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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Bijou, by Gyp
+
+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: Bijou
+
+Author: Gyp
+
+Translator: Alys Hallard
+
+Release Date: May 23, 2011 [EBook #36199]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BIJOU ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Fritz Ohrenschall, JoAnn Greenwood and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+            BIJOU
+
+              BY
+             GYP
+
+
+         _TRANSLATED_
+              BY
+         ALYS HALLARD.
+
+
+            LONDON
+        HUTCHINSON & CO.
+    34 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
+             1897
+
+
+
+
+BIJOU.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+
+MADAME DE BRACIEUX was working for her poor people. She poked her
+thick, light, tortoise-shell crochet-needle into the ball of coarse
+wool, and putting that down on her lap, lifted her head and looked
+across at her great-nephew, Jean de Blaye.
+
+"Jean," she said, "what are you gazing at that is so interesting? You
+stand there with your nose flattened against the window-pane, just
+exactly as you did when you were a little boy, and were so
+insufferable."
+
+Jean de Blaye lifted his head abruptly. He had been leaning his
+forehead against the glass of the bay-window.
+
+"I?" he answered, hesitating slightly. "Oh, nothing, aunt--nothing at
+all!"
+
+"Nothing at all? Oh, well, I must say that you seem to be looking at
+nothing at all with a great deal of attention."
+
+"Do not believe him, grandmamma!" said Madame de Rueille in her
+beautiful, grave, expressive voice; "he is hoping all the time to see
+a cab appear round the bend of the avenue."
+
+"Is he expecting someone?" asked the marchioness.
+
+"Oh, no!" explained M. de Rueille, laughing; "but a cab, even a
+Pont-sur-Loire cab, would remind him of Paris. Bertrade is teasing
+him."
+
+"I don't care all that much about being reminded of Paris," muttered
+Jean, without stirring.
+
+Madame de Rueille gazed at him in astonishment. "One would almost
+think he was in earnest!" she remarked.
+
+"In earnest, but absent-minded!" said the marchioness, and then,
+turning towards a young abbe, who was playing loto with the de Rueille
+children, she asked:
+
+"Monsieur, will you tell us whether there is anything interesting
+taking place on the terrace?"
+
+The abbe, who was seated with his back to the bay-window, looked
+behind him over his shoulder, and replied promptly:
+
+"I do not see anything in the slightest degree interesting, madame."
+
+"Nothing whatever," affirmed Jean, leaving the window, and taking his
+seat on a divan.
+
+One of the de Rueille children, forgetting his loto cards, and leaving
+the abbe to call out the numbers over and over again with untiring
+patience, suddenly perched himself up on a chair, and, by his
+grimaces, appeared to be making signals to someone through the window.
+
+"Marcel dear, at whom are you making those horrible grimaces?" asked
+the grandmother, puzzled.
+
+"At Bijou," replied the child; "she is out there gathering flowers."
+
+"Has she been there long?" asked the marchioness.
+
+It was the abbe who answered this time.
+
+"About, ten minutes or a quarter of an hour, madame."
+
+"And you consider that Bijou is not interesting to look at?" exclaimed
+the old lady, laughing. "You are difficult to please, monsieur!"
+
+Abbe Courteil, who had not been long in the family, and who was
+incredibly shy, blushed from the neck-band of his cassock to the roots
+of his fair hair, and stammered out in dismay:
+
+"But, madame, when you asked if anything interesting were taking place
+on the terrace, I thought you meant--something--something
+extraordinary, and I never thought that the presence of Mademoiselle
+Bij--I mean, of Mademoiselle Denyse--as she always gathers her flowers
+there at this time every day--I never thought that you would consider
+that as--"
+
+The sentence ended in an unintelligible way, whilst the abbe, very
+much confused, continued shaking the numbers about in the bag.
+
+"That poor abbe," said Bertrade de Rueille, very quietly, "you do
+frighten him, grandmamma."
+
+"Nonsense! nothing of the kind! I do not frighten him; you exaggerate,
+my dear."
+
+And then, after a moment's reflection, Madame de Bracieux continued:
+
+"The man must be blind then."
+
+"What man?"
+
+"Why, your abbe! Good heavens, what stupid answers he makes."
+
+"But, grandmamma--"
+
+"No! you will never make me believe that a man could watch Bijou at
+work amongst the flowers, and not consider her '_interesting to look
+at_!'--no, never!"
+
+"A man, yes; but then the abbe is not exactly a man."
+
+"Ah! what is he then, if you please?"
+
+"Well, a priest is not--"
+
+"Not exactly like other men in certain respects! no, at least I hope
+not; but priests have eyes, I suppose, and you will grant that, if
+they have not eyes like those of other men, they have eyes such as a
+woman has, at any rate. Will you allow your abbe to have eyes like a
+woman?"
+
+"Why, yes, grandmamma, I will allow him to have any kind of eyes he
+likes."
+
+"That's a good thing. Well, then, any woman looking at Bijou would
+perceive that she is charming. Why should an abbe not perceive that
+too?"
+
+"You do not like our poor abbe."
+
+"Oh, well, you know my opinion. I consider that priests were made for
+the churches and not for our houses. Apart from that, I like your abbe
+as well as I do any of them. I like him--negatively; I respect him."
+
+Bertrade laughed, and said in her gentle voice:
+
+"It scarcely seems like it; you are very rough on him always."
+
+"I am rough on him, just as I am rough on all of you."
+
+"Yes, but then we are accustomed to it, whilst he--"
+
+"Oh, very well, I won't be rough on him again. I will take care; but
+you have no idea how tiresome it will be to me. I do like to be able
+to speak my mind. It was a strange notion of yours, to have an abbe
+for your children."
+
+"It was Paul; he particularly wished the children to be educated by a
+priest, at any rate, to begin with. He is very religious."
+
+"Well, but so am I--I am very religious, and that is just why I would
+never have a priest as tutor. Yes, don't you see, if he should be an
+intelligent man, why, just for the sake of one or two, or even several
+children--but anyhow only a small number, you make use of his
+intelligence, which his calling had destined for the direction of his
+flock, and you prevent him from teaching, comforting, and forgiving
+the sins of poor creatures, who, as a rule, are much more interesting
+than we are. If, on the other hand, the priest should be an imbecile,
+why, he just devotes himself conscientiously to distorting the mind of
+the little human being entrusted to him, and in both cases you are
+responsible, either for the harm you do, or the good you prevent being
+done---Ah! here's Bijou, let me look at her; I shall enjoy that more
+than talking about your abbe," and the marchioness pointed to her
+grand-daughter, who was just entering the room, and who looked like a
+walking basket of flowers.
+
+Denyse de Courtaix, nicknamed Bijou, was an exquisite little creature,
+refined-looking, graceful, and slender, and yet all over dimples. She
+had large violet eyes, limpid, and full of expression, a straight
+nose, turning up almost imperceptibly at the end, a very small mouth,
+with very red lips going up merrily at the corners, and showing some
+small, milky-white teeth. Her soft, silky hair was of that light
+auburn shade so rarely seen nowadays. Her tiny ears were shaded with
+pink, like mother-of-pearl, and this same pinky shade was to be seen
+not only on her cheeks, but on her forehead, her neck, and her hands.
+It shone all over her skin with a rosy gleam. Her eyebrows alone,
+which crossed her smooth, intelligent forehead with a very fine, and
+almost unbroken dark line, indicated the fact that this frail and
+pretty little creature had a will of her own.
+
+Bijou, who looked about fifteen or sixteen years of age, had attained
+her majority just a week ago, but from her perfect and dainty little
+person there seemed to emanate a breath of child-like candour and
+innocence. Her charm, however, which was most subtle and penetrating,
+was distinctly that of a woman, and it was this contrast which made
+Bijou so fascinating and so unlike other girls. Such as she was, she
+infatuated men, delighted women, and was adored by all.
+
+As soon as she entered the room, all rosy-looking in her pink dress of
+cloudy muslin, with a sort of flat basket filled with roses, fastened
+round her neck with pink ribbon, everyone surrounded her, glad to
+welcome the gaiety which seemed to enter with her, for until her
+arrival the large room had felt somewhat bare and empty.
+
+Paul de Rueille, who was playing billiards with his brother-in-law,
+Henry de Bracieux, came to ask for a rose from her basket, whilst
+Henry, who had followed him, took one without asking.
+
+The de Rueille children, leaving the abbe, who continued calling out
+the loto numbers in a monotonous tone, went sliding across to the
+young girl, and hung about her. Their mother called them back.
+
+"Leave Bijou alone, children; you worry her!"
+
+"Robert! Marcel! come here," said the abbe, getting up.
+
+"Oh, no," protested Bijou, "let them alone; I like to have them!"
+
+She took the basket from her neck, and was just about to put it down
+on the billiard-table, when she suddenly stopped.
+
+"Oh, no! I must have mercy on the game."
+
+"Isn't she nice? she thinks of everything," murmured Henry de
+Bracieux, quite touched.
+
+"Come and kiss me, Bijou," said the marchioness.
+
+Denyse had just put her basket down on a divan. She took from it a
+full-blown rose, and went quickly across to her grandmother, whom she
+kissed over and over again in a fondling way as a child.
+
+"There," she said, presenting her rose, "it is the most beautiful one
+of all!" Her voice was rather high-pitched, rather "a head-voice"
+perhaps, but it sounded so young and clear, and then, too, she spoke
+so distinctly, and with such an admirable pronunciation.
+
+"You have not seen Pierrot, then?" asked the marchioness.
+
+"Pierrot?" said Bijou, as though she were trying to recall something
+to her memory. "Why, yes, I have seen him; he was with me a minute or
+two helping me to gather the flowers, and then he went away to his
+father, who was shooting rabbits in the wood."
+
+"I might have thought as much; that boy does not do a thing."
+
+"But, grandmamma, he is here for his holidays."
+
+"His holidays if you like; but, all the same, if a tutor has been
+engaged for him, it is surely so that he may work."
+
+"But he must take some rest now and again, poor Pierrot--and his tutor
+too."
+
+"They do nothing else, though. Well, as long as my brother knows it,
+and as long as it suits him--"
+
+"It suits him to-day, anyhow, for he told them to join him in the
+wood."
+
+"He told _them_?" repeated the old lady; and then she continued slily,
+"and so the tutor has been gathering roses, too?"
+
+"Yes," replied Denyse, with her beautiful, frank smile, and not
+noticing her grandmother's mocking intonation, "he has been gathering
+roses, too."
+
+"He probably enjoyed that more than shooting rabbits," said the
+marchioness, glancing at a tall young man who was just entering the
+room, "for if he went to join your uncle in the wood, he did not stay
+long with him anyhow!"
+
+"Why--no!"--said Bijou in astonishment, and then leaving her
+grandmother, she advanced to meet the young man.
+
+"Did you not find uncle, Monsieur Giraud?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, yes, mademoiselle," he replied, turning very red. "Yes,
+certainly, we found M. de Jonzac; but--I--I was obliged to come in--as
+I have some of Pierre's exercises to correct." And then, doubtlessly
+wanting to explain how it was that he had come into that room, he
+added, slightly confused: "I just came in here to see whether I had
+left my books about--I thought--but--I do not see them here--"
+
+He had not taken his eyes off Bijou, and was going away again when the
+marchioness, looking at him indulgently, and with an amused expression
+in her eyes, called him back.
+
+"Will you not stay and have a smoke here, Monsieur Giraud? Is there
+such a hurry as all that for the correction of those exercises?"
+
+"Oh, no, madame!" answered the tutor eagerly, retracing his steps,
+"there is no hurry at all."
+
+The old lady leaned forward towards Madame de Rueille, who was
+silently working at a handsome piece of tapestry, and said to her with
+a smile: "He is not like the abbe--this young man!"
+
+Bertrade lifted her pretty head and answered gravely:
+
+"No!"
+
+"You look as though you pitied him?"
+
+"I do, with all my heart."
+
+"And why, pray?"
+
+"Because the poor fellow, after coming to us as gay as a lark a
+fortnight ago, and winning all our hearts, will go away from here sad
+and unhappy, his heart heavy with grief or anger."
+
+"Oh, you always see the black side of things; he thinks Bijou is
+sweet, he admires her and likes to be with her; but that is all!"
+
+"You know very well, grandmamma, that Bijou is perfectly adorable, and
+so attractive that everyone is fascinated by her."
+
+The marchioness pointed to her great-nephew, Jean de Blaye, who, ever
+since he had left the window, did not appear to be taking any notice
+of what was going on around him.
+
+"Everyone?" she said, almost angrily; "no, not everyone. Look at Jean,
+he is as blind as the abbe!"
+
+Jean de Blaye was sitting motionless in a large arm-chair; there was
+an impassive expression on his face, and a far-away look in his eyes.
+He appeared to be in a reverie, and the younger lady glanced across at
+him, as she answered:
+
+"I am afraid that he is only acting blind!"
+
+"Oh, nonsense!" said Madame de Bracieux delighted, "do you think that
+Bijou could possibly interest Jean enough, for instance, to keep him,
+even for a time, from his actresses, his horses, his theatres, and the
+stupid life he generally leads?--You really think so?"
+
+"I do think so!"
+
+"And how long have you thought this?"
+
+"Oh, only just now. When he told us with such conviction that '_he did
+not care all that much about being reminded of Paris_,' I felt that he
+was speaking the truth. I began to wonder then what could have made
+him forget Paris. I wondered and wondered--and I found out."
+
+"Bijou?"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"So much the better if that really should be so. For my part, I do not
+think it looks like it. He takes no notice of her."
+
+"When we are watching him--no."
+
+"He seems low-spirited and absent-minded."
+
+"He would be for less cause than this. Jean never does things in a
+half-and-half way. If he were in love, I mean seriously, he would be
+desperately in love; and if he were to be desperately in love with
+Bijou, or if he were to discover that he was falling in love with her,
+it certainly would not be a thing for him to rejoice over. He
+cannot--no matter how much he might wish it--he cannot marry Bijou.
+It is not only that he is her cousin, but he is not rich enough."
+
+"He has about twenty thousand pounds. Bijou has eight thousand, to
+which I shall add another four thousand, that makes twelve
+thousand--total between them thirty-two thousand."
+
+"Well, and can you imagine Bijou with an income of about nine hundred
+pounds a year?"
+
+"No. I know that _she_ would consider it enough. She makes her own
+dresses; everyone says they do that, but, in this case, it is a fact.
+Then she is very industrious and clever; she understands housekeeping
+wonderfully well, and for the last four years has managed everything
+both here and in Paris; but I could not possibly reconcile myself to
+the idea of seeing her enduring the hardships of a limited income--and
+it would be limited. Good heavens! though, I hope she will not go and
+fall in love with Jean."
+
+"Oh, I do not think she will."
+
+"You see, he is charming, the wretch; and it appears he is a great
+favourite?"
+
+"Yes, certainly; but then Bijou is made so much of. She is surrounded
+and adored by everyone, so that she has not much time to fall in love
+herself!"
+
+"And then, too, she is such a child!" said the marchioness, glancing
+at her grand-daughter with infinite tenderness.
+
+Bijou was standing near the billiard-table watching the game, and
+laughing as she teased the players.
+
+At a little distance from her, the young professor was also standing
+motionless, watching her with a rapturous expression in his eyes.
+
+Suddenly Jean de Blaye rose abruptly, looking annoyed, and moved away
+in the direction of the door that led to the flight of steps going
+down to the garden.
+
+"Wait a minute!" called out Denyse, "wait, and let me give you a
+flower!"
+
+She went to the basket, and taking out a yellow rose scarcely opened,
+she crossed over to her cousin, and put it in his button-hole.
+
+"There!" she said, stepping back and looking satisfied, "you are very
+fine like that!" And then turning towards the tutor, she said in the
+most winning way, and with perfect ease: "Monsieur Giraud, will you
+have a rosebud too?"
+
+The young man took the flower, and, almost trembling with confusion,
+tried in vain to fasten it in his coat.
+
+"Ah! you can't do it!" said the young girl, taking it gently from
+him. "Let me put it in for you, will you?"
+
+He was so tall that, in order to reach his button-hole, she was
+obliged to stand on tip-toes. She slipped the flower through slowly,
+and with the greatest care, and when she had finished she gave a
+little tap to the shiny revers of the old coat, which were all out of
+shape and faded.
+
+"There, that's right!" she said, smiling pleasantly; "like that, it is
+perfectly lovely!"
+
+The marchioness, her eyes shining with affection, was looking at her.
+
+"What do you think of her? isn't she sweet?" the old lady said to
+Bertrade, who seemed to be admiring Bijou also.
+
+Madame de Rueille looked at the young tutor, who was standing still in
+the middle of the room.
+
+"Poor fellow!" she said.
+
+"What, still! Well, decidedly, Monsieur Giraud appears to interest you
+very much!"
+
+"Very much indeed! I am sorry for people who are sensitive and
+unhappy; for, you see, I am one of the merry ones myself!"
+
+"Oh!--I don't know about that. You said just now that Jean was acting
+blind; well, I should say you were acting merry. You are merry, for
+instance, when anyone is looking at you."
+
+The young wife did not answer, she only pointed towards Bijou.
+
+"She is one of the genuinely merry ones, at any rate, is she not,
+grandmamma?"
+
+Bijou had just given the children some flowers, and was now speaking
+to the Abbe Courteil.
+
+"And you too, monsieur, I want to decorate you with my flowers! There,
+now, just tell me if that rose is not beautiful? Ah, if you want a
+lovely rose, that certainly is one."
+
+She was holding out to him an enormous rose, which was full blown, and
+looked like a regular cabbage.
+
+The abbe had risen from his seat without loosing the bag containing
+the loto numbers. He looked scared, and stammered out as he stepped
+back:
+
+"Mademoiselle, it is indeed a superb flower; but--but I should not
+know where to put it. The button-holes of my cassock are so small, the
+stalk would never go through. I am very much obliged, mademoiselle, I
+really am. I--but there is no place to put it--it is--"
+
+"Oh, but there is room for it in your girdle," she answered, laughing.
+"There, monsieur, look there--it is as though it had been made for
+it!"
+
+Standing at some little distance away, she pushed the long stalk of
+the flower between the abbe's girdle and cassock.
+
+He thanked her as he bowed awkwardly.
+
+"I am much obliged, mademoiselle, it is very kind of you; I am quite
+touched--quite touched."
+
+At every movement the rose swung about in the loose girdle. It moved
+backwards and forwards in the most comical way, with ridiculous little
+jerks, showing up to advantage against the cassock which was all
+twisted like a screw round the abbe's thin body.
+
+"Now, I am going to arrange my vases," remarked Bijou, when she had
+adorned everyone with flowers.
+
+"Where?" asked M. de Rueille.
+
+"Why, in the dining-room, in the drawing-room, in the hall, here,
+everywhere."
+
+"We will come and help you!" exclaimed several voices.
+
+"Oh, no!--instead of helping me you would just hinder me."
+
+She picked up her basket and went away, looking very merry and fresh.
+Her muslin dress fluttered round her, as pink and pretty as she
+herself was. As soon as she had disappeared, it seemed as though a
+veil of melancholy had suddenly spread itself over the large room. No
+one spoke, and there was not a sound to be heard except the knocking
+together of the billiard-balls, and the rattling of the numbers, which
+the abbe kept shaking all the time, bringing into this game, as into
+everything else, the methodical precision which was habitual to him.
+
+"Grandmamma," said Henry de Bracieux at length, "you ought not to
+allow Bijou to give us the slip like this, especially at Bracieux. In
+Paris it is not so bad, but here, when she leaves us we are done for;
+she is the ray of sunshine that lights up the whole house."
+
+The marchioness shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"You talk nonsense; you forget that very soon Bijou will _give us the
+slip_, as you so elegantly put it, in a more decisive way."
+
+"What do you mean? She is not going to be married?"
+
+"Well, I hope so."
+
+"You have someone in view?" asked M. de Rueille, not very well
+pleased.
+
+"No, not at all; but, you see, the said someone may present himself
+one day or another--not here, of course, there is no one round here
+who would be suitable for Bijou; but it is very probable that this
+winter in Paris--"
+
+Henry de Bracieux, a fine-looking young man of twenty-five years of
+age, with a strong resemblance to his sister Bertrade, was listening
+to the words of the marchioness. His eyebrows were knitted, and there
+was a serious expression on his face. He missed a very easy cannon,
+and his brother-in-law was astonished.
+
+"Oh, hang it!" he exclaimed; "it is too warm to play billiards. I am
+going out to have a nap in the hammock."
+
+His sister watched him as he left the room, and then turning towards
+the marchioness, she whispered:
+
+"He, too!"
+
+The old lady replied, with a touch of ill-humour:
+
+"Bijou cannot marry all the family, anyhow. Ah! here she is, we must
+not talk about it."
+
+Just at that moment the graceful figure of the young girl appeared in
+the doorway leading to the stone steps.
+
+"How many people will there be to dinner on Thursday, grandmamma?" she
+asked, without entering the room.
+
+"Why, I have not counted. There are the La Balues--"
+
+"That makes four."
+
+"The Juzencourts--"
+
+"Six."
+
+"Young Bernes--"
+
+"Seven."
+
+"Madame de Nezel--"
+
+"Eight."
+
+"That's all."
+
+"And we are ten to start with, that makes eighteen. We can do with
+twenty; will you invite the Dubuissons, grandmamma? I should so like
+to have Jeanne."
+
+"I am perfectly willing. I will write to them."
+
+"It isn't worth while. I shall have to go to Pont-sur-Loire to get
+things in, and I can invite them."
+
+"My poor dear child! you are going to the town through this heat?"
+
+"We _must_ see about the things for this dinner. To-day is
+Tuesday--and then I want to speak to Mere Rafut, and see if she can
+come to work. I have no dresses to put on, and there will be the
+races, and some dances."
+
+"Oh!" said the marchioness, evidently annoyed, "you are going to have
+that frightful old woman again."
+
+"Why, grandmamma, she's a very nice, straightforward sort of woman,
+and then she works so well."
+
+"That may be; but her appearance is terribly against her."
+
+"Yes, grandmamma, that is so, she is not beautiful--Mere Rafut is old
+and poor, and old age and poverty do not improve the appearance; but
+it is so convenient for me to have her; and she is so happy to come
+here, and be well-paid, and well-fed, and well-treated, after being
+accustomed to her actresses, who either pay her badly or not at all."
+
+By this time Bijou was standing just behind Madame de Bracieux's
+arm-chair. She added in a coaxing way, as she threw her pretty pink
+arms around the old lady's neck:
+
+"It is quite a charity, grandmamma; and a charity not only to Mere
+Rafut, but to me."
+
+"Have her then," answered the marchioness, "have your frightful old
+woman--let her come as much as you like!"
+
+"Well, then, good-bye for the present."
+
+"How are you going?--in the victoria?"
+
+"No, in the trap; I shall be quicker if I take the trap--I can go
+there in twenty-five minutes.
+
+"And _you_ are going to drive?"
+
+"Why, yes, grandmamma."
+
+"And with the sun so hot? You'll have a stroke."
+
+"Shall I drive you, Bijou?" proposed M. de Rueille. "I want to get
+some tobacco, and some powder, and two fishing-rods to replace those
+that Pierrot broke. I shall be glad to go to town."
+
+"And I shall be delighted for you to drive me."
+
+"When shall we start?"
+
+"At once, please."
+
+Just as they were going out of the room, the marchioness called out to
+them:
+
+"Beware of accidents. Don't go too quickly downhill."
+
+"You can be quite easy, grandmamma, I never lose my head."
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+
+IN the evening as they were driving through Pont-sur-Loire on their
+way back to Bracieux, M. de Rueille said to Denyse:
+
+"There is no mistake about it, Bijou, my dear with you there is no
+chance of passing by unnoticed. Oh, dear, no!"
+
+She glanced at the foot-passengers, who were turning round to look at
+her with intense curiosity, and answered:
+
+"It's my pink dress that--"
+
+"No, it is not your dress, it is you yourself."
+
+Her large violet eyes grew larger with astonishment as she asked:
+
+"I, myself? But why?"
+
+"Oh, Bijou, my dear, it is not at all nice of you to act like that
+with your poor old cousin."
+
+"You think I am acting?" she exclaimed, looking more and more
+astounded.
+
+"Well, it appears like it to me; it is impossible for you not to know
+how pretty you are. In the first place, you have eyes, and then you
+are told often enough for--"
+
+"I am told?--by whom?"
+
+"By everyone. Why, even I, although I am nearly your uncle and a
+settled-down respectable sort of man."
+
+"'Nearly my uncle.' No--considering that Bertrade is my first cousin;
+and, as to the rest--" She stopped abruptly, and then finished with a
+laugh. "You flatter yourself!"
+
+"Alas, no! I shall soon be forty-two."
+
+She looked at him in surprise.
+
+"Oh, well! you don't look it."
+
+"Thank you! There now! Do you see how all the natives are gazing at
+you? I can assure you, Bijou, that when I come to do any shopping
+alone, they do not watch me so eagerly."
+
+"I tell you it is this pink dress that astonishes them."
+
+"But why should they be astonished? They are accustomed to that,
+because you often come to Pont-sur-Loire, and you always wear pink."
+
+Ever since she had left off her mourning for her parents, who had died
+four years ago, Denyse had adopted pink as her only colour for all her
+dresses. The reason was, she said, because her grandmother preferred
+seeing her dressed thus. Anyhow, this pink, a very pale, soft shade,
+like that of the petals of a rose just as it begins to fall, suited
+her to perfection, as it was almost exactly the same delicate colour
+as her skin.
+
+She always wore it, and when the weather was cold or gloomy she would
+put on a long, gathered cloak, which covered her entirely, and on
+taking this dark wrap off, she would come out, looking as fresh and
+sweet as a flower, and seem to brighten up everything around her.
+
+Her dresses were always of batiste, muslin, or some soft woollen
+material, comparatively inexpensive. The greatest luxury to which she
+treated herself now and again was a _taffetas_ or surah silk. And
+then, nothing could be more simple than the way these dresses were
+made--always the same little gathered blouses and straight skirts, and
+never any trimming whatever, except, perhaps, in the winter, a narrow
+edging of fur.
+
+"Yes, that's quite true," she said thoughtfully, "I am always in pink.
+You don't like that?"
+
+"Not like it? I--good heavens!--why, I think it is perfectly charming!
+I tell you, Bijou, that if I were not an old man, I should make love
+to you all the time!"
+
+"You are not an old man!"
+
+"Very many thanks! If, however, you do not look upon me as quite an
+old man--which, by the bye, is certainly debatable--I am at any rate a
+married man."
+
+"Yes, that's true, and so much the better for you, for there is
+nothing more stupid and tiresome than men who are always making love."
+
+"Well, then, you must know a terrible number of people who are stupid
+and tiresome."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because everyone makes love to you--more or less!"
+
+"Not at all! Why, just think! I was brought up in the most isolated
+way, like a veritable savage. When papa and mamma were living, they
+were always ill, and I was shut up with them, and never saw anyone. It
+is scarcely four years since I came to live with grandmamma, where I
+do see people."
+
+"Oh, yes; plenty of them, and no mistake!"
+
+"You speak as though that annoyed you?"
+
+She glanced sideways at Rueille, her eyes shining beneath her drooping
+eyelids, whilst he replied, with a touch of irritation in his voice in
+spite of himself:
+
+"Annoyed me, but why should it? Are your affairs any business of mine;
+have I any voice in the matter of anything that concerns you?"
+
+"Which means that if you had a voice in the matter--?"
+
+"Ah, there would certainly be many changes, and many reforms that I
+should make."
+
+"For instance?"
+
+"Well, I should not allow you, if I were in your grandmamma's place,
+to be quite as affable and as ready to welcome everyone; I should want
+to keep you rather more for myself, and prevent your letting strangers
+have so much of you."
+
+"Yes," she said, with a pensive expression, "perhaps you are right."
+
+"And all the more so because we shall have you to ourselves for so
+short a time now."
+
+The large candid eyes, with their sweet expression, were fixed on Paul
+de Rueille as he continued:
+
+"You will be marrying soon? You will be leaving us?"
+
+Bijou laughed. "How you arrange things. There is no question, as far
+as I know, of my marriage."
+
+"There is nothing definite--no; at least, I do not think so. But,
+practically, it is the one subject in question, and grandmamma thinks
+of nothing else."
+
+"Oh, well, I am not like her then, for I scarcely ever give it a
+thought." And then she added, turning grave all at once: "Besides, my
+marriage is very problematical."
+
+"Problematical?"
+
+"Why, yes,--in the first place, I should want the man who marries me
+to love me."
+
+"Oh, well, you can be easy on that score; you will have no difficulty
+about that."
+
+Her fresh young voice took an almost solemn tone as she continued:
+
+"And then I should want to love him, too."
+
+"Oh, so you will. One always does love one's husband--to begin with,"
+said Rueille carelessly; and then he stopped short, thinking that the
+words "to begin with" were unnecessary.
+
+Bijou had not understood, however, nor even heard, for she asked:
+
+"What did you say?"
+
+"I said that he will be very happy."
+
+"Who will be happy?"
+
+"The man you love!"
+
+"I hope so. I shall do all I can for that!"
+
+M. de Rueille seemed to be annoyed and irritated. He said, in a
+disagreeable way, as though he wanted to discourage Denyse in her
+dreams of the future:
+
+"Yes, but supposing you do not happen to meet with him?"
+
+"Well, then, I shall die an old maid, that's all! But I do not see why
+I should not meet with him. I do not ask for anything impossible,
+after all!"
+
+In a mocking tone, and a trifle aggressive, he, asked:
+
+"Would it be very indiscreet to ask you what you expect?"
+
+"Oh, not indiscreet in the slightest degree, for I can only answer
+just as I have already answered, I should simply want _to love him_! I
+do not care at all about money; I neither understand money nor worship
+it!" She turned towards her cousin, and said, in conclusion, as she
+looked up into his face: "Now, I'll tell you, I would agree to a
+marriage like Bertrade's."
+
+"With another husband," he stammered out.
+
+Very simply and naturally, and without the slightest embarrassment,
+she said, laughing:
+
+"Oh, dear no! No, I think the husband is quite nice."
+
+M. de Rueille did not answer. He could not help feeling some emotion,
+in spite of himself, at this idea that Bijou might have cared for him.
+It seemed to him that the evening air was delicious, and never had the
+setting sun, which was sinking slowly like a ball of flame into the
+Loire, appeared more brilliant to him. The little gig was so narrow,
+that, with every oscillation, his elbow touched the young girl's arm,
+whilst her soft fair hair, escaping from her large straw hat, kept
+brushing against his cheek, which began to burn.
+
+Bijou noticed his absent-mindedness.
+
+"It seems to me," she said, laughing, "that you are not listening much
+to the description of my ideal."
+
+"Oh, yes!"
+
+"Oh, no!--by the bye, have we done all the errands?"
+
+She took out of her pocket a long list, which she began to read:
+
+"_Ice. Cakes. Fruit. Fish. The Dubuissons. Speak to the butcher. Pink
+gauze. Mere Rafut. Hat. Pierrot's books. Henry's cartridges (16)._"
+
+"What's that?" asked M. de Rueille, who was looking at the list.
+"Henry has commissioned you to get his cartridges instead of telling
+me to get them?"
+
+"Yes; the time before last when he asked you, you forgot them; and
+last time you brought him number twelve cartridges, and his are number
+sixteen; therefore, he preferred--"
+
+"Ah! I can understand that; but they do take advantage of you--and
+the children too have taken advantage. '_Balloon for Marcel, pencils
+for Robert_;' Fred is the only one who has not given you any
+commissions. You need not despair though, he is only three years old;
+he will begin next year."
+
+"He did not give me any commissions, but I have brought him a picture
+book--'Puss in Boots.' He adores cats, so that will amuse him."
+
+"How delicious you are!"
+
+"Delicious! Is that saying enough? Could you not find something rather
+more eulogistic? Let us see--try now!"
+
+She was still glancing down the list; and Paul de Rueille pointed with
+the handle of his whip to a line written in pencil:
+
+"What's that?--'_Tell grandmamma about La Noriniere!_'"
+
+"Why, I met the Juzencourts, and they said I was to be sure to tell
+grandmamma that 'The Noriniere' is to be inhabited."
+
+"Ah, Clagny has sold it?"
+
+"No; he is coming back to it. It appears that he is coming every
+summer."
+
+"Ah, so much the better. Grandmamma will be very glad of that."
+
+"Yes, she likes him very much. I do not know him, this M. de Clagny,
+but I have often heard about him."
+
+"Don't you remember seeing him a long time ago?"
+
+"Why, no!"
+
+"Well, he was your godfather, anyhow!"
+
+"You are dreaming! Uncle Alexis is my godfather."
+
+"Your Uncle Jonzac is the godfather of Denyse, but it was M. de Clagny
+who was the godfather of Bijou. Yes, he said once, speaking of you
+when you were very little, _the Bijou_--and the name suited you so
+well that you have had it ever since."
+
+"Don't you think it is rather ridiculous to call me Bijou now that I
+am old?"
+
+"You look as though you were fourteen, and you always will look like
+that, I promise you."
+
+"Isn't it rather risky to promise me that?"
+
+She laughed as she glanced at him, and he, too, looked at her as
+though he could not take his eyes away from the pretty, fresh young
+face turned towards him. He was paying no attention to the road, which
+was in a very bad state, until suddenly the right wheel went into a
+rut, and the gig gave a jerk, which sent Denyse on to him. She clung
+to his arm with all her might, and they remained an instant like this
+until they were able to regain their balance. The wheel, then, in some
+way or another, got clear of the deep rut in which it had been caught,
+and the horse went on again at a quick pace as before.
+
+"That's right!" said Bijou, laughing heartily. "I certainly thought we
+should be upset."
+
+"It was as near a shave as possible," he answered gravely.
+
+She loosened the grasp of her small fingers, which had been pressed
+tightly on her cousin's shoulder.
+
+"Is it really over?" she asked. "You are not going to begin again, I
+hope?"
+
+M. de Rueille did not answer. He was looking at her with an
+absent-minded, troubled expression in his eyes.
+
+"Yes; but, instead of looking at me, do look before you," she went on.
+"We shall get into another rut directly, you'll see."
+
+"Oh, no! oh, no!" he murmured, as though he were in some dream.
+
+"I'm sure we shall be late for dinner," said Bijou; "and you know
+grandmamma does not altogether like that."
+
+Rueille touched the pony's back with the whip, and the animal,
+springing forward, jerked the little carriage violently, and then
+started off at a mad pace.
+
+This time Bijou looked stupefied.
+
+"What's that for?" she asked. "Whatever is the matter with you to-day?
+Just now you almost upset us, and now you touch Colonel with the whip,
+and you ought not to let him even guess that you have one; you have
+made him take fright," and then, seeing that the horse was calming
+down, she added, "or nearly so; you are not yourself at all."
+
+"No," he answered mechanically, "I am not myself."
+
+At the pony's first plunge Denyse had taken M. de Rueille's arm again.
+It was not that she was in the least afraid, but she was perched on a
+seat which was too high for her, so that she could not keep her
+balance, and, consequently, she tried to hold on to something firm.
+Without loosing the arm on to which she was hanging, she leant towards
+her cousin, and asked, with evident interest:
+
+"Not yourself? What is the matter? Are you ill?"
+
+"Ill? No! at least, not exactly."
+
+"What do you mean by _not exactly_? Oh, but you must not be ill. We
+have to work at our play this evening, and if you do not set about
+it, all of you, and in earnest, why, it will never be finished for
+the race-ball."
+
+"I don't care a hang about the play, and--I--if I were you--"
+
+He stopped abruptly, evidently embarrassed.
+
+"Well?" asked Bijou, "what is it? You were going to say something."
+
+"Yes," he stammered out, scarcely knowing how to put what he wanted to
+say. "I was going to remark that the design Jean has made for
+your--for Hebe's dress--"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well, it isn't the thing at all; there is too little of it."
+
+"Too little of it? Nonsense!"
+
+"It isn't nonsense. I say it is not the thing for a woman, and
+especially a young girl like you, to appear like that."
+
+Bijou looked at Paul de Rueille with a bewildered expression on her
+face, and then burst out laughing.
+
+"Oh, you are queer; you look exactly like a jealous husband."
+
+"Jealous!" he stammered out, vexed and ill at ease. "It isn't for me
+to be jealous, but I--"
+
+"No, certainly, but all the same, without being jealous, you men do
+not like a woman to look pretty, or to be nice, or amusing, for
+anyone else's benefit than just your own."
+
+"Well, admitting that that is so, it is quite natural."
+
+"Ah! you think so? Oh, well, a woman, on the contrary, is always glad
+when the men she likes are admired; she is delighted when other people
+like them too."
+
+"Nonsense! You do not know anything about it, my dear Bijou. You are
+most deliciously inexperienced in such things fortunately."
+
+"Why _fortunately_?" she asked, opening her soft, innocent eyes wide
+in astonishment.
+
+"Because--"
+
+He stopped short, and Bijou insisted, pinching his arm.
+
+"Well, go on--do go on."
+
+"No, it would be too complicated," he answered, evidently ill at ease,
+and trying to shake off the grasp of the strong little hand.
+
+"Too complicated!" repeated Bijou, turning red. "I detest being put
+off like that. Why will you not explain what you were thinking?"
+
+"Explain what I was thinking," he said, in a sort of fright. "Oh, no!"
+
+"No? Well, it is not nice of you."
+
+They went on for a minute or two without speaking, Bijou calm and
+smiling, and her companion with a serious, uneasy look on his face.
+
+Just as the gig was entering the avenue, Bijou turned towards M. de
+Rueille, and touching him, this time very gently, with her little
+hand, she said in a penetrating voice, which, in his agitated state of
+mind, was the last straw:
+
+"As it vexes you so much I won't wear that costume. We will get Jean
+to design another for me."
+
+He seized the hand that was resting on his arm and pressed it to his
+lips with an almost brutal tenderness.
+
+Bijou did not appear to like this passionate display of feeling. She
+drew her hand away quietly, but there was a strange gleam in her eyes
+as she said:
+
+"Take care of the gate, it is a sharp turn remember, and you are not
+in luck to-day."
+
+She then began to collect her parcels calmly, and until they arrived
+at the door of the _chateau_ she was silent and thoughtful. The first
+dinner-bell was just ringing, and Bijou ran upstairs to her room, and
+ten minutes later entered the drawing-room, arrayed in a dainty dress
+of rose-leaf coloured chiffon, with a large bunch of roses on the
+shoulder.
+
+"Why! you don't mean to say that you are here already!" exclaimed
+Madame de Rueille admiringly. "I will wager anything that that slow
+coach of a Paul is not ready."
+
+"Did you do all the commissions?" asked the marchioness.
+
+"Yes, grandmamma, and I have a special one for you. The Juzencourts
+wished me to tell you that M. de Clagny is coming back to live at The
+Noriniere, and that he will come every year."
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Madame de Bracieux, looking very delighted, "I am glad
+to hear that. I never expected to see him come back here."
+
+"Why?" asked Bijou.
+
+"Well, because when he was here he had a great grief, just at an age
+when painful impressions can never be effaced."
+
+"At what age is that?" asked Jean de Blaye, with a touch of sarcasm in
+his voice.
+
+"Forty-eight. And when you are that age, you will not be as fond of
+ridiculing everything as you are now, my dear boy; and it won't be so
+long before you get there as you think either."
+
+"So much the better," he answered, smiling; "that must be the ideal
+age--the age when one's heart is at rest."
+
+"In some cases it is at rest before that age," said the marchioness
+slily, looking at her nephew.
+
+Jean shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Yes, but it wakes up again, or, at least, it might wake up; one is
+not quite easy about it; but at forty-eight ..."
+
+"Ah! that's your opinion. Well, it is twelve years ago now since my
+old friend Clagny was forty-eight. He must therefore be sixty at
+present, and I would wager anything that his heart has never been at
+rest--never. You understand me?" And then in a lower tone, so that
+Bijou, who was just talking to Bertrade, should not hear, she added:
+"Neither his heart nor he himself."
+
+Jean laughed.
+
+"Oh, well! he's a curiosity this friend of yours. Why does he not go
+about in a show? He would get some money."
+
+"He has no need of money."
+
+"He is rich, then?"
+
+"Atrociously rich!"
+
+"Well, but what's he got?"
+
+"Sixteen thousand a year. Don't you consider that a fair amount?"
+
+"Yes," he answered, without any sign of enthusiasm, "yes, of course,
+that's very fair--for anyone who has not got it dishonestly." And
+then, after a pause, he asked: "What was this great trouble that he
+had?"
+
+"Oh, I'll tell you about it when Bijou is not here."
+
+The young girl, however, could scarcely have heard what they were
+saying. She was joking with Pierrot, who had just come into the room.
+She wanted to part his hair again, and Pierrot, a tall youth of
+seventeen, strong-looking, but overgrown, with long feet and hands,
+and a forehead covered with extraordinary bumps, was trying to make
+himself short, so that the young girl might reach up to his bushy,
+colourless hair. He was bending his head, and looking straight before
+him, with a far-away expression in his eyes, evidently enjoying having
+his hair stroked by the skilful little hands.
+
+Madame de Bracieux, seeing that Bijou was at a safe distance, ventured
+in a low voice to tell her nephew the details about the love-affair,
+which had in a way changed the whole life of her friend, M. de Clagny.
+
+Suddenly Denyse came across to the marchioness.
+
+"Grandmamma--I forgot--the Dubuissons cannot come to dinner on
+Thursday, but M. Dubuisson will bring Jeanne on Friday, and leave her
+with us for a week."
+
+"Well, then, we shall only be eighteen to dinner."
+
+"No, we shall be twenty all the same; because I saw the Tourvilles,
+and I gave them an invitation from you; I thought that--"
+
+"You did quite right."
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Bertrade, "the Tourvilles and the Juzencourts at the
+same time! We shall be sure, then, of hearing their stories of William
+the Conqueror and Charles the Bold!"
+
+"Oh, well!" exclaimed Bijou, laughing, "it will be much better like
+that, we shall have it altogether, once for all, at any rate."
+
+Just as dinner was announced, M. de Rueille entered the room. He had
+an absent-minded look, and his eyes shone strangely. He took his seat
+silently at table, and did not talk during the meal.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+
+BIJOU, assisted by Pierrot, was handing the coffee round, when
+suddenly she darted off in pursuit of Paul de Rueille, who had just
+come out of the drawing-room, and was descending the steps which led
+on to the terrace.
+
+"Stop, stop! Where are you going?" she called out.
+
+"Oh, only for a stroll," he answered, without looking round, "to get a
+breath of air, if that is possible with this heat."
+
+Bijou had already caught him up.
+
+"Oh, no, what about the play?--You must come and work."
+
+"My head aches."
+
+"Work will take it away! You really must come, we have only three
+days."
+
+"But I am not indispensable; you can do without me," said Rueille
+irritably.
+
+"Oh, but you always do the writing."
+
+"From dictation; it is not necessary to be very clever for that."
+
+"Yes it is; and then, too, we are used to you."
+
+She was on the step above him, and, bending forward, she put her arms
+round his neck, and said in a coaxing tone:
+
+"Paul, dear, come now, just to please me, you would be so nice, so
+very nice!"
+
+M. de Rueille, turning abruptly, unclasped the soft arms, which
+encircled his neck and rested against his face.
+
+"All right, all right!" he said, in a hoarse voice, "I'll come!"
+
+The young girl stepped back, and in the evening-light he could see her
+large astonished eyes shining as she gazed at him.
+
+"How cross you are!" she said timidly. "What's the matter with you?"
+He did not answer, and she asked again: "Won't you tell me?"
+
+"No, no," he said curtly, and then he re-mounted the steps and went
+into the drawing-room.
+
+Bijou followed him, and whispered to Bertrade:
+
+"I don't know what is the matter with your husband, but he is very
+bad-tempered."
+
+Madame de Rueille glanced at Paul. He looked rather fagged and
+nervous, and was trying to appear at his ease, as he talked and
+laughed noisily with the tutor, who, on the contrary, was silent and
+reserved.
+
+"Yes, certainly something is the matter with him," said Bertrade,
+rather uneasy at seeing her husband so strange. "I do not know at all
+what it is, though," she added.
+
+"Only imagine," Bijou proceeded to explain to the whole room, "Paul
+wanted to go for a stroll instead of coming to work. Yes, and it was
+not very easy to get him here, I can assure you."
+
+With a resigned look, M. de Rueille took his seat at a side table with
+a marble top. He then took up the manuscript, and, turning to the page
+which was commenced, dipped a long, quill pen into the ink.
+
+"When you are ready?"--he said calmly.
+
+"Well, but first of all, where are we?" asked M. de Jonzac.
+
+"Scene three of the second act."
+
+"Still?" exclaimed Bijou, astonished.
+
+"Alas, yes."
+
+"My dear children, you will never have it finished," remarked the
+marchioness.
+
+"Oh, yes, grandmamma, we shall," said Bijou merrily; "you will see how
+we are going to work now. Come now, we are at the third scene of the
+second act,--it is where the poet is defending himself after the
+accusations--rather spiteful ones, too--which Venus has brought
+against him."
+
+"Well, and what then?" asked M. de Rueille after a pause.
+
+"Well," said Bijou, "in my opinion, we want a little couplet there;
+what do you think, Jean?"
+
+Jean de Blaye, with an absorbed look on his face, was lounging in a
+deep arm-chair, his head thrown back on the cushions. He appeared to
+be in a reverie, and had not even heard the question.
+
+"Are you asleep?" asked Bijou.
+
+"Did you speak to me?" he asked, turning towards her.
+
+"Why, yes, I did have the honour of speaking to you. I asked you
+whether a couplet would not be the right thing there--a couplet that
+would go to some well-known air?"
+
+"Yes," he replied, in an absent sort of way, "that would do very
+well."
+
+"All right, compose it then."
+
+Jean gave a start; he was quite roused now.
+
+"I am to compose it,--why should I be the one to do it?"
+
+"Because you always do them."
+
+"Well, that's a nice reason," protested Jean. "I should say that is
+precisely why it is someone else's turn. You have only to set the
+others to work--Henry, or Uncle Alexis, or M. Giraud, or even
+Pierrot."
+
+"Why do you say _even_?" asked Pierrot, annoyed. "I should do them
+quite as well as you."
+
+"Well, do them then! for my part, I have had enough of it."
+
+"Jean," said Bijou, in a pleading tone, "don't leave us in the lurch,
+please."
+
+She was going across to him, her pretty head bent forward, and a most
+comically beseeching little pout on her lips, when M. de Rueille rose
+abruptly from his seat, and stopped her on the way:
+
+"Oh, he will do your couplets right enough; he likes doing them; sit
+down, Bijou."
+
+The young girl stood still in the middle of the room, surprised at
+this extraordinary proceeding.
+
+"But why don't _you_ sit down?" she exclaimed. "What have you come
+away from your table for?"
+
+"Ah! I have no right to leave the table without your permission?"
+
+"Jean!" began Bijou again, "come now, Jean!"
+
+Once again M. de Rueille interposed.
+
+"Why don't you kneel down to him at once?" he said, in a sharp tone.
+
+"Goodness! I don't mind doing that even if he will only be
+persuaded."
+
+She was darting across to her cousin, but Rueille caught her arm, and
+said angrily:
+
+"What nonsense! it is perfectly ridiculous!"
+
+Bijou looked at him in amazement, and stammered out:
+
+"It is you who are ridiculous!"
+
+"Oh, yes, of course," he answered, speaking harshly, "it is I who
+ought to go and sit down, and I am the one who is ridiculous; in fact,
+I am everything I ought not to be, and I always do everything I ought
+not to do."
+
+"Whatever is the matter, children?" asked Madame de Bracieux.
+
+M. de Jonzac explained, as he emptied his pipe by tapping it gently
+against a piece of furniture.
+
+"Heaven have mercy upon us! It is nothing less than Paul quarrelling
+with Bijou!"
+
+"With Bijou?" exclaimed the old lady, in perfect amazement.
+
+"Paul quarrelling with Bijou!" repeated Madame de Rueille, putting
+down the newspaper she had been reading, "impossible!"
+
+"Yes, really!" affirmed the abbe, quite horrified. "M. de Rueille is
+vexed with Mademoiselle Denyse!"
+
+"Come here, Bijou!" called out the marchioness, and the young girl
+tripped across the room to her grandmamma, and knelt down on the
+cushions at her feet.
+
+"You ought not to let Bijou go on in that way with you!" said M. de
+Rueille, going up to Jean, and speaking in a low voice.
+
+"Go on in what way? are you dreaming?"
+
+"I am not dreaming at all. Denyse is twenty years old, you know!"
+
+"Twenty-one," corrected the young man.
+
+"All the more reason--she really ought to behave more carefully!"
+
+"Poor child, she behaves perfectly!" and then looking at his cousin,
+he added: "I really don't know what's up with you?"
+
+"Oh, I'm in the wrong," murmured M. de Rueille, slightly embarrassed.
+"Of course, I'm quite in the wrong!"
+
+"Absolutely so!" said Blaye drily, getting up from his arm-chair.
+
+On seeing him move towards the door, Bijou left the marchioness, and
+rushed across to him:
+
+"Oh, no! you are not going away! Grandmamma, tell him that he is not
+to leave us like this!"
+
+"Come now, Jean," said the marchioness, half joking and half scolding,
+"don't plague them so!"
+
+The young man sat down again in despair.
+
+"And this is the country!" he exclaimed, "this is rest and holiday! I
+have to work like a nigger, writing plays--plays with couplets--and
+then go to bed regularly at two in the morning, and this is what is
+called being in clover!"
+
+Pierrot had listened to this outburst with apparent solemnity.
+
+"Continue, old man," he said jeeringly, "you interest me!"
+
+Bijou laughed, and Jean, looking annoyed, turned towards Pierrot, and
+said sarcastically, "You are very witty, my dear boy!"
+
+"Children, you are perfectly insufferable!" exclaimed Madame de
+Bracieux, raising her voice. She was looking at them in surprise,
+wondering what wind had suddenly risen to bring about this storm. She
+could not account for all these disagreeable little speeches, and the
+hostile attitude they had taken up, and which was quite a new thing to
+the old lady. Once again she called Bijou to her. The young girl was
+standing looking round at everyone with a questioning expression in
+her soft eyes.
+
+"Do you know what's the matter with them?" asked the marchioness.
+
+"I have no idea, grandmamma," she answered innocently, the wondering
+look still on her face.
+
+"Don't you see how cross they are?" continued the marchioness.
+
+"Yes, I can see that they are cross, but I do not know what it's all
+about; if it is on account of the play, why, we won't have it! I don't
+want to worry everyone with it, just because I like it; but I _do_
+like it immensely."
+
+Just at this moment M. de Rueille called out:
+
+"Well, are we going to work at this, yes or no? I have had enough of
+sitting waiting here like an imbecile."
+
+"Where are we?" asked Jean, in a way which meant, "As there's no
+getting out of it, let us start at once."
+
+"We've told you where we are--" answered Rueille, "we've told you
+twice."
+
+Bijou interposed, explaining in a conciliatory tone:
+
+"It is where the poet has to answer Venus."
+
+"Ah, yes! exactly, I remember! She has accused him of all sorts of
+things, and you want him to defend himself--"
+
+"In a couplet."
+
+"Yes, I understand--where are you going though?"
+
+Bijou was just crossing the room.
+
+"I am going across to sit by M. Giraud; he won't worry me like all of
+you."
+
+The tutor blushed, and moved slightly to make room for her on the
+divan on which he was seated. Denyse glided on, and took her place at
+his side.
+
+"We are listening," she said.
+
+Jean was twisting a pencil and a piece of paper about in his fingers.
+
+"What did Venus answer?" he asked.
+
+M. de Rueille, with an absent-minded expression on his face, was
+watching a moth fluttering round the lamp near him.
+
+"What did Venus answer?" called out several voices together, as loudly
+as possible.
+
+M. de Rueille looked aghast, and, stopping his ears, read aloud from
+the manuscript:
+
+"'_You know I do not believe a word of it._'"
+
+"Strike that out," said Jean, "and put: '_I do not believe it at all,
+you know._' And now the poet answers:
+
+      "'_L'ame d'un symboliste,
+      Madame, est un coffret melancolique d'amethyste
+      A serrure de diamant.
+      Il suffit de savoir l'ouvrir et la comprendre
+      Et le tresor eclos illumine la chambre
+      Et sourit la tristesse aux levres des amants._'"
+
+"Is that at all amusing?" asked M. de Rueille.
+
+"Well, hang it all!" exclaimed Jean irritably, "I do not say that it
+is precisely a _chef-d'oeuvre_! Bijou asked for a couplet--I have
+given her a couplet to the best of my ability, but I don't wish to
+hinder you from giving us a better one."
+
+"To what air will that go?" asked Bijou.
+
+"Ah, yes, that's true, we want an air for it. What is there?"
+
+"You might put '_Air. J'en guette un petit de mon age_,'" suggested
+Rueille.
+
+"Does that go to it?"
+
+"What do you mean by 'does it go to it?'"
+
+"Why, that air."
+
+"I don't know. I don't even know what the air is."
+
+"Then why do you suggest that we should take it?"
+
+"Oh! because I often see things to that air: '_J'en guette un petit de
+mon age._' I just remembered seeing it, and there are lots of couplets
+that are put to it."
+
+"But the poet's lines are longer than that," remarked Bijou,
+"especially the second one. No--one could never sing them to that
+air--nor to any other."
+
+"Ah, yes!--I did not think of that."
+
+"Fortunately, Bijou thinks of everything," put in Pierrot, with pride.
+
+"We'll find an air for it presently," said Jean. "Let's go on; do
+let's go on, or we never shall finish it. Who's on the stage at
+present?"
+
+And then, as M. de Rueille was biting the end of his pen and watching
+Bijou, so that he did not appear to have heard, Blaye exclaimed:
+
+"Paul, are you there? or have you gone out for a time?"
+
+"I am there."
+
+"Oh, very well! then will you have the kindness to tell me which of
+the characters are at present on the scene?"
+
+"Wait a minute! I'll just look."
+
+"What?" exclaimed Bijou, "do you mean to say you have to look before
+you can tell us?"
+
+"Well, you do not imagine, I presume, that I know by heart all the
+insane things that each of you has been pleased to dictate to me."
+
+"I know them all anyhow," and then, turning towards Jean de Blaye, she
+answered his question. "We have on the scene at present, Venus, the
+Poet, Thomas Vireloque, and the Opportunist, and we said yesterday
+that after the introduction of the Poet to Venus, we would let Madame
+de Stael come in."
+
+"Very well, we will let her enter at once."
+
+"Have you found anyone for Madame de Stael?" asked Rueille; "up to the
+present no one has wanted to act her part."
+
+"No," said Bijou; "just now I asked Madame de Juzencourt again, but
+she refuses energetically; and if Bertrade refuses too--"
+
+"Bertrade refuses absolutely," replied the young wife, very gently.
+
+"It isn't nice of you."
+
+"Is Madame de Stael indispensable?" asked Uncle Jonzac.
+
+"Quite indispensable," answered Bijou, emphatically. "We must
+absolutely find some way of--" And then suddenly breaking off, as a
+new idea struck her, she exclaimed gaily: "Why, Henry can take
+it--Madame de Stael's _role_; he has scarcely any moustache."
+
+"I?" cried Bracieux. "_I_ act Madame de Stael?"
+
+"She was rather masculine; it will do very well."
+
+"But, good heavens!--I am not going to appear before people I know
+arrayed in a low-necked dress, a turban, and all padded up--why, it
+would be frightful!"
+
+"Not at all! Oh, come now--you don't want pressing, I hope?"
+
+"And you are not going to spoil the whole thing by being disobliging
+over it," added Pierrot, with a virtuous air.
+
+"Disobliging?" exclaimed Henry, turning towards him; "it is very
+evident that you are not in my place. By the bye, though, you might
+very well be in my place;" and then seeing that Pierrot looked
+horror-stricken, he continued: "Why shouldn't you take it instead of
+me--you have less moustache even than I have!"
+
+"Yes, but I am too scraggy," declared Pierrot cunningly. "Madame de
+Stael was rather a stout-looking woman."
+
+"Scraggy? you, the athlete!"
+
+Jean de Blaye knocked the floor with a billiard-cue for silence.
+
+"We will think about who is to act Madame de Stael when we have found
+out what she has to say--Well, then, she enters--Are you not going to
+write, Paul?"
+
+"What do you want me to write?"
+
+"Well, just write: '_Madame de Stael enters by_--' Yes, but that's
+the point--by which door does she enter?"
+
+"I have put '_from the back of stage._' Whenever you don't tell me how
+they come in, I always put '_from the back of stage._'"
+
+"All right! Then we will leave '_from the back of the stage._'"
+
+
+     "_Madame de Stael (to Thomas Vireloque)_: 'I am Madame de
+     Stael.'
+
+     _Thomas Vireloque_: 'Beg pardon?'
+
+     _Madame de Stael_: 'I am Madame de Stael.'
+
+     _Venus_: 'What have you to tell us?'
+
+     _The Opportunist_: 'It is very curious--I took you for a
+     Turk.'
+
+     _The Poet_: 'And I--'"
+
+
+"Wait a minute!" said M. de Rueille, "I've made a mistake."
+
+"How could you?"
+
+"How could I? The same way we generally do make mistakes, of course--I
+wasn't thinking."
+
+"That's about it," said Bijou. "I don't know what's the matter with
+you, but you certainly are absent-minded this evening."
+
+Without answering, Rueille drew his quill-pen across the paper,
+bearing on heavily, so that the pen gave a plaintive screech.
+
+"What are you doing now?" asked Jean.
+
+"I am crossing it out."
+
+"What are you crossing out?"
+
+"Well, I had written the same sentences over four times each."
+
+Bijou and Blaye got up to examine M. de Rueille's work, and the young
+girl read out:
+
+
+     "_Madame de Stael_: 'I am Madame de Stael.'
+
+     _Thomas Vireloque_: 'Beg pardon?'
+
+     _Madame de Stael_; 'I am Madame de Stael.'
+
+     _Thomas Vireloque_: 'Beg pardon?'
+
+     _Madame de Stael_; 'I am Madame de Stael.'"
+
+
+"Oh, yes," said Bijou, "you must cross that out!"
+
+"No, leave it as it is, on the contrary," protested Jean, laughing;
+"they'll think that Maeterlinck collaborated with us--it will be
+capital."
+
+"Supposing we were to retire," proposed M. de Jonzac. "Paul is
+half-asleep, that's why he wrote the same thing over three times
+without noticing it. Abbe Courteil is fast asleep, and, as for me, I
+am dying to follow his example."
+
+"Oh," said Bijou, "it is scarcely one o'clock."
+
+"Well, but it seems to me that in the country--What do you say about
+the matter, Monsieur Giraud?"
+
+"Oh, as for me, monsieur, I could sit up all night without feeling
+sleepy," replied the young tutor, without taking his eyes off Bijou.
+
+"My dear children," said the marchioness, getting up, "your uncle is
+quite right, you must go to bed. Bijou, will you see that the books
+you had out of the library are put back?"
+
+"Yes grandmamma, I will put them back myself."
+
+When the others had gone upstairs, M. de Rueille asked:
+
+"Shall I help you, Bijou? two will do it more quickly--"
+
+"No, you don't know anything about the library; you would mix them all
+up. I must have someone who knows where the books go." And then
+turning towards the tutor, who was just going out of the room, she
+said to him, in the most charming way, as though to excuse the liberty
+she was taking: "Monsieur Giraud, would _you_ help me to put the books
+up?"
+
+The young man stopped short, too delighted even for words. As he
+remained standing there, she pointed to the open door leading into the
+hall and said gently:
+
+"Will you shut the door, please? And then, if you will take Moliere, I
+will bring Aristophanes, and we will come back for the others--yes,
+that's it."
+
+As she tripped along with the books, she chattered away, not as though
+she were addressing her companion, but rather as though she were going
+on with her thoughts aloud.
+
+"What was Jean looking for in Aristophanes when he only wanted to make
+Thomas Vireloque and Madame de Stael talk?" And then breaking off
+abruptly, she asked:
+
+"Do you think it will be interesting--our play?"
+
+"Oh, yes, mademoiselle."
+
+"Why do you never help us? you ought to work at it, too."
+
+"Oh, I am not very well up in that sort of thing, mademoiselle;
+politics and society talk are like sealed books to me, and I do not
+exactly see either--"
+
+"And then, probably, you would rather be just a spectator?"
+
+"Unfortunately, mademoiselle, to my great regret, I shall not even be
+that."
+
+"What?" she exclaimed, in amazement, "you will not see our play?"
+
+"No, mademoiselle."
+
+"But, why?"
+
+"Oh!" he replied, dreadfully embarrassed, "for a very ridiculous
+reason."
+
+"But what is it?"
+
+"Mademoiselle--I--"
+
+"Do please tell me why?" she said, and as she leaned forward towards
+him, looking so graceful and charming, the perfume from her hair
+plunged the young man into a sort of enervating torpor.
+
+"Why will you not tell me?" she said at length, almost sadly; "don't
+you look upon me a little as your friend?"
+
+"Oh, mademoiselle," he stammered out, "I--I cannot appear at this
+soiree because--you will see how prosaic my reason is--the fact is, I
+have not a dress-coat."
+
+"But you have plenty of time to send for your dress-coat; besides, you
+will want it for Thursday, there is a dinner on Thursday."
+
+Giraud blushed crimson.
+
+"But, mademoiselle, I cannot send for it either for Thursday or for
+later on, because I--I haven't one."
+
+"Not at all?"
+
+"Not at all!"
+
+"Oh, you are joking?"
+
+"No, I am not joking, mademoiselle! I do not possess a dress-coat."
+And then he added with a smile which was quite pathetic: "And there
+are plenty of poor wretches like I am who are in the same
+predicament!"
+
+"Oh!" said Bijou, taking the tutor's hand with an abrupt movement, "do
+forgive me--how horrid and thoughtless I am! You will detest me, shall
+you not?"
+
+She pressed his hand slowly in a way which sent a thrill through him.
+
+"Detest you?" he stammered out, almost beside himself with joy. "I
+adore you!--I simply adore you!"
+
+Bijou gazed at him in a startled way, but there was a tender
+expression in her eyes, which were dimmed with tears. Her voice was
+quite changed when she spoke again:
+
+"Go away now!" she said, "and do not say that again; you must never,
+never say it again!"
+
+When he reached the door he turned round, and saw that Bijou had
+thrown herself down on the divan, and was sobbing, with her face
+buried in the cushions. He wanted to go back to her, but he did not
+dare, and, without saying another word, he left the room.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+
+BIJOU, who, as a rule, was to be seen every morning trotting about,
+either in the house or the park, did not appear until after the first
+luncheon-bell.
+
+Pierrot, who had been quite uneasy, rushed across to meet her, and
+assailed her with questions before she had had time to say
+good-morning to the marchioness and to her Uncle Alexis.
+
+He wanted to know why he had not seen her as usual in the dairy, where
+she always went every morning to inspect the cheeses. Why had she not
+been there, as she had not been out riding?
+
+"How do you know that I have not been out riding?" asked Bijou.
+
+"Because Patatras was in the stable," replied Pierrot. "I went to
+see."
+
+"Oh, then you keep a watch on me?" she said, laughing.
+
+"That is not keeping a watch on you," answered Pierrot, turning red;
+"and then, too, it isn't only me! we were both of us--M. Giraud--"
+
+"What grammar--good heavens--what grammar!" exclaimed M. de Jonzac, in
+despair.
+
+"What's it matter? If there was anyone here, I'd take care to put the
+style on; but when there's only us!" And then turning to Bijou, he
+continued: "It's quite true, you know! M. Giraud was just as much
+surprised as I. He kept on saying all the time: 'We always see
+mademoiselle every day hurrying about everywhere, she must be ill!'
+And then I'd say, 'Oh, no! it can't be that! the Bijou is never ill!'
+You see, Monsieur Giraud, I was quite right--"
+
+"No, you were wrong! I was not exactly ill, but tired, out of sorts. I
+am only just up."
+
+She walked across to the tutor, who was leaning so heavily against the
+window-frame that it seemed as though he wanted to hollow out a niche
+for himself with his back.
+
+"I want to thank you, Monsieur Giraud," said Bijou, holding out her
+hand to him, "for being so kind as to think about me."
+
+Very pale, and visibly embarrassed, the young man scarcely dared touch
+the soft little hand lying so confidingly in his; he looked very
+delighted, though, at being treated with such cordiality, as it was
+more than he had ever expected again.
+
+"Mademoiselle," he stammered out, seized with a vague desire either
+to run away or else to give way to his emotion, "please do not believe
+that I should have taken the liberty of making all those remarks."
+
+"Oh, well, it would not have mattered; there is plenty of liberty
+allowed with _the Bijou_, as Pierrot would say." And then suddenly
+looking very thoughtful and absorbed, she asked: "Have they been
+working at the play this morning?"
+
+"Working?" exclaimed Pierrot, with an air of surprise; "working
+without you there? Oh, by jingo, no: it's quite enough to peg away at
+it when you are with us, without going at it while you are away. Oh,
+no! it would be too bad--that would! We had a dose of it last
+night--the precious play--and I, more particularly, because I am
+obliged to work at other things."
+
+Bijou laughed heartily. "Are you not afraid of tiring yourself with
+working so hard as all that?"
+
+"If he continues at the rate he is going," said M. de Jonzac, "he will
+never take his degree, will he, Monsieur Giraud?"
+
+"I am afraid not, monsieur, I am very much afraid not," replied the
+tutor gently. "Pierrot is very intelligent, but so thoughtless, and so
+absent-minded always, especially since our arrival here!"
+
+"Oh! not any more than you are, at any rate, Monsieur Giraud,"
+retorted Pierrot. "It's quite true! I don't know what's the matter
+with you, but your thoughts are always wool-gathering, and you don't
+go in for books as you did before. Why, even _maths_ you don't seem so
+mad on--you don't do anything now except look after me, and go off
+writing poetry."
+
+"You write poetry, Monsieur Giraud?" asked Madame de Rueille, entering
+the room, followed by Jean and Henry.
+
+"Oh, madame," stuttered the poor fellow, not knowing where to put
+himself nor what to say, "I write some sort, but it is--not exactly
+poetry."
+
+"You write charming poetry!" said Jean, and then, as the young tutor
+looked at him in astonishment, he continued: "Yes, you write very good
+poetry--and then you lose it; little Marcel has just picked up these
+verses and brought them to me."
+
+He smiled as he held out to Giraud a folded paper, the writing on
+which was invisible.
+
+"Let me see them!" said Bijou, holding out her hand.
+
+"Oh, mademoiselle!" cried the tutor, stepping forward, terrified,
+"please do not insist!" And then in order to explain his own
+agitation, he added: "They are wretched verses; please let me put
+them out of sight. I will show you some others which are more worth
+looking at."
+
+Bijou's hand was still held out, and she stood there waiting, looking
+very frank and innocent.
+
+"Oh, please, Jean, let me see these all the same; that need not
+prevent M. Giraud writing some more that we can see, too."
+
+"I cannot show you a letter," replied Jean, handing the paper to the
+distracted tutor, "and this is a kind of letter, and belongs to the
+person who wrote it."
+
+"Thank you," stammered out Giraud, thoroughly abashed, "I am much
+obliged, monsieur." And he at once put the troublesome scrap of paper
+into his pocket out of sight.
+
+"Pierrot!" called out the marchioness, "give me 'La Bruyere'--you know
+where it is?"
+
+"What's that?" asked the youth, winking.
+
+"'La Bruyere'?"
+
+"You see," remarked M. de Jonzac, looking at his son with an
+expression of despair on his face, "he does not even know who 'La
+Bruyere' is!"
+
+Pierrot protested energetically. "Yes, I do know who he is, and the
+proof is, I can tell you--it's a blue-back."
+
+"A what?" asked the marchioness.
+
+"A blue-back, aunt."
+
+"Explain to your aunt," interposed M. Giraud, "that you have a most
+objectionable mania for speaking of books by the colour of the binding
+rather than by their title."
+
+"By George!" exclaimed M. de Jonzac, annoyed, "he never by any chance
+opens one. He is an absolute ignoramus; just to think that he will
+soon be seventeen!"
+
+"Poor Pierrot," said Bijou compassionately, "he is not as ignorant as
+all that!" And then, as her uncle did not answer, she added: "And
+then, too, he is ever so nice, and he is so strong and well."
+
+"Oh, as to that," said M. de Jonzac, "his health is perfect, and that
+just makes him all the more insufferable, but not any more intelligent
+though. Everyone complains about the overtaxing of the intellectual
+faculties; they say that it is the ruin of children; and so, by way of
+improvement, they go in now for overtaxing them physically, which is a
+more certain ruin still."
+
+"Ah, uncle is waging war now," put in Bertrade; "but I am of his
+opinion, too, for I do not like to think that some day my children
+will add to the number of the young ruffians we see around us."
+
+"But," objected Henry de Bracieux, "many of them--and some quite
+young, too--are very intellectual; I know some."
+
+"I, too, know some," said Jean de Blaye; "but, to my way of thinking,
+they are not precisely intellectual, they are--"
+
+Just at this moment a bell was rung in the hall.
+
+"We must go to luncheon, children," said the marchioness, rising,
+"Jean will finish his little definition for us at table."
+
+"Oh, I am not particularly keen about it, aunt," said Jean, laughing.
+
+"I am, though; I am no longer 'in the know' of things, as you say, and
+I don't object to be instructed about certain matters on which I am
+absolutely ignorant."
+
+On taking her seat at table, the marchioness, addressing Jean,
+continued:
+
+"You were saying that the young men who were not precisely the
+intellectual ones were--"
+
+"Oh, I am not good at explanations," he replied.
+
+"That does not matter; go on, anyhow."
+
+"Well, those who are not really intellectual are of the sickly kind;
+they act that sort of thing to begin with, and then they end by
+getting like it in reality; they are intolerably affected,
+effeminate, crazy, and everything else beside. They set up for being
+original, and not like anyone else."
+
+"Well, and what do you call them?"
+
+"I don't exactly know; they are of the complex kind. There's young La
+Balue, for instance, he's a perfect example for you of this class; you
+might study him."
+
+"That's an idea that has never entered my head; but, in the young
+generation of to-day, there are others beside these complex ones."
+
+"Yes, they are the athletes."
+
+"Specimen, Pierrot!"--remarked Henry de Bracieux.
+
+The marchioness turned towards her grandson.
+
+"Don't be personal," she said. "Continue your little speech, Jean."
+
+"I would rather eat my egg in peace, aunt!"
+
+"We had got as far as the athletes--"
+
+"Well, then, if the complex young men of to-day are a trifle
+sickening, the athletes are the greatest nuisances under the sun.
+Boxing, football, bicycles, matches, and records--all that, they
+consider of the most tremendous and vital importance, not only in
+their conversation, but, what is more regrettable still, in their
+lives. In their opinion, a man of worth is the one who can give the
+hardest blows, or who is endowed with the greatest strength or
+vigour; all their admiration is bestowed on one single being in the
+world--_the Champion_, with a capital C."
+
+"And what is there between the complex young man and the athletes?"
+
+"Nothing; or, at least, some exceptions so rare that they are there
+simply to confirm the rule. Of course, I am only talking now of the
+young generation, of the latest--Pierrot's, in fact."
+
+"Do leave poor Pierrot in peace!" said Bijou; "you all find fault with
+him."
+
+"Because it is not too late yet for him to put his young self to
+rights, and if he were to be let alone, he would soon degenerate in
+the most deplorable manner."
+
+"Jean is right," agreed M. de Jonzac; "he can very well afford to give
+advice to Pierrot, and even to the others, for he is himself highly
+intellectual and very good at sports."
+
+Madame de Bracieux looked at her nephew with a benevolent expression
+in her eyes:
+
+"Your uncle is right, my dear boy, you are the greatest success of the
+family," she said, and then seeing that Bijou appeared to be examining
+her cousin curiously, she added: "I am only speaking of the men, of
+course."
+
+Pierrot leaned over towards Denyse, who was seated next him, and
+said, in an undertone with deep gratitude, "It's awfully good of you
+to stick up for me always, and I can't tell you how fond I am of
+you--more than any of the others."
+
+She answered with a smile; and in an almost maternal way, said:
+
+"That's very wrong! You ought to be much fonder of uncle, and of
+grandmamma, too, than you are of me."
+
+"Oh, well, to begin with, there's no rule for that, and then, too, I
+didn't mean that at all. I meant that I am fonder of you than all the
+others are; and, you know, there's some of them very fond of you;
+there's Paul, for instance, Paul de Rueille--I'm sure he likes you
+better than he does Bertrade, or his children, better than
+anyone--even God!"
+
+"Do be quiet!" said Bijou, alarmed, and looking round to see if anyone
+had heard.
+
+"Don't be in a fright! They are all busy worrying each other; they are
+not troubling about us. It's quite true what I said, you know; and
+then Jean, too, and Henry, and Monsieur Giraud! There's scarcely
+anyone, except Abbe Courteil, who does not follow you about to every
+corner you go; and then--"
+
+"You are talking rubbish! how can you imagine--"
+
+"I don't imagine it--I see it!--and I see it, because it annoys me!"
+
+Just at this moment M. de Jonzac's voice was heard.
+
+"Oh, no!" he was saying, "I am convinced that he has no idea that
+Renan ever existed. He does not know a thing--not a single thing."
+
+"Oh, yes," put in the tutor, in his usual gentle and conciliatory way,
+"as regards Renan, I am sure that he knows. Only three or four days
+ago I had occasion to quote him as the author of the 'Origin of
+Language.'"
+
+"Well, I would wager that he does not even remember his
+name--Pierrot!" called out M. de Jonzac.
+
+The poor lad, entirely absorbed in his conversation with Bijou, had no
+idea that he was being discussed. On hearing his name called, he
+turned his head towards his father, vaguely uneasy.
+
+"Pierrot," asked M. de Jonzac, "who was Renan?"
+
+"Ah! that's it, is it," said Pierrot to Bijou, "now they're beginning
+the examination again. Renan--who in the world was he now?"
+
+"You do not know who Renan was, do you?" asked M. de Jonzac blandly.
+
+"No, father, I don't," replied the boy.
+
+"What?" exclaimed Giraud, surprised; "why, only the other day we were
+talking about him."
+
+"About him?" repeated Pierrot, quite astounded, "do you mean to say
+that I was talking about the man?"
+
+"Why, yes--come now; try to remember--I mentioned one of his works."
+
+Bijou, who had just before only been listening with one ear to what
+Pierrot had been telling her, so that with the other she could keep up
+with the general conversation, remembered the title that had been
+quoted. She was looking at her plate, apparently taken up with the
+strawberries, which she was rolling about in the sugar. "The 'Origin
+of Language,'" she whispered very quietly.
+
+"Come now, have a good try," repeated the tutor. "I mentioned one of
+M. Renan's books to you--which one?"
+
+"'The Language of Flowers,'" answered Pierrot resolutely.
+
+"That's right!" exclaimed Bertrade, delighted: "we can always reckon
+on something lively from Pierrot."
+
+M. de Jonzac, in spite of his inclination to laugh, put on a rigid
+expression. "I do not see anything amusing in it."
+
+"_You_ don't laugh, at any rate," said Pierrot, turning to Bijou and
+blushing furiously. "It is awfully good of you," he added.
+
+After dinner, he drew her out on to the stone steps, and said, in a
+beseeching tone:
+
+"Let me come out with you to take the green stuff to Patatras."
+
+"But I must go and pour out the coffee first."
+
+"Oh, just for once; Bertrade can pour it out right enough. Come, now,
+I don't want to go into the drawing-room; they'd begin asking me
+something else."
+
+Denyse started off with him, taking from a shed the basket in which
+was prepared for her every day the bunch of clover she always took to
+her horse. She then went on in the direction of the stable, followed
+by Pierrot.
+
+"You are awfully nice, Bijou, and so pretty, if you only knew it," he
+kept repeating, making his rough voice almost gentle.
+
+As they crossed the path which led to the stable, they saw M. de
+Rueille and Jean de Blaye advancing towards them, deep in
+conversation.
+
+"Look!" said Pierrot, "as you weren't in the drawing-room our two
+cousins made themselves scarce there."
+
+Denyse was going forward to meet them, but he stopped her abruptly.
+
+"No, please don't, they'd stick to us all the time, and I shouldn't
+have you to myself at all. It's such a piece of luck for me to be with
+you for a minute without Monsieur Giraud; he's always at my heels,
+especially when I'm anywhere near you."
+
+Bijou was looking attentively at the two men, who were coming towards
+her, but who were so deeply absorbed that they had not seen her, and
+between her somewhat heavy eyelids appeared that little gleam which
+gave at times a singular intensity of expression to her usually
+soft-looking eyes.
+
+"Very well," she answered, entering the stable, "let us take Patatras
+his clover without them."
+
+M. de Rueille was walking along with his eyes fixed on the gravel of
+the garden-path. He looked up on hearing the door open. Jean de Blaye
+pointed to the stable.
+
+"Look here," he said, "_that's_ the cause of all the trouble and worry
+that I can detect in every single word you say; and it's the cause,
+too, of the sort of petty spite that you have against me."
+
+"Indeed!" replied Rueille, putting on a joking air; "and what is
+_that_ pray?"
+
+"Why, Bijou, of course. Oh, you need not try to deny it. Do you think
+I have not followed up, hour by hour, all that has been passing in
+your mind?"
+
+"It must have been interesting."
+
+"Don't humbug; you are scarcely inclined for that sort of thing just
+now. I saw very well just when you began to admire Bijou, quite
+unconsciously, more than one does admire, as a rule, a little cousin
+one is fond of. It was the evening of the _Grand Prix_ at Uncle
+Alexis' when she sang--why don't you speak?"
+
+"I am listening to you--go on."
+
+"When we were all here together at Bracieux, never absent from each
+other, and you had spent every minute of the long day in Bijou's
+society, your--let us call it--your admiration increased, of course,
+and ever since yesterday, ever since your expedition to
+Pont-sur-Loire, it has been at the acute stage. Am I right?"
+
+"Well, yes: you are right."
+
+"I am not surprised; but will you explain one thing--one thing which
+_does_ surprise me?"
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Why do you appear to have a special grudge against me? Why against me
+rather than against your brother-in-law, or young La Balue, or
+Pierrot's tutor, or even Pierrot himself?"
+
+"Well, Henry is nearly Bijou's own age; he was brought up with her,
+and she looks upon him as a brother exactly. Young La Balue is a
+regular caricature; the tutor, a poor wretch who does not count; and
+Pierrot, a lad; whilst you--"
+
+"Whilst I?"
+
+"Well, as to you, why, you are the sort that women like, and you know
+that very well; and I can see and feel, and, in short, I know, it is
+you whom Bijou will care for."
+
+"Me? nonsense! she does not deign to pay the very slightest attention
+to me. I am nothing in her eyes except the man who is breaking in a
+horse for her, who takes her out boating, or who composes couplets for
+her play."
+
+"In short, you exist more than the others do, anyhow."
+
+"But why? It's your fancy to look upon young La Balue as a caricature;
+but everyone is not of your opinion. As to Giraud--well, he is a very
+good sort."
+
+"Yes, but he is Giraud."
+
+"Well, what of that? what difference does that make?"
+
+"A good deal; that is, it would be nothing with certain women, but it
+is everything with others,--and Bijou is one of these others."
+
+"Oh--what do you know about it?"
+
+"I have studied her for some time without appearing to."
+
+"You are studying her, but you do not know her."
+
+"Perhaps not!"
+
+"If I were in her place I know which one I should choose amongst so
+many lovers."
+
+"Ah! they sing that in _Les Noces de Jeannette_."
+
+"Oh! you won't stop me like that! Amongst so many lovers, if I had to
+choose, it would certainly be Giraud that I should prefer."
+
+"An older woman might admire Giraud, because he is handsome--but not a
+young girl! You see a young girl's one idea is marriage----"
+
+"Then, you have no grudge against Giraud, because, according to you,
+he is not marriageable, consequently, not to be feared."
+
+"Precisely!"
+
+"Very well, then, and what about me, my dear fellow? Do you think I am
+marriageable, then? Can you imagine me with my wretched fifteen
+hundred a year endeavouring to make Bijou happy? Yes, can you just
+imagine it now?--a house at a hundred a year or so--petroleum lamps,
+coke fires, etc.--that _would_ be delicious."
+
+"And yet you are in love with her?"
+
+"Excuse me, I did not say that I was in love with Bijou. I don't
+really know; all I can say is, that she has taken my fancy
+tremendously, and that, as I simply cannot marry her, I am wretchedly
+unhappy."
+
+"And you don't think she cares for you?"
+
+"Not the least bit in the world! She has never tried even to deceive
+me on that point. 'Good-morning! Good-night! What a fine day it
+is.'--that's the sort of palpitating dialogue which goes on every day
+between us. You see, therefore, that you have no reason to have a
+spite against me?"
+
+"I beg your pardon, Jean, my dear fellow, but I firmly believed that
+you were the great favourite."
+
+M. de Rueille broke off suddenly, and appeared to be straining his
+ears.
+
+"Ah!" he said, "there she is!"
+
+Bijou was just coming out of the stable, followed, of course, by
+Pierrot.
+
+She tripped daintily across towards the two men, examining them in her
+calm, smiling way.
+
+"Whatever's the matter with you both?" she asked; "you look--I don't
+know how!"
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+
+BIJOU was in the dining-room, arranging the flowers on the table for
+dinner, whilst in the butler's pantry the servants were polishing up
+the large silver dishes until they shone brilliantly.
+
+"Get into your coat!" said the butler to the footman; "there's a
+carriage coming slowly up the avenue. Oh, you've got plenty of time,
+it isn't here yet."
+
+"Whose carriage is it?" said the footman, looking through the window.
+
+"I don't know it; it's a fine-looking turn-out, anyhow. It might very
+well be the owner of The Noriniere."
+
+"My goodness! it's a clinking turn-out."
+
+"Oh, he can afford it."
+
+"He's got some money, then?"
+
+"Why, yes, an awful lot; he's got about sixteen thousand a year."
+
+"Do you know him, then?"
+
+"My wife was kitchen-maid at his place before I married her--a good
+master he is, always pleasant, and not at all near--you'd better
+start now if you want to get to the steps before he's there."
+
+A minute before, Bijou, finding that she was short of flowers, had run
+out into the garden, and, springing across the path, had pushed her
+way into the middle of a rose-bed, and was now cutting away
+mercilessly. She was so absorbed that she did not hear the carriage,
+which was coming up the drive, and which went round the lawn, and
+pulled up in front of the stone steps. When at last she did happen to
+look up, she saw, a few steps away from her, a tall gentleman standing
+gazing at her with a most rapturous expression.
+
+The fact was that Bijou, in her cotton dress, with wide pink stripes,
+and her little apron trimmed with Valenciennes, was really very pretty
+to look at, foraging about amongst the flowers.
+
+When she discovered that she was being gazed at in this way, her
+tea-rose complexion took a deeper tint, and she looked confused and
+embarrassed, as she stood there facing the gentleman, who was still
+contemplating her without saying a word.
+
+He was a man of between fifty-five and sixty, tall, slender,
+distinguished-looking, and elegant, and with a very young-looking
+figure for his years. His face, which was intelligent and refined,
+had also an almost youthful expression about it, just tinged with a
+shade of melancholy. As Bijou remained where she was, and appeared to
+be hesitating and not quite at her ease, the visitor approached, and,
+raising his hat, said in a very gentle voice:
+
+"Excuse me, mademoiselle, but are you not Denyse de Courtaix?"
+
+Bijou, with her frank, honest expression, looked straight into the
+eyes fixed so curiously upon her, and answered, smiling:
+
+"Yes, and you?--you are Monsieur de Clagny, are you not?"
+
+"How did you know?"
+
+Denyse sprang out of the rose-bed on to the garden-path, and then,
+without answering the question in a direct way, she said, with the
+most trusting, happy look in her eyes:
+
+"Oh! how glad grandmamma will be to see you, and Uncle Alexis, too;
+ever since they heard that you were coming back to live here, they
+have talked of nothing else. Let's go at once to find grandmamma."
+
+She started off, leading the way, looking most graceful and supple, as
+she passed through the large rooms with that gliding movement which
+was one of her greatest charms.
+
+The marchioness was not in the room where she was usually to be found.
+Bijou rang the bell, and requested the servant to find Madame de
+Bracieux. She then took a seat opposite M. de Clagny, and examined him
+attentively.
+
+"Paul de Rueille was quite right after all," she said, "when he told
+me that I had seen you long ago--I recognise you." She gazed with her
+bright eyes more fixedly into the count's, and repeated pensively: "I
+certainly do recognise you."
+
+"Well, I confess, in all sincerity," said M. de Clagny, "that if I had
+met you anywhere else than at Bracieux, I should not have recognised
+_you_--you are so much bigger, you know, and then, so much more
+beautiful that, with the exception of the lovely violet eyes, which
+have not changed, there is nothing remaining of the little baby-girl
+of years ago."
+
+"The name which you gave me still remains."
+
+"The name? what name?" he asked, in surprise.
+
+"Bijou! don't you remember? it seems that it was you who used to call
+me that."
+
+"Yes, that's true! you seemed to me such a fragile little thing, so
+adorable and so rare--a bijou in fact, an exquisite little bijou. And
+so they have continued to call you by that name--it suits you, too,
+wonderfully well."
+
+"I don't think so! I am afraid it is rather ridiculous to be still
+_Bijou_ at the age of twenty-one, for, you know, I am twenty-one now."
+
+"Is it possible?"
+
+"Very possible! in four years from now I shall be quite an old maid!"
+
+The count looked at Bijou with an admiration which he did not attempt
+to dissimulate, as he answered emphatically:
+
+"_You_ an old maid? oh, never in the world, never!"
+
+Madame de Bracieux was just entering the room.
+
+"How glad I am to see you!" she said, looking delighted, and holding
+out her hands to her visitor.
+
+As Denyse was moving towards the door, the marchioness called her
+back.
+
+"I see Bijou has introduced herself," she said to Clagny, who had not
+yet got over his admiration, "What do you think of my grand-daughter?"
+And then, without giving him time to answer, she went on quickly:
+"It's just the same _Bijou_ you used to admire years ago, just the
+same! the genuine _Bijou_, there's no _sham_ about it, as my grandsons
+would say."
+
+"Mademoiselle Denyse is charming."
+
+"Denyse (and, by the way, you will oblige me by not calling her
+mademoiselle) is a dear, good girl, obedient and devoted. Her gaiety
+has brightened up my old house, which was gloomy enough before her
+arrival."
+
+"How is it that I have never seen Mademoiselle Denyse----"
+
+"Mademoiselle again!"
+
+"That I have never seen Bijou in Paris? I come so regularly on your
+day."
+
+"Yes, but you always come very early, at an hour when she is never
+there, and then for the last sixteen years you have never dined with
+us."
+
+"I never dine out anywhere, you know; but you have never spoken of
+Bijou, never told me anything about her."
+
+"Because you have never asked me about her."
+
+"I had forgotten about her, to tell the truth, the tiny, baby-child
+that I saw so little of, and yet just now, when I saw a delicious girl
+emerging from a rose-bed, I hadn't the slightest hesitation, had I,
+mademoiselle?" and then correcting himself, he added, laughing: "had
+I, Bijou?"
+
+"Yes, that's true! M. de Clagny asked me at once if I were not Denyse
+de Courtaix----and I, too, knew at once who he was; I had heard so
+much about him that I seemed to know him in my imagination, and, it's
+very odd--" She broke off suddenly, and then after gazing thoughtfully
+at the count, she added: "I knew him in my imagination just as he is
+in reality."
+
+"A very old man," said Clagny, with a kind of sad playfulness.
+
+"No!" replied Bijou, evidently sincere, "a very handsome man!" And
+then abruptly breaking off, she said: "And Uncle Alexis has not
+appeared yet; they have rung the bell with all their might in vain,
+for he doesn't come; I'll go and find him!"
+
+She was hurrying away when the marchioness called her back:
+
+"Stop a minute!--have another place laid at table. You will dine with
+us, Clagny?"
+
+"Yes, if you have no one here."
+
+"Oh, but I have; I am just expecting some friends of yours."
+
+"And I am a regular bear, for I do not even dine with my friends; and
+then, too, in this get-up--"
+
+"Your get-up is all right, and, besides, there is time to send to The
+Noriniere for your coat if you particularly care to have it."
+
+"I do care to, if I stay."
+
+Bijou approached, and said, in a coaxing way:
+
+"You will stay--and do you know what would be very, very nice of you?
+well, it would be to stay just as you are, without your dress-coat."
+
+"Why do you insist, Bijou, if it annoys him to stay without dressing?"
+asked the marchioness.
+
+"Because, grandmamma, if M. de Clagny were to dine without his
+dress-coat, M. Giraud could, too; and otherwise he will have to dine
+all by himself in his room."
+
+"What are you talking about, child?"
+
+"Why, it's very simple. M. Giraud has no dress-coat; he hasn't one at
+all. I got to know it by chance; he told Baptiste just now that he was
+not very well, and that he should not leave his room this evening, and
+so, if M. de Clagny would stay just as he is, don't you see, he could,
+too--M. Giraud, I mean."
+
+"What a good little Bijou you are!" said the marchioness, quite
+touched; "you think of everyone; you do nothing but find ways of
+giving pleasure to all."
+
+Denyse was not listening to this. She was waiting for the count to
+give his consent.
+
+"Would it be a great, great pleasure to you," he asked at length, "if
+this Monsieur Giraud could dine at table?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then it shall be as you wish. Tell me, though, now, who is this
+gentleman with whom I am not acquainted, and for whose sake I am
+consenting to appear as a most ill-bred man?"
+
+"He is Pierrot's coach."
+
+"Ah! and what's this Pierrot?"
+
+"The son of Alexis," said Madame de Bracieux laughing.
+
+"Then the god to whom I am to be sacrificed is M. Giraud, tutor to
+Pierrot de Jonzac, and he is honoured by the patronage of Mademoiselle
+Denyse. Thank you, I like to know how things are."
+
+"But," protested Denyse, turning very red, "I do not patronise M.
+Giraud at all. I----"
+
+"Oh, do not attempt to defend yourself. I know what kind of a role a
+poor tutor without a dress-coat must play in the life of a beautiful
+young lady like you; it is just a role of no account; he represents as
+exactly as possible _a gentleman of no importance_ in a play."
+
+"You have no idea," said the marchioness, when Denyse had gone away,
+"how good that child is. This young man in whom she is interested, and
+who, by the bye, is really charming, is always treated by her exactly
+on the same footing as the most influential and the most
+distinguished men she meets. Oh, she is a pearl, is Bijou; you will
+see!"
+
+"I shall see it perhaps too clearly."
+
+"How do you mean--too clearly?"
+
+"I am very susceptible, you know. I have a foolish old heart, which
+sounds an alarm at the slightest danger, and which afterwards I cannot
+silence again."
+
+"But Bijou is my grand-daughter, my poor old friend."
+
+"Well, what difference does that make?"
+
+"Why, just this--that she might be yours."
+
+"I know all that well enough. Good heavens!--that is what you might
+call reasoning; and hearts that remain young either reason very little
+or very badly."
+
+"And so?"
+
+"Oh," said M. de Clagny, making an effort to laugh, "I was joking, of
+course."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Bijou had crossed the court-yard. The heat was very great, and the
+peacocks, perched on the trunk of a tree that had been felled, looked
+stupid and ridiculous, whilst the dogs, lying on their sides, with
+their legs stretched out, were panting under the sun's rays, but were
+too lazy to look for any shade.
+
+No one was out of doors at that torrid hour, except Pierrot, who,
+arrayed in a white linen suit, with a wide straw hat on his head, was
+strolling about under the chestnut trees, which formed a V shaped
+avenue.
+
+Denyse ran up the steps, and entered the schoolroom like a gust of
+wind. On the threshold, however, she stopped short, and seemed
+confused. M. Giraud, who had been seated at the table, had risen
+hastily on seeing her appear.
+
+"Oh! I beg your pardon," she stammered out, "I wanted to speak to
+Pierrot. I thought he was here, and that you had gone for your walk."
+
+Very much embarrassed, the young tutor could scarcely find any words
+with which to reply.
+
+"No, mademoiselle, no! I am here you see. It is just the contrary, for
+Pierrot has gone out, but, if you like, if I could tell him
+what--for--you have something to say to him probably?"
+
+He lost his head completely as he looked at her standing there. She
+was so pretty with her complexion, still pink and white, in spite of
+the terrible heat, and her large eyes, with their changing expression,
+were fixed on him with such a gentle look.
+
+"Yes, certainly," she said, slightly embarrassed too, "I wanted to
+speak to Pierrot; although it is about something that concerns
+you--it would be better----"
+
+"Something which concerns me?" interrupted Giraud, looking uneasy;
+"but I do not know really--I wonder what----"
+
+The thought flashed across him that she was perhaps going to say that,
+after what had taken place the night before last, he could not remain
+any longer at Bracieux. He was in despair, for not only would he have
+to leave Bijou, but he would probably get no employment for the next
+two months, just as he had thought to have a little peace and comfort.
+
+The young girl was looking at him, and smiling kindly.
+
+"You see, it is very difficult to say it to--to the person concerned,"
+she answered at length.
+
+"Well, but--Pierrot."
+
+"Oh! Pierrot is not a very clever diplomatist, I grant, but he would
+have known better than I do how to go about things in order to
+announce to you----"
+
+"To announce to me?"
+
+"The fact that you are going to dine with us this evening. A headache,
+you know, is a very good excuse for women, but only for women."
+
+"But, mademoiselle, without taking into account the annoyance it
+would be to me (and it would annoy me very much) not to be dressed as
+the others are, it would not be polite towards your guests."
+
+"Yes, you are perhaps right; it would not be the thing, perhaps, if
+you were the only one who was not in evening dress; but there will be
+M. de Clagny just as he is now, to pay a call; so you understand."
+
+"Mademoiselle, I caught sight of M. de Clagny just now when he
+arrived. He is an old gentleman, and as such can take liberties about
+certain matters which I, particularly in my position, could not."
+
+"As to you, you are just going to obey grandmamma like a good little
+boy, for it was grandmamma who sent me, you know."
+
+"Ah!" murmured the young man, disappointed, "it was your grandmamma? I
+was hoping it was you, who--but you are still vexed with me, of
+course?"
+
+"Vexed with you?" she asked, surprised; "what for?"
+
+"Well--because--oh, you know--the other evening--when, in spite of
+myself, I----"
+
+Bijou's merry face clouded over as she said very seriously:
+
+"I thought that would never be brought up again. I wish you to forget
+what you said to me." She stood still a moment, with a pensive look on
+her beautiful face, and then she added, in a muffled voice: "And,
+above all, I wish to forget it myself."
+
+Her eyelids were lowered, and her eyelashes were beating quickly
+against her pink cheeks throwing a strange shadow over her brilliant
+complexion.
+
+Giraud went up to her, anxious and excited, and in a stammering voice
+he asked:
+
+"Is it true what you have just said? Do you still remember that moment
+of madness? Can you think of it without anger?"
+
+"Yes," she answered, gazing full at him with her beautiful blue eyes,
+"I think of it without anger," and then, in such a low voice that he
+could scarcely hear it, she murmured, "and I _do_ think of it all the
+time!" Then, with a sudden change of expression, she began again
+hurriedly: "It is you who must forget now; you must forget at
+once--what I ought never to have said to you! Please forget it! Do as
+I ask you, for my sake!"
+
+"Forget? How do you think that I can forget? You know well enough that
+it is absolutely impossible!"
+
+"You must, though!" she persisted. "Yes, you must say to yourself
+that you--that we have had a dream--a very bright, happy dream,--one
+of those sort from which one wakes up happy, and, at the same time,
+troubled; a dream in which one has a vision of beautiful things, which
+disappear, and which we cannot possibly define. Have you never had
+such dreams? One cannot, no matter how much one tries, remember all
+about them; and yet--one likes them."
+
+Her voice, with its caressing intonation, completely unnerved the
+young man. He had taken his seat again mechanically at the table, and,
+without replying, he looked up at Bijou, his eyes full of tears.
+
+She came nearer, and said in a beseeching tone:
+
+"Ah! please don't, if you only knew how wretched it makes me--" and
+then she added abruptly: "and if it is any consolation to you--you can
+say to yourself that you are not the only one to suffer--for I do,
+too."
+
+"Is it really, really true?" he asked, bewildered with his happiness.
+
+Denyse did not answer. She had just noticed on the table a letter,
+which Giraud had been finishing when she entered the room.
+
+"I was writing to my brother," he said, following the direction of her
+eyes, "and instead of telling him about my pupil, and my occupations,
+and, in short, about such things as, in my position of life, I ought
+to confine myself to, I have only told him about you."
+
+"I was looking at your name," she answered, pointing with her rosy
+finger to the signature; "Fred--it is a name I am fond of; I gave it
+to my little godchild, the youngest of Bertrade's children." She
+seemed to be looking far away through the open window as she repeated
+very gently: "Fred!" And then passing her little hand over her
+forehead, and walking towards the door, she said abruptly: "And this
+dinner--and my flowers for the table,--why, the _menus_ are not
+written yet, and it is five o'clock!" And then, as the poor fellow
+looked stupefied and did not attempt to move, she went on: "It's
+settled about this evening, is it not? I shall have your place laid?"
+
+He answered, in a vague, bewildered way, coming gradually to himself
+again:
+
+"Amongst all the others in dress-coats, I shall cut the most
+ridiculous figure."
+
+"Oh, no,--nothing of the kind! Besides, they will not all be in
+dress-coats. First of all, there is M. de Clagny in a frock-coat; and
+then M. de Bernes, who is afraid of meeting his General, and so is
+always arrayed in his uniform: then the abbe in his cassock," and
+with a laugh she concluded: "That makes three of them who will not be
+in dress-coats!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As she was leaving the schoolroom, she ran against Henry de Bracieux,
+who was coming towards her in the corridor.
+
+"Well, I never!" he exclaimed, in surprise. "What are you doing here?"
+
+"And you?"
+
+"I? Why, I was going back to my room."
+
+"And I was coming away from Pierrot's."
+
+"Pierrot is in the garden."
+
+"I did not know, and I had something to say to him."
+
+"To him?" asked the young man suspiciously, and almost aggressively,
+"or to M. Giraud?"
+
+Without appearing to notice her cousin's singular attitude towards
+her, she answered, in a docile way:
+
+"To him, so that he might repeat it to M. Giraud, but as he was not
+there----"
+
+"It is to Giraud that you have----"
+
+"Given grandmamma's message. Yes," and then, with an innocent
+expression in her eyes, she asked: "Why does it interest you so much
+to know whether I gave this message to the one rather than to the
+other?"
+
+He replied, in a joking tone, but with some embarrassment:
+
+"Because I am inquisitive, probably; and the proof that I am
+inquisitive is that I should like to know what this message was."
+
+"Grandmamma commissioned me to tell M. Giraud, who has no
+dress-coat----"
+
+"No dress-coat--Giraud?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Not a dress-coat at all?"
+
+"There, you say just what I did. No, not a dress-coat of any
+description! He had sent word that he would not dine with us; and
+then, as M. de Clagny is staying to dinner, and he is in a frock-coat,
+I was going to tell Pierrot, so that he could let M. Giraud know. Do
+you understand now?"
+
+"Yes," replied Henry, "quite well--but Jean is very _chic_ and never
+goes about without a change of dress-coats; he has, at least, three
+here; he would certainly lend him one--they are exactly the same
+figure."
+
+"That would be nice!"
+
+"Oh, he would be glad to do it! Giraud is a very nice fellow; we
+should all like him, if----"
+
+He stopped short, and Bijou asked:
+
+"If what?"
+
+"Oh, nothing! I'll go and see about this business--at old Clagny's
+time of life it doesn't matter whether one is got up all right or not;
+but for Giraud, it's another thing. I am sure he would feel it very
+much if he thought he looked ridiculous, especially----"
+
+"Especially?"
+
+"Especially before you!"
+
+Bijou shrugged her shoulders, and ran away down the long corridor.
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+
+ALTHOUGH Bijou had superintended the laying of the cloth, and had
+herself attended to the flowers, the service, and the _menus_, she was
+ready for dinner before anyone else.
+
+Carrying in her arms an enormous bunch of roses, she entered the
+drawing-room just as the marchioness had gone upstairs to dress.
+
+She was so much taken up with arranging her flowers on a side-table
+that she did not see M. de Clagny, who was watching her attentively as
+she came and went, with the pretty, graceful movements of a bird as it
+flies backwards and forwards before finally perching itself.
+
+At length, however, he spoke, and the sound of his voice made Denyse
+start.
+
+"It's very certain that it came direct from Paris--that pretty dress,"
+he said.
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Bijou, scared, "you nearly frightened me." And then,
+going up to the count, and daintily patting her light, gauzy dress,
+she continued: "That pretty dress did not come from Paris; it was made
+at Bracieux, near Pont-sur-Loire."
+
+Thoroughly astonished, the count asked:
+
+"Oh, no! by whom, then?"
+
+"By Denyse, here present, and by an old sewing-woman, who is a dresser
+at the theatre."
+
+He had risen, and was now walking round the young girl in almost timid
+admiration. She was so pretty, emerging from the pinky-looking cloud,
+which seemed to scarcely touch her dainty little figure, and out of
+which peeped her shoulders, tinted, too, with that singular pinky
+gleam which made her delicate skin look so velvety and soft.
+
+M. de Clagny could not help thinking that Bijou was not only beautiful
+to look at, but fascinating in the extreme, with her tempting mouth,
+and her innocent, frank eyes. The charm of her person was rendered all
+the more complex by this same child-like expression.
+
+Whilst he was examining her curiously, Bijou was saying to herself
+that "this old friend of grandmamma's" was much younger-looking than
+she had imagined him to be. He certainly did make a good appearance,
+tall and slender, with his hair quite white on his temples, whilst his
+fair moustache had scarcely a touch of grey. His brown eyes had a
+gentle expression, and his mouth, sometimes mocking, and at times even
+almost cruel, showed, when he smiled, the sharp, white teeth, which
+lighted up his whole face in a singular way.
+
+The silence was getting embarrassing, until Bijou at last broke it:
+
+"Grandmamma has not come down then yet? I expected to find her here."
+
+"She went away to dress just as you came in."
+
+"She will never be ready."
+
+M. de Clagny looked at his watch.
+
+"But dinner is to be at eight--she has plenty of time; it is not
+half-past seven."
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Bijou regretfully. "If only I had known, I should not
+have hurried so much. I was so afraid of being late."
+
+"I'm the one to be glad that you hurried so much. I shall have you to
+talk to for a minute"--
+
+"For a good half-hour at least," she said, laughing; "no one is ever
+in advance here--oh, never, not even the guests any more than the
+people of the house."
+
+"Ah, about the guests, tell me with whom I am going to dine. Your
+grandmamma said, 'You will dine with some friends of yours.' Now, as
+to friends, I cannot have many here now, considering that for the
+last twelve years I have not been in this part of the world. There
+have probably been many changes since then."
+
+"Not so many as all that; let's see, now! you will dine with the
+Tourvilles."
+
+"The Tourvilles? they are not dead yet?"
+
+"Those with whom you are going to dine are living. They had some
+parents who are dead."
+
+"Ah! that's it, is it! then young Tourville is married?"
+
+"Yes, two years ago!"
+
+"He was a disagreeable fellow! Has he made a good marriage?"
+
+"That depends! he married a young lady on the Stock Exchange."
+
+"What do you mean? a young lady on the Stock Exchange?"
+
+"Yes, her father is something there, I believe; he is very, very
+rich."
+
+"Is it Chaillot, the banker?"
+
+"Perhaps so, I never asked about them--they have restored Tourville,
+it is superb now; and they are always entertaining."
+
+"Is Madame de Tourville pretty?"
+
+"You will see her; she is very pleasant, and they say she is very
+intelligent; for my part, I have not discovered that." And then, as
+M. de Clagny smiled, she added quickly: "Because I only know her very
+slightly."
+
+"Well, and after the Tourvilles, who next?"
+
+"M. de Bernes."
+
+"Young Hubert, the dragoon?"
+
+"He himself."
+
+"He is the son of good friends of mine; a downright nice fellow, don't
+you think so?"
+
+"Don't I think what?"
+
+"That Hubert de Bernes is nice?"
+
+"Oh! I know him so slightly; he has always seemed to me--how shall I
+express it?--insipid, yes, insipid."
+
+"Because you intimidate him, probably? I can quite understand that,
+too!"
+
+"I intimidate _you_, perhaps?" she said, laughing.
+
+"Very much so!" he answered, very seriously.
+
+"Oh!" she exclaimed, in astonishment, "how is that possible?"
+
+"It is very possible, and it is true! There's nothing astonishing
+about it then, that if you intimidate an old man like me, you should
+intimidate poor little Hubert."
+
+"Little Hubert? he is six feet!"
+
+"Yes, and he is twenty-six years old, but to me he is always little
+Hubert. Well, anyhow, admit at least that he is handsome?"
+
+"I don't know!"
+
+"Are you going to tell me that you have not looked at him?"
+
+"I have looked at him; but as regards M. de Bernes I am a very bad
+judge."
+
+"Why so?"
+
+"Because I detest young men!"
+
+"At the age of twenty-six they are not so young as all that!"
+
+"That may be so! but, all the same, at that age they do not exist as
+far as I am concerned."
+
+"Well, well! and at what age do they begin to exist as far as you are
+concerned?"
+
+She laughed.
+
+"Very late in life!" she said, and then suddenly changing her tone,
+she continued: "I am glad you know M. de Bernes, because, at any rate,
+you will not be bored to death now this evening."
+
+"Ah! it appears, then, that I am not to count on the other guests for
+entertainment?"
+
+"Oh, no! the others--well, first of all there are the La Balues."
+
+"Good heavens, they are alarming! Why, their children must be
+beginning to grow up?"
+
+"They have even finished growing up! Louis is twenty-three, and Gisele
+twenty-two."
+
+"What are they like?"
+
+"The one sets up for being _blase_---he is never either hungry,
+thirsty, or sleepy; he does not care for anything; everything bores
+him. And it is not true, you know! he never misses a dance, and his
+sister says that he gets up in the night to eat on the sly. Then, too,
+he writes ridiculous poetry, paints pictures as absurd as his poetry,
+and goes in for music--such music!"
+
+"And the daughter?"
+
+"She is as masculine as her brother is effeminate; she goes shooting
+and hunting, and her dream is to go in for deer-stalking, and to marry
+an officer."
+
+"She is probably thinking of Hubert?"
+
+"What Hubert?"
+
+"Young Bernes!"
+
+"Ah! But I don't fancy so! At all events, he is not thinking about
+her--"
+
+"Because he is too much taken up with you, like all the others; is not
+that so?"
+
+"Not at all!"
+
+M. de Clagny shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Oh, nonsense!" he said, "I can see it all quite plainly."
+
+"There are only three guests left now for me to introduce to you,"
+continued Bijou, evidently wishing to change the subject of the
+conversation. "There are the Juzencourts--people who are very much
+up-to-date, and who have bought 'The Pines'--and one of their friends
+who is staying for a month with them, a delightful young widow, the
+Viscountess de Nezel."
+
+"What!" exclaimed the count, with an abrupt movement; "Madame de
+Nezel--Jean de Blaye is here then?"
+
+Denyse opened her beautiful, bright eyes wide, as she replied in
+astonishment:
+
+"Yes, Jean is here; but what has that to do with----?"
+
+"Oh, nothing at all! nothing at all!" said M. de Clagny hastily, and
+then after a moment's silence, he asked: "Is Madame de Nezel as pretty
+as ever?"
+
+"She is very pretty."
+
+"As pretty as you?"
+
+Bijou smiled. "Why do you make fun of me? I know very well that I am
+not pretty," she said.
+
+"It's my turn now, my dear little Bijou, to ask why you make fun of an
+old friend who admires you as much as it is possible to admire anyone,
+and who, alas! is not the only one."
+
+"Why do you say alas?"
+
+"Well, because when one admires or loves, one would like to be the
+only one to admire or love; one's affection makes one selfish and
+jealous."
+
+"And after--let me see--how long--three hours--yes, after three hours'
+acquaintance, you already have some affection for me?" asked Bijou,
+looking quite joyful.
+
+"Yes, a great deal!" answered M. de Clagny very seriously.
+
+"So much the better, because, you see, I too, I like you very much!"
+And, as though she were just talking to herself, she added: "I had
+imagined you very different, I expected to see you not at all like you
+are."
+
+"Younger?" he asked sadly.
+
+"Oh, no, just the opposite; they had always spoken of you as a friend
+of grandpapa's, and grandmamma always said, 'my old friend Clagny,' so
+that you can understand when I saw you, I was quite surprised."
+
+"But why?"
+
+"Because you looked to me to be--I don't know exactly--about
+forty-five perhaps?--well, say like Paul de Rueille; and then, you are
+very handsome, and, for my part, I like people who are handsome."
+
+"Your cousin De Blaye is handsome!"
+
+"Jean?" she said, as though she were turning it over in her mind, "is
+he as handsome as all that? He does not strike me in that way, you
+see. When people are always together they end by not noticing each
+other!"
+
+"I am quite sure that he notices you!"
+
+"Oh, no! people don't notice me as much as you think! They care for me
+because I was left alone in the world at the age of seventeen; and
+then, when grandmamma took possession of me, like some poor little
+stray dog, and carried me off to her home, why, they all felt
+interested in me, and made me very welcome, and I was their Bijou whom
+they all tried to bring up and to spoil, whose faults are always
+looked over, and who always has her own way."
+
+"And Bijou is quite right; that's the only good thing there is in
+life--having one's own way, when one can."
+
+"One always can," she said, speaking as though she were not aware that
+she was saying anything, and then suddenly advancing towards the
+bay-window, she exclaimed: "Ah! there, now! the Tourvilles! and
+grandmamma is not down stairs again yet!"
+
+Bijou went forward to greet the new-comers--a lady dressed very
+handsomely, followed by a common-looking sort of man, with very stiff
+manners, who, on the whole, was decidedly snobbish.
+
+Bijou introduced them, "Count de Clagny, Count de Tourville," and
+then, as the marchioness entered the room, looking very handsome still
+in her cloudy lace draperies, the young girl turned to M. de Clagny
+again.
+
+"Well," she said, "and what do you think of the Tourvilles?"
+
+"I don't admire them. But how much Henry de Bracieux has improved in
+appearance; he is not as good-looking as his cousin yet; but that may
+come, perhaps."
+
+"As good-looking as which cousin?"
+
+"As Blaye."
+
+"Again. Oh, well! you will insist on this beauty of Jean's."
+
+"Well, beauty is perhaps not just the word; but he is charming; if you
+will allow me to say that?"
+
+"I will allow it."
+
+"By the bye, do tell me who that very nice-looking young man is whom I
+met just now at the end of the avenue?"
+
+"I do not know, unless it were Pierrot's tutor; but he is not so very
+nice-looking----"
+
+"Look, there he is," said M. de Clagny, indicating M. Giraud.
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed Bijou, in astonishment; "yes, that is he!"
+
+She was amazed both at the count's admiration, and at the
+transformation which Jean's dress-coat had made.
+
+Arrayed in this garment of a perfect cut, and which fitted him
+wonderfully well, the young tutor looked quite at his ease.
+
+"Well," said Henry, coming up to Denyse, "wasn't my idea a bright one?
+Do you see the difference?"--and then, as she did not answer quickly
+enough for his liking, he added: "I'll bet anything you don't see it;
+women never can see those things when it's a question of men."
+
+The guests were all arriving. First the La Balues, imperturbable,
+absurd in the extreme, but so blissfully happy, so full of admiration,
+and so perfectly satisfied with themselves that one would have been
+sorry to have undeceived them. Then came Hubert de Bernes, arrayed, as
+Bijou had prophesied, in his uniform, and looking all round the
+drawing-room carefully afraid of meeting what he was in the habit of
+calling '_any big pots_.' The Juzencourts arrived last of all, bringing
+with them Madame de Nezel, a very pretty and exquisitely-dressed woman.
+She was extremely refined-looking and supple, with that suppleness
+peculiar to Creoles; she had a jessamine-like complexion, and heavy,
+silky hair of jet black.
+
+Bijou, who was looking at her with an expression of curiosity, as
+though she had never seen her before, remarked to M. de Clagny:
+
+"Madame de Nezel is really very pretty--isn't she?"
+
+He replied, in an absent sort of way, devouring Bijou all the time
+with his eyes:
+
+"There is no mistaking that she comes of good family, and then, too,
+she's very womanly, and would respond----"
+
+The young girl knitted her eyebrows as though she were making an
+effort to understand.
+
+"And would what?"
+
+"Oh, nothing," answered the count, annoyed with himself. "I don't know
+what I was going to say."
+
+"Bijou!" called out the marchioness suddenly, "Madame de Juzencourt
+wants to see the children; go and fetch them. You will allow them to
+come down, Bertrade? and you, too, monsieur?" she added, turning to
+the abbe.
+
+M. de Clagny looked vexed at being separated from Denyse. It seemed to
+him already as though he could not do without her.
+
+She soon came back, followed by Marcel and Robert, leading by the hand
+a superb baby-child of four years old, who was smiling amiably and
+confidingly as he trotted along.
+
+"This is my godson," she said, introducing him with evident pride.
+"Isn't he a pet, and so beautiful and good. He's a love!"
+
+"Bijou is so good to that child," said Madame de Rueille, "she is
+always looking after him and is teaching him now to read."
+
+"So early!" exclaimed M. de Clagny, in a reproachful tone, "is he
+being taught to read already?"
+
+"Bijou teaches him plenty of other things, too, don't you, Bijou?"
+asked the marchioness; "you are teaching him Bible history, are you
+not? Two days ago he told me about Moses, and he knew it all very
+well."
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed the count jeeringly, "I should like to hear that. Poor
+unfortunate little mite!"
+
+In a graceful, winsome way, Bijou knelt down by the child. On hearing
+"his story" mentioned, the poor little fellow looked at her
+beseechingly.
+
+"Now, Fred, tell it," she said.
+
+Docile, but with a discontented expression on his face, the little
+fellow looked up at his god-mother.
+
+"Tell about Moses, you know it very well."
+
+"Well then," began Fred resolutely, "they put him in a 'ittle basket,
+'ittle Moses, and they put the basket on the Nile----"
+
+He stopped abruptly, his face bathed in perspiration.
+
+"And then, what happened?" asked Bijou.
+
+"Don't know," replied the little fellow briefly; "don't know any
+more--don't know, I tell you. Say it yourself--what happened."
+
+"Nonsense! come now, have you made up your mind not to answer?"
+
+The child replied coaxingly:
+
+"P'ease don't make me say it!"
+
+Denyse insisted, however.
+
+"Oh, yes! now something happened when Moses was going down the Nile.
+What was it--what happened?"
+
+He thought for a minute, his face puckered up, his eyes shut, and
+then, just when everyone had given up hoping for anything more, he
+cried out, delighted at having remembered:
+
+"Puss in boots came! and called out: 'Help! help! it's the Marquis of
+Carabas--he's drowning.'"
+
+"There, you see," said Bertrade, laughing, "this is what comes of
+teaching him so many fine things at the same time."
+
+M. de Rueille added:
+
+"Yes, a day or two ago Denyse gave him a stunning 'Puss in Boots' that
+we brought with us from Pont-sur-Loire, and this has evidently done
+Moses a great deal of harm."
+
+Bijou turned towards her cousin, and exclaimed in astonishment:
+
+"Denyse! how long have you taken to calling me Denyse?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know," answered Rueille, "sometimes I do."
+
+"Why, you never do! I thought you were vexed," and then, bending
+towards her godchild, and taking him up in her arms, she said,
+laughing: "My poor little Fred, we have not had much success this
+time, have we?"
+
+Giraud, who was standing just behind her, gazed at her admiringly. She
+clasped the child, who was smiling at her, closer still, and murmured
+in a caressing tone:
+
+"Fred! my dear Fred! I do so love you, if you only knew."
+
+On hearing his own name pronounced so tenderly, the young tutor had
+started involuntarily, and he had had the greatest difficulty in
+keeping himself from advancing towards Denyse. He had turned so pale,
+too, and such a strange, drawn look had come over his face, that
+Pierrot, who, as a rule, was not endowed with much power of
+observation except in matters relating to Bijou, noticed it, and
+asked:
+
+"What's the matter with you, Monsieur Giraud? you look so queer! are
+you ill?"
+
+Denyse turned round abruptly, and asked with interest:
+
+"You are not well, Monsieur Giraud?"
+
+"I? oh, yes! perfectly well, thank you, mademoiselle. I don't know
+what made Pierrot fancy that."
+
+"Oh, well!" said the youth, with conviction, "look at yourself; you
+look awfully queer! Besides, for the last three or four days you have
+not been yourself; you must have something the matter that you don't
+know of."
+
+"I assure you," stuttered the poor fellow, in a perfect torture, "I
+assure you that there is nothing the matter with me."
+
+M. de Clagny had approached them. He was looking enviously at little
+Fred nestling against Bijou's pretty shoulder.
+
+"Your godson is perfectly superb!" he said.
+
+"Yes, isn't he? and he adores me!"
+
+Dinner was announced just at this moment, and Bijou gave the child,
+who was getting sleepy, to the English nurse who had come for him.
+
+With a disagreeable expression on his face, young La Balue, who was
+standing just by Denyse, offered her the sharp angle of his arm. With
+some difficulty she managed to slip her hand through, and, with a
+resigned look on her face, went in with him to dinner.
+
+At table M. Giraud was at the other side of her, and half wild with
+delight at finding himself placed next her, he felt that he was more
+shy and awkward than ever. His timidity, which had hitherto been
+extreme, seemed to increase. He dared not say a word, and he was in
+despair, because he felt that he was making himself ridiculous.
+
+He was not only in love with Denyse for her beauty, her grace, and her
+wonderful charm, but he venerated her for her goodness, which seemed
+to him to be infinite.
+
+When he had been an usher in a certain college, he had one day
+murmured some foolish words of affection to the daughter of the
+headmaster, and he remembered still with awe the contemptuous anger
+with which the young lady had reproached him for having, in his
+position, dared to lift his eyes to her.
+
+He had now frankly and bluntly told this beautiful, wealthy, and
+nobly-born girl that he adored her, and, in reply, she had spoken to
+him sweetly and affectionately, discouraging him, but taking care not
+to wound him.
+
+He began now to pity himself and his own fate, firmly believing that
+his life, having been crossed by this hopeless love, would be wretched
+for ever-more.
+
+How could he expect that, having once known and loved a woman like
+Mademoiselle de Courtaix, he would ever be able to love any woman whom
+he would be in a position to marry.
+
+And the poor young man, who, only three short weeks before, used to
+dream at times of a little home presided over by a young wife, who
+should be sweet and modest, though, perhaps, not remarkable in any
+way, saw himself now condemned for life to a bachelor's dreary rooms,
+where, in the end, he would die, surrounded by photographs of Bijou,
+which he would get with great difficulty from Pierrot.
+
+At the beginning of dinner Denyse did not talk much. She looked round
+in an absent sort of way at the whole table, noticing all those
+little nothings which are so amusing to persons capable of seeing
+them.
+
+Madame de Bracieux had M. de la Balue to her right, but she was
+neglecting him for the sake of her old friend, Clagny, who was on her
+other side, and to whom she never ceased talking.
+
+M. de Jonzac, who was opposite his sister, between Madame de la Balue
+and Madame de Tourville, only appeared to be enjoying himself in a
+moderate degree. Madame de Nezel also looked rather sad, and talked in
+a half-hearted way to her neighbours, Henry de Bracieux and M. de
+Rueille. She glanced often in the direction of Jean de Blaye, who was
+seated at the other end of the table, between Madame de Juzencourt and
+Mademoiselle de la Balue. Jean did not seem to be taking any notice of
+Madame de Nezel, and several times Bijou saw that his eyes were fixed
+on her. She found this embarrassing; so turning towards young Balue,
+started an animated conversation with him, and thereupon Jean, with a
+somewhat troubled expression in his eyes, watched her all the time.
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+
+AFTER dinner the heat in the drawing-room was over-powering, and
+Madame de Bracieux said to her guests:
+
+"Those of you who are not afraid of the evening air could go out on to
+the terrace or into the garden."
+
+Gisele de la Balue, a big, tall girl, built on the model of the
+statues round the Place de la Concorde, and who liked to affect free
+and easy tom-boyish manners, started off out-doors, running along
+heavily and calling out:
+
+"Whoever cares for me will follow me!"
+
+Hubert de Bernes followed her out of politeness.
+
+Rueille, Henry de Bracieux, Pierrot, and M. Giraud turned with one
+accord toward Denyse.
+
+"Are you coming, Bijou?" asked Pierrot.
+
+She saw Jean de Blaye talking to Madame de Nezel, who was just going
+out with him, and she answered:
+
+"I will come to you directly. I am going to see if the children are in
+bed just now."
+
+"Mademoiselle," proposed the abbe, "I can spare you the trouble."
+
+"Oh, no; thank you very much, monsieur, but you know I never feel
+quite happy if I have not kissed Fred."
+
+She went out by the door opposite the terrace.
+
+"Your grand-daughter is decidedly the most charming girl I have ever
+come across," remarked M. de Clagny to the marchioness, and then he
+added sadly; "It is when an old man meets women like that, that he
+regrets his age."
+
+"I must say," answered Madame de Bracieux, laughing, "that even if you
+were young, you would not be just the husband I dream of for Bijou."
+
+"And why not, if you please?"
+
+"Well, because you are, or at least you were, rather--how shall I put
+it?--rather large-hearted."
+
+"Large-hearted! good heavens, yes, I was! but that was the fault of
+those who did not know how to keep my affection. I assure you, though,
+that with a wife like Bijou, I should never have been what you call
+_large-hearted_."
+
+"Oh, as to that," said Madame de Bracieux incredulously, "one never
+knows."
+
+On leaving the drawing-room, Bijou crossed the hall, and instead of
+going up the wide staircase which led to the children's rooms, she
+lifted the old green tapestry curtain which covered the door of the
+butler's pantry. Just as she was going to open this door she turned
+back into the hall to get a long, dark cloak, which was hanging there.
+It was a Berck fisherwoman's cloak, which she always put on when it
+rained. She wrapped herself up in it hastily, and then went into the
+pantry, where it was now quite dark. From the kitchen she could hear
+the loud voices of the servants, who were at dinner. Denyse went
+across to the open window, got up on to a chair, and then gathering
+her skirts closely round her, stepped out on to the window-sill, and
+jumped lightly down into the garden.
+
+Once there, she hesitated an instant. The terrace seemed to stand out
+distinctly, lighted up by the drawing-room windows. In the chestnut
+avenue she could distinguish in the shade the red gleam of cigars.
+
+Suddenly she pulled the hood of her cloak up over her head, and
+evidently making up her mind, started off quickly along the dark
+pathway which led to the other avenue.
+
+During this time her faithful admirers were waiting on the terrace for
+her to come and join them as she had promised, and the ponderous
+Gisele was endeavouring vainly to organise a game at hide-and-seek.
+The men seemed to have no energy; Madame de Tourville was afraid of
+spoiling her dress; and Madame de Juzencourt was strolling about with
+Jean de Blaye and Madame de Nezel. Presently, however, she went back
+to the others alone, and Mademoiselle de la Balue wanted to persuade
+her to have a game, but she refused emphatically. She certainly was
+not going to run about, she said, considering that she was too warm
+already with only walking; she had just had to leave Therese de Nezel
+and Jean de Blaye, for she could not walk another step.
+
+Left to themselves, Jean and Madame de Nezel continued strolling
+along, she in a natural, unaffected way, going on with the
+conversation they had commenced, and he absent-minded and ill-at-case.
+
+"Why do you not reproach me?" he said at last, abruptly, not able to
+contain himself any longer; "why do you not say all the bad things you
+think about me?"
+
+"Because I have nothing to reproach you for," she answered, very
+gently; "and I do not think any bad things about you."
+
+"Well, then, you do not care about me any longer."
+
+"I do not care about you any longer?" she said, and there was an
+accent of such intense grief in her voice that he was quite overcome
+by it.
+
+He knew so well how deeply she loved him, that he dreaded the thought
+of the awful suffering she would have to endure if he were to be quite
+straightforward with her now, and so, out of affection for her, he
+endeavoured to conceal from her the real truth.
+
+"Yes," he began, improvising with difficulty an excuse of which he had
+not thought until that moment, "you must have fancied that I was not
+thinking of you, for you have been here at The Pines a fortnight, and
+I have not sent you a line. The fact is, it is very difficult to
+arrange to meet here at Pont-sur-Loire; everyone knows me here, and,
+you see, for your sake, I scarcely liked to ask you to meet me in the
+town."
+
+She did not make any reply, and he could not understand her silence.
+
+"Why do you not answer me?" he asked at length.
+
+"Why? well, because you are telling me now exactly the opposite to
+what you said when you asked me to accept the Juzencourts'
+invitation."
+
+"What did I say?" he asked, slightly embarrassed.
+
+"You said that at Pont-sur-Loire it would be so easy to meet. You
+said that between the hours of luncheon and dinner there were two
+trains up and two down from The Pines to Pont-sur-Loire, and that I
+could get away so easily, as the Juzencourts never went out except to
+pay calls at the various country-houses in the neighbourhood, or to
+follow the paper chases. On my arrival here I found that all these
+details were perfectly exact."
+
+"Yes, but it really is not so easy as I had imagined."
+
+"Ah, Jean! instead of trying to deceive me in this way, it would be
+much better to tell me the truth."
+
+"And the truth, according to you, is that I no longer care for you?"
+
+"Yes, that is a part of the truth."
+
+"And," he asked, somewhat uneasily, "the rest?"--
+
+"Is, that you are in love with Mademoiselle de Courtaix. Ah, do not
+deny it! it is so evident!" And then, after a moment's silence, she
+added: "And so natural!"
+
+"Do you forgive me?"
+
+"I have nothing to forgive. I have never demanded anything from you,
+and you have never, never promised me anything. When I first began to
+care for you, I was not a widow; you must therefore have judged me
+severely, as a man nearly always does judge the woman who is weak
+enough to care for him when she ought not to."
+
+"I swear to you--"
+
+"No, do not swear anything; you had all the more reason to judge me in
+that way, because I did not think it my duty to tell you what my life
+had been like until then. You doubtless believed that my husband was
+kind and affectionate, and that I endured no remorse, when I allowed
+myself to love you--"
+
+"I did not think about it at all, I simply adored you," he said. And
+then hesitating, and with evident anxiety, he continued: "And now you
+will never care for me any more?"
+
+"What!" she exclaimed, perfectly amazed at the unconscious selfishness
+of the man, "you wish me to go on caring for you?"
+
+"You ask if I wish it? why, what would become of me without you? you
+who are my very life!" And then, as she moved back a step or two in
+sheer bewilderment, he went on: "Well, but whatever have you been
+imagining?--that I am going to marry Bijou, perhaps?"
+
+"Why, yes."
+
+He was about to explain to her why he could not marry his cousin, but
+it occurred to him that the very prosaic reason for the impossibility
+of such a match, would make his return to Madame de Nezel, of whom he
+was really very fond, appear as a slight to her.
+
+"It has only been a passing fancy that I have had for Bijou," he said.
+"How could I help it? it is simply impossible to be always with her
+and to escape being intoxicated by her beauty, and by her unconscious
+and innocent coquetry. For the last fortnight I have been a fool--I am
+still, in fact; but on seeing you again I knew at once that it is you
+only whom I love, and belong to--heart and soul."
+
+As he said this, he drew Madame de Nezel's pale face against his
+shoulder, and, bending down, pressed his lips to hers, and then, as
+the young widow nestled closer still in his arms, he said, with
+passionate tenderness:
+
+"How do you think that I could ever care for that child--with whom I
+am always so reserved--in the way I care for you?" He could feel her
+slender form trembling in his embrace, and, drawing her closer still,
+he murmured: "Forgive me, darling, you are always so good, and if I
+have sinned, it has only been in thought."
+
+"You know I love you," she answered. "But we must go back to the house
+at once; they will think our walk is lasting a long time."
+
+Madame de Juzencourt, who was seated on the terrace, called out as
+soon as she caught sight of them:
+
+"Well, have you been walking all this time?"
+
+And at the same moment M. de Rueille called out to Bijou, who had just
+appeared at one of the windows:
+
+"So that's the way you come out to us! It's very kind of you."
+
+"I could not come before," she answered, stepping out, and then
+approaching her cousin, she added, in a low voice: "I had to see to
+the tea and the ices, etc., etc.; you must not be vexed with me."
+
+"Vexed with you!" exclaimed Pierrot warmly. "Could anyone be vexed
+with _you_, now?"
+
+Bijou did not answer. She was watching Hubert de Bernes in an
+absent-minded way, as he stood talking to Bertrade, and she was
+wondering how it was that he was so cool in his manner towards
+herself. He was polite, certainly, and even pleasant, but _only_
+polite and pleasant, and she was not accustomed to such moderation. M.
+de Clagny appeared presently at one of the windows and called out:
+
+"Mademoiselle Bijou, your grandmamma wants you."
+
+Denyse ran into the house, her silk skirts rustling as she went. She
+did not even stay to answer young La Balue, who, pointing to Henry de
+Bracieux as he stood with the light showing up his profile, had just
+remarked:
+
+"What a handsome man Henry is."
+
+"Bijou," said the marchioness, "I want you to sing something for us."
+
+"Oh! grandmamma, please"--she began, in a beseeching tone, and looking
+annoyed.
+
+"M. de Clagny wants to hear you," said Madame de Bracieux, insisting.
+
+"Oh, very well, then, I will, certainly," replied Bijou pleasantly,
+without taking into account that her way of consenting was not very
+flattering for the rest of her grandmother's guests.
+
+She went to the piano, and, taking up a guitar, put the pink ribbon
+which was attached to it round her neck, and then came back and took
+up her position in the midst of the semi-circle formed by the
+arm-chairs.
+
+"I am going to accompany myself with the guitar," she said; "it is
+simpler." And then turning to M. de Clagny, she asked: "What do you
+want me to sing? Do you like the old-fashioned songs?" and without
+waiting for a reply, she began the ballad of the "Petit Soldat":
+
+    "Je me suis engage
+    Pour l'amour d'une blonde."
+
+She had a good ear and a pretty voice, which she used skilfully, and
+it was with plaintive sweetness that she sang the touching story of
+the young soldier who "veut qu'on mette son coeur dans une serviette
+blanche."
+
+The drawing-room soon filled when Bijou began to sing, and the various
+expressions on the different faces were most amusing to see.
+
+Jean was listening in a nervous, excited way, pulling his fair
+moustache irritably through his fingers.
+
+M. de Rueille, affected in spite of himself by the doleful air, and
+annoyed that all these people should be admiring Bijou, was pacing up
+and down at the other end of the drawing-room, pretending not to be
+listening to the music.
+
+Pierrot, with his mouth open, was all attention. Young La Balue, with
+his elbow resting on a side-table in an awkward and ridiculous pose,
+kept his colourless eyes fixed on the young girl in a gaze which he
+tried to make magnetic, and with such bold persistency that Henry de
+Bracieux felt the most extraordinary desire to walk up to him and box
+his ears. Even Abbe Courteil was carried away by the plaintive
+ballad; he was deeply moved, and sat there with his eyes stretched
+wide open, breathing heavily. Hubert de Bernes only was listening with
+polite attention, but comparative indifference. As to the ladies, all,
+except, perhaps, Gisele de la Balue, admired Bijou sincerely.
+
+Madame de Nezel was listening with a mournful expression in her eyes,
+and a kind-hearted smile, whilst as for M. de Clagny, it was as though
+all the sensitiveness and affection of his nature had gone out towards
+this pretty, fragile-looking, young creature. His eyes, beaming with
+tenderness, seemed to take in at the same time, the beautiful face,
+the little rosy fingers as they touched the strings of the guitar, and
+the slender, supple figure.
+
+When Bijou had come to the end of her song, she went up to him,
+without paying any attention to the compliments that were being
+showered on her, and, in a pretty, coaxing way, she asked:
+
+"It did not bore you too much, I hope?"
+
+M. de Clagny could not answer for a moment. He felt choked with
+emotion.
+
+"I shall often ask you for that song again," he said at last. "Yes, I
+shall come often, and you will sing me the 'Petit Soldat,' won't you?"
+
+He had a great desire to hear Bijou sing for him--for him alone; he
+did not want to share her voice and her charm with all these people
+whom he now detested.
+
+"You shall come as often as you please," she answered, looking
+delighted, "and I will sing you everything you like," and then gliding
+away she went across to Jean de Blaye, who was standing alone at the
+other end of the drawing-room. "It annoys you when I sing, doesn't
+it?" she asked him.
+
+"Why, no!" he answered, surprised at the question, and surprised that
+Bijou should trouble about him. "Why should you think so?"
+
+"Because I saw you just now--you were pulling your moustache in the
+most furious way, and you looked bored to death. Yes, you certainly
+did look bored!"
+
+"It was just your own imagination."
+
+"Oh, no! it was not just my imagination. When I care about anyone I am
+always very clear-sighted! so, you see, it is quite the contrary. Why
+are you frowning now?"
+
+"I am not frowning."
+
+"Oh, yes, you were, and it looks as though what I said just now had
+vexed you, too."
+
+"What did you just say?"
+
+"That I am very clear-sighted. And you are vexed, because you are
+afraid that I shall see that something is the matter."
+
+"Something the matter?" he asked uneasily. "What is it?"
+
+"What is it? Ah! I don't know! But most certainly something is the
+matter with you--you are not at all like yourself ever since--why,
+ever since we have been at Bracieux."
+
+"Really?" he said, putting on a joking tone. "I am different, am
+I--and the most extraordinary thing is, that I did not know myself
+about this difference."
+
+Bijou shrugged her pretty shoulders.
+
+"Don't try to take me in like that, Jean, my dear; I know you too
+well, you see. You are different, I tell you! You have gradually got
+very abrupt, restless, and absent-minded. Listen, now,--would you like
+me to tell you what it is?"
+
+Seated at some distance away from them, Madame de Nezel was watching
+them, with an expression of melancholy resignation.
+
+Bijou glanced across at her, and the young girl's violet eyes gleamed
+between her long, thick lashes, as she said:
+
+"You are in love with someone who does not return your love."
+
+Jean de Blaye coloured up furiously.
+
+"You don't know what you are talking about," he answered.
+
+"Well, then, why have you gone so red? Oh, how proud you are. You are
+vexed because I have found this out." And then, after a short silence,
+she began again: "Have you told her?"
+
+"Have I told what? and whom? My dear Bijou, how foolish you are."
+
+"Have you told Mad--" She stopped abruptly, and then, with her face
+turned towards Madame de Nezel, she continued: "The person with whom
+you are in love, have you told her that you love her?"
+
+"No!" he murmured, in a stifled sort of voice.
+
+"You are afraid to? but why? I constantly hear grandmamma, Bertrade,
+Paul, and Uncle Alexis, saying over and over again that you are the
+kind of man women like; _she_ would be sure to like you, too, and she
+would marry you, I am certain." She leaned towards him, nearly
+touching his ear as she whispered to him, and not caring what effect
+her familiarity might have. "Listen, now, if you like I will tell her
+for you, and I am quite sure what her answer will be."
+
+Jean rose abruptly, and seizing Bijou's hand, he asked excitedly:
+
+"What are you saying?"
+
+"I am just saying that she _will_ love you, if she does not already."
+
+"But of whom are you speaking--of whom?" he stammered out, aghast.
+
+She answered him in a hesitating way, with a frank look on her pretty
+face, but she spoke in such a low voice that he could scarcely catch
+her first words.
+
+"I am speaking of----"
+
+"Bijou!" called out Pierrot, separating them unceremoniously,
+"grandmamma says you are forgetting about the tea." And then, looking
+at their faces, he went on: "Well, I never! you are both as red as
+cherries; there's no mistake about it, it's baking hot in here."
+
+Denyse hurried away, and Pierrot continued:
+
+"We thought over there that you were quarrelling."
+
+"Ah! you thought that, did you?" answered Jean, by way of saying
+something.
+
+"Yes, especially grandmamma; that's why she sent me to tell Bijou
+about the tea. I say, Bijou isn't worried about anything, is she?"
+
+"Well, now, what kind of worry do you fancy she could have, my dear
+fellow?" And then, with a smile, he added: "Who do you imagine would
+undertake to cause her any worry? It seems to me that anyone who did
+venture to would have a bad time of it in this house."
+
+"She's so sweet, and so nice always," answered the boy, with great
+warmth. "As for me, why, I just adore her; and Paul does, too, and so
+does Henry, and M. Giraud, and Bertrade's kids, and the abbe, and
+everyone, in fact; even little La Balue is gone on her, and he's never
+gone on anyone. Yes, he was telling her I don't know what up in a
+corner of the room after dinner, and then, when she was singing--did
+you ever see such eyes as he was making at her?--oh, no! if you had
+only just seen him----"
+
+"Do shut up!" exclaimed Jean irritably, "you wear everyone out, if you
+only knew it, my dear Pierrot."
+
+When Bijou came back to the drawing-room, Henry de Bracieux waylaid
+her.
+
+"I say," he began, in a cross-grained tone, "what was La Balue telling
+you just now that appeared to be so interesting?"
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Here, after dinner."
+
+"Here?" repeated Bijou, apparently trying to recall something to her
+memory, "after dinner? Ah, I remember; why, he was talking about
+you!'
+
+"About me?"
+
+"Yes, about you! He thinks you are very handsome, but he also thinks
+that you do not know how to make the most of your good looks."
+
+"Have you finished making game of me?"
+
+"I assure you that I am not making game of you--not the least bit in
+the world. He even advised me to tell you that instead of your
+frightful stand-up collars--these are his words, you know, and not
+mine--you ought to wear--what did he call them now?--oh, Van Dyck
+collars, which would not cover your neck up, for it appears that your
+throat is superb, and your head so well set on your shoulders; and
+then you have lovely teeth! I only wish you could hear him sing the
+praises of your personal appearance."
+
+"Of my personal appearance! Mine?"
+
+"Why, yes; you thought, perhaps, that he was talking to me of mine?
+Not at all! He informed me, too, that he was going to tell you all
+that in poetry; not the Van Dyck collars, but the rest."
+
+"That young man is an idiot!"
+
+"Oh, dear me, he is very harmless."
+
+"You are so good-hearted always, you never dig into anyone. Ah,
+attention! they are packing up, the La Balue crew!" And Henry, in a
+low voice, and apparently delighted, finished up with a "Hip! hip!
+hurrah!"
+
+M. de la Balue, who was just coming out of the hall with a heap of
+cloaks, looked at him in astonishment, while at the doorway a little
+family quarrel took place. The good man wanted to make his wife and
+daughter wrap their heads up in some very ordinary-looking knitted
+shawls, so that they should not get a chill. He was obliged, however,
+to give in at last.
+
+Bijou, on saying good-bye to Madame de Nezel, held out her little
+hand, and looked straight into her eyes with such an expression of
+innocent curiosity that the young widow turned away, quite confused by
+the persistency of the young girl's gaze. It seemed to her as though
+this child had discovered the secret of her life, and the bare idea of
+this caused her intense misery.
+
+Bijou's charm, however, was so great, and her power of attraction so
+strong, that Madame de Nezel, at the bottom of her heart, felt nothing
+but affection for the lovely little creature who had so unconsciously
+stolen her happiness from her.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Denyse gaily, when she went back into the
+drawing-room, where only M. de Clagny and the family now remained, "it
+is half-past twelve, you know; they all seemed like fixtures, and I
+thought they were never going to leave us!"
+
+"The La Balue family are not very handsome," remarked the abbe.
+
+"Oh, they are not so bad," protested the young girl; "it is only a
+question of getting used to them, that's all!"
+
+"Young Balue is horrible!" said Madame de Bracieux. "And then, too,
+there is something snaky about him. When you shake hands with him, it
+is like touching an eel."
+
+"And the daughter, too!" put in Pierrot. "Ugh, she has such little
+pig's eyes! and Louis, too, has little eyes!"
+
+"They are very nice, though, all the same," said Bijou, in a
+conciliatory tone.
+
+"And they come of very good family," added Madame de Bracieux; "they
+are descended from La Balue, from the Cardinal, the real--"
+
+"Oh, well," put in Bijou gently, "it would, perhaps, be better for
+Gisele not to have descended from the iron cage, but to have larger
+eyes; however, as it cannot be helped--"
+
+M. de Clagny laughed, as he turned round to look about for his hat,
+which he had put down somewhere in the room.
+
+"One needs to have a certain amount of assurance," he said, "in making
+one's exit from here, for one feels how one will be pulled to pieces."
+
+"You need not be afraid," said Bijou, "we shall not pull you to
+pieces, although you could stand it very well. I promise you, though,
+that you shall not be pulled to pieces. Will you take my word for it?"
+
+"Yes, I will take your word," answered the count, as he took the
+little hands, which were held out to him, and pressed them
+affectionately in his.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+
+"ARE you going for a ride, Bijou?" called out Pierrot, leaning out of
+the window.
+
+Denyse, who was just crossing the courtyard, pointed to her
+riding-habit.
+
+"Well, you can be sure that in this heat I should not entertain myself
+by walking about in a cloth dress if I were not going to ride."
+
+"Where are you going?"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"So that we can come and meet you--we two--M. Giraud and I,--at eleven
+o'clock!"
+
+Just behind Pierrot the tutor's head was to be seen.
+
+"I am going to The Borderettes to take a message to Lavenue," answered
+Bijou; and then, seeing Giraud, she said pleasantly: "Good morning. I
+shall see you again, then, soon?"
+
+Patatras was waiting in the shade. The old coachman, who always
+accompanied Bijou, helped her into her saddle, and then, mounting in
+his turn, prepared to follow her. When Pierrot saw this, he called out
+again:
+
+"How is it that none of the cousins are riding with you?"
+
+"I did not tell them that I was going out."
+
+"Ah!" he exclaimed regretfully, "if I were only free, wouldn't I come
+with you!"
+
+She turned round in her saddle, with an easy movement which showed
+that she was not laced in at all, and answered Pierrot, with a merry
+laugh:
+
+"I should not have told you though, either!"
+
+As soon as Bijou had passed through the gateway, she put Patatras to a
+gallop, for the flies were teasing him dreadfully.
+
+She went along through the hot air, meeting the sun, the burning rays
+of which fell full on her pretty face without making it red. She did
+not slacken her pace until she arrived at the narrow lane leading to
+The Borderettes. It was almost perpendicular, and covered with loose
+stones, and at the bottom of the little valley, which was very green,
+in spite of the dry season, the farm, with its white walls and red
+roof, looked like a perfectly new toy-house. When she was at the
+bottom of the hill, Bijou pulled out of her pocket a little
+looking-glass, and then arranged her veil and the loose curly locks of
+hair, which had blown over her ears and the back of her neck. She then
+gathered from the hedge a spray of mulberry blossom, which she
+fastened in the bodice of her habit, arranged the little handkerchief,
+trimmed with Valenciennes, daintily in her side-pocket, and then,
+after another short gallop, pulled up at the entrance to the farm.
+
+A rough voice called out: "Are you there, master?" and then a young
+farm labourer came out of the house, saying: "Master ain't heard me
+call; I'll go and find him."
+
+A minute or two later, a tall young man, of some thirty-five years of
+age, appeared. He was a true type of the Norman peasant, somewhat
+meagre-looking, with fair hair, and a slight stoop. He looked very
+warm and was out of breath. His face was so red that it seemed to be
+turning purple.
+
+"Ah!" he exclaimed, trying to get his breath again, "it's you,
+Mad'moiselle Denyse, it's you, is it?"
+
+"Yes, Monsieur Lavenue," she answered, smiling, "it is."
+
+"Won't you get down?" he asked, holding out his hand to help her.
+
+"No, thanks! I have only come to bring you a message from grandmamma.
+It is about the Confirmation dinner next Monday; but you know all
+about that, as you are the mayor?"
+
+"Yes, I know about it!"
+
+"Well, grandmamma would like to have some very nice peaches for
+Monday, and some very nice pears; in fact, all kinds of nice things,
+such as grow in your orchard."
+
+"They shall bring you them, Mad'moiselle Denyse! You can be quite easy
+about that. I'll see they are well chosen." And then, as the young
+girl turned her horse round, he said, as he watched her, almost dazed
+with admiration: "Are you going to start back already, mad'moiselle?
+Won't you stop and have some refreshment--a bowl of milk now? I know
+you like a drop o' good milk!" And then, in a persuasive tone, he
+added, as he took hold of Patatras' bridle, "That 'ud give the horse a
+rest, too; he's very warm after the run."
+
+Farmer Lavenue's way of talking always amused Bijou. It had been more
+than ten years now since the sturdy Norman had emigrated to Touraine,
+and yet he had not lost his strong Norman accent in the slightest
+degree.
+
+It was Madame de Bracieux, who, thoroughly dissatisfied with the
+Touraine farmers, had taken up this man. Charlemagne Lavenue had never
+fraternised with the regular inhabitants of the place. He was looked
+up to and admired by the simple-minded and unskilful villagers, who
+saw him making money in the very place where others had been ruined.
+He had, by "sending for people from his part of the world," gradually
+transformed The Borderettes into a small Normandy, and he had so much
+influence now in the place that he, an interloper, had been elected
+mayor of Bracieux, to the exclusion of the former notables of the
+place.
+
+As Denyse did not reply, he lifted her down from her horse, saying as
+he did so: "You will, mad'moiselle, won't you?" And then, after giving
+the reins to the old groom, he led the way to the door of the farm,
+and stood aside for Bijou to enter.
+
+"How nice it is here, Monsieur Lavenue," she exclaimed, in a pleasant
+way. "Have I ever seen this room before? No, I don't think I have!"
+
+"Yes, you've seen it, mad'moiselle, only, you know, it's been fresh
+white-washed, and, you see, that makes it different-like."
+
+"When you are married, now," she said, smiling, "it will be very nice,
+indeed."
+
+Farmer Lavenue, who was looking at Bijou with hungry eyes, held his
+head up erect, and then, shaking it slowly, he answered, with some
+hesitation:
+
+"I can't decide to give the farm a mistress, because I don't come
+across one as suits me." And after a moment's silence, he added:
+"That is to say, amongst them as I could have."
+
+"Why, how's that? any of the girls from Bracieux, or Combes, or from
+the villages round The Borderettes, would marry you, Monsieur Lavenue,
+and there are some very pretty girls among them."
+
+"I can't see as they are," he answered, blushing, and twisting about
+in his fingers the huge, broad-brimmed hat which he always wore the
+whole year round.
+
+"You are difficult to please, then; do you mean that you don't think
+Catherine Lebour pretty?"
+
+"No, Mad'moiselle Denyse."
+
+"Nor Josephine Lacaille?"
+
+"No, Mad'moiselle Denyse."
+
+"And Louise Pature?"
+
+"No, mad'moiselle."
+
+Bijou laughed merrily. "Oh, well, do you mean to say that you don't
+admire any woman?"
+
+"Yes, I do--there's _one_--"
+
+"Who is it?" she asked, looking full at the peasant, with her frank,
+innocent expression.
+
+Lavenue turned redder still, and stooped down with an awkward movement
+to pick up his hat, which had fallen to the ground.
+
+"I can't say," he stuttered out; "she isn't for such as me."
+
+Bijou did not hear his reply. With her pretty figure slightly bent,
+and her head thrown back, she was slowly drinking a second cup of
+milk, whilst the farmer, who had recovered himself, stood still, with
+his eyes wide open, gazing at this fragile-looking young creature in
+timid, half-fearful admiration.
+
+When Bijou had finished her milk, she looked at him critically, with a
+smile on her lips.
+
+"My goodness! how warm it is to-day," he said, wiping with the back of
+his hand the great drops of perspiration, which stood out on his
+forehead.
+
+"Thank you, so much, Monsieur Lavenue," said Denyse, getting up; "your
+milk is delicious."
+
+"Oh! but you aren't surely going to start off again already?" he said,
+with a downcast look.
+
+"Already! why, I have been here at least a quarter of an hour."
+
+"Oh, well! it's been precious quick to me that quarter of an hour!" he
+stammered; and then, in a lower voice, he added: "Thank you, very
+much, Mad'moiselle Denyse, for the honour as you've done me. I sha'n't
+forget it, that's certain!"
+
+On getting up, Bijou had let the flowers, which she was wearing in her
+bodice, fall to the ground.
+
+As she turned towards the door, to see whether the horses were there,
+the peasant, with a stealthy movement, stretched his long, sinewy body
+out along the floor, and, snatching up the flowers, hid them away
+under his blouse.
+
+The groom was about to descend from his horse in order to help Denyse
+to mount; but she made a sign to stop him.
+
+"Monsieur Lavenue will help me on to my horse," she said; "he is very
+strong."
+
+She put her foot out in order to place it in the farmer's hand; but,
+without any warning, he put his hands round her waist, and then,
+steadying her a second against himself, he lifted her straight into
+the saddle.
+
+"Oh, well!" she exclaimed, in amazement, "I said you were strong, but
+however could you hold me at arm's length like that, and put me on to
+my horse, which is so tall?" and then, as he did not speak, but just
+stood there, looking down and breathing heavily, she added: "There,
+you see, I was too heavy! You are quite out of breath."
+
+She started off before he had time to answer, calling out to him as
+she rode away:
+
+"Good morning, and thank you again, very much!"
+
+Just as she was turning out of the farmyard, she looked round again at
+the farmer, who was standing motionless, as though rooted to the
+spot, with his arms hanging down at his sides.
+
+"Don't forget grandmamma's peaches and pears, Monsieur Lavenue!" she
+called out.
+
+She then looked at her watch, and found that it was five minutes past
+eleven. She had plenty of time to return home without hurrying, and
+then, too, M. Giraud and Pierrot were to meet her, and they were never
+free until eleven o'clock.
+
+As she passed through a village, she gathered a spray of clematis from
+the cemetery wall to replace the flowers which she had dropped, and
+then, when she found herself quite alone, she took out her little
+looking-glass again, and fluffed her hair up, as it was not curly
+enough now that the heat had made it limp. At half-past eleven, as she
+saw no signs of those whom she was expecting, she began to get
+impatient, and put her horse to a gallop, for Patatras was getting
+tired, and would keep stopping, and doing his utmost to browse the
+leaves along the hedges.
+
+Suddenly a serious, almost melancholy, expression came over the girl's
+pretty, happy-looking face. She was just crossing a meadow, which was
+skirted by a wood.
+
+"Hallo, Bijou! that's how you cut us, is it?" exclaimed a voice.
+
+She stopped short, looking surprised, and turned back a few steps.
+
+Pierrot and M. Giraud, who had been lying down in the shade, rose from
+the ground, leaving the long grass marked with their impress.
+
+"Why, you are here already!" she said; "I did not expect to meet you
+so far away from home; at what time did you start, then?"
+
+"A little before the hour," answered Pierrot; and then he added slily,
+winking at his tutor: "M'sieu' Giraud was a brick; he let me off a bit
+earlier--without me begging much, either--and now, if we want to be at
+Bracieux at twelve o'clock, we shall have to put our best feet first!"
+
+They were walking along by the side of Bijou.
+
+"Have you recovered from yesterday evening?" she asked, addressing M.
+Giraud.
+
+"Recovered?" said the young tutor. "How _recovered_?"
+
+"Because you could not have enjoyed yourself very much! M. de
+Tourville and M. de Juzencourt blocked you up, one after the other, in
+a corner, to explain to you: the one that Charles de Tourville
+embarked with William the Conqueror in 1066; and the other, that a
+Juzencourt fought against Charles the Bold in 1477 under the walls of
+Nancy. Am I not right?"
+
+"Quite right! and M. de Juzencourt added that there was only blue
+blood in his family. I did not quite understand why he should tell me
+that."
+
+"In order to prove to you that, traced clearly only since 1477, but
+without the slightest _mesalliance_, the Juzencourts are more
+respectable than the Tourvilles."
+
+"Oh, indeed!"
+
+"Yes, M. de Tourville married a young lady who was all very well, but
+her name was Chaillot, and her father is on the Stock Exchange; you
+see, therefore, that, as regards the Tourvilles, the family is older
+than the Juzencourt family, but it is not so pure. You managed to put
+such a good face on as you listened to all that. Oh, dear! I could
+have laughed if you had not looked so wretched."
+
+"It wasn't just the nuisance of having to listen to the Tourville and
+Juzencourt yarns that made him look like that," observed Pierrot. "For
+some time past he is always like that, even with me, and I can promise
+you that I don't overpower him with yarns, either about Charles the
+Bold or William the Conqueror."
+
+"I am quite convinced on that score!" said Bijou, laughing.
+
+"Dear me! it isn't that there'd be any difficulty about it,"
+protested Pierrot. "I _could_ very well if I wanted to, but--confound
+it!"
+
+"Confound it! again?" said the young tutor, annoyed, and looking
+reproachfully at his pupil. "You know that M. de Jonzac objects to
+your speaking in that way. He particularly wishes you to be more
+careful, and more correct, in your choice of words."
+
+"Oh, well! if he were to talk to my friends, he'd hear a few things,
+and he'd soon get used to it, too. It's always like that; just a
+matter of getting used to things."
+
+"I cannot imagine that very well, though," said Bijou; "Uncle Alexis
+letting himself get used to the style of conversation of your
+friends."
+
+She drew up whilst she was speaking, and pointed to something in the
+wood.
+
+"Oh! look at that beautiful mountain ash, isn't it red? How pretty
+those bunches are!"
+
+"Do you want some of those berries?" proposed Pierrot.
+
+"Yes, I should like some, they are so beautiful."
+
+The youth entered the coppice, and they heard the branches snapping as
+he broke them in order to make himself a passage, and presently the
+top of the red tree shook and swayed, now bending down, and now
+springing up again, as Pierrot shook it roughly.
+
+Bijou, with her head bent, and a far-away look in her eyes, seemed to
+be in a dream, quite oblivious of what was going on around her. She
+started on hearing Pierrot's voice as he called out to her to know
+whether he was to gather a large bunch.
+
+"There is nothing worrying you, is there, mademoiselle?" asked
+Monsieur Giraud timidly, as he stroked Patatras gently.
+
+"Oh, no! Why?"
+
+"Because you do not seem quite like yourself; you look rather sad."
+
+"Sad?" she said, forcing a smile. "I look sad?"
+
+"Yes. Just now, when you passed by without seeing us, you looked sad,
+very sad, and now again--"
+
+"Just now--that's quite possible. Yes, I did not feel quite gay; but,
+now, why, I have no reason to be otherwise--quite the contrary. I feel
+so happy here, in this velvety-looking field, and with this beautiful
+sunshine that I love so much!" And then she added, as though in a
+dream, and not taking any notice of the young man: "Yes, I am so
+happy, I should like to stay like this for ever and ever."
+
+She pressed her rosy lips to the spray of clematis with which she had
+been playing the last minute or two, and then put it back into her
+bodice, not seeing the hand which Giraud was holding out beseechingly
+towards the poor flowers, which were already withering.
+
+Pierrot came out of the thicket at this moment, carrying an immense
+bunch of mountain ash berries. Bijou was smiling again by this time.
+
+"You are ever so kind, Pierrot dear," she said, after thanking him,
+"and all the more so as you will have the bother of carrying that for
+another mile yet."
+
+"Oh! if it would give you any pleasure, you know, I'd do things that
+were a lot more bother than that!"
+
+"You are good, Pierrot."
+
+"It isn't because I'm good;" he said, and then coming nearer, so that
+he touched the horse, he added very softly: "It's because I'm so fond
+of you."
+
+Bijou did not answer, and in another minute Pierrot began again:
+
+"How well you sang last night. Didn't she, M'sieu' Giraud?"
+
+"Wonderfully well," said the tutor. "And what a lovely voice! so
+fresh, and so pure. I can understand something now which I did not
+understand yesterday."
+
+"What may that be?"
+
+"The infinite power of the voice! Yes, before hearing you I did not
+know what I know at present. You will sing again, will you not,
+mademoiselle? Fancy, I have been here three weeks, and I had never had
+the happiness of--"
+
+"I will give you _that happiness_ as much as ever you like."
+
+She was joking again now, for the little dreamy creature of a minute
+before was Bijou once more.
+
+As they approached the chateau, she put her hand up to shade her eyes.
+
+"Why, what's going on?" she said; "the hall-door steps look black with
+people."
+
+"Hang it!" exclaimed Pierrot crossly. "They are all out there watching
+for you! There's Paul, and there's Henry, and the abbe, and Uncle
+Alexis, and Bertrade. Look, though! Who's that? You are right--there
+are some other folks too. Ah! it's old Dubuisson, and Jeanne, and then
+there's a fellow I don't know; a fellow all in black. Oh, well! he
+must be a shivery sort to come to the country dressed in black, in
+such heat as this."
+
+"Perhaps it's M. Spiegel, Jeanne's _fiance_. They were to bring him."
+
+"Yes, that must be it! I say, he doesn't look a very lively sort, your
+Jeanne's _fiance_. She isn't though either--"
+
+Bijou was looking round to see what had become of Giraud, who had
+suddenly become so silent. He was following the young girl,
+worshipping her as he walked along as though she were some idol.
+
+Just at this moment, whilst Pierrot was very much taken up with
+looking in the direction of the chateau, the little bunch of clematis
+dropped from Bijou's dress, and fell at the tutor's feet. He picked it
+up quickly, and slipped it into his pocket-book, after kissing it,
+with a kind of passionate devotion, whilst behind him, the old groom,
+silent and correct as usual, laughed to himself.
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+
+M. DUBUISSON, whom the students called "Old Dubuisson," was the
+principal of the college.
+
+He had brought his daughter to Bracieux, where she was to spend a week
+with Bijou, and Jeanne's _fiance_, a young professor, newly appointed
+at the Pont-sur-Loire College, had accompanied them.
+
+"How warm you must be, my dear Bijou," called out the marchioness,
+appearing at one of the windows.
+
+"Oh, no, grandmamma," answered Denyse, taking M. de Rueille's hand in
+order to descend from her horse. "M. Giraud and Pierrot must be
+warm--I am all right."
+
+She kissed Jeanne heartily, spoke to M. Dubuisson, and then looked in
+a hesitating way towards the young professor, who was contemplating
+her in surprise.
+
+"Bijou, this is Monsieur Spiegel," said Mademoiselle Dubuisson.
+
+With a graceful, pretty movement, which was very taking, Bijou held
+out her little hand to the young man.
+
+"We are friends at once," she said; and then, as she moved away with
+Jeanne, she whispered: "He is charming, you know, quite charming!"
+
+M. Spiegel perhaps overheard this kindly criticism, or else it was
+just by accident that he happened to turn very red at that moment.
+
+"Go and change your dress quickly, Bijou!" commanded the marchioness.
+
+"But, grandmamma, I am not warm, really and truly."
+
+"Come here! Let me see!"
+
+In a docile way, Bijou went up to Madame de Bracieux.
+
+"Well, grandmamma?" she said, when the marchioness had satisfied
+herself by putting her finger between the young girl's neck and her
+collar, "wasn't I right?"
+
+"Yes, it's quite true," said Madame de Bracieux unwillingly, "she is
+not warm at all; it is incomprehensible! Well, stay as you are then,
+if you like." She made her grand-daughter turn round just in front of
+her, and then remarked, in a satisfied tone, "You look very well like
+that. Those little white, pique jackets are very becoming."
+
+"They suit Bijou," said Bertrade, "because, with her complexion,
+everything suits her; but these little English jackets are very
+unbecoming to most women."
+
+Abbe Courteil looked at the black skirt, the white jacket, and then at
+Bijou herself.
+
+"At all events, the black and white together is perfectly charming.
+Mademoiselle Denyse looks like a big swallow."
+
+"Well, well!" exclaimed the marchioness, with a benevolent expression
+in her eyes, "that's very pretty, now, that comparison!"
+
+Though she herself was the topic of conversation, Bijou was paying no
+attention to what was being said, but was talking in a pleasant way to
+M. Spiegel, a little apart from the others.
+
+He was a serious, placid, young man, with a somewhat rigid expression.
+His eyes, however, had a merry twinkle, which relieved the severity of
+his mouth, and the austerity of his deportment.
+
+He was rather tall, and slightly made, and was dressed in dark clothes
+of a good cut. Altogether M. Spiegel might have passed for a young
+clergyman. Fascinated and almost bewildered by Bijou's charm and
+wonderful beauty, he was gazing at her with a look of surprise and
+admiration in his eyes, whilst the young girl, for her part, kept
+stealing a glance at him, for she was quite astonished to find that
+Jeanne's _fiance_ was so satisfactory-looking.
+
+Luncheon seemed to be very long. The marchioness's guests were all
+engaged in studying each other, some of them absent-minded and silent,
+and the others talkative, but singularly preoccupied also.
+
+Madame de Bracieux was witnessing, without understanding in the least
+what it all meant, the change of attitude, or, in fact, the
+transformation which had commenced a few days ago. She could scarcely
+recognise her little troop with whom she had hitherto been able to do
+just as she liked.
+
+M. Spiegel and Bijou, who were placed next to each other at the table,
+were the only ones who talked with the animation of those who have
+something to say, and who are not talking for the mere sake of
+talking.
+
+Several times Jeanne Dubuisson, seated on the right of M. Spiegel,
+turned towards him with a little flash in her usually soft blue eyes.
+She was thinking, sorrowfully, that her _fiance_ certainly seemed to
+prefer looking at Bijou to looking at her, and a feeling of sadness
+came over her at the idea that she had never seen his eyes resting on
+her with as much expression in them as there was now when he gazed at
+Bijou.
+
+Jeanne, who was nineteen, looked much older than Denyse, although she
+was a little like her. Her hair, which was fair like Bijou's, was less
+glossy, and not so auburn, although it was thicker; her eyes were of a
+less uncommon blue; her teeth were as white, but not so regular; her
+complexion was less brilliant, and her head not so well set on her
+shoulders.
+
+Bijou, who was very short, wore very high heels in order to look
+taller, whilst Jeanne, who was tall enough, always wore flat-heeled
+boots.
+
+The one fairly dazzled everyone by her wonderful beauty, whilst the
+other would pass by almost unnoticed, her chief claim to prettiness
+being a certain charm of expression, which betokened an unselfish
+disposition and a kind heart.
+
+After luncheon, Bijou carried Jeanne off with her to the park which
+surrounded the chateau. She had scarcely seen her friend since her
+engagement.
+
+"Why," asked Bijou, "did you tell me so calmly that M. Spiegel was
+rather good-looking?"
+
+"Well, because I think he is," answered Mademoiselle Dubuisson. "Do
+you mean to say that you--"
+
+"Oh, come now, don't act; you know perfectly well that he is more than
+_rather_ good-looking."
+
+"But--"
+
+"Yes, don't you see, from the description you gave me, I expected to
+see a nice young man with a goody sort of look about him--rather a
+bore, in fact--and then, instead, you bring us a most delightful man.
+You ought to have prepared us; you ought not to give people such
+shocks--" And then, not giving Jeanne time to reply, she continued:
+"Where did you meet him?"
+
+"This spring, at Easter, when we went to Bordeaux to stay with my
+aunt."
+
+"And it was settled at once."
+
+"No, but I liked him from the first."
+
+"Yes, you are one of the affectionate kind."
+
+"And I soon saw that he, too, liked very much to be with me."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"Well, then, we came away, and I felt wretched, of course. I thought I
+was mistaken, and that he did not care about me at all."
+
+"You did not tell me anything about all that."
+
+"No; in the first place I imagined that it was all over, and then I
+should not have liked to talk about it to anyone, not even to you; it
+seems to me that, about such matters--well, when one is in love, one
+should only talk about it to one's own self; that is the only way to
+be quite understood."
+
+"Oh, then, you fancy that I do not understand anything about love?"
+
+"About love such as I understand it? no! you are too pretty, you see,
+and then you are too much feted and adored by everyone to be able, as
+I have done, to satisfy and content yourself with an immense affection
+for one person only."
+
+Bijou sighed, as she said regretfully:
+
+"It must be so happy, though, to love anyone like that."
+
+"Well, it would be easy enough for you; your cousin M. de Blaye adores
+you. Oh, it is no use denying it--it is so perfectly evident; I saw it
+instantly."
+
+"You are dreaming--" said Bijou, looking astounded.
+
+"Oh, dear, no! he is in love with you, madly in love with you, and he
+seems to me to be a man worthy of your love."
+
+"Instead of talking nonsense, finish telling me the story of your
+engagement. We had got as far as where you left Bordeaux, thinking
+that all was over. What next?"
+
+"Well, next, a fortnight ago, the professorship of philosophy was
+vacant, and papa was surprised to hear that M. Spiegel had been
+appointed to it. 'It is a come-down,' he said to me, 'for
+Pont-sur-Loire is not as good as Bordeaux'; but not at all--it was no
+come-down."
+
+"It was he himself, then, who had asked for the change?"
+
+"Exactly! and last Monday, he and his mother arrived at our house to
+ask papa's consent."
+
+"What's his mother like?"
+
+"Very nice, and good-looking still; but she seems rather severe, a
+little bit hard."
+
+"Don't take any notice of that; Protestants always appear like that."
+
+"How do you know that she is a Protestant?"
+
+"Because I suppose that she is of the same religion as her son."
+
+"But who told you that M. Spiegel is a Protestant?"
+
+"No one. I discovered that all alone; it did not take me long
+either--"
+
+"But how can you know--"
+
+"I do not know anything, and yet you see I do know all the same; it's
+a very good thing to be able to marry a Protestant; they are less
+frivolous, more serious, and more constant."
+
+"Yes, perhaps so; but his mother, as I told you looks very severe,
+very; and she is going to live with us."
+
+"Oh, well, so much the better. It is a safe-guard, don't you know, to
+have a mother with you who is somewhat austere. In the first place,
+she will inspire everyone with respect for you."
+
+"I don't think I need anyone to inspire people with respect for me,
+and, anyhow, it seems to me that if I did, why, my husband would be--"
+
+"Not at all! oh, no! parents are quite different, and I was brought up
+to worship my parents, and to believe that their presence brings not
+only respect but happiness into the home."
+
+"Oh, yes, I think that, too, as regards papa; but Madame Spiegel is a
+stranger to me, as it were, and I do feel that I owe her a little
+grudge for coming to intrude on the privacy of our home-life, which
+would have seemed so much happier alone."
+
+"You must say to yourself that she is the mother of your husband, that
+he loves her, and that you ought to love her for his sake."
+
+"You are quite right. How I wish I were like you, Bijou dear! you are
+so much better than I am."
+
+"I am an angel, am I not? that's settled."
+
+"You are joking; but it is quite, quite true."
+
+"Tell me, won't it make you miserable to be away from your _fiance_
+all this week, which you are going to spend with me?"
+
+"No; besides he will come with papa to see me if your grandmamma will
+allow him to, and then he is going to Paris for a few days."
+
+"And here I am walking you about, like the thoughtless creature that I
+am, forgetting that the unhappy young man is sure to be wretched
+without you. Let us go in; shall we?"
+
+"Yes, I am quite willing."
+
+A bright gleam suddenly came into Bijou's eyes, shaded as they were by
+their long lashes, and then, putting on an indifferent air, she said
+to her friend:
+
+"Tell me what little incident could possibly have given you the
+extraordinary idea that Jean de Blaye cares for me?"
+
+"The way he looked at you all through luncheon, and then, too, his
+annoyance when we were all out on the steps this morning watching for
+you, and he saw you coming with young Jonzac and his tutor."
+
+"You have too much imagination."
+
+"No; I am sure that he is in love with you--and very much so!--and
+what about you?"
+
+"What about me?"
+
+"You--you don't care for him?"
+
+"No, not in the way you mean, at least. He is my cousin; I like him
+just as one does like a nice cousin, whom one knows too well to care
+for in any other way."
+
+"It's a pity."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because it seems to me that you would be happy with him."
+
+Bijou shook her head.
+
+"I don't think so; I must have a husband more steady than Jean."
+
+"More steady? but he must be thirty-four or thirty-five--M. de Blaye."
+
+"What does that matter? he is not steady, you know--not by any means."
+
+"Ah! I did not know."
+
+"Then, too, I should want my husband to only care for me."
+
+"Well, pretty and fascinating as you are, you can make your mind easy
+about that."
+
+Bijou stopped suddenly in the middle of the garden-walk.
+
+"Is not that a carriage coming up the drive?" she asked, pointing to
+the avenue.
+
+"Yes, certainly it is."
+
+"What sort of a carriage? I cannot see anything, I am so
+short-sighted."
+
+"A phaeton with two horses, and a gentleman I don't know is driving."
+
+"Ah, yes, that's it!" And then, as Jeanne looked at her inquiringly,
+she added: "It is M. de Clagny--a friend of grandmamma's--the owner
+of The Noriniere."
+
+"Ah! the man who is so rich!"
+
+"So rich? Do you think he is so rich? I have not heard a word about
+that!"
+
+"Oh, yes; he is immensely wealthy--and all his fortune is in land."
+
+Bijou was not listening to this. She had just gathered a daisy, which
+was growing amongst the grass, bending its little timid head over the
+garden pathway, and she was now pulling it to pieces in an
+absent-minded way.
+
+"Well?" asked Jeanne, smiling; "how does he love you?"
+
+Bijou lifted her pretty head in surprise.
+
+"Whom do you mean?"
+
+"The one about whom you were questioning that daisy?"
+
+"I don't know! I was not questioning it about anyone in particular."
+
+"And what did it answer you?"
+
+"Passionately."
+
+"Oh, well, it was answering about everybody." And Jeanne added, as she
+mounted the little flight of stone steps just behind her friend: "It's
+quite true; everybody loves you; and you deserve to be loved--there!"
+
+When the two girls entered the room where everyone was assembled,
+their arrival seemed to have the effect of bringing some animation
+into the faces of all the people.
+
+"At last, and not before it was time!" murmured Henry de Bracieux, in
+a way which caused his grandmother to glance at him, whilst M. de
+Clagny stepped quickly forward to meet Bijou.
+
+"That's right," she said pleasantly; "how good of you to come again so
+soon to see us!"
+
+"Too good! You'll have too much of me before long!"
+
+"Never!" she answered, smiling merrily; and then taking Jeanne's hand,
+she introduced her. "Jeanne Dubuisson--my best friend--whom I shall
+lose now, because she is going to be married!"
+
+"But why do you say that, Bijou?" exclaimed the young girl
+reproachfully. "You know very well that, married or not married, I
+shall always be your friend."
+
+"Yes--everyone says that; but it isn't the same thing! When one is
+married one does not belong to one's parents or friends any more, one
+belongs to one's husband--and to him alone."
+
+"How delightful such delusions are!" murmured M. de Clagny.
+
+Bijou turned towards him abruptly.
+
+"What did you say?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, it was just nonsense!"
+
+"No; I quite understand that you were laughing at me. Yes, I
+understand perfectly well; it's no good shaking your head, I know all
+the same that you were making fun of me, because I said that when one
+is married one belongs only to one's husband! Well, that may be very
+ridiculous, but it is my idea, and I believe it is M. Spiegel's, too?"
+
+The young man smiled and nodded without answering.
+
+"Has anyone introduced M. Spiegel?" continued Bijou, still addressing
+the count. "No? well, then, I will repair such negligence. Monsieur
+Spiegel, Jeanne's _fiance_, who does not dare to support me, and
+declare that I am right, because he is not in the majority here; there
+is no one here who is married but himself--that is to say, nearly
+married."
+
+"Oh, indeed, and what about Paul?" asked the marchioness, laughing.
+
+"Paul! Oh, yes, that's true; I was not thinking of him! Anyhow, the
+unmarried persons are in the majority--Henry, Pierrot, Monsieur
+Courteil, M. Giraud, Jean--well, what's the matter with Jean? he does
+look queer!"
+
+Jean de Blaye was seated in an arm-chair, with his eyes half-closed
+and his head resting on his hand, looking very drowsy.
+
+"I have a headache!" he answered; and then, as Bijou persisted, and
+wanted to know what had given him a headache, he exclaimed gruffly:
+"Well, what do you want me to say? It's a headache; how can I tell
+what's given it me? It comes itself how it likes--that's all I know!"
+
+Bijou had gone behind the arm-chair in which her cousin was lounging.
+
+"You must have a very, very bad headache to look as you do," she said,
+not at all discouraged by his abrupt manner, and noticing his pale
+face, his drawn features, and his eyes, with dark circles round them,
+"and for you to own, too, that there is anything the matter with you;
+because you always set up for being so strong and well. Poor Jean, I
+do wish you could get rid of it."
+
+She bent forward, and pressing her lips gently on the young man's
+weary eyelids, remained like that a few seconds.
+
+Jean de Blaye turned pale, and then very red, and rose hastily from
+his chair.
+
+"You startled me," he said, in an embarrassed way, not knowing where
+to look, "how stupid I am; but I did not see you were so near, so you
+quite surprised me."
+
+M. de Clagny had risen, too, in an excited way on seeing Bijou kiss
+her cousin. It occurred to him though, at once, how very ridiculous
+his jealousy would appear, and he sat down again, saying in a jesting
+tone:
+
+"Well, if that remedy does not take effect, de Blaye's case is
+incurable."
+
+M. de Rueille looked enviously at Jean, who was just going out of the
+drawing-room, and then, turning to Bijou, he remarked, in a hoarse
+voice:
+
+"When I have a headache, and, unfortunately, that is very often, you
+are not so compassionate."
+
+M. Giraud remained petrified in the little low chair in which he had
+taken his seat. His eyes were fixed on the ground, and his lips
+pressed closely together; he looked as though he had seen nothing.
+
+As for Pierrot, he exclaimed candidly:
+
+"What a lucky beggar that Jean is!"
+
+"Undoubtedly, undoubtedly," replied Abbe Courteil, with conviction;
+"but, all the same, he certainly has a very bad headache--Monsieur de
+Blaye. I know what it is to have a headache."
+
+The marchioness bent forward to whisper to Bertrade, whilst looking
+all the time at Bijou.
+
+"Isn't she sweet, that child, and so good-hearted, and, above all, so
+natural. Did you see how innocently she kissed that simpleton of a
+Jean, and how it startled him?"
+
+"Oh! as to startling him! he was rather upset by it, poor fellow, and
+he wanted to explain away the fact that he was upset by it; that is
+about all."
+
+"Do you think so? with him, one never knows."
+
+"You did not notice that he went off at once, without even saying
+good-bye to M. Dubuisson and M. Spiegel, who are just going away."
+
+The marchioness turned towards the two men in question, who were just
+coming across to take leave.
+
+"As we are keeping your Jeanne," she said, "I hope you will often come
+to see her."
+
+"Are you quite sure that you don't mind staying at Bracieux?" Bijou
+asked her friend; "I shall not be angry with you, you know, for
+preferring your _fiance_ to me."
+
+"Spiegel is obliged to go to Paris for a few days," said M. Dubuisson;
+"on his return I shall come with him to fetch Jeanne back."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On leaving the drawing-room, a few minutes before, Jean de Blaye had
+felt thoroughly wretched. Bijou's innocent kiss, given so openly
+before everyone, had, as a matter of fact, thoroughly upset him
+rousing again the love which he felt for the young girl, and which he
+had hoped would remain dormant, since Madame de Nezel was ready to
+console him with her affection.
+
+Only the evening before he had said to the young widow: "How can I
+love that child as I love you?" and when he had uttered these words,
+he had, for the time being, felt his old love for Madame de Nezel
+returning, and it had seemed to him that Bijou could never inspire the
+same passion as he had felt for this woman. And now, after hoping that
+he had conquered his love for the young girl, her kiss had completely
+undone him, and left him helpless to struggle against himself any
+longer.
+
+He felt now that from henceforth he ought not to continue to claim
+Madame de Nezel's affection, since he could no longer return it; and
+as he thought of all that this affection had been to him in the past,
+he suffered intensely. For the last four years this woman had loved
+him with a devotion that had known no bounds, and, whilst Madame de
+Bracieux, M. de Jonzac, the Rueilles, and, indeed, all his family, had
+imagined that he was living a very gay life, he had been spending his
+time peacefully and happily in the society of Madame de Nezel.
+
+They had understood each other perfectly, and no one had suspected
+anything of the sympathy which had thus drawn them together, so that
+Jean had always been criticised for those actions of his which were
+known to the world, and he had been perfectly satisfied that things
+should be thus. Now, however, all would be changed. He would have to
+give up this peaceful happiness which had been so much to him.
+
+And why should he, after all? Did he intend to tell Bijou of his love
+for her? And even supposing that she did not reject his love, was he
+in a position to marry this fragile and exquisite girl, who had
+certainly been created for the most luxurious surroundings?
+
+He had already thought it all over many times and had said to himself,
+over and over again, that it would be absurdly foolish. Then, too,
+Bijou would never love him well enough to accept him with his
+extremely moderate income. As he had promised Madame de Nezel to meet
+her the following day at Pont-sur-Loire, he wrote her a few lines in
+order to excuse himself.
+
+"She will not believe the pretext I have given her," he said to
+himself, as he sealed the letter "but she will quite understand, and,
+now, it is all over between us."
+
+And then all at once a feeling of utter loneliness came over him, and
+a vision of the life that would from henceforth be his rose before him
+with strange distinctness. He shuddered in spite of himself, and then
+he fell to going over again in his mind all his sorrows.
+
+In the meantime, Bijou had shown Jeanne Dubuisson to the room she was
+to occupy during her visit to the chateau.
+
+"It is your imagination, I tell you; nothing but your imagination,"
+she said to her friend. "He does like me, certainly, but just in the
+way one cares for a cousin, or even a sister."
+
+"No! It was quite enough to look at his face when he went out of the
+drawing-room. He was quite upset, and I am sure he has not got over it
+yet."
+
+"Wouldn't you like me to go and ask him? But, there, it is seven
+o'clock. We have only just time to dress. I will come back for you
+when the first dinner-bell rings."
+
+When Bijou came out of her bedroom, simply but charmingly dressed, as
+usual, the long landing was dark and silent. The servants had drawn
+the blinds, but had not yet lighted the lamps.
+
+Jean, who was coming out of his room, could just distinguish, in the
+darkness, a few yards away from him, a figure in a light dress. He
+hurried up to it, and Bijou asked:
+
+"Is that you, Jean?"
+
+"Yes," he answered; "and I want a word with you."
+
+"Something that won't take long? The first bell has gone."
+
+"Something very short; but I should prefer no one else hearing."
+
+"Shall we go into your room, then, or into mine?"
+
+"Into yours, as we are so near it."
+
+Bijou opened the door, and, when Blaye was inside, she said:
+
+"Wait a minute. Don't move, or I shall knock against you. I will
+light--"
+
+"Oh, it isn't worth getting a light," he said, catching hold of her
+arm to stop her. "I can say what I have to without that. Besides, it
+won't take long. I want to tell you, Bijou, my dear, that what you
+did, you know, just now--"
+
+She appeared to be trying to remember.
+
+"Just now? Whatever was it I did?"
+
+"Well, in a very nice way--oh! in a very nice way, indeed, you
+know--you kissed me, but you are too grown-up to do that now when
+there are people there."
+
+"And when there isn't anyone there?" she asked, laughing, "may I
+then--tell me?"
+
+Before he had time to reply, she had laid her hands on his shoulder,
+and lifted her face towards his. He bent his head at the same moment,
+and her lips touched his. Bijou gave a little half-timid murmur of
+affection, which moved him deeply.
+
+He made up his mind now to tell her of his love, and tried to draw her
+to him; but the young girl pushed back the hands which were
+endeavouring to hold her, and ran out of the room, and, by the rustle
+of her dress along the wall, Jean knew that she was hurrying away.
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+
+THE following day Mere Rafut arrived. Bijou had expected to have her
+for a week, and was very much disappointed when the old woman told her
+that she could only give her five days, as the theatre opened again on
+the first of September, and she would have to be there at her post as
+dresser.
+
+Jeanne, therefore, proposed to help with the work, and Bijou accepted
+her offer.
+
+"That's a capital idea!" she said; "if we are both together we shall
+not be dull! we can talk to each other without troubling about Mere
+Rafut."
+
+Accordingly, every day, whilst the marchioness and Madame de Rueille
+were doing what Jean de Blaye called "a visiting tour," the two young
+girls installed themselves in Bijou's boudoir, which was converted
+into a sewing-room, and were soon busy with their cutting out and
+sewing, whilst chattering together, too intent on their conversation
+to pay much attention to the old sewing-woman.
+
+"Are you going to the race-ball?" Bijou asked her friend.
+
+"Yes," said Jeanne; "it seems that as I am now engaged it is not quite
+the thing; but I am going all the same, as Franz wants to see me
+arrayed in my ball-dress, and he wants to waltz with me, too; he
+waltzes very well, you know."
+
+"Ah! and yet he looks so austere? Tell me, don't you mind in the least
+marrying a Protestant?"
+
+"Not in the least! without being bigoted, I am a thorough Catholic,
+and he is a devoted Protestant, but not bigoted either. We shall each
+of us keep to our own religion, for we have no wish whatever to
+change; but neither of us has any idea of trying to convert the
+other."
+
+Bijou did not speak, and Jeanne continued:
+
+"I am not at all sorry that I am going to have a husband who is a
+Protestant, and I will confess that, for certain things, I feel more
+satisfied that it should be so. It's quite true, what you were saying
+yesterday--Protestants have certain ideas about the family, and about
+constancy; in fact, they have stricter principles about such things
+than Catholics."
+
+"Yes; tell me, though, what dress are you going to wear for the race
+ball?"
+
+"I don't know yet! I haven't one for it!"
+
+"Why, how's that? what about the white one with the little bunches of
+flowers all over it?"
+
+"Papa does not think it is nice enough; the race ball is to be at the
+Tourvilles, you know, this year; and it will all be very grand!"
+
+"Oh, yes!"
+
+"We do not know them at all; it will be the first time of our going to
+Tourville, and if I were to be dressed anyhow, it would not be very
+nice for your grandmamma, who got us invited; and so papa told me to
+have a dress made, and he gave me two pounds."
+
+"What are you going to have made?"
+
+"I don't know at all; advise me, will you?"
+
+For the last minute or two Bijou had seemed to be turning something
+over in her mind.
+
+"If you like," she said at last, "we might be dressed in the same way,
+you and I; that would be awfully nice!"
+
+"What is your dress?"
+
+"My dress does not exist yet; it is a thing of the future! It will be
+pink, of course--pink crepe--quite simple--straight skirts, cut like a
+ballet-dancer's skirts, so that there will be no hem to make them
+heavy, three skirts, one over the other, all of the same length, of
+course--three, that makes it cloudy-looking; more than that smothers
+you up; and it will fall in large, round _godets_. Then there will be
+a little gathered bodice, very simple; little puffed sleeves, with a
+lot of ribbon bows and ends hanging, and then ribbon round the waist,
+with two long bows and long ends--ribbon as wide as your hand, not any
+wider.'
+
+"It will be pretty."
+
+"And it would suit you wonderfully well."
+
+"But shouldn't you mind my being dressed like you?" asked Jeanne,
+rather timidly.
+
+"On the contrary, I should love it! Would you like us to make the
+dress here? I would try it on, and like that we should be sure that it
+was right."
+
+"How sweet you are! Plenty of other girls in your place would only
+trouble about themselves."
+
+"Listen, supposing you wrote for the crepe to be sent to-morrow." And
+then she added laughing, "M. de Bernes asked me yesterday evening if I
+had not any commissions for Pont-sur-Loire. I might have given him
+that to do!"
+
+"He would have been slightly embarrassed."
+
+"Why? It is easy enough to buy pink crepe with a pattern."
+
+Mere Rafut, who had been busy sewing, without uttering a word, but
+just pulling her needle through the work with a quick regular
+movement, now lifted her face, all wrinkled like an old apple, and
+remarked drily:
+
+"And even without!"
+
+"Without what?" asked Bijou.
+
+"Without a pattern. Oh, no, it isn't he who'd be embarrassed! Why, he
+always helps to choose Mademoiselle Lisette Renaud's dresses."
+
+"Lisette Renaud, the singer?" asked Jeanne eagerly, whilst Denyse,
+very much taken up with her work, did not appear to have heard.
+
+"No, mademoiselle, the actress."
+
+"Well, that's what I meant. Ah! and so M. de Bernes knows her?"
+
+The old sewing-woman smiled.
+
+"I should just think he does. He's known her more than a year and a
+half."
+
+"Ah!" said Jeanne, evidently interested, "she is so pretty, Lisette
+Renaud! I saw her in _Mignon_ and in the _Dragons de Villars_ too."
+
+"Oh, yes!" said Mere Rafut, "she is pretty, too, and as good as she is
+pretty! If you only knew!"
+
+"Good?" repeated Jeanne, "but--"
+
+"Ah, yes! For sure, she isn't a young lady like you, mademoiselle! But
+ever since she has known M. de Bernes, I can tell you, she won't look
+at anyone else. And he's the same, as far as that goes, and that's
+saying a good deal, for, nice-looking as he is, there's plenty of
+ladies after him, ladies in the best society, too, in officers'
+families; and they do say the Prefect's wife admires him! Oh, my, he
+doesn't care a snap for them all, though! He's got no eyes for anyone
+but Lisette; but you should see him when he's looking at her--it's
+pretty sure that if he was an officer of high rank he'd marry her
+straight off, and he'd be quite right, too--"
+
+"Jeanne!" interrupted Bijou, "that's the first bell for luncheon." And
+when they were out of the room she said, in a very gentle voice, with
+just a shade of reproach: "Why do you let Mere Rafut tell you things
+you ought not to listen to?"
+
+"Oh, goodness!" cried Jeanne, blushing and looking confused, "her
+story wasn't so very dreadful; and then, even if it had been, how do
+you think I could help her telling it?"
+
+"Oh! that's easy enough, the only thing to do is not to reply or pay
+any attention; you would see that she would soon stop."
+
+"Yes, you are right," and throwing her arms round Bijou, Jeanne kissed
+her.
+
+"You are always right," she said; "and I, although I look so serious,
+am much more thoughtless than you, and much weaker-minded, too; I
+never can resist listening if it is anything that interests me."
+
+"And did that interest you?"
+
+"Very much, indeed."
+
+"Good heavens! what could you find interesting in it all?"
+
+"Well, I don't exactly know; I was curious to hear about it, in the
+first place, and then I always notice everything, and this little
+story explained exactly something I had observed."
+
+"When?"
+
+"Why, during the last four or five months, ever since I have begun
+going out a little."
+
+"What had you observed?"
+
+"I had observed that M. de Bernes never pays attention to any woman,
+that he never even looks at anyone, that he scarcely takes the trouble
+to be pleasant, even with the prettiest girls; and the proof of all
+this is, that he has not tried to flirt with you even."
+
+"Oh, not at all," answered Bijou, laughing; "but just because he has
+not tried to flirt with me, you must not conclude that with others."
+
+"No, Mere Rafut must be right, and, after all, I am not at all
+surprised about it--this story, I mean; you have no idea how charming
+she is, this Lisette Renaud. Something in your style; she is much
+taller than you, though, and not so fair; but she has the most
+wonderful eyes, and a lovely, graceful figure, almost as graceful as
+yours; in short, I can quite understand that, when anyone does care
+for her, they would care for her in earnest; then, added to all that,
+she has a great deal of talent and a beautiful voice--a contralto. I
+am sure you would like her."
+
+"I don't think so."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I don't like women who act comedy--those who act well, at least; it
+denotes a kind of duplicity."
+
+"Oh, I don't think so; it denotes a faculty of assimilation, a very
+sensitive nature, but not duplicity."
+
+"I can't help it, my dear, but I do not see things in the same light
+as you; still, that does not prevent Mademoiselle--what is her name?"
+
+"Lisette Renaud."
+
+"Mademoiselle Lisette Renaud from being an exception, and she may be a
+very charming creature; for my part, I only hope that is so for the
+sake of M. de Bernes."
+
+"You don't care much for him, do you?" asked Jeanne.
+
+"What makes you think that?--he is quite indifferent to me, and I
+always look upon him as being just like everyone else."
+
+"Oh, no; that is not true--I see him pretty often at Pont-sur-Loire;
+he is very intelligent, and very nice, and then, too, very
+good-looking; don't you think so?"
+
+"I assure you that I have never paid much attention to M. de Bernes
+and his appearance," and then Bijou added, laughing: "The very first
+time I see him, I will look at him with all my eyes, and I will
+endeavour to discover his perfections to please M. de Clagny."
+
+"You like him very much, don't you--M. de Clagny?"
+
+"Oh, yes, indeed I do."
+
+"I noticed that at once; ever since my arrival you have only talked of
+him; and yesterday, when he came, you were delighted."
+
+"Yes, he is so good, and so kind to me."
+
+"But everyone is kind to you, everyone adores you."
+
+"Everyone is much too good and too indulgent, as far as I am
+concerned; I know that very well; but M. de Clagny is better still
+than the others. I have only known him three days, and now I could not
+do without him. Whenever I see him, I feel gay and happy at once; and
+I wish he were always here. I'll tell you what--I should like to have
+a father or an uncle like him. Doesn't he make the same kind of
+impression on you?"
+
+"Oh, as for me, you know, it would be impossible to imagine myself
+with any other father than papa. Just as he is I adore him; perhaps to
+other people he may seem nothing out of the common but you see he is
+my father; all the same I like M. de Clagny, and he is very nice--he
+must have been charming."
+
+"I think he still is charming."
+
+The two girls had reached the hall by this time, and Jeanne went to
+the door.
+
+"How very warm it is," she said, and then, shading her eyes with her
+hand, she looked out into the avenue. "Why, there's a mail-coach!" she
+exclaimed. "Whoever would be coming with a mail-coach?"
+
+"M. de Clagny, of course," cried Bijou, rushing out on to the steps in
+her delight; "he told grandmamma that if he possibly could he should
+come and ask her to give him some luncheon."
+
+"And he has managed to," remarked M. de Rueille drily, as he, too,
+approached the hall door; "we've seen a great deal of him these last
+three days; certainly, he is very devoted to us," he added
+sarcastically.
+
+The sight of the horses, which were just being pulled up in front of
+the steps, somewhat appeased him, however.
+
+"By Jove! what horses!" he exclaimed, in admiration, "and he knows how
+to drive, too; there's no mistake about that, he's a born aristocrat."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After luncheon, Pierrot declared that his foot hurt him just at the
+end of each toe, and he did not know what it could be.
+
+"I know, though," remarked Jean de Blaye; "his boots are too short."
+
+"Too short!" exclaimed M. de Jonzac, "oh, no, that's impossible"--and
+then, after a moment's reflection, he added in terror: "unless his
+feet have got bigger still--"
+
+"Which they probably have," said Jean, laughing; "anyhow, his toes are
+turned up at the ends and curl back over each other, I am sure; you
+have only to look at his feet, now, to tell. Look at the lumps in his
+boots; they look like bags of nuts."
+
+"I must get him some more boots to-day," said M. de Jonzac.
+
+"The best thing, uncle, would be to send him to Pont-sur-Loire to be
+measured; there's sure to be a decent bootmaker there."
+
+"M. Courteil is going just now to take a letter to the bishop and get
+an answer to it," remarked Madame de Bracieux; "he might take Pierrot
+with him."
+
+"Well, then," said Bijou, "they might take our omnibus, so that Jeanne
+and I could go too; we have some errands to do."
+
+"What are they?" asked the marchioness.
+
+"Well, first, some crepe--we want some crepe for Jeanne; and then some
+pencils and paints that I am short of; in fact, there are a lot of
+things."
+
+"Would you like me to take you all?" proposed M. de Clagny; "I have
+some business with a lawyer at Pont-sur-Loire at three o'clock. You
+could do all your errands, and then I would bring you back; it's on my
+way to The Noriniere."
+
+"Oh, what fun!" exclaimed Bijou, delighted. "I have never been on a
+mail-coach; you don't mind, grandmamma?"
+
+Madame de Bracieux seemed rather undecided.
+
+"Well, I don't know, Bijou dear; you see at Pont-sur-Loire you will be
+noticed very much perched up there, and for two young girls I don't
+know whether it is quite the thing--"
+
+"Oh, grandmamma," protested Bijou, "not the thing! and with M. de
+Clagny there!"
+
+"Yes, with me," put in the count, with emphasis, his face suddenly
+clouding over, "there is no danger; I am safe enough."
+
+"Yes, certainly," replied Madame de Bracieux with evident sincerity;
+"but at Pont-sur-Loire everyone is so fond of gossip and scandal."
+
+"Oh, grandmamma," Bijou said, in a beseeching tone, "don't deprive us
+of a treat, which you don't see any harm in whatever yourself, just
+because of the Pont-sur-Loire people, about whom you do not care at
+all."
+
+"Yes, you are right. Go, then, children, as you want to, for, as you
+say, there is no harm whatever in amusing yourselves in that way."
+
+"Is there any room for me?" asked M. de Rueille.
+
+"For you, and some more of you," answered M. de Clagny; "we are only
+six at present."
+
+The marchioness turned towards Bertrade.
+
+"What do you say about going with them to look after the girls?"
+
+Madame de Rueille glanced at her husband, who appeared to be studying
+the floor attentively at that moment.
+
+"Oh, Paul will look after them very well!"
+
+"I must ask if you would mind not starting before three o'clock?" said
+Bijou, advancing towards the window, "because there is M. Sylvestre
+coming to give me my accompaniment lesson; he is just coming up the
+avenue."
+
+"The poor fellow!" exclaimed the marchioness, glancing out of the
+window, "he is actually walking in spite of this terrible heat!"
+
+"He always walks, grandmamma."
+
+"Five miles; that is not so tremendous," remarked Henry de Bracieux.
+
+"No, not for you--driving!" said Bijou.
+
+"Well, but when we are out shooting, we do a lot more than that!"
+
+"But you are enjoying yourself when you are out shooting; that's quite
+different. I know very well that if I could, I should send M.
+Sylvestre back always in the carriage."
+
+"If you like, we can drive him back to-day," said M. de Clagny.
+
+"I should just think I should like to! You are very good to offer me
+that, because, you know, he is not very, very handsome--my
+professor--and he will not be any ornament on your coach!"
+
+"Do you think I care anything about that? I am not snobbish, Bijou;
+not the least bit snobbish."
+
+"But he isn't bad-looking, this fellow," said Jean de Blaye. "He has
+very fine eyes; they are wonderfully limpid and soft."
+
+"I never noticed that," answered Bijou, laughing; "but even if they
+are, they could not be seen very well on the top of a coach. And he is
+very queerly dressed; he wears clothes that are too small, and which
+cling to him; and then long hair that is very lank; he looks rather
+like a drowned rat."
+
+A domestic appeared at this instant to announce that M. Sylvestre had
+arrived.
+
+"Have you told Josephine?" asked Madame Bracieux.
+
+"Yes, Josephine is there, madame," replied the servant.
+
+Jeanne Dubuisson rose, but Bijou stopped her.
+
+"No, don't come with me," she said; "when I feel that there is anyone
+listening, that is, anyone beside Josephine, I don't do any good." And
+then, just as she was going out of the room, she turned round, and
+added: "At three o'clock I shall appear with my hat--and M.
+Sylvestre."
+
+When Bijou entered her room, Josephine, the old housekeeper, who had
+seen two generations of the Bracieux family grow up, was sewing near
+the window, whilst, in the little room adjoining, the musician was
+arranging the music-stand, and taking his violin out of the case.
+
+On seeing the young girl, his blue eyes lighted up, and seemed to turn
+pale against his red face. He was a young man of about twenty-eight
+years of age, very thin, very awkward, and dressed wretchedly enough;
+but there was something interesting about his face, an expression
+that was congenial, and yet, at the same time, told of anxiety and of
+trouble.
+
+"How warm you are, Monsieur Sylvestre!" said Bijou, as she held out
+her hand to him; "and they have not brought you anything to drink yet!
+Josephine!" she called out, as she moved towards the door between the
+two rooms, "will you tell them to bring--ah, yes, what are they to
+bring? What will you take, Monsieur Sylvestre?--beer, lemonade, wine,
+or what? I never remember!"
+
+"Some lemonade, if you please; but you really are too good,
+mademoiselle, to trouble about me."
+
+"I forgot to buy the music you told me to get when I was at
+Pont-sur-Loire," said Denyse, interrupting him. "You will scold me."
+
+"Oh! mademoiselle!" he exclaimed, in a scared way, "_I_ scold you?"
+
+"Yes, you! If you do not scold me you ought to. Now, let me see! What
+are we going to play? Ah! I was forgetting! I am going to ask you if
+you will begin by accompanying me at the piano; it is just a silly
+little song I am learning."
+
+"What song is it?"
+
+"'Ay Chiquita'! it is quite grotesque, isn't it? But we have an old
+friend who adores it, and he asked me to sing it for him."
+
+"Oh! as to that!--'Ay Chiquita'--it isn't so grotesque; but it has
+been worn out, that's all. Ah!" he added, looking at the music, "you
+sing it in a higher key. I was wondering, too--"
+
+"Yes, I sing it higher; that makes it more dreadful still. Oh, dear!
+how I do wish I had a deep voice; they are so lovely--deep voices, but
+there are none to be heard!"
+
+"They are rare, certainly; but there are some, nevertheless."
+
+"I have never heard one," said Bijou, shaking her head.
+
+"Well, but you might hear one if you liked."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Why, at the Pont-sur-Loire theatre. Yes, Mademoiselle Lisette Renaud,
+a young actress, with a great deal of talent, and she is very pretty,
+too, which is not a drawback, by any means."
+
+"She has a beautiful voice?"
+
+"Very beautiful! I hear her, on an average, three times a week,
+without reckoning the rehearsals with the orchestra, and, I can assure
+you, I have never had enough."
+
+"Ah! Do you think she would sing at private houses?"
+
+"Why, certainly! She does sing sometimes at Pont-sur-Loire."
+
+"I will ask grandmamma to have her here. Where does she live?"
+
+"Rue Rabelais. I do not remember the number, but she is very well
+known."
+
+After a short silence, the professor asked:
+
+"Why should you not go to the theatre to hear her? That would interest
+you much more."
+
+"Grandmamma would never let me."
+
+"I know, of course, that society people do not go to the
+Pont-sur-Loire theatre--it is not considered the thing; but there are
+circumstances,--for instance--in a fortnight from now there is to be a
+performance for the benefit of disabled soldiers, organised by the
+_Dames de France_; everyone will go to that."
+
+"And they will play things that will be all right?"
+
+"Oh! some comic opera or another, and varieties from other things; but
+I am sure Lisette Renaud will be on the programme, and several times,
+too. These are the best sort of things that we have at the theatre."
+
+"You are not drinking anything, Monsieur Sylvestre," said Bijou,
+approaching the tray which had been brought in, and pouring out the
+lemonade for the young man.
+
+The glass which she passed to him showed the effect of the contact of
+her hand.
+
+"Are you not still too warm to drink?" she asked. "This lemonade is
+very cold."
+
+He took the glass with a hand that trembled slightly, and stood there,
+with his arm stretched out, looking at Bijou with passionate
+admiration.
+
+"Monsieur Sylvestre," she said, smiling, "a penny for your thoughts."
+
+The young man's face, which was already red, flushed deeper still. He
+drank his lemonade at a draught, and hurried to the piano.
+
+"Let us begin, mademoiselle! shall we?" he said, and he played the
+short symphony of the song in a hesitating way, as though his fingers
+refused to act. This was so noticeable, that Denyse asked him:
+
+"What is the matter with you? you are not in form to-day, at all."
+
+"Oh, it's nothing, mademoiselle; I--it is so warm."
+
+Being rather short-sighted, and never using a lorgnette, Bijou was
+obliged to bend forward to read the words of the song, and sometimes,
+in doing so, she touched the professor's hair or shoulder. This
+served to increase his agitation, and at times he could scarcely see
+what he was playing, whilst his fingers would slip off the notes.
+
+"Really, you are not at all in form to-day," repeated Bijou,
+surprised.
+
+"I beg your pardon, mademoiselle, I--I don't know what is the matter
+with me."
+
+"Nor I either; I can't tell at all," she said, laughing.
+
+He was getting up from the piano, but she begged him to sit down
+again.
+
+"No! if you don't mind," she said, "I should like to work up two or
+three old songs."
+
+She began at once to read at sight, bending over in order to see
+better, whilst the poor young man, who was now pale, did his best to
+follow her, in spite of the buzzing in his ears and the clamminess of
+his fingers.
+
+When the lesson was over, Bijou went to fetch her hat, and then came
+back and put it on at the glass near the piano.
+
+Instead of putting his violin into its case, M. Sylvestre stood
+watching her as she lifted her arms, and drew her pretty figure up
+with a graceful swaying movement.
+
+"Be quick!" she said, "we are going to take you back to
+Pont-sur-Loire, or rather M. de Clagny, one of our friends, is going
+to take you on his coach." Denyse saw that he did not understand, so
+she went on to explain: "It's a large carriage, and holds a good
+number of people."
+
+"Are you going, too?" he asked excitedly.
+
+"I am going, too--yes, Monsieur Sylvestre."
+
+He was just taking from his violin-case a little bunch of
+forget-me-nots and wild roses, which were already drooping their poor
+little heads. He held them out timidly to Bijou.
+
+"As I came along, mademoiselle, I--I took the liberty of gathering
+these flowers for you."
+
+She took them, and after inhaling their perfume for a minute or two,
+put them into her waistband.
+
+"Thank you so much for having thought of me," she said.
+
+He followed Bijou downstairs, step by step, happy in the present,
+forgetting all about his poverty, and as he appeared, tripping along
+behind the young girl, his violin-case in his hand, M. de Clagny
+turned to Jean de Blaye, and remarked:
+
+"You were right; he has a nice face."
+
+The mail-coach had just appeared in front of the steps when the
+marchioness called out:
+
+"Bijou! I have a commission for you. Go to Pellerin the bookseller,
+and ask him--stop--no--send Pierrot here."
+
+"Pierrot," said Denyse, returning to the hall, "grandmamma wants you."
+
+"I'll bet it's some errand to do," remarked the youth, making a
+grimace, "and errands are not much in my line." And then, whilst Bijou
+and the others were clambering up on to the coach, he went back to
+Madame de Bracieux. "You wanted me, aunt?" he said.
+
+"Yes. Will you go to Pellerin's? do you know which is Pellerin's?"
+
+"The book shop."
+
+"Yes. Ask him for a novel of Dumas' for me. It is called 'Le Batard de
+Mauleon.' What are you looking at me for in that bewildered way?"
+
+"Because I have never seen you reading novels, and--"
+
+"You will not see me reading this one either; it is for the cure, I
+have promised it him. He adores Dumas, and he does not know 'Le Batard
+de Mauleon.' You will remember the title?"
+
+"Yes, aunt."
+
+"You are sure? You would not like me to write it for you?"
+
+"'Tisn't worth while."
+
+"You will forget it!"
+
+"No danger."
+
+He rushed off, looking down on the ground, and then, as he climbed on
+to the coach, he trod on the feet of various people, nearly smashed M.
+Sylvestre's violin-case, and excused himself by saying:
+
+"Oh, by Jove! I've nearly done for the little coffin."
+
+
+
+
+XI.
+
+
+ALWAYS up first in the morning, Bijou was in the habit of going
+downstairs towards seven o'clock, in order to attend to her
+housekeeping duties.
+
+She always paid a visit to the pantry, and to the dairy, and, with the
+exception of Pierrot, who was sometimes wandering about the passages
+with very sleepy-looking eyes, she never met anybody at this early
+hour.
+
+To her astonishment, therefore, on this particular morning she nearly
+ran up against M. de Rueille, who was coming out of the library with a
+book in his hand.
+
+Of all the visitors at Bracieux he was the laziest, so that Bijou
+laughed as she commented on his early rising.
+
+"How's this?" she asked; "have you finished your slumbers already?"
+
+"Or, rather, I have not commenced them!"
+
+"Oh, nonsense!"
+
+"No, and as I had finished all the literature I had upstairs, I came
+down to get a book to finish my night with."
+
+Bijou pointed to the sun, which was streaming in by the open window.
+
+"Your night!"
+
+"Oh, as far as I am concerned, you know, unless I am going out
+shooting, or off by train somewhere, it is night up to ten o'clock, at
+least!"
+
+"And you are now going to bed again?"
+
+"This very instant."
+
+"But it is ridiculous."
+
+"On the contrary, it is very wise, and all the more so, as, when one
+is in a bad temper, the best thing to do is to keep one's self out of
+the way."
+
+"You are in a bad temper?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And why?"
+
+Paul de Rueille hesitated slightly before answering.
+
+"I don't know why."
+
+"It's quite true," said Bijou, laughing, "that you were not very
+amiable yesterday during our journey to Pont-sur-Loire."
+
+"It was your fault!"
+
+"My fault--mine?"
+
+"Yours."
+
+"And pray why?"
+
+"I will tell you if you like."
+
+"Yes, I should like; but not now, because I am keeping some one
+waiting in the dairy."
+
+"Who is waiting for you?" he asked anxiously.
+
+"The dairy-maid," answered Bijou, without noticing his anxiety.
+
+"Oh! go at once, then, if that is the case," said M. de Rueille
+sarcastically. "I should not like the dairy-maid to be kept waiting on
+my account."
+
+"You should come and see the cheeses," proposed Denyse.
+
+"That must certainly be very festive; no, really, are you not afraid
+that I should find that too exciting, Bijou, my dear?"
+
+"You would find it as exciting, anyhow, as going to bed, and reading
+over again some old book that you must know by heart. Oh, you know it
+by heart, I am sure! There is nothing in the library but the classics,
+or a lot of old-fashioned things; ever since I have come no new books
+are put in the library, either in the Paris house or here at Bracieux.
+Grandmamma is so afraid that I should get hold of them; but she is
+quite mistaken, for I should never open a book that I had been told
+not to open--never!"
+
+"Grandmamma is afraid of your doing what any other girl would do; you
+are such an astonishing exception, Bijou!"
+
+"Yes, I am an exception--an angel, anything you like; but either come
+with me, or let me go, if you please! I don't like to keep people
+waiting."
+
+"Oh, well, I'll come with you if you like," said M. de Rueille,
+putting his book down on a side-table.
+
+He followed Bijou without speaking, as she trotted along in front of
+him. She looked so sweet, going backwards and forwards amongst the
+great pails of milk; her straw hat, covered with lace, tossed
+carelessly on her fair hair; her morning dress, of pink batiste,
+fastened up rather high with a safety-pin.
+
+She inspected everything, gave her orders, and settled all kinds of
+details, without troubling about her cousin any more than if he did
+not exist; and then, when she had quite finished, she turned towards
+him, smiling.
+
+"Now, then," she said, "if you would like a stroll, I am at your
+service." She turned into one of the garden paths that led to the
+avenues, and then added, as she looked up at Paul, "I'm listening!"
+
+"You are listening? What do you want me to say?"
+
+"I thought you were going to tell me why you were so bad-tempered
+yesterday; you said it was my fault."
+
+"Well, it was; you were--" he began, in an embarrassed way; and then
+he continued, in desperation, "the way you went on, it was not at all
+like you generally are, nor like you ought to be!"
+
+"Ah! what did I do then?"
+
+"Well, in the first place, you insisted, in the most extraordinary
+way, that Bernes should come on to the coach when we met him. Why did
+you insist like that?"
+
+"Well, it is natural enough when you meet anyone walking a mile away
+from where you are driving yourself, that you should offer to pick him
+up; it seems to me that it would be odd, on the contrary, not to offer
+to pick him up!"
+
+"Yes, agreed; but then it was M. de Clagny who should have offered a
+seat in his own carriage."
+
+"He never thought of it--"
+
+"Or else he did not care to? And you obliged him to do it whether he
+would or not?"
+
+"Rubbish! he adores M. de Bernes. The other day he spent half an hour
+singing his praises to me in every key."
+
+"Ah! that is probably what made you so pleasant to him?"
+
+"Was I so pleasant?"
+
+"Certainly! As a rule you don't pay the slightest attention to him,
+but yesterday you had no eyes for anyone but him."
+
+"I did not notice that myself."
+
+"Really? Well, you were the only one who did not, then! You went on to
+such a degree that I wondered if it were not simply for the sake of
+tormenting me that you were acting in that way!"
+
+Bijou gazed straight at M. de Rueille with her beautiful, luminous
+eyes.
+
+"To torment you? and how could it torment you if I chose to be
+agreeable to M. de Bernes?"
+
+"How?" stuttered M. de Rueille, very much confused; "why, I have just
+told you I am not--we are not accustomed to seeing you make a fuss
+like that, especially of a young man! No, I assure you, I was amazed.
+I am still, in fact."
+
+"And I am ever so sorry to have vexed you," she said sweetly. "Yes, I
+am really; you see, I had never noticed M. de Bernes particularly, and
+I wanted to see whether all the nice things M. de Clagny had told me
+about him were quite true, and so I was studying him. Will you forgive
+me?"
+
+M. de Rueille did not reply to this, as he had another grievance on
+his mind.
+
+"With Clagny, too, you have a way of carrying on, which is not at all
+the thing. He is an old man; that's all well and good; but, you know,
+he is not so ancient yet for you to be able to take such liberties
+with him!"
+
+"What do you call liberties?"
+
+"Well, sometimes you appear to admire him, to be in ecstasies about
+him; and then sometimes you coax and wheedle him in the most absurd
+way, as you did yesterday."
+
+"Yesterday! I coaxed and wheedled M. de Clagny? I?"
+
+"You!"
+
+"But about what?"
+
+"When you would insist, in spite of everything, in driving through Rue
+Rabelais; and I'll be hanged if I can see why you wanted to; it's
+about as dirty a street as there is, without taking into account that
+you might have caused us all to break our necks. Yes, certainly, it
+was the most dangerous experiment--your fad! Young Bernes, who is one
+of the most out-and-out daring fellows himself, tried to persuade you
+out of wanting to go along that street!"
+
+The strange little gleam, which sometimes lighted up Bijou's eyes,
+came into them now.
+
+"Yes, that's true!" she said, smiling. "He was wild to prevent our
+going down the Rue Rabelais--M. de Bernes! It was as though he was
+afraid of something!"
+
+"He was afraid of coming to smash, by Jove, just as I was, and the
+abbe, and even Pierrot. I cannot understand how old Clagny could have
+let you have your fad out, for he was responsible for the little
+Dubuisson girl, and for Pierrot, and you, without reckoning all of
+us!"
+
+"Have you finished blowing me up?"
+
+"I am not blowing you up."
+
+"Oh, well, that's cool. Let's make it up now, shall we?" and, standing
+on tip-toes, Bijou held her pretty face up, saying, "Kiss me?"
+
+He stepped back abruptly.
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Bijou, in surprise, and looking hurt, "you won't kiss
+me?"
+
+Paul de Rueille had been so taken aback, that he could scarcely find
+any words.
+
+"It isn't that I won't, but--well, not here like that, it is so
+absurd! I cannot understand your not seeing how ridiculous it is."
+
+Bijou shook her rough head, and the loose curls over her forehead
+danced about.
+
+"No, I do not see that it is at all ridiculous," and then, instead of
+going any farther, she turned round, and they went back to the house
+without another word.
+
+On going up into his room, M. de Rueille found his wife reading a
+letter.
+
+"I have just heard from Dr. Brice," she said, handing him the letter.
+"It seemed to me that Marcel had not been well just lately."
+
+"Not well--Marcel? Why the child eats and drinks more than I do. He
+sleeps like a top, too, and grows like a mushroom. Oh, that's good,
+that is! And what disease has he discovered in the boy--our excellent
+Brice?"
+
+"No disease at all!"
+
+"Oh, well, that's lucky!
+
+"But he orders him to have sea-air."
+
+"Sea-air for a lad who is in such downright good health that it
+positively makes him unbearable, he is so riotous?"
+
+"Read what he says."
+
+"Let me see what he says," murmured M. de Rueille, putting on a look
+of resignation, as he began to read the long letter, in which the
+doctor advised sea-air as the best remedy for the child in his present
+nervous state.
+
+"And so he is in a nervous state?" said M. de Rueille jeeringly; "and
+on account of this, which no one, by the bye, except you, has noticed,
+we are to leave Bracieux, where the lad is flourishing in this
+delightful fresh air--it is his native air, in fact--and we are to go
+and take up our abode at some stupid seaside place? Oh, no! You really
+do get hold of some ridiculous ideas sometimes."
+
+He was still irritated after his discussion with Bijou, and the idea
+of going away from her now caused him to speak in a harsh, dry way. He
+tried to laugh, too, but his laugh sounded forced and hollow.
+
+Bertrade looked at him as she said gently:
+
+"I did not want to tell you the truth straight out; I hoped that you
+would guess it. Do you not guess?"
+
+"No, not at all," he answered, with a vague feeling of uneasiness.
+
+"Well, then, you were right just now; not only Marcel, and his
+brothers too, for that matter, are better at Bracieux than anywhere
+else, but he has nothing the matter with him."
+
+As M. de Rueille looked surprised, she continued, in a tranquil way:
+
+"It is Marcel's father who is not quite himself, who needs a change of
+air, and who will, I am sure, decide on having a change."
+
+"Well, really," he stammered out, "I do not know what you mean."
+
+"I mean that you must leave Bracieux for a time," she answered,
+speaking very distinctly.
+
+"Do you particularly wish me to tell you why?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"You are unwise to insist. You know that in a general way I never
+interfere in anything that you choose to do, or leave undone."
+
+"Yes, you have always been very sweet and very sensible about
+everything," said M. de Rueille, "and I thoroughly appreciate--"
+
+"Oh, there is no need to say anything about all that. I have always
+left you quite free to act in every way as you preferred, and now, in
+this matter, I do not bear you any ill-feeling whatever, and I should
+never have spoken to you of it if I had not seen that you are going
+too far. I have confidence in you, so that I know you will be on your
+guard; but I know how fascinating Bijou is, and I can see perfectly
+well that, next to poor young Giraud, you are the one who is the most
+infatuated."
+
+"Yes, you are quite right, I am infatuated; but, as you say yourself,
+there is no danger whatever, and whether I go away, or whether I stay
+here, it is all the same; that will make no difference whatever."
+
+"Yes! if you stay you will certainly make yourself ridiculous, and
+probably wretched, too. I am speaking to you now just as a friend
+might. Let us go away; believe me, it would be better."
+
+"Well, but when we came back again--for we should come back, shouldn't
+we? in two months at the latest--things would, be exactly as they were
+before."
+
+"No, it would be quite different," she answered carelessly. "In two
+months' time she will be married, or nearly so."
+
+"Married!" exclaimed M. de Rueille, astounded. "Married! Jean is going
+to marry her, then?"
+
+"Why, no! Jean is not going to marry her. He's another one who would
+do well to make himself scarce."
+
+"Well, if it is not Jean, I do not see--it is not Henry, I presume?"
+
+"No, not Henry either. He understands perfectly well that, with what
+he has, he cannot marry Bijou."
+
+"Well, who is it, then? Who is it?"
+
+"Why, no one at all--that is, no one in particular."
+
+"You spoke, on the contrary, as though you were affirming something
+that was quite settled. You said: _In two months' time she will be
+married, or nearly so_. What did you mean by that? Why don't you want
+to tell me? You have been told not to? It is a secret?"
+
+"No, it is merely a supposition, I assure you, that is all."
+
+"And this supposition you will not tell me?"
+
+"No."
+
+After a short silence Madame de Rueille began again:
+
+"I showed grandmamma the doctor's letter; she is very sorry about our
+going away. She adores the children, and then, too, she likes to have
+the house full at Bracieux."
+
+"And she let herself be gulled with this story about Marcel's nervous
+condition? I am surprised at that; she is so sharp!"
+
+"If she was not _gulled_, as you call it, she allowed me to think that
+she was. I shall see you again presently: I must get ready for
+breakfast."
+
+M. de Rueille went up to his wife, and asked, in a half-timid way:
+
+"You are angry with me about it?"
+
+"I? why should I be angry about what you cannot help? You are in the
+same situation as Jean, M. Giraud, Henry, the accompaniment professor,
+Pierrot, and others that we don't know of, not to speak of the abbe,
+who, at present, is always to be found somewhere round about where
+Bijou is."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"It's perfectly true; the only thing is that, as far as he is
+concerned, he is unconscious of it. Without understanding the why and
+wherefore, he, too, is captivated by Bijou's charms just the same as
+all the others who come near her. I am quite sure that he, too, will
+be unhappy about going away from here; but he will not be able to
+explain to himself even the cause of his unhappiness. Ah! there's the
+bell; I shall never be ready; you had better go on down."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Pierrot," said the marchioness, after breakfast, when everyone had
+assembled in the morning-room, "you did not give me my book
+yesterday?"
+
+Pierrot, who was talking to Bijou, turned round, somewhat taken aback.
+
+"What book, aunt?"
+
+"Dumas' novel for the cure."
+
+"Ah, yes; I could not think what book you meant!"
+
+"You forgot to do my errand?"
+
+"Not at all! but Pellerin hadn't it."
+
+"Oh, why--he always has everything one wants!"
+
+"Well, he hadn't got that; and, what was better still, he didn't seem
+to know the book at all!"
+
+"Nonsense!"
+
+"No, it's quite true! and he's an obstinate sort of beggar, too, he
+would have it that it wasn't by the father--what's his name? ah! I've
+forgotten already."
+
+"Dumas!"
+
+"Dumas! yes, that's it; and he kept on saying all the time, 'I know my
+Dumas well enough, and that book was never written by him.' Well,
+anyhow, he promised to try to get it, and to send it to you if it is
+to be had."
+
+M. de Rueille was sorting out the letters, which had arrived during
+breakfast-time.
+
+"Here's a letter from your bookseller, grandmamma," he said; "he
+evidently has not been able to get it."
+
+"Open it, Paul, will you?"
+
+Rueille tore open the envelope, and, taking out the letter, read as
+follows:
+
+     "MADAM,--It is quite impossible to get the book which your
+     nephew asked for. As we were anxious to execute your order,
+     we sent to several of the principal booksellers, and even
+     wired to Paris, but we were informed that there is not, and
+     there never has been, a book entitled, 'Le Baton de M.
+     Molard.'"
+
+"Le Baton de M. Molard?" repeated the marchioness, not understanding
+in the least. "What is he talking about?" and then, all at once, the
+explanation of the mystery dawned upon her, and she exclaimed, in
+consternation: "Ah, I see! 'Le Baton de M. Molard' is 'Le Batard de
+Mauleon,' translated by Pierrot into his own language. I was quite
+right in wanting to write the title for him, but he would not hear of
+it."
+
+M. de Jonzac turned his eyes up towards the ceiling with a tragic
+gesture of despair.
+
+"He is incorrigible--absolutely hopeless," he said, half laughing and
+half vexed.
+
+"I can't help it, I am as I was made," said Pierrot, blushing
+furiously and very much annoyed. "And then, too, I didn't know what I
+was doing yesterday; we were almost upset going into Pont-sur-Loire."
+
+"Almost upset?" exclaimed Madame de Bracieux, "upset! why, how?"
+
+"Because Bijou had the insane idea of wanting to go down the Rue
+Rabelais with the coach; and so M. de Clagny went--the old fool."
+
+"Stop! that's enough!" interrupted the marchioness; "will you kindly
+speak more respectfully when you have anything to say about my old
+friend Clagny?"
+
+"Well, all the same, your old friend hasn't got his head screwed on
+very well, considering his age. He might have killed us; and, besides
+that, I can tell you we did kick up a shindy in the Rue Rabelais. The
+coach scraped against the curb-stones; all the kids were running along
+nearly under the horses' heels; then the sound of the horn brought all
+the women to the windows, and didn't they exclaim when they saw what
+it was. That part wasn't so bad, either, for there were some jolly
+pretty ones, I can tell you; weren't there, Paul?"
+
+As M. de Rueille appeared to be preoccupied, and did not answer,
+Pierrot turned to the abbe.
+
+"Weren't there, M. Courteil?"
+
+"I don't know," answered the abbe, with evident sincerity; "I was not
+noticing."
+
+Pierrot did not intend to give in.
+
+"Oh, well, Bijou noticed them anyhow, for I can tell you she _did_
+look at them, and with eyes as sharp as needles, too; they shone like
+anything."
+
+"I?" she exclaimed, her pretty face turning suddenly red. "It was your
+fancy, Pierrot; I never saw anything. I was much too frightened."
+
+"Frightened of what?" asked the marchioness.
+
+"Why, of being upset, grandmamma. Pierrot is right about that; we were
+nearly upset."
+
+"He is right, too, in saying that it was an insane idea to want to go
+with a carriage and four horses down a wretched little street like
+that; however could you have had such an idea?"
+
+Bijou glanced at Jeanne Dubuisson, who, with her eyes fixed on the
+carpet, had turned very red, too, and was listening to the discussion
+without taking any part in it.
+
+"Oh, really, I don't know. I think it was M. de Clagny telling me that
+his horses were so well in hand that he could make them turn round on
+a plate. And so, as the Rue Rabelais is rather narrow and winding, I
+said: 'I am sure you could not go along Rue Rabelais.'"
+
+"No!" protested Pierrot, "it was not quite like that. You said, 'Let
+us go down Rue Rabelais, I should like to see it.' And, then, as he
+hesitated--for we may as well give him credit for having
+hesitated--you stuck to it as hard as you could."
+
+"But," put in M. de Jonzac, seeing that Denyse looked annoyed, "what
+interest could your cousin possibly have in wanting to go down that
+street?"
+
+"That's what I wondered," said Pierrot, looking puzzled; and then,
+suddenly taken with another idea, he added: "I can tell you there was
+somebody who didn't like it, and that was M. de Bernes. I don't know
+what took him, but he did pull a long face. Oh, my! I can tell you he
+did look blue."
+
+Henry de Bracieux laughed.
+
+"I know why he was pulling such a long face, poor old Bernes; he was
+afraid of being blown up--"
+
+"Blown up?" asked Bijou, innocently opening her limpid eyes wide in
+surprise, whilst Jeanne's face, usually so impassive, turned almost
+purple. "Blown up? by whom?"
+
+And then, as there was a dead silence, which became more and more
+embarrassing, Bijou turned to her friend.
+
+"Let's go out for a stroll in the garden, Jeanne, shall we?" she said.
+
+"I'll come with you," remarked Pierrot promptly; but Bijou pushed him
+gently back.
+
+"No! we shall do very well by ourselves, thank you; you would worry
+us."
+
+As the two girls were descending the hall-door steps, Bijou said to
+Jeanne, who was just behind her, and who had not quite recovered from
+her embarrassment:
+
+"I know why you looked so conscious just now; you were thinking of the
+gossip about that actress--I've forgotten her name--whom M. de Bernes
+knows. I had not thought of it at the time, and so it did not trouble
+me. You see I was right when I told you that it was a mistake to
+listen to Mere Rafut's tales."
+
+"Yes, you always are right!" answered Jeanne pensively; "I said then
+that you are always right!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After Bijou's departure, the men one after another left the
+drawing-room.
+
+"What's the matter, Bertrade?" asked the marchioness, as soon as she
+found herself alone with Madame de Rueille. "Paul looked very queer
+during breakfast!"
+
+"Did you think so?" said the young wife, not wishing either to
+acknowledge it or to tell an untruth about the matter.
+
+"I did think so, and you looked queer too; and as I watched you both,
+an idea dawned upon me."
+
+"And what is this idea?"
+
+"It is that my dear little Marcel is no more ill than I am, and that
+the letter you showed me this morning is nothing but a pretext for
+getting your husband away from here; is that so?"
+
+Madame de Rueille was too straightforward to be able to deny the fact.
+
+"It is so!"
+
+"And so you are jealous, and jealous of Bijou?"
+
+"Not jealous, oh, dear no! not in the least; but anxious."
+
+"About Bijou?"
+
+Madame de Rueille looked serious as she shook her pretty head.
+
+"No, about Paul."
+
+"You are not afraid of your husband going too far, I suppose?"
+
+"No!"
+
+"Well, what then?"
+
+"I am anxious about his peace of mind, and then, too, I do not care
+for him to make himself completely ridiculous."
+
+"You must know, my dear Bertrade, that I have seen for some time past
+that Paul was gone on Bijou, just as all the others are--for there is
+no mistake about it, they all are; and the last few days I have
+noticed that your abbe even has begun to lose his indifference; don't
+you think so?"
+
+"It is very possible!"
+
+"Yes, and I am sure that he isn't going along quite so peacefully in
+his worship of God as formerly?"
+
+"And that does not displease you either, grandmamma, does it? Come,
+now, own it!"
+
+"Oh, well; as long as it is just a little beneficial upset for him, I
+don't mind; but I should not like it to develop into anything
+serious--you understand where I draw the line?"
+
+"No, because I always pity all those who are suffering from such
+little upsets--as you call them--even when they are mild, I think they
+are calculated to make people suffer greatly."
+
+"You always see a darker side of things than I do; at all events, I
+think that the idea of carrying Paul off is a very excessive and
+unwise kind of remedy. He keeps a strict guard over himself, and no
+one suspects the true state of things except you--"
+
+"And all the others!"
+
+"Do you think so?"
+
+"I am sure of it."
+
+"Well, even if it be so, that is of no importance, provided that Bijou
+does not suspect it herself. Why do you not answer?"
+
+"Because I am not of the same opinion as you, grandmamma, and you do
+not like that as a rule, particularly when it is a question of Bijou."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Just what I said, nothing else."
+
+"Then, according to you, Bijou has noticed it from--"
+
+"From the very first day."
+
+"And even if that should be so, she cannot help it! Besides, what
+danger does she run?"
+
+"None at all."
+
+"Paul is honourable."
+
+"Undoubtedly, and even if he were not, Bijou would have nothing to
+fear for several reasons."
+
+"What are they?"
+
+"Well, in the first place--her own indifference. Paul makes about as
+much impression on her, I believe, as a table."
+
+"Next?"
+
+"Next? Why, that's all!"
+
+"You said 'several reasons,'--you have given me one; let us hear what
+the others are."
+
+"Oh, no!" said Madame de Rueille, "it was just my way of speaking."
+
+"Nonsense! you are not clever at telling untruths, my dear Bertrade; I
+am pretty sure I know what you thought!"
+
+"I don't think you do."
+
+"Well, you'll see! You were thinking that one of the reasons why Bijou
+will never take any notice of Paul is--"
+
+"Because he is married."
+
+"Yes, of course; but you fancy, too, I am sure of it, that Bijou is
+thinking of someone else? Ah, you see! you don't answer now! Yes, you
+believe, as your husband does--he told me so two or three days
+ago--that she is madly in love with young Giraud!"
+
+"Oh, grandmamma, what an unlikely supposition! In the first place,
+Bijou is not, and never will be, madly in love with anyone."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean that when she marries, it will be in a reasonable, calm sort
+of way, just as she does everything else."
+
+"But when will it be?"
+
+"When will it be? Well, I do not know exactly--soon, I think."
+
+"Then you are saying that just at random? You are speaking of the
+future in just a vague sort of way?"
+
+"The future always is vague, grandmamma," answered Madame de Rueille,
+smiling.
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+
+FOR a whole week there was scarcely anything else thought about but
+the rehearsals of the little play, which was to be given the day after
+the races.
+
+The La Balues, the Juzencourts, and Madame de Nezel, came to Bracieux
+nearly every day, and M. de Clagny also, for he was very much
+interested in the rehearsals. He acted as prompter when Giraud, who
+had undertaken this post, was occupied, and he appeared to be
+delighted whenever he saw Bijou acting.
+
+"Old Dubuisson" and M. Spiegel had been to dinner several times, and
+Denyse, under the pretext of letting him be more with his _fiancee_,
+had persuaded the young professor to take a minor role, in which he
+was execrable. Perhaps Jeanne had noticed this, as the last few days
+she seemed to be low-spirited, and she was not as even-tempered as
+usual. Her father was astonished to see her frequently with tears in
+her eyes, and for no apparent motive, so that at last he declared
+that "she must be sickening for some illness or another."
+
+The Rueilles had not left Bracieux. Bertrade felt that everyone was
+against her, as it were, and had resigned herself to the inevitable;
+she had quite given up the plan she had proposed, and was now letting
+herself drift along, carried forward by the society whirl in which she
+was living.
+
+Young Bernes arrived one evening to invite the marchioness and her
+guests to a paper-chase which was being organised by his regiment. He,
+himself, was to be hare, and all kinds of obstacles were being put up;
+there had never been so fine a paper-chase run in the forest.
+
+Bijou at once persuaded her grandmother to allow her to follow on
+horseback, M. de Rueille and Jean de Blaye both answering for it that
+nothing should happen to her. She was, besides, very prudent, like
+most people who are accustomed to riding, and who ride well, and she
+always managed to avoid accidents, and not to run useless risks.
+
+Madame de Bracieux kept Hubert to dinner, and in the evening, as she
+watched Denyse talking to him, she said to Bertrade:
+
+"It's very odd. It seems to me that Bijou is not at all the same now
+with that young man. She used to just give him an indifferent sort of
+bow, and then leave him alone, and now it seems almost as though she
+were 'gone' on him, to use your elegant language. She has quite
+changed her attitude towards him," continued the marchioness, puzzled.
+
+"And he, too, has quite changed his attitude towards her," said Madame
+de Rueille.
+
+"Yes, hasn't he? The first few times he came to Bracieux, I was struck
+with his coolness towards our sweet girl, whom everyone adores. He was
+just simply polite to her, and that was all."
+
+"At present, he is not very far gone, but there is considerable
+progress; he is preparing to follow in the pathway which has been
+beaten out by others."
+
+"Just lately, when you were talking to me about Bijou getting married,
+had you any idea in the background?" asked the marchioness, looking at
+Madame de Rueille.
+
+Bertrade repeated the question without replying to it.
+
+"An idea in the background?"
+
+"Yes. Were you, for instance, thinking that Bijou was in love with
+this young Bernes?"
+
+"I told you that same day, grandmamma, that it is my belief Bijou is
+not in love, never has been in love, and never will be in love with
+anyone."
+
+"If you had said that, as you say it now, I should most certainly have
+protested. It would be impossible, in my opinion, to be more
+absolutely and completely mistaken than you are. Never to love
+anyone?--Bijou!--when there never was anyone who needed to be loved
+and petted as she does."
+
+"She needs to be loved and petted--yes, I grant that; but she always
+requires people to love and pet her, and she does not feel the need of
+loving and petting others in her turn."
+
+"In other words, she is selfish and cold-hearted?" questioned the
+marchioness, her voice suddenly taking a harsh tone. "The fact is,
+Bertrade, you have a grudge against Bijou, because of the charm there
+is about her: you are angry with her, because no one can resist being
+fascinated by her, and instead of blaming Paul, who is the real
+culprit, you accuse the poor child in this cruel way."
+
+"I do not accuse Bijou any more than I do Paul, grandmamma: and I
+should be all the less likely to accuse them, because I do not think
+that we are exactly free agents in such matters; yes, I know that you
+will be scandalised at my saying such a thing--I can see that very
+well. You think it is blasphemy, don't you? And yet, Heaven knows that
+the thoughts which come to me sometimes on this subject make me much
+more tolerant and indulgent towards others--"
+
+M. de Clagny approached the two ladies just at this moment.
+
+"What are you two plotting in this little corner?"
+
+"Nothing," said Madame de Bracieux; "we were watching Bijou, who seems
+to be taming your young friend Bernes."
+
+"Taming him? Whatever do you mean by that?" asked the count, turning
+round with a disturbed look on his face.
+
+"Well, I mean just what everyone means when they make that remark! A
+week ago, when the young man dined here with us, he was like an
+icicle; well, I fancy that the thaw has set in."
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed M. de Clagny, suddenly looking serene again; "I forgot
+that he has a love affair, and is so far gone that he fully intends to
+marry this lady-love; and, as you can imagine, his father is not
+delighted about it, by any means." And then, in an absent-minded way,
+he added, "I feel perfectly easy, as far as he is concerned!"
+
+"Easy!" exclaimed Madame de Bracieux in astonishment "Why, easy! you
+would not like Bijou to marry M. de Bernes, then? Why not?"
+
+"Well--she is so young," he stammered out, in a confused sort of way.
+
+"How do you mean, so young? She is quite old enough to marry; she will
+be twenty-two in November, Bijou!"
+
+"Well, then, Hubert is too young for her; he is only a lad!"
+
+"I should certainly prefer seeing her married to a man rather more
+settled down; but, if she should care for him, he is of good family,
+and is wealthy, why should she not marry him as well as any other?"
+
+"Do you really think that Bijou cares for him?" asked M. de Clagny
+anxiously.
+
+"I don't know anything about it at all," answered the marchioness,
+laughing; "but anyhow, what can that matter to you? I can understand
+that Jean or Henry should be disturbed in their minds--but you?" As he
+did not reply, she went on: "It's a case of the dog in the manger: he
+does not want the bone himself, but he does not want the others to
+have it either. That is just your case, my poor friend, for, I
+presume, you have no idea of marrying Bijou yourself?"
+
+He answered in a joking way, but there was a troubled look on his
+face.
+
+"Oh, as to me, it is an idea that I should like very much; but she
+would not; therefore it amounts to the same thing!"
+
+Bijou came up to them just at that moment, gliding along with her
+light step. She was followed by young Bernes, who looked vexed about
+something.
+
+"I cannot, really, mademoiselle," he was saying, "I assure you that I
+cannot get away from my friends that day."
+
+"Oh, yes, you can; mustn't he, grandmamma?" asked Denyse merrily,
+"mustn't M. de Bernes come to dinner here on the day of the
+paper-chase? He is to be the hare, and the start is to be from the
+'Cinq-Tranchees'--it is only a mile from Bracieux at the farthest."
+
+Madame de Bracieux was examining the young officer with interest, and
+there was a kindly look in her eyes.
+
+"Why, certainly," she said, "he must come here to dinner; we shall all
+be so pleased."
+
+"You are very kind, madame, to invite me, but I was explaining to
+Mademoiselle de Courtaix that on that day, after the paper-chase,
+which the regiment is getting up for the benefit of the residents, I
+have promised faithfully to dine with several of my friends." And
+glancing, in spite of himself, at Bijou, he added, "And I regret it
+now, more than I can tell you!"
+
+Turning round on her high heels, Denyse glided off again to the other
+end of the long room, where she was greeted by Pierrot with
+reproachful words.
+
+"It was very mean of you to slope away from us like that, you know!"
+exclaimed the boy.
+
+M. de Jonzac, who was playing billiards with the abbe, was also
+keeping one ear open to catch what was going on round him. He now
+protested against the way in which Pierrot expressed himself, even
+supposing that the reproach itself were just.
+
+"Well, yes," answered his son, "it's quite true that I'm not
+over-particular about what words I use, but that doesn't prevent what
+I said being true; and the others said it too, just now; I wasn't the
+only one."
+
+"Mademoiselle," said Giraud, who was standing near the large
+bay-window, looking out at the sky, "you said yesterday that you liked
+shooting stars--I have never seen so many as there are to-night."
+
+"Really?" replied Denyse, going to the window, and leaning her arms on
+the ledge, side by side with the tutor, "are there as many as all
+that? What's that to the left?" she asked, bending forward. "I can see
+something white on the terrace."
+
+"It is Mademoiselle Dubuisson, who is strolling about with her father
+and M. Spiegel."
+
+"Ah! supposing we went out to them--shall we?"
+
+Giraud led the way at once, only too happy to go out for a stroll on
+this beautiful starry night. When they were near the terrace, she
+stopped suddenly.
+
+"Perhaps we shall be _de trop_," she said; "they may be talking of
+private affairs. Let us go to the chestnut avenue, and they'll come to
+us if they want to."
+
+She descended the marble steps, and they were soon in the dark avenue,
+under the thick chestnut trees. The young man had followed her, his
+heart beating with excitement, almost beside himself with joy. They
+walked along for some little time without speaking, and then at last
+Bijou looked up, trying to catch a glimpse of the sky between the
+branches of the trees.
+
+"We shall not see much of the shooting stars here," she said.
+
+"Oh, yes," answered Giraud, who did not want to leave this shady walk,
+where he had Bijou all to himself, "we can see them all the same.
+Look, there's one, did you see it?"
+
+"Not distinctly, and not long enough to be able to wish anything."
+
+"To wish anything? but what?"
+
+"Oh! anything. Why! do you mean to say you did not know that when you
+see a shooting star you ought to wish something?"
+
+"No, I did not know. And does your wish get fulfilled?"
+
+"They say so."
+
+"Well, then, mademoiselle, have you a wish quite ready this time, so
+that you will not be taken unawares?"
+
+"Yes, certainly, I have one; but it can never be realised."
+
+"Ah! I dare not ask you what."
+
+"I should like to be quite different from what I am," she replied,
+very gently. "Yes, I should like to be a very pretty girl, in quite
+humble circumstances, so that I need not be obliged to go into
+society, and so that I could marry just whom I liked. I should like to
+be, in fact, happy according to my own idea of things, without
+troubling anything about social prejudices and conventionalities."
+
+"Why should you wish that?" he asked, in a voice that trembled
+slightly.
+
+"So that I should have the right to love anyone who loved me. I mean,
+openly; without having to keep it to myself." And then she added, in
+a very low voice, "And without reproaching myself for it."
+
+She was walking quite close to him, so close, that their shoulders
+touched at every step.
+
+Giraud was quite agitated with conflicting emotions.
+
+"You say that--as if--as if--you did care for someone?" he stammered
+out.
+
+He knew that she had turned her face towards him, but she did not
+speak.
+
+Just at this moment a screech-owl, which was perched quite near them
+amongst the thick, dark looking foliage of the trees, gave a sudden,
+wailing, cry, which startled Bijou. She knocked against Giraud as she
+jumped aside in her fright, and he instinctively put his arms round
+her. Her soft, perfumed hair brushed against his lips, making him lose
+his head completely. He forgot everything, and, utterly oblivious of
+all that separated him from the young girl, he drew her closer to him
+in a passionate embrace, and murmured tenderly:
+
+"Denyse!"
+
+She let him do as he liked, without offering any resistance, but when,
+at last, he set her free, she said, in a tender, plaintive tone:
+
+"Oh! how wrong it was of you to have done that, how wrong of you!" And
+then she hid her face in her hands, and he could hear that she was
+crying.
+
+He tried to console her, but she would not allow him to stay.
+
+"No, go away, please," she said: "they will be wondering where you
+are. I shall come in directly, when I am myself again."
+
+As he was starting off in the direction of the terrace, she called him
+back.
+
+"Not that way," she said. "Go round by the pool. Don't let them think
+you have come from here."
+
+"Let me stay another minute, just to ask you to forgive me. Let me
+kiss those little hands that I love--"
+
+"Please go! Please go!" she said, in a tone that sounded as though she
+mistrusted herself.
+
+Before turning into the walk that led round by the pool, Giraud
+stopped a minute to get another glimpse of Denyse, who, in her light
+dress, looked like a white spot against the dark background of the
+trees. He could hear that she was still crying.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Is that you, Bijou?" asked Jean de Blaye, coming forward in the thick
+darkness.
+
+"Who is it?" asked the young girl, drawing herself up.
+
+"It is I--Jean! Why, do you mean to say that you won't even do me the
+honour of recognising my voice. What are you doing out here in this
+pitch darkness?"
+
+"I am taking a stroll."
+
+"All alone?"
+
+"I came out to join the Dubuissons, but I thought afterwards that it
+was better not to disturb them, and so I came here all alone."
+
+"It must be quite a change for you to be alone, isn't it? And what in
+the world do you do when you are all by yourself?"
+
+"I think."
+
+"Oh! what a big word!"
+
+"Well, I dream dreams, if you like that better?"
+
+"Well I never! That's what I never should have thought you would do.
+They are surely not in the least like ordinary dreams--yours?"
+
+"Because--?"
+
+"Because dreams are usually incoherent, strange and quite improbable."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well, your dreams must be admirably sensible and reasonable; they
+must resemble you."
+
+"Thank you."
+
+"For what?"
+
+"Well, for the pleasant things you are saying."
+
+"Oh! they are not exactly pleasant things; they are true, though.
+Besides, I have not come here just to say pleasant things to you, but
+to talk to you seriously."
+
+"Seriously?"
+
+"Yes! I have undertaken a mission for some one else. I have promised
+to speak to you to the best of my ability in the name of some one who
+did not care to speak for himself."
+
+"Who is this some one else?"
+
+"Henry! He begged me to ask you whether you would authorise him to ask
+grandmamma for your hand?"
+
+"My hand! Henry?" she exclaimed, and her accent expressed her
+bewilderment.
+
+"Is that so very astonishing?"
+
+"Why, yes!--it is as though he were my brother--Henry!"
+
+"Well, but he is not your brother, nevertheless; therefore do not let
+us trouble about him as a brother, but as a lover. What is your
+answer?"
+
+"My answer! why does Henry apply to me first? Instead of asking my
+permission to speak to grandmamma, he ought to have asked grandmamma's
+permission to speak to me."
+
+"There; didn't I say that you were a most excellent little person,
+always knowing the correct thing, and all the rest of it!"
+
+"Is it wrong of me to be like that?"
+
+"Oh, no! it is not wrong--on the contrary! only it is a trifle
+embarrassing. Tell me, now that I have made this mistake in speaking
+to you first, will you give me an answer? or must I set to work to put
+matters right again, by applying now to grandmamma, who in her turn
+will apply to you, etc., etc."
+
+"No, I will give you my answer."
+
+"Well, then, let me finish my rigmarole. Count Henry de Bracieux was
+born on the 22nd of January, 1870. His entire fortune, until after the
+death of his grandmother, consists of twenty-four thousand pounds,
+which amount brings in--"
+
+"Oh! you needn't trouble to tell me about money matters; in the first
+place, they don't interest me, and then, as I do not wish to marry
+Henry, it is useless to tell me all that!"
+
+"Ah! you do not wish to marry him! Why?"
+
+"For several reasons, the best of which is that I know him too well."
+
+"It certainly is not very flattering, this reason of yours!"
+
+"I mean what I said just now, that, living with Henry as I have done
+for the last four years, I consider him as a brother."
+
+"Then that applies to me, too; do you look upon me, too, as a
+brother?" asked Jean de Blaye, trying to speak in an indifferent tone.
+
+"You, oh, no! not at all; you are thirty-five at least!"
+
+"No, thirty-three."
+
+"Only that?--ah, well, it's all the same! you don't seem to me like a
+brother!"
+
+She was silent a moment, thinking, whilst he stood waiting, with a
+sort of vague hope.
+
+"You seem to me more like an uncle," she said at last.
+
+"Oh!" remarked Jean, with an accent that betrayed his vexation, "that
+is very nice."
+
+"You are annoyed with me for saying that?" she asked, in her pretty,
+coaxing way.
+
+"Oh, not at all! I am delighted, on the contrary; it is very
+satisfactory, for, with you, one knows exactly what to count on; and
+then, if one has any delusions, well, they don't have to hang fire."
+
+"You had delusions--what were they?"
+
+"No, I hadn't one of any kind."
+
+"Oh, yes, I can tell by your voice; you speak in a sharp, bitter,
+irritated way. Tell me why you are so bad-tempered all in a minute?"
+she asked, in a coaxing tone, leaning against him, and looking up into
+his face.
+
+He stepped back from her as he answered:
+
+"When one is not very good to start with, and one has trouble, it
+makes one go to the bad; it is inevitable!"
+
+"And you have trouble?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Is it very bad?"
+
+"Well, quite bad enough, thank you!"
+
+"Poor Jean; things don't go as you want them to, then?"
+
+"What do you mean? What are you talking about?"
+
+"Why, about--oh, you know very well! I told you the other evening!"
+
+"That again!" he said, getting more and more worked up; "how foolish
+you are!"
+
+"What, do you mean that you do not care for Madame de Nezel?"
+exclaimed Bijou.
+
+"Madame de Nezel is a charming woman," he stammered out, in an
+embarrassed way. "She is an excellent friend whom I like very much,
+very much indeed, but not in the way you imagine."
+
+"Ah! so much the worse for you; she is a widow, and she is rich; she
+would just have suited you. Well, then, you like someone else?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Someone you cannot marry?"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"Why? isn't she rich enough?"
+
+"Oh, no, it is not that; if she had not a farthing it would be all the
+same to me; it is the other way round, I am not rich enough for her,
+and then--she would not have me."
+
+"You do not know; you ought to tell her that you love her."
+
+"Do you think so?"
+
+"Why, of course--try that, at any rate."
+
+"Very well, then, Bijou, I love you with all my heart--but I know that
+there is no hope, and, unfortunate wretch that I am, I dare not even
+ask for any."
+
+"You love _me_!" she exclaimed, in deep distress, and then, stopping
+short, she repeated: "_you_--Jean?"
+
+"Yes, and what about you? you detest me, do you not?"
+
+"Oh, Jean, how can you say such things? You know very well that I love
+you, though not in the way you want me to, or as I should like to be
+able to, but very much, all the same; indeed I do."
+
+She put her hand on his shoulder, obliging him to stand still, and
+then passed her hand over his eyes.
+
+"Oh, Jean," she exclaimed, in great grief, "tears, and all because of
+me! Oh, please, don't--no, indeed you must not; do you hear me, Jean?"
+
+He took the little hand, which was stroking his face, and kissed it
+passionately. Then putting Bijou, who was clinging to him, gently
+aside, he left her abruptly, and strode off alone.
+
+
+
+
+XIII.
+
+
+"THEN, you really mean that you are going?" asked Bijou sorrowfully,
+as Jeanne Dubuisson folded her dresses into the tray of a long basket
+trunk.
+
+"Yes," answered the young girl, absorbed in what she was doing, and
+without even looking up. "I have been here a long time; it would be
+taking advantage to stay longer, you know."
+
+"You know very well that it would be nothing of the kind; and it was
+almost settled that you were to stay until Monday, and then, all at
+once, you changed your mind. What is the matter?"
+
+"Why, nothing at all. What do you imagine could be the matter?"
+
+"If I knew, I should not ask you. Come, now! what can it be? you don't
+seem to find things too dull?"
+
+"Oh, Bijou, however could I find things dull?"
+
+"Oh, well, you might; and yet, you see your _fiance_ almost as much as
+when you were at Pont-sur-Loire."
+
+"Oh, no--"
+
+"Oh, yes; let us reckon, shall we? M. Spiegel went to Paris for
+Saturday, Sunday, and Monday; Tuesday he came here to dinner with M.
+Dubuisson; Wednesday he came alone; Thursday he managed to swallow the
+confirmation luncheon, poor man; Friday he was here to dinner; and
+every day we have been rehearsing our play either before or after
+dinner, so that he has never been away from you."
+
+"Yes, that's true," answered Jeanne reluctantly; "but if he has not
+been away from me, he has scarcely troubled about me at all."
+
+"How do you mean?"
+
+"How? Oh! it is simple enough! He has only troubled about you; he has
+talked to no one but you."
+
+"To me?"
+
+"Yes, to you--there! I may as well own it, Bijou; I am
+jealous--frightfully jealous."
+
+"Jealous of whom? Of me?" asked Denyse, with a startled look.
+
+Mademoiselle Dubuisson nodded, and then she proceeded to explain,
+whilst the tears rose to her eyes:
+
+"You must forgive me for telling you this. I can see that I am causing
+you pain, but it is better, is it not, to tell the truth, than to let
+you suspect all kinds of wrong reasons? You are not angry with me?"
+
+"No; not at all!" And then Bijou added sorrowfully: "It is you who
+ought rather to be angry with me. But you are mistaken, I assure you!
+M. Spiegel, who is very polite, has taken notice of me simply because
+I am the grandchild of his hostess, and not for any other reason."
+
+"He has taken notice of you for the same reason which makes everyone
+take notice of you--just because you are adorable, and you know that
+very well!"
+
+"Oh, no! I--"
+
+"It was quite certain that he would be fascinated by you, just as all
+the others are, and I was very silly not to have foreseen what would
+happen. I counted too much on his affection--I thought that he loved
+me just as I love him--I was mistaken, that's all!"
+
+"Then I shall not see anything more of you? You will avoid all
+opportunities of meeting me?"
+
+"No; we shall spend the whole of the day together at the paper-chase."
+
+"As you will be driving, and I shall be riding, I shall not be much in
+your way."
+
+Bijou was silent for a minute, and then she began again in an anxious
+tone:
+
+"You don't think, at any rate, that it is my fault--what has
+happened?"
+
+"No," answered Jeanne; "I don't think anything, except that you are a
+charming girl, and I am merely common-place. Bijou, dear, don't make
+yourself wretched about it, please!"
+
+"I should be so unhappy if I were not to see anything more of you!"
+
+"But you will see me! The day after to-morrow I am coming back to
+Bracieux for your play. I must, you know, considering that we are both
+acting, M. Spiegel and I."
+
+"Why do you say, 'M. Spiegel'? Why do you not say Franz like you
+always do? Are you angry with him?"
+
+"On Saturday," continued Jeanne, without answering Bijou's question,
+"we shall see each other at the races, and then again at the
+Tourvilles' dance; you see we shall scarcely be separated at all."
+
+"All the same it won't be as though you were staying here," answered
+Bijou, with a sorrowful look, "and, then, too, I know very well that
+you are going away feeling different towards me."
+
+Just at this moment the maid entered the room.
+
+"Madame wishes to speak to mademoiselle in the drawing-room."
+
+"In the drawing-room at this time of day!" exclaimed Bijou, in
+surprise.
+
+"M. de Clagny is there."
+
+"Oh! very well! Say that I am coming at once."
+
+"Will you go down with me?" asked Bijou, turning to Mademoiselle
+Dubuisson.
+
+"No, I want to finish packing my trunk, as it is to be sent to
+Pont-sur-Loire after luncheon."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A quarter of an hour later, Bijou returned in great glee.
+
+"Ah! you don't know something. We are going to spend the evening
+together to-day!"
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Guess!"
+
+"Oh! I don't know. At the theatre?"
+
+"Right! How did you guess that?"
+
+"Because you said over and over again before M. de Clagny how much you
+wanted to go to that performance organised by the _Dames de France_. I
+suppose he has offered you a box?"
+
+"Two boxes! yes, just imagine it; two beautiful big boxes, each one
+for six persons! And so we have at once arranged with your father
+that you are to come--M. Spiegel as well, of course--I forgot to tell
+you that they are there--your father and M. Spiegel. M. de Clagny
+brought them with him."
+
+"But three of us will be too many for you," began Jeanne.
+
+"When I have just told you that there are twelve places! Come,
+now--Grandmamma and I, that makes two, and you three, that makes five;
+there are seven places over, and no one wants to come."
+
+"The Rueilles?"
+
+"Paul, but not Bertrade; that makes six. Neither Jean nor Henry are
+coming, nor Uncle Alexis either, and Pierrot has got into a scrape.
+Then there is M. de Clagny, and I thought of offering a place to M.
+Giraud, so that makes us eight altogether."
+
+Mademoiselle Dubuisson did not speak, and Bijou went on:
+
+"You do not care about spending this evening with us, or, rather, with
+me, and so you are trying to find a pretext?"
+
+"Oh, no, I am not trying to find anything: besides, since it is all
+arranged with papa--"
+
+"Yes, it is quite settled. I had invited M. de Bernes, too; but he
+makes out that he cannot come, because he is going with his friends."
+
+"Where did you see M. de Bernes?"
+
+"In the drawing-room just a minute ago. Ah, of course you did not
+know. He has come to bring the invitation for M. Giraud. Jean wrote to
+him for it, because M. Giraud wanted to go to the paper-chase, and as
+there are refreshments offered by the officers to their guests,
+grandmamma is so scrupulous that she would not take him without an
+invitation."
+
+"Then M. de Bernes is staying to luncheon, too?"
+
+"No, he has gone again; he is the hare, you know, and the
+meeting-place is at the cross-roads at three o'clock; it is quite near
+for us, but for those who come from Pont-sur-Loire, it's a good step."
+
+"What time do we start?"
+
+"At half-past two the carriages, and a quarter past two those who are
+riding--Do you know--I feel inclined to dress before luncheon, so that
+I should not have to think any more about it."
+
+"You have half an hour."
+
+"Well, you are ready. Come with me while I dress, will you?"
+
+Jeanne followed Bijou in a docile way, as the latter hurried along
+the corridors, singing as she went.
+
+"You are always gay," remarked Jeanne, "but this morning it seems to
+me that you are particularly joyful. What is it that makes you so?"
+
+"Why, nothing! I am delighted about the paper-chase, and the theatre;
+then, too, it is beautiful weather, the sky is so blue, the flowers so
+fresh and beautiful, it seems to me delicious to be alive--but that's
+all!"
+
+"Oh, well, that's something at any rate."
+
+"Sit down," said Bijou, pushing Mademoiselle Dubuisson into a cosy
+arm-chair.
+
+Jeanne sat down, and looked round at the pretty room. The walls were
+hung with pale pink cretonne, with a design of large white poppies.
+The ceiling, too, was pink, and the Louis Seize furniture was
+lacquered pink. There were flowers everywhere, in strange-shaped glass
+vases, and the air was laden with a delicious, penetrating perfume, a
+mixture of chypre, iris, and a scent like new-mown hay.
+
+Jeanne inhaled this perfume with delight.
+
+"What do you put in your room to make it smell like this?" she asked.
+
+"Does it smell of something? I do not smell anything--anyhow, I don't
+use scent for it," answered Bijou, sniffing the air around her with
+all her might.
+
+"Oh! why, that's incredible!" exclaimed Jeanne astounded. "But do you
+mean truly that you do not put anything at all to scent your room?"
+
+"Absolutely nothing."
+
+Denyse was moving about, getting everything she required before
+changing her dress. She was not long in putting on her habit, and as
+she stood before the long glass, putting a few finishing touches to
+her toilette, Jeanne could not help admiring her.
+
+"How well it fits you!" she said. "It looks as though it had been
+moulded on you--it really is perfection! And then, too, you have such
+a pretty figure!"
+
+Denyse was just putting a pearl pin into her white cravat. The point
+broke with a little sharp click.
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Jeanne, "what a pity!"
+
+"It doesn't matter," answered Bijou, "for it was not up to much. If I
+win my bet with M. de Bernes, I will let him give me a strong pin,"
+and then, with a laugh, she added: "and not an expensive one, so that
+it will not seem like a present."
+
+"You have made a bet with M. de Bernes?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And you have to choose your present?"
+
+"Yes. Is there any harm in it?"
+
+"Harm? No! but it is odd."
+
+"Well! you are like grandmamma. She was scandalised, grandmamma was."
+
+"Well, it is odd, you know! And what have you been betting--you and M.
+de Bernes?"
+
+"I, that there would be, at least, one accident at the paper-chase;
+and he, that there would not be one at all."
+
+"Well, but that's very possible."
+
+"Oh, no! it is not very possible! There always are accidents; it would
+be the first paper-chase without one. Take notice that it is merely a
+question of a fall--just a simple fall--the person falls down, and is
+picked up again. I do not predict that anyone will be killed, you
+understand?"
+
+"Well, don't you go and have a fall, at any rate."
+
+"Oh, as to me!" said Bijou, her eyes shining with merriment, "there is
+no danger. Patatras has never been stronger on his legs. Pass me the
+scissors, will you, please, they are just by the side of you?"
+
+Jeanne watched her admiringly as she stood in front of the long
+glass.
+
+"There is not a single crease anywhere in your habit, and what a
+pretty figure you have, really, Bijou."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When, at a quarter past two, punctual, as usual, Bijou appeared on the
+stone steps in front of the half-door, she found Henry de Bracieux
+there, Jean de Blaye, and Pierrot. M. de Rueille had not yet come
+downstairs.
+
+The horses, which had been waiting a few minutes, were somewhat
+restless, as the flies were worrying them. Patatras alone was
+perfectly calm, nibbling at the hazel tree, and looking peaceably at
+what was going on around him.
+
+Presently Bertrade opened a window, and called out:
+
+"Don't wait for Paul. He is only just beginning to dress. He will
+catch you up."
+
+"Would you like to start, Bijou?" proposed Jean.
+
+"I feel almost inclined to let you start without me," she answered, in
+an undecided way. "Your three horses are jumping about like mad
+things; they will excite Patatras, who is quite peaceful now. Start
+on, at any rate--I will join you out there. Nothing annoys me more
+than to ride a horse that is pulling so that you can hardly hold him
+in, and that is what I should have to put up with, for certain, if I
+start with you."
+
+"Then you are going to wait for Paul?" asked Henry, looking
+bad-tempered.
+
+Bijou pointed to the carriages, which were just coming out of the
+stable-yard.
+
+"No, I am going to escort grandmamma."
+
+"Well, that is just what will rouse your horse up," said Jean de
+Blaye.
+
+"Oh, no! Don't you think I know my horse? Anyhow, all I ask you is to
+start off, and not to trouble yourselves about me."
+
+"You are charming, really," observed Pierrot, moving towards his pony,
+and then turning towards the others, he added majestically, although,
+in a vexed tone: "Let us leave her, then, as she does not want to go
+with us."
+
+"I think that's the only choice left us in the matter," answered Jean,
+half vexed and half laughing, as he mounted his horse.
+
+Just as they were all three disappearing round the bend of the drive,
+M. de Clagny came out of the hall. He was looking to see whether his
+mail-coach had been put in, and was astonished to find Bijou there.
+
+"How nice you look in that red habit," he said, in his admiration.
+"Generally, red makes anyone look pale, but you--why, it makes you
+look rosier than ever, if that is possible."
+
+When he heard that she was going to accompany the carriages as far as
+the meeting-place he was perfectly happy.
+
+The marchioness soon arrived, followed by all the others. She got into
+the landau with the Dubuissons and M. Spiegel, whilst M. de Clagny
+took on his coach Madame de Rueille, the children, Abbe Courteil, M.
+de Jonzac, and M. Giraud. The latter was hypnotised to such a degree
+by Bijou, who was waiting, ready mounted, for the others to start,
+that he almost fell off the coach instead of sitting down.
+
+The sun was shining brilliantly when they at last set out on their
+journey. M. de Clagny was much more taken up with Bijou than with the
+four horses he was driving. He watched her trotting in front of him,
+near to the carriage in which the marchioness was driving.
+
+It was the first time he had seen her on horseback, and she seemed to
+him incomparably pretty and elegant. Whilst he was thus watching her
+with singular attention, Madame de Bracieux called out to her from the
+landau:
+
+"What a horribly hot day it is, Bijou dear. I don't like to see you in
+this blazing sunshine!"
+
+Denyse turned round with a very rosy face.
+
+"Nor do I either, grandmamma, I don't like to see myself in it at
+all!" She was silent a moment and then she continued: "When we come
+across Jean, Henry, and Pierrot, I shall desert you."
+
+"Do you think we shall come across them?"
+
+"Oh, yes, certainly! They are going along through the wood, almost the
+same road that we are taking with the carriages. They are only some
+twelve or fifteen yards away from us; I heard them a little while ago.
+As soon as I see them I shall leave you!"
+
+M. de Clagny called to Bijou in order to warn her about a hundred
+things to avoid. In the coppice she was to beware of the branches;
+that very morning he had been almost taken out of his saddle when
+galloping in the wood. She was to take care, too, of the burrows--the
+wood was full of them; and then she was not to jump all in a heap, as
+it were; she must never do that, but always remember to lean forward
+or hold back.
+
+She listened to all this advice smilingly, and with a certain
+affectionate deference.
+
+"How good you are, Bijou!" he finished up with at last. "How is it you
+do not tell your old friend who worries you so to go about his
+business?"
+
+Just at this moment a horseman crossed the road about two hundred
+yards in front of the carriages, and entered the forest.
+
+"Ah!" said the count, "there's Bernes throwing his paper! he's gone in
+for the right way of doing things, that is, to go along the whole
+route first in the opposite direction, dropping the paper, then
+afterwards one has only to fly along, without troubling about
+anything."
+
+"What time is it?" asked Bijou.
+
+"Twenty minutes to three," answered Bertrade, looking at her watch.
+"We shall get to the meet much too soon."
+
+M. de Clagny let his horses walk, and Bijou caught up with the landau
+again, and began talking to Jeanne. Suddenly she bent her head as
+though listening to something.
+
+"Ah, there they are!" she exclaimed. "I can hear them!"
+
+"Whom do you hear?" asked the marchioness.
+
+"Why, the others; they are there, and I am going to them. Good-bye,
+grandmamma." She crossed the ditch at the side of the road, and then
+pulled up, and, throwing a kiss to Jeanne, called out: "Good-bye to
+you, too."
+
+But the landau was some distance on, and the coach was just passing.
+Giraud, seated at the back with the children, was the only one who
+was looking in Bijou's direction, and it was he who received the
+farewell kiss she threw to her friend.
+
+"Are you sure to find them?" asked the count, turning round on the
+box-seat.
+
+"Why, they are only a few steps away," she answered, pointing to the
+wood. "I have just seen Henry."
+
+Whereupon she disappeared in the thicket, and M. de Clagny looked
+after her, with an anxious expression on his face.
+
+As soon as she had found a path, Bijou set off at a gallop, going
+straight ahead, listening eagerly, and looking out as far as she could
+see in front of her through the gloom of the wood.
+
+Quite suddenly she turned abruptly aside, and rode some little
+distance into the brushwood, where she remained without moving, and
+doing all she could to prevent Patatras from making the dead branches
+crackle under his feet.
+
+Along the path which she had just left came Henry de Bracieux, Jean de
+Blaye, and Pierrot.
+
+When they were almost level with the spot where Denyse was hiding,
+they pulled up to wait for a horse that they heard galloping quite
+near them.
+
+"Whatever have you been doing?" asked Henry, as M. de Rueille appeared
+in sight. "It is quite ten minutes ago since we saw you at the bottom
+of the Belles-Feuilles road."
+
+"Where is Bijou?" asked M. de Rueille anxiously, without replying to
+Henry's question.
+
+"She left us in the lurch, and started with the carriages," answered
+Pierrot contemptuously.
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed Rueille, in a disappointed tone. And then, turning to
+his brother-in-law, he continued: "What have I been doing? well, I
+stopped a minute or two to speak to Bernes, who was with his
+lady-love; she had come in a cab to a quiet spot, where no one would
+think of meeting her, just for the sake of seeing Bernes for two or
+three minutes; they cannot go a day without seeing each other. She's a
+very pretty girl."
+
+"Yes," said Jean de Blaye, "and a sweet little thing too; and she's
+been well brought up."
+
+"I had never seen her so near before."
+
+"Now that your horse has had a rest, Paul, we had better get on our
+way, or we shall miss the start."
+
+"Yes," answered M. de Rueille, setting off again; "but we have plenty
+of time. Bernes is behind me, you know."
+
+As soon as they had gone on some distance, Bijou came out of the
+brushwood again. Her complexion was wonderfully brilliant, and eyes
+shone with the deep blue flame which sometimes made their usually
+gentle expression disconcerting.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Hubert de Bernes stayed a few minutes, after M. de Rueille had left
+him, talking to Lisette Renaud.
+
+"Well, then, it is settled?" asked the pretty actress. "In spite of
+the dinner, you will come early to the theatre?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You will stay in my _loge_?"
+
+"No! I must appear in the theatre."
+
+"But you have a horror of _La Vivandiere_,--which I can quite
+understand--and yet you are going to see it again?"
+
+When Bijou had invited Bernes to come into Madame de Bracieux's box,
+he had refused, knowing that it would grieve Lisette to see him there.
+
+Mademoiselle de Courtaix was very well known in Pont-sur-Loire, and
+was greatly admired by society women and those who were not society
+women. Her costumes were imitated, and her wonderful beauty envied,
+for it was said that she was quite irresistible. The young lieutenant
+was perfectly aware that he, too, had been fascinated by her charms
+the last few days. His affection for Lisette had hitherto rendered him
+proof against all such fascination. He was passionately fond of the
+faithful and devoted young actress, who, for the last two years, had
+loved him so truly, and who would never accept from him any presents
+but flowers or trifling souvenirs, which were of no pecuniary value.
+
+Lisette earned some thirty pounds a month at the Pont-sur-Loire
+theatre, and she had declared that she would not receive from him any
+presents whatever of any value. He had not dared to insist, as he had
+feared to wound her feelings, or to cause an estrangement between
+them. She was very beautiful, but he loved her more for her qualities
+of mind and heart than for her beauty.
+
+Since he had begun to pay attention to Bijou, whom, until now, he had
+scarcely ever noticed, he had felt greatly disturbed. It was all in
+vain that he had said to himself, over and over again, that Lisette,
+with her large expressive eyes, her delicate complexion, her
+dazzlingly white teeth, and her beautiful, elegant figure, was far
+prettier than Mademoiselle de Courtaix. In spite of all this, Bijou's
+violet eyes, her curly hair, and tempting lips, haunted him.
+
+Lisette, although she had no idea that her happiness was in danger,
+felt a sort of uneasiness take possession of her, and a vague sadness
+come over her. She could not understand why Bernes should answer her
+question in such a harsh way.
+
+"I shall have to see _La Vivandiere_ again because, in order to refuse
+a seat that was offered me in a box, I was obliged to say that I had
+promised to go with some of my brother-officers to the theatre."
+
+"Who was it who offered you a place?"
+
+"An old lady whom you do not know--Madame de Bracieux--you are much
+wiser now, are you not?"
+
+"Madame de Bracieux," she said, feeling sad, without knowing exactly
+why she should feel so. "She is the grandmother of Mademoiselle de
+Courtaix."
+
+"How did you know that?" he asked, in surprise.
+
+"Why, just as everyone else knows it in Pont-sur-Loire."
+
+"In the meantime," he said, in an irritated tone, "I shall miss the
+meet if I don't look out."
+
+"Don't stay," said Lisette regretfully, "enjoy yourself--and I shall
+see you this evening?"
+
+"Yes--this evening." Just as he was entering the wood, he turned
+round in his saddle, and called out: "Above all, take care that they
+do not see you; don't go where the carriages are."
+
+And then, taking the path along which Bijou had gone, some little time
+before, he put his horse to a sharp gallop, in order to make up for
+lost time. Suddenly he stopped short, trying to distinguish something
+which he saw some distance ahead of him.
+
+"Well!" he said to himself, "if it isn't a horse without its
+rider!--some fine gentleman has got himself landed already." As he
+drew nearer, he saw that the horse had a lady's saddle, and he uttered
+a cry as he perceived Bijou lying on her back on the grass to the
+right of the path. One of her arms was stretched out crosswise, and
+the other was down at her side, her eyes were closed, and her lips
+parted.
+
+Bernes sprang to the ground, fastened his horse up, and then taking
+Denyse in his arms, tried to prop her up against a tree. When,
+however, the girl's head fell languidly on his shoulder, he drew her
+to him, and, bending over her, kissed her soft curly hair over and
+over again.
+
+"Bijou, dear Bijou!" he murmured, in spite of himself; "listen to me,
+will you? answer me--speak to me--I am so wretched seeing you like
+this."
+
+At the end of two or three minutes Denyse gave a very gentle sigh, and
+opened her eyes slowly.
+
+At the sight of Bernes her grave face lighted up with a smile.
+
+"Ah!" she murmured, "wasn't it stupid, that fall?"
+
+"How did you manage it?" he asked.
+
+"I don't know. I fancy my horse put his foot in a hole."
+
+"And you went up in the air?"
+
+"That was it," she answered, laughing.
+
+"Are you hurt?"
+
+"Not the least bit in the world!" And then she added pensively: "It's
+very nice of you to trouble about me, and all the more so as you do
+not like me, I know."
+
+Hubert de Bernes turned as red as a tomato.
+
+"Oh, mademoiselle, how can you think--"
+
+"I do think so--"
+
+"Well, but," he began, in an anxious voice, "tell me at least whatever
+makes you imagine such a thing?"
+
+"Oh, everything and nothing; it would take too long to explain. Well,
+this morning, for instance, when I asked you to go with us to the
+theatre, you looked quite annoyed, and you refused; oh, yes--out and
+out. Well, why did you refuse?"
+
+"But, mademoiselle, I--I assure you--"
+
+"There you see, you cannot find a word to say, not even the most
+common-place excuse."
+
+Shaking her head so that her hair came down and fell over the young
+man's shoulder and against his face, she went on talking, laughing all
+the time, and still leaning against him for support.
+
+"I don't mind, though, at all, for whether you want to or not now, you
+will have to come with us to the theatre; you cannot refuse."
+
+"But--"
+
+"Oh, there is no but about it. I will have that now for the payment of
+our bet."
+
+"Our bet?"
+
+"Well, did we not make a bet? I, that there would be an accident,
+because there always are accidents, you know; and you, that there
+would not be one at all."
+
+"Yes, but--"
+
+"Well, it seems to me that this is one. Don't you consider it
+enough--my accident? Well, I wonder what more you want?"
+
+"Yes, it's true," he managed to stammer out. "What an idiot I am! the
+fact is, I was so frightened--if you only knew."
+
+She looked up at him with a sweet expression in her beautiful eyes,
+and he was fascinated by her sweetness.
+
+"Thank you again," she said, holding out her little hand to him;
+"thank you for looking after me; and now you had better go on
+quickly."
+
+"But can you mount again?"
+
+"Not just yet--I feel a sort of stiffness, and a tired feeling all
+over. No, will you go on and tell M. de Clagny to come with his
+carriage and fetch me; don't say anything about it to the others; I
+don't want grandmamma to know."
+
+As Hubert de Bernes was holding her hand pressed against his lips,
+Bijou went on impatiently:
+
+"Go now, quickly! ask M. de Clagny to leave his carriage on the road,
+and explain to him that he will find me in the wood near the road,
+just where I left him a little while ago. And will you fasten Patatras
+to a tree before you go away? Thank you!" She looked at him again with
+her sweetest expression, and asked once more: "It's settled, then, for
+this evening, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, it's quite settled," he answered.
+
+As soon as he was out of sight, she lay down again in exactly the same
+position in which Bernes had found her.
+
+A little later the sound of carriage-wheels was heard along the road,
+and M. de Clagny, getting down from his coach, entered the wood. At
+the sight of Bijou, he uttered a cry of horror, and, rushing to her,
+took her in his arms in his anxiety and anguish.
+
+"Bijou, my love! my darling! dear little Bijou!" And then, like
+Bernes, he added: "listen to me, Bijou dear; answer me; please speak
+to me!"
+
+He kissed her soft hair, and drew her closer and closer to him, until
+at last she opened her eyes, and looked up at him with her pretty,
+innocent expression; and then, as though she were going to sleep
+again, she murmured, as she laid her head confidingly against him:
+
+"Ah, you are so nice to me; and I am so happy like this! I should like
+to stay here always!"
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+
+"COME in!" called out Bijou.
+
+She was standing in front of the glass, brushing her hair leisurely.
+The more she brushed, the more her hair curled, and scented the
+atmosphere at the same time with a delicate perfume.
+
+"The Count de Clagny has come, mademoiselle, to ask how you are?" said
+the maid.
+
+"How I am?"
+
+"After the accident yesterday."
+
+"Ah, yes! I had forgotten it!" And, going to the window, she asked:
+"Is he driving?"
+
+"No, mademoiselle, he came on horseback; but he is in the
+drawing-room."
+
+"Oh, very well, I will go down!"
+
+As soon as the domestic had gone, Bijou slipped on another _peignoir_
+quickly. She then put on some pink kid slippers without heels, which
+made her little feet look delightfully droll, and with her hair
+hanging loosely down over the frilled collar of her long, loose dress,
+she ran downstairs to M. de Clagny.
+
+On seeing her enter the room, the count rose quickly. His face looked
+drawn and tired, and there was a sad expression in his eyes.
+
+"How good of you to have put yourself about to come so early on my
+account!" said Bijou, holding out both her hands to him. He pressed
+them to his lips whilst she went on: "Why, it is scarcely eight
+o'clock! you must have started from La Noriniere awfully early!"
+
+"Don't let us trouble about me; but tell me how you are?"
+
+"Why, I am perfectly well, thank you! You saw yesterday that I
+followed the paper-chase just as though I had not had any fall
+beforehand; and then, in the evening at the theatre, I did not look
+ill, did I?"
+
+"No, not exactly ill; but at the theatre it seemed to me that you were
+a little excitable and nervous." And then he added sadly: "I did not
+see much of you though, either; you scarcely troubled about anyone but
+Hubert de Bernes, and you quite forsook your poor old friend."
+
+She got up and went to him.
+
+"Oh! how can you imagine--" she began, in a coaxing way, but he
+interrupted her.
+
+"I did not imagine, alas! I saw for myself; and I am not reproaching
+you, my dear little girl--young people of course prefer young people,
+it is quite natural!"
+
+"Oh, no!" said Bijou, with evident sincerity; "not at all--I am not so
+fond as all that of young people generally; and, above all, I cannot
+endure young men about the age of M. de Bernes."
+
+"Yes, I remember that you told me that once before; you said so the
+first time I saw you; it was here in this room, when we were waiting
+together for the arrival of your guests to dinner."
+
+Denyse laughed.
+
+"Well, what a memory you have!"
+
+"Always, when it is a question of you." And then, in a voice which
+trembled slightly, he asked: "Do you remember something you said to me
+yesterday?"
+
+"Yesterday?"
+
+"Yes, yesterday, when I was holding you in my arms, and you were
+nestling against me like a little trembling bird!"
+
+Bijou appeared to be trying to remember what it was. She opened her
+large eyes wide, and they looked just then like pale violets.
+
+"No, I don't know what it was; I don't remember! I was a little upset
+after my accident, you know!" And then, as M. de Clagny remained
+silent, she asked: "Tell me, what could I have said that was so
+interesting?"
+
+He repeated her words slowly, watching Bijou all the time attentively,
+as she listened with an amused air, her pretty lips parted.
+
+"You said, 'I am so happy like this; I should like to stay here
+always.'"
+
+"I don't remember saying that; but, anyhow, I was quite right, because
+it was perfectly true, you know!"
+
+He drew Bijou to him, and asked:
+
+"Truly, would it not alarm you to see me always near you like that?"
+
+"Why, no, it would not alarm me! Oh, no, not at all!"
+
+"Really and truly?"
+
+"Really and truly! but why do you ask me that?"
+
+"Oh, for no reason at all. Do you know whether Madame de Bracieux is
+up yet?"
+
+"She does not get up before half-past eight or nine o'clock,
+especially when she is up late like last night; it was nearly two
+o'clock when we came in!"
+
+"And you are just as fresh-looking and as pretty as though you had
+slept all night. Really, though, I should very much like to see Madame
+de Bracieux."
+
+"You want to speak to her yourself, or is it any message I can take to
+her from you?"
+
+"No; I want to speak to her myself."
+
+"Well, you know she will probably keep you waiting 'a spell,' as they
+say in this part of the world."
+
+"Well, I will wait."
+
+Bijou looked at M. de Clagny in surprise. He was pacing up and down
+the long room.
+
+"What's the matter?" she asked at last, in her curiosity, "for there
+certainly is something the matter!"
+
+"Oh, no!"
+
+"Oh, yes! You keep marching backwards and forwards. That reminds
+me--one day I saw Paul de Rueille pacing about like that."
+
+"I saw him, too; it was the night of the La Balue, Juzencourt & Co.'s
+dinner, whilst you were singing."
+
+"No, oh, no! It was one day when he had some ridiculous duel, and he
+did not know whether it would be better to tell Bertrade, or not to
+tell her."
+
+"And what did he do?"
+
+"I fancy he did not tell her anything about it."
+
+"Oh, well, he had more pluck than I have."
+
+"Have you a duel on?" Bijou asked impetuously.
+
+"A duel if you like to call it that; and a ridiculous one most
+certainly--a fight with impossibilities. You cannot understand that,
+my dear little Bijou."
+
+"And you think that grandmamma will understand it better than I
+could?"
+
+"I do not know! Anyhow, she will listen to me, and she will pity me."
+
+"But I, too,--I would listen, and I would pity you."
+
+"I should not like to be pitied by you!" he said, and the expression
+of his face betrayed deep suffering.
+
+"You do not care for me, then?" she asked.
+
+M. de Clagny made a movement forward, then stopping himself, he said,
+with a calmness that contrasted strangely with the troubled look in
+his eyes and his hoarse voice:
+
+"Oh, yes; I do care for you. I care for you very much, indeed." And
+then picking up his hat, which he had put down on one of the tables,
+he moved quickly towards the door, which led on to the terrace. "I
+will wait in the park," he said, "until the marchioness can see me."
+
+When he saw, however, that Bijou had left the drawing-room, he
+returned, and sank down on a chair, looking suddenly much older from
+the effect of some mental anxiety which was weighing on him.
+
+The marchioness did not keep him waiting long. She entered the room,
+with a smile on her face.
+
+"Well, you _are_ an early visitor!" she began; but on seeing the
+worried look on her old friend's face, she asked anxiously: "Why, what
+is it? Whatever has happened?"
+
+"A great misfortune."
+
+"Tell me?"
+
+"It is precisely for that I have come so early. You will remember that
+when I came here for the first time, a fortnight ago, I was admiring
+Bijou, and you reminded me of the fact that she was your
+grand-daughter, and might very well be mine?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I answered that I knew that perfectly well, but that all that was
+mere reasoning, and that when the heart remains young it does not
+listen to reason."
+
+"I remember perfectly well! What then?"
+
+"What then? Well, at present, I love Bijou! I love her with all my
+heart!"
+
+"Absurd!" exclaimed the old lady, lifting her hands in amazement.
+
+"You are certainly consoling!"
+
+"Well, but--my poor, old friend, what do you want me to say? You do
+not expect to marry Bijou, do you?"
+
+His eyes were moist, and his voice choked as he replied:
+
+"No; I do not expect to! And yet, I beg you to tell your
+grand-daughter what I have just confessed to you. I am fifty-nine. I
+have twenty-four thousand pounds a year. I am neither a bad lot, nor
+am I utterly repulsive-looking, and I love her as no other man can
+love her."
+
+"But only think that you are--"
+
+"Thirty-eight years older than she is; it is for me that this
+difference of age is more to be feared. Yes, I know that, and I am
+willing to accept all the risks of such a disproportion."
+
+"And she?"
+
+"She? Well, let her decide for or against me. She is twenty-one; she
+is no longer a child, and she knows what she is about."
+
+"Yes; but that does not prevent me from having a certain amount of
+responsibility, and--"
+
+"Ah, you see; you are afraid that she may consent!"
+
+"Afraid? oh, dear, no! I am quite convinced that such an ideal little
+creature has, about the man she dreams of for her husband, a vision of
+someone quite different from you."
+
+"And, supposing, by chance--I do not expect this at all--but,
+supposing you were mistaken, what should you do?"
+
+"What do you want me to do?"
+
+"Nothing at all. And it is just this--I am afraid that you would use
+your influence with Bijou."
+
+"No; I shall just tell her what I think; I ought to, under the
+circumstances--but nothing more."
+
+"Then you _are_ going to speak to her?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"May I come again a little later?"
+
+"Oh, no! give me until to-morrow. I shall not speak to her, probably,
+before this evening; but that need not prevent your coming to dinner
+if you feel inclined to. It was for the--for the answer that I was
+putting you off until to-morrow."
+
+"If she should refuse, I shall go away."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Oh, how can I care where?--my life will be over. I shall go and
+finish my days in some out-of-the-way spot."
+
+"You talked like that some twelve years ago; and here you are
+to-day--I cannot say younger than then." The marchioness stopped
+short, and then continued, with a smile: "Why should I not say it,
+though? You really do seem younger to me now than you did in those
+days; you are perfectly astonishing, my dear friend, anyone would
+think you were about forty-five."
+
+"If only it were true what you say!"
+
+"It is, I assure you! but you know that does not alter the fact that
+you are fifty-nine."
+
+M. de Clagny rose to take his leave.
+
+"Farewell!" he said, "until to-morrow." And then, with a pathetic
+little smile, he added: "Or until this evening. Yes,--towards the end
+of the day I shall be taken with a violent desire to see her again,
+and I shall come as I did the day before yesterday, and Thursday, and
+every day."
+
+He took Madame de Bracieux's hand in his, and clasped it nervously, as
+he murmured:
+
+"For the sake of our long friendship, I beg you, be merciful to me."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+During luncheon the marchioness seemed preoccupied, and several times
+M. de Jonzac asked her what she was thinking about.
+
+"Whatever is it?" he said; "you have certainly got the blues."
+
+"Aunt must have gone to bed very late," said Jean de Blaye. "I heard
+you all come in; it must have been two o'clock." And then, turning to
+Bijou, he asked: "And how did you enjoy yourself? was it nice?"
+
+"Delightful," she answered, in an absent sort of way.
+
+"That little Lisette Renaud is perfectly charming," said M. de
+Rueille, "with her beautiful, large sad eyes. You liked her, too, did
+you not, grandmamma?"
+
+"Yes," answered Madame de Bracieux, "she is perfectly fascinating, and
+she has an admirable voice. I was astonished to find all that in
+Pont-sur-Loire; astonished, too, at the elegance of the house. There
+were plenty of pretty women, and very well dressed, too."
+
+"Nearly all of them wore pink," put in Denyse, "I noticed that."
+
+"Oh! that is through you," said M. de Rueille. "The Pont-sur-Loire
+ladies see you always arrayed in pink, and as you are considered by
+them to be _tip-top_, they have taken to pink, too." And seeing that
+Bijou looked surprised, he asked: "Well, isn't that quite clear
+enough?"
+
+"It is quite clear," she answered, laughing, "but a trifle imaginary.
+No one pays any attention to me, my dear Paul." And then, as Madame
+de Rueille turned towards her, Bijou appealed to her: "What do you
+think about the matter, Bertrade?"
+
+"I think that you are too modest."
+
+"Oh, yes," said Giraud, who was gazing at the young girl with admiring
+eyes, "Mademoiselle Denyse is too modest. Yesterday evening everyone
+in the house was looking at her, and even the actress herself--"
+
+"It's your imagination, Monsieur Giraud!" exclaimed Bijou,
+interrupting him hastily. "I never noticed that anyone was interested
+in our box; but even if they were, it does not follow necessarily that
+it was at me that--"
+
+"Evidently not," remarked Henry de Bracieux, in a chaffing tone. "It
+was grandmamma in whom the natives were so deeply interested."
+
+"No! but it might have been Jeanne Dubuisson."
+
+"Yes, that's true! She is not known at all in Pont-sur-Loire,
+therefore the sight of her would naturally make a sensation."
+
+Bijou shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"You know that I have a horror of people making a fuss about me, and
+you say things like this all the time to tease me."
+
+"If you have a horror of making a sensation," exclaimed Pierrot,
+"that great Gisele de la Balue is not like you, I can tell you. She's
+one who would change places with you. Yesterday, at the paper-chase
+feed, she was bothering round everyone like a great meat-fly; even
+Bernes sent her about her business."
+
+"I think young Bernes is very nice," said the marchioness. "I was
+noticing him all the evening yesterday, and I like him very much. He
+is very natural, has good manners, and is not by any means stupid."
+
+Jean de Blaye noticed that Bijou was screwing up her lips into a
+little pout of indifference.
+
+"You don't appear to be of the same opinion as grandmamma?" he said.
+
+"Oh, dear me! Yes, I am."
+
+"Well, you are not enthusiastic; you may as well own it."
+
+"Why, yes, I own it."
+
+The marchioness turned to her grand-daughter:
+
+"Ah! and what have you against him?"
+
+"Why, nothing, grandmamma, nothing at all! I think he is just like
+everyone else, and so when I see him I can't go into ecstasies over
+him--that's all."
+
+"I fancy," remarked M. de Rueille, "that the man isn't born yet about
+whom you would go into ecstasies. You are very good-hearted, very
+indulgent. You look upon everyone as all very well in a negative sort
+of way, but, practically, it is quite another matter."
+
+"Oh, you exaggerate!"
+
+"I exaggerate? Well, then, just mention one man, one only, who is
+according to your fancy."
+
+"Why, M. de Clagny, for instance!"
+
+"You think he is nice; you like him?" said the marchioness. "Yes, but
+how? You would not marry him, I presume?"
+
+"Oh, no!" answered Bijou, laughing, "I don't want to marry him."
+
+Just as they were all leaving the table, Jean de Blaye asked:
+
+"Has anyone any commissions for Pont-sur-Loire?"
+
+"What!" exclaimed Bijou, in surprise, "you are going off to
+Pont-sur-Loire like that, all by yourself? Why, whatever are you going
+to do there, I wonder?"
+
+"What am I going to do there?" he said, slightly disconcerted. "Why, I
+have some things to get."
+
+"Will you take me?"
+
+"Take you? But--"
+
+Ever since the evening when he had told Bijou that he loved her, he
+had avoided, as much as possible, all opportunities of being alone
+with her. She, on her part, had not changed her behaviour towards him
+or Henry de Bracieux in any way. She was just as free and cordial in
+her manner with them as she had been before refusing them her hand;
+and, indeed, it seemed as though she had forgotten they had proposed
+to her.
+
+"What?"--she asked, looking astonished. "You won't take me with you?"
+
+Thoroughly uncomfortable, and dreading the long _tete-a-tete_, yet not
+daring in the presence of all the others to refuse to take Bijou, he
+answered, in a joking tone:
+
+"Why, yes! On the contrary, I am highly flattered by the honour you
+are doing me!"
+
+"That's all right, then. You are very kind."
+
+"Oh, very; but, all the same, you will have to take someone else to be
+with you as well, because I have some business."
+
+"Oh!" said Denyse, in a disappointed tone, "you don't want me with you
+when we get there."
+
+"But, Bijou, my dear," put in Madame de Bracieux, "you could not,
+anyhow, go there--just you two! It does not matter if Jean is your
+first cousin; it would not be the thing, you know! You must take
+Josephine with you; and even then I don't know whether I ought to
+allow it--"
+
+"But whatever do you want to do in Pont-sur-Loire?" she added, after a
+pause.
+
+"Oh, only some errands, grandmamma; you forget that there are always
+errands to be done for the house. And then, too, I can go and see
+Jeanne; it is just the day when M. Spiegel is busy and does not go so
+that I shall not interrupt their billing and cooing."
+
+"It does not seem to me as though they do much billing and cooing!"
+said M. de Jonzac. "I was watching them yesterday at the paper-chase,
+and I'm very much mistaken if that engagement is not a very
+half-and-half sort of affair."
+
+"But why should you think that, Uncle Alexis?" asked Bijou, looking
+troubled.
+
+"Because the girl looks sad, and the professor indifferent. Haven't
+you noticed that?"
+
+"No; but then I don't notice things much," she answered.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the way from Bracieux to Pont-sur-Loire, Bijou and Jean were
+silent.
+
+In the town just near the station, they met Madame de Nezel, who had
+come in from The Pines by the half-past two train. On seeing her,
+Bijou made a little movement, and was just about to speak to her
+cousin, but, on second thoughts, she said nothing, and only looked up
+at him, with a sweet expression in her bright eyes. Jean, feeling
+awkward and confused, had pretended not to see Madame de Nezel, and
+she, instead of going on into the centre of the town, had turned down
+a narrow street, by some waste ground and gardens. As she got out of
+the carriage with Josephine at the Dubuissons' door, Bijou asked:
+
+"Where shall I find you? And at what time?"
+
+"At the hotel; I will tell them to put the horse in at six o'clock if
+that will suit you?"
+
+"At six o'clock!" she exclaimed, in astonishment. "Oh, well! you
+_must_ have plenty of things to do! Three hours and a half of shopping
+in Pont-sur-Loire!"
+
+Impatient and wishing above all things to escape Bijou's innocent
+questioning, Jean offered to start earlier, but she refused.
+
+"Oh, no! why should you? I shall be delighted to stay as long as you
+wish with Jeanne!"
+
+Mademoiselle Dubuisson was at home. Denyse thought she looked sad, and
+her eyes had dark circles round them.
+
+"What is the matter now?" she asked. "There's something wrong."
+
+"Yes, things are not quite right."
+
+"Is--your _fiance_?"
+
+"Oh, it's just the same."
+
+"Which means----"
+
+"That I think he has got--well--a little cool. But there is something
+else that has upset me to-day."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Oh, well! it is an event that really does not concern me at all; but
+it has made me feel wretched all the same." She avoided looking at
+Bijou as she continued: "You know that--Lisette Renaud?"
+
+"Yes. Well?"
+
+"Well, she is dead--this morning."
+
+"Dead!--What of?"
+
+"People think she killed herself," said Jeanne, almost in a whisper.
+
+"But how?"
+
+"By taking morphia. You know they could not go into details before me,
+but I understood, from what they were saying, that it was after an
+explanation she had had with M. de Bernes."
+
+"When?"
+
+"Yesterday after the theatre, or else this morning. Papa and M.
+Spiegel were talking of it at luncheon; but in a vague sort of way, so
+that I should not understand."
+
+"How fearfully sad!--I can quite understand that it should have upset
+you."
+
+"Yes; it is only natural, and all the more so as, just now, troubles
+from love affairs touch me very nearly--and for a good reason!" she
+added, with a sad little smile.
+
+"That poor little actress!" said Bijou, in a tone of regret. "As a
+rule, I don't care much for women who are on the stage, but this one
+seemed to be nice, and then, she really did sing well--it is a
+pity!--M. de Bernes must be wretched!"
+
+"Do you think people really are so wretched when they cause others to
+suffer?" asked Jeanne, still not looking at Bijou. "I don't think they
+are! There are the thoughtless people, who make others suffer without
+knowing it, and then there are the others, who cause people to suffer
+because it amuses them; and neither the former nor the latter know
+what it is to feel remorse--"
+
+As Jeanne stood still, lost in thought, a far-away look in her eyes,
+Bijou stroked her friend's face gently.
+
+"There, don't think any more about these sad things, Jeanne, dear,"
+she said. "Your grief won't change anything when the mischief is
+already done, and you are making yourself wretched all in vain. Come,
+now, let us talk about our play, and about dress, or no matter
+what--oh! by the bye, about dress, does yours fit well at last?"
+
+"It fits; but it does not suit me!"
+
+"Oh, that's impossible!"
+
+"No, it's very natural, on the contrary! I have not your complexion,
+remember! I am paler than you are, and that pink makes me paler still;
+and then I am thin, and the little gathered bodice, which shows up
+your pretty figure to perfection, makes me look no figure at all--it
+does not matter, though--it's of no importance whatever!"
+
+"What do you mean by saying it is of no importance?"
+
+"Why, yes, don't you see, Bijou dear, that whether one is well or
+badly dressed, if one is just common-place as I am, one would always
+pass unnoticed by the side of anyone as beautiful as you are."
+
+Bijou turned her eyes up towards the ceiling, and said, in a
+half-serious, half-joking way:
+
+"My poor dear child, you are wandering--you don't know at all what you
+are talking about!" And then suddenly changing her tone she asked:
+"What time do you start to the races to-morrow?"
+
+"I don't know. Papa will have arranged that with M. Spiegel. Ah, tell
+me! shall you go early to the Tourvilles' dance? I don't want to get
+there before you."
+
+Denyse was looking at her watch.
+
+"Oh! I must go!" she exclaimed. "They want some gardenias at home for
+button-holes; I don't know where I shall be able to get any; someone
+told me of a florist up by the station somewhere."
+
+"By the station? but there are only market-gardeners there, no
+florists."
+
+"Yes, it seems that in that little lane--you know--to the right of the
+quay--"
+
+"Lilac Lane, I know where you mean; but there are only vegetable
+gardens there, and some waste ground, and then a few small houses,
+that are generally rented by officers because they are near to the
+barracks."
+
+"Well, anyhow," said Bijou, getting up, "I'll go and look round
+there!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Denyse was the first to arrive at the hotel. Jean de Blaye was rather
+behind time, and when he did appear, he looked sad, and his face was
+very pale. He had met Madame de Nezel by appointment, but she had only
+come to break off entirely with him, and this freedom was of no use to
+him now; but, at the same time, there was nothing left for him to do
+but accept his fate. They were both wretched and discontented with
+each other, and yet they had been obliged to stay together at their
+trysting-place, because Bijou, escorted by the old housekeeper
+Josephine, had been rambling up and down the lonely lane for a good
+part of the afternoon. She had gone backwards and forwards as though
+in search of something, and with a persistency which Jean could not
+understand, and which made him feel very uneasy.
+
+When they were driving across the square by the station at three
+o'clock, she had, perhaps, seen Madame de Nezel turning down Lilac
+Lane. If that were so, she had probably wanted to assure herself
+whether her suspicions were correct. How inquisitive and fond of
+ferreting she must be, then--this Denyse whom he loved so dearly, and
+who had, without knowing it, ruined his whole life.
+
+He apologised for his unpunctuality, and helped Bijou into the
+carriage, whilst she assured him in the sweetest way that he was not
+late at all.
+
+Just as he was wondering how he could ask her what she had been doing,
+she volunteered the information he wanted.
+
+"Do you know you will have your gardenias for to-morrow after all? But
+it _has_ been difficult to get them. I have been running about all
+over Pont-sur-Loire nearly all the afternoon. They sent me to the
+queerest little streets, where I got lost, and never found the place
+at all."
+
+Delighted at this proof of Bijou's innocence, Jean exclaimed
+involuntarily:
+
+"Ah! that was what you were hanging about for in Lilac Lane?"
+
+She fixed her large astonished eyes on him, as she asked:
+
+"However did you know? Did you see me?"
+
+"I did not," he answered quickly; "one of my friends told me."
+
+"Who was it? Do I know him--your friend?"
+
+"I don't think so; he's an officer in Bernes' regiment. Ah, by the
+bye, what do you think! The poor little actress you heard last
+night--well, she has killed herself!"
+
+"Yes, I know; it is a great pity!"
+
+Bijou said this in a tone which made it impossible to continue the
+conversation on this topic. She was so dignified, and her meaning was
+so plain, that Jean almost regretted having said a word to her of this
+affair, considering that it was a trifle delicate; but, after all, as
+he said to himself, Bijou was no child; she would soon be twenty-two!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At four o'clock, M. de Clagny arrived at Bracieux, his heart beating
+fast at the thought of seeing Bijou again, and of seeing her quite
+free and unconstrained as usual, for she would not yet know of his
+proposal.
+
+He was very much disappointed on hearing that she was at
+Pont-sur-Loire, and that she had gone there with Jean. He asked the
+marchioness to tell him candidly just what she thought would be the
+result of his advances with reference to the young girl, and Madame de
+Bracieux replied that she could not approach the subject now, as
+Denyse had declared to them all that very morning that "she thought M.
+de Clagny charming, but that she should not like to marry him."
+
+He stood the shock fairly well, but insisted that Bijou should be told
+that evening of his proposal. She would then have until the next day
+to think it over, and that was what he wished.
+
+Denyse and Jean returned just at dinner-time. When they came
+downstairs, everyone was at the table, and the topic of conversation
+was the death of poor Lisette Renaud.
+
+M. de Rueille had been out riding, and had met some officers, who were
+on duty there, and who had, of course, told him the story.
+
+"It is fearful," said Bertrade, "to think of that poor girl killing
+herself; she was so pretty, and so young."
+
+"It is just because one is young that one would commit suicide, if
+unhappy; otherwise one would have to go on being wretched for so long
+a time," said Giraud in a strange voice, which resounded in the
+spacious dining-room.
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+
+THE marchioness decided not to speak to Bijou about M. de Clagny that
+evening, as she did not want to disturb the young girl's rest.
+
+The following morning, however, she sent for her, and Bijou arrived,
+gay and lively as usual. She gave a little pout of disappointment when
+her grandmother informed her that she wished to speak to her about
+something very serious.
+
+"It concerns one of my greatest friends," began Madame de Bracieux,
+"and he is also a friend of yours."
+
+"M. de Clagny?" interrupted Bijou.
+
+"Yes, M. de Clagny. You must have seen that he is very fond of you,
+haven't you?"
+
+"I am very fond of him, too, very fond of him."
+
+"Exactly, but you care for him as though he were your father, or a
+delightful old uncle, whilst he does not care for you either as though
+you were his daughter, or niece; in short, you will be very much
+astonished--"
+
+"Astonished at what?" asked Bijou timidly.
+
+"At--well, he wants to marry you, that's the long and short of it."
+
+"He, too?" murmured the young girl, looking bewildered.
+
+"What do you mean by 'he, too'?" exclaimed the marchioness, bewildered
+in her turn; "who else wants to marry you that you say 'he, too '?"
+
+Denyse blushed crimson.
+
+"I ought to have told you all that before, grandmamma," she said,
+sitting down on a little stool at Madame de Bracieux's feet; "but we
+have been so dissipated just lately, what with the paper-chase, the
+theatre, the races, and the dances, that I don't seem to have had a
+minute, and then, too, it was not very interesting either."
+
+"Ah! that's your opinion, is it?"
+
+"Well, considering that I don't want to marry either of them."
+
+"Well, but who is it, child, who is it?" asked the marchioness.
+
+"Why, just Henry and Jean. Jean spoke to me first for Henry, who, it
+seems, had got him to ask me whether I would allow him to ask your
+permission to marry me. I answered that he ought to have asked _you_
+first and not me--"
+
+"You are a real little Bijou, my darling."
+
+"But that it really did not matter, as I did not want to marry him."
+
+"He is not rich enough for you, my dear."
+
+"Oh, I don't know anything about that. And then, too, all that is
+quite the same to me, but I should not like Henry for a husband. I
+know him too well."
+
+"Ah! and what about Jean?"
+
+"Jean, too, I should not like as a husband. That is just what I told
+him, when, after I had refused Henry, he began again on his own
+account."
+
+"They go ahead--my grandchildren. Now I can understand how it is that,
+for the last few days, they have had faces as long as fiddles."
+
+There was a short silence, and then Madame de Bracieux remarked, as
+though in conclusion:
+
+"I know then, now, what your answer is to my poor old friend Clagny."
+
+"How do you know, though?"
+
+"Because if you will not have either of your cousins, who are, both of
+them, in their different ways, very taking, it is scarcely probable
+that you would accept an old friend of your grandmother's."
+
+"But he, too, is very taking!"
+
+"Yes, that's true; but he is sixty years old!"
+
+"He does not look it!"
+
+"He is though."
+
+"I know; but that does not make any difference to the fact that I
+should not mind marrying him any more than I should Jean or Henry."
+
+"You do not know what marriage is; you do not understand."
+
+Bijou half closed her beautiful, bright eyes.
+
+"Yes," she said, speaking slowly, "I do understand quite well,
+grandmamma."
+
+"Well, all this is no answer for me to give to M. de Clagny."
+
+"Is he coming to-day?"
+
+"He is coming directly."
+
+Bijou moved uneasily on her footstool, and then, after a moment's
+consideration, she said:
+
+"You can tell him, grandmamma, that I am very much touched, and very
+much flattered that he should have thought of me, but that I do not
+want to marry yet--" And then, laying her head on the marchioness's
+lap, she added: "because I am too happy here with you."
+
+"My little Bijou! my darling Bijou!" murmured Madame de Bracieux,
+stooping to kiss the pretty face lifted towards her, "you know what a
+comfort you are to me; but, all the same, you cannot stay for ever
+with your old grandmother. I am not saying that, though, in order to
+persuade you into a marriage that would be perfect folly."
+
+Denyse looked up at the marchioness, as she asked:
+
+"Folly? But why folly?"
+
+"Because M. de Clagny is thirty-eight years older than you are, and he
+will be quite infirm just when you are in your prime; and such
+marriages have certain inconveniences which--well--which you would be
+the first to find out."
+
+Bijou had risen from her low seat on hearing the sound of
+carriage-wheels, which drew up in front of the hall-door. She looked
+through the window, and then ran away, saying:
+
+"Here he is, grandmamma!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+During luncheon, Madame de Bracieux announced, in a careless,
+indifferent way:
+
+"M. de Clagny is leaving here; he came to say good-bye to me this
+morning."
+
+Bijou looked up, and Jean de Blaye remarked:
+
+"He is leaving here? Why, it seemed as though he had taken root in
+this part of the world."
+
+"Oh," put in M. de Rueille, "old Clagny's roots are never very deep."
+
+Bijou turned towards the marchioness.
+
+"When is he leaving, grandmamma?" she asked anxiously.
+
+"Why, at once; to-morrow, I think. Anyhow, we shall see him to-night
+at Tourville; he is going to the ball in order to see everyone to whom
+he wants to say good-bye."
+
+"And he is not going to the races?"
+
+"No, he is busy packing."
+
+"And our play to-morrow!" exclaimed Denyse, in consternation. "He had
+promised me over and over again to come to it."
+
+The marchioness glanced at her grand-daughter, and said to herself
+that, decidedly, even with the kindest heart in the world, youth knows
+no pity.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Bijou's arrival at the Tourville ball was a veritable triumph. In her
+pink crepe dress, which matched her complexion admirably, she looked
+wonderfully pretty, and different from anyone else.
+
+"Just look at the Dubuisson girl," said Louis de la Balue to M. de
+Juzencourt. "She has tried to get herself up like Mademoiselle de
+Courtaix. She has copied her dress exactly, and just see what she
+looks like. She might pass for her maid, and that's the most she could
+do. How is it, now?"
+
+M. de Juzencourt laughed gruffly.
+
+"Why, it's just that if the outside is the same, what's inside it
+isn't the same. Isn't she going to be married?"
+
+"Yes, she's going to marry a young Huguenot, who must be somewhere
+about, hiding in some corner or another. Ah! No! he isn't in a corner
+either. There he is, like all the others, fluttering round 'The
+Bijou.'"
+
+"And you? You don't flutter round her?" asked M. de Juzencourt.
+
+"I? I'd marry her--because, sooner or later, one's got to get married,
+or one's parents make a fuss, because of keeping up the name, you
+know--but as to fluttering round--By Jove, no! that isn't in my line!"
+and then, in a languid way, he went off to Henry de Bracieux.
+
+"How hot it is," he began, glancing at him dreamily, and speaking in a
+low voice, with an affected drawl. "You are lucky not to turn red.
+You've got such a complexion, though, that's true. You look like a
+regular Hercules, and yet, with that, your complexion is as
+delicate--"
+
+As he was leaning towards him, and looking sentimental, Henry
+exclaimed impatiently, in his full, sonorous voice:
+
+"Oh! hang my complexion!" and turning away, he left young La Balue
+planted there in the middle of the drawing-room, and went off himself
+to Jean de Blaye, who, with a melancholy expression on his face, was
+standing at some distance off, watching Bijou through the intricacies
+of a dance, for which six partners had all tried to claim her.
+
+When M. de Clagny approached Denyse, and bowed to her ceremoniously,
+she said at once, without even returning his bow:
+
+"Grandmamma has told me that you are going away. I am sure that it is
+because of me?"
+
+He nodded assent, and she put her little hand through his arm, and
+moved in the direction of another room, which was almost empty.
+
+"Please," she began, in a beseeching tone, "please, do not go away."
+
+"And I, in my turn," he answered, deeply moved, "must say, please,
+Bijou, do not ask what is impossible. I have not been able to be with
+you without getting as foolish as all the others. I have let myself go
+on dreaming, just as fools dream, and now that all is over, I must try
+to become wise again, and to forget my dream, and in order to do that
+I must go away, very far away, too."
+
+"You thought that--that I should say yes?" she asked.
+
+"Well, you were so good to me, so sweet and confiding always, that I
+did hope--yes, God help me--I did hope--that perhaps you would let me
+go on loving you."
+
+"And so it was my fault that you hoped that?" she said dreamily.
+
+"It wasn't your fault--it was mine; one always does hope what one
+wants."
+
+"Yes, I am sure that I ought not to have behaved as I did with you."
+And her eyes filled with tears as she murmured, almost humbly: "I am
+so sorry! will you forgive me?"
+
+"Bijou!" exclaimed M. de Clagny, almost beside himself. "My dear
+Bijou, it is I who ought to ask your forgiveness for causing you a
+moment's sadness."
+
+"Well, then, be kind--don't go away! not to-morrow, at any rate!
+Promise me that you will come to Bracieux to-morrow to see us act our
+play! Oh, don't say no! And then, afterwards, I will talk to
+you--better than I could this evening." And gazing up at him with her
+soft, luminous eyes, she added: "You won't regret coming, I am sure."
+
+Jean de Blaye was just passing by at that moment, and Bijou stopped
+him, and said, in a coaxing way:
+
+"Won't you ask me for a waltz? do, please, you waltz so well."
+
+And laying her hand on his shoulder, she disappeared, just as Pierrot
+arrived to claim his dance.
+
+"Leave your cousin in peace," said M. de Jonzac, who was seated on a
+divan watching the dancing. "You are much too young to ask girls to
+dance with you--I mean girls like Bijou."
+
+"Ah, how old must I be then before I can ask them--not as old as you,
+I suppose?"
+
+"You certainly have a nice way of saying things."
+
+"I say, father, why do Jean and Henry say that young La Balue gets to
+be worse and worse form?"
+
+"Young La Balue? Oh, I don't know."
+
+"They say that he makes himself up."
+
+"That's true."
+
+"And that he gets to be worse and worse form! How?"
+
+"If you want to know how, you have only to ask your cousins: they will
+tell you."
+
+"They won't, though! I asked them, and Jean just said, 'Don't come
+bothering here.' Are we going home soon?"
+
+"Going home? why, your cousin is sure to stay for the cotillion."
+
+"I was very stupid to come here instead of staying with M. Giraud and
+the abbe."
+
+"Ah, by the bye, why didn't he come--M. Giraud? Bijou asked for an
+invitation for him."
+
+"Yes, but he wouldn't come: he is awfully down in the dumps, and has
+been for some time. He doesn't eat, and he doesn't sleep either;
+instead of going to bed, he goes off walking by the river all night."
+
+"And you don't know what's the matter with him?"
+
+"The matter with him! I think it is Bijou that is the matter with
+him."
+
+"What do you mean? Bijou the matter with him?"
+
+"Why, yes, it's the same with Jean, and Henry, and Paul. You can see
+very well, father, that they are all running after her, can't you? not
+to speak of old Clagny, who isn't worth counting now." He stopped a
+minute, and then finished off, in a sorrowful way: "and not to speak
+of me either, for I don't count yet."
+
+"Oh! you exaggerate all that," said M. de Jonzac, quite convinced that
+his son was in the right, but not wanting to own it. "Bijou is
+certainly very pretty, and it is not surprising that--"
+
+Pierrot interrupted his father eagerly.
+
+"Oh! it isn't that she is just pretty only, but she is good, and
+clever, and jolly, and everything. They are quite right to fall in
+love with her, and, if I were only twenty-five--"
+
+"If you were twenty-five, my dear young man, she would send you about
+your business, as she does the others."
+
+"That's very possible," replied Pierrot philosophically, but at the
+same time sadly; and then, pointing to Bijou, who was just standing
+talking to Jeanne Dubuisson in the middle of the room, he said: "Isn't
+she pretty, though, father? Just look at her; she is dressed
+absolutely like Jeanne, their dresses are just alike, stitch for
+stitch, as old Mere Rafut says. I'm sure that, if they mixed them up
+when they were not in them themselves, there'd be no telling which was
+which after; and yet like that on them, I mean, they don't look alike
+at all! Do you think I might venture to ask her for a dance,
+father--Jeanne Dubuisson?"
+
+"Oh, yes; she is good-hearted enough to give you one!"
+
+A minute or two later and Jeanne went off with Pierrot for the next
+dance. M. Spiegel crossed over to Bijou, and asked her for the waltz
+which was just commencing, but she shook her head, saying:
+
+"I am so tired, if you only knew!"
+
+"Only just a little turn, won't you?" he begged. "Ever since the
+beginning of the evening I have not been able to get a single waltz
+with you."
+
+"Oh, no; please don't ask me! I do want to rest; I--" and then,
+suddenly making up her mind to speak out, she said, "Well, then, no;
+it isn't that--I know I am not clever at telling untruths--I am not at
+all tired, but I don't want to waltz with you, because--"
+
+"Because?"
+
+"Because I am afraid of hurting Jeanne's feelings--"
+
+"Hurting Jeanne's feelings! But how?" he asked, in surprise.
+
+"Well, it sounds very vain what I am going to say, but I must tell you
+all the same. Why, I think that Jeanne worships you to such a degree
+that she is jealous of everyone who approaches you, or who speaks to
+you, or who looks at you even!"
+
+M. Spiegel looked displeased; he knitted his brows, and his
+placid-looking face suddenly took a hard expression.
+
+"She has told you so?"
+
+Bijou answered with the eagerness and embarrassment of anyone feeling
+compelled to tell an untruth.
+
+"Oh, no--no, I have just imagined it myself; you know I am so fond of
+Jeanne! I know all that passes in her mind, and I should be so
+wretched if I caused her any unhappiness--or even the slightest
+anxiety; do you understand what I mean?"
+
+"I understand that you are just an angel of goodness, mademoiselle,
+and that it is no wonder they are all so fond of you!"
+
+Bijou was looking down on the floor, her breath coming and going
+quickly, a faint flush had come into her cheeks, and her nostrils were
+quivering, as she listened silently to the young professor's words.
+
+He put his arm round her waist, took her little hand in his, as she
+offered no resistance, and whirled her off into the midst of the
+dance. M. Spiegel waltzed divinely, and Bijou was passionately fond of
+the waltz _a trois temps_. With a flush on her cheeks, her eyes
+half-closed, and her lips parted, showing her dazzling white teeth,
+she went on whirling round as long as the orchestra played. Several
+times she passed quite close to Jeanne, without even seeing her poor
+friend, who was being jerked about by Pierrot. The youth kept treading
+on his partner's toes, or knocking her against the furniture; and
+when, now and again, Jeanne would stop to get breath, Pierrot would
+chatter away most eloquently about all kinds of sports, of which she
+was absolutely ignorant.
+
+"You know," he said, putting out his enormous foot and his formidable
+knee, "I am a very second-rate dancer, but I'm very good at football.
+Our team is going to play a match this winter against the
+Pont-sur-Loire team; you ought to see it; it will be first-class! I
+keep goal; you should just see what jolly kicks--"
+
+He broke off as Jeanne did not speak. She was looking uneasily at her
+_fiance_ as he passed and re-passed, apparently happy in guiding Bijou
+along through the rapid whirl of the dance.
+
+"I am boring you," said Pierrot; "shall we go on now?"
+
+"No," she replied, in a changed voice; "I do not feel quite myself,
+and it is so warm! Will you take me across to papa--he is playing
+cards over there. I should like to go home!"
+
+Whilst they were on their way to M. Dubuisson, Bijou stopped M.
+Spiegel just near the orchestra; and said, in a laughing voice:
+
+"Why, you are indefatigable--one must get one's breath, though;
+besides, the waltz is just finishing now!"
+
+She glanced at the four wretched musicians, who were in a deplorable
+state, with their shiny-looking coats, their limp shirt-fronts, and
+their faces bathed in perspiration.
+
+"Why, Monsieur Sylvestre!" she suddenly exclaimed. "Good evening,
+Monsieur Sylvestre! Well, I never! I didn't expect to see you!"
+
+The poor fellow looked up eagerly, and, gazing at Bijou, with his
+soft, blue eyes full of deep distress, he stammered out:
+
+"I did not expect to be seen either, mademoiselle!"
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+
+
+ON going to bed at five in the morning, Bijou slept for two hours, and
+when, later on, she went to the marchioness's room, she looked as
+fresh and as thoroughly rested as after a long night's sleep.
+
+"Grandmamma," she said, "I have been thinking a great deal ever since
+yesterday."
+
+"About what?"
+
+"Why, about what you told me as regards M. de Clagny."
+
+"Ah!" said the marchioness, rather annoyed at a subject being brought
+up again, which she had thought over and done with.
+
+Rather selfish, like nearly all elderly people, it seemed to her
+utterly useless to trouble about matters which were painful or sad,
+except just to settle them off once for all.
+
+"I have been thinking," continued Bijou. "And then, too, I saw M. de
+Clagny last night at the ball--"
+
+"Well, and what is the result of all this thinking and of this
+interview?" asked the marchioness, rather anxiously.
+
+"The result is that I have changed my mind."
+
+"What do you say?"
+
+"I say that, with your permission, I will marry M. de Clagny."
+
+"Nonsense! you won't do anything of the kind."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because it would be madness."
+
+"Why, no, grandmamma, it would be very wise, on the contrary; if I did
+not marry him, I should never again all my life long have a minute's
+peace."
+
+"Because?--"
+
+"Because I have seen that he is dreadfully and horribly unhappy."
+
+"No doubt; but that will all be forgotten in time."
+
+"Oh, no, it won't be forgotten! And I told you I like M. de Clagny
+more than I have ever liked anyone--except you; and so the idea that
+he is wretched on my account--and, perhaps, a little through my
+fault--would seem odious to me, and would make me unhappy--much more
+unhappy even than he is."
+
+"But you would be still more so if you married him. Listen, Bijou,
+dear, you know nothing about life, nor about marriage. I have,
+perhaps, been wrong in bringing you up so strictly, not letting you
+read or hear enough about things; there are certain duties and
+obligations which marriage imposes upon us, and about which you know
+nothing, and these duties--well, you ought to know something about
+them, before rushing headlong into such a terrible venture as this."
+
+"No!" said Bijou, with a gesture to prevent Madame de Bracieux
+continuing, "don't tell me anything, grandmamma. I know what
+responsibilities I should have to accept, and what my duty would be,
+and I have decided--decided irrevocably--to become the wife of M. de
+Clagny, whom I love dearly." And then, as the marchioness made a
+movement as though to protest, she repeated: "Yes, I love him dearly;
+and the proof is that the idea of marrying him does not terrify me,
+whilst the thought of marrying the others made me feel a sort of
+repulsion."
+
+She knelt down in front of the marchioness, and began again in a
+coaxing voice:
+
+"Say that you will consent, grandmamma; say so--do, please."
+
+"You are nearly twenty-two. I cannot overrule you as though you were a
+little child, therefore I consent, but without any enthusiasm, I can
+assure you, and I implore you to reconsider the matter, Bijou, my
+dear. I am afraid that you are following the impulse of your kind
+heart and of your extremely sensitive nature and making a mistake that
+will be irreparable."
+
+"I do not need to consider the matter any more; I have done nothing
+else ever since yesterday; and I know that this is my only chance of
+happiness, or of what at any rate seems to be the most like happiness.
+Don't say anything to anyone about it, will you, grandmamma?"
+
+"Oh, dear no! you can be easy on that score; you don't imagine that I
+am in a hurry to announce such an engagement, and to contemplate the
+horrified, astonished looks they will all put on. Oh, no; if you think
+I am in a hurry, you are mistaken, my darling."
+
+"And above all, don't say anything to M. de Clagny; I am enjoying the
+thought of telling him this evening."
+
+"But he told me that he should not come--"
+
+"Ah! but he promised me that he would come." And then, holding up her
+merry face to be kissed, she added: "And now I must go and attend to
+our scenery, and to the footlights, which won't light, and to my
+costume, which is not finished."
+
+The marchioness took Bijou's head in her beautiful hands, which were
+still so white and smooth, and kissing her, murmured:
+
+"Go, then; and may Heaven grant that we shall have no cause to
+regret--your good-heartedness--and--my weakness."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Dubuissons and M. Spiegel had promised to come at four o'clock.
+One of the scenes which did not go very well had to be rehearsed.
+Bijou, who was busy gathering flowers, went towards the cab when they
+arrived, and was surprised to see only Jeanne and her father.
+
+"What have you done with M. Spiegel?" she asked.
+
+It was M. Dubuisson who answered, in a confused sort of way:
+
+"He is coming--with your cousin M. de Rueille, who was at
+Pont-sur-Loire and who offered to bring him."
+
+"Don't disturb your grandmamma," said Jeanne, taking Bijou's arm.
+"Papa won't come in yet, he has his lecture to prepare, and he will go
+and do it, walking about in the park." And then, as soon as M.
+Dubuisson had moved off, she began again: "If M. Spiegel and I had not
+had parts in the play, and so had not been afraid of spoiling it for
+you by not appearing, we should not have come."
+
+"You would not have come?" exclaimed Bijou, in astonishment; "and why
+not, pray?"
+
+"Because we are now in the most false and ridiculous position."
+
+"You?"
+
+"Yes, we are--our engagement is broken off."
+
+"Broken off!" repeated Bijou, in consternation; "broken off! but what
+for?"
+
+"Because I was quite certain that he cared for me very little or not
+at all," answered Jeanne, speaking very calmly, but not looking at
+Bijou, "and so I told him this morning that I did not feel equal to
+accepting the life of misery which I foresaw, and that I gave him back
+his liberty."
+
+"Good heavens, is it possible--and you do not regret anything?"
+
+"Nothing! I am very wretched, but my mind is more easy."
+
+Bijou looked straight into her eyes as she asked:
+
+"And it is--it is because of me, isn't it? it is because of M.
+Spiegel's manner towards me that you broke it all off?" Jeanne nodded,
+and Bijou went on: "And so you really thought that your _fiance_ was
+making love to me?"
+
+"Oh, as to making love to you, no, perhaps not--but he certainly cares
+for you."
+
+"And what then?"
+
+"What do you mean by _what then_?"
+
+"Well, what would be the end of that for him?"
+
+"Well, it would cause him to suffer; and who knows, he might have
+hoped--?"
+
+"Hoped what? to marry me?"
+
+"No--yes! I don't know; he might have hoped in a vague sort of way--I
+don't know what."
+
+"And do you think that I can endure the idea of causing your
+unhappiness, no matter how involuntarily on my part?"
+
+"It is not in your power to alter what exists."
+
+Bijou appeared to be turning something over in her mind.
+
+"Supposing I were to marry," she said at last abruptly. And then
+hiding her face in her hands she said in a broken voice: "M. de Clagny
+wants to marry me."
+
+"M. de Clagny!" exclaimed Jeanne, stupefied, "why, he's sixty!"
+
+"I said no; I will say yes, though."
+
+"You are mad!"
+
+"Not the least bit in the world! I am practical. The remedy is perhaps
+a trifle hard, but what is to be done? I love you so, Jeanne, that the
+idea of seeing you unhappy makes me wretched!"
+
+"I assure you, though, that even if you marry M. de Clagny, I should
+not marry M. Spiegel. He said things to me just now which were very
+painful, and no matter how much I tried, I could not forget them."
+
+"Painful things, about what?"
+
+"About my jealousy--he said that it was ridiculous--and yet I had not
+complained about anything. I kept it from him as much as possible, my
+jealousy; but at the ball, I did not feel well, and I asked papa to
+take me home, and he was displeased about that, he thought I was
+sulking."
+
+"Oh, all that will soon be forgotten!"
+
+"No! and so you see, Bijou, it would be for nothing at all that you
+would commit the very worst of all follies--marrying an old man."
+
+"An old man! it's queer, he does not seem to me at all like an old
+man--M. de Clagny! I should certainly prefer marrying a younger man
+and one whom I should like in every respect, but now--"
+
+Jeanne put her arm round Bijou and, resting her hand on her friend's
+shoulder, kissed her as she said:
+
+"You must just wait for him in peace, the one 'whom you would like in
+every respect!' You have plenty of time!"
+
+"No, I have quite decided! Whatever you do now will be useless, for,
+in spite of what you say, when once the cause of your little
+misunderstanding has vanished, the misunderstanding will vanish in
+the same way. There now, kiss me again, and tell me that you love me."
+
+"Well!" said Jean de Blaye, who now appeared with M. Spiegel, "is
+everyone ready; are we going to rehearse?"
+
+For the last few days he had been in a nervous, excitable state,
+feeling the need of anything that would take him out of himself, and
+doing his utmost all the time to keep himself from thinking. "Yes,"
+answered Denyse very calmly, wiping her eyes quickly, "we are ready;
+we were only waiting for you." And then, in a very gracious, natural
+way, she held out her hand to M. Spiegel, who took it, saying at the
+same time:
+
+"You are not too tired, mademoiselle, after such a late night?" And
+then, glancing involuntarily at Mademoiselle Dubuisson's rather
+sallow-looking face, he added: "Why, you are looking fresher even than
+yesterday."
+
+Jeanne came nearer to Bijou, and, as they moved away together, she
+said, pointing to the professor, and with a look of intense grief in
+her gentle eyes:
+
+"You see your remedy would not do; he is incurable."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The little play was performed before a large audience of guests, who
+were highly amused. Bijou was so pretty in her costume as Hebe, she
+looked so pure and maidenly and so sweet, that, when the piece was
+finished, and she wanted to go and put on her ball-dress, everyone
+begged her to remain just as she was. As she was going away into a
+side-room to escape the compliments of the various guests, M. de
+Rueille stopped her, and said, in a sarcastic tone:
+
+"And so that is the costume that was to be quite the thing, and which,
+in order to please me, you were going to get Jean to alter?"
+
+Jean came up just at this moment, with Henry de Bracieux and Pierrot.
+
+"Accept my compliments," said M. de Rueille drily, turning towards
+him; "you certainly know how to design costumes for pretty girls; but,
+if I were you, I would have been rather more careful."
+
+"Why, what's up with you?" asked Jean, without even looking at Bijou;
+"the costume's right enough!"
+
+"Besides," remarked Bijou tranquilly, "there are only three persons who
+have any right to trouble themselves about my costumes--grandmamma, I
+myself, or my husband."
+
+"Yes, if you had one!"
+
+"Certainly; well, I shall be having one!"
+
+Jean de Blaye shrugged his shoulders incredulously, and Bijou
+continued:
+
+"I assure you it is quite true! I am going to be married."
+
+"To whom?" asked M. de Rueille uneasily.
+
+"Oh, yes, what a good joke!" remarked Pierrot.
+
+"Whom are you going to marry?" asked Henry de Bracieux. "Tell us!"
+
+M. de Clagny had just entered the room, and putting her arm through
+his, she said, in a mischievous way, to the others:
+
+"I am going to tell M. de Clagny." And then, turning to him, she
+added: "Let us go out-doors, though; it is stifling in here!"
+
+"Isn't she aesthetic this evening?" murmured Pierrot, gazing at Bijou's
+long Grecian cloak of pale pink. "I should think M. Giraud would think
+her perfect to-night; he's always saying she isn't made for modern
+costumes."
+
+"Ah, by the bye, where is he--Giraud?" asked Jean de Blaye; "he
+disappeared after dinner, and we have not seen him again!"
+
+Pierrot explained that he must have gone off for a stroll along the
+river, as he did nearly every evening. He was getting more and more
+odd, and had fits of gaiety and melancholy, turn by turn. That very
+morning he had left the schoolroom in order to go to Madame de
+Bracieux, who had sent to ask him to translate an English letter for
+her; and then he had come back some time after, saying that he had not
+ventured to knock, because he could hear that the marchioness was
+talking to Mademoiselle Denyse, and ever since then he had not uttered
+another word.
+
+"Where the devil's he gone?" asked Jean; and Pierrot, speaking through
+his nose, began to imitate the street vendors on the boulevards.
+
+"Where is Bulgaria? Find Bulgaria!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When she was alone with M. de Clagny under the big trees, Bijou said,
+in the sweetest way:
+
+"I came back home this morning, quite wretched at having caused you
+any sorrow. It seemed to me that I must have been too affectionate in
+my manner towards you--too free--and that I had made you think
+something quite different. Is that so?"
+
+"Yes, that is just it--and so you have no affection at all for me?"
+
+"You know very well that I have!"
+
+"I mean that you like me just as though I were some old relative or
+another."
+
+"More than that!"
+
+"Well, but you do not love me enough to--to--love me as a husband?"
+
+"I do not know at all. I cannot understand myself just what I feel for
+you. In the first place, I think you are very nice-looking, and very
+charming, too; and then, when you are here, I feel as though I am
+surrounded with care and affection. It seems to me that I breathe more
+freely, that I am gayer and happier, and I have never, never felt like
+that before--"
+
+Very much touched by what she was saying, and very anxious, too, about
+what she was going to say, the count pressed Bijou's arm against his
+without answering.
+
+"Well, then," she continued, "I thought that, as I liked you better
+than I have ever yet liked anyone, and that, on the other hand, I
+should never be able to console myself for having caused you so much
+sorrow, the best thing would be to marry you."
+
+M. de Clagny stopped short, and asked, in a choked voice:
+
+"Then you consent?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"My darling!" he stammered out, "my darling!"
+
+"I told grandmamma this morning," continued Bijou, "and I must confess
+that she was not delighted. She did all she could to make me change my
+mind."
+
+"I can quite understand that."
+
+"She thinks that it is mad, for you as well as for me, to marry when
+there is such disproportion of age; and then, she did not say so, but
+I could see that there was something troubling her, which troubles me
+too, though to a much less degree."
+
+"And it is?"
+
+"The disproportion in money matters. Yes--it appears that you are
+horribly rich. Grandmamma said so yesterday, when she told me that you
+had asked for my hand."
+
+"What can it matter, Bijou, dear, whether I am a little more or less
+rich?"
+
+"It matters a great deal, with grandmamma's ideas about things
+especially. Oh, it is not that she thinks it humiliating for me to be
+married without anything, for I have nothing, you know, in comparison
+with what you have! No, she looks upon marriage as a partnership, or
+exchange of what one has. '_Give me what you've got, and I'll give
+you what I've got_,' as the country people here say. Well, you have
+your name, which is a good one, and your money, which makes you a very
+rich man; on my side, I have my name, which is rather a good one, too,
+and my youth, which certainly counts for something."
+
+"Very well, then, and how can the disproportion of what we have make
+your grandmamma uneasy?"
+
+"Well, it's like this, you know--grandmamma is very fond of me, and
+she thinks that, as I am thirty-eight years younger than you, you
+might die before me, and that, after living for years in very great
+luxury, after letting myself get accustomed to every comfort, which,
+up to the present, I have not had, I might suddenly find myself very
+poor and very wretched at an age when it would be too late to begin
+life over again, and so I should suffer very much on account of the
+bad habits I had contracted, and which I should not be able to drop--"
+
+"You know very well, my adored Bijou, that everything I possess is and
+will be yours. My will is already made, in which I leave everything to
+you, even if you do not become my wife."
+
+"Yes, but she always says a will could be torn up."
+
+"If your grandmamma would prefer it, I could make it over to you in a
+marriage settlement."
+
+Bijou laughed.
+
+"Ah! she would imagine, then, that we might be divorced, and a divorce
+does away with all things--"
+
+"But, supposing I make out in the marriage contract that the half of
+what I possess now is really yours, and supposing I made over the rest
+to you, only reserving to myself the interest?"
+
+Bijou shook her head, and then, with a pretty movement of playful
+affection, she threw her soft arms round M. de Clagny's neck, and
+said:
+
+"I don't want you to give me anything but happiness, and I am sure you
+will give me plenty of that. I hope you will live a very, very long
+time, and it would not matter to me, when I am old, if I were to find
+myself poor again, comparatively speaking."
+
+"And I," he said, covering Denyse's face and hair with kisses, "I
+could not go on living with the thought that I might be taken away
+without your future being provided for in the way in which I should
+wish it to be."
+
+"Don't talk about all those things," she murmured. "I want to think
+that I shall never be separated from you--never, never!"
+
+Trying, in spite of the darkness, to look into Bijou's eyes, he asked
+anxiously:
+
+"Will you be able to love me a little, as I love you?"
+
+Without answering, she held her pretty lips up to him, but just at
+that moment the sound of voices made them move away from each other
+abruptly.
+
+Only a few yards away from them they could hear several persons
+talking in low voices, and also the sound of heavy footsteps walking
+with measured tread. It seemed as though just there, quite near to
+them, a heavy burden were being carried along, whilst, in the midst of
+the darkness, lights kept passing by.
+
+"It's very odd," said M. de Clagny; "one would think something had
+happened."
+
+Bijou, however, who had stopped short, her heart beating fast with
+anxiety, struck with the strangeness of the little procession, put her
+hand on the count's arm, and said, quite tranquilly:
+
+"Oh, no! it must be the men going back to the farm. Just now they are
+at work up at the house through the day, and then, when they have had
+something to eat, they go back home."
+
+"It seemed to me, though, that the lanterns were on the way towards
+the house."
+
+She was walking along with her hand on his arm, and a thrill of joy
+ran through him as he drew this beautiful girl, who had just promised
+herself to him, closer still, in a passionate embrace.
+
+They returned slowly to the house along the avenues, meeting several
+carriages, which were bearing away the departing guests.
+
+"How's that?" exclaimed Bijou, in surprise. "They are going away
+already--but what about the cotillion? Is it very late?"
+
+On arriving at the hall-door steps, they met the La Balues coming
+towards their carriage.
+
+"How's this?" asked Bijou. "You are going? But why?"
+
+M. de la Balue mumbled out some unintelligible words, whilst his son
+and daughter, looking very sad, shook hands with Bijou.
+
+"Well, what long faces they are making," remarked M. de Clagny,
+beginning to get anxious in his turn. "Ah! what's that? Whatever's the
+matter?"
+
+In the hall there was a long pool of water. The servants were going
+backwards and forwards quickly, looking awestruck, and then Pierrot
+came in sight, his eyes swollen with crying, and his hands full of
+flowers. Madame de Rueille was following him, carrying flowers, too.
+
+Bijou stopped short, thunderstruck; but M. de Clagny hurried up to
+Madame de Rueille.
+
+"What has happened?" he asked.
+
+"M. Giraud has drowned himself," answered Bertrade. "They have just
+brought him back here. It was the miller who found him near the dam--"
+
+And then, seeing that Pierrot was gazing at her in consternation,
+shaking his flowers about at the end of his long arms in sheer
+desperation, she added, in a hard voice:
+
+"Yes, I know very well that grandmamma has forbidden anyone to speak
+of it before Bijou, but, for my part, I want her to know about it."
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+
+AS she stood waiting at the threshold of the little church for her
+Uncle Alexis, who was just getting out of the carriage, Bijou turned
+round, and, after giving a little kick to her long white satin train,
+and pulling the folds of her veil over her face, she gazed round at
+the motley crowd, who were hurrying towards the church-porch, with
+that quick look in her luminous eyes which took in everything at a
+glance.
+
+She saw first the profile of Jean de Blaye towering above the others;
+he was advancing towards her with an indifferent, languid expression
+on his face, and talking to M. de Rueille, who looked slightly nervous
+and excited. Henry de Bracieux, with a worried look on his face, was
+listening in an absent sort of way to the marchioness, as she gave her
+orders to the coachman.
+
+Pierrot had got one of the tails of his coat, which was too short for
+him, caught in the carriage-door, and, with his big, white-gloved
+hands, he was awkwardly endeavouring to get free, but unsuccessfully.
+
+M. Sylvestre, with an enormous roll of music under his arm, looking
+very nervous, and in a great hurry, was rushing towards the staircase
+which led to the gallery, without daring to lift his eyes from the
+ground; whilst Abbe Courteil, accompanied by his two pupils, passed
+by, looking very business-like--he, too, not venturing to glance in
+the direction of Bijou.
+
+Jeanne Dubuisson, who had got rather thinner, was waiting with her
+father until the crowd made way for her to pass.
+
+Among the Bracieux villagers, and just behind all the fine ladies and
+gentlemen, who had come from Pont-sur-Loire and the country-houses in
+the neighbourhood, Charlemagne Lavenue was pressing forward with long
+strides. He was dressed in his best clothes, and his square shoulders
+and ruddy complexion seemed to stand out against the background of
+blue sky.
+
+As she stood there, with her eyes lowered, looking as though she had
+seen nothing, with the sun, which had brightened up the whole country
+round for her marriage, shining full on her, Bijou was enjoying to
+the full the bliss of living, of knowing herself beautiful, and of
+being beloved by everyone.
+
+The sound of her Uncle Alexis' voice as he offered her his arm, and
+said: "Are you ready?" woke her up out of her ecstasy.
+
+Very graceful and beautiful she looked, as she moved along to the
+music of the organ, which was pealing forth.
+
+A cabman, who had gone inside the church to see "the wedding,"
+exclaimed, as Bijou passed up the aisle:
+
+"Bless my soul! but ain't she a pretty one---the bride?"
+
+Whereupon one of Farmer Lavenue's day-labourers replied:
+
+"I believe you. And I can tell you what--she's as good as she is
+pretty--she is! And even better nor that!"
+
+
+                   THE END.
+
+    _Printed by Cowan & Co., Limited, Perth._
+
+
+        *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Missing or incorrect punctuation fixed.
+
+Hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of same words retained when
+occurring equally.
+
+Unusual spellings retained, but obvious misspellings corrected.
+
+P.38: "bruta tenderness" to "brutal tenderness"
+
+P.65 and 6: "anyrate"(2) to more frequent "any rate" (11)
+
+P.292: "got o st" to "got lost"
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Bijou, by Gyp
+
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