter was to be found. Robert was anxious to
+inquire about a silver milk-jug which had not been returned. He carried
+his salver to the door of Madame de Gramont's drawing-room, though
+without intending to enter. The door happened to be open; he could see
+that the room was only occupied by Count Tristan, who was asleep in his
+arm-chair, and Mrs. Lawkins. She was the person whom he wished to see.
+The temptation was too great to be resisted. He entered with soundless
+feet, and placed upon the table a salver bearing a bowl of beef tea,
+two glasses of calves'-feet jelly, a plate of those Normandy cakes which
+the countess had so much relished, and a dish of superb white and red
+raspberries.
+
+Approaching his mouth to Mrs. Lawkins' ear, Robert said, in a whisper,--
+
+"Mrs. Lawkins, I had to come in, for you were just the person I wanted
+to see. You never sent back the silver milk-pitcher."
+
+"The milk-pitcher?" replied Mrs. Lawkins. "Bless my heart! You don't say
+so? It's not here! I hope it's not been stolen. It must have got mixed
+up with the hotel silver and gone downstairs."
+
+"You'll be sure to hunt it up, Mrs. Lawkins. I have said nothing to
+Mademoiselle Melanie,--Mademoiselle Madeleine, I mean; but I am
+responsible, as you know, for all her silver, and I can't have what I
+bring here mislaid; as you were here I thought it was quite safe. How is
+the poor gentleman?"
+
+"Ah, not so well as he was under Mademoiselle Madeleine's care. I'll see
+after the silver jug, and keep a sharp look-out for the silver in
+future."
+
+Robert and Mrs. Lawkins stood with their backs to the door of Madame de
+Gramont's apartment, which opened into the drawing-room. What was their
+consternation on finding the countess herself standing in the door-way!
+Her countenance was perfectly appalling in its white, distorted wrath.
+She strode toward the two abashed domestics, and cried out, in a voice
+which broke the count's slumbers, and caused him to sit up in his chair
+with terror-dilated eyes,--
+
+"Woman! What is the meaning of this? Of whom are you talking? Whose
+silver is that?" (pointing savagely to the salver.) "And who are you?"
+
+Mrs. Lawkins was dumb.
+
+"Am I to be answered?" demanded the countess, imperiously.
+
+Then she turned to Robert. "Whose silver is that? Whose silver did you
+say was missing?"
+
+"Mademoiselle de Gramont's," Robert faltered out.
+
+"And Mademoiselle de Gramont has the unparalleled audacity to send her
+silver here for my use? Do you mean to tell me that this salver and what
+it contains are from her?"
+
+Robert could not answer.
+
+"Great heaven! that I should endure this! That Madeleine de Gramont
+should have the insolence to _force_ her _bounty_ by stealth upon me,
+and that I should not have suspected her at once! Remove that salver out
+of my sight, and if you ever dare"--
+
+Mrs. Lawkins had now partially recovered her self-possession, and
+interrupted the countess politely but very firmly,--
+
+"Madame, you will do M. de Gramont great injury. Do you not see that you
+are exciting him by this violence?"
+
+"_Who_ are you that you dare dictate to me? Leave this house instantly!
+Were you sent here by Mademoiselle de Gramont to institute an
+_espionage_ over me and my family? Go and tell your mistress that
+neither she nor anything that belongs to her shall ever again defile my
+dwelling! I shall watch better in future! I will not be snared by her
+low arts, her contemptible impostures!"
+
+Mrs. Lawkins, though she was a mild woman, loved Madeleine too well to
+hear her mentioned disrespectfully without being roused to indignation;
+affection for her mistress overcame her awe of the countess, and she
+replied with feeling,--
+
+"She is the noblest lady that ever walked the earth to bless it! and her
+only art is the practise of goodness! Those who are turning upon her and
+reviling her ought to be on their knees before her this blessed moment!
+Didn't she nurse that poor gentleman night and day, as though he had
+been her own father? Did she not bear all the slights put upon her by
+those who are not half as good as she?--yes, that are not worthy to wipe
+the dust from her holy feet, for all their pride? Didn't it almost break
+her heart when they forced the poor sick gentleman out of her house, to
+cage him in this cold, dreary place, where his own mother takes about as
+much care and notice of him as though he were a _Hindoo_ or a
+_Hottentot_!" (Mrs. Lawkins was not strong in comparisons.) "And don't
+he mourn the night through for Mademoiselle Madeleine, crying out for
+her to come to him, as, I warrant, he never did for his mother? And
+isn't that mother murdering him at this very moment?"
+
+"Leave the house! Leave the house!" cried the countess, in a voice that
+had lost all its commanding dignity, through rage. "Leave the house, I
+say! Do you dare to stand in my presence after such insolence?"
+
+"Yes, madame I dare!" replied Mrs. Lawkins, coolly. "I am not afraid of
+a marble figure, even though it has a tongue; and there's not more soul
+in you than in a piece of marble; there's nothing but stone where your
+heart should be; but even stone will break with a hard enough blow, and
+perhaps you will get such a one before you die."
+
+"Go! I say, go!" vociferated the countess, pointing to the door. "Am I
+to be obeyed?"
+
+"No, madame!" replied Mrs. Lawkins, undaunted. "Not until I receive the
+orders of M. Maurice de Gramont. He placed me here, and here I shall
+stay until I have his leave to resign my duties."
+
+Count Tristan had caught his attendant's hand when he conceived the idea
+that she was to be sent away from him, and when she refused to leave
+him, he pressed it approvingly.
+
+"I am mistress here!" said the countess, with something of her former
+grandeur of bearing. "M. Maurice de Gramont has no authority to engage
+or discharge domestics, or to give any orders that are not mine. I will
+have none of Mademoiselle de Gramont's spies placed about my person! Go
+and tell her so, and say that after this last outrage, I will never see
+her face again. Would that I might never hear her name! She has been my
+curse,--my misery; she shall never cross my path more!"
+
+The count rose up as if sudden strength were miraculously infused into
+his limbs; he raised both his arms toward heaven, and wailed out, "O
+Lord God, bless her! bless her! Madeleine! Good angel! Madeleine!"
+
+The next moment he fell forward senseless and rolled to the ground.
+
+The countess was stupefied;--she could not speak, or stoop, or stir.
+
+The alarmed house-keeper knelt beside him. Robert hastily set down the
+salver and lent his assistance. They lifted the count and laid him upon
+the sofa. The instant Mrs. Lawkins saw his face, and the foam issuing
+from his lips, she exclaimed,--
+
+"It is another fit! It is his second stroke! Lord have mercy upon him!
+and upon _you_," she continued, turning to the countess, solemnly; "for,
+if he dies, so sure as there is a heaven above us, you have killed your
+own son!"
+
+The countess' look of horror softened the kindly house-keeper, in spite
+of her just wrath, and she added, "He may recover,--he has great
+strength. Robert, run quickly for Dr. Bayard."
+
+Then she unfastened the patient's cravat and dashed cold water upon his
+head, and chafed his hands, while his mother, slowly awakening from her
+state of stupefaction, drew near, and bent over him. But not a finger
+did she raise to minister to him; she would not have known what to do,
+so little were her hands accustomed to ministration,--so seldom had they
+been stretched out to perform the slightest service for any one, even
+her own son.
+
+We left Madeleine chasing away all heaviness from the soul of Maurice by
+her sweet singing. She was still at the piano, and he still hanging over
+her, when Robert burst into the room. He was a man almost stolid in his
+quietude, and his hurried entrance, and agitated manner, were sufficient
+to terrify Maurice and Madeleine before he spoke.
+
+"Mademoiselle, it was my fault! Oh, if I had been more careful to obey
+your orders it would never have happened!"
+
+His contrition was so deep that he could not proceed.
+
+"Has Madame de Gramont discovered who sent the salver?" asked Madeleine,
+with an air of vexation.
+
+"That's not the worst, Mademoiselle. The countess has found out how Mrs.
+Lawkins came there. She overheard us talking about the milk-jug I
+missed. Madame de Gramont was very violent; she said such things of you,
+Mademoiselle, that Mrs. Lawkins, who loves you like her own, couldn't
+stand it, and gave her a bit of her mind, and M. de Gramont was roused
+up also; he wouldn't hear you spoken against; he took on so it caused
+him another attack; down he dropped like dead!"
+
+"My father,--he has been seized again, and"--Maurice did not finish his
+sentence, but caught up his hat.
+
+"I've been for the doctor, sir," said Robert; "he's there by this time."
+
+Maurice was out of the room, and hurrying toward the street door;
+Madeleine sprang after him.
+
+"Maurice! Maurice! Stay one moment! Oh, if I could be near your
+father,--if I could see him! My imprudence has been the cause of this
+last stroke; yet I feel that he would gladly have me near him."
+
+"He would indeed, my best Madeleine; but, my grandmother, alas! I have
+no hope of moving her."
+
+"If her son were dying," persisted Madeleine, "her heart might be
+softened. If he asked for me, she might let me come to him; it would
+soothe _him_ perhaps, and how it would comfort _me_! I shall be at the
+hotel nearly as soon as you are. I will wait in my carriage until you
+come to me and tell me how he is. Perhaps I _may_ be permitted to enter
+if he asks for me. Do not forget that I am there."
+
+Did Maurice ever forget her, for a single moment?
+
+As soon as Madeleine's carriage could be brought to the door she
+followed her cousin.
+
+It was perhaps surprising that she was moved with so much sympathy for
+one whom she not only had good reason to dislike, but toward whom she
+had formerly experienced an unconquerable repugnance; but, with spirits
+chastened and purified, as hers had been, a tenderness is always kindled
+toward those whom they are permitted to _serve_. The very office of
+ministration (the office of angels), softens the heart, and substitutes
+pity for loathing, the strong inclination to regenerate for the spirit
+of condemnation. While Madeleine was daily ministering to the count, she
+found herself becoming attached to him, and, with little effort of
+volition, she blotted the past from her own memory.
+
+The action of Count Tristan's mind had been peculiar; when the discovery
+of his dishonorable manoeuvring caused him a shock which planted the
+first seeds of his present malady,--when he had fallen into the depths
+of despair,--it was Madeleine's hand that raised him up, that saved him
+from disgrace, and saved his son from being the innocent participator of
+that shame. For the first time in his life a strong sense of gratitude
+was awakened in his breast. Again, it was through Madeleine that the
+votes of so much importance to him, and which he had believed
+unattainable, were procured; she stood before him for the second time in
+the light of a benefactress. He had been seized with apoplexy while
+conversing with her; when reason was dimly restored, his mind went back
+to his last conscious thought, and _that_ had been of her,--hence his
+immediate recognition of her alone. Her patient, gentle, tender care had
+impressed him with reverence; he was magnetized by her sphere of
+unselfishness, forgiveness and goodness, and some of the hardnesses of
+his own nature were melted away.
+
+Count Tristan had practised deception until he had nearly lost all
+belief in the truth and purity of others,--had apparently grown
+insensible to all holy influences. Yet the daily contemplation of a
+character which bore witness to the existence of the most heavenly
+attributes silently undermined his cold scepticism, and tacitly
+contradicted and disproved his creed that duplicity and selfishness were
+universal characteristics of mankind,--a creed usually adopted by him
+who sees his fellow-men in the mirror which reflects his own image.
+Madeleine had discovered some small, not yet tightly closed avenue to
+Count Tristan's soul. Her toiling, pardoning, helping, holy spirit had
+done more to lift him out of the bondage of his evil passions than could
+have been affected by any other human agency.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+INFLEXIBILITY.
+
+
+"Oh, you have come at last!" exclaimed the countess, with acrimony, as
+Maurice opened the door of his father's chamber. Then, pointing to the
+count, who still lay in a state of unconsciousness, she added, "Do you
+see what calamities you leave me alone to bear?--you who are the only
+stay I have left?"
+
+By the aid of Mrs. Lawkins and the servants of the hotel, the count had
+been removed to his room. When Maurice entered, Mrs. Lawkins was
+standing on one side of the bed, Dr. Bayard on the other. The countess
+was pacing up and down the small chamber like a caged lioness.
+
+Her grandson did not reply to her taunt, but addressed the doctor in a
+tone too low for her to hear. His answer was a dubious movement of the
+head which augured ill.
+
+Bertha, who chanced to be in her own chamber, writing to her dyspeptic
+uncle, had only that moment become aware of what had happened. She stole
+into the count's room, pale with terror, crept up to Maurice, and clung
+to his arm as she asked, in a frightened tone,--
+
+"Will he die, Maurice? Is it as bad as that?"
+
+"I cannot tell; I have great fears. But see, he is opening his eyes; he
+looks better."
+
+The senses of the count were returning; the fit had been of brief
+duration, and hardly as violent as the one with which he had before been
+attacked. In a short time it was apparent that he was aware of what was
+passing around him.
+
+Maurice whispered to Bertha: "Madeleine is in her carriage at the door;
+put on your bonnet and run down to her,--you will not be missed. Tell
+her that my father is reviving."
+
+Bertha lost no time in obeying, and was soon sitting by Madeleine's
+side, receiving rather than giving comfort.
+
+Dr. Bayard, whose visits were necessarily brief, was compelled to leave,
+but he did so with the assurance that he would return speedily.
+
+Count Tristan's eyes wandered about as though in search of some one;
+they rested but for one instant upon his mother, Maurice, Mrs. Lawkins,
+and then glanced around him again with an anxious, yearning expression,
+and he moaned faintly.
+
+Maurice bent over him. "My dear father, is there anything you desire?"
+
+The count moaned again.
+
+"Is there any one you wish to see?" asked Maurice, determined to take a
+bold stand.
+
+"Mad--Mad--Madeleine!"
+
+The feeble lips of the sufferer formed the word with difficulty, yet it
+was clearly spoken.
+
+Maurice turned bravely to the countess. "You hear, my grandmother, that
+my father wishes to see Madeleine; it is not usual to refuse the
+requests of one in his perilous condition. With your permission I shall
+at once seek Madeleine and bring her to him."
+
+"Have you taken leave of your senses?" she asked with tyrannous passion.
+"Or do you think that I have not borne insults enough, that you strive
+to invent new ones to heap upon me? How can you mention the name of that
+miserable girl in my hearing? Has she not occasioned me and all my
+family sufficient wretchedness? Are you mad enough to imagine that I
+will allow you to bring her here that she may triumph over me in the
+face of the whole world?"
+
+"My father asks to see her," returned Maurice, adding, in a lower tone,
+"and he may be on his death-bed."
+
+Madame de Gramont, losing all control over herself, replied savagely,
+"_If_ he were stretched there a corpse before me,--_he_, _my only son_,
+the only child I ever bore, the pride of my life,--Madeleine de Gramont
+should not enter these doors to glory over me! I know her arts; I know
+the hold she has contrived to obtain over him while he was at her mercy.
+That is at an end! I have him here, and she shall never come near him
+more,--neither she nor her _accomplices_!" and she indicated Mrs.
+Lawkins by a disdainful motion of the hand, as though she feared her
+meaning might not be sufficiently clear.
+
+Maurice could not yield without another effort; for he perceived, by his
+father's countenance, that he not only heard the contest, but appealed
+to him to grant his unspoken wish.
+
+"This is cruel, my grandmother! It is inhuman! You have nothing to urge
+against Madeleine, who has too nobly proved her devotion to her family,
+and her respect for your feelings; but if you _had_ real and just cause
+of complaint, it should be forgotten at this moment. If my father
+desires to see her, she should be permitted to come to him."
+
+"Do you presume to dictate to me, Maurice de Gramont? Is this one of
+the lessons you have learned from the _mantua-maker_? Do you intend to
+teach me my duty to my own child? I _swear to you_ that Madeleine de
+Gramont shall _never_ see my son again, while I live! I, his mother, am
+by his side,--that is sufficient. No one's presence can supersede that
+of a mother!"
+
+Maurice saw that contention was fruitless; he sat down in silence, but
+not without noticing the look of compassion which Mrs. Lawkins bestowed
+upon him. The count had closed his eyes again, but low groans, almost
+like stifled sobs, burst at intervals from his lips.
+
+The countess essayed to unbend sufficiently to attempt the task of
+soothing him.
+
+"My son," she said, in the mildest tone she could command, "do you not
+know that your mother is near you?"
+
+Without unclosing his eyes, he answered, "Yes."
+
+"And her presence under all circumstances," she continued, "should leave
+nothing to desire. In spite of what Maurice with so little respect and
+consideration has attempted to make me believe, I know you too well not
+to be certain that he did you injustice."
+
+No answer; but the countess interpreted her son's silence into
+acquiescence with her observation, and remarked to Maurice with
+asperity,--
+
+"I presume you perceive that your father is fully satisfied. It does not
+interfere with his comfort that you have failed in your attempt. I well
+know you were instigated by one who hopes to make use of your father's
+indisposition as the stepping-stone by which she can again mount into
+favor with her family, and force them into public recognition of her.
+This is but one of her many cunning stratagems; there are others of
+which we will talk presently."
+
+She glanced at Mrs. Lawkins, who was arranging the count's pillows, and
+raising him into a more comfortable position.
+
+Maurice bethought him that it was time to let Madeleine know there was
+no hope of her obtaining admission to his father. As he left the
+apartment, the countess followed him into the drawing-room.
+
+"I have something further to say to you, Maurice, and I prefer to speak
+out of the hearing of that woman. Am I to understand that you were privy
+to her introduction into this house, and that you were aware that she
+was a spy of Mademoiselle de Gramont?"
+
+"A spy, madame?"
+
+"Yes, a spy! Why should Mademoiselle de Gramont wish to place her
+menials here except to institute _espionage_ over my family?"
+
+"Mrs. Lawkins was sent here by Madeleine because she is an efficient
+nurse,--such a nurse as my father needs and as he could not readily
+obtain, _I_ brought her here, and I did not do so without knowing her
+fitness for her office."
+
+"Her chief fitness consists, it appears, in her having been in the
+employment of the mantua-maker. I have no more to say on this subject,
+except that the woman must quit the house this evening."
+
+"That is out of the question; she cannot leave until I have found some
+one to take her place."
+
+"Do you mean to dispute my orders, Maurice de Gramont? I shall not
+entrust to you the task of dismissing her. I shall myself command her to
+leave, and that without delay."
+
+"You will do as you please, madame; but may I ask by whom you intend to
+replace her?"
+
+"Somebody will be found. I will give orders to have another nurse
+procured. In the mean time, Adolphine can make herself useful."
+
+"Adolphine!" replied Maurice, contemptuously. "A butterfly might turn a
+mill-wheel as efficiently as Adolphine could take charge of an invalid."
+
+"Be the alternative what it may," replied the countess, peremptorily, "I
+am unalterable in my determination. That woman sent here by Madeleine de
+Gramont leaves the house to-day!"
+
+Just then her eye fell upon the salver which Robert had left upon the
+table when he ran for the doctor; that sight added fresh fuel to her
+indignation.
+
+"Have you also been aware that Mademoiselle de Gramont carried her
+audacity so far that she had even ventured secretly to send donations,
+in the shape of chocolate, beef-tea, cakes, jellies, and fruit, to her
+family?"
+
+"I am aware," replied Maurice, "that Madeleine's thoughtful kindness
+prompted her, during your indisposition as well as my father's, to
+prepare, with her own hands, delicacies which are not to be obtained in
+a hotel. I was aware that this was her return for the harsh and cruel
+treatment she had received at the hands of,--of some of her family."
+
+"Mad boy! You are leagued with her against me! This is unendurable! Oh,
+that I had never been lured to this abominable country! Oh, that I had
+never known the shame of finding my own grandson sunken so low! But I
+have borne the very utmost that I can support! Now it shall end! I will
+return with your father to our old home, that we may die there in peace!
+If you are not lost to all sense of filial duty, you will not forsake
+your father, but accompany him to Brittany; he will henceforth need a
+son!"
+
+Maurice avoided making a direct reply by saying, "Have the goodness to
+excuse me, madame; I will return in a few moments."
+
+He descended the stair with slower steps than was his wont when on his
+way to Madeleine. Bertha was still sitting in the carriage beside her
+cousin. Maurice read anxious expectation, mingled with some faint hope,
+in Madeleine's countenance. He entered the carriage before he ventured
+to speak.
+
+"Your father, Maurice?" she asked eagerly.
+
+"I think he is better; the attack does not appear as severe as the
+former one must have been."
+
+"Did you speak to your grandmother of me? Did you plead for me, and
+entreat that she would allow me to go to Count Tristan?"
+
+"She is not to be moved, Madeleine; she is implacable."
+
+"But if your father should desire to see me?" persisted Madeleine.
+
+"He did desire,--he even asked for you,--but my grandmother was
+inflexible."
+
+"Maurice, I must,--must go to him, if he wishes to see me. I understand
+his wants so well,--I must, must go to him! Madame de Gramont may treat
+me as she will; but if he wants me, I must go to him!"
+
+Madeleine was so carried away by her strong impulse to reach one to whom
+she knew her presence was essential, that she was less reasonable than
+usual, and it was with some difficulty that Maurice pacified her. But to
+resign herself to the inevitable, however hard, was one of the first
+duties of her life, and after awhile her composure was partially
+restored, and, bidding Bertha and Maurice adieu, she drove home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII.
+
+THE NEW ENGLAND NURSE.
+
+
+Madeleine, in spite of the positive denial she had received, experienced
+as strong a desire to be near her afflicted relative as though his
+yearning for her presence drew her to him by some species of powerful
+magnetism. The wildest plans careered through her brain. She thought of
+the days in Paris when she had so successfully assumed the garb of the
+_soeur de bon secours_, and kept nightly vigils beside the bed of
+Maurice. Was there no disguise under which she could make her way to the
+count? But the doubt that she could elude the countess's scrutinizing
+eyes,--the certainty of the violent scene which must ensue if Madame de
+Gramont discovered her,--made her reluctantly relinquish the attempt.
+Then she clung to the hope that her aunt would not, while Count Tristan
+lay in so perilous a condition, insist upon discharging Mrs. Lawkins.
+All uncertainty upon that head was quickly dispelled by the appearance
+of Mrs. Lawkins herself. The countess had peremptorily repeated her
+sentence of banishment, and refused to listen to her grandson's
+entreaties that she might be permitted to remain until a substitute
+could be procured. To search for that substitute was the sole work left
+for Madeleine's hands. She despatched the willing housekeeper to make
+inquiries among her acquaintances, and charged her to spare neither time
+nor expense. Few Europeans can imagine the difficulty of executing such
+a commission in America; but the Englishwoman had lived in Washington
+long enough to know that she had no light labor before her. She was too
+zealous, however, to return home until she had found a person who was
+fully qualified to fill her vacant post.
+
+Maurice was sitting beside Madeleine when Mrs. Lawkins returned from her
+weary peregrinations and made known her success.
+
+"I did not send for the nurse to come here," said Madeleine. "It seemed
+to me better for you, Maurice, to go and see her and engage her to enter
+upon her duties to-morrow morning. That will give you an opportunity
+this evening of preparing the countess for her reception."
+
+Maurice acted upon Madeleine's suggestion, and, after a very brief
+conversation with Mrs. Gratacap, secured her services.
+
+Mrs. Gratacap belonged to the "Eastern States," albeit the very opposite
+of _oriental_ in her appearance and characteristics. She was a tall,
+angular, grave-visaged person, possessing such decided, common-place
+good sense that she came under the head of that feminine class which
+Dickens has taught the world to designate as "strong-minded." There was
+no "stuff and nonsense" about her; she had a due appreciation of her own
+estimable attributes, as well as a firm conviction of the equality of
+all mankind, or, more especially, _womankind_. When she accepted a
+situation, it was in the conscientious belief that the persons whom she
+undertook to serve were the indebted party; yet she was a faithful nurse
+and both understood and liked her vocation. In spite of her masculine
+bearing toward the rest of the world, she always treated her invalid
+charges with womanly gentleness.
+
+When Maurice informed his grandmother that he had obtained a new _garde
+malade_, the countess at once asked,--
+
+"Are you attempting to introduce another spy of Mademoiselle de Gramont
+into my dwelling?"
+
+Maurice controlled his indignation and replied, "My cousin Madeleine has
+never seen this person. I hope she will suit, as I have engaged her for
+a month, that being the custom here; even if she does not meet _all_ our
+requirements, we cannot discharge her until that period has elapsed."
+
+"I shall not consent to any such stipulation," answered the countess.
+"If she does not please me, I shall order her to leave at once."
+
+"The arrangement is already concluded," returned Maurice; "it is the
+only one I could make, and you cannot but see that it is a matter of
+honor, as well as of necessity, to abide by the contract."
+
+Maurice evinced tact in his choice of language. The imposing words
+"honor" and "contract" made an impression upon the countess, and she
+said no more.
+
+The next day, shortly after the morning meal, the sound of sharp tones
+echoing through the entry, was followed by the noisy opening of the
+countess' drawing-room door.
+
+"This is the place, is it?" cried a harsh voice. "I say, boy, bring
+along that box and dump it down here."
+
+Mrs. Gratacap entered with a bandbox in one hand, and in the other a
+huge umbrella and huger bundle, while the box (which was a compromise
+between a trunk and a packing-case) was carried in without further
+ceremony. Mrs. Gratacap was attired with an exemplary regard for
+_utility_; her garments were too short to be soiled by contact with the
+mud, and disclosed Amazonian feet encased in sturdy boots, to say
+nothing of respectable ankles protected by gray stockings. Her dress was
+of a sombre hue and chargeable with no unnecessary amplitude; where it
+was pulled up at the sides a gray balmoral petticoat was visible;
+crinoline had been scrupulously renounced (as it should be in a
+sick-chamber); the coal-skuttle bonnet performed its legitimate duty in
+shading her face as well as covering her head.
+
+The countess might well look up in stupefied amazement; for she had
+never before been thrown into communication with humanity so strikingly
+primitive, and so complacently self-confident.
+
+"This is the nurse of whom I spoke," was Maurice's introduction.
+
+Mrs. Gratacap who had been too busily engaged in looking after her
+"properties" to perceive the viscount until he spoke, now strode
+forward, extended her hand, and shook his with good-humored familiarity.
+
+"How d'ye do? How d'ye do, young man? Here I am, you see, punctual to
+the moment. Told you you could depend on me. Well, and where's the poor
+dear? And who's _this_, and who's _that_?" looking first at the countess
+and then at Bertha.
+
+Maurice was forced to answer, "That is Madame de Gramont, my
+grandmother, and this is Mademoiselle de Merrivale, my cousin."
+
+"Ah, very good! How are you, ma'am? Glad to see you, miss!" said Mrs.
+Gratacap, nodding first to one and then to the other. "Guess we shall
+get along famously together."
+
+Then, totally unawed by the countess' glacial manner, for Mrs. Gratacap
+had never dreamed of being afraid of "mortal man," to say nothing of
+"mortal woman," she disencumbered herself of her bandbox, bundle, and
+umbrella, deliberately took off the ample hat and tossed it upon the
+table, sending her shawl to keep it company, walked up to Madame de
+Gramont, placed a chair immediately in front of her, and sat down.
+
+"Well, and how's the poor dear? It's a pretty bad case, I hear. Never
+mind,--don't be down in the mouth. I've brought folks through after the
+nails were ready to be driven into their coffins. Nothing like keeping a
+stiff upper lip. Your son, isn't he? Dare say he'll do well enough with
+a little nursing. Let's know when he was taken, and how he's been
+getting on, and what crinks and cranks he's got. Sick folks always have
+crumpled ways. Post me up a bit before I go in to him."
+
+The countess's piercing black eyes were fixed upon the voluble nurse
+with a look of absolute horror, and she never moved her lips.
+
+Maurice came to the rescue.
+
+"My father has been ill nearly a month; he was attacked with apoplexy;
+he had a second stroke yesterday."
+
+"You don't say so? That's bad! Two strokes, eh? We must look out and
+prevent a third; that's a dead go; but often it don't come for years. No
+need of borrowing trouble,--worse than borrowing money."
+
+"Let me show you to my father's apartment," said Maurice, to relieve his
+grandmother.
+
+"All right,--I'm ready! And then you'll let me see where I am to stow my
+duds; any corner will do, but I must have a cupboard of a place all to
+myself; it need only be big enough to swing a cat round in. It isn't
+much comfort I want, but a hole of my own I always bargain for. Aren't
+you coming along?" she said, looking back at the countess, who sat
+still.
+
+Madame de Gramont did not betray that she even suspected these words
+were addressed to her, nor that she heard those which followed, though
+they were spoken in a stage-whisper which could hardly escape her ears.
+
+"Is your granny always so glum? We must cheer her up a bit," was Mrs.
+Gratacap's encouraging comment.
+
+The nurse's high-pitched voice was softened to a lower key when she
+entered the apartment where Count Tristan lay, and there were genuine
+compassion and motherly tenderness in her look as she regarded him. She
+continued to question Maurice until she had learned something of the
+patient's history,--not from sheer curiosity, but because she always
+took a deep interest in the invalids placed under her charge, and by
+becoming acquainted with their peculiarities she could better adapt
+herself to their necessities.
+
+One word only can express the countess's sensations at the dropping of
+such a "monstrosity" into the midst of her family circle,--she was
+appalled! Never had any one ventured to address her with such freedom;
+never before had she been treated by any one as though she were mere
+flesh and blood. She had not believed it possible that any one could
+have the temerity to regard her in the light of equality. One might
+almost have imagined that the formidable New England nurse had inspired
+her with dread, for she could not rouse herself, could not gain courage
+to face the intruder, and, during that day, never once approached her
+son's chamber. But Mrs. Gratacap, in the most unconscious manner, made
+repeated invasions into the drawing-room, and even extended her sallies
+to the countess's own chamber, always upon some plausible pretext,--now
+to inquire where she could find the sugar, or the spoons, now to beg for
+a pair of scissors, or to ask where the vinegar-cruet was kept, or to
+learn how the countess managed about heating bricks, or getting bottles
+of hot water to warm the patient's feet!
+
+The countess, compelled by these intrusions to address the enemy, and
+galled by the necessity, said sternly, "Go to the servants and get what
+is needful."
+
+"Law sakes! You needn't take my head off! I haven't got any other and
+can't spare it!" answered Mrs. Gratacap, not in the least abashed. "I
+don't want to go bothering hotel help; I always keep out of their way,
+for they have a holy horror of us nurses, and the fuss most of us make;
+though I am not one of that sort. I leave the help alone and help myself
+considerable; and what I want I manage to get from the folks I live
+with. That's my way, and I don't think it's a bad way. I've had it for
+thirty odd years that I've been nursing; and I don't think I shall
+change it in thirty more."
+
+She flounced out of the room after this declaration, leaving the
+countess in a state which Mrs. Gratacap herself would have described as
+"quite upset;" but the haughty lady had scarcely time to recover her
+equanimity before the strong-minded nurse returned to the attack.
+
+The countess had retreated to her own room; but Mrs. Gratacap broke in
+upon her, crying out, "I say, when will that young man be back? He's
+gone off without telling me when he'd be at his post again."
+
+Madame de Gramont's usual refuge was in silence, ignoring that she
+heard; but here it was not likely to avail, for she saw that the unawed
+nurse would probably stand her ground, and repeat her question until she
+received an answer. The countess, therefore, forced herself to inquire
+in a severe tone,--
+
+"Whom do you mean?"
+
+"Why, the young man, your grandson, to be sure! A very spry young
+fellow. I like his looks mightily."
+
+If Madame de Gramont had been an adept in reading countenances she would
+have read in the nurse's face, "I cannot say as much for his
+grandmother's;" but the proud lady was not skilled in this humble art,
+and never even suspected that a person in Mrs. Gratacap's lowly station
+would dare to pass judgment upon one in her lofty position. She replied,
+with increased austerity,--
+
+"I am not in the habit of hearing the Viscount de Gramont; my grandson,
+mentioned in this unceremonious manner; it may be the mode adopted in
+this uncivilized country, but it is offensive."
+
+"Law sakes! You don't say so?" answered Mrs. Gratacap, as if the rebuke
+darted off from her without hitting. "I didn't suppose you'd go to fancy
+I was _snubbing_ him because I called him a young man! What could he be
+better? He's not an old one, is he? But I know some folks have a
+partiality to being called by their names, and I have no objection in
+life to humoring them. Well, then, when will Mr. Gramont be back? I'd
+like to know!"
+
+"M. de Gramont did not inform me when he would return;" was the freezing
+rejoinder.
+
+"Now, that's a pity! I want somebody in there for a moment, for the poor
+dear's so heavy I can't turn him all alone. Aren't you strong enough to
+lend a hand? To be sure, at your time of life, one an't apt to be worth
+much in the arms. At all events, an't you coming in to see him? You're
+his own mother; and, I swan, you haven't been near him this blessed
+day."
+
+"Woman!" cried the countess, lashed into fury. "How dare you address
+such language to me?"
+
+"Law sakes!" exclaimed Mrs. Gratacap, lifting up her hands and eyes.
+"What _did_ I say? You _are_ his mother, an't you? There's no shame
+about it, I suppose. I hadn't a notion of putting you into a passion. I
+thought it mighty queer you didn't come in to see your own son when he's
+lying so low; and I said so,--that's all! But if you don't want to come,
+I don't want to force you. I can't put natural feelings in the hearts of
+people that haven't got them; it stands to reason I can't, and you
+needn't be flying out at me on that account."
+
+Mrs. Gratacap, after delivering this admonitory sentiment, was returning
+to the patient when she encountered Bertha, and inquired,--
+
+"Did Mr. Gramont say when he would come back?"
+
+"He did not say; but I think he will be absent for a couple of hours,"
+replied Bertha.
+
+"Oh, if that's the case, I must get a helping hand somewhere.
+You're a young thing, and, I dare say, strong enough. Come along and
+help me move the poor dear."
+
+"Willingly," replied Bertha, "if I am only able."
+
+As they entered the count's chamber, Mrs. Gratacap again subdued her
+voice, and though her words and manner were always of the most positive
+kind, there was a sort of rude softness (if we may use the contradictory
+expression) in her mode of instructing Bertha in the service required.
+
+When the count was comfortably placed, she sat down, and Bertha also
+took a seat.
+
+"I say," commenced Mrs. Gratacap, in a half whisper, "that's the most of
+a tigress yonder I ever had the luck to come across. Why, she's got no
+more natural feeling than an oyster,--no more warm blood in her veins
+than a cauliflower. I wonder how such beings ever get created. Are there
+many of that sort in the parts you came from?"
+
+"She is very proud," replied Bertha, "and I am afraid there is no lack
+of pride in France among the noble class to which she belongs."
+
+"Pride! Why, I wonder what she's got to be proud of? She looks as though
+she couldn't do a thing in life that's worth doing? I like pride well
+enough! I'm awful proud myself when I've done anything remarkable. But I
+wonder what that rock yonder ever did in all her born days to be proud
+of?"
+
+Bertha tried to explain by saying, "Her pride is of family descent."
+
+"I suppose she don't trace back further than Adam, does she? And we all
+do about that," was the answer.
+
+Here the conversation was interrupted. Bertha was summoned to receive
+visitors.
+
+The instant Maurice returned his grandmother attacked him. "Maurice,
+that woman's presence here is insupportable; there is no use of argument
+on the subject; I have made up my mind,--go and dismiss her at once, and
+seek somebody else!"
+
+May not Maurice be pardoned for losing his temper and answering with
+considerable irritation,--"Have I not clearly explained to you, madame,
+that I cannot do anything of the kind? I have engaged her for a month,
+and I cannot turn her away without a good reason; here she must remain
+until the time expires."
+
+"Pay her double her wages, and let her go!" urged the countess.
+
+"Once more, and for the last time," cried Maurice, determinedly, "I tell
+you, I cannot and will not!"
+
+"Then send her to me!" answered the countess.
+
+Maurice did not stir; she repeated, in a more commanding voice, "Send
+her to me, I say!"
+
+Maurice reluctantly went to his father's room and returned with Mrs.
+Gratacap. Before the countess could commence the formal address she had
+prepared, the good woman took a chair, and with complacent familiarity,
+sat down beside her, saying, "Well, and what is it? I hope you feel a
+little better. I'm afraid you've a deal of _bile_; really, it ought to
+be looked after; if you can just get rid of it you'll be a deal more
+comfortable."
+
+"Woman"--began the countess.
+
+Mrs. Gratacap interrupted her, but without the least show of ill-temper.
+
+"Now I tell you, if it's all the same to you, I'd just as lief you'd
+call me by my name, and that's 'Gratacap'--'Mrs. Gratacap!' Fair play's
+a jewel, you know, and you didn't like my calling your grandson a 'young
+man' even, but politely begged that I'd term him 'Mr. Gramont;' so you
+just call me by my name, and I'll return the compliment."
+
+"I choose to avoid the necessity of calling you anything," returned the
+countess, when Mrs. Gratacap allowed her to speak. "You are discharged!
+I desire you to leave my house" (the countess always imagined herself in
+her château, or some mansion to which she had the entire claim), "leave
+my house within an hour."
+
+"Hoighty-toighty! here's a pretty kettle of fish! But it's no use
+talking; I'm settled for a month! that's my engagement."
+
+"I am aware of it; you will receive double your month's wages and go!"
+
+"I'll receive nothing of the kind! I don't take money I've not earned;
+and I'll not go until the time's up! That's a declaration of
+independence for you, which I suppose you're not accustomed to in the
+outlandish place you came from, where people haven't a notion how to
+treat those they can't do without. Do you suppose your paltry money
+would compensate me for the injury it would do my character, if it
+should be said I was engaged for a month, and before I had been in the
+situation a day, I had to pull up stakes and make tracks? No,--unless
+you can prove that I don't know my business, or don't do my duty, I've
+just as much right here, being engaged to take up my quarters here, as
+you have. Don't think I'm offended; make yourself easy on that head.
+I've learnt how to deal with all sorts of folks. I saw at the first
+squint that you and I would have a rather rough time, and I made ready
+for it. If you've got nothing more to say, I'll go back to the poor
+dear, for he's broad awake and may be wanting something."
+
+"And you dare to refuse to go when I dismiss you?"
+
+"_Dare?_ Law sakes! there's no _dare_ about it. _Who's to dare me?_ or
+to frighten me either? You don't think you've come to a free country to
+find people afraid of their shadows,--do you? I'm afraid of nothing but
+not doing my duty; I always dare do that, to say nothing of asserting my
+own rights and privileges. So let's have no more nonsense, and I'll go
+about my business."
+
+Mrs. Gratacap returned to her patient as undisturbed as though the
+countess had merely requested her presence as a matter of courtesy.
+
+The torment Madame de Gramont was destined to endure from this
+straightforward, steady-of-purpose, unterrified New England woman, must
+exceed the comprehension of those who never felt within themselves the
+workings of an overbearing spirit. Mrs. Gratacap maintained her ground;
+there was no displacing her; and she had become thoroughly sovereign of
+the sick-room, as a good nurse ought to be. The only alternative for the
+countess was to avoid her; but she was a pursuing phantom that met the
+proud lady at every turn, haunted her with untiring pertinacity. Madame
+de Gramont absented herself from her son's chamber, except when Mrs.
+Gratacap went to her meals; but little was gained by that, for the nurse
+was always flitting in and out of the drawing-room, or dining-room, at
+unexpected moments, and only the turning of the key kept her out of the
+countess's own chamber.
+
+The first time that Madame de Gramont bethought herself of visiting her
+son when the inevitable _garde malade_ was absent, Mrs. Gratacap
+returned in one quarter the time which the countess imagined it would
+require to swallow the most hasty meal.
+
+"Well, I _do_ say, that's a sight for sore eyes!" exclaimed the nurse.
+"I am as pleased as punch to find you here; but I've been thinking that
+like as not, you're scared of sick folks; there's plenty of people that
+are; but there's nothing to be skittish about; I think this poor dear
+will get all right again."
+
+"Silence, woman!" commanded the countess.
+
+"Never you fear," replied Mrs. Gratacap, either misunderstanding her or
+pretending to do so. "I'm not talking loud enough for him to hear. I
+don't allow loud talking in a sick-room, nor much talking either, of any
+kind. If you'd stay here a little while every day, you'd get some ideas
+from my management."
+
+The exasperated countess retreated from the apartment, falling back, for
+the first time, before an enemy.
+
+As she made her exit Mrs. Gratacap said to Maurice, "It's a pity your
+grandmother is so cantankerous; but, I'm used to cranks and whims of all
+sorts of folks, and it's only for her own sake, that I wish she'd make
+herself more at home here. Who'd think she was the mother of that poor
+dear lying so low? and she never to have a word of comfort to throw at
+him. But people's ways an't alike, thank goodness! It may be the style
+over in your parts, but I'm thankful I was born this side of the great
+pond."
+
+A fortnight passed on, and the count rallied again. The shadows which
+obscured his brain seemed in a measure to have passed away; but they
+were succeeded by a deep melancholy. No effort made by Maurice or Bertha
+(Madame de Gramont made none) could rouse him. His countenance wore an
+expression of utter despair. He never spoke except to reply to some
+question, and then as briefly as possible; but his answers were quite
+lucid. As far as mere _physique_ was in question, he was convalescing
+favorably.
+
+Maurice received another letter from his partner, urging him to return
+to Charleston as soon as possible, and giving him the information that
+there was a most advantageous opening in his profession. While the count
+remained in his present feeble state, Maurice could not leave him;
+besides the countess and Bertha required manly protection.
+
+Bertha continued to resist all Gaston's entreaties to name the day for
+their union, always replying that the day depended upon Madeleine, and
+if the latter remained single, she would do the same.
+
+Maurice decided that, as soon as his father had recovered sufficiently
+to travel, it would be advisable for the whole party to take up their
+abode in Charleston. Many and sharp were the pangs he suffered at the
+thought of leaving a city which Madeleine's presence rendered so dear;
+but he would be worthier of her esteem, and his own self-respect, if he
+resolutely and steadfastly pursued the course he had marked out for
+himself before she was restored to him. To prepare the mind of his
+grandmother, and to learn Bertha's opinion of the proposed change, were
+subjects of importance which demanded immediate attention. He spoke to
+his cousin first, seizing an opportunity when the countess chanced to be
+absent.
+
+Bertha looked amazed, and asked, "How can you leave Madeleine?"
+
+"When I think of it, I feel as though I could not; and yet I must. I
+cannot linger here in idleness. Madeleine herself would be the first one
+to bid me go."
+
+"I dare say!" answered Bertha, pettishly.
+
+"But you, Bertha," continued Maurice, "how will you leave one who has a
+dearer claim upon you, than I, alas! will ever have upon Madeleine? How
+will you be reconciled to part from M. de Bois?"
+
+"I answer as you do, that I _must_."
+
+"But you, Bertha, have an alternative; Gaston, if he could induce you to
+remain,--induce you to give him a wife,--would be enraptured."
+
+"I suppose so," returned Bertha, with charming demureness; "but that is
+out of the question. Wherever my aunt goes, I will go."
+
+"But how long is this to last, Bertha?"
+
+"Nobody knows, except Madeleine, perhaps. I shall not be married until
+she is."
+
+That very suggestion sent such a shuddering thrill through the veins of
+Maurice, that he cried out,--
+
+"Bertha! for the love of Heaven! never mention such a possibility again!
+When the time comes, if come it must, I trust I shall behave like a man,
+but I have not the courage now to contemplate a shock so terrible. The
+very suggestion distracts me. I shall never cease to love
+Madeleine,--never! Were she the wife of another man, I should be forced
+to fly from her forever, that I might not profane her purity by even a
+shadow of that love; yet I should love her all the same! My love is
+interwound with my whole being; the drawing of my breath, the flowing of
+my blood are not more absolute necessities of my existence; my love for
+Madeleine is life itself, and if she should give her hand, as she has
+given her heart, to another man, I,--it is a possibility too dreadful to
+contemplate,--it sets my brain on fire to think of it. Never, never,
+Bertha, never if you have any affection for me, speak of Madeleine as"--
+
+He could not finish his sentence, and Bertha said, penitently,--"I am so
+sorry, Maurice, I beg your pardon; and there's no likelihood at present;
+and so I have told M. de Bois, that he might reconcile himself and learn
+patience."
+
+Madame de Gramont entered, and Maurice, endeavoring to conquer his
+recent agitation, said to her,--
+
+"I have been talking with Bertha about our future plans. I purpose
+returning shortly to Charleston; indeed, it is indispensable that I
+should do so. I trust you and my father and Bertha will be willing to
+accompany me as soon as he is able to bear the journey,--will you not?"
+
+"No," replied the countess, decidedly. "Why should I go to Charleston?
+Why should I linger in this most barbarous, most detestable country,
+where I have suffered so much? I have formed my own plans, and intend to
+carry them into immediate execution."
+
+"May I beg you to let me know what they are?"
+
+"I purpose," said the countess, slowly, but with a decision by which she
+meant to impress Maurice with the certainty that there was no appeal; "I
+purpose returning to Brittany, and there remaining for the rest of my
+days!"
+
+Bertha half leaped from her chair, her breath grew thick, and her heart
+must have beat painfully, for she pressed her hand upon her breast, as
+though to still the violent pulsations.
+
+"To Brittany, my grandmother?" said Maurice, in accents of
+consternation. "I trust not. In my father's state of health, I could not
+feel that I was doing my duty if I were separated from him, and my
+interests, my professional engagements, compel me to remain in this
+country."
+
+"Your filial affection, Maurice de Gramont, must be remarkably strong,
+if you weigh it against your petty, selfish interests,--your
+professional engagements. But, do as you please,--I ask nothing, expect
+nothing from you,--not even the protection of your presence, though I
+have no longer a son who is able to offer me protection."
+
+"But if you will allow me to explain,--if you will allow me to show you
+that my lot is cast in America,--that it would ruin all my future
+prospects to return to Europe! My father's affairs are so much entangled
+that I must exert myself for his support and my own." (He might have
+said the support of his grandmother also, but was too delicate.) "There
+is no opening for me in France, no occupation that I am fitted at
+present to pursue."
+
+"I do not undertake to comprehend what you mean by your
+_prospects_--your _engagements_--your _exerting_ yourself--or any of the
+other low phrases that drop so readily from your tongue. These are not
+matters with which I can have any concern. I have nothing to do with
+your _prospects_, your _exertions_, your _engagements_, or your
+_intentions_. _My intentions_ are plain and unalterable. As soon as the
+physician says my son is in a state to travel, I shall engage our
+passage upon the first steamer that starts for Havre, and turn my back
+upon this miserable land, to which you, Bertha, by your capricious
+folly, lured us. It does not matter who accompanies me, or who does not;
+my son and I will depart,--_that is settled_."
+
+Bertha and Maurice were silent through dismay. The countess finding that
+neither replied, said to her niece,--
+
+"Upon what have you resolved, Bertha? Will you allow me to return alone?
+Do you intend to refuse to go with me, because my grandson has coldly
+disregarded all the ties of kindred and severed himself from his father
+and me?"
+
+Bertha answered quickly, "I wish, oh! I wish you could be persuaded to
+remain here; but if not,--if you _will_ go,--if you _must_ go--I will go
+with you."
+
+It was long since the countess had looked so gratified, and she drew
+Bertha toward her and kissed her brow, exclaiming,--
+
+"There is, at least, _one_ of my own kindred left to me! Thank God!"
+
+"Do not suppose," said Maurice, "if this voyage is inevitable, if you
+cannot be persuaded to think the step hazardous, that I shall allow you
+to take it without a proper escort. If you return to France, let the
+consequence be what it may, I will go with you. Circumstances render it
+impossible that I should take up my residence there, but I will make the
+voyage with you,--I will see you and my father in your own home, and
+then"--
+
+The countess contemplated him approvingly. "That was spoken like
+yourself, Maurice! I have still a grandson upon whom I can lean. Now,
+let us hasten our departure; let us start the instant it is possible; we
+cannot set out too soon to please _me_."
+
+The countess _never_ thought of the _necessity_, _propriety_, or
+_charity_, of pleasing any one else. Could any one's pleasure be of
+importance weighed against hers?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIX.
+
+RONALD.
+
+
+Who cannot conceive the consternation of Gaston de Bois when he learned
+that Madame de Gramont had resolved to return to Brittany with her son,
+and that Bertha had promised to accompany them? The countess sat looking
+at him with a species of savage triumph; for since he had become
+Madeleine's champion, she had treated him with pointed coldness. Gentle
+and sympathetic as his affianced bride was in general, she seemed for
+once to be insensible to the wound she had inflicted, and gave no sign
+of wavering in her resolution.
+
+The next morning she was on her way to Madeleine's, accompanied by her
+maid. M. de Bois joined them as soon as they were out of sight of the
+hotel. How suddenly Bertha's soft heart must have become fossilized!
+for, although his heavy eyes and disturbed mien bore witness to the
+sleepless night he had passed, she did not appear to notice any change
+in his appearance.
+
+"Bertha," he said, reproachfully, "you cannot be so cruel,--so
+ungenerous! You will not leave me and return to Brittany with your aunt,
+instead of giving me the right to detain you!"
+
+"It's very hard-hearted," replied Bertha, tantalizingly; "but I have
+promised my aunt to accompany her, and I, cannot break my word."
+
+"But your promise to me?"
+
+"I hope to keep that, in good time, when the conditions are fulfilled."
+
+"But you link that promise with conditions which may never be
+fulfilled,--never!"
+
+"Then we must be happy as we are," said Bertha, naïvely.
+
+Bertha's obstinacy was surprising in one of her malleable, easily
+influenced character; but it seemed prompted by an instinctive belief
+that Gaston would be forced to make some exertion,--take some steps
+(their nature Bertha did not define to herself) which would result in
+bringing about Madeleine's happiness, and in promoting her union with
+her unknown lover. This one idea had taken such full possession of
+Bertha's brain that it could not be dislodged, and all Gaston's fervent
+entreaties that she would not let his happiness depend upon such an
+unlikely contingency were fruitless.
+
+"Then I have but one alternative," said Gaston, at last. "I will resign
+my secretaryship and accompany you to Brittany. You cannot imagine that
+I would let you go without me?"
+
+Bertha did not say how much pleasure this suggestion gave her; but the
+glad radiance in her blue eyes told she had been unexpectedly spared one
+half the sacrifice which she had determined to make, if necessary.
+
+When Madeleine learned from Gaston the proposed departure of the
+countess and her family, a death-like pallor suddenly overspread her
+countenance, and she gasped out faintly, "All,--all going?"
+
+"Dear, dear Madeleine," cried Bertha, "do not look so; you frighten me.
+It's very sad to leave you in this strange land alone. It depends upon
+you to keep two of us near you,--I mean M. de Bois and myself."
+
+Bertha's words imparted no consolation.
+
+"If you would but unravel this mystery, Madeleine?" Bertha went on. "It
+depends upon you and you only, to bind me here. When you are ready to
+stand before the altar with the one you have so long loved, so shall I
+be! Yes, though it were to-morrow."
+
+"Bertha," answered Madeleine with such sad solemnity that for the first
+time Bertha's hope that her ardent desire might be accomplished was
+chilled, "you do not know what an,--an almost impossibility you are
+asking. Believe me, when I tell you, in all seriousness, that I shall
+never stand before the altar as a bride. An insurmountable barrier
+forbids! I shall live on,--work on, alone,--finding consolation in the
+certainty that I am acting wisely, and bearing bravely what must be
+endured. Will not this declaration convince you that you have decided
+rashly, not to say _cruelly_, in making your wifehood dependent upon
+mine?"
+
+Bertha shook her head pertinaciously: "No--no--no! If I were to yield I
+should have to relinquish my last hope of seeing you a bride. I do not
+mean to yield! You need not persuade me; nor you either, M. de Bois. I
+am as obstinate as the de Gramonts themselves; and yet, in this
+instance, I think I am more reasonable in my firmness."
+
+Madeleine and Gaston did not forego entreaties in spite of this
+assertion; but they had no effect upon Bertha, though she was thankful
+to be relieved from their importunities by the entrance of Maurice.
+Neither Madeleine nor Gaston felt disposed, in his hearing, to run the
+risk of making Bertha repeat her desire that Madeleine should become a
+bride. Madeleine roused herself that Maurice might not perceive her
+sadness, and made an effort to speak of the proposed voyage as a settled
+plan. The gloom of Maurice was not diminished by her attempt. He would
+have been less chagrined if he had seen the emotion which her pallid
+cheeks betrayed when the intelligence of their approaching departure was
+communicated to her. Ungenerous manhood! he would have suffered less had
+he known that she whom he loved suffered also!
+
+Later in the day, as he was slowly walking toward the hotel, plunged in
+one of those despondent moods to which he had been subject before his
+sojourn in America, he was roused by a clear, ringing voice, though so
+long unheard, still familiar, and ever pleasant to his ears.
+
+"Maurice!"
+
+"Ronald! There is not a man in the world I would rather have seen!"
+
+"And you are the very man I was seeking. I came to Washington on purpose
+to see you," replied the young artist, who had exerted so strong an
+influence over the character of Maurice in other days, and who had done
+so much toward "shaping his destiny."
+
+Ronald was somewhat changed; the rich coloring of his handsome face had
+paled, or been bronzed over; a few lightly traced, but expressive lines
+were chronicles of mental struggles, and told that he had thought and
+suffered. There was more contemplation and less gayety in the brilliant
+brown eyes; more reflective composure and less impulsive buoyancy in his
+demeanor. Heretofore his bearing, language, whole aspect had ever
+communicated the impression of possible power; now it bespoke power
+confirmed and concentrated, and brought into living action.
+
+The friendship of Maurice and Ronald had not grown cold during the years
+they had been separated. They had corresponded regularly; their interest
+in each other, their affection for each other had deepened and
+strengthened with every year, as all emotions which have their root in
+the spirit must deepen and strengthen,--the elements of _progress_ being
+inseparable from those affections which draw their existence from this
+life-source.
+
+Maurice, during his sojourn in Charleston, had paid weekly visits to
+Ronald's parents, usually spending his Sundays beneath their hospitable
+roof; and this made the day a true Sabbath to him. During the two months
+he had passed in Washington, Maurice had only written brief letters to
+Mrs. Walton; for the rapid succession of exciting events had engrossed
+his time, though it could not make him forget one who was ever ready
+with her sympathy and counsel. Her replies also had been curtailed by
+the all-absorbing joy of welcoming her son after his long absence.
+
+The young artist had now achieved an enviable reputation as a painter.
+His first works were characterized by a towering ambition in their
+conception, which his unpractised execution could not fitly illustrate;
+but they had disappointed no one so much as himself. After many
+struggles against a sense of discouragement, inseparable from high
+aspirations, frustrated for the moment, he had broken out of his
+chrysalis state of imperfect action, and spread his wings in strong and
+serious earnest. His sensitive perception of the great and beautiful,
+allied to the creative power of genius soon blazoned his prodigal gifts
+to the world, and he had gloried in that sense of might which makes the
+true artist feel he has a giant's strength for good or evil.
+
+"I have rejoiced over your new laurels!" exclaimed Maurice, warmly; for
+he had learned Ronald's distinction through the journals of the day.
+
+"They are so intangible," replied Ronald, smiling, "that I'm not quite
+sure of their existence. I did not tell you that my father and mother
+are here and most anxious to see you. When will you pay them a visit?
+Can you not come with me now?"
+
+Maurice gladly consented to accompany his friend.
+
+"You are our chief attraction to Washington," continued Ronald. "My
+mother was the first to propose that we should seek you out. Your
+letters were so sad, and even confused, that she felt you needed her. I
+think she fancies she has two sons, Maurice."
+
+"She is the only mother I have ever known," answered Maurice; "and life
+is incomplete when a mother's place is unfilled in the soul."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER L.
+
+A SECRET DIVINED.
+
+
+"Take care! the 'Don' will be jealous!" exclaimed Mr. Walton, as he
+witnessed his wife's greeting of Maurice,--a greeting as tender as a
+true mother could have bestowed. "When Ronald was a boy he would rush
+about like one gone mad if his mother ever ventured to take another
+child upon her knee,--he would never have his throne usurped. Our 'Don'
+was always 'monarch of all he surveyed.'"
+
+This jocular appellation of the 'Don,' Mr. Walton had bestowed upon his
+son on account of his early propensity to fight moral windmills, and the
+Quixotic zeal with which he espoused the cause of the weak and the fair.
+This knight-errant proclivity ripened from the Quixotism of boyhood into
+the chivalrous devotion which had manifested itself in his somewhat
+romantic friendship for Maurice,--a friendship productive of such happy
+results to the young viscount.
+
+Ronald replied, "My affection has gained a victory over my jealousy, as
+Maurice discovered some years ago. I have just given him a new evidence
+of that fact by accompanying you and my mother to Washington in the hope
+of seeing him."
+
+"Did you really come for my sake," asked Maurice, much moved.
+
+Mrs. Walton answered, "How could we help being distressed about you?
+Your letters were so unsatisfactory. I shall know more of your true
+state in one _tête-à-tête_,--one good long heart-talk,--than I could
+learn by a thousand letters."
+
+After this declaration, Ronald and his father jestingly pronounced
+themselves _de trop_ and departed.
+
+Maurice had long since given Mrs. Walton his full confidence, and now to
+sit and relate the events that had transpired during his stay in
+Washington was a heart-unburthening which lightened his oppressed
+spirit. It seemed to him as though some ray of hope must break through
+the clouds which enveloped him, if her clear, steady vision closely
+scanned their blackness; _she_ might discover some gleam of light which
+he could not perceive.
+
+When he finished the narrative she asked,--
+
+"And have you no suspicion who this mysterious lover can be? No clue to
+his identity?"
+
+"Not the faintest," answered Maurice.
+
+"But since you have seen Madeleine at all hours of the day, since you
+have resided in her house, she could not have evinced a preference for
+any gentleman without your perceiving the distinction."
+
+"She evinced no preferences; no gentleman was upon an intimate footing
+except M. de Bois, who is engaged to Bertha, much to Madeleine's
+delight."
+
+"M. de Bois, you tell me," continued Mrs. Walton, "has been her devoted
+friend during all these years that she has been separated from you. Have
+you not been able to learn something from him?"
+
+"I have too much respect for Madeleine to force from another a secret
+which she refuses to impart to me; but I am quite certain that if M. de
+Bois knows whom Madeleine has blessed with her love, Bertha is still in
+ignorance. Bertha would have told me at once."
+
+Mrs. Walton mused awhile, then said, "I do not see any loose thread by
+which the mystery can be unravelled; but you will, of course, make me
+acquainted with your Madeleine?"
+
+"_My_ Madeleine," began Maurice, bitterly.
+
+"I called her yours involuntarily, because your heart seems so wholly to
+claim her. She will receive me,--will she not?"
+
+"Gladly, I am sure."
+
+"Then we will go to-morrow."
+
+There were too many chords of sympathy which vibrated responsively in
+the bosoms of Mrs. Walton and Madeleine, too many planes upon which they
+could meet, for them to remain merely formal acquaintances. It was
+Madeleine's nature to treat those with whom she was thrown in contact
+with a genial courtesy which rose to kindness, often to affection; but
+it was only to a few that she really threw wide the portals of her large
+heart. Mrs. Walton's devotion to Maurice was claim enough for her to be
+ranked among the small number whom Madeleine admitted to that inner
+sanctuary.
+
+On the other hand, Mrs. Walton was by no means impulsive in forming
+friendships; her existence had been brightened by very few. She had much
+constitutional _reticence_; she enjoyed a secluded life; she was not
+dependent upon others for happiness. A rich, inexhaustible well-spring
+of joy,--the one joy of her days,--flowed in through her son, and that
+pure fount was all-sufficient to water the flowers that sprang in her
+path. Maurice had awakened her womanly compassion, first, because Ronald
+had found in him a brother; next, because he was motherless and almost
+heart-broken, and finally, because his noble attributes won her admiring
+affection. But, although Mrs. Walton had no facility in making
+friendships, when she did become attached, it was with a sympathetic and
+absolute devotion which extended itself involuntarily to the beings who
+were dear to those she loved; thus her attachment for Maurice awakened
+an affection for Madeleine before they met; and when she clasped
+Madeleine's hand, and looked into her fair face, the reserve she
+invariably experienced toward strangers at once melted away, and in
+their very first interview these two responsive spirits drew near to
+each other with a mutual sense that their intercourse must become closer
+and closer.
+
+Madeleine had frequently seen Ronald when, habited as the _soeur de
+bon secours_, she kept nightly vigil by the bed of Maurice, and Ronald
+had marked the classic features of the "holy sister," and quickly
+recognized them again when he was presented to Mademoiselle de Gramont.
+
+After Mrs. Walton had visited Madeleine, Ronald persuaded her to call
+with him on Mademoiselle de Merrivale. Bertha received her quondam
+partner of the dance with much warmth and vivacity; but the countess
+looked with freezing hauteur upon these American friends of her
+grandson. Though Mrs. Walton was naturally timid, she was unawed by the
+countess's assumption of superiority; her self-respect enabled her to
+remain perfectly composed and collected, and to appear unconscious of
+the disdain with which she was treated.
+
+This initiative visit was quickly followed by others, and Mrs. Walton
+proved how little she dreaded the countess by inviting Bertha to dine
+with her.
+
+"I shall be delighted to go," said Bertha, "that is, if my aunt does not
+object."
+
+"Rather tardily remembered," answered the countess, with acerbity.
+
+"Better late than never," retorted Bertha, gayly; "so, my dear aunt, you
+will not say 'No.'"
+
+The countess would gladly have found some reason for refusing, but none
+presented itself, and Bertha was sufficiently self-willed to dispute her
+authority; it was therefore impolitic to make an open objection.
+
+M. de Bois also received an invitation. Maurice and Madeleine joined
+the little circle in the evening,--a delightful surprise to Bertha and
+Gaston. This was the first evening that Madeleine had passed out of her
+own dwelling during her residence in America. She had necessarily
+renounced society when she adopted a vocation incompatible with her
+legitimate social position; but, on this occasion, she could not resist
+Mrs. Walton's persuasions, and perhaps the promptings of her own
+inclination.
+
+Once more Madeleine's vocal powers were called into requisition. She was
+ever ready to contribute her _mite_ (so she termed it) toward the
+general entertainment, and she would have despised the petty affectation
+of pretended reluctance to draw forth entreaty, or give value to her
+performance. Her voice had never sounded more touchingly, mournfully
+pathetic, and her listeners hung entranced upon the sounds. Maurice
+drank in every tone, and never moved his eyes from her face; but when
+the soft cadences sank in silence, what a look of anguish passed over
+his manly features, and told that the sharp bayonet of his life-sorrow
+pierced him anew. He turned involuntarily toward Mrs. Walton, and met a
+look of sympathy not wholly powerless to soothe.
+
+Mr. Walton was loud in his praises of Madeleine's vocalization; he had a
+courtier's felicity in expressing admiration, never more genuine than on
+the present occasion.
+
+"We must not be so ungrateful as to forget to offer Mademoiselle de
+Gramont the only return in our power, however far it may fall short of
+what she merits," said he; "the 'Don' here, does not sing; he is not a
+poet even, except in soul, and all his inspirations flow through his
+brush; but he interprets poets with an art which I think is hardly less
+valuable than the poet's own divine afflatus."
+
+Madeleine, delighted, seized upon the suggestion, and solicited Ronald
+to favor the company. His mother placed in his hands a volume of Mrs.
+Browning's poems, and he turned to that surpassingly beautiful romance,
+"Lady Geraldine's Courtship."
+
+Ronald was one of those rare readers gifted with the power of filling,
+at pleasure, the poet's place, or of embodying the characters which he
+delineated. The young artist's rich, sonorous voice; obeyed his will,
+and was modulated to express every variety of emotion, while his
+animated countenance glowed, flushed, paled, grew radiant or clouded,
+with the scene he described. A master-spirit playing upon a thoroughly
+comprehended instrument manifested itself in his rendition of the
+author.
+
+All eyes were riveted upon him as he read; he possessed in an eminent
+degree the faculty of magnetizing his hearers, taking them captive for
+the time being, and bearing them, as upon a rising or falling wave,
+whither he would. As the tale progressed, the silence grew deeper, and,
+save Ronald's voice, not a sound was to be heard, except, now and then,
+a quickened breath and Bertha's low sobbing; for she wept as though
+Bertram had been one whom she had known.
+
+Mrs. Walton's eyes had been fixed upon her son, with an expression of
+ineffable soul-drawn delight; but, just before the poem drew to a close,
+they stole around the circle to note the effect produced by his masterly
+reading upon others. Every face mirrored such emotions as the poem might
+have awakened in minds capable of appreciating the noble and beautiful;
+but by Madeleine's countenance she was forcibly struck; a marble pallor
+overspread her visage, her eyes were strangely dilated and filled with
+moisture; if the lids for a moment had closed, the "silver tears" must
+have run down her cheeks as freely as ran Lady Geraldine's; but, when
+Ronald came to that passage where Lady Geraldine thrills Bertram with
+joy by the confession that it was him whom she loved,--though he had
+never divined that love,--him only! Madeleine's lips quivered, and, with
+a sudden impulse, which defied control, she covered her face with her
+hands as though she dreaded that her heart might be perused in her
+countenance. It was an involuntary action, repented of as soon as made,
+for she withdrew the hands immediately, but the spontaneous movement
+spoke volumes.
+
+As Mrs. Walton watched her, a sudden flash of _clairvoyance_ revealed a
+portion of the truth, and she ejaculated, mentally,--
+
+"The man whom Madeleine loves is unaware of her love, as Bertram was of
+Lady Geraldine's."
+
+This suggestion, born in the under-current of her thoughts, floated
+constantly to the surface awaiting confirmation. If her belief were
+well-grounded, one step was taken toward fathoming the secret which
+Madeleine had doubtless some motive for preserving, but which Mrs.
+Walton's sympathies with Maurice made her earnestly desire to bring to
+light. Madeleine might have conceived a passion for one whom she would
+never more meet, or for one who was unconscious of her preference,
+though that seemed hardly possible.
+
+Under ordinary circumstances Mrs. Walton would have been one of the last
+persons to take an active part in searching out the hidden springs of
+any human actions; but she was so deeply interested, both in Maurice and
+Madeleine, that a strong desire to be of service to them made her break
+one of the rules of her life. A wise rule, perhaps, so far as it frees
+one from responsibility, yet a rule which generous and impulsive spirits
+will often disregard in the hope of wafting into a drooping sail some
+favorable breeze that will send the ship toward a wished-for port.
+
+It chanced the very next day, when Mrs. Walton was visiting Madeleine,
+that the latter was summoned away, and as she left the room, she said,--
+
+"I will not be long absent; here are books with which I hope you can
+amuse yourself."
+
+They had been sitting in Madeleine's boudoir; Mrs. Walton's chair was
+close to Madeleine's desk; upon the desk lay several volumes, probably
+those which had been last in use. Mrs. Walton made a haphazard
+selection, and took up a little sketch-book. Her interest was quickly
+awakened when she found that it contained sketches which were doubtless
+Madeleine's own. There was the château of Count Tristan de Gramont at
+Rennes, and the memorable little _châlet_--the château of the Marquis de
+Merrivale, and sketches of other localities in her native land, of which
+she had thus preserved the memory. Then followed fancy groups, composed
+of various figures, apparently illustrative of scenes from books; but
+Mrs. Walton could not be certain of the unexplained subjects.
+
+One familiar face struck her,--a most perfect likeness of Maurice,--it
+was unmistakable. Prominent in every group, though in different
+attitudes and costumes, was that one figure. Maurice,--still Maurice,
+throughout the book. Mrs. Walton was pondering upon this singular
+discovery when Madeleine entered.
+
+She flushed crimson when she saw the volume her visitor was examining,
+and said, in a confused tone, taking the book from Mrs. Walton's
+hands,--
+
+"I thought I had locked this book in my desk; how could I have left it
+about? It only contains old sketches of remembered places, and similar
+trifles, not worth your contemplation."
+
+"I found them very beautiful," replied Mrs. Walton, "and the likenesses
+of Maurice are perfect."
+
+"Of Maurice?" was all that Madeleine could say, her agitation increasing
+every moment.
+
+"Yes, I could not understand the subjects, but his face and form are
+admirably depicted. You have a true talent for making portraits."
+
+Madeleine could not answer, but as Mrs. Walton glanced at her conscious
+and troubled countenance, woman's instinct whispered, "It is Maurice
+whom she loves."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LI.
+
+SEED SOWN.
+
+
+Once more Count Tristan was convalescent. He could move his limbs with
+tolerable freedom,--could walk without support, though with slow,
+uncertain, uneven steps; his articulation was now hardly impaired,
+though he never spoke except in answer to questions, and then with
+evident unwillingness. He took little or no notice of what passed around
+him, but ever seemed brooding over his own misfortunes,--that is, if his
+mind retained any activity, of which it was not easy to judge.
+
+In another week the month for which Mrs. Gratacap considered herself
+engaged would expire. That worthy, but voluble and independent person
+determined that she would not submit to the slight of having due notice
+of dismissal given her, and therefore herself gave warning that she
+purposed to take her departure. At the same time she said to Maurice,--
+
+"I vow to goodness that grandmother of yours hasn't got the least idea
+of manners. I wonder if that's the style in her country? Why, we
+shouldn't call it common decency here! Law sakes! she's had a lesson or
+two from me, I think. Would you believe it, this very blessed morning
+she had no more civility than just to bid me leave the room as she
+wanted to speak to the doctor. I vow to goodness, I wouldn't have
+stirred a step if it hadn't been that I knew she didn't know any better,
+and I never force myself where I am not wanted; so I just took myself
+off."
+
+"It was better to try and bear with my grandmother," answered Maurice,
+soothingly.
+
+"And it's bearing with a bear to do it!" responded Mrs. Gratacap. "I
+don't mind it on my own account,--I am accustomed to all sorts of queer
+folks, but I suspected the old lady was up to something that would worry
+the poor dear, and, to be sure, I was right."
+
+"What do you mean?" inquired Maurice, anxiously.
+
+"Why, I couldn't help catching a word or two of what the doctor said
+when he went out; I just heard him say that the patient _could_ make the
+voyage if it were necessary, though it would be better to keep him
+quiet. Mark my words, she wants to pack off, bag and baggage, at short
+notice,--and _she'll do it_! Never trust my judgment if she don't."
+
+Mrs. Gratacap was right; one hour later, the countess, with a look which
+reminded Maurice, of the days when she swayed unopposed, informed him
+that Count Tristan had been pronounced by his physician sufficiently
+convalescent to bear a sea-voyage, and that she intended to leave
+Washington that day week, for New York, and take the first steamer that
+sails for Havre.
+
+Maurice could only stammer out, "So suddenly?"
+
+"Suddenly?" echoed the imperious lady; "it is a century to me! a century
+of torture! And you call it _suddenly_? _Nothing_ will prevent my
+leaving this city in a week, and this detestable country as soon after
+as possible. Do you understand me?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"Then I depend upon you to make all the needful preparations. There will
+be no change in my plans; the matter is settled and requires no further
+discussion."
+
+Maurice knew too well that there was but one course left, and that was
+submission to her despotic will. He at once apprised Gaston of the
+determination of the countess. M. de Bois was more grieved for his
+friend than for himself, and said he could be ready to accompany the
+party in twenty-four hours.
+
+After this, Maurice took his way to the Waltons. He could not yet summon
+resolution to go to Madeleine.
+
+We have already said that Mrs. Walton, through her woman's instincts,
+thought she had discovered Madeleine's secret, and every day some
+trivial circumstance confirmed her in her belief. But her shrinking
+nature made it difficult for her ever to take the initiative, or to
+attempt to change the current of events by any strong act of her own.
+There was no absence of _power_ in her composition, but a distrust of
+her own powers which produced the same effect. Hers was a _passive_ and
+not _suggestive_ nature; if the first step in some desirable path were
+taken by another she would follow, and labor heart and hand, and by her
+judgment and zeal accomplish what that other only projected; but she had
+a horror of taking the responsibility, of "meddling with other people's
+affairs," even in the hope of bringing about some happy issue.
+
+Ronald's impulses were precisely opposite to his mother's. He had an
+internal delight in swaying, in influencing, in bending circumstances to
+his will, in making all the crooked paths straight and righting all the
+wrongs of mankind. He was always ready to form projects (his father
+would say in a Quixotic style) and carry them into execution, to benefit
+his friends. He was deterred by no constitutional timidity, and the rash
+impulsiveness of youth looks only to happy results, and is seldom curbed
+by the reflection of possible evil. Ronald would have served Maurice at
+all hazards, and by all means in his power, or _out of his power_. He
+was expressing to his mother the chagrin he felt at the sad position of
+his friend, and his fear that it would throw a blight over his energies,
+when the latter remarked,--
+
+"I think I have made a discovery which concerns Maurice, though I do not
+see how it can benefit him. Yet I am sure I know a secret which he would
+give almost his existence to learn."
+
+"Indeed!" exclaimed Ronald. "Tell him then at once!"
+
+"I cannot make up my mind that it would tend to any good result. It
+would be better, I think, not to touch upon the subject at all; let
+events take their natural course."
+
+"We should build no houses, we should write no books, and paint no
+pictures, if we adopted that doctrine," answered Ronald. "At least, tell
+me what you have learned."
+
+"I think I know," replied Mrs. Walton, "whom Madeleine loves."
+
+"Is it possible?"
+
+"And that is Maurice himself!"
+
+Mrs. Walton went through the whole train of reasoning by which she had
+arrived at her conclusion; and Ronald was only too well pleased to be
+convinced.
+
+"But, my dear, impetuous boy," said she, as she looked upon his glowing
+face, "what good to Maurice can grow out of this?"
+
+"Let us plant the seed and give it some good chance to grow," returned
+Ronald, eagerly. "Here is Maurice himself. The first step is to tell
+him"--
+
+Maurice entered in time to hear the last words, and took them up.
+
+"You can hardly tell him anything sadder than he comes to tell you. In a
+week we must bid each other adieu; my grandmother has resolved to return
+to Brittany without further delay."
+
+"I should be more deeply moved by that news," replied Ronald, "did I not
+think that I had some intelligence to communicate in exchange which is
+very far from sad. Maurice, are you prepared to hear anything I may have
+to say?"
+
+"When did your words fail to do me good?" asked Maurice. "Do you think I
+have forgotten our long arguments in Paris, when I was in a state of
+such deep dejection, and you roused me and spurred me on to action by
+your buoyant, active, hopeful spirit? But go on."
+
+"I want to speak of your cousin, Mademoiselle de Gramont."
+
+Maurice expressed by his looks how welcome that theme ever was.
+
+"You ardently desire," continued Ronald, "for so my mother has told me,
+to know who Mademoiselle Madeleine loves."
+
+"Yes, I desire it more than words can utter."
+
+"I think I can tell you," returned Ronald.
+
+"You? You are not in earnest?" cried Maurice, in amazement. "For the
+love of Heaven, Ronald, do not sport with such a subject!"
+
+"I do _not_ jest, Maurice. I only tell you what you ought yourself to
+have discovered long ago."
+
+"How could I? There is no possible clew. Madeleine sees no one, writes
+to no one, whom I could conceive to be the man whom she prefers."
+
+"Easily explained," continued Ronald. "That man does not know he is
+beloved by her."
+
+"Incredible!" replied Maurice.
+
+"Very credible, my dear Maurice, as you are bound to admit; for that man
+stands before me."
+
+"Ronald, for pity's sake--this--this is inhuman!"
+
+"Do not wrong me so much, Maurice, as to think me capable of speaking
+lightly upon such a subject. My mother's perception of character is
+really wonderful; and her instincts, I think, never fail her; she is
+convinced that it is _you_, and you only, whom Madeleine loves. Reflect
+how many proofs of love she has given you! Has she not, through M. de
+Bois, kept trace of all your movements during the years that you were
+separated? Did she not run great risk to watch beside your sick-bed in
+Paris? Did you not tell me that it was her prompt and generous
+interference which prevented your losing your credit with Mr. Emerson?
+Does not her every action prove that you are ever in her thoughts? And,
+Maurice, I tell you, it is _you_ whom she loves."
+
+Maurice listened as though some holy voice from supernal regions chanted
+heavenly music in his ears. But he roused himself from the delicious
+dream, for he did not dare to yield to its spell, and said,--
+
+"Did she not herself tell me that she loved another?"
+
+"May you not have mistaken her exact words?" asked Ronald. "It was
+necessary to renounce you, to take all hope away from you, and place in
+your path the only barrier which you could not hope to overleap. And may
+she not have given you the impression that she loved, that her
+affections were engaged, while you drew the inference from her rejecting
+your hand that her heart was given to some other?"
+
+The countenance of Maurice grew effulgent with the flood of hope poured
+upon it.
+
+"Oh, if it were so!" he exclaimed, in rapture. "Ronald, my best friend,
+what do I not owe you? Mrs. Walton, why, why are you silent? Speak to
+me! Tell me that you really believe Madeleine loves me!"
+
+Mrs. Walton, alarmed by the violence of his emotion, began to turn over
+in her mind the unfortunate results which might ensue if she had made an
+error. Maurice still implored her to speak, and she said, at last, with
+some hesitation,--
+
+"If Madeleine does not love you, and you only, I have no skill in
+interpreting 'the weather signs of love.' I ought not to be too
+confident of my own judgment; and yet I cannot force myself to doubt
+that, in this instance, it is correct."
+
+"Say that again and again. I cannot hear it too often. _You cannot force
+yourself to doubt_,--you are quite convinced then, quite sure that
+Madeleine, my own Madeleine, loves me?"
+
+"I am indeed," responded Mrs. Walton, tenderly.
+
+Maurice folded his arms about her, bowed his head on her shoulder, and
+his great joy found a vent which it had never known before; for never
+before had tears of ecstasy poured from his eyes. That Mrs. Walton
+should weep too was but natural. She was a woman, and tears are the
+privilege of her sex. Ronald had evidently some fears, that their
+emotion would prove contagious; for he walked up and down the room with
+remarkable rapidity, and then threw open the window and looked out,
+cleared his throat several times, and finally said, in tolerably firm
+accents,--
+
+"But, Maurice, what are we to do if the countess is determined to return
+to Brittany at once?"
+
+"If Madeleine loves me, I can endure anything! I can leave her, I can go
+with my father, or perform any other hard duty. The sweet certainty of
+her love will brighten and lighten my trial. Oh, if I could only be
+sure!"
+
+"Make yourself sure as soon as possible," suggested Ronald, to whom
+promptitude was a second nature.
+
+"I will go to her; I will tell her what I believe; I will implore her to
+grant me the happiness of knowing that her heart is mine. But O Ronald,
+if I have been deluded,--if you have given me false hopes"--
+
+"You will fight me," answered Ronald, laughing. "Of course that's all a
+friend gets for trying to be of service."
+
+"Go, Maurice," said Mrs. Walton, "and bring us the happy news that
+Ronald and his mother have not caused you fresh suffering."
+
+"You said you had not a _doubt_," cried Maurice, trembling at the bare
+suggestion.
+
+"And I have not. Go!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LII.
+
+A LOVER'S SNARE.
+
+
+Maurice was on his way to Madeleine's. Not for years, not since the day
+when he breathed his love in the old Château de Gramont, had his heart
+throbbed with such rapturous pulsations as now; not since that hour had
+the world looked so paradisiacal,--life so full of enchantment to his
+eyes. As he reached her door and ascended the steps, his emotions were
+overpowering. A few moments more, and the heavenly dream would become a
+glorious, life-brightening reality, or would melt away, a delusive
+mirage in the desert of his existence, leaving his pathway a blanker
+wilderness than ever.
+
+He was too much at home to require the ceremony of announcement, and
+sought Madeleine in her boudoir. She was not there. She was receiving
+visitors in the drawing-room. Maurice sat down to await her coming; but
+his impatience made him too restless for inaction, and he entered the
+_salon_.
+
+Madeleine's guests were Madame de Fleury and Mrs. Gilmer,--an accidental
+and not very welcome encounter of the fashionable belligerents; though
+since Mrs. Gilmer had received the much-desired invitation to Madame de
+Fleury's ball, she had affected to lay down her arms, and Madame de
+Fleury pretended to do the same.
+
+Madeleine was listening with patient courtesy to the meaningless
+nothings of the one lady, and the stereotyped insipidity of the other.
+Madame de Fleury was tortured by a desire to consult her hostess
+concerning a fancy ball-dress which at that moment filled her thoughts;
+but Madeleine's manner was so thoroughly that of an equal who
+entertained no doubts of her own position,--the vocation of
+"Mademoiselle Melanie" was so completely laid aside,--that Madame de
+Fleury, with all her tact and world-knowledge, could not plan any mode
+of introducing the fascinating subject of "_chiffons_."
+
+The marchioness greeted Maurice with enthusiastic cordiality. It struck
+her, on seeing him, that she might broach the desired topic through his
+aid; and she said, with the most charmingly innocent air, as though the
+thought had just occurred to her,--
+
+"Shall I see you, M. de Gramont, at the grand fancy ball which Madame
+Orlowski gives next week? I hear it will be the _fête_ of the season."
+
+"I have not the honor of Madame Orlowski's acquaintance," replied
+Maurice.
+
+"What a pity! But I can easily procure you an invitation, and you will
+have time enough to arrange about a costume. I have not determined upon
+mine yet. I want something very original. I am quite puzzled what to
+decide upon. I am perfectly haunted with visions of dresses that float
+through my brain. I have imagined myself attired as nymphs, and heathen
+deities, and ladies of ancient courts, and heroines of books; but I
+cannot make a choice."
+
+Madame de Fleury did not venture to look toward Madeleine, and the
+latter made no observation. Maurice rejoined,--
+
+"My father's state of health forbids my availing myself of your amiable
+offer."
+
+Madame de Fleury was slightly discomfited. It was difficult to keep up
+the subject which seemed to have dropped naturally; but for the sake of
+reviving it, and trying to draw some suggestion from the Queen of Taste,
+she even condescended to address her foe; and, turning to Mrs. Gilmer
+with a false smile, asked,--
+
+"_You_ are going, of course? Have you determined upon the character you
+mean to assume?"
+
+Mrs. Gilmer was flattered by finding her attire a matter of acknowledged
+importance to her rival, and replied, with a simper,--
+
+"Not altogether,--my costume is under discussion,--I shall decide
+_presently_."
+
+A significant glance intimated that she meant shortly to proceed
+upstairs, to the exhibition-rooms of "Mademoiselle Melanie."
+
+Madame de Fleury grew desperate, and was resolved not to be baffled in
+her attempt; she now launched into a dissertation upon different styles
+of fancy dresses. Madeleine turned to Maurice to make inquiries about
+his father. Poor Maurice! as he noted the unruffled composure of her
+bearing, the quietude of her tone, the frank ease with which she
+addressed him, his hopes began to die away, and tormenting spirits
+whispered that Ronald's mother had certainly come to an erroneous
+conclusion.
+
+Madame de Fleury, finding that her little artifices were thrown away
+upon Madeleine, took her leave; Mrs. Gilmer lingered for a few moments,
+then also made her exit, closely copying the graceful courtesy and
+floating, sweeping step of her rival.
+
+"Thank Heaven! they are gone!" exclaimed Maurice. "I have so much to say
+to you, Madeleine, every moment they staid appeared to me an hour."
+
+He could proceed no further, for the door opened, and Ruth Thornton
+entered with sketches of costumes in her hand, and said, hesitatingly,--
+
+"I am sure you will pardon me, Mademoiselle Madeleine; Madame de Fleury
+insisted; she fairly, or rather _unfairly_ forced me to seek you with
+these sketches; she seems resolved to secure your advice about her
+costume."
+
+Madeleine knew how to rebuke impertinence in spite of her natural
+gentleness, and the very mildness of her manner made the reproof more
+severe. She had thoroughly comprehended Madame de Fleury's tactics, and
+had determined to make her understand that when she visited Mademoiselle
+de Gramont, the visit was paid to an equal, not to the mantua-maker upon
+whose time the public had a claim.
+
+"Say to Madame de Fleury that I leave all affairs of this nature in your
+hands, and that I have perfect reliance on your good taste."
+
+Ruth withdrew.
+
+"Let us go to your boudoir, Madeleine," said Maurice.
+
+Madeleine, as she complied, remarked,--
+
+"You are troubled to-day, Maurice; two bright spots are burning upon
+your cheeks; you look excited; what has happened?"
+
+"Much or little, as it may prove," replied Maurice, taking a seat beside
+her. "In the first place, my grandmother has concluded to leave
+Washington in a week, and, after she reaches New York, take the first
+steamer to Havre."
+
+Maurice had given this intelligence so suddenly that Madeleine was off
+her guard, and the rapid varying of her color, the heaving breast, the
+look of anguish, the broken voice in which she exclaimed, "So soon? so
+very soon?" rekindled his expiring hopes.
+
+"This has been but a brief meeting, Madeleine, after the separation of
+those long, sorrowful years. The future is all uncertain, I cannot fix a
+time, after I have said adieu, when I may clasp this dear hand again."
+
+"But," faltered Madeleine, "your profession,--you will not abandon that?
+You will return to Charleston?"
+
+"It is my earnest desire to do so."
+
+"Then you _will_ return! You will return soon?"
+
+Maurice must have been the dullest of lovers if he could not distinguish
+the intonation of joy in Madeleine's voice.
+
+"If my own advancement is the only incentive to my return, circumstances
+may interfere; my father's health, for instance, the necessity of
+attending to his affairs, or other considerations."
+
+Madeleine did not reply.
+
+"Madeleine, I shall offend you, perhaps, for I am about to transgress.
+At all hazards, I must touch upon a subject which you have banished from
+our conversation."
+
+For a moment Madeleine looked disturbed, but this warning enabled her to
+collect herself; she soon said, with composure,--
+
+"Even if you do not spare _me_, Maurice, do not touch on any theme which
+must give pain to yourself."
+
+"I have not yet quite decided," returned he, "how much pain it may cost
+me. I will only ask you to answer me a few questions. As I am a lawyer,
+cross-examination, you know, is my vocation, and you must indulge me.
+Nearly five years ago you declared that you had bestowed your heart
+irrevocably. You were very young then,--you had had few opportunities of
+seeing gentlemen; yet you have remained constant to this mysterious
+lover? You have never repented that you loved him?"
+
+"Never!" answered Madeleine, with fervor.
+
+"And you believe that he loves you?"
+
+Madeleine bowed her head.
+
+"And you have loved him long? Perhaps you loved him early in your
+girlhood; perhaps you loved him from the time you first met?"
+
+Madeleine bowed her head again.
+
+"Even as _he did you_?"
+
+"I do not know," she answered, in a low voice.
+
+"That is strange; men are apt to boast of the length as well as of the
+strength of their passion," remarked Maurice. "Your lover must be an
+exception. But perhaps he is unaware that he is blest by your love?"
+
+Without suspicion Madeleine fell into that snare, well-laid by the young
+lawyer, for she answered, thinking that it would calm the jealous pangs
+to which Maurice might be subjected,--
+
+"You are right; he is _not_ aware that I love him."
+
+Had her eyes not been downcast, had she looked up for an instant into
+the face of Maurice, she would have known by its look of radiant ecstasy
+that she had betrayed herself.
+
+In a tone which emotion rendered unsteady, he went on,--
+
+"You would cast your lot with his, Madeleine? If he were poor, you would
+share his poverty? You would even abandon your dream of earning a
+fortune for yourself,--and I know how dear that dream is to your
+heart,--for his sake? You would do this were there no barrier to the
+avowal of your love,--no barrier to your union with him?"
+
+"I would."
+
+"And that barrier is the opposition of his proud relatives?" asserted
+Maurice.
+
+Madeleine started, looked in his face in alarm; for the first time, the
+suspicion that he had divined her secret, flashed upon her.
+
+But Maurice went on unpityingly,--
+
+"You refused him your hand because you thought it base ingratitude to
+those relatives who had sheltered you in your orphan and unprotected
+condition, and who had other, as they supposed, _higher_ views for him.
+You feared by letting him know that you loved him to injure his future
+prospects, and you nearly blighted that future by the despair you caused
+him when he lost you. And since you have been restored, at least to his
+sight, you have with a martyr's heroism adhered to your plan of
+self-sacrifice because you thought that to relinquish it would draw down
+upon him and yourself the wrath of his haughty grandmother,--I will not
+say of his father; because, too, you believed that you would be accused
+of ingratitude. And you have allowed him to suffer unimaginable torture
+rather than acknowledge that the lover to whom you have been so
+true,--the lover for whom you have sacrificed yourself,--the lover most
+unworthy of you (save through that love which renders the humblest
+worthy),--is the man you rejected in the Château de Gramont at the risk
+of breaking his heart."
+
+Madeleine dropped her face upon her hands with a low sob, but Maurice
+drew the hands away, and folding his arms about her said, fervently,--
+
+"Madeleine, my own, my best beloved, it is too late for concealment now!
+I know whom you love,--it is too late for denial. Look at me and tell me
+once,--tell me only _once_ that it is true you do love me; tell me this,
+and it will repay me for all I have suffered."
+
+But Madeleine did not yield to his prayer; she tried to extricate
+herself from his arms, but they clasped her too tightly; and when she
+could speak she said, through her tears,--
+
+"You ensnared me,--you entrapped me to this! I should never have told
+you! And what does it avail,--I can never be your wife."
+
+"It avails beyond all calculation to know that you love me, even if, as
+you say, you cannot be my wife. Madeleine, to know that you love no
+other,--that you love _me_,--that I have a claim upon you which I may
+not be able to urge until we meet in heaven,--is heaven on earth!"
+
+What could Madeleine reply?
+
+"But why, Madeleine, can you not become mine? My father would no longer
+object. Are you not sure of that? Do you not see how he clings to you?
+And my grandmother"--
+
+"It would kill her," broke in Madeleine, "to see you the husband of one
+whom she detests and looks down upon as a degraded outcast. The Duke de
+Gramont's daughter only feels her pride in this, that she could never
+enter a family to which she was not welcome."
+
+"Then her pride is stronger than her love! No, Madeleine, though your
+firmness has been tested and I dread it, I will not believe that you
+will continue so cruel as to refuse me your hand."
+
+"Did you not say that it was happiness enough to know that,--that,"--
+
+Madeleine had stumbled upon a sentence which it was not particularly
+easy to finish.
+
+"To know that you love me! that you love me! Let me repeat the words
+over and over again, until my unaccustomed ears believe the sound; for
+they are yet incredulous! But, Madeleine, you who are truth itself, how
+could you have said that you loved another, even from the best of
+motives?"
+
+"I did not. I said that my affections were already engaged: yet I meant
+you to believe, as you did, that I loved another; and the thought of the
+deception, for it _was deception_, has caused me ceaseless contrition.
+_I do not reconcile it to my conscience_; I spoke the words
+_impulsively_ as the only means of forcing you to give up all claim to
+my hand; _but I do not defend those words_."
+
+"And I do not forgive them! You can only win my pardon by promising me
+that you will openly contradict them, and atone for your error by
+becoming my wife."
+
+Madeleine's agitated features composed themselves to a look of
+determination which made Maurice tremble with apprehension; and he had
+cause, for she said,--
+
+"I cannot, Maurice,--I cannot,--must not,--will not be your wife without
+the consent of your father and your grandmother!"
+
+"But if it be impossible to obtain my grandmother's?"
+
+"Then you must prove to me that you spoke truth by being content with
+that knowledge which you declared _would_ satisfy you."
+
+Maurice remonstrated, argued, prayed, but he did not shake Madeleine's
+resolve. Believing she was right, she was as inflexible as the Countess
+de Gramont herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIII.
+
+RESISTANCE.
+
+
+Maurice could not tear himself away; he was still lingering by
+Madeleine's side when Bertha and Gaston entered to pay their daily
+visit. The perfect joy that rendered luminous the countenance of
+Maurice, and the happy confusion depicted upon Madeleine's face,
+demanded but few words of explanation. Bertha caught Madeleine in her
+arms, laughing and crying, kissing her and reproaching her, over and
+over again. Then she turned to Maurice, as if impelled to greet him
+hardly less lovingly; but Gaston, jealous of his own particular rights,
+interposed. She darted away from his restraining arms and danced about
+the room, shouting like a gleeful child; then she kissed Madeleine
+again; then, suddenly calming down, said to Gaston, reproachfully,--
+
+"And you,--_you_ knew this all the time, and did not tell me? What
+penalty can I make you pay that will be severe enough? I will plot
+mischief with Madeleine. If we can punish you in no other manner, we
+will postpone to a tantalizing distance the day you wish near at hand.
+Confess that I was wise to wait! I knew Madeleine's lover would claim
+her in good season, but I never suspected he was my own dear cousin
+Maurice, whom she so resolutely rejected."
+
+"Nor did I!" cried Maurice, joyously; "and if _I_ can forgive Gaston,
+you must."
+
+"All in good time; after he is fitly punished, not before! What do you
+say, Madeleine? Shall we promise these two hapless swains their brides a
+couple of years hence?"
+
+"Bertha, Bertha! you have not understood," answered Madeleine, gravely,
+yet with a happy smile on her sweet lips. "Maurice has no promise of a
+bride; he looks forward to no bride, though I trust, you will, before
+very long, give one to M. de Bois."
+
+"Dear me!" exclaimed Bertha, completely sobered by this unexpected
+announcement. "I thought you had confessed to Maurice that _he_ was the
+mysterious but fortunate individual whom you loved, and whom I have been
+puzzling my brains to discover."
+
+Madeleine did not choose to respond to the statement made with such
+straightforward ingenuousness by Bertha, and only replied,--
+
+"Madame de Gramont would never give her consent to the marriage of
+Maurice with the humble mantua-maker. I have too much of the de Gramont
+pride, or too much pride of my own, or too much of some stronger feeling
+which I can only translate into a sense of right and fitness, to become
+the wife of Maurice in the face of such opposition."
+
+Bertha looked sorely disappointed and vexed, but vented her spleen upon
+the one whom she loved best, according to the invariable practice of
+women. She said to Gaston,--
+
+"There! you are no better off than you were before! That's just what you
+deserve for keeping this secret from me!"
+
+"But, Bertha, you will not be so unreasonable," urged Madeleine.
+
+"Why not, when you set me the example? Why should I not be unreasonable
+and obstinate when you teach me how to be so? You know, Madeleine, you
+have been my model all my life long, and it is too late to choose
+another."
+
+Madeleine was silenced, but Bertha ran on petulantly, this time turning
+to Maurice.
+
+"How _can_ you look so happy when Madeleine says she does not mean to
+marry you? I never saw anything like you men! One would think you had no
+feeling."
+
+Maurice replied: "It is so much happiness to know who possesses
+Madeleine's heart, that even if she remain unshaken in her resolution, I
+could not be miserable."
+
+"And you will not mind leaving her and going to Brittany? Your plans are
+not to be altered?"
+
+"Not unless she will alter them by consenting to accompany me. You know
+that my grandmother insists upon returning, and she is inexorable when
+she has once made up her mind."
+
+"Like somebody else!" said Bertha, who was decidedly irritated.
+
+Maurice resumed: "And it is my duty not only to protect her, but to
+watch over my poor father."
+
+"And you will really, _really_ go?" questioned Bertha, doubtingly.
+
+"I have no alternative."
+
+"Then I am more thankful than ever," she replied, tartly, "that when my
+aunt wished to make a match between us, I never thought of accepting
+you! I never could have endured such a patient, contented, stoical
+suitor, who would be perfectly happy in spite of his separation from
+me."
+
+Maurice laughed at this sally, but Gaston remarked, seriously,--
+
+"Yet you demand great sacrifices from one who is not as patient and
+well-disciplined. You make your wedding-day dependent upon Mademoiselle
+Madeleine's, when Mademoiselle Madeleine declares that she does not
+intend to name one."
+
+"We are an obstinate family, you see!" retorted Bertha, her good-humor
+returning.
+
+"Will not your father miss you?" suggested the ever thoughtful Madeleine
+to Maurice. "You have been absent very long; that talkative nurse may
+not be able to restrain herself, and your presence may be needful to
+preserve harmony."
+
+Maurice admitted that he ought to return; but, after bidding Madeleine
+adieu, he could not persuade himself to go back to the hotel until he
+had seen those to whom he owed his present happiness.
+
+"Ronald!" he exclaimed, as he entered Mrs. Walton's drawing-room; "long
+ago I became largely your debtor, but now you have placed me under an
+obligation which cannot be estimated. Oh, if I only had your energy and
+promptitude of action, I might some day"--
+
+Ronald interrupted him: "Then my mother was right, and I did not give
+you bad advice in spite of my Quixotism?"
+
+Maurice related what had happened to sympathetic listeners.
+
+Evening was approaching; his absence from his father had been far more
+protracted than usual, and before he had said half that he desired to
+say, or listened to half that he wished to hear, he was compelled to
+leave.
+
+When the hand of Maurice was on the door of his grandmother's _salon_,
+he could distinguish the sound of angry voices within,--his
+grandmother's sonorous tones and the sharper voice of Mrs. Gratacap. As
+he entered, the latter was saying,--
+
+"It's a sin and a shame, I tell you! And I'll not have the poor dear
+made miserable in that way, while he is under my charge. I'm not going
+to submit to it; and you know you can't frighten me with all your high
+ways."
+
+Mrs. Gratacap was standing beside the count, as though to protect him;
+Madame de Gramont was seated directly before him, and looking highly
+incensed. Count Tristan himself appeared to be in great tribulation, and
+grasped the hand of his nurse with a dependent air. As soon as he caught
+sight of Maurice, he cried out,--
+
+"I'm not going! I'm not going, I say! Maurice, come, come and tell her!"
+
+"What has happened?" inquired Maurice, with deep concern.
+
+The countess attempted to speak, but Mrs. Gratacap was too quick for
+her.
+
+"Here's the madame has been talking to the poor dear until she has
+driven him half wild. I never saw anything like it in my born days; she
+wont give him one moment's peace! He was doing well enough until she
+began _jawing_ him."
+
+It is to be hoped that the countess did not understand the meaning of
+this last, not very classical expression.
+
+"Will you be silent, woman?" said she, wrathfully.
+
+Mrs. Gratacap was about to answer; but Maurice silenced her by a
+reproving look, and then asked again,--
+
+"What has happened? Why does my father seem so much distressed?"
+
+"I have been preparing his mind"--began the countess.
+
+Mrs. Gratacap broke in, "Upsetting his mind, you mean."
+
+Before Madame de Gramont could answer, Maurice said to the nurse, in a
+persuasive tone, "Pray leave us, for a little while, Mrs. Gratacap."
+
+"I wouldn't contrary you for the world!" returned the nurse. "Only when
+_she's_ done, just you come to _me_ and I'll give you the rights of the
+case."
+
+Mrs. Gratacap departed, and the countess continued,--
+
+"I have been explaining to your father that we are shortly to leave this
+execrable country and return to Brittany, and that he has great cause
+for congratulation; but he did not seem to comprehend me clearly, and
+that woman, who is always intruding her opinions, chose to imagine that
+he was groaning and crying out on account of what I said. The liberties
+she takes become more intolerable every day; she is enough to drive your
+father distracted."
+
+"What does she mean?" asked Count Tristan, piteously. "Where do they
+want to take me? I'm not going."
+
+"My son," replied the countess, "I have informed you; but that insolent
+woman prevented your understanding; we are to return very soon to
+Brittany, to the Château de Gramont; I expect you to rejoice at this
+pleasing intelligence."
+
+"No--no, I cannot go! I cannot leave"--
+
+He stopped as though his mother's flashing eyes checked the words ready
+to burst from his lips.
+
+"You will not have to leave _Maurice_," she said, coldly; "he is to
+accompany us."
+
+"But Madeleine! Madeleine!" he sobbed forth as if unable to restrain
+himself.
+
+The countess was on the point of replying angrily, when Maurice
+interposed.
+
+"I beg you, madame, not to excite my father by further discussion. Come,
+my dear father, you are tired; it is getting late; I know it will do you
+good to lie down."
+
+And he conducted the unresisting invalid to his own chamber, leaving the
+countess swelling with rage, yet glorying in the certainty that she
+would carry out her plans, in spite of every opposition.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIV.
+
+AN UNEXPECTED VISIT.
+
+
+Another week passed on. The day preceding that on which the countess and
+her party were to set out on their journey had arrived. All the
+necessary preparations were progressing duly.
+
+Maurice, from the hour that he had learned Madeleine's secret,
+had lived in such a dream of absolute happiness that he felt as
+though he could ask for nothing more,--as though the cup presented
+to his lips was too full of joy for the one, ungrateful drop of an
+unfulfilled desire to find room. He comprehended Madeleine's character
+too thoroughly,--respected all her instincts and principles of action
+too entirely, again to urge his suit, or seek to obtain her promise that
+she would one day be his; she _was his_ in spirit,--he could openly
+recognize her as his,--that sufficed! and he believed it would still
+suffice (if her sense of duty remained unaltered) through his whole
+earthly existence; for all his days would be brightened by her love, and
+the privilege of loving her.
+
+Bertha, after her first, petulant outbreak, had also ceased to press
+Madeleine on the subject of her possible marriage, and with meek
+demureness reconciled herself to the uncertainty of the future, and the
+certainty of tormenting her lover in the present.
+
+M. de Bois's devotion to Madeleine sealed his lips. Madeleine had formed
+a resolution which she declared unalterable. Bertha had announced a
+determination dependent upon Madeleine's, and the suitors of the two
+cousins had only to submit and hope.
+
+The labor of packing Madame de Gramont's wardrobe, as well as that of
+Bertha, devolved upon Adolphine; she had not quite filled the trunks of
+her young mistress when she was summoned by the countess. This was on
+the morning of the day preceding the one appointed for their departure.
+Adolphine was heedless and forgetful to a tantalizing degree. The
+countess deemed herself compelled to superintend her movements; that is
+to sit in an arm-chair and look on; the lofty lady would not have
+deigned to assist by touching an article, though she now and then issued
+an order or indulged in a rebuke, and by her presence greatly retarded
+Adolphine's operations.
+
+Count Tristan had driven out every day. His mother and Maurice always
+accompanied him. This morning, when Maurice went to announce to his
+grandmother that the carriage was at the door, he found her watching
+Adolphine, who was on her knees before an open trunk.
+
+"It will be impossible for me to accompany you to-day," said the
+countess. "I will speak to your father; it will be his last drive, and
+he must excuse me."
+
+She rose and passed into the drawing-room where Count Tristan was
+waiting.
+
+"My son," said his mother, raising her voice as she now always did when
+she spoke to him, seeming to imagine that by this means she could make
+him comprehend better. He was not, however, in the least afflicted with
+deafness, and the loud tone was more likely to startle him than to calm
+the perturbation which was usually apparent when she addressed him. "My
+son, you are to take your airing this morning without me. You understand
+that this will be your _last_ drive in this detestable city. You
+perfectly comprehend, I hope, that you leave here to-morrow; and before
+long we shall be safely within the time-honored walls of the old château
+which we ought never to have left."
+
+The proposed change had been so constantly impressed upon the count's
+mind by his mother that he seemed, at times, to be thoroughly aware of
+it; yet at others the recollection faded from his memory. At first, when
+the voyage was mentioned, he would remonstrate in a piteous, feeble,
+fretful way, declaring that he would not go; but of late he had appeared
+to yield to the potency of Madame de Gramont's will.
+
+Maurice offered his arm to the count and they left the room. As the door
+closed after them, Count Tristan turned, as though to assure himself
+that it was shut, then looked at Maurice significantly and nodded his
+head, while a smile brightened his countenance. It was so long since
+Maurice had seen him smile that even that strange, half-wild,
+inexplicable kindling up of the wan face was pleasant to behold. As they
+descended the stair, the count looked back several times, and gave
+furtive glances around him, smiling more and more; then he rubbed his
+hands and chuckled as though at some idea which he could not yet
+communicate. At the carriage-door he paused again, and again looked all
+around, continuing to rub his hands, then fairly laughed out. Maurice
+began to be alarmed at this unaccountable mirth. They entered the
+carriage and the coachman drove in the usual direction; but the count
+exclaimed impatiently,--
+
+"No--no--that's not the way! stop him! stop him!"
+
+Maurice, at a loss to comprehend his father's wishes, did not
+immediately comply with his request, and the count, with unusual energy,
+himself caught at the check-cord and pulled it vehemently.
+
+"This is not the way,--not the way to _Madeleine's_!"
+
+Then Maurice comprehended his father's exultation; he had conceived the
+project of visiting Madeleine! But what was to be done? The countess
+would be enraged if she discovered Count Tristan had seen Madeleine; and
+the agitation caused by the interview might prove harmful to him. Yet
+would it not do him more injury to thwart his wishes? And would it not
+be depriving Madeleine of an inestimable joy?
+
+The count grew impatient; he shouted out, in a clearer tone than he had
+been able to use since his first seizure, "To Madeleine's! To
+Madeleine's, I say! I _will_ see Madeleine!"
+
+Maurice hesitated no longer and gave the order. His father's agitation
+was, every moment, on the increase, though it was now of the most
+pleasurable nature; he gave vent to little bursts of triumphant
+laughter, muttering to himself, "I shall see her! I knew I should see
+her again!"
+
+"My dear father, you will endeavor to be calm,--will you not? I am
+fearful this excitement will injure you, and my grandmother will never
+forgive me if you become worse through my imprudence. She must not know
+that we have been to Madeleine's. It would render her uselessly
+indignant; but Madeleine will be so overjoyed to see you once more that
+I could not refuse to comply with your wishes."
+
+The count murmured to himself, rather than replied to his son,--
+
+"Good angel! My good angel! We are going to her! We are very
+near--there! that's the house yonder. I'd know it among a thousand!
+Maurice, I'm well! I'm strong! I want nothing now but to see Madeleine!
+It's all right--is it not? She settled about that mortgage--she obtained
+us those votes--there's no more trouble! Nobody knows what a scoundrel I
+have been! I remember all clearly. I am very joyful; I must tell
+Madeleine; I must say to her that she--she--she brought something of
+heaven down to me; there must _be_ a heaven, for where else could
+Madeleine belong?"
+
+Maurice had not heard his father speak as much or as connectedly for a
+month. His face was pleasantly animated, in spite of its unnatural
+expression, and he moved his arms about so freely it was evident the
+weight which had pressed with paralyzing force upon them was removed.
+
+The carriage stopped. Maurice could scarcely prevent his father from
+springing out before him and without assistance.
+
+The silent Robert looked his surprise and gratification as he opened the
+street door. While Maurice was inquiring where his mistress would be
+found, Count Tristan pressed on alone, walking with a firm, rapid step.
+He entered the first room. It was Madeleine's bed-chamber; the one he
+himself had occupied during his illness. It was vacant. He passed on,
+crying out,--
+
+"Madeleine! Madeleine!" He looked into the drawing-room, then into the
+dining-room, still calling, "Madeleine! Madeleine!"
+
+He hurried on toward the well-remembered little boudoir. There Madeleine
+was sitting at her desk, quietly sketching. When, to her amazement, she
+heard the count's voice, she thought it was fancy; but the sound was
+repeated again and again. Those were surely his tones! She started up
+and opened the door. Count Tristan was standing only a few paces from
+it,--Maurice behind him.
+
+"Madeleine! Madeleine! I see you. I am happy. I can die now."
+
+As these words burst from his lips, the count staggered forward and sank
+on Madeleine's shoulder; for she had involuntarily stretched out her
+arms toward him. The next instant he slipped through them and dropped
+heavily upon the floor. One glance at his distorted face, and at the
+foam issuing from his lips, one sound of that stertorous breathing was
+enough. Maurice and Madeleine knew that he had been struck with apoplexy
+for the third time!
+
+Maurice and Robert carried him to the bed he had before occupied; and
+Madeleine sent for Dr. Bayard in all haste.
+
+The count lay quite still, save for that heavy breathing and the
+convulsive motion of his features. Madeleine and Maurice stood beside
+him in silence, with hands interlocked.
+
+Dr. Bayard arrived, looked at the patient, shook his head, and, turning
+to Maurice, said, in a low tone,--
+
+"There is nothing to be done."
+
+"But see," answered Maurice, clinging to a faint hope, "he is getting
+over it,--he seems better."
+
+"It is the third stroke," replied the doctor, significantly, as he was
+leaving the room.
+
+Madeleine heard these words, though they were spoken in an undertone,
+and she followed Maurice and the physician from the apartment.
+
+"Do you mean," she inquired of the physician, in accents of deep sorrow,
+"it is _impossible_ for Count Tristan to recover from this shock?"
+
+"My dear young lady, I am unwilling to say that anything is
+_impossible_. The longer a physician practises, the more he realizes
+that we cannot judge of _possibilities_; but, in my experience, I have
+never known a case of apoplexy that survived the third stroke."
+
+"He will die, then? Oh, will he die?"
+
+"His life, for the last two months, has been a living death," replied
+the physician, kindly. "Could you wish to prolong such an existence?"
+
+The doctor took his leave, promising to return, but frankly avowing that
+his presence was needless. As soon as he had gone, Madeleine said to
+Maurice, who appeared to be so much stunned by this new blow that he was
+incapable of reflection,--
+
+"Your poor grandmother,--O Maurice, what a terrible task lies before
+you! You will have to break this news to her. She must want to see him
+once more, and he may not linger long. You have not a moment to lose."
+
+"I feel as though I could not go to her," answered Maurice. "What good
+can she do here? She will only insult you again; and, if my father
+should revive, her words may render his last moments wretched. Let him
+die in peace."
+
+Madeleine replied,--
+
+"She may be softened by the presence of the angel of death. She may long
+to hear one parting word of tenderness from his lips, and utter one in
+return. Go, I beseech you! Go and bring her!"
+
+And Maurice went.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LV.
+
+AMEN.
+
+
+Maurice, when he opened the door of his grandmother's drawing-room,
+found the apartment vacant. The countess was still in her own chamber
+issuing orders to the bewildered Adolphine, whose packing process
+advanced but indifferently. Bertha had retired to her room. Maurice
+passed into his father's apartment, where Mrs. Gratacap sat knitting,
+and, in a few words, told her what had occurred.
+
+"Poor dear!" cried the compassionate nurse. "I feared it would
+be so. I saw it coming this last week; and a third stroke is a
+death-knell--that's certain! But it will be a blessed escape for the
+poor dear; so don't take on, Mr. Morris" (this was her nearest approach
+to saying "_Maurice_"). "You'll need all your spirit to get along with
+the old lady; though, if she were the north pole itself, I should think
+this blow would break up her ice."
+
+"Will you have the goodness to desire my cousin to come here? I had
+better tell her first," said Maurice.
+
+Mrs. Gratacap withdrew and quickly returned accompanied by Bertha who
+was trembling with alarm; for the messenger had lost no time in making
+the sad communication.
+
+"I cannot tell my grandmother, Bertha, in the presence of Adolphine.
+Will you not beg your aunt to come to me in the drawing-room?" said
+Maurice.
+
+Bertha had scarcely courage to obey, she had such a dread of witnessing
+the countess's agitation; for she felt certain it would take the form of
+anger against Madeleine and Maurice. With hesitating steps the young
+girl entered the apartment where the countess sat. She had been much
+irritated by Adolphine's stupidity, and cried out,--
+
+"Positively, Bertha, this maid of yours has been totally spoiled by her
+residence in this barbarous country. She is worth nothing; she has no
+head; and she even presumes to offer her advice and suggest what would
+be the best mode of packing this or that! It is fortunate for us that
+this is our last day in this odious city, and that we shall soon be on
+our way back to Brittany. But Adolphine is completely ruined; there is
+no tolerating her."
+
+"I am very sorry," said Bertha, putting her handkerchief to her eyes.
+
+"You need not cry about it," retorted the countess, angrily. "How often
+have I tried to impress upon you that this habit of evincing emotion is,
+in the highest degree, plebeian! Tears are very well for a milk-maid,
+but exceedingly unbecoming a lady. They are an unmistakable sign of
+vulgar breeding. I cannot endure to see a niece of mine with so little
+self-control."
+
+Bertha removed her handkerchief and tried to force back her tears, as
+she said,--
+
+"Maurice begs to speak to you for a moment."
+
+"Very good. Can he not come to me?"
+
+"He entreats that you will go into the drawing-room."
+
+"Do you mean to intimate," asked the countess, sternly, "that my
+grandson ventures to _summon me to his presence_, instead of coming to
+mine? What indignity am I to expect next? Since he has forgotten his
+duty and the deference due to me, go and remind him."
+
+"He has something very serious to tell you," faltered Bertha; "he wants
+you to hear it there,--it is so sad."
+
+Bertha, in spite of her aunt's contemptuous glances, could not help
+burying her face in her handkerchief again.
+
+"What absurdity!" sneered the countess; but she began to experience a
+vague sensation of uneasiness.
+
+"Come! come! do come!" pleaded Bertha.
+
+"Since it seems the only way to put an end to this hysterical exhibition
+of yours, Bertha, I will go and reprove Maurice for his lack of
+respect."
+
+But the countess did not literally carry her threat into execution; for,
+noticing the absence of Count Tristan, she said hurriedly,--
+
+"Where is your father?"
+
+"Pray sit down one moment, my dear grandmother"--
+
+She interrupted him by asking again, more anxiously,--
+
+"Where is your father?"
+
+"I will explain, but"--
+
+"Why do you not answer my question?" she cried with increased violence.
+"Where is your father?"
+
+Could Maurice answer "At Madeleine's?" He still hesitated, and the
+countess, with more rapid steps than she was wont to use, hastened to
+Count Tristan's bedroom.
+
+Mrs. Gratacap greeted her with "Oh, poor dear, don't take on about it!
+We couldn't but expect that it would come soon, and"--
+
+The countess did not wait to hear the close of her sentence, but with a
+cold horror creeping through her veins, hurried back to Maurice, and
+once more asked, imperiously,--
+
+"Maurice, where is your father? I command you to answer at once! I will
+hear nothing but the answer to that question."
+
+Driven to extremity, Maurice replied, "My father is at Madeleine's!"
+
+"Miserable boy! How did you dare to set my wishes at defiance? You
+shall repent this,--be sure you shall! How had you the audacity to fly
+in the face of my command?"
+
+"I heard no commands on the subject," returned Maurice; "and if I had
+done so, my father's wishes would still have held the first place. As
+soon as we left the house he insisted upon going to Madeleine's; he
+would take no refusal; his affection for her is so strong that"--
+
+"How dare you talk to me of his affection for that artful, designing
+girl, who is a disgrace to us all,--whose low machinations have placed
+her beneath my contempt? Henceforth, thank Heaven! we shall be out of
+the reach of her vile manoeuvres."
+
+This was beyond endurance. Maurice forgot everything but the insulting
+epithets applied to Madeleine, and said, with a dignity as imposing as
+Madame de Gramont's own had ever been,--
+
+"My grandmother, never shall such language be applied to Madeleine again
+in my presence, by you or any one! Madeleine is not merely my cousin,
+she is the woman I love best and honor most in the world;--the woman
+who, if I ever marry, will become my wife."
+
+"Never! never!" cried the countess, fiercely. "That shall never be, come
+what may!"
+
+Maurice, recovering himself somewhat, went on,--
+
+"It is upon a far sadder subject that I wish to speak to you,--I meant
+to break the news gently,--I hoped to spare you a severe shock, but you
+force me to come to the point at once. My dear father has had another
+seizure of the same nature as the two former."
+
+"Parricide!" shrieked the countess, "you have done this! You have killed
+your father! The agitation occasioned by your taking him to that house
+and letting him see that unhappy girl has caused this attack; if he
+should die you will be his murderer!"
+
+What reply could Maurice make which would not enrage her more? The
+countess went on, furiously,--
+
+"Go,--bring him back to me quickly! He shall not remain there! By all
+that is holy, he shall not."
+
+"I come to ask you to go to him since he cannot come to you," said
+Maurice, with as much mildness as he could throw into his tone.
+
+"Yes, I will go, I will go!" replied his grandmother. "I cannot trust
+you; I will go myself, and see him brought here."
+
+She retired to her own chamber to make ready, and Bertha quickly
+followed her example.
+
+Meantime Madeleine with Mrs. Lawkins, watched beside the count. His
+attack was briefer than the former ones. When it was over, he fell into
+a deep and placid slumber. During that sleep his face changed! Those who
+have watched the dying and recognized the indescribable expression which
+marks the countenance when it is "death-struck" will understand what
+alteration is meant. He waked slowly and gently,--first stirring his
+hands as though clutching at something impalpable, then gradually
+opening his eyes. They looked large and glassy, but as they fixed
+themselves upon Madeleine's face, bespoke full consciousness.
+
+"Madeleine!" he murmured feebly; but his voice was distinct, and
+pathetically tender. "I am with you again, Madeleine,--that is great
+happiness,--great comfort, I am going soon, Madeleine;--do you not know
+it?"
+
+"Oh! I fear so!" answered Madeleine, weeping; "but you do not suffer?
+You are calm?"
+
+"Very calm,--very happy with my good angel near me. Madeleine, you have
+much to pardon; but you will pardon,--all,--all!
+
+"I do, I do. If there be anything to pardon, I do, from my soul, a
+thousand times over."
+
+"You have made me believe in God and his saints, Madeleine, and I bless
+you."
+
+Madeleine was holding both of his cold hands in hers, and had bowed her
+head, that his icy lips might touch her forehead; but she rose up
+suddenly, for she heard the wheels of a carriage stop, and the street
+door open; she deemed it well to prepare the count.
+
+"I think your mother and Maurice have arrived."
+
+A cloud passed over the face of the dying man, but did not rest there.
+He was beyond fear! His haughty mother could no longer inspire awe!
+
+A moment after, Maurice opened the door and the countess entered the
+room. Approaching the bed, as though unconscious of Madeleine's
+presence, she exclaimed,--
+
+"My son, my son, what brought you here? How could you have paid so
+little respect to my wishes? I will not reproach you" (this was much for
+her to say), "only make the effort to let yourself be removed at once."
+
+"I am going fast enough, mother; I am dying!"
+
+"No,--no!" cried the countess, vehemently. "You could not die _here!_
+You are not dying! You cannot, _shall not die!_"
+
+She spoke as though she believed that her potent volition could frighten
+away the death-angels hovering near, and prolong his life.
+
+Madeleine had attempted to withdraw her hand from his, for his mother
+had seized the other clay-cold hand; but he said, with a faint smile,
+"Don't go, Madeleine; do not leave me until I cannot see you and feel
+you more." Then making a great effort to rally his expiring energies, he
+continued, "Mother, love Madeleine! We need angels about us to lift us
+up when we fall. Keep her near you if you would be comforted when the
+hour that has come to me comes to you!"
+
+The countess did not reply, but the hand she held had grown so clammy,
+she could no longer refuse to believe that her son might be dying. Still
+she was not softened; she could not turn to Madeleine and embrace her,
+as the dying man so obviously desired.
+
+"Maurice," said his father.
+
+Maurice approached, and the countess instinctively drew a step back, to
+give him room. She had dropped the marble hand, and Maurice took it in
+his.
+
+"Maurice, you, too, have much to pardon. Madeleine has forgiven,--will
+not you?"
+
+"Oh, my father, do not speak of that! All is well between us; but, if we
+must indeed lose you,--tell me,--tell Madeleine that you give her to me.
+She loves me, she has never loved any other; and I never _have_
+loved,--never _can_ love any woman but her. Bid her be my wife, for she
+has refused to let me claim her without your consent and my
+grandmother's."
+
+Count Tristan tried to speak, but the words died upon the lips that
+essayed to form themselves into a smile of assent. He lifted Madeleine's
+hand and placed it in that of Maurice.
+
+A convulsed groan, or sob, broke from the countess, but it was unheard
+by her son; his spirit had taken its flight.
+
+It had gone, stained with many evil passions,--perhaps crimes,--but what
+its sentence was before the High Tribunal, who shall dare to say? That
+erring spirit had recognized good, and therefore could not be wholly
+unsanctified by good; it had repented, and therefore sin was no longer
+loved; all the rest was dark; but He who, speaking in metaphors, forbade
+the "bruised reed" to be broken, or "smoking flax" to be quenched,
+might have seen light, invisible to mortal eyes, even about a soul as
+shadowed as that of Count Tristan de Gramont.
+
+The countess had been the only one who doubted that he would die, yet
+she was the first to perceive that he was gone. She uttered a piercing,
+discordant cry, and with her arms frantically extended, flung herself
+upon the corpse. Her long self-restraint, her curbing back of emotion,
+made the sudden shock more terrible; she fell into violent convulsions.
+
+Maurice bore her into the adjoining apartment, followed by Madeleine,
+Bertha, and Mrs. Lawkins. When the convulsions ceased she was delirious
+with fever.
+
+Madeleine ordered the room Maurice had occupied to be speedily prepared
+for her reception. Her delirium lasted for many days. Had she recovered
+her senses, she would assuredly have commanded that the corpse of her
+son should be removed to the hotel, that his funeral might take place
+from thence; but Maurice thought it no humiliation that the funeral of
+the proud Count Tristan de Gramont should move from the doors of that
+mantua-maker niece who had saved his name from dishonor by the products
+of her labor.
+
+Count Tristan had few friends, or even acquaintances in Washington.
+Maurice and Gaston were chief mourners. The Marquis de Fleury and his
+suite, Mr. Hilson, Mr. Meredith, Mr. Walton, and Ronald, accompanied the
+corpse to its last resting-place.
+
+Bertha had taken up her residence at Madeleine's. Maurice remained at
+the hotel,--that is, he slept there, but the larger portion of his hours
+was passed beneath Madeleine's roof.
+
+That Madeleine was his betrothed was tacitly understood, though no word
+had been spoken on the subject, and her manner toward him was little
+changed. She loved him with all the intensity and strength of her large
+nature, but her love could not, like Bertha's, find expression in words,
+in loving looks, and caressing ways. Maurice was content, even though he
+could never know how inexpressibly dear he was to her. His was one of
+those generous natures which experience more delight in _loving_ than in
+_being loved_. He never believed that Madeleine's love _could_ equal
+his, and he argued that it _could not because_ there was so much more to
+love _in her_ than there was _in him_, and a true, pure, holy love,
+loves the attributes that are lovable rather than the mere person to
+whom they appertain. Maurice asked but little! A gentle pressure of the
+hand,--a soft smile,--a passing look of tenderness, though it was
+certain to be quickly veiled by the dropped lids,--a casual word of
+endearment timidly, reluctantly spoken, or, oftener, spoken
+unpremeditatedly and followed by a blush; these were food sufficient for
+his great passion,--the one passion of his life, to exist upon. Indeed
+we are inclined to think that with men of his temperament love is kept
+in a more vigorous, more actively healthy state by its (apparently)
+receiving only measured response. A woman who is gifted with the power
+of throwing her soul into looks, and language and loving ways, runs the
+risk of producing upon certain men an effect approaching satiety. The
+woman who has instinctive wisdom will never dash herself against this
+rock; yet few women are _wise_; fewer give _too little_ of their rich,
+heart-treasures than _too much_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVI.
+
+THE HAND OF GOD.
+
+
+When the fever gradually abated, and consciousness returned to the
+countess, she lay in a state of half-dreamy exhaustion which precluded
+the power of thought or the stir of her high passions. It was manifest
+that she recognized those who moved about her bed, for she now and then
+addressed Bertha, Maurice, and even Madeleine by name. Madeleine's heart
+throbbed with joy when she dared to believe that there was no unkindness
+in Madame de Gramont's tone. Maurice and Bertha had made the same
+observation and augured future harmony and happiness from the
+unanticipated change. But their delusion was quickly dispelled, for it
+soon became apparent that the countess believed herself to be in the
+Château de Gramont, and that her mind had gone back to a period previous
+to the one when Madeleine had awakened her displeasure. Either the
+objects by which she was surrounded had grown familiar to her eyes, or
+as she beheld them indistinctly in the dim light, imagination lent them
+olden shapes, for she assuredly fancied herself in her own chamber, in
+that venerable château to which she had so earnestly longed to return.
+It was somewhat remarkable that she never mentioned Count Tristan,
+though she several times spoke of her antiquated _femme de chambre_,
+Bettina, and of Baptiste, and desired Madeleine to give them certain
+orders, just as she would have done in by-gone days.
+
+It was not deemed prudent to make any attempt to banish the
+hallucination under which she was laboring, and which unavoidable
+circumstances must gradually disperse.
+
+Maurice received a second letter from Mr. Lorrillard, again urging him
+to return to Charleston, and apprising him that his services would be
+particularly valuable at that moment, as he (Mr. Lorrillard) was
+occupied in preparing to conduct a case of much importance, which needed
+great care in collecting authorities, and these researches it was the
+province of Maurice to make.
+
+Maurice placed the letter in Madeleine's hands, less because he needed
+her counsel than because it was so delightful to feel that he had the
+right to consult her.
+
+"What do you advise, Madeleine?" he asked, after she had perused it.
+
+"I would have you send the answer you have already concluded to send."
+
+"How do you know that answer?"
+
+"I have read more difficult books than your face, Maurice; besides,
+there seems to me only one answer which would be advisable. Your
+grandmother is safe under Bertha's care and mine; she does not
+absolutely need your presence."
+
+"And nobody else needs it, I am to infer?" retorted Maurice, a little
+ungenerously.
+
+He deserved that Madeleine should give him no answer, or, at least, one
+that implied a rebuke; but such women are usually tardy in giving men
+their ill deserts, and she answered softly, "It will be less hard to
+part than it has been."
+
+"You have uttered my very thought," returned Maurice. "It is less hard
+to part now that we know how closely we are linked,--now that separation
+cannot any longer disunite, and love's assurance has taken the place of
+doubt and anguish. Were we _less_ to each other in spirit, we should
+feel the material space that can divide us _more_,--is it not so?"
+
+If Maurice expected any answer, he was forced to be contented with the
+one which, according to the proverb, gives consent through silence.
+
+It was needful to prepare the countess for his departure. Maurice went
+to her chamber, and, after a few inquiries concerning her health, to
+which she hardly replied, said,--
+
+"I am truly grieved that I am forced to leave you, my dear grandmother.
+I am summoned away by urgent business."
+
+At that last word her brows were slightly knitted, and she murmured
+contemptuously, "_Business_" as though the expression awakened some old
+train of painful recollection.
+
+"If it were not needful for me to go," continued Maurice, "I would not
+leave you; but you have the tender and skilful care of Madeleine and
+Bertha, and I shall be able to return to you at any moment that you may
+require me."
+
+"Where are you going?" asked the countess, but hardly in a tone of
+interest.
+
+"To Charleston."
+
+"Charleston!" she repeated with a startled, troubled look, "Paris,--you
+mean Paris?"
+
+"No,--not so far as Paris,--you remember the journey is but short
+between Washington and Charleston."
+
+Maurice had not deliberately intended to force upon the countess the
+consciousness of her present position; but it was too late to retract.
+
+She raised herself in the bed, leaning with difficulty upon her wasted
+arm, and asked, in a frightened tone,--
+
+"Where,--where am I then?"
+
+"In Washington, my dear grandmother. Have you forgotten how my poor
+father was"--
+
+"Hush! hush!" she gasped out, "I cannot endure it. Let me think! let me
+think!"
+
+She sank back upon the pillow with closed eyes, and the workings of her
+features testified that recollection was dawning upon her.
+
+After a time she cried out,--for it was a veritable cry,--"And _this
+house_,--_this bed_ where I am lying,--O God! it is too much!"
+
+Maurice was at a loss to know what to do. He waited to see if she would
+not question him, would not speak again; but, as she lay silent and
+motionless, he retired and sought his cousins.
+
+"Do not be so much distressed," prayed Madeleine, when she heard what he
+had to relate. "This was unavoidable,--your grandmother's intellect was
+not disturbed,--her memory only seemed quiescent; the most casual
+circumstance might, at any moment, have awakened her recollection of the
+past; it is as well that it should be recalled to-day as to-morrow.
+Come, Bertha, we will go to her."
+
+Madeleine and Bertha entered the room together, but the ever cowardly
+Bertha drew back, and Madeleine approached the bed alone. The countess
+opened her eyes, looked at her a moment, as though to be quite certain
+of her identity, then turned her face to the pillow and murmured, "Where
+is Bertha?"
+
+"Bertha is here," said Madeleine, motioning Bertha to take her place, as
+she drew back.
+
+Madeleine felt that the countess had turned from her because her
+presence was painful; with a light step, but a heart once more grown
+heavy, she withdrew.
+
+Bertha stood by her aunt's side without daring to disturb her by a word.
+After a time the countess unclosed her eyes again and looked around the
+room; then, gazing at Bertha, said slowly,--
+
+"It all comes back,--it was like a frightful dream at first,--but the
+reality is more terrible! Bertha,--Bertha,--I have so little left! _You_
+love me? _You_ will not forsake me?"
+
+Bertha had never before heard her imperious aunt make an appeal to any
+human being; what wonder that she was melted?
+
+The countess resumed, with increasing agitation, "You were to have gone
+back with me to Brittany,--you, and Maurice, and his"--
+
+There came a break,--she could not name her dead son. Death to her was
+the harsh blow dealt by a merciless hand, snatching its victim away in
+retributive wrath,--not the wise and mild summons that bids suffering
+mortality exchange a circumscribed, lower life for a larger, higher,
+happier existence.
+
+It was some time before Madame de Gramont could continue; then she said,
+"I must go back, Bertha! I cannot die out of those old walls! It was
+you, you who lured me from them. We will return to them. You will go
+with us, Bertha?"
+
+"I will," replied Bertha, though her heart sank as she uttered the
+words. She had thought that the project of returning to France was
+wholly abandoned.
+
+"And we will go soon,--as soon as I am able to travel, that time will
+come quickly. I am growing stronger every minute. Let me depart
+speedily; it is all I can look forward to that can sustain me, that can
+lift me up after the abasement to which I have been subjected."
+
+Though they conversed no more, Bertha did not leave her aunt until she
+had seen her sink to repose.
+
+When Bertha repeated to Maurice, Madeleine, and Gaston the conversation
+which had just taken place, a heavy gloom fell upon all. Maurice's
+return to Brittany, at this crisis, would be a great disadvantage to
+him, and when the countess was removed to a distance from Madeleine, it
+was more unlikely than ever that she would yield consent to Madeleine's
+union with Maurice; the chances were that she would not allow
+Madeleine's name to be uttered in her presence.
+
+Gaston had given up all idea of altering Bertha's repeatedly expressed
+determination to be married upon the same day as her cousin, and not to
+marry at all if that day never came; but since Count Tristan had joined
+the hands of Maurice and Madeleine, he cherished the hope that the
+countess would no longer refuse to sanction their union, and that this
+voyage to France would be wholly relinquished.
+
+Maurice listened to Bertha in silence, but that night his step could be
+heard pacing up and down his chamber through the still hours, and he
+scarcely attempted to rest. During this period of painful reflection, he
+formed a resolution which he proposed to carry into execution as soon as
+his grandmother was ready to receive him.
+
+As he took a seat by her side he motioned Mrs. Lawkins to leave them
+together.
+
+"Are you well enough to listen to me, my dear grandmother? I must speak
+to you on a subject of great importance to me; I ought to add, of some
+importance to yourself."
+
+The countess signified that she listened by a slight affirmative
+movement of the head.
+
+"Bertha has told me that you still desire to return to Brittany. Though
+at this moment my accompanying you will force me to make some heavy
+sacrifices, still, there is one condition,--_and only one_,"--Maurice
+emphasized these last words,--"upon which I can consent."
+
+The countess made no observation. He was forced to proceed,--
+
+"You were present when my dying father placed Madeleine's hand in
+mine,--do not interrupt me, I entreat! Madeleine and I have loved each
+other from our infancy; she has rejected me solely that she might not
+cause grief to you and my father; he has given her to me,--he bade you
+love her; will _you_ not give her to me also?"
+
+"Never!" answered the countess; and though the tone was low it was
+steady and resolute.
+
+Maurice went on, disregarding her reply. "I will return with you to
+Brittany on the condition that she accompanies us, as my affianced
+bride, or as my wife. You have lived beneath Madeleine's roof; my father
+died there; gratitude, if nothing else, should bind us to her. Can you
+urge any reasonable objection to her going with us to Brittany, and as
+my wife?"
+
+The countess was roused. "Would you have me show my runaway niece to the
+world? Would you have me publicly patronize, associate with, caress the
+_mantua-maker_, in my own land, before my own kin? Never!"
+
+"Then," returned Maurice, resolutely, "I do not return with you to
+Brittany. Bertha may do so, and you will, doubtless, have the escort of
+M. de Bois; but if you renounce Madeleine, you renounce me! Madeleine
+will not become my wife without your consent,--I do not conceal _that_
+from you; but I remain in this land, where she will continue to dwell.
+If _you_ so wholly disregard my father's last wishes, you cannot hope
+that _I_ can forget them, or that I can feel as bound to you as though
+they had been respected. If your decision is final, I will not urge you
+further."
+
+"It is final!" was the laconic answer.
+
+"And so is mine!" replied Maurice, rising. Without longer parley he left
+the room.
+
+At this crisis, the conduct of M. de Bois threatened to give a new turn
+to events. We have had abundant proof of his gratitude and unwavering
+devotion to Madeleine. His aversion to the countess had increased with
+her persecution of her defenceless niece, and when the inexorable lady
+remained unmoved by the dying prayer of her son, and refused to sanction
+Madeleine's union with Maurice, M. de Bois's detestation culminated. He
+was inspired with an earnest desire to stretch out his arm to shield and
+aid Madeleine, and humble her oppressor; but an effectual method of
+accomplishing this act of justice did not present itself to him until
+Maurice communicated the result of his last interview; then Gaston
+conceived the project of following up that masterly move with another
+which would give it force. If he could only have counted upon Bertha as
+an ally he would have been confident of the success of his plan; but he
+knew that Bertha's timidity--say, rather, her _cowardice_--was
+insuperable, and she held her aunt in too much awe to dare to take any
+decided stand. M. de Bois called all his energies into play to influence
+the weak medium he was compelled to employ.
+
+Madeleine was occupied in a different part of the house when Maurice,
+finding Gaston and Bertha in the boudoir, told them the result of his
+interview with Madame de Gramont. By and by Gaston lured Bertha into the
+garden. They made one or two turns in silence; Bertha looked up
+wistfully into her lover's face, and said, in a tone of reproach,--
+
+"How silent you seem to-day!"
+
+"Yes, I feel grave,--I have something to accomplish, and I greatly need,
+but fear to claim, your aid."
+
+"Mine? What lion is there in a net that needs such a poor, wee mouse as
+I to gnaw the meshes?"
+
+"No lion already in the snare, but a lioness to be lured into our net.
+Bertha, do you truly love Mademoiselle Madeleine?"
+
+"What a question!"
+
+"Do you love her so well that your love for her could surmount your
+dread of your aunt?"
+
+"Yes, that is, I think it could. What would you have me do?"
+
+"Follow the noble example of Maurice; tell Madame de Gramont that you
+will not return to Brittany with her unless Maurice and Mademoiselle
+Madeleine return also. She detests this country, and the fear of being
+compelled to remain here will conquer her."
+
+"But how could I do this?" questioned Bertha, feeling that she had not
+firmness for the task. "I have promised to go with her. What excuse
+could I offer?"
+
+"The excuse," answered her lover, "that you could not travel with her
+alone."
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"Yes, for I do not count the light-headed Adolphine any one."
+
+"But you,--you are going with us?"
+
+"I shall not go unless Maurice and Mademoiselle Madeleine go," replied
+M. de Bois.
+
+"And you can let me go without you? You can let me take such a journey
+with my aunt in her broken state of health?"
+
+"I will not let you go at all if I can prevent your going."
+
+Not a few persuasions were needed before M. de Bois could obtain
+Bertha's promise to inform her aunt that she could not accompany her
+except upon the conditions Maurice had made. Bertha looked like a
+culprit awaiting sentence, rather than a person who came to dictate,
+when she entered Madame de Gramont's apartment. The countess had been
+highly incensed by her conversation with Maurice, and was wrought up to
+such a pitch that she seemed to have gained sudden strength, and almost
+to be restored to health. Bertha stole to her side, but the young
+girl's good intentions were oozing away every moment. The probability is
+that that she would not have had the courage to introduce the subject at
+all had not the countess asked,--
+
+"Have you heard of the unnatural conduct of Maurice? Do you know that my
+own grandson abandons me?"
+
+"I have heard," replied Bertha, hesitatingly. "Oh! what are we to do?
+How could you ever travel to Brittany alone?"
+
+"Alone?" cried the countess, catching hold of the blue silk curtains
+that draped her bed, and raising herself by clinging to them. "Alone? Do
+_you_, too, forsake me? But what else could I expect when my grandson,
+my only child left, has abandoned me?"
+
+Bertha's determination was put to flight by her aunt's woful look as she
+spoke these words with despairing fierceness, while she grasped the
+curtains more tightly and bore heavily upon them for support.
+
+These draperies were suspended over the centre of the bed from a massive
+gilded ornament, shaped to represent a huge arrow, and the countess in
+her agitation gathered the folds around her, and hung upon them in her
+efforts to sit up.
+
+"Oh, no, aunt, I have not forsaken you," returned Bertha. "I will go
+with you; but what shall we do alone? M. de Bois refuses to go unless
+Maurice and Madeleine go."
+
+"Does M. de Bois expect to dictate to _me_?" demanded Madame de Gramont,
+haughtily. "Let him remain; you will go with me, Bertha, and I shall
+hire a courier."
+
+"I am afraid we will not be able to find a courier in America," Bertha
+ventured to suggest.
+
+"Then we will go without one! We will go the instant I am able; and I
+feel so much stronger at this moment that I could start at once. It is
+settled that we go, and I defy Maurice or any one else to keep me."
+
+Madeleine had been visiting the working-room, and, without being aware
+of what had just taken place, she now entered her aunt's chamber. Madame
+de Gramont's convulsed features, and her singular attitude as she sat up
+in the centre of the bed, tightly grasping the curtains, which had been
+drawn from their usual position, impressed Madeleine so painfully, that
+she was running toward her; when the countess, raising herself up, with
+sudden strength, exclaimed,--"Madeleine de Gramont, keep from me!--do
+not come near me! All my sorrow has come through you!--Go! go!"
+
+She gave such a violent strain upon the curtains, as she passionately
+uttered these words, that Madeleine's quick ears caught a sound as of
+some fastening giving way. With a cry of horror, she sprang to the bed,
+flung her arms around the countess, and dragged her from it just as the
+heavy ornament fell!
+
+Madeleine's piercing cry, and Bertha's shriek summoned not only Mrs.
+Lawkins, who was sitting in the adjoining chamber, but Maurice and
+Gaston. The curtains partially concealed the bed and the two who lay
+prostrate beside it; the white, haggard, terrified countenance of Madame
+de Gramont was alone visible. As Mrs. Lawkins endeavored to extricate
+her from the folds of the curtain, Maurice and Gaston removed the fallen
+arrow to which the drapery was still attached. Afterwards Gaston, who
+was nearest to Mrs. Lawkins, assisted her in raising the helpless
+countess and placing her upon the bed. Then the form of Madeleine became
+visible. She was stretched upon the ground motionless and senseless; her
+beautiful hair, loosened by her fall, enveloped her like a veil, and
+wholly concealed her face. What a groan of agony burst from Maurice as
+he knelt beside her and swept away the shrouding tresses! They were wet,
+and the hands that touched them became scarlet. The outermost edge of
+the arrow had struck Madeleine's head, inflicting a deep gash, and, as
+it fell, tore her dress the whole length of her left shoulder and arm,
+making another wound which bled profusely.
+
+Maurice was so completely stupefied with horror that he had scarcely
+power to lift her light form.
+
+"Here! here! place her here!" cried Mrs. Lawkins; "don't stir her any
+more than possible."
+
+Maurice mechanically obeyed and laid Madeleine upon the same bed which
+bore the countess.
+
+The nurse was the only one whose presence of mind had not completely
+departed, and she hurried from the room to send for medical assistance.
+
+Maurice, as he clasped Madeleine in his arms, groaned out, "She is
+killed! she is dead! Oh, my Madeleine, my Madeleine! are you gone?
+Madeleine! Madeleine!"
+
+Madeleine gave no sign of life, though the blood still flowed.
+
+Mrs. Lawkins, who had returned, tried to force him away--entreated him
+to let her approach Madeleine, that she might bind up her head and
+stanch the blood; but he did not hear, or heed,--he was lost in grief.
+M. de Bois also appealed to him, but in vain; then Gaston attempted to
+use force to recall him to reason, and, seizing both of Maurice's arms,
+essayed to unclasp them from their hold of the inanimate form, saying as
+he did so:
+
+"For the love of Heaven, Maurice, collect yourself; she may bleed to
+death if you prevent Mrs. Lawkins from doing what is needful to stop the
+blood."
+
+Maurice struggled with him, as he exclaimed, hopelessly, "She is dead!
+she is dead!"
+
+"She is _not_ dead, but you may kill her if you refuse to let Mrs.
+Lawkins bind up her wounds."
+
+Maurice no longer resisted, and Mrs. Lawkins wiped away the blood, and
+commenced bandaging the fair, wounded head. The pale features had been
+stained with the crimson flood, and, as Mrs. Lawkins bathed them, their
+marble whiteness and stillness were appalling.
+
+Bertha had not ceased to sob, though Gaston, the instant he could safely
+relinquish his hold of Maurice, essayed by every means in his power to
+soothe her.
+
+The countess was gazing upon Madeleine with an air of stupefied grief.
+Bertha, who had no control over her passionate sorrow, as her eyes fell
+upon Madame de Gramont, cried out, reproachfully,--
+
+"Aunt, but for her, you would have been killed! You who never loved her!
+She has lost her life in trying to save yours!"
+
+The countess did not appear to heed the cruel words, though they were
+the echo of her own thoughts.
+
+Mrs. Lawkins' skilful ministry had stanched the blood and Madeleine's
+head and arm were bound up; but still she lay like some lovely statue,
+her lips apart and hueless,--her eyes closed, and the dark lashes
+sweeping her alabaster cheeks; while her long hair, still dripping with
+its crimson moisture, was lifted over the pillow. As Mrs. Lawkins,
+having accomplished her sad task, drew back, Maurice pressed into her
+place, and Bertha crowded in beside him, loading the senseless Madeleine
+with caresses and tender epithets; then, as she turned to her aunt, who
+had raised herself on her elbow, and was also bending over the lifeless
+figure, exclaimed impetuously,--
+
+"Oh! how could you help loving her? We all loved her so much! Cousin
+Tristan said she was his good angel, and she has been the good angel of
+all our family; but our good angel is gone! We have lost her through
+you!"
+
+Bertha's overwhelming sorrow had swept away all her former dread of her
+aunt, whom her reproaches deeply stung. They were the first Madame de
+Gramont had ever heard from those timid lips. At that moment the
+conscience-stricken woman would have made any sacrifice, even of her
+pride, to have seen Madeleine restored to life. While contemplating that
+angelic face, now so still and white, torturing fiends recalled all the
+harsh words she had used to pain this defenceless being,--all the cruel
+wrong she had done her,--all the misery she had caused her; and now she
+inwardly prayed that Madeleine might live; but with that prayer arose
+the thought that the supplication of such a one as she would remain
+unheard in heaven.
+
+Mrs. Lawkins, aided by Maurice, was applying restoratives. With his arm
+beneath Madeleine's head, he was holding a spoon to her lips, and, with
+gentle force, pouring its contents into her mouth, watching her with the
+most thrilling anxiety. He thought a slight movement of the lips was
+perceptible; then they quivered more certainly, and she made an effort
+to swallow.
+
+The countess was the first one that spoke: "She is not dead! I am spared
+that!"
+
+She sank back upon her pillow and wept.
+
+No one present had ever seen her weep; but now she did not try to hide
+her tears; they gushed forth in fierce torrents, like a stream that
+breaks forth through severed icebergs; for in her soul the ice that had
+gathered to mountain heights was melting at last.
+
+Maurice had echoed the words, "She is not dead," pressing his own
+burning lips upon those pale, feebly-stirring, cold ones, and catching
+the first returning breath that Madeleine drew. At that long, fervent
+kiss her eyes unclosed; they saw his face and nothing beside.
+
+"Madeleine, my beloved, you are spared to me! My life returns now that
+you are given back."
+
+Madeleine faintly murmured "Maurice," and then her eyes wandered from
+his face to those around her, and she added, "What is it?"
+
+Bertha's transition from grief to joy was so clamorous that no one could
+answer. If Gaston had not restrained her, Madeleine's bandage would have
+been endangered by the young girl's vehement embraces, which were
+mingled with incoherent exclamations of rapture.
+
+"What is it?" again questioned Madeleine; but, as she spoke her eye
+caught sight of the fallen curtain, thrown in a heap, and remembering
+the recent danger, she turned quickly to the countess, and said,
+feebly,--
+
+"You are not hurt, aunt,--madame? The shaft did not strike you,--did
+it?"
+
+The countess felt that a shaft had fallen and struck her, indeed, but
+not the one Madeleine meant. She stretched out her hand and clasped that
+of her niece as she said,--
+
+"I am uninjured, Madeleine; it is you who received the blow. God grant
+that this may be the last that will fall upon you through me! It is in
+vain to struggle against His will. It was His hand,--I feel it! I resist
+no longer!"
+
+She looked toward Maurice, who exclaimed joyfully, "My dear, dear
+grandmother, have I regained Madeleine doubly to-day? Do you mean"--
+
+The countess finished his sentence solemnly, "That it shall be as my son
+said."
+
+Madeleine, overcome with joy and gratitude, tried to raise herself up
+that she might reach the countess, but sank back powerless, and the
+effort again started the crimson current which trickled through the
+bandage and ran down her face.
+
+"Don't move!" cried Mrs. Lawkins. "See, see, what you have done by
+agitating her. Go, all of you, away. Mr. Maurice, go, or you will do her
+more mischief. Take him away, M. de Bois."
+
+Maurice was so much alarmed at the sight of the blood that he could not,
+at first, listen to these expostulations; but Mrs. Lawkins continued to
+threaten him with such evil results if he did not obey, and to urge M.
+de Bois so strenuously to compel him, that Gaston succeeded in leading
+him away; Mrs. Lawkins bade Bertha follow them, and then locked the
+door.
+
+As she prepared a fresh bandage she said apologetically, "I was obliged
+to send them away, Mademoiselle Madeleine; you must be quiet and not
+speak a word until the doctor comes; it is very, very important."
+
+And Madeleine did lie still in a trance of pure delight, and the
+countess lay beside her almost as motionless.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVII.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+
+The wound in Madeleine's head was dangerously near her temple. Her long
+swoon had been caused by the severity of the blow, and she was
+completely exhausted by her great loss of blood. When Dr. Bayard had
+examined her injuries and readjusted the bandage, Maurice bore her
+gently to her own chamber, clasping her closely in his arms as he went,
+and breathing over her words of tenderest endearment. He left her in
+Mrs. Lawkins' charge to be undressed and laid in bed, but even during
+that brief process, knocked several times at the door to urge the good
+house-keeper to make haste and admit him.
+
+For nearly two months Maurice had been chained to the bedside of his
+suffering father, or his grandmother; he had been fully initiated into
+the duties of ministration, and upon the strength of his experience he
+claimed the entire care of the new invalid. What a luxury to him it was
+to watch over his beloved Madeleine! It seemed ungrateful of her to
+deprive him of the happiness by getting well too rapidly. As Ruth
+Thornton occupied the same room, Madeleine needed no watcher at night;
+but Maurice scarcely left her during the day. Her light food, her
+cooling drinks and calming potions, she received from his hands alone.
+Hour after hour, he sat and read to her,--sat and talked to her,--sat
+and looked at her,--and never was weary,--never was so superlatively
+happy in his life! He was jealous of any one who attempted to share his
+vigils; when Mrs. Lawkins approached, he playfully reminded her that
+they had agreed upon a division of labor, and Madame de Gramont was her
+patient; when Ruth and Bertha tried to press upon him their services, he
+had always some plea to peremptorily dismiss them both. Mrs. Walton was
+the only one in whose favor he relented a little. He allowed her to sit
+beside his charge for a couple of hours every day. How could he refuse
+when the presence of this invaluable friend gave Madeleine such true
+pleasure, and when Mrs. Walton was filled with such evident delight in
+watching the intercourse of these two kindred spirits, who to her eyes
+seemed created for partnership?
+
+Madame de Gramont had daily, with a sort of ceremonious affection,
+inquired after Madeleine's health. Madeleine's first visit, when she was
+able to rise, was to her aunt; but Maurice would not allow his patient
+to attempt to walk without his supporting arm about her waist. We will
+not say that Madame de Gramont greeted Madeleine _cordially_; but she
+received her with marked consideration, and expressed satisfaction at
+beholding her able to move; this was the sole allusion she made to the
+accident. Maurice, who had grown thoroughly tyrannical, would only
+permit Madeleine to remain a few moments with his grandmother, and
+brought the interview to a sudden close.
+
+Now that Madeleine was convalescent, she found great enjoyment in long,
+pleasant drives with Bertha, Maurice and Gaston. On bright days they
+left the carriage, and wandered into the woods to gather wild flowers,
+and rest beneath the trees. On one of these occasions, Madeleine was
+sitting upon a fallen tree, her lap filled with the flowers she had
+culled, and which she was weaving into a wreath. Bertha aided her work
+by selecting and handing the requisite flowers. Maurice was supplying
+her with luxuriant moss which she mingled among the bright blossoms.
+Gaston, lying at Bertha's feet, contemplated the lovely picture before
+him. The wreath was finished, and Madeleine wound it about Bertha's
+picturesque little hat,--not one of those unmeaning abominations which
+neither cover the head, nor shade the face, but a round straw hat,
+slightly turned up at the sides, and ornamented only by a single, black
+plume.
+
+"Look, M. de Bois," said Madeleine, "is not my chaplet successful? Could
+anything be more becoming to Bertha?"
+
+"Yes," answered Gaston, "there is one chaplet in which she would look
+still lovelier,--a wreath of orange-blossoms. Come, Bertha, are you not
+ready to reward my patience and forbearance? Will you not let me
+remember this day as one of our brightest, by telling me when you will
+wear that orange-blossom wreath?"
+
+Bertha laid her head upon Madeleine's shoulder at the risk of crushing
+some of the wild flowers, and answered, "That depends upon Madeleine. I
+told you long ago that Madeleine should name the day."
+
+"Come then, Mademoiselle Madeleine," Gaston pleaded; "do you speak!"
+
+Maurice's eyes fervently seconded the adjuration.
+
+Madeleine answered, with the perverseness of her sex, "You ought to
+return to Charleston, Maurice."
+
+"I know I _ought_; but do not imagine I mean to do what I ought to do,
+until you have done what you ought to do as an example; if you do
+_that_, you will tell me when I may return to claim my bride."
+
+"You shall know to-morrow," said Madeleine, "but only on condition that
+neither of you gentlemen mention the subject again to-day."
+
+Both lovers promised; but, simply because a condition had been made,
+they every moment experienced the strongest temptation to disregard the
+stipulation.
+
+That night Madeleine and Bertha had a long conversation,--"a woman's
+talk," such as maidens, and matrons too, delight in, all the world over.
+They decided that Maurice must leave at once for Charleston, and remain
+three months, only returning the day before the one appointed for his
+nuptials. The double wedding was to take place in church; the bridal
+party to return to Madeleine's and, after a collation, leave for
+Philadelphia, and the day following for New York. The countess,
+accompanied by Gaston and Bertha, would sail at once for Havre, and
+Maurice, and Madeleine take up their abode in Charleston. Bertha's
+plans, after she reached France, were left to be determined by
+circumstances.
+
+Madame de Gramont was the first one apprised of this arrangement, and it
+met with her full approval. She rejoiced at the certainty of seeing her
+beloved château again; and, though she spoke not one word to that
+effect, experienced great relief at being spared the necessity of
+appearing in Brittany with Madeleine, whose presence must necessarily
+cause abundant gossip.
+
+Maurice and Gaston were warned that the penalty of a single remonstrance
+against these plans would be a month added to their period of probation.
+Maurice compromised by pleading that instead of leaving Washington at
+once, he might be permitted to remain until the close of the week.
+
+The French ambassador had been much chagrined at the prospect of parting
+with Gaston. It was tolerably difficult to find a person who was not
+always seeking his own interests, or meddling in diplomatic affairs, to
+supply M. de Bois's place. When M. de Fleury was informed that the
+period for Gaston's departure was settled, he urged him to promise to
+return within six months, saying that he would only engage a secretary
+_pro tem._ in the hope of M. de Bois occupying his former position.
+
+As the young French maidens were orphans, and of high family, M. de
+Fleury offered to assume the office of father in giving them away, and
+the flattering proposition was particularly acceptable to the countess.
+
+Ronald Walton was to be the groomsman of Maurice, and Madeleine made her
+humble friend Ruth, the happiest of maidens, by inviting her to
+officiate as bridesmaid. Bertha needed a bridesmaid and groomsman, since
+her cousin would be thus attended, and she chose Lady Augusta Linden and
+her _fiancé_, Mr. Rutledge, through whose influence Madeleine had
+obtained a vote of so much importance to Maurice.
+
+These nuptial arrangements seemed to give general satisfaction, with
+one exception; Mr. Walton declared that he was unfairly treated; that he
+meant to be assigned some office; and as his son was Madeleine's
+groomsman, and as he was not himself qualified to be Bertha's, he must
+be allowed to act as the father of the latter. M. de Fleury, he said,
+ought to be contented with the _rôle_ of father to one of the brides.
+Bertha, who had been charmed by the courtly manners and delightful
+conversation of this agreeable gentleman, cordially consented.
+
+Once more Madeleine and Maurice were to be parted; and even this brief
+separation tested their fortitude. The Waltons accompanied Maurice, and
+were to return with him to Washington.
+
+On his arrival in Charleston, he had cause to be flattered by the hearty
+greeting of his partner. Maurice plunged at once into professional
+duties; but another employment helped to speed the time,--a truly
+charming occupation,--the preparation of a home for his bride.
+
+Mrs. Walton assisted the young lawyer in the agreeable task of selecting
+furniture, and making those arrangements which demanded a woman's hand.
+
+A never-failing happiness flowed to Maurice from the exchange of letters
+with Madeleine. Each day commenced with the sending, and closed with the
+receiving, of one of these precious paper messengers. But Madeleine's
+letters, by no means, came under the head of "love letters." She could
+not have poured out upon paper, any more than she could have spoken, the
+fulness and depth of her affection; but Maurice found inexhaustible
+delight in what she wrote, which was always suggestive of so much left
+unsaid.
+
+Madeleine rented her house to Ruth, who now became the head of the
+establishment which "Mademoiselle Melanie" had rendered so popular. At
+Madeleine's suggestion, Ruth had written to her widowed mother and young
+sister and requested them to make their future home with her. That
+letter was read by streaming eyes, and its contents filled to
+overflowing two joyful hearts.
+
+Mrs. Lawkins was to accompany Madeleine to Charleston and take charge of
+her household there.
+
+Madeleine proposed closing her establishment on the day of her wedding;
+for she well knew that her _employées_ would desire to witness the
+ceremony. And she further evinced her thoughtfulness by ordering a
+bountiful collation to be spread in the apartments usually devoted to
+business, at the same time that the table was prepared for her own
+bridal party in the apartments beneath.
+
+Madeleine and Bertha had both apprised their bridegrooms elect that they
+preferred to forego the French custom of receiving the usual
+_corbeille_, containing laces, India shawls, jewelry, etc., etc., adding
+that some simple bridal token would be more acceptable.
+
+The day before the wedding arrived, and with it Maurice and the Waltons.
+
+We will not attempt to paint the meeting between Maurice and
+Madeleine,--it was too full of joy for language, too sacred for
+description,--but pass on to the events of the evening when the exchange
+of bridal gifts was made.
+
+Maurice fastened about Madeleine's white throat a small chain of
+Venetian gold, to which was suspended a cross of rare pearls; and on the
+back of the cross were inscribed these words of the prophet,--
+
+                      "Labor is worship."
+
+M. de Bois, knowing that Bertha was only too well supplied with gems,
+had experienced great difficulty in selecting a bridal gift. But, after
+many consultations with Madeleine, he chose a set of cameos cut in
+stone. The necklace and bracelets were composed of angel heads; but his
+own likeness was cut upon the brooch, and that of Madeleine on the
+medallion that formed the centre of the bracelet. Who can doubt that
+Bertha was enchanted with her gift?
+
+Madame de Gramont presented each of her nieces with a handkerchief of
+rich old lace, very rare and no longer purchasable.
+
+Madeleine placed in Bertha's hands a magnificently bound volume; it
+contained Mrs. Browning's poems illustrated, in water colors, by
+Madeleine herself. Many of the paintings were exquisite, but those which
+represented "Lady Geraldine's Courtship," far surpassed all the others.
+
+And now came the great surprise of the evening,--the disclosure of a
+secret which Gaston and Bertha had carefully guarded. Bertha, in her
+clingingly affectionate way, knelt down beside Madeleine, and laid in
+her lap two ancient-looking jewel-cases, her bridal gift to Madeleine.
+How Madeleine started and trembled at the sight! Well she knew those
+caskets, but her shaking hands could not press the springs by which they
+were secured. Bertha lifted their lids and disclosed the diamonds and
+emeralds which had been the bridal jewels of Lady Katrine Nugent,
+Madeleine's great-great-grandmother; the jewels which Madeleine had been
+forced to part with to obtain herself subsistence; the jewels whose
+design she had imitated on the dress which first made her "fairy
+fingers" known to Vignon; the jewels Bertha had recognized when they
+were worn by Madame de Fleury; the jewels which in attempting to trace
+to their owner, Maurice had suffered so terribly. These memorable jewels
+were restored through Gaston's agency. He had related to M. de Fleury
+their history, and Mademoiselle de Merrivale's desire to repurchase
+them. The marquis had promised acquiescence in the young lady's wishes
+if Madame de Fleury's consent could be obtained. Gaston and Bertha paid
+the ambassador's wife a visit of persuasion. Gaston was an especial
+favorite, and Madame de Fleury loved Madeleine as well as it was
+possible for her to love any one. Her yielding up these jewels was a
+high proof of the noble _couturière's_ power over her frivolous heart.
+
+What bride does not smile when she sees the sun shine into her chamber
+on the nuptial morning? The sun shone gloriously on the bridal day of
+Madeleine and Bertha. The ceremony was to take place at any early
+hour,--no invitations were issued,--the bridal party was to meet at
+Madeleine's to go to church.
+
+Madeleine and Bertha were attired precisely alike, and with severe
+simplicity; they both wore dresses of white silk, made close to the
+throat. (A _décolté_ attire would not be tolerated at a Parisian
+bridal.) Their veils were circular and of point lace; their chaplets of
+natural orange blossoms woven by Madeleine herself. Madeleine had not
+intended to wear any ornament, save the cross Maurice had presented her,
+but Bertha insisted on clasping Lady Katrine Nugent's bridal bracelet on
+her cousin's arm, and fastening her tiny lace collar with the lily and
+shamrock brooch. Bertha, herself, wore Gaston's cameos, and could
+scarcely restrain her joyful tears when she fastened on her fair bosom
+the brooch which represented her lover's countenance, and the bracelet
+that bore her beloved Madeleine's. She was adorned with the images of
+the two most dear on earth.
+
+Need we say that both brides were supremely lovely? Gazing at Bertha's
+sweet, unclouded face, that looked out from among the wealth of golden
+ringlets, and noting the soft light in her blue eyes, the delicate
+rose-flush that came and went on her cheeks, one might well declare that
+nothing more beautiful could be found, until the gazer turned to
+Madeleine. Her face was colorless with emotion, yet its paleness only
+rendered the sculpturesque beauty of her features more striking; her
+eyes were downcast, and thus one missed their clear lustre and holy
+expression; yet the long lashes were some compensation, and her look was
+so spiritual, so saint-like in its beauty, that nothing mortal could
+have been lovelier.
+
+For one moment only were Maurice and Gaston permitted to greet their
+brides, and then they were hurried into the carriages which awaited
+them.
+
+Though no invitations had been given, the church was densely crowded.
+When the nuptial procession entered, the suppressed murmur of many
+voices sounded like the rushing of distant waves. First came Madame de
+Gramont, leaning on the arm of Maurice; they were followed by Ronald and
+Ruth Thornton; Madeleine, led by the Marquis de Fleury, followed. Then
+came the second party, Gaston with Mrs. Walton on his arm; Lady Augusta
+and Mr. Rutledge; Bertha, led by Mr. Walton, not the least proud and
+happy man of that large assembly.
+
+At times, during the ceremony, low sobs were audible; they came from
+Madeleine's _employées_, who could not wholly control their grief, as
+the certainty of losing their gentle mistress forced itself upon them.
+
+The newly made wives passed out of the church conducted by their
+husbands and returned to Madeleine's residence.
+
+During the collation the brides stood together at the head of the table.
+The French ambassador and Mr. Walton were the life of the festive board,
+and infused an element of gayety which the small assemblage would have
+lacked without their aid, for a happy silence had fallen upon the
+nuptial party. Besides these gentlemen, Mr. Meredith and Mr. Hilson were
+the only strangers present.
+
+The brides left the company to assume their travelling attire; but
+Madeleine, before she made this change, stole to the apartment where her
+needle-women were at table, with Victorine at the head, and spoke a word
+of kindly farewell to each, in turn. There were no dry eyes in that
+room.
+
+Maurice was more than satisfied with Madeleine's approval of the
+pleasant abode he had chosen. Many and joyous were the years he and his
+beloved companion passed under that roof. One year after their marriage
+it also sheltered for a time Gaston and Bertha. Madame de Gramont died
+soon after her return to Brittany.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+BOOKS
+
+Published by
+
+Carleton
+
+413 Broad-Way
+New-York
+
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+
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+"There is a kind of physiognomy in the titles of books no less than in
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+
+
+NEW BOOKS
+
+And New Editions Recently Issued by
+
+CARLETON, PUBLISHER,
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+
+
+=Victor Hugo.=
+
+LES MISERABLES.--_The best edition_, two elegant 8vo. vols.,
+beautifully bound in cloth, $5.50; half calf,                     $10.00
+
+LES MISERABLES.--_The popular edition_, one large octavo volume,
+paper covers, $2.00; cloth bound,                                  $2.50
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+LES MISERABLES.--Original edition in five vols.--Fantine--Cosette--
+Marius--Denis--Valjean. 8vo. cloth,                                $1.25
+
+LES MISERABLES--In the Spanish language. Fine 8vo. edition,
+two vols., paper covers, $4.00; or cloth, bound,                   $5.00
+
+THE LIFE OF VICTOR HUGO.--By himself. 8vo. cloth,                  $1.75
+
+
+=By the Author of "Rutledge."=
+
+RUTLEDGE.--A deeply interesting novel.                12mo. cloth, $1.75
+THE SUTHERLANDS.--     do.                                do.      $1.75
+FRANK WARRINGTON.--    do.                                do.      $1.75
+LOUIE'S LAST TERM AT ST. MARY'S.--                        do.      $1.75
+ST. PHILIP'S.--_Just published._                          do.      $1.75
+
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+=Hand-Books of Good Society.=
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+THE HABITS OF GOOD SOCIETY; with Thoughts, Hints, and
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+  the London Edition. The best and most entertaining work
+  of the kind ever published.                         12mo. cloth, $1.75
+
+THE ART OF CONVERSATION.--With directions for self-culture.
+  A sensible and instructive work, that ought to be in the
+  hands of every one who wishes to be either an agreeable
+  talker or listener.                                 12mo. cloth, $1.50
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+BEULAH.--A novel of great power.                      12mo. cloth, $1.75
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+=Mrs. Mary J. Holmes' Works.=
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+DARKNESS AND DAYLIGHT.--_Just published._               12mo. cl., $1.50
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+HUGH WORTHINGTON.--    _Just published._                  do.      $1.50
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+HIS BOOK.--An irresistibly funny volume of writings
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+VERDANT GREEN.--A rollicking, humorous novel of English
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+PECULIAR.--One of the most remarkable and successful
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+A LONG LOOK AHEAD.--       A novel.                   12mo. cloth, $1.50
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+THE LIFE OF JESUS.--Translated by C. E. Wilbour from
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+  and magnificently embellished with more than 50 exquisite
+  photographs of the principal views and objects of interest.
+  A large quarto volume, sumptuously bound in Turkey morocco,     $30.00
+
+
+=Joseph Rodman Drake.=
+
+THE CULPRIT FAY.--The most charming faery poem in the
+  English language. Beautifully printed.            12mo. cloth, 75 cts.
+
+
+=Mother Goose for Grown Folks.=
+
+HUMOROUS RHYMES for grown people; based upon the famous
+  "Mother Goose Melodies."                            12mo. cloth, $1.00
+
+
+=Mrs. ---- ---- =
+
+FAIRY FINGERS.--A new novel.                          12mo. cloth, $1.75
+THE MUTE SINGER.-- do. _In press._                        do.      $1.75
+
+
+=Robert B. Roosevelt.=
+
+THE GAME FISH OF THE NORTH.--Illustrated.                12mo. cl. $2.00
+SUPERIOR FISHING.--_Just published._ do.                  do.      $2.00
+THE GAME BIRDS OF THE NORTH.--_In press._                          $2.00
+
+
+=John Phoenix.=
+
+THE SQUIBOB PAPERS.--With comic illustr.                12mo. cl., $1.50
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:
+
+Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as
+possible, including obsolete and variant spellings. Obvious
+typographical errors in punctuation (misplaced quotes and the like) have
+been fixed. Corrections in the text are noted below, with corrections
+inside the brackets:
+
+page 5:
+
+    XX. The Incognito[Incognita],                             186
+
+page 32
+
+    I saw three of our relatives on the de Gramont side, Madame
+    de Nervac, the Count Damorean[Damoreau], and M. de
+    Bonneville. They inquired kindly after you, Madeleine, and I
+    told them you
+
+page 91
+
+    "Before you go to Rennes, will you not return this
+    handker-Shief[handkerchief] to M. de Bois? As it was picked
+    up in the châlet, he
+
+page 122
+
+    confusion in his own mind, the more troubled he felt in
+    pondering over the disorded[disordered] mental condition of
+    Maurice. During a whole month after their accidental
+    encounter in the street he called
+
+page 123
+
+    great, blue eyes which so strongly resembled Bertha's--were
+    glittering with the wild lights of delirum[delirium]; fever
+    burned on his cheeks and seemed to scorch his parched lips.
+    The fair, clustering
+
+page 129
+
+    seen Madeleine beside me! When the good 'sister' moved about
+    the room, in the dim light of the veillense[veilleuse], in
+    spite of her coarse, unshapely garb, I recognized the
+    outlines of Madeleine's
+
+page 132
+
+    Walton, without being stirred and inspired by the contact.
+    The force, decision, aptitude, promptness, which
+    distinguished Roland[Ronald], had constituted him a sort of
+    prince among his fellow-students,
+
+page 135
+
+    the Marchioness de Fleury that Bertha's uncle was exceedingly
+    tenacious of his rights, and jealous of the
+    inteference[interference] of his niece's relatives in regard
+    to any future alliance she might
+
+page 150
+
+    golden keys: unlock all doors; carry one into hidden depths
+    of the earth. Shall be obliged to advance funds to pay
+    partiest[parties] employed. Have the goodness to write your
+    name in this
+
+page 153
+
+    "See, Maurice," Bertha continued, joyfully, "in the corner
+    she has embroidered my name, surrounded by a wreath of
+    for-get-me-nots[forget-me-nots],--for she does not forget.
+    The crest of the de Merrivales is in the opposite
+
+page 158
+
+    woman of her calm judgment,--a woman who could look with such
+    steady, tearless eyes upon life's realties,[realities]--a
+    woman who would not have trodden in flowery ways though every
+
+page 165
+
+    compelled to make, that he might meet the demands of the old
+    Jew, were not without their influence in preparing Count
+    Triston[Tristan] an to look favorably upon his son's
+    solicitation. The count imagined
+
+page 189
+
+    to mortgage the estate of his son for so large amount that,
+    but for the advent of the railroad, upon which he confidently
+    calculated, the mortgage must prove ruinious[ruinous] to the
+    interests of the landholder.
+
+page 209
+
+    "I must entreat your pardon for allowing you to wait; it was
+    not in my power to be[repeated word "be" removed] more
+    punctual; a terrible accident--the first of the kind which
+    has ever occurred to me--is my
+
+page 228
+
+    Ruth, without lifting her head from the sketch she was
+    coloring, answered, "Yes, certainly, unless it should be
+    something with which Mademoiselle Malanie[Melanie] does not
+    desire us to be acquainted."
+
+page 237
+
+    Shortly after M. de Bois returned to the exhibition salons,
+    Madeline[Madeleine] entered the workroom. Gaston could see
+    her moving about among the young girls, distributing
+    sketches, making smiling
+
+page 241
+
+    he should find her tranquil and self-possessed; and was he
+    about to enter her presence as voiceless and unmanned as
+    during their brief recontre[rencontre] the day previous?
+
+page 281
+
+    The Countess de Gramant[Gramont] rose up majestically, white
+    with rage.
+
+page 287
+
+    "True," replied Lord Linden, undaunted by her chilling
+    de-demeanor;[demeanor] "and it is not easy to break the iron
+    bonds of conventionality. But, if the difference of our rank
+    prevents my
+
+page 288
+
+    "An insult? You do not imagnie[imagine]--you cannot suppose
+    that I had any such intention?"
+
+page 332
+
+    "Yes, to-night; but not very[every] night," she added, with
+    playful imperativeness. "I shall not allow that, and you see
+    I have taken the reins into my own hands, and show that a
+    little of
+
+    in the social sphere; and great were the lamentations over
+    the noble coutourière's[couturière's] supposed abdication of
+    her throne.
+
+page 345
+
+    CHAPTER LXI.[XLI.]
+
+page 356
+
+    precisely how to make a pillow yield the best support,--a
+    low, soft, yet encouraging voice,--a cheerful, yet
+    symathizing[sympathizing] face,--a soundless step,--garments
+    that never rustle,--movements that
+
+page 358
+
+    Maurice perceived his mistake too late. He had not foreseen
+    that the countess would have drawn this
+    conclusiou[conclusion] from the intelligence just
+    communicated.
+
+page 363
+
+    lips. "She has seen Dr. Bayard, and insists on carrying out
+    certains[certain] views of hers, and she informs me that she
+    has his permission
+
+page 371
+
+    mending, would have gained a charm and been idealized into
+    pleasures, if they contributed to the well-being of those
+    dear to[repeated "to" removed] her; but, when performed for
+    the one more precious than all
+
+page 373
+
+    you to inform the countess that a nurse is coming. One charge
+    more: you[your] father is so much better that instead of
+    wearing yourself out by sitting up with him, it would be
+    wiser to have
+
+page 379
+
+    and we will settle the matter. Make haste, for I must write
+    to Lorillard[Lorrillard] by this evening's mail, and I desire
+    to inform him, in answer to his somewhat caustic letter, that
+    I have made the
+
+page 423
+
+    "This has been but a brief meeting, Madeleine, after the
+    sepation[separation] of those long, sorrowful years. The
+    future is all uncertain, I cannot fix a time, after I have
+    said adieu, when I may clasp
+
+page 451
+    Mrs. Lawkin's[Lawkins'] skilful ministry had stanched the
+    blood and Madeleine's head and arm were bound up; but still
+    she lay like
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Fairy Fingers, by Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie
+
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Fairy Fingers, by Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Fairy Fingers
+       A Novel
+
+Author: Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie
+
+Release Date: February 21, 2008 [EBook #24664]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAIRY FINGERS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Julia Miller and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<h1>FAIRY FINGERS.</h1><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1"></a></span></p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2"></a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p class="center"><i>IN PRESS:</i></p>
+
+<p class="center">BY THE AUTHOR OF THIS VOLUME,</p>
+
+<p class="center">THE MUTE SINGER;<br />
+
+<i>A Novel.</i></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3"></a></span></p>
+
+<p class="title"><big><b>FAIRY FINGERS.</b></big></p>
+
+<h2><i>A Novel.</i></h2>
+
+<p class="center">BY</p>
+
+<h2>ANNA CORA RITCHIE,</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><small>AUTHOR OF "THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN ACTRESS," "MIMIC LIFE," "TWIN ROSES,"
+"ARMAND," "FASHION," ETC.</small></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<h4>"Labor is Worship."</h4>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 111px;">
+<img src="images/logo.jpg" width="111" height="71" alt="logo" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="center">NEW YORK:<br />
+
+<i>CARLETON, PUBLISHER,</i> 413 <i>BROADWAY.</i></p>
+
+<p class="center">MDCCCLXV.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="center">Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by<br />
+
+GEO. W. CARLETON.</p>
+
+<p class="center">In the Clerk's Office of the District Court
+for the Southern District of New York.
+</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+<h2><a name="contents" id="contents"></a>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+
+<table summary="Table of Contents">
+<tr>
+
+
+<th class="tda">CHAPTER</th>
+<th class="tdc" colspan="2">PAGE</th>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">I. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>Noblesse,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">7</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">II. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>The Cousins,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">17</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">III. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>Madeleine,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">24</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">IV. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>Proposals,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">38</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">V. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>Heart-beats,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">43</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">VI. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>Unmasking,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">55</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">VII. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>A Crisis,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">68</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">VIII. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>Flight,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">79</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">IX. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>The Empty Place,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">94</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">X. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>The Humble Companion,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">109</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XI. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>Pursuit,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">116</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XII. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>The Sister of Charity,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">121</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XIII. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>Weary Days,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">131</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XIV. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>Diamonds and Emeralds,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">139</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XV. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>The Embroidered Handkerchief,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">148</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XVI. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>A Voice from the Lost One,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">155</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XVII. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>"Chiffons,"</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">166</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XVIII. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>Maurice,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">173</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XIX. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>The Aristocrats in America,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">179</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XX. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>The Incognita,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">186</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XXI. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>The Cytherea of Fashion,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">195</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XXII. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>Meeting,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">200</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XXIII. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>Noble Hands made Nobler,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">213</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XXIV. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>Feminine Belligerents,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">226</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XXV. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>The Message,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">237</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XXVI. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>Meeting of Lovers,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">241</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XXVII. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>Count Tristan's Policy,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">249</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XXVIII. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>Lord Linden's Discovery,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">254</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XXIX. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>A Contest,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">260</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XXX. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>Bertha,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">268</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XXXI. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>A Surprise,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">278</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XXXII. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>The Nobleman and Mantua-maker,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">283</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XXXIII. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>Madame De Gramont,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII">294</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XXXIV. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>Half the Wooer,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV">298</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XXXV. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>A Revelation,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXV">305</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XXXVI. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>The Suitor,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVI">311</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XXXVII. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>A Shock,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVII">314</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XXXVIII. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>The Mantua-maker's Guests,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVIII">323</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XXXIX. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>Ministration,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIX">330</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XL. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>Recognition,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XL">340</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XLI. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>Unbowed,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLI">345</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XLII. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>Double Convalescence,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLII">352</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XLIII. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>Outgeneralled,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLIII">357</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XLIV. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>A Change,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLIV">364</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XLV. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>Reparation,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLV">375</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XLVI. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>A Mishap,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLVI">380</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XLVII. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>Inflexibility,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLVII">387</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XLVIII. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>The New England Nurse,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLVIII">392</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">XLIX. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>Ronald,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLIX">405</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">L. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>A Secret Divined,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_L">409</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">LI. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>Seed Sown,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_LI">415</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">LII. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>A Lover's Snare,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_LII">420</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">LIII. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>Resistance,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_LIII">426</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">LIV. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>An Unexpected Visit,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_LIV">431</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">LV. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>Amen,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_LV">435</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">LVI. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>The Hand of God,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_LVI">442</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tda">LVII. </td>
+<td class="tdb"><b>Conclusion,</b></td>
+<td class="tdc"><a href="#CHAPTER_LVII">453</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="FAIRY_FINGERS" id="FAIRY_FINGERS"></a>FAIRY FINGERS.</h2>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<h3>NOBLESSE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>They were seated in the drawing-room of an ancient ch&acirc;teau in
+Brittany,&mdash;the Countess Dowager de Gramont and Count Tristan, her only
+son,&mdash;a mansion lacking none of the ponderous quaintness that usually
+characterizes ancestral dwellings in that locality. The edifice could
+still boast of imposing grandeur, especially if classed among "fine
+ruins." Within and without were harmoniously dilapidated, and a large
+portion of the interior was uninhabitable. The limited resources of the
+count precluded even an apologetic semblance of repairs.</p>
+
+<p>The house was surrounded by spacious parks and pleasure-grounds, in a
+similarly neglected condition. Their natural beauty was striking, and
+the rich soil yielded fruits and flowers in abundance, though its only
+culture was received from the hands of old Baptiste, who made his
+appearance as gardener in the morning, but, with a total change of
+costume, was metamorphosed into butler after the sun passed the
+meridian. In his button-hole a flower, which he could never be induced
+to forego, betrayed his preference for the former vocation.</p>
+
+<p>The discussion between mother and son was unmistakably tempestuous. A
+thunder-cloud lowered on the noble lady's brow;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> her eyes shot forth
+electric flashes, and her voice, usually subdued to aristocratic
+softness, was raised to storm-pitch.</p>
+
+<p>"Count Tristan de Gramont, you have taken leave of your senses!"</p>
+
+<p>A favorite declaration of persons thoroughly convinced of their own
+unassailable mental equilibrium, when their convictions encounter the
+sudden check of opposition.</p>
+
+<p>As the assertion, unfortunately, is one that cannot be disproved by
+denial, the count sank resignedly behind the shield of silence. His
+mother returned to the attack.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean me to understand that, in your right mind, you would
+condescend to mingle with men of business?&mdash;that you would actually
+degrade yourself into becoming a shareholder, or manager, or director,
+or whatever you please to term it, in a railway company?&mdash;<i>you</i>, Count
+Tristan de Gramont! The very proposal is a humiliation; to entertain it
+would be an absurdity&mdash;to consent, an impossibility. I repeat it, you
+have taken leave of your senses!"</p>
+
+<p>"But, my dear mother," answered the count, with marked deference, "you
+are forgetting that this railway company chances to be an American
+association; my connection with it, or, rather, its very existence, is
+not likely to be known here in Brittany,&mdash;therefore, my dignity will not
+be compromised. The only valuable property left us is the transatlantic
+estate which my roving brother purchased during his wanderings in the
+New World, and bequeathed to my son, Maurice, for whom it is held in
+trust by an American gentleman. The members of the association, who
+desire to interest me in their speculation, assert that the proposed
+railroad may pass directly through this very tract of land. Should that
+be the case, its value will be greatly increased. At the present moment
+the estate yields us nothing; but the advent of this railroad must
+insure an immense profit. We estimate that, by judicious management, the
+land may be made to bring in"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>His mother interrupted him with a haughty gesture. "<i>'Speculation!'
+'yield!' 'profit!' 'bring in!'</i> What language to grow familiar to the
+lips of a son of mine! You talk like a tradesman already! My son, give
+up all idea of this plebeian enterprise!"</p>
+
+<p>The count did not answer immediately. He seemed puzzled to determine
+what degree of confidence it was necessary to repose in his stately
+mother. After a brief pause, he renewed the conversation with evident
+embarrassment.</p>
+
+<p>"It is very difficult to make a lady, especially a lady of your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> rank,
+education, and mode of life, understand these matters, and the
+necessity"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It ought to be equally difficult to make the nobleman, my son,
+comprehend them," answered the countess, freezingly.</p>
+
+<p>The count rejoined, as though driven to extremity, "It is the very fact
+of my being a nobleman, that has made these people, Americans as they
+are, and despisers of titles as they profess to be, seek me with
+eagerness. The <i>prestige</i> of my <i>title</i>, and the promise of obtaining
+some privileges respecting Maurice's Maryland estate, are all that I can
+contribute toward the success of their undertaking. It is true I am a
+nobleman; but even rank, my dear mother, must have the means of
+sustaining its existence, to say nothing of preserving its dignity. Even
+rank is subject to the common, vulgar need of food and raiment and
+shelter, not to mention the necessity of keeping horses, carriages,
+domestics, and securing other indispensable but money-consuming
+luxuries. Our narrow income is no longer sufficient to meet even our
+limited expenditures. The education of Maurice at the University of
+Paris, and your own charities, have not merely drained our purse, but
+involved us in debt. I hail the offer made me by this American company,
+because it may extricate us from some very serious difficulties. I am
+much mortified at your resolute disapproval of the step I contemplate."</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan de Gramont was a widower, the father of but one child. It
+must not be supposed that, although he seriously purposed embarking in a
+business enterprise, he had failed to appropriate a goodly share of that
+pride which had both descended by inheritance, and been liberally
+instilled into his mind by education. His character was strongly stamped
+with the Breton traits of obstinacy and perseverance, and he was gifted
+with an unaristocratic amount of energy. When an idea once took
+possession of his brain, he patiently and diligently brought the embryo
+thought to fruition, in spite of all disheartening obstacles. He was
+narrow-minded and selfish when any interests save his own and those of
+his mother and son were at stake. These were the only two beings whom he
+loved, and he only loved them because they were <i>his</i>&mdash;a portion of
+<i>himself</i>; and it was merely himself that he loved through them. In a
+certain sense, he was a devoted son. His education had rendered him
+punctilious, to the highest degree, in the observance of all those forms
+that betoken filial veneration. He always treated his august mother with
+the most profound reverence. He paid her the most courteous
+attentions,&mdash;opened the doors when she desired to pass, placed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>
+footstools for her feet, knelt promptly to pick up the handkerchief or
+glove she dropped, was ever ready to offer her his arm for her support,
+and seldom combated her opinions.</p>
+
+<p>The first time he had openly ventured to oppose her views was in the
+conversation we have just related.</p>
+
+<p>She looked so regal, as she sat before him in a richly carved antique
+chair, which she occupied as though it had been a throne, that, in spite
+of the blind obstinacy with which she refused to see her own interests
+and his, Count Tristan could not help regarding her with admiration.</p>
+
+<p>She was still strikingly handsome, notwithstanding the sixty winters
+which had bleached her raven locks to the most uncompromising white.
+Those snowy tresses fell in soft and glossy curls about her scarcely
+furrowed countenance. Her forehead was somewhat low and narrow; the
+face, a decided oval; the nose, almost straight; the eyes almond-shaped,
+and of a jetty blackness, flashing out from beneath brows that were
+remarkable for the fine, dark line that designated their arch. The mouth
+was the least pleasing feature,&mdash;it was too small, and unsuggestive of
+varied expression; the lips not only lacked fulness, but wore a
+supercilious curl that had become habitual.</p>
+
+<p>Her form was considerably above the medium height, and added to the
+sense of grandeur conveyed by her presence. Her carriage was erect to
+the verge of stiffness, and her step too firm to be quite soundless.
+Advancing years had not produced any unseemly <i>embonpoint</i>, nor had her
+figure fallen into the opposite extreme, and sharpened into meagre
+angularity; its outline retained sufficient roundness not to lose the
+curves or grace.</p>
+
+<p>She had made no reply to her son's last remark, which forced him to
+begin anew. He thought it politic, however, to change the subject.</p>
+
+<p>"You remember, my mother, that some seven of our friends are engaged to
+dine with us to-morrow. I trust you will not disapprove of my having
+invited two American gentlemen to join the party. After the letters of
+introduction they brought me, I was forced to show them some attention
+and"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>He paused abruptly, without venturing to add that those gentlemen were
+directors of the railway company of which he had before spoken.</p>
+
+<p>"My son, you are aware that I never interfere with your hospitalities,
+but you seem to have forgotten that my S&ecirc;vres china is only a set for
+twelve, and I can use no other on ceremonious occasions. With Bertha and
+Madeleine we have one guest too many."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That is a matter readily arranged," replied the count. "Madeleine need
+not appear at table. She is always so obliging and manageable that she
+can easily be requested to dine in her own room. In fact, to speak
+frankly, I would <i>rather not</i> have her present."</p>
+
+<p>"But, should she be absent, Bertha will be annoyed," rejoined Madame de
+Gramont.</p>
+
+<p>"Bertha is a simpleton! How strange that she does not see, or suspect,
+that Madeleine always throws her into the background! I said a while
+ago, my mother, that <i>your charities</i> had helped to drain our purse, and
+this is one which I might cite, and the one that galls me most. Here,
+for three years, you have sheltered and supported this young girl,
+without once reflecting upon the additional expense we are incurring by
+your playing the benefactress thus grandly. It is very noble, very
+munificent on your part; still, for a number of reasons, I regret that
+Madeleine has become a permanent inmate of this ch&acirc;teau."</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine was an orphan," replied the countess, "the sole remaining
+child of the Duke de Gramont, your father's nephew. When she was left
+homeless and destitute, did not the <i>honor of the family</i> force me to
+offer her an asylum, and to treat her with the courtesy due to a
+relative? Have we not always found her very grateful and very
+agreeable?"</p>
+
+<p>"I grant you&mdash;very agreeable&mdash;<i>too</i> agreeable by half," returned the
+count; "so agreeable that, as I said, she invariably throws your
+favorite Bertha into the shade. I confess that the necessity of always
+reserving for this young person, thrust upon us by the force of
+circumstances, a place at table, a seat in the carriage, room upon every
+party of pleasure, makes her presence an inconvenience, if not a
+positive burden. And will you allow me to speak with great candor? May I
+venture to say that I have seen you, my dear mother, chafed by the
+infliction, and irritated by beholding Bertha lose through contrast with
+Madeleine?"</p>
+
+<p>His mother replied with animation: "Bertha is my grandniece,&mdash;the
+granddaughter of my only sister; the ties of blood, if nothing more,
+would bind me more closely to her than to Madeleine. Possibly there may
+have been times when I have not been well pleased to see one so dear,
+invariably, though most inexplicably, eclipsed. Bertha may shine forth
+in her most resplendent jewels,&mdash;her most costly and exquisite Parisian
+toilet; Madeleine has only to enter, in a simple muslin dress, a flower,
+or a knot of ribbons in her hair, and she draws all eyes magnetically
+upon her."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That is precisely the observation I have made," answered Count Tristan;
+"and, my mother, have you never reflected how seriously your <i>prot&eacute;g&eacute;e</i>
+may interfere with our prospects respecting Maurice?"</p>
+
+<p>The countess started. "Impossible! He could not think of Madeleine when
+a union with Bertha would be so much more advantageous."</p>
+
+<p>"Youth does not think&mdash;it chooses by the attraction it experiences
+towards this or that object," answered the count. "Before Maurice last
+returned to the university, nine months ago, his admiration for
+Madeleine was unmistakable. Now that he is shortly to come home, and for
+an indefinite period,&mdash;now that our plans must ripen, I have come to the
+conclusion that Madeleine must be removed, or they will never attain
+fruition; she must not be allowed to cast the spell of her dangerous
+fascination over him; something must be done, and that before Maurice
+returns; in a fortnight he will be here."</p>
+
+<p>Before the countess could reply, a young girl bounded into the room,
+with a letter in one hand, and a roll of music in the other.</p>
+
+<p>It would be difficult to find a more perfect type of the pure blonde
+than was manifested in the person of this fair young maiden. The word
+"dazzling" might be applied without exaggeration to the lustrous
+whiteness of a complexion tinged in the cheeks as though by the
+reflection of a sea-shell. Her full, dewy lips disclosed milky rows of
+childlike teeth within. Her eyes were of the clearest azure; but, in
+spite of their expression of mingled tenderness and gayety, one who
+could pause to lay the finger upon an imperfection, would note that
+something was wanting to complete their beauty;&mdash;the eyebrows were too
+faintly traced, and the lashes too light, though long. The low brow,
+straight, slender nose, the soft curve of the chin, the fine oval of the
+face, were obviously an inheritance. At a single glance it was
+impossible not to be struck with the resemblance which these classic
+features bore to those of the countess. But the sportive dimples,
+pressed as though by a caressing touch, upon the cheeks and chin of the
+young girl, destroyed, even more than the totally opposite coloring, the
+likeness in the two countenances. The hair of the countess had been
+remarkable for its shining blackness, while the yellow acacia was not
+more brightly golden than the silken tresses of Bertha,&mdash;tresses that
+ran in ripples, and lost themselves in a sunny stream of natural curls,
+which seemed audaciously bent on breaking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> their bounds, and looked as
+though they were always in a frolic. In vain they were smoothed back by
+the skilful fingers of an expert <i>femme de chambre</i>, and confined in an
+elaborate knot at the back of Bertha's small head; the rebellious locks
+<i>would</i> wave and break into fine rings upon the white brow, and lovingly
+steal in stray ringlets adown the alabaster throat, ignoring
+conventional restraint as sportively as their owner.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha de Merrivale, like Madeleine, was an orphan, but, unlike
+Madeleine, an heiress. The Marquis de Merrivale, Bertha's uncle, was
+also her guardian. He allowed her every year to spend a few months with
+her mother's relatives, who warmly pleaded for these annual visits. Her
+sojourn at the ch&acirc;teau de Gramont was always a season of delight to
+Bertha herself, for she dearly loved her great-aunt, liked Count
+Tristan, enjoyed the society of Maurice, and was enthusiastically
+attached to Madeleine.</p>
+
+<p>"A letter! a letter from Maurice!" exclaimed Bertha, dancing around her
+aunt as she held out the epistle.</p>
+
+<p>The countess broke the seal eagerly, and after glancing over the first
+lines, exclaimed, "Here is news indeed! We did not expect Maurice for a
+fortnight; but he writes that he will be here to-morrow. How little time
+we shall have for preparation! And I intended to order so many
+improvements made in his chamber, and to quite remodel"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, of course, everything will have to be remodelled for the Viscount
+Maurice de Gramont! Nothing will be good enough for <i>him</i>! Every one
+will sink into insignificance at <i>his</i> coming! We, poor, forlorn
+damsels, will henceforth be of no account,&mdash;no one will waste a thought
+on <i>us</i>!" said Bertha.</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary," replied her aunt, "I never had your happiness more in
+my thoughts than at this moment. Be sure you wear your blue brocade
+to-morrow, and the blue net interwoven with pearls in your hair, and
+that turquoise set which Maurice always admired."</p>
+
+<p>"Be sure that I play the coquette, you mean, as my dear aunt did before
+me," answered Bertha, merrily. "No, indeed, aunt, that may have done in
+<i>your</i> day, but it does not suit <i>ours</i>. We, of the present time, do not
+wear nets for the express purpose of ensnaring the admiration of young
+men; or don our most becoming dresses to lay up their hearts in their
+folds. I am going to seek Madeleine to tell her this news, and I have
+another surprise for her."</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" inquired the countess, in an altered tone.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"This great parcel of music, which I sent to Paris to obtain expressly
+for her. But I have something else which she must not see to day,&mdash;this
+bracelet, the exact pattern of the one my uncle presented to me upon my
+last birthday, and Madeleine shall receive this upon her birthday; that
+will be <i>to-morrow</i>."</p>
+
+<p>As she spoke, she clasped upon her small wrist a band of gold, fastened
+by a knot formed of pearls, and gayly held up her round, white arm
+before the eyes of the count and countess.</p>
+
+<p>The latter caught her uplifted hand and said gravely, "Bertha, music and
+bracelets are very appropriate for <i>you</i>, but they do not suit
+Madeleine. Madeleine is poor, worse than poor, wholly dependent upon"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"There you are mistaken, aunt," returned Bertha, warmly. "As <i>I</i> am
+rich, she is not poor;&mdash;that is, she will not always be poor, and she
+shall <i>not</i> be dependent upon any one&mdash;not even upon <i>you</i>. I mean to
+settle upon her a marriage portion if she choose to marry, and a
+handsome income if she remain single."</p>
+
+<p>"Very generous and <i>romantic</i> on your part," replied the countess,
+ironically; "but, unfortunately for her, you have no power at present
+over your own property; you cannot play the benefactress without the
+consent of your guardian, and that you will never obtain."</p>
+
+<p>"But if I marry, I will have the right," answered Bertha, na&iuml;vely.</p>
+
+<p>"You will have the consent of your husband to obtain, and that will be
+equally difficult."</p>
+
+<p>"That is true, but I am not discouraged. I suppose when I am of age I
+shall have the power, and I need not marry before then. I am sixteen,
+nearly seventeen; it will not be so <i>very</i> long to wait, and I am
+determined to serve Madeleine."</p>
+
+<p>"Many events may occur to make you change you mind before you attain
+your majority. Meanwhile you are fostering tastes in Madeleine which are
+unsuited to her condition. I know you think me very severe, but"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, aunt, you are never severe toward me; you are only too kind,
+too indulgent; you spoil me with too much love and consideration; and it
+is because you <i>have</i> spoiled me so completely that I mean to be saucy
+enough to speak out just what I think."</p>
+
+<p>Bertha seated herself on the footstool at her aunt's feet, took her hand
+caressingly, and with an earnest air prattled on.</p>
+
+<p>"It is with Madeleine that you are severe, and you grow more and more
+severe every day. You speak to her so harshly,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> so disdainfully at
+times, that I hardly recognize you. One would not imagine that she is
+your grandniece as much as I am,&mdash;that is, <i>almost</i> as much, for she was
+the grandniece of the Count de Gramont, my uncle. You find incessant
+fault with her, and she seems to irritate you by her very presence. Oh!
+I have seen it for a long time, and during this last visit I see it more
+than ever."</p>
+
+<p>"Bertha!" commenced her aunt, in a tone which might have awed any less
+volatile and determined speaker.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not interrupt me, aunt; I have not done yet, and I <i>must</i> speak. Why
+do you put on this manner towards Madeleine? You <i>do put it on</i>,&mdash;it is
+not natural to you,&mdash;for you are kind to every one else. And have you
+not been most kind to her also? Were you not the only one of her proud
+relatives who held out a hand to her when she stood unsheltered and
+alone in the world? Have you not since then done everything for her?
+Done everything&mdash;but&mdash;but&mdash;but <i>love her</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Bertha, you are the only one who would venture to"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I know it, aunt,&mdash;I am the only one who would venture, so grant me one
+moment more; I have not done yet. Madeleine cannot be an incumbrance,
+for who is so useful in your household as she? Who could replace her?
+When you are suffering, she is the tenderest of nurses. She daily
+relieves you of a thousand cares. When you have company, is it not
+Madeleine who sees that everything is in order? If you give a dinner, is
+it not Madeleine who not only superintends all the preparations, but
+invents the most beautiful decorations for the table,&mdash;and out of
+nothing&mdash;out of leaves and flowers so common that no one would have
+thought of culling them, yet so wonderfully arranged that every one
+exclaims at their picturesque effect? When you have dull guests,&mdash;guests
+that put me to sleep, or out of patience,&mdash;is it not Madeleine who
+amuses them? How many evenings, that would have been insufferably
+stupid, have flown delightfully, chased by her delicious voice!"</p>
+
+<p>"You make a great virtue of what was simply an enjoyment to herself. She
+delights as much, or more, in singing than any one can delight in
+hearing her."</p>
+
+<p>"That is because she delights in everything she does; she always
+accomplishes her work with delight. She delighted in making you that
+becoming cap, with its coquettishly-disposed knots of violet ribbons;
+she delighted in turning and freshening and remaking the silk dress you
+wear at this moment, which fits you to perfection, and looks quite new.
+She delighted in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> embroidering my cousin Tristan that pretty velvet
+smoking-cap he has on his head. She delighted in making me the wreath
+which I wore at the Count de Caradar&eacute;'s concert the other evening, and
+which every one complimented me upon. It was her own invention;&mdash;and did
+not you yourself remark that there was not a head-dress in the room half
+as beautiful? Everything she touches she beautifies. The commonest
+objects assume a graceful form beneath her fingers. The "<i>fingers of a
+fairy</i>" my cousin Maurice used to call them, and, there certainly is
+magic in those dainty, rapidly-moving hands of hers. They have an art, a
+skill, a facility that partakes of the supernatural. Madeleine is a
+dependent upon your bounty, but her magic fingers make her a very
+valuable one; and, if you would not think it very impertinent, I would
+say that we are all <i>her debtors</i>, rather than <i>she ours</i>. There, I have
+done! Now, forgive me for my temerity,&mdash;confess that you have been too
+severe to Madeleine, and promise not to find fault with her any more."</p>
+
+<p>"I will confess that she has the most charming advocate in the world,"
+answered the countess with affection.</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine must not see this bracelet until to-morrow; so I must hasten
+to lock it up," resumed the young girl; "after that I will let her know
+that our cousin will be here to honor her birthday. How enchanted she
+will be! But she makes entirely too much of him,&mdash;just as you all do.
+The instant she hears the news, away she will fly to make preparations
+for his comfort. I shall only have to say, 'Maurice is coming,' and what
+a commotion there will be!"</p>
+
+<p>Bertha tripped away, leaving the countess alone with her son.</p>
+
+<p>"Is she not enchanting?" exclaimed the former, as Bertha disappeared.
+"Maurice will have a charming bride."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, <i>if</i> the marriage we so earnestly desire ever take place."</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">If? If?</span> I intend that it <i>shall</i> take place. It is my one dream, my
+dearest hope!" said the countess.</p>
+
+<p>"It is mine also," replied the count; "and yet I have my doubts&mdash;my
+fears; in a word, I do not believe this union ever <i>will</i> take place if
+Madeleine remain here."</p>
+
+<p>The countess drew herself up with indignant amazement. "What do you
+mean? Do you think Madeleine capable of"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think Madeleine capable of anything wrong; but she has such
+versatility of talent, she is so fascinating, her character is so
+lovable, that I think those talents and attractions capable of upsetting
+all our plans and of making Maurice fall deeply in love with her."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But is not Bertha fascinating, and lovely as a painter's ideal?" asked
+the countess.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but it is not such a striking, such an impressive, such a
+bewitching, bewildering style of beauty," replied her son. "Mark my
+words: I understand young men. I know what dazzles their eyes and turns
+their heads. If Maurice is thrown into daily communication with Bertha
+and Madeleine, it is Madeleine to whom he will become attached."</p>
+
+<p>"It must not be!" said the countess, emphatically, and rising as she
+spoke. "It shall not!"</p>
+
+<p>"I echo, it shall not, my mother. But we must take means of prevention.
+It is most unfortunate that Maurice returns a fortnight before we
+expected him. I had my plans laid and ready to carry into execution
+before he could arrive. Now we must hasten them."</p>
+
+<p>"What is your scheme?" asked his mother.</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine has other relations, all richer than ourselves. I purpose
+writing to each of them, and proposing that they shall receive her, not
+for three years, as we have done, but that they shall each, in turn,
+invite her to spend three months with them. They surely cannot refuse,
+and her life will be very varied and pleasant, visiting from house to
+house every three months, enjoying new pleasures, seeing new faces,
+making new friendships. And her relatives will, in reality, be our
+debtors, for Madeleine is the most charming of inmates. She is always so
+lively, and creates so much gayety around her; she has so many resources
+in herself, and she is so <i>useful</i>! In fact, we are bestowing a valuable
+gift upon these good relatives of hers, and they ought to thank us, as I
+have no doubt they will."</p>
+
+<p>The countess approved of her son's plan to rid them of their dangerously
+agreeable inmate, and the count, without further delay, sat down to pen
+the projected epistles.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE COUSINS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Bertha's prediction was verified, and the whole ch&acirc;teau was thrown into
+confusion by preparations for the coming of the young viscount. Old
+Baptiste forsook his garden-tools for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> whole day, to play in-door
+domestic. Gustave, who daily doubled his <i>r&ocirc;le</i> of coachman with that of
+<i>valet</i>, slighted his beloved horses (horses whose mothers and
+grandmothers had supplied the de Gramont stables from time immemorial)
+to cleanse windows, brighten mirrors, and polish dingy furniture.
+Bettina, the antiquated <i>femme de chambre</i> of the countess, who also
+discharged the combined duties of housekeeper and housemaid, flew about
+with a bustling activity that could hardly have been expected from her
+years and infirmities. Elize, the cook, made far more elaborate
+preparations for the coming of the young viscount than she would have
+deemed necessary for the dinner to be given to her master's guests. This
+band of venerable domestics had all been servants of the family before
+the viscount's birth, and he was not only an idol among them, but
+seemed, in a manner, to appertain to them all.</p>
+
+<p>The countess, alone, did not find the movement of gladness around her
+contagious. The coming of Maurice before the departure of Madeleine,
+distressed her deeply; but small troubles and great were incongruously
+mingled in her mind, for, while she was tormented by the frustration of
+her plans, she fretted almost as heartily over that set of S&ecirc;vres
+porcelain which, with the addition of her grandson, would not be
+sufficient for the expected guests, even if Madeleine dined in her own
+chamber. Besides, the arrival of Maurice made <i>that</i> arrangement out of
+the question. He would certainly oppose her banishment, just as Bertha
+had done; and the day, unfortunately, was Madeleine's birthday. This
+circumstance would give her cousins additional ground for insisting upon
+her presence at the festive board. The countess saw no escape from her
+domestic difficulties, and was thoroughly out of humor.</p>
+
+<p>Before Madeleine had awoke that morning, Bertha had stolen to her
+bedside and clasped the bracelet upon her arm. Light as was Bertha's
+touch, it aroused the sleeper, and she greeted her birthday token with
+unfeigned gratitude and delight. But Madeleine had few moments to spend
+in contemplation of the precious gift. She dressed rapidly, then
+hastened away to make the ch&acirc;teau bright with flowers, to complete
+various preparations for the toilet of her aunt, to perform numerous
+offices which might be termed menial; but she entered upon her work with
+so much zest, she executed each task with such consummate skill, she
+took so much interest in the employment of the moment, that no labor
+seemed either tedious or debasing.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice de Gramont had just completed his twenty-first year<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> when he
+graduated with high honor at the University of France. After passing a
+fatiguing examination, he had gladly consented to act upon his father's
+suggestion, and devote a few weeks to enjoyment in the gay metropolis.
+The count had no clew to the cause of his sudden return to Brittany.</p>
+
+<p>"Aunt, aunt! There is the carriage,&mdash;he is coming!&mdash;Baptiste, run and
+open the gate!" cried Bertha, whose quick eyes had caught sight of a
+coach which stopped at the farther end of a long avenue of noble trees,
+leading to the ch&acirc;teau.</p>
+
+<p>Baptiste made all the speed which his aged limbs allowed; Gustave
+hastened to throw open the front door; Bertha was on the porch before
+the carriage drew up; the count and countess appeared at the entrance
+just as Maurice sprang down the steps of the lumbering vehicle.</p>
+
+<p>His blue eyes sparkled with genuine joy, and his countenance glowed with
+animation, as he embraced his grandmother warmly, kissed his father,
+according to French custom, then turning to Bertha, clasped her extended
+hands and touched either cheek lightly with his lips. She received the
+cousinly salutation without any evidence of displeasure or any token of
+confusion.</p>
+
+<p>As the maiden and youth stood side by side, they might easily have been
+mistaken for brother and sister. The same florid coloring was remarkable
+in the countenances of both, save that the tints were a few shades
+deeper on the visage of Maurice. His eyes were of a darker blue; his
+glossy hair was tinged with chestnut, while Bertha's shone with
+unmingled gold; but, like Bertha's, his recreant locks had a strong
+tendency to curl, and lay in rich clusters upon his brow, distressing
+him by a propensity which he deemed effeminate. His mouth was as ripely
+red as hers, but somewhat larger, firmer, and less bland in its
+character. His eyebrows, too, were more darkly traced, supplying a want
+only too obvious in her countenance. The resemblance, however,
+disappeared in the forehead and classic nose, for the brow of Maurice
+was broad and high, and the nose prominent, though finely shaped.</p>
+
+<p>His form was manly without being strikingly tall. It was what might be
+designated as a noble figure; but the term owed its appropriateness
+partly to his refined and graceful bearing.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear father, I am so glad to see you!&mdash;grandmother, it is refreshing
+to find you looking as though you bade defiance to time;&mdash;and you, my
+little cousin, how much you have improved! How lovely you have grown! A
+year does a great deal for one's appearance."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yours, for instance," replied Bertha, saucily. "Well, there was
+abundant room for improvement."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice replied to her vivacious remark with a laugh of assent, and,
+looking eagerly around, asked, "Where is Madeleine?"</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine is busy as usual," answered Bertha. "I warrant she is in some
+remote corner of the ch&acirc;teau, mysteriously employed. She does not know
+that you have arrived."</p>
+
+<p>"And is she well? My father never once mentioned her in his letters. And
+has she kept you company in growing so much handsomer during the last
+year?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Her</i> beauty needed no heightening!" exclaimed Bertha, affectionately.
+"But she develops new talents every day; she sings more delightfully
+than ever; and lately she has commenced drawing from nature with the
+most wonderful ease. You should see the flowers she first creates with
+her pencil and then copies with her needle! I really think her needle
+can paint almost as dexterously as the brush of any other artist."</p>
+
+<p>The count exchanged a look with his mother, and whispered, "Do stop
+her!"</p>
+
+<p>The latter turned quickly to her grandson, and said, "Are you and Bertha
+determined to spend the morning out of doors? Come, let us go in."</p>
+
+<p>As they entered the drawing-room, the countess pointed to a seat beside
+her.</p>
+
+<p>"Maurice, leave your chattering little cousin, and sit down and give us
+some account of yourself. What have you been doing? How have you been
+passing your time?"</p>
+
+<p>Maurice obeyed; Bertha placed herself on the other side of her aunt; the
+count took a chair opposite.</p>
+
+<p>"Behold a most attentive and appreciating audience!" cried Bertha. "Now,
+Mr. Collegian and Traveller,&mdash;hero of the hour!&mdash;most noble
+representative of the house of de Gramont! hold forth! Let us hear how
+you have been occupying your valuable time."</p>
+
+<p>"In the first place, I have been studying tolerably hard, little cousin.
+It seems very improbable, does it not? The midnight oil has not yet
+paled my cheeks to the sickly and interesting hue that belongs to a
+student. Still the proof is that I have passed my examination
+triumphantly. I will show you my prizes by and by, and they will speak
+for themselves. Next, I have joined a debating society of young students
+who are preparing to become lawyers. Our meetings have afforded me
+infi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>nite pleasure. At our last reunion, I undertook to plead a cause,
+and achieved a wonderful success. I had no idea that language would flow
+so readily from my lips. I was astonished at my own thoughts, and the
+facility with which I formed them into words, and they say I made a
+capital argument. I received the most enthusiastic congratulations, and
+my associates, in pressing my hand, addressed me, not as the Viscount de
+Gramont, but as the <i>able orator</i>. I really think that I could make an
+orator, and that I have sufficient talent to become a lawyer."</p>
+
+<p>"A lawyer!" exclaimed the countess with supreme disdain. "What could
+introduce such a vulgar idea into your head? A lawyer! There is really
+something startling, something positively appalling in the vagaries of
+the rising generation! A lawyer! what an idea!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is something more than an <i>idea</i>, my dear grandmother: it is a
+project which I have formed, and which I cherish very seriously,"
+replied Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>"A project,&mdash;a project! I like projects. Let us hear your sublime
+project, Mr. Advocate," cried Bertha.</p>
+
+<p>"The project is simply to test the abilities which I am presumptuous
+enough to believe I have discovered in myself, and to study for the bar.
+My father wrote me that he intended to become a director in a railway
+company, and descanted upon the advantage of embarking in the
+enterprise. He also confided to me, for the first time, the real state
+of our affairs,&mdash;in a word, the empty condition of our treasury. Why
+should my father occupy himself with business matters and I live in
+idleness? Once more, I repeat, I am convinced I have sufficient ability
+to make a position at the bar, and with my father's consent, and yours,
+grandmother, I propose to commence my law studies at once."</p>
+
+<p>"A pettifogger! impossible! I, for one, will never countenance a step so
+humiliating! It is not to be thought of!" replied his grandmother, in a
+tone of decision.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Maurice, your project is futile," responded his father. "My joining
+this railroad association is quite a different matter. I shall in
+reality have nothing to do. It is only my name that is required;
+besides, America is so far off that nobody in Brittany will be aware of
+my connection with the company. Your becoming a lawyer would be a public
+matter. I cannot recall the name of a single nobleman in the whole list
+of barristers"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"So much the better for me! My title may, <i>in this solitary</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> <i>instance</i>,
+prove of service to me. It may help to bring me clients. People will be
+enchanted to be defended by a viscount."</p>
+
+<p>"You conjure up a picture that is absolutely revolting!" cried the
+countess, warmly. "<i>My grandson</i> pleading to defend the rabble!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not, if the rabble should happen to stand in need of defence?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?&mdash;because you should ignore their very existence! What have you
+and they in common?"</p>
+
+<p>Maurice was about to reply somewhat emphatically, but noticing his
+grandmother's knitted brow, and his father's troubled expression, he
+checked himself.</p>
+
+<p>The countess added, with an air of determination that forbade
+discussion, "Maurice, you will never obtain my consent, never!"</p>
+
+<p>"But if I may not study for the bar, what am I to do?" asked the young
+man with spirit.</p>
+
+<p>"Do?" questioned the countess, proudly. "What have the de Gramonts done
+for centuries past? Do nothing!"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Nothing?</i> Thank you, grandmother, for your estimate of my capacities
+and of the sluggish manner in which my blood courses through my veins.
+Doing <i>nothing</i> was all very well in dead-alive, by-gone days, but it
+does not suit the present age of activity and progress. In our time
+everything that has heart and spirit feels that labor is a law of life.
+Some men till the earth, some cultivate the minds of their fellow-men,
+some guard their country's soil by fighting our battles; that is, some
+vocations enable us to live, some teach us how to live, and some render
+it glorious to die. Now, instead of adopting any of these pursuits, I
+only wish to"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"To become a manufacturer of fine phrases, a vender of words!" replied
+the countess, disdainfully.</p>
+
+<p>"An advantageous merchandise," answered Maurice,&mdash;"one which it costs
+nothing, to manufacture but which may be sold dear."</p>
+
+<p>"Sold? You shock me more and more! Never has one who bore the name of de
+Gramont earned money!" replied the countess, with increased <i>hauteur</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"Very true, and very unfortunate! We are now feeling the ill effects of
+the idleness of our ancestors. It is time that the new generation should
+reform their bad system," replied Maurice.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Maurice"&mdash;began his father.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear father, let me speak upon this subject, for I have it greatly
+at heart. I have an iron constitution, buoyant spirits, a tolerably good
+head, a tolerably large heart, an ample stock of imagination, an
+unstinted amount of energy, and an admiration for genius; now, all these
+gifts&mdash;mind, heart, imagination, spirit, energy&mdash;cry out for
+action,&mdash;ask to vindicate their right to existence,&mdash;need to find vent!
+<i>That</i> is one ground upon which I plant my intention to become a lawyer.
+Another is that a man of my temperament, liberal views, and tendencies
+to extravagance, also needs to have the command of means"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Have we ever restricted you, Maurice?" asked his father, reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p>"No, it is only yourselves you have restricted. But do you suppose I am
+willing to expend what has been saved through your economy? Until lately
+I never knew the actual state of our finances. Now I see the necessity
+for exertion, that I may be enabled to live as my tastes and habits
+prompt."</p>
+
+<p>"That you may obtain by making an advantageous marriage," remarked the
+countess, forgetting at the moment that Bertha was present.</p>
+
+<p>"What! owe my privileges, my luxuries, my very position, to my wife?
+Never! Every manly and independent impulse within me rises in arms
+against such a suggestion; while the emotion I experienced when I felt I
+could become something <i>of myself</i>,&mdash;that I had talents which I could
+employ,&mdash;that I had a future before me,&mdash;renown to win,&mdash;great deeds to
+achieve,&mdash;filled me with a strange joy hitherto unknown. I tell you, my
+father, there is a force and fire in my spirit that must have some
+outlet,&mdash;must leap into action,&mdash;<i>must</i> and <i>will</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>"It shall find an outlet," replied the countess, "without making you a
+hired declaimer of fine words,&mdash;a paid champion of the low mob. Let us
+hear no more of this absurd lawyer project. The matter is settled: you
+will never have your father's consent, nor mine."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I warn you," exclaimed Maurice, starting up, and speaking almost
+fiercely. "You will drive me into evil courses. I shall fall into all
+manner of vices for the sake of excitement. If I cannot have occupation,
+I must have amusement, I shall run in debt, I may gamble, I may become
+dissipated, I may commit offences against good taste and good morals,
+which will degrade me in reality; and all because you have nipped a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>
+pure intention in the bud. The root that bore it is too vigorous not to
+blossom out anew, and the chances are that it will bring forth some less
+creditable fruit. You will see! I do not jest; I know what is in me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Content! we will run the risk!" replied the countess, trying to speak
+cheerfully.</p>
+
+<p>The grave manner of Maurice and his impressive tone, as he stood before
+her with an air half-threatening, half-prophetic, made her experience a
+sensation of vague discomfort.</p>
+
+<p>"We will trust you, for you are a de Gramont, and cannot commit a
+dishonorable action. Now, pray, go to your room and make your toilet. We
+are expecting guests to dinner."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice turned away without uttering another word, without even heeding
+the hand which Bertha stretched in sympathy towards him; and, with a
+clouded brow and slow steps, ascended to his own apartment.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<h3>MADELEINE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Fourteen at table, and the S&ecirc;vres set only sufficient for twelve! Truly
+it <i>is</i> untoward, but I wish, my dear aunt, you would not let it trouble
+you so much. If you will allow the two extra plates to be placed before
+Bertha and myself, we will endeavor to render them invisible by our
+witchcraft. Do compliment us by permitting the experiment to be tried."</p>
+
+<p>"Bertha is entitled to the best of everything in my mansion," answered
+the countess, unsoothed by this proposition.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>That</i> I admit," was Madeleine's cordial reply; "but to meet this
+unlooked-for emergency, I thought you might possibly consent to let her
+exert her witchery in making an intrusive plate disappear from general
+view."</p>
+
+<p>"And you, it seems, are quite confident of possessing witchcraft potent
+enough to accomplish the same feat!"</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine, without appearing to be hurt by the taunting intonation which
+pointed this remark, replied frankly, "I suppose I must have been guilty
+of imagining that I had; but, indeed, it was unpremeditated vanity. I
+really did not reflect upon the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> subject. I was only anxious to get over
+the dilemma in which we are placed by these troublesome plates."</p>
+
+<p>"Not <i>premeditated</i> vanity, I dare say," remarked the countess, dryly;
+"only vanity so spontaneous, natural, and characteristic that
+<i>premeditation</i> is out of the question."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine remained silent, and went on with her task, dexterously
+rolling around her slender fingers her aunt's soft, white curls, and
+letting them lightly drop in the most becoming positions.</p>
+
+<p>The toilet of the countess for her son's dinner-party was in process of
+completion.</p>
+
+<p>She wore a black velvet dress, which, after being on duty for a fabulous
+number of years, and finally pronounced past all further active service,
+had been resuscitated and remodelled, to suit the style of the day, by
+Madeleine. We will not enter into a description of the adroit method by
+which a portion of its primitive lustre had been restored to the worn
+and pressed velvet, nor particularize the skilful manner in which the
+corsage of the robe had been refashioned, and every trace of age
+concealed by an embroidery of jet beads, which was so strikingly
+tasteful that its double office was unsuspected. Enough that the
+countess appeared to be superbly attired when she once more donned the
+venerable but rejuvenated dress.</p>
+
+<p>The snow-white curls being arranged to the best advantage, Madeleine
+placed upon the head of her aunt a dainty cap, of the Charlotte Corday
+form, composed of bits of very old and costly lace,&mdash;an heir-loom in the
+de Gramont family,&mdash;such lace as could no longer be purchased for gold,
+even if its members had been in a condition to exchange bullion for
+thread. This cap was another of the young girl's achievements, and she
+could not help smiling with pleasure when she saw its picturesque
+effect. The countess, in spite of the anxious contraction of her dark
+brows, looked imposingly handsome. Hers was an old age of positive
+beauty,&mdash;a decadence which had all the lustre of</p>
+
+<p class="center">"The setting moon upon the western wave."</p>
+
+<p>It was only when her features were accidentally contrasted with those of
+such a mild, eloquent, and soul-revealing face as the one bending over
+her that defects struck the eye,&mdash;defects which the ravages of time had
+done less to produce than the workings of a stern and haughty character.</p>
+
+<p>But Madeleine's countenance how shall we portray? The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> lineaments were
+of that order which no painter could faithfully present by tracing their
+outline correctly, and no writer conjure up before the mind by
+descriptive language, however minutely the color of eyes, complexion,
+and hair might be chronicled. Therefore our task must necessarily be an
+imperfect one, and convey but a vague idea of the living presence.</p>
+
+<p>It was a somewhat pale face, but pure and unsallow in its pallor. The
+vivid blood rushed, with any sudden emotion, to cheek and brow, but died
+away as quickly; for late hours, too little sunlight, fresh air, and
+exercise, forbade the flitting roses to be captured and a permanent
+bloom insured. The hue of the large, dreamy eyes might be called a light
+hazel; but that description fails to convey an impression of their rare,
+clear, topaz tint,&mdash;a topaz with the changing lustre of an opal: a
+combination difficult to imagine until it has once been seen. The
+darkly-fringed lids were peculiarly drooping, and gave the eyes a look
+of exceeding softness, now and then displaced by startling flashes of
+brilliancy. The finely-chiselled mouth was full of grave sweetness,
+decision, and energy, and yet suggestive of a mirthful temperament. The
+forehead was not too high, but ample and thoughtful. The finely-shaped
+head showed the intellectual and emotional nature nicely balanced.
+Through the long, abundant chestnut hair bright threads gleamed in and
+out until all the locks looked burnished. They were gathered into one
+rich braid and simply wound around the head. At the side, where the
+massive tress was fastened, a single cape jasmine seemed to form a clasp
+of union. A more striking or becoming arrangement could hardly have been
+devised.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine was somewhat above the ordinary stature, and her height,
+combined with the native dignity of her bearing, would have given her an
+air of stateliness, but for the exceeding grace which dispelled the
+faintest shadow of stiffness,&mdash;a stiffness very noticeable in the formal
+carriage of the countess.</p>
+
+<p>The wardrobe of the young girl was necessarily of the most limited and
+uncostly character; and, though she was dressed for a ceremonious
+dinner, her attire consisted merely of a sombre-hued barege, made with
+the severest simplicity, and gaining its only pretension to full dress
+by disclosing her white, finely-moulded neck and arms. Her sole ornament
+was the bracelet which had been Bertha's birthday gift.</p>
+
+<p>While giving the last, finishing touches to her aunt's toilet, Madeleine
+talked gayly. Hers was not one of those bright, silvery voices which
+make you feel that, could the sounds become<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> visible, they must <i>shine</i>;
+but there was a rich depth in her tones, which imparted to her lightest
+words an intonation of feeling, and told the hearer that her vocal
+chords were in close communication with her heart. Though her
+countenance did not lack the radiance of youthful gladness, there was so
+much thought mingled with its brightness that even her mirth conveyed
+the impression that she had suffered and sorrowed.</p>
+
+<p>The only daughter of the Duke de Gramont, at eighteen she suddenly found
+herself an orphan and wholly destitute. Her father was one of that large
+class of impoverished noblemen who keep up appearances by means of
+constant shifts and desperate struggles, of which the world knows
+nothing. But he was a man of unquestionable intellect, and had given
+Madeleine a much more liberal education than custom accords to young
+French maidens of her rank.</p>
+
+<p>The accident of his birth the Duke de Gramont regarded as a positive
+misfortune, and daily lamented the burden of his own nobility, for it
+was a shackle that enfeebled and enslaved his large capacities.</p>
+
+<p>He once said to his young daughter, "You would have been far happier as
+a peasant's child; I should have had a wider field of action and
+enjoyment as an humble laborer; we should both have been more truly
+<i>noble</i>. I envy the peasants who have the glorious privilege of doing
+just that which they are best fitted to do; who are not forced to
+<i>vegetate</i> and call vegetation existence,&mdash;not compelled to waste and
+deaden their energies because it is an aristocratic penalty,&mdash;not doomed
+to glide into and out of their lives without ever living enough to know
+life's worth."</p>
+
+<p>Such words sank into Madeleine's spirit, took deep root there, and,
+growing in the bleak atmosphere of adversity, bore vigorous fruit in
+good season.</p>
+
+<p>She had known only the intangible shadow of pomp and luxury, while the
+substance was actual penury. But her inborn fertility of invention, her
+abundant resources, her tact in accommodating herself to circumstances,
+and her inexhaustible energy, had endowed her with the faculty of making
+the best of her contradictory position, and the most of the humblest
+materials at her command.</p>
+
+<p>Though she had several wealthy relatives, the Countess de Gramont was
+the only one who offered her unsheltered youth an asylum. Perhaps we
+ought not to analyze too minutely the motives of the noble lady, for
+fear that we might find her actuated less by a charitable impulse than
+by pride which would not allow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> it to be said that her grandniece ever
+lacked, or had to solicit, a home. Be that as it may, the orphan
+Madeleine became a permanent inmate of the Ch&acirc;teau de Gramont.</p>
+
+<p>Her gratitude was deep, and found expression in actions more eloquent
+than words. She was thankful for the slightest evidence of kindness from
+her self-constituted protectors. She even exaggerated the amount of
+consideration which she received. She was not free from the hereditary
+taint of <i>pride</i>; but in her it took a new form and unprecedented
+expression. The sense of indebtedness spurred her on to discover ways by
+which she could avoid being a burden upon the generosity of her
+benefactors,&mdash;ways by which her obligations might be lightened, though
+she felt they could never be cancelled. She became the active, presiding
+spirit over the whole household; her skilful fingers were ever at work
+here, there, and everywhere; and her quick-witted brain was always
+planning measures to promote the interest, comfort, or pleasure of all
+within her sphere. The thought that an employment was menial, and
+therefore she must not stoop to perform it, never intruded, for she had
+an internal consciousness that she dignified her occupation. What she
+accomplished seemed wonderful; but, independent of the rapidity with
+which she habitually executed, she comprehended in an eminent degree the
+exact value of time,&mdash;the worth of every minute; and the use made of her
+<i>spare moments</i> was one great secret of the large amount she achieved.</p>
+
+<p>The toilet of the countess for the dinner was completed, but she kept
+Madeleine by her side until they descended to the drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine had not yet welcomed Maurice, who had retired to his chamber
+to dress before she was aware of his arrival. When she entered the
+<i>salon</i> with the countess, he was sitting beside Bertha, but sprang up,
+and, advancing joyfully, exclaimed, "Ah! at last! I thought I was never
+to be permitted to see the busy fairy of the family, who renders herself
+invisible while she is working her wonders!"</p>
+
+<p>He would have approached his lips to Madeleine's cheek, but the countess
+interfered.</p>
+
+<p>"And why," asked Maurice, in surprise which was not free from a touch of
+vexation,&mdash;"why may I not kiss my cousin Madeleine? You found no fault
+when I kissed my cousin Bertha just now!"</p>
+
+<p>"That is very different!" replied the countess, hastily.</p>
+
+<p>"Different! What is the difference?" persisted Maurice.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"There is none that I can discover. Both are equally near of kin,&mdash;both
+my cousins,&mdash;both second cousins, or third cousins, some people would
+call them; the one is kin through my grandmother, the other through my
+grandfather. What <i>can</i> be the difference?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>My will</i> makes the difference!" answered the countess, in a severe
+tone. "Is not <i>that</i> sufficient?"</p>
+
+<p>"It ought to be so, Maurice," Madeleine interposed, without appearing to
+be either wounded or surprised at her aunt's manner. "If not, I must add
+<i>my will</i> to my aunt's." Then, as though in haste to change the subject,
+she said, extending her hand, "I am very, <i>very</i> glad to see you,
+Maurice."</p>
+
+<p>"You have not changed as much as my pretty Bertha here," remarked
+Maurice. "She has gained a great deal in the last year. But you,
+Madeleine, look a little paler than ever, and a little thinner than you
+were. I fear it is because you still keep that candle burning which last
+year I used to notice at your window when I returned from balls long
+after midnight. You will destroy your health."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no danger of <i>that</i>," answered Madeleine, gayly. "I am in most
+unpoetically robust health. I am never ailing for an hour."</p>
+
+<p>"Never ailing and never weary," joined in Bertha. "That is, she never
+complains, and never admits she is tired. She would make us believe that
+her constitution is a compound of iron and India-rubber."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice took a small jewel-case from his pocket, and, preparing to open
+it, said, "Nobody has yet asked why I am here one fortnight before I was
+expected. Has curiosity suddenly died out of the venerable Ch&acirc;teau de
+Gramont, that none of the ladies who honor its ancient walls by their
+presence care to know?"</p>
+
+<p>"We all care!" exclaimed Bertha.</p>
+
+<p>"That we do!" responded Madeleine. "Why was it, Maurice?"</p>
+
+<p>"The reason chiefly concerns you, Madeleine."</p>
+
+<p>"Me! You are jesting."</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all; I came home because I remembered that to-day was your
+twenty-first birthday. I would not be absent upon your birthday, though
+I did not know that your reaching your majority was to be celebrated by
+a grand dinner."</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine's birthday was not thought of when your father invited his
+friends to dinner," remarked the countess, curtly.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice went on without heeding this explanation.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I have brought you a little birthday token. Will you wear it for my
+sake?"</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke, he opened the case and took out a Roman brooch.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine's eyes sparkled with a dewy lustre that threatened to shape
+itself into a tear. Before she could speak, Bertha cried out,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"A dove with a green olive-branch in its mouth,&mdash;what a beautiful
+device! And the word '<i>Pax</i>' written beneath! That must be in
+remembrance that Madeleine not only bears peace in her own bosom, but
+carries it wherever she goes. Was not that what you intended to suggest,
+Cousin Maurice?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are a delightful interpreter," replied the young man.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet she left me to read the sweet meaning of her own gift," said
+Madeleine, recovering her composure. "See, a band of gold with a knot of
+pearls,&mdash;a '<i>manacle of love</i>,' as the great English poet calls it,
+secured by purity of purpose."</p>
+
+<p>As she fastened the brooch in her bosom, she added, "I am so rich in
+birthday gifts that I am bankrupt in thanks; pray believe <i>that</i> is the
+reason I thank you so poorly."</p>
+
+<p>The countess impatiently interrupted this conversation by summoning
+Maurice to her side.</p>
+
+<p>As he took the seat she pointed out, he said, in an animated tone, "I
+have not told you all my good news yet. Listen, young ladies, for some
+of it especially concerns you. On my way here, I encountered the
+equipage of the Marchioness de Fleury. She recognized me, ordered her
+carriage to stop, and sent her footman to apprise me that she was on her
+way to the Ch&acirc;teau de Tremazan, and to beg that I would pause there
+before going home, as she had a few words to say to me. I gladly
+complied. At the ch&acirc;teau I found quite a large and agreeable company. I
+need not tell you that the amiable host and hostess received me with
+open arms."</p>
+
+<p>The countess remarked, approvingly, "Our neighbors the Baron and
+Baroness de Tremazan are among the most valued of my friends. I have no
+objection to their making much of you."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor have I," answered Maurice, vivaciously. "But, to continue"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Bertha interrupted him: "I have so often heard the Marchioness de Fleury
+quoted as a precedent, and her taste cited as the most perfect in Paris,
+that I suppose she is a very charming person;&mdash;is she not?"</p>
+
+<p>A comical expression, approaching to a grimace, passed over the bright
+countenance of Maurice, as he answered, "<i>Charming?</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> I suppose the term
+is applicable to her. At all events, her toilets are the most charming
+in the world: she dresses to perfection! In her presence one never
+thinks of anything but the wonderful combination of colors, and the
+graceful flowing of drapery, that have produced certain artistic effects
+in her outward adorning. She is style, fashion, elegance, taste
+personified; consequently she is very <i>charming as an exhibition of the
+newest and most captivating costumes</i>,&mdash;as an inventor and leader of
+modes that become the rage when they have received her stamp."</p>
+
+<p>"But her face and figure,&mdash;are they not remarkably handsome?" asked
+Bertha.</p>
+
+<p>"Her figure is the <i>fac-simile</i> of one of those waxen statues which are
+to be seen in the windows of some of the shops in Paris, and would be
+styled faultless by a mantua-maker, though it might drive a sculptor
+distracted if set before him as a model. As for her face, the novel
+arrangement of her hair and the coquettish disposition of her
+head-ornaments have always so completely drawn my attention away from
+her countenance, that I could not tell you the color of her eyes, or the
+character of any single lineament."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps, too," suggested Madeleine, "she is so agreeable in
+conversation, that you never thought of scanning her features."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course she is agreeable,&mdash;that is, in her own peculiar way; for she
+has an archly graceful manner of discussing the only subjects that
+interest <i>her</i>, and always as though they must be of the deepest
+interest to <i>you</i>. If you speak to her of her projects for the winter or
+the summer, she will dwell upon the style of dress appropriate in the
+execution of such and such schemes. If you express your regret at her
+recent indisposition, she will describe the exquisite <i>robes de chambre</i>
+which rendered her sufferings endurable. If you mention her brother, who
+has lately received an appointment near the person of the emperor, she
+will give you a minute account of the most approved court-dresses. If
+you allude to the possibility that her husband (for such is the rumor)
+may be sent as ambassador to the United States, she will burst forth in
+bitter lamentations over the likelihood that American taste may not be
+sufficiently cultivated to appreciate a Parisian toilet, or to comprehend
+the great importance of the difficult art of dressing well. If you give
+the tribute of a sigh to the memory of the lovely sister she lost a year
+ago, she will run through a list of the garments of woe that gave
+expression to her sorrow,&mdash;passing on to the shades of second, third,
+and fourth mourning through which she gradually laid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> aside her grief.
+You laugh, young ladies. Oh, very well; but I declare to you she went
+through the catalogue of those mourning dresses, rehearsing the periods
+at which she adopted such and such a one, while we were dancing a
+quadrille. In short, the Marchioness de Fleury is an animated
+fashion-plate!&mdash;a lay-figure dressed in gauze, silk, lace, ribbon,
+feathers, flowers, that breathes, talks, dances, waltzes!&mdash;a
+mantua-maker's, milliner's, hair-dresser's puppet, set in motion,&mdash;not a
+woman."</p>
+
+<p>"Has she really no heart, then?" questioned Bertha.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose that, anatomically speaking, a bundle of fibres, which she
+courteously designates by that name, may rise and fall somewhere beneath
+her jewel-studded bodice; but I doubt whether the pulsations are not
+entirely regulated by her attire."</p>
+
+<p>"You are too severe, Maurice," remarked his grandmother, rebukingly.
+"The Marchioness de Fleury is a lady of the highest standing and of
+great importance."</p>
+
+<p>"Especially to the Parisian modistes who worship her!" replied Maurice.
+"But, while we are discussing the lady herself, I am forgetting to tell
+you her reasons for delaying me half an hour. It was to inquire whether
+you would be disengaged to-morrow morning, as she purposes paying you a
+visit to make a proposition which she thinks may prove agreeable to the
+Countess de Gramont and Count Tristan."</p>
+
+<p>"We are ever proud to receive the Marchioness de Fleury," responded the
+countess, graciously.</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say you think I have emptied my budget of news," Maurice went
+on; "but you are mistaken: several bits of agreeable intelligence remain
+behind. At the Ch&acirc;teau de Tremazan, I saw three of our relatives on the
+de Gramont side, Madame de Nervac, the Count Damoreau, and M. de
+Bonneville. They inquired kindly after you, Madeleine, and I told them
+you were the most"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The countess interrupted him with the inquiry, "Are they upon a visit of
+several days?"</p>
+
+<p>"I believe so. Now for the last, most pleasant item. As there are so
+many lively young persons gathered together at the ch&acirc;teau, some one
+proposed an impromptu ball. Madame de Tremazan seized upon the idea, and
+commissioned me to carry invitations to the Countess dowager de Gramont,
+Mademoiselles Madeleine and Bertha, and Count Tristan, for the evening
+after to-morrow. I assured her in advance that the invitations would be
+accepted;&mdash;was I not right?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," replied Bertha; "I am so glad!"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"We will enjoy a ball greatly!" exclaimed Madeleine.</p>
+
+<p>"And so will I!" said Maurice. "I engage Madeleine for the first
+quadrille, and Bertha for the first waltz."</p>
+
+<p>"And we both accept!" answered his cousins, with girlish delight.</p>
+
+<p>"Not so fast, young ladies," interrupted the countess. "It is quite out
+of the question for you to attend a ball of such magnificence as may be
+expected at the Ch&acirc;teau de Tremazan."</p>
+
+<p>"And why not, aunt?" asked Bertha, in a disappointed tone. "You surely
+will not refuse your consent?"</p>
+
+<p>"I deny you a pleasure very unwillingly, dear child, but I am forced to
+do so. You did not expect to appear at any large assemblies while you
+were in Brittany, and you have brought no ball-dress with you. You have
+nothing ready which it would be proper for you to wear at such a
+brilliant reunion; for the de Tremazans are so rich that everything will
+be upon the most splendid and costly scale. Mademoiselle Bertha de
+Merrivale cannot be present upon such an occasion, unless she is attired
+in a manner that befits her rank and fortune. I, also, have no dress
+prepared."</p>
+
+<p>"What a pity, what a pity!" half sighed, half pouted Bertha.</p>
+
+<p>"It is too bad, too provoking!" ejaculated Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>"If there be no obstacle but the lack of a ball-dress for yourself and
+for Bertha, aunt," remarked Madeleine, "we may console ourselves; for we
+will go to the ball."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you dear, good, ingenious Madeleine!" exclaimed Bertha, throwing
+her arms around her cousin. "I wonder if the time ever <i>will</i> arrive
+when you have not some resource to extricate us from a difficulty?"</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine forever! Long live Madeleine!" shouted Maurice, with
+enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p>"And now, good, fairy godmother, where is the robe of gold and silver to
+deck your Cinderella?" asked Bertha.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not promise gold and silver apparel; you must be content
+with a toilet simple, airy, fresh, and spring-like as yourself.
+And for you, aunt, I will arrange an autumn arraying,&mdash;a costume
+soft, yet bright, like the autumn days which the Americans call
+'Indian summer,'&mdash;something which will almost make one wish to fall
+into the sere and yellow leaf of life in the hope of resembling you."</p>
+
+<p>"But how is it possible to make two ball-dresses between this time and
+night after next?" inquired the countess, evidently<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> not at all averse
+to the project, if it could be carried into execution.</p>
+
+<p>"I answer for the possibility!" replied Madeleine.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Madeleine answers for it!" repeated Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine answers for it!" echoed Bertha; "and you know Madeleine has
+<i>the fingers of a fairy</i>; she can achieve whatever she undertakes. But
+your own dress, Madeleine?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do not be uneasy about that; we will think of that when the others are
+ready."</p>
+
+<p>"But if you do not wear a dress that becomes you?" persisted Bertha.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, then I shall have to look at yours, and, remembering that it is my
+handiwork, be satisfied."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no one like you, Madeleine!" burst forth Maurice,
+uncontrollably,&mdash;"no one! You never think of yourself; you"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"But, as some one is always good enough to think of me, I deserve little
+credit on that account," rejoined Madeleine.</p>
+
+<p>"Who could help thinking of you?" murmured Maurice, tenderly.</p>
+
+<p>The countess had not heard the enthusiastic encomium of Maurice, nor his
+last, involuntary remark. The young man had risen and joined his
+cousins. His father had taken the vacant seat beside the countess, and
+was talking to her in a low tone. From the moment he learned that
+Madeleine's relatives were accidentally assembled at the Ch&acirc;teau de
+Tremazan, he had determined to seize that favorable opportunity, and
+send them the letters requesting that they would by turns offer a home
+to their poor and orphan relative. These letters, though written upon
+the day previous, fortunately had not yet been posted. Count Tristan
+whisperingly communicated his intention to his mother, and received her
+approval.</p>
+
+<p>Their conversation was interrupted by the entrance of M. Gaston de Bois,
+who invariably arrived before other guests made their appearance. M. de
+Bois was such a martyr to nervous timidity, that he could not summon
+courage to enter a room full of company, even with some great
+stimulating compensation in view. On the present occasion, though only
+the family had assembled, his olive complexion crimsoned as he advanced
+towards the countess, and his expressive, though irregular and not
+strictly handsome features became almost distorted; he unconsciously
+thrust his fingers through his hair, throwing it into startling
+dis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>order, and twisted his dark moustache until it stood out with
+sufficient ferocity to suit the face of a brigand in a melodrama.</p>
+
+<p>But the most painful effect of this bewildering embarrassment evinced
+itself when he attempted to speak. His utterance became suddenly
+impeded, and, the more violent his efforts to articulate, the more
+difficult it seemed for him to utter a distinct sentence. He was
+painfully near-sighted; yet he always detected the faintest smile upon
+the countenance of any one present, and interpreted it into an
+expression of derision.</p>
+
+<p>These personal defects, however, were liberally counterbalanced by
+mental attributes of a high order. His constitutional diffidence caused
+him to shun society; but he devoted his leisure to books, and was an
+erudite scholar, without ever mounting the pompous stilts of the pedant.
+All his impulses were noble and generous, though his best intentions
+were often frustrated by that fearful self-consciousness which made him
+dread the possibility of attracting attention. There was a slight shade
+of melancholy in his character. Life had been a disappointment to him,
+and he was haunted by a sense of the incompleteness of his own
+existence.</p>
+
+<p>His estate joined that of the Count de Gramont, and was even more
+impoverished. Gaston de Bois led a sort of hermit-like life in the
+gloomy and empty ch&acirc;teau of his ancestors. He chafed in his confinement,
+like a caged lion ready to break loose from bondage. But the lion freed
+might take refuge in his native woods, while Gaston, if he rushed forth
+into the world, knew that his bashfulness, his stammering, his
+near-sightedness, would render society a more intolerable prison than
+his solitary home.</p>
+
+<p>At the Ch&acirc;teau de Gramont he was a frequent guest, for the countess and
+her son held him in the highest esteem.</p>
+
+<p>After saluting his host and hostess, he warmly grasped the hand of
+Maurice, and then addressed Madeleine, with but little hesitation
+apparent in his speech; but when he turned to Bertha, and essayed to
+make some pleasant remark, he was suddenly seized with a fit of hopeless
+stammering.</p>
+
+<p>The beaming smile with which Bertha greeted him was displaced by an
+expression almost amounting to compassion. Madeleine, with her wonted
+presence of mind, came to his aid; finished his sentence, as though he
+had spoken it himself; and went on talking <i>to him</i> and <i>for him</i>, while
+he regarded her with an air of undisguised thankfulness and relief.</p>
+
+<p>Between Madeleine and Gaston de Bois there existed that sort of
+friendship which many persons are sceptical that a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> young and attractive
+woman and an agreeable man can entertain for each other without the
+sentiment heightening into a warmer emotion. But love and friendship are
+totally distinct affections. A woman may cherish the truest, kindliest
+friendship for a man whom it would be impossible for her to love; nay,
+in whom she would totally lose her interest if he once presented himself
+in the aspect of a lover; and we believe a certain class of men are
+capable of experiencing the same pure and kin-like devotion for certain
+women.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois felt that he was comprehended by Madeleine,&mdash;that she
+sympathized with his misfortunes, appreciated the difficulties of his
+position, and, without pretending to be blind to his defects, always
+viewed them leniently: thus, in her presence he was sufficiently at ease
+to be entirely himself; his <i>amour propre</i> received fewer wounds, and he
+was conscious that he appeared to better advantage than in the society
+of other ladies.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine, on her side, had more than once reflected that there was no
+one to whom she could more easily turn to impart a sorrow, intrust a
+secret, solicit a favor, or receive consolation and advice,&mdash;no one in
+whom she could so thoroughly confide, as M. de Bois.</p>
+
+<p>Gaston had only commenced to regain his self-possession when the two
+American gentlemen, Mr. Hilson and Mr. Meredith, were announced.</p>
+
+<p>The countess received them with a freezing formality which would have
+awed any visitors less unsuspicious of the cause of this augmented
+stateliness.</p>
+
+<p>They were both gentlemen who held high positions in their own country;
+they had brought letters to Count Tristan de Gramont, with a view of
+enlisting his interest in the railway company of which we have before
+spoken; they had been cordially received by him, and invited to partake
+of his hospitality; it therefore never occurred to either of them that
+the haughty demeanor of the countess was designed to impress them with a
+sense of their inferiority.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hilson was what is termed a "self-made" man,&mdash;that is, he owed
+nothing to the chances of birth; he had received little early
+cultivation, but he had educated himself, and therefore all the
+knowledge he had acquired was positive mental gain, and brought into
+active use. He had inherited no patrimony, and started life with no
+advantages of position; but he had made his own fortune, and earned his
+own place in the social sphere. He had been one of the most successful
+and scientific engineers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> which the United States ever produced, and was
+now the president of an important railroad, and a highly influential
+member of society.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Meredith was born in the State of Maryland,&mdash;a "man of family," as
+it is styled. He had not encountered the difficulties and experienced
+the struggles of his associates; his was therefore a less strong, less
+highly developed, character. He had travelled over the larger portion of
+Europe, yet preferred to make his home in America; he had once retired
+from business, but, finding that he was bored to death without the
+necessity for occupation, connected himself with the railroad company of
+which Mr. Hilson was president.</p>
+
+<p>The other guests were gentlemen residing or visiting in the
+neighborhood. They were the Marquis de Lasalles, the Count Caradore,
+Messieurs Villiers, Laroche, and Litelle. The two former, being the most
+important personages, occupied seats at table on the right and left of
+the countess. Gaston de Bois was well pleased to find himself beside
+Madeleine; for he was opposite to Bertha, and could feast his eyes upon
+her fair, unclouded face, and now and then he spoke to her in glances
+which were far more eloquent than his tongue.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hilson sat on the other side of Madeleine. A few naturally suggested
+questions about his native land unloosed his tongue, and she soon became
+deeply interested in the information he gave her concerning
+America,&mdash;the habits, views, and aspirations of its people.</p>
+
+<p>After listening for some time, she almost involuntarily murmured, with a
+half-sigh, "I should like to visit America."</p>
+
+<p>There was something in her own nature which responded to the spirit of
+self-reliance, energy, and industry, which are so essentially American
+characteristics.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha sat between the Marquis de Lasalles and Maurice. She was in the
+highest spirits, and looked superlatively lovely. The brow of the
+countess gradually smoothed as she noticed how gayly the heiress chatted
+with her cousin.</p>
+
+<p>The two plates which intruded into the S&ecirc;vres set had been a terrible
+eyesore to Madame de Gramont at first; but Madeleine's suggestion had
+been acted upon,&mdash;they were placed before the young ladies, and, as the
+countess rose from the table, she comforted herself with the reflection
+that they had escaped observation.</p>
+
+<p>The gentlemen accompanied the ladies to the drawing-room, and then
+Maurice lured Madeleine to the piano, and was soon in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> raptures over the
+wild, sweet melodies which she sung with untutored pathos. His
+grandmother could scarcely conceal her vexation. Approaching the singer,
+she took an opportunity, while Bertha and Maurice were searching for a
+piece of music, whisperingly to suggest that Baptiste was old and
+clumsy, and the S&ecirc;vres set in danger until it was safely locked up
+again.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine murmured, in return, "I will steal away unnoticed and attend
+to it."</p>
+
+<p>She stole away, but not unperceived, for one pair of eyes was ever upon
+her. She found so much besides the valuable china that demanded
+attention, and her aid was so heartily welcomed by the old domestics,
+who had become confused by the multiplicity of their duties, that it was
+late in the evening before she reappeared in the drawing-room. The
+guests were taking their leave.</p>
+
+<p>"I am highly flattered by the interest you have expressed in my
+country," said Mr. Hilson, in bidding her adieu. "If you should ever
+visit America, as you have expressed the desire to do, and if you should
+pass through Washington, as you certainly will if you visit America,
+will you not promise to apprise me? Here is my address?" and he placed
+his card in her hands.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine looked not a little surprised and embarrassed at this
+unexpected and informal proceeding, which she knew would greatly shock
+the countess; but, taking the card, answered, courteously, "I fear
+nothing is more unlikely than that I should cross the ocean; but, if
+such an unlooked-for event should ever occur, I promise certainly to
+apprise you."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<h3>PROPOSALS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>On the morrow, at the usual hour for visitors, the count and his mother
+sat in the drawing-room awaiting the promised guest. Maurice, at Count
+Tristan's solicitation, had very unwillingly consented to postpone his
+customary equestrian exercise, and was sauntering in the garden,
+wondering over the caprice that prompted his father to desire his
+presence at the expected inter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>view. The tramp of hoofs broke his
+revery; and a superb equipage, drawn by four noble horses,
+postilion-mounted, dashed up the long avenue that led to the ch&acirc;teau. He
+hastened to the carriage-door, and aided the Marchioness de Fleury to
+alight.</p>
+
+<p>The living embodiment of graceful affability, she greeted him with a
+volley of slaying smiles; then, with an air which betrayed her
+triumphant certainty of the execution done, glided past him into the
+drawing-room, almost disappearing in a cloud of lace, as she made a
+profound obeisance to the countess, and partially rising out of her
+misty <i>entourage</i> in saluting Count Tristan.</p>
+
+<p>Her voice had a low, studied sweetness as she softly syllabled some
+pleasant commonplaces, making affectionate inquiries concerning the
+health of the countess, and simulating the deepest interest as she
+apparently listened to answers which were in reality unheard. Ere long,
+she winningly unfolded the object of her visit. Her brother, the young
+Duke de Montauban, had prayed her to become his ambassador. He recently
+had the felicity of meeting the niece of the Countess de Gramont,
+Mademoiselle Bertha de Merrivale. He had been struck and captivated by
+her grace and surpassing beauty; he now charged his sister to apprise
+the family of Mademoiselle Bertha that he sought the honor of her hand
+in marriage, and hoped to obtain a favorable response to his suit.</p>
+
+<p>The consternation created by those words did not escape the quick eyes
+of the marchioness. The count half rose from his seat, white with
+vexation, then sat down again, and, making an attempt to hide his
+displeasure, answered, in a tone of forced courtesy,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Though Mademoiselle Bertha de Merrivale is my mother's grandniece, we
+have no control over her actions or inclinations. Her uncle, the Marquis
+de Merrivale, who is her guardian, is morbidly jealous of any influence
+exerted over his niece, even by relatives equally near."</p>
+
+<p>The Countess de Gramont, though she also had been greatly disconcerted,
+recovered herself more quickly than her son, and answered, with such an
+excess of suavity that it had the air of exaggeration,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"We feel deeply indebted for the proposed honor. An alliance with a
+nobleman of the high position and unblemished name of the Duke de
+Montauban is all that could be desired for my niece; but, as my son has
+remarked, her guardian is very punctilious respecting his rights, and
+would not tolerate an interference with her future prospects. I beg you
+will believe that we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> are highly flattered by the proposal of the Duke
+de Montauban, though we have no power to promote his suit."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice could not help wondering why his father looked so thoroughly
+vexed, and why his grandmother made such an effort to conceal her
+displeasure by an assumption of overacted gratification.</p>
+
+<p>The Marchioness de Fleury betrayed neither surprise, disappointment, nor
+emotion of any kind, except by gently tapping the ground with the
+exquisitely gaitered little foot that peeped from the mazes of her ample
+drapery.</p>
+
+<p>She answered, in the most honeyed voice, "Oh! I was misinformed, and I
+knew that your charming niece was at this moment visiting you."</p>
+
+<p>Then, spreading her bespangled fan, and moving it gently backward and
+forward, though the day was far from sultry, she dismissed the subject
+by asking Maurice if he had delivered Madame de Tremazan's invitations
+to the ball.</p>
+
+<p>Almost before he had concluded his reply, she rose, and, with the most
+enchanting of smiles, courtesied, as though she were making a reverence
+in a quadrille of the Lancers, and the lace cloud softly floated out of
+the room, the human being it encircled being nearly lost to sight when
+it was in motion.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice could not resist the impulse to turn to his father, and express
+his amazement that the complimentary proposals made for Bertha by the
+Marchioness de Fleury had been so definitely declined, adding, "If my
+little cousin had been already engaged, you could not more decidedly
+have shut the door upon the duke."</p>
+
+<p>The count bit his lips, and strode up and down the room.</p>
+
+<p>The countess replied, "We have other views for Bertha,&mdash;views which we
+trust would be more acceptable to herself; but here she comes, and I
+have a few words to say to her in private. Take a turn with your father
+in the park, Maurice, while I talk to your cousin."</p>
+
+<p>She gave the count a significant glance as she spoke.</p>
+
+<p>Father and son left the room as Bertha entered.</p>
+
+<p>For some minutes the two gentlemen walked side by side in silence.
+Finding that his father did not seem inclined to converse, Maurice
+remarked, abruptly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Now that the visit of the marchioness is over, I shall take my
+postponed ride, if you have no further need of me."</p>
+
+<p>"I <i>have</i> need; let your horse wait a few moments longer," replied the
+count. "Can you conceive no reason why we did not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> for one instant
+entertain the proposition of the Marchioness de Fleury?"</p>
+
+<p>"None: it was made entirely according to rule; and, if you will allow me
+to say so, common courtesy seemed to demand that it should have been
+treated with more consideration."</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose Bertha's affections are already engaged?" suggested the father.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, that alters the aspect of affairs; but it is hardly possible,&mdash;she
+is so young, and appears to be so heart-free."</p>
+
+<p>"Still, I think she has a preference; and, if I am not mistaken, her
+choice is one that would give us the highest satisfaction."</p>
+
+<p>"Really!" ejaculated Maurice, unsuspiciously. "Whom, then, does she
+honor by her election?"</p>
+
+<p>"A very unworthy person!" rejoined the count, in a tone of irritation,
+"since he is too dull to suspect the compliment."</p>
+
+<p>"You cannot mean"&mdash;began Maurice, in confused amazement, but paused,
+unwilling to finish his sentence with the words that rose to his lips.</p>
+
+<p>"I mean a most obtuse and insensible young man, walking by my side, who
+has learned to interpret Greek and Latin at college, but not a woman's
+heart."</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible! You are surely mistaken. Bertha has only bestowed upon me a
+cousinly regard," answered Maurice, evidently more surprised and
+embarrassed than pleased by the unexpected communication.</p>
+
+<p>"I presume you do not expect the young lady herself to make known the
+esteem in which she holds you, undeserving as you are? You must take our
+word for her sentiments. What this alliance would be to our falling
+house, I need not represent; it is not even necessary that you should
+enter into the merits of this side of the question. You must see that
+Bertha is beautiful and lovable, and would make the most delightful
+companion for life. Is this not so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, she is beautiful, lovable, and would make a delightful companion,"
+answered Maurice, as though he echoed his father's words without knowing
+what he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Is she not all you could desire?"</p>
+
+<p>"All,&mdash;all I could desire as&mdash;as&mdash;as a <i>sister</i>!" replied Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>"But the question is now of a wife!" rejoined the count, angrily. "Are
+you dreaming, that you pore upon the ground and answer in that strange,
+abstracted manner?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Maurice looked up, as if about to speak, but hesitated, dubious what
+reply would be advisable.</p>
+
+<p>The count went on.</p>
+
+<p>"Maurice, your grandmother and I have this matter deeply at heart.
+Besides, Bertha loves you; you cannot treat her affection with disdain.
+Promise me that you will at once have an understanding with her, and let
+this matter be settled. It must not be delayed any longer. Why do you
+not reply?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes,&mdash;you are right. I ought to have an understanding with her,&mdash;<i>I
+will have!</i>" replied Maurice, still in a brown study.</p>
+
+<p>"That is well; and let it be as soon as possible,&mdash;to-day, or to-morrow
+at the latest,&mdash;before this ball takes place,&mdash;before you meet the
+Marchioness de Fleury again."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice answered, hastily, "You need not fear that I desire any delay.
+You have put an idea into my head which would make suspense intolerable.
+I will speak to her without loss of time. And now will you allow me to
+wish you good-morning? My horse has been saddled for an hour."</p>
+
+<p>Saying this, he walked toward the stable and called to Gustave, who at
+once appeared, leading the horse. The viscount vaulted upon its back,
+and, starting off at full gallop, in a few moments was out of sight.</p>
+
+<p>His father was mystified, doubtful of the real feelings of Maurice, and
+uncertain what course he meant to pursue, but well assured that he would
+keep his word; and, if he did, it would be impossible for him to
+introduce this delicate subject without compromising himself,&mdash;nay,
+without positively offering himself to Bertha. The very mention of such
+a theme would be a proposal; and, with this consolatory reflection, he
+returned to the ch&acirc;teau.</p>
+
+<p>As he passed the drawing-room, he caught a glimpse of Bertha, sitting at
+his mother's feet. The latter was holding both of the young girl's
+hands, and talking to her earnestly. Bertha's countenance wore an
+expression of maidenly confusion and perplexity which, even if the count
+had not been aware of his mother's intentions, would have betrayed the
+nature of her discourse.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<h3>HEART-BEATS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Maurice must have found his equestrian exercise particularly agreeable
+upon that day, for he returned to the ch&acirc;teau so late that no one saw
+him again until the family assembled at dinner.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha was unusually silent and <i>distrait</i>, not a single smile rippled
+her slumbering dimples, and she answered at random. She did not once
+address Maurice, to whom she usually prattled in a strain of merry
+<i>badinage</i>, and he evinced the same constraint toward her.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the ladies rose from table, Madeleine retired to her own
+chamber. Her preparations for the morrow demanded all her time. The
+count retreated to the library. Maurice and Bertha were on the point of
+finding themselves <i>t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te</i>, for the countess just remembered that
+she had a note to write, when her little plot to leave the cousins
+together was frustrated by the entrance of the Marquis de Lasalles.</p>
+
+<p>The clouds suddenly melted from Bertha's countenance when the dull old
+nobleman was announced. She greeted him with an air of undisguised
+relief, as though she had been happily reprieved from an impending
+calamity. The lively warmth of her salutation attracted the marquis to
+her side, and he remained fascinated to the spot for the rest of the
+evening. The countess was too thoroughly well-bred to allow herself to
+look annoyed, or, even in secret, to acknowledge that she wished the
+marquis elsewhere; but she was disconcerted, and puzzled by the
+unaccountable change in Bertha's deportment.</p>
+
+<p>So passed the evening.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning, when Bertha appeared at breakfast, every one, Maurice
+perhaps excepted, remarked that she seemed weary and dispirited. Her
+brilliant complexion had lost something of its wonted lustre; her
+usually clear blue eyes looked heavy and shadowed; her rosy mouth had a
+half-sorrowful, half-fretful expression. It was evident that some
+nightmare preyed upon her mind, and had broken the childlike sound
+sleeping that generally visited her pillow. When the ball that was to
+take place that evening was mentioned, she brightened a little, but
+quickly sank back into her musing mood.</p>
+
+<p>"You must give me some assistance this morning, Bertha,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> said
+Madeleine, as she poured a few drops of almond oil into a tiny cup.
+"Your task shall be to gather, during your morning walk, this little
+basket full of the greenest and most perfect ivy leaves you can find,
+and bring them to the <i>ch&acirc;let</i>. Then, if you feel inclined to aid me
+further, I will show you how to impart an emerald brilliancy to every
+leaf by a touch of this oil and a few delicate manipulations."</p>
+
+<p>"I suspect you are inventing something very novel and tasteful,"
+remarked Bertha, with more indifference than was natural to her.</p>
+
+<p>"You shall judge by and by," replied Madeleine, as she left the room,
+with the cup in her hand.</p>
+
+<p>She carried it, with her work, to a dilapidated summer-house, embowered
+by venerable trees. Madeleine's taste had given a picturesque aspect to
+this old <i>ch&acirc;let</i>, and concealed or beautified the ravages of time. With
+the assistance of Baptiste, she had planted vines which flung over the
+outer walls a green drapery, intermingled with roses, honeysuckle, and
+jasmine; and, within doors, a few chairs, a well-worn sofa, a table, and
+footstool gave to the rustic apartment an appearance of habitableness
+and comfort. This was Madeleine's favorite resort when the weather was
+fine, and not a few of the magic achievements of her "fairy fingers" had
+been created in that romantic and secluded locality. There was glamour,
+perhaps, in the sylvan retreat, that acted like inspiration upon hands
+and brain.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha usually flitted about her as she worked, wandering in and out,
+now and then sitting down for a few moments, and reading aloud, by fits
+and starts, or occasionally taking up a needle and making futile efforts
+to busy herself with the womanly implement, but always restless, and
+generally abandoning her attempt after a brief trial; for Bertha frankly
+confessed that she admired industry in her cousin without being able to
+practise it in her own person.</p>
+
+<p>This morning, however, Madeleine sat alone; the fleecy tarlatan, that
+rolled in misty whiteness around her, gradually assuming the shape of
+female attire. Bettina had been despatched to Rennes on the day previous
+to procure this material for Bertha's ball-costume, and had not returned
+until late in the evening; yet the dress was cut out and fitted before
+Madeleine closed her eyes that night. The first auroral ray of light
+that stole into her chamber the next day fell upon the lithe figure of
+the young girl folding tucks that were to be made in the skirt,
+measuring distances, placing pins here and there for guides; and, as the
+dawn broke, she sat down unwearily, and sent her needle in and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> out of
+the transparent fabric with a rapidity of motion marvellous to behold.</p>
+
+<p>After a time, the rickety door of the <i>ch&acirc;let</i> was unceremoniously
+pushed open, and old Baptiste entered. He deposited a basket filled with
+ivy leaves upon the table, and said that Mademoiselle Bertha desired him
+to gather and deliver them to Mademoiselle Madeleine.</p>
+
+<p>"Has she not taken her usual walk this morning, then?" asked Madeleine,
+in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"No, mademoiselle; Mademoiselle Bertha only came to me as I was weeding
+the flower-beds, and immediately went back to the ch&acirc;teau. Have I
+brought mademoiselle enough ivy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite sufficient, thank you; but I did not mean to consume your time,
+my good Baptiste. I thought Mademoiselle Bertha would take pleasure in
+selecting the ivy herself."</p>
+
+<p>"Mademoiselle Madeleine knows how glad I always am to serve her,"
+answered Baptiste.</p>
+
+<p>For another hour Madeleine sat alone, singing, in a soft murmur, as she
+sewed, while</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">"Her soul was singing at a work apart<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Behind the walls of sense."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The sound of a manly step upon the pathway silenced her plaintive
+melody. The next moment the vines, that formed a verdant curtain about
+the otherwise unprotected casement, were gently drawn back, and a face
+appeared at the window.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought I should find you here on this bright morning, Mademoiselle
+Madeleine. May I en&mdash;en&mdash;enter?" asked Gaston de Bois, speaking with so
+much ease that his only stammer came upon the last word.</p>
+
+<p>"If you please."</p>
+
+<p>"A noble slave of the needle," he continued, still looking in at the
+window. "The daughter of a duke, with the talents of a dressmaker!
+<i>Where</i> will ge&mdash;ge&mdash;genius next take up her abode?"</p>
+
+<p>"Genius&mdash;since you are pleased to apply that sublime appellation to my
+poor capacities for wielding the most familiar and harmless weapon of my
+sex&mdash;is no respecter of persons, as you see. You are an early visitor
+to-day, M. de Bois. Of course, you are on your way to the ch&acirc;teau?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have let&mdash;let&mdash;letters for the count. He intrusted me
+yes&mdash;es&mdash;esterday with a package to take with me to the Ch&acirc;teau de
+Tremazan, where I was engaged to pass the evening,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> and I have brought
+him the replies. But before I play the postman, let me come in and talk
+to you, since you are the only person I can ever manage to talk to at
+all."</p>
+
+<p>"Come in then, and welcome."</p>
+
+<p>Gaston accepted the invitation with alacrity. He took a seat, and,
+regarding her work, remarked, "This must be for to-night's ball; is it
+your own dress?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mine? All these tucks for a dress of <i>mine</i>? No, indeed, it is
+Bertha's, and I hope she will like the toilet I have planned; each tuck
+will be surmounted by a garland of ivy, left open at the front, and
+fastened where it breaks off, on either side, with blush roses. Then
+among her luxuriant curls a few sprigs of ivy must float, and perhaps a
+rose peep out. You may expect to see her looking very beautiful
+to-night."</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois sighed, and remained silent for a moment. Then he resumed the
+conversation by asking, "And the dress will be ready in time?"</p>
+
+<p>"Before it is needed, I trust, for it is now well advanced. Fortunately
+my aunt's dress was completed last night. But it was not new,&mdash;only a
+fresh combination of materials that had already been employed. Yet she
+was kind enough to be highly pleased."</p>
+
+<p>"Well she might be! You are always wor&mdash;wor&mdash;working for the good of the
+whole family."</p>
+
+<p>"What other return can I make for the good I have received?" replied
+Madeleine, with emotion. "Can I ever forget that, when I was left alone
+in the world, without refuge, without friends, almost without bread, my
+great-aunt extended to me her protection, supplied all my wants,
+virtually adopted me as her own child? Can I offer her too much
+gratitude in return? Can I lavish upon her too much love? No one knows
+how well I love her and all that is hers! How well I love that dwelling
+which received the homeless orphan! People call the old ch&acirc;teau dreary
+and gloomy; to me it is a palace; its very walls are dear. I love the
+trees that yield me their shade,&mdash;the parks that you no doubt think a
+wilderness,&mdash;the rough, unweeded walks which I tread daily in search of
+flowers,&mdash;this ruined summer-house, where I have passed hours of
+delicious calm,&mdash;all the now familiar objects that I first saw through
+my tears, before they were dried by the hand of affection; and I reflect
+with joy that probably I shall never quit the Heaven-provided home which
+has been granted me. I have been so very happy here."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Real&mdash;eal&mdash;eally?" asked Gaston, doubtingly. "I fancied sometimes, when
+I saw the Countess and Count Tristan so&mdash;so&mdash;so severe to you, that"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Have they not the right to find fault with me when I fail to please
+them? That is only what I expect, and ought to bear patiently. I will
+not pretend to say that sometimes, when I have been misunderstood, and
+my best efforts have failed to bring about results that gratify them,&mdash;I
+will not say that my heart does not swell as though it would burst; but
+I console myself by reflecting that some far off, future day will come
+to make amends for all, and bring me full revenge."</p>
+
+<p>"Re&mdash;re&mdash;revenge! You re&mdash;re&mdash;revenge?" cried Gaston, in astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, <i>revenge</i>!" laughed Madeleine. "You see what a vindictive creature
+I am! And I am positively preparing myself to enjoy this delightful
+revenge. I will make you the confidant of my secret machinations. This
+old ch&acirc;teau is lively enough now, and the presence of Bertha and Maurice
+preserve to my aunt the pleasant memory of her own youth. But by and by
+Maurice will go forth into the world, and perhaps we shall only see him
+from time to time, at long intervals. Bertha will marry"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>At these words M. de Bois gave a violent start, and, stammering
+unintelligibly, rose from his seat, upsetting his chair, walked to the
+window, brought destruction upon some of Madeleine's vines by pulling
+them violently aside, to thrust out his head; then strode back, lifted
+the fallen chair, knocking down another, and with a flushed countenance
+seated himself again.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine went on, as if she had not noticed his abrupt movement.</p>
+
+<p>"Solitude and <i>ennui</i> might then oppress the Countess and even Count
+Tristan, and render their days burdensome. I am laying up a store of
+materials to enliven these scenes of weariness and loneliness. I have
+made myself quite a proficient in <i>piquet</i>, that I may pass long
+evenings playing with the count; I have noted and learned all the old
+airs that his mother delights to hear, because they remind her of her
+girlhood, and I will sing them to her when she is solitary and
+depressed. I will make her forget the absence of the dear ones who must
+leave such a void in her life; in a thousand ways I will soften the
+footsteps of age and infirmity as they steal upon her;&mdash;that will be the
+amends time will bring me,&mdash;that is the <i>revenge</i> I seek."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! Mademoiselle Mad&mdash;ad&mdash;adeleine, you are an angel!"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"So far from an angel," answered Madeleine, gayly, "that you make me
+feel as though I had laid a snare, by my egotism, to entrap that
+ill-deserved compliment. Now let us talk about yourself and your own
+projects. Do you still hold to the resolution you communicated to me in
+our last conversation?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, your advice has decided me."</p>
+
+<p>"I should have been very impertinent if I had ventured to give you
+advice. I can hardly be taxed with that presumption. We were merely
+discussing an abstract question,&mdash;the use of faculties accorded us, and
+the best mode of obtaining happiness through their employment; and you
+chose to apply my general remarks to your particular case."</p>
+
+<p>"You drew a picture which made me feel what a worth&mdash;orth&mdash;orthless
+mortal I am, and this incited me to throw off the garment of
+slothfulness, and put on armor for the battle of life."</p>
+
+<p>"So be it! Now tell us what you have determined upon."</p>
+
+<p>"My unfortunate imped&mdash;ed&mdash;ediment is my great drawback. Maurice hopes
+to become a lawyer; but that profession would be out of the
+ques&mdash;es&mdash;estion for me who have no power to utter my ideas. I could not
+enter the army, for what kind of an officer could I make? How should I
+ever manage to say to a soldier, 'Go and brave death for your
+coun&mdash;oun&mdash;ountry'? I should find it easier to do myself than to say it.
+Some diplomatic position I <i>might</i> possibly fill. As speech, according
+to Talleyrand, was given to men to disguise their thoughts, a man who
+st&mdash;st&mdash;stammers is not in much danger of making known his private
+medita&mdash;a&mdash;ations."</p>
+
+<p>"That is ingenious reasoning," replied Madeleine. "I hope something will
+grow out of it."</p>
+
+<p>"It is grow&mdash;ow&mdash;ing already. Yesterday, at the Ch&acirc;teau de Tremazan, I
+had a long interview with the Marquis de Fleury. He expects to be sent
+as ambassador to the United States. We are old friends. We talked, and I
+tol&mdash;ol&mdash;old"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You told him your views," said Madeleine, aiding him so quietly and
+naturally that her assistance was scarcely noticeable. "And what was
+concluded upon? for your countenance declares that you have concluded
+upon something. If the marquis goes to America, you will perhaps
+accompany him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, as sec&mdash;sec&mdash;sec&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"As secretary?" cried Madeleine. "That will be an admirable position.
+But America&mdash;ah! it is a long, long distance from Brittany! This is good
+news for you; but there are two persons to whom it will cause not a
+little pain."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"To who&mdash;o&mdash;om?" inquired Gaston, with suppressed agitation.</p>
+
+<p>"To my cousin Bertha, and to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Mademoiselle Ber&mdash;er&mdash;ertha! Will <i>she</i> heed my absence?
+She&mdash;she&mdash;she,&mdash;will she?" asked Gaston, confusedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;but take care; if you let me see how deeply that idea affects you,
+you will fail to play the diplomat in disguising your thoughts, for I
+shall divine your secret."</p>
+
+<p>"My secret,&mdash;what&mdash;what secret? What is it you divine? What do you
+imagine? I mean."</p>
+
+<p>"That you love Bertha,&mdash;love her as she deserves to be loved?"</p>
+
+<p>"I? I?" replied M. de Bois, trying to speak calmly; but, finding the
+attempt in vain, he burst forth: "Yes, it is but too true; I love her
+with my whole soul; I love her passionately; love her despairingly,&mdash;ay,
+<i>despairingly</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>"And why <i>despairingly</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Alas! she is so rich!" he answered, in a tone of chagrin.</p>
+
+<p>"True, she is encumbered with a large and <i>un</i>-encumbered estate."</p>
+
+<p>"A great misfortune for me!" sighed Gaston.</p>
+
+<p>"A misfortune which you cannot help, and which Bertha will never
+remember when she bestows her heart upon one who is worthy of the gift."</p>
+
+<p>"How can she ever deem <i>me</i> worthy? Even if I succeed in making myself a
+name,&mdash;a position; even if I become all that you have caused me to dream
+of being,&mdash;this dreadful imped&mdash;ed&mdash;ediment, this stammering which
+renders me ridiculous in the eyes of every one, in her eyes even,
+will"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Your stammering is only the effect of timidity," answered Madeleine,
+soothingly. "Believe me, it is nothing more; as you overcome your
+diffidence and gain self-possession, you will find that it disappears.
+For instance, you have been talking to me for some time with ease and
+fluency."</p>
+
+<p>"To <i>you</i>, ah, yes; with <i>you</i> I am always at my ease,&mdash;I have always
+confidence. It is not difficult to talk to one for whom I have so much
+affection,&mdash;<i>so much</i>, and yet not <i>too much</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"That proves fluent speech possible."</p>
+
+<p>"But to any one else, if I venture to open my heart, I hesitate,&mdash;I get
+troubled,&mdash;I&mdash;I stammer,&mdash;I make myself ridic&mdash;ic&mdash;iculous!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all."</p>
+
+<p>"But I do," reiterated Gaston, warmly. "Fancy a man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> saying to a woman
+he adores, yet in whose presence he trembles like a school-boy, or a
+culprit, 'I&mdash;I&mdash;I&mdash;lo&mdash;ov&mdash;ov&mdash;ove you!'"</p>
+
+<p>"The fact is," began Madeleine, laughing good-naturedly.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>There! there!</i>" cried M. de Bois, with a gesture of impatience and
+discouragement; "the fact is, that you laugh yourself,&mdash;<i>you</i>, who are
+so forbearing!"</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me; you mistook"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You could not help it, I know. It is precisely that which discourages
+me. And yet it is very odd! I have one method by which I can speak for
+five minutes at a time without stopping or hesitating."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed! Why, then, do you not always employ that magical method in
+society?"</p>
+
+<p>"It would hardly be admissible in polite circles. Would you believe
+it?&mdash;it is very absurd, but so is everything that appertains to us
+unfortunate tongue-tied wretches."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me what your method is."</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I&mdash;I do not dare; you will only laugh at me again."</p>
+
+<p>"No; I promise I will not."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, my method is to become very much animated,&mdash;to lash myself
+into a state of high excitement, and to hold forth as though I were
+making an exordium,&mdash;to talk with furious rapidity, using the most
+forcible expressions, the most emphatic ejaculations! Those unloose my
+tongue! My words hurl themselves impetuously forward, as zouaves in
+battle! Only, as you may conceive, this discourse is not of a very
+classic nature, and hardly suited to the drawing-room,&mdash;especially, as I
+receive great help, and rush on all the faster, for a few interjections
+that come under the head of&mdash;of&mdash;of swear&mdash;ear&mdash;earing!"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Swearing?</i>" was all Madeleine could say, controlling a strong
+inclination to merriment.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, downright swearing; employing strong expletives,&mdash;actual oaths!
+Oh, it helps me more than you can believe. But just imagine the result
+if I were to harangue Mademoiselle Bertha in this style! She
+would&mdash;would&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Would think it very original, and, as she has a joyous temperament, she
+might laugh immoderately. But she likes originality, and the very oddity
+of the discourse might impress her deeply. Then, too, she is very
+sympathetic, and she would probably be touched by the necessity which
+compelled you to employ such an extraordinary mode of expression."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, if that were only true!"</p>
+
+<p>"I think it <i>is</i> true."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Thank you! thank you!"</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine was opening a skein of silk, and, extending it to M. de Bois,
+she said: "Will you assist me? It is for Bertha I am working. Will you
+hold this skein? It will save time."</p>
+
+<p>Gaston, well pleased, stretched out his hands. Madeleine adjusted the
+skein, and commenced winding.</p>
+
+<p>"Besides, who knows?" she went on to say. "It seems to me very possible
+that the very singularity of such an address might captivate her, and
+give you a decided advantage over lovers who pressed their suit in
+hackneyed, stereotyped phrases."</p>
+
+<p>"You think so?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should not be surprised if such were the case, because Bertha has a
+decided touch of eccentricity in her character."</p>
+
+<p>"If I only dared to think that she had ever given me the faintest
+evidence of favorable regard!"</p>
+
+<p>"When she sees you embarrassed and hesitating, does she not always
+finish your sentences?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is it pos&mdash;pos&mdash;pos&mdash;" stammered Gaston.</p>
+
+<p>"Possible?" said Madeleine. "Yes, I have observed that she invariably
+does so if she imagines herself unnoticed. I have besides remarked a
+certain expression on her transparent countenance when we talked of you,
+and she has dropped a word, now and then,"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"What&mdash;what&mdash;what words? But no, you are mocking me cruelly! It cannot
+be that she ever thinks of me! I have too powerful a rival."</p>
+
+<p>"A rival! what rival?" asked Madeleine, in genuine astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"The Viscount Maurice."</p>
+
+<p>The silken thread snapped in Madeleine's hand.</p>
+
+<p>"You have broken the thread," remarked M. de Bois; "I hope it was not
+owing to my awkward hold&mdash;old&mdash;olding."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," answered Madeleine, hurriedly, and taking the skein out of his
+hand, but tangling it inextricably as she tried to draw out the threads.</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;you&mdash;you&mdash;think my cousin Maurice loves Bertha?" she asked, hardly
+aware of the pointedness of her own question.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not exactly say <i>that</i>; but how will it be possible for him to
+help loving her? Good gracious, Mademoiselle Madeleine! what have I said
+to affect you? How pale you have become!"</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine struggled to appear composed, but the hands that held the
+snarled skein trembled, and no effort of will could force the retreating
+blood back to her face.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Nothing&mdash;you have said nothing,&mdash;you are quite right, I&mdash;I&mdash;I dare
+say."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you are just as troubled and embarrassed as I was just now."</p>
+
+<p>"I? nonsense! I'm&mdash;I'm&mdash;I'm only&mdash;only&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And you stammer,&mdash;you actually stammer almost as badly as I do!"
+exclaimed Gaston, in exultation. "Ah, Mademoiselle Madeleine! I have
+betrayed to you <i>my</i> secret,&mdash;you have discovered <i>yours</i> to me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur de Bois, I implore you, do not speak another word on this
+subject! Enough that, if <i>I had a secret</i>, there is no one in the world
+to whom I would sooner confide it."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, then, do you now wish to hide from me the preference with which
+you honor your cousin?"</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine replied, in a tremulous tone, "You do not know how deep a
+wound you are probing, how heavy a grief you"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Why should it be a grief? What obstacle impedes your union?"</p>
+
+<p>"An insurmountable obstacle,&mdash;one that exists in my own heart."</p>
+
+<p>"How can that be, since that heart is his?"</p>
+
+<p>"Those to whom I owe everything," replied Madeleine, "cherish the
+anticipation that Maurice will make a brilliant marriage. Even if my
+cousin looked upon me with partial eyes, could I rob my benefactors of
+that dearest hope? Could I repay all their benefits to me by causing
+them such a cruel disappointment? I could never be so ungrateful,&mdash;so
+guilty,&mdash;so inhuman. Therefore, I say, the obstacle lies in my own
+heart: that heart revolts at the very contemplation of such an act. I
+pray you never to speak to me again on this subject; and give me your
+word that no one shall ever know what I have just confided to you,&mdash;I
+mean what you suspect&mdash;what you suspect, it may be, <i>erroneously!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"I promise you on the honor of a gentleman."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you."</p>
+
+<p>A step was heard on the path leading to the summer-house.</p>
+
+<p>Gaston looked towards the open door and said, "It is the count."</p>
+
+<p>At the same moment he withdrew to the window.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine, who had risen, resumed her seat, and, as she plied her
+needle, half buried her agitated face in the white drapery which lay in
+her lap.</p>
+
+<p>The count entered with downcast eyes, and flung himself into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> a chair.
+He had not perceived that any one was present. Madeleine found it
+difficult to command her voice, yet could not allow him to remain
+unaware that he was not alone.</p>
+
+<p>After a brief interval, she said, in a tolerably quiet tone, "I am
+afraid you have not chosen a very comfortable seat. I told Baptiste to
+remove that chair, for its legs are giving signs of the infirmities of
+age."</p>
+
+<p>At the sound of her voice the count glanced at her over his shoulder,
+and said, brusquely, "What are you doing there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Playing Penelope, as usual."</p>
+
+<p>The count returned harshly, "Always absorbed in some feminine frippery,
+just as if"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Just as if I were a woman!" answered Madeleine, forcing a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"A woman in your position should find some less frivolous employment."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine replied, in a tone of badinage that would have disarmed most
+men, "How cruelly my cousin pretends to treat me! He actually makes
+believe to scold me when I am occupied with the interests of his
+family,&mdash;when I am literally <i>shedding my blood</i> in their behalf!" she
+added playfully, holding towards him the white dress upon which a slight
+red stain was visible; for the needle grasped by her trembling hands had
+pricked her.</p>
+
+<p>"Good heavens, Madeleine! when will you lay aside those intolerable airs
+and graces which you invariably assume, and which would be very charming
+in a young girl of sixteen,&mdash;a girl like Bertha; but, in a woman who has
+arrived at your years,&mdash;a woman of twenty-one,&mdash;become ridiculous
+affectation?"</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois, enraged at the injustice of this rebuke, could control
+himself no longer, and came forward with a lowering visage. The count
+turned towards him in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, M. de Bois, I was not aware of your presence. I must have
+interrupted a <i>t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te</i>. You perceive, I am, now and then, obliged
+to chide."</p>
+
+<p>Gaston answered only by a bow, though his features wore an expression
+which the count would not have been well pleased to see if he had
+interpreted aright.</p>
+
+<p>"But," continued the latter, "we are most apt to chide those whom we
+love best, as you are aware."</p>
+
+<p>"I am a&mdash;a&mdash;ware," began M. de Bois, trying to calm his indignation, yet
+experiencing a strong desire to adopt his new method of speaking
+fluently by using strong interjections.</p>
+
+<p>The count changed the subject by asking, "Did you deliver<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> the letters,
+of which you had the goodness to take charge, to the Count Damoreau,
+Madame de Nervac, and Monsieur de Bonneville?"</p>
+
+<p>"Our relatives!" exclaimed Madeleine, unreflectingly. "Have you
+forgotten that you will see them to-night at the ball? But I beg pardon;
+perhaps you had something very important to write about."</p>
+
+<p>"It <i>was</i> very important," answered the count, dryly.</p>
+
+<p>"I im&mdash;im&mdash;imagined so," remarked M. de Bois, "by the sensation the
+letters created. Madame de Nervac turned pale, and the Count Damoreau
+turned red, and M. de Bonneville gnawed his nails as he was reading."</p>
+
+<p>"Had they the kindness to send answers by you, as I requested?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, the object of my early vi&mdash;vi&mdash;visit was to deliver them. I heard
+Mademoiselle Madeleine singing as I passed the <i>ch&acirc;let</i>, and paused to
+pay my respects."</p>
+
+<p>He drew forth three letters, and placed them in the count's hand.</p>
+
+<p>The latter seized them eagerly, and seemed inclined to break the seals
+at once, but changed his mind, and putting them in his pocket, said,
+"Shall I have the pleasure of your company to the ch&acirc;teau?"</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois could not well refuse.</p>
+
+<p>He left the <i>ch&acirc;let</i> with the count, but, after taking a few steps,
+apologized for being obliged to return in search of a glove he had
+dropped. He went back alone. Madeleine was occupied with her needle as
+when he left her. There were no traces of tears upon her cheeks; there
+was no flush, no expression of anger or mortification upon her serene
+countenance.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois regarded her a moment in surprise, for he had expected to
+find her weeping, or looking vexed, or, at all events, in a state of
+excitement.</p>
+
+<p>"Is the count often in such an amiable temper?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No; pray, do not imagine <i>that</i>; he is evidently troubled to-day. You
+saw how preoccupied he was. Something has gone wrong, something annoys
+him. He did not mean to be harsh."</p>
+
+<p>"And <i>you</i> can excuse him? Well, then <i>I</i> cannot! I felt as though I
+must speak when he rated you so unreasonably. And, if I had spoken, I
+should certainly have had my tongue loosened by swearing; perhaps I
+shall yet"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Pray, M. de Bois," urged Madeleine, "do not try to defend<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> me, or
+allude to what you unfortunately heard. It will only make my position
+more trying."</p>
+
+<p>"So I fear; but I have something to say to you. <i>You</i> have given <i>me</i>
+good counsels; you must listen to some I have to give you in
+return,&mdash;but not now. You are going to the ball to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, certainly."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I may find an opportunity of talking to you there."</p>
+
+<p>Saying these words, he picked up the glove, and hastened to rejoin the
+count, who was too much absorbed in his own thoughts to remark the
+length of his friend's absence.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<h3>UNMASKING.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Madeleine, left alone in the old <i>ch&acirc;let</i>, remained for some time
+absorbed in her work, which progressed rapidly. The ivy leaves were
+dexterously polished, and a graceful garland laid above every tuck of
+the transparent white dress. The last leafy band was nearly completed,
+when the door again creaked upon its rusty hinges, and the young girl,
+looking up, beheld Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>"Is not Bertha here?" he asked, in a tone that sounded very unlike his
+usual cheerful voice. "I came to seek her, and felt sure she must be
+with you."</p>
+
+<p>"I have not seen her since early morning," answered Madeleine. "She
+promised to bring me this basket full of ivy leaves, but sent Baptiste
+instead."</p>
+
+<p>"I looked for her in the library, the <i>boudoir</i>, the drawing-room, and
+the garden, before I came here," Maurice continued, in the same grave
+tone. "She has disappeared just at the moment when I have made up my
+mind to have an understanding without further delay."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine's speaking countenance betrayed her surprise, for it seemed
+strange that Maurice should desire an especial interview with his
+cousin, whom he saw at all hours; and stranger still that he appeared to
+be so much disturbed.</p>
+
+<p>"How serious you look, Maurice! Are you troubled? Has anything occurred
+to cause you unhappiness?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I can have no disguises from you, Madeleine. I am thoroughly sick at
+heart. In the first place, my father and my grandmother have violently
+opposed my determination to embark in an honorable and useful career of
+life;&mdash;<i>that</i> threw a cloud over me almost from the hour I entered the
+ch&acirc;teau. I tried to forget my disappointment for the moment, that no
+shadow might fall upon your birthday happiness; besides, I clung to the
+hope that I might yet convince them of the propriety, the policy, the
+actual necessity of the step I propose to take. My father, yesterday,
+stunned me with a piece of intelligence which renders me wretched, yet
+forces me to act. I have given him my promise; there is no retreat. I
+must bring this matter to a climax, be the sequence what it may; and yet
+I dread to make the very first movement."</p>
+
+<p>"I am too dull to read the riddle of the sphinx, and your words are as
+enigmatical. I have not begun to find their clew," replied Madeleine,
+pausing in the garland she was forming, and letting the ivy drop
+unnoticed around her.</p>
+
+<p>The first impulse of Maurice was to gather the fallen leaves; the second
+prompted him gently to force the dress, she was so tastefully adorning,
+out of her hands, and toss it upon the table.</p>
+
+<p>"I see your task is nearly completed, and Bertha's toilet for the ball
+will be sufficiently picturesque to cause the Marchioness de Fleury to
+die of envy; can you not, therefore, rest from your labors, good fairy
+dressmaker, and talk awhile with me? I need consolation,&mdash;I need
+advice,&mdash;and you alone can give me both."</p>
+
+<p>"I?" Madeleine spoke that single word tremulously, and a faint flush
+passed over her soft, pale face.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>You</i>, Madeleine, you, and <i>you</i> only!"</p>
+
+<p>"There is Bertha, at last," she exclaimed, rising hastily, and
+approaching the door. "Do you not see her blue dress yonder through the
+trees? Bertha! Bertha!" and, leaving Maurice, she went forth to meet
+Bertha.</p>
+
+<p>"Where have you hidden yourself all the morning, little truant? Why!
+what has happened to distress you? Your eyes look as though you had been
+weeping. Dear Bertha! what ails you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I could not bear it any longer," almost sobbed Bertha, laying her head
+upon her cousin's shoulder. "I could not help coming to you, though I
+wanted to act entirely upon my own responsibility, and I had determined
+not even to consult you, for I am always fearful of getting you into
+trouble with my aunt."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine was so completely mystified that she could only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> murmur half
+to herself, "More enigmas! What can they mean?"</p>
+
+<p>Then, passing her arm around Bertha's slender waist, they walked to the
+summer-house. The position of Bertha's head caused her bright ringlets
+completely to veil her face, and it was not until after she entered the
+<i>ch&acirc;let</i>, and shook the blinding locks from before her eyes, that she
+saw Maurice. She drew back with a movement of vexation and confusion
+never before evinced at his presence,&mdash;clung to Madeleine as though for
+protection, and seemed on the point of bursting into tears.</p>
+
+<p>"Maurice came here expecting to find you with me," observed Madeleine.
+"He wanted to speak to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Did he?&mdash;yes, I know he did. I know what he is going to say; I kept out
+of his way on purpose, until I could make up my mind about it all; I
+mean, I thought it best to postpone; but it does not matter,&mdash;I would
+rather have it over; no,&mdash;I don't mean <i>that</i>,&mdash;I mean"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Bertha's perturbation rendered any clearer expression of her meaning out
+of the question.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine took up the dress, which Maurice had flung upon the table, and
+said, "When you return to the house, Bertha, will you not come to my
+room and try on your dress? It is just completed."</p>
+
+<p>"Stay, stay, Madeleine!" exclaimed Bertha and Maurice together.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, we <i>both</i> desire you to stay," added Maurice; "therefore you
+cannot refuse. We have no secrets from you,&mdash;have we, Bertha?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>I</i> had none until yesterday; but my aunt is inclined to be so severe
+with Madeleine, that I feared I might make mischief by taking her into
+my confidence. Do not go, Madeleine. Sit down, for you <i>must</i> stay. If
+you go, I will go with you; and Maurice wants to speak to me,&mdash;I mean, I
+want to speak to him,&mdash;that is to say, he intends to"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine resumed her seat.</p>
+
+<p>"Since you so tyrannically insist upon my remaining, I will finish this
+garland while you are having your mysterious explanation."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice approached Bertha with a hesitation which had some slight touch
+of awkwardness. Feeling that it was easier to induce <i>her</i> to break the
+ice than to take the first step upon this delicate ground himself, he
+remarked, "You wanted to speak to me; what did you desire to say, my
+dear little cousin?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Bertha looked up innocently into his face, as though she was scanning
+his features for the first time.</p>
+
+<p>"What my aunt says is all very true. You <i>are</i> exceedingly handsome; I
+never denied it, except in jest; and you <i>are</i> decidedly agreeable,
+except now and then; and you <i>have</i> a noble heart,&mdash;I never doubted it;
+and a fine intellect,&mdash;though I do not know much about <i>that</i>; and any
+woman might be proud of you,&mdash;that is, I dare say most women would."</p>
+
+<p>"And I have a little cousin who is an adroit flatterer, and who is
+herself beautiful enough for a Hebe, and whose fascinations are
+sufficiently potent to captivate any reasonable or unreasonable man."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! but that is not to the point. I did not mean that we should
+exchange compliments. What I want to say is that such an attractive and
+agreeable young man as you are will naturally find hosts of young girls,
+who would any of them be proud to be chosen as his wife."</p>
+
+<p>"And you, with your grace and beauty, your lovable character, and your
+large fortune, will have suitors innumerable, from among whom you may
+readily select one who will be worthy of you."</p>
+
+<p>"But that is not to the point either! I told my aunt that I was not
+insensible to all your claims to admiration. I assure you I did you
+ample justice!"</p>
+
+<p>"You were very kind and complimentary, little cousin; but I said as much
+of you to my father. I gave him to understand that I acknowledged you to
+be one of the most charming beings in the world, and that I thought the
+man to whom you gave your hand would be the happiest of mortals, and
+that I did not believe <i>that man</i> could value you more as a wife than I
+should as a sister."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>A sister! A sister!</i> Oh! I am so glad!&mdash;a <i>sister</i>? You do not really
+love me, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Have I said that?"</p>
+
+<p>"You have said the same thing, and I am overjoyed! I can never thank you
+half enough!"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>You</i> do not love <i>me</i> then?" asked Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>"I love you with all my heart! I never loved you half as well as at this
+moment!&mdash;that is as&mdash;as&mdash;a <i>brother</i>; for you love me as a <i>sister</i>,
+while my aunt declared you hoped to make me your wife,&mdash;that you were
+crazily in love with me, and that if I refused you, I should ruin all
+your future prospects, for the blow would almost kill you. I cannot tell
+you how<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> chagrined I was at the deplorable prospect. And it's all a
+mistake,&mdash;is it not?"</p>
+
+<p>"My father assured me that you had formed the most flattering attachment
+for me. Is that a mistake also?" inquired Maurice, skilfully avoiding
+the rudeness of a direct reply to her question.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I never cared a straw for you except as the dearest cousin in the
+world!"</p>
+
+<p>"But why," asked Maurice, resuming his usual gay tone of raillery, "why,
+if I am the incomparable being you pretend to think me, why are you so
+particularly averse to becoming my wife? What do you say to that? I
+should like to have an explanatory answer, little cousin; or else you
+must take back all your compliments."</p>
+
+<p>"Not one of them!" replied Bertha, merrily. "I am so charmed with you at
+this moment that I feel inclined to double their number. Yet there is a
+reason why I should have refused you, even if you had offered yourself
+to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it because you like somebody else better?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," answered Bertha, hastily; "how can you suggest such an idea?
+But I suppose <i>you do so because that is your reason</i> for desiring to
+refuse my hand?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be obliged to think my suggestion correct, unless you tell me
+why you are so glad to escape becoming my wife."</p>
+
+<p>"It was because," said Bertha, approaching her rosy mouth to his ear,
+and speaking in a low tone, "because there is another woman, who is far
+more worthy of you, who would make you a better wife than I could, and
+who&mdash;who does not exactly <i>hate</i> you."</p>
+
+<p>"Another woman?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush! do not speak so loudly. There is nothing in the world I desire so
+much as to see that other woman happy; for there is no one I love half
+so well."</p>
+
+<p>"The garland is finished!" Madeleine broke in, starting up abruptly, for
+she had caught the whispered words. "Come, Bertha, we must hasten back
+to the ch&acirc;teau. I must try on your dress immediately."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, since it is finished, we have plenty of time," said Bertha. "It is
+quite early in the day yet, and Maurice and I are deeply interested in
+our conversation. We were never before such fast friends and devoted
+cousins."</p>
+
+<p>"Never," replied Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>"But the dress may need some alteration," persisted Madeleine. "Pray,
+pray come!"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She spoke almost imploringly, and in an excited tone, which the mere
+trying on of a dress did not warrant.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you dear despot! I suppose you must be obeyed."</p>
+
+<p>Bertha snatched the ivy-garlanded dress, and bounded away. Madeleine
+would have followed, but Maurice seized her hand detainingly.</p>
+
+<p>"One moment, Madeleine,&mdash;grant me one moment!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not now. Bertha will be waiting for me!" And she made an effort to free
+her imprisoned hand.</p>
+
+<p>"You shall tell her that you were taken captive, and she will forgive
+you, if it be only for the sake of your <i>jailer</i>. There's vanity for
+you!"</p>
+
+<p>"But my arrangements for this evening are not all completed. It is
+growing late, Maurice; I entreat you to release me; I <i>cannot</i> remain&mdash;I
+<i>must</i> go!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not until I have spoken to you. The time has come when you must hear
+me."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine felt that there was no escape, and, forcing herself to assume
+an air of composure, answered, "Speak, then; what can you have to say,
+Maurice, to which I ought to listen?"</p>
+
+<p>"Must I tell you? Have you not divined? Must I show you my heart? If no
+responsive pulse in your own has revealed to you what is passing in
+mine, I am truly unfortunate,&mdash;I have been deceived indeed!"</p>
+
+<p>"Maurice, Maurice! for the love of Heaven"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You do well to say for the love of Heaven; for I love Heaven all the
+better for loving a being who bears the impress of Heaven's own glorious
+hand! Yes, Madeleine, ever loved,&mdash;loved from the first hour we met."</p>
+
+<p>The rustling of silk interrupted his sentence. Madeleine tremblingly
+withdrew her hand. The Countess de Gramont stood before them! Her tall
+figure dilated until it seemed to shut out all the sunlight beyond; her
+countenance grew ashy with suppressed rage; her black eyes shot out
+glances that pierced like arrows; not a sound issued from her
+tightly-compressed lips.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice, recovering himself, tried to assume an unconcerned air, and
+stooped to gather some of the ivy leaves scattered around him. Madeleine
+bowed her head as a culprit who has no defence to make, and no hope of
+concealment to cling to as a last refuge.</p>
+
+<p>The countess broke the painful silence, speaking in a hollow, scornful
+tone: "I am here at an unfortunate moment, it seems!"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There was no reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I ought to apologize for disturbing you," she continued,
+sarcastically.</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all&mdash;not at all," said Maurice, who felt that it was his duty to
+answer and shield Madeleine, as far as possible, from his grandmother's
+displeasure.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, then, is Madeleine covered with confusion? Why did she so quickly
+withdraw her hand? How&mdash;how came it clasped in yours?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is she not my cousin?" answered Maurice, evasively. "Have I no right to
+show her affection? Must I renounce the ties of blood?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not you, Maurice, whom I blame," said the countess, trying to
+speak less sternly. "It is Madeleine, who should not have permitted this
+unmeet familiarity. I well know by what arts she has lured you to forget
+yourself. The fault lies with her."</p>
+
+<p>For the first time the countess beheld a flash of indignation in the
+eyes Madeleine lifted from the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"Madame&mdash;aunt!" she began.</p>
+
+<p>The countess would not permit her to proceed.</p>
+
+<p>"I know what I say! You have too much tact and quickness not to have
+comprehended our hopes in regard to Maurice and Bertha; and it has not
+escaped my notice that you have sought, by every artful man&oelig;uvre in
+your power, to frustrate those hopes."</p>
+
+<p>"I?" ejaculated Madeleine, aghast at the charge, and too much bewildered
+to be able to utter a denial.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, <i>you!</i> Have you not sought to fascinate Maurice by every species
+of wily coquetry? Have you not"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Grandmother!" cried Maurice, furiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Be silent, Maurice,&mdash;it is Madeleine to whom I am addressing my
+remarks, and her own conscience tells her their justice."</p>
+
+<p>"Aunt, if ever by word, or look, or thought"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! it was all done in the most apparently artless, natural,
+<i>purposeless</i> manner! But the same end was always kept steadily in view.
+What I have witnessed this morning convinces me of your aims. Your
+movements were so skilfully managed that they scarcely seemed open to
+suspicion. The most specious coquetry has governed all your actions. You
+were always attired more simply than any one else; but by this very
+simplicity you thought to render yourself remarkable, and attract a
+larger share of attention. You always pretended to shun observation,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>
+that you might be brought into more positive notice. You affected to
+avoid Maurice, that he might feel tempted to follow you,&mdash;that he might
+be lured to seek you when you were alone, as you were a moment
+ago,&mdash;that he might"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Maurice could restrain his ire no longer. He broke forth with
+vehemence,&mdash;"Grandmother, I cannot listen to this injustice. I cannot
+see Madeleine so cruelly insulted. Were it my mother herself who spoke,
+I would not stand by and see her trample thus upon an innocent and
+defenceless heart."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine turned to Maurice beseechingly. "Do not utter such words to
+one whom you are bound to address with reverence;&mdash;do not, or you will
+render my sufferings unendurable!"</p>
+
+<p>"Your <i>sufferings</i>?" exclaimed the countess, catching at a word that
+seemed to imply a reproof, which galled the more because she knew it was
+deserved. "Your <i>sufferings</i>? That is a fitting expression to drop from
+your lips! I had the right to believe that, far from causing you
+<i>suffering</i>, I had put an end to your suffering when I threw open my
+doors to admit you."</p>
+
+<p>"You misunderstood me, aunt. I did not intend to say"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You have said enough to prove that you add ingratitude to your other
+sins. And, since you talk of <i>sufferings</i>, I will beg you to remember
+the sufferings you have brought upon us,&mdash;you, who, in return for all
+you have received at my hands, have caused my very grandson to treat me
+with disrespect, for the first time in his life. <i>Your</i> sufferings? I
+can well conceive that she who creates so much affliction in the house
+that has sheltered her,&mdash;she who so treacherously pierces the hearts
+that have opened to yield her a place,&mdash;she who has played the viper
+warmed upon almost a mother's bosom,&mdash;she may well have sufferings to
+wail over!"</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine stood speechless, thunderstruck, by the rude shock of these
+words. The countess turned from her, and, preparing to leave the
+<i>ch&acirc;let</i>, bade Maurice give her his arm. He silently obeyed, casting a
+look of compassionate tenderness upon Madeleine. But she saw it not; all
+her vast store of mental strength suddenly melted away! For the first
+time in her life she was completely crushed, overwhelmed,&mdash;hopeless and
+powerless. For a few moments she remained standing as motionless as one
+petrified; then, with a heart-broken cry, dropped into a seat, and
+covering her face with her hands, sobbed convulsively,&mdash;sobbed as though
+all the sorrows of her life were concentrated in the anguish of that
+moment, and found vent in that deluge of tears,&mdash;that stormy whirlwind
+of passion! All<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> the clouds in the firmament of her existence, which she
+had, day after day, dispelled by the internal sunshine of her patient,
+trustful spirit, culminated and broke in that wild flood. Hope was
+drowned in that heavy rain; all the flowers that brightened, and the
+sweet, springing herbs that lent their balm to her weary pilgrimage,
+were beaten down into the mire of despair. There was no ark, no Ararat;
+she was alone, without refuge, on the waste of waters.</p>
+
+<p>Her heavy sobs prevented her hearing the entrance of Bertha, and it was
+only when the arms of the young girl were fondly twined about her, that
+she became aware of her presence.</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine, dear, dear Madeleine! What has happened? Why do you weep
+thus?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do not speak to me, Bertha!" replied Madeleine in a stifled voice. "You
+cannot, cannot help me; there is no hope left,&mdash;none, none! My father
+has died to me again to day, and I am alone once more!&mdash;alone in a
+desert that has no place of shelter for me, but a grave beneath its
+swathing sands!"</p>
+
+<p>Her tears gushed forth with redoubled violence.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not treat me so cruelly! Do not cast me off!" pleaded Bertha, as her
+cousin tried to disengage herself from her encircling arms. "If you are
+wretched, so am I&mdash;<i>because</i> you are! Only tell me the reason for this
+terrible sorrow. I was awaiting you in your room; but, as you did not
+come, I felt sure my cousin Maurice had detained you."</p>
+
+<p>At those last words an involuntary cry of intense suffering burst from
+Madeleine's lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I saw my aunt and Maurice returning together, and Maurice appeared
+to be talking in an excited manner, and my aunt looked blacker than any
+thunder-cloud. Still you did not come, and I went in search of you. Tell
+me why I find you thus?&mdash;you, who have always borne your griefs with
+such silent fortitude. What <i>has</i> my aunt said or done to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"She has ceased to love me,&mdash;she has ceased to esteem me,&mdash;she even
+repents of the benefits she has conferred upon me."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, Madeleine; you are mistaken."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I am not mistaken,&mdash;my eyes are opened at last. The thin, waxen
+mask of assumed kindness has melted from her face! I am a burden to
+her,&mdash;an encumbrance,&mdash;an offence. She only desires to be rid of me!"</p>
+
+<p>"You,&mdash;the fairy of good works in her household? What<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> could she do
+without you? It is only excitement which makes you imagine this."</p>
+
+<p>"I never guessed, never dreamed it before; but I have wilfully deceived
+myself. <i>Now</i> all is too clear! A thousand recollections rise up to
+testify to the truth; a thousand suspicions, which I repulsed as
+unworthy of me and of her, return to convince me; words and looks,
+coldness and injustice, slights and reproaches start up with frightful
+vividness, and throw a hideous light upon conduct I never dared to
+interpret aright."</p>
+
+<p>"What looks? what words? what actions?" asked Bertha, though her heart
+told her with what a catalogue she could answer her own question.</p>
+
+<p>"They could not be rehearsed in an hour or in a day. But it is not to my
+aunt alone that my presence is offensive. Cousin Tristan also chafes at
+the sight of his dependent relative. I have seen it when I took my seat
+at table; I have seen it when room was made for me in the carriage; I
+have seen it on numberless occasions. His glances, his accents, his
+whole demeanor, have seemed to reproach me for the place I occupied, for
+the garments I wore, for the very bread I ate,&mdash;the bread of bitter,
+bitter charity! And oh!" she groaned, "<i>must this be so still?</i> <i>Must</i> I
+still accept these bounties, which are begrudged me? <i>Must</i> I still be
+bowed to the dust by the weight of these charities? Alas! I <i>must</i>,
+because I have nothing of my own,&mdash;because I am nothing of myself!"</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine! one of these days"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine did not heed her. "Oh, my father! my father! To what torturing
+humiliations you subjected me in bequeathing me nobility with poverty!
+Well may you have wished that you had been born a peasant! Had I been a
+peasant's child, I might have lived by, and rejoiced in, honest labor!
+Had I been the daughter of a mechanic, I might have gained my bread by
+some useful trade. Had I even been the child of some poor gentleman, I
+might have earned a livelihood by giving lessons in music, in drawing,
+by becoming a governess, or teaching in a school. But, the daughter of
+the Duke de Gramont, it is one of the curses of my noble birth that I
+must live upon charity,&mdash;charity unwillingly doled out and thrown in my
+face, even when I am receiving it with meekness!"</p>
+
+<p>"But, Madeleine, if you will but listen to me"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine went on bitterly. "And I am young yet,&mdash;young and strong, and
+capable of exertion; and I have dared to believe that, while one is
+young, some of the benefits received could be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> repaid by the cheerful
+spirit of youth,&mdash;by the performance of needful offices,&mdash;by hands ever
+ready to serve, and a heart ever open to sympathize; but, if I am an
+encumbrance, an annoyance while I am <i>young</i>, what an intolerable burden
+I must become when youth passes away! Then I shall either be repulsed
+with aversion, or sheltered with undisguised reluctance,&mdash;forced to
+remember every moment that the hospitality I receive is an <i>alms</i>! Oh!
+it is too horrible! Death would be a thousand times preferable."</p>
+
+<p>"And you can forget how dreadful it would be for us, who love you, to
+lose you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I forget <i>everything</i>, except the misery of my own degraded position! I
+ask for nothing save that God, in his mercy, will free me from it, I
+care not how! I look despairingly on all sides, and see no escape! I am
+bound, hand and foot, by the chains of my own noble birth, and shut
+within the iron walls of circumstance. I struggle vainly in my
+captivity; no way of freedom is open to me! And yet I can never again
+resign myself to passive endurance."</p>
+
+<p>"If you only knew how wretched you make me by talking in this strain!"</p>
+
+<p>"I make you wretched, as I have made all others, by my presence
+here,&mdash;yes, I know it! You see how ungrateful, how selfish misery has
+rendered me, since I am cruel even to you whose pure love I never
+doubted."</p>
+
+<p>Before Bertha could make a fresh attempt to console her cousin, Baptiste
+entered, bearing a letter. He looked dismayed when he beheld Madeleine's
+face of woe, and Bertha's tearful countenance; but the latter checked
+his glance of inquiry by asking abruptly what he wanted.</p>
+
+<p>Still regarding Madeleine with an expression of deep concern, he
+replied, "The <i>v&acirc;let</i> of Count Damoreau has just left this letter for
+Mademoiselle Madeleine, and desired that it should be delivered to her
+at once."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well; that will do."</p>
+
+<p>Bertha took the letter, and motioned to Baptiste to withdraw.</p>
+
+<p>"What <i>can</i> Count Damoreau have to write to you about? Do open the
+letter and tell me."</p>
+
+<p>"Not now, Bertha. Leave me to myself for a little while. I scarcely know
+what I am doing or saying. I entreat you to leave me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine, if I were in trouble, I would not send you from me."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Go, if you love me! And you&mdash;<i>you</i>, at least, <i>do</i> love me!"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>If</i> I love you? I will even leave you to prove that I do; but it is
+very hard."</p>
+
+<p>Bertha walked slowly away, taking the path that led from the ch&acirc;teau. In
+a few moments she paused, turned suddenly, and quickened her steps in
+the opposite direction, prompted by an impulse to seek Maurice and tell
+him of Madeleine's grief. Perhaps he might have the power to console
+her.</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan had been prevented opening the letters which M. de Bois
+had delivered. When the two gentlemen reached the ch&acirc;teau, several
+visitors were awaiting the count, and their stay was protracted. The
+instant his guests took their leave, he hastened to the library, which
+his mother entered at the same moment. He listened impatiently as she
+briefly recounted the scene which had taken place in the summer-house.</p>
+
+<p>"The time has come when we must put an end to this madness," answered
+the count; "and I trust that I hold the means in my hands. These are the
+replies of Madeleine's relations."</p>
+
+<p>He broke one of the seals, and glanced over the contents of the letter,
+gnawing his under lip as he read.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my son, what reply?"</p>
+
+<p>"This letter is from M. de Bonneville. He writes that his ch&acirc;teau is
+only large enough for his own family,&mdash;that it would be a great
+inconvenience to have any addition to his home circle; and <i>we</i>&mdash;I
+suppose <i>we</i> have not been inconvenienced for the last three years"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I am not astonished at such a reply from M. de Bonneville. I expected
+nothing else. Give me Madame de Nervac's letter. She is a charming
+woman, whom every one admires and respects, and I know her kindness of
+heart."</p>
+
+<p>The count handed the letter. His mother opened it, and read,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">My Dear Cousin</span>:</p>
+
+<p>"Are you not aware that a woman of any tact, who has still
+some claims to admiration, could hardly commit the absurd
+<i>faux pas</i> of establishing in her own house, and having
+always by her side, a person younger and handsomer than
+herself? To consent to your proposition concerning Madeleine
+would therefore be a suicidal act"&mdash;</p></div>
+
+<p>"This is insupportable!" ejaculated the count. "It seems that we are to
+be forced into continuing to bear this burden,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> though it may bring us
+to ruin. What insupportable vanity Madame de Nervac betrays! You see
+what her kindness of heart is worth!"</p>
+
+<p>"There is still one letter to open," remarked his mother, clinging to a
+faint hope.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it will be a repetition of the others,&mdash;you may be sure of that!"
+He tore it open angrily; but, glancing at the first lines, exclaimed,
+"What do I see? Have we found one reasonable and charitable person at
+last? The Count Damoreau writes,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"'A thousand thanks, my dear cousin for the opportunity you
+afford me of being useful to that lovely and unfortunate
+relative of ours. I have always regarded her with admiration
+and affection, and always appreciated the noble generosity
+which prompted your kindness to the orphan.'"</p></div>
+
+<p>"The count is a man endowed with most excellent judgment," remarked the
+countess with complacency.</p>
+
+<p>Her son continued reading the letter,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"'I am at this moment about to make a number of necessary
+repairs in my ch&acirc;teau, which will cause me to absent myself
+for some time. I shall probably spend a year or two on the
+continent.'"</p></div>
+
+<p>"So much the better! He will doubtless take Madeleine with him,"
+suggested the countess.</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan in an altered tone read on,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"'As I shall travel entirely <i>en gar&ccedil;on</i>, of course it will
+be impossible for Madeleine to accompany me, but an
+admirable opportunity presents itself for placing her in a
+situation that is very suitable. My friend, Lady Vivian, of
+Edinburgh, who forms one of the party here, is in search of
+an humble companion. I have spoken to her ladyship
+concerning Madeleine. She made some slight demur on account
+of the young lady's attractive person, but finally consented
+to offer her this situation.'"</p></div>
+
+<p>"A de Gramont hired out as an humble companion! What an indignity!"
+ejaculated the countess.</p>
+
+<p>The count continued reading,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"'I will myself write to Madeleine and apprise her of what I
+have done, and present the many advantages of such a
+position.'"</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"She must not receive the letter!" said the countess, earnestly. "She is
+capable of accepting this offer for the sake of wounding us. But Count
+Damoreau has insulted us grossly. How has he dared to entertain such an
+offer for a member of our family,&mdash;one in whose veins flows the same
+untainted blood? Why do you not speak, my son? But indignation may well
+deprive you of speech!"</p>
+
+<p>"I can only say that in <i>some manner we must at once rid ourselves of
+Madeleine</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"I would rather see her dead than in a situation which disgraced her
+noble name," answered the countess, violently.</p>
+
+<p>"I quite agree with you," returned the count, with a sardonic look;
+"but, unfortunately, life and death are not in our hands!"</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke, there was a gleam in his malignant eye, almost murderous.
+His foot was lifted to crush the worm in his path, and, could he have
+trodden it out of existence in secret, the deed would have been
+accomplished with exultation. His hatred for Madeleine had strengthened
+into a fierce passion as his fears that Maurice loved her threatened to
+be confirmed. Far from sharing his mother's indignation at the proposal
+of Count Damoreau, he had made up his mind to force Madeleine into
+acceptance, if no other presented itself for freeing the ch&acirc;teau from
+her presence.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+<h3>A CRISIS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Count Tristan was in the heat of argument with his haughty mother, when
+the door of the library opened, and Madeleine entered. One who had
+beheld the tempestuous burst of grief, the torrent of tears, the
+heart-rending despair that convulsed her frame but half an hour before,
+in the little <i>ch&acirc;let</i>, would scarcely have recognized the countenance
+upon which the eyes of the Countess de Gramont and her son were now
+turned. Not the faintest shadow of that whirlwind of passionate anguish
+was left upon Madeleine's face, unless it might be traced in the great
+calm which succeeds a heavy storm; in the death-like pallor which
+overspread her almost rigid features; in the steady light that shone
+from her soul-revealing eyes; in the firm outline of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> her colorless
+lips; in the look of heroic resolve which imparted to her noble
+lineaments a higher beauty than they ever before had worn.</p>
+
+<p>She approached Count Tristan with an unfaltering step, holding a letter
+in her hand. That letter had given a sudden check to her vehement
+sorrow, and restored her equilibrium.</p>
+
+<p>"I have received this communication from Count Damoreau."</p>
+
+<p>As she spoke, she extended the epistle to the count, who for one instant
+quailed before her clairvoyant eyes. It seemed as though a prophetic
+judgment spoke out of their shining depths.</p>
+
+<p>He took the letter mechanically, without opening it. His gaze was
+riveted, as though by a magnetism too powerful for him to resist, upon
+her purposeful countenance.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine went on,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Count Damoreau tells me that you and my aunt desire to withdraw your
+protection from me; that you feel I have sufficiently long enjoyed the
+shelter of your roof; that you wish to provide me with some other
+asylum."</p>
+
+<p>There was no hesitation in her voice as she uttered these words. She
+spoke in a tone rendered clear and quiet by the dignity of self-respect.</p>
+
+<p>"Count Damoreau had no authority to write in such a strain to you,"
+observed the countess, with asperity.</p>
+
+<p>"There is his letter. He informed me that he has the Count Tristan's
+authority. To prove it, he encloses the letter yesterday delivered to
+him by M. Gaston de Bois."</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan was too thoroughly confounded to attempt any reply. He was
+painfully aware of the unmistakable character of that epistle.</p>
+
+<p>"Count Damoreau announces to me," continued Madeleine, undisturbed,
+"that he is unable to comply with your request, and extend an invitation
+for me to join his family circle; and that my other relatives have also
+declined to accede to a solicitation of yours that they should by turns
+receive me as an inmate. He adds that his friend, Lady Vivian, is
+seeking an humble companion to accompany her to Scotland; and he trusts
+that I will thankfully accept this situation."</p>
+
+<p>"It is an insult,&mdash;a deliberate insult to us and you!" broke forth the
+countess.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine's lips trembled with a half smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not deem it an insult to myself: I am as thankful as Count
+Damoreau can desire me to be; but I decline his well-intentioned
+offer."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan ground his teeth, and cast upon Madeleine a glance of fury
+and menacing detestation. Their eyes met, and she returned the look with
+an expression which simply declared she recognized what was passing in
+his mind.</p>
+
+<p>"You did right to decline: I should never have permitted you to accept,"
+remarked the countess, in a somewhat softer tone.</p>
+
+<p>She deemed it politic to conciliate Madeleine for the present, fearing
+that she might be driven to take some humiliating step which would cast
+a reflection upon her kindred.</p>
+
+<p>"I regret that my son has acted hastily. If you conduct yourself with
+the propriety which I have the right to demand, you will still find a
+home in the Ch&acirc;teau de Gramont, and in myself the mother I have ever
+been to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Mother!" at that word Madeleine's glacial composure melted. "A
+<i>mother!</i>&mdash;oh, my aunt, thank you for that word! You do not know how
+much good it does me to hear it from your lips! But the Ch&acirc;teau de
+Gramont can never more be my home. That is settled: I came to tell you
+so."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?" asked the count, with a gleam of ill-disguised
+satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"I mean that I purpose shortly to quit this mansion, <i>never to return</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then you <i>do</i> intend to accompany Lady Vivian to Scotland?" he
+inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;my niece&mdash;<i>a de Gramont</i>&mdash;become the humble companion of Lady
+Vivian!" exclaimed the countess, in wrathful astonishment. "Can you even
+contemplate such an alternative?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, madame," returned Madeleine, with an emphasis which might have been
+interpreted into a tone of pride. "I shall <i>not</i> become the humble
+companion of any lady."</p>
+
+<p>"With whom do you expect to live?" demanded the count.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall live alone."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Live alone</i>, at your age,&mdash;without fortune, without friends? It is
+impracticable,&mdash;impossible!" replied her aunt, decisively.</p>
+
+<p>"I have reached my majority. I shall try to deserve friends. I have some
+small possession: the family diamonds of my mother still remain to me."</p>
+
+<p>"But your noble name."</p>
+
+<p>"Rest assured that it will never be disgraced by me!"</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you that your project is impossible," maintained the countess,
+resolutely. "I forbid you to even attempt to put it into execution. I
+forbid you by the gratitude you owe me. I forbid you in the name of all
+the kindnesses I have lavished upon you!"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And do you not see, my aunt, it is because I would still be grateful
+for these kindnesses that I would go hence? From the moment I learned I
+was a burden to you, that my presence here was unwelcome, this was no
+longer my home. If I leave you now, the memory of your goodness only,
+will dwell in my heart. If I were to remain longer, each day my presence
+would become more intolerable to you; each day your words and looks
+would grow colder and harsher; each day I should feel more degraded in
+my own eyes. <i>You</i> would spoil your own benefactions: <i>I</i> perhaps, might
+forget them, and be stained with the crime of ingratitude. No, let us
+now part,&mdash;now, while I may still dare to hope that you will think of me
+with tenderness and regret,&mdash;now, while I can yet cherish the
+recollection of the happy days I have passed beneath your roof. My
+resolution is taken: it is unalterable. I could not rest here. You will,
+perhaps, accord me a few days to make needful preparations; then I must
+bid you farewell."</p>
+
+<p>She turned to quit the room, but encountered Maurice and Bertha, who had
+entered in time to hear the last sentence.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha, on leaving her cousin, had sought Maurice and told him of
+Madeleine's prostrating sorrow. They hastened back to the <i>ch&acirc;let</i>
+together, but she had disappeared. They were in search of her when they
+entered the library.</p>
+
+<p>"Bid us farewell, Madeleine?" cried Bertha. "What do you mean? Where are
+you going? Surely you will never leave us?"</p>
+
+<p>"I must."</p>
+
+<p>"But my aunt will not let you; Cousin Tristan will not let you; Maurice
+will not let you. Speak to her, some of you, and say that she shall not
+go."</p>
+
+<p>"Bertha," answered the count, "you do not know all the circumstances
+which have caused Madeleine to form this resolution; and, if my mother
+will pardon me for differing with her, I must say, frankly, that I
+approve of the course Madeleine has chosen. I honor her for it. I think
+she acts wisely in remaining here no longer!"</p>
+
+<p>Then Maurice came forward boldly, and placing himself beside Madeleine,
+with an air of manly protection, spoke out,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"And <i>I</i> agree with you, my father. I honor Madeleine for her
+resolution. I think she acts wisely in remaining here no longer."</p>
+
+<p>"O Maurice, Maurice! how can you speak so? Don't let her go, unless you
+want to make me miserable!" pleaded Bertha.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Madeleine's hueless face was overspread with a brilliant glow as she
+cast upon Maurice one hasty look of gratitude.</p>
+
+<p>"I speak what I mean. Madeleine cannot, without sacrificing her
+self-respect, accept hospitality which is not freely given,&mdash;protection
+which is unwillingly accorded. She cannot remain here as an inferior,&mdash;a
+dependent; one who is under daily obligation,&mdash;who is merely tolerated
+because she has no other place of refuge. My father, there is only <i>one</i>
+position in which she <i>can</i> remain in the Ch&acirc;teau de Gramont, and that
+is as an equal; as its future mistress; as your daughter; <i>as my wife!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>The countess was stricken dumb with rage; and a sudden revulsion of
+feeling toward the shrinking girl, whose deep blushes she interpreted
+into a token of exultation, made her almost as willing to drive her
+forth, no matter whither, as her son himself.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha, with an exclamation of delight, flung her arms joyfully about
+Madeleine's neck.</p>
+
+<p>"Maurice, are you mad? Do you forget that you are my son?" was all that
+the count could gasp out, in his indignant amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"It is as your son that I speak; it is as the inheritor of your
+name,&mdash;that name which Madeleine also bears."</p>
+
+<p>"You seem to have forgotten"&mdash;began his father.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice interrupted him,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I have not forgotten that I have not reached my majority, and that your
+consent is necessary to render Madeleine my wife."</p>
+
+<p>(Our readers are doubtless aware that the law in France fixes the
+majority of a young man at twenty-five, and that he has no power to
+contract marriage or to control property until that period.)</p>
+
+<p>"But, believe me, my father, even if this were not the case, I should
+not desire to act without your approval, and I know I could never induce
+Madeleine to forego your consent to our union. But what valid objections
+can you have? You desired that Bertha should become my wife. Is not
+Madeleine precisely the same kin to me as Bertha? Is she not as good, as
+beautiful?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, a thousand times better and lovelier!" exclaimed Bertha, with
+affectionate enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p>"There is but one difference: she is poor and Bertha is rich. Think you
+Bertha's fortune could have one feather's weight in deciding my choice?
+I thank Heaven for teaching me to account it more noble, more honorable,
+to ask what the woman I would marry <i>is</i>, than to inquire what she
+<i>has</i>."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>His father made a vain attempt to speak. Maurice went on without
+noticing the futile effort.</p>
+
+<p>"But this is not all: I dare to hope that Madeleine's heart is mine,
+while Bertha's is not. My father, you requested that Bertha and I should
+have an understanding with each other; and we have had one. Bertha has
+told me that she does not love me. Is it not so, Bertha?"</p>
+
+<p>"I told you that I loved you with all my heart, as the dearest, most
+delightful cousin in the world!" answered Bertha, na&iuml;vely.</p>
+
+<p>"Just as I love you!" replied Maurice, smiling upon her tenderly. "But,
+as a lover, you definitely rejected me,&mdash;did you not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; just as you refused me. We are perfectly agreed upon that
+point," she rejoined, with childlike frankness and simplicity.</p>
+
+<p>"For shame, Maurice!" said the countess, in a tone of angry rebuke.</p>
+
+<p>"Grandmother, hear me out. For once my heart must speak, even though it
+may be silent forever after. I feel that my whole future destiny hangs
+upon the events of this moment. You love me as a de Gramont should love;
+you love me with an ambition to see me worthy of my name,&mdash;to see that
+name rendered more lustrous in my person. How far that is possible, my
+father's decision and yours this hour will determine. I am ardent,
+impetuous, fond of excitement, reckless at times,&mdash;as prone, I fear, to
+be tempted to vice as to be inspired by virtue. If you withhold your
+consent to my union with the only woman I can love,&mdash;if you drive me to
+despair,&mdash;I am lost! Every pure and lofty aspiration within my nature
+will be crushed out, and in its place the opposite inclination will
+spring. I warned you before, when you thwarted the noblest resolution I
+ever formed. There is yet time to save me from the evil effects of that
+disappointment, and to spare me the worst results of <i>this</i>. If you
+grant me Madeleine"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Maurice, for pity's sake!" supplicated Madeleine, extending her clasped
+hands toward him.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice caught the outstretched hands in his, and bent over her with an
+expression of ineffable love irradiating his countenance.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not speak yet, Madeleine; do not answer until you have heard
+me,&mdash;until you have well comprehended my meaning. You do not know the
+thousand perils by which a young man is beset in Paris,&mdash;the siren lures
+that are thrown in his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> way to ensnare his feet, be they disposed to
+walk ever so warily. You do not know that your holy image, rising up
+before me, shining upon the path I trod, and beckoning me into the right
+road when I swerved aside, has alone saved me from falling into that
+vortex of follies and vices by which men are daily swallowed up, and
+from which they emerge sullied and debased. You do not know that, while
+I am here beside you, listening to the sound of your voice, holding your
+hand, gazing upon your face, I feel like one inspired, who has power to
+make his life glorious and keep it pure! Madeleine, would you have me
+great, distinguished? I shall become so if it be your will. Would you
+have me lift up our noble name? It shall be exalted at your bidding.
+Would you reign over my soul and keep it stainless? It is under your
+angel guardianship. Madeleine, best beloved, will you not save me?"</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine only answered with a look which besought Maurice to forbear.</p>
+
+<p>"Is your rhapsody finished at last?" asked Count Tristan, scornfully.
+"Is any one else to be permitted to speak?"</p>
+
+<p>"It seems there is but one person whose voice is of any importance to
+your son," sneered the countess, "and that is Madeleine. It is for <i>her</i>
+to speak; it is for her to accomplish her work of base ingratitude; it
+is for her to give the last finishing stroke to the fabric she has
+secretly been laboring to build up for the last three years."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine&mdash;who, when the voice of Maurice was sounding in her ears, had
+been unable to control the agitation which caused her breast to heave,
+and her frame to quiver from head to foot, while confusion flung its
+crimson mantle over her face&mdash;grew suddenly calm when she heard these
+taunts. The same icy, pallid quietude with which, but a few moments
+before, she entered the library, returned. She withdrew the hands
+Maurice had clasped in his, lifted her bowed head, and stood erect,
+preparing to reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Speak!" commanded the count, furiously. "Speak! since <i>we</i> are nothing
+and nobody here, and <i>you are everything</i>. Since you are sole arbiter in
+this family, speak!"</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine could not at once command her voice.</p>
+
+<p>The countess, arguing the worst from her silence, cried, with
+culminating wrath, "Speak, viper! Dart your fangs into the bosom that
+has sheltered you: it is bared to receive the deadly stroke; it is ready
+to die of your venom! Nothing remains but for you to strike!"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Take courage, dearest Madeleine," whispered Bertha. "They will not be
+angry long. Speak and tell them that you love Maurice as he loves you,
+and that you will be the happiest of women if you become his wife."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, your answer, Mademoiselle de Gramont?" urged the countess.</p>
+
+<p>"It will be an answer for which I have only the pardon of Maurice to
+ask," said Madeleine, speaking slowly, but firmly. "Maurice, my cousin,
+I shall never be able to tell you,&mdash;you can never know,&mdash;what emotions
+of thankfulness you have awakened in my soul, nor how unutterably
+precious your words are to me. Thus much I may say; for the rest, <i>I can
+never become your wife!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"You refuse me because my father and my grandmother have <i>compelled</i> you
+to do so by their reproaches,&mdash;their <i>menaces</i>, I might say!" cried
+Maurice, wholly forgetting his wonted respect in the rush of tumultuous
+feelings. "This and this only is your reason for consigning me to
+misery."</p>
+
+<p>The fear that she had awakened unfilial emotions in the bosom of Maurice
+infused fresh fortitude into Madeleine's spirit.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Maurice, you are wrong. If my aunt and Count Tristan had not
+uttered one word on the subject, my answer to you would have been the
+same."</p>
+
+<p>"How can that be possible? How can I have been so deceived? There is
+only <i>one</i> obstacle which <i>can</i> discourage me, only one which can force
+me to yield you up, and that is an admission, from your own lips, that
+your affections are already bestowed,&mdash;that your heart is no longer
+free."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine, without hesitation, replied in a clear, steady, deliberate
+tone, looking her cousin full in the face, and not by the faintest sign
+betraying the poniard which she heroically plunged into her own devoted
+breast,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"My affections are bestowed; my heart is <i>no longer free!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine, Madeleine! you do not love Maurice,&mdash;you love some one
+else?" questioned Bertha, in sorrowful astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice spoke no word. He stood one moment looking at Madeleine as a
+drowning man might have looked at the ship that could have saved him
+disappearing in the distance. Then he murmured, hardly conscious of his
+own words,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"And I felt sure her heart was mine! O Madeleine! may you never know
+what you have done!"</p>
+
+<p>"Forgive me if you can, Maurice. Be generous enough to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> pardon one who
+has made you suffer. A bright future is before you. The darkness of this
+hour will gradually fade out of your memory."</p>
+
+<p>"Say, rather, that you have taken from me my future,&mdash;withdrawn its
+guiding star, and left me a rayless and eternal night. But why should I
+reproach you? What right had I to deem myself worthy of you? You love
+<i>another</i>. All is spoken in those words: there is nothing more for me to
+say, except to thank you for not discarding me without making a
+confession which annihilates all hope."</p>
+
+<p>There was a dignity in his grief more touching than the most passionate
+outburst would have been. Even his grandmother, in spite of her joy at
+Madeleine's declaration, was not wholly unmoved as she contemplated him.
+Count Tristan's exultation broke through all polite disguise,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine has atoned for much of the past by her present conduct; it
+has restored her in a measure to"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine, as far as her gentle nature permitted, experienced an
+antipathy toward Count Tristan only surpassed by that which he
+entertained for her. The sound of his voice grated on her ears; his
+commendation made her doubt the wisdom and purity of her own act; his
+approval irritated her as no rebuke could have done. Without waiting for
+him to conclude his sentence, she grasped Bertha's hand, whispering, "I
+cannot stay here; I am stifling; come with me."</p>
+
+<p>They left the room together, and took their way in silence to
+Madeleine's chamber. Bertha carefully closed the door, and, drawing her
+cousin down into a seat, placed herself beside her, and strove to read
+her countenance.</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine, is it possible? How mistaken I have been! You do not love
+our cousin Maurice. Poor Maurice! It is a dreadful blow to him. And you
+love some one else. But whom? I know of no gentleman who comes here
+often,&mdash;who is on an intimate footing at the ch&acirc;teau,&mdash;except"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>A painful suspicion for the first time shot through her mind, and made
+her pause. Could it be Gaston de Bois whom Madeleine preferred? She
+always treated him with such marked courtesy. There was no one else,&mdash;it
+must be he! Bertha could not frame the question that hovered about her
+lips, though to have heard it answered in the negative would have made
+her heart leap for joy.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine was too much absorbed by her own reflections to divine those
+of her cousin.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"At all events," said Bertha, trying to rally and talk cheerfully,
+though she could not chase that haunting fear from her thoughts, "my
+aunt is no longer angry with you, and cousin Tristan was well pleased.
+They will treat you better after this, and your home will be happier."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>My home?</i>" ejaculated Madeleine, in a tone that made Bertha start.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yours, until you exchange it for that of the favored lover, of
+whose name you make such a mystery."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>That will never be!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"Never? Does he not love you, then? But I know he does,&mdash;he must. Every
+one loves you; no one can help it,&mdash;you win all hearts!"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Count Tristan's, for instance</i>," remarked Madeleine, bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, not <i>his</i>, that is true. How wickedly he looked at you when Maurice
+pictured how dear you were to him! I noticed Cousin Tristan's eyes, and
+they frightened me. He looked positively fiendish; and when Maurice
+said"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>To hear those precious words Maurice had spoken,&mdash;those words which she
+could never more forget,&mdash;repeated, was beyond Madeleine's powers of
+endurance: she sprang up, exclaiming, "Do not let us talk of these
+matters any more to-day, Bertha. It is growing late,&mdash;almost six
+o'clock. It is time for you to dress for dinner. And you have not
+forgotten the ball to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>"I could not bear to go now. I am sure Maurice will not go; and
+you,&mdash;would you go, even if we did?"</p>
+
+<p>"You will not refuse me a favor, Bertha, though it may cost you some
+pain to grant it? Go to this ball, and persuade, entreat Maurice to go.
+If you do not, you will draw down my aunt's displeasure upon me anew,
+for she will know why you remain at home,&mdash;especially as it will be
+impossible for me to appear in public to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"I would do anything rather than have my aunt displeased with you again;
+and then there is the beautiful dress you have taken such pains to
+make."</p>
+
+<p>"I should be very much disappointed if you did not wear it this evening.
+Now let us prepare for dinner."</p>
+
+<p>As she spoke, Madeleine commenced her own toilet. Bertha stood looking
+at her as she unbound her long silken hair, and, after smoothing it as
+carefully as was her wont, rapidly formed the coronal braid, and wound
+the rich tress about the regal head.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot comprehend you, Madeleine: you are a marvel to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> me. A couple
+of hours ago you were almost frantic with grief,&mdash;I never saw any one
+weep so immoderately; and now you are as serene as though nothing had
+happened. If your lips were not so very, very white, and your eyes had
+not such a fixed, unnatural look, I could almost think you had forgotten
+that anything unusual had occurred."</p>
+
+<p>"Forget it yourself, dear, and make ready for dinner."</p>
+
+<p>Bertha obeyed at least part of the injunction, still wondering over
+Madeleine's incomprehensible placidity.</p>
+
+<p>The young maidens entered the dining-room together. Maurice came in
+late. The meal passed almost in silence, though the Countess and Count
+Tristan made unusual efforts to keep up a conversation.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha was right in imagining Maurice had lost all inclination to appear
+at the ball. When she brought up the subject, he answered impatiently
+that he did not intend to go. His grandmother heard the remark, and made
+an especial request that he would change that decision and accompany
+them. Bertha added her entreaties; but Maurice seemed inclined to rebel,
+until she whispered,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"If you stay at home, my aunt will say it is Madeleine's fault, and she
+will be vexed with her again. Madeleine begged you would spare her this
+new trial, and bade me entreat you to go."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice looked across the table, for the first time during dinner, and
+found Madeleine's eyes turned anxiously upon him.</p>
+
+<p>"I will go," he murmured.</p>
+
+<p>His words were addressed rather to her than to Bertha. A scarcely
+perceptible smile on the lips of the former was his reward.</p>
+
+<p>No comment was made upon Madeleine's determination to remain at home.
+But the tone of the countess to her niece, when she was officiating as
+usual at her aunt's toilet, was gentler than she had ever before used.
+Not the faintest allusion to the events of the morning dropped from the
+lips of either.</p>
+
+<p>At last the carriage drove from the door, and Madeleine was left alone
+with her own thoughts. The mask of composure was no longer needed, yet
+there was no return of the morning's turbulent emotion.</p>
+
+<p>Are not great trials sent to incite us to great exertions, which we
+might not have the energy, the wit, perhaps the <i>humility</i>, to
+undertake, but for the spurring sting of that especial grief? Madeleine
+had resolutely looked her affliction full in the face; had grown
+familiar with its sternest, saddest features; had bowed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> before them,
+and dashed the tears from her eyes, to see more clearly as that sorrow
+pointed out a path which all her firmness would be taxed in treading,&mdash;a
+path which she had never dreamed existed for her, until it had been
+opened, hewn through the rocks of circumstance by that day's heavy
+blows, that hour's piercing anguish.</p>
+
+<p>Her greatest difficulty lay in the necessity of concealing the step she
+was about to take from her aunt, whose violent opposition would throw a
+fearful obstacle in the way. It was easier to avoid than to surmount
+such a barrier; but if it could not be avoided, it <i>must</i> be surmounted.
+In that decision she could not waver.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>FLIGHT.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Can there be a more dreary solitude, to a mind writhing under the throes
+of some new and hidden sorrow, than a brilliant ballroom? The stirring
+music jars like harshest discord upon the unattuned ear; the glaring
+lights dazzle the pained vision until utter darkness would seem
+grateful; the merry voices and careless laughter catch a tone of bitter
+mockery; the gayly apparelled forms, the faces decked with soulless
+smiles, are more oppressive than all the apparitions with which a
+fevered imagination can people the gloomiest seclusion. Maurice soon
+found the festive scene at the Ch&acirc;teau de Tremazan intolerable, and took
+refuge in the illuminated conservatory, the doors of which were thrown
+invitingly open. It was mid-summer, but the flowers had been restored to
+brighten their winter shelter during the f&ecirc;te. He had thought to find
+himself alone; but yonder, bending over richly-tinted clusters of
+azaleas and odorous heliotropes, a group of youthful heads unconcernedly
+thrust their lifeless chaplets in challenging contrast with nature's
+living loveliness, while flowing robes recklessly swept their floral
+imitations against her shrinking originals. In a different state of mind
+Maurice might not have been struck by the incongruous contact of the
+painted semblance with the blushing reality; but now it reminded him too
+keenly that the sphere within which he was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> bound, a social Ixion upon
+the petty wheel of conventionalism, was one grand combination of
+artificial trivialities and senseless shams. Goaded beyond endurance by
+the reflection, he impatiently made his escape into the open air.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha had never mingled with a gay crowd in so joyless a mood. The
+presence of the heiress created no little sensation; but good-breeding
+kept its manifestation within such delicate limits that she was
+unconscious of its existence. She was not even aware that it was a sign
+of her own importance when the Marchioness de Fleury glided up to Count
+Tristan, on whose arm Bertha was leaning, and, in a softly cadenced
+voice, asked if she had not the pleasure of seeing Mademoiselle de
+Merrivale. In reply, the count presented Bertha. As she returned the
+courtesy of the marchioness, she could not help remembering the
+declaration of Maurice, that he had never perused the countenance of the
+distinguished belle, because his attention was irresistibly riveted upon
+the wondrous details of her toilet: for Bertha found her own eyes
+involuntarily wandering over the graceful folds of the amethyst velvet,
+and the exquisite disposition of the <i>point de Venise</i> by which it was
+elaborately ornamented; the artistic head-dress in perfect accordance
+with the costly robe, and the Cleopatra-like drops of pearls which
+seemed to have been showered over the wearer from brow to foot.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha's eyes were too ingenuous not to betray their occupation; but
+those of the marchioness seemed only to be looking, with the most
+complimentary expression of interest, into the face of her new
+acquaintance, while, in reality, she was scanning Bertha's picturesque
+attire, and longing to discover by what tasteful fingers it had been
+contrived; examining the polished ivy intertwined among her bright
+ringlets, and the half-blown roses just bursting their sheaths in a
+glossy covert of amber tresses; and wondering that a coiffure with such
+poetic taste could have existed unknown in Brittany. As the marchioness
+stood, dropping sweet, meaningless words from her dewy lips, Bertha's
+hand was claimed by the Duke de Montauban, and she was led to the dance.</p>
+
+<p>She was moving through the quadrille with a languid, unelastic motion,
+very unlike her usual springing step, when she caught sight of M. de
+Bois, standing at a short distance, with his face turned toward her. The
+smile that accompanied her bow of greeting drew him nearer. As the dance
+ended, and her partner was reconducting her to the countess, M. de Bois
+overcame his timidity sufficiently to join her.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Where is Mademoiselle Mad&mdash;ad&mdash;adeleine?" he inquired. "I have not seen
+her."</p>
+
+<p>"She is not here. She would not come," sighed Bertha, stopping abruptly,
+though they had not quite reached her chaperone's side.</p>
+
+<p>"Is she ill? She told me this morning that she would certainly be here.
+Has anything happened?" asked M. de Bois, speaking as distinctly as
+though he had never stammered in his life, and throwing off, in his
+growing excitement, all the awkwardness of his constitutional
+diffidence.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha could not but remark his anxious expression, and a suspicion,
+which she had essayed to banish, once more took possession of her mind.
+But she loved Madeleine with such absolute devotion, that this vague,
+uncomfortable sensation was quickly displaced by a purer emotion.
+Glancing at the countess to see that she was not within hearing
+distance, she disengaged her arm from that of the duke, with a bow which
+he interpreted into a dismissal, and then, turning eagerly to M. de
+Bois, recounted to him, in a low, hurried tone, the occurrences of the
+morning. She fancied she heard words which sounded very like muttered
+imprecations. He was perhaps putting into practice his new method of
+loosening his tongue, and doubtless imagined that the emphatic
+utterances were inaudible.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha went on. "It was a terrible blow to Maurice! He felt so sure
+until then that Madeleine loved him; so did I. But we were both
+mistaken. It is plain enough now that she does <i>not</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"What makes it plain? How can you be sure?" asked M. de Bois, becoming
+more and more disturbed.</p>
+
+<p>"Her own declaration has placed the fact beyond doubt. She even
+confessed that she loved another."</p>
+
+<p>Her listener did not attempt to conceal his consternation at these
+words.</p>
+
+<p>"Mademoiselle Madeleine said she loved another! She, who would not stoop
+to breathe a word which was not the strictest truth,&mdash;<i>she told you so?</i>
+You heard it yourself? You are <i>certain, very certain</i>, Mademoiselle
+Bertha?"</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say that I ought not to have repeated this to you," replied
+Bertha, who now experienced some self-reproach at betraying her friend's
+secret to one whom it, perhaps, so deeply concerned; "but I am very
+certain that Madeleine distinctly rejected Maurice, and, when he
+attributed her refusal to his grandmother's and his father's disapproval
+of his suit, she denied that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> she was influenced by them, and confessed
+that her heart was not free,&mdash;that she had bestowed it upon another."</p>
+
+<p>"By all that is heroic, she is a noble woman!" exclaimed M. de Bois,
+fervently. "She has the grandest nature! She is incom-com-com"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Incomparable," said Bertha, finishing his sentence, and checking a
+sigh. "Yes, I never knew any one like her. She has no equal."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't exactly say <i>that</i>. I don't mean <i>that</i>. She is not
+su-su-superior&mdash;to"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Bertha did not assist him by completing <i>this</i> disjointed phrase, even
+if she suspected what he desired to say.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment Count Damoreau approached, accompanied by a gaunt,
+overdressed lady, with harsh and forbidding features.</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Vivian is looking for Mademoiselle de Gramont. Did she not
+accompany you?" inquired the count.</p>
+
+<p>"She intended to do so, but changed her mind."</p>
+
+<p>"She received a letter from me to-day,&mdash;did she not?" continued Count
+Damoreau.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I remember delivering one to her myself, which Baptiste said was
+brought by your valet."</p>
+
+<p>"Did she not apprise you of its contents?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. I was not present when she opened the letter."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you do not know how she received my proposition?" remarked Lady
+Vivian, in a grating voice. "I begin to be a little doubtful myself how
+it will do. Is your cousin as handsome as they say she is?"</p>
+
+<p>"In my eyes she is the most beautiful person in the world," answered
+Bertha, in a tone of admiration the sincerity of which could not be
+mistaken.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Vivian looked vexed, and replied, "That's a pity. Beauty is a
+decided objection in such a position."</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your ladyship's pardon," returned Bertha, with spirit; "but I
+cannot perceive that my cousin's position renders her beauty
+objectionable."</p>
+
+<p>"Beauty is very suitable to you, my dear; but for an humble companion"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"An <i>humble companion</i>? Madeleine is not my aunt's humble companion, nor
+mine. She is"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"To become <i>mine</i>, I believe!" rejoined Lady Vivian, brusquely. "And I
+already begin to regret that I acceded to Count Damoreau's wishes."</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine your ladyship's humble companion? <i>That</i> she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> shall never be.
+O Count Damoreau! how <i>could</i> you have suggested such an idea? I would
+go on my knees to implore her not to consent! I am sure your ladyship
+will find yourself mistaken."</p>
+
+<p>Bertha, as she said these words, bowed with a degree of hauteur which no
+one had ever seen her assume, and, taking M. de Bois's arm, approached
+her aunt with a troubled countenance. Before the Countess de Gramont
+could ask the cause of her evident disquietude, she said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I wish we could go home, aunt: I am wearied to death. I cannot enjoy
+anything to-night. And that horrid Lady Vivian has made me so angry,
+talking of Madeleine as her humble companion! Such impertinence! Surely
+you would never permit anything of the kind?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never! I do not wonder you were indignant. But do you really wish to
+go?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes. I am stifling here. I never was at such a dull ball. Pray,
+pray take me home!"</p>
+
+<p>Her aunt could not refuse a request so vehemently urged, and begged M.
+de Bois to seek Maurice. Fearing that Madame de Tremazan would be
+mortified by their early departure, the countess took an opportunity to
+leave the ballroom, accompanied by her niece and son, without attracting
+the observation of the hostess. M. de Bois joined them in the
+antechamber, with the intelligence that Maurice was nowhere to be found.
+After a second search, and half an hour's delay, the carriage started
+without him.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as they reached the ch&acirc;teau, Bertha bade her aunt good-night,
+and hastened to Madeleine's chamber. Madeleine, who did not anticipate
+her speedy return, and had not heard her light foot upon the floor, was
+sitting beside a small table, her head supported by her hands, and bent
+over some object which she contemplated with intense interest. At the
+sound of Bertha's voice she hastily closed the lids of a couple of
+ancient-looking caskets, which stood before her, and rose from her seat.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it you, Bertha? How soon you have returned!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I was glad to get away. The ball was wretchedly stupid; and, after
+that disagreeable Lady Vivian irritated me by talking of you, I could
+not stay. She seemed to have the audacity to expect that you would
+become her humble companion. <i>You!</i> our noble, <i>doubly noble</i> Madeleine,
+the humble companion of any one, but especially of such a coarse person
+as Lady Vivian! It was unendurable."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It is very possible that Count Damoreau assured her I would accept the
+proposition she made me through him," was Madeleine's calm reply.</p>
+
+<p>"But you never could have entertained it for a moment?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. There is the answer I have just written to Count Damoreau. You may
+read it."</p>
+
+<p>Bertha glanced over the letter approvingly. As she laid it upon the
+table, she noticed the caskets.</p>
+
+<p>"What are these, Madeleine?&mdash;jewel-cases?"</p>
+
+<p>"They were my mother's diamonds. They have been in the family, I can
+hardly tell you for how many generations."</p>
+
+<p>"Do let me see them."</p>
+
+<p>Bertha opened one of the cases. A necklace, brooch, and ear-rings of
+brilliants sparkled within. The precious stones emitted a clear lustre
+which would have caused a connoisseur at once to pronounce them of the
+first water; but their setting was quaint and old-fashioned. The
+necklace was composed of diamonds <i>fleur-de-lis</i>, divided by emerald
+shamrock-leaves. A single <i>fleur-de-lis</i>, surrounded by the emerald
+shamrock, formed the brooch and ear-rings.</p>
+
+<p>"Some of your ancestors must have come from the emerald isle: so, at
+least, we may infer from this shamrock."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my great-great-great-grandfather married the beautiful Lady
+Katrine Nugent, and these were her bridal jewels. You see that the
+shamrock of Erin is mingled with the <i>fleur-de-lis</i> of France."</p>
+
+<p>Bertha unclosed the other case. It held a bracelet and a tiara-shaped
+comb. The shamrock and lily were blended as in the necklace.</p>
+
+<p>"These diamonds are very lustrous," said Bertha, clasping the bracelet
+admiringly upon her delicate wrist. "But what are you doing with them,
+and at this time of night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Looking at them," answered Madeleine, with some hesitation. "I have not
+seen them before for years."</p>
+
+<p>"You shall wear them for your bridal <i>parure</i>, Madeleine."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine tried to laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I should carry my whole fortune on my back; all that remains of my
+ancient house I should bear, snail-fashion, upon my head and shoulders.
+No, little dreamer, of two facts you may rest assured: one is that I
+shall never wear these jewels; the other that I never shall be a bride.
+Come, let me undress you; your blue eyes are so sleepy they are growing
+gray as the heavens at twilight."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The Ch&acirc;teau de Tremazan was seven miles from his father's mansion, but
+Maurice, after his abrupt exit from the conservatory, walked leisurely
+home. The next morning, before the count had risen, his son entered the
+room, in travelling attire, to make the communication that he had
+ordered the carriage to drive him to Rennes, in time to meet the early
+train that started for Paris. He trusted his father would offer no
+objection, and would make the traveller's apologies to the ladies of the
+household, for avoiding the pain of leave-taking. Count Tristan approved
+of the journey; and, a few moments later, Maurice leaped into the coach,
+glancing eagerly up at a window, surrounded by a framework of jasmine
+vines; but no face looked forth; no hand waved a farewell and filled the
+vernal frame with a living picture.</p>
+
+<p>The intelligence of his sudden departure was received differently by the
+three ladies. The countess was inclined to be displeased that he had
+foregone the ceremony of an adieu. Any shortcoming in the payment of the
+full amount of deference, which she considered her due, was a great
+offence. Of late, Maurice had several times wounded her upon this tender
+point, and her sensitiveness was thereby increased.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha was loud in her lamentations over the disappearance of her
+cousin. Her deep chagrin revived the hopes of Count Tristan and his
+mother, and awakened the welcome suggestion, that he, in reality, held a
+tenderer place in her heart than she had ever admitted to herself.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine's face instinctively brightened when she heard that Maurice
+was gone; his departure smoothed away a difficulty from the path she was
+about to tread. Count Tristan watched her closely, and was perplexed by
+the gleam of genuine satisfaction that illumined her countenance. For
+the first time he was half deceived into the belief that the passion of
+Maurice was unrequited. He had been puzzled in what manner to interpret
+Madeleine's determined rejection of her cousin. He was unable to
+comprehend a purity of motive which his narrow mind was equally
+incapable of experiencing. He finally attributed her conduct partly to a
+dread of her aunt's and his own displeasure, partly to a desire to
+render herself more highly valued by Maurice, and to gain a firmer hold
+upon his affections.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois was an early visitor on the day after the ball, but never had
+he seemed more ill at ease, or found more difficulty in controlling his
+restless nervousness, or in expressing himself intelligibly. When he
+heard that Maurice was on his way to Paris, he dashed down an antique
+vase by his sudden movement<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> of vexation, and, in stooping to gather the
+fractured china, upset the stand upon which it had stood. This
+manifestation of awkwardness, of course, increased his <i>mal-aise</i>; and,
+although the countess remained as unmoved as though she wholly ignored
+the accident, he could not recover his equanimity. Madeleine left the
+drawing-room with the fragments of the vase in her hand, and did not
+return. After a prolonged and unsatisfactory visit, M. de Bois took his
+leave.</p>
+
+<p>As he issued from the ch&acirc;teau, Baptiste dropped his spade and followed
+him, keeping at a short distance behind, until he neared the gate; then
+the old gardener approached, looking cautiously around to see that he
+was not observed, stealthily held out a note, whispering, "Mademoiselle
+Madeleine bade me give this to monsieur," turned on his heel, and walked
+away as rapidly as though he feared to be pursued.</p>
+
+<p>The note contained these words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"A friend in my great emergency is indispensable to me. I
+have no friend in whom I can confide but you. I shall be at
+the little <i>ch&acirc;let</i> to-morrow morning, at five o'clock.</p>
+
+<p class="citation">"Madeleine M. de Gramont."</p></div>
+
+<p>A radiant change passed over the shadowed features of Gaston de Bois, as
+he read these lines. That one so self-reliant as Madeleine proffered him
+her confidence, trusted him, appealed to him for aid, was surely enough
+to raise him in his own esteem; and he almost forgot the recent
+mortification caused by an unfortunate awkwardness and miserable
+diffidence, which seemed the haunting demons of his existence.</p>
+
+<p>Impatience chased all slumber from his eyes that night, and the dawn had
+scarcely broken when he hastened to the <i>ch&acirc;let</i> to await the coming of
+Madeleine. The appointed time had just arrived, as the watch he
+constantly consulted informed him, when she entered the summer-house.
+Their interview, occupied but half an hour; but, when M. de Bois left
+the <i>ch&acirc;let</i>, his countenance wore an expression of earnestness,
+responsibility, and composure, totally opposite to its usual
+characteristics.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine, as she tripped back through the dew, smiled with moist
+eyes,&mdash;a smile of gratitude rather than of pleasure. More than once she
+drew a long breath, as though some heavy pressure had been lifted from
+her breast; and, as she dashed away the tears that gathered in her eyes,
+she seemed eagerly looking into the distance, as though a mist had
+rolled from before her steps,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> and she now saw her way clearly. All was
+silent in the ch&acirc;teau, and she reached her chamber unperceived.</p>
+
+<p>That day passed as usual, and another, and another. Madeleine never once
+alluded to the determination which she had announced to her aunt as
+unalterable, and the countess was satisfied that her niece had spoken
+under the influence of excitement, without any fixed purpose; and
+gradually dismissed from her mind the fear that her dependent relative
+would take some rash and dignity-compromising step.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha had not forgotten that Madeleine had declared the Ch&acirc;teau de
+Gramont was no longer her home; but as the latter went through the daily
+routine of her wonted avocations as though they were always to continue,
+and as no change was apparent in her manner, save that she was more
+silent and meditative, and her once ready smiles grew rarer, Bertha,
+also, was lulled into the belief that her cousin had abandoned her
+intention.</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan fell into no such error. Madeleine's preoccupied mien, her
+unwonted reserve, the tender sadness with which she sometimes gazed
+around her, as though bidding farewell to dear, familiar objects,
+assured him that she had not spoken lightly, and that her threat would
+be carried into execution at no distant period. Well was it for her that
+he had come to this satisfactory conclusion, for it spared her further
+persecution at his hands.</p>
+
+<p>On the fourth morning after the departure of Maurice, Bertha entered
+Madeleine's chamber, according to her custom,&mdash;for the young maidens
+always descended to breakfast together. Her room was empty.</p>
+
+<p>"She has not waited for me to-day," thought Bertha, hurrying down, and
+expecting to find Madeleine in the breakfast-room.</p>
+
+<p>The countess and her son were at table, but Madeleine was not there.</p>
+
+<p>"Has Madeleine breakfasted?" inquired Bertha, cutting short her morning
+salutations.</p>
+
+<p>The answer was in the negative.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you not seen her?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No, not this morning," replied the countess.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose she is taking an early walk," continued Bertha. "It seems odd
+that she does not come back, for she is never late."</p>
+
+<p>Bertha seated herself, but the coffee remained untasted before her; and
+her head was constantly turned towards the window which commanded a view
+of the garden and park. Gustave passed, and she cried out to him,&mdash;</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Gustave, have you seen Mademoiselle Madeleine, this morning?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, mademoiselle."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, where <i>can</i> she be?" exclaimed Bertha, impatiently. "If you will
+excuse me, aunt, I will go in search of her. Since she has not broken
+her fast yet, we will breakfast together, as usual." And away darted
+Bertha into the garden.</p>
+
+<p>The countess had not attached any importance to Madeleine's absence, and
+resumed the conversation with her son.</p>
+
+<p>Through Count Tristan's mind the suspicion at once had flashed that
+Madeleine was gone, and he chuckled inwardly at the verification of his
+own unspoken predictions. A quarter of an hour passed, and then he
+beheld Bertha coming rapidly from the direction of the <i>ch&acirc;let</i>. He felt
+no surprise in observing that she was alone. The windows of the
+breakfast-room opened to the ground, and she entered by one of
+them,&mdash;her face crimsoned, her fair hair unbound and floating over her
+shoulders, for she had been running.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot find Madeleine!" she faltered out. "It is very strange! She is
+not in the <i>ch&acirc;let</i>, nor in the garden. I have called until I am hoarse.
+I picked up this handkerchief in the <i>ch&acirc;let</i>,&mdash;it is marked 'G. de
+Bois,' yet it is three days since M. de Bois was here; and Madeleine and
+I have spent every morning since then at the <i>ch&acirc;let</i>. When could M. de
+Bois have dropped this handkerchief there?"</p>
+
+<p>The count took the handkerchief from her hand, and examined the mark
+without comment: he could not trust his voice at that moment.</p>
+
+<p>"I presume Madeleine will be here presently, to account for herself,"
+remarked the countess, not apparently discomposed. "Take your breakfast,
+Bertha; there is no need of your fasting until she chooses to make her
+appearance."</p>
+
+<p>Bertha obediently sat down, sipped her coffee for a few moments, and
+then, declaring that she wanted nothing more, left the room and returned
+to Madeleine's apartment. It was in perfect order, but so it was always;
+the bed was made, but Madeleine was in the habit of making her own bed;
+there was no sign of change. Bertha opened the wardrobe,&mdash;the dresses
+Madeleine usually wore were hanging within; she wandered about the room,
+examining every nook and corner, hardly conscious of what she was
+doing,&mdash;what she expected to find or to miss. All at once she remarked
+that a few books, which were favorites of Madeleine and once belonged to
+her father, had been removed from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> the table; but what of that?&mdash;they
+had probably been placed somewhere else. Continuing her almost
+purposeless search, Bertha now drew out the drawers of the bureau: they
+usually held Madeleine's linen; they were empty! In violent agitation
+the kneeling girl sprang to her feet; her undefined fear was taking
+shape. She ran to the antechamber and looked for a little trunk which
+had come to the ch&acirc;teau with Madeleine: it was no longer there!</p>
+
+<p>Bertha darted down the stair and rushed into her aunt's presence,
+sobbing out in agony of grief,&mdash;"She has gone! Madeleine has gone! I
+know she has gone, and she will never, never return to us! Her dresses
+are there; everything you have given her is there; she has only taken
+with her what she had when she came to the ch&acirc;teau, and she has surely
+gone!"</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan pretended to laugh at Bertha's fears, and maintained that
+Madeleine would presently walk in, and feel very much flattered by the
+sensation she had created, and by her cousin's lamentations over her
+supposed flight; adding, jocosely, that it was not easy for a young lady
+to disappear in that dramatic manner, except from the pages of a novel.</p>
+
+<p>The countess, who began to be alarmed, desired her son to ring the bell.
+Gustave appeared in answer, and, after being closely questioned, was
+desired to summon the other domestics. Bettina and Elise promptly obeyed
+the command. Their answers were precisely the same as those of Gustave:
+they had not seen Madeleine; they could not imagine where she was.</p>
+
+<p>"Baptiste,&mdash;where is he?" asked the countess.</p>
+
+<p>Baptiste was in the garden.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going out,&mdash;I will speak to him myself, and also institute further
+inquiries to satisfy our dear little Bertha; but I warn her that her
+dreams of a romantic adventure, and the flight of a young lady from an
+ancient ch&acirc;teau and her natural protectors, will probably meet with a
+sudden check by Madeleine's walking in from a long ramble."</p>
+
+<p>Thus speaking, the count left Bertha to be consoled by his mother, and
+went forth in search of Baptiste. Count Tristan well knew that, although
+the domestics were all warmly attached to Madeleine, the devotion of
+Baptiste was unsurpassed. The count did not, for one instant, doubt that
+she had really gone. Some assistance she must have had, and Baptiste's
+was the aid she would naturally have selected. He chose to interrogate
+the old man himself, to <i>prevent his giving</i> rather than to extract
+information from him.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The simple-hearted gardener was not an adept in deception. He was
+digging among his flower-beds when his master approached him, and it did
+not escape the nobleman's observation that the spade went into the
+ground and was drawn out again with increased rapidity as he drew near,
+and that the head of Baptiste, instead of being lifted to see who was
+coming, was bent down as though he wished to appear wholly engrossed in
+his occupation.</p>
+
+<p>"Baptiste?"</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur?"</p>
+
+<p>The tremulous voice in which that one word was uttered, and his guilty
+countenance, scarcely raised as he spoke, were enough to convict him.</p>
+
+<p>"Has Mademoiselle Madeleine passed you in walking out, this morning?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, monsieur. I have been very busy, monsieur; these flower-beds are in
+a terrible state; it is not easy for one pair of hands to keep them even
+in tolerable order. I have not noticed who passed. I don't generally
+look about me,&mdash;I"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, very well; we thought perhaps you might have seen Mademoiselle
+Madeleine to-day, as she must have walked out; but, as you know nothing
+at all about her, I will inform the countess and Mademoiselle Bertha."</p>
+
+<p>"I am much obliged to monsieur," replied Baptiste, gratefully.</p>
+
+<p>He could not conceal his thankfulness at escaping the cross-examination
+which he had anticipated with the dread natural to one wholly
+unpractised in dissimulation.</p>
+
+<p>"This handkerchief of M. de Bois was found in the <i>ch&acirc;let</i>," continued
+the count. "I suppose he sometimes strolls over here in the morning, at
+an hour too early for visiting; it is very natural, as we are such near
+neighbors."</p>
+
+<p>"As monsieur says, it would be very natural."</p>
+
+<p>The count had gained all the information that he desired, and without
+letting Baptiste suspect he had betrayed his secret. That Madeleine had
+actually fled, that M. de Bois had lent his aid, and that Baptiste had
+been taken into their confidence, was indubitable.</p>
+
+<p>The count returned to the ch&acirc;teau, and joined his mother, who was making
+vain attempts to soothe Bertha. The only comfort to which she would
+listen was the assurance that, if Madeleine had really gone, she would
+be traced and entreated to return to her former home.</p>
+
+<p>The count now thought it politic to assume an air of the deepest
+concern.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I am grieved to bring you such unsatisfactory news; but Baptiste knows
+nothing,&mdash;he has not seen Madeleine. I am very much shocked, but the
+fear that she has really left us forces itself upon me. I will order my
+horse and ride over to Rennes. She probably obtained a conveyance last
+night or this morning to take her there, as it is the nearest town; and
+then, by railroad or stage-coach, she must have proceeded upon her
+journey."</p>
+
+<p>"But how could she have obtained a conveyance if none of the servants
+were in her confidence? She must have walked, though it is five miles;
+but that cannot be, for she could not have carried her trunk. Some one
+<i>must</i> have aided her. Oh, who <i>can</i> it be?"</p>
+
+<p>Bertha wiped her streaming eyes with the handkerchief in her hand; it
+was the handkerchief found in the <i>ch&acirc;let</i>,&mdash;that of Gaston de Bois. It
+seemed to answer her question. She hesitated for some moments before she
+could persuade herself to communicate her suspicion; but her strong love
+for Madeleine, and her desire that she should be restored to them,
+prevailed. She handed the handkerchief to Count Tristan.</p>
+
+<p>"Before you go to Rennes, will you not return this handkerchief to M. de
+Bois? As it was picked up in the <i>ch&acirc;let</i>, he must have been there
+lately,&mdash;possibly this morning. Perhaps he knows something of
+Madeleine's flight. Oh, he <i>must</i> know!&mdash;he must! Make him tell
+you,&mdash;implore him to tell you!"</p>
+
+<p>The count took the handkerchief, saying, "It is an admirable suggestion
+of yours, my dear Bertha. I will go to M. de Bois at once. Meantime, do
+not spoil your beautiful eyes with weeping. Never fear,&mdash;we will have
+Madeleine back shortly; and if you will only be consoled, I promise to
+forgive her all the anxiety she has occasioned us."</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan found M. de Bois at home, burrowing among musty volumes,
+which were the daily companions of his solitude. When he received his
+handkerchief, a violent fit of stammering rendered the words he
+attempted to utter wholly incomprehensible, and the count made no effort
+to understand them. He proceeded to inform M. de Bois of Madeleine's
+sudden disappearance, and of the great unhappiness it had caused, adding
+that he came to him as a neighbor, to ask his advice concerning the best
+method of tracking the fugitive.</p>
+
+<p>If M. de Bois offered any counsel (which his guest pretended to imagine
+he did), the impediment in his speech increased to such an extent that
+his suggestions were unintelligible. His perturbation might have passed
+for surprise at the startling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> intelligence so abruptly communicated;
+but it could hardly be translated into sorrow or sympathy, and was a
+very imperfect simulation of astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to Rennes, for the purpose of making inquiries at the
+railroad dep&ocirc;t. Will not that plan be a good one?" asked the count.</p>
+
+<p>"Ver&mdash;ver&mdash;ery good," stammered M. de Bois.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you think of any mode that will facilitate my search?"</p>
+
+<p>"I fear not,&mdash;none at all; I am very dull in such m&mdash;m&mdash;matters."</p>
+
+<p>The count took his leave, congratulating himself that his neighbor had
+not been subjected to the scrutiny of the Countess de Gramont or Bertha,
+and especially of Maurice, whose absence at this crisis he looked upon
+as doubly fortunate.</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan returned to the ch&acirc;teau with as dejected a mien as he
+could assume.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha was watching at the window, and ran out to meet him. "What news?
+When did M. de Bois lose his handkerchief? When did he last see
+Madeleine?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dear child, I am deeply pained not to bring more cheering information.
+M. de Bois must have dropped his handkerchief some days ago,&mdash;the
+morning after the ball; he has not been here since; he has no
+recollection of the circumstance; he has not seen Madeleine at all."</p>
+
+<p>"Was he not amazed to hear that she had gone?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very much confounded; the shock quite bewildered him. We consulted
+about the best means of tracing her at Rennes. You may rest assured that
+M. de Bois was totally ignorant of her intention to leave us. And, if
+you will allow me to make a suggestion, I would charge you not to let
+him suspect, when you meet, that you for a moment imagine he was in
+Madeleine's confidence. It would be highly indelicate,&mdash;the very
+supposition would be derogatory to her dignity. <i>I</i> have said all that
+was necessary to him, and, as he had nothing to do with the affair, it
+is a topic which cannot with propriety be touched upon again."</p>
+
+<p>"Assuredly not," coincided the countess. "Madeleine, with all her
+faults, would not so entirely forget her own self-respect as to have a
+clandestine understanding with a young man. I cannot believe she would
+disgrace herself and us by such unmaidenly conduct."</p>
+
+<p>"Unmaidenly! Would it be unmaidenly?" questioned Bertha, innocently. "If
+it would be an impropriety to confide in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> M. de Bois, then Madeleine
+certainly has not made him her confidant. Oh, my poor Madeleine! It is
+dreadful to think that she must have gone away alone,&mdash;quite alone!"</p>
+
+<p>"You may well call it <i>dreadful</i>, Bertha. An occurrence of this kind has
+never blotted the annals of our family! What will be said of her and of
+us? Such a step, taken by a woman of her birth, will set hundreds of
+tongues discussing our domestic concerns; our names will be bandied
+about from lip to lip; our affairs will be in all sorts of common
+people's mouths. Hasten, for heaven's sake, my son, and find Madeleine
+before this story gets wind."</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan dutifully obeyed,&mdash;that is to say, he assumed an
+appearance of compliance, for in a few moments he was galloping toward
+Rennes.</p>
+
+<p>Evening set in before he returned. His long absence had kindled in the
+minds of the countess and Bertha a hope that he had discovered some
+clew, and the latter had worked herself up to such a pitch of excitement
+that she almost anticipated the return of Madeleine in Count Tristan's
+company. Her disappointment when, at last, he entered, looking weary and
+dejected, was proportionate to her expectations. He had made all
+possible search,&mdash;<i>so he said</i>,&mdash;and no information concerning the
+fugitive could be gathered; she was gone! He feared they must now wait
+patiently until they heard from her. She would doubtless write soon,&mdash;a
+letter might come at any moment. Very possibly she had changed her mind
+in regard to Lady Vivian's offer, and had accepted it without
+communicating her intention, because she feared her aunt's displeasure.
+This was the most likely explanation of her sudden departure. He had
+called at the Ch&acirc;teau de Tremazan, and Lady Vivian had left for Scotland
+two days after the ball. Madeleine was doubtless at this moment on her
+way to Edinburgh.</p>
+
+<p>The count, though he made this assertion with an air of perfect
+credence, did not, for a moment, believe that such was Madeleine's
+destination; but he thought to check persistent inquiries which might
+accidentally bring to light some fine thread that would lead to the
+discovery of her retreat.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, if she goes to Lady Vivian, we will make her return at once,&mdash;will
+we not, aunt?" asked Bertha, catching eagerly at this new hope. "But
+Madeleine told me distinctly that she had no intention of accepting Lady
+Vivian's offer."</p>
+
+<p>"There would be no harm in changing her mind," observed the count. "You
+will find that she has done so; therefore, give yourself no more
+uneasiness at present."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Bertha would very gladly have followed the count's advice; but, even if
+she had made the effort, it would have been impossible to drive anxiety
+for Madeleine out of her thoughts. Several times during the evening she
+started up, thinking that she heard her voice; if a step echoed in the
+antechamber, she turned eagerly to the door, her blue eyes greatening
+with expectation. Once, when the roll of wheels sounded in the distance,
+she uttered a cry of joy and rushed out upon the porch. Every moment she
+grew more and more restless and feverish; and when the usual hour for
+retiring came, she wandered into Madeleine's room, instead of her own,
+and once more minutely examined the whole chamber. There might, perhaps,
+be a note somewhere which she had overlooked: after the most diligent
+search, none was to be found. There were pens, ink, and paper upon the
+little table which Madeleine generally used, but not a word of writing
+was visible.</p>
+
+<p>The sight of pen and ink suggested an idea which had not before occurred
+to Bertha. She sat down and wrote to Maurice. She poured out all her
+grief upon paper, and it was soothed as if dropped into words upon the
+blank sheet before her. How often a full heart has had its burden lifted
+and lightened at the pen's point, as if the sorrow it recorded grew less
+heavy beneath the calming touch of that potent instrument!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE EMPTY PLACE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>It chanced that Bertha's letter to Maurice was posted the next morning
+without the knowledge of Count Tristan and his mother; not, however,
+through any preconcerted arrangement on the part of Bertha. Her
+character was so frank, so transparent,&mdash;her actions were always so
+unveiled,&mdash;her thoughts flowed in such an instinctive current toward her
+lips,&mdash;that the idea of concealment could have no spontaneous existence
+in her mind. She made no allusion to the letter until it was gone; but
+that was purely accidental, though not the less fortunate. Had Count
+Tristan been aware that such a letter had been written, it would never
+have reached its destination.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was somewhat singular that the count, whose code of honor would have
+forced him to resent, at the sword's point, the faintest hint that he
+could be guilty of an unworthy action, would not have scrupled to
+intercept a letter, to distort a fact (we use the mildest phrase), to
+stoop to any deception, to be guilty of any treachery, if he were
+powerfully prompted by what he termed family considerations,&mdash;which
+simply meant his own personal interest.</p>
+
+<p>He had determined to keep Maurice in ignorance of Madeleine's flight as
+long as possible, that the chances of discovering her retreat might be
+diminished; and great was the wily schemer's consternation when he
+learned that Bertha had unadvisedly frustrated his plans by writing to
+her cousin.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine's value had never been estimated to its just height until her
+place was empty. It is not in human nature to prize that which we
+possess to its full worth, until it is "lacked and lost!" Alas! in how
+many households there moves, with noiseless feet, some placid, patient,
+yet potent spirit, with hands ever ready to toil, or soothe; a smile
+ever kindled to comfort or encourage; a voice that "turns common words
+to grace," imparting hope and dispensing joy; a presence full of
+helpfulness and peace; a being, grown familiar to our eyes by every
+day's association, whom we carelessly greet, or jostle against
+unheeding, or thrust aside impatiently, never dreaming that our
+working-day mortal, could she cast off this garment of clay, would stand
+revealed one of God's holy messengers commissioned to minister!&mdash;that
+is, <i>never until</i> we suddenly find her place empty, yet trace the touch
+of her delicate fingers, the print of her light footsteps everywhere
+around us, and feel the dreary void made in our hearts by her absence,
+and recognize, too late, that we have entertained an angel unawares.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout the Ch&acirc;teau de Gramont there was no one, save Count Tristan,
+who did not make some such reflection (though vague and undefined,
+perhaps) while thinking of Madeleine. The ancient domestics seemed
+completely lost without her guiding hand,&mdash;her spirit of order
+systematizing and lightening all their duties. Everything was in
+confusion, everything went wrong. Dearly as they loved her, they had
+never before realized that Mademoiselle Madeleine had been of so much
+importance and assistance to them all.</p>
+
+<p>The countess missed her every moment; and, interested as were her
+regrets, they were not unmingled with some faint self-reproach when she
+remembered how lightly she had prized her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> services. The antiquated
+<i>femme de chambre</i> had never appeared so clumsy, purblind, and stupid;
+and the more her stately mistress chided her, the more bewildered
+Bettina became, the more blunders she committed.</p>
+
+<p>Even a bearing as majestic as that of the noble lady could not
+neutralize the caricaturing effect of a robe pinned awry; curls with
+long straight ends standing out porcupine fashion; a cap obstinately
+bent upon inclining to one side; and a collar with a strong tendency to
+avoid a central position.</p>
+
+<p>As for Bertha, naturally restless, excitable, and untutored in the art
+of calming the agitation of her mind by active employment, she could do
+nothing but wander in and out of her aunt's apartment; stand at the
+window watching for the postman, beating the devil's tattoo upon the
+panes; counting the hours, fretting over their insupportable length, and
+breaking out, at intervals, into piteous lamentations.</p>
+
+<p>It was with difficulty that she could be persuaded to appear at table,
+and she scarcely tasted food. Glancing up at the faded flowers in the
+hanging baskets suspended before the windows, and to the withered
+bouquets in the tall vases that stood on either side,&mdash;baskets and vases
+which Madeleine had ever kept freshly supplied,&mdash;Bertha could scarcely
+restrain her tears, as she murmured mournfully,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I know now what the English poet's Ophelia meant, when she said all
+the violets withered when her father died! All our flowers faded when
+Madeleine went!"</p>
+
+<p>Baptiste, who was standing beside her chair, rubbed his eyes, and the
+sigh, that would not be checked, was audible to her quick ears. She
+turned to give him a glance which recognized his sympathy, and noticed
+that there was no gay-looking blossom in his button-hole that day. This
+was an unmistakable expression of sorrow on the part of Baptiste; for he
+never assumed the compulsory office of butler without asserting his
+preference for his legitimate vocation of gardener by a flower in his
+coat. Bertha had never seen him dispense with the floral decoration
+before, and she comprehended its absence but too well.</p>
+
+<p>Her nervous disquietude increased every hour, and caused her aunt a
+species of petty martyrdom resembling the torture of perpetual
+pin-pricking, the incessant buzzing and stinging of a gnat, the endless
+creaking of rusty door-hinges,&mdash;minor miseries often more unendurable
+than some great mental or physical suffering. But although the patience
+of the countess was wearied out, Bertha was too great a favorite to be
+rebuked. Count<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> Tristan discreetly fled the field, and thus avoided his
+share of the infliction.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha's letter reached Maurice the day after it was written, and found
+him in a state of such torpid despondency that any summons to action,
+even the most painful, was a blessing. He had felt that the only chance
+of combating his sorrow, and preventing its obtaining full mastery over
+all his faculties, was to work off the sense of depression by hard
+study,&mdash;to battle against it with the arms of some engrossing
+occupation; but how could he spur himself up to study without an
+object?&mdash;and he was as far as ever from obtaining his father's consent
+to fitting himself for the bar, or for any other professional pursuit.
+No,&mdash;there was only one pursuit left open to him, the pursuit of
+pleasure, and he had not sufficiently recovered from his late shock to
+start off in chase of that illusive phantom. Bertha's letter roused him
+out of this miserable, mind-paralyzing apathy. In the very next train
+which left for Rennes he was on his way back to Brittany.</p>
+
+<p>It was the fourth day after Madeleine's departure. Those days had seemed
+months to Bertha, the weariest months of her brief, glad life. She was
+standing at a window that commanded the road,&mdash;her favorite post, and
+the only locality where she ever remained quiet for any length of
+time,&mdash;when the carriage in which Maurice was seated drove up the
+avenue. With a joyful exclamation she rushed out of the room, darted
+down the stair, through the hall, into the porch, and had greeted
+Maurice before any one but the old gardener knew that he had arrived.</p>
+
+<p>"You have heard from her?" were her cousin's first words, gaspingly
+uttered.</p>
+
+<p>"No, not a line. She will never write; she will never come back! O
+Maurice! I have lost all hope," sighed Bertha.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Bertha, we will find her! Let her go where she may, I will find
+her!&mdash;be sure of that. I will not rest until I do."</p>
+
+<p>His grandmother, attracted by Bertha's exultant ejaculation, had
+followed her, though with more deliberate steps, and now appeared. The
+cruel words the countess had spoken to Madeleine were ringing in the
+ears of Maurice, and he saluted his noble relative respectfully, but not
+with his usual warmth.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad you have come back to us, Maurice. Bertha is so lonely."</p>
+
+<p>The lips of Maurice parted, but some internal warning checked the bitter
+words before they formed themselves into sound. He bowed gravely, and,
+entering the house, remarked to Bertha,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You wrote that all the servants had been examined?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, all; and they know nothing of Madeleine's flight."</p>
+
+<p>"That is <i>impossible</i>. One of them at least must have some knowledge."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice rang the bell. It was Bettina, who replied. Gustave, she said,
+was in the stable, and Baptiste in the garden. The answers of the <i>femme
+de chambre</i> to the young viscount were clear and unhesitating: no one
+could doubt, for a moment, that she was wholly ignorant of Madeleine's
+movement; and her tone and manner evinced, as forcibly as any language
+could have done, how deeply she mourned over her absence. Elise was next
+summoned, and her replies were but a repetition of Bettina's.</p>
+
+<p>"I will not send for Gustave and Baptiste," he observed, dismissing the
+two female domestics,&mdash;"I will walk out and see them."</p>
+
+<p>"And I will go with you," said Bertha.</p>
+
+<p>The countess was too well pleased to see the cousins together to object.</p>
+
+<p>Gustave was grooming a horse as they passed by the stable. He paused in
+his work to welcome the viscount, and added, in the same breath,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur will find it very dull at the ch&acirc;teau, now. It does not seem
+like the same place since Mademoiselle Madeleine left!"</p>
+
+<p>"Have you no idea how she went, Gustave? Some of you surely must know!"</p>
+
+<p>"I know nothing, monsieur. When they told me that Mademoiselle Madeleine
+was gone, it was as though a thunder-bolt had struck me. I have never
+felt good for anything since!"</p>
+
+<p>There was too much sincerity, too much feeling in his tone for Maurice
+to doubt him, or deem further questioning necessary. He walked sadly
+away, accompanied by Bertha.</p>
+
+<p>Baptiste was busied near the little <i>ch&acirc;let</i>; he seemed to hover about
+it constantly of late. He was aware of the return of his young
+master,&mdash;he had bowed to him as he was descending from the carriage.
+When Bertha and her cousin approached the venerable domestic, his
+trepidation was too obvious to escape their notice. He was pruning the
+luxuriant growth of some of the vines Madeleine had planted, and the
+hand which held his knife shook and committed unintentional havoc among
+the blossoming branches.</p>
+
+<p>"Baptiste, come in; I have something to talk to you about," said
+Maurice, entering the <i>ch&acirc;let</i> with Bertha.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>How painfully that pleasant little retreat reminded him of Madeleine!
+For a moment he was overpowered, and dropped into a chair, covering his
+eyes with his hands; perhaps because he could not bear the sight of
+objects which called up such agonizing recollections; perhaps because
+his eyes were dim with too womanish a moisture.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Maurice," said Bertha, bending over him compassionately, "if
+Madeleine only knew how wretched she has made us both, surely she would
+not forsake us so cruelly."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice, by a gesture, prayed her to sit down. Baptiste stood in the
+doorway; his attitude betokened a reluctance to enter, and a desire to
+be quickly dismissed. After a long interval, the viscount, slowly
+raising his head, was again struck by the perturbed mien of the
+guileless old man, whose native simplicity, warmth, and ingenuousness
+would have melted any mask he attempted to assume. Maurice had almost
+abandoned all expectation that he would receive any information from the
+domestics; but he now experienced a sudden renewal of hope.</p>
+
+<p>"Baptiste," he said, scrutinizing the ancient gardener closely, "do you
+not know where Mademoiselle Madeleine is?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, monsieur."</p>
+
+<p>The reply was uttered in a tone of genuine sadness.</p>
+
+<p>"You cannot even guess?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, monsieur."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know how she left here?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, monsieur."</p>
+
+<p>"Baptiste, you are not speaking falsely?&mdash;you are not trifling with me?
+If you <i>are</i>, you can hardly know how cruelly you are adding to my
+sorrow."</p>
+
+<p>"I have spoken the exact truth, monsieur."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure he has, Maurice," interrupted Bertha. "I never knew Baptiste
+to utter even a <i>white lie</i>: he has as great a horror of falsehood as
+Madeleine herself."</p>
+
+<p>Baptiste looked at her gratefully.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you know <i>nothing at all</i>," ejaculated Maurice, in a tone of
+discouragement. "You did not help Mademoiselle Madeleine in any way? She
+must have had some assistance; but from <i>you</i> she had none? You did not
+even know that she intended to leave us?"</p>
+
+<p>Baptiste hesitated; his mouth twitched,&mdash;his eyes were fixed upon the
+ground.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you not answer, Baptiste?" asked Bertha. "You <i>did not</i> know
+that Mademoiselle Madeleine was going,&mdash;did you?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, mademoiselle."</p>
+
+<p>The answer was spoken almost in a whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>You knew it?</i> And why, <i>why</i> have you not told us this before?" she
+almost shrieked out.</p>
+
+<p>"No one asked me that question, mademoiselle; and Mademoiselle Madeleine
+requested me not to give any information concerning her which I could
+possibly, and without uttering a falsehood, avoid."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice sprang up and laid his hand upon the old man's shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Speak <i>now</i> then! You cannot avoid telling us all you know! You were
+aware that she was going; you assisted her flight. <i>How</i> did you aid
+her? <i>What</i> did you do? <i>What</i> do you know?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very little, monsieur. I did very little and know very little. The
+evening before Mademoiselle Madeleine left, she came to me in the
+garden; she asked me if I would do her a favor. I would have done her a
+thousand. Did I not owe her enough? Was it not she who watched beside my
+bed when I had that terrible rheumatic fever two years ago? Did she not
+pour out my medicine with her own white hands? Did she not talk to me
+when I was racked with pain, until I thought the room was full of
+heavenly music, and I forgot I was suffering? Did she not keep me from
+cursing God when the pangs were so sharp that I felt I was tortured
+beyond my strength? Did she not tell me why all anguish of soul or body
+should be borne patiently? Was there, oh, was there <i>anything</i> I would
+not have done for Mademoiselle Madeleine? When she left the ch&acirc;teau, was
+her loss greater to any one than it was to me? And she would not have
+gone if she could have staid any longer. I was sure of <i>that</i>. When she
+said she must go, I knew she <i>must</i>, and I never even dared to pray her
+to remain."</p>
+
+<p>It was seldom that Baptiste spoke so much, for he was taciturn by
+nature; but the emotion, forcibly suppressed for so many days, once
+breaking bondage, burst forth into a torrent of words.</p>
+
+<p>"You did well, Baptiste,&mdash;good, faithful old man! Mademoiselle Madeleine
+needed a friend; and I thank Heaven she had one like you. Do not think
+we blame you; only tell us all you know. She came to you the evening
+before she left: what favor did she ask?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mademoiselle Madeleine only asked, monsieur, that I would come to her
+room when the house was all quiet, that night, and carry down her trunk
+and place it in the <i>ch&acirc;let</i>. I could not help<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> saying, 'Oh,
+Mademoiselle Madeleine, are you going to leave us?' She answered, 'I
+<i>cannot</i> stay, Baptiste. I am <i>compelled</i> to go. You are the only person
+here who is aware of my intention. When I am gone do not give any
+information concerning me that you can possibly, and without uttering a
+falsehood, avoid. It will be better that no one should know I had your
+aid.' Those were her exact words, monsieur."</p>
+
+<p>"Go on,&mdash;go on!" urged Maurice, as the narrator paused.</p>
+
+<p>"When the house was all quiet, I put off my shoes and stole softly to
+Mademoiselle Madeleine's room. She opened the door, and, without
+speaking, pointed to the little trunk. Old and weak as I am, I had no
+trouble in carrying it. It was light enough. It could not have held
+much."</p>
+
+<p>"Did she not bid you adieu, then?" asked Bertha.</p>
+
+<p>"Just as I was stooping to lift the trunk, Mademoiselle Madeleine
+stretched out her hand and took mine. I felt her warm, soft touch the
+whole day after. She did not say adieu, but she looked it. She looked as
+though she were blessing me and thanking me. I never saw a face that
+said so much,&mdash;so much that went to my very soul and comforted me! When
+she let go my hand, I took up the trunk and carried it out. She closed
+the door behind me without a sound, and I brought the trunk here that
+night and left it. That is all I know, monsieur."</p>
+
+<p>"But how was the trunk conveyed hence?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know, monsieur."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you see Mademoiselle Madeleine the next morning?" inquired Bertha.</p>
+
+<p>"No, mademoiselle. I could not help going to the <i>ch&acirc;let</i> the first
+thing when I came out to work. I pushed the door open and looked in; the
+trunk was not there, and I knew that Mademoiselle Madeleine was gone
+too!"</p>
+
+<p>"But did not Mademoiselle Madeleine drop some hint, even the faintest,
+of her plans?" asked Maurice, earnestly.</p>
+
+<p>"I have told monsieur every word Mademoiselle Madeleine spoke to me on
+the subject."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Some one</i> must have aided her further! Who could it be? <i>Who could it
+possibly be?</i>" mused Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>Baptiste was certain he knew who alone it could be; and he was pondering
+within himself whether he had the right to mention the note Madeleine
+had ordered him to deliver to M. de Bois. Her request had been that he
+would give no information he could honestly avoid; if it <i>could</i> be
+avoided, it was plain, then, that the intelligence ought not to be
+communicated.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Has monsieur done with me?" he asked, as Maurice stood reflecting in
+silence.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, if you have nothing further to tell me."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing further, monsieur." Saying these words, Baptiste withdrew.</p>
+
+<p>"After Madeleine was missed," said Bertha, when the old gardener was
+gone, "I was the first person who came to the <i>ch&acirc;let</i>. I found a
+handkerchief lying just by this table. It was marked G. de Bois."</p>
+
+<p>"Gaston de Bois! Then it is clear <i>he</i> was Madeleine's confidant. He
+promoted her flight!"</p>
+
+<p>"So I thought, at first," rejoined Bertha; "but it seems this is not so.
+Your father took him the handkerchief, and he could not tell when or
+where he had lost it. He was amazed to hear that Madeleine had left us,
+and disclaimed all knowledge concerning her."</p>
+
+<p>"Who, then, could it have been? But I will see M. de Bois myself."</p>
+
+<p>"First let me tell you"&mdash;began Bertha, and faltered.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you hesitate? For Heaven's sake, dear Bertha, tell me everything
+which can throw the faintest glimmer of light upon the path Madeleine
+has taken."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know how to say what I was thinking; perhaps I ought not to
+allude to it at all; yet it seems as if it must be true. Do you not
+remember that Madeleine confessed she had bestowed her affections upon
+<i>some one</i>? Since they were not given to you, as I once believed, I
+cannot help imagining that perhaps she might&mdash;might have meant"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Gaston de Bois?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice did not answer, and Bertha could say no more. There was a
+painful struggle going on in her mind, though less torturing than that
+which convulsed the spirit of her cousin.</p>
+
+<p>When he had somewhat recovered himself, he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"At all events I will see M. de Bois. If there is nothing to be learned
+from him, if he really knows nothing concerning Madeleine's departure, I
+must seek information at Rennes. There is no time to lose. I will call
+upon M. de Bois at once."</p>
+
+<p>The cousins parted at the door of the <i>ch&acirc;let</i>. Bertha turned toward the
+ch&acirc;teau, pausing on her way to talk with Baptiste; Maurice went in the
+direction of his neighbor's residence.</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan's visit had taken M. de Bois aback, chiefly because he was
+confounded by a new proof of his own awkward<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>ness (stupidity, he plainly
+termed it) in leaving his handkerchief behind him, as a witness of his
+presence at the <i>ch&acirc;let</i>. But there was no such confusing testimony to
+destroy his composure when he received Maurice. Besides, he had ample
+time to collect himself; for he was walking in the park when his valet
+announced that the young viscount was awaiting him in the library. He
+had looked forward to the return of Maurice to Brittany as soon as the
+latter heard of Madeleine's mysterious disappearance. M. de Bois knew
+that it would be more difficult to prevent her being traced by her
+cousin than by any other person, and that it was by him Madeleine
+herself most feared to be discovered. Gaston was therefore fully on his
+guard against betraying her confidence.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice, on his part, was keenly sensible of the difficulty of his
+undertaking. He could not openly inquire of M. de Bois whether Madeleine
+had apprised him of her intentions. The very question would have a
+tendency to compromise his cousin, by suggesting that she was capable of
+holding clandestine communication with a young gentleman. Then, too, if
+M. de Bois was really the object of her attachment, he might not be
+aware of the preference with which she honored him; and it would be the
+height of indelicacy for Maurice to allow him to suspect a circumstance
+which her modesty would scrupulously conceal. He was sitting in the
+library pondering over the embarrassments of his position, when his host
+entered. The gentlemen greeted each other with wonted cordiality.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you return from Paris to-day?" asked M. de Bois. "Have you just
+come?"</p>
+
+<p>"About an hour ago. I came to you at once to"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois interrupted him. It was the policy of the former to lead the
+conversation, that he might avoid direct questions.</p>
+
+<p>"Had you heard that Mademoiselle de Gramont had left the ch&acirc;teau?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; my cousin Bertha wrote to me, and"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Again M. de Bois seized upon the thread of conversation.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you no news from Mademoiselle Madeleine?&mdash;no letter?"</p>
+
+<p>"None," sighed Maurice, convinced that, as M. de Bois plunged into the
+subject in this straightforward, calm manner, he could not possibly be
+in her confidence.</p>
+
+<p>The host went on.</p>
+
+<p>"Has not Count Tristan been able to obtain any trace of her?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Thus far, none at all! What <i>could</i> have become of her! Where <i>could</i>
+she have gone!" exclaimed Maurice; but not in a tone of interrogation,
+for he now felt assured that M. de Bois could not answer.</p>
+
+<p>"One thing is certain; what Mademoiselle Mad&mdash;ad&mdash;adeleine has done must
+have been prompted by a noble motive. She could not cause you all this
+sorrow unless she imagined herself compelled to take the step which we
+must all lament."</p>
+
+<p>"You are right, you only do her justice!" rejoined Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>"What course do you propose to ado&mdash;op&mdash;opt?" inquired M. de Bois, with
+a perfectly natural air of friendly interest.</p>
+
+<p>"I hardly know what to do. I should be thankful for any advice. I shall
+first visit the Prefecture at Rennes, to see if she obtained a passport.
+She could not surely run the risk of attempting to travel without one.
+If the passport be for Great Britain, I may go to Scotland. Possibly she
+may have changed her mind, and accepted Lady Vivian's offer,&mdash;do you not
+think so?"</p>
+
+<p>"It does not appear to me likely. She definitely decli&mdash;i&mdash;ined."</p>
+
+<p>"Did she tell you so? Did she speak to you on the subject?" asked
+Maurice, hastily.</p>
+
+<p>For the first time during the interview, M. de Bois betrayed a slight
+disquietude, but he quickly collected himself and answered,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I heard Lady Vivian speak to Mademoiselle Bertha of the offer she had
+made her cousin, and after that, Mademoiselle Mad&mdash;ad&mdash;adeleine told me
+she had declined the prop&mdash;op&mdash;oposition. But, if you imagine she has
+changed her mind, would not a letter to Lady Vivian answer every
+pur&mdash;ur&mdash;urpose?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; if she should be there, I must see her, and use arguments which
+would have no force upon paper. <i>She must be there!</i> Where else could
+she be? I will start for Scotland to-night. Now I must bid you adieu."</p>
+
+<p>"If you are going back to the ch&acirc;teau, I will accompany you. I must make
+my <i>adieux</i> to the ladies. I leave for Paris to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed! Do you make a long stay?"</p>
+
+<p>"Prob&mdash;ob&mdash;obably. The Marquis de Fleury had promised me a
+secretaryship, if he were sent as ambassador to America. It is uncertain
+when he may get the appointment, but he has offered me the post of
+confidential sec&mdash;ec&mdash;ecretary at once."</p>
+
+<p>"And you have accepted?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Gladly."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, M. de Bois, how I envy you! <i>You</i> will have an object in life,
+while <i>I</i>, who feel as though a pent-up volcano were roaring within me,
+am condemned to let my struggling energies smoulder beneath the ashes of
+my father's autocratic will! You have heard of his opposition to my
+studying for the bar? What is to become of me if I am deprived of every
+stimulating incentive to action?&mdash;especially now&mdash;now that"&mdash;he checked
+himself suddenly. He was not aware that M. de Bois had been informed by
+Bertha of Madeleine's rejection, and Maurice could not dwell upon his
+own disappointment to one who might be a rival.</p>
+
+<p>"Count Tristan may gradually be brought to contemplate your wishes with
+more favor."</p>
+
+<p>"Hardly; but come&mdash;if you will accompany me, let us go."</p>
+
+<p>Bertha, who had been waiting impatiently for the return of Maurice, did
+not fly to meet him when she saw M. de Bois walking by his side, as they
+approached the ch&acirc;teau. The countess was in the drawing-room when the
+gentlemen entered, and her majestic presence stemmed the stream of
+inquiries that was ready to gush from Bertha's lips.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois, who during his interview with Maurice had been so
+self-possessed that the impediment in his speech was scarcely
+observable, was seized anew and cast into chains by his invisible enemy.
+The captive struggled in vain; the avenues of speech were barricaded;
+all his limbs were shackled; his movements became uncertain and
+spasmodic, menacing tables, chairs, vases, which, had they been gifted
+with consciousness, must have trembled at his approach; his nervous
+fingers thrust themselves into his hair, and threw it into ludicrous
+disorder; his countenance was suffused with scarlet; he stammered out
+something about bidding adieu, which the ladies were evidently at a loss
+to comprehend, until Maurice explained that M. de Bois expected to start
+on the morrow for Paris, where he purposed to take up his residence.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall regret losing so valued a neighbor!" observed the countess,
+condescendingly.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha made no remark, though she looked as though she wished to speak,
+and could not summon resolution. She took an opportunity, while the
+countess was conversing with their guest, to whisper to her cousin,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You asked M. de Bois, and he could give you no information concerning
+Madeleine?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"None at all," replied Maurice in a low tone. Then, turning to the
+countess, he said aloud, "I also must bid you adieu, my grandmother; I
+am going immediately to Rennes; if I obtain the information there, which
+I think probable, I shall start at once for Scotland and seek Lady
+Vivian."</p>
+
+<p>"You have not consulted your father, Maurice," the countess answered,
+with an emphasis which was intended to remind him that he was not a free
+agent.</p>
+
+<p>"I must beg you to make my apologies to him."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice, though he treated his grandmother with deference which left her
+no room for complaint, could not force himself to assume his wonted air
+of affection; his love for her had waned from the hour he listened to
+the unjust accusation, the reproaches, the contumely she had heaped upon
+the innocent and unfortunate orphan placed at her mercy. The softening
+veil had fallen from her character, and disclosed its harsh, proud
+selfishness and policy. He now knew that she had offered her destitute
+relative shelter, not from any genuine, womanly feeling of tenderness
+and compassion, but simply because she deemed it humiliating to allow
+one who bore her name to be placed in a doubtful and friendless
+position. All Madeleine's gentleness, cheerfulness, diligence to please,
+had failed to melt her aunt's impenetrable heart and make it expand to
+yield her a sacred place; the countess had misinterpreted her highest
+virtues,&mdash;grossly insulted her by attributing shameful motives to her
+most disinterested conduct, and destroyed all the merit of her own
+benefactions by reminding the recipient of her indebtedness. Maurice
+felt that, truly to venerate a person, he must be moved by esteem for
+noble qualities possessed. The recent revelation of his grandmother's
+actual attributes estranged and revolted him, until it became difficult
+to treat her with even the outward semblance of reverence.</p>
+
+<p>When the viscount bade farewell, M. de Bois also took his leave.</p>
+
+<p>"You will write to me as soon as you reach Edinburgh?" pleaded Bertha to
+her cousin.</p>
+
+<p>"I will certainly write," answered Maurice; "meantime comfort yourself
+with the assurance that I will not relinquish my search until Madeleine
+is restored to us."</p>
+
+<p>And Bertha did solace herself with that pledge, for hope was a dominant
+characteristic of her buoyant temperament.</p>
+
+<p>The monotonous round of blank, weary days that ensued was happily
+broken, before the week closed, by the promised letter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> from Maurice.
+Bertha, whose only exciting occupation consisted in watching for the
+arrival and distribution of letters, was in possession of the precious
+missive before her aunt and Count Tristan were aware of its arrival. She
+tore it open, and, glancing through the contents, uttered a cry of joy
+that rang through the ch&acirc;teau, and reached the ears even of the countess
+and her son in the library. The next moment Bertha burst into the
+apartment, laughing and crying, waving the letter triumphantly over her
+head, and exclaiming, in a voice now stifled with sobs, now broken by
+hysterical mirth,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"She is found! she is found! Maurice has traced her! Oh, my dear, dear
+Madeleine, I shall see her again!"</p>
+
+<p>Her blinding tears, or her overwhelming transport, prevented her
+noticing the totally different effect produced upon her two relatives by
+this rapturously uttered communication. The face of the countess
+expressed a haughty satisfaction that her noble family had been spared
+some impending disgrace; but Count Tristan's black brows contracted; his
+malignant eyes flashed fiercely; he ground his teeth with suppressed
+rage as he snatched the letter out of Bertha's hand. She flung her arms
+about her aunt, and laid her head lovingly upon her unsympathetic bosom,
+as though she must caress some one in the exuberant outburst of her joy!
+Meanwhile the count perused the letter.</p>
+
+<p>"My son, let me hear what Maurice says."</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan read,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"I hasten to send you good news, my dearest Bertha. At
+Rennes I visited the Prefecture to examine the list of
+passports, knowing that Madeleine must have obtained one to
+travel unmolested. I found that her passport had been taken
+out for England. This confirmed my impression that she had
+joined Lady Vivian in Scotland. The passport which, as you
+are aware, requires two responsible witnesses, was signed by
+Messrs. Picard and Bossuet. I sought those gentlemen to
+extract further information from them, but, singularly
+enough, both had left Brittany the day after Madeleine. I
+cannot conceive how she obtained their signatures, for
+surely she had no acquaintance with them. Following this
+clew I started immediately for Edinburgh, and arrived here
+on Wednesday evening. I had no difficulty in finding the
+residence of Lady Vivian. She is in London, but is expected
+home shortly. I had an interview with her venerable
+housekeeper, who answered all my inquiries with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> great
+patience. From her I learned that Lady Vivian was
+accompanied by a young French lady whom she had recently
+engaged as a <i>dame de compagnie</i>. The housekeeper could not
+remember her foreign name, but when I mentioned Mademoiselle
+de Gramont, she said it sounded like that. She had been
+informed that the young lady was very accomplished and
+belonged to an excellent family; also that Lady Vivian had
+first heard of her during her late visit in Brittany. In
+answer to the question whether this young lady arrived with
+Lady Vivian in London, the housekeeper replied that she did
+not,&mdash;she had joined her ladyship only a few days ago. Thus
+I feel certain that Madeleine is found. I leave for London
+at once, and, not many days after you receive this letter,
+you may expect to see us both; for I will never cease my
+supplications until Madeleine yields and returns with me to
+the Ch&acirc;teau de Gramont. I know what joy this intelligence
+will give you, my dear little cousin, and my joy is
+increased by the reflection of yours."</p></div>
+
+<p>The count broke off without reading the concluding lines of the letter,
+and remarked,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Maurice came to a hasty conclusion. If Lady Vivian's <i>dame de
+compagnie</i> should prove to be Madeleine, as it <i>may</i> be, there is no
+certainty that she will yield to his persuasions and return to us.
+Madeleine is very obstinate and self-willed. You must pardon me, Bertha,
+for throwing a damper upon your hopes, but I would spare you too severe
+disappointment."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall <i>not</i> be disappointed. I feel sure Maurice has discovered
+Madeleine: <i>that</i> is all I ask for the present. You may be right about
+her refusing to return here,&mdash;I dare say you are; but <i>that</i> will not
+make me miserable, which I should be if we could not find her at all. I
+mean to ask my uncle's permission to allow Madeleine to reside with us.
+I do not see how he can refuse, and he is very indulgent; so that,
+whether Madeleine consents to return here, or not, we shall not be
+wholly parted."</p>
+
+<p>Bertha did not suspect into what a fury her words were lashing the
+count, nor did she divine the machinations already at work within his
+perfidious spirit to defeat her kindly purpose.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE HUMBLE COMPANION.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Rapidly as Maurice travelled from Edinburgh to London, the distance
+seemed interminable to his impetuous spirit. Multitudes of arguments
+were driven through his mind in long array, and he was impatient to
+prove their power in persuading Madeleine to return. Was it possible
+that she could refuse to see their force? If calm reasoning, if
+entreaties and prayers failed to move her, he would test the potency of
+a threat,&mdash;she should learn that he had vowed never to return to his
+paternal home, never to forgive those who had driven her forth by their
+cruelty, until <i>she</i> had proclaimed their pardon by again taking up her
+abode at the Ch&acirc;teau de Gramont. Madeleine, who shrank from all strife,
+who moved in an atmosphere of harmony, which seemed to envelop her
+wherever she went, would not lift her hand to sever the sacred bond of
+union between father and son, grandmother and grandchild. Whatever
+anguish it might cost her to yield, however great her sacrifice, she
+would endure the one and accept the other rather than become the
+instrument that, with fatal blow, struck such an unholy severance.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice vividly pictured to himself his approaching interview under a
+tantalizing variety of circumstances. Now he imagined that he saw
+Madeleine only in the presence of her new friends,&mdash;that she was cold
+and reserved, and allowed him no opportunity of uttering a word that
+could reach <i>her</i> ear alone. Now he fancied she had granted him a
+private interview,&mdash;that she was sitting by his side, but resolute,
+unconvinced, unmoved, while he besieged her with arguments, appealed to
+her with all the passionate fervor that convulsed his soul, portrayed in
+darkest colors the fearful results of her inflexibility. Now he painted
+her overwhelmed by his reasoning, melted by his application, terrified
+by that terrible menace, and finally consenting to his petition.</p>
+
+<p>It was past ten o'clock when the train reached the London terminus. The
+loquacious Edinburgh housekeeper had informed him that Lady Vivian was
+the guest of Lady Augusta Langdon. The lateness of the hour forbade a
+visit that night; yet, after having engaged a room at Morley's hotel, he
+could not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> help strolling in the direction of Grosvenor Square, and was
+soon searching for the number he had written upon his tablets. It was
+easily found, and Maurice stood before one of the most sumptuous of the
+magnificent edifices which adorn that aristocratic locality. The windows
+were thrown open, and the richly embroidered lace curtains drawn back,
+for the evening was more than usually sultry. He crossed to the opposite
+side of the street, and took up a position which enabled him to
+distinguish forms moving about the spacious drawing-room. With what
+straining eyes and breathless anxiety he scrutinized them! Now he saw a
+lady of noble carriage walking to and fro,&mdash;<i>that</i> might be Lady
+Langdon; by and by he caught sight of a gaunt, ungainly figure, and
+recognized Lady Vivian. Who would have believed that a glimpse of that
+angular, unsymmetrical form could ever have called such radiance to the
+eyes of a young and handsome man?&mdash;could have kindled such a glow upon
+his cheeks?&mdash;could have quickened his pulses with so joyful a motion?</p>
+
+<p>Not long after, a group of young ladies clustered together, just beneath
+the chandelier, to examine some object which one of them held in her
+hand; and now the heart of Maurice throbbed so tumultuously that its
+beats became audible. He had singled out one maiden whose height and
+graceful proportions distinguished her from her companions,&mdash;Madeleine!
+Her face was turned from him; but surely that statuesque outline, that
+slender, flexible throat, that exquisitely-shaped head, about which he
+thought he traced the coronal braid that usually crowned her noble
+brows,&mdash;these could belong to Madeleine only! Could he fail to recognize
+them anywhere or at any distance? The longer he gazed the more certain
+he became that it was she herself,&mdash;that she was found at last! How
+eagerly he watched to see her turn, and render "assurance doubly sure"
+by revealing her lovely countenance! She remained some time in the same
+position; then the little group dispersed, and she glided away, but not
+in the direction of the window. The eyes of Maurice never moved from the
+place where she had disappeared, though he was conscious of attracting
+the attention of passers-by, and now and then a whispered comment of
+derision fell upon his ear.</p>
+
+<p>Several equipages drove up to Lady Langdon's door, and her guests
+gradually departed. Soon after the drawing-room was deserted, the lights
+were extinguished, the windows closed. Other lights brightened the
+casements above. Still Maurice re<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>mained riveted to the spot,
+unreasonably hoping to behold Madeleine for one fleeting moment again.
+By and by, one window after another grew dark; but not until the last
+light went out could he force himself to turn away and retrace his steps
+to the hotel.</p>
+
+<p>"Will the dawn never come?" How often that question rises involuntarily
+to the lips, through the long night of expectation that precedes a
+wished-for day! <i>Time</i>&mdash;that is, the sense of its duration&mdash;is but
+another word for <i>state</i>,&mdash;state of mind. The length or briefness of the
+hour is so completely governed by the mood of one's spirits that it
+becomes easy for those who have learned this truth from experience to
+conceive a thousand years but as a day to the blessed,&mdash;a day of
+torture, an age to the miserable; and to comprehend that <i>time itself</i>
+can have no existence, and its computation must be replaced by <i>state</i>
+in the eternal hereafter where we shall live in the spirit only.</p>
+
+<p>"Will the dawn never come?" Maurice repeated hundreds of times as that
+night dragged its leaden, lagging feet with the slow movement of
+centuries.</p>
+
+<p>The dim, late London morning came at last to bring with it a new
+perplexity. It would be a breach of etiquette to call upon Lady Vivian
+at too early an hour; yet, how was Maurice to curb the headlong rush of
+his impatience until the prescribed period for ceremonious visits
+arrived? A stranger in London, it might be supposed that the numberless
+noteworthy objects by which he was environed might have diverted his
+attention; but one engrossing thought so completely filled his whole
+being that it rendered him blind to all the marvels of art or beauties
+of nature. Yet to remain imprisoned at the hotel was out of the
+question. He concluded to spend his morning in Hyde Park, chiefly
+because it was not far distant from Grosvenor Square. But the
+attractions of the noble park, through which he listlessly sauntered,
+and of the adjacent Kensington Gardens, to which he unconsciously
+extended his rambles, were entirely lost upon the abstracted wanderer.
+Grand old trees, romantic walks, delicious flowers, had no existence for
+him; the whole world was one great, hueless, formless void, in which he
+beheld nothing but the spectral image mirrored in his own soul.</p>
+
+<p>He had decided not to pay his visit until after one o'clock; but, before
+the sun reached its meridian, he absolved himself from the propriety of
+waiting, and, with rapid steps, once more took his way to Lady Langdon's
+residence.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The door was opened by a solemn footman.</p>
+
+<p>"Is Lady Vivian at home?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not at home, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Is Mademoiselle de Gramont&mdash;I mean the young lady who accompanied Lady
+Vivian&mdash;at home?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not at home, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Can you tell me when I shall be likely to find them?"</p>
+
+<p>"Her ladyship gave no orders on the subject, sir."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice stood perplexed, and hesitating.</p>
+
+<p>"Your card, if you please, sir," suggested the demure domestic.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I will call again by and by."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice walked directly back to the park. His suspense was intolerable;
+he could only endure it for another hour, and then returned to Lady
+Langdon's.</p>
+
+<p>The same staid attendant reappeared at his knock.</p>
+
+<p>"Has Lady Vivian returned?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not returned, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Can you tell me when I may depend upon seeing her? I call upon a matter
+of great importance."</p>
+
+<p>The stately footman looked as though he were pondering upon the
+propriety of making any satisfactory answer to this question.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice repeated the inquiry with such an anxious intonation, such a
+perturbed air, that the stolid domestic, accustomed to behold only the
+conventional composure which allows no pulse to betray its beating, was
+moved out of the even tenor of his way by astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Vivian went with my lady and a large party to Hampton Court. Their
+ladyships will probably spend the day."</p>
+
+<p>"The day!" exclaimed Maurice, in an accent of consternation.</p>
+
+<p>The footman evidently thought that he had proffered more than sufficient
+information, and made a dignified attempt to put a close to the
+interview, by extending his hand, and saying, "I will see that your card
+reaches her ladyship."</p>
+
+<p>"No, there is no need of my leaving a card: I shall return. At what hour
+does Lady Langdon dine?"</p>
+
+<p>"At seven, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"I will take the liberty of calling after dinner."</p>
+
+<p>The footman looked as though he decidedly thought it was a liberty, and
+Maurice turned slowly away from the closing door.</p>
+
+<p>What could be done to shorten the endless hours that stretched their
+weary length between that period and evening? Hampton Court! What was to
+prevent his going to Hampton Court? He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> might meet Lady Vivian and
+Madeleine, there; nothing was more likely, since they were to spend the
+day. His spirits revived as he signalled an empty cab, and requested to
+be driven as rapidly as possible to Hampton Court. He took no note of
+the length of time occupied in reaching his destination: it was a relief
+to be in motion, and to know that every moment brought him nearer a
+locality where the lost one might be found.</p>
+
+<p>Was he more likely to encounter her in the palace or in the grounds? he
+asked, internally, as he sprang out of the cab. He would try the palace
+first. He strode through its magnificent apartments, one after another,
+without noticing their gorgeous grandeur, without glancing at their
+superb decorations, without wasting a look upon the wondrous products of
+brush, or chisel, or loom. His disconcerted guide paused before each
+world-renowned master-piece in vain; Maurice hurried on, and silenced
+him by saying that he was in search of a friend.</p>
+
+<p>Neither Lady Vivian nor Madeleine was to be seen. They were doubtless
+rambling in the beautiful pleasure-grounds.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice took his way through noble avenues of trees,&mdash;through groves,
+gardens, conservatories,&mdash;without letting his eyes dwell upon any object
+but the human beings he passed. Still no Madeleine. He made the tour of
+the palace the second time, and then traversed the grounds once more.
+The result was the same. Lady Vivian must have returned home.</p>
+
+<p>It was growing late. He re&euml;ntered his cab, and ordered the driver to
+take him to Morley's Hotel; paid the exorbitant price which the man,
+knowing he had to deal with a stranger, demanded, and took refuge in his
+chamber, without remembering that he had not broken his fast since
+morning, until a waiter knocked at the door to know if he would dine.</p>
+
+<p>Yes; dinner might assist in whiling away the time. But it helped less
+effectually than he had anticipated; for to dine without appetite is a
+tedious undertaking. His own busy thoughts supplied him with more than
+sufficient food, and precluded all sense of hunger.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice had but a slight acquaintance with Lady Vivian. An evening visit
+certainly was not <i>selon les regles</i>; but all ceremony must give way
+before the urgency of his mission. He compelled himself to wait until
+nine o'clock before he again appeared in Grosvenor Square.</p>
+
+<p>That imperturbable footman again! The very presence of the automaton
+chilled and dispirited the impatient visitor.</p>
+
+<p>"Is Lady Vivian at home?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Her ladyship is indisposed and has retired, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Can I see Mademoiselle de Gramont?"</p>
+
+<p>"Whom, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"The young lady who accompanies Lady Vivian."</p>
+
+<p>"She is with Lady Vivian; but I will take your card, sir."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice had no alternative and handed his card.</p>
+
+<p>"Say that I earnestly beg to see her for a few moments."</p>
+
+<p>Did he imagine that human machine could deliver a message which conveyed
+the suggestion that any one very earnestly desired anything in creation?</p>
+
+<p>The viscount was ushered into the drawing-room. A long interval, or one
+Maurice thought long, elapsed before the messenger returned.</p>
+
+<p>"The ladies will be happy to see you, sir, to-morrow, at two o'clock."</p>
+
+<p>Another night and another morning to struggle through, haunted by the
+murderous desire of killing that which could never be restored,&mdash;<i>time!</i>
+But here, at least, was a definite appointment,&mdash;a fixed period when he
+should certainly see Madeleine; this was a great step gained.</p>
+
+<p>He had heard some gentlemen, at the hotel, loud in praise of Charles
+Kean's impersonation of "King John," which was to be represented that
+evening, and the recollection of their encomiums decided him to visit
+the Princess' Theatre.</p>
+
+<p>Our powers of appreciation are limited, governed, crippled or expanded,
+by the mood of the moment, and a performance, which might have roused
+him to a high pitch of enthusiasm at another time, now seemed dull and
+tedious. But duller and more tedious still was the night that followed.
+And when morning came, how was he to consume the hours between breakfast
+and two o'clock? He must go somewhere; must keep on his feet; must give
+his restless limbs free action. He bethought him of St. Paul's and
+Westminster Abbey. These majestic edifices were associated with the
+memory of those who had done with time, and might assist him in the
+time-annihilating process which was then his chief object. He was
+mistaken; he could not interest himself in monuments to the dead; he was
+too closely pursued by a living phantom. He walked through the aisles,
+the chapels, the crypt, with as much indifference as he had wandered
+through Hyde Park, and Kensington Gardens, and Hampton Court.</p>
+
+<p>The appointed hour drew near, at last, and with rising excitement he
+ordered the coachmen to drive to Grosvenor Square, number &mdash;&mdash;. It was
+just two,&mdash;hardly two, perhaps. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> inevitable footman received his
+card, with the faintest <i>soup&ccedil;on</i> of a grin, and conducted him to the
+drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Vivian entered a few moments afterwards. She was delighted to see
+him,&mdash;very flattered at his visit. When did he come to London? Would he
+make a long stay? How did he leave their friends in Brittany?</p>
+
+<p>Maurice replied as composedly as possible to her inquiries, and then
+asked, "May I be allowed to see Mademoiselle de Gramont?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mademoiselle de Gramont!" exclaimed Lady Vivian, raising her bushy
+eyebrows.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, she is with you. She is engaged as your humble companion,&mdash;is she
+not?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I have not the pleasure of her acquaintance."</p>
+
+<p>If a bullet had passed through Maurice, he could not have sprung from
+his seat with a wilder bound, and hardly have dropped back more
+motionless.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Vivian looked at him in amazement,&mdash;asked what had happened. Was he
+ill? Would he take anything? He had been very much fatigued, perhaps. He
+was so very pale! She felt quite alarmed; really it was distressing.</p>
+
+<p>Making a desperate effort to recover from the stunning blow, he faltered
+out, "I heard that you made Mademoiselle de Gramont a proposition to"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"To become my humble companion? Yes, I did so at the request of Count
+Damoreau. But she definitely declined, and I felt much relieved, for she
+was entirely too handsome for that position. Shortly afterward I heard
+of a young person who suited me much better. I thought it was a mistake
+of the footman's, last night, when he said you desired to see the young
+lady who accompanied me. It was somewhat singular to have one's humble
+companion included in a visit to one's self! Now I comprehend that you
+thought she was your cousin. I hope you are feeling better; your color
+is coming again."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice was not listening. He had lost Madeleine anew. The agony of a
+second bereavement, the mystery that enveloped her fate, the dreadful
+uncertainty of tracing her, pressed upon him and rent his soul with
+fiercer throes than before. Muttering some hurried apology, he rose,
+staggered toward the door, and, to the amazement of the stoical footman,
+who was greatly scandalized thereby, the pertinacious stranger fairly
+reeled past him into the street.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+<h3>PURSUIT.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Maurice, when he took his abrupt leave of Lady Vivian, did not return to
+the hotel. He felt as though he could not breathe, could not exist, shut
+within four walls, with the oppressive weight of his new disappointment
+crushing and stifling his spirit. He traversed the streets with a rapid
+pace, not knowing nor caring whither he went, if he only kept in motion.
+His own torturing thoughts pursued him like haunting fiends, driving him
+mercilessly hither and thither, and he sped onward and onward, as though
+by increased celerity he could fly from his intangible persecutors.</p>
+
+<p>Now sprang up the tantalizing suggestion, that, as Lady Vivian had never
+seen Madeleine, the latter had presented herself under a feigned name,
+for the sake of concealing her rank, and baffling the friends who sought
+to discover her abode. Was not <i>that</i> very possible, very natural? He
+recalled the tall, finely-moulded form, of which he had caught a glimpse
+in Lady Langdon's <i>salon</i>, and for awhile he cherished this chimera;
+then its place was usurped by one more painful: Madeleine was perhaps
+travelling alone, subjected by her very beauty to the curious scrutiny,
+the heartless insults of brutal men; and, perchance, through her
+ignorance of the world, trapped into some snare from which she could
+never be extricated unharmed. Then his mind was filled with the horrible
+idea that, in her friendliness and despair, finding no place of refuge
+on earth, she had flung away her burdensome life with violent hands.
+Nothing was more improbable than that a being endowed with her
+self-controlled, serene, sorrow-accepting temperament, should be driven
+to such an act of unholy madness. Yet Maurice allowed the frightful
+fantasy to work within his brain until it clothed itself with a shape
+like reality, and drove him to the verge of distraction.</p>
+
+<p>Where could she have gone? <i>Where? oh, where?</i></p>
+
+<p>Hundreds of times he asked himself that perplexing question! All the
+pursuing demons seemed to shout it in his ears, and defy him to answer.
+If she had escaped the perils he most dreaded, where had she hidden
+herself? Perhaps she had only taken out a passport for England, with a
+view of throwing those who sought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> to track her steps, off the right
+scent. If she had gone to England, her passport must have been <i>vis&eacute;d</i>
+as she passed through Paris. If it had not been presented at the <i>bureau
+des passeports</i>, she must have remained in Paris. If she had conceived
+any plans by which she thought to earn a livelihood, where could they so
+well be carried into execution? In that great city she might reasonably
+hope to be lost in the crowd, and draw breath untraced and unknown. If
+she had left the metropolis, the fact could easily be ascertained by
+examining the list of passports. Maurice walked on and on, until
+gradually the clamorous city grew silent, and the streets were deserted.
+Besides the vigilant police, only a few, late revellers, with uncertain
+steps, and faces hardly more haggard than his own, passed him, from time
+to time. Still he walked, carrying his hat in his hand, that the
+night-breeze might cool his fevered brow.</p>
+
+<p>There was a stir of wheels again, a waking-up movement around him;
+shop-windows lifting their shutter-lids, and opening their closed eyes;
+men and women bustling forward, with busy, refreshed morning faces.
+Another day had dawned and brought its weight of anguish for endurance.
+Maurice had paced the streets all night. The light that struck sharply
+upon his bloodshot eyes first made him aware of the new morning. The
+season for action then had arrived; the night had flown as a hideous
+dream. He did not know into what part of London he had wandered, but
+hailed a cab, sprang in, and gave the order to be driven to Morley's.
+The distance seemed insupportably long. He was now tormented by the fear
+that he should not reach his destination in time to take the first train
+for Dover. When he alighted at the hotel, he learned that in less than
+an hour the train would start. He dashed off a few, incoherent,
+sorrowful lines to Bertha, hastily crammed his clothes into his trunk,
+paid his bill, drove to the station, and secured a seat one moment
+before the railway carriages were in motion.</p>
+
+<p>After he had crossed the channel, and entered a railway coach at Calais,
+utter exhaustion succeeded to his state of turbulent wretchedness.
+Nature asserted her soothing rights, and poured over his bruised spirit
+the balm of sleep. With reviving strength came renewed hope, and when he
+awoke at the terminus, in Paris, he was inspired with the conviction
+that he should find Madeleine in that vast metropolis,&mdash;a conviction as
+firm as the belief he had entertained that he would behold her in
+Scotland, and afterwards that he would discover her in London. He
+hastened to the <i>bureau des passeports</i>, and examined the list. No<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>
+passport had been <i>vis&eacute;d</i> to which her name was attached. It was then
+certain that she was still in Paris. But what method could he devise for
+a systematic search? He thought of the argus-eyed, keen-scented police,
+who, with the faintest clew, can trace out any footprint once made
+within the precincts of the far-spreading barriers; but could he drag
+his cousin's name before those public authorities? Could he describe her
+person to them, and enter into details which would enable them to hunt
+her down like a criminal? Delicacy, manly feeling, forbade. He must seek
+her himself, unaided, unguided; and a superstitious faith grew strong
+within him that, through his unremitting search, never foregone, never
+relaxed, he would discover her at last.</p>
+
+<p>His plan was sufficiently vague and wild. He resolved to scour Paris
+from end to end, scanning every face that passed him, until the light
+shone upon hers, and kindled up once more his darkened existence.</p>
+
+<p>When he last returned from Brittany, he had engaged one small, plain
+apartment in the Rue Bonaparte, the <i>Latin</i> quarter of the city,&mdash;a
+favorite locality of students. Here he again took up his abode, or,
+rather, here he passed his nights; he could scarcely be said to have a
+dwelling-place by day. From dawn until late in the evening he wandered
+through the streets, peering into every youthful countenance that
+flitted by him, quickening his pace if he caught sight of some graceful
+female form above the ordinary stature, and plunging onward in pursuit,
+with his heart throbbing madly, and his fevered brain cheating him with
+phantoms. His search became almost a monomania. His mind, fixed
+strainingly upon this one, all-engrossing object, lost its balance, and
+he could no longer reason upon his own course, or see its futility, or
+devise a better. The invariable disappointment which closed every day's
+search, by some strange contradiction, only confirmed him in the belief
+that Madeleine was in Paris, and that he would shortly find her there;
+that he would meet her by some fortunate chance; would be drawn to her
+by some mysterious magnetic instinct. Every few days he visited the
+<i>bureau des passeports</i>, to ascertain whether her passport had been
+presented to be <i>vis&eacute;d</i>.</p>
+
+<p>To the friends he daily encountered he scarcely spoke, but hurried past
+them with hasty greeting, and a painfully engrossed look, which caused
+the sympathetic to turn their heads and gaze after him, wondering at the
+disordered attire and unsettled demeanor of the once elegant and
+vivacious young nobleman, who had graced the most courtly circles, and
+was looked upon as the very "glass of fashion and mould of form."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Maurice had been nearly a month in Paris, passing his days in the manner
+we have described, when, for the first time, he encountered Gaston de
+Bois. The former would have hastened on, with only the rapid salutation
+which had grown habitual to him, but M. de Bois stopped with
+outstretched hand, and said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Where have you hidden yourself? I have been expecting to see you ever
+since I came to Paris; but I could not discover where you
+lod&mdash;od&mdash;odged."</p>
+
+<p>"My lodgings are in the Rue Bonaparte, numero &mdash;," returned
+Maurice, abruptly; "but I am seldom at home."</p>
+
+<p>"You will allow me to take my chance of finding you?" asked M. de Bois,
+forcibly struck by his friend's altered appearance. "Or," he added, "you
+will come to see me instead? I am at the Hotel Meurice at present."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said Maurice, absently, and glancing around him at the
+passers-by as he spoke. "Good-morning."</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois would not be shaken off thus unceremoniously. He was too much
+distressed by the evident mental condition of the viscount. He turned
+and walked beside him, though conscious that Maurice looked annoyed.</p>
+
+<p>"When we parted, did you go to Scotland, as you pro&mdash;o&mdash;po&mdash;sed?"
+inquired Gaston.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but Lady Vivian was in London. I sought her there. She knew
+nothing of my cousin. I returned to Paris; for I am sure Madeleine is
+here."</p>
+
+<p>"Here?" almost gasped M. de Bois, stopping suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice walked on without even noticing the strange confusion that
+arrested his companion's steps.</p>
+
+<p>The latter recovered himself and rejoined him, asking, in as unconcerned
+a tone as he could command, "What has caused you to think so?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am certain of it;&mdash;her passport was taken out for England, but it has
+not been <i>vis&eacute;d</i> in Paris. She must be here still, and I know that I
+shall find her. I have walked the streets day after day, hoping to meet
+her, and I tell you I shall&mdash;I must!"</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois, whose equanimity had only been disturbed for a moment, shook
+his head sorrowfully, saying, "I fear <i>not</i>; it does not seem likely."</p>
+
+<p>"To me it <i>does</i>. Fifty times I have thought I caught sight of her, but
+she disappeared before I could make my way through some crowd to the
+spot where she was standing. This will not last forever,&mdash;ere long we
+shall meet face to face."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so! I heartily hope so! I would give all I possess, though that
+is little enough, to have it so!"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>These words were spoken with such generous warmth, that Maurice was
+moved. He had not before noticed the change in his Breton neighbor,&mdash;a
+change the precise opposite to the one which had taken place in himself,
+yet quite as remarkable.</p>
+
+<p>Gaston's address was no longer nervous and flurried; he had gained
+considerable self-command and repose of manner. The air of uncomfortable
+diffidence, which formerly characterized his deportment, had
+disappeared, and given place to a manly and cheerful bearing.</p>
+
+<p>"If he loves Madeleine," thought Maurice, "how can he look so calm while
+she is&mdash;God only knows where, and exposed to what dangers?"</p>
+
+<p>"Have you heard from Mademoiselle Ber&mdash;er&mdash;ertha?" asked M. de Bois,
+with some hesitation.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, several times. My cousin Bertha was broken-hearted at the news I
+sent her from London; but I trust that soon"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>He did not conclude his sentence: his wan face lighted up; his restless,
+straining eyes were fastened upon some form that passed in a carriage.
+Without even bidding M. de Bois good morning, he broke away and pursued
+the carriage; for some time he kept up with it, then Gaston saw him
+motion vehemently to a sleepy coachman, who was lazily driving an empty
+fiacre. The next moment Maurice had opened the door himself and leaped
+into the vehicle; it followed the carriage the young viscount had kept
+in view, and soon both were out of sight.</p>
+
+<p>The imagination of Maurice had become so highly inflamed that forms and
+faces constantly took the outline and lineaments of those ever-present
+to his mind. And when, after some exhausting pursuits, he approached
+near enough for the illusive likeness to fade away, or when the shape he
+was impetuously making towards was lost to sight before it could be
+neared, he always felt as though he had been upon the eve of that
+discovery upon which all his energies were concentrated.</p>
+
+<p>After their accidental encounter Gaston de Bois called upon Maurice
+repeatedly, but never found him at home.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha continued to write sorrowful letters teeming with inquiries.
+Maurice answered briefly, as though he could not spare time to devote to
+his pen, but always giving her hope that the very next letter would
+convey the glad intelligence which she pined to receive. Four months was
+the limit of her yearly visit to the Ch&acirc;teau de Gramont, and the period
+of her stay was rapidly drawing to a close. She wrote that in a few days
+her uncle would arrive and take her back to his residence in Bordeaux.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>
+The language in which this communication was made plainly indicated that
+she would rejoice at the change. She touched upon the probability of
+seeing Maurice before she left; but he was unmoved by the
+half-invitation; nothing could induce him to leave Paris while he
+cherished the belief that Madeleine was within its walls.</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan wrote and urged him to return home; but the summons was
+unheeded. He could not have endured, while his mind was in this terrible
+state of incertitude, to behold again the old ch&acirc;teau, which must
+conjure up so many harrowing recollections. Then, too, his natural
+affection for his father and his grandmother was embittered by the
+remembrance of their persecution of Madeleine. Until she had been
+found,&mdash;until he could hear from her own lips (as he knew he should)
+that she harbored no animosity towards them,&mdash;he could not force himself
+to forgive their injustice and cruelty. She alone had power to soften
+his heart and cement anew the broken link.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SISTER OF CHARITY.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The marvellous change in the bearing of Gaston de Bois, by which Maurice
+was struck, had been wrought by a triad of agents. A man who had passed
+his life in indolent seclusion, who had plunged into a tangled labyrinth
+of abstruse books, not in search of valuable knowledge, but to lose in
+its mazes the recollection of valueless hours; who had allowed his days
+to drag on in aimless monotony; who had fallen into melancholy because
+he lacked a healthy stimulus to rouse his faculties out of their
+life-deadening torpidity; who had allowed his nervous diffidence to gain
+such complete mastery over him that it tied his tongue, and clouded his
+vision, and confused his brain; who had despised himself because he was
+keenly conscious that his existence was purposeless and
+profitless;&mdash;this man, subjected to the sudden impetus of an occupation
+for which his mental acquirements and sedentary habits alike fitted him,
+found his new life a revelation. He had emerged from the dusty, beaten,
+grass-withered path his feet had spiritlessly trodden from earliest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>
+youth, and entered a field of bloom and verdure where the very stir of
+the atmosphere exhilarated, where the labor to be performed called
+dormant capacities into play and tested their strength, where each day's
+achievement gave the delightful assurance of latent powers within
+himself hitherto unrecognized,&mdash;in a word, where his manhood was
+developed through the regenerating virtue, the glorious might, the
+blessed privilege of <i>work!</i></p>
+
+<p>The second cause which had contributed to bring about the happy
+metamorphosis in Gaston de Bois sprang out of the hope-inspiring words
+Madeleine had dropped on that day which closed so darkly on the duke's
+orphan daughter. Those few, passing, precious words had fallen like
+fructuous seed and struck deep root in Gaston's spirit; and, as the
+germs shot upward, every branch was covered with blossoms of hope which
+perfumed his nights and days. He dared to believe that Bertha did not
+look upon him with disdain,&mdash;that she sympathized with the misfortune
+which debarred him from free intercourse with society,&mdash;that a deeper
+interest might emanate from this compassionate regard. The possibility
+of becoming worthy of her no longer appeared a dream so wild and
+baseless; but he was too modest, too distrustful of himself, to have
+given that golden dream entertainment had it not been inspired by
+Madeleine's kindly breath.</p>
+
+<p>The third cause which combined with the two just mentioned to
+revolutionize his character will unfold itself hereafter.</p>
+
+<p>The more cognizant M. de Bois became that powerful influences were
+vivifying, strengthening, and bringing order out of confusion in his own
+mind, the more troubled he felt in pondering over the disordered mental
+condition of Maurice. During a whole month after their accidental
+encounter in the street he called repeatedly at the lodgings of the
+viscount, but never once found him at home. Half discouraged, yet
+unwilling to abandon the hope of an interview, he persisted in his
+fruitless visits. One morning, to his unbounded satisfaction, when he
+inquired of the <i>concierge</i> if M. de Gramont was within, an affirmative
+answer was returned. Gaston could hardly credit the welcome
+intelligence, and involuntarily repeated the question.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, yes, poor young gentleman! he's not likely to be out again soon!"
+replied his informant, in a pitying tone.</p>
+
+<p>Without waiting for an explanation of the mysterious words, M. de Bois
+quickly ascended to the fifth story, and, being admitted into the
+antechamber by a neat-looking domestic, knocked at the door of the
+apartment which was indicated to him.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The voice of a stranger bade him enter. He turned the doorknob with
+shaking hand. The room was so small that it could be taken in at a
+single glance. It was a plain, almost furniture-less apartment. In the
+narrow bed lay Maurice. His eyes&mdash;those great, blue eyes which so
+strongly resembled Bertha's&mdash;were glittering with the wild lights of
+delirium; fever burned on his cheeks and seemed to scorch his parched
+lips. The fair, clustering curls were matted and tangled about his brow;
+his arms were tossing restlessly about. He sprang up into a sitting
+posture as Gaston appeared at the door, and gazed at him eagerly; then
+stared around, peering into every corner of the chamber, as though in
+quest of some one. Those searching glances were followed by a look of
+blank despair that settled heavily upon his pain-contracted features as
+he sank back and closed his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Beside the bed sat a woman, clad in the shapeless dress of black serge,
+and wearing the widely projecting white bonnet and cape, black veil,
+white band across the brow, and beneath the chin, which compose the
+attire of a sister <i>de bon secours</i>. She was one of that community of
+self-abnegating women, who, bound by holy vows, devote their lives to
+the care of the suffering, and are the most skilful, tender, and zealous
+nurses that France affords.</p>
+
+<p>Just beyond the good "sister" stood a young man, poring over a piece of
+paper, which had the appearance of a medical prescription: a
+spirited-looking youth, whose harmonious and intellectual cast of
+features was heightened to rare beauty by richly mellow coloring, and
+the silken curves of a beard and moustache unprofaned by a
+razor,&mdash;curves softly traced above the fresh, rubious lips, and
+gracefully deepening about the cheeks and chin,&mdash;curves that disappear
+forever when the civilized barbarism of shaving has been accepted.</p>
+
+<p>He came forward when M. de Bois entered, and accosted him in an earnest,
+rapid tone.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope, sir, you are a friend of this gentleman. Am I right in my
+supposition?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;yes&mdash;what&mdash;what has happened?" asked M. de Bois, his countenance
+plainly betokening his alarm.</p>
+
+<p>"I occupy the adjoining apartment," continued the stranger. "My name is
+Walton. Three nights ago I was startled by the sound of some object
+falling heavily near my door, followed by a deep groan. I found this
+gentleman lying on the ground, apparently insensible. I carried him into
+his chamber, laid him upon the bed, and summoned the <i>concierge</i>. The
+name inscribed upon her book is the Viscount Maurice de Gramont, and his
+last resi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>dence the ch&acirc;teau of his father, Count Tristan de Gramont, in
+Brittany, near Rennes. I took upon myself the responsibility of calling
+a physician,&mdash;Dr. Dupont,&mdash;and, through his advice, of engaging this
+good 'sister,' one of the '<i>s&oelig;urs de bon secours</i>,' as a nurse. Dr.
+Dupont wrote to his patient's father; but no answer has been received. I
+have been with your friend very constantly. You perceive he has a raging
+fever; he talks a great deal, but too incoherently to be able to answer
+any questions or to give any directions."</p>
+
+<p>This information was communicated with a quick, energetic intonation,
+while the speaker stood fanning Maurice, and preventing the hand which
+he flung about from striking against the wall. There was a confident
+rapidity in the stranger's movements, a vigorous manliness and
+self-dependence in his bearing, strikingly dissimilar to the deportment
+which usually characterizes young Parisians at the same age. Though he
+spoke the French language with fluent correctness, a slightly foreign
+accent betrayed to M. de Bois that he was not a native of France.</p>
+
+<p>Gaston thanked him as warmly as his troublesome impediment permitted,
+and said that he would himself write to the Count de Gramont. Then,
+bending over his friend, took his hot, unquiet hand, and spoke to him
+again and again. His voice failed to touch any chord of memory and cause
+it to vibrate in recognition. Maurice was muttering the same word over
+and over; Gaston hardly needed to bow his head to catch the imperfect
+sound; he knew, before he heard distinctly, that it was the name of
+"Madeleine."</p>
+
+<p>"Had you not better write your letter <i>immediately</i>?" asked young
+Walton. "Will you walk into my room? I do not see any writing materials
+here. Mine are at your service."</p>
+
+<p>Gaston, as he followed the stranger into the adjoining chamber, could
+not but be struck by the easy, off-hand, decided manner in which he
+spoke, and the promptitude with which he desired to accomplish the work
+to be done.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Walton's sitting-room, which was separated from his bed-chamber, was
+much larger than the apartment of Maurice. It had an air of great
+comfort, if not of decided elegance, and testified to the literary and
+artistic taste of its occupant. The walls were decorated with fine
+photographic views, and some early efforts in painting. Here stood an
+easel, holding an unfinished picture; there an open piano; further on a
+convenient writing-table; in the centre another table covered with books
+and portfolios; materials for writing and sketching were scattered about
+with a bachelor's disregard for order.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I will clear you a space here," said he, sweeping the contents of one
+table upon another, already overburdened. "Everything is in confusion;
+for I have been working at odd moments. I could not make up my mind to
+go to the studio. I would not leave that poor fellow until somebody
+claimed him. What an interesting face he has! If he were only better, I
+would make a sketch. His countenance is just my beau ideal of the young
+Saxon knight in a historical picture I am painting. A man always finds
+materials for art just beneath his hand, if he only has wit and thrift
+to stoop and gather them as he goes. But I fear I am interrupting you.
+Make yourself at home. I will leave you while you are writing. Really, I
+cannot express how glad I am that you have come at last. I have been
+looking for you&mdash;that is, for somebody who knew M. de Gramont&mdash;every
+moment for two days."</p>
+
+<p>After drawing back the curtains to give M. de Bois more light, and
+glancing around to see that he was supplied with all he could require,
+the young artist returned to the apartment of Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>Ronald Walton was born of South Carolinian parents,&mdash;their only child.
+His boyhood was not passed in a locality calculated to develop artistic
+instincts, nor had his education afforded him artistic advantages, nor
+had he been thrown into a sphere of artistic associates; yet from the
+time his tiny fingers could hold brush or pencil he had seized upon
+engravings of romantic scenery, copied them upon an enlarged scale, and
+painted them in oil, to the astonishment of his parents and friends.
+When his young companions extracted enjoyment from fish-hook and gun,
+and hilariously filled game-bags and fishing-baskets, he sat quietly
+drinking in a higher, more humane delight before his easel. These
+tastes, as they strengthened, caused his father, though a liberal and
+cultivated man, severe disappointment. At times he was even disposed to
+place a compulsory check upon his son's artist proclivities; but the
+soft, persuasive voice of the gentle, refined, clear-sighted mother
+interposed. She had made the most loving study of her child's character,
+and had faith in his fitness for the vocation he desired to adopt. She
+pleaded that his obvious gift might be tested, and proved spurious or
+genuine, before it was trampled under foot as unworthy of recognition;
+and her heart-wisdom finally prevailed.</p>
+
+<p>Ronald was sent to Paris to study under a distinguished master. During
+three years he had made golden use of his opportunities. He was
+remarkable among his fellow-students for his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> indomitable perseverance,
+and his power of concentrating all his thoughts upon his work. He
+experienced a desire to attain excellence for <i>its own sake</i>, not for
+the petty ambition of <i>excelling others</i>. Thus he became very popular
+among his associates, and excited their admiration without ever
+awakening the jealousies of wounded self-love. Though he had determined
+to devote his life to art, from the conviction that it was the vocation
+for which he came commissioned from the Creator's hand, there was
+nothing morbid in his passion for his profession. It was a healthy love
+of the beautiful in outward form, springing from the love of all which
+the beautiful typifies, combined with a strong impulse to represent and
+perpetuate the haunting images of varied loveliness which constantly
+floated through his brain.</p>
+
+<p>The young Carolinian was called an enthusiast even by his French
+fellow-students, with whom enthusiasm is an inheritance; but his
+enthusiasm was allied to a severely critical taste,&mdash;a rare combination;
+and being grafted upon the tree of <i>practicability</i>, indigenous to the
+soil of his young country, it brought down his ideal conceptions into
+actual execution.</p>
+
+<p>The philosopher of the present day scouts at <i>enthusiasm</i>; but what
+agent is half so mighty in giving the needful spur to genius? Enthusiasm
+kindles a new flame in the chilled soul when the ashes of disappointment
+have extinguished its fires; enthusiasm reinvigorates and braces the
+spirit that has become weary and enervated in the oppressive atmosphere
+of uncongenial <i>entourage</i>; enthusiasm is the cool, refreshing breeze of
+a warm climate and the blazing log of a cold. Ronald's unexhausted
+enthusiasm was the secret fountain whose waters nourished laurels for
+him in the gardens of success.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois, when he had concluded his letter, found the art-student at
+the bedside of Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>"I will post your letter, if you please," said Ronald; "then I will make
+a moment's descent into the studio, or some of those noisy madcaps will
+be rushing here after me. I will return, however, before long, if you
+have no objection."</p>
+
+<p>Hardly waiting for M. de Bois's courteous, but rather slowly-expressed
+acknowledgment, he hurried away.</p>
+
+<p>For a couple of hours Gaston sat beside Maurice, listening to his
+indistinct ravings, and tracing out that striking likeness to a
+countenance he had studied too closely for his own peace. Now and then
+he exchanged a word or two with the good "sister," as she moistened the
+lips, or bathed the brow of the sufferer.</p>
+
+<p>The doctor came, but pronounced his patient no better, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> threw out a
+hint that he had some fears the fever was taking the form of typhus;
+adding a warning in regard to the danger of infection. That intelligence
+had no influence upon Gaston, who resolved to pass as many hours as
+possible with his friend. Nor did it affect Ronald Walton, when he
+returned and heard the physician's verdict.</p>
+
+<p>The two young men for the next four days alternately shared the duties
+of the holy "sister."</p>
+
+<p>The postal arrangements between Paris and Rennes chanced, at that
+moment, to be very imperfect; the letter of Dr. Dupont never reached its
+destination, and that of M. de Bois was delayed on its route. It was not
+until the fifth day after it was posted that Count Tristan, who obeyed
+the summons with all haste, arrived in Paris. His son had never once
+evinced sufficient consciousness to recognize Gaston de Bois, but, the
+instant the count was ushered into the room, was seized with a fit of
+frenzy, and broke forth in a torrent of reproaches, upbraided his father
+with the ruin and death of Madeleine, charged him with having wrought
+the destruction of his own son, and warned him that he had brought utter
+desolation upon his ancestral home.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Dupont, who entered the room during this paroxysm, suggested to the
+count the propriety of withdrawing. The latter, although every word
+Maurice uttered inflicted a deadly pang, could not, at first, be induced
+to tear himself away. The doctor was resolute in pronouncing his
+sentence of banishment, and declared that the viscount's life might be
+the sacrifice if he were subjected to further excitement.</p>
+
+<p>We will not attempt to portray the poignant sufferings of the count,
+who, in spite of his wiliness and worldliness, was passionately attached
+to his only child,&mdash;the central axis upon which all his hopes, his
+schemes, his whole world moved.</p>
+
+<p>Several times, while the invalid was sleeping, his father ventured to
+steal into the chamber; but, by some strange species of magnetism, his
+very sphere seemed to affect the slumberer, who invariably awoke, and
+recognized, or partially recognized him, and burst out anew in violent
+denunciations, to which respect would never have allowed him to give
+utterance, except under the stimulus of delirium. The count writhed and
+shrank beneath the fierce stabbing of those incisive words, and, in his
+ungovernable grief, flung himself beside the son, whom he feared death
+would shortly snatch from his arms, pouring forth assurances Maurice
+would once have hailed as words of life, but which now fell powerless
+upon his unheeding ears. While Count Tristan's over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>whelming anguish
+lasted, there was no promise he would not have made to purchase his
+son's restoration, and no promise he would not have broken, if interest
+prompted, when the peril was past.</p>
+
+<p>After one of these agitating interviews, the doctor's edict entirely
+closed the door of the patient's chamber against the count, who was
+forced to admit the wisdom of the order.</p>
+
+<p>Gaston de Bois and Ronald Walton, between whom a pleasant intimacy was
+springing up, continued to watch by the bed of Maurice. Another
+fortnight passed, and though he lay, as it were, in a grave of fire, the
+doctor's prediction of typhus fever was not verified. At the expiration
+of this period, Ronald was the first to notice a favorable change, and
+to discover that the invalid had lucid intervals which showed his reason
+was reascending her abdicated throne. But he abstained from pointing out
+the improvement to Gaston, fearing that, in his joy, he might
+communicate the consolatory intelligence to the count, who would then
+insist upon seeing his son, and possibly reproduce the evil results by
+which his former visits had been attended.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice had ceased to moan and mutter, and lay motionless as one
+thoroughly exhausted. He slept much, waking for but a few moments, and
+sinking again into a species of half-lethargy. There was something
+inexpressibly sweet and pleasant in his present calmness; his mind
+seemed to have been mysteriously soothed and satisfied; the turbulent
+waves, that dashed him hither and thither against the sharp rocks of
+doubt and fear, had subsided. His features, especially when he slept,
+wore an expression of the most serene contentment.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>s&oelig;ur de bon secours</i>, who had watched him through the night, had
+yielded her place to the "sister," who assumed the office of nurse
+during the day. Gaston entered soon after, and, finding the patient
+gently slumbering, sat down beside his bed. After a time, Maurice
+stirred, drew a long breath, and slowly opened his eyes. They met those
+of his watcher. For some time the invalid gazed at him without speaking,
+and then said, in a tone that was hardly audible,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"M. de Bois."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Maurice&mdash;dear friend&mdash;you are better,&mdash;you know me at last,"
+exclaimed Gaston, joyfully.</p>
+
+<p>"I knew you before; you have been the most faithful of friends and
+nurses. I knew you quite well, and I knew <i>her</i> too!"</p>
+
+<p>Gaston bounded from his chair, breathing so hard that he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> could scarcely
+stammer out, "Her! who&mdash;o&mdash;o&mdash;om do you me&mdash;e&mdash;ean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine," replied Maurice, confidently.</p>
+
+<p>"Mademoiselle Mad&mdash;ad&mdash;adeleine; you are dream&mdash;eaming!"</p>
+
+<p>"No! I thought so at first, and the dream was so sweet that I would not
+break it by word or motion, fearing that I should discover it was not
+reality. But it was no <i>dream</i>. Night after night,&mdash;how many I do not
+know&mdash;I could not count,&mdash;I have seen Madeleine beside me! When the good
+'sister' moved about the room, in the dim light of the <i>veilleuse</i>, in
+spite of her coarse, unshapely garb, I recognized the outlines of
+Madeleine's form; notwithstanding the uncouth bonnet, and the white
+bandage that concealed her hair and brow, and, passing beneath her chin,
+almost hid her face, I recognized the features of Madeleine. I watched
+her as she glided about the room, and with her delicate, noiseless,
+rapidly moving touch created the most perfect order around her. I heard
+her as she softly sang sweet anthems, and I could not mistake the voice
+of Madeleine. I felt her hand, her cool, fresh, velvety hand, upon my
+burning forehead, and it soothed me deliciously. I lay with closed eyes
+as she bathed my temples, and passed her fingers through my hair to
+loosen its tangles. I was afraid of frightening her away, or finding I
+saw but a vision. The water she held to my lips was nectar; when she
+smoothed my pillow, all pain passed from the temples that rested upon
+it, throbbing with agony before, and I sank into a sweet slumber,&mdash;not
+unconscious slumber: I knew that I was sleeping; I knew that Madeleine
+sat there, filling the place of the sister of charity; I knew that when
+I opened my eyes I should see her,&mdash;<i>and I did</i>, again and again. I
+never once spoke to her; I feared some spell would be broken if I
+breathed her name. In the morning she disappeared; but I knew she would
+come again at midnight, when all was quiet, and the light was carefully
+shaded. M. de Bois, my dear Gaston, I tell you <i>I have seen Madeleine!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois sat still, looking too much astounded to utter a word.</p>
+
+<p>"I see you cannot believe me," Maurice continued. "She never came while
+you were here, and so you think it is a dream. A happy dream! a dream
+full of the balm of Gilead! for she has cured me! My brain was a burning
+volcano until her hand was laid upon my brow, and I gazed in her face,
+and knew it was no phantom. Do not look so much distressed, my dear
+Gaston. I am perfectly in my senses."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois did not contradict him. Perhaps he remembered the good rule
+of never opposing a sick man's vagaries. After a pause he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Maurice, since you are quite yourself, would you not like to see your
+father?"</p>
+
+<p>The wan face of Maurice flushed slightly.</p>
+
+<p>"Is he here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he has been here for more than a fortnight. The doctor forbade his
+entering. Will you not see him now?"</p>
+
+<p>The invalid assented languidly. He had perhaps spoken too much and
+overtaxed his strength.</p>
+
+<p>The joy of Count Tristan was deep and voiceless when he was once more
+permitted to embrace his son. He was so fearful of touching upon some
+painful chord, and of again hearing those frantic ravings, that he had
+no language at his command. Maurice, in a faint tone, inquired after his
+grandmother and Bertha, and then seemed too weary to prolong the
+conversation. Glad at heart, as the count could not but feel, at the
+wonderful improvement in his son, he was ill at ease in his presence,
+and seemed always to have some haunting dread upon his mind. It was a
+relief when the doctor forbade his patient to converse, and hinted that
+the count should make his visits very brief.</p>
+
+<p>The next day, when M. de Bois entered, Maurice greeted him in a mournful
+tone.</p>
+
+<p>"She did not come last night. I watched for her in vain. The 'sister,'
+yonder, went as usual at midnight, and came back in the morning; but,
+during the night, a stranger took her place."</p>
+
+<p>What could M. de Bois answer? He gave a sigh of sympathy, but did not
+attempt to make any comment.</p>
+
+<p>"She knows perhaps that my father is here, and she will come no more for
+fear of being discovered. But I have <i>seen her</i>, Gaston! I know I have
+seen her! I could not have lived if I had not. And her countenance was
+not sad,&mdash;it wore a look of patient hope that lent a glory to her face.
+The very remembrance of that saint-like expression put to shame the
+despair to which I have yielded."</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I&mdash;I&mdash;am"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois could get no further. If he meant to use any argument to
+persuade Maurice that it was only a vision, conjured up by his fevered
+imagination, which he had seen, the attempt would have been vain.
+Maurice clung to the belief that he had really beheld Madeleine, and
+that conviction soothed, strengthened, and reanimated him.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>WEARY DAYS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Up to this period of his life the vigorous constitution of Maurice had
+suffered no exhausting drain. His habits had been so regular, his mode
+of life so simple, that his fine <i>physique</i> had been untrifled with,
+uninjured. As a natural sequence, the first inroads made upon its
+strength were rapidly repaired. The fever once conquered, in a week he
+was sufficiently convalescent to walk out, leaning on the arm of Gaston
+de Bois, or Ronald Walton. His gait was feeble, his form attenuated, his
+countenance had lost its ruddy glow,&mdash;the lines had sharpened until
+their youthful, healthful roundness was wholly obliterated; but the
+nervous, untranquil expression had passed away from his face, and the
+restless glancing from side to side had left his eyes. Through the
+stimulating medium of fresh air and gentle exercise he gathered new
+vitality, and the promise of speedy restoration was daily confirmed.</p>
+
+<p>His favorite resort was the <i>atelier</i> of the celebrated master under
+whose direction Ronald was studying his art. Seated in the comfortable
+arm-chair devoted to the use of models, Maurice often remained for
+hours, watching the busy brushes and earnest faces, among which the
+genius-lighted countenance of the young Carolinian shone conspicuously.
+On one of these occasions, after sitting for some time lost in thought,
+when he chanced to turn his head Ronald surprised him by crying out,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"My dear fellow, don't move! Keep that position another moment,&mdash;will
+you? I am making a sketch of your head. It has just the outline I want
+for my Saxon Knight after the battle."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice could not but smile at this evidence of the national trait of
+the young American, who seized upon every material within his reach for
+the advancement of his art. Ronald's words, too, struck him,&mdash;"After the
+battle!" Well might he resemble one who had passed through a severe
+conflict; but it was also one who was prepared to fight valiantly anew,
+and not disposed to succumb to the army of adverse circumstances arrayed
+against his peace.</p>
+
+<p>It was not possible for a young man, endowed with the impressible
+temperament of Maurice, to be thrown into constant commu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>nication with
+an associate as full of vigorous activity as Ronald Walton, without
+being stirred and inspired by the contact. The force, decision,
+aptitude, promptness, which distinguished Ronald, had constituted him a
+sort of prince among his fellow-students, who gave him the lead in all
+their united movements, without defining to themselves his claim to
+supremacy. Ronald's character was not free from imperfections; but its
+very faults were essentially national,&mdash;were characteristics of that
+"fast-running nation" which is "indivertible in aim," and incredulous of
+the existence of the unattainable. His dominant failing was a
+self-dependence, which, in a weaker nature, would have degenerated into
+self-sufficiency, but just stopped short of that complacent, puerile
+egotism, which narrows the mind, and rears its own opinions upon a
+judgment-seat to pronounce verdicts upon the rest of the world. He never
+doubted his ability to scale any height upon which he fixed his eyes; he
+laughed at obstacles; he did not believe in impossibilities; what any
+other man could accomplish, that he had an internal conviction he might
+also achieve; and he held the faith of the poet-queen that all men were
+possible heroes.</p>
+
+<p>These attributes were precisely those most calculated to impress and
+charm Maurice, and he regarded Ronald with unbounded admiration, mingled
+with a sickening sense of regret when he reflected upon the trammels
+which reined in the ready impulses and crushed the instinctive
+aspirations which were wrestling within himself.</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan, as soon as his son was sufficiently restored to travel,
+suggested that he should return with him to Brittany; but Maurice
+betrayed such uncompromising reluctance to this proposal that his father
+thought it wise not to press the point.</p>
+
+<p>Though the count had escaped a calamity, which even to contemplate had
+almost driven him out of his mind,&mdash;though his son's life was spared,
+and his restoration to vigorous health assured,&mdash;at times the father
+felt as if that son were lost to him forever. An inexplicable reserve
+had risen up and thrust them asunder. In the count's presence Maurice
+was always abstracted and pensive; he uttered no complaints, made no
+petitions. He had come to the conclusion that both were useless; but his
+opinions and wishes were no longer frankly, boldly, iterated. He and his
+father stood upon different platforms, with an invisible, but an
+insurmountable barrier looming up between them. Count Tristan, albeit
+irritated, galled, grieved, could discover no mode of re&euml;stablishing the
+olden footing. After spending a month<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> in Paris, he returned to
+Brittany, his mind filled with discomforting forebodings, to which he
+could give no definite shape.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice was once more left in the great, gay capital, his own
+master,&mdash;at liberty to plunge into whatever sea of dissipation, to float
+idly down whatever tide of pleasure lured him. But he wronged himself
+when he warned his father, some months previous, that if he were
+debarred from studying a profession, he might seek excitement, or
+oblivion, in impure channels, and waste his exuberant energies in
+degrading pastimes. He spoke on the spur of some vague, restless impulse
+within him, that clamored for an outlet; but he misjudged himself in
+imagining that he could be compelled to drown the memory of his
+disappointment in the wine-cup, the vortex of the gaming-table, or the
+more fearful maelstrom of siren allurements. To a young heart which has
+not been sullied by familiar contact with evil, there is no &aelig;gis so
+invulnerable to the assaults of those deadly enemies, who make their
+attacks in the fascinating garb of licentious liberty, as a strong,
+pure, life-absorbing attachment. He who wears the shield of a first,
+stainless affection, carries Ithuriel's spear in his hand, and, at a
+single touch, the sensual enchanter in his path, however resplendent its
+disguise, drops the fair-featured mask and shining mantle, and stands
+revealed in native hideousness. The image of Madeleine, ever present to
+Maurice, drew around him a protecting circle which nothing vile could
+enter, and, wherever his own eyes turned, it seemed to him that her
+heavenly eyes followed. Could he profane their holy gaze by fixing his
+upon scenes of captivating degradation and rose-crowned vice?</p>
+
+<p>Day after day, as his strength returned, it was but natural that he
+should grow more and more weary of monotonous indolence, and more and
+more impatient to escape from its depressing, deadening thraldom. The
+happy change, which a settled occupation had effected in Gaston de Bois,
+seemed to add to the discontent of his friend. Sometimes he was on the
+point of starting for Brittany, and making a fresh appeal to his father;
+then he was withheld by the dread that an angry discussion would be the
+only sequence. He knew that his father's pride, sustained by that of his
+grandmother, was unconquerable, and that the sentence, which condemned
+him to a dreary, inert, and profitless existence, would only be
+pronounced upon him anew.</p>
+
+<p>Since his illness he had entirely abandoned his vain search for
+Madeleine. He always felt as though he had seen her, albeit, when he
+attempted to reflect upon the likelihood that she had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> actually sat
+beside his couch, and watched over him during his illness, reason
+essayed to efface the impression which could hardly have been made by
+the fingers of reality. Even granting that Madeleine, on leaving
+Brittany, had joined the sisterhood, and proposed to devote her life to
+holy offices, for which she was richly dowered by nature, was there not
+a novitiate to be passed? How could she so soon have entered upon her
+sacred duties? And if by some mysterious dispensation she had been
+absolved from the probation of a novice, how could she have learned that
+he was ill? How could she have come to him so promptly? Was it probable
+that Mr. Walton, an entire stranger, had, by mere accident, selected a
+nurse from the very society which she had joined? These questions, and
+others equally difficult to answer, sprang up constantly in his mind,
+and found no satisfactory solution. Yet the conviction that he had
+actually beheld her remained unshaken.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha had been apprised by her aunt of the dangerous illness of
+Maurice, and had written to him when he was unable to read her letters.
+As soon as he was convalescent, they were placed in his hands.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Gaston, write a line to my cousin for me," begged Maurice,
+feeling that he had not strength to reply, and little dreaming what a
+thrill of joy ran through Gaston's frame at that request.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois wrote,&mdash;wrote with an eloquence that could never have found
+utterance through his tongue.</p>
+
+<p>If we may judge from the number of times Bertha perused that letter, or
+if we may draw an inference from her wearing it about her person
+(probably that she might be able to refresh her memory with its
+information concerning her cousin), the epistle was either very
+difficult of comprehension, or it had some witching spell which drew her
+eyes irresistibly to its cabalistic characters.</p>
+
+<p>She had not recovered her wonted buoyancy. Beneath her uncle's roof she
+pined for Madeleine hardly less than at the Ch&acirc;teau de Gramont.</p>
+
+<p>The Marquis de Merrivale, her guardian, was a bachelor. The chief object
+of his existence was an endeavor to "take life easy," and guard himself
+from all vexations and discomforts. His next aim was to pamper the
+cravings of an epicurean appetite, but always with such judicious
+ministry that his digestive organs might not be impaired thereby. He was
+good-natured on principle, because it was too much trouble to get
+excited and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> vexed. His equanimity was seldom disturbed, save by his
+cook's failure in the concoction of a favorite dish.</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan had drawn largely on his invention when he informed the
+Marchioness de Fleury that Bertha's uncle was exceedingly tenacious of
+his rights, and jealous of the interference of his niece's relatives in
+regard to any future alliance she might form. The marquis never dreamed
+of troubling his brain with such a minor matter as matrimony. He was
+inclined to be governed entirely by Bertha's predilection,&mdash;to leave the
+affair wholly to her, throwing off the trouble with the responsibility.
+He could have no objection to see her affianced to the Duke de
+Montauban,&mdash;he would have had none to her union with Maurice de Gramont.
+He found it sufficient pleasure to have his bright-faced niece sitting
+opposite to him at table, so long as she was gay and had a good
+appetite. If he had thwarted her wishes he would have accused himself of
+making a base, unkinly attempt to injure her digestion by causing her
+annoyance. He considered himself quite incapable of so unworthy, so
+harmful so cruel an action.</p>
+
+<p>When she returned from the Ch&acirc;teau de Gramont, he was discomposed at
+finding that she brought back a clouded visage, and seemed perfectly
+indifferent to the choicest dainties which he caused to be set before
+her as the most striking mark of his affection. Indeed, he became so
+uncomfortable when she rejected these delicate attentions day after day,
+that his mind was gradually prepared to look favorably upon a
+proposition which Bertha had resolved to make.</p>
+
+<p>She had been at home about a month; they were dining,&mdash;that is, her
+uncle was enjoyingly partaking of the meal that rounded his day, while
+Bertha's fork played with the oyster <i>pat&eacute;</i> on her plate, dividing it
+into tiny bits, but never lifting one to her mouth. The marquis, after
+descanting warmly upon the excellence of the <i>pat&eacute;</i>, which he highly
+relished, interrupted his eulogium by saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"My dear child, you have not tasted a morsel of this incomparable
+<i>pat&eacute;</i>! It is a triumph of culinary art! If you will just oblige me by
+touching a small piece to your lips; the paste is so light it will
+magically melt! Really, you <i>must eat</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot, uncle."</p>
+
+<p>"Try, try; it disturbs me greatly to see you sitting there looking so
+gloomy. It will really hurt my digestion, and that would be a frightful
+calamity. Don't you like Lucien's cooking? I think him a treasure; but
+if you cannot relish what he prepares he shall receive his dismissal."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I dare say I should like the cooking in Paris better than any other,"
+remarked Bertha, treacherously assailing her uncle in his vulnerable
+point.</p>
+
+<p>"Paris! what are you talking about? We cannot have our dinners sent from
+Paris and kept warm on the road,&mdash;can we?"</p>
+
+<p>"But we might go to Paris and take our dinners," she rejoined,
+coaxingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Bless my heart! What an idea! It is a day's journey! Think of the
+trouble and discomfort of getting there!"</p>
+
+<p>"Think of the new inventions of the Parisian <i>cuisine</i>; for they invent
+new dishes, my Cousin Maurice has told me, as often as they originate
+new fashions for dress. There are abundance of novel dishes every day
+issuing from the brains of accomplished cooks,&mdash;dishes of which you have
+never even heard. You really ought to taste some of them."</p>
+
+<p>"That's a consideration,&mdash;positively it is. I must reflect upon it!"
+replied her uncle.</p>
+
+<p>"And Maurice seems to cling to the idea that my Cousin
+Madeleine"&mdash;continued Bertha.</p>
+
+<p>"There, there, my dear; that will do! don't touch on that unpleasant
+subject, especially at dinner; it will certainly injure your digestive
+organs, and give you the blues for the rest of the day. I assure you, my
+child, all low spirits come from indigestion. I am convinced indigestion
+is one great cause of all the sadness and sorrow, and, I dare say, of
+all the sin in the world."</p>
+
+<p>"It seems to me change of air must be very beneficial," replied Bertha,
+recovering from the false step she had been on the point of making.</p>
+
+<p>"Very wisely remarked! Change of air is beneficial, and gentle exercise
+is beneficial: both stimulate the digestive faculties and keep up their
+healthy action. And you really think, my dear, you would like to taste
+some of those new Parisian dishes?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should indeed!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then you shall. I look upon it as criminal, in the present low state of
+your appetite, to thwart its faintest craving. Of course we cannot
+procure anything fit to sustain nature on the road to Paris, but I can
+make Pierre pack up a basket of refreshments, and a bottle of old wine,
+so that we shall not be poisoned on the way. If we can only make the
+journey comfortably, I have no objection to investigate the gastronomic
+novelties of which you have heard. I could take Lucien with us, that he
+might learn some new mysteries in his art."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"To be sure you could. When shall we start, dear uncle? I am so anxious
+to go! When shall we start?"</p>
+
+<p>"There! there! Don't get excited about it; that will interfere with the
+gastric juices. Let us conclude our dinner quietly. Try a wing of that
+pheasant, while we discuss the matter with wholesome calmness."</p>
+
+<p>Bertha allowed herself to be helped to the wing, and tried to force down
+a few morsels for the sake of humoring the generously inclined <i>bon
+vivant</i>, who grew more and more genial and amiably disposed as he sipped
+his Ch&acirc;teau Margaux. Fine wine invariably had a softening, expansive
+effect upon his character, and, after a few glasses, he honestly looked
+upon himself as one of the most tender-hearted, soberly inoffensive, and
+morally disposed of mortals.</p>
+
+<p>If Bertha had openly proposed to him that they should spend a few weeks
+in Paris for the gratification of any praiseworthy intention of her own,
+or of any harmless whim, he would have unhesitatingly refused, and
+opposed any number of objections to the proposition; but she had
+introduced the subject in its most favorable light, and was sure of a
+victory.</p>
+
+<p>A few days later, the Marquis de Merrivale and his niece, attended by
+her maid, his valet and cook, were on their way to the metropolis. The
+marquis, having instituted many inquiries with the view of discovering
+what hotel rejoiced in the possession of the most scientific cook,
+concluded to engage a suite of apartments at the hotel <i>des Trois
+Empereurs</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The meeting between Bertha and Maurice was as full of tenderness as
+though they had been in reality what their strong family resemblance
+caused them to appear, brother and sister.</p>
+
+<p>"No word from Madeleine yet?" was Bertha's first inquiry,&mdash;hardly an
+inquiry, for she knew what the answer must be.</p>
+
+<p>Then Maurice told her of the <i>s&oelig;ur de bon secours</i> who had sat by his
+bed night after night.</p>
+
+<p>"Could it really have been Madeleine?" she asked, breathlessly.</p>
+
+<p>"M. de Bois seems to think not; yet I am unshaken in my conviction that
+it was she herself."</p>
+
+<p>"But why did you not speak to her?"</p>
+
+<p>"A feeling which I can scarcely define withheld me. At first I thought I
+was dreaming, and that the dream would be broken if I spoke or moved.
+Then I felt sure Madeleine was there, but that she believed herself
+unrecognized, and if I showed that I knew her she would leave me,&mdash;leave
+me when I could not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> follow, and must again have lost all trace of her.
+It was such a luxury, such a joy to feel her by my side! It was her
+presence and not the skill of the physician which restored me."</p>
+
+<p>"And you never once betrayed yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. What seems most singular is that from the very day I mentioned to
+M. de Bois that I had seen her, she came no more. Yet how could she have
+learned, or divined, that I knew her?"</p>
+
+<p>"That circumstance, dear Maurice, makes it all look like a dream. As
+soon as the fever left you the phantom it conjured up disappeared."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice shook his head, unconvinced, and Bertha was too willing to be
+deceived herself to attempt to persuade him that he was in error.</p>
+
+<p>The Marquis de Merrivale now entered. Maurice, whom he had only known
+slightly, rose in favor when the epicure found that the young Parisian
+could give all requisite information concerning the best restaurants in
+Paris; and the viscount reached a higher summit of esteem, when he
+promptly promised to put Lucien <i>en train</i> to familiarize himself with
+certain valuable culinary discoveries. Maurice knew enough of the
+character of the marquis to be confident that his stay in the metropolis
+would be determined by the amount of comfort he enjoyed, and the quality
+of the dinners set before him.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha's next visit was from M. de Bois, and could she have banished
+from her mind a vague impression that he loved Madeleine, or was beloved
+by her, the interview would have afforded her unmitigated happiness.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois had not yet gained sufficient mastery over himself to command
+his utterance in the presence of the woman who had most power to confuse
+him. He still stammered painfully; but he could not help remarking that,
+even as Madeleine had said, Bertha finished his broken sentences,
+apparently unaware that she was doing so. And her greeting, surely it
+had been far from cold. And did she not say, with a soft emphasis which
+it almost took away his breath to hear, that it seemed an age since they
+met? Had she then felt the time long? And did she not drop some
+involuntary remark concerning the dulness of Brittany after he and
+Maurice left? Had she not coupled him with her cousin? Might he not dare
+to believe that Madeleine was right, and Bertha certainly did not scorn
+him?</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>DIAMONDS AND EMERALDS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>"I wish you would go, Maurice. Do, for my sake!" pleaded Bertha,
+twisting in her slender fingers a note of invitation. "The Marquis de
+Fleury was one of the first persons who called upon my uncle, and he
+made a very favorable impression. Then Madame de Fleury has nearly
+crushed me beneath an avalanche of sweet civilities. I fancy that a
+humming-bird drowned in honey must experience sensations very similar to
+mine in her presence. Is it not the Chinese who serve as the greatest of
+delicacies a lump of ice rolled in hot pastry? The condiment with which
+she feeds my vanity reminds me of this singular and paradoxical dainty.
+If you penetrate the warm, sugared, outer crust, you find ice within.
+But, as my uncle does not anticipate Chinese diet at the table of the
+marchioness, he desires me to accept her invitation; and, as you are
+invited, I wish <i>you</i> to do the same, that I may have some familiar face
+near me."</p>
+
+<p>"Gaston de Bois will be there," returned Maurice, "and so will the young
+American student, Ronald Walton, whom I presented to you; they are my
+dearest friends; pray let them represent me, little cousin."</p>
+
+<p>But Bertha was obstinate; her character had a strong tincture of
+wilfulness, the result of invariably having her pleasure consulted, and
+always obtaining her own way. She did not relinquish her entreaties
+until Maurice, who had not lived long enough to be skilled in the art of
+successfully denying the petition of a person who will take no refusal,
+or of plucking the waspish sting out of a "no," consented to be present
+at the dinner.</p>
+
+<p>The Marquis de Fleury had learned, through his secretary, that
+Mademoiselle Merrivale and her guardian were in Paris. Though the
+matrimonial proposition of the marchioness on behalf of her brother, the
+Duke de Montauban, had been so unfavorably received by Bertha's
+relatives in Brittany, and though Bertha herself, when she met the duke
+at the Ch&acirc;teau de Tremazan, had treated him somewhat coldly, the young
+duke was too much enamored of the fair girl herself,&mdash;to say nothing of
+a tender leaning towards her attractive fortune,&mdash;to be discouraged by a
+passing rebuff. His relatives hailed the anticipated opportunity of
+making the acquaintance of Bertha's guardian, and were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> prompt in paying
+their devoirs. An invitation to dine followed quickly on the footsteps
+of the visit.</p>
+
+<p>We pass over the days that preceded the one appointed for the dinner
+party; they were unmarked by incidents which demand to be recorded.</p>
+
+<p>The bond of intimacy between Ronald and Maurice was drawn closer and
+closer each day. Little by little the latter had communicated the
+history of his own trials; his father's determined opposition to his
+embracing a professional career; his attachment to Madeleine; her
+unaccountable rejection of his hand; her sudden disappearance, and the
+mad pursuit, which terminated by casting him insensible at Ronald's
+door, and brought to his succor one who not only watched beside him with
+all the devotion of a brother, mingled with the tenderness of womanhood
+itself, but whose buoyant, healthy tone of mind had infused new hope and
+vigor into a broken, despondent, prostrate spirit.</p>
+
+<p>Ronald Walton was placed in an advantageous position in Paris by the
+very fact of being an American. His intellect, talents, manners, person,
+fitted him to grace the most refined society; and, coming from a land
+where distinctions of rank are not arbitrarily governed by the accident
+of birth, but where men are assigned their positions in the social scale
+through a juster, higher, more liberal verdict, the young Carolinian
+gained facile admission into the most exclusive circles abroad, and even
+took precedence of individuals who made as loud a boast of noble blood
+and hereditary titles as though the concentrated virtues of all their
+ancestors had been transmitted to them through these dubious mediums.</p>
+
+<p>Ronald, as the intimate friend of Maurice de Gramont, had received an
+invitation to the dinner given by the Marchioness de Fleury to the
+relatives of the viscount.</p>
+
+<p>The young men entered Madame de Fleury's drawing-room together, and,
+after having basked for a few seconds in smiles of meridian radiance,
+and been inundated by a flood of softly syllabled words, moved away to
+let the beams of their sunny hostess fall upon new-comers.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice glanced around the room in search of his cousin.</p>
+
+<p>"She has just entered the antechamber," said Ronald, comprehending his
+look. "Her Hebe-like face this minute flashed upon me."</p>
+
+<p>While he was speaking, Bertha and her uncle were announced, and advanced
+toward their hostess.</p>
+
+<p>The low genuflection of the marchioness had been responded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> to by
+Bertha's unstudied courtesy, and the lips of the young girl had just
+parted to speak, when she suddenly gave a violent start, and uttered a
+cry as sharp and involuntary as though she had trodden upon some
+piercing instrument. As she tottered back, her dilated eyes were fixed
+upon Madame de Fleury in blank amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it, my dear? Are you ill?" asked her uncle with deep concern.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha did not reply, but still gazed at the marchioness, or rather her
+eyes ran over the lady's toilet, and she clung to her uncle's arm as
+though unable to support herself.</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid you really are ill," continued the Marquis de Merrivale.
+"Something has disagreed with you; it must have been the truffles with
+which that pheasant we had for <i>d&eacute;jeuner</i> was stuffed. I toyed with them
+very timidly myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Pray sit down, my dear Mademoiselle de Merrivale," said Madame de
+Fleury, leading her to a chair which stood near. "Sit down while I order
+you a glass of water."</p>
+
+<p>She turned to address a servant, but Bertha stretched out her hand,
+almost as though she feared to lose sight of her. "Don't go! Don't go!
+Let me look! Can they be hers? Let me look again!"</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Fleury, as unruffled as though these broken exclamations were
+perfectly natural and comprehensible, bent over Bertha caressingly,
+laying the tips of her delicately gloved fingers on her shoulder. Bertha
+wistfully examined the bracelet on the lady's arm, then fixed her eyes
+upon the necklace, brooch, and ear-rings, and lastly upon the tiara-like
+comb, about which the hair of the marchioness was arranged in a
+dexterous and novel manner.</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Fleury was gratified, without being moved by the faintest
+surprise that her toilet had produced such an overpowering sensation.
+Bertha's emotion did not appear to her in the least misplaced or
+exaggerated.</p>
+
+<p>"You admire this set of diamonds and emeralds very much, then?" she
+asked, complacently.</p>
+
+<p>"The <i>fleur-de-lis</i> and shamrock," faltered Bertha, "where&mdash;where did
+they come from?"</p>
+
+<p>Interpreting the unceremonious abruptness and singularity of the
+question into a spontaneous tribute paid to her costly ornaments, the
+marchioness graciously answered,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"This <i>parure</i> was a delicate attention from M. de Fleury. Not long
+after he presented these diamonds to me, by a very strange coincidence
+Vignon sent this dress for my approval.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> You observe how dexterously the
+device of the necklace is imitated. Can anything be more perfect than
+these lilies and shamrock leaves?"</p>
+
+<p>Bertha hastily glanced at the rich white silk robe, trimmed with
+<i>revers</i> of pale violet, upon which the lilies and shamrock were
+embroidered with some species of lustrous thread, which counterfeited
+not only the design but the sparkle of the gems. The marchioness went
+on,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Was it not odd that Vignon, famed as she is for novelties, should have
+chanced upon a dress which so exactly matched my new set? It quite makes
+me a convert to the science of animal magnetism. My mind, you see, was
+<i>en rapport</i> with hers. Indeed she says so herself, for she could not
+otherwise explain the sudden inspiration which caused her to plan this
+trimming. M. de Fleury wanted me to have these jewels set anew; but I
+would not allow them to be touched,&mdash;this old-fashioned setting is so
+remarkable, so unique. Probably there is not another like it to be found
+in Paris: <i>that</i> is always vantage ground gained over one's
+jewel-wearing adversaries."</p>
+
+<p>The marchioness, once launched upon her favorite stream of talk, would
+have sailed on interminably, had not the announcement of new guests
+floated her upon another current.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope the spasms are going over, my dear," said the Marquis de
+Merrivale, who was really distressed by Bertha's supposed illness. "It
+was very clever to divert observation by talking about dresses and
+jewels; but the truffles did the mischief. I knew well enough what was
+the matter with you."</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;no; it was those jewels," replied Bertha, who had not yet recovered
+her self-possession. "Those diamonds and emeralds were Madeleine's!"</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine's!" ejaculated Maurice, who had approached her on witnessing
+her unaccountable agitation. "Good heavens! is it possible?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, they were Madeleine's,&mdash;they were her mother's jewels and had been
+in her family for generations. Madeleine showed them to me only a few
+nights before she left the Ch&acirc;teau de Gramont. I am sure of them. I
+would have recognized them anywhere."</p>
+
+<p>"Then at last&mdash;at last, oh thank God&mdash;we shall trace her! She must have
+sold those jewels for her support. We must learn from whence Madame de
+Fleury purchased them," returned Maurice, with a voice trembling with
+exultation.</p>
+
+<p>"Madame de Fleury said they were a <i>cadeau</i> from the mar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>quis," replied
+Bertha. "Come, let us find him,&mdash;let us ask him at once."</p>
+
+<p>Bertha rose with animation and took her uncle's arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Where are you going, my dear? Pray do not excite yourself again,"
+pleaded her solicitous guardian. "Pray keep cool. Dinner must shortly be
+served, and you will not be in a fit state to do justice to the
+sumptuous repast which I have no doubt awaits us,&mdash;some of those novel
+inventions, perhaps, which you were so anxious to taste. I see people
+are not scrupulously punctual in Paris,&mdash;it is ten minutes after the
+time. Possibly we are waiting for some guest who has not sufficient good
+taste to remember that viands may be overdone through his culpability."</p>
+
+<p>"I must speak to M. de Fleury," said Bertha. "Let us get nearer to him,
+that I may seize the first opportunity when he ceases talking to that
+pompous-looking old gentleman who has the left breast of his coat
+covered with decorations."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well, take it quietly&mdash;keep cool&mdash;don't get your blood into a
+ferment,&mdash;that's all I ask."</p>
+
+<p>Her uncle led her across the room, accompanied by Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>Diplomat and courtier were inscribed on every line of the wrinkled
+countenance of the Marquis de Fleury. He never took a step, or gave a
+look, or scarcely drew a breath, by which he had not some object to
+accomplish, some interest to promote. An oppressive suavity of manner,
+an exaggerated politeness encased him in an impenetrable armor, and
+prevented the real man from ever being reached beneath this smooth
+surface. Impulses he had none. The slightest motions of his wiry frame
+were studied. When he walked, he slid along as though he could not be
+guilty of so positive an action as that of planting his feet firmly upon
+what might prove "delicate ground." When he bowed, a contraction of
+sinews worthy of an <i>acrobat</i> allowed his head to obtain an unnatural
+inclination, suggestive of a complimentary deference which humbled
+itself to the dust and kissed the garment's hem. Straightforwardness in
+word, thought, or action was to him as incomprehensible as it was
+impossible. He was a great general, ever standing on the political or
+social battle-field; skilful man&oelig;uvres were the glory of his
+existence, and flattery the magical weapon never laid aside by which he
+gained his victories.</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Fleury was thirty years his junior. He had purposely selected
+a young, pretty, harmless, well-dressed doll, as the being best suited
+to further his ends in the great world. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> admired her sincerely. She
+reached the exact mental stature and standard which he looked upon as
+perfection in womanhood, and her absolute despotism in ruling the modes
+and creeds of the <i>beau monde</i> were to him the highest proof of her
+superiority over the rest of her sex.</p>
+
+<p>Though he was engaged in a conversation with the emperor's grand
+chamberlain, which seemed deeply interesting to both parties, M. de
+Fleury broke off instantly when Bertha, with her uncle and Maurice,
+approached.</p>
+
+<p>"You are so radiant to night, Mademoiselle de Merrivale," remarked the
+courtier, "that all eyes are fixed upon you. It is cruel of you to
+dazzle the vision of so many admirers!"</p>
+
+<p>Bertha, without paying the slightest attention to these fulsome words,
+replied, "Will you pardon me, M. de Fleury, if I ask an impertinent
+question?"</p>
+
+<p>"How could any question from such sovereign lips become other than a
+condescension? The queen of beauty commands in advance a reply to the
+most difficult problem which she can propound."</p>
+
+<p>Bertha, with an impatient toss of her head, as though the buzz of this
+nonsensical verbiage stung her ears, plunged at once into the subject.</p>
+
+<p>"That set of diamonds and emeralds which Madame de Fleury wears to-night
+were presented to her by you. Will you have the goodness to tell me from
+whence you procured them?"</p>
+
+<p>For M. de Fleury to have given a direct answer, even in relation to such
+an apparent trifle, would have been contrary to his nature; besides, it
+was one of his rules not to impart information without learning for what
+object it was sought.</p>
+
+<p>"You admire them?" he replied, evasively. "I am delighted, I am charmed
+with your approval of my taste. I shall think more highly of it forever
+after. The setting of the jewels is old-fashioned; but Madame de Fleury
+found it so novel that I could not prevail upon her to have it
+modernized."</p>
+
+<p>"But you have not told me how the jewels came into your possession."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, very naturally, very naturally, lovely lady! They were not a fairy
+gift; they became mine by the very prosaic transaction of purchase."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice could restrain himself no longer.</p>
+
+<p>"My cousin is particularly desirous of learning through what source you
+obtained them. She has an important reason for her inquiry."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This explanation only placed the marquis more upon his guard.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, your captivating cousin thinks they look as though they had a
+history? Yes, yes; jewels of that kind generally have. Does the design
+strike you as remarkable, Mademoiselle de Merrivale?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very remarkable,&mdash;and I have seen it before. I could not forget it. I
+wished to know"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Dinner was announced at that moment, and the Duke de Montauban came
+forward and offered his arm to Bertha.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Fleury, with lavish apologies for the interruption of a
+conversation which he pronounced delightful, begged the Marquis de
+Merrivale to give his arm to Madame de Fleury, named to Maurice a young
+lady whom he would have the goodness to conduct, glided about the room
+to give similar instructions to other gentlemen, and, selecting an
+elderly lady, who was evidently a person of distinction, led the way to
+the dining-room.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice stood still, looking perplexed and abstracted, and quite
+forgetting that he had any ceremonious duty to perform. Ronald, who from
+the time he had watched beside the viscount's sick-bed had not
+relinquished his friendly <i>surveillance</i>, noticed his absence of mind,
+and, as he passed him, whispered,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"My dear fellow, what is the matter? You are dreaming again. Rouse
+yourself! Some young lady must be waiting for your arm."</p>
+
+<p>"Ronald," exclaimed Maurice, "something very singular has happened.
+Madame de Fleury is wearing Madeleine's family jewels!"</p>
+
+<p>"Bravo! That is cheering news, indeed! You will certainly be able to
+trace her now,&mdash;never fear! But you must get through this dinner first;
+so pray collect your scattered senses as expeditiously as possible."</p>
+
+<p>Elated by these words of encouragement, and the hilarious tone in which
+they were uttered, Maurice shook off his musing mood, and proffered his
+arm to the niece of Madame de Fleury, whom he now remembered that the
+marquis had desired him to conduct.</p>
+
+<p>During the dinner this young lady pronounced the handsome cavalier, who
+had been assigned to her, tantalizingly <i>distrait</i>, and secretly wished
+that the artistic <i>ma&icirc;tre d'h&ocirc;tel</i> of her aunt had decorated the table
+with a less novel and attractive central ornament; for it seemed to her
+that the eyes of Maurice were constantly turned upon the miniature
+cherry-tree, of forced hot-house<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> growth, that rose from a mossy mound
+in the centre of the festive board. The diminutive tree was covered with
+superb fruit, and girdled in by a circle of Liliputian grape-vines, each
+separate vine trained upon a golden rod, and heavily laden with luscious
+grapes, bunches of the clearest amber alternating with the deepest
+purple and richest crimson. Among the mosses of the mound were scattered
+the rarest products of the most opposite seasons; those of the present
+season being too natural to pamper the artificial tastes of luxury.
+Truly, the arrangement was a charming exemplification of nature made
+subservient to art; but was it this magnet to which the eyes of Maurice
+were so irresistibly attracted? He chanced to be seated where his view
+of the hostess was partially intercepted by the hot-house wonder, and he
+was seeking in vain to catch a glimpse of those jewels which had been
+Madeleine's.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha was placed nearer the marchioness, and the Duke de Montauban
+could not help noticing that her gaze was frequently fixed upon his
+sister; but being one of those men who are thoroughly convinced that
+what the French term "<i>chiffons</i>" is the most important interest of a
+woman's life, he consoled himself with the reflection that Mademoiselle
+de Merrivale was deeply engrossed by a contemplation of Madame de
+Fleury's elaborate toilet, and that her absent manner had this very
+feminine, reasonable, and altogether to be tolerated apology.</p>
+
+<p>When Madame de Fleury and her guests swept back into the drawing-room,
+Monsieur de Fleury and the grand chamberlain were again closely engaged
+in some political battle. Maurice, after waiting impatiently for a
+favorable moment when he might come between the wordy belligerents,
+whispered to Ronald,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I am tortured to death! I shall never get an opportunity to ask the
+marquis about those jewels. My cousin was questioning him on the subject
+when dinner was announced; but he seemed to treat her inquiries as of so
+little importance that she was quite baffled in obtaining information."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not attack him in a straightforward manner?" answered the positive
+young American. "Walk up to him and ask plainly for a few moments'
+private conversation. Give him the reason of your inquiries, and demand
+an answer. Bring him to the point without any fancy fencing about the
+subject."</p>
+
+<p>"I fear it will look very strange," replied Maurice, hesitating.</p>
+
+<p>"What matter? Are you afraid of <i>looking strange</i> when you have a worthy
+object to accomplish? The information you need<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> is of more importance
+than mere looks. It thoroughly amazes me to see the awe in which a
+genuine Parisian is held by the dread of appearing singular! One would
+imagine that all originality was felony, and that to catch the same
+key-note of voice, to move with the exact motion, and tread in the
+precise footprints in which every one else speaks, moves, walks, was the
+only evidence of honesty. What is a man's individuality worth, if it is
+to be trodden out in the treadmill tramp of senseless conventionality?"</p>
+
+<p>Maurice glanced at his friend admiringly. He had observed on more than
+one occasion that although Ronald was thoroughly versed in all the
+nicest rules of etiquette, he had a way of breaking through them at his
+pleasure, and always so gracefully that his waiving of ceremony could
+never be set down to ignorance or ill-breeding.</p>
+
+<p>The viscount literally, and without delay, followed his friend's advice,
+and soon succeeded in drawing M. de Fleury aside.</p>
+
+<p>"Permit me to explain to you Mademoiselle de Merrivale's anxiety about
+those jewels," said Maurice. "You have, perhaps, heard the name of
+Mademoiselle Madeleine de Gramont, my cousin on my father's side. Some
+six weeks ago she suddenly left the Ch&acirc;teau de Gramont, and has not
+communicated with her family since. Those jewels were hers. She must
+have sold them. We are exceedingly anxious to discover her present
+residence and induce her to return to my grandmother's protection. If
+you could inform me from whence the jewels came, it would facilitate my
+search."</p>
+
+<p>The marquis had no definite motive for concealment beyond the dictates
+of his habitual caution. This explanation satisfied him in regard to the
+reasons which prompted inquiry; and being desirous of getting rid of
+Maurice, and of resuming the conversation he had interrupted, replied,
+with an assumption of cordiality,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It gives me great pleasure to be the medium of rendering the slightest
+service to your illustrious family. Those diamonds were brought to me by
+the Jew Henriques, from whom I now and then make purchases. I did not
+inquire in what manner they came into his possession; but, not intending
+to be cheated as to their precise worth, I had them taken to Kramer, in
+the Rue Neuve St. Augustin, and a value placed upon them. I paid
+Henriques the price those trustworthy jewellers suggested, instead of
+the exorbitant one he demanded. This is all the information I am able to
+afford you on the subject."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"May I beg you to favor me with the address of this Henriques?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, certainly, with pleasure; but I warn you that you will not
+get much out of him. He is the closest Israelite imaginable; and a
+golden ointment is the only '<i>open sesame</i>' to his lips."</p>
+
+<p>M. de Fleury wrote Henriques' street and number on his card, and handed
+it to Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime Gaston de Bois, in spite of the pertinacious attentions of the
+Duke de Montauban, had approached Bertha, and would have drawn her into
+conversation had she not exultingly communicated to him the discovery
+she had made concerning Madeleine's jewels. Was it the sudden mention of
+that name which threw M. de Bois into a state of almost uncontrollable
+agitation? Why did he flush, and stammer, and try to change the subject,
+and, stumbling with suppressed groans over his words, as though they had
+been sharp rocks, talk such unmitigated nonsense? Why did he so soon
+steal away from Bertha's side? Why did he not approach her again for the
+rest of the evening? Could it be that her first suspicion was right, and
+that he loved Madeleine? If not, why should her name again have caused
+him such unaccountable emotion?</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE EMBROIDERED HANDKERCHIEF.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Maurice lost no time, the next morning, in seeking out the crafty old
+Jew. Henriques was a vender of jewels that came into his hands through
+private sources. There was considerable risk in his traffic; for it was
+just possible some of the precious stones transferred to him might have
+been acquired in a manner not strictly legal. Perhaps it was not part of
+his policy to acquaint himself with the history of gems which he bought
+at a bargain and reaped an enormous profit in selling; for, when Maurice
+endeavored to extract some information concerning the diamonds purchased
+by the Marquis de Fleury, the Jew protested entire ignorance in regard
+to their prior ownership; stating that they were brought to him by one
+of his <i>confr&eacute;res</i>, of whom he asked no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> questions,&mdash;that he had
+purchased them at a ruinous price, and resold them to the marquis
+without a centime's benefit: a very generous proceeding on his part, he
+asserted; adding, with a ludicrous assumption of importance, that he
+highly esteemed the marquis, and now and then allowed himself the
+gratification of favoring him in business transactions.</p>
+
+<p>"But the name of the person from whom your friend received the jewels is
+certainly on his books, and, however numerous the hands through which
+they may have passed, they can be traced back to their original owner,"
+observed Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>"Not so easily, monsieur, not so easily. Purchaser has nothing to do
+with original owner. Jewels worth something, or jewels worth
+nothing,&mdash;that's the point; names of parties holding the articles of no
+consequence."</p>
+
+<p>"But you certainly inquire from what source the jewels offered you
+proceed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never make impertinent inquiries,&mdash;never: would drive away customers.
+If monsieur has any jewels for sale, shall be happy to look at them;
+disposed to deal in the most liberal manner with monsieur."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you. My object is simply to discover a friend to whom the jewels
+you sold to the Marquis de Fleury once belonged. It is indispensable
+that I should learn through whose hands they came into your possession."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" said the cunning Jew, placing his skinny finger on one side of his
+hooked nose, as if reflecting; then glancing at Maurice out of the
+corners of his searching eyes, he asked, "Party would like to be
+discovered?&mdash;or would said party prefer to remain under the rose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Possibly the latter."</p>
+
+<p>"Just so; that gives interest to the enterprise. But when party objects
+to being traced, difficulties spring up; takes time to overcome them;
+always a certain cost."</p>
+
+<p>"If you mean that I shall offer you compensation for your trouble, I am
+ready to make any in my power: name your price."</p>
+
+<p>"Price? price? not to be named so hastily; depends upon time consumed,
+amount of labor, obstacles party concerned may throw in the way. Other
+parties will have to be employed to seek out party who presented himself
+with the jewels; enumeration requisite to induce communicativeness; may
+turn out party had the jewels from another party, who obtained them from
+another; shall have to track each party's steps backward to party who
+was the original possessor."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Take your own course. I am unskilled in these affairs," answered
+Maurice, frankly; "all I ask is that you learn for me <i>where</i> the lady
+whose family jewels passed through your hands now resides. Name the cost
+of your undertaking."</p>
+
+<p>The wily Jew fastened his keen, speculative eyes upon his anticipated
+prey, as he replied, slowly, "Cost?&mdash;can't say to a certainty; thousand
+francs do to begin."</p>
+
+<p>He heard the faint sigh, of which Maurice was himself unconscious, and
+drew a correct inference.</p>
+
+<p>From the hour that the viscount had been made aware of the true state of
+Count Tristan's finances, he had reduced all his own expenses, allowed
+himself no luxuries, no indulgencies, nothing but the barest
+necessities, that his father's narrow resources might not be drained
+through a son's lavishness. The young nobleman had not at that moment a
+hundred francs at his own command. He had no alternative but to apply to
+Count Tristan for the sum required by the Jew.</p>
+
+<p>"My means are very limited," returned Maurice, with a great waste of
+candor. "I must beg you to deal with me as liberally as possible. The
+amount you demand I hope to obtain and bring you in a few days. In the
+meantime you will commence your inquiries."</p>
+
+<p>"Assuredly,&mdash;just so; commence putting matters in train at once;
+possibly may have some clew between thumb and finger when monsieur
+returns with the money; nothing to be done without golden keys: unlock
+all doors; carry one into hidden depths of the earth. Shall be obliged
+to advance funds to pay parties employed. Have the goodness to write
+your name in this book."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice wrote down his name and address, and took his leave, once more
+elated by the belief that he was on the eve of discovering Madeleine's
+retreat.</p>
+
+<p>The letter to his father written and dispatched, he sought Bertha, and
+gave her full particulars of his interview with the Jew, delicately
+forbearing to mention the compensation he expected.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha, as sanguine of success as her cousin, was gayly discussing
+probabilities, when the Marquis de Merrivale entered.</p>
+
+<p>"Young heads laid together to plot mischief, I wager!" remarked the
+nobleman, jocosely; for he was in a capital humor, having just partaken
+of an epicurean <i>dejeuner &agrave; la fourchette</i> at the celebrated "Madrid's."</p>
+
+<p>"We are talking about our Cousin Madeleine. Maurice has a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> new plan for
+prosecuting his search," said Bertha. "Ah, dear Madeleine! Why did she
+forsake us so strangely? How could she have had the heart to cause us so
+much sorrow?"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear child, it was probably her <i>liver</i> not her <i>heart</i> that was in
+fault. Her heart, I dare say, performed its grave duties properly, and
+should not be aspersed; some bilious derangement was no doubt at the
+bottom of her singular conduct. The greatest eccentricities may all be
+traced back to <i>bile</i> as their origin. Regulate the bile and you
+regulate the brain from which mental vagaries proceed. If some judicious
+friend had administered to your cousin Madeleine a little salutary
+medicine, and forced her to diet for a few days, she would have acted
+more reasonably. Talking of diet, that was a princely dinner the Marquis
+de Fleury set before us. He is really a very able and estimable member
+of society,&mdash;understands good living to perfection. I cordially
+reciprocate his wish that a lasting bond of union should exist between
+us. His brother-in-law, the young Duke de Montauban, is enchanted with
+my little niece. I say nothing: arrange between yourselves; but, by all
+means, marry into a family which knows how to value a good cook; take a
+young man who has had his taste sufficiently cultivated to distinguish
+of what ingredients a sauce is composed. Don't despise a blessing that
+may be enjoyed three hundred and sixty-five times every year,&mdash;that's
+my advice."</p>
+
+<p>Bertha had not attached any importance to the attentions of the young
+duke; but her manner of receiving this suggestion,&mdash;the</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i14">"half disdain<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Perched on the pouted blossom of her lip,"&mdash;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>convinced Maurice that, if she favored any suitor, her inclinations did
+not turn towards the duke.</p>
+
+<p>"The Duke de Montauban is not ill-looking," Maurice remarked, to decoy
+her into some more open expression; "and he is sufficiently
+agreeable,&mdash;do you not think so?"</p>
+
+<p>"I never thought about him," she replied, somewhat petulantly. "If I
+chance to look at him I never think of any one but his tailor and his
+hairdresser, without whom I verily believe he would have no tangible
+existence."</p>
+
+<p>"An accomplished tailor and a skilful <i>coiffure</i> are all very well in
+their way," observed her uncle; "but a scientific <i>cook</i> is the grand
+necessity of a man's life,&mdash;a daily need,&mdash;the trebly repeated need of
+each day; and the education of a cook should commence in the cradle. If
+this point received the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> attention which it deserves from sanitarians,
+there would be fewer digestive organs out of order, and consequently
+fewer police reports, and a vast diminution of eccentric degradation,
+and moping madness and suicide, and horrors in general."</p>
+
+<p>Bertha and Maurice did not dispute this sweeping assertion; for they
+knew it would entail upon them the necessity of encountering a battalion
+of arguments, which the marquis delighted to call into action to defend
+the ground upon which he took up his favorite position.</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan's reply to Maurice, enclosing a check for the thousand
+francs, was received a few days later. Maurice returned to the Jew with
+the money. The latter rejoiced him by vaguely hinting that there was a
+prospect of successful operation; but the matter would occupy time. The
+viscount would be good enough to call again in a week.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice was too unsuspicious and too unskilled in transactions of this
+nature to doubt that the Jew was dealing with him in good faith. Instead
+of a week, he returned the next morning, and repeated his visits
+regularly every day. The Jew diligently fanned his hopes, assuring him
+that old Henriques was not to be baffled, though the parties through
+whose hands the jewels had passed were almost unapproachable. Very soon
+the merciless Israelite notified the young nobleman that further funds
+would be requisite, and Maurice writhed under the cruel compulsion which
+forced him to make a second application to his father.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha had been a fortnight in Paris when the anniversary of her
+birthday, which for the first time had been forgotten, was in a singular
+manner recalled to her mind. A small package had been received for her
+at her uncle's residence in Bordeaux, and had been promptly forwarded to
+Paris. The outer cover was directed in the handwriting of her uncle's
+<i>concierge</i>; on the inner, a request, that if Mademoiselle de Merrivale
+were absent the parcel might be immediately forwarded to her, was
+written in familiar characters. Bertha had no sooner caught sight of
+them than she cried out,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine! It is the handwriting of Madeleine!"</p>
+
+<p>She tore open the paper with trembling hands. There was no note,&mdash;not a
+single written word,&mdash;but before her lay a handkerchief of the finest
+texture, and embroidered with the marvellous skill which belonged alone
+to those "fairy fingers" she had so often watched.</p>
+
+<p>Vainly might we attempt to convey even a faint idea of her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> tumultuous
+rapture,&mdash;of the tears of ecstasy, the hysterical laughter, the dancing
+delight, with which she greeted her uncle and Maurice, who entered a few
+moments after the package was received. She kissed the handkerchief
+moistened with her tears, waved it exultingly over her head, kissed it
+again, and wept over it again, while the marquis and her cousin stood
+looking at her in speechless astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine! Madeleine! it is from Madeleine!" at last she found voice to
+ejaculate. "See, that is her handwriting," pointing to the paper cover;
+"and this is her work; her 'fairy fingers' send me a token on my
+birthday. I am seventeen to-day, and no one has remembered it but
+Madeleine. She thinks of me still; she never forgets any one; she has
+not forgotten me!"</p>
+
+<p>Maurice caught up the paper in which the handkerchief had been
+enveloped, and with throbbing pulses eagerly examined the handwriting.</p>
+
+<p>"See, Maurice," Bertha continued, joyfully, "in the corner she has
+embroidered my name, surrounded by a wreath of forget-me-nots,&mdash;for
+<i>she</i> does not forget. The crest of the de Merrivales is in the opposite
+corner; and this,&mdash;why this looks like the bracelet I gave her on her
+last birthday. How wonderfully she has imitated the knot of pearls that
+fastened the golden band! And this corner, Maurice, look,&mdash;this is in
+remembrance of you,&mdash;of your birthday token to her. Do you not see the
+design is a brooch, and the device a dove carrying an olive-branch in
+its mouth, and the word 'Pax' embroidered beneath?"</p>
+
+<p>Maurice looked, struggling to repress the emotion that almost unmanned
+him. Pointing to the stamp upon the envelope which had contained the
+handkerchief, he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It is postmarked Dresden."</p>
+
+<p>"Dresden? Dresden? Can Madeleine be in Dresden?" returned Bertha. "Ah,
+uncle, can we not go there at once? We shall certainly find her.
+Yes,&mdash;we must go. I am tired of Paris,&mdash;let us start to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"Dresden, my dear!" cried her uncle, in a tone of unmitigated disgust.
+"Why, the barbarians would feed us upon <i>sour kraut</i>, and give us
+pudding before meat! Go to Dresden? Impossible! Not to be thought of!
+Paris was a wise move,&mdash;we have enjoyed the living amazingly; but trust
+ourselves to those tasteless German cooks? We should be poisoned in a
+couple of days. Keep cool, my dear, or you will make yourself ill by
+getting into such a violent state of excitement just after<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> breakfast.
+How do you suppose the important process of digestion can progress
+favorably if your blood is agitated in this turbulent manner?"</p>
+
+<p>Bertha was about to answer almost wrathfully, but Maurice interrupted
+her.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>I</i> will go, Bertha. Madeleine must be in Dresden. At last she has sent
+us a token of her existence, a token of remembrance, thank Heaven!"</p>
+
+<p>"Go! go! go at once!" was Bertha's energetic injunction.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice pressed her hand tightly, and bowing to the marquis, without
+attempting to utter another syllable, took his leave, carrying with him
+the envelope which bore Madeleine's handwriting.</p>
+
+<p>After having his passport <i>vis&eacute;d</i>, he returned to his apartment to make
+rapid preparations for starting that evening. Very soon Gaston de Bois
+entered, evidently in a state of ill-concealed perturbation.</p>
+
+<p>"Mademoiselle Bertha tells me you are going to Dresden."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, to seek my cousin. Look at the post-stamp upon that envelope.
+Madeleine is in Dresden."</p>
+
+<p>"How can you be sure of that?" asked Gaston.</p>
+
+<p>"She writes from Dresden; can anything be clearer?" returned Maurice,
+confidently.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not clear to me that she is there. I wish I could persuade you
+against taking this jour&mdash;our&mdash;ourney."</p>
+
+<p>"That is out of the question, Gaston; so spare yourself the trouble of
+the attempt."</p>
+
+<p>"But the journey will be use&mdash;use&mdash;useless," persisted M. de Bois.</p>
+
+<p>"How can you know that?" inquired Maurice, quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"I think so; it is my impression, my conviction."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not mine, and nothing can prevent my making the experiment,"
+answered Maurice, decidedly.</p>
+
+<p>Gaston looked as thoroughly vexed as though he were responsible for the
+rash actions of his friend; but he knew that Maurice was inflexible
+where Madeleine was concerned, and that all entreaties would be thrown
+away unless he could sustain them by some potent reason; and <i>that</i> it
+was not in his power to proffer. He made no further opposition, but
+remained fidgeting about the room in the most distracting manner,
+hindering the preparations of Maurice, stumbling over articles scattered
+on the floor, now and then stammering out a broken, unintelligible
+phrase, and altogether seeming wretchedly uncomfortable, yet unwilling
+to leave until he saw the obstinate traveller in the <i>fiacre</i> which
+drove him to the railway station.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>A VOICE FROM THE LOST ONE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>A few days after the departure of Maurice for Dresden, the Duke de
+Montauban made a formal proposal for the hand of Mademoiselle de
+Merrivale. French etiquette not allowing a suitor the privilege of
+addressing the lady of his love, except through some kindred or friendly
+medium, his pretensions were of course made known to Bertha by her
+uncle. She received the communication with a fretful tapping of her
+little foot, and a toss of her gamboling, golden ringlets, which bore
+witness to her undisguised vexation and saucy disdain. The
+uncompromising manner in which she declined the proposed honor, threw
+her guardian, who had strengthened himself to enact the part of Cupid's
+messenger, by a somewhat liberal repast, into a state of astonishment
+which threatened alarming disturbance to his laboring digestive
+functions.</p>
+
+<p>"Really, my dear, you speak so abruptly that you make me feel quite
+dyspeptic. What possible objection can you have to the young duke?"</p>
+
+<p>"A very slight one, according to the creed which governs matrimonial
+alliances in our enlightened land," returned Bertha, pouting through her
+sarcasm. "My objection is simply that he is not an object of the
+slightest interest to me."</p>
+
+<p>"But the match is such a suitable one that interest will come after it
+is consummated," answered her uncle.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not intend to marry upon <i>faith</i>," retorted Bertha; then she broke
+out petulantly, "In a word, uncle, I do not intend to marry a man who is
+so insipid that I could not even quarrel with him; whom I could not
+think of seriously enough to take the trouble to dislike; to whom I am
+so thoroughly indifferent that for me he has no existence out of my
+immediate sight."</p>
+
+<p>"There, there; keep cool, my dear. Nobody intends to force you to marry
+him. I did not know that it was necessary to be able to dislike a man,
+and to have a capacity for quarrelling with him, to fit him for the
+position of a husband. A very unwholesome doctrine. Emotion is
+particularly prejudicial to the animal economy. I thought the cultivated
+taste which the de Fleurys so evidently possess might have some weight
+with you. That dinner they gave us was unsurpassable, and"&mdash;</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"If I am to marry to secure myself superlatively good dinners, I had
+better unite myself to an accomplished cook at once," replied Bertha,
+demurely.</p>
+
+<p>"That's very tart, my dear. All acids disagree with me, and your
+acidulated observations are giving me unpleasant premonitory symptoms."</p>
+
+<p>Bertha noticed that the <i>bon vivant</i> had in reality began to puff and
+pant as though he were suffering from an incipient nightmare. Being so
+thoroughly habituated to his idiosyncrasy that she had learned to regard
+it leniently, she made an effort to recover her good humor, and
+answered,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I know my kind uncle will not render me uncomfortable by pressing this
+subject; but, in the most courteous manner, will let the Duke de
+Montauban understand that I do not intend to marry at present."</p>
+
+<p>"Make you uncomfortable," rejoined the marquis, struggling for breath;
+"of course, I would not for the world! Do you take me for an old brute?
+And I have just made arrangements to drive you to the <i>Bois de Boulogne</i>
+and dine at Madrid's this evening. A pretty state you would be in to do
+justice to a dinner which promises to place in jeopardy the laurels even
+of M. de Fleury's cook."</p>
+
+<p>"We will strike a bargain," returned Bertha, with her wonted gayety. "If
+you will agree not to mention the Duke de Montauban, I will agree to do
+justice to the dinner at Madrid's."</p>
+
+<p>"I am content; we will drop the duke and discuss the dinner."</p>
+
+<p>The attentions of Madame de Fleury's brother to the heiress had been too
+marked and open for his suit and its rejection to remain a secret.
+Gaston de Bois heard Bertha's refusal commented upon, and there was a
+buzz in his ears of idle speculations concerning the origin of her
+caprice. Was it some blissful, internal suggestion, which diffused such
+a glow of happiness over his expressive countenance when he next saw
+Bertha? Was it some hitherto uncertain ground of encouragement made sure
+beneath his feet, which so wondrously loosened his tongue from its dire
+bondage? Was it some aerial hope, taking tangible shape, which imparted
+such an air of ease and elation to his demeanor? Gaston stammered less
+every day,&mdash;his impediment disappearing as his self-possession
+increased. On this occasion he was only conscious of a slight difficulty
+in utterance to rejoice at its existence, for it rendered delightfully
+apparent Bertha's thoughtfulness in catching up words upon which he
+hesitated, and concluding sentences he commenced, as though she read
+their meaning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> in his eyes. Gaston had not seen her in so buoyant a mood
+since they parted at the Ch&acirc;teau de Gramont. But the tide of her
+exuberant gayety suddenly ebbed when she noticed the look of pain with
+which he involuntarily responded to one of her chance questions. She had
+asked if he thought it probable Maurice would find Madeleine in Dresden.
+Again that singular expression on his countenance; again that sudden
+change of color at Madeleine's name; again that involuntary starting
+from his seat, with a return of the olden habit which placed fragile
+furniture in danger! Was it the remembrance that Madeleine was lost to
+them which occasioned M. de Bois's sudden depression? Was it an
+overwhelming sense of doubt concerning the result of Maurice's mission,
+which made his response to Bertha's inquiry so vague, his sentences so
+disjointed? Once more Bertha asked herself whether he were not, after
+all, the lover Madeleine had refused to mention. Yet, if this were the
+case, how could Gaston have appeared so much less anxious and less
+concerned at her flight than Maurice, who loved her with unquestionable
+ardor? Why had M. de Bois aided so little in the search for her present
+habitation? The young girl could not reconcile such apparent
+contradictions, and while she sat perplexing herself by futile efforts
+to unravel these mysteries, M. de Bois was equally puzzled to rightly
+interpret her silence and abstraction.</p>
+
+<p>The interview which, at its opening, had been as bright as a spring
+morning, closed with sudden April shadows; and there was an April
+mingling of smiles and tears upon Bertha's countenance when she retired
+to her chamber, after M. de Bois's departure, and pondered over his
+strange expression when her cousin was mentioned. Why, if Madeleine was
+his choice, was his manner toward herself so full of tenderness? Why was
+it that she never glanced at him without finding his eyes fastened upon
+her face? Why had he so much power to draw her irresistibly towards him?
+Why did his step set her heart throbbing so tumultuously? Why did his
+coming cause her such a thrill of delight, and his departure leave such
+a sense of solitude?&mdash;a void that no one else filled, a pain that no
+other presence soothed.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime Maurice had reached Dresden and was searching for Madeleine,
+almost in the same vague, unreasonable manner that he had sought her in
+Paris. But the mad course upon which he had again started, and which
+might have once more unbalanced his mind, met with a sudden check. The
+day after his arrival in Dresden he received a note, which ran thus:&mdash;</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Madeleine is not in Dresden. She entreats Maurice to
+discontinue a search which must prove fruitless. Should the
+day ever come, as she prays it may, when her place of refuge
+can become known to him, no effort of his will be required
+for its discovery. Will not Maurice accept the pains of the
+inevitable present and wait for the consolations the future
+may bring forth with the hope and patience which must
+sustain her until that blessed period shall arrive?"</p></div>
+
+<p>Maurice was almost stupefied as he read these lines. He crushed the
+paper in his nervous fingers to be certain that it was tangible; he
+compared the writing with the one upon the envelope which he had taken
+from Bertha. If that were Madeleine's hand, so was this. He looked for a
+postmark; there was none; the letter had been brought by a private
+messenger, and yet Madeleine was not in Dresden! How could this be?
+That, in some mysterious manner, she became acquainted with his
+movements was unquestionable. Her thoughts then were turned to him,&mdash;her
+invisible presence followed him. It was some joy, at least, to know that
+he lived in her memory.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice, without a moment's hesitation, without letting his own personal
+suffering weigh in the balance of decision, without allowing his mind to
+dwell upon the probabilities of tracing Madeleine through this new clew,
+resolved to comply with her request.</p>
+
+<p>When he returned to Paris and placed her letter in Bertha's hands, and
+told her his determination, she impetuously urged him not to be guided
+by their cousin's wishes. She pleaded that Madeleine was sacrificing
+herself from a mistaking sense of duty; that, if her place of abode
+could only be revealed, Bertha's own supplications might influence her
+to abandon her present project, and to accept the home which Bertha,
+with the full consent of her uncle, could offer.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice listened not unmoved, but unshaken, in his selected course. He
+felt that a woman of Madeleine's dignity of character,&mdash;a woman of her
+calm judgment,&mdash;a woman who could look with such steady, tearless eyes
+upon life's realities,&mdash;a woman who would not have trodden in flowery
+ways though every pressure of her foot crushed out some delicious aroma
+to perfume her life, if the "stern lawgiver, duty," summoned her to a
+flinty road, and pointed to a glorious goal beyond,&mdash;such a woman,
+having deliberately chosen her path, having<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> tested her strength to walk
+therein, having pronounced that strength all-sufficient, deserved the
+tribute of confidence, and an even blind respect to her mandates.
+Besides, compliance with her wishes was a species of voiceless, wordless
+communication with her; it was sending her a message through some
+unknown and mysterious channel.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice presented this in its most vivid colors before Bertha's eyes;
+but in vain. She was too wayward, too unreasonable, too full of
+passionate yearning for the presence of Madeleine, too sensible of an
+innate weakness that longed to lean upon Madeleine's strength, to see
+the justice and wisdom of the conclusion to which Maurice had arrived.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as their painful interview was closed by the entrance of the
+marquis, Maurice sought the old Jew and ordered him to prosecute his
+search no further. Henriques, who had already extracted a considerable
+sum from the young nobleman, and looked upon the transaction as a safe
+investment calculated to yield a certain profit for some months to come,
+was very unwilling to relinquish his promised gain. He assured the
+viscount that he had lately received information of the greatest
+importance; the party to whom the jewels had originally belonged had at
+last been tracked; the undertaking was on the very eve of success. To
+abandon it was a refusal to grasp the prize almost within their clutch.
+Whether the cunning Jew spoke the truth, or fiction, mattered little;
+for Maurice, in spite of these alluring representations, did not allow
+himself to be tempted to violate Madeleine's express command. He had, as
+it were, accepted his fate, and cast away the arms with which men war
+with so-called "destiny;" struggle and rebellion were over. To "<i>wait</i>"
+in patience was all that remained.</p>
+
+<p>But what was to be done with his existence? In the plenitude of youthful
+health and strength, was his life to ebb away, like an unreplenished
+stream, flowing into nothingness? His days became more and more
+wearisome; the hours hung more and more heavily upon his hands; the feet
+of time sounded with iron tramp in his ears, yet never appeared to move
+onward.</p>
+
+<p>"In his eyes a cloud and burthen lay;" a shadowy sorrow dropped its pall
+of darkness over his mind and obscured his perception of all awakening,
+quickening inspirations; a smouldering fire within him withered up every
+vernal shoot of impulse and turned all the spring-time foliage of
+thought and fancy sere. His voice, his look, his mien, betrayed that an
+ever-living woe encompassed him with gloom.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Ronald fruitlessly strove to rouse him from this state of supine
+despondency. The active employment, the all-engrossing interest which
+would have medicined his unslumbering sorrow, were remedial agents
+denied by his father's unwise decree. As a substitute, though of less
+potency, Ronald strove to inspire him with his own strong love for
+literature. The young American had a passion for books which were the
+reflex of great minds. His quick hearkening to the voices breathing from
+their pages, and made prophetic by some sudden experience; the ready
+plummet with which he sounded their depths of reasoning; the sentient
+hand with which he plucked out their truths and planted them in his own
+rich memory, to grow like trees filled with singing-birds: these had
+rendered his communings with master-spirits one of the noblest and most
+strengthening influences of his life. What wonder, when literature was
+so bounteously distributed over his native land that it made itself
+vocal beneath every hedge,&mdash;enriched the humblest cottage with a
+library,&mdash;found its way, in the inexpensive guise of magazines, a
+welcome visitant at every fireside,&mdash;poured out its treasures at the
+feet of rich and poor, liberally as the liberal sunshine, freely as the
+free air?</p>
+
+<p>Maurice, educated in a different atmosphere, at the same age as Ronald,
+was a stranger to the companionship of written minds, save those to
+which his college studies had formally presented him; and his dark
+unrest rendered it difficult for him to follow his friend into the
+teeming Golconda of literature, and to gather the gems spread to his
+hands. And when, at last, Ronald's enthusiasm proved contagious and
+kindled Maurice to seek out some great author's charm, it too often
+chanced that he stumbled upon passages that irritated him, and increased
+his moody discontent. We instance one of these occasions as illustrative
+of many others.</p>
+
+<p>Ronald, whose busy brush had been brought to a stand-still by an
+unusually dark day, when he returned to his apartments, found his friend
+reading Bulwer's "Caxtons." Maurice was leaning with both elbows upon
+the table, his fingers plunged through his disordered hair, his brows
+almost fiercely contracted, and his wan face bent over the volume before
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"I found some grand pictures in that book," remarked the young artist.
+"Which are you contemplating?"</p>
+
+<p>"No pictures. I have not your eye for pictures," answered Maurice, with
+something more than a touch of impatience. "I am moved, haunted,
+tormented by truths which have more power than all the ideal pictures
+pen ever drew, or brush<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> ever painted. You place me here before your
+library, you lure me to read, and every book I open utters words that
+make my compulsory mode of existence a reproach, a disgrace, a misery to
+me. Read this, for instance: 'Life is a drama, not a monologue. A drama
+is derived from a Greek word which signifies <i>to do</i>. Every actor in the
+drama has something to do which helps on the progress of the
+whole,&mdash;that is the object for which the author created him. <i>Do your
+part</i> and let the <i>Great Play</i> go on!' <i>Do? do?</i>" continued Maurice, in
+an excited tone as he finished the quotation; "it is a torment worthy of
+a place in Dante's Inferno to know that there is nothing one is
+permitted to <i>do</i>! I too am an actor in the Great Drama; but I have no
+part to play save that of lay figure, motionless and voiceless; yet,
+unhappy, not being deprived of sensibility, I am goaded to desperation
+by inward taunting because I can do nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"The play is not ended yet," answered Ronald, with as much cheerfulness
+as he could command, for his friend's depression affected his
+sympathetic nature. "We may not comprehend our <i>r&ocirc;les</i> in the beginning;
+we may have to study long before we can thoroughly conceive, then
+idealize, then act them."</p>
+
+<p>"I could bear that mine should be a sad, if it were only an active one,"
+returned Maurice, again fixing his eyes upon the book.</p>
+
+<p>Ronald could make no reply to a sentiment so thoroughly in accordance
+with his own views. He constantly pondered upon the possibilities
+through which his friend might be freed from the shackles that bound him
+to the effeminate serfdom of idleness; but the magic that could unrivet
+those fetters had not yet been revealed. Still he was sometimes stirred
+by a mysterious prescience that they would be loosened, and through his
+instrumentality.</p>
+
+<p>Ronald's nature was essentially practical without being prosaic. The
+rich ore of poetry, inseparable from all exquisitely fine organizations,
+lay beneath the daily current of his life, like golden veins in the bed
+of a stream, shining through the crystal waters that bore the most
+commonplace objects on their tide. He thoroughly accepted that
+interpretation of the Ideal which calls it a "divine halo with which the
+Creator had encircled the world of reality;" but while he instinctively
+lifted all he loved into supernal regions and contemplated them in the
+glorious spirit-light that heightens all beauty, he lost sight of none
+of the stern actualities of their existence. His imagination had
+fashioned a hero out of Maurice, and he had thrown his person in heroic
+guise upon canvas; yet he clearly beheld and mourned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> over the morbid
+tendency that was weakening his mind and threatened to render his
+character and his life equally unheroic.</p>
+
+<p>Only a few days after the conversation we have just narrated, when
+Maurice entered Ronald's sitting-room he found the student with an open
+letter in his hand. As he lifted his eloquent, brown eyes from the paper
+a glittering moisture beaded their darkly fringed lashes, and an
+expression of ineffable tenderness looked out from their lustrous
+depths. The letter was from his mother,&mdash;one of those messengers of deep
+affection which transported him into her presence, placed him, as he had
+so often sat in his petted boyhood, at her feet, to listen to her holy
+teachings, and be thrilled to the very centre of his being by her words
+of love. During his three years of separation, at a period when the
+expanding mind is most impressible, these letters, weekly received, had
+surrounded him with a heavenly aura which seemed breathed out through a
+mother's ceaseless prayers, and had kept his life pure, his spirit
+strong, his heart uplifted; had preserved him from being hurried by the
+wild, ungoverned impulses of youth, rendered more infectuous by the
+volcanic fires of genius, into actions for which he might blush
+hereafter.</p>
+
+<p>It was one of the undefined, unspoken sources of sympathy between Ronald
+and Maurice, that the guarding hand of <i>woman</i>, influencing them from a
+distance, preserved the bloom, the freshness, the pristine purity of
+both their souls, even in the polluted atmosphere of a city where
+immorality is an accepted evil. Maurice, who had never known a mother's
+hallowing affection, gained his strength through his early attachment to
+a maiden whom no man could love without being ennobled thereby; and
+Ronald, whose heart had never yet awakened to the first pulse of
+tenderness which drew him towards one he would have claimed as a bride,
+owed his powers of resistance to as strong, as passionate devotion to a
+mother who united in her person all the most glorious attributes of
+womanhood, and whose idolizing love for her child was tempered by wisdom
+which placed his spiritual progress above all other gain. While he was
+struggling to win laurels in art's arena, she strove to bind upon his
+brow a crown whose gems were heavenly truths,&mdash;a crown the pure in
+spirit alone could wear.</p>
+
+<p>Blessed the son who has such a mother! Safe and blessed! His foot shall
+tread upon the serpent that lies hidden beneath the tempting flowers in
+his path, ere the reptile can sting him; his hand shall resolutely put
+away the cup of pleasure from his lips when there is poison in the
+chalice; he shall walk through the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> fire of evil lusts unscathed! No
+laurel that wreaths his brow shall render it too feverish, or too proud,
+to lie upon that mother's bosom with the glad, all-confiding, satisfied
+sense which made its joy when it lay there in guileless boyhood. That
+mother's love shall smooth for him the rough ways of earth, and place in
+his hand the golden key that opens heaven.</p>
+
+<p>As Maurice took his seat beside Ronald, the latter, hastily sweeping his
+handkerchief across his eyes, said with a vehement intonation,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I have come to a sudden determination! I am going back to America. The
+trip is nothing,&mdash;ten days over and ten back,&mdash;a mere trifle! I can
+spend a couple of months with my parents and be back in time for autumn
+work. Instead of sending my picture, which is nearly completed, I will
+present it in person."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice sighed as he answered, "They will be proud of your work! Happy
+are they who have work to do, and who do it faithfully!"</p>
+
+<p>"That is a sentiment worthy of an American," rejoined Ronald; "indeed,
+you have unconsciously stolen it from one of our most distinguished
+American writers, who says, 'To have something to do and <i>to do it</i> is
+the best appointment for us all.'<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> The
+extent to which I have insensibly Americanized you is very evident. A
+thought has just struck me: you are weary and melancholy, and seem to
+grow much paler and thinner every day. It will revive and strengthen you
+to accompany me. Come, let us go together!"</p>
+
+<p>"Let us fly to the moon!" answered Maurice, half scornfully. "Ronald,
+<i>why</i> do you always forget that although we have lived precisely the
+same number of years, and I may be said to have lived so much longer
+than you, if we count time by sorrows that make long the days,&mdash;though
+we have both passed our twenty-first anniversary, you, as an American,
+have obtained your majority, and are a free agent, while the law of
+France renders me still a minor for four years? You know I cannot stir
+without my father's consent; and, of course, that is unattainable."</p>
+
+<p>"Unattainable if you choose to imagine that it is, and will not seek for
+it," answered Ronald, rebukingly. "The wisest poet that ever penned his
+inspiration, says,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i11">'Our doubts are traitors<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And make us lose the good we oft might win<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">By fearing to attempt!'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Do not let your traitorous doubts frighten you from the trial."</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p>
+<p>Maurice smiled away his rising irritability, and replied, "I think,
+Ronald, your mind is so full of poetic arrows that one could not take a
+step, or lift a finger, or draw a breath, without your being able to hit
+him with a verse."</p>
+
+<p>"A verse may hit him who a sermon flies!" retorted Ronald, laughingly.
+"And a man is easy to hit who sits down with folded hands, like him of
+whom my rhythmic shaft has just made a target. But, to speak seriously,
+do you wonder that true thoughts, beautiful thoughts, which have been
+thrown into the music of verse, keep their haunting echoes in some
+stronghold of memory, and surge up to the lips when a stirring incident
+causes the gates of the mind to vibrate? Why, the very proof of the
+poet's genuine inspiration, his chiefest triumph lies in this, that he
+speaks a familiar truth, a common word of hope, a little word of
+comfort, a simple word of warning, with such potency that it strikes
+deeper into the soul than any other adjuration can reach; it defies us
+to forget; it takes the sound of a prophecy, and thrills our hearts and
+governs our actions in spite of ourselves. So much in defence of my
+poetic memories. Now be generous enough to admit that poetry is usually
+mingled with a large proportion of prosaic common sense which resolves
+itself into action. My scoffed-at poetry interprets itself into this
+matter-of-fact prose: unless you have the courage, the energy to ask
+your father's consent to your accompanying me to America, you will not
+get it; and if you ask you <i>may</i> get it; and if you accompany me it may
+profit you. Come,&mdash;what say you? I shall be ready to start next week."</p>
+
+<p>"So soon?" ejaculated Maurice, who, often as he had witnessed the
+promptitude with which the young American moved, could not yet
+familiarize himself with his national rapidity of action and decision.</p>
+
+<p>"You call it <i>soon</i>? Why, if I had said day after to-morrow it might
+have been termed <i>soon</i>; but it seems to me a week is time enough to
+prepare for a journey around the world. Come, you have half an hour
+before the post closes,&mdash;dash off your letter and let it go at once."</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke, he cleared his writing-table of the books and papers by
+which it was encumbered, and placed a chair for Maurice. The latter, who
+was always carried onward by the rushing current of his friend's strong
+will, wrote, on the spur of the moment, a letter more calculated to
+impress his father than any deliberately studied epistle. The restless
+and gloomy state of mind under which Maurice labored, revealed itself in
+this impuls<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>ive effusion with a force which might not have found its way
+into a calmer communication.</p>
+
+<p>The frequent applications for money which Maurice had been compelled to
+make, that he might meet the demands of the old Jew, were not without
+their influence in preparing Count Tristan to look favorably upon his
+son's solicitation. The count imagined that the sums so constantly
+demanded were squandered in the manner habitual to gay young men in
+Paris. He had experienced much difficulty in complying with his son's
+last request, and became painfully aware that it would not much longer
+be in his power to supply him at the same extravagant rate. As a natural
+consequence, he hailed the proposition to travel, which might break off
+any unfortunate connections, or <i>liaisons</i>, he might have formed in
+Paris, and without their aid, divert his troubled mind. Then, the
+present would be a favorable opportunity for Maurice to visit his estate
+in Maryland, and to learn something further of that railway company
+which seemed of late to have suspended its operations.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice was not less astounded than overjoyed upon receiving his
+father's prompt and unconditional consent to his proposed trip. He at
+once carried the letter to Bertha. She was too generous to oppose a step
+which promised to be advantageous to her cousin, yet she could not
+contemplate their inevitable separation without sincere sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I were going with you!" she sighed. "It seems to me everybody is
+going to America. Have you not heard that the Marquis de Fleury has just
+received the appointment of ambassador to the United States? I wish my
+uncle would let me travel to some foreign country. I am weary of this
+Parisian, ball-going life."</p>
+
+<p>"Has Monsieur de Fleury received his appointment at last? I had not
+heard of it. Who told you?" inquired Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>"M. de Bois, this very morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Gaston goes with him, I presume?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he said so."</p>
+
+<p>"That is an unexpected pleasure,&mdash;that is really delightful!" exclaimed
+Maurice, enthusiastically.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha did not reply; but she certainly looked inclined to pout, and as
+though she had no very distinct perception of the delight in question.</p>
+
+<p>In a few days Maurice and Ronald were on the great ocean.</p>
+
+<p>A fortnight later the Marquis and Marchioness de Fleury, and the
+secretary of the former, M. de Bois, were also on their way to the New
+World.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Bertha worried her uncle by her sad face, listless manner, and low
+spirits, to say nothing of her loss of appetite (to his thinking the
+most important feature of her <i>malaise</i>), until he was convinced that
+she had lost all interest in Paris, and that her sadness would be
+increased by a longer sojourn in the gay capital. When she admitted
+this, he kindly inquired if she desired to travel.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, <i>very much</i>," was her reply.</p>
+
+<p>Whither would she go? To Italy? To England? To Russia?</p>
+
+<p>"No,&mdash;to America!"</p>
+
+<p><i>America!</i>&mdash;land of savages!&mdash;land of Pawnees and Choctaws!&mdash;land where
+cooking must be in its crude infancy! Her uncle would not listen to such
+a barbarous proposition; and, finding that he could obtain no other
+answer from his wilful and incomprehensible ward, he carried her back to
+Bordeaux, consoling himself with the reflection that although the visit
+to Paris had not been permanently advantageous to his niece, the
+culinary knowledge acquired by Lucien was a full compensation.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> Hillard's "Italy."</p></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
+
+<h3>"CHIFFONS."</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Chiffons!" "<i>talking chiffons!</i>" "<i>writing chiffons!</i>"&mdash;will any one
+have the goodness to furnish us with a literal yet lucid interpretation
+of this enigmatical form of speech so incessantly employed in the
+Parisian <i>beau monde</i>? Among the translatable words of the French
+language,&mdash;among the expressive terms which cannot be rendered by
+equally significant expressions in our own more copious tongue,&mdash;among
+the phraseology invented to convey ideas which the phrases themselves
+certainly do not suggest,&mdash;the common application of this curt little
+word "<i>chiffons</i>" holds a distinguished place. Look for "<i>chiffons</i>" in
+the dictionary, and you will see it simply defined as "<i>rags</i>;" yet
+"<i>chiffons</i>" represent the very opposite of rags feminine, and conjure
+up a multitudinous army of feminine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> fashions, fripperies, fancies,
+follies, indispensable aids and adjuncts of the feminine toilet.</p>
+
+<p>We have headed this chapter "<i>chiffons</i>," and given an imperfect
+definition of the term, as a sign-post of warning to masculine
+readers,&mdash;a hint that this is a chapter to be lightly skimmed, or
+altogether skipped, for it unavoidably treats of "<i>chiffons</i>," which the
+necessities of the narrative will not allow us to suppress.</p>
+
+<p>The Marquis de Fleury had been appointed ambassador from the court of
+Napoleon the Third to the United States of America.</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Fleury's state of mind, in spite of the consolation afforded
+by a number of strikingly original costumes, which she innocently
+flattered herself would prove very effective during a sea-voyage, was
+deplorable. Terror inspired by the perils of the deep was only surpassed
+by intense grief excited by her compulsory banishment to a land where,
+she imagined, the invading feet of modiste and mantua-maker had not
+trodden out all resemblance to the original Eden; a land where the women
+probably attired themselves with a leaning to antediluvian simplicity,
+or in accordance with strong-minded proclivities, and the men were,
+doubtless, too much engrossed by politics and business to be capable of
+appreciating the most elaborate toilet that could be fashioned to
+captivate their eyes; a land, in short, where taste was yet unborn, and
+where it was ignorantly believed that the chief object of apparel was to
+perform, on a more extensive scale, the use of primitive fig-leaves and
+furs.</p>
+
+<p>To prevent her from falling into the clutches of American barbarians,
+Madame de Fleury secured two French maids as a <i>bodyguard</i>. Into the
+hands of one, skilled in the intricate mysteries of hair-dressing, her
+head was unreservedly consigned; the other, versed in more varied arts,
+had entire charge of the rest of her person. But these <i>aides-de-camp</i>
+of the toilet were deemed insufficient for the guardianship of her
+charms. The moment her sentence of exile was pronounced, she had
+summoned the incomparable Vignon to her presence, and piteously painted
+the difficulties which must beset her path when she was remorselessly
+torn from within reach of the creative fingers of the artist
+<i>couturi&egrave;re</i>. Vignon had unanticipated comfort in store: the most
+accomplished of her assistants,&mdash;one who had exhibited a skill in design
+and execution positively marvellous,&mdash;had several times expressed a
+strong inclination to establish herself in America, and would gladly
+make her <i>debut</i> in the New World under the patronage of the
+marchioness. This information threw<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> Madame de Fleury into such
+ecstasies that all the waves of the Atlantic, which had been ruthlessly
+tossing their wrecks about her brain, were suddenly stilled, and she
+declared that Mademoiselle Melanie must make her preparations to sail in
+the same steamer; for the knowledge that she was on board would render
+the voyage endurable. The marchioness complacently added that she felt
+so much strengthened by these tidings, that she could now look forward
+to meeting, with becoming fortitude, the trials incident upon her
+residence among a semi-civilized nation.</p>
+
+<p>We need hardly relate how soon, after reaching Washington, the fair
+Parisian discovered that civilization had made astounding progress if it
+might be estimated by the deference paid to "<i>chiffons</i>;" nor need we
+portray her astonishment at finding that American women "<i>of fashion</i>"
+were not merely close copyists of extreme French modes, but that they
+exaggerated even the most extravagant, and hunted after the newest
+styles with the national energy which their countrywomen of a nobler
+class expended upon nobler objects; and were more ready to deform or
+ignore nature, and swear allegiance to the despotic rule of the
+Crinoline Sovereign, than any Parisian belle under the sun.</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Fleury's royal sway over the empire of "<i>chiffons</i>" was soon
+as thoroughly established in Washington as it had been in Paris. Dress,
+or head-dress, bodice, bonnet, mantle, gaiter, glove, worn by her,
+multiplied itself in important imitations, and every feminine chrysalis
+sent forth its ballroom butterfly in a livery to match. Whatever style,
+shape, color, she adopted, however extraordinary, became the rage for
+that season, and disappeared from sight, totally banished by her regal
+command, at the inauguration of the next.</p>
+
+<p>At one period no skirt could sweep the pavement, or lie in rich folds at
+the bottom of a carriage, unadorned by an imposing flounce that almost
+covered the robe; a little later, the one sober flounce was driven into
+obscurity by twenty coquettish small ones; and these were displaced by
+primly puffed bands; which gave way to fanciful "keys" running up the
+sides of the dress (where they seemed to have no possible right); and
+those vanished when double skirts commenced their brief reign; to be
+dethroned by a severe-looking quilted ruffle marching around the hem of
+the dress and up the centre to the throat; and this grave adornment
+suddenly found its place usurped by an inundation of fantastic
+trimmings, jet, bugles, <i>passementerie</i>, velvet or lace. So much for
+skirts!</p>
+
+<p>Then the bodices:&mdash;<i>now</i> nothing was to be seen but the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> "square cut"
+which revealed the fine busts of beauties in the days of Charles
+II.,&mdash;now graceful folds <i>a c&oelig;ur</i> sentimentally ruled the day,&mdash;now
+infant waists became a passion, and the most maternal forms aped the
+juvenility borrowed from their babies. Then for sleeves: at one time
+they were wide and long and cumbrous, forbidding every trace of the most
+rounded member beneath; then they took the form of antique drapery,
+disclosing the arm almost nude, save for the transparent lace of the
+undersleeve,&mdash;then the close, tight fit of the Quaker left all but a
+distorted outline to the imagination.</p>
+
+<p>And bonnets: at one moment the tiniest bird's-nest of a hat, embowered
+in feathers and buried in lace, was perched on the back of the head,
+reminding one of Punch's suggestion that it could be more conveniently
+carried upon a salver by a domestic walking behind; a little later, the
+only bonnet admissible closed around the face like a cap, laces and
+feathers had disappeared, a few tastefully disposed knots of ribbon, or
+a single flower, were the only adornments: but hardly had Good Sense
+nodded approvingly at the graceful simplicity with which heads were
+covered, when, lo! the bonnets shot up like bright-hued coal-scuttles,
+over which a basket of buds and blossoms had been suddenly upset, and
+went through a variety of fantastic transformations wholly
+indescribable.</p>
+
+<p>So with other articles of attire. Mantles that had established for
+themselves a natural and convenient length suddenly grew down to the hem
+of the dress; basques, high in favor, were routed by Zouave jackets;
+girdles were at one moment drawn down with tight pressure until they
+barely surmounted the hips, the next were allowed to take an almost
+natural round (as far as their fitting locality went), and next were put
+wholly to flight by pointed Swiss belts, with enormous bows, and long,
+flowing ends,&mdash;while these, in turn, were chased from the field by
+picturesque scarfs.</p>
+
+<p>Then as regards the disposition of that native veil of unsurpassable
+beauty which adorns the head of woman: now, all locks were braided low
+at the back of the head, almost lying upon the neck; now they surmounted
+the crown and rose in stories higher and higher; now they sprang into a
+pair of wings from either side of the temples; now they were clustered
+in a tuft of disorderly curls above the brow; now smoothed and
+bandolined close to the face and knotted with an air of quiet simplicity
+behind the ears.</p>
+
+<p>Whichever of these modes the Parisian queen of "<i>chiffons</i>"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> rendered
+graceful in her own person, every fair one, with the slightest
+aspiration to <i>style</i>, strengthened her claims to be thought fashionable
+by scrupulously assuming. What wonder that Mademoiselle Melanie, prime
+minister to the absolute sovereign, could scarcely receive the crowd of
+clients that thronged her doors?</p>
+
+<p>She hired a spacious mansion, near the capitol, and furnished it with
+consummate taste. She combined the vocation of mantua-maker with that of
+milliner, and supplied all the materials she employed from an assortment
+of her own selection. This was one secret of her astonishing success,
+for it gave her control over the entire apparel of her customers.
+Regarding herself as responsible for the <i>tout ensemble</i> of each toilet
+that issued from her hands, and her reputation as at stake if any
+defective touch marred the general result of her adorning, she exerted a
+thoroughly despotic sway over those whom she undertook to dress, and
+refused, in the most positive, yet most courteous manner, to allow them
+to follow the dictates of their own faulty fancies. As a skilful artist
+examines a picture in the best light, that all its beauties may be
+revealed, she placed each one of her subjects in the most favorable
+aspect, studied her closely, searched out every fine point which might
+be heightened, and pondered over every defect which might be concealed.
+She had the rare gift of knowing how to embellish nature, how to bring
+forth all the capacities of a face and form, and how to modify the
+fashion of the day to the requirements of the wearer, instead of
+slavishly following an arbitrary mode, and thereby sacrificing all
+individuality of beauty. Dress became high art in her hands. Wondrously
+harmonious were the effects produced. Blondes looked softer and purer
+than ever before, without becoming insipid; brunettes grew more
+<i>piquante</i> and brilliant; nondescripts gained force and character;
+pallid faces caught a reflection of rose tints; too ruddy complexions
+were toned down by paling colors, and sallow skins found their ochre hue
+mysteriously neutralized. Angular shapes were draped so gracefully that
+unsymmetrical sharpness disappeared; too ample forms exchanged their air
+of uncouth corpulence for a well-defined roundness; low statures seemed
+to spring up to a nobler altitude, and women of masculine height sunk
+into feminine proportions. In short, Mademoiselle Melanie was not a
+mantua-maker, or milliner,&mdash;she was the genius of taste, the artful
+embodier of poetry in outward adorning.</p>
+
+<p>Her own person was strikingly attractive; but the severest simplicity
+characterized her attire. Her manners, though affable, were exceedingly
+reserved; without any apparent effort, she re<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>pressed the familiarity of
+the vulgar, and rebuked the patronizing airs of the assuming, winning
+instinctive deference even from the ill-bred.</p>
+
+<p>By her workwomen she was almost worshipped. Young herself, she impressed
+them with the sense that notwithstanding her lack of advantage over them
+in point of years, her superior skill and knowledge entitled her to be
+their head. She sympathized with their griefs, inquired into their
+needs, sometimes ignored their short-comings, but never their
+sufferings, and took care that the thread which helped fashion a lady's
+robe should not be drawn with such weary and overworked hands that, in
+the language of Hood, it sewed a shroud at the same moment.</p>
+
+<p>She was seldom seen in the streets; and, when her duties called her, she
+went forth closely veiled. But her distinguished air, the simple
+elegance of her apparel, and the dignified grace of her movements could
+not escape admiration.</p>
+
+<p>She soon found a carriage of her own indispensable, and selected an
+unostentatious equipage; but allowed herself the indulgence of a pair of
+superb horses, because she chanced to be an appreciating judge of those
+noble animals: a rather unusual knowledge for a <i>couturi&egrave;re</i>.</p>
+
+<p>She seldom walked or drove alone. She was usually accompanied by one of
+her assistants, a young Massachusetts girl, with whom she had been
+thrown into accidental communication shortly after her arrival in the
+United States.</p>
+
+<p>The history of Ruth Thornton is one every day repeated, but not less
+touching because so far from rare. Born and bred in affluence which
+emanated from the daily exertions of her father, his death left his
+widow and three orphan daughters destitute. The eldest early assumed the
+burdens of wifehood and maternity. Ruth was the second child. A girl of
+high spirit, she quickly laid aside all false pride, and earnestly
+sought to earn the bread of those she loved by the labor of her fair
+young hands, until then strangers to toil. But where was remunerative
+occupation to be found? Needy womanhood so closely crowded the few open
+avenues of industry that it seemed as though there was no room for
+another foot to gain a hold, another hand to struggle. To become a
+teacher, or governess, was Ruth's first, most natural endeavor; but,
+month after month, she sought in vain for a situation. She possessed a
+remarkable voice and very decided musical talent. The idea of the
+concert-room next suggested itself; but her naturally fine organ lacked
+the long cultivation that could alone fit her to embark upon the career
+of a singer. Her mind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> then turned to the stage; but, setting aside the
+difficulty of obtaining engagements, even to fill some position in the
+lowest ranks of the profession, she had no means, no time, to go through
+a long course of requisite study, or to procure herself the costly
+wardrobe indispensable to such a profession. She pondered upon the
+possibility of entering that most noble institution, the New York School
+of Design for Women. Here was meet work, hope-fanning, life-saving work
+for feminine hands: engraving on wood or steel; coloring plates for
+illustrated works; sketching designs for fashions to be used in
+magazines, or patterns for carpets, calicoes, paper-hangings, etc. But,
+on inquiry, she learned that a year's study would be needful before she
+could hope to gain a modest livelihood through the medium of the
+simplest of these pursuits. From whence, in the meantime, could her
+mother, her sister, and herself derive their support? Next, she resolved
+to resort to her needle; yet how small was the likelihood of keeping it
+employed! and how poor the pittance it could earn as an humble
+seamstress! True, she might learn a trade; but how was she to exist
+meantime?</p>
+
+<p>She stood erect in the midst of this desert of difficulties, perplexed
+but undismayed, and still believing in, and steadfastly seeking for, the
+work allotted to such weak hands as hers.</p>
+
+<p>There is something magnetic in unflagging energy, and untiring hope;
+they mysteriously attract to themselves the materials which they most
+need. By a seeming accident, Ruth heard that an assistant housekeeper
+was required at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York. Her high-born
+relatives learned with horror that one of their kin, the daughter of a
+gentleman who had held an honorable position in their community,
+contemplated filling this menial position. But, in spite of their
+disapproval, Ruth presented herself as an applicant for the post, and
+though her youth (for she was hardly twenty) was an objection, her
+services were accepted; and she entered forthwith upon her lowly duties.</p>
+
+<p>We need not dwell upon the manifold and humiliating trials to which she
+was subjected,&mdash;trials to which the loveliness of her person largely
+contributed. Like a true American maiden, well-disciplined,
+self-reliant, and of strong principles, she found protection within
+herself, and bade defiance to dangers which might have proved fatal to
+one whose early training had been less productive of strength.</p>
+
+<p>It was while Ruth was meekly discharging these humble duties that she
+became acquainted with Mademoiselle Melanie.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On arriving in New York, Madame de Fleury had taken up her residence for
+a few days at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, and, as though she feared to lose
+sight of Mademoiselle Melanie, requested her to do the same. A severe
+indisposition, which caused the latter to seek feminine aid, threw her
+in communication with the housekeeper of the hotel and her young
+assistant. Mademoiselle Melanie quickly became interested in the sweet,
+pale, patient face hovering about her bed, and did not fail to note the
+air of refinement which seemed at variance with her position. In less
+than four and twenty hours the young French <i>couturi&egrave;re</i> had learned the
+history of the young American housekeeper, and resolved, if she
+prospered in America, to remove this lovely girl from her present
+perilous position to one less exposed.</p>
+
+<p>Six months later Ruth received a letter from Washington making her an
+offer to become one of the assistants of Mademoiselle Melanie, and
+gratefully accepted the proposal. Mademoiselle Melanie found her young
+<i>employ&eacute;e's</i> health too delicate for an exhausting apprenticeship to the
+needle, and employed Ruth in copying and coloring sketches of costumes
+which the accomplished <i>couturi&egrave;re</i> herself designed. As she became more
+and more conversant with the noble character of her <i>proteg&eacute;e</i> the
+spontaneous attachment she had conceived for her grew stronger, and Ruth
+Thornton became her constant companion.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>MAURICE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>On their arrival in America Ronald took Maurice to his southern home,
+where he was received with a cordial hospitality that strengthened and
+confirmed the tie of brotherhood between the young men.</p>
+
+<p>We will not attempt to portray the meeting between Ronald and his
+parents,&mdash;a meeting so full of joy that its throbs quickened into the
+pulse of pain, as though clay-compassed hearts were hardly large enough
+to endure the ecstasy of such a reunion. Nor will we dwell upon the
+proud elation with which Ronald's first ambitious attempt in art was
+contemplated by his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> parents. Their praises might simply have testified
+that love appreciates; the hand that wrought might have sanctified even
+a feeble work to their sight; but colder judgments pronounced Ronald's
+initiatory achievement a pledge of power, and all the more decisive
+because the execution of the youthful hand obviously had not kept pace
+with the strong conception of the fervid brain.</p>
+
+<p>We pass on to the effect produced upon Maurice by his sojourn in
+Ronald's transatlantic home.</p>
+
+<p>Many a pang did the youthful Frenchman endure as he noted the thorough
+and genial understanding which seemed to exist between the southern
+youth and his father. Maurice was amazed by Mr. Walton's unfailing
+recognition that his son was a responsible being; by the confidence he
+reposed in him; by the unequivocal manner in which he placed him upon a
+footing of equality, even while guiding him by his counsels,&mdash;counsels
+offered as the results of a larger experience, yet never so compulsorily
+urged as to check his son's freedom of decision. Maurice, marked, too,
+the earnest interest with which Mr. Walton entered into all Ronald's
+projects, albeit some of them appeared too wild and high-reaching to be
+easy of accomplishment; beheld how readily the paternal hand was
+stretched out to soften the ordeals through which the neophyte must
+inevitably pass, and was moved by the touching frankness with which the
+noble-minded parent repeatedly congratulated himself that he had not
+permitted his own predilections to force Ronald into a field of action
+repugnant to his tastes.</p>
+
+<p>When Maurice instinctively compared this liberal, high-toned father's
+mode of influencing his son with the tyrannous control of the haughty
+count, and contrasted Ronald's untrammeled position with his own state
+of dependent nonentity, he felt that unstruggling submission to the
+cruel decree which doomed him to waste those fresh, strong, aspiring
+years of his life in hopeless idleness was a weakness rather than a
+virtue.</p>
+
+<p>He was only spared from passing a judgment upon his father, more correct
+than filial, by throwing the blame of his conduct upon the shackling
+customs, and false opinions, and arbitrary laws of his native land. He
+could not but be forcibly struck by the wide dissimilarity between the
+usages and views of life which distinguished the two nations. In
+America, he saw men, self-made and self-educated, at an age when young
+Frenchmen have scarcely begun to be aware that they have any independent
+existence, rising to prominent and honorable positions, taking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> a bold
+part in public affairs, and asserting by their achievements the maturity
+of their brains. He saw men, who had been forced by circumstances to
+commence their lives of toil and self-support at fifteen and eighteen, a
+few years later not only gaining their own livelihood, but contributing
+to the maintenance of their families, and laying the foundation of
+future fortune. He saw artistic tastes, literary talents, professional,
+legislative, and military abilities, brought to opulent fruition in men
+but a few years his senior; and though every one seemed to work at high
+pressure, every one appeared to live rapidly, crowding each day with
+actions, still men <i>lived</i>, lived <i>consciously</i>, planting along the
+pathway of their pilgrimage the landmarks of positive deeds; and they
+sowed, and reaped, and rejoiced in their harvests, and if some of them
+grew old faster than their European brethren, their age was at least
+enriched by varied memories, vast experiences, manifold mental gains,
+that testified to the value of their lives.</p>
+
+<p>And was it imperative, Maurice asked himself, that the accident of noble
+blood should paralyze a man's volition, and that the bearing of a noble
+name should render his life inertly ignoble? He recognized that, in the
+seeming curse which condemned man to "work," God had hidden the richest
+blessing, even as he buried golden veins in the dark bosom of the earth.
+"Labor was privilege," and gave its sweetest flavor to the daily cup of
+life.</p>
+
+<p>As for Ronald, though he loved his country with the enthusiasm which
+characterized all his affections, he had never been fully cognizant of
+the advantages it possessed over the land in which he had lately
+sojourned until he saw them through the eyes of Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing is more true than that <i>we can render no service to another by
+which we are not served ourselves</i>, served spiritually, therefore
+<i>actually</i>, and in the highest sense; and not merely in his new
+appreciation of the land of his birth, but in numerous other ways,
+Ronald was the unconscious gainer by the helpful influence he exerted
+over his friend. The youthful Mentor confirmed himself in grand and
+vital truths while imparting them to Maurice; his own noble resolves
+were quickened into activity while he sought to infuse them into the
+mind of another; his own spirit acquired strength while he was
+endeavoring to render his companion strong of soul. Ronald's character
+was perhaps more affluent and expansive, had more force and fixedness of
+purpose, than that of Maurice, yet it derived fresh vigor from the less
+hopeful, less confident nature upon which it acted.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Though Maurice owed much to the young art-student, he soon owed more to
+that gentle but potent hand by which Ronald had been moulded, refined,
+and spiritualized. Ronald's mother opened wide her large heart and her
+loving arms to take in the motherless youth thrown by an apparent
+accident within her sphere.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Walton was one of those beings to whom life is a poem, read it in
+sorrow or gladness, read it whatever way you will, because all things to
+her mind had a divine significance; she knew that nothing had either its
+<i>end</i> or <i>origin</i> here, and felt that the very day-dreams and
+aspirations of impulsive youth descended by influx from those supernal
+regions in which all <i>causes</i> exist, though we darkly behold them
+through <i>effects</i> ultimated upon our earthly plane. Her eyes were never
+bent upon the ground, to search out stumbling-blocks of doubt, but
+looked up Godward until the heavens grew less distant, and earth's
+perplexing mysteries were solved; and daily joys and daily pains only
+acquired importance through their bearing upon the joys and pains of
+eternity; and celestial light, flowing through her pure thoughts,
+reflected its mellow glory upon her humblest surroundings, and tinged
+them with ineffable beauty.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice, who had been so deeply impressed by Ronald's attributes and
+aims, quickly recognized the fountain-head from whence flowed the living
+waters he had drank, and, humbly bending to quaff at the same stream,
+became conscious that his whole being was vitalized and renewed. The
+great ends of existence, for the first time, became apparent to him; and
+as he learned to look upon the present and temporal as only of moment
+through their effect upon the future and eternal,&mdash;as he renounced a
+senseless belief in the very names of <i>chance</i> and <i>accident</i>, and
+yielded to the conviction that the simplest as the gravest occurrences
+all tend to lay some stone in the great architectural edifice which
+every man is building for his own dwelling-place in the hereafter,&mdash;his
+trials, by some wondrous transmutation, wore a holy aspect, and gently
+into his unfolding spirit stole the comforting assurance that those very
+trials might be the fittest, the strongest, the <i>appointed</i> instruments
+to hew out the pathway he panted to tread, and carve for him a future
+which could never have been wrought by such tools as the velvety hands
+of prosperity hold in their feeble grasp.</p>
+
+<p>The morbid melancholy into which Maurice had fallen, and which deepened
+with his vain pondering over the mysterious fate of Madeleine, rolled
+from his spirit before the breath of hope,&mdash;hope breathed through
+sunshine, from the lips of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> woman whose sympathetic voice, tender
+looks, and quick comprehension of his emotions insensibly melted away
+reserve, and drew out all his confidence. He could talk to Mrs. Walton
+of Madeleine with an absence of <i>reticence</i>, an unchecked gush of
+feeling, which would not have been possible when he conversed with
+Ronald, or with any one but a woman, <i>and such a woman</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Far from advising him, as a worldly-wise counsellor would have done, to
+struggle against a passion which did not promise to prove fortunate, she
+bade him cherish the image of the one he so ardently loved with perfect
+trust, that if that woman were indeed his <i>other self</i>,&mdash;that <i>separate
+half</i> which makes man's full complement,&mdash;he would, in spite of all
+adverse circumstances, be drawn to her, by mysterious and invisible
+cords, until their union was consummated.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Walton entertained the not irrational belief that as "either sex
+alone is <i>half</i> itself," and "each fulfils defects in each," there was
+created for every male soul some feminine spirit, whose heart was
+capable of responding to the finest pulses of his; one who could meet
+his largest requirements; one who could alone render his being perfect,
+his true manhood complete; one whom he might never meet on earth, and
+yet who lived for him. This great truth (for as such he accepted it) was
+a glorious revelation to Maurice. He cast out the remembrance that
+Madeleine had said she loved another, or only recalled her declaration
+to feel certain that she had mistaken her own heart, or that he had
+misconstrued the language she had used. She became more vividly present
+than ever to his mind, and the constant thought that now confidently and
+happily wound itself about her seemed to him to annihilate material
+distances and bring their spirits into close communion.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice passed two delightful months beneath the hospitable roof of Mr.
+and Mrs. Walton. The period which Ronald had allowed himself for a
+holiday drew to a close. The sense of unoccupied power had begun to
+render him restless, and it was with elation which might have appeared
+tinctured with ingratitude by those who did not comprehend the
+mysterious workings of his untranquil ambition, that he prepared for his
+return to that foreign land where he could enjoy advantages for the
+prosecution of his art-studies unattainable in a young country.</p>
+
+<p>When Maurice embarked for America with Ronald, it was understood that
+they were to return to Europe together; but one morning, when the latter
+casually announced his intention of securing their passage on board of a
+steamer about to sail from New York, Maurice turned to him and said
+abruptly,&mdash;</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Ronald, one berth will be sufficient."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear fellow, what do you mean?" inquired Ronald, only half
+surprised.</p>
+
+<p>"It is impossible for me," replied Maurice, "to return to my life of
+indolence and <i>supposed gayety</i>. A snake might more easily crawl back
+into his cast-off skin. I have breathed this free, exhilarating,
+vitalizing atmosphere, and the convention-laden air of Paris would
+stifle me. I have written to my father and announced that I propose
+remaining in Charleston. That is not all: he forbade my studying law in
+Paris, because his sapient Breton neighbors would have been scandalized
+by a viscount's taking so sensible a step; but possibly I may prepare
+myself for the bar at this distance, without subjecting my father to the
+annoyance of their disapproval. The period required for study is
+shorter, and I shall have a wider field in which to practise. I cannot
+be prepared to enter upon the duties of my profession much before the
+time when, according to the laws of France, I shall reach my majority;
+meanwhile I study, we will say, <i>for amusement</i>. I study as other men
+hunt, fish, boat, skate. What do you think of my plan?"</p>
+
+<p>Ronald grasped him warmly by the hand.</p>
+
+<p>"It is just what I expected of you, Maurice! When we first met, and I
+was so strongly attracted to you, an internal prescience whispered that
+you had within you the very qualities which are asserting their
+existence to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"They might have been <i>in</i> me, Ronald," answered Maurice with emotion;
+"but I fear they would never have been brought <i>out</i> but for your
+agency. I never can be grateful enough that we have been thrown
+together! I never can sum up the good you have done me! I stood in such
+great need of just the influence you and your mother"&mdash;The voice of
+Maurice trembled, and he was unable to proceed.</p>
+
+<p>Ronald broke the somewhat embarrassing silence by saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"In short, you have come to the conclusion that my mother is right in
+her faith, and whatever we actually need for our spiritual advancement
+is invariably sent, if we will but preserve ourselves in a state of
+reception. All that you still lack will be supplied in the same way, if
+you can but believe."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>I do believe</i>," answered Maurice, in a tone of greater solemnity than
+the occasion seemed to demand; but there was a world of meaning in those
+three words. We should be obliged to employ many if we attempted to
+express a tithe of what he had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> recently learned to <i>believe</i> through
+the instrumentality of a noble thinker.</p>
+
+<p>A week later, Ronald folded his mother to his throbbing heart, and
+tenderly bade her adieu; but, without feeling that he should be parted
+from her by their material separation. Strange to say, his farewell to
+his father and Maurice was shadowed by a nearer approach to sadness and
+a more definite sense of sundering. Possibly their spirits had less
+power than his mother's to annihilate space and follow him whithersoever
+he went.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice was induced to linger a few days longer as the guest of his new
+friends, and his presence prevented the void left by the departure of a
+beloved and only son from being too keenly felt. At the commencement of
+a new week the young viscount removed to Charleston. That city was only
+a few miles distant from the residence of Ronald's parents. Mr. Walton
+had made his visitor acquainted with an eminent lawyer, who consented to
+receive Maurice de Gramont as a student.</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan at first violently opposed his son's step, but he could
+not, with any show of reason, forbid his studying law as a <i>pastime</i>.
+The count's affairs became more and more entangled, and he grew more
+desirous than ever that his son should contract a wealthy marriage. The
+hope that Maurice might woo and win one of those numerous heiresses,
+who, Frenchmen imagine, abound in the Southern El Dorado, alone
+reconciled the haughty nobleman to his son's sojourn in America.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE ARISTOCRATS IN AMERICA.</h3>
+
+
+<p>While Maurice was applying himself to study with a zeal and sense of
+enjoyment wholly new to him, Bertha was passing through various stages
+of ennui, and testing the patience, or rather the digestive powers, of
+that sorely discomforted <i>bon vivant</i>, her uncle. Day after day she grew
+more capricious, unreasonable, unmanageable.</p>
+
+<p>The distressed marquis came to the conclusion that his disturbed animal
+economy could only be restored by an amicable separation from his niece.
+But in vain he bestowed his smiles,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> and his <i>dinners</i>, upon the
+multitudinous suitors by whom the young heiress was besieged; her
+autocratic decree condemned him to the cruel duty of closing the
+sumptuous repasts by the <i>dessert</i> of a dismissal to each lover in turn,
+without extending to any the faintest hope that his sentence might be
+reversed. Finally the marquis became a confirmed dyspeptic; the joy of
+his life was quenched when his appetite failed, beyond the resuscitating
+influence of <i>absenthe</i> and other fashionable stimulants; the glory of
+his festive board had departed, and he was haunted by the conviction
+that the unnatural conduct of his niece would bring his whitening hairs,
+through sorrow and indigestion, to the grave.</p>
+
+<p>A small but dearly prized respite from his trials was granted him when
+Bertha paid her yearly visit, of four months, to her relatives in
+Brittany. Her stay, however, was never extended beyond the wonted
+period, for she found her sojourn at the Ch&acirc;teau de Gramont
+unmitigatedly dull. The reception of letters from Maurice, addressed to
+his father, alone relieved the tediousness of the hours; but these
+welcome messengers were infrequent, brief, and somewhat cold. They left
+Bertha so unsatisfied that before the close of the first year of her
+cousin's absence she opened a correspondence with him herself. The
+initiative letter was suggested by pleasant tidings, which she hastened
+to send. It was written immediately after the eighteenth anniversary of
+her birthday, and communicated the agreeable intelligence that upon that
+day she had again received a token of remembrance from their beloved
+Madeleine.</p>
+
+<p>A yearly gift, bearing the impress of those "fairy fingers," was the
+only sign Madeleine gave that she lived and remembered.</p>
+
+<p>Three years passed on, and upon each birthday, wherever Bertha chanced
+to be, in Bordeaux, in Paris, in Brittany, a small parcel was
+mysteriously left with the <i>concierge</i> of the house where she was
+residing. The package was always addressed in Madeleine's handwriting,
+and contained some exquisite piece of needle-work, but no letter, and it
+bore no mark of post or express. It was invariably delivered by private
+hand. At least, it rendered certain the consolatory facts, not only that
+Bertha was unforgotten, but that Madeleine was cognizant of all her
+movements.</p>
+
+<p>No sooner had the heiress reached her majority than she prepared to
+carry into execution a plan which for a long period had been silently
+forming itself in her mind. Her earnest desire to visit America had been
+secretly, but systematically, strengthened<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> by Count Tristan. He well
+knew that the Marquis de Merrivale would never be induced to become her
+escort; and, what was more likely than that she should seek the
+countenance and protection of her other relatives?</p>
+
+<p>He played his cards so adroitly that Bertha, without once suspecting his
+machinations, wrote to him, on the very day that closed her twenty-first
+year, and invited the countess and himself to accompany her upon an
+American tour. She took care delicately to make a stipulation that the
+expenses of the projected trip should devolve upon her. The count
+concealed his exultation under an air of well-acted reluctance, and
+required much persuasion before he could be taught to look with favor
+upon this <i>unexpected</i> and <i>sudden</i> proposition.</p>
+
+<p>There was no simulation in the dismay, the horror with which Bertha's
+proposal was greeted by the countess. How was she to breathe in a land
+where hereditary claims to rank were unknown?&mdash;where distinctions of
+<i>brains</i> not <i>blood</i> were alone recognized?&mdash;where a man might rise to
+the highest position, as ruler of the realm, though his father chanced
+to be a mechanic, and his grandfather's existence was untraceable? For a
+time, Bertha's entreaties and the count's representations were equally
+impotent; the countess was inexorable. But her son was not to be
+baffled; he found an avenue through which her heart could be reached,
+and her resolution undermined. It lay in the suggestion that Bertha's
+strong inclination to visit America sprang from a desire again to behold
+Maurice, and that the result of their meeting, after so long a
+separation, might be in the highest degree felicitous. Bertha, he urged,
+during the absence of Maurice, had probably learned that he was dearer
+to her than she imagined; and, if Maurice had reason to believe that she
+crossed the ocean for the sake of rejoining him, could he remain
+insensible to such a proof of devotion? The countess bowed her haughty
+head to a sacrifice which vitally compromised her dignity.</p>
+
+<p>One of the objects of the count's visit to America was to learn
+something further of the railroad company with which he was connected.
+For a time its operations had been suspended, owing to a financial
+crisis,&mdash;a sort of periodical American epidemic that, like cholera,
+sweeps over the land at intervals, making frightful ravage for a season,
+and departing as mysteriously as it came. The elastic nation, never long
+prostrate, had risen out of temporary difficulties and depression with a
+sudden bound, and prosperity walked in the very footprints of the late
+destroyer.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hilson had lately announced to Count Tristan that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> railway
+association was again in full activity, and that the mooted question of
+the direction which the road ought to take would, ere long, be decided.
+He added that, according to his judgment, the left road was indubitably
+the more desirable. Should that road be chosen, it would pass through
+the property owned by the Viscount de Gramont. We have already alluded
+to the immense difference in the value of the estate which the advent of
+the railroad would insure.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha had no difficulty in obtaining the Marquis de Merrivale's
+approval of the contemplated trip.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the spring the party embarked upon one of those superb steamers
+that sweep across the ocean like floating cities, pulsating with
+multitudinous life.</p>
+
+<p>The passage was so smooth that Bertha thoroughly enjoyed the strange,
+new existence, and found such ever-varying beauty in the gorgeous
+sunsets, and the resplendent moonlight, that she even forsook her berth
+to see "Aurora draw aside her crimson curtain of the dawn;" in short she
+was in an appreciating mood throughout the voyage, and her happy state
+allowed her to ignore all the <i>d&eacute;sagrem&eacute;ns</i> of the sea. The countess
+also, as she sat upon the deck in a comfortable arm-chair,&mdash;which she
+occupied as though it were a throne, and received the homage of
+fellow-passengers, who were obviously struck and awed by her majestic
+deportment,&mdash;pronounced the transit more endurable than she anticipated.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice had gone to New York to welcome the voyagers, and when the
+steamer neared the land he was the first person who bounded upon the
+deck. Bertha caught sight of him, and as she sprang forward and threw
+herself into his arms, weeping with joy and heartily returning his warm
+embrace, the countess and her son exchanged looks of exultation which
+showed that they had not reflected upon the vast distinction between the
+frank greeting of brother and sister, and the meeting of possible
+lovers.</p>
+
+<p>A slight, irrepressible shadow passed over the beaming countenance of
+Maurice as he turned from Bertha to welcome his father and grandmother.
+The cloud flitted by in an instant, and only betrayed that the past was
+unforgotten; while the look of manly confidence and self-possession, by
+which it was replaced, told that the present and the future could not be
+subject to by-gone storms.</p>
+
+<p>After the first salutations were over, the countess scanned Maurice from
+head to foot, to note what changes had been wrought by his residence in
+a country which she held in such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> supreme contempt. The slight curl and
+quivering of the lip, which accompanied her survey, bespoke that it was
+not entirely satisfactory. In the first place, his apparel displeased
+her. The care that he had once bestowed upon his toilet betrayed a
+slight leaning to the side of foppishness; <i>now</i>, his attire gave him
+the air of a man of business, rather than of mere pleasure. His bearing
+was more confident than in former days, his movements more rapid, his
+tone more animated and decisive, his whole manner more energetic. His
+face was slightly careworn, his brow had lost something of its unruffled
+smoothness, and the fresh carnation tints had faded out of his
+complexion; but the wealth of expression his countenance had gained
+might atone for heavier losses. In repose, his features wore a shade of
+habitual sadness; but that disappeared the moment he spoke, and was
+rather an air of reflection than of sorrow. Indeed, all gloom had
+vanished from his spirit soon after his arrival in America. The
+hope-inspiring ministry of Ronald's mother, first and engrossing study,
+and ceaseless occupation next, had effectually medicined his growing
+melancholy. Maurice had not felt himself a homeless exile during his
+four years' sojourn in a foreign land. The Ch&acirc;teau de Gramont was less
+dear to him than the quiet, unpretentious, but affection-brightened home
+where he was always welcomed as a son.</p>
+
+<p>When his stately grandmother, after so long a separation, once more
+appeared before him, the cold dignity, repelling hardness, and
+self-venerating pride of her demeanor struck him all the more painfully
+because it conjured up, in contrast, a vision of soft humility,&mdash;the
+gentle strength, the intellectual power, the refined tenderness of the
+lovely woman who realized his ideal of maternity.</p>
+
+<p>It almost seemed as though the countess had some internal perception
+that Maurice weighed her in the balance of a new judgment, and found her
+wanting; for she shrank beneath his gaze, and turned from him with a
+sense of sickening disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha, while she was struck by the marked alteration in Maurice, noted
+the change with undisguised admiration. To <i>her</i> eyes he was a thousand
+times more attractive than ever, and she told him so without a shadow of
+bashful hesitation.</p>
+
+<p>The young French demoiselle had made up her mind to be charmed with
+America, and little is required to satisfy those who are determined to
+be pleased. How much of her enthusiasm was legitimately excited, and how
+much was the spontaneous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> kindling of her own bright spirit, we will not
+attempt to describe. Be it enough to say, that she frequently declared
+her most sanguine expectations were far surpassed.</p>
+
+<p>The countess, on the other hand, looked through a distorted medium which
+filled her with disgust. She was horrified at the publicity of
+hotel-life in New York. She could not tolerate the careless ease of the
+persons with whom she was thrown into accidental communication,&mdash;the
+confidence with which the very servants ventured to accost her. The
+absence of awe, the lack of head and knee bending, in her august
+presence, appeared a tacit insult. She was puzzled to reconcile the
+freedom with which she was constantly addressed with the great deference
+paid to her <i>sex</i>. While her <i>rank</i> was almost ignored, the mere fact of
+being <i>a woman</i> commanded an amount of consideration unsurpassed by the
+veneration paid to titled womanhood in her own land. Nothing, however,
+shocked her more than the liberty accorded to young American maidens.
+She found it impossible to comprehend that, educated as responsible
+beings, the strict <i>surveillance</i> over girlhood's most trivial actions,
+which is deemed indispensable in France, ceased to be a matter of
+necessity in America.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately upon his arrival in New York the count had placed himself in
+communication with Mr. Hilson; and, a few days later, received a letter
+informing him that at a recent meeting of the managers of the &mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash;
+Railway Association a committee of nine had been chosen to decide upon
+the most suitable direction of the new road. The committee was to give
+in its decision at the end of a fortnight. Mr. Hilson regretted to add
+that he feared the majority were in favor of the road to the <i>right</i>. He
+concluded by suggesting that it might be well for the count to visit
+Washington, and exert over members of the committee any influence, that
+he could command, to secure a majority of votes in favor of the road
+which would prove so advantageous to his son's property.</p>
+
+<p>The count resolved to act at once upon Mr. Hilson's suggestion. When he
+proposed to his mother and Bertha that they should start the very next
+day for Washington, the countess, for the first time since her arrival,
+expressed herself gratified. At the seat of government she would meet
+the French ambassador and his wife (the Marquis and Marchioness de
+Fleury), and possibly, in the circle in which they moved, she might
+encounter foreigners with whom it would not be repugnant to associate.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Bertha heard Count Tristan's announcement with such bright gleamings of
+the eyes, such happy flushings of the cheeks, that the sudden radiance
+which overspread her countenance set Maurice wondering over the emotions
+that caused her to so warmly welcome this unanticipated change of
+locality.</p>
+
+<p>The revery into which he had fallen was broken by his father. The count
+launched into a discussion upon the management of property in America,
+then glided into the subject of the Maryland estate, and finally
+suggested that it would be advisable for his son to grant him a power of
+attorney which would place him in a situation to act as his
+representative in any case of emergency. Maurice unhesitatingly
+expressed his willingness to comply with this request, and the legal
+instrument was drawn up without delay. Upon receiving the document, the
+count assured his son that there was no probability that the power would
+be required, and voluntarily pledged himself not to make use of it
+without apprising Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan's words and intentions were wholly at variance. His
+affairs in Brittany had become so frightfully entangled, that it was
+absolutely necessary for him to be able to command a considerable sum to
+redeem his credit; and he saw no means by which this desirable end could
+be obtained, except by a mortgage upon his son's estate. One of his
+strongest motives in visiting America was to effect this purpose; but he
+earnestly desired to conceal from Maurice the step he projected,
+trusting to his own skill in under-hand management for the smoothing
+away of difficulties before there was a necessity for explanation.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice accompanied the count, his mother, and Bertha to Washington, and
+there bidding them adieu returned to Charleston.</p>
+
+<p>His preparatory studies being now completed, he was received as junior
+partner by the gentleman who had initiated him into the mysteries of his
+profession.</p>
+
+<p>It chanced that Mr. Lorrillard had large possessions in certain iron
+mines in Pennsylvania, which gave promise of yielding an immense profit.
+He had conceived a high esteem for the young viscount, and, with a view
+of promoting his interests, represented to him the advantage of
+purchasing a few shares, which could at that moment be favorably
+secured. Maurice had no funds at his command; but Mr. Lorrillard
+suggested that the viscount could easily procure the ten thousand
+dollars needful by a mortgage upon his Maryland estate, and even offered
+to give him a letter to Mr. Emerson,&mdash;a personal friend residing in
+Wash<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>ington,&mdash;who, as the estate was wholly unembarrassed, would
+willingly loan the money upon this security. It was hardly possible for
+Maurice to have resided so long in America without being slightly bitten
+by the national mania for speculation, and he gladly accepted the offer
+of his principal, and retraced his steps to Washington.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE INCOGNITA.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Maurice arrived in Washington without having apprised his father of his
+purposed visit. Count Tristan received him with ill-concealed
+embarrassment; but the young viscount was too ingenuous himself, and
+therefore too unsuspicious of others, for him to attribute his father's
+discomposure to any source but surprise at his unexpected appearance. If
+Maurice noted an absence of pleasure in the count's constrained
+greeting, he was too much accustomed to the formal and undemonstrative
+manners of the aristocracy to dwell upon the lack of warmth.</p>
+
+<p>The count had taken up his residence at Brown's hotel. He chanced to be
+sitting alone when his son was ushered into the drawing-room. The
+opportunity was a favorable one for Maurice to communicate to his father
+the object of his visit.</p>
+
+<p>After the first salutations were over, he inquired, rather abruptly,
+"Have you seen Mr. Hilson? What does he say in regard to the
+probabilities that the railroad will take the direction which we so much
+desire?"</p>
+
+<p>"Our prospects are tolerably good," returned the count; "but we need to
+exert ourselves, and, possibly, you may be of service. The committee
+that has the decision in its hands consists of nine persons. Out of
+these, four have declared their preference for the road to the right,
+and are immovable. Our friends, Meredith and Hilson, who are on the
+committee, vote, of course, for the left road; then there are two rival
+bankers, Mr. Gobert and Mr. Gilmer, who are bitterly opposed to each
+other, and generally vote in opposition one to the other; we must bring
+some agency into play which will induce them, for once, to vote alike."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That seems indispensable; but is it possible?" questioned Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>"I trust so. Mr. Gobert is the banker of the Marquis de Fleury, who
+exerts unbounded power over him. One word from the marquis, and Gobert's
+vote is secured. The marquis, as every one is aware, can always be
+approached through Madame de Fleury. Obtain <i>her</i> promise that we shall
+have Mr. Gobert's vote, and it is ours! The marchioness, I fear, may not
+have forgiven Bertha's rejection of her brother's suit; but, as both
+parties are still unmarried and unengaged, if she can only be convinced
+that Bertha's refusal was mere girlish caprice, and that there is still
+hope of the young duke's success, she will be ready enough to serve us."</p>
+
+<p>"But is there hope?" inquired Maurice, quite innocently.</p>
+
+<p>The wily schemer replied by a glance half-angry, half-contemptuous; but,
+without making any other answer, went on.</p>
+
+<p>"The other banker, Mr. Gilmer, I am seeking the means to influence. I
+have no doubt that I shall find them. The ninth member of the committee
+is Mr. Rutledge, quite a young man, the only son and heir of a
+Washington millionnaire. I learn, from M. de Bois, that Rutledge is
+deeply enamored of the sister of Lord Linden."</p>
+
+<p>"I beg pardon, but you have not yet told me who Lord Linden is; and it
+is so unusual to hear <i>lords</i> mentioned in this country that my ears are
+quite unattuned to the sound of a title."</p>
+
+<p>Another hasty look from the count might have been interpreted into one
+of slight disgust. His son was far more Americanized than he could have
+desired. He went on, with increased haughtiness.</p>
+
+<p>"The English ambassador to the United States married a sister of Lord
+Linden, and his lordship and a younger sister accompanied them to
+Washington. Mr. Rutledge aspires to the hand of this young lady,&mdash;so
+says M. de Bois, who is intimately acquainted with her brother. If she
+can be interested in our plans the vote of Mr. Rutledge is easily
+secured."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice could not help laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"It is, <i>in reality</i>, the votes of <i>women</i>, then, that are to determine
+the direction of this road? I ought hardly to be surprised at <i>that</i>;
+for, if they have feeble voices in other lands, they have very decided
+ones in America. But how is the young lady in question to be reached?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is what I am pondering upon," resumed his father.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> "I shall form
+some plan, you may be sure; and no time must be wasted in carrying it
+into execution. I have already ventured to touch upon the subject to
+Lord Linden, but have not said anything definite. It is a difficult
+affair to conduct delicately; yet the obtaining of these votes is of
+such vital importance that we must strain every nerve to secure them."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, since it will more than treble the value of the property,"
+observed Maurice, placidly. "By the by, I presume you have had no
+occasion to use the power of attorney which I gave you? Just at this
+moment it is very fortunate for me that the estate is wholly
+unencumbered."</p>
+
+<p>The count grew ashy pale; but Maurice did not observe his change of
+color, nor mark the hesitating tone in which he replied, "Very
+fortunate, of course,&mdash;very fortunate, indeed;" and then, looking at his
+watch, he added, "It is time for your grandmother and Bertha to return.
+Lord Linden and M. de Bois escorted them to the capitol. You must be
+impatient to see them."</p>
+
+<p>"In regard to this property, Mr. Lorrillard informs me," resumed
+Maurice; but the count interrupted him.</p>
+
+<p>"A visit to Madame de Fleury is now the first step to be taken; <i>there</i>
+you may be useful; you are such a decided favorite of hers, that your
+advocacy may be inestimable. Suppose you call at once, and learn at what
+hour she will receive your grandmother, Bertha, and myself. A visit from
+you will open the way."</p>
+
+<p>"I will call with pleasure," answered Maurice. "I have a letter from Mr.
+Lorrillard to his friend Mr. Emerson, which I should like to deliver
+without delay. It is a matter of business. Mr. Lorrillard thinks that,
+as my estate is wholly unencumbered"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"We can talk of that at another time," replied the count, hurriedly.
+"Suppose you pay your visit to the marchioness at once. It is hardly
+worth while waiting for the ladies; no one can tell when they may
+return."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice, though he could not interpret the count's singular manner,
+could not even remotely divine the meaning of its abruptness and
+confusion, felt himself checked in his proposed communication. He
+experienced no uneasiness; he had not the faintest conception that the
+count was dealing doubly with him, and that his very first act, on
+reaching Washington, had been to mortgage the estate of his son for so
+large amount that, but for the advent of the railroad, upon which he
+confidently calculated,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> the mortgage must prove ruinous to the
+interests of the landholder.</p>
+
+<p>Had Maurice been aware of this fact, he would not for a moment have
+contemplated delivering to Mr. Emerson Mr. Lorrillard's letter, in which
+it was distinctly stated that the property of the viscount was without
+lien.</p>
+
+<p>Further discussion between the father and son was prevented by the
+entrance of the countess, accompanied by Lord Linden, and followed by
+Bertha and Gaston de Bois.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice, as he saluted his grandmother, was gratified to observe that,
+albeit her air was by no means less stately, it was more satisfied and
+complacent. Though titled nobility had no native existence in the
+semi-civilized land, she rejoiced to find that it was sometimes
+<i>imported</i>. She had at last encountered an individual with whom she
+could associate without derogation. The French, as all the world knows,
+have a national antipathy towards the English; but a nobleman, even
+though he chanced to be an Englishman, was hailed by the Countess de
+Gramont, upon American soil, as a God-send. Lord Linden was not aware of
+the compliment implied by the unwonted graciousness of her demeanor, and
+the tone of <i>almost</i> equality in which she addressed him.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice comprehended the altered expression that softened his
+grandmother's countenance, but was struck and amazed by the wonderful
+radiance of Bertha's face. Her eyes shone as though a veritable sun
+lived behind those azure heavens, and almost annihilated their color by
+its brightness; her lips were eloquent with a voiceless happiness they
+did not care to hide, yet could not speak; the laughing dimples played
+perpetually about her softly suffused cheeks; her elastic feet almost
+danced, so airy was their tread; about her whole presence there was a
+buoyant glow that seemed to encompass her with an atmosphere of light
+and warmth.</p>
+
+<p>She had not attempted to disguise her joy on again meeting Gaston de
+Bois; and, though he had paid them repeated visits during their sojourn
+in Washington, there was always the same deepening of the hue upon
+Bertha's cheek; the same flood of sunshine brightening over her face;
+the same softening of the tones of her voice; the same quickened rise
+and fall of her fair bosom when he approached.</p>
+
+<p>And he,&mdash;did he not note these betraying indications of his own power?
+Did they strike no electric thrill through his rejoicing soul? If they
+did, he was too much bewildered by a happiness so unexpected to search
+out calmly the hidden meaning of these precious signs.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The change in the deportment and character of M. de Bois, which we
+described at its commencement, was now fully confirmed; and though the
+blood still sprang too rapidly into his face, and his breathing grew
+labored with emotion, and his manner, especially in Bertha's presence,
+was slightly confused, it was the confusion of elation rather than
+embarrassment. The self-control he had acquired had almost overcome his
+propensity to stammer, and Bertha was unreasonable enough to half regret
+that she could no longer finish his sentences, and thus prove how
+instinctively she divined his thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice greeted her, as was his cousinly wont after a separation, with a
+kiss on either cheek; but, for the first time, she shrank from his
+touch, and her ingenuous eyes involuntarily glanced toward Gaston, then
+were quickly cast down; and the mutinous ringlets that had, as usual,
+escaped from bondage, were a welcome veil, as they fell over her face.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, little Bertha, has an absence of four years made you forget that
+we are cousins?" asked Maurice, in surprise at her manner.</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;no," she answered, shaking back the curls, and looking up brightly
+in his face; "and I am rejoiced that you have come to Washington: it is
+a delightful place; I am charmed with everything I see."</p>
+
+<p>Did Bertha reflect how much the charm of a locality depends upon our own
+internal condition? Was she aware that any place, however tame and dull,
+becomes delightful through the presence of one who creates in us a state
+receptive of enjoyment?</p>
+
+<p>Maurice expressed his intention of calling upon Madame de Fleury; Lord
+Linden and M. de Bois proposed to accompany him. The three gentlemen
+took their departure together. But soon after they left the hotel,
+Maurice changed his mind; and, telling his companions that he had some
+business to transact which required immediate attention, apologized for
+leaving them, adding that he would call upon Madame de Fleury an hour
+later, and hoped he might have the pleasure of meeting them there.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois proposed to Lord Linden that they, also, should postpone
+their visit.</p>
+
+<p>"As you please," answered his lordship, languidly. "I am perfectly at
+leisure. I will go wherever you are going,&mdash;it does not matter where; I
+am indifferent to place."</p>
+
+<p>Lord Linden always <i>was</i> at leisure, and always indifferent, and not
+unfrequently attached himself to Gaston de Bois, and seemed disposed to
+accompany him wherever he went.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>His lordship was one of that vast race of <i>blas&eacute;</i> young noblemen whose
+opportunities of enjoyment had never been circumscribed, except by the
+absence of the capacity to enjoy, and who, as a natural sequence, were
+continually oppressed with a sense of satiety, enervated by the noonday
+sunshine of unbroken prosperity, and thoroughly weary of their own
+existence. When his brother-in-law had been appointed ambassador to
+America, he had accompanied him to the United States with a vague idea
+that he would be thrown in contact with warlike tribes of Indians, the
+aborigines of the soil, whose novel and barbarous usages might afford
+him some mediocre measure of excitement. We need hardly picture his
+disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>The ambassadors from foreign courts and their suites were as a matter of
+course, thrown into constant communication with each other, and the
+secretary of the French ambassador and the brother-in-law of the English
+formed an acquaintance which ripened into an approach to intimacy. There
+was no particular affinity between them, but Lord Linden liked M. de
+Bois's society because he was a patient listener, and Lord Linden was
+the opposite to taciturn; and Gaston, though he sometimes, as in the
+present instance, felt his lordship an encumbrance, had too often been a
+victim to ennui not to sympathize with a fellow-sufferer.</p>
+
+<p>"Mademoiselle de Merrivale has a remarkably attractive face," said Lord
+Linden. "I do not particularly fancy blondes; there is too much
+milk-and-water and crushed rose-leaves in their general make-up; but, if
+a blonde could, to my eyes, enter the charmed circle of the positively
+beautiful, I would give her admission."</p>
+
+<p>Gaston, who had fallen into a pleasant revery, was quickly roused by
+this observation, and exclaimed, with an indignant intonation, "Not
+admit a <i>blonde</i> into the circle of the beautiful? Can anything be
+lovelier than the countenance you have just looked upon?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," replied the nobleman, musing in his turn.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I could show you a face that would make Mademoiselle de
+Merrivale's sink into the most utter insignificance."</p>
+
+<p>"Is your beauty a Washington belle?" inquired Gaston, half-scornfully.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know,&mdash;I do not know anything about her. I merely spoke
+figuratively when I said <i>I could show you</i>,&mdash;for I certainly could
+<i>not</i>, at this moment; but I allude to the most peerless being that ever
+captivated the eyes of man. In her, indeed, one could realize the poet's
+thought,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center">"'All beauty compassed in a female form.'"</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And who is this incomparable divinity?" asked Gaston, still with a
+touch of sarcasm in his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is she? That is more than I know myself. We were thrown together by
+an accident,&mdash;quite an every-day occurrence in this headlong-rushing,
+pell-mell, neck-breaking land, where the people contemplate railroad
+catastrophes and steamboat explosions with as cool indifference as
+though they were a necessary part of a traveller's programme."</p>
+
+<p>"You were thrown in contact with your beauty, then, by a railroad
+collision, or were blown together through the bursting of a boiler?"
+remarked Gaston interrogatively, and more because civility seemed to
+demand the question than because he took any especial interest in the
+narrative.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, quite a stirring incident. I felt alive for a month after. I was
+travelling from New York to Washington, in such a listless and used-up
+state that, in my desperation, I seriously pondered upon the amount of
+emotion that could be derived from jumping off the train, at the risk of
+one's neck. As I was glancing restlessly around, suddenly a face rose
+before me that riveted my eyes. It was a countenance unlike any I had
+ever seen. Though features and outline were faultless, in these the
+least part of its beauty was embodied. There was an eloquence in the
+rapid transitions of expression that melted one into another; there was
+a dreamy thoughtfulness in the magnificent hazel eyes. They were not
+exactly hazel either,&mdash;they reminded one of a topaz. I hardly know what
+name to give to their hue. But it is useless to attempt to describe such
+a face and form. I might heap epithet upon epithet, and then leave you
+without the faintest conception of the bewildering loveliness of their
+possessor."</p>
+
+<p>"You succeeded in becoming acquainted with the lady?" inquired Gaston,
+now really interested.</p>
+
+<p>"That good fortune was brought about by one of those ill winds, which,
+for the proverb's sake, must blow good to some one. It could not have
+been accomplished by any effort of my own, for there was an air of quiet
+dignity about the lady that no gentleman could have ventured to ruffle
+by too marked observation, far less by presuming to address even a
+passing remark. We were about half way between Philadelphia and
+Baltimore, when suddenly a terrific shock was felt, followed by a
+dashing of all humanity to one side of the cars, and a great crash. We
+had run into another train, were thrown off the track, and, in a moment
+more, upset."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Since you were longing for excitement," observed Gaston, "this
+agreeable little variety must have gratified you."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it was well enough in its way, not being positively fatal to
+existence. You may conceive the confusion and the difficulty of getting
+upon one's feet. How the people scrambled out of the cars I do not
+exactly know; for a short time I was too much stunned to see anything
+distinctly. I remember nothing clearly until somebody helped me up, and,
+in trying to move my left arm, I discovered that it was broken."</p>
+
+<p>"How unfortunate! And you lost sight of the lady?"</p>
+
+<p>"It would have been unfortunate if I <i>had</i> lost sight of her; but I did
+not. The passengers were huddled together in a most primitive inn by the
+road-side. There I beheld her, moving about, quite unharmed, quieting a
+child here, assisting a young mother there, doing something helpful
+everywhere. There chanced to be a surgeon in the cars, who, happily, was
+uninjured. He saw my predicament, for I was suffering confoundedly, and,
+upon examining my arm, said that it must be set at once. He called upon
+several persons to aid him. Some were too much occupied with their own
+distress; some too bewildered; and some shrank from the task. But, to my
+supreme joy (it was worth breaking an arm for such a piece of good
+luck), the lady I just mentioned came forward, and offered her services!
+She tore my handkerchief and her own into bandages, produced needle and
+thread from her little travelling reticule, and sewed them together. She
+assisted the surgeon in the most skilful but the calmest manner. What
+could I do but express my gratitude? This was the opening to a
+conversation. We were detained several hours at the inn before a train
+arrived to take us on our journey. I had always detested these American
+cars, where all the travellers sit together in pairs; but now I rejoiced
+over them, for I managed to obtain a seat beside her. We conversed,
+without pause, during the whole way to Washington; and what propriety
+and good sense she evinced! Her beauty had deeply impressed me, but her
+conversation struck me even more. Such elevated thoughts dropped
+spontaneously from her lips, and so naturally, that she did not seem to
+be aware that there was anything peculiar about them. It was enough to
+drive a man distracted; I confess that it did me!"</p>
+
+<p>"She came to Washington then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; and here we were forced to part. I begged that she would allow me
+the privilege of calling to thank her. In the most suave, lady-like, but
+resolute manner,&mdash;a manner that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> silenced all pleading,&mdash;she declined.
+But she had inadvertently admitted that she resided in Washington.
+<i>That</i> has kept me here ever since. I have been searching for her these
+six months."</p>
+
+<p>"And you have never met her again?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I have sought her in the highest circles; for, from her
+distinguished and even aristocratic air, her exceeding cultivation and
+good-breeding, I infer that she is a person of standing. It was somewhat
+singular that a lady of her unmistakable stamp should have been
+travelling alone; but that is not unusual in this country. In spite of
+all my efforts, I have never been able to encounter her again. I
+examined the strips of the fine cambric handkerchief with which my arm
+was bound, hoping to find a name. Upon one strip the letter 'M' was
+daintily embroidered. I have those strips yet carefully preserved."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think she was an American lady?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, assuredly not. Though she spoke the English language very purely,
+and as only a scholar could have conversed, a slight accent betrayed
+that she was a foreigner; French, or Italian, I imagine. If I could only
+behold her once again, I should not be so miserably tired of everything
+and so bored by my own existence. Washington is killingly dull. By the
+way, the de Fleurys give a grand ball on Monday. I hear that there is
+great anxiety prevalent in the <i>beau monde</i> on the score of invitations.
+Of course, Mademoiselle de Merrivale will be there. Her face must create
+a sensation. What a piece of good fortune it would be if I could see it,
+at this very ball, contrasted with that of my lovely incognita! <i>There</i>
+is a day-dream for you! I never attend a ball, or any large assembly,
+without a vague anticipation of finding her in the crowd. I should like
+to hear <i>your</i> candid opinion if you saw those two faces placed side by
+side."</p>
+
+<p>The response which Gaston made to this remark, and which expressed
+certain convictions of his own, was not uttered aloud.</p>
+
+<p>It is one of love's happy prerogatives that the countenance best beloved
+gains to the lover's eye a charm beyond that with which any other face
+is endowed, even when he is forced to admit <i>that</i> dearest visage is
+surpassed in point of positive, calculable, tangible beauty.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"A man may love a woman perfectly,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And yet by no means ignorantly maintain<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A thousand women have not larger eyes:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Enough that she alone has looked at him<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With eyes that, large or small, have won his soul."<br /></span>
+</div></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE CYTHEREA OF FASHION.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Maurice had so unceremoniously parted from Lord Linden and M. de Bois
+because he suddenly remembered that Mr. Lorrillard had impressed upon
+him the necessity of making his arrangements with Mr. Emerson without
+delay, as the present was a peculiarly favorable moment for purchasing
+shares in the mines whose iron he hoped to convert to gold.</p>
+
+<p>The viscount presented himself at Mr. Emerson's office, and delivered
+Mr. Lorrillard's letter. This latter gentleman was held in such high
+esteem that an introduction of his was certain of meeting with the
+utmost consideration. Mr. Emerson, after only a brief conversation with
+Maurice, informed him that he was ready to make the desired loan upon
+the security offered, and begged that he would call the next morning,
+when the necessary formalities would at once be gone through.</p>
+
+<p>Gratified by his visit and elated by the prospect of effecting a
+business transaction of so much importance, never dreaming of the fatal
+sequence which might be the result, Maurice drove to the residence of
+the French ambassador. It was not Madame de Fleury's reception-day, but
+by some mistake he was ushered into her drawing-room. In a few minutes,
+Lurline, a confidential <i>femme de chambre</i>, whom Maurice had often seen
+in Paris,&mdash;a being all fluttering ribbons and alluring smiles and
+graceful courtesies and coquettish airs,&mdash;made her appearance.</p>
+
+<p>"Madame has received the card of monsieur <i>le vicomte</i>," she began, with
+a sugary accent and soft manner, which reminded one strongly of the
+tones and deportment of her mistress. "Madame would not treat monsieur
+as a stranger, and therefore sent <i>me</i>,"&mdash;here, with her head on one
+side, she courtesied again, bewitchingly,&mdash;"to say that we have a new
+valet,&mdash;an ignorant fellow, for it is impossible to procure a decent
+domestic in America,&mdash;and this untrained creature has to be drilled into
+<i>les usages</i>: he has forgotten that madame only receives on Saturday.
+Madame, however, would see <i>M. le vicomte</i> at any time that was
+possible."</p>
+
+<p>"I am delighted to hear you say so," returned Maurice, "for I am very
+desirous of having the pleasure of paying my respects."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Madame is preparing for a <i>matin&eacute;e</i>, at the Spanish Embassy. She is
+just <i>coiff&eacute;</i>, and monsieur should see what a magnificent head I have
+made for her. Notwithstanding my success with her head she is at this
+moment in deep distress: her dress has not yet arrived; we expect it
+every moment! Madame's agitation is overpowering. She is quite unequal
+to encountering a disappointment of this crushing nature. She begs
+monsieur will excuse"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Before she could finish the sentence, the marchioness herself appeared,
+wrapped in a delicate, rose-colored <i>robe-de-chambre</i>, prodigally
+adorned with lace and embroidery.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear M. de Gramont, I meant to excuse myself; but as I am forced to
+wait for that tantalizing dress, a few moments with you, <i>en attendant</i>,
+will divert my thoughts. I had heard from M. de Bois, that the Countess
+de Gramont and her son, with Mademoiselle de Merrivale, are honoring
+Washington by their presence; but I was informed that <i>you</i> were not
+here. You see I paid you the compliment of inquiring."</p>
+
+<p>As she spoke, she glanced at the mirror opposite, and arranged the long
+sprays of feathery flowers that were mingled with her braided tresses.</p>
+
+<p>"I am highly flattered at not being forgotten," replied Maurice. "I only
+arrived this morning, and hastened to pay my respects."</p>
+
+<p>"And you ought to be very much flattered that I can spare you an
+instant, at such a critical moment. Here is my toilet for this <i>matin&eacute;e</i>
+at a dead stand-still, because that tiresome dress has not come. It is
+one I ordered expressly for the occasion, and, I assure you, it is a
+perfect triumph of art,&mdash;a victory gained over great obstacles. Let me
+tell you, nothing is more difficult to manage than an appropriate
+costume for a <i>matin&eacute;e</i>. One's toilet must be a delicate compromise
+between ball attire and full visiting dress, but Mademoiselle Melanie
+has hit the <i>juste milieu</i>; and succeeded in carrying me through all the
+perils of Scylla and Charybdis. Oh, dear! oh, dear!" (stamping her tiny
+slippered foot) "will that dress never come?"</p>
+
+<p>"It must be very trying!" said Maurice, endeavoring to assume a tone of
+sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>"Trying? it is <i>killing</i>! Imagine my state of mind. I cannot go
+<i>without</i> this dress: all my other toilets have been seen more than once
+in public; and this one was sure to create a sensation,&mdash;was planned for
+this very occasion!"</p>
+
+<p>"I fear my visit is inopportune, and ought to be shortened,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> replied
+Maurice, for the agitated manner and troubled look of Madame de Fleury
+made him feel that he must be an intruder. "I will only remain long
+enough to know if you will receive my grandmother, my father, and my
+cousin, Mademoiselle Bertha, to-morrow; they are very"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Hush!" cried Madame de Fleury, raising her finger and listening with an
+eager countenance. "Was that not a ring? Patrick is opening the door.
+Hush! let me listen! It is the dress,&mdash;it must be the dress!" and she
+made several rapid steps toward the door, but returned to her seat as
+the servant passed through the entry with empty hands. "This is
+terrible! I have not my wits about me; I do not know what I am doing or
+saying!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am truly concerned," observed Maurice, who had risen to depart. "May
+I tell the Countess de Gramont that you will receive her to-morrow?"</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow? Yes, certainly. I do not remember any engagement, but I can
+think of nothing at this moment. If that tormenting dress would only
+arrive! I fear it will never be here! It is the first time Mademoiselle
+Melanie ever disappointed me; she is punctuality itself. This waiting is
+torture, and completely upsets me,&mdash;turns my brain; it will throw me
+into a nervous fever. You, insensible men, cannot feel for such a
+position; you do not know the importance of a toilet."</p>
+
+<p>"We must be very dull if we do not know how to appreciate those of
+Madame de Fleury," replied Maurice, bowing courteously. "Pray, do not
+include me in the catalogue of such sightless individuals. I will bid
+you adieu until to-morrow, when you will allow me to accompany my
+grandmother?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are always welcome. Pray tell the countess I shall be charmed to
+see her, and say the same to that cruel Mademoiselle Bertha,&mdash;though I
+ought not to forgive her treatment of my brother. Say to her that he is
+yet unconsoled. Good gracious! That dress certainly is not coming! If it
+were to arrive at this moment I should be obliged to hasten; and to give
+the <i>finishing</i> touches to a toilet in a hurried and discomposed manner
+is to run the risk of spoiling the general effect. What <i>can</i> have
+happened to Mademoiselle Melanie? Hark! is not that some one? Did you
+not hear a ring? I am not mistaken; some one <i>did</i> come in. It is the
+dress at last!"</p>
+
+<p>The marchioness started up joyfully, with clasped hands, and an
+expression of deep gratitude. A servant entered with a note; she
+snatched it petulantly and tossed it into the card-basket unopened.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"How vexatious! Only a note! It is <i>too</i> cruel! I shall never, never
+pardon Mademoiselle Melanie if she disappoints me. But that's easy
+enough to say, difficult enough to carry into execution. In reality I
+could not exist without her; and Mademoiselle Melanie knows <i>that</i> as
+well as I do. She is so sought after that her exhibition-rooms are
+crowded from morning until night. It is now a favor for her to receive
+any new customers, and I believe she has some thirty or forty workwomen
+in her employment. Of course, you have heard of Mademoiselle Melanie?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have not had that pleasure; she is a mantua-maker, I presume,"
+returned Maurice, repressing a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose that is what, strictly speaking, we must call her; but she is
+the very Queen of Taste, the Sovereign of Modistes. She has a genius
+that is extraordinary,&mdash;it is magic,&mdash;it is inspiration! A touch of her
+hand transforms every one who approaches her. What figures she has made
+for some of these American women! What charms she has developed in them!
+What an air and grace she has imparted to their whole appearance! She
+makes the most vulgar look elegant, and the elegant, divine! Another
+ring. Now Heaven grant it may be the dress at last!"</p>
+
+<p>The marchioness was again disappointed: it was only another note, which
+shared the fate of the former.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I shall not survive this!" she ejaculated, dropping into an
+arm-chair; "and that horrid little Mrs. Gilmer will triumph in my
+absence. You know Mrs. Gilmer?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have not that honor," returned Maurice, who, impatient as he was to
+take his leave, found it impossible to depart while the marchioness
+chose to detain him.</p>
+
+<p>"She attempts to pass herself off for a belle, and even tries to take
+precedence of <i>me</i>, ignoring all the customs of good society; but,
+doubtless, the poor thing is actually ignorant of them, and should be
+pardoned and pitied for her ill-breeding. She is the wife of Gilmer, the
+rich banker. It is to Mademoiselle Melanie that she is indebted for all
+her social success. Mademoiselle Melanie positively <i>created</i> her, and
+she never wears anything made by any one else. It is all owing to
+Mademoiselle Melanie that the men surround her as they do, and try to
+persuade themselves that she is pretty. Pretty! with her turn-up nose,
+and colorless hair and eyes. Her husband is immensely rich; and, as
+wealth rules the day in this country, she takes good care that the depth
+of his purse shall be known; for that pur<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>pose she loads herself with
+diamonds,&mdash;always diamonds. She has not the least idea of varying her
+jewels; even Mademoiselle Melanie could not make her comprehend that
+art. I wonder she does not have a dress contrived of bank-notes! <i>That</i>
+would be novel, and it would also prove a capital way of announcing her
+opulence!"</p>
+
+<p>"A rather dangerous costume!" returned Maurice, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"At all events it would be original; and, as originality is sure to
+produce an effect, the saucy little <i>parvenue</i> might afford to follow my
+advice, even though it came from an enemy."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice could not help exclaiming with a comical intonation,&mdash;for there
+was something irresistibly ludicrous in the puny fierceness of the
+dressed doll,&mdash;"An enemy!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, there is no concealment about it!" exclaimed Madame de Fleury with
+the air of a Liliputian belligerent. "It is open warfare; we are at
+swords' points, and all the world knows our animosity. And Mrs. Gilmer
+has the impertinence to pretend that our <i>styles</i> are quite similar, and
+that the same modes become us. She even declares that such has been
+Mademoiselle Melanie's verdict, and from the judgment of Mademoiselle
+Melanie nobody dares to appeal."</p>
+
+<p>"This Mademoiselle Melanie is a Parisian, I presume?" asked Maurice,
+more because it seemed polite to say something, than from any interest
+in the answer to his question.</p>
+
+<p>"Could she be anything else?" replied Madame de Fleury, with enthusiasm.
+"Could a being gifted with such wondrous taste have been born out of
+Paris? She is a <i>proteg&eacute;e</i> of Vignon's; and, when I was exiled,
+Mademoiselle Melanie came to America with me. She instantly became
+known. There is a Mr. Hilson here, to whom she probably brought letters,
+for he has taken the deepest interest in trumpeting her fame. She has
+created a perfect furor."</p>
+
+<p>"Hilson?" repeated Maurice, musingly. "A gentleman of that name visited
+Brittany before I left. I wonder if it can be the same person."</p>
+
+<p>"Very likely, for he has been abroad. I have heard him mention Brittany.
+Well, this Mr. Hilson was so infatuated with&mdash;hush! That is a ring!"</p>
+
+<p>While Madame de Fleury listened in breathless expectation, Lurline
+opened the door and announced, "The dress of madame has arrived!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! at last! at last! What happiness! I am saved, when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> I had almost
+given up all hope! Monsieur de Gramont, you will excuse me! <i>Au
+revoir!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>Before Maurice could utter his congratulations upon the advent of the
+dress, she had glided out of the room.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h2>
+
+<h3>MEETING.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The tangled web Count Tristan had woven for others began to fold its
+meshes around himself, and to torture him with the dread that he might
+be caught in his own snare. From the moment Maurice arrived in
+Washington,&mdash;an event the count had not anticipated,&mdash;his covert use of
+the authority entrusted to him was menaced with discovery. To a frank,
+straightforward character, the very natural alternative would have
+suggested itself of explaining, and, as far possible, justifying the
+step just taken; but to a mind so full of guile, so wedded to wily
+schemes as the count's, a simple, upright course would never have
+occurred. The fear of exposure threw him into a state of nervous
+irritability which allowed no rest, and he was compelled to pay the
+price of deception by plunging deeper into her labyrinths, though every
+step rendered extrication from the briery mazes more difficult.</p>
+
+<p>On the morrow Maurice accompanied his grandmother, Bertha, and Count
+Tristan to the residence of the Marchioness de Fleury. Count Tristan's
+<i>malaise</i> evinced itself by his unusually fretful and preoccupied
+manner, his querulous tone, and a partial forgetfulness of those polite
+observances of which he was rarely oblivious. He allowed his mother to
+stand, looking at him in blind amazement, before he remembered to open
+the door; was very near passing out of the room before her, and scarcely
+recollected to hand her into the carriage. His abstraction was partially
+dissipated by her scornful comment upon the contagious influences of a
+plebeian country; but to recover himself entirely was out of the
+question.</p>
+
+<p>On reaching the ambassador's mansion, the visitors were disconcerted by
+the information that Madame de Fleury "<i>did not receive</i>."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"She will receive us!" answered Maurice, recovering himself. "We are
+here by appointment." And, passing the surprised domestic, he ushered
+his grandmother into the drawing-room. Bertha and Count Tristan
+followed.</p>
+
+<p>The servant, with evident hesitation, took the cards that were handed to
+him, and retired. The door of the <i>salon</i> chanced to remain open, and
+rendered audible a whispered conversation going on in the entry.</p>
+
+<p>"I dare not disturb madame at this moment; she would fly into a terrible
+rage. You know she never allows her toilet to be interrupted!"</p>
+
+<p>These words, spoken in a female voice, reached the ears of the visitors.</p>
+
+<p>"But the gentleman says it is an <i>appointment</i>. What's to be done? What
+am I to answer?" was the rejoinder in rough male tones.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a blockhead,&mdash;you have no management," replied the first voice.
+"I will arrange the matter without your stupid interference."</p>
+
+<p>Lurline now courtesied herself into the room, and, after bestowing an
+arch glance of recognition upon the viscount, addressed the countess.</p>
+
+<p>"I am <i>desol&eacute;e</i> to be obliged to inform madame that Madame de Fleury is
+at this moment so much absorbed by her toilet that I fear I shall have
+no opportunity of making known the honor of madame's visit. My mistress
+has made an engagement to go to the capitol to hear some distinguished
+orator. It is madame's <i>d&eacute;b&ucirc;t</i> in spring attire this season. Madame's
+dress, bonnet, and mantle have this moment been sent home. A more
+delicately fresh toilet <i>de printemps</i> cannot be conceived; it will
+establish the fact that spring has arrived. But madame has not yet
+essayed her attire and assured herself of its effect. I trust <i>madame la
+comtesse</i> will deem this sufficient apology for not being received."</p>
+
+<p>As she concluded, Lurline simpered and courtesied, and seemed confident
+that she had gracefully acquitted herself of a difficult duty.</p>
+
+<p>"Not receive us when we are here by invitation?" ejaculated the
+countess, angrily. "Is Madame de Fleury aware that it is the Countess de
+Gramont and her family who are calling upon her?"</p>
+
+<p>"There must be some mistake," interposed Maurice; then, turning to the
+<i>femme de chambre</i>, he added, "I beg that you will deliver these cards
+to the marchioness and bring me an answer."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"How am I to refuse monsieur?" replied Lurline, hesitating, yet
+softening her unwillingness to comply by a volley of sidelong glances.
+"Monsieur is not aware that he is placing me in a most delicate
+position. It is against madame's rules to be disturbed when her toilet
+is progressing: it requires her concentrated attention,&mdash;her whole mind!
+Still, if monsieur insists, I will run the risk of madame's displeasure.
+Monsieur must only be kind enough to wait, and allow me to watch for a
+favorable moment when I can place these cards before madame."</p>
+
+<p>With a low salutation, and a coquettish movement of the head that set
+all her ribbons fluttering, the <i>femme de chambre</i> made her exit.</p>
+
+<p>"Not receive us? Make us wait?" exclaimed the countess, wrathfully;
+"truly, Madame de Fleury has profited by her sojourn among savages! This
+is not to be endured! Let us depart at once!"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear mother," began Count Tristan, soothingly, "it will not do to be
+offended, or to notice the slight, if there be one; but, I am sure, none
+is intended. It is absolutely <i>indispensable</i> that I should see the
+countess, and get her to present this letter to the Marquis de Fleury,
+and also that I should obtain her promise that she will influence him to
+secure the vote of Mr. Gobert. Pray, be courteous to the marchioness
+when she makes her appearance, or all is lost."</p>
+
+<p>"What degradation will you demand of me next? How can you suppose it
+possible that I can be courteous? I tell you I am furious!"</p>
+
+<p>"But you do not know all that depends upon obtaining these votes. Think
+of this railroad,&mdash;of the vital importance of the direction it takes!
+Think of the Maryland property, which is almost all that is left to
+us"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Have I not again and again begged you not to meddle with
+railroads,&mdash;not to occupy yourself with business matters which a
+nobleman is bound to ignore?"</p>
+
+<p>"And by obeying you, as far as I could, and only acting in secret, I
+have nearly ruined myself," answered the count, with growing excitement.</p>
+
+<p>At this moment the loud ringing of a bell was heard, accompanied by the
+voice of Lurline, speaking in tones of great tribulation.</p>
+
+<p>"Patrick! Patrick! do you not hear the bell? Come here quickly! What's
+to be done? Such a calamity! It's dreadful! dreadful!"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan started up, and went to the door to question the <i>femme de
+chambre</i>, fearing that the calamity in question might be of a nature
+sufficiently serious to prevent the much-desired interview.</p>
+
+<p>Lurline was standing in the hall; she wore her hat and shawl, and was
+giving directions to a domestic in the most rapid and flurried manner.</p>
+
+<p>"Will Madame de Fleury receive us?" inquired the count, anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"I told monsieur that I could not promise him, and, now that this
+misfortune has befallen us, it is thoroughly impossible even to make
+your presence here known to madame. Who could have anticipated such a
+<i>contretems</i>? Never before has Mademoiselle Melanie allowed a dress to
+issue from her hands which did not fit <i>&agrave; merveille</i>, and there are two
+important alterations to be made in this before it can be worn. Madame
+is in despair; she will go out of her senses; it will give her a brain
+fever!"</p>
+
+<p>"Can we not have the pleasure of seeing her for a few moments, when her
+toilet is completed?" inquired Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, there it is! <i>When</i> her toilet is completed? Will it be completed
+in time for her to reach the senate at the hour proposed? Monsieur will
+pardon me, but I have not a moment to spare."</p>
+
+<p>Turning to Patrick, she added, "I am forced to go out to purchase some
+ribbons. I have left madame in the hands of Antoinette. Madame is in
+such a state that one might weep to see her! Take care not to admit any
+one, except the Countess Orlowski, who accompanies your mistress to the
+senate. I will be back presently."</p>
+
+<p>The Countess de Gramont rose up majestically.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us depart, my son! Never more will I cross this threshold,&mdash;never
+enter this house where I have been insulted!"</p>
+
+<p>"No insult was intended," replied Count Tristan, nervously. "Even if it
+were, we are not in a position to be cognizant of insults; we should be
+forced to ignore them. I cannot leave without entreating the marchioness
+to deliver this letter to Monsieur de Fleury, herself: it <i>must</i> be
+done,&mdash;and <i>to-day</i>. There is not an instant to lose."</p>
+
+<p>"And you can stoop so low,&mdash;you can demean yourself to such a degree?
+What a humiliation!"</p>
+
+<p>"Humiliations are not to be taken into consideration where <i>ruin</i> stares
+us in the face!" he answered, violently.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Is it <i>so very important</i>?" inquired Bertha, struck by the count's
+angry manner.</p>
+
+<p>"Of more importance than I can explain to you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, then let us stay, aunt! We must make allowances for Madame de
+Fleury's ruling passion. Her toilet first, all the world afterward!"</p>
+
+<p>A carriage just then drove to the door, and attracted the attention of
+Bertha, who was standing by the open window.</p>
+
+<p>"What magnificent horses! and what a neat equipage! All the appointments
+in such admirable taste! A lady is descending. I suppose it must be the
+Countess Orlowski. What a dignified air she has! What a graceful
+bearing! I wish I could see her face. She must be handsome with such a
+perfect figure. Yes,&mdash;I am right,&mdash;it <i>is</i> the Countess Orlowski, for
+the servant has admitted her."</p>
+
+<p>As the lady was passing through the hall, she said to the domestic, "No,
+you need not announce me; I will go at once to the chamber of Madame de
+Fleury."</p>
+
+<p>At the sound of that voice, the shriek of joy that broke from Bertha's
+lips drowned the amazed exclamation of Maurice. In another instant,
+Bertha's arms were around the stranger, and her kisses were mingled with
+tears and broken ejaculations, as she embraced her rapturously.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice stood beside them, struggling with emotion that caused his manly
+frame to vibrate from head to foot, while his dilated eyes appeared
+spellbound by some familiar apparition which they hardly dared to
+believe was palpable.</p>
+
+<p>There is a joy which, in its wild excess, paralyzes the faculties, makes
+dumb the voice, confuses the brain, until ecstasy becomes agony, and all
+the senses are enveloped in a cloud of doubt. Such was the joy of
+Maurice as he stood powerless, questioning the blissful reality of the
+hour, yet in the actual presence of that being who was never a moment
+absent from his mental vision.</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine! Madeleine! My own Madeleine! Have we found you at last? Is
+it really you?" sobbed Bertha, whose tears always flowed easily, but now
+poured in torrents from their blue heavens.</p>
+
+<p>And Madeleine, as she passionately returned her cousin's embrace,
+dropped her head upon Bertha's shoulder, and wept also.</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine!"</p>
+
+<p>At that tremulously tender voice her face was lifted and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> turned toward
+Maurice,&mdash;turned for the first time for nearly five long years; and yet,
+at that moment, he felt as though it had never been turned away.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha involuntarily loosened her arms, and Madeleine extended her hand
+to Maurice. He clasped it fervently, but his quivering lips gave forth
+no sound. One irrepressible look of perfect joy from Madeleine's
+luminous eyes had answered the impassioned gaze of his; one smile of
+ineffable gratitude played over her sweet lips. For an instant the eyes
+were raised heavenward, in mute thanksgiving, and then sought the
+ground, as though they feared to reveal too much; and the smile of
+transport changed to one of grave serenity, and the wonted quietude of
+her demeanor returned.</p>
+
+<p>The countess and Count Tristan had both risen in speechless surprise,
+but had made no attempt to approach Madeleine, whom Bertha now drew into
+the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine! I cannot believe that I am not dreaming," cried the latter;
+"I cannot believe that I have found you!&mdash;that it is really you! And you
+are lovelier than ever! You no longer look pale and careworn; you are
+happy, my own Madeleine,&mdash;you are happy,&mdash;are you not? But why have you
+forgotten us?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have never forgotten&mdash;never&mdash;never <i>forgotten</i>!" faltered Madeleine,
+in a voice that had a sound of tears, answering to those that glittered
+in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice had not released her hand, and, bending over her, made an effort
+to speak; but at that moment the stern voice of the countess broke in
+harshly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"How is it that we find you here, Mademoiselle de Gramont? Where have
+you hidden yourself? What have you done since you fled from my
+protection?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, what have you done?" chimed in Count Tristan. "How is it that we
+find you descending from a handsome equipage and elegantly attired?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have done nothing for which I shall ever have to blush!" answered
+Madeleine, with a dignity which awed him into silence.</p>
+
+<p>"It was needless to say <i>that</i>, dear Madeleine," cried Maurice, whose
+powers of utterance had returned when he saw Madeleine about to be
+assailed. "No one who knows you would <i>dare to believe</i> that you ever
+committed an action that demanded a blush."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine thanked him with her speaking countenance. Perhaps it was only
+fancy, but he thought he felt a light, grateful pressure of the hand he
+held.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But tell us where you have been!" continued Bertha, affectionately.
+"You look differently, Madeleine, and yet the same; and how this rich
+attire becomes you! You are no longer poor and dependent then,&mdash;are
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am no longer poor, and no longer dependent!" answered Madeleine, in a
+tone of honest pride.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it possible?" exclaimed the count and his mother together.</p>
+
+<p>"But how has all this happened?" Bertha ran on. "Oh! I can divine: you
+are married,&mdash;you have made a brilliant marriage."</p>
+
+<p>At those words a suppressed groan, of unutterable anguish, struck on
+Madeleine's ear; and the hand Maurice held dropped from his grasp.</p>
+
+<p>"Speak! do speak! dear Madeleine!" continued Bertha. "Tell us all your
+sufferings,&mdash;for you must have suffered at first,&mdash;and all your joys,
+since you are happy now. And tell us how you chance to be here,&mdash;here in
+America, as we are; and how it happens that you are calling upon the
+Marchioness de Fleury, at the same time as ourselves; and why you expect
+to be received by her, though she will not receive us."</p>
+
+<p>Before Madeleine could reply, and she was evidently collecting herself
+to speak, Lurline, who had just returned from executing her commission,
+passed through the hall. The door of the drawing-room stood open; she
+caught sight of Madeleine, and ran toward her, exclaiming joyfully,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, what good fortune! How rejoiced my poor mistress will be! She did
+not dare to hope for this great kindness! I am so thankful! I will fly
+to announce to her the good news!"</p>
+
+<p>She hurried away, leaving Madeleine's relatives more than ever amazed by
+these mysterious words.</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan was the first to break the silence. Ever keenly alive to
+his own interest, he saw a great advantage to be gained if he had
+interpreted the language of the <i>femme de chambre</i> rightly.</p>
+
+<p>In an altered tone, a tone of marked consideration, he asked, "You are
+well acquainted with the Marchioness de Fleury?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Very well!</i>" replied Madeleine, with an incomprehensible emphasis,
+while a smile that had a faint touch of satire flitted over her face.</p>
+
+<p>"She receives you?" questioned the count.</p>
+
+<p>"Always," answered Madeleine, smiling again.</p>
+
+<p>"She esteems you?" persisted the count.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I have every reason to believe that she does."</p>
+
+<p>"And you have influence with her," joined in Bertha, suspecting the
+count's drift, and feeling desirous of aiding him.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I may venture to say I have."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how fortunate!" cried Bertha; "you maybe of the greatest service to
+our cousin, Count Tristan." She took the letter out of his hand, and
+placing it in Madeleine's, added, "Beg Madame de Fleury to read this
+letter, and obtain her promise that she will use her influence with the
+Marquis de Fleury to cause Mr. Gobert,&mdash;Gobert, that's his name, is it
+not?" appealing to the count,&mdash;"to cause Mr. Gobert to vote as herein
+instructed. See, how well I have explained that matter! I really believe
+I have an undeveloped talent for business."</p>
+
+<p>"The letter should reach Madame de Fleury this morning. The appeal
+should be made to the marquis <i>to-day</i>,&mdash;<i>this very day!</i>" urged the
+count.</p>
+
+<p>"It shall be!" replied Madeleine, with quiet confidence.</p>
+
+<p>The countess here interposed.</p>
+
+<p>"What, my son, you are willing to solicit the interference of
+Mademoiselle de Gramont, without knowing how and where she has passed
+her time, how she has lived since she fled from the Ch&acirc;teau de Gramont?
+I refuse my consent to such a proceeding."</p>
+
+<p>"Aunt,&mdash;madame," returned Madeleine, in a gently pleading voice, "do not
+deprive me of the pleasure of serving you. Humble and unworthy
+instrument that I am, leave me that happiness."</p>
+
+<p>"If the marchioness would only grant me a few moments' interview this
+morning," said Count Tristan, who evidently doubted the strength of
+Madeleine's advocacy.</p>
+
+<p>"I promise that she <i>will</i> grant you an interview this morning," replied
+Madeleine, interrupting him.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>femme de chambre</i> now re&euml;ntered and said, "Madame is impatient at
+this delay; every moment seems an hour."</p>
+
+<p>"Say that I will be with her immediately," answered Madeleine. She then
+addressed the count: "Have no fears,&mdash;you may depend upon me; the
+countess will receive you the moment her toilet is completed."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine once more embraced Bertha, once more extended her hand to
+Maurice, who stood bewildered, dismayed, looking half petrified, and
+passed out of the room.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as she had disappeared, Bertha broke forth joyously, "Well,
+aunt, what do you think <i>now</i> of our Madeleine?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> Is not this magic? Is
+not this a fairy-like <i>denouement</i>? She disappears from the Ch&acirc;teau de
+Gramont as though the earth had opened to swallow her; no trace of her
+could be discovered for nearly five years, and suddenly she rises up in
+our very midst, a grand lady, enveloped in a cloud of mystery, and
+working as many wonders as a veritable witch. She leaves us poor,
+friendless, dependent; she returns to us rich, powerful, and with
+influential friends ready to serve those who once protected her. But I
+think I have found the key to the enigma. Did we not hear strict orders
+given that none but the Countess Orlowski should be admitted? Well,
+Madeleine was at once allowed to enter: it follows, beyond doubt, that
+she is the Countess Orlowski."</p>
+
+<p>This version of Madeleine's position seemed to strike both the countess
+and her son as not merely possibly, but probably, correct.</p>
+
+<p>"I always thought," returned the count, "that Madeleine was a young
+person who, in the end"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>His mother finished the sentence, in a tone of pride, "would prove
+herself worthy of the family to which she belongs."</p>
+
+<p>The loud ringing of the street door-bell attracted the attention of the
+group assembled in the drawing-room. A well-known voice exchanged a few
+words with the servant, and Gaston de Bois entered. His manner was
+unusually perturbed, and he looked around the room as though in search
+of some one.</p>
+
+<p>The instant he appeared, Bertha exclaimed, "Oh, M. de Bois! M. de Bois!
+We are all so much rejoiced! Madeleine, our own Madeleine, is found at
+last! She is here,&mdash;here in this very house, at this very moment!"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I&mdash;I knew it!" answered M. de Bois, with a mixture of embarrassment
+and exultation.</p>
+
+<p>"You knew it? How could you have known it?" asked Maurice, eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"I saw her car&mdash;ar&mdash;arriage at the door."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Her</i> carriage? She has a carriage of her own, then?" inquired the
+count.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and the most superb horses in Washington."</p>
+
+<p>"You knew, then, that she was here?" cried Maurice, with emotion; "you
+knew it, and you never told us?"</p>
+
+<p>"I knew it, but I was forbidden to tell you. I hoped you would meet; I
+felt sure you would. I did not know how or when; but, from the moment
+you put your foot in this city, I looked for this meeting. I was
+strongly impelled to bring it about, but my promise withheld me."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Of course, you could not break a promise; that explanation is quite
+satisfactory," remarked Bertha. "I am sure you would have given us a
+hint but for your promise."</p>
+
+<p>"I almost gave one in spite of it. I found it harder to keep silent than
+I used to find it to speak; and that was difficult enough."</p>
+
+<p>"But have the goodness to unravel to us this grand mystery," demanded
+the count. "Madeleine is married&mdash;married to Count Orlowski, the Russian
+ambassador."</p>
+
+<p>"A nobleman of position!" added the countess.</p>
+
+<p>"How did this come about?" inquired the count.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois looked stupefied.</p>
+
+<p>"Who&mdash;who&mdash;said she was married?" he gasped out. "Why do you imagine
+that she is mar&mdash;ar&mdash;arried?"</p>
+
+<p>"She is <i>not</i>&mdash;<i>not</i> married then? <i>Say she is not!</i>" broke in Maurice,
+hanging upon the reply as though it were a sentence of life or death.</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;no&mdash;not married at all&mdash;not in the least married."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice did not answer, but the sound that issued from his lips almost
+resembled the sob of hysteric passion.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell us quickly all about her!" besought Bertha, impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, speak! speak!" said the countess, imperiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Speak!" echoed the count.</p>
+
+<p>"Gaston, my dear friend, pray speak,&mdash;speak quickly!" Maurice besought.</p>
+
+<p>"I wi&mdash;is&mdash;ish I could! That's just what I wa&mdash;an&mdash;ant to do! But it's
+not so easy, you bewil&mdash;il&mdash;ilder me so with questions. But the time has
+come when you must know that she has the hon&mdash;on&mdash;onor&mdash;the honor&mdash;the
+honor to be"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Go on, go on!" urged Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I could! It's not so easy to expla&mdash;plai&mdash;plain."</p>
+
+<p>The rustling of a silk dress made him turn. The Marchioness de Fleury,
+in the most captivating spring attire, stood before them.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! here is Madame de Fleury, and she will tell you herself better than
+I can," said M. de Bois, apparently much relieved.</p>
+
+<p>The marchioness saluted her guests with excessive cordiality, softly
+murmured her gratification at their visit, and added apologetically,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I must entreat your pardon for allowing you to wait; it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> was not in my
+power to be more punctual; a terrible accident&mdash;the first of the kind
+which has ever occurred to me&mdash;is my excuse. Do not imagine, my dear
+viscount," turning to Maurice with a fascinating smile, "that I had
+forgotten my appointment; but, at the Russian embassy, yesterday, I was
+prevailed upon to promise that I would be present at the senate to-day
+to hear the speech of a Vermont orator, a sort of Orson Demosthenes, who
+has gained great renown by his rude but stirring eloquence. We ladies
+have been promised admission (which is now and then granted) to the
+floor of the house, instead of being crammed into the close galleries.
+It will be a brilliant occasion. I invited the Countess Orlowski to
+accompany me. If all had gone well I should have been ready to receive
+your visit before she came."</p>
+
+<p>The brow of the countess smoothed a little as she answered, "I felt
+confident, madame, that there must have been <i>some</i> explanation."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! I fear you are displeased with me," resumed Madame de Fleury,
+playfully. "But I will earn my pardon. You will be compelled to forgive
+me; M. de Fleury meets me at the capitol, and I will deliver this letter
+of the count's into his hand, and make him promise, blindfold, to
+consent to any request that it may contain."</p>
+
+<p>"Madame," returned the count, bowing to the ground, "I shall never be
+able to express my gratitude. You can hardly form a conception of the
+favor you are conferring upon me. That letter is of the highest
+importance, and my indebtedness beggars all expression."</p>
+
+<p>"To be frank with you, count," answered Madame de Fleury, "you owe me
+nothing. You are only indebted to the advocate you chose,&mdash;one whom I
+never refuse,&mdash;one to whom I feel under the deepest obligation,
+especially this morning,&mdash;one who is so modest that she can seldom be
+induced to ask me a favor, or to allow me to serve her. Thus, you see,
+it is but natural that I should seize with avidity upon this
+opportunity."</p>
+
+<p>The count looked at his mother triumphantly; and, as the face of the
+marchioness was turned toward Bertha, he whispered, "Shall I not tell
+her that Madeleine is our niece?"</p>
+
+<p>The countess seemed disposed to consent, for the words of Madame de
+Fleury had gratified as much as they astonished her.</p>
+
+<p>The marchioness addressed the Countess de Gramont again. "I trust,
+madame, that you will allow me to waive ceremony, and take a liberty
+with you, since it is in the hope of being some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> service. I should like
+to reach the capitol before the oration commences; and, if this letter
+must be delivered to M. de Fleury immediately, my going early will
+enable me to have a few moments' conversation with him, which I probably
+shall not get after the orator rises. Will you excuse me, if I tear
+myself away? And will you give me the pleasure of your company to-morrow
+evening? To-morrow is my reception-day, and some of my friends honor me
+in the evening. I am <i>desol&eacute;e</i> at this apparent want of courtesy, but I
+am sure you see the necessity."</p>
+
+<p>The countess bowed her permission to Madame de Fleury's departure, and
+the count overwhelmed her with thanks. The countess would herself have
+taken leave, but anxiety to learn something further of Madeleine, caused
+her to linger.</p>
+
+<p>The marchioness now addressed her valet, who was standing in the hall
+waiting orders.</p>
+
+<p>"Patrick, when Madame Orlowski calls, beg her to pardon my preceding her
+to the capitol; say that I will reserve a seat by my side."</p>
+
+<p>"Then the lady who just visited you was <i>not</i> Madame Orlowski?" inquired
+the count, more puzzled than ever.</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed; she is worth a thousand Madame Orlowski's!"</p>
+
+<p>The count's glance at his mother seemed again to ask her permission to
+allow him to announce that Madeleine was their relative.</p>
+
+<p>"We felt certain that she was one of the magnates"&mdash;began the count.</p>
+
+<p>The marchioness interrupted him.</p>
+
+<p>"She is better than that; she has all the magnates of the land&mdash;that is
+the female magnates&mdash;at her feet. The foreign ladies swear by her, rave
+about her; and, as for the Americans, they are demented, and would
+gladly pave her path with gold,&mdash;that being their way of expressing
+appreciation. Madame Manesca passes whole mornings with her,&mdash;Madame
+Poniatowski talks of no one else. She enchants every one, and offends no
+one. For myself, I have only one fault to find with her,&mdash;I owe her only
+one grudge; if it had not been for her aid, that impertinent little Mrs.
+Gilmer would not have had such success in society. If I could succeed in
+making her close her doors against Mrs. Gilmer, what a satisfaction it
+would be! Then, and then only, should I be content!"</p>
+
+<p>The count could restrain himself no longer.</p>
+
+<p>"We are highly gratified to hear this, madame. It concerns, us more
+nearly than you are aware; the lady is not wholly a stranger to us; in
+fact, she&mdash;she"&mdash;</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Indeed? she was so little known in Paris that you were fortunate in
+finding her out. I appreciated her there, but I did not know how much
+actual credit was due to her, for she had not then risen to her present
+distinction. I confess she is the one person in America without whom I
+could not exist."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it possible?" exclaimed the countess.</p>
+
+<p>"And I cannot be grateful enough to her," continued the marchioness,
+"for her visit this morning, for she never goes out, or, so seldom, that
+I did not dare to expect, to even <i>hope</i> for her presence; yet her
+conscientiousness made her come; she suspected that I was in difficulty,
+and hastened here."</p>
+
+<p>"It is like her; she was always charming, and so thoughtful for others!"
+observed the count, as complacently as though this were an opinion he
+had been in the habit of expressing for years.</p>
+
+<p>"You may well say charming," responded Madame de Fleury; "and what
+knowledge she possesses of all the requirements, the most subtle
+refinements of good society! What polished manners she has! What choice
+language she uses! What poetical expression she gives to her sentiments!
+I often forget myself when I am talking to her, and fancy that I am
+communicating with a person of the same standing as myself; and, without
+knowing what I am doing, I involuntarily treat her as an equal!"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>An equal?</i> Of course, most certainly!" answered the countess, aghast.</p>
+
+<p>The amazement of the count, Maurice, and Bertha, sealed their lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Her taste, her talent, her invention is something almost supernatural,"
+continued the marchioness, enthusiastically; for, now that she was
+launched upon her favorite theme, she had forgotten her haste. "She sees
+at a glance all the good points of a figure; she knows how to bring them
+out strongly; she discovers by intuition what is lacking, and
+dexterously hides the defects. I have seen her convert the veriest dowdy
+into an elegant woman. And, when she gets a subject that pleases her,
+she perfectly revels in her art. Look at this dress for instance,&mdash;see
+by what delicate combinations it announces the spring."</p>
+
+<p>The marchioness was struck with the consternation depicted in the
+countenances of her visitors.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha was the only one who could command sufficient voice to falter
+out, "That dress, then"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It is her invention," replied the marchioness, triumphantly. "Any one
+would recognize it in a moment, as coming from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> hands of
+Mademoiselle Melanie. Though she has such wonderful creative fertility,
+her style is unmistakable. There was never mantua-maker like her!"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>A mantua-maker! a mantua-maker!</i>" exclaimed the countess and her son
+at once, in accents of disgust and indignation.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I see you do not like to apply that epithet to her, and you are
+right. She should not be designated as a mantua-maker, but a great
+artist,&mdash;a true artist,&mdash;a fairy, who, with one touch of her wand, can
+metamorphose and beautify and amaze!"</p>
+
+<p>At that moment, a servant announced that the Countess Orlowski waited in
+her carriage, and desired him to say that she feared she was late.</p>
+
+<p>"You will excuse me then?" murmured the marchioness. "I must hasten to
+execute my mission for Mademoiselle Melanie, since it was she who so
+warmly solicited me to undertake this delicate little transaction, and I
+would not disappoint her for the world. Pray, do not forget to-morrow
+evening. <i>Au revoir.</i>"</p>
+
+<p>She floated out of the room, leaving the countess and her son speechless
+with rage and indignation.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha and Maurice stood looking at each other, and then at M. de Bois,
+the only one who expressed no surprise, but seemed rather more gratified
+than moved when he beheld the countess sink back in her chair, and apply
+her bottle of sal volatile to her nose. The shock to her pride had been
+so terrible, that she appeared to be in danger of fainting.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>NOBLE HANDS MADE NOBLER.</h3>
+
+
+<p>After the Marchioness de Fleury had departed, leaving her astonished
+guests in her drawing-room, M. de Bois was the first to break the
+silence.</p>
+
+<p>"And you, Mademoiselle Bertha, are you also horrified at this
+rev&mdash;ev&mdash;evelation?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I?" answered Bertha, making an effort to collect herself. "No, I can
+never be horrified by any act of Madeleine's, for she could never be
+guilty of an action that was unworthy. I am only so much astonished that
+I feel stunned and confused, just as Maurice does; see, how bewildered
+he looks!"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The countess had now recovered her voice, and said, in a tone trembling
+with indignation, "It is <i>infamous</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>"A degradation we could never have anticipated!" rejoined Count Tristan.</p>
+
+<p>"She has disgraced her family,&mdash;disgraced our proud name forever!"
+responded the countess.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not say that, aunt!" pleaded Bertha. "She has not even used your
+name, though it is as rightfully hers as yours. Do you not observe that
+she has only allowed herself to be called by her middle name, and that
+every one speaks of her as Mademoiselle Melanie?"</p>
+
+<p>Bertha, as she spoke, bent caressingly over her aunt, and took her hand.
+But the attempt to soften the infuriated aristocrat was futile.</p>
+
+<p>The countess replied, with increasing wrath, "I tell you she has
+humiliated herself and us to the last degree! She has brought shame upon
+our heads!"</p>
+
+<p>Gaston de Bois was walking up and down the room, thrusting his fingers
+through his hair, flinging out his arms spasmodically, and, now and
+then, giving vent to a muttered ejaculation, which sounded alarmingly
+emphatic. When he heard these words, he could restrain himself no
+longer. He came boldly forward, and planting himself directly in front
+of the countess, unawed by her forbidding manner, exclaimed,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"No, madame; that I deny! Mademoiselle de Gramont has brought no shame
+upon her family!"</p>
+
+<p>"She no longer belongs to my family!" retorted the countess. "I disown
+her henceforward and forever!"</p>
+
+<p>"And you do rightly, my mother," added the count. "We will never
+acknowledge her, never see her again! Maurice and Bertha, we expect that
+you will abide by our determination."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice did not reply; he stood leaning against the mantel-piece, lost
+in thought, his eyes bent down, his head resting upon his hands.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha, however, answered with spirit. "I make no promise of the kind.
+Nothing could induce me to cast off my dear Madeleine!"</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois seized her hand, and, involuntarily carrying it to his lips,
+said, with mingled enthusiasm and veneration, "You are as noble as I
+thought you were! I knew you would not forsake her!"</p>
+
+<p>Bertha raised her eyes to his face with an expression which thrilled
+him, as she answered, "You will defend her, M. de<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> Bois; you, who can
+perhaps disperse the cloud of mystery by which her life has been
+enveloped for the last four years. You will tell my aunt how Madeleine
+has lived,&mdash;what she has done. You will tell us <i>all about her</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"That I will, gladly!" replied he. "That is, <i>if I can</i>. I never in my
+life so much desired the pow&mdash;ow&mdash;ower of spee&mdash;ee&mdash;eech!"</p>
+
+<p>He broke off, and, in an undertone, gave vent to certain exclamations
+which indistinctly reached the ears of the countess and Bertha.</p>
+
+<p>Their amazed looks did not escape his notice, and he continued: "Ladies,
+I ought to ask your pardon; possibly my expressions have sounded to you
+somewhat profane; I am under the sad necessity of using very strong
+language. I cannot loosen my tongue except by the aid of these forcible
+expletives, and I must&mdash;<i>must</i> speak! For I, who have known all
+Mademoiselle Madeleine's noble impulses, can best explain to you her
+con&mdash;on&mdash;onduct."</p>
+
+<p>The last word, which was the only one upon which he stammered, was
+followed by another emphatic ejaculation.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha, without heeding this interruption, asked, "And have you known
+where Madeleine was concealed all this time?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, mademoiselle, I knew."</p>
+
+<p>"And it was you who assisted her to leave Brittany?"</p>
+
+<p>"It <i>was</i> I! That was about the first good action which brightened my
+life, and&mdash;and&mdash;and"&mdash;(another muttered oath to assist his articulation)
+"and I hope it was only a commencement."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell us&mdash;tell us everything quickly," prayed Bertha.</p>
+
+<p>"Mademoiselle Madeleine, when she determined to leave the Ch&acirc;teau de
+Gramont,&mdash;when she resolved to cease to be dependent,&mdash;when, in spite of
+her noble birth, which was to her only an encumbrance, she purposed to
+gain a livelihood by honest industry,&mdash;confided her project to me. And
+what good she did me in making me feel that I was worthy enough of her
+esteem to be trusted! She first committed to my charge her family
+diamonds, her sole possession, and ordered me to dispose of them"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Her diamonds! those which have been in her family for generations! What
+sacrilege!" cried the countess, in accents of horror.</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me, madame; it would have been sacrilege, she thought, and so
+did I, if she had kept them when their sale<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> could have prevented her
+being the unhappy recipient of the unwilling <i>charity</i> of her
+relatives."</p>
+
+<p>"Go on&mdash;go on!" urged Bertha. "How did she leave the ch&acirc;teau? How could
+she travel?"</p>
+
+<p>"I obtained her a passport, for it would have been running too great a
+risk if she had attempted to travel without one. The passport had to be
+signed by two witnesses. Fortunately, two of my friends at Rennes were
+about to leave the country; I selected them as witnesses, because they
+could not be questioned; I told them the whole story, and bound them to
+secrecy. We took out the passport for England to divert pursuit; but,
+Mademoiselle Madeleine only went to Paris, and it was not necessary that
+her passport should be <i>vis&eacute;d</i> if she remained there."</p>
+
+<p>"But the diamonds,&mdash;they were those Madame de Fleury wore and which I
+recognized!" exclaimed Bertha.</p>
+
+<p>"I made a false step there; but it was just like me to bungle,"
+continued Gaston. "I knew that the Jew, Henriques, often had
+transactions with the Marquis de Fleury. I took the diamonds to another
+Jew from whom I concealed my name, and suggested his taking them to
+Henriques, hinting that the marquis would probably become their
+purchaser. The marquis is a <i>connoisseur</i> of jewels; and, as you are
+aware, at once secured them. The sum realized was sufficient to supply
+the simple wants of Mademoiselle Madeleine for years. But this did not
+satisfy her,&mdash;her plan was to work. When she heard that the diamonds
+were in M. de Fleury's possession, she embroidered a robe upon which the
+lilies and shamrock were closely imitated, and took her work to Vignon,
+Madame de Fleury's dressmaker. Vignon was amazed at the great skill and
+taste displayed in the design and execution, and offered to give the
+embroiderer as much employment as she desired. Madame de Fleury being
+the most influential of Vignon's patrons, the dress was exhibited to
+her. She was at once struck and charmed by the coincidence that allowed
+her to become the possessor of a dress upon which the exact design of
+her new jewels had been imitated. She asked a thousand questions of
+Vignon, who gladly monopolized all the credit of inventing this novel
+pattern. From that moment Mademoiselle Madeleine's 'fairy fingers'
+commenced their marvels under the celebrated <i>couturi&egrave;re's</i> direction,
+and Vignon daily congratulated herself upon the mysterious treasure she
+had discovered. Mademoiselle Madeleine now determined to remain in Paris
+incognita. She worked night and day, scarcely allowing herself needful
+rest; but, alas! she worked with a ceaseless heartache,&mdash;a heartache<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> on
+your account, Maurice, for she knew how wildly you were searching for
+her; and when you fell ill"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Maurice interrupted him: "It was she who watched beside me at night! I
+knew it! I have always been convinced of it. Was I not right?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was bound not to tell you, but there can be no need of concealment
+now. Yes, you <i>are</i> right. When the <i>s&oelig;ur de bon secours</i> we had
+engaged to take care of you during the day, left, and would have been
+replaced, according to the usual custom, by another to watch through the
+night, we told her no watcher was needed before morning. Mademoiselle
+Madeleine made herself a garb resembling that worn by the sisterhood;
+and, every night, when the good sister we had hired left, Mademoiselle
+Madeleine took her place. We thought your delirium would prevent your
+recognizing her."</p>
+
+<p>"Probably it did, at first," returned Maurice; "but, for many nights
+before I spoke to you; I was conscious, I was sure of her presence."</p>
+
+<p>"When you did speak, I was startled enough," resumed Gaston; "and it was
+a sad revelation to Mademoiselle Madeleine; for, when your reason was
+restored, she could not venture any more to come near you."</p>
+
+<p>"Did she go to Dresden? How came my birthday handkerchief to be sent
+from Dresden?" asked Bertha.</p>
+
+<p>"That was another piece of stupidity of mine. You see what a blockhead I
+have been. Mademoiselle Madeleine wished to send some token of assurance
+that she thought of you still; but it was necessary that you should not
+know she was in Paris. I had the package conveyed to a friend of mine in
+Dresden, and desired him to remove the envelope and send the parcel to
+Bordeaux, though you were in Paris at the time. It would not have been
+prudent to let you suspect that Mademoiselle Madeleine was aware of your
+sojourn in the metropolis. But, when the postmark induced Maurice to
+start for Dresden, I saw what a fool I had been. It was just like me to
+commit some absurdity,&mdash;I always do! I could not dissuade Maurice from
+going to Dresden; but Mademoiselle Madeleine wrote a note which I
+enclosed to my friend, and desired to have it left at the hotel where
+Maurice was staying. After that I was more careful not to commit
+blunders. The other birthday tokens, you received, Mademoiselle Bertha,
+I always contrived to send you by private hand; thus, there was no
+postmark to awaken suspicion."</p>
+
+<p>"But how came Madeleine here in America?" inquired Bertha.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"When the Marquis de Fleury was appointed ambassador to the United
+States, Mademoiselle Madeleine learned that Madame de Fleury sorely
+lamented her hard fate, and mourned over the probability that she would
+be obliged to have all her dresses sent from Paris. This would be a
+great inconvenience, for she often liked to have a costume improvised
+upon the spur of the moment, and completed with fabulous rapidity.
+Mademoiselle Madeleine had frequently thought of America, and felt that
+the new country must present a field where she could work more
+advantageously than in Paris. She desired Vignon to suggest to Madame de
+Fleury that one of the assistants in her favorite <i>couturi&egrave;re's</i>
+establishment,&mdash;the one with whose designs Madame de Fleury was already
+acquainted,&mdash;might be tempted, by the certainty of the marchioness's
+patronage, to visit America. Madame de Fleury was contented, and
+immediately proposed that Mademoiselle Melanie should sail in the same
+steamer. Vignon allowed two of her work-women to accompany her. The sum
+Mademoiselle Madeleine had realized from her diamonds enabled her to
+hire a modest house in Washington, and to furnish it tastefully. On her
+arrival she sent for Mr. Hilson. Perhaps you remember him, Mademoiselle
+Bertha? He once dined at the Ch&acirc;teau de Gramont."</p>
+
+<p>Here the count uttered an exclamation of violent displeasure, but M. de
+Bois went on,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"He had requested Mademoiselle Madeleine if she ever visited America to
+let him know. He called upon her at once, and she frankly told him the
+story of her trials, and the conclusion to which they had forced her. He
+highly approved of her energy, her zeal, and spirit. She made him
+promise to keep her rank and name a secret. He brought his wife and
+daughter to see her, and they became her stanch, admiring, and helpful
+friends. Through them alone, she would quickly have been drawn into
+notice; but a more powerful medium to popularity was at work. The
+sensation produced by Madame de Fleury's toilets caused all Washington
+to flock to the exhibition-rooms of 'Mademoiselle Melanie,' who was
+known to be her <i>couturi&egrave;re</i>. Soon, it became a favor for 'Mademoiselle
+Melanie' to receive new customers. She was forced to move to the elegant
+mansion where she now resides. It is one of the grandest houses in
+Washington, and Mademoiselle Melanie has only one more payment to make
+before it becomes her own. The fact is, people have gone crazy about
+her. Those who seek her merely upon business, when they come into her
+presence, are impressed with the conviction that she is not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> merely
+their equal, but their superior, and treat her with involuntary
+deference. She is rapidly becoming rich, and she has the glory of
+knowing that it is through the labor of her own dainty hands, her own
+'fairy fingers!'"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, all she has done was truly noble!" said Bertha, with enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p>"It was disgraceful!" cried the countess, fiercely. "She might better
+have starved! She has torn down her glorious escutcheon to replace it by
+a mantua-maker's sign. She has stooped to make dresses!&mdash;to receive
+customers! Abominable!"</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois, for a moment forgetting the courtesy due to the rank and
+years of the countess, replied indignantly, "Madame, did she not make
+<i>your</i> dresses for three years? Have you not been one of her customers?
+An unprofitable customer? The <i>profit</i> was the only difference between
+what she did at the <i>Ch&acirc;teau de Gramont</i> and what she does in the city
+of Washington!"</p>
+
+<p>"Sir!" exclaimed the countess, giving him a look of rebuke, which was
+intended to silence these unpalatable truths.</p>
+
+<p>"You are right, M. de Bois," answered Bertha, not noticing the furious
+glance of her aunt. "That was a random shaft of yours, but it hits the
+mark, and strikes me as well as my aunt; yet I thank you for it; I thank
+you for defending Madeleine; I thank you for befriending her. I shall
+never forget it&mdash;never!"</p>
+
+<p>Bertha frankly stretched out her hand to him; he took it with joyful
+emotion.</p>
+
+<p>"Whom would she have to defend her if I did not, since her family
+discard her? Since even an able young lawyer utters not a word to plead
+her cause?" he added, looking reproachfully at Maurice. "But she shall
+never lack a defender while I live, for I love her as a sister! I
+venerate her as a saint. To me she is the type of all that is best and
+noblest in the world! The type of that which is greater, more valuable
+than glory, more useful than fame, more <i>noble</i> than the blood of
+countesses and duchesses&mdash;<i>honest labor!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>Bertha's responsive look spoke her approval.</p>
+
+<p>"And what do I not owe her, myself?" continued M. de Bois. "It was her
+words, long before her sorrows began, which rendered me conscious of the
+inert purposelessness of my own existence. It was the effect produced
+upon me by those words which made me resolve to throw off my sluggish,
+indolent melancholy and inactivity, and rise up to be one of the world's
+'<i>doers</i>,' not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> '<i>breathers</i>' only. The change I feel in myself came
+through her; even the very power of speaking to you thus freely comes
+through her, for she encouraged me to conquer my diffidence, she made me
+despise my weak self-consciousness, and I cannot offer her a sufficient
+return; no, not if I took up arms against the whole world, her own
+family included, in her defence! In my presence, no one shall ever
+asperse her nobility of word, deed, or act!"</p>
+
+<p>Bertha's speaking eyes thanked him and encouraged him again.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of the manifest rage of the countess he went on,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"But Mademoiselle Madeleine now holds a position which needs no
+champion. She has made that position herself, by her own energy and
+industry, and the unimpeachable purity of her conduct. In this land
+where <i>labor</i> is a <i>virtue</i>, and the most laborious, when they combine
+intellect with industry, become the greatest,&mdash;in this land it will be
+no blot upon her noble name, (when she chooses to resume it) that she
+has linked that name with <i>work</i>. She will rather be held up as an
+example to the daughters of this young country. No one, except Mr.
+Hilson, not even her zealous patron, and devoted admirer, Madame de
+Fleury, yet knows her history; but every one feels that she merits
+reverence, and every one yields her spontaneous veneration. The young
+women whom she employs idolize her, and she treats them as the kindest
+and most considerate of sisters might. Some among them belong to
+excellent families, reduced by circumstances, and she has inspired them
+with courage to work, even with so humble an instrument as the needle,
+rather than to accept dependence as inevitable. She is fitting them to
+follow in her footsteps. If her relatives scorn her for the course she
+has pursued, she will be fully compensated for their scorn by the
+world's approval."</p>
+
+<p>All eyes had been riveted upon Gaston, as he spoke, and no one perceived
+that Madeleine was standing in the room, a few paces from the door.
+Bertha's exclamation first made the others conscious of her presence.</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine! we know all! Oh, what you must have suffered! How noble you
+have been! Madeleine, you are dearer to me than ever, far dearer!"</p>
+
+<p>The tears that ran softly down Madeleine's cheeks were her only answer.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha, as she wiped them away, said, "These are not like the tears you
+shed that sorrowful day in the <i>ch&acirc;let</i>, that day<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> when you must have
+first made up your mind to leave us. Do you remember how you wept then?
+Those were tears of agony! You have never wept such tears since,&mdash;have
+you, Madeleine?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, never!"</p>
+
+<p>"I could not then comprehend what moved you so terribly; but, at this
+moment, I understand all your sensations. Now that we have met again
+there must be no more tears. You know that I am of age now; I am
+mistress of my own fortune; and you and I must part no more! You must
+come and share what is mine. You must have done with work, Madeleine."</p>
+
+<p>"That cannot be, my good, generous Bertha; my day of work has not yet
+closed."</p>
+
+<p>"Bertha!" exclaimed the countess, who, until then, had stood trembling
+with anger, and unable to command her voice. "Bertha, have you quite
+forgotten yourself? Remember that you are under my guardianship, and I
+forbid your having any association with Mademoiselle de Gramont."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine advanced with calm dignity towards the countess, and said
+quietly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Madame&mdash;aunt"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The countess interrupted her imperiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Aunt! Do you <i>dare</i> to address <i>me</i> by that title? <i>You</i>&mdash;a
+<i>dressmaker!</i> When you forgot your noble birth, and lowered yourself to
+the working-classes, making yourself one with them,&mdash;when you demeaned
+yourself to gain your bread by your needle, bread which should have
+choked a de Gramont to eat,&mdash;you should also have forgotten your
+relationship to me, never to remember it again!"</p>
+
+<p>"If I did not forget it, madame," answered Madeleine, with calm
+self-respect, "I was at least careful that my condition should not
+become known to you. I strove to act as though I had been dead to you,
+that my existence might not cause you mortification. I could not guard
+against the accident which has thrown us together once more, but for the
+last time, as far as my will is concerned."</p>
+
+<p>"This meeting was not Mademoiselle Madeleine's fault," cried M. de Bois,
+coming to the rescue. "It was my folly,&mdash;another blunder of mine! I was
+dolt enough to think that you had only to see her for all to be well;
+and, instead of warning Mademoiselle Madeleine that you were in
+Washington, I kept from her a knowledge which would have prevented your
+encountering each other. It was all my imprudence, my miscalculation! I
+see my error since it has subjected her to insult; and yet what I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> did,"
+continued he more passionately, and regarding Maurice, as he spoke, "was
+for the sake of one who"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine, seized with a sudden dread of the manner in which he might
+conclude this sentence, broke in abruptly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Were I not indebted to you, M. de Bois, for so many kindnesses, I might
+reproach you now; but it was well for me to learn this lesson; it was
+well for me to be certain that my aunt would discard me because I
+preferred honest industry to cold charity."</p>
+
+<p>"Discard you?" rejoined the countess, furiously. "Could you doubt that I
+would discard you? Henceforth the tie of blood between us is dissolved;
+you are no relative of mine! I forbid you to make known that we have
+ever met. I forbid my family to hold any intercourse with you. I appeal
+to my son to say if this is not the just retribution which your conduct
+has brought upon you!"</p>
+
+<p>The count answered with deliberation, as though he was pondering some
+possibility in his wily mind; as if some idea had occurred to him which
+prevented his fully sharing in his mother's wrath, or, rather, which
+tempered the expression of his displeasure,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine's situation has rendered this the most proper and natural
+course open to us. She could not expect to be formally recognized. She
+could not suppose it possible, however much consideration we might
+entertain for her personally, that the Countess de Gramont and her
+family should allow it to be known that one of their kin is a
+dressmaker! Madeleine is too reasonable not to see the impropriety (to
+use a mild word) there would be even in such a suggestion."</p>
+
+<p>"I see it very plainly," answered Madeleine, not unmoved by the count's
+manner, which was so much gentler than his mother's, and not suspecting
+the motive which induced him to assume this conciliatory tone.</p>
+
+<p>The count resumed: "We wish Madeleine well, in spite of her present
+degraded position. If circumstances should prolong our stay in
+Washington, or in America,&mdash;and it is very possible they may do so,&mdash;we
+will only request her to remove to California or Australia, or some
+distant region, where she may live in desirable obscurity, and not run
+the risk of being brought into even <i>accidental</i> contact with us."</p>
+
+<p>"No,&mdash;no!" exclaimed Bertha, vehemently. "We shall not lose her
+again,&mdash;we must not! <i>You</i> may all discard her, but <i>I</i> will not! I will
+always acknowledge her, and I must see her!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> She is dearer to me than
+ever; I will not be separated from her!"</p>
+
+<p>Did Bertha see the look of admiration with which M. de Bois contemplated
+her as she uttered these words?</p>
+
+<p>The countess asked in an imperious tone,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Bertha, have you wholly forgotten yourself? I will never permit this
+intercourse,&mdash;I forbid it! If <i>you</i> are willing to brave my displeasure,
+I presume Madeleine, ungrateful as she has proved herself to be, for the
+protection I granted her during three years, will not so wholly forget
+her debt as to disregard my command."</p>
+
+<p>How often Madeleine had been reminded of that debt which her services at
+the Ch&acirc;teau de Gramont had cancelled a hundred times over!</p>
+
+<p>Before she could respond to her aunt's remark, Bertha went on,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You do not comprehend my plan, aunt. Madeleine, of course, must give up
+her present occupation; there is no need of her pursuing it; I am rich
+enough for both. She shall live with me and share my fortune. Madeleine,
+you will not refuse me this? For nearly five years I have mourned over
+our separation, and wasted my life in the vain hope of seeing you again.
+You would be ashamed of me if you knew in what a weak, frivolous, idle
+manner, I have passed my days, while you were working so unceasingly,
+and with such grand results. I shall never learn to make good use of my
+hours except under your guidance. Long before I reached my majority I
+looked forward gladly to the time when I should be a free agent and
+could share my <i>fortune</i> with you. My aunt knows that I communicated my
+intention to her before you left the Ch&acirc;teau de Gramont. And now,
+Madeleine, my own best Madeleine,&mdash;you will let the dream of my life
+become a reality,&mdash;will you not? Say yes, I implore you!"</p>
+
+<p>Bertha had spoken with such genuine warmth and hearty earnestness that a
+colder nature than Madeleine's must have been melted. She folded the
+generous girl tenderly and silently in her arms, and, after a pause,
+which the countenance of her aunt made her aware that the proud lady was
+on the eve of breaking, answered, sadly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It was worth suffering all I endured, Bertha, to have your friendship
+tested through this fiery ordeal, and to know that your heart cannot be
+divided by circumstances from mine. But your too liberal offer I cannot
+accept; the path I have marked out I must pursue until I reach the goal
+which I am nearing. An<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> incompleteness in the execution of my deliberate
+plans would render me more miserable than I am to-day in being cast off
+by my own family."</p>
+
+<p>"Do not speak such cruel words," returned Bertha. "They do not cast you
+off; that is, <i>I</i> do not, and never will; and I am sure"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>She turned to look at Maurice, who had stood silent through the whole
+scene, leaning upon the mantel-piece, his head still resting on his
+hand, and his eyes fixed upon Madeleine. His mind was too full of
+conflicting emotions for him to speak; above all other images rose that
+of the being whom Madeleine had declared she loved. Did she love him
+still? Was he here? Did he know her condition? Was M. de Bois, whom she
+had entrusted with her secret,&mdash;M. de Bois, who had protected and aided
+her,&mdash;the object of her preference? Maurice could not answer these
+torturing questions, and the happiness of once more beholding the one
+whom he had so long fruitlessly sought, made him feel as though he were
+passing through a strange, wild dream, which, but for <i>one doubt</i>, would
+have been full of ecstasy.</p>
+
+<p>When Bertha appealed to him by her look, he could no longer remain
+silent.</p>
+
+<p>"You are right, Bertha; Madeleine is to me all that she ever was. I am
+as proud of her as I have ever been; more proud I could not be! <i>To
+renounce her would be as impossible as it has ever been.</i>"</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine, who had appeared so firm and composed up to that moment,
+trembled violently; her heart seemed to cease its pulsations; a cold
+tremor ran through her veins; a mist floated before her eyes; exquisite
+happiness became exquisite pain! She turned, as though about to leave
+the room, but her feet faltered. In a second, M. de Bois was at her
+side, and gave her his arm; she took it almost unconsciously. The voice
+of her aunt restored her as suddenly as a dash of ice-water could have
+done.</p>
+
+<p>"Your father's commands and mine, then, Maurice, are to have no weight.
+We order you to renounce all intercourse with this person, whom we no
+longer acknowledge as a relative, and you unhesitatingly declare to her,
+in our very presence, that you disregard our wishes. This, it seems, is
+the first effect of Mademoiselle de Gramont's renewed influence, which
+we have before now found so pernicious."</p>
+
+<p>"Do not fear, madame," answered Madeleine; "I will not permit"&mdash;</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Make no rash promise, Madeleine,"&mdash;interrupted Maurice. "My father's
+wishes and my grandmother's must ever have weight with me; but when I
+honestly differ from them in opinion, I trust there is no disrespect in
+my saying so. Blindly to obey their commands would be to abnegate free
+agency and self-responsibility."</p>
+
+<p>"I have not forgotten," said the countess, freezingly, "that the first
+disrespect towards me of which you were guilty was originated by
+Mademoiselle de Gramont. I perceive that she is again about to create a
+family feud, and separate father and son, grandmother and grandchild.
+All her noble sentiments and heroic acting have ever this end in view.
+During the period that she concealed herself from us she has evidently
+never lost sight of this great aim of her existence, and has closely
+calculated events, and bided her time that she might man&oelig;uvre with
+additional power and certainty. She has not disgraced us enough; she is
+planning the total downfall of our noble house, no matter whom it buries
+in the ruins. It is not sufficient that we have to blush for the
+<i>dressmaker</i>, who would exchange the device graven upon her ancestral
+arms for that of a scissors and thimble; but she is laboring to bring
+her disgrace nearer and fasten it more permanently upon us."</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois, who felt that Madeleine was clinging to his arm, as though
+her strength was failing, answered for her,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"The daughter of the Duke de Gramont has not become less noble, madame,
+through her noble industry. She has not brought to her own, or any other
+cheek, a blush of genuine shame. I, who have watched over her from the
+hour that she left the Ch&acirc;teau de Gramont, claim the proud privilege of
+giving this testimony. No duchess has the right to hold her head higher
+than the Duke de Gramont's orphan daughter."</p>
+
+<p>Before any one could reply, he led Madeleine from the room, and out of
+the house. The movement which Maurice and Bertha, at the same moment,
+made to follow her was arrested by the countess. Before they had
+recovered themselves, Madeleine was seated in her carriage, and had
+driven away. M. de Bois was walking rapidly to his hotel.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>FEMININE BELLIGERENTS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Madeleine's residence was one of the most superb mansions in Washington:
+a spacious house, built of white stone, and located within a few
+minutes' walk of the capitol. She was in the habit of seeking the
+beautiful capitol-grounds every fine morning, before the busy city was
+astir, accompanied by Ruth Thornton. The matinal hour devoted to this
+refreshing walk was to both maidens the calmest and happiest of the
+twenty-four. In that peaceful hour they gained strength to encounter the
+petty vexations and <i>d&eacute;sagr&eacute;ment</i> incident to the at once humble and
+important vocation they had adopted.</p>
+
+<p>Buried deep in Madeleine's heart there was ever a sadness that could not
+be shaken off, but she turned the sunny side of her existence toward
+others, and kept the shadow of her great sorrow for herself alone;
+therefore her mien was ever tranquil, even cheerful. Possibly, she
+suffered less than many whose griefs were not so heavy, because her
+meek, uncomplaining spirit tempered the bleak wind that blew over her
+bowed head, and rounded the sharp stones that would have cut her feet on
+their pilgrimage, had they stepped less softly. Thus she carried within
+herself the magic that drew from waspish circumstance its sharpest
+sting.</p>
+
+<p>The morning after Madeleine's rencontre with her relatives, a group of
+young women were sitting busily employed around a large table in
+Mademoiselle Melanie's workroom.</p>
+
+<p>Mademoiselle Victorine, the forewoman, and Mademoiselle Clemence, her
+chief assistant, were the only foreigners. They had been in Vignon's
+employment, and had accompanied Madeleine to America. The other
+workwomen Madeleine had selected herself. Many of them were young girls,
+well born, and bred in luxury, who had been compelled by sudden reverses
+to earn a livelihood. Madeleine often wondered how so many of this class
+had been thrown in her way. In reality, the class is a frightfully
+numerous one, and she had an intuitive faculty of discovering those of
+whom it was composed. Not only did her instinctive sympathy attract her
+toward them, but Mr. Hilson, who was an active philanthropist, had been
+largely instrumental in pointing out young women who aspired to become
+self-helpers. Made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>leine took an affectionate interest in teaching them
+a trade which almost rose to the dignity of a profession in her hands.
+She became their friend, adviser, and comforter, and thus experienced
+the delicious consolation of creating happiness for others after her own
+happiness had received its death-blow.</p>
+
+<p>The room in which the busy needle-women were sitting, was the farthest
+of a suite of apartments opening into each other, on the second story.
+These apartments were somewhat lavishly furnished, but in the strictest
+good taste, and the eye was charmed by a profusion of choice plants
+blossoming in ornamental flower-vases, placed upon brackets on the wall;
+or of orchids floating in pendant luxuriance from baskets attached to
+the ceiling. Then, Madeleine had not forgotten the picturesque use so
+often made of the ivy in her native land, and had trained the obedient
+parasite to embower windows, or climb around frames of mirrors, until
+the gilt background gave but a golden glimmer through the dark-green
+network of leaves.</p>
+
+<p>Each room was also supplied either with portfolios containing rare
+engravings, with musical instruments, or a library.</p>
+
+<p>Rich dresses were displayed upon skeleton frames in one apartment;
+mantles and out-of-door wrappings were exhibited in another; bonnets and
+head-dresses were exposed to admiring view in a third.</p>
+
+<p>Near the window, not far from the table which was surrounded by the
+sewing-women, stood a smaller table where Ruth was engaged, coloring
+designs for costumes.</p>
+
+<p>The gossip of the Washington <i>beau monde</i>, very naturally furnished a
+theme for the lively tongues of the needle-women. They picked up all the
+interesting items of fashionable news that dropped from the lips of the
+many lady loungers who amused themselves by spending their mornings at
+Mademoiselle Melanie's exhibition-rooms, giving orders for dresses,
+bonnets, etc., examining new styles of apparel, discussing the most
+becoming modes, or idly chattering with acquaintances who visited
+Mademoiselle Melanie upon the same important mission as themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Mademoiselle Victorine generally led the conversation at the
+working-table, or, rather, she usually monopolized it. It was a source
+of great exultation to her if she happened to have a piece of news to
+communicate; and this now chanced to be the case.</p>
+
+<p>"Something very important is to take place in this house, probably this
+very day!" she began, with a consequential air.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> "If Mademoiselle
+Melanie has a fault, it is that she makes no confidants; and I think I
+am fully entitled to her confidence. I should like to know what she
+could have done without <i>me</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"What, indeed?" exclaimed several voices, for every one was anxious to
+propitiate the forewoman by bestowing upon her the flattery which was
+essential to keep her in an equable state of mind.</p>
+
+<p>"When we think of the marvels," continued Mademoiselle Victorine, "that
+issue from these walls; the splendid figures that go forth into the
+world out of our creative hands,&mdash;figures, which, could they be seen
+when they rise in the morning, would not be recognizable,&mdash;we have cause
+for self-congratulation. And Mademoiselle Melanie gets all the credit
+for these metamorphoses; though, we all know, she does <i>nothing</i>
+herself; that is, she merely forms a plan, makes a sketch, selects
+certain colors, and that is <i>all</i>! The execution, the real work, is
+mine&mdash;<i>mine!</i> I appeal to you, young ladies, to say if it is not
+<i>mine</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, certainly," said Abby, one of the younger girls; "but without
+Mademoiselle Melanie's sketch, without her ideas, her taste, what
+would"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"There&mdash;there; you talk too fast, Mademoiselle Abby; you are always
+chattering. I say that without <i>me</i> Mademoiselle Melanie would never
+have attained her present elevated position; without <i>me</i> this
+establishment would never have been what it now is,&mdash;a very California
+of dressmaking. And, in a little more than four years, what a fortune
+Mademoiselle Melanie has accumulated! That brings me back to the point
+from which I started. Does any one know what is to happen shortly?" she
+inquired, with an air of elation at being the only repository of a
+valuable secret.</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;no&mdash;what is it?" asked numerous voices.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Mademoiselle Ruth, do you say nothing?" inquired the triumphant
+forewoman. "Are you not anxious to know?"</p>
+
+<p>Ruth, without lifting her head from the sketch she was coloring,
+answered, "Yes, certainly, unless it should be something with which
+Mademoiselle Melanie does not desire us to be acquainted."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, hear the little saint!" returned Victorine. "She does not care for
+secrets,&mdash;no, of course not! She is only jealous that any one should
+know more than herself. She would not express surprise, not she, if I
+told her Mademoiselle Melanie is about to pay down ten thousand
+dollars&mdash;the last payment&mdash;upon the purchase of this house, which makes
+it hers."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mademoiselle Victorine concluded with a violent shake of the brocade she
+was trimming.</p>
+
+<p>"But did you learn this from good authority?" asked Esther, a slender,
+pale-faced girl.</p>
+
+<p>"The very best. I heard Mrs. Hilson say so to some ladies whom she
+brought to introduce here; and you know Mr. Hilson transacts all
+business matters for Mademoiselle Melanie. Mrs. Hilson told her friends
+that Mademoiselle Melanie's establishment was a perfect mint and fairly
+coined money. When I heard this assertion I said to myself, 'How little
+people understand that without <i>me</i> Mademoiselle Melanie would never
+have founded an establishment that was compared to a mint&mdash;never!' Yet
+<i>she</i> gets all the credit."</p>
+
+<p>"But you see"&mdash;began Esther.</p>
+
+<p>Victorine interrupted her.</p>
+
+<p>"What a chatterbox you are, Mademoiselle Esther! You will never get on
+with that work if you talk so much. Those festoons want spirit and
+grace; you must recommence them, or the dress will be a failure, I warn
+you! For whom is it? I have forgotten."</p>
+
+<p>"It is Mrs. Gilmer's, and she expects to wear it at the grand ball to be
+given by the Marchioness de Fleury."</p>
+
+<p>"She will be mistaken!" said Victorine. "I know that she will not be
+invited. The marchioness hates her; Mrs. Gilmer is the only rival whom
+Madame de Fleury takes the trouble to detest; and it makes me indignant
+to see a lady of her superlative fascinations annoyed by this little
+upstart American. One must admit that Mrs. Gilmer is very pretty; her
+figure scarcely needs help, and she is so vivacious, and has so much
+<i>aplomb</i>, so much dash, that the notice she attracts renders her
+alarmingly ambitious. Still, for her to dare to contrast herself with
+the French ambassadress is intolerable presumption, and I rejoice that
+she will get no invitation to the ball."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know that she will not be invited?" asked Esther.</p>
+
+<p>"How do I know all that I <i>do</i> know? It is odd to notice with what
+perfect lack of reserve the ladies who visit us talk. They chatter away
+just as if they thought we were human working-machines, without ears, or
+brains, or memories. This singular hallucination makes it not difficult
+to become acquainted with certain secrets of fashionable life which one
+<i>clique</i> would not make known to another <i>clique</i> for the world."</p>
+
+<p>"But this tittle-tattle"&mdash;Esther began.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Ch&ucirc;t, ch&ucirc;t," cried the forewoman. "How you chatter, Mademoiselle
+Esther; one cannot hear one's self speak for you! Somebody has just
+entered the exhibition <i>salon</i>; who is it? Mrs. Gilmer, as I'm alive! M.
+de Bois is with her; she has come to try on her dress, I suppose. She
+may spare herself the pains, for she will not wear it at Madame de
+Fleury's ball."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth, whose duty it was to receive visitors, and to summon Victorine, if
+they had orders to give, rose and entered the adjoining apartment.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Gilmer was one of those light-headed and light-hearted women, who
+float upon the topmost and frothiest wave of society, herself a
+glittering bubble. To win admiration was the chief object of her life.
+The breath of flattery wafted her upward toward her heaven,&mdash;that
+rapturous state which was heaven to her. To be the <i>belle</i> of every
+reunion where she appeared was a triumph she could not forego; and there
+were no arts to which she would not stoop to obtain this victory. Madame
+de Fleury was a woman of the same stamp, but with all the polish, grace,
+and refined coquetry which the social atmosphere of Paris imparts; and
+though she had far less personal beauty than Mrs. Gilmer,&mdash;less mind,
+less wit,&mdash;her capacity for using all the charms she possessed gave her
+vast advantage over the fair-featured young American.</p>
+
+<p>When Ruth entered the <i>salon</i>, Mrs. Gilmer was too much interested in
+her conversation with M. de Bois to notice her, and continued talking
+with as much freedom as though she was not present.</p>
+
+<p>"I have set my heart upon it!" said she, "and I tell you I <i>must</i>
+receive an invitation to this ball. Madame de Fleury positively <i>shall
+not</i> exclude me. I have already set in motion a number of influential
+pulleys, and I am not apt to fail when I make an earnest attempt."</p>
+
+<p>"I am quite aware of that," answered M. de Bois, gallantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, what a love of a dress! What an exquisite design!" exclaimed Mrs.
+Gilmer, stopping delighted before a robe which had been commenced, but
+was thrown over one of the manikins, with a sketch of the completed
+costume attached to the skirt. "The blending of those pale shades of
+green and that embroidery of golden wheat, with a scarlet poppy here and
+there,&mdash;the effect is superb! Then the style, as this sketch shows, is
+perfectly novel. I am enchanted! Miss Ruth, I must have that dress! <i>At
+any price</i>, I must have it!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is to go to New Orleans, madame," replied Ruth. "It was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> ordered by
+Mrs. Senator la Motte, and is to be worn at some grand wedding."</p>
+
+<p>"No matter&mdash;I tell you <i>I must have it!</i> Where is Mademoiselle
+Victorine?"</p>
+
+<p>Ruth summoned the forewoman. Victorine advanced very deliberately, and
+her bearing had a touch of patronage and condescension.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Gilmer pleaded hard for the possession of the dress; but
+Mademoiselle Victorine appeared to take the greatest satisfaction in
+making her understand that its becoming hers was an impossibility. The
+more earnestly Mrs. Gilmer prayed, the more inflexible became the
+forewoman. As for <i>repeating</i> a design which had been invented for one
+particular person, <i>that</i>, she asserted, was against all rules of art.
+The original design might be feebly, imperfectly copied by other
+mantua-makers, but its duplicate could not be sent forth from an
+establishment of the standing of Mademoiselle Melanie's.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Gilmer, whose white brow was knitted with something very like a
+frown, remarked that she would talk to Mademoiselle Melanie on the
+subject, by and by.</p>
+
+<p>"Mademoiselle Melanie does not usually reverse <i>my</i> decisions," replied
+the piqued forewoman, with an extravagant show of dignity.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall see!" retorted Mrs. Gilmer. "Now let me choose a head-dress
+for the opera to-night; something original. What can you invent for me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Really," answered Victorine, who was not a little irate at the
+suggestion that there <i>could</i> be any appeal from her verdict; "I do not
+feel inspired at this moment; I am quite dull; nothing occurs to me out
+of the usual line."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! you <i>must</i> think!" pleaded the volatile lady. "Invent me something
+never before seen; something with flowers will do; but let me have
+<i>impossible</i> flowers,&mdash;flowers which have no existence, and which I
+shall not behold upon every one's else head. Price is no object; my
+husband never refuses me anything! Especially," she added in a lower
+tone, to M. de Bois, "when he is <i>jealous</i>; and I find it very useful,
+absolutely <i>necessary</i>, to begin the season by exciting a series of
+Othello pangs through which he becomes manageable. I feed the jealous
+flame all winter, and add fresh fuel in the spring, when I wish to
+indulge in various extravagances."</p>
+
+<p>"A very diplomatic arrangement," remarked M. de Bois.</p>
+
+<p>"What a bonnet! What a beauty of a bonnet! what deliciously<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> adjusted
+lace! How was it ever made to fall in such folds, over that bunch of
+moss roses; peeping out of those quivering leaves, touched with
+dew-drops?"</p>
+
+<p>"That bonnet belongs to <i>Madame de Fleury</i>," said Victorine, with a
+malicious emphasis.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, indeed!" returned Mrs. Gilmer, changing color. "I wonder what would
+become of Madame de Fleury were it not for her toilets! If she were
+despoiled of her gay plumage, a very insipid, commonplace looking
+personage would remain. I must say, it is rather singular," she
+continued, growing warm in spite of herself, "but if I ever happen to
+look at anything particularly worth noticing, I am <i>always told</i> it is
+for <i>Madame de Fleury</i>! Is Mademoiselle Melanie in her drawing-room? Is
+she accessible at this moment?"</p>
+
+<p>"She has just come in; Mademoiselle Ruth will conduct you to her,"
+answered Victorine, with an offended air.</p>
+
+<p>"M. de Bois, I will be back soon," said Mrs. Gilmer to her escort.
+"There are books in abundance in yonder library,&mdash;rather an
+extraordinary piece of furniture for a dressmaker's <i>salon</i>, but,
+Mademoiselle Melanie has so much tact, she foresaw that they might be
+useful on some occasions."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Gilmer followed Ruth to Madeleine's own apartments, which were on
+the first floor. Victorine returned to the room where the sewing-women
+were at work. Gaston selected a book and seated himself in a comfortable
+arm-chair.</p>
+
+<p>He had hardly opened the volume when the Marchioness de Fleury entered,
+accompanied by Lord Linden.</p>
+
+<p>As she descended from the carriage she had found his lordship
+promenading up and down before the house. He was overjoyed at this
+unlooked-for opportunity to obtain admission.</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Fleury saluted Gaston with one of her most gracious smiles.</p>
+
+<p>Victorine, catching sight of the marchioness, hurried forward, saying to
+Ruth,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Do not trouble yourself, Mademoiselle Ruth, I will have the honor of
+attending upon Madame de Fleury."</p>
+
+<p>"That is right, Mademoiselle Victorine; but I am going to intrude into
+your <i>atelier</i> of mysteries, and see what <i>chef d'&oelig;uvres</i> you have in
+progress."</p>
+
+<p>Judging from Madame de Fleury's tone, one might easily have supposed
+that she alluded to pictures or statues, and was about reverently to
+enter the studio of some mighty genius, and wonder over his achievements
+in marble or on canvas. The apartment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> she invaded was one which
+visitors were not usually invited, or expected, to enter.</p>
+
+<p>The gentlemen were left together.</p>
+
+<p>"I am in luck!" said Lord Linden in an unusually animated tone. "My dear
+M. de Bois, I am the happiest of men! I have encountered my unknown
+beauty at last! She passed me in a private carriage, which stopped here
+and was dismissed. I saw her enter this house not a quarter of an hour
+ago. She did not perceive me, and had disappeared before I could accost
+her; but I determined to keep watch until she made her exit, and then
+either to renew my acquaintance or to follow her home and learn where
+she lived. She shall not give me the slip again."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure you have not made some mistake? I do not think there is
+any lady here, at this moment, except Mrs. Gilmer, whom I accompanied."</p>
+
+<p>"I am perfectly certain I could not be mistaken. I shall make some
+excuse for remaining here; I will select a shawl or mantle for my
+sister, who is one of this celebrated Mademoiselle Melanie's customers,
+and who will not be displeased at such an unprecedented attention."</p>
+
+<p>Before M. de Bois could reply, the marchioness returned with Victorine.</p>
+
+<p>"And you say my dress for this evening will be done in an hour? That is
+delightful! I am impatient to test its effects. I am half inclined to
+wait until it is finished, and take it home with me."</p>
+
+<p>"It shall be completed <i>within</i> the hour; I am occupied upon it
+<i>myself</i>," answered Victorine, with a fawning manner, very different
+from that by which the banker's wife had been kept in subjection.</p>
+
+<p>"What an original idea!" cried Madame de Fleury, pausing before the
+uncompleted dress which had attracted the admiration of Mrs. Gilmer.
+"What an exquisite conception! Those blades of golden wheat and those
+scarlet poppies make the most perfect trimming for these ravishing
+shades of green; just the colors that become me most. That dress is a
+triumph, Mademoiselle Victorine!"</p>
+
+<p>"The design is Mademoiselle Melanie's, but the <i>cut</i>, the <i>execution</i>,
+they are <i>mine</i>," said the forewoman, complacently.</p>
+
+<p>"And for whom is the dress intended? But I need hardly ask,&mdash;I am
+determined that it shall be <i>mine</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"It was to be sent to New Orleans to Madame la Motte, wife of the
+distinguished senator. But, I beg to assure madame that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> she cannot
+judge of this attire; it is nothing now. In a few days, when it is
+completed, then madame will be able to see that we have surpassed
+ourselves in that dress."</p>
+
+<p>"You have, indeed!" ejaculated Madame de Fleury, with fervor. "But I
+claim it. You must invent something else for Madame la Motte.
+Mademoiselle Melanie surely will not refuse me."</p>
+
+<p>"If the decision depended upon <i>me</i>, the dress would assuredly become
+Madame de Fleury's; although the design has been sent to Madame la
+Motte, and has met with her approbation; but Mademoiselle Melanie is so
+frightfully conscientious, she would not disappoint a customer, or break
+her word, or give a design promised one person to another for a kingdom.
+She is quite immovable, obstinately unreasonable on these points."</p>
+
+<p>"But I <i>must</i> have that dress," persisted the marchioness. "I cannot be
+happy without it! I will implore Mademoiselle Melanie; she will drive me
+to despair should she refuse."</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Gilmer saw it a few moments ago, and was so enchanted that she did
+her utmost to make me promise that the dress should be hers."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Hers</i>, indeed! That impertinent little <i>parvenue</i>!" replied Madame de
+Fleury. "I would never forgive Mademoiselle Melanie if she consented to
+anything of the kind. I suppose the banker's wife imagines this delicate
+green would tone down her milk-maid complexion. But she shall not try
+the experiment."</p>
+
+<p>At this moment Mrs. Gilmer herself re&euml;ntered. The marchioness pretended
+not to be aware of her presence, and, turning to the dress in question,
+remarked,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, this dress <i>must</i> be one of the twelve that I shall order to take
+with me to Maryland. Twelve will suffice for one week. I hear Mr.
+Meredith's estate could bear comparison with our European country
+residences; the toilets of his guests should do honor to their host."
+She went on, addressing herself to Gaston. "There are but thirty guests
+invited, and I hear that great indignation is felt by <i>certain persons</i>
+who are not included in the number."</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Fleury's shaft was directed towards Mrs. Gilmer, who was
+writhing with vexation, at not forming one of the select party.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Gilmer heard, and bit her lips with suppressed rage.</p>
+
+<p>"Twelve dresses!" cried Lord Linden. "Twelve new dresses for seven
+days?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite a moderate supply; but I could not possibly get through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> the week
+with less," answered Madame de Fleury, serenely. "You are invited of
+course?"</p>
+
+<p>Lord Linden replied in the affirmative.</p>
+
+<p>"And you, M. de Bois?" inquired the marchioness innocently, though she
+was quite aware that he would repeat his lordship's answer, for she had
+been consulted in regard to the guests whom it would gratify her to
+meet.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Gilmer, who was choking with vexation, sought revenge in one of
+those petty man&oelig;uvres which women of the world thoroughly understand.
+She paused, in the most natural manner, before the hat which she had
+just extolled, and which she had been informed was designed for Madame
+de Fleury, and said aloud,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"What a pretty bonnet! Admirably suited to hide the defects of an
+uncertain complexion, and hair of no color, neither light nor dark. It
+is not too gay or coquettish either; just the thing for a woman of
+thirty, who has begun to fade."</p>
+
+<p>"I beg pardon, madame, it is intended for Madame de Fleury," answered
+Victorine, reprovingly, and not immediately comprehending the
+intentional spite of Mrs. Gilmer's remark.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed!" returned the latter, still speaking as though she had no
+suspicion of the presence of the marchioness; "will it not be rather
+<i>young</i> for her? It seems to me that these colors are a <i>little too
+bright</i> for a person of <i>her age</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Madame de Fleury is present, and may overhear you," whispered
+Victorine, warningly.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, indeed! I did not perceive her; much obliged to you for telling me,
+for she conceals her age so well that I would not mortify her by letting
+her suppose that I am aware of her advanced years," continued the
+malicious little lady in a very audible tone.</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Fleury was, in reality, but twenty-five, and particularly
+sensitive on the subject of her age, or rather of her youth. She
+expected to be taken for twenty-two at the most, and had been furious
+when Mrs. Gilmer talked of her bonnet as suitable to a person of thirty;
+but when her spiteful rival had the audacity to suggest that Madame de
+Fleury had even passed that decisive period, she could scarcely contain
+her rage. By a sudden impulse she turned and faced the speaker. Both
+ladies made a profound courtesy, with countenances expressive of mortal
+hatred.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Linden could not help whispering to Gaston, "Feminine belligerents!
+Those courtesies were exchanged after the manner<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> that men exchange
+blows. It is very strange," he continued, looking about. "I do not see
+my fair incognita, though she certainly entered here. I fancy the
+marchioness intends to depart; I prefer to linger awhile. There are
+several <i>salons</i> yonder; I will steal off quietly and take refuge where
+I can watch who passes."</p>
+
+<p>Lord Linden had hardly disappeared before the marchioness remarked to
+Victorine, "You said my dress would be ready in an hour, Mademoiselle
+Victorine? I will take a short drive and return in that time. Let
+Mademoiselle Melanie know that I particularly wish to have an interview
+with her. I must see her about that unfinished dress which certainly
+shall not go to New Orleans."</p>
+
+<p>She courtesied once more very profoundly to Mrs. Gilmer and departed,
+quite forgetting Lord Linden, who was well pleased not to be missed.</p>
+
+<p>"Mademoiselle Melanie will not be so unjust as to let Madame de Fleury
+have that dress after refusing it to me," observed Mrs. Gilmer tartly.
+"If she is, I <i>never more</i>"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The threat was nipped in the bud, for she well knew no one could replace
+the sovereign modiste, and that the loss of Mrs. Gilmer's custom would
+not in the least affect Mademoiselle Melanie, who daily refused a crowd
+of applicants.</p>
+
+<p>Recovering herself, the banker's wife concluded by saying, "Madame de
+Fleury is to return in an hour; very well; I will call somewhat later to
+learn Mademoiselle Melanie's decision. If the dress is not mine it
+certainly must not be Madame de Fleury's. We shall see if Mademoiselle
+Melanie's boasted justice is found wanting, or if she acts up to her
+professions."</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois conducted Mrs. Gilmer to her carriage, and returned to the
+<i>salon</i>; for he had an especial reason for desiring to see Madeleine;
+but, having called during the hours which she scrupulously devoted to
+her vocation, he did not feel at liberty to intrude in her private
+apartments.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE MESSAGE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Shortly after M. de Bois returned to the exhibition <i>salons</i>, Madeleine
+entered the workroom. Gaston could see her moving about among the young
+girls, distributing sketches, making smiling comments upon the
+occupation of this one and that; pointing out defects or praising
+execution. Every face seemed to brighten when it was turned toward her,
+and every countenance wore an unmistakable expression of affection. We
+might, perhaps, except that of Mademoiselle Victorine, whose high
+opinion of her own abilities made her somewhat jealous of Madeleine's
+supremacy. Yet, even she experienced an involuntary reverence for the
+head of the establishment, though golden dreams of some day leaping into
+her place were ever floating through the Frenchwoman's plotting brain.</p>
+
+<p>Beside the table where Ruth was painting, Madeleine made the longest
+pause. She seemed disposed to converse with her young favorite; and Ruth
+smiled so gratefully that M. de Bois was half reconciled to the delay,
+though he had an important reason for wishing to exchange a few words
+with Madeleine as soon as possible. The interval before she passed out
+of the room to return to her boudoir appeared sufficiently tedious.
+Gaston followed her and said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Will you grant me a few moments, or are you very busy this morning?"</p>
+
+<p>"Busy always," replied Madeleine, extending her hand to welcome him;
+"but seldom <i>too</i> busy to lack time for my best friend. Will you come to
+my own little sanctum?"</p>
+
+<p>The room to which Gaston followed her offered a striking contrast, in
+point of furniture, to those which they had just left. Madeleine's
+boudoir, though it had an air of inviting comfort, was adorned with
+almost rigid simplicity. The only approach to luxury was a tiny
+conservatory, she had caused to be built, rendered visible by glass
+doors.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine took her seat before a small rosewood table, and with a pencil
+in her hand, and a piece of drawing-paper before her, said, "You will
+not mind my sketching as we talk. I have an idea floating through my
+head, and I want to throw it off on paper; I can listen and answer, just
+as well, with my fingers occupied."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Well might Gaston contemplate her in silent and wondering admiration.
+Neither her countenance nor her manner betrayed any trace of the
+suffering she must have endured on the day previous. She seemed to have
+completely banished its recollection from her thoughts. M. de Bois was
+fearful of touching upon the subject, it seemed so wholly to have
+vanished from her mind; yet his errand compelled him.</p>
+
+<p>"What courage, what perseverance you possess, Mademoiselle Madeleine! It
+is incredible,&mdash;inexplicable," he said, at last, as he watched the
+delicate fingers moving over the paper.</p>
+
+<p>"There you err," answered Madeleine, brightly. "It is, at least, very
+<i>explicable</i>, for it is in working that I find my strength, my
+inspiration, my consolation! It was <i>work, incessant work</i>, which
+sustained me when I determined to take a step from which my weaker,
+frailer part shrank. A step which utter wretchedness first suggested to
+me; which seemed terribly galling, oppressively revolting; which I
+ventured upon with inconceivable pain. Yet, as you have seen, I was
+enabled, in time, to look upon that step with resignation; I afterwards
+contemplated it with pride; I now regard it with positive pleasure. This
+could never have been had I not resolved to resist all temptation to
+brood over grief, and turned to work as a refuge from sorrow."</p>
+
+<p>"And it is really true, then, that you, a lady of noble birth, dropping
+from so high a sphere into one not merely humble, but laborious, find
+your vocation a pleasure at last."</p>
+
+<p>"It is most true," said Madeleine lifting her beautiful eyes, with such
+a radiant expression that the genuineness of her reply could not be
+doubted. "When one has, for years, lived upon the bare suffrage of
+others, no matter how dear,&mdash;when one has had no home except that which
+was granted through courtesy, compassion, charity,&mdash;you cannot conceive
+how delicious it is to dream of independence, of a home of one's own!
+And this sweet dream has become reality to me more speedily and more
+surely than my most sanguine hopes dared to anticipate. Think, in what a
+rapid, an almost miraculous manner my undertaking has prospered; by what
+magic my former life (that of an aristocratic lady who employed herself
+a little, but without decided results) has been exchanged for the
+delights of a life of active use, bringing forth golden fruition! In a
+word, how suddenly my poverty has been turned to wealth,&mdash;at all events,
+to the certain promise of opulence. And the most delightful sense of all
+is the internal satisfaction of knowing that I have done this <i>myself</i>,
+unaided; save, indeed, by the kindness, the counsel,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> the invisible
+protection of such a friend as you are, and such a friend as Mr. Hilson
+has proved."</p>
+
+<p>"We have done nothing&mdash;but watch and admire."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing?" answered Madeleine, with gentle reproach. "Who helped me
+carry out all my projects? When a man's hand was needed, who stretched
+out his? but always with such prudence and delicacy that I could not be
+compromised. How helpless I should have been in Paris without you! And
+how many mistakes might I not have committed in America without Mr.
+Hilson's aid! Little did he think, when he dined at the Ch&acirc;teau de
+Gramont, with a noble family, and asked one of its members to promise
+that if she ever visited America she would apprise him of her presence
+there,&mdash;little could he imagine how soon she would make a home in his
+native land, and of what inestimable aid his friendship would be to
+her."</p>
+
+<p>"He has been truly serviceable," answered Gaston. "His advice was always
+good, and in nothing better than in deciding you to take this house,
+which you, at first thought too magnificent; he was wise, also, in
+persuading you to furnish it so luxuriously. He comprehended, better
+than you or I did, that a certain amount of pomp and show would make a
+desirable impression upon the inhabitants even of a republican country."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I have cause to thank him for that counsel. And when I reflect
+that this house, which I at first thought too splendid, will soon become
+my own, I can hardly believe my good fortune. To-day, or to-morrow, I am
+to make the last payment of ten thousand dollars, and the house will be
+mine, clear of all incumbrance. I have the money ready, and probably
+before night it will be paid. This very morning, when I returned home,
+as I entered the door, I could not but pause suddenly, and say to
+myself, 'Is this no dream? Have I a home of my own, at last? Will this
+elegant mansion to-day become mine, and through the toil of'"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"'Fairy fingers,'" interrupted Gaston.</p>
+
+<p>"Something magical, I am inclined to admit," returned Madeleine, gayly.
+"But had it not been for the earnest counsels of Mr. Hilson, I should
+never have felt justified in living in my present style; he convinced me
+that the money I expended in surrounding myself with all the elegances
+of life was laid out at interest; and I suppose he is right; these
+elegances have perhaps drawn the rich to my door."</p>
+
+<p>"What was it that drew the poor?" asked Gaston. "You have tried to keep
+your charities as secret from me as your noble<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> birth was kept from
+others, but accident has made me acquainted with more than you are
+aware. I know with what liberal hands you have succored the needy."</p>
+
+<p>"Those who have endured the sharp sting of poverty themselves may well
+feel for the poor," replied Madeleine. "And yet, I do little enough for
+my poor human sisters and brothers; but we are gossiping very idly. Did
+you not say that you particularly wished to speak to me? It was not
+simply to make these sage reflections, was it?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; but I shrank from touching upon the subject while you seemed so
+serene and happy. I could not bear to recall the painful interview with
+your family yesterday, when they&mdash;they&mdash;they"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"When they cast me off!&mdash;spurned me as one degraded! Do not fear to
+speak out. My aunt is implacable,&mdash;I might have known that she would
+be,&mdash;and Count Tristan is the same."</p>
+
+<p>"What matter? You have no need of their affection. And yet, the day will
+come when they will all seek you, and be proud and glad to claim you. I
+say it, and I feel it!"</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"And they did not <i>all</i> throw you off. Was not Mademoiselle Bertha just
+what she always is? And was not Maurice,&mdash;though he appeared to be so
+completely overwhelmed that he could not command his voice,&mdash;was he not
+the same as ever?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Was</i> he the same, think you?" asked Madeleine, eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I am sure of it; and I come here to-day as his messenger,&mdash;or,
+rather, as the herald of his coming."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine trembled, in spite of herself. The thought of beholding
+Maurice once more, of conversing with him, of listening to him, affected
+her too strongly for her to be able even to <i>assume</i> indifference.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois regarded her with an air of exultation.</p>
+
+<p>"I have judged you rightly, then, and you are unchanged. Maurice is not
+less dear to you than"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine's hand, appealingly lifted, checked him.</p>
+
+<p>For a few moments she remained silent. When her tranquillity was
+somewhat restored, she said slowly, but in an altered tone,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You are the messenger of Maurice; what did he request you to say to
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"He commissioned me to let you know that he earnestly desired an
+interview with you, at once,&mdash;and alone,&mdash;free from interruption. He
+entreats you to receive him to-day. I promised, as soon as I could make
+known to you his petition, that I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> would return to him with your
+answer;&mdash;he awaits it impatiently. What answer shall I give him?"</p>
+
+<p>"He may come," answered Madeleine, in a tone of suppressed emotion.</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell him that he may be here in an hour?" said Gaston
+interrogatively, for he saw the mighty struggle Madeleine was making to
+control herself, and thoughtfully desired to give her some little time
+for preparation.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine bowed her head in acquiescence.</p>
+
+<p>Gaston had too much delicacy to prolong the conversation. He bade her
+adieu and at once sought Maurice.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>MEETING OF LOVERS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>M. de Bois lost no time in communicating to Maurice the result of his
+visit. He found the young viscount awaiting him with torturing
+impatience. Gaston had scarcely said that Madeleine would receive her
+cousin in an hour, when Maurice, without heeding the last words, caught
+up his hat, convulsively grasped his friend's hand, and, without
+uttering a syllable, hurried forth.</p>
+
+<p>He was acquainted with Madeleine's residence,&mdash;he had sought it out the
+night previous,&mdash;and thither he now hastened. He bounded up the street
+door-steps, but paused a moment as his hand touched the bell. Was he
+again about to look upon that face which he had sought with such
+fruitless, but frenzied ardor? He thought of those days when all
+creation became a blank because that heaven-lit countenance no longer
+shone upon him. His brain and heart throbbed and beat at those
+tumultuous recollections until both seemed mingled in one wild motion.</p>
+
+<p>He comprehended Madeleine's character so well that he knew he should
+find her tranquil and self-possessed; and was he about to enter her
+presence as voiceless and unmanned as during their brief rencontre the
+day previous?</p>
+
+<p>He turned to descend the steps in the hope of collecting his scattered
+faculties, by walking awhile, but the very thought of delaying, even for
+a few moments, an interview for which he had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> so long pined caused him
+too sharp anguish for endurance; he seized the bell, and rang with as
+sudden an impulse as though he feared the mansion before which he stood
+would vanish away, and he would awake from one of the old dreams by
+which he had been haunted.</p>
+
+<p>The door opened and he was at once conducted to Madeleine's boudoir.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine was still sitting before the little table where Gaston de Bois
+had left her. The sketch she had commenced lay before her, and the
+pencil beside it; but though she had not moved from her seat, the
+drawing had not received an additional touch.</p>
+
+<p>As Maurice entered she rose, and advanced toward him, stretching out
+both her hands. Closely clasping those extended hands, he gazed upon her
+with an expression of rapture. For a moment, the large, clear windows of
+her soul opened as naturally and frankly as ever; but his look was so
+full of unutterable tenderness that over her betraying eyes the lids
+dropped suddenly, and her face crimsoned, it might be with happiness
+which she felt bound to conceal.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine was the first to speak; but the only words she murmured were,
+"Maurice!&mdash;my dear cousin!"</p>
+
+<p>How her accents thrilled him! How they brought back the time when that
+voice, which made all the music of his existence, was suddenly hushed,
+and awful silence took its place, leaving the memory of departed tones
+ever sounding in his aching, longing ears!</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine!&mdash;have I found you at last? Oh, how long we have been lost to
+each other!"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>You</i> have never been lost to <i>me</i>," answered Madeleine involuntarily;
+but the words were hardly spoken when she repented them.</p>
+
+<p>"I know it; M. de Bois kept you informed of my movements. But, ah,
+Madeleine, how could you be aware of my anguish, and so cruelly refuse a
+sign by which I might learn that you were near me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I had no alternative. I could not have carried out the project I had
+formed, and which"&mdash;Madeleine paused, and looked around her somewhat
+proudly, then added, "and which you now see crowned with success, if I
+had run the risk of your tracing me. You would have opposed my
+undertaking,&mdash;do you not feel that you would? Answer that question,
+before you reproach me."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you are right, Madeleine; I fear I should have opposed your
+enterprise. And yet, believe me, I honor it,&mdash;I honor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> you all the more
+on account of that very undertaking. Thank Heaven, I have lived long
+enough in this land, where men (and women too) have sufficient courage
+to use their lives, and senseless idlers are the exceptions; to realize
+that man's work and woman's work are alike glorious; that labor is
+dignified by the hand that toils; and that you, Madeleine, the daughter
+of a duke,&mdash;you, the duchess-mantua-maker, have reached a higher
+altitude through that very labor than your birth could ever command."</p>
+
+<p>"Maurice,&mdash;my cousin, my dear, dear cousin!&mdash;these words compensate me
+for all my trials and struggles. I hardly dared to dream that I should
+hear them for your lips. Ah, to-day,&mdash;to-day when I am about to
+accomplish one of the ends for which I have most earnestly
+toiled,&mdash;to-day when I shall become full possessor of this mansion,
+henceforth a home of my own,&mdash;this day will ever be full of precious
+memories to me; it will be written upon my book of life moistened with
+the sweetest tears I ever shed,&mdash;tears of gratitude and joy."</p>
+
+<p>"You are to purchase this magnificent mansion? Is it possible?" asked
+Maurice, for the first time looking around him. "How can you have
+achieved this, Madeleine? You have had some friend who aided you,
+and"&mdash;he paused abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>"I <i>have</i> had friends, Maurice, warm and devoted friends," answered
+Madeleine, simply.</p>
+
+<p>"But," he resumed, and hesitated, "how&mdash;how has all this been brought
+about? Ah, Madeleine, I have not forgotten, I cannot forget the sad
+revelation you made to me in Brittany. He whom you love,&mdash;it is
+<i>he</i>,&mdash;<i>he</i> who has protected you, who has enjoyed the exquisite
+happiness of aiding you by his advice, and by his own means perhaps"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Maurice uttered these words excitedly and almost in a tone of reproach.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Maurice," returned Madeleine, growing ghastly pale, and speaking
+with an effort which gave her voice a hollow, unnatural sound. "He whom
+I love has never aided me,&mdash;I have received no assistance from him,&mdash;I
+have given him no right to offer any."</p>
+
+<p>"He whom you love!" repeated Maurice with culminating anguish. "Then you
+love him,&mdash;you <i>do</i> love him still? Answer me, Madeleine. Do not torture
+me by suspense! Answer me,&mdash;you love him still?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>As ever!</i>" replied Madeleine, and an irrepressible blush chased the
+ashy whiteness of her cheeks.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And he is <i>here</i>,&mdash;here in America,&mdash;here in Washington?" asked
+Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And you see him? You have seen him perhaps this very day?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And he loves you,&mdash;loves you as much as ever?"</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine silently bowed her head, but the radiant light that overspread
+her countenance answered more unmistakably than the affirmative action.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Madeleine, can you think, can you believe that his love equals
+mine? You do not answer; speak, I implore you! <i>Do</i> you believe that
+<i>he</i> has loved you as <i>I</i> love you?"</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine felt impelled to reply because she deemed it best for Maurice
+to be confirmed in his error. In a low, tremulous tone, and with her
+eyes swimming in the soft lustre of a half-formed tear, she murmured,
+"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"No! no! It cannot be!" burst forth Maurice. "No woman was ever loved
+<i>twice</i> with such absorbing devotion. You cannot be to him what you are
+to me! You cannot have saved him from all the perils from which you have
+saved me! Ah, Madeleine, since you have been selected to fill the place
+of a guardian angel to me, why, why was my love rejected? Why did
+another rob me of your heart? Why were you willing to unite your fate to
+his and not to mine?"</p>
+
+<p>"Maurice," said Madeleine, regaining some degree of composure, "I shall
+never forget the noble offer you made me when I was a desolate outcast;
+I shall never forget the joy it gave me,&mdash;the gratitude it caused
+me,&mdash;the good it did me, at the very moment when I was forced, <i>ay
+forced</i> to reject that offer. But had there been no other barrier could
+I have consented to become a burden to you? I,&mdash;poor and
+friendless,&mdash;<i>could</i> I have consented to draw down the anger of your
+family upon you? <i>Could</i> I have consented to separate you from them?&mdash;to
+make a lasting feud between you? Say, Maurice, would you have had me do
+this?"</p>
+
+<p>"I would have had you leave me still a hope upon which I could have
+existed, until I had fitted myself to enter an honorable profession;
+until I had a prospect of earning an independence through that
+profession; until I had the right to say to you (as I now might, were
+you but mine in heart), Madeleine, I have waited patiently, and toiled
+earnestly,&mdash;will you share my narrow means, my almost poverty? Will you
+be my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> wife? We might have been exiles, so to speak, for we should
+perhaps have been cast off by our own kindred, and might never have
+returned to our native land; but your presence would have made this new
+country,&mdash;this young Hercules of lands,&mdash;this land full of sinews, bones
+and muscle, not yet clothed with rounded symmetry of outward form, but
+fresh and strong and teeming with promise, a true home to us. Its vast,
+ever-growing mind would have given new expansion to our own mental
+faculties. We should have grown spiritually, and reached nobler heights
+together. If we had griefs to endure, grief itself would have been sweet
+to me if we drank it from the same cup. All this might have been,
+Madeleine, if you had loved me as I love you."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine passed her hand over her eyes as if to shut out some picture
+of blinding brightness conjured before them by his words; and, looking
+up with forced serenity, said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Maurice, though I cannot be your wife, do you refuse to let me take the
+place of a sister?&mdash;a sister who loves you with the most tender
+affection,&mdash;who will rejoice in your joy and share your sorrow, and look
+upon her own life as brighter if she brightens yours? Since it has been
+the will of Heaven that we should meet again before the time I proposed
+arrived, there is no need that we should become strangers to each other.
+Because I cannot be <i>all</i> that you desire, you will not reject such
+affection as I <i>can</i> offer you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Reject it? No, <i>rejection</i> has only emanated from your side," he
+continued bitterly. "I was and am unworthy of your affection, your
+confidence; but what you will grant I will thankfully receive, too poor
+not to feel enriched even by your coldest regard."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you prove that to me, Maurice?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; how can I do so?"</p>
+
+<p>"By promising that you will never have a sorrow which you do not confide
+to me; by promising that you will never doubt my ready sympathy; more
+yet,&mdash;by giving me an invaluable privilege,&mdash;one which will make me
+proud indeed. Do not be offended, Maurice; but&mdash;but&mdash;should you ever
+need means to carry out any enterprise (and you know, in this land, how
+many offer themselves), I would claim the privilege of being your
+banker, and joining in your undertaking as freely as if I were indeed
+your sister."</p>
+
+<p>"You, Madeleine? Can you imagine that I could force myself to consent to
+this? You are already rich then?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I am becoming rich,&mdash;I have laid the foundation of wealth. But tell me
+that you do not reject my sisterly regard, my devotion"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Would he whom you love permit this devotion?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," answered Madeleine, smiling gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"It would not render him wretched? It would not exasperate him?"
+questioned Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"He is not jealous, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I fear he is,&mdash;very jealous; but not of <i>you</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"And yet, he has cause," returned Maurice, with violence which he could
+not control; "more cause than I trust he has of being jealous of any
+other man; and there may be, <i>must</i> be other men who aspire to love you.
+Your position, Madeleine, must expose you, at times, to impertinence;
+you must need protection."</p>
+
+<p>"I have a talisman within which protects me ever," answered Madeleine.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I know,&mdash;the love you bear <i>him</i>, my rival! Let us not speak of
+him. I cannot endure it; let us ever banish him from our conversation."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not mean to make you suffer," said Madeleine, soothingly.</p>
+
+<p>Before he could reply, Victorine entered with a mysterious air. Her
+countenance intimated that she had a matter of the utmost importance
+upon her mind.</p>
+
+<p>Habituated to some of the little, pleasant, and <i>supposed to be</i>
+harmless customs of her own country, she could not comprehend that
+Mademoiselle Melanie appeared to have no lovers, that she entertained no
+gentleman in particular. M. de Bois was so openly her <i>friend</i> that
+mystery never attached itself to his visits. Mr. Hilson was a frequent
+visitor, but he was a married man, whose wife and daughters were among
+the most zealous of Mademoiselle Melanie's patrons. Victorine was always
+on the <i>qui vive</i> for the accession of a lover, as a necessary appendage
+to one in Mademoiselle Melanie's position; and, at this moment, she felt
+as though she had a clew to some intrigue.</p>
+
+<p>Instead of speaking in an audible tone, she approached Madeleine, and
+glancing dubiously at Maurice, said, in a whisper, "Mademoiselle, I have
+something to communicate."</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" asked Madeleine, without the slightest embarrassment.</p>
+
+<p>"A gentleman desires to see Mademoiselle Melanie immedi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span>ately, and <i>in
+private</i>," whispered Victorine. "He particularly said <i>in private</i>, and,
+evidently he is very desirous of not being seen. He was quite confused
+when that stupid valet ushered him into the exhibition-rooms; but
+fortunately, I came to his assistance. He was so anxious to escape
+observation that he <i>would</i> follow me downstairs; I therefore ushered
+him into Mademoiselle's private drawing-room."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you not ask his name?" inquired Madeleine, quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"He would not give his name, mademoiselle. He said I must deliver you
+this note when no one was by, or slip it in your hand unperceived."</p>
+
+<p>She spoke in a whisper, and gave the note with her back turned to
+Maurice, probably supposing that he was not aware of its delivery.
+Madeleine broke the seal quite openly. At the first line, however, she
+changed color, and was visibly disturbed. Victorine, who was watching
+her closely, exulted in secret. Maurice perceived Madeleine's agitation
+with surprise and pain. A suspicion that the letter was from his rival
+could not be escaped.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" he asked, impulsively.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot tell you," replied Madeleine, hastily refolding the letter.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you not tell me from whom this letter comes?"</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;no!" she replied with unusual vehemence.</p>
+
+<p>"Alas! I know too well," returned Maurice sadly. "But why should you be
+agitated and troubled by what he says? What right has he to give you
+pain?"</p>
+
+<p>"You must leave me&mdash;leave me at once!" cried Madeleine, nervously.</p>
+
+<p>Victorine was enchanted; the plot thickened! Here was a mystery, and she
+held the clew to it! It was very plain that Mademoiselle Melanie did not
+wish these two gentlemen to meet.</p>
+
+<p>"Victorine, you will conduct monsieur"&mdash;said Madeleine. "I do not wish
+him to leave by the front entrance; you will conduct him through the
+garden."</p>
+
+<p>There was a private entrance into the street through the large garden at
+the back of the house; but this was the first time that Victorine had
+ever received an order to show any visitor out by that way, and she felt
+she was beginning to be admitted to Mademoiselle Melanie's
+confidence,&mdash;an honor for which she had long sighed.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice was about to remonstrate, but Madeleine said to him,
+imploringly, "Can you not trust me? Will you not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> consent to my wishes,
+and trust to their being explained some future day?"</p>
+
+<p>Maurice, though tormented by the keenest pangs of jealousy, could not
+resist this appeal.</p>
+
+<p>"I trust you ever, Madeleine," he replied, taking up his hat. "When may
+I see you again?"</p>
+
+<p>"When you choose; you are always welcome; but go now. Show monsieur
+<i>through the garden</i>, Victorine."</p>
+
+<p>Victorine smiled a mysterious assent. Maurice followed her out of the
+room, but Madeleine's intention was unexpectedly frustrated.</p>
+
+<p>The visitor whom Victorine had ushered into the drawing-room had
+followed her unnoticed to the small entry which led into Madeleine's
+boudoir. The forewoman and Maurice had only taken a few steps when they
+encountered him.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice exclaimed in astonishment, "Good heavens, my father!"</p>
+
+<p>"You here, Maurice," returned the count in a severe tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you not here, my father?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is different," answered the count, hiding his annoyance beneath a
+frigid air. "You heard what your grandmother said. She would be
+indignant if she knew of this visit, and you must be aware that it does
+not meet with <i>my</i> approval."</p>
+
+<p>"Have I reason to think so when I find you here also?" replied Maurice,
+in a manly tone.</p>
+
+<p>"I come as the head of the family, and to talk upon a family matter of
+great importance. I do not, however, wish that my visit here should be
+known to any one. You understand me,&mdash;it is not to be mentioned."</p>
+
+<p>"Be assured I shall not mention it," said Maurice, bowing and moving
+onward.</p>
+
+<p>As the gentlemen had met, Victorine concluded there was now no need of
+showing the way through the garden entrance. She opened the door of the
+boudoir to admit Count Tristan, and then led the way to the entrance
+from the street. Maurice did not comprehend why Madeleine's orders were
+disregarded; for he never suspected that his father was the writer of
+the note.</p>
+
+<p>At the sound of a footstep on the stair, the viscount raised his head,
+and caught sight of a gentleman who had commenced descending, but
+suddenly turned back, as though he also did not wish to be seen. He
+could not, however, disappear before Maurice had recognized Lord Linden.</p>
+
+<p>Why should Lord Linden have so rapidly retreated when he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> thought he
+might be seen? Could this languid, <i>blas&eacute;</i> nobleman be the man Madeleine
+loved? Could she have been acquainted with him in France? When could
+their acquaintance have commenced? Why had she never mentioned him? It
+was very singular.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice left the house he had entered with such joyous sensations, sadly
+and slowly. Madeleine was found at last, yet Madeleine was again lost to
+him!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2>
+
+<h3>COUNT TRISTAN'S POLICY.</h3>
+
+
+<p>When Count Tristan was ushered into Madeleine's presence, he was
+received, not perhaps with warmth, but with marked courtesy. Nothing in
+her greeting betrayed that his past conduct was remembered, and yet
+nothing in her manner indicated that their relationship was unforgotten.
+Her demeanor was simply that which would have been natural and
+appropriate in receiving, beneath her own roof, one who was almost a
+stranger.</p>
+
+<p>The count had been completely disconcerted by the unexpected meeting
+with his son; his wily smoothness was too much ruffled for him to couch
+his first words in polite language; he could not forbear saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I entertained the hope that my visit would be private; it is very
+unfortunate that I encountered Maurice; it will give him cause to think
+that I am opposed to his grandmother's course." He smoothed over this
+slip of the tongue by adding, "And, certainly, so I am! I disapprove of
+her excessive rigor; her conduct toward you does not meet with my full
+sanction."</p>
+
+<p>It was the unintentional expression of Madeleine's countenance, perhaps,
+which made Count Tristan remember that his own conduct had strongly
+resembled that of his mother. But his auditor spoke no word; she was too
+kind to utter her thoughts, and too frank to say what she did not think.</p>
+
+<p>The count went on,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I could not yield to my strong impulse yesterday, and defend you; it
+would not have done; my mother would only have been exasperated. I was
+forced apparently to agree with her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> The sacred title of 'mother,'
+which is never to be forgotten, compelled me to yield her this
+respect,&mdash;a respect due alike to her years and to her position. But, now
+that we are alone, I may tell you how pained, how grieved I was at the
+occurrences of yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>"I no longer think of them," replied Madeleine.</p>
+
+<p>"As I said," continued the count, "when you left us so mysteriously in
+Brittany, however troubled we might have been at your sudden step,
+however anxious about your welfare, it was useless to be indignant,
+since you thought your course the right one, and you were ever
+conscientiousness personified; besides it should always be taken into
+consideration that, come what might, you are still our relation; the
+ties of blood are indissoluble. I said to my mother, 'It can never be
+forgotten that Madeleine is your niece.'"</p>
+
+<p>"I would have had her forget it," replied Madeleine. "I preserved my
+incognita, and kept at a distance from you all that you might not be
+wounded by the remembrance."</p>
+
+<p>"But be sure, Madeleine, that I, for one, cannot forget our
+relationship, nor cease to treat you as my niece."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine could not but be touched by this unexpected declaration. She
+answered, gratefully, "It is more than I ask, yet I thank you."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," returned the count, "and to prove to you how far I am from
+looking down upon you,&mdash;how much I honor your position, and how highly I
+esteem you,&mdash;how thoroughly I comprehend your character, and the
+readiness with which you always serve others,&mdash;I come here to-day to ask
+a favor at your hands."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it possible?" exclaimed Madeleine, delightedly. "You make me truly
+happy. Can I, indeed, serve you? You could scarcely have spoken words
+that had more power to gladden me."</p>
+
+<p>"That is precisely what I imagined," answered the count, complacently.
+"Now let me explain the matter. You have often heard me speak of the
+property left to Maurice by his uncle. It is now almost our sole
+possession. Its value depends upon the railroad which may or may not run
+through that portion of the country. A committee of nine persons has
+been selected to decide whether this road shall run to the right or
+left. If they choose the road to the right, the property of Maurice will
+not be benefited, and&mdash;and&mdash;and&mdash;I cannot enter into particulars,
+but&mdash;but&mdash;it is almost valueless. If they choose the left road, the
+value of the estate will be so much increased<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> that it will yield
+us,&mdash;that is, will yield my son something very handsome. Of this
+committee, Mr. Hilson and Mr. Meredith will vote for the left road, and,
+through the influence of Madame de Fleury, for which I am indebted to
+you, M. de Fleury's banker, Mr. Gobert, will also vote for the left:
+that secures us three votes."</p>
+
+<p>"How glad I am that I was able to accomplish something to serve you!"
+said Madeleine.</p>
+
+<p>"There is much more, I trust, that you will be able to accomplish. The
+votes of Mr. Gilmer and Mr. Rutledge must be gained,&mdash;the only two which
+it seems possible to obtain; for the other gentlemen are inflexible in
+their decision. Mrs. Gilmer is one of your customers. I hear that she
+raves about you; if that is the case, you can do anything with her, and
+<i>she</i> will manage her <i>husband</i>. Have you no mode of winning her over to
+our side?"</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine pondered a moment, then answered gayly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I have at my command one method that is certain,&mdash;<i>perfectly
+certain</i>. Mrs. Gilmer is very desirous of receiving an invitation to
+Madame de Fleury's ball. The marchioness has left her out on purpose.
+Mrs. Gilmer has made numerous efforts, but, thus far, unsuccessful ones,
+to obtain this invitation; if I could secure it for her she would gladly
+repay me by inducing her husband to vote as you desire."</p>
+
+<p>"Bravo! Bravo! we shall succeed; for you can surely obtain the
+invitation. Madame de Fleury herself said that she was enchanted at the
+opportunity of obliging you,&mdash;that she could not do too much to show her
+great consideration."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but you can scarcely comprehend the difficulty of persuading her
+to consent to invite Mrs. Gilmer. She mortally detests her, and I could
+offer few petitions which she would be less likely to grant. Still, I
+will use strong arguments,&mdash;powerful inducements. I will endeavor to
+think of some temptation which she cannot resist."</p>
+
+<p>"That is just what I believed you would do, my dear Madeleine," said the
+count, taking her hand.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine withdrew it, though not too abruptly. The contact gave her,
+magnetically, as it were, a painful impression.</p>
+
+<p>"But how," she asked, "is Mr. Rutledge to be reached?"</p>
+
+<p>"Through you,&mdash;through <i>you</i> again, my kind, good Madeleine," answered
+the count, hilariously.</p>
+
+<p>"Through <i>me</i>? I do not know him except by name. He is a bachelor;
+therefore there is no wife who can be induced to become a mediator."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No, there is no wife, to be sure, but there is a lady-love whom he
+hopes to make his wife, and she, also, is one of your patrons; it is the
+sister of Lord Linden; you might solicit her, or you might obtain her
+influence through his lordship."</p>
+
+<p>"Through his lordship? That is not possible," replied Madeleine,
+decisively.</p>
+
+<p>"Surely it may be," remarked the count, "since you are acquainted with
+him, and I have faith in your powers of persuasion."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine looked very much astonished as she answered, "What has made
+you imagine that I have any acquaintance with Lord Linden?"</p>
+
+<p>"I saw him upstairs in one of your <i>salons</i>, sitting in a comfortable
+arm-chair, as though he were very much at home, reading a book."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine looked confounded.</p>
+
+<p>"Lord Linden?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; you will therefore admit that it was quite natural for me to
+suppose that he had the <i>entr&eacute;e</i> here?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not know that he was in the house!" returned Madeleine,
+ingenuously. "He has never been here before to my knowledge. I once was
+thrown in contact with him in travelling from New York to Washington.
+The cars met with an accident and he broke his arm; I, being unhurt, was
+of some little assistance; but I have never seen him since."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it is a most fortunate chance," resumed Count Tristan, "that
+brings him here. Through him you can influence his sister,&mdash;through her
+the vote of Mr. Rutledge will be secured, and these two votes gained;
+the road to the left will be chosen, and for this I shall be wholly your
+debtor. Truly, Madeleine, you are the fairy Maurice used to call you in
+old times; for you have the power, the gift of working wonders, and you
+always <i>had</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>"Cousin Tristan,"&mdash;began Madeleine, seriously, then paused; "do you
+allow me still to call you so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes,&mdash;yes, undoubtedly; and especially when we are alone. Call me
+<i>cousin</i>, certainly; but what did you wish to say?"</p>
+
+<p>"You must find some other advocate as far as Mr. Rutledge is concerned.
+I fear I have not sufficient influence with Lady Augusta Linden to make
+this request, or to induce her to grant it, or to prevent her thinking
+the petition itself an impertinence."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That does not matter; you can manage the affair through Lord Linden,
+and the opportunity presents itself this very moment, since he is
+here,&mdash;here under your own roof."</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot see him,&mdash;I particularly desire not to see him; there are
+reasons which must prevent my asking any favor at his hands. It is
+totally out of my power to do what you desire."</p>
+
+<p>"But it is of the greatest importance, Madeleine; this opportunity must
+not be thrown away. What would Maurice think if he believed that you
+refused to serve him at such a critical moment?"</p>
+
+<p>"Maurice, if he knew all which I could tell him, would be the first to
+forbid my appealing to Lord Linden. I pray you to seek some other means
+of influencing Mr. Rutledge; he cannot be reached through me."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no other!" cried the count, with desperate energy. "My sole
+dependence is upon you. And, Madeleine, this is not the mere question of
+gain: more than I dare confide to you depends upon the decision of that
+committee."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine made no response, but her manner plainly manifested that she
+was not prepared to retract what she had said.</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine," continued the count, with ill-disguised anger, and feeling
+that he had no alternative but to make a confession which humbled him to
+the dust, "this property was held in trust by me; my difficulties, my
+embarrassments, have been overwhelming: they have brought me to the
+verge of absolute ruin. A man may be placed in positions where he is
+forced into actions from which he would otherwise shrink; this was my
+case. I obtained from Maurice a power of attorney which he thinks I have
+never used,&mdash;but&mdash;but&mdash;impelled by my troubles, and without his
+knowledge, I have been induced,&mdash;women cannot understand business
+matters; it was a course that could not be avoided,&mdash;I have been forced
+to compromise the interest of Maurice; I have been compelled to mortgage
+his estate so heavily that it is valueless unless this road augments its
+present worth. Do you not see what is at stake? Will you not exert
+yourself to save me, to save Maurice from the mortification of knowing
+that I have committed an action which might be misconstrued,&mdash;which
+might be condemned,&mdash;might be considered,"&mdash;the count paused, overcome
+with shame.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine hesitated; for the sake of Maurice she could endure to be
+misunderstood,&mdash;she could submit to place herself in a position which
+humbled and compromised her.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The count saw that her resolution was shaken, and he did not lose his
+advantage.</p>
+
+<p>"Remember that Maurice is beginning life; he has imbibed the sanguine
+spirit of the land in which he has lately lived. What a sudden and
+crushing blow to him will be the revelation that awaits him! Can <i>you</i>
+bear to contemplate its effect? <i>I</i> cannot. Answer, Madeleine; he has
+suffered much, much for <i>your</i> sake: will you, will you make him suffer
+more?"</p>
+
+<p>"No!" answered Madeleine, firmly. "Come what may, I will see Lord
+Linden, and obtain his influence with his sister <i>if I can</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"There spoke the Madeleine of other days!"</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine interrupted him: "Spare me your praises; I do not deserve
+them. If Lord Linden is here, as you say, I will see him at once."</p>
+
+<p>"That is right; you are prompt as ever. I will take my leave. It may not
+be well for him to see me here. Success to you, Madeleine! But you
+always command success. It is a condition of your existence."</p>
+
+<p>The count withdrew, and Madeleine, with a sad countenance, only waited
+until the street door closed upon him, to keep her promise and seek Lord
+Linden.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>LORD LINDEN'S DISCOVERY.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Lord Linden, who had resolved not to leave the house until he had
+discovered his incognita, waited with laudable patience, closely
+scanning every lady who passed through the adjoining apartments. His
+position did not command a view of the workroom. An hour passed, and he
+began to get puzzled. The non-appearance of the lady who had entered the
+house was inexplicable, unless she resided there. His perplexity was
+momentarily increasing, when he saw Count Tristan in conversation with
+the forewoman. They left the apartment together. It then occurred to
+Lord Linden that there might be other exhibition-rooms in the lower
+story, and he had better reconnoitre.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> He had made up his mind to do
+this, and was descending the stair, when he caught sight of Maurice de
+Gramont and involuntarily retreated. What was Count Tristan doing here?
+What brought his son here? Neither of the gentlemen were accompanied by
+ladies. He returned to his former station, uncertain what step to take
+next. Just then, Victorine passed through the apartment on her way to
+the workroom. He accosted her and inquired if there were exhibition
+rooms on the lower floor. She informed him that the first story was
+reserved by Mademoiselle Melanie for her own use.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Linden returned to his arm-chair, and had just made up his mind
+that the lady of whom he was in search had visited Mademoiselle Melanie
+in her own apartments and left the house again, when he was startled,
+astounded, and overjoyed by the sight of the very being he sought,
+tranquilly approaching him.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine looked serious, even sad; for she had consented to stoop to an
+action which mortified her deeply.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Linden was so thoroughly amazed at her sudden appearance that he
+could not move,&mdash;could not collect himself to address her.</p>
+
+<p>She courtesied, and said, with grave sweetness,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I was only informed a few moments ago of your presence here, my Lord."</p>
+
+<p>Lord Linden rose and stammered out, "Is it possible? Do I really behold
+you? This morning I saw you enter this house. I gained my admission as
+Madame de Fleury's escort, and lingered in the hope of seeing you after
+she left."</p>
+
+<p>Lord Linden did not know how to proceed. He had expected to encounter
+his incognita wearing her hat and mantle. He had supposed that her visit
+to the residence of the celebrated <i>couturi&egrave;re</i> was to make some
+purchase. To behold her so apparently at home bewildered him.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine perfectly comprehended his perplexity, and, with the utmost
+composure, attempted to clear away the mist from his mind by saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I beg pardon; I was not aware that you accompanied Madame de Fleury. As
+I have the honor of numbering Lady Augusta Linden, your lordship's
+sister, among my customers, I thought"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Customers? Your customers? You, then, are"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Mademoiselle Melanie, the mantua-maker," answered Madeleine with an
+unfaltering voice.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>You?</i> Can it be?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Pointing in the direction of the workroom, she answered with a
+half-smile, "Yonder are a number of witnesses who can testify to my
+identity."</p>
+
+<p>Lord Linden, trying to conceal the shock he had received, and gazing
+upon her with admiration, exclaimed, in an impassioned tone,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Ever since I first met you, when you were returning from"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"From New York," broke in Madeleine, "where I went to choose silks and
+velvets and other feminine paraphernalia for the use of my customers."</p>
+
+<p>Lord Linden was again discomfited. After a moment he went on,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I have sought you everywhere. I was certain I should find you in the
+first drawing-rooms in Washington."</p>
+
+<p>"You find me in a <i>salon</i> which a great many ladies visit before they
+enter those drawing-rooms."</p>
+
+<p>"It is incredible!"</p>
+
+<p>"To me it seems very comprehensible," answered Madeleine stoically.</p>
+
+<p>He looked into her lovely countenance and continued, with increasing
+fervor,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I have never ceased to think of you. No other woman has had power to
+efface your image. Having known you, without ever suspecting who and
+what you are"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine interrupted him.</p>
+
+<p>"Now that you are aware <i>who</i> I am and <i>what</i> I am, my lord, it becomes
+easier to dissipate any illusion which owes its origin to a mystery with
+which you were pleased to surround me."</p>
+
+<p>"To <i>exchange</i> my illusions, perhaps, for others, more captivating, more
+poetic," resumed the nobleman.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you talk of poetry, my lord, to a mantua-maker?"</p>
+
+<p>"Say, rather, to one who, in spite of her vocation, inspires me with the
+most absolute veneration. I swear to you&mdash;But no, my actions, not my
+words, must prove my admiration. You shall find me ever at your command.
+I shall count it the greatest happiness of my life to devote myself to
+your service."</p>
+
+<p>"My lord, you tempt me to put your words to the test."</p>
+
+<p>"Do so, I pray you. It is what I most desire."</p>
+
+<p>"By a singular chance," said Madeleine, "one of those marvellous
+coincidences which sometimes occur in real life, but which look like
+fiction when they are related in books, an op<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span>portunity presents itself
+that may enable you to prove the sincerity of your protestations. You
+must understand that I am a woman of business. But that is easily
+comprehended, as I am a woman who toils for her daily bread. I take
+great interest in the decision of the committee of a certain railroad
+company, one of the members of which I desire to influence."</p>
+
+<p>Lord Linden looked stupefied, and almost as if he thought Madeleine were
+making a jest of him. But her grave manner contradicted that suggestion.</p>
+
+<p>She went on as tranquilly as before,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"They are to decide, at their next meeting, whether a certain railroad
+shall take the direction to the right or left. I desire that the left
+road should be chosen."</p>
+
+<p>Lord Linden still regarded her as though he were too completely
+astounded to make any comment.</p>
+
+<p>"Certain members of the committee will, I am aware, vote for the left
+road. I wish to secure the vote of Mr. Rutledge."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Rutledge!" exclaimed Lord Linden. "I know him well."</p>
+
+<p>"He is the warm admirer of Lady Augusta Linden," observed Madeleine. "It
+is even reported that he aspires to her hand."</p>
+
+<p>Lord Linden showed plainly that he was astonished to find one in
+Madeleine's position so conversant with the affairs both of the business
+world and the <i>beau monde</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine proceeded,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"If any influence can be used with Mr. Rutledge to induce him to vote
+for the left road, it will cause me gratification, I cannot explain of
+what nature. You have spoken, my lord, of desiring to serve me. I have
+very frankly pointed out in what manner it was possible that you might
+confer a favor upon me. If I could enter into full particulars, this
+request would lose its singularity. As that cannot be done, I can only
+entertain the hope that you will believe it has an interpretation which
+I should not blush to reveal."</p>
+
+<p>"That I feel,&mdash;of that I am certain," returned the nobleman, earnestly.
+"No one could look at you and doubt the nobility of your actions and
+motives. I am almost hardy enough to venture to promise Mr. Rutledge's
+vote. Will you permit me to return here after I have spoken with him,
+and report to you the result of my advocacy?"</p>
+
+<p>Before Madeleine could reply, Mrs. Gilmer entered the adjoining room.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine rose, and, courtesying to her visitor, said,&mdash;</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Your lordship will excuse me; my duty requires that I should leave you
+and attend to this lady."</p>
+
+<p>She glided out of the room, but Lord Linden continued to watch her, as
+though he could not force his eyes away.</p>
+
+<p>It was some time before he made his exit.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Gilmer was looking very much depressed. She had begun to believe
+that it was very possible she would receive no invitation to Madame de
+Fleury's ball.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Mademoiselle Melanie," said she, as Madeleine entered; "you will
+sympathize with me. I have never had such a mortification before. I knew
+Madame de Fleury's enmity, but I could not believe her so cruel, so
+<i>inhuman</i>. She is thoroughly devoid of feeling, and has determined to
+leave me out of her invitations. I actually induced the Russian
+ambassadress, with whom she is very intimate, to intercede for me. I
+have just seen Madame Orlowski, and she tells me Madame de Fleury
+refused point blank. She resisted Madame Orlowski's most urgent
+entreaties, and will not yield to any one; I have no longer any hope. I
+shall be excluded from this ball, of which all Washington is talking.
+How am I to survive such a slight?"</p>
+
+<p>"It, however, may still be possible," said Madeleine, smilingly, "to
+obtain you an invitation."</p>
+
+<p>"You think so? You really think so?" cried Mrs. Gilmer, in joyful
+surprise. "Do not raise my hopes to the highest pitch to cast them down
+again unless you want to make me ill for a month. Who could have the
+power to obtain me an invitation after the Russian ambassadress has been
+refused?"</p>
+
+<p>"It sounds very presumptuous to say so, but <i>I</i> may have."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>You?</i> My dear Mademoiselle Melanie,&mdash;<i>you?</i> I can well believe it.
+Madame de Fleury adores you; she owes all her success to you. Oh, I know
+it, well enough, though you may pretend to be ignorant of what you have
+done for her. And you seriously think you can get me this invitation?
+You will positively make the effort?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will use my best endeavors, and I am pretty sure I shall succeed; but
+it is to be the return for a favor which I desire you to grant me."</p>
+
+<p>"A favor? You can ask none that I will not grant in return for this
+invitation," replied Mrs. Gilmer, eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine could scarcely repress a smile, tinged with a slightly
+scornful expression.</p>
+
+<p>"You American ladies are said to be all-powerful with your husbands;
+you, no doubt, have great influence with Mr. Gilmer?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I fancy I have," said Mrs. Gilmer, tossing her graceful head. "I
+arrange matters so as to have him in my power. I know his weak points,
+and I make it a rule to play upon them until I obtain everything I
+desire. Just at this moment, he is in a particularly favorable state: he
+is frantically jealous; though, between ourselves, I never give him real
+cause. I only excite his jealousy to use it as a valuable weapon against
+himself. Tell me quickly what favor you desire."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Gilmer is a member of a committee which is to decide upon the
+course a certain railroad is to take. I wish to secure his vote for the
+left road."</p>
+
+<p>"How odd! What difference can it make to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"It would occupy too much time to explain that, and might not interest
+you. The important question is, can he be induced to vote for this left
+road?"</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say; I do not doubt it,&mdash;that is, if you are really in earnest,
+and can promise me my invitation to the ball in exchange for his vote."</p>
+
+<p>"The one depends upon the other," replied Madeleine. "I had the good
+fortune to secure the vote of Mr. Gobert, the banker of Monsieur de
+Fleury, and"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Gobert votes for the left road? Ah, that increases the difficulty.
+My husband makes a point of never voting as he does,&mdash;never! It is
+enough that Mr. Gobert votes one way for him to vote the other."</p>
+
+<p>"That is singular; they are both bankers, and I thought they were
+friends."</p>
+
+<p>"It is because they are both bankers that they are the bitterest
+enemies. Talk of the jealousies of women, of artists, of men of genius,
+of nations! Those are nothing to the jealousy of these rival
+capitalists, who are engaged in a perpetual strife to excel each other.
+If Mr. Gobert gives a ball that costs two thousand dollars, Mr. Gilmer
+gives one that costs four thousand. If Mr. Gobert builds a superb house,
+Mr. Gilmer builds a palace. It is a steeple-chase of vanity, in which
+the conqueror has for the only price of his victory the delight of
+seeing his rival conquered."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you find the difficulty of reconciling Mr. Gilmer to vote for the
+left road beyond your skill?"</p>
+
+<p>"No,&mdash;no,&mdash;I do not say <i>that</i>. I do not admit <i>that</i>, by any means. But
+Mr. Gobert is a great obstacle."</p>
+
+<p>"But one which the pleasure of attending this ball will enable you to
+surmount?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I trust so. There is a way,&mdash;there is a sacrifice I can make; and
+I will not hesitate for such an object. My husband detests, without the
+slightest cause, a gentleman who visits me frequently: now, if I
+promised not to receive this obnoxious, but very delightful individual
+(whom I care nothing about), I think Mr. Gilmer, in return, would be
+willing, for once, to cast, his vote on the same side as his enemy. It
+would need some such grave inducement, some such unquestionable
+sacrifice on my part."</p>
+
+<p>"That sacrifice may also be a prudent action," observed Madeleine.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I do not know about that," replied the thoughtless woman of
+fashion; "a woman is expected to have admirers; they only render her
+more valuable in the eyes of her husband. I should not consent to offend
+this devoted friend without some strong incentive. But to insure being
+present at Madame de Fleury's ball, I would agree to anything. So, it is
+a bargain: if I obtain you my husband's vote, you obtain me this
+invitation?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is our compact," answered Madeleine.</p>
+
+<p>"Agreed. I shall return home with a light heart; you have cheered me
+wonderfully; I am inclined to be so amiable to all the world, my husband
+included, that all the world and my husband are your debtors. When shall
+I receive the good news that you have conquered Madame de Fleury?"</p>
+
+<p>"At whatever time you think you will be prepared to send me the
+intelligence that you have vanquished Mr. Gilmer."</p>
+
+<p>"That will be this evening, before my husband goes to his club."</p>
+
+<p>"By this evening, then, I will have procured you the invitation."</p>
+
+<p>"Remember, I depend upon you. Good-morning."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Gilmer departed in high good-humor, leaving Madeleine reflecting
+with regret upon the tools which harsh circumstance seemed to force her
+to use.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2>
+
+<h3>A CONTEST.</h3>
+
+
+<p>When Mrs. Gilmer took her leave, Madeleine returned to the seclusion of
+her own boudoir, having first given orders that she should be apprised
+when Madame de Fleury made her appearance.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Madeleine was unnerved by the agitating incidents of the morning. There
+are days into which emotions which might fill years are crowded. It was
+long since she had felt oppressed by such a sense of lassitude and
+melancholy. Her interview with Maurice had stirred all the tenderest
+chords of her spirit, yet left them vibrating sadly. The mysterious
+visit of Count Tristan had perplexed her mind with ominous forebodings.
+She could scarcely be said to have seen through his machinations, yet
+she had an instinctive disbelief in his sincerity, and the uprightness
+of his motives,&mdash;a disbelief which she vainly tried to conceal from
+herself. More painful still had been her conversation with Lord Linden;
+she could not fail to perceive that he assumed the attitude of a lover,
+and she felt humbled at having <i>apparently allowed</i>, or rather
+<i>ignored</i>, such a position. Lastly, her late <i>bargaining scene</i> with
+Mrs. Gilmer had disturbed Madeleine's sense of delicacy; and a similar
+scene remained to be enacted with Madame de Fleury.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine involuntarily rubbed her eyes, as though she were trying to
+wake from a confused dream. She could not believe that she had really
+entangled herself in this web of plotting, and at the bidding of Count
+Tristan! She feared that she had acted too impulsively,&mdash;that she had
+made unwarrantable use of her power. Then she remembered the look of
+deep distress upon Count Tristan's face as he made his half confidences;
+she recalled his assurances that without her interposition Maurice would
+not only be ruined, but that disgrace must attach itself to his father's
+name. She had promised her aid, had half gained the victory, and must
+not retreat now when the only portion of her work which remained to be
+accomplished consisted in compelling a fashionable puppet to send an
+invitation to a rival whom she detested. There was nothing objectionable
+in the act itself; yet Madeleine, during these calm reflections, shrank
+from the part she was playing, and revolted against being mingled up
+with stratagems, however innocent.</p>
+
+<p>This revery was broken by the announcement that Madame de Fleury had
+arrived, and was at that moment trying on her dress.</p>
+
+<p>When Madeleine entered the apartment, Madame de Fleury was standing
+before a mirror, evidently admiring her new costume, and in great
+good-humor. She turned to Madeleine gayly, and said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Mademoiselle Melanie, this dress is perfection! This corsage sets off
+my figure beautifully! And what exquisite apologies for sleeves you have
+invented! My arm is one of my best<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> points, and the tinier the sleeve
+the better. Then the looping of this lace dress through these miniature
+chaplets of wild roses is very original; the whole effect is wonderfully
+airy and poetic. This is one of your great triumphs; you have really
+surpassed yourself."</p>
+
+<p>As she spoke, she turned around and around, complacently contemplating
+her reflected image from various points of view.</p>
+
+<p>"I am particularly gratified at having pleased you, madam," said
+Madeleine, with more gravity than was usual to her when she accosted her
+light-brained customers.</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Fleury, without noticing her serious mien, commenced
+disrobing. Victorine folded up the dress and placed it in a <i>carton</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"I mean to take the dress with me," said the marchioness. "Mademoiselle
+Victorine, have the goodness to desire my servant to place that <i>carton</i>
+in the carriage."</p>
+
+<p>As Victorine prepared to obey, Madeleine motioned her to desist, and
+said, "Not yet; leave the dress for a few moments. You may retire."</p>
+
+<p>The forewoman reluctantly left the room, looking puzzled, curious, and
+indignant.</p>
+
+<p>"What? Is some alteration needful?" asked Madame de Fleury. "Have you
+some fresh inspiration? Has a new idea that will improve the dress
+suddenly struck you?"</p>
+
+<p>Without replying to these questions, Madeleine looked earnestly at the
+marchioness, who was now resuming her bonnet, and asked,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You are, then, satisfied with my work, madame?"</p>
+
+<p>"Satisfied? that is a cold word. I am transported!"</p>
+
+<p>"And if," continued Madeleine, "for that dress I should require a
+price"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, whatever you please," replied the marchioness, lightly. "Take me
+prisoner, gag me, plunder me, what you will, I shall not complain: the
+dress is worth it; and we have never had any discussion in regard to
+prices."</p>
+
+<p>"But the price in question is not one that can be paid with money; the
+price I place upon this dress is the granting of a favor,&mdash;a favor most
+precious to me."</p>
+
+<p>"A favor? you have only to speak. Do you want an office for a friend? A
+recommendation for some ambitious compatriot to the emperor? A pardon
+for some exiled transgressor? Anything possible to the wife of the
+French ambassador is at your service; you have but to speak."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"My petition is somewhat easier to grant; for I only ask a few words
+from you in writing."</p>
+
+<p>As she said this, Madeleine opened a desk, and placed upon it a sheet of
+note-paper, a gold pen, and an inkstand. Then she paused, and said,
+hesitatingly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Yet, though I ask but these few written words, in full compensation for
+that dress, the materials of which as well as the work being mine, I
+fear to make my petition known, for I feel that it will cost you much to
+comply with my wishes."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense! speak plainly," said Madame de Fleury, smoothing her ribbons
+with caressing touches.</p>
+
+<p>"I would solicit an invitation to your ball for one of your
+acquaintances who, as yet, has received none, and who chances to be one
+of my customers."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that all? We are enacting much ado about nothing," said the
+marchioness, seating herself smilingly at the desk. "You shall have the
+invitation, modest and mysterious petitioner. What name shall I write?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs."&mdash;Madeleine faltered.</p>
+
+<p>"Go on," cried the marchioness, who had commenced her note with the
+usual formula.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Gilmer!" responded Madeleine.</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Fleury threw down the pen and started up.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Gilmer! Invite Mrs. Gilmer to a ball from which I have purposely
+excluded her? Invite her when I have the satisfaction of knowing that
+she is dying of mortification because she cannot get an
+invitation?&mdash;when I have steeled myself against the solicitations of
+Madame Orlowski? Never! I would rather bear the weight of all the years
+which she impertinently added to my age."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine, who was fully prepared for this burst, said, very quietly,
+and approaching the marchioness,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Madame, it is not long since you assured me that it would be a positive
+happiness to be able to render me a service."</p>
+
+<p>"And I mean it. I would gladly serve you, but not by inviting Mrs.
+Gilmer to my ball: that is a little too much to demand."</p>
+
+<p>"But this is the service I most need; a service for which I would be
+deeply grateful,&mdash;for which I could never sufficiently thank you,&mdash;which
+would attach me to you as nothing in the past has ever done."</p>
+
+<p>"The offer of your gratitude and the promise of your attachment are,
+certainly, very touching," said Madame de Fleury,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> with a scornful
+petulance which she had never before evinced toward Madeleine; "but I
+beg leave to decline the indebtedness. You have forced me to remember,
+for the first time, that when a lady in my station deals with a person
+in your sphere, it is possible to be <i>too</i> kind, <i>too</i> condescending,
+<i>too</i> ready to forget necessary distinctions, and thus to draw upon
+one's self the consequences of that forgetfulness. You have given me a
+lesson, mademoiselle, by which I shall profit: in future I shall
+remember the distance between us."</p>
+
+<p>She walked toward the work-room and called Victorine, who immediately
+responded to the summons.</p>
+
+<p>Pointing to the <i>carton</i>, the indignant lady gave the order, "Have that
+dress placed in my carriage."</p>
+
+<p>"No!" said Madeleine, addressing Victorine, commandingly. "Let the dress
+remain where it is."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean, mademoiselle?" asked the marchioness, in angry
+astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"That dress is still mine!" answered Madeleine.</p>
+
+<p>"Yours?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is mine, and we will each keep that which belongs to us,&mdash;<i>you</i> the
+privilege of your rank; I, the results of my labor, however humble."</p>
+
+<p>"Do I understand you rightly? Have you the hardihood to say"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine interrupted her,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"That I refuse to part with that dress for gold, or for any compensation
+you can offer, except the one already named,&mdash;an invitation for Mrs.
+Gilmer to your ball."</p>
+
+<p>"She shall never have one! I have said it, and nothing can change my
+resolution."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor mine! We are in the same position, madame, in spite of the
+<i>difference of our stations</i>," answered Madeleine, with cold sarcasm.
+"Nothing can change my resolution."</p>
+
+<p>"But the dress is mine!" cried Madame de Fleury. "I will prove that it
+is mine; but we will settle that question afterward. Meantime, I order
+you, Mademoiselle Victorine, to have that dress placed in my carriage."</p>
+
+<p>"I order you not to touch it!" said Madeleine.</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Fleury now became so much exasperated that she seemed to be on
+the point of seizing the dress and carrying it off in her arms.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine perceived her intention, and, suddenly lifting the dress out
+of the <i>carton</i>, rolled it up rapidly, for the materials were light.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I prove to whom the dress belongs, madame, by disposing of it <i>thus</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>And with the most perfect tranquillity, she flung the disputed prize
+into the fire! It was burning brightly, for the day was cool, though
+spring had commenced.</p>
+
+<p>The marchioness, for a moment, was stunned; but, as the flames caught
+the lace, she cried out, "Save it! save it! It is burning! What an
+infamous action! What a crime! It has killed me!"</p>
+
+<p>She dropped upon the sofa, and was seized with one of those hysterical
+paroxysms which French women designate as an <i>attaque de nerfs</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Victorine, with a great display of distress, flew to the sufferer,
+loosened the strings of the bonnet which she was recklessly
+crushing,&mdash;held a bottle of sal volatile to her nose (for the
+Frenchwoman was always prepared for similar pleasant excitements, and
+carried a vial in her pocket), and commenced rubbing the lady's hand
+with great energy.</p>
+
+<p>"Save,&mdash;save the dress! Do not let it burn!" Madame de Fleury gasped out
+between her sobs.</p>
+
+<p>"The dress is beyond saving, madame," replied Madeleine; "it no longer
+exists."</p>
+
+<p>At this moment the marchioness suddenly recovered.</p>
+
+<p>"And you have destroyed it? You have destroyed a toilet which would have
+made me talked of for a week! It is abominable,&mdash;it is disgraceful,&mdash;it
+is <i>criminal</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Fleury always used the strongest terms where matters of the
+toilet, the most important interests of her life, were in question.</p>
+
+<p>"What am I to wear this evening? What is to become of me?"</p>
+
+<p>The marchioness wrung her hands, and wept in genuine tribulation. She
+sunk back again upon the sofa, as though prostrated by her crushing
+sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine allowed the grief of the fine lady to expend itself in
+incoherent lamentations, and then said, in an icy tone,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Madame, do you desire to appear to-night in a dress which far surpasses
+the one I have destroyed?"</p>
+
+<p>The marchioness was sobbing so violently that she could only answer by a
+movement of the head.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you desire to wear a dress which has been refused to others?&mdash;a
+dress which Mrs. Gilmer used every argument to induce me to finish for
+her, but in vain?&mdash;a dress which I would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> even have refused <i>you</i>, with
+whose wishes I have ever been ready to comply?"</p>
+
+<p>"What&mdash;what dress? What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"I refer to the dress the design of which you so much admired this
+morning,&mdash;the dress which is to be sent to New Orleans for Madame la
+Motte."</p>
+
+<p>"But that dress is not finished; it is hardly commenced; only the
+embroidery is completed. Mademoiselle Victorine told me it could not be
+done under three days."</p>
+
+<p>"It shall be finished for <i>you</i>, if you so please, before it is time for
+you to dress for this evening's assembly."</p>
+
+<p>"But that cannot be; it is not possible; it is four o'clock now; it
+would be a miracle!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not quite," returned Madeleine, quietly. "In past days I was said to
+have the fingers of a fairy, and you shall admit that magical power
+remains to me. I repeat, the dress shall be completed, if you desire it,
+to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"But you have sent the design to Madame la Motte, who has approved of
+it, and, I hear, you are bound not to furnish a duplicate to any one."</p>
+
+<p>"True, I must run the risk of losing the confidence of a patron for the
+first time in my life. I will tell Madame la Motte the truth, and
+furnish her with another equally elaborate dress,&mdash;not a very easy
+matter, as it must leave here in three days by express, and a new design
+must not only be planned, but executed, within that time. I may lose
+Madame de la Motte's patronage,&mdash;her esteem; but that will be the price
+I pay for the favor I seek at your hands."</p>
+
+<p>"The favor!" repeated the marchioness, abstractedly.</p>
+
+<p>In her bewilderment and grief caused by the destruction of the dress,
+she had forgotten, for the moment, all that had just taken place.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine pointed to the note which the marchioness had commenced, and
+said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"The invitation for Mrs. Gilmer."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! Mrs. Gilmer!" cried Madame de Fleury, as though she had been stung
+by the name.</p>
+
+<p>"As you remarked, it is four o'clock," continued Madeleine; "the dress
+ought to be at your house by half past nine; there is scarcely time for
+any one who only <i>pretends</i> to be a fairy to accomplish the work. Four
+o'clock: it <i>is</i> just possible that I have promised too much,&mdash;that is,
+if we lose many minutes. Have you decided to write me the invitation?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You do not give me time for reflection," said Madame de Fleury,
+hesitating.</p>
+
+<p>"You scarcely give <i>me</i> time," returned Madeleine, "to perform what I
+have promised; the moments are precious."</p>
+
+<p>"You are sure the dress can be completed if&mdash;if I give you this
+invitation?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, madame, if it be given <i>at once</i>. See," pointing to the clock,
+"five minutes have flown already, and in every moment we are to do the
+work of an hour. There is the pen."</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Fleury took it reluctantly.</p>
+
+<p>"That detestable Mrs. Gilmer will triumph so much!"</p>
+
+<p>"You triumph in having obtained the dress that was refused to her, and
+has been refused to many others. But time flies, and I shall not be
+able, with all the magical aid for which I am given credit, to keep my
+word. Victorine, while Madame de Fleury is writing, apprise the young
+ladies to put by, as rapidly as possible, all other work, and be ready
+to take in hand that which I will give them directly. We want our whole
+force; let me find every one prepared to aid."</p>
+
+<p>Victorine left the room to execute these orders.</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Fleury seated herself and dipped the pen in ink.</p>
+
+<p>"If you knew what it costs me to consent," she began.</p>
+
+<p>"If I did <i>not</i> know," rejoined Madeleine, "I should not have offered to
+make a sacrifice of so much importance. A few moments more and it will
+be too late to decide,&mdash;your consent will be of no avail."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, that is true," cried Madame de Fleury, writing rapidly.</p>
+
+<p>She left the note unfolded on the desk, and, as she rose, said in a tone
+of ludicrously mingled petulance and elation, "You have conquered! But I
+shall have my dress!"</p>
+
+<p>"Be sure of it!" answered Madeleine.</p>
+
+<p>Victorine now announced that all other work had been laid aside, and the
+young ladies awaited Mademoiselle Melanie's commands.</p>
+
+<p>"Go&mdash;go&mdash;go! or you will be too late!" urged Madame de Fleury, hurrying
+away.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine hastened to the work-room, and distributed portions of the
+dress to different needle-women. After giving a number of minute
+directions, and making known that she would return in a couple of hours
+to see what progress was made, she retired to write to Mrs. Gilmer.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX.</h2>
+
+<h3>BERTHA.</h3>
+
+
+<p>If Madeleine had been asked which of her relatives would first have
+sought her after the unexpected <i>rencontre</i> at Madame de Fleury's, she
+would have answered, "Bertha,"&mdash;Bertha, whose devotion had been so
+unflagging, so open, so daring. But on the day which succeeded that
+stormy interview, Count Tristan and Maurice had visited Madeleine, yet
+Bertha remained absent; another day passed, and still she came not.</p>
+
+<p>The Countess de Gramont had resolved, at least, to postpone a meeting
+she might not be able wholly to prevent. She formed her plans so
+dexterously that Bertha was chained to her side, fretting through the
+tedious hours, yet powerless to secure a moment's freedom.</p>
+
+<p>Exasperation caused Bertha sleepless nights; and on the third morning
+she rose with the sun, summoned her maid, sent for a carriage, and was
+on her way to Madeleine's residence some three hours before it was
+likely that the slumbers of the countess would be broken.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine was preparing for her matinal walk, when her cousin was
+announced.</p>
+
+<p>After the first joyous greetings were over, Bertha said, with tender
+delight,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"And now that I have found you, my own Madeleine, I mean to come to see
+you every day."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine shook her head sadly. "Madame de Gramont will never permit
+that."</p>
+
+<p>"How can she help it if I choose to order all my dresses made here? The
+choice and discussion of becoming attire shall occupy as much of my time
+as it does of Madame de Fleury's. I mean to become her rival and almost
+ruin myself in splendid toilets,&mdash;that is, unless you accept my
+proposition."</p>
+
+<p>"What proposition, Bertha?"</p>
+
+<p>"To give up your&mdash;your&mdash;your&mdash;What shall I call it? Your
+<i>occupation</i>,&mdash;your <i>vocation</i>,&mdash;I have a great mind to say your
+'<i>trade</i>,' that the word may shock you. Live with me; travel with me; go
+where I go. Will you not consent?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," answered Madeleine, gently, but resolutely.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not decide hastily. You cannot know how much I need<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> you, Madeleine.
+Your counsels were indispensable to me even in days when I had no secret
+to confide: now&mdash;now"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Now you <i>have</i> a secret? Is it indeed so?"</p>
+
+<p>Bertha nodded, paused awhile, then went on abruptly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I have been pestered to death by men who aspired to my hand, and my
+uncle declares there is no possibility of my finding peace until I make
+some choice."</p>
+
+<p>"And you intend to secure peace upon his terms? Possibly among those who
+aspired to your hand there is one who has discovered the entrance to
+your heart."</p>
+
+<p>"Among those who have aspired,&mdash;ah, there is the difficulty! Among those
+there is none."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you love one who has never aspired?"</p>
+
+<p>"I fear so," answered Bertha, ingenuously, and yet blushing deeply.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine looked troubled; she had long entertained a pleasant hope
+which she saw about to vanish.</p>
+
+<p>"And you have loved him,&mdash;how long?" she asked, gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, a very short time; only since day before yesterday," replied
+Bertha.</p>
+
+<p>This answer added to Madeleine's discomposure. There was no hope for
+Gaston de Bois.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you look so sorrowful?" inquired Bertha, noticing her cousin's
+expression.</p>
+
+<p>"I am thinking of one who has loved you long, with such devotion, with
+such self-abnegation, with such an ardent desire to become worthy of
+you, that I could not but sigh over his disappointment. But this sudden
+affection of yours may not be very deep."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, but it <i>is</i>! And as for suddenness, when I say I have only loved
+him since day before yesterday, I mean that I only then discovered how
+much I cared for him."</p>
+
+<p>"And how came you to know that he was dear to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"You will be very much shocked when I answer that question; but you
+always said I was eccentric. I first felt that I loved him when I saw
+him getting into a great rage, and when I positively fancied that I
+caught the sound of a horrible oath, which he uttered in an undertone!"</p>
+
+<p>"That <i>is</i> original! I never before heard of a young lady being inspired
+by love for a young man when he was angry, or when he was profane."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, but he was angry in a good cause," returned Bertha, earnestly. "It
+was righteous indignation, and it was the vio<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span>lence with which he
+defended one whom I love, that won my heart completely."</p>
+
+<p>"Whom did he defend?" asked Madeleine, unsuspiciously.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>You</i>,&mdash;<i>you</i>, my own, best Madeleine, and for <i>that</i> I loved him. It
+was so wonderful, knowing how constitutionally diffident he is, to see
+him so courageous. And when I remembered how he used to hesitate and
+stammer, it seemed marvellous to hear him talk on with an ease, a
+fluency, a fervor truly eloquent. I never ask to listen to finer
+oratory. My aunt, in spite of her indignation, was confounded into
+silence. Count Tristan could not say a word, and Maurice looked as
+though amazement alone kept him from throwing himself in his friend's
+arms, and I fear I almost felt like doing the same."</p>
+
+<p>"It was Gaston de Bois, then?" cried Madeleine, with sudden transport.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Who else could it be? And he was so comical at the same time that
+he was so pathetic! At first I almost felt like laughing at his odd
+gesticulations. And then he talked so nobly, so grandly, that I felt
+like weeping; and you know it is my nature to laugh and to cry in spite
+of myself. I have made up my mind that I could never love anybody who
+could not make me do both <i>at once</i>, just as he did, in such a comically
+pathetic manner."</p>
+
+<p>"How shall I thank you? Gaston de Bois is my best, my truest, friend!"
+said Madeleine, rapturously.</p>
+
+<p>"I know <i>that</i> well enough! Once I feared he might be the mysterious
+individual whom you loved; but he said himself that you were a sister to
+him; and I almost leapt for joy at those words. A sister never fills the
+<i>whole</i> of a man's heart,&mdash;does she?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not such a heart as Gaston de Bois'. He will tell you himself who
+occupies the sovereign place in that heart when he knows that he may
+speak."</p>
+
+<p>"But how is he to know? You must promise me not to tell him, not to give
+him even the faintest hint, of what I have communicated. Promise me that
+you will not."</p>
+
+<p>"I promise. But you forget how diffident M. de Bois is, how distrustful
+of his own merits. He will not easily believe that you <i>can</i> think of
+him. And, meantime, you"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Will suffer. Yes, I know it; but I should suffer more if I were guilty
+of an unmaidenly action. So you will keep your promise?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will keep it faithfully."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was time for the cousins to part. Bertha returned to the hotel with a
+lighter heart, because she had transferred its weighty secret to
+another's keeping. But Madeleine's joy was mingled with forebodings that
+Gaston de Bois would not suspect his own happiness for a long, sad
+period, if ever.</p>
+
+<p>When she went forth, it was long past the hour usually devoted to her
+walk. The capitol grounds were gay with promenaders. Madeleine and Ruth
+attracted more attention than was agreeable, and, after a short ramble,
+turned homeward.</p>
+
+<p>As they passed out of the gates, the first person they met was Gaston de
+Bois. He bowed, hesitated, seemed half inclined to walk on without
+speaking, but changed his mind and joined them.</p>
+
+<p>It was long since Madeleine had seen him apparently so ill at ease or so
+distressed. She smiled as she reflected how quickly three little words
+(which she, alas! was forbidden to speak) would change that perturbed
+look to one of ineffable happiness.</p>
+
+<p>For a few moments he walked moodily by her side, replying at random to
+her casual remarks. It chanced that Ruth was not conversant with the
+French language, and Madeleine, struck by his abstracted air, inquired
+in that tongue whether he had any cause for vexation.</p>
+
+<p>Gaston answered, vaguely, that he was troubled; he did not himself know
+with how much real cause. A moment after, he mentioned her interview
+with Count Tristan, and, stammering a little in his old fashion, asked
+whether she would deem it a great liberty if he desired to know the
+object of the count's visit.</p>
+
+<p>A moment's reflection convinced Madeleine that M. de Bois would not have
+made this inquiry out of sheer, causeless curiosity; and she made known
+to him the count's request concerning the votes which she was to exert
+herself to obtain. Gaston caught eagerly at her words, and exclaimed,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Valueless? Are you sure Count Tristan said the property of Maurice
+would be valueless but for the advent of this railroad?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," replied Madeleine; "I am quite sure that such was his assertion.
+But why do you ask? What has happened? Nothing to compromise Maurice?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not yet definitely know; but, if it be what I suspect, what I
+fear, it will compromise him wofully."</p>
+
+<p>"Pray be explicit," said Madeleine, becoming alarmed. "Tell me what you
+positively know, and what you fear. Remember, Maurice is my cousin."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Would he were more! But that wish now is vain. In a word, then, I have
+no faith in Count Tristan. I believe him capable of unscrupulous actions
+which might ruin his son. At the club, last night, a group of gentlemen
+chanced to be conversing near me. The name of Maurice de Gramont
+attracted my attention. A Mr. Emerson asserted that he had just made a
+discovery which convinced him that the Viscount de Gramont was a young
+man regardless of honor; and added that he intended, without delay, to
+commence legal proceedings against him. As soon as I could control my
+indignation, I informed Mr. Emerson that the Viscount de Gramont was my
+friend, and I could not allow his name to be used with disrespect
+without demanding an explanation."</p>
+
+<p>"And he gave you one?" inquired Madeleine, greatly agitated.</p>
+
+<p>"He did not give me one. At first he was inclined to treat my request
+cavalierly. But, upon my persisting, he replied that neither place nor
+time served to discuss a business matter; adding that he would be at his
+office on the morrow, at twelve o'clock, and, if I chose to call at that
+hour, the whole matter would be made known to me; remarking,
+significantly, that he had no intention of keeping the transaction from
+the public."</p>
+
+<p>"What could he mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>That</i> I can only surmise. But a few hours will make all clear."</p>
+
+<p>"To gain a few hours' time may be of the utmost importance," answered
+Madeleine. "Try to see Mr. Emerson <i>at once</i>. Learn the meaning of his
+words, and return to me with the intelligence."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Mademoiselle Madeleine, you are always so prompt! I should have
+lingered until twelve without"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Go! Go at once, and come back to me quickly! You have said enough to
+awaken a horrible suspicion. I do not dare to let my mind dwell upon the
+frightful possibility that suggests itself."</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois bade her good-morning as precipitately as she could desire,
+and hastened upon his mission.</p>
+
+<p>When Madeleine reached her home she said to Ruth, "I am unfit for my
+usual duties to-day. Ruth, I have long intended that you should occupy a
+more active and prominent position in this establishment. Do you not
+feel yourself competent to do so?"</p>
+
+<p>Ruth returned affectionately,&mdash;</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I have studied diligently under your tuition; sometimes I fancy that I
+have almost mastered some of the rules, and fathomed some of the
+mysteries, of your art."</p>
+
+<p>"To-day, then," rejoined Madeleine, "I mean that you shall wholly take
+my place. I have faith in your ability."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth retired, well pleased at the confidence reposed in her; and
+Madeleine entered her boudoir to await, with a sense of dread which she
+could ill repress, the return of Gaston de Bois.</p>
+
+<p>The clock had just struck twelve when he was announced. One glance at
+his pale face hardly left Madeleine courage to ask,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"What has happened?"</p>
+
+<p>"The worst, the very worst that I deemed possible, and I have been able
+to accomplish nothing. I feel like a brute to bring you these ill
+tidings a single hour before you are compelled to know them."</p>
+
+<p>"Do not keep me in suspense!" urged Madeleine.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois went on, "Maurice obtained a loan of ten thousand dollars
+from Mr. Emerson. The security given was upon this Maryland property,
+which Maurice declared to be free of all mortgage; and, no doubt, he
+thought it was so."</p>
+
+<p>"And, alas! it is not?"</p>
+
+<p>"So far from clear that Mr. Emerson yesterday learned the estate was
+mortgaged to its full value. Count Tristan, who held in his hands a
+power of attorney, has doubtless made use of the instrument without his
+son's knowledge."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you not explain this to Mr. Emerson in defence of Maurice?"</p>
+
+<p>"Assuredly; but Mr. Emerson received my assertion with open incredulity.
+He is determined to write to Maurice and inform him of his discovery,
+and also to commence legal proceedings at once."</p>
+
+<p>"Should these ten thousand dollars be paid into the hands of Mr.
+Emerson, would they not prevent his sending the threatened letter to
+Maurice, or taking any other steps?" inquired Madeleine, eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"Undoubtedly; but how are we to command ten thousand dollars?"</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine smiled an inexpressibly happy smile, opened her desk, took out
+a paper, and said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I had arranged to make the last payment upon this house yesterday; the
+sum due was ten thousand dollars: by some mistake, the person who was to
+receive this money did not keep his appointment. He will, doubtless, be
+here to-day. A few<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> hours later, I might no longer have had these funds
+under my own control. See how fortunate it is that I urged you to act
+promptly!"</p>
+
+<p>"Mademoiselle Madeleine, what&mdash;what do you intend to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is not my intention plain and simple enough? Here is a check for ten
+thousand dollars; draw the money at once, and place it in Mr. Emerson's
+hands."</p>
+
+<p>"But the payment for your house?"</p>
+
+<p>"Cannot be made. We have no time for further discussion."</p>
+
+<p>"Mademoiselle Madeleine, you are"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Very impatient and very imperative when I issue orders that I intend to
+have obeyed? Admitted. You need not waste time in summing up the
+catalogue of my imperfections."</p>
+
+<p>Gaston took the check and was preparing to depart, when Madeleine
+delayed him.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Emerson must not know that these funds are furnished by me. What an
+endless theme for gossip and speculation would be afforded by the very
+suggestion that the fashionable mantua-maker came to the assistance of
+the young nobleman! Let Mr. Emerson understand that this money is paid
+by one of Maurice's relatives. That will be sufficient."</p>
+
+<p>"Good," returned Gaston; "and if he should conclude that it was supplied
+by Maurice's grandmother, all the better. If I said a relative, and
+Madame de Gramont were not supposed to be the person, there is no one
+but Mademoiselle Bertha; and Mr. Emerson might infer&mdash;I mean, it would
+be natural to suppose"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You are right. We must guard against such a false step. Surely, no name
+at all is necessary; but I leave the matter to your discretion; pray
+hasten."</p>
+
+<p>Without further discussion, Gaston set out to execute his agreeable
+mission. He reached Mr. Emerson's office too late to stop the threatened
+letter; it had already been despatched.</p>
+
+<p>The young viscount was sitting in his father's drawing-room, at the
+hotel, musing upon the mournful singularity of his own fate, and the
+mystery that still enveloped Madeleine, when this letter was placed in
+his hands. He was, at first, too completely wonder-struck to experience
+a high degree of indignation. He thought he must have mistaken the
+meaning of what he read. But no; the words were plain enough; the
+accusation plain enough; the threat of legal proceedings to be
+instituted against him plain enough. Still, he was too much amazed to be
+able to give credence to the communication. He seized his hat, with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> the
+intention of hurrying to Mr. Emerson, and demanding an explanation. As
+he opened the door, his father entered.</p>
+
+<p>"What has disturbed you so much?" asked Count Tristan, noticing his
+son's disordered mien.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing that will prove of consequence," returned Maurice, glancing
+over the open letter. "There is some vexatious mistake which will easily
+be explained away. And yet, the language of this letter is grossly
+insulting."</p>
+
+<p>The count's secret guilt kept him in a constant state of torturing fear,
+and he now vainly endeavored to conceal his alarm.</p>
+
+<p>He gasped out, "That letter&mdash;let me see it!"</p>
+
+<p>Before Maurice could hand the letter, it was eagerly snatched by the
+count. His face grew livid as he read,&mdash;his white lips were tightly
+compressed,&mdash;but could not shut in the sound of a convulsive groan.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice, not suspecting the true cause of his father's agitation, went
+on,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"The language is rude; the accusation is made in the most unmannerly
+style, and as if its justice were beyond doubt; but business men, in
+this country, are usually abrupt, and, when they are annoyed, not too
+courteous; one must get accustomed to their manner. My dear father, do
+not let this mistake affect you too deeply; it will easily be rectified.
+But, first, let me explain the transaction."</p>
+
+<p>The count dropped his head without speaking, but again the sound of a
+half-suppressed groan was audible.</p>
+
+<p>"An opportunity offered," continued Maurice, "for the advantageous
+employment of ten thousand dollars. Mr. Lorrillard suggested my raising
+the money through Mr. Emerson, on the security of the Maryland estate."</p>
+
+<p>The count staggered and sank into a chair. The hour of discovery then
+had arrived,&mdash;there was no escape! Like those hopeless culprits before
+the eternal judgment-seat, he could have cried out to the mountains to
+fall upon him and hide him.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice was too much alarmed by his father's appearance to go on. The
+death-like pallor of his face had given place to a purple hue; his veins
+seemed swollen; his blood-shot eyes appeared to be starting from their
+sockets; his stalwart frame shivered from head to foot; he clutched the
+table as though for support, and his head dropped heavily upon it.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear father," exclaimed Maurice, "do not let the mistake move you
+thus. I will go to Mr. Emerson at once"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The count's face was lifted for an instant, as he cried in a tone of
+intense agony, "No, no! Not for the world!"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>His head fell again; he could not bear the unsuspicious gaze of the son
+whom he had wronged, and in whose presence he sat, a self-condemned
+criminal.</p>
+
+<p>"Surely it is the fitting course," replied Maurice. "I will make him
+retract his words."</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible!" was all the count could ejaculate, still with bowed head.</p>
+
+<p>"But I will prove it very possible!" returned Maurice, in a tone of
+determination. "Mr. Emerson cannot use such language with impunity.
+Though he threatens that the affair shall be made public, he cannot act
+so rashly as to carry out that menace, and upon a mere surmise of some
+kind. If there is any <i>publicity</i>, he shall publicly retract."</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible! Impossible!" the count groaned forth again.</p>
+
+<p>"That will soon be decided," answered Maurice, moving toward the door.</p>
+
+<p>The count started up.</p>
+
+<p>"Stay! do not go yet! You do not know what you are doing! Stay! I forbid
+you to go!"</p>
+
+<p>Maurice had such thorough confidence in his father's probity, that his
+suspicions were not aroused even by this vehement language. He only
+imagined that the very suggestion of a dishonorable action associated
+with his son's name affected Count Tristan thus powerfully.</p>
+
+<p>"But it is absolutely necessary that immediate notice should be taken of
+this letter," argued Maurice. "If I had been guilty of the act of which
+I have been accused, I could never have lifted my head again, and I feel
+degraded by the very suspicion. Do not detain me, I entreat you."</p>
+
+<p>"There is something you must hear before you go!" the count whispered
+hoarsely.</p>
+
+<p>For the first time an indefinable dread stole into the mind of Maurice.
+He put down his hat, and, approaching his father, could only echo the
+words,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Something I must hear?"</p>
+
+<p>"You should have consulted me," the count continued, speaking with great
+effort.</p>
+
+<p>"True, and I meant to do so, had I not been prevented. But the
+transaction was simple enough. My estate is unmortgaged. I had given you
+a power of attorney, but I knew that it had not been used; you told me
+so yourself, scarcely an hour before I requested Mr. Emerson to make me
+this loan."</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;no,&mdash;I did not say <i>that</i>;&mdash;you misunderstood me,&mdash;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span>I did not say
+<i>that</i>,&mdash;I never said <i>that!</i> You only <i>inferred</i> it! I could not be
+answerable for your <i>inferences</i>," returned the count, in the tone of a
+man defending himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Great heavens! What does this mean?" exclaimed Maurice "I cannot have
+misunderstood you? You cannot have used the power of attorney?"</p>
+
+<p>The count was silent, but the shame and confusion depicted upon his
+countenance were a fearful answer.</p>
+
+<p>It was some minutes before Maurice could rally sufficiently to take a
+clear view of his own position. His first impulse caused him to turn to
+his father in an excess of rage; but the broken, contrite, abject
+demeanor of the latter silenced the angry reproaches that were bursting
+from his son's lips.</p>
+
+<p>The count was the first to break the silence.</p>
+
+<p>He said, in a pleading, exculpatory tone,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"There was no other way; matters had gone terribly wrong with me in
+Brittany; we were reduced to worse than poverty; I was frightfully
+entangled; nothing remained but a mortgage upon your property."</p>
+
+<p>"What Mr. Emerson writes me in this letter is true, then?" was all
+Maurice could utter; but his tone pierced his father as deeply as the
+sharpest reproaches.</p>
+
+<p>The count assented.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice, unable longer to control himself, broke forth, "And I shall not
+only be forced to endure the blighting suspicion of being guilty myself,
+but I must bear the terrible certainty that my father is so!"</p>
+
+<p>The count only murmured in broken accents, "Oh, if the committee should
+select the left road!"</p>
+
+<p>Maurice caught eagerly at the faint hope, and after a few moments'
+reflection, replied in a voice which, in spite of its coldness, was not
+without a touch of pity,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I must see Mr. Emerson, and make an effort to postpone his present
+intentions until the decision is made."</p>
+
+<p>"It will be against us!" cried the count, vehemently. "Mr. Rutledge has
+made up his mind to vote for the road to the right; that one vote would
+have saved us! But we are too unfortunate; there is no longer a chance
+left!"</p>
+
+<p>Maurice went forth without replying.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI.</h2>
+
+<h3>A SURPRISE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The severe mental suffering that he endured during the half hour that
+was occupied in walking from Brown's hotel to the office of Mr. Emerson,
+may easily be conceived. On reaching that gentleman's place of business,
+Maurice learned that he was not within, but would probably return
+immediately. The young viscount was painfully conscious that the clerks
+answered his inquiries with a pointedly cold brevity. He saw them glance
+at each other, and one of them shrugged his shoulders, and gave a low
+whistle as Maurice seated himself to wait. The blood mounted to his face
+at this indignity, and rage took the place of mortification; but he
+could only nerve himself to endure with assumed composure the scorn he
+so little deserved. It was half an hour before Mr. Emerson entered.</p>
+
+<p>"The business which brings me here is so important that I took the
+liberty of waiting," said Maurice, rising.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Emerson answered, stiffly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Have the goodness to walk into my private apartment."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice obeyed.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Emerson was one of those reserved men who never choose the
+initiative in any transaction. He motioned Maurice to take a chair, then
+seated himself in the attitude of a listener.</p>
+
+<p>"I am placed in a position which renders explanation very difficult,"
+commenced the viscount.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Emerson assented by a half bow, but did not in any manner assist the
+speaker.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing could have astonished me more than the letter I have just
+received from you," continued Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Emerson lifted his eyebrows a little incredulously, and crossed his
+legs, but still played the auditor only.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice, galled by his supercilious manner, said, in a tone of
+irritation of which he repented a moment afterward, "I presume that you
+had no doubt that my conduct justified your letter?"</p>
+
+<p>"None," replied Mr. Emerson, with quiet severity.</p>
+
+<p>"You were wrong, you did me the greatest injustice," cried Maurice, "and
+yet unless you can credit this fact upon my bare assertion I have no
+means of convincing you."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Emerson smiled sarcastically.</p>
+
+<p>"You do not seem to me desirous, sir, of learning in what manner this
+mistake has arisen, even if I could make it clear."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You are right," returned Mr. Emerson; "I do not see that it is a matter
+which further concerns me."</p>
+
+<p>"But it concerns my honor"&mdash;began Maurice, angrily.</p>
+
+<p>He was checked by another contemptuous smile from Mr. Emerson.</p>
+
+<p>"I see, sir, you are not disposed to allow me to defend myself, or to
+encourage me to enter into any explanation."</p>
+
+<p>"I have said that the matter no longer concerns me."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I will not occupy your time with a vain attempt to change your
+opinion of me, but will proceed at once to the request I have to make."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall feel obliged by your doing so," said Mr. Emerson, in a manner
+which intimated that he wished to close the interview.</p>
+
+<p>"All I ask," proceeded Maurice, "is that you will take no further steps
+until"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I have no further steps to take," interrupted Mr. Emerson, frigidly.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice looked puzzled, but, imagining that Mr. Emerson did not choose
+to understand him, he added, "I mean, in plain language, that you will
+not make the affair public, and that you will not institute legal
+proceedings until"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"The repayment of the money loaned, obviated the necessity for legal
+proceedings," returned Mr. Emerson, in the same cold manner.</p>
+
+<p>"The <i>repayment</i>?" exclaimed Maurice, in amazement; "what <i>repayment</i>?
+what money?"</p>
+
+<p>"The ten thousand dollars loaned to you by me, <i>somewhat rashly</i>, and
+without examining a security which proved to be valueless."</p>
+
+<p>In spite of Maurice's astonishment at this unexpected communication, the
+arrow of this reproach did not miss its mark, but he only said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Am I to understand that these ten thousand dollars have been repaid?"</p>
+
+<p>"They were repaid about an hour ago."</p>
+
+<p>"Repaid? Who could have repaid them? How is it possible?" Maurice
+uttered these words to himself rather then addressed them to Mr.
+Emerson.</p>
+
+<p>But the latter answered briefly, "The Countess de Gramont."</p>
+
+<p>"My grandmother? Impossible! It was not in her power; she knew nothing
+of the transaction."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mr. Emerson continued, without noticing this assertion,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"A quarter of an hour ago I despatched a clerk to Brown's hotel, with a
+receipt for the money."</p>
+
+<p>"My grandmother!" repeated Maurice, musingly, and unable to credit the
+possibility of her interference.</p>
+
+<p>"You will find the information I have given you correct," said Mr.
+Emerson, rising.</p>
+
+<p>The hint was too marked to remain unnoticed by Maurice, in spite of his
+bewilderment, and he also rose.</p>
+
+<p>"If I had been aware of this fact I should not have trespassed upon your
+time, sir; for, it is not difficult to perceive that you have formed an
+opinion of my character which cannot readily be altered."</p>
+
+<p>"I judge men by their actions rather than by their words and manners: a
+very homely rule, sir, but one which is not subject to change at my time
+of life."</p>
+
+<p>The bow which closed this sentence was too pointedly a parting
+salutation to be mistaken. Maurice returned it, and, without another
+word, went forth. He hurried to Brown's hotel in the hope of unravelling
+the mystery.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime, the Countess de Gramont had been thrown, by the reception of
+Mr. Emerson's letter, into a state of excitement almost equal to that of
+Maurice. Over and over again she read the few lines acknowledging the
+sum of ten thousand dollars sent by her, and the information that the
+legal proceedings about to be instituted against the Viscount de Gramont
+would be arrested.</p>
+
+<p>The letter was in English; thus her difficulty in comprehending its
+contents was increased, and, though she was tolerably conversant with
+the language, she imagined that she must have misunderstood the words
+before her.</p>
+
+<p>The countess requested Bertha to read and translate the letter.</p>
+
+<p>"Aunt," cried Bertha, "what is this about ten thousand dollars? You
+cannot have sent this gentleman ten thousand dollars, and yet he makes
+you a formal acknowledgment that the money has been received. There must
+be some error."</p>
+
+<p>"The error itself is an impertinence," returned the lady. "Does this low
+person imagine that the Countess de Gramont meddles with business
+matters?&mdash;with the sending of money and the receiving of receipts?"</p>
+
+<p>At that moment Maurice entered, and his grandmother, taking the letter
+from Bertha, and placing it in his hand, accosted him with no little
+asperity of tone.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What is the meaning of this?"</p>
+
+<p>He glanced over the letter hurriedly and replied, "It is of you that I
+should ask that question, my grandmother, and I must also ask how I am
+to thank you for making me so deeply your debtor, and at a moment when,
+for the first time in my life, my honor was implicated!"</p>
+
+<p>"Your <i>honor</i> implicated? <i>Your honor? The honor of a de Gramont?</i> What
+do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Had you not, in some inexplicable manner, become aware of my position,
+and paid those ten thousand dollars with such liberality and
+promptitude, I should have been&mdash;I cannot bear the thought! The very
+remembrance of the position from which I have been extricated cuts me to
+the soul."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you mad, Maurice?" demanded the countess. "<i>I</i> pay ten thousand
+dollars for you? What do I know about money?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then the money was not sent to Mr. Emerson by you?" inquired Maurice,
+more bewildered than ever.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Emerson? Who is Mr. Emerson? I never heard of the person."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice turned to Bertha. The idea at once suggested itself that she had
+used her aunt's name to conceal her own generosity.</p>
+
+<p>"And you, Bertha,&mdash;do you also disclaim all knowledge of the
+transaction?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I only wish I <i>had</i> known."</p>
+
+<p>"It was not you, then?" replied Maurice, more and more astonished. "Who
+could it have been? I have no intimate friend in Washington but Gaston
+de Bois, and he has not the power to do me this service."</p>
+
+<p>"Was he aware of the circumstances which made you need this sum?" asked
+Bertha.</p>
+
+<p>"He certainly knew something of the transaction, but I do not think"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"That is enough!" she replied, joyfully. "If he knew anything about it,
+I know from whom the money came. There is but one person who could have
+sent it; and that is Madeleine!"</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Madeleine,&mdash;our own, generous Madeleine," returned Bertha. "M. de
+Bois is her trusted friend and counsellor."</p>
+
+<p>The Countess de Gramont rose up majestically, white with rage.</p>
+
+<p>"But what <i>right</i> has she, the mantua-maker, the tradeswoman, to make
+use of <i>my</i> name? How did she dare even to al<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span>low it to be suspected
+that I had ever come in contact with a person who has so demeaned
+herself? It is unpardonable audacity!"</p>
+
+<p>"You little know the full value of the service she has rendered me!"
+exclaimed Maurice, unheeding his grandmother's anger.</p>
+
+<p>"A service which you must not and shall not stoop to accept. Never will
+I consent to that," returned the countess, fiercely. "Would you profit
+by her ignoble labor? Has your residence in this plebeian land bowed you
+as low as that?"</p>
+
+<p>"If," replied Maurice, "it be a blow to my pride to be forced to accept
+her aid (for it has been tendered in a manner which cannot now be
+declined), it is a blow which has lifted me up, not bowed me down. It
+has made me feel that a great spirit which humbles itself and bends
+meekly to circumstance and does not regard any toil, nearest to its
+hand, as too lowly,&mdash;that spirit has truest cause for pride, since it
+earns the privilege of serving others. You have yet to learn that
+Madeleine's timely assistance has saved, not me alone, but our whole
+family from <i>disgrace</i>,&mdash;ay, positive <i>disgrace</i>! If you would know more
+on that subject, I refer you to my father. For myself, I will seek
+Madeleine and discover whether she has indeed made me so greatly her
+debtor."</p>
+
+<p>The countess would have detained him; but Maurice was gone before she
+could speak.</p>
+
+<p>He had alluded to his father as involved in this mysterious affair,
+which the countess was now tremblingly desirous of solving. She sought
+Count Tristan. He was in the drawing-room, where Maurice had left him.
+He sat beside the table,&mdash;his hands clinched, his head bowed, his face
+rigid in its expression of stony despair. He looked like a man who
+awaited the sentence of death.</p>
+
+<p>The entrance of the countess scarcely roused him; nor did he hear, or
+rather heed, her first address. But when she placed the letter, received
+from Mr. Emerson, in his hand, and asked him if he knew what it meant,
+he sprang from his seat with a sudden burst of half-frantic joy.</p>
+
+<p>"Who has done this?" he almost shrieked out.</p>
+
+<p>"Who indeed?" returned his mother. "It has been suggested that it may be
+one of the evidences of Madeleine's presumption. I can scarcely credit
+it. I can scarcely believe she would have the audacity to use my name,
+or occupy herself with the affairs of my family. Yet there is no one
+else"&mdash;</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It is like her! It is she! And may Heaven bless her for it!" cried the
+count, stirred by a sudden impulse of genuine gratitude. "I must have
+confirmation! I must go to her at once!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, go to her," replied his mother; "but let it be to inform her that
+we disdain her bounty; that we are astonished at her temerity in
+offering it; and that we hope never to hear from her again."</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan had left the room before his mother had finished
+speaking,&mdash;an act of disrespect of which he had never before been
+guilty. Exasperated by his manner even more than by that of Maurice, and
+dreading the result of their interview with Madeleine, the countess
+resolved herself to take a step which would make her niece conscious of
+her true position and of the light in which her presumption was viewed
+by her aunt. She determined to follow her son to Madeleine's residence
+and to give her a lesson, in the presence of the count and Maurice,
+which would be the last he would ever need.</p>
+
+<p>She had rung the bell to order a carriage, when Bertha entered. Learning
+her destination and its object, Bertha expressed her intention of
+accompanying her; and to this the countess could not object.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXXII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE NOBLEMAN AND MANTUA-MAKER.</h3>
+
+
+<p>As we are already aware, Madeleine absolved herself from her usual
+duties for one day, and made Ruth her representative in the working
+department. In spite of Madeleine's habitual self-control, she
+experienced some slight stirrings of irritation when Victorine, who
+deemed herself a privileged person, intruded upon her privacy.</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon, mademoiselle," began the consequential forewoman. "I should not
+have ventured to disturb you, but there is a matter of importance to be
+settled. Madame Orlowski has come in person to order six ball-dresses;
+and she is not satisfied to decide upon the varieties of style that will
+most become her without consulting Mademoiselle Melanie herself. She
+insisted upon my bringing you this message."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You have done wrong," answered Madeleine, somewhat less gently than was
+her wont.</p>
+
+<p>"But in a case of such great importance"&mdash;began Victorine, flushing
+angrily.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine interrupted her with a slight touch of sarcasm in her tone:
+"It is, no doubt, inconceivable to you that my mind should be occupied
+with matters of even <i>greater</i> importance than six ball dresses for one
+lady. Still, I must be tyrannical enough to request you to believe so,
+and not to allow me to be molested again. At all events," she added, her
+good-humor returning, "I venture to hope that I have not often subjected
+you to tyranny or caprice."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, certainly not," responded Victorine, a little mollified. "And
+since it was <i>so obvious</i> that mademoiselle had <i>something upon her
+mind</i>, I have exerted myself as much as possible to prevent her being
+annoyed."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you; have the goodness to send Robert here."</p>
+
+<p>This order was so pointedly a dismissal that the forewoman had no excuse
+to linger. She left the room thoroughly convinced that Mademoiselle
+Melanie was in love,&mdash;in love at last! The house would soon be gayer;
+Mademoiselle Melanie would leave the business more in her forewoman's
+hands; the pleasant change so long desired was coming about; but she
+could not rest until she discovered the object of Mademoiselle Melanie's
+attachment. One thing was certain: there was romance and mystery about
+the whole affair, and this lent zest to the Frenchwoman's enjoyment.</p>
+
+<p>Victorine not only summoned Robert, but stole after him on tiptoe to the
+door of Madeleine's boudoir to hear what order was given. She distinctly
+caught these words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You will admit no one but the Count de Gramont and M. Maurice de
+Gramont."</p>
+
+<p>"The Count de Gramont and his son!" said Victorine to herself, as she
+hurried back to her satins and velvets; "Oh, this is decidedly getting
+interesting,&mdash;Mademoiselle Melanie aims high,&mdash;and, in spite of her
+prudence and propriety, she&mdash;well, well, we shall see! It's always still
+water that runs deepest. The Count de Gramont and his son! Dear me,
+Mademoiselle Melanie would do better if she made me her <i>confidante</i> at
+once."</p>
+
+<p>Victorine, as she excused Mademoiselle Melanie to the Countess Orlowski,
+could not help dropping a hint that Mademoiselle Melanie might not in
+future be so wholly at the command of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> her customers,&mdash;she would receive
+more visitors of her own,&mdash;there were noblemen from her own country who
+were to have free access.</p>
+
+<p>When Madame Orlowski departed and the forewoman returned to the
+work-room, these inuendoes were repeated, and caused no little
+excitement among the group of young women, who revered Madeleine almost
+as though she were a patron saint, and they the most devout Catholics.
+Ruth was highly indignant; but to have admonished the circulator of the
+intelligence, by even the faintest reproach, would have been to make
+matters worse, and to induce Mademoiselle Victorine to defend her rash
+assertions by still rasher ones.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine was not destined to enjoy the uninterrupted solitude she so
+much desired, for Robert had scarcely received his orders to admit no
+one, when he returned to the boudoir with a card in his hand. He
+presented it with hesitation in spite of the large bribe he had
+received.</p>
+
+<p>"His lordship insisted upon my taking his card to Mademoiselle," he said
+apologetically.</p>
+
+<p>"You should not have transgressed my orders," answered Madeleine, with
+some show of impatience. "I have given you the names of the only persons
+whom you were to admit to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"I understand <i>that</i>, mademoiselle, but his lordship would not be
+denied, and said that he called upon a matter of the greatest
+importance, and that he knew Mademoiselle Melanie would see him."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine could not, after this, refuse to allow Lord Linden to enter;
+he no doubt brought her some information concerning the vote which she
+had charged him to obtain.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Linden's countenance, which usually wore a moody, discontented
+expression, was bright with expectation, as he entered Madeleine's
+presence.</p>
+
+<p>"You will pardon," he began, "my refusing to accept your servant's
+denial; I based my hopes of forgiveness upon the good tidings which I
+bring. My advocacy, or rather my sister's (but that is <i>entre nous</i>),
+has not been used in vain with Mr. Rutledge; he had definitely made up
+his mind to cast his vote differently, but his gallantry could not
+withstand a fair lady's solicitation;&mdash;he is too thoroughly an American
+for <i>that</i>, and you may depend upon his vote."</p>
+
+<p>"I am more deeply grateful to you than you can imagine! I thank you
+heartily!" exclaimed Madeleine, extending her hand with impulsive
+frankness, but the action was checked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> almost as quickly as made. For a
+moment she had forgotten the difference of station which she wished him
+to believe existed between them.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not withdraw your hand," he pleaded, making an attempt to imprison
+that hand in his own. But he had the good taste instantly to abandon his
+intention when he saw Madeleine's reluctance. "As you will; I am more
+than satisfied by the assurance that I have a claim upon your
+gratitude."</p>
+
+<p>"You have, indeed, my lord; I am truly grateful."</p>
+
+<p>"I will only ask in return," commenced his lordship, "that you will
+listen to me for a few moments; that you will allow me to tell you what
+is in my mind,&mdash;my heart."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine saw that the evil hour could not be escaped, or postponed, and
+she answered with calm dignity which would have awed a man less under
+the dominion of passion, "You are at liberty to speak, my lord; yet what
+is there of <i>importance</i> which your lordship can have to say to the
+<i>mantua-maker</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>Lord Linden, at first, found it difficult to avail himself of the
+privilege so frigidly given; but he soon collected himself.</p>
+
+<p>"The mantua-maker? How little that title seems to belong to you! The
+proudest, the noblest lady could not have inspired me with the respect,
+the veneration I feel for you."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Respect</i> is peculiarly grateful to one in my position;" answered
+Madeleine pointedly.</p>
+
+<p>This answer seemed to suggest that he might be forgetful of the respect
+due to her, and confused him for a moment; but such an opportunity as
+the present was not to be lost. He went on with renewed animation.</p>
+
+<p>"From the first moment that I met you,&mdash;from the moment when, during
+that memorable journey, you shone forth as the guardian angel of all the
+suffering&mdash;and especially mine"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine tried to restrain him again, by saying, with a forced smile,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"<i>An angelic mantua-maker!</i> You have a great faculty of <i>idealizing</i>, my
+lord. I believe the extent of my services to you consisted in the
+sacrifice of an old pocket-handkerchief, torn into strips for a bandage,
+and the use of my own especial implement, a needle, with which the
+bandages were sewed."</p>
+
+<p>"I have those strips yet," replied the nobleman with ardor. "I shall
+never part with them,&mdash;they are invaluable to me; for, from the moment
+we met, I loved you!"</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine was about to answer, but he frustrated her intention and went
+on,&mdash;</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You were lost to me for six months, yet I could not forget you. I
+sought you unceasingly, and thought to find you in the society
+of&mdash;of&mdash;of those who are not, in reality, your superiors&mdash;not your
+equals even; I found you at last&mdash;but let me pass that over; since I
+have had the happiness of seeing you again, every moment has increased
+my admiration,&mdash;my devotion."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine would have interrupted him, but was again prevented.</p>
+
+<p>"If I had not the misfortune to be a nobleman, if I were not accountable
+to my family for the connection I formed, I would say to you, 'Will you
+honor me by becoming my wife?' Never have I met a woman who united in a
+higher degree all the attributes which are most beautiful in my
+eyes,&mdash;all that man could desire in a companion,&mdash;all the charms of
+person, intellect, soul!"</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine took advantage of a moment's pause, for his lordship found it
+sufficiently difficult to proceed, and replied, with glacial dignity,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Were all your compliments as merited as you perhaps persuade yourself
+to imagine them to be, they would not alter the fact, my lord, that
+<i>you</i> are a nobleman and <i>I</i> a dress-maker."</p>
+
+<p>"True," replied Lord Linden, undaunted by her chilling demeanor; "and it
+is not easy to break the iron bonds of conventionality. But, if the
+difference of our rank prevents my enjoying the triumph of presenting
+such a woman to the world as my wife, it does not prevent my renouncing
+the whole world for her,&mdash;it does not prevent my devoting my life to
+her,&mdash;my sharing with her some happy seclusion where I can forget
+everything except my vow to be hers only."</p>
+
+<p>This time Madeleine allowed him to conclude without word or movement.
+She sat with her eyes fastened upon the ground, and though a bright,
+crimson spot burned on either cheek, her manner was as calm as though
+the offer just made her were full of honor. When it was unmistakable
+that he had finished speaking and awaited her answer, she said, in a
+firm voice, the mild serenity of which could not fail to penetrate the
+breast of the man who had just insulted her,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"In other words, my lord, you have in the most delicate phrases in which
+infamy can be couched,&mdash;in phrases that are as flowers to hide the
+serpent beneath them, given me to understand that were I of your own
+rank you would address me as a man of honor might, and expect me to
+listen to you; but, as I am but a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> mantua-maker and you are a nobleman,
+you offer me <i>dishonor</i> in place of honor, and expect that I shall
+accept it as befitting my position."</p>
+
+<p>"You use harsh language, my dear Mademoiselle Melanie,&mdash;language that"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"That clearly expresses your meaning, and therefore sounds harshly. I am
+accustomed to speak plainly myself, and to strip of their flowery
+<i>entourage</i> the sentiments to which I listen. It may be an ungraceful
+habit, but it is a safe one. I am persuaded that if vice were always
+called by its true name, shame, misery, and ruin would darken fewer
+lives."</p>
+
+<p>"Your candor is one of your greatest charms," said Lord Linden, who was
+deeply impressed by her singular and open treatment of a proposition
+which it had cost him a struggle to make.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad that you approve of my frankness, for I must be franker
+still. When I asked you a favor I was impelled by motives which may
+perhaps be explained to you hereafter; I was exceedingly unwilling to
+make the request which you so promptly accorded,&mdash;but the strength of
+those motives urged me to set aside prudence and reserve. I will not
+pretend to conceal that I feared you might be placed upon a footing of
+less restraint through the performance of the service I solicited at
+your hands, and that you might make your visits more frequent than I
+should be inclined to permit,&mdash;but I did not dream that the price you
+set upon the performance of this act of kindness was the privilege of
+offering me an insult."</p>
+
+<p>"An insult? You do not imagine&mdash;you cannot suppose that I had any such
+intention?"</p>
+
+<p>"You have spoken too plainly, my lord, to leave anything to my
+<i>imagination</i>; possibly, however, you may be acquainted with some fine
+phrase, unknown to me, in which you would couch what I have plainly
+styled, and as plainly comprehend to be an insult. Your advocacy with
+Mr. Rutledge has brought about a result which will benefit one
+who&mdash;who&mdash;who has the strongest claims upon me, and, under ordinary
+circumstances, I should have been your debtor. As it is, you and I are
+quits! The privilege of insulting me will suffice you! And now, my lord,
+you will excuse me, if, being a woman who earns her livelihood and whose
+time is valuable, I bring this interview to a close."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine, as she spoke, rose and courtesied, and would have passed out
+of the room; but Lord Linden, forgetting himself for a moment, prevented
+her exit by springing between her and the door.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You will not leave me without, at least, one word of pardon?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have said we were quits. You demanded a price for the service you
+rendered me; I have paid it by listening for the first time to language
+which, had I a father, or a brother, could not have been addressed to me
+with impunity; I have neither."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me, at least, vindicate myself. You do not know to what lengths
+passion will drive a man."</p>
+
+<p>"You are right, I never knew until now; I have learned to-day. Allow me
+to pass without the necessity of ringing for a servant."</p>
+
+<p>"First you must hear me," exclaimed Lord Linden, almost beside himself
+at the prospect of her leaving him in anger, and closing her doors
+henceforward against him. "I know how contemptible I must seem in your
+eyes. I read it in your countenance; I have no excuse to offer, except
+the plea that my love for you overleapt the bounds of all discretion."</p>
+
+<p>"I ask for no excuse," answered Madeleine, freezingly.</p>
+
+<p>"I only plead for forgiveness; I only entreat that you will forget the
+error of which I have been guilty, that you will allow me to see you
+again; that you will permit me to endeavor to reinstate myself in your
+esteem."</p>
+
+<p>"My lord, our intercourse is at an end. The service you have rendered me
+it is no longer in my power to refuse, but you have received its full
+equivalent. I can spare no more time in the discussion of this subject.
+Once more, I request you to let me pass without forcing me to ring the
+bell."</p>
+
+<p>"I obey you, but on condition that I may return, if it be but once more.
+Promise to grant me one more interview, and I leave you on the instant;
+I implore you not to refuse."</p>
+
+<p>He approached her, and before Madeleine was even aware of his intention,
+seized her hand.</p>
+
+<p>The door opened; M. Maurice de Gramont was announced just as Madeleine
+snatched away the hand Lord Linden had taken, but not before the action
+had been noticed by Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>He paused at the sight of the nobleman, but Madeleine relieved and
+rejoiced by the presence of her cousin, unreflectingly hastened toward,
+and greeted him with a beaming face.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Linden's astonishment was eloquently portrayed upon his
+countenance. His hostess, recovering her presence of mind, turned to the
+nobleman, and bowing as courteously as though she had no cause for
+indignation, wished him good-morning. Her tone seemed to imply that he
+was taking his leave when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> Maurice entered. Lord Linden had no
+alternative but to withdraw.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice, whose heart was swelling with deep gratitude, with increased
+tenderness, with exalted admiration, experienced, at the sight of Lord
+Linden, a sickening revulsion of feeling.</p>
+
+<p>This nobleman, then, was received by Madeleine in her own especial
+apartment, the doors of which were only opened to her particular
+friends; he was alone with her, and his unusually agitated manner
+betrayed that he had been conversing upon some subject of the deepest
+interest. Madeleine, too, looked paler than usual, and the troubled
+expression which had displaced the wonted placidity of her countenance
+was, doubtless, owing to this unanticipated interruption.</p>
+
+<p>As Lord Linden made his exit, he glanced at Maurice at once haughtily
+and inquiringly. What was this young man, of his lordship's own rank,
+doing here, in the boudoir of the mantua-maker? What claim had he to
+admission? Must he not be upon an intimate footing? for, had not
+Madeleine extended her hand to him without reserve, and as though she
+were greeting one who was far from a stranger?</p>
+
+<p>"A lover!" exclaimed Lord Linden to himself as he closed the door; "a
+rival to whom she listens in spite of her bewitching prudery. It is
+incomprehensible! and yet it has inspired me with new courage; I will
+not leave him an undisputed field."</p>
+
+<p>He had approached the street-door when he reflected that something might
+be learned from Mademoiselle Melanie's <i>employ&eacute;es</i>. He turned back and
+went upstairs to the exhibition rooms.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth Thornton received him; and, at his request, displayed shawls,
+mantles, scarfs innumerable. He had desired to see these articles on the
+plea of making a selection for his sister. Hardly looking at them, he
+purchased one of the most extravagant, while making an attempt to lure
+Ruth into conversation. She replied simply and politely, but appeared to
+be only interested in her occupation, and quite to ignore the occasional
+gallantry of his remarks. He was on the point of desisting, when
+Victorine, who had been attending to customers in another apartment,
+chanced to look into this room, saw Lord Linden, recognized him as the
+gentleman with whom she had noticed Mademoiselle Melanie earnestly
+conversing on the day previous, and at once came forward as though to
+assist Ruth. The latter had been rendered very uncomfortable by the
+deportment of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> lordship, and was only too glad to retire, leaving
+the forewoman alone with Lord Linden.</p>
+
+<p>The nobleman added so largely to his purchase that Lady Augusta's
+astonishment must be greatly excited by the number of shawls and scarfs
+which her brother deemed it possible for a lady to bring into use during
+a season.</p>
+
+<p>As may be supposed, it was not difficult to lure the lively Frenchwoman
+into talking of the head of the establishment; and she very speedily
+gratified Lord Linden by communicating as much of Mademoiselle Melanie's
+history as she herself knew. But had Mademoiselle Melanie lovers? Or was
+her vestal-like demeanor genuine? This was difficult and delicate ground
+to tread upon; yet his lordship was too much in earnest not to venture a
+step or two.</p>
+
+<p>The wily Victorine now assumed a mysterious air, for she entertained a
+suspicion that the gentleman did not make inquiries without being deeply
+interested in the answers. It would be impossible to relate precisely
+<i>what</i> she said. Her confidences were given more by inuendoes and arch
+glances and knowing shakes of the head, which suggest so much, because
+they leave so much to the imagination. Lord Linden received the
+impression that Mademoiselle Melanie, though much admired by the
+opposite sex, had conducted herself with exemplary decorum <i>until
+lately</i>; but, of late, certain mysterious proceedings had become known
+to the forewoman of which she did not wish to speak too unreservedly.</p>
+
+<p>The handsome black lace shawl which Lord Linden begged Victorine to
+accept delighted her to a point which won further confidence; for, while
+folding it up with caressing touches, and thanking the donor with that
+grace which belongs to her nation, she admitted that there was a certain
+M. de Gramont who was enamored of Mademoiselle Melanie, and for whom the
+latter had evinced a marked preference, though Mademoiselle Melanie
+evidently wished to act with all possible discretion, and keep his
+attentions from the eyes of the public.</p>
+
+<p>Be it understood, that with Victorine's lax ideas of morality, keeping
+an <i>affaire de c&oelig;ur</i> from the eyes of the public was all that was
+necessary to preserve the honor of a woman who chose to indulge in a
+<i>liaison</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Linden had no alternative but to believe that Mademoiselle Melanie,
+in spite of her air of exquisite purity, and the chaste dignity which
+characterized all her words and actions, was, after all, not
+inaccessible. It was (he reflected) as much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> out of the question for the
+Viscount de Gramont to marry a mantua-maker as it was for Lord Linden to
+marry her; as a natural sequence, their intentions must be the same; and
+it remained to be proved which would be the successful lover.</p>
+
+<p>He quitted the house enraged with himself for having been deceived;
+indignant with Madeleine for her successful acting; furious with
+Maurice, because he looked upon him as a rival; determined to seize an
+early opportunity of quarrelling with him, and resolved to find some
+pretext to gain admission to Mademoiselle Melanie's presence through the
+aid of her obliging forewoman.</p>
+
+<p>Let us return to Maurice, whom we left in Madeleine's boudoir. When the
+door had closed upon Lord Linden, he said, in a wounded tone,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I thought only especial friends were admitted to this sanctum of yours.
+I did not know, Madeleine, that you were acquainted with Lord Linden."</p>
+
+<p>"He came to bring <i>Mademoiselle Melanie</i> an important piece of
+information; and one which concerns you, Maurice."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice was exasperated, rather than soothed, by this intelligence, and
+answered, hastily,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry for it. He belongs to a class of men whom I hold in supreme
+contempt;&mdash;a <i>blas&eacute;</i> idler, whose chief occupation in life is to kill
+time. Madeleine, forgive me! What a brute I am to speak so harshly when
+I come to thank you! But the sight of that senseless <i>rou&eacute;</i> in your
+boudoir, and apparently upon a familiar footing, has made an idiot of
+me. I will not pay you so bad a compliment as to suggest that <i>he</i> is
+the mysterious lover whom you have refused to name. But why is he here
+to-day? Why did I see him here yesterday? Why did he, yesterday, when he
+caught sight of me, suddenly disappear, as though desirous of eluding
+observation?"</p>
+
+<p>"Maurice, if there be true affection between us," said Madeleine,
+gently, and laying her delicate white hand upon his, "if there be true,
+<i>cousinly</i> affection between us, we should trust each other wholly, and
+<i>in spite of appearances</i>. Though it is easy for me to explain <i>why</i> I
+admitted Lord Linden to a private interview, it may not always be
+equally easy to give you explanations; and we may bring great future
+sorrow upon each other if either give entertainment to a doubt."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Madeleine, I can never doubt that all you do is well and wisely
+done. Would that I had no cause to doubt your affection for me; no cause
+to be distracted by jealousy when I see<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> any other man allowed
+privileges which I long to claim as mine alone! But how is it possible
+to love you, and not to be hourly tormented by the position in which I
+am placed? Since you have rejected me as a lover, could I even be known
+to the world as your cousin, I might, at least, have the joy of
+protecting you. Must that, too, be denied me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Maurice. Do you not know how important it is that our relationship
+should remain undivulged, unsuspected?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; I cannot see the importance! I cannot submit to such an
+interdiction! Let my grandmother and my father say what they will, I am
+not bound to yield to so unnatural a request!"</p>
+
+<p>"You will yield to it as my petition, Maurice. Think of it as a favor, a
+sacrifice I ask of you. If you refuse me, I shall believe that you feel
+I have no right to ask favors."</p>
+
+<p>"No right? There you touch me deeply! Madeleine, I am here to-day to
+learn whether you have not laid me under the deepest obligation&mdash;whether
+it was not by you"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine, though she was not a little discomposed by learning that her
+recent interference in his behalf was suspected, had presence of mind
+left to endeavor to divert his thoughts. She interrupted him by saying,
+in a lively tone,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I have made several vain attempts to explain Lord Linden's presence
+here, and you will not permit me to do so, though his visit concerns
+yourself. Have you no curiosity? I am half inclined to punish you for
+your indifference."</p>
+
+<p>Before Maurice could reply, Count Tristan de Gramont was announced.</p>
+
+<p>"It is <i>you</i> whom I have to thank,&mdash;you, good, generous, noble
+Madeleine, I am sure it is!" said he, excitedly. "It is your hand which
+has saved me and my son from the precipice over which we were suspended!
+I could scarcely credit the good news."</p>
+
+<p>"If you talk of good news," replied Madeleine, "I have some to give you
+which I have just received from Lord Linden. Mr. Rutledge has promised
+his vote for the left road."</p>
+
+<p>The count looked at her as though he could not trust his ears; then he
+said, in a tremulous voice that broke into a childish sob, "It is all
+wonder! You are the Fairy they called you, the magician,&mdash;the&mdash;the&mdash;the"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Robert opened the door and announced the Countess de Gramont and
+Mademoiselle de Merrivale.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>MADAME DE GRAMONT.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The countess entered the room casting disdainful glances around her.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine, who could not suspect the object of her visit, accosted her
+in astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"You, madame, beneath my roof; this is an unhoped-for condescension!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do not imagine that I come to be classed among your customers, and
+order my dresses of you," returned the countess, disdainfully, and
+waving Madeleine off as the latter advanced toward her.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha felt strongly inclined to quote from a former remark of Gaston de
+Bois, and retort, "You have done that already, and the transaction was
+not particularly profitable," but she restrained herself.</p>
+
+<p>"Nor do I come," continued the imperious lady, "as one who stoops to be
+your visitor! I came to rebuke impertinence, and to demand by what right
+you have dared to make use of my name as a cloak to give respectability
+to <i>charities</i> forced upon your poor relations."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine was silent.</p>
+
+<p>"Then the aid which came to me at such an opportune moment <i>was</i> yours,
+Madeleine?" said Maurice. "It was you who saved me from worse than
+ruin?"</p>
+
+<p>Still no answer from Madeleine's quivering lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not force her to say,&mdash;do not force her to acknowledge her own
+goodness and liberality," said Bertha, "we all know that it <i>was</i> she,
+and she will not deny it. Does not her silence speak for her?"</p>
+
+<p>"You thought, perhaps," resumed the countess, even more angrily than
+before, "that because my son has flown in the face of my wishes, and has
+mingled himself up with business matters, and because Maurice has chosen
+to degrade himself by entering a profession,&mdash;you thought that you might
+take the liberty of coming to his assistance, in some temporary
+difficulty, and might also be pardoned the insolence of using my name;
+but I resent the impertinence; I will not permit it to pass uncorrected!
+I will write to the person whom you have deceived<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> and let him know that
+the name of the Countess de Gramont has been used without her authority.
+I shall also inquire at whose suggestion he ventured to address an
+epistle to me."</p>
+
+<p>"No need of that, madame," said M. de Bois, who had entered the room in
+time to hear this burst of indignation. "<i>I</i>, alone, am to blame for the
+liberty of using your name. Knowing how desirous Mademoiselle de Gramont
+was to conceal her relationship to your family, I suggested that the
+money indispensable to her cousin should be sent in such a manner that
+it might be supposed to come from you. I also took the responsibility of
+suggesting to Mr. Emerson that it would be well to send a line to you,
+enclosing a receipt for the sum paid into his hands by me; one of my
+motives was to insure that the news of its payment would at once reach
+Maurice."</p>
+
+<p>"You presumed unwarrantably, sir," replied the countess. "You presumed
+almost as much as did Mademoiselle de Gramont, in supposing that she
+could use the money acquired in a manner so degrading to our <i>noble
+house</i> for the benefit of my grandson."</p>
+
+<p>"That money, madame," rejoined M. de Bois, warmly, "has saved the honor
+of your <i>noble house</i>! I will leave you to learn of Count Tristan how it
+was imperilled, and how it would have been sullied but for Mademoiselle
+Madeleine's timely aid."</p>
+
+<p>"It has been <i>sullied</i>," began the countess.</p>
+
+<p>"Not by Mademoiselle de Gramont," returned M. de Bois. "Once more, I
+tell you that she has saved your escutcheon from a stain which could
+never have been effaced. And for this act you spurn her, you scorn her
+generosity; you tell her she is not worthy of rendering you a service,
+instead of bowing down before her as you,&mdash;as we all might well do, in
+reverence and admiration; thanking Heaven that such a woman has been
+placed in the world, as a glorious example to her own sex, and an
+inspiration to ours. The burden of her nobility has not crushed the
+noble instincts of her heart, or paralyzed her noble hands. But you do
+not know all yet; you owe her another debt"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Another debt?" Count Tristan was the first to exclaim.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," continued M. de Bois, in a tone of pride, "through her influence,
+the influence of the duchess-mantua-maker, the votes you could never
+otherwise have secured have been obtained; the committee met an hour
+ago, and the road to the left, which you so much desired, has been
+decided upon, and this, this too, you owe to Mademoiselle Madeleine's
+exertions."</p>
+
+<p>Neither Maurice nor Count Tristan was allowed to speak, for M. de Bois
+went on without pause,&mdash;</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And do you deem <i>this, too</i>, madame, an impertinence, a presumption, a
+crime, upon the part of your niece? Do you say that this is a favor
+which you desire to reject? Happily it is not in your power! And now,
+after she has been cast off, despised, and denounced by you and your
+son, you are bound to come to her with thanks, if not to implore her
+pardon."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," answered the countess, "you have forgotten yourself in a manner
+which astonishes me, and must astonish all who hear you; and henceforth,
+I beg you to understand"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Bertha prevented the sentence of banishment, which the countess was
+about to pronounce against M. de Bois, from being completed, by saying,
+abruptly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You will readily understand, M. de Bois, that we are so much surprised
+that astonishment deprives us of fitting words."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice now turned to Madeleine and said, with the emotion of a
+genuinely manly nature which is not ashamed to receive a benefit,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"To owe you so much is not oppressive to me, Madeleine. There is no
+being on earth, man or woman, to whom I would so willingly be indebted.
+I know the happiness it confers upon you to be able to do what you have
+done. I know your thankfulness is greater even than mine; though how
+great that is, even you cannot"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"What, Maurice!" broke in the countess; "are you so thoroughly without
+pride or self-respect that you talk of accepting the bounty of
+Mademoiselle de Gramont? You consent to receive this charity doled out
+by the hands of a <i>mantua-maker</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>Maurice grew livid with suppressed anger at this new insult, because it
+was levelled at Madeleine, rather than at himself.</p>
+
+<p>"My grandmother, when you are calmer, and when I myself am calmer, I
+will speak to you on this subject."</p>
+
+<p>"How pale you look, Madeleine!" cried Bertha, suddenly. "Surely you are
+ill!"</p>
+
+<p>These words caused Maurice and M. de Bois to spring to the side of
+Madeleine. Her strength had been over-taxed by the emotions of the last
+few days, and it suddenly gave way. It was by a strong effort of
+volition that she prevented herself from fainting. Maurice, who had
+caught her in his arms, placed her tenderly in a chair, and for a moment
+her beautiful head fell upon his shoulder; but she struggled against the
+insensibility which was stealing over her, and feebly waved her hand in
+the direction of a small table upon which stood a tumbler and a carafe
+of water. M. de Bois poured some water into the glass<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> and would have
+held it to her lips; but Maurice took the tumbler from him, and, as
+Madeleine drank, the delight of ministering to her overcame his alarm at
+her indisposition, and sent shivering through his frame a thrill of
+almost rapture.</p>
+
+<p>In a few moments she lifted her eyes over which the lids had drooped
+heavily, and, trying to smile, sat up and made an effort to speak; but
+the pale lips moved without sound, and her countenance still wore a
+ghastly hue.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you better, my own dear Madeleine? What can I do for you?" asked
+Bertha, who was kneeling in front of her.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine murmured faintly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I would like to be left alone, dear. Forgive me for sending you away. I
+shall soon be better when I am alone."</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible, Madeleine!" cried Maurice, his arm still about her waist.
+"You will not ask <i>me</i> to leave you."</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps she only at that moment became conscious of the supporting arm;
+for she gently drew herself away, and the palest rose began to tinge her
+ashy cheek; but it deepened into a sudden crimson flush, as she saw the
+eyes of the countess angrily fixed upon her.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Maurice, do not refuse me. I am better,&mdash;I am quite well." And she
+rose up, forcing her limbs to obey her will. Then, leaning on Bertha's
+shoulder, whispered, "I entreat you, dear, to make them go,&mdash;make them
+<i>all</i> go; I cannot bear more at this moment. Spare me, if you love me!"</p>
+
+<p>"O Madeleine, how can you?" began Bertha.</p>
+
+<p>But M. de Bois, who had perfect reliance in Madeleine's judgment, felt
+certain that she herself knew what was best for her, and said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Mademoiselle de Gramont will be better alone. If she will allow me, I
+will apprise Miss Thornton of her indisposition, and we will take our
+leave."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine smiled assent, and sank into her seat; for her limbs were
+faltering.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois could not have uttered words better calculated to induce the
+countess to take her leave. She had no desire to be found in the boudoir
+of the mantua-maker by any of Madeleine's friends. She said,
+commandingly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Bertha&mdash;Maurice&mdash;I desire you to accompany my son and myself.
+Mademoiselle de Gramont, though my errand here is not fully
+accomplished, I wish you good morning."</p>
+
+<p>Neither Bertha nor Maurice showed the slightest disposition to obey the
+order of the countess, but Madeleine said, pleadingly,&mdash;</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Go&mdash;go&mdash;I pray you! You cannot help me so much as by going."</p>
+
+<p>They both began to remonstrate; but she checked them by the pressure of
+her trembling fingers, for each held one of her hands, and said,
+pleadingly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Do not speak to me now,&mdash;another time,&mdash;when you will; but not <i>now</i>."</p>
+
+<p>There was something so beseeching in her voice that it was impossible to
+resist its appeal. Bertha embraced her in silence; Maurice pressed the
+hand that lay in his to his lips; and both followed the countess out of
+the room.</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan took the hand Maurice had relinquished, and, giving a
+glance at the retreating figure of the countess, commenced speaking; but
+Madeleine interrupted him with,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Another time, I beg. Leave me now."</p>
+
+<p>Just then Gaston de Bois entered, accompanied by Ruth, and, reading
+Madeleine's wishes in her eyes, placed his arm through that of the
+count, and conducted him out of the room, closing the door behind him.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXXIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>HALF THE WOOER.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Count Tristan was about to hand Bertha into the carriage which the
+countess had entered, when the young girl paused, with her tiny foot
+upon the step. She shrank from a discussion with her aunt who was in a
+high state of indignation. Madame de Gramont's wrath was not only
+directed against Gaston de Bois, but she was exasperated by Bertha's
+interference just when the haughty lady had been on the point of making
+him feel that he would no longer be ranked among the number of her
+friends and welcome visitors. While Bertha's foot still rested upon the
+step, she glanced over her shoulder and saw Gaston standing beside
+Maurice. Her decision was made. She looked into the carriage and said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You will have the kindness to excuse me from accompanying you, aunt; I
+will take advantage of the beautiful day and walk home with Maurice."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Having uttered these words, she drew back quickly and tripped away
+before the answer of the countess could reach her. Maurice walked on one
+side of her, and what was more natural than that Gaston should occupy
+the place on the other side?</p>
+
+<p>For a brief space all three pursued their way in silence, then Bertha
+made an effort to converse. Maurice answered in monosyllables and those
+were followed by deep sighs. Gaston seemed to be hardly more master of
+language, though his taciturnity had a different origin; it was
+occasioned by the unexpected delight of finding himself walking beside
+Bertha, who constantly lifted her sweet face inquiringly to his, as
+though to ask why he had no words.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice was in a perplexed state of mind which caused him a nervous
+longing for entire seclusion. Even sympathy, sympathy from those who
+were as dear to him as Bertha and Gaston, jarred upon his highly-strung
+nerves.</p>
+
+<p>All at once, he stopped and said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Gaston, I will leave you to conduct Bertha home; I fancy you will not
+object to the trust," and trying to simulate a smile, he walked away.</p>
+
+<p>Gaston, left alone with Bertha, quickly regained his power of speech.
+They were passing the Capitol; how lovely the grounds looked in their
+spring attire! The day, too, was delicious. The opportunity of seeing
+Bertha alone was a happiness that might not soon return.</p>
+
+<p>"These grounds are Mademoiselle Madeleine's favorite promenade,"
+remarked M. de Bois. "Have you ever seen them?"</p>
+
+<p>Bertha made no reply, but she moved toward the gate and they entered. A
+short silence ensued, then she said abruptly, "What an heroic character
+is Madeleine's!"</p>
+
+<p>"A character," returned Gaston, tenderly, "which exerts a holy influence
+upon all with whom she is thrown in contact, and works more good,
+teaches more truth by the example of a patient, noble, holy life than
+could be taught by a thousand sermons from the most eloquent lips." He
+paused, and then continued in a tone of deep feeling, "<i>I</i> may well say
+so! I shudder to think what a weak, useless, self-centred being I should
+have been but for her agency."</p>
+
+<p>"You seem far happier," replied Bertha, smiling archly, "than you did in
+Brittany! And this change was wrought by"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Mademoiselle Madeleine! It was she who made me feel that we are all too
+ready with our peevish outcries against the beautiful world in which we
+have been placed; too ready to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> complain that all is sadness and sorrow
+and disappointment, when the gloom exists <i>within</i> ourselves, not
+<i>without</i> us; it is from ourselves the misty darkness springs; it is we
+ourselves who have lost, or who have never possessed, the secret of
+being happy, and we exclaim that there is no happiness on the face of
+the globe! It is we ourselves who are '<i>flat</i>, <i>stale</i>, and
+<i>unprofitable</i>,' not our neighbors; though we are sure to charge them
+with the dulness and insipidity for which we, alone, are responsible."</p>
+
+<p>Bertha answered, "One secret of Madeleine's cheerfulness is her
+unquenchable <i>hope</i>. Even in her saddest moments, the light of hope
+never appeared to be extinguished. It shone about her almost like a
+visible halo, and illumined all her present and her future. Have you not
+remarked the strength of this characteristic?"</p>
+
+<p>"That I have!" he replied with warmth. "And it forced upon my conviction
+the truth of the poet's words that '<i>hope</i> and <i>wisdom</i> are akin'; that
+it is always wise to hope, and the most wise, because those who have
+most faith, ever hope most. She taught me to hope when I was plunged in
+the depths of despair!"</p>
+
+<p>Bertha blushed suddenly, as though those fervently-uttered words had
+awakened some suggestion which could not be framed into language.</p>
+
+<p>"This seat is shady and retired, and commands a fine view of the
+garden," remarked Gaston, pausing. There was an invitation in his
+accents.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha, half unconsciously seated herself, and Gaston did the same. Then
+came another pause, a longer one than before; it was broken by Bertha,
+who exclaimed,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You defended Madeleine nobly and courageously! and how I thanked you!"</p>
+
+<p>"I only did her justice, or, rather, I did her far less than justice,"
+returned Gaston.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet few men would have dared to say what you did in my aunt's
+presence."</p>
+
+<p>"Could any man who had known Mademoiselle Madeleine as intimately as I
+have had the honor of knowing her, through these four last painful years
+of her life, could any man who had learned to reverence her as I
+reverence her, have said less?"</p>
+
+<p>"But my aunt, by her towering pride, awes people out of what they
+<i>ought</i> to do, and what they <i>want</i> to do; at least, she does <i>me</i>; and
+therefore,&mdash;therefore I honored you all the more when I saw you had the
+courage to tell her harsh truths, while pleading Madeleine's cause so
+eloquently."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Gaston was much moved by these unanticipated and warmly uttered
+commendations. He tried to speak, but once again relapsed into his old
+habit of stammering.</p>
+
+<p>"Your praises are most pre&mdash;pre&mdash;pre"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Bertha finished his sentence as in by-gone days. "Precious, are they
+indeed? I am glad! I am truly glad that they are precious."</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois, notwithstanding the happiness communicated by this frank
+declaration, could make no reply. What <i>could</i> he answer? And what right
+had he to give too delightful an interpretation to the chance
+expressions of the lovely being who sat there before him, uttering words
+in her ingenuous simplicity, which would have inspired a bolder, more
+self-confident man, with the certainty that she regarded him with
+partial eyes.</p>
+
+<p>His gaze was riveted upon the ground, and so was hers. Neither spoke.
+How long they would have sat thus, each looking for some movement to be
+made by the other, is problematical. The double reverie was broken by a
+well-known voice, which cried out,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, M. de Bois, you are the very man I wanted to see. Good-morning,
+Mademoiselle de Merrivale."</p>
+
+<p>Lord Linden and his sister, Lady Augusta, stood before them. M. de Bois
+instantly rose, and Bertha invited Lady Augusta to take the vacant
+place. Lord Linden had already seized Gaston's arm, and drawn him aside.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear fellow," began the nobleman, "Do you know that I have been
+vainly seeking you for a couple of days! I am in a most awkward
+predicament; but I suppress particulars to make a long story short; in a
+word, I have discovered the fair unknown! I expected,&mdash;you know what
+sort of woman I expected to find."</p>
+
+<p>"Perfectly," answered Gaston, laughing, "a walking angel, minus the
+traditional wings. I remember your description. Perhaps the lady grows
+more earthly upon a better acquaintance?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, not by any means. I found her more enchanting than ever; but hang
+it, unless you had seen her, you could not comprehend how I could have
+made such a confounded mistake. This lovely being is&mdash;is&mdash;is&mdash;don't
+prepare to laugh. I shall be tempted to knock you down if you do, for
+really my feelings are so much interested that I could not bear even a
+friend's ridicule."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, go on," urged M. de Bois. "The lady in question is,&mdash;not an
+angel, unless it be a fallen one; that I understand; good; then <i>what</i>
+is she?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"A <i>mantua-maker!</i>" exclaimed Lord Linden, in accents of deep
+mortification.</p>
+
+<p>Well might he have been startled by the change that came over Gaston's
+countenance; the merriment by which it had been lighted up suddenly
+vanished; he looked aghast, astounded, and his features worked as though
+with ill-suppressed rage.</p>
+
+<p>"I see you are amazed: I thought you would be! You did not take me for
+such a greenhorn! But, in spite of her trade,&mdash;her <i>profession</i>, as it
+is considerately called in this country,&mdash;she is the most peerless
+creature; any man might have been duped."</p>
+
+<p>"And her name?" inquired Gaston, in an agitated voice, though he hardly
+needed the confirmation to his fears contained in Lord Linden's answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Mademoiselle Melanie!"</p>
+
+<p>"Good heavens! how unfortunate!" exclaimed Gaston, not knowing what he
+was saying.</p>
+
+<p>"Unfortunate," repeated Lord Linden; "you may well say <i>that</i>. But as
+marrying her is out of the question, there may possibly be an
+alternative"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"<i>What</i> alternative? <i>What do you mean?</i>" demanded Gaston, turning upon
+him fiercely.</p>
+
+<p>"It does not strike me that my meaning is so difficult to divine,"
+replied the other, lightly. "When a woman is not in a position to become
+the wife of a man who has fallen desperately in love with her, there is
+only one thing else that he will very naturally seek to"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Forbear, my lord! I cannot listen to such language," cried Gaston,
+angrily. "You could not insult a pure woman, no matter in what station
+you found her, by such a suggestion. I will not believe you capable of
+such baseness."</p>
+
+<p>Lord Linden looked at him in questioning amazement; then answered,
+somewhat scornfully,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Really, I was not aware that instances of the kind were so rare, or
+that your punctilious morality would be so terribly shocked by an
+every-day occurrence. If the lovely creature herself consents to my
+proposition, I consider that the arrangement will be a very fair one."</p>
+
+<p>"Consents?" echoed Gaston, lashed into fury. "Do you know of whom you
+are speaking? This Mademoiselle Melanie is one of the noblest,&mdash;that is
+to say, one of the most noble-minded, and one of the most chaste of
+women."</p>
+
+<p>"You have heard of her then? Perhaps seen her?" inquired Lord Linden,
+eagerly. "As for her vaunted chastity,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> that is neither here nor
+there,&mdash;that <i>may</i> or <i>may not</i> be fictitious. I have heard from the
+best authority that she receives the private visits of titled admirers,
+whose attentions can hardly be of a nature very different from mine. You
+see, it is fair game, and if I succeed"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"For Heaven's sake stop!" said Gaston, losing all control of his temper.
+Then reflecting that this very energy in defending her might compromise
+Madeleine, he said, more calmly, "I beg your lordship to pause before
+you insult Mademoiselle Melanie. I know something of her history. She
+bears an unblemished name; she has a highly sensitive, a most delicate
+and refined nature. Could she deem it possible that any man entertained
+toward her such sentiments as those to which you have just given
+utterance, it would almost kill her."</p>
+
+<p>Lord Linden's lips curled sarcastically, but he did not feel disposed to
+communicate how completely Mademoiselle Melanie was already aware of
+those sentiments. He now essayed to put an end to the conversation by
+saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I shall bear your remarks in mind; though the accounts we have heard of
+the fair mantua-maker differ materially."</p>
+
+<p>"Who has dared to slander her?" demanded Gaston, with an air which
+seemed to assert his right to ask the question.</p>
+
+<p>"I have not said that she has been slandered. I see we are not likely to
+understand each other; let us join the ladies."</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke, he walked toward Lady Augusta and Bertha. His sister rose
+and made her adieu.</p>
+
+<p>When Lord Linden and Lady Augusta had passed on, Gaston was surprised to
+see that Bertha did not appear desirous of returning to the hotel. She
+sat still, and, when he approached her, drew her dress slightly aside,
+as though to make room for him to resume his seat. Could he do otherwise
+than comply? She sat with her head bent down. The shining ringlets
+falling in rich, golden showers, partly concealed her face. She was
+tracing letters upon the gravel-walk with her parasol. Gaston was too
+much moved by his painful conversation with Lord Linden to start any
+indifferent topic; and Bertha's manner, so different from her usual
+frank, lively bearing, made it still more difficult for him to know how
+to accost her.</p>
+
+<p>At last, without raising her eyes, she said, "You and Lord Linden were
+having a very animated discussion. At one time I began to be afraid that
+you were quarrelling."</p>
+
+<p>"We certainly never differed more. I doubt if we shall ever be friends
+again."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This assertion was uttered so earnestly that Bertha involuntarily looked
+up into Gaston's face. It was flushed by his recent anger, and the
+expression of his countenance betokened perplexity mingled with
+vexation.</p>
+
+<p>What woman ever saw the man she loved out of temper without seeking to
+pour oil upon the troubled waters, even at the risk of being charged
+with her sex's constitutional curiosity? for an attempt to soothe
+includes a desire to fathom the secret cause of annoyance. If there be
+women who are not stirred by impulses of this kind they are cast in
+moulds the very opposite to that of Bertha.</p>
+
+<p>She said, in a soft and winning tone, "Has he done you wrong?"</p>
+
+<p>"He has grossly wronged one whom I esteem more highly, perhaps, than any
+woman,&mdash;any being living," answered Gaston, firing up at the
+recollection of Lord Linden's insinuations; then he corrected himself.
+"I should have said any&mdash;any oth&mdash;oth&mdash;other&mdash;but"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It was a woman&mdash;a lady, then, whom he wronged?" inquired Bertha,
+betraying redoubled interest at this inadvertent admission.</p>
+
+<p>Gaston perceived that he had said too much; but, in adding nothing more,
+he did not extricate himself from the difficulty. His silence could only
+be interpreted into an affirmative.</p>
+
+<p>"And one whom you esteem more highly than all others?" persisted Bertha.
+"Whom do you esteem so highly as Madeleine? Surely it could not have
+been Madeleine? Lord Linden did not speak disrespectfully of Madeleine?"</p>
+
+<p>Gaston had gone too far for concealment. "He spoke of Mademoiselle
+Melanie, the mantua-maker; but I warrant I have silenced him!"</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine is very happy in the possession of such a true friend as you
+are! one upon whom she can always lean,&mdash;always depend,&mdash;one who can
+never fail her! Yes, she is very, very happy! When I heard you defending
+her before my aunt, I said to myself, 'Oh that I had such a friend!'"</p>
+
+<p>Would not Gaston de Bois have been the dullest of mortals if those words
+had failed to infuse a sudden courage into his heart?</p>
+
+<p>He replied with impetuous ardor, "Would&mdash;would that you could be induced
+to accept the same friend as your own! Would that he might dare to hope
+that some day, however distant, you would grant him a nearer, dearer
+title! Would that he might believe such a joy possible!"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Bertha spoke no word, made no movement, but sat with her eyes bent on
+the ground. Her manner emboldened Gaston to seize her hand; she did not
+withdraw it from his clasp; then he comprehended his joy, and poured out
+the history of his long-concealed passion with a tender eloquence of
+which he never imagined himself capable.</p>
+
+<p>If, when he awoke that morning from a dream in which Bertha's lovely
+countenance was vividly pictured, some prophetic voice had whispered
+that ere the sun went down he would have uttered such language, and she
+have listened to it, he would not have believed the verification of that
+delightful prediction within the bounds of possibility. Yet, when the
+happy pair left the capital grounds to return to the hotel, Gaston
+walked by the side of his betrothed bride.</p>
+
+<p>It is true that the wealthy heiress had lured on her self-distrusting
+lover to make a declaration which he had not contemplated; but who will
+charge her with unmaidenly conduct? The most modest of women are daily
+doing, unaware, what Bertha did somewhat more consciously. Shakespeare,
+who read the hearts of women with the penetrating eyes of a seer, and
+who never painted a heroine who was not the type of a class, pictured no
+rare or imaginary order of being in his beauteous Desdemona,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i10">"A maiden never bold,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of spirit so still and quiet that her motion<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Blushed at herself,"&mdash;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>who was yet "<i>half the wooer</i>." And there is no lack of men who can
+testify (in spite of the feminine denial which we anticipate) that they
+owe their happiness (or misery) to some gentle, timid girl who was
+nevertheless "<i>half the wooer</i>."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXV" id="CHAPTER_XXXV"></a>CHAPTER XXXV.</h2>
+
+<h3>A REVELATION.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Bertha was too happy as she walked toward the hotel, to dread the
+rebukes which she had good reason to anticipate from the countess. For a
+young lady to traverse the streets alone with a gentleman, however
+intimate a friend, was, according to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> strict rules of French
+etiquette, a gross breach of propriety. And, though the escort of a
+gentleman was deemed allowable in the purer and less conventional
+society of the land in which they were sojourning, Bertha knew that her
+supercilious aunt considered all customs barbarous but those of her
+refined native country.</p>
+
+<p>The countess was sitting in her drawing-room, evidently in a state of
+high excitement, when Bertha and Gaston entered. Count Tristan appeared
+to be endeavoring to palliate his recent conduct by a series of
+contradictory statements, and a garbled explanation of the events which
+had placed Maurice in a dubious position; but his mother had sufficient
+shrewdness to detect that his object was to deceive, not to enlighten
+her.</p>
+
+<p>The appearance of Bertha and Gaston gave inexpressible relief to the
+count, and his satisfaction betrayed itself in a singularly unnatural
+and childish manner. He kissed Bertha on both cheeks as though he had
+not seen her for a long period, asked her how she did, shook hands
+warmly with Gaston as if they had not parted a couple of hours before,
+offered them chairs, put his arm about Bertha, and drew her to him, as
+though he were making her his shield against some imaginary assailant.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the meaning of this prolonged absence, Bertha?" demanded the
+countess, without appearing to notice M. de Bois. "Where have you been?
+Why did you not return immediately? Where is Maurice?"</p>
+
+<p>"The day was so fine," answered Bertha, trying to speak with some show
+of dignity and composure, but failing lamentably, "that I thought I
+would enjoy a walk in the capitol grounds. We met Lady Augusta and Lord
+Linden. Maurice did not return with us."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you aware of the singular impropriety of your behavior,
+Mademoiselle de Merrivale? Is it possible that a niece of mine can have
+become so perfectly regardless of all the rules of decorum?"</p>
+
+<p>"Will you excuse me for the present, aunt?" interrupted Bertha,
+retreating toward the door in a rather cowardly fashion. "I leave M. de
+Bois to&mdash;M. de Bois wishes to"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Gaston had risen and opened the door for her to pass, with as much
+self-possession as though bashfulness had not been the tormenting evil
+genius of his existence. His look reassured her, and, without finishing
+her sentence, she disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>The countess rose with even more than her wonted stateliness,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> and was
+about to follow her niece; but M. de Bois, pretending not to perceive
+her intention, closed the door and said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"There is a communication which I desire to have the honor of making to
+Madame de Gramont and Count Tristan."</p>
+
+<p>"You can make no communication to which I feel disposed to listen,"
+answered the countess haughtily, and advancing toward the door.</p>
+
+<p>"I regret to hear the aunt of Mademoiselle de Merrivale say so, as I
+have this morning ventured to solicit the hand of that young lady in
+marriage, and have received a favorable answer to my suit, as well as
+permission to request the approval of her relatives."</p>
+
+<p>The countess sank into the nearest chair. She knew that her consent was
+a mere form, and that Bertha could dispose of her hand in freedom.</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan, still speaking in a confused, incoherent manner,
+exclaimed,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Bless my soul! How astonishing! The game's up, and Maurice has lost his
+chance! Bertha's fortune is to go out of the family! It's very puzzling.
+How did it all come about? De Bois, you sly fellow, you lucky dog, I
+never suspected you. Managed matters quietly, eh? Should never have
+thought you were the man to succeed with a pretty girl."</p>
+
+<p>"Really," returned Gaston good-humoredly, "I am almost as astonished as
+you are by Mademoiselle de Merrivale's preference. Let me hope that the
+Countess de Gramont and yourself will render my happiness complete by
+approving of Mademoiselle Bertha's choice."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, of course; there's nothing else to be done; we have lost our
+trump card, but there's no use of confessing it! Very glad to welcome
+you as a relative, sir; very happy indeed; everything shall be as
+Mademoiselle de Merrivale desires."</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan uttered these disjointed sentences, in the flurried,
+bewildered manner which had marked his conduct since Gaston entered. A
+stranger might easily have imagined that the count was under the
+influence of delirium; for his face was scarlet his eyes shone with
+lurid brightness, his muscles twitched, his hands trembled nervously,
+and he was, to all appearance, not thoroughly conscious of what he was
+doing.</p>
+
+<p>His mother's look of rebuke was entirely lost upon him, and he rattled
+on with an air of assumed hilarity which was painfully absurd.</p>
+
+<p>Gaston was disinclined to give the disdainful lady an opportu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span>nity of
+expressing her opposition to his suit, and, pretending to interpret her
+silence favorably, he took his hat, and said, "I thank you for the
+cordial manner in which my proposition has been received; I hope to have
+the pleasure of visiting Mademoiselle de Merrivale this evening; I wish
+you a good-morning."</p>
+
+<p>The door had closed upon him before the countess had recovered herself
+sufficiently to reply.</p>
+
+<p>That evening, before paying his proposed visit to Bertha, M. de Bois
+sought Madeleine, to make her a participator in the happiness which she
+had so truly predicted would, one day, be his. He also purposed, if
+possible, to put her on her guard against the advances of Lord Linden.
+At the door he encountered Maurice, who with unaffected warmth,
+congratulated him upon his betrothal.</p>
+
+<p>When the servant answered their ring, both gentlemen were denied
+admission. Mademoiselle Melanie was not well, and had retired.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you going back to the hotel?" asked Gaston, as they left the door.</p>
+
+<p>"No, not until late. I hardly know what I shall do with myself; I may go
+to the reading-rooms."</p>
+
+<p>As their roads were different, they parted, and Maurice, not being able
+to select any better place of refuge, took his way to the reading-rooms
+most frequented by gentlemen of the metropolis. He was fortunate in
+finding an apartment vacant. He sat down by the table, took up a
+newspaper, though the words before him might have been printed in an
+unknown tongue, for any sense they conveyed.</p>
+
+<p>He had been sitting about half an hour, musing sadly, when Lord Linden
+sauntered through the rooms. The instant he observed Maurice, he
+advanced toward him, and unceremoniously took a seat at the same table.
+This was just the opportunity which the <i>piqued</i> nobleman had desired.
+Maurice returned his salutation politely, but with an occupied air which
+seemed to forbid conversation. But Lord Linden was not to be baffled. He
+opened a periodical, and, after listlessly turning the leaves, closed
+it, and, leaning over the table in the direction of Maurice, said, with
+a sarcastic intonation,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you had an agreeable visit, M. de Gramont."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice looked up in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg pardon,&mdash;I do not comprehend. To what visit do you allude?"</p>
+
+<p>"When we last met," returned Lord Linden, in the same of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span>fensive manner,
+"I left you in charming company; the lovely mantua-maker, you know!&mdash;the
+very queen of sirens!"</p>
+
+<p>Maurice flushed crimson and half started from his chair, then sat down
+again, making a strong effort to control himself, as he answered coldly,
+"I am at a loss to comprehend the meaning of the language in which you
+are pleased to indulge."</p>
+
+<p>"'Pon my life, that's going too far; especially as I feel not a little
+aggrieved that your inopportune entrance cut short my visit. And you
+seemed to be a decided favorite. Deuced lucky! for she is the handsomest
+woman in Washington. Come, be frank enough to confess that you think so,
+and I'll admit that I think her the most beautiful woman upon the face
+of the globe."</p>
+
+<p>"My frankness," returned Maurice, sharply, "forces me to confess that
+this conversation is particularly distasteful to me. The lady in
+question"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Lord Linden interrupted him with a light laugh. "Lady? Oh! I see you
+adopt the customs and phraseology of the country in which you live; and
+<i>here</i>, a mantua-maker is, of course, a lady; just as a respectable
+boot-black is, in common parlance, an accomplished gentleman."</p>
+
+<p>"My lord,"&mdash;began Maurice, angrily; but Lord Linden would not permit him
+to continue.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't be offended; I suppose you are a naturalized foreigner; you
+are quite right to accept the manners of the country you adopt; it is
+the true diplomatic dodge. And, besides, I admit that the <i>lady</i> in
+question might anywhere be mistaken for a thorough lady. She has all the
+points which betoken the high-bred dame. I'll not quarrel with the term
+you use! All I ask is fair play, and that you will not attempt to
+monopolize the field."</p>
+
+<p>"Lord Linden," replied Maurice, unable to endure this impertinence any
+longer, "once more I beg to inform you that you are using language to
+which I cannot listen. I will not permit any man to speak of that lady
+in the manner which you have chosen to employ. I shall consider it a
+personal insult if you persist."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed! Have matters gone so far? Really, I did not suspect that the
+ground was already occupied, and that the <i>lady</i> whose mantua-making and
+millinery are the admiration of all Washington, had a protector by whom
+her less favored acquaintances must expect to be taken to task."</p>
+
+<p>These words were spoken in a tone sufficiently caustic to render their
+meaning unmistakable.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"She has protectors, my lord,&mdash;legal protectors,&mdash;who are ready to prove
+their right to defend her," replied Maurice, with severity, and rising
+as he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>All considerations of prudence,&mdash;the wishes of Madeleine and of his
+family,&mdash;were forgotten at the moment: she was insulted, and he was
+there to defend her; that was all he remembered.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Linden, though he could not but be struck by the tone and manner of
+the viscount, echoed the words, "The right?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, the <i>right</i>, as well as the <i>might</i>. Mademoiselle Melanie, the
+mantua-maker, is in reality Mademoiselle Madeleine Melanie de Gramont,
+the daughter of the late Duke de Gramont, and the second cousin of my
+father, Count Tristan de Gramont."</p>
+
+<p>"Good heavens! of what gross stupidity I have been guilty! How shall I
+ever obtain your pardon?"</p>
+
+<p>Without answering this question, Maurice went on.</p>
+
+<p>"You have forced me to betray a secret which my cousin earnestly desired
+to keep; but it is time that her family should refuse their countenance
+to this farce of concealment. I, for one, will not be a party to it any
+longer. I will never consent to calling her, or hearing her called, by
+any but her true title, and I do not care how soon that is proclaimed to
+the world."</p>
+
+<p>"M. de Gramont," said Lord Linden, whose embarrassment was mingled with
+undisguised joy, "I am overwhelmed with shame, and I beg that you will
+forget what I have said. My apology is based upon the error under which
+I was laboring. I make it very humbly, very gladly, and trust the
+Viscount de Gramont will accept it generously. Without being able to
+conceive the circumstances which have placed a noble lady in a position
+which has caused me to fall into so grave a mistake, I shall only be too
+proud, too thankful, to make the one reparation in my power,"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Lord Linden had not finished speaking, but Maurice was disinclined to
+hear any more or to prolong the interview, and said, frigidly, "I am
+bound to accept your apology; but your lordship can hardly expect that I
+can find it easy to forget that my cousin, Mademoiselle de Gramont, has
+been regarded by you in an unworthy light. Good-evening."</p>
+
+<p>Feigning not to see Lord Linden's outstretched hand, and disregarding
+his attempt to exculpate himself further, Maurice walked out of the
+reading-room, leaving the nobleman too much elated by the discovery of
+Madeleine's rank to experience a natural indignation at her cousin's
+cavalier treatment.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXXVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SUITOR.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Lord Linden, when the Viscount de Gramont abruptly left him, returned to
+his lodgings, and, in spite of the lateness of the hour, wrote to
+Madeleine, implored her pardon for the presumption into which he had
+been lured by his ignorance of her rank, and formally solicited her
+hand. That night the happy nobleman's dreams, when he could sleep, and
+his waking thoughts when he courted slumber in vain, had an auroral
+tinge hitherto unknown. As soon as the sound of busy feet, traversing
+the corridor, announced that the much-desired morning had at last
+arrived, he rang his bell, gave his letter into the hands of a sleepy
+domestic, and ordered it to be delivered immediately.</p>
+
+<p>What was the next step which propriety demanded? To see Mademoiselle de
+Gramont's relatives, to make known his suit to them, and to solicit
+their approval.</p>
+
+<p>He considered himself fortunate in finding both Madame de Gramont and
+Count Tristan at home. The former received him with as much cordiality
+as her constitutional stiffness permitted, but the latter appeared to be
+in a half-lethargic state; he scarcely rose to welcome his visitor,
+spoke feebly and indistinctly, and, as he sank back in his seat, leaned
+his flushed face upon his hands.</p>
+
+<p>"My visit is somewhat early," remarked Lord Linden, "but I was impatient
+to see you, for I came to speak of your niece, Mademoiselle de Gramont."</p>
+
+<p>The count looked up eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Gramont replied before her son could speak, "The person whom
+you designate as my niece has forfeited all right to that title, and is
+not recognized by her family."</p>
+
+<p>"I nevertheless venture to hope," returned the nobleman with marked
+suavity, "that, under existing circumstances, the alienation will only
+be temporary."</p>
+
+<p>The countess broke out angrily: "The impertinence of this young person
+exceeds all bounds! She gave us to understand that she possessed, at
+least, the modesty to hide her real name, and had no desire to disgrace
+her family by proclaiming that it was borne by a person in her degraded
+condition; but this, it seems, is only another evidence of her duplicity
+and covert<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> man&oelig;uvring; she has taken care that your lordship should
+become acquainted with a relationship which we can never cease to
+deplore."</p>
+
+<p>"You do her wrong," replied Lord Linden, with becoming spirit; "I regret
+to say she so scrupulously concealed her rank that I was led into a
+great error,&mdash;one for which I now desire amply to atone. It was from M.
+Maurice de Gramont that I learned the true name of the so-called
+Mademoiselle Melanie."</p>
+
+<p>"Maurice!" cried the countess and her son together.</p>
+
+<p>"I received the information from him last evening," said Lord Linden,
+"and I have now come to solicit the hand of Mademoiselle de Gramont in
+marriage."</p>
+
+<p>The suggestion that Madeleine could thus magically be raised out of her
+present humiliating condition, and that all her short-comings might be
+covered by the broad cloak of a title, took such delightful possession
+of the haughty lady's mind that there was no room even for surprise.
+While Count Tristan was vehemently shaking hands with Lord Linden, and
+stammering out broken and unintelligible sentences, his mother said
+gravely,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"We consider your lordship, in all respects, an acceptable <i>parti</i> for a
+member of our family. I have ever entertained for Mademoiselle de
+Gramont the strongest affection, in spite of her lamentable
+eccentricities. But these I would prefer to forget."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that's it! That's the trump card now!&mdash;forget,&mdash;forget all about
+it!" cried Count Tristan, hilariously. He had recovered his power of
+utterance, yet spoke like a man partially intoxicated. "Let the past be
+forgotten, bury it deep; never dig it up! There are circumstances which
+had better not be mentioned. I myself have been mixed up with the
+affair; of course, I was an innocent party; I beg you to believe so.
+It's all right&mdash;quite right&mdash;quite right!"</p>
+
+<p>Though it was so evident that Count Tristan's mind was wandering,&mdash;at
+all events, that there was no connection in his ideas,&mdash;his mother could
+not stoop to admit any such possibility, and said sternly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"My son, your language strikes me as singular. Lord Linden, of course,
+comprehends that he has our consent to his union with Mademoiselle de
+Gramont; but we also wish him to understand we expect him to remove his
+wife to his own country, or some other land where her history will not
+be known. Upon this condition we will pardon our relative's vagaries,
+and give our sanction to her nuptials."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Lord Linden was not a man who could, with any complacency, consent to
+have conditions enforced upon him by the family of the lady whom he
+selected as his wife; his pride was quite as great as theirs; but before
+he had obtained Madeleine's consent to his suit, it was politic to
+preserve the favor of those who could influence her decision.</p>
+
+<p>Turning to Count Tristan, he observed, "I sent a letter to Mademoiselle
+de Gramont this morning, and I hope to be honored by an answer during
+the day. Would it be asking too much if I begged that you would see the
+lady, and inform her of the flattering reception which Madame de Gramont
+and yourself have given my proposals?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will go at once," replied Count Tristan. "An open visit, of course;
+no need of concealment now! Where's my hat? What has become of it? It's
+got a trick lately of getting out of the way."</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan, though his hat stood on the table before him, tottered
+across the room, looking about in a weak, flurried way. His mother was
+not willing to attribute his singularly helpless, troubled, and childish
+demeanor, to the perturbed state of his brain, and said severely, though
+addressing her words to Lord Linden,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Count Tristan's gratification at the intelligence you have
+communicated, and his desire to serve your lordship, appear to have
+somewhat bewildered him. He was always very much attached to
+Mademoiselle de Gramont."</p>
+
+<p>"Attached to her? Certainly! <i>Certainly!</i>" replied the count. "Though
+she did not always think so! I was devotedly attached to her when she
+imagined quite the contrary! This is my hat, I believe."</p>
+
+<p>He took up Lord Linden's.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg pardon,&mdash;<i>that</i>, I think is mine," replied his lordship; and
+then, indicating the one upon the table which Count Tristan apparently
+did not see, asked, "Is not this yours?"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose so; it cannot be any one's else; there are only two of us. I
+wish you a good-morning."</p>
+
+<p>With a forced, unnatural laugh, he left the room.</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan's deportment, in general, was almost as calm and stately
+as that of his august mother; though it was only a weak reflex of hers;
+accordingly the change in his demeanor surprised Lord Linden
+unpleasantly; but he took leave of the countess without endeavoring to
+solve an enigma to which he had no clew.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVII.</h2>
+
+<h3>A SHOCK.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Count Tristan, on reaching Madeleine's residence was ushered into her
+boudoir. He found her reclining upon the sofa, with a book in her hand.
+She had not entirely recovered from her indisposition, and wisely
+thought that one of the most effectual modes of battling against illness
+was to divert the mind: an invaluable medicine, too little in vogue
+among the suffering, yet calculated to produce marvellous amelioration
+of physical pain. As all <i>matter</i> exists from, and is influenced by,
+spiritual causes, the happy workings of this mental ministry are very
+comprehensible. Madeleine invariably found medicinal and restorative
+properties in the pages of an interesting and healthful-toned volume
+which would draw her out of the contemplation of her own ailments. She
+had trained herself, when the prostration of her faculties or other
+circumstances rendered it impossible for her to read, to lie still and
+reflect upon all the blessings that were accorded to her, to count them
+over, one by one, and <i>compel</i> herself to estimate each at its full
+value. In this manner she successfully counteracted the depression and
+unrest that attend bodily disease, and often succeeded in lifting her
+mind so far above its disordered mortal medium that she was hardly
+conscious of suffering, which was nevertheless very real. Sceptical
+reader! you smile in doubt, and think that if Madeleine's wisdom and
+patience could accomplish this feat, she was a rare instance of
+womanhood. Try her experiment faithfully and then decide!</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine only partially rose when Count Tristan entered.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear niece,&mdash;my dearest Madeleine,&mdash;I hope you are not ill?"</p>
+
+<p>Although the count spoke with an air of exaggerated affection, his
+manner was far more self-possessed than when he left the hotel. The
+fresh air had revived him. Madeleine was not struck by any singularity
+in his deportment.</p>
+
+<p>"Not exactly ill, yet not quite well," she answered, without pretending
+to respond to his oppressive tenderness; "and I was trying to forget
+myself."</p>
+
+<p>"That was always your way, Madeleine; you are always forgetting yourself
+and remembering others. I always said so. I always appreciated your
+beautiful traits. The time has come<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> when your whole family will
+appreciate them, and rejoice that you are restored to us. My mother is
+in a very different frame of mind to day; you must forget all that took
+place yesterday. You must forgive the past, and accept the hand of
+reconciliation which she extends to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it possible that the Countess de Gramont has charged you to say this
+for her?"</p>
+
+<p>"This, and a great deal more. She opens her arms to you; hereafter you
+two are to be as mother and daughter."</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan spoke with so much earnestness, that probably he had
+succeeded in believing his own liberally invented statements.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems very strange," returned Madeleine; "yet I thank the countess
+for her unlooked-for cordiality. I do not know what good angel has
+opened her heart to me; but I am grateful if she will give me a place
+there."</p>
+
+<p>"The good angel in question was Lord Linden," answered the count, quite
+seriously. "His lordship called this morning. I left him with my
+mother."</p>
+
+<p>"Lord Linden?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it was at his suggestion that I hastened here; not that I thought
+any influence of mine was needed; but just now it is well to keep in
+with every one, and you must oblige me by permitting Lord Linden to
+imagine that it was through my advocacy you were induced to look
+favorably upon his suit."</p>
+
+<p>"That is impossible."</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all; a mere suggestion in your letter will have the desired
+effect. You have not answered Lord Linden's letter yet,&mdash;have you."</p>
+
+<p>"No,&mdash;I intend to reply this morning, and"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"That's right! You will grant me this favor, I know you will! Say that
+<i>after having conversed with me</i>, you accept the offer of his hand."</p>
+
+<p>"I mean to decline it in the most definite manner."</p>
+
+<p>"Decline?" cried Count Tristan, breathing hard, while his face rapidly
+changed color; for at one moment it was overspread with a death-like
+pallor, and then, suddenly grew purple. "Decline? Such a thing is not to
+be thought of; you are jesting?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was never more serious in my life."</p>
+
+<p>"But you will think better of the matter; you will listen to reason; you
+will reverse your decision," pleaded the count, his nervous incoherence
+and confusion increasing as he grew more and more agitated. "It's for
+the honor of the family to say 'yes,'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> and therefore 'yes' is the proper
+<i>answer</i>,&mdash;eh, Madeleine? Don't joke any more, my dear; it troubles me;
+it gives me such a throbbing and heavy weight in my brain. All's
+right,&mdash;is it not?"</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan lay back in his chair, and continued muttering, though his
+words were no longer comprehensible.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine now began to be alarmed, and, approaching him, said kindly,
+"Can I give you anything? You are not well. Let me order you a glass of
+wine."</p>
+
+<p>He stared at her with vacant, glassy eyes, while his lips moved and
+twitched without giving forth any distinct sounds. He lifted up his arms
+in appeal; they dropped suddenly, as if struck by a giant's invisible
+hand, and his head fell forward heavily.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine, greatly terrified, spoke to him again and again, shook him
+gently by the shoulder, to rouse him,&mdash;tried to lift his head; the face
+she succeeded in turning toward her was frightfully distorted; white
+foam oozed from the lips; the eyes were suffused with blood. She had
+never before seen a person in a fit, but instinct told her the nature of
+the seizure.</p>
+
+<p>Her violent ringing of the bell quickly brought servants to her
+assistance, and she ordered Robert to summon Dr. Bayard with the utmost
+haste.</p>
+
+<p>This distinguished physician pronounced the attack apoplexy; and, after
+applying those remedies which recent discoveries in science have proved
+most efficacious, ordered the patient to be undressed and put to bed.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine's own chamber was prepared for the count's use. The attack was
+of brief duration, and he recovered from its violence soon after the
+physician arrived, but remained exhausted and insensible.</p>
+
+<p>Another critical case required Dr. Bayard's immediate attendance, and
+after giving Madeleine minute directions, he took his leave, saying that
+he would return in a couple of hours.</p>
+
+<p>Then Madeleine, who had been engrossed by the necessity of promptly
+ministering to the sufferer, remembered that the count's family should
+at once be made aware of his condition. What a frightful shock the
+countess would receive when she heard of her son's state! And Maurice
+and Bertha,&mdash;would they not be greatly alarmed? How could intelligence
+of the calamity be most gently communicated? Should Madeleine write? A
+note bearing the tidings might startle his mother too much. Madeleine
+saw but one alternative,&mdash;it was to go in person and break the sorrowful
+news as delicately as possible. She did not waste a moment in pondering
+upon the manner in which the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> haughty countess might receive her, but
+ordered her carriage, and drove to the hotel, leaving Count Tristan
+under the charge of Ruth, and Mrs. Lawkins, the housekeeper.</p>
+
+<p>Arrived at her destination, Madeleine ordered her servant to inquire for
+the Viscount de Gramont. He was not at home. Was Mademoiselle de
+Merrivale at home? The same reply. Was the Countess de Gramont at home?
+Madeleine could not help hoping that a negative would again be returned,
+for she grew sick at heart at the prospect of encountering her aunt
+alone. The countess was within.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine's card was requested. She had none. What name should the
+servant give? Here was another difficulty: she was only known as
+"<i>Mademoiselle Melanie</i>;" she could not make use of her real name;
+besides, she feared that the countess would deny her admission if made
+aware who was her visitor. But something must be done. Madame de Gramont
+had issued orders that prevented any guest from entering her presence
+without permission. Madeleine asked for a sheet of note-paper, and, with
+her pencil, hastily wrote,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine entreats the Countess de Gramont to see her for a moment. She
+has a matter of importance to communicate."</p>
+
+<p>The servant returned almost immediately, and, replacing the note in
+Madeleine's hand, said, "The Countess de Gramont desires me to say that
+she is engaged."</p>
+
+<p>"It is absolutely necessary that I should see Madame de Gramont,"
+replied Madeleine. "I will bear the blame of her displeasure if you will
+show me to her apartment."</p>
+
+<p>"The lady is very rigid, ma'am. I don't dare."</p>
+
+<p>"She will be angry at first, I admit," returned Madeleine; "but her
+dissatisfaction will not last when she knows upon what errand I have
+come. I can confidently promise you <i>that</i>. Perhaps you will consider
+this money sufficient compensation for her displeasure, should I prove
+wrong; and if I am right, you can keep it in payment for having served
+me."</p>
+
+<p>She handed him a piece of gold, which the man took with so little
+hesitation it left no doubt upon Madeleine's mind that he was well
+acquainted with the nature of a bribe.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll do what I can, ma'am, if you will take the blame," replied he.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine alighted, followed him to the door of the room which he
+designated as the drawing-room of the countess, and then desired him to
+retire; he obeyed with well-pleased alacrity.</p>
+
+<p>The young girl had been trembling from agitation until that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> moment; but
+there was necessity for calmness in executing her mission. She opened
+the door with a firm hand, and entered the apartment with unfaltering
+steps.</p>
+
+<p>The countess was sitting with her back turned to the entrance; she did
+not perceive Madeleine until the latter stood beside her.</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Gramont pushed back her chair with a repellant gesture, and,
+before her niece could speak, asked indignantly, "What is the meaning of
+this intrusion? Did you not receive my message, Mademoiselle de Gramont,
+and understand that I declined to see you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I received it, madame," returned Madeleine, mildly and mournfully; "but
+I feel sure you will pardon an intrusion I could not avoid when you
+learn the cause which brings me here."</p>
+
+<p>"I can divine your errand, Mademoiselle de Gramont; you probably imagine
+that, because I permitted my son to say that your marriage with Lord
+Linden would, <i>after a proper interval</i>, allow me to acknowledge you
+once more as a relative, your mere acceptance of his lordship's hand
+entitles you to seize upon any frivolous excuse to force yourself upon
+my privacy. You are mistaken. I have no intention of recognizing <i>the
+mantua-maker</i>, and I forbid her to make any attempt to hold the most
+transient intercourse with me. I have already said, I will receive Lady
+Linden when I meet her in another country, where her history is unknown;
+but not until then. And now I must request you to retire, or you will
+compel me to leave my own apartment."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine had made one or two fruitless attempts to interrupt the
+countess; but now, as the latter moved toward the door, about to put her
+threat into execution, the young girl sprang after her and said,
+beseechingly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I implore you not to go until you hear me! I did not come to speak of
+myself at all. I came in the hope of sparing you too severe a shock."</p>
+
+<p>"Very generous on your part, but somewhat misjudged, as your unwelcome
+presence has given me as great a shock as I could well sustain."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, aunt,&mdash;Madame de Gramont,&mdash;do not speak so harshly to me! I have
+scarcely strength or courage left to tell you; I came to speak of&mdash;of
+Count Tristan."</p>
+
+<p>"My son seems to have chosen a somewhat singular messenger, and one who
+he was well aware would be far from acceptable," returned the countess,
+wholly unmoved.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He did not send me; I came myself; He is not aware of my coming,
+for&mdash;for"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine's voice failed her, and the countess took up her words.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>For</i> you desired to make me fully sensible of the length to which you
+carried your audacity. So be it! I am satisfied! Mademoiselle de
+Gramont, for the second time I request you to retire."</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot, until I have told you that Count Tristan is&mdash;is not, not
+quite well; that is, he became indisposed at my house."</p>
+
+<p>"In that case, it would have appeared to me more natural, and certainly
+more proper, if he had returned to his old residence, and spared me the
+pain of being apprised of his indisposition by an unwelcome messenger."</p>
+
+<p>"He had no choice, or, rather, I had none. I feared to have the news
+broken in a manner that might alarm you too much, and therefore I would
+not even trust myself to write. Count Tristan was seized with,&mdash;I mean
+was taken ill while conversing with me. He is not in a state to return
+home at present, and I came to beg that his mother or his son will go to
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"I comprehend you, Mademoiselle de Gramont; you were always politic in
+the highest degree. You know how to make the best of opportunities. You
+find my son's temporary indisposition an admirable opportunity to lure
+his relatives to your house, and to make known to the world your
+connection with them. Your well-laid, dramatic little plot will fail.
+Your good acting has not succeeded in alarming me, and I see no reason
+why Count Tristan de Gramont, in spite of his sudden illness, should not
+send for a carriage and return to the hotel. By your own confession, the
+step you have taken is unwarranted; for you admitted that my son was not
+aware of your intention."</p>
+
+<p>"Because he was too ill to be aware of it, madame," replied Madeleine,
+with an involuntary accent of reproach.</p>
+
+<p>The cold and cruel conduct of the countess did not render her niece less
+compassionate, less fearful of wounding; but it inspired her with the
+resolution, which she had before lacked, to impart the fearful tidings.</p>
+
+<p>"He is too ill to be moved at this moment. I sent for medical aid at
+once, and everything has been done to restore him."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Restore him?</i> What do you mean?" almost shrieked the countess, now
+becoming painfully excited, and struggling against her fears, as though,
+by disbelieving the calamity which had befallen her son, she could alter
+the fact. "Why do you try to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span> alarm me in this manner? It is very
+inconsiderate! very cruel! You do it to revenge yourself upon me! Where
+is Maurice? Where is Bertha? I must have some one near me on whom I can
+depend! Why am I left at your mercy?"</p>
+
+<p>"I asked for Maurice and Bertha before I attempted to force my way to
+you," returned Madeleine. "I was told that neither was at home. Pray do
+not allow yourself to be so much distressed. I have no doubt that we
+shall find Count Tristan better."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>We</i> shall find! What do you mean by <i>we</i> shall find?" sternly demanded
+the countess, whose grief and alarm did not conquer her pride, though
+her voice trembled as she asked the question.</p>
+
+<p>"My carriage is at the door: I thought I might venture to propose that
+you would enter it, and return with me to my house, that no time might
+be lost." Madeleine said this with quiet dignity.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Your</i> carriage? And you expect me to be seen <i>with you</i>, in <i>your</i>
+carriage? I cannot comprehend your object, Mademoiselle de Gramont. What
+possesses you to try to exasperate me by your insolent propositions?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me; I did not mean to add to your trouble; if my suggestion was
+injudicious, disregard it. Nothing can be easier than to send for
+another carriage. Will you allow me to ring the bell for you to do so?
+And, since you would not wish to be seen in my company, I can leave the
+house before you."</p>
+
+<p>"And you expect me to follow? You expect that I will order the carriage
+to drive to the residence of <i>Mademoiselle Melanie</i>, the
+<i>mantua-maker</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"You need only say, 'Drive to &mdash;&mdash; street, number &mdash;&mdash;.' My errand here
+is at an end. I pray you to pardon me, if I have executed it clumsily.
+My sole intention was to spare you pain, and I almost fear that I have
+caused you more than I have shielded you from."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine was retiring, but the countess called her back.</p>
+
+<p>"Stay! You have not told me all yet. What is the matter with my son? Was
+it a fainting fit? I never knew him guilty of the weakness of fainting."</p>
+
+<p>It was difficult to answer this question without explaining the grave
+nature of the attack. Madeleine was silent.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you not hear me? Why do you not answer?"</p>
+
+<p>"The doctor did not call it a fainting fit," was Madeleine's vague
+response. "Yet Count Tristan was in a state of insensibility, and had
+not spoken when I left him."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Why did you leave him, then? How could you have been so neglectful?"
+The countess burst out as though it was a relief to have some one on
+whom she could vent her wrath. "If he is seriously ill,&mdash;so ill as to
+continue insensible,&mdash;you should have remained by his side, and not left
+him to the improper treatment of strangers: it is
+abominable,&mdash;outrageous!"</p>
+
+<p>"I will gladly hasten back. Pray be composed, madame, and let us hope
+for a favorable change. I expect to find him better. Before you reach
+the house, his consciousness may have returned."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine retired, without waiting for any further comment; for she had
+an internal conviction that whatever she did or said would be unpleasant
+to her aunt in her present troubled state.</p>
+
+<p>There was no perceptible alteration in the condition of Count Tristan.
+Ruth, who was sitting by his side, said he had scarcely stirred. His
+face still wore a purplish hue, and his glassy, bloodshot eyes, though
+wide open, were vacant and expressionless. He lay as still as if
+deprived of sensation and motion.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine had been at home nearly an hour before she heard the carriage
+which contained the countess stop at the door. Madame de Gramont, even
+in a case of such extremity, was not able to complete her arrangements
+hurriedly.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine, when she went forth to receive her relative, was much
+relieved to find her accompanied by Bertha.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha threw herself in Madeleine's arms, whispering, "Is he <i>very</i>
+ill?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I fear so," answered Madeleine, in too low a voice for the
+countess to hear. Then turning to Madame de Gramont, she inquired,
+gently, "Do you wish to go to him at once?"</p>
+
+<p>"For what other purpose have I come?" was the ungracious rejoinder.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine led the way to the apartment, and motioned Ruth to withdraw.</p>
+
+<p>The countess walked up to the bed with a firm step, as though nerving
+herself to disbelieve that anything serious was the matter.</p>
+
+<p>"My son!" she said, in a voice somewhat choked, but which expressed
+confidence that he would immediately reply, "My son! why do you not
+answer me?"</p>
+
+<p>She took his hand; it remained passive in hers; his eyes still stared
+vacantly. His mother more tightly grasped the hand she held, shook it a
+little, and called out to him again in a hoarser tone; but there was no
+answer.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Bertha burst into tears, and knelt down sobbing by the bed.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush!" said the countess, angrily. "You will disturb him. Why do you
+cry so? It is nothing serious,&mdash;nothing <i>very</i> serious;" and she looked
+around appealingly, her eyes resting, in spite of herself, upon
+Madeleine.</p>
+
+<p>"We must hope not," said the latter, now venturing to draw near. "The
+doctor will be here again shortly, and, if you would permit me to
+advise, I would suggest that Count Tristan should remain undisturbed."</p>
+
+<p>"I only ask that he will speak to me once!" exclaimed the countess, in
+peevish distress. "A <i>mother</i> may demand that! Do you not hear me, my
+son? Why, why will you not answer?"</p>
+
+<p>Her voice was raised to a high pitch, but it did not seem to reach the
+ears of the insensible man.</p>
+
+<p>Voices in the entry attracted Madeleine's attention; the sound of
+well-known tones reached her ears, and she hastily left the room.</p>
+
+<p>The servant was communicating to Maurice the sad event which had just
+taken place. Madeleine beckoned her cousin to follow to her boudoir,
+and, in a few words, recounted what had just taken place.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice had listened, too completely awe-stricken for language, until
+Madeleine rose and asked, "Will you not go to him now, Maurice?"</p>
+
+<p>Then he ejaculated, "How mysteriously all things are ordered, Madeleine!
+Truly you are the ministering angel of our family!"</p>
+
+<p>As Maurice, with Madeleine, entered the chamber where Count Tristan lay,
+the countess experienced a revulsion of feeling at beholding them side
+by side, and cried out, in a louder tone than seemed natural in that
+chamber at such a moment,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Maurice! Maurice! I have wanted you so much to advise me! You see your
+father's condition: he does not seem to recognize us; but it cannot be
+anything serious. The great point is to make arrangements for removing
+him at once to the hotel. You must attend to that; I wish no time to be
+lost."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice was gazing in dumb anguish upon his father's altered face, and,
+though no tears moistened his eyes, his frame shook with emotion far
+more painful to man than weeping is to woman.</p>
+
+<p>"You will see to his immediate removal," repeated his grandmother,
+authoritatively, finding that he did not notice her request.</p>
+
+<p>"That cannot be done with safety, I feel certain," answered Maurice.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But he cannot remain here," persisted the countess. "He must be taken
+to the hotel, where I can watch by him."</p>
+
+<p>"You would not have the attempt made at the risk of his life?" remarked
+Maurice, with more sternness than he intended.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine gently interposed.</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Bayard, the physician who was called in, promised to return in a
+couple of hours: he must be here shortly: will it not be best to ask his
+opinion? And if he says Count Tristan cannot yet be removed with safety,
+I entreat, madame, that you will allow me to place this suite of
+apartments at your disposal and his. They are wholly disconnected with
+the rest of the house, and you can be as private as you desire."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you expect <i>me</i> to remain under this roof? <i>Your roof?</i> Do you
+imagine that I will allow my son to remain here, even in his present
+condition? Oh, this is too much! This would be more terrible than all
+the rest! I could not humble myself to endure <i>that!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>The countess spoke in a perfect agony of mortification.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine only replied, "There is no necessity for a decision until you
+have consulted the physician."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice thought it wise to echo her words; the countess was partially
+soothed, for the time being, and sat down to await the coming of Dr.
+Bayard.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE MANTUA-MAKER'S GUESTS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Around Count Tristan's bed were grouped in silence his four nearest of
+kin, waiting for the physician who was to decide upon the possibility of
+removal. The countess sat erect and motionless by her son's head. Her
+countenance wore a look of granite hardness, as though she were fighting
+her grief with <i>Spartan</i>-like determination which would not let her
+admit, even to herself, that any anguish preyed upon her heart. Maurice
+sat at the foot of the bed, mournfully watching the spasmodic movements
+of his stricken father: they were but feeble and few. Madeleine had
+placed herself upon the other side of the couch. Her instinctive
+delicacy prompted her to withdraw as far<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> as possible from the countess.
+Bertha had softly stolen to Madeleine's side, and sat silently clasping
+her hand, and leaning against her shoulder; for hers was one of those
+clinging, vine-like natures that ever turn for support to the object
+nearest and strongest.</p>
+
+<p>This was the disposition of the group when Ruth Thornton entered the
+room on tiptoe and placed a card in Madeleine's hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you tell him what had occurred?" whispered Madeleine.</p>
+
+<p>"I did, and he still begged to see you."</p>
+
+<p>Though Ruth spoke in a low voice, Bertha was so near that she heard her
+reply, and it caused her, almost unconsciously, to glance at the card.</p>
+
+<p>"Say that I will be with him directly," said Madeleine.</p>
+
+<p>"It is M. de Bois. I will go with you," murmured Bertha, rising at the
+same time as her cousin.</p>
+
+<p>The countess did not move her eyes, but Maurice turned his head to look
+after them. Madeleine could never pass from his presence without his
+experiencing a sense of loss which inflicted a dull pang.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois had been ushered into Madeleine's boudoir. He had not
+anticipated the happiness of seeing Bertha. When she entered, his start
+and flush of joy, and the gently confident manner in which he took her
+hand, and drew her toward him, might well have surprised Madeleine; but
+that surprise was quickly turned to positive amazement, for Bertha's
+head drooped until its opulent golden curls swept his
+breast,&mdash;and&mdash;and&mdash;(if we record what ensued be it remembered that
+constitutionally bashful men, stirred by a sudden impulse, have less
+control over their emotions than their calmer brothers)&mdash;and&mdash;in another
+second, his own head was bent down, and his lips lightly touched her
+pure brow, just where the fair hair parting ran on either side, in
+shining waves. Truly was that first kiss</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">"The chrism of Love, which Love's own crown<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">With sanctifying sweetness did precede."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Gaston's ideas of what amount of tender demonstration punctilious
+decorum permitted a lover, had finally undergone an alarming
+modification, through the corrective influence of the social atmosphere
+he had inhaled during the last few years. In his own land the limited
+privileges of an accepted suitor do not extend thus far until the day
+before a wedding-ring encircles the finger of a bride. Is it on this
+account that the Pa<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span>risian <i>Mrs. Grundy</i>, dreading some irresistible
+temptation, never allows affianced lovers to be left alone?</p>
+
+<p>Bertha's conceptions of propriety must also have been in a very
+unsettled state; for, albeit "to her brow the ruby mounted," that first
+kiss seemed to her to lie there as softly as an invisible gem, and she
+did not withdraw her head, nor look up reproachfully, nor utter one word
+of chiding.</p>
+
+<p>Gaston noticed Madeleine's wonder-struck look, and said, "You did not
+know, then, Mademoiselle Madeleine, how happy I am?"</p>
+
+<p>Then Bertha escaped from the arm that encircled her, and nestling in her
+cousin's bosom, faltered out, "I was so much troubled about Cousin
+Tristan that I could not tell you."</p>
+
+<p>"One of my most cherished hopes has become reality!" returned Madeleine,
+fondly. "M. de Bois knows how much I have wished for this consummation;
+and I think you have known it, Bertha, ever since you made me a certain
+confession."</p>
+
+<p>"What? Mademoiselle Bertha confessed to you, and you kept me in
+ignorance?" cried Gaston, reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p>"I did <i>as I would be done by</i>,&mdash;an old rule that wears well, and keeps
+friendships golden."</p>
+
+<p>There was a significance in Madeleine's look comprehended by Gaston. It
+warned him that any confidence which she had reposed in him must be
+sacred, even from his betrothed bride.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Bayard was announced, and Madeleine conducted him to the chamber
+occupied by her suffering guest, and withdrew.</p>
+
+<p>It strikes us that Madeleine's interpretation of the rules of decorum
+must also have suffered by her residence in America; for she very coolly
+left the lovers to themselves, and, passing through the dining-room,
+walked into the garden.</p>
+
+<p>When she re&euml;ntered her boudoir she found Gaston and Bertha conversing as
+happily as though no sorrow found place upon the earth, or certainly
+none beneath that roof; but, since the world began, lovers have been
+pronounced selfishly forgetful of the rest of mankind. We have our
+doubts, however, whether their being wholly wrapped up in each other
+deserves so harsh a name as <i>selfishness</i>, since that very closeness of
+union renders souls richer and larger, and gives to each additional
+power to receive and communicate happiness, while thoroughly selfish
+people lack the capacity to impart good gifts, and are content with
+being recipients.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine had just seated herself opposite to the lovers, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> was
+thinking what a pleasant picture to contemplate were those two radiant
+countenances, when Maurice entered with the physician.</p>
+
+<p>"I fear, sir, you look upon my father's state as very critical?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very," replied Dr. Bayard, who was a man of such acknowledged ability
+that he could afford to be frank without being suspected of a desire to
+magnify the importance of a case under his treatment. "Apoplexy may be
+produced by various causes, hereditary disposition, high living, or
+anxiety of mind, or all united. I cannot decide what was the origin of
+Count Tristan de Gramont's seizure. One side is entirely paralyzed, and
+the other slightly."</p>
+
+<p>"Can he be removed to his hotel with safety?" inquired Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>"Assuredly not. The risk would be very great. It should not be
+encountered if there is any possibility of his remaining here for the
+present."</p>
+
+<p>He looked questioningly toward the mistress of the house.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine promptly replied, "These apartments are entirely at the
+service of Count Tristan and his family, if they will honor me by
+occupying them."</p>
+
+<p>"That is well," returned the doctor. "Let the count remain undisturbed
+until he is convalescent. I will see him again in the evening."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Bayard took his leave, and Maurice turned to Madeleine,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"This is most unfortunate. It is a great burden to be thrown upon you,
+Madeleine."</p>
+
+<p>She interrupted him quickly. "You could hardly have spoken words less
+kind, Maurice. If this shock could not have been spared your father, I
+am thankful that it fell beneath my roof. He will be more quiet here
+than in a hotel, and can be better tended. If the countess will permit
+me, I will gladly constitute myself his chief <i>garde malade</i>. I have had
+some experience"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>That inadvertent remark increased the agitation of Maurice, and he
+answered, in a voice tremulous from the rush of sad recollections, "Who
+can testify to that better than <i>I</i>? Do you think I have forgotten the
+good <i>s&oelig;ur de bon secours</i> whose movements I used to watch, and whose
+features, dimly traced by the feeble light of the <i>veilleuse</i>, I never
+ceased to gaze upon, as she moved about my bed?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Madeleine smiled and sighed at the same moment, and then remarked,
+perhaps to turn the conversation,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"But your grandmother,&mdash;I fear it will be very difficult to obtain her
+consent to Count Tristan's remaining under my roof."</p>
+
+<p>"She cannot desire to risk my father's life!" returned Maurice, somewhat
+angrily. "I may as well tell her what is decided upon, at once."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine detained him.</p>
+
+<p>"First let me explain to you the arrangements I propose making. If the
+countess will condescend to remain here, I will have the drawing-room,
+which opens into the room Count Tristan occupies, made into a
+bed-chamber for her. The apartment beyond is the dining-room. This
+little boudoir can be converted into a chamber for you. There is an
+apartment upstairs which I will occupy; and, as Bertha cannot remain at
+the hotel alone, I shall be truly happy if she will share my room, or
+that of the countess."</p>
+
+<p>"Yours! yours!" exclaimed Bertha. "Oh, what a pleasant arrangement! And
+how quickly and admirably you have settled everything, just as you
+always used to do; and nobody could ever plan half so well!"</p>
+
+<p>"It will be your turn to play the hostess, and to them all!" cried
+Gaston. "Who would have believed such a revolution of the great wheel
+possible! That's what I call <i>compensation in this world</i>; for few
+things, I know, can make you happier; and nothing can strike such a
+severe blow at the pride of the Countess de Gramont as to find herself
+the compulsory guest of the relative she has despised and persecuted."</p>
+
+<p>Gaston, in his ardor and desire to see Madeleine avenged, had forgotten
+the presence of the viscount; but Madeleine's look of reproach and her
+glance toward her cousin recalled his presence to the mind of her
+enthusiastic defender.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg pardon, Maurice," said he; "I ought not to have spoken
+disrespectfully of the countess; that is, while you were by."</p>
+
+<p>"I understand and can pardon you, Gaston. Now I must go to my
+grandmother and learn what she says; for I can see Madeleine's 'fairy
+fingers' are impatient to commence their magical preparations for our
+comfort."</p>
+
+<p>He spoke sadly; though his words were half gay in their import.</p>
+
+<p>Very few minutes elapsed before Maurice returned, accompanied by the
+countess. She swept into the room, towering as ma<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span>jestically as though
+she could rise above and conquer all the assailing army of circumstances
+arrayed against her.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine made a movement toward the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Remain! I wish to speak to you, Mademoiselle de Gramont," cried the
+countess in her most icy tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Permit me first to request Miss Thornton to watch beside Count Tristan.
+He ought not to be left alone."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine had been more thoughtful of the patient than his mother, and
+the latter could not detain her.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you positive that your father cannot be moved? I am not convinced
+that it is out of the question."</p>
+
+<p>The countess addressed these words to Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>"The physician has just declared that the risk would be too great. That
+question, then, is definitely settled. It only remains for you to say
+how far you will accept Madeleine's hospitable proposition."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Hospitable!</i> Do not talk of <i>hospitality</i> but of <i>degradation!</i> What
+will be said when it is known that Count Tristan de Gramont was
+sheltered, during his illness, by his <i>mantua-maker relative!</i>&mdash;his
+<i>tradeswoman niece!</i> There is only one condition upon which I can be
+forced to consent."</p>
+
+<p>Here Madeleine re&euml;ntered, and the countess accosted her.</p>
+
+<p>"Mademoiselle de Gramont, the tide of fortune has, for the moment, set
+against our ill-fated house, and our humiliation can scarcely be more
+complete. You are aware that the physician you have employed (and with
+whom I trust you are not in league) says that my son cannot be removed
+without danger."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, madame, and I hope Maurice has communicated the suggestion which I
+have hesitatingly, but very gladly, made for your accommodation."</p>
+
+<p>"He has done so," replied the countess, with undiminished stateliness.
+"As for myself, it is asking too much,&mdash;it is an impossibility that I
+should stoop to take up my abode here; but, while my son lies in his
+present state, which I am told is alarming (though I believe I am
+misinformed), I, as his mother, should feel bound to visit him though it
+were in a pest-house. Your offer is declined for myself and Mademoiselle
+de Merrivale. Maurice gives me to understand that he considers his place
+to be by his father's side, night and day; therefore for him it will be
+accepted upon certain conditions; upon these only can I allow my son and
+grandson to remain beneath your roof."</p>
+
+<p>"Name them, madame. I will promptly, joyfully comply with your wishes if
+it be in my power to do so."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You will immediately close your establishment, that none of the
+transactions of the trade which has sullied your rank may go on within
+these walls; and you will at once make known to the public your intended
+nuptials with Lord Linden."</p>
+
+<p>"I never had the remotest intention, madame, of becoming the wife of
+Lord Linden."</p>
+
+<p>"Has he not offered you his hand?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and but for the accident which has wholly diverted my thoughts, he
+would have received a distinct refusal before now."</p>
+
+<p>"What reason can you advance for declining so eligible an offer?"</p>
+
+<p>"The same I gave at the Ch&acirc;teau de Gramont, nearly five years ago. My
+affections belong to another."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine spoke with fervor, as though she experienced a deep joy in
+thus proclaiming her constancy. Maurice, with a stifled sigh, turned
+from her, and pretended to be gazing at the flowers in the conservatory.</p>
+
+<p>"And may we, at last, be favored," demanded the countess, scornfully,
+"with the name of this unknown lover, who has been able to inspire you
+with such a rare and romantic amount of constancy?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is one, madame, I cannot now mention with any more propriety than I
+could have done years ago."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it must be one of which you are ashamed! But how can I doubt that?
+Has he not allowed you to become a tradeswoman? Has not the whole affair
+been a disgraceful and clandestine one? You may well refuse to mention
+his name! It can only be one which your family can object to hear."</p>
+
+<p>"You are right in one respect, madame: it is one which they object to
+hear; but, as I shall never be the wife of any other man,&mdash;yet never, in
+all probability, the wife of <i>that one</i>,&mdash;let the subject of marriage be
+set aside. In regard to closing this establishment, you are hardly
+aware, madame, what you request. It would not be in my power to close it
+suddenly, granting that I had the will to do so. I should not merely
+throw out of employment some fifty struggling women, who are at present
+occupied here, but would prevent my keeping faith in fulfilling
+engagements already made. I will not dwell upon the great personal loss
+that it would be to me. I should be glad to believe you are convinced of
+the impossibility of my complying with your wishes."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean to say that you actually refuse?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am compelled to do so; but I will exert myself to render<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span> your visits
+private. I will devise some method by which you will be entirely
+shielded from the view of those who come here on business."</p>
+
+<p>"You presume to think, then, that in spite of your insolent refusal, I
+will allow my son to remain here?"</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine felt that she could say no more, and looked beseechingly
+toward Maurice, who exclaimed,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"My father must remain here, for he cannot be removed. I gladly accept
+my cousin's kind offer, and will remain to watch beside my father.
+Bertha and yourself can continue to live at the hotel and visit him as
+often as you feel inclined."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me go! Let me go! I am suffocating! I stifle in this house!" burst
+forth the countess, as though she were really choking. "I cannot remain.
+Bertha, I want you. Maurice, give me your arm,&mdash;let me get away
+quickly."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice reconducted his grandmother to the hotel, almost without their
+exchanging a word by the way. Bertha accompanied them, but she walked
+behind with Gaston de Bois.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXXIX.</h2>
+
+<h3>MINISTRATION.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Maurice, exasperated as he was at his grandmother's insolence to his
+cousin, well knew that any attempt to soothe Madame de Gramont, or even
+to reconcile her to the inevitable, would be fruitless. Her domineering
+spirit could not bow itself to be governed, even by the pressure of
+inexorable circumstance; she strove to control events by ignoring their
+existence, and to break the force of her calamity by encasing herself in
+an iron mail of resistance, which, she thought, no blows could
+penetrate. This was her state when she hastened to her own chamber, and
+was about to lock herself in, under the conviction that she could shut
+out the phantom of misery which seemed to dog her steps.</p>
+
+<p>"I will return this evening, and let you know how my father progresses,"
+said Maurice, as she was closing the door.</p>
+
+<p>She reopened it without moving her hand from the silver knob. "Then you
+persist in going back to that house?"</p>
+
+<p>"Would you have me leave my father without a son's care?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span> I shall remain
+at Madeleine's while it is necessary for my father to stay there."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice spoke with a decision that admitted no argument.</p>
+
+<p>The countess shut her door, and the sound of the turned key was
+distinctly audible. How she passed the succeeding hours no one knew; she
+was not heard to move; she answered no knock; she took no notice of
+Bertha's petition that her dinner might be brought to her; she was not
+again seen until the next morning.</p>
+
+<p>There is no proverb truer than the one which suggests that even an ill
+wind blows some one good. Bertha was the gainer by her aunt's seclusion:
+she had full liberty, and for a large portion of the time she did not
+enjoy her freedom <i>alone</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine had been actively employed during the absence of Maurice. Her
+first step was to send for an upholsterer. Other arrangements followed
+which quickly converted the drawing-room into a comfortable bed-room.
+She herself proposed to take such rest as she found needful upon the
+sofa in her boudoir.</p>
+
+<p>The upholsterer had arrived, and Madeleine had no little difficulty in
+making him comprehend her plan of completely shutting off the staircase
+which led to the exhibition and working rooms above, by means of
+drapery. She had felt bound thus far to consult the countess' desire for
+privacy. A separate entrance from the street was out of the question,
+but the draperies were to be disposed in such a manner that the instant
+Madame de Gramont and her family passed the threshold they were
+completely secluded.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine was standing in the hall giving her orders, when Maurice
+reappeared. Finding her occupied, he passed on to his father's chamber.</p>
+
+<p>It was now six o'clock. Dinner was served for three persons. Madeleine
+summoned her housekeeper and requested her to watch beside Count Tristan
+while his son dined.</p>
+
+<p>On entering the count's room Madeleine assured herself that there was no
+change in the patient's condition, and then said, "Come, Ruth, dinner is
+served; come, Maurice, if you assume the office of <i>garde malade</i>, I
+must take care that your strength is not exhausted."</p>
+
+<p>Her cheerfulness dispelled some of the heavy gloom that hung about
+Maurice, and he rose and followed her. She led the way through the
+apartment which had been the drawing-room, and pointing to the bed,
+said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"That is for you; this is your bed-chamber."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Mine? I do not expect to need a bed; I mean to sit up with my father."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, to-night; but not every night," she added, with playful
+imperativeness. "I shall not allow <i>that</i>, and you see I have taken the
+reins into my own hands, and show that a little of the de Gramont love
+of rule has descended to me with its blood."</p>
+
+<p>They entered the dining-room. Maurice was struck by the air of combined
+simplicity and elegance which characterized all the appointments. The
+dinner, too, was simple, but well-cooked. Maurice had no appetite at
+first, but was soon lured to eat,&mdash;everything placed before him appeared
+so inviting. Then, it was delightful to see Madeleine sitting quietly
+opposite to him, looking even lovelier than she did in those happy,
+happy, by-gone days in the ancient ch&acirc;teau! Ruth's pretty and pleasant
+countenance at another time might have been an addition; but we fear
+that Maurice at that moment, did not appreciate the presence of a very
+modest and attractive young girl who reflected in her own person not a
+few of Madeleine's virtues. The repast was of brief duration; but
+Madeleine was the one who partook of it most sparingly. She enjoyed so
+much seeing Maurice eat that she could not follow his example.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice and Madeleine returned to Count Tristan's apartment together.
+Soon after, Dr. Bayard paid another visit, but expressed no opinion.
+Maurice went back to the hotel to keep his promise to his grandmother.
+There was no response when he knocked at her door; no reply, though he
+spoke to her, that she might hear his voice and know who was there.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha and Gaston were sitting together. Albeit the conversation in
+which they were engaged appeared to be singularly absorbing, the latter
+said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Do you return immediately to Mademoiselle Madeleine's? If so, I will
+accompany you; and, as I suppose you will watch beside your father, we
+will sit up together."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice assented and they set forth; that is, as soon as Bertha, who
+detained them, first upon one plea and then upon another, would permit.</p>
+
+<p>But when Madeleine learned Gaston's friendly proposition, she answered,
+"We shall not need you. Maurice is hardly experienced enough for me to
+trust him just yet. I intend to sit up to-night; to-morrow night Maurice
+must rest, at least part of the night, and then, M. de Bois, we will be
+glad to claim you as a watcher."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There was no appeal from Madeleine's decision. She exerted a mild
+authority which was too potent for argument.</p>
+
+<p>After Gaston departed, Madeleine, for a brief space, left Maurice alone
+with his father. When she stole back to her place at the head of the
+bed, she was attired in a white cambric wrapper, lightly girded at the
+waist; a blue shawl of some soft material fell in graceful folds about
+her form. She had entered with such a soundless step, that when Maurice
+saw her sitting before him, he started, and his breath grew labored, as
+though, for a second, he fancied that he gazed upon some unreal shape.
+The flowing white drapery, and the delicate azure folds of the shawl
+helped the illusion, which her musical voice would scarcely have
+dispelled, but for the sense of reality produced by the words she
+uttered.</p>
+
+<p>"It is just eleven; that is the hour at which the medicine was to be
+given."</p>
+
+<p>She took up the cup and administered a spoonful of its contents, before
+Maurice had quite recovered himself.</p>
+
+<p>The silence which followed did not last long. Madeleine began to
+question Maurice concerning his life in America, his opinions, his
+experiences, the people he had known and esteemed; and he responded, in
+subdued tones, by a long narrative of past events.</p>
+
+<p>It was the first time that Maurice had been called upon to watch beside
+a bed of sickness, and his was one of those vivacious temperaments to
+which sleep is so indispensable that an overpowering somnolence will
+fling its charms about the senses, and bear the spirit away captive,
+even in the soul's most unwilling moments. Five o'clock had struck when
+Madeleine perceived that her companion's eyes had grown heavy, and that
+he was making a desperate struggle to keep them open. With womanly tact
+she leaned her elbow on the bed, and rested her forehead on her hand, in
+such a manner that her face was concealed, and thus avoided any further
+conversation. In less than ten minutes, the sound of clear but regular
+breathing apprised her that Maurice had fallen asleep.</p>
+
+<p>When she looked up, at first timidly, but soon with security, Maurice
+was lying back in his arm-chair&mdash;his hands were calmly folded together,
+his head drooped a little to one side, the rich chestnut curls (for his
+hair had darkened until it no longer resembled Bertha's golden locks)
+were disordered, and fully revealed his fair, intellectual brow; the
+pallor of his face rendered more than usually conspicuous the chiselling
+of his finely-cut<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span> features; the calm, half-smiling curve of his
+handsome mouth gave his whole countenance an expression of placid
+happiness which it had not worn, of late, in waking hours. Madeleine sat
+and gazed at him as she could never have gazed when his eyes might have
+met hers; she gazed until her whole soul flashed into her face; and if
+Maurice had awakened, and caught but one glimpse of the fervent radiance
+of that look, he would surely have known her secret.</p>
+
+<p>There is intense fascination to a woman in scanning the face that to her
+is beyond all others worth perusing, when the soft breath of sleep
+renders the beloved object unconscious of the eyes bent tenderly upon
+his features. No check is given to the flood of worshipping love that
+pours itself out from her soul; then, and perhaps <i>then only</i>, in his
+presence, she allows the tide of pent-up adoration to break down all its
+natural barriers. However perfect her devotion at other times, there
+<i>may</i>, there always <i>does</i> exist a half-involuntary <i>reticence</i>, a
+secret fear that if even her eyes were to betray the whole wealth of her
+passion, it would not be well with her. Men are constitutionally,
+unconsciously <i>ungrateful</i>; give them abundance of what they covet most
+and they prize the gift less highly than if its measure were stinted.
+And women have an instinct that warns them not to be too lavish. Those
+women who love most fervently, most deeply, most <i>internally</i>, seldom
+frame the full strength of that love into words, or manifest it in looks
+even; that is, in the waking presence of the one who holds their entire
+being captive.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice slept on, though the streets had long since become noisy, and
+door-bells were ringing, and there was a sound of hammering in the entry
+(the upholsterer at work), and steps could be distinguished passing up
+and down the stair.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine, who at one period of her life had been used to night vigils,
+hardly felt fatigued; but she knew that she must hoard her strength if
+she would have it last to meet prolonged requirements. She touched
+Maurice softly; but he was not aroused until she had made several
+efforts to break his slumber. He looked about him in bewilderment, and
+then at the white-robed figure before him as though it were an
+apparition.</p>
+
+<p>"It is I, and no ghost," said Madeleine. "The morning has come; go and
+lie down for a couple of hours to refresh yourself,&mdash;I will do the same.
+Mrs. Lawkins will stay with your father."</p>
+
+<p>"Have I really been asleep?" asked Maurice, in a tone of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> mortification.
+"Asleep, while you were waking? What a stupid brute I am!"</p>
+
+<p>"Have brutes easy consciences? for that is said to be man's best
+lullaby. You must consider yourself still subject to my orders. Go and
+lie down. You shall be called to breakfast at nine o'clock; that will
+give you two hours' rest. As for me, I shall fall asleep in a few
+moments."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice yielded.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine did <i>not</i> fall asleep quite as soon as she predicted; but,
+after a time, she sank into a refreshing slumber. At nine o'clock the
+ringing of the alarum she had taken the precaution to set, awoke her.
+She stole to Maurice's door, but had to knock several times before she
+could arouse him; he was again enjoying that blessing which he had
+lately professed to despise.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it? Who is there?" he cried out, at last.</p>
+
+<p>"It is I, Madeleine. Nine o'clock has just struck. We will breakfast as
+soon as you are ready to come into the dining-room."</p>
+
+<p>She returned to her boudoir and made a hasty toilet, substituting, for
+her simple white wrapper, another, somewhat richly embroidered, and
+trimmed with pale blue ribbons. We reluctantly venture upon the
+suggestion, for it would indicate a decided weakness, quite unworthy of
+Madeleine's good sense; but there is just a possibility that she
+remembered she was to breakfast once more with her lover, and her
+artistic eye selected the most becoming morning-dress in her possession.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth had breakfasted some hours before; Madeleine and Maurice sat down
+to table alone. In spite of the grief which lay in the depths of both
+their hearts, it must be avowed that both experienced a sense of calm
+felicity which made them shrink from contemplating the past, or looking
+forward to the future; the delicious <i>present</i> was all sufficient.
+Maurice wondered at himself,&mdash;was almost angry with himself,&mdash;and then
+he looked across the table and wondered no longer.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine was less astonished at her own pleasant emotions. Partly
+through discipline, and partly through temperament, she always caught up
+all the sunshine of the passing hour, even though she did not lose sight
+of the clouds that lay in the distant horizon. And how often the present
+beams had pierced their way through thick darkness to reach her!</p>
+
+<p>"Come and tell me what you think of my invention," said she, as they
+rose from the table and opened the door which led into the hall.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The upholsterer had already completed his work. A crimson drapery was
+suspended from the ceiling to the ground, along the whole length of the
+entry, and entirely shut out the staircase. At the street door this
+drapery was so skilfully arranged that a person visiting the apartments
+on the first floor could, at once, pass out of sight.</p>
+
+<p>"Will not these curtains render this portion of the house quite
+secluded? I hope they will make your grandmother feel less aversion to
+coming here."</p>
+
+<p>"What resources you have, Madeleine! And how kindly you employ your
+fertile ingenuity! <i>Who</i> would have thought of such an arrangement?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why <i>any one</i> who took the trouble to sit down and think about the
+matter at all! Possibly some people might not have been in the habit of
+exercising their ingenuity enough to do that; but <i>any one</i> who took the
+trouble to reflect how the desired object could be accomplished would
+have seen the difficulties melt away."</p>
+
+<p>"Under the touch of 'Fairy Fingers,'" returned Maurice, admiringly.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, that is an old superstition of yours which you have not quite
+outlived. Will you not go to your grandmother now? She may be expecting
+you, and must be anxious for news."</p>
+
+<p>"She showed great anxiety last night," replied Maurice, bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>"Maurice, we have no right to judge her! Unless we ourselves have
+experienced her sensations, we cannot even comprehend her state. Speak
+to her this morning as though you had parted in all affection yesterday;
+and bring her here, if you can. For her own sake try to bring her."</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after Maurice left, Madeleine received another letter from Lord
+Linden. Finding that she did not reply to the first, he had called upon
+her twice on the day previous; but, greatly to his mortification, had
+been denied. Later in the day, his wounded vanity was somewhat soothed
+by learning the calamity which had befallen Count Tristan, at
+Madeleine's house; though his lordship could hardly deem even such an
+event sufficient excuse for her tardiness in replying to a letter of so
+much importance. In reality, Madeleine had entirely forgotten her suitor
+and his letter. She glanced hastily over his second epistle, and,
+without further delay, wrote a few frigid lines conveying a definite
+refusal of the proposed honor with which he had followed his proposition
+of dishonor.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It is needless to describe Lord Linden's emotions when this response
+reached him. Madeleine's language was so cuttingly cold, yet so full of
+dignity, that he could only curse the rash blindness which could have
+permitted him to make dishonorable advances to such a woman. He ordered
+his trunk to be packed, and left Washington by that afternoon's train.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha had not seen Madame de Gramont from the time she locked herself
+in her chamber until the breakfast hour, next day. The maid Mademoiselle
+de Merrivale brought with her from Paris was in the habit of attending
+the countess as punctiliously as she did her own mistress; but her
+services were, for the first time, dispensed with on the night previous.
+Bertha was oppressed by a vaguely uncomfortable sensation when she
+entered the room where breakfast awaited her, and found the apartment
+vacant. In a few moments the countess entered.</p>
+
+<p>How frightfully old she had grown in a single night! Her step, which
+used to be so firm and measured, was feeble, uncertain, and heavy.
+Sixty-six years had not bowed her straight shoulders; but now they
+stooped. The blow of an iron hand had bent them at last! Her features
+had grown sharp and hard, and the lines looked as though they had been
+cut to twice their usual depth; the mouth appeared to have fallen, the
+corners pressing downward; one might have thought that tears had scalded
+away the lustre and dimmed the vision of the dark eyes that yesterday
+flashed with such steel-like brilliancy. The soft, white locks, that
+were usually arranged with so much skill, hung partially uncurled, and
+scarcely smoothed about her face, adding to the desolation of her whole
+appearance.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha was impressed with greater awe than she had ever experienced
+toward her aunt in the latter's most imperious moments; yet the young
+girl mustered courage to advance and embrace her,&mdash;more timidly,
+perhaps, but also more tenderly than was her wont. The countess
+permitted her own cold lips to sweep Bertha's forehead; but they could
+hardly be said to press upon it a kiss.</p>
+
+<p>As they sat at table, Bertha, whose tongue had a gift for prattling,
+could not make an effort to speak. The countess had not tasted food
+since the light, noonday repast of the day previous, yet she now
+swallowed her cup of coffee as though it nearly choked her, and tried,
+in vain, to force down a few morsels of bread. Nothing would have
+induced her to depart from the custom of her country where coffee and
+bread are considered all-sufficient for the first meal.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>They had returned to the drawing-room when Maurice entered. The countess
+greeted him with an inclination of the head, but asked no questions.</p>
+
+<p>"My father seems to be in the same state," said he. "There was no change
+during the night; he does not appear to suffer; but, as yet, he is not
+conscious."</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Gramont made no reply, but her breast visibly heaved.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you sit up?" asked Bertha. "Are you not very much fatigued? Did
+Madeleine watch also? Is she not very weary?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not very; nor am I." Then he turned to his grandmother. "Will you come
+with me to see my father? You will find that every arrangement possible
+has been made for your privacy."</p>
+
+<p>The lips of the countess curled scornfully, but she rose and passed into
+her chamber.</p>
+
+<p>"I must make ready also," cried Bertha, flying out of the room. "I am so
+glad that we are to go."</p>
+
+<p>She returned wearing her bonnet and mantle. It was sometime before the
+countess re&euml;ntered, prepared to depart.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice had ordered a carriage, and they were soon at Madeleine's door.</p>
+
+<p>If the countess noticed the draperies which closed off a portion of the
+house, she gave no sign of doing so.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine was sitting beside Count Tristan, but rose to yield her place
+to his mother. Madame de Gramont only betrayed that she was aware of her
+niece's presence by a slight movement of the head, while her eyes looked
+past her toward the passive figure lying on the bed. She took the vacant
+seat with a sort of frozen quietude, and her limbs seemed to settle
+themselves rigidly into positions where they remained immovable.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine at once retired, knowing that her presence must be galling to
+the proud relative whom circumstance thus forced into contact with her;
+nor did she re&euml;nter the room again while the countess was there. Maurice
+remained with his father and grandmother, but Bertha stole away to
+Madeleine's boudoir.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois, who had called to inquire after the count, and to know of
+what service he could be, found the cousins together. Madeleine, whose
+wealth of energy rendered idleness, when it could be avoided, another
+name for weariness, had seated herself at her desk, and was making
+sketches for Ruth to copy. Bertha sat beside her, destroying pencils in
+her awkward attempt to sharpen them. Madeleine did not desist from her
+occupation, but Bertha's was quickly at an end.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She and her lover conversed for a while; then Gaston offered to show her
+Madeleine's conservatory, and then they passed into the garden. What
+wonder that they found unknown charms in the opening flowers! Was it not
+a spring morning? And was there not spring in their hearts? Was it not
+life's blossoming season with them?</p>
+
+<p>At noon luncheon was served; and Madeleine, in remembrance of her
+guests, had given such especial instructions to Mrs. Lawkins that the
+luncheon closely resembled the <i>d&eacute;jeuner &agrave; la fourchette</i> served at that
+hour in France. As Bertha was still in the garden, Madeleine passed into
+the conservatory and called her.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you not go in, Bertha, and see if you can induce the countess to
+accompany you and Maurice to the dining-room? Say that I will remain
+with Count Tristan while they take luncheon."</p>
+
+<p>Bertha went on her errand, but quickly returned with Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>"My aunt does not seem disposed to eat."</p>
+
+<p>In reality Bertha had received no answer from the countess. Did
+Madeleine expect that Madame de Gramont would break bread under her
+roof? The haughty aristocrat would sooner have perished of hunger.</p>
+
+<p>"Then we will go to table together," replied the hostess, disappointed,
+in spite of herself. "M. de Bois, you will join us?"</p>
+
+<p>The meal passed off very quietly, but very pleasantly. Bertha and Gaston
+were happy enough in each other to have thought a repast of bread and
+cheese a banquet. Maurice could not but be penetrated by the charm of
+sharing Madeleine's home; and, at table, where she presided with such
+graceful ease, he never forgot that it was in <i>her</i> home he was
+dwelling. Madeleine herself could not gaze upon the little circle of
+beloved ones, from whom she had been so long separated, and who were now
+so singularly drawn around her, without feeling supremely happy. In the
+midst of sorrow there are often given, to soften and render it
+endurable, passing flashes of absolute joy.</p>
+
+<p>When they rose from table Maurice returned to his father's chamber. His
+grandmother still sat erect and statue-like in her chair as though she
+had not moved.</p>
+
+<p>The hours flew by only too rapidly with Bertha, however they might have
+dragged in the sick-chamber. M. de Bois, also, must have lost all
+consciousness of time, for he did not propose to take his departure, and
+could Madeleine, even by a hint, dismiss him from her own house?</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Past five o'clock," said she, looking up from her drawing. "Bertha,
+pray ask Maurice to come to me."</p>
+
+<p>When Maurice obeyed the summons, Madeleine remarked, showing him her
+watch, "You see how late it is; I fear the countess will become
+exhausted for want of food. It is in vain to hope that she could be
+induced to dine here; had you not better conduct her home and return?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, certainly; it would be the wisest plan; how thoughtful you are!"</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I send for a carriage? I fear she would not enter mine, or I
+would order that."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose not; it is wonderful to what cruel and inconsistent length
+she carries her pride."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not our place, Maurice, to measure its length or analyze its
+workings. There is Robert in the hall; tell him to call a carriage."</p>
+
+<p>When the carriage arrived, the countess, Bertha and Maurice, drove away
+together.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XL" id="CHAPTER_XL"></a>CHAPTER XL.</h2>
+
+<h3>RECOGNITION.</h3>
+
+
+<p>With electric rapidity flashed the news through Washington that
+Mademoiselle Melanie, the fashionable dressmaker, was a lady of rank,&mdash;a
+heroine,&mdash;a being hardly inferior to those disguised princesses who
+figure in popular fairy tales. Numberless romantic stories were
+fabricated and circulated, and the startling and improbable motives
+assigned for her incognita bore witness to the fertile imagination of
+the American public.</p>
+
+<p>It may well be imagined that there was but one all-engrossing theme
+discussed in the working-rooms of Mademoiselle Melanie's establishment.
+Mademoiselle Victorine was not a little disgusted when she learned that
+a secret of such moment had been so successfully concealed from her. But
+the quick-witted foreigner had too much tact to betray her ignorance by
+evincing astonishment in the presence of the <i>employ&eacute;es</i>, or the patrons
+of Mademoiselle Melanie. On the contrary, Mademoiselle Victorine gave
+them to understand that she had all along been the repository of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span>
+Mademoiselle de Gramont's secrets, and knew more of her past history and
+future plans than was yet suspected.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine's thoughtful kindness prompted her to make a brief explanation
+to Ruth Thornton, whom she had so long treated as a friend, or younger
+sister. Ruth was moved and gratified by the unsought confidence; but her
+genuine, up-looking veneration for Madeleine could not be increased by
+the knowledge that she was the daughter of the late Duke de Gramont.
+Madeleine concluded her narrative by saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"One may be very poor, and very dependent, and yet be the daughter of a
+duke; and even a duke's daughter may find it less irksome to earn her
+own bread than to eat the bread of charity."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth asked, tremblingly, "But now will all go on as before? Will your
+noble relatives permit you to continue your present life?"</p>
+
+<p>"My relatives can exert no influence which will turn me from the path I
+have chosen," replied Madeleine, divining her young <i>proteg&eacute;e's</i>
+thoughts. "While Count Tristan remains in my house, <i>you</i> will act as my
+representative. When he is restored, or, rather, when he is no longer my
+guest, I shall resume my former duties."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth's sinking heart was lifted up by this assurance, and the cloud that
+had gathered upon her sweet face passed away, and left it as placid as
+Madeleine's own. Madeleine's tranquillizing influence over others was
+one of her most remarkable traits. She was not merely calm and
+self-possessed herself, but her presence communicated a steadfast,
+hopeful calmness that was irresistible.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>beau monde</i> had decided that as Mademoiselle de Gramont's family
+had claimed her, she would unhesitatingly abandon her humble occupation,
+and assume her legitimate position in the social sphere; and great were
+the lamentations over the noble <i>couturi&egrave;re's</i> supposed abdication of
+her throne.</p>
+
+<p>The next question to be settled was whether her former patrons should
+recognize and visit her as an equal, ignoring their previous
+acquaintance. Madame de Fleury was the first to reply to that query. We
+will not make ourselves responsible for the assertion that she was
+prompted by purely disinterested motives, and the unqualified admiration
+with which Mademoiselle Melanie had long since inspired her. It is <i>just
+possible</i> that other incentives had their weight in her light head, and
+that believing herself about to be deprived of the inventive genius
+which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span> had rendered her toilet the glory and delight of her life, she
+might have determined to preserve Mademoiselle Melanie's friendship that
+she might secure her advice on all important occasions. Be that as it
+may, Madame de Fleury immediately left cards for Mademoiselle de
+Gramont, and her example was followed by the Countess Orlowski, and a
+host of other ladies, who conscientiously walked in her footsteps.</p>
+
+<p>The morning of the third day after Count Tristan's seizure passed much
+in the same manner as the second. Maurice conducted his grandmother and
+Bertha to Madeleine's residence. The countess was as silent, as frigid,
+as immovable as before. She took the same seat, kept the same unbent
+position, appeared to be as completely abstracted from what was passing
+around her, as on the day previous. Madeleine absented herself, and
+Bertha soon stole to her side. M. de Bois, whose vigils, it appeared,
+had not fatigued him sufficiently for extra repose to be requisite,
+joined them at an early hour.</p>
+
+<p>About noon, Maurice hastily entered Madeleine's boudoir and said, "I
+think there is some change in my father; his face is much paler and his
+eyes appear to be wandering about with a faint sign of consciousness;
+the motion of his right hand is restored, for he has lifted it several
+times. Pray come to him, Madeleine."</p>
+
+<p>"I only banished myself in the fear that my presence would not be
+agreeable to the countess," replied Madeleine. "Do you think it will not
+now pain her to see me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot tell, but you <i>must</i> come."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine obeyed.</p>
+
+<p>The countess had risen and was bending over the bed.</p>
+
+<p>"My son! Tristan, my son! do you not hear your mother?" she cried, in a
+hollow, unnatural voice.</p>
+
+<p>His eyes still gazed restlessly about, with a helpless, hopeless,
+supplicating look.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear father," said Maurice, taking the hand which the count had
+again lifted and let fall.</p>
+
+<p>No sign of recognition followed.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think of his state, Madeleine? Is he not better?"</p>
+
+<p>His cousin softly drew near, and taking in her own the hand Maurice had
+dropped, said, "You know us, Count Tristan, do you not?"</p>
+
+<p>His eyes, as though drawn by her voice, turned quickly, and fastened
+themselves upon her face; his hands made a nervous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span> clutch, his lips
+moved, but the sounds were thick and indistinct, yet the first syllable
+of her name was audible to all.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not try to speak," said Madeleine, soothingly; "you have been very
+ill; you are still weak; do not endeavor to make any exertion."</p>
+
+<p>He continued to look at her beseechingly, and to clasp her hand more and
+more tightly,&mdash;so tightly that it gave her positive pain, and his
+quivering lips again made a fruitless effort to utter her name.</p>
+
+<p>"Tristan, my son!" exclaimed the countess, motioning Madeleine to move
+aside.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine attempted to obey, but could not release her hand from its
+imprisonment.</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan did not appear to hear, or rather to recognize the voice
+of his mother, although she continued to address him in a loud tone, and
+to beg, almost to command, him to listen to her. Maurice also spoke to
+him, but without making any impression on his mind. There was no meaning
+in his gaze when it rested on the faces of either; but his eyes, the
+instant they fell upon Madeleine's countenance, grew less glassy, more
+<i>living</i>, and through them the darkened soul looked dimly out.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever might have been the internal sufferings of the countess, they
+did not conquer her stoicism. She resumed her seat, and her lips were
+again sealed; their close compression and ashy hue alone told that the
+torture of the mental rack upon which she was stretched had been
+augmented.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as Madeleine felt the count's hand relaxing its firm grasp, she
+withdrew hers, though he made a faint attempt to detain her. As she
+retired from the bed, his eyes followed her, and his lips moved again.</p>
+
+<p>"You are not going, Madeleine?" questioned Maurice. "My father evidently
+knows you,&mdash;wants you near him; you are the only one he recognizes; do
+not leave us!"</p>
+
+<p>Was that low, stifled sound which reached their ears, in spite of the
+firmly-compressed lips of the countess, an inward sob or groan?</p>
+
+<p>As Madeleine sat down, Dr. Bayard entered. Maurice related what had
+passed, and the doctor requested Madeleine to address the patient. That
+he made an effort to reply was unmistakable. Dr. Bayard then spoke to
+the count, but without attracting his attention. He desired Maurice to
+accost him, but no better result ensued. He signified to the countess
+that she should do the same; but the agony of beholding her son
+rec<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span>ognize, cling to one toward whom she entertained the bitterest
+enmity, while the voice of his mother&mdash;his mother who loved him with all
+the strength of her proud nature&mdash;was unheeded, became intolerable. She
+rose up, not quickly, but with all her wonted stateliness, and with a
+firm and measured pace walked out of the room. She had no definite
+purpose,&mdash;she did not know where she was going, or where she wished to
+go,&mdash;but she could not abide the sight forced upon her eyes in that
+chamber.</p>
+
+<p>"Maurice, attend your grandmother," whispered Madeleine.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice had not thought of stirring, but he rose and opened the door of
+the adjoining room.</p>
+
+<p>"Leave me! I would be alone!" said the countess, as he entered.</p>
+
+<p>He returned to his father's side.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Bayard was giving his orders to Madeleine. A crisis had just passed,
+he said. Count Tristan was better; there was reason to hope that he
+would recover. One side was still paralyzed and there was partial
+paralysis of the tongue. His mind, too, was in a torpid state, but might
+gradually awaken. As Madeleine was the person whom he recognized, it
+would be well for her to remain near him and minister to his wants.
+Madeleine was more than content.</p>
+
+<p>An hour passed and the countess did not return to her son's bedside.
+Maurice, at Madeleine's suggestion, ventured to intrude upon her. She
+appeared to be lost in a deep revery, and did not raise her eyes at his
+approach.</p>
+
+<p>"I fear you are not well, my grandmother; will you not allow me to
+conduct you home?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am <i>well</i>," she answered bitterly, "but I will go. My presence is of
+no use here; my own son ignores it!"</p>
+
+<p>She spoke as though the invalid had refused to recognize her for the
+express purpose of adding a fresh insult to those which an evil fortune,
+a malicious chance (to use her own expressions), had heaped upon her
+head.</p>
+
+<p>Without again visiting her son's chamber, she entered the carriage which
+Maurice had ordered; he took his seat opposite to her, and neither
+remembered, until they entered the hotel, that Bertha was left behind.</p>
+
+<p>"I was thinking so much of my poor father that I quite forgot Bertha,"
+he said, apologetically. "I will return for her at once."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, go, go!" was all the countess replied.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLI" id="CHAPTER_XLI"></a>CHAPTER XLI.</h2>
+
+<h3>UNBOWED.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Maurice did not suspect how Bertha was employed at that moment, and how
+much his heart would have had cause to rejoice if she proved successful
+in her undertaking. She was so happy herself in her betrothed that she
+was possessed by a strong desire to make some effort by which a like
+felicity might be secured to Madeleine. It had been one of the
+day-dreams of Bertha's girlhood that she and Madeleine should receive
+their wedding rings in the same hour. Gaston was entreating his
+<i>fianc&eacute;e</i> to name a period, even though it might be some months hence
+(only a few days before, we think, he declared himself content with
+knowing that he might hope for this crowning joy <i>at the most distant
+date</i>), when he might call her his.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha replied, tantalizingly, "The time depends upon Madeleine, not
+upon me. She must name the day."</p>
+
+<p>"May she, indeed?" asked M. de Bois, joyfully, for he was convinced that
+he could influence Madeleine's decision.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, she will name it in naming the day for her own wedding. I have
+always intended that we should be married together."</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois's countenance fell.</p>
+
+<p>"But Mademoiselle Madeleine is not even engaged."</p>
+
+<p>"Is she not? Are you sure?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite sure," returned Gaston.</p>
+
+<p>"But she loves some one,&mdash;does she not?" questioned Bertha, artfully.</p>
+
+<p>"She has said she did," was the cautious response.</p>
+
+<p>"Then, if she loves some one, we have only to find out who it is and
+bring them together, and get them to understand each other, and help
+them to fix the day. Would not that be charming?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, very," replied M. de Bois; but he sighed as he spoke, remembering
+how improbable it was that anything of the kind would take place.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha had a suspicion that he must have some knowledge of Madeleine's
+mysterious lover, and her idea of the perfect confidence that ought to
+exist not only between husband and wife, but a lover and his betrothed
+bride, would of itself have been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span> sufficient inducement to make her
+endeavor to discover the secret.</p>
+
+<p>"You have been near Madeleine all these years that she has been lost to
+us."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, happily for <i>me</i>; and if she can only say happily for <i>her</i>, I
+should be proud as well as thankful."</p>
+
+<p>"She does,&mdash;I am sure she does say so," responded Bertha,
+affectionately. "What could she have done without you? It was because
+you were so much to Madeleine that you became so much to&mdash;to&mdash;that is
+so&mdash;so&mdash;I mean"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Many a sentence of Gaston's had she finished when his words became
+entangled through confusion; it was but a fair return for him to
+conclude this one of hers, though perhaps he did so in a manner that
+added to her embarrassment.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha recovered herself, and shook back her curls as though they were
+in fault. Then looking up archly in Gaston's face she said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"And if I wanted an excuse for what I have done, could I have found a
+better?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not easily," returned the delighted lover, "and I excuse you for a
+piece of bad taste which has rendered me the happiest and proudest of
+men."</p>
+
+<p>"But we were talking of Madeleine," persisted Bertha; "you know every
+one whom she knows,&mdash;do you not?"</p>
+
+<p>"What, all her patrons? Heaven forbid!"</p>
+
+<p>"No,&mdash;no,&mdash;you are very tantalizing,&mdash;I did not mean those. I mean the
+persons who visit her: you know them all?"</p>
+
+<p>"Most of them, I believe."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you must be acquainted with this invisible lover of hers!"</p>
+
+<p>Now was M. de Bois puzzled. Bertha saw the advantage she had gained.</p>
+
+<p>"You must have seen him,&mdash;you must know all about him,&mdash;and <i>I must
+know</i> also. Not to satisfy my curiosity,&mdash;do not imagine <i>that!</i>&mdash;I am
+not in the least curious; but because I want to assist Madeleine. I want
+to judge whether nothing can be done to bring about her union with him."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing,&mdash;I fear, nothing," replied M. de Bois, sadly.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you <i>do</i> know who he is? There, you have admitted that you did!"</p>
+
+<p>"Are you laying snares for me, then, sweet Bertha? But I shall not let
+you exult over my falling into one of these well-laid traps. I only said
+I feared nothing could be done to bring about Mademoiselle Madeleine's
+union with any one."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But you know whom she loves?"</p>
+
+<p>"She has never told me."</p>
+
+<p>"But you at least <i>suspect</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"What right have I to <i>suspect</i>? And you know I am <i>dull</i>,&mdash;I did not
+even suspect <i>whom</i> her cousin Bertha loved."</p>
+
+<p>Bertha hung her head for a moment, but quickly returned to the attack.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me, at least, whom you think Madeleine <i>prefers</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no right to do that,&mdash;it would not be fair to Mademoiselle
+Madeleine,&mdash;she would never forgive me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, then you and I may have secrets from each other? That is the
+inference I shall draw if you refuse," said Bertha, provokingly.</p>
+
+<p>This was a most distasteful suggestion to Gaston, who had a masculine
+touch of jealousy in his composition,&mdash;just enough to make him desire to
+monopolize Bertha <i>entirely</i>. He was not willing that she should have a
+thought which she could not communicate to him; to hide anything from
+him was to rob him! Was his an exceptional case, or are men in general
+as <i>exigeant</i>?</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you do not answer?" Bertha observed.</p>
+
+<p>"I should be grieved if I had not your <i>whole</i> confidence, now and
+ever," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"So shall I be if I have not yours. Should one exact more than one is
+willing to give? Tell me who it is that you suspect Madeleine of loving.
+Tell me at once!"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot,&mdash;I have no right!"</p>
+
+<p>"I think you have no right to withhold the knowledge from me."</p>
+
+<p>"I think so too," answered Gaston, sorely perplexed; "and yet I must not
+tell you! Will you not be generous enough to pity me, and ask me no
+more?"</p>
+
+<p>Bertha only pouted at this appeal; but Gaston must have found some means
+of soothing her, for, by and by, she said, coquettishly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, I only wanted to know on Madeleine's account and on yours."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Mine?</i>" exclaimed Gaston.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, <i>yours</i>; because if I had discovered who this lover was, I might
+have given him some valuable hints, and all might come right very
+quickly; as it is, you may have to wait a long time for a bride."</p>
+
+<p>"I? Why, I am not Mademoiselle Madeleine's lover!"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No, but you are very dependent upon him. You cannot encircle your
+bride's finger with a wedding-ring until he passes one on the taper
+finger of his."</p>
+
+<p>"Bertha, that is unreasonable!" remonstrated Gaston.</p>
+
+<p>"All the more womanly! Of course it is unreasonable; I never laid claim
+to being <i>reasonable</i>; but, on the other hand, I am obstinate. When
+Madeleine names the day for her marriage she names the day for mine."</p>
+
+<p>"But if she should never marry, and that is possible."</p>
+
+<p>"Then <i>I never shall!</i>" said Bertha, with a petulant little air of
+determination which looked only too real.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois had no opportunity at that moment to test the effect of his
+newly-acquired eloquence, for Maurice entered.</p>
+
+<p>"Bertha, will you believe that I have escorted my grandmother home and
+actually forgotten you? The carriage waits, and I am deputed to see you
+safely to the hotel."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you suppose I shall accept as an escort one who thought me of too
+little importance to bear me in mind?" asked Bertha, who was not wanting
+in feminine tact, that sixth sense of womanhood, which becomes
+wonderfully quickened when love sharpens the faculties.</p>
+
+<p>Gaston joined in; "My dear fellow, you could scarcely hope to be treated
+civilly after such a confession. But I will do my utmost to relieve you
+in this unpleasant predicament. Mademoiselle Bertha refuses you as an
+escort&mdash;but, as she cannot return alone, I will take your place."</p>
+
+<p>"And you may dismiss your carriage," returned Bertha. "I prefer to
+walk."</p>
+
+<p>"And you really will not let me accompany you?" asked Maurice. "What
+will my grandmother say?"</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt we shall hear <i>that</i> when we reach the hotel," was the young
+lady's saucy reply.</p>
+
+<p>But they did <i>not</i> hear; for the countess had closed her door, and did
+not open it again until she summoned Adolphine to undress her.</p>
+
+<p>The watchers beside Count Tristan that night were Madeleine and Maurice.
+The count was somewhat restless and often muttered unintelligible words;
+but he continued to recognize Madeleine and seemed pleased to have her
+near him. Maurice did not fall asleep again; he and Madeleine talked, in
+whispers, the whole night through, with the exception of those brief
+intervals when the count was awake. The themes of conversation were so
+abundant, so self-increasing, there was always so much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span> which remained
+untold, that the topics of interest appeared to be inexhaustible.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine had given orders that Ruth and Mrs. Lawkins should commence
+their watch at five o'clock; but she could hardly believe that hour had
+arrived when the housekeeper entered, followed by Ruth. Maurice declared
+that he was not in the slightest degree fatigued, or sleepy, and did not
+need rest; but Madeleine, with smiling imperativeness, ordered him to
+bed; and certainly Maurice, when he obeyed, slept remarkably sound for a
+man who was not in the least fatigued or sleepy, and who was inclined to
+battle against sleep because he could not bear to lose the consciousness
+of being beneath the same roof as the one so long loved, so long and
+vainly sought; and because it was a joy inexpressible to lie still and
+think over all the words she had just uttered, and to picture her face
+until it seemed actually before him. Yet, in spite of this delightful
+occupation, inexorable sleep would suddenly fling her mantle over his
+senses, and even refused to grant him the happiness of continuing his
+blissful dreams in her own realm.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice sought his grandmother the next morning, at the usual hour, and
+carried her the tidings that Count Tristan moved his limbs more freely,
+and that he had even spoken several words which could be comprehended.
+She gave no sign of preparing to accompany her grandson, and, after
+waiting awhile, he asked,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Will you and Bertha be ready soon? It is later than usual."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not go," replied the countess slowly, and as though it cost her
+a great effort to force out the words.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice made no remonstrance; he well knew that to endeavor to alter a
+resolution of hers would be a fruitless attempt.</p>
+
+<p>"And you, Bertha?" he inquired.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha looked toward the countess: "Perhaps you would not like me to
+leave you?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>All leave me!</i>" she almost groaned out. "Why not you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will stay with my aunt," replied Bertha, without hesitation.</p>
+
+<p>And she remained all day beside the afflicted, but ever haughty,
+countess. They did not converse, for the latter rarely spoke, even in
+answer to Bertha's questions, and Bertha could invent no mode of
+arousing and amusing her.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois, not finding Bertha at Madeleine's, came to the hotel; but
+his presence was obviously very distasteful to the countess. She did not
+withdraw, she would have suffered mar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span>tyrdom (as she did) rather than
+commit the impropriety of leaving Bertha alone with her lover; but she
+sat with knitted brows, her stony eyes turned scrutinizingly upon them,
+listening to and passing judgment upon every word they uttered, and
+looking a rebuke if Bertha ventured to smile. The icy chill of such a
+presence rendered Bertha and Gaston so thoroughly uncomfortable, that
+the young girl, although she was one of those beings who could hardly
+bear to live out of the sight of those she loved best, felt relieved
+when Gaston rose and bade her adieu. His visit had been brief, yet it
+seemed longer than all the combined hours they had passed together
+during the last three days. The visage of the countess relaxed somewhat
+after Gaston had gone, but she remained lost in thought without further
+noticing her niece. Bertha was, at least, spared the nervous unrest
+produced by those piercing eyes ever upon her.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately Bertha's resources for self-diversion were of the most
+limited description. Hers was a social, a wholly dependent nature; she
+could not, like Madeleine, create her own amusement, and make her own
+occupation. She tried to read, but could not fix her attention; she
+tried to embroider, but quickly threw down her work; she could only
+wander in and out of the room, now watching at the window as though she
+expected some one; now sitting down and jumping up again; now turning
+over books and papers, and looking about for something, she did not know
+what, until she had thrown the room into complete disorder; and
+certainly her restless flitting backward and forward would have half
+distracted any one less absorbed than the countess. During one of
+Bertha's fits of contemplation at the window, she exclaimed,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Here comes Maurice, at last! I thought he would never be here!"</p>
+
+<p>"I think my father is decidedly improving," said Maurice, as he entered.
+"I feel certain he recognized me to-day, and I thought he attempted to
+pronounce my name."</p>
+
+<p>A faint light gleamed in the eyes of the countess at these words, but it
+was quenched by those which followed.</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine, he always seems to know, and he evidently likes to have her
+near him. His eyes wander after her when she leaves the room, and
+to-day, I thought he tried to smile when she returned."</p>
+
+<p>"He is better then; it will soon be possible to move him; he can soon
+have that care which <i>should</i> be most acceptable to every son, and, I
+trust, has ever been to mine."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The countess made this assertion proudly, in spite of the deep wound she
+had received through her son's recognition of Madeleine; she had tried
+to forget that blow, or to persuade herself that it had not been dealt.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice did not know what answer to make, and remained silent.</p>
+
+<p>"Aunt, you would not think of having cousin Tristan brought here until
+he is nearly well,&mdash;that is, well enough to walk about,&mdash;would you?"
+asked Bertha; and her accents expressed her disapproval of such an
+attempt.</p>
+
+<p>"He shall come the very moment that it is possible! Do you suppose that
+I would submit to his remaining where he is one instant longer than is
+absolutely necessary?"</p>
+
+<p>No reply to this declaration was needed or expected. Maurice returned to
+Madeleine's house with a sense of thankfulness that the count's seizure
+had taken place where it did.</p>
+
+<p>Gaston and the housekeeper were the watchers beside the count that
+night, taking the places of Madeleine and Maurice at midnight,&mdash;this
+exchange having now become the established rule for alternate nights.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of the iron-like constitution, and iron-like character of the
+countess,&mdash;in spite of her valiant, her desperate struggles,&mdash;her
+strength began to fail under the pressure of her hidden sorrow. She was
+unwilling to admit that she was subject to bodily any more than to
+mental infirmities. She belonged to that rare class described by the
+poet when he speaks of one who</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i14">"Scarce confesses<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That his blood flows, or that his appetite<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Is more to bread than stone."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>And though she had been suffering for days from a low nervous fever,
+neither her words nor actions gave the slightest indication that she was
+not in her usual health. But, one morning, when she endeavored to rise,
+her limbs refused to support her,&mdash;her head swam,&mdash;it was with
+difficulty that she poured out a glass of water to cool her parched and
+burning lips, and she was so fearful of falling (there seemed something
+positively awful to her in the possibility of <i>prostration</i>, perhaps on
+account of the fall it typified) that she staggered back to bed and
+there remained.</p>
+
+<p>Neither Bertha's persuasions, nor those of Maurice, could induce her to
+allow a physician to be summoned. Maurice suggested Dr. Bayard, who was
+attending Count Tristan, but the countess was even more opposed to him
+than to any other med<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span>ical attendant. Was he not aware of her
+relationship to the <i>mantua-maker</i>? Had he not seen Count Tristan
+recognize that humble and degraded relative when he did not know his own
+mother?&mdash;his own son? No,&mdash;she never allowed physicians to approach her;
+she never had need of them; she had none now, so she affirmed.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha was not particularly well fitted to preside in a sick-room, and
+her maid, Adolphine, was versed in the arts of the toilet alone. She
+could have made the most charming cap for an invalid, but would have
+proved particularly clumsy in smoothing a pillow for the head by which
+the cap was to be worn. Yet the countess obstinately refused to have a
+proper attendant engaged. She wanted nothing, she said, except to be
+left to herself,&mdash;not to be disturbed,&mdash;not even to be accosted.</p>
+
+<p>The position of Maurice grew far more painful than ever. He could no
+longer devote himself exclusively to his father. Even though he could,
+in reality, do nothing for his grandmother, yet he felt bound to pass a
+portion of the day by her side; for Bertha was too much distressed and
+too inefficient to be left with no assistance save that of her frivolous
+maid. Madeleine longed to seek her aunt, and make some few, needful
+arrangements for her comfort; but she could not doubt that her presence
+would do more harm than good. All that she could effect was to instruct
+Maurice, as far as possible, in the requirements of a sick-room, and to
+have prepared, in her own kitchen, the light food suitable to an
+invalid, which it would be difficult to obtain in a hotel. Every day
+delicate broth, beef tea as clear as amber, panada, simple jellies, and
+choice fruit were sent to Bertha for her aunt, without the knowledge of
+the countess; indeed, the only nourishment the invalid tasted was
+provided by the thoughtful Madeleine.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLII" id="CHAPTER_XLII"></a>CHAPTER XLII.</h2>
+
+<h3>DOUBLE CONVALESCENCE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>A fortnight passed on. At its close the vigorous constitution of the
+countess, united to her powerful volition, gained a victory over her
+malady. She had remained unshaken in her resolution not to receive
+medical advice; she had taken no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span> remedies,&mdash;used no precautions; yet
+the fever had been conquered. Her strength began to return, and she
+insisted upon leaving her bed, and being dressed, not as befits an
+invalid, but in her usual precise and <i>soign&eacute;</i> style. Adolphine timidly
+suggested that a wrapper would be more comfortable than her ordinary
+attire, and a morning cap would allow her to repose her head. The
+countess awed her into silence by remarking:</p>
+
+<p>"I keep my chamber no longer. I shall dress in a manner suitable to the
+drawing-room."</p>
+
+<p>During the progress of the tedious toilet, it was more than once
+apparent that she was battling against a sense of faintness; but even
+this discomfort did not induce her to allow a single pin to be less
+conscientiously placed, a single curl less carefully smoothed. Adolphine
+did not dare to betray that she perceived the failure of her mistress'
+strength, and had not courage to offer her a glass of water. When the
+folds of her heavy black silk dress were adjusted, her collar and
+sleeves, of rich lace, arranged, her girdle tightly clasped with a
+buckle of brilliants which was an heirloom, and her snowy hair
+ornamented with a Parisian head-dress of mingled lace, velvet, and
+flowers, she contemplated herself in the mirror as complacently as
+though she perceived no change in her shrunken, haggard, altered
+features, and rose up to proceed to the <i>salon</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Her first steps were so feeble and uncertain that Adolphine started
+forward involuntarily, to offer her arm; but a look from her mistress
+made her draw back, and the tread of the countess grew firmer as she
+entered the drawing-room. She did not sink into the nearest seat, but
+crossed the apartment to the arm-chair which she was accustomed to
+occupy; but she had hardly sat down, before her eyes closed and her head
+fell back; her face was as white as that of the dead. Adolphine caught
+up a bottle of cologne; but she stood in such fear of the countess, that
+without using the restorative she ran to summon Bertha. Bertha
+approached her aunt in great alarm, but sprinkled the cologne on her
+face with lavish hands, applied it to her nostrils, and bathed her
+temples. In a few moments Madame de Gramont opened her eyes and said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"A little on my handkerchief, Bertha. Adolphine carelessly forgot to
+give me any."</p>
+
+<p>Her proud, unconquered spirit would not admit the passing insensibility
+of its mortal part. There was nothing to be done except for her niece
+and maid to appear unconscious of the weakness which she herself
+ignored. Adolphine placed a foot<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span>stool beneath her mistress' feet and
+retired. Bertha went to the window and looked out,&mdash;a favorite amusement
+of hers, as we are aware.</p>
+
+<p>The fortnight had been one of severe privation and discipline to her.
+She had not once seen Madeleine, for she could not have left her aunt,
+except when Maurice was with her, and the countess would not have
+permitted her niece to go forth unprotected by Maurice or her maid, and
+the latter could not be spared. The escort of Bertha's affianced husband
+Madame de Gramont would have considered highly improper.</p>
+
+<p>Gaston's visits, though he came every day, were brief and
+unsatisfactory; for the countess, who could not forbid them, (as she
+felt inclined to do), ordered the large folding-doors which divided her
+chamber from the drawing-room to be left open, and desired Adolphine to
+take her work into the latter apartment. Conversation in an ordinary
+tone was quite audible to the countess, and could not but be heard by
+Adolphine, who had a tolerable knowledge of English. What lover cares to
+converse to more than one listener?</p>
+
+<p>Bertha pined for the fresh air,&mdash;for a drive in the country, or, better
+still, a stroll in the capitol grounds with Gaston; but this latter was
+a happiness almost as far out of her reach as the paradise which she
+deemed it foreshadowed.</p>
+
+<p>The countess had grown highly irascible during her illness, and as
+Bertha and her maid were the only ones upon whom she had a chance of
+venting her spleen, she spared neither. She experienced a sick longing
+for her native land; she more than ever detested the republican country
+in which she was sojourning, and she heaped upon Bertha the bitterest
+reproaches as the instigator of the exile which had been followed by so
+many calamities. The countess never condescended to remember that her
+wealthy young relative had liberally borne all expenses since they left
+the Ch&acirc;teau de Gramont, where its owners had no longer the means of
+residing. Of this fact she might be supposed to be ignorant, as she
+never vouchsafed a thought to <i>money matters</i>; it, however, had been
+made known to her by Count Tristan before she consented to the journey;
+but the <i>trivial circumstance</i> was quickly forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>While Bertha was dreamily looking out of the window, and wondering when
+she would be freed from this prison-like life, she heard the door open,
+and turned quickly, hoping to greet the all-brightening presence. It was
+Robert, Madeleine's servant, who entered bearing a silver salver. Bertha
+had not supposed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span> that the countess would, without warning, occupy her
+usual place in the drawing-room, and had not guarded against Robert's
+being seen. The young girl was so much discomposed that she stood
+motionless, aghast, expecting some terrible outburst from her aunt.
+Robert had admitted the countess at each of her compulsory visits to the
+residence of "Mademoiselle Melanie," and it seemed hardly possible that
+she would not recognize him again. Bertha ought to have known Madame de
+Gramont better than to have supposed she would have stooped to bestow
+glances enough upon a servant of Madeleine's, or, indeed, any servant,
+to know his features. Robert placed the salver upon the table, and
+either because he was naturally a silent man, or because the presence of
+the countess struck him dumb, or because he had no message to deliver
+that morning, retired without speaking. Bertha looked anxiously at her
+aunt; the immobility of her features was reassuring.</p>
+
+<p>The salver bore a pitcher of admirably prepared chocolate, made by
+Madeleine herself, a plate carefully covered with a napkin, containing a
+delicate species of Normandy cake, to which the countess had been
+particularly partial in Brittany (Madeleine had remembered the recipe),
+and a dish of enormous strawberries, served, according to the French
+custom, with their stems. It occurred to Bertha, for the first time,
+that perhaps there was a cipher upon Madeleine's plate which would
+betray from whence it came; she examined a spoon before she ventured to
+present the tray to her aunt. The silver only bore the letter "M."
+Bertha, considerably relieved, but still flurried by the peril she had
+just escaped, placed a small table before Madame de Gramont, then poured
+out and handed her the chocolate in silence, fearing to provoke some
+question.</p>
+
+<p>The countess, who was growing faint again, gladly accepted the
+nourishing beverage, and even ate several cakes. She seemed to enjoy
+them, for it was long since she had spoken in so pleasant a tone as when
+she remarked,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"These cakes remind me of our noble old ch&acirc;teau; one would hardly
+suppose that they would be found in America."</p>
+
+<p>Bertha suspected who had made the cakes, and, to draw her aunt's
+attention away from them, said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"What delicious strawberries! And how fragrant they are!"</p>
+
+<p>The countess took one by the stem, and dipped it in the sugar, but with
+a disparaging look. It was large and juicy, and possessed a rich flavor
+and an aromatic odor which French strawberries can seldom boast; but the
+countess would not have admitted the superiority even of American fruit
+over that of her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span> own country, and after tasting a few of the
+strawberries returned to the cake which reminded her of her forsaken
+home.</p>
+
+<p>How fared it with Count Tristan during the fortnight in which he had not
+seen his august mother? Under judicious and tender care, he had
+steadily, rapidly improved. His mental faculties had been sufficiently
+restored for him to recognize every one around him, but his memory was
+still clouded, and his thoughts sadly confused. He had partially
+recovered his articulation, though his speech continued to be thick and
+at times unintelligible. His limbs also had been partly freed from the
+thraldom of paralysis, but were still heavy and numb, as though they had
+long worn chains. He clung to Madeleine more eagerly than ever, and
+seemed to be disturbed and uncomfortable except when she was near him.
+He had a vague consciousness that she was the medium through which all
+good flowed in to him, and often repeated, as he held her hand,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You,&mdash;you&mdash;yes, you, Madeleine, you saved us all! Good angel&mdash;good
+angel!"</p>
+
+<p>That her ministry in the sick-room was so grateful to the sufferer was
+not surprising; for a gentle, efficient hand which knows precisely how
+to make a pillow yield the best support,&mdash;a low, soft, yet encouraging
+voice,&mdash;a cheerful, yet sympathizing face,&mdash;a soundless step,&mdash;garments
+that never rustle,&mdash;movements that make no noise,&mdash;are among the chief
+blessings to an invalid.</p>
+
+<p>The count seemed less happy at the sight of his son; his mind was
+haunted by an undefined fear that there was something Maurice would
+learn which would make him shrink from his father,&mdash;which would disgrace
+both; the sufferer had quite forgotten that the discovery he dreaded had
+already been made. When he looked at Maurice he often muttered the
+words,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Unincumbered,&mdash;no mortgage,&mdash;of course it's all right,&mdash;power of
+attorney untouched,&mdash;leave all to me!"</p>
+
+<p>At other times he would plead, in broken sentences, for pardon, and
+denounce himself as a villain who had ruined his only son.</p>
+
+<p>It was a somewhat singular coincidence that the very morning the
+countess had risen and dressed for the first time for a fortnight, Count
+Tristan appeared to be so much more restless than usual that Madeleine
+suggested he should be conducted to her boudoir. Maurice assisted him to
+rise, enveloped him in a comfortable <i>robe de chambre</i>, and, with the
+help of Robert, led him to that pleasant, peace-breathing apartment,
+where she had arranged an easy-chair with pillows, had opened the doors
+of the conservatory to admit the odorous air, and had shaded the windows
+that the light might be softened to an invalid's eyes.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He smiled placidly and gratefully as he looked toward the flowers, and
+stretched out his hand to Madeleine. She took her place on a low seat,
+her little sewing-chair, and, unbidden, sang some of the wild, old
+strains to which he had often listened in the ancient ch&acirc;teau. The sigh
+he heaved was one of pleasure, as though his heart felt too full, but
+not of care. Madeleine sang on, ballad after ballad, for she could not
+pause while he appeared to be so calmly happy, and her voice only died
+away as she felt the hand that clasped hers relax its hold, and, looking
+up, she found that her patient was gently slumbering.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice had sat listening and gazing as one spellbound, but Madeleine
+roused him by saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It is long past your usual hour for visiting your grandmother. Had you
+not better go? I think it likely your father will sleep some time. The
+change of scene and the fresh air have lulled him into a tranquil
+slumber."</p>
+
+<p>"And your voice had nothing to do with his rest?" asked Maurice,
+tenderly.</p>
+
+<p>"Any old crone's would serve as well for a lullaby," she answered,
+playfully. "Now go, and be sure you find out whether the countess liked
+the chocolate and those Normandy cakes."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLIII" id="CHAPTER_XLIII"></a>CHAPTER XLIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>OUTGENERALLED.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Madame de Gramont welcomed Maurice that morning with more animation than
+she had evinced during her illness. He did not anticipate finding her in
+the drawing-room; and was even more surprised to see her not in an
+invalid's <i>d&eacute;shabille</i>, but dressed for visitors; not reclining, but
+sitting up almost as stiffly as in the days of her grandeur. He
+congratulated her upon her convalescence with mingled warmth and
+astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, I am quite well," she replied; though her colorless lips and
+wan, sunken face solemnly contradicted the words. "How is your father?"
+This question was asked apparently with newly-awakened anxiety; for of
+late she had made no inquiries, but listened in silence to Maurice's
+daily report, and turned sullenly from him as though he were responsible
+for its unfavorable nature.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He now answered in an unusually cheerful tone,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"My father is better, much better, to-day; improving fast, I think."</p>
+
+<p>Some of the old triumphant light flashed out of the countess' black eyes
+as she ejaculated,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God! Then he can be brought here at once!"</p>
+
+<p>Maurice perceived his mistake too late. He had not foreseen that the
+countess would have drawn this conclusion from the intelligence just
+communicated.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear grandmother, you cannot think of desiring to remove my father
+at present?"</p>
+
+<p>"Cannot think of it? What other thought fills my mind night and day? He
+<i>must</i> be removed from that house. I say <i>must</i>, the very instant his
+life would not be perilled by the attempt. Better that it should have
+been placed in jeopardy than that he should have remained there thus
+long."</p>
+
+<p>"We will talk of this when he is more decidedly convalescent," returned
+Maurice, perceiving that some generalship must be employed to protect
+his father. "I will let you know how he progresses, and we will make all
+the necessary arrangements for his change of abode in due season."</p>
+
+<p>The countess was too shrewd not to see through this answer, and she was
+quite competent to return Maurice's move by generalship of her own; for,
+in the battle of life, it is the tactics of womanhood that oftenest win
+the day. She allowed the conversation to drop; and Maurice secretly
+rejoiced at her having, as he supposed, yielded the point. He chatted
+awhile with Bertha; then his eyes chanced to fall upon the salver which
+Madeleine had prepared. It called to mind her request.</p>
+
+<p>"What have you here? Chocolate? Did you find it well made?"</p>
+
+<p>The countess took no notice of the inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>"These are very fine strawberries," persisted Maurice. "Did you enjoy
+them? And these cakes,"&mdash;he tasted one,&mdash;"used to be favorites of
+yours."</p>
+
+<p>The countess checked a rising sigh; for her aversion to betraying even a
+passing emotion was insuperable. "They reminded me of Brittany," she
+said, involuntarily.</p>
+
+<p>"You liked them, then? They are to your taste?" questioned her grandson,
+hoping to be able to tell Madeleine that her labors had been rewarded.</p>
+
+<p>But the countess answered coldly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I find very little in this country, even though the object be imported,
+which is to my taste."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She did not open her lips again until Maurice was taking his leave. Then
+she said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Has your father's physician been to see him to-day?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; he had not come when I left, though it was past his usual hour."</p>
+
+<p>"Let him know that I wish to see him," ordered the countess.</p>
+
+<p>Had Maurice suspected her object he would not have replied so
+cordially,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I am truly glad that you will accept medical aid at last. You look very
+feeble."</p>
+
+<p>The countess considered such a suggestion an insult; and drew herself up
+as she replied,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You are mistaken. I am far from feeble. Feebleness does not belong to
+my race. My strength does not forsake me readily; it will last while I
+last. Still you may inform your father's physician that I desire to see
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"I will send him to you at once. You shall certainly see him to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you."</p>
+
+<p>These two words were spoken dryly by the countess, and with an emphasis
+which might have struck Maurice and caused him to suspect her intentions
+and possibly to frustrate them, had he not been so thoroughly convinced
+that her own state required medical care, and had he not known that her
+stoical fortitude made it easier for her to suffer than to admit that
+she <i>could</i> suffer.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice found Madeleine where he had left her. The count had just
+awakened, much refreshed. He was softly stroking her head and saying
+with the same indistinct utterance, "Good angel! good angel!"</p>
+
+<p>At the sight of Maurice the old troubled look passed again over his
+face, and he whispered hoarsely,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"He shall never know. Never, never let him know. It would kill me! kill
+me!"</p>
+
+<p>Maurice had told Madeleine how much better he had found his grandmother,
+and was giving her the gratifying intelligence that Madame de Gramont
+had said the cakes reminded her of Brittany (the highest praise possible
+for her to bestow on anything), when the doctor entered.</p>
+
+<p>His patient, he said, had made marvellous progress; but that was owing,
+in a great measure, to admirable nursing; and he nodded approvingly to
+Madeleine.</p>
+
+<p>"If physicians had only at their disposal a train of well-in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span>formed,
+efficient, conscientious nurses to distribute among their patients,
+medical services might be of some use in the world; but, as it is, we
+might make a new application of the old proverb, that God sends us
+dinners, and the devil sends us cooks who make the dinners valueless; a
+physician gives his orders and prescriptions, and a careless nurse
+renders them null."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Bayard was not a man who dealt in compliments, even in a modified
+form; he was sagacious, abrupt, straightforward, and at times spoke his
+mind rather sharply. He had been impressed by Madeleine's unremitting
+care of his patient, and, in declaring that the count's convalescence
+was, in a large degree, due to her prudence and vigilance, he simply
+said what he thought.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad to see you have removed your charge to this room," he
+continued. "Change of scene and of air is always good, when practicable.
+I recommend a short drive to-morrow. I never keep an invalid imprisoned
+one hour longer than is necessary."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice delivered his grandmother's message; and Dr. Bayard promised to
+call upon her before his return home. The claims upon his time, however,
+were so numerous that it was evening before he reached Brown's hotel.
+The countess would not, even to herself have admitted that she could be
+subject to such an unaristocratic sensation as impatience; but we are
+unable to hit upon any other word to express the state of unquiet
+anxiety with which she awaited his coming.</p>
+
+<p>He was announced at last.</p>
+
+<p>At that hour in the day, it was not unnatural for Dr. Bayard to be in a
+great hurry to get home to his dinner; and consequently his manners were
+even more blunt and informal than usual. Without losing a minute, he
+took a seat in front of the lady whom he supposed to be his patient,
+looked scrutinizingly into her face and said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Well, and what's the matter? A touch of fever, I suspect. We shall soon
+bring that under."</p>
+
+<p>Without further ceremony he placed his fingers on her wrist.</p>
+
+<p>The countess drew her hand away, as though something loathsome had dared
+to pollute her; and the bright red fever spot on either cheek deepened
+into the crimson of wrath.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir, I am perfectly well. I did not send for you to ask your advice
+concerning myself."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Bayard drew back his chair an inch or two, but made no apology.</p>
+
+<p>"I am the mother of Count Tristan de Gramont whom you are attending."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Dr. Bayard bowed.</p>
+
+<p>"I hear that he is much better."</p>
+
+<p>"Much better," was the physician's laconic reply.</p>
+
+<p>"It would no longer be dangerous for him to be removed from his present
+most unfit abode," the countess asserted rather than interrogated.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Bayard, in answering the queries of patients, or those of their
+families, did not follow the practice of physicians in general, but
+adhered to the exact truth. He replied, "It would not be dangerous,
+madame, but it would be unwise,&mdash;confounded folly, I might say. He is
+very comfortable where he is, and he has capital care. I do not believe
+there is such another nurse as Mademoiselle Melanie in Christendom."</p>
+
+<p>If fiery arrows ever flash from human eyes, as some who have felt their
+wound declare they do, such darts flew fast and thick from the eyes of
+the countess as she regarded him.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir, it is not a question of nurses. A mother is the fittest person to
+watch beside her son."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Bayard differed with her, but did not give her the benefit of his
+private opinion.</p>
+
+<p>"As Count Tristan is in a state to be removed, I will give orders to
+have him brought here to-morrow. I suppose it is too late to-night?"
+observed the countess.</p>
+
+<p>"I have already said that I do not see the necessity of his being moved
+at all, until he is perfectly restored," persisted the doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"It is enough that I see it!" remarked the countess, frigidly. "I
+believe my inquiries only extended to asking your medical opinion as to
+the <i>danger</i> not the <i>propriety</i> of moving my son."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I have nothing more to say," replied the physician, rising. "I
+have already stated that his removal, if advisable in other respects,
+would not be dangerous. Allow me to wish you good-evening."</p>
+
+<p>Though Dr. Bayard's visit had highly irritated Madame de Gramont,
+exultation prevailed over all other emotions.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha had been present during the interview, and albeit she was filled
+with grief at the prospect of Madeleine's sorrow and mortification, she
+had not the moral courage to remonstrate.</p>
+
+<p>The countess was up betimes on the morrow. It may be that her strength
+had really returned; it may be that excitement supplied its place; but
+there was no recurrence of the feebleness which she had not been able
+wholly to conceal on the day previous. Before Bertha was dressed for
+breakfast her aunt had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span> sent to borrow her writing-desk (having no
+correspondents, the countess did not travel with one of her own), and
+Bertha experienced a heart-sickening foreboding at the request. When she
+entered the drawing-room, Madame de Gramont was writing slowly and
+elaborately, as though she were preparing some document which was to
+pass into the hands of critical judges; but she never wrote in any other
+manner. A hasty, impulsive, dashing off of words and ideas would have
+lacked dignity. The whole character of the haughty lady might easily
+have been read in the stiff but elegant hand, the formal and carefully
+constructed phrases, the icy tenor of her simplest missive.</p>
+
+<p>She folded the note, told Bertha where to find her seal with the de
+Gramont arms, impressed it carefully upon the melted wax, desired Bertha
+to ring the bell, and bade her send the note at once to Maurice. The
+countess could not have stooped to name to the servant the residence of
+the mantua-maker.</p>
+
+<p>Though Madame de Gramont expected that her command would be instantly
+obeyed, she was too little used to attend to household matters, or
+bestow a thought upon the comfort of others, to give any orders
+concerning her son's room, or even to reflect that additional care in
+its preparation was needed for an invalid.</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan had passed the best night with which he had been favored
+since his attack. He had slept so uninterruptedly that Gaston and Mrs.
+Lawkins (whose turn it was to replace Madeleine and Maurice) had
+followed the invalid's example and travelled with him to the kingdom of
+Morpheus.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning he expressed a desire to rise. The first words he uttered
+showed that his articulation was clearer. Madeleine had arranged the
+pillows in his arm-chair and placed it where he could look into the
+conservatory. He walked into the boudoir supported only by Maurice.
+There was a rare amount of stamina, a wondrously recuperative power in
+the de Gramont constitution, as was manifested both by mother and son.</p>
+
+<p>When the count was comfortably seated, Madeleine placed before him a
+little table with his breakfast so neatly arranged that merely to look
+at it gave one an appetite. She served him herself, and the tranquil
+pleasure he felt in receiving what he ate from her hands was
+unmistakable. His own hands were still weak and numb, and she cut up the
+delicate broiled chicken, and broke the bread, disposed his napkin
+carefully, and then steadied the cup of chocolate which he tried to
+carry to his lips. Maurice stood watching her, just as he always did;
+for it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span> difficult for him to remove his eyes from her face when she
+was present, though, in truth, when she was absent he saw her before him
+hardly less distinctly.</p>
+
+<p>The trio was thus agreeably occupied when the note of the countess was
+placed in the hands of Maurice. His consternation vented itself in an
+irrepressible groan, which made Madeleine and the count look up.</p>
+
+<p>The latter trembled with alarm, and, his haunting fear coming back, he
+asked, in a terrified tone,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"What has happened? What do they want? What would they make you believe?
+No harm of me,&mdash;you wont! you wont! Here's Madeleine will make all
+right!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do not trouble yourself," said Madeleine, soothingly; "there are no
+business matters to fret you now."</p>
+
+<p>Her sweet, quieting voice, or the assurance, calmed him, and he repeated
+once more, for the thousandth time, "Good angel! good angel!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is a note from my grandmother," said Maurice, biting his lips. "She
+has seen Dr. Bayard, and insists on carrying out certain views of hers,
+and she informs me that she has his permission to do so."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine had not nerved herself against this blow; it fell heavily upon
+her; she could not at once resign the precious privilege of ministering
+to her afflicted relative; and she could not hope that the countess
+would allow her to approach him if he were removed to the hotel.</p>
+
+<p>"Surely she will not be so cruel! It will harm him,&mdash;it will retard his
+recovery."</p>
+
+<p>"I will see her, at once, and try what argument and remonstrance can
+do," replied Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>And he set forth on his difficult mission.</p>
+
+<p>A moment's reflection convinced Madeleine that if the countess had
+received the doctor's consent, she would prove inexorable. There was no
+resource but to submit as patiently as possible. Count Tristan must be
+reconciled to the change, and to effect that was the task now before
+her. She tried to break the news gently; she told him his mother had not
+seen him of late because she had been ill; and now, hearing he was so
+much better, she desired him to return to the hotel that he might be
+nearer to her.</p>
+
+<p>The count answered peevishly, "No&mdash;no,&mdash;I'll not go! I'm better
+here,&mdash;better with you, my good angel!"</p>
+
+<p>"But if Madame de Gramont is determined," said Madeleine, "I have no
+right, no power to resist her authority."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Can I not stay? Let me stay!" he pleaded, pathetically.</p>
+
+<p>"I would be only too thankful if you could; but you know the wishes of
+the countess cannot be disregarded."</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot go! It will kill me if I go back! I am better here. I'm safe
+with you! I'll not go!"</p>
+
+<p>He seemed so much distressed that Madeleine dismissed the subject by
+saying, "Maurice has gone to see his grandmother; we need not torment
+ourselves until he returns."</p>
+
+<p>The count was easily satisfied, and the remembrance of his trouble soon
+faded from his mind. Madeleine asked him if she should sing, and he
+nodded a pleased assent. She could not give voice to any but the saddest
+melodies, for a sorrowful presentiment that she would never sing to him
+again, filled her mind. She continued to charm away his cares by the
+witchery of her accents until Maurice returned. The result of his
+advocacy was quickly told. The countess was inflexible, and awaited her
+son.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLIV" id="CHAPTER_XLIV"></a>CHAPTER XLIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>A CHANGE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The strongest heart will sometimes betray that it is overtaxed through
+the pressure of a sorrow which appears trivial contrasted with the
+stupendous burdens it has borne unflinchingly; the firmest spirit is
+sometimes crushed at last, by the weight of a moral "feather" that
+breaks the back of endurance. Madeleine's courage proved insufficient to
+encounter calmly this new trial. She could not see that poor, wretched,
+brain-shattered sufferer, that proud man bowed to the dust, clinging to
+her with such a strange, perplexed, yet steady grasp, and know that she
+could no longer tend, amuse, and soothe him! Her composure was forsaking
+her, and she could only hurriedly whisper to Maurice,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I will pack your father's clothes; make him comprehend that we have no
+alternative; reconcile him if you can. Since he must go, it had better
+be at once; the countess is no doubt anxiously expecting him."</p>
+
+<p>She passed into the count's room, gathered together all his wearing
+apparel, and knelt down beside his trunk. Her heart<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span> swelled as though
+it would burst; she bowed her head upon the trunk she was about to open,
+and sobbed aloud!</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine's tears were not like Bertha's,&mdash;mere summer rain which sprang
+to her eyes with every passing emotion, and fell in sun-broken showers
+that freshened and brightened her own spirit. Madeleine seldom wept, and
+when the tears came, they sprang up from the very depth of her true
+heart, in a hot, bitter current which was less like the bubbling of a
+fountain than the lava bursting from a volcano. It is ever thus with
+powerful, yet self-controlled natures, and Madeleine's equanimity in the
+midst of trials which would have prostrated others, was not a lack of
+keen, quick sensibility, but an evidence of the supremacy she had gained
+by discipline over her passions.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine wept and wept, forgetting the work before her, the time that
+was passing, the necessity for action! All the tears that she might have
+shed during the last few weeks, if it were her nature to weep as most
+women weep, now rushed forth in one passionate torrent. She did not hear
+a step approaching; she was hardly conscious of the encircling arm that
+raised her from the ground, nor was she startled by the voice that
+said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine! my own Madeleine! Is it you sobbing thus?"</p>
+
+<p>"I feel <i>this!</i> O Maurice, I feel <i>this!</i> My aunt has never had power to
+make me feel so much since that day in the little <i>ch&acirc;let</i> when my eyes
+were opened,&mdash;when she cast me off, and I stood alone in the world."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah Madeleine, dearest and best beloved, if you had only loved me
+then,&mdash;if I could only have taught you to love me,&mdash;you would not have
+stood alone! I should have battled against every sorrow that could come
+near you; or, at least, have borne it with you. O Madeleine, why could
+you not love me?"</p>
+
+<p>For one instant Madeleine was tempted to throw herself in his arms and
+confess all. The high resolves of years of self-denial were on the verge
+of being broken in one weak moment; but the very peril, the very
+temptation calmed her suddenly. She brushed away her tears, and, gently
+withdrawing the hand Maurice held, said, in broken accents,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I have caused you too much pain in other days, Maurice. I should not
+have added more by allowing you to witness my weakness. Help me to be
+strong; for you see I have sore need of help."</p>
+
+<p>"All that I can offer, Madeleine, you reject," said Maurice,
+re<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span>proachfully. "My heart and life are yours, and you fling them from
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"Maurice, my cousin, my best friend, spare me! I have no right to listen
+to this language."</p>
+
+<p>"But the right to hear it from the lips of another," retorted Maurice
+bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>"Be generous, Maurice. For pity's sake, do not speak on that subject."</p>
+
+<p>There was so much anguish depicted in Madeleine's face that Maurice was
+conscience-stricken by the conviction that his rashly selfish words had
+caused her additional pain.</p>
+
+<p>"This is a poor return, Madeleine, for all the good you have done my
+father,&mdash;all the good you have done me,&mdash;you have done us all. You see
+what a selfish brute I am! My very love for you, which should shield you
+from all suffering, has, through that fatal selfishness, added to your
+sorrow. Can you pardon me?"</p>
+
+<p>"When you wrong me, Maurice, I will; but that day has yet to come. Leave
+me for a few moments, and I will complete what I have to do here and
+join you."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice complied, but slowly and reluctantly, and looking back as he
+left the room.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine wept no more; she bathed her face and smoothed her disordered
+hair, and then collected all the articles scattered about, placed them
+carefully in the trunk, shut it and locked it, looked about to see that
+nothing was forgotten, ordered her carriage, and with a composed mien
+entered the little boudoir.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice must have used some potent argument with his father which
+reconciled him to his change of habitation, or made him comprehend that
+resistance was useless, for when Robert announced that the carriage was
+at the door, and Madeleine brought the count's coat to exchange for his
+dressing-gown, he allowed her to assist him, only repeating the term of
+affection so often on his lips.</p>
+
+<p>The count was ready, and Madeleine signed to Maurice not to linger. He
+gave his arm to his father, and they passed through the entry. Madeleine
+preceded them; she opened the street door herself; father and son passed
+out, but without bidding her adieu. The steps of the carriage were let
+down; just as Maurice was assisting his father to ascend them, the count
+drew back with native politeness and said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine first."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine was still standing in the doorway ready to wave her
+handkerchief as the carriage drove off.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Come, Madeleine, come! come! We are waiting for you!" cried the count.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice expostulated in vain; his father insisted that Madeleine should
+go with them.</p>
+
+<p>"Only get into the carriage, my dear father, while I speak with her."</p>
+
+<p>"Get in before a lady? No&mdash;no! We are not backwoodsmen,&mdash;are we? Come,
+Madeleine, come!"</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine saw that argument would not avail with the count; his mind was
+not sufficiently clear; it only had glimpses of reason which allowed him
+to comprehend by fits and starts.</p>
+
+<p>Ever quick of decision, she said cheerfully, "Yes, in one moment," and
+withdrew; but before Maurice had divined her intention, returned,
+wearing her bonnet and shawl, and sprang into the carriage.</p>
+
+<p>"Drive into the country," was Madeleine's order to the coachman.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice looked at her with inquiring surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Bayard said a drive would do your father good. We can first take a
+short drive, then return, and go to the hotel."</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan looked happy. The motion of the carriage was agreeable to
+him, and the fresh air revived him; he gazed eagerly out of the window
+as though the commonest objects had caught the charm of novelty. His
+pleasure was of brief duration; for when they had driven about a mile,
+prudence suggested to Madeleine that it would be well to return before
+the patient became fatigued. She pulled the check-cord, and herself gave
+the order, "To Brown's hotel."</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan paid no attention to the command. The hotel was quickly
+reached; the carriage stopped; Maurice descended and handed out his
+father.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me hear good news of you," said Madeleine to Count Tristan,
+encouragingly, and kept her seat.</p>
+
+<p>Leaning heavily on his son's arm, the count mounted the hotel steps, but
+he did not comprehend Madeleine's words as an adieu, and turned to speak
+to her, thinking she was beside him. The coachman was closing the
+carriage-door preparatory to driving away.</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine! Madeleine!" cried out the count, stretching his hand
+imploringly toward her. "Madeleine, come! come!"</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine perceived that Maurice was remonstrating with his father, and
+trying to lead him on, but that the count would not move, and still
+cried out, "Come! come!" in a voice of piteous entreaty.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Curious strangers began to collect; Madeleine knew that if the scene
+continued even a few moments, a crowd would gather, and all manner of
+inquiries be made of her coachman, the hotel-keepers, the servants. She
+leaped out of the carriage, hastened to the count's side, and said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I will go upstairs with you; the assistance of Maurice may not be
+sufficient; lean on my arm also."</p>
+
+<p>And Count Tristan did lean upon her, for his limbs were too feeble to
+ascend a long flight without difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>The door of the countess's <i>salon</i> was but a few paces from the top of
+the stair. Madeleine paused, took the count's hand affectionately in
+hers, and pressed it several times to her lips, saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Now I must bid you adieu. It would not be agreeable to the countess to
+see me. She would think my coming with you impertinent. You will not
+force me to bear the pain of seeing her displeasure? Bid me adieu and
+let me go!"</p>
+
+<p>The count, easily swayed by her persuasive voice, and inspired with a
+vague dread of his mother's anger, kissed her forehead, and did not
+remonstrate, but stood still and watched her gliding swiftly down the
+stairs.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice had whispered to her, "I will be with you as soon as possible,
+Madeleine. Be brave, for my sake!"</p>
+
+<p>The countess had only betrayed her anxious expectancy by changing her
+usual seat to one where she could watch the door, and by looking up
+eagerly every time it opened. When, at last, Maurice entered, supporting
+Count Tristan, there was a gleam of mingled joy and triumph in his
+mother's eye. It was doubtful whether the triumph of having compelled
+obedience to her commands, and of having wrested her son from Madeleine,
+did not surpass the joy she experienced in beholding that son once
+again.</p>
+
+<p>From her greeting, a stranger would hardly have imagined that when she
+saw him last his life was in imminent peril, and that she had rushed
+from his presence overcome by grief and mortification. She now received
+him as though she had cheated herself into the belief that she was doing
+the honors in her ancestral ch&acirc;teau, and that his brief absence had no
+graver origin than some ordinary pleasure party.</p>
+
+<p>"Welcome, my son, welcome!" said she, kissing him on either cheek. "We
+have missed you greatly; you are thrice welcome for this brief
+separation."</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan returned her salutation, but looked strangely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span>
+uncomfortable, as though the atmosphere oppressed and chilled him.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear cousin Tristan, I am so glad to see you better; you will soon be
+quite well again," said Bertha, embracing him far more warmly than his
+mother had done.</p>
+
+<p>The countess made no allusion to his illness; she preferred wholly to
+forget the past.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice led his father to an arm-chair, and asked Bertha to bring a
+pillow. Under Madeleine's tuition Maurice had become quite expert in
+promoting an invalid's comfort, and yet he now failed to arrange the
+pillow satisfactorily. Perhaps his father's chair was not easy, or the
+one to which he was accustomed was more commodious, or Maurice was more
+clumsy than usual; for though Bertha also lent her aid, the count kept
+repeating, fretfully,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It's not right,&mdash;it does not support my shoulders! You can't do it!
+Leave it alone! Leave it alone!"</p>
+
+<p>They desisted, and sat down beside him.</p>
+
+<p>The countess had no faculty of starting conversation, and Bertha's merry
+tongue had of late lost its volubility; she had so often irritated her
+aunt by her remarks that she had become afraid to speak. Maurice was too
+sad to be otherwise than taciturn. Thus the reunited little family sat
+in solemn silence. Count Tristan looked around him drearily for a while,
+and then having for a moment lost recollection of what had just taken
+place, exclaimed disconsolately,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Madeleine?"</p>
+
+<p>These unfortunate words roused the countess. She rose up as loftily as
+in her proudest, most unchastened days, and approaching him, asked, in a
+rebuking voice,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"For <i>whom</i> do you inquire, my son? Am I to understand that a mother's
+presence is not all-sufficient for her own child? Is not hers the place
+by his side? If that place has been, for a season, usurped, should he
+not rejoice that she to whom it legitimately belongs occupies it once
+more?"</p>
+
+<p>The count looked awed, and did not attempt to reply. Maurice perceived
+that he must exert himself to shield his father from as much discomfort
+as could be warded off, and inquired, without directly addressing either
+the countess or Bertha,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Is my father's room prepared for him? But I suppose that it is. His
+drive must have fatigued him, and I think he would like to retire."</p>
+
+<p>The countess disclaimed any knowledge of the state of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span> apartment,
+signifying that she was not in the habit of occupying herself with
+matters of this nature. Bertha was equally ignorant, but said she would
+go and see. Maurice prevented her by going himself.</p>
+
+<p>The room looked as though it had not been entered since the day when he
+had packed up his father's clothes to move them to Madeleine's, and that
+was more than a fortnight ago. There was some delay in getting a
+chambermaid; servants are always busy, yet never to be had in an
+American hotel; after several ineffectual attempts, he obtained the
+services of an Irish girl; and he induced Adolphine to lend her aid,
+that the room might be aired, swept, and put in order more rapidly.
+Adolphine was rather a hinderance to the bustling Irish help, for a
+Parisian lady's-maid knows one especial business, and knows nothing
+else, however simple; she is an instrument that plays but one tune, and
+she boasts of her <i>speciality</i> as a virtue. In something more than an
+hour Adolphine announced that the apartment of <i>M. le Comte</i> was in
+readiness.</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan was very willing to retire, and after Maurice had played
+the valet without assistance, his father seemed disposed to sleep, and
+Maurice closed the blinds and sat down quietly until he perceived that
+the invalid had fallen into a deep slumber. Henceforth he was to watch
+beside him, when watching was needed, alone! Those blessed nights,
+shorter and sweeter than the happiest dreams, when he had sat in the
+pale light, with that beautiful face beaming opposite to him,&mdash;that soft
+voice sounding melodiously in his ears,&mdash;they were gone, never to
+return!</p>
+
+<p>At that very moment Madeleine herself was haunted by the same
+reflections. When she drove home alone, and re&euml;ntered her house, how
+desolate and dreary it appeared! How empty and lonely seemed those
+apartments so lately occupied by the ones nearest of kin and dearest to
+her heart! She wandered through the rooms, up and down, up and down,
+with restless feet, pondering upon the singular events of the last few
+weeks; she had not before had leisure to dwell upon them. Was it indeed
+true that her roof had sheltered Count Tristan de Gramont?&mdash;Count
+Tristan de Gramont, whose persecutions in other days, had driven her
+from his own roof, and whose hatred had embittered and blighted her
+life? And had he learned to depend upon her? to love her? To talk to
+her, even when his mind wandered, of <i>gratitude</i>, as though that emotion
+was ever uppermost in her presence? And Maurice, her dear
+cousin,&mdash;Maurice,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span> the beloved of her soul, who must never know that he
+was all in all to her,&mdash;had he been her guest for more than two weeks?
+And had she been permitted the joy of promoting his comfort in a
+thousand little, unnoted, womanly ways? Had he sat at her table? Had
+they watched together, night and day, by his father's bed?&mdash;talking
+through the night hours, unwearied when the morning broke, unwilling to
+welcome the first rays of the sun, because their sweet, inexhaustible
+converse came to an end? Had they shared the happiness of ameliorating
+Count Tristan's melancholy state, and seeing him daily improve? And now
+it was all over: she must resume her old course of life, her temporarily
+laid aside labors! To muse too long upon departed happiness would unfit
+her for those. Even the sad joy of recollection was denied her.</p>
+
+<p>She sent for Mrs. Lawkins and directed everything to be restored to its
+usual order. The draperies in the entry were to be taken down;&mdash;no, let
+them remain; Madeleine had been accustomed to see that portion of the
+house divided from the rest; let them stay. In passing through the
+drawing-room she noticed Maurice's trunk, which he had not thought of
+packing. Though it gave her many a pang, because she was forced to
+realize more keenly that he was surely gone, it was also with a sense of
+pleasure that she collected together the articles belonging to him and
+packed them carefully. Hers was a nature peculiarly susceptible to the
+pure delight of serving, aiding, sparing trouble to those whom she
+loved. The meanest household drudgery, the severest labor, the most
+prosaic making and mending, would have gained a charm and been idealized
+into pleasures, if they contributed to the well-being of those dear to
+her; but, when performed for the one more precious than all others, they
+became positive joys.</p>
+
+<p>She left Mrs. Lawkins busied in the arrangement of the apartments, and
+went upstairs to the workroom, which she had not entered for nearly
+three weeks. She had not seen any of her <i>employ&eacute;es</i>, except Ruth, and
+Mademoiselle Victorine, since they all had learned her rank. Her
+unexpected appearance created a great commotion. No one but Ruth had
+expected to behold her in that apartment again. The women all rose
+respectfully; but an unwonted restraint checked the expression of
+gratification which her presence ever imparted. Madeleine smilingly bade
+them to be seated; then passed around the table and spoke to every
+needle-woman in turn, inquiring after the personal health of each, or
+asking questions about her family,&mdash;for she knew the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span> histories of all;
+and then learning particulars concerning the work that had been done,
+and the work in hand.</p>
+
+<p>The obsequiousness of Mademoiselle Victorine was perfectly overwhelming,
+yet she experienced no little disappointment. She had made up her mind
+that since Mademoiselle Melanie was known to be Mademoiselle de Gramont,
+she would never again be able to appear among her workwomen, even to
+superintend their labors, and a large portion of the resigned power must
+be delegated to the accomplished forewoman. Ruth Thornton, Madeleine's
+favorite, as Victorine considered her, was in the way; but what were a
+French woman's wits worth if they could not devise some method of
+removing a dangerous rival?</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine lingered long enough to be <i>au courant</i> to the present state
+of affairs, and she found that the business of the establishment had so
+much increased during her seclusion, that every day, a host of orders
+had to be declined. This overwhelming influx of patronage was partially
+attributable to the reports circulated concerning Mademoiselle Melanie's
+romantic history, and also to the strong desire of the public (a
+democratic public) to secure the honor of procuring habiliments from the
+establishment of a dress-maker whose father was a duke.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine had taken a seat near Ruth, and was listening to Mademoiselle
+Victorine's <i>histories</i> and suggestions, when Robert made known that
+Monsieur Maurice de Gramont begged to see Mademoiselle Melanie.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice had left his father as soon as he slept; he was impatient to
+return to Madeleine. He was tortured by the remembrance of her burst of
+grief, and her bitter words. The forced composure by which they were
+succeeded could not hide from him the deep wound she had received.
+Though the period which had elapsed since his father was conducted from
+Madeleine's house was so brief, the rooms, grown familiar to Maurice,
+already wore a different aspect; he actually felt hurt that Madeleine
+could have made the change thus rapidly. Men are so unreasonable!
+Maurice resembled his sex in that particular. Then, too, he found his
+trunk packed, and he knew by whose hand that duty had been performed.
+Doubtless, he was grateful? Not in the least! It seemed to him that
+Madeleine was in too much haste to remove the last vestige of his
+sojourn near her. When she entered the drawing-room he was standing
+contemplating the neatly filled trunk, and was cruel enough to say,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You used your <i>old magic</i> to make ready for us, Madeleine,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span> and you
+have used it again to efface all our footprints here. I can hardly
+persuade myself that I occupied this room."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine felt the implied reproach; but without answering the unmerited
+rebuke, she asked, "Is your father doing well?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is sleeping at this moment; but it is very evident that he is going
+to have a sorrowful time; he will miss you so much; and my grandmother
+is as cold and hard as though her illness had petrified her more
+completely than ever."</p>
+
+<p>That was another observation to which Madeleine could find no reply.
+Without essaying to make an appropriate answer, she said, "It will never
+do to let the whole burden of nursing your father devolve on you,
+Maurice; you will be broken down. May I plan for you? You need an
+experienced <i>garde malade</i>. It would be difficult, at short notice, to
+procure any so reliable, and so well versed in the duties of a nurse as
+Mrs. Lawkins. Then, too, your father is accustomed to see her near him;
+and a familiar face will be more welcome than a stranger's. Do you think
+it would be wrong to engage her without your grandmother's knowing that
+she had been in my employment?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have no scruples on that head," returned Maurice; "but there are
+others which I cannot readily get over. She is your house-keeper, and I
+have heard you say she was very valuable to you. I know that it is
+exceedingly difficult to obtain good domestics in this country; you
+cannot replace her at once. How can you spare her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Easily,&mdash;easily; do not talk of that. I will speak to her and she will
+go to you to-morrow morning. Meantime, I advise you to inform the
+countess that a nurse is coming. One charge more: your father is so much
+better that instead of wearing yourself out by sitting up with him, it
+would be wiser to have a sofa, upon which you could take rest, placed
+beside his bed. M. de Bois will gladly take his turn in watching, but
+after a few nights, I think Count Tristan will need no one but Mrs.
+Lawkins."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Madeleine"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine interrupted him. "One word about the delicacies which you
+cannot readily procure in a hotel, and which it would deprive me of a
+great happiness if I could not send. As the countess is now up, and
+might see and recognize Robert, I will order him to deliver the salver
+to the waiter who attends upon your rooms. Would it not be advisable to
+say a few words to this man to prevent any inadvertent remark in the
+presence of your grandmother?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well thought of. How do you keep your wits so thoroughly about you,
+Madeleine? How do you manage to remember everything that should be
+remembered, and at the right moment?"</p>
+
+<p>"If I do,&mdash;though I am not disposed to admit that such is the case,&mdash;it
+is simply through the habit of taking the trouble to <i>think at all</i>, to
+reflect quietly upon what would be best, what is most needed,&mdash;a very
+simple process."</p>
+
+<p>"And, like a great many other simple but important processes, rare just
+because it <i>is so simple</i>," remarked Maurice, with great justice.</p>
+
+<p>During this conversation Maurice and Madeleine had been standing where
+she found him on entering the room; but he had not resolution to tear
+himself quickly away, and said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Let me sit a little while in your boudoir, and talk to you, Madeleine.
+<i>I</i> have not been able to reconcile myself so quickly to my own change
+of abode as you seem to have done to our departure from yours."</p>
+
+<p>Was it not surprising that such a noble-minded man as Maurice could make
+an observation so ungracious, so ungenerous, and one which in his heart
+he knew was so unjust, to the woman he loved? Yet it would be difficult
+to find a lover who is incapable of doing the same. Why is it that men,
+even the best, are at times stirred by an irresistible prompting,
+themselves, to wound the being whom they would shield from all harm
+dealt by others with chivalric devotion? Let a woman commit the
+slightest action that can, by ingenious torturing, be interpreted into a
+moment's want of consideration for the feelings of her lover, and all
+his admiration, his tenderness, his reverence, will not prevent his
+being cruel enough to stab her with some passing word that strikes as
+sharply as a dagger.</p>
+
+<p>"You think me a true philosopher, then?" replied Madeleine, gravely. But
+she added, in a lower and less firm tone, while a soft humility filled
+her mild eyes, "Do you think <i>I am reconciled</i>, Maurice?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you not think I am a heartless, senseless brute to have grieved you?
+Do not look so sorrowful! You make me hate myself! Ah, you did well not
+to trust your happiness to my keeping; I was not a fit guardian."</p>
+
+<p>It was far harder for Madeleine to hear him say <i>that</i> than to listen to
+an undeserved reproach; but she led the way to her boudoir without
+replying, and for the next hour Maurice sat beside her, and they
+conversed without any jarring note breaking the harmony of their
+communion.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLV" id="CHAPTER_XLV"></a>CHAPTER XLV.</h2>
+
+<h3>REPARATION.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Maurice, with as much <i>nonchalance</i> as he could assume, informed his
+grandmother that he had engaged a <i>garde malade</i> to assist in the care
+of his father. When good Mrs. Lawkins made her appearance the next
+morning, looking as plump, rosy and "comfortable" as English nurses (and
+house-keepers) are wont to look, the countess merely bestowed upon her a
+passing glance and then took no further notice of her presence. It never
+occurred to Madame de Gramont to inquire into the fitness of this person
+for her position and duties. Besides, the countess seldom addressed a
+"hireling," except to utter a command or a rebuke. Maurice was greatly
+relieved when he perceived his grandmother's perfect indifference to the
+individual whom he had selected. Mrs. Lawkins had been thrown "into a
+flutter" by Madeleine's cautions and the prospect of being obliged to
+parry a series of cross-questions; but the reception she received
+quickly restored her equanimity. Count Tristan was sitting near his
+mother; the worthy house-keeper made her obeisance to both in silence,
+then turned to Maurice for directions.</p>
+
+<p>"You have brought your trunk with you?" inquired the latter.</p>
+
+<p>"I left it in the entry, sir."</p>
+
+<p>The count looked up at the sound of that voice. Immediately recognizing
+one whose association in his mind with Madeleine struck the chord which
+vibrated most readily, he exclaimed, in a piteous tone, "Madeleine!
+Madeleine! Why don't she come? Wont Madeleine come soon?"</p>
+
+<p>Maurice, Bertha, and Mrs. Lawkins were filled with consternation at
+these words, which they imagined must arouse the suspicions of the
+countess; but she had not condescended to waste sufficient attention
+upon the domestic her son had hired to perceive that Count Tristan's
+ejaculations had any connection with her presence. The disdainful lady's
+eyes sparkled with anger at the unexpected mention of one whose name she
+desired never more to hear. She drew her chair close to Count Tristan's
+and said in harsh accents,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I trust, my son, that you have no wish ungratified? When your <i>mother</i>
+is by your side, <i>whom</i> else <i>can</i> you desire?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan was too easily cowed by her manner to venture a reply,
+even if his disordered intellect could have suggested any appropriate
+answer.</p>
+
+<p>"I rejoice at your restoration to me," continued his mother; "and the
+filial duty I have the right to expect prompts me to believe that you
+also rejoice at our reunion."</p>
+
+<p>The invalid looked very far from rejoicing; but the countess solaced
+herself by interpreting his silence into an affirmative.</p>
+
+<p>From that time he never breathed Madeleine's name in his mother's
+presence; but those who watched beside him, often heard it murmured when
+he slept, or just as he wakened, before full consciousness was restored.</p>
+
+<p>From the day that he returned to the hotel, he sank into a state of deep
+dejection. He would sit or lie for hours with his eyes wide open,
+without apparently seeing or hearing what passed around him, while an
+expression of despair overshadowed his deeply furrowed countenance.</p>
+
+<p>The manifest weakness of his brain was a severer trial to Madame de
+Gramont than his enfeebled bodily condition; but she dealt with it as
+with her other trials; she would not acknowledge to herself the
+existence of his mental malady; she refused to admit that he lacked
+power to reason, at the very moment when she was exerting the species of
+authority she would have employed to keep an unreasoning child in check.
+The idea that it would be well to divert his mind, and render the hours
+less tedious, never occurred to her, or, if it did, she was totally at a
+loss to suggest any means of pleasantly whiling away the time. Her own
+health had not wholly recovered from its recent shock; the slow fever
+still lingered in her veins, but the daily routine of her life was as
+unchanged as though her strength had been unimpaired.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Bayard had ordered his patient to drive out every day, and the
+countess considered it her duty to accompany him. The pillows which Mrs.
+Lawkins carefully placed for the support of the invalid were almost as
+much needed by his mother; but she sat erect, and drew herself away from
+them, as though the merest approach to a reclining posture would have
+been a lapse from dignity. The count no longer gazed out of the window
+with that calm look of enjoyment which Maurice and Madeleine had
+remarked; he usually closed his eyes, or fixed them on his son, sitting
+opposite, with a mournfully appealing look, which seemed to ask,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Can no help come to me? Will it <i>always</i> be thus?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Week after week passed on. Maurice, in spite of his unremitting
+attention to his father, found time to pay daily visits to Madeleine.</p>
+
+<p>She no longer made her appearance in the exhibition-rooms, or saw the
+ladies who came to her establishment, upon business; but when Count
+Tristan was removed she had no gracious plea for excusing herself to
+those who called as visitors. She received them with graceful ease and
+dignified composure. Not one of them had courage or inclination to make
+the faintest allusion to the past, or to their acquaintance with her as
+"Mademoiselle Melanie." It was Mademoiselle de Gramont in whose presence
+they sat. Even Madame de Fleury had too much perception to venture to
+ask her advice upon questions of the deepest interest,&mdash;namely, the most
+becoming shapes for new attire, the selection of colors, the choice of
+appropriate trimmings, or some equally important matter which engrossed
+that troubled lady's thoughts, and caused her many wakeful nights.</p>
+
+<p>After Count Tristan and Maurice returned to the hotel, Bertha escaped
+from imprisonment. When she informed her aunt that she was suffering
+from want of fresh air, the countess requested her to accompany Count
+Tristan and herself upon their daily drive; but Bertha maintained that
+driving would do her no good; she detested a close carriage; she wanted
+more active exercise,&mdash;she would take a brisk walk with her maid. Madame
+de Gramont would assuredly have mounted guard over her niece in person,
+were it not that the fatigue experienced even after a couple of hours'
+driving, admonished her that she lacked the strength for pedestrianism.
+Bertha was allowed to go forth attended only by Adolphine. Her walk
+always lay in one direction, and that was toward the residence of
+Madeleine; and, strange to say, she never failed to encounter M. de
+Bois, who was always going the same way! These invigorating promenades
+had a marvellous effect in restoring Bertha's faded color and vanished
+spirits; and in the small, sad circle of which the stern-visaged
+Countess de Gramont formed the centre, there was, at least, one radiant
+face.</p>
+
+<p>About this time the quiet monotony of Maurice's life was broken by a
+letter from his partner, Mr. Lorrillard. This gentleman had only
+recently learned from Mr. Emerson the painful circumstances which had
+taken place in connection with the loan made to the Viscount de Gramont
+at Mr. Lorrillard's suggestion. Mr. Lorrillard prided himself upon being
+too good a judge of character and upon having studied that of Maurice
+too thoroughly, not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span> to feel confident that some satisfactory
+explanation could be given to occurrences which wore a very dubious
+aspect. He wrote kindly, yet frankly, to Maurice, requesting to know
+whether the account of the transaction which he had received was
+thoroughly correct, and more than hinting his certainty that all the
+facts had not been brought to light. Maurice was sorely perplexed; but,
+in spite of his strong desire to shield his father, he finally decided
+that Mr. Lorrillard was entitled to a full explanation, and that his own
+position would never be endurable while a suspicion shadowed his name.
+He despatched Mr. Lorrillard the following letter.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"<i>My dear Sir</i>:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot but be touched by the confidence you repose in me.
+I do not thank you less because you have done me the common
+justice which is due from one man to another. When I
+received the loan from Mr. Emerson, I as firmly believed
+that the security I gave him was unquestionable, as he did.
+I had been led to think that the power of attorney in my
+father's hands had not been used. I was mistaken. I pass
+over Mr. Emerson's proceedings, which, however severe, were
+authorized by the light in which he viewed my conduct. The
+ten thousand dollars he loaned me were, at once, repaid him
+by the generosity of one of my relatives, Mademoiselle
+Madeleine de Gramont, whose debtor I remain. My father's
+dangerous illness has detained me in Washington. The instant
+he is sufficiently convalescent I purpose returning to
+Charleston to resume my professional duties.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"I am, my dear sir,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">"Yours, very truly,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">"<span class="smcap">Maurice de Gramont</span>."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<p>Mr. Lorrillard was highly gratified by the simple, ingenuous, yet manly
+tone of this letter, and well pleased to find his impressions correct.
+He immediately despatched an epistle to Mr. Emerson which convinced the
+latter that he could only conciliate a valued friend by making every
+possible reparation.</p>
+
+<p>A few days later Maurice was surprised by Mr. Emerson's card. He could
+not converse with him in the presence of Count Tristan and Madame de
+Gramont, and was obliged to receive him in the general drawing-room of
+the hotel.</p>
+
+<p>When Maurice entered, Mr. Emerson extended his hand and said, with an
+air of frankness,&mdash;</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I am a just man, M. de Gramont, and I came to make you an apology. My
+friend, Mr. Lorrillard, has convinced me that I ought to have paused
+before I yielded to the conviction that one whom he esteemed so highly
+had wilfully taken advantage of my credulity. I am now convinced that
+you were not aware that your property was mortgaged, and I come to tell
+you so."</p>
+
+<p>"You have again made me your debtor," replied Maurice, not a little
+gratified. "I give you my word, as a gentleman, that I had not the
+remotest suspicion the property in question was encumbered. I have no
+right to complain of the severity of your treatment; it was justifiable
+under the circumstances."</p>
+
+<p>"Hardly," replied the other. "But I shall esteem it a privilege to make
+all the reparation in my power. Of course you are aware that the
+railroad mentioned passes through your property, and that the estate has
+already doubled its former value? I came here to say that I am ready not
+only to loan you the ten thousand dollars you originally requested me to
+advance, but a larger sum, if you so desire."</p>
+
+<p>What a sensation of thankfulness and relief those words caused Maurice!
+He would not only be enabled to repay Madeleine the amount she had so
+generously loaned, but he would be in a situation to meet the heavy
+expenses which his father and grandmother were daily incurring! Count de
+Gramont had never given his son entire confidence, and the latter was
+not aware of the <i>exact</i> state of the count's affairs; but Maurice had
+too much cause to believe that they were in a ruinous condition. He had
+only recently become acquainted with the mortifying fact that, from the
+time his father left the Ch&acirc;teau de Gramont, Bertha had been the banker
+of the whole party.</p>
+
+<p>"I will meet your offer as frankly as it is made," answered Maurice,
+after a moment's reflection. "If you feel justified in loaning me
+fifteen thousand dollars, instead of ten, upon the former security, I
+will esteem it a great favor."</p>
+
+<p>"Willingly; come to my office to-day, at any hour you please, and we
+will settle the matter. Make haste, for I must write to Lorrillard by
+this evening's mail, and I desire to inform him, in answer to his
+somewhat caustic letter, that I have made the <i>amende honorable</i>."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLVI" id="CHAPTER_XLVI"></a>CHAPTER XLVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>A MISHAP.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Madeleine was accustomed to see Maurice at a certain hour every day, and
+looked forward to that period with such joyous expectation that a sense
+of disquiet, amounting to positive pain, took possession of her mind
+when the time passed without his making his appearance. She could not
+help reflecting how sad and long the days would grow when she could no
+more listen for his welcome step, and feel her heart bounding at the
+sight of his handsome countenance; and yet such days must come, and must
+be borne with the rest of life's burdens.</p>
+
+<p>That was his ring at the bell,&mdash;those were his firm, rapid steps! His
+face glowed so brightly when he entered the little boudoir that
+Madeleine exclaimed,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Your father must be much better! You carry the news written in shining
+characters in your eyes."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice related what had passed between himself and Mr. Emerson, to whom
+he had just paid the promised visit, and concluded by saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Now, dearest Madeleine, I am enabled to repay your most opportune loan,
+but not able to tell you from what misery and disgrace you saved me."</p>
+
+<p>He laid a check upon the table as he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine was silent, and looked uncomfortable. Maurice went on,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You cannot <i>conceive</i> my happiness at being so unexpectedly able to pay
+this debt, though that of gratitude must ever remain uncancelled."</p>
+
+<p>"At least, Maurice, I will not <i>deprive</i> you of the happiness, since it
+is one; and perhaps you will be more pleased when you know that this
+money will enable me to make the last payment upon this house, which
+will now become wholly mine. It has grown more dear to me than I
+imagined it could ever become,&mdash;more dear through the guests whom it has
+sheltered, and the associations with which it is filled. I never thought
+of making it mine with so much joy."</p>
+
+<p>"You will remain here then? You will continue your occupation?" asked
+Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, undoubtedly."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But," persisted Maurice, "do you not look forward to a time when you
+will have another home?"</p>
+
+<p>"I see no such time in the dim future," she returned. "Perhaps I may
+become so rich that the temptation to retire will be very great; but as
+I cannot live unemployed I shall first be obliged to discover some
+other, wider, and nobler sphere of usefulness."</p>
+
+<p>"But the home I mean," continued Maurice, with an air of desperation,
+"is the home of another,&mdash;the home of one whom you love. Do you not look
+forward to dwelling in such a home?"</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine's "No" was uttered in a low tone, but one of unmistakable
+sincerity.</p>
+
+<p>"How can that be?" exclaimed Maurice, at once troubled and relieved.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not try to read the riddle, Maurice. You will be happier in setting
+it aside as one of life's mysteries which will be revealed in the great
+day. Will you listen to a new song which I have been learning?"</p>
+
+<p>"Will I listen? Will a hungry beggar gather the crumbs falling from a
+rich man's table?"</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine laughed and seated herself at the piano. The new song only
+made Maurice desire to hear some of the old ones, and then other new
+ones, and she sang on until an unexpected and startling interruption
+destroyed all the harmony of the hour. But that occurrence we will
+relate in due season. We must first return to the hotel which Maurice
+had left before his usual hour, that he might pay a visit to Mr. Emerson
+previous to calling upon Madeleine.</p>
+
+<p>The palatable delicacies which Madeleine daily sent to the invalids
+always reached the hotel at an hour when Maurice had promised to be at
+home. Robert had strict orders to deliver the salver to one of the hotel
+servants, and never to appear before the countess. This morning,
+however, the arrival of a large number of travellers had occupied all
+the domestics; not a waiter was to be found. Robert was anxious to
+inquire about a silver milk-jug which had not been returned. He carried
+his salver to the door of Madame de Gramont's drawing-room, though
+without intending to enter. The door happened to be open; he could see
+that the room was only occupied by Count Tristan, who was asleep in his
+arm-chair, and Mrs. Lawkins. She was the person whom he wished to see.
+The temptation was too great to be resisted. He entered with soundless
+feet,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span> and placed upon the table a salver bearing a bowl of beef tea,
+two glasses of calves'-feet jelly, a plate of those Normandy cakes which
+the countess had so much relished, and a dish of superb white and red
+raspberries.</p>
+
+<p>Approaching his mouth to Mrs. Lawkins' ear, Robert said, in a whisper,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Lawkins, I had to come in, for you were just the person I wanted
+to see. You never sent back the silver milk-pitcher."</p>
+
+<p>"The milk-pitcher?" replied Mrs. Lawkins. "Bless my heart! You don't say
+so? It's not here! I hope it's not been stolen. It must have got mixed
+up with the hotel silver and gone downstairs."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll be sure to hunt it up, Mrs. Lawkins. I have said nothing to
+Mademoiselle Melanie,&mdash;Mademoiselle Madeleine, I mean; but I am
+responsible, as you know, for all her silver, and I can't have what I
+bring here mislaid; as you were here I thought it was quite safe. How is
+the poor gentleman?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, not so well as he was under Mademoiselle Madeleine's care. I'll see
+after the silver jug, and keep a sharp look-out for the silver in
+future."</p>
+
+<p>Robert and Mrs. Lawkins stood with their backs to the door of Madame de
+Gramont's apartment, which opened into the drawing-room. What was their
+consternation on finding the countess herself standing in the door-way!
+Her countenance was perfectly appalling in its white, distorted wrath.
+She strode toward the two abashed domestics, and cried out, in a voice
+which broke the count's slumbers, and caused him to sit up in his chair
+with terror-dilated eyes,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Woman! What is the meaning of this? Of whom are you talking? Whose
+silver is that?" (pointing savagely to the salver.) "And who are you?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lawkins was dumb.</p>
+
+<p>"Am I to be answered?" demanded the countess, imperiously.</p>
+
+<p>Then she turned to Robert. "Whose silver is that? Whose silver did you
+say was missing?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mademoiselle de Gramont's," Robert faltered out.</p>
+
+<p>"And Mademoiselle de Gramont has the unparalleled audacity to send her
+silver here for my use? Do you mean to tell me that this salver and what
+it contains are from her?"</p>
+
+<p>Robert could not answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Great heaven! that I should endure this! That Madeleine de Gramont
+should have the insolence to <i>force</i> her <i>bounty</i> by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span> stealth upon me,
+and that I should not have suspected her at once! Remove that salver out
+of my sight, and if you ever dare"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lawkins had now partially recovered her self-possession, and
+interrupted the countess politely but very firmly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Madame, you will do M. de Gramont great injury. Do you not see that you
+are exciting him by this violence?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Who</i> are you that you dare dictate to me? Leave this house instantly!
+Were you sent here by Mademoiselle de Gramont to institute an
+<i>espionage</i> over me and my family? Go and tell your mistress that
+neither she nor anything that belongs to her shall ever again defile my
+dwelling! I shall watch better in future! I will not be snared by her
+low arts, her contemptible impostures!"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lawkins, though she was a mild woman, loved Madeleine too well to
+hear her mentioned disrespectfully without being roused to indignation;
+affection for her mistress overcame her awe of the countess, and she
+replied with feeling,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"She is the noblest lady that ever walked the earth to bless it! and her
+only art is the practise of goodness! Those who are turning upon her and
+reviling her ought to be on their knees before her this blessed moment!
+Didn't she nurse that poor gentleman night and day, as though he had
+been her own father? Did she not bear all the slights put upon her by
+those who are not half as good as she?&mdash;yes, that are not worthy to wipe
+the dust from her holy feet, for all their pride? Didn't it almost break
+her heart when they forced the poor sick gentleman out of her house, to
+cage him in this cold, dreary place, where his own mother takes about as
+much care and notice of him as though he were a <i>Hindoo</i> or a
+<i>Hottentot</i>!" (Mrs. Lawkins was not strong in comparisons.) "And don't
+he mourn the night through for Mademoiselle Madeleine, crying out for
+her to come to him, as, I warrant, he never did for his mother? And
+isn't that mother murdering him at this very moment?"</p>
+
+<p>"Leave the house! Leave the house!" cried the countess, in a voice that
+had lost all its commanding dignity, through rage. "Leave the house, I
+say! Do you dare to stand in my presence after such insolence?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, madame I dare!" replied Mrs. Lawkins, coolly. "I am not afraid of
+a marble figure, even though it has a tongue; and there's not more soul
+in you than in a piece of marble; there's nothing but stone where your
+heart should be; but even stone will break with a hard enough blow, and
+perhaps you will get such a one before you die."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Go! I say, go!" vociferated the countess, pointing to the door. "Am I
+to be obeyed?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, madame!" replied Mrs. Lawkins, undaunted. "Not until I receive the
+orders of M. Maurice de Gramont. He placed me here, and here I shall
+stay until I have his leave to resign my duties."</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan had caught his attendant's hand when he conceived the idea
+that she was to be sent away from him, and when she refused to leave
+him, he pressed it approvingly.</p>
+
+<p>"I am mistress here!" said the countess, with something of her former
+grandeur of bearing. "M. Maurice de Gramont has no authority to engage
+or discharge domestics, or to give any orders that are not mine. I will
+have none of Mademoiselle de Gramont's spies placed about my person! Go
+and tell her so, and say that after this last outrage, I will never see
+her face again. Would that I might never hear her name! She has been my
+curse,&mdash;my misery; she shall never cross my path more!"</p>
+
+<p>The count rose up as if sudden strength were miraculously infused into
+his limbs; he raised both his arms toward heaven, and wailed out, "O
+Lord God, bless her! bless her! Madeleine! Good angel! Madeleine!"</p>
+
+<p>The next moment he fell forward senseless and rolled to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>The countess was stupefied;&mdash;she could not speak, or stoop, or stir.</p>
+
+<p>The alarmed house-keeper knelt beside him. Robert hastily set down the
+salver and lent his assistance. They lifted the count and laid him upon
+the sofa. The instant Mrs. Lawkins saw his face, and the foam issuing
+from his lips, she exclaimed,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It is another fit! It is his second stroke! Lord have mercy upon him!
+and upon <i>you</i>," she continued, turning to the countess, solemnly; "for,
+if he dies, so sure as there is a heaven above us, you have killed your
+own son!"</p>
+
+<p>The countess' look of horror softened the kindly house-keeper, in spite
+of her just wrath, and she added, "He may recover,&mdash;he has great
+strength. Robert, run quickly for Dr. Bayard."</p>
+
+<p>Then she unfastened the patient's cravat and dashed cold water upon his
+head, and chafed his hands, while his mother, slowly awakening from her
+state of stupefaction, drew near, and bent over him. But not a finger
+did she raise to minister to him; she would not have known what to do,
+so little were her hands accustomed to ministration,&mdash;so seldom had they
+been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span> stretched out to perform the slightest service for any one, even
+her own son.</p>
+
+<p>We left Madeleine chasing away all heaviness from the soul of Maurice by
+her sweet singing. She was still at the piano, and he still hanging over
+her, when Robert burst into the room. He was a man almost stolid in his
+quietude, and his hurried entrance, and agitated manner, were sufficient
+to terrify Maurice and Madeleine before he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Mademoiselle, it was my fault! Oh, if I had been more careful to obey
+your orders it would never have happened!"</p>
+
+<p>His contrition was so deep that he could not proceed.</p>
+
+<p>"Has Madame de Gramont discovered who sent the salver?" asked Madeleine,
+with an air of vexation.</p>
+
+<p>"That's not the worst, Mademoiselle. The countess has found out how Mrs.
+Lawkins came there. She overheard us talking about the milk-jug I
+missed. Madame de Gramont was very violent; she said such things of you,
+Mademoiselle, that Mrs. Lawkins, who loves you like her own, couldn't
+stand it, and gave her a bit of her mind, and M. de Gramont was roused
+up also; he wouldn't hear you spoken against; he took on so it caused
+him another attack; down he dropped like dead!"</p>
+
+<p>"My father,&mdash;he has been seized again, and"&mdash;Maurice did not finish his
+sentence, but caught up his hat.</p>
+
+<p>"I've been for the doctor, sir," said Robert; "he's there by this time."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice was out of the room, and hurrying toward the street door;
+Madeleine sprang after him.</p>
+
+<p>"Maurice! Maurice! Stay one moment! Oh, if I could be near your
+father,&mdash;if I could see him! My imprudence has been the cause of this
+last stroke; yet I feel that he would gladly have me near him."</p>
+
+<p>"He would indeed, my best Madeleine; but, my grandmother, alas! I have
+no hope of moving her."</p>
+
+<p>"If her son were dying," persisted Madeleine, "her heart might be
+softened. If he asked for me, she might let me come to him; it would
+soothe <i>him</i> perhaps, and how it would comfort <i>me</i>! I shall be at the
+hotel nearly as soon as you are. I will wait in my carriage until you
+come to me and tell me how he is. Perhaps I <i>may</i> be permitted to enter
+if he asks for me. Do not forget that I am there."</p>
+
+<p>Did Maurice ever forget her, for a single moment?</p>
+
+<p>As soon as Madeleine's carriage could be brought to the door she
+followed her cousin.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was perhaps surprising that she was moved with so much sympathy for
+one whom she not only had good reason to dislike, but toward whom she
+had formerly experienced an unconquerable repugnance; but, with spirits
+chastened and purified, as hers had been, a tenderness is always kindled
+toward those whom they are permitted to <i>serve</i>. The very office of
+ministration (the office of angels), softens the heart, and substitutes
+pity for loathing, the strong inclination to regenerate for the spirit
+of condemnation. While Madeleine was daily ministering to the count, she
+found herself becoming attached to him, and, with little effort of
+volition, she blotted the past from her own memory.</p>
+
+<p>The action of Count Tristan's mind had been peculiar; when the discovery
+of his dishonorable man&oelig;uvring caused him a shock which planted the
+first seeds of his present malady,&mdash;when he had fallen into the depths
+of despair,&mdash;it was Madeleine's hand that raised him up, that saved him
+from disgrace, and saved his son from being the innocent participator of
+that shame. For the first time in his life a strong sense of gratitude
+was awakened in his breast. Again, it was through Madeleine that the
+votes of so much importance to him, and which he had believed
+unattainable, were procured; she stood before him for the second time in
+the light of a benefactress. He had been seized with apoplexy while
+conversing with her; when reason was dimly restored, his mind went back
+to his last conscious thought, and <i>that</i> had been of her,&mdash;hence his
+immediate recognition of her alone. Her patient, gentle, tender care had
+impressed him with reverence; he was magnetized by her sphere of
+unselfishness, forgiveness and goodness, and some of the hardnesses of
+his own nature were melted away.</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan had practised deception until he had nearly lost all
+belief in the truth and purity of others,&mdash;had apparently grown
+insensible to all holy influences. Yet the daily contemplation of a
+character which bore witness to the existence of the most heavenly
+attributes silently undermined his cold scepticism, and tacitly
+contradicted and disproved his creed that duplicity and selfishness were
+universal characteristics of mankind,&mdash;a creed usually adopted by him
+who sees his fellow-men in the mirror which reflects his own image.
+Madeleine had discovered some small, not yet tightly closed avenue to
+Count Tristan's soul. Her toiling, pardoning, helping, holy spirit had
+done more to lift him out of the bondage of his evil passions than could
+have been affected by any other human agency.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLVII" id="CHAPTER_XLVII"></a>CHAPTER XLVII.</h2>
+
+<h3>INFLEXIBILITY.</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Oh, you have come at last!" exclaimed the countess, with acrimony, as
+Maurice opened the door of his father's chamber. Then, pointing to the
+count, who still lay in a state of unconsciousness, she added, "Do you
+see what calamities you leave me alone to bear?&mdash;you who are the only
+stay I have left?"</p>
+
+<p>By the aid of Mrs. Lawkins and the servants of the hotel, the count had
+been removed to his room. When Maurice entered, Mrs. Lawkins was
+standing on one side of the bed, Dr. Bayard on the other. The countess
+was pacing up and down the small chamber like a caged lioness.</p>
+
+<p>Her grandson did not reply to her taunt, but addressed the doctor in a
+tone too low for her to hear. His answer was a dubious movement of the
+head which augured ill.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha, who chanced to be in her own chamber, writing to her dyspeptic
+uncle, had only that moment become aware of what had happened. She stole
+into the count's room, pale with terror, crept up to Maurice, and clung
+to his arm as she asked, in a frightened tone,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Will he die, Maurice? Is it as bad as that?"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot tell; I have great fears. But see, he is opening his eyes; he
+looks better."</p>
+
+<p>The senses of the count were returning; the fit had been of brief
+duration, and hardly as violent as the one with which he had before been
+attacked. In a short time it was apparent that he was aware of what was
+passing around him.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice whispered to Bertha: "Madeleine is in her carriage at the door;
+put on your bonnet and run down to her,&mdash;you will not be missed. Tell
+her that my father is reviving."</p>
+
+<p>Bertha lost no time in obeying, and was soon sitting by Madeleine's
+side, receiving rather than giving comfort.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Bayard, whose visits were necessarily brief, was compelled to leave,
+but he did so with the assurance that he would return speedily.</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan's eyes wandered about as though in search of some one;
+they rested but for one instant upon his mother, Maurice, Mrs. Lawkins,
+and then glanced around him again with an anxious, yearning expression,
+and he moaned faintly.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Maurice bent over him. "My dear father, is there anything you desire?"</p>
+
+<p>The count moaned again.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there any one you wish to see?" asked Maurice, determined to take a
+bold stand.</p>
+
+<p>"Mad&mdash;Mad&mdash;Madeleine!"</p>
+
+<p>The feeble lips of the sufferer formed the word with difficulty, yet it
+was clearly spoken.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice turned bravely to the countess. "You hear, my grandmother, that
+my father wishes to see Madeleine; it is not usual to refuse the
+requests of one in his perilous condition. With your permission I shall
+at once seek Madeleine and bring her to him."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you taken leave of your senses?" she asked with tyrannous passion.
+"Or do you think that I have not borne insults enough, that you strive
+to invent new ones to heap upon me? How can you mention the name of that
+miserable girl in my hearing? Has she not occasioned me and all my
+family sufficient wretchedness? Are you mad enough to imagine that I
+will allow you to bring her here that she may triumph over me in the
+face of the whole world?"</p>
+
+<p>"My father asks to see her," returned Maurice, adding, in a lower tone,
+"and he may be on his death-bed."</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Gramont, losing all control over herself, replied savagely,
+"<i>If</i> he were stretched there a corpse before me,&mdash;<i>he</i>, <i>my only son</i>,
+the only child I ever bore, the pride of my life,&mdash;Madeleine de Gramont
+should not enter these doors to glory over me! I know her arts; I know
+the hold she has contrived to obtain over him while he was at her mercy.
+That is at an end! I have him here, and she shall never come near him
+more,&mdash;neither she nor her <i>accomplices</i>!" and she indicated Mrs.
+Lawkins by a disdainful motion of the hand, as though she feared her
+meaning might not be sufficiently clear.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice could not yield without another effort; for he perceived, by his
+father's countenance, that he not only heard the contest, but appealed
+to him to grant his unspoken wish.</p>
+
+<p>"This is cruel, my grandmother! It is inhuman! You have nothing to urge
+against Madeleine, who has too nobly proved her devotion to her family,
+and her respect for your feelings; but if you <i>had</i> real and just cause
+of complaint, it should be forgotten at this moment. If my father
+desires to see her, she should be permitted to come to him."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you presume to dictate to me, Maurice de Gramont? Is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span> this one of
+the lessons you have learned from the <i>mantua-maker</i>? Do you intend to
+teach me my duty to my own child? I <i>swear to you</i> that Madeleine de
+Gramont shall <i>never</i> see my son again, while I live! I, his mother, am
+by his side,&mdash;that is sufficient. No one's presence can supersede that
+of a mother!"</p>
+
+<p>Maurice saw that contention was fruitless; he sat down in silence, but
+not without noticing the look of compassion which Mrs. Lawkins bestowed
+upon him. The count had closed his eyes again, but low groans, almost
+like stifled sobs, burst at intervals from his lips.</p>
+
+<p>The countess essayed to unbend sufficiently to attempt the task of
+soothing him.</p>
+
+<p>"My son," she said, in the mildest tone she could command, "do you not
+know that your mother is near you?"</p>
+
+<p>Without unclosing his eyes, he answered, "Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And her presence under all circumstances," she continued, "should leave
+nothing to desire. In spite of what Maurice with so little respect and
+consideration has attempted to make me believe, I know you too well not
+to be certain that he did you injustice."</p>
+
+<p>No answer; but the countess interpreted her son's silence into
+acquiescence with her observation, and remarked to Maurice with
+asperity,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I presume you perceive that your father is fully satisfied. It does not
+interfere with his comfort that you have failed in your attempt. I well
+know you were instigated by one who hopes to make use of your father's
+indisposition as the stepping-stone by which she can again mount into
+favor with her family, and force them into public recognition of her.
+This is but one of her many cunning stratagems; there are others of
+which we will talk presently."</p>
+
+<p>She glanced at Mrs. Lawkins, who was arranging the count's pillows, and
+raising him into a more comfortable position.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice bethought him that it was time to let Madeleine know there was
+no hope of her obtaining admission to his father. As he left the
+apartment, the countess followed him into the drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p>"I have something further to say to you, Maurice, and I prefer to speak
+out of the hearing of that woman. Am I to understand that you were privy
+to her introduction into this house, and that you were aware that she
+was a spy of Mademoiselle de Gramont?"</p>
+
+<p>"A spy, madame?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, a spy! Why should Mademoiselle de Gramont wish to place her
+menials here except to institute <i>espionage</i> over my family?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Lawkins was sent here by Madeleine because she is an efficient
+nurse,&mdash;such a nurse as my father needs and as he could not readily
+obtain, <i>I</i> brought her here, and I did not do so without knowing her
+fitness for her office."</p>
+
+<p>"Her chief fitness consists, it appears, in her having been in the
+employment of the mantua-maker. I have no more to say on this subject,
+except that the woman must quit the house this evening."</p>
+
+<p>"That is out of the question; she cannot leave until I have found some
+one to take her place."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean to dispute my orders, Maurice de Gramont? I shall not
+entrust to you the task of dismissing her. I shall myself command her to
+leave, and that without delay."</p>
+
+<p>"You will do as you please, madame; but may I ask by whom you intend to
+replace her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Somebody will be found. I will give orders to have another nurse
+procured. In the mean time, Adolphine can make herself useful."</p>
+
+<p>"Adolphine!" replied Maurice, contemptuously. "A butterfly might turn a
+mill-wheel as efficiently as Adolphine could take charge of an invalid."</p>
+
+<p>"Be the alternative what it may," replied the countess, peremptorily, "I
+am unalterable in my determination. That woman sent here by Madeleine de
+Gramont leaves the house to-day!"</p>
+
+<p>Just then her eye fell upon the salver which Robert had left upon the
+table when he ran for the doctor; that sight added fresh fuel to her
+indignation.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you also been aware that Mademoiselle de Gramont carried her
+audacity so far that she had even ventured secretly to send donations,
+in the shape of chocolate, beef-tea, cakes, jellies, and fruit, to her
+family?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am aware," replied Maurice, "that Madeleine's thoughtful kindness
+prompted her, during your indisposition as well as my father's, to
+prepare, with her own hands, delicacies which are not to be obtained in
+a hotel. I was aware that this was her return for the harsh and cruel
+treatment she had received at the hands of,&mdash;of some of her family."</p>
+
+<p>"Mad boy! You are leagued with her against me! This is unendurable! Oh,
+that I had never been lured to this abominable country! Oh, that I had
+never known the shame of find<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span>ing my own grandson sunken so low! But I
+have borne the very utmost that I can support! Now it shall end! I will
+return with your father to our old home, that we may die there in peace!
+If you are not lost to all sense of filial duty, you will not forsake
+your father, but accompany him to Brittany; he will henceforth need a
+son!"</p>
+
+<p>Maurice avoided making a direct reply by saying, "Have the goodness to
+excuse me, madame; I will return in a few moments."</p>
+
+<p>He descended the stair with slower steps than was his wont when on his
+way to Madeleine. Bertha was still sitting in the carriage beside her
+cousin. Maurice read anxious expectation, mingled with some faint hope,
+in Madeleine's countenance. He entered the carriage before he ventured
+to speak.</p>
+
+<p>"Your father, Maurice?" she asked eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"I think he is better; the attack does not appear as severe as the
+former one must have been."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you speak to your grandmother of me? Did you plead for me, and
+entreat that she would allow me to go to Count Tristan?"</p>
+
+<p>"She is not to be moved, Madeleine; she is implacable."</p>
+
+<p>"But if your father should desire to see me?" persisted Madeleine.</p>
+
+<p>"He did desire,&mdash;he even asked for you,&mdash;but my grandmother was
+inflexible."</p>
+
+<p>"Maurice, I must,&mdash;must go to him, if he wishes to see me. I understand
+his wants so well,&mdash;I must, must go to him! Madame de Gramont may treat
+me as she will; but if he wants me, I must go to him!"</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine was so carried away by her strong impulse to reach one to whom
+she knew her presence was essential, that she was less reasonable than
+usual, and it was with some difficulty that Maurice pacified her. But to
+resign herself to the inevitable, however hard, was one of the first
+duties of her life, and after awhile her composure was partially
+restored, and, bidding Bertha and Maurice adieu, she drove home.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLVIII" id="CHAPTER_XLVIII"></a>CHAPTER XLVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE NEW ENGLAND NURSE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Madeleine, in spite of the positive denial she had received, experienced
+as strong a desire to be near her afflicted relative as though his
+yearning for her presence drew her to him by some species of powerful
+magnetism. The wildest plans careered through her brain. She thought of
+the days in Paris when she had so successfully assumed the garb of the
+<i>s&oelig;ur de bon secours</i>, and kept nightly vigils beside the bed of
+Maurice. Was there no disguise under which she could make her way to the
+count? But the doubt that she could elude the countess's scrutinizing
+eyes,&mdash;the certainty of the violent scene which must ensue if Madame de
+Gramont discovered her,&mdash;made her reluctantly relinquish the attempt.
+Then she clung to the hope that her aunt would not, while Count Tristan
+lay in so perilous a condition, insist upon discharging Mrs. Lawkins.
+All uncertainty upon that head was quickly dispelled by the appearance
+of Mrs. Lawkins herself. The countess had peremptorily repeated her
+sentence of banishment, and refused to listen to her grandson's
+entreaties that she might be permitted to remain until a substitute
+could be procured. To search for that substitute was the sole work left
+for Madeleine's hands. She despatched the willing housekeeper to make
+inquiries among her acquaintances, and charged her to spare neither time
+nor expense. Few Europeans can imagine the difficulty of executing such
+a commission in America; but the Englishwoman had lived in Washington
+long enough to know that she had no light labor before her. She was too
+zealous, however, to return home until she had found a person who was
+fully qualified to fill her vacant post.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice was sitting beside Madeleine when Mrs. Lawkins returned from her
+weary peregrinations and made known her success.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not send for the nurse to come here," said Madeleine. "It seemed
+to me better for you, Maurice, to go and see her and engage her to enter
+upon her duties to-morrow morning. That will give you an opportunity
+this evening of preparing the countess for her reception."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice acted upon Madeleine's suggestion, and, after a very brief
+conversation with Mrs. Gratacap, secured her services.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Gratacap belonged to the "Eastern States," albeit the very opposite
+of <i>oriental</i> in her appearance and characteristics. She was a tall,
+angular, grave-visaged person, possessing such decided, common-place
+good sense that she came under the head of that feminine class which
+Dickens has taught the world to designate as "strong-minded." There was
+no "stuff and nonsense" about her; she had a due appreciation of her own
+estimable attributes, as well as a firm conviction of the equality of
+all mankind, or, more especially, <i>womankind</i>. When she accepted a
+situation, it was in the conscientious belief that the persons whom she
+undertook to serve were the indebted party; yet she was a faithful nurse
+and both understood and liked her vocation. In spite of her masculine
+bearing toward the rest of the world, she always treated her invalid
+charges with womanly gentleness.</p>
+
+<p>When Maurice informed his grandmother that he had obtained a new <i>garde
+malade</i>, the countess at once asked,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Are you attempting to introduce another spy of Mademoiselle de Gramont
+into my dwelling?"</p>
+
+<p>Maurice controlled his indignation and replied, "My cousin Madeleine has
+never seen this person. I hope she will suit, as I have engaged her for
+a month, that being the custom here; even if she does not meet <i>all</i> our
+requirements, we cannot discharge her until that period has elapsed."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not consent to any such stipulation," answered the countess.
+"If she does not please me, I shall order her to leave at once."</p>
+
+<p>"The arrangement is already concluded," returned Maurice; "it is the
+only one I could make, and you cannot but see that it is a matter of
+honor, as well as of necessity, to abide by the contract."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice evinced tact in his choice of language. The imposing words
+"honor" and "contract" made an impression upon the countess, and she
+said no more.</p>
+
+<p>The next day, shortly after the morning meal, the sound of sharp tones
+echoing through the entry, was followed by the noisy opening of the
+countess' drawing-room door.</p>
+
+<p>"This is the place, is it?" cried a harsh voice. "I say, boy, bring
+along that box and dump it down here."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Gratacap entered with a bandbox in one hand, and in the other a
+huge umbrella and huger bundle, while the box (which was a compromise
+between a trunk and a packing-case) was carried in without further
+ceremony. Mrs. Gratacap was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</a></span> attired with an exemplary regard for
+<i>utility</i>; her garments were too short to be soiled by contact with the
+mud, and disclosed Amazonian feet encased in sturdy boots, to say
+nothing of respectable ankles protected by gray stockings. Her dress was
+of a sombre hue and chargeable with no unnecessary amplitude; where it
+was pulled up at the sides a gray balmoral petticoat was visible;
+crinoline had been scrupulously renounced (as it should be in a
+sick-chamber); the coal-skuttle bonnet performed its legitimate duty in
+shading her face as well as covering her head.</p>
+
+<p>The countess might well look up in stupefied amazement; for she had
+never before been thrown into communication with humanity so strikingly
+primitive, and so complacently self-confident.</p>
+
+<p>"This is the nurse of whom I spoke," was Maurice's introduction.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Gratacap who had been too busily engaged in looking after her
+"properties" to perceive the viscount until he spoke, now strode
+forward, extended her hand, and shook his with good-humored familiarity.</p>
+
+<p>"How d'ye do? How d'ye do, young man? Here I am, you see, punctual to
+the moment. Told you you could depend on me. Well, and where's the poor
+dear? And who's <i>this</i>, and who's <i>that</i>?" looking first at the countess
+and then at Bertha.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice was forced to answer, "That is Madame de Gramont, my
+grandmother, and this is Mademoiselle de Merrivale, my cousin."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, very good! How are you, ma'am? Glad to see you, miss!" said Mrs.
+Gratacap, nodding first to one and then to the other. "Guess we shall
+get along famously together."</p>
+
+<p>Then, totally unawed by the countess' glacial manner, for Mrs. Gratacap
+had never dreamed of being afraid of "mortal man," to say nothing of
+"mortal woman," she disencumbered herself of her bandbox, bundle, and
+umbrella, deliberately took off the ample hat and tossed it upon the
+table, sending her shawl to keep it company, walked up to Madame de
+Gramont, placed a chair immediately in front of her, and sat down.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, and how's the poor dear? It's a pretty bad case, I hear. Never
+mind,&mdash;don't be down in the mouth. I've brought folks through after the
+nails were ready to be driven into their coffins. Nothing like keeping a
+stiff upper lip. Your son, isn't he? Dare say he'll do well enough with
+a little nursing. Let's know when he was taken, and how he's been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span>
+getting on, and what crinks and cranks he's got. Sick folks always have
+crumpled ways. Post me up a bit before I go in to him."</p>
+
+<p>The countess's piercing black eyes were fixed upon the voluble nurse
+with a look of absolute horror, and she never moved her lips.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice came to the rescue.</p>
+
+<p>"My father has been ill nearly a month; he was attacked with apoplexy;
+he had a second stroke yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't say so? That's bad! Two strokes, eh? We must look out and
+prevent a third; that's a dead go; but often it don't come for years. No
+need of borrowing trouble,&mdash;worse than borrowing money."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me show you to my father's apartment," said Maurice, to relieve his
+grandmother.</p>
+
+<p>"All right,&mdash;I'm ready! And then you'll let me see where I am to stow my
+duds; any corner will do, but I must have a cupboard of a place all to
+myself; it need only be big enough to swing a cat round in. It isn't
+much comfort I want, but a hole of my own I always bargain for. Aren't
+you coming along?" she said, looking back at the countess, who sat
+still.</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Gramont did not betray that she even suspected these words
+were addressed to her, nor that she heard those which followed, though
+they were spoken in a stage-whisper which could hardly escape her ears.</p>
+
+<p>"Is your granny always so glum? We must cheer her up a bit," was Mrs.
+Gratacap's encouraging comment.</p>
+
+<p>The nurse's high-pitched voice was softened to a lower key when she
+entered the apartment where Count Tristan lay, and there were genuine
+compassion and motherly tenderness in her look as she regarded him. She
+continued to question Maurice until she had learned something of the
+patient's history,&mdash;not from sheer curiosity, but because she always
+took a deep interest in the invalids placed under her charge, and by
+becoming acquainted with their peculiarities she could better adapt
+herself to their necessities.</p>
+
+<p>One word only can express the countess's sensations at the dropping of
+such a "monstrosity" into the midst of her family circle,&mdash;she was
+appalled! Never had any one ventured to address her with such freedom;
+never before had she been treated by any one as though she were mere
+flesh and blood. She had not believed it possible that any one could
+have the temerity to regard her in the light of equality. One might
+almost<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</a></span> have imagined that the formidable New England nurse had inspired
+her with dread, for she could not rouse herself, could not gain courage
+to face the intruder, and, during that day, never once approached her
+son's chamber. But Mrs. Gratacap, in the most unconscious manner, made
+repeated invasions into the drawing-room, and even extended her sallies
+to the countess's own chamber, always upon some plausible pretext,&mdash;now
+to inquire where she could find the sugar, or the spoons, now to beg for
+a pair of scissors, or to ask where the vinegar-cruet was kept, or to
+learn how the countess managed about heating bricks, or getting bottles
+of hot water to warm the patient's feet!</p>
+
+<p>The countess, compelled by these intrusions to address the enemy, and
+galled by the necessity, said sternly, "Go to the servants and get what
+is needful."</p>
+
+<p>"Law sakes! You needn't take my head off! I haven't got any other and
+can't spare it!" answered Mrs. Gratacap, not in the least abashed. "I
+don't want to go bothering hotel help; I always keep out of their way,
+for they have a holy horror of us nurses, and the fuss most of us make;
+though I am not one of that sort. I leave the help alone and help myself
+considerable; and what I want I manage to get from the folks I live
+with. That's my way, and I don't think it's a bad way. I've had it for
+thirty odd years that I've been nursing; and I don't think I shall
+change it in thirty more."</p>
+
+<p>She flounced out of the room after this declaration, leaving the
+countess in a state which Mrs. Gratacap herself would have described as
+"quite upset;" but the haughty lady had scarcely time to recover her
+equanimity before the strong-minded nurse returned to the attack.</p>
+
+<p>The countess had retreated to her own room; but Mrs. Gratacap broke in
+upon her, crying out, "I say, when will that young man be back? He's
+gone off without telling me when he'd be at his post again."</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Gramont's usual refuge was in silence, ignoring that she
+heard; but here it was not likely to avail, for she saw that the unawed
+nurse would probably stand her ground, and repeat her question until she
+received an answer. The countess, therefore, forced herself to inquire
+in a severe tone,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Whom do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, the young man, your grandson, to be sure! A very spry young
+fellow. I like his looks mightily."</p>
+
+<p>If Madame de Gramont had been an adept in reading countenances she would
+have read in the nurse's face, "I cannot say<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</a></span> as much for his
+grandmother's;" but the proud lady was not skilled in this humble art,
+and never even suspected that a person in Mrs. Gratacap's lowly station
+would dare to pass judgment upon one in her lofty position. She replied,
+with increased austerity,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I am not in the habit of hearing the Viscount de Gramont; my grandson,
+mentioned in this unceremonious manner; it may be the mode adopted in
+this uncivilized country, but it is offensive."</p>
+
+<p>"Law sakes! You don't say so?" answered Mrs. Gratacap, as if the rebuke
+darted off from her without hitting. "I didn't suppose you'd go to fancy
+I was <i>snubbing</i> him because I called him a young man! What could he be
+better? He's not an old one, is he? But I know some folks have a
+partiality to being called by their names, and I have no objection in
+life to humoring them. Well, then, when will Mr. Gramont be back? I'd
+like to know!"</p>
+
+<p>"M. de Gramont did not inform me when he would return;" was the freezing
+rejoinder.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, that's a pity! I want somebody in there for a moment, for the poor
+dear's so heavy I can't turn him all alone. Aren't you strong enough to
+lend a hand? To be sure, at your time of life, one an't apt to be worth
+much in the arms. At all events, an't you coming in to see him? You're
+his own mother; and, I swan, you haven't been near him this blessed
+day."</p>
+
+<p>"Woman!" cried the countess, lashed into fury. "How dare you address
+such language to me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Law sakes!" exclaimed Mrs. Gratacap, lifting up her hands and eyes.
+"What <i>did</i> I say? You <i>are</i> his mother, an't you? There's no shame
+about it, I suppose. I hadn't a notion of putting you into a passion. I
+thought it mighty queer you didn't come in to see your own son when he's
+lying so low; and I said so,&mdash;that's all! But if you don't want to come,
+I don't want to force you. I can't put natural feelings in the hearts of
+people that haven't got them; it stands to reason I can't, and you
+needn't be flying out at me on that account."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Gratacap, after delivering this admonitory sentiment, was returning
+to the patient when she encountered Bertha, and inquired,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Did Mr. Gramont say when he would come back?"</p>
+
+<p>"He did not say; but I think he will be absent for a couple of hours,"
+replied Bertha.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, if that's the case, I must get a helping hand somewhere.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</a></span>
+You're a young thing, and, I dare say, strong enough. Come along and
+help me move the poor dear."</p>
+
+<p>"Willingly," replied Bertha, "if I am only able."</p>
+
+<p>As they entered the count's chamber, Mrs. Gratacap again subdued her
+voice, and though her words and manner were always of the most positive
+kind, there was a sort of rude softness (if we may use the contradictory
+expression) in her mode of instructing Bertha in the service required.</p>
+
+<p>When the count was comfortably placed, she sat down, and Bertha also
+took a seat.</p>
+
+<p>"I say," commenced Mrs. Gratacap, in a half whisper, "that's the most of
+a tigress yonder I ever had the luck to come across. Why, she's got no
+more natural feeling than an oyster,&mdash;no more warm blood in her veins
+than a cauliflower. I wonder how such beings ever get created. Are there
+many of that sort in the parts you came from?"</p>
+
+<p>"She is very proud," replied Bertha, "and I am afraid there is no lack
+of pride in France among the noble class to which she belongs."</p>
+
+<p>"Pride! Why, I wonder what she's got to be proud of? She looks as though
+she couldn't do a thing in life that's worth doing? I like pride well
+enough! I'm awful proud myself when I've done anything remarkable. But I
+wonder what that rock yonder ever did in all her born days to be proud
+of?"</p>
+
+<p>Bertha tried to explain by saying, "Her pride is of family descent."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose she don't trace back further than Adam, does she? And we all
+do about that," was the answer.</p>
+
+<p>Here the conversation was interrupted. Bertha was summoned to receive
+visitors.</p>
+
+<p>The instant Maurice returned his grandmother attacked him. "Maurice,
+that woman's presence here is insupportable; there is no use of argument
+on the subject; I have made up my mind,&mdash;go and dismiss her at once, and
+seek somebody else!"</p>
+
+<p>May not Maurice be pardoned for losing his temper and answering with
+considerable irritation,&mdash;"Have I not clearly explained to you, madame,
+that I cannot do anything of the kind? I have engaged her for a month,
+and I cannot turn her away without a good reason; here she must remain
+until the time expires."</p>
+
+<p>"Pay her double her wages, and let her go!" urged the countess.</p>
+
+<p>"Once more, and for the last time," cried Maurice, determinedly, "I tell
+you, I cannot and will not!"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[Pg 399]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Then send her to me!" answered the countess.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice did not stir; she repeated, in a more commanding voice, "Send
+her to me, I say!"</p>
+
+<p>Maurice reluctantly went to his father's room and returned with Mrs.
+Gratacap. Before the countess could commence the formal address she had
+prepared, the good woman took a chair, and with complacent familiarity,
+sat down beside her, saying, "Well, and what is it? I hope you feel a
+little better. I'm afraid you've a deal of <i>bile</i>; really, it ought to
+be looked after; if you can just get rid of it you'll be a deal more
+comfortable."</p>
+
+<p>"Woman"&mdash;began the countess.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Gratacap interrupted her, but without the least show of ill-temper.</p>
+
+<p>"Now I tell you, if it's all the same to you, I'd just as lief you'd
+call me by my name, and that's 'Gratacap'&mdash;'Mrs. Gratacap!' Fair play's
+a jewel, you know, and you didn't like my calling your grandson a 'young
+man' even, but politely begged that I'd term him 'Mr. Gramont;' so you
+just call me by my name, and I'll return the compliment."</p>
+
+<p>"I choose to avoid the necessity of calling you anything," returned the
+countess, when Mrs. Gratacap allowed her to speak. "You are discharged!
+I desire you to leave my house" (the countess always imagined herself in
+her ch&acirc;teau, or some mansion to which she had the entire claim), "leave
+my house within an hour."</p>
+
+<p>"Hoighty-toighty! here's a pretty kettle of fish! But it's no use
+talking; I'm settled for a month! that's my engagement."</p>
+
+<p>"I am aware of it; you will receive double your month's wages and go!"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll receive nothing of the kind! I don't take money I've not earned;
+and I'll not go until the time's up! That's a declaration of
+independence for you, which I suppose you're not accustomed to in the
+outlandish place you came from, where people haven't a notion how to
+treat those they can't do without. Do you suppose your paltry money
+would compensate me for the injury it would do my character, if it
+should be said I was engaged for a month, and before I had been in the
+situation a day, I had to pull up stakes and make tracks? No,&mdash;unless
+you can prove that I don't know my business, or don't do my duty, I've
+just as much right here, being engaged to take up my quarters here, as
+you have. Don't think I'm offended; make yourself easy on that head.
+I've learnt how to deal with all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[Pg 400]</a></span> sorts of folks. I saw at the first
+squint that you and I would have a rather rough time, and I made ready
+for it. If you've got nothing more to say, I'll go back to the poor
+dear, for he's broad awake and may be wanting something."</p>
+
+<p>"And you dare to refuse to go when I dismiss you?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Dare?</i> Law sakes! there's no <i>dare</i> about it. <i>Who's to dare me?</i> or
+to frighten me either? You don't think you've come to a free country to
+find people afraid of their shadows,&mdash;do you? I'm afraid of nothing but
+not doing my duty; I always dare do that, to say nothing of asserting my
+own rights and privileges. So let's have no more nonsense, and I'll go
+about my business."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Gratacap returned to her patient as undisturbed as though the
+countess had merely requested her presence as a matter of courtesy.</p>
+
+<p>The torment Madame de Gramont was destined to endure from this
+straightforward, steady-of-purpose, unterrified New England woman, must
+exceed the comprehension of those who never felt within themselves the
+workings of an overbearing spirit. Mrs. Gratacap maintained her ground;
+there was no displacing her; and she had become thoroughly sovereign of
+the sick-room, as a good nurse ought to be. The only alternative for the
+countess was to avoid her; but she was a pursuing phantom that met the
+proud lady at every turn, haunted her with untiring pertinacity. Madame
+de Gramont absented herself from her son's chamber, except when Mrs.
+Gratacap went to her meals; but little was gained by that, for the nurse
+was always flitting in and out of the drawing-room, or dining-room, at
+unexpected moments, and only the turning of the key kept her out of the
+countess's own chamber.</p>
+
+<p>The first time that Madame de Gramont bethought herself of visiting her
+son when the inevitable <i>garde malade</i> was absent, Mrs. Gratacap
+returned in one quarter the time which the countess imagined it would
+require to swallow the most hasty meal.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I <i>do</i> say, that's a sight for sore eyes!" exclaimed the nurse.
+"I am as pleased as punch to find you here; but I've been thinking that
+like as not, you're scared of sick folks; there's plenty of people that
+are; but there's nothing to be skittish about; I think this poor dear
+will get all right again."</p>
+
+<p>"Silence, woman!" commanded the countess.</p>
+
+<p>"Never you fear," replied Mrs. Gratacap, either misunderstanding her or
+pretending to do so. "I'm not talking loud enough for him to hear. I
+don't allow loud talking in a sick-room, nor much talking either, of any
+kind. If you'd stay here<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[Pg 401]</a></span> a little while every day, you'd get some ideas
+from my management."</p>
+
+<p>The exasperated countess retreated from the apartment, falling back, for
+the first time, before an enemy.</p>
+
+<p>As she made her exit Mrs. Gratacap said to Maurice, "It's a pity your
+grandmother is so cantankerous; but, I'm used to cranks and whims of all
+sorts of folks, and it's only for her own sake, that I wish she'd make
+herself more at home here. Who'd think she was the mother of that poor
+dear lying so low? and she never to have a word of comfort to throw at
+him. But people's ways an't alike, thank goodness! It may be the style
+over in your parts, but I'm thankful I was born this side of the great
+pond."</p>
+
+<p>A fortnight passed on, and the count rallied again. The shadows which
+obscured his brain seemed in a measure to have passed away; but they
+were succeeded by a deep melancholy. No effort made by Maurice or Bertha
+(Madame de Gramont made none) could rouse him. His countenance wore an
+expression of utter despair. He never spoke except to reply to some
+question, and then as briefly as possible; but his answers were quite
+lucid. As far as mere <i>physique</i> was in question, he was convalescing
+favorably.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice received another letter from his partner, urging him to return
+to Charleston as soon as possible, and giving him the information that
+there was a most advantageous opening in his profession. While the count
+remained in his present feeble state, Maurice could not leave him;
+besides the countess and Bertha required manly protection.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha continued to resist all Gaston's entreaties to name the day for
+their union, always replying that the day depended upon Madeleine, and
+if the latter remained single, she would do the same.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice decided that, as soon as his father had recovered sufficiently
+to travel, it would be advisable for the whole party to take up their
+abode in Charleston. Many and sharp were the pangs he suffered at the
+thought of leaving a city which Madeleine's presence rendered so dear;
+but he would be worthier of her esteem, and his own self-respect, if he
+resolutely and steadfastly pursued the course he had marked out for
+himself before she was restored to him. To prepare the mind of his
+grandmother, and to learn Bertha's opinion of the proposed change, were
+subjects of importance which demanded immediate atten<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[Pg 402]</a></span>tion. He spoke to
+his cousin first, seizing an opportunity when the countess chanced to be
+absent.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha looked amazed, and asked, "How can you leave Madeleine?"</p>
+
+<p>"When I think of it, I feel as though I could not; and yet I must. I
+cannot linger here in idleness. Madeleine herself would be the first one
+to bid me go."</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say!" answered Bertha, pettishly.</p>
+
+<p>"But you, Bertha," continued Maurice, "how will you leave one who has a
+dearer claim upon you, than I, alas! will ever have upon Madeleine? How
+will you be reconciled to part from M. de Bois?"</p>
+
+<p>"I answer as you do, that I <i>must</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"But you, Bertha, have an alternative; Gaston, if he could induce you to
+remain,&mdash;induce you to give him a wife,&mdash;would be enraptured."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose so," returned Bertha, with charming demureness; "but that is
+out of the question. Wherever my aunt goes, I will go."</p>
+
+<p>"But how long is this to last, Bertha?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody knows, except Madeleine, perhaps. I shall not be married until
+she is."</p>
+
+<p>That very suggestion sent such a shuddering thrill through the veins of
+Maurice, that he cried out,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Bertha! for the love of Heaven! never mention such a possibility again!
+When the time comes, if come it must, I trust I shall behave like a man,
+but I have not the courage now to contemplate a shock so terrible. The
+very suggestion distracts me. I shall never cease to love
+Madeleine,&mdash;never! Were she the wife of another man, I should be forced
+to fly from her forever, that I might not profane her purity by even a
+shadow of that love; yet I should love her all the same! My love is
+interwound with my whole being; the drawing of my breath, the flowing of
+my blood are not more absolute necessities of my existence; my love for
+Madeleine is life itself, and if she should give her hand, as she has
+given her heart, to another man, I,&mdash;it is a possibility too dreadful to
+contemplate,&mdash;it sets my brain on fire to think of it. Never, never,
+Bertha, never if you have any affection for me, speak of Madeleine as"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>He could not finish his sentence, and Bertha said, penitently,&mdash;"I am so
+sorry, Maurice, I beg your pardon; and there's no likelihood at present;
+and so I have told M. de Bois, that he might reconcile himself and learn
+patience."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[Pg 403]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Madame de Gramont entered, and Maurice, endeavoring to conquer his
+recent agitation, said to her,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I have been talking with Bertha about our future plans. I purpose
+returning shortly to Charleston; indeed, it is indispensable that I
+should do so. I trust you and my father and Bertha will be willing to
+accompany me as soon as he is able to bear the journey,&mdash;will you not?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," replied the countess, decidedly. "Why should I go to Charleston?
+Why should I linger in this most barbarous, most detestable country,
+where I have suffered so much? I have formed my own plans, and intend to
+carry them into immediate execution."</p>
+
+<p>"May I beg you to let me know what they are?"</p>
+
+<p>"I purpose," said the countess, slowly, but with a decision by which she
+meant to impress Maurice with the certainty that there was no appeal; "I
+purpose returning to Brittany, and there remaining for the rest of my
+days!"</p>
+
+<p>Bertha half leaped from her chair, her breath grew thick, and her heart
+must have beat painfully, for she pressed her hand upon her breast, as
+though to still the violent pulsations.</p>
+
+<p>"To Brittany, my grandmother?" said Maurice, in accents of
+consternation. "I trust not. In my father's state of health, I could not
+feel that I was doing my duty if I were separated from him, and my
+interests, my professional engagements, compel me to remain in this
+country."</p>
+
+<p>"Your filial affection, Maurice de Gramont, must be remarkably strong,
+if you weigh it against your petty, selfish interests,&mdash;your
+professional engagements. But, do as you please,&mdash;I ask nothing, expect
+nothing from you,&mdash;not even the protection of your presence, though I
+have no longer a son who is able to offer me protection."</p>
+
+<p>"But if you will allow me to explain,&mdash;if you will allow me to show you
+that my lot is cast in America,&mdash;that it would ruin all my future
+prospects to return to Europe! My father's affairs are so much entangled
+that I must exert myself for his support and my own." (He might have
+said the support of his grandmother also, but was too delicate.) "There
+is no opening for me in France, no occupation that I am fitted at
+present to pursue."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not undertake to comprehend what you mean by your
+<i>prospects</i>&mdash;your <i>engagements</i>&mdash;your <i>exerting</i> yourself&mdash;or any of the
+other low phrases that drop so readily from your tongue. These are not
+matters with which I can have any concern. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[Pg 404]</a></span> have nothing to do with
+your <i>prospects</i>, your <i>exertions</i>, your <i>engagements</i>, or your
+<i>intentions</i>. <i>My intentions</i> are plain and unalterable. As soon as the
+physician says my son is in a state to travel, I shall engage our
+passage upon the first steamer that starts for Havre, and turn my back
+upon this miserable land, to which you, Bertha, by your capricious
+folly, lured us. It does not matter who accompanies me, or who does not;
+my son and I will depart,&mdash;<i>that is settled</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Bertha and Maurice were silent through dismay. The countess finding that
+neither replied, said to her niece,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Upon what have you resolved, Bertha? Will you allow me to return alone?
+Do you intend to refuse to go with me, because my grandson has coldly
+disregarded all the ties of kindred and severed himself from his father
+and me?"</p>
+
+<p>Bertha answered quickly, "I wish, oh! I wish you could be persuaded to
+remain here; but if not,&mdash;if you <i>will</i> go,&mdash;if you <i>must</i> go&mdash;I will go
+with you."</p>
+
+<p>It was long since the countess had looked so gratified, and she drew
+Bertha toward her and kissed her brow, exclaiming,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"There is, at least, <i>one</i> of my own kindred left to me! Thank God!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do not suppose," said Maurice, "if this voyage is inevitable, if you
+cannot be persuaded to think the step hazardous, that I shall allow you
+to take it without a proper escort. If you return to France, let the
+consequence be what it may, I will go with you. Circumstances render it
+impossible that I should take up my residence there, but I will make the
+voyage with you,&mdash;I will see you and my father in your own home, and
+then"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The countess contemplated him approvingly. "That was spoken like
+yourself, Maurice! I have still a grandson upon whom I can lean. Now,
+let us hasten our departure; let us start the instant it is possible; we
+cannot set out too soon to please <i>me</i>."</p>
+
+<p>The countess <i>never</i> thought of the <i>necessity</i>, <i>propriety</i>, or
+<i>charity</i>, of pleasing any one else. Could any one's pleasure be of
+importance weighed against hers?</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[Pg 405]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLIX" id="CHAPTER_XLIX"></a>CHAPTER XLIX.</h2>
+
+<h3>RONALD.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Who cannot conceive the consternation of Gaston de Bois when he learned
+that Madame de Gramont had resolved to return to Brittany with her son,
+and that Bertha had promised to accompany them? The countess sat looking
+at him with a species of savage triumph; for since he had become
+Madeleine's champion, she had treated him with pointed coldness. Gentle
+and sympathetic as his affianced bride was in general, she seemed for
+once to be insensible to the wound she had inflicted, and gave no sign
+of wavering in her resolution.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning she was on her way to Madeleine's, accompanied by her
+maid. M. de Bois joined them as soon as they were out of sight of the
+hotel. How suddenly Bertha's soft heart must have become fossilized!
+for, although his heavy eyes and disturbed mien bore witness to the
+sleepless night he had passed, she did not appear to notice any change
+in his appearance.</p>
+
+<p>"Bertha," he said, reproachfully, "you cannot be so cruel,&mdash;so
+ungenerous! You will not leave me and return to Brittany with your aunt,
+instead of giving me the right to detain you!"</p>
+
+<p>"It's very hard-hearted," replied Bertha, tantalizingly; "but I have
+promised my aunt to accompany her, and I, cannot break my word."</p>
+
+<p>"But your promise to me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hope to keep that, in good time, when the conditions are fulfilled."</p>
+
+<p>"But you link that promise with conditions which may never be
+fulfilled,&mdash;never!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then we must be happy as we are," said Bertha, na&iuml;vely.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha's obstinacy was surprising in one of her malleable, easily
+influenced character; but it seemed prompted by an instinctive belief
+that Gaston would be forced to make some exertion,&mdash;take some steps
+(their nature Bertha did not define to herself) which would result in
+bringing about Madeleine's happiness, and in promoting her union with
+her unknown lover. This one idea had taken such full possession of
+Bertha's brain that it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[Pg 406]</a></span> could not be dislodged, and all Gaston's fervent
+entreaties that she would not let his happiness depend upon such an
+unlikely contingency were fruitless.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I have but one alternative," said Gaston, at last. "I will resign
+my secretaryship and accompany you to Brittany. You cannot imagine that
+I would let you go without me?"</p>
+
+<p>Bertha did not say how much pleasure this suggestion gave her; but the
+glad radiance in her blue eyes told she had been unexpectedly spared one
+half the sacrifice which she had determined to make, if necessary.</p>
+
+<p>When Madeleine learned from Gaston the proposed departure of the
+countess and her family, a death-like pallor suddenly overspread her
+countenance, and she gasped out faintly, "All,&mdash;all going?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dear, dear Madeleine," cried Bertha, "do not look so; you frighten me.
+It's very sad to leave you in this strange land alone. It depends upon
+you to keep two of us near you,&mdash;I mean M. de Bois and myself."</p>
+
+<p>Bertha's words imparted no consolation.</p>
+
+<p>"If you would but unravel this mystery, Madeleine?" Bertha went on. "It
+depends upon you and you only, to bind me here. When you are ready to
+stand before the altar with the one you have so long loved, so shall I
+be! Yes, though it were to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"Bertha," answered Madeleine with such sad solemnity that for the first
+time Bertha's hope that her ardent desire might be accomplished was
+chilled, "you do not know what an,&mdash;an almost impossibility you are
+asking. Believe me, when I tell you, in all seriousness, that I shall
+never stand before the altar as a bride. An insurmountable barrier
+forbids! I shall live on,&mdash;work on, alone,&mdash;finding consolation in the
+certainty that I am acting wisely, and bearing bravely what must be
+endured. Will not this declaration convince you that you have decided
+rashly, not to say <i>cruelly</i>, in making your wifehood dependent upon
+mine?"</p>
+
+<p>Bertha shook her head pertinaciously: "No&mdash;no&mdash;no! If I were to yield I
+should have to relinquish my last hope of seeing you a bride. I do not
+mean to yield! You need not persuade me; nor you either, M. de Bois. I
+am as obstinate as the de Gramonts themselves; and yet, in this
+instance, I think I am more reasonable in my firmness."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine and Gaston did not forego entreaties in spite of this
+assertion; but they had no effect upon Bertha, though she was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[Pg 407]</a></span> thankful
+to be relieved from their importunities by the entrance of Maurice.
+Neither Madeleine nor Gaston felt disposed, in his hearing, to run the
+risk of making Bertha repeat her desire that Madeleine should become a
+bride. Madeleine roused herself that Maurice might not perceive her
+sadness, and made an effort to speak of the proposed voyage as a settled
+plan. The gloom of Maurice was not diminished by her attempt. He would
+have been less chagrined if he had seen the emotion which her pallid
+cheeks betrayed when the intelligence of their approaching departure was
+communicated to her. Ungenerous manhood! he would have suffered less had
+he known that she whom he loved suffered also!</p>
+
+<p>Later in the day, as he was slowly walking toward the hotel, plunged in
+one of those despondent moods to which he had been subject before his
+sojourn in America, he was roused by a clear, ringing voice, though so
+long unheard, still familiar, and ever pleasant to his ears.</p>
+
+<p>"Maurice!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ronald! There is not a man in the world I would rather have seen!"</p>
+
+<p>"And you are the very man I was seeking. I came to Washington on purpose
+to see you," replied the young artist, who had exerted so strong an
+influence over the character of Maurice in other days, and who had done
+so much toward "shaping his destiny."</p>
+
+<p>Ronald was somewhat changed; the rich coloring of his handsome face had
+paled, or been bronzed over; a few lightly traced, but expressive lines
+were chronicles of mental struggles, and told that he had thought and
+suffered. There was more contemplation and less gayety in the brilliant
+brown eyes; more reflective composure and less impulsive buoyancy in his
+demeanor. Heretofore his bearing, language, whole aspect had ever
+communicated the impression of possible power; now it bespoke power
+confirmed and concentrated, and brought into living action.</p>
+
+<p>The friendship of Maurice and Ronald had not grown cold during the years
+they had been separated. They had corresponded regularly; their interest
+in each other, their affection for each other had deepened and
+strengthened with every year, as all emotions which have their root in
+the spirit must deepen and strengthen,&mdash;the elements of <i>progress</i> being
+inseparable from those affections which draw their existence from this
+life-source.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[Pg 408]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Maurice, during his sojourn in Charleston, had paid weekly visits to
+Ronald's parents, usually spending his Sundays beneath their hospitable
+roof; and this made the day a true Sabbath to him. During the two months
+he had passed in Washington, Maurice had only written brief letters to
+Mrs. Walton; for the rapid succession of exciting events had engrossed
+his time, though it could not make him forget one who was ever ready
+with her sympathy and counsel. Her replies also had been curtailed by
+the all-absorbing joy of welcoming her son after his long absence.</p>
+
+<p>The young artist had now achieved an enviable reputation as a painter.
+His first works were characterized by a towering ambition in their
+conception, which his unpractised execution could not fitly illustrate;
+but they had disappointed no one so much as himself. After many
+struggles against a sense of discouragement, inseparable from high
+aspirations, frustrated for the moment, he had broken out of his
+chrysalis state of imperfect action, and spread his wings in strong and
+serious earnest. His sensitive perception of the great and beautiful,
+allied to the creative power of genius soon blazoned his prodigal gifts
+to the world, and he had gloried in that sense of might which makes the
+true artist feel he has a giant's strength for good or evil.</p>
+
+<p>"I have rejoiced over your new laurels!" exclaimed Maurice, warmly; for
+he had learned Ronald's distinction through the journals of the day.</p>
+
+<p>"They are so intangible," replied Ronald, smiling, "that I'm not quite
+sure of their existence. I did not tell you that my father and mother
+are here and most anxious to see you. When will you pay them a visit?
+Can you not come with me now?"</p>
+
+<p>Maurice gladly consented to accompany his friend.</p>
+
+<p>"You are our chief attraction to Washington," continued Ronald. "My
+mother was the first to propose that we should seek you out. Your
+letters were so sad, and even confused, that she felt you needed her. I
+think she fancies she has two sons, Maurice."</p>
+
+<p>"She is the only mother I have ever known," answered Maurice; "and life
+is incomplete when a mother's place is unfilled in the soul."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[Pg 409]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_L" id="CHAPTER_L"></a>CHAPTER L.</h2>
+
+<h3>A SECRET DIVINED.</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Take care! the 'Don' will be jealous!" exclaimed Mr. Walton, as he
+witnessed his wife's greeting of Maurice,&mdash;a greeting as tender as a
+true mother could have bestowed. "When Ronald was a boy he would rush
+about like one gone mad if his mother ever ventured to take another
+child upon her knee,&mdash;he would never have his throne usurped. Our 'Don'
+was always 'monarch of all he surveyed.'"</p>
+
+<p>This jocular appellation of the 'Don,' Mr. Walton had bestowed upon his
+son on account of his early propensity to fight moral windmills, and the
+Quixotic zeal with which he espoused the cause of the weak and the fair.
+This knight-errant proclivity ripened from the Quixotism of boyhood into
+the chivalrous devotion which had manifested itself in his somewhat
+romantic friendship for Maurice,&mdash;a friendship productive of such happy
+results to the young viscount.</p>
+
+<p>Ronald replied, "My affection has gained a victory over my jealousy, as
+Maurice discovered some years ago. I have just given him a new evidence
+of that fact by accompanying you and my mother to Washington in the hope
+of seeing him."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you really come for my sake," asked Maurice, much moved.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Walton answered, "How could we help being distressed about you?
+Your letters were so unsatisfactory. I shall know more of your true
+state in one <i>t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te</i>,&mdash;one good long heart-talk,&mdash;than I could
+learn by a thousand letters."</p>
+
+<p>After this declaration, Ronald and his father jestingly pronounced
+themselves <i>de trop</i> and departed.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice had long since given Mrs. Walton his full confidence, and now to
+sit and relate the events that had transpired during his stay in
+Washington was a heart-unburthening which lightened his oppressed
+spirit. It seemed to him as though some ray of hope must break through
+the clouds which enveloped him, if her clear, steady vision closely
+scanned their blackness; <i>she</i> might discover some gleam of light which
+he could not perceive.</p>
+
+<p>When he finished the narrative she asked,&mdash;</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[Pg 410]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And have you no suspicion who this mysterious lover can be? No clue to
+his identity?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not the faintest," answered Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>"But since you have seen Madeleine at all hours of the day, since you
+have resided in her house, she could not have evinced a preference for
+any gentleman without your perceiving the distinction."</p>
+
+<p>"She evinced no preferences; no gentleman was upon an intimate footing
+except M. de Bois, who is engaged to Bertha, much to Madeleine's
+delight."</p>
+
+<p>"M. de Bois, you tell me," continued Mrs. Walton, "has been her devoted
+friend during all these years that she has been separated from you. Have
+you not been able to learn something from him?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have too much respect for Madeleine to force from another a secret
+which she refuses to impart to me; but I am quite certain that if M. de
+Bois knows whom Madeleine has blessed with her love, Bertha is still in
+ignorance. Bertha would have told me at once."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Walton mused awhile, then said, "I do not see any loose thread by
+which the mystery can be unravelled; but you will, of course, make me
+acquainted with your Madeleine?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>My</i> Madeleine," began Maurice, bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>"I called her yours involuntarily, because your heart seems so wholly to
+claim her. She will receive me,&mdash;will she not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Gladly, I am sure."</p>
+
+<p>"Then we will go to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>There were too many chords of sympathy which vibrated responsively in
+the bosoms of Mrs. Walton and Madeleine, too many planes upon which they
+could meet, for them to remain merely formal acquaintances. It was
+Madeleine's nature to treat those with whom she was thrown in contact
+with a genial courtesy which rose to kindness, often to affection; but
+it was only to a few that she really threw wide the portals of her large
+heart. Mrs. Walton's devotion to Maurice was claim enough for her to be
+ranked among the small number whom Madeleine admitted to that inner
+sanctuary.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, Mrs. Walton was by no means impulsive in forming
+friendships; her existence had been brightened by very few. She had much
+constitutional <i>reticence</i>; she enjoyed a secluded life; she was not
+dependent upon others for happiness. A rich, inexhaustible well-spring
+of joy,&mdash;the one joy of her days,&mdash;flowed in through her son, and that
+pure fount<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[Pg 411]</a></span> was all-sufficient to water the flowers that sprang in her
+path. Maurice had awakened her womanly compassion, first, because Ronald
+had found in him a brother; next, because he was motherless and almost
+heart-broken, and finally, because his noble attributes won her admiring
+affection. But, although Mrs. Walton had no facility in making
+friendships, when she did become attached, it was with a sympathetic and
+absolute devotion which extended itself involuntarily to the beings who
+were dear to those she loved; thus her attachment for Maurice awakened
+an affection for Madeleine before they met; and when she clasped
+Madeleine's hand, and looked into her fair face, the reserve she
+invariably experienced toward strangers at once melted away, and in
+their very first interview these two responsive spirits drew near to
+each other with a mutual sense that their intercourse must become closer
+and closer.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine had frequently seen Ronald when, habited as the <i>s&oelig;ur de
+bon secours</i>, she kept nightly vigil by the bed of Maurice, and Ronald
+had marked the classic features of the "holy sister," and quickly
+recognized them again when he was presented to Mademoiselle de Gramont.</p>
+
+<p>After Mrs. Walton had visited Madeleine, Ronald persuaded her to call
+with him on Mademoiselle de Merrivale. Bertha received her quondam
+partner of the dance with much warmth and vivacity; but the countess
+looked with freezing hauteur upon these American friends of her
+grandson. Though Mrs. Walton was naturally timid, she was unawed by the
+countess's assumption of superiority; her self-respect enabled her to
+remain perfectly composed and collected, and to appear unconscious of
+the disdain with which she was treated.</p>
+
+<p>This initiative visit was quickly followed by others, and Mrs. Walton
+proved how little she dreaded the countess by inviting Bertha to dine
+with her.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be delighted to go," said Bertha, "that is, if my aunt does not
+object."</p>
+
+<p>"Rather tardily remembered," answered the countess, with acerbity.</p>
+
+<p>"Better late than never," retorted Bertha, gayly; "so, my dear aunt, you
+will not say 'No.'"</p>
+
+<p>The countess would gladly have found some reason for refusing, but none
+presented itself, and Bertha was sufficiently self-willed to dispute her
+authority; it was therefore impolitic to make an open objection.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois also received an invitation. Maurice and Made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[Pg 412]</a></span>leine joined
+the little circle in the evening,&mdash;a delightful surprise to Bertha and
+Gaston. This was the first evening that Madeleine had passed out of her
+own dwelling during her residence in America. She had necessarily
+renounced society when she adopted a vocation incompatible with her
+legitimate social position; but, on this occasion, she could not resist
+Mrs. Walton's persuasions, and perhaps the promptings of her own
+inclination.</p>
+
+<p>Once more Madeleine's vocal powers were called into requisition. She was
+ever ready to contribute her <i>mite</i> (so she termed it) toward the
+general entertainment, and she would have despised the petty affectation
+of pretended reluctance to draw forth entreaty, or give value to her
+performance. Her voice had never sounded more touchingly, mournfully
+pathetic, and her listeners hung entranced upon the sounds. Maurice
+drank in every tone, and never moved his eyes from her face; but when
+the soft cadences sank in silence, what a look of anguish passed over
+his manly features, and told that the sharp bayonet of his life-sorrow
+pierced him anew. He turned involuntarily toward Mrs. Walton, and met a
+look of sympathy not wholly powerless to soothe.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Walton was loud in his praises of Madeleine's vocalization; he had a
+courtier's felicity in expressing admiration, never more genuine than on
+the present occasion.</p>
+
+<p>"We must not be so ungrateful as to forget to offer Mademoiselle de
+Gramont the only return in our power, however far it may fall short of
+what she merits," said he; "the 'Don' here, does not sing; he is not a
+poet even, except in soul, and all his inspirations flow through his
+brush; but he interprets poets with an art which I think is hardly less
+valuable than the poet's own divine afflatus."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine, delighted, seized upon the suggestion, and solicited Ronald
+to favor the company. His mother placed in his hands a volume of Mrs.
+Browning's poems, and he turned to that surpassingly beautiful romance,
+"Lady Geraldine's Courtship."</p>
+
+<p>Ronald was one of those rare readers gifted with the power of filling,
+at pleasure, the poet's place, or of embodying the characters which he
+delineated. The young artist's rich, sonorous voice; obeyed his will,
+and was modulated to express every variety of emotion, while his
+animated countenance glowed, flushed, paled, grew radiant or clouded,
+with the scene he described. A master-spirit playing upon a thoroughly
+comprehended instrument manifested itself in his rendition of the
+author.</p>
+
+<p>All eyes were riveted upon him as he read; he possessed in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[Pg 413]</a></span> an eminent
+degree the faculty of magnetizing his hearers, taking them captive for
+the time being, and bearing them, as upon a rising or falling wave,
+whither he would. As the tale progressed, the silence grew deeper, and,
+save Ronald's voice, not a sound was to be heard, except, now and then,
+a quickened breath and Bertha's low sobbing; for she wept as though
+Bertram had been one whom she had known.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Walton's eyes had been fixed upon her son, with an expression of
+ineffable soul-drawn delight; but, just before the poem drew to a close,
+they stole around the circle to note the effect produced by his masterly
+reading upon others. Every face mirrored such emotions as the poem might
+have awakened in minds capable of appreciating the noble and beautiful;
+but by Madeleine's countenance she was forcibly struck; a marble pallor
+overspread her visage, her eyes were strangely dilated and filled with
+moisture; if the lids for a moment had closed, the "silver tears" must
+have run down her cheeks as freely as ran Lady Geraldine's; but, when
+Ronald came to that passage where Lady Geraldine thrills Bertram with
+joy by the confession that it was him whom she loved,&mdash;though he had
+never divined that love,&mdash;him only! Madeleine's lips quivered, and, with
+a sudden impulse, which defied control, she covered her face with her
+hands as though she dreaded that her heart might be perused in her
+countenance. It was an involuntary action, repented of as soon as made,
+for she withdrew the hands immediately, but the spontaneous movement
+spoke volumes.</p>
+
+<p>As Mrs. Walton watched her, a sudden flash of <i>clairvoyance</i> revealed a
+portion of the truth, and she ejaculated, mentally,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"The man whom Madeleine loves is unaware of her love, as Bertram was of
+Lady Geraldine's."</p>
+
+<p>This suggestion, born in the under-current of her thoughts, floated
+constantly to the surface awaiting confirmation. If her belief were
+well-grounded, one step was taken toward fathoming the secret which
+Madeleine had doubtless some motive for preserving, but which Mrs.
+Walton's sympathies with Maurice made her earnestly desire to bring to
+light. Madeleine might have conceived a passion for one whom she would
+never more meet, or for one who was unconscious of her preference,
+though that seemed hardly possible.</p>
+
+<p>Under ordinary circumstances Mrs. Walton would have been one of the last
+persons to take an active part in searching out the hidden springs of
+any human actions; but she was so deeply interested, both in Maurice and
+Madeleine, that a strong desire<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[Pg 414]</a></span> to be of service to them made her break
+one of the rules of her life. A wise rule, perhaps, so far as it frees
+one from responsibility, yet a rule which generous and impulsive spirits
+will often disregard in the hope of wafting into a drooping sail some
+favorable breeze that will send the ship toward a wished-for port.</p>
+
+<p>It chanced the very next day, when Mrs. Walton was visiting Madeleine,
+that the latter was summoned away, and as she left the room, she said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I will not be long absent; here are books with which I hope you can
+amuse yourself."</p>
+
+<p>They had been sitting in Madeleine's boudoir; Mrs. Walton's chair was
+close to Madeleine's desk; upon the desk lay several volumes, probably
+those which had been last in use. Mrs. Walton made a haphazard
+selection, and took up a little sketch-book. Her interest was quickly
+awakened when she found that it contained sketches which were doubtless
+Madeleine's own. There was the ch&acirc;teau of Count Tristan de Gramont at
+Rennes, and the memorable little <i>ch&acirc;let</i>&mdash;the ch&acirc;teau of the Marquis de
+Merrivale, and sketches of other localities in her native land, of which
+she had thus preserved the memory. Then followed fancy groups, composed
+of various figures, apparently illustrative of scenes from books; but
+Mrs. Walton could not be certain of the unexplained subjects.</p>
+
+<p>One familiar face struck her,&mdash;a most perfect likeness of Maurice,&mdash;it
+was unmistakable. Prominent in every group, though in different
+attitudes and costumes, was that one figure. Maurice,&mdash;still Maurice,
+throughout the book. Mrs. Walton was pondering upon this singular
+discovery when Madeleine entered.</p>
+
+<p>She flushed crimson when she saw the volume her visitor was examining,
+and said, in a confused tone, taking the book from Mrs. Walton's
+hands,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I thought I had locked this book in my desk; how could I have left it
+about? It only contains old sketches of remembered places, and similar
+trifles, not worth your contemplation."</p>
+
+<p>"I found them very beautiful," replied Mrs. Walton, "and the likenesses
+of Maurice are perfect."</p>
+
+<p>"Of Maurice?" was all that Madeleine could say, her agitation increasing
+every moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I could not understand the subjects, but his face and form are
+admirably depicted. You have a true talent for making portraits."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[Pg 415]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Madeleine could not answer, but as Mrs. Walton glanced at her conscious
+and troubled countenance, woman's instinct whispered, "It is Maurice
+whom she loves."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LI" id="CHAPTER_LI"></a>CHAPTER LI.</h2>
+
+<h3>SEED SOWN.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Once more Count Tristan was convalescent. He could move his limbs with
+tolerable freedom,&mdash;could walk without support, though with slow,
+uncertain, uneven steps; his articulation was now hardly impaired,
+though he never spoke except in answer to questions, and then with
+evident unwillingness. He took little or no notice of what passed around
+him, but ever seemed brooding over his own misfortunes,&mdash;that is, if his
+mind retained any activity, of which it was not easy to judge.</p>
+
+<p>In another week the month for which Mrs. Gratacap considered herself
+engaged would expire. That worthy, but voluble and independent person
+determined that she would not submit to the slight of having due notice
+of dismissal given her, and therefore herself gave warning that she
+purposed to take her departure. At the same time she said to Maurice,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I vow to goodness that grandmother of yours hasn't got the least idea
+of manners. I wonder if that's the style in her country? Why, we
+shouldn't call it common decency here! Law sakes! she's had a lesson or
+two from me, I think. Would you believe it, this very blessed morning
+she had no more civility than just to bid me leave the room as she
+wanted to speak to the doctor. I vow to goodness, I wouldn't have
+stirred a step if it hadn't been that I knew she didn't know any better,
+and I never force myself where I am not wanted; so I just took myself
+off."</p>
+
+<p>"It was better to try and bear with my grandmother," answered Maurice,
+soothingly.</p>
+
+<p>"And it's bearing with a bear to do it!" responded Mrs. Gratacap. "I
+don't mind it on my own account,&mdash;I am accustomed to all sorts of queer
+folks, but I suspected the old lady was up to something that would worry
+the poor dear, and, to be sure, I was right."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?" inquired Maurice, anxiously.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[Pg 416]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Why, I couldn't help catching a word or two of what the doctor said
+when he went out; I just heard him say that the patient <i>could</i> make the
+voyage if it were necessary, though it would be better to keep him
+quiet. Mark my words, she wants to pack off, bag and baggage, at short
+notice,&mdash;and <i>she'll do it</i>! Never trust my judgment if she don't."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Gratacap was right; one hour later, the countess, with a look which
+reminded Maurice, of the days when she swayed unopposed, informed him
+that Count Tristan had been pronounced by his physician sufficiently
+convalescent to bear a sea-voyage, and that she intended to leave
+Washington that day week, for New York, and take the first steamer that
+sails for Havre.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice could only stammer out, "So suddenly?"</p>
+
+<p>"Suddenly?" echoed the imperious lady; "it is a century to me! a century
+of torture! And you call it <i>suddenly</i>? <i>Nothing</i> will prevent my
+leaving this city in a week, and this detestable country as soon after
+as possible. Do you understand me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I depend upon you to make all the needful preparations. There will
+be no change in my plans; the matter is settled and requires no further
+discussion."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice knew too well that there was but one course left, and that was
+submission to her despotic will. He at once apprised Gaston of the
+determination of the countess. M. de Bois was more grieved for his
+friend than for himself, and said he could be ready to accompany the
+party in twenty-four hours.</p>
+
+<p>After this, Maurice took his way to the Waltons. He could not yet summon
+resolution to go to Madeleine.</p>
+
+<p>We have already said that Mrs. Walton, through her woman's instincts,
+thought she had discovered Madeleine's secret, and every day some
+trivial circumstance confirmed her in her belief. But her shrinking
+nature made it difficult for her ever to take the initiative, or to
+attempt to change the current of events by any strong act of her own.
+There was no absence of <i>power</i> in her composition, but a distrust of
+her own powers which produced the same effect. Hers was a <i>passive</i> and
+not <i>suggestive</i> nature; if the first step in some desirable path were
+taken by another she would follow, and labor heart and hand, and by her
+judgment and zeal accomplish what that other only projected; but she had
+a horror of taking the responsibility, of "meddling with other people's
+affairs," even in the hope of bringing about some happy issue.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[Pg 417]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Ronald's impulses were precisely opposite to his mother's. He had an
+internal delight in swaying, in influencing, in bending circumstances to
+his will, in making all the crooked paths straight and righting all the
+wrongs of mankind. He was always ready to form projects (his father
+would say in a Quixotic style) and carry them into execution, to benefit
+his friends. He was deterred by no constitutional timidity, and the rash
+impulsiveness of youth looks only to happy results, and is seldom curbed
+by the reflection of possible evil. Ronald would have served Maurice at
+all hazards, and by all means in his power, or <i>out of his power</i>. He
+was expressing to his mother the chagrin he felt at the sad position of
+his friend, and his fear that it would throw a blight over his energies,
+when the latter remarked,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I think I have made a discovery which concerns Maurice, though I do not
+see how it can benefit him. Yet I am sure I know a secret which he would
+give almost his existence to learn."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed!" exclaimed Ronald. "Tell him then at once!"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot make up my mind that it would tend to any good result. It
+would be better, I think, not to touch upon the subject at all; let
+events take their natural course."</p>
+
+<p>"We should build no houses, we should write no books, and paint no
+pictures, if we adopted that doctrine," answered Ronald. "At least, tell
+me what you have learned."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I know," replied Mrs. Walton, "whom Madeleine loves."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it possible?"</p>
+
+<p>"And that is Maurice himself!"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Walton went through the whole train of reasoning by which she had
+arrived at her conclusion; and Ronald was only too well pleased to be
+convinced.</p>
+
+<p>"But, my dear, impetuous boy," said she, as she looked upon his glowing
+face, "what good to Maurice can grow out of this?"</p>
+
+<p>"Let us plant the seed and give it some good chance to grow," returned
+Ronald, eagerly. "Here is Maurice himself. The first step is to tell
+him"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Maurice entered in time to hear the last words, and took them up.</p>
+
+<p>"You can hardly tell him anything sadder than he comes to tell you. In a
+week we must bid each other adieu; my grandmother has resolved to return
+to Brittany without further delay."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[Pg 418]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I should be more deeply moved by that news," replied Ronald, "did I not
+think that I had some intelligence to communicate in exchange which is
+very far from sad. Maurice, are you prepared to hear anything I may have
+to say?"</p>
+
+<p>"When did your words fail to do me good?" asked Maurice. "Do you think I
+have forgotten our long arguments in Paris, when I was in a state of
+such deep dejection, and you roused me and spurred me on to action by
+your buoyant, active, hopeful spirit? But go on."</p>
+
+<p>"I want to speak of your cousin, Mademoiselle de Gramont."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice expressed by his looks how welcome that theme ever was.</p>
+
+<p>"You ardently desire," continued Ronald, "for so my mother has told me,
+to know who Mademoiselle Madeleine loves."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I desire it more than words can utter."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I can tell you," returned Ronald.</p>
+
+<p>"You? You are not in earnest?" cried Maurice, in amazement. "For the
+love of Heaven, Ronald, do not sport with such a subject!"</p>
+
+<p>"I do <i>not</i> jest, Maurice. I only tell you what you ought yourself to
+have discovered long ago."</p>
+
+<p>"How could I? There is no possible clew. Madeleine sees no one, writes
+to no one, whom I could conceive to be the man whom she prefers."</p>
+
+<p>"Easily explained," continued Ronald. "That man does not know he is
+beloved by her."</p>
+
+<p>"Incredible!" replied Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>"Very credible, my dear Maurice, as you are bound to admit; for that man
+stands before me."</p>
+
+<p>"Ronald, for pity's sake&mdash;this&mdash;this is inhuman!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do not wrong me so much, Maurice, as to think me capable of speaking
+lightly upon such a subject. My mother's perception of character is
+really wonderful; and her instincts, I think, never fail her; she is
+convinced that it is <i>you</i>, and you only, whom Madeleine loves. Reflect
+how many proofs of love she has given you! Has she not, through M. de
+Bois, kept trace of all your movements during the years that you were
+separated? Did she not run great risk to watch beside your sick-bed in
+Paris? Did you not tell me that it was her prompt and generous
+interference which prevented your losing your credit with Mr. Emerson?
+Does not her every action prove that you are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[Pg 419]</a></span> ever in her thoughts? And,
+Maurice, I tell you, it is <i>you</i> whom she loves."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice listened as though some holy voice from supernal regions chanted
+heavenly music in his ears. But he roused himself from the delicious
+dream, for he did not dare to yield to its spell, and said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Did she not herself tell me that she loved another?"</p>
+
+<p>"May you not have mistaken her exact words?" asked Ronald. "It was
+necessary to renounce you, to take all hope away from you, and place in
+your path the only barrier which you could not hope to overleap. And may
+she not have given you the impression that she loved, that her
+affections were engaged, while you drew the inference from her rejecting
+your hand that her heart was given to some other?"</p>
+
+<p>The countenance of Maurice grew effulgent with the flood of hope poured
+upon it.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, if it were so!" he exclaimed, in rapture. "Ronald, my best friend,
+what do I not owe you? Mrs. Walton, why, why are you silent? Speak to
+me! Tell me that you really believe Madeleine loves me!"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Walton, alarmed by the violence of his emotion, began to turn over
+in her mind the unfortunate results which might ensue if she had made an
+error. Maurice still implored her to speak, and she said, at last, with
+some hesitation,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"If Madeleine does not love you, and you only, I have no skill in
+interpreting 'the weather signs of love.' I ought not to be too
+confident of my own judgment; and yet I cannot force myself to doubt
+that, in this instance, it is correct."</p>
+
+<p>"Say that again and again. I cannot hear it too often. <i>You cannot force
+yourself to doubt</i>,&mdash;you are quite convinced then, quite sure that
+Madeleine, my own Madeleine, loves me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am indeed," responded Mrs. Walton, tenderly.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice folded his arms about her, bowed his head on her shoulder, and
+his great joy found a vent which it had never known before; for never
+before had tears of ecstasy poured from his eyes. That Mrs. Walton
+should weep too was but natural. She was a woman, and tears are the
+privilege of her sex. Ronald had evidently some fears, that their
+emotion would prove contagious; for he walked up and down the room with
+remarkable rapidity, and then threw open the window and looked out,
+cleared his throat several times, and finally said, in tolerably firm
+accents,&mdash;</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[Pg 420]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But, Maurice, what are we to do if the countess is determined to return
+to Brittany at once?"</p>
+
+<p>"If Madeleine loves me, I can endure anything! I can leave her, I can go
+with my father, or perform any other hard duty. The sweet certainty of
+her love will brighten and lighten my trial. Oh, if I could only be
+sure!"</p>
+
+<p>"Make yourself sure as soon as possible," suggested Ronald, to whom
+promptitude was a second nature.</p>
+
+<p>"I will go to her; I will tell her what I believe; I will implore her to
+grant me the happiness of knowing that her heart is mine. But O Ronald,
+if I have been deluded,&mdash;if you have given me false hopes"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You will fight me," answered Ronald, laughing. "Of course that's all a
+friend gets for trying to be of service."</p>
+
+<p>"Go, Maurice," said Mrs. Walton, "and bring us the happy news that
+Ronald and his mother have not caused you fresh suffering."</p>
+
+<p>"You said you had not a <i>doubt</i>," cried Maurice, trembling at the bare
+suggestion.</p>
+
+<p>"And I have not. Go!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LII" id="CHAPTER_LII"></a>CHAPTER LII.</h2>
+
+<h3>A LOVER'S SNARE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Maurice was on his way to Madeleine's. Not for years, not since the day
+when he breathed his love in the old Ch&acirc;teau de Gramont, had his heart
+throbbed with such rapturous pulsations as now; not since that hour had
+the world looked so paradisiacal,&mdash;life so full of enchantment to his
+eyes. As he reached her door and ascended the steps, his emotions were
+overpowering. A few moments more, and the heavenly dream would become a
+glorious, life-brightening reality, or would melt away, a delusive
+mirage in the desert of his existence, leaving his pathway a blanker
+wilderness than ever.</p>
+
+<p>He was too much at home to require the ceremony of announcement, and
+sought Madeleine in her boudoir. She was not there. She was receiving
+visitors in the drawing-room. Maurice sat down to await her coming; but
+his impatience made him too restless for inaction, and he entered the
+<i>salon</i>.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[Pg 421]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Madeleine's guests were Madame de Fleury and Mrs. Gilmer,&mdash;an accidental
+and not very welcome encounter of the fashionable belligerents; though
+since Mrs. Gilmer had received the much-desired invitation to Madame de
+Fleury's ball, she had affected to lay down her arms, and Madame de
+Fleury pretended to do the same.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine was listening with patient courtesy to the meaningless
+nothings of the one lady, and the stereotyped insipidity of the other.
+Madame de Fleury was tortured by a desire to consult her hostess
+concerning a fancy ball-dress which at that moment filled her thoughts;
+but Madeleine's manner was so thoroughly that of an equal who
+entertained no doubts of her own position,&mdash;the vocation of
+"Mademoiselle Melanie" was so completely laid aside,&mdash;that Madame de
+Fleury, with all her tact and world-knowledge, could not plan any mode
+of introducing the fascinating subject of "<i>chiffons</i>."</p>
+
+<p>The marchioness greeted Maurice with enthusiastic cordiality. It struck
+her, on seeing him, that she might broach the desired topic through his
+aid; and she said, with the most charmingly innocent air, as though the
+thought had just occurred to her,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I see you, M. de Gramont, at the grand fancy ball which Madame
+Orlowski gives next week? I hear it will be the <i>f&ecirc;te</i> of the season."</p>
+
+<p>"I have not the honor of Madame Orlowski's acquaintance," replied
+Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>"What a pity! But I can easily procure you an invitation, and you will
+have time enough to arrange about a costume. I have not determined upon
+mine yet. I want something very original. I am quite puzzled what to
+decide upon. I am perfectly haunted with visions of dresses that float
+through my brain. I have imagined myself attired as nymphs, and heathen
+deities, and ladies of ancient courts, and heroines of books; but I
+cannot make a choice."</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Fleury did not venture to look toward Madeleine, and the
+latter made no observation. Maurice rejoined,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"My father's state of health forbids my availing myself of your amiable
+offer."</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Fleury was slightly discomfited. It was difficult to keep up
+the subject which seemed to have dropped naturally; but for the sake of
+reviving it, and trying to draw some suggestion from the Queen of Taste,
+she even condescended to address her foe; and, turning to Mrs. Gilmer
+with a false smile, asked,&mdash;</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[Pg 422]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"<i>You</i> are going, of course? Have you determined upon the character you
+mean to assume?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Gilmer was flattered by finding her attire a matter of acknowledged
+importance to her rival, and replied, with a simper,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Not altogether,&mdash;my costume is under discussion,&mdash;I shall decide
+<i>presently</i>."</p>
+
+<p>A significant glance intimated that she meant shortly to proceed
+upstairs, to the exhibition-rooms of "Mademoiselle Melanie."</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Fleury grew desperate, and was resolved not to be baffled in
+her attempt; she now launched into a dissertation upon different styles
+of fancy dresses. Madeleine turned to Maurice to make inquiries about
+his father. Poor Maurice! as he noted the unruffled composure of her
+bearing, the quietude of her tone, the frank ease with which she
+addressed him, his hopes began to die away, and tormenting spirits
+whispered that Ronald's mother had certainly come to an erroneous
+conclusion.</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Fleury, finding that her little artifices were thrown away
+upon Madeleine, took her leave; Mrs. Gilmer lingered for a few moments,
+then also made her exit, closely copying the graceful courtesy and
+floating, sweeping step of her rival.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank Heaven! they are gone!" exclaimed Maurice. "I have so much to say
+to you, Madeleine, every moment they staid appeared to me an hour."</p>
+
+<p>He could proceed no further, for the door opened, and Ruth Thornton
+entered with sketches of costumes in her hand, and said, hesitatingly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure you will pardon me, Mademoiselle Madeleine; Madame de Fleury
+insisted; she fairly, or rather <i>unfairly</i> forced me to seek you with
+these sketches; she seems resolved to secure your advice about her
+costume."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine knew how to rebuke impertinence in spite of her natural
+gentleness, and the very mildness of her manner made the reproof more
+severe. She had thoroughly comprehended Madame de Fleury's tactics, and
+had determined to make her understand that when she visited Mademoiselle
+de Gramont, the visit was paid to an equal, not to the mantua-maker upon
+whose time the public had a claim.</p>
+
+<p>"Say to Madame de Fleury that I leave all affairs of this nature in your
+hands, and that I have perfect reliance on your good taste."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[Pg 423]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Ruth withdrew.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us go to your boudoir, Madeleine," said Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine, as she complied, remarked,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You are troubled to-day, Maurice; two bright spots are burning upon
+your cheeks; you look excited; what has happened?"</p>
+
+<p>"Much or little, as it may prove," replied Maurice, taking a seat beside
+her. "In the first place, my grandmother has concluded to leave
+Washington in a week, and, after she reaches New York, take the first
+steamer to Havre."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice had given this intelligence so suddenly that Madeleine was off
+her guard, and the rapid varying of her color, the heaving breast, the
+look of anguish, the broken voice in which she exclaimed, "So soon? so
+very soon?" rekindled his expiring hopes.</p>
+
+<p>"This has been but a brief meeting, Madeleine, after the separation of
+those long, sorrowful years. The future is all uncertain, I cannot fix a
+time, after I have said adieu, when I may clasp this dear hand again."</p>
+
+<p>"But," faltered Madeleine, "your profession,&mdash;you will not abandon that?
+You will return to Charleston?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is my earnest desire to do so."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you <i>will</i> return! You will return soon?"</p>
+
+<p>Maurice must have been the dullest of lovers if he could not distinguish
+the intonation of joy in Madeleine's voice.</p>
+
+<p>"If my own advancement is the only incentive to my return, circumstances
+may interfere; my father's health, for instance, the necessity of
+attending to his affairs, or other considerations."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine did not reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine, I shall offend you, perhaps, for I am about to transgress.
+At all hazards, I must touch upon a subject which you have banished from
+our conversation."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Madeleine looked disturbed, but this warning enabled her to
+collect herself; she soon said, with composure,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Even if you do not spare <i>me</i>, Maurice, do not touch on any theme which
+must give pain to yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"I have not yet quite decided," returned he, "how much pain it may cost
+me. I will only ask you to answer me a few questions. As I am a lawyer,
+cross-examination, you know, is my vocation, and you must indulge me.
+Nearly five years ago you declared that you had bestowed your heart
+irrevocably. You were very young then,&mdash;you had had few opportunities of
+seeing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[Pg 424]</a></span> gentlemen; yet you have remained constant to this mysterious
+lover? You have never repented that you loved him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never!" answered Madeleine, with fervor.</p>
+
+<p>"And you believe that he loves you?"</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine bowed her head.</p>
+
+<p>"And you have loved him long? Perhaps you loved him early in your
+girlhood; perhaps you loved him from the time you first met?"</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine bowed her head again.</p>
+
+<p>"Even as <i>he did you</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know," she answered, in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>"That is strange; men are apt to boast of the length as well as of the
+strength of their passion," remarked Maurice. "Your lover must be an
+exception. But perhaps he is unaware that he is blest by your love?"</p>
+
+<p>Without suspicion Madeleine fell into that snare, well-laid by the young
+lawyer, for she answered, thinking that it would calm the jealous pangs
+to which Maurice might be subjected,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You are right; he is <i>not</i> aware that I love him."</p>
+
+<p>Had her eyes not been downcast, had she looked up for an instant into
+the face of Maurice, she would have known by its look of radiant ecstasy
+that she had betrayed herself.</p>
+
+<p>In a tone which emotion rendered unsteady, he went on,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You would cast your lot with his, Madeleine? If he were poor, you would
+share his poverty? You would even abandon your dream of earning a
+fortune for yourself,&mdash;and I know how dear that dream is to your
+heart,&mdash;for his sake? You would do this were there no barrier to the
+avowal of your love,&mdash;no barrier to your union with him?"</p>
+
+<p>"I would."</p>
+
+<p>"And that barrier is the opposition of his proud relatives?" asserted
+Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine started, looked in his face in alarm; for the first time, the
+suspicion that he had divined her secret, flashed upon her.</p>
+
+<p>But Maurice went on unpityingly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You refused him your hand because you thought it base ingratitude to
+those relatives who had sheltered you in your orphan and unprotected
+condition, and who had other, as they supposed, <i>higher</i> views for him.
+You feared by letting him know that you loved him to injure his future
+prospects, and you nearly blighted that future by the despair you caused
+him when he lost you. And since you have been restored, at least to his
+sight, you have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[Pg 425]</a></span> with a martyr's heroism adhered to your plan of
+self-sacrifice because you thought that to relinquish it would draw down
+upon him and yourself the wrath of his haughty grandmother,&mdash;I will not
+say of his father; because, too, you believed that you would be accused
+of ingratitude. And you have allowed him to suffer unimaginable torture
+rather than acknowledge that the lover to whom you have been so
+true,&mdash;the lover for whom you have sacrificed yourself,&mdash;the lover most
+unworthy of you (save through that love which renders the humblest
+worthy),&mdash;is the man you rejected in the Ch&acirc;teau de Gramont at the risk
+of breaking his heart."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine dropped her face upon her hands with a low sob, but Maurice
+drew the hands away, and folding his arms about her said, fervently,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine, my own, my best beloved, it is too late for concealment now!
+I know whom you love,&mdash;it is too late for denial. Look at me and tell me
+once,&mdash;tell me only <i>once</i> that it is true you do love me; tell me this,
+and it will repay me for all I have suffered."</p>
+
+<p>But Madeleine did not yield to his prayer; she tried to extricate
+herself from his arms, but they clasped her too tightly; and when she
+could speak she said, through her tears,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You ensnared me,&mdash;you entrapped me to this! I should never have told
+you! And what does it avail,&mdash;I can never be your wife."</p>
+
+<p>"It avails beyond all calculation to know that you love me, even if, as
+you say, you cannot be my wife. Madeleine, to know that you love no
+other,&mdash;that you love <i>me</i>,&mdash;that I have a claim upon you which I may
+not be able to urge until we meet in heaven,&mdash;is heaven on earth!"</p>
+
+<p>What could Madeleine reply?</p>
+
+<p>"But why, Madeleine, can you not become mine? My father would no longer
+object. Are you not sure of that? Do you not see how he clings to you?
+And my grandmother"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It would kill her," broke in Madeleine, "to see you the husband of one
+whom she detests and looks down upon as a degraded outcast. The Duke de
+Gramont's daughter only feels her pride in this, that she could never
+enter a family to which she was not welcome."</p>
+
+<p>"Then her pride is stronger than her love! No, Madeleine, though your
+firmness has been tested and I dread it, I will not believe that you
+will continue so cruel as to refuse me your hand."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[Pg 426]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Did you not say that it was happiness enough to know that,&mdash;that,"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine had stumbled upon a sentence which it was not particularly
+easy to finish.</p>
+
+<p>"To know that you love me! that you love me! Let me repeat the words
+over and over again, until my unaccustomed ears believe the sound; for
+they are yet incredulous! But, Madeleine, you who are truth itself, how
+could you have said that you loved another, even from the best of
+motives?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not. I said that my affections were already engaged: yet I meant
+you to believe, as you did, that I loved another; and the thought of the
+deception, for it <i>was deception</i>, has caused me ceaseless contrition.
+<i>I do not reconcile it to my conscience</i>; I spoke the words
+<i>impulsively</i> as the only means of forcing you to give up all claim to
+my hand; <i>but I do not defend those words</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"And I do not forgive them! You can only win my pardon by promising me
+that you will openly contradict them, and atone for your error by
+becoming my wife."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine's agitated features composed themselves to a look of
+determination which made Maurice tremble with apprehension; and he had
+cause, for she said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot, Maurice,&mdash;I cannot,&mdash;must not,&mdash;will not be your wife without
+the consent of your father and your grandmother!"</p>
+
+<p>"But if it be impossible to obtain my grandmother's?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then you must prove to me that you spoke truth by being content with
+that knowledge which you declared <i>would</i> satisfy you."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice remonstrated, argued, prayed, but he did not shake Madeleine's
+resolve. Believing she was right, she was as inflexible as the Countess
+de Gramont herself.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LIII" id="CHAPTER_LIII"></a>CHAPTER LIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>RESISTANCE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Maurice could not tear himself away; he was still lingering by
+Madeleine's side when Bertha and Gaston entered to pay their daily
+visit. The perfect joy that rendered luminous the countenance of
+Maurice, and the happy confusion depicted upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[Pg 427]</a></span> Madeleine's face,
+demanded but few words of explanation. Bertha caught Madeleine in her
+arms, laughing and crying, kissing her and reproaching her, over and
+over again. Then she turned to Maurice, as if impelled to greet him
+hardly less lovingly; but Gaston, jealous of his own particular rights,
+interposed. She darted away from his restraining arms and danced about
+the room, shouting like a gleeful child; then she kissed Madeleine
+again; then, suddenly calming down, said to Gaston, reproachfully,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"And you,&mdash;<i>you</i> knew this all the time, and did not tell me? What
+penalty can I make you pay that will be severe enough? I will plot
+mischief with Madeleine. If we can punish you in no other manner, we
+will postpone to a tantalizing distance the day you wish near at hand.
+Confess that I was wise to wait! I knew Madeleine's lover would claim
+her in good season, but I never suspected he was my own dear cousin
+Maurice, whom she so resolutely rejected."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor did I!" cried Maurice, joyously; "and if <i>I</i> can forgive Gaston,
+you must."</p>
+
+<p>"All in good time; after he is fitly punished, not before! What do you
+say, Madeleine? Shall we promise these two hapless swains their brides a
+couple of years hence?"</p>
+
+<p>"Bertha, Bertha! you have not understood," answered Madeleine, gravely,
+yet with a happy smile on her sweet lips. "Maurice has no promise of a
+bride; he looks forward to no bride, though I trust, you will, before
+very long, give one to M. de Bois."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me!" exclaimed Bertha, completely sobered by this unexpected
+announcement. "I thought you had confessed to Maurice that <i>he</i> was the
+mysterious but fortunate individual whom you loved, and whom I have been
+puzzling my brains to discover."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine did not choose to respond to the statement made with such
+straightforward ingenuousness by Bertha, and only replied,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Madame de Gramont would never give her consent to the marriage of
+Maurice with the humble mantua-maker. I have too much of the de Gramont
+pride, or too much pride of my own, or too much of some stronger feeling
+which I can only translate into a sense of right and fitness, to become
+the wife of Maurice in the face of such opposition."</p>
+
+<p>Bertha looked sorely disappointed and vexed, but vented her spleen upon
+the one whom she loved best, according to the invariable practice of
+women. She said to Gaston,&mdash;</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[Pg 428]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"There! you are no better off than you were before! That's just what you
+deserve for keeping this secret from me!"</p>
+
+<p>"But, Bertha, you will not be so unreasonable," urged Madeleine.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not, when you set me the example? Why should I not be unreasonable
+and obstinate when you teach me how to be so? You know, Madeleine, you
+have been my model all my life long, and it is too late to choose
+another."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine was silenced, but Bertha ran on petulantly, this time turning
+to Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>"How <i>can</i> you look so happy when Madeleine says she does not mean to
+marry you? I never saw anything like you men! One would think you had no
+feeling."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice replied: "It is so much happiness to know who possesses
+Madeleine's heart, that even if she remain unshaken in her resolution, I
+could not be miserable."</p>
+
+<p>"And you will not mind leaving her and going to Brittany? Your plans are
+not to be altered?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not unless she will alter them by consenting to accompany me. You know
+that my grandmother insists upon returning, and she is inexorable when
+she has once made up her mind."</p>
+
+<p>"Like somebody else!" said Bertha, who was decidedly irritated.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice resumed: "And it is my duty not only to protect her, but to
+watch over my poor father."</p>
+
+<p>"And you will really, <i>really</i> go?" questioned Bertha, doubtingly.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no alternative."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I am more thankful than ever," she replied, tartly, "that when my
+aunt wished to make a match between us, I never thought of accepting
+you! I never could have endured such a patient, contented, stoical
+suitor, who would be perfectly happy in spite of his separation from
+me."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice laughed at this sally, but Gaston remarked, seriously,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Yet you demand great sacrifices from one who is not as patient and
+well-disciplined. You make your wedding-day dependent upon Mademoiselle
+Madeleine's, when Mademoiselle Madeleine declares that she does not
+intend to name one."</p>
+
+<p>"We are an obstinate family, you see!" retorted Bertha, her good-humor
+returning.</p>
+
+<p>"Will not your father miss you?" suggested the ever thoughtful Madeleine
+to Maurice. "You have been absent very long;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[Pg 429]</a></span> that talkative nurse may
+not be able to restrain herself, and your presence may be needful to
+preserve harmony."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice admitted that he ought to return; but, after bidding Madeleine
+adieu, he could not persuade himself to go back to the hotel until he
+had seen those to whom he owed his present happiness.</p>
+
+<p>"Ronald!" he exclaimed, as he entered Mrs. Walton's drawing-room; "long
+ago I became largely your debtor, but now you have placed me under an
+obligation which cannot be estimated. Oh, if I only had your energy and
+promptitude of action, I might some day"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Ronald interrupted him: "Then my mother was right, and I did not give
+you bad advice in spite of my Quixotism?"</p>
+
+<p>Maurice related what had happened to sympathetic listeners.</p>
+
+<p>Evening was approaching; his absence from his father had been far more
+protracted than usual, and before he had said half that he desired to
+say, or listened to half that he wished to hear, he was compelled to
+leave.</p>
+
+<p>When the hand of Maurice was on the door of his grandmother's <i>salon</i>,
+he could distinguish the sound of angry voices within,&mdash;his
+grandmother's sonorous tones and the sharper voice of Mrs. Gratacap. As
+he entered, the latter was saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It's a sin and a shame, I tell you! And I'll not have the poor dear
+made miserable in that way, while he is under my charge. I'm not going
+to submit to it; and you know you can't frighten me with all your high
+ways."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Gratacap was standing beside the count, as though to protect him;
+Madame de Gramont was seated directly before him, and looking highly
+incensed. Count Tristan himself appeared to be in great tribulation, and
+grasped the hand of his nurse with a dependent air. As soon as he caught
+sight of Maurice, he cried out,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not going! I'm not going, I say! Maurice, come, come and tell her!"</p>
+
+<p>"What has happened?" inquired Maurice, with deep concern.</p>
+
+<p>The countess attempted to speak, but Mrs. Gratacap was too quick for
+her.</p>
+
+<p>"Here's the madame has been talking to the poor dear until she has
+driven him half wild. I never saw anything like it in my born days; she
+wont give him one moment's peace! He was doing well enough until she
+began <i>jawing</i> him."</p>
+
+<p>It is to be hoped that the countess did not understand the meaning of
+this last, not very classical expression.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[Pg 430]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Will you be silent, woman?" said she, wrathfully.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Gratacap was about to answer; but Maurice silenced her by a
+reproving look, and then asked again,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"What has happened? Why does my father seem so much distressed?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have been preparing his mind"&mdash;began the countess.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Gratacap broke in, "Upsetting his mind, you mean."</p>
+
+<p>Before Madame de Gramont could answer, Maurice said to the nurse, in a
+persuasive tone, "Pray leave us, for a little while, Mrs. Gratacap."</p>
+
+<p>"I wouldn't contrary you for the world!" returned the nurse. "Only when
+<i>she's</i> done, just you come to <i>me</i> and I'll give you the rights of the
+case."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Gratacap departed, and the countess continued,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I have been explaining to your father that we are shortly to leave this
+execrable country and return to Brittany, and that he has great cause
+for congratulation; but he did not seem to comprehend me clearly, and
+that woman, who is always intruding her opinions, chose to imagine that
+he was groaning and crying out on account of what I said. The liberties
+she takes become more intolerable every day; she is enough to drive your
+father distracted."</p>
+
+<p>"What does she mean?" asked Count Tristan, piteously. "Where do they
+want to take me? I'm not going."</p>
+
+<p>"My son," replied the countess, "I have informed you; but that insolent
+woman prevented your understanding; we are to return very soon to
+Brittany, to the Ch&acirc;teau de Gramont; I expect you to rejoice at this
+pleasing intelligence."</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;no, I cannot go! I cannot leave"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>He stopped as though his mother's flashing eyes checked the words ready
+to burst from his lips.</p>
+
+<p>"You will not have to leave <i>Maurice</i>," she said, coldly; "he is to
+accompany us."</p>
+
+<p>"But Madeleine! Madeleine!" he sobbed forth as if unable to restrain
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>The countess was on the point of replying angrily, when Maurice
+interposed.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg you, madame, not to excite my father by further discussion. Come,
+my dear father, you are tired; it is getting late; I know it will do you
+good to lie down."</p>
+
+<p>And he conducted the unresisting invalid to his own chamber, leaving the
+countess swelling with rage, yet glorying in the certainty that she
+would carry out her plans, in spite of every opposition.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[Pg 431]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LIV" id="CHAPTER_LIV"></a>CHAPTER LIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>AN UNEXPECTED VISIT.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Another week passed on. The day preceding that on which the countess and
+her party were to set out on their journey had arrived. All the
+necessary preparations were progressing duly.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice, from the hour that he had learned Madeleine's secret, had lived
+in such a dream of absolute happiness that he felt as though he could
+ask for nothing more,&mdash;as though the cup presented to his lips was too
+full of joy for the one, ungrateful drop of an unfulfilled desire to
+find room. He comprehended Madeleine's character too
+thoroughly,&mdash;respected all her instincts and principles of action too
+entirely, again to urge his suit, or seek to obtain her promise that she
+would one day be his; she <i>was his</i> in spirit,&mdash;he could openly
+recognize her as his,&mdash;that sufficed! and he believed it would still
+suffice (if her sense of duty remained unaltered) through his whole
+earthly existence; for all his days would be brightened by her love, and
+the privilege of loving her.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha, after her first, petulant outbreak, had also ceased to press
+Madeleine on the subject of her possible marriage, and with meek
+demureness reconciled herself to the uncertainty of the future, and the
+certainty of tormenting her lover in the present.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois's devotion to Madeleine sealed his lips. Madeleine had formed
+a resolution which she declared unalterable. Bertha had announced a
+determination dependent upon Madeleine's, and the suitors of the two
+cousins had only to submit and hope.</p>
+
+<p>The labor of packing Madame de Gramont's wardrobe, as well as that of
+Bertha, devolved upon Adolphine; she had not quite filled the trunks of
+her young mistress when she was summoned by the countess. This was on
+the morning of the day preceding the one appointed for their departure.
+Adolphine was heedless and forgetful to a tantalizing degree. The
+countess deemed herself compelled to superintend her movements; that is
+to sit in an arm-chair and look on; the lofty lady would not have
+deigned to assist by touching an article, though she now and then issued
+an order or indulged in a rebuke, and by her presence greatly retarded
+Adolphine's operations.</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan had driven out every day. His mother and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[Pg 432]</a></span> Maurice always
+accompanied him. This morning, when Maurice went to announce to his
+grandmother that the carriage was at the door, he found her watching
+Adolphine, who was on her knees before an open trunk.</p>
+
+<p>"It will be impossible for me to accompany you to-day," said the
+countess. "I will speak to your father; it will be his last drive, and
+he must excuse me."</p>
+
+<p>She rose and passed into the drawing-room where Count Tristan was
+waiting.</p>
+
+<p>"My son," said his mother, raising her voice as she now always did when
+she spoke to him, seeming to imagine that by this means she could make
+him comprehend better. He was not, however, in the least afflicted with
+deafness, and the loud tone was more likely to startle him than to calm
+the perturbation which was usually apparent when she addressed him. "My
+son, you are to take your airing this morning without me. You understand
+that this will be your <i>last</i> drive in this detestable city. You
+perfectly comprehend, I hope, that you leave here to-morrow; and before
+long we shall be safely within the time-honored walls of the old ch&acirc;teau
+which we ought never to have left."</p>
+
+<p>The proposed change had been so constantly impressed upon the count's
+mind by his mother that he seemed, at times, to be thoroughly aware of
+it; yet at others the recollection faded from his memory. At first, when
+the voyage was mentioned, he would remonstrate in a piteous, feeble,
+fretful way, declaring that he would not go; but of late he had appeared
+to yield to the potency of Madame de Gramont's will.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice offered his arm to the count and they left the room. As the door
+closed after them, Count Tristan turned, as though to assure himself
+that it was shut, then looked at Maurice significantly and nodded his
+head, while a smile brightened his countenance. It was so long since
+Maurice had seen him smile that even that strange, half-wild,
+inexplicable kindling up of the wan face was pleasant to behold. As they
+descended the stair, the count looked back several times, and gave
+furtive glances around him, smiling more and more; then he rubbed his
+hands and chuckled as though at some idea which he could not yet
+communicate. At the carriage-door he paused again, and again looked all
+around, continuing to rub his hands, then fairly laughed out. Maurice
+began to be alarmed at this unaccountable mirth. They entered the
+carriage and the coachman drove in the usual direction; but the count
+exclaimed impatiently,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;no&mdash;that's not the way! stop him! stop him!"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[Pg 433]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Maurice, at a loss to comprehend his father's wishes, did not
+immediately comply with his request, and the count, with unusual energy,
+himself caught at the check-cord and pulled it vehemently.</p>
+
+<p>"This is not the way,&mdash;not the way to <i>Madeleine's</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>Then Maurice comprehended his father's exultation; he had conceived the
+project of visiting Madeleine! But what was to be done? The countess
+would be enraged if she discovered Count Tristan had seen Madeleine; and
+the agitation caused by the interview might prove harmful to him. Yet
+would it not do him more injury to thwart his wishes? And would it not
+be depriving Madeleine of an inestimable joy?</p>
+
+<p>The count grew impatient; he shouted out, in a clearer tone than he had
+been able to use since his first seizure, "To Madeleine's! To
+Madeleine's, I say! I <i>will</i> see Madeleine!"</p>
+
+<p>Maurice hesitated no longer and gave the order. His father's agitation
+was, every moment, on the increase, though it was now of the most
+pleasurable nature; he gave vent to little bursts of triumphant
+laughter, muttering to himself, "I shall see her! I knew I should see
+her again!"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear father, you will endeavor to be calm,&mdash;will you not? I am
+fearful this excitement will injure you, and my grandmother will never
+forgive me if you become worse through my imprudence. She must not know
+that we have been to Madeleine's. It would render her uselessly
+indignant; but Madeleine will be so overjoyed to see you once more that
+I could not refuse to comply with your wishes."</p>
+
+<p>The count murmured to himself, rather than replied to his son,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Good angel! My good angel! We are going to her! We are very
+near&mdash;there! that's the house yonder. I'd know it among a thousand!
+Maurice, I'm well! I'm strong! I want nothing now but to see Madeleine!
+It's all right&mdash;is it not? She settled about that mortgage&mdash;she obtained
+us those votes&mdash;there's no more trouble! Nobody knows what a scoundrel I
+have been! I remember all clearly. I am very joyful; I must tell
+Madeleine; I must say to her that she&mdash;she&mdash;she brought something of
+heaven down to me; there must <i>be</i> a heaven, for where else could
+Madeleine belong?"</p>
+
+<p>Maurice had not heard his father speak as much or as connectedly for a
+month. His face was pleasantly animated, in spite of its unnatural
+expression, and he moved his arms about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[Pg 434]</a></span> so freely it was evident the
+weight which had pressed with paralyzing force upon them was removed.</p>
+
+<p>The carriage stopped. Maurice could scarcely prevent his father from
+springing out before him and without assistance.</p>
+
+<p>The silent Robert looked his surprise and gratification as he opened the
+street door. While Maurice was inquiring where his mistress would be
+found, Count Tristan pressed on alone, walking with a firm, rapid step.
+He entered the first room. It was Madeleine's bed-chamber; the one he
+himself had occupied during his illness. It was vacant. He passed on,
+crying out,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine! Madeleine!" He looked into the drawing-room, then into the
+dining-room, still calling, "Madeleine! Madeleine!"</p>
+
+<p>He hurried on toward the well-remembered little boudoir. There Madeleine
+was sitting at her desk, quietly sketching. When, to her amazement, she
+heard the count's voice, she thought it was fancy; but the sound was
+repeated again and again. Those were surely his tones! She started up
+and opened the door. Count Tristan was standing only a few paces from
+it,&mdash;Maurice behind him.</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine! Madeleine! I see you. I am happy. I can die now."</p>
+
+<p>As these words burst from his lips, the count staggered forward and sank
+on Madeleine's shoulder; for she had involuntarily stretched out her
+arms toward him. The next instant he slipped through them and dropped
+heavily upon the floor. One glance at his distorted face, and at the
+foam issuing from his lips, one sound of that stertorous breathing was
+enough. Maurice and Madeleine knew that he had been struck with apoplexy
+for the third time!</p>
+
+<p>Maurice and Robert carried him to the bed he had before occupied; and
+Madeleine sent for Dr. Bayard in all haste.</p>
+
+<p>The count lay quite still, save for that heavy breathing and the
+convulsive motion of his features. Madeleine and Maurice stood beside
+him in silence, with hands interlocked.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Bayard arrived, looked at the patient, shook his head, and, turning
+to Maurice, said, in a low tone,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing to be done."</p>
+
+<p>"But see," answered Maurice, clinging to a faint hope, "he is getting
+over it,&mdash;he seems better."</p>
+
+<p>"It is the third stroke," replied the doctor, significantly, as he was
+leaving the room.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine heard these words, though they were spoken in an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[Pg 435]</a></span> undertone,
+and she followed Maurice and the physician from the apartment.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean," she inquired of the physician, in accents of deep sorrow,
+"it is <i>impossible</i> for Count Tristan to recover from this shock?"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear young lady, I am unwilling to say that anything is
+<i>impossible</i>. The longer a physician practises, the more he realizes
+that we cannot judge of <i>possibilities</i>; but, in my experience, I have
+never known a case of apoplexy that survived the third stroke."</p>
+
+<p>"He will die, then? Oh, will he die?"</p>
+
+<p>"His life, for the last two months, has been a living death," replied
+the physician, kindly. "Could you wish to prolong such an existence?"</p>
+
+<p>The doctor took his leave, promising to return, but frankly avowing that
+his presence was needless. As soon as he had gone, Madeleine said to
+Maurice, who appeared to be so much stunned by this new blow that he was
+incapable of reflection,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Your poor grandmother,&mdash;O Maurice, what a terrible task lies before
+you! You will have to break this news to her. She must want to see him
+once more, and he may not linger long. You have not a moment to lose."</p>
+
+<p>"I feel as though I could not go to her," answered Maurice. "What good
+can she do here? She will only insult you again; and, if my father
+should revive, her words may render his last moments wretched. Let him
+die in peace."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine replied,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"She may be softened by the presence of the angel of death. She may long
+to hear one parting word of tenderness from his lips, and utter one in
+return. Go, I beseech you! Go and bring her!"</p>
+
+<p>And Maurice went.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LV" id="CHAPTER_LV"></a>CHAPTER LV.</h2>
+
+<h3>AMEN.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Maurice, when he opened the door of his grandmother's drawing-room,
+found the apartment vacant. The countess was still in her own chamber
+issuing orders to the bewildered Adolphine, whose packing process
+advanced but indifferently. Ber<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[Pg 436]</a></span>tha had retired to her room. Maurice
+passed into his father's apartment, where Mrs. Gratacap sat knitting,
+and, in a few words, told her what had occurred.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor dear!" cried the compassionate nurse. "I feared it would be so. I
+saw it coming this last week; and a third stroke is a
+death-knell&mdash;that's certain! But it will be a blessed escape for the
+poor dear; so don't take on, Mr. Morris" (this was her nearest approach
+to saying "<i>Maurice</i>"). "You'll need all your spirit to get along with
+the old lady; though, if she were the north pole itself, I should think
+this blow would break up her ice."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you have the goodness to desire my cousin to come here? I had
+better tell her first," said Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Gratacap withdrew and quickly returned accompanied by Bertha who
+was trembling with alarm; for the messenger had lost no time in making
+the sad communication.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot tell my grandmother, Bertha, in the presence of Adolphine.
+Will you not beg your aunt to come to me in the drawing-room?" said
+Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha had scarcely courage to obey, she had such a dread of witnessing
+the countess's agitation; for she felt certain it would take the form of
+anger against Madeleine and Maurice. With hesitating steps the young
+girl entered the apartment where the countess sat. She had been much
+irritated by Adolphine's stupidity, and cried out,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Positively, Bertha, this maid of yours has been totally spoiled by her
+residence in this barbarous country. She is worth nothing; she has no
+head; and she even presumes to offer her advice and suggest what would
+be the best mode of packing this or that! It is fortunate for us that
+this is our last day in this odious city, and that we shall soon be on
+our way back to Brittany. But Adolphine is completely ruined; there is
+no tolerating her."</p>
+
+<p>"I am very sorry," said Bertha, putting her handkerchief to her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"You need not cry about it," retorted the countess, angrily. "How often
+have I tried to impress upon you that this habit of evincing emotion is,
+in the highest degree, plebeian! Tears are very well for a milk-maid,
+but exceedingly unbecoming a lady. They are an unmistakable sign of
+vulgar breeding. I cannot endure to see a niece of mine with so little
+self-control."</p>
+
+<p>Bertha removed her handkerchief and tried to force back her tears, as
+she said,&mdash;</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[Pg 437]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Maurice begs to speak to you for a moment."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good. Can he not come to me?"</p>
+
+<p>"He entreats that you will go into the drawing-room."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean to intimate," asked the countess, sternly, "that my
+grandson ventures to <i>summon me to his presence</i>, instead of coming to
+mine? What indignity am I to expect next? Since he has forgotten his
+duty and the deference due to me, go and remind him."</p>
+
+<p>"He has something very serious to tell you," faltered Bertha; "he wants
+you to hear it there,&mdash;it is so sad."</p>
+
+<p>Bertha, in spite of her aunt's contemptuous glances, could not help
+burying her face in her handkerchief again.</p>
+
+<p>"What absurdity!" sneered the countess; but she began to experience a
+vague sensation of uneasiness.</p>
+
+<p>"Come! come! do come!" pleaded Bertha.</p>
+
+<p>"Since it seems the only way to put an end to this hysterical exhibition
+of yours, Bertha, I will go and reprove Maurice for his lack of
+respect."</p>
+
+<p>But the countess did not literally carry her threat into execution; for,
+noticing the absence of Count Tristan, she said hurriedly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Where is your father?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pray sit down one moment, my dear grandmother"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>She interrupted him by asking again, more anxiously,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Where is your father?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will explain, but"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you not answer my question?" she cried with increased violence.
+"Where is your father?"</p>
+
+<p>Could Maurice answer "At Madeleine's?" He still hesitated, and the
+countess, with more rapid steps than she was wont to use, hastened to
+Count Tristan's bedroom.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Gratacap greeted her with "Oh, poor dear, don't take on about it!
+We couldn't but expect that it would come soon, and"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The countess did not wait to hear the close of her sentence, but with a
+cold horror creeping through her veins, hurried back to Maurice, and
+once more asked, imperiously,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Maurice, where is your father? I command you to answer at once! I will
+hear nothing but the answer to that question."</p>
+
+<p>Driven to extremity, Maurice replied, "My father is at Madeleine's!"</p>
+
+<p>"Miserable boy! How did you dare to set my wishes at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[Pg 438]</a></span> defiance? You
+shall repent this,&mdash;be sure you shall! How had you the audacity to fly
+in the face of my command?"</p>
+
+<p>"I heard no commands on the subject," returned Maurice; "and if I had
+done so, my father's wishes would still have held the first place. As
+soon as we left the house he insisted upon going to Madeleine's; he
+would take no refusal; his affection for her is so strong that"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"How dare you talk to me of his affection for that artful, designing
+girl, who is a disgrace to us all,&mdash;whose low machinations have placed
+her beneath my contempt? Henceforth, thank Heaven! we shall be out of
+the reach of her vile man&oelig;uvres."</p>
+
+<p>This was beyond endurance. Maurice forgot everything but the insulting
+epithets applied to Madeleine, and said, with a dignity as imposing as
+Madame de Gramont's own had ever been,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"My grandmother, never shall such language be applied to Madeleine again
+in my presence, by you or any one! Madeleine is not merely my cousin,
+she is the woman I love best and honor most in the world;&mdash;the woman
+who, if I ever marry, will become my wife."</p>
+
+<p>"Never! never!" cried the countess, fiercely. "That shall never be, come
+what may!"</p>
+
+<p>Maurice, recovering himself somewhat, went on,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It is upon a far sadder subject that I wish to speak to you,&mdash;I meant
+to break the news gently,&mdash;I hoped to spare you a severe shock, but you
+force me to come to the point at once. My dear father has had another
+seizure of the same nature as the two former."</p>
+
+<p>"Parricide!" shrieked the countess, "you have done this! You have killed
+your father! The agitation occasioned by your taking him to that house
+and letting him see that unhappy girl has caused this attack; if he
+should die you will be his murderer!"</p>
+
+<p>What reply could Maurice make which would not enrage her more? The
+countess went on, furiously,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Go,&mdash;bring him back to me quickly! He shall not remain there! By all
+that is holy, he shall not."</p>
+
+<p>"I come to ask you to go to him since he cannot come to you," said
+Maurice, with as much mildness as he could throw into his tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I will go, I will go!" replied his grandmother. "I cannot trust
+you; I will go myself, and see him brought here."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[Pg 439]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She retired to her own chamber to make ready, and Bertha quickly
+followed her example.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime Madeleine with Mrs. Lawkins, watched beside the count. His
+attack was briefer than the former ones. When it was over, he fell into
+a deep and placid slumber. During that sleep his face changed! Those who
+have watched the dying and recognized the indescribable expression which
+marks the countenance when it is "death-struck" will understand what
+alteration is meant. He waked slowly and gently,&mdash;first stirring his
+hands as though clutching at something impalpable, then gradually
+opening his eyes. They looked large and glassy, but as they fixed
+themselves upon Madeleine's face, bespoke full consciousness.</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine!" he murmured feebly; but his voice was distinct, and
+pathetically tender. "I am with you again, Madeleine,&mdash;that is great
+happiness,&mdash;great comfort, I am going soon, Madeleine;&mdash;do you not know
+it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I fear so!" answered Madeleine, weeping; "but you do not suffer?
+You are calm?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very calm,&mdash;very happy with my good angel near me. Madeleine, you have
+much to pardon; but you will pardon,&mdash;all,&mdash;all!</p>
+
+<p>"I do, I do. If there be anything to pardon, I do, from my soul, a
+thousand times over."</p>
+
+<p>"You have made me believe in God and his saints, Madeleine, and I bless
+you."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine was holding both of his cold hands in hers, and had bowed her
+head, that his icy lips might touch her forehead; but she rose up
+suddenly, for she heard the wheels of a carriage stop, and the street
+door open; she deemed it well to prepare the count.</p>
+
+<p>"I think your mother and Maurice have arrived."</p>
+
+<p>A cloud passed over the face of the dying man, but did not rest there.
+He was beyond fear! His haughty mother could no longer inspire awe!</p>
+
+<p>A moment after, Maurice opened the door and the countess entered the
+room. Approaching the bed, as though unconscious of Madeleine's
+presence, she exclaimed,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"My son, my son, what brought you here? How could you have paid so
+little respect to my wishes? I will not reproach you" (this was much for
+her to say), "only make the effort to let yourself be removed at once."</p>
+
+<p>"I am going fast enough, mother; I am dying!"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[Pg 440]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No,&mdash;no!" cried the countess, vehemently. "You could not die <i>here!</i>
+You are not dying! You cannot, <i>shall not die!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>She spoke as though she believed that her potent volition could frighten
+away the death-angels hovering near, and prolong his life.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine had attempted to withdraw her hand from his, for his mother
+had seized the other clay-cold hand; but he said, with a faint smile,
+"Don't go, Madeleine; do not leave me until I cannot see you and feel
+you more." Then making a great effort to rally his expiring energies, he
+continued, "Mother, love Madeleine! We need angels about us to lift us
+up when we fall. Keep her near you if you would be comforted when the
+hour that has come to me comes to you!"</p>
+
+<p>The countess did not reply, but the hand she held had grown so clammy,
+she could no longer refuse to believe that her son might be dying. Still
+she was not softened; she could not turn to Madeleine and embrace her,
+as the dying man so obviously desired.</p>
+
+<p>"Maurice," said his father.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice approached, and the countess instinctively drew a step back, to
+give him room. She had dropped the marble hand, and Maurice took it in
+his.</p>
+
+<p>"Maurice, you, too, have much to pardon. Madeleine has forgiven,&mdash;will
+not you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my father, do not speak of that! All is well between us; but, if we
+must indeed lose you,&mdash;tell me,&mdash;tell Madeleine that you give her to me.
+She loves me, she has never loved any other; and I never <i>have</i>
+loved,&mdash;never <i>can</i> love any woman but her. Bid her be my wife, for she
+has refused to let me claim her without your consent and my
+grandmother's."</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan tried to speak, but the words died upon the lips that
+essayed to form themselves into a smile of assent. He lifted Madeleine's
+hand and placed it in that of Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>A convulsed groan, or sob, broke from the countess, but it was unheard
+by her son; his spirit had taken its flight.</p>
+
+<p>It had gone, stained with many evil passions,&mdash;perhaps crimes,&mdash;but what
+its sentence was before the High Tribunal, who shall dare to say? That
+erring spirit had recognized good, and therefore could not be wholly
+unsanctified by good; it had repented, and therefore sin was no longer
+loved; all the rest was dark; but He who, speaking in metaphors, forbade
+the "bruised reed" to be broken, or "smoking flax" to be quenched,
+might<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[Pg 441]</a></span> have seen light, invisible to mortal eyes, even about a soul as
+shadowed as that of Count Tristan de Gramont.</p>
+
+<p>The countess had been the only one who doubted that he would die, yet
+she was the first to perceive that he was gone. She uttered a piercing,
+discordant cry, and with her arms frantically extended, flung herself
+upon the corpse. Her long self-restraint, her curbing back of emotion,
+made the sudden shock more terrible; she fell into violent convulsions.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice bore her into the adjoining apartment, followed by Madeleine,
+Bertha, and Mrs. Lawkins. When the convulsions ceased she was delirious
+with fever.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine ordered the room Maurice had occupied to be speedily prepared
+for her reception. Her delirium lasted for many days. Had she recovered
+her senses, she would assuredly have commanded that the corpse of her
+son should be removed to the hotel, that his funeral might take place
+from thence; but Maurice thought it no humiliation that the funeral of
+the proud Count Tristan de Gramont should move from the doors of that
+mantua-maker niece who had saved his name from dishonor by the products
+of her labor.</p>
+
+<p>Count Tristan had few friends, or even acquaintances in Washington.
+Maurice and Gaston were chief mourners. The Marquis de Fleury and his
+suite, Mr. Hilson, Mr. Meredith, Mr. Walton, and Ronald, accompanied the
+corpse to its last resting-place.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha had taken up her residence at Madeleine's. Maurice remained at
+the hotel,&mdash;that is, he slept there, but the larger portion of his hours
+was passed beneath Madeleine's roof.</p>
+
+<p>That Madeleine was his betrothed was tacitly understood, though no word
+had been spoken on the subject, and her manner toward him was little
+changed. She loved him with all the intensity and strength of her large
+nature, but her love could not, like Bertha's, find expression in words,
+in loving looks, and caressing ways. Maurice was content, even though he
+could never know how inexpressibly dear he was to her. His was one of
+those generous natures which experience more delight in <i>loving</i> than in
+<i>being loved</i>. He never believed that Madeleine's love <i>could</i> equal
+his, and he argued that it <i>could not because</i> there was so much more to
+love <i>in her</i> than there was <i>in him</i>, and a true, pure, holy love,
+loves the attributes that are lovable rather than the mere person to
+whom they appertain. Maurice asked but little! A gentle pressure of the
+hand,&mdash;a soft smile,&mdash;a passing look of tenderness, though it was
+certain to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[Pg 442]</a></span> quickly veiled by the dropped lids,&mdash;a casual word of
+endearment timidly, reluctantly spoken, or, oftener, spoken
+unpremeditatedly and followed by a blush; these were food sufficient for
+his great passion,&mdash;the one passion of his life, to exist upon. Indeed
+we are inclined to think that with men of his temperament love is kept
+in a more vigorous, more actively healthy state by its (apparently)
+receiving only measured response. A woman who is gifted with the power
+of throwing her soul into looks, and language and loving ways, runs the
+risk of producing upon certain men an effect approaching satiety. The
+woman who has instinctive wisdom will never dash herself against this
+rock; yet few women are <i>wise</i>; fewer give <i>too little</i> of their rich,
+heart-treasures than <i>too much</i>.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LVI" id="CHAPTER_LVI"></a>CHAPTER LVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE HAND OF GOD.</h3>
+
+
+<p>When the fever gradually abated, and consciousness returned to the
+countess, she lay in a state of half-dreamy exhaustion which precluded
+the power of thought or the stir of her high passions. It was manifest
+that she recognized those who moved about her bed, for she now and then
+addressed Bertha, Maurice, and even Madeleine by name. Madeleine's heart
+throbbed with joy when she dared to believe that there was no unkindness
+in Madame de Gramont's tone. Maurice and Bertha had made the same
+observation and augured future harmony and happiness from the
+unanticipated change. But their delusion was quickly dispelled, for it
+soon became apparent that the countess believed herself to be in the
+Ch&acirc;teau de Gramont, and that her mind had gone back to a period previous
+to the one when Madeleine had awakened her displeasure. Either the
+objects by which she was surrounded had grown familiar to her eyes, or
+as she beheld them indistinctly in the dim light, imagination lent them
+olden shapes, for she assuredly fancied herself in her own chamber, in
+that venerable ch&acirc;teau to which she had so earnestly longed to return.
+It was somewhat remarkable that she never mentioned Count Tristan,
+though she several times spoke of her antiquated <i>femme de chambre</i>,
+Bettina, and of Baptiste, and desired Made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[Pg 443]</a></span>leine to give them certain
+orders, just as she would have done in by-gone days.</p>
+
+<p>It was not deemed prudent to make any attempt to banish the
+hallucination under which she was laboring, and which unavoidable
+circumstances must gradually disperse.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice received a second letter from Mr. Lorrillard, again urging him
+to return to Charleston, and apprising him that his services would be
+particularly valuable at that moment, as he (Mr. Lorrillard) was
+occupied in preparing to conduct a case of much importance, which needed
+great care in collecting authorities, and these researches it was the
+province of Maurice to make.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice placed the letter in Madeleine's hands, less because he needed
+her counsel than because it was so delightful to feel that he had the
+right to consult her.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you advise, Madeleine?" he asked, after she had perused it.</p>
+
+<p>"I would have you send the answer you have already concluded to send."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know that answer?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have read more difficult books than your face, Maurice; besides,
+there seems to me only one answer which would be advisable. Your
+grandmother is safe under Bertha's care and mine; she does not
+absolutely need your presence."</p>
+
+<p>"And nobody else needs it, I am to infer?" retorted Maurice, a little
+ungenerously.</p>
+
+<p>He deserved that Madeleine should give him no answer, or, at least, one
+that implied a rebuke; but such women are usually tardy in giving men
+their ill deserts, and she answered softly, "It will be less hard to
+part than it has been."</p>
+
+<p>"You have uttered my very thought," returned Maurice. "It is less hard
+to part now that we know how closely we are linked,&mdash;now that separation
+cannot any longer disunite, and love's assurance has taken the place of
+doubt and anguish. Were we <i>less</i> to each other in spirit, we should
+feel the material space that can divide us <i>more</i>,&mdash;is it not so?"</p>
+
+<p>If Maurice expected any answer, he was forced to be contented with the
+one which, according to the proverb, gives consent through silence.</p>
+
+<p>It was needful to prepare the countess for his departure. Maurice went
+to her chamber, and, after a few inquiries concerning her health, to
+which she hardly replied, said,&mdash;</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[Pg 444]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I am truly grieved that I am forced to leave you, my dear grandmother.
+I am summoned away by urgent business."</p>
+
+<p>At that last word her brows were slightly knitted, and she murmured
+contemptuously, "<i>Business</i>" as though the expression awakened some old
+train of painful recollection.</p>
+
+<p>"If it were not needful for me to go," continued Maurice, "I would not
+leave you; but you have the tender and skilful care of Madeleine and
+Bertha, and I shall be able to return to you at any moment that you may
+require me."</p>
+
+<p>"Where are you going?" asked the countess, but hardly in a tone of
+interest.</p>
+
+<p>"To Charleston."</p>
+
+<p>"Charleston!" she repeated with a startled, troubled look, "Paris,&mdash;you
+mean Paris?"</p>
+
+<p>"No,&mdash;not so far as Paris,&mdash;you remember the journey is but short
+between Washington and Charleston."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice had not deliberately intended to force upon the countess the
+consciousness of her present position; but it was too late to retract.</p>
+
+<p>She raised herself in the bed, leaning with difficulty upon her wasted
+arm, and asked, in a frightened tone,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Where,&mdash;where am I then?"</p>
+
+<p>"In Washington, my dear grandmother. Have you forgotten how my poor
+father was"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Hush! hush!" she gasped out, "I cannot endure it. Let me think! let me
+think!"</p>
+
+<p>She sank back upon the pillow with closed eyes, and the workings of her
+features testified that recollection was dawning upon her.</p>
+
+<p>After a time she cried out,&mdash;for it was a veritable cry,&mdash;"And <i>this
+house</i>,&mdash;<i>this bed</i> where I am lying,&mdash;O God! it is too much!"</p>
+
+<p>Maurice was at a loss to know what to do. He waited to see if she would
+not question him, would not speak again; but, as she lay silent and
+motionless, he retired and sought his cousins.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not be so much distressed," prayed Madeleine, when she heard what he
+had to relate. "This was unavoidable,&mdash;your grandmother's intellect was
+not disturbed,&mdash;her memory only seemed quiescent; the most casual
+circumstance might, at any moment, have awakened her recollection of the
+past; it is as well that it should be recalled to-day as to-morrow.
+Come, Bertha, we will go to her."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine and Bertha entered the room together, but the ever<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[Pg 445]</a></span> cowardly
+Bertha drew back, and Madeleine approached the bed alone. The countess
+opened her eyes, looked at her a moment, as though to be quite certain
+of her identity, then turned her face to the pillow and murmured, "Where
+is Bertha?"</p>
+
+<p>"Bertha is here," said Madeleine, motioning Bertha to take her place, as
+she drew back.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine felt that the countess had turned from her because her
+presence was painful; with a light step, but a heart once more grown
+heavy, she withdrew.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha stood by her aunt's side without daring to disturb her by a word.
+After a time the countess unclosed her eyes again and looked around the
+room; then, gazing at Bertha, said slowly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It all comes back,&mdash;it was like a frightful dream at first,&mdash;but the
+reality is more terrible! Bertha,&mdash;Bertha,&mdash;I have so little left! <i>You</i>
+love me? <i>You</i> will not forsake me?"</p>
+
+<p>Bertha had never before heard her imperious aunt make an appeal to any
+human being; what wonder that she was melted?</p>
+
+<p>The countess resumed, with increasing agitation, "You were to have gone
+back with me to Brittany,&mdash;you, and Maurice, and his"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>There came a break,&mdash;she could not name her dead son. Death to her was
+the harsh blow dealt by a merciless hand, snatching its victim away in
+retributive wrath,&mdash;not the wise and mild summons that bids suffering
+mortality exchange a circumscribed, lower life for a larger, higher,
+happier existence.</p>
+
+<p>It was some time before Madame de Gramont could continue; then she said,
+"I must go back, Bertha! I cannot die out of those old walls! It was
+you, you who lured me from them. We will return to them. You will go
+with us, Bertha?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will," replied Bertha, though her heart sank as she uttered the
+words. She had thought that the project of returning to France was
+wholly abandoned.</p>
+
+<p>"And we will go soon,&mdash;as soon as I am able to travel, that time will
+come quickly. I am growing stronger every minute. Let me depart
+speedily; it is all I can look forward to that can sustain me, that can
+lift me up after the abasement to which I have been subjected."</p>
+
+<p>Though they conversed no more, Bertha did not leave her aunt until she
+had seen her sink to repose.</p>
+
+<p>When Bertha repeated to Maurice, Madeleine, and Gaston the conversation
+which had just taken place, a heavy gloom fell<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">[Pg 446]</a></span> upon all. Maurice's
+return to Brittany, at this crisis, would be a great disadvantage to
+him, and when the countess was removed to a distance from Madeleine, it
+was more unlikely than ever that she would yield consent to Madeleine's
+union with Maurice; the chances were that she would not allow
+Madeleine's name to be uttered in her presence.</p>
+
+<p>Gaston had given up all idea of altering Bertha's repeatedly expressed
+determination to be married upon the same day as her cousin, and not to
+marry at all if that day never came; but since Count Tristan had joined
+the hands of Maurice and Madeleine, he cherished the hope that the
+countess would no longer refuse to sanction their union, and that this
+voyage to France would be wholly relinquished.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice listened to Bertha in silence, but that night his step could be
+heard pacing up and down his chamber through the still hours, and he
+scarcely attempted to rest. During this period of painful reflection, he
+formed a resolution which he proposed to carry into execution as soon as
+his grandmother was ready to receive him.</p>
+
+<p>As he took a seat by her side he motioned Mrs. Lawkins to leave them
+together.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you well enough to listen to me, my dear grandmother? I must speak
+to you on a subject of great importance to me; I ought to add, of some
+importance to yourself."</p>
+
+<p>The countess signified that she listened by a slight affirmative
+movement of the head.</p>
+
+<p>"Bertha has told me that you still desire to return to Brittany. Though
+at this moment my accompanying you will force me to make some heavy
+sacrifices, still, there is one condition,&mdash;<i>and only one</i>,"&mdash;Maurice
+emphasized these last words,&mdash;"upon which I can consent."</p>
+
+<p>The countess made no observation. He was forced to proceed,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You were present when my dying father placed Madeleine's hand in
+mine,&mdash;do not interrupt me, I entreat! Madeleine and I have loved each
+other from our infancy; she has rejected me solely that she might not
+cause grief to you and my father; he has given her to me,&mdash;he bade you
+love her; will <i>you</i> not give her to me also?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never!" answered the countess; and though the tone was low it was
+steady and resolute.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice went on, disregarding her reply. "I will return with you to
+Brittany on the condition that she accompanies us, as my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">[Pg 447]</a></span> affianced
+bride, or as my wife. You have lived beneath Madeleine's roof; my father
+died there; gratitude, if nothing else, should bind us to her. Can you
+urge any reasonable objection to her going with us to Brittany, and as
+my wife?"</p>
+
+<p>The countess was roused. "Would you have me show my runaway niece to the
+world? Would you have me publicly patronize, associate with, caress the
+<i>mantua-maker</i>, in my own land, before my own kin? Never!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then," returned Maurice, resolutely, "I do not return with you to
+Brittany. Bertha may do so, and you will, doubtless, have the escort of
+M. de Bois; but if you renounce Madeleine, you renounce me! Madeleine
+will not become my wife without your consent,&mdash;I do not conceal <i>that</i>
+from you; but I remain in this land, where she will continue to dwell.
+If <i>you</i> so wholly disregard my father's last wishes, you cannot hope
+that <i>I</i> can forget them, or that I can feel as bound to you as though
+they had been respected. If your decision is final, I will not urge you
+further."</p>
+
+<p>"It is final!" was the laconic answer.</p>
+
+<p>"And so is mine!" replied Maurice, rising. Without longer parley he left
+the room.</p>
+
+<p>At this crisis, the conduct of M. de Bois threatened to give a new turn
+to events. We have had abundant proof of his gratitude and unwavering
+devotion to Madeleine. His aversion to the countess had increased with
+her persecution of her defenceless niece, and when the inexorable lady
+remained unmoved by the dying prayer of her son, and refused to sanction
+Madeleine's union with Maurice, M. de Bois's detestation culminated. He
+was inspired with an earnest desire to stretch out his arm to shield and
+aid Madeleine, and humble her oppressor; but an effectual method of
+accomplishing this act of justice did not present itself to him until
+Maurice communicated the result of his last interview; then Gaston
+conceived the project of following up that masterly move with another
+which would give it force. If he could only have counted upon Bertha as
+an ally he would have been confident of the success of his plan; but he
+knew that Bertha's timidity&mdash;say, rather, her <i>cowardice</i>&mdash;was
+insuperable, and she held her aunt in too much awe to dare to take any
+decided stand. M. de Bois called all his energies into play to influence
+the weak medium he was compelled to employ.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine was occupied in a different part of the house when Maurice,
+finding Gaston and Bertha in the boudoir, told them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[Pg 448]</a></span> the result of his
+interview with Madame de Gramont. By and by Gaston lured Bertha into the
+garden. They made one or two turns in silence; Bertha looked up
+wistfully into her lover's face, and said, in a tone of reproach,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"How silent you seem to-day!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I feel grave,&mdash;I have something to accomplish, and I greatly need,
+but fear to claim, your aid."</p>
+
+<p>"Mine? What lion is there in a net that needs such a poor, wee mouse as
+I to gnaw the meshes?"</p>
+
+<p>"No lion already in the snare, but a lioness to be lured into our net.
+Bertha, do you truly love Mademoiselle Madeleine?"</p>
+
+<p>"What a question!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you love her so well that your love for her could surmount your
+dread of your aunt?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that is, I think it could. What would you have me do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Follow the noble example of Maurice; tell Madame de Gramont that you
+will not return to Brittany with her unless Maurice and Mademoiselle
+Madeleine return also. She detests this country, and the fear of being
+compelled to remain here will conquer her."</p>
+
+<p>"But how could I do this?" questioned Bertha, feeling that she had not
+firmness for the task. "I have promised to go with her. What excuse
+could I offer?"</p>
+
+<p>"The excuse," answered her lover, "that you could not travel with her
+alone."</p>
+
+<p>"Alone?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, for I do not count the light-headed Adolphine any one."</p>
+
+<p>"But you,&mdash;you are going with us?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not go unless Maurice and Mademoiselle Madeleine go," replied
+M. de Bois.</p>
+
+<p>"And you can let me go without you? You can let me take such a journey
+with my aunt in her broken state of health?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will not let you go at all if I can prevent your going."</p>
+
+<p>Not a few persuasions were needed before M. de Bois could obtain
+Bertha's promise to inform her aunt that she could not accompany her
+except upon the conditions Maurice had made. Bertha looked like a
+culprit awaiting sentence, rather than a person who came to dictate,
+when she entered Madame de Gramont's apartment. The countess had been
+highly incensed by her conversation with Maurice, and was wrought up to
+such a pitch that she seemed to have gained sudden strength, and almost
+to be restored to health. Bertha stole to her side, but the young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[Pg 449]</a></span>
+girl's good intentions were oozing away every moment. The probability is
+that that she would not have had the courage to introduce the subject at
+all had not the countess asked,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Have you heard of the unnatural conduct of Maurice? Do you know that my
+own grandson abandons me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard," replied Bertha, hesitatingly. "Oh! what are we to do?
+How could you ever travel to Brittany alone?"</p>
+
+<p>"Alone?" cried the countess, catching hold of the blue silk curtains
+that draped her bed, and raising herself by clinging to them. "Alone? Do
+<i>you</i>, too, forsake me? But what else could I expect when my grandson,
+my only child left, has abandoned me?"</p>
+
+<p>Bertha's determination was put to flight by her aunt's woful look as she
+spoke these words with despairing fierceness, while she grasped the
+curtains more tightly and bore heavily upon them for support.</p>
+
+<p>These draperies were suspended over the centre of the bed from a massive
+gilded ornament, shaped to represent a huge arrow, and the countess in
+her agitation gathered the folds around her, and hung upon them in her
+efforts to sit up.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, aunt, I have not forsaken you," returned Bertha. "I will go
+with you; but what shall we do alone? M. de Bois refuses to go unless
+Maurice and Madeleine go."</p>
+
+<p>"Does M. de Bois expect to dictate to <i>me</i>?" demanded Madame de Gramont,
+haughtily. "Let him remain; you will go with me, Bertha, and I shall
+hire a courier."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid we will not be able to find a courier in America," Bertha
+ventured to suggest.</p>
+
+<p>"Then we will go without one! We will go the instant I am able; and I
+feel so much stronger at this moment that I could start at once. It is
+settled that we go, and I defy Maurice or any one else to keep me."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine had been visiting the working-room, and, without being aware
+of what had just taken place, she now entered her aunt's chamber. Madame
+de Gramont's convulsed features, and her singular attitude as she sat up
+in the centre of the bed, tightly grasping the curtains, which had been
+drawn from their usual position, impressed Madeleine so painfully, that
+she was running toward her; when the countess, raising herself up, with
+sudden strength, exclaimed,&mdash;"Madeleine de Gramont, keep from me!&mdash;do
+not come near me! All my sorrow has come through you!&mdash;Go! go!"</p>
+
+<p>She gave such a violent strain upon the curtains, as she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[Pg 450]</a></span> passionately
+uttered these words, that Madeleine's quick ears caught a sound as of
+some fastening giving way. With a cry of horror, she sprang to the bed,
+flung her arms around the countess, and dragged her from it just as the
+heavy ornament fell!</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine's piercing cry, and Bertha's shriek summoned not only Mrs.
+Lawkins, who was sitting in the adjoining chamber, but Maurice and
+Gaston. The curtains partially concealed the bed and the two who lay
+prostrate beside it; the white, haggard, terrified countenance of Madame
+de Gramont was alone visible. As Mrs. Lawkins endeavored to extricate
+her from the folds of the curtain, Maurice and Gaston removed the fallen
+arrow to which the drapery was still attached. Afterwards Gaston, who
+was nearest to Mrs. Lawkins, assisted her in raising the helpless
+countess and placing her upon the bed. Then the form of Madeleine became
+visible. She was stretched upon the ground motionless and senseless; her
+beautiful hair, loosened by her fall, enveloped her like a veil, and
+wholly concealed her face. What a groan of agony burst from Maurice as
+he knelt beside her and swept away the shrouding tresses! They were wet,
+and the hands that touched them became scarlet. The outermost edge of
+the arrow had struck Madeleine's head, inflicting a deep gash, and, as
+it fell, tore her dress the whole length of her left shoulder and arm,
+making another wound which bled profusely.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice was so completely stupefied with horror that he had scarcely
+power to lift her light form.</p>
+
+<p>"Here! here! place her here!" cried Mrs. Lawkins; "don't stir her any
+more than possible."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice mechanically obeyed and laid Madeleine upon the same bed which
+bore the countess.</p>
+
+<p>The nurse was the only one whose presence of mind had not completely
+departed, and she hurried from the room to send for medical assistance.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice, as he clasped Madeleine in his arms, groaned out, "She is
+killed! she is dead! Oh, my Madeleine, my Madeleine! are you gone?
+Madeleine! Madeleine!"</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine gave no sign of life, though the blood still flowed.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lawkins, who had returned, tried to force him away&mdash;entreated him
+to let her approach Madeleine, that she might bind up her head and
+stanch the blood; but he did not hear, or heed,&mdash;he was lost in grief.
+M. de Bois also appealed to him, but in vain; then Gaston attempted to
+use force to recall him to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">[Pg 451]</a></span> reason, and, seizing both of Maurice's arms,
+essayed to unclasp them from their hold of the inanimate form, saying as
+he did so:</p>
+
+<p>"For the love of Heaven, Maurice, collect yourself; she may bleed to
+death if you prevent Mrs. Lawkins from doing what is needful to stop the
+blood."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice struggled with him, as he exclaimed, hopelessly, "She is dead!
+she is dead!"</p>
+
+<p>"She is <i>not</i> dead, but you may kill her if you refuse to let Mrs.
+Lawkins bind up her wounds."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice no longer resisted, and Mrs. Lawkins wiped away the blood, and
+commenced bandaging the fair, wounded head. The pale features had been
+stained with the crimson flood, and, as Mrs. Lawkins bathed them, their
+marble whiteness and stillness were appalling.</p>
+
+<p>Bertha had not ceased to sob, though Gaston, the instant he could safely
+relinquish his hold of Maurice, essayed by every means in his power to
+soothe her.</p>
+
+<p>The countess was gazing upon Madeleine with an air of stupefied grief.
+Bertha, who had no control over her passionate sorrow, as her eyes fell
+upon Madame de Gramont, cried out, reproachfully,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Aunt, but for her, you would have been killed! You who never loved her!
+She has lost her life in trying to save yours!"</p>
+
+<p>The countess did not appear to heed the cruel words, though they were
+the echo of her own thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lawkins' skilful ministry had stanched the blood and Madeleine's
+head and arm were bound up; but still she lay like some lovely statue,
+her lips apart and hueless,&mdash;her eyes closed, and the dark lashes
+sweeping her alabaster cheeks; while her long hair, still dripping with
+its crimson moisture, was lifted over the pillow. As Mrs. Lawkins,
+having accomplished her sad task, drew back, Maurice pressed into her
+place, and Bertha crowded in beside him, loading the senseless Madeleine
+with caresses and tender epithets; then, as she turned to her aunt, who
+had raised herself on her elbow, and was also bending over the lifeless
+figure, exclaimed impetuously,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! how could you help loving her? We all loved her so much! Cousin
+Tristan said she was his good angel, and she has been the good angel of
+all our family; but our good angel is gone! We have lost her through
+you!"</p>
+
+<p>Bertha's overwhelming sorrow had swept away all her former dread of her
+aunt, whom her reproaches deeply stung. They were the first Madame de
+Gramont had ever heard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[Pg 452]</a></span> from those timid lips. At that moment the
+conscience-stricken woman would have made any sacrifice, even of her
+pride, to have seen Madeleine restored to life. While contemplating that
+angelic face, now so still and white, torturing fiends recalled all the
+harsh words she had used to pain this defenceless being,&mdash;all the cruel
+wrong she had done her,&mdash;all the misery she had caused her; and now she
+inwardly prayed that Madeleine might live; but with that prayer arose
+the thought that the supplication of such a one as she would remain
+unheard in heaven.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lawkins, aided by Maurice, was applying restoratives. With his arm
+beneath Madeleine's head, he was holding a spoon to her lips, and, with
+gentle force, pouring its contents into her mouth, watching her with the
+most thrilling anxiety. He thought a slight movement of the lips was
+perceptible; then they quivered more certainly, and she made an effort
+to swallow.</p>
+
+<p>The countess was the first one that spoke: "She is not dead! I am spared
+that!"</p>
+
+<p>She sank back upon her pillow and wept.</p>
+
+<p>No one present had ever seen her weep; but now she did not try to hide
+her tears; they gushed forth in fierce torrents, like a stream that
+breaks forth through severed icebergs; for in her soul the ice that had
+gathered to mountain heights was melting at last.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice had echoed the words, "She is not dead," pressing his own
+burning lips upon those pale, feebly-stirring, cold ones, and catching
+the first returning breath that Madeleine drew. At that long, fervent
+kiss her eyes unclosed; they saw his face and nothing beside.</p>
+
+<p>"Madeleine, my beloved, you are spared to me! My life returns now that
+you are given back."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine faintly murmured "Maurice," and then her eyes wandered from
+his face to those around her, and she added, "What is it?"</p>
+
+<p>Bertha's transition from grief to joy was so clamorous that no one could
+answer. If Gaston had not restrained her, Madeleine's bandage would have
+been endangered by the young girl's vehement embraces, which were
+mingled with incoherent exclamations of rapture.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" again questioned Madeleine; but, as she spoke her eye
+caught sight of the fallen curtain, thrown in a heap, and remembering
+the recent danger, she turned quickly to the countess, and said,
+feebly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You are not hurt, aunt,&mdash;madame? The shaft did not strike you,&mdash;did
+it?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">[Pg 453]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The countess felt that a shaft had fallen and struck her, indeed, but
+not the one Madeleine meant. She stretched out her hand and clasped that
+of her niece as she said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I am uninjured, Madeleine; it is you who received the blow. God grant
+that this may be the last that will fall upon you through me! It is in
+vain to struggle against His will. It was His hand,&mdash;I feel it! I resist
+no longer!"</p>
+
+<p>She looked toward Maurice, who exclaimed joyfully, "My dear, dear
+grandmother, have I regained Madeleine doubly to-day? Do you mean"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The countess finished his sentence solemnly, "That it shall be as my son
+said."</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine, overcome with joy and gratitude, tried to raise herself up
+that she might reach the countess, but sank back powerless, and the
+effort again started the crimson current which trickled through the
+bandage and ran down her face.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't move!" cried Mrs. Lawkins. "See, see, what you have done by
+agitating her. Go, all of you, away. Mr. Maurice, go, or you will do her
+more mischief. Take him away, M. de Bois."</p>
+
+<p>Maurice was so much alarmed at the sight of the blood that he could not,
+at first, listen to these expostulations; but Mrs. Lawkins continued to
+threaten him with such evil results if he did not obey, and to urge M.
+de Bois so strenuously to compel him, that Gaston succeeded in leading
+him away; Mrs. Lawkins bade Bertha follow them, and then locked the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>As she prepared a fresh bandage she said apologetically, "I was obliged
+to send them away, Mademoiselle Madeleine; you must be quiet and not
+speak a word until the doctor comes; it is very, very important."</p>
+
+<p>And Madeleine did lie still in a trance of pure delight, and the
+countess lay beside her almost as motionless.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LVII" id="CHAPTER_LVII"></a>CHAPTER LVII.</h2>
+
+<h3>CONCLUSION.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The wound in Madeleine's head was dangerously near her temple. Her long
+swoon had been caused by the severity of the blow, and she was
+completely exhausted by her great loss of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">[Pg 454]</a></span> blood. When Dr. Bayard had
+examined her injuries and readjusted the bandage, Maurice bore her
+gently to her own chamber, clasping her closely in his arms as he went,
+and breathing over her words of tenderest endearment. He left her in
+Mrs. Lawkins' charge to be undressed and laid in bed, but even during
+that brief process, knocked several times at the door to urge the good
+house-keeper to make haste and admit him.</p>
+
+<p>For nearly two months Maurice had been chained to the bedside of his
+suffering father, or his grandmother; he had been fully initiated into
+the duties of ministration, and upon the strength of his experience he
+claimed the entire care of the new invalid. What a luxury to him it was
+to watch over his beloved Madeleine! It seemed ungrateful of her to
+deprive him of the happiness by getting well too rapidly. As Ruth
+Thornton occupied the same room, Madeleine needed no watcher at night;
+but Maurice scarcely left her during the day. Her light food, her
+cooling drinks and calming potions, she received from his hands alone.
+Hour after hour, he sat and read to her,&mdash;sat and talked to her,&mdash;sat
+and looked at her,&mdash;and never was weary,&mdash;never was so superlatively
+happy in his life! He was jealous of any one who attempted to share his
+vigils; when Mrs. Lawkins approached, he playfully reminded her that
+they had agreed upon a division of labor, and Madame de Gramont was her
+patient; when Ruth and Bertha tried to press upon him their services, he
+had always some plea to peremptorily dismiss them both. Mrs. Walton was
+the only one in whose favor he relented a little. He allowed her to sit
+beside his charge for a couple of hours every day. How could he refuse
+when the presence of this invaluable friend gave Madeleine such true
+pleasure, and when Mrs. Walton was filled with such evident delight in
+watching the intercourse of these two kindred spirits, who to her eyes
+seemed created for partnership?</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Gramont had daily, with a sort of ceremonious affection,
+inquired after Madeleine's health. Madeleine's first visit, when she was
+able to rise, was to her aunt; but Maurice would not allow his patient
+to attempt to walk without his supporting arm about her waist. We will
+not say that Madame de Gramont greeted Madeleine <i>cordially</i>; but she
+received her with marked consideration, and expressed satisfaction at
+beholding her able to move; this was the sole allusion she made to the
+accident. Maurice, who had grown thoroughly tyrannical, would only
+permit Madeleine to remain a few moments with his grandmother, and
+brought the interview to a sudden close.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">[Pg 455]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Now that Madeleine was convalescent, she found great enjoyment in long,
+pleasant drives with Bertha, Maurice and Gaston. On bright days they
+left the carriage, and wandered into the woods to gather wild flowers,
+and rest beneath the trees. On one of these occasions, Madeleine was
+sitting upon a fallen tree, her lap filled with the flowers she had
+culled, and which she was weaving into a wreath. Bertha aided her work
+by selecting and handing the requisite flowers. Maurice was supplying
+her with luxuriant moss which she mingled among the bright blossoms.
+Gaston, lying at Bertha's feet, contemplated the lovely picture before
+him. The wreath was finished, and Madeleine wound it about Bertha's
+picturesque little hat,&mdash;not one of those unmeaning abominations which
+neither cover the head, nor shade the face, but a round straw hat,
+slightly turned up at the sides, and ornamented only by a single, black
+plume.</p>
+
+<p>"Look, M. de Bois," said Madeleine, "is not my chaplet successful? Could
+anything be more becoming to Bertha?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," answered Gaston, "there is one chaplet in which she would look
+still lovelier,&mdash;a wreath of orange-blossoms. Come, Bertha, are you not
+ready to reward my patience and forbearance? Will you not let me
+remember this day as one of our brightest, by telling me when you will
+wear that orange-blossom wreath?"</p>
+
+<p>Bertha laid her head upon Madeleine's shoulder at the risk of crushing
+some of the wild flowers, and answered, "That depends upon Madeleine. I
+told you long ago that Madeleine should name the day."</p>
+
+<p>"Come then, Mademoiselle Madeleine," Gaston pleaded; "do you speak!"</p>
+
+<p>Maurice's eyes fervently seconded the adjuration.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine answered, with the perverseness of her sex, "You ought to
+return to Charleston, Maurice."</p>
+
+<p>"I know I <i>ought</i>; but do not imagine I mean to do what I ought to do,
+until you have done what you ought to do as an example; if you do
+<i>that</i>, you will tell me when I may return to claim my bride."</p>
+
+<p>"You shall know to-morrow," said Madeleine, "but only on condition that
+neither of you gentlemen mention the subject again to-day."</p>
+
+<p>Both lovers promised; but, simply because a condition had been made,
+they every moment experienced the strongest temptation to disregard the
+stipulation.</p>
+
+<p>That night Madeleine and Bertha had a long conversation,&mdash;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">[Pg 456]</a></span>"a woman's
+talk," such as maidens, and matrons too, delight in, all the world over.
+They decided that Maurice must leave at once for Charleston, and remain
+three months, only returning the day before the one appointed for his
+nuptials. The double wedding was to take place in church; the bridal
+party to return to Madeleine's and, after a collation, leave for
+Philadelphia, and the day following for New York. The countess,
+accompanied by Gaston and Bertha, would sail at once for Havre, and
+Maurice, and Madeleine take up their abode in Charleston. Bertha's
+plans, after she reached France, were left to be determined by
+circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Gramont was the first one apprised of this arrangement, and it
+met with her full approval. She rejoiced at the certainty of seeing her
+beloved ch&acirc;teau again; and, though she spoke not one word to that
+effect, experienced great relief at being spared the necessity of
+appearing in Brittany with Madeleine, whose presence must necessarily
+cause abundant gossip.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice and Gaston were warned that the penalty of a single remonstrance
+against these plans would be a month added to their period of probation.
+Maurice compromised by pleading that instead of leaving Washington at
+once, he might be permitted to remain until the close of the week.</p>
+
+<p>The French ambassador had been much chagrined at the prospect of parting
+with Gaston. It was tolerably difficult to find a person who was not
+always seeking his own interests, or meddling in diplomatic affairs, to
+supply M. de Bois's place. When M. de Fleury was informed that the
+period for Gaston's departure was settled, he urged him to promise to
+return within six months, saying that he would only engage a secretary
+<i>pro tem.</i> in the hope of M. de Bois occupying his former position.</p>
+
+<p>As the young French maidens were orphans, and of high family, M. de
+Fleury offered to assume the office of father in giving them away, and
+the flattering proposition was particularly acceptable to the countess.</p>
+
+<p>Ronald Walton was to be the groomsman of Maurice, and Madeleine made her
+humble friend Ruth, the happiest of maidens, by inviting her to
+officiate as bridesmaid. Bertha needed a bridesmaid and groomsman, since
+her cousin would be thus attended, and she chose Lady Augusta Linden and
+her <i>fianc&eacute;</i>, Mr. Rutledge, through whose influence Madeleine had
+obtained a vote of so much importance to Maurice.</p>
+
+<p>These nuptial arrangements seemed to give general satisfac<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457">[Pg 457]</a></span>tion, with
+one exception; Mr. Walton declared that he was unfairly treated; that he
+meant to be assigned some office; and as his son was Madeleine's
+groomsman, and as he was not himself qualified to be Bertha's, he must
+be allowed to act as the father of the latter. M. de Fleury, he said,
+ought to be contented with the <i>r&ocirc;le</i> of father to one of the brides.
+Bertha, who had been charmed by the courtly manners and delightful
+conversation of this agreeable gentleman, cordially consented.</p>
+
+<p>Once more Madeleine and Maurice were to be parted; and even this brief
+separation tested their fortitude. The Waltons accompanied Maurice, and
+were to return with him to Washington.</p>
+
+<p>On his arrival in Charleston, he had cause to be flattered by the hearty
+greeting of his partner. Maurice plunged at once into professional
+duties; but another employment helped to speed the time,&mdash;a truly
+charming occupation,&mdash;the preparation of a home for his bride.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Walton assisted the young lawyer in the agreeable task of selecting
+furniture, and making those arrangements which demanded a woman's hand.</p>
+
+<p>A never-failing happiness flowed to Maurice from the exchange of letters
+with Madeleine. Each day commenced with the sending, and closed with the
+receiving, of one of these precious paper messengers. But Madeleine's
+letters, by no means, came under the head of "love letters." She could
+not have poured out upon paper, any more than she could have spoken, the
+fulness and depth of her affection; but Maurice found inexhaustible
+delight in what she wrote, which was always suggestive of so much left
+unsaid.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine rented her house to Ruth, who now became the head of the
+establishment which "Mademoiselle Melanie" had rendered so popular. At
+Madeleine's suggestion, Ruth had written to her widowed mother and young
+sister and requested them to make their future home with her. That
+letter was read by streaming eyes, and its contents filled to
+overflowing two joyful hearts.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lawkins was to accompany Madeleine to Charleston and take charge of
+her household there.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine proposed closing her establishment on the day of her wedding;
+for she well knew that her <i>employ&eacute;es</i> would desire to witness the
+ceremony. And she further evinced her thoughtfulness by ordering a
+bountiful collation to be spread in the apartments usually devoted to
+business, at the same time that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458">[Pg 458]</a></span> the table was prepared for her own
+bridal party in the apartments beneath.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine and Bertha had both apprised their bridegrooms elect that they
+preferred to forego the French custom of receiving the usual
+<i>corbeille</i>, containing laces, India shawls, jewelry, etc., etc., adding
+that some simple bridal token would be more acceptable.</p>
+
+<p>The day before the wedding arrived, and with it Maurice and the Waltons.</p>
+
+<p>We will not attempt to paint the meeting between Maurice and
+Madeleine,&mdash;it was too full of joy for language, too sacred for
+description,&mdash;but pass on to the events of the evening when the exchange
+of bridal gifts was made.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice fastened about Madeleine's white throat a small chain of
+Venetian gold, to which was suspended a cross of rare pearls; and on the
+back of the cross were inscribed these words of the prophet,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center">"Labor is worship."</p>
+
+<p>M. de Bois, knowing that Bertha was only too well supplied with gems,
+had experienced great difficulty in selecting a bridal gift. But, after
+many consultations with Madeleine, he chose a set of cameos cut in
+stone. The necklace and bracelets were composed of angel heads; but his
+own likeness was cut upon the brooch, and that of Madeleine on the
+medallion that formed the centre of the bracelet. Who can doubt that
+Bertha was enchanted with her gift?</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Gramont presented each of her nieces with a handkerchief of
+rich old lace, very rare and no longer purchasable.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine placed in Bertha's hands a magnificently bound volume; it
+contained Mrs. Browning's poems illustrated, in water colors, by
+Madeleine herself. Many of the paintings were exquisite, but those which
+represented "Lady Geraldine's Courtship," far surpassed all the others.</p>
+
+<p>And now came the great surprise of the evening,&mdash;the disclosure of a
+secret which Gaston and Bertha had carefully guarded. Bertha, in her
+clingingly affectionate way, knelt down beside Madeleine, and laid in
+her lap two ancient-looking jewel-cases, her bridal gift to Madeleine.
+How Madeleine started and trembled at the sight! Well she knew those
+caskets, but her shaking hands could not press the springs by which they
+were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459">[Pg 459]</a></span> secured. Bertha lifted their lids and disclosed the diamonds and
+emeralds which had been the bridal jewels of Lady Katrine Nugent,
+Madeleine's great-great-grandmother; the jewels which Madeleine had been
+forced to part with to obtain herself subsistence; the jewels whose
+design she had imitated on the dress which first made her "fairy
+fingers" known to Vignon; the jewels Bertha had recognized when they
+were worn by Madame de Fleury; the jewels which in attempting to trace
+to their owner, Maurice had suffered so terribly. These memorable jewels
+were restored through Gaston's agency. He had related to M. de Fleury
+their history, and Mademoiselle de Merrivale's desire to repurchase
+them. The marquis had promised acquiescence in the young lady's wishes
+if Madame de Fleury's consent could be obtained. Gaston and Bertha paid
+the ambassador's wife a visit of persuasion. Gaston was an especial
+favorite, and Madame de Fleury loved Madeleine as well as it was
+possible for her to love any one. Her yielding up these jewels was a
+high proof of the noble <i>couturi&egrave;re's</i> power over her frivolous heart.</p>
+
+<p>What bride does not smile when she sees the sun shine into her chamber
+on the nuptial morning? The sun shone gloriously on the bridal day of
+Madeleine and Bertha. The ceremony was to take place at any early
+hour,&mdash;no invitations were issued,&mdash;the bridal party was to meet at
+Madeleine's to go to church.</p>
+
+<p>Madeleine and Bertha were attired precisely alike, and with severe
+simplicity; they both wore dresses of white silk, made close to the
+throat. (A <i>d&eacute;colt&eacute;</i> attire would not be tolerated at a Parisian
+bridal.) Their veils were circular and of point lace; their chaplets of
+natural orange blossoms woven by Madeleine herself. Madeleine had not
+intended to wear any ornament, save the cross Maurice had presented her,
+but Bertha insisted on clasping Lady Katrine Nugent's bridal bracelet on
+her cousin's arm, and fastening her tiny lace collar with the lily and
+shamrock brooch. Bertha, herself, wore Gaston's cameos, and could
+scarcely restrain her joyful tears when she fastened on her fair bosom
+the brooch which represented her lover's countenance, and the bracelet
+that bore her beloved Madeleine's. She was adorned with the images of
+the two most dear on earth.</p>
+
+<p>Need we say that both brides were supremely lovely? Gazing at Bertha's
+sweet, unclouded face, that looked out from among the wealth of golden
+ringlets, and noting the soft light in her blue eyes, the delicate
+rose-flush that came and went on her cheeks, one might well declare that
+nothing more beautiful could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460">[Pg 460]</a></span> be found, until the gazer turned to
+Madeleine. Her face was colorless with emotion, yet its paleness only
+rendered the sculpturesque beauty of her features more striking; her
+eyes were downcast, and thus one missed their clear lustre and holy
+expression; yet the long lashes were some compensation, and her look was
+so spiritual, so saint-like in its beauty, that nothing mortal could
+have been lovelier.</p>
+
+<p>For one moment only were Maurice and Gaston permitted to greet their
+brides, and then they were hurried into the carriages which awaited
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Though no invitations had been given, the church was densely crowded.
+When the nuptial procession entered, the suppressed murmur of many
+voices sounded like the rushing of distant waves. First came Madame de
+Gramont, leaning on the arm of Maurice; they were followed by Ronald and
+Ruth Thornton; Madeleine, led by the Marquis de Fleury, followed. Then
+came the second party, Gaston with Mrs. Walton on his arm; Lady Augusta
+and Mr. Rutledge; Bertha, led by Mr. Walton, not the least proud and
+happy man of that large assembly.</p>
+
+<p>At times, during the ceremony, low sobs were audible; they came from
+Madeleine's <i>employ&eacute;es</i>, who could not wholly control their grief, as
+the certainty of losing their gentle mistress forced itself upon them.</p>
+
+<p>The newly made wives passed out of the church conducted by their
+husbands and returned to Madeleine's residence.</p>
+
+<p>During the collation the brides stood together at the head of the table.
+The French ambassador and Mr. Walton were the life of the festive board,
+and infused an element of gayety which the small assemblage would have
+lacked without their aid, for a happy silence had fallen upon the
+nuptial party. Besides these gentlemen, Mr. Meredith and Mr. Hilson were
+the only strangers present.</p>
+
+<p>The brides left the company to assume their travelling attire; but
+Madeleine, before she made this change, stole to the apartment where her
+needle-women were at table, with Victorine at the head, and spoke a word
+of kindly farewell to each, in turn. There were no dry eyes in that
+room.</p>
+
+<p>Maurice was more than satisfied with Madeleine's approval of the
+pleasant abode he had chosen. Many and joyous were the years he and his
+beloved companion passed under that roof. One year after their marriage
+it also sheltered for a time Gaston and Bertha. Madame de Gramont died
+soon after her return to Brittany.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461">[Pg 461]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 567px;">
+<img src="images/adpage467.jpg" width="567" height="709" alt="BOOKS Published by Carleton
+413 Broad-Way New-York 1865." title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462">[Pg 462]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center">
+"<i>There is a kind of physiognomy in the titles</i><br />
+<i>of books no less than in the faces of</i><br />
+<i>men, by which a skilful observer</i><br />
+<i>will know as well what to expect</i><br />
+<i>from the one as the</i><br />
+<i>other.</i>"&mdash;<span class="smcap">Butler.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463">[Pg 463]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 111px;">
+<img src="images/logo.jpg" width="111" height="71" alt="logo" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<h3>NEW BOOKS</h3>
+
+<h3>And New Editions Recently Issued by</h3>
+
+<h2>CARLETON, PUBLISHER,<br />
+NEW YORK.</h2>
+<h3><i>413 BROADWAY, CORNER OF LISPENARD STREET.</i></h3>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>N.B.&mdash;<span class="smcap">The Publisher</span>, upon receipt of the price in advance,
+will send any of the following Books, by mail, <span class="smcap">POSTAGE FREE</span>,
+to any part of the United States. This convenient and very
+safe mode may be adopted when the neighboring Booksellers
+are not supplied with the desired work. State name and
+address in full.</p></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 35%;" />
+
+<div class='center'>
+<p class="center"><b>Victor Hugo.</b></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>LES MISERABLES.--<i>The best edition</i>, two elegant 8vo. vols.,
+beautifully bound in cloth, $5.50; half calf,</td><td align='right'>$10.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>LES MISERABLES.--<i>The popular edition</i>, one large octavo volume,
+paper covers, $2.00; cloth bound,</td><td align='right'>$2.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>LES MISERABLES.--Original edition in five vols.--Fantine--Cosette--Marius--Denis--Valjean. 8vo. cloth,</td><td align='right'>$1.25</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>LES MISERABLES--In the Spanish language. Fine 8vo. edition,
+two vols., paper covers, $4.00; or cloth, bound,</td><td align='right'>$5.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>THE LIFE OF VICTOR HUGO.--By himself. 8vo. cloth,</td><td align='right'>$1.75</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<p class="center"><b>By the Author of "Rutledge."</b></p>
+
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>RUTLEDGE.--&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;A deeply interesting novel.</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td align='right'>12mo. cloth,</td> <td align='right'>$1.75</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>THE SUTHERLANDS.--</td><td align='left'>do.</td><td></td><td></td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.75</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>FRANK WARRINGTON.--</td><td align='left'>do.</td><td></td><td></td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.75</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>LOUIE'S LAST TERM AT ST. MARY'S.--</td><td align='left'>do.</td><td></td><td></td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.75</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>ST. PHILIP'S.--<i>Just published.</i></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.75</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="center">
+<p class="center"><b>Hand-Books of Good Society.</b></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="4" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>THE HABITS OF GOOD SOCIETY; with Thoughts, Hints, and<br />
+Anecdotes, concerning nice points of taste, good manners<br />
+and the art of making oneself agreeable. Reprinted from<br />
+the London Edition. The best and most entertaining work<br />
+of the kind ever published.</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td class="tdp">12mo. cloth, $1.75</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td align='left'>THE ART OF CONVERSATION.--With directions for self-culture.<br />
+A sensible and instructive work, that ought to be in the<br />
+hands of every one who wishes to be either an agreeable<br />
+talker or listener.</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td class="tdp">12mo. cloth, $1.50</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<p class="center"><b>Miss Augusta J. Evans.</b></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>BEULAH.--A novel of great power.</td><td></td><td align='right'>12mo. cloth, $1.75</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<p class="center"><b>Mrs. Mary J. Holmes' Works.</b></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>DARKNESS AND DAYLIGHT.--<i>Just published.</i></td><td></td><td align='right'>12mo. cl.,</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>'LENA RIVERS.--</td><td align='left'>A Novel.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>TEMPEST AND SUNSHINE.--</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>MARIAN GREY.--</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>MEADOW BROOK.--</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>ENGLISH ORPHANS.--</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>DORA DEANE.--</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>COUSIN MAUDE.--</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>HOMESTEAD ON THE HILLSIDE.--</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>HUGH WORTHINGTON.--<i>Just published.</i></td><td></td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<p class="center"><b>Artemus Ward.</b></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>HIS BOOK.--An irresistibly funny volume of writings<br />
+by the immortal American humorist.</td><td align='right'>12mo. cloth,</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A NEW BOOK.--<i>In press.</i></td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<p class="center"><b>Miss Muloch.</b></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>JOHN HALIFAX.--</td><td align='left'>A novel. With illust.</td><td align='right'>12mo. cloth,</td><td align='right'>$1.75</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A LIFE FOR A LIFE.--</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>&nbsp;&nbsp;do.</td><td align='right'>$1.75</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<p class="center"><b>Charlotte Bronte (Currer Bell).</b></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>JANE EYRE.--</td><td align='center'>A novel.</td><td align='center'>With illustration.</td><td align='right'>12mo. cloth,</td><td align='right'>$1.75</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>THE PROFESSOR.--</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.75</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>SHIRLEY.--</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.75</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>VILLETTE.--</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.75</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<p class="center"><b>Edmund Kirke.</b></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>AMONG THE PINES.--</td><td align='left'>A Southern sketch.</td><td align='right'>12mo. cloth,</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>MY SOUTHERN FRIENDS.--</td><td align='left'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>DOWN IN TENNESSEE.--<i>Just published.</i></td><td></td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<p class="center"><b>Cuthbert Bede.</b></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>VERDANT GREEN.--A rollicking, humorous novel of English<br />
+student life; with 200 comic illustrations.</td><td align='right'>12mo. cloth,</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>NEARER AND DEARER.--A novel, illustrated.</td><td align='right'>12mo. clo.,</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<p class="center"><b>Richard B. Kimball.</b></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>WAS HE SUCCESSFUL?--</td><td align='left'>A novel.</td><td align='right'>12mo. cloth,</td><td align='right'>$1.75</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>UNDERCURRENTS.--</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.75</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>SAINT LEGER.--</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.75</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>ROMANCE OF STUDENT LIFE.--</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.75</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>IN THE TROPICS.--Edited by R. B. Kimball.</td><td></td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.75</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p class="center"><b>Epes Sargent.</b></p>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>PECULIAR.--One of the most remarkable and successful<br />
+novels published in this country.</td><td class="tdp">12mo. cloth,</td><td class="tdp">$1.75</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<p class="center"><b>A. S. Roc's Works.</b></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>A LONG LOOK AHEAD.--</td><td align='left'>A novel.</td><td align='right'>12mo. cloth,</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>TO LOVE AND TO BE LOVED.--</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>TIME AND TIDE.--</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>I'VE BEEN THINKING.--</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>THE STAR AND THE CLOUD.--</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>TRUE TO THE LAST.--</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>HOW COULD HE HELP IT.--</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>LIKE AND UNLIKE.--</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>LOOKING AROUND.--<i>Just published.</i></td><td></td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<p class="center"><b>Walter Barrett, Clerk.</b></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>OLD MERCHANTS OF NEW YORK.--Being personal incidents,<br />
+interesting sketches, bits of biography, and<br />
+gossipy events in the life of nearly every leading<br />
+merchant in New York City. Three series</td><td></td><td class="tdp">12mo. cloth, each, $1.75</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<p class="center"><b>T. S. Arthur's New Works.</b></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>LIGHT ON SHADOWED PATHS.--</td><td align='left'>A novel.</td><td align='right'>12mo. cloth,</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>OUT IN THE WORLD.--</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>NOTHING BUT MONEY.--</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>WHAT CAME AFTERWARDS.--<i>In press.</i></td><td></td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<p class="center"><b>Orpheus C. Kerr.</b></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>ORPHEUS C. KERR PAPERS.--Three series.</td><td align='right'>12mo. cloth,</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>THE PALACE BEAUTIFUL.--And other poems,</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<p class="center"><b>M. Michelet's Works.</b></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>LOVE (L'AMOUR).--</td><td align='left'>From the French.</td><td align='right'>12mo. cloth,</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>WOMAN (LA FEMME.)--</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<p class="center"><b>Novels by Ruffini.</b></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>DR. ANTONIO.--A love story of Italy.</td><td align='right'>12mo. cloth,</td><td align='right'>$1.75</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>LAVINIA; OR, THE ITALIAN ARTIST.--</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.75</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>VINCENZO; OR, SUNKEN ROCKS.--</td><td align='right'>8vo. cloth,</td><td align='right'>$1.75</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<p class="center"><b>Rev John Cumming, D.D., of London.</b></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>THE GREAT TRIBULATION.--</td><td align='left'>Two series.</td><td align='right'>12mo. cloth,</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>THE GREAT PREPARATION.--</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>THE GREAT CONSUMMATION.--</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<p class="center"><b>Ernest Renan.</b></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>THE LIFE OF JESUS.--Translated by C. E. Wilbour from<br />
+the celebrated French work</td><td align='right'>12mo. cloth,</td><td align='right'>$1.75</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>RELIGIOUS HISTORY AND CRITICISM.--</td><td align='right'>8vo. cloth,</td><td align='right'>$2.50</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<p class="center"><b>Cuyler Pine.</b></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>MARY BRANDEGEE.--An American novel.</td><td></td><td align='right'>$1.75</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A NEW NOVEL.--<i>In press.</i></td><td></td><td align='right'>$1.75</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<p class="center"><b>Charles Reade.</b></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>THE CLOISTER AND THE HEARTH.--A magnificent new novel,<br />
+by the author of "Hard Cash," etc.</td><td></td><td class="tdp">8vo. cloth,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; $2.00</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<p class="center"><b>The Opera.</b></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>TALES FROM THE OPERAS.--A collection of clever stories,<br />
+based upon the plots of all the famous operas.</td><td></td><td class="tdp">12mo. cl., &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;$1.50</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<p class="center"><b>J. C. Jeaffreson.</b></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>A BOOK ABOUT DOCTORS.--An exceedingly humorous and<br />
+entertaining volume of sketches, stories, and facts,<br />
+about famous physicians and surgeons.</td><td></td><td class="tdp">12mo. cloth, &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;$1.75</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<p class="center"><b>Fred. S. Cozzens.</b></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>THE SPARROWGRASS PAPERS.--A capital humorous work, with<br />
+illustrations by Darley.</td><td></td><td class="tdp">12mo. cloth, &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;$1.50</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<p class="center"><b>F. D. Guerrazzi.</b></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>BEATRICE CENCI.--A great historical novel. Translated from<br />
+the Italian; with a portrait of the Cenci, from Guido's<br />
+famous picture in Rome.</td><td></td><td class="tdp">12mo. cloth, &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;$1.75</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<p class="center"><b>Private Miles O'Reilly.</b></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>HIS BOOK.--Comic songs, speeches, &amp;c.</td><td align='right'>12mo. cloth,</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A NEW NOVEL.--<i>In press.</i></td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<p class="center"><b>The New York Central Park.</b></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>A SUPERB GIFT BOOK.--The Central Park pleasantly described,<br />
+and magnificently embellished with more than 50 exquisite<br />
+photographs of the principal views and objects of interest.<br />
+A large quarto volume, sumptuously bound in Turkey morocco,</td><td class="tdp">$30.00</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<p class="center"><b>Joseph Rodman Drake.</b></p>
+
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>THE CULPRIT FAY.--The most charming faery poem in the<br />
+English language. Beautifully printed.</td><td></td><td align='right'>12mo. cloth, &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;75 cts.</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<p class="center"><b>Mother Goose for Grown Folks.</b></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>HUMOROUS RHYMES for grown people; based upon the famous<br />
+"Mother Goose Melodies."</td><td></td><td align='right'>12mo. cloth, &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;$1.00</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<p class="center"><b>Mrs. ---- ---- </b></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>FAIRY FINGERS.--A new novel.</td><td></td><td align='right'>12mo. cloth,</td><td align='right'>$1.75</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>THE MUTE SINGER.--do. <i>In press.</i></td><td></td><td align='center'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;do.</td><td align='right'>$1.75</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<p class="center"><b>Robert B. Roosevelt.</b></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>THE GAME FISH OF THE NORTH.--Illustrated.</td><td align='right'>12mo. cl.</td><td align='right'>$2.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>SUPERIOR FISHING.--<i>Just published.</i> do.</td><td align='center'>do.</td><td align='right'>$2.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>THE GAME BIRDS OF THE NORTH.--<i>In press.</i></td><td></td><td align='right'>$2.00</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<p class="center"><b>John Phoenix.</b></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price list">
+<tr><td align='left'>THE SQUIBOB PAPERS.--With comic illustr.</td><td align='right'>12mo. cl.,</td><td align='right'>$1.50</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<div class="trans_note">
+<p class="center"><big>Transcriber's Note</big></p>
+<p>
+
+Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as
+possible, including obsolete and variant spellings. Obvious
+typographical errors in punctuation (misplaced quotes and the like) have
+been fixed without note. Other corrections in the text are noted below (corrections
+inside the brackets).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#Page_5">page 5:</a> typo corrected: XX. The Incognito[Incognita]<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#Page_32">page 32:</a> typo corrected: the Count Damorean[Damoreau]<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#Page_91">page 91:</a> typo corrected: "Before you go to Rennes, will you not return this handker-Shief[handkerchief] to M. de Bois?<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#Page_122">page 122:</a> typo corrected: pondering over the disorded[disordered] mental condition<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#Page_123">page 123:</a> typo corrected: the wild lights of delirum[delirium];<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#Page_129">page 129:</a> typo corrected: the dim light of the veillense[veilleuse]<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#Page_132">page 132:</a> typo corrected: distinguished Roland[Ronald], had constituted him a sort of prince<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#Page_135">page 135:</a> typo corrected: jealous of the inteference[interference] of his niece's relatives<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#Page_150">page 150:</a> typo corrected: advance funds to pay partiest[parties] employed.<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#Page_153">page 153:</a> typo corrected: a wreath of for-get-me-nots[forget-me-nots]<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#Page_158">page 158:</a> typo corrected: tearless eyes upon life's realties,[realities]<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#Page_165">page 165:</a> typo corrected: influence in preparing Count Triston[Tristan] to look favorably<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#Page_189">page 189:</a> typo corrected: the mortgage must prove ruinious[ruinous]<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#Page_209">page 209:</a> repeated word removed: it was not in my power to be [be] more punctual<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#Page_228">page 228:</a> typo corrected: which Mademoiselle Malanie[Melanie] does not desire<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#Page_237">page 237:</a> typo corrected: salons, Madeline[Madeleine] entered the workroom.<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#Page_241">page 241:</a> typo corrected: during their brief recontre[rencontre] the day previous?<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#Page_281">page 281:</a> typo corrected: The Countess de Gramant[Gramont] rose up majestically<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#Page_287">page 287:</a> typo corrected: her chilling de-demeanor;[demeanor]<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#Page_288">page 288:</a> typo corrected: You do not imagnie[imagine]<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#Page_332">page 332:</a> typo corrected: "Yes, to-night; but not very[every] night,"<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#Page_332">page 332:</a> typo corrected: the noble coutourière's[couturière's] supposed abdication<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#Page_345">page 345:</a> typo corrected: CHAPTER LXI.[XLI.]<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#Page_356">page 356:</a> typo corrected: a cheerful, yet symathizing[sympathizing] face<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#Page_358">page 358:</a> typo corrected: drawn this conclusiou[conclusion] from<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#Page_363">page 363:</a> typo corrected: carrying out certains[certain] views<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#Page_371">page 371:</a> repeated word removed: the well-being of those dear to [to] her;<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#Page_373">page 373:</a> typo corrected: One charge more: you[your] father is<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#Page_379">page 379:</a> typo corrected: I must write to Lorillard[Lorrillard]<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#Page_423">page 423:</a> typo corrected: after the sepation[separation] of those long<br />
+<br />
+<a href="#Page_451">page 451:</a> typo corrected: Mrs. Lawkin's[Lawkins'] skilful ministry<br />
+<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Fairy Fingers, by Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAIRY FINGERS ***
+
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+</body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Fairy Fingers, by Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Fairy Fingers
+       A Novel
+
+Author: Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie
+
+Release Date: February 21, 2008 [EBook #24664]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAIRY FINGERS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Julia Miller and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+FAIRY FINGERS.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_IN PRESS:_
+
+BY THE AUTHOR OF THIS VOLUME,
+
+THE MUTE SINGER;
+A Novel.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+FAIRY FINGERS.
+
+A Novel.
+
+BY
+
+ANNA CORA RITCHIE,
+
+AUTHOR OF "THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN ACTRESS," "MIMIC LIFE,"
+"TWIN ROSES," "ARMAND," "FASHION," ETC.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Labor is Worship."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NEW YORK:
+
+CARLETON, PUBLISHER, 413 BROADWAY.
+
+MDCCCLXV.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by
+GEO. W. CARLETON.
+
+In the Clerk's Office of the District Court
+for the Southern District of New York.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+CHAPTER                                       PAGE
+
+I. Noblesse,                                     7
+
+II. The Cousins,                                17
+
+III. Madeleine,                                 24
+
+IV. Proposals,                                  38
+
+V. Heart-beats,                                 43
+
+VI. Unmasking,                                  55
+
+VII. A Crisis,                                  68
+
+VIII. Flight,                                   79
+
+IX. The Empty Place,                            94
+
+X. The Humble Companion,                       109
+
+XI. Pursuit,                                   116
+
+XII. The Sister of Charity,                    121
+
+XIII. Weary Days,                              131
+
+XIV. Diamonds and Emeralds,                    139
+
+XV. The Embroidered Handkerchief,              148
+
+XVI. A Voice from the Lost One,                155
+
+XVII. "Chiffons,"                              166
+
+XVIII. Maurice,                                173
+
+XIX. The Aristocrats in America,               179
+
+XX. The Incognita,                             186
+
+XXI. The Cytherea of Fashion,                  195
+
+XXII. Meeting,                                 200
+
+XXIII. Noble Hands made Nobler,                213
+
+XXIV. Feminine Belligerents,                   226
+
+XXV. The Message,                              237
+
+XXVI. Meeting of Lovers,                       241
+
+XXVII. Count Tristan's Policy,                 249
+
+XXVIII. Lord Linden's Discovery,               254
+
+XXIX. A Contest,                               260
+
+XXX. Bertha,                                   268
+
+XXXI. A Surprise,                              278
+
+XXXII. The Nobleman and Mantua-maker,          283
+
+XXXIII. Madame De Gramont,                     294
+
+XXXIV. Half the Wooer,                         298
+
+XXXV. A Revelation,                            305
+
+XXXVI. The Suitor,                             311
+
+XXXVII. A Shock,                               314
+
+XXXVIII. The Mantua-maker's Guests,            323
+
+XXXIX. Ministration,                           330
+
+XL. Recognition,                               340
+
+XLI. Unbowed,                                  345
+
+XLII. Double Convalescence,                    352
+
+XLIII. Outgeneralled,                          357
+
+XLIV. A Change,                                364
+
+XLV. Reparation,                               375
+
+XLVI. A Mishap,                                380
+
+XLVII. Inflexibility,                          387
+
+XLVIII. The New England Nurse,                 392
+
+XLIX. Ronald,                                  405
+
+L. A Secret Divined,                           409
+
+LI. Seed Sown,                                 415
+
+LII. A Lover's Snare,                          420
+
+LIII. Resistance,                              426
+
+LIV. An Unexpected Visit,                      431
+
+LV. Amen,                                      435
+
+LVI. The Hand of God,                          442
+
+LVII. Conclusion,                              453
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+FAIRY FINGERS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+NOBLESSE.
+
+
+They were seated in the drawing-room of an ancient chateau in
+Brittany,--the Countess Dowager de Gramont and Count Tristan, her only
+son,--a mansion lacking none of the ponderous quaintness that usually
+characterizes ancestral dwellings in that locality. The edifice could
+still boast of imposing grandeur, especially if classed among "fine
+ruins." Within and without were harmoniously dilapidated, and a large
+portion of the interior was uninhabitable. The limited resources of the
+count precluded even an apologetic semblance of repairs.
+
+The house was surrounded by spacious parks and pleasure-grounds, in a
+similarly neglected condition. Their natural beauty was striking, and
+the rich soil yielded fruits and flowers in abundance, though its only
+culture was received from the hands of old Baptiste, who made his
+appearance as gardener in the morning, but, with a total change of
+costume, was metamorphosed into butler after the sun passed the
+meridian. In his button-hole a flower, which he could never be induced
+to forego, betrayed his preference for the former vocation.
+
+The discussion between mother and son was unmistakably tempestuous. A
+thunder-cloud lowered on the noble lady's brow; her eyes shot forth
+electric flashes, and her voice, usually subdued to aristocratic
+softness, was raised to storm-pitch.
+
+"Count Tristan de Gramont, you have taken leave of your senses!"
+
+A favorite declaration of persons thoroughly convinced of their own
+unassailable mental equilibrium, when their convictions encounter the
+sudden check of opposition.
+
+As the assertion, unfortunately, is one that cannot be disproved by
+denial, the count sank resignedly behind the shield of silence. His
+mother returned to the attack.
+
+"Do you mean me to understand that, in your right mind, you would
+condescend to mingle with men of business?--that you would actually
+degrade yourself into becoming a shareholder, or manager, or director,
+or whatever you please to term it, in a railway company?--_you_, Count
+Tristan de Gramont! The very proposal is a humiliation; to entertain it
+would be an absurdity--to consent, an impossibility. I repeat it, you
+have taken leave of your senses!"
+
+"But, my dear mother," answered the count, with marked deference, "you
+are forgetting that this railway company chances to be an American
+association; my connection with it, or, rather, its very existence, is
+not likely to be known here in Brittany,--therefore, my dignity will not
+be compromised. The only valuable property left us is the transatlantic
+estate which my roving brother purchased during his wanderings in the
+New World, and bequeathed to my son, Maurice, for whom it is held in
+trust by an American gentleman. The members of the association, who
+desire to interest me in their speculation, assert that the proposed
+railroad may pass directly through this very tract of land. Should that
+be the case, its value will be greatly increased. At the present moment
+the estate yields us nothing; but the advent of this railroad must
+insure an immense profit. We estimate that, by judicious management, the
+land may be made to bring in"--
+
+His mother interrupted him with a haughty gesture. "_'Speculation!'_
+_'yield!'_ _'profit!'_ _'bring in!'_ What language to grow familiar to
+the lips of a son of mine! You talk like a tradesman already! My son,
+give up all idea of this plebeian enterprise!"
+
+The count did not answer immediately. He seemed puzzled to determine
+what degree of confidence it was necessary to repose in his stately
+mother. After a brief pause, he renewed the conversation with evident
+embarrassment.
+
+"It is very difficult to make a lady, especially a lady of your rank,
+education, and mode of life, understand these matters, and the
+necessity"--
+
+"It ought to be equally difficult to make the nobleman, my son,
+comprehend them," answered the countess, freezingly.
+
+The count rejoined, as though driven to extremity, "It is the very fact
+of my being a nobleman, that has made these people, Americans as they
+are, and despisers of titles as they profess to be, seek me with
+eagerness. The _prestige_ of my _title_, and the promise of obtaining
+some privileges respecting Maurice's Maryland estate, are all that I can
+contribute toward the success of their undertaking. It is true I am a
+nobleman; but even rank, my dear mother, must have the means of
+sustaining its existence, to say nothing of preserving its dignity. Even
+rank is subject to the common, vulgar need of food and raiment and
+shelter, not to mention the necessity of keeping horses, carriages,
+domestics, and securing other indispensable but money-consuming
+luxuries. Our narrow income is no longer sufficient to meet even our
+limited expenditures. The education of Maurice at the University of
+Paris, and your own charities, have not merely drained our purse, but
+involved us in debt. I hail the offer made me by this American company,
+because it may extricate us from some very serious difficulties. I am
+much mortified at your resolute disapproval of the step I contemplate."
+
+Count Tristan de Gramont was a widower, the father of but one child. It
+must not be supposed that, although he seriously purposed embarking in a
+business enterprise, he had failed to appropriate a goodly share of that
+pride which had both descended by inheritance, and been liberally
+instilled into his mind by education. His character was strongly stamped
+with the Breton traits of obstinacy and perseverance, and he was gifted
+with an unaristocratic amount of energy. When an idea once took
+possession of his brain, he patiently and diligently brought the embryo
+thought to fruition, in spite of all disheartening obstacles. He was
+narrow-minded and selfish when any interests save his own and those of
+his mother and son were at stake. These were the only two beings whom he
+loved, and he only loved them because they were _his_--a portion of
+_himself_; and it was merely himself that he loved through them. In a
+certain sense, he was a devoted son. His education had rendered him
+punctilious, to the highest degree, in the observance of all those forms
+that betoken filial veneration. He always treated his august mother with
+the most profound reverence. He paid her the most courteous
+attentions,--opened the doors when she desired to pass, placed
+footstools for her feet, knelt promptly to pick up the handkerchief or
+glove she dropped, was ever ready to offer her his arm for her support,
+and seldom combated her opinions.
+
+The first time he had openly ventured to oppose her views was in the
+conversation we have just related.
+
+She looked so regal, as she sat before him in a richly carved antique
+chair, which she occupied as though it had been a throne, that, in spite
+of the blind obstinacy with which she refused to see her own interests
+and his, Count Tristan could not help regarding her with admiration.
+
+She was still strikingly handsome, notwithstanding the sixty winters
+which had bleached her raven locks to the most uncompromising white.
+Those snowy tresses fell in soft and glossy curls about her scarcely
+furrowed countenance. Her forehead was somewhat low and narrow; the
+face, a decided oval; the nose, almost straight; the eyes almond-shaped,
+and of a jetty blackness, flashing out from beneath brows that were
+remarkable for the fine, dark line that designated their arch. The mouth
+was the least pleasing feature,--it was too small, and unsuggestive of
+varied expression; the lips not only lacked fulness, but wore a
+supercilious curl that had become habitual.
+
+Her form was considerably above the medium height, and added to the
+sense of grandeur conveyed by her presence. Her carriage was erect to
+the verge of stiffness, and her step too firm to be quite soundless.
+Advancing years had not produced any unseemly _embonpoint_, nor had her
+figure fallen into the opposite extreme, and sharpened into meagre
+angularity; its outline retained sufficient roundness not to lose the
+curves or grace.
+
+She had made no reply to her son's last remark, which forced him to
+begin anew. He thought it politic, however, to change the subject.
+
+"You remember, my mother, that some seven of our friends are engaged to
+dine with us to-morrow. I trust you will not disapprove of my having
+invited two American gentlemen to join the party. After the letters of
+introduction they brought me, I was forced to show them some attention
+and"--
+
+He paused abruptly, without venturing to add that those gentlemen were
+directors of the railway company of which he had before spoken.
+
+"My son, you are aware that I never interfere with your hospitalities,
+but you seem to have forgotten that my Sevres china is only a set for
+twelve, and I can use no other on ceremonious occasions. With Bertha and
+Madeleine we have one guest too many."
+
+"That is a matter readily arranged," replied the count. "Madeleine need
+not appear at table. She is always so obliging and manageable that she
+can easily be requested to dine in her own room. In fact, to speak
+frankly, I would _rather not_ have her present."
+
+"But, should she be absent, Bertha will be annoyed," rejoined Madame de
+Gramont.
+
+"Bertha is a simpleton! How strange that she does not see, or suspect,
+that Madeleine always throws her into the background! I said a while
+ago, my mother, that _your charities_ had helped to drain our purse, and
+this is one which I might cite, and the one that galls me most. Here,
+for three years, you have sheltered and supported this young girl,
+without once reflecting upon the additional expense we are incurring by
+your playing the benefactress thus grandly. It is very noble, very
+munificent on your part; still, for a number of reasons, I regret that
+Madeleine has become a permanent inmate of this chateau."
+
+"Madeleine was an orphan," replied the countess, "the sole remaining
+child of the Duke de Gramont, your father's nephew. When she was left
+homeless and destitute, did not the _honor of the family_ force me to
+offer her an asylum, and to treat her with the courtesy due to a
+relative? Have we not always found her very grateful and very
+agreeable?"
+
+"I grant you--very agreeable--_too_ agreeable by half," returned the
+count; "so agreeable that, as I said, she invariably throws your
+favorite Bertha into the shade. I confess that the necessity of always
+reserving for this young person, thrust upon us by the force of
+circumstances, a place at table, a seat in the carriage, room upon every
+party of pleasure, makes her presence an inconvenience, if not a
+positive burden. And will you allow me to speak with great candor? May I
+venture to say that I have seen you, my dear mother, chafed by the
+infliction, and irritated by beholding Bertha lose through contrast with
+Madeleine?"
+
+His mother replied with animation: "Bertha is my grandniece,--the
+granddaughter of my only sister; the ties of blood, if nothing more,
+would bind me more closely to her than to Madeleine. Possibly there may
+have been times when I have not been well pleased to see one so dear,
+invariably, though most inexplicably, eclipsed. Bertha may shine forth
+in her most resplendent jewels,--her most costly and exquisite Parisian
+toilet; Madeleine has only to enter, in a simple muslin dress, a flower,
+or a knot of ribbons in her hair, and she draws all eyes magnetically
+upon her."
+
+"That is precisely the observation I have made," answered Count Tristan;
+"and, my mother, have you never reflected how seriously your _protegee_
+may interfere with our prospects respecting Maurice?"
+
+The countess started. "Impossible! He could not think of Madeleine when
+a union with Bertha would be so much more advantageous."
+
+"Youth does not think--it chooses by the attraction it experiences
+towards this or that object," answered the count. "Before Maurice last
+returned to the university, nine months ago, his admiration for
+Madeleine was unmistakable. Now that he is shortly to come home, and for
+an indefinite period,--now that our plans must ripen, I have come to the
+conclusion that Madeleine must be removed, or they will never attain
+fruition; she must not be allowed to cast the spell of her dangerous
+fascination over him; something must be done, and that before Maurice
+returns; in a fortnight he will be here."
+
+Before the countess could reply, a young girl bounded into the room,
+with a letter in one hand, and a roll of music in the other.
+
+It would be difficult to find a more perfect type of the pure blonde
+than was manifested in the person of this fair young maiden. The word
+"dazzling" might be applied without exaggeration to the lustrous
+whiteness of a complexion tinged in the cheeks as though by the
+reflection of a sea-shell. Her full, dewy lips disclosed milky rows of
+childlike teeth within. Her eyes were of the clearest azure; but, in
+spite of their expression of mingled tenderness and gayety, one who
+could pause to lay the finger upon an imperfection, would note that
+something was wanting to complete their beauty;--the eyebrows were too
+faintly traced, and the lashes too light, though long. The low brow,
+straight, slender nose, the soft curve of the chin, the fine oval of the
+face, were obviously an inheritance. At a single glance it was
+impossible not to be struck with the resemblance which these classic
+features bore to those of the countess. But the sportive dimples,
+pressed as though by a caressing touch, upon the cheeks and chin of the
+young girl, destroyed, even more than the totally opposite coloring, the
+likeness in the two countenances. The hair of the countess had been
+remarkable for its shining blackness, while the yellow acacia was not
+more brightly golden than the silken tresses of Bertha,--tresses that
+ran in ripples, and lost themselves in a sunny stream of natural curls,
+which seemed audaciously bent on breaking their bounds, and looked as
+though they were always in a frolic. In vain they were smoothed back by
+the skilful fingers of an expert _femme de chambre_, and confined in an
+elaborate knot at the back of Bertha's small head; the rebellious locks
+_would_ wave and break into fine rings upon the white brow, and lovingly
+steal in stray ringlets adown the alabaster throat, ignoring
+conventional restraint as sportively as their owner.
+
+Bertha de Merrivale, like Madeleine, was an orphan, but, unlike
+Madeleine, an heiress. The Marquis de Merrivale, Bertha's uncle, was
+also her guardian. He allowed her every year to spend a few months with
+her mother's relatives, who warmly pleaded for these annual visits. Her
+sojourn at the chateau de Gramont was always a season of delight to
+Bertha herself, for she dearly loved her great-aunt, liked Count
+Tristan, enjoyed the society of Maurice, and was enthusiastically
+attached to Madeleine.
+
+"A letter! a letter from Maurice!" exclaimed Bertha, dancing around her
+aunt as she held out the epistle.
+
+The countess broke the seal eagerly, and after glancing over the first
+lines, exclaimed, "Here is news indeed! We did not expect Maurice for a
+fortnight; but he writes that he will be here to-morrow. How little time
+we shall have for preparation! And I intended to order so many
+improvements made in his chamber, and to quite remodel"--
+
+"Oh, of course, everything will have to be remodelled for the Viscount
+Maurice de Gramont! Nothing will be good enough for _him_! Every one
+will sink into insignificance at _his_ coming! We, poor, forlorn
+damsels, will henceforth be of no account,--no one will waste a thought
+on _us_!" said Bertha.
+
+"On the contrary," replied her aunt, "I never had your happiness more in
+my thoughts than at this moment. Be sure you wear your blue brocade
+to-morrow, and the blue net interwoven with pearls in your hair, and
+that turquoise set which Maurice always admired."
+
+"Be sure that I play the coquette, you mean, as my dear aunt did before
+me," answered Bertha, merrily. "No, indeed, aunt, that may have done in
+_your_ day, but it does not suit _ours_. We, of the present time, do not
+wear nets for the express purpose of ensnaring the admiration of young
+men; or don our most becoming dresses to lay up their hearts in their
+folds. I am going to seek Madeleine to tell her this news, and I have
+another surprise for her."
+
+"What is it?" inquired the countess, in an altered tone.
+
+"This great parcel of music, which I sent to Paris to obtain expressly
+for her. But I have something else which she must not see to day,--this
+bracelet, the exact pattern of the one my uncle presented to me upon my
+last birthday, and Madeleine shall receive this upon her birthday; that
+will be _to-morrow_."
+
+As she spoke, she clasped upon her small wrist a band of gold, fastened
+by a knot formed of pearls, and gayly held up her round, white arm
+before the eyes of the count and countess.
+
+The latter caught her uplifted hand and said gravely, "Bertha, music and
+bracelets are very appropriate for _you_, but they do not suit
+Madeleine. Madeleine is poor, worse than poor, wholly dependent upon"--
+
+"There you are mistaken, aunt," returned Bertha, warmly. "As _I_ am
+rich, she is not poor;--that is, she will not always be poor, and she
+shall _not_ be dependent upon any one--not even upon _you_. I mean to
+settle upon her a marriage portion if she choose to marry, and a
+handsome income if she remain single."
+
+"Very generous and _romantic_ on your part," replied the countess,
+ironically; "but, unfortunately for her, you have no power at present
+over your own property; you cannot play the benefactress without the
+consent of your guardian, and that you will never obtain."
+
+"But if I marry, I will have the right," answered Bertha, naively.
+
+"You will have the consent of your husband to obtain, and that will be
+equally difficult."
+
+"That is true, but I am not discouraged. I suppose when I am of age I
+shall have the power, and I need not marry before then. I am sixteen,
+nearly seventeen; it will not be so _very_ long to wait, and I am
+determined to serve Madeleine."
+
+"Many events may occur to make you change you mind before you attain
+your majority. Meanwhile you are fostering tastes in Madeleine which are
+unsuited to her condition. I know you think me very severe, but"--
+
+"No, no, aunt, you are never severe toward me; you are only too kind,
+too indulgent; you spoil me with too much love and consideration; and it
+is because you _have_ spoiled me so completely that I mean to be saucy
+enough to speak out just what I think."
+
+Bertha seated herself on the footstool at her aunt's feet, took her hand
+caressingly, and with an earnest air prattled on.
+
+"It is with Madeleine that you are severe, and you grow more and more
+severe every day. You speak to her so harshly, so disdainfully at
+times, that I hardly recognize you. One would not imagine that she is
+your grandniece as much as I am,--that is, _almost_ as much, for she was
+the grandniece of the Count de Gramont, my uncle. You find incessant
+fault with her, and she seems to irritate you by her very presence. Oh!
+I have seen it for a long time, and during this last visit I see it more
+than ever."
+
+"Bertha!" commenced her aunt, in a tone which might have awed any less
+volatile and determined speaker.
+
+"Do not interrupt me, aunt; I have not done yet, and I _must_ speak. Why
+do you put on this manner towards Madeleine? You _do put it on_,--it is
+not natural to you,--for you are kind to every one else. And have you
+not been most kind to her also? Were you not the only one of her proud
+relatives who held out a hand to her when she stood unsheltered and
+alone in the world? Have you not since then done everything for her?
+Done everything--but--but--but _love her_?"
+
+"Bertha, you are the only one who would venture to"--
+
+"I know it, aunt,--I am the only one who would venture, so grant me one
+moment more; I have not done yet. Madeleine cannot be an incumbrance,
+for who is so useful in your household as she? Who could replace her?
+When you are suffering, she is the tenderest of nurses. She daily
+relieves you of a thousand cares. When you have company, is it not
+Madeleine who sees that everything is in order? If you give a dinner, is
+it not Madeleine who not only superintends all the preparations, but
+invents the most beautiful decorations for the table,--and out of
+nothing--out of leaves and flowers so common that no one would have
+thought of culling them, yet so wonderfully arranged that every one
+exclaims at their picturesque effect? When you have dull guests,--guests
+that put me to sleep, or out of patience,--is it not Madeleine who
+amuses them? How many evenings, that would have been insufferably
+stupid, have flown delightfully, chased by her delicious voice!"
+
+"You make a great virtue of what was simply an enjoyment to herself. She
+delights as much, or more, in singing than any one can delight in
+hearing her."
+
+"That is because she delights in everything she does; she always
+accomplishes her work with delight. She delighted in making you that
+becoming cap, with its coquettishly-disposed knots of violet ribbons;
+she delighted in turning and freshening and remaking the silk dress you
+wear at this moment, which fits you to perfection, and looks quite new.
+She delighted in embroidering my cousin Tristan that pretty velvet
+smoking-cap he has on his head. She delighted in making me the wreath
+which I wore at the Count de Caradare's concert the other evening, and
+which every one complimented me upon. It was her own invention;--and did
+not you yourself remark that there was not a head-dress in the room half
+as beautiful? Everything she touches she beautifies. The commonest
+objects assume a graceful form beneath her fingers. The "_fingers of a
+fairy_" my cousin Maurice used to call them, and, there certainly is
+magic in those dainty, rapidly-moving hands of hers. They have an art, a
+skill, a facility that partakes of the supernatural. Madeleine is a
+dependent upon your bounty, but her magic fingers make her a very
+valuable one; and, if you would not think it very impertinent, I would
+say that we are all _her debtors_, rather than _she ours_. There, I have
+done! Now, forgive me for my temerity,--confess that you have been too
+severe to Madeleine, and promise not to find fault with her any more."
+
+"I will confess that she has the most charming advocate in the world,"
+answered the countess with affection.
+
+"Madeleine must not see this bracelet until to-morrow; so I must hasten
+to lock it up," resumed the young girl; "after that I will let her know
+that our cousin will be here to honor her birthday. How enchanted she
+will be! But she makes entirely too much of him,--just as you all do.
+The instant she hears the news, away she will fly to make preparations
+for his comfort. I shall only have to say, 'Maurice is coming,' and what
+a commotion there will be!"
+
+Bertha tripped away, leaving the countess alone with her son.
+
+"Is she not enchanting?" exclaimed the former, as Bertha disappeared.
+"Maurice will have a charming bride."
+
+"Yes, _if_ the marriage we so earnestly desire ever take place."
+
+"IF? IF? I intend that it _shall_ take place. It is my one dream, my
+dearest hope!" said the countess.
+
+"It is mine also," replied the count; "and yet I have my doubts--my
+fears; in a word, I do not believe this union ever _will_ take place if
+Madeleine remain here."
+
+The countess drew herself up with indignant amazement. "What do you
+mean? Do you think Madeleine capable of"--
+
+"I do not think Madeleine capable of anything wrong; but she has such
+versatility of talent, she is so fascinating, her character is so
+lovable, that I think those talents and attractions capable of upsetting
+all our plans and of making Maurice fall deeply in love with her."
+
+"But is not Bertha fascinating, and lovely as a painter's ideal?" asked
+the countess.
+
+"Yes, but it is not such a striking, such an impressive, such a
+bewitching, bewildering style of beauty," replied her son. "Mark my
+words: I understand young men. I know what dazzles their eyes and turns
+their heads. If Maurice is thrown into daily communication with Bertha
+and Madeleine, it is Madeleine to whom he will become attached."
+
+"It must not be!" said the countess, emphatically, and rising as she
+spoke. "It shall not!"
+
+"I echo, it shall not, my mother. But we must take means of prevention.
+It is most unfortunate that Maurice returns a fortnight before we
+expected him. I had my plans laid and ready to carry into execution
+before he could arrive. Now we must hasten them."
+
+"What is your scheme?" asked his mother.
+
+"Madeleine has other relations, all richer than ourselves. I purpose
+writing to each of them, and proposing that they shall receive her, not
+for three years, as we have done, but that they shall each, in turn,
+invite her to spend three months with them. They surely cannot refuse,
+and her life will be very varied and pleasant, visiting from house to
+house every three months, enjoying new pleasures, seeing new faces,
+making new friendships. And her relatives will, in reality, be our
+debtors, for Madeleine is the most charming of inmates. She is always so
+lively, and creates so much gayety around her; she has so many resources
+in herself, and she is so _useful_! In fact, we are bestowing a valuable
+gift upon these good relatives of hers, and they ought to thank us, as I
+have no doubt they will."
+
+The countess approved of her son's plan to rid them of their dangerously
+agreeable inmate, and the count, without further delay, sat down to pen
+the projected epistles.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE COUSINS.
+
+
+Bertha's prediction was verified, and the whole chateau was thrown into
+confusion by preparations for the coming of the young viscount. Old
+Baptiste forsook his garden-tools for the whole day, to play in-door
+domestic. Gustave, who daily doubled his _role_ of coachman with that of
+_valet_, slighted his beloved horses (horses whose mothers and
+grandmothers had supplied the de Gramont stables from time immemorial)
+to cleanse windows, brighten mirrors, and polish dingy furniture.
+Bettina, the antiquated _femme de chambre_ of the countess, who also
+discharged the combined duties of housekeeper and housemaid, flew about
+with a bustling activity that could hardly have been expected from her
+years and infirmities. Elize, the cook, made far more elaborate
+preparations for the coming of the young viscount than she would have
+deemed necessary for the dinner to be given to her master's guests. This
+band of venerable domestics had all been servants of the family before
+the viscount's birth, and he was not only an idol among them, but
+seemed, in a manner, to appertain to them all.
+
+The countess, alone, did not find the movement of gladness around her
+contagious. The coming of Maurice before the departure of Madeleine,
+distressed her deeply; but small troubles and great were incongruously
+mingled in her mind, for, while she was tormented by the frustration of
+her plans, she fretted almost as heartily over that set of Sevres
+porcelain which, with the addition of her grandson, would not be
+sufficient for the expected guests, even if Madeleine dined in her own
+chamber. Besides, the arrival of Maurice made _that_ arrangement out of
+the question. He would certainly oppose her banishment, just as Bertha
+had done; and the day, unfortunately, was Madeleine's birthday. This
+circumstance would give her cousins additional ground for insisting upon
+her presence at the festive board. The countess saw no escape from her
+domestic difficulties, and was thoroughly out of humor.
+
+Before Madeleine had awoke that morning, Bertha had stolen to her
+bedside and clasped the bracelet upon her arm. Light as was Bertha's
+touch, it aroused the sleeper, and she greeted her birthday token with
+unfeigned gratitude and delight. But Madeleine had few moments to spend
+in contemplation of the precious gift. She dressed rapidly, then
+hastened away to make the chateau bright with flowers, to complete
+various preparations for the toilet of her aunt, to perform numerous
+offices which might be termed menial; but she entered upon her work with
+so much zest, she executed each task with such consummate skill, she
+took so much interest in the employment of the moment, that no labor
+seemed either tedious or debasing.
+
+Maurice de Gramont had just completed his twenty-first year when he
+graduated with high honor at the University of France. After passing a
+fatiguing examination, he had gladly consented to act upon his father's
+suggestion, and devote a few weeks to enjoyment in the gay metropolis.
+The count had no clew to the cause of his sudden return to Brittany.
+
+"Aunt, aunt! There is the carriage,--he is coming!--Baptiste, run and
+open the gate!" cried Bertha, whose quick eyes had caught sight of a
+coach which stopped at the farther end of a long avenue of noble trees,
+leading to the chateau.
+
+Baptiste made all the speed which his aged limbs allowed; Gustave
+hastened to throw open the front door; Bertha was on the porch before
+the carriage drew up; the count and countess appeared at the entrance
+just as Maurice sprang down the steps of the lumbering vehicle.
+
+His blue eyes sparkled with genuine joy, and his countenance glowed with
+animation, as he embraced his grandmother warmly, kissed his father,
+according to French custom, then turning to Bertha, clasped her extended
+hands and touched either cheek lightly with his lips. She received the
+cousinly salutation without any evidence of displeasure or any token of
+confusion.
+
+As the maiden and youth stood side by side, they might easily have been
+mistaken for brother and sister. The same florid coloring was remarkable
+in the countenances of both, save that the tints were a few shades
+deeper on the visage of Maurice. His eyes were of a darker blue; his
+glossy hair was tinged with chestnut, while Bertha's shone with
+unmingled gold; but, like Bertha's, his recreant locks had a strong
+tendency to curl, and lay in rich clusters upon his brow, distressing
+him by a propensity which he deemed effeminate. His mouth was as ripely
+red as hers, but somewhat larger, firmer, and less bland in its
+character. His eyebrows, too, were more darkly traced, supplying a want
+only too obvious in her countenance. The resemblance, however,
+disappeared in the forehead and classic nose, for the brow of Maurice
+was broad and high, and the nose prominent, though finely shaped.
+
+His form was manly without being strikingly tall. It was what might be
+designated as a noble figure; but the term owed its appropriateness
+partly to his refined and graceful bearing.
+
+"My dear father, I am so glad to see you!--grandmother, it is refreshing
+to find you looking as though you bade defiance to time;--and you, my
+little cousin, how much you have improved! How lovely you have grown! A
+year does a great deal for one's appearance."
+
+"Yours, for instance," replied Bertha, saucily. "Well, there was
+abundant room for improvement."
+
+Maurice replied to her vivacious remark with a laugh of assent, and,
+looking eagerly around, asked, "Where is Madeleine?"
+
+"Madeleine is busy as usual," answered Bertha. "I warrant she is in some
+remote corner of the chateau, mysteriously employed. She does not know
+that you have arrived."
+
+"And is she well? My father never once mentioned her in his letters. And
+has she kept you company in growing so much handsomer during the last
+year?"
+
+"_Her_ beauty needed no heightening!" exclaimed Bertha, affectionately.
+"But she develops new talents every day; she sings more delightfully
+than ever; and lately she has commenced drawing from nature with the
+most wonderful ease. You should see the flowers she first creates with
+her pencil and then copies with her needle! I really think her needle
+can paint almost as dexterously as the brush of any other artist."
+
+The count exchanged a look with his mother, and whispered, "Do stop
+her!"
+
+The latter turned quickly to her grandson, and said, "Are you and Bertha
+determined to spend the morning out of doors? Come, let us go in."
+
+As they entered the drawing-room, the countess pointed to a seat beside
+her.
+
+"Maurice, leave your chattering little cousin, and sit down and give us
+some account of yourself. What have you been doing? How have you been
+passing your time?"
+
+Maurice obeyed; Bertha placed herself on the other side of her aunt; the
+count took a chair opposite.
+
+"Behold a most attentive and appreciating audience!" cried Bertha. "Now,
+Mr. Collegian and Traveller,--hero of the hour!--most noble
+representative of the house of de Gramont! hold forth! Let us hear how
+you have been occupying your valuable time."
+
+"In the first place, I have been studying tolerably hard, little cousin.
+It seems very improbable, does it not? The midnight oil has not yet
+paled my cheeks to the sickly and interesting hue that belongs to a
+student. Still the proof is that I have passed my examination
+triumphantly. I will show you my prizes by and by, and they will speak
+for themselves. Next, I have joined a debating society of young students
+who are preparing to become lawyers. Our meetings have afforded me
+infinite pleasure. At our last reunion, I undertook to plead a cause,
+and achieved a wonderful success. I had no idea that language would flow
+so readily from my lips. I was astonished at my own thoughts, and the
+facility with which I formed them into words, and they say I made a
+capital argument. I received the most enthusiastic congratulations, and
+my associates, in pressing my hand, addressed me, not as the Viscount de
+Gramont, but as the _able orator_. I really think that I could make an
+orator, and that I have sufficient talent to become a lawyer."
+
+"A lawyer!" exclaimed the countess with supreme disdain. "What could
+introduce such a vulgar idea into your head? A lawyer! There is really
+something startling, something positively appalling in the vagaries of
+the rising generation! A lawyer! what an idea!"
+
+"It is something more than an _idea_, my dear grandmother: it is a
+project which I have formed, and which I cherish very seriously,"
+replied Maurice.
+
+"A project,--a project! I like projects. Let us hear your sublime
+project, Mr. Advocate," cried Bertha.
+
+"The project is simply to test the abilities which I am presumptuous
+enough to believe I have discovered in myself, and to study for the bar.
+My father wrote me that he intended to become a director in a railway
+company, and descanted upon the advantage of embarking in the
+enterprise. He also confided to me, for the first time, the real state
+of our affairs,--in a word, the empty condition of our treasury. Why
+should my father occupy himself with business matters and I live in
+idleness? Once more, I repeat, I am convinced I have sufficient ability
+to make a position at the bar, and with my father's consent, and yours,
+grandmother, I propose to commence my law studies at once."
+
+"A pettifogger! impossible! I, for one, will never countenance a step so
+humiliating! It is not to be thought of!" replied his grandmother, in a
+tone of decision.
+
+"No, Maurice, your project is futile," responded his father. "My joining
+this railroad association is quite a different matter. I shall in
+reality have nothing to do. It is only my name that is required;
+besides, America is so far off that nobody in Brittany will be aware of
+my connection with the company. Your becoming a lawyer would be a public
+matter. I cannot recall the name of a single nobleman in the whole list
+of barristers"--
+
+"So much the better for me! My title may, _in this solitary instance_,
+prove of service to me. It may help to bring me clients. People will be
+enchanted to be defended by a viscount."
+
+"You conjure up a picture that is absolutely revolting!" cried the
+countess, warmly. "_My grandson_ pleading to defend the rabble!"
+
+"Why not, if the rabble should happen to stand in need of defence?"
+
+"Why not?--because you should ignore their very existence! What have you
+and they in common?"
+
+Maurice was about to reply somewhat emphatically, but noticing his
+grandmother's knitted brow, and his father's troubled expression, he
+checked himself.
+
+The countess added, with an air of determination that forbade
+discussion, "Maurice, you will never obtain my consent, never!"
+
+"But if I may not study for the bar, what am I to do?" asked the young
+man with spirit.
+
+"Do?" questioned the countess, proudly. "What have the de Gramonts done
+for centuries past? Do nothing!"
+
+"_Nothing?_ Thank you, grandmother, for your estimate of my capacities
+and of the sluggish manner in which my blood courses through my veins.
+Doing _nothing_ was all very well in dead-alive, by-gone days, but it
+does not suit the present age of activity and progress. In our time
+everything that has heart and spirit feels that labor is a law of life.
+Some men till the earth, some cultivate the minds of their fellow-men,
+some guard their country's soil by fighting our battles; that is, some
+vocations enable us to live, some teach us how to live, and some render
+it glorious to die. Now, instead of adopting any of these pursuits, I
+only wish to"--
+
+"To become a manufacturer of fine phrases, a vender of words!" replied
+the countess, disdainfully.
+
+"An advantageous merchandise," answered Maurice,--"one which it costs
+nothing, to manufacture but which may be sold dear."
+
+"Sold? You shock me more and more! Never has one who bore the name of de
+Gramont earned money!" replied the countess, with increased _hauteur_.
+
+"Very true, and very unfortunate! We are now feeling the ill effects of
+the idleness of our ancestors. It is time that the new generation should
+reform their bad system," replied Maurice.
+
+"Maurice"--began his father.
+
+"My dear father, let me speak upon this subject, for I have it greatly
+at heart. I have an iron constitution, buoyant spirits, a tolerably good
+head, a tolerably large heart, an ample stock of imagination, an
+unstinted amount of energy, and an admiration for genius; now, all these
+gifts--mind, heart, imagination, spirit, energy--cry out for
+action,--ask to vindicate their right to existence,--need to find vent!
+_That_ is one ground upon which I plant my intention to become a lawyer.
+Another is that a man of my temperament, liberal views, and tendencies
+to extravagance, also needs to have the command of means"--
+
+"Have we ever restricted you, Maurice?" asked his father, reproachfully.
+
+"No, it is only yourselves you have restricted. But do you suppose I am
+willing to expend what has been saved through your economy? Until lately
+I never knew the actual state of our finances. Now I see the necessity
+for exertion, that I may be enabled to live as my tastes and habits
+prompt."
+
+"That you may obtain by making an advantageous marriage," remarked the
+countess, forgetting at the moment that Bertha was present.
+
+"What! owe my privileges, my luxuries, my very position, to my wife?
+Never! Every manly and independent impulse within me rises in arms
+against such a suggestion; while the emotion I experienced when I felt I
+could become something _of myself_,--that I had talents which I could
+employ,--that I had a future before me,--renown to win,--great deeds to
+achieve,--filled me with a strange joy hitherto unknown. I tell you, my
+father, there is a force and fire in my spirit that must have some
+outlet,--must leap into action,--_must_ and _will_!"
+
+"It shall find an outlet," replied the countess, "without making you a
+hired declaimer of fine words,--a paid champion of the low mob. Let us
+hear no more of this absurd lawyer project. The matter is settled: you
+will never have your father's consent, nor mine."
+
+"Then I warn you," exclaimed Maurice, starting up, and speaking almost
+fiercely. "You will drive me into evil courses. I shall fall into all
+manner of vices for the sake of excitement. If I cannot have occupation,
+I must have amusement, I shall run in debt, I may gamble, I may become
+dissipated, I may commit offences against good taste and good morals,
+which will degrade me in reality; and all because you have nipped a
+pure intention in the bud. The root that bore it is too vigorous not to
+blossom out anew, and the chances are that it will bring forth some less
+creditable fruit. You will see! I do not jest; I know what is in me!"
+
+"Content! we will run the risk!" replied the countess, trying to speak
+cheerfully.
+
+The grave manner of Maurice and his impressive tone, as he stood before
+her with an air half-threatening, half-prophetic, made her experience a
+sensation of vague discomfort.
+
+"We will trust you, for you are a de Gramont, and cannot commit a
+dishonorable action. Now, pray, go to your room and make your toilet. We
+are expecting guests to dinner."
+
+Maurice turned away without uttering another word, without even heeding
+the hand which Bertha stretched in sympathy towards him; and, with a
+clouded brow and slow steps, ascended to his own apartment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+MADELEINE.
+
+
+"Fourteen at table, and the Sevres set only sufficient for twelve! Truly
+it _is_ untoward, but I wish, my dear aunt, you would not let it trouble
+you so much. If you will allow the two extra plates to be placed before
+Bertha and myself, we will endeavor to render them invisible by our
+witchcraft. Do compliment us by permitting the experiment to be tried."
+
+"Bertha is entitled to the best of everything in my mansion," answered
+the countess, unsoothed by this proposition.
+
+"_That_ I admit," was Madeleine's cordial reply; "but to meet this
+unlooked-for emergency, I thought you might possibly consent to let her
+exert her witchery in making an intrusive plate disappear from general
+view."
+
+"And you, it seems, are quite confident of possessing witchcraft potent
+enough to accomplish the same feat!"
+
+Madeleine, without appearing to be hurt by the taunting intonation which
+pointed this remark, replied frankly, "I suppose I must have been guilty
+of imagining that I had; but, indeed, it was unpremeditated vanity. I
+really did not reflect upon the subject. I was only anxious to get over
+the dilemma in which we are placed by these troublesome plates."
+
+"Not _premeditated_ vanity, I dare say," remarked the countess, dryly;
+"only vanity so spontaneous, natural, and characteristic that
+_premeditation_ is out of the question."
+
+Madeleine remained silent, and went on with her task, dexterously
+rolling around her slender fingers her aunt's soft, white curls, and
+letting them lightly drop in the most becoming positions.
+
+The toilet of the countess for her son's dinner-party was in process of
+completion.
+
+She wore a black velvet dress, which, after being on duty for a fabulous
+number of years, and finally pronounced past all further active service,
+had been resuscitated and remodelled, to suit the style of the day, by
+Madeleine. We will not enter into a description of the adroit method by
+which a portion of its primitive lustre had been restored to the worn
+and pressed velvet, nor particularize the skilful manner in which the
+corsage of the robe had been refashioned, and every trace of age
+concealed by an embroidery of jet beads, which was so strikingly
+tasteful that its double office was unsuspected. Enough that the
+countess appeared to be superbly attired when she once more donned the
+venerable but rejuvenated dress.
+
+The snow-white curls being arranged to the best advantage, Madeleine
+placed upon the head of her aunt a dainty cap, of the Charlotte Corday
+form, composed of bits of very old and costly lace,--an heir-loom in the
+de Gramont family,--such lace as could no longer be purchased for gold,
+even if its members had been in a condition to exchange bullion for
+thread. This cap was another of the young girl's achievements, and she
+could not help smiling with pleasure when she saw its picturesque
+effect. The countess, in spite of the anxious contraction of her dark
+brows, looked imposingly handsome. Hers was an old age of positive
+beauty,--a decadence which had all the lustre of
+
+      "The setting moon upon the western wave."
+
+It was only when her features were accidentally contrasted with those of
+such a mild, eloquent, and soul-revealing face as the one bending over
+her that defects struck the eye,--defects which the ravages of time had
+done less to produce than the workings of a stern and haughty character.
+
+But Madeleine's countenance how shall we portray? The lineaments were
+of that order which no painter could faithfully present by tracing their
+outline correctly, and no writer conjure up before the mind by
+descriptive language, however minutely the color of eyes, complexion,
+and hair might be chronicled. Therefore our task must necessarily be an
+imperfect one, and convey but a vague idea of the living presence.
+
+It was a somewhat pale face, but pure and unsallow in its pallor. The
+vivid blood rushed, with any sudden emotion, to cheek and brow, but died
+away as quickly; for late hours, too little sunlight, fresh air, and
+exercise, forbade the flitting roses to be captured and a permanent
+bloom insured. The hue of the large, dreamy eyes might be called a light
+hazel; but that description fails to convey an impression of their rare,
+clear, topaz tint,--a topaz with the changing lustre of an opal: a
+combination difficult to imagine until it has once been seen. The
+darkly-fringed lids were peculiarly drooping, and gave the eyes a look
+of exceeding softness, now and then displaced by startling flashes of
+brilliancy. The finely-chiselled mouth was full of grave sweetness,
+decision, and energy, and yet suggestive of a mirthful temperament. The
+forehead was not too high, but ample and thoughtful. The finely-shaped
+head showed the intellectual and emotional nature nicely balanced.
+Through the long, abundant chestnut hair bright threads gleamed in and
+out until all the locks looked burnished. They were gathered into one
+rich braid and simply wound around the head. At the side, where the
+massive tress was fastened, a single cape jasmine seemed to form a clasp
+of union. A more striking or becoming arrangement could hardly have been
+devised.
+
+Madeleine was somewhat above the ordinary stature, and her height,
+combined with the native dignity of her bearing, would have given her an
+air of stateliness, but for the exceeding grace which dispelled the
+faintest shadow of stiffness,--a stiffness very noticeable in the formal
+carriage of the countess.
+
+The wardrobe of the young girl was necessarily of the most limited and
+uncostly character; and, though she was dressed for a ceremonious
+dinner, her attire consisted merely of a sombre-hued barege, made with
+the severest simplicity, and gaining its only pretension to full dress
+by disclosing her white, finely-moulded neck and arms. Her sole ornament
+was the bracelet which had been Bertha's birthday gift.
+
+While giving the last, finishing touches to her aunt's toilet, Madeleine
+talked gayly. Hers was not one of those bright, silvery voices which
+make you feel that, could the sounds become visible, they must _shine_;
+but there was a rich depth in her tones, which imparted to her lightest
+words an intonation of feeling, and told the hearer that her vocal
+chords were in close communication with her heart. Though her
+countenance did not lack the radiance of youthful gladness, there was so
+much thought mingled with its brightness that even her mirth conveyed
+the impression that she had suffered and sorrowed.
+
+The only daughter of the Duke de Gramont, at eighteen she suddenly found
+herself an orphan and wholly destitute. Her father was one of that large
+class of impoverished noblemen who keep up appearances by means of
+constant shifts and desperate struggles, of which the world knows
+nothing. But he was a man of unquestionable intellect, and had given
+Madeleine a much more liberal education than custom accords to young
+French maidens of her rank.
+
+The accident of his birth the Duke de Gramont regarded as a positive
+misfortune, and daily lamented the burden of his own nobility, for it
+was a shackle that enfeebled and enslaved his large capacities.
+
+He once said to his young daughter, "You would have been far happier as
+a peasant's child; I should have had a wider field of action and
+enjoyment as an humble laborer; we should both have been more truly
+_noble_. I envy the peasants who have the glorious privilege of doing
+just that which they are best fitted to do; who are not forced to
+_vegetate_ and call vegetation existence,--not compelled to waste and
+deaden their energies because it is an aristocratic penalty,--not doomed
+to glide into and out of their lives without ever living enough to know
+life's worth."
+
+Such words sank into Madeleine's spirit, took deep root there, and,
+growing in the bleak atmosphere of adversity, bore vigorous fruit in
+good season.
+
+She had known only the intangible shadow of pomp and luxury, while the
+substance was actual penury. But her inborn fertility of invention, her
+abundant resources, her tact in accommodating herself to circumstances,
+and her inexhaustible energy, had endowed her with the faculty of making
+the best of her contradictory position, and the most of the humblest
+materials at her command.
+
+Though she had several wealthy relatives, the Countess de Gramont was
+the only one who offered her unsheltered youth an asylum. Perhaps we
+ought not to analyze too minutely the motives of the noble lady, for
+fear that we might find her actuated less by a charitable impulse than
+by pride which would not allow it to be said that her grandniece ever
+lacked, or had to solicit, a home. Be that as it may, the orphan
+Madeleine became a permanent inmate of the Chateau de Gramont.
+
+Her gratitude was deep, and found expression in actions more eloquent
+than words. She was thankful for the slightest evidence of kindness from
+her self-constituted protectors. She even exaggerated the amount of
+consideration which she received. She was not free from the hereditary
+taint of _pride_; but in her it took a new form and unprecedented
+expression. The sense of indebtedness spurred her on to discover ways by
+which she could avoid being a burden upon the generosity of her
+benefactors,--ways by which her obligations might be lightened, though
+she felt they could never be cancelled. She became the active, presiding
+spirit over the whole household; her skilful fingers were ever at work
+here, there, and everywhere; and her quick-witted brain was always
+planning measures to promote the interest, comfort, or pleasure of all
+within her sphere. The thought that an employment was menial, and
+therefore she must not stoop to perform it, never intruded, for she had
+an internal consciousness that she dignified her occupation. What she
+accomplished seemed wonderful; but, independent of the rapidity with
+which she habitually executed, she comprehended in an eminent degree the
+exact value of time,--the worth of every minute; and the use made of her
+_spare moments_ was one great secret of the large amount she achieved.
+
+The toilet of the countess for the dinner was completed, but she kept
+Madeleine by her side until they descended to the drawing-room.
+
+Madeleine had not yet welcomed Maurice, who had retired to his chamber
+to dress before she was aware of his arrival. When she entered the
+_salon_ with the countess, he was sitting beside Bertha, but sprang up,
+and, advancing joyfully, exclaimed, "Ah! at last! I thought I was never
+to be permitted to see the busy fairy of the family, who renders herself
+invisible while she is working her wonders!"
+
+He would have approached his lips to Madeleine's cheek, but the countess
+interfered.
+
+"And why," asked Maurice, in surprise which was not free from a touch of
+vexation,--"why may I not kiss my cousin Madeleine? You found no fault
+when I kissed my cousin Bertha just now!"
+
+"That is very different!" replied the countess, hastily.
+
+"Different! What is the difference?" persisted Maurice.
+
+"There is none that I can discover. Both are equally near of kin,--both
+my cousins,--both second cousins, or third cousins, some people would
+call them; the one is kin through my grandmother, the other through my
+grandfather. What _can_ be the difference?"
+
+"_My will_ makes the difference!" answered the countess, in a severe
+tone. "Is not _that_ sufficient?"
+
+"It ought to be so, Maurice," Madeleine interposed, without appearing to
+be either wounded or surprised at her aunt's manner. "If not, I must add
+_my will_ to my aunt's." Then, as though in haste to change the subject,
+she said, extending her hand, "I am very, _very_ glad to see you,
+Maurice."
+
+"You have not changed as much as my pretty Bertha here," remarked
+Maurice. "She has gained a great deal in the last year. But you,
+Madeleine, look a little paler than ever, and a little thinner than you
+were. I fear it is because you still keep that candle burning which last
+year I used to notice at your window when I returned from balls long
+after midnight. You will destroy your health."
+
+"There is no danger of _that_," answered Madeleine, gayly. "I am in most
+unpoetically robust health. I am never ailing for an hour."
+
+"Never ailing and never weary," joined in Bertha. "That is, she never
+complains, and never admits she is tired. She would make us believe that
+her constitution is a compound of iron and India-rubber."
+
+Maurice took a small jewel-case from his pocket, and, preparing to open
+it, said, "Nobody has yet asked why I am here one fortnight before I was
+expected. Has curiosity suddenly died out of the venerable Chateau de
+Gramont, that none of the ladies who honor its ancient walls by their
+presence care to know?"
+
+"We all care!" exclaimed Bertha.
+
+"That we do!" responded Madeleine. "Why was it, Maurice?"
+
+"The reason chiefly concerns you, Madeleine."
+
+"Me! You are jesting."
+
+"Not at all; I came home because I remembered that to-day was your
+twenty-first birthday. I would not be absent upon your birthday, though
+I did not know that your reaching your majority was to be celebrated by
+a grand dinner."
+
+"Madeleine's birthday was not thought of when your father invited his
+friends to dinner," remarked the countess, curtly.
+
+Maurice went on without heeding this explanation.
+
+"I have brought you a little birthday token. Will you wear it for my
+sake?"
+
+As he spoke, he opened the case and took out a Roman brooch.
+
+Madeleine's eyes sparkled with a dewy lustre that threatened to shape
+itself into a tear. Before she could speak, Bertha cried out,--
+
+"A dove with a green olive-branch in its mouth,--what a beautiful
+device! And the word '_Pax_' written beneath! That must be in
+remembrance that Madeleine not only bears peace in her own bosom, but
+carries it wherever she goes. Was not that what you intended to suggest,
+Cousin Maurice?"
+
+"You are a delightful interpreter," replied the young man.
+
+"Yet she left me to read the sweet meaning of her own gift," said
+Madeleine, recovering her composure. "See, a band of gold with a knot of
+pearls,--a '_manacle of love_,' as the great English poet calls it,
+secured by purity of purpose."
+
+As she fastened the brooch in her bosom, she added, "I am so rich in
+birthday gifts that I am bankrupt in thanks; pray believe _that_ is the
+reason I thank you so poorly."
+
+The countess impatiently interrupted this conversation by summoning
+Maurice to her side.
+
+As he took the seat she pointed out, he said, in an animated tone, "I
+have not told you all my good news yet. Listen, young ladies, for some
+of it especially concerns you. On my way here, I encountered the
+equipage of the Marchioness de Fleury. She recognized me, ordered her
+carriage to stop, and sent her footman to apprise me that she was on her
+way to the Chateau de Tremazan, and to beg that I would pause there
+before going home, as she had a few words to say to me. I gladly
+complied. At the chateau I found quite a large and agreeable company. I
+need not tell you that the amiable host and hostess received me with
+open arms."
+
+The countess remarked, approvingly, "Our neighbors the Baron and
+Baroness de Tremazan are among the most valued of my friends. I have no
+objection to their making much of you."
+
+"Nor have I," answered Maurice, vivaciously. "But, to continue"--
+
+Bertha interrupted him: "I have so often heard the Marchioness de Fleury
+quoted as a precedent, and her taste cited as the most perfect in Paris,
+that I suppose she is a very charming person;--is she not?"
+
+A comical expression, approaching to a grimace, passed over the bright
+countenance of Maurice, as he answered, "_Charming?_ I suppose the term
+is applicable to her. At all events, her toilets are the most charming
+in the world: she dresses to perfection! In her presence one never
+thinks of anything but the wonderful combination of colors, and the
+graceful flowing of drapery, that have produced certain artistic effects
+in her outward adorning. She is style, fashion, elegance, taste
+personified; consequently she is very _charming as an exhibition of the
+newest and most captivating costumes_,--as an inventor and leader of
+modes that become the rage when they have received her stamp."
+
+"But her face and figure,--are they not remarkably handsome?" asked
+Bertha.
+
+"Her figure is the _fac-simile_ of one of those waxen statues which are
+to be seen in the windows of some of the shops in Paris, and would be
+styled faultless by a mantua-maker, though it might drive a sculptor
+distracted if set before him as a model. As for her face, the novel
+arrangement of her hair and the coquettish disposition of her
+head-ornaments have always so completely drawn my attention away from
+her countenance, that I could not tell you the color of her eyes, or the
+character of any single lineament."
+
+"Perhaps, too," suggested Madeleine, "she is so agreeable in
+conversation, that you never thought of scanning her features."
+
+"Of course she is agreeable,--that is, in her own peculiar way; for she
+has an archly graceful manner of discussing the only subjects that
+interest _her_, and always as though they must be of the deepest
+interest to _you_. If you speak to her of her projects for the winter or
+the summer, she will dwell upon the style of dress appropriate in the
+execution of such and such schemes. If you express your regret at her
+recent indisposition, she will describe the exquisite _robes de chambre_
+which rendered her sufferings endurable. If you mention her brother, who
+has lately received an appointment near the person of the emperor, she
+will give you a minute account of the most approved court-dresses. If
+you allude to the possibility that her husband (for such is the rumor)
+may be sent as ambassador to the United States, she will burst forth in
+bitter lamentations over the likelihood that American taste may not be
+sufficiently cultivated to appreciate a Parisian toilet, or to comprehend
+the great importance of the difficult art of dressing well. If you give
+the tribute of a sigh to the memory of the lovely sister she lost a year
+ago, she will run through a list of the garments of woe that gave
+expression to her sorrow,--passing on to the shades of second, third,
+and fourth mourning through which she gradually laid aside her grief.
+You laugh, young ladies. Oh, very well; but I declare to you she went
+through the catalogue of those mourning dresses, rehearsing the periods
+at which she adopted such and such a one, while we were dancing a
+quadrille. In short, the Marchioness de Fleury is an animated
+fashion-plate!--a lay-figure dressed in gauze, silk, lace, ribbon,
+feathers, flowers, that breathes, talks, dances, waltzes!--a
+mantua-maker's, milliner's, hair-dresser's puppet, set in motion,--not a
+woman."
+
+"Has she really no heart, then?" questioned Bertha.
+
+"I suppose that, anatomically speaking, a bundle of fibres, which she
+courteously designates by that name, may rise and fall somewhere beneath
+her jewel-studded bodice; but I doubt whether the pulsations are not
+entirely regulated by her attire."
+
+"You are too severe, Maurice," remarked his grandmother, rebukingly.
+"The Marchioness de Fleury is a lady of the highest standing and of
+great importance."
+
+"Especially to the Parisian modistes who worship her!" replied Maurice.
+"But, while we are discussing the lady herself, I am forgetting to tell
+you her reasons for delaying me half an hour. It was to inquire whether
+you would be disengaged to-morrow morning, as she purposes paying you a
+visit to make a proposition which she thinks may prove agreeable to the
+Countess de Gramont and Count Tristan."
+
+"We are ever proud to receive the Marchioness de Fleury," responded the
+countess, graciously.
+
+"I dare say you think I have emptied my budget of news," Maurice went
+on; "but you are mistaken: several bits of agreeable intelligence remain
+behind. At the Chateau de Tremazan, I saw three of our relatives on the
+de Gramont side, Madame de Nervac, the Count Damoreau, and M. de
+Bonneville. They inquired kindly after you, Madeleine, and I told them
+you were the most"--
+
+The countess interrupted him with the inquiry, "Are they upon a visit of
+several days?"
+
+"I believe so. Now for the last, most pleasant item. As there are so
+many lively young persons gathered together at the chateau, some one
+proposed an impromptu ball. Madame de Tremazan seized upon the idea, and
+commissioned me to carry invitations to the Countess dowager de Gramont,
+Mademoiselles Madeleine and Bertha, and Count Tristan, for the evening
+after to-morrow. I assured her in advance that the invitations would be
+accepted;--was I not right?"
+
+"Oh, yes," replied Bertha; "I am so glad!"
+
+"We will enjoy a ball greatly!" exclaimed Madeleine.
+
+"And so will I!" said Maurice. "I engage Madeleine for the first
+quadrille, and Bertha for the first waltz."
+
+"And we both accept!" answered his cousins, with girlish delight.
+
+"Not so fast, young ladies," interrupted the countess. "It is quite out
+of the question for you to attend a ball of such magnificence as may be
+expected at the Chateau de Tremazan."
+
+"And why not, aunt?" asked Bertha, in a disappointed tone. "You surely
+will not refuse your consent?"
+
+"I deny you a pleasure very unwillingly, dear child, but I am forced to
+do so. You did not expect to appear at any large assemblies while you
+were in Brittany, and you have brought no ball-dress with you. You have
+nothing ready which it would be proper for you to wear at such a
+brilliant reunion; for the de Tremazans are so rich that everything will
+be upon the most splendid and costly scale. Mademoiselle Bertha de
+Merrivale cannot be present upon such an occasion, unless she is attired
+in a manner that befits her rank and fortune. I, also, have no dress
+prepared."
+
+"What a pity, what a pity!" half sighed, half pouted Bertha.
+
+"It is too bad, too provoking!" ejaculated Maurice.
+
+"If there be no obstacle but the lack of a ball-dress for yourself and
+for Bertha, aunt," remarked Madeleine, "we may console ourselves; for we
+will go to the ball."
+
+"Oh, you dear, good, ingenious Madeleine!" exclaimed Bertha, throwing
+her arms around her cousin. "I wonder if the time ever _will_ arrive
+when you have not some resource to extricate us from a difficulty?"
+
+"Madeleine forever! Long live Madeleine!" shouted Maurice, with
+enthusiasm.
+
+"And now, good, fairy godmother, where is the robe of gold and silver to
+deck your Cinderella?" asked Bertha.
+
+"I did not promise gold and silver apparel; you must be content
+with a toilet simple, airy, fresh, and spring-like as yourself.
+And for you, aunt, I will arrange an autumn arraying,--a costume
+soft, yet bright, like the autumn days which the Americans call
+'Indian summer,'--something which will almost make one wish to fall
+into the sere and yellow leaf of life in the hope of resembling you."
+
+"But how is it possible to make two ball-dresses between this time and
+night after next?" inquired the countess, evidently not at all averse
+to the project, if it could be carried into execution.
+
+"I answer for the possibility!" replied Madeleine.
+
+"Yes, Madeleine answers for it!" repeated Maurice.
+
+"Madeleine answers for it!" echoed Bertha; "and you know Madeleine has
+_the fingers of a fairy_; she can achieve whatever she undertakes. But
+your own dress, Madeleine?"
+
+"Do not be uneasy about that; we will think of that when the others are
+ready."
+
+"But if you do not wear a dress that becomes you?" persisted Bertha.
+
+"Why, then I shall have to look at yours, and, remembering that it is my
+handiwork, be satisfied."
+
+"There is no one like you, Madeleine!" burst forth Maurice,
+uncontrollably,--"no one! You never think of yourself; you"--
+
+"But, as some one is always good enough to think of me, I deserve little
+credit on that account," rejoined Madeleine.
+
+"Who could help thinking of you?" murmured Maurice, tenderly.
+
+The countess had not heard the enthusiastic encomium of Maurice, nor his
+last, involuntary remark. The young man had risen and joined his
+cousins. His father had taken the vacant seat beside the countess, and
+was talking to her in a low tone. From the moment he learned that
+Madeleine's relatives were accidentally assembled at the Chateau de
+Tremazan, he had determined to seize that favorable opportunity, and
+send them the letters requesting that they would by turns offer a home
+to their poor and orphan relative. These letters, though written upon
+the day previous, fortunately had not yet been posted. Count Tristan
+whisperingly communicated his intention to his mother, and received her
+approval.
+
+Their conversation was interrupted by the entrance of M. Gaston de Bois,
+who invariably arrived before other guests made their appearance. M. de
+Bois was such a martyr to nervous timidity, that he could not summon
+courage to enter a room full of company, even with some great
+stimulating compensation in view. On the present occasion, though only
+the family had assembled, his olive complexion crimsoned as he advanced
+towards the countess, and his expressive, though irregular and not
+strictly handsome features became almost distorted; he unconsciously
+thrust his fingers through his hair, throwing it into startling
+disorder, and twisted his dark moustache until it stood out with
+sufficient ferocity to suit the face of a brigand in a melodrama.
+
+But the most painful effect of this bewildering embarrassment evinced
+itself when he attempted to speak. His utterance became suddenly
+impeded, and, the more violent his efforts to articulate, the more
+difficult it seemed for him to utter a distinct sentence. He was
+painfully near-sighted; yet he always detected the faintest smile upon
+the countenance of any one present, and interpreted it into an
+expression of derision.
+
+These personal defects, however, were liberally counterbalanced by
+mental attributes of a high order. His constitutional diffidence caused
+him to shun society; but he devoted his leisure to books, and was an
+erudite scholar, without ever mounting the pompous stilts of the pedant.
+All his impulses were noble and generous, though his best intentions
+were often frustrated by that fearful self-consciousness which made him
+dread the possibility of attracting attention. There was a slight shade
+of melancholy in his character. Life had been a disappointment to him,
+and he was haunted by a sense of the incompleteness of his own
+existence.
+
+His estate joined that of the Count de Gramont, and was even more
+impoverished. Gaston de Bois led a sort of hermit-like life in the
+gloomy and empty chateau of his ancestors. He chafed in his confinement,
+like a caged lion ready to break loose from bondage. But the lion freed
+might take refuge in his native woods, while Gaston, if he rushed forth
+into the world, knew that his bashfulness, his stammering, his
+near-sightedness, would render society a more intolerable prison than
+his solitary home.
+
+At the Chateau de Gramont he was a frequent guest, for the countess and
+her son held him in the highest esteem.
+
+After saluting his host and hostess, he warmly grasped the hand of
+Maurice, and then addressed Madeleine, with but little hesitation
+apparent in his speech; but when he turned to Bertha, and essayed to
+make some pleasant remark, he was suddenly seized with a fit of hopeless
+stammering.
+
+The beaming smile with which Bertha greeted him was displaced by an
+expression almost amounting to compassion. Madeleine, with her wonted
+presence of mind, came to his aid; finished his sentence, as though he
+had spoken it himself; and went on talking _to him_ and _for him_, while
+he regarded her with an air of undisguised thankfulness and relief.
+
+Between Madeleine and Gaston de Bois there existed that sort of
+friendship which many persons are sceptical that a young and attractive
+woman and an agreeable man can entertain for each other without the
+sentiment heightening into a warmer emotion. But love and friendship are
+totally distinct affections. A woman may cherish the truest, kindliest
+friendship for a man whom it would be impossible for her to love; nay,
+in whom she would totally lose her interest if he once presented himself
+in the aspect of a lover; and we believe a certain class of men are
+capable of experiencing the same pure and kin-like devotion for certain
+women.
+
+M. de Bois felt that he was comprehended by Madeleine,--that she
+sympathized with his misfortunes, appreciated the difficulties of his
+position, and, without pretending to be blind to his defects, always
+viewed them leniently: thus, in her presence he was sufficiently at ease
+to be entirely himself; his _amour propre_ received fewer wounds, and he
+was conscious that he appeared to better advantage than in the society
+of other ladies.
+
+Madeleine, on her side, had more than once reflected that there was no
+one to whom she could more easily turn to impart a sorrow, intrust a
+secret, solicit a favor, or receive consolation and advice,--no one in
+whom she could so thoroughly confide, as M. de Bois.
+
+Gaston had only commenced to regain his self-possession when the two
+American gentlemen, Mr. Hilson and Mr. Meredith, were announced.
+
+The countess received them with a freezing formality which would have
+awed any visitors less unsuspicious of the cause of this augmented
+stateliness.
+
+They were both gentlemen who held high positions in their own country;
+they had brought letters to Count Tristan de Gramont, with a view of
+enlisting his interest in the railway company of which we have before
+spoken; they had been cordially received by him, and invited to partake
+of his hospitality; it therefore never occurred to either of them that
+the haughty demeanor of the countess was designed to impress them with a
+sense of their inferiority.
+
+Mr. Hilson was what is termed a "self-made" man,--that is, he owed
+nothing to the chances of birth; he had received little early
+cultivation, but he had educated himself, and therefore all the
+knowledge he had acquired was positive mental gain, and brought into
+active use. He had inherited no patrimony, and started life with no
+advantages of position; but he had made his own fortune, and earned his
+own place in the social sphere. He had been one of the most successful
+and scientific engineers which the United States ever produced, and was
+now the president of an important railroad, and a highly influential
+member of society.
+
+Mr. Meredith was born in the State of Maryland,--a "man of family," as
+it is styled. He had not encountered the difficulties and experienced
+the struggles of his associates; his was therefore a less strong, less
+highly developed, character. He had travelled over the larger portion of
+Europe, yet preferred to make his home in America; he had once retired
+from business, but, finding that he was bored to death without the
+necessity for occupation, connected himself with the railroad company of
+which Mr. Hilson was president.
+
+The other guests were gentlemen residing or visiting in the
+neighborhood. They were the Marquis de Lasalles, the Count Caradore,
+Messieurs Villiers, Laroche, and Litelle. The two former, being the most
+important personages, occupied seats at table on the right and left of
+the countess. Gaston de Bois was well pleased to find himself beside
+Madeleine; for he was opposite to Bertha, and could feast his eyes upon
+her fair, unclouded face, and now and then he spoke to her in glances
+which were far more eloquent than his tongue.
+
+Mr. Hilson sat on the other side of Madeleine. A few naturally suggested
+questions about his native land unloosed his tongue, and she soon became
+deeply interested in the information he gave her concerning
+America,--the habits, views, and aspirations of its people.
+
+After listening for some time, she almost involuntarily murmured, with a
+half-sigh, "I should like to visit America."
+
+There was something in her own nature which responded to the spirit of
+self-reliance, energy, and industry, which are so essentially American
+characteristics.
+
+Bertha sat between the Marquis de Lasalles and Maurice. She was in the
+highest spirits, and looked superlatively lovely. The brow of the
+countess gradually smoothed as she noticed how gayly the heiress chatted
+with her cousin.
+
+The two plates which intruded into the Sevres set had been a terrible
+eyesore to Madame de Gramont at first; but Madeleine's suggestion had
+been acted upon,--they were placed before the young ladies, and, as the
+countess rose from the table, she comforted herself with the reflection
+that they had escaped observation.
+
+The gentlemen accompanied the ladies to the drawing-room, and then
+Maurice lured Madeleine to the piano, and was soon in raptures over the
+wild, sweet melodies which she sung with untutored pathos. His
+grandmother could scarcely conceal her vexation. Approaching the singer,
+she took an opportunity, while Bertha and Maurice were searching for a
+piece of music, whisperingly to suggest that Baptiste was old and
+clumsy, and the Sevres set in danger until it was safely locked up
+again.
+
+Madeleine murmured, in return, "I will steal away unnoticed and attend
+to it."
+
+She stole away, but not unperceived, for one pair of eyes was ever upon
+her. She found so much besides the valuable china that demanded
+attention, and her aid was so heartily welcomed by the old domestics,
+who had become confused by the multiplicity of their duties, that it was
+late in the evening before she reappeared in the drawing-room. The
+guests were taking their leave.
+
+"I am highly flattered by the interest you have expressed in my
+country," said Mr. Hilson, in bidding her adieu. "If you should ever
+visit America, as you have expressed the desire to do, and if you should
+pass through Washington, as you certainly will if you visit America,
+will you not promise to apprise me? Here is my address?" and he placed
+his card in her hands.
+
+Madeleine looked not a little surprised and embarrassed at this
+unexpected and informal proceeding, which she knew would greatly shock
+the countess; but, taking the card, answered, courteously, "I fear
+nothing is more unlikely than that I should cross the ocean; but, if
+such an unlooked-for event should ever occur, I promise certainly to
+apprise you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+PROPOSALS.
+
+
+On the morrow, at the usual hour for visitors, the count and his mother
+sat in the drawing-room awaiting the promised guest. Maurice, at Count
+Tristan's solicitation, had very unwillingly consented to postpone his
+customary equestrian exercise, and was sauntering in the garden,
+wondering over the caprice that prompted his father to desire his
+presence at the expected interview. The tramp of hoofs broke his
+revery; and a superb equipage, drawn by four noble horses,
+postilion-mounted, dashed up the long avenue that led to the chateau. He
+hastened to the carriage-door, and aided the Marchioness de Fleury to
+alight.
+
+The living embodiment of graceful affability, she greeted him with a
+volley of slaying smiles; then, with an air which betrayed her
+triumphant certainty of the execution done, glided past him into the
+drawing-room, almost disappearing in a cloud of lace, as she made a
+profound obeisance to the countess, and partially rising out of her
+misty _entourage_ in saluting Count Tristan.
+
+Her voice had a low, studied sweetness as she softly syllabled some
+pleasant commonplaces, making affectionate inquiries concerning the
+health of the countess, and simulating the deepest interest as she
+apparently listened to answers which were in reality unheard. Ere long,
+she winningly unfolded the object of her visit. Her brother, the young
+Duke de Montauban, had prayed her to become his ambassador. He recently
+had the felicity of meeting the niece of the Countess de Gramont,
+Mademoiselle Bertha de Merrivale. He had been struck and captivated by
+her grace and surpassing beauty; he now charged his sister to apprise
+the family of Mademoiselle Bertha that he sought the honor of her hand
+in marriage, and hoped to obtain a favorable response to his suit.
+
+The consternation created by those words did not escape the quick eyes
+of the marchioness. The count half rose from his seat, white with
+vexation, then sat down again, and, making an attempt to hide his
+displeasure, answered, in a tone of forced courtesy,--
+
+"Though Mademoiselle Bertha de Merrivale is my mother's grandniece, we
+have no control over her actions or inclinations. Her uncle, the Marquis
+de Merrivale, who is her guardian, is morbidly jealous of any influence
+exerted over his niece, even by relatives equally near."
+
+The Countess de Gramont, though she also had been greatly disconcerted,
+recovered herself more quickly than her son, and answered, with such an
+excess of suavity that it had the air of exaggeration,--
+
+"We feel deeply indebted for the proposed honor. An alliance with a
+nobleman of the high position and unblemished name of the Duke de
+Montauban is all that could be desired for my niece; but, as my son has
+remarked, her guardian is very punctilious respecting his rights, and
+would not tolerate an interference with her future prospects. I beg you
+will believe that we are highly flattered by the proposal of the Duke
+de Montauban, though we have no power to promote his suit."
+
+Maurice could not help wondering why his father looked so thoroughly
+vexed, and why his grandmother made such an effort to conceal her
+displeasure by an assumption of overacted gratification.
+
+The Marchioness de Fleury betrayed neither surprise, disappointment, nor
+emotion of any kind, except by gently tapping the ground with the
+exquisitely gaitered little foot that peeped from the mazes of her ample
+drapery.
+
+She answered, in the most honeyed voice, "Oh! I was misinformed, and I
+knew that your charming niece was at this moment visiting you."
+
+Then, spreading her bespangled fan, and moving it gently backward and
+forward, though the day was far from sultry, she dismissed the subject
+by asking Maurice if he had delivered Madame de Tremazan's invitations
+to the ball.
+
+Almost before he had concluded his reply, she rose, and, with the most
+enchanting of smiles, courtesied, as though she were making a reverence
+in a quadrille of the Lancers, and the lace cloud softly floated out of
+the room, the human being it encircled being nearly lost to sight when
+it was in motion.
+
+Maurice could not resist the impulse to turn to his father, and express
+his amazement that the complimentary proposals made for Bertha by the
+Marchioness de Fleury had been so definitely declined, adding, "If my
+little cousin had been already engaged, you could not more decidedly
+have shut the door upon the duke."
+
+The count bit his lips, and strode up and down the room.
+
+The countess replied, "We have other views for Bertha,--views which we
+trust would be more acceptable to herself; but here she comes, and I
+have a few words to say to her in private. Take a turn with your father
+in the park, Maurice, while I talk to your cousin."
+
+She gave the count a significant glance as she spoke.
+
+Father and son left the room as Bertha entered.
+
+For some minutes the two gentlemen walked side by side in silence.
+Finding that his father did not seem inclined to converse, Maurice
+remarked, abruptly,--
+
+"Now that the visit of the marchioness is over, I shall take my
+postponed ride, if you have no further need of me."
+
+"I _have_ need; let your horse wait a few moments longer," replied the
+count. "Can you conceive no reason why we did not for one instant
+entertain the proposition of the Marchioness de Fleury?"
+
+"None: it was made entirely according to rule; and, if you will allow me
+to say so, common courtesy seemed to demand that it should have been
+treated with more consideration."
+
+"Suppose Bertha's affections are already engaged?" suggested the father.
+
+"Ah, that alters the aspect of affairs; but it is hardly possible,--she
+is so young, and appears to be so heart-free."
+
+"Still, I think she has a preference; and, if I am not mistaken, her
+choice is one that would give us the highest satisfaction."
+
+"Really!" ejaculated Maurice, unsuspiciously. "Whom, then, does she
+honor by her election?"
+
+"A very unworthy person!" rejoined the count, in a tone of irritation,
+"since he is too dull to suspect the compliment."
+
+"You cannot mean"--began Maurice, in confused amazement, but paused,
+unwilling to finish his sentence with the words that rose to his lips.
+
+"I mean a most obtuse and insensible young man, walking by my side, who
+has learned to interpret Greek and Latin at college, but not a woman's
+heart."
+
+"Impossible! You are surely mistaken. Bertha has only bestowed upon me a
+cousinly regard," answered Maurice, evidently more surprised and
+embarrassed than pleased by the unexpected communication.
+
+"I presume you do not expect the young lady herself to make known the
+esteem in which she holds you, undeserving as you are? You must take our
+word for her sentiments. What this alliance would be to our falling
+house, I need not represent; it is not even necessary that you should
+enter into the merits of this side of the question. You must see that
+Bertha is beautiful and lovable, and would make the most delightful
+companion for life. Is this not so?"
+
+"Yes, she is beautiful, lovable, and would make a delightful companion,"
+answered Maurice, as though he echoed his father's words without knowing
+what he said.
+
+"Is she not all you could desire?"
+
+"All,--all I could desire as--as--as a _sister_!" replied Maurice.
+
+"But the question is now of a wife!" rejoined the count, angrily. "Are
+you dreaming, that you pore upon the ground and answer in that strange,
+abstracted manner?"
+
+Maurice looked up, as if about to speak, but hesitated, dubious what
+reply would be advisable.
+
+The count went on.
+
+"Maurice, your grandmother and I have this matter deeply at heart.
+Besides, Bertha loves you; you cannot treat her affection with disdain.
+Promise me that you will at once have an understanding with her, and let
+this matter be settled. It must not be delayed any longer. Why do you
+not reply?"
+
+"Yes,--you are right. I ought to have an understanding with her,--_I
+will have!_" replied Maurice, still in a brown study.
+
+"That is well; and let it be as soon as possible,--to-day, or to-morrow
+at the latest,--before this ball takes place,--before you meet the
+Marchioness de Fleury again."
+
+Maurice answered, hastily, "You need not fear that I desire any delay.
+You have put an idea into my head which would make suspense intolerable.
+I will speak to her without loss of time. And now will you allow me to
+wish you good-morning? My horse has been saddled for an hour."
+
+Saying this, he walked toward the stable and called to Gustave, who at
+once appeared, leading the horse. The viscount vaulted upon its back,
+and, starting off at full gallop, in a few moments was out of sight.
+
+His father was mystified, doubtful of the real feelings of Maurice, and
+uncertain what course he meant to pursue, but well assured that he would
+keep his word; and, if he did, it would be impossible for him to
+introduce this delicate subject without compromising himself,--nay,
+without positively offering himself to Bertha. The very mention of such
+a theme would be a proposal; and, with this consolatory reflection, he
+returned to the chateau.
+
+As he passed the drawing-room, he caught a glimpse of Bertha, sitting at
+his mother's feet. The latter was holding both of the young girl's
+hands, and talking to her earnestly. Bertha's countenance wore an
+expression of maidenly confusion and perplexity which, even if the count
+had not been aware of his mother's intentions, would have betrayed the
+nature of her discourse.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+HEART-BEATS.
+
+
+Maurice must have found his equestrian exercise particularly agreeable
+upon that day, for he returned to the chateau so late that no one saw
+him again until the family assembled at dinner.
+
+Bertha was unusually silent and _distrait_, not a single smile rippled
+her slumbering dimples, and she answered at random. She did not once
+address Maurice, to whom she usually prattled in a strain of merry
+_badinage_, and he evinced the same constraint toward her.
+
+As soon as the ladies rose from table, Madeleine retired to her own
+chamber. Her preparations for the morrow demanded all her time. The
+count retreated to the library. Maurice and Bertha were on the point of
+finding themselves _tete-a-tete_, for the countess just remembered that
+she had a note to write, when her little plot to leave the cousins
+together was frustrated by the entrance of the Marquis de Lasalles.
+
+The clouds suddenly melted from Bertha's countenance when the dull old
+nobleman was announced. She greeted him with an air of undisguised
+relief, as though she had been happily reprieved from an impending
+calamity. The lively warmth of her salutation attracted the marquis to
+her side, and he remained fascinated to the spot for the rest of the
+evening. The countess was too thoroughly well-bred to allow herself to
+look annoyed, or, even in secret, to acknowledge that she wished the
+marquis elsewhere; but she was disconcerted, and puzzled by the
+unaccountable change in Bertha's deportment.
+
+So passed the evening.
+
+The next morning, when Bertha appeared at breakfast, every one, Maurice
+perhaps excepted, remarked that she seemed weary and dispirited. Her
+brilliant complexion had lost something of its wonted lustre; her
+usually clear blue eyes looked heavy and shadowed; her rosy mouth had a
+half-sorrowful, half-fretful expression. It was evident that some
+nightmare preyed upon her mind, and had broken the childlike sound
+sleeping that generally visited her pillow. When the ball that was to
+take place that evening was mentioned, she brightened a little, but
+quickly sank back into her musing mood.
+
+"You must give me some assistance this morning, Bertha," said
+Madeleine, as she poured a few drops of almond oil into a tiny cup.
+"Your task shall be to gather, during your morning walk, this little
+basket full of the greenest and most perfect ivy leaves you can find,
+and bring them to the _chalet_. Then, if you feel inclined to aid me
+further, I will show you how to impart an emerald brilliancy to every
+leaf by a touch of this oil and a few delicate manipulations."
+
+"I suspect you are inventing something very novel and tasteful,"
+remarked Bertha, with more indifference than was natural to her.
+
+"You shall judge by and by," replied Madeleine, as she left the room,
+with the cup in her hand.
+
+She carried it, with her work, to a dilapidated summer-house, embowered
+by venerable trees. Madeleine's taste had given a picturesque aspect to
+this old _chalet_, and concealed or beautified the ravages of time. With
+the assistance of Baptiste, she had planted vines which flung over the
+outer walls a green drapery, intermingled with roses, honeysuckle, and
+jasmine; and, within doors, a few chairs, a well-worn sofa, a table, and
+footstool gave to the rustic apartment an appearance of habitableness
+and comfort. This was Madeleine's favorite resort when the weather was
+fine, and not a few of the magic achievements of her "fairy fingers" had
+been created in that romantic and secluded locality. There was glamour,
+perhaps, in the sylvan retreat, that acted like inspiration upon hands
+and brain.
+
+Bertha usually flitted about her as she worked, wandering in and out,
+now and then sitting down for a few moments, and reading aloud, by fits
+and starts, or occasionally taking up a needle and making futile efforts
+to busy herself with the womanly implement, but always restless, and
+generally abandoning her attempt after a brief trial; for Bertha frankly
+confessed that she admired industry in her cousin without being able to
+practise it in her own person.
+
+This morning, however, Madeleine sat alone; the fleecy tarlatan, that
+rolled in misty whiteness around her, gradually assuming the shape of
+female attire. Bettina had been despatched to Rennes on the day previous
+to procure this material for Bertha's ball-costume, and had not returned
+until late in the evening; yet the dress was cut out and fitted before
+Madeleine closed her eyes that night. The first auroral ray of light
+that stole into her chamber the next day fell upon the lithe figure of
+the young girl folding tucks that were to be made in the skirt,
+measuring distances, placing pins here and there for guides; and, as the
+dawn broke, she sat down unwearily, and sent her needle in and out of
+the transparent fabric with a rapidity of motion marvellous to behold.
+
+After a time, the rickety door of the _chalet_ was unceremoniously
+pushed open, and old Baptiste entered. He deposited a basket filled with
+ivy leaves upon the table, and said that Mademoiselle Bertha desired him
+to gather and deliver them to Mademoiselle Madeleine.
+
+"Has she not taken her usual walk this morning, then?" asked Madeleine,
+in surprise.
+
+"No, mademoiselle; Mademoiselle Bertha only came to me as I was weeding
+the flower-beds, and immediately went back to the chateau. Have I
+brought mademoiselle enough ivy?"
+
+"Quite sufficient, thank you; but I did not mean to consume your time,
+my good Baptiste. I thought Mademoiselle Bertha would take pleasure in
+selecting the ivy herself."
+
+"Mademoiselle Madeleine knows how glad I always am to serve her,"
+answered Baptiste.
+
+For another hour Madeleine sat alone, singing, in a soft murmur, as she
+sewed, while
+
+      "Her soul was singing at a work apart
+      Behind the walls of sense."
+
+The sound of a manly step upon the pathway silenced her plaintive
+melody. The next moment the vines, that formed a verdant curtain about
+the otherwise unprotected casement, were gently drawn back, and a face
+appeared at the window.
+
+"I thought I should find you here on this bright morning, Mademoiselle
+Madeleine. May I en--en--enter?" asked Gaston de Bois, speaking with so
+much ease that his only stammer came upon the last word.
+
+"If you please."
+
+"A noble slave of the needle," he continued, still looking in at the
+window. "The daughter of a duke, with the talents of a dressmaker!
+_Where_ will ge--ge--genius next take up her abode?"
+
+"Genius--since you are pleased to apply that sublime appellation to my
+poor capacities for wielding the most familiar and harmless weapon of my
+sex--is no respecter of persons, as you see. You are an early visitor
+to-day, M. de Bois. Of course, you are on your way to the chateau?"
+
+"I have let--let--letters for the count. He intrusted me
+yes--es--esterday with a package to take with me to the Chateau de
+Tremazan, where I was engaged to pass the evening, and I have brought
+him the replies. But before I play the postman, let me come in and talk
+to you, since you are the only person I can ever manage to talk to at
+all."
+
+"Come in then, and welcome."
+
+Gaston accepted the invitation with alacrity. He took a seat, and,
+regarding her work, remarked, "This must be for to-night's ball; is it
+your own dress?"
+
+"Mine? All these tucks for a dress of _mine_? No, indeed, it is
+Bertha's, and I hope she will like the toilet I have planned; each tuck
+will be surmounted by a garland of ivy, left open at the front, and
+fastened where it breaks off, on either side, with blush roses. Then
+among her luxuriant curls a few sprigs of ivy must float, and perhaps a
+rose peep out. You may expect to see her looking very beautiful
+to-night."
+
+M. de Bois sighed, and remained silent for a moment. Then he resumed the
+conversation by asking, "And the dress will be ready in time?"
+
+"Before it is needed, I trust, for it is now well advanced. Fortunately
+my aunt's dress was completed last night. But it was not new,--only a
+fresh combination of materials that had already been employed. Yet she
+was kind enough to be highly pleased."
+
+"Well she might be! You are always wor--wor--working for the good of the
+whole family."
+
+"What other return can I make for the good I have received?" replied
+Madeleine, with emotion. "Can I ever forget that, when I was left alone
+in the world, without refuge, without friends, almost without bread, my
+great-aunt extended to me her protection, supplied all my wants,
+virtually adopted me as her own child? Can I offer her too much
+gratitude in return? Can I lavish upon her too much love? No one knows
+how well I love her and all that is hers! How well I love that dwelling
+which received the homeless orphan! People call the old chateau dreary
+and gloomy; to me it is a palace; its very walls are dear. I love the
+trees that yield me their shade,--the parks that you no doubt think a
+wilderness,--the rough, unweeded walks which I tread daily in search of
+flowers,--this ruined summer-house, where I have passed hours of
+delicious calm,--all the now familiar objects that I first saw through
+my tears, before they were dried by the hand of affection; and I reflect
+with joy that probably I shall never quit the Heaven-provided home which
+has been granted me. I have been so very happy here."
+
+"Real--eal--eally?" asked Gaston, doubtingly. "I fancied sometimes, when
+I saw the Countess and Count Tristan so--so--so severe to you, that"--
+
+"Have they not the right to find fault with me when I fail to please
+them? That is only what I expect, and ought to bear patiently. I will
+not pretend to say that sometimes, when I have been misunderstood, and
+my best efforts have failed to bring about results that gratify them,--I
+will not say that my heart does not swell as though it would burst; but
+I console myself by reflecting that some far off, future day will come
+to make amends for all, and bring me full revenge."
+
+"Re--re--revenge! You re--re--revenge?" cried Gaston, in astonishment.
+
+"Yes, _revenge_!" laughed Madeleine. "You see what a vindictive creature
+I am! And I am positively preparing myself to enjoy this delightful
+revenge. I will make you the confidant of my secret machinations. This
+old chateau is lively enough now, and the presence of Bertha and Maurice
+preserve to my aunt the pleasant memory of her own youth. But by and by
+Maurice will go forth into the world, and perhaps we shall only see him
+from time to time, at long intervals. Bertha will marry"--
+
+At these words M. de Bois gave a violent start, and, stammering
+unintelligibly, rose from his seat, upsetting his chair, walked to the
+window, brought destruction upon some of Madeleine's vines by pulling
+them violently aside, to thrust out his head; then strode back, lifted
+the fallen chair, knocking down another, and with a flushed countenance
+seated himself again.
+
+Madeleine went on, as if she had not noticed his abrupt movement.
+
+"Solitude and _ennui_ might then oppress the Countess and even Count
+Tristan, and render their days burdensome. I am laying up a store of
+materials to enliven these scenes of weariness and loneliness. I have
+made myself quite a proficient in _piquet_, that I may pass long
+evenings playing with the count; I have noted and learned all the old
+airs that his mother delights to hear, because they remind her of her
+girlhood, and I will sing them to her when she is solitary and
+depressed. I will make her forget the absence of the dear ones who must
+leave such a void in her life; in a thousand ways I will soften the
+footsteps of age and infirmity as they steal upon her;--that will be the
+amends time will bring me,--that is the _revenge_ I seek."
+
+"Ah! Mademoiselle Mad--ad--adeleine, you are an angel!"
+
+"So far from an angel," answered Madeleine, gayly, "that you make me
+feel as though I had laid a snare, by my egotism, to entrap that
+ill-deserved compliment. Now let us talk about yourself and your own
+projects. Do you still hold to the resolution you communicated to me in
+our last conversation?"
+
+"Yes, your advice has decided me."
+
+"I should have been very impertinent if I had ventured to give you
+advice. I can hardly be taxed with that presumption. We were merely
+discussing an abstract question,--the use of faculties accorded us, and
+the best mode of obtaining happiness through their employment; and you
+chose to apply my general remarks to your particular case."
+
+"You drew a picture which made me feel what a worth--orth--orthless
+mortal I am, and this incited me to throw off the garment of
+slothfulness, and put on armor for the battle of life."
+
+"So be it! Now tell us what you have determined upon."
+
+"My unfortunate imped--ed--ediment is my great drawback. Maurice hopes
+to become a lawyer; but that profession would be out of the
+ques--es--estion for me who have no power to utter my ideas. I could not
+enter the army, for what kind of an officer could I make? How should I
+ever manage to say to a soldier, 'Go and brave death for your
+coun--oun--ountry'? I should find it easier to do myself than to say it.
+Some diplomatic position I _might_ possibly fill. As speech, according
+to Talleyrand, was given to men to disguise their thoughts, a man who
+st--st--stammers is not in much danger of making known his private
+medita--a--ations."
+
+"That is ingenious reasoning," replied Madeleine. "I hope something will
+grow out of it."
+
+"It is grow--ow--ing already. Yesterday, at the Chateau de Tremazan, I
+had a long interview with the Marquis de Fleury. He expects to be sent
+as ambassador to the United States. We are old friends. We talked, and I
+tol--ol--old"--
+
+"You told him your views," said Madeleine, aiding him so quietly and
+naturally that her assistance was scarcely noticeable. "And what was
+concluded upon? for your countenance declares that you have concluded
+upon something. If the marquis goes to America, you will perhaps
+accompany him?"
+
+"Yes, as sec--sec--sec--"
+
+"As secretary?" cried Madeleine. "That will be an admirable position.
+But America--ah! it is a long, long distance from Brittany! This is good
+news for you; but there are two persons to whom it will cause not a
+little pain."
+
+"To who--o--om?" inquired Gaston, with suppressed agitation.
+
+"To my cousin Bertha, and to me."
+
+"Mademoiselle Ber--er--ertha! Will _she_ heed my absence?
+She--she--she,--will she?" asked Gaston, confusedly.
+
+"Yes--but take care; if you let me see how deeply that idea affects you,
+you will fail to play the diplomat in disguising your thoughts, for I
+shall divine your secret."
+
+"My secret,--what--what secret? What is it you divine? What do you
+imagine? I mean."
+
+"That you love Bertha,--love her as she deserves to be loved?"
+
+"I? I?" replied M. de Bois, trying to speak calmly; but, finding the
+attempt in vain, he burst forth: "Yes, it is but too true; I love her
+with my whole soul; I love her passionately; love her despairingly,--ay,
+_despairingly_!"
+
+"And why _despairingly_?"
+
+"Alas! she is so rich!" he answered, in a tone of chagrin.
+
+"True, she is encumbered with a large and _un_-encumbered estate."
+
+"A great misfortune for me!" sighed Gaston.
+
+"A misfortune which you cannot help, and which Bertha will never
+remember when she bestows her heart upon one who is worthy of the gift."
+
+"How can she ever deem _me_ worthy? Even if I succeed in making myself a
+name,--a position; even if I become all that you have caused me to dream
+of being,--this dreadful imped--ed--ediment, this stammering which
+renders me ridiculous in the eyes of every one, in her eyes even,
+will"--
+
+"Your stammering is only the effect of timidity," answered Madeleine,
+soothingly. "Believe me, it is nothing more; as you overcome your
+diffidence and gain self-possession, you will find that it disappears.
+For instance, you have been talking to me for some time with ease and
+fluency."
+
+"To _you_, ah, yes; with _you_ I am always at my ease,--I have always
+confidence. It is not difficult to talk to one for whom I have so much
+affection,--_so much_, and yet not _too much_."
+
+"That proves fluent speech possible."
+
+"But to any one else, if I venture to open my heart, I hesitate,--I get
+troubled,--I--I stammer,--I make myself ridic--ic--iculous!"
+
+"Not at all."
+
+"But I do," reiterated Gaston, warmly. "Fancy a man saying to a woman
+he adores, yet in whose presence he trembles like a school-boy, or a
+culprit, 'I--I--I--lo--ov--ov--ove you!'"
+
+"The fact is," began Madeleine, laughing good-naturedly.
+
+"_There! there!_" cried M. de Bois, with a gesture of impatience and
+discouragement; "the fact is, that you laugh yourself,--_you_, who are
+so forbearing!"
+
+"Pardon me; you mistook"--
+
+"You could not help it, I know. It is precisely that which discourages
+me. And yet it is very odd! I have one method by which I can speak for
+five minutes at a time without stopping or hesitating."
+
+"Indeed! Why, then, do you not always employ that magical method in
+society?"
+
+"It would hardly be admissible in polite circles. Would you believe
+it?--it is very absurd, but so is everything that appertains to us
+unfortunate tongue-tied wretches."
+
+"Tell me what your method is."
+
+"I--I--I do not dare; you will only laugh at me again."
+
+"No; I promise I will not."
+
+"Well, then, my method is to become very much animated,--to lash myself
+into a state of high excitement, and to hold forth as though I were
+making an exordium,--to talk with furious rapidity, using the most
+forcible expressions, the most emphatic ejaculations! Those unloose my
+tongue! My words hurl themselves impetuously forward, as zouaves in
+battle! Only, as you may conceive, this discourse is not of a very
+classic nature, and hardly suited to the drawing-room,--especially, as I
+receive great help, and rush on all the faster, for a few interjections
+that come under the head of--of--of swear--ear--earing!"
+
+"_Swearing?_" was all Madeleine could say, controlling a strong
+inclination to merriment.
+
+"Yes, downright swearing; employing strong expletives,--actual oaths!
+Oh, it helps me more than you can believe. But just imagine the result
+if I were to harangue Mademoiselle Bertha in this style! She
+would--would--"
+
+"Would think it very original, and, as she has a joyous temperament, she
+might laugh immoderately. But she likes originality, and the very oddity
+of the discourse might impress her deeply. Then, too, she is very
+sympathetic, and she would probably be touched by the necessity which
+compelled you to employ such an extraordinary mode of expression."
+
+"Ah, if that were only true!"
+
+"I think it _is_ true."
+
+"Thank you! thank you!"
+
+Madeleine was opening a skein of silk, and, extending it to M. de Bois,
+she said: "Will you assist me? It is for Bertha I am working. Will you
+hold this skein? It will save time."
+
+Gaston, well pleased, stretched out his hands. Madeleine adjusted the
+skein, and commenced winding.
+
+"Besides, who knows?" she went on to say. "It seems to me very possible
+that the very singularity of such an address might captivate her, and
+give you a decided advantage over lovers who pressed their suit in
+hackneyed, stereotyped phrases."
+
+"You think so?"
+
+"I should not be surprised if such were the case, because Bertha has a
+decided touch of eccentricity in her character."
+
+"If I only dared to think that she had ever given me the faintest
+evidence of favorable regard!"
+
+"When she sees you embarrassed and hesitating, does she not always
+finish your sentences?"
+
+"Is it pos--pos--pos--" stammered Gaston.
+
+"Possible?" said Madeleine. "Yes, I have observed that she invariably
+does so if she imagines herself unnoticed. I have besides remarked a
+certain expression on her transparent countenance when we talked of you,
+and she has dropped a word, now and then,"--
+
+"What--what--what words? But no, you are mocking me cruelly! It cannot
+be that she ever thinks of me! I have too powerful a rival."
+
+"A rival! what rival?" asked Madeleine, in genuine astonishment.
+
+"The Viscount Maurice."
+
+The silken thread snapped in Madeleine's hand.
+
+"You have broken the thread," remarked M. de Bois; "I hope it was not
+owing to my awkward hold--old--olding."
+
+"No, no," answered Madeleine, hurriedly, and taking the skein out of his
+hand, but tangling it inextricably as she tried to draw out the threads.
+
+"You--you--you--think my cousin Maurice loves Bertha?" she asked, hardly
+aware of the pointedness of her own question.
+
+"I do not exactly say _that_; but how will it be possible for him to
+help loving her? Good gracious, Mademoiselle Madeleine! what have I said
+to affect you? How pale you have become!"
+
+Madeleine struggled to appear composed, but the hands that held the
+snarled skein trembled, and no effort of will could force the retreating
+blood back to her face.
+
+"Nothing--you have said nothing,--you are quite right, I--I--I dare
+say."
+
+"Why, you are just as troubled and embarrassed as I was just now."
+
+"I? nonsense! I'm--I'm--I'm only--only--"
+
+"And you stammer,--you actually stammer almost as badly as I do!"
+exclaimed Gaston, in exultation. "Ah, Mademoiselle Madeleine! I have
+betrayed to you _my_ secret,--you have discovered _yours_ to me!"
+
+"Monsieur de Bois, I implore you, do not speak another word on this
+subject! Enough that, if _I had a secret_, there is no one in the world
+to whom I would sooner confide it."
+
+"Why, then, do you now wish to hide from me the preference with which
+you honor your cousin?"
+
+Madeleine replied, in a tremulous tone, "You do not know how deep a
+wound you are probing, how heavy a grief you"--
+
+"Why should it be a grief? What obstacle impedes your union?"
+
+"An insurmountable obstacle,--one that exists in my own heart."
+
+"How can that be, since that heart is his?"
+
+"Those to whom I owe everything," replied Madeleine, "cherish the
+anticipation that Maurice will make a brilliant marriage. Even if my
+cousin looked upon me with partial eyes, could I rob my benefactors of
+that dearest hope? Could I repay all their benefits to me by causing
+them such a cruel disappointment? I could never be so ungrateful,--so
+guilty,--so inhuman. Therefore, I say, the obstacle lies in my own
+heart: that heart revolts at the very contemplation of such an act. I
+pray you never to speak to me again on this subject; and give me your
+word that no one shall ever know what I have just confided to you,--I
+mean what you suspect--what you suspect, it may be, _erroneously!_"
+
+"I promise you on the honor of a gentleman."
+
+"Thank you."
+
+A step was heard on the path leading to the summer-house.
+
+Gaston looked towards the open door and said, "It is the count."
+
+At the same moment he withdrew to the window.
+
+Madeleine, who had risen, resumed her seat, and, as she plied her
+needle, half buried her agitated face in the white drapery which lay in
+her lap.
+
+The count entered with downcast eyes, and flung himself into a chair.
+He had not perceived that any one was present. Madeleine found it
+difficult to command her voice, yet could not allow him to remain
+unaware that he was not alone.
+
+After a brief interval, she said, in a tolerably quiet tone, "I am
+afraid you have not chosen a very comfortable seat. I told Baptiste to
+remove that chair, for its legs are giving signs of the infirmities of
+age."
+
+At the sound of her voice the count glanced at her over his shoulder,
+and said, brusquely, "What are you doing there?"
+
+"Playing Penelope, as usual."
+
+The count returned harshly, "Always absorbed in some feminine frippery,
+just as if"--
+
+"Just as if I were a woman!" answered Madeleine, forcing a laugh.
+
+"A woman in your position should find some less frivolous employment."
+
+Madeleine replied, in a tone of badinage that would have disarmed most
+men, "How cruelly my cousin pretends to treat me! He actually makes
+believe to scold me when I am occupied with the interests of his
+family,--when I am literally _shedding my blood_ in their behalf!" she
+added playfully, holding towards him the white dress upon which a slight
+red stain was visible; for the needle grasped by her trembling hands had
+pricked her.
+
+"Good heavens, Madeleine! when will you lay aside those intolerable airs
+and graces which you invariably assume, and which would be very charming
+in a young girl of sixteen,--a girl like Bertha; but, in a woman who has
+arrived at your years,--a woman of twenty-one,--become ridiculous
+affectation?"
+
+M. de Bois, enraged at the injustice of this rebuke, could control
+himself no longer, and came forward with a lowering visage. The count
+turned towards him in surprise.
+
+"Ah, M. de Bois, I was not aware of your presence. I must have
+interrupted a _tete-a-tete_. You perceive, I am, now and then, obliged
+to chide."
+
+Gaston answered only by a bow, though his features wore an expression
+which the count would not have been well pleased to see if he had
+interpreted aright.
+
+"But," continued the latter, "we are most apt to chide those whom we
+love best, as you are aware."
+
+"I am a--a--ware," began M. de Bois, trying to calm his indignation, yet
+experiencing a strong desire to adopt his new method of speaking
+fluently by using strong interjections.
+
+The count changed the subject by asking, "Did you deliver the letters,
+of which you had the goodness to take charge, to the Count Damoreau,
+Madame de Nervac, and Monsieur de Bonneville?"
+
+"Our relatives!" exclaimed Madeleine, unreflectingly. "Have you
+forgotten that you will see them to-night at the ball? But I beg pardon;
+perhaps you had something very important to write about."
+
+"It _was_ very important," answered the count, dryly.
+
+"I im--im--imagined so," remarked M. de Bois, "by the sensation the
+letters created. Madame de Nervac turned pale, and the Count Damoreau
+turned red, and M. de Bonneville gnawed his nails as he was reading."
+
+"Had they the kindness to send answers by you, as I requested?"
+
+"Yes, the object of my early vi--vi--visit was to deliver them. I heard
+Mademoiselle Madeleine singing as I passed the _chalet_, and paused to
+pay my respects."
+
+He drew forth three letters, and placed them in the count's hand.
+
+The latter seized them eagerly, and seemed inclined to break the seals
+at once, but changed his mind, and putting them in his pocket, said,
+"Shall I have the pleasure of your company to the chateau?"
+
+M. de Bois could not well refuse.
+
+He left the _chalet_ with the count, but, after taking a few steps,
+apologized for being obliged to return in search of a glove he had
+dropped. He went back alone. Madeleine was occupied with her needle as
+when he left her. There were no traces of tears upon her cheeks; there
+was no flush, no expression of anger or mortification upon her serene
+countenance.
+
+M. de Bois regarded her a moment in surprise, for he had expected to
+find her weeping, or looking vexed, or, at all events, in a state of
+excitement.
+
+"Is the count often in such an amiable temper?" he asked.
+
+"No; pray, do not imagine _that_; he is evidently troubled to-day. You
+saw how preoccupied he was. Something has gone wrong, something annoys
+him. He did not mean to be harsh."
+
+"And _you_ can excuse him? Well, then _I_ cannot! I felt as though I
+must speak when he rated you so unreasonably. And, if I had spoken, I
+should certainly have had my tongue loosened by swearing; perhaps I
+shall yet"--
+
+"Pray, M. de Bois," urged Madeleine, "do not try to defend me, or
+allude to what you unfortunately heard. It will only make my position
+more trying."
+
+"So I fear; but I have something to say to you. _You_ have given _me_
+good counsels; you must listen to some I have to give you in
+return,--but not now. You are going to the ball to-night?"
+
+"Yes, certainly."
+
+"Perhaps I may find an opportunity of talking to you there."
+
+Saying these words, he picked up the glove, and hastened to rejoin the
+count, who was too much absorbed in his own thoughts to remark the
+length of his friend's absence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+UNMASKING.
+
+
+Madeleine, left alone in the old _chalet_, remained for some time
+absorbed in her work, which progressed rapidly. The ivy leaves were
+dexterously polished, and a graceful garland laid above every tuck of
+the transparent white dress. The last leafy band was nearly completed,
+when the door again creaked upon its rusty hinges, and the young girl,
+looking up, beheld Maurice.
+
+"Is not Bertha here?" he asked, in a tone that sounded very unlike his
+usual cheerful voice. "I came to seek her, and felt sure she must be
+with you."
+
+"I have not seen her since early morning," answered Madeleine. "She
+promised to bring me this basket full of ivy leaves, but sent Baptiste
+instead."
+
+"I looked for her in the library, the _boudoir_, the drawing-room, and
+the garden, before I came here," Maurice continued, in the same grave
+tone. "She has disappeared just at the moment when I have made up my
+mind to have an understanding without further delay."
+
+Madeleine's speaking countenance betrayed her surprise, for it seemed
+strange that Maurice should desire an especial interview with his
+cousin, whom he saw at all hours; and stranger still that he appeared to
+be so much disturbed.
+
+"How serious you look, Maurice! Are you troubled? Has anything occurred
+to cause you unhappiness?"
+
+"I can have no disguises from you, Madeleine. I am thoroughly sick at
+heart. In the first place, my father and my grandmother have violently
+opposed my determination to embark in an honorable and useful career of
+life;--_that_ threw a cloud over me almost from the hour I entered the
+chateau. I tried to forget my disappointment for the moment, that no
+shadow might fall upon your birthday happiness; besides, I clung to the
+hope that I might yet convince them of the propriety, the policy, the
+actual necessity of the step I propose to take. My father, yesterday,
+stunned me with a piece of intelligence which renders me wretched, yet
+forces me to act. I have given him my promise; there is no retreat. I
+must bring this matter to a climax, be the sequence what it may; and yet
+I dread to make the very first movement."
+
+"I am too dull to read the riddle of the sphinx, and your words are as
+enigmatical. I have not begun to find their clew," replied Madeleine,
+pausing in the garland she was forming, and letting the ivy drop
+unnoticed around her.
+
+The first impulse of Maurice was to gather the fallen leaves; the second
+prompted him gently to force the dress, she was so tastefully adorning,
+out of her hands, and toss it upon the table.
+
+"I see your task is nearly completed, and Bertha's toilet for the ball
+will be sufficiently picturesque to cause the Marchioness de Fleury to
+die of envy; can you not, therefore, rest from your labors, good fairy
+dressmaker, and talk awhile with me? I need consolation,--I need
+advice,--and you alone can give me both."
+
+"I?" Madeleine spoke that single word tremulously, and a faint flush
+passed over her soft, pale face.
+
+"_You_, Madeleine, you, and _you_ only!"
+
+"There is Bertha, at last," she exclaimed, rising hastily, and
+approaching the door. "Do you not see her blue dress yonder through the
+trees? Bertha! Bertha!" and, leaving Maurice, she went forth to meet
+Bertha.
+
+"Where have you hidden yourself all the morning, little truant? Why!
+what has happened to distress you? Your eyes look as though you had been
+weeping. Dear Bertha! what ails you?"
+
+"I could not bear it any longer," almost sobbed Bertha, laying her head
+upon her cousin's shoulder. "I could not help coming to you, though I
+wanted to act entirely upon my own responsibility, and I had determined
+not even to consult you, for I am always fearful of getting you into
+trouble with my aunt."
+
+Madeleine was so completely mystified that she could only murmur half
+to herself, "More enigmas! What can they mean?"
+
+Then, passing her arm around Bertha's slender waist, they walked to the
+summer-house. The position of Bertha's head caused her bright ringlets
+completely to veil her face, and it was not until after she entered the
+_chalet_, and shook the blinding locks from before her eyes, that she
+saw Maurice. She drew back with a movement of vexation and confusion
+never before evinced at his presence,--clung to Madeleine as though for
+protection, and seemed on the point of bursting into tears.
+
+"Maurice came here expecting to find you with me," observed Madeleine.
+"He wanted to speak to you."
+
+"Did he?--yes, I know he did. I know what he is going to say; I kept out
+of his way on purpose, until I could make up my mind about it all; I
+mean, I thought it best to postpone; but it does not matter,--I would
+rather have it over; no,--I don't mean _that_,--I mean"--
+
+Bertha's perturbation rendered any clearer expression of her meaning out
+of the question.
+
+Madeleine took up the dress, which Maurice had flung upon the table, and
+said, "When you return to the house, Bertha, will you not come to my
+room and try on your dress? It is just completed."
+
+"Stay, stay, Madeleine!" exclaimed Bertha and Maurice together.
+
+"You see, we _both_ desire you to stay," added Maurice; "therefore you
+cannot refuse. We have no secrets from you,--have we, Bertha?"
+
+"_I_ had none until yesterday; but my aunt is inclined to be so severe
+with Madeleine, that I feared I might make mischief by taking her into
+my confidence. Do not go, Madeleine. Sit down, for you _must_ stay. If
+you go, I will go with you; and Maurice wants to speak to me,--I mean, I
+want to speak to him,--that is to say, he intends to"--
+
+Madeleine resumed her seat.
+
+"Since you so tyrannically insist upon my remaining, I will finish this
+garland while you are having your mysterious explanation."
+
+Maurice approached Bertha with a hesitation which had some slight touch
+of awkwardness. Feeling that it was easier to induce _her_ to break the
+ice than to take the first step upon this delicate ground himself, he
+remarked, "You wanted to speak to me; what did you desire to say, my
+dear little cousin?"
+
+Bertha looked up innocently into his face, as though she was scanning
+his features for the first time.
+
+"What my aunt says is all very true. You _are_ exceedingly handsome; I
+never denied it, except in jest; and you _are_ decidedly agreeable,
+except now and then; and you _have_ a noble heart,--I never doubted it;
+and a fine intellect,--though I do not know much about _that_; and any
+woman might be proud of you,--that is, I dare say most women would."
+
+"And I have a little cousin who is an adroit flatterer, and who is
+herself beautiful enough for a Hebe, and whose fascinations are
+sufficiently potent to captivate any reasonable or unreasonable man."
+
+"Oh! but that is not to the point. I did not mean that we should
+exchange compliments. What I want to say is that such an attractive and
+agreeable young man as you are will naturally find hosts of young girls,
+who would any of them be proud to be chosen as his wife."
+
+"And you, with your grace and beauty, your lovable character, and your
+large fortune, will have suitors innumerable, from among whom you may
+readily select one who will be worthy of you."
+
+"But that is not to the point either! I told my aunt that I was not
+insensible to all your claims to admiration. I assure you I did you
+ample justice!"
+
+"You were very kind and complimentary, little cousin; but I said as much
+of you to my father. I gave him to understand that I acknowledged you to
+be one of the most charming beings in the world, and that I thought the
+man to whom you gave your hand would be the happiest of mortals, and
+that I did not believe _that man_ could value you more as a wife than I
+should as a sister."
+
+"_A sister! A sister!_ Oh! I am so glad!--a _sister_? You do not really
+love me, then?"
+
+"Have I said that?"
+
+"You have said the same thing, and I am overjoyed! I can never thank you
+half enough!"
+
+"_You_ do not love _me_ then?" asked Maurice.
+
+"I love you with all my heart! I never loved you half as well as at this
+moment!--that is as--as--a _brother_; for you love me as a _sister_,
+while my aunt declared you hoped to make me your wife,--that you were
+crazily in love with me, and that if I refused you, I should ruin all
+your future prospects, for the blow would almost kill you. I cannot tell
+you how chagrined I was at the deplorable prospect. And it's all a
+mistake,--is it not?"
+
+"My father assured me that you had formed the most flattering attachment
+for me. Is that a mistake also?" inquired Maurice, skilfully avoiding
+the rudeness of a direct reply to her question.
+
+"Oh! I never cared a straw for you except as the dearest cousin in the
+world!"
+
+"But why," asked Maurice, resuming his usual gay tone of raillery, "why,
+if I am the incomparable being you pretend to think me, why are you so
+particularly averse to becoming my wife? What do you say to that? I
+should like to have an explanatory answer, little cousin; or else you
+must take back all your compliments."
+
+"Not one of them!" replied Bertha, merrily. "I am so charmed with you at
+this moment that I feel inclined to double their number. Yet there is a
+reason why I should have refused you, even if you had offered yourself
+to me."
+
+"Is it because you like somebody else better?"
+
+"No, no," answered Bertha, hastily; "how can you suggest such an idea?
+But I suppose _you do so because that is your reason_ for desiring to
+refuse my hand?"
+
+"I shall be obliged to think my suggestion correct, unless you tell me
+why you are so glad to escape becoming my wife."
+
+"It was because," said Bertha, approaching her rosy mouth to his ear,
+and speaking in a low tone, "because there is another woman, who is far
+more worthy of you, who would make you a better wife than I could, and
+who--who does not exactly _hate_ you."
+
+"Another woman?"
+
+"Hush! do not speak so loudly. There is nothing in the world I desire so
+much as to see that other woman happy; for there is no one I love half
+so well."
+
+"The garland is finished!" Madeleine broke in, starting up abruptly, for
+she had caught the whispered words. "Come, Bertha, we must hasten back
+to the chateau. I must try on your dress immediately."
+
+"Oh, since it is finished, we have plenty of time," said Bertha. "It is
+quite early in the day yet, and Maurice and I are deeply interested in
+our conversation. We were never before such fast friends and devoted
+cousins."
+
+"Never," replied Maurice.
+
+"But the dress may need some alteration," persisted Madeleine. "Pray,
+pray come!"
+
+She spoke almost imploringly, and in an excited tone, which the mere
+trying on of a dress did not warrant.
+
+"Oh, you dear despot! I suppose you must be obeyed."
+
+Bertha snatched the ivy-garlanded dress, and bounded away. Madeleine
+would have followed, but Maurice seized her hand detainingly.
+
+"One moment, Madeleine,--grant me one moment!"
+
+"Not now. Bertha will be waiting for me!" And she made an effort to free
+her imprisoned hand.
+
+"You shall tell her that you were taken captive, and she will forgive
+you, if it be only for the sake of your _jailer_. There's vanity for
+you!"
+
+"But my arrangements for this evening are not all completed. It is
+growing late, Maurice; I entreat you to release me; I _cannot_ remain--I
+_must_ go!"
+
+"Not until I have spoken to you. The time has come when you must hear
+me."
+
+Madeleine felt that there was no escape, and, forcing herself to assume
+an air of composure, answered, "Speak, then; what can you have to say,
+Maurice, to which I ought to listen?"
+
+"Must I tell you? Have you not divined? Must I show you my heart? If no
+responsive pulse in your own has revealed to you what is passing in
+mine, I am truly unfortunate,--I have been deceived indeed!"
+
+"Maurice, Maurice! for the love of Heaven"--
+
+"You do well to say for the love of Heaven; for I love Heaven all the
+better for loving a being who bears the impress of Heaven's own glorious
+hand! Yes, Madeleine, ever loved,--loved from the first hour we met."
+
+The rustling of silk interrupted his sentence. Madeleine tremblingly
+withdrew her hand. The Countess de Gramont stood before them! Her tall
+figure dilated until it seemed to shut out all the sunlight beyond; her
+countenance grew ashy with suppressed rage; her black eyes shot out
+glances that pierced like arrows; not a sound issued from her
+tightly-compressed lips.
+
+Maurice, recovering himself, tried to assume an unconcerned air, and
+stooped to gather some of the ivy leaves scattered around him. Madeleine
+bowed her head as a culprit who has no defence to make, and no hope of
+concealment to cling to as a last refuge.
+
+The countess broke the painful silence, speaking in a hollow, scornful
+tone: "I am here at an unfortunate moment, it seems!"
+
+There was no reply.
+
+"Perhaps I ought to apologize for disturbing you," she continued,
+sarcastically.
+
+"Not at all--not at all," said Maurice, who felt that it was his duty to
+answer and shield Madeleine, as far as possible, from his grandmother's
+displeasure.
+
+"Why, then, is Madeleine covered with confusion? Why did she so quickly
+withdraw her hand? How--how came it clasped in yours?"
+
+"Is she not my cousin?" answered Maurice, evasively. "Have I no right to
+show her affection? Must I renounce the ties of blood?"
+
+"It is not you, Maurice, whom I blame," said the countess, trying to
+speak less sternly. "It is Madeleine, who should not have permitted this
+unmeet familiarity. I well know by what arts she has lured you to forget
+yourself. The fault lies with her."
+
+For the first time the countess beheld a flash of indignation in the
+eyes Madeleine lifted from the ground.
+
+"Madame--aunt!" she began.
+
+The countess would not permit her to proceed.
+
+"I know what I say! You have too much tact and quickness not to have
+comprehended our hopes in regard to Maurice and Bertha; and it has not
+escaped my notice that you have sought, by every artful manoeuvre in
+your power, to frustrate those hopes."
+
+"I?" ejaculated Madeleine, aghast at the charge, and too much bewildered
+to be able to utter a denial.
+
+"Yes, _you!_ Have you not sought to fascinate Maurice by every species
+of wily coquetry? Have you not"--
+
+"Grandmother!" cried Maurice, furiously.
+
+"Be silent, Maurice,--it is Madeleine to whom I am addressing my
+remarks, and her own conscience tells her their justice."
+
+"Aunt, if ever by word, or look, or thought"--
+
+"Oh! it was all done in the most apparently artless, natural,
+_purposeless_ manner! But the same end was always kept steadily in view.
+What I have witnessed this morning convinces me of your aims. Your
+movements were so skilfully managed that they scarcely seemed open to
+suspicion. The most specious coquetry has governed all your actions. You
+were always attired more simply than any one else; but by this very
+simplicity you thought to render yourself remarkable, and attract a
+larger share of attention. You always pretended to shun observation,
+that you might be brought into more positive notice. You affected to
+avoid Maurice, that he might feel tempted to follow you,--that he might
+be lured to seek you when you were alone, as you were a moment
+ago,--that he might"--
+
+Maurice could restrain his ire no longer. He broke forth with
+vehemence,--"Grandmother, I cannot listen to this injustice. I cannot
+see Madeleine so cruelly insulted. Were it my mother herself who spoke,
+I would not stand by and see her trample thus upon an innocent and
+defenceless heart."
+
+Madeleine turned to Maurice beseechingly. "Do not utter such words to
+one whom you are bound to address with reverence;--do not, or you will
+render my sufferings unendurable!"
+
+"Your _sufferings_?" exclaimed the countess, catching at a word that
+seemed to imply a reproof, which galled the more because she knew it was
+deserved. "Your _sufferings_? That is a fitting expression to drop from
+your lips! I had the right to believe that, far from causing you
+_suffering_, I had put an end to your suffering when I threw open my
+doors to admit you."
+
+"You misunderstood me, aunt. I did not intend to say"--
+
+"You have said enough to prove that you add ingratitude to your other
+sins. And, since you talk of _sufferings_, I will beg you to remember
+the sufferings you have brought upon us,--you, who, in return for all
+you have received at my hands, have caused my very grandson to treat me
+with disrespect, for the first time in his life. _Your_ sufferings? I
+can well conceive that she who creates so much affliction in the house
+that has sheltered her,--she who so treacherously pierces the hearts
+that have opened to yield her a place,--she who has played the viper
+warmed upon almost a mother's bosom,--she may well have sufferings to
+wail over!"
+
+Madeleine stood speechless, thunderstruck, by the rude shock of these
+words. The countess turned from her, and, preparing to leave the
+_chalet_, bade Maurice give her his arm. He silently obeyed, casting a
+look of compassionate tenderness upon Madeleine. But she saw it not; all
+her vast store of mental strength suddenly melted away! For the first
+time in her life she was completely crushed, overwhelmed,--hopeless and
+powerless. For a few moments she remained standing as motionless as one
+petrified; then, with a heart-broken cry, dropped into a seat, and
+covering her face with her hands, sobbed convulsively,--sobbed as though
+all the sorrows of her life were concentrated in the anguish of that
+moment, and found vent in that deluge of tears,--that stormy whirlwind
+of passion! All the clouds in the firmament of her existence, which she
+had, day after day, dispelled by the internal sunshine of her patient,
+trustful spirit, culminated and broke in that wild flood. Hope was
+drowned in that heavy rain; all the flowers that brightened, and the
+sweet, springing herbs that lent their balm to her weary pilgrimage,
+were beaten down into the mire of despair. There was no ark, no Ararat;
+she was alone, without refuge, on the waste of waters.
+
+Her heavy sobs prevented her hearing the entrance of Bertha, and it was
+only when the arms of the young girl were fondly twined about her, that
+she became aware of her presence.
+
+"Madeleine, dear, dear Madeleine! What has happened? Why do you weep
+thus?"
+
+"Do not speak to me, Bertha!" replied Madeleine in a stifled voice. "You
+cannot, cannot help me; there is no hope left,--none, none! My father
+has died to me again to day, and I am alone once more!--alone in a
+desert that has no place of shelter for me, but a grave beneath its
+swathing sands!"
+
+Her tears gushed forth with redoubled violence.
+
+"Do not treat me so cruelly! Do not cast me off!" pleaded Bertha, as her
+cousin tried to disengage herself from her encircling arms. "If you are
+wretched, so am I--_because_ you are! Only tell me the reason for this
+terrible sorrow. I was awaiting you in your room; but, as you did not
+come, I felt sure my cousin Maurice had detained you."
+
+At those last words an involuntary cry of intense suffering burst from
+Madeleine's lips.
+
+"Then I saw my aunt and Maurice returning together, and Maurice appeared
+to be talking in an excited manner, and my aunt looked blacker than any
+thunder-cloud. Still you did not come, and I went in search of you. Tell
+me why I find you thus?--you, who have always borne your griefs with
+such silent fortitude. What _has_ my aunt said or done to you?"
+
+"She has ceased to love me,--she has ceased to esteem me,--she even
+repents of the benefits she has conferred upon me."
+
+"No, no, Madeleine; you are mistaken."
+
+"Oh, I am not mistaken,--my eyes are opened at last. The thin, waxen
+mask of assumed kindness has melted from her face! I am a burden to
+her,--an encumbrance,--an offence. She only desires to be rid of me!"
+
+"You,--the fairy of good works in her household? What could she do
+without you? It is only excitement which makes you imagine this."
+
+"I never guessed, never dreamed it before; but I have wilfully deceived
+myself. _Now_ all is too clear! A thousand recollections rise up to
+testify to the truth; a thousand suspicions, which I repulsed as
+unworthy of me and of her, return to convince me; words and looks,
+coldness and injustice, slights and reproaches start up with frightful
+vividness, and throw a hideous light upon conduct I never dared to
+interpret aright."
+
+"What looks? what words? what actions?" asked Bertha, though her heart
+told her with what a catalogue she could answer her own question.
+
+"They could not be rehearsed in an hour or in a day. But it is not to my
+aunt alone that my presence is offensive. Cousin Tristan also chafes at
+the sight of his dependent relative. I have seen it when I took my seat
+at table; I have seen it when room was made for me in the carriage; I
+have seen it on numberless occasions. His glances, his accents, his
+whole demeanor, have seemed to reproach me for the place I occupied, for
+the garments I wore, for the very bread I ate,--the bread of bitter,
+bitter charity! And oh!" she groaned, "_must this be so still?_ _Must_ I
+still accept these bounties, which are begrudged me? _Must_ I still be
+bowed to the dust by the weight of these charities? Alas! I _must_,
+because I have nothing of my own,--because I am nothing of myself!"
+
+"Madeleine! one of these days"--
+
+Madeleine did not heed her. "Oh, my father! my father! To what torturing
+humiliations you subjected me in bequeathing me nobility with poverty!
+Well may you have wished that you had been born a peasant! Had I been a
+peasant's child, I might have lived by, and rejoiced in, honest labor!
+Had I been the daughter of a mechanic, I might have gained my bread by
+some useful trade. Had I even been the child of some poor gentleman, I
+might have earned a livelihood by giving lessons in music, in drawing,
+by becoming a governess, or teaching in a school. But, the daughter of
+the Duke de Gramont, it is one of the curses of my noble birth that I
+must live upon charity,--charity unwillingly doled out and thrown in my
+face, even when I am receiving it with meekness!"
+
+"But, Madeleine, if you will but listen to me"--
+
+Madeleine went on bitterly. "And I am young yet,--young and strong, and
+capable of exertion; and I have dared to believe that, while one is
+young, some of the benefits received could be repaid by the cheerful
+spirit of youth,--by the performance of needful offices,--by hands ever
+ready to serve, and a heart ever open to sympathize; but, if I am an
+encumbrance, an annoyance while I am _young_, what an intolerable burden
+I must become when youth passes away! Then I shall either be repulsed
+with aversion, or sheltered with undisguised reluctance,--forced to
+remember every moment that the hospitality I receive is an _alms_! Oh!
+it is too horrible! Death would be a thousand times preferable."
+
+"And you can forget how dreadful it would be for us, who love you, to
+lose you?"
+
+"I forget _everything_, except the misery of my own degraded position! I
+ask for nothing save that God, in his mercy, will free me from it, I
+care not how! I look despairingly on all sides, and see no escape! I am
+bound, hand and foot, by the chains of my own noble birth, and shut
+within the iron walls of circumstance. I struggle vainly in my
+captivity; no way of freedom is open to me! And yet I can never again
+resign myself to passive endurance."
+
+"If you only knew how wretched you make me by talking in this strain!"
+
+"I make you wretched, as I have made all others, by my presence
+here,--yes, I know it! You see how ungrateful, how selfish misery has
+rendered me, since I am cruel even to you whose pure love I never
+doubted."
+
+Before Bertha could make a fresh attempt to console her cousin, Baptiste
+entered, bearing a letter. He looked dismayed when he beheld Madeleine's
+face of woe, and Bertha's tearful countenance; but the latter checked
+his glance of inquiry by asking abruptly what he wanted.
+
+Still regarding Madeleine with an expression of deep concern, he
+replied, "The _valet_ of Count Damoreau has just left this letter for
+Mademoiselle Madeleine, and desired that it should be delivered to her
+at once."
+
+"Very well; that will do."
+
+Bertha took the letter, and motioned to Baptiste to withdraw.
+
+"What _can_ Count Damoreau have to write to you about? Do open the
+letter and tell me."
+
+"Not now, Bertha. Leave me to myself for a little while. I scarcely know
+what I am doing or saying. I entreat you to leave me!"
+
+"Madeleine, if I were in trouble, I would not send you from me."
+
+"Go, if you love me! And you--_you_, at least, _do_ love me!"
+
+"_If_ I love you? I will even leave you to prove that I do; but it is
+very hard."
+
+Bertha walked slowly away, taking the path that led from the chateau. In
+a few moments she paused, turned suddenly, and quickened her steps in
+the opposite direction, prompted by an impulse to seek Maurice and tell
+him of Madeleine's grief. Perhaps he might have the power to console
+her.
+
+Count Tristan had been prevented opening the letters which M. de Bois
+had delivered. When the two gentlemen reached the chateau, several
+visitors were awaiting the count, and their stay was protracted. The
+instant his guests took their leave, he hastened to the library, which
+his mother entered at the same moment. He listened impatiently as she
+briefly recounted the scene which had taken place in the summer-house.
+
+"The time has come when we must put an end to this madness," answered
+the count; "and I trust that I hold the means in my hands. These are the
+replies of Madeleine's relations."
+
+He broke one of the seals, and glanced over the contents of the letter,
+gnawing his under lip as he read.
+
+"Well, my son, what reply?"
+
+"This letter is from M. de Bonneville. He writes that his chateau is
+only large enough for his own family,--that it would be a great
+inconvenience to have any addition to his home circle; and _we_--I
+suppose _we_ have not been inconvenienced for the last three years"--
+
+"I am not astonished at such a reply from M. de Bonneville. I expected
+nothing else. Give me Madame de Nervac's letter. She is a charming
+woman, whom every one admires and respects, and I know her kindness of
+heart."
+
+The count handed the letter. His mother opened it, and read,--
+
+     "MY DEAR COUSIN:
+
+     "Are you not aware that a woman of any tact, who has still
+     some claims to admiration, could hardly commit the absurd
+     _faux pas_ of establishing in her own house, and having
+     always by her side, a person younger and handsomer than
+     herself? To consent to your proposition concerning Madeleine
+     would therefore be a suicidal act"--
+
+"This is insupportable!" ejaculated the count. "It seems that we are to
+be forced into continuing to bear this burden, though it may bring us
+to ruin. What insupportable vanity Madame de Nervac betrays! You see
+what her kindness of heart is worth!"
+
+"There is still one letter to open," remarked his mother, clinging to a
+faint hope.
+
+"Oh, it will be a repetition of the others,--you may be sure of that!"
+He tore it open angrily; but, glancing at the first lines, exclaimed,
+"What do I see? Have we found one reasonable and charitable person at
+last? The Count Damoreau writes,--
+
+     "'A thousand thanks, my dear cousin for the opportunity you
+     afford me of being useful to that lovely and unfortunate
+     relative of ours. I have always regarded her with admiration
+     and affection, and always appreciated the noble generosity
+     which prompted your kindness to the orphan.'"
+
+"The count is a man endowed with most excellent judgment," remarked the
+countess with complacency.
+
+Her son continued reading the letter,--
+
+     "'I am at this moment about to make a number of necessary
+     repairs in my chateau, which will cause me to absent myself
+     for some time. I shall probably spend a year or two on the
+     continent.'"
+
+"So much the better! He will doubtless take Madeleine with him,"
+suggested the countess.
+
+Count Tristan in an altered tone read on,--
+
+     "'As I shall travel entirely _en garcon_, of course it will
+     be impossible for Madeleine to accompany me, but an
+     admirable opportunity presents itself for placing her in a
+     situation that is very suitable. My friend, Lady Vivian, of
+     Edinburgh, who forms one of the party here, is in search of
+     an humble companion. I have spoken to her ladyship
+     concerning Madeleine. She made some slight demur on account
+     of the young lady's attractive person, but finally consented
+     to offer her this situation.'"
+
+"A de Gramont hired out as an humble companion! What an indignity!"
+ejaculated the countess.
+
+The count continued reading,--
+
+     "'I will myself write to Madeleine and apprise her of what I
+     have done, and present the many advantages of such a
+     position.'"
+
+"She must not receive the letter!" said the countess, earnestly. "She is
+capable of accepting this offer for the sake of wounding us. But Count
+Damoreau has insulted us grossly. How has he dared to entertain such an
+offer for a member of our family,--one in whose veins flows the same
+untainted blood? Why do you not speak, my son? But indignation may well
+deprive you of speech!"
+
+"I can only say that in _some manner we must at once rid ourselves of
+Madeleine_."
+
+"I would rather see her dead than in a situation which disgraced her
+noble name," answered the countess, violently.
+
+"I quite agree with you," returned the count, with a sardonic look;
+"but, unfortunately, life and death are not in our hands!"
+
+As he spoke, there was a gleam in his malignant eye, almost murderous.
+His foot was lifted to crush the worm in his path, and, could he have
+trodden it out of existence in secret, the deed would have been
+accomplished with exultation. His hatred for Madeleine had strengthened
+into a fierce passion as his fears that Maurice loved her threatened to
+be confirmed. Far from sharing his mother's indignation at the proposal
+of Count Damoreau, he had made up his mind to force Madeleine into
+acceptance, if no other presented itself for freeing the chateau from
+her presence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+A CRISIS.
+
+
+Count Tristan was in the heat of argument with his haughty mother, when
+the door of the library opened, and Madeleine entered. One who had
+beheld the tempestuous burst of grief, the torrent of tears, the
+heart-rending despair that convulsed her frame but half an hour before,
+in the little _chalet_, would scarcely have recognized the countenance
+upon which the eyes of the Countess de Gramont and her son were now
+turned. Not the faintest shadow of that whirlwind of passionate anguish
+was left upon Madeleine's face, unless it might be traced in the great
+calm which succeeds a heavy storm; in the death-like pallor which
+overspread her almost rigid features; in the steady light that shone
+from her soul-revealing eyes; in the firm outline of her colorless
+lips; in the look of heroic resolve which imparted to her noble
+lineaments a higher beauty than they ever before had worn.
+
+She approached Count Tristan with an unfaltering step, holding a letter
+in her hand. That letter had given a sudden check to her vehement
+sorrow, and restored her equilibrium.
+
+"I have received this communication from Count Damoreau."
+
+As she spoke, she extended the epistle to the count, who for one instant
+quailed before her clairvoyant eyes. It seemed as though a prophetic
+judgment spoke out of their shining depths.
+
+He took the letter mechanically, without opening it. His gaze was
+riveted, as though by a magnetism too powerful for him to resist, upon
+her purposeful countenance.
+
+Madeleine went on,--
+
+"Count Damoreau tells me that you and my aunt desire to withdraw your
+protection from me; that you feel I have sufficiently long enjoyed the
+shelter of your roof; that you wish to provide me with some other
+asylum."
+
+There was no hesitation in her voice as she uttered these words. She
+spoke in a tone rendered clear and quiet by the dignity of self-respect.
+
+"Count Damoreau had no authority to write in such a strain to you,"
+observed the countess, with asperity.
+
+"There is his letter. He informed me that he has the Count Tristan's
+authority. To prove it, he encloses the letter yesterday delivered to
+him by M. Gaston de Bois."
+
+Count Tristan was too thoroughly confounded to attempt any reply. He was
+painfully aware of the unmistakable character of that epistle.
+
+"Count Damoreau announces to me," continued Madeleine, undisturbed,
+"that he is unable to comply with your request, and extend an invitation
+for me to join his family circle; and that my other relatives have also
+declined to accede to a solicitation of yours that they should by turns
+receive me as an inmate. He adds that his friend, Lady Vivian, is
+seeking an humble companion to accompany her to Scotland; and he trusts
+that I will thankfully accept this situation."
+
+"It is an insult,--a deliberate insult to us and you!" broke forth the
+countess.
+
+Madeleine's lips trembled with a half smile.
+
+"I do not deem it an insult to myself: I am as thankful as Count
+Damoreau can desire me to be; but I decline his well-intentioned
+offer."
+
+Count Tristan ground his teeth, and cast upon Madeleine a glance of fury
+and menacing detestation. Their eyes met, and she returned the look with
+an expression which simply declared she recognized what was passing in
+his mind.
+
+"You did right to decline: I should never have permitted you to accept,"
+remarked the countess, in a somewhat softer tone.
+
+She deemed it politic to conciliate Madeleine for the present, fearing
+that she might be driven to take some humiliating step which would cast
+a reflection upon her kindred.
+
+"I regret that my son has acted hastily. If you conduct yourself with
+the propriety which I have the right to demand, you will still find a
+home in the Chateau de Gramont, and in myself the mother I have ever
+been to you."
+
+"Mother!" at that word Madeleine's glacial composure melted. "A
+_mother!_--oh, my aunt, thank you for that word! You do not know how
+much good it does me to hear it from your lips! But the Chateau de
+Gramont can never more be my home. That is settled: I came to tell you
+so."
+
+"What do you mean?" asked the count, with a gleam of ill-disguised
+satisfaction.
+
+"I mean that I purpose shortly to quit this mansion, _never to return_!"
+
+"Then you _do_ intend to accompany Lady Vivian to Scotland?" he
+inquired.
+
+"You--my niece--_a de Gramont_--become the humble companion of Lady
+Vivian!" exclaimed the countess, in wrathful astonishment. "Can you even
+contemplate such an alternative?"
+
+"No, madame," returned Madeleine, with an emphasis which might have been
+interpreted into a tone of pride. "I shall _not_ become the humble
+companion of any lady."
+
+"With whom do you expect to live?" demanded the count.
+
+"I shall live alone."
+
+"_Live alone_, at your age,--without fortune, without friends? It is
+impracticable,--impossible!" replied her aunt, decisively.
+
+"I have reached my majority. I shall try to deserve friends. I have some
+small possession: the family diamonds of my mother still remain to me."
+
+"But your noble name."
+
+"Rest assured that it will never be disgraced by me!"
+
+"I tell you that your project is impossible," maintained the countess,
+resolutely. "I forbid you to even attempt to put it into execution. I
+forbid you by the gratitude you owe me. I forbid you in the name of all
+the kindnesses I have lavished upon you!"
+
+"And do you not see, my aunt, it is because I would still be grateful
+for these kindnesses that I would go hence? From the moment I learned I
+was a burden to you, that my presence here was unwelcome, this was no
+longer my home. If I leave you now, the memory of your goodness only,
+will dwell in my heart. If I were to remain longer, each day my presence
+would become more intolerable to you; each day your words and looks
+would grow colder and harsher; each day I should feel more degraded in
+my own eyes. _You_ would spoil your own benefactions: _I_ perhaps, might
+forget them, and be stained with the crime of ingratitude. No, let us
+now part,--now, while I may still dare to hope that you will think of me
+with tenderness and regret,--now, while I can yet cherish the
+recollection of the happy days I have passed beneath your roof. My
+resolution is taken: it is unalterable. I could not rest here. You will,
+perhaps, accord me a few days to make needful preparations; then I must
+bid you farewell."
+
+She turned to quit the room, but encountered Maurice and Bertha, who had
+entered in time to hear the last sentence.
+
+Bertha, on leaving her cousin, had sought Maurice and told him of
+Madeleine's prostrating sorrow. They hastened back to the _chalet_
+together, but she had disappeared. They were in search of her when they
+entered the library.
+
+"Bid us farewell, Madeleine?" cried Bertha. "What do you mean? Where are
+you going? Surely you will never leave us?"
+
+"I must."
+
+"But my aunt will not let you; Cousin Tristan will not let you; Maurice
+will not let you. Speak to her, some of you, and say that she shall not
+go."
+
+"Bertha," answered the count, "you do not know all the circumstances
+which have caused Madeleine to form this resolution; and, if my mother
+will pardon me for differing with her, I must say, frankly, that I
+approve of the course Madeleine has chosen. I honor her for it. I think
+she acts wisely in remaining here no longer!"
+
+Then Maurice came forward boldly, and placing himself beside Madeleine,
+with an air of manly protection, spoke out,--
+
+"And _I_ agree with you, my father. I honor Madeleine for her
+resolution. I think she acts wisely in remaining here no longer."
+
+"O Maurice, Maurice! how can you speak so? Don't let her go, unless you
+want to make me miserable!" pleaded Bertha.
+
+Madeleine's hueless face was overspread with a brilliant glow as she
+cast upon Maurice one hasty look of gratitude.
+
+"I speak what I mean. Madeleine cannot, without sacrificing her
+self-respect, accept hospitality which is not freely given,--protection
+which is unwillingly accorded. She cannot remain here as an inferior,--a
+dependent; one who is under daily obligation,--who is merely tolerated
+because she has no other place of refuge. My father, there is only _one_
+position in which she _can_ remain in the Chateau de Gramont, and that
+is as an equal; as its future mistress; as your daughter; _as my wife!_"
+
+The countess was stricken dumb with rage; and a sudden revulsion of
+feeling toward the shrinking girl, whose deep blushes she interpreted
+into a token of exultation, made her almost as willing to drive her
+forth, no matter whither, as her son himself.
+
+Bertha, with an exclamation of delight, flung her arms joyfully about
+Madeleine's neck.
+
+"Maurice, are you mad? Do you forget that you are my son?" was all that
+the count could gasp out, in his indignant amazement.
+
+"It is as your son that I speak; it is as the inheritor of your
+name,--that name which Madeleine also bears."
+
+"You seem to have forgotten"--began his father.
+
+Maurice interrupted him,--
+
+"I have not forgotten that I have not reached my majority, and that your
+consent is necessary to render Madeleine my wife."
+
+(Our readers are doubtless aware that the law in France fixes the
+majority of a young man at twenty-five, and that he has no power to
+contract marriage or to control property until that period.)
+
+"But, believe me, my father, even if this were not the case, I should
+not desire to act without your approval, and I know I could never induce
+Madeleine to forego your consent to our union. But what valid objections
+can you have? You desired that Bertha should become my wife. Is not
+Madeleine precisely the same kin to me as Bertha? Is she not as good, as
+beautiful?"
+
+"Oh, a thousand times better and lovelier!" exclaimed Bertha, with
+affectionate enthusiasm.
+
+"There is but one difference: she is poor and Bertha is rich. Think you
+Bertha's fortune could have one feather's weight in deciding my choice?
+I thank Heaven for teaching me to account it more noble, more honorable,
+to ask what the woman I would marry _is_, than to inquire what she
+_has_."
+
+His father made a vain attempt to speak. Maurice went on without
+noticing the futile effort.
+
+"But this is not all: I dare to hope that Madeleine's heart is mine,
+while Bertha's is not. My father, you requested that Bertha and I should
+have an understanding with each other; and we have had one. Bertha has
+told me that she does not love me. Is it not so, Bertha?"
+
+"I told you that I loved you with all my heart, as the dearest, most
+delightful cousin in the world!" answered Bertha, naively.
+
+"Just as I love you!" replied Maurice, smiling upon her tenderly. "But,
+as a lover, you definitely rejected me,--did you not?"
+
+"Oh, yes; just as you refused me. We are perfectly agreed upon that
+point," she rejoined, with childlike frankness and simplicity.
+
+"For shame, Maurice!" said the countess, in a tone of angry rebuke.
+
+"Grandmother, hear me out. For once my heart must speak, even though it
+may be silent forever after. I feel that my whole future destiny hangs
+upon the events of this moment. You love me as a de Gramont should love;
+you love me with an ambition to see me worthy of my name,--to see that
+name rendered more lustrous in my person. How far that is possible, my
+father's decision and yours this hour will determine. I am ardent,
+impetuous, fond of excitement, reckless at times,--as prone, I fear, to
+be tempted to vice as to be inspired by virtue. If you withhold your
+consent to my union with the only woman I can love,--if you drive me to
+despair,--I am lost! Every pure and lofty aspiration within my nature
+will be crushed out, and in its place the opposite inclination will
+spring. I warned you before, when you thwarted the noblest resolution I
+ever formed. There is yet time to save me from the evil effects of that
+disappointment, and to spare me the worst results of _this_. If you
+grant me Madeleine"--
+
+"Maurice, for pity's sake!" supplicated Madeleine, extending her clasped
+hands toward him.
+
+Maurice caught the outstretched hands in his, and bent over her with an
+expression of ineffable love irradiating his countenance.
+
+"Do not speak yet, Madeleine; do not answer until you have heard
+me,--until you have well comprehended my meaning. You do not know the
+thousand perils by which a young man is beset in Paris,--the siren lures
+that are thrown in his way to ensnare his feet, be they disposed to
+walk ever so warily. You do not know that your holy image, rising up
+before me, shining upon the path I trod, and beckoning me into the right
+road when I swerved aside, has alone saved me from falling into that
+vortex of follies and vices by which men are daily swallowed up, and
+from which they emerge sullied and debased. You do not know that, while
+I am here beside you, listening to the sound of your voice, holding your
+hand, gazing upon your face, I feel like one inspired, who has power to
+make his life glorious and keep it pure! Madeleine, would you have me
+great, distinguished? I shall become so if it be your will. Would you
+have me lift up our noble name? It shall be exalted at your bidding.
+Would you reign over my soul and keep it stainless? It is under your
+angel guardianship. Madeleine, best beloved, will you not save me?"
+
+Madeleine only answered with a look which besought Maurice to forbear.
+
+"Is your rhapsody finished at last?" asked Count Tristan, scornfully.
+"Is any one else to be permitted to speak?"
+
+"It seems there is but one person whose voice is of any importance to
+your son," sneered the countess, "and that is Madeleine. It is for _her_
+to speak; it is for her to accomplish her work of base ingratitude; it
+is for her to give the last finishing stroke to the fabric she has
+secretly been laboring to build up for the last three years."
+
+Madeleine--who, when the voice of Maurice was sounding in her ears, had
+been unable to control the agitation which caused her breast to heave,
+and her frame to quiver from head to foot, while confusion flung its
+crimson mantle over her face--grew suddenly calm when she heard these
+taunts. The same icy, pallid quietude with which, but a few moments
+before, she entered the library, returned. She withdrew the hands
+Maurice had clasped in his, lifted her bowed head, and stood erect,
+preparing to reply.
+
+"Speak!" commanded the count, furiously. "Speak! since _we_ are nothing
+and nobody here, and _you are everything_. Since you are sole arbiter in
+this family, speak!"
+
+Madeleine could not at once command her voice.
+
+The countess, arguing the worst from her silence, cried, with
+culminating wrath, "Speak, viper! Dart your fangs into the bosom that
+has sheltered you: it is bared to receive the deadly stroke; it is ready
+to die of your venom! Nothing remains but for you to strike!"
+
+"Take courage, dearest Madeleine," whispered Bertha. "They will not be
+angry long. Speak and tell them that you love Maurice as he loves you,
+and that you will be the happiest of women if you become his wife."
+
+"Well, your answer, Mademoiselle de Gramont?" urged the countess.
+
+"It will be an answer for which I have only the pardon of Maurice to
+ask," said Madeleine, speaking slowly, but firmly. "Maurice, my cousin,
+I shall never be able to tell you,--you can never know,--what emotions
+of thankfulness you have awakened in my soul, nor how unutterably
+precious your words are to me. Thus much I may say; for the rest, _I can
+never become your wife!_"
+
+"You refuse me because my father and my grandmother have _compelled_ you
+to do so by their reproaches,--their _menaces_, I might say!" cried
+Maurice, wholly forgetting his wonted respect in the rush of tumultuous
+feelings. "This and this only is your reason for consigning me to
+misery."
+
+The fear that she had awakened unfilial emotions in the bosom of Maurice
+infused fresh fortitude into Madeleine's spirit.
+
+"No, Maurice, you are wrong. If my aunt and Count Tristan had not
+uttered one word on the subject, my answer to you would have been the
+same."
+
+"How can that be possible? How can I have been so deceived? There is
+only _one_ obstacle which _can_ discourage me, only one which can force
+me to yield you up, and that is an admission, from your own lips, that
+your affections are already bestowed,--that your heart is no longer
+free."
+
+Madeleine, without hesitation, replied in a clear, steady, deliberate
+tone, looking her cousin full in the face, and not by the faintest sign
+betraying the poniard which she heroically plunged into her own devoted
+breast,--
+
+"My affections are bestowed; my heart is _no longer free!_"
+
+"Madeleine, Madeleine! you do not love Maurice,--you love some one
+else?" questioned Bertha, in sorrowful astonishment.
+
+Maurice spoke no word. He stood one moment looking at Madeleine as a
+drowning man might have looked at the ship that could have saved him
+disappearing in the distance. Then he murmured, hardly conscious of his
+own words,--
+
+"And I felt sure her heart was mine! O Madeleine! may you never know
+what you have done!"
+
+"Forgive me if you can, Maurice. Be generous enough to pardon one who
+has made you suffer. A bright future is before you. The darkness of this
+hour will gradually fade out of your memory."
+
+"Say, rather, that you have taken from me my future,--withdrawn its
+guiding star, and left me a rayless and eternal night. But why should I
+reproach you? What right had I to deem myself worthy of you? You love
+_another_. All is spoken in those words: there is nothing more for me to
+say, except to thank you for not discarding me without making a
+confession which annihilates all hope."
+
+There was a dignity in his grief more touching than the most passionate
+outburst would have been. Even his grandmother, in spite of her joy at
+Madeleine's declaration, was not wholly unmoved as she contemplated him.
+Count Tristan's exultation broke through all polite disguise,--
+
+"Madeleine has atoned for much of the past by her present conduct; it
+has restored her in a measure to"--
+
+Madeleine, as far as her gentle nature permitted, experienced an
+antipathy toward Count Tristan only surpassed by that which he
+entertained for her. The sound of his voice grated on her ears; his
+commendation made her doubt the wisdom and purity of her own act; his
+approval irritated her as no rebuke could have done. Without waiting for
+him to conclude his sentence, she grasped Bertha's hand, whispering, "I
+cannot stay here; I am stifling; come with me."
+
+They left the room together, and took their way in silence to
+Madeleine's chamber. Bertha carefully closed the door, and, drawing her
+cousin down into a seat, placed herself beside her, and strove to read
+her countenance.
+
+"Madeleine, is it possible? How mistaken I have been! You do not love
+our cousin Maurice. Poor Maurice! It is a dreadful blow to him. And you
+love some one else. But whom? I know of no gentleman who comes here
+often,--who is on an intimate footing at the chateau,--except"--
+
+A painful suspicion for the first time shot through her mind, and made
+her pause. Could it be Gaston de Bois whom Madeleine preferred? She
+always treated him with such marked courtesy. There was no one else,--it
+must be he! Bertha could not frame the question that hovered about her
+lips, though to have heard it answered in the negative would have made
+her heart leap for joy.
+
+Madeleine was too much absorbed by her own reflections to divine those
+of her cousin.
+
+"At all events," said Bertha, trying to rally and talk cheerfully,
+though she could not chase that haunting fear from her thoughts, "my
+aunt is no longer angry with you, and cousin Tristan was well pleased.
+They will treat you better after this, and your home will be happier."
+
+"_My home?_" ejaculated Madeleine, in a tone that made Bertha start.
+
+"Yes, yours, until you exchange it for that of the favored lover, of
+whose name you make such a mystery."
+
+"_That will never be!_"
+
+"Never? Does he not love you, then? But I know he does,--he must. Every
+one loves you; no one can help it,--you win all hearts!"
+
+"_Count Tristan's, for instance_," remarked Madeleine, bitterly.
+
+"Ah, not _his_, that is true. How wickedly he looked at you when Maurice
+pictured how dear you were to him! I noticed Cousin Tristan's eyes, and
+they frightened me. He looked positively fiendish; and when Maurice
+said"--
+
+To hear those precious words Maurice had spoken,--those words which she
+could never more forget,--repeated, was beyond Madeleine's powers of
+endurance: she sprang up, exclaiming, "Do not let us talk of these
+matters any more to-day, Bertha. It is growing late,--almost six
+o'clock. It is time for you to dress for dinner. And you have not
+forgotten the ball to-night?"
+
+"I could not bear to go now. I am sure Maurice will not go; and
+you,--would you go, even if we did?"
+
+"You will not refuse me a favor, Bertha, though it may cost you some
+pain to grant it? Go to this ball, and persuade, entreat Maurice to go.
+If you do not, you will draw down my aunt's displeasure upon me anew,
+for she will know why you remain at home,--especially as it will be
+impossible for me to appear in public to-night."
+
+"I would do anything rather than have my aunt displeased with you again;
+and then there is the beautiful dress you have taken such pains to
+make."
+
+"I should be very much disappointed if you did not wear it this evening.
+Now let us prepare for dinner."
+
+As she spoke, Madeleine commenced her own toilet. Bertha stood looking
+at her as she unbound her long silken hair, and, after smoothing it as
+carefully as was her wont, rapidly formed the coronal braid, and wound
+the rich tress about the regal head.
+
+"I cannot comprehend you, Madeleine: you are a marvel to me. A couple
+of hours ago you were almost frantic with grief,--I never saw any one
+weep so immoderately; and now you are as serene as though nothing had
+happened. If your lips were not so very, very white, and your eyes had
+not such a fixed, unnatural look, I could almost think you had forgotten
+that anything unusual had occurred."
+
+"Forget it yourself, dear, and make ready for dinner."
+
+Bertha obeyed at least part of the injunction, still wondering over
+Madeleine's incomprehensible placidity.
+
+The young maidens entered the dining-room together. Maurice came in
+late. The meal passed almost in silence, though the Countess and Count
+Tristan made unusual efforts to keep up a conversation.
+
+Bertha was right in imagining Maurice had lost all inclination to appear
+at the ball. When she brought up the subject, he answered impatiently
+that he did not intend to go. His grandmother heard the remark, and made
+an especial request that he would change that decision and accompany
+them. Bertha added her entreaties; but Maurice seemed inclined to rebel,
+until she whispered,--
+
+"If you stay at home, my aunt will say it is Madeleine's fault, and she
+will be vexed with her again. Madeleine begged you would spare her this
+new trial, and bade me entreat you to go."
+
+Maurice looked across the table, for the first time during dinner, and
+found Madeleine's eyes turned anxiously upon him.
+
+"I will go," he murmured.
+
+His words were addressed rather to her than to Bertha. A scarcely
+perceptible smile on the lips of the former was his reward.
+
+No comment was made upon Madeleine's determination to remain at home.
+But the tone of the countess to her niece, when she was officiating as
+usual at her aunt's toilet, was gentler than she had ever before used.
+Not the faintest allusion to the events of the morning dropped from the
+lips of either.
+
+At last the carriage drove from the door, and Madeleine was left alone
+with her own thoughts. The mask of composure was no longer needed, yet
+there was no return of the morning's turbulent emotion.
+
+Are not great trials sent to incite us to great exertions, which we
+might not have the energy, the wit, perhaps the _humility_, to
+undertake, but for the spurring sting of that especial grief? Madeleine
+had resolutely looked her affliction full in the face; had grown
+familiar with its sternest, saddest features; had bowed before them,
+and dashed the tears from her eyes, to see more clearly as that sorrow
+pointed out a path which all her firmness would be taxed in treading,--a
+path which she had never dreamed existed for her, until it had been
+opened, hewn through the rocks of circumstance by that day's heavy
+blows, that hour's piercing anguish.
+
+Her greatest difficulty lay in the necessity of concealing the step she
+was about to take from her aunt, whose violent opposition would throw a
+fearful obstacle in the way. It was easier to avoid than to surmount
+such a barrier; but if it could not be avoided, it _must_ be surmounted.
+In that decision she could not waver.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+FLIGHT.
+
+
+Can there be a more dreary solitude, to a mind writhing under the throes
+of some new and hidden sorrow, than a brilliant ballroom? The stirring
+music jars like harshest discord upon the unattuned ear; the glaring
+lights dazzle the pained vision until utter darkness would seem
+grateful; the merry voices and careless laughter catch a tone of bitter
+mockery; the gayly apparelled forms, the faces decked with soulless
+smiles, are more oppressive than all the apparitions with which a
+fevered imagination can people the gloomiest seclusion. Maurice soon
+found the festive scene at the Chateau de Tremazan intolerable, and took
+refuge in the illuminated conservatory, the doors of which were thrown
+invitingly open. It was mid-summer, but the flowers had been restored to
+brighten their winter shelter during the fete. He had thought to find
+himself alone; but yonder, bending over richly-tinted clusters of
+azaleas and odorous heliotropes, a group of youthful heads unconcernedly
+thrust their lifeless chaplets in challenging contrast with nature's
+living loveliness, while flowing robes recklessly swept their floral
+imitations against her shrinking originals. In a different state of mind
+Maurice might not have been struck by the incongruous contact of the
+painted semblance with the blushing reality; but now it reminded him too
+keenly that the sphere within which he was bound, a social Ixion upon
+the petty wheel of conventionalism, was one grand combination of
+artificial trivialities and senseless shams. Goaded beyond endurance by
+the reflection, he impatiently made his escape into the open air.
+
+Bertha had never mingled with a gay crowd in so joyless a mood. The
+presence of the heiress created no little sensation; but good-breeding
+kept its manifestation within such delicate limits that she was
+unconscious of its existence. She was not even aware that it was a sign
+of her own importance when the Marchioness de Fleury glided up to Count
+Tristan, on whose arm Bertha was leaning, and, in a softly cadenced
+voice, asked if she had not the pleasure of seeing Mademoiselle de
+Merrivale. In reply, the count presented Bertha. As she returned the
+courtesy of the marchioness, she could not help remembering the
+declaration of Maurice, that he had never perused the countenance of the
+distinguished belle, because his attention was irresistibly riveted upon
+the wondrous details of her toilet: for Bertha found her own eyes
+involuntarily wandering over the graceful folds of the amethyst velvet,
+and the exquisite disposition of the _point de Venise_ by which it was
+elaborately ornamented; the artistic head-dress in perfect accordance
+with the costly robe, and the Cleopatra-like drops of pearls which
+seemed to have been showered over the wearer from brow to foot.
+
+Bertha's eyes were too ingenuous not to betray their occupation; but
+those of the marchioness seemed only to be looking, with the most
+complimentary expression of interest, into the face of her new
+acquaintance, while, in reality, she was scanning Bertha's picturesque
+attire, and longing to discover by what tasteful fingers it had been
+contrived; examining the polished ivy intertwined among her bright
+ringlets, and the half-blown roses just bursting their sheaths in a
+glossy covert of amber tresses; and wondering that a coiffure with such
+poetic taste could have existed unknown in Brittany. As the marchioness
+stood, dropping sweet, meaningless words from her dewy lips, Bertha's
+hand was claimed by the Duke de Montauban, and she was led to the dance.
+
+She was moving through the quadrille with a languid, unelastic motion,
+very unlike her usual springing step, when she caught sight of M. de
+Bois, standing at a short distance, with his face turned toward her. The
+smile that accompanied her bow of greeting drew him nearer. As the dance
+ended, and her partner was reconducting her to the countess, M. de Bois
+overcame his timidity sufficiently to join her.
+
+"Where is Mademoiselle Mad--ad--adeleine?" he inquired. "I have not seen
+her."
+
+"She is not here. She would not come," sighed Bertha, stopping abruptly,
+though they had not quite reached her chaperone's side.
+
+"Is she ill? She told me this morning that she would certainly be here.
+Has anything happened?" asked M. de Bois, speaking as distinctly as
+though he had never stammered in his life, and throwing off, in his
+growing excitement, all the awkwardness of his constitutional
+diffidence.
+
+Bertha could not but remark his anxious expression, and a suspicion,
+which she had essayed to banish, once more took possession of her mind.
+But she loved Madeleine with such absolute devotion, that this vague,
+uncomfortable sensation was quickly displaced by a purer emotion.
+Glancing at the countess to see that she was not within hearing
+distance, she disengaged her arm from that of the duke, with a bow which
+he interpreted into a dismissal, and then, turning eagerly to M. de
+Bois, recounted to him, in a low, hurried tone, the occurrences of the
+morning. She fancied she heard words which sounded very like muttered
+imprecations. He was perhaps putting into practice his new method of
+loosening his tongue, and doubtless imagined that the emphatic
+utterances were inaudible.
+
+Bertha went on. "It was a terrible blow to Maurice! He felt so sure
+until then that Madeleine loved him; so did I. But we were both
+mistaken. It is plain enough now that she does _not_."
+
+"What makes it plain? How can you be sure?" asked M. de Bois, becoming
+more and more disturbed.
+
+"Her own declaration has placed the fact beyond doubt. She even
+confessed that she loved another."
+
+Her listener did not attempt to conceal his consternation at these
+words.
+
+"Mademoiselle Madeleine said she loved another! She, who would not stoop
+to breathe a word which was not the strictest truth,--_she told you so?_
+You heard it yourself? You are _certain, very certain_, Mademoiselle
+Bertha?"
+
+"I dare say that I ought not to have repeated this to you," replied
+Bertha, who now experienced some self-reproach at betraying her friend's
+secret to one whom it, perhaps, so deeply concerned; "but I am very
+certain that Madeleine distinctly rejected Maurice, and, when he
+attributed her refusal to his grandmother's and his father's disapproval
+of his suit, she denied that she was influenced by them, and confessed
+that her heart was not free,--that she had bestowed it upon another."
+
+"By all that is heroic, she is a noble woman!" exclaimed M. de Bois,
+fervently. "She has the grandest nature! She is incom-com-com"--
+
+"Incomparable," said Bertha, finishing his sentence, and checking a
+sigh. "Yes, I never knew any one like her. She has no equal."
+
+"I don't exactly say _that_. I don't mean _that_. She is not
+su-su-superior--to"--
+
+Bertha did not assist him by completing _this_ disjointed phrase, even
+if she suspected what he desired to say.
+
+At that moment Count Damoreau approached, accompanied by a gaunt,
+overdressed lady, with harsh and forbidding features.
+
+"Lady Vivian is looking for Mademoiselle de Gramont. Did she not
+accompany you?" inquired the count.
+
+"She intended to do so, but changed her mind."
+
+"She received a letter from me to-day,--did she not?" continued Count
+Damoreau.
+
+"Yes, I remember delivering one to her myself, which Baptiste said was
+brought by your valet."
+
+"Did she not apprise you of its contents?"
+
+"No. I was not present when she opened the letter."
+
+"Then you do not know how she received my proposition?" remarked Lady
+Vivian, in a grating voice. "I begin to be a little doubtful myself how
+it will do. Is your cousin as handsome as they say she is?"
+
+"In my eyes she is the most beautiful person in the world," answered
+Bertha, in a tone of admiration the sincerity of which could not be
+mistaken.
+
+Lady Vivian looked vexed, and replied, "That's a pity. Beauty is a
+decided objection in such a position."
+
+"I beg your ladyship's pardon," returned Bertha, with spirit; "but I
+cannot perceive that my cousin's position renders her beauty
+objectionable."
+
+"Beauty is very suitable to you, my dear; but for an humble companion"--
+
+"An _humble companion_? Madeleine is not my aunt's humble companion, nor
+mine. She is"--
+
+"To become _mine_, I believe!" rejoined Lady Vivian, brusquely. "And I
+already begin to regret that I acceded to Count Damoreau's wishes."
+
+"Madeleine your ladyship's humble companion? _That_ she shall never be.
+O Count Damoreau! how _could_ you have suggested such an idea? I would
+go on my knees to implore her not to consent! I am sure your ladyship
+will find yourself mistaken."
+
+Bertha, as she said these words, bowed with a degree of hauteur which no
+one had ever seen her assume, and, taking M. de Bois's arm, approached
+her aunt with a troubled countenance. Before the Countess de Gramont
+could ask the cause of her evident disquietude, she said,--
+
+"I wish we could go home, aunt: I am wearied to death. I cannot enjoy
+anything to-night. And that horrid Lady Vivian has made me so angry,
+talking of Madeleine as her humble companion! Such impertinence! Surely
+you would never permit anything of the kind?"
+
+"Never! I do not wonder you were indignant. But do you really wish to
+go?"
+
+"Oh, yes. I am stifling here. I never was at such a dull ball. Pray,
+pray take me home!"
+
+Her aunt could not refuse a request so vehemently urged, and begged M.
+de Bois to seek Maurice. Fearing that Madame de Tremazan would be
+mortified by their early departure, the countess took an opportunity to
+leave the ballroom, accompanied by her niece and son, without attracting
+the observation of the hostess. M. de Bois joined them in the
+antechamber, with the intelligence that Maurice was nowhere to be found.
+After a second search, and half an hour's delay, the carriage started
+without him.
+
+As soon as they reached the chateau, Bertha bade her aunt good-night,
+and hastened to Madeleine's chamber. Madeleine, who did not anticipate
+her speedy return, and had not heard her light foot upon the floor, was
+sitting beside a small table, her head supported by her hands, and bent
+over some object which she contemplated with intense interest. At the
+sound of Bertha's voice she hastily closed the lids of a couple of
+ancient-looking caskets, which stood before her, and rose from her seat.
+
+"Is it you, Bertha? How soon you have returned!"
+
+"Yes; I was glad to get away. The ball was wretchedly stupid; and, after
+that disagreeable Lady Vivian irritated me by talking of you, I could
+not stay. She seemed to have the audacity to expect that you would
+become her humble companion. _You!_ our noble, _doubly noble_ Madeleine,
+the humble companion of any one, but especially of such a coarse person
+as Lady Vivian! It was unendurable."
+
+"It is very possible that Count Damoreau assured her I would accept the
+proposition she made me through him," was Madeleine's calm reply.
+
+"But you never could have entertained it for a moment?"
+
+"No. There is the answer I have just written to Count Damoreau. You may
+read it."
+
+Bertha glanced over the letter approvingly. As she laid it upon the
+table, she noticed the caskets.
+
+"What are these, Madeleine?--jewel-cases?"
+
+"They were my mother's diamonds. They have been in the family, I can
+hardly tell you for how many generations."
+
+"Do let me see them."
+
+Bertha opened one of the cases. A necklace, brooch, and ear-rings of
+brilliants sparkled within. The precious stones emitted a clear lustre
+which would have caused a connoisseur at once to pronounce them of the
+first water; but their setting was quaint and old-fashioned. The
+necklace was composed of diamonds _fleur-de-lis_, divided by emerald
+shamrock-leaves. A single _fleur-de-lis_, surrounded by the emerald
+shamrock, formed the brooch and ear-rings.
+
+"Some of your ancestors must have come from the emerald isle: so, at
+least, we may infer from this shamrock."
+
+"Yes, my great-great-great-grandfather married the beautiful Lady
+Katrine Nugent, and these were her bridal jewels. You see that the
+shamrock of Erin is mingled with the _fleur-de-lis_ of France."
+
+Bertha unclosed the other case. It held a bracelet and a tiara-shaped
+comb. The shamrock and lily were blended as in the necklace.
+
+"These diamonds are very lustrous," said Bertha, clasping the bracelet
+admiringly upon her delicate wrist. "But what are you doing with them,
+and at this time of night?"
+
+"Looking at them," answered Madeleine, with some hesitation. "I have not
+seen them before for years."
+
+"You shall wear them for your bridal _parure_, Madeleine."
+
+Madeleine tried to laugh.
+
+"Then I should carry my whole fortune on my back; all that remains of my
+ancient house I should bear, snail-fashion, upon my head and shoulders.
+No, little dreamer, of two facts you may rest assured: one is that I
+shall never wear these jewels; the other that I never shall be a bride.
+Come, let me undress you; your blue eyes are so sleepy they are growing
+gray as the heavens at twilight."
+
+The Chateau de Tremazan was seven miles from his father's mansion, but
+Maurice, after his abrupt exit from the conservatory, walked leisurely
+home. The next morning, before the count had risen, his son entered the
+room, in travelling attire, to make the communication that he had
+ordered the carriage to drive him to Rennes, in time to meet the early
+train that started for Paris. He trusted his father would offer no
+objection, and would make the traveller's apologies to the ladies of the
+household, for avoiding the pain of leave-taking. Count Tristan approved
+of the journey; and, a few moments later, Maurice leaped into the coach,
+glancing eagerly up at a window, surrounded by a framework of jasmine
+vines; but no face looked forth; no hand waved a farewell and filled the
+vernal frame with a living picture.
+
+The intelligence of his sudden departure was received differently by the
+three ladies. The countess was inclined to be displeased that he had
+foregone the ceremony of an adieu. Any shortcoming in the payment of the
+full amount of deference, which she considered her due, was a great
+offence. Of late, Maurice had several times wounded her upon this tender
+point, and her sensitiveness was thereby increased.
+
+Bertha was loud in her lamentations over the disappearance of her
+cousin. Her deep chagrin revived the hopes of Count Tristan and his
+mother, and awakened the welcome suggestion, that he, in reality, held a
+tenderer place in her heart than she had ever admitted to herself.
+
+Madeleine's face instinctively brightened when she heard that Maurice
+was gone; his departure smoothed away a difficulty from the path she was
+about to tread. Count Tristan watched her closely, and was perplexed by
+the gleam of genuine satisfaction that illumined her countenance. For
+the first time he was half deceived into the belief that the passion of
+Maurice was unrequited. He had been puzzled in what manner to interpret
+Madeleine's determined rejection of her cousin. He was unable to
+comprehend a purity of motive which his narrow mind was equally
+incapable of experiencing. He finally attributed her conduct partly to a
+dread of her aunt's and his own displeasure, partly to a desire to
+render herself more highly valued by Maurice, and to gain a firmer hold
+upon his affections.
+
+M. de Bois was an early visitor on the day after the ball, but never had
+he seemed more ill at ease, or found more difficulty in controlling his
+restless nervousness, or in expressing himself intelligibly. When he
+heard that Maurice was on his way to Paris, he dashed down an antique
+vase by his sudden movement of vexation, and, in stooping to gather the
+fractured china, upset the stand upon which it had stood. This
+manifestation of awkwardness, of course, increased his _mal-aise_; and,
+although the countess remained as unmoved as though she wholly ignored
+the accident, he could not recover his equanimity. Madeleine left the
+drawing-room with the fragments of the vase in her hand, and did not
+return. After a prolonged and unsatisfactory visit, M. de Bois took his
+leave.
+
+As he issued from the chateau, Baptiste dropped his spade and followed
+him, keeping at a short distance behind, until he neared the gate; then
+the old gardener approached, looking cautiously around to see that he
+was not observed, stealthily held out a note, whispering, "Mademoiselle
+Madeleine bade me give this to monsieur," turned on his heel, and walked
+away as rapidly as though he feared to be pursued.
+
+The note contained these words:--
+
+     "A friend in my great emergency is indispensable to me. I
+     have no friend in whom I can confide but you. I shall be at
+     the little _chalet_ to-morrow morning, at five o'clock.
+
+                                   "MADELEINE M. DE GRAMONT."
+
+A radiant change passed over the shadowed features of Gaston de Bois, as
+he read these lines. That one so self-reliant as Madeleine proffered him
+her confidence, trusted him, appealed to him for aid, was surely enough
+to raise him in his own esteem; and he almost forgot the recent
+mortification caused by an unfortunate awkwardness and miserable
+diffidence, which seemed the haunting demons of his existence.
+
+Impatience chased all slumber from his eyes that night, and the dawn had
+scarcely broken when he hastened to the _chalet_ to await the coming of
+Madeleine. The appointed time had just arrived, as the watch he
+constantly consulted informed him, when she entered the summer-house.
+Their interview, occupied but half an hour; but, when M. de Bois left
+the _chalet_, his countenance wore an expression of earnestness,
+responsibility, and composure, totally opposite to its usual
+characteristics.
+
+Madeleine, as she tripped back through the dew, smiled with moist
+eyes,--a smile of gratitude rather than of pleasure. More than once she
+drew a long breath, as though some heavy pressure had been lifted from
+her breast; and, as she dashed away the tears that gathered in her eyes,
+she seemed eagerly looking into the distance, as though a mist had
+rolled from before her steps, and she now saw her way clearly. All was
+silent in the chateau, and she reached her chamber unperceived.
+
+That day passed as usual, and another, and another. Madeleine never once
+alluded to the determination which she had announced to her aunt as
+unalterable, and the countess was satisfied that her niece had spoken
+under the influence of excitement, without any fixed purpose; and
+gradually dismissed from her mind the fear that her dependent relative
+would take some rash and dignity-compromising step.
+
+Bertha had not forgotten that Madeleine had declared the Chateau de
+Gramont was no longer her home; but as the latter went through the daily
+routine of her wonted avocations as though they were always to continue,
+and as no change was apparent in her manner, save that she was more
+silent and meditative, and her once ready smiles grew rarer, Bertha,
+also, was lulled into the belief that her cousin had abandoned her
+intention.
+
+Count Tristan fell into no such error. Madeleine's preoccupied mien, her
+unwonted reserve, the tender sadness with which she sometimes gazed
+around her, as though bidding farewell to dear, familiar objects,
+assured him that she had not spoken lightly, and that her threat would
+be carried into execution at no distant period. Well was it for her that
+he had come to this satisfactory conclusion, for it spared her further
+persecution at his hands.
+
+On the fourth morning after the departure of Maurice, Bertha entered
+Madeleine's chamber, according to her custom,--for the young maidens
+always descended to breakfast together. Her room was empty.
+
+"She has not waited for me to-day," thought Bertha, hurrying down, and
+expecting to find Madeleine in the breakfast-room.
+
+The countess and her son were at table, but Madeleine was not there.
+
+"Has Madeleine breakfasted?" inquired Bertha, cutting short her morning
+salutations.
+
+The answer was in the negative.
+
+"Have you not seen her?" she asked.
+
+"No, not this morning," replied the countess.
+
+"I suppose she is taking an early walk," continued Bertha. "It seems odd
+that she does not come back, for she is never late."
+
+Bertha seated herself, but the coffee remained untasted before her; and
+her head was constantly turned towards the window which commanded a view
+of the garden and park. Gustave passed, and she cried out to him,--
+
+"Gustave, have you seen Mademoiselle Madeleine, this morning?"
+
+"No, mademoiselle."
+
+"Why, where _can_ she be?" exclaimed Bertha, impatiently. "If you will
+excuse me, aunt, I will go in search of her. Since she has not broken
+her fast yet, we will breakfast together, as usual." And away darted
+Bertha into the garden.
+
+The countess had not attached any importance to Madeleine's absence, and
+resumed the conversation with her son.
+
+Through Count Tristan's mind the suspicion at once had flashed that
+Madeleine was gone, and he chuckled inwardly at the verification of his
+own unspoken predictions. A quarter of an hour passed, and then he
+beheld Bertha coming rapidly from the direction of the _chalet_. He felt
+no surprise in observing that she was alone. The windows of the
+breakfast-room opened to the ground, and she entered by one of
+them,--her face crimsoned, her fair hair unbound and floating over her
+shoulders, for she had been running.
+
+"I cannot find Madeleine!" she faltered out. "It is very strange! She is
+not in the _chalet_, nor in the garden. I have called until I am hoarse.
+I picked up this handkerchief in the _chalet_,--it is marked 'G. de
+Bois,' yet it is three days since M. de Bois was here; and Madeleine and
+I have spent every morning since then at the _chalet_. When could M. de
+Bois have dropped this handkerchief there?"
+
+The count took the handkerchief from her hand, and examined the mark
+without comment: he could not trust his voice at that moment.
+
+"I presume Madeleine will be here presently, to account for herself,"
+remarked the countess, not apparently discomposed. "Take your breakfast,
+Bertha; there is no need of your fasting until she chooses to make her
+appearance."
+
+Bertha obediently sat down, sipped her coffee for a few moments, and
+then, declaring that she wanted nothing more, left the room and returned
+to Madeleine's apartment. It was in perfect order, but so it was always;
+the bed was made, but Madeleine was in the habit of making her own bed;
+there was no sign of change. Bertha opened the wardrobe,--the dresses
+Madeleine usually wore were hanging within; she wandered about the room,
+examining every nook and corner, hardly conscious of what she was
+doing,--what she expected to find or to miss. All at once she remarked
+that a few books, which were favorites of Madeleine and once belonged to
+her father, had been removed from the table; but what of that?--they
+had probably been placed somewhere else. Continuing her almost
+purposeless search, Bertha now drew out the drawers of the bureau: they
+usually held Madeleine's linen; they were empty! In violent agitation
+the kneeling girl sprang to her feet; her undefined fear was taking
+shape. She ran to the antechamber and looked for a little trunk which
+had come to the chateau with Madeleine: it was no longer there!
+
+Bertha darted down the stair and rushed into her aunt's presence,
+sobbing out in agony of grief,--"She has gone! Madeleine has gone! I
+know she has gone, and she will never, never return to us! Her dresses
+are there; everything you have given her is there; she has only taken
+with her what she had when she came to the chateau, and she has surely
+gone!"
+
+Count Tristan pretended to laugh at Bertha's fears, and maintained that
+Madeleine would presently walk in, and feel very much flattered by the
+sensation she had created, and by her cousin's lamentations over her
+supposed flight; adding, jocosely, that it was not easy for a young lady
+to disappear in that dramatic manner, except from the pages of a novel.
+
+The countess, who began to be alarmed, desired her son to ring the bell.
+Gustave appeared in answer, and, after being closely questioned, was
+desired to summon the other domestics. Bettina and Elise promptly obeyed
+the command. Their answers were precisely the same as those of Gustave:
+they had not seen Madeleine; they could not imagine where she was.
+
+"Baptiste,--where is he?" asked the countess.
+
+Baptiste was in the garden.
+
+"I am going out,--I will speak to him myself, and also institute further
+inquiries to satisfy our dear little Bertha; but I warn her that her
+dreams of a romantic adventure, and the flight of a young lady from an
+ancient chateau and her natural protectors, will probably meet with a
+sudden check by Madeleine's walking in from a long ramble."
+
+Thus speaking, the count left Bertha to be consoled by his mother, and
+went forth in search of Baptiste. Count Tristan well knew that, although
+the domestics were all warmly attached to Madeleine, the devotion of
+Baptiste was unsurpassed. The count did not, for one instant, doubt that
+she had really gone. Some assistance she must have had, and Baptiste's
+was the aid she would naturally have selected. He chose to interrogate
+the old man himself, to _prevent his giving_ rather than to extract
+information from him.
+
+The simple-hearted gardener was not an adept in deception. He was
+digging among his flower-beds when his master approached him, and it did
+not escape the nobleman's observation that the spade went into the
+ground and was drawn out again with increased rapidity as he drew near,
+and that the head of Baptiste, instead of being lifted to see who was
+coming, was bent down as though he wished to appear wholly engrossed in
+his occupation.
+
+"Baptiste?"
+
+"Monsieur?"
+
+The tremulous voice in which that one word was uttered, and his guilty
+countenance, scarcely raised as he spoke, were enough to convict him.
+
+"Has Mademoiselle Madeleine passed you in walking out, this morning?"
+
+"No, monsieur. I have been very busy, monsieur; these flower-beds are in
+a terrible state; it is not easy for one pair of hands to keep them even
+in tolerable order. I have not noticed who passed. I don't generally
+look about me,--I"--
+
+"Oh, very well; we thought perhaps you might have seen Mademoiselle
+Madeleine to-day, as she must have walked out; but, as you know nothing
+at all about her, I will inform the countess and Mademoiselle Bertha."
+
+"I am much obliged to monsieur," replied Baptiste, gratefully.
+
+He could not conceal his thankfulness at escaping the cross-examination
+which he had anticipated with the dread natural to one wholly
+unpractised in dissimulation.
+
+"This handkerchief of M. de Bois was found in the _chalet_," continued
+the count. "I suppose he sometimes strolls over here in the morning, at
+an hour too early for visiting; it is very natural, as we are such near
+neighbors."
+
+"As monsieur says, it would be very natural."
+
+The count had gained all the information that he desired, and without
+letting Baptiste suspect he had betrayed his secret. That Madeleine had
+actually fled, that M. de Bois had lent his aid, and that Baptiste had
+been taken into their confidence, was indubitable.
+
+The count returned to the chateau, and joined his mother, who was making
+vain attempts to soothe Bertha. The only comfort to which she would
+listen was the assurance that, if Madeleine had really gone, she would
+be traced and entreated to return to her former home.
+
+The count now thought it politic to assume an air of the deepest
+concern.
+
+"I am grieved to bring you such unsatisfactory news; but Baptiste knows
+nothing,--he has not seen Madeleine. I am very much shocked, but the
+fear that she has really left us forces itself upon me. I will order my
+horse and ride over to Rennes. She probably obtained a conveyance last
+night or this morning to take her there, as it is the nearest town; and
+then, by railroad or stage-coach, she must have proceeded upon her
+journey."
+
+"But how could she have obtained a conveyance if none of the servants
+were in her confidence? She must have walked, though it is five miles;
+but that cannot be, for she could not have carried her trunk. Some one
+_must_ have aided her. Oh, who _can_ it be?"
+
+Bertha wiped her streaming eyes with the handkerchief in her hand; it
+was the handkerchief found in the _chalet_,--that of Gaston de Bois. It
+seemed to answer her question. She hesitated for some moments before she
+could persuade herself to communicate her suspicion; but her strong love
+for Madeleine, and her desire that she should be restored to them,
+prevailed. She handed the handkerchief to Count Tristan.
+
+"Before you go to Rennes, will you not return this handkerchief to M. de
+Bois? As it was picked up in the _chalet_, he must have been there
+lately,--possibly this morning. Perhaps he knows something of
+Madeleine's flight. Oh, he _must_ know!--he must! Make him tell
+you,--implore him to tell you!"
+
+The count took the handkerchief, saying, "It is an admirable suggestion
+of yours, my dear Bertha. I will go to M. de Bois at once. Meantime, do
+not spoil your beautiful eyes with weeping. Never fear,--we will have
+Madeleine back shortly; and if you will only be consoled, I promise to
+forgive her all the anxiety she has occasioned us."
+
+Count Tristan found M. de Bois at home, burrowing among musty volumes,
+which were the daily companions of his solitude. When he received his
+handkerchief, a violent fit of stammering rendered the words he
+attempted to utter wholly incomprehensible, and the count made no effort
+to understand them. He proceeded to inform M. de Bois of Madeleine's
+sudden disappearance, and of the great unhappiness it had caused, adding
+that he came to him as a neighbor, to ask his advice concerning the best
+method of tracking the fugitive.
+
+If M. de Bois offered any counsel (which his guest pretended to imagine
+he did), the impediment in his speech increased to such an extent that
+his suggestions were unintelligible. His perturbation might have passed
+for surprise at the startling intelligence so abruptly communicated;
+but it could hardly be translated into sorrow or sympathy, and was a
+very imperfect simulation of astonishment.
+
+"I am going to Rennes, for the purpose of making inquiries at the
+railroad depot. Will not that plan be a good one?" asked the count.
+
+"Ver--ver--ery good," stammered M. de Bois.
+
+"Can you think of any mode that will facilitate my search?"
+
+"I fear not,--none at all; I am very dull in such m--m--matters."
+
+The count took his leave, congratulating himself that his neighbor had
+not been subjected to the scrutiny of the Countess de Gramont or Bertha,
+and especially of Maurice, whose absence at this crisis he looked upon
+as doubly fortunate.
+
+Count Tristan returned to the chateau with as dejected a mien as he
+could assume.
+
+Bertha was watching at the window, and ran out to meet him. "What news?
+When did M. de Bois lose his handkerchief? When did he last see
+Madeleine?"
+
+"Dear child, I am deeply pained not to bring more cheering information.
+M. de Bois must have dropped his handkerchief some days ago,--the
+morning after the ball; he has not been here since; he has no
+recollection of the circumstance; he has not seen Madeleine at all."
+
+"Was he not amazed to hear that she had gone?"
+
+"Very much confounded; the shock quite bewildered him. We consulted
+about the best means of tracing her at Rennes. You may rest assured that
+M. de Bois was totally ignorant of her intention to leave us. And, if
+you will allow me to make a suggestion, I would charge you not to let
+him suspect, when you meet, that you for a moment imagine he was in
+Madeleine's confidence. It would be highly indelicate,--the very
+supposition would be derogatory to her dignity. _I_ have said all that
+was necessary to him, and, as he had nothing to do with the affair, it
+is a topic which cannot with propriety be touched upon again."
+
+"Assuredly not," coincided the countess. "Madeleine, with all her
+faults, would not so entirely forget her own self-respect as to have a
+clandestine understanding with a young man. I cannot believe she would
+disgrace herself and us by such unmaidenly conduct."
+
+"Unmaidenly! Would it be unmaidenly?" questioned Bertha, innocently. "If
+it would be an impropriety to confide in M. de Bois, then Madeleine
+certainly has not made him her confidant. Oh, my poor Madeleine! It is
+dreadful to think that she must have gone away alone,--quite alone!"
+
+"You may well call it _dreadful_, Bertha. An occurrence of this kind has
+never blotted the annals of our family! What will be said of her and of
+us? Such a step, taken by a woman of her birth, will set hundreds of
+tongues discussing our domestic concerns; our names will be bandied
+about from lip to lip; our affairs will be in all sorts of common
+people's mouths. Hasten, for heaven's sake, my son, and find Madeleine
+before this story gets wind."
+
+Count Tristan dutifully obeyed,--that is to say, he assumed an
+appearance of compliance, for in a few moments he was galloping toward
+Rennes.
+
+Evening set in before he returned. His long absence had kindled in the
+minds of the countess and Bertha a hope that he had discovered some
+clew, and the latter had worked herself up to such a pitch of excitement
+that she almost anticipated the return of Madeleine in Count Tristan's
+company. Her disappointment when, at last, he entered, looking weary and
+dejected, was proportionate to her expectations. He had made all
+possible search,--_so he said_,--and no information concerning the
+fugitive could be gathered; she was gone! He feared they must now wait
+patiently until they heard from her. She would doubtless write soon,--a
+letter might come at any moment. Very possibly she had changed her mind
+in regard to Lady Vivian's offer, and had accepted it without
+communicating her intention, because she feared her aunt's displeasure.
+This was the most likely explanation of her sudden departure. He had
+called at the Chateau de Tremazan, and Lady Vivian had left for Scotland
+two days after the ball. Madeleine was doubtless at this moment on her
+way to Edinburgh.
+
+The count, though he made this assertion with an air of perfect
+credence, did not, for a moment, believe that such was Madeleine's
+destination; but he thought to check persistent inquiries which might
+accidentally bring to light some fine thread that would lead to the
+discovery of her retreat.
+
+"Oh, if she goes to Lady Vivian, we will make her return at once,--will
+we not, aunt?" asked Bertha, catching eagerly at this new hope. "But
+Madeleine told me distinctly that she had no intention of accepting Lady
+Vivian's offer."
+
+"There would be no harm in changing her mind," observed the count. "You
+will find that she has done so; therefore, give yourself no more
+uneasiness at present."
+
+Bertha would very gladly have followed the count's advice; but, even if
+she had made the effort, it would have been impossible to drive anxiety
+for Madeleine out of her thoughts. Several times during the evening she
+started up, thinking that she heard her voice; if a step echoed in the
+antechamber, she turned eagerly to the door, her blue eyes greatening
+with expectation. Once, when the roll of wheels sounded in the distance,
+she uttered a cry of joy and rushed out upon the porch. Every moment she
+grew more and more restless and feverish; and when the usual hour for
+retiring came, she wandered into Madeleine's room, instead of her own,
+and once more minutely examined the whole chamber. There might, perhaps,
+be a note somewhere which she had overlooked: after the most diligent
+search, none was to be found. There were pens, ink, and paper upon the
+little table which Madeleine generally used, but not a word of writing
+was visible.
+
+The sight of pen and ink suggested an idea which had not before occurred
+to Bertha. She sat down and wrote to Maurice. She poured out all her
+grief upon paper, and it was soothed as if dropped into words upon the
+blank sheet before her. How often a full heart has had its burden lifted
+and lightened at the pen's point, as if the sorrow it recorded grew less
+heavy beneath the calming touch of that potent instrument!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE EMPTY PLACE.
+
+
+It chanced that Bertha's letter to Maurice was posted the next morning
+without the knowledge of Count Tristan and his mother; not, however,
+through any preconcerted arrangement on the part of Bertha. Her
+character was so frank, so transparent,--her actions were always so
+unveiled,--her thoughts flowed in such an instinctive current toward her
+lips,--that the idea of concealment could have no spontaneous existence
+in her mind. She made no allusion to the letter until it was gone; but
+that was purely accidental, though not the less fortunate. Had Count
+Tristan been aware that such a letter had been written, it would never
+have reached its destination.
+
+It was somewhat singular that the count, whose code of honor would have
+forced him to resent, at the sword's point, the faintest hint that he
+could be guilty of an unworthy action, would not have scrupled to
+intercept a letter, to distort a fact (we use the mildest phrase), to
+stoop to any deception, to be guilty of any treachery, if he were
+powerfully prompted by what he termed family considerations,--which
+simply meant his own personal interest.
+
+He had determined to keep Maurice in ignorance of Madeleine's flight as
+long as possible, that the chances of discovering her retreat might be
+diminished; and great was the wily schemer's consternation when he
+learned that Bertha had unadvisedly frustrated his plans by writing to
+her cousin.
+
+Madeleine's value had never been estimated to its just height until her
+place was empty. It is not in human nature to prize that which we
+possess to its full worth, until it is "lacked and lost!" Alas! in how
+many households there moves, with noiseless feet, some placid, patient,
+yet potent spirit, with hands ever ready to toil, or soothe; a smile
+ever kindled to comfort or encourage; a voice that "turns common words
+to grace," imparting hope and dispensing joy; a presence full of
+helpfulness and peace; a being, grown familiar to our eyes by every
+day's association, whom we carelessly greet, or jostle against
+unheeding, or thrust aside impatiently, never dreaming that our
+working-day mortal, could she cast off this garment of clay, would stand
+revealed one of God's holy messengers commissioned to minister!--that
+is, _never until_ we suddenly find her place empty, yet trace the touch
+of her delicate fingers, the print of her light footsteps everywhere
+around us, and feel the dreary void made in our hearts by her absence,
+and recognize, too late, that we have entertained an angel unawares.
+
+Throughout the Chateau de Gramont there was no one, save Count Tristan,
+who did not make some such reflection (though vague and undefined,
+perhaps) while thinking of Madeleine. The ancient domestics seemed
+completely lost without her guiding hand,--her spirit of order
+systematizing and lightening all their duties. Everything was in
+confusion, everything went wrong. Dearly as they loved her, they had
+never before realized that Mademoiselle Madeleine had been of so much
+importance and assistance to them all.
+
+The countess missed her every moment; and, interested as were her
+regrets, they were not unmingled with some faint self-reproach when she
+remembered how lightly she had prized her services. The antiquated
+_femme de chambre_ had never appeared so clumsy, purblind, and stupid;
+and the more her stately mistress chided her, the more bewildered
+Bettina became, the more blunders she committed.
+
+Even a bearing as majestic as that of the noble lady could not
+neutralize the caricaturing effect of a robe pinned awry; curls with
+long straight ends standing out porcupine fashion; a cap obstinately
+bent upon inclining to one side; and a collar with a strong tendency to
+avoid a central position.
+
+As for Bertha, naturally restless, excitable, and untutored in the art
+of calming the agitation of her mind by active employment, she could do
+nothing but wander in and out of her aunt's apartment; stand at the
+window watching for the postman, beating the devil's tattoo upon the
+panes; counting the hours, fretting over their insupportable length, and
+breaking out, at intervals, into piteous lamentations.
+
+It was with difficulty that she could be persuaded to appear at table,
+and she scarcely tasted food. Glancing up at the faded flowers in the
+hanging baskets suspended before the windows, and to the withered
+bouquets in the tall vases that stood on either side,--baskets and vases
+which Madeleine had ever kept freshly supplied,--Bertha could scarcely
+restrain her tears, as she murmured mournfully,--
+
+"Ah, I know now what the English poet's Ophelia meant, when she said all
+the violets withered when her father died! All our flowers faded when
+Madeleine went!"
+
+Baptiste, who was standing beside her chair, rubbed his eyes, and the
+sigh, that would not be checked, was audible to her quick ears. She
+turned to give him a glance which recognized his sympathy, and noticed
+that there was no gay-looking blossom in his button-hole that day. This
+was an unmistakable expression of sorrow on the part of Baptiste; for he
+never assumed the compulsory office of butler without asserting his
+preference for his legitimate vocation of gardener by a flower in his
+coat. Bertha had never seen him dispense with the floral decoration
+before, and she comprehended its absence but too well.
+
+Her nervous disquietude increased every hour, and caused her aunt a
+species of petty martyrdom resembling the torture of perpetual
+pin-pricking, the incessant buzzing and stinging of a gnat, the endless
+creaking of rusty door-hinges,--minor miseries often more unendurable
+than some great mental or physical suffering. But although the patience
+of the countess was wearied out, Bertha was too great a favorite to be
+rebuked. Count Tristan discreetly fled the field, and thus avoided his
+share of the infliction.
+
+Bertha's letter reached Maurice the day after it was written, and found
+him in a state of such torpid despondency that any summons to action,
+even the most painful, was a blessing. He had felt that the only chance
+of combating his sorrow, and preventing its obtaining full mastery over
+all his faculties, was to work off the sense of depression by hard
+study,--to battle against it with the arms of some engrossing
+occupation; but how could he spur himself up to study without an
+object?--and he was as far as ever from obtaining his father's consent
+to fitting himself for the bar, or for any other professional pursuit.
+No,--there was only one pursuit left open to him, the pursuit of
+pleasure, and he had not sufficiently recovered from his late shock to
+start off in chase of that illusive phantom. Bertha's letter roused him
+out of this miserable, mind-paralyzing apathy. In the very next train
+which left for Rennes he was on his way back to Brittany.
+
+It was the fourth day after Madeleine's departure. Those days had seemed
+months to Bertha, the weariest months of her brief, glad life. She was
+standing at a window that commanded the road,--her favorite post, and
+the only locality where she ever remained quiet for any length of
+time,--when the carriage in which Maurice was seated drove up the
+avenue. With a joyful exclamation she rushed out of the room, darted
+down the stair, through the hall, into the porch, and had greeted
+Maurice before any one but the old gardener knew that he had arrived.
+
+"You have heard from her?" were her cousin's first words, gaspingly
+uttered.
+
+"No, not a line. She will never write; she will never come back! O
+Maurice! I have lost all hope," sighed Bertha.
+
+"Dear Bertha, we will find her! Let her go where she may, I will find
+her!--be sure of that. I will not rest until I do."
+
+His grandmother, attracted by Bertha's exultant ejaculation, had
+followed her, though with more deliberate steps, and now appeared. The
+cruel words the countess had spoken to Madeleine were ringing in the
+ears of Maurice, and he saluted his noble relative respectfully, but not
+with his usual warmth.
+
+"I am glad you have come back to us, Maurice. Bertha is so lonely."
+
+The lips of Maurice parted, but some internal warning checked the bitter
+words before they formed themselves into sound. He bowed gravely, and,
+entering the house, remarked to Bertha,--
+
+"You wrote that all the servants had been examined?"
+
+"Yes, all; and they know nothing of Madeleine's flight."
+
+"That is _impossible_. One of them at least must have some knowledge."
+
+Maurice rang the bell. It was Bettina, who replied. Gustave, she said,
+was in the stable, and Baptiste in the garden. The answers of the _femme
+de chambre_ to the young viscount were clear and unhesitating: no one
+could doubt, for a moment, that she was wholly ignorant of Madeleine's
+movement; and her tone and manner evinced, as forcibly as any language
+could have done, how deeply she mourned over her absence. Elise was next
+summoned, and her replies were but a repetition of Bettina's.
+
+"I will not send for Gustave and Baptiste," he observed, dismissing the
+two female domestics,--"I will walk out and see them."
+
+"And I will go with you," said Bertha.
+
+The countess was too well pleased to see the cousins together to object.
+
+Gustave was grooming a horse as they passed by the stable. He paused in
+his work to welcome the viscount, and added, in the same breath,--
+
+"Monsieur will find it very dull at the chateau, now. It does not seem
+like the same place since Mademoiselle Madeleine left!"
+
+"Have you no idea how she went, Gustave? Some of you surely must know!"
+
+"I know nothing, monsieur. When they told me that Mademoiselle Madeleine
+was gone, it was as though a thunder-bolt had struck me. I have never
+felt good for anything since!"
+
+There was too much sincerity, too much feeling in his tone for Maurice
+to doubt him, or deem further questioning necessary. He walked sadly
+away, accompanied by Bertha.
+
+Baptiste was busied near the little _chalet_; he seemed to hover about
+it constantly of late. He was aware of the return of his young
+master,--he had bowed to him as he was descending from the carriage.
+When Bertha and her cousin approached the venerable domestic, his
+trepidation was too obvious to escape their notice. He was pruning the
+luxuriant growth of some of the vines Madeleine had planted, and the
+hand which held his knife shook and committed unintentional havoc among
+the blossoming branches.
+
+"Baptiste, come in; I have something to talk to you about," said
+Maurice, entering the _chalet_ with Bertha.
+
+How painfully that pleasant little retreat reminded him of Madeleine!
+For a moment he was overpowered, and dropped into a chair, covering his
+eyes with his hands; perhaps because he could not bear the sight of
+objects which called up such agonizing recollections; perhaps because
+his eyes were dim with too womanish a moisture.
+
+"Dear Maurice," said Bertha, bending over him compassionately, "if
+Madeleine only knew how wretched she has made us both, surely she would
+not forsake us so cruelly."
+
+Maurice, by a gesture, prayed her to sit down. Baptiste stood in the
+doorway; his attitude betokened a reluctance to enter, and a desire to
+be quickly dismissed. After a long interval, the viscount, slowly
+raising his head, was again struck by the perturbed mien of the
+guileless old man, whose native simplicity, warmth, and ingenuousness
+would have melted any mask he attempted to assume. Maurice had almost
+abandoned all expectation that he would receive any information from the
+domestics; but he now experienced a sudden renewal of hope.
+
+"Baptiste," he said, scrutinizing the ancient gardener closely, "do you
+not know where Mademoiselle Madeleine is?"
+
+"No, monsieur."
+
+The reply was uttered in a tone of genuine sadness.
+
+"You cannot even guess?"
+
+"No, monsieur."
+
+"Do you know how she left here?"
+
+"No, monsieur."
+
+"Baptiste, you are not speaking falsely?--you are not trifling with me?
+If you _are_, you can hardly know how cruelly you are adding to my
+sorrow."
+
+"I have spoken the exact truth, monsieur."
+
+"I am sure he has, Maurice," interrupted Bertha. "I never knew Baptiste
+to utter even a _white lie_: he has as great a horror of falsehood as
+Madeleine herself."
+
+Baptiste looked at her gratefully.
+
+"Then you know _nothing at all_," ejaculated Maurice, in a tone of
+discouragement. "You did not help Mademoiselle Madeleine in any way? She
+must have had some assistance; but from _you_ she had none? You did not
+even know that she intended to leave us?"
+
+Baptiste hesitated; his mouth twitched,--his eyes were fixed upon the
+ground.
+
+"Why do you not answer, Baptiste?" asked Bertha. "You _did not_ know
+that Mademoiselle Madeleine was going,--did you?"
+
+"Yes, mademoiselle."
+
+The answer was spoken almost in a whisper.
+
+"_You knew it?_ And why, _why_ have you not told us this before?" she
+almost shrieked out.
+
+"No one asked me that question, mademoiselle; and Mademoiselle Madeleine
+requested me not to give any information concerning her which I could
+possibly, and without uttering a falsehood, avoid."
+
+Maurice sprang up and laid his hand upon the old man's shoulder.
+
+"Speak _now_ then! You cannot avoid telling us all you know! You were
+aware that she was going; you assisted her flight. _How_ did you aid
+her? _What_ did you do? _What_ do you know?"
+
+"Very little, monsieur. I did very little and know very little. The
+evening before Mademoiselle Madeleine left, she came to me in the
+garden; she asked me if I would do her a favor. I would have done her a
+thousand. Did I not owe her enough? Was it not she who watched beside my
+bed when I had that terrible rheumatic fever two years ago? Did she not
+pour out my medicine with her own white hands? Did she not talk to me
+when I was racked with pain, until I thought the room was full of
+heavenly music, and I forgot I was suffering? Did she not keep me from
+cursing God when the pangs were so sharp that I felt I was tortured
+beyond my strength? Did she not tell me why all anguish of soul or body
+should be borne patiently? Was there, oh, was there _anything_ I would
+not have done for Mademoiselle Madeleine? When she left the chateau, was
+her loss greater to any one than it was to me? And she would not have
+gone if she could have staid any longer. I was sure of _that_. When she
+said she must go, I knew she _must_, and I never even dared to pray her
+to remain."
+
+It was seldom that Baptiste spoke so much, for he was taciturn by
+nature; but the emotion, forcibly suppressed for so many days, once
+breaking bondage, burst forth into a torrent of words.
+
+"You did well, Baptiste,--good, faithful old man! Mademoiselle Madeleine
+needed a friend; and I thank Heaven she had one like you. Do not think
+we blame you; only tell us all you know. She came to you the evening
+before she left: what favor did she ask?"
+
+"Mademoiselle Madeleine only asked, monsieur, that I would come to her
+room when the house was all quiet, that night, and carry down her trunk
+and place it in the _chalet_. I could not help saying, 'Oh,
+Mademoiselle Madeleine, are you going to leave us?' She answered, 'I
+_cannot_ stay, Baptiste. I am _compelled_ to go. You are the only person
+here who is aware of my intention. When I am gone do not give any
+information concerning me that you can possibly, and without uttering a
+falsehood, avoid. It will be better that no one should know I had your
+aid.' Those were her exact words, monsieur."
+
+"Go on,--go on!" urged Maurice, as the narrator paused.
+
+"When the house was all quiet, I put off my shoes and stole softly to
+Mademoiselle Madeleine's room. She opened the door, and, without
+speaking, pointed to the little trunk. Old and weak as I am, I had no
+trouble in carrying it. It was light enough. It could not have held
+much."
+
+"Did she not bid you adieu, then?" asked Bertha.
+
+"Just as I was stooping to lift the trunk, Mademoiselle Madeleine
+stretched out her hand and took mine. I felt her warm, soft touch the
+whole day after. She did not say adieu, but she looked it. She looked as
+though she were blessing me and thanking me. I never saw a face that
+said so much,--so much that went to my very soul and comforted me! When
+she let go my hand, I took up the trunk and carried it out. She closed
+the door behind me without a sound, and I brought the trunk here that
+night and left it. That is all I know, monsieur."
+
+"But how was the trunk conveyed hence?"
+
+"I do not know, monsieur."
+
+"Did you see Mademoiselle Madeleine the next morning?" inquired Bertha.
+
+"No, mademoiselle. I could not help going to the _chalet_ the first
+thing when I came out to work. I pushed the door open and looked in; the
+trunk was not there, and I knew that Mademoiselle Madeleine was gone
+too!"
+
+"But did not Mademoiselle Madeleine drop some hint, even the faintest,
+of her plans?" asked Maurice, earnestly.
+
+"I have told monsieur every word Mademoiselle Madeleine spoke to me on
+the subject."
+
+"_Some one_ must have aided her further! Who could it be? _Who could it
+possibly be?_" mused Maurice.
+
+Baptiste was certain he knew who alone it could be; and he was pondering
+within himself whether he had the right to mention the note Madeleine
+had ordered him to deliver to M. de Bois. Her request had been that he
+would give no information he could honestly avoid; if it _could_ be
+avoided, it was plain, then, that the intelligence ought not to be
+communicated.
+
+"Has monsieur done with me?" he asked, as Maurice stood reflecting in
+silence.
+
+"Yes, if you have nothing further to tell me."
+
+"Nothing further, monsieur." Saying these words, Baptiste withdrew.
+
+"After Madeleine was missed," said Bertha, when the old gardener was
+gone, "I was the first person who came to the _chalet_. I found a
+handkerchief lying just by this table. It was marked G. de Bois."
+
+"Gaston de Bois! Then it is clear _he_ was Madeleine's confidant. He
+promoted her flight!"
+
+"So I thought, at first," rejoined Bertha; "but it seems this is not so.
+Your father took him the handkerchief, and he could not tell when or
+where he had lost it. He was amazed to hear that Madeleine had left us,
+and disclaimed all knowledge concerning her."
+
+"Who, then, could it have been? But I will see M. de Bois myself."
+
+"First let me tell you"--began Bertha, and faltered.
+
+"Why do you hesitate? For Heaven's sake, dear Bertha, tell me everything
+which can throw the faintest glimmer of light upon the path Madeleine
+has taken."
+
+"I do not know how to say what I was thinking; perhaps I ought not to
+allude to it at all; yet it seems as if it must be true. Do you not
+remember that Madeleine confessed she had bestowed her affections upon
+_some one_? Since they were not given to you, as I once believed, I
+cannot help imagining that perhaps she might--might have meant"--
+
+"Gaston de Bois?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Maurice did not answer, and Bertha could say no more. There was a
+painful struggle going on in her mind, though less torturing than that
+which convulsed the spirit of her cousin.
+
+When he had somewhat recovered himself, he said,--
+
+"At all events I will see M. de Bois. If there is nothing to be learned
+from him, if he really knows nothing concerning Madeleine's departure, I
+must seek information at Rennes. There is no time to lose. I will call
+upon M. de Bois at once."
+
+The cousins parted at the door of the _chalet_. Bertha turned toward the
+chateau, pausing on her way to talk with Baptiste; Maurice went in the
+direction of his neighbor's residence.
+
+Count Tristan's visit had taken M. de Bois aback, chiefly because he was
+confounded by a new proof of his own awkwardness (stupidity, he plainly
+termed it) in leaving his handkerchief behind him, as a witness of his
+presence at the _chalet_. But there was no such confusing testimony to
+destroy his composure when he received Maurice. Besides, he had ample
+time to collect himself; for he was walking in the park when his valet
+announced that the young viscount was awaiting him in the library. He
+had looked forward to the return of Maurice to Brittany as soon as the
+latter heard of Madeleine's mysterious disappearance. M. de Bois knew
+that it would be more difficult to prevent her being traced by her
+cousin than by any other person, and that it was by him Madeleine
+herself most feared to be discovered. Gaston was therefore fully on his
+guard against betraying her confidence.
+
+Maurice, on his part, was keenly sensible of the difficulty of his
+undertaking. He could not openly inquire of M. de Bois whether Madeleine
+had apprised him of her intentions. The very question would have a
+tendency to compromise his cousin, by suggesting that she was capable of
+holding clandestine communication with a young gentleman. Then, too, if
+M. de Bois was really the object of her attachment, he might not be
+aware of the preference with which she honored him; and it would be the
+height of indelicacy for Maurice to allow him to suspect a circumstance
+which her modesty would scrupulously conceal. He was sitting in the
+library pondering over the embarrassments of his position, when his host
+entered. The gentlemen greeted each other with wonted cordiality.
+
+"Did you return from Paris to-day?" asked M. de Bois. "Have you just
+come?"
+
+"About an hour ago. I came to you at once to"--
+
+M. de Bois interrupted him. It was the policy of the former to lead the
+conversation, that he might avoid direct questions.
+
+"Had you heard that Mademoiselle de Gramont had left the chateau?"
+
+"Yes; my cousin Bertha wrote to me, and"--
+
+Again M. de Bois seized upon the thread of conversation.
+
+"Have you no news from Mademoiselle Madeleine?--no letter?"
+
+"None," sighed Maurice, convinced that, as M. de Bois plunged into the
+subject in this straightforward, calm manner, he could not possibly be
+in her confidence.
+
+The host went on.
+
+"Has not Count Tristan been able to obtain any trace of her?"
+
+"Thus far, none at all! What _could_ have become of her! Where _could_
+she have gone!" exclaimed Maurice; but not in a tone of interrogation,
+for he now felt assured that M. de Bois could not answer.
+
+"One thing is certain; what Mademoiselle Mad--ad--adeleine has done must
+have been prompted by a noble motive. She could not cause you all this
+sorrow unless she imagined herself compelled to take the step which we
+must all lament."
+
+"You are right, you only do her justice!" rejoined Maurice.
+
+"What course do you propose to ado--op--opt?" inquired M. de Bois, with
+a perfectly natural air of friendly interest.
+
+"I hardly know what to do. I should be thankful for any advice. I shall
+first visit the Prefecture at Rennes, to see if she obtained a passport.
+She could not surely run the risk of attempting to travel without one.
+If the passport be for Great Britain, I may go to Scotland. Possibly she
+may have changed her mind, and accepted Lady Vivian's offer,--do you not
+think so?"
+
+"It does not appear to me likely. She definitely decli--i--ined."
+
+"Did she tell you so? Did she speak to you on the subject?" asked
+Maurice, hastily.
+
+For the first time during the interview, M. de Bois betrayed a slight
+disquietude, but he quickly collected himself and answered,--
+
+"I heard Lady Vivian speak to Mademoiselle Bertha of the offer she had
+made her cousin, and after that, Mademoiselle Mad--ad--adeleine told me
+she had declined the prop--op--oposition. But, if you imagine she has
+changed her mind, would not a letter to Lady Vivian answer every
+pur--ur--urpose?"
+
+"No; if she should be there, I must see her, and use arguments which
+would have no force upon paper. _She must be there!_ Where else could
+she be? I will start for Scotland to-night. Now I must bid you adieu."
+
+"If you are going back to the chateau, I will accompany you. I must make
+my _adieux_ to the ladies. I leave for Paris to-morrow."
+
+"Indeed! Do you make a long stay?"
+
+"Prob--ob--obably. The Marquis de Fleury had promised me a
+secretaryship, if he were sent as ambassador to America. It is uncertain
+when he may get the appointment, but he has offered me the post of
+confidential sec--ec--ecretary at once."
+
+"And you have accepted?"
+
+"Gladly."
+
+"Ah, M. de Bois, how I envy you! _You_ will have an object in life,
+while _I_, who feel as though a pent-up volcano were roaring within me,
+am condemned to let my struggling energies smoulder beneath the ashes of
+my father's autocratic will! You have heard of his opposition to my
+studying for the bar? What is to become of me if I am deprived of every
+stimulating incentive to action?--especially now--now that"--he checked
+himself suddenly. He was not aware that M. de Bois had been informed by
+Bertha of Madeleine's rejection, and Maurice could not dwell upon his
+own disappointment to one who might be a rival.
+
+"Count Tristan may gradually be brought to contemplate your wishes with
+more favor."
+
+"Hardly; but come--if you will accompany me, let us go."
+
+Bertha, who had been waiting impatiently for the return of Maurice, did
+not fly to meet him when she saw M. de Bois walking by his side, as they
+approached the chateau. The countess was in the drawing-room when the
+gentlemen entered, and her majestic presence stemmed the stream of
+inquiries that was ready to gush from Bertha's lips.
+
+M. de Bois, who during his interview with Maurice had been so
+self-possessed that the impediment in his speech was scarcely
+observable, was seized anew and cast into chains by his invisible enemy.
+The captive struggled in vain; the avenues of speech were barricaded;
+all his limbs were shackled; his movements became uncertain and
+spasmodic, menacing tables, chairs, vases, which, had they been gifted
+with consciousness, must have trembled at his approach; his nervous
+fingers thrust themselves into his hair, and threw it into ludicrous
+disorder; his countenance was suffused with scarlet; he stammered out
+something about bidding adieu, which the ladies were evidently at a loss
+to comprehend, until Maurice explained that M. de Bois expected to start
+on the morrow for Paris, where he purposed to take up his residence.
+
+"We shall regret losing so valued a neighbor!" observed the countess,
+condescendingly.
+
+Bertha made no remark, though she looked as though she wished to speak,
+and could not summon resolution. She took an opportunity, while the
+countess was conversing with their guest, to whisper to her cousin,--
+
+"You asked M. de Bois, and he could give you no information concerning
+Madeleine?"
+
+"None at all," replied Maurice in a low tone. Then, turning to the
+countess, he said aloud, "I also must bid you adieu, my grandmother; I
+am going immediately to Rennes; if I obtain the information there, which
+I think probable, I shall start at once for Scotland and seek Lady
+Vivian."
+
+"You have not consulted your father, Maurice," the countess answered,
+with an emphasis which was intended to remind him that he was not a free
+agent.
+
+"I must beg you to make my apologies to him."
+
+Maurice, though he treated his grandmother with deference which left her
+no room for complaint, could not force himself to assume his wonted air
+of affection; his love for her had waned from the hour he listened to
+the unjust accusation, the reproaches, the contumely she had heaped upon
+the innocent and unfortunate orphan placed at her mercy. The softening
+veil had fallen from her character, and disclosed its harsh, proud
+selfishness and policy. He now knew that she had offered her destitute
+relative shelter, not from any genuine, womanly feeling of tenderness
+and compassion, but simply because she deemed it humiliating to allow
+one who bore her name to be placed in a doubtful and friendless
+position. All Madeleine's gentleness, cheerfulness, diligence to please,
+had failed to melt her aunt's impenetrable heart and make it expand to
+yield her a sacred place; the countess had misinterpreted her highest
+virtues,--grossly insulted her by attributing shameful motives to her
+most disinterested conduct, and destroyed all the merit of her own
+benefactions by reminding the recipient of her indebtedness. Maurice
+felt that, truly to venerate a person, he must be moved by esteem for
+noble qualities possessed. The recent revelation of his grandmother's
+actual attributes estranged and revolted him, until it became difficult
+to treat her with even the outward semblance of reverence.
+
+When the viscount bade farewell, M. de Bois also took his leave.
+
+"You will write to me as soon as you reach Edinburgh?" pleaded Bertha to
+her cousin.
+
+"I will certainly write," answered Maurice; "meantime comfort yourself
+with the assurance that I will not relinquish my search until Madeleine
+is restored to us."
+
+And Bertha did solace herself with that pledge, for hope was a dominant
+characteristic of her buoyant temperament.
+
+The monotonous round of blank, weary days that ensued was happily
+broken, before the week closed, by the promised letter from Maurice.
+Bertha, whose only exciting occupation consisted in watching for the
+arrival and distribution of letters, was in possession of the precious
+missive before her aunt and Count Tristan were aware of its arrival. She
+tore it open, and, glancing through the contents, uttered a cry of joy
+that rang through the chateau, and reached the ears even of the countess
+and her son in the library. The next moment Bertha burst into the
+apartment, laughing and crying, waving the letter triumphantly over her
+head, and exclaiming, in a voice now stifled with sobs, now broken by
+hysterical mirth,--
+
+"She is found! she is found! Maurice has traced her! Oh, my dear, dear
+Madeleine, I shall see her again!"
+
+Her blinding tears, or her overwhelming transport, prevented her
+noticing the totally different effect produced upon her two relatives by
+this rapturously uttered communication. The face of the countess
+expressed a haughty satisfaction that her noble family had been spared
+some impending disgrace; but Count Tristan's black brows contracted; his
+malignant eyes flashed fiercely; he ground his teeth with suppressed
+rage as he snatched the letter out of Bertha's hand. She flung her arms
+about her aunt, and laid her head lovingly upon her unsympathetic bosom,
+as though she must caress some one in the exuberant outburst of her joy!
+Meanwhile the count perused the letter.
+
+"My son, let me hear what Maurice says."
+
+Count Tristan read,--
+
+     "I hasten to send you good news, my dearest Bertha. At
+     Rennes I visited the Prefecture to examine the list of
+     passports, knowing that Madeleine must have obtained one to
+     travel unmolested. I found that her passport had been taken
+     out for England. This confirmed my impression that she had
+     joined Lady Vivian in Scotland. The passport which, as you
+     are aware, requires two responsible witnesses, was signed by
+     Messrs. Picard and Bossuet. I sought those gentlemen to
+     extract further information from them, but, singularly
+     enough, both had left Brittany the day after Madeleine. I
+     cannot conceive how she obtained their signatures, for
+     surely she had no acquaintance with them. Following this
+     clew I started immediately for Edinburgh, and arrived here
+     on Wednesday evening. I had no difficulty in finding the
+     residence of Lady Vivian. She is in London, but is expected
+     home shortly. I had an interview with her venerable
+     housekeeper, who answered all my inquiries with great
+     patience. From her I learned that Lady Vivian was
+     accompanied by a young French lady whom she had recently
+     engaged as a _dame de compagnie_. The housekeeper could not
+     remember her foreign name, but when I mentioned Mademoiselle
+     de Gramont, she said it sounded like that. She had been
+     informed that the young lady was very accomplished and
+     belonged to an excellent family; also that Lady Vivian had
+     first heard of her during her late visit in Brittany. In
+     answer to the question whether this young lady arrived with
+     Lady Vivian in London, the housekeeper replied that she did
+     not,--she had joined her ladyship only a few days ago. Thus
+     I feel certain that Madeleine is found. I leave for London
+     at once, and, not many days after you receive this letter,
+     you may expect to see us both; for I will never cease my
+     supplications until Madeleine yields and returns with me to
+     the Chateau de Gramont. I know what joy this intelligence
+     will give you, my dear little cousin, and my joy is
+     increased by the reflection of yours."
+
+The count broke off without reading the concluding lines of the letter,
+and remarked,--
+
+"Maurice came to a hasty conclusion. If Lady Vivian's _dame de
+compagnie_ should prove to be Madeleine, as it _may_ be, there is no
+certainty that she will yield to his persuasions and return to us.
+Madeleine is very obstinate and self-willed. You must pardon me, Bertha,
+for throwing a damper upon your hopes, but I would spare you too severe
+disappointment."
+
+"I shall _not_ be disappointed. I feel sure Maurice has discovered
+Madeleine: _that_ is all I ask for the present. You may be right about
+her refusing to return here,--I dare say you are; but _that_ will not
+make me miserable, which I should be if we could not find her at all. I
+mean to ask my uncle's permission to allow Madeleine to reside with us.
+I do not see how he can refuse, and he is very indulgent; so that,
+whether Madeleine consents to return here, or not, we shall not be
+wholly parted."
+
+Bertha did not suspect into what a fury her words were lashing the
+count, nor did she divine the machinations already at work within his
+perfidious spirit to defeat her kindly purpose.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE HUMBLE COMPANION.
+
+
+Rapidly as Maurice travelled from Edinburgh to London, the distance
+seemed interminable to his impetuous spirit. Multitudes of arguments
+were driven through his mind in long array, and he was impatient to
+prove their power in persuading Madeleine to return. Was it possible
+that she could refuse to see their force? If calm reasoning, if
+entreaties and prayers failed to move her, he would test the potency of
+a threat,--she should learn that he had vowed never to return to his
+paternal home, never to forgive those who had driven her forth by their
+cruelty, until _she_ had proclaimed their pardon by again taking up her
+abode at the Chateau de Gramont. Madeleine, who shrank from all strife,
+who moved in an atmosphere of harmony, which seemed to envelop her
+wherever she went, would not lift her hand to sever the sacred bond of
+union between father and son, grandmother and grandchild. Whatever
+anguish it might cost her to yield, however great her sacrifice, she
+would endure the one and accept the other rather than become the
+instrument that, with fatal blow, struck such an unholy severance.
+
+Maurice vividly pictured to himself his approaching interview under a
+tantalizing variety of circumstances. Now he imagined that he saw
+Madeleine only in the presence of her new friends,--that she was cold
+and reserved, and allowed him no opportunity of uttering a word that
+could reach _her_ ear alone. Now he fancied she had granted him a
+private interview,--that she was sitting by his side, but resolute,
+unconvinced, unmoved, while he besieged her with arguments, appealed to
+her with all the passionate fervor that convulsed his soul, portrayed in
+darkest colors the fearful results of her inflexibility. Now he painted
+her overwhelmed by his reasoning, melted by his application, terrified
+by that terrible menace, and finally consenting to his petition.
+
+It was past ten o'clock when the train reached the London terminus. The
+loquacious Edinburgh housekeeper had informed him that Lady Vivian was
+the guest of Lady Augusta Langdon. The lateness of the hour forbade a
+visit that night; yet, after having engaged a room at Morley's hotel, he
+could not help strolling in the direction of Grosvenor Square, and was
+soon searching for the number he had written upon his tablets. It was
+easily found, and Maurice stood before one of the most sumptuous of the
+magnificent edifices which adorn that aristocratic locality. The windows
+were thrown open, and the richly embroidered lace curtains drawn back,
+for the evening was more than usually sultry. He crossed to the opposite
+side of the street, and took up a position which enabled him to
+distinguish forms moving about the spacious drawing-room. With what
+straining eyes and breathless anxiety he scrutinized them! Now he saw a
+lady of noble carriage walking to and fro,--_that_ might be Lady
+Langdon; by and by he caught sight of a gaunt, ungainly figure, and
+recognized Lady Vivian. Who would have believed that a glimpse of that
+angular, unsymmetrical form could ever have called such radiance to the
+eyes of a young and handsome man?--could have kindled such a glow upon
+his cheeks?--could have quickened his pulses with so joyful a motion?
+
+Not long after, a group of young ladies clustered together, just beneath
+the chandelier, to examine some object which one of them held in her
+hand; and now the heart of Maurice throbbed so tumultuously that its
+beats became audible. He had singled out one maiden whose height and
+graceful proportions distinguished her from her companions,--Madeleine!
+Her face was turned from him; but surely that statuesque outline, that
+slender, flexible throat, that exquisitely-shaped head, about which he
+thought he traced the coronal braid that usually crowned her noble
+brows,--these could belong to Madeleine only! Could he fail to recognize
+them anywhere or at any distance? The longer he gazed the more certain
+he became that it was she herself,--that she was found at last! How
+eagerly he watched to see her turn, and render "assurance doubly sure"
+by revealing her lovely countenance! She remained some time in the same
+position; then the little group dispersed, and she glided away, but not
+in the direction of the window. The eyes of Maurice never moved from the
+place where she had disappeared, though he was conscious of attracting
+the attention of passers-by, and now and then a whispered comment of
+derision fell upon his ear.
+
+Several equipages drove up to Lady Langdon's door, and her guests
+gradually departed. Soon after the drawing-room was deserted, the lights
+were extinguished, the windows closed. Other lights brightened the
+casements above. Still Maurice remained riveted to the spot,
+unreasonably hoping to behold Madeleine for one fleeting moment again.
+By and by, one window after another grew dark; but not until the last
+light went out could he force himself to turn away and retrace his steps
+to the hotel.
+
+"Will the dawn never come?" How often that question rises involuntarily
+to the lips, through the long night of expectation that precedes a
+wished-for day! _Time_--that is, the sense of its duration--is but
+another word for _state_,--state of mind. The length or briefness of the
+hour is so completely governed by the mood of one's spirits that it
+becomes easy for those who have learned this truth from experience to
+conceive a thousand years but as a day to the blessed,--a day of
+torture, an age to the miserable; and to comprehend that _time itself_
+can have no existence, and its computation must be replaced by _state_
+in the eternal hereafter where we shall live in the spirit only.
+
+"Will the dawn never come?" Maurice repeated hundreds of times as that
+night dragged its leaden, lagging feet with the slow movement of
+centuries.
+
+The dim, late London morning came at last to bring with it a new
+perplexity. It would be a breach of etiquette to call upon Lady Vivian
+at too early an hour; yet, how was Maurice to curb the headlong rush of
+his impatience until the prescribed period for ceremonious visits
+arrived? A stranger in London, it might be supposed that the numberless
+noteworthy objects by which he was environed might have diverted his
+attention; but one engrossing thought so completely filled his whole
+being that it rendered him blind to all the marvels of art or beauties
+of nature. Yet to remain imprisoned at the hotel was out of the
+question. He concluded to spend his morning in Hyde Park, chiefly
+because it was not far distant from Grosvenor Square. But the
+attractions of the noble park, through which he listlessly sauntered,
+and of the adjacent Kensington Gardens, to which he unconsciously
+extended his rambles, were entirely lost upon the abstracted wanderer.
+Grand old trees, romantic walks, delicious flowers, had no existence for
+him; the whole world was one great, hueless, formless void, in which he
+beheld nothing but the spectral image mirrored in his own soul.
+
+He had decided not to pay his visit until after one o'clock; but, before
+the sun reached its meridian, he absolved himself from the propriety of
+waiting, and, with rapid steps, once more took his way to Lady Langdon's
+residence.
+
+The door was opened by a solemn footman.
+
+"Is Lady Vivian at home?"
+
+"Not at home, sir."
+
+"Is Mademoiselle de Gramont--I mean the young lady who accompanied Lady
+Vivian--at home?"
+
+"Not at home, sir."
+
+"Can you tell me when I shall be likely to find them?"
+
+"Her ladyship gave no orders on the subject, sir."
+
+Maurice stood perplexed, and hesitating.
+
+"Your card, if you please, sir," suggested the demure domestic.
+
+"No, I will call again by and by."
+
+Maurice walked directly back to the park. His suspense was intolerable;
+he could only endure it for another hour, and then returned to Lady
+Langdon's.
+
+The same staid attendant reappeared at his knock.
+
+"Has Lady Vivian returned?"
+
+"Not returned, sir."
+
+"Can you tell me when I may depend upon seeing her? I call upon a matter
+of great importance."
+
+The stately footman looked as though he were pondering upon the
+propriety of making any satisfactory answer to this question.
+
+Maurice repeated the inquiry with such an anxious intonation, such a
+perturbed air, that the stolid domestic, accustomed to behold only the
+conventional composure which allows no pulse to betray its beating, was
+moved out of the even tenor of his way by astonishment.
+
+"Lady Vivian went with my lady and a large party to Hampton Court. Their
+ladyships will probably spend the day."
+
+"The day!" exclaimed Maurice, in an accent of consternation.
+
+The footman evidently thought that he had proffered more than sufficient
+information, and made a dignified attempt to put a close to the
+interview, by extending his hand, and saying, "I will see that your card
+reaches her ladyship."
+
+"No, there is no need of my leaving a card: I shall return. At what hour
+does Lady Langdon dine?"
+
+"At seven, sir."
+
+"I will take the liberty of calling after dinner."
+
+The footman looked as though he decidedly thought it was a liberty, and
+Maurice turned slowly away from the closing door.
+
+What could be done to shorten the endless hours that stretched their
+weary length between that period and evening? Hampton Court! What was to
+prevent his going to Hampton Court? He might meet Lady Vivian and
+Madeleine, there; nothing was more likely, since they were to spend the
+day. His spirits revived as he signalled an empty cab, and requested to
+be driven as rapidly as possible to Hampton Court. He took no note of
+the length of time occupied in reaching his destination: it was a relief
+to be in motion, and to know that every moment brought him nearer a
+locality where the lost one might be found.
+
+Was he more likely to encounter her in the palace or in the grounds? he
+asked, internally, as he sprang out of the cab. He would try the palace
+first. He strode through its magnificent apartments, one after another,
+without noticing their gorgeous grandeur, without glancing at their
+superb decorations, without wasting a look upon the wondrous products of
+brush, or chisel, or loom. His disconcerted guide paused before each
+world-renowned master-piece in vain; Maurice hurried on, and silenced
+him by saying that he was in search of a friend.
+
+Neither Lady Vivian nor Madeleine was to be seen. They were doubtless
+rambling in the beautiful pleasure-grounds.
+
+Maurice took his way through noble avenues of trees,--through groves,
+gardens, conservatories,--without letting his eyes dwell upon any object
+but the human beings he passed. Still no Madeleine. He made the tour of
+the palace the second time, and then traversed the grounds once more.
+The result was the same. Lady Vivian must have returned home.
+
+It was growing late. He reentered his cab, and ordered the driver to
+take him to Morley's Hotel; paid the exorbitant price which the man,
+knowing he had to deal with a stranger, demanded, and took refuge in his
+chamber, without remembering that he had not broken his fast since
+morning, until a waiter knocked at the door to know if he would dine.
+
+Yes; dinner might assist in whiling away the time. But it helped less
+effectually than he had anticipated; for to dine without appetite is a
+tedious undertaking. His own busy thoughts supplied him with more than
+sufficient food, and precluded all sense of hunger.
+
+Maurice had but a slight acquaintance with Lady Vivian. An evening visit
+certainly was not _selon les regles_; but all ceremony must give way
+before the urgency of his mission. He compelled himself to wait until
+nine o'clock before he again appeared in Grosvenor Square.
+
+That imperturbable footman again! The very presence of the automaton
+chilled and dispirited the impatient visitor.
+
+"Is Lady Vivian at home?"
+
+"Her ladyship is indisposed and has retired, sir."
+
+"Can I see Mademoiselle de Gramont?"
+
+"Whom, sir?"
+
+"The young lady who accompanies Lady Vivian."
+
+"She is with Lady Vivian; but I will take your card, sir."
+
+Maurice had no alternative and handed his card.
+
+"Say that I earnestly beg to see her for a few moments."
+
+Did he imagine that human machine could deliver a message which conveyed
+the suggestion that any one very earnestly desired anything in creation?
+
+The viscount was ushered into the drawing-room. A long interval, or one
+Maurice thought long, elapsed before the messenger returned.
+
+"The ladies will be happy to see you, sir, to-morrow, at two o'clock."
+
+Another night and another morning to struggle through, haunted by the
+murderous desire of killing that which could never be restored,--_time!_
+But here, at least, was a definite appointment,--a fixed period when he
+should certainly see Madeleine; this was a great step gained.
+
+He had heard some gentlemen, at the hotel, loud in praise of Charles
+Kean's impersonation of "King John," which was to be represented that
+evening, and the recollection of their encomiums decided him to visit
+the Princess' Theatre.
+
+Our powers of appreciation are limited, governed, crippled or expanded,
+by the mood of the moment, and a performance, which might have roused
+him to a high pitch of enthusiasm at another time, now seemed dull and
+tedious. But duller and more tedious still was the night that followed.
+And when morning came, how was he to consume the hours between breakfast
+and two o'clock? He must go somewhere; must keep on his feet; must give
+his restless limbs free action. He bethought him of St. Paul's and
+Westminster Abbey. These majestic edifices were associated with the
+memory of those who had done with time, and might assist him in the
+time-annihilating process which was then his chief object. He was
+mistaken; he could not interest himself in monuments to the dead; he was
+too closely pursued by a living phantom. He walked through the aisles,
+the chapels, the crypt, with as much indifference as he had wandered
+through Hyde Park, and Kensington Gardens, and Hampton Court.
+
+The appointed hour drew near, at last, and with rising excitement he
+ordered the coachmen to drive to Grosvenor Square, number ----. It was
+just two,--hardly two, perhaps. The inevitable footman received his
+card, with the faintest _soupcon_ of a grin, and conducted him to the
+drawing-room.
+
+Lady Vivian entered a few moments afterwards. She was delighted to see
+him,--very flattered at his visit. When did he come to London? Would he
+make a long stay? How did he leave their friends in Brittany?
+
+Maurice replied as composedly as possible to her inquiries, and then
+asked, "May I be allowed to see Mademoiselle de Gramont?"
+
+"Mademoiselle de Gramont!" exclaimed Lady Vivian, raising her bushy
+eyebrows.
+
+"Yes, she is with you. She is engaged as your humble companion,--is she
+not?"
+
+"No, I have not the pleasure of her acquaintance."
+
+If a bullet had passed through Maurice, he could not have sprung from
+his seat with a wilder bound, and hardly have dropped back more
+motionless.
+
+Lady Vivian looked at him in amazement,--asked what had happened. Was he
+ill? Would he take anything? He had been very much fatigued, perhaps. He
+was so very pale! She felt quite alarmed; really it was distressing.
+
+Making a desperate effort to recover from the stunning blow, he faltered
+out, "I heard that you made Mademoiselle de Gramont a proposition to"--
+
+"To become my humble companion? Yes, I did so at the request of Count
+Damoreau. But she definitely declined, and I felt much relieved, for she
+was entirely too handsome for that position. Shortly afterward I heard
+of a young person who suited me much better. I thought it was a mistake
+of the footman's, last night, when he said you desired to see the young
+lady who accompanied me. It was somewhat singular to have one's humble
+companion included in a visit to one's self! Now I comprehend that you
+thought she was your cousin. I hope you are feeling better; your color
+is coming again."
+
+Maurice was not listening. He had lost Madeleine anew. The agony of a
+second bereavement, the mystery that enveloped her fate, the dreadful
+uncertainty of tracing her, pressed upon him and rent his soul with
+fiercer throes than before. Muttering some hurried apology, he rose,
+staggered toward the door, and, to the amazement of the stoical footman,
+who was greatly scandalized thereby, the pertinacious stranger fairly
+reeled past him into the street.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+PURSUIT.
+
+
+Maurice, when he took his abrupt leave of Lady Vivian, did not return to
+the hotel. He felt as though he could not breathe, could not exist, shut
+within four walls, with the oppressive weight of his new disappointment
+crushing and stifling his spirit. He traversed the streets with a rapid
+pace, not knowing nor caring whither he went, if he only kept in motion.
+His own torturing thoughts pursued him like haunting fiends, driving him
+mercilessly hither and thither, and he sped onward and onward, as though
+by increased celerity he could fly from his intangible persecutors.
+
+Now sprang up the tantalizing suggestion, that, as Lady Vivian had never
+seen Madeleine, the latter had presented herself under a feigned name,
+for the sake of concealing her rank, and baffling the friends who sought
+to discover her abode. Was not _that_ very possible, very natural? He
+recalled the tall, finely-moulded form, of which he had caught a glimpse
+in Lady Langdon's _salon_, and for awhile he cherished this chimera;
+then its place was usurped by one more painful: Madeleine was perhaps
+travelling alone, subjected by her very beauty to the curious scrutiny,
+the heartless insults of brutal men; and, perchance, through her
+ignorance of the world, trapped into some snare from which she could
+never be extricated unharmed. Then his mind was filled with the horrible
+idea that, in her friendliness and despair, finding no place of refuge
+on earth, she had flung away her burdensome life with violent hands.
+Nothing was more improbable than that a being endowed with her
+self-controlled, serene, sorrow-accepting temperament, should be driven
+to such an act of unholy madness. Yet Maurice allowed the frightful
+fantasy to work within his brain until it clothed itself with a shape
+like reality, and drove him to the verge of distraction.
+
+Where could she have gone? _Where? oh, where?_
+
+Hundreds of times he asked himself that perplexing question! All the
+pursuing demons seemed to shout it in his ears, and defy him to answer.
+If she had escaped the perils he most dreaded, where had she hidden
+herself? Perhaps she had only taken out a passport for England, with a
+view of throwing those who sought to track her steps, off the right
+scent. If she had gone to England, her passport must have been _vised_
+as she passed through Paris. If it had not been presented at the _bureau
+des passeports_, she must have remained in Paris. If she had conceived
+any plans by which she thought to earn a livelihood, where could they so
+well be carried into execution? In that great city she might reasonably
+hope to be lost in the crowd, and draw breath untraced and unknown. If
+she had left the metropolis, the fact could easily be ascertained by
+examining the list of passports. Maurice walked on and on, until
+gradually the clamorous city grew silent, and the streets were deserted.
+Besides the vigilant police, only a few, late revellers, with uncertain
+steps, and faces hardly more haggard than his own, passed him, from time
+to time. Still he walked, carrying his hat in his hand, that the
+night-breeze might cool his fevered brow.
+
+There was a stir of wheels again, a waking-up movement around him;
+shop-windows lifting their shutter-lids, and opening their closed eyes;
+men and women bustling forward, with busy, refreshed morning faces.
+Another day had dawned and brought its weight of anguish for endurance.
+Maurice had paced the streets all night. The light that struck sharply
+upon his bloodshot eyes first made him aware of the new morning. The
+season for action then had arrived; the night had flown as a hideous
+dream. He did not know into what part of London he had wandered, but
+hailed a cab, sprang in, and gave the order to be driven to Morley's.
+The distance seemed insupportably long. He was now tormented by the fear
+that he should not reach his destination in time to take the first train
+for Dover. When he alighted at the hotel, he learned that in less than
+an hour the train would start. He dashed off a few, incoherent,
+sorrowful lines to Bertha, hastily crammed his clothes into his trunk,
+paid his bill, drove to the station, and secured a seat one moment
+before the railway carriages were in motion.
+
+After he had crossed the channel, and entered a railway coach at Calais,
+utter exhaustion succeeded to his state of turbulent wretchedness.
+Nature asserted her soothing rights, and poured over his bruised spirit
+the balm of sleep. With reviving strength came renewed hope, and when he
+awoke at the terminus, in Paris, he was inspired with the conviction
+that he should find Madeleine in that vast metropolis,--a conviction as
+firm as the belief he had entertained that he would behold her in
+Scotland, and afterwards that he would discover her in London. He
+hastened to the _bureau des passeports_, and examined the list. No
+passport had been _vised_ to which her name was attached. It was then
+certain that she was still in Paris. But what method could he devise for
+a systematic search? He thought of the argus-eyed, keen-scented police,
+who, with the faintest clew, can trace out any footprint once made
+within the precincts of the far-spreading barriers; but could he drag
+his cousin's name before those public authorities? Could he describe her
+person to them, and enter into details which would enable them to hunt
+her down like a criminal? Delicacy, manly feeling, forbade. He must seek
+her himself, unaided, unguided; and a superstitious faith grew strong
+within him that, through his unremitting search, never foregone, never
+relaxed, he would discover her at last.
+
+His plan was sufficiently vague and wild. He resolved to scour Paris
+from end to end, scanning every face that passed him, until the light
+shone upon hers, and kindled up once more his darkened existence.
+
+When he last returned from Brittany, he had engaged one small, plain
+apartment in the Rue Bonaparte, the _Latin_ quarter of the city,--a
+favorite locality of students. Here he again took up his abode, or,
+rather, here he passed his nights; he could scarcely be said to have a
+dwelling-place by day. From dawn until late in the evening he wandered
+through the streets, peering into every youthful countenance that
+flitted by him, quickening his pace if he caught sight of some graceful
+female form above the ordinary stature, and plunging onward in pursuit,
+with his heart throbbing madly, and his fevered brain cheating him with
+phantoms. His search became almost a monomania. His mind, fixed
+strainingly upon this one, all-engrossing object, lost its balance, and
+he could no longer reason upon his own course, or see its futility, or
+devise a better. The invariable disappointment which closed every day's
+search, by some strange contradiction, only confirmed him in the belief
+that Madeleine was in Paris, and that he would shortly find her there;
+that he would meet her by some fortunate chance; would be drawn to her
+by some mysterious magnetic instinct. Every few days he visited the
+_bureau des passeports_, to ascertain whether her passport had been
+presented to be _vised_.
+
+To the friends he daily encountered he scarcely spoke, but hurried past
+them with hasty greeting, and a painfully engrossed look, which caused
+the sympathetic to turn their heads and gaze after him, wondering at the
+disordered attire and unsettled demeanor of the once elegant and
+vivacious young nobleman, who had graced the most courtly circles, and
+was looked upon as the very "glass of fashion and mould of form."
+
+Maurice had been nearly a month in Paris, passing his days in the manner
+we have described, when, for the first time, he encountered Gaston de
+Bois. The former would have hastened on, with only the rapid salutation
+which had grown habitual to him, but M. de Bois stopped with
+outstretched hand, and said,--
+
+"Where have you hidden yourself? I have been expecting to see you ever
+since I came to Paris; but I could not discover where you
+lod--od--odged."
+
+"My lodgings are in the Rue Bonaparte, numero --," returned
+Maurice, abruptly; "but I am seldom at home."
+
+"You will allow me to take my chance of finding you?" asked M. de Bois,
+forcibly struck by his friend's altered appearance. "Or," he added, "you
+will come to see me instead? I am at the Hotel Meurice at present."
+
+"Thank you," said Maurice, absently, and glancing around him at the
+passers-by as he spoke. "Good-morning."
+
+M. de Bois would not be shaken off thus unceremoniously. He was too much
+distressed by the evident mental condition of the viscount. He turned
+and walked beside him, though conscious that Maurice looked annoyed.
+
+"When we parted, did you go to Scotland, as you pro--o--po--sed?"
+inquired Gaston.
+
+"Yes; but Lady Vivian was in London. I sought her there. She knew
+nothing of my cousin. I returned to Paris; for I am sure Madeleine is
+here."
+
+"Here?" almost gasped M. de Bois, stopping suddenly.
+
+Maurice walked on without even noticing the strange confusion that
+arrested his companion's steps.
+
+The latter recovered himself and rejoined him, asking, in as unconcerned
+a tone as he could command, "What has caused you to think so?"
+
+"I am certain of it;--her passport was taken out for England, but it has
+not been _vised_ in Paris. She must be here still, and I know that I
+shall find her. I have walked the streets day after day, hoping to meet
+her, and I tell you I shall--I must!"
+
+M. de Bois, whose equanimity had only been disturbed for a moment, shook
+his head sorrowfully, saying, "I fear _not_; it does not seem likely."
+
+"To me it _does_. Fifty times I have thought I caught sight of her, but
+she disappeared before I could make my way through some crowd to the
+spot where she was standing. This will not last forever,--ere long we
+shall meet face to face."
+
+"I hope so! I heartily hope so! I would give all I possess, though that
+is little enough, to have it so!"
+
+These words were spoken with such generous warmth, that Maurice was
+moved. He had not before noticed the change in his Breton neighbor,--a
+change the precise opposite to the one which had taken place in himself,
+yet quite as remarkable.
+
+Gaston's address was no longer nervous and flurried; he had gained
+considerable self-command and repose of manner. The air of uncomfortable
+diffidence, which formerly characterized his deportment, had
+disappeared, and given place to a manly and cheerful bearing.
+
+"If he loves Madeleine," thought Maurice, "how can he look so calm while
+she is--God only knows where, and exposed to what dangers?"
+
+"Have you heard from Mademoiselle Ber--er--ertha?" asked M. de Bois,
+with some hesitation.
+
+"Yes, several times. My cousin Bertha was broken-hearted at the news I
+sent her from London; but I trust that soon"--
+
+He did not conclude his sentence: his wan face lighted up; his restless,
+straining eyes were fastened upon some form that passed in a carriage.
+Without even bidding M. de Bois good morning, he broke away and pursued
+the carriage; for some time he kept up with it, then Gaston saw him
+motion vehemently to a sleepy coachman, who was lazily driving an empty
+fiacre. The next moment Maurice had opened the door himself and leaped
+into the vehicle; it followed the carriage the young viscount had kept
+in view, and soon both were out of sight.
+
+The imagination of Maurice had become so highly inflamed that forms and
+faces constantly took the outline and lineaments of those ever-present
+to his mind. And when, after some exhausting pursuits, he approached
+near enough for the illusive likeness to fade away, or when the shape he
+was impetuously making towards was lost to sight before it could be
+neared, he always felt as though he had been upon the eve of that
+discovery upon which all his energies were concentrated.
+
+After their accidental encounter Gaston de Bois called upon Maurice
+repeatedly, but never found him at home.
+
+Bertha continued to write sorrowful letters teeming with inquiries.
+Maurice answered briefly, as though he could not spare time to devote to
+his pen, but always giving her hope that the very next letter would
+convey the glad intelligence which she pined to receive. Four months was
+the limit of her yearly visit to the Chateau de Gramont, and the period
+of her stay was rapidly drawing to a close. She wrote that in a few days
+her uncle would arrive and take her back to his residence in Bordeaux.
+The language in which this communication was made plainly indicated that
+she would rejoice at the change. She touched upon the probability of
+seeing Maurice before she left; but he was unmoved by the
+half-invitation; nothing could induce him to leave Paris while he
+cherished the belief that Madeleine was within its walls.
+
+Count Tristan wrote and urged him to return home; but the summons was
+unheeded. He could not have endured, while his mind was in this terrible
+state of incertitude, to behold again the old chateau, which must
+conjure up so many harrowing recollections. Then, too, his natural
+affection for his father and his grandmother was embittered by the
+remembrance of their persecution of Madeleine. Until she had been
+found,--until he could hear from her own lips (as he knew he should)
+that she harbored no animosity towards them,--he could not force himself
+to forgive their injustice and cruelty. She alone had power to soften
+his heart and cement anew the broken link.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE SISTER OF CHARITY.
+
+
+The marvellous change in the bearing of Gaston de Bois, by which Maurice
+was struck, had been wrought by a triad of agents. A man who had passed
+his life in indolent seclusion, who had plunged into a tangled labyrinth
+of abstruse books, not in search of valuable knowledge, but to lose in
+its mazes the recollection of valueless hours; who had allowed his days
+to drag on in aimless monotony; who had fallen into melancholy because
+he lacked a healthy stimulus to rouse his faculties out of their
+life-deadening torpidity; who had allowed his nervous diffidence to gain
+such complete mastery over him that it tied his tongue, and clouded his
+vision, and confused his brain; who had despised himself because he was
+keenly conscious that his existence was purposeless and
+profitless;--this man, subjected to the sudden impetus of an occupation
+for which his mental acquirements and sedentary habits alike fitted him,
+found his new life a revelation. He had emerged from the dusty, beaten,
+grass-withered path his feet had spiritlessly trodden from earliest
+youth, and entered a field of bloom and verdure where the very stir of
+the atmosphere exhilarated, where the labor to be performed called
+dormant capacities into play and tested their strength, where each day's
+achievement gave the delightful assurance of latent powers within
+himself hitherto unrecognized,--in a word, where his manhood was
+developed through the regenerating virtue, the glorious might, the
+blessed privilege of _work!_
+
+The second cause which had contributed to bring about the happy
+metamorphosis in Gaston de Bois sprang out of the hope-inspiring words
+Madeleine had dropped on that day which closed so darkly on the duke's
+orphan daughter. Those few, passing, precious words had fallen like
+fructuous seed and struck deep root in Gaston's spirit; and, as the
+germs shot upward, every branch was covered with blossoms of hope which
+perfumed his nights and days. He dared to believe that Bertha did not
+look upon him with disdain,--that she sympathized with the misfortune
+which debarred him from free intercourse with society,--that a deeper
+interest might emanate from this compassionate regard. The possibility
+of becoming worthy of her no longer appeared a dream so wild and
+baseless; but he was too modest, too distrustful of himself, to have
+given that golden dream entertainment had it not been inspired by
+Madeleine's kindly breath.
+
+The third cause which combined with the two just mentioned to
+revolutionize his character will unfold itself hereafter.
+
+The more cognizant M. de Bois became that powerful influences were
+vivifying, strengthening, and bringing order out of confusion in his own
+mind, the more troubled he felt in pondering over the disordered mental
+condition of Maurice. During a whole month after their accidental
+encounter in the street he called repeatedly at the lodgings of the
+viscount, but never once found him at home. Half discouraged, yet
+unwilling to abandon the hope of an interview, he persisted in his
+fruitless visits. One morning, to his unbounded satisfaction, when he
+inquired of the _concierge_ if M. de Gramont was within, an affirmative
+answer was returned. Gaston could hardly credit the welcome
+intelligence, and involuntarily repeated the question.
+
+"Ah, yes, poor young gentleman! he's not likely to be out again soon!"
+replied his informant, in a pitying tone.
+
+Without waiting for an explanation of the mysterious words, M. de Bois
+quickly ascended to the fifth story, and, being admitted into the
+antechamber by a neat-looking domestic, knocked at the door of the
+apartment which was indicated to him.
+
+The voice of a stranger bade him enter. He turned the doorknob with
+shaking hand. The room was so small that it could be taken in at a
+single glance. It was a plain, almost furniture-less apartment. In the
+narrow bed lay Maurice. His eyes--those great, blue eyes which so
+strongly resembled Bertha's--were glittering with the wild lights of
+delirium; fever burned on his cheeks and seemed to scorch his parched
+lips. The fair, clustering curls were matted and tangled about his brow;
+his arms were tossing restlessly about. He sprang up into a sitting
+posture as Gaston appeared at the door, and gazed at him eagerly; then
+stared around, peering into every corner of the chamber, as though in
+quest of some one. Those searching glances were followed by a look of
+blank despair that settled heavily upon his pain-contracted features as
+he sank back and closed his eyes.
+
+Beside the bed sat a woman, clad in the shapeless dress of black serge,
+and wearing the widely projecting white bonnet and cape, black veil,
+white band across the brow, and beneath the chin, which compose the
+attire of a sister _de bon secours_. She was one of that community of
+self-abnegating women, who, bound by holy vows, devote their lives to
+the care of the suffering, and are the most skilful, tender, and zealous
+nurses that France affords.
+
+Just beyond the good "sister" stood a young man, poring over a piece of
+paper, which had the appearance of a medical prescription: a
+spirited-looking youth, whose harmonious and intellectual cast of
+features was heightened to rare beauty by richly mellow coloring, and
+the silken curves of a beard and moustache unprofaned by a
+razor,--curves softly traced above the fresh, rubious lips, and
+gracefully deepening about the cheeks and chin,--curves that disappear
+forever when the civilized barbarism of shaving has been accepted.
+
+He came forward when M. de Bois entered, and accosted him in an earnest,
+rapid tone.
+
+"I hope, sir, you are a friend of this gentleman. Am I right in my
+supposition?"
+
+"Yes--yes--what--what has happened?" asked M. de Bois, his countenance
+plainly betokening his alarm.
+
+"I occupy the adjoining apartment," continued the stranger. "My name is
+Walton. Three nights ago I was startled by the sound of some object
+falling heavily near my door, followed by a deep groan. I found this
+gentleman lying on the ground, apparently insensible. I carried him into
+his chamber, laid him upon the bed, and summoned the _concierge_. The
+name inscribed upon her book is the Viscount Maurice de Gramont, and his
+last residence the chateau of his father, Count Tristan de Gramont, in
+Brittany, near Rennes. I took upon myself the responsibility of calling
+a physician,--Dr. Dupont,--and, through his advice, of engaging this
+good 'sister,' one of the '_soeurs de bon secours_,' as a nurse. Dr.
+Dupont wrote to his patient's father; but no answer has been received. I
+have been with your friend very constantly. You perceive he has a raging
+fever; he talks a great deal, but too incoherently to be able to answer
+any questions or to give any directions."
+
+This information was communicated with a quick, energetic intonation,
+while the speaker stood fanning Maurice, and preventing the hand which
+he flung about from striking against the wall. There was a confident
+rapidity in the stranger's movements, a vigorous manliness and
+self-dependence in his bearing, strikingly dissimilar to the deportment
+which usually characterizes young Parisians at the same age. Though he
+spoke the French language with fluent correctness, a slightly foreign
+accent betrayed to M. de Bois that he was not a native of France.
+
+Gaston thanked him as warmly as his troublesome impediment permitted,
+and said that he would himself write to the Count de Gramont. Then,
+bending over his friend, took his hot, unquiet hand, and spoke to him
+again and again. His voice failed to touch any chord of memory and cause
+it to vibrate in recognition. Maurice was muttering the same word over
+and over; Gaston hardly needed to bow his head to catch the imperfect
+sound; he knew, before he heard distinctly, that it was the name of
+"Madeleine."
+
+"Had you not better write your letter _immediately_?" asked young
+Walton. "Will you walk into my room? I do not see any writing materials
+here. Mine are at your service."
+
+Gaston, as he followed the stranger into the adjoining chamber, could
+not but be struck by the easy, off-hand, decided manner in which he
+spoke, and the promptitude with which he desired to accomplish the work
+to be done.
+
+Mr. Walton's sitting-room, which was separated from his bed-chamber, was
+much larger than the apartment of Maurice. It had an air of great
+comfort, if not of decided elegance, and testified to the literary and
+artistic taste of its occupant. The walls were decorated with fine
+photographic views, and some early efforts in painting. Here stood an
+easel, holding an unfinished picture; there an open piano; further on a
+convenient writing-table; in the centre another table covered with books
+and portfolios; materials for writing and sketching were scattered about
+with a bachelor's disregard for order.
+
+"I will clear you a space here," said he, sweeping the contents of one
+table upon another, already overburdened. "Everything is in confusion;
+for I have been working at odd moments. I could not make up my mind to
+go to the studio. I would not leave that poor fellow until somebody
+claimed him. What an interesting face he has! If he were only better, I
+would make a sketch. His countenance is just my beau ideal of the young
+Saxon knight in a historical picture I am painting. A man always finds
+materials for art just beneath his hand, if he only has wit and thrift
+to stoop and gather them as he goes. But I fear I am interrupting you.
+Make yourself at home. I will leave you while you are writing. Really, I
+cannot express how glad I am that you have come at last. I have been
+looking for you--that is, for somebody who knew M. de Gramont--every
+moment for two days."
+
+After drawing back the curtains to give M. de Bois more light, and
+glancing around to see that he was supplied with all he could require,
+the young artist returned to the apartment of Maurice.
+
+Ronald Walton was born of South Carolinian parents,--their only child.
+His boyhood was not passed in a locality calculated to develop artistic
+instincts, nor had his education afforded him artistic advantages, nor
+had he been thrown into a sphere of artistic associates; yet from the
+time his tiny fingers could hold brush or pencil he had seized upon
+engravings of romantic scenery, copied them upon an enlarged scale, and
+painted them in oil, to the astonishment of his parents and friends.
+When his young companions extracted enjoyment from fish-hook and gun,
+and hilariously filled game-bags and fishing-baskets, he sat quietly
+drinking in a higher, more humane delight before his easel. These
+tastes, as they strengthened, caused his father, though a liberal and
+cultivated man, severe disappointment. At times he was even disposed to
+place a compulsory check upon his son's artist proclivities; but the
+soft, persuasive voice of the gentle, refined, clear-sighted mother
+interposed. She had made the most loving study of her child's character,
+and had faith in his fitness for the vocation he desired to adopt. She
+pleaded that his obvious gift might be tested, and proved spurious or
+genuine, before it was trampled under foot as unworthy of recognition;
+and her heart-wisdom finally prevailed.
+
+Ronald was sent to Paris to study under a distinguished master. During
+three years he had made golden use of his opportunities. He was
+remarkable among his fellow-students for his indomitable perseverance,
+and his power of concentrating all his thoughts upon his work. He
+experienced a desire to attain excellence for _its own sake_, not for
+the petty ambition of _excelling others_. Thus he became very popular
+among his associates, and excited their admiration without ever
+awakening the jealousies of wounded self-love. Though he had determined
+to devote his life to art, from the conviction that it was the vocation
+for which he came commissioned from the Creator's hand, there was
+nothing morbid in his passion for his profession. It was a healthy love
+of the beautiful in outward form, springing from the love of all which
+the beautiful typifies, combined with a strong impulse to represent and
+perpetuate the haunting images of varied loveliness which constantly
+floated through his brain.
+
+The young Carolinian was called an enthusiast even by his French
+fellow-students, with whom enthusiasm is an inheritance; but his
+enthusiasm was allied to a severely critical taste,--a rare combination;
+and being grafted upon the tree of _practicability_, indigenous to the
+soil of his young country, it brought down his ideal conceptions into
+actual execution.
+
+The philosopher of the present day scouts at _enthusiasm_; but what
+agent is half so mighty in giving the needful spur to genius? Enthusiasm
+kindles a new flame in the chilled soul when the ashes of disappointment
+have extinguished its fires; enthusiasm reinvigorates and braces the
+spirit that has become weary and enervated in the oppressive atmosphere
+of uncongenial _entourage_; enthusiasm is the cool, refreshing breeze of
+a warm climate and the blazing log of a cold. Ronald's unexhausted
+enthusiasm was the secret fountain whose waters nourished laurels for
+him in the gardens of success.
+
+M. de Bois, when he had concluded his letter, found the art-student at
+the bedside of Maurice.
+
+"I will post your letter, if you please," said Ronald; "then I will make
+a moment's descent into the studio, or some of those noisy madcaps will
+be rushing here after me. I will return, however, before long, if you
+have no objection."
+
+Hardly waiting for M. de Bois's courteous, but rather slowly-expressed
+acknowledgment, he hurried away.
+
+For a couple of hours Gaston sat beside Maurice, listening to his
+indistinct ravings, and tracing out that striking likeness to a
+countenance he had studied too closely for his own peace. Now and then
+he exchanged a word or two with the good "sister," as she moistened the
+lips, or bathed the brow of the sufferer.
+
+The doctor came, but pronounced his patient no better, and threw out a
+hint that he had some fears the fever was taking the form of typhus;
+adding a warning in regard to the danger of infection. That intelligence
+had no influence upon Gaston, who resolved to pass as many hours as
+possible with his friend. Nor did it affect Ronald Walton, when he
+returned and heard the physician's verdict.
+
+The two young men for the next four days alternately shared the duties
+of the holy "sister."
+
+The postal arrangements between Paris and Rennes chanced, at that
+moment, to be very imperfect; the letter of Dr. Dupont never reached its
+destination, and that of M. de Bois was delayed on its route. It was not
+until the fifth day after it was posted that Count Tristan, who obeyed
+the summons with all haste, arrived in Paris. His son had never once
+evinced sufficient consciousness to recognize Gaston de Bois, but, the
+instant the count was ushered into the room, was seized with a fit of
+frenzy, and broke forth in a torrent of reproaches, upbraided his father
+with the ruin and death of Madeleine, charged him with having wrought
+the destruction of his own son, and warned him that he had brought utter
+desolation upon his ancestral home.
+
+Dr. Dupont, who entered the room during this paroxysm, suggested to the
+count the propriety of withdrawing. The latter, although every word
+Maurice uttered inflicted a deadly pang, could not, at first, be induced
+to tear himself away. The doctor was resolute in pronouncing his
+sentence of banishment, and declared that the viscount's life might be
+the sacrifice if he were subjected to further excitement.
+
+We will not attempt to portray the poignant sufferings of the count,
+who, in spite of his wiliness and worldliness, was passionately attached
+to his only child,--the central axis upon which all his hopes, his
+schemes, his whole world moved.
+
+Several times, while the invalid was sleeping, his father ventured to
+steal into the chamber; but, by some strange species of magnetism, his
+very sphere seemed to affect the slumberer, who invariably awoke, and
+recognized, or partially recognized him, and burst out anew in violent
+denunciations, to which respect would never have allowed him to give
+utterance, except under the stimulus of delirium. The count writhed and
+shrank beneath the fierce stabbing of those incisive words, and, in his
+ungovernable grief, flung himself beside the son, whom he feared death
+would shortly snatch from his arms, pouring forth assurances Maurice
+would once have hailed as words of life, but which now fell powerless
+upon his unheeding ears. While Count Tristan's overwhelming anguish
+lasted, there was no promise he would not have made to purchase his
+son's restoration, and no promise he would not have broken, if interest
+prompted, when the peril was past.
+
+After one of these agitating interviews, the doctor's edict entirely
+closed the door of the patient's chamber against the count, who was
+forced to admit the wisdom of the order.
+
+Gaston de Bois and Ronald Walton, between whom a pleasant intimacy was
+springing up, continued to watch by the bed of Maurice. Another
+fortnight passed, and though he lay, as it were, in a grave of fire, the
+doctor's prediction of typhus fever was not verified. At the expiration
+of this period, Ronald was the first to notice a favorable change, and
+to discover that the invalid had lucid intervals which showed his reason
+was reascending her abdicated throne. But he abstained from pointing out
+the improvement to Gaston, fearing that, in his joy, he might
+communicate the consolatory intelligence to the count, who would then
+insist upon seeing his son, and possibly reproduce the evil results by
+which his former visits had been attended.
+
+Maurice had ceased to moan and mutter, and lay motionless as one
+thoroughly exhausted. He slept much, waking for but a few moments, and
+sinking again into a species of half-lethargy. There was something
+inexpressibly sweet and pleasant in his present calmness; his mind
+seemed to have been mysteriously soothed and satisfied; the turbulent
+waves, that dashed him hither and thither against the sharp rocks of
+doubt and fear, had subsided. His features, especially when he slept,
+wore an expression of the most serene contentment.
+
+The _soeur de bon secours_, who had watched him through the night, had
+yielded her place to the "sister," who assumed the office of nurse
+during the day. Gaston entered soon after, and, finding the patient
+gently slumbering, sat down beside his bed. After a time, Maurice
+stirred, drew a long breath, and slowly opened his eyes. They met those
+of his watcher. For some time the invalid gazed at him without speaking,
+and then said, in a tone that was hardly audible,--
+
+"M. de Bois."
+
+"My dear Maurice--dear friend--you are better,--you know me at last,"
+exclaimed Gaston, joyfully.
+
+"I knew you before; you have been the most faithful of friends and
+nurses. I knew you quite well, and I knew _her_ too!"
+
+Gaston bounded from his chair, breathing so hard that he could scarcely
+stammer out, "Her! who--o--o--om do you me--e--ean?"
+
+"Madeleine," replied Maurice, confidently.
+
+"Mademoiselle Mad--ad--adeleine; you are dream--eaming!"
+
+"No! I thought so at first, and the dream was so sweet that I would not
+break it by word or motion, fearing that I should discover it was not
+reality. But it was no _dream_. Night after night,--how many I do not
+know--I could not count,--I have seen Madeleine beside me! When the good
+'sister' moved about the room, in the dim light of the _veilleuse_, in
+spite of her coarse, unshapely garb, I recognized the outlines of
+Madeleine's form; notwithstanding the uncouth bonnet, and the white
+bandage that concealed her hair and brow, and, passing beneath her chin,
+almost hid her face, I recognized the features of Madeleine. I watched
+her as she glided about the room, and with her delicate, noiseless,
+rapidly moving touch created the most perfect order around her. I heard
+her as she softly sang sweet anthems, and I could not mistake the voice
+of Madeleine. I felt her hand, her cool, fresh, velvety hand, upon my
+burning forehead, and it soothed me deliciously. I lay with closed eyes
+as she bathed my temples, and passed her fingers through my hair to
+loosen its tangles. I was afraid of frightening her away, or finding I
+saw but a vision. The water she held to my lips was nectar; when she
+smoothed my pillow, all pain passed from the temples that rested upon
+it, throbbing with agony before, and I sank into a sweet slumber,--not
+unconscious slumber: I knew that I was sleeping; I knew that Madeleine
+sat there, filling the place of the sister of charity; I knew that when
+I opened my eyes I should see her,--_and I did_, again and again. I
+never once spoke to her; I feared some spell would be broken if I
+breathed her name. In the morning she disappeared; but I knew she would
+come again at midnight, when all was quiet, and the light was carefully
+shaded. M. de Bois, my dear Gaston, I tell you _I have seen Madeleine!_"
+
+M. de Bois sat still, looking too much astounded to utter a word.
+
+"I see you cannot believe me," Maurice continued. "She never came while
+you were here, and so you think it is a dream. A happy dream! a dream
+full of the balm of Gilead! for she has cured me! My brain was a burning
+volcano until her hand was laid upon my brow, and I gazed in her face,
+and knew it was no phantom. Do not look so much distressed, my dear
+Gaston. I am perfectly in my senses."
+
+M. de Bois did not contradict him. Perhaps he remembered the good rule
+of never opposing a sick man's vagaries. After a pause he said,--
+
+"Maurice, since you are quite yourself, would you not like to see your
+father?"
+
+The wan face of Maurice flushed slightly.
+
+"Is he here?"
+
+"Yes, he has been here for more than a fortnight. The doctor forbade his
+entering. Will you not see him now?"
+
+The invalid assented languidly. He had perhaps spoken too much and
+overtaxed his strength.
+
+The joy of Count Tristan was deep and voiceless when he was once more
+permitted to embrace his son. He was so fearful of touching upon some
+painful chord, and of again hearing those frantic ravings, that he had
+no language at his command. Maurice, in a faint tone, inquired after his
+grandmother and Bertha, and then seemed too weary to prolong the
+conversation. Glad at heart, as the count could not but feel, at the
+wonderful improvement in his son, he was ill at ease in his presence,
+and seemed always to have some haunting dread upon his mind. It was a
+relief when the doctor forbade his patient to converse, and hinted that
+the count should make his visits very brief.
+
+The next day, when M. de Bois entered, Maurice greeted him in a mournful
+tone.
+
+"She did not come last night. I watched for her in vain. The 'sister,'
+yonder, went as usual at midnight, and came back in the morning; but,
+during the night, a stranger took her place."
+
+What could M. de Bois answer? He gave a sigh of sympathy, but did not
+attempt to make any comment.
+
+"She knows perhaps that my father is here, and she will come no more for
+fear of being discovered. But I have _seen her_, Gaston! I know I have
+seen her! I could not have lived if I had not. And her countenance was
+not sad,--it wore a look of patient hope that lent a glory to her face.
+The very remembrance of that saint-like expression put to shame the
+despair to which I have yielded."
+
+"I--I--I--am"--
+
+M. de Bois could get no further. If he meant to use any argument to
+persuade Maurice that it was only a vision, conjured up by his fevered
+imagination, which he had seen, the attempt would have been vain.
+Maurice clung to the belief that he had really beheld Madeleine, and
+that conviction soothed, strengthened, and reanimated him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+WEARY DAYS.
+
+
+Up to this period of his life the vigorous constitution of Maurice had
+suffered no exhausting drain. His habits had been so regular, his mode
+of life so simple, that his fine _physique_ had been untrifled with,
+uninjured. As a natural sequence, the first inroads made upon its
+strength were rapidly repaired. The fever once conquered, in a week he
+was sufficiently convalescent to walk out, leaning on the arm of Gaston
+de Bois, or Ronald Walton. His gait was feeble, his form attenuated, his
+countenance had lost its ruddy glow,--the lines had sharpened until
+their youthful, healthful roundness was wholly obliterated; but the
+nervous, untranquil expression had passed away from his face, and the
+restless glancing from side to side had left his eyes. Through the
+stimulating medium of fresh air and gentle exercise he gathered new
+vitality, and the promise of speedy restoration was daily confirmed.
+
+His favorite resort was the _atelier_ of the celebrated master under
+whose direction Ronald was studying his art. Seated in the comfortable
+arm-chair devoted to the use of models, Maurice often remained for
+hours, watching the busy brushes and earnest faces, among which the
+genius-lighted countenance of the young Carolinian shone conspicuously.
+On one of these occasions, after sitting for some time lost in thought,
+when he chanced to turn his head Ronald surprised him by crying out,--
+
+"My dear fellow, don't move! Keep that position another moment,--will
+you? I am making a sketch of your head. It has just the outline I want
+for my Saxon Knight after the battle."
+
+Maurice could not but smile at this evidence of the national trait of
+the young American, who seized upon every material within his reach for
+the advancement of his art. Ronald's words, too, struck him,--"After the
+battle!" Well might he resemble one who had passed through a severe
+conflict; but it was also one who was prepared to fight valiantly anew,
+and not disposed to succumb to the army of adverse circumstances arrayed
+against his peace.
+
+It was not possible for a young man, endowed with the impressible
+temperament of Maurice, to be thrown into constant communication with
+an associate as full of vigorous activity as Ronald Walton, without
+being stirred and inspired by the contact. The force, decision,
+aptitude, promptness, which distinguished Ronald, had constituted him a
+sort of prince among his fellow-students, who gave him the lead in all
+their united movements, without defining to themselves his claim to
+supremacy. Ronald's character was not free from imperfections; but its
+very faults were essentially national,--were characteristics of that
+"fast-running nation" which is "indivertible in aim," and incredulous of
+the existence of the unattainable. His dominant failing was a
+self-dependence, which, in a weaker nature, would have degenerated into
+self-sufficiency, but just stopped short of that complacent, puerile
+egotism, which narrows the mind, and rears its own opinions upon a
+judgment-seat to pronounce verdicts upon the rest of the world. He never
+doubted his ability to scale any height upon which he fixed his eyes; he
+laughed at obstacles; he did not believe in impossibilities; what any
+other man could accomplish, that he had an internal conviction he might
+also achieve; and he held the faith of the poet-queen that all men were
+possible heroes.
+
+These attributes were precisely those most calculated to impress and
+charm Maurice, and he regarded Ronald with unbounded admiration, mingled
+with a sickening sense of regret when he reflected upon the trammels
+which reined in the ready impulses and crushed the instinctive
+aspirations which were wrestling within himself.
+
+Count Tristan, as soon as his son was sufficiently restored to travel,
+suggested that he should return with him to Brittany; but Maurice
+betrayed such uncompromising reluctance to this proposal that his father
+thought it wise not to press the point.
+
+Though the count had escaped a calamity, which even to contemplate had
+almost driven him out of his mind,--though his son's life was spared,
+and his restoration to vigorous health assured,--at times the father
+felt as if that son were lost to him forever. An inexplicable reserve
+had risen up and thrust them asunder. In the count's presence Maurice
+was always abstracted and pensive; he uttered no complaints, made no
+petitions. He had come to the conclusion that both were useless; but his
+opinions and wishes were no longer frankly, boldly, iterated. He and his
+father stood upon different platforms, with an invisible, but an
+insurmountable barrier looming up between them. Count Tristan, albeit
+irritated, galled, grieved, could discover no mode of reestablishing the
+olden footing. After spending a month in Paris, he returned to
+Brittany, his mind filled with discomforting forebodings, to which he
+could give no definite shape.
+
+Maurice was once more left in the great, gay capital, his own
+master,--at liberty to plunge into whatever sea of dissipation, to float
+idly down whatever tide of pleasure lured him. But he wronged himself
+when he warned his father, some months previous, that if he were
+debarred from studying a profession, he might seek excitement, or
+oblivion, in impure channels, and waste his exuberant energies in
+degrading pastimes. He spoke on the spur of some vague, restless impulse
+within him, that clamored for an outlet; but he misjudged himself in
+imagining that he could be compelled to drown the memory of his
+disappointment in the wine-cup, the vortex of the gaming-table, or the
+more fearful maelstrom of siren allurements. To a young heart which has
+not been sullied by familiar contact with evil, there is no aegis so
+invulnerable to the assaults of those deadly enemies, who make their
+attacks in the fascinating garb of licentious liberty, as a strong,
+pure, life-absorbing attachment. He who wears the shield of a first,
+stainless affection, carries Ithuriel's spear in his hand, and, at a
+single touch, the sensual enchanter in his path, however resplendent its
+disguise, drops the fair-featured mask and shining mantle, and stands
+revealed in native hideousness. The image of Madeleine, ever present to
+Maurice, drew around him a protecting circle which nothing vile could
+enter, and, wherever his own eyes turned, it seemed to him that her
+heavenly eyes followed. Could he profane their holy gaze by fixing his
+upon scenes of captivating degradation and rose-crowned vice?
+
+Day after day, as his strength returned, it was but natural that he
+should grow more and more weary of monotonous indolence, and more and
+more impatient to escape from its depressing, deadening thraldom. The
+happy change, which a settled occupation had effected in Gaston de Bois,
+seemed to add to the discontent of his friend. Sometimes he was on the
+point of starting for Brittany, and making a fresh appeal to his father;
+then he was withheld by the dread that an angry discussion would be the
+only sequence. He knew that his father's pride, sustained by that of his
+grandmother, was unconquerable, and that the sentence, which condemned
+him to a dreary, inert, and profitless existence, would only be
+pronounced upon him anew.
+
+Since his illness he had entirely abandoned his vain search for
+Madeleine. He always felt as though he had seen her, albeit, when he
+attempted to reflect upon the likelihood that she had actually sat
+beside his couch, and watched over him during his illness, reason
+essayed to efface the impression which could hardly have been made by
+the fingers of reality. Even granting that Madeleine, on leaving
+Brittany, had joined the sisterhood, and proposed to devote her life to
+holy offices, for which she was richly dowered by nature, was there not
+a novitiate to be passed? How could she so soon have entered upon her
+sacred duties? And if by some mysterious dispensation she had been
+absolved from the probation of a novice, how could she have learned that
+he was ill? How could she have come to him so promptly? Was it probable
+that Mr. Walton, an entire stranger, had, by mere accident, selected a
+nurse from the very society which she had joined? These questions, and
+others equally difficult to answer, sprang up constantly in his mind,
+and found no satisfactory solution. Yet the conviction that he had
+actually beheld her remained unshaken.
+
+Bertha had been apprised by her aunt of the dangerous illness of
+Maurice, and had written to him when he was unable to read her letters.
+As soon as he was convalescent, they were placed in his hands.
+
+"My dear Gaston, write a line to my cousin for me," begged Maurice,
+feeling that he had not strength to reply, and little dreaming what a
+thrill of joy ran through Gaston's frame at that request.
+
+M. de Bois wrote,--wrote with an eloquence that could never have found
+utterance through his tongue.
+
+If we may judge from the number of times Bertha perused that letter, or
+if we may draw an inference from her wearing it about her person
+(probably that she might be able to refresh her memory with its
+information concerning her cousin), the epistle was either very
+difficult of comprehension, or it had some witching spell which drew her
+eyes irresistibly to its cabalistic characters.
+
+She had not recovered her wonted buoyancy. Beneath her uncle's roof she
+pined for Madeleine hardly less than at the Chateau de Gramont.
+
+The Marquis de Merrivale, her guardian, was a bachelor. The chief object
+of his existence was an endeavor to "take life easy," and guard himself
+from all vexations and discomforts. His next aim was to pamper the
+cravings of an epicurean appetite, but always with such judicious
+ministry that his digestive organs might not be impaired thereby. He was
+good-natured on principle, because it was too much trouble to get
+excited and vexed. His equanimity was seldom disturbed, save by his
+cook's failure in the concoction of a favorite dish.
+
+Count Tristan had drawn largely on his invention when he informed the
+Marchioness de Fleury that Bertha's uncle was exceedingly tenacious of
+his rights, and jealous of the interference of his niece's relatives in
+regard to any future alliance she might form. The marquis never dreamed
+of troubling his brain with such a minor matter as matrimony. He was
+inclined to be governed entirely by Bertha's predilection,--to leave the
+affair wholly to her, throwing off the trouble with the responsibility.
+He could have no objection to see her affianced to the Duke de
+Montauban,--he would have had none to her union with Maurice de Gramont.
+He found it sufficient pleasure to have his bright-faced niece sitting
+opposite to him at table, so long as she was gay and had a good
+appetite. If he had thwarted her wishes he would have accused himself of
+making a base, unkinly attempt to injure her digestion by causing her
+annoyance. He considered himself quite incapable of so unworthy, so
+harmful so cruel an action.
+
+When she returned from the Chateau de Gramont, he was discomposed at
+finding that she brought back a clouded visage, and seemed perfectly
+indifferent to the choicest dainties which he caused to be set before
+her as the most striking mark of his affection. Indeed, he became so
+uncomfortable when she rejected these delicate attentions day after day,
+that his mind was gradually prepared to look favorably upon a
+proposition which Bertha had resolved to make.
+
+She had been at home about a month; they were dining,--that is, her
+uncle was enjoyingly partaking of the meal that rounded his day, while
+Bertha's fork played with the oyster _pate_ on her plate, dividing it
+into tiny bits, but never lifting one to her mouth. The marquis, after
+descanting warmly upon the excellence of the _pate_, which he highly
+relished, interrupted his eulogium by saying,--
+
+"My dear child, you have not tasted a morsel of this incomparable
+_pate_! It is a triumph of culinary art! If you will just oblige me by
+touching a small piece to your lips; the paste is so light it will
+magically melt! Really, you _must eat_!"
+
+"I cannot, uncle."
+
+"Try, try; it disturbs me greatly to see you sitting there looking so
+gloomy. It will really hurt my digestion, and that would be a frightful
+calamity. Don't you like Lucien's cooking? I think him a treasure; but
+if you cannot relish what he prepares he shall receive his dismissal."
+
+"I dare say I should like the cooking in Paris better than any other,"
+remarked Bertha, treacherously assailing her uncle in his vulnerable
+point.
+
+"Paris! what are you talking about? We cannot have our dinners sent from
+Paris and kept warm on the road,--can we?"
+
+"But we might go to Paris and take our dinners," she rejoined,
+coaxingly.
+
+"Bless my heart! What an idea! It is a day's journey! Think of the
+trouble and discomfort of getting there!"
+
+"Think of the new inventions of the Parisian _cuisine_; for they invent
+new dishes, my Cousin Maurice has told me, as often as they originate
+new fashions for dress. There are abundance of novel dishes every day
+issuing from the brains of accomplished cooks,--dishes of which you have
+never even heard. You really ought to taste some of them."
+
+"That's a consideration,--positively it is. I must reflect upon it!"
+replied her uncle.
+
+"And Maurice seems to cling to the idea that my Cousin
+Madeleine"--continued Bertha.
+
+"There, there, my dear; that will do! don't touch on that unpleasant
+subject, especially at dinner; it will certainly injure your digestive
+organs, and give you the blues for the rest of the day. I assure you, my
+child, all low spirits come from indigestion. I am convinced indigestion
+is one great cause of all the sadness and sorrow, and, I dare say, of
+all the sin in the world."
+
+"It seems to me change of air must be very beneficial," replied Bertha,
+recovering from the false step she had been on the point of making.
+
+"Very wisely remarked! Change of air is beneficial, and gentle exercise
+is beneficial: both stimulate the digestive faculties and keep up their
+healthy action. And you really think, my dear, you would like to taste
+some of those new Parisian dishes?"
+
+"I should indeed!"
+
+"Then you shall. I look upon it as criminal, in the present low state of
+your appetite, to thwart its faintest craving. Of course we cannot
+procure anything fit to sustain nature on the road to Paris, but I can
+make Pierre pack up a basket of refreshments, and a bottle of old wine,
+so that we shall not be poisoned on the way. If we can only make the
+journey comfortably, I have no objection to investigate the gastronomic
+novelties of which you have heard. I could take Lucien with us, that he
+might learn some new mysteries in his art."
+
+"To be sure you could. When shall we start, dear uncle? I am so anxious
+to go! When shall we start?"
+
+"There! there! Don't get excited about it; that will interfere with the
+gastric juices. Let us conclude our dinner quietly. Try a wing of that
+pheasant, while we discuss the matter with wholesome calmness."
+
+Bertha allowed herself to be helped to the wing, and tried to force down
+a few morsels for the sake of humoring the generously inclined _bon
+vivant_, who grew more and more genial and amiably disposed as he sipped
+his Chateau Margaux. Fine wine invariably had a softening, expansive
+effect upon his character, and, after a few glasses, he honestly looked
+upon himself as one of the most tender-hearted, soberly inoffensive, and
+morally disposed of mortals.
+
+If Bertha had openly proposed to him that they should spend a few weeks
+in Paris for the gratification of any praiseworthy intention of her own,
+or of any harmless whim, he would have unhesitatingly refused, and
+opposed any number of objections to the proposition; but she had
+introduced the subject in its most favorable light, and was sure of a
+victory.
+
+A few days later, the Marquis de Merrivale and his niece, attended by
+her maid, his valet and cook, were on their way to the metropolis. The
+marquis, having instituted many inquiries with the view of discovering
+what hotel rejoiced in the possession of the most scientific cook,
+concluded to engage a suite of apartments at the hotel _des Trois
+Empereurs_.
+
+The meeting between Bertha and Maurice was as full of tenderness as
+though they had been in reality what their strong family resemblance
+caused them to appear, brother and sister.
+
+"No word from Madeleine yet?" was Bertha's first inquiry,--hardly an
+inquiry, for she knew what the answer must be.
+
+Then Maurice told her of the _soeur de bon secours_ who had sat by his
+bed night after night.
+
+"Could it really have been Madeleine?" she asked, breathlessly.
+
+"M. de Bois seems to think not; yet I am unshaken in my conviction that
+it was she herself."
+
+"But why did you not speak to her?"
+
+"A feeling which I can scarcely define withheld me. At first I thought I
+was dreaming, and that the dream would be broken if I spoke or moved.
+Then I felt sure Madeleine was there, but that she believed herself
+unrecognized, and if I showed that I knew her she would leave me,--leave
+me when I could not follow, and must again have lost all trace of her.
+It was such a luxury, such a joy to feel her by my side! It was her
+presence and not the skill of the physician which restored me."
+
+"And you never once betrayed yourself?"
+
+"No. What seems most singular is that from the very day I mentioned to
+M. de Bois that I had seen her, she came no more. Yet how could she have
+learned, or divined, that I knew her?"
+
+"That circumstance, dear Maurice, makes it all look like a dream. As
+soon as the fever left you the phantom it conjured up disappeared."
+
+Maurice shook his head, unconvinced, and Bertha was too willing to be
+deceived herself to attempt to persuade him that he was in error.
+
+The Marquis de Merrivale now entered. Maurice, whom he had only known
+slightly, rose in favor when the epicure found that the young Parisian
+could give all requisite information concerning the best restaurants in
+Paris; and the viscount reached a higher summit of esteem, when he
+promptly promised to put Lucien _en train_ to familiarize himself with
+certain valuable culinary discoveries. Maurice knew enough of the
+character of the marquis to be confident that his stay in the metropolis
+would be determined by the amount of comfort he enjoyed, and the quality
+of the dinners set before him.
+
+Bertha's next visit was from M. de Bois, and could she have banished
+from her mind a vague impression that he loved Madeleine, or was beloved
+by her, the interview would have afforded her unmitigated happiness.
+
+M. de Bois had not yet gained sufficient mastery over himself to command
+his utterance in the presence of the woman who had most power to confuse
+him. He still stammered painfully; but he could not help remarking that,
+even as Madeleine had said, Bertha finished his broken sentences,
+apparently unaware that she was doing so. And her greeting, surely it
+had been far from cold. And did she not say, with a soft emphasis which
+it almost took away his breath to hear, that it seemed an age since they
+met? Had she then felt the time long? And did she not drop some
+involuntary remark concerning the dulness of Brittany after he and
+Maurice left? Had she not coupled him with her cousin? Might he not dare
+to believe that Madeleine was right, and Bertha certainly did not scorn
+him?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+DIAMONDS AND EMERALDS.
+
+
+"I wish you would go, Maurice. Do, for my sake!" pleaded Bertha,
+twisting in her slender fingers a note of invitation. "The Marquis de
+Fleury was one of the first persons who called upon my uncle, and he
+made a very favorable impression. Then Madame de Fleury has nearly
+crushed me beneath an avalanche of sweet civilities. I fancy that a
+humming-bird drowned in honey must experience sensations very similar to
+mine in her presence. Is it not the Chinese who serve as the greatest of
+delicacies a lump of ice rolled in hot pastry? The condiment with which
+she feeds my vanity reminds me of this singular and paradoxical dainty.
+If you penetrate the warm, sugared, outer crust, you find ice within.
+But, as my uncle does not anticipate Chinese diet at the table of the
+marchioness, he desires me to accept her invitation; and, as you are
+invited, I wish _you_ to do the same, that I may have some familiar face
+near me."
+
+"Gaston de Bois will be there," returned Maurice, "and so will the young
+American student, Ronald Walton, whom I presented to you; they are my
+dearest friends; pray let them represent me, little cousin."
+
+But Bertha was obstinate; her character had a strong tincture of
+wilfulness, the result of invariably having her pleasure consulted, and
+always obtaining her own way. She did not relinquish her entreaties
+until Maurice, who had not lived long enough to be skilled in the art of
+successfully denying the petition of a person who will take no refusal,
+or of plucking the waspish sting out of a "no," consented to be present
+at the dinner.
+
+The Marquis de Fleury had learned, through his secretary, that
+Mademoiselle Merrivale and her guardian were in Paris. Though the
+matrimonial proposition of the marchioness on behalf of her brother, the
+Duke de Montauban, had been so unfavorably received by Bertha's
+relatives in Brittany, and though Bertha herself, when she met the duke
+at the Chateau de Tremazan, had treated him somewhat coldly, the young
+duke was too much enamored of the fair girl herself,--to say nothing of
+a tender leaning towards her attractive fortune,--to be discouraged by a
+passing rebuff. His relatives hailed the anticipated opportunity of
+making the acquaintance of Bertha's guardian, and were prompt in paying
+their devoirs. An invitation to dine followed quickly on the footsteps
+of the visit.
+
+We pass over the days that preceded the one appointed for the dinner
+party; they were unmarked by incidents which demand to be recorded.
+
+The bond of intimacy between Ronald and Maurice was drawn closer and
+closer each day. Little by little the latter had communicated the
+history of his own trials; his father's determined opposition to his
+embracing a professional career; his attachment to Madeleine; her
+unaccountable rejection of his hand; her sudden disappearance, and the
+mad pursuit, which terminated by casting him insensible at Ronald's
+door, and brought to his succor one who not only watched beside him with
+all the devotion of a brother, mingled with the tenderness of womanhood
+itself, but whose buoyant, healthy tone of mind had infused new hope and
+vigor into a broken, despondent, prostrate spirit.
+
+Ronald Walton was placed in an advantageous position in Paris by the
+very fact of being an American. His intellect, talents, manners, person,
+fitted him to grace the most refined society; and, coming from a land
+where distinctions of rank are not arbitrarily governed by the accident
+of birth, but where men are assigned their positions in the social scale
+through a juster, higher, more liberal verdict, the young Carolinian
+gained facile admission into the most exclusive circles abroad, and even
+took precedence of individuals who made as loud a boast of noble blood
+and hereditary titles as though the concentrated virtues of all their
+ancestors had been transmitted to them through these dubious mediums.
+
+Ronald, as the intimate friend of Maurice de Gramont, had received an
+invitation to the dinner given by the Marchioness de Fleury to the
+relatives of the viscount.
+
+The young men entered Madame de Fleury's drawing-room together, and,
+after having basked for a few seconds in smiles of meridian radiance,
+and been inundated by a flood of softly syllabled words, moved away to
+let the beams of their sunny hostess fall upon new-comers.
+
+Maurice glanced around the room in search of his cousin.
+
+"She has just entered the antechamber," said Ronald, comprehending his
+look. "Her Hebe-like face this minute flashed upon me."
+
+While he was speaking, Bertha and her uncle were announced, and advanced
+toward their hostess.
+
+The low genuflection of the marchioness had been responded to by
+Bertha's unstudied courtesy, and the lips of the young girl had just
+parted to speak, when she suddenly gave a violent start, and uttered a
+cry as sharp and involuntary as though she had trodden upon some
+piercing instrument. As she tottered back, her dilated eyes were fixed
+upon Madame de Fleury in blank amazement.
+
+"What is it, my dear? Are you ill?" asked her uncle with deep concern.
+
+Bertha did not reply, but still gazed at the marchioness, or rather her
+eyes ran over the lady's toilet, and she clung to her uncle's arm as
+though unable to support herself.
+
+"I am afraid you really are ill," continued the Marquis de Merrivale.
+"Something has disagreed with you; it must have been the truffles with
+which that pheasant we had for _dejeuner_ was stuffed. I toyed with them
+very timidly myself."
+
+"Pray sit down, my dear Mademoiselle de Merrivale," said Madame de
+Fleury, leading her to a chair which stood near. "Sit down while I order
+you a glass of water."
+
+She turned to address a servant, but Bertha stretched out her hand,
+almost as though she feared to lose sight of her. "Don't go! Don't go!
+Let me look! Can they be hers? Let me look again!"
+
+Madame de Fleury, as unruffled as though these broken exclamations were
+perfectly natural and comprehensible, bent over Bertha caressingly,
+laying the tips of her delicately gloved fingers on her shoulder. Bertha
+wistfully examined the bracelet on the lady's arm, then fixed her eyes
+upon the necklace, brooch, and ear-rings, and lastly upon the tiara-like
+comb, about which the hair of the marchioness was arranged in a
+dexterous and novel manner.
+
+Madame de Fleury was gratified, without being moved by the faintest
+surprise that her toilet had produced such an overpowering sensation.
+Bertha's emotion did not appear to her in the least misplaced or
+exaggerated.
+
+"You admire this set of diamonds and emeralds very much, then?" she
+asked, complacently.
+
+"The _fleur-de-lis_ and shamrock," faltered Bertha, "where--where did
+they come from?"
+
+Interpreting the unceremonious abruptness and singularity of the
+question into a spontaneous tribute paid to her costly ornaments, the
+marchioness graciously answered,--
+
+"This _parure_ was a delicate attention from M. de Fleury. Not long
+after he presented these diamonds to me, by a very strange coincidence
+Vignon sent this dress for my approval. You observe how dexterously the
+device of the necklace is imitated. Can anything be more perfect than
+these lilies and shamrock leaves?"
+
+Bertha hastily glanced at the rich white silk robe, trimmed with
+_revers_ of pale violet, upon which the lilies and shamrock were
+embroidered with some species of lustrous thread, which counterfeited
+not only the design but the sparkle of the gems. The marchioness went
+on,--
+
+"Was it not odd that Vignon, famed as she is for novelties, should have
+chanced upon a dress which so exactly matched my new set? It quite makes
+me a convert to the science of animal magnetism. My mind, you see, was
+_en rapport_ with hers. Indeed she says so herself, for she could not
+otherwise explain the sudden inspiration which caused her to plan this
+trimming. M. de Fleury wanted me to have these jewels set anew; but I
+would not allow them to be touched,--this old-fashioned setting is so
+remarkable, so unique. Probably there is not another like it to be found
+in Paris: _that_ is always vantage ground gained over one's
+jewel-wearing adversaries."
+
+The marchioness, once launched upon her favorite stream of talk, would
+have sailed on interminably, had not the announcement of new guests
+floated her upon another current.
+
+"I hope the spasms are going over, my dear," said the Marquis de
+Merrivale, who was really distressed by Bertha's supposed illness. "It
+was very clever to divert observation by talking about dresses and
+jewels; but the truffles did the mischief. I knew well enough what was
+the matter with you."
+
+"No--no; it was those jewels," replied Bertha, who had not yet recovered
+her self-possession. "Those diamonds and emeralds were Madeleine's!"
+
+"Madeleine's!" ejaculated Maurice, who had approached her on witnessing
+her unaccountable agitation. "Good heavens! is it possible?"
+
+"Yes, they were Madeleine's,--they were her mother's jewels and had been
+in her family for generations. Madeleine showed them to me only a few
+nights before she left the Chateau de Gramont. I am sure of them. I
+would have recognized them anywhere."
+
+"Then at last--at last, oh thank God--we shall trace her! She must have
+sold those jewels for her support. We must learn from whence Madame de
+Fleury purchased them," returned Maurice, with a voice trembling with
+exultation.
+
+"Madame de Fleury said they were a _cadeau_ from the marquis," replied
+Bertha. "Come, let us find him,--let us ask him at once."
+
+Bertha rose with animation and took her uncle's arm.
+
+"Where are you going, my dear? Pray do not excite yourself again,"
+pleaded her solicitous guardian. "Pray keep cool. Dinner must shortly be
+served, and you will not be in a fit state to do justice to the
+sumptuous repast which I have no doubt awaits us,--some of those novel
+inventions, perhaps, which you were so anxious to taste. I see people
+are not scrupulously punctual in Paris,--it is ten minutes after the
+time. Possibly we are waiting for some guest who has not sufficient good
+taste to remember that viands may be overdone through his culpability."
+
+"I must speak to M. de Fleury," said Bertha. "Let us get nearer to him,
+that I may seize the first opportunity when he ceases talking to that
+pompous-looking old gentleman who has the left breast of his coat
+covered with decorations."
+
+"Well, well, take it quietly--keep cool--don't get your blood into a
+ferment,--that's all I ask."
+
+Her uncle led her across the room, accompanied by Maurice.
+
+Diplomat and courtier were inscribed on every line of the wrinkled
+countenance of the Marquis de Fleury. He never took a step, or gave a
+look, or scarcely drew a breath, by which he had not some object to
+accomplish, some interest to promote. An oppressive suavity of manner,
+an exaggerated politeness encased him in an impenetrable armor, and
+prevented the real man from ever being reached beneath this smooth
+surface. Impulses he had none. The slightest motions of his wiry frame
+were studied. When he walked, he slid along as though he could not be
+guilty of so positive an action as that of planting his feet firmly upon
+what might prove "delicate ground." When he bowed, a contraction of
+sinews worthy of an _acrobat_ allowed his head to obtain an unnatural
+inclination, suggestive of a complimentary deference which humbled
+itself to the dust and kissed the garment's hem. Straightforwardness in
+word, thought, or action was to him as incomprehensible as it was
+impossible. He was a great general, ever standing on the political or
+social battle-field; skilful manoeuvres were the glory of his
+existence, and flattery the magical weapon never laid aside by which he
+gained his victories.
+
+Madame de Fleury was thirty years his junior. He had purposely selected
+a young, pretty, harmless, well-dressed doll, as the being best suited
+to further his ends in the great world. He admired her sincerely. She
+reached the exact mental stature and standard which he looked upon as
+perfection in womanhood, and her absolute despotism in ruling the modes
+and creeds of the _beau monde_ were to him the highest proof of her
+superiority over the rest of her sex.
+
+Though he was engaged in a conversation with the emperor's grand
+chamberlain, which seemed deeply interesting to both parties, M. de
+Fleury broke off instantly when Bertha, with her uncle and Maurice,
+approached.
+
+"You are so radiant to night, Mademoiselle de Merrivale," remarked the
+courtier, "that all eyes are fixed upon you. It is cruel of you to
+dazzle the vision of so many admirers!"
+
+Bertha, without paying the slightest attention to these fulsome words,
+replied, "Will you pardon me, M. de Fleury, if I ask an impertinent
+question?"
+
+"How could any question from such sovereign lips become other than a
+condescension? The queen of beauty commands in advance a reply to the
+most difficult problem which she can propound."
+
+Bertha, with an impatient toss of her head, as though the buzz of this
+nonsensical verbiage stung her ears, plunged at once into the subject.
+
+"That set of diamonds and emeralds which Madame de Fleury wears to-night
+were presented to her by you. Will you have the goodness to tell me from
+whence you procured them?"
+
+For M. de Fleury to have given a direct answer, even in relation to such
+an apparent trifle, would have been contrary to his nature; besides, it
+was one of his rules not to impart information without learning for what
+object it was sought.
+
+"You admire them?" he replied, evasively. "I am delighted, I am charmed
+with your approval of my taste. I shall think more highly of it forever
+after. The setting of the jewels is old-fashioned; but Madame de Fleury
+found it so novel that I could not prevail upon her to have it
+modernized."
+
+"But you have not told me how the jewels came into your possession."
+
+"Oh, very naturally, very naturally, lovely lady! They were not a fairy
+gift; they became mine by the very prosaic transaction of purchase."
+
+Maurice could restrain himself no longer.
+
+"My cousin is particularly desirous of learning through what source you
+obtained them. She has an important reason for her inquiry."
+
+This explanation only placed the marquis more upon his guard.
+
+"Ah, your captivating cousin thinks they look as though they had a
+history? Yes, yes; jewels of that kind generally have. Does the design
+strike you as remarkable, Mademoiselle de Merrivale?"
+
+"Very remarkable,--and I have seen it before. I could not forget it. I
+wished to know"--
+
+Dinner was announced at that moment, and the Duke de Montauban came
+forward and offered his arm to Bertha.
+
+M. de Fleury, with lavish apologies for the interruption of a
+conversation which he pronounced delightful, begged the Marquis de
+Merrivale to give his arm to Madame de Fleury, named to Maurice a young
+lady whom he would have the goodness to conduct, glided about the room
+to give similar instructions to other gentlemen, and, selecting an
+elderly lady, who was evidently a person of distinction, led the way to
+the dining-room.
+
+Maurice stood still, looking perplexed and abstracted, and quite
+forgetting that he had any ceremonious duty to perform. Ronald, who from
+the time he had watched beside the viscount's sick-bed had not
+relinquished his friendly _surveillance_, noticed his absence of mind,
+and, as he passed him, whispered,--
+
+"My dear fellow, what is the matter? You are dreaming again. Rouse
+yourself! Some young lady must be waiting for your arm."
+
+"Ronald," exclaimed Maurice, "something very singular has happened.
+Madame de Fleury is wearing Madeleine's family jewels!"
+
+"Bravo! That is cheering news, indeed! You will certainly be able to
+trace her now,--never fear! But you must get through this dinner first;
+so pray collect your scattered senses as expeditiously as possible."
+
+Elated by these words of encouragement, and the hilarious tone in which
+they were uttered, Maurice shook off his musing mood, and proffered his
+arm to the niece of Madame de Fleury, whom he now remembered that the
+marquis had desired him to conduct.
+
+During the dinner this young lady pronounced the handsome cavalier, who
+had been assigned to her, tantalizingly _distrait_, and secretly wished
+that the artistic _maitre d'hotel_ of her aunt had decorated the table
+with a less novel and attractive central ornament; for it seemed to her
+that the eyes of Maurice were constantly turned upon the miniature
+cherry-tree, of forced hot-house growth, that rose from a mossy mound
+in the centre of the festive board. The diminutive tree was covered with
+superb fruit, and girdled in by a circle of Liliputian grape-vines, each
+separate vine trained upon a golden rod, and heavily laden with luscious
+grapes, bunches of the clearest amber alternating with the deepest
+purple and richest crimson. Among the mosses of the mound were scattered
+the rarest products of the most opposite seasons; those of the present
+season being too natural to pamper the artificial tastes of luxury.
+Truly, the arrangement was a charming exemplification of nature made
+subservient to art; but was it this magnet to which the eyes of Maurice
+were so irresistibly attracted? He chanced to be seated where his view
+of the hostess was partially intercepted by the hot-house wonder, and he
+was seeking in vain to catch a glimpse of those jewels which had been
+Madeleine's.
+
+Bertha was placed nearer the marchioness, and the Duke de Montauban
+could not help noticing that her gaze was frequently fixed upon his
+sister; but being one of those men who are thoroughly convinced that
+what the French term "_chiffons_" is the most important interest of a
+woman's life, he consoled himself with the reflection that Mademoiselle
+de Merrivale was deeply engrossed by a contemplation of Madame de
+Fleury's elaborate toilet, and that her absent manner had this very
+feminine, reasonable, and altogether to be tolerated apology.
+
+When Madame de Fleury and her guests swept back into the drawing-room,
+Monsieur de Fleury and the grand chamberlain were again closely engaged
+in some political battle. Maurice, after waiting impatiently for a
+favorable moment when he might come between the wordy belligerents,
+whispered to Ronald,--
+
+"I am tortured to death! I shall never get an opportunity to ask the
+marquis about those jewels. My cousin was questioning him on the subject
+when dinner was announced; but he seemed to treat her inquiries as of so
+little importance that she was quite baffled in obtaining information."
+
+"Why not attack him in a straightforward manner?" answered the positive
+young American. "Walk up to him and ask plainly for a few moments'
+private conversation. Give him the reason of your inquiries, and demand
+an answer. Bring him to the point without any fancy fencing about the
+subject."
+
+"I fear it will look very strange," replied Maurice, hesitating.
+
+"What matter? Are you afraid of _looking strange_ when you have a worthy
+object to accomplish? The information you need is of more importance
+than mere looks. It thoroughly amazes me to see the awe in which a
+genuine Parisian is held by the dread of appearing singular! One would
+imagine that all originality was felony, and that to catch the same
+key-note of voice, to move with the exact motion, and tread in the
+precise footprints in which every one else speaks, moves, walks, was the
+only evidence of honesty. What is a man's individuality worth, if it is
+to be trodden out in the treadmill tramp of senseless conventionality?"
+
+Maurice glanced at his friend admiringly. He had observed on more than
+one occasion that although Ronald was thoroughly versed in all the
+nicest rules of etiquette, he had a way of breaking through them at his
+pleasure, and always so gracefully that his waiving of ceremony could
+never be set down to ignorance or ill-breeding.
+
+The viscount literally, and without delay, followed his friend's advice,
+and soon succeeded in drawing M. de Fleury aside.
+
+"Permit me to explain to you Mademoiselle de Merrivale's anxiety about
+those jewels," said Maurice. "You have, perhaps, heard the name of
+Mademoiselle Madeleine de Gramont, my cousin on my father's side. Some
+six weeks ago she suddenly left the Chateau de Gramont, and has not
+communicated with her family since. Those jewels were hers. She must
+have sold them. We are exceedingly anxious to discover her present
+residence and induce her to return to my grandmother's protection. If
+you could inform me from whence the jewels came, it would facilitate my
+search."
+
+The marquis had no definite motive for concealment beyond the dictates
+of his habitual caution. This explanation satisfied him in regard to the
+reasons which prompted inquiry; and being desirous of getting rid of
+Maurice, and of resuming the conversation he had interrupted, replied,
+with an assumption of cordiality,--
+
+"It gives me great pleasure to be the medium of rendering the slightest
+service to your illustrious family. Those diamonds were brought to me by
+the Jew Henriques, from whom I now and then make purchases. I did not
+inquire in what manner they came into his possession; but, not intending
+to be cheated as to their precise worth, I had them taken to Kramer, in
+the Rue Neuve St. Augustin, and a value placed upon them. I paid
+Henriques the price those trustworthy jewellers suggested, instead of
+the exorbitant one he demanded. This is all the information I am able to
+afford you on the subject."
+
+"May I beg you to favor me with the address of this Henriques?"
+
+"Certainly, certainly, with pleasure; but I warn you that you will not
+get much out of him. He is the closest Israelite imaginable; and a
+golden ointment is the only '_open sesame_' to his lips."
+
+M. de Fleury wrote Henriques' street and number on his card, and handed
+it to Maurice.
+
+Meantime Gaston de Bois, in spite of the pertinacious attentions of the
+Duke de Montauban, had approached Bertha, and would have drawn her into
+conversation had she not exultingly communicated to him the discovery
+she had made concerning Madeleine's jewels. Was it the sudden mention of
+that name which threw M. de Bois into a state of almost uncontrollable
+agitation? Why did he flush, and stammer, and try to change the subject,
+and, stumbling with suppressed groans over his words, as though they had
+been sharp rocks, talk such unmitigated nonsense? Why did he so soon
+steal away from Bertha's side? Why did he not approach her again for the
+rest of the evening? Could it be that her first suspicion was right, and
+that he loved Madeleine? If not, why should her name again have caused
+him such unaccountable emotion?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE EMBROIDERED HANDKERCHIEF.
+
+
+Maurice lost no time, the next morning, in seeking out the crafty old
+Jew. Henriques was a vender of jewels that came into his hands through
+private sources. There was considerable risk in his traffic; for it was
+just possible some of the precious stones transferred to him might have
+been acquired in a manner not strictly legal. Perhaps it was not part of
+his policy to acquaint himself with the history of gems which he bought
+at a bargain and reaped an enormous profit in selling; for, when Maurice
+endeavored to extract some information concerning the diamonds purchased
+by the Marquis de Fleury, the Jew protested entire ignorance in regard
+to their prior ownership; stating that they were brought to him by one
+of his _confreres_, of whom he asked no questions,--that he had
+purchased them at a ruinous price, and resold them to the marquis
+without a centime's benefit: a very generous proceeding on his part, he
+asserted; adding, with a ludicrous assumption of importance, that he
+highly esteemed the marquis, and now and then allowed himself the
+gratification of favoring him in business transactions.
+
+"But the name of the person from whom your friend received the jewels is
+certainly on his books, and, however numerous the hands through which
+they may have passed, they can be traced back to their original owner,"
+observed Maurice.
+
+"Not so easily, monsieur, not so easily. Purchaser has nothing to do
+with original owner. Jewels worth something, or jewels worth
+nothing,--that's the point; names of parties holding the articles of no
+consequence."
+
+"But you certainly inquire from what source the jewels offered you
+proceed?"
+
+"Never make impertinent inquiries,--never: would drive away customers.
+If monsieur has any jewels for sale, shall be happy to look at them;
+disposed to deal in the most liberal manner with monsieur."
+
+"Thank you. My object is simply to discover a friend to whom the jewels
+you sold to the Marquis de Fleury once belonged. It is indispensable
+that I should learn through whose hands they came into your possession."
+
+"Ah!" said the cunning Jew, placing his skinny finger on one side of his
+hooked nose, as if reflecting; then glancing at Maurice out of the
+corners of his searching eyes, he asked, "Party would like to be
+discovered?--or would said party prefer to remain under the rose?"
+
+"Possibly the latter."
+
+"Just so; that gives interest to the enterprise. But when party objects
+to being traced, difficulties spring up; takes time to overcome them;
+always a certain cost."
+
+"If you mean that I shall offer you compensation for your trouble, I am
+ready to make any in my power: name your price."
+
+"Price? price? not to be named so hastily; depends upon time consumed,
+amount of labor, obstacles party concerned may throw in the way. Other
+parties will have to be employed to seek out party who presented himself
+with the jewels; enumeration requisite to induce communicativeness; may
+turn out party had the jewels from another party, who obtained them from
+another; shall have to track each party's steps backward to party who
+was the original possessor."
+
+"Take your own course. I am unskilled in these affairs," answered
+Maurice, frankly; "all I ask is that you learn for me _where_ the lady
+whose family jewels passed through your hands now resides. Name the cost
+of your undertaking."
+
+The wily Jew fastened his keen, speculative eyes upon his anticipated
+prey, as he replied, slowly, "Cost?--can't say to a certainty; thousand
+francs do to begin."
+
+He heard the faint sigh, of which Maurice was himself unconscious, and
+drew a correct inference.
+
+From the hour that the viscount had been made aware of the true state of
+Count Tristan's finances, he had reduced all his own expenses, allowed
+himself no luxuries, no indulgencies, nothing but the barest
+necessities, that his father's narrow resources might not be drained
+through a son's lavishness. The young nobleman had not at that moment a
+hundred francs at his own command. He had no alternative but to apply to
+Count Tristan for the sum required by the Jew.
+
+"My means are very limited," returned Maurice, with a great waste of
+candor. "I must beg you to deal with me as liberally as possible. The
+amount you demand I hope to obtain and bring you in a few days. In the
+meantime you will commence your inquiries."
+
+"Assuredly,--just so; commence putting matters in train at once;
+possibly may have some clew between thumb and finger when monsieur
+returns with the money; nothing to be done without golden keys: unlock
+all doors; carry one into hidden depths of the earth. Shall be obliged
+to advance funds to pay parties employed. Have the goodness to write
+your name in this book."
+
+Maurice wrote down his name and address, and took his leave, once more
+elated by the belief that he was on the eve of discovering Madeleine's
+retreat.
+
+The letter to his father written and dispatched, he sought Bertha, and
+gave her full particulars of his interview with the Jew, delicately
+forbearing to mention the compensation he expected.
+
+Bertha, as sanguine of success as her cousin, was gayly discussing
+probabilities, when the Marquis de Merrivale entered.
+
+"Young heads laid together to plot mischief, I wager!" remarked the
+nobleman, jocosely; for he was in a capital humor, having just partaken
+of an epicurean _dejeuner a la fourchette_ at the celebrated "Madrid's."
+
+"We are talking about our Cousin Madeleine. Maurice has a new plan for
+prosecuting his search," said Bertha. "Ah, dear Madeleine! Why did she
+forsake us so strangely? How could she have had the heart to cause us so
+much sorrow?"
+
+"My dear child, it was probably her _liver_ not her _heart_ that was in
+fault. Her heart, I dare say, performed its grave duties properly, and
+should not be aspersed; some bilious derangement was no doubt at the
+bottom of her singular conduct. The greatest eccentricities may all be
+traced back to _bile_ as their origin. Regulate the bile and you
+regulate the brain from which mental vagaries proceed. If some judicious
+friend had administered to your cousin Madeleine a little salutary
+medicine, and forced her to diet for a few days, she would have acted
+more reasonably. Talking of diet, that was a princely dinner the Marquis
+de Fleury set before us. He is really a very able and estimable member
+of society,--understands good living to perfection. I cordially
+reciprocate his wish that a lasting bond of union should exist between
+us. His brother-in-law, the young Duke de Montauban, is enchanted with
+my little niece. I say nothing: arrange between yourselves; but, by all
+means, marry into a family which knows how to value a good cook; take a
+young man who has had his taste sufficiently cultivated to distinguish
+of what ingredients a sauce is composed. Don't despise a blessing that
+may be enjoyed three hundred and sixty-five times every year,--that's
+my advice."
+
+Bertha had not attached any importance to the attentions of the young
+duke; but her manner of receiving this suggestion,--the
+
+                      "half disdain
+    Perched on the pouted blossom of her lip,"--
+
+convinced Maurice that, if she favored any suitor, her inclinations did
+not turn towards the duke.
+
+"The Duke de Montauban is not ill-looking," Maurice remarked, to decoy
+her into some more open expression; "and he is sufficiently
+agreeable,--do you not think so?"
+
+"I never thought about him," she replied, somewhat petulantly. "If I
+chance to look at him I never think of any one but his tailor and his
+hairdresser, without whom I verily believe he would have no tangible
+existence."
+
+"An accomplished tailor and a skilful _coiffure_ are all very well in
+their way," observed her uncle; "but a scientific _cook_ is the grand
+necessity of a man's life,--a daily need,--the trebly repeated need of
+each day; and the education of a cook should commence in the cradle. If
+this point received the attention which it deserves from sanitarians,
+there would be fewer digestive organs out of order, and consequently
+fewer police reports, and a vast diminution of eccentric degradation,
+and moping madness and suicide, and horrors in general."
+
+Bertha and Maurice did not dispute this sweeping assertion; for they
+knew it would entail upon them the necessity of encountering a battalion
+of arguments, which the marquis delighted to call into action to defend
+the ground upon which he took up his favorite position.
+
+Count Tristan's reply to Maurice, enclosing a check for the thousand
+francs, was received a few days later. Maurice returned to the Jew with
+the money. The latter rejoiced him by vaguely hinting that there was a
+prospect of successful operation; but the matter would occupy time. The
+viscount would be good enough to call again in a week.
+
+Maurice was too unsuspicious and too unskilled in transactions of this
+nature to doubt that the Jew was dealing with him in good faith. Instead
+of a week, he returned the next morning, and repeated his visits
+regularly every day. The Jew diligently fanned his hopes, assuring him
+that old Henriques was not to be baffled, though the parties through
+whose hands the jewels had passed were almost unapproachable. Very soon
+the merciless Israelite notified the young nobleman that further funds
+would be requisite, and Maurice writhed under the cruel compulsion which
+forced him to make a second application to his father.
+
+Bertha had been a fortnight in Paris when the anniversary of her
+birthday, which for the first time had been forgotten, was in a singular
+manner recalled to her mind. A small package had been received for her
+at her uncle's residence in Bordeaux, and had been promptly forwarded to
+Paris. The outer cover was directed in the handwriting of her uncle's
+_concierge_; on the inner, a request, that if Mademoiselle de Merrivale
+were absent the parcel might be immediately forwarded to her, was
+written in familiar characters. Bertha had no sooner caught sight of
+them than she cried out,--
+
+"Madeleine! It is the handwriting of Madeleine!"
+
+She tore open the paper with trembling hands. There was no note,--not a
+single written word,--but before her lay a handkerchief of the finest
+texture, and embroidered with the marvellous skill which belonged alone
+to those "fairy fingers" she had so often watched.
+
+Vainly might we attempt to convey even a faint idea of her tumultuous
+rapture,--of the tears of ecstasy, the hysterical laughter, the dancing
+delight, with which she greeted her uncle and Maurice, who entered a few
+moments after the package was received. She kissed the handkerchief
+moistened with her tears, waved it exultingly over her head, kissed it
+again, and wept over it again, while the marquis and her cousin stood
+looking at her in speechless astonishment.
+
+"Madeleine! Madeleine! it is from Madeleine!" at last she found voice to
+ejaculate. "See, that is her handwriting," pointing to the paper cover;
+"and this is her work; her 'fairy fingers' send me a token on my
+birthday. I am seventeen to-day, and no one has remembered it but
+Madeleine. She thinks of me still; she never forgets any one; she has
+not forgotten me!"
+
+Maurice caught up the paper in which the handkerchief had been
+enveloped, and with throbbing pulses eagerly examined the handwriting.
+
+"See, Maurice," Bertha continued, joyfully, "in the corner she has
+embroidered my name, surrounded by a wreath of forget-me-nots,--for
+_she_ does not forget. The crest of the de Merrivales is in the opposite
+corner; and this,--why this looks like the bracelet I gave her on her
+last birthday. How wonderfully she has imitated the knot of pearls that
+fastened the golden band! And this corner, Maurice, look,--this is in
+remembrance of you,--of your birthday token to her. Do you not see the
+design is a brooch, and the device a dove carrying an olive-branch in
+its mouth, and the word 'Pax' embroidered beneath?"
+
+Maurice looked, struggling to repress the emotion that almost unmanned
+him. Pointing to the stamp upon the envelope which had contained the
+handkerchief, he said,--
+
+"It is postmarked Dresden."
+
+"Dresden? Dresden? Can Madeleine be in Dresden?" returned Bertha. "Ah,
+uncle, can we not go there at once? We shall certainly find her.
+Yes,--we must go. I am tired of Paris,--let us start to-morrow."
+
+"Dresden, my dear!" cried her uncle, in a tone of unmitigated disgust.
+"Why, the barbarians would feed us upon _sour kraut_, and give us
+pudding before meat! Go to Dresden? Impossible! Not to be thought of!
+Paris was a wise move,--we have enjoyed the living amazingly; but trust
+ourselves to those tasteless German cooks? We should be poisoned in a
+couple of days. Keep cool, my dear, or you will make yourself ill by
+getting into such a violent state of excitement just after breakfast.
+How do you suppose the important process of digestion can progress
+favorably if your blood is agitated in this turbulent manner?"
+
+Bertha was about to answer almost wrathfully, but Maurice interrupted
+her.
+
+"_I_ will go, Bertha. Madeleine must be in Dresden. At last she has sent
+us a token of her existence, a token of remembrance, thank Heaven!"
+
+"Go! go! go at once!" was Bertha's energetic injunction.
+
+Maurice pressed her hand tightly, and bowing to the marquis, without
+attempting to utter another syllable, took his leave, carrying with him
+the envelope which bore Madeleine's handwriting.
+
+After having his passport _vised_, he returned to his apartment to make
+rapid preparations for starting that evening. Very soon Gaston de Bois
+entered, evidently in a state of ill-concealed perturbation.
+
+"Mademoiselle Bertha tells me you are going to Dresden."
+
+"Yes, to seek my cousin. Look at the post-stamp upon that envelope.
+Madeleine is in Dresden."
+
+"How can you be sure of that?" asked Gaston.
+
+"She writes from Dresden; can anything be clearer?" returned Maurice,
+confidently.
+
+"It is not clear to me that she is there. I wish I could persuade you
+against taking this jour--our--ourney."
+
+"That is out of the question, Gaston; so spare yourself the trouble of
+the attempt."
+
+"But the journey will be use--use--useless," persisted M. de Bois.
+
+"How can you know that?" inquired Maurice, quickly.
+
+"I think so; it is my impression, my conviction."
+
+"It is not mine, and nothing can prevent my making the experiment,"
+answered Maurice, decidedly.
+
+Gaston looked as thoroughly vexed as though he were responsible for the
+rash actions of his friend; but he knew that Maurice was inflexible
+where Madeleine was concerned, and that all entreaties would be thrown
+away unless he could sustain them by some potent reason; and _that_ it
+was not in his power to proffer. He made no further opposition, but
+remained fidgeting about the room in the most distracting manner,
+hindering the preparations of Maurice, stumbling over articles scattered
+on the floor, now and then stammering out a broken, unintelligible
+phrase, and altogether seeming wretchedly uncomfortable, yet unwilling
+to leave until he saw the obstinate traveller in the _fiacre_ which
+drove him to the railway station.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+A VOICE FROM THE LOST ONE.
+
+
+A few days after the departure of Maurice for Dresden, the Duke de
+Montauban made a formal proposal for the hand of Mademoiselle de
+Merrivale. French etiquette not allowing a suitor the privilege of
+addressing the lady of his love, except through some kindred or friendly
+medium, his pretensions were of course made known to Bertha by her
+uncle. She received the communication with a fretful tapping of her
+little foot, and a toss of her gamboling, golden ringlets, which bore
+witness to her undisguised vexation and saucy disdain. The
+uncompromising manner in which she declined the proposed honor, threw
+her guardian, who had strengthened himself to enact the part of Cupid's
+messenger, by a somewhat liberal repast, into a state of astonishment
+which threatened alarming disturbance to his laboring digestive
+functions.
+
+"Really, my dear, you speak so abruptly that you make me feel quite
+dyspeptic. What possible objection can you have to the young duke?"
+
+"A very slight one, according to the creed which governs matrimonial
+alliances in our enlightened land," returned Bertha, pouting through her
+sarcasm. "My objection is simply that he is not an object of the
+slightest interest to me."
+
+"But the match is such a suitable one that interest will come after it
+is consummated," answered her uncle.
+
+"I do not intend to marry upon _faith_," retorted Bertha; then she broke
+out petulantly, "In a word, uncle, I do not intend to marry a man who is
+so insipid that I could not even quarrel with him; whom I could not
+think of seriously enough to take the trouble to dislike; to whom I am
+so thoroughly indifferent that for me he has no existence out of my
+immediate sight."
+
+"There, there; keep cool, my dear. Nobody intends to force you to marry
+him. I did not know that it was necessary to be able to dislike a man,
+and to have a capacity for quarrelling with him, to fit him for the
+position of a husband. A very unwholesome doctrine. Emotion is
+particularly prejudicial to the animal economy. I thought the cultivated
+taste which the de Fleurys so evidently possess might have some weight
+with you. That dinner they gave us was unsurpassable, and"--
+
+"If I am to marry to secure myself superlatively good dinners, I had
+better unite myself to an accomplished cook at once," replied Bertha,
+demurely.
+
+"That's very tart, my dear. All acids disagree with me, and your
+acidulated observations are giving me unpleasant premonitory symptoms."
+
+Bertha noticed that the _bon vivant_ had in reality began to puff and
+pant as though he were suffering from an incipient nightmare. Being so
+thoroughly habituated to his idiosyncrasy that she had learned to regard
+it leniently, she made an effort to recover her good humor, and
+answered,--
+
+"I know my kind uncle will not render me uncomfortable by pressing this
+subject; but, in the most courteous manner, will let the Duke de
+Montauban understand that I do not intend to marry at present."
+
+"Make you uncomfortable," rejoined the marquis, struggling for breath;
+"of course, I would not for the world! Do you take me for an old brute?
+And I have just made arrangements to drive you to the _Bois de Boulogne_
+and dine at Madrid's this evening. A pretty state you would be in to do
+justice to a dinner which promises to place in jeopardy the laurels even
+of M. de Fleury's cook."
+
+"We will strike a bargain," returned Bertha, with her wonted gayety. "If
+you will agree not to mention the Duke de Montauban, I will agree to do
+justice to the dinner at Madrid's."
+
+"I am content; we will drop the duke and discuss the dinner."
+
+The attentions of Madame de Fleury's brother to the heiress had been too
+marked and open for his suit and its rejection to remain a secret.
+Gaston de Bois heard Bertha's refusal commented upon, and there was a
+buzz in his ears of idle speculations concerning the origin of her
+caprice. Was it some blissful, internal suggestion, which diffused such
+a glow of happiness over his expressive countenance when he next saw
+Bertha? Was it some hitherto uncertain ground of encouragement made sure
+beneath his feet, which so wondrously loosened his tongue from its dire
+bondage? Was it some aerial hope, taking tangible shape, which imparted
+such an air of ease and elation to his demeanor? Gaston stammered less
+every day,--his impediment disappearing as his self-possession
+increased. On this occasion he was only conscious of a slight difficulty
+in utterance to rejoice at its existence, for it rendered delightfully
+apparent Bertha's thoughtfulness in catching up words upon which he
+hesitated, and concluding sentences he commenced, as though she read
+their meaning in his eyes. Gaston had not seen her in so buoyant a mood
+since they parted at the Chateau de Gramont. But the tide of her
+exuberant gayety suddenly ebbed when she noticed the look of pain with
+which he involuntarily responded to one of her chance questions. She had
+asked if he thought it probable Maurice would find Madeleine in Dresden.
+Again that singular expression on his countenance; again that sudden
+change of color at Madeleine's name; again that involuntary starting
+from his seat, with a return of the olden habit which placed fragile
+furniture in danger! Was it the remembrance that Madeleine was lost to
+them which occasioned M. de Bois's sudden depression? Was it an
+overwhelming sense of doubt concerning the result of Maurice's mission,
+which made his response to Bertha's inquiry so vague, his sentences so
+disjointed? Once more Bertha asked herself whether he were not, after
+all, the lover Madeleine had refused to mention. Yet, if this were the
+case, how could Gaston have appeared so much less anxious and less
+concerned at her flight than Maurice, who loved her with unquestionable
+ardor? Why had M. de Bois aided so little in the search for her present
+habitation? The young girl could not reconcile such apparent
+contradictions, and while she sat perplexing herself by futile efforts
+to unravel these mysteries, M. de Bois was equally puzzled to rightly
+interpret her silence and abstraction.
+
+The interview which, at its opening, had been as bright as a spring
+morning, closed with sudden April shadows; and there was an April
+mingling of smiles and tears upon Bertha's countenance when she retired
+to her chamber, after M. de Bois's departure, and pondered over his
+strange expression when her cousin was mentioned. Why, if Madeleine was
+his choice, was his manner toward herself so full of tenderness? Why was
+it that she never glanced at him without finding his eyes fastened upon
+her face? Why had he so much power to draw her irresistibly towards him?
+Why did his step set her heart throbbing so tumultuously? Why did his
+coming cause her such a thrill of delight, and his departure leave such
+a sense of solitude?--a void that no one else filled, a pain that no
+other presence soothed.
+
+Meantime Maurice had reached Dresden and was searching for Madeleine,
+almost in the same vague, unreasonable manner that he had sought her in
+Paris. But the mad course upon which he had again started, and which
+might have once more unbalanced his mind, met with a sudden check. The
+day after his arrival in Dresden he received a note, which ran thus:--
+
+     "Madeleine is not in Dresden. She entreats Maurice to
+     discontinue a search which must prove fruitless. Should the
+     day ever come, as she prays it may, when her place of refuge
+     can become known to him, no effort of his will be required
+     for its discovery. Will not Maurice accept the pains of the
+     inevitable present and wait for the consolations the future
+     may bring forth with the hope and patience which must
+     sustain her until that blessed period shall arrive?"
+
+Maurice was almost stupefied as he read these lines. He crushed the
+paper in his nervous fingers to be certain that it was tangible; he
+compared the writing with the one upon the envelope which he had taken
+from Bertha. If that were Madeleine's hand, so was this. He looked for a
+postmark; there was none; the letter had been brought by a private
+messenger, and yet Madeleine was not in Dresden! How could this be?
+That, in some mysterious manner, she became acquainted with his
+movements was unquestionable. Her thoughts then were turned to him,--her
+invisible presence followed him. It was some joy, at least, to know that
+he lived in her memory.
+
+Maurice, without a moment's hesitation, without letting his own personal
+suffering weigh in the balance of decision, without allowing his mind to
+dwell upon the probabilities of tracing Madeleine through this new clew,
+resolved to comply with her request.
+
+When he returned to Paris and placed her letter in Bertha's hands, and
+told her his determination, she impetuously urged him not to be guided
+by their cousin's wishes. She pleaded that Madeleine was sacrificing
+herself from a mistaking sense of duty; that, if her place of abode
+could only be revealed, Bertha's own supplications might influence her
+to abandon her present project, and to accept the home which Bertha,
+with the full consent of her uncle, could offer.
+
+Maurice listened not unmoved, but unshaken, in his selected course. He
+felt that a woman of Madeleine's dignity of character,--a woman of her
+calm judgment,--a woman who could look with such steady, tearless eyes
+upon life's realities,--a woman who would not have trodden in flowery
+ways though every pressure of her foot crushed out some delicious aroma
+to perfume her life, if the "stern lawgiver, duty," summoned her to a
+flinty road, and pointed to a glorious goal beyond,--such a woman,
+having deliberately chosen her path, having tested her strength to walk
+therein, having pronounced that strength all-sufficient, deserved the
+tribute of confidence, and an even blind respect to her mandates.
+Besides, compliance with her wishes was a species of voiceless, wordless
+communication with her; it was sending her a message through some
+unknown and mysterious channel.
+
+Maurice presented this in its most vivid colors before Bertha's eyes;
+but in vain. She was too wayward, too unreasonable, too full of
+passionate yearning for the presence of Madeleine, too sensible of an
+innate weakness that longed to lean upon Madeleine's strength, to see
+the justice and wisdom of the conclusion to which Maurice had arrived.
+
+As soon as their painful interview was closed by the entrance of the
+marquis, Maurice sought the old Jew and ordered him to prosecute his
+search no further. Henriques, who had already extracted a considerable
+sum from the young nobleman, and looked upon the transaction as a safe
+investment calculated to yield a certain profit for some months to come,
+was very unwilling to relinquish his promised gain. He assured the
+viscount that he had lately received information of the greatest
+importance; the party to whom the jewels had originally belonged had at
+last been tracked; the undertaking was on the very eve of success. To
+abandon it was a refusal to grasp the prize almost within their clutch.
+Whether the cunning Jew spoke the truth, or fiction, mattered little;
+for Maurice, in spite of these alluring representations, did not allow
+himself to be tempted to violate Madeleine's express command. He had, as
+it were, accepted his fate, and cast away the arms with which men war
+with so-called "destiny;" struggle and rebellion were over. To "_wait_"
+in patience was all that remained.
+
+But what was to be done with his existence? In the plenitude of youthful
+health and strength, was his life to ebb away, like an unreplenished
+stream, flowing into nothingness? His days became more and more
+wearisome; the hours hung more and more heavily upon his hands; the feet
+of time sounded with iron tramp in his ears, yet never appeared to move
+onward.
+
+"In his eyes a cloud and burthen lay;" a shadowy sorrow dropped its pall
+of darkness over his mind and obscured his perception of all awakening,
+quickening inspirations; a smouldering fire within him withered up every
+vernal shoot of impulse and turned all the spring-time foliage of
+thought and fancy sere. His voice, his look, his mien, betrayed that an
+ever-living woe encompassed him with gloom.
+
+Ronald fruitlessly strove to rouse him from this state of supine
+despondency. The active employment, the all-engrossing interest which
+would have medicined his unslumbering sorrow, were remedial agents
+denied by his father's unwise decree. As a substitute, though of less
+potency, Ronald strove to inspire him with his own strong love for
+literature. The young American had a passion for books which were the
+reflex of great minds. His quick hearkening to the voices breathing from
+their pages, and made prophetic by some sudden experience; the ready
+plummet with which he sounded their depths of reasoning; the sentient
+hand with which he plucked out their truths and planted them in his own
+rich memory, to grow like trees filled with singing-birds: these had
+rendered his communings with master-spirits one of the noblest and most
+strengthening influences of his life. What wonder, when literature was
+so bounteously distributed over his native land that it made itself
+vocal beneath every hedge,--enriched the humblest cottage with a
+library,--found its way, in the inexpensive guise of magazines, a
+welcome visitant at every fireside,--poured out its treasures at the
+feet of rich and poor, liberally as the liberal sunshine, freely as the
+free air?
+
+Maurice, educated in a different atmosphere, at the same age as Ronald,
+was a stranger to the companionship of written minds, save those to
+which his college studies had formally presented him; and his dark
+unrest rendered it difficult for him to follow his friend into the
+teeming Golconda of literature, and to gather the gems spread to his
+hands. And when, at last, Ronald's enthusiasm proved contagious and
+kindled Maurice to seek out some great author's charm, it too often
+chanced that he stumbled upon passages that irritated him, and increased
+his moody discontent. We instance one of these occasions as illustrative
+of many others.
+
+Ronald, whose busy brush had been brought to a stand-still by an
+unusually dark day, when he returned to his apartments, found his friend
+reading Bulwer's "Caxtons." Maurice was leaning with both elbows upon
+the table, his fingers plunged through his disordered hair, his brows
+almost fiercely contracted, and his wan face bent over the volume before
+him.
+
+"I found some grand pictures in that book," remarked the young artist.
+"Which are you contemplating?"
+
+"No pictures. I have not your eye for pictures," answered Maurice, with
+something more than a touch of impatience. "I am moved, haunted,
+tormented by truths which have more power than all the ideal pictures
+pen ever drew, or brush ever painted. You place me here before your
+library, you lure me to read, and every book I open utters words that
+make my compulsory mode of existence a reproach, a disgrace, a misery to
+me. Read this, for instance: 'Life is a drama, not a monologue. A drama
+is derived from a Greek word which signifies _to do_. Every actor in the
+drama has something to do which helps on the progress of the
+whole,--that is the object for which the author created him. _Do your
+part_ and let the _Great Play_ go on!' _Do? do?_" continued Maurice, in
+an excited tone as he finished the quotation; "it is a torment worthy of
+a place in Dante's Inferno to know that there is nothing one is
+permitted to _do_! I too am an actor in the Great Drama; but I have no
+part to play save that of lay figure, motionless and voiceless; yet,
+unhappy, not being deprived of sensibility, I am goaded to desperation
+by inward taunting because I can do nothing."
+
+"The play is not ended yet," answered Ronald, with as much cheerfulness
+as he could command, for his friend's depression affected his
+sympathetic nature. "We may not comprehend our _roles_ in the beginning;
+we may have to study long before we can thoroughly conceive, then
+idealize, then act them."
+
+"I could bear that mine should be a sad, if it were only an active one,"
+returned Maurice, again fixing his eyes upon the book.
+
+Ronald could make no reply to a sentiment so thoroughly in accordance
+with his own views. He constantly pondered upon the possibilities
+through which his friend might be freed from the shackles that bound him
+to the effeminate serfdom of idleness; but the magic that could unrivet
+those fetters had not yet been revealed. Still he was sometimes stirred
+by a mysterious prescience that they would be loosened, and through his
+instrumentality.
+
+Ronald's nature was essentially practical without being prosaic. The
+rich ore of poetry, inseparable from all exquisitely fine organizations,
+lay beneath the daily current of his life, like golden veins in the bed
+of a stream, shining through the crystal waters that bore the most
+commonplace objects on their tide. He thoroughly accepted that
+interpretation of the Ideal which calls it a "divine halo with which the
+Creator had encircled the world of reality;" but while he instinctively
+lifted all he loved into supernal regions and contemplated them in the
+glorious spirit-light that heightens all beauty, he lost sight of none
+of the stern actualities of their existence. His imagination had
+fashioned a hero out of Maurice, and he had thrown his person in heroic
+guise upon canvas; yet he clearly beheld and mourned over the morbid
+tendency that was weakening his mind and threatened to render his
+character and his life equally unheroic.
+
+Only a few days after the conversation we have just narrated, when
+Maurice entered Ronald's sitting-room he found the student with an open
+letter in his hand. As he lifted his eloquent, brown eyes from the paper
+a glittering moisture beaded their darkly fringed lashes, and an
+expression of ineffable tenderness looked out from their lustrous
+depths. The letter was from his mother,--one of those messengers of deep
+affection which transported him into her presence, placed him, as he had
+so often sat in his petted boyhood, at her feet, to listen to her holy
+teachings, and be thrilled to the very centre of his being by her words
+of love. During his three years of separation, at a period when the
+expanding mind is most impressible, these letters, weekly received, had
+surrounded him with a heavenly aura which seemed breathed out through a
+mother's ceaseless prayers, and had kept his life pure, his spirit
+strong, his heart uplifted; had preserved him from being hurried by the
+wild, ungoverned impulses of youth, rendered more infectuous by the
+volcanic fires of genius, into actions for which he might blush
+hereafter.
+
+It was one of the undefined, unspoken sources of sympathy between Ronald
+and Maurice, that the guarding hand of _woman_, influencing them from a
+distance, preserved the bloom, the freshness, the pristine purity of
+both their souls, even in the polluted atmosphere of a city where
+immorality is an accepted evil. Maurice, who had never known a mother's
+hallowing affection, gained his strength through his early attachment to
+a maiden whom no man could love without being ennobled thereby; and
+Ronald, whose heart had never yet awakened to the first pulse of
+tenderness which drew him towards one he would have claimed as a bride,
+owed his powers of resistance to as strong, as passionate devotion to a
+mother who united in her person all the most glorious attributes of
+womanhood, and whose idolizing love for her child was tempered by wisdom
+which placed his spiritual progress above all other gain. While he was
+struggling to win laurels in art's arena, she strove to bind upon his
+brow a crown whose gems were heavenly truths,--a crown the pure in
+spirit alone could wear.
+
+Blessed the son who has such a mother! Safe and blessed! His foot shall
+tread upon the serpent that lies hidden beneath the tempting flowers in
+his path, ere the reptile can sting him; his hand shall resolutely put
+away the cup of pleasure from his lips when there is poison in the
+chalice; he shall walk through the fire of evil lusts unscathed! No
+laurel that wreaths his brow shall render it too feverish, or too proud,
+to lie upon that mother's bosom with the glad, all-confiding, satisfied
+sense which made its joy when it lay there in guileless boyhood. That
+mother's love shall smooth for him the rough ways of earth, and place in
+his hand the golden key that opens heaven.
+
+As Maurice took his seat beside Ronald, the latter, hastily sweeping his
+handkerchief across his eyes, said with a vehement intonation,--
+
+"I have come to a sudden determination! I am going back to America. The
+trip is nothing,--ten days over and ten back,--a mere trifle! I can
+spend a couple of months with my parents and be back in time for autumn
+work. Instead of sending my picture, which is nearly completed, I will
+present it in person."
+
+Maurice sighed as he answered, "They will be proud of your work! Happy
+are they who have work to do, and who do it faithfully!"
+
+"That is a sentiment worthy of an American," rejoined Ronald; "indeed,
+you have unconsciously stolen it from one of our most distinguished
+American writers, who says, 'To have something to do and _to do it_ is
+the best appointment for us all.'[Footnote: Hillard's "Italy."] The
+extent to which I have insensibly Americanized you is very evident. A
+thought has just struck me: you are weary and melancholy, and seem to
+grow much paler and thinner every day. It will revive and strengthen you
+to accompany me. Come, let us go together!"
+
+"Let us fly to the moon!" answered Maurice, half scornfully. "Ronald,
+_why_ do you always forget that although we have lived precisely the
+same number of years, and I may be said to have lived so much longer
+than you, if we count time by sorrows that make long the days,--though
+we have both passed our twenty-first anniversary, you, as an American,
+have obtained your majority, and are a free agent, while the law of
+France renders me still a minor for four years? You know I cannot stir
+without my father's consent; and, of course, that is unattainable."
+
+"Unattainable if you choose to imagine that it is, and will not seek for
+it," answered Ronald, rebukingly. "The wisest poet that ever penned his
+inspiration, says,--
+
+               'Our doubts are traitors
+    And make us lose the good we oft might win
+    By fearing to attempt!'
+
+Do not let your traitorous doubts frighten you from the trial."
+
+Maurice smiled away his rising irritability, and replied, "I think,
+Ronald, your mind is so full of poetic arrows that one could not take a
+step, or lift a finger, or draw a breath, without your being able to hit
+him with a verse."
+
+"A verse may hit him who a sermon flies!" retorted Ronald, laughingly.
+"And a man is easy to hit who sits down with folded hands, like him of
+whom my rhythmic shaft has just made a target. But, to speak seriously,
+do you wonder that true thoughts, beautiful thoughts, which have been
+thrown into the music of verse, keep their haunting echoes in some
+stronghold of memory, and surge up to the lips when a stirring incident
+causes the gates of the mind to vibrate? Why, the very proof of the
+poet's genuine inspiration, his chiefest triumph lies in this, that he
+speaks a familiar truth, a common word of hope, a little word of
+comfort, a simple word of warning, with such potency that it strikes
+deeper into the soul than any other adjuration can reach; it defies us
+to forget; it takes the sound of a prophecy, and thrills our hearts and
+governs our actions in spite of ourselves. So much in defence of my
+poetic memories. Now be generous enough to admit that poetry is usually
+mingled with a large proportion of prosaic common sense which resolves
+itself into action. My scoffed-at poetry interprets itself into this
+matter-of-fact prose: unless you have the courage, the energy to ask
+your father's consent to your accompanying me to America, you will not
+get it; and if you ask you _may_ get it; and if you accompany me it may
+profit you. Come,--what say you? I shall be ready to start next week."
+
+"So soon?" ejaculated Maurice, who, often as he had witnessed the
+promptitude with which the young American moved, could not yet
+familiarize himself with his national rapidity of action and decision.
+
+"You call it _soon_? Why, if I had said day after to-morrow it might
+have been termed _soon_; but it seems to me a week is time enough to
+prepare for a journey around the world. Come, you have half an hour
+before the post closes,--dash off your letter and let it go at once."
+
+As he spoke, he cleared his writing-table of the books and papers by
+which it was encumbered, and placed a chair for Maurice. The latter, who
+was always carried onward by the rushing current of his friend's strong
+will, wrote, on the spur of the moment, a letter more calculated to
+impress his father than any deliberately studied epistle. The restless
+and gloomy state of mind under which Maurice labored, revealed itself in
+this impulsive effusion with a force which might not have found its way
+into a calmer communication.
+
+The frequent applications for money which Maurice had been compelled to
+make, that he might meet the demands of the old Jew, were not without
+their influence in preparing Count Tristan to look favorably upon his
+son's solicitation. The count imagined that the sums so constantly
+demanded were squandered in the manner habitual to gay young men in
+Paris. He had experienced much difficulty in complying with his son's
+last request, and became painfully aware that it would not much longer
+be in his power to supply him at the same extravagant rate. As a natural
+consequence, he hailed the proposition to travel, which might break off
+any unfortunate connections, or _liaisons_, he might have formed in
+Paris, and without their aid, divert his troubled mind. Then, the
+present would be a favorable opportunity for Maurice to visit his estate
+in Maryland, and to learn something further of that railway company
+which seemed of late to have suspended its operations.
+
+Maurice was not less astounded than overjoyed upon receiving his
+father's prompt and unconditional consent to his proposed trip. He at
+once carried the letter to Bertha. She was too generous to oppose a step
+which promised to be advantageous to her cousin, yet she could not
+contemplate their inevitable separation without sincere sorrow.
+
+"I wish I were going with you!" she sighed. "It seems to me everybody is
+going to America. Have you not heard that the Marquis de Fleury has just
+received the appointment of ambassador to the United States? I wish my
+uncle would let me travel to some foreign country. I am weary of this
+Parisian, ball-going life."
+
+"Has Monsieur de Fleury received his appointment at last? I had not
+heard of it. Who told you?" inquired Maurice.
+
+"M. de Bois, this very morning."
+
+"Gaston goes with him, I presume?"
+
+"Yes, he said so."
+
+"That is an unexpected pleasure,--that is really delightful!" exclaimed
+Maurice, enthusiastically.
+
+Bertha did not reply; but she certainly looked inclined to pout, and as
+though she had no very distinct perception of the delight in question.
+
+In a few days Maurice and Ronald were on the great ocean.
+
+A fortnight later the Marquis and Marchioness de Fleury, and the
+secretary of the former, M. de Bois, were also on their way to the New
+World.
+
+Bertha worried her uncle by her sad face, listless manner, and low
+spirits, to say nothing of her loss of appetite (to his thinking the
+most important feature of her _malaise_), until he was convinced that
+she had lost all interest in Paris, and that her sadness would be
+increased by a longer sojourn in the gay capital. When she admitted
+this, he kindly inquired if she desired to travel.
+
+"Yes, _very much_," was her reply.
+
+Whither would she go? To Italy? To England? To Russia?
+
+"No,--to America!"
+
+_America!_--land of savages!--land of Pawnees and Choctaws!--land where
+cooking must be in its crude infancy! Her uncle would not listen to such
+a barbarous proposition; and, finding that he could obtain no other
+answer from his wilful and incomprehensible ward, he carried her back to
+Bordeaux, consoling himself with the reflection that although the visit
+to Paris had not been permanently advantageous to his niece, the
+culinary knowledge acquired by Lucien was a full compensation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+"CHIFFONS."
+
+
+"Chiffons!" "_talking chiffons!_" "_writing chiffons!_"--will any one
+have the goodness to furnish us with a literal yet lucid interpretation
+of this enigmatical form of speech so incessantly employed in the
+Parisian _beau monde_? Among the translatable words of the French
+language,--among the expressive terms which cannot be rendered by
+equally significant expressions in our own more copious tongue,--among
+the phraseology invented to convey ideas which the phrases themselves
+certainly do not suggest,--the common application of this curt little
+word "_chiffons_" holds a distinguished place. Look for "_chiffons_" in
+the dictionary, and you will see it simply defined as "_rags_;" yet
+"_chiffons_" represent the very opposite of rags feminine, and conjure
+up a multitudinous army of feminine fashions, fripperies, fancies,
+follies, indispensable aids and adjuncts of the feminine toilet.
+
+We have headed this chapter "_chiffons_," and given an imperfect
+definition of the term, as a sign-post of warning to masculine
+readers,--a hint that this is a chapter to be lightly skimmed, or
+altogether skipped, for it unavoidably treats of "_chiffons_," which the
+necessities of the narrative will not allow us to suppress.
+
+The Marquis de Fleury had been appointed ambassador from the court of
+Napoleon the Third to the United States of America.
+
+Madame de Fleury's state of mind, in spite of the consolation afforded
+by a number of strikingly original costumes, which she innocently
+flattered herself would prove very effective during a sea-voyage, was
+deplorable. Terror inspired by the perils of the deep was only surpassed
+by intense grief excited by her compulsory banishment to a land where,
+she imagined, the invading feet of modiste and mantua-maker had not
+trodden out all resemblance to the original Eden; a land where the women
+probably attired themselves with a leaning to antediluvian simplicity,
+or in accordance with strong-minded proclivities, and the men were,
+doubtless, too much engrossed by politics and business to be capable of
+appreciating the most elaborate toilet that could be fashioned to
+captivate their eyes; a land, in short, where taste was yet unborn, and
+where it was ignorantly believed that the chief object of apparel was to
+perform, on a more extensive scale, the use of primitive fig-leaves and
+furs.
+
+To prevent her from falling into the clutches of American barbarians,
+Madame de Fleury secured two French maids as a _bodyguard_. Into the
+hands of one, skilled in the intricate mysteries of hair-dressing, her
+head was unreservedly consigned; the other, versed in more varied arts,
+had entire charge of the rest of her person. But these _aides-de-camp_
+of the toilet were deemed insufficient for the guardianship of her
+charms. The moment her sentence of exile was pronounced, she had
+summoned the incomparable Vignon to her presence, and piteously painted
+the difficulties which must beset her path when she was remorselessly
+torn from within reach of the creative fingers of the artist
+_couturiere_. Vignon had unanticipated comfort in store: the most
+accomplished of her assistants,--one who had exhibited a skill in design
+and execution positively marvellous,--had several times expressed a
+strong inclination to establish herself in America, and would gladly
+make her _debut_ in the New World under the patronage of the
+marchioness. This information threw Madame de Fleury into such
+ecstasies that all the waves of the Atlantic, which had been ruthlessly
+tossing their wrecks about her brain, were suddenly stilled, and she
+declared that Mademoiselle Melanie must make her preparations to sail in
+the same steamer; for the knowledge that she was on board would render
+the voyage endurable. The marchioness complacently added that she felt
+so much strengthened by these tidings, that she could now look forward
+to meeting, with becoming fortitude, the trials incident upon her
+residence among a semi-civilized nation.
+
+We need hardly relate how soon, after reaching Washington, the fair
+Parisian discovered that civilization had made astounding progress if it
+might be estimated by the deference paid to "_chiffons_;" nor need we
+portray her astonishment at finding that American women "_of fashion_"
+were not merely close copyists of extreme French modes, but that they
+exaggerated even the most extravagant, and hunted after the newest
+styles with the national energy which their countrywomen of a nobler
+class expended upon nobler objects; and were more ready to deform or
+ignore nature, and swear allegiance to the despotic rule of the
+Crinoline Sovereign, than any Parisian belle under the sun.
+
+Madame de Fleury's royal sway over the empire of "_chiffons_" was soon
+as thoroughly established in Washington as it had been in Paris. Dress,
+or head-dress, bodice, bonnet, mantle, gaiter, glove, worn by her,
+multiplied itself in important imitations, and every feminine chrysalis
+sent forth its ballroom butterfly in a livery to match. Whatever style,
+shape, color, she adopted, however extraordinary, became the rage for
+that season, and disappeared from sight, totally banished by her regal
+command, at the inauguration of the next.
+
+At one period no skirt could sweep the pavement, or lie in rich folds at
+the bottom of a carriage, unadorned by an imposing flounce that almost
+covered the robe; a little later, the one sober flounce was driven into
+obscurity by twenty coquettish small ones; and these were displaced by
+primly puffed bands; which gave way to fanciful "keys" running up the
+sides of the dress (where they seemed to have no possible right); and
+those vanished when double skirts commenced their brief reign; to be
+dethroned by a severe-looking quilted ruffle marching around the hem of
+the dress and up the centre to the throat; and this grave adornment
+suddenly found its place usurped by an inundation of fantastic
+trimmings, jet, bugles, _passementerie_, velvet or lace. So much for
+skirts!
+
+Then the bodices:--_now_ nothing was to be seen but the "square cut"
+which revealed the fine busts of beauties in the days of Charles
+II.,--now graceful folds _a coeur_ sentimentally ruled the day,--now
+infant waists became a passion, and the most maternal forms aped the
+juvenility borrowed from their babies. Then for sleeves: at one time
+they were wide and long and cumbrous, forbidding every trace of the most
+rounded member beneath; then they took the form of antique drapery,
+disclosing the arm almost nude, save for the transparent lace of the
+undersleeve,--then the close, tight fit of the Quaker left all but a
+distorted outline to the imagination.
+
+And bonnets: at one moment the tiniest bird's-nest of a hat, embowered
+in feathers and buried in lace, was perched on the back of the head,
+reminding one of Punch's suggestion that it could be more conveniently
+carried upon a salver by a domestic walking behind; a little later, the
+only bonnet admissible closed around the face like a cap, laces and
+feathers had disappeared, a few tastefully disposed knots of ribbon, or
+a single flower, were the only adornments: but hardly had Good Sense
+nodded approvingly at the graceful simplicity with which heads were
+covered, when, lo! the bonnets shot up like bright-hued coal-scuttles,
+over which a basket of buds and blossoms had been suddenly upset, and
+went through a variety of fantastic transformations wholly
+indescribable.
+
+So with other articles of attire. Mantles that had established for
+themselves a natural and convenient length suddenly grew down to the hem
+of the dress; basques, high in favor, were routed by Zouave jackets;
+girdles were at one moment drawn down with tight pressure until they
+barely surmounted the hips, the next were allowed to take an almost
+natural round (as far as their fitting locality went), and next were put
+wholly to flight by pointed Swiss belts, with enormous bows, and long,
+flowing ends,--while these, in turn, were chased from the field by
+picturesque scarfs.
+
+Then as regards the disposition of that native veil of unsurpassable
+beauty which adorns the head of woman: now, all locks were braided low
+at the back of the head, almost lying upon the neck; now they surmounted
+the crown and rose in stories higher and higher; now they sprang into a
+pair of wings from either side of the temples; now they were clustered
+in a tuft of disorderly curls above the brow; now smoothed and
+bandolined close to the face and knotted with an air of quiet simplicity
+behind the ears.
+
+Whichever of these modes the Parisian queen of "_chiffons_" rendered
+graceful in her own person, every fair one, with the slightest
+aspiration to _style_, strengthened her claims to be thought fashionable
+by scrupulously assuming. What wonder that Mademoiselle Melanie, prime
+minister to the absolute sovereign, could scarcely receive the crowd of
+clients that thronged her doors?
+
+She hired a spacious mansion, near the capitol, and furnished it with
+consummate taste. She combined the vocation of mantua-maker with that of
+milliner, and supplied all the materials she employed from an assortment
+of her own selection. This was one secret of her astonishing success,
+for it gave her control over the entire apparel of her customers.
+Regarding herself as responsible for the _tout ensemble_ of each toilet
+that issued from her hands, and her reputation as at stake if any
+defective touch marred the general result of her adorning, she exerted a
+thoroughly despotic sway over those whom she undertook to dress, and
+refused, in the most positive, yet most courteous manner, to allow them
+to follow the dictates of their own faulty fancies. As a skilful artist
+examines a picture in the best light, that all its beauties may be
+revealed, she placed each one of her subjects in the most favorable
+aspect, studied her closely, searched out every fine point which might
+be heightened, and pondered over every defect which might be concealed.
+She had the rare gift of knowing how to embellish nature, how to bring
+forth all the capacities of a face and form, and how to modify the
+fashion of the day to the requirements of the wearer, instead of
+slavishly following an arbitrary mode, and thereby sacrificing all
+individuality of beauty. Dress became high art in her hands. Wondrously
+harmonious were the effects produced. Blondes looked softer and purer
+than ever before, without becoming insipid; brunettes grew more
+_piquante_ and brilliant; nondescripts gained force and character;
+pallid faces caught a reflection of rose tints; too ruddy complexions
+were toned down by paling colors, and sallow skins found their ochre hue
+mysteriously neutralized. Angular shapes were draped so gracefully that
+unsymmetrical sharpness disappeared; too ample forms exchanged their air
+of uncouth corpulence for a well-defined roundness; low statures seemed
+to spring up to a nobler altitude, and women of masculine height sunk
+into feminine proportions. In short, Mademoiselle Melanie was not a
+mantua-maker, or milliner,--she was the genius of taste, the artful
+embodier of poetry in outward adorning.
+
+Her own person was strikingly attractive; but the severest simplicity
+characterized her attire. Her manners, though affable, were exceedingly
+reserved; without any apparent effort, she repressed the familiarity of
+the vulgar, and rebuked the patronizing airs of the assuming, winning
+instinctive deference even from the ill-bred.
+
+By her workwomen she was almost worshipped. Young herself, she impressed
+them with the sense that notwithstanding her lack of advantage over them
+in point of years, her superior skill and knowledge entitled her to be
+their head. She sympathized with their griefs, inquired into their
+needs, sometimes ignored their short-comings, but never their
+sufferings, and took care that the thread which helped fashion a lady's
+robe should not be drawn with such weary and overworked hands that, in
+the language of Hood, it sewed a shroud at the same moment.
+
+She was seldom seen in the streets; and, when her duties called her, she
+went forth closely veiled. But her distinguished air, the simple
+elegance of her apparel, and the dignified grace of her movements could
+not escape admiration.
+
+She soon found a carriage of her own indispensable, and selected an
+unostentatious equipage; but allowed herself the indulgence of a pair of
+superb horses, because she chanced to be an appreciating judge of those
+noble animals: a rather unusual knowledge for a _couturiere_.
+
+She seldom walked or drove alone. She was usually accompanied by one of
+her assistants, a young Massachusetts girl, with whom she had been
+thrown into accidental communication shortly after her arrival in the
+United States.
+
+The history of Ruth Thornton is one every day repeated, but not less
+touching because so far from rare. Born and bred in affluence which
+emanated from the daily exertions of her father, his death left his
+widow and three orphan daughters destitute. The eldest early assumed the
+burdens of wifehood and maternity. Ruth was the second child. A girl of
+high spirit, she quickly laid aside all false pride, and earnestly
+sought to earn the bread of those she loved by the labor of her fair
+young hands, until then strangers to toil. But where was remunerative
+occupation to be found? Needy womanhood so closely crowded the few open
+avenues of industry that it seemed as though there was no room for
+another foot to gain a hold, another hand to struggle. To become a
+teacher, or governess, was Ruth's first, most natural endeavor; but,
+month after month, she sought in vain for a situation. She possessed a
+remarkable voice and very decided musical talent. The idea of the
+concert-room next suggested itself; but her naturally fine organ lacked
+the long cultivation that could alone fit her to embark upon the career
+of a singer. Her mind then turned to the stage; but, setting aside the
+difficulty of obtaining engagements, even to fill some position in the
+lowest ranks of the profession, she had no means, no time, to go through
+a long course of requisite study, or to procure herself the costly
+wardrobe indispensable to such a profession. She pondered upon the
+possibility of entering that most noble institution, the New York School
+of Design for Women. Here was meet work, hope-fanning, life-saving work
+for feminine hands: engraving on wood or steel; coloring plates for
+illustrated works; sketching designs for fashions to be used in
+magazines, or patterns for carpets, calicoes, paper-hangings, etc. But,
+on inquiry, she learned that a year's study would be needful before she
+could hope to gain a modest livelihood through the medium of the
+simplest of these pursuits. From whence, in the meantime, could her
+mother, her sister, and herself derive their support? Next, she resolved
+to resort to her needle; yet how small was the likelihood of keeping it
+employed! and how poor the pittance it could earn as an humble
+seamstress! True, she might learn a trade; but how was she to exist
+meantime?
+
+She stood erect in the midst of this desert of difficulties, perplexed
+but undismayed, and still believing in, and steadfastly seeking for, the
+work allotted to such weak hands as hers.
+
+There is something magnetic in unflagging energy, and untiring hope;
+they mysteriously attract to themselves the materials which they most
+need. By a seeming accident, Ruth heard that an assistant housekeeper
+was required at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York. Her high-born
+relatives learned with horror that one of their kin, the daughter of a
+gentleman who had held an honorable position in their community,
+contemplated filling this menial position. But, in spite of their
+disapproval, Ruth presented herself as an applicant for the post, and
+though her youth (for she was hardly twenty) was an objection, her
+services were accepted; and she entered forthwith upon her lowly duties.
+
+We need not dwell upon the manifold and humiliating trials to which she
+was subjected,--trials to which the loveliness of her person largely
+contributed. Like a true American maiden, well-disciplined,
+self-reliant, and of strong principles, she found protection within
+herself, and bade defiance to dangers which might have proved fatal to
+one whose early training had been less productive of strength.
+
+It was while Ruth was meekly discharging these humble duties that she
+became acquainted with Mademoiselle Melanie.
+
+On arriving in New York, Madame de Fleury had taken up her residence for
+a few days at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, and, as though she feared to lose
+sight of Mademoiselle Melanie, requested her to do the same. A severe
+indisposition, which caused the latter to seek feminine aid, threw her
+in communication with the housekeeper of the hotel and her young
+assistant. Mademoiselle Melanie quickly became interested in the sweet,
+pale, patient face hovering about her bed, and did not fail to note the
+air of refinement which seemed at variance with her position. In less
+than four and twenty hours the young French _couturiere_ had learned the
+history of the young American housekeeper, and resolved, if she
+prospered in America, to remove this lovely girl from her present
+perilous position to one less exposed.
+
+Six months later Ruth received a letter from Washington making her an
+offer to become one of the assistants of Mademoiselle Melanie, and
+gratefully accepted the proposal. Mademoiselle Melanie found her young
+_employee's_ health too delicate for an exhausting apprenticeship to the
+needle, and employed Ruth in copying and coloring sketches of costumes
+which the accomplished _couturiere_ herself designed. As she became more
+and more conversant with the noble character of her _protegee_ the
+spontaneous attachment she had conceived for her grew stronger, and Ruth
+Thornton became her constant companion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+MAURICE.
+
+
+On their arrival in America Ronald took Maurice to his southern home,
+where he was received with a cordial hospitality that strengthened and
+confirmed the tie of brotherhood between the young men.
+
+We will not attempt to portray the meeting between Ronald and his
+parents,--a meeting so full of joy that its throbs quickened into the
+pulse of pain, as though clay-compassed hearts were hardly large enough
+to endure the ecstasy of such a reunion. Nor will we dwell upon the
+proud elation with which Ronald's first ambitious attempt in art was
+contemplated by his parents. Their praises might simply have testified
+that love appreciates; the hand that wrought might have sanctified even
+a feeble work to their sight; but colder judgments pronounced Ronald's
+initiatory achievement a pledge of power, and all the more decisive
+because the execution of the youthful hand obviously had not kept pace
+with the strong conception of the fervid brain.
+
+We pass on to the effect produced upon Maurice by his sojourn in
+Ronald's transatlantic home.
+
+Many a pang did the youthful Frenchman endure as he noted the thorough
+and genial understanding which seemed to exist between the southern
+youth and his father. Maurice was amazed by Mr. Walton's unfailing
+recognition that his son was a responsible being; by the confidence he
+reposed in him; by the unequivocal manner in which he placed him upon a
+footing of equality, even while guiding him by his counsels,--counsels
+offered as the results of a larger experience, yet never so compulsorily
+urged as to check his son's freedom of decision. Maurice, marked, too,
+the earnest interest with which Mr. Walton entered into all Ronald's
+projects, albeit some of them appeared too wild and high-reaching to be
+easy of accomplishment; beheld how readily the paternal hand was
+stretched out to soften the ordeals through which the neophyte must
+inevitably pass, and was moved by the touching frankness with which the
+noble-minded parent repeatedly congratulated himself that he had not
+permitted his own predilections to force Ronald into a field of action
+repugnant to his tastes.
+
+When Maurice instinctively compared this liberal, high-toned father's
+mode of influencing his son with the tyrannous control of the haughty
+count, and contrasted Ronald's untrammeled position with his own state
+of dependent nonentity, he felt that unstruggling submission to the
+cruel decree which doomed him to waste those fresh, strong, aspiring
+years of his life in hopeless idleness was a weakness rather than a
+virtue.
+
+He was only spared from passing a judgment upon his father, more correct
+than filial, by throwing the blame of his conduct upon the shackling
+customs, and false opinions, and arbitrary laws of his native land. He
+could not but be forcibly struck by the wide dissimilarity between the
+usages and views of life which distinguished the two nations. In
+America, he saw men, self-made and self-educated, at an age when young
+Frenchmen have scarcely begun to be aware that they have any independent
+existence, rising to prominent and honorable positions, taking a bold
+part in public affairs, and asserting by their achievements the maturity
+of their brains. He saw men, who had been forced by circumstances to
+commence their lives of toil and self-support at fifteen and eighteen, a
+few years later not only gaining their own livelihood, but contributing
+to the maintenance of their families, and laying the foundation of
+future fortune. He saw artistic tastes, literary talents, professional,
+legislative, and military abilities, brought to opulent fruition in men
+but a few years his senior; and though every one seemed to work at high
+pressure, every one appeared to live rapidly, crowding each day with
+actions, still men _lived_, lived _consciously_, planting along the
+pathway of their pilgrimage the landmarks of positive deeds; and they
+sowed, and reaped, and rejoiced in their harvests, and if some of them
+grew old faster than their European brethren, their age was at least
+enriched by varied memories, vast experiences, manifold mental gains,
+that testified to the value of their lives.
+
+And was it imperative, Maurice asked himself, that the accident of noble
+blood should paralyze a man's volition, and that the bearing of a noble
+name should render his life inertly ignoble? He recognized that, in the
+seeming curse which condemned man to "work," God had hidden the richest
+blessing, even as he buried golden veins in the dark bosom of the earth.
+"Labor was privilege," and gave its sweetest flavor to the daily cup of
+life.
+
+As for Ronald, though he loved his country with the enthusiasm which
+characterized all his affections, he had never been fully cognizant of
+the advantages it possessed over the land in which he had lately
+sojourned until he saw them through the eyes of Maurice.
+
+Nothing is more true than that _we can render no service to another by
+which we are not served ourselves_, served spiritually, therefore
+_actually_, and in the highest sense; and not merely in his new
+appreciation of the land of his birth, but in numerous other ways,
+Ronald was the unconscious gainer by the helpful influence he exerted
+over his friend. The youthful Mentor confirmed himself in grand and
+vital truths while imparting them to Maurice; his own noble resolves
+were quickened into activity while he sought to infuse them into the
+mind of another; his own spirit acquired strength while he was
+endeavoring to render his companion strong of soul. Ronald's character
+was perhaps more affluent and expansive, had more force and fixedness of
+purpose, than that of Maurice, yet it derived fresh vigor from the less
+hopeful, less confident nature upon which it acted.
+
+Though Maurice owed much to the young art-student, he soon owed more to
+that gentle but potent hand by which Ronald had been moulded, refined,
+and spiritualized. Ronald's mother opened wide her large heart and her
+loving arms to take in the motherless youth thrown by an apparent
+accident within her sphere.
+
+Mrs. Walton was one of those beings to whom life is a poem, read it in
+sorrow or gladness, read it whatever way you will, because all things to
+her mind had a divine significance; she knew that nothing had either its
+_end_ or _origin_ here, and felt that the very day-dreams and
+aspirations of impulsive youth descended by influx from those supernal
+regions in which all _causes_ exist, though we darkly behold them
+through _effects_ ultimated upon our earthly plane. Her eyes were never
+bent upon the ground, to search out stumbling-blocks of doubt, but
+looked up Godward until the heavens grew less distant, and earth's
+perplexing mysteries were solved; and daily joys and daily pains only
+acquired importance through their bearing upon the joys and pains of
+eternity; and celestial light, flowing through her pure thoughts,
+reflected its mellow glory upon her humblest surroundings, and tinged
+them with ineffable beauty.
+
+Maurice, who had been so deeply impressed by Ronald's attributes and
+aims, quickly recognized the fountain-head from whence flowed the living
+waters he had drank, and, humbly bending to quaff at the same stream,
+became conscious that his whole being was vitalized and renewed. The
+great ends of existence, for the first time, became apparent to him; and
+as he learned to look upon the present and temporal as only of moment
+through their effect upon the future and eternal,--as he renounced a
+senseless belief in the very names of _chance_ and _accident_, and
+yielded to the conviction that the simplest as the gravest occurrences
+all tend to lay some stone in the great architectural edifice which
+every man is building for his own dwelling-place in the hereafter,--his
+trials, by some wondrous transmutation, wore a holy aspect, and gently
+into his unfolding spirit stole the comforting assurance that those very
+trials might be the fittest, the strongest, the _appointed_ instruments
+to hew out the pathway he panted to tread, and carve for him a future
+which could never have been wrought by such tools as the velvety hands
+of prosperity hold in their feeble grasp.
+
+The morbid melancholy into which Maurice had fallen, and which deepened
+with his vain pondering over the mysterious fate of Madeleine, rolled
+from his spirit before the breath of hope,--hope breathed through
+sunshine, from the lips of a woman whose sympathetic voice, tender
+looks, and quick comprehension of his emotions insensibly melted away
+reserve, and drew out all his confidence. He could talk to Mrs. Walton
+of Madeleine with an absence of _reticence_, an unchecked gush of
+feeling, which would not have been possible when he conversed with
+Ronald, or with any one but a woman, _and such a woman_.
+
+Far from advising him, as a worldly-wise counsellor would have done, to
+struggle against a passion which did not promise to prove fortunate, she
+bade him cherish the image of the one he so ardently loved with perfect
+trust, that if that woman were indeed his _other self_,--that _separate
+half_ which makes man's full complement,--he would, in spite of all
+adverse circumstances, be drawn to her, by mysterious and invisible
+cords, until their union was consummated.
+
+Mrs. Walton entertained the not irrational belief that as "either sex
+alone is _half_ itself," and "each fulfils defects in each," there was
+created for every male soul some feminine spirit, whose heart was
+capable of responding to the finest pulses of his; one who could meet
+his largest requirements; one who could alone render his being perfect,
+his true manhood complete; one whom he might never meet on earth, and
+yet who lived for him. This great truth (for as such he accepted it) was
+a glorious revelation to Maurice. He cast out the remembrance that
+Madeleine had said she loved another, or only recalled her declaration
+to feel certain that she had mistaken her own heart, or that he had
+misconstrued the language she had used. She became more vividly present
+than ever to his mind, and the constant thought that now confidently and
+happily wound itself about her seemed to him to annihilate material
+distances and bring their spirits into close communion.
+
+Maurice passed two delightful months beneath the hospitable roof of Mr.
+and Mrs. Walton. The period which Ronald had allowed himself for a
+holiday drew to a close. The sense of unoccupied power had begun to
+render him restless, and it was with elation which might have appeared
+tinctured with ingratitude by those who did not comprehend the
+mysterious workings of his untranquil ambition, that he prepared for his
+return to that foreign land where he could enjoy advantages for the
+prosecution of his art-studies unattainable in a young country.
+
+When Maurice embarked for America with Ronald, it was understood that
+they were to return to Europe together; but one morning, when the latter
+casually announced his intention of securing their passage on board of a
+steamer about to sail from New York, Maurice turned to him and said
+abruptly,--
+
+"Ronald, one berth will be sufficient."
+
+"My dear fellow, what do you mean?" inquired Ronald, only half
+surprised.
+
+"It is impossible for me," replied Maurice, "to return to my life of
+indolence and _supposed gayety_. A snake might more easily crawl back
+into his cast-off skin. I have breathed this free, exhilarating,
+vitalizing atmosphere, and the convention-laden air of Paris would
+stifle me. I have written to my father and announced that I propose
+remaining in Charleston. That is not all: he forbade my studying law in
+Paris, because his sapient Breton neighbors would have been scandalized
+by a viscount's taking so sensible a step; but possibly I may prepare
+myself for the bar at this distance, without subjecting my father to the
+annoyance of their disapproval. The period required for study is
+shorter, and I shall have a wider field in which to practise. I cannot
+be prepared to enter upon the duties of my profession much before the
+time when, according to the laws of France, I shall reach my majority;
+meanwhile I study, we will say, _for amusement_. I study as other men
+hunt, fish, boat, skate. What do you think of my plan?"
+
+Ronald grasped him warmly by the hand.
+
+"It is just what I expected of you, Maurice! When we first met, and I
+was so strongly attracted to you, an internal prescience whispered that
+you had within you the very qualities which are asserting their
+existence to-day."
+
+"They might have been _in_ me, Ronald," answered Maurice with emotion;
+"but I fear they would never have been brought _out_ but for your
+agency. I never can be grateful enough that we have been thrown
+together! I never can sum up the good you have done me! I stood in such
+great need of just the influence you and your mother"--The voice of
+Maurice trembled, and he was unable to proceed.
+
+Ronald broke the somewhat embarrassing silence by saying,--
+
+"In short, you have come to the conclusion that my mother is right in
+her faith, and whatever we actually need for our spiritual advancement
+is invariably sent, if we will but preserve ourselves in a state of
+reception. All that you still lack will be supplied in the same way, if
+you can but believe."
+
+"_I do believe_," answered Maurice, in a tone of greater solemnity than
+the occasion seemed to demand; but there was a world of meaning in those
+three words. We should be obliged to employ many if we attempted to
+express a tithe of what he had recently learned to _believe_ through
+the instrumentality of a noble thinker.
+
+A week later, Ronald folded his mother to his throbbing heart, and
+tenderly bade her adieu; but, without feeling that he should be parted
+from her by their material separation. Strange to say, his farewell to
+his father and Maurice was shadowed by a nearer approach to sadness and
+a more definite sense of sundering. Possibly their spirits had less
+power than his mother's to annihilate space and follow him whithersoever
+he went.
+
+Maurice was induced to linger a few days longer as the guest of his new
+friends, and his presence prevented the void left by the departure of a
+beloved and only son from being too keenly felt. At the commencement of
+a new week the young viscount removed to Charleston. That city was only
+a few miles distant from the residence of Ronald's parents. Mr. Walton
+had made his visitor acquainted with an eminent lawyer, who consented to
+receive Maurice de Gramont as a student.
+
+Count Tristan at first violently opposed his son's step, but he could
+not, with any show of reason, forbid his studying law as a _pastime_.
+The count's affairs became more and more entangled, and he grew more
+desirous than ever that his son should contract a wealthy marriage. The
+hope that Maurice might woo and win one of those numerous heiresses,
+who, Frenchmen imagine, abound in the Southern El Dorado, alone
+reconciled the haughty nobleman to his son's sojourn in America.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE ARISTOCRATS IN AMERICA.
+
+
+While Maurice was applying himself to study with a zeal and sense of
+enjoyment wholly new to him, Bertha was passing through various stages
+of ennui, and testing the patience, or rather the digestive powers, of
+that sorely discomforted _bon vivant_, her uncle. Day after day she grew
+more capricious, unreasonable, unmanageable.
+
+The distressed marquis came to the conclusion that his disturbed animal
+economy could only be restored by an amicable separation from his niece.
+But in vain he bestowed his smiles, and his _dinners_, upon the
+multitudinous suitors by whom the young heiress was besieged; her
+autocratic decree condemned him to the cruel duty of closing the
+sumptuous repasts by the _dessert_ of a dismissal to each lover in turn,
+without extending to any the faintest hope that his sentence might be
+reversed. Finally the marquis became a confirmed dyspeptic; the joy of
+his life was quenched when his appetite failed, beyond the resuscitating
+influence of _absenthe_ and other fashionable stimulants; the glory of
+his festive board had departed, and he was haunted by the conviction
+that the unnatural conduct of his niece would bring his whitening hairs,
+through sorrow and indigestion, to the grave.
+
+A small but dearly prized respite from his trials was granted him when
+Bertha paid her yearly visit, of four months, to her relatives in
+Brittany. Her stay, however, was never extended beyond the wonted
+period, for she found her sojourn at the Chateau de Gramont
+unmitigatedly dull. The reception of letters from Maurice, addressed to
+his father, alone relieved the tediousness of the hours; but these
+welcome messengers were infrequent, brief, and somewhat cold. They left
+Bertha so unsatisfied that before the close of the first year of her
+cousin's absence she opened a correspondence with him herself. The
+initiative letter was suggested by pleasant tidings, which she hastened
+to send. It was written immediately after the eighteenth anniversary of
+her birthday, and communicated the agreeable intelligence that upon that
+day she had again received a token of remembrance from their beloved
+Madeleine.
+
+A yearly gift, bearing the impress of those "fairy fingers," was the
+only sign Madeleine gave that she lived and remembered.
+
+Three years passed on, and upon each birthday, wherever Bertha chanced
+to be, in Bordeaux, in Paris, in Brittany, a small parcel was
+mysteriously left with the _concierge_ of the house where she was
+residing. The package was always addressed in Madeleine's handwriting,
+and contained some exquisite piece of needle-work, but no letter, and it
+bore no mark of post or express. It was invariably delivered by private
+hand. At least, it rendered certain the consolatory facts, not only that
+Bertha was unforgotten, but that Madeleine was cognizant of all her
+movements.
+
+No sooner had the heiress reached her majority than she prepared to
+carry into execution a plan which for a long period had been silently
+forming itself in her mind. Her earnest desire to visit America had been
+secretly, but systematically, strengthened by Count Tristan. He well
+knew that the Marquis de Merrivale would never be induced to become her
+escort; and, what was more likely than that she should seek the
+countenance and protection of her other relatives?
+
+He played his cards so adroitly that Bertha, without once suspecting his
+machinations, wrote to him, on the very day that closed her twenty-first
+year, and invited the countess and himself to accompany her upon an
+American tour. She took care delicately to make a stipulation that the
+expenses of the projected trip should devolve upon her. The count
+concealed his exultation under an air of well-acted reluctance, and
+required much persuasion before he could be taught to look with favor
+upon this _unexpected_ and _sudden_ proposition.
+
+There was no simulation in the dismay, the horror with which Bertha's
+proposal was greeted by the countess. How was she to breathe in a land
+where hereditary claims to rank were unknown?--where distinctions of
+_brains_ not _blood_ were alone recognized?--where a man might rise to
+the highest position, as ruler of the realm, though his father chanced
+to be a mechanic, and his grandfather's existence was untraceable? For a
+time, Bertha's entreaties and the count's representations were equally
+impotent; the countess was inexorable. But her son was not to be
+baffled; he found an avenue through which her heart could be reached,
+and her resolution undermined. It lay in the suggestion that Bertha's
+strong inclination to visit America sprang from a desire again to behold
+Maurice, and that the result of their meeting, after so long a
+separation, might be in the highest degree felicitous. Bertha, he urged,
+during the absence of Maurice, had probably learned that he was dearer
+to her than she imagined; and, if Maurice had reason to believe that she
+crossed the ocean for the sake of rejoining him, could he remain
+insensible to such a proof of devotion? The countess bowed her haughty
+head to a sacrifice which vitally compromised her dignity.
+
+One of the objects of the count's visit to America was to learn
+something further of the railroad company with which he was connected.
+For a time its operations had been suspended, owing to a financial
+crisis,--a sort of periodical American epidemic that, like cholera,
+sweeps over the land at intervals, making frightful ravage for a season,
+and departing as mysteriously as it came. The elastic nation, never long
+prostrate, had risen out of temporary difficulties and depression with a
+sudden bound, and prosperity walked in the very footprints of the late
+destroyer.
+
+Mr. Hilson had lately announced to Count Tristan that the railway
+association was again in full activity, and that the mooted question of
+the direction which the road ought to take would, ere long, be decided.
+He added that, according to his judgment, the left road was indubitably
+the more desirable. Should that road be chosen, it would pass through
+the property owned by the Viscount de Gramont. We have already alluded
+to the immense difference in the value of the estate which the advent of
+the railroad would insure.
+
+Bertha had no difficulty in obtaining the Marquis de Merrivale's
+approval of the contemplated trip.
+
+Early in the spring the party embarked upon one of those superb steamers
+that sweep across the ocean like floating cities, pulsating with
+multitudinous life.
+
+The passage was so smooth that Bertha thoroughly enjoyed the strange,
+new existence, and found such ever-varying beauty in the gorgeous
+sunsets, and the resplendent moonlight, that she even forsook her berth
+to see "Aurora draw aside her crimson curtain of the dawn;" in short she
+was in an appreciating mood throughout the voyage, and her happy state
+allowed her to ignore all the _desagremens_ of the sea. The countess
+also, as she sat upon the deck in a comfortable arm-chair,--which she
+occupied as though it were a throne, and received the homage of
+fellow-passengers, who were obviously struck and awed by her majestic
+deportment,--pronounced the transit more endurable than she anticipated.
+
+Maurice had gone to New York to welcome the voyagers, and when the
+steamer neared the land he was the first person who bounded upon the
+deck. Bertha caught sight of him, and as she sprang forward and threw
+herself into his arms, weeping with joy and heartily returning his warm
+embrace, the countess and her son exchanged looks of exultation which
+showed that they had not reflected upon the vast distinction between the
+frank greeting of brother and sister, and the meeting of possible
+lovers.
+
+A slight, irrepressible shadow passed over the beaming countenance of
+Maurice as he turned from Bertha to welcome his father and grandmother.
+The cloud flitted by in an instant, and only betrayed that the past was
+unforgotten; while the look of manly confidence and self-possession, by
+which it was replaced, told that the present and the future could not be
+subject to by-gone storms.
+
+After the first salutations were over, the countess scanned Maurice from
+head to foot, to note what changes had been wrought by his residence in
+a country which she held in such supreme contempt. The slight curl and
+quivering of the lip, which accompanied her survey, bespoke that it was
+not entirely satisfactory. In the first place, his apparel displeased
+her. The care that he had once bestowed upon his toilet betrayed a
+slight leaning to the side of foppishness; _now_, his attire gave him
+the air of a man of business, rather than of mere pleasure. His bearing
+was more confident than in former days, his movements more rapid, his
+tone more animated and decisive, his whole manner more energetic. His
+face was slightly careworn, his brow had lost something of its unruffled
+smoothness, and the fresh carnation tints had faded out of his
+complexion; but the wealth of expression his countenance had gained
+might atone for heavier losses. In repose, his features wore a shade of
+habitual sadness; but that disappeared the moment he spoke, and was
+rather an air of reflection than of sorrow. Indeed, all gloom had
+vanished from his spirit soon after his arrival in America. The
+hope-inspiring ministry of Ronald's mother, first and engrossing study,
+and ceaseless occupation next, had effectually medicined his growing
+melancholy. Maurice had not felt himself a homeless exile during his
+four years' sojourn in a foreign land. The Chateau de Gramont was less
+dear to him than the quiet, unpretentious, but affection-brightened home
+where he was always welcomed as a son.
+
+When his stately grandmother, after so long a separation, once more
+appeared before him, the cold dignity, repelling hardness, and
+self-venerating pride of her demeanor struck him all the more painfully
+because it conjured up, in contrast, a vision of soft humility,--the
+gentle strength, the intellectual power, the refined tenderness of the
+lovely woman who realized his ideal of maternity.
+
+It almost seemed as though the countess had some internal perception
+that Maurice weighed her in the balance of a new judgment, and found her
+wanting; for she shrank beneath his gaze, and turned from him with a
+sense of sickening disappointment.
+
+Bertha, while she was struck by the marked alteration in Maurice, noted
+the change with undisguised admiration. To _her_ eyes he was a thousand
+times more attractive than ever, and she told him so without a shadow of
+bashful hesitation.
+
+The young French demoiselle had made up her mind to be charmed with
+America, and little is required to satisfy those who are determined to
+be pleased. How much of her enthusiasm was legitimately excited, and how
+much was the spontaneous kindling of her own bright spirit, we will not
+attempt to describe. Be it enough to say, that she frequently declared
+her most sanguine expectations were far surpassed.
+
+The countess, on the other hand, looked through a distorted medium which
+filled her with disgust. She was horrified at the publicity of
+hotel-life in New York. She could not tolerate the careless ease of the
+persons with whom she was thrown into accidental communication,--the
+confidence with which the very servants ventured to accost her. The
+absence of awe, the lack of head and knee bending, in her august
+presence, appeared a tacit insult. She was puzzled to reconcile the
+freedom with which she was constantly addressed with the great deference
+paid to her _sex_. While her _rank_ was almost ignored, the mere fact of
+being _a woman_ commanded an amount of consideration unsurpassed by the
+veneration paid to titled womanhood in her own land. Nothing, however,
+shocked her more than the liberty accorded to young American maidens.
+She found it impossible to comprehend that, educated as responsible
+beings, the strict _surveillance_ over girlhood's most trivial actions,
+which is deemed indispensable in France, ceased to be a matter of
+necessity in America.
+
+Immediately upon his arrival in New York the count had placed himself in
+communication with Mr. Hilson; and, a few days later, received a letter
+informing him that at a recent meeting of the managers of the ---- ----
+Railway Association a committee of nine had been chosen to decide upon
+the most suitable direction of the new road. The committee was to give
+in its decision at the end of a fortnight. Mr. Hilson regretted to add
+that he feared the majority were in favor of the road to the _right_. He
+concluded by suggesting that it might be well for the count to visit
+Washington, and exert over members of the committee any influence, that
+he could command, to secure a majority of votes in favor of the road
+which would prove so advantageous to his son's property.
+
+The count resolved to act at once upon Mr. Hilson's suggestion. When he
+proposed to his mother and Bertha that they should start the very next
+day for Washington, the countess, for the first time since her arrival,
+expressed herself gratified. At the seat of government she would meet
+the French ambassador and his wife (the Marquis and Marchioness de
+Fleury), and possibly, in the circle in which they moved, she might
+encounter foreigners with whom it would not be repugnant to associate.
+
+Bertha heard Count Tristan's announcement with such bright gleamings of
+the eyes, such happy flushings of the cheeks, that the sudden radiance
+which overspread her countenance set Maurice wondering over the emotions
+that caused her to so warmly welcome this unanticipated change of
+locality.
+
+The revery into which he had fallen was broken by his father. The count
+launched into a discussion upon the management of property in America,
+then glided into the subject of the Maryland estate, and finally
+suggested that it would be advisable for his son to grant him a power of
+attorney which would place him in a situation to act as his
+representative in any case of emergency. Maurice unhesitatingly
+expressed his willingness to comply with this request, and the legal
+instrument was drawn up without delay. Upon receiving the document, the
+count assured his son that there was no probability that the power would
+be required, and voluntarily pledged himself not to make use of it
+without apprising Maurice.
+
+Count Tristan's words and intentions were wholly at variance. His
+affairs in Brittany had become so frightfully entangled, that it was
+absolutely necessary for him to be able to command a considerable sum to
+redeem his credit; and he saw no means by which this desirable end could
+be obtained, except by a mortgage upon his son's estate. One of his
+strongest motives in visiting America was to effect this purpose; but he
+earnestly desired to conceal from Maurice the step he projected,
+trusting to his own skill in under-hand management for the smoothing
+away of difficulties before there was a necessity for explanation.
+
+Maurice accompanied the count, his mother, and Bertha to Washington, and
+there bidding them adieu returned to Charleston.
+
+His preparatory studies being now completed, he was received as junior
+partner by the gentleman who had initiated him into the mysteries of his
+profession.
+
+It chanced that Mr. Lorrillard had large possessions in certain iron
+mines in Pennsylvania, which gave promise of yielding an immense profit.
+He had conceived a high esteem for the young viscount, and, with a view
+of promoting his interests, represented to him the advantage of
+purchasing a few shares, which could at that moment be favorably
+secured. Maurice had no funds at his command; but Mr. Lorrillard
+suggested that the viscount could easily procure the ten thousand
+dollars needful by a mortgage upon his Maryland estate, and even offered
+to give him a letter to Mr. Emerson,--a personal friend residing in
+Washington,--who, as the estate was wholly unembarrassed, would
+willingly loan the money upon this security. It was hardly possible for
+Maurice to have resided so long in America without being slightly bitten
+by the national mania for speculation, and he gladly accepted the offer
+of his principal, and retraced his steps to Washington.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE INCOGNITA.
+
+
+Maurice arrived in Washington without having apprised his father of his
+purposed visit. Count Tristan received him with ill-concealed
+embarrassment; but the young viscount was too ingenuous himself, and
+therefore too unsuspicious of others, for him to attribute his father's
+discomposure to any source but surprise at his unexpected appearance. If
+Maurice noted an absence of pleasure in the count's constrained
+greeting, he was too much accustomed to the formal and undemonstrative
+manners of the aristocracy to dwell upon the lack of warmth.
+
+The count had taken up his residence at Brown's hotel. He chanced to be
+sitting alone when his son was ushered into the drawing-room. The
+opportunity was a favorable one for Maurice to communicate to his father
+the object of his visit.
+
+After the first salutations were over, he inquired, rather abruptly,
+"Have you seen Mr. Hilson? What does he say in regard to the
+probabilities that the railroad will take the direction which we so much
+desire?"
+
+"Our prospects are tolerably good," returned the count; "but we need to
+exert ourselves, and, possibly, you may be of service. The committee
+that has the decision in its hands consists of nine persons. Out of
+these, four have declared their preference for the road to the right,
+and are immovable. Our friends, Meredith and Hilson, who are on the
+committee, vote, of course, for the left road; then there are two rival
+bankers, Mr. Gobert and Mr. Gilmer, who are bitterly opposed to each
+other, and generally vote in opposition one to the other; we must bring
+some agency into play which will induce them, for once, to vote alike."
+
+"That seems indispensable; but is it possible?" questioned Maurice.
+
+"I trust so. Mr. Gobert is the banker of the Marquis de Fleury, who
+exerts unbounded power over him. One word from the marquis, and Gobert's
+vote is secured. The marquis, as every one is aware, can always be
+approached through Madame de Fleury. Obtain _her_ promise that we shall
+have Mr. Gobert's vote, and it is ours! The marchioness, I fear, may not
+have forgiven Bertha's rejection of her brother's suit; but, as both
+parties are still unmarried and unengaged, if she can only be convinced
+that Bertha's refusal was mere girlish caprice, and that there is still
+hope of the young duke's success, she will be ready enough to serve us."
+
+"But is there hope?" inquired Maurice, quite innocently.
+
+The wily schemer replied by a glance half-angry, half-contemptuous; but,
+without making any other answer, went on.
+
+"The other banker, Mr. Gilmer, I am seeking the means to influence. I
+have no doubt that I shall find them. The ninth member of the committee
+is Mr. Rutledge, quite a young man, the only son and heir of a
+Washington millionnaire. I learn, from M. de Bois, that Rutledge is
+deeply enamored of the sister of Lord Linden."
+
+"I beg pardon, but you have not yet told me who Lord Linden is; and it
+is so unusual to hear _lords_ mentioned in this country that my ears are
+quite unattuned to the sound of a title."
+
+Another hasty look from the count might have been interpreted into one
+of slight disgust. His son was far more Americanized than he could have
+desired. He went on, with increased haughtiness.
+
+"The English ambassador to the United States married a sister of Lord
+Linden, and his lordship and a younger sister accompanied them to
+Washington. Mr. Rutledge aspires to the hand of this young lady,--so
+says M. de Bois, who is intimately acquainted with her brother. If she
+can be interested in our plans the vote of Mr. Rutledge is easily
+secured."
+
+Maurice could not help laughing.
+
+"It is, _in reality_, the votes of _women_, then, that are to determine
+the direction of this road? I ought hardly to be surprised at _that_;
+for, if they have feeble voices in other lands, they have very decided
+ones in America. But how is the young lady in question to be reached?"
+
+"That is what I am pondering upon," resumed his father. "I shall form
+some plan, you may be sure; and no time must be wasted in carrying it
+into execution. I have already ventured to touch upon the subject to
+Lord Linden, but have not said anything definite. It is a difficult
+affair to conduct delicately; yet the obtaining of these votes is of
+such vital importance that we must strain every nerve to secure them."
+
+"Certainly, since it will more than treble the value of the property,"
+observed Maurice, placidly. "By the by, I presume you have had no
+occasion to use the power of attorney which I gave you? Just at this
+moment it is very fortunate for me that the estate is wholly
+unencumbered."
+
+The count grew ashy pale; but Maurice did not observe his change of
+color, nor mark the hesitating tone in which he replied, "Very
+fortunate, of course,--very fortunate, indeed;" and then, looking at his
+watch, he added, "It is time for your grandmother and Bertha to return.
+Lord Linden and M. de Bois escorted them to the capitol. You must be
+impatient to see them."
+
+"In regard to this property, Mr. Lorrillard informs me," resumed
+Maurice; but the count interrupted him.
+
+"A visit to Madame de Fleury is now the first step to be taken; _there_
+you may be useful; you are such a decided favorite of hers, that your
+advocacy may be inestimable. Suppose you call at once, and learn at what
+hour she will receive your grandmother, Bertha, and myself. A visit from
+you will open the way."
+
+"I will call with pleasure," answered Maurice. "I have a letter from Mr.
+Lorrillard to his friend Mr. Emerson, which I should like to deliver
+without delay. It is a matter of business. Mr. Lorrillard thinks that,
+as my estate is wholly unencumbered"--
+
+"We can talk of that at another time," replied the count, hurriedly.
+"Suppose you pay your visit to the marchioness at once. It is hardly
+worth while waiting for the ladies; no one can tell when they may
+return."
+
+Maurice, though he could not interpret the count's singular manner,
+could not even remotely divine the meaning of its abruptness and
+confusion, felt himself checked in his proposed communication. He
+experienced no uneasiness; he had not the faintest conception that the
+count was dealing doubly with him, and that his very first act, on
+reaching Washington, had been to mortgage the estate of his son for so
+large amount that, but for the advent of the railroad, upon which he
+confidently calculated, the mortgage must prove ruinous to the
+interests of the landholder.
+
+Had Maurice been aware of this fact, he would not for a moment have
+contemplated delivering to Mr. Emerson Mr. Lorrillard's letter, in which
+it was distinctly stated that the property of the viscount was without
+lien.
+
+Further discussion between the father and son was prevented by the
+entrance of the countess, accompanied by Lord Linden, and followed by
+Bertha and Gaston de Bois.
+
+Maurice, as he saluted his grandmother, was gratified to observe that,
+albeit her air was by no means less stately, it was more satisfied and
+complacent. Though titled nobility had no native existence in the
+semi-civilized land, she rejoiced to find that it was sometimes
+_imported_. She had at last encountered an individual with whom she
+could associate without derogation. The French, as all the world knows,
+have a national antipathy towards the English; but a nobleman, even
+though he chanced to be an Englishman, was hailed by the Countess de
+Gramont, upon American soil, as a God-send. Lord Linden was not aware of
+the compliment implied by the unwonted graciousness of her demeanor, and
+the tone of _almost_ equality in which she addressed him.
+
+Maurice comprehended the altered expression that softened his
+grandmother's countenance, but was struck and amazed by the wonderful
+radiance of Bertha's face. Her eyes shone as though a veritable sun
+lived behind those azure heavens, and almost annihilated their color by
+its brightness; her lips were eloquent with a voiceless happiness they
+did not care to hide, yet could not speak; the laughing dimples played
+perpetually about her softly suffused cheeks; her elastic feet almost
+danced, so airy was their tread; about her whole presence there was a
+buoyant glow that seemed to encompass her with an atmosphere of light
+and warmth.
+
+She had not attempted to disguise her joy on again meeting Gaston de
+Bois; and, though he had paid them repeated visits during their sojourn
+in Washington, there was always the same deepening of the hue upon
+Bertha's cheek; the same flood of sunshine brightening over her face;
+the same softening of the tones of her voice; the same quickened rise
+and fall of her fair bosom when he approached.
+
+And he,--did he not note these betraying indications of his own power?
+Did they strike no electric thrill through his rejoicing soul? If they
+did, he was too much bewildered by a happiness so unexpected to search
+out calmly the hidden meaning of these precious signs.
+
+The change in the deportment and character of M. de Bois, which we
+described at its commencement, was now fully confirmed; and though the
+blood still sprang too rapidly into his face, and his breathing grew
+labored with emotion, and his manner, especially in Bertha's presence,
+was slightly confused, it was the confusion of elation rather than
+embarrassment. The self-control he had acquired had almost overcome his
+propensity to stammer, and Bertha was unreasonable enough to half regret
+that she could no longer finish his sentences, and thus prove how
+instinctively she divined his thoughts.
+
+Maurice greeted her, as was his cousinly wont after a separation, with a
+kiss on either cheek; but, for the first time, she shrank from his
+touch, and her ingenuous eyes involuntarily glanced toward Gaston, then
+were quickly cast down; and the mutinous ringlets that had, as usual,
+escaped from bondage, were a welcome veil, as they fell over her face.
+
+"Why, little Bertha, has an absence of four years made you forget that
+we are cousins?" asked Maurice, in surprise at her manner.
+
+"No--no," she answered, shaking back the curls, and looking up brightly
+in his face; "and I am rejoiced that you have come to Washington: it is
+a delightful place; I am charmed with everything I see."
+
+Did Bertha reflect how much the charm of a locality depends upon our own
+internal condition? Was she aware that any place, however tame and dull,
+becomes delightful through the presence of one who creates in us a state
+receptive of enjoyment?
+
+Maurice expressed his intention of calling upon Madame de Fleury; Lord
+Linden and M. de Bois proposed to accompany him. The three gentlemen
+took their departure together. But soon after they left the hotel,
+Maurice changed his mind; and, telling his companions that he had some
+business to transact which required immediate attention, apologized for
+leaving them, adding that he would call upon Madame de Fleury an hour
+later, and hoped he might have the pleasure of meeting them there.
+
+M. de Bois proposed to Lord Linden that they, also, should postpone
+their visit.
+
+"As you please," answered his lordship, languidly. "I am perfectly at
+leisure. I will go wherever you are going,--it does not matter where; I
+am indifferent to place."
+
+Lord Linden always _was_ at leisure, and always indifferent, and not
+unfrequently attached himself to Gaston de Bois, and seemed disposed to
+accompany him wherever he went.
+
+His lordship was one of that vast race of _blase_ young noblemen whose
+opportunities of enjoyment had never been circumscribed, except by the
+absence of the capacity to enjoy, and who, as a natural sequence, were
+continually oppressed with a sense of satiety, enervated by the noonday
+sunshine of unbroken prosperity, and thoroughly weary of their own
+existence. When his brother-in-law had been appointed ambassador to
+America, he had accompanied him to the United States with a vague idea
+that he would be thrown in contact with warlike tribes of Indians, the
+aborigines of the soil, whose novel and barbarous usages might afford
+him some mediocre measure of excitement. We need hardly picture his
+disappointment.
+
+The ambassadors from foreign courts and their suites were as a matter of
+course, thrown into constant communication with each other, and the
+secretary of the French ambassador and the brother-in-law of the English
+formed an acquaintance which ripened into an approach to intimacy. There
+was no particular affinity between them, but Lord Linden liked M. de
+Bois's society because he was a patient listener, and Lord Linden was
+the opposite to taciturn; and Gaston, though he sometimes, as in the
+present instance, felt his lordship an encumbrance, had too often been a
+victim to ennui not to sympathize with a fellow-sufferer.
+
+"Mademoiselle de Merrivale has a remarkably attractive face," said Lord
+Linden. "I do not particularly fancy blondes; there is too much
+milk-and-water and crushed rose-leaves in their general make-up; but, if
+a blonde could, to my eyes, enter the charmed circle of the positively
+beautiful, I would give her admission."
+
+Gaston, who had fallen into a pleasant revery, was quickly roused by
+this observation, and exclaimed, with an indignant intonation, "Not
+admit a _blonde_ into the circle of the beautiful? Can anything be
+lovelier than the countenance you have just looked upon?"
+
+"Yes," replied the nobleman, musing in his turn.
+
+"I think I could show you a face that would make Mademoiselle de
+Merrivale's sink into the most utter insignificance."
+
+"Is your beauty a Washington belle?" inquired Gaston, half-scornfully.
+
+"I do not know,--I do not know anything about her. I merely spoke
+figuratively when I said _I could show you_,--for I certainly could
+_not_, at this moment; but I allude to the most peerless being that ever
+captivated the eyes of man. In her, indeed, one could realize the poet's
+thought,--
+
+        "'All beauty compassed in a female form.'"
+
+"And who is this incomparable divinity?" asked Gaston, still with a
+touch of sarcasm in his voice.
+
+"Who is she? That is more than I know myself. We were thrown together by
+an accident,--quite an every-day occurrence in this headlong-rushing,
+pell-mell, neck-breaking land, where the people contemplate railroad
+catastrophes and steamboat explosions with as cool indifference as
+though they were a necessary part of a traveller's programme."
+
+"You were thrown in contact with your beauty, then, by a railroad
+collision, or were blown together through the bursting of a boiler?"
+remarked Gaston interrogatively, and more because civility seemed to
+demand the question than because he took any especial interest in the
+narrative.
+
+"Yes, quite a stirring incident. I felt alive for a month after. I was
+travelling from New York to Washington, in such a listless and used-up
+state that, in my desperation, I seriously pondered upon the amount of
+emotion that could be derived from jumping off the train, at the risk of
+one's neck. As I was glancing restlessly around, suddenly a face rose
+before me that riveted my eyes. It was a countenance unlike any I had
+ever seen. Though features and outline were faultless, in these the
+least part of its beauty was embodied. There was an eloquence in the
+rapid transitions of expression that melted one into another; there was
+a dreamy thoughtfulness in the magnificent hazel eyes. They were not
+exactly hazel either,--they reminded one of a topaz. I hardly know what
+name to give to their hue. But it is useless to attempt to describe such
+a face and form. I might heap epithet upon epithet, and then leave you
+without the faintest conception of the bewildering loveliness of their
+possessor."
+
+"You succeeded in becoming acquainted with the lady?" inquired Gaston,
+now really interested.
+
+"That good fortune was brought about by one of those ill winds, which,
+for the proverb's sake, must blow good to some one. It could not have
+been accomplished by any effort of my own, for there was an air of quiet
+dignity about the lady that no gentleman could have ventured to ruffle
+by too marked observation, far less by presuming to address even a
+passing remark. We were about half way between Philadelphia and
+Baltimore, when suddenly a terrific shock was felt, followed by a
+dashing of all humanity to one side of the cars, and a great crash. We
+had run into another train, were thrown off the track, and, in a moment
+more, upset."
+
+"Since you were longing for excitement," observed Gaston, "this
+agreeable little variety must have gratified you."
+
+"Yes, it was well enough in its way, not being positively fatal to
+existence. You may conceive the confusion and the difficulty of getting
+upon one's feet. How the people scrambled out of the cars I do not
+exactly know; for a short time I was too much stunned to see anything
+distinctly. I remember nothing clearly until somebody helped me up, and,
+in trying to move my left arm, I discovered that it was broken."
+
+"How unfortunate! And you lost sight of the lady?"
+
+"It would have been unfortunate if I _had_ lost sight of her; but I did
+not. The passengers were huddled together in a most primitive inn by the
+road-side. There I beheld her, moving about, quite unharmed, quieting a
+child here, assisting a young mother there, doing something helpful
+everywhere. There chanced to be a surgeon in the cars, who, happily, was
+uninjured. He saw my predicament, for I was suffering confoundedly, and,
+upon examining my arm, said that it must be set at once. He called upon
+several persons to aid him. Some were too much occupied with their own
+distress; some too bewildered; and some shrank from the task. But, to my
+supreme joy (it was worth breaking an arm for such a piece of good
+luck), the lady I just mentioned came forward, and offered her services!
+She tore my handkerchief and her own into bandages, produced needle and
+thread from her little travelling reticule, and sewed them together. She
+assisted the surgeon in the most skilful but the calmest manner. What
+could I do but express my gratitude? This was the opening to a
+conversation. We were detained several hours at the inn before a train
+arrived to take us on our journey. I had always detested these American
+cars, where all the travellers sit together in pairs; but now I rejoiced
+over them, for I managed to obtain a seat beside her. We conversed,
+without pause, during the whole way to Washington; and what propriety
+and good sense she evinced! Her beauty had deeply impressed me, but her
+conversation struck me even more. Such elevated thoughts dropped
+spontaneously from her lips, and so naturally, that she did not seem to
+be aware that there was anything peculiar about them. It was enough to
+drive a man distracted; I confess that it did me!"
+
+"She came to Washington then?"
+
+"Yes; and here we were forced to part. I begged that she would allow me
+the privilege of calling to thank her. In the most suave, lady-like, but
+resolute manner,--a manner that silenced all pleading,--she declined.
+But she had inadvertently admitted that she resided in Washington.
+_That_ has kept me here ever since. I have been searching for her these
+six months."
+
+"And you have never met her again?"
+
+"No, I have sought her in the highest circles; for, from her
+distinguished and even aristocratic air, her exceeding cultivation and
+good-breeding, I infer that she is a person of standing. It was somewhat
+singular that a lady of her unmistakable stamp should have been
+travelling alone; but that is not unusual in this country. In spite of
+all my efforts, I have never been able to encounter her again. I
+examined the strips of the fine cambric handkerchief with which my arm
+was bound, hoping to find a name. Upon one strip the letter 'M' was
+daintily embroidered. I have those strips yet carefully preserved."
+
+"Do you think she was an American lady?"
+
+"No, assuredly not. Though she spoke the English language very purely,
+and as only a scholar could have conversed, a slight accent betrayed
+that she was a foreigner; French, or Italian, I imagine. If I could only
+behold her once again, I should not be so miserably tired of everything
+and so bored by my own existence. Washington is killingly dull. By the
+way, the de Fleurys give a grand ball on Monday. I hear that there is
+great anxiety prevalent in the _beau monde_ on the score of invitations.
+Of course, Mademoiselle de Merrivale will be there. Her face must create
+a sensation. What a piece of good fortune it would be if I could see it,
+at this very ball, contrasted with that of my lovely incognita! _There_
+is a day-dream for you! I never attend a ball, or any large assembly,
+without a vague anticipation of finding her in the crowd. I should like
+to hear _your_ candid opinion if you saw those two faces placed side by
+side."
+
+The response which Gaston made to this remark, and which expressed
+certain convictions of his own, was not uttered aloud.
+
+It is one of love's happy prerogatives that the countenance best beloved
+gains to the lover's eye a charm beyond that with which any other face
+is endowed, even when he is forced to admit _that_ dearest visage is
+surpassed in point of positive, calculable, tangible beauty.
+
+    "A man may love a woman perfectly,
+    And yet by no means ignorantly maintain
+    A thousand women have not larger eyes:
+    Enough that she alone has looked at him
+    With eyes that, large or small, have won his soul."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+THE CYTHEREA OF FASHION.
+
+
+Maurice had so unceremoniously parted from Lord Linden and M. de Bois
+because he suddenly remembered that Mr. Lorrillard had impressed upon
+him the necessity of making his arrangements with Mr. Emerson without
+delay, as the present was a peculiarly favorable moment for purchasing
+shares in the mines whose iron he hoped to convert to gold.
+
+The viscount presented himself at Mr. Emerson's office, and delivered
+Mr. Lorrillard's letter. This latter gentleman was held in such high
+esteem that an introduction of his was certain of meeting with the
+utmost consideration. Mr. Emerson, after only a brief conversation with
+Maurice, informed him that he was ready to make the desired loan upon
+the security offered, and begged that he would call the next morning,
+when the necessary formalities would at once be gone through.
+
+Gratified by his visit and elated by the prospect of effecting a
+business transaction of so much importance, never dreaming of the fatal
+sequence which might be the result, Maurice drove to the residence of
+the French ambassador. It was not Madame de Fleury's reception-day, but
+by some mistake he was ushered into her drawing-room. In a few minutes,
+Lurline, a confidential _femme de chambre_, whom Maurice had often seen
+in Paris,--a being all fluttering ribbons and alluring smiles and
+graceful courtesies and coquettish airs,--made her appearance.
+
+"Madame has received the card of monsieur _le vicomte_," she began, with
+a sugary accent and soft manner, which reminded one strongly of the
+tones and deportment of her mistress. "Madame would not treat monsieur
+as a stranger, and therefore sent _me_,"--here, with her head on one
+side, she courtesied again, bewitchingly,--"to say that we have a new
+valet,--an ignorant fellow, for it is impossible to procure a decent
+domestic in America,--and this untrained creature has to be drilled into
+_les usages_: he has forgotten that madame only receives on Saturday.
+Madame, however, would see _M. le vicomte_ at any time that was
+possible."
+
+"I am delighted to hear you say so," returned Maurice, "for I am very
+desirous of having the pleasure of paying my respects."
+
+"Madame is preparing for a _matinee_, at the Spanish Embassy. She is
+just _coiffe_, and monsieur should see what a magnificent head I have
+made for her. Notwithstanding my success with her head she is at this
+moment in deep distress: her dress has not yet arrived; we expect it
+every moment! Madame's agitation is overpowering. She is quite unequal
+to encountering a disappointment of this crushing nature. She begs
+monsieur will excuse"--
+
+Before she could finish the sentence, the marchioness herself appeared,
+wrapped in a delicate, rose-colored _robe-de-chambre_, prodigally
+adorned with lace and embroidery.
+
+"My dear M. de Gramont, I meant to excuse myself; but as I am forced to
+wait for that tantalizing dress, a few moments with you, _en attendant_,
+will divert my thoughts. I had heard from M. de Bois, that the Countess
+de Gramont and her son, with Mademoiselle de Merrivale, are honoring
+Washington by their presence; but I was informed that _you_ were not
+here. You see I paid you the compliment of inquiring."
+
+As she spoke, she glanced at the mirror opposite, and arranged the long
+sprays of feathery flowers that were mingled with her braided tresses.
+
+"I am highly flattered at not being forgotten," replied Maurice. "I only
+arrived this morning, and hastened to pay my respects."
+
+"And you ought to be very much flattered that I can spare you an
+instant, at such a critical moment. Here is my toilet for this _matinee_
+at a dead stand-still, because that tiresome dress has not come. It is
+one I ordered expressly for the occasion, and, I assure you, it is a
+perfect triumph of art,--a victory gained over great obstacles. Let me
+tell you, nothing is more difficult to manage than an appropriate
+costume for a _matinee_. One's toilet must be a delicate compromise
+between ball attire and full visiting dress, but Mademoiselle Melanie
+has hit the _juste milieu_; and succeeded in carrying me through all the
+perils of Scylla and Charybdis. Oh, dear! oh, dear!" (stamping her tiny
+slippered foot) "will that dress never come?"
+
+"It must be very trying!" said Maurice, endeavoring to assume a tone of
+sympathy.
+
+"Trying? it is _killing_! Imagine my state of mind. I cannot go
+_without_ this dress: all my other toilets have been seen more than once
+in public; and this one was sure to create a sensation,--was planned for
+this very occasion!"
+
+"I fear my visit is inopportune, and ought to be shortened," replied
+Maurice, for the agitated manner and troubled look of Madame de Fleury
+made him feel that he must be an intruder. "I will only remain long
+enough to know if you will receive my grandmother, my father, and my
+cousin, Mademoiselle Bertha, to-morrow; they are very"--
+
+"Hush!" cried Madame de Fleury, raising her finger and listening with an
+eager countenance. "Was that not a ring? Patrick is opening the door.
+Hush! let me listen! It is the dress,--it must be the dress!" and she
+made several rapid steps toward the door, but returned to her seat as
+the servant passed through the entry with empty hands. "This is
+terrible! I have not my wits about me; I do not know what I am doing or
+saying!"
+
+"I am truly concerned," observed Maurice, who had risen to depart. "May
+I tell the Countess de Gramont that you will receive her to-morrow?"
+
+"To-morrow? Yes, certainly. I do not remember any engagement, but I can
+think of nothing at this moment. If that tormenting dress would only
+arrive! I fear it will never be here! It is the first time Mademoiselle
+Melanie ever disappointed me; she is punctuality itself. This waiting is
+torture, and completely upsets me,--turns my brain; it will throw me
+into a nervous fever. You, insensible men, cannot feel for such a
+position; you do not know the importance of a toilet."
+
+"We must be very dull if we do not know how to appreciate those of
+Madame de Fleury," replied Maurice, bowing courteously. "Pray, do not
+include me in the catalogue of such sightless individuals. I will bid
+you adieu until to-morrow, when you will allow me to accompany my
+grandmother?"
+
+"You are always welcome. Pray tell the countess I shall be charmed to
+see her, and say the same to that cruel Mademoiselle Bertha,--though I
+ought not to forgive her treatment of my brother. Say to her that he is
+yet unconsoled. Good gracious! That dress certainly is not coming! If it
+were to arrive at this moment I should be obliged to hasten; and to give
+the _finishing_ touches to a toilet in a hurried and discomposed manner
+is to run the risk of spoiling the general effect. What _can_ have
+happened to Mademoiselle Melanie? Hark! is not that some one? Did you
+not hear a ring? I am not mistaken; some one _did_ come in. It is the
+dress at last!"
+
+The marchioness started up joyfully, with clasped hands, and an
+expression of deep gratitude. A servant entered with a note; she
+snatched it petulantly and tossed it into the card-basket unopened.
+
+"How vexatious! Only a note! It is _too_ cruel! I shall never, never
+pardon Mademoiselle Melanie if she disappoints me. But that's easy
+enough to say, difficult enough to carry into execution. In reality I
+could not exist without her; and Mademoiselle Melanie knows _that_ as
+well as I do. She is so sought after that her exhibition-rooms are
+crowded from morning until night. It is now a favor for her to receive
+any new customers, and I believe she has some thirty or forty workwomen
+in her employment. Of course, you have heard of Mademoiselle Melanie?"
+
+"I have not had that pleasure; she is a mantua-maker, I presume,"
+returned Maurice, repressing a smile.
+
+"I suppose that is what, strictly speaking, we must call her; but she is
+the very Queen of Taste, the Sovereign of Modistes. She has a genius
+that is extraordinary,--it is magic,--it is inspiration! A touch of her
+hand transforms every one who approaches her. What figures she has made
+for some of these American women! What charms she has developed in them!
+What an air and grace she has imparted to their whole appearance! She
+makes the most vulgar look elegant, and the elegant, divine! Another
+ring. Now Heaven grant it may be the dress at last!"
+
+The marchioness was again disappointed: it was only another note, which
+shared the fate of the former.
+
+"Oh, I shall not survive this!" she ejaculated, dropping into an
+arm-chair; "and that horrid little Mrs. Gilmer will triumph in my
+absence. You know Mrs. Gilmer?"
+
+"I have not that honor," returned Maurice, who, impatient as he was to
+take his leave, found it impossible to depart while the marchioness
+chose to detain him.
+
+"She attempts to pass herself off for a belle, and even tries to take
+precedence of _me_, ignoring all the customs of good society; but,
+doubtless, the poor thing is actually ignorant of them, and should be
+pardoned and pitied for her ill-breeding. She is the wife of Gilmer, the
+rich banker. It is to Mademoiselle Melanie that she is indebted for all
+her social success. Mademoiselle Melanie positively _created_ her, and
+she never wears anything made by any one else. It is all owing to
+Mademoiselle Melanie that the men surround her as they do, and try to
+persuade themselves that she is pretty. Pretty! with her turn-up nose,
+and colorless hair and eyes. Her husband is immensely rich; and, as
+wealth rules the day in this country, she takes good care that the depth
+of his purse shall be known; for that purpose she loads herself with
+diamonds,--always diamonds. She has not the least idea of varying her
+jewels; even Mademoiselle Melanie could not make her comprehend that
+art. I wonder she does not have a dress contrived of bank-notes! _That_
+would be novel, and it would also prove a capital way of announcing her
+opulence!"
+
+"A rather dangerous costume!" returned Maurice, laughing.
+
+"At all events it would be original; and, as originality is sure to
+produce an effect, the saucy little _parvenue_ might afford to follow my
+advice, even though it came from an enemy."
+
+Maurice could not help exclaiming with a comical intonation,--for there
+was something irresistibly ludicrous in the puny fierceness of the
+dressed doll,--"An enemy!"
+
+"Oh, there is no concealment about it!" exclaimed Madame de Fleury with
+the air of a Liliputian belligerent. "It is open warfare; we are at
+swords' points, and all the world knows our animosity. And Mrs. Gilmer
+has the impertinence to pretend that our _styles_ are quite similar, and
+that the same modes become us. She even declares that such has been
+Mademoiselle Melanie's verdict, and from the judgment of Mademoiselle
+Melanie nobody dares to appeal."
+
+"This Mademoiselle Melanie is a Parisian, I presume?" asked Maurice,
+more because it seemed polite to say something, than from any interest
+in the answer to his question.
+
+"Could she be anything else?" replied Madame de Fleury, with enthusiasm.
+"Could a being gifted with such wondrous taste have been born out of
+Paris? She is a _protegee_ of Vignon's; and, when I was exiled,
+Mademoiselle Melanie came to America with me. She instantly became
+known. There is a Mr. Hilson here, to whom she probably brought letters,
+for he has taken the deepest interest in trumpeting her fame. She has
+created a perfect furor."
+
+"Hilson?" repeated Maurice, musingly. "A gentleman of that name visited
+Brittany before I left. I wonder if it can be the same person."
+
+"Very likely, for he has been abroad. I have heard him mention Brittany.
+Well, this Mr. Hilson was so infatuated with--hush! That is a ring!"
+
+While Madame de Fleury listened in breathless expectation, Lurline
+opened the door and announced, "The dress of madame has arrived!"
+
+"Ah! at last! at last! What happiness! I am saved, when I had almost
+given up all hope! Monsieur de Gramont, you will excuse me! _Au
+revoir!_"
+
+Before Maurice could utter his congratulations upon the advent of the
+dress, she had glided out of the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+MEETING.
+
+
+The tangled web Count Tristan had woven for others began to fold its
+meshes around himself, and to torture him with the dread that he might
+be caught in his own snare. From the moment Maurice arrived in
+Washington,--an event the count had not anticipated,--his covert use of
+the authority entrusted to him was menaced with discovery. To a frank,
+straightforward character, the very natural alternative would have
+suggested itself of explaining, and, as far possible, justifying the
+step just taken; but to a mind so full of guile, so wedded to wily
+schemes as the count's, a simple, upright course would never have
+occurred. The fear of exposure threw him into a state of nervous
+irritability which allowed no rest, and he was compelled to pay the
+price of deception by plunging deeper into her labyrinths, though every
+step rendered extrication from the briery mazes more difficult.
+
+On the morrow Maurice accompanied his grandmother, Bertha, and Count
+Tristan to the residence of the Marchioness de Fleury. Count Tristan's
+_malaise_ evinced itself by his unusually fretful and preoccupied
+manner, his querulous tone, and a partial forgetfulness of those polite
+observances of which he was rarely oblivious. He allowed his mother to
+stand, looking at him in blind amazement, before he remembered to open
+the door; was very near passing out of the room before her, and scarcely
+recollected to hand her into the carriage. His abstraction was partially
+dissipated by her scornful comment upon the contagious influences of a
+plebeian country; but to recover himself entirely was out of the
+question.
+
+On reaching the ambassador's mansion, the visitors were disconcerted by
+the information that Madame de Fleury "_did not receive_."
+
+"She will receive us!" answered Maurice, recovering himself. "We are
+here by appointment." And, passing the surprised domestic, he ushered
+his grandmother into the drawing-room. Bertha and Count Tristan
+followed.
+
+The servant, with evident hesitation, took the cards that were handed to
+him, and retired. The door of the _salon_ chanced to remain open, and
+rendered audible a whispered conversation going on in the entry.
+
+"I dare not disturb madame at this moment; she would fly into a terrible
+rage. You know she never allows her toilet to be interrupted!"
+
+These words, spoken in a female voice, reached the ears of the visitors.
+
+"But the gentleman says it is an _appointment_. What's to be done? What
+am I to answer?" was the rejoinder in rough male tones.
+
+"You are a blockhead,--you have no management," replied the first voice.
+"I will arrange the matter without your stupid interference."
+
+Lurline now courtesied herself into the room, and, after bestowing an
+arch glance of recognition upon the viscount, addressed the countess.
+
+"I am _desolee_ to be obliged to inform madame that Madame de Fleury is
+at this moment so much absorbed by her toilet that I fear I shall have
+no opportunity of making known the honor of madame's visit. My mistress
+has made an engagement to go to the capitol to hear some distinguished
+orator. It is madame's _debut_ in spring attire this season. Madame's
+dress, bonnet, and mantle have this moment been sent home. A more
+delicately fresh toilet _de printemps_ cannot be conceived; it will
+establish the fact that spring has arrived. But madame has not yet
+essayed her attire and assured herself of its effect. I trust _madame la
+comtesse_ will deem this sufficient apology for not being received."
+
+As she concluded, Lurline simpered and courtesied, and seemed confident
+that she had gracefully acquitted herself of a difficult duty.
+
+"Not receive us when we are here by invitation?" ejaculated the
+countess, angrily. "Is Madame de Fleury aware that it is the Countess de
+Gramont and her family who are calling upon her?"
+
+"There must be some mistake," interposed Maurice; then, turning to the
+_femme de chambre_, he added, "I beg that you will deliver these cards
+to the marchioness and bring me an answer."
+
+"How am I to refuse monsieur?" replied Lurline, hesitating, yet
+softening her unwillingness to comply by a volley of sidelong glances.
+"Monsieur is not aware that he is placing me in a most delicate
+position. It is against madame's rules to be disturbed when her toilet
+is progressing: it requires her concentrated attention,--her whole mind!
+Still, if monsieur insists, I will run the risk of madame's displeasure.
+Monsieur must only be kind enough to wait, and allow me to watch for a
+favorable moment when I can place these cards before madame."
+
+With a low salutation, and a coquettish movement of the head that set
+all her ribbons fluttering, the _femme de chambre_ made her exit.
+
+"Not receive us? Make us wait?" exclaimed the countess, wrathfully;
+"truly, Madame de Fleury has profited by her sojourn among savages! This
+is not to be endured! Let us depart at once!"
+
+"My dear mother," began Count Tristan, soothingly, "it will not do to be
+offended, or to notice the slight, if there be one; but, I am sure, none
+is intended. It is absolutely _indispensable_ that I should see the
+countess, and get her to present this letter to the Marquis de Fleury,
+and also that I should obtain her promise that she will influence him to
+secure the vote of Mr. Gobert. Pray, be courteous to the marchioness
+when she makes her appearance, or all is lost."
+
+"What degradation will you demand of me next? How can you suppose it
+possible that I can be courteous? I tell you I am furious!"
+
+"But you do not know all that depends upon obtaining these votes. Think
+of this railroad,--of the vital importance of the direction it takes!
+Think of the Maryland property, which is almost all that is left to
+us"--
+
+"Have I not again and again begged you not to meddle with
+railroads,--not to occupy yourself with business matters which a
+nobleman is bound to ignore?"
+
+"And by obeying you, as far as I could, and only acting in secret, I
+have nearly ruined myself," answered the count, with growing excitement.
+
+At this moment the loud ringing of a bell was heard, accompanied by the
+voice of Lurline, speaking in tones of great tribulation.
+
+"Patrick! Patrick! do you not hear the bell? Come here quickly! What's
+to be done? Such a calamity! It's dreadful! dreadful!"
+
+Count Tristan started up, and went to the door to question the _femme de
+chambre_, fearing that the calamity in question might be of a nature
+sufficiently serious to prevent the much-desired interview.
+
+Lurline was standing in the hall; she wore her hat and shawl, and was
+giving directions to a domestic in the most rapid and flurried manner.
+
+"Will Madame de Fleury receive us?" inquired the count, anxiously.
+
+"I told monsieur that I could not promise him, and, now that this
+misfortune has befallen us, it is thoroughly impossible even to make
+your presence here known to madame. Who could have anticipated such a
+_contretems_? Never before has Mademoiselle Melanie allowed a dress to
+issue from her hands which did not fit _a merveille_, and there are two
+important alterations to be made in this before it can be worn. Madame
+is in despair; she will go out of her senses; it will give her a brain
+fever!"
+
+"Can we not have the pleasure of seeing her for a few moments, when her
+toilet is completed?" inquired Maurice.
+
+"Ah, there it is! _When_ her toilet is completed? Will it be completed
+in time for her to reach the senate at the hour proposed? Monsieur will
+pardon me, but I have not a moment to spare."
+
+Turning to Patrick, she added, "I am forced to go out to purchase some
+ribbons. I have left madame in the hands of Antoinette. Madame is in
+such a state that one might weep to see her! Take care not to admit any
+one, except the Countess Orlowski, who accompanies your mistress to the
+senate. I will be back presently."
+
+The Countess de Gramont rose up majestically.
+
+"Let us depart, my son! Never more will I cross this threshold,--never
+enter this house where I have been insulted!"
+
+"No insult was intended," replied Count Tristan, nervously. "Even if it
+were, we are not in a position to be cognizant of insults; we should be
+forced to ignore them. I cannot leave without entreating the marchioness
+to deliver this letter to Monsieur de Fleury, herself: it _must_ be
+done,--and _to-day_. There is not an instant to lose."
+
+"And you can stoop so low,--you can demean yourself to such a degree?
+What a humiliation!"
+
+"Humiliations are not to be taken into consideration where _ruin_ stares
+us in the face!" he answered, violently.
+
+"Is it _so very important_?" inquired Bertha, struck by the count's
+angry manner.
+
+"Of more importance than I can explain to you!"
+
+"Oh, then let us stay, aunt! We must make allowances for Madame de
+Fleury's ruling passion. Her toilet first, all the world afterward!"
+
+A carriage just then drove to the door, and attracted the attention of
+Bertha, who was standing by the open window.
+
+"What magnificent horses! and what a neat equipage! All the appointments
+in such admirable taste! A lady is descending. I suppose it must be the
+Countess Orlowski. What a dignified air she has! What a graceful
+bearing! I wish I could see her face. She must be handsome with such a
+perfect figure. Yes,--I am right,--it _is_ the Countess Orlowski, for
+the servant has admitted her."
+
+As the lady was passing through the hall, she said to the domestic, "No,
+you need not announce me; I will go at once to the chamber of Madame de
+Fleury."
+
+At the sound of that voice, the shriek of joy that broke from Bertha's
+lips drowned the amazed exclamation of Maurice. In another instant,
+Bertha's arms were around the stranger, and her kisses were mingled with
+tears and broken ejaculations, as she embraced her rapturously.
+
+Maurice stood beside them, struggling with emotion that caused his manly
+frame to vibrate from head to foot, while his dilated eyes appeared
+spellbound by some familiar apparition which they hardly dared to
+believe was palpable.
+
+There is a joy which, in its wild excess, paralyzes the faculties, makes
+dumb the voice, confuses the brain, until ecstasy becomes agony, and all
+the senses are enveloped in a cloud of doubt. Such was the joy of
+Maurice as he stood powerless, questioning the blissful reality of the
+hour, yet in the actual presence of that being who was never a moment
+absent from his mental vision.
+
+"Madeleine! Madeleine! My own Madeleine! Have we found you at last? Is
+it really you?" sobbed Bertha, whose tears always flowed easily, but now
+poured in torrents from their blue heavens.
+
+And Madeleine, as she passionately returned her cousin's embrace,
+dropped her head upon Bertha's shoulder, and wept also.
+
+"Madeleine!"
+
+At that tremulously tender voice her face was lifted and turned toward
+Maurice,--turned for the first time for nearly five long years; and yet,
+at that moment, he felt as though it had never been turned away.
+
+Bertha involuntarily loosened her arms, and Madeleine extended her hand
+to Maurice. He clasped it fervently, but his quivering lips gave forth
+no sound. One irrepressible look of perfect joy from Madeleine's
+luminous eyes had answered the impassioned gaze of his; one smile of
+ineffable gratitude played over her sweet lips. For an instant the eyes
+were raised heavenward, in mute thanksgiving, and then sought the
+ground, as though they feared to reveal too much; and the smile of
+transport changed to one of grave serenity, and the wonted quietude of
+her demeanor returned.
+
+The countess and Count Tristan had both risen in speechless surprise,
+but had made no attempt to approach Madeleine, whom Bertha now drew into
+the room.
+
+"Madeleine! I cannot believe that I am not dreaming," cried the latter;
+"I cannot believe that I have found you!--that it is really you! And you
+are lovelier than ever! You no longer look pale and careworn; you are
+happy, my own Madeleine,--you are happy,--are you not? But why have you
+forgotten us?"
+
+"I have never forgotten--never--never _forgotten_!" faltered Madeleine,
+in a voice that had a sound of tears, answering to those that glittered
+in her eyes.
+
+Maurice had not released her hand, and, bending over her, made an effort
+to speak; but at that moment the stern voice of the countess broke in
+harshly,--
+
+"How is it that we find you here, Mademoiselle de Gramont? Where have
+you hidden yourself? What have you done since you fled from my
+protection?"
+
+"Yes, what have you done?" chimed in Count Tristan. "How is it that we
+find you descending from a handsome equipage and elegantly attired?"
+
+"I have done nothing for which I shall ever have to blush!" answered
+Madeleine, with a dignity which awed him into silence.
+
+"It was needless to say _that_, dear Madeleine," cried Maurice, whose
+powers of utterance had returned when he saw Madeleine about to be
+assailed. "No one who knows you would _dare to believe_ that you ever
+committed an action that demanded a blush."
+
+Madeleine thanked him with her speaking countenance. Perhaps it was only
+fancy, but he thought he felt a light, grateful pressure of the hand he
+held.
+
+"But tell us where you have been!" continued Bertha, affectionately.
+"You look differently, Madeleine, and yet the same; and how this rich
+attire becomes you! You are no longer poor and dependent then,--are
+you?"
+
+"I am no longer poor, and no longer dependent!" answered Madeleine, in a
+tone of honest pride.
+
+"Is it possible?" exclaimed the count and his mother together.
+
+"But how has all this happened?" Bertha ran on. "Oh! I can divine: you
+are married,--you have made a brilliant marriage."
+
+At those words a suppressed groan, of unutterable anguish, struck on
+Madeleine's ear; and the hand Maurice held dropped from his grasp.
+
+"Speak! do speak! dear Madeleine!" continued Bertha. "Tell us all your
+sufferings,--for you must have suffered at first,--and all your joys,
+since you are happy now. And tell us how you chance to be here,--here in
+America, as we are; and how it happens that you are calling upon the
+Marchioness de Fleury, at the same time as ourselves; and why you expect
+to be received by her, though she will not receive us."
+
+Before Madeleine could reply, and she was evidently collecting herself
+to speak, Lurline, who had just returned from executing her commission,
+passed through the hall. The door of the drawing-room stood open; she
+caught sight of Madeleine, and ran toward her, exclaiming joyfully,--
+
+"Oh, what good fortune! How rejoiced my poor mistress will be! She did
+not dare to hope for this great kindness! I am so thankful! I will fly
+to announce to her the good news!"
+
+She hurried away, leaving Madeleine's relatives more than ever amazed by
+these mysterious words.
+
+Count Tristan was the first to break the silence. Ever keenly alive to
+his own interest, he saw a great advantage to be gained if he had
+interpreted the language of the _femme de chambre_ rightly.
+
+In an altered tone, a tone of marked consideration, he asked, "You are
+well acquainted with the Marchioness de Fleury?"
+
+"_Very well!_" replied Madeleine, with an incomprehensible emphasis,
+while a smile that had a faint touch of satire flitted over her face.
+
+"She receives you?" questioned the count.
+
+"Always," answered Madeleine, smiling again.
+
+"She esteems you?" persisted the count.
+
+"I have every reason to believe that she does."
+
+"And you have influence with her," joined in Bertha, suspecting the
+count's drift, and feeling desirous of aiding him.
+
+"I think I may venture to say I have."
+
+"Oh, how fortunate!" cried Bertha; "you maybe of the greatest service to
+our cousin, Count Tristan." She took the letter out of his hand, and
+placing it in Madeleine's, added, "Beg Madame de Fleury to read this
+letter, and obtain her promise that she will use her influence with the
+Marquis de Fleury to cause Mr. Gobert,--Gobert, that's his name, is it
+not?" appealing to the count,--"to cause Mr. Gobert to vote as herein
+instructed. See, how well I have explained that matter! I really believe
+I have an undeveloped talent for business."
+
+"The letter should reach Madame de Fleury this morning. The appeal
+should be made to the marquis _to-day_,--_this very day!_" urged the
+count.
+
+"It shall be!" replied Madeleine, with quiet confidence.
+
+The countess here interposed.
+
+"What, my son, you are willing to solicit the interference of
+Mademoiselle de Gramont, without knowing how and where she has passed
+her time, how she has lived since she fled from the Chateau de Gramont?
+I refuse my consent to such a proceeding."
+
+"Aunt,--madame," returned Madeleine, in a gently pleading voice, "do not
+deprive me of the pleasure of serving you. Humble and unworthy
+instrument that I am, leave me that happiness."
+
+"If the marchioness would only grant me a few moments' interview this
+morning," said Count Tristan, who evidently doubted the strength of
+Madeleine's advocacy.
+
+"I promise that she _will_ grant you an interview this morning," replied
+Madeleine, interrupting him.
+
+The _femme de chambre_ now reentered and said, "Madame is impatient at
+this delay; every moment seems an hour."
+
+"Say that I will be with her immediately," answered Madeleine. She then
+addressed the count: "Have no fears,--you may depend upon me; the
+countess will receive you the moment her toilet is completed."
+
+Madeleine once more embraced Bertha, once more extended her hand to
+Maurice, who stood bewildered, dismayed, looking half petrified, and
+passed out of the room.
+
+As soon as she had disappeared, Bertha broke forth joyously, "Well,
+aunt, what do you think _now_ of our Madeleine? Is not this magic? Is
+not this a fairy-like _denouement_? She disappears from the Chateau de
+Gramont as though the earth had opened to swallow her; no trace of her
+could be discovered for nearly five years, and suddenly she rises up in
+our very midst, a grand lady, enveloped in a cloud of mystery, and
+working as many wonders as a veritable witch. She leaves us poor,
+friendless, dependent; she returns to us rich, powerful, and with
+influential friends ready to serve those who once protected her. But I
+think I have found the key to the enigma. Did we not hear strict orders
+given that none but the Countess Orlowski should be admitted? Well,
+Madeleine was at once allowed to enter: it follows, beyond doubt, that
+she is the Countess Orlowski."
+
+This version of Madeleine's position seemed to strike both the countess
+and her son as not merely possibly, but probably, correct.
+
+"I always thought," returned the count, "that Madeleine was a young
+person who, in the end"--
+
+His mother finished the sentence, in a tone of pride, "would prove
+herself worthy of the family to which she belongs."
+
+The loud ringing of the street door-bell attracted the attention of the
+group assembled in the drawing-room. A well-known voice exchanged a few
+words with the servant, and Gaston de Bois entered. His manner was
+unusually perturbed, and he looked around the room as though in search
+of some one.
+
+The instant he appeared, Bertha exclaimed, "Oh, M. de Bois! M. de Bois!
+We are all so much rejoiced! Madeleine, our own Madeleine, is found at
+last! She is here,--here in this very house, at this very moment!"
+
+"I--I--I knew it!" answered M. de Bois, with a mixture of embarrassment
+and exultation.
+
+"You knew it? How could you have known it?" asked Maurice, eagerly.
+
+"I saw her car--ar--arriage at the door."
+
+"_Her_ carriage? She has a carriage of her own, then?" inquired the
+count.
+
+"Yes, and the most superb horses in Washington."
+
+"You knew, then, that she was here?" cried Maurice, with emotion; "you
+knew it, and you never told us?"
+
+"I knew it, but I was forbidden to tell you. I hoped you would meet; I
+felt sure you would. I did not know how or when; but, from the moment
+you put your foot in this city, I looked for this meeting. I was
+strongly impelled to bring it about, but my promise withheld me."
+
+"Of course, you could not break a promise; that explanation is quite
+satisfactory," remarked Bertha. "I am sure you would have given us a
+hint but for your promise."
+
+"I almost gave one in spite of it. I found it harder to keep silent than
+I used to find it to speak; and that was difficult enough."
+
+"But have the goodness to unravel to us this grand mystery," demanded
+the count. "Madeleine is married--married to Count Orlowski, the Russian
+ambassador."
+
+"A nobleman of position!" added the countess.
+
+"How did this come about?" inquired the count.
+
+M. de Bois looked stupefied.
+
+"Who--who--said she was married?" he gasped out. "Why do you imagine
+that she is mar--ar--arried?"
+
+"She is _not_--_not_ married then? _Say she is not!_" broke in Maurice,
+hanging upon the reply as though it were a sentence of life or death.
+
+"No--no--not married at all--not in the least married."
+
+Maurice did not answer, but the sound that issued from his lips almost
+resembled the sob of hysteric passion.
+
+"Tell us quickly all about her!" besought Bertha, impatiently.
+
+"Yes, speak! speak!" said the countess, imperiously.
+
+"Speak!" echoed the count.
+
+"Gaston, my dear friend, pray speak,--speak quickly!" Maurice besought.
+
+"I wi--is--ish I could! That's just what I wa--an--ant to do! But it's
+not so easy, you bewil--il--ilder me so with questions. But the time has
+come when you must know that she has the hon--on--onor--the honor--the
+honor to be"--
+
+"Go on, go on!" urged Maurice.
+
+"I wish I could! It's not so easy to expla--plai--plain."
+
+The rustling of a silk dress made him turn. The Marchioness de Fleury,
+in the most captivating spring attire, stood before them.
+
+"Ah! here is Madame de Fleury, and she will tell you herself better than
+I can," said M. de Bois, apparently much relieved.
+
+The marchioness saluted her guests with excessive cordiality, softly
+murmured her gratification at their visit, and added apologetically,--
+
+"I must entreat your pardon for allowing you to wait; it was not in my
+power to be more punctual; a terrible accident--the first of the kind
+which has ever occurred to me--is my excuse. Do not imagine, my dear
+viscount," turning to Maurice with a fascinating smile, "that I had
+forgotten my appointment; but, at the Russian embassy, yesterday, I was
+prevailed upon to promise that I would be present at the senate to-day
+to hear the speech of a Vermont orator, a sort of Orson Demosthenes, who
+has gained great renown by his rude but stirring eloquence. We ladies
+have been promised admission (which is now and then granted) to the
+floor of the house, instead of being crammed into the close galleries.
+It will be a brilliant occasion. I invited the Countess Orlowski to
+accompany me. If all had gone well I should have been ready to receive
+your visit before she came."
+
+The brow of the countess smoothed a little as she answered, "I felt
+confident, madame, that there must have been _some_ explanation."
+
+"Ah! I fear you are displeased with me," resumed Madame de Fleury,
+playfully. "But I will earn my pardon. You will be compelled to forgive
+me; M. de Fleury meets me at the capitol, and I will deliver this letter
+of the count's into his hand, and make him promise, blindfold, to
+consent to any request that it may contain."
+
+"Madame," returned the count, bowing to the ground, "I shall never be
+able to express my gratitude. You can hardly form a conception of the
+favor you are conferring upon me. That letter is of the highest
+importance, and my indebtedness beggars all expression."
+
+"To be frank with you, count," answered Madame de Fleury, "you owe me
+nothing. You are only indebted to the advocate you chose,--one whom I
+never refuse,--one to whom I feel under the deepest obligation,
+especially this morning,--one who is so modest that she can seldom be
+induced to ask me a favor, or to allow me to serve her. Thus, you see,
+it is but natural that I should seize with avidity upon this
+opportunity."
+
+The count looked at his mother triumphantly; and, as the face of the
+marchioness was turned toward Bertha, he whispered, "Shall I not tell
+her that Madeleine is our niece?"
+
+The countess seemed disposed to consent, for the words of Madame de
+Fleury had gratified as much as they astonished her.
+
+The marchioness addressed the Countess de Gramont again. "I trust,
+madame, that you will allow me to waive ceremony, and take a liberty
+with you, since it is in the hope of being some service. I should like
+to reach the capitol before the oration commences; and, if this letter
+must be delivered to M. de Fleury immediately, my going early will
+enable me to have a few moments' conversation with him, which I probably
+shall not get after the orator rises. Will you excuse me, if I tear
+myself away? And will you give me the pleasure of your company to-morrow
+evening? To-morrow is my reception-day, and some of my friends honor me
+in the evening. I am _desolee_ at this apparent want of courtesy, but I
+am sure you see the necessity."
+
+The countess bowed her permission to Madame de Fleury's departure, and
+the count overwhelmed her with thanks. The countess would herself have
+taken leave, but anxiety to learn something further of Madeleine, caused
+her to linger.
+
+The marchioness now addressed her valet, who was standing in the hall
+waiting orders.
+
+"Patrick, when Madame Orlowski calls, beg her to pardon my preceding her
+to the capitol; say that I will reserve a seat by my side."
+
+"Then the lady who just visited you was _not_ Madame Orlowski?" inquired
+the count, more puzzled than ever.
+
+"No, indeed; she is worth a thousand Madame Orlowski's!"
+
+The count's glance at his mother seemed again to ask her permission to
+allow him to announce that Madeleine was their relative.
+
+"We felt certain that she was one of the magnates"--began the count.
+
+The marchioness interrupted him.
+
+"She is better than that; she has all the magnates of the land--that is
+the female magnates--at her feet. The foreign ladies swear by her, rave
+about her; and, as for the Americans, they are demented, and would
+gladly pave her path with gold,--that being their way of expressing
+appreciation. Madame Manesca passes whole mornings with her,--Madame
+Poniatowski talks of no one else. She enchants every one, and offends no
+one. For myself, I have only one fault to find with her,--I owe her only
+one grudge; if it had not been for her aid, that impertinent little Mrs.
+Gilmer would not have had such success in society. If I could succeed in
+making her close her doors against Mrs. Gilmer, what a satisfaction it
+would be! Then, and then only, should I be content!"
+
+The count could restrain himself no longer.
+
+"We are highly gratified to hear this, madame. It concerns, us more
+nearly than you are aware; the lady is not wholly a stranger to us; in
+fact, she--she"--
+
+"Indeed? she was so little known in Paris that you were fortunate in
+finding her out. I appreciated her there, but I did not know how much
+actual credit was due to her, for she had not then risen to her present
+distinction. I confess she is the one person in America without whom I
+could not exist."
+
+"Is it possible?" exclaimed the countess.
+
+"And I cannot be grateful enough to her," continued the marchioness,
+"for her visit this morning, for she never goes out, or, so seldom, that
+I did not dare to expect, to even _hope_ for her presence; yet her
+conscientiousness made her come; she suspected that I was in difficulty,
+and hastened here."
+
+"It is like her; she was always charming, and so thoughtful for others!"
+observed the count, as complacently as though this were an opinion he
+had been in the habit of expressing for years.
+
+"You may well say charming," responded Madame de Fleury; "and what
+knowledge she possesses of all the requirements, the most subtle
+refinements of good society! What polished manners she has! What choice
+language she uses! What poetical expression she gives to her sentiments!
+I often forget myself when I am talking to her, and fancy that I am
+communicating with a person of the same standing as myself; and, without
+knowing what I am doing, I involuntarily treat her as an equal!"
+
+"_An equal?_ Of course, most certainly!" answered the countess, aghast.
+
+The amazement of the count, Maurice, and Bertha, sealed their lips.
+
+"Her taste, her talent, her invention is something almost supernatural,"
+continued the marchioness, enthusiastically; for, now that she was
+launched upon her favorite theme, she had forgotten her haste. "She sees
+at a glance all the good points of a figure; she knows how to bring them
+out strongly; she discovers by intuition what is lacking, and
+dexterously hides the defects. I have seen her convert the veriest dowdy
+into an elegant woman. And, when she gets a subject that pleases her,
+she perfectly revels in her art. Look at this dress for instance,--see
+by what delicate combinations it announces the spring."
+
+The marchioness was struck with the consternation depicted in the
+countenances of her visitors.
+
+Bertha was the only one who could command sufficient voice to falter
+out, "That dress, then"--
+
+"It is her invention," replied the marchioness, triumphantly. "Any one
+would recognize it in a moment, as coming from the hands of
+Mademoiselle Melanie. Though she has such wonderful creative fertility,
+her style is unmistakable. There was never mantua-maker like her!"
+
+"_A mantua-maker! a mantua-maker!_" exclaimed the countess and her son
+at once, in accents of disgust and indignation.
+
+"Ah, I see you do not like to apply that epithet to her, and you are
+right. She should not be designated as a mantua-maker, but a great
+artist,--a true artist,--a fairy, who, with one touch of her wand, can
+metamorphose and beautify and amaze!"
+
+At that moment, a servant announced that the Countess Orlowski waited in
+her carriage, and desired him to say that she feared she was late.
+
+"You will excuse me then?" murmured the marchioness. "I must hasten to
+execute my mission for Mademoiselle Melanie, since it was she who so
+warmly solicited me to undertake this delicate little transaction, and I
+would not disappoint her for the world. Pray, do not forget to-morrow
+evening. _Au revoir._"
+
+She floated out of the room, leaving the countess and her son speechless
+with rage and indignation.
+
+Bertha and Maurice stood looking at each other, and then at M. de Bois,
+the only one who expressed no surprise, but seemed rather more gratified
+than moved when he beheld the countess sink back in her chair, and apply
+her bottle of sal volatile to her nose. The shock to her pride had been
+so terrible, that she appeared to be in danger of fainting.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+NOBLE HANDS MADE NOBLER.
+
+
+After the Marchioness de Fleury had departed, leaving her astonished
+guests in her drawing-room, M. de Bois was the first to break the
+silence.
+
+"And you, Mademoiselle Bertha, are you also horrified at this
+rev--ev--evelation?" he asked.
+
+"I?" answered Bertha, making an effort to collect herself. "No, I can
+never be horrified by any act of Madeleine's, for she could never be
+guilty of an action that was unworthy. I am only so much astonished that
+I feel stunned and confused, just as Maurice does; see, how bewildered
+he looks!"
+
+The countess had now recovered her voice, and said, in a tone trembling
+with indignation, "It is _infamous_!"
+
+"A degradation we could never have anticipated!" rejoined Count Tristan.
+
+"She has disgraced her family,--disgraced our proud name forever!"
+responded the countess.
+
+"Do not say that, aunt!" pleaded Bertha. "She has not even used your
+name, though it is as rightfully hers as yours. Do you not observe that
+she has only allowed herself to be called by her middle name, and that
+every one speaks of her as Mademoiselle Melanie?"
+
+Bertha, as she spoke, bent caressingly over her aunt, and took her hand.
+But the attempt to soften the infuriated aristocrat was futile.
+
+The countess replied, with increasing wrath, "I tell you she has
+humiliated herself and us to the last degree! She has brought shame upon
+our heads!"
+
+Gaston de Bois was walking up and down the room, thrusting his fingers
+through his hair, flinging out his arms spasmodically, and, now and
+then, giving vent to a muttered ejaculation, which sounded alarmingly
+emphatic. When he heard these words, he could restrain himself no
+longer. He came boldly forward, and planting himself directly in front
+of the countess, unawed by her forbidding manner, exclaimed,--
+
+"No, madame; that I deny! Mademoiselle de Gramont has brought no shame
+upon her family!"
+
+"She no longer belongs to my family!" retorted the countess. "I disown
+her henceforward and forever!"
+
+"And you do rightly, my mother," added the count. "We will never
+acknowledge her, never see her again! Maurice and Bertha, we expect that
+you will abide by our determination."
+
+Maurice did not reply; he stood leaning against the mantel-piece, lost
+in thought, his eyes bent down, his head resting upon his hands.
+
+Bertha, however, answered with spirit. "I make no promise of the kind.
+Nothing could induce me to cast off my dear Madeleine!"
+
+M. de Bois seized her hand, and, involuntarily carrying it to his lips,
+said, with mingled enthusiasm and veneration, "You are as noble as I
+thought you were! I knew you would not forsake her!"
+
+Bertha raised her eyes to his face with an expression which thrilled
+him, as she answered, "You will defend her, M. de Bois; you, who can
+perhaps disperse the cloud of mystery by which her life has been
+enveloped for the last four years. You will tell my aunt how Madeleine
+has lived,--what she has done. You will tell us _all about her_."
+
+"That I will, gladly!" replied he. "That is, _if I can_. I never in my
+life so much desired the pow--ow--ower of spee--ee--eech!"
+
+He broke off, and, in an undertone, gave vent to certain exclamations
+which indistinctly reached the ears of the countess and Bertha.
+
+Their amazed looks did not escape his notice, and he continued: "Ladies,
+I ought to ask your pardon; possibly my expressions have sounded to you
+somewhat profane; I am under the sad necessity of using very strong
+language. I cannot loosen my tongue except by the aid of these forcible
+expletives, and I must--_must_ speak! For I, who have known all
+Mademoiselle Madeleine's noble impulses, can best explain to you her
+con--on--onduct."
+
+The last word, which was the only one upon which he stammered, was
+followed by another emphatic ejaculation.
+
+Bertha, without heeding this interruption, asked, "And have you known
+where Madeleine was concealed all this time?"
+
+"Yes, mademoiselle, I knew."
+
+"And it was you who assisted her to leave Brittany?"
+
+"It _was_ I! That was about the first good action which brightened my
+life, and--and--and"--(another muttered oath to assist his articulation)
+"and I hope it was only a commencement."
+
+"Tell us--tell us everything quickly," prayed Bertha.
+
+"Mademoiselle Madeleine, when she determined to leave the Chateau de
+Gramont,--when she resolved to cease to be dependent,--when, in spite of
+her noble birth, which was to her only an encumbrance, she purposed to
+gain a livelihood by honest industry,--confided her project to me. And
+what good she did me in making me feel that I was worthy enough of her
+esteem to be trusted! She first committed to my charge her family
+diamonds, her sole possession, and ordered me to dispose of them"--
+
+"Her diamonds! those which have been in her family for generations! What
+sacrilege!" cried the countess, in accents of horror.
+
+"Pardon me, madame; it would have been sacrilege, she thought, and so
+did I, if she had kept them when their sale could have prevented her
+being the unhappy recipient of the unwilling _charity_ of her
+relatives."
+
+"Go on--go on!" urged Bertha. "How did she leave the chateau? How could
+she travel?"
+
+"I obtained her a passport, for it would have been running too great a
+risk if she had attempted to travel without one. The passport had to be
+signed by two witnesses. Fortunately, two of my friends at Rennes were
+about to leave the country; I selected them as witnesses, because they
+could not be questioned; I told them the whole story, and bound them to
+secrecy. We took out the passport for England to divert pursuit; but,
+Mademoiselle Madeleine only went to Paris, and it was not necessary that
+her passport should be _vised_ if she remained there."
+
+"But the diamonds,--they were those Madame de Fleury wore and which I
+recognized!" exclaimed Bertha.
+
+"I made a false step there; but it was just like me to bungle,"
+continued Gaston. "I knew that the Jew, Henriques, often had
+transactions with the Marquis de Fleury. I took the diamonds to another
+Jew from whom I concealed my name, and suggested his taking them to
+Henriques, hinting that the marquis would probably become their
+purchaser. The marquis is a _connoisseur_ of jewels; and, as you are
+aware, at once secured them. The sum realized was sufficient to supply
+the simple wants of Mademoiselle Madeleine for years. But this did not
+satisfy her,--her plan was to work. When she heard that the diamonds
+were in M. de Fleury's possession, she embroidered a robe upon which the
+lilies and shamrock were closely imitated, and took her work to Vignon,
+Madame de Fleury's dressmaker. Vignon was amazed at the great skill and
+taste displayed in the design and execution, and offered to give the
+embroiderer as much employment as she desired. Madame de Fleury being
+the most influential of Vignon's patrons, the dress was exhibited to
+her. She was at once struck and charmed by the coincidence that allowed
+her to become the possessor of a dress upon which the exact design of
+her new jewels had been imitated. She asked a thousand questions of
+Vignon, who gladly monopolized all the credit of inventing this novel
+pattern. From that moment Mademoiselle Madeleine's 'fairy fingers'
+commenced their marvels under the celebrated _couturiere's_ direction,
+and Vignon daily congratulated herself upon the mysterious treasure she
+had discovered. Mademoiselle Madeleine now determined to remain in Paris
+incognita. She worked night and day, scarcely allowing herself needful
+rest; but, alas! she worked with a ceaseless heartache,--a heartache on
+your account, Maurice, for she knew how wildly you were searching for
+her; and when you fell ill"--
+
+Maurice interrupted him: "It was she who watched beside me at night! I
+knew it! I have always been convinced of it. Was I not right?"
+
+"I was bound not to tell you, but there can be no need of concealment
+now. Yes, you _are_ right. When the _soeur de bon secours_ we had
+engaged to take care of you during the day, left, and would have been
+replaced, according to the usual custom, by another to watch through the
+night, we told her no watcher was needed before morning. Mademoiselle
+Madeleine made herself a garb resembling that worn by the sisterhood;
+and, every night, when the good sister we had hired left, Mademoiselle
+Madeleine took her place. We thought your delirium would prevent your
+recognizing her."
+
+"Probably it did, at first," returned Maurice; "but, for many nights
+before I spoke to you; I was conscious, I was sure of her presence."
+
+"When you did speak, I was startled enough," resumed Gaston; "and it was
+a sad revelation to Mademoiselle Madeleine; for, when your reason was
+restored, she could not venture any more to come near you."
+
+"Did she go to Dresden? How came my birthday handkerchief to be sent
+from Dresden?" asked Bertha.
+
+"That was another piece of stupidity of mine. You see what a blockhead I
+have been. Mademoiselle Madeleine wished to send some token of assurance
+that she thought of you still; but it was necessary that you should not
+know she was in Paris. I had the package conveyed to a friend of mine in
+Dresden, and desired him to remove the envelope and send the parcel to
+Bordeaux, though you were in Paris at the time. It would not have been
+prudent to let you suspect that Mademoiselle Madeleine was aware of your
+sojourn in the metropolis. But, when the postmark induced Maurice to
+start for Dresden, I saw what a fool I had been. It was just like me to
+commit some absurdity,--I always do! I could not dissuade Maurice from
+going to Dresden; but Mademoiselle Madeleine wrote a note which I
+enclosed to my friend, and desired to have it left at the hotel where
+Maurice was staying. After that I was more careful not to commit
+blunders. The other birthday tokens, you received, Mademoiselle Bertha,
+I always contrived to send you by private hand; thus, there was no
+postmark to awaken suspicion."
+
+"But how came Madeleine here in America?" inquired Bertha.
+
+"When the Marquis de Fleury was appointed ambassador to the United
+States, Mademoiselle Madeleine learned that Madame de Fleury sorely
+lamented her hard fate, and mourned over the probability that she would
+be obliged to have all her dresses sent from Paris. This would be a
+great inconvenience, for she often liked to have a costume improvised
+upon the spur of the moment, and completed with fabulous rapidity.
+Mademoiselle Madeleine had frequently thought of America, and felt that
+the new country must present a field where she could work more
+advantageously than in Paris. She desired Vignon to suggest to Madame de
+Fleury that one of the assistants in her favorite _couturiere's_
+establishment,--the one with whose designs Madame de Fleury was already
+acquainted,--might be tempted, by the certainty of the marchioness's
+patronage, to visit America. Madame de Fleury was contented, and
+immediately proposed that Mademoiselle Melanie should sail in the same
+steamer. Vignon allowed two of her work-women to accompany her. The sum
+Mademoiselle Madeleine had realized from her diamonds enabled her to
+hire a modest house in Washington, and to furnish it tastefully. On her
+arrival she sent for Mr. Hilson. Perhaps you remember him, Mademoiselle
+Bertha? He once dined at the Chateau de Gramont."
+
+Here the count uttered an exclamation of violent displeasure, but M. de
+Bois went on,--
+
+"He had requested Mademoiselle Madeleine if she ever visited America to
+let him know. He called upon her at once, and she frankly told him the
+story of her trials, and the conclusion to which they had forced her. He
+highly approved of her energy, her zeal, and spirit. She made him
+promise to keep her rank and name a secret. He brought his wife and
+daughter to see her, and they became her stanch, admiring, and helpful
+friends. Through them alone, she would quickly have been drawn into
+notice; but a more powerful medium to popularity was at work. The
+sensation produced by Madame de Fleury's toilets caused all Washington
+to flock to the exhibition-rooms of 'Mademoiselle Melanie,' who was
+known to be her _couturiere_. Soon, it became a favor for 'Mademoiselle
+Melanie' to receive new customers. She was forced to move to the elegant
+mansion where she now resides. It is one of the grandest houses in
+Washington, and Mademoiselle Melanie has only one more payment to make
+before it becomes her own. The fact is, people have gone crazy about
+her. Those who seek her merely upon business, when they come into her
+presence, are impressed with the conviction that she is not merely
+their equal, but their superior, and treat her with involuntary
+deference. She is rapidly becoming rich, and she has the glory of
+knowing that it is through the labor of her own dainty hands, her own
+'fairy fingers!'"
+
+"Oh, all she has done was truly noble!" said Bertha, with enthusiasm.
+
+"It was disgraceful!" cried the countess, fiercely. "She might better
+have starved! She has torn down her glorious escutcheon to replace it by
+a mantua-maker's sign. She has stooped to make dresses!--to receive
+customers! Abominable!"
+
+M. de Bois, for a moment forgetting the courtesy due to the rank and
+years of the countess, replied indignantly, "Madame, did she not make
+_your_ dresses for three years? Have you not been one of her customers?
+An unprofitable customer? The _profit_ was the only difference between
+what she did at the _Chateau de Gramont_ and what she does in the city
+of Washington!"
+
+"Sir!" exclaimed the countess, giving him a look of rebuke, which was
+intended to silence these unpalatable truths.
+
+"You are right, M. de Bois," answered Bertha, not noticing the furious
+glance of her aunt. "That was a random shaft of yours, but it hits the
+mark, and strikes me as well as my aunt; yet I thank you for it; I thank
+you for defending Madeleine; I thank you for befriending her. I shall
+never forget it--never!"
+
+Bertha frankly stretched out her hand to him; he took it with joyful
+emotion.
+
+"Whom would she have to defend her if I did not, since her family
+discard her? Since even an able young lawyer utters not a word to plead
+her cause?" he added, looking reproachfully at Maurice. "But she shall
+never lack a defender while I live, for I love her as a sister! I
+venerate her as a saint. To me she is the type of all that is best and
+noblest in the world! The type of that which is greater, more valuable
+than glory, more useful than fame, more _noble_ than the blood of
+countesses and duchesses--_honest labor!_"
+
+Bertha's responsive look spoke her approval.
+
+"And what do I not owe her, myself?" continued M. de Bois. "It was her
+words, long before her sorrows began, which rendered me conscious of the
+inert purposelessness of my own existence. It was the effect produced
+upon me by those words which made me resolve to throw off my sluggish,
+indolent melancholy and inactivity, and rise up to be one of the world's
+'_doers_,' not '_breathers_' only. The change I feel in myself came
+through her; even the very power of speaking to you thus freely comes
+through her, for she encouraged me to conquer my diffidence, she made me
+despise my weak self-consciousness, and I cannot offer her a sufficient
+return; no, not if I took up arms against the whole world, her own
+family included, in her defence! In my presence, no one shall ever
+asperse her nobility of word, deed, or act!"
+
+Bertha's speaking eyes thanked him and encouraged him again.
+
+In spite of the manifest rage of the countess he went on,--
+
+"But Mademoiselle Madeleine now holds a position which needs no
+champion. She has made that position herself, by her own energy and
+industry, and the unimpeachable purity of her conduct. In this land
+where _labor_ is a _virtue_, and the most laborious, when they combine
+intellect with industry, become the greatest,--in this land it will be
+no blot upon her noble name, (when she chooses to resume it) that she
+has linked that name with _work_. She will rather be held up as an
+example to the daughters of this young country. No one, except Mr.
+Hilson, not even her zealous patron, and devoted admirer, Madame de
+Fleury, yet knows her history; but every one feels that she merits
+reverence, and every one yields her spontaneous veneration. The young
+women whom she employs idolize her, and she treats them as the kindest
+and most considerate of sisters might. Some among them belong to
+excellent families, reduced by circumstances, and she has inspired them
+with courage to work, even with so humble an instrument as the needle,
+rather than to accept dependence as inevitable. She is fitting them to
+follow in her footsteps. If her relatives scorn her for the course she
+has pursued, she will be fully compensated for their scorn by the
+world's approval."
+
+All eyes had been riveted upon Gaston, as he spoke, and no one perceived
+that Madeleine was standing in the room, a few paces from the door.
+Bertha's exclamation first made the others conscious of her presence.
+
+"Madeleine! we know all! Oh, what you must have suffered! How noble you
+have been! Madeleine, you are dearer to me than ever, far dearer!"
+
+The tears that ran softly down Madeleine's cheeks were her only answer.
+
+Bertha, as she wiped them away, said, "These are not like the tears you
+shed that sorrowful day in the _chalet_, that day when you must have
+first made up your mind to leave us. Do you remember how you wept then?
+Those were tears of agony! You have never wept such tears since,--have
+you, Madeleine?"
+
+"No, never!"
+
+"I could not then comprehend what moved you so terribly; but, at this
+moment, I understand all your sensations. Now that we have met again
+there must be no more tears. You know that I am of age now; I am
+mistress of my own fortune; and you and I must part no more! You must
+come and share what is mine. You must have done with work, Madeleine."
+
+"That cannot be, my good, generous Bertha; my day of work has not yet
+closed."
+
+"Bertha!" exclaimed the countess, who, until then, had stood trembling
+with anger, and unable to command her voice. "Bertha, have you quite
+forgotten yourself? Remember that you are under my guardianship, and I
+forbid your having any association with Mademoiselle de Gramont."
+
+Madeleine advanced with calm dignity towards the countess, and said
+quietly,--
+
+"Madame--aunt"--
+
+The countess interrupted her imperiously.
+
+"Aunt! Do you _dare_ to address _me_ by that title? _You_--a
+_dressmaker!_ When you forgot your noble birth, and lowered yourself to
+the working-classes, making yourself one with them,--when you demeaned
+yourself to gain your bread by your needle, bread which should have
+choked a de Gramont to eat,--you should also have forgotten your
+relationship to me, never to remember it again!"
+
+"If I did not forget it, madame," answered Madeleine, with calm
+self-respect, "I was at least careful that my condition should not
+become known to you. I strove to act as though I had been dead to you,
+that my existence might not cause you mortification. I could not guard
+against the accident which has thrown us together once more, but for the
+last time, as far as my will is concerned."
+
+"This meeting was not Mademoiselle Madeleine's fault," cried M. de Bois,
+coming to the rescue. "It was my folly,--another blunder of mine! I was
+dolt enough to think that you had only to see her for all to be well;
+and, instead of warning Mademoiselle Madeleine that you were in
+Washington, I kept from her a knowledge which would have prevented your
+encountering each other. It was all my imprudence, my miscalculation! I
+see my error since it has subjected her to insult; and yet what I did,"
+continued he more passionately, and regarding Maurice, as he spoke, "was
+for the sake of one who"--
+
+Madeleine, seized with a sudden dread of the manner in which he might
+conclude this sentence, broke in abruptly,--
+
+"Were I not indebted to you, M. de Bois, for so many kindnesses, I might
+reproach you now; but it was well for me to learn this lesson; it was
+well for me to be certain that my aunt would discard me because I
+preferred honest industry to cold charity."
+
+"Discard you?" rejoined the countess, furiously. "Could you doubt that I
+would discard you? Henceforth the tie of blood between us is dissolved;
+you are no relative of mine! I forbid you to make known that we have
+ever met. I forbid my family to hold any intercourse with you. I appeal
+to my son to say if this is not the just retribution which your conduct
+has brought upon you!"
+
+The count answered with deliberation, as though he was pondering some
+possibility in his wily mind; as if some idea had occurred to him which
+prevented his fully sharing in his mother's wrath, or, rather, which
+tempered the expression of his displeasure,--
+
+"Madeleine's situation has rendered this the most proper and natural
+course open to us. She could not expect to be formally recognized. She
+could not suppose it possible, however much consideration we might
+entertain for her personally, that the Countess de Gramont and her
+family should allow it to be known that one of their kin is a
+dressmaker! Madeleine is too reasonable not to see the impropriety (to
+use a mild word) there would be even in such a suggestion."
+
+"I see it very plainly," answered Madeleine, not unmoved by the count's
+manner, which was so much gentler than his mother's, and not suspecting
+the motive which induced him to assume this conciliatory tone.
+
+The count resumed: "We wish Madeleine well, in spite of her present
+degraded position. If circumstances should prolong our stay in
+Washington, or in America,--and it is very possible they may do so,--we
+will only request her to remove to California or Australia, or some
+distant region, where she may live in desirable obscurity, and not run
+the risk of being brought into even _accidental_ contact with us."
+
+"No,--no!" exclaimed Bertha, vehemently. "We shall not lose her
+again,--we must not! _You_ may all discard her, but _I_ will not! I will
+always acknowledge her, and I must see her! She is dearer to me than
+ever; I will not be separated from her!"
+
+Did Bertha see the look of admiration with which M. de Bois contemplated
+her as she uttered these words?
+
+The countess asked in an imperious tone,--
+
+"Bertha, have you wholly forgotten yourself? I will never permit this
+intercourse,--I forbid it! If _you_ are willing to brave my displeasure,
+I presume Madeleine, ungrateful as she has proved herself to be, for the
+protection I granted her during three years, will not so wholly forget
+her debt as to disregard my command."
+
+How often Madeleine had been reminded of that debt which her services at
+the Chateau de Gramont had cancelled a hundred times over!
+
+Before she could respond to her aunt's remark, Bertha went on,--
+
+"You do not comprehend my plan, aunt. Madeleine, of course, must give up
+her present occupation; there is no need of her pursuing it; I am rich
+enough for both. She shall live with me and share my fortune. Madeleine,
+you will not refuse me this? For nearly five years I have mourned over
+our separation, and wasted my life in the vain hope of seeing you again.
+You would be ashamed of me if you knew in what a weak, frivolous, idle
+manner, I have passed my days, while you were working so unceasingly,
+and with such grand results. I shall never learn to make good use of my
+hours except under your guidance. Long before I reached my majority I
+looked forward gladly to the time when I should be a free agent and
+could share my _fortune_ with you. My aunt knows that I communicated my
+intention to her before you left the Chateau de Gramont. And now,
+Madeleine, my own best Madeleine,--you will let the dream of my life
+become a reality,--will you not? Say yes, I implore you!"
+
+Bertha had spoken with such genuine warmth and hearty earnestness that a
+colder nature than Madeleine's must have been melted. She folded the
+generous girl tenderly and silently in her arms, and, after a pause,
+which the countenance of her aunt made her aware that the proud lady was
+on the eve of breaking, answered, sadly,--
+
+"It was worth suffering all I endured, Bertha, to have your friendship
+tested through this fiery ordeal, and to know that your heart cannot be
+divided by circumstances from mine. But your too liberal offer I cannot
+accept; the path I have marked out I must pursue until I reach the goal
+which I am nearing. An incompleteness in the execution of my deliberate
+plans would render me more miserable than I am to-day in being cast off
+by my own family."
+
+"Do not speak such cruel words," returned Bertha. "They do not cast you
+off; that is, _I_ do not, and never will; and I am sure"--
+
+She turned to look at Maurice, who had stood silent through the whole
+scene, leaning upon the mantel-piece, his head still resting on his
+hand, and his eyes fixed upon Madeleine. His mind was too full of
+conflicting emotions for him to speak; above all other images rose that
+of the being whom Madeleine had declared she loved. Did she love him
+still? Was he here? Did he know her condition? Was M. de Bois, whom she
+had entrusted with her secret,--M. de Bois, who had protected and aided
+her,--the object of her preference? Maurice could not answer these
+torturing questions, and the happiness of once more beholding the one
+whom he had so long fruitlessly sought, made him feel as though he were
+passing through a strange, wild dream, which, but for _one doubt_, would
+have been full of ecstasy.
+
+When Bertha appealed to him by her look, he could no longer remain
+silent.
+
+"You are right, Bertha; Madeleine is to me all that she ever was. I am
+as proud of her as I have ever been; more proud I could not be! _To
+renounce her would be as impossible as it has ever been._"
+
+Madeleine, who had appeared so firm and composed up to that moment,
+trembled violently; her heart seemed to cease its pulsations; a cold
+tremor ran through her veins; a mist floated before her eyes; exquisite
+happiness became exquisite pain! She turned, as though about to leave
+the room, but her feet faltered. In a second, M. de Bois was at her
+side, and gave her his arm; she took it almost unconsciously. The voice
+of her aunt restored her as suddenly as a dash of ice-water could have
+done.
+
+"Your father's commands and mine, then, Maurice, are to have no weight.
+We order you to renounce all intercourse with this person, whom we no
+longer acknowledge as a relative, and you unhesitatingly declare to her,
+in our very presence, that you disregard our wishes. This, it seems, is
+the first effect of Mademoiselle de Gramont's renewed influence, which
+we have before now found so pernicious."
+
+"Do not fear, madame," answered Madeleine; "I will not permit"--
+
+"Make no rash promise, Madeleine,"--interrupted Maurice. "My father's
+wishes and my grandmother's must ever have weight with me; but when I
+honestly differ from them in opinion, I trust there is no disrespect in
+my saying so. Blindly to obey their commands would be to abnegate free
+agency and self-responsibility."
+
+"I have not forgotten," said the countess, freezingly, "that the first
+disrespect towards me of which you were guilty was originated by
+Mademoiselle de Gramont. I perceive that she is again about to create a
+family feud, and separate father and son, grandmother and grandchild.
+All her noble sentiments and heroic acting have ever this end in view.
+During the period that she concealed herself from us she has evidently
+never lost sight of this great aim of her existence, and has closely
+calculated events, and bided her time that she might manoeuvre with
+additional power and certainty. She has not disgraced us enough; she is
+planning the total downfall of our noble house, no matter whom it buries
+in the ruins. It is not sufficient that we have to blush for the
+_dressmaker_, who would exchange the device graven upon her ancestral
+arms for that of a scissors and thimble; but she is laboring to bring
+her disgrace nearer and fasten it more permanently upon us."
+
+M. de Bois, who felt that Madeleine was clinging to his arm, as though
+her strength was failing, answered for her,--
+
+"The daughter of the Duke de Gramont has not become less noble, madame,
+through her noble industry. She has not brought to her own, or any other
+cheek, a blush of genuine shame. I, who have watched over her from the
+hour that she left the Chateau de Gramont, claim the proud privilege of
+giving this testimony. No duchess has the right to hold her head higher
+than the Duke de Gramont's orphan daughter."
+
+Before any one could reply, he led Madeleine from the room, and out of
+the house. The movement which Maurice and Bertha, at the same moment,
+made to follow her was arrested by the countess. Before they had
+recovered themselves, Madeleine was seated in her carriage, and had
+driven away. M. de Bois was walking rapidly to his hotel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+FEMININE BELLIGERENTS.
+
+
+Madeleine's residence was one of the most superb mansions in Washington:
+a spacious house, built of white stone, and located within a few
+minutes' walk of the capitol. She was in the habit of seeking the
+beautiful capitol-grounds every fine morning, before the busy city was
+astir, accompanied by Ruth Thornton. The matinal hour devoted to this
+refreshing walk was to both maidens the calmest and happiest of the
+twenty-four. In that peaceful hour they gained strength to encounter the
+petty vexations and _desagrement_ incident to the at once humble and
+important vocation they had adopted.
+
+Buried deep in Madeleine's heart there was ever a sadness that could not
+be shaken off, but she turned the sunny side of her existence toward
+others, and kept the shadow of her great sorrow for herself alone;
+therefore her mien was ever tranquil, even cheerful. Possibly, she
+suffered less than many whose griefs were not so heavy, because her
+meek, uncomplaining spirit tempered the bleak wind that blew over her
+bowed head, and rounded the sharp stones that would have cut her feet on
+their pilgrimage, had they stepped less softly. Thus she carried within
+herself the magic that drew from waspish circumstance its sharpest
+sting.
+
+The morning after Madeleine's rencontre with her relatives, a group of
+young women were sitting busily employed around a large table in
+Mademoiselle Melanie's workroom.
+
+Mademoiselle Victorine, the forewoman, and Mademoiselle Clemence, her
+chief assistant, were the only foreigners. They had been in Vignon's
+employment, and had accompanied Madeleine to America. The other
+workwomen Madeleine had selected herself. Many of them were young girls,
+well born, and bred in luxury, who had been compelled by sudden reverses
+to earn a livelihood. Madeleine often wondered how so many of this class
+had been thrown in her way. In reality, the class is a frightfully
+numerous one, and she had an intuitive faculty of discovering those of
+whom it was composed. Not only did her instinctive sympathy attract her
+toward them, but Mr. Hilson, who was an active philanthropist, had been
+largely instrumental in pointing out young women who aspired to become
+self-helpers. Madeleine took an affectionate interest in teaching them
+a trade which almost rose to the dignity of a profession in her hands.
+She became their friend, adviser, and comforter, and thus experienced
+the delicious consolation of creating happiness for others after her own
+happiness had received its death-blow.
+
+The room in which the busy needle-women were sitting, was the farthest
+of a suite of apartments opening into each other, on the second story.
+These apartments were somewhat lavishly furnished, but in the strictest
+good taste, and the eye was charmed by a profusion of choice plants
+blossoming in ornamental flower-vases, placed upon brackets on the wall;
+or of orchids floating in pendant luxuriance from baskets attached to
+the ceiling. Then, Madeleine had not forgotten the picturesque use so
+often made of the ivy in her native land, and had trained the obedient
+parasite to embower windows, or climb around frames of mirrors, until
+the gilt background gave but a golden glimmer through the dark-green
+network of leaves.
+
+Each room was also supplied either with portfolios containing rare
+engravings, with musical instruments, or a library.
+
+Rich dresses were displayed upon skeleton frames in one apartment;
+mantles and out-of-door wrappings were exhibited in another; bonnets and
+head-dresses were exposed to admiring view in a third.
+
+Near the window, not far from the table which was surrounded by the
+sewing-women, stood a smaller table where Ruth was engaged, coloring
+designs for costumes.
+
+The gossip of the Washington _beau monde_, very naturally furnished a
+theme for the lively tongues of the needle-women. They picked up all the
+interesting items of fashionable news that dropped from the lips of the
+many lady loungers who amused themselves by spending their mornings at
+Mademoiselle Melanie's exhibition-rooms, giving orders for dresses,
+bonnets, etc., examining new styles of apparel, discussing the most
+becoming modes, or idly chattering with acquaintances who visited
+Mademoiselle Melanie upon the same important mission as themselves.
+
+Mademoiselle Victorine generally led the conversation at the
+working-table, or, rather, she usually monopolized it. It was a source
+of great exultation to her if she happened to have a piece of news to
+communicate; and this now chanced to be the case.
+
+"Something very important is to take place in this house, probably this
+very day!" she began, with a consequential air. "If Mademoiselle
+Melanie has a fault, it is that she makes no confidants; and I think I
+am fully entitled to her confidence. I should like to know what she
+could have done without _me_?"
+
+"What, indeed?" exclaimed several voices, for every one was anxious to
+propitiate the forewoman by bestowing upon her the flattery which was
+essential to keep her in an equable state of mind.
+
+"When we think of the marvels," continued Mademoiselle Victorine, "that
+issue from these walls; the splendid figures that go forth into the
+world out of our creative hands,--figures, which, could they be seen
+when they rise in the morning, would not be recognizable,--we have cause
+for self-congratulation. And Mademoiselle Melanie gets all the credit
+for these metamorphoses; though, we all know, she does _nothing_
+herself; that is, she merely forms a plan, makes a sketch, selects
+certain colors, and that is _all_! The execution, the real work, is
+mine--_mine!_ I appeal to you, young ladies, to say if it is not
+_mine_?"
+
+"Yes, certainly," said Abby, one of the younger girls; "but without
+Mademoiselle Melanie's sketch, without her ideas, her taste, what
+would"--
+
+"There--there; you talk too fast, Mademoiselle Abby; you are always
+chattering. I say that without _me_ Mademoiselle Melanie would never
+have attained her present elevated position; without _me_ this
+establishment would never have been what it now is,--a very California
+of dressmaking. And, in a little more than four years, what a fortune
+Mademoiselle Melanie has accumulated! That brings me back to the point
+from which I started. Does any one know what is to happen shortly?" she
+inquired, with an air of elation at being the only repository of a
+valuable secret.
+
+"No--no--what is it?" asked numerous voices.
+
+"Well, Mademoiselle Ruth, do you say nothing?" inquired the triumphant
+forewoman. "Are you not anxious to know?"
+
+Ruth, without lifting her head from the sketch she was coloring,
+answered, "Yes, certainly, unless it should be something with which
+Mademoiselle Melanie does not desire us to be acquainted."
+
+"Oh, hear the little saint!" returned Victorine. "She does not care for
+secrets,--no, of course not! She is only jealous that any one should
+know more than herself. She would not express surprise, not she, if I
+told her Mademoiselle Melanie is about to pay down ten thousand
+dollars--the last payment--upon the purchase of this house, which makes
+it hers."
+
+Mademoiselle Victorine concluded with a violent shake of the brocade she
+was trimming.
+
+"But did you learn this from good authority?" asked Esther, a slender,
+pale-faced girl.
+
+"The very best. I heard Mrs. Hilson say so to some ladies whom she
+brought to introduce here; and you know Mr. Hilson transacts all
+business matters for Mademoiselle Melanie. Mrs. Hilson told her friends
+that Mademoiselle Melanie's establishment was a perfect mint and fairly
+coined money. When I heard this assertion I said to myself, 'How little
+people understand that without _me_ Mademoiselle Melanie would never
+have founded an establishment that was compared to a mint--never!' Yet
+_she_ gets all the credit."
+
+"But you see"--began Esther.
+
+Victorine interrupted her.
+
+"What a chatterbox you are, Mademoiselle Esther! You will never get on
+with that work if you talk so much. Those festoons want spirit and
+grace; you must recommence them, or the dress will be a failure, I warn
+you! For whom is it? I have forgotten."
+
+"It is Mrs. Gilmer's, and she expects to wear it at the grand ball to be
+given by the Marchioness de Fleury."
+
+"She will be mistaken!" said Victorine. "I know that she will not be
+invited. The marchioness hates her; Mrs. Gilmer is the only rival whom
+Madame de Fleury takes the trouble to detest; and it makes me indignant
+to see a lady of her superlative fascinations annoyed by this little
+upstart American. One must admit that Mrs. Gilmer is very pretty; her
+figure scarcely needs help, and she is so vivacious, and has so much
+_aplomb_, so much dash, that the notice she attracts renders her
+alarmingly ambitious. Still, for her to dare to contrast herself with
+the French ambassadress is intolerable presumption, and I rejoice that
+she will get no invitation to the ball."
+
+"How do you know that she will not be invited?" asked Esther.
+
+"How do I know all that I _do_ know? It is odd to notice with what
+perfect lack of reserve the ladies who visit us talk. They chatter away
+just as if they thought we were human working-machines, without ears, or
+brains, or memories. This singular hallucination makes it not difficult
+to become acquainted with certain secrets of fashionable life which one
+_clique_ would not make known to another _clique_ for the world."
+
+"But this tittle-tattle"--Esther began.
+
+"Chut, chut," cried the forewoman. "How you chatter, Mademoiselle
+Esther; one cannot hear one's self speak for you! Somebody has just
+entered the exhibition _salon_; who is it? Mrs. Gilmer, as I'm alive! M.
+de Bois is with her; she has come to try on her dress, I suppose. She
+may spare herself the pains, for she will not wear it at Madame de
+Fleury's ball."
+
+Ruth, whose duty it was to receive visitors, and to summon Victorine, if
+they had orders to give, rose and entered the adjoining apartment.
+
+Mrs. Gilmer was one of those light-headed and light-hearted women, who
+float upon the topmost and frothiest wave of society, herself a
+glittering bubble. To win admiration was the chief object of her life.
+The breath of flattery wafted her upward toward her heaven,--that
+rapturous state which was heaven to her. To be the _belle_ of every
+reunion where she appeared was a triumph she could not forego; and there
+were no arts to which she would not stoop to obtain this victory. Madame
+de Fleury was a woman of the same stamp, but with all the polish, grace,
+and refined coquetry which the social atmosphere of Paris imparts; and
+though she had far less personal beauty than Mrs. Gilmer,--less mind,
+less wit,--her capacity for using all the charms she possessed gave her
+vast advantage over the fair-featured young American.
+
+When Ruth entered the _salon_, Mrs. Gilmer was too much interested in
+her conversation with M. de Bois to notice her, and continued talking
+with as much freedom as though she was not present.
+
+"I have set my heart upon it!" said she, "and I tell you I _must_
+receive an invitation to this ball. Madame de Fleury positively _shall
+not_ exclude me. I have already set in motion a number of influential
+pulleys, and I am not apt to fail when I make an earnest attempt."
+
+"I am quite aware of that," answered M. de Bois, gallantly.
+
+"Oh, what a love of a dress! What an exquisite design!" exclaimed Mrs.
+Gilmer, stopping delighted before a robe which had been commenced, but
+was thrown over one of the manikins, with a sketch of the completed
+costume attached to the skirt. "The blending of those pale shades of
+green and that embroidery of golden wheat, with a scarlet poppy here and
+there,--the effect is superb! Then the style, as this sketch shows, is
+perfectly novel. I am enchanted! Miss Ruth, I must have that dress! _At
+any price_, I must have it!"
+
+"It is to go to New Orleans, madame," replied Ruth. "It was ordered by
+Mrs. Senator la Motte, and is to be worn at some grand wedding."
+
+"No matter--I tell you _I must have it!_ Where is Mademoiselle
+Victorine?"
+
+Ruth summoned the forewoman. Victorine advanced very deliberately, and
+her bearing had a touch of patronage and condescension.
+
+Mrs. Gilmer pleaded hard for the possession of the dress; but
+Mademoiselle Victorine appeared to take the greatest satisfaction in
+making her understand that its becoming hers was an impossibility. The
+more earnestly Mrs. Gilmer prayed, the more inflexible became the
+forewoman. As for _repeating_ a design which had been invented for one
+particular person, _that_, she asserted, was against all rules of art.
+The original design might be feebly, imperfectly copied by other
+mantua-makers, but its duplicate could not be sent forth from an
+establishment of the standing of Mademoiselle Melanie's.
+
+Mrs. Gilmer, whose white brow was knitted with something very like a
+frown, remarked that she would talk to Mademoiselle Melanie on the
+subject, by and by.
+
+"Mademoiselle Melanie does not usually reverse _my_ decisions," replied
+the piqued forewoman, with an extravagant show of dignity.
+
+"We shall see!" retorted Mrs. Gilmer. "Now let me choose a head-dress
+for the opera to-night; something original. What can you invent for me?"
+
+"Really," answered Victorine, who was not a little irate at the
+suggestion that there _could_ be any appeal from her verdict; "I do not
+feel inspired at this moment; I am quite dull; nothing occurs to me out
+of the usual line."
+
+"Oh! you _must_ think!" pleaded the volatile lady. "Invent me something
+never before seen; something with flowers will do; but let me have
+_impossible_ flowers,--flowers which have no existence, and which I
+shall not behold upon every one's else head. Price is no object; my
+husband never refuses me anything! Especially," she added in a lower
+tone, to M. de Bois, "when he is _jealous_; and I find it very useful,
+absolutely _necessary_, to begin the season by exciting a series of
+Othello pangs through which he becomes manageable. I feed the jealous
+flame all winter, and add fresh fuel in the spring, when I wish to
+indulge in various extravagances."
+
+"A very diplomatic arrangement," remarked M. de Bois.
+
+"What a bonnet! What a beauty of a bonnet! what deliciously adjusted
+lace! How was it ever made to fall in such folds, over that bunch of
+moss roses; peeping out of those quivering leaves, touched with
+dew-drops?"
+
+"That bonnet belongs to _Madame de Fleury_," said Victorine, with a
+malicious emphasis.
+
+"Ah, indeed!" returned Mrs. Gilmer, changing color. "I wonder what would
+become of Madame de Fleury were it not for her toilets! If she were
+despoiled of her gay plumage, a very insipid, commonplace looking
+personage would remain. I must say, it is rather singular," she
+continued, growing warm in spite of herself, "but if I ever happen to
+look at anything particularly worth noticing, I am _always told_ it is
+for _Madame de Fleury_! Is Mademoiselle Melanie in her drawing-room? Is
+she accessible at this moment?"
+
+"She has just come in; Mademoiselle Ruth will conduct you to her,"
+answered Victorine, with an offended air.
+
+"M. de Bois, I will be back soon," said Mrs. Gilmer to her escort.
+"There are books in abundance in yonder library,--rather an
+extraordinary piece of furniture for a dressmaker's _salon_, but,
+Mademoiselle Melanie has so much tact, she foresaw that they might be
+useful on some occasions."
+
+Mrs. Gilmer followed Ruth to Madeleine's own apartments, which were on
+the first floor. Victorine returned to the room where the sewing-women
+were at work. Gaston selected a book and seated himself in a comfortable
+arm-chair.
+
+He had hardly opened the volume when the Marchioness de Fleury entered,
+accompanied by Lord Linden.
+
+As she descended from the carriage she had found his lordship
+promenading up and down before the house. He was overjoyed at this
+unlooked-for opportunity to obtain admission.
+
+Madame de Fleury saluted Gaston with one of her most gracious smiles.
+
+Victorine, catching sight of the marchioness, hurried forward, saying to
+Ruth,--
+
+"Do not trouble yourself, Mademoiselle Ruth, I will have the honor of
+attending upon Madame de Fleury."
+
+"That is right, Mademoiselle Victorine; but I am going to intrude into
+your _atelier_ of mysteries, and see what _chef d'oeuvres_ you have in
+progress."
+
+Judging from Madame de Fleury's tone, one might easily have supposed
+that she alluded to pictures or statues, and was about reverently to
+enter the studio of some mighty genius, and wonder over his achievements
+in marble or on canvas. The apartment she invaded was one which
+visitors were not usually invited, or expected, to enter.
+
+The gentlemen were left together.
+
+"I am in luck!" said Lord Linden in an unusually animated tone. "My dear
+M. de Bois, I am the happiest of men! I have encountered my unknown
+beauty at last! She passed me in a private carriage, which stopped here
+and was dismissed. I saw her enter this house not a quarter of an hour
+ago. She did not perceive me, and had disappeared before I could accost
+her; but I determined to keep watch until she made her exit, and then
+either to renew my acquaintance or to follow her home and learn where
+she lived. She shall not give me the slip again."
+
+"Are you sure you have not made some mistake? I do not think there is
+any lady here, at this moment, except Mrs. Gilmer, whom I accompanied."
+
+"I am perfectly certain I could not be mistaken. I shall make some
+excuse for remaining here; I will select a shawl or mantle for my
+sister, who is one of this celebrated Mademoiselle Melanie's customers,
+and who will not be displeased at such an unprecedented attention."
+
+Before M. de Bois could reply, the marchioness returned with Victorine.
+
+"And you say my dress for this evening will be done in an hour? That is
+delightful! I am impatient to test its effects. I am half inclined to
+wait until it is finished, and take it home with me."
+
+"It shall be completed _within_ the hour; I am occupied upon it
+_myself_," answered Victorine, with a fawning manner, very different
+from that by which the banker's wife had been kept in subjection.
+
+"What an original idea!" cried Madame de Fleury, pausing before the
+uncompleted dress which had attracted the admiration of Mrs. Gilmer.
+"What an exquisite conception! Those blades of golden wheat and those
+scarlet poppies make the most perfect trimming for these ravishing
+shades of green; just the colors that become me most. That dress is a
+triumph, Mademoiselle Victorine!"
+
+"The design is Mademoiselle Melanie's, but the _cut_, the _execution_,
+they are _mine_," said the forewoman, complacently.
+
+"And for whom is the dress intended? But I need hardly ask,--I am
+determined that it shall be _mine_."
+
+"It was to be sent to New Orleans to Madame la Motte, wife of the
+distinguished senator. But, I beg to assure madame that she cannot
+judge of this attire; it is nothing now. In a few days, when it is
+completed, then madame will be able to see that we have surpassed
+ourselves in that dress."
+
+"You have, indeed!" ejaculated Madame de Fleury, with fervor. "But I
+claim it. You must invent something else for Madame la Motte.
+Mademoiselle Melanie surely will not refuse me."
+
+"If the decision depended upon _me_, the dress would assuredly become
+Madame de Fleury's; although the design has been sent to Madame la
+Motte, and has met with her approbation; but Mademoiselle Melanie is so
+frightfully conscientious, she would not disappoint a customer, or break
+her word, or give a design promised one person to another for a kingdom.
+She is quite immovable, obstinately unreasonable on these points."
+
+"But I _must_ have that dress," persisted the marchioness. "I cannot be
+happy without it! I will implore Mademoiselle Melanie; she will drive me
+to despair should she refuse."
+
+"Mrs. Gilmer saw it a few moments ago, and was so enchanted that she did
+her utmost to make me promise that the dress should be hers."
+
+"_Hers_, indeed! That impertinent little _parvenue_!" replied Madame de
+Fleury. "I would never forgive Mademoiselle Melanie if she consented to
+anything of the kind. I suppose the banker's wife imagines this delicate
+green would tone down her milk-maid complexion. But she shall not try
+the experiment."
+
+At this moment Mrs. Gilmer herself reentered. The marchioness pretended
+not to be aware of her presence, and, turning to the dress in question,
+remarked,--
+
+"Yes, this dress _must_ be one of the twelve that I shall order to take
+with me to Maryland. Twelve will suffice for one week. I hear Mr.
+Meredith's estate could bear comparison with our European country
+residences; the toilets of his guests should do honor to their host."
+She went on, addressing herself to Gaston. "There are but thirty guests
+invited, and I hear that great indignation is felt by _certain persons_
+who are not included in the number."
+
+Madame de Fleury's shaft was directed towards Mrs. Gilmer, who was
+writhing with vexation, at not forming one of the select party.
+
+Mrs. Gilmer heard, and bit her lips with suppressed rage.
+
+"Twelve dresses!" cried Lord Linden. "Twelve new dresses for seven
+days?"
+
+"Quite a moderate supply; but I could not possibly get through the week
+with less," answered Madame de Fleury, serenely. "You are invited of
+course?"
+
+Lord Linden replied in the affirmative.
+
+"And you, M. de Bois?" inquired the marchioness innocently, though she
+was quite aware that he would repeat his lordship's answer, for she had
+been consulted in regard to the guests whom it would gratify her to
+meet.
+
+Mrs. Gilmer, who was choking with vexation, sought revenge in one of
+those petty manoeuvres which women of the world thoroughly understand.
+She paused, in the most natural manner, before the hat which she had
+just extolled, and which she had been informed was designed for Madame
+de Fleury, and said aloud,--
+
+"What a pretty bonnet! Admirably suited to hide the defects of an
+uncertain complexion, and hair of no color, neither light nor dark. It
+is not too gay or coquettish either; just the thing for a woman of
+thirty, who has begun to fade."
+
+"I beg pardon, madame, it is intended for Madame de Fleury," answered
+Victorine, reprovingly, and not immediately comprehending the
+intentional spite of Mrs. Gilmer's remark.
+
+"Indeed!" returned the latter, still speaking as though she had no
+suspicion of the presence of the marchioness; "will it not be rather
+_young_ for her? It seems to me that these colors are a _little too
+bright_ for a person of _her age_."
+
+"Madame de Fleury is present, and may overhear you," whispered
+Victorine, warningly.
+
+"Ah, indeed! I did not perceive her; much obliged to you for telling me,
+for she conceals her age so well that I would not mortify her by letting
+her suppose that I am aware of her advanced years," continued the
+malicious little lady in a very audible tone.
+
+Madame de Fleury was, in reality, but twenty-five, and particularly
+sensitive on the subject of her age, or rather of her youth. She
+expected to be taken for twenty-two at the most, and had been furious
+when Mrs. Gilmer talked of her bonnet as suitable to a person of thirty;
+but when her spiteful rival had the audacity to suggest that Madame de
+Fleury had even passed that decisive period, she could scarcely contain
+her rage. By a sudden impulse she turned and faced the speaker. Both
+ladies made a profound courtesy, with countenances expressive of mortal
+hatred.
+
+Lord Linden could not help whispering to Gaston, "Feminine belligerents!
+Those courtesies were exchanged after the manner that men exchange
+blows. It is very strange," he continued, looking about. "I do not see
+my fair incognita, though she certainly entered here. I fancy the
+marchioness intends to depart; I prefer to linger awhile. There are
+several _salons_ yonder; I will steal off quietly and take refuge where
+I can watch who passes."
+
+Lord Linden had hardly disappeared before the marchioness remarked to
+Victorine, "You said my dress would be ready in an hour, Mademoiselle
+Victorine? I will take a short drive and return in that time. Let
+Mademoiselle Melanie know that I particularly wish to have an interview
+with her. I must see her about that unfinished dress which certainly
+shall not go to New Orleans."
+
+She courtesied once more very profoundly to Mrs. Gilmer and departed,
+quite forgetting Lord Linden, who was well pleased not to be missed.
+
+"Mademoiselle Melanie will not be so unjust as to let Madame de Fleury
+have that dress after refusing it to me," observed Mrs. Gilmer tartly.
+"If she is, I _never more_"--
+
+The threat was nipped in the bud, for she well knew no one could replace
+the sovereign modiste, and that the loss of Mrs. Gilmer's custom would
+not in the least affect Mademoiselle Melanie, who daily refused a crowd
+of applicants.
+
+Recovering herself, the banker's wife concluded by saying, "Madame de
+Fleury is to return in an hour; very well; I will call somewhat later to
+learn Mademoiselle Melanie's decision. If the dress is not mine it
+certainly must not be Madame de Fleury's. We shall see if Mademoiselle
+Melanie's boasted justice is found wanting, or if she acts up to her
+professions."
+
+M. de Bois conducted Mrs. Gilmer to her carriage, and returned to the
+_salon_; for he had an especial reason for desiring to see Madeleine;
+but, having called during the hours which she scrupulously devoted to
+her vocation, he did not feel at liberty to intrude in her private
+apartments.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+THE MESSAGE.
+
+
+Shortly after M. de Bois returned to the exhibition _salons_, Madeleine
+entered the workroom. Gaston could see her moving about among the young
+girls, distributing sketches, making smiling comments upon the
+occupation of this one and that; pointing out defects or praising
+execution. Every face seemed to brighten when it was turned toward her,
+and every countenance wore an unmistakable expression of affection. We
+might, perhaps, except that of Mademoiselle Victorine, whose high
+opinion of her own abilities made her somewhat jealous of Madeleine's
+supremacy. Yet, even she experienced an involuntary reverence for the
+head of the establishment, though golden dreams of some day leaping into
+her place were ever floating through the Frenchwoman's plotting brain.
+
+Beside the table where Ruth was painting, Madeleine made the longest
+pause. She seemed disposed to converse with her young favorite; and Ruth
+smiled so gratefully that M. de Bois was half reconciled to the delay,
+though he had an important reason for wishing to exchange a few words
+with Madeleine as soon as possible. The interval before she passed out
+of the room to return to her boudoir appeared sufficiently tedious.
+Gaston followed her and said,--
+
+"Will you grant me a few moments, or are you very busy this morning?"
+
+"Busy always," replied Madeleine, extending her hand to welcome him;
+"but seldom _too_ busy to lack time for my best friend. Will you come to
+my own little sanctum?"
+
+The room to which Gaston followed her offered a striking contrast, in
+point of furniture, to those which they had just left. Madeleine's
+boudoir, though it had an air of inviting comfort, was adorned with
+almost rigid simplicity. The only approach to luxury was a tiny
+conservatory, she had caused to be built, rendered visible by glass
+doors.
+
+Madeleine took her seat before a small rosewood table, and with a pencil
+in her hand, and a piece of drawing-paper before her, said, "You will
+not mind my sketching as we talk. I have an idea floating through my
+head, and I want to throw it off on paper; I can listen and answer, just
+as well, with my fingers occupied."
+
+Well might Gaston contemplate her in silent and wondering admiration.
+Neither her countenance nor her manner betrayed any trace of the
+suffering she must have endured on the day previous. She seemed to have
+completely banished its recollection from her thoughts. M. de Bois was
+fearful of touching upon the subject, it seemed so wholly to have
+vanished from her mind; yet his errand compelled him.
+
+"What courage, what perseverance you possess, Mademoiselle Madeleine! It
+is incredible,--inexplicable," he said, at last, as he watched the
+delicate fingers moving over the paper.
+
+"There you err," answered Madeleine, brightly. "It is, at least, very
+_explicable_, for it is in working that I find my strength, my
+inspiration, my consolation! It was _work, incessant work_, which
+sustained me when I determined to take a step from which my weaker,
+frailer part shrank. A step which utter wretchedness first suggested to
+me; which seemed terribly galling, oppressively revolting; which I
+ventured upon with inconceivable pain. Yet, as you have seen, I was
+enabled, in time, to look upon that step with resignation; I afterwards
+contemplated it with pride; I now regard it with positive pleasure. This
+could never have been had I not resolved to resist all temptation to
+brood over grief, and turned to work as a refuge from sorrow."
+
+"And it is really true, then, that you, a lady of noble birth, dropping
+from so high a sphere into one not merely humble, but laborious, find
+your vocation a pleasure at last."
+
+"It is most true," said Madeleine lifting her beautiful eyes, with such
+a radiant expression that the genuineness of her reply could not be
+doubted. "When one has, for years, lived upon the bare suffrage of
+others, no matter how dear,--when one has had no home except that which
+was granted through courtesy, compassion, charity,--you cannot conceive
+how delicious it is to dream of independence, of a home of one's own!
+And this sweet dream has become reality to me more speedily and more
+surely than my most sanguine hopes dared to anticipate. Think, in what a
+rapid, an almost miraculous manner my undertaking has prospered; by what
+magic my former life (that of an aristocratic lady who employed herself
+a little, but without decided results) has been exchanged for the
+delights of a life of active use, bringing forth golden fruition! In a
+word, how suddenly my poverty has been turned to wealth,--at all events,
+to the certain promise of opulence. And the most delightful sense of all
+is the internal satisfaction of knowing that I have done this _myself_,
+unaided; save, indeed, by the kindness, the counsel, the invisible
+protection of such a friend as you are, and such a friend as Mr. Hilson
+has proved."
+
+"We have done nothing--but watch and admire."
+
+"Nothing?" answered Madeleine, with gentle reproach. "Who helped me
+carry out all my projects? When a man's hand was needed, who stretched
+out his? but always with such prudence and delicacy that I could not be
+compromised. How helpless I should have been in Paris without you! And
+how many mistakes might I not have committed in America without Mr.
+Hilson's aid! Little did he think, when he dined at the Chateau de
+Gramont, with a noble family, and asked one of its members to promise
+that if she ever visited America she would apprise him of her presence
+there,--little could he imagine how soon she would make a home in his
+native land, and of what inestimable aid his friendship would be to
+her."
+
+"He has been truly serviceable," answered Gaston. "His advice was always
+good, and in nothing better than in deciding you to take this house,
+which you, at first thought too magnificent; he was wise, also, in
+persuading you to furnish it so luxuriously. He comprehended, better
+than you or I did, that a certain amount of pomp and show would make a
+desirable impression upon the inhabitants even of a republican country."
+
+"Yes, I have cause to thank him for that counsel. And when I reflect
+that this house, which I at first thought too splendid, will soon become
+my own, I can hardly believe my good fortune. To-day, or to-morrow, I am
+to make the last payment of ten thousand dollars, and the house will be
+mine, clear of all incumbrance. I have the money ready, and probably
+before night it will be paid. This very morning, when I returned home,
+as I entered the door, I could not but pause suddenly, and say to
+myself, 'Is this no dream? Have I a home of my own, at last? Will this
+elegant mansion to-day become mine, and through the toil of'"--
+
+"'Fairy fingers,'" interrupted Gaston.
+
+"Something magical, I am inclined to admit," returned Madeleine, gayly.
+"But had it not been for the earnest counsels of Mr. Hilson, I should
+never have felt justified in living in my present style; he convinced me
+that the money I expended in surrounding myself with all the elegances
+of life was laid out at interest; and I suppose he is right; these
+elegances have perhaps drawn the rich to my door."
+
+"What was it that drew the poor?" asked Gaston. "You have tried to keep
+your charities as secret from me as your noble birth was kept from
+others, but accident has made me acquainted with more than you are
+aware. I know with what liberal hands you have succored the needy."
+
+"Those who have endured the sharp sting of poverty themselves may well
+feel for the poor," replied Madeleine. "And yet, I do little enough for
+my poor human sisters and brothers; but we are gossiping very idly. Did
+you not say that you particularly wished to speak to me? It was not
+simply to make these sage reflections, was it?"
+
+"No; but I shrank from touching upon the subject while you seemed so
+serene and happy. I could not bear to recall the painful interview with
+your family yesterday, when they--they--they"--
+
+"When they cast me off!--spurned me as one degraded! Do not fear to
+speak out. My aunt is implacable,--I might have known that she would
+be,--and Count Tristan is the same."
+
+"What matter? You have no need of their affection. And yet, the day will
+come when they will all seek you, and be proud and glad to claim you. I
+say it, and I feel it!"
+
+Madeleine shook her head.
+
+"And they did not _all_ throw you off. Was not Mademoiselle Bertha just
+what she always is? And was not Maurice,--though he appeared to be so
+completely overwhelmed that he could not command his voice,--was he not
+the same as ever?"
+
+"_Was_ he the same, think you?" asked Madeleine, eagerly.
+
+"Yes, I am sure of it; and I come here to-day as his messenger,--or,
+rather, as the herald of his coming."
+
+Madeleine trembled, in spite of herself. The thought of beholding
+Maurice once more, of conversing with him, of listening to him, affected
+her too strongly for her to be able even to _assume_ indifference.
+
+M. de Bois regarded her with an air of exultation.
+
+"I have judged you rightly, then, and you are unchanged. Maurice is not
+less dear to you than"--
+
+Madeleine's hand, appealingly lifted, checked him.
+
+For a few moments she remained silent. When her tranquillity was
+somewhat restored, she said slowly, but in an altered tone,--
+
+"You are the messenger of Maurice; what did he request you to say to
+me."
+
+"He commissioned me to let you know that he earnestly desired an
+interview with you, at once,--and alone,--free from interruption. He
+entreats you to receive him to-day. I promised, as soon as I could make
+known to you his petition, that I would return to him with your
+answer;--he awaits it impatiently. What answer shall I give him?"
+
+"He may come," answered Madeleine, in a tone of suppressed emotion.
+
+"I will tell him that he may be here in an hour?" said Gaston
+interrogatively, for he saw the mighty struggle Madeleine was making to
+control herself, and thoughtfully desired to give her some little time
+for preparation.
+
+Madeleine bowed her head in acquiescence.
+
+Gaston had too much delicacy to prolong the conversation. He bade her
+adieu and at once sought Maurice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+MEETING OF LOVERS.
+
+
+M. de Bois lost no time in communicating to Maurice the result of his
+visit. He found the young viscount awaiting him with torturing
+impatience. Gaston had scarcely said that Madeleine would receive her
+cousin in an hour, when Maurice, without heeding the last words, caught
+up his hat, convulsively grasped his friend's hand, and, without
+uttering a syllable, hurried forth.
+
+He was acquainted with Madeleine's residence,--he had sought it out the
+night previous,--and thither he now hastened. He bounded up the street
+door-steps, but paused a moment as his hand touched the bell. Was he
+again about to look upon that face which he had sought with such
+fruitless, but frenzied ardor? He thought of those days when all
+creation became a blank because that heaven-lit countenance no longer
+shone upon him. His brain and heart throbbed and beat at those
+tumultuous recollections until both seemed mingled in one wild motion.
+
+He comprehended Madeleine's character so well that he knew he should
+find her tranquil and self-possessed; and was he about to enter her
+presence as voiceless and unmanned as during their brief rencontre the
+day previous?
+
+He turned to descend the steps in the hope of collecting his scattered
+faculties, by walking awhile, but the very thought of delaying, even for
+a few moments, an interview for which he had so long pined caused him
+too sharp anguish for endurance; he seized the bell, and rang with as
+sudden an impulse as though he feared the mansion before which he stood
+would vanish away, and he would awake from one of the old dreams by
+which he had been haunted.
+
+The door opened and he was at once conducted to Madeleine's boudoir.
+
+Madeleine was still sitting before the little table where Gaston de Bois
+had left her. The sketch she had commenced lay before her, and the
+pencil beside it; but though she had not moved from her seat, the
+drawing had not received an additional touch.
+
+As Maurice entered she rose, and advanced toward him, stretching out
+both her hands. Closely clasping those extended hands, he gazed upon her
+with an expression of rapture. For a moment, the large, clear windows of
+her soul opened as naturally and frankly as ever; but his look was so
+full of unutterable tenderness that over her betraying eyes the lids
+dropped suddenly, and her face crimsoned, it might be with happiness
+which she felt bound to conceal.
+
+Madeleine was the first to speak; but the only words she murmured were,
+"Maurice!--my dear cousin!"
+
+How her accents thrilled him! How they brought back the time when that
+voice, which made all the music of his existence, was suddenly hushed,
+and awful silence took its place, leaving the memory of departed tones
+ever sounding in his aching, longing ears!
+
+"Madeleine!--have I found you at last? Oh, how long we have been lost to
+each other!"
+
+"_You_ have never been lost to _me_," answered Madeleine involuntarily;
+but the words were hardly spoken when she repented them.
+
+"I know it; M. de Bois kept you informed of my movements. But, ah,
+Madeleine, how could you be aware of my anguish, and so cruelly refuse a
+sign by which I might learn that you were near me?"
+
+"I had no alternative. I could not have carried out the project I had
+formed, and which"--Madeleine paused, and looked around her somewhat
+proudly, then added, "and which you now see crowned with success, if I
+had run the risk of your tracing me. You would have opposed my
+undertaking,--do you not feel that you would? Answer that question,
+before you reproach me."
+
+"Yes, you are right, Madeleine; I fear I should have opposed your
+enterprise. And yet, believe me, I honor it,--I honor you all the more
+on account of that very undertaking. Thank Heaven, I have lived long
+enough in this land, where men (and women too) have sufficient courage
+to use their lives, and senseless idlers are the exceptions; to realize
+that man's work and woman's work are alike glorious; that labor is
+dignified by the hand that toils; and that you, Madeleine, the daughter
+of a duke,--you, the duchess-mantua-maker, have reached a higher
+altitude through that very labor than your birth could ever command."
+
+"Maurice,--my cousin, my dear, dear cousin!--these words compensate me
+for all my trials and struggles. I hardly dared to dream that I should
+hear them for your lips. Ah, to-day,--to-day when I am about to
+accomplish one of the ends for which I have most earnestly
+toiled,--to-day when I shall become full possessor of this mansion,
+henceforth a home of my own,--this day will ever be full of precious
+memories to me; it will be written upon my book of life moistened with
+the sweetest tears I ever shed,--tears of gratitude and joy."
+
+"You are to purchase this magnificent mansion? Is it possible?" asked
+Maurice, for the first time looking around him. "How can you have
+achieved this, Madeleine? You have had some friend who aided you,
+and"--he paused abruptly.
+
+"I _have_ had friends, Maurice, warm and devoted friends," answered
+Madeleine, simply.
+
+"But," he resumed, and hesitated, "how--how has all this been brought
+about? Ah, Madeleine, I have not forgotten, I cannot forget the sad
+revelation you made to me in Brittany. He whom you love,--it is
+_he_,--_he_ who has protected you, who has enjoyed the exquisite
+happiness of aiding you by his advice, and by his own means perhaps"--
+
+Maurice uttered these words excitedly and almost in a tone of reproach.
+
+"No, Maurice," returned Madeleine, growing ghastly pale, and speaking
+with an effort which gave her voice a hollow, unnatural sound. "He whom
+I love has never aided me,--I have received no assistance from him,--I
+have given him no right to offer any."
+
+"He whom you love!" repeated Maurice with culminating anguish. "Then you
+love him,--you _do_ love him still? Answer me, Madeleine. Do not torture
+me by suspense! Answer me,--you love him still?"
+
+"_As ever!_" replied Madeleine, and an irrepressible blush chased the
+ashy whiteness of her cheeks.
+
+"And he is _here_,--here in America,--here in Washington?" asked
+Maurice.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And you see him? You have seen him perhaps this very day?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And he loves you,--loves you as much as ever?"
+
+Madeleine silently bowed her head, but the radiant light that overspread
+her countenance answered more unmistakably than the affirmative action.
+
+"Ah, Madeleine, can you think, can you believe that his love equals
+mine? You do not answer; speak, I implore you! _Do_ you believe that
+_he_ has loved you as _I_ love you?"
+
+Madeleine felt impelled to reply because she deemed it best for Maurice
+to be confirmed in his error. In a low, tremulous tone, and with her
+eyes swimming in the soft lustre of a half-formed tear, she murmured,
+"Yes."
+
+"No! no! It cannot be!" burst forth Maurice. "No woman was ever loved
+_twice_ with such absorbing devotion. You cannot be to him what you are
+to me! You cannot have saved him from all the perils from which you have
+saved me! Ah, Madeleine, since you have been selected to fill the place
+of a guardian angel to me, why, why was my love rejected? Why did
+another rob me of your heart? Why were you willing to unite your fate to
+his and not to mine?"
+
+"Maurice," said Madeleine, regaining some degree of composure, "I shall
+never forget the noble offer you made me when I was a desolate outcast;
+I shall never forget the joy it gave me,--the gratitude it caused
+me,--the good it did me, at the very moment when I was forced, _ay
+forced_ to reject that offer. But had there been no other barrier could
+I have consented to become a burden to you? I,--poor and
+friendless,--_could_ I have consented to draw down the anger of your
+family upon you? _Could_ I have consented to separate you from them?--to
+make a lasting feud between you? Say, Maurice, would you have had me do
+this?"
+
+"I would have had you leave me still a hope upon which I could have
+existed, until I had fitted myself to enter an honorable profession;
+until I had a prospect of earning an independence through that
+profession; until I had the right to say to you (as I now might, were
+you but mine in heart), Madeleine, I have waited patiently, and toiled
+earnestly,--will you share my narrow means, my almost poverty? Will you
+be my wife? We might have been exiles, so to speak, for we should
+perhaps have been cast off by our own kindred, and might never have
+returned to our native land; but your presence would have made this new
+country,--this young Hercules of lands,--this land full of sinews, bones
+and muscle, not yet clothed with rounded symmetry of outward form, but
+fresh and strong and teeming with promise, a true home to us. Its vast,
+ever-growing mind would have given new expansion to our own mental
+faculties. We should have grown spiritually, and reached nobler heights
+together. If we had griefs to endure, grief itself would have been sweet
+to me if we drank it from the same cup. All this might have been,
+Madeleine, if you had loved me as I love you."
+
+Madeleine passed her hand over her eyes as if to shut out some picture
+of blinding brightness conjured before them by his words; and, looking
+up with forced serenity, said,--
+
+"Maurice, though I cannot be your wife, do you refuse to let me take the
+place of a sister?--a sister who loves you with the most tender
+affection,--who will rejoice in your joy and share your sorrow, and look
+upon her own life as brighter if she brightens yours? Since it has been
+the will of Heaven that we should meet again before the time I proposed
+arrived, there is no need that we should become strangers to each other.
+Because I cannot be _all_ that you desire, you will not reject such
+affection as I _can_ offer you?"
+
+"Reject it? No, _rejection_ has only emanated from your side," he
+continued bitterly. "I was and am unworthy of your affection, your
+confidence; but what you will grant I will thankfully receive, too poor
+not to feel enriched even by your coldest regard."
+
+"Will you prove that to me, Maurice?"
+
+"Yes; how can I do so?"
+
+"By promising that you will never have a sorrow which you do not confide
+to me; by promising that you will never doubt my ready sympathy; more
+yet,--by giving me an invaluable privilege,--one which will make me
+proud indeed. Do not be offended, Maurice; but--but--should you ever
+need means to carry out any enterprise (and you know, in this land, how
+many offer themselves), I would claim the privilege of being your
+banker, and joining in your undertaking as freely as if I were indeed
+your sister."
+
+"You, Madeleine? Can you imagine that I could force myself to consent to
+this? You are already rich then?"
+
+"I am becoming rich,--I have laid the foundation of wealth. But tell me
+that you do not reject my sisterly regard, my devotion"--
+
+"Would he whom you love permit this devotion?"
+
+"Yes," answered Madeleine, smiling gravely.
+
+"It would not render him wretched? It would not exasperate him?"
+questioned Maurice.
+
+"No."
+
+"He is not jealous, then?"
+
+"Yes, I fear he is,--very jealous; but not of _you_."
+
+"And yet, he has cause," returned Maurice, with violence which he could
+not control; "more cause than I trust he has of being jealous of any
+other man; and there may be, _must_ be other men who aspire to love you.
+Your position, Madeleine, must expose you, at times, to impertinence;
+you must need protection."
+
+"I have a talisman within which protects me ever," answered Madeleine.
+
+"Ah, I know,--the love you bear _him_, my rival! Let us not speak of
+him. I cannot endure it; let us ever banish him from our conversation."
+
+"I did not mean to make you suffer," said Madeleine, soothingly.
+
+Before he could reply, Victorine entered with a mysterious air. Her
+countenance intimated that she had a matter of the utmost importance
+upon her mind.
+
+Habituated to some of the little, pleasant, and _supposed to be_
+harmless customs of her own country, she could not comprehend that
+Mademoiselle Melanie appeared to have no lovers, that she entertained no
+gentleman in particular. M. de Bois was so openly her _friend_ that
+mystery never attached itself to his visits. Mr. Hilson was a frequent
+visitor, but he was a married man, whose wife and daughters were among
+the most zealous of Mademoiselle Melanie's patrons. Victorine was always
+on the _qui vive_ for the accession of a lover, as a necessary appendage
+to one in Mademoiselle Melanie's position; and, at this moment, she felt
+as though she had a clew to some intrigue.
+
+Instead of speaking in an audible tone, she approached Madeleine, and
+glancing dubiously at Maurice, said, in a whisper, "Mademoiselle, I have
+something to communicate."
+
+"What is it?" asked Madeleine, without the slightest embarrassment.
+
+"A gentleman desires to see Mademoiselle Melanie immediately, and _in
+private_," whispered Victorine. "He particularly said _in private_, and,
+evidently he is very desirous of not being seen. He was quite confused
+when that stupid valet ushered him into the exhibition-rooms; but
+fortunately, I came to his assistance. He was so anxious to escape
+observation that he _would_ follow me downstairs; I therefore ushered
+him into Mademoiselle's private drawing-room."
+
+"Did you not ask his name?" inquired Madeleine, quietly.
+
+"He would not give his name, mademoiselle. He said I must deliver you
+this note when no one was by, or slip it in your hand unperceived."
+
+She spoke in a whisper, and gave the note with her back turned to
+Maurice, probably supposing that he was not aware of its delivery.
+Madeleine broke the seal quite openly. At the first line, however, she
+changed color, and was visibly disturbed. Victorine, who was watching
+her closely, exulted in secret. Maurice perceived Madeleine's agitation
+with surprise and pain. A suspicion that the letter was from his rival
+could not be escaped.
+
+"What is it?" he asked, impulsively.
+
+"I cannot tell you," replied Madeleine, hastily refolding the letter.
+
+"Can you not tell me from whom this letter comes?"
+
+"No--no!" she replied with unusual vehemence.
+
+"Alas! I know too well," returned Maurice sadly. "But why should you be
+agitated and troubled by what he says? What right has he to give you
+pain?"
+
+"You must leave me--leave me at once!" cried Madeleine, nervously.
+
+Victorine was enchanted; the plot thickened! Here was a mystery, and she
+held the clew to it! It was very plain that Mademoiselle Melanie did not
+wish these two gentlemen to meet.
+
+"Victorine, you will conduct monsieur"--said Madeleine. "I do not wish
+him to leave by the front entrance; you will conduct him through the
+garden."
+
+There was a private entrance into the street through the large garden at
+the back of the house; but this was the first time that Victorine had
+ever received an order to show any visitor out by that way, and she felt
+she was beginning to be admitted to Mademoiselle Melanie's
+confidence,--an honor for which she had long sighed.
+
+Maurice was about to remonstrate, but Madeleine said to him,
+imploringly, "Can you not trust me? Will you not consent to my wishes,
+and trust to their being explained some future day?"
+
+Maurice, though tormented by the keenest pangs of jealousy, could not
+resist this appeal.
+
+"I trust you ever, Madeleine," he replied, taking up his hat. "When may
+I see you again?"
+
+"When you choose; you are always welcome; but go now. Show monsieur
+_through the garden_, Victorine."
+
+Victorine smiled a mysterious assent. Maurice followed her out of the
+room, but Madeleine's intention was unexpectedly frustrated.
+
+The visitor whom Victorine had ushered into the drawing-room had
+followed her unnoticed to the small entry which led into Madeleine's
+boudoir. The forewoman and Maurice had only taken a few steps when they
+encountered him.
+
+Maurice exclaimed in astonishment, "Good heavens, my father!"
+
+"You here, Maurice," returned the count in a severe tone.
+
+"Are you not here, my father?"
+
+"That is different," answered the count, hiding his annoyance beneath a
+frigid air. "You heard what your grandmother said. She would be
+indignant if she knew of this visit, and you must be aware that it does
+not meet with _my_ approval."
+
+"Have I reason to think so when I find you here also?" replied Maurice,
+in a manly tone.
+
+"I come as the head of the family, and to talk upon a family matter of
+great importance. I do not, however, wish that my visit here should be
+known to any one. You understand me,--it is not to be mentioned."
+
+"Be assured I shall not mention it," said Maurice, bowing and moving
+onward.
+
+As the gentlemen had met, Victorine concluded there was now no need of
+showing the way through the garden entrance. She opened the door of the
+boudoir to admit Count Tristan, and then led the way to the entrance
+from the street. Maurice did not comprehend why Madeleine's orders were
+disregarded; for he never suspected that his father was the writer of
+the note.
+
+At the sound of a footstep on the stair, the viscount raised his head,
+and caught sight of a gentleman who had commenced descending, but
+suddenly turned back, as though he also did not wish to be seen. He
+could not, however, disappear before Maurice had recognized Lord Linden.
+
+Why should Lord Linden have so rapidly retreated when he thought he
+might be seen? Could this languid, _blase_ nobleman be the man Madeleine
+loved? Could she have been acquainted with him in France? When could
+their acquaintance have commenced? Why had she never mentioned him? It
+was very singular.
+
+Maurice left the house he had entered with such joyous sensations, sadly
+and slowly. Madeleine was found at last, yet Madeleine was again lost to
+him!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+COUNT TRISTAN'S POLICY.
+
+
+When Count Tristan was ushered into Madeleine's presence, he was
+received, not perhaps with warmth, but with marked courtesy. Nothing in
+her greeting betrayed that his past conduct was remembered, and yet
+nothing in her manner indicated that their relationship was unforgotten.
+Her demeanor was simply that which would have been natural and
+appropriate in receiving, beneath her own roof, one who was almost a
+stranger.
+
+The count had been completely disconcerted by the unexpected meeting
+with his son; his wily smoothness was too much ruffled for him to couch
+his first words in polite language; he could not forbear saying,--
+
+"I entertained the hope that my visit would be private; it is very
+unfortunate that I encountered Maurice; it will give him cause to think
+that I am opposed to his grandmother's course." He smoothed over this
+slip of the tongue by adding, "And, certainly, so I am! I disapprove of
+her excessive rigor; her conduct toward you does not meet with my full
+sanction."
+
+It was the unintentional expression of Madeleine's countenance, perhaps,
+which made Count Tristan remember that his own conduct had strongly
+resembled that of his mother. But his auditor spoke no word; she was too
+kind to utter her thoughts, and too frank to say what she did not think.
+
+The count went on,--
+
+"I could not yield to my strong impulse yesterday, and defend you; it
+would not have done; my mother would only have been exasperated. I was
+forced apparently to agree with her. The sacred title of 'mother,'
+which is never to be forgotten, compelled me to yield her this
+respect,--a respect due alike to her years and to her position. But, now
+that we are alone, I may tell you how pained, how grieved I was at the
+occurrences of yesterday."
+
+"I no longer think of them," replied Madeleine.
+
+"As I said," continued the count, "when you left us so mysteriously in
+Brittany, however troubled we might have been at your sudden step,
+however anxious about your welfare, it was useless to be indignant,
+since you thought your course the right one, and you were ever
+conscientiousness personified; besides it should always be taken into
+consideration that, come what might, you are still our relation; the
+ties of blood are indissoluble. I said to my mother, 'It can never be
+forgotten that Madeleine is your niece.'"
+
+"I would have had her forget it," replied Madeleine. "I preserved my
+incognita, and kept at a distance from you all that you might not be
+wounded by the remembrance."
+
+"But be sure, Madeleine, that I, for one, cannot forget our
+relationship, nor cease to treat you as my niece."
+
+Madeleine could not but be touched by this unexpected declaration. She
+answered, gratefully, "It is more than I ask, yet I thank you."
+
+"Yes," returned the count, "and to prove to you how far I am from
+looking down upon you,--how much I honor your position, and how highly I
+esteem you,--how thoroughly I comprehend your character, and the
+readiness with which you always serve others,--I come here to-day to ask
+a favor at your hands."
+
+"Is it possible?" exclaimed Madeleine, delightedly. "You make me truly
+happy. Can I, indeed, serve you? You could scarcely have spoken words
+that had more power to gladden me."
+
+"That is precisely what I imagined," answered the count, complacently.
+"Now let me explain the matter. You have often heard me speak of the
+property left to Maurice by his uncle. It is now almost our sole
+possession. Its value depends upon the railroad which may or may not run
+through that portion of the country. A committee of nine persons has
+been selected to decide whether this road shall run to the right or
+left. If they choose the road to the right, the property of Maurice will
+not be benefited, and--and--and--I cannot enter into particulars,
+but--but--it is almost valueless. If they choose the left road, the
+value of the estate will be so much increased that it will yield
+us,--that is, will yield my son something very handsome. Of this
+committee, Mr. Hilson and Mr. Meredith will vote for the left road, and,
+through the influence of Madame de Fleury, for which I am indebted to
+you, M. de Fleury's banker, Mr. Gobert, will also vote for the left:
+that secures us three votes."
+
+"How glad I am that I was able to accomplish something to serve you!"
+said Madeleine.
+
+"There is much more, I trust, that you will be able to accomplish. The
+votes of Mr. Gilmer and Mr. Rutledge must be gained,--the only two which
+it seems possible to obtain; for the other gentlemen are inflexible in
+their decision. Mrs. Gilmer is one of your customers. I hear that she
+raves about you; if that is the case, you can do anything with her, and
+_she_ will manage her _husband_. Have you no mode of winning her over to
+our side?"
+
+Madeleine pondered a moment, then answered gayly,--
+
+"Yes, I have at my command one method that is certain,--_perfectly
+certain_. Mrs. Gilmer is very desirous of receiving an invitation to
+Madame de Fleury's ball. The marchioness has left her out on purpose.
+Mrs. Gilmer has made numerous efforts, but, thus far, unsuccessful ones,
+to obtain this invitation; if I could secure it for her she would gladly
+repay me by inducing her husband to vote as you desire."
+
+"Bravo! Bravo! we shall succeed; for you can surely obtain the
+invitation. Madame de Fleury herself said that she was enchanted at the
+opportunity of obliging you,--that she could not do too much to show her
+great consideration."
+
+"Yes; but you can scarcely comprehend the difficulty of persuading her
+to consent to invite Mrs. Gilmer. She mortally detests her, and I could
+offer few petitions which she would be less likely to grant. Still, I
+will use strong arguments,--powerful inducements. I will endeavor to
+think of some temptation which she cannot resist."
+
+"That is just what I believed you would do, my dear Madeleine," said the
+count, taking her hand.
+
+Madeleine withdrew it, though not too abruptly. The contact gave her,
+magnetically, as it were, a painful impression.
+
+"But how," she asked, "is Mr. Rutledge to be reached?"
+
+"Through you,--through _you_ again, my kind, good Madeleine," answered
+the count, hilariously.
+
+"Through _me_? I do not know him except by name. He is a bachelor;
+therefore there is no wife who can be induced to become a mediator."
+
+"No, there is no wife, to be sure, but there is a lady-love whom he
+hopes to make his wife, and she, also, is one of your patrons; it is the
+sister of Lord Linden; you might solicit her, or you might obtain her
+influence through his lordship."
+
+"Through his lordship? That is not possible," replied Madeleine,
+decisively.
+
+"Surely it may be," remarked the count, "since you are acquainted with
+him, and I have faith in your powers of persuasion."
+
+Madeleine looked very much astonished as she answered, "What has made
+you imagine that I have any acquaintance with Lord Linden?"
+
+"I saw him upstairs in one of your _salons_, sitting in a comfortable
+arm-chair, as though he were very much at home, reading a book."
+
+Madeleine looked confounded.
+
+"Lord Linden?"
+
+"Yes; you will therefore admit that it was quite natural for me to
+suppose that he had the _entree_ here?"
+
+"I did not know that he was in the house!" returned Madeleine,
+ingenuously. "He has never been here before to my knowledge. I once was
+thrown in contact with him in travelling from New York to Washington.
+The cars met with an accident and he broke his arm; I, being unhurt, was
+of some little assistance; but I have never seen him since."
+
+"Then it is a most fortunate chance," resumed Count Tristan, "that
+brings him here. Through him you can influence his sister,--through her
+the vote of Mr. Rutledge will be secured, and these two votes gained;
+the road to the left will be chosen, and for this I shall be wholly your
+debtor. Truly, Madeleine, you are the fairy Maurice used to call you in
+old times; for you have the power, the gift of working wonders, and you
+always _had_!"
+
+"Cousin Tristan,"--began Madeleine, seriously, then paused; "do you
+allow me still to call you so?"
+
+"Yes,--yes, undoubtedly; and especially when we are alone. Call me
+_cousin_, certainly; but what did you wish to say?"
+
+"You must find some other advocate as far as Mr. Rutledge is concerned.
+I fear I have not sufficient influence with Lady Augusta Linden to make
+this request, or to induce her to grant it, or to prevent her thinking
+the petition itself an impertinence."
+
+"That does not matter; you can manage the affair through Lord Linden,
+and the opportunity presents itself this very moment, since he is
+here,--here under your own roof."
+
+"I cannot see him,--I particularly desire not to see him; there are
+reasons which must prevent my asking any favor at his hands. It is
+totally out of my power to do what you desire."
+
+"But it is of the greatest importance, Madeleine; this opportunity must
+not be thrown away. What would Maurice think if he believed that you
+refused to serve him at such a critical moment?"
+
+"Maurice, if he knew all which I could tell him, would be the first to
+forbid my appealing to Lord Linden. I pray you to seek some other means
+of influencing Mr. Rutledge; he cannot be reached through me."
+
+"I have no other!" cried the count, with desperate energy. "My sole
+dependence is upon you. And, Madeleine, this is not the mere question of
+gain: more than I dare confide to you depends upon the decision of that
+committee."
+
+Madeleine made no response, but her manner plainly manifested that she
+was not prepared to retract what she had said.
+
+"Madeleine," continued the count, with ill-disguised anger, and feeling
+that he had no alternative but to make a confession which humbled him to
+the dust, "this property was held in trust by me; my difficulties, my
+embarrassments, have been overwhelming: they have brought me to the
+verge of absolute ruin. A man may be placed in positions where he is
+forced into actions from which he would otherwise shrink; this was my
+case. I obtained from Maurice a power of attorney which he thinks I have
+never used,--but--but--impelled by my troubles, and without his
+knowledge, I have been induced,--women cannot understand business
+matters; it was a course that could not be avoided,--I have been forced
+to compromise the interest of Maurice; I have been compelled to mortgage
+his estate so heavily that it is valueless unless this road augments its
+present worth. Do you not see what is at stake? Will you not exert
+yourself to save me, to save Maurice from the mortification of knowing
+that I have committed an action which might be misconstrued,--which
+might be condemned,--might be considered,"--the count paused, overcome
+with shame.
+
+Madeleine hesitated; for the sake of Maurice she could endure to be
+misunderstood,--she could submit to place herself in a position which
+humbled and compromised her.
+
+The count saw that her resolution was shaken, and he did not lose his
+advantage.
+
+"Remember that Maurice is beginning life; he has imbibed the sanguine
+spirit of the land in which he has lately lived. What a sudden and
+crushing blow to him will be the revelation that awaits him! Can _you_
+bear to contemplate its effect? _I_ cannot. Answer, Madeleine; he has
+suffered much, much for _your_ sake: will you, will you make him suffer
+more?"
+
+"No!" answered Madeleine, firmly. "Come what may, I will see Lord
+Linden, and obtain his influence with his sister _if I can_."
+
+"There spoke the Madeleine of other days!"
+
+Madeleine interrupted him: "Spare me your praises; I do not deserve
+them. If Lord Linden is here, as you say, I will see him at once."
+
+"That is right; you are prompt as ever. I will take my leave. It may not
+be well for him to see me here. Success to you, Madeleine! But you
+always command success. It is a condition of your existence."
+
+The count withdrew, and Madeleine, with a sad countenance, only waited
+until the street door closed upon him, to keep her promise and seek Lord
+Linden.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+LORD LINDEN'S DISCOVERY.
+
+
+Lord Linden, who had resolved not to leave the house until he had
+discovered his incognita, waited with laudable patience, closely
+scanning every lady who passed through the adjoining apartments. His
+position did not command a view of the workroom. An hour passed, and he
+began to get puzzled. The non-appearance of the lady who had entered the
+house was inexplicable, unless she resided there. His perplexity was
+momentarily increasing, when he saw Count Tristan in conversation with
+the forewoman. They left the apartment together. It then occurred to
+Lord Linden that there might be other exhibition-rooms in the lower
+story, and he had better reconnoitre. He had made up his mind to do
+this, and was descending the stair, when he caught sight of Maurice de
+Gramont and involuntarily retreated. What was Count Tristan doing here?
+What brought his son here? Neither of the gentlemen were accompanied by
+ladies. He returned to his former station, uncertain what step to take
+next. Just then, Victorine passed through the apartment on her way to
+the workroom. He accosted her and inquired if there were exhibition
+rooms on the lower floor. She informed him that the first story was
+reserved by Mademoiselle Melanie for her own use.
+
+Lord Linden returned to his arm-chair, and had just made up his mind
+that the lady of whom he was in search had visited Mademoiselle Melanie
+in her own apartments and left the house again, when he was startled,
+astounded, and overjoyed by the sight of the very being he sought,
+tranquilly approaching him.
+
+Madeleine looked serious, even sad; for she had consented to stoop to an
+action which mortified her deeply.
+
+Lord Linden was so thoroughly amazed at her sudden appearance that he
+could not move,--could not collect himself to address her.
+
+She courtesied, and said, with grave sweetness,--
+
+"I was only informed a few moments ago of your presence here, my Lord."
+
+Lord Linden rose and stammered out, "Is it possible? Do I really behold
+you? This morning I saw you enter this house. I gained my admission as
+Madame de Fleury's escort, and lingered in the hope of seeing you after
+she left."
+
+Lord Linden did not know how to proceed. He had expected to encounter
+his incognita wearing her hat and mantle. He had supposed that her visit
+to the residence of the celebrated _couturiere_ was to make some
+purchase. To behold her so apparently at home bewildered him.
+
+Madeleine perfectly comprehended his perplexity, and, with the utmost
+composure, attempted to clear away the mist from his mind by saying,--
+
+"I beg pardon; I was not aware that you accompanied Madame de Fleury. As
+I have the honor of numbering Lady Augusta Linden, your lordship's
+sister, among my customers, I thought"--
+
+"Customers? Your customers? You, then, are"--
+
+"Mademoiselle Melanie, the mantua-maker," answered Madeleine with an
+unfaltering voice.
+
+"_You?_ Can it be?"
+
+Pointing in the direction of the workroom, she answered with a
+half-smile, "Yonder are a number of witnesses who can testify to my
+identity."
+
+Lord Linden, trying to conceal the shock he had received, and gazing
+upon her with admiration, exclaimed, in an impassioned tone,--
+
+"Ever since I first met you, when you were returning from"--
+
+"From New York," broke in Madeleine, "where I went to choose silks and
+velvets and other feminine paraphernalia for the use of my customers."
+
+Lord Linden was again discomfited. After a moment he went on,--
+
+"I have sought you everywhere. I was certain I should find you in the
+first drawing-rooms in Washington."
+
+"You find me in a _salon_ which a great many ladies visit before they
+enter those drawing-rooms."
+
+"It is incredible!"
+
+"To me it seems very comprehensible," answered Madeleine stoically.
+
+He looked into her lovely countenance and continued, with increasing
+fervor,--
+
+"I have never ceased to think of you. No other woman has had power to
+efface your image. Having known you, without ever suspecting who and
+what you are"--
+
+Madeleine interrupted him.
+
+"Now that you are aware _who_ I am and _what_ I am, my lord, it becomes
+easier to dissipate any illusion which owes its origin to a mystery with
+which you were pleased to surround me."
+
+"To _exchange_ my illusions, perhaps, for others, more captivating, more
+poetic," resumed the nobleman.
+
+"Do you talk of poetry, my lord, to a mantua-maker?"
+
+"Say, rather, to one who, in spite of her vocation, inspires me with the
+most absolute veneration. I swear to you--But no, my actions, not my
+words, must prove my admiration. You shall find me ever at your command.
+I shall count it the greatest happiness of my life to devote myself to
+your service."
+
+"My lord, you tempt me to put your words to the test."
+
+"Do so, I pray you. It is what I most desire."
+
+"By a singular chance," said Madeleine, "one of those marvellous
+coincidences which sometimes occur in real life, but which look like
+fiction when they are related in books, an opportunity presents itself
+that may enable you to prove the sincerity of your protestations. You
+must understand that I am a woman of business. But that is easily
+comprehended, as I am a woman who toils for her daily bread. I take
+great interest in the decision of the committee of a certain railroad
+company, one of the members of which I desire to influence."
+
+Lord Linden looked stupefied, and almost as if he thought Madeleine were
+making a jest of him. But her grave manner contradicted that suggestion.
+
+She went on as tranquilly as before,--
+
+"They are to decide, at their next meeting, whether a certain railroad
+shall take the direction to the right or left. I desire that the left
+road should be chosen."
+
+Lord Linden still regarded her as though he were too completely
+astounded to make any comment.
+
+"Certain members of the committee will, I am aware, vote for the left
+road. I wish to secure the vote of Mr. Rutledge."
+
+"Mr. Rutledge!" exclaimed Lord Linden. "I know him well."
+
+"He is the warm admirer of Lady Augusta Linden," observed Madeleine. "It
+is even reported that he aspires to her hand."
+
+Lord Linden showed plainly that he was astonished to find one in
+Madeleine's position so conversant with the affairs both of the business
+world and the _beau monde_.
+
+Madeleine proceeded,--
+
+"If any influence can be used with Mr. Rutledge to induce him to vote
+for the left road, it will cause me gratification, I cannot explain of
+what nature. You have spoken, my lord, of desiring to serve me. I have
+very frankly pointed out in what manner it was possible that you might
+confer a favor upon me. If I could enter into full particulars, this
+request would lose its singularity. As that cannot be done, I can only
+entertain the hope that you will believe it has an interpretation which
+I should not blush to reveal."
+
+"That I feel,--of that I am certain," returned the nobleman, earnestly.
+"No one could look at you and doubt the nobility of your actions and
+motives. I am almost hardy enough to venture to promise Mr. Rutledge's
+vote. Will you permit me to return here after I have spoken with him,
+and report to you the result of my advocacy?"
+
+Before Madeleine could reply, Mrs. Gilmer entered the adjoining room.
+
+Madeleine rose, and, courtesying to her visitor, said,--
+
+"Your lordship will excuse me; my duty requires that I should leave you
+and attend to this lady."
+
+She glided out of the room, but Lord Linden continued to watch her, as
+though he could not force his eyes away.
+
+It was some time before he made his exit.
+
+Mrs. Gilmer was looking very much depressed. She had begun to believe
+that it was very possible she would receive no invitation to Madame de
+Fleury's ball.
+
+"Ah, Mademoiselle Melanie," said she, as Madeleine entered; "you will
+sympathize with me. I have never had such a mortification before. I knew
+Madame de Fleury's enmity, but I could not believe her so cruel, so
+_inhuman_. She is thoroughly devoid of feeling, and has determined to
+leave me out of her invitations. I actually induced the Russian
+ambassadress, with whom she is very intimate, to intercede for me. I
+have just seen Madame Orlowski, and she tells me Madame de Fleury
+refused point blank. She resisted Madame Orlowski's most urgent
+entreaties, and will not yield to any one; I have no longer any hope. I
+shall be excluded from this ball, of which all Washington is talking.
+How am I to survive such a slight?"
+
+"It, however, may still be possible," said Madeleine, smilingly, "to
+obtain you an invitation."
+
+"You think so? You really think so?" cried Mrs. Gilmer, in joyful
+surprise. "Do not raise my hopes to the highest pitch to cast them down
+again unless you want to make me ill for a month. Who could have the
+power to obtain me an invitation after the Russian ambassadress has been
+refused?"
+
+"It sounds very presumptuous to say so, but _I_ may have."
+
+"_You?_ My dear Mademoiselle Melanie,--_you?_ I can well believe it.
+Madame de Fleury adores you; she owes all her success to you. Oh, I know
+it, well enough, though you may pretend to be ignorant of what you have
+done for her. And you seriously think you can get me this invitation?
+You will positively make the effort?"
+
+"I will use my best endeavors, and I am pretty sure I shall succeed; but
+it is to be the return for a favor which I desire you to grant me."
+
+"A favor? You can ask none that I will not grant in return for this
+invitation," replied Mrs. Gilmer, eagerly.
+
+Madeleine could scarcely repress a smile, tinged with a slightly
+scornful expression.
+
+"You American ladies are said to be all-powerful with your husbands;
+you, no doubt, have great influence with Mr. Gilmer?"
+
+"I fancy I have," said Mrs. Gilmer, tossing her graceful head. "I
+arrange matters so as to have him in my power. I know his weak points,
+and I make it a rule to play upon them until I obtain everything I
+desire. Just at this moment, he is in a particularly favorable state: he
+is frantically jealous; though, between ourselves, I never give him real
+cause. I only excite his jealousy to use it as a valuable weapon against
+himself. Tell me quickly what favor you desire."
+
+"Mr. Gilmer is a member of a committee which is to decide upon the
+course a certain railroad is to take. I wish to secure his vote for the
+left road."
+
+"How odd! What difference can it make to you?"
+
+"It would occupy too much time to explain that, and might not interest
+you. The important question is, can he be induced to vote for this left
+road?"
+
+"I dare say; I do not doubt it,--that is, if you are really in earnest,
+and can promise me my invitation to the ball in exchange for his vote."
+
+"The one depends upon the other," replied Madeleine. "I had the good
+fortune to secure the vote of Mr. Gobert, the banker of Monsieur de
+Fleury, and"--
+
+"Mr. Gobert votes for the left road? Ah, that increases the difficulty.
+My husband makes a point of never voting as he does,--never! It is
+enough that Mr. Gobert votes one way for him to vote the other."
+
+"That is singular; they are both bankers, and I thought they were
+friends."
+
+"It is because they are both bankers that they are the bitterest
+enemies. Talk of the jealousies of women, of artists, of men of genius,
+of nations! Those are nothing to the jealousy of these rival
+capitalists, who are engaged in a perpetual strife to excel each other.
+If Mr. Gobert gives a ball that costs two thousand dollars, Mr. Gilmer
+gives one that costs four thousand. If Mr. Gobert builds a superb house,
+Mr. Gilmer builds a palace. It is a steeple-chase of vanity, in which
+the conqueror has for the only price of his victory the delight of
+seeing his rival conquered."
+
+"Then you find the difficulty of reconciling Mr. Gilmer to vote for the
+left road beyond your skill?"
+
+"No,--no,--I do not say _that_. I do not admit _that_, by any means. But
+Mr. Gobert is a great obstacle."
+
+"But one which the pleasure of attending this ball will enable you to
+surmount?"
+
+"Yes, I trust so. There is a way,--there is a sacrifice I can make; and
+I will not hesitate for such an object. My husband detests, without the
+slightest cause, a gentleman who visits me frequently: now, if I
+promised not to receive this obnoxious, but very delightful individual
+(whom I care nothing about), I think Mr. Gilmer, in return, would be
+willing, for once, to cast, his vote on the same side as his enemy. It
+would need some such grave inducement, some such unquestionable
+sacrifice on my part."
+
+"That sacrifice may also be a prudent action," observed Madeleine.
+
+"Oh, I do not know about that," replied the thoughtless woman of
+fashion; "a woman is expected to have admirers; they only render her
+more valuable in the eyes of her husband. I should not consent to offend
+this devoted friend without some strong incentive. But to insure being
+present at Madame de Fleury's ball, I would agree to anything. So, it is
+a bargain: if I obtain you my husband's vote, you obtain me this
+invitation?"
+
+"That is our compact," answered Madeleine.
+
+"Agreed. I shall return home with a light heart; you have cheered me
+wonderfully; I am inclined to be so amiable to all the world, my husband
+included, that all the world and my husband are your debtors. When shall
+I receive the good news that you have conquered Madame de Fleury?"
+
+"At whatever time you think you will be prepared to send me the
+intelligence that you have vanquished Mr. Gilmer."
+
+"That will be this evening, before my husband goes to his club."
+
+"By this evening, then, I will have procured you the invitation."
+
+"Remember, I depend upon you. Good-morning."
+
+Mrs. Gilmer departed in high good-humor, leaving Madeleine reflecting
+with regret upon the tools which harsh circumstance seemed to force her
+to use.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+A CONTEST.
+
+
+When Mrs. Gilmer took her leave, Madeleine returned to the seclusion of
+her own boudoir, having first given orders that she should be apprised
+when Madame de Fleury made her appearance.
+
+Madeleine was unnerved by the agitating incidents of the morning. There
+are days into which emotions which might fill years are crowded. It was
+long since she had felt oppressed by such a sense of lassitude and
+melancholy. Her interview with Maurice had stirred all the tenderest
+chords of her spirit, yet left them vibrating sadly. The mysterious
+visit of Count Tristan had perplexed her mind with ominous forebodings.
+She could scarcely be said to have seen through his machinations, yet
+she had an instinctive disbelief in his sincerity, and the uprightness
+of his motives,--a disbelief which she vainly tried to conceal from
+herself. More painful still had been her conversation with Lord Linden;
+she could not fail to perceive that he assumed the attitude of a lover,
+and she felt humbled at having _apparently allowed_, or rather
+_ignored_, such a position. Lastly, her late _bargaining scene_ with
+Mrs. Gilmer had disturbed Madeleine's sense of delicacy; and a similar
+scene remained to be enacted with Madame de Fleury.
+
+Madeleine involuntarily rubbed her eyes, as though she were trying to
+wake from a confused dream. She could not believe that she had really
+entangled herself in this web of plotting, and at the bidding of Count
+Tristan! She feared that she had acted too impulsively,--that she had
+made unwarrantable use of her power. Then she remembered the look of
+deep distress upon Count Tristan's face as he made his half confidences;
+she recalled his assurances that without her interposition Maurice would
+not only be ruined, but that disgrace must attach itself to his father's
+name. She had promised her aid, had half gained the victory, and must
+not retreat now when the only portion of her work which remained to be
+accomplished consisted in compelling a fashionable puppet to send an
+invitation to a rival whom she detested. There was nothing objectionable
+in the act itself; yet Madeleine, during these calm reflections, shrank
+from the part she was playing, and revolted against being mingled up
+with stratagems, however innocent.
+
+This revery was broken by the announcement that Madame de Fleury had
+arrived, and was at that moment trying on her dress.
+
+When Madeleine entered the apartment, Madame de Fleury was standing
+before a mirror, evidently admiring her new costume, and in great
+good-humor. She turned to Madeleine gayly, and said,--
+
+"Mademoiselle Melanie, this dress is perfection! This corsage sets off
+my figure beautifully! And what exquisite apologies for sleeves you have
+invented! My arm is one of my best points, and the tinier the sleeve
+the better. Then the looping of this lace dress through these miniature
+chaplets of wild roses is very original; the whole effect is wonderfully
+airy and poetic. This is one of your great triumphs; you have really
+surpassed yourself."
+
+As she spoke, she turned around and around, complacently contemplating
+her reflected image from various points of view.
+
+"I am particularly gratified at having pleased you, madam," said
+Madeleine, with more gravity than was usual to her when she accosted her
+light-brained customers.
+
+Madame de Fleury, without noticing her serious mien, commenced
+disrobing. Victorine folded up the dress and placed it in a _carton_.
+
+"I mean to take the dress with me," said the marchioness. "Mademoiselle
+Victorine, have the goodness to desire my servant to place that _carton_
+in the carriage."
+
+As Victorine prepared to obey, Madeleine motioned her to desist, and
+said, "Not yet; leave the dress for a few moments. You may retire."
+
+The forewoman reluctantly left the room, looking puzzled, curious, and
+indignant.
+
+"What? Is some alteration needful?" asked Madame de Fleury. "Have you
+some fresh inspiration? Has a new idea that will improve the dress
+suddenly struck you?"
+
+Without replying to these questions, Madeleine looked earnestly at the
+marchioness, who was now resuming her bonnet, and asked,--
+
+"You are, then, satisfied with my work, madame?"
+
+"Satisfied? that is a cold word. I am transported!"
+
+"And if," continued Madeleine, "for that dress I should require a
+price"--
+
+"Oh, whatever you please," replied the marchioness, lightly. "Take me
+prisoner, gag me, plunder me, what you will, I shall not complain: the
+dress is worth it; and we have never had any discussion in regard to
+prices."
+
+"But the price in question is not one that can be paid with money; the
+price I place upon this dress is the granting of a favor,--a favor most
+precious to me."
+
+"A favor? you have only to speak. Do you want an office for a friend? A
+recommendation for some ambitious compatriot to the emperor? A pardon
+for some exiled transgressor? Anything possible to the wife of the
+French ambassador is at your service; you have but to speak."
+
+"My petition is somewhat easier to grant; for I only ask a few words
+from you in writing."
+
+As she said this, Madeleine opened a desk, and placed upon it a sheet of
+note-paper, a gold pen, and an inkstand. Then she paused, and said,
+hesitatingly,--
+
+"Yet, though I ask but these few written words, in full compensation for
+that dress, the materials of which as well as the work being mine, I
+fear to make my petition known, for I feel that it will cost you much to
+comply with my wishes."
+
+"Nonsense! speak plainly," said Madame de Fleury, smoothing her ribbons
+with caressing touches.
+
+"I would solicit an invitation to your ball for one of your
+acquaintances who, as yet, has received none, and who chances to be one
+of my customers."
+
+"Is that all? We are enacting much ado about nothing," said the
+marchioness, seating herself smilingly at the desk. "You shall have the
+invitation, modest and mysterious petitioner. What name shall I write?"
+
+"Mrs."--Madeleine faltered.
+
+"Go on," cried the marchioness, who had commenced her note with the
+usual formula.
+
+"Mrs. Gilmer!" responded Madeleine.
+
+Madame de Fleury threw down the pen and started up.
+
+"Mrs. Gilmer! Invite Mrs. Gilmer to a ball from which I have purposely
+excluded her? Invite her when I have the satisfaction of knowing that
+she is dying of mortification because she cannot get an
+invitation?--when I have steeled myself against the solicitations of
+Madame Orlowski? Never! I would rather bear the weight of all the years
+which she impertinently added to my age."
+
+Madeleine, who was fully prepared for this burst, said, very quietly,
+and approaching the marchioness,--
+
+"Madame, it is not long since you assured me that it would be a positive
+happiness to be able to render me a service."
+
+"And I mean it. I would gladly serve you, but not by inviting Mrs.
+Gilmer to my ball: that is a little too much to demand."
+
+"But this is the service I most need; a service for which I would be
+deeply grateful,--for which I could never sufficiently thank you,--which
+would attach me to you as nothing in the past has ever done."
+
+"The offer of your gratitude and the promise of your attachment are,
+certainly, very touching," said Madame de Fleury, with a scornful
+petulance which she had never before evinced toward Madeleine; "but I
+beg leave to decline the indebtedness. You have forced me to remember,
+for the first time, that when a lady in my station deals with a person
+in your sphere, it is possible to be _too_ kind, _too_ condescending,
+_too_ ready to forget necessary distinctions, and thus to draw upon
+one's self the consequences of that forgetfulness. You have given me a
+lesson, mademoiselle, by which I shall profit: in future I shall
+remember the distance between us."
+
+She walked toward the work-room and called Victorine, who immediately
+responded to the summons.
+
+Pointing to the _carton_, the indignant lady gave the order, "Have that
+dress placed in my carriage."
+
+"No!" said Madeleine, addressing Victorine, commandingly. "Let the dress
+remain where it is."
+
+"What do you mean, mademoiselle?" asked the marchioness, in angry
+astonishment.
+
+"That dress is still mine!" answered Madeleine.
+
+"Yours?"
+
+"It is mine, and we will each keep that which belongs to us,--_you_ the
+privilege of your rank; I, the results of my labor, however humble."
+
+"Do I understand you rightly? Have you the hardihood to say"--
+
+Madeleine interrupted her,--
+
+"That I refuse to part with that dress for gold, or for any compensation
+you can offer, except the one already named,--an invitation for Mrs.
+Gilmer to your ball."
+
+"She shall never have one! I have said it, and nothing can change my
+resolution."
+
+"Nor mine! We are in the same position, madame, in spite of the
+_difference of our stations_," answered Madeleine, with cold sarcasm.
+"Nothing can change my resolution."
+
+"But the dress is mine!" cried Madame de Fleury. "I will prove that it
+is mine; but we will settle that question afterward. Meantime, I order
+you, Mademoiselle Victorine, to have that dress placed in my carriage."
+
+"I order you not to touch it!" said Madeleine.
+
+Madame de Fleury now became so much exasperated that she seemed to be on
+the point of seizing the dress and carrying it off in her arms.
+
+Madeleine perceived her intention, and, suddenly lifting the dress out
+of the _carton_, rolled it up rapidly, for the materials were light.
+
+"I prove to whom the dress belongs, madame, by disposing of it _thus_!"
+
+And with the most perfect tranquillity, she flung the disputed prize
+into the fire! It was burning brightly, for the day was cool, though
+spring had commenced.
+
+The marchioness, for a moment, was stunned; but, as the flames caught
+the lace, she cried out, "Save it! save it! It is burning! What an
+infamous action! What a crime! It has killed me!"
+
+She dropped upon the sofa, and was seized with one of those hysterical
+paroxysms which French women designate as an _attaque de nerfs_.
+
+Victorine, with a great display of distress, flew to the sufferer,
+loosened the strings of the bonnet which she was recklessly
+crushing,--held a bottle of sal volatile to her nose (for the
+Frenchwoman was always prepared for similar pleasant excitements, and
+carried a vial in her pocket), and commenced rubbing the lady's hand
+with great energy.
+
+"Save,--save the dress! Do not let it burn!" Madame de Fleury gasped out
+between her sobs.
+
+"The dress is beyond saving, madame," replied Madeleine; "it no longer
+exists."
+
+At this moment the marchioness suddenly recovered.
+
+"And you have destroyed it? You have destroyed a toilet which would have
+made me talked of for a week! It is abominable,--it is disgraceful,--it
+is _criminal_!"
+
+Madame de Fleury always used the strongest terms where matters of the
+toilet, the most important interests of her life, were in question.
+
+"What am I to wear this evening? What is to become of me?"
+
+The marchioness wrung her hands, and wept in genuine tribulation. She
+sunk back again upon the sofa, as though prostrated by her crushing
+sorrow.
+
+Madeleine allowed the grief of the fine lady to expend itself in
+incoherent lamentations, and then said, in an icy tone,--
+
+"Madame, do you desire to appear to-night in a dress which far surpasses
+the one I have destroyed?"
+
+The marchioness was sobbing so violently that she could only answer by a
+movement of the head.
+
+"Do you desire to wear a dress which has been refused to others?--a
+dress which Mrs. Gilmer used every argument to induce me to finish for
+her, but in vain?--a dress which I would even have refused _you_, with
+whose wishes I have ever been ready to comply?"
+
+"What--what dress? What do you mean?"
+
+"I refer to the dress the design of which you so much admired this
+morning,--the dress which is to be sent to New Orleans for Madame la
+Motte."
+
+"But that dress is not finished; it is hardly commenced; only the
+embroidery is completed. Mademoiselle Victorine told me it could not be
+done under three days."
+
+"It shall be finished for _you_, if you so please, before it is time for
+you to dress for this evening's assembly."
+
+"But that cannot be; it is not possible; it is four o'clock now; it
+would be a miracle!"
+
+"Not quite," returned Madeleine, quietly. "In past days I was said to
+have the fingers of a fairy, and you shall admit that magical power
+remains to me. I repeat, the dress shall be completed, if you desire it,
+to-night."
+
+"But you have sent the design to Madame la Motte, who has approved of
+it, and, I hear, you are bound not to furnish a duplicate to any one."
+
+"True, I must run the risk of losing the confidence of a patron for the
+first time in my life. I will tell Madame la Motte the truth, and
+furnish her with another equally elaborate dress,--not a very easy
+matter, as it must leave here in three days by express, and a new design
+must not only be planned, but executed, within that time. I may lose
+Madame de la Motte's patronage,--her esteem; but that will be the price
+I pay for the favor I seek at your hands."
+
+"The favor!" repeated the marchioness, abstractedly.
+
+In her bewilderment and grief caused by the destruction of the dress,
+she had forgotten, for the moment, all that had just taken place.
+
+Madeleine pointed to the note which the marchioness had commenced, and
+said,--
+
+"The invitation for Mrs. Gilmer."
+
+"Ah! Mrs. Gilmer!" cried Madame de Fleury, as though she had been stung
+by the name.
+
+"As you remarked, it is four o'clock," continued Madeleine; "the dress
+ought to be at your house by half past nine; there is scarcely time for
+any one who only _pretends_ to be a fairy to accomplish the work. Four
+o'clock: it _is_ just possible that I have promised too much,--that is,
+if we lose many minutes. Have you decided to write me the invitation?"
+
+"You do not give me time for reflection," said Madame de Fleury,
+hesitating.
+
+"You scarcely give _me_ time," returned Madeleine, "to perform what I
+have promised; the moments are precious."
+
+"You are sure the dress can be completed if--if I give you this
+invitation?"
+
+"Yes, madame, if it be given _at once_. See," pointing to the clock,
+"five minutes have flown already, and in every moment we are to do the
+work of an hour. There is the pen."
+
+Madame de Fleury took it reluctantly.
+
+"That detestable Mrs. Gilmer will triumph so much!"
+
+"You triumph in having obtained the dress that was refused to her, and
+has been refused to many others. But time flies, and I shall not be
+able, with all the magical aid for which I am given credit, to keep my
+word. Victorine, while Madame de Fleury is writing, apprise the young
+ladies to put by, as rapidly as possible, all other work, and be ready
+to take in hand that which I will give them directly. We want our whole
+force; let me find every one prepared to aid."
+
+Victorine left the room to execute these orders.
+
+Madame de Fleury seated herself and dipped the pen in ink.
+
+"If you knew what it costs me to consent," she began.
+
+"If I did _not_ know," rejoined Madeleine, "I should not have offered to
+make a sacrifice of so much importance. A few moments more and it will
+be too late to decide,--your consent will be of no avail."
+
+"Ah, that is true," cried Madame de Fleury, writing rapidly.
+
+She left the note unfolded on the desk, and, as she rose, said in a tone
+of ludicrously mingled petulance and elation, "You have conquered! But I
+shall have my dress!"
+
+"Be sure of it!" answered Madeleine.
+
+Victorine now announced that all other work had been laid aside, and the
+young ladies awaited Mademoiselle Melanie's commands.
+
+"Go--go--go! or you will be too late!" urged Madame de Fleury, hurrying
+away.
+
+Madeleine hastened to the work-room, and distributed portions of the
+dress to different needle-women. After giving a number of minute
+directions, and making known that she would return in a couple of hours
+to see what progress was made, she retired to write to Mrs. Gilmer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+BERTHA.
+
+
+If Madeleine had been asked which of her relatives would first have
+sought her after the unexpected _rencontre_ at Madame de Fleury's, she
+would have answered, "Bertha,"--Bertha, whose devotion had been so
+unflagging, so open, so daring. But on the day which succeeded that
+stormy interview, Count Tristan and Maurice had visited Madeleine, yet
+Bertha remained absent; another day passed, and still she came not.
+
+The Countess de Gramont had resolved, at least, to postpone a meeting
+she might not be able wholly to prevent. She formed her plans so
+dexterously that Bertha was chained to her side, fretting through the
+tedious hours, yet powerless to secure a moment's freedom.
+
+Exasperation caused Bertha sleepless nights; and on the third morning
+she rose with the sun, summoned her maid, sent for a carriage, and was
+on her way to Madeleine's residence some three hours before it was
+likely that the slumbers of the countess would be broken.
+
+Madeleine was preparing for her matinal walk, when her cousin was
+announced.
+
+After the first joyous greetings were over, Bertha said, with tender
+delight,--
+
+"And now that I have found you, my own Madeleine, I mean to come to see
+you every day."
+
+Madeleine shook her head sadly. "Madame de Gramont will never permit
+that."
+
+"How can she help it if I choose to order all my dresses made here? The
+choice and discussion of becoming attire shall occupy as much of my time
+as it does of Madame de Fleury's. I mean to become her rival and almost
+ruin myself in splendid toilets,--that is, unless you accept my
+proposition."
+
+"What proposition, Bertha?"
+
+"To give up your--your--your--What shall I call it? Your
+_occupation_,--your _vocation_,--I have a great mind to say your
+'_trade_,' that the word may shock you. Live with me; travel with me; go
+where I go. Will you not consent?"
+
+"No," answered Madeleine, gently, but resolutely.
+
+"Do not decide hastily. You cannot know how much I need you, Madeleine.
+Your counsels were indispensable to me even in days when I had no secret
+to confide: now--now"--
+
+"Now you _have_ a secret? Is it indeed so?"
+
+Bertha nodded, paused awhile, then went on abruptly,--
+
+"I have been pestered to death by men who aspired to my hand, and my
+uncle declares there is no possibility of my finding peace until I make
+some choice."
+
+"And you intend to secure peace upon his terms? Possibly among those who
+aspired to your hand there is one who has discovered the entrance to
+your heart."
+
+"Among those who have aspired,--ah, there is the difficulty! Among those
+there is none."
+
+"Then you love one who has never aspired?"
+
+"I fear so," answered Bertha, ingenuously, and yet blushing deeply.
+
+Madeleine looked troubled; she had long entertained a pleasant hope
+which she saw about to vanish.
+
+"And you have loved him,--how long?" she asked, gravely.
+
+"Oh, a very short time; only since day before yesterday," replied
+Bertha.
+
+This answer added to Madeleine's discomposure. There was no hope for
+Gaston de Bois.
+
+"Why do you look so sorrowful?" inquired Bertha, noticing her cousin's
+expression.
+
+"I am thinking of one who has loved you long, with such devotion, with
+such self-abnegation, with such an ardent desire to become worthy of
+you, that I could not but sigh over his disappointment. But this sudden
+affection of yours may not be very deep."
+
+"Ah, but it _is_! And as for suddenness, when I say I have only loved
+him since day before yesterday, I mean that I only then discovered how
+much I cared for him."
+
+"And how came you to know that he was dear to you?"
+
+"You will be very much shocked when I answer that question; but you
+always said I was eccentric. I first felt that I loved him when I saw
+him getting into a great rage, and when I positively fancied that I
+caught the sound of a horrible oath, which he uttered in an undertone!"
+
+"That _is_ original! I never before heard of a young lady being inspired
+by love for a young man when he was angry, or when he was profane."
+
+"Ah, but he was angry in a good cause," returned Bertha, earnestly. "It
+was righteous indignation, and it was the violence with which he
+defended one whom I love, that won my heart completely."
+
+"Whom did he defend?" asked Madeleine, unsuspiciously.
+
+"_You_,--_you_, my own, best Madeleine, and for _that_ I loved him. It
+was so wonderful, knowing how constitutionally diffident he is, to see
+him so courageous. And when I remembered how he used to hesitate and
+stammer, it seemed marvellous to hear him talk on with an ease, a
+fluency, a fervor truly eloquent. I never ask to listen to finer
+oratory. My aunt, in spite of her indignation, was confounded into
+silence. Count Tristan could not say a word, and Maurice looked as
+though amazement alone kept him from throwing himself in his friend's
+arms, and I fear I almost felt like doing the same."
+
+"It was Gaston de Bois, then?" cried Madeleine, with sudden transport.
+
+"Yes. Who else could it be? And he was so comical at the same time that
+he was so pathetic! At first I almost felt like laughing at his odd
+gesticulations. And then he talked so nobly, so grandly, that I felt
+like weeping; and you know it is my nature to laugh and to cry in spite
+of myself. I have made up my mind that I could never love anybody who
+could not make me do both _at once_, just as he did, in such a comically
+pathetic manner."
+
+"How shall I thank you? Gaston de Bois is my best, my truest, friend!"
+said Madeleine, rapturously.
+
+"I know _that_ well enough! Once I feared he might be the mysterious
+individual whom you loved; but he said himself that you were a sister to
+him; and I almost leapt for joy at those words. A sister never fills the
+_whole_ of a man's heart,--does she?"
+
+"Not such a heart as Gaston de Bois'. He will tell you himself who
+occupies the sovereign place in that heart when he knows that he may
+speak."
+
+"But how is he to know? You must promise me not to tell him, not to give
+him even the faintest hint, of what I have communicated. Promise me that
+you will not."
+
+"I promise. But you forget how diffident M. de Bois is, how distrustful
+of his own merits. He will not easily believe that you _can_ think of
+him. And, meantime, you"--
+
+"Will suffer. Yes, I know it; but I should suffer more if I were guilty
+of an unmaidenly action. So you will keep your promise?"
+
+"I will keep it faithfully."
+
+It was time for the cousins to part. Bertha returned to the hotel with a
+lighter heart, because she had transferred its weighty secret to
+another's keeping. But Madeleine's joy was mingled with forebodings that
+Gaston de Bois would not suspect his own happiness for a long, sad
+period, if ever.
+
+When she went forth, it was long past the hour usually devoted to her
+walk. The capitol grounds were gay with promenaders. Madeleine and Ruth
+attracted more attention than was agreeable, and, after a short ramble,
+turned homeward.
+
+As they passed out of the gates, the first person they met was Gaston de
+Bois. He bowed, hesitated, seemed half inclined to walk on without
+speaking, but changed his mind and joined them.
+
+It was long since Madeleine had seen him apparently so ill at ease or so
+distressed. She smiled as she reflected how quickly three little words
+(which she, alas! was forbidden to speak) would change that perturbed
+look to one of ineffable happiness.
+
+For a few moments he walked moodily by her side, replying at random to
+her casual remarks. It chanced that Ruth was not conversant with the
+French language, and Madeleine, struck by his abstracted air, inquired
+in that tongue whether he had any cause for vexation.
+
+Gaston answered, vaguely, that he was troubled; he did not himself know
+with how much real cause. A moment after, he mentioned her interview
+with Count Tristan, and, stammering a little in his old fashion, asked
+whether she would deem it a great liberty if he desired to know the
+object of the count's visit.
+
+A moment's reflection convinced Madeleine that M. de Bois would not have
+made this inquiry out of sheer, causeless curiosity; and she made known
+to him the count's request concerning the votes which she was to exert
+herself to obtain. Gaston caught eagerly at her words, and exclaimed,--
+
+"Valueless? Are you sure Count Tristan said the property of Maurice
+would be valueless but for the advent of this railroad?"
+
+"Yes," replied Madeleine; "I am quite sure that such was his assertion.
+But why do you ask? What has happened? Nothing to compromise Maurice?"
+
+"I do not yet definitely know; but, if it be what I suspect, what I
+fear, it will compromise him wofully."
+
+"Pray be explicit," said Madeleine, becoming alarmed. "Tell me what you
+positively know, and what you fear. Remember, Maurice is my cousin."
+
+"Would he were more! But that wish now is vain. In a word, then, I have
+no faith in Count Tristan. I believe him capable of unscrupulous actions
+which might ruin his son. At the club, last night, a group of gentlemen
+chanced to be conversing near me. The name of Maurice de Gramont
+attracted my attention. A Mr. Emerson asserted that he had just made a
+discovery which convinced him that the Viscount de Gramont was a young
+man regardless of honor; and added that he intended, without delay, to
+commence legal proceedings against him. As soon as I could control my
+indignation, I informed Mr. Emerson that the Viscount de Gramont was my
+friend, and I could not allow his name to be used with disrespect
+without demanding an explanation."
+
+"And he gave you one?" inquired Madeleine, greatly agitated.
+
+"He did not give me one. At first he was inclined to treat my request
+cavalierly. But, upon my persisting, he replied that neither place nor
+time served to discuss a business matter; adding that he would be at his
+office on the morrow, at twelve o'clock, and, if I chose to call at that
+hour, the whole matter would be made known to me; remarking,
+significantly, that he had no intention of keeping the transaction from
+the public."
+
+"What could he mean?"
+
+"_That_ I can only surmise. But a few hours will make all clear."
+
+"To gain a few hours' time may be of the utmost importance," answered
+Madeleine. "Try to see Mr. Emerson _at once_. Learn the meaning of his
+words, and return to me with the intelligence."
+
+"Ah, Mademoiselle Madeleine, you are always so prompt! I should have
+lingered until twelve without"--
+
+"Go! Go at once, and come back to me quickly! You have said enough to
+awaken a horrible suspicion. I do not dare to let my mind dwell upon the
+frightful possibility that suggests itself."
+
+M. de Bois bade her good-morning as precipitately as she could desire,
+and hastened upon his mission.
+
+When Madeleine reached her home she said to Ruth, "I am unfit for my
+usual duties to-day. Ruth, I have long intended that you should occupy a
+more active and prominent position in this establishment. Do you not
+feel yourself competent to do so?"
+
+Ruth returned affectionately,--
+
+"I have studied diligently under your tuition; sometimes I fancy that I
+have almost mastered some of the rules, and fathomed some of the
+mysteries, of your art."
+
+"To-day, then," rejoined Madeleine, "I mean that you shall wholly take
+my place. I have faith in your ability."
+
+Ruth retired, well pleased at the confidence reposed in her; and
+Madeleine entered her boudoir to await, with a sense of dread which she
+could ill repress, the return of Gaston de Bois.
+
+The clock had just struck twelve when he was announced. One glance at
+his pale face hardly left Madeleine courage to ask,--
+
+"What has happened?"
+
+"The worst, the very worst that I deemed possible, and I have been able
+to accomplish nothing. I feel like a brute to bring you these ill
+tidings a single hour before you are compelled to know them."
+
+"Do not keep me in suspense!" urged Madeleine.
+
+M. de Bois went on, "Maurice obtained a loan of ten thousand dollars
+from Mr. Emerson. The security given was upon this Maryland property,
+which Maurice declared to be free of all mortgage; and, no doubt, he
+thought it was so."
+
+"And, alas! it is not?"
+
+"So far from clear that Mr. Emerson yesterday learned the estate was
+mortgaged to its full value. Count Tristan, who held in his hands a
+power of attorney, has doubtless made use of the instrument without his
+son's knowledge."
+
+"Did you not explain this to Mr. Emerson in defence of Maurice?"
+
+"Assuredly; but Mr. Emerson received my assertion with open incredulity.
+He is determined to write to Maurice and inform him of his discovery,
+and also to commence legal proceedings at once."
+
+"Should these ten thousand dollars be paid into the hands of Mr.
+Emerson, would they not prevent his sending the threatened letter to
+Maurice, or taking any other steps?" inquired Madeleine, eagerly.
+
+"Undoubtedly; but how are we to command ten thousand dollars?"
+
+Madeleine smiled an inexpressibly happy smile, opened her desk, took out
+a paper, and said,--
+
+"I had arranged to make the last payment upon this house yesterday; the
+sum due was ten thousand dollars: by some mistake, the person who was to
+receive this money did not keep his appointment. He will, doubtless, be
+here to-day. A few hours later, I might no longer have had these funds
+under my own control. See how fortunate it is that I urged you to act
+promptly!"
+
+"Mademoiselle Madeleine, what--what do you intend to do?"
+
+"Is not my intention plain and simple enough? Here is a check for ten
+thousand dollars; draw the money at once, and place it in Mr. Emerson's
+hands."
+
+"But the payment for your house?"
+
+"Cannot be made. We have no time for further discussion."
+
+"Mademoiselle Madeleine, you are"--
+
+"Very impatient and very imperative when I issue orders that I intend to
+have obeyed? Admitted. You need not waste time in summing up the
+catalogue of my imperfections."
+
+Gaston took the check and was preparing to depart, when Madeleine
+delayed him.
+
+"Mr. Emerson must not know that these funds are furnished by me. What an
+endless theme for gossip and speculation would be afforded by the very
+suggestion that the fashionable mantua-maker came to the assistance of
+the young nobleman! Let Mr. Emerson understand that this money is paid
+by one of Maurice's relatives. That will be sufficient."
+
+"Good," returned Gaston; "and if he should conclude that it was supplied
+by Maurice's grandmother, all the better. If I said a relative, and
+Madame de Gramont were not supposed to be the person, there is no one
+but Mademoiselle Bertha; and Mr. Emerson might infer--I mean, it would
+be natural to suppose"--
+
+"You are right. We must guard against such a false step. Surely, no name
+at all is necessary; but I leave the matter to your discretion; pray
+hasten."
+
+Without further discussion, Gaston set out to execute his agreeable
+mission. He reached Mr. Emerson's office too late to stop the threatened
+letter; it had already been despatched.
+
+The young viscount was sitting in his father's drawing-room, at the
+hotel, musing upon the mournful singularity of his own fate, and the
+mystery that still enveloped Madeleine, when this letter was placed in
+his hands. He was, at first, too completely wonder-struck to experience
+a high degree of indignation. He thought he must have mistaken the
+meaning of what he read. But no; the words were plain enough; the
+accusation plain enough; the threat of legal proceedings to be
+instituted against him plain enough. Still, he was too much amazed to be
+able to give credence to the communication. He seized his hat, with the
+intention of hurrying to Mr. Emerson, and demanding an explanation. As
+he opened the door, his father entered.
+
+"What has disturbed you so much?" asked Count Tristan, noticing his
+son's disordered mien.
+
+"Nothing that will prove of consequence," returned Maurice, glancing
+over the open letter. "There is some vexatious mistake which will easily
+be explained away. And yet, the language of this letter is grossly
+insulting."
+
+The count's secret guilt kept him in a constant state of torturing fear,
+and he now vainly endeavored to conceal his alarm.
+
+He gasped out, "That letter--let me see it!"
+
+Before Maurice could hand the letter, it was eagerly snatched by the
+count. His face grew livid as he read,--his white lips were tightly
+compressed,--but could not shut in the sound of a convulsive groan.
+
+Maurice, not suspecting the true cause of his father's agitation, went
+on,--
+
+"The language is rude; the accusation is made in the most unmannerly
+style, and as if its justice were beyond doubt; but business men, in
+this country, are usually abrupt, and, when they are annoyed, not too
+courteous; one must get accustomed to their manner. My dear father, do
+not let this mistake affect you too deeply; it will easily be rectified.
+But, first, let me explain the transaction."
+
+The count dropped his head without speaking, but again the sound of a
+half-suppressed groan was audible.
+
+"An opportunity offered," continued Maurice, "for the advantageous
+employment of ten thousand dollars. Mr. Lorrillard suggested my raising
+the money through Mr. Emerson, on the security of the Maryland estate."
+
+The count staggered and sank into a chair. The hour of discovery then
+had arrived,--there was no escape! Like those hopeless culprits before
+the eternal judgment-seat, he could have cried out to the mountains to
+fall upon him and hide him.
+
+Maurice was too much alarmed by his father's appearance to go on. The
+death-like pallor of his face had given place to a purple hue; his veins
+seemed swollen; his blood-shot eyes appeared to be starting from their
+sockets; his stalwart frame shivered from head to foot; he clutched the
+table as though for support, and his head dropped heavily upon it.
+
+"My dear father," exclaimed Maurice, "do not let the mistake move you
+thus. I will go to Mr. Emerson at once"--
+
+The count's face was lifted for an instant, as he cried in a tone of
+intense agony, "No, no! Not for the world!"
+
+His head fell again; he could not bear the unsuspicious gaze of the son
+whom he had wronged, and in whose presence he sat, a self-condemned
+criminal.
+
+"Surely it is the fitting course," replied Maurice. "I will make him
+retract his words."
+
+"Impossible!" was all the count could ejaculate, still with bowed head.
+
+"But I will prove it very possible!" returned Maurice, in a tone of
+determination. "Mr. Emerson cannot use such language with impunity.
+Though he threatens that the affair shall be made public, he cannot act
+so rashly as to carry out that menace, and upon a mere surmise of some
+kind. If there is any _publicity_, he shall publicly retract."
+
+"Impossible! Impossible!" the count groaned forth again.
+
+"That will soon be decided," answered Maurice, moving toward the door.
+
+The count started up.
+
+"Stay! do not go yet! You do not know what you are doing! Stay! I forbid
+you to go!"
+
+Maurice had such thorough confidence in his father's probity, that his
+suspicions were not aroused even by this vehement language. He only
+imagined that the very suggestion of a dishonorable action associated
+with his son's name affected Count Tristan thus powerfully.
+
+"But it is absolutely necessary that immediate notice should be taken of
+this letter," argued Maurice. "If I had been guilty of the act of which
+I have been accused, I could never have lifted my head again, and I feel
+degraded by the very suspicion. Do not detain me, I entreat you."
+
+"There is something you must hear before you go!" the count whispered
+hoarsely.
+
+For the first time an indefinable dread stole into the mind of Maurice.
+He put down his hat, and, approaching his father, could only echo the
+words,--
+
+"Something I must hear?"
+
+"You should have consulted me," the count continued, speaking with great
+effort.
+
+"True, and I meant to do so, had I not been prevented. But the
+transaction was simple enough. My estate is unmortgaged. I had given you
+a power of attorney, but I knew that it had not been used; you told me
+so yourself, scarcely an hour before I requested Mr. Emerson to make me
+this loan."
+
+"No--no,--I did not say _that_;--you misunderstood me,--I did not say
+_that_,--I never said _that!_ You only _inferred_ it! I could not be
+answerable for your _inferences_," returned the count, in the tone of a
+man defending himself.
+
+"Great heavens! What does this mean?" exclaimed Maurice "I cannot have
+misunderstood you? You cannot have used the power of attorney?"
+
+The count was silent, but the shame and confusion depicted upon his
+countenance were a fearful answer.
+
+It was some minutes before Maurice could rally sufficiently to take a
+clear view of his own position. His first impulse caused him to turn to
+his father in an excess of rage; but the broken, contrite, abject
+demeanor of the latter silenced the angry reproaches that were bursting
+from his son's lips.
+
+The count was the first to break the silence.
+
+He said, in a pleading, exculpatory tone,--
+
+"There was no other way; matters had gone terribly wrong with me in
+Brittany; we were reduced to worse than poverty; I was frightfully
+entangled; nothing remained but a mortgage upon your property."
+
+"What Mr. Emerson writes me in this letter is true, then?" was all
+Maurice could utter; but his tone pierced his father as deeply as the
+sharpest reproaches.
+
+The count assented.
+
+Maurice, unable longer to control himself, broke forth, "And I shall not
+only be forced to endure the blighting suspicion of being guilty myself,
+but I must bear the terrible certainty that my father is so!"
+
+The count only murmured in broken accents, "Oh, if the committee should
+select the left road!"
+
+Maurice caught eagerly at the faint hope, and after a few moments'
+reflection, replied in a voice which, in spite of its coldness, was not
+without a touch of pity,--
+
+"I must see Mr. Emerson, and make an effort to postpone his present
+intentions until the decision is made."
+
+"It will be against us!" cried the count, vehemently. "Mr. Rutledge has
+made up his mind to vote for the road to the right; that one vote would
+have saved us! But we are too unfortunate; there is no longer a chance
+left!"
+
+Maurice went forth without replying.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+A SURPRISE.
+
+
+The severe mental suffering that he endured during the half hour that
+was occupied in walking from Brown's hotel to the office of Mr. Emerson,
+may easily be conceived. On reaching that gentleman's place of business,
+Maurice learned that he was not within, but would probably return
+immediately. The young viscount was painfully conscious that the clerks
+answered his inquiries with a pointedly cold brevity. He saw them glance
+at each other, and one of them shrugged his shoulders, and gave a low
+whistle as Maurice seated himself to wait. The blood mounted to his face
+at this indignity, and rage took the place of mortification; but he
+could only nerve himself to endure with assumed composure the scorn he
+so little deserved. It was half an hour before Mr. Emerson entered.
+
+"The business which brings me here is so important that I took the
+liberty of waiting," said Maurice, rising.
+
+Mr. Emerson answered, stiffly,--
+
+"Have the goodness to walk into my private apartment."
+
+Maurice obeyed.
+
+Mr. Emerson was one of those reserved men who never choose the
+initiative in any transaction. He motioned Maurice to take a chair, then
+seated himself in the attitude of a listener.
+
+"I am placed in a position which renders explanation very difficult,"
+commenced the viscount.
+
+Mr. Emerson assented by a half bow, but did not in any manner assist the
+speaker.
+
+"Nothing could have astonished me more than the letter I have just
+received from you," continued Maurice.
+
+Mr. Emerson lifted his eyebrows a little incredulously, and crossed his
+legs, but still played the auditor only.
+
+Maurice, galled by his supercilious manner, said, in a tone of
+irritation of which he repented a moment afterward, "I presume that you
+had no doubt that my conduct justified your letter?"
+
+"None," replied Mr. Emerson, with quiet severity.
+
+"You were wrong, you did me the greatest injustice," cried Maurice, "and
+yet unless you can credit this fact upon my bare assertion I have no
+means of convincing you."
+
+Mr. Emerson smiled sarcastically.
+
+"You do not seem to me desirous, sir, of learning in what manner this
+mistake has arisen, even if I could make it clear."
+
+"You are right," returned Mr. Emerson; "I do not see that it is a matter
+which further concerns me."
+
+"But it concerns my honor"--began Maurice, angrily.
+
+He was checked by another contemptuous smile from Mr. Emerson.
+
+"I see, sir, you are not disposed to allow me to defend myself, or to
+encourage me to enter into any explanation."
+
+"I have said that the matter no longer concerns me."
+
+"Then I will not occupy your time with a vain attempt to change your
+opinion of me, but will proceed at once to the request I have to make."
+
+"I shall feel obliged by your doing so," said Mr. Emerson, in a manner
+which intimated that he wished to close the interview.
+
+"All I ask," proceeded Maurice, "is that you will take no further steps
+until"--
+
+"I have no further steps to take," interrupted Mr. Emerson, frigidly.
+
+Maurice looked puzzled, but, imagining that Mr. Emerson did not choose
+to understand him, he added, "I mean, in plain language, that you will
+not make the affair public, and that you will not institute legal
+proceedings until"--
+
+"The repayment of the money loaned, obviated the necessity for legal
+proceedings," returned Mr. Emerson, in the same cold manner.
+
+"The _repayment_?" exclaimed Maurice, in amazement; "what _repayment_?
+what money?"
+
+"The ten thousand dollars loaned to you by me, _somewhat rashly_, and
+without examining a security which proved to be valueless."
+
+In spite of Maurice's astonishment at this unexpected communication, the
+arrow of this reproach did not miss its mark, but he only said,--
+
+"Am I to understand that these ten thousand dollars have been repaid?"
+
+"They were repaid about an hour ago."
+
+"Repaid? Who could have repaid them? How is it possible?" Maurice
+uttered these words to himself rather then addressed them to Mr.
+Emerson.
+
+But the latter answered briefly, "The Countess de Gramont."
+
+"My grandmother? Impossible! It was not in her power; she knew nothing
+of the transaction."
+
+Mr. Emerson continued, without noticing this assertion,--
+
+"A quarter of an hour ago I despatched a clerk to Brown's hotel, with a
+receipt for the money."
+
+"My grandmother!" repeated Maurice, musingly, and unable to credit the
+possibility of her interference.
+
+"You will find the information I have given you correct," said Mr.
+Emerson, rising.
+
+The hint was too marked to remain unnoticed by Maurice, in spite of his
+bewilderment, and he also rose.
+
+"If I had been aware of this fact I should not have trespassed upon your
+time, sir; for, it is not difficult to perceive that you have formed an
+opinion of my character which cannot readily be altered."
+
+"I judge men by their actions rather than by their words and manners: a
+very homely rule, sir, but one which is not subject to change at my time
+of life."
+
+The bow which closed this sentence was too pointedly a parting
+salutation to be mistaken. Maurice returned it, and, without another
+word, went forth. He hurried to Brown's hotel in the hope of unravelling
+the mystery.
+
+Meantime, the Countess de Gramont had been thrown, by the reception of
+Mr. Emerson's letter, into a state of excitement almost equal to that of
+Maurice. Over and over again she read the few lines acknowledging the
+sum of ten thousand dollars sent by her, and the information that the
+legal proceedings about to be instituted against the Viscount de Gramont
+would be arrested.
+
+The letter was in English; thus her difficulty in comprehending its
+contents was increased, and, though she was tolerably conversant with
+the language, she imagined that she must have misunderstood the words
+before her.
+
+The countess requested Bertha to read and translate the letter.
+
+"Aunt," cried Bertha, "what is this about ten thousand dollars? You
+cannot have sent this gentleman ten thousand dollars, and yet he makes
+you a formal acknowledgment that the money has been received. There must
+be some error."
+
+"The error itself is an impertinence," returned the lady. "Does this low
+person imagine that the Countess de Gramont meddles with business
+matters?--with the sending of money and the receiving of receipts?"
+
+At that moment Maurice entered, and his grandmother, taking the letter
+from Bertha, and placing it in his hand, accosted him with no little
+asperity of tone.
+
+"What is the meaning of this?"
+
+He glanced over the letter hurriedly and replied, "It is of you that I
+should ask that question, my grandmother, and I must also ask how I am
+to thank you for making me so deeply your debtor, and at a moment when,
+for the first time in my life, my honor was implicated!"
+
+"Your _honor_ implicated? _Your honor? The honor of a de Gramont?_ What
+do you mean?"
+
+"Had you not, in some inexplicable manner, become aware of my position,
+and paid those ten thousand dollars with such liberality and
+promptitude, I should have been--I cannot bear the thought! The very
+remembrance of the position from which I have been extricated cuts me to
+the soul."
+
+"Are you mad, Maurice?" demanded the countess. "_I_ pay ten thousand
+dollars for you? What do I know about money?"
+
+"Then the money was not sent to Mr. Emerson by you?" inquired Maurice,
+more bewildered than ever.
+
+"Mr. Emerson? Who is Mr. Emerson? I never heard of the person."
+
+Maurice turned to Bertha. The idea at once suggested itself that she had
+used her aunt's name to conceal her own generosity.
+
+"And you, Bertha,--do you also disclaim all knowledge of the
+transaction?"
+
+"Yes, I only wish I _had_ known."
+
+"It was not you, then?" replied Maurice, more and more astonished. "Who
+could it have been? I have no intimate friend in Washington but Gaston
+de Bois, and he has not the power to do me this service."
+
+"Was he aware of the circumstances which made you need this sum?" asked
+Bertha.
+
+"He certainly knew something of the transaction, but I do not think"--
+
+"That is enough!" she replied, joyfully. "If he knew anything about it,
+I know from whom the money came. There is but one person who could have
+sent it; and that is Madeleine!"
+
+"Madeleine?"
+
+"Yes, Madeleine,--our own, generous Madeleine," returned Bertha. "M. de
+Bois is her trusted friend and counsellor."
+
+The Countess de Gramont rose up majestically, white with rage.
+
+"But what _right_ has she, the mantua-maker, the tradeswoman, to make
+use of _my_ name? How did she dare even to allow it to be suspected
+that I had ever come in contact with a person who has so demeaned
+herself? It is unpardonable audacity!"
+
+"You little know the full value of the service she has rendered me!"
+exclaimed Maurice, unheeding his grandmother's anger.
+
+"A service which you must not and shall not stoop to accept. Never will
+I consent to that," returned the countess, fiercely. "Would you profit
+by her ignoble labor? Has your residence in this plebeian land bowed you
+as low as that?"
+
+"If," replied Maurice, "it be a blow to my pride to be forced to accept
+her aid (for it has been tendered in a manner which cannot now be
+declined), it is a blow which has lifted me up, not bowed me down. It
+has made me feel that a great spirit which humbles itself and bends
+meekly to circumstance and does not regard any toil, nearest to its
+hand, as too lowly,--that spirit has truest cause for pride, since it
+earns the privilege of serving others. You have yet to learn that
+Madeleine's timely assistance has saved, not me alone, but our whole
+family from _disgrace_,--ay, positive _disgrace_! If you would know more
+on that subject, I refer you to my father. For myself, I will seek
+Madeleine and discover whether she has indeed made me so greatly her
+debtor."
+
+The countess would have detained him; but Maurice was gone before she
+could speak.
+
+He had alluded to his father as involved in this mysterious affair,
+which the countess was now tremblingly desirous of solving. She sought
+Count Tristan. He was in the drawing-room, where Maurice had left him.
+He sat beside the table,--his hands clinched, his head bowed, his face
+rigid in its expression of stony despair. He looked like a man who
+awaited the sentence of death.
+
+The entrance of the countess scarcely roused him; nor did he hear, or
+rather heed, her first address. But when she placed the letter, received
+from Mr. Emerson, in his hand, and asked him if he knew what it meant,
+he sprang from his seat with a sudden burst of half-frantic joy.
+
+"Who has done this?" he almost shrieked out.
+
+"Who indeed?" returned his mother. "It has been suggested that it may be
+one of the evidences of Madeleine's presumption. I can scarcely credit
+it. I can scarcely believe she would have the audacity to use my name,
+or occupy herself with the affairs of my family. Yet there is no one
+else"--
+
+"It is like her! It is she! And may Heaven bless her for it!" cried the
+count, stirred by a sudden impulse of genuine gratitude. "I must have
+confirmation! I must go to her at once!"
+
+"Yes, go to her," replied his mother; "but let it be to inform her that
+we disdain her bounty; that we are astonished at her temerity in
+offering it; and that we hope never to hear from her again."
+
+Count Tristan had left the room before his mother had finished
+speaking,--an act of disrespect of which he had never before been
+guilty. Exasperated by his manner even more than by that of Maurice, and
+dreading the result of their interview with Madeleine, the countess
+resolved herself to take a step which would make her niece conscious of
+her true position and of the light in which her presumption was viewed
+by her aunt. She determined to follow her son to Madeleine's residence
+and to give her a lesson, in the presence of the count and Maurice,
+which would be the last he would ever need.
+
+She had rung the bell to order a carriage, when Bertha entered. Learning
+her destination and its object, Bertha expressed her intention of
+accompanying her; and to this the countess could not object.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+THE NOBLEMAN AND MANTUA-MAKER.
+
+
+As we are already aware, Madeleine absolved herself from her usual
+duties for one day, and made Ruth her representative in the working
+department. In spite of Madeleine's habitual self-control, she
+experienced some slight stirrings of irritation when Victorine, who
+deemed herself a privileged person, intruded upon her privacy.
+
+"Pardon, mademoiselle," began the consequential forewoman. "I should not
+have ventured to disturb you, but there is a matter of importance to be
+settled. Madame Orlowski has come in person to order six ball-dresses;
+and she is not satisfied to decide upon the varieties of style that will
+most become her without consulting Mademoiselle Melanie herself. She
+insisted upon my bringing you this message."
+
+"You have done wrong," answered Madeleine, somewhat less gently than was
+her wont.
+
+"But in a case of such great importance"--began Victorine, flushing
+angrily.
+
+Madeleine interrupted her with a slight touch of sarcasm in her tone:
+"It is, no doubt, inconceivable to you that my mind should be occupied
+with matters of even _greater_ importance than six ball dresses for one
+lady. Still, I must be tyrannical enough to request you to believe so,
+and not to allow me to be molested again. At all events," she added, her
+good-humor returning, "I venture to hope that I have not often subjected
+you to tyranny or caprice."
+
+"No, no, certainly not," responded Victorine, a little mollified. "And
+since it was _so obvious_ that mademoiselle had _something upon her
+mind_, I have exerted myself as much as possible to prevent her being
+annoyed."
+
+"Thank you; have the goodness to send Robert here."
+
+This order was so pointedly a dismissal that the forewoman had no excuse
+to linger. She left the room thoroughly convinced that Mademoiselle
+Melanie was in love,--in love at last! The house would soon be gayer;
+Mademoiselle Melanie would leave the business more in her forewoman's
+hands; the pleasant change so long desired was coming about; but she
+could not rest until she discovered the object of Mademoiselle Melanie's
+attachment. One thing was certain: there was romance and mystery about
+the whole affair, and this lent zest to the Frenchwoman's enjoyment.
+
+Victorine not only summoned Robert, but stole after him on tiptoe to the
+door of Madeleine's boudoir to hear what order was given. She distinctly
+caught these words:--
+
+"You will admit no one but the Count de Gramont and M. Maurice de
+Gramont."
+
+"The Count de Gramont and his son!" said Victorine to herself, as she
+hurried back to her satins and velvets; "Oh, this is decidedly getting
+interesting,--Mademoiselle Melanie aims high,--and, in spite of her
+prudence and propriety, she--well, well, we shall see! It's always still
+water that runs deepest. The Count de Gramont and his son! Dear me,
+Mademoiselle Melanie would do better if she made me her _confidante_ at
+once."
+
+Victorine, as she excused Mademoiselle Melanie to the Countess Orlowski,
+could not help dropping a hint that Mademoiselle Melanie might not in
+future be so wholly at the command of her customers,--she would receive
+more visitors of her own,--there were noblemen from her own country who
+were to have free access.
+
+When Madame Orlowski departed and the forewoman returned to the
+work-room, these inuendoes were repeated, and caused no little
+excitement among the group of young women, who revered Madeleine almost
+as though she were a patron saint, and they the most devout Catholics.
+Ruth was highly indignant; but to have admonished the circulator of the
+intelligence, by even the faintest reproach, would have been to make
+matters worse, and to induce Mademoiselle Victorine to defend her rash
+assertions by still rasher ones.
+
+Madeleine was not destined to enjoy the uninterrupted solitude she so
+much desired, for Robert had scarcely received his orders to admit no
+one, when he returned to the boudoir with a card in his hand. He
+presented it with hesitation in spite of the large bribe he had
+received.
+
+"His lordship insisted upon my taking his card to Mademoiselle," he said
+apologetically.
+
+"You should not have transgressed my orders," answered Madeleine, with
+some show of impatience. "I have given you the names of the only persons
+whom you were to admit to-day."
+
+"I understand _that_, mademoiselle, but his lordship would not be
+denied, and said that he called upon a matter of the greatest
+importance, and that he knew Mademoiselle Melanie would see him."
+
+Madeleine could not, after this, refuse to allow Lord Linden to enter;
+he no doubt brought her some information concerning the vote which she
+had charged him to obtain.
+
+Lord Linden's countenance, which usually wore a moody, discontented
+expression, was bright with expectation, as he entered Madeleine's
+presence.
+
+"You will pardon," he began, "my refusing to accept your servant's
+denial; I based my hopes of forgiveness upon the good tidings which I
+bring. My advocacy, or rather my sister's (but that is _entre nous_),
+has not been used in vain with Mr. Rutledge; he had definitely made up
+his mind to cast his vote differently, but his gallantry could not
+withstand a fair lady's solicitation;--he is too thoroughly an American
+for _that_, and you may depend upon his vote."
+
+"I am more deeply grateful to you than you can imagine! I thank you
+heartily!" exclaimed Madeleine, extending her hand with impulsive
+frankness, but the action was checked almost as quickly as made. For a
+moment she had forgotten the difference of station which she wished him
+to believe existed between them.
+
+"Do not withdraw your hand," he pleaded, making an attempt to imprison
+that hand in his own. But he had the good taste instantly to abandon his
+intention when he saw Madeleine's reluctance. "As you will; I am more
+than satisfied by the assurance that I have a claim upon your
+gratitude."
+
+"You have, indeed, my lord; I am truly grateful."
+
+"I will only ask in return," commenced his lordship, "that you will
+listen to me for a few moments; that you will allow me to tell you what
+is in my mind,--my heart."
+
+Madeleine saw that the evil hour could not be escaped, or postponed, and
+she answered with calm dignity which would have awed a man less under
+the dominion of passion, "You are at liberty to speak, my lord; yet what
+is there of _importance_ which your lordship can have to say to the
+_mantua-maker_?"
+
+Lord Linden, at first, found it difficult to avail himself of the
+privilege so frigidly given; but he soon collected himself.
+
+"The mantua-maker? How little that title seems to belong to you! The
+proudest, the noblest lady could not have inspired me with the respect,
+the veneration I feel for you."
+
+"_Respect_ is peculiarly grateful to one in my position;" answered
+Madeleine pointedly.
+
+This answer seemed to suggest that he might be forgetful of the respect
+due to her, and confused him for a moment; but such an opportunity as
+the present was not to be lost. He went on with renewed animation.
+
+"From the first moment that I met you,--from the moment when, during
+that memorable journey, you shone forth as the guardian angel of all the
+suffering--and especially mine"--
+
+Madeleine tried to restrain him again, by saying, with a forced smile,--
+
+"_An angelic mantua-maker!_ You have a great faculty of _idealizing_, my
+lord. I believe the extent of my services to you consisted in the
+sacrifice of an old pocket-handkerchief, torn into strips for a bandage,
+and the use of my own especial implement, a needle, with which the
+bandages were sewed."
+
+"I have those strips yet," replied the nobleman with ardor. "I shall
+never part with them,--they are invaluable to me; for, from the moment
+we met, I loved you!"
+
+Madeleine was about to answer, but he frustrated her intention and went
+on,--
+
+"You were lost to me for six months, yet I could not forget you. I
+sought you unceasingly, and thought to find you in the society
+of--of--of those who are not, in reality, your superiors--not your
+equals even; I found you at last--but let me pass that over; since I
+have had the happiness of seeing you again, every moment has increased
+my admiration,--my devotion."
+
+Madeleine would have interrupted him, but was again prevented.
+
+"If I had not the misfortune to be a nobleman, if I were not accountable
+to my family for the connection I formed, I would say to you, 'Will you
+honor me by becoming my wife?' Never have I met a woman who united in a
+higher degree all the attributes which are most beautiful in my
+eyes,--all that man could desire in a companion,--all the charms of
+person, intellect, soul!"
+
+Madeleine took advantage of a moment's pause, for his lordship found it
+sufficiently difficult to proceed, and replied, with glacial dignity,--
+
+"Were all your compliments as merited as you perhaps persuade yourself
+to imagine them to be, they would not alter the fact, my lord, that
+_you_ are a nobleman and _I_ a dress-maker."
+
+"True," replied Lord Linden, undaunted by her chilling demeanor; "and it
+is not easy to break the iron bonds of conventionality. But, if the
+difference of our rank prevents my enjoying the triumph of presenting
+such a woman to the world as my wife, it does not prevent my renouncing
+the whole world for her,--it does not prevent my devoting my life to
+her,--my sharing with her some happy seclusion where I can forget
+everything except my vow to be hers only."
+
+This time Madeleine allowed him to conclude without word or movement.
+She sat with her eyes fastened upon the ground, and though a bright,
+crimson spot burned on either cheek, her manner was as calm as though
+the offer just made her were full of honor. When it was unmistakable
+that he had finished speaking and awaited her answer, she said, in a
+firm voice, the mild serenity of which could not fail to penetrate the
+breast of the man who had just insulted her,--
+
+"In other words, my lord, you have in the most delicate phrases in which
+infamy can be couched,--in phrases that are as flowers to hide the
+serpent beneath them, given me to understand that were I of your own
+rank you would address me as a man of honor might, and expect me to
+listen to you; but, as I am but a mantua-maker and you are a nobleman,
+you offer me _dishonor_ in place of honor, and expect that I shall
+accept it as befitting my position."
+
+"You use harsh language, my dear Mademoiselle Melanie,--language that"--
+
+"That clearly expresses your meaning, and therefore sounds harshly. I am
+accustomed to speak plainly myself, and to strip of their flowery
+_entourage_ the sentiments to which I listen. It may be an ungraceful
+habit, but it is a safe one. I am persuaded that if vice were always
+called by its true name, shame, misery, and ruin would darken fewer
+lives."
+
+"Your candor is one of your greatest charms," said Lord Linden, who was
+deeply impressed by her singular and open treatment of a proposition
+which it had cost him a struggle to make.
+
+"I am glad that you approve of my frankness, for I must be franker
+still. When I asked you a favor I was impelled by motives which may
+perhaps be explained to you hereafter; I was exceedingly unwilling to
+make the request which you so promptly accorded,--but the strength of
+those motives urged me to set aside prudence and reserve. I will not
+pretend to conceal that I feared you might be placed upon a footing of
+less restraint through the performance of the service I solicited at
+your hands, and that you might make your visits more frequent than I
+should be inclined to permit,--but I did not dream that the price you
+set upon the performance of this act of kindness was the privilege of
+offering me an insult."
+
+"An insult? You do not imagine--you cannot suppose that I had any such
+intention?"
+
+"You have spoken too plainly, my lord, to leave anything to my
+_imagination_; possibly, however, you may be acquainted with some fine
+phrase, unknown to me, in which you would couch what I have plainly
+styled, and as plainly comprehend to be an insult. Your advocacy with
+Mr. Rutledge has brought about a result which will benefit one
+who--who--who has the strongest claims upon me, and, under ordinary
+circumstances, I should have been your debtor. As it is, you and I are
+quits! The privilege of insulting me will suffice you! And now, my lord,
+you will excuse me, if, being a woman who earns her livelihood and whose
+time is valuable, I bring this interview to a close."
+
+Madeleine, as she spoke, rose and courtesied, and would have passed out
+of the room; but Lord Linden, forgetting himself for a moment, prevented
+her exit by springing between her and the door.
+
+"You will not leave me without, at least, one word of pardon?"
+
+"I have said we were quits. You demanded a price for the service you
+rendered me; I have paid it by listening for the first time to language
+which, had I a father, or a brother, could not have been addressed to me
+with impunity; I have neither."
+
+"Let me, at least, vindicate myself. You do not know to what lengths
+passion will drive a man."
+
+"You are right, I never knew until now; I have learned to-day. Allow me
+to pass without the necessity of ringing for a servant."
+
+"First you must hear me," exclaimed Lord Linden, almost beside himself
+at the prospect of her leaving him in anger, and closing her doors
+henceforward against him. "I know how contemptible I must seem in your
+eyes. I read it in your countenance; I have no excuse to offer, except
+the plea that my love for you overleapt the bounds of all discretion."
+
+"I ask for no excuse," answered Madeleine, freezingly.
+
+"I only plead for forgiveness; I only entreat that you will forget the
+error of which I have been guilty, that you will allow me to see you
+again; that you will permit me to endeavor to reinstate myself in your
+esteem."
+
+"My lord, our intercourse is at an end. The service you have rendered me
+it is no longer in my power to refuse, but you have received its full
+equivalent. I can spare no more time in the discussion of this subject.
+Once more, I request you to let me pass without forcing me to ring the
+bell."
+
+"I obey you, but on condition that I may return, if it be but once more.
+Promise to grant me one more interview, and I leave you on the instant;
+I implore you not to refuse."
+
+He approached her, and before Madeleine was even aware of his intention,
+seized her hand.
+
+The door opened; M. Maurice de Gramont was announced just as Madeleine
+snatched away the hand Lord Linden had taken, but not before the action
+had been noticed by Maurice.
+
+He paused at the sight of the nobleman, but Madeleine relieved and
+rejoiced by the presence of her cousin, unreflectingly hastened toward,
+and greeted him with a beaming face.
+
+Lord Linden's astonishment was eloquently portrayed upon his
+countenance. His hostess, recovering her presence of mind, turned to the
+nobleman, and bowing as courteously as though she had no cause for
+indignation, wished him good-morning. Her tone seemed to imply that he
+was taking his leave when Maurice entered. Lord Linden had no
+alternative but to withdraw.
+
+Maurice, whose heart was swelling with deep gratitude, with increased
+tenderness, with exalted admiration, experienced, at the sight of Lord
+Linden, a sickening revulsion of feeling.
+
+This nobleman, then, was received by Madeleine in her own especial
+apartment, the doors of which were only opened to her particular
+friends; he was alone with her, and his unusually agitated manner
+betrayed that he had been conversing upon some subject of the deepest
+interest. Madeleine, too, looked paler than usual, and the troubled
+expression which had displaced the wonted placidity of her countenance
+was, doubtless, owing to this unanticipated interruption.
+
+As Lord Linden made his exit, he glanced at Maurice at once haughtily
+and inquiringly. What was this young man, of his lordship's own rank,
+doing here, in the boudoir of the mantua-maker? What claim had he to
+admission? Must he not be upon an intimate footing? for, had not
+Madeleine extended her hand to him without reserve, and as though she
+were greeting one who was far from a stranger?
+
+"A lover!" exclaimed Lord Linden to himself as he closed the door; "a
+rival to whom she listens in spite of her bewitching prudery. It is
+incomprehensible! and yet it has inspired me with new courage; I will
+not leave him an undisputed field."
+
+He had approached the street-door when he reflected that something might
+be learned from Mademoiselle Melanie's _employees_. He turned back and
+went upstairs to the exhibition rooms.
+
+Ruth Thornton received him; and, at his request, displayed shawls,
+mantles, scarfs innumerable. He had desired to see these articles on the
+plea of making a selection for his sister. Hardly looking at them, he
+purchased one of the most extravagant, while making an attempt to lure
+Ruth into conversation. She replied simply and politely, but appeared to
+be only interested in her occupation, and quite to ignore the occasional
+gallantry of his remarks. He was on the point of desisting, when
+Victorine, who had been attending to customers in another apartment,
+chanced to look into this room, saw Lord Linden, recognized him as the
+gentleman with whom she had noticed Mademoiselle Melanie earnestly
+conversing on the day previous, and at once came forward as though to
+assist Ruth. The latter had been rendered very uncomfortable by the
+deportment of his lordship, and was only too glad to retire, leaving
+the forewoman alone with Lord Linden.
+
+The nobleman added so largely to his purchase that Lady Augusta's
+astonishment must be greatly excited by the number of shawls and scarfs
+which her brother deemed it possible for a lady to bring into use during
+a season.
+
+As may be supposed, it was not difficult to lure the lively Frenchwoman
+into talking of the head of the establishment; and she very speedily
+gratified Lord Linden by communicating as much of Mademoiselle Melanie's
+history as she herself knew. But had Mademoiselle Melanie lovers? Or was
+her vestal-like demeanor genuine? This was difficult and delicate ground
+to tread upon; yet his lordship was too much in earnest not to venture a
+step or two.
+
+The wily Victorine now assumed a mysterious air, for she entertained a
+suspicion that the gentleman did not make inquiries without being deeply
+interested in the answers. It would be impossible to relate precisely
+_what_ she said. Her confidences were given more by inuendoes and arch
+glances and knowing shakes of the head, which suggest so much, because
+they leave so much to the imagination. Lord Linden received the
+impression that Mademoiselle Melanie, though much admired by the
+opposite sex, had conducted herself with exemplary decorum _until
+lately_; but, of late, certain mysterious proceedings had become known
+to the forewoman of which she did not wish to speak too unreservedly.
+
+The handsome black lace shawl which Lord Linden begged Victorine to
+accept delighted her to a point which won further confidence; for, while
+folding it up with caressing touches, and thanking the donor with that
+grace which belongs to her nation, she admitted that there was a certain
+M. de Gramont who was enamored of Mademoiselle Melanie, and for whom the
+latter had evinced a marked preference, though Mademoiselle Melanie
+evidently wished to act with all possible discretion, and keep his
+attentions from the eyes of the public.
+
+Be it understood, that with Victorine's lax ideas of morality, keeping
+an _affaire de coeur_ from the eyes of the public was all that was
+necessary to preserve the honor of a woman who chose to indulge in a
+_liaison_.
+
+Lord Linden had no alternative but to believe that Mademoiselle Melanie,
+in spite of her air of exquisite purity, and the chaste dignity which
+characterized all her words and actions, was, after all, not
+inaccessible. It was (he reflected) as much out of the question for the
+Viscount de Gramont to marry a mantua-maker as it was for Lord Linden to
+marry her; as a natural sequence, their intentions must be the same; and
+it remained to be proved which would be the successful lover.
+
+He quitted the house enraged with himself for having been deceived;
+indignant with Madeleine for her successful acting; furious with
+Maurice, because he looked upon him as a rival; determined to seize an
+early opportunity of quarrelling with him, and resolved to find some
+pretext to gain admission to Mademoiselle Melanie's presence through the
+aid of her obliging forewoman.
+
+Let us return to Maurice, whom we left in Madeleine's boudoir. When the
+door had closed upon Lord Linden, he said, in a wounded tone,--
+
+"I thought only especial friends were admitted to this sanctum of yours.
+I did not know, Madeleine, that you were acquainted with Lord Linden."
+
+"He came to bring _Mademoiselle Melanie_ an important piece of
+information; and one which concerns you, Maurice."
+
+Maurice was exasperated, rather than soothed, by this intelligence, and
+answered, hastily,--
+
+"I am sorry for it. He belongs to a class of men whom I hold in supreme
+contempt;--a _blase_ idler, whose chief occupation in life is to kill
+time. Madeleine, forgive me! What a brute I am to speak so harshly when
+I come to thank you! But the sight of that senseless _roue_ in your
+boudoir, and apparently upon a familiar footing, has made an idiot of
+me. I will not pay you so bad a compliment as to suggest that _he_ is
+the mysterious lover whom you have refused to name. But why is he here
+to-day? Why did I see him here yesterday? Why did he, yesterday, when he
+caught sight of me, suddenly disappear, as though desirous of eluding
+observation?"
+
+"Maurice, if there be true affection between us," said Madeleine,
+gently, and laying her delicate white hand upon his, "if there be true,
+_cousinly_ affection between us, we should trust each other wholly, and
+_in spite of appearances_. Though it is easy for me to explain _why_ I
+admitted Lord Linden to a private interview, it may not always be
+equally easy to give you explanations; and we may bring great future
+sorrow upon each other if either give entertainment to a doubt."
+
+"No, Madeleine, I can never doubt that all you do is well and wisely
+done. Would that I had no cause to doubt your affection for me; no cause
+to be distracted by jealousy when I see any other man allowed
+privileges which I long to claim as mine alone! But how is it possible
+to love you, and not to be hourly tormented by the position in which I
+am placed? Since you have rejected me as a lover, could I even be known
+to the world as your cousin, I might, at least, have the joy of
+protecting you. Must that, too, be denied me?"
+
+"Yes, Maurice. Do you not know how important it is that our relationship
+should remain undivulged, unsuspected?"
+
+"No; I cannot see the importance! I cannot submit to such an
+interdiction! Let my grandmother and my father say what they will, I am
+not bound to yield to so unnatural a request!"
+
+"You will yield to it as my petition, Maurice. Think of it as a favor, a
+sacrifice I ask of you. If you refuse me, I shall believe that you feel
+I have no right to ask favors."
+
+"No right? There you touch me deeply! Madeleine, I am here to-day to
+learn whether you have not laid me under the deepest obligation--whether
+it was not by you"--
+
+Madeleine, though she was not a little discomposed by learning that her
+recent interference in his behalf was suspected, had presence of mind
+left to endeavor to divert his thoughts. She interrupted him by saying,
+in a lively tone,--
+
+"I have made several vain attempts to explain Lord Linden's presence
+here, and you will not permit me to do so, though his visit concerns
+yourself. Have you no curiosity? I am half inclined to punish you for
+your indifference."
+
+Before Maurice could reply, Count Tristan de Gramont was announced.
+
+"It is _you_ whom I have to thank,--you, good, generous, noble
+Madeleine, I am sure it is!" said he, excitedly. "It is your hand which
+has saved me and my son from the precipice over which we were suspended!
+I could scarcely credit the good news."
+
+"If you talk of good news," replied Madeleine, "I have some to give you
+which I have just received from Lord Linden. Mr. Rutledge has promised
+his vote for the left road."
+
+The count looked at her as though he could not trust his ears; then he
+said, in a tremulous voice that broke into a childish sob, "It is all
+wonder! You are the Fairy they called you, the magician,--the--the--the"--
+
+Robert opened the door and announced the Countess de Gramont and
+Mademoiselle de Merrivale.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+MADAME DE GRAMONT.
+
+
+The countess entered the room casting disdainful glances around her.
+
+Madeleine, who could not suspect the object of her visit, accosted her
+in astonishment.
+
+"You, madame, beneath my roof; this is an unhoped-for condescension!"
+
+"Do not imagine that I come to be classed among your customers, and
+order my dresses of you," returned the countess, disdainfully, and
+waving Madeleine off as the latter advanced toward her.
+
+Bertha felt strongly inclined to quote from a former remark of Gaston de
+Bois, and retort, "You have done that already, and the transaction was
+not particularly profitable," but she restrained herself.
+
+"Nor do I come," continued the imperious lady, "as one who stoops to be
+your visitor! I came to rebuke impertinence, and to demand by what right
+you have dared to make use of my name as a cloak to give respectability
+to _charities_ forced upon your poor relations."
+
+Madeleine was silent.
+
+"Then the aid which came to me at such an opportune moment _was_ yours,
+Madeleine?" said Maurice. "It was you who saved me from worse than
+ruin?"
+
+Still no answer from Madeleine's quivering lips.
+
+"Do not force her to say,--do not force her to acknowledge her own
+goodness and liberality," said Bertha, "we all know that it _was_ she,
+and she will not deny it. Does not her silence speak for her?"
+
+"You thought, perhaps," resumed the countess, even more angrily than
+before, "that because my son has flown in the face of my wishes, and has
+mingled himself up with business matters, and because Maurice has chosen
+to degrade himself by entering a profession,--you thought that you might
+take the liberty of coming to his assistance, in some temporary
+difficulty, and might also be pardoned the insolence of using my name;
+but I resent the impertinence; I will not permit it to pass uncorrected!
+I will write to the person whom you have deceived and let him know that
+the name of the Countess de Gramont has been used without her authority.
+I shall also inquire at whose suggestion he ventured to address an
+epistle to me."
+
+"No need of that, madame," said M. de Bois, who had entered the room in
+time to hear this burst of indignation. "_I_, alone, am to blame for the
+liberty of using your name. Knowing how desirous Mademoiselle de Gramont
+was to conceal her relationship to your family, I suggested that the
+money indispensable to her cousin should be sent in such a manner that
+it might be supposed to come from you. I also took the responsibility of
+suggesting to Mr. Emerson that it would be well to send a line to you,
+enclosing a receipt for the sum paid into his hands by me; one of my
+motives was to insure that the news of its payment would at once reach
+Maurice."
+
+"You presumed unwarrantably, sir," replied the countess. "You presumed
+almost as much as did Mademoiselle de Gramont, in supposing that she
+could use the money acquired in a manner so degrading to our _noble
+house_ for the benefit of my grandson."
+
+"That money, madame," rejoined M. de Bois, warmly, "has saved the honor
+of your _noble house_! I will leave you to learn of Count Tristan how it
+was imperilled, and how it would have been sullied but for Mademoiselle
+Madeleine's timely aid."
+
+"It has been _sullied_," began the countess.
+
+"Not by Mademoiselle de Gramont," returned M. de Bois. "Once more, I
+tell you that she has saved your escutcheon from a stain which could
+never have been effaced. And for this act you spurn her, you scorn her
+generosity; you tell her she is not worthy of rendering you a service,
+instead of bowing down before her as you,--as we all might well do, in
+reverence and admiration; thanking Heaven that such a woman has been
+placed in the world, as a glorious example to her own sex, and an
+inspiration to ours. The burden of her nobility has not crushed the
+noble instincts of her heart, or paralyzed her noble hands. But you do
+not know all yet; you owe her another debt"--
+
+"Another debt?" Count Tristan was the first to exclaim.
+
+"Yes," continued M. de Bois, in a tone of pride, "through her influence,
+the influence of the duchess-mantua-maker, the votes you could never
+otherwise have secured have been obtained; the committee met an hour
+ago, and the road to the left, which you so much desired, has been
+decided upon, and this, this too, you owe to Mademoiselle Madeleine's
+exertions."
+
+Neither Maurice nor Count Tristan was allowed to speak, for M. de Bois
+went on without pause,--
+
+"And do you deem _this, too_, madame, an impertinence, a presumption, a
+crime, upon the part of your niece? Do you say that this is a favor
+which you desire to reject? Happily it is not in your power! And now,
+after she has been cast off, despised, and denounced by you and your
+son, you are bound to come to her with thanks, if not to implore her
+pardon."
+
+"Sir," answered the countess, "you have forgotten yourself in a manner
+which astonishes me, and must astonish all who hear you; and henceforth,
+I beg you to understand"--
+
+Bertha prevented the sentence of banishment, which the countess was
+about to pronounce against M. de Bois, from being completed, by saying,
+abruptly,--
+
+"You will readily understand, M. de Bois, that we are so much surprised
+that astonishment deprives us of fitting words."
+
+Maurice now turned to Madeleine and said, with the emotion of a
+genuinely manly nature which is not ashamed to receive a benefit,--
+
+"To owe you so much is not oppressive to me, Madeleine. There is no
+being on earth, man or woman, to whom I would so willingly be indebted.
+I know the happiness it confers upon you to be able to do what you have
+done. I know your thankfulness is greater even than mine; though how
+great that is, even you cannot"--
+
+"What, Maurice!" broke in the countess; "are you so thoroughly without
+pride or self-respect that you talk of accepting the bounty of
+Mademoiselle de Gramont? You consent to receive this charity doled out
+by the hands of a _mantua-maker_?"
+
+Maurice grew livid with suppressed anger at this new insult, because it
+was levelled at Madeleine, rather than at himself.
+
+"My grandmother, when you are calmer, and when I myself am calmer, I
+will speak to you on this subject."
+
+"How pale you look, Madeleine!" cried Bertha, suddenly. "Surely you are
+ill!"
+
+These words caused Maurice and M. de Bois to spring to the side of
+Madeleine. Her strength had been over-taxed by the emotions of the last
+few days, and it suddenly gave way. It was by a strong effort of
+volition that she prevented herself from fainting. Maurice, who had
+caught her in his arms, placed her tenderly in a chair, and for a moment
+her beautiful head fell upon his shoulder; but she struggled against the
+insensibility which was stealing over her, and feebly waved her hand in
+the direction of a small table upon which stood a tumbler and a carafe
+of water. M. de Bois poured some water into the glass and would have
+held it to her lips; but Maurice took the tumbler from him, and, as
+Madeleine drank, the delight of ministering to her overcame his alarm at
+her indisposition, and sent shivering through his frame a thrill of
+almost rapture.
+
+In a few moments she lifted her eyes over which the lids had drooped
+heavily, and, trying to smile, sat up and made an effort to speak; but
+the pale lips moved without sound, and her countenance still wore a
+ghastly hue.
+
+"Are you better, my own dear Madeleine? What can I do for you?" asked
+Bertha, who was kneeling in front of her.
+
+Madeleine murmured faintly,--
+
+"I would like to be left alone, dear. Forgive me for sending you away. I
+shall soon be better when I am alone."
+
+"Impossible, Madeleine!" cried Maurice, his arm still about her waist.
+"You will not ask _me_ to leave you."
+
+Perhaps she only at that moment became conscious of the supporting arm;
+for she gently drew herself away, and the palest rose began to tinge her
+ashy cheek; but it deepened into a sudden crimson flush, as she saw the
+eyes of the countess angrily fixed upon her.
+
+"Yes, Maurice, do not refuse me. I am better,--I am quite well." And she
+rose up, forcing her limbs to obey her will. Then, leaning on Bertha's
+shoulder, whispered, "I entreat you, dear, to make them go,--make them
+_all_ go; I cannot bear more at this moment. Spare me, if you love me!"
+
+"O Madeleine, how can you?" began Bertha.
+
+But M. de Bois, who had perfect reliance in Madeleine's judgment, felt
+certain that she herself knew what was best for her, and said,--
+
+"Mademoiselle de Gramont will be better alone. If she will allow me, I
+will apprise Miss Thornton of her indisposition, and we will take our
+leave."
+
+Madeleine smiled assent, and sank into her seat; for her limbs were
+faltering.
+
+M. de Bois could not have uttered words better calculated to induce the
+countess to take her leave. She had no desire to be found in the boudoir
+of the mantua-maker by any of Madeleine's friends. She said,
+commandingly,--
+
+"Bertha--Maurice--I desire you to accompany my son and myself.
+Mademoiselle de Gramont, though my errand here is not fully
+accomplished, I wish you good morning."
+
+Neither Bertha nor Maurice showed the slightest disposition to obey the
+order of the countess, but Madeleine said, pleadingly,--
+
+"Go--go--I pray you! You cannot help me so much as by going."
+
+They both began to remonstrate; but she checked them by the pressure of
+her trembling fingers, for each held one of her hands, and said,
+pleadingly,--
+
+"Do not speak to me now,--another time,--when you will; but not _now_."
+
+There was something so beseeching in her voice that it was impossible to
+resist its appeal. Bertha embraced her in silence; Maurice pressed the
+hand that lay in his to his lips; and both followed the countess out of
+the room.
+
+Count Tristan took the hand Maurice had relinquished, and, giving a
+glance at the retreating figure of the countess, commenced speaking; but
+Madeleine interrupted him with,--
+
+"Another time, I beg. Leave me now."
+
+Just then Gaston de Bois entered, accompanied by Ruth, and, reading
+Madeleine's wishes in her eyes, placed his arm through that of the
+count, and conducted him out of the room, closing the door behind him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+HALF THE WOOER.
+
+
+Count Tristan was about to hand Bertha into the carriage which the
+countess had entered, when the young girl paused, with her tiny foot
+upon the step. She shrank from a discussion with her aunt who was in a
+high state of indignation. Madame de Gramont's wrath was not only
+directed against Gaston de Bois, but she was exasperated by Bertha's
+interference just when the haughty lady had been on the point of making
+him feel that he would no longer be ranked among the number of her
+friends and welcome visitors. While Bertha's foot still rested upon the
+step, she glanced over her shoulder and saw Gaston standing beside
+Maurice. Her decision was made. She looked into the carriage and said,--
+
+"You will have the kindness to excuse me from accompanying you, aunt; I
+will take advantage of the beautiful day and walk home with Maurice."
+
+Having uttered these words, she drew back quickly and tripped away
+before the answer of the countess could reach her. Maurice walked on one
+side of her, and what was more natural than that Gaston should occupy
+the place on the other side?
+
+For a brief space all three pursued their way in silence, then Bertha
+made an effort to converse. Maurice answered in monosyllables and those
+were followed by deep sighs. Gaston seemed to be hardly more master of
+language, though his taciturnity had a different origin; it was
+occasioned by the unexpected delight of finding himself walking beside
+Bertha, who constantly lifted her sweet face inquiringly to his, as
+though to ask why he had no words.
+
+Maurice was in a perplexed state of mind which caused him a nervous
+longing for entire seclusion. Even sympathy, sympathy from those who
+were as dear to him as Bertha and Gaston, jarred upon his highly-strung
+nerves.
+
+All at once, he stopped and said,--
+
+"Gaston, I will leave you to conduct Bertha home; I fancy you will not
+object to the trust," and trying to simulate a smile, he walked away.
+
+Gaston, left alone with Bertha, quickly regained his power of speech.
+They were passing the Capitol; how lovely the grounds looked in their
+spring attire! The day, too, was delicious. The opportunity of seeing
+Bertha alone was a happiness that might not soon return.
+
+"These grounds are Mademoiselle Madeleine's favorite promenade,"
+remarked M. de Bois. "Have you ever seen them?"
+
+Bertha made no reply, but she moved toward the gate and they entered. A
+short silence ensued, then she said abruptly, "What an heroic character
+is Madeleine's!"
+
+"A character," returned Gaston, tenderly, "which exerts a holy influence
+upon all with whom she is thrown in contact, and works more good,
+teaches more truth by the example of a patient, noble, holy life than
+could be taught by a thousand sermons from the most eloquent lips." He
+paused, and then continued in a tone of deep feeling, "_I_ may well say
+so! I shudder to think what a weak, useless, self-centred being I should
+have been but for her agency."
+
+"You seem far happier," replied Bertha, smiling archly, "than you did in
+Brittany! And this change was wrought by"--
+
+"Mademoiselle Madeleine! It was she who made me feel that we are all too
+ready with our peevish outcries against the beautiful world in which we
+have been placed; too ready to complain that all is sadness and sorrow
+and disappointment, when the gloom exists _within_ ourselves, not
+_without_ us; it is from ourselves the misty darkness springs; it is we
+ourselves who have lost, or who have never possessed, the secret of
+being happy, and we exclaim that there is no happiness on the face of
+the globe! It is we ourselves who are '_flat_, _stale_, and
+_unprofitable_,' not our neighbors; though we are sure to charge them
+with the dulness and insipidity for which we, alone, are responsible."
+
+Bertha answered, "One secret of Madeleine's cheerfulness is her
+unquenchable _hope_. Even in her saddest moments, the light of hope
+never appeared to be extinguished. It shone about her almost like a
+visible halo, and illumined all her present and her future. Have you not
+remarked the strength of this characteristic?"
+
+"That I have!" he replied with warmth. "And it forced upon my conviction
+the truth of the poet's words that '_hope_ and _wisdom_ are akin'; that
+it is always wise to hope, and the most wise, because those who have
+most faith, ever hope most. She taught me to hope when I was plunged in
+the depths of despair!"
+
+Bertha blushed suddenly, as though those fervently-uttered words had
+awakened some suggestion which could not be framed into language.
+
+"This seat is shady and retired, and commands a fine view of the
+garden," remarked Gaston, pausing. There was an invitation in his
+accents.
+
+Bertha, half unconsciously seated herself, and Gaston did the same. Then
+came another pause, a longer one than before; it was broken by Bertha,
+who exclaimed,--
+
+"You defended Madeleine nobly and courageously! and how I thanked you!"
+
+"I only did her justice, or, rather, I did her far less than justice,"
+returned Gaston.
+
+"Yet few men would have dared to say what you did in my aunt's
+presence."
+
+"Could any man who had known Mademoiselle Madeleine as intimately as I
+have had the honor of knowing her, through these four last painful years
+of her life, could any man who had learned to reverence her as I
+reverence her, have said less?"
+
+"But my aunt, by her towering pride, awes people out of what they
+_ought_ to do, and what they _want_ to do; at least, she does _me_; and
+therefore,--therefore I honored you all the more when I saw you had the
+courage to tell her harsh truths, while pleading Madeleine's cause so
+eloquently."
+
+Gaston was much moved by these unanticipated and warmly uttered
+commendations. He tried to speak, but once again relapsed into his old
+habit of stammering.
+
+"Your praises are most pre--pre--pre"--
+
+Bertha finished his sentence as in by-gone days. "Precious, are they
+indeed? I am glad! I am truly glad that they are precious."
+
+M. de Bois, notwithstanding the happiness communicated by this frank
+declaration, could make no reply. What _could_ he answer? And what right
+had he to give too delightful an interpretation to the chance
+expressions of the lovely being who sat there before him, uttering words
+in her ingenuous simplicity, which would have inspired a bolder, more
+self-confident man, with the certainty that she regarded him with
+partial eyes.
+
+His gaze was riveted upon the ground, and so was hers. Neither spoke.
+How long they would have sat thus, each looking for some movement to be
+made by the other, is problematical. The double reverie was broken by a
+well-known voice, which cried out,--
+
+"Ah, M. de Bois, you are the very man I wanted to see. Good-morning,
+Mademoiselle de Merrivale."
+
+Lord Linden and his sister, Lady Augusta, stood before them. M. de Bois
+instantly rose, and Bertha invited Lady Augusta to take the vacant
+place. Lord Linden had already seized Gaston's arm, and drawn him aside.
+
+"My dear fellow," began the nobleman, "Do you know that I have been
+vainly seeking you for a couple of days! I am in a most awkward
+predicament; but I suppress particulars to make a long story short; in a
+word, I have discovered the fair unknown! I expected,--you know what
+sort of woman I expected to find."
+
+"Perfectly," answered Gaston, laughing, "a walking angel, minus the
+traditional wings. I remember your description. Perhaps the lady grows
+more earthly upon a better acquaintance?"
+
+"No, not by any means. I found her more enchanting than ever; but hang
+it, unless you had seen her, you could not comprehend how I could have
+made such a confounded mistake. This lovely being is--is--is--don't
+prepare to laugh. I shall be tempted to knock you down if you do, for
+really my feelings are so much interested that I could not bear even a
+friend's ridicule."
+
+"Well, go on," urged M. de Bois. "The lady in question is,--not an
+angel, unless it be a fallen one; that I understand; good; then _what_
+is she?"
+
+"A _mantua-maker!_" exclaimed Lord Linden, in accents of deep
+mortification.
+
+Well might he have been startled by the change that came over Gaston's
+countenance; the merriment by which it had been lighted up suddenly
+vanished; he looked aghast, astounded, and his features worked as though
+with ill-suppressed rage.
+
+"I see you are amazed: I thought you would be! You did not take me for
+such a greenhorn! But, in spite of her trade,--her _profession_, as it
+is considerately called in this country,--she is the most peerless
+creature; any man might have been duped."
+
+"And her name?" inquired Gaston, in an agitated voice, though he hardly
+needed the confirmation to his fears contained in Lord Linden's answer.
+
+"Mademoiselle Melanie!"
+
+"Good heavens! how unfortunate!" exclaimed Gaston, not knowing what he
+was saying.
+
+"Unfortunate," repeated Lord Linden; "you may well say _that_. But as
+marrying her is out of the question, there may possibly be an
+alternative"--
+
+"_What_ alternative? _What do you mean?_" demanded Gaston, turning upon
+him fiercely.
+
+"It does not strike me that my meaning is so difficult to divine,"
+replied the other, lightly. "When a woman is not in a position to become
+the wife of a man who has fallen desperately in love with her, there is
+only one thing else that he will very naturally seek to"--
+
+"Forbear, my lord! I cannot listen to such language," cried Gaston,
+angrily. "You could not insult a pure woman, no matter in what station
+you found her, by such a suggestion. I will not believe you capable of
+such baseness."
+
+Lord Linden looked at him in questioning amazement; then answered,
+somewhat scornfully,--
+
+"Really, I was not aware that instances of the kind were so rare, or
+that your punctilious morality would be so terribly shocked by an
+every-day occurrence. If the lovely creature herself consents to my
+proposition, I consider that the arrangement will be a very fair one."
+
+"Consents?" echoed Gaston, lashed into fury. "Do you know of whom you
+are speaking? This Mademoiselle Melanie is one of the noblest,--that is
+to say, one of the most noble-minded, and one of the most chaste of
+women."
+
+"You have heard of her then? Perhaps seen her?" inquired Lord Linden,
+eagerly. "As for her vaunted chastity, that is neither here nor
+there,--that _may_ or _may not_ be fictitious. I have heard from the
+best authority that she receives the private visits of titled admirers,
+whose attentions can hardly be of a nature very different from mine. You
+see, it is fair game, and if I succeed"--
+
+"For Heaven's sake stop!" said Gaston, losing all control of his temper.
+Then reflecting that this very energy in defending her might compromise
+Madeleine, he said, more calmly, "I beg your lordship to pause before
+you insult Mademoiselle Melanie. I know something of her history. She
+bears an unblemished name; she has a highly sensitive, a most delicate
+and refined nature. Could she deem it possible that any man entertained
+toward her such sentiments as those to which you have just given
+utterance, it would almost kill her."
+
+Lord Linden's lips curled sarcastically, but he did not feel disposed to
+communicate how completely Mademoiselle Melanie was already aware of
+those sentiments. He now essayed to put an end to the conversation by
+saying,--
+
+"I shall bear your remarks in mind; though the accounts we have heard of
+the fair mantua-maker differ materially."
+
+"Who has dared to slander her?" demanded Gaston, with an air which
+seemed to assert his right to ask the question.
+
+"I have not said that she has been slandered. I see we are not likely to
+understand each other; let us join the ladies."
+
+As he spoke, he walked toward Lady Augusta and Bertha. His sister rose
+and made her adieu.
+
+When Lord Linden and Lady Augusta had passed on, Gaston was surprised to
+see that Bertha did not appear desirous of returning to the hotel. She
+sat still, and, when he approached her, drew her dress slightly aside,
+as though to make room for him to resume his seat. Could he do otherwise
+than comply? She sat with her head bent down. The shining ringlets
+falling in rich, golden showers, partly concealed her face. She was
+tracing letters upon the gravel-walk with her parasol. Gaston was too
+much moved by his painful conversation with Lord Linden to start any
+indifferent topic; and Bertha's manner, so different from her usual
+frank, lively bearing, made it still more difficult for him to know how
+to accost her.
+
+At last, without raising her eyes, she said, "You and Lord Linden were
+having a very animated discussion. At one time I began to be afraid that
+you were quarrelling."
+
+"We certainly never differed more. I doubt if we shall ever be friends
+again."
+
+This assertion was uttered so earnestly that Bertha involuntarily looked
+up into Gaston's face. It was flushed by his recent anger, and the
+expression of his countenance betokened perplexity mingled with
+vexation.
+
+What woman ever saw the man she loved out of temper without seeking to
+pour oil upon the troubled waters, even at the risk of being charged
+with her sex's constitutional curiosity? for an attempt to soothe
+includes a desire to fathom the secret cause of annoyance. If there be
+women who are not stirred by impulses of this kind they are cast in
+moulds the very opposite to that of Bertha.
+
+She said, in a soft and winning tone, "Has he done you wrong?"
+
+"He has grossly wronged one whom I esteem more highly, perhaps, than any
+woman,--any being living," answered Gaston, firing up at the
+recollection of Lord Linden's insinuations; then he corrected himself.
+"I should have said any--any oth--oth--other--but"--
+
+"It was a woman--a lady, then, whom he wronged?" inquired Bertha,
+betraying redoubled interest at this inadvertent admission.
+
+Gaston perceived that he had said too much; but, in adding nothing more,
+he did not extricate himself from the difficulty. His silence could only
+be interpreted into an affirmative.
+
+"And one whom you esteem more highly than all others?" persisted Bertha.
+"Whom do you esteem so highly as Madeleine? Surely it could not have
+been Madeleine? Lord Linden did not speak disrespectfully of Madeleine?"
+
+Gaston had gone too far for concealment. "He spoke of Mademoiselle
+Melanie, the mantua-maker; but I warrant I have silenced him!"
+
+"Madeleine is very happy in the possession of such a true friend as you
+are! one upon whom she can always lean,--always depend,--one who can
+never fail her! Yes, she is very, very happy! When I heard you defending
+her before my aunt, I said to myself, 'Oh that I had such a friend!'"
+
+Would not Gaston de Bois have been the dullest of mortals if those words
+had failed to infuse a sudden courage into his heart?
+
+He replied with impetuous ardor, "Would--would that you could be induced
+to accept the same friend as your own! Would that he might dare to hope
+that some day, however distant, you would grant him a nearer, dearer
+title! Would that he might believe such a joy possible!"
+
+Bertha spoke no word, made no movement, but sat with her eyes bent on
+the ground. Her manner emboldened Gaston to seize her hand; she did not
+withdraw it from his clasp; then he comprehended his joy, and poured out
+the history of his long-concealed passion with a tender eloquence of
+which he never imagined himself capable.
+
+If, when he awoke that morning from a dream in which Bertha's lovely
+countenance was vividly pictured, some prophetic voice had whispered
+that ere the sun went down he would have uttered such language, and she
+have listened to it, he would not have believed the verification of that
+delightful prediction within the bounds of possibility. Yet, when the
+happy pair left the capital grounds to return to the hotel, Gaston
+walked by the side of his betrothed bride.
+
+It is true that the wealthy heiress had lured on her self-distrusting
+lover to make a declaration which he had not contemplated; but who will
+charge her with unmaidenly conduct? The most modest of women are daily
+doing, unaware, what Bertha did somewhat more consciously. Shakespeare,
+who read the hearts of women with the penetrating eyes of a seer, and
+who never painted a heroine who was not the type of a class, pictured no
+rare or imaginary order of being in his beauteous Desdemona,--
+
+              "A maiden never bold,
+    Of spirit so still and quiet that her motion
+    Blushed at herself,"--
+
+who was yet "_half the wooer_." And there is no lack of men who can
+testify (in spite of the feminine denial which we anticipate) that they
+owe their happiness (or misery) to some gentle, timid girl who was
+nevertheless "_half the wooer_."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+A REVELATION.
+
+
+Bertha was too happy as she walked toward the hotel, to dread the
+rebukes which she had good reason to anticipate from the countess. For a
+young lady to traverse the streets alone with a gentleman, however
+intimate a friend, was, according to the strict rules of French
+etiquette, a gross breach of propriety. And, though the escort of a
+gentleman was deemed allowable in the purer and less conventional
+society of the land in which they were sojourning, Bertha knew that her
+supercilious aunt considered all customs barbarous but those of her
+refined native country.
+
+The countess was sitting in her drawing-room, evidently in a state of
+high excitement, when Bertha and Gaston entered. Count Tristan appeared
+to be endeavoring to palliate his recent conduct by a series of
+contradictory statements, and a garbled explanation of the events which
+had placed Maurice in a dubious position; but his mother had sufficient
+shrewdness to detect that his object was to deceive, not to enlighten
+her.
+
+The appearance of Bertha and Gaston gave inexpressible relief to the
+count, and his satisfaction betrayed itself in a singularly unnatural
+and childish manner. He kissed Bertha on both cheeks as though he had
+not seen her for a long period, asked her how she did, shook hands
+warmly with Gaston as if they had not parted a couple of hours before,
+offered them chairs, put his arm about Bertha, and drew her to him, as
+though he were making her his shield against some imaginary assailant.
+
+"What is the meaning of this prolonged absence, Bertha?" demanded the
+countess, without appearing to notice M. de Bois. "Where have you been?
+Why did you not return immediately? Where is Maurice?"
+
+"The day was so fine," answered Bertha, trying to speak with some show
+of dignity and composure, but failing lamentably, "that I thought I
+would enjoy a walk in the capitol grounds. We met Lady Augusta and Lord
+Linden. Maurice did not return with us."
+
+"Are you aware of the singular impropriety of your behavior,
+Mademoiselle de Merrivale? Is it possible that a niece of mine can have
+become so perfectly regardless of all the rules of decorum?"
+
+"Will you excuse me for the present, aunt?" interrupted Bertha,
+retreating toward the door in a rather cowardly fashion. "I leave M. de
+Bois to--M. de Bois wishes to"--
+
+Gaston had risen and opened the door for her to pass, with as much
+self-possession as though bashfulness had not been the tormenting evil
+genius of his existence. His look reassured her, and, without finishing
+her sentence, she disappeared.
+
+The countess rose with even more than her wonted stateliness, and was
+about to follow her niece; but M. de Bois, pretending not to perceive
+her intention, closed the door and said,--
+
+"There is a communication which I desire to have the honor of making to
+Madame de Gramont and Count Tristan."
+
+"You can make no communication to which I feel disposed to listen,"
+answered the countess haughtily, and advancing toward the door.
+
+"I regret to hear the aunt of Mademoiselle de Merrivale say so, as I
+have this morning ventured to solicit the hand of that young lady in
+marriage, and have received a favorable answer to my suit, as well as
+permission to request the approval of her relatives."
+
+The countess sank into the nearest chair. She knew that her consent was
+a mere form, and that Bertha could dispose of her hand in freedom.
+
+Count Tristan, still speaking in a confused, incoherent manner,
+exclaimed,--
+
+"Bless my soul! How astonishing! The game's up, and Maurice has lost his
+chance! Bertha's fortune is to go out of the family! It's very puzzling.
+How did it all come about? De Bois, you sly fellow, you lucky dog, I
+never suspected you. Managed matters quietly, eh? Should never have
+thought you were the man to succeed with a pretty girl."
+
+"Really," returned Gaston good-humoredly, "I am almost as astonished as
+you are by Mademoiselle de Merrivale's preference. Let me hope that the
+Countess de Gramont and yourself will render my happiness complete by
+approving of Mademoiselle Bertha's choice."
+
+"Of course, of course; there's nothing else to be done; we have lost our
+trump card, but there's no use of confessing it! Very glad to welcome
+you as a relative, sir; very happy indeed; everything shall be as
+Mademoiselle de Merrivale desires."
+
+Count Tristan uttered these disjointed sentences, in the flurried,
+bewildered manner which had marked his conduct since Gaston entered. A
+stranger might easily have imagined that the count was under the
+influence of delirium; for his face was scarlet his eyes shone with
+lurid brightness, his muscles twitched, his hands trembled nervously,
+and he was, to all appearance, not thoroughly conscious of what he was
+doing.
+
+His mother's look of rebuke was entirely lost upon him, and he rattled
+on with an air of assumed hilarity which was painfully absurd.
+
+Gaston was disinclined to give the disdainful lady an opportunity of
+expressing her opposition to his suit, and, pretending to interpret her
+silence favorably, he took his hat, and said, "I thank you for the
+cordial manner in which my proposition has been received; I hope to have
+the pleasure of visiting Mademoiselle de Merrivale this evening; I wish
+you a good-morning."
+
+The door had closed upon him before the countess had recovered herself
+sufficiently to reply.
+
+That evening, before paying his proposed visit to Bertha, M. de Bois
+sought Madeleine, to make her a participator in the happiness which she
+had so truly predicted would, one day, be his. He also purposed, if
+possible, to put her on her guard against the advances of Lord Linden.
+At the door he encountered Maurice, who with unaffected warmth,
+congratulated him upon his betrothal.
+
+When the servant answered their ring, both gentlemen were denied
+admission. Mademoiselle Melanie was not well, and had retired.
+
+"Are you going back to the hotel?" asked Gaston, as they left the door.
+
+"No, not until late. I hardly know what I shall do with myself; I may go
+to the reading-rooms."
+
+As their roads were different, they parted, and Maurice, not being able
+to select any better place of refuge, took his way to the reading-rooms
+most frequented by gentlemen of the metropolis. He was fortunate in
+finding an apartment vacant. He sat down by the table, took up a
+newspaper, though the words before him might have been printed in an
+unknown tongue, for any sense they conveyed.
+
+He had been sitting about half an hour, musing sadly, when Lord Linden
+sauntered through the rooms. The instant he observed Maurice, he
+advanced toward him, and unceremoniously took a seat at the same table.
+This was just the opportunity which the _piqued_ nobleman had desired.
+Maurice returned his salutation politely, but with an occupied air which
+seemed to forbid conversation. But Lord Linden was not to be baffled. He
+opened a periodical, and, after listlessly turning the leaves, closed
+it, and, leaning over the table in the direction of Maurice, said, with
+a sarcastic intonation,--
+
+"I hope you had an agreeable visit, M. de Gramont."
+
+Maurice looked up in surprise.
+
+"I beg pardon,--I do not comprehend. To what visit do you allude?"
+
+"When we last met," returned Lord Linden, in the same offensive manner,
+"I left you in charming company; the lovely mantua-maker, you know!--the
+very queen of sirens!"
+
+Maurice flushed crimson and half started from his chair, then sat down
+again, making a strong effort to control himself, as he answered coldly,
+"I am at a loss to comprehend the meaning of the language in which you
+are pleased to indulge."
+
+"'Pon my life, that's going too far; especially as I feel not a little
+aggrieved that your inopportune entrance cut short my visit. And you
+seemed to be a decided favorite. Deuced lucky! for she is the handsomest
+woman in Washington. Come, be frank enough to confess that you think so,
+and I'll admit that I think her the most beautiful woman upon the face
+of the globe."
+
+"My frankness," returned Maurice, sharply, "forces me to confess that
+this conversation is particularly distasteful to me. The lady in
+question"--
+
+Lord Linden interrupted him with a light laugh. "Lady? Oh! I see you
+adopt the customs and phraseology of the country in which you live; and
+_here_, a mantua-maker is, of course, a lady; just as a respectable
+boot-black is, in common parlance, an accomplished gentleman."
+
+"My lord,"--began Maurice, angrily; but Lord Linden would not permit him
+to continue.
+
+"Oh, don't be offended; I suppose you are a naturalized foreigner; you
+are quite right to accept the manners of the country you adopt; it is
+the true diplomatic dodge. And, besides, I admit that the _lady_ in
+question might anywhere be mistaken for a thorough lady. She has all the
+points which betoken the high-bred dame. I'll not quarrel with the term
+you use! All I ask is fair play, and that you will not attempt to
+monopolize the field."
+
+"Lord Linden," replied Maurice, unable to endure this impertinence any
+longer, "once more I beg to inform you that you are using language to
+which I cannot listen. I will not permit any man to speak of that lady
+in the manner which you have chosen to employ. I shall consider it a
+personal insult if you persist."
+
+"Indeed! Have matters gone so far? Really, I did not suspect that the
+ground was already occupied, and that the _lady_ whose mantua-making and
+millinery are the admiration of all Washington, had a protector by whom
+her less favored acquaintances must expect to be taken to task."
+
+These words were spoken in a tone sufficiently caustic to render their
+meaning unmistakable.
+
+"She has protectors, my lord,--legal protectors,--who are ready to prove
+their right to defend her," replied Maurice, with severity, and rising
+as he spoke.
+
+All considerations of prudence,--the wishes of Madeleine and of his
+family,--were forgotten at the moment: she was insulted, and he was
+there to defend her; that was all he remembered.
+
+Lord Linden, though he could not but be struck by the tone and manner of
+the viscount, echoed the words, "The right?"
+
+"Yes, the _right_, as well as the _might_. Mademoiselle Melanie, the
+mantua-maker, is in reality Mademoiselle Madeleine Melanie de Gramont,
+the daughter of the late Duke de Gramont, and the second cousin of my
+father, Count Tristan de Gramont."
+
+"Good heavens! of what gross stupidity I have been guilty! How shall I
+ever obtain your pardon?"
+
+Without answering this question, Maurice went on.
+
+"You have forced me to betray a secret which my cousin earnestly desired
+to keep; but it is time that her family should refuse their countenance
+to this farce of concealment. I, for one, will not be a party to it any
+longer. I will never consent to calling her, or hearing her called, by
+any but her true title, and I do not care how soon that is proclaimed to
+the world."
+
+"M. de Gramont," said Lord Linden, whose embarrassment was mingled with
+undisguised joy, "I am overwhelmed with shame, and I beg that you will
+forget what I have said. My apology is based upon the error under which
+I was laboring. I make it very humbly, very gladly, and trust the
+Viscount de Gramont will accept it generously. Without being able to
+conceive the circumstances which have placed a noble lady in a position
+which has caused me to fall into so grave a mistake, I shall only be too
+proud, too thankful, to make the one reparation in my power,"--
+
+Lord Linden had not finished speaking, but Maurice was disinclined to
+hear any more or to prolong the interview, and said, frigidly, "I am
+bound to accept your apology; but your lordship can hardly expect that I
+can find it easy to forget that my cousin, Mademoiselle de Gramont, has
+been regarded by you in an unworthy light. Good-evening."
+
+Feigning not to see Lord Linden's outstretched hand, and disregarding
+his attempt to exculpate himself further, Maurice walked out of the
+reading-room, leaving the nobleman too much elated by the discovery of
+Madeleine's rank to experience a natural indignation at her cousin's
+cavalier treatment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+THE SUITOR.
+
+
+Lord Linden, when the Viscount de Gramont abruptly left him, returned to
+his lodgings, and, in spite of the lateness of the hour, wrote to
+Madeleine, implored her pardon for the presumption into which he had
+been lured by his ignorance of her rank, and formally solicited her
+hand. That night the happy nobleman's dreams, when he could sleep, and
+his waking thoughts when he courted slumber in vain, had an auroral
+tinge hitherto unknown. As soon as the sound of busy feet, traversing
+the corridor, announced that the much-desired morning had at last
+arrived, he rang his bell, gave his letter into the hands of a sleepy
+domestic, and ordered it to be delivered immediately.
+
+What was the next step which propriety demanded? To see Mademoiselle de
+Gramont's relatives, to make known his suit to them, and to solicit
+their approval.
+
+He considered himself fortunate in finding both Madame de Gramont and
+Count Tristan at home. The former received him with as much cordiality
+as her constitutional stiffness permitted, but the latter appeared to be
+in a half-lethargic state; he scarcely rose to welcome his visitor,
+spoke feebly and indistinctly, and, as he sank back in his seat, leaned
+his flushed face upon his hands.
+
+"My visit is somewhat early," remarked Lord Linden, "but I was impatient
+to see you, for I came to speak of your niece, Mademoiselle de Gramont."
+
+The count looked up eagerly.
+
+Madame de Gramont replied before her son could speak, "The person whom
+you designate as my niece has forfeited all right to that title, and is
+not recognized by her family."
+
+"I nevertheless venture to hope," returned the nobleman with marked
+suavity, "that, under existing circumstances, the alienation will only
+be temporary."
+
+The countess broke out angrily: "The impertinence of this young person
+exceeds all bounds! She gave us to understand that she possessed, at
+least, the modesty to hide her real name, and had no desire to disgrace
+her family by proclaiming that it was borne by a person in her degraded
+condition; but this, it seems, is only another evidence of her duplicity
+and covert manoeuvring; she has taken care that your lordship should
+become acquainted with a relationship which we can never cease to
+deplore."
+
+"You do her wrong," replied Lord Linden, with becoming spirit; "I regret
+to say she so scrupulously concealed her rank that I was led into a
+great error,--one for which I now desire amply to atone. It was from M.
+Maurice de Gramont that I learned the true name of the so-called
+Mademoiselle Melanie."
+
+"Maurice!" cried the countess and her son together.
+
+"I received the information from him last evening," said Lord Linden,
+"and I have now come to solicit the hand of Mademoiselle de Gramont in
+marriage."
+
+The suggestion that Madeleine could thus magically be raised out of her
+present humiliating condition, and that all her short-comings might be
+covered by the broad cloak of a title, took such delightful possession
+of the haughty lady's mind that there was no room even for surprise.
+While Count Tristan was vehemently shaking hands with Lord Linden, and
+stammering out broken and unintelligible sentences, his mother said
+gravely,--
+
+"We consider your lordship, in all respects, an acceptable _parti_ for a
+member of our family. I have ever entertained for Mademoiselle de
+Gramont the strongest affection, in spite of her lamentable
+eccentricities. But these I would prefer to forget."
+
+"Yes, that's it! That's the trump card now!--forget,--forget all about
+it!" cried Count Tristan, hilariously. He had recovered his power of
+utterance, yet spoke like a man partially intoxicated. "Let the past be
+forgotten, bury it deep; never dig it up! There are circumstances which
+had better not be mentioned. I myself have been mixed up with the
+affair; of course, I was an innocent party; I beg you to believe so.
+It's all right--quite right--quite right!"
+
+Though it was so evident that Count Tristan's mind was wandering,--at
+all events, that there was no connection in his ideas,--his mother could
+not stoop to admit any such possibility, and said sternly,--
+
+"My son, your language strikes me as singular. Lord Linden, of course,
+comprehends that he has our consent to his union with Mademoiselle de
+Gramont; but we also wish him to understand we expect him to remove his
+wife to his own country, or some other land where her history will not
+be known. Upon this condition we will pardon our relative's vagaries,
+and give our sanction to her nuptials."
+
+Lord Linden was not a man who could, with any complacency, consent to
+have conditions enforced upon him by the family of the lady whom he
+selected as his wife; his pride was quite as great as theirs; but before
+he had obtained Madeleine's consent to his suit, it was politic to
+preserve the favor of those who could influence her decision.
+
+Turning to Count Tristan, he observed, "I sent a letter to Mademoiselle
+de Gramont this morning, and I hope to be honored by an answer during
+the day. Would it be asking too much if I begged that you would see the
+lady, and inform her of the flattering reception which Madame de Gramont
+and yourself have given my proposals?"
+
+"I will go at once," replied Count Tristan. "An open visit, of course;
+no need of concealment now! Where's my hat? What has become of it? It's
+got a trick lately of getting out of the way."
+
+Count Tristan, though his hat stood on the table before him, tottered
+across the room, looking about in a weak, flurried way. His mother was
+not willing to attribute his singularly helpless, troubled, and childish
+demeanor, to the perturbed state of his brain, and said severely, though
+addressing her words to Lord Linden,--
+
+"Count Tristan's gratification at the intelligence you have
+communicated, and his desire to serve your lordship, appear to have
+somewhat bewildered him. He was always very much attached to
+Mademoiselle de Gramont."
+
+"Attached to her? Certainly! _Certainly!_" replied the count. "Though
+she did not always think so! I was devotedly attached to her when she
+imagined quite the contrary! This is my hat, I believe."
+
+He took up Lord Linden's.
+
+"I beg pardon,--_that_, I think is mine," replied his lordship; and
+then, indicating the one upon the table which Count Tristan apparently
+did not see, asked, "Is not this yours?"
+
+"I suppose so; it cannot be any one's else; there are only two of us. I
+wish you a good-morning."
+
+With a forced, unnatural laugh, he left the room.
+
+Count Tristan's deportment, in general, was almost as calm and stately
+as that of his august mother; though it was only a weak reflex of hers;
+accordingly the change in his demeanor surprised Lord Linden
+unpleasantly; but he took leave of the countess without endeavoring to
+solve an enigma to which he had no clew.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+A SHOCK.
+
+
+Count Tristan, on reaching Madeleine's residence was ushered into her
+boudoir. He found her reclining upon the sofa, with a book in her hand.
+She had not entirely recovered from her indisposition, and wisely
+thought that one of the most effectual modes of battling against illness
+was to divert the mind: an invaluable medicine, too little in vogue
+among the suffering, yet calculated to produce marvellous amelioration
+of physical pain. As all _matter_ exists from, and is influenced by,
+spiritual causes, the happy workings of this mental ministry are very
+comprehensible. Madeleine invariably found medicinal and restorative
+properties in the pages of an interesting and healthful-toned volume
+which would draw her out of the contemplation of her own ailments. She
+had trained herself, when the prostration of her faculties or other
+circumstances rendered it impossible for her to read, to lie still and
+reflect upon all the blessings that were accorded to her, to count them
+over, one by one, and _compel_ herself to estimate each at its full
+value. In this manner she successfully counteracted the depression and
+unrest that attend bodily disease, and often succeeded in lifting her
+mind so far above its disordered mortal medium that she was hardly
+conscious of suffering, which was nevertheless very real. Sceptical
+reader! you smile in doubt, and think that if Madeleine's wisdom and
+patience could accomplish this feat, she was a rare instance of
+womanhood. Try her experiment faithfully and then decide!
+
+Madeleine only partially rose when Count Tristan entered.
+
+"My dear niece,--my dearest Madeleine,--I hope you are not ill?"
+
+Although the count spoke with an air of exaggerated affection, his
+manner was far more self-possessed than when he left the hotel. The
+fresh air had revived him. Madeleine was not struck by any singularity
+in his deportment.
+
+"Not exactly ill, yet not quite well," she answered, without pretending
+to respond to his oppressive tenderness; "and I was trying to forget
+myself."
+
+"That was always your way, Madeleine; you are always forgetting yourself
+and remembering others. I always said so. I always appreciated your
+beautiful traits. The time has come when your whole family will
+appreciate them, and rejoice that you are restored to us. My mother is
+in a very different frame of mind to day; you must forget all that took
+place yesterday. You must forgive the past, and accept the hand of
+reconciliation which she extends to you."
+
+"Is it possible that the Countess de Gramont has charged you to say this
+for her?"
+
+"This, and a great deal more. She opens her arms to you; hereafter you
+two are to be as mother and daughter."
+
+Count Tristan spoke with so much earnestness, that probably he had
+succeeded in believing his own liberally invented statements.
+
+"It seems very strange," returned Madeleine; "yet I thank the countess
+for her unlooked-for cordiality. I do not know what good angel has
+opened her heart to me; but I am grateful if she will give me a place
+there."
+
+"The good angel in question was Lord Linden," answered the count, quite
+seriously. "His lordship called this morning. I left him with my
+mother."
+
+"Lord Linden?"
+
+"Yes, it was at his suggestion that I hastened here; not that I thought
+any influence of mine was needed; but just now it is well to keep in
+with every one, and you must oblige me by permitting Lord Linden to
+imagine that it was through my advocacy you were induced to look
+favorably upon his suit."
+
+"That is impossible."
+
+"Not at all; a mere suggestion in your letter will have the desired
+effect. You have not answered Lord Linden's letter yet,--have you."
+
+"No,--I intend to reply this morning, and"--
+
+"That's right! You will grant me this favor, I know you will! Say that
+_after having conversed with me_, you accept the offer of his hand."
+
+"I mean to decline it in the most definite manner."
+
+"Decline?" cried Count Tristan, breathing hard, while his face rapidly
+changed color; for at one moment it was overspread with a death-like
+pallor, and then, suddenly grew purple. "Decline? Such a thing is not to
+be thought of; you are jesting?"
+
+"I was never more serious in my life."
+
+"But you will think better of the matter; you will listen to reason; you
+will reverse your decision," pleaded the count, his nervous incoherence
+and confusion increasing as he grew more and more agitated. "It's for
+the honor of the family to say 'yes,' and therefore 'yes' is the proper
+_answer_,--eh, Madeleine? Don't joke any more, my dear; it troubles me;
+it gives me such a throbbing and heavy weight in my brain. All's
+right,--is it not?"
+
+Count Tristan lay back in his chair, and continued muttering, though his
+words were no longer comprehensible.
+
+Madeleine now began to be alarmed, and, approaching him, said kindly,
+"Can I give you anything? You are not well. Let me order you a glass of
+wine."
+
+He stared at her with vacant, glassy eyes, while his lips moved and
+twitched without giving forth any distinct sounds. He lifted up his arms
+in appeal; they dropped suddenly, as if struck by a giant's invisible
+hand, and his head fell forward heavily.
+
+Madeleine, greatly terrified, spoke to him again and again, shook him
+gently by the shoulder, to rouse him,--tried to lift his head; the face
+she succeeded in turning toward her was frightfully distorted; white
+foam oozed from the lips; the eyes were suffused with blood. She had
+never before seen a person in a fit, but instinct told her the nature of
+the seizure.
+
+Her violent ringing of the bell quickly brought servants to her
+assistance, and she ordered Robert to summon Dr. Bayard with the utmost
+haste.
+
+This distinguished physician pronounced the attack apoplexy; and, after
+applying those remedies which recent discoveries in science have proved
+most efficacious, ordered the patient to be undressed and put to bed.
+
+Madeleine's own chamber was prepared for the count's use. The attack was
+of brief duration, and he recovered from its violence soon after the
+physician arrived, but remained exhausted and insensible.
+
+Another critical case required Dr. Bayard's immediate attendance, and
+after giving Madeleine minute directions, he took his leave, saying that
+he would return in a couple of hours.
+
+Then Madeleine, who had been engrossed by the necessity of promptly
+ministering to the sufferer, remembered that the count's family should
+at once be made aware of his condition. What a frightful shock the
+countess would receive when she heard of her son's state! And Maurice
+and Bertha,--would they not be greatly alarmed? How could intelligence
+of the calamity be most gently communicated? Should Madeleine write? A
+note bearing the tidings might startle his mother too much. Madeleine
+saw but one alternative,--it was to go in person and break the sorrowful
+news as delicately as possible. She did not waste a moment in pondering
+upon the manner in which the haughty countess might receive her, but
+ordered her carriage, and drove to the hotel, leaving Count Tristan
+under the charge of Ruth, and Mrs. Lawkins, the housekeeper.
+
+Arrived at her destination, Madeleine ordered her servant to inquire for
+the Viscount de Gramont. He was not at home. Was Mademoiselle de
+Merrivale at home? The same reply. Was the Countess de Gramont at home?
+Madeleine could not help hoping that a negative would again be returned,
+for she grew sick at heart at the prospect of encountering her aunt
+alone. The countess was within.
+
+Madeleine's card was requested. She had none. What name should the
+servant give? Here was another difficulty: she was only known as
+"_Mademoiselle Melanie_;" she could not make use of her real name;
+besides, she feared that the countess would deny her admission if made
+aware who was her visitor. But something must be done. Madame de Gramont
+had issued orders that prevented any guest from entering her presence
+without permission. Madeleine asked for a sheet of note-paper, and, with
+her pencil, hastily wrote,--
+
+"Madeleine entreats the Countess de Gramont to see her for a moment. She
+has a matter of importance to communicate."
+
+The servant returned almost immediately, and, replacing the note in
+Madeleine's hand, said, "The Countess de Gramont desires me to say that
+she is engaged."
+
+"It is absolutely necessary that I should see Madame de Gramont,"
+replied Madeleine. "I will bear the blame of her displeasure if you will
+show me to her apartment."
+
+"The lady is very rigid, ma'am. I don't dare."
+
+"She will be angry at first, I admit," returned Madeleine; "but her
+dissatisfaction will not last when she knows upon what errand I have
+come. I can confidently promise you _that_. Perhaps you will consider
+this money sufficient compensation for her displeasure, should I prove
+wrong; and if I am right, you can keep it in payment for having served
+me."
+
+She handed him a piece of gold, which the man took with so little
+hesitation it left no doubt upon Madeleine's mind that he was well
+acquainted with the nature of a bribe.
+
+"I'll do what I can, ma'am, if you will take the blame," replied he.
+
+Madeleine alighted, followed him to the door of the room which he
+designated as the drawing-room of the countess, and then desired him to
+retire; he obeyed with well-pleased alacrity.
+
+The young girl had been trembling from agitation until that moment; but
+there was necessity for calmness in executing her mission. She opened
+the door with a firm hand, and entered the apartment with unfaltering
+steps.
+
+The countess was sitting with her back turned to the entrance; she did
+not perceive Madeleine until the latter stood beside her.
+
+Madame de Gramont pushed back her chair with a repellant gesture, and,
+before her niece could speak, asked indignantly, "What is the meaning of
+this intrusion? Did you not receive my message, Mademoiselle de Gramont,
+and understand that I declined to see you?"
+
+"I received it, madame," returned Madeleine, mildly and mournfully; "but
+I feel sure you will pardon an intrusion I could not avoid when you
+learn the cause which brings me here."
+
+"I can divine your errand, Mademoiselle de Gramont; you probably imagine
+that, because I permitted my son to say that your marriage with Lord
+Linden would, _after a proper interval_, allow me to acknowledge you
+once more as a relative, your mere acceptance of his lordship's hand
+entitles you to seize upon any frivolous excuse to force yourself upon
+my privacy. You are mistaken. I have no intention of recognizing _the
+mantua-maker_, and I forbid her to make any attempt to hold the most
+transient intercourse with me. I have already said, I will receive Lady
+Linden when I meet her in another country, where her history is unknown;
+but not until then. And now I must request you to retire, or you will
+compel me to leave my own apartment."
+
+Madeleine had made one or two fruitless attempts to interrupt the
+countess; but now, as the latter moved toward the door, about to put her
+threat into execution, the young girl sprang after her and said,
+beseechingly,--
+
+"I implore you not to go until you hear me! I did not come to speak of
+myself at all. I came in the hope of sparing you too severe a shock."
+
+"Very generous on your part, but somewhat misjudged, as your unwelcome
+presence has given me as great a shock as I could well sustain."
+
+"Ah, aunt,--Madame de Gramont,--do not speak so harshly to me! I have
+scarcely strength or courage left to tell you; I came to speak of--of
+Count Tristan."
+
+"My son seems to have chosen a somewhat singular messenger, and one who
+he was well aware would be far from acceptable," returned the countess,
+wholly unmoved.
+
+"He did not send me; I came myself; He is not aware of my coming,
+for--for"--
+
+Madeleine's voice failed her, and the countess took up her words.
+
+"_For_ you desired to make me fully sensible of the length to which you
+carried your audacity. So be it! I am satisfied! Mademoiselle de
+Gramont, for the second time I request you to retire."
+
+"I cannot, until I have told you that Count Tristan is--is not, not
+quite well; that is, he became indisposed at my house."
+
+"In that case, it would have appeared to me more natural, and certainly
+more proper, if he had returned to his old residence, and spared me the
+pain of being apprised of his indisposition by an unwelcome messenger."
+
+"He had no choice, or, rather, I had none. I feared to have the news
+broken in a manner that might alarm you too much, and therefore I would
+not even trust myself to write. Count Tristan was seized with,--I mean
+was taken ill while conversing with me. He is not in a state to return
+home at present, and I came to beg that his mother or his son will go to
+him."
+
+"I comprehend you, Mademoiselle de Gramont; you were always politic in
+the highest degree. You know how to make the best of opportunities. You
+find my son's temporary indisposition an admirable opportunity to lure
+his relatives to your house, and to make known to the world your
+connection with them. Your well-laid, dramatic little plot will fail.
+Your good acting has not succeeded in alarming me, and I see no reason
+why Count Tristan de Gramont, in spite of his sudden illness, should not
+send for a carriage and return to the hotel. By your own confession, the
+step you have taken is unwarranted; for you admitted that my son was not
+aware of your intention."
+
+"Because he was too ill to be aware of it, madame," replied Madeleine,
+with an involuntary accent of reproach.
+
+The cold and cruel conduct of the countess did not render her niece less
+compassionate, less fearful of wounding; but it inspired her with the
+resolution, which she had before lacked, to impart the fearful tidings.
+
+"He is too ill to be moved at this moment. I sent for medical aid at
+once, and everything has been done to restore him."
+
+"_Restore him?_ What do you mean?" almost shrieked the countess, now
+becoming painfully excited, and struggling against her fears, as though,
+by disbelieving the calamity which had befallen her son, she could alter
+the fact. "Why do you try to alarm me in this manner? It is very
+inconsiderate! very cruel! You do it to revenge yourself upon me! Where
+is Maurice? Where is Bertha? I must have some one near me on whom I can
+depend! Why am I left at your mercy?"
+
+"I asked for Maurice and Bertha before I attempted to force my way to
+you," returned Madeleine. "I was told that neither was at home. Pray do
+not allow yourself to be so much distressed. I have no doubt that we
+shall find Count Tristan better."
+
+"_We_ shall find! What do you mean by _we_ shall find?" sternly demanded
+the countess, whose grief and alarm did not conquer her pride, though
+her voice trembled as she asked the question.
+
+"My carriage is at the door: I thought I might venture to propose that
+you would enter it, and return with me to my house, that no time might
+be lost." Madeleine said this with quiet dignity.
+
+"_Your_ carriage? And you expect me to be seen _with you_, in _your_
+carriage? I cannot comprehend your object, Mademoiselle de Gramont. What
+possesses you to try to exasperate me by your insolent propositions?"
+
+"Pardon me; I did not mean to add to your trouble; if my suggestion was
+injudicious, disregard it. Nothing can be easier than to send for
+another carriage. Will you allow me to ring the bell for you to do so?
+And, since you would not wish to be seen in my company, I can leave the
+house before you."
+
+"And you expect me to follow? You expect that I will order the carriage
+to drive to the residence of _Mademoiselle Melanie_, the
+_mantua-maker_?"
+
+"You need only say, 'Drive to ---- street, number ----.' My errand here
+is at an end. I pray you to pardon me, if I have executed it clumsily.
+My sole intention was to spare you pain, and I almost fear that I have
+caused you more than I have shielded you from."
+
+Madeleine was retiring, but the countess called her back.
+
+"Stay! You have not told me all yet. What is the matter with my son? Was
+it a fainting fit? I never knew him guilty of the weakness of fainting."
+
+It was difficult to answer this question without explaining the grave
+nature of the attack. Madeleine was silent.
+
+"Did you not hear me? Why do you not answer?"
+
+"The doctor did not call it a fainting fit," was Madeleine's vague
+response. "Yet Count Tristan was in a state of insensibility, and had
+not spoken when I left him."
+
+"Why did you leave him, then? How could you have been so neglectful?"
+The countess burst out as though it was a relief to have some
+one on whom she could vent her wrath. "If he is seriously ill,--so
+ill as to continue insensible,--you should have remained by his
+side, and not left him to the improper treatment of strangers:
+it is abominable,--outrageous!"
+
+"I will gladly hasten back. Pray be composed, madame, and let us hope
+for a favorable change. I expect to find him better. Before you reach
+the house, his consciousness may have returned."
+
+Madeleine retired, without waiting for any further comment; for she had
+an internal conviction that whatever she did or said would be unpleasant
+to her aunt in her present troubled state.
+
+There was no perceptible alteration in the condition of Count Tristan.
+Ruth, who was sitting by his side, said he had scarcely stirred. His
+face still wore a purplish hue, and his glassy, bloodshot eyes, though
+wide open, were vacant and expressionless. He lay as still as if
+deprived of sensation and motion.
+
+Madeleine had been at home nearly an hour before she heard the carriage
+which contained the countess stop at the door. Madame de Gramont, even
+in a case of such extremity, was not able to complete her arrangements
+hurriedly.
+
+Madeleine, when she went forth to receive her relative, was much
+relieved to find her accompanied by Bertha.
+
+Bertha threw herself in Madeleine's arms, whispering, "Is he _very_
+ill?"
+
+"Yes, I fear so," answered Madeleine, in too low a voice for the
+countess to hear. Then turning to Madame de Gramont, she inquired,
+gently, "Do you wish to go to him at once?"
+
+"For what other purpose have I come?" was the ungracious rejoinder.
+
+Madeleine led the way to the apartment, and motioned Ruth to withdraw.
+
+The countess walked up to the bed with a firm step, as though nerving
+herself to disbelieve that anything serious was the matter.
+
+"My son!" she said, in a voice somewhat choked, but which expressed
+confidence that he would immediately reply, "My son! why do you not
+answer me?"
+
+She took his hand; it remained passive in hers; his eyes still stared
+vacantly. His mother more tightly grasped the hand she held, shook it a
+little, and called out to him again in a hoarser tone; but there was no
+answer.
+
+Bertha burst into tears, and knelt down sobbing by the bed.
+
+"Hush!" said the countess, angrily. "You will disturb him. Why do you
+cry so? It is nothing serious,--nothing _very_ serious;" and she looked
+around appealingly, her eyes resting, in spite of herself, upon
+Madeleine.
+
+"We must hope not," said the latter, now venturing to draw near. "The
+doctor will be here again shortly, and, if you would permit me to
+advise, I would suggest that Count Tristan should remain undisturbed."
+
+"I only ask that he will speak to me once!" exclaimed the countess, in
+peevish distress. "A _mother_ may demand that! Do you not hear me, my
+son? Why, why will you not answer?"
+
+Her voice was raised to a high pitch, but it did not seem to reach the
+ears of the insensible man.
+
+Voices in the entry attracted Madeleine's attention; the sound of
+well-known tones reached her ears, and she hastily left the room.
+
+The servant was communicating to Maurice the sad event which had just
+taken place. Madeleine beckoned her cousin to follow to her boudoir,
+and, in a few words, recounted what had just taken place.
+
+Maurice had listened, too completely awe-stricken for language, until
+Madeleine rose and asked, "Will you not go to him now, Maurice?"
+
+Then he ejaculated, "How mysteriously all things are ordered, Madeleine!
+Truly you are the ministering angel of our family!"
+
+As Maurice, with Madeleine, entered the chamber where Count Tristan lay,
+the countess experienced a revulsion of feeling at beholding them side
+by side, and cried out, in a louder tone than seemed natural in that
+chamber at such a moment,--
+
+"Maurice! Maurice! I have wanted you so much to advise me! You see your
+father's condition: he does not seem to recognize us; but it cannot be
+anything serious. The great point is to make arrangements for removing
+him at once to the hotel. You must attend to that; I wish no time to be
+lost."
+
+Maurice was gazing in dumb anguish upon his father's altered face, and,
+though no tears moistened his eyes, his frame shook with emotion far
+more painful to man than weeping is to woman.
+
+"You will see to his immediate removal," repeated his grandmother,
+authoritatively, finding that he did not notice her request.
+
+"That cannot be done with safety, I feel certain," answered Maurice.
+
+"But he cannot remain here," persisted the countess. "He must be taken
+to the hotel, where I can watch by him."
+
+"You would not have the attempt made at the risk of his life?" remarked
+Maurice, with more sternness than he intended.
+
+Madeleine gently interposed.
+
+"Dr. Bayard, the physician who was called in, promised to return in a
+couple of hours: he must be here shortly: will it not be best to ask his
+opinion? And if he says Count Tristan cannot yet be removed with safety,
+I entreat, madame, that you will allow me to place this suite of
+apartments at your disposal and his. They are wholly disconnected with
+the rest of the house, and you can be as private as you desire."
+
+"Do you expect _me_ to remain under this roof? _Your roof?_ Do you
+imagine that I will allow my son to remain here, even in his present
+condition? Oh, this is too much! This would be more terrible than all
+the rest! I could not humble myself to endure _that!_"
+
+The countess spoke in a perfect agony of mortification.
+
+Madeleine only replied, "There is no necessity for a decision until you
+have consulted the physician."
+
+Maurice thought it wise to echo her words; the countess was partially
+soothed, for the time being, and sat down to await the coming of Dr.
+Bayard.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+THE MANTUA-MAKER'S GUESTS.
+
+
+Around Count Tristan's bed were grouped in silence his four nearest of
+kin, waiting for the physician who was to decide upon the possibility of
+removal. The countess sat erect and motionless by her son's head. Her
+countenance wore a look of granite hardness, as though she were fighting
+her grief with _Spartan_-like determination which would not let her
+admit, even to herself, that any anguish preyed upon her heart. Maurice
+sat at the foot of the bed, mournfully watching the spasmodic movements
+of his stricken father: they were but feeble and few. Madeleine had
+placed herself upon the other side of the couch. Her instinctive
+delicacy prompted her to withdraw as far as possible from the countess.
+Bertha had softly stolen to Madeleine's side, and sat silently clasping
+her hand, and leaning against her shoulder; for hers was one of those
+clinging, vine-like natures that ever turn for support to the object
+nearest and strongest.
+
+This was the disposition of the group when Ruth Thornton entered the
+room on tiptoe and placed a card in Madeleine's hand.
+
+"Did you tell him what had occurred?" whispered Madeleine.
+
+"I did, and he still begged to see you."
+
+Though Ruth spoke in a low voice, Bertha was so near that she heard her
+reply, and it caused her, almost unconsciously, to glance at the card.
+
+"Say that I will be with him directly," said Madeleine.
+
+"It is M. de Bois. I will go with you," murmured Bertha, rising at the
+same time as her cousin.
+
+The countess did not move her eyes, but Maurice turned his head to look
+after them. Madeleine could never pass from his presence without his
+experiencing a sense of loss which inflicted a dull pang.
+
+M. de Bois had been ushered into Madeleine's boudoir. He had not
+anticipated the happiness of seeing Bertha. When she entered, his start
+and flush of joy, and the gently confident manner in which he took her
+hand, and drew her toward him, might well have surprised Madeleine; but
+that surprise was quickly turned to positive amazement, for Bertha's
+head drooped until its opulent golden curls swept his
+breast,--and--and--(if we record what ensued be it remembered that
+constitutionally bashful men, stirred by a sudden impulse, have less
+control over their emotions than their calmer brothers)--and--in another
+second, his own head was bent down, and his lips lightly touched her
+pure brow, just where the fair hair parting ran on either side, in
+shining waves. Truly was that first kiss
+
+      "The chrism of Love, which Love's own crown
+      With sanctifying sweetness did precede."
+
+Gaston's ideas of what amount of tender demonstration punctilious
+decorum permitted a lover, had finally undergone an alarming
+modification, through the corrective influence of the social atmosphere
+he had inhaled during the last few years. In his own land the limited
+privileges of an accepted suitor do not extend thus far until the day
+before a wedding-ring encircles the finger of a bride. Is it on this
+account that the Parisian _Mrs. Grundy_, dreading some irresistible
+temptation, never allows affianced lovers to be left alone?
+
+Bertha's conceptions of propriety must also have been in a very
+unsettled state; for, albeit "to her brow the ruby mounted," that first
+kiss seemed to her to lie there as softly as an invisible gem, and she
+did not withdraw her head, nor look up reproachfully, nor utter one word
+of chiding.
+
+Gaston noticed Madeleine's wonder-struck look, and said, "You did not
+know, then, Mademoiselle Madeleine, how happy I am?"
+
+Then Bertha escaped from the arm that encircled her, and nestling in her
+cousin's bosom, faltered out, "I was so much troubled about Cousin
+Tristan that I could not tell you."
+
+"One of my most cherished hopes has become reality!" returned Madeleine,
+fondly. "M. de Bois knows how much I have wished for this consummation;
+and I think you have known it, Bertha, ever since you made me a certain
+confession."
+
+"What? Mademoiselle Bertha confessed to you, and you kept me in
+ignorance?" cried Gaston, reproachfully.
+
+"I did _as I would be done by_,--an old rule that wears well, and keeps
+friendships golden."
+
+There was a significance in Madeleine's look comprehended by Gaston. It
+warned him that any confidence which she had reposed in him must be
+sacred, even from his betrothed bride.
+
+Dr. Bayard was announced, and Madeleine conducted him to the chamber
+occupied by her suffering guest, and withdrew.
+
+It strikes us that Madeleine's interpretation of the rules of decorum
+must also have suffered by her residence in America; for she very coolly
+left the lovers to themselves, and, passing through the dining-room,
+walked into the garden.
+
+When she reentered her boudoir she found Gaston and Bertha conversing as
+happily as though no sorrow found place upon the earth, or certainly
+none beneath that roof; but, since the world began, lovers have been
+pronounced selfishly forgetful of the rest of mankind. We have our
+doubts, however, whether their being wholly wrapped up in each other
+deserves so harsh a name as _selfishness_, since that very closeness of
+union renders souls richer and larger, and gives to each additional
+power to receive and communicate happiness, while thoroughly selfish
+people lack the capacity to impart good gifts, and are content with
+being recipients.
+
+Madeleine had just seated herself opposite to the lovers, and was
+thinking what a pleasant picture to contemplate were those two radiant
+countenances, when Maurice entered with the physician.
+
+"I fear, sir, you look upon my father's state as very critical?"
+
+"Very," replied Dr. Bayard, who was a man of such acknowledged ability
+that he could afford to be frank without being suspected of a desire to
+magnify the importance of a case under his treatment. "Apoplexy may be
+produced by various causes, hereditary disposition, high living, or
+anxiety of mind, or all united. I cannot decide what was the origin of
+Count Tristan de Gramont's seizure. One side is entirely paralyzed, and
+the other slightly."
+
+"Can he be removed to his hotel with safety?" inquired Maurice.
+
+"Assuredly not. The risk would be very great. It should not be
+encountered if there is any possibility of his remaining here for the
+present."
+
+He looked questioningly toward the mistress of the house.
+
+Madeleine promptly replied, "These apartments are entirely at the
+service of Count Tristan and his family, if they will honor me by
+occupying them."
+
+"That is well," returned the doctor. "Let the count remain undisturbed
+until he is convalescent. I will see him again in the evening."
+
+Dr. Bayard took his leave, and Maurice turned to Madeleine,--
+
+"This is most unfortunate. It is a great burden to be thrown upon you,
+Madeleine."
+
+She interrupted him quickly. "You could hardly have spoken words less
+kind, Maurice. If this shock could not have been spared your father, I
+am thankful that it fell beneath my roof. He will be more quiet here
+than in a hotel, and can be better tended. If the countess will permit
+me, I will gladly constitute myself his chief _garde malade_. I have had
+some experience"--
+
+That inadvertent remark increased the agitation of Maurice, and he
+answered, in a voice tremulous from the rush of sad recollections, "Who
+can testify to that better than _I_? Do you think I have forgotten the
+good _soeur de bon secours_ whose movements I used to watch, and whose
+features, dimly traced by the feeble light of the _veilleuse_, I never
+ceased to gaze upon, as she moved about my bed?"
+
+Madeleine smiled and sighed at the same moment, and then remarked,
+perhaps to turn the conversation,--
+
+"But your grandmother,--I fear it will be very difficult to obtain her
+consent to Count Tristan's remaining under my roof."
+
+"She cannot desire to risk my father's life!" returned Maurice, somewhat
+angrily. "I may as well tell her what is decided upon, at once."
+
+Madeleine detained him.
+
+"First let me explain to you the arrangements I propose making. If the
+countess will condescend to remain here, I will have the drawing-room,
+which opens into the room Count Tristan occupies, made into a
+bed-chamber for her. The apartment beyond is the dining-room. This
+little boudoir can be converted into a chamber for you. There is an
+apartment upstairs which I will occupy; and, as Bertha cannot remain at
+the hotel alone, I shall be truly happy if she will share my room, or
+that of the countess."
+
+"Yours! yours!" exclaimed Bertha. "Oh, what a pleasant arrangement! And
+how quickly and admirably you have settled everything, just as you
+always used to do; and nobody could ever plan half so well!"
+
+"It will be your turn to play the hostess, and to them all!" cried
+Gaston. "Who would have believed such a revolution of the great wheel
+possible! That's what I call _compensation in this world_; for few
+things, I know, can make you happier; and nothing can strike such a
+severe blow at the pride of the Countess de Gramont as to find herself
+the compulsory guest of the relative she has despised and persecuted."
+
+Gaston, in his ardor and desire to see Madeleine avenged, had forgotten
+the presence of the viscount; but Madeleine's look of reproach and her
+glance toward her cousin recalled his presence to the mind of her
+enthusiastic defender.
+
+"I beg pardon, Maurice," said he; "I ought not to have spoken
+disrespectfully of the countess; that is, while you were by."
+
+"I understand and can pardon you, Gaston. Now I must go to my
+grandmother and learn what she says; for I can see Madeleine's 'fairy
+fingers' are impatient to commence their magical preparations for our
+comfort."
+
+He spoke sadly; though his words were half gay in their import.
+
+Very few minutes elapsed before Maurice returned, accompanied by the
+countess. She swept into the room, towering as majestically as though
+she could rise above and conquer all the assailing army of circumstances
+arrayed against her.
+
+Madeleine made a movement toward the door.
+
+"Remain! I wish to speak to you, Mademoiselle de Gramont," cried the
+countess in her most icy tone.
+
+"Permit me first to request Miss Thornton to watch beside Count Tristan.
+He ought not to be left alone."
+
+Madeleine had been more thoughtful of the patient than his mother, and
+the latter could not detain her.
+
+"Are you positive that your father cannot be moved? I am not convinced
+that it is out of the question."
+
+The countess addressed these words to Maurice.
+
+"The physician has just declared that the risk would be too great. That
+question, then, is definitely settled. It only remains for you to say
+how far you will accept Madeleine's hospitable proposition."
+
+"_Hospitable!_ Do not talk of _hospitality_ but of _degradation!_ What
+will be said when it is known that Count Tristan de Gramont was
+sheltered, during his illness, by his _mantua-maker relative!_--his
+_tradeswoman niece!_ There is only one condition upon which I can be
+forced to consent."
+
+Here Madeleine reentered, and the countess accosted her.
+
+"Mademoiselle de Gramont, the tide of fortune has, for the moment, set
+against our ill-fated house, and our humiliation can scarcely be more
+complete. You are aware that the physician you have employed (and with
+whom I trust you are not in league) says that my son cannot be removed
+without danger."
+
+"Yes, madame, and I hope Maurice has communicated the suggestion which I
+have hesitatingly, but very gladly, made for your accommodation."
+
+"He has done so," replied the countess, with undiminished stateliness.
+"As for myself, it is asking too much,--it is an impossibility that I
+should stoop to take up my abode here; but, while my son lies in his
+present state, which I am told is alarming (though I believe I am
+misinformed), I, as his mother, should feel bound to visit him though it
+were in a pest-house. Your offer is declined for myself and Mademoiselle
+de Merrivale. Maurice gives me to understand that he considers his place
+to be by his father's side, night and day; therefore for him it will be
+accepted upon certain conditions; upon these only can I allow my son and
+grandson to remain beneath your roof."
+
+"Name them, madame. I will promptly, joyfully comply with your wishes if
+it be in my power to do so."
+
+"You will immediately close your establishment, that none of the
+transactions of the trade which has sullied your rank may go on within
+these walls; and you will at once make known to the public your intended
+nuptials with Lord Linden."
+
+"I never had the remotest intention, madame, of becoming the wife of
+Lord Linden."
+
+"Has he not offered you his hand?"
+
+"Yes, and but for the accident which has wholly diverted my thoughts, he
+would have received a distinct refusal before now."
+
+"What reason can you advance for declining so eligible an offer?"
+
+"The same I gave at the Chateau de Gramont, nearly five years ago. My
+affections belong to another."
+
+Madeleine spoke with fervor, as though she experienced a deep joy in
+thus proclaiming her constancy. Maurice, with a stifled sigh, turned
+from her, and pretended to be gazing at the flowers in the conservatory.
+
+"And may we, at last, be favored," demanded the countess, scornfully,
+"with the name of this unknown lover, who has been able to inspire you
+with such a rare and romantic amount of constancy?"
+
+"It is one, madame, I cannot now mention with any more propriety than I
+could have done years ago."
+
+"Then it must be one of which you are ashamed! But how can I doubt that?
+Has he not allowed you to become a tradeswoman? Has not the whole affair
+been a disgraceful and clandestine one? You may well refuse to mention
+his name! It can only be one which your family can object to hear."
+
+"You are right in one respect, madame: it is one which they object to
+hear; but, as I shall never be the wife of any other man,--yet never, in
+all probability, the wife of _that one_,--let the subject of marriage be
+set aside. In regard to closing this establishment, you are hardly
+aware, madame, what you request. It would not be in my power to close it
+suddenly, granting that I had the will to do so. I should not merely
+throw out of employment some fifty struggling women, who are at present
+occupied here, but would prevent my keeping faith in fulfilling
+engagements already made. I will not dwell upon the great personal loss
+that it would be to me. I should be glad to believe you are convinced of
+the impossibility of my complying with your wishes."
+
+"Do you mean to say that you actually refuse?"
+
+"I am compelled to do so; but I will exert myself to render your visits
+private. I will devise some method by which you will be entirely
+shielded from the view of those who come here on business."
+
+"You presume to think, then, that in spite of your insolent refusal, I
+will allow my son to remain here?"
+
+Madeleine felt that she could say no more, and looked beseechingly
+toward Maurice, who exclaimed,--
+
+"My father must remain here, for he cannot be removed. I gladly accept
+my cousin's kind offer, and will remain to watch beside my father.
+Bertha and yourself can continue to live at the hotel and visit him as
+often as you feel inclined."
+
+"Let me go! Let me go! I am suffocating! I stifle in this house!" burst
+forth the countess, as though she were really choking. "I cannot remain.
+Bertha, I want you. Maurice, give me your arm,--let me get away
+quickly."
+
+Maurice reconducted his grandmother to the hotel, almost without their
+exchanging a word by the way. Bertha accompanied them, but she walked
+behind with Gaston de Bois.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+MINISTRATION.
+
+
+Maurice, exasperated as he was at his grandmother's insolence to his
+cousin, well knew that any attempt to soothe Madame de Gramont, or even
+to reconcile her to the inevitable, would be fruitless. Her domineering
+spirit could not bow itself to be governed, even by the pressure of
+inexorable circumstance; she strove to control events by ignoring their
+existence, and to break the force of her calamity by encasing herself in
+an iron mail of resistance, which, she thought, no blows could
+penetrate. This was her state when she hastened to her own chamber, and
+was about to lock herself in, under the conviction that she could shut
+out the phantom of misery which seemed to dog her steps.
+
+"I will return this evening, and let you know how my father progresses,"
+said Maurice, as she was closing the door.
+
+She reopened it without moving her hand from the silver knob. "Then you
+persist in going back to that house?"
+
+"Would you have me leave my father without a son's care? I shall remain
+at Madeleine's while it is necessary for my father to stay there."
+
+Maurice spoke with a decision that admitted no argument.
+
+The countess shut her door, and the sound of the turned key was
+distinctly audible. How she passed the succeeding hours no one knew; she
+was not heard to move; she answered no knock; she took no notice of
+Bertha's petition that her dinner might be brought to her; she was not
+again seen until the next morning.
+
+There is no proverb truer than the one which suggests that even an ill
+wind blows some one good. Bertha was the gainer by her aunt's seclusion:
+she had full liberty, and for a large portion of the time she did not
+enjoy her freedom _alone_.
+
+Madeleine had been actively employed during the absence of Maurice. Her
+first step was to send for an upholsterer. Other arrangements followed
+which quickly converted the drawing-room into a comfortable bed-room.
+She herself proposed to take such rest as she found needful upon the
+sofa in her boudoir.
+
+The upholsterer had arrived, and Madeleine had no little difficulty in
+making him comprehend her plan of completely shutting off the staircase
+which led to the exhibition and working rooms above, by means of
+drapery. She had felt bound thus far to consult the countess' desire for
+privacy. A separate entrance from the street was out of the question,
+but the draperies were to be disposed in such a manner that the instant
+Madame de Gramont and her family passed the threshold they were
+completely secluded.
+
+Madeleine was standing in the hall giving her orders, when Maurice
+reappeared. Finding her occupied, he passed on to his father's chamber.
+
+It was now six o'clock. Dinner was served for three persons. Madeleine
+summoned her housekeeper and requested her to watch beside Count Tristan
+while his son dined.
+
+On entering the count's room Madeleine assured herself that there was no
+change in the patient's condition, and then said, "Come, Ruth, dinner is
+served; come, Maurice, if you assume the office of _garde malade_, I
+must take care that your strength is not exhausted."
+
+Her cheerfulness dispelled some of the heavy gloom that hung about
+Maurice, and he rose and followed her. She led the way through the
+apartment which had been the drawing-room, and pointing to the bed,
+said,--
+
+"That is for you; this is your bed-chamber."
+
+"Mine? I do not expect to need a bed; I mean to sit up with my father."
+
+"Yes, to-night; but not every night," she added, with playful
+imperativeness. "I shall not allow _that_, and you see I have taken the
+reins into my own hands, and show that a little of the de Gramont love
+of rule has descended to me with its blood."
+
+They entered the dining-room. Maurice was struck by the air of combined
+simplicity and elegance which characterized all the appointments. The
+dinner, too, was simple, but well-cooked. Maurice had no appetite at
+first, but was soon lured to eat,--everything placed before him appeared
+so inviting. Then, it was delightful to see Madeleine sitting quietly
+opposite to him, looking even lovelier than she did in those happy,
+happy, by-gone days in the ancient chateau! Ruth's pretty and pleasant
+countenance at another time might have been an addition; but we fear
+that Maurice at that moment, did not appreciate the presence of a very
+modest and attractive young girl who reflected in her own person not a
+few of Madeleine's virtues. The repast was of brief duration; but
+Madeleine was the one who partook of it most sparingly. She enjoyed so
+much seeing Maurice eat that she could not follow his example.
+
+Maurice and Madeleine returned to Count Tristan's apartment together.
+Soon after, Dr. Bayard paid another visit, but expressed no opinion.
+Maurice went back to the hotel to keep his promise to his grandmother.
+There was no response when he knocked at her door; no reply, though he
+spoke to her, that she might hear his voice and know who was there.
+
+Bertha and Gaston were sitting together. Albeit the conversation in
+which they were engaged appeared to be singularly absorbing, the latter
+said,--
+
+"Do you return immediately to Mademoiselle Madeleine's? If so, I will
+accompany you; and, as I suppose you will watch beside your father, we
+will sit up together."
+
+Maurice assented and they set forth; that is, as soon as Bertha, who
+detained them, first upon one plea and then upon another, would permit.
+
+But when Madeleine learned Gaston's friendly proposition, she answered,
+"We shall not need you. Maurice is hardly experienced enough for me to
+trust him just yet. I intend to sit up to-night; to-morrow night Maurice
+must rest, at least part of the night, and then, M. de Bois, we will be
+glad to claim you as a watcher."
+
+There was no appeal from Madeleine's decision. She exerted a mild
+authority which was too potent for argument.
+
+After Gaston departed, Madeleine, for a brief space, left Maurice alone
+with his father. When she stole back to her place at the head of the
+bed, she was attired in a white cambric wrapper, lightly girded at the
+waist; a blue shawl of some soft material fell in graceful folds about
+her form. She had entered with such a soundless step, that when Maurice
+saw her sitting before him, he started, and his breath grew labored, as
+though, for a second, he fancied that he gazed upon some unreal shape.
+The flowing white drapery, and the delicate azure folds of the shawl
+helped the illusion, which her musical voice would scarcely have
+dispelled, but for the sense of reality produced by the words she
+uttered.
+
+"It is just eleven; that is the hour at which the medicine was to be
+given."
+
+She took up the cup and administered a spoonful of its contents, before
+Maurice had quite recovered himself.
+
+The silence which followed did not last long. Madeleine began to
+question Maurice concerning his life in America, his opinions, his
+experiences, the people he had known and esteemed; and he responded, in
+subdued tones, by a long narrative of past events.
+
+It was the first time that Maurice had been called upon to watch beside
+a bed of sickness, and his was one of those vivacious temperaments to
+which sleep is so indispensable that an overpowering somnolence will
+fling its charms about the senses, and bear the spirit away captive,
+even in the soul's most unwilling moments. Five o'clock had struck when
+Madeleine perceived that her companion's eyes had grown heavy, and that
+he was making a desperate struggle to keep them open. With womanly tact
+she leaned her elbow on the bed, and rested her forehead on her hand, in
+such a manner that her face was concealed, and thus avoided any further
+conversation. In less than ten minutes, the sound of clear but regular
+breathing apprised her that Maurice had fallen asleep.
+
+When she looked up, at first timidly, but soon with security, Maurice
+was lying back in his arm-chair--his hands were calmly folded together,
+his head drooped a little to one side, the rich chestnut curls (for his
+hair had darkened until it no longer resembled Bertha's golden locks)
+were disordered, and fully revealed his fair, intellectual brow; the
+pallor of his face rendered more than usually conspicuous the chiselling
+of his finely-cut features; the calm, half-smiling curve of his
+handsome mouth gave his whole countenance an expression of placid
+happiness which it had not worn, of late, in waking hours. Madeleine sat
+and gazed at him as she could never have gazed when his eyes might have
+met hers; she gazed until her whole soul flashed into her face; and if
+Maurice had awakened, and caught but one glimpse of the fervent radiance
+of that look, he would surely have known her secret.
+
+There is intense fascination to a woman in scanning the face that to her
+is beyond all others worth perusing, when the soft breath of sleep
+renders the beloved object unconscious of the eyes bent tenderly upon
+his features. No check is given to the flood of worshipping love that
+pours itself out from her soul; then, and perhaps _then only_, in his
+presence, she allows the tide of pent-up adoration to break down all its
+natural barriers. However perfect her devotion at other times, there
+_may_, there always _does_ exist a half-involuntary _reticence_, a
+secret fear that if even her eyes were to betray the whole wealth of her
+passion, it would not be well with her. Men are constitutionally,
+unconsciously _ungrateful_; give them abundance of what they covet most
+and they prize the gift less highly than if its measure were stinted.
+And women have an instinct that warns them not to be too lavish. Those
+women who love most fervently, most deeply, most _internally_, seldom
+frame the full strength of that love into words, or manifest it in looks
+even; that is, in the waking presence of the one who holds their entire
+being captive.
+
+Maurice slept on, though the streets had long since become noisy, and
+door-bells were ringing, and there was a sound of hammering in the entry
+(the upholsterer at work), and steps could be distinguished passing up
+and down the stair.
+
+Madeleine, who at one period of her life had been used to night vigils,
+hardly felt fatigued; but she knew that she must hoard her strength if
+she would have it last to meet prolonged requirements. She touched
+Maurice softly; but he was not aroused until she had made several
+efforts to break his slumber. He looked about him in bewilderment, and
+then at the white-robed figure before him as though it were an
+apparition.
+
+"It is I, and no ghost," said Madeleine. "The morning has come; go and
+lie down for a couple of hours to refresh yourself,--I will do the same.
+Mrs. Lawkins will stay with your father."
+
+"Have I really been asleep?" asked Maurice, in a tone of mortification.
+"Asleep, while you were waking? What a stupid brute I am!"
+
+"Have brutes easy consciences? for that is said to be man's best
+lullaby. You must consider yourself still subject to my orders. Go and
+lie down. You shall be called to breakfast at nine o'clock; that will
+give you two hours' rest. As for me, I shall fall asleep in a few
+moments."
+
+Maurice yielded.
+
+Madeleine did _not_ fall asleep quite as soon as she predicted; but,
+after a time, she sank into a refreshing slumber. At nine o'clock the
+ringing of the alarum she had taken the precaution to set, awoke her.
+She stole to Maurice's door, but had to knock several times before she
+could arouse him; he was again enjoying that blessing which he had
+lately professed to despise.
+
+"What is it? Who is there?" he cried out, at last.
+
+"It is I, Madeleine. Nine o'clock has just struck. We will breakfast as
+soon as you are ready to come into the dining-room."
+
+She returned to her boudoir and made a hasty toilet, substituting, for
+her simple white wrapper, another, somewhat richly embroidered, and
+trimmed with pale blue ribbons. We reluctantly venture upon the
+suggestion, for it would indicate a decided weakness, quite unworthy of
+Madeleine's good sense; but there is just a possibility that she
+remembered she was to breakfast once more with her lover, and her
+artistic eye selected the most becoming morning-dress in her possession.
+
+Ruth had breakfasted some hours before; Madeleine and Maurice sat down
+to table alone. In spite of the grief which lay in the depths of both
+their hearts, it must be avowed that both experienced a sense of calm
+felicity which made them shrink from contemplating the past, or looking
+forward to the future; the delicious _present_ was all sufficient.
+Maurice wondered at himself,--was almost angry with himself,--and then
+he looked across the table and wondered no longer.
+
+Madeleine was less astonished at her own pleasant emotions. Partly
+through discipline, and partly through temperament, she always caught up
+all the sunshine of the passing hour, even though she did not lose sight
+of the clouds that lay in the distant horizon. And how often the present
+beams had pierced their way through thick darkness to reach her!
+
+"Come and tell me what you think of my invention," said she, as they
+rose from the table and opened the door which led into the hall.
+
+The upholsterer had already completed his work. A crimson drapery was
+suspended from the ceiling to the ground, along the whole length of the
+entry, and entirely shut out the staircase. At the street door this
+drapery was so skilfully arranged that a person visiting the apartments
+on the first floor could, at once, pass out of sight.
+
+"Will not these curtains render this portion of the house quite
+secluded? I hope they will make your grandmother feel less aversion to
+coming here."
+
+"What resources you have, Madeleine! And how kindly you employ your
+fertile ingenuity! _Who_ would have thought of such an arrangement?"
+
+"Why _any one_ who took the trouble to sit down and think about the
+matter at all! Possibly some people might not have been in the habit of
+exercising their ingenuity enough to do that; but _any one_ who took the
+trouble to reflect how the desired object could be accomplished would
+have seen the difficulties melt away."
+
+"Under the touch of 'Fairy Fingers,'" returned Maurice, admiringly.
+
+"Ah, that is an old superstition of yours which you have not quite
+outlived. Will you not go to your grandmother now? She may be expecting
+you, and must be anxious for news."
+
+"She showed great anxiety last night," replied Maurice, bitterly.
+
+"Maurice, we have no right to judge her! Unless we ourselves have
+experienced her sensations, we cannot even comprehend her state. Speak
+to her this morning as though you had parted in all affection yesterday;
+and bring her here, if you can. For her own sake try to bring her."
+
+Shortly after Maurice left, Madeleine received another letter from Lord
+Linden. Finding that she did not reply to the first, he had called upon
+her twice on the day previous; but, greatly to his mortification, had
+been denied. Later in the day, his wounded vanity was somewhat soothed
+by learning the calamity which had befallen Count Tristan, at
+Madeleine's house; though his lordship could hardly deem even such an
+event sufficient excuse for her tardiness in replying to a letter of so
+much importance. In reality, Madeleine had entirely forgotten her suitor
+and his letter. She glanced hastily over his second epistle, and,
+without further delay, wrote a few frigid lines conveying a definite
+refusal of the proposed honor with which he had followed his proposition
+of dishonor.
+
+It is needless to describe Lord Linden's emotions when this response
+reached him. Madeleine's language was so cuttingly cold, yet so full of
+dignity, that he could only curse the rash blindness which could have
+permitted him to make dishonorable advances to such a woman. He ordered
+his trunk to be packed, and left Washington by that afternoon's train.
+
+Bertha had not seen Madame de Gramont from the time she locked herself
+in her chamber until the breakfast hour, next day. The maid Mademoiselle
+de Merrivale brought with her from Paris was in the habit of attending
+the countess as punctiliously as she did her own mistress; but her
+services were, for the first time, dispensed with on the night previous.
+Bertha was oppressed by a vaguely uncomfortable sensation when she
+entered the room where breakfast awaited her, and found the apartment
+vacant. In a few moments the countess entered.
+
+How frightfully old she had grown in a single night! Her step, which
+used to be so firm and measured, was feeble, uncertain, and heavy.
+Sixty-six years had not bowed her straight shoulders; but now they
+stooped. The blow of an iron hand had bent them at last! Her features
+had grown sharp and hard, and the lines looked as though they had been
+cut to twice their usual depth; the mouth appeared to have fallen, the
+corners pressing downward; one might have thought that tears had scalded
+away the lustre and dimmed the vision of the dark eyes that yesterday
+flashed with such steel-like brilliancy. The soft, white locks, that
+were usually arranged with so much skill, hung partially uncurled, and
+scarcely smoothed about her face, adding to the desolation of her whole
+appearance.
+
+Bertha was impressed with greater awe than she had ever experienced
+toward her aunt in the latter's most imperious moments; yet the young
+girl mustered courage to advance and embrace her,--more timidly,
+perhaps, but also more tenderly than was her wont. The countess
+permitted her own cold lips to sweep Bertha's forehead; but they could
+hardly be said to press upon it a kiss.
+
+As they sat at table, Bertha, whose tongue had a gift for prattling,
+could not make an effort to speak. The countess had not tasted food
+since the light, noonday repast of the day previous, yet she now
+swallowed her cup of coffee as though it nearly choked her, and tried,
+in vain, to force down a few morsels of bread. Nothing would have
+induced her to depart from the custom of her country where coffee and
+bread are considered all-sufficient for the first meal.
+
+They had returned to the drawing-room when Maurice entered. The countess
+greeted him with an inclination of the head, but asked no questions.
+
+"My father seems to be in the same state," said he. "There was no change
+during the night; he does not appear to suffer; but, as yet, he is not
+conscious."
+
+Madame de Gramont made no reply, but her breast visibly heaved.
+
+"Did you sit up?" asked Bertha. "Are you not very much fatigued? Did
+Madeleine watch also? Is she not very weary?"
+
+"Not very; nor am I." Then he turned to his grandmother. "Will you come
+with me to see my father? You will find that every arrangement possible
+has been made for your privacy."
+
+The lips of the countess curled scornfully, but she rose and passed into
+her chamber.
+
+"I must make ready also," cried Bertha, flying out of the room. "I am so
+glad that we are to go."
+
+She returned wearing her bonnet and mantle. It was sometime before the
+countess reentered, prepared to depart.
+
+Maurice had ordered a carriage, and they were soon at Madeleine's door.
+
+If the countess noticed the draperies which closed off a portion of the
+house, she gave no sign of doing so.
+
+Madeleine was sitting beside Count Tristan, but rose to yield her place
+to his mother. Madame de Gramont only betrayed that she was aware of her
+niece's presence by a slight movement of the head, while her eyes looked
+past her toward the passive figure lying on the bed. She took the vacant
+seat with a sort of frozen quietude, and her limbs seemed to settle
+themselves rigidly into positions where they remained immovable.
+
+Madeleine at once retired, knowing that her presence must be galling to
+the proud relative whom circumstance thus forced into contact with her;
+nor did she reenter the room again while the countess was there. Maurice
+remained with his father and grandmother, but Bertha stole away to
+Madeleine's boudoir.
+
+M. de Bois, who had called to inquire after the count, and to know of
+what service he could be, found the cousins together. Madeleine, whose
+wealth of energy rendered idleness, when it could be avoided, another
+name for weariness, had seated herself at her desk, and was making
+sketches for Ruth to copy. Bertha sat beside her, destroying pencils in
+her awkward attempt to sharpen them. Madeleine did not desist from her
+occupation, but Bertha's was quickly at an end.
+
+She and her lover conversed for a while; then Gaston offered to show her
+Madeleine's conservatory, and then they passed into the garden. What
+wonder that they found unknown charms in the opening flowers! Was it not
+a spring morning? And was there not spring in their hearts? Was it not
+life's blossoming season with them?
+
+At noon luncheon was served; and Madeleine, in remembrance of her
+guests, had given such especial instructions to Mrs. Lawkins that the
+luncheon closely resembled the _dejeuner a la fourchette_ served at that
+hour in France. As Bertha was still in the garden, Madeleine passed into
+the conservatory and called her.
+
+"Will you not go in, Bertha, and see if you can induce the countess to
+accompany you and Maurice to the dining-room? Say that I will remain
+with Count Tristan while they take luncheon."
+
+Bertha went on her errand, but quickly returned with Maurice.
+
+"My aunt does not seem disposed to eat."
+
+In reality Bertha had received no answer from the countess. Did
+Madeleine expect that Madame de Gramont would break bread under her
+roof? The haughty aristocrat would sooner have perished of hunger.
+
+"Then we will go to table together," replied the hostess, disappointed,
+in spite of herself. "M. de Bois, you will join us?"
+
+The meal passed off very quietly, but very pleasantly. Bertha and Gaston
+were happy enough in each other to have thought a repast of bread and
+cheese a banquet. Maurice could not but be penetrated by the charm of
+sharing Madeleine's home; and, at table, where she presided with such
+graceful ease, he never forgot that it was in _her_ home he was
+dwelling. Madeleine herself could not gaze upon the little circle of
+beloved ones, from whom she had been so long separated, and who were now
+so singularly drawn around her, without feeling supremely happy. In the
+midst of sorrow there are often given, to soften and render it
+endurable, passing flashes of absolute joy.
+
+When they rose from table Maurice returned to his father's chamber. His
+grandmother still sat erect and statue-like in her chair as though she
+had not moved.
+
+The hours flew by only too rapidly with Bertha, however they might have
+dragged in the sick-chamber. M. de Bois, also, must have lost all
+consciousness of time, for he did not propose to take his departure, and
+could Madeleine, even by a hint, dismiss him from her own house?
+
+"Past five o'clock," said she, looking up from her drawing. "Bertha,
+pray ask Maurice to come to me."
+
+When Maurice obeyed the summons, Madeleine remarked, showing him her
+watch, "You see how late it is; I fear the countess will become
+exhausted for want of food. It is in vain to hope that she could be
+induced to dine here; had you not better conduct her home and return?"
+
+"Yes, certainly; it would be the wisest plan; how thoughtful you are!"
+
+"Shall I send for a carriage? I fear she would not enter mine, or I
+would order that."
+
+"I suppose not; it is wonderful to what cruel and inconsistent length
+she carries her pride."
+
+"It is not our place, Maurice, to measure its length or analyze its
+workings. There is Robert in the hall; tell him to call a carriage."
+
+When the carriage arrived, the countess, Bertha and Maurice, drove away
+together.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+RECOGNITION.
+
+
+With electric rapidity flashed the news through Washington that
+Mademoiselle Melanie, the fashionable dressmaker, was a lady of rank,--a
+heroine,--a being hardly inferior to those disguised princesses who
+figure in popular fairy tales. Numberless romantic stories were
+fabricated and circulated, and the startling and improbable motives
+assigned for her incognita bore witness to the fertile imagination of
+the American public.
+
+It may well be imagined that there was but one all-engrossing theme
+discussed in the working-rooms of Mademoiselle Melanie's establishment.
+Mademoiselle Victorine was not a little disgusted when she learned that
+a secret of such moment had been so successfully concealed from her. But
+the quick-witted foreigner had too much tact to betray her ignorance by
+evincing astonishment in the presence of the _employees_, or the patrons
+of Mademoiselle Melanie. On the contrary, Mademoiselle Victorine gave
+them to understand that she had all along been the repository of
+Mademoiselle de Gramont's secrets, and knew more of her past history and
+future plans than was yet suspected.
+
+Madeleine's thoughtful kindness prompted her to make a brief explanation
+to Ruth Thornton, whom she had so long treated as a friend, or younger
+sister. Ruth was moved and gratified by the unsought confidence; but her
+genuine, up-looking veneration for Madeleine could not be increased by
+the knowledge that she was the daughter of the late Duke de Gramont.
+Madeleine concluded her narrative by saying,--
+
+"One may be very poor, and very dependent, and yet be the daughter of a
+duke; and even a duke's daughter may find it less irksome to earn her
+own bread than to eat the bread of charity."
+
+Ruth asked, tremblingly, "But now will all go on as before? Will your
+noble relatives permit you to continue your present life?"
+
+"My relatives can exert no influence which will turn me from the path I
+have chosen," replied Madeleine, divining her young _protegee's_
+thoughts. "While Count Tristan remains in my house, _you_ will act as my
+representative. When he is restored, or, rather, when he is no longer my
+guest, I shall resume my former duties."
+
+Ruth's sinking heart was lifted up by this assurance, and the cloud that
+had gathered upon her sweet face passed away, and left it as placid as
+Madeleine's own. Madeleine's tranquillizing influence over others was
+one of her most remarkable traits. She was not merely calm and
+self-possessed herself, but her presence communicated a steadfast,
+hopeful calmness that was irresistible.
+
+The _beau monde_ had decided that as Mademoiselle de Gramont's family
+had claimed her, she would unhesitatingly abandon her humble occupation,
+and assume her legitimate position in the social sphere; and great were
+the lamentations over the noble _couturiere's_ supposed abdication of
+her throne.
+
+The next question to be settled was whether her former patrons should
+recognize and visit her as an equal, ignoring their previous
+acquaintance. Madame de Fleury was the first to reply to that query. We
+will not make ourselves responsible for the assertion that she was
+prompted by purely disinterested motives, and the unqualified admiration
+with which Mademoiselle Melanie had long since inspired her. It is _just
+possible_ that other incentives had their weight in her light head, and
+that believing herself about to be deprived of the inventive genius
+which had rendered her toilet the glory and delight of her life, she
+might have determined to preserve Mademoiselle Melanie's friendship that
+she might secure her advice on all important occasions. Be that as it
+may, Madame de Fleury immediately left cards for Mademoiselle de
+Gramont, and her example was followed by the Countess Orlowski, and a
+host of other ladies, who conscientiously walked in her footsteps.
+
+The morning of the third day after Count Tristan's seizure passed much
+in the same manner as the second. Maurice conducted his grandmother and
+Bertha to Madeleine's residence. The countess was as silent, as frigid,
+as immovable as before. She took the same seat, kept the same unbent
+position, appeared to be as completely abstracted from what was passing
+around her, as on the day previous. Madeleine absented herself, and
+Bertha soon stole to her side. M. de Bois, whose vigils, it appeared,
+had not fatigued him sufficiently for extra repose to be requisite,
+joined them at an early hour.
+
+About noon, Maurice hastily entered Madeleine's boudoir and said, "I
+think there is some change in my father; his face is much paler and his
+eyes appear to be wandering about with a faint sign of consciousness;
+the motion of his right hand is restored, for he has lifted it several
+times. Pray come to him, Madeleine."
+
+"I only banished myself in the fear that my presence would not be
+agreeable to the countess," replied Madeleine. "Do you think it will not
+now pain her to see me?"
+
+"I cannot tell, but you _must_ come."
+
+Madeleine obeyed.
+
+The countess had risen and was bending over the bed.
+
+"My son! Tristan, my son! do you not hear your mother?" she cried, in a
+hollow, unnatural voice.
+
+His eyes still gazed restlessly about, with a helpless, hopeless,
+supplicating look.
+
+"My dear father," said Maurice, taking the hand which the count had
+again lifted and let fall.
+
+No sign of recognition followed.
+
+"What do you think of his state, Madeleine? Is he not better?"
+
+His cousin softly drew near, and taking in her own the hand Maurice had
+dropped, said, "You know us, Count Tristan, do you not?"
+
+His eyes, as though drawn by her voice, turned quickly, and fastened
+themselves upon her face; his hands made a nervous clutch, his lips
+moved, but the sounds were thick and indistinct, yet the first syllable
+of her name was audible to all.
+
+"Do not try to speak," said Madeleine, soothingly; "you have been very
+ill; you are still weak; do not endeavor to make any exertion."
+
+He continued to look at her beseechingly, and to clasp her hand more and
+more tightly,--so tightly that it gave her positive pain, and his
+quivering lips again made a fruitless effort to utter her name.
+
+"Tristan, my son!" exclaimed the countess, motioning Madeleine to move
+aside.
+
+Madeleine attempted to obey, but could not release her hand from its
+imprisonment.
+
+Count Tristan did not appear to hear, or rather to recognize the voice
+of his mother, although she continued to address him in a loud tone, and
+to beg, almost to command, him to listen to her. Maurice also spoke to
+him, but without making any impression on his mind. There was no meaning
+in his gaze when it rested on the faces of either; but his eyes, the
+instant they fell upon Madeleine's countenance, grew less glassy, more
+_living_, and through them the darkened soul looked dimly out.
+
+Whatever might have been the internal sufferings of the countess, they
+did not conquer her stoicism. She resumed her seat, and her lips were
+again sealed; their close compression and ashy hue alone told that the
+torture of the mental rack upon which she was stretched had been
+augmented.
+
+As soon as Madeleine felt the count's hand relaxing its firm grasp, she
+withdrew hers, though he made a faint attempt to detain her. As she
+retired from the bed, his eyes followed her, and his lips moved again.
+
+"You are not going, Madeleine?" questioned Maurice. "My father evidently
+knows you,--wants you near him; you are the only one he recognizes; do
+not leave us!"
+
+Was that low, stifled sound which reached their ears, in spite of the
+firmly-compressed lips of the countess, an inward sob or groan?
+
+As Madeleine sat down, Dr. Bayard entered. Maurice related what had
+passed, and the doctor requested Madeleine to address the patient. That
+he made an effort to reply was unmistakable. Dr. Bayard then spoke to
+the count, but without attracting his attention. He desired Maurice to
+accost him, but no better result ensued. He signified to the countess
+that she should do the same; but the agony of beholding her son
+recognize, cling to one toward whom she entertained the bitterest
+enmity, while the voice of his mother--his mother who loved him with all
+the strength of her proud nature--was unheeded, became intolerable. She
+rose up, not quickly, but with all her wonted stateliness, and with a
+firm and measured pace walked out of the room. She had no definite
+purpose,--she did not know where she was going, or where she wished to
+go,--but she could not abide the sight forced upon her eyes in that
+chamber.
+
+"Maurice, attend your grandmother," whispered Madeleine.
+
+Maurice had not thought of stirring, but he rose and opened the door of
+the adjoining room.
+
+"Leave me! I would be alone!" said the countess, as he entered.
+
+He returned to his father's side.
+
+Dr. Bayard was giving his orders to Madeleine. A crisis had just passed,
+he said. Count Tristan was better; there was reason to hope that he
+would recover. One side was still paralyzed and there was partial
+paralysis of the tongue. His mind, too, was in a torpid state, but might
+gradually awaken. As Madeleine was the person whom he recognized, it
+would be well for her to remain near him and minister to his wants.
+Madeleine was more than content.
+
+An hour passed and the countess did not return to her son's bedside.
+Maurice, at Madeleine's suggestion, ventured to intrude upon her. She
+appeared to be lost in a deep revery, and did not raise her eyes at his
+approach.
+
+"I fear you are not well, my grandmother; will you not allow me to
+conduct you home?"
+
+"I am _well_," she answered bitterly, "but I will go. My presence is of
+no use here; my own son ignores it!"
+
+She spoke as though the invalid had refused to recognize her for the
+express purpose of adding a fresh insult to those which an evil fortune,
+a malicious chance (to use her own expressions), had heaped upon her
+head.
+
+Without again visiting her son's chamber, she entered the carriage which
+Maurice had ordered; he took his seat opposite to her, and neither
+remembered, until they entered the hotel, that Bertha was left behind.
+
+"I was thinking so much of my poor father that I quite forgot Bertha,"
+he said, apologetically. "I will return for her at once."
+
+"Yes, go, go!" was all the countess replied.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+UNBOWED.
+
+
+Maurice did not suspect how Bertha was employed at that moment, and how
+much his heart would have had cause to rejoice if she proved successful
+in her undertaking. She was so happy herself in her betrothed that she
+was possessed by a strong desire to make some effort by which a like
+felicity might be secured to Madeleine. It had been one of the
+day-dreams of Bertha's girlhood that she and Madeleine should receive
+their wedding rings in the same hour. Gaston was entreating his
+_fiancee_ to name a period, even though it might be some months hence
+(only a few days before, we think, he declared himself content with
+knowing that he might hope for this crowning joy _at the most distant
+date_), when he might call her his.
+
+Bertha replied, tantalizingly, "The time depends upon Madeleine, not
+upon me. She must name the day."
+
+"May she, indeed?" asked M. de Bois, joyfully, for he was convinced that
+he could influence Madeleine's decision.
+
+"Yes, she will name it in naming the day for her own wedding. I have
+always intended that we should be married together."
+
+M. de Bois's countenance fell.
+
+"But Mademoiselle Madeleine is not even engaged."
+
+"Is she not? Are you sure?"
+
+"Quite sure," returned Gaston.
+
+"But she loves some one,--does she not?" questioned Bertha, artfully.
+
+"She has said she did," was the cautious response.
+
+"Then, if she loves some one, we have only to find out who it is and
+bring them together, and get them to understand each other, and help
+them to fix the day. Would not that be charming?"
+
+"Yes, very," replied M. de Bois; but he sighed as he spoke, remembering
+how improbable it was that anything of the kind would take place.
+
+Bertha had a suspicion that he must have some knowledge of Madeleine's
+mysterious lover, and her idea of the perfect confidence that ought to
+exist not only between husband and wife, but a lover and his betrothed
+bride, would of itself have been sufficient inducement to make her
+endeavor to discover the secret.
+
+"You have been near Madeleine all these years that she has been lost to
+us."
+
+"Yes, happily for _me_; and if she can only say happily for _her_, I
+should be proud as well as thankful."
+
+"She does,--I am sure she does say so," responded Bertha,
+affectionately. "What could she have done without you? It was because
+you were so much to Madeleine that you became so much to--to--that is
+so--so--I mean"--
+
+Many a sentence of Gaston's had she finished when his words became
+entangled through confusion; it was but a fair return for him to
+conclude this one of hers, though perhaps he did so in a manner that
+added to her embarrassment.
+
+Bertha recovered herself, and shook back her curls as though they were
+in fault. Then looking up archly in Gaston's face she said,--
+
+"And if I wanted an excuse for what I have done, could I have found a
+better?"
+
+"Not easily," returned the delighted lover, "and I excuse you for a
+piece of bad taste which has rendered me the happiest and proudest of
+men."
+
+"But we were talking of Madeleine," persisted Bertha; "you know every
+one whom she knows,--do you not?"
+
+"What, all her patrons? Heaven forbid!"
+
+"No,--no,--you are very tantalizing,--I did not mean those. I mean the
+persons who visit her: you know them all?"
+
+"Most of them, I believe."
+
+"Then you must be acquainted with this invisible lover of hers!"
+
+Now was M. de Bois puzzled. Bertha saw the advantage she had gained.
+
+"You must have seen him,--you must know all about him,--and _I must
+know_ also. Not to satisfy my curiosity,--do not imagine _that!_--I am
+not in the least curious; but because I want to assist Madeleine. I want
+to judge whether nothing can be done to bring about her union with him."
+
+"Nothing,--I fear, nothing," replied M. de Bois, sadly.
+
+"Then you _do_ know who he is? There, you have admitted that you did!"
+
+"Are you laying snares for me, then, sweet Bertha? But I shall not let
+you exult over my falling into one of these well-laid traps. I only said
+I feared nothing could be done to bring about Mademoiselle Madeleine's
+union with any one."
+
+"But you know whom she loves?"
+
+"She has never told me."
+
+"But you at least _suspect_?"
+
+"What right have I to _suspect_? And you know I am _dull_,--I did not
+even suspect _whom_ her cousin Bertha loved."
+
+Bertha hung her head for a moment, but quickly returned to the attack.
+
+"Tell me, at least, whom you think Madeleine _prefers_."
+
+"I have no right to do that,--it would not be fair to Mademoiselle
+Madeleine,--she would never forgive me!"
+
+"Ah, then you and I may have secrets from each other? That is the
+inference I shall draw if you refuse," said Bertha, provokingly.
+
+This was a most distasteful suggestion to Gaston, who had a masculine
+touch of jealousy in his composition,--just enough to make him desire to
+monopolize Bertha _entirely_. He was not willing that she should have a
+thought which she could not communicate to him; to hide anything from
+him was to rob him! Was his an exceptional case, or are men in general
+as _exigeant_?
+
+"Well, you do not answer?" Bertha observed.
+
+"I should be grieved if I had not your _whole_ confidence, now and
+ever," he replied.
+
+"So shall I be if I have not yours. Should one exact more than one is
+willing to give? Tell me who it is that you suspect Madeleine of loving.
+Tell me at once!"
+
+"I cannot,--I have no right!"
+
+"I think you have no right to withhold the knowledge from me."
+
+"I think so too," answered Gaston, sorely perplexed; "and yet I must not
+tell you! Will you not be generous enough to pity me, and ask me no
+more?"
+
+Bertha only pouted at this appeal; but Gaston must have found some means
+of soothing her, for, by and by, she said, coquettishly,--
+
+"Of course, I only wanted to know on Madeleine's account and on yours."
+
+"_Mine?_" exclaimed Gaston.
+
+"Yes, _yours_; because if I had discovered who this lover was, I might
+have given him some valuable hints, and all might come right very
+quickly; as it is, you may have to wait a long time for a bride."
+
+"I? Why, I am not Mademoiselle Madeleine's lover!"
+
+"No, but you are very dependent upon him. You cannot encircle your
+bride's finger with a wedding-ring until he passes one on the taper
+finger of his."
+
+"Bertha, that is unreasonable!" remonstrated Gaston.
+
+"All the more womanly! Of course it is unreasonable; I never laid claim
+to being _reasonable_; but, on the other hand, I am obstinate. When
+Madeleine names the day for her marriage she names the day for mine."
+
+"But if she should never marry, and that is possible."
+
+"Then _I never shall!_" said Bertha, with a petulant little air of
+determination which looked only too real.
+
+M. de Bois had no opportunity at that moment to test the effect of his
+newly-acquired eloquence, for Maurice entered.
+
+"Bertha, will you believe that I have escorted my grandmother home and
+actually forgotten you? The carriage waits, and I am deputed to see you
+safely to the hotel."
+
+"Do you suppose I shall accept as an escort one who thought me of too
+little importance to bear me in mind?" asked Bertha, who was not wanting
+in feminine tact, that sixth sense of womanhood, which becomes
+wonderfully quickened when love sharpens the faculties.
+
+Gaston joined in; "My dear fellow, you could scarcely hope to be treated
+civilly after such a confession. But I will do my utmost to relieve you
+in this unpleasant predicament. Mademoiselle Bertha refuses you as an
+escort--but, as she cannot return alone, I will take your place."
+
+"And you may dismiss your carriage," returned Bertha. "I prefer to
+walk."
+
+"And you really will not let me accompany you?" asked Maurice. "What
+will my grandmother say?"
+
+"No doubt we shall hear _that_ when we reach the hotel," was the young
+lady's saucy reply.
+
+But they did _not_ hear; for the countess had closed her door, and did
+not open it again until she summoned Adolphine to undress her.
+
+The watchers beside Count Tristan that night were Madeleine and Maurice.
+The count was somewhat restless and often muttered unintelligible words;
+but he continued to recognize Madeleine and seemed pleased to have her
+near him. Maurice did not fall asleep again; he and Madeleine talked, in
+whispers, the whole night through, with the exception of those brief
+intervals when the count was awake. The themes of conversation were so
+abundant, so self-increasing, there was always so much which remained
+untold, that the topics of interest appeared to be inexhaustible.
+
+Madeleine had given orders that Ruth and Mrs. Lawkins should commence
+their watch at five o'clock; but she could hardly believe that hour had
+arrived when the housekeeper entered, followed by Ruth. Maurice declared
+that he was not in the slightest degree fatigued, or sleepy, and did not
+need rest; but Madeleine, with smiling imperativeness, ordered him to
+bed; and certainly Maurice, when he obeyed, slept remarkably sound for a
+man who was not in the least fatigued or sleepy, and who was inclined to
+battle against sleep because he could not bear to lose the consciousness
+of being beneath the same roof as the one so long loved, so long and
+vainly sought; and because it was a joy inexpressible to lie still and
+think over all the words she had just uttered, and to picture her face
+until it seemed actually before him. Yet, in spite of this delightful
+occupation, inexorable sleep would suddenly fling her mantle over his
+senses, and even refused to grant him the happiness of continuing his
+blissful dreams in her own realm.
+
+Maurice sought his grandmother the next morning, at the usual hour, and
+carried her the tidings that Count Tristan moved his limbs more freely,
+and that he had even spoken several words which could be comprehended.
+She gave no sign of preparing to accompany her grandson, and, after
+waiting awhile, he asked,--
+
+"Will you and Bertha be ready soon? It is later than usual."
+
+"I shall not go," replied the countess slowly, and as though it cost her
+a great effort to force out the words.
+
+Maurice made no remonstrance; he well knew that to endeavor to alter a
+resolution of hers would be a fruitless attempt.
+
+"And you, Bertha?" he inquired.
+
+Bertha looked toward the countess: "Perhaps you would not like me to
+leave you?"
+
+"_All leave me!_" she almost groaned out. "Why not you?"
+
+"I will stay with my aunt," replied Bertha, without hesitation.
+
+And she remained all day beside the afflicted, but ever haughty,
+countess. They did not converse, for the latter rarely spoke, even in
+answer to Bertha's questions, and Bertha could invent no mode of
+arousing and amusing her.
+
+M. de Bois, not finding Bertha at Madeleine's, came to the hotel; but
+his presence was obviously very distasteful to the countess. She did not
+withdraw, she would have suffered martyrdom (as she did) rather than
+commit the impropriety of leaving Bertha alone with her lover; but she
+sat with knitted brows, her stony eyes turned scrutinizingly upon them,
+listening to and passing judgment upon every word they uttered, and
+looking a rebuke if Bertha ventured to smile. The icy chill of such a
+presence rendered Bertha and Gaston so thoroughly uncomfortable, that
+the young girl, although she was one of those beings who could hardly
+bear to live out of the sight of those she loved best, felt relieved
+when Gaston rose and bade her adieu. His visit had been brief, yet it
+seemed longer than all the combined hours they had passed together
+during the last three days. The visage of the countess relaxed somewhat
+after Gaston had gone, but she remained lost in thought without further
+noticing her niece. Bertha was, at least, spared the nervous unrest
+produced by those piercing eyes ever upon her.
+
+Unfortunately Bertha's resources for self-diversion were of the most
+limited description. Hers was a social, a wholly dependent nature; she
+could not, like Madeleine, create her own amusement, and make her own
+occupation. She tried to read, but could not fix her attention; she
+tried to embroider, but quickly threw down her work; she could only
+wander in and out of the room, now watching at the window as though she
+expected some one; now sitting down and jumping up again; now turning
+over books and papers, and looking about for something, she did not know
+what, until she had thrown the room into complete disorder; and
+certainly her restless flitting backward and forward would have half
+distracted any one less absorbed than the countess. During one of
+Bertha's fits of contemplation at the window, she exclaimed,--
+
+"Here comes Maurice, at last! I thought he would never be here!"
+
+"I think my father is decidedly improving," said Maurice, as he entered.
+"I feel certain he recognized me to-day, and I thought he attempted to
+pronounce my name."
+
+A faint light gleamed in the eyes of the countess at these words, but it
+was quenched by those which followed.
+
+"Madeleine, he always seems to know, and he evidently likes to have her
+near him. His eyes wander after her when she leaves the room, and
+to-day, I thought he tried to smile when she returned."
+
+"He is better then; it will soon be possible to move him; he can soon
+have that care which _should_ be most acceptable to every son, and, I
+trust, has ever been to mine."
+
+The countess made this assertion proudly, in spite of the deep wound she
+had received through her son's recognition of Madeleine; she had tried
+to forget that blow, or to persuade herself that it had not been dealt.
+
+Maurice did not know what answer to make, and remained silent.
+
+"Aunt, you would not think of having cousin Tristan brought here until
+he is nearly well,--that is, well enough to walk about,--would you?"
+asked Bertha; and her accents expressed her disapproval of such an
+attempt.
+
+"He shall come the very moment that it is possible! Do you suppose that
+I would submit to his remaining where he is one instant longer than is
+absolutely necessary?"
+
+No reply to this declaration was needed or expected. Maurice returned to
+Madeleine's house with a sense of thankfulness that the count's seizure
+had taken place where it did.
+
+Gaston and the housekeeper were the watchers beside the count that
+night, taking the places of Madeleine and Maurice at midnight,--this
+exchange having now become the established rule for alternate nights.
+
+In spite of the iron-like constitution, and iron-like character of the
+countess,--in spite of her valiant, her desperate struggles,--her
+strength began to fail under the pressure of her hidden sorrow. She was
+unwilling to admit that she was subject to bodily any more than to
+mental infirmities. She belonged to that rare class described by the
+poet when he speaks of one who
+
+                         "Scarce confesses
+    That his blood flows, or that his appetite
+    Is more to bread than stone."
+
+And though she had been suffering for days from a low nervous fever,
+neither her words nor actions gave the slightest indication that she was
+not in her usual health. But, one morning, when she endeavored to rise,
+her limbs refused to support her,--her head swam,--it was with
+difficulty that she poured out a glass of water to cool her parched and
+burning lips, and she was so fearful of falling (there seemed something
+positively awful to her in the possibility of _prostration_, perhaps on
+account of the fall it typified) that she staggered back to bed and
+there remained.
+
+Neither Bertha's persuasions, nor those of Maurice, could induce her to
+allow a physician to be summoned. Maurice suggested Dr. Bayard, who was
+attending Count Tristan, but the countess was even more opposed to him
+than to any other medical attendant. Was he not aware of her
+relationship to the _mantua-maker_? Had he not seen Count Tristan
+recognize that humble and degraded relative when he did not know his own
+mother?--his own son? No,--she never allowed physicians to approach her;
+she never had need of them; she had none now, so she affirmed.
+
+Bertha was not particularly well fitted to preside in a sick-room, and
+her maid, Adolphine, was versed in the arts of the toilet alone. She
+could have made the most charming cap for an invalid, but would have
+proved particularly clumsy in smoothing a pillow for the head by which
+the cap was to be worn. Yet the countess obstinately refused to have a
+proper attendant engaged. She wanted nothing, she said, except to be
+left to herself,--not to be disturbed,--not even to be accosted.
+
+The position of Maurice grew far more painful than ever. He could no
+longer devote himself exclusively to his father. Even though he could,
+in reality, do nothing for his grandmother, yet he felt bound to pass a
+portion of the day by her side; for Bertha was too much distressed and
+too inefficient to be left with no assistance save that of her frivolous
+maid. Madeleine longed to seek her aunt, and make some few, needful
+arrangements for her comfort; but she could not doubt that her presence
+would do more harm than good. All that she could effect was to instruct
+Maurice, as far as possible, in the requirements of a sick-room, and to
+have prepared, in her own kitchen, the light food suitable to an
+invalid, which it would be difficult to obtain in a hotel. Every day
+delicate broth, beef tea as clear as amber, panada, simple jellies, and
+choice fruit were sent to Bertha for her aunt, without the knowledge of
+the countess; indeed, the only nourishment the invalid tasted was
+provided by the thoughtful Madeleine.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+
+DOUBLE CONVALESCENCE.
+
+
+A fortnight passed on. At its close the vigorous constitution of the
+countess, united to her powerful volition, gained a victory over her
+malady. She had remained unshaken in her resolution not to receive
+medical advice; she had taken no remedies,--used no precautions; yet
+the fever had been conquered. Her strength began to return, and she
+insisted upon leaving her bed, and being dressed, not as befits an
+invalid, but in her usual precise and _soigne_ style. Adolphine timidly
+suggested that a wrapper would be more comfortable than her ordinary
+attire, and a morning cap would allow her to repose her head. The
+countess awed her into silence by remarking:
+
+"I keep my chamber no longer. I shall dress in a manner suitable to the
+drawing-room."
+
+During the progress of the tedious toilet, it was more than once
+apparent that she was battling against a sense of faintness; but even
+this discomfort did not induce her to allow a single pin to be less
+conscientiously placed, a single curl less carefully smoothed. Adolphine
+did not dare to betray that she perceived the failure of her mistress'
+strength, and had not courage to offer her a glass of water. When the
+folds of her heavy black silk dress were adjusted, her collar and
+sleeves, of rich lace, arranged, her girdle tightly clasped with a
+buckle of brilliants which was an heirloom, and her snowy hair
+ornamented with a Parisian head-dress of mingled lace, velvet, and
+flowers, she contemplated herself in the mirror as complacently as
+though she perceived no change in her shrunken, haggard, altered
+features, and rose up to proceed to the _salon_.
+
+Her first steps were so feeble and uncertain that Adolphine started
+forward involuntarily, to offer her arm; but a look from her mistress
+made her draw back, and the tread of the countess grew firmer as she
+entered the drawing-room. She did not sink into the nearest seat, but
+crossed the apartment to the arm-chair which she was accustomed to
+occupy; but she had hardly sat down, before her eyes closed and her head
+fell back; her face was as white as that of the dead. Adolphine caught
+up a bottle of cologne; but she stood in such fear of the countess, that
+without using the restorative she ran to summon Bertha. Bertha
+approached her aunt in great alarm, but sprinkled the cologne on her
+face with lavish hands, applied it to her nostrils, and bathed her
+temples. In a few moments Madame de Gramont opened her eyes and said,--
+
+"A little on my handkerchief, Bertha. Adolphine carelessly forgot to
+give me any."
+
+Her proud, unconquered spirit would not admit the passing insensibility
+of its mortal part. There was nothing to be done except for her niece
+and maid to appear unconscious of the weakness which she herself
+ignored. Adolphine placed a footstool beneath her mistress' feet and
+retired. Bertha went to the window and looked out,--a favorite amusement
+of hers, as we are aware.
+
+The fortnight had been one of severe privation and discipline to her.
+She had not once seen Madeleine, for she could not have left her aunt,
+except when Maurice was with her, and the countess would not have
+permitted her niece to go forth unprotected by Maurice or her maid, and
+the latter could not be spared. The escort of Bertha's affianced husband
+Madame de Gramont would have considered highly improper.
+
+Gaston's visits, though he came every day, were brief and
+unsatisfactory; for the countess, who could not forbid them, (as she
+felt inclined to do), ordered the large folding-doors which divided her
+chamber from the drawing-room to be left open, and desired Adolphine to
+take her work into the latter apartment. Conversation in an ordinary
+tone was quite audible to the countess, and could not but be heard by
+Adolphine, who had a tolerable knowledge of English. What lover cares to
+converse to more than one listener?
+
+Bertha pined for the fresh air,--for a drive in the country, or, better
+still, a stroll in the capitol grounds with Gaston; but this latter was
+a happiness almost as far out of her reach as the paradise which she
+deemed it foreshadowed.
+
+The countess had grown highly irascible during her illness, and as
+Bertha and her maid were the only ones upon whom she had a chance of
+venting her spleen, she spared neither. She experienced a sick longing
+for her native land; she more than ever detested the republican country
+in which she was sojourning, and she heaped upon Bertha the bitterest
+reproaches as the instigator of the exile which had been followed by so
+many calamities. The countess never condescended to remember that her
+wealthy young relative had liberally borne all expenses since they left
+the Chateau de Gramont, where its owners had no longer the means of
+residing. Of this fact she might be supposed to be ignorant, as she
+never vouchsafed a thought to _money matters_; it, however, had been
+made known to her by Count Tristan before she consented to the journey;
+but the _trivial circumstance_ was quickly forgotten.
+
+While Bertha was dreamily looking out of the window, and wondering when
+she would be freed from this prison-like life, she heard the door open,
+and turned quickly, hoping to greet the all-brightening presence. It was
+Robert, Madeleine's servant, who entered bearing a silver salver. Bertha
+had not supposed that the countess would, without warning, occupy her
+usual place in the drawing-room, and had not guarded against Robert's
+being seen. The young girl was so much discomposed that she stood
+motionless, aghast, expecting some terrible outburst from her aunt.
+Robert had admitted the countess at each of her compulsory visits to the
+residence of "Mademoiselle Melanie," and it seemed hardly possible that
+she would not recognize him again. Bertha ought to have known Madame de
+Gramont better than to have supposed she would have stooped to bestow
+glances enough upon a servant of Madeleine's, or, indeed, any servant,
+to know his features. Robert placed the salver upon the table, and
+either because he was naturally a silent man, or because the presence of
+the countess struck him dumb, or because he had no message to deliver
+that morning, retired without speaking. Bertha looked anxiously at her
+aunt; the immobility of her features was reassuring.
+
+The salver bore a pitcher of admirably prepared chocolate, made by
+Madeleine herself, a plate carefully covered with a napkin, containing a
+delicate species of Normandy cake, to which the countess had been
+particularly partial in Brittany (Madeleine had remembered the recipe),
+and a dish of enormous strawberries, served, according to the French
+custom, with their stems. It occurred to Bertha, for the first time,
+that perhaps there was a cipher upon Madeleine's plate which would
+betray from whence it came; she examined a spoon before she ventured to
+present the tray to her aunt. The silver only bore the letter "M."
+Bertha, considerably relieved, but still flurried by the peril she had
+just escaped, placed a small table before Madame de Gramont, then poured
+out and handed her the chocolate in silence, fearing to provoke some
+question.
+
+The countess, who was growing faint again, gladly accepted the
+nourishing beverage, and even ate several cakes. She seemed to enjoy
+them, for it was long since she had spoken in so pleasant a tone as when
+she remarked,--
+
+"These cakes remind me of our noble old chateau; one would hardly
+suppose that they would be found in America."
+
+Bertha suspected who had made the cakes, and, to draw her aunt's
+attention away from them, said,--
+
+"What delicious strawberries! And how fragrant they are!"
+
+The countess took one by the stem, and dipped it in the sugar, but with
+a disparaging look. It was large and juicy, and possessed a rich flavor
+and an aromatic odor which French strawberries can seldom boast; but the
+countess would not have admitted the superiority even of American fruit
+over that of her own country, and after tasting a few of the
+strawberries returned to the cake which reminded her of her forsaken
+home.
+
+How fared it with Count Tristan during the fortnight in which he had not
+seen his august mother? Under judicious and tender care, he had
+steadily, rapidly improved. His mental faculties had been sufficiently
+restored for him to recognize every one around him, but his memory was
+still clouded, and his thoughts sadly confused. He had partially
+recovered his articulation, though his speech continued to be thick and
+at times unintelligible. His limbs also had been partly freed from the
+thraldom of paralysis, but were still heavy and numb, as though they had
+long worn chains. He clung to Madeleine more eagerly than ever, and
+seemed to be disturbed and uncomfortable except when she was near him.
+He had a vague consciousness that she was the medium through which all
+good flowed in to him, and often repeated, as he held her hand,--
+
+"You,--you--yes, you, Madeleine, you saved us all! Good angel--good
+angel!"
+
+That her ministry in the sick-room was so grateful to the sufferer was
+not surprising; for a gentle, efficient hand which knows precisely how
+to make a pillow yield the best support,--a low, soft, yet encouraging
+voice,--a cheerful, yet sympathizing face,--a soundless step,--garments
+that never rustle,--movements that make no noise,--are among the chief
+blessings to an invalid.
+
+The count seemed less happy at the sight of his son; his mind was
+haunted by an undefined fear that there was something Maurice would
+learn which would make him shrink from his father,--which would disgrace
+both; the sufferer had quite forgotten that the discovery he dreaded had
+already been made. When he looked at Maurice he often muttered the
+words,--
+
+"Unincumbered,--no mortgage,--of course it's all right,--power of
+attorney untouched,--leave all to me!"
+
+At other times he would plead, in broken sentences, for pardon, and
+denounce himself as a villain who had ruined his only son.
+
+It was a somewhat singular coincidence that the very morning the
+countess had risen and dressed for the first time for a fortnight, Count
+Tristan appeared to be so much more restless than usual that Madeleine
+suggested he should be conducted to her boudoir. Maurice assisted him to
+rise, enveloped him in a comfortable _robe de chambre_, and, with the
+help of Robert, led him to that pleasant, peace-breathing apartment,
+where she had arranged an easy-chair with pillows, had opened the doors
+of the conservatory to admit the odorous air, and had shaded the windows
+that the light might be softened to an invalid's eyes.
+
+He smiled placidly and gratefully as he looked toward the flowers, and
+stretched out his hand to Madeleine. She took her place on a low seat,
+her little sewing-chair, and, unbidden, sang some of the wild, old
+strains to which he had often listened in the ancient chateau. The sigh
+he heaved was one of pleasure, as though his heart felt too full, but
+not of care. Madeleine sang on, ballad after ballad, for she could not
+pause while he appeared to be so calmly happy, and her voice only died
+away as she felt the hand that clasped hers relax its hold, and, looking
+up, she found that her patient was gently slumbering.
+
+Maurice had sat listening and gazing as one spellbound, but Madeleine
+roused him by saying,--
+
+"It is long past your usual hour for visiting your grandmother. Had you
+not better go? I think it likely your father will sleep some time. The
+change of scene and the fresh air have lulled him into a tranquil
+slumber."
+
+"And your voice had nothing to do with his rest?" asked Maurice,
+tenderly.
+
+"Any old crone's would serve as well for a lullaby," she answered,
+playfully. "Now go, and be sure you find out whether the countess liked
+the chocolate and those Normandy cakes."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+OUTGENERALLED.
+
+
+Madame de Gramont welcomed Maurice that morning with more animation than
+she had evinced during her illness. He did not anticipate finding her in
+the drawing-room; and was even more surprised to see her not in an
+invalid's _deshabille_, but dressed for visitors; not reclining, but
+sitting up almost as stiffly as in the days of her grandeur. He
+congratulated her upon her convalescence with mingled warmth and
+astonishment.
+
+"Thank you, I am quite well," she replied; though her colorless lips and
+wan, sunken face solemnly contradicted the words. "How is your father?"
+This question was asked apparently with newly-awakened anxiety; for of
+late she had made no inquiries, but listened in silence to Maurice's
+daily report, and turned sullenly from him as though he were responsible
+for its unfavorable nature.
+
+He now answered in an unusually cheerful tone,--
+
+"My father is better, much better, to-day; improving fast, I think."
+
+Some of the old triumphant light flashed out of the countess' black eyes
+as she ejaculated,--
+
+"Thank God! Then he can be brought here at once!"
+
+Maurice perceived his mistake too late. He had not foreseen that the
+countess would have drawn this conclusion from the intelligence just
+communicated.
+
+"My dear grandmother, you cannot think of desiring to remove my father
+at present?"
+
+"Cannot think of it? What other thought fills my mind night and day? He
+_must_ be removed from that house. I say _must_, the very instant his
+life would not be perilled by the attempt. Better that it should have
+been placed in jeopardy than that he should have remained there thus
+long."
+
+"We will talk of this when he is more decidedly convalescent," returned
+Maurice, perceiving that some generalship must be employed to protect
+his father. "I will let you know how he progresses, and we will make all
+the necessary arrangements for his change of abode in due season."
+
+The countess was too shrewd not to see through this answer, and she was
+quite competent to return Maurice's move by generalship of her own; for,
+in the battle of life, it is the tactics of womanhood that oftenest win
+the day. She allowed the conversation to drop; and Maurice secretly
+rejoiced at her having, as he supposed, yielded the point. He chatted
+awhile with Bertha; then his eyes chanced to fall upon the salver which
+Madeleine had prepared. It called to mind her request.
+
+"What have you here? Chocolate? Did you find it well made?"
+
+The countess took no notice of the inquiry.
+
+"These are very fine strawberries," persisted Maurice. "Did you enjoy
+them? And these cakes,"--he tasted one,--"used to be favorites of
+yours."
+
+The countess checked a rising sigh; for her aversion to betraying even a
+passing emotion was insuperable. "They reminded me of Brittany," she
+said, involuntarily.
+
+"You liked them, then? They are to your taste?" questioned her grandson,
+hoping to be able to tell Madeleine that her labors had been rewarded.
+
+But the countess answered coldly,--
+
+"I find very little in this country, even though the object be imported,
+which is to my taste."
+
+She did not open her lips again until Maurice was taking his leave. Then
+she said,--
+
+"Has your father's physician been to see him to-day?"
+
+"No; he had not come when I left, though it was past his usual hour."
+
+"Let him know that I wish to see him," ordered the countess.
+
+Had Maurice suspected her object he would not have replied so
+cordially,--
+
+"I am truly glad that you will accept medical aid at last. You look very
+feeble."
+
+The countess considered such a suggestion an insult; and drew herself up
+as she replied,--
+
+"You are mistaken. I am far from feeble. Feebleness does not belong to
+my race. My strength does not forsake me readily; it will last while I
+last. Still you may inform your father's physician that I desire to see
+him."
+
+"I will send him to you at once. You shall certainly see him to-day."
+
+"Thank you."
+
+These two words were spoken dryly by the countess, and with an emphasis
+which might have struck Maurice and caused him to suspect her intentions
+and possibly to frustrate them, had he not been so thoroughly convinced
+that her own state required medical care, and had he not known that her
+stoical fortitude made it easier for her to suffer than to admit that
+she _could_ suffer.
+
+Maurice found Madeleine where he had left her. The count had just
+awakened, much refreshed. He was softly stroking her head and saying
+with the same indistinct utterance, "Good angel! good angel!"
+
+At the sight of Maurice the old troubled look passed again over his
+face, and he whispered hoarsely,--
+
+"He shall never know. Never, never let him know. It would kill me! kill
+me!"
+
+Maurice had told Madeleine how much better he had found his grandmother,
+and was giving her the gratifying intelligence that Madame de Gramont
+had said the cakes reminded her of Brittany (the highest praise possible
+for her to bestow on anything), when the doctor entered.
+
+His patient, he said, had made marvellous progress; but that was owing,
+in a great measure, to admirable nursing; and he nodded approvingly to
+Madeleine.
+
+"If physicians had only at their disposal a train of well-informed,
+efficient, conscientious nurses to distribute among their patients,
+medical services might be of some use in the world; but, as it is, we
+might make a new application of the old proverb, that God sends us
+dinners, and the devil sends us cooks who make the dinners valueless; a
+physician gives his orders and prescriptions, and a careless nurse
+renders them null."
+
+Dr. Bayard was not a man who dealt in compliments, even in a modified
+form; he was sagacious, abrupt, straightforward, and at times spoke his
+mind rather sharply. He had been impressed by Madeleine's unremitting
+care of his patient, and, in declaring that the count's convalescence
+was, in a large degree, due to her prudence and vigilance, he simply
+said what he thought.
+
+"I am glad to see you have removed your charge to this room," he
+continued. "Change of scene and of air is always good, when practicable.
+I recommend a short drive to-morrow. I never keep an invalid imprisoned
+one hour longer than is necessary."
+
+Maurice delivered his grandmother's message; and Dr. Bayard promised to
+call upon her before his return home. The claims upon his time, however,
+were so numerous that it was evening before he reached Brown's hotel.
+The countess would not, even to herself have admitted that she could be
+subject to such an unaristocratic sensation as impatience; but we are
+unable to hit upon any other word to express the state of unquiet
+anxiety with which she awaited his coming.
+
+He was announced at last.
+
+At that hour in the day, it was not unnatural for Dr. Bayard to be in a
+great hurry to get home to his dinner; and consequently his manners were
+even more blunt and informal than usual. Without losing a minute, he
+took a seat in front of the lady whom he supposed to be his patient,
+looked scrutinizingly into her face and said,--
+
+"Well, and what's the matter? A touch of fever, I suspect. We shall soon
+bring that under."
+
+Without further ceremony he placed his fingers on her wrist.
+
+The countess drew her hand away, as though something loathsome had dared
+to pollute her; and the bright red fever spot on either cheek deepened
+into the crimson of wrath.
+
+"Sir, I am perfectly well. I did not send for you to ask your advice
+concerning myself."
+
+Dr. Bayard drew back his chair an inch or two, but made no apology.
+
+"I am the mother of Count Tristan de Gramont whom you are attending."
+
+Dr. Bayard bowed.
+
+"I hear that he is much better."
+
+"Much better," was the physician's laconic reply.
+
+"It would no longer be dangerous for him to be removed from his present
+most unfit abode," the countess asserted rather than interrogated.
+
+Dr. Bayard, in answering the queries of patients, or those of their
+families, did not follow the practice of physicians in general, but
+adhered to the exact truth. He replied, "It would not be dangerous,
+madame, but it would be unwise,--confounded folly, I might say. He is
+very comfortable where he is, and he has capital care. I do not believe
+there is such another nurse as Mademoiselle Melanie in Christendom."
+
+If fiery arrows ever flash from human eyes, as some who have felt their
+wound declare they do, such darts flew fast and thick from the eyes of
+the countess as she regarded him.
+
+"Sir, it is not a question of nurses. A mother is the fittest person to
+watch beside her son."
+
+Dr. Bayard differed with her, but did not give her the benefit of his
+private opinion.
+
+"As Count Tristan is in a state to be removed, I will give orders to
+have him brought here to-morrow. I suppose it is too late to-night?"
+observed the countess.
+
+"I have already said that I do not see the necessity of his being moved
+at all, until he is perfectly restored," persisted the doctor.
+
+"It is enough that I see it!" remarked the countess, frigidly. "I
+believe my inquiries only extended to asking your medical opinion as to
+the _danger_ not the _propriety_ of moving my son."
+
+"Then I have nothing more to say," replied the physician, rising. "I
+have already stated that his removal, if advisable in other respects,
+would not be dangerous. Allow me to wish you good-evening."
+
+Though Dr. Bayard's visit had highly irritated Madame de Gramont,
+exultation prevailed over all other emotions.
+
+Bertha had been present during the interview, and albeit she was filled
+with grief at the prospect of Madeleine's sorrow and mortification, she
+had not the moral courage to remonstrate.
+
+The countess was up betimes on the morrow. It may be that her strength
+had really returned; it may be that excitement supplied its place; but
+there was no recurrence of the feebleness which she had not been able
+wholly to conceal on the day previous. Before Bertha was dressed for
+breakfast her aunt had sent to borrow her writing-desk (having no
+correspondents, the countess did not travel with one of her own), and
+Bertha experienced a heart-sickening foreboding at the request. When she
+entered the drawing-room, Madame de Gramont was writing slowly and
+elaborately, as though she were preparing some document which was to
+pass into the hands of critical judges; but she never wrote in any other
+manner. A hasty, impulsive, dashing off of words and ideas would have
+lacked dignity. The whole character of the haughty lady might easily
+have been read in the stiff but elegant hand, the formal and carefully
+constructed phrases, the icy tenor of her simplest missive.
+
+She folded the note, told Bertha where to find her seal with the de
+Gramont arms, impressed it carefully upon the melted wax, desired Bertha
+to ring the bell, and bade her send the note at once to Maurice. The
+countess could not have stooped to name to the servant the residence of
+the mantua-maker.
+
+Though Madame de Gramont expected that her command would be instantly
+obeyed, she was too little used to attend to household matters, or
+bestow a thought upon the comfort of others, to give any orders
+concerning her son's room, or even to reflect that additional care in
+its preparation was needed for an invalid.
+
+Count Tristan had passed the best night with which he had been favored
+since his attack. He had slept so uninterruptedly that Gaston and Mrs.
+Lawkins (whose turn it was to replace Madeleine and Maurice) had
+followed the invalid's example and travelled with him to the kingdom of
+Morpheus.
+
+In the morning he expressed a desire to rise. The first words he uttered
+showed that his articulation was clearer. Madeleine had arranged the
+pillows in his arm-chair and placed it where he could look into the
+conservatory. He walked into the boudoir supported only by Maurice.
+There was a rare amount of stamina, a wondrously recuperative power in
+the de Gramont constitution, as was manifested both by mother and son.
+
+When the count was comfortably seated, Madeleine placed before him a
+little table with his breakfast so neatly arranged that merely to look
+at it gave one an appetite. She served him herself, and the tranquil
+pleasure he felt in receiving what he ate from her hands was
+unmistakable. His own hands were still weak and numb, and she cut up the
+delicate broiled chicken, and broke the bread, disposed his napkin
+carefully, and then steadied the cup of chocolate which he tried to
+carry to his lips. Maurice stood watching her, just as he always did;
+for it was difficult for him to remove his eyes from her face when she
+was present, though, in truth, when she was absent he saw her before him
+hardly less distinctly.
+
+The trio was thus agreeably occupied when the note of the countess was
+placed in the hands of Maurice. His consternation vented itself in an
+irrepressible groan, which made Madeleine and the count look up.
+
+The latter trembled with alarm, and, his haunting fear coming back, he
+asked, in a terrified tone,--
+
+"What has happened? What do they want? What would they make you believe?
+No harm of me,--you wont! you wont! Here's Madeleine will make all
+right!"
+
+"Do not trouble yourself," said Madeleine, soothingly; "there are no
+business matters to fret you now."
+
+Her sweet, quieting voice, or the assurance, calmed him, and he repeated
+once more, for the thousandth time, "Good angel! good angel!"
+
+"It is a note from my grandmother," said Maurice, biting his lips. "She
+has seen Dr. Bayard, and insists on carrying out certain views of hers,
+and she informs me that she has his permission to do so."
+
+Madeleine had not nerved herself against this blow; it fell heavily upon
+her; she could not at once resign the precious privilege of ministering
+to her afflicted relative; and she could not hope that the countess
+would allow her to approach him if he were removed to the hotel.
+
+"Surely she will not be so cruel! It will harm him,--it will retard his
+recovery."
+
+"I will see her, at once, and try what argument and remonstrance can
+do," replied Maurice.
+
+And he set forth on his difficult mission.
+
+A moment's reflection convinced Madeleine that if the countess had
+received the doctor's consent, she would prove inexorable. There was no
+resource but to submit as patiently as possible. Count Tristan must be
+reconciled to the change, and to effect that was the task now before
+her. She tried to break the news gently; she told him his mother had not
+seen him of late because she had been ill; and now, hearing he was so
+much better, she desired him to return to the hotel that he might be
+nearer to her.
+
+The count answered peevishly, "No--no,--I'll not go! I'm better
+here,--better with you, my good angel!"
+
+"But if Madame de Gramont is determined," said Madeleine, "I have no
+right, no power to resist her authority."
+
+"Can I not stay? Let me stay!" he pleaded, pathetically.
+
+"I would be only too thankful if you could; but you know the wishes of
+the countess cannot be disregarded."
+
+"I cannot go! It will kill me if I go back! I am better here. I'm safe
+with you! I'll not go!"
+
+He seemed so much distressed that Madeleine dismissed the subject by
+saying, "Maurice has gone to see his grandmother; we need not torment
+ourselves until he returns."
+
+The count was easily satisfied, and the remembrance of his trouble soon
+faded from his mind. Madeleine asked him if she should sing, and he
+nodded a pleased assent. She could not give voice to any but the saddest
+melodies, for a sorrowful presentiment that she would never sing to him
+again, filled her mind. She continued to charm away his cares by the
+witchery of her accents until Maurice returned. The result of his
+advocacy was quickly told. The countess was inflexible, and awaited her
+son.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+A CHANGE.
+
+
+The strongest heart will sometimes betray that it is overtaxed through
+the pressure of a sorrow which appears trivial contrasted with the
+stupendous burdens it has borne unflinchingly; the firmest spirit is
+sometimes crushed at last, by the weight of a moral "feather" that
+breaks the back of endurance. Madeleine's courage proved insufficient to
+encounter calmly this new trial. She could not see that poor, wretched,
+brain-shattered sufferer, that proud man bowed to the dust, clinging to
+her with such a strange, perplexed, yet steady grasp, and know that she
+could no longer tend, amuse, and soothe him! Her composure was forsaking
+her, and she could only hurriedly whisper to Maurice,--
+
+"I will pack your father's clothes; make him comprehend that we have no
+alternative; reconcile him if you can. Since he must go, it had better
+be at once; the countess is no doubt anxiously expecting him."
+
+She passed into the count's room, gathered together all his wearing
+apparel, and knelt down beside his trunk. Her heart swelled as though
+it would burst; she bowed her head upon the trunk she was about to open,
+and sobbed aloud!
+
+Madeleine's tears were not like Bertha's,--mere summer rain which sprang
+to her eyes with every passing emotion, and fell in sun-broken showers
+that freshened and brightened her own spirit. Madeleine seldom wept, and
+when the tears came, they sprang up from the very depth of her true
+heart, in a hot, bitter current which was less like the bubbling of a
+fountain than the lava bursting from a volcano. It is ever thus with
+powerful, yet self-controlled natures, and Madeleine's equanimity in the
+midst of trials which would have prostrated others, was not a lack of
+keen, quick sensibility, but an evidence of the supremacy she had gained
+by discipline over her passions.
+
+Madeleine wept and wept, forgetting the work before her, the time that
+was passing, the necessity for action! All the tears that she might have
+shed during the last few weeks, if it were her nature to weep as most
+women weep, now rushed forth in one passionate torrent. She did not hear
+a step approaching; she was hardly conscious of the encircling arm that
+raised her from the ground, nor was she startled by the voice that
+said,--
+
+"Madeleine! my own Madeleine! Is it you sobbing thus?"
+
+"I feel _this!_ O Maurice, I feel _this!_ My aunt has never had power to
+make me feel so much since that day in the little _chalet_ when my eyes
+were opened,--when she cast me off, and I stood alone in the world."
+
+"Ah Madeleine, dearest and best beloved, if you had only loved me
+then,--if I could only have taught you to love me,--you would not have
+stood alone! I should have battled against every sorrow that could come
+near you; or, at least, have borne it with you. O Madeleine, why could
+you not love me?"
+
+For one instant Madeleine was tempted to throw herself in his arms and
+confess all. The high resolves of years of self-denial were on the verge
+of being broken in one weak moment; but the very peril, the very
+temptation calmed her suddenly. She brushed away her tears, and, gently
+withdrawing the hand Maurice held, said, in broken accents,--
+
+"I have caused you too much pain in other days, Maurice. I should not
+have added more by allowing you to witness my weakness. Help me to be
+strong; for you see I have sore need of help."
+
+"All that I can offer, Madeleine, you reject," said Maurice,
+reproachfully. "My heart and life are yours, and you fling them from
+you."
+
+"Maurice, my cousin, my best friend, spare me! I have no right to listen
+to this language."
+
+"But the right to hear it from the lips of another," retorted Maurice
+bitterly.
+
+"Be generous, Maurice. For pity's sake, do not speak on that subject."
+
+There was so much anguish depicted in Madeleine's face that Maurice was
+conscience-stricken by the conviction that his rashly selfish words had
+caused her additional pain.
+
+"This is a poor return, Madeleine, for all the good you have done my
+father,--all the good you have done me,--you have done us all. You see
+what a selfish brute I am! My very love for you, which should shield you
+from all suffering, has, through that fatal selfishness, added to your
+sorrow. Can you pardon me?"
+
+"When you wrong me, Maurice, I will; but that day has yet to come. Leave
+me for a few moments, and I will complete what I have to do here and
+join you."
+
+Maurice complied, but slowly and reluctantly, and looking back as he
+left the room.
+
+Madeleine wept no more; she bathed her face and smoothed her disordered
+hair, and then collected all the articles scattered about, placed them
+carefully in the trunk, shut it and locked it, looked about to see that
+nothing was forgotten, ordered her carriage, and with a composed mien
+entered the little boudoir.
+
+Maurice must have used some potent argument with his father which
+reconciled him to his change of habitation, or made him comprehend that
+resistance was useless, for when Robert announced that the carriage was
+at the door, and Madeleine brought the count's coat to exchange for his
+dressing-gown, he allowed her to assist him, only repeating the term of
+affection so often on his lips.
+
+The count was ready, and Madeleine signed to Maurice not to linger. He
+gave his arm to his father, and they passed through the entry. Madeleine
+preceded them; she opened the street door herself; father and son passed
+out, but without bidding her adieu. The steps of the carriage were let
+down; just as Maurice was assisting his father to ascend them, the count
+drew back with native politeness and said,--
+
+"Madeleine first."
+
+Madeleine was still standing in the doorway ready to wave her
+handkerchief as the carriage drove off.
+
+"Come, Madeleine, come! come! We are waiting for you!" cried the count.
+
+Maurice expostulated in vain; his father insisted that Madeleine should
+go with them.
+
+"Only get into the carriage, my dear father, while I speak with her."
+
+"Get in before a lady? No--no! We are not backwoodsmen,--are we? Come,
+Madeleine, come!"
+
+Madeleine saw that argument would not avail with the count; his mind was
+not sufficiently clear; it only had glimpses of reason which allowed him
+to comprehend by fits and starts.
+
+Ever quick of decision, she said cheerfully, "Yes, in one moment," and
+withdrew; but before Maurice had divined her intention, returned,
+wearing her bonnet and shawl, and sprang into the carriage.
+
+"Drive into the country," was Madeleine's order to the coachman.
+
+Maurice looked at her with inquiring surprise.
+
+"Dr. Bayard said a drive would do your father good. We can first take a
+short drive, then return, and go to the hotel."
+
+Count Tristan looked happy. The motion of the carriage was agreeable to
+him, and the fresh air revived him; he gazed eagerly out of the window
+as though the commonest objects had caught the charm of novelty. His
+pleasure was of brief duration; for when they had driven about a mile,
+prudence suggested to Madeleine that it would be well to return before
+the patient became fatigued. She pulled the check-cord, and herself gave
+the order, "To Brown's hotel."
+
+Count Tristan paid no attention to the command. The hotel was quickly
+reached; the carriage stopped; Maurice descended and handed out his
+father.
+
+"Let me hear good news of you," said Madeleine to Count Tristan,
+encouragingly, and kept her seat.
+
+Leaning heavily on his son's arm, the count mounted the hotel steps, but
+he did not comprehend Madeleine's words as an adieu, and turned to speak
+to her, thinking she was beside him. The coachman was closing the
+carriage-door preparatory to driving away.
+
+"Madeleine! Madeleine!" cried out the count, stretching his hand
+imploringly toward her. "Madeleine, come! come!"
+
+Madeleine perceived that Maurice was remonstrating with his father, and
+trying to lead him on, but that the count would not move, and still
+cried out, "Come! come!" in a voice of piteous entreaty.
+
+Curious strangers began to collect; Madeleine knew that if the scene
+continued even a few moments, a crowd would gather, and all manner of
+inquiries be made of her coachman, the hotel-keepers, the servants. She
+leaped out of the carriage, hastened to the count's side, and said,--
+
+"I will go upstairs with you; the assistance of Maurice may not be
+sufficient; lean on my arm also."
+
+And Count Tristan did lean upon her, for his limbs were too feeble to
+ascend a long flight without difficulty.
+
+The door of the countess's _salon_ was but a few paces from the top of
+the stair. Madeleine paused, took the count's hand affectionately in
+hers, and pressed it several times to her lips, saying,--
+
+"Now I must bid you adieu. It would not be agreeable to the countess to
+see me. She would think my coming with you impertinent. You will not
+force me to bear the pain of seeing her displeasure? Bid me adieu and
+let me go!"
+
+The count, easily swayed by her persuasive voice, and inspired with a
+vague dread of his mother's anger, kissed her forehead, and did not
+remonstrate, but stood still and watched her gliding swiftly down the
+stairs.
+
+Maurice had whispered to her, "I will be with you as soon as possible,
+Madeleine. Be brave, for my sake!"
+
+The countess had only betrayed her anxious expectancy by changing her
+usual seat to one where she could watch the door, and by looking up
+eagerly every time it opened. When, at last, Maurice entered, supporting
+Count Tristan, there was a gleam of mingled joy and triumph in his
+mother's eye. It was doubtful whether the triumph of having compelled
+obedience to her commands, and of having wrested her son from Madeleine,
+did not surpass the joy she experienced in beholding that son once
+again.
+
+From her greeting, a stranger would hardly have imagined that when she
+saw him last his life was in imminent peril, and that she had rushed
+from his presence overcome by grief and mortification. She now received
+him as though she had cheated herself into the belief that she was doing
+the honors in her ancestral chateau, and that his brief absence had no
+graver origin than some ordinary pleasure party.
+
+"Welcome, my son, welcome!" said she, kissing him on either cheek. "We
+have missed you greatly; you are thrice welcome for this brief
+separation."
+
+Count Tristan returned her salutation, but looked strangely
+uncomfortable, as though the atmosphere oppressed and chilled him.
+
+"Dear cousin Tristan, I am so glad to see you better; you will soon be
+quite well again," said Bertha, embracing him far more warmly than his
+mother had done.
+
+The countess made no allusion to his illness; she preferred wholly to
+forget the past.
+
+Maurice led his father to an arm-chair, and asked Bertha to bring a
+pillow. Under Madeleine's tuition Maurice had become quite expert in
+promoting an invalid's comfort, and yet he now failed to arrange the
+pillow satisfactorily. Perhaps his father's chair was not easy, or the
+one to which he was accustomed was more commodious, or Maurice was more
+clumsy than usual; for though Bertha also lent her aid, the count kept
+repeating, fretfully,--
+
+"It's not right,--it does not support my shoulders! You can't do it!
+Leave it alone! Leave it alone!"
+
+They desisted, and sat down beside him.
+
+The countess had no faculty of starting conversation, and Bertha's merry
+tongue had of late lost its volubility; she had so often irritated her
+aunt by her remarks that she had become afraid to speak. Maurice was too
+sad to be otherwise than taciturn. Thus the reunited little family sat
+in solemn silence. Count Tristan looked around him drearily for a while,
+and then having for a moment lost recollection of what had just taken
+place, exclaimed disconsolately,--
+
+"Where is Madeleine?"
+
+These unfortunate words roused the countess. She rose up as loftily as
+in her proudest, most unchastened days, and approaching him, asked, in a
+rebuking voice,--
+
+"For _whom_ do you inquire, my son? Am I to understand that a mother's
+presence is not all-sufficient for her own child? Is not hers the place
+by his side? If that place has been, for a season, usurped, should he
+not rejoice that she to whom it legitimately belongs occupies it once
+more?"
+
+The count looked awed, and did not attempt to reply. Maurice perceived
+that he must exert himself to shield his father from as much discomfort
+as could be warded off, and inquired, without directly addressing either
+the countess or Bertha,--
+
+"Is my father's room prepared for him? But I suppose that it is. His
+drive must have fatigued him, and I think he would like to retire."
+
+The countess disclaimed any knowledge of the state of the apartment,
+signifying that she was not in the habit of occupying herself with
+matters of this nature. Bertha was equally ignorant, but said she would
+go and see. Maurice prevented her by going himself.
+
+The room looked as though it had not been entered since the day when he
+had packed up his father's clothes to move them to Madeleine's, and that
+was more than a fortnight ago. There was some delay in getting a
+chambermaid; servants are always busy, yet never to be had in an
+American hotel; after several ineffectual attempts, he obtained the
+services of an Irish girl; and he induced Adolphine to lend her aid,
+that the room might be aired, swept, and put in order more rapidly.
+Adolphine was rather a hinderance to the bustling Irish help, for a
+Parisian lady's-maid knows one especial business, and knows nothing
+else, however simple; she is an instrument that plays but one tune, and
+she boasts of her _speciality_ as a virtue. In something more than an
+hour Adolphine announced that the apartment of _M. le Comte_ was in
+readiness.
+
+Count Tristan was very willing to retire, and after Maurice had played
+the valet without assistance, his father seemed disposed to sleep, and
+Maurice closed the blinds and sat down quietly until he perceived that
+the invalid had fallen into a deep slumber. Henceforth he was to watch
+beside him, when watching was needed, alone! Those blessed nights,
+shorter and sweeter than the happiest dreams, when he had sat in the
+pale light, with that beautiful face beaming opposite to him,--that soft
+voice sounding melodiously in his ears,--they were gone, never to
+return!
+
+At that very moment Madeleine herself was haunted by the same
+reflections. When she drove home alone, and reentered her house, how
+desolate and dreary it appeared! How empty and lonely seemed those
+apartments so lately occupied by the ones nearest of kin and dearest to
+her heart! She wandered through the rooms, up and down, up and down,
+with restless feet, pondering upon the singular events of the last few
+weeks; she had not before had leisure to dwell upon them. Was it indeed
+true that her roof had sheltered Count Tristan de Gramont?--Count
+Tristan de Gramont, whose persecutions in other days, had driven her
+from his own roof, and whose hatred had embittered and blighted her
+life? And had he learned to depend upon her? to love her? To talk to
+her, even when his mind wandered, of _gratitude_, as though that emotion
+was ever uppermost in her presence? And Maurice, her dear
+cousin,--Maurice, the beloved of her soul, who must never know that he
+was all in all to her,--had he been her guest for more than two weeks?
+And had she been permitted the joy of promoting his comfort in a
+thousand little, unnoted, womanly ways? Had he sat at her table? Had
+they watched together, night and day, by his father's bed?--talking
+through the night hours, unwearied when the morning broke, unwilling to
+welcome the first rays of the sun, because their sweet, inexhaustible
+converse came to an end? Had they shared the happiness of ameliorating
+Count Tristan's melancholy state, and seeing him daily improve? And now
+it was all over: she must resume her old course of life, her temporarily
+laid aside labors! To muse too long upon departed happiness would unfit
+her for those. Even the sad joy of recollection was denied her.
+
+She sent for Mrs. Lawkins and directed everything to be restored to its
+usual order. The draperies in the entry were to be taken down;--no, let
+them remain; Madeleine had been accustomed to see that portion of the
+house divided from the rest; let them stay. In passing through the
+drawing-room she noticed Maurice's trunk, which he had not thought of
+packing. Though it gave her many a pang, because she was forced to
+realize more keenly that he was surely gone, it was also with a sense of
+pleasure that she collected together the articles belonging to him and
+packed them carefully. Hers was a nature peculiarly susceptible to the
+pure delight of serving, aiding, sparing trouble to those whom she
+loved. The meanest household drudgery, the severest labor, the most
+prosaic making and mending, would have gained a charm and been idealized
+into pleasures, if they contributed to the well-being of those dear to
+her; but, when performed for the one more precious than all others, they
+became positive joys.
+
+She left Mrs. Lawkins busied in the arrangement of the apartments, and
+went upstairs to the workroom, which she had not entered for nearly
+three weeks. She had not seen any of her _employees_, except Ruth, and
+Mademoiselle Victorine, since they all had learned her rank. Her
+unexpected appearance created a great commotion. No one but Ruth had
+expected to behold her in that apartment again. The women all rose
+respectfully; but an unwonted restraint checked the expression of
+gratification which her presence ever imparted. Madeleine smilingly bade
+them to be seated; then passed around the table and spoke to every
+needle-woman in turn, inquiring after the personal health of each, or
+asking questions about her family,--for she knew the histories of all;
+and then learning particulars concerning the work that had been done,
+and the work in hand.
+
+The obsequiousness of Mademoiselle Victorine was perfectly overwhelming,
+yet she experienced no little disappointment. She had made up her mind
+that since Mademoiselle Melanie was known to be Mademoiselle de Gramont,
+she would never again be able to appear among her workwomen, even to
+superintend their labors, and a large portion of the resigned power must
+be delegated to the accomplished forewoman. Ruth Thornton, Madeleine's
+favorite, as Victorine considered her, was in the way; but what were a
+French woman's wits worth if they could not devise some method of
+removing a dangerous rival?
+
+Madeleine lingered long enough to be _au courant_ to the present state
+of affairs, and she found that the business of the establishment had so
+much increased during her seclusion, that every day, a host of orders
+had to be declined. This overwhelming influx of patronage was partially
+attributable to the reports circulated concerning Mademoiselle Melanie's
+romantic history, and also to the strong desire of the public (a
+democratic public) to secure the honor of procuring habiliments from the
+establishment of a dress-maker whose father was a duke.
+
+Madeleine had taken a seat near Ruth, and was listening to Mademoiselle
+Victorine's _histories_ and suggestions, when Robert made known that
+Monsieur Maurice de Gramont begged to see Mademoiselle Melanie.
+
+Maurice had left his father as soon as he slept; he was impatient to
+return to Madeleine. He was tortured by the remembrance of her burst of
+grief, and her bitter words. The forced composure by which they were
+succeeded could not hide from him the deep wound she had received.
+Though the period which had elapsed since his father was conducted from
+Madeleine's house was so brief, the rooms, grown familiar to Maurice,
+already wore a different aspect; he actually felt hurt that Madeleine
+could have made the change thus rapidly. Men are so unreasonable!
+Maurice resembled his sex in that particular. Then, too, he found his
+trunk packed, and he knew by whose hand that duty had been performed.
+Doubtless, he was grateful? Not in the least! It seemed to him that
+Madeleine was in too much haste to remove the last vestige of his
+sojourn near her. When she entered the drawing-room he was standing
+contemplating the neatly filled trunk, and was cruel enough to say,--
+
+"You used your _old magic_ to make ready for us, Madeleine, and you
+have used it again to efface all our footprints here. I can hardly
+persuade myself that I occupied this room."
+
+Madeleine felt the implied reproach; but without answering the unmerited
+rebuke, she asked, "Is your father doing well?"
+
+"He is sleeping at this moment; but it is very evident that he is going
+to have a sorrowful time; he will miss you so much; and my grandmother
+is as cold and hard as though her illness had petrified her more
+completely than ever."
+
+That was another observation to which Madeleine could find no reply.
+Without essaying to make an appropriate answer, she said, "It will never
+do to let the whole burden of nursing your father devolve on you,
+Maurice; you will be broken down. May I plan for you? You need an
+experienced _garde malade_. It would be difficult, at short notice, to
+procure any so reliable, and so well versed in the duties of a nurse as
+Mrs. Lawkins. Then, too, your father is accustomed to see her near him;
+and a familiar face will be more welcome than a stranger's. Do you think
+it would be wrong to engage her without your grandmother's knowing that
+she had been in my employment?"
+
+"I have no scruples on that head," returned Maurice; "but there are
+others which I cannot readily get over. She is your house-keeper, and I
+have heard you say she was very valuable to you. I know that it is
+exceedingly difficult to obtain good domestics in this country; you
+cannot replace her at once. How can you spare her?"
+
+"Easily,--easily; do not talk of that. I will speak to her and she will
+go to you to-morrow morning. Meantime, I advise you to inform the
+countess that a nurse is coming. One charge more: your father is so much
+better that instead of wearing yourself out by sitting up with him, it
+would be wiser to have a sofa, upon which you could take rest, placed
+beside his bed. M. de Bois will gladly take his turn in watching, but
+after a few nights, I think Count Tristan will need no one but Mrs.
+Lawkins."
+
+"Ah, Madeleine"--
+
+Madeleine interrupted him. "One word about the delicacies which you
+cannot readily procure in a hotel, and which it would deprive me of a
+great happiness if I could not send. As the countess is now up, and
+might see and recognize Robert, I will order him to deliver the salver
+to the waiter who attends upon your rooms. Would it not be advisable to
+say a few words to this man to prevent any inadvertent remark in the
+presence of your grandmother?"
+
+"Well thought of. How do you keep your wits so thoroughly about you,
+Madeleine? How do you manage to remember everything that should be
+remembered, and at the right moment?"
+
+"If I do,--though I am not disposed to admit that such is the case,--it
+is simply through the habit of taking the trouble to _think at all_, to
+reflect quietly upon what would be best, what is most needed,--a very
+simple process."
+
+"And, like a great many other simple but important processes, rare just
+because it _is so simple_," remarked Maurice, with great justice.
+
+During this conversation Maurice and Madeleine had been standing where
+she found him on entering the room; but he had not resolution to tear
+himself quickly away, and said,--
+
+"Let me sit a little while in your boudoir, and talk to you, Madeleine.
+_I_ have not been able to reconcile myself so quickly to my own change
+of abode as you seem to have done to our departure from yours."
+
+Was it not surprising that such a noble-minded man as Maurice could make
+an observation so ungracious, so ungenerous, and one which in his heart
+he knew was so unjust, to the woman he loved? Yet it would be difficult
+to find a lover who is incapable of doing the same. Why is it that men,
+even the best, are at times stirred by an irresistible prompting,
+themselves, to wound the being whom they would shield from all harm
+dealt by others with chivalric devotion? Let a woman commit the
+slightest action that can, by ingenious torturing, be interpreted into a
+moment's want of consideration for the feelings of her lover, and all
+his admiration, his tenderness, his reverence, will not prevent his
+being cruel enough to stab her with some passing word that strikes as
+sharply as a dagger.
+
+"You think me a true philosopher, then?" replied Madeleine, gravely. But
+she added, in a lower and less firm tone, while a soft humility filled
+her mild eyes, "Do you think _I am reconciled_, Maurice?"
+
+"Do you not think I am a heartless, senseless brute to have grieved you?
+Do not look so sorrowful! You make me hate myself! Ah, you did well not
+to trust your happiness to my keeping; I was not a fit guardian."
+
+It was far harder for Madeleine to hear him say _that_ than to listen to
+an undeserved reproach; but she led the way to her boudoir without
+replying, and for the next hour Maurice sat beside her, and they
+conversed without any jarring note breaking the harmony of their
+communion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV.
+
+REPARATION.
+
+
+Maurice, with as much _nonchalance_ as he could assume, informed his
+grandmother that he had engaged a _garde malade_ to assist in the care
+of his father. When good Mrs. Lawkins made her appearance the next
+morning, looking as plump, rosy and "comfortable" as English nurses (and
+house-keepers) are wont to look, the countess merely bestowed upon her a
+passing glance and then took no further notice of her presence. It never
+occurred to Madame de Gramont to inquire into the fitness of this person
+for her position and duties. Besides, the countess seldom addressed a
+"hireling," except to utter a command or a rebuke. Maurice was greatly
+relieved when he perceived his grandmother's perfect indifference to the
+individual whom he had selected. Mrs. Lawkins had been thrown "into a
+flutter" by Madeleine's cautions and the prospect of being obliged to
+parry a series of cross-questions; but the reception she received
+quickly restored her equanimity. Count Tristan was sitting near his
+mother; the worthy house-keeper made her obeisance to both in silence,
+then turned to Maurice for directions.
+
+"You have brought your trunk with you?" inquired the latter.
+
+"I left it in the entry, sir."
+
+The count looked up at the sound of that voice. Immediately recognizing
+one whose association in his mind with Madeleine struck the chord which
+vibrated most readily, he exclaimed, in a piteous tone, "Madeleine!
+Madeleine! Why don't she come? Wont Madeleine come soon?"
+
+Maurice, Bertha, and Mrs. Lawkins were filled with consternation at
+these words, which they imagined must arouse the suspicions of the
+countess; but she had not condescended to waste sufficient attention
+upon the domestic her son had hired to perceive that Count Tristan's
+ejaculations had any connection with her presence. The disdainful lady's
+eyes sparkled with anger at the unexpected mention of one whose name she
+desired never more to hear. She drew her chair close to Count Tristan's
+and said in harsh accents,--
+
+"I trust, my son, that you have no wish ungratified? When your _mother_
+is by your side, _whom_ else _can_ you desire?"
+
+Count Tristan was too easily cowed by her manner to venture a reply,
+even if his disordered intellect could have suggested any appropriate
+answer.
+
+"I rejoice at your restoration to me," continued his mother; "and the
+filial duty I have the right to expect prompts me to believe that you
+also rejoice at our reunion."
+
+The invalid looked very far from rejoicing; but the countess solaced
+herself by interpreting his silence into an affirmative.
+
+From that time he never breathed Madeleine's name in his mother's
+presence; but those who watched beside him, often heard it murmured when
+he slept, or just as he wakened, before full consciousness was restored.
+
+From the day that he returned to the hotel, he sank into a state of deep
+dejection. He would sit or lie for hours with his eyes wide open,
+without apparently seeing or hearing what passed around him, while an
+expression of despair overshadowed his deeply furrowed countenance.
+
+The manifest weakness of his brain was a severer trial to Madame de
+Gramont than his enfeebled bodily condition; but she dealt with it as
+with her other trials; she would not acknowledge to herself the
+existence of his mental malady; she refused to admit that he lacked
+power to reason, at the very moment when she was exerting the species of
+authority she would have employed to keep an unreasoning child in check.
+The idea that it would be well to divert his mind, and render the hours
+less tedious, never occurred to her, or, if it did, she was totally at a
+loss to suggest any means of pleasantly whiling away the time. Her own
+health had not wholly recovered from its recent shock; the slow fever
+still lingered in her veins, but the daily routine of her life was as
+unchanged as though her strength had been unimpaired.
+
+Dr. Bayard had ordered his patient to drive out every day, and the
+countess considered it her duty to accompany him. The pillows which Mrs.
+Lawkins carefully placed for the support of the invalid were almost as
+much needed by his mother; but she sat erect, and drew herself away from
+them, as though the merest approach to a reclining posture would have
+been a lapse from dignity. The count no longer gazed out of the window
+with that calm look of enjoyment which Maurice and Madeleine had
+remarked; he usually closed his eyes, or fixed them on his son, sitting
+opposite, with a mournfully appealing look, which seemed to ask,--
+
+"Can no help come to me? Will it _always_ be thus?"
+
+Week after week passed on. Maurice, in spite of his unremitting
+attention to his father, found time to pay daily visits to Madeleine.
+
+She no longer made her appearance in the exhibition-rooms, or saw the
+ladies who came to her establishment, upon business; but when Count
+Tristan was removed she had no gracious plea for excusing herself to
+those who called as visitors. She received them with graceful ease and
+dignified composure. Not one of them had courage or inclination to make
+the faintest allusion to the past, or to their acquaintance with her as
+"Mademoiselle Melanie." It was Mademoiselle de Gramont in whose presence
+they sat. Even Madame de Fleury had too much perception to venture to
+ask her advice upon questions of the deepest interest,--namely, the most
+becoming shapes for new attire, the selection of colors, the choice of
+appropriate trimmings, or some equally important matter which engrossed
+that troubled lady's thoughts, and caused her many wakeful nights.
+
+After Count Tristan and Maurice returned to the hotel, Bertha escaped
+from imprisonment. When she informed her aunt that she was suffering
+from want of fresh air, the countess requested her to accompany Count
+Tristan and herself upon their daily drive; but Bertha maintained that
+driving would do her no good; she detested a close carriage; she wanted
+more active exercise,--she would take a brisk walk with her maid. Madame
+de Gramont would assuredly have mounted guard over her niece in person,
+were it not that the fatigue experienced even after a couple of hours'
+driving, admonished her that she lacked the strength for pedestrianism.
+Bertha was allowed to go forth attended only by Adolphine. Her walk
+always lay in one direction, and that was toward the residence of
+Madeleine; and, strange to say, she never failed to encounter M. de
+Bois, who was always going the same way! These invigorating promenades
+had a marvellous effect in restoring Bertha's faded color and vanished
+spirits; and in the small, sad circle of which the stern-visaged
+Countess de Gramont formed the centre, there was, at least, one radiant
+face.
+
+About this time the quiet monotony of Maurice's life was broken by a
+letter from his partner, Mr. Lorrillard. This gentleman had only
+recently learned from Mr. Emerson the painful circumstances which had
+taken place in connection with the loan made to the Viscount de Gramont
+at Mr. Lorrillard's suggestion. Mr. Lorrillard prided himself upon being
+too good a judge of character and upon having studied that of Maurice
+too thoroughly, not to feel confident that some satisfactory
+explanation could be given to occurrences which wore a very dubious
+aspect. He wrote kindly, yet frankly, to Maurice, requesting to know
+whether the account of the transaction which he had received was
+thoroughly correct, and more than hinting his certainty that all the
+facts had not been brought to light. Maurice was sorely perplexed; but,
+in spite of his strong desire to shield his father, he finally decided
+that Mr. Lorrillard was entitled to a full explanation, and that his own
+position would never be endurable while a suspicion shadowed his name.
+He despatched Mr. Lorrillard the following letter.
+
+     "_My dear Sir_:--
+
+     "I cannot but be touched by the confidence you repose in me.
+     I do not thank you less because you have done me the common
+     justice which is due from one man to another. When I
+     received the loan from Mr. Emerson, I as firmly believed
+     that the security I gave him was unquestionable, as he did.
+     I had been led to think that the power of attorney in my
+     father's hands had not been used. I was mistaken. I pass
+     over Mr. Emerson's proceedings, which, however severe, were
+     authorized by the light in which he viewed my conduct. The
+     ten thousand dollars he loaned me were, at once, repaid him
+     by the generosity of one of my relatives, Mademoiselle
+     Madeleine de Gramont, whose debtor I remain. My father's
+     dangerous illness has detained me in Washington. The instant
+     he is sufficiently convalescent I purpose returning to
+     Charleston to resume my professional duties.
+
+              "I am, my dear sir,
+                "Yours, very truly,
+                  "MAURICE DE GRAMONT."
+
+Mr. Lorrillard was highly gratified by the simple, ingenuous, yet manly
+tone of this letter, and well pleased to find his impressions correct.
+He immediately despatched an epistle to Mr. Emerson which convinced the
+latter that he could only conciliate a valued friend by making every
+possible reparation.
+
+A few days later Maurice was surprised by Mr. Emerson's card. He could
+not converse with him in the presence of Count Tristan and Madame de
+Gramont, and was obliged to receive him in the general drawing-room of
+the hotel.
+
+When Maurice entered, Mr. Emerson extended his hand and said, with an
+air of frankness,--
+
+"I am a just man, M. de Gramont, and I came to make you an apology. My
+friend, Mr. Lorrillard, has convinced me that I ought to have paused
+before I yielded to the conviction that one whom he esteemed so highly
+had wilfully taken advantage of my credulity. I am now convinced that
+you were not aware that your property was mortgaged, and I come to tell
+you so."
+
+"You have again made me your debtor," replied Maurice, not a little
+gratified. "I give you my word, as a gentleman, that I had not the
+remotest suspicion the property in question was encumbered. I have no
+right to complain of the severity of your treatment; it was justifiable
+under the circumstances."
+
+"Hardly," replied the other. "But I shall esteem it a privilege to make
+all the reparation in my power. Of course you are aware that the
+railroad mentioned passes through your property, and that the estate has
+already doubled its former value? I came here to say that I am ready not
+only to loan you the ten thousand dollars you originally requested me to
+advance, but a larger sum, if you so desire."
+
+What a sensation of thankfulness and relief those words caused Maurice!
+He would not only be enabled to repay Madeleine the amount she had so
+generously loaned, but he would be in a situation to meet the heavy
+expenses which his father and grandmother were daily incurring! Count de
+Gramont had never given his son entire confidence, and the latter was
+not aware of the _exact_ state of the count's affairs; but Maurice had
+too much cause to believe that they were in a ruinous condition. He had
+only recently become acquainted with the mortifying fact that, from the
+time his father left the Chateau de Gramont, Bertha had been the banker
+of the whole party.
+
+"I will meet your offer as frankly as it is made," answered Maurice,
+after a moment's reflection. "If you feel justified in loaning me
+fifteen thousand dollars, instead of ten, upon the former security, I
+will esteem it a great favor."
+
+"Willingly; come to my office to-day, at any hour you please, and we
+will settle the matter. Make haste, for I must write to Lorrillard by
+this evening's mail, and I desire to inform him, in answer to his
+somewhat caustic letter, that I have made the _amende honorable_."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+A MISHAP.
+
+
+Madeleine was accustomed to see Maurice at a certain hour every day, and
+looked forward to that period with such joyous expectation that a sense
+of disquiet, amounting to positive pain, took possession of her mind
+when the time passed without his making his appearance. She could not
+help reflecting how sad and long the days would grow when she could no
+more listen for his welcome step, and feel her heart bounding at the
+sight of his handsome countenance; and yet such days must come, and must
+be borne with the rest of life's burdens.
+
+That was his ring at the bell,--those were his firm, rapid steps! His
+face glowed so brightly when he entered the little boudoir that
+Madeleine exclaimed,--
+
+"Your father must be much better! You carry the news written in shining
+characters in your eyes."
+
+Maurice related what had passed between himself and Mr. Emerson, to whom
+he had just paid the promised visit, and concluded by saying,--
+
+"Now, dearest Madeleine, I am enabled to repay your most opportune loan,
+but not able to tell you from what misery and disgrace you saved me."
+
+He laid a check upon the table as he spoke.
+
+Madeleine was silent, and looked uncomfortable. Maurice went on,--
+
+"You cannot _conceive_ my happiness at being so unexpectedly able to pay
+this debt, though that of gratitude must ever remain uncancelled."
+
+"At least, Maurice, I will not _deprive_ you of the happiness, since it
+is one; and perhaps you will be more pleased when you know that this
+money will enable me to make the last payment upon this house, which
+will now become wholly mine. It has grown more dear to me than I
+imagined it could ever become,--more dear through the guests whom it has
+sheltered, and the associations with which it is filled. I never thought
+of making it mine with so much joy."
+
+"You will remain here then? You will continue your occupation?" asked
+Maurice.
+
+"Yes, undoubtedly."
+
+"But," persisted Maurice, "do you not look forward to a time when you
+will have another home?"
+
+"I see no such time in the dim future," she returned. "Perhaps I may
+become so rich that the temptation to retire will be very great; but as
+I cannot live unemployed I shall first be obliged to discover some
+other, wider, and nobler sphere of usefulness."
+
+"But the home I mean," continued Maurice, with an air of desperation,
+"is the home of another,--the home of one whom you love. Do you not look
+forward to dwelling in such a home?"
+
+Madeleine's "No" was uttered in a low tone, but one of unmistakable
+sincerity.
+
+"How can that be?" exclaimed Maurice, at once troubled and relieved.
+
+"Do not try to read the riddle, Maurice. You will be happier in setting
+it aside as one of life's mysteries which will be revealed in the great
+day. Will you listen to a new song which I have been learning?"
+
+"Will I listen? Will a hungry beggar gather the crumbs falling from a
+rich man's table?"
+
+Madeleine laughed and seated herself at the piano. The new song only
+made Maurice desire to hear some of the old ones, and then other new
+ones, and she sang on until an unexpected and startling interruption
+destroyed all the harmony of the hour. But that occurrence we will
+relate in due season. We must first return to the hotel which Maurice
+had left before his usual hour, that he might pay a visit to Mr. Emerson
+previous to calling upon Madeleine.
+
+The palatable delicacies which Madeleine daily sent to the invalids
+always reached the hotel at an hour when Maurice had promised to be at
+home. Robert had strict orders to deliver the salver to one of the hotel
+servants, and never to appear before the countess. This morning,
+however, the arrival of a large number of travellers had occupied all
+the domestics; not a waiter was to be found. Robert was anxious to
+inquire about a silver milk-jug which had not been returned. He carried
+his salver to the door of Madame de Gramont's drawing-room, though
+without intending to enter. The door happened to be open; he could see
+that the room was only occupied by Count Tristan, who was asleep in his
+arm-chair, and Mrs. Lawkins. She was the person whom he wished to see.
+The temptation was too great to be resisted. He entered with soundless
+feet, and placed upon the table a salver bearing a bowl of beef tea,
+two glasses of calves'-feet jelly, a plate of those Normandy cakes which
+the countess had so much relished, and a dish of superb white and red
+raspberries.
+
+Approaching his mouth to Mrs. Lawkins' ear, Robert said, in a whisper,--
+
+"Mrs. Lawkins, I had to come in, for you were just the person I wanted
+to see. You never sent back the silver milk-pitcher."
+
+"The milk-pitcher?" replied Mrs. Lawkins. "Bless my heart! You don't say
+so? It's not here! I hope it's not been stolen. It must have got mixed
+up with the hotel silver and gone downstairs."
+
+"You'll be sure to hunt it up, Mrs. Lawkins. I have said nothing to
+Mademoiselle Melanie,--Mademoiselle Madeleine, I mean; but I am
+responsible, as you know, for all her silver, and I can't have what I
+bring here mislaid; as you were here I thought it was quite safe. How is
+the poor gentleman?"
+
+"Ah, not so well as he was under Mademoiselle Madeleine's care. I'll see
+after the silver jug, and keep a sharp look-out for the silver in
+future."
+
+Robert and Mrs. Lawkins stood with their backs to the door of Madame de
+Gramont's apartment, which opened into the drawing-room. What was their
+consternation on finding the countess herself standing in the door-way!
+Her countenance was perfectly appalling in its white, distorted wrath.
+She strode toward the two abashed domestics, and cried out, in a voice
+which broke the count's slumbers, and caused him to sit up in his chair
+with terror-dilated eyes,--
+
+"Woman! What is the meaning of this? Of whom are you talking? Whose
+silver is that?" (pointing savagely to the salver.) "And who are you?"
+
+Mrs. Lawkins was dumb.
+
+"Am I to be answered?" demanded the countess, imperiously.
+
+Then she turned to Robert. "Whose silver is that? Whose silver did you
+say was missing?"
+
+"Mademoiselle de Gramont's," Robert faltered out.
+
+"And Mademoiselle de Gramont has the unparalleled audacity to send her
+silver here for my use? Do you mean to tell me that this salver and what
+it contains are from her?"
+
+Robert could not answer.
+
+"Great heaven! that I should endure this! That Madeleine de Gramont
+should have the insolence to _force_ her _bounty_ by stealth upon me,
+and that I should not have suspected her at once! Remove that salver out
+of my sight, and if you ever dare"--
+
+Mrs. Lawkins had now partially recovered her self-possession, and
+interrupted the countess politely but very firmly,--
+
+"Madame, you will do M. de Gramont great injury. Do you not see that you
+are exciting him by this violence?"
+
+"_Who_ are you that you dare dictate to me? Leave this house instantly!
+Were you sent here by Mademoiselle de Gramont to institute an
+_espionage_ over me and my family? Go and tell your mistress that
+neither she nor anything that belongs to her shall ever again defile my
+dwelling! I shall watch better in future! I will not be snared by her
+low arts, her contemptible impostures!"
+
+Mrs. Lawkins, though she was a mild woman, loved Madeleine too well to
+hear her mentioned disrespectfully without being roused to indignation;
+affection for her mistress overcame her awe of the countess, and she
+replied with feeling,--
+
+"She is the noblest lady that ever walked the earth to bless it! and her
+only art is the practise of goodness! Those who are turning upon her and
+reviling her ought to be on their knees before her this blessed moment!
+Didn't she nurse that poor gentleman night and day, as though he had
+been her own father? Did she not bear all the slights put upon her by
+those who are not half as good as she?--yes, that are not worthy to wipe
+the dust from her holy feet, for all their pride? Didn't it almost break
+her heart when they forced the poor sick gentleman out of her house, to
+cage him in this cold, dreary place, where his own mother takes about as
+much care and notice of him as though he were a _Hindoo_ or a
+_Hottentot_!" (Mrs. Lawkins was not strong in comparisons.) "And don't
+he mourn the night through for Mademoiselle Madeleine, crying out for
+her to come to him, as, I warrant, he never did for his mother? And
+isn't that mother murdering him at this very moment?"
+
+"Leave the house! Leave the house!" cried the countess, in a voice that
+had lost all its commanding dignity, through rage. "Leave the house, I
+say! Do you dare to stand in my presence after such insolence?"
+
+"Yes, madame I dare!" replied Mrs. Lawkins, coolly. "I am not afraid of
+a marble figure, even though it has a tongue; and there's not more soul
+in you than in a piece of marble; there's nothing but stone where your
+heart should be; but even stone will break with a hard enough blow, and
+perhaps you will get such a one before you die."
+
+"Go! I say, go!" vociferated the countess, pointing to the door. "Am I
+to be obeyed?"
+
+"No, madame!" replied Mrs. Lawkins, undaunted. "Not until I receive the
+orders of M. Maurice de Gramont. He placed me here, and here I shall
+stay until I have his leave to resign my duties."
+
+Count Tristan had caught his attendant's hand when he conceived the idea
+that she was to be sent away from him, and when she refused to leave
+him, he pressed it approvingly.
+
+"I am mistress here!" said the countess, with something of her former
+grandeur of bearing. "M. Maurice de Gramont has no authority to engage
+or discharge domestics, or to give any orders that are not mine. I will
+have none of Mademoiselle de Gramont's spies placed about my person! Go
+and tell her so, and say that after this last outrage, I will never see
+her face again. Would that I might never hear her name! She has been my
+curse,--my misery; she shall never cross my path more!"
+
+The count rose up as if sudden strength were miraculously infused into
+his limbs; he raised both his arms toward heaven, and wailed out, "O
+Lord God, bless her! bless her! Madeleine! Good angel! Madeleine!"
+
+The next moment he fell forward senseless and rolled to the ground.
+
+The countess was stupefied;--she could not speak, or stoop, or stir.
+
+The alarmed house-keeper knelt beside him. Robert hastily set down the
+salver and lent his assistance. They lifted the count and laid him upon
+the sofa. The instant Mrs. Lawkins saw his face, and the foam issuing
+from his lips, she exclaimed,--
+
+"It is another fit! It is his second stroke! Lord have mercy upon him!
+and upon _you_," she continued, turning to the countess, solemnly; "for,
+if he dies, so sure as there is a heaven above us, you have killed your
+own son!"
+
+The countess' look of horror softened the kindly house-keeper, in spite
+of her just wrath, and she added, "He may recover,--he has great
+strength. Robert, run quickly for Dr. Bayard."
+
+Then she unfastened the patient's cravat and dashed cold water upon his
+head, and chafed his hands, while his mother, slowly awakening from her
+state of stupefaction, drew near, and bent over him. But not a finger
+did she raise to minister to him; she would not have known what to do,
+so little were her hands accustomed to ministration,--so seldom had they
+been stretched out to perform the slightest service for any one, even
+her own son.
+
+We left Madeleine chasing away all heaviness from the soul of Maurice by
+her sweet singing. She was still at the piano, and he still hanging over
+her, when Robert burst into the room. He was a man almost stolid in his
+quietude, and his hurried entrance, and agitated manner, were sufficient
+to terrify Maurice and Madeleine before he spoke.
+
+"Mademoiselle, it was my fault! Oh, if I had been more careful to obey
+your orders it would never have happened!"
+
+His contrition was so deep that he could not proceed.
+
+"Has Madame de Gramont discovered who sent the salver?" asked Madeleine,
+with an air of vexation.
+
+"That's not the worst, Mademoiselle. The countess has found out how Mrs.
+Lawkins came there. She overheard us talking about the milk-jug I
+missed. Madame de Gramont was very violent; she said such things of you,
+Mademoiselle, that Mrs. Lawkins, who loves you like her own, couldn't
+stand it, and gave her a bit of her mind, and M. de Gramont was roused
+up also; he wouldn't hear you spoken against; he took on so it caused
+him another attack; down he dropped like dead!"
+
+"My father,--he has been seized again, and"--Maurice did not finish his
+sentence, but caught up his hat.
+
+"I've been for the doctor, sir," said Robert; "he's there by this time."
+
+Maurice was out of the room, and hurrying toward the street door;
+Madeleine sprang after him.
+
+"Maurice! Maurice! Stay one moment! Oh, if I could be near your
+father,--if I could see him! My imprudence has been the cause of this
+last stroke; yet I feel that he would gladly have me near him."
+
+"He would indeed, my best Madeleine; but, my grandmother, alas! I have
+no hope of moving her."
+
+"If her son were dying," persisted Madeleine, "her heart might be
+softened. If he asked for me, she might let me come to him; it would
+soothe _him_ perhaps, and how it would comfort _me_! I shall be at the
+hotel nearly as soon as you are. I will wait in my carriage until you
+come to me and tell me how he is. Perhaps I _may_ be permitted to enter
+if he asks for me. Do not forget that I am there."
+
+Did Maurice ever forget her, for a single moment?
+
+As soon as Madeleine's carriage could be brought to the door she
+followed her cousin.
+
+It was perhaps surprising that she was moved with so much sympathy for
+one whom she not only had good reason to dislike, but toward whom she
+had formerly experienced an unconquerable repugnance; but, with spirits
+chastened and purified, as hers had been, a tenderness is always kindled
+toward those whom they are permitted to _serve_. The very office of
+ministration (the office of angels), softens the heart, and substitutes
+pity for loathing, the strong inclination to regenerate for the spirit
+of condemnation. While Madeleine was daily ministering to the count, she
+found herself becoming attached to him, and, with little effort of
+volition, she blotted the past from her own memory.
+
+The action of Count Tristan's mind had been peculiar; when the discovery
+of his dishonorable manoeuvring caused him a shock which planted the
+first seeds of his present malady,--when he had fallen into the depths
+of despair,--it was Madeleine's hand that raised him up, that saved him
+from disgrace, and saved his son from being the innocent participator of
+that shame. For the first time in his life a strong sense of gratitude
+was awakened in his breast. Again, it was through Madeleine that the
+votes of so much importance to him, and which he had believed
+unattainable, were procured; she stood before him for the second time in
+the light of a benefactress. He had been seized with apoplexy while
+conversing with her; when reason was dimly restored, his mind went back
+to his last conscious thought, and _that_ had been of her,--hence his
+immediate recognition of her alone. Her patient, gentle, tender care had
+impressed him with reverence; he was magnetized by her sphere of
+unselfishness, forgiveness and goodness, and some of the hardnesses of
+his own nature were melted away.
+
+Count Tristan had practised deception until he had nearly lost all
+belief in the truth and purity of others,--had apparently grown
+insensible to all holy influences. Yet the daily contemplation of a
+character which bore witness to the existence of the most heavenly
+attributes silently undermined his cold scepticism, and tacitly
+contradicted and disproved his creed that duplicity and selfishness were
+universal characteristics of mankind,--a creed usually adopted by him
+who sees his fellow-men in the mirror which reflects his own image.
+Madeleine had discovered some small, not yet tightly closed avenue to
+Count Tristan's soul. Her toiling, pardoning, helping, holy spirit had
+done more to lift him out of the bondage of his evil passions than could
+have been affected by any other human agency.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+INFLEXIBILITY.
+
+
+"Oh, you have come at last!" exclaimed the countess, with acrimony, as
+Maurice opened the door of his father's chamber. Then, pointing to the
+count, who still lay in a state of unconsciousness, she added, "Do you
+see what calamities you leave me alone to bear?--you who are the only
+stay I have left?"
+
+By the aid of Mrs. Lawkins and the servants of the hotel, the count had
+been removed to his room. When Maurice entered, Mrs. Lawkins was
+standing on one side of the bed, Dr. Bayard on the other. The countess
+was pacing up and down the small chamber like a caged lioness.
+
+Her grandson did not reply to her taunt, but addressed the doctor in a
+tone too low for her to hear. His answer was a dubious movement of the
+head which augured ill.
+
+Bertha, who chanced to be in her own chamber, writing to her dyspeptic
+uncle, had only that moment become aware of what had happened. She stole
+into the count's room, pale with terror, crept up to Maurice, and clung
+to his arm as she asked, in a frightened tone,--
+
+"Will he die, Maurice? Is it as bad as that?"
+
+"I cannot tell; I have great fears. But see, he is opening his eyes; he
+looks better."
+
+The senses of the count were returning; the fit had been of brief
+duration, and hardly as violent as the one with which he had before been
+attacked. In a short time it was apparent that he was aware of what was
+passing around him.
+
+Maurice whispered to Bertha: "Madeleine is in her carriage at the door;
+put on your bonnet and run down to her,--you will not be missed. Tell
+her that my father is reviving."
+
+Bertha lost no time in obeying, and was soon sitting by Madeleine's
+side, receiving rather than giving comfort.
+
+Dr. Bayard, whose visits were necessarily brief, was compelled to leave,
+but he did so with the assurance that he would return speedily.
+
+Count Tristan's eyes wandered about as though in search of some one;
+they rested but for one instant upon his mother, Maurice, Mrs. Lawkins,
+and then glanced around him again with an anxious, yearning expression,
+and he moaned faintly.
+
+Maurice bent over him. "My dear father, is there anything you desire?"
+
+The count moaned again.
+
+"Is there any one you wish to see?" asked Maurice, determined to take a
+bold stand.
+
+"Mad--Mad--Madeleine!"
+
+The feeble lips of the sufferer formed the word with difficulty, yet it
+was clearly spoken.
+
+Maurice turned bravely to the countess. "You hear, my grandmother, that
+my father wishes to see Madeleine; it is not usual to refuse the
+requests of one in his perilous condition. With your permission I shall
+at once seek Madeleine and bring her to him."
+
+"Have you taken leave of your senses?" she asked with tyrannous passion.
+"Or do you think that I have not borne insults enough, that you strive
+to invent new ones to heap upon me? How can you mention the name of that
+miserable girl in my hearing? Has she not occasioned me and all my
+family sufficient wretchedness? Are you mad enough to imagine that I
+will allow you to bring her here that she may triumph over me in the
+face of the whole world?"
+
+"My father asks to see her," returned Maurice, adding, in a lower tone,
+"and he may be on his death-bed."
+
+Madame de Gramont, losing all control over herself, replied savagely,
+"_If_ he were stretched there a corpse before me,--_he_, _my only son_,
+the only child I ever bore, the pride of my life,--Madeleine de Gramont
+should not enter these doors to glory over me! I know her arts; I know
+the hold she has contrived to obtain over him while he was at her mercy.
+That is at an end! I have him here, and she shall never come near him
+more,--neither she nor her _accomplices_!" and she indicated Mrs.
+Lawkins by a disdainful motion of the hand, as though she feared her
+meaning might not be sufficiently clear.
+
+Maurice could not yield without another effort; for he perceived, by his
+father's countenance, that he not only heard the contest, but appealed
+to him to grant his unspoken wish.
+
+"This is cruel, my grandmother! It is inhuman! You have nothing to urge
+against Madeleine, who has too nobly proved her devotion to her family,
+and her respect for your feelings; but if you _had_ real and just cause
+of complaint, it should be forgotten at this moment. If my father
+desires to see her, she should be permitted to come to him."
+
+"Do you presume to dictate to me, Maurice de Gramont? Is this one of
+the lessons you have learned from the _mantua-maker_? Do you intend to
+teach me my duty to my own child? I _swear to you_ that Madeleine de
+Gramont shall _never_ see my son again, while I live! I, his mother, am
+by his side,--that is sufficient. No one's presence can supersede that
+of a mother!"
+
+Maurice saw that contention was fruitless; he sat down in silence, but
+not without noticing the look of compassion which Mrs. Lawkins bestowed
+upon him. The count had closed his eyes again, but low groans, almost
+like stifled sobs, burst at intervals from his lips.
+
+The countess essayed to unbend sufficiently to attempt the task of
+soothing him.
+
+"My son," she said, in the mildest tone she could command, "do you not
+know that your mother is near you?"
+
+Without unclosing his eyes, he answered, "Yes."
+
+"And her presence under all circumstances," she continued, "should leave
+nothing to desire. In spite of what Maurice with so little respect and
+consideration has attempted to make me believe, I know you too well not
+to be certain that he did you injustice."
+
+No answer; but the countess interpreted her son's silence into
+acquiescence with her observation, and remarked to Maurice with
+asperity,--
+
+"I presume you perceive that your father is fully satisfied. It does not
+interfere with his comfort that you have failed in your attempt. I well
+know you were instigated by one who hopes to make use of your father's
+indisposition as the stepping-stone by which she can again mount into
+favor with her family, and force them into public recognition of her.
+This is but one of her many cunning stratagems; there are others of
+which we will talk presently."
+
+She glanced at Mrs. Lawkins, who was arranging the count's pillows, and
+raising him into a more comfortable position.
+
+Maurice bethought him that it was time to let Madeleine know there was
+no hope of her obtaining admission to his father. As he left the
+apartment, the countess followed him into the drawing-room.
+
+"I have something further to say to you, Maurice, and I prefer to speak
+out of the hearing of that woman. Am I to understand that you were privy
+to her introduction into this house, and that you were aware that she
+was a spy of Mademoiselle de Gramont?"
+
+"A spy, madame?"
+
+"Yes, a spy! Why should Mademoiselle de Gramont wish to place her
+menials here except to institute _espionage_ over my family?"
+
+"Mrs. Lawkins was sent here by Madeleine because she is an efficient
+nurse,--such a nurse as my father needs and as he could not readily
+obtain, _I_ brought her here, and I did not do so without knowing her
+fitness for her office."
+
+"Her chief fitness consists, it appears, in her having been in the
+employment of the mantua-maker. I have no more to say on this subject,
+except that the woman must quit the house this evening."
+
+"That is out of the question; she cannot leave until I have found some
+one to take her place."
+
+"Do you mean to dispute my orders, Maurice de Gramont? I shall not
+entrust to you the task of dismissing her. I shall myself command her to
+leave, and that without delay."
+
+"You will do as you please, madame; but may I ask by whom you intend to
+replace her?"
+
+"Somebody will be found. I will give orders to have another nurse
+procured. In the mean time, Adolphine can make herself useful."
+
+"Adolphine!" replied Maurice, contemptuously. "A butterfly might turn a
+mill-wheel as efficiently as Adolphine could take charge of an invalid."
+
+"Be the alternative what it may," replied the countess, peremptorily, "I
+am unalterable in my determination. That woman sent here by Madeleine de
+Gramont leaves the house to-day!"
+
+Just then her eye fell upon the salver which Robert had left upon the
+table when he ran for the doctor; that sight added fresh fuel to her
+indignation.
+
+"Have you also been aware that Mademoiselle de Gramont carried her
+audacity so far that she had even ventured secretly to send donations,
+in the shape of chocolate, beef-tea, cakes, jellies, and fruit, to her
+family?"
+
+"I am aware," replied Maurice, "that Madeleine's thoughtful kindness
+prompted her, during your indisposition as well as my father's, to
+prepare, with her own hands, delicacies which are not to be obtained in
+a hotel. I was aware that this was her return for the harsh and cruel
+treatment she had received at the hands of,--of some of her family."
+
+"Mad boy! You are leagued with her against me! This is unendurable! Oh,
+that I had never been lured to this abominable country! Oh, that I had
+never known the shame of finding my own grandson sunken so low! But I
+have borne the very utmost that I can support! Now it shall end! I will
+return with your father to our old home, that we may die there in peace!
+If you are not lost to all sense of filial duty, you will not forsake
+your father, but accompany him to Brittany; he will henceforth need a
+son!"
+
+Maurice avoided making a direct reply by saying, "Have the goodness to
+excuse me, madame; I will return in a few moments."
+
+He descended the stair with slower steps than was his wont when on his
+way to Madeleine. Bertha was still sitting in the carriage beside her
+cousin. Maurice read anxious expectation, mingled with some faint hope,
+in Madeleine's countenance. He entered the carriage before he ventured
+to speak.
+
+"Your father, Maurice?" she asked eagerly.
+
+"I think he is better; the attack does not appear as severe as the
+former one must have been."
+
+"Did you speak to your grandmother of me? Did you plead for me, and
+entreat that she would allow me to go to Count Tristan?"
+
+"She is not to be moved, Madeleine; she is implacable."
+
+"But if your father should desire to see me?" persisted Madeleine.
+
+"He did desire,--he even asked for you,--but my grandmother was
+inflexible."
+
+"Maurice, I must,--must go to him, if he wishes to see me. I understand
+his wants so well,--I must, must go to him! Madame de Gramont may treat
+me as she will; but if he wants me, I must go to him!"
+
+Madeleine was so carried away by her strong impulse to reach one to whom
+she knew her presence was essential, that she was less reasonable than
+usual, and it was with some difficulty that Maurice pacified her. But to
+resign herself to the inevitable, however hard, was one of the first
+duties of her life, and after awhile her composure was partially
+restored, and, bidding Bertha and Maurice adieu, she drove home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII.
+
+THE NEW ENGLAND NURSE.
+
+
+Madeleine, in spite of the positive denial she had received, experienced
+as strong a desire to be near her afflicted relative as though his
+yearning for her presence drew her to him by some species of powerful
+magnetism. The wildest plans careered through her brain. She thought of
+the days in Paris when she had so successfully assumed the garb of the
+_soeur de bon secours_, and kept nightly vigils beside the bed of
+Maurice. Was there no disguise under which she could make her way to the
+count? But the doubt that she could elude the countess's scrutinizing
+eyes,--the certainty of the violent scene which must ensue if Madame de
+Gramont discovered her,--made her reluctantly relinquish the attempt.
+Then she clung to the hope that her aunt would not, while Count Tristan
+lay in so perilous a condition, insist upon discharging Mrs. Lawkins.
+All uncertainty upon that head was quickly dispelled by the appearance
+of Mrs. Lawkins herself. The countess had peremptorily repeated her
+sentence of banishment, and refused to listen to her grandson's
+entreaties that she might be permitted to remain until a substitute
+could be procured. To search for that substitute was the sole work left
+for Madeleine's hands. She despatched the willing housekeeper to make
+inquiries among her acquaintances, and charged her to spare neither time
+nor expense. Few Europeans can imagine the difficulty of executing such
+a commission in America; but the Englishwoman had lived in Washington
+long enough to know that she had no light labor before her. She was too
+zealous, however, to return home until she had found a person who was
+fully qualified to fill her vacant post.
+
+Maurice was sitting beside Madeleine when Mrs. Lawkins returned from her
+weary peregrinations and made known her success.
+
+"I did not send for the nurse to come here," said Madeleine. "It seemed
+to me better for you, Maurice, to go and see her and engage her to enter
+upon her duties to-morrow morning. That will give you an opportunity
+this evening of preparing the countess for her reception."
+
+Maurice acted upon Madeleine's suggestion, and, after a very brief
+conversation with Mrs. Gratacap, secured her services.
+
+Mrs. Gratacap belonged to the "Eastern States," albeit the very opposite
+of _oriental_ in her appearance and characteristics. She was a tall,
+angular, grave-visaged person, possessing such decided, common-place
+good sense that she came under the head of that feminine class which
+Dickens has taught the world to designate as "strong-minded." There was
+no "stuff and nonsense" about her; she had a due appreciation of her own
+estimable attributes, as well as a firm conviction of the equality of
+all mankind, or, more especially, _womankind_. When she accepted a
+situation, it was in the conscientious belief that the persons whom she
+undertook to serve were the indebted party; yet she was a faithful nurse
+and both understood and liked her vocation. In spite of her masculine
+bearing toward the rest of the world, she always treated her invalid
+charges with womanly gentleness.
+
+When Maurice informed his grandmother that he had obtained a new _garde
+malade_, the countess at once asked,--
+
+"Are you attempting to introduce another spy of Mademoiselle de Gramont
+into my dwelling?"
+
+Maurice controlled his indignation and replied, "My cousin Madeleine has
+never seen this person. I hope she will suit, as I have engaged her for
+a month, that being the custom here; even if she does not meet _all_ our
+requirements, we cannot discharge her until that period has elapsed."
+
+"I shall not consent to any such stipulation," answered the countess.
+"If she does not please me, I shall order her to leave at once."
+
+"The arrangement is already concluded," returned Maurice; "it is the
+only one I could make, and you cannot but see that it is a matter of
+honor, as well as of necessity, to abide by the contract."
+
+Maurice evinced tact in his choice of language. The imposing words
+"honor" and "contract" made an impression upon the countess, and she
+said no more.
+
+The next day, shortly after the morning meal, the sound of sharp tones
+echoing through the entry, was followed by the noisy opening of the
+countess' drawing-room door.
+
+"This is the place, is it?" cried a harsh voice. "I say, boy, bring
+along that box and dump it down here."
+
+Mrs. Gratacap entered with a bandbox in one hand, and in the other a
+huge umbrella and huger bundle, while the box (which was a compromise
+between a trunk and a packing-case) was carried in without further
+ceremony. Mrs. Gratacap was attired with an exemplary regard for
+_utility_; her garments were too short to be soiled by contact with the
+mud, and disclosed Amazonian feet encased in sturdy boots, to say
+nothing of respectable ankles protected by gray stockings. Her dress was
+of a sombre hue and chargeable with no unnecessary amplitude; where it
+was pulled up at the sides a gray balmoral petticoat was visible;
+crinoline had been scrupulously renounced (as it should be in a
+sick-chamber); the coal-skuttle bonnet performed its legitimate duty in
+shading her face as well as covering her head.
+
+The countess might well look up in stupefied amazement; for she had
+never before been thrown into communication with humanity so strikingly
+primitive, and so complacently self-confident.
+
+"This is the nurse of whom I spoke," was Maurice's introduction.
+
+Mrs. Gratacap who had been too busily engaged in looking after her
+"properties" to perceive the viscount until he spoke, now strode
+forward, extended her hand, and shook his with good-humored familiarity.
+
+"How d'ye do? How d'ye do, young man? Here I am, you see, punctual to
+the moment. Told you you could depend on me. Well, and where's the poor
+dear? And who's _this_, and who's _that_?" looking first at the countess
+and then at Bertha.
+
+Maurice was forced to answer, "That is Madame de Gramont, my
+grandmother, and this is Mademoiselle de Merrivale, my cousin."
+
+"Ah, very good! How are you, ma'am? Glad to see you, miss!" said Mrs.
+Gratacap, nodding first to one and then to the other. "Guess we shall
+get along famously together."
+
+Then, totally unawed by the countess' glacial manner, for Mrs. Gratacap
+had never dreamed of being afraid of "mortal man," to say nothing of
+"mortal woman," she disencumbered herself of her bandbox, bundle, and
+umbrella, deliberately took off the ample hat and tossed it upon the
+table, sending her shawl to keep it company, walked up to Madame de
+Gramont, placed a chair immediately in front of her, and sat down.
+
+"Well, and how's the poor dear? It's a pretty bad case, I hear. Never
+mind,--don't be down in the mouth. I've brought folks through after the
+nails were ready to be driven into their coffins. Nothing like keeping a
+stiff upper lip. Your son, isn't he? Dare say he'll do well enough with
+a little nursing. Let's know when he was taken, and how he's been
+getting on, and what crinks and cranks he's got. Sick folks always have
+crumpled ways. Post me up a bit before I go in to him."
+
+The countess's piercing black eyes were fixed upon the voluble nurse
+with a look of absolute horror, and she never moved her lips.
+
+Maurice came to the rescue.
+
+"My father has been ill nearly a month; he was attacked with apoplexy;
+he had a second stroke yesterday."
+
+"You don't say so? That's bad! Two strokes, eh? We must look out and
+prevent a third; that's a dead go; but often it don't come for years. No
+need of borrowing trouble,--worse than borrowing money."
+
+"Let me show you to my father's apartment," said Maurice, to relieve his
+grandmother.
+
+"All right,--I'm ready! And then you'll let me see where I am to stow my
+duds; any corner will do, but I must have a cupboard of a place all to
+myself; it need only be big enough to swing a cat round in. It isn't
+much comfort I want, but a hole of my own I always bargain for. Aren't
+you coming along?" she said, looking back at the countess, who sat
+still.
+
+Madame de Gramont did not betray that she even suspected these words
+were addressed to her, nor that she heard those which followed, though
+they were spoken in a stage-whisper which could hardly escape her ears.
+
+"Is your granny always so glum? We must cheer her up a bit," was Mrs.
+Gratacap's encouraging comment.
+
+The nurse's high-pitched voice was softened to a lower key when she
+entered the apartment where Count Tristan lay, and there were genuine
+compassion and motherly tenderness in her look as she regarded him. She
+continued to question Maurice until she had learned something of the
+patient's history,--not from sheer curiosity, but because she always
+took a deep interest in the invalids placed under her charge, and by
+becoming acquainted with their peculiarities she could better adapt
+herself to their necessities.
+
+One word only can express the countess's sensations at the dropping of
+such a "monstrosity" into the midst of her family circle,--she was
+appalled! Never had any one ventured to address her with such freedom;
+never before had she been treated by any one as though she were mere
+flesh and blood. She had not believed it possible that any one could
+have the temerity to regard her in the light of equality. One might
+almost have imagined that the formidable New England nurse had inspired
+her with dread, for she could not rouse herself, could not gain courage
+to face the intruder, and, during that day, never once approached her
+son's chamber. But Mrs. Gratacap, in the most unconscious manner, made
+repeated invasions into the drawing-room, and even extended her sallies
+to the countess's own chamber, always upon some plausible pretext,--now
+to inquire where she could find the sugar, or the spoons, now to beg for
+a pair of scissors, or to ask where the vinegar-cruet was kept, or to
+learn how the countess managed about heating bricks, or getting bottles
+of hot water to warm the patient's feet!
+
+The countess, compelled by these intrusions to address the enemy, and
+galled by the necessity, said sternly, "Go to the servants and get what
+is needful."
+
+"Law sakes! You needn't take my head off! I haven't got any other and
+can't spare it!" answered Mrs. Gratacap, not in the least abashed. "I
+don't want to go bothering hotel help; I always keep out of their way,
+for they have a holy horror of us nurses, and the fuss most of us make;
+though I am not one of that sort. I leave the help alone and help myself
+considerable; and what I want I manage to get from the folks I live
+with. That's my way, and I don't think it's a bad way. I've had it for
+thirty odd years that I've been nursing; and I don't think I shall
+change it in thirty more."
+
+She flounced out of the room after this declaration, leaving the
+countess in a state which Mrs. Gratacap herself would have described as
+"quite upset;" but the haughty lady had scarcely time to recover her
+equanimity before the strong-minded nurse returned to the attack.
+
+The countess had retreated to her own room; but Mrs. Gratacap broke in
+upon her, crying out, "I say, when will that young man be back? He's
+gone off without telling me when he'd be at his post again."
+
+Madame de Gramont's usual refuge was in silence, ignoring that she
+heard; but here it was not likely to avail, for she saw that the unawed
+nurse would probably stand her ground, and repeat her question until she
+received an answer. The countess, therefore, forced herself to inquire
+in a severe tone,--
+
+"Whom do you mean?"
+
+"Why, the young man, your grandson, to be sure! A very spry young
+fellow. I like his looks mightily."
+
+If Madame de Gramont had been an adept in reading countenances she would
+have read in the nurse's face, "I cannot say as much for his
+grandmother's;" but the proud lady was not skilled in this humble art,
+and never even suspected that a person in Mrs. Gratacap's lowly station
+would dare to pass judgment upon one in her lofty position. She replied,
+with increased austerity,--
+
+"I am not in the habit of hearing the Viscount de Gramont; my grandson,
+mentioned in this unceremonious manner; it may be the mode adopted in
+this uncivilized country, but it is offensive."
+
+"Law sakes! You don't say so?" answered Mrs. Gratacap, as if the rebuke
+darted off from her without hitting. "I didn't suppose you'd go to fancy
+I was _snubbing_ him because I called him a young man! What could he be
+better? He's not an old one, is he? But I know some folks have a
+partiality to being called by their names, and I have no objection in
+life to humoring them. Well, then, when will Mr. Gramont be back? I'd
+like to know!"
+
+"M. de Gramont did not inform me when he would return;" was the freezing
+rejoinder.
+
+"Now, that's a pity! I want somebody in there for a moment, for the poor
+dear's so heavy I can't turn him all alone. Aren't you strong enough to
+lend a hand? To be sure, at your time of life, one an't apt to be worth
+much in the arms. At all events, an't you coming in to see him? You're
+his own mother; and, I swan, you haven't been near him this blessed
+day."
+
+"Woman!" cried the countess, lashed into fury. "How dare you address
+such language to me?"
+
+"Law sakes!" exclaimed Mrs. Gratacap, lifting up her hands and eyes.
+"What _did_ I say? You _are_ his mother, an't you? There's no shame
+about it, I suppose. I hadn't a notion of putting you into a passion. I
+thought it mighty queer you didn't come in to see your own son when he's
+lying so low; and I said so,--that's all! But if you don't want to come,
+I don't want to force you. I can't put natural feelings in the hearts of
+people that haven't got them; it stands to reason I can't, and you
+needn't be flying out at me on that account."
+
+Mrs. Gratacap, after delivering this admonitory sentiment, was returning
+to the patient when she encountered Bertha, and inquired,--
+
+"Did Mr. Gramont say when he would come back?"
+
+"He did not say; but I think he will be absent for a couple of hours,"
+replied Bertha.
+
+"Oh, if that's the case, I must get a helping hand somewhere.
+You're a young thing, and, I dare say, strong enough. Come along and
+help me move the poor dear."
+
+"Willingly," replied Bertha, "if I am only able."
+
+As they entered the count's chamber, Mrs. Gratacap again subdued her
+voice, and though her words and manner were always of the most positive
+kind, there was a sort of rude softness (if we may use the contradictory
+expression) in her mode of instructing Bertha in the service required.
+
+When the count was comfortably placed, she sat down, and Bertha also
+took a seat.
+
+"I say," commenced Mrs. Gratacap, in a half whisper, "that's the most of
+a tigress yonder I ever had the luck to come across. Why, she's got no
+more natural feeling than an oyster,--no more warm blood in her veins
+than a cauliflower. I wonder how such beings ever get created. Are there
+many of that sort in the parts you came from?"
+
+"She is very proud," replied Bertha, "and I am afraid there is no lack
+of pride in France among the noble class to which she belongs."
+
+"Pride! Why, I wonder what she's got to be proud of? She looks as though
+she couldn't do a thing in life that's worth doing? I like pride well
+enough! I'm awful proud myself when I've done anything remarkable. But I
+wonder what that rock yonder ever did in all her born days to be proud
+of?"
+
+Bertha tried to explain by saying, "Her pride is of family descent."
+
+"I suppose she don't trace back further than Adam, does she? And we all
+do about that," was the answer.
+
+Here the conversation was interrupted. Bertha was summoned to receive
+visitors.
+
+The instant Maurice returned his grandmother attacked him. "Maurice,
+that woman's presence here is insupportable; there is no use of argument
+on the subject; I have made up my mind,--go and dismiss her at once, and
+seek somebody else!"
+
+May not Maurice be pardoned for losing his temper and answering with
+considerable irritation,--"Have I not clearly explained to you, madame,
+that I cannot do anything of the kind? I have engaged her for a month,
+and I cannot turn her away without a good reason; here she must remain
+until the time expires."
+
+"Pay her double her wages, and let her go!" urged the countess.
+
+"Once more, and for the last time," cried Maurice, determinedly, "I tell
+you, I cannot and will not!"
+
+"Then send her to me!" answered the countess.
+
+Maurice did not stir; she repeated, in a more commanding voice, "Send
+her to me, I say!"
+
+Maurice reluctantly went to his father's room and returned with Mrs.
+Gratacap. Before the countess could commence the formal address she had
+prepared, the good woman took a chair, and with complacent familiarity,
+sat down beside her, saying, "Well, and what is it? I hope you feel a
+little better. I'm afraid you've a deal of _bile_; really, it ought to
+be looked after; if you can just get rid of it you'll be a deal more
+comfortable."
+
+"Woman"--began the countess.
+
+Mrs. Gratacap interrupted her, but without the least show of ill-temper.
+
+"Now I tell you, if it's all the same to you, I'd just as lief you'd
+call me by my name, and that's 'Gratacap'--'Mrs. Gratacap!' Fair play's
+a jewel, you know, and you didn't like my calling your grandson a 'young
+man' even, but politely begged that I'd term him 'Mr. Gramont;' so you
+just call me by my name, and I'll return the compliment."
+
+"I choose to avoid the necessity of calling you anything," returned the
+countess, when Mrs. Gratacap allowed her to speak. "You are discharged!
+I desire you to leave my house" (the countess always imagined herself in
+her chateau, or some mansion to which she had the entire claim), "leave
+my house within an hour."
+
+"Hoighty-toighty! here's a pretty kettle of fish! But it's no use
+talking; I'm settled for a month! that's my engagement."
+
+"I am aware of it; you will receive double your month's wages and go!"
+
+"I'll receive nothing of the kind! I don't take money I've not earned;
+and I'll not go until the time's up! That's a declaration of
+independence for you, which I suppose you're not accustomed to in the
+outlandish place you came from, where people haven't a notion how to
+treat those they can't do without. Do you suppose your paltry money
+would compensate me for the injury it would do my character, if it
+should be said I was engaged for a month, and before I had been in the
+situation a day, I had to pull up stakes and make tracks? No,--unless
+you can prove that I don't know my business, or don't do my duty, I've
+just as much right here, being engaged to take up my quarters here, as
+you have. Don't think I'm offended; make yourself easy on that head.
+I've learnt how to deal with all sorts of folks. I saw at the first
+squint that you and I would have a rather rough time, and I made ready
+for it. If you've got nothing more to say, I'll go back to the poor
+dear, for he's broad awake and may be wanting something."
+
+"And you dare to refuse to go when I dismiss you?"
+
+"_Dare?_ Law sakes! there's no _dare_ about it. _Who's to dare me?_ or
+to frighten me either? You don't think you've come to a free country to
+find people afraid of their shadows,--do you? I'm afraid of nothing but
+not doing my duty; I always dare do that, to say nothing of asserting my
+own rights and privileges. So let's have no more nonsense, and I'll go
+about my business."
+
+Mrs. Gratacap returned to her patient as undisturbed as though the
+countess had merely requested her presence as a matter of courtesy.
+
+The torment Madame de Gramont was destined to endure from this
+straightforward, steady-of-purpose, unterrified New England woman, must
+exceed the comprehension of those who never felt within themselves the
+workings of an overbearing spirit. Mrs. Gratacap maintained her ground;
+there was no displacing her; and she had become thoroughly sovereign of
+the sick-room, as a good nurse ought to be. The only alternative for the
+countess was to avoid her; but she was a pursuing phantom that met the
+proud lady at every turn, haunted her with untiring pertinacity. Madame
+de Gramont absented herself from her son's chamber, except when Mrs.
+Gratacap went to her meals; but little was gained by that, for the nurse
+was always flitting in and out of the drawing-room, or dining-room, at
+unexpected moments, and only the turning of the key kept her out of the
+countess's own chamber.
+
+The first time that Madame de Gramont bethought herself of visiting her
+son when the inevitable _garde malade_ was absent, Mrs. Gratacap
+returned in one quarter the time which the countess imagined it would
+require to swallow the most hasty meal.
+
+"Well, I _do_ say, that's a sight for sore eyes!" exclaimed the nurse.
+"I am as pleased as punch to find you here; but I've been thinking that
+like as not, you're scared of sick folks; there's plenty of people that
+are; but there's nothing to be skittish about; I think this poor dear
+will get all right again."
+
+"Silence, woman!" commanded the countess.
+
+"Never you fear," replied Mrs. Gratacap, either misunderstanding her or
+pretending to do so. "I'm not talking loud enough for him to hear. I
+don't allow loud talking in a sick-room, nor much talking either, of any
+kind. If you'd stay here a little while every day, you'd get some ideas
+from my management."
+
+The exasperated countess retreated from the apartment, falling back, for
+the first time, before an enemy.
+
+As she made her exit Mrs. Gratacap said to Maurice, "It's a pity your
+grandmother is so cantankerous; but, I'm used to cranks and whims of all
+sorts of folks, and it's only for her own sake, that I wish she'd make
+herself more at home here. Who'd think she was the mother of that poor
+dear lying so low? and she never to have a word of comfort to throw at
+him. But people's ways an't alike, thank goodness! It may be the style
+over in your parts, but I'm thankful I was born this side of the great
+pond."
+
+A fortnight passed on, and the count rallied again. The shadows which
+obscured his brain seemed in a measure to have passed away; but they
+were succeeded by a deep melancholy. No effort made by Maurice or Bertha
+(Madame de Gramont made none) could rouse him. His countenance wore an
+expression of utter despair. He never spoke except to reply to some
+question, and then as briefly as possible; but his answers were quite
+lucid. As far as mere _physique_ was in question, he was convalescing
+favorably.
+
+Maurice received another letter from his partner, urging him to return
+to Charleston as soon as possible, and giving him the information that
+there was a most advantageous opening in his profession. While the count
+remained in his present feeble state, Maurice could not leave him;
+besides the countess and Bertha required manly protection.
+
+Bertha continued to resist all Gaston's entreaties to name the day for
+their union, always replying that the day depended upon Madeleine, and
+if the latter remained single, she would do the same.
+
+Maurice decided that, as soon as his father had recovered sufficiently
+to travel, it would be advisable for the whole party to take up their
+abode in Charleston. Many and sharp were the pangs he suffered at the
+thought of leaving a city which Madeleine's presence rendered so dear;
+but he would be worthier of her esteem, and his own self-respect, if he
+resolutely and steadfastly pursued the course he had marked out for
+himself before she was restored to him. To prepare the mind of his
+grandmother, and to learn Bertha's opinion of the proposed change, were
+subjects of importance which demanded immediate attention. He spoke to
+his cousin first, seizing an opportunity when the countess chanced to be
+absent.
+
+Bertha looked amazed, and asked, "How can you leave Madeleine?"
+
+"When I think of it, I feel as though I could not; and yet I must. I
+cannot linger here in idleness. Madeleine herself would be the first one
+to bid me go."
+
+"I dare say!" answered Bertha, pettishly.
+
+"But you, Bertha," continued Maurice, "how will you leave one who has a
+dearer claim upon you, than I, alas! will ever have upon Madeleine? How
+will you be reconciled to part from M. de Bois?"
+
+"I answer as you do, that I _must_."
+
+"But you, Bertha, have an alternative; Gaston, if he could induce you to
+remain,--induce you to give him a wife,--would be enraptured."
+
+"I suppose so," returned Bertha, with charming demureness; "but that is
+out of the question. Wherever my aunt goes, I will go."
+
+"But how long is this to last, Bertha?"
+
+"Nobody knows, except Madeleine, perhaps. I shall not be married until
+she is."
+
+That very suggestion sent such a shuddering thrill through the veins of
+Maurice, that he cried out,--
+
+"Bertha! for the love of Heaven! never mention such a possibility again!
+When the time comes, if come it must, I trust I shall behave like a man,
+but I have not the courage now to contemplate a shock so terrible. The
+very suggestion distracts me. I shall never cease to love
+Madeleine,--never! Were she the wife of another man, I should be forced
+to fly from her forever, that I might not profane her purity by even a
+shadow of that love; yet I should love her all the same! My love is
+interwound with my whole being; the drawing of my breath, the flowing of
+my blood are not more absolute necessities of my existence; my love for
+Madeleine is life itself, and if she should give her hand, as she has
+given her heart, to another man, I,--it is a possibility too dreadful to
+contemplate,--it sets my brain on fire to think of it. Never, never,
+Bertha, never if you have any affection for me, speak of Madeleine as"--
+
+He could not finish his sentence, and Bertha said, penitently,--"I am so
+sorry, Maurice, I beg your pardon; and there's no likelihood at present;
+and so I have told M. de Bois, that he might reconcile himself and learn
+patience."
+
+Madame de Gramont entered, and Maurice, endeavoring to conquer his
+recent agitation, said to her,--
+
+"I have been talking with Bertha about our future plans. I purpose
+returning shortly to Charleston; indeed, it is indispensable that I
+should do so. I trust you and my father and Bertha will be willing to
+accompany me as soon as he is able to bear the journey,--will you not?"
+
+"No," replied the countess, decidedly. "Why should I go to Charleston?
+Why should I linger in this most barbarous, most detestable country,
+where I have suffered so much? I have formed my own plans, and intend to
+carry them into immediate execution."
+
+"May I beg you to let me know what they are?"
+
+"I purpose," said the countess, slowly, but with a decision by which she
+meant to impress Maurice with the certainty that there was no appeal; "I
+purpose returning to Brittany, and there remaining for the rest of my
+days!"
+
+Bertha half leaped from her chair, her breath grew thick, and her heart
+must have beat painfully, for she pressed her hand upon her breast, as
+though to still the violent pulsations.
+
+"To Brittany, my grandmother?" said Maurice, in accents of
+consternation. "I trust not. In my father's state of health, I could not
+feel that I was doing my duty if I were separated from him, and my
+interests, my professional engagements, compel me to remain in this
+country."
+
+"Your filial affection, Maurice de Gramont, must be remarkably strong,
+if you weigh it against your petty, selfish interests,--your
+professional engagements. But, do as you please,--I ask nothing, expect
+nothing from you,--not even the protection of your presence, though I
+have no longer a son who is able to offer me protection."
+
+"But if you will allow me to explain,--if you will allow me to show you
+that my lot is cast in America,--that it would ruin all my future
+prospects to return to Europe! My father's affairs are so much entangled
+that I must exert myself for his support and my own." (He might have
+said the support of his grandmother also, but was too delicate.) "There
+is no opening for me in France, no occupation that I am fitted at
+present to pursue."
+
+"I do not undertake to comprehend what you mean by your
+_prospects_--your _engagements_--your _exerting_ yourself--or any of the
+other low phrases that drop so readily from your tongue. These are not
+matters with which I can have any concern. I have nothing to do with
+your _prospects_, your _exertions_, your _engagements_, or your
+_intentions_. _My intentions_ are plain and unalterable. As soon as the
+physician says my son is in a state to travel, I shall engage our
+passage upon the first steamer that starts for Havre, and turn my back
+upon this miserable land, to which you, Bertha, by your capricious
+folly, lured us. It does not matter who accompanies me, or who does not;
+my son and I will depart,--_that is settled_."
+
+Bertha and Maurice were silent through dismay. The countess finding that
+neither replied, said to her niece,--
+
+"Upon what have you resolved, Bertha? Will you allow me to return alone?
+Do you intend to refuse to go with me, because my grandson has coldly
+disregarded all the ties of kindred and severed himself from his father
+and me?"
+
+Bertha answered quickly, "I wish, oh! I wish you could be persuaded to
+remain here; but if not,--if you _will_ go,--if you _must_ go--I will go
+with you."
+
+It was long since the countess had looked so gratified, and she drew
+Bertha toward her and kissed her brow, exclaiming,--
+
+"There is, at least, _one_ of my own kindred left to me! Thank God!"
+
+"Do not suppose," said Maurice, "if this voyage is inevitable, if you
+cannot be persuaded to think the step hazardous, that I shall allow you
+to take it without a proper escort. If you return to France, let the
+consequence be what it may, I will go with you. Circumstances render it
+impossible that I should take up my residence there, but I will make the
+voyage with you,--I will see you and my father in your own home, and
+then"--
+
+The countess contemplated him approvingly. "That was spoken like
+yourself, Maurice! I have still a grandson upon whom I can lean. Now,
+let us hasten our departure; let us start the instant it is possible; we
+cannot set out too soon to please _me_."
+
+The countess _never_ thought of the _necessity_, _propriety_, or
+_charity_, of pleasing any one else. Could any one's pleasure be of
+importance weighed against hers?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIX.
+
+RONALD.
+
+
+Who cannot conceive the consternation of Gaston de Bois when he learned
+that Madame de Gramont had resolved to return to Brittany with her son,
+and that Bertha had promised to accompany them? The countess sat looking
+at him with a species of savage triumph; for since he had become
+Madeleine's champion, she had treated him with pointed coldness. Gentle
+and sympathetic as his affianced bride was in general, she seemed for
+once to be insensible to the wound she had inflicted, and gave no sign
+of wavering in her resolution.
+
+The next morning she was on her way to Madeleine's, accompanied by her
+maid. M. de Bois joined them as soon as they were out of sight of the
+hotel. How suddenly Bertha's soft heart must have become fossilized!
+for, although his heavy eyes and disturbed mien bore witness to the
+sleepless night he had passed, she did not appear to notice any change
+in his appearance.
+
+"Bertha," he said, reproachfully, "you cannot be so cruel,--so
+ungenerous! You will not leave me and return to Brittany with your aunt,
+instead of giving me the right to detain you!"
+
+"It's very hard-hearted," replied Bertha, tantalizingly; "but I have
+promised my aunt to accompany her, and I, cannot break my word."
+
+"But your promise to me?"
+
+"I hope to keep that, in good time, when the conditions are fulfilled."
+
+"But you link that promise with conditions which may never be
+fulfilled,--never!"
+
+"Then we must be happy as we are," said Bertha, naively.
+
+Bertha's obstinacy was surprising in one of her malleable, easily
+influenced character; but it seemed prompted by an instinctive belief
+that Gaston would be forced to make some exertion,--take some steps
+(their nature Bertha did not define to herself) which would result in
+bringing about Madeleine's happiness, and in promoting her union with
+her unknown lover. This one idea had taken such full possession of
+Bertha's brain that it could not be dislodged, and all Gaston's fervent
+entreaties that she would not let his happiness depend upon such an
+unlikely contingency were fruitless.
+
+"Then I have but one alternative," said Gaston, at last. "I will resign
+my secretaryship and accompany you to Brittany. You cannot imagine that
+I would let you go without me?"
+
+Bertha did not say how much pleasure this suggestion gave her; but the
+glad radiance in her blue eyes told she had been unexpectedly spared one
+half the sacrifice which she had determined to make, if necessary.
+
+When Madeleine learned from Gaston the proposed departure of the
+countess and her family, a death-like pallor suddenly overspread her
+countenance, and she gasped out faintly, "All,--all going?"
+
+"Dear, dear Madeleine," cried Bertha, "do not look so; you frighten me.
+It's very sad to leave you in this strange land alone. It depends upon
+you to keep two of us near you,--I mean M. de Bois and myself."
+
+Bertha's words imparted no consolation.
+
+"If you would but unravel this mystery, Madeleine?" Bertha went on. "It
+depends upon you and you only, to bind me here. When you are ready to
+stand before the altar with the one you have so long loved, so shall I
+be! Yes, though it were to-morrow."
+
+"Bertha," answered Madeleine with such sad solemnity that for the first
+time Bertha's hope that her ardent desire might be accomplished was
+chilled, "you do not know what an,--an almost impossibility you are
+asking. Believe me, when I tell you, in all seriousness, that I shall
+never stand before the altar as a bride. An insurmountable barrier
+forbids! I shall live on,--work on, alone,--finding consolation in the
+certainty that I am acting wisely, and bearing bravely what must be
+endured. Will not this declaration convince you that you have decided
+rashly, not to say _cruelly_, in making your wifehood dependent upon
+mine?"
+
+Bertha shook her head pertinaciously: "No--no--no! If I were to yield I
+should have to relinquish my last hope of seeing you a bride. I do not
+mean to yield! You need not persuade me; nor you either, M. de Bois. I
+am as obstinate as the de Gramonts themselves; and yet, in this
+instance, I think I am more reasonable in my firmness."
+
+Madeleine and Gaston did not forego entreaties in spite of this
+assertion; but they had no effect upon Bertha, though she was thankful
+to be relieved from their importunities by the entrance of Maurice.
+Neither Madeleine nor Gaston felt disposed, in his hearing, to run the
+risk of making Bertha repeat her desire that Madeleine should become a
+bride. Madeleine roused herself that Maurice might not perceive her
+sadness, and made an effort to speak of the proposed voyage as a settled
+plan. The gloom of Maurice was not diminished by her attempt. He would
+have been less chagrined if he had seen the emotion which her pallid
+cheeks betrayed when the intelligence of their approaching departure was
+communicated to her. Ungenerous manhood! he would have suffered less had
+he known that she whom he loved suffered also!
+
+Later in the day, as he was slowly walking toward the hotel, plunged in
+one of those despondent moods to which he had been subject before his
+sojourn in America, he was roused by a clear, ringing voice, though so
+long unheard, still familiar, and ever pleasant to his ears.
+
+"Maurice!"
+
+"Ronald! There is not a man in the world I would rather have seen!"
+
+"And you are the very man I was seeking. I came to Washington on purpose
+to see you," replied the young artist, who had exerted so strong an
+influence over the character of Maurice in other days, and who had done
+so much toward "shaping his destiny."
+
+Ronald was somewhat changed; the rich coloring of his handsome face had
+paled, or been bronzed over; a few lightly traced, but expressive lines
+were chronicles of mental struggles, and told that he had thought and
+suffered. There was more contemplation and less gayety in the brilliant
+brown eyes; more reflective composure and less impulsive buoyancy in his
+demeanor. Heretofore his bearing, language, whole aspect had ever
+communicated the impression of possible power; now it bespoke power
+confirmed and concentrated, and brought into living action.
+
+The friendship of Maurice and Ronald had not grown cold during the years
+they had been separated. They had corresponded regularly; their interest
+in each other, their affection for each other had deepened and
+strengthened with every year, as all emotions which have their root in
+the spirit must deepen and strengthen,--the elements of _progress_ being
+inseparable from those affections which draw their existence from this
+life-source.
+
+Maurice, during his sojourn in Charleston, had paid weekly visits to
+Ronald's parents, usually spending his Sundays beneath their hospitable
+roof; and this made the day a true Sabbath to him. During the two months
+he had passed in Washington, Maurice had only written brief letters to
+Mrs. Walton; for the rapid succession of exciting events had engrossed
+his time, though it could not make him forget one who was ever ready
+with her sympathy and counsel. Her replies also had been curtailed by
+the all-absorbing joy of welcoming her son after his long absence.
+
+The young artist had now achieved an enviable reputation as a painter.
+His first works were characterized by a towering ambition in their
+conception, which his unpractised execution could not fitly illustrate;
+but they had disappointed no one so much as himself. After many
+struggles against a sense of discouragement, inseparable from high
+aspirations, frustrated for the moment, he had broken out of his
+chrysalis state of imperfect action, and spread his wings in strong and
+serious earnest. His sensitive perception of the great and beautiful,
+allied to the creative power of genius soon blazoned his prodigal gifts
+to the world, and he had gloried in that sense of might which makes the
+true artist feel he has a giant's strength for good or evil.
+
+"I have rejoiced over your new laurels!" exclaimed Maurice, warmly; for
+he had learned Ronald's distinction through the journals of the day.
+
+"They are so intangible," replied Ronald, smiling, "that I'm not quite
+sure of their existence. I did not tell you that my father and mother
+are here and most anxious to see you. When will you pay them a visit?
+Can you not come with me now?"
+
+Maurice gladly consented to accompany his friend.
+
+"You are our chief attraction to Washington," continued Ronald. "My
+mother was the first to propose that we should seek you out. Your
+letters were so sad, and even confused, that she felt you needed her. I
+think she fancies she has two sons, Maurice."
+
+"She is the only mother I have ever known," answered Maurice; "and life
+is incomplete when a mother's place is unfilled in the soul."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER L.
+
+A SECRET DIVINED.
+
+
+"Take care! the 'Don' will be jealous!" exclaimed Mr. Walton, as he
+witnessed his wife's greeting of Maurice,--a greeting as tender as a
+true mother could have bestowed. "When Ronald was a boy he would rush
+about like one gone mad if his mother ever ventured to take another
+child upon her knee,--he would never have his throne usurped. Our 'Don'
+was always 'monarch of all he surveyed.'"
+
+This jocular appellation of the 'Don,' Mr. Walton had bestowed upon his
+son on account of his early propensity to fight moral windmills, and the
+Quixotic zeal with which he espoused the cause of the weak and the fair.
+This knight-errant proclivity ripened from the Quixotism of boyhood into
+the chivalrous devotion which had manifested itself in his somewhat
+romantic friendship for Maurice,--a friendship productive of such happy
+results to the young viscount.
+
+Ronald replied, "My affection has gained a victory over my jealousy, as
+Maurice discovered some years ago. I have just given him a new evidence
+of that fact by accompanying you and my mother to Washington in the hope
+of seeing him."
+
+"Did you really come for my sake," asked Maurice, much moved.
+
+Mrs. Walton answered, "How could we help being distressed about you?
+Your letters were so unsatisfactory. I shall know more of your true
+state in one _tete-a-tete_,--one good long heart-talk,--than I could
+learn by a thousand letters."
+
+After this declaration, Ronald and his father jestingly pronounced
+themselves _de trop_ and departed.
+
+Maurice had long since given Mrs. Walton his full confidence, and now to
+sit and relate the events that had transpired during his stay in
+Washington was a heart-unburthening which lightened his oppressed
+spirit. It seemed to him as though some ray of hope must break through
+the clouds which enveloped him, if her clear, steady vision closely
+scanned their blackness; _she_ might discover some gleam of light which
+he could not perceive.
+
+When he finished the narrative she asked,--
+
+"And have you no suspicion who this mysterious lover can be? No clue to
+his identity?"
+
+"Not the faintest," answered Maurice.
+
+"But since you have seen Madeleine at all hours of the day, since you
+have resided in her house, she could not have evinced a preference for
+any gentleman without your perceiving the distinction."
+
+"She evinced no preferences; no gentleman was upon an intimate footing
+except M. de Bois, who is engaged to Bertha, much to Madeleine's
+delight."
+
+"M. de Bois, you tell me," continued Mrs. Walton, "has been her devoted
+friend during all these years that she has been separated from you. Have
+you not been able to learn something from him?"
+
+"I have too much respect for Madeleine to force from another a secret
+which she refuses to impart to me; but I am quite certain that if M. de
+Bois knows whom Madeleine has blessed with her love, Bertha is still in
+ignorance. Bertha would have told me at once."
+
+Mrs. Walton mused awhile, then said, "I do not see any loose thread by
+which the mystery can be unravelled; but you will, of course, make me
+acquainted with your Madeleine?"
+
+"_My_ Madeleine," began Maurice, bitterly.
+
+"I called her yours involuntarily, because your heart seems so wholly to
+claim her. She will receive me,--will she not?"
+
+"Gladly, I am sure."
+
+"Then we will go to-morrow."
+
+There were too many chords of sympathy which vibrated responsively in
+the bosoms of Mrs. Walton and Madeleine, too many planes upon which they
+could meet, for them to remain merely formal acquaintances. It was
+Madeleine's nature to treat those with whom she was thrown in contact
+with a genial courtesy which rose to kindness, often to affection; but
+it was only to a few that she really threw wide the portals of her large
+heart. Mrs. Walton's devotion to Maurice was claim enough for her to be
+ranked among the small number whom Madeleine admitted to that inner
+sanctuary.
+
+On the other hand, Mrs. Walton was by no means impulsive in forming
+friendships; her existence had been brightened by very few. She had much
+constitutional _reticence_; she enjoyed a secluded life; she was not
+dependent upon others for happiness. A rich, inexhaustible well-spring
+of joy,--the one joy of her days,--flowed in through her son, and that
+pure fount was all-sufficient to water the flowers that sprang in her
+path. Maurice had awakened her womanly compassion, first, because Ronald
+had found in him a brother; next, because he was motherless and almost
+heart-broken, and finally, because his noble attributes won her admiring
+affection. But, although Mrs. Walton had no facility in making
+friendships, when she did become attached, it was with a sympathetic and
+absolute devotion which extended itself involuntarily to the beings who
+were dear to those she loved; thus her attachment for Maurice awakened
+an affection for Madeleine before they met; and when she clasped
+Madeleine's hand, and looked into her fair face, the reserve she
+invariably experienced toward strangers at once melted away, and in
+their very first interview these two responsive spirits drew near to
+each other with a mutual sense that their intercourse must become closer
+and closer.
+
+Madeleine had frequently seen Ronald when, habited as the _soeur de
+bon secours_, she kept nightly vigil by the bed of Maurice, and Ronald
+had marked the classic features of the "holy sister," and quickly
+recognized them again when he was presented to Mademoiselle de Gramont.
+
+After Mrs. Walton had visited Madeleine, Ronald persuaded her to call
+with him on Mademoiselle de Merrivale. Bertha received her quondam
+partner of the dance with much warmth and vivacity; but the countess
+looked with freezing hauteur upon these American friends of her
+grandson. Though Mrs. Walton was naturally timid, she was unawed by the
+countess's assumption of superiority; her self-respect enabled her to
+remain perfectly composed and collected, and to appear unconscious of
+the disdain with which she was treated.
+
+This initiative visit was quickly followed by others, and Mrs. Walton
+proved how little she dreaded the countess by inviting Bertha to dine
+with her.
+
+"I shall be delighted to go," said Bertha, "that is, if my aunt does not
+object."
+
+"Rather tardily remembered," answered the countess, with acerbity.
+
+"Better late than never," retorted Bertha, gayly; "so, my dear aunt, you
+will not say 'No.'"
+
+The countess would gladly have found some reason for refusing, but none
+presented itself, and Bertha was sufficiently self-willed to dispute her
+authority; it was therefore impolitic to make an open objection.
+
+M. de Bois also received an invitation. Maurice and Madeleine joined
+the little circle in the evening,--a delightful surprise to Bertha and
+Gaston. This was the first evening that Madeleine had passed out of her
+own dwelling during her residence in America. She had necessarily
+renounced society when she adopted a vocation incompatible with her
+legitimate social position; but, on this occasion, she could not resist
+Mrs. Walton's persuasions, and perhaps the promptings of her own
+inclination.
+
+Once more Madeleine's vocal powers were called into requisition. She was
+ever ready to contribute her _mite_ (so she termed it) toward the
+general entertainment, and she would have despised the petty affectation
+of pretended reluctance to draw forth entreaty, or give value to her
+performance. Her voice had never sounded more touchingly, mournfully
+pathetic, and her listeners hung entranced upon the sounds. Maurice
+drank in every tone, and never moved his eyes from her face; but when
+the soft cadences sank in silence, what a look of anguish passed over
+his manly features, and told that the sharp bayonet of his life-sorrow
+pierced him anew. He turned involuntarily toward Mrs. Walton, and met a
+look of sympathy not wholly powerless to soothe.
+
+Mr. Walton was loud in his praises of Madeleine's vocalization; he had a
+courtier's felicity in expressing admiration, never more genuine than on
+the present occasion.
+
+"We must not be so ungrateful as to forget to offer Mademoiselle de
+Gramont the only return in our power, however far it may fall short of
+what she merits," said he; "the 'Don' here, does not sing; he is not a
+poet even, except in soul, and all his inspirations flow through his
+brush; but he interprets poets with an art which I think is hardly less
+valuable than the poet's own divine afflatus."
+
+Madeleine, delighted, seized upon the suggestion, and solicited Ronald
+to favor the company. His mother placed in his hands a volume of Mrs.
+Browning's poems, and he turned to that surpassingly beautiful romance,
+"Lady Geraldine's Courtship."
+
+Ronald was one of those rare readers gifted with the power of filling,
+at pleasure, the poet's place, or of embodying the characters which he
+delineated. The young artist's rich, sonorous voice; obeyed his will,
+and was modulated to express every variety of emotion, while his
+animated countenance glowed, flushed, paled, grew radiant or clouded,
+with the scene he described. A master-spirit playing upon a thoroughly
+comprehended instrument manifested itself in his rendition of the
+author.
+
+All eyes were riveted upon him as he read; he possessed in an eminent
+degree the faculty of magnetizing his hearers, taking them captive for
+the time being, and bearing them, as upon a rising or falling wave,
+whither he would. As the tale progressed, the silence grew deeper, and,
+save Ronald's voice, not a sound was to be heard, except, now and then,
+a quickened breath and Bertha's low sobbing; for she wept as though
+Bertram had been one whom she had known.
+
+Mrs. Walton's eyes had been fixed upon her son, with an expression of
+ineffable soul-drawn delight; but, just before the poem drew to a close,
+they stole around the circle to note the effect produced by his masterly
+reading upon others. Every face mirrored such emotions as the poem might
+have awakened in minds capable of appreciating the noble and beautiful;
+but by Madeleine's countenance she was forcibly struck; a marble pallor
+overspread her visage, her eyes were strangely dilated and filled with
+moisture; if the lids for a moment had closed, the "silver tears" must
+have run down her cheeks as freely as ran Lady Geraldine's; but, when
+Ronald came to that passage where Lady Geraldine thrills Bertram with
+joy by the confession that it was him whom she loved,--though he had
+never divined that love,--him only! Madeleine's lips quivered, and, with
+a sudden impulse, which defied control, she covered her face with her
+hands as though she dreaded that her heart might be perused in her
+countenance. It was an involuntary action, repented of as soon as made,
+for she withdrew the hands immediately, but the spontaneous movement
+spoke volumes.
+
+As Mrs. Walton watched her, a sudden flash of _clairvoyance_ revealed a
+portion of the truth, and she ejaculated, mentally,--
+
+"The man whom Madeleine loves is unaware of her love, as Bertram was of
+Lady Geraldine's."
+
+This suggestion, born in the under-current of her thoughts, floated
+constantly to the surface awaiting confirmation. If her belief were
+well-grounded, one step was taken toward fathoming the secret which
+Madeleine had doubtless some motive for preserving, but which Mrs.
+Walton's sympathies with Maurice made her earnestly desire to bring to
+light. Madeleine might have conceived a passion for one whom she would
+never more meet, or for one who was unconscious of her preference,
+though that seemed hardly possible.
+
+Under ordinary circumstances Mrs. Walton would have been one of the last
+persons to take an active part in searching out the hidden springs of
+any human actions; but she was so deeply interested, both in Maurice and
+Madeleine, that a strong desire to be of service to them made her break
+one of the rules of her life. A wise rule, perhaps, so far as it frees
+one from responsibility, yet a rule which generous and impulsive spirits
+will often disregard in the hope of wafting into a drooping sail some
+favorable breeze that will send the ship toward a wished-for port.
+
+It chanced the very next day, when Mrs. Walton was visiting Madeleine,
+that the latter was summoned away, and as she left the room, she said,--
+
+"I will not be long absent; here are books with which I hope you can
+amuse yourself."
+
+They had been sitting in Madeleine's boudoir; Mrs. Walton's chair was
+close to Madeleine's desk; upon the desk lay several volumes, probably
+those which had been last in use. Mrs. Walton made a haphazard
+selection, and took up a little sketch-book. Her interest was quickly
+awakened when she found that it contained sketches which were doubtless
+Madeleine's own. There was the chateau of Count Tristan de Gramont at
+Rennes, and the memorable little _chalet_--the chateau of the Marquis de
+Merrivale, and sketches of other localities in her native land, of which
+she had thus preserved the memory. Then followed fancy groups, composed
+of various figures, apparently illustrative of scenes from books; but
+Mrs. Walton could not be certain of the unexplained subjects.
+
+One familiar face struck her,--a most perfect likeness of Maurice,--it
+was unmistakable. Prominent in every group, though in different
+attitudes and costumes, was that one figure. Maurice,--still Maurice,
+throughout the book. Mrs. Walton was pondering upon this singular
+discovery when Madeleine entered.
+
+She flushed crimson when she saw the volume her visitor was examining,
+and said, in a confused tone, taking the book from Mrs. Walton's
+hands,--
+
+"I thought I had locked this book in my desk; how could I have left it
+about? It only contains old sketches of remembered places, and similar
+trifles, not worth your contemplation."
+
+"I found them very beautiful," replied Mrs. Walton, "and the likenesses
+of Maurice are perfect."
+
+"Of Maurice?" was all that Madeleine could say, her agitation increasing
+every moment.
+
+"Yes, I could not understand the subjects, but his face and form are
+admirably depicted. You have a true talent for making portraits."
+
+Madeleine could not answer, but as Mrs. Walton glanced at her conscious
+and troubled countenance, woman's instinct whispered, "It is Maurice
+whom she loves."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LI.
+
+SEED SOWN.
+
+
+Once more Count Tristan was convalescent. He could move his limbs with
+tolerable freedom,--could walk without support, though with slow,
+uncertain, uneven steps; his articulation was now hardly impaired,
+though he never spoke except in answer to questions, and then with
+evident unwillingness. He took little or no notice of what passed around
+him, but ever seemed brooding over his own misfortunes,--that is, if his
+mind retained any activity, of which it was not easy to judge.
+
+In another week the month for which Mrs. Gratacap considered herself
+engaged would expire. That worthy, but voluble and independent person
+determined that she would not submit to the slight of having due notice
+of dismissal given her, and therefore herself gave warning that she
+purposed to take her departure. At the same time she said to Maurice,--
+
+"I vow to goodness that grandmother of yours hasn't got the least idea
+of manners. I wonder if that's the style in her country? Why, we
+shouldn't call it common decency here! Law sakes! she's had a lesson or
+two from me, I think. Would you believe it, this very blessed morning
+she had no more civility than just to bid me leave the room as she
+wanted to speak to the doctor. I vow to goodness, I wouldn't have
+stirred a step if it hadn't been that I knew she didn't know any better,
+and I never force myself where I am not wanted; so I just took myself
+off."
+
+"It was better to try and bear with my grandmother," answered Maurice,
+soothingly.
+
+"And it's bearing with a bear to do it!" responded Mrs. Gratacap. "I
+don't mind it on my own account,--I am accustomed to all sorts of queer
+folks, but I suspected the old lady was up to something that would worry
+the poor dear, and, to be sure, I was right."
+
+"What do you mean?" inquired Maurice, anxiously.
+
+"Why, I couldn't help catching a word or two of what the doctor said
+when he went out; I just heard him say that the patient _could_ make the
+voyage if it were necessary, though it would be better to keep him
+quiet. Mark my words, she wants to pack off, bag and baggage, at short
+notice,--and _she'll do it_! Never trust my judgment if she don't."
+
+Mrs. Gratacap was right; one hour later, the countess, with a look which
+reminded Maurice, of the days when she swayed unopposed, informed him
+that Count Tristan had been pronounced by his physician sufficiently
+convalescent to bear a sea-voyage, and that she intended to leave
+Washington that day week, for New York, and take the first steamer that
+sails for Havre.
+
+Maurice could only stammer out, "So suddenly?"
+
+"Suddenly?" echoed the imperious lady; "it is a century to me! a century
+of torture! And you call it _suddenly_? _Nothing_ will prevent my
+leaving this city in a week, and this detestable country as soon after
+as possible. Do you understand me?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"Then I depend upon you to make all the needful preparations. There will
+be no change in my plans; the matter is settled and requires no further
+discussion."
+
+Maurice knew too well that there was but one course left, and that was
+submission to her despotic will. He at once apprised Gaston of the
+determination of the countess. M. de Bois was more grieved for his
+friend than for himself, and said he could be ready to accompany the
+party in twenty-four hours.
+
+After this, Maurice took his way to the Waltons. He could not yet summon
+resolution to go to Madeleine.
+
+We have already said that Mrs. Walton, through her woman's instincts,
+thought she had discovered Madeleine's secret, and every day some
+trivial circumstance confirmed her in her belief. But her shrinking
+nature made it difficult for her ever to take the initiative, or to
+attempt to change the current of events by any strong act of her own.
+There was no absence of _power_ in her composition, but a distrust of
+her own powers which produced the same effect. Hers was a _passive_ and
+not _suggestive_ nature; if the first step in some desirable path were
+taken by another she would follow, and labor heart and hand, and by her
+judgment and zeal accomplish what that other only projected; but she had
+a horror of taking the responsibility, of "meddling with other people's
+affairs," even in the hope of bringing about some happy issue.
+
+Ronald's impulses were precisely opposite to his mother's. He had an
+internal delight in swaying, in influencing, in bending circumstances to
+his will, in making all the crooked paths straight and righting all the
+wrongs of mankind. He was always ready to form projects (his father
+would say in a Quixotic style) and carry them into execution, to benefit
+his friends. He was deterred by no constitutional timidity, and the rash
+impulsiveness of youth looks only to happy results, and is seldom curbed
+by the reflection of possible evil. Ronald would have served Maurice at
+all hazards, and by all means in his power, or _out of his power_. He
+was expressing to his mother the chagrin he felt at the sad position of
+his friend, and his fear that it would throw a blight over his energies,
+when the latter remarked,--
+
+"I think I have made a discovery which concerns Maurice, though I do not
+see how it can benefit him. Yet I am sure I know a secret which he would
+give almost his existence to learn."
+
+"Indeed!" exclaimed Ronald. "Tell him then at once!"
+
+"I cannot make up my mind that it would tend to any good result. It
+would be better, I think, not to touch upon the subject at all; let
+events take their natural course."
+
+"We should build no houses, we should write no books, and paint no
+pictures, if we adopted that doctrine," answered Ronald. "At least, tell
+me what you have learned."
+
+"I think I know," replied Mrs. Walton, "whom Madeleine loves."
+
+"Is it possible?"
+
+"And that is Maurice himself!"
+
+Mrs. Walton went through the whole train of reasoning by which she had
+arrived at her conclusion; and Ronald was only too well pleased to be
+convinced.
+
+"But, my dear, impetuous boy," said she, as she looked upon his glowing
+face, "what good to Maurice can grow out of this?"
+
+"Let us plant the seed and give it some good chance to grow," returned
+Ronald, eagerly. "Here is Maurice himself. The first step is to tell
+him"--
+
+Maurice entered in time to hear the last words, and took them up.
+
+"You can hardly tell him anything sadder than he comes to tell you. In a
+week we must bid each other adieu; my grandmother has resolved to return
+to Brittany without further delay."
+
+"I should be more deeply moved by that news," replied Ronald, "did I not
+think that I had some intelligence to communicate in exchange which is
+very far from sad. Maurice, are you prepared to hear anything I may have
+to say?"
+
+"When did your words fail to do me good?" asked Maurice. "Do you think I
+have forgotten our long arguments in Paris, when I was in a state of
+such deep dejection, and you roused me and spurred me on to action by
+your buoyant, active, hopeful spirit? But go on."
+
+"I want to speak of your cousin, Mademoiselle de Gramont."
+
+Maurice expressed by his looks how welcome that theme ever was.
+
+"You ardently desire," continued Ronald, "for so my mother has told me,
+to know who Mademoiselle Madeleine loves."
+
+"Yes, I desire it more than words can utter."
+
+"I think I can tell you," returned Ronald.
+
+"You? You are not in earnest?" cried Maurice, in amazement. "For the
+love of Heaven, Ronald, do not sport with such a subject!"
+
+"I do _not_ jest, Maurice. I only tell you what you ought yourself to
+have discovered long ago."
+
+"How could I? There is no possible clew. Madeleine sees no one, writes
+to no one, whom I could conceive to be the man whom she prefers."
+
+"Easily explained," continued Ronald. "That man does not know he is
+beloved by her."
+
+"Incredible!" replied Maurice.
+
+"Very credible, my dear Maurice, as you are bound to admit; for that man
+stands before me."
+
+"Ronald, for pity's sake--this--this is inhuman!"
+
+"Do not wrong me so much, Maurice, as to think me capable of speaking
+lightly upon such a subject. My mother's perception of character is
+really wonderful; and her instincts, I think, never fail her; she is
+convinced that it is _you_, and you only, whom Madeleine loves. Reflect
+how many proofs of love she has given you! Has she not, through M. de
+Bois, kept trace of all your movements during the years that you were
+separated? Did she not run great risk to watch beside your sick-bed in
+Paris? Did you not tell me that it was her prompt and generous
+interference which prevented your losing your credit with Mr. Emerson?
+Does not her every action prove that you are ever in her thoughts? And,
+Maurice, I tell you, it is _you_ whom she loves."
+
+Maurice listened as though some holy voice from supernal regions chanted
+heavenly music in his ears. But he roused himself from the delicious
+dream, for he did not dare to yield to its spell, and said,--
+
+"Did she not herself tell me that she loved another?"
+
+"May you not have mistaken her exact words?" asked Ronald. "It was
+necessary to renounce you, to take all hope away from you, and place in
+your path the only barrier which you could not hope to overleap. And may
+she not have given you the impression that she loved, that her
+affections were engaged, while you drew the inference from her rejecting
+your hand that her heart was given to some other?"
+
+The countenance of Maurice grew effulgent with the flood of hope poured
+upon it.
+
+"Oh, if it were so!" he exclaimed, in rapture. "Ronald, my best friend,
+what do I not owe you? Mrs. Walton, why, why are you silent? Speak to
+me! Tell me that you really believe Madeleine loves me!"
+
+Mrs. Walton, alarmed by the violence of his emotion, began to turn over
+in her mind the unfortunate results which might ensue if she had made an
+error. Maurice still implored her to speak, and she said, at last, with
+some hesitation,--
+
+"If Madeleine does not love you, and you only, I have no skill in
+interpreting 'the weather signs of love.' I ought not to be too
+confident of my own judgment; and yet I cannot force myself to doubt
+that, in this instance, it is correct."
+
+"Say that again and again. I cannot hear it too often. _You cannot force
+yourself to doubt_,--you are quite convinced then, quite sure that
+Madeleine, my own Madeleine, loves me?"
+
+"I am indeed," responded Mrs. Walton, tenderly.
+
+Maurice folded his arms about her, bowed his head on her shoulder, and
+his great joy found a vent which it had never known before; for never
+before had tears of ecstasy poured from his eyes. That Mrs. Walton
+should weep too was but natural. She was a woman, and tears are the
+privilege of her sex. Ronald had evidently some fears, that their
+emotion would prove contagious; for he walked up and down the room with
+remarkable rapidity, and then threw open the window and looked out,
+cleared his throat several times, and finally said, in tolerably firm
+accents,--
+
+"But, Maurice, what are we to do if the countess is determined to return
+to Brittany at once?"
+
+"If Madeleine loves me, I can endure anything! I can leave her, I can go
+with my father, or perform any other hard duty. The sweet certainty of
+her love will brighten and lighten my trial. Oh, if I could only be
+sure!"
+
+"Make yourself sure as soon as possible," suggested Ronald, to whom
+promptitude was a second nature.
+
+"I will go to her; I will tell her what I believe; I will implore her to
+grant me the happiness of knowing that her heart is mine. But O Ronald,
+if I have been deluded,--if you have given me false hopes"--
+
+"You will fight me," answered Ronald, laughing. "Of course that's all a
+friend gets for trying to be of service."
+
+"Go, Maurice," said Mrs. Walton, "and bring us the happy news that
+Ronald and his mother have not caused you fresh suffering."
+
+"You said you had not a _doubt_," cried Maurice, trembling at the bare
+suggestion.
+
+"And I have not. Go!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LII.
+
+A LOVER'S SNARE.
+
+
+Maurice was on his way to Madeleine's. Not for years, not since the day
+when he breathed his love in the old Chateau de Gramont, had his heart
+throbbed with such rapturous pulsations as now; not since that hour had
+the world looked so paradisiacal,--life so full of enchantment to his
+eyes. As he reached her door and ascended the steps, his emotions were
+overpowering. A few moments more, and the heavenly dream would become a
+glorious, life-brightening reality, or would melt away, a delusive
+mirage in the desert of his existence, leaving his pathway a blanker
+wilderness than ever.
+
+He was too much at home to require the ceremony of announcement, and
+sought Madeleine in her boudoir. She was not there. She was receiving
+visitors in the drawing-room. Maurice sat down to await her coming; but
+his impatience made him too restless for inaction, and he entered the
+_salon_.
+
+Madeleine's guests were Madame de Fleury and Mrs. Gilmer,--an accidental
+and not very welcome encounter of the fashionable belligerents; though
+since Mrs. Gilmer had received the much-desired invitation to Madame de
+Fleury's ball, she had affected to lay down her arms, and Madame de
+Fleury pretended to do the same.
+
+Madeleine was listening with patient courtesy to the meaningless
+nothings of the one lady, and the stereotyped insipidity of the other.
+Madame de Fleury was tortured by a desire to consult her hostess
+concerning a fancy ball-dress which at that moment filled her thoughts;
+but Madeleine's manner was so thoroughly that of an equal who
+entertained no doubts of her own position,--the vocation of
+"Mademoiselle Melanie" was so completely laid aside,--that Madame de
+Fleury, with all her tact and world-knowledge, could not plan any mode
+of introducing the fascinating subject of "_chiffons_."
+
+The marchioness greeted Maurice with enthusiastic cordiality. It struck
+her, on seeing him, that she might broach the desired topic through his
+aid; and she said, with the most charmingly innocent air, as though the
+thought had just occurred to her,--
+
+"Shall I see you, M. de Gramont, at the grand fancy ball which Madame
+Orlowski gives next week? I hear it will be the _fete_ of the season."
+
+"I have not the honor of Madame Orlowski's acquaintance," replied
+Maurice.
+
+"What a pity! But I can easily procure you an invitation, and you will
+have time enough to arrange about a costume. I have not determined upon
+mine yet. I want something very original. I am quite puzzled what to
+decide upon. I am perfectly haunted with visions of dresses that float
+through my brain. I have imagined myself attired as nymphs, and heathen
+deities, and ladies of ancient courts, and heroines of books; but I
+cannot make a choice."
+
+Madame de Fleury did not venture to look toward Madeleine, and the
+latter made no observation. Maurice rejoined,--
+
+"My father's state of health forbids my availing myself of your amiable
+offer."
+
+Madame de Fleury was slightly discomfited. It was difficult to keep up
+the subject which seemed to have dropped naturally; but for the sake of
+reviving it, and trying to draw some suggestion from the Queen of Taste,
+she even condescended to address her foe; and, turning to Mrs. Gilmer
+with a false smile, asked,--
+
+"_You_ are going, of course? Have you determined upon the character you
+mean to assume?"
+
+Mrs. Gilmer was flattered by finding her attire a matter of acknowledged
+importance to her rival, and replied, with a simper,--
+
+"Not altogether,--my costume is under discussion,--I shall decide
+_presently_."
+
+A significant glance intimated that she meant shortly to proceed
+upstairs, to the exhibition-rooms of "Mademoiselle Melanie."
+
+Madame de Fleury grew desperate, and was resolved not to be baffled in
+her attempt; she now launched into a dissertation upon different styles
+of fancy dresses. Madeleine turned to Maurice to make inquiries about
+his father. Poor Maurice! as he noted the unruffled composure of her
+bearing, the quietude of her tone, the frank ease with which she
+addressed him, his hopes began to die away, and tormenting spirits
+whispered that Ronald's mother had certainly come to an erroneous
+conclusion.
+
+Madame de Fleury, finding that her little artifices were thrown away
+upon Madeleine, took her leave; Mrs. Gilmer lingered for a few moments,
+then also made her exit, closely copying the graceful courtesy and
+floating, sweeping step of her rival.
+
+"Thank Heaven! they are gone!" exclaimed Maurice. "I have so much to say
+to you, Madeleine, every moment they staid appeared to me an hour."
+
+He could proceed no further, for the door opened, and Ruth Thornton
+entered with sketches of costumes in her hand, and said, hesitatingly,--
+
+"I am sure you will pardon me, Mademoiselle Madeleine; Madame de Fleury
+insisted; she fairly, or rather _unfairly_ forced me to seek you with
+these sketches; she seems resolved to secure your advice about her
+costume."
+
+Madeleine knew how to rebuke impertinence in spite of her natural
+gentleness, and the very mildness of her manner made the reproof more
+severe. She had thoroughly comprehended Madame de Fleury's tactics, and
+had determined to make her understand that when she visited Mademoiselle
+de Gramont, the visit was paid to an equal, not to the mantua-maker upon
+whose time the public had a claim.
+
+"Say to Madame de Fleury that I leave all affairs of this nature in your
+hands, and that I have perfect reliance on your good taste."
+
+Ruth withdrew.
+
+"Let us go to your boudoir, Madeleine," said Maurice.
+
+Madeleine, as she complied, remarked,--
+
+"You are troubled to-day, Maurice; two bright spots are burning upon
+your cheeks; you look excited; what has happened?"
+
+"Much or little, as it may prove," replied Maurice, taking a seat beside
+her. "In the first place, my grandmother has concluded to leave
+Washington in a week, and, after she reaches New York, take the first
+steamer to Havre."
+
+Maurice had given this intelligence so suddenly that Madeleine was off
+her guard, and the rapid varying of her color, the heaving breast, the
+look of anguish, the broken voice in which she exclaimed, "So soon? so
+very soon?" rekindled his expiring hopes.
+
+"This has been but a brief meeting, Madeleine, after the separation of
+those long, sorrowful years. The future is all uncertain, I cannot fix a
+time, after I have said adieu, when I may clasp this dear hand again."
+
+"But," faltered Madeleine, "your profession,--you will not abandon that?
+You will return to Charleston?"
+
+"It is my earnest desire to do so."
+
+"Then you _will_ return! You will return soon?"
+
+Maurice must have been the dullest of lovers if he could not distinguish
+the intonation of joy in Madeleine's voice.
+
+"If my own advancement is the only incentive to my return, circumstances
+may interfere; my father's health, for instance, the necessity of
+attending to his affairs, or other considerations."
+
+Madeleine did not reply.
+
+"Madeleine, I shall offend you, perhaps, for I am about to transgress.
+At all hazards, I must touch upon a subject which you have banished from
+our conversation."
+
+For a moment Madeleine looked disturbed, but this warning enabled her to
+collect herself; she soon said, with composure,--
+
+"Even if you do not spare _me_, Maurice, do not touch on any theme which
+must give pain to yourself."
+
+"I have not yet quite decided," returned he, "how much pain it may cost
+me. I will only ask you to answer me a few questions. As I am a lawyer,
+cross-examination, you know, is my vocation, and you must indulge me.
+Nearly five years ago you declared that you had bestowed your heart
+irrevocably. You were very young then,--you had had few opportunities of
+seeing gentlemen; yet you have remained constant to this mysterious
+lover? You have never repented that you loved him?"
+
+"Never!" answered Madeleine, with fervor.
+
+"And you believe that he loves you?"
+
+Madeleine bowed her head.
+
+"And you have loved him long? Perhaps you loved him early in your
+girlhood; perhaps you loved him from the time you first met?"
+
+Madeleine bowed her head again.
+
+"Even as _he did you_?"
+
+"I do not know," she answered, in a low voice.
+
+"That is strange; men are apt to boast of the length as well as of the
+strength of their passion," remarked Maurice. "Your lover must be an
+exception. But perhaps he is unaware that he is blest by your love?"
+
+Without suspicion Madeleine fell into that snare, well-laid by the young
+lawyer, for she answered, thinking that it would calm the jealous pangs
+to which Maurice might be subjected,--
+
+"You are right; he is _not_ aware that I love him."
+
+Had her eyes not been downcast, had she looked up for an instant into
+the face of Maurice, she would have known by its look of radiant ecstasy
+that she had betrayed herself.
+
+In a tone which emotion rendered unsteady, he went on,--
+
+"You would cast your lot with his, Madeleine? If he were poor, you would
+share his poverty? You would even abandon your dream of earning a
+fortune for yourself,--and I know how dear that dream is to your
+heart,--for his sake? You would do this were there no barrier to the
+avowal of your love,--no barrier to your union with him?"
+
+"I would."
+
+"And that barrier is the opposition of his proud relatives?" asserted
+Maurice.
+
+Madeleine started, looked in his face in alarm; for the first time, the
+suspicion that he had divined her secret, flashed upon her.
+
+But Maurice went on unpityingly,--
+
+"You refused him your hand because you thought it base ingratitude to
+those relatives who had sheltered you in your orphan and unprotected
+condition, and who had other, as they supposed, _higher_ views for him.
+You feared by letting him know that you loved him to injure his future
+prospects, and you nearly blighted that future by the despair you caused
+him when he lost you. And since you have been restored, at least to his
+sight, you have with a martyr's heroism adhered to your plan of
+self-sacrifice because you thought that to relinquish it would draw down
+upon him and yourself the wrath of his haughty grandmother,--I will not
+say of his father; because, too, you believed that you would be accused
+of ingratitude. And you have allowed him to suffer unimaginable torture
+rather than acknowledge that the lover to whom you have been so
+true,--the lover for whom you have sacrificed yourself,--the lover most
+unworthy of you (save through that love which renders the humblest
+worthy),--is the man you rejected in the Chateau de Gramont at the risk
+of breaking his heart."
+
+Madeleine dropped her face upon her hands with a low sob, but Maurice
+drew the hands away, and folding his arms about her said, fervently,--
+
+"Madeleine, my own, my best beloved, it is too late for concealment now!
+I know whom you love,--it is too late for denial. Look at me and tell me
+once,--tell me only _once_ that it is true you do love me; tell me this,
+and it will repay me for all I have suffered."
+
+But Madeleine did not yield to his prayer; she tried to extricate
+herself from his arms, but they clasped her too tightly; and when she
+could speak she said, through her tears,--
+
+"You ensnared me,--you entrapped me to this! I should never have told
+you! And what does it avail,--I can never be your wife."
+
+"It avails beyond all calculation to know that you love me, even if, as
+you say, you cannot be my wife. Madeleine, to know that you love no
+other,--that you love _me_,--that I have a claim upon you which I may
+not be able to urge until we meet in heaven,--is heaven on earth!"
+
+What could Madeleine reply?
+
+"But why, Madeleine, can you not become mine? My father would no longer
+object. Are you not sure of that? Do you not see how he clings to you?
+And my grandmother"--
+
+"It would kill her," broke in Madeleine, "to see you the husband of one
+whom she detests and looks down upon as a degraded outcast. The Duke de
+Gramont's daughter only feels her pride in this, that she could never
+enter a family to which she was not welcome."
+
+"Then her pride is stronger than her love! No, Madeleine, though your
+firmness has been tested and I dread it, I will not believe that you
+will continue so cruel as to refuse me your hand."
+
+"Did you not say that it was happiness enough to know that,--that,"--
+
+Madeleine had stumbled upon a sentence which it was not particularly
+easy to finish.
+
+"To know that you love me! that you love me! Let me repeat the words
+over and over again, until my unaccustomed ears believe the sound; for
+they are yet incredulous! But, Madeleine, you who are truth itself, how
+could you have said that you loved another, even from the best of
+motives?"
+
+"I did not. I said that my affections were already engaged: yet I meant
+you to believe, as you did, that I loved another; and the thought of the
+deception, for it _was deception_, has caused me ceaseless contrition.
+_I do not reconcile it to my conscience_; I spoke the words
+_impulsively_ as the only means of forcing you to give up all claim to
+my hand; _but I do not defend those words_."
+
+"And I do not forgive them! You can only win my pardon by promising me
+that you will openly contradict them, and atone for your error by
+becoming my wife."
+
+Madeleine's agitated features composed themselves to a look of
+determination which made Maurice tremble with apprehension; and he had
+cause, for she said,--
+
+"I cannot, Maurice,--I cannot,--must not,--will not be your wife without
+the consent of your father and your grandmother!"
+
+"But if it be impossible to obtain my grandmother's?"
+
+"Then you must prove to me that you spoke truth by being content with
+that knowledge which you declared _would_ satisfy you."
+
+Maurice remonstrated, argued, prayed, but he did not shake Madeleine's
+resolve. Believing she was right, she was as inflexible as the Countess
+de Gramont herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIII.
+
+RESISTANCE.
+
+
+Maurice could not tear himself away; he was still lingering by
+Madeleine's side when Bertha and Gaston entered to pay their daily
+visit. The perfect joy that rendered luminous the countenance of
+Maurice, and the happy confusion depicted upon Madeleine's face,
+demanded but few words of explanation. Bertha caught Madeleine in her
+arms, laughing and crying, kissing her and reproaching her, over and
+over again. Then she turned to Maurice, as if impelled to greet him
+hardly less lovingly; but Gaston, jealous of his own particular rights,
+interposed. She darted away from his restraining arms and danced about
+the room, shouting like a gleeful child; then she kissed Madeleine
+again; then, suddenly calming down, said to Gaston, reproachfully,--
+
+"And you,--_you_ knew this all the time, and did not tell me? What
+penalty can I make you pay that will be severe enough? I will plot
+mischief with Madeleine. If we can punish you in no other manner, we
+will postpone to a tantalizing distance the day you wish near at hand.
+Confess that I was wise to wait! I knew Madeleine's lover would claim
+her in good season, but I never suspected he was my own dear cousin
+Maurice, whom she so resolutely rejected."
+
+"Nor did I!" cried Maurice, joyously; "and if _I_ can forgive Gaston,
+you must."
+
+"All in good time; after he is fitly punished, not before! What do you
+say, Madeleine? Shall we promise these two hapless swains their brides a
+couple of years hence?"
+
+"Bertha, Bertha! you have not understood," answered Madeleine, gravely,
+yet with a happy smile on her sweet lips. "Maurice has no promise of a
+bride; he looks forward to no bride, though I trust, you will, before
+very long, give one to M. de Bois."
+
+"Dear me!" exclaimed Bertha, completely sobered by this unexpected
+announcement. "I thought you had confessed to Maurice that _he_ was the
+mysterious but fortunate individual whom you loved, and whom I have been
+puzzling my brains to discover."
+
+Madeleine did not choose to respond to the statement made with such
+straightforward ingenuousness by Bertha, and only replied,--
+
+"Madame de Gramont would never give her consent to the marriage of
+Maurice with the humble mantua-maker. I have too much of the de Gramont
+pride, or too much pride of my own, or too much of some stronger feeling
+which I can only translate into a sense of right and fitness, to become
+the wife of Maurice in the face of such opposition."
+
+Bertha looked sorely disappointed and vexed, but vented her spleen upon
+the one whom she loved best, according to the invariable practice of
+women. She said to Gaston,--
+
+"There! you are no better off than you were before! That's just what you
+deserve for keeping this secret from me!"
+
+"But, Bertha, you will not be so unreasonable," urged Madeleine.
+
+"Why not, when you set me the example? Why should I not be unreasonable
+and obstinate when you teach me how to be so? You know, Madeleine, you
+have been my model all my life long, and it is too late to choose
+another."
+
+Madeleine was silenced, but Bertha ran on petulantly, this time turning
+to Maurice.
+
+"How _can_ you look so happy when Madeleine says she does not mean to
+marry you? I never saw anything like you men! One would think you had no
+feeling."
+
+Maurice replied: "It is so much happiness to know who possesses
+Madeleine's heart, that even if she remain unshaken in her resolution, I
+could not be miserable."
+
+"And you will not mind leaving her and going to Brittany? Your plans are
+not to be altered?"
+
+"Not unless she will alter them by consenting to accompany me. You know
+that my grandmother insists upon returning, and she is inexorable when
+she has once made up her mind."
+
+"Like somebody else!" said Bertha, who was decidedly irritated.
+
+Maurice resumed: "And it is my duty not only to protect her, but to
+watch over my poor father."
+
+"And you will really, _really_ go?" questioned Bertha, doubtingly.
+
+"I have no alternative."
+
+"Then I am more thankful than ever," she replied, tartly, "that when my
+aunt wished to make a match between us, I never thought of accepting
+you! I never could have endured such a patient, contented, stoical
+suitor, who would be perfectly happy in spite of his separation from
+me."
+
+Maurice laughed at this sally, but Gaston remarked, seriously,--
+
+"Yet you demand great sacrifices from one who is not as patient and
+well-disciplined. You make your wedding-day dependent upon Mademoiselle
+Madeleine's, when Mademoiselle Madeleine declares that she does not
+intend to name one."
+
+"We are an obstinate family, you see!" retorted Bertha, her good-humor
+returning.
+
+"Will not your father miss you?" suggested the ever thoughtful Madeleine
+to Maurice. "You have been absent very long; that talkative nurse may
+not be able to restrain herself, and your presence may be needful to
+preserve harmony."
+
+Maurice admitted that he ought to return; but, after bidding Madeleine
+adieu, he could not persuade himself to go back to the hotel until he
+had seen those to whom he owed his present happiness.
+
+"Ronald!" he exclaimed, as he entered Mrs. Walton's drawing-room; "long
+ago I became largely your debtor, but now you have placed me under an
+obligation which cannot be estimated. Oh, if I only had your energy and
+promptitude of action, I might some day"--
+
+Ronald interrupted him: "Then my mother was right, and I did not give
+you bad advice in spite of my Quixotism?"
+
+Maurice related what had happened to sympathetic listeners.
+
+Evening was approaching; his absence from his father had been far more
+protracted than usual, and before he had said half that he desired to
+say, or listened to half that he wished to hear, he was compelled to
+leave.
+
+When the hand of Maurice was on the door of his grandmother's _salon_,
+he could distinguish the sound of angry voices within,--his
+grandmother's sonorous tones and the sharper voice of Mrs. Gratacap. As
+he entered, the latter was saying,--
+
+"It's a sin and a shame, I tell you! And I'll not have the poor dear
+made miserable in that way, while he is under my charge. I'm not going
+to submit to it; and you know you can't frighten me with all your high
+ways."
+
+Mrs. Gratacap was standing beside the count, as though to protect him;
+Madame de Gramont was seated directly before him, and looking highly
+incensed. Count Tristan himself appeared to be in great tribulation, and
+grasped the hand of his nurse with a dependent air. As soon as he caught
+sight of Maurice, he cried out,--
+
+"I'm not going! I'm not going, I say! Maurice, come, come and tell her!"
+
+"What has happened?" inquired Maurice, with deep concern.
+
+The countess attempted to speak, but Mrs. Gratacap was too quick for
+her.
+
+"Here's the madame has been talking to the poor dear until she has
+driven him half wild. I never saw anything like it in my born days; she
+wont give him one moment's peace! He was doing well enough until she
+began _jawing_ him."
+
+It is to be hoped that the countess did not understand the meaning of
+this last, not very classical expression.
+
+"Will you be silent, woman?" said she, wrathfully.
+
+Mrs. Gratacap was about to answer; but Maurice silenced her by a
+reproving look, and then asked again,--
+
+"What has happened? Why does my father seem so much distressed?"
+
+"I have been preparing his mind"--began the countess.
+
+Mrs. Gratacap broke in, "Upsetting his mind, you mean."
+
+Before Madame de Gramont could answer, Maurice said to the nurse, in a
+persuasive tone, "Pray leave us, for a little while, Mrs. Gratacap."
+
+"I wouldn't contrary you for the world!" returned the nurse. "Only when
+_she's_ done, just you come to _me_ and I'll give you the rights of the
+case."
+
+Mrs. Gratacap departed, and the countess continued,--
+
+"I have been explaining to your father that we are shortly to leave this
+execrable country and return to Brittany, and that he has great cause
+for congratulation; but he did not seem to comprehend me clearly, and
+that woman, who is always intruding her opinions, chose to imagine that
+he was groaning and crying out on account of what I said. The liberties
+she takes become more intolerable every day; she is enough to drive your
+father distracted."
+
+"What does she mean?" asked Count Tristan, piteously. "Where do they
+want to take me? I'm not going."
+
+"My son," replied the countess, "I have informed you; but that insolent
+woman prevented your understanding; we are to return very soon to
+Brittany, to the Chateau de Gramont; I expect you to rejoice at this
+pleasing intelligence."
+
+"No--no, I cannot go! I cannot leave"--
+
+He stopped as though his mother's flashing eyes checked the words ready
+to burst from his lips.
+
+"You will not have to leave _Maurice_," she said, coldly; "he is to
+accompany us."
+
+"But Madeleine! Madeleine!" he sobbed forth as if unable to restrain
+himself.
+
+The countess was on the point of replying angrily, when Maurice
+interposed.
+
+"I beg you, madame, not to excite my father by further discussion. Come,
+my dear father, you are tired; it is getting late; I know it will do you
+good to lie down."
+
+And he conducted the unresisting invalid to his own chamber, leaving the
+countess swelling with rage, yet glorying in the certainty that she
+would carry out her plans, in spite of every opposition.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIV.
+
+AN UNEXPECTED VISIT.
+
+
+Another week passed on. The day preceding that on which the countess and
+her party were to set out on their journey had arrived. All the
+necessary preparations were progressing duly.
+
+Maurice, from the hour that he had learned Madeleine's secret,
+had lived in such a dream of absolute happiness that he felt as
+though he could ask for nothing more,--as though the cup presented
+to his lips was too full of joy for the one, ungrateful drop of an
+unfulfilled desire to find room. He comprehended Madeleine's character
+too thoroughly,--respected all her instincts and principles of action
+too entirely, again to urge his suit, or seek to obtain her promise that
+she would one day be his; she _was his_ in spirit,--he could openly
+recognize her as his,--that sufficed! and he believed it would still
+suffice (if her sense of duty remained unaltered) through his whole
+earthly existence; for all his days would be brightened by her love, and
+the privilege of loving her.
+
+Bertha, after her first, petulant outbreak, had also ceased to press
+Madeleine on the subject of her possible marriage, and with meek
+demureness reconciled herself to the uncertainty of the future, and the
+certainty of tormenting her lover in the present.
+
+M. de Bois's devotion to Madeleine sealed his lips. Madeleine had formed
+a resolution which she declared unalterable. Bertha had announced a
+determination dependent upon Madeleine's, and the suitors of the two
+cousins had only to submit and hope.
+
+The labor of packing Madame de Gramont's wardrobe, as well as that of
+Bertha, devolved upon Adolphine; she had not quite filled the trunks of
+her young mistress when she was summoned by the countess. This was on
+the morning of the day preceding the one appointed for their departure.
+Adolphine was heedless and forgetful to a tantalizing degree. The
+countess deemed herself compelled to superintend her movements; that is
+to sit in an arm-chair and look on; the lofty lady would not have
+deigned to assist by touching an article, though she now and then issued
+an order or indulged in a rebuke, and by her presence greatly retarded
+Adolphine's operations.
+
+Count Tristan had driven out every day. His mother and Maurice always
+accompanied him. This morning, when Maurice went to announce to his
+grandmother that the carriage was at the door, he found her watching
+Adolphine, who was on her knees before an open trunk.
+
+"It will be impossible for me to accompany you to-day," said the
+countess. "I will speak to your father; it will be his last drive, and
+he must excuse me."
+
+She rose and passed into the drawing-room where Count Tristan was
+waiting.
+
+"My son," said his mother, raising her voice as she now always did when
+she spoke to him, seeming to imagine that by this means she could make
+him comprehend better. He was not, however, in the least afflicted with
+deafness, and the loud tone was more likely to startle him than to calm
+the perturbation which was usually apparent when she addressed him. "My
+son, you are to take your airing this morning without me. You understand
+that this will be your _last_ drive in this detestable city. You
+perfectly comprehend, I hope, that you leave here to-morrow; and before
+long we shall be safely within the time-honored walls of the old chateau
+which we ought never to have left."
+
+The proposed change had been so constantly impressed upon the count's
+mind by his mother that he seemed, at times, to be thoroughly aware of
+it; yet at others the recollection faded from his memory. At first, when
+the voyage was mentioned, he would remonstrate in a piteous, feeble,
+fretful way, declaring that he would not go; but of late he had appeared
+to yield to the potency of Madame de Gramont's will.
+
+Maurice offered his arm to the count and they left the room. As the door
+closed after them, Count Tristan turned, as though to assure himself
+that it was shut, then looked at Maurice significantly and nodded his
+head, while a smile brightened his countenance. It was so long since
+Maurice had seen him smile that even that strange, half-wild,
+inexplicable kindling up of the wan face was pleasant to behold. As they
+descended the stair, the count looked back several times, and gave
+furtive glances around him, smiling more and more; then he rubbed his
+hands and chuckled as though at some idea which he could not yet
+communicate. At the carriage-door he paused again, and again looked all
+around, continuing to rub his hands, then fairly laughed out. Maurice
+began to be alarmed at this unaccountable mirth. They entered the
+carriage and the coachman drove in the usual direction; but the count
+exclaimed impatiently,--
+
+"No--no--that's not the way! stop him! stop him!"
+
+Maurice, at a loss to comprehend his father's wishes, did not
+immediately comply with his request, and the count, with unusual energy,
+himself caught at the check-cord and pulled it vehemently.
+
+"This is not the way,--not the way to _Madeleine's_!"
+
+Then Maurice comprehended his father's exultation; he had conceived the
+project of visiting Madeleine! But what was to be done? The countess
+would be enraged if she discovered Count Tristan had seen Madeleine; and
+the agitation caused by the interview might prove harmful to him. Yet
+would it not do him more injury to thwart his wishes? And would it not
+be depriving Madeleine of an inestimable joy?
+
+The count grew impatient; he shouted out, in a clearer tone than he had
+been able to use since his first seizure, "To Madeleine's! To
+Madeleine's, I say! I _will_ see Madeleine!"
+
+Maurice hesitated no longer and gave the order. His father's agitation
+was, every moment, on the increase, though it was now of the most
+pleasurable nature; he gave vent to little bursts of triumphant
+laughter, muttering to himself, "I shall see her! I knew I should see
+her again!"
+
+"My dear father, you will endeavor to be calm,--will you not? I am
+fearful this excitement will injure you, and my grandmother will never
+forgive me if you become worse through my imprudence. She must not know
+that we have been to Madeleine's. It would render her uselessly
+indignant; but Madeleine will be so overjoyed to see you once more that
+I could not refuse to comply with your wishes."
+
+The count murmured to himself, rather than replied to his son,--
+
+"Good angel! My good angel! We are going to her! We are very
+near--there! that's the house yonder. I'd know it among a thousand!
+Maurice, I'm well! I'm strong! I want nothing now but to see Madeleine!
+It's all right--is it not? She settled about that mortgage--she obtained
+us those votes--there's no more trouble! Nobody knows what a scoundrel I
+have been! I remember all clearly. I am very joyful; I must tell
+Madeleine; I must say to her that she--she--she brought something of
+heaven down to me; there must _be_ a heaven, for where else could
+Madeleine belong?"
+
+Maurice had not heard his father speak as much or as connectedly for a
+month. His face was pleasantly animated, in spite of its unnatural
+expression, and he moved his arms about so freely it was evident the
+weight which had pressed with paralyzing force upon them was removed.
+
+The carriage stopped. Maurice could scarcely prevent his father from
+springing out before him and without assistance.
+
+The silent Robert looked his surprise and gratification as he opened the
+street door. While Maurice was inquiring where his mistress would be
+found, Count Tristan pressed on alone, walking with a firm, rapid step.
+He entered the first room. It was Madeleine's bed-chamber; the one he
+himself had occupied during his illness. It was vacant. He passed on,
+crying out,--
+
+"Madeleine! Madeleine!" He looked into the drawing-room, then into the
+dining-room, still calling, "Madeleine! Madeleine!"
+
+He hurried on toward the well-remembered little boudoir. There Madeleine
+was sitting at her desk, quietly sketching. When, to her amazement, she
+heard the count's voice, she thought it was fancy; but the sound was
+repeated again and again. Those were surely his tones! She started up
+and opened the door. Count Tristan was standing only a few paces from
+it,--Maurice behind him.
+
+"Madeleine! Madeleine! I see you. I am happy. I can die now."
+
+As these words burst from his lips, the count staggered forward and sank
+on Madeleine's shoulder; for she had involuntarily stretched out her
+arms toward him. The next instant he slipped through them and dropped
+heavily upon the floor. One glance at his distorted face, and at the
+foam issuing from his lips, one sound of that stertorous breathing was
+enough. Maurice and Madeleine knew that he had been struck with apoplexy
+for the third time!
+
+Maurice and Robert carried him to the bed he had before occupied; and
+Madeleine sent for Dr. Bayard in all haste.
+
+The count lay quite still, save for that heavy breathing and the
+convulsive motion of his features. Madeleine and Maurice stood beside
+him in silence, with hands interlocked.
+
+Dr. Bayard arrived, looked at the patient, shook his head, and, turning
+to Maurice, said, in a low tone,--
+
+"There is nothing to be done."
+
+"But see," answered Maurice, clinging to a faint hope, "he is getting
+over it,--he seems better."
+
+"It is the third stroke," replied the doctor, significantly, as he was
+leaving the room.
+
+Madeleine heard these words, though they were spoken in an undertone,
+and she followed Maurice and the physician from the apartment.
+
+"Do you mean," she inquired of the physician, in accents of deep sorrow,
+"it is _impossible_ for Count Tristan to recover from this shock?"
+
+"My dear young lady, I am unwilling to say that anything is
+_impossible_. The longer a physician practises, the more he realizes
+that we cannot judge of _possibilities_; but, in my experience, I have
+never known a case of apoplexy that survived the third stroke."
+
+"He will die, then? Oh, will he die?"
+
+"His life, for the last two months, has been a living death," replied
+the physician, kindly. "Could you wish to prolong such an existence?"
+
+The doctor took his leave, promising to return, but frankly avowing that
+his presence was needless. As soon as he had gone, Madeleine said to
+Maurice, who appeared to be so much stunned by this new blow that he was
+incapable of reflection,--
+
+"Your poor grandmother,--O Maurice, what a terrible task lies before
+you! You will have to break this news to her. She must want to see him
+once more, and he may not linger long. You have not a moment to lose."
+
+"I feel as though I could not go to her," answered Maurice. "What good
+can she do here? She will only insult you again; and, if my father
+should revive, her words may render his last moments wretched. Let him
+die in peace."
+
+Madeleine replied,--
+
+"She may be softened by the presence of the angel of death. She may long
+to hear one parting word of tenderness from his lips, and utter one in
+return. Go, I beseech you! Go and bring her!"
+
+And Maurice went.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LV.
+
+AMEN.
+
+
+Maurice, when he opened the door of his grandmother's drawing-room,
+found the apartment vacant. The countess was still in her own chamber
+issuing orders to the bewildered Adolphine, whose packing process
+advanced but indifferently. Bertha had retired to her room. Maurice
+passed into his father's apartment, where Mrs. Gratacap sat knitting,
+and, in a few words, told her what had occurred.
+
+"Poor dear!" cried the compassionate nurse. "I feared it would
+be so. I saw it coming this last week; and a third stroke is a
+death-knell--that's certain! But it will be a blessed escape for the
+poor dear; so don't take on, Mr. Morris" (this was her nearest approach
+to saying "_Maurice_"). "You'll need all your spirit to get along with
+the old lady; though, if she were the north pole itself, I should think
+this blow would break up her ice."
+
+"Will you have the goodness to desire my cousin to come here? I had
+better tell her first," said Maurice.
+
+Mrs. Gratacap withdrew and quickly returned accompanied by Bertha who
+was trembling with alarm; for the messenger had lost no time in making
+the sad communication.
+
+"I cannot tell my grandmother, Bertha, in the presence of Adolphine.
+Will you not beg your aunt to come to me in the drawing-room?" said
+Maurice.
+
+Bertha had scarcely courage to obey, she had such a dread of witnessing
+the countess's agitation; for she felt certain it would take the form of
+anger against Madeleine and Maurice. With hesitating steps the young
+girl entered the apartment where the countess sat. She had been much
+irritated by Adolphine's stupidity, and cried out,--
+
+"Positively, Bertha, this maid of yours has been totally spoiled by her
+residence in this barbarous country. She is worth nothing; she has no
+head; and she even presumes to offer her advice and suggest what would
+be the best mode of packing this or that! It is fortunate for us that
+this is our last day in this odious city, and that we shall soon be on
+our way back to Brittany. But Adolphine is completely ruined; there is
+no tolerating her."
+
+"I am very sorry," said Bertha, putting her handkerchief to her eyes.
+
+"You need not cry about it," retorted the countess, angrily. "How often
+have I tried to impress upon you that this habit of evincing emotion is,
+in the highest degree, plebeian! Tears are very well for a milk-maid,
+but exceedingly unbecoming a lady. They are an unmistakable sign of
+vulgar breeding. I cannot endure to see a niece of mine with so little
+self-control."
+
+Bertha removed her handkerchief and tried to force back her tears, as
+she said,--
+
+"Maurice begs to speak to you for a moment."
+
+"Very good. Can he not come to me?"
+
+"He entreats that you will go into the drawing-room."
+
+"Do you mean to intimate," asked the countess, sternly, "that my
+grandson ventures to _summon me to his presence_, instead of coming to
+mine? What indignity am I to expect next? Since he has forgotten his
+duty and the deference due to me, go and remind him."
+
+"He has something very serious to tell you," faltered Bertha; "he wants
+you to hear it there,--it is so sad."
+
+Bertha, in spite of her aunt's contemptuous glances, could not help
+burying her face in her handkerchief again.
+
+"What absurdity!" sneered the countess; but she began to experience a
+vague sensation of uneasiness.
+
+"Come! come! do come!" pleaded Bertha.
+
+"Since it seems the only way to put an end to this hysterical exhibition
+of yours, Bertha, I will go and reprove Maurice for his lack of
+respect."
+
+But the countess did not literally carry her threat into execution; for,
+noticing the absence of Count Tristan, she said hurriedly,--
+
+"Where is your father?"
+
+"Pray sit down one moment, my dear grandmother"--
+
+She interrupted him by asking again, more anxiously,--
+
+"Where is your father?"
+
+"I will explain, but"--
+
+"Why do you not answer my question?" she cried with increased violence.
+"Where is your father?"
+
+Could Maurice answer "At Madeleine's?" He still hesitated, and the
+countess, with more rapid steps than she was wont to use, hastened to
+Count Tristan's bedroom.
+
+Mrs. Gratacap greeted her with "Oh, poor dear, don't take on about it!
+We couldn't but expect that it would come soon, and"--
+
+The countess did not wait to hear the close of her sentence, but with a
+cold horror creeping through her veins, hurried back to Maurice, and
+once more asked, imperiously,--
+
+"Maurice, where is your father? I command you to answer at once! I will
+hear nothing but the answer to that question."
+
+Driven to extremity, Maurice replied, "My father is at Madeleine's!"
+
+"Miserable boy! How did you dare to set my wishes at defiance? You
+shall repent this,--be sure you shall! How had you the audacity to fly
+in the face of my command?"
+
+"I heard no commands on the subject," returned Maurice; "and if I had
+done so, my father's wishes would still have held the first place. As
+soon as we left the house he insisted upon going to Madeleine's; he
+would take no refusal; his affection for her is so strong that"--
+
+"How dare you talk to me of his affection for that artful, designing
+girl, who is a disgrace to us all,--whose low machinations have placed
+her beneath my contempt? Henceforth, thank Heaven! we shall be out of
+the reach of her vile manoeuvres."
+
+This was beyond endurance. Maurice forgot everything but the insulting
+epithets applied to Madeleine, and said, with a dignity as imposing as
+Madame de Gramont's own had ever been,--
+
+"My grandmother, never shall such language be applied to Madeleine again
+in my presence, by you or any one! Madeleine is not merely my cousin,
+she is the woman I love best and honor most in the world;--the woman
+who, if I ever marry, will become my wife."
+
+"Never! never!" cried the countess, fiercely. "That shall never be, come
+what may!"
+
+Maurice, recovering himself somewhat, went on,--
+
+"It is upon a far sadder subject that I wish to speak to you,--I meant
+to break the news gently,--I hoped to spare you a severe shock, but you
+force me to come to the point at once. My dear father has had another
+seizure of the same nature as the two former."
+
+"Parricide!" shrieked the countess, "you have done this! You have killed
+your father! The agitation occasioned by your taking him to that house
+and letting him see that unhappy girl has caused this attack; if he
+should die you will be his murderer!"
+
+What reply could Maurice make which would not enrage her more? The
+countess went on, furiously,--
+
+"Go,--bring him back to me quickly! He shall not remain there! By all
+that is holy, he shall not."
+
+"I come to ask you to go to him since he cannot come to you," said
+Maurice, with as much mildness as he could throw into his tone.
+
+"Yes, I will go, I will go!" replied his grandmother. "I cannot trust
+you; I will go myself, and see him brought here."
+
+She retired to her own chamber to make ready, and Bertha quickly
+followed her example.
+
+Meantime Madeleine with Mrs. Lawkins, watched beside the count. His
+attack was briefer than the former ones. When it was over, he fell into
+a deep and placid slumber. During that sleep his face changed! Those who
+have watched the dying and recognized the indescribable expression which
+marks the countenance when it is "death-struck" will understand what
+alteration is meant. He waked slowly and gently,--first stirring his
+hands as though clutching at something impalpable, then gradually
+opening his eyes. They looked large and glassy, but as they fixed
+themselves upon Madeleine's face, bespoke full consciousness.
+
+"Madeleine!" he murmured feebly; but his voice was distinct, and
+pathetically tender. "I am with you again, Madeleine,--that is great
+happiness,--great comfort, I am going soon, Madeleine;--do you not know
+it?"
+
+"Oh! I fear so!" answered Madeleine, weeping; "but you do not suffer?
+You are calm?"
+
+"Very calm,--very happy with my good angel near me. Madeleine, you have
+much to pardon; but you will pardon,--all,--all!
+
+"I do, I do. If there be anything to pardon, I do, from my soul, a
+thousand times over."
+
+"You have made me believe in God and his saints, Madeleine, and I bless
+you."
+
+Madeleine was holding both of his cold hands in hers, and had bowed her
+head, that his icy lips might touch her forehead; but she rose up
+suddenly, for she heard the wheels of a carriage stop, and the street
+door open; she deemed it well to prepare the count.
+
+"I think your mother and Maurice have arrived."
+
+A cloud passed over the face of the dying man, but did not rest there.
+He was beyond fear! His haughty mother could no longer inspire awe!
+
+A moment after, Maurice opened the door and the countess entered the
+room. Approaching the bed, as though unconscious of Madeleine's
+presence, she exclaimed,--
+
+"My son, my son, what brought you here? How could you have paid so
+little respect to my wishes? I will not reproach you" (this was much for
+her to say), "only make the effort to let yourself be removed at once."
+
+"I am going fast enough, mother; I am dying!"
+
+"No,--no!" cried the countess, vehemently. "You could not die _here!_
+You are not dying! You cannot, _shall not die!_"
+
+She spoke as though she believed that her potent volition could frighten
+away the death-angels hovering near, and prolong his life.
+
+Madeleine had attempted to withdraw her hand from his, for his mother
+had seized the other clay-cold hand; but he said, with a faint smile,
+"Don't go, Madeleine; do not leave me until I cannot see you and feel
+you more." Then making a great effort to rally his expiring energies, he
+continued, "Mother, love Madeleine! We need angels about us to lift us
+up when we fall. Keep her near you if you would be comforted when the
+hour that has come to me comes to you!"
+
+The countess did not reply, but the hand she held had grown so clammy,
+she could no longer refuse to believe that her son might be dying. Still
+she was not softened; she could not turn to Madeleine and embrace her,
+as the dying man so obviously desired.
+
+"Maurice," said his father.
+
+Maurice approached, and the countess instinctively drew a step back, to
+give him room. She had dropped the marble hand, and Maurice took it in
+his.
+
+"Maurice, you, too, have much to pardon. Madeleine has forgiven,--will
+not you?"
+
+"Oh, my father, do not speak of that! All is well between us; but, if we
+must indeed lose you,--tell me,--tell Madeleine that you give her to me.
+She loves me, she has never loved any other; and I never _have_
+loved,--never _can_ love any woman but her. Bid her be my wife, for she
+has refused to let me claim her without your consent and my
+grandmother's."
+
+Count Tristan tried to speak, but the words died upon the lips that
+essayed to form themselves into a smile of assent. He lifted Madeleine's
+hand and placed it in that of Maurice.
+
+A convulsed groan, or sob, broke from the countess, but it was unheard
+by her son; his spirit had taken its flight.
+
+It had gone, stained with many evil passions,--perhaps crimes,--but what
+its sentence was before the High Tribunal, who shall dare to say? That
+erring spirit had recognized good, and therefore could not be wholly
+unsanctified by good; it had repented, and therefore sin was no longer
+loved; all the rest was dark; but He who, speaking in metaphors, forbade
+the "bruised reed" to be broken, or "smoking flax" to be quenched,
+might have seen light, invisible to mortal eyes, even about a soul as
+shadowed as that of Count Tristan de Gramont.
+
+The countess had been the only one who doubted that he would die, yet
+she was the first to perceive that he was gone. She uttered a piercing,
+discordant cry, and with her arms frantically extended, flung herself
+upon the corpse. Her long self-restraint, her curbing back of emotion,
+made the sudden shock more terrible; she fell into violent convulsions.
+
+Maurice bore her into the adjoining apartment, followed by Madeleine,
+Bertha, and Mrs. Lawkins. When the convulsions ceased she was delirious
+with fever.
+
+Madeleine ordered the room Maurice had occupied to be speedily prepared
+for her reception. Her delirium lasted for many days. Had she recovered
+her senses, she would assuredly have commanded that the corpse of her
+son should be removed to the hotel, that his funeral might take place
+from thence; but Maurice thought it no humiliation that the funeral of
+the proud Count Tristan de Gramont should move from the doors of that
+mantua-maker niece who had saved his name from dishonor by the products
+of her labor.
+
+Count Tristan had few friends, or even acquaintances in Washington.
+Maurice and Gaston were chief mourners. The Marquis de Fleury and his
+suite, Mr. Hilson, Mr. Meredith, Mr. Walton, and Ronald, accompanied the
+corpse to its last resting-place.
+
+Bertha had taken up her residence at Madeleine's. Maurice remained at
+the hotel,--that is, he slept there, but the larger portion of his hours
+was passed beneath Madeleine's roof.
+
+That Madeleine was his betrothed was tacitly understood, though no word
+had been spoken on the subject, and her manner toward him was little
+changed. She loved him with all the intensity and strength of her large
+nature, but her love could not, like Bertha's, find expression in words,
+in loving looks, and caressing ways. Maurice was content, even though he
+could never know how inexpressibly dear he was to her. His was one of
+those generous natures which experience more delight in _loving_ than in
+_being loved_. He never believed that Madeleine's love _could_ equal
+his, and he argued that it _could not because_ there was so much more to
+love _in her_ than there was _in him_, and a true, pure, holy love,
+loves the attributes that are lovable rather than the mere person to
+whom they appertain. Maurice asked but little! A gentle pressure of the
+hand,--a soft smile,--a passing look of tenderness, though it was
+certain to be quickly veiled by the dropped lids,--a casual word of
+endearment timidly, reluctantly spoken, or, oftener, spoken
+unpremeditatedly and followed by a blush; these were food sufficient for
+his great passion,--the one passion of his life, to exist upon. Indeed
+we are inclined to think that with men of his temperament love is kept
+in a more vigorous, more actively healthy state by its (apparently)
+receiving only measured response. A woman who is gifted with the power
+of throwing her soul into looks, and language and loving ways, runs the
+risk of producing upon certain men an effect approaching satiety. The
+woman who has instinctive wisdom will never dash herself against this
+rock; yet few women are _wise_; fewer give _too little_ of their rich,
+heart-treasures than _too much_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVI.
+
+THE HAND OF GOD.
+
+
+When the fever gradually abated, and consciousness returned to the
+countess, she lay in a state of half-dreamy exhaustion which precluded
+the power of thought or the stir of her high passions. It was manifest
+that she recognized those who moved about her bed, for she now and then
+addressed Bertha, Maurice, and even Madeleine by name. Madeleine's heart
+throbbed with joy when she dared to believe that there was no unkindness
+in Madame de Gramont's tone. Maurice and Bertha had made the same
+observation and augured future harmony and happiness from the
+unanticipated change. But their delusion was quickly dispelled, for it
+soon became apparent that the countess believed herself to be in the
+Chateau de Gramont, and that her mind had gone back to a period previous
+to the one when Madeleine had awakened her displeasure. Either the
+objects by which she was surrounded had grown familiar to her eyes, or
+as she beheld them indistinctly in the dim light, imagination lent them
+olden shapes, for she assuredly fancied herself in her own chamber, in
+that venerable chateau to which she had so earnestly longed to return.
+It was somewhat remarkable that she never mentioned Count Tristan,
+though she several times spoke of her antiquated _femme de chambre_,
+Bettina, and of Baptiste, and desired Madeleine to give them certain
+orders, just as she would have done in by-gone days.
+
+It was not deemed prudent to make any attempt to banish the
+hallucination under which she was laboring, and which unavoidable
+circumstances must gradually disperse.
+
+Maurice received a second letter from Mr. Lorrillard, again urging him
+to return to Charleston, and apprising him that his services would be
+particularly valuable at that moment, as he (Mr. Lorrillard) was
+occupied in preparing to conduct a case of much importance, which needed
+great care in collecting authorities, and these researches it was the
+province of Maurice to make.
+
+Maurice placed the letter in Madeleine's hands, less because he needed
+her counsel than because it was so delightful to feel that he had the
+right to consult her.
+
+"What do you advise, Madeleine?" he asked, after she had perused it.
+
+"I would have you send the answer you have already concluded to send."
+
+"How do you know that answer?"
+
+"I have read more difficult books than your face, Maurice; besides,
+there seems to me only one answer which would be advisable. Your
+grandmother is safe under Bertha's care and mine; she does not
+absolutely need your presence."
+
+"And nobody else needs it, I am to infer?" retorted Maurice, a little
+ungenerously.
+
+He deserved that Madeleine should give him no answer, or, at least, one
+that implied a rebuke; but such women are usually tardy in giving men
+their ill deserts, and she answered softly, "It will be less hard to
+part than it has been."
+
+"You have uttered my very thought," returned Maurice. "It is less hard
+to part now that we know how closely we are linked,--now that separation
+cannot any longer disunite, and love's assurance has taken the place of
+doubt and anguish. Were we _less_ to each other in spirit, we should
+feel the material space that can divide us _more_,--is it not so?"
+
+If Maurice expected any answer, he was forced to be contented with the
+one which, according to the proverb, gives consent through silence.
+
+It was needful to prepare the countess for his departure. Maurice went
+to her chamber, and, after a few inquiries concerning her health, to
+which she hardly replied, said,--
+
+"I am truly grieved that I am forced to leave you, my dear grandmother.
+I am summoned away by urgent business."
+
+At that last word her brows were slightly knitted, and she murmured
+contemptuously, "_Business_" as though the expression awakened some old
+train of painful recollection.
+
+"If it were not needful for me to go," continued Maurice, "I would not
+leave you; but you have the tender and skilful care of Madeleine and
+Bertha, and I shall be able to return to you at any moment that you may
+require me."
+
+"Where are you going?" asked the countess, but hardly in a tone of
+interest.
+
+"To Charleston."
+
+"Charleston!" she repeated with a startled, troubled look, "Paris,--you
+mean Paris?"
+
+"No,--not so far as Paris,--you remember the journey is but short
+between Washington and Charleston."
+
+Maurice had not deliberately intended to force upon the countess the
+consciousness of her present position; but it was too late to retract.
+
+She raised herself in the bed, leaning with difficulty upon her wasted
+arm, and asked, in a frightened tone,--
+
+"Where,--where am I then?"
+
+"In Washington, my dear grandmother. Have you forgotten how my poor
+father was"--
+
+"Hush! hush!" she gasped out, "I cannot endure it. Let me think! let me
+think!"
+
+She sank back upon the pillow with closed eyes, and the workings of her
+features testified that recollection was dawning upon her.
+
+After a time she cried out,--for it was a veritable cry,--"And _this
+house_,--_this bed_ where I am lying,--O God! it is too much!"
+
+Maurice was at a loss to know what to do. He waited to see if she would
+not question him, would not speak again; but, as she lay silent and
+motionless, he retired and sought his cousins.
+
+"Do not be so much distressed," prayed Madeleine, when she heard what he
+had to relate. "This was unavoidable,--your grandmother's intellect was
+not disturbed,--her memory only seemed quiescent; the most casual
+circumstance might, at any moment, have awakened her recollection of the
+past; it is as well that it should be recalled to-day as to-morrow.
+Come, Bertha, we will go to her."
+
+Madeleine and Bertha entered the room together, but the ever cowardly
+Bertha drew back, and Madeleine approached the bed alone. The countess
+opened her eyes, looked at her a moment, as though to be quite certain
+of her identity, then turned her face to the pillow and murmured, "Where
+is Bertha?"
+
+"Bertha is here," said Madeleine, motioning Bertha to take her place, as
+she drew back.
+
+Madeleine felt that the countess had turned from her because her
+presence was painful; with a light step, but a heart once more grown
+heavy, she withdrew.
+
+Bertha stood by her aunt's side without daring to disturb her by a word.
+After a time the countess unclosed her eyes again and looked around the
+room; then, gazing at Bertha, said slowly,--
+
+"It all comes back,--it was like a frightful dream at first,--but the
+reality is more terrible! Bertha,--Bertha,--I have so little left! _You_
+love me? _You_ will not forsake me?"
+
+Bertha had never before heard her imperious aunt make an appeal to any
+human being; what wonder that she was melted?
+
+The countess resumed, with increasing agitation, "You were to have gone
+back with me to Brittany,--you, and Maurice, and his"--
+
+There came a break,--she could not name her dead son. Death to her was
+the harsh blow dealt by a merciless hand, snatching its victim away in
+retributive wrath,--not the wise and mild summons that bids suffering
+mortality exchange a circumscribed, lower life for a larger, higher,
+happier existence.
+
+It was some time before Madame de Gramont could continue; then she said,
+"I must go back, Bertha! I cannot die out of those old walls! It was
+you, you who lured me from them. We will return to them. You will go
+with us, Bertha?"
+
+"I will," replied Bertha, though her heart sank as she uttered the
+words. She had thought that the project of returning to France was
+wholly abandoned.
+
+"And we will go soon,--as soon as I am able to travel, that time will
+come quickly. I am growing stronger every minute. Let me depart
+speedily; it is all I can look forward to that can sustain me, that can
+lift me up after the abasement to which I have been subjected."
+
+Though they conversed no more, Bertha did not leave her aunt until she
+had seen her sink to repose.
+
+When Bertha repeated to Maurice, Madeleine, and Gaston the conversation
+which had just taken place, a heavy gloom fell upon all. Maurice's
+return to Brittany, at this crisis, would be a great disadvantage to
+him, and when the countess was removed to a distance from Madeleine, it
+was more unlikely than ever that she would yield consent to Madeleine's
+union with Maurice; the chances were that she would not allow
+Madeleine's name to be uttered in her presence.
+
+Gaston had given up all idea of altering Bertha's repeatedly expressed
+determination to be married upon the same day as her cousin, and not to
+marry at all if that day never came; but since Count Tristan had joined
+the hands of Maurice and Madeleine, he cherished the hope that the
+countess would no longer refuse to sanction their union, and that this
+voyage to France would be wholly relinquished.
+
+Maurice listened to Bertha in silence, but that night his step could be
+heard pacing up and down his chamber through the still hours, and he
+scarcely attempted to rest. During this period of painful reflection, he
+formed a resolution which he proposed to carry into execution as soon as
+his grandmother was ready to receive him.
+
+As he took a seat by her side he motioned Mrs. Lawkins to leave them
+together.
+
+"Are you well enough to listen to me, my dear grandmother? I must speak
+to you on a subject of great importance to me; I ought to add, of some
+importance to yourself."
+
+The countess signified that she listened by a slight affirmative
+movement of the head.
+
+"Bertha has told me that you still desire to return to Brittany. Though
+at this moment my accompanying you will force me to make some heavy
+sacrifices, still, there is one condition,--_and only one_,"--Maurice
+emphasized these last words,--"upon which I can consent."
+
+The countess made no observation. He was forced to proceed,--
+
+"You were present when my dying father placed Madeleine's hand in
+mine,--do not interrupt me, I entreat! Madeleine and I have loved each
+other from our infancy; she has rejected me solely that she might not
+cause grief to you and my father; he has given her to me,--he bade you
+love her; will _you_ not give her to me also?"
+
+"Never!" answered the countess; and though the tone was low it was
+steady and resolute.
+
+Maurice went on, disregarding her reply. "I will return with you to
+Brittany on the condition that she accompanies us, as my affianced
+bride, or as my wife. You have lived beneath Madeleine's roof; my father
+died there; gratitude, if nothing else, should bind us to her. Can you
+urge any reasonable objection to her going with us to Brittany, and as
+my wife?"
+
+The countess was roused. "Would you have me show my runaway niece to the
+world? Would you have me publicly patronize, associate with, caress the
+_mantua-maker_, in my own land, before my own kin? Never!"
+
+"Then," returned Maurice, resolutely, "I do not return with you to
+Brittany. Bertha may do so, and you will, doubtless, have the escort of
+M. de Bois; but if you renounce Madeleine, you renounce me! Madeleine
+will not become my wife without your consent,--I do not conceal _that_
+from you; but I remain in this land, where she will continue to dwell.
+If _you_ so wholly disregard my father's last wishes, you cannot hope
+that _I_ can forget them, or that I can feel as bound to you as though
+they had been respected. If your decision is final, I will not urge you
+further."
+
+"It is final!" was the laconic answer.
+
+"And so is mine!" replied Maurice, rising. Without longer parley he left
+the room.
+
+At this crisis, the conduct of M. de Bois threatened to give a new turn
+to events. We have had abundant proof of his gratitude and unwavering
+devotion to Madeleine. His aversion to the countess had increased with
+her persecution of her defenceless niece, and when the inexorable lady
+remained unmoved by the dying prayer of her son, and refused to sanction
+Madeleine's union with Maurice, M. de Bois's detestation culminated. He
+was inspired with an earnest desire to stretch out his arm to shield and
+aid Madeleine, and humble her oppressor; but an effectual method of
+accomplishing this act of justice did not present itself to him until
+Maurice communicated the result of his last interview; then Gaston
+conceived the project of following up that masterly move with another
+which would give it force. If he could only have counted upon Bertha as
+an ally he would have been confident of the success of his plan; but he
+knew that Bertha's timidity--say, rather, her _cowardice_--was
+insuperable, and she held her aunt in too much awe to dare to take any
+decided stand. M. de Bois called all his energies into play to influence
+the weak medium he was compelled to employ.
+
+Madeleine was occupied in a different part of the house when Maurice,
+finding Gaston and Bertha in the boudoir, told them the result of his
+interview with Madame de Gramont. By and by Gaston lured Bertha into the
+garden. They made one or two turns in silence; Bertha looked up
+wistfully into her lover's face, and said, in a tone of reproach,--
+
+"How silent you seem to-day!"
+
+"Yes, I feel grave,--I have something to accomplish, and I greatly need,
+but fear to claim, your aid."
+
+"Mine? What lion is there in a net that needs such a poor, wee mouse as
+I to gnaw the meshes?"
+
+"No lion already in the snare, but a lioness to be lured into our net.
+Bertha, do you truly love Mademoiselle Madeleine?"
+
+"What a question!"
+
+"Do you love her so well that your love for her could surmount your
+dread of your aunt?"
+
+"Yes, that is, I think it could. What would you have me do?"
+
+"Follow the noble example of Maurice; tell Madame de Gramont that you
+will not return to Brittany with her unless Maurice and Mademoiselle
+Madeleine return also. She detests this country, and the fear of being
+compelled to remain here will conquer her."
+
+"But how could I do this?" questioned Bertha, feeling that she had not
+firmness for the task. "I have promised to go with her. What excuse
+could I offer?"
+
+"The excuse," answered her lover, "that you could not travel with her
+alone."
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"Yes, for I do not count the light-headed Adolphine any one."
+
+"But you,--you are going with us?"
+
+"I shall not go unless Maurice and Mademoiselle Madeleine go," replied
+M. de Bois.
+
+"And you can let me go without you? You can let me take such a journey
+with my aunt in her broken state of health?"
+
+"I will not let you go at all if I can prevent your going."
+
+Not a few persuasions were needed before M. de Bois could obtain
+Bertha's promise to inform her aunt that she could not accompany her
+except upon the conditions Maurice had made. Bertha looked like a
+culprit awaiting sentence, rather than a person who came to dictate,
+when she entered Madame de Gramont's apartment. The countess had been
+highly incensed by her conversation with Maurice, and was wrought up to
+such a pitch that she seemed to have gained sudden strength, and almost
+to be restored to health. Bertha stole to her side, but the young
+girl's good intentions were oozing away every moment. The probability is
+that that she would not have had the courage to introduce the subject at
+all had not the countess asked,--
+
+"Have you heard of the unnatural conduct of Maurice? Do you know that my
+own grandson abandons me?"
+
+"I have heard," replied Bertha, hesitatingly. "Oh! what are we to do?
+How could you ever travel to Brittany alone?"
+
+"Alone?" cried the countess, catching hold of the blue silk curtains
+that draped her bed, and raising herself by clinging to them. "Alone? Do
+_you_, too, forsake me? But what else could I expect when my grandson,
+my only child left, has abandoned me?"
+
+Bertha's determination was put to flight by her aunt's woful look as she
+spoke these words with despairing fierceness, while she grasped the
+curtains more tightly and bore heavily upon them for support.
+
+These draperies were suspended over the centre of the bed from a massive
+gilded ornament, shaped to represent a huge arrow, and the countess in
+her agitation gathered the folds around her, and hung upon them in her
+efforts to sit up.
+
+"Oh, no, aunt, I have not forsaken you," returned Bertha. "I will go
+with you; but what shall we do alone? M. de Bois refuses to go unless
+Maurice and Madeleine go."
+
+"Does M. de Bois expect to dictate to _me_?" demanded Madame de Gramont,
+haughtily. "Let him remain; you will go with me, Bertha, and I shall
+hire a courier."
+
+"I am afraid we will not be able to find a courier in America," Bertha
+ventured to suggest.
+
+"Then we will go without one! We will go the instant I am able; and I
+feel so much stronger at this moment that I could start at once. It is
+settled that we go, and I defy Maurice or any one else to keep me."
+
+Madeleine had been visiting the working-room, and, without being aware
+of what had just taken place, she now entered her aunt's chamber. Madame
+de Gramont's convulsed features, and her singular attitude as she sat up
+in the centre of the bed, tightly grasping the curtains, which had been
+drawn from their usual position, impressed Madeleine so painfully, that
+she was running toward her; when the countess, raising herself up, with
+sudden strength, exclaimed,--"Madeleine de Gramont, keep from me!--do
+not come near me! All my sorrow has come through you!--Go! go!"
+
+She gave such a violent strain upon the curtains, as she passionately
+uttered these words, that Madeleine's quick ears caught a sound as of
+some fastening giving way. With a cry of horror, she sprang to the bed,
+flung her arms around the countess, and dragged her from it just as the
+heavy ornament fell!
+
+Madeleine's piercing cry, and Bertha's shriek summoned not only Mrs.
+Lawkins, who was sitting in the adjoining chamber, but Maurice and
+Gaston. The curtains partially concealed the bed and the two who lay
+prostrate beside it; the white, haggard, terrified countenance of Madame
+de Gramont was alone visible. As Mrs. Lawkins endeavored to extricate
+her from the folds of the curtain, Maurice and Gaston removed the fallen
+arrow to which the drapery was still attached. Afterwards Gaston, who
+was nearest to Mrs. Lawkins, assisted her in raising the helpless
+countess and placing her upon the bed. Then the form of Madeleine became
+visible. She was stretched upon the ground motionless and senseless; her
+beautiful hair, loosened by her fall, enveloped her like a veil, and
+wholly concealed her face. What a groan of agony burst from Maurice as
+he knelt beside her and swept away the shrouding tresses! They were wet,
+and the hands that touched them became scarlet. The outermost edge of
+the arrow had struck Madeleine's head, inflicting a deep gash, and, as
+it fell, tore her dress the whole length of her left shoulder and arm,
+making another wound which bled profusely.
+
+Maurice was so completely stupefied with horror that he had scarcely
+power to lift her light form.
+
+"Here! here! place her here!" cried Mrs. Lawkins; "don't stir her any
+more than possible."
+
+Maurice mechanically obeyed and laid Madeleine upon the same bed which
+bore the countess.
+
+The nurse was the only one whose presence of mind had not completely
+departed, and she hurried from the room to send for medical assistance.
+
+Maurice, as he clasped Madeleine in his arms, groaned out, "She is
+killed! she is dead! Oh, my Madeleine, my Madeleine! are you gone?
+Madeleine! Madeleine!"
+
+Madeleine gave no sign of life, though the blood still flowed.
+
+Mrs. Lawkins, who had returned, tried to force him away--entreated him
+to let her approach Madeleine, that she might bind up her head and
+stanch the blood; but he did not hear, or heed,--he was lost in grief.
+M. de Bois also appealed to him, but in vain; then Gaston attempted to
+use force to recall him to reason, and, seizing both of Maurice's arms,
+essayed to unclasp them from their hold of the inanimate form, saying as
+he did so:
+
+"For the love of Heaven, Maurice, collect yourself; she may bleed to
+death if you prevent Mrs. Lawkins from doing what is needful to stop the
+blood."
+
+Maurice struggled with him, as he exclaimed, hopelessly, "She is dead!
+she is dead!"
+
+"She is _not_ dead, but you may kill her if you refuse to let Mrs.
+Lawkins bind up her wounds."
+
+Maurice no longer resisted, and Mrs. Lawkins wiped away the blood, and
+commenced bandaging the fair, wounded head. The pale features had been
+stained with the crimson flood, and, as Mrs. Lawkins bathed them, their
+marble whiteness and stillness were appalling.
+
+Bertha had not ceased to sob, though Gaston, the instant he could safely
+relinquish his hold of Maurice, essayed by every means in his power to
+soothe her.
+
+The countess was gazing upon Madeleine with an air of stupefied grief.
+Bertha, who had no control over her passionate sorrow, as her eyes fell
+upon Madame de Gramont, cried out, reproachfully,--
+
+"Aunt, but for her, you would have been killed! You who never loved her!
+She has lost her life in trying to save yours!"
+
+The countess did not appear to heed the cruel words, though they were
+the echo of her own thoughts.
+
+Mrs. Lawkins' skilful ministry had stanched the blood and Madeleine's
+head and arm were bound up; but still she lay like some lovely statue,
+her lips apart and hueless,--her eyes closed, and the dark lashes
+sweeping her alabaster cheeks; while her long hair, still dripping with
+its crimson moisture, was lifted over the pillow. As Mrs. Lawkins,
+having accomplished her sad task, drew back, Maurice pressed into her
+place, and Bertha crowded in beside him, loading the senseless Madeleine
+with caresses and tender epithets; then, as she turned to her aunt, who
+had raised herself on her elbow, and was also bending over the lifeless
+figure, exclaimed impetuously,--
+
+"Oh! how could you help loving her? We all loved her so much! Cousin
+Tristan said she was his good angel, and she has been the good angel of
+all our family; but our good angel is gone! We have lost her through
+you!"
+
+Bertha's overwhelming sorrow had swept away all her former dread of her
+aunt, whom her reproaches deeply stung. They were the first Madame de
+Gramont had ever heard from those timid lips. At that moment the
+conscience-stricken woman would have made any sacrifice, even of her
+pride, to have seen Madeleine restored to life. While contemplating that
+angelic face, now so still and white, torturing fiends recalled all the
+harsh words she had used to pain this defenceless being,--all the cruel
+wrong she had done her,--all the misery she had caused her; and now she
+inwardly prayed that Madeleine might live; but with that prayer arose
+the thought that the supplication of such a one as she would remain
+unheard in heaven.
+
+Mrs. Lawkins, aided by Maurice, was applying restoratives. With his arm
+beneath Madeleine's head, he was holding a spoon to her lips, and, with
+gentle force, pouring its contents into her mouth, watching her with the
+most thrilling anxiety. He thought a slight movement of the lips was
+perceptible; then they quivered more certainly, and she made an effort
+to swallow.
+
+The countess was the first one that spoke: "She is not dead! I am spared
+that!"
+
+She sank back upon her pillow and wept.
+
+No one present had ever seen her weep; but now she did not try to hide
+her tears; they gushed forth in fierce torrents, like a stream that
+breaks forth through severed icebergs; for in her soul the ice that had
+gathered to mountain heights was melting at last.
+
+Maurice had echoed the words, "She is not dead," pressing his own
+burning lips upon those pale, feebly-stirring, cold ones, and catching
+the first returning breath that Madeleine drew. At that long, fervent
+kiss her eyes unclosed; they saw his face and nothing beside.
+
+"Madeleine, my beloved, you are spared to me! My life returns now that
+you are given back."
+
+Madeleine faintly murmured "Maurice," and then her eyes wandered from
+his face to those around her, and she added, "What is it?"
+
+Bertha's transition from grief to joy was so clamorous that no one could
+answer. If Gaston had not restrained her, Madeleine's bandage would have
+been endangered by the young girl's vehement embraces, which were
+mingled with incoherent exclamations of rapture.
+
+"What is it?" again questioned Madeleine; but, as she spoke her eye
+caught sight of the fallen curtain, thrown in a heap, and remembering
+the recent danger, she turned quickly to the countess, and said,
+feebly,--
+
+"You are not hurt, aunt,--madame? The shaft did not strike you,--did
+it?"
+
+The countess felt that a shaft had fallen and struck her, indeed, but
+not the one Madeleine meant. She stretched out her hand and clasped that
+of her niece as she said,--
+
+"I am uninjured, Madeleine; it is you who received the blow. God grant
+that this may be the last that will fall upon you through me! It is in
+vain to struggle against His will. It was His hand,--I feel it! I resist
+no longer!"
+
+She looked toward Maurice, who exclaimed joyfully, "My dear, dear
+grandmother, have I regained Madeleine doubly to-day? Do you mean"--
+
+The countess finished his sentence solemnly, "That it shall be as my son
+said."
+
+Madeleine, overcome with joy and gratitude, tried to raise herself up
+that she might reach the countess, but sank back powerless, and the
+effort again started the crimson current which trickled through the
+bandage and ran down her face.
+
+"Don't move!" cried Mrs. Lawkins. "See, see, what you have done by
+agitating her. Go, all of you, away. Mr. Maurice, go, or you will do her
+more mischief. Take him away, M. de Bois."
+
+Maurice was so much alarmed at the sight of the blood that he could not,
+at first, listen to these expostulations; but Mrs. Lawkins continued to
+threaten him with such evil results if he did not obey, and to urge M.
+de Bois so strenuously to compel him, that Gaston succeeded in leading
+him away; Mrs. Lawkins bade Bertha follow them, and then locked the
+door.
+
+As she prepared a fresh bandage she said apologetically, "I was obliged
+to send them away, Mademoiselle Madeleine; you must be quiet and not
+speak a word until the doctor comes; it is very, very important."
+
+And Madeleine did lie still in a trance of pure delight, and the
+countess lay beside her almost as motionless.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVII.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+
+The wound in Madeleine's head was dangerously near her temple. Her long
+swoon had been caused by the severity of the blow, and she was
+completely exhausted by her great loss of blood. When Dr. Bayard had
+examined her injuries and readjusted the bandage, Maurice bore her
+gently to her own chamber, clasping her closely in his arms as he went,
+and breathing over her words of tenderest endearment. He left her in
+Mrs. Lawkins' charge to be undressed and laid in bed, but even during
+that brief process, knocked several times at the door to urge the good
+house-keeper to make haste and admit him.
+
+For nearly two months Maurice had been chained to the bedside of his
+suffering father, or his grandmother; he had been fully initiated into
+the duties of ministration, and upon the strength of his experience he
+claimed the entire care of the new invalid. What a luxury to him it was
+to watch over his beloved Madeleine! It seemed ungrateful of her to
+deprive him of the happiness by getting well too rapidly. As Ruth
+Thornton occupied the same room, Madeleine needed no watcher at night;
+but Maurice scarcely left her during the day. Her light food, her
+cooling drinks and calming potions, she received from his hands alone.
+Hour after hour, he sat and read to her,--sat and talked to her,--sat
+and looked at her,--and never was weary,--never was so superlatively
+happy in his life! He was jealous of any one who attempted to share his
+vigils; when Mrs. Lawkins approached, he playfully reminded her that
+they had agreed upon a division of labor, and Madame de Gramont was her
+patient; when Ruth and Bertha tried to press upon him their services, he
+had always some plea to peremptorily dismiss them both. Mrs. Walton was
+the only one in whose favor he relented a little. He allowed her to sit
+beside his charge for a couple of hours every day. How could he refuse
+when the presence of this invaluable friend gave Madeleine such true
+pleasure, and when Mrs. Walton was filled with such evident delight in
+watching the intercourse of these two kindred spirits, who to her eyes
+seemed created for partnership?
+
+Madame de Gramont had daily, with a sort of ceremonious affection,
+inquired after Madeleine's health. Madeleine's first visit, when she was
+able to rise, was to her aunt; but Maurice would not allow his patient
+to attempt to walk without his supporting arm about her waist. We will
+not say that Madame de Gramont greeted Madeleine _cordially_; but she
+received her with marked consideration, and expressed satisfaction at
+beholding her able to move; this was the sole allusion she made to the
+accident. Maurice, who had grown thoroughly tyrannical, would only
+permit Madeleine to remain a few moments with his grandmother, and
+brought the interview to a sudden close.
+
+Now that Madeleine was convalescent, she found great enjoyment in long,
+pleasant drives with Bertha, Maurice and Gaston. On bright days they
+left the carriage, and wandered into the woods to gather wild flowers,
+and rest beneath the trees. On one of these occasions, Madeleine was
+sitting upon a fallen tree, her lap filled with the flowers she had
+culled, and which she was weaving into a wreath. Bertha aided her work
+by selecting and handing the requisite flowers. Maurice was supplying
+her with luxuriant moss which she mingled among the bright blossoms.
+Gaston, lying at Bertha's feet, contemplated the lovely picture before
+him. The wreath was finished, and Madeleine wound it about Bertha's
+picturesque little hat,--not one of those unmeaning abominations which
+neither cover the head, nor shade the face, but a round straw hat,
+slightly turned up at the sides, and ornamented only by a single, black
+plume.
+
+"Look, M. de Bois," said Madeleine, "is not my chaplet successful? Could
+anything be more becoming to Bertha?"
+
+"Yes," answered Gaston, "there is one chaplet in which she would look
+still lovelier,--a wreath of orange-blossoms. Come, Bertha, are you not
+ready to reward my patience and forbearance? Will you not let me
+remember this day as one of our brightest, by telling me when you will
+wear that orange-blossom wreath?"
+
+Bertha laid her head upon Madeleine's shoulder at the risk of crushing
+some of the wild flowers, and answered, "That depends upon Madeleine. I
+told you long ago that Madeleine should name the day."
+
+"Come then, Mademoiselle Madeleine," Gaston pleaded; "do you speak!"
+
+Maurice's eyes fervently seconded the adjuration.
+
+Madeleine answered, with the perverseness of her sex, "You ought to
+return to Charleston, Maurice."
+
+"I know I _ought_; but do not imagine I mean to do what I ought to do,
+until you have done what you ought to do as an example; if you do
+_that_, you will tell me when I may return to claim my bride."
+
+"You shall know to-morrow," said Madeleine, "but only on condition that
+neither of you gentlemen mention the subject again to-day."
+
+Both lovers promised; but, simply because a condition had been made,
+they every moment experienced the strongest temptation to disregard the
+stipulation.
+
+That night Madeleine and Bertha had a long conversation,--"a woman's
+talk," such as maidens, and matrons too, delight in, all the world over.
+They decided that Maurice must leave at once for Charleston, and remain
+three months, only returning the day before the one appointed for his
+nuptials. The double wedding was to take place in church; the bridal
+party to return to Madeleine's and, after a collation, leave for
+Philadelphia, and the day following for New York. The countess,
+accompanied by Gaston and Bertha, would sail at once for Havre, and
+Maurice, and Madeleine take up their abode in Charleston. Bertha's
+plans, after she reached France, were left to be determined by
+circumstances.
+
+Madame de Gramont was the first one apprised of this arrangement, and it
+met with her full approval. She rejoiced at the certainty of seeing her
+beloved chateau again; and, though she spoke not one word to that
+effect, experienced great relief at being spared the necessity of
+appearing in Brittany with Madeleine, whose presence must necessarily
+cause abundant gossip.
+
+Maurice and Gaston were warned that the penalty of a single remonstrance
+against these plans would be a month added to their period of probation.
+Maurice compromised by pleading that instead of leaving Washington at
+once, he might be permitted to remain until the close of the week.
+
+The French ambassador had been much chagrined at the prospect of parting
+with Gaston. It was tolerably difficult to find a person who was not
+always seeking his own interests, or meddling in diplomatic affairs, to
+supply M. de Bois's place. When M. de Fleury was informed that the
+period for Gaston's departure was settled, he urged him to promise to
+return within six months, saying that he would only engage a secretary
+_pro tem._ in the hope of M. de Bois occupying his former position.
+
+As the young French maidens were orphans, and of high family, M. de
+Fleury offered to assume the office of father in giving them away, and
+the flattering proposition was particularly acceptable to the countess.
+
+Ronald Walton was to be the groomsman of Maurice, and Madeleine made her
+humble friend Ruth, the happiest of maidens, by inviting her to
+officiate as bridesmaid. Bertha needed a bridesmaid and groomsman, since
+her cousin would be thus attended, and she chose Lady Augusta Linden and
+her _fiance_, Mr. Rutledge, through whose influence Madeleine had
+obtained a vote of so much importance to Maurice.
+
+These nuptial arrangements seemed to give general satisfaction, with
+one exception; Mr. Walton declared that he was unfairly treated; that he
+meant to be assigned some office; and as his son was Madeleine's
+groomsman, and as he was not himself qualified to be Bertha's, he must
+be allowed to act as the father of the latter. M. de Fleury, he said,
+ought to be contented with the _role_ of father to one of the brides.
+Bertha, who had been charmed by the courtly manners and delightful
+conversation of this agreeable gentleman, cordially consented.
+
+Once more Madeleine and Maurice were to be parted; and even this brief
+separation tested their fortitude. The Waltons accompanied Maurice, and
+were to return with him to Washington.
+
+On his arrival in Charleston, he had cause to be flattered by the hearty
+greeting of his partner. Maurice plunged at once into professional
+duties; but another employment helped to speed the time,--a truly
+charming occupation,--the preparation of a home for his bride.
+
+Mrs. Walton assisted the young lawyer in the agreeable task of selecting
+furniture, and making those arrangements which demanded a woman's hand.
+
+A never-failing happiness flowed to Maurice from the exchange of letters
+with Madeleine. Each day commenced with the sending, and closed with the
+receiving, of one of these precious paper messengers. But Madeleine's
+letters, by no means, came under the head of "love letters." She could
+not have poured out upon paper, any more than she could have spoken, the
+fulness and depth of her affection; but Maurice found inexhaustible
+delight in what she wrote, which was always suggestive of so much left
+unsaid.
+
+Madeleine rented her house to Ruth, who now became the head of the
+establishment which "Mademoiselle Melanie" had rendered so popular. At
+Madeleine's suggestion, Ruth had written to her widowed mother and young
+sister and requested them to make their future home with her. That
+letter was read by streaming eyes, and its contents filled to
+overflowing two joyful hearts.
+
+Mrs. Lawkins was to accompany Madeleine to Charleston and take charge of
+her household there.
+
+Madeleine proposed closing her establishment on the day of her wedding;
+for she well knew that her _employees_ would desire to witness the
+ceremony. And she further evinced her thoughtfulness by ordering a
+bountiful collation to be spread in the apartments usually devoted to
+business, at the same time that the table was prepared for her own
+bridal party in the apartments beneath.
+
+Madeleine and Bertha had both apprised their bridegrooms elect that they
+preferred to forego the French custom of receiving the usual
+_corbeille_, containing laces, India shawls, jewelry, etc., etc., adding
+that some simple bridal token would be more acceptable.
+
+The day before the wedding arrived, and with it Maurice and the Waltons.
+
+We will not attempt to paint the meeting between Maurice and
+Madeleine,--it was too full of joy for language, too sacred for
+description,--but pass on to the events of the evening when the exchange
+of bridal gifts was made.
+
+Maurice fastened about Madeleine's white throat a small chain of
+Venetian gold, to which was suspended a cross of rare pearls; and on the
+back of the cross were inscribed these words of the prophet,--
+
+                      "Labor is worship."
+
+M. de Bois, knowing that Bertha was only too well supplied with gems,
+had experienced great difficulty in selecting a bridal gift. But, after
+many consultations with Madeleine, he chose a set of cameos cut in
+stone. The necklace and bracelets were composed of angel heads; but his
+own likeness was cut upon the brooch, and that of Madeleine on the
+medallion that formed the centre of the bracelet. Who can doubt that
+Bertha was enchanted with her gift?
+
+Madame de Gramont presented each of her nieces with a handkerchief of
+rich old lace, very rare and no longer purchasable.
+
+Madeleine placed in Bertha's hands a magnificently bound volume; it
+contained Mrs. Browning's poems illustrated, in water colors, by
+Madeleine herself. Many of the paintings were exquisite, but those which
+represented "Lady Geraldine's Courtship," far surpassed all the others.
+
+And now came the great surprise of the evening,--the disclosure of a
+secret which Gaston and Bertha had carefully guarded. Bertha, in her
+clingingly affectionate way, knelt down beside Madeleine, and laid in
+her lap two ancient-looking jewel-cases, her bridal gift to Madeleine.
+How Madeleine started and trembled at the sight! Well she knew those
+caskets, but her shaking hands could not press the springs by which they
+were secured. Bertha lifted their lids and disclosed the diamonds and
+emeralds which had been the bridal jewels of Lady Katrine Nugent,
+Madeleine's great-great-grandmother; the jewels which Madeleine had been
+forced to part with to obtain herself subsistence; the jewels whose
+design she had imitated on the dress which first made her "fairy
+fingers" known to Vignon; the jewels Bertha had recognized when they
+were worn by Madame de Fleury; the jewels which in attempting to trace
+to their owner, Maurice had suffered so terribly. These memorable jewels
+were restored through Gaston's agency. He had related to M. de Fleury
+their history, and Mademoiselle de Merrivale's desire to repurchase
+them. The marquis had promised acquiescence in the young lady's wishes
+if Madame de Fleury's consent could be obtained. Gaston and Bertha paid
+the ambassador's wife a visit of persuasion. Gaston was an especial
+favorite, and Madame de Fleury loved Madeleine as well as it was
+possible for her to love any one. Her yielding up these jewels was a
+high proof of the noble _couturiere's_ power over her frivolous heart.
+
+What bride does not smile when she sees the sun shine into her chamber
+on the nuptial morning? The sun shone gloriously on the bridal day of
+Madeleine and Bertha. The ceremony was to take place at any early
+hour,--no invitations were issued,--the bridal party was to meet at
+Madeleine's to go to church.
+
+Madeleine and Bertha were attired precisely alike, and with severe
+simplicity; they both wore dresses of white silk, made close to the
+throat. (A _decolte_ attire would not be tolerated at a Parisian
+bridal.) Their veils were circular and of point lace; their chaplets of
+natural orange blossoms woven by Madeleine herself. Madeleine had not
+intended to wear any ornament, save the cross Maurice had presented her,
+but Bertha insisted on clasping Lady Katrine Nugent's bridal bracelet on
+her cousin's arm, and fastening her tiny lace collar with the lily and
+shamrock brooch. Bertha, herself, wore Gaston's cameos, and could
+scarcely restrain her joyful tears when she fastened on her fair bosom
+the brooch which represented her lover's countenance, and the bracelet
+that bore her beloved Madeleine's. She was adorned with the images of
+the two most dear on earth.
+
+Need we say that both brides were supremely lovely? Gazing at Bertha's
+sweet, unclouded face, that looked out from among the wealth of golden
+ringlets, and noting the soft light in her blue eyes, the delicate
+rose-flush that came and went on her cheeks, one might well declare that
+nothing more beautiful could be found, until the gazer turned to
+Madeleine. Her face was colorless with emotion, yet its paleness only
+rendered the sculpturesque beauty of her features more striking; her
+eyes were downcast, and thus one missed their clear lustre and holy
+expression; yet the long lashes were some compensation, and her look was
+so spiritual, so saint-like in its beauty, that nothing mortal could
+have been lovelier.
+
+For one moment only were Maurice and Gaston permitted to greet their
+brides, and then they were hurried into the carriages which awaited
+them.
+
+Though no invitations had been given, the church was densely crowded.
+When the nuptial procession entered, the suppressed murmur of many
+voices sounded like the rushing of distant waves. First came Madame de
+Gramont, leaning on the arm of Maurice; they were followed by Ronald and
+Ruth Thornton; Madeleine, led by the Marquis de Fleury, followed. Then
+came the second party, Gaston with Mrs. Walton on his arm; Lady Augusta
+and Mr. Rutledge; Bertha, led by Mr. Walton, not the least proud and
+happy man of that large assembly.
+
+At times, during the ceremony, low sobs were audible; they came from
+Madeleine's _employees_, who could not wholly control their grief, as
+the certainty of losing their gentle mistress forced itself upon them.
+
+The newly made wives passed out of the church conducted by their
+husbands and returned to Madeleine's residence.
+
+During the collation the brides stood together at the head of the table.
+The French ambassador and Mr. Walton were the life of the festive board,
+and infused an element of gayety which the small assemblage would have
+lacked without their aid, for a happy silence had fallen upon the
+nuptial party. Besides these gentlemen, Mr. Meredith and Mr. Hilson were
+the only strangers present.
+
+The brides left the company to assume their travelling attire; but
+Madeleine, before she made this change, stole to the apartment where her
+needle-women were at table, with Victorine at the head, and spoke a word
+of kindly farewell to each, in turn. There were no dry eyes in that
+room.
+
+Maurice was more than satisfied with Madeleine's approval of the
+pleasant abode he had chosen. Many and joyous were the years he and his
+beloved companion passed under that roof. One year after their marriage
+it also sheltered for a time Gaston and Bertha. Madame de Gramont died
+soon after her return to Brittany.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+BOOKS
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+
+LES MISERABLES.--_The best edition_, two elegant 8vo. vols.,
+beautifully bound in cloth, $5.50; half calf,                     $10.00
+
+LES MISERABLES.--_The popular edition_, one large octavo volume,
+paper covers, $2.00; cloth bound,                                  $2.50
+
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+Marius--Denis--Valjean. 8vo. cloth,                                $1.25
+
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+two vols., paper covers, $4.00; or cloth, bound,                   $5.00
+
+THE LIFE OF VICTOR HUGO.--By himself. 8vo. cloth,                  $1.75
+
+
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+
+RUTLEDGE.--A deeply interesting novel.                12mo. cloth, $1.75
+THE SUTHERLANDS.--     do.                                do.      $1.75
+FRANK WARRINGTON.--    do.                                do.      $1.75
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+ST. PHILIP'S.--_Just published._                          do.      $1.75
+
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+THE HABITS OF GOOD SOCIETY; with Thoughts, Hints, and
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+  of the kind ever published.                         12mo. cloth, $1.75
+
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+
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+HUGH WORTHINGTON.--    _Just published._                  do.      $1.50
+
+
+=Artemus Ward.=
+
+HIS BOOK.--An irresistibly funny volume of writings
+  by the immortal American humorist.                  12mo. cloth, $1.50
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+
+
+=Edmund Kirke.=
+
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+
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+
+VERDANT GREEN.--A rollicking, humorous novel of English
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+
+
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+
+
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+
+PECULIAR.--One of the most remarkable and successful
+  novels published in this country.                   12mo. cloth, $1.75
+
+
+=A. S. Roc's Works.=
+
+A LONG LOOK AHEAD.--       A novel.                   12mo. cloth, $1.50
+TO LOVE AND TO BE LOVED.--   do.                          do.      $1.50
+TIME AND TIDE.--             do.                          do.      $1.50
+I'VE BEEN THINKING.--        do.                          do.      $1.50
+THE STAR AND THE CLOUD.--    do.                          do.      $1.50
+TRUE TO THE LAST.--          do.                          do.      $1.50
+HOW COULD HE HELP IT.--      do.                          do.      $1.50
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+LOOKING AROUND.--_Just published._                        do.      $1.50
+
+
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+
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+
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+
+
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+LAVINIA; OR, THE ITALIAN ARTIST.--                        do.      $1.75
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+
+
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+
+THE GREAT TRIBULATION.--Two series.                   12mo. cloth, $1.50
+THE GREAT PREPARATION.--     do.                          do.      $1.50
+THE GREAT CONSUMMATION.--    do.                          do.      $1.50
+
+
+=Ernest Renan.=
+
+THE LIFE OF JESUS.--Translated by C. E. Wilbour from
+  the celebrated French work                          12mo. cloth, $1.75
+
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+A NEW NOVEL.--_In press._                                          $1.75
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+THE CLOISTER AND THE HEARTH.--A magnificent new novel,
+by the author of "Hard Cash," etc.                     8vo. cloth, $2.00
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+  entertaining volume of sketches, stories, and facts,
+  about famous physicians and surgeons.               12mo. cloth, $1.75
+
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+THE SPARROWGRASS PAPERS.--A capital humorous work, with
+  illustrations by Darley.                            12mo. cloth, $1.50
+
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+  famous picture in Rome.                             12mo. cloth, $1.75
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+  and magnificently embellished with more than 50 exquisite
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+  A large quarto volume, sumptuously bound in Turkey morocco,     $30.00
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+  English language. Beautifully printed.            12mo. cloth, 75 cts.
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+
+HUMOROUS RHYMES for grown people; based upon the famous
+  "Mother Goose Melodies."                            12mo. cloth, $1.00
+
+
+=Mrs. ---- ---- =
+
+FAIRY FINGERS.--A new novel.                          12mo. cloth, $1.75
+THE MUTE SINGER.-- do. _In press._                        do.      $1.75
+
+
+=Robert B. Roosevelt.=
+
+THE GAME FISH OF THE NORTH.--Illustrated.                12mo. cl. $2.00
+SUPERIOR FISHING.--_Just published._ do.                  do.      $2.00
+THE GAME BIRDS OF THE NORTH.--_In press._                          $2.00
+
+
+=John Phoenix.=
+
+THE SQUIBOB PAPERS.--With comic illustr.                12mo. cl., $1.50
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:
+
+Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as
+possible, including obsolete and variant spellings. Obvious
+typographical errors in punctuation (misplaced quotes and the like) have
+been fixed. Corrections in the text are noted below, with corrections
+inside the brackets:
+
+page 5:
+
+    XX. The Incognito[Incognita],                             186
+
+page 32
+
+    I saw three of our relatives on the de Gramont side, Madame
+    de Nervac, the Count Damorean[Damoreau], and M. de
+    Bonneville. They inquired kindly after you, Madeleine, and I
+    told them you
+
+page 91
+
+    "Before you go to Rennes, will you not return this
+    handker-Shief[handkerchief] to M. de Bois? As it was picked
+    up in the chalet, he
+
+page 122
+
+    confusion in his own mind, the more troubled he felt in
+    pondering over the disorded[disordered] mental condition of
+    Maurice. During a whole month after their accidental
+    encounter in the street he called
+
+page 123
+
+    great, blue eyes which so strongly resembled Bertha's--were
+    glittering with the wild lights of delirum[delirium]; fever
+    burned on his cheeks and seemed to scorch his parched lips.
+    The fair, clustering
+
+page 129
+
+    seen Madeleine beside me! When the good 'sister' moved about
+    the room, in the dim light of the veillense[veilleuse], in
+    spite of her coarse, unshapely garb, I recognized the
+    outlines of Madeleine's
+
+page 132
+
+    Walton, without being stirred and inspired by the contact.
+    The force, decision, aptitude, promptness, which
+    distinguished Roland[Ronald], had constituted him a sort of
+    prince among his fellow-students,
+
+page 135
+
+    the Marchioness de Fleury that Bertha's uncle was exceedingly
+    tenacious of his rights, and jealous of the
+    inteference[interference] of his niece's relatives in regard
+    to any future alliance she might
+
+page 150
+
+    golden keys: unlock all doors; carry one into hidden depths
+    of the earth. Shall be obliged to advance funds to pay
+    partiest[parties] employed. Have the goodness to write your
+    name in this
+
+page 153
+
+    "See, Maurice," Bertha continued, joyfully, "in the corner
+    she has embroidered my name, surrounded by a wreath of
+    for-get-me-nots[forget-me-nots],--for she does not forget.
+    The crest of the de Merrivales is in the opposite
+
+page 158
+
+    woman of her calm judgment,--a woman who could look with such
+    steady, tearless eyes upon life's realties,[realities]--a
+    woman who would not have trodden in flowery ways though every
+
+page 165
+
+    compelled to make, that he might meet the demands of the old
+    Jew, were not without their influence in preparing Count
+    Triston[Tristan] an to look favorably upon his son's
+    solicitation. The count imagined
+
+page 189
+
+    to mortgage the estate of his son for so large amount that,
+    but for the advent of the railroad, upon which he confidently
+    calculated, the mortgage must prove ruinious[ruinous] to the
+    interests of the landholder.
+
+page 209
+
+    "I must entreat your pardon for allowing you to wait; it was
+    not in my power to be[repeated word "be" removed] more
+    punctual; a terrible accident--the first of the kind which
+    has ever occurred to me--is my
+
+page 228
+
+    Ruth, without lifting her head from the sketch she was
+    coloring, answered, "Yes, certainly, unless it should be
+    something with which Mademoiselle Malanie[Melanie] does not
+    desire us to be acquainted."
+
+page 237
+
+    Shortly after M. de Bois returned to the exhibition salons,
+    Madeline[Madeleine] entered the workroom. Gaston could see
+    her moving about among the young girls, distributing
+    sketches, making smiling
+
+page 241
+
+    he should find her tranquil and self-possessed; and was he
+    about to enter her presence as voiceless and unmanned as
+    during their brief recontre[rencontre] the day previous?
+
+page 281
+
+    The Countess de Gramant[Gramont] rose up majestically, white
+    with rage.
+
+page 287
+
+    "True," replied Lord Linden, undaunted by her chilling
+    de-demeanor;[demeanor] "and it is not easy to break the iron
+    bonds of conventionality. But, if the difference of our rank
+    prevents my
+
+page 288
+
+    "An insult? You do not imagnie[imagine]--you cannot suppose
+    that I had any such intention?"
+
+page 332
+
+    "Yes, to-night; but not very[every] night," she added, with
+    playful imperativeness. "I shall not allow that, and you see
+    I have taken the reins into my own hands, and show that a
+    little of
+
+    in the social sphere; and great were the lamentations over
+    the noble coutouriere's[couturiere's] supposed abdication of
+    her throne.
+
+page 345
+
+    CHAPTER LXI.[XLI.]
+
+page 356
+
+    precisely how to make a pillow yield the best support,--a
+    low, soft, yet encouraging voice,--a cheerful, yet
+    symathizing[sympathizing] face,--a soundless step,--garments
+    that never rustle,--movements that
+
+page 358
+
+    Maurice perceived his mistake too late. He had not foreseen
+    that the countess would have drawn this
+    conclusiou[conclusion] from the intelligence just
+    communicated.
+
+page 363
+
+    lips. "She has seen Dr. Bayard, and insists on carrying out
+    certains[certain] views of hers, and she informs me that she
+    has his permission
+
+page 371
+
+    mending, would have gained a charm and been idealized into
+    pleasures, if they contributed to the well-being of those
+    dear to[repeated "to" removed] her; but, when performed for
+    the one more precious than all
+
+page 373
+
+    you to inform the countess that a nurse is coming. One charge
+    more: you[your] father is so much better that instead of
+    wearing yourself out by sitting up with him, it would be
+    wiser to have
+
+page 379
+
+    and we will settle the matter. Make haste, for I must write
+    to Lorillard[Lorrillard] by this evening's mail, and I desire
+    to inform him, in answer to his somewhat caustic letter, that
+    I have made the
+
+page 423
+
+    "This has been but a brief meeting, Madeleine, after the
+    sepation[separation] of those long, sorrowful years. The
+    future is all uncertain, I cannot fix a time, after I have
+    said adieu, when I may clasp
+
+page 451
+    Mrs. Lawkin's[Lawkins'] skilful ministry had stanched the
+    blood and Madeleine's head and arm were bound up; but still
+    she lay like
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Fairy Fingers, by Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie
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