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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/3935.txt b/3935.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d6a5dcf --- /dev/null +++ b/3935.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2775 @@ + +The Project Gutenberg Etext of A Woodland Queen, by Andre Theuriet, v1 +#22 in our series The French Immortals Crowned by the French Academy +#1 in our series by Andre Theuriet + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. 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After +finishing his courses he entered the Department of the Treasury, and +after an honorable career there, resigned as chef-de-bureau. He is a +poet, a dramatist, but, above all, a writer of great fiction. + +As early as 1857 the poems of Theuriet were printed in the 'Revue de +Paris' and the 'Revue des Deux Mondes'. His greatest novel, 'Reine des +Bois' (Woodland Queen), was crowned by the Academie Francaise in 1890. +To the public in general he became first known in 1870 by his 'Nouvelles +Intimes'. Since that time he has published a great many volumes of +poems, drama, and fiction. A great writer, he perhaps meets the wishes +of that large class of readers who seek in literature agreeable rest and +distraction, rather than excitement or aesthetic gratification. He is +one of the greatest spirits that survived the bankruptcy of Romanticism. +He excels in the description of country nooks and corners; of that polite +rusticity which knows nothing of the delving laborers of 'La Terre', but +only of graceful and learned leisure, of solitude nursed in revery, and +of passion that seems the springtide of germinating nature. He possesses +great originality and the passionate spirit of a 'paysagiste': pictures +of provincial life and family-interiors seem to appeal to his most +pronounced sympathies. His taste is delicate, his style healthy and +frank, and at the same time limpid and animated. + +After receiving, in 1890, the Prix Vitet for the ensemble of his literary +productions, he was elected to the Academy in 1896. To the stage +Theuriet has given 'Jean-Marie', drama in verses (Odeon, February 11, +1871). It is yet kept on the repertoire together with his 'Maison de +deux Barbeaux (1865), Raymonde (1887), and Les Maugars (1901).' + +His novels, tales, and poems comprise a long list. 'Le Bleu et le Noir' +(1873) was also crowned by the Academy. Then followed, at short +intervals: 'Mademoiselle Guignon (1874.); Le Mariage de Gerard (1875); La +Fortune d'Angele (1876); Raymonde (1877),' a romance of modern life, +vastly esteemed by the reading public; 'Le Don Juan de Vireloup (1877); +Sous Bois, Impressions d'un Forestier (1878); Le Filleul d'un Marquis +(1878); Les Nids (1879); Le fils Maugars (1879); La Maison de deux +Barbeaux (1879); Toute seule (1880); Sauvageonne (1880), his most +realistic work; Les Enchantements de la Foret (1881); Le Livre de la +Payse (poetry, 1882); Madame Heurteloup (1882); Peche de Jeunesse (1883); +Le Journal de Tristan, mostly autobiographical; Bigarreau (1885); Eusebe +Lombard (1885); Les OEillets de Kerlatz (1885); Helene (1886); Nos +Oiseaux (beautiful verses, 1886); La Vie Rustique (1887); Amour d'Automne +(1888); Josette (1888); Deux Soeurs (1889); Contes pour les Soirs d'Hiver +(1890); Charme Dangereux (1891); La Ronde des Saisons et des Mois (1889); +La Charmeresse (1891); Fleur de Nice (1896); Bois Fleury (1897); Refuge +(1898); Villa Tranquille (1899); Claudette (1900); La Petite Derniere +(1901); Le Manuscrit du Chanoine (1902), etc. + +Besides this abundant production Andre Theuriet has also contributed to +various journals and magazines: 'Le Moniteur, Le Musee Universal, +L'Illustration, Le Figaro, Le Gaulois, La Republique Francaise, etc.; he +has lectured in Belgium, Holland, and Switzerland, and has even found +leisure to fill the post as Mayor of Bourg-la-Reine (Seine et Oise), +perhaps no onerous office (1882-1900). He has also been an 'Officier de +la Legion d'Honneur' since 1895. + MELCHIOR DE VOGUE + de l'Academie Francaise. + + + + +A WOODLAND QUEEN + + +BOOK 1. + + +CHAPTER I + +THE UNFINISHED WILL + +Toward the middle of October, about the time of the beechnut harvest, +M. Eustache Destourbet, justice of the Peace of Auberive, accompanied by +his clerk, Etienne Seurrot, left his home at Abbatiale, in order to +repair to the Chateau of Vivey, where he was to take part in removing the +seals on some property whose owner had deceased. + +At that period, 1857, the canton of Auberive, which stretches its massive +forests like a thick wall between the level plain of Langres and the +ancient Chatillonais, had but one main road of communication: that from +Langres to Bar-sur-Aube. The almost parallel adjacent route, from +Auberive to Vivey, was not then in existence; and in order to reach this +last commune, or hamlet, the traveller had to follow a narrow grass- +bordered path, leading through the forest up the hill of Charboniere, +from the summit of which was seen that intermingling of narrow gorges and +wooded heights which is so characteristic of this mountainous region. On +all sides were indented horizons of trees, among which a few, of more +dominant height, projected their sharp outlines against the sky; in the +distance were rocky steeps, with here and there a clump of brambles, down +which trickled slender rivulets; still farther, like little islands, half +submerged in a sea of foliage, were pastures of tender green dotted with +juniper bushes, almost black in their density, and fields of rye +struggling painfully through the stony soil--the entire scene presenting +a picture of mingled wildness and cultivation, aridity and luxuriant +freshness. + +Justice Destourbet, having strong, wiry limbs, ascended cheerily the +steep mountain-path. His tall, spare figure, always in advance of his +companion, was visible through the tender green of the young oaks, +clothed in a brown coat, a black cravat, and a very high hat, which the +justice, who loved correctness in details, thought it his duty to don +whenever called upon to perform his judicial functions. The clerk, +Seurrot, more obese, and of maturer age, protuberant in front, and +somewhat curved in the back, dragged heavily behind, perspiring and out +of breath, trying to keep up with his patron, who, now and then seized +with compassion, would come to a halt and wait for his subordinate. + +"I trust," said Destourbet, after one of these intervals which enabled +the clerk to walk by his side, "I trust we shall find Maitre Arbillot +down there; we shall have need of his services in looking over and filing +the papers of the deceased." + +"Yes, Monsieur," answered Seurrot, "the notary will meet us at the +chateau; he went to Praslay to find out from his associates whether +Monsieur de Buxieres had not left a will in his keeping. In my humble +opinion, that is hardly likely; for the deceased had great confidence in +Maitre Arbillot, and it seems strange that he should choose to confide +his testamentary intentions to a rival notary." + +"Well," observed the justice, "perhaps when the seals are raised, we may +discover an autograph will in some corner of a drawer." + +"It is to be hoped so, Monsieur," replied Seurrot; "I wish it with all my +heart, for the sake of Claudet Sejournant, for he is a good fellow, +although on the sinister bar of the escutcheon, and a right jolly +companion." + +"Yes; and a marvellous good shot," interrupted the justice. "I recognize +all that; but even if he had a hundred other good qualities, the grand +chasserot, as they call him here, will be on the wrong side of the hedge +if Monsieur de Buxieres has unfortunately died intestate. In the eye of +the law, as you are doubtless aware, a natural child, who has not been +acknowledged, is looked upon as a stranger." + +"Monsieur de Buxieres always treated Claudet as his own son, and every +one knew that he so considered him." + +"Possibly, but if the law were to keep count of all such cases, there +would be no end to their labors; especially in all questions of the +'cujus'. Odouart de Buxieres was a terribly wild fellow, and they say +that these old beech-trees of Vivey forest could tell many a tale of his +exploits." + +"He, he!" assented the clerk, laughing slyly, and showing his toothless +gums, "there is some truth in that. The deceased had the devil in his +boots. He could see neither a deer nor a pretty girl without flying in +pursuit. Ah, yes! Many a trick has he played them--talk of your +miracles, forsooth!--well, Claudet was his favorite, and Monsieur de +Buxieres has told me, over and over again, that he would make him his +heir, and I shall be very much astonished if we do not find a will." + +"Seurrot, my friend," replied the justice, calmly, "you are too +experienced not to know that our country folks dread nothing so much as +testifying to their last wishes--to make a will, to them, is to put one +foot into the grave. They will not call in the priest or the notary +until the very last moment, and very often they delay until it is too +late. Now, as the deceased was at heart a rustic, I fear greatly that he +did not carry his intentions into execution." + +"That would be a pity--for the chateau, the lands, and the entire fortune +would go to an heir of whom Monsieur Odouart never had taken account-- +to one of the younger branch of Buxieres, whom he had never seen, having +quarrelled with the family." + +"A cousin, I believe," said the justice. + +"Yes, a Monsieur Julien de Buxieres, who is employed by the Government at +Nancy." + +"In fact, then, and until we receive more ample information, he is, for +us, the sole legitimate heir. Has he been notified?" + +"Yes, Monsieur. He has even sent his power of attorney to Monsieur +Arbillot's clerk." + +"So much the better," said M. Destourbet, "in that case, we can proceed +regularly without delay." + +While thus conversing, they had traversed the forest, and emerged on the +hill overlooking Vivey. From the border line where they stood, they +could discover, between the half-denuded branches of the line of aspens, +the sinuous, deepset gorge, in which the Aubette wound its tortuous way, +at the extremity of which the village lay embanked against an almost +upright wall of thicket and pointed rocks. On the west this narrow +defile was closed by a mill, standing like a sentinel on guard, in its +uniform of solid gray; on each side of the river a verdant line of meadow +led the eye gradually toward the clump of ancient and lofty ash-trees, +behind which rose the. Buxieres domicile. This magnificent grove of +trees, and a monumental fence of cast-iron, were the only excuse for +giving the title of chateau to a very commonplace structure, of which the +main body presented bare, whitewashed walls, flanked by two small towers +on turrets shaped like extinguishers, and otherwise resembling very +ordinary pigeon-houses. + +This chateau, or rather country squire's residence, had belonged to the +Odouart de Buxieres for more than two centuries. Before the Revolution, +Christophe de Buxieres, grandfather of the last proprietor, had owned a +large portion of Vivey, besides several forges in operation on the Aube +and Aubette rivers. He had had three children: one daughter, who had +embraced religion as a vocation; Claude Antoine, the elder son, to whom +he left his entire fortune, and Julien Abdon, the younger, officer in the +regiment of Rohan Soubise, with whom he was not on good terms. After +emigrating and serving in Conde's army, the younger Buxieres had returned +to France during the Restoration, had married, and been appointed special +receiver in a small town in southern France. But since his return, he +had not resumed relations with his elder brother, whom he accused of +having defrauded him of his rights. The older one had married also, one +of the Rochetaillee family; he had had but one son, Claude Odouart de +Buxieres, whose recent decease had brought about the visit of the Justice +of Auberive and his clerk. + +Claude de Buxieres had lived all his life at Vivey. Inheriting from his +father and grandfather flourishing health and a robust constitution, he +had also from them strong love for his native territory, a passion for +the chase, and a horror of the constraint and decorum exacted by worldly +obligations. He was a spoiled child, brought up by a weak-minded mother +and a preceptor without authority, who had succeeded in imparting to him +only the most elementary amount of instruction, and he had, from a very +early age, taken his own pleasure as his sole rule of life. He lived +side by side with peasants and poachers, and had himself become a regular +country yeoman, wearing a blouse, dining at the wine-shop, and taking +more pleasure in speaking the mountain patois than his own native French. +The untimely death of his father, killed by an awkward huntsman while +following the hounds, had emancipated him at the age of twenty years. +From this period he lived his life freely, as he understood it; always in +the open air, without hindrance of any sort, and entirely unrestrained. + +Nothing was exaggerated in the stories told concerning him. He was a +handsome fellow, jovial and dashing in his ways, and lavish with his +money, so he met with few rebuffs. Married women, maids, widows, any +peasant girl of attractive form or feature, all had had to resist his +advances, and with more than one the resistance had been very slight. +It was no false report which affirmed that he had peopled the district +with his illegitimate progeny. He was not hard to please, either; +strawberry-pickers, shepherd-girls, wood-pilers, day-workers, all were +equally charming in his sight; he sought only youth, health, and a kindly +disposition. + +Marriage would have been the only safeguard for him; but aside from the +fact that his reputation of reckless huntsman and general scapegrace +naturally kept aloof the daughters of the nobles, and even the Langarian +middle classes, he dreaded more than anything else in the world the +monotonous regularity of conjugal life. He did not care to be restricted +always to the same dishes--preferring, as he said, his meat sometimes +roast, sometimes boiled, or even fried, according to his humor and his +appetite. + +Nevertheless, about the time that Claude de Buxieres attained his thirty- +sixth year, it was noticed that he had a more settled air, and that his +habits were becoming more sedentary. The chase was still his favorite +pastime, but he frequented less places of questionable repute, seldom +slept away from home, and seemed to take greater pleasure in remaining +under his own roof. The cause of this change was ascribed by some to the +advance of years creeping over him; others, more perspicacious, verified +a curious coincidence between the entrance of a new servant in the +chateau and the sudden good behavior of Claude. + +This girl, a native of Aprey, named Manette Sejournant, was not, strictly +speaking, a beauty, but she had magnificent blonde hair, gray, caressing +eyes, and a silvery, musical voice. Well built, supple as an adder, +modest and prudish in mien, she knew how to wait upon and cosset her +master, accustoming him by imperceptible degrees to prefer the cuisine of +the chateau to that of the wine-shops. After a while, by dint of making +her merits appreciated, and her presence continually desired, she became +the mistress of Odouart de Buxieres, whom she managed to retain by +proving herself immeasurably superior, both in culinary skill and in +sentiment, to the class of females from whom he had hitherto been seeking +his creature comforts. + +Matters went on in this fashion for a year or so, until Manette went on a +three months' vacation. When she reappeared at the chateau, she brought +with her an infant, six weeks old, which she declared was the child of a +sister, lately deceased, but which bore a strange likeness to Claude. +However, nobody made remarks, especially as M. de Buxieres, after he had +been drinking a little, took no pains to hide his paternity. He himself +held the little fellow at the baptismal font, and later, consigned him to +the care of the Abbe Pernot, the curate of Vivey, who prepared the little +Claudet for his first communion, at the same time that he instructed him +in reading, writing, and the first four rules of arithmetic. As soon as +the lad reached his fifteenth year, Claude put a gun into his hands, and +took him hunting with him. Under the teaching of M. de Buxieres, Claudet +did honor to his master, and soon became such an expert that he could +give points to all the huntsmen of the canton. None could equal him in +tracing a dog; he knew all the passes, by-paths, and enclosures of the +forest; swooped down upon the game with the keen scent and the velocity +of a bird of prey, and never was known to miss his mark. Thus it was +that the country people surnamed him the 'grand chasserot', the term +which we here apply to the sparrow-hawk. Besides all these advantages, +he was handsome, alert, straight, and well made, dark-haired and olive- +skinned, like all the Buxieres; he had his mother's caressing glance, but +also the overhanging eyelids and somewhat stern expression of his father, +from whom he inherited also a passionate temperament, and a spirit averse +to all kinds of restraint. They were fond of him throughout the country, +and M. de Buxieres, who felt his youth renewed in him, was very proud of +his adroitness and his good looks. He would invite him to his pleasure +parties, and make him sit at his own table, and confided unhesitatingly +all his secrets to him. In short, Claudet, finding himself quite at home +at the chateau, naturally considered himself as one of the family. There +was but one formality wanting to that end: recognizance according to law. +At certain favorable times, Manette Sejournant would gently urge M. de +Buxieres to have the situation legally authorized, to which he would +invariably reply, from a natural dislike to taking legal advisers into +his confidence: + +"Don't worry about anything; I have no direct heir, and Claudet will have +all my fortune; my will and testament will be worth more to him than a +legal acknowledgment." + +He would refer so often and so decidedly to his settled intention of +making Claudet his sole heir, that Manette, who knew very little about +what was required in such cases, considered the matter already secure. +She continued in unsuspecting serenity until Claude de Buxieres, in his +sixty-second year, died suddenly from a stroke of apoplexy. + +The will, which was to insure Claudet's future prospects, and to which +the deceased had so often alluded, did it really exist? Neither Manette +nor the grand chasserot had been able to obtain any certain knowledge in +the matter, the hasty search for it after the decease having been +suddenly interrupted by the arrival of the mayor of Vivey; and by the +proceedings of the justice of the peace. The seals being once imposed, +there was no means, in the absence of a verified will, of ascertaining on +whom the inheritance devolved, until the opening of the inventory; and +thus the Sejournants awaited with feverish anxiety the return of the +justice of the peace and his bailiff. + +M. Destourbet and Stephen Seurrot pushed open a small door to the right +of the main gateway, passed rapidly under the arched canopy of beeches, +the leaves of which, just touched by the first frost, were already +falling from the branches, and, stamping their muddy feet on the outer +steps, advanced into the vestibule. The wide corridor, flagged with +black-and-white pavement, presented a cheerless aspect of bare walls +discolored by damp, and adorned alternately by stags' heads and family +portraits in a crumbling state of decay. The floor was thus divided: on +the right, the dining-room and the kitchen; on the left, drawing-room and +a billiard-hall. A stone staircase, built in one of the turrets, led to +the upper floors. Only one of these rooms, the kitchen, which the +justice and his bailiff entered, was occupied by the household. A cold +light, equally diffused in all directions, and falling from a large +window, facing north across the gardens, allowed every detail of the +apartment to be seen clearly; opposite the door of entrance, the tall +chimney-place, with its deep embrasure, gave ample shelter to the notary, +who installed himself upon a stool and lighted his pipe at one of the +embers, while his principal clerk sat at the long table, itemizing the +objects contained in the inventory. + +In the opposite angle of the chimney-place, a lad of twenty-four years, +no other than Claudet, called by the friendly nickname of the grand +chasserot, kept company with the notary, while he toyed, in an absent +fashion, with the silky ears of a spaniel, whose fluffy little head lay +in his lap. Behind him, Manette Sejournant stood putting away her shawl +and prayerbook in a closet. A mass had been said in the morning at the +church, for the repose of the soul of the late Claude de Buxieres, and +mother and son had donned their Sunday garments to assist at the +ceremony. + +Claudet appeared ill at ease in his black, tightly buttoned suit, and +kept his eyes with their heavy lids steadily bent upon the head of the +animal. To all the notary's questions, he replied only by monosyllables, +passing his fingers every now and then through his bushy brown locks, and +twining them in his forked beard, a sure indication with him of +preoccupation and bad humor. + +Manette had acquired with years an amount of embonpoint which detracted +materially from the supple and undulating beauty which had so captivated +Claude de Buxieres. The imprisonment of a tight corset caused undue +development of the bust at the expense of her neck and throat, which +seemed disproportionately short and thick. Her cheeks had lost their +gracious curves and her double chin was more pronounced. All that +remained of her former attractions were the caressing glance of her eye, +tresses still golden and abundant, especially as seen under the close cap +of black net, white teeth, and a voice that had lost nothing of its +insinuating sweetness. + +As the justice and his bailiff entered, Maitre Arbillot, and a petulant +little man with squirrel-like eyes and a small moustache, arose quickly. + +"Good-morning, gentlemen," he cried. "I was anxiously expecting you--if +you are willing, we will begin our work at once, for at this season night +comes on quickly." + +"At your orders, Maitre Arbillot," replied the justice, laying his hat +down carefully on the window-sill; "we shall draw out the formula for +raising the seals. By the way, has no will yet been found?" + +"None to my knowledge. It is quite clear to me that the deceased made no +testament, none at least before a notary." + +"But," objected M. Destourbet, "he may have executed a holograph +testament." + +"It is certain, gentlemen," interrupted Manette, with her soft, plaintive +voice, "that our dear gentleman did not go without putting his affairs in +order. 'Manette,' said he, not more than two weeks ago; 'I do not intend +you shall be worried, neither you nor Claudet, when I am no longer here. +All shall be arranged to your satisfaction.' Oh! he certainly must have +put down his last wishes on paper. Look well around, gentlemen; you will +find a will in some drawer or other." + +While she applied her handkerchief ostentatiously to her nose and wiped +her eyes, the justice exchanged glances with the notary. + +"Maitre Arbillot, you think doubtless with me, that we ought to begin +operations by examining the furniture of the bedroom?" + +The notary inclined his head, and notified his chief clerk to remove his +papers to the first floor. + +"Show us the way, Madame," said the justice to the housekeeper; and the +quartet of men of the law followed Manette, carrying with them a huge +bunch of keys. + +Claudet had risen from his seat when the justice arrived. As the party +moved onward, he followed hesitatingly, and then halted, uncertain how to +decide between the desire to assist in the search and the fear of +intruding. The notary, noticing his hesitation; called to him: + +"Come, you also, Claudet, are not you one of the guardians of the seals?" + +And they wended their silent way, up the winding staircase of the turret. +The high, dark silhouette of Manette headed the procession; then followed +the justice, carefully choosing his foothold on the well-worn stairs, the +asthmatic old bailiff, breathing short and hard, the notary, beating his +foot impatiently every time that Seurrot stopped to take breath, and +finally the principal clerk and Claudet. + +Manette, opening noiselessly the door of the deceased's room, entered, as +if it were a church, the somewhat stifling apartment. Then she threw +open the shutters, and the afternoon sun revealed an interior decorated +and furnished in the style of the close of the eighteenth century. An +inlaid secretary, with white marble top and copper fittings, stood near +the bed, of which the coverings had been removed, showing the mattresses +piled up under a down bed covered with blue-and-white check. + +As soon as the door was closed, the clerk settled himself at the table +with his packet of stamped paper, and began to run over, in a low, rapid +voice, the preliminaries of the inventory. In this confused murmuring +some fragments of phrases would occasionally strike the ear: "Chateau of +Vivey--deceased the eighth of October last--at the requisition of Marie- +Julien de Buxieres, comptroller of direct contributions at Nancy--styling +himself heir to Claude Odouart de Buxieres, his cousin-german by blood--" + +This last phrase elicited from Claudet a sudden movement of surprise. + +"The inventory," explained Maitre Arbillot, "is drawn up at the +requisition of the only heir named, to whom we must make application, if +necessary, for the property left by the deceased." + +There was a moment of silence, interrupted by a plaintive sigh from +Manette Sejournant and afterward by the tearing sound of the sealed bands +across the bureau, the drawers and pigeonholes of which were promptly +ransacked by the justice and his assistant. + +Odouart de Buxieres had not been much of a scribe. A double Liege +almanac, a memorandum-book, in which he had entered the money received +from the sale of his wood and the dates of the payments made by his +farmers; a daybook, in which he had made careful note of the number of +head of game killed each day--that was all the bureau contained. + +"Let us examine another piece of furniture," murmured the justice. + +Manette and Claudet remained unmoved. They apparently knew the reason +why none but insignificant papers had been found in the drawers, for +their features expressed neither surprise nor disappointment. + +Another search through a high chest of drawers with large copper handles +was equally unprofitable. Then they attacked the secretary, and after +the key had been turned twice in the noisy lock, the lid went slowly +down. The countenances of both mother and son, hitherto so unconcerned, +underwent a slight but anxious change. The bailiff continued his +scrupulous search of each drawer under the watchful eye of the justice, +finding nothing but documents of mediocre importance; old titles to +property, bundles of letters, tradesmen's bills, etc. Suddenly, at the +opening of the last drawer, a significant "Ah!" from Stephen Seurrot +drew round him the heads of the justice and the notary, and made Manette +and Claudet, standing at the foot of the bed, start with expectation. +On the dark ground of a rosewood box lay a sheet of white paper, on which +was written: + +"This is my testament." + +With the compression of lip and significant shake of the head of a +physician about to take in hand a hopeless case of illness, the justice +made known to his two neighbors the text of the sheet of paper, on which +Claude Odouart de Buxieres had written, in his coarse, ill-regulated +hand, the following lines: + +"Not knowing my collateral heirs, and caring nothing about them, I give +and bequeath all my goods and chattels--" + +The testator had stopped there, either because he thought it better, +before going any further, to consult some legal authority more +experienced than himself, or because he had been interrupted in his labor +and had deferred completing this testifying of his last will until some +future opportunity. + +M. Destourbet, after once more reading aloud this unfinished sentence, +exclaimed: + +"Monsieur de Buxieres did not finish--it is much to be regretted!" + +"My God! is it possible?" interrupted the housekeeper; "you think, +then, Monsieur justice, that Claudet does not inherit anything?" + +"According to my idea," replied he, "we have here only a scrap of +unimportant paper; the name of the legatee is not indicated, and even +were it indicated, the testament would still be without force, being +neither dated nor signed." + +"But perhaps Monsieur de Buxieres made another?" + +"I think not; I am more inclined to suppose that he did not have time to +complete the arrangements that he wished to make, and the proof lies in +the very existence of this incomplete document in the only piece of +furniture in which he kept his papers." Then, turning toward the notary +and the bailiff: "You are doubtless, gentlemen, of the same opinion as +myself; it will be wise, therefore, to defer raising the remainder of the +seals until the arrival of the legal heir. Maitre Arbillot, Monsieur +Julien de Buxieres must be notified, and asked to be here in Vivey as +soon as possible." + +"I will write this evening," said the notary; "in the meanwhile, the +keeping of the seals will be continued by Claudet Sejournant." + +The justice inclined his head to Manette, who was standing, pale and +motionless, at the foot of the bed; stunned by the unexpected +announcement; the bailiff and the chief clerk, after gathering up their +papers, shook hands sympathizingly with Claudet. + +"I am grieved to the heart, my dear fellow," said the notary, in his +turn, "at what has happened! It is hard to swallow, but you will always +keep a courageous heart, and be able to rise to the top; besides, even +if, legally, you own nothing here, this unfinished testament of Monsieur +de Buxieres will constitute a moral title in your favor, and I trust that +the heir will have enough justice and right feeling to treat you +properly." + +"I want nothing from him!" muttered Claudet, between his teeth; then, +leaving his mother to attend to the rest of the legal fraternity, he went +hastily to his room, next that of the deceased, tore off his dress-coat, +slipped on a hunting-coat, put on his gaiters, donned his old felt hat, +and descended to the kitchen, where Manette was sitting, huddled up in +front of the embers, weeping and bewailing her fate. + +Since she had become housekeeper and mistress of the Buxieres household, +she had adopted a more polished speech and a more purely French mode of +expression, but in this moment of discouragement and despair the rude +dialect of her native country rose to her lips, and in her own patois she +inveighed against the deceased: + +"Ah! the bad man, the mean man! Didn't I tell him, time and again, that +he would leave us in trouble! Where can we seek our bread this late in +the day? We shall have to beg in the streets!" + +"Hush! hush! mother," interrupted Claudet, sternly, placing his hand on +her shoulder, "it does not mend matters to give way like that. Calm +thyself--so long as I have hands on the ends of my arms, we never shall +be beggars. But I must go out--I need air." + +And crossing the gardens rapidly, he soon reached the outskirts of the +brambly thicket. + +This landscape, both rugged and smiling in its wildness, hardly conveyed +the idea of silence, but rather of profound meditation, absolute calm; +the calmness of solitude, the religious meditation induced by spacious +forest depths. The woods seemed asleep, and the low murmurings, which +from time to time escaped from their recesses, seemed like the +unconscious sighs exhaled by a dreamer. The very odor peculiar to trees +in autumn, the penetrating and spicy odor of the dying leaves, had a +delicate and subtle aroma harmonizing with this quietude of fairyland. + +Now and then, through the vaporous golden atmosphere of the late autumn +sunset, through the pensive stillness of the hushed woods, the distant +sound of feminine voices, calling to one another, echoed from the hills, +and beyond the hedges was heard the crackling of branches, snapped by +invisible hands, and the rattle of nuts dropping on the earth. It was +the noise made by the gatherers of beechnuts, for in the years when the +beech produces abundantly, this harvest, under the sanction of the +guardians of the forest, draws together the whole population of women and +children, who collect these triangular nuts, from which an excellent +species of oil is procured. + +Wending his way along the copse, Claudet suddenly perceived, through an +opening in the trees, several large white sheets spread under the +beeches, and covered with brown heaps of the fallen fruit. One or two +familiar voices hailed him as he passed, but he was not disposed to +gossip, for the moment, and turned abruptly into the bushwood, so as to +avoid any encounter. The unexpected event which had just taken place, +and which was to change his present mode of life, as well as his plans +for the future, was of too recent occurrence for him to view it with any +degree of calmness. + +He was like a man who has received a violent blow on the head, and is for +the moment stunned by it. He suffered vaguely, without seeking to know +from what cause; he had not been able as yet to realize the extent of his +misfortune; and every now and then a vague hope came over him that all +would come right. + +So on he went, straight ahead, his eyes on the ground, and his hands in +his pockets, until he emerged upon one of the old forest roads where the +grass had begun to burst through the stony interstices; and there, in the +distance, under the light tracery of weaving branches, a delicate female +silhouette was outlined on the dark background. A young woman, dressed +in a petticoat of gray woolen material, and a jacket of the same, close- +fitting at the waist, her arms bare to the elbows and supporting on her +head a bag of nuts enveloped in a white sheet, advanced toward him with a +quick and rhythmical step. The manner in which she carried her burden +showed the elegance of her form, the perfect grace of her chest and +throat. She was not very tall, but finely proportioned. As she +approached, the slanting rays of the setting sun shone on her heavy brown +hair, twisted into a thick coil at the back of her head, and revealed the +amber paleness of her clear skin, the long oval of her eyes, the firm +outline of her chin and somewhat full lips; and Claudet, roused from his +lethargic reverie by the sound of her rapid footsteps, raised his eyes, +and recognized the daughter of Pere Vincart, the proprietor of La +Thuiliere. + +At the same moment, the young girl, doubtless fatigued with the weight of +her bundle, had laid it down by the roadside while she recovered her +breath. In a few seconds Claudet was by her side. + +"Good-evening, Reine," said he, in a voice singularly softened in tone, +"shall I give you a lift with that?" + +"Good-evening, Claudet," replied she; "truly, now, that is not an offer +to be refused. The weight is greater than I thought." + +"Have you come far thus laden?" + +"No; our people are nutting in the Bois des Ronces; I came on before, +because I don't like to leave father alone for long at a time and, as I +was coming, I wished to bring my share with me." + +"No one can reproach you with shirking work, Reine, nor of being afraid +to take hold of things. To see you all day trotting about the farm, no +one would think you had been to school in the city, like a young lady." + +And Claudet's countenance became irradiated with a glow of innocent and +tender admiration. It was evident that his eyes looked with delight into +the dark limpid orbs of Reine, on her pure and rosy lips, and on her +partly uncovered neck, the whiteness of which two little brown moles only +served to enhance. + +"How can it be helped?" replied she, smiling, "it must be done; when +there is no man in the house to give orders, the women must take a hand +themselves. My father was not very strong when my mother died, and since +he had that attack he has become quite helpless, and I have had to take +his place." + +While she spoke, Claudet took hold of the bundle, and, lifting it as if +it had been a feather, threw it over his shoulder. They walked on, side +by side, in the direction of La Thuliere; the sun had set, and a +penetrating moisture, arising from the damp soil of the adjacent pasture +lands, encircled them in a bluish fog. + +"So he is worse, your father, is he?" said Claudet, after a moment's +silence. + +"He can not move from his armchair, his mental faculties are weakening, +and I am obliged to amuse him like a child. But how is it with yourself, +Claudet?" she asked, turning her frank, cordial gaze upon him. "You +have had your share of trouble since we last met, and great events have +happened. Poor Monsieur de Buxieres was taken away very suddenly!" + +The close relationship that united Claudet with the deceased was a secret +to no one; Reine, as well as all the country people, knew and admitted +the fact, however irregular, as one sanctioned by time and continuity. +Therefore, in speaking to the young man, her voice had that tone of +affectionate interest usual in conversing with a bereaved friend on a +death that concerns him. + +The countenance of the 'grand chasserot', which had cleared for a time +under her influence, became again clouded. + +"Yes;" sighed he, "he was taken too soon!" + +"And now, Claudet, you are sole master at the chateau?" + +"Neither--master--nor even valet!" he returned, with such bitterness +that the young girl stood still with surprise. + +"What do you mean?" she exclaimed, "was it not agreed with Monsieur de +Buxieres that you should inherit all his property?" + +"Such was his intention, but he did not have time to put it in execution; +he died without leaving any will, and, as I am nothing in the eye of the +law, the patrimony will go to a distant relative, a de Buxieres whom +Monsieur Odouart did not even know." + +Reine's dark eyes filled with tears. + +"What a misfortune!" she exclaimed, "and who could have expected such a +thing? Oh! my poor Claudet!" + +She was so moved, and spoke with such sincere compassion, that Claudet +was perhaps misled, and thought he read in her glistening eyes a tenderer +sentiment than pity; he trembled, took her hand, and held it long in his. + +"Thank you, Reine! Yes," he added, after a pause, "it is a rude shock to +wake up one morning without hearth or home, when one has been in the +habit of living on one's income." + +"What do you intend to do?" inquired Reine, gravely. + +Claudet shrugged his shoulders. + +"To work for my bread--or, if I can find no suitable trade, enlist in a +regiment. I think I should not make a bad soldier. Everything is going +round and round in my head like a millwheel. The first thing to do is to +see about my mother, who is lamenting down there at the house--I must +find her a comfortable place to live." + +The young girl had become very thoughtful. + +"Claudet," replied she, "I know you are very proud, very sensitive, and +could not wish to hurt your feelings. Therefore, I pray you not to take +in ill part that which I am going to say-in short, if you should get into +any trouble, you will, I hope, remember that you have friends at La +Thuiliere, and that you will come to seek us." + +The 'grand chasserot' reddened. + +"I shall never take amiss what you may say to me, Reine!" faltered he; +"for I can not doubt your good heart--I have known it since the time when +we played together in the cure's garden, while waiting for the time to +repeat the catechism. But there is no hurry as yet; the heir will not +arrive for several weeks, and by that time, I trust, we shall have had a +chance to turn round." + +They had reached the boundary of the forest where the fields of La +Thuiliere begin. + +By the last fading light of day they could distinguish the black outline +of the ancient forge, now become a grange, and a light was twinkling in +one of the low windows of the farm. + +"Here you are at home," continued Claudet, laying the bundle of nuts on +the flat stone wall which surrounded the farm buildings; "I wish you +good-night." + +"Will you not come in and get warm?" + +"No; I must go back," replied he. + +"Good-night, then, Claudet; au revoir and good courage!" + +He gazed at her for a moment in the deepening twilight, then, abruptly +pressing her hands: + +"Thank you, Reine," murmured he in a choking voice, "you are a good girl, +and I love you very much!" + +He left the young mistress of the farm precipitately, and plunged again +into the woods. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE HEIR TO VIVEY + +While these events were happening at Vivey, the person whose name excited +the curiosity and the conversational powers of the villagers--Marie- +Julien de Buxieres--ensconced in his unpretentious apartment in the Rue +Stanislaus, Nancy, still pondered over the astonishing news contained in +the Auberive notary's first letter. The announcement of his inheritance, +dropping from the skies, as it were, had found him quite unprepared, and, +at first, somewhat sceptical. He remembered, it is true, hearing his +father once speak of a cousin who had remained a bachelor and who owned a +fine piece of property in some corner of the Haute Marne; but, as all +intercourse had long been broken off between the two families, M. de +Buxieres the elder had mentioned the subject only in relation to barely +possible hopes which had very little chance of being realized. Julien +had never placed any reliance on this chimerical inheritance, and he +received almost with indifference the official announcement of the death +of Claude Odouart de Buxieres. + +By direct line from his late father, he became in fact the only +legitimate heir of the chateau and lands of Vivey; still, there was a +strong probability that Claude de Buxieres had made a will in favor of +some one more within his own circle. The second missive from Arbillot +the notary, announcing that the deceased had died intestate, and +requesting the legal heir to come to Vivey as soon as possible, put a +sudden end to the young man's doubts, which merged into a complex +feeling, less of joy than of stupefaction. + +Up to the present time, Julien de Buxieres had not been spoiled by +Fortune's gifts. His parents, who had died prematurely, had left him +nothing. He lived in a very mediocre style on his slender salary as +comptroller of direct contributions, and, although twenty-seven years +old, was housed like a supernumerary in a small furnished room on the +second floor above the ground. At this time his physique was that of a +young man of medium height, slight, pale, and nervous, sensitive in +disposition, reserved and introspective in habit. His delicate features, +his intelligent forehead surmounted by soft chestnut hair, his pathetic +blue eyes, his curved, dissatisfied mouth, shaded by a slight, dark +moustache, indicated a melancholy, unquiet temperament and precocious +moral fatigue. + +There are some men who never have had any childhood, or rather, whose +childhood never has had its happy time of laughter. Julien was one of +these. That which imparts to childhood its charm and enjoyment is the +warm and tender atmosphere of the home; the constant and continued +caressing of a mother; the gentle and intimate creations of one's native +country where, by degrees, the senses awaken to the marvellous sights of +the outer world; where the alternating seasons in their course first +arouse the student's ambition and cause the heart of the adolescent youth +to thrill with emotion; where every street corner, every tree, every turn +of the soil, has some history to relate. Julien had had no experiences +of this peaceful family life, during which are stored up such treasures +of childhood's recollections. He was the son of a government official, +who had been trotted over all France at the caprice of the +administration, and he had never known, so to speak, any associations of +the land in which he was born, or the hearth on which he was raised. +Chance had located his birth in a small town among the Pyrenees, and when +he was two years old he had been transplanted to one of the industrial +cities of Artois. At the end of two years more came another removal to +one of the midland towns, and thus his tender childhood had been buffeted +about, from east to west, from north to south, taking root nowhere. +All he could remember of these early years was an unpleasant impression +of hasty packing and removal, of long journeys by diligence, and of +uncomfortable resettling. His mother had died just as he was entering +upon his eighth year; his father, absorbed in official work, and not +caring to leave the child to the management of servants, had placed him +at that early age in a college directed by priests. Julien thus passed +his second term of childhood, and his boyhood was spent behind these +stern, gloomy walls, bending resignedly under a discipline which, though +gentle, was narrow and suspicious, and allowed little scope for personal +development. He obtained only occasional glimpses of nature during the +monotonous daily walks across a flat, meaningless country. At very rare +intervals, one of his father's colleagues would take him visiting; but +these stiff and ceremonious calls only left a wearisome sensation of +restraint and dull fatigue. During the long vacation he used to rejoin +his father, whom he almost always found in a new residence. The poor man +had alighted there for a time, like a bird on a tree; and among these +continually shifting scenes, the lad had felt himself more than ever a +stranger among strangers; so that he experienced always a secret though +joyless satisfaction in returning to the cloisters of the St. Hilaire +college and submitting himself to the yoke of the paternal but inflexible +discipline of the Church. + +He was naturally inclined, by the tenderness of his nature, toward a +devotional life, and accepted with blind confidence the religious and +moral teaching of the reverend fathers. A doctrine which preached +separation from profane things; the attractions of a meditative and pious +life, and mistrust of the world and its perilous pleasures, harmonized +with the shy and melancholy timidity of his nature. Human beings, +especially women, inspired him with secret aversion, which was increased +by consciousness of his awkwardness and remissness whenever he found +himself in the society of women or young girls. + +The beauties of nature did not affect him; the flowers in the springtime, +the glories of the summer sun, the rich coloring of autumn skies, having +no connection in his mind with any joyous recollection, left him cold and +unmoved; he even professed an almost hostile indifference to such purely +material sights as disturbing and dangerous to the inner life. He lived +within himself and could not see beyond. + +His mind, imbued with a mystic idealism, delighted itself in solitary +reading or in meditations in the house of prayer. The only emotion he +ever betrayed was caused by the organ music accompanying the hymnal +plain-song, and by the pomp of religious ceremony. + +At the age of eighteen, he left the St. Hilaire college in order to +prepare his baccalaureate, and his father, becoming alarmed at his +increasing moodiness and mysticism, endeavored to infuse into him the +tastes and habits of a man of the world by introducing him into the +society of his equals in the town where he lived; but the twig was +already bent, and the young man yielded with bad grace to the change of +regime; the amusements they offered were either wearisome or repugnant to +him. He would wander aimlessly through the salons where they were +playing whist, where the ladies played show pieces at the piano, and +where they spoke a language he did not understand. He was quite aware of +his worldly inaptitude, and that he was considered awkward, dull, and +ill-tempered, and the knowledge of this fact paralyzed and frightened him +still more. He could not disguise his feeling of ennui sufficiently to +prevent the provincial circles from being greatly offended; they declared +unanimously that young de Buxieres was a bear, and decided to leave him +alone. The death of his father, which happened just as the youth was +beginning his official cares, put a sudden end to all this constraint. +He took advantage of his season of mourning to resume his old ways; and +returned with a sigh of relief to his solitude, his books, and his +meditations. According to the promise of the Imitation, he found +unspeakable joys in his retirement; he rose at break of day, assisted at +early mass, fulfilled, conscientiously, his administrative duties, took +his hurried meals in a boardinghouse, where he exchanged a few polite +remarks with his fellow inmates, then shut himself up in his room to read +Pascal or Bossuet until eleven o'clock. + +He thus attained his twenty-seventh year, and it was into the calm of +this serious, cloister-like life, that the news fell of the death of +Claude de Buxieres and of the unexpected inheritance that had accrued to +him. + +After entering into correspondence with the notary, M. Arbillot, and +becoming assured of the reality of his rights and of the necessity of +his presence at Vivey, he had obtained leave of absence from his official +duties, and set out for Haute Marne. On the way, he could not help +marvelling at the providential interposition which would enable him to +leave a career for which he felt he had no vocation, and to pursue his +independent life, according to his own tastes, and secured from any fear +of outside cares. According to the account given by the notary, Claude +de Buxieres's fortune might be valued at two hundred thousand francs, in +furniture and other movables, without reckoning the chateau and the +adjacent woods. This was a much larger sum than had ever been dreamed of +by Julien de Buxieres, whose belongings did not amount in all to three +thousand francs. He made up his mind, therefore, that, as soon as he was +installed at Vivey, he would change his leave of absence to an unlimited +furlough of freedom. He contemplated with serene satisfaction this +perspective view of calm and solitary retirement in a chateau lost to +view in the depths of the forest, where he could in perfect security give +himself up to the studious contemplative life which he loved so much, +far from all worldly frivolities and restraint. He already imagined +himself at Vivey, shut up in his carefully selected library; he delighted +in the thought of having in future to deal only with the country people, +whose uncivilized ways would be like his own, and among whom his timidity +would not be remarked. + +He arrived at Langres in the afternoon of a foggy October day, and +inquired immediately at the hotel how he could procure a carriage to +take him that evening to Vivey. They found him a driver, but, to his +surprise, the man refused to take the journey until the following +morning, on account of the dangerous state of the crossroads, where +vehicles might stick fast in the mire if they ventured there after +nightfall. Julien vainly endeavored to effect an arrangement with him, +and the discussion was prolonged in the courtyard of the hotel. Just as +the man was turning away, another, who had overheard the end of the +colloquy, came up to young de Buxieres, and offered to undertake the +journey for twenty francs. + +"I have a good horse," said he to Julien; "I know the roads, and will +guarantee that we reach Vivey before nightfall." + +The bargain was quickly made; and in half an hour, Julien de Buxieres was +rolling over the plain above Langres, in a shaky old cabriolet, the muddy +hood of which bobbed over at every turn of the wheel, while the horse +kept up a lively trot over the stones. + +The clouds were low, and the road lay across bare and stony prairies, the +gray expanse of which became lost in the distant mist. This depressing +landscape would have made a disagreeable impression on a less unobserving +traveller, but, as we have said, Julien looked only inward, and the +phenomena of the exterior world influenced him only unconsciously. +Half closing his eyes, and mechanically affected by the rhythmical +tintinnabulation of the little bells, hanging around the horse's neck, +he had resumed his meditations, and considered how he should arrange his +life in this, to him, unknown country, which would probably be his own +for some time to come. Nevertheless, when, at the end of the level +plain, the road turned off into the wooded region, the unusual aspect of +the forest aroused his curiosity. The tufted woods and lofty trees, in +endless succession under the fading light, impressed him by their +profound solitude and their religious silence. His loneliness was in +sympathy with the forest, which seemed contemporary with the Sleeping +Beauty of the wood, the verdant walls of which were to separate him +forever from the world of cities. Henceforth, he could be himself, could +move freely, dress as he wished, or give way to his dreaming, without +fearing to encounter the ironical looks of idle and wondering neighbors. +For the first time since his departure from his former home, +he experienced a feeling of joy and serenity; the influence of the +surroundings, so much in harmony with his wishes, unlocked his tongue, +and made him communicative. + +He made up his mind to speak to the guide, who was smoking at his side +and whipping his horse. + +"Are we far from Vivey now?" + +"That depends, Monsieur--as the crow flies, the distance is not very +great, and if we could go by the roads, we should be there in one short +hour. Unfortunately, on turning by the Allofroy farm, we shall have to +leave the highroad and take the cross path; and then--my gracious! we +shall plunge into the ditch down there, and into perdition." + +"You told me that you were well acquainted with the roads!" + +"I know them, and I do not know them. When it comes to these crossroads, +one is sure of nothing. They change every year, and each new +superintendent cuts a way out through the woods according to his fancy. +The devil himself could not find his way." + +"Yet you have been to Vivey before?" + +"Oh, yes; five or six years ago; I used often to take parties of hunters +to the chateau. Ah! Monsieur, what a beautiful country it is for +hunting; you can not take twenty steps along a trench without seeing a +stag or a deer." + +"You have doubtless had the opportunity of meeting Monsieur Odouart de +Buxieres?" + +"Yes, indeed, Monsieur, more than once-ah! he is a jolly fellow and a +fine man--" + +"He was," interrupted Julien, gravely, "for he is dead." + +"Ah! excuse me--I did not know it. What! is he really dead? So fine a +man! What we must all come to. Careful, now!" added he, pulling in the +reins, "we are leaving the highroad, and must keep our eyes open." + +The twilight was already deepening, the driver lighted his lantern, and +the vehicle turned into a narrow lane, half mud, half stone, and hedged +in on both sides with wet brushwood, which flapped noisily against the +leathern hood. After fifteen minutes' riding, the paths opened upon a +pasture, dotted here and there with juniper bushes, and thence divided +into three lines, along which ran the deep track of wagons, cutting the +pasturage into small hillocks. After long hesitation, the man cracked +his whip and took the right-hand path. + +Julien began to fear that the fellow had boasted too much when he +declared that he knew the best way. The ruts became deeper and deeper; +the road was descending into a hole; suddenly, the wheels became embedded +up to the hub in thick, sticky mire, and the horse refused to move. The +driver jumped to the ground, swearing furiously; then he called Julien to +help him to lift out the wheel. But the young man, slender and frail as +he was, and not accustomed to using his muscles, was not able to render +much assistance. + +"Thunder and lightning!" cried the driver, "it is impossible to get out +of this--let go the wheel, Monsieur, you have no more strength than a +chicken, and, besides, you don't know how to go about it. What a devil +of a road! But we can't spend the night here!" + +"If we were to call out," suggested Julien, somewhat mortified at the +inefficiency of his assistance, "some one would perhaps come to our aid." + +They accordingly shouted with desperation; and after five or six minutes, +a voice hailed back. A woodcutter, from one of the neighboring +clearings, had heard the call, and was running toward them. + +"This way!" cried the guide, "we are stuck fast in the mud. Give us a +lift." + +The man came up and walked round the vehicle, shaking his head. + +"You've got on to a blind road," said he, "and you'll have trouble in +getting out of it, seeing as how there's not light to go by. You had +better unharness the horse, and wait for daylight, if you want to get +your carriage out." + +"And where shall we go for a bed?" growled the driver; "there isn't even +a house near in this accursed wild country of yours!" + +"Excuse me-you are not far from La Thuiliere; the farm people will not +refuse you a bed, and to-morrow morning they will help you to get your +carriage out of the mud. Unharness, comrade; I will lead you as far as +the Plancheau-Vacher; and from there you will see the windows of the +farmhouse." + +The driver, still grumbling, decided to take his advice. They +unharnessed the horse; took one of the lanterns of the carriage as a +beacon, and followed slowly the line of pasture-land, under the +woodchopper's guidance. At the end of about ten minutes, the forester +pointed out a light, twinkling at the extremity of a rustic path, +bordered with moss. + +"You have only to go straight ahead," said he, "besides, the barking of +the dogs will guide you. Ask for Mamselle Vincart. Good-night, +gentlemen." + +He turned on his heel, while Julien, bewildered, began to reproach +himself for not having thanked him enough. The conductor went along with +his lantern; young de Buxieres followed him with eyes downcast. Thus +they continued silently until they reached the termination of the mossy +path, where a furious barking saluted their ears. + +"Here we are," growled the driver, "fortunately the dogs are not yet let +loose, or we should pass a bad quarter of an hour!" + +They pushed open a side-wicket and, standing in the courtyard, could see +the house. With the exception of the luminous spot that reddened one of +the windows of the ground floor, the long, low facade was dark, and, as +it were, asleep. On the right, standing alone, outlined against the sky, +was the main building of the ancient forge, now used for granaries and +stables; inside, the frantic barking of the watch-dogs mingled with the +bleating of the frightened sheep, the neighing of horses, and the +clanking of wooden shoes worn by the farm hands. At the same moment, the +door of the house opened, and a servant, attracted by the uproar, +appeared on the threshold, a lantern in her hand. + +"Hallo! you people," she exclaimed sharply to the newcomers, who were +advancing toward her, "what do you want?" + +The driver related, in a few words, the affair of the cabriolet, and +asked whether they would house him at the farm until the next day-- +himself and the gentleman he was conducting to Vivey. + +The girl raised the lantern above her head in order to scrutinize the two +strangers; doubtless their appearance and air of respectability reassured +her, for she replied, in a milder voice: + +"Well, that does not depend on me--I am not the mistress here, but come +in, all the same--Mamselle Reine can not be long now, and she will answer +for herself." + +As soon as the driver had fastened his horse to one of the outside posts +of the wicket-gate, the servant brought them into a large, square hall, +in which a lamp, covered with a shade, gave a moderate light. She placed +two chairs before the fire, which she drew together with the poker. + +"Warm yourselves while you are waiting," continued she, "it will not be +long, and you must excuse me--I must go and milk the cows--that is work +which will not wait." + +She reached the courtyard, and shut the gate after her, while Julien +turned to examine the room into which they had been shown, and felt a +certain serenity creep over him at the clean and cheerful aspect of this +homely but comfortable interior. The room served as both kitchen and +dining-room. On the right of the flaring chimney, one of the cast-iron +arrangements called a cooking-stove was gently humming; the saucepans, +resting on the bars, exhaled various appetizing odors. In the centre, +the long, massive table of solid beech was already spread with its coarse +linen cloth, and the service was laid. White muslin curtains fell in +front of the large windows, on the sills of which potted chrysanthemums +spread their white, brown, and red blossoms. + +Round the walls a shining battery of boilers, kettles, basins, and copper +plates were hung in symmetrical order. On the dresser, near the clock, +was a complete service of old Aprey china, in bright and varied colors, +and not far from the chimney, which was ornamented with a crucifix of +yellow copper, was a set of shelves, attached to the wall, containing +three rows of books, in gray linen binding. Julien, approaching, read, +not without surprise, some of the titles: Paul and Virginia, La +Fontaine's Fables, Gessner's Idylls, Don Quixote, and noticed several odd +volumes of the Picturesque Magazine. + +Hanging from the whitened ceiling were clusters of nuts, twisted hemp, +strings of yellow maize, and chaplets of golden pippins tied with straw, +all harmonizing in the dim light, and adding increased fulness to the +picture of thrift and abundance. + +"It's jolly here!" said the driver, smacking his lips, "and the smell +which comes from that oven makes one hungry. I wish Mamselle Reine would +arrive!" + +Just as he said this, a mysterious falsetto voice, which seemed to come +from behind the copper basins, repeated, in an acrid voice: "Reine! +Reine!" + +"What in the world is that?" exclaimed the driver, puzzled. + +Both looked toward the beams; at the same moment there was a rustling of +wings, a light hop, and a black-and-white object flitted by, resting, +finally, on one of the shelves hanging from the joists. + +"Ha, ha!" said the driver, laughing, "it is only a magpie!" + +He had hardly said it, when, like a plaintive echo, another voice, a +human voice this time, childish and wavering, proceeding from a dark +corner, faltered: "Rei-eine--Rei-eine!" + +"Hark!" murmured Julien," some one answered." + +His companion seized the lamp, and advanced toward the portion of the +room left in shadow. Suddenly he stopped short, and stammered some vague +excuse. + +Julien, who followed him, then perceived, with alarm, in a sort of niche +formed by two screens, entirely covered with illustrations from Epinal, +a strange-looking being stretched in an easy-chair, which was covered +with pillows and almost hidden under various woolen draperies. He was +dressed in a long coat of coarse, pale-blue cloth. He was bareheaded, +and his long, white hair formed a weird frame for a face of bloodless hue +and meagre proportions, from which two vacant eyes stared fixedly. He +sat immovable and his arms hung limply over his knees. + +"Monsieur," said Julien, bowing ceremoniously, "we are quite ashamed at +having disturbed you. Your servant forgot to inform us of your presence, +and we were waiting for Mademoiselle Reine, without thinking that--" + +The old man continued immovable, not seeming to understand; he kept +repeating, in the same voice, like a frightened child: + +"Rei-eine! Rei-eine!" + +The two bewildered travellers gazed at this sepulchral-looking personage, +then at each other interrogatively, and began to feel very uncomfortable. +The magpie, perched upon the hanging shelf, suddenly flapped his wings, +and repeated, in his turn, in falsetto: + +"Reine, queen of the woods!" + +"Here I am, papa, don't get uneasy!" said a clear, musical voice behind +them. + +The door had been suddenly opened, and Reine Vincart had entered. She +wore on her head a white cape or hood, and held in front of her an +enormous bouquet of glistening leaves, which seemed to have been gathered +as specimens of all the wild fruit-trees of the forest: the brown beam- +berries, the laburnums, and wild cherry, with their red, transparent +fruit, the bluish mulberry, the orange-clustered mountain-ash. All this +forest vegetation, mingling its black or purple tints with the dark, +moist leaves, brought out the whiteness of the young girl's complexion, +her limpid eyes, and her brown curls escaping from her hood. + +Julien de Buxieres and his companion had turned at the sound of Reine's +voice. As soon as she perceived them, she went briskly toward them, +exclaiming: + +"What are you doing here? Don't you see that you are frightening him?" + +Julien, humbled and mortified, murmured an excuse, and got confused in +trying to relate the incident of the carriage. She interrupted him +hurriedly: + +"The carriage, oh, yes--La Guitiote spoke to me about it. Well, your +carriage will be attended to! Go and sit down by the fire, gentlemen; +we will talk about it presently." + +She had taken the light from the driver, and placed it on an adjacent +table with her plants. In the twinkling of an eye, she removed her hood, +unfastened her shawl, and then knelt down in front of the sick man, after +kissing him tenderly on the forehead. From the corner where Julien had +seated himself, he could hear her soothing voice. Its caressing tones +contrasted pleasantly with the harsh accent of a few minutes before. + +"You were longing for me, papa," said she, "but you see, I could not +leave before all the sacks of potatoes had been laid in the wagon. +Now everything has been brought in, and we can sleep in peace. I thought +of you on the way, and I have brought you a fine bouquet of wild fruits. +We shall enjoy looking them over tomorrow, by daylight. Now, this is the +time that you are to drink your bouillon like a good papa, and then as +soon as we have had our supper Guite and I will put you to bed nice and +warm, and I will sing you a song to send you to sleep." + +She rose, took from the sideboard a bowl which she filled from a saucepan +simmering on the stove, and then, without taking any notice of her +visitors, she returned to the invalid. Slowly and with delicate care she +made him swallow the soup by spoonfuls. Julien, notwithstanding the +feeling of ill-humor caused by the untoward happenings of the evening, +could not help admiring the almost maternal tenderness with which the +young girl proceeded in this slow and difficult operation. When the bowl +was empty she returned to the stove, and at last bethought herself of her +guests. + +"Excuse me, Monsieur, but I had to attend to my father first. If I +understood quite aright, you were going to Vivey." + +"Yes, Mademoiselle, I had hoped to sleep there tonight." + +"You have probably come," continued she, "on business connected with the +chateau. Is not the heir of Monsieur Odouart expected very shortly?" + +"I am that heir," replied Julien, coloring. + +"You are Monsieur de Buxieres?" exclaimed Reine, in astonishment. Then, +embarrassed at having shown her surprise too openly, she checked herself, +colored in her turn, and finally gave a rapid glance at her interlocutor. +She never should have imagined this slender young man, so melancholy in +aspect, to be the new proprietor--he was so unlike the late Odouart de +Buxieres! + +"Pardon me, Monsieur," continued she, "you must have thought my first +welcome somewhat unceremonious, but my first thought was for my father. +He is a great invalid, as you may have noticed, and for the first moment +I feared that he had been startled by strange faces." + +"It is I, Mademoiselle," replied Julien, with embarrassment, "it is I who +ought to ask pardon for having caused all this disturbance. But I do not +intend to trouble you any longer. If you will kindly furnish us with a +guide who will direct us to the road to Vivey, we will depart to-night +and sleep at the chateau." + +"No, indeed," protested Reine, very cordially. "You are my guests, and I +shall not allow you to leave us in that manner. Besides, you would +probably find the gates closed down there, for I do not think they +expected you so soon." + +During this interview, the servant who had received the travellers had +returned with her milk-pail; behind her, the other farm-hands, men and +women, arranged themselves silently round the table. + +"Guitiote," said Reine, "lay two more places at the table. The horse +belonging to these gentlemen has been taken care of, has he not?" + +"Yes, Mamselle, he is in the stable," replied one of the grooms. + +"Good! Bernard, to-morrow you will take Fleuriot with you, and go in +search of their carriage which has been swamped in the Planche-au-Vacher. +That is settled. Now, Monsieur de Buxieres, will you proceed to table-- +and your coachman also? Upon my word, I do not know whether our supper +will be to your liking. I can only offer you a plate of soup, a chine of +pork, and cheese made in the country; but you must be hungry, and when +one has a good appetite, one is not hard to please." + +Every one had been seated at the table; the servants at the lower end, +and Reine Vincart, near the fireplace, between M. de Buxieres and the +driver. La Guite helped the cabbage-soup all around; soon nothing was +heard but the clinking of spoons and smacking of lips. Julien, scarcely +recovered from his bewilderment, watched furtively the pretty, robust +young girl presiding at the supper, and keeping, at the same time, a +watchful eye over all the details of service. He thought her strange; +she upset all his ideas. His own imagination and his theories pictured a +woman, and more especially a young girl, as a submissive, modest, shadowy +creature, with downcast look, only raising her eyes to consult her +husband or her mother as to what is allowable and what is forbidden. +Now, Reine did not fulfil any of the requirements of this ideal. She +seemed to be hardly twenty-two years old, and she acted with the +initiative genius, the frankness and the decision of a man, retaining all +the while the tenderness and easy grace of a woman. Although it was +evident that she was accustomed to govern and command, there was nothing +in her look, gesture, or voice which betrayed any assumption of +masculinity. She remained a young girl while in the very act of playing +the virile part of head of the house. But what astonished Julien quite +as much was that she seemed to have received a degree of education +superior to that of people of her condition, and he wondered at the +amount of will-power by which a nature highly cultivated, relatively +speaking, could conform to the unrefined, rough surroundings in which she +was placed. + +While Julien was immersed in these reflections, and continued eating with +an abstracted air, Reine Vincart was rapidly examining the reserved, +almost ungainly, young man, who did not dare address any conversation to +her, and who was equally stiff and constrained with those sitting near +him. She made a mental comparison of him with Claudet, the bold +huntsman, alert, resolute, full of dash and spirit, and a feeling of +charitable compassion arose in her heart at the thought of the reception +which the Sejournant family would give to this new master, so timid and +so little acquainted with the ways and dispositions of country folk. +Julien did not impress her as being able to defend himself against the +ill-will of persons who would consider him an intruder, and would +certainly endeavor to make him pay dearly for the inheritance of which +he had deprived them. + +"You do not take your wine, Monsieur de Buxieres!" said she, noticing +that her guest's glass was still full. + +"I am not much of a wine-drinker," replied he, "and besides, I never take +wine by itself--I should be obliged if you would have some water +brought." + +Reine smiled, and passed him the water-bottle. + +"Indeed?" she said, "in that case, you have not fallen among congenial +spirits, for in these mountains they like good dinners, and have a +special weakness for Burgundy. You follow the chase, at any rate?" + +"No, Mademoiselle, I do not know how to handle a gun!" + +"I suppose it is not your intention to settle in Vivey?" + +"Why not?" replied he; "on the contrary, I intend to inhabit the +chateau, and establish myself there definitely." + +"What!" exclaimed Reine, laughing, "you neither drink nor hunt, and you +intend to live in our woods! Why, my poor Monsieur, you will die of +ennui." + +"I shall have my books for companions; besides, solitude never has had +any terrors for me." + +The young girl shook her head incredulously. + +"I shouldn't wonder," she continued, "if you do not even play at cards." + +"Never; games of chance are repugnant to me." + +"Take notice that I do not blame you," she replied, gayly, "but I must +give you one piece of advice: don't speak in these neighborhoods of your +dislike of hunting, cards, or good wine; our country folk would feel pity +for you, and that would destroy your prestige." + +Julien gazed at her with astonishment. She turned away to give +directions to La Guite about the beds for her guests--then the supper +went on silently. As soon as they had swallowed their last mouthful, +the menservants repaired to their dormitory, situated in the buildings of +the ancient forge. Reine Vincart rose also. + +"This is the time when I put my father to bed--I am obliged to take leave +of you, Monsieur de Buxieres. Guitiote will conduct you to your room. +For you, driver, I have had a bed made in a small room next to the +furnace; you will be nice and warm. Good-night, gentlemen, sleep well!" + +She turned away, and went to rejoin the paralytic sufferer, who, as she +approached, manifested his joy by a succession of inarticulate sounds. + +The room to which Guitiote conducted Julien was on the first floor, and +had a cheerful, hospitable appearance. The walls were whitewashed; the +chairs, table, and bed were of polished oak; a good fire of logs crackled +in the fireplace, and between the opening of the white window-curtains +could be seen a slender silver crescent of moon gliding among the +flitting clouds. The young man went at once to his bed; but +notwithstanding the fatigues of the day, sleep did not come to him. +Through the partition he could hear the clear, sonorous voice of Reine +singing her father to sleep with one of the popular ballads of the +country, and while turning and twisting in the homespun linen sheets, +scented with orrisroot, he could not help thinking of this young girl, so +original in her ways, whose grace, energy, and frankness fascinated and +shocked him at the same time. At last he dozed off; and when the morning +stir awoke him, the sun was up and struggling through the foggy +atmosphere. + +The sky had cleared during the night; there had been a frost, and the +meadows were powdered white. The leaves, just nipped with the frost, +were dropping softly to the ground, and formed little green heaps at the +base of the trees. Julien dressed himself hurriedly, and descended to +the courtyard, where the first thing he saw was the cabriolet, which had +been brought in the early morning and which one of the farm-boys was in +the act of sousing with water in the hope of freeing the hood and wheels +from the thick mud which covered them. When he entered the diningroom, +brightened by the rosy rays of the morning sun, he found Reine Vincart +there before him. She was dressed in a yellow striped woolen skirt, and +a jacket of white flannel carelessly belted at the waist. Her dark +chestnut hair, parted down the middle and twisted into a loose knot +behind, lay in ripples round her smooth, open forehead. + +"Good-morning, Monsieur de Buxieres," said she, in her cordial tone, +"did you sleep well? Yes? I am glad. You find me busy attending to +household matters. My father is still in bed, and I am taking advantage +of the fact to arrange his little corner. The doctor said he must not be +put near the fire, so I have made a place for him here; he enjoys it +immensely, and I arranged this nook to protect him from draughts." + +And she showed him how she had put the big easy chair, padded with +cushions, in the bright sunlight which streamed through the window, and +shielded by the screens, one on each side. She noticed that Julien was +examining, with some curiosity, the uncouth pictures from Epinal, with +which the screens were covered. + +"This," she explained, "is my own invention. My father is a little weak +in the head, but he understands a good many things, although he can not +talk about them. He used to get weary of sitting still all day in his +chair, so I lined the screens with these pictures in order that he might +have something to amuse him. He is as pleased as a child with the bright +colors, and I explain the subjects to him. I don't tell him much at a +time, for fear of fatiguing him. We have got now to Pyramus and Thisbe, +so that we shall have plenty to occupy us before we reach the end." + +She caught a pitying look from her guest which seemed to say: "The poor +man may not last long enough to reach the end." Doubtless she had the +same fear, for her dark eyes suddenly glistened, she sighed, and remained +for some moments without speaking. + +In the mean time the magpie, which Julien had seen the day before, was +hopping around its mistress, like a familiar spirit; it even had the +audacity to peck at her hair and then fly away, repeating, in its cracked +voice: + +"Reine, queen of the woods!" + +"Why 'queen of the woods?"' asked Julien, coloring. + +"Ah!" replied the young girl, "it is a nickname which the people around +here give me, because I am so fond of the trees. I spend all the time I +can in our woods, as much as I can spare from the work of the farm. + +"Margot has often heard my father call me by that name; she remembers it, +and is always repeating it." + +"Do you like living in this wild country?" + +"Very much. I was born here, and I like it." + +"But you have not always lived here?" + +"No; my mother, who had lived in the city, placed me at school in her own +country, in Dijon. I received there the education of a young lady, +though there is not much to show for it now. I stayed there six years; +then my mother died, my father fell ill, and I came home." + +"And did you not suffer from so sudden a change?" + +"Not at all. You see I am really by nature a country girl. I wish you +might not have more trouble than I had, in getting accustomed to your new +way of living, in the chateau at Vivey. But," she added, going toward +the fire, "I think they are harnessing the horse, and you must be hungry. +Your driver has already primed himself with some toast and white wine. +I will not offer you the same kind of breakfast. I will get you some +coffee and cream." + +He bent his head in acquiescence, and she brought him the coffee herself, +helping him to milk and toasted bread. He drank rapidly the contents of +the cup, nibbled at a slice of toast, and then, turning to his hostess, +said, with a certain degree of embarrassment: + +"There is nothing left for me to do, Mademoiselle, but to express my most +heartfelt thanks for your kind hospitality. It is a good omen for me to +meet with such cordiality on my arrival in an unknown part of the +country. May I ask you one more question?" he continued, looking +anxiously at her; "why do you think it will be so difficult for me to get +accustomed to the life they lead here?" + +"Why?" replied she, shaking her head, "because, to speak frankly, +Monsieur, you do not give me the idea of having much feeling for the +country. You are not familiar with our ways; you will not be able to +speak to the people in their language, and they will not understand +yours--you will be, in their eyes, 'the city Monsieur,' whom they will +mistrust and will try to circumvent. I should like to find that I am +mistaken, but, at present, I have the idea that you will encounter +difficulties down there of which you do not seem to have any +anticipation--" + +She was intercepted by the entrance of the driver, who was becoming +impatient. The horse was in harness, and they were only waiting for M. +de Buxieres. Julien rose, and after awkwardly placing a piece of silver +in the hand of La Guite, took leave of Reine Vincart, who accompanied him +to the threshold. + +"Thanks, once more, Mademoiselle," murmured he, "and au revoir, since we +shall be neighbors." + +He held out his hand timidly and she took it with frank cordiality. +Julien got into the cabriolet beside the driver, who began at once to +belabor vigorously his mulish animal. + +"Good journey and good luck, Monsieur," cried Reine after him, and the +vehicle sped joltingly away. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +CONSCIENCE HIGHER THAN THE LAW + +On leaving La Thuiliere, the driver took the straight line toward the +pasturelands of the Planche-au-Vacher. + +According to the directions they had received from the people of the +farm, they then followed a rocky road, which entailed considerable +jolting for the travellers, but which led them without other difficulty +to the bottom of a woody dell, where they were able to ford the stream. +As soon as they had, with difficulty, ascended the opposite hill, the +silvery fog that had surrounded them began to dissipate, and they +distinguished a road close by, which led a winding course through the +forest. + +"Ah! now I see my way!" said the driver, "we have only to go straight +on, and in twenty minutes we shall be at Vivey. This devil of a fog cuts +into one's skin like a bunch of needles. With your permission, Monsieur +de Buxieres, and if it will not annoy you, I will light my pipe to warm +myself." + +Now that he knew he was conducting the proprietor of the chateau, he +repented having treated him so cavalierly the day before; he became +obsequious, and endeavored to gain the good-will of his fare by showing +himself as loquacious as he had before been cross and sulky. But Julien +de Buxieres, too much occupied in observing the details of the country, +or in ruminating over the impressions he had received during the morning, +made but little response to his advances, and soon allowed the +conversation to drop. + +The sun's rays had by this time penetrated the misty atmosphere, and the +white frost had changed to diamond drops, which hung tremblingly on the +leafless branches. A gleam of sunshine showed the red tints of the +beech-trees, and the bright golden hue of the poplars, and the forest +burst upon Julien in all the splendor of its autumnal trappings. The +pleasant remembrance of Reine Vincart's hospitality doubtless predisposed +him to enjoy the charm of this sunshiny morning, for he became, perhaps +for the first time in his life, suddenly alive to the beauty of this +woodland scenery. By degrees, toward the left, the brushwood became less +dense, and several gray buildings appeared scattered over the glistening +prairie. Soon after appeared a park, surrounded by low, crumbling walls, +then a group of smoky roofs, and finally, surmounting a massive clump of +ash-trees, two round towers with tops shaped like extinguishers. The +coachman pointed them out to the young man with the end of his whip. + +"There is Vivey," said he, "and here is your property, Monsieur de +Buxieres." + +Julien started, and, notwithstanding his alienation from worldly things, +he could not repress a feeling of satisfaction when he reflected that, by +legal right, he was about to become master of the woods, the fields, and +the old homestead of which the many-pointed slate roofs gleamed in the +distance. This satisfaction was mingled with intense curiosity, but it +was also somewhat shadowed by a dim perspective of the technical details +incumbent on his taking possession. No doubt he should be obliged, in +the beginning, to make himself personally recognized, to show the workmen +and servants of the chateau that the new owner was equal to the +situation. Now, Julien was not, by nature, a man of action, and the +delicately expressed fears of Reine Vincart made him uneasy in his mind. +When the carriage, suddenly turning a corner, stopped in front of the +gate of entrance, and he beheld, through the cast-iron railing, the long +avenue of ash-trees, the grass-grown courtyard, the silent facade, his +heart began to beat more rapidly, and his natural timidity again took +possession of him. + +"The gate is closed, and they don't seem to be expecting you," remarked +the driver. + +They dismounted. Noticing that the side door was half open, the coachman +gave a vigorous pull on the chain attached to the bell. At the sound of +the rusty clamor, a furious barking was heard from an adjoining outhouse, +but no one inside the house seemed to take notice of the ringing. + +"Come, let us get in all the same," said the coachman, giving another +pull, and stealing a furtive look at his companion's disconcerted +countenance. + +He fastened his horse to the iron fence, and both passed through the side +gate to the avenue, the dogs all the while continuing their uproar. Just +as they reached the courtyard, the door opened and Manette Sejournant +appeared on the doorstep. + +"Good-morning, gentlemen," said she, in a slow, drawling voice, "is it +you who are making all this noise?" + +The sight of this tall, burly woman, whose glance betokened both audacity +and cunning, increased still more Julien's embarrassment. He advanced +awkwardly, raised his hat and replied, almost as if to excuse himself: + +"I beg pardon, Madame--I am the cousin and heir of the late Claude de +Buxieres. I have come to install myself in the chateau, and I had sent +word of my intention to Monsieur Arbillot, the notary--I am surprised he +did not notify you." + +"Ah! it is you, Monsieur Julien de Buxieres!" exclaimed Madame +Sejournant, scrutinizing the newcomer with a mingling of curiosity +and scornful surprise which completed the young man's discomfiture. +"Monsieur Arbillot was here yesterday--he waited for you all day, +and as you did not come, he went away at nightfall." + +"I presume you were in my cousin's service?" said Julien, amiably, being +desirous from the beginning to evince charitable consideration with +regard to his relative's domestic affairs. + +"Yes, Monsieur," replied Manette, with dignified sadness; "I attended +poor Monsieur de Buxieres twenty-six years, and can truly say I served +him with devotion! But now I am only staying here in charge of the +seals--I and my son Claudet. We have decided to leave as soon as the +notary does not want us any more." + +"I regret to hear it, Madame," replied Julien, who was beginning to feel +uncomfortable. "There must be other servants around--I should be obliged +if you would have our carriage brought into the yard. And then, if you +will kindly show us the way, we will go into the house, for I am desirous +to feel myself at home--and my driver would not object to some +refreshment." + +"I will send the cowboy to open the gate," replied the housekeeper. "If +you will walk this way, gentlemen, I will take you into the only room +that can be used just now, on account of the seals on the property." + +Passing in front of them, she directed her steps toward the kitchen, and +made way for them to pass into the smoky room, where a small servant was +making coffee over a clear charcoal fire. As the travellers entered, the +manly form of Claudet Sejournant was outlined against the bright light of +the window at his back. + +"My son," said Manette, with a meaning side look, especially for his +benefit, "here is Monsieur de Buxieres, come to take possession of his +inheritance." + +The grand chasserot attempted a silent salutation, and then the young men +took a rapid survey of each other. + +Julien de Buxieres was startled by the unexpected presence of so handsome +a young fellow, robust, intelligent, and full of energy, whose large +brown eyes gazed at him with a kind of surprised and pitying compassion +which was very hard for Julien to bear. He turned uneasily away, making +a lame excuse of ordering some wine for his coachman; and while Manette, +with an air of martyrdom, brought a glass and a half-empty bottle, +Claudet continued his surprised and inquiring examination of the legal +heir of Claude de Buxieres. + +The pale, slight youth, buttoned up in a close-fitting, long frock-coat, +which gave him the look of a priest, looked so unlike any of the Buxieres +of the elder branch that it seemed quite excusable to hesitate about the +relationship. Claudet maliciously took advantage of the fact, and began +to interrogate his would-be deposer by pretending to doubt his identity. + +"Are you certainly Monsieur Julien de Buxieres?" asked he, surveying him +suspiciously from head to foot. + +"Do you take me for an impostor?" exclaimed the young man. + +"I do not say that," returned Claudet, crossly, "but after all, you do +not carry your name written on your face, and, by Jove! as guardian of +the seals, I have some responsibility--I want information, that is all!" + +Angry at having to submit to these inquiries in the presence of the +coachman who had brought him from Langres, Julien completely lost control +of his temper. + +"Do you require me to show my papers?" he inquired, in a haughty, +ironical tone of voice. + +Manette, foreseeing a disturbance, hastened to interpose, in her +hypocritical, honeyed voice: + +"Leave off, Claudet, let Monsieur alone. He would not be here, would he, +if he hadn't a right? As to asking him to prove his right, that is not +our business--it belongs to the justice and the notary. You had better, +my son, go over to Auberive, and ask the gentlemen to come to-morrow to +raise the seals." + +At this moment, the cowboy, who had been sent to open the gate, entered +the kitchen. + +"The carriage is in the courtyard," said he, "and Monsieur's boxes are in +the hall. Where shall I put them, Madame Sejoumant?" + +Julien's eyes wandered from Manette to the young boy, with an expression +of intense annoyance and fatigue. + +"Why, truly," said Manette, "as a matter of fact, there is only the room +of our deceased master, where the seals have been released. Would +Monsieur object to taking up his quarters there?" + +"I am willing," muttered Julien; "have my luggage carried up there, and +give orders for it to be made ready immediately." + +The housekeeper gave a sign, and the boy and the servant disappeared. + +"Madame," resumed Julien, turning toward Manette, "if I understand you +right, I can no longer reckon upon your services to take care of my +household. Could you send me some one to supply your place?" + +"Oh! as to that matter," replied the housekeeper, still in her wheedling +voice, "a day or two more or less! I am not so very particular, and I +don't mind attending to the house as long as I remain. At what hour +would you wish to dine, Monsieur?" + +"At the hour most convenient for you," responded Julien, quickly, anxious +to conciliate her; "you will serve my meals in my room." + +As the driver had now finished his bottle, they left the room together. + +As soon as the door was closed, Manette and her son exchanged sarcastic +looks. + +"He a Buxieres!" growled Claudet. "He looks like a student priest in +vacation." + +"He is an 'ecrigneule'," returned Manette, shrugging her shoulders. + +'Ecrigneule' is a word of the Langrois dialect, signifying a puny, +sickly, effeminate being. In the mouth of Madame Sejournant, this +picturesque expression acquired a significant amount of scornful energy. + +"And to think," sighed Claudet, twisting his hands angrily in his bushy +hair, "that such a slip of a fellow is going to be master here!" + +"Master?" repeated Manette, shaking her head, "we'll see about that! +He does not know anything at all, and has not what is necessary for +ordering about. In spite of his fighting-cock airs, he hasn't two +farthings' worth of spunk--it would be easy enough to lead him by the +nose. Do you see, Claudet, if we were to manage properly, instead of +throwing the handle after the blade, we should be able before two weeks +are, over to have rain or sunshine here, just as we pleased. We must +only have a little more policy." + +"What do you mean by policy, mother?" + +"I mean--letting things drag quietly on--not breaking all the windows at +the first stroke. The lad is as dazed as a young bird that has fallen +from its nest. What we have to do is to help him to get control of +himself, and accustom him not to do without us. As soon as we have made +ourselves necessary to him, he will be at our feet." + +"Would you wish me to become the servant of the man who has cheated me +out of my inheritance?" protested Claudet, indignantly. + +"His servant--no, indeed! but his companion--why not? And it would be +so easy if you would only make up your mind to it, Claude. I tell you +again, he is not ill-natured-he looks like a man who is up to his neck in +devotion. When he once feels we are necessary to his comfort, and that +some reliable person, like the curate, for example, were to whisper to +him that you are the son of Claudet de Buxieres, he would have scruples, +and at last, half on his own account, and half for the sake of religion, +he would begin to treat you like a relative." + +"No;" said Claudet, firmly, "these tricky ways do not suit me. Monsieur +Arbillot proposed yesterday that I should do what you advise. He even +offered to inform this gentleman of my relationship to Claude de +Buxieres. I refused, and forbade the notary to open his mouth on the +subject. What! should I play the part of a craven hound before this +younger son whom my father detested, and beg for a portion of the +inheritance? Thank you! I prefer to take myself out of the way at +once!" + +"You prefer to have your mother beg her bread at strangers' doors!" +replied Manette, bitterly, shedding tears of rage. + +"I have already told you, mother, that when one has a good pair of arms, +and the inclination to use them, one has no need to beg one's bread. +Enough said! I am going to Auberive to notify the justice and the +notary." + +While Claudet was striding across the woods, the boy carried the luggage +of the newly arrived traveller into the chamber on the first floor, and +Zelie, the small servant, put the sheets on the bed, dusted the room, and +lighted the fire. In a few minutes, Julien was alone in his new +domicile, and began to open his boxes and valises. The chimney, which +had not been used since the preceding winter, smoked unpleasantly, and +the damp logs only blackened instead of burning. The boxes lay wide +open, and the room of the deceased Claude de Buxieres had the +uncomfortable aspect of a place long uninhabited. Julien had seated +himself in one of the large armchairs, covered in Utrecht velvet, and +endeavored to rekindle the dying fire. He felt at loose ends and +discouraged, and had no longer the courage to arrange his clothes in the +open wardrobes, which stood open, emitting a strong odor of decaying +mold. + +The slight breath of joyous and renewed life which had animated him on +leaving the Vincart farm, had suddenly evaporated. His anticipations +collapsed in the face of these bristling realities, among which he felt +his isolation more deeply than ever before. He recalled the cordiality +of Reine's reception, and how she had spoken of the difficulties he +should have to encounter. How little he had thought that her forebodings +would come true the very same day! The recollection of the cheerful and +hospitable interior of La Thuiliere contrasted painfully with his cold, +bare Vivey mansion, tenanted solely by hostile domestics. Who were these +people--this Manette Sejournant with her treacherous smile, and this +fellow Claudet, who had, at the very first, subjected him to such +offensive questioning? Why did they seem so ill-disposed toward him? He +felt as if he were completely enveloped in an atmosphere of contradiction +and ill-will. He foresaw what an amount of quiet but steady opposition +he should have to encounter from these subordinates, and he became +alarmed at the prospect of having to display so much energy in order to +establish his authority in the chateau. He, who had pictured to himself +a calm and delightful solitude, wherein he could give himself up entirely +to his studious and contemplative tastes. What a contrast to the +reality! + +Rousing himself at last, he proceeded mechanically to arrange his +belongings in the room, formerly inhabited by his cousin de Buxieres. +He had hardly finished when Zelie made her appearance with some plates +and a tablecloth, and began to lay the covers. Seeing the fire had gone +out, the little servant uttered an exclamation of dismay. + +"Oh!" cried she, "so the wood didn't flare!" + +He gazed at her as if she were talking Hebrew, and it was at least a +minute before he understood that by "flare" she meant kindle. + +"Well, well!" she continued, "I'll go and fetch some splinters." + +She returned in a few moments, with a basket filled with the large +splinters thrown off by the woodchoppers in straightening the logs: she +piled these up on the andirons, and then, applying her mouth vigorously +to a long hollow tin tube, open at both ends, which she carried with her, +soon succeeded in starting a steady flame. + +"Look there!" said she, in a tone implying a certain degree of contempt +for the "city Monsieur" who did not even know how to keep up a fire, +"isn't that clever? Now I must lay the cloth." + +While she went about her task, arranging the plates, the water-bottle, +and glasses symmetrically around the table, Julien tried to engage her in +conversation. But the little maiden, either because she had been +cautioned beforehand, or because she did not very well comprehend M. de +Buxieres's somewhat literary style of French, would answer only in +monosyllables, or else speak only in patois, so that Julien had to give +up the idea of getting any information out of her. Certainly, +Mademoiselle Vincart was right in saying that he did not know the +language of these people. + +He ate without appetite the breakfast on which Manette had employed all +her culinary art, barely tasted the roast partridge, and to Zelie's great +astonishment, mingled the old Burgundy wine with a large quantity of +water. + +"You will inform Madame Sejournant," said he to the girl, as he folded +his napkin, "that I am not a great eater, and that one dish will suffice +me in future." + +He left her to clear away, and went out to look at the domain which he +was to call his own. It did not take him very long. The twenty or +thirty white houses, which constituted the village and lay sleeping in +the wooded hollow like eggs in a nest, formed a curious circular line +around the chateau. In a few minutes he had gone the whole length of it, +and the few people he met gave him only a passing glance, in which +curiosity seemed to have more share than any hospitable feeling. +He entered the narrow church under the patronage of Our Lady; the gray +light which entered through the moldy shutters showed a few scattered +benches of oak, and the painted wooden altar. He knelt down and +endeavored to collect his thoughts, but the rude surroundings of this +rustic sanctuary did not tend to comfort his troubled spirit, and he +became conscious of a sudden withering of all religious fervor. +He turned and left the place, taking a path that led through the forest. +It did not interest him more than the village; the woods spoke no +language which his heart could understand; he could not distinguish an +ash from an oak, and all the different plants were included by him under +one general term of "weeds"; but he needed bodily fatigue and violent +physical agitation to dissipate the overpowering feeling of +discouragement that weighed down his spirits. He walked for several +hours without seeing anything, nearly got lost, and did not reach home +till after dark. Once more the little servant appeared with his meal, +which he ate in an abstracted manner, without even asking whether he were +eating veal or mutton; then he went immediately to bed, and fell into an +uneasy sleep. And thus ended his first day. + +The next morning, about nine o'clock, he was informed that the justice of +the peace, the notary, and the clerk, were waiting for him below. He +hastened down and found the three functionaries busy conferring in a low +voice with Manette and Claudet. The conversation ceased suddenly upon +his arrival, and during the embarrassing silence that followed, all eyes +were directed toward Julien, who saluted the company and delivered to the +justice the documents proving his identity, begging him to proceed +without delay to the legal breaking of the seals. They accordingly began +operations, and went through all the house without interruption, +accompanied by Claudet, who stood stiff and sullen behind the justice, +taking advantage of every little opportunity to testify his dislike and +ill-feeling toward the legal heir of Claude de Buxieres. Toward eleven +o'clock, the proceedings came to an end, the papers were signed, and +Julien was regularly invested with his rights. But the tiresome +formalities were not yet over: he had to invite the three officials to +breakfast. This event, however, had been foreseen by Manette. Since +early morning she had been busy preparing a bountiful repast, and had +even called Julien de Buxieres aside in order to instruct him in the +hospitable duties which his position and the customs of society imposed +upon him. + +As they entered the dining-room, young de Buxieres noticed that covers +were laid for five people; he began to wonder who the fifth guest could +be, when an accidental remark of the clerk showed him that the unknown +was no other than Claudet. The fact was that Manette could not bear the +idea that her son, who had always sat at table with the late Claude de +Buxieres, should be consigned to the kitchen in presence of these +distinguished visitors from Auberive, and had deliberately laid a place +for him at the master's table, hoping that the latter would not dare put +any public affront upon Claudet. She was not mistaken in her idea. +Julien, anxious to show a conciliatory spirit, and making an effort to +quell his own repugnance, approached the 'grand chasserot', who was +standing at one side by himself, and invited him to take his seat at the +table. + +"Thank you," replied Claudet, coldly, "I have breakfasted." So saying, +he turned his back on M. de Buxieres, who returned to the hall, vexed +and disconcerted. + +The repast was abundant, and seemed of interminable length to Julien. +The three guests, whose appetites had been sharpened by their morning +exercise, did honor to Madame Sejournant's cooking; they took their wine +without water, and began gradually to thaw under the influence of their +host's good Burgundy; evincing their increased liveliness by the exchange +of heavy country witticisms, or relating noisy and interminable stories +of their hunting adventures. Their conversation was very trying to +Julien's nerves. Nevertheless, he endeavored to fulfil his duties as +master of the house, throwing in a word now and then, so as to appear +interested in their gossip, but he ate hardly a mouthful. His features +had a pinched expression, and every now and then he caught himself trying +to smother a yawn. His companions at the table could not understand a +young man of twenty-eight years who drank nothing but water, scorned all +enjoyment in eating, and only laughed forcedly under compulsion. At +last, disturbed by the continued taciturnity of their host, they rose +from the table sooner than their wont, and prepared to take leave. +Before their departure, Arbillot the notary, passed his arm familiarly +through that of Julien and led him into an adjoining room, which served +as billiard-hall and library. + +"Monsieur de Buxieres," said he, pointing to a pile of law papers heaped +upon the green cloth of the table; "see what I have prepared for you; you +will find there all the titles and papers relating to the real estate, +pictures, current notes, and various matters of your inheritance. You +had better keep them under lock and key, and study them at your leisure. +You will find them very interesting. I need hardly say," he added, "that +I am at your service for any necessary advice or explanation. But, in +respect to any minor details, you can apply to Claudet Sejournant, who is +very intelligent in such matters, and a good man of business. And, by +the way, Monsieur de Buxieres, will you allow me to commend the young man +especially to your kindly consideration." + +But Julien interrupted him with an imperious gesture, and replied, +frowning angrily: + +"If you please, Maitre Arbillot, we will not enter upon that subject. +I have already tried my best to show a kindly feeling toward Monsieur +Claudet, but I have been only here twenty-four hours, and he has already +found opportunities for affronting me twice. I beg you not to speak of +him again." + +The notary, who was just lighting his pipe, stopped suddenly. Moved by a +feeling of good-fellowship for the 'grand chasserot', who had, however, +enjoined him to silence, he had it on the tip of his tongue to inform +Julien of the facts concerning the parentage of Claudet de Buxieres; but, +however much he wished to render Claudet a service, he was still more +desirous of respecting the feelings of his client; so, between the +hostility of one party and the backwardness of the other, he chose the +wise part of inaction. + +"That is sufficient, Monsieur de Buxieres," replied he, "I will not press +the matter." + +Thereupon he saluted his client, and went to rejoin the justice and the +clerk, and the three comrades wended their way to Auberive through the +woods, discussing the incidents of the breakfast, and the peculiarities +of the new proprietor. + +"This de Buxieres," said M. Destourbet, "does not at all resemble his +deceased cousin Claude!" + +"I can quite understand why the two families kept apart from each other," +observed the notary, jocosely. + +"Poor 'chasserot'!" whined Seurrot the clerk, whom the wine had rendered +tender-hearted; "he will not have a penny. I pity him with all my +heart!" + +As soon as the notary had departed, Julien came to the determination of +transforming into a study the hall where he had been conferring with +Maitre Arbillot, which was dignified with the title of "library," +although it contained at the most but a few hundred odd volumes. The +hall was spacious, and lighted by two large windows opening on the +garden; the floor was of oak, and there was a great fireplace where the +largest logs used in a country in which the wood costs nothing could find +ample room to blaze and crackle. It took the young man several days to +make the necessary changes, and during that time he enjoyed a respite +from the petty annoyances worked by the steady hostility of Manette +Sejournant and her son. To the great indignation of the inhabitants of +the chateau, he packed off the massive billiard-table, on which Claude de +Buxieres had so often played in company with his chosen friends, to the +garret; after which the village carpenter was instructed to make the +bookshelves ready for the reception of Julien's own books, which were +soon to arrive by express. When he had got through with these labors, +he turned his attention to the documents placed in his hands by the +notary, endeavoring to find out by himself the nature of his revenues. +He thought this would be a very easy matter, but he soon found that it +was encumbered with inextricable difficulties. + +A large part of the products of the domain consisted of lumber ready for +sale. Claude de Buxieres had been in the habit of superintending, either +personally or through his intermediate agents, one half of the annual +amount of lumber felled for market, the sale of which was arranged with +the neighboring forge owners by mutual agreement; the other half was +disposed of by notarial act. This latter arrangement was clear and +comprehensible; the price of sale and the amounts falling due were both +clearly indicated in the deed. But it was quite different with the +bargains made by the owner himself, which were often credited by notes +payable at sight, mostly worded in confused terms, unintelligible to any +but the original writer. Julien became completely bewildered among these +various documents, the explanations in which were harder to understand +than conundrums. Although greatly averse to following the notary's +advice as to seeking Claudet's assistance, he found himself compelled to +do so, but was met by such laconic and surly answers that he concluded it +would be more dignified on his part to dispense with the services of one +who was so badly disposed toward him. He therefore resolved to have +recourse to the debtors themselves, whose names he found, after much +difficulty, in the books. These consisted mostly of peasants of the +neighborhood, who came to the chateau at his summons; but as soon as they +came into Julien's presence, they discovered, with that cautious +perception which is an instinct with rustic minds, that before them stood +a man completely ignorant of the customs of the country, and very poorly +informed on Claude de Buxieres's affairs. They made no scruple of +mystifying this "city gentleman," by means of ambiguous statements and +cunning reticence. The young man could get no enlightenment from them; +all he clearly understood was, that they were making fun of him, and that +he was not able to cope with these country bumpkins, whose shrewdness +would have done honor to the most experienced lawyer. + +After a few days he became discouraged and disgusted. He could see +nothing but trouble ahead; he seemed surrounded by either open enemies or +people inclined to take advantage of him. It was plain that all the +population of the village looked upon him as an intruder, a troublesome +master, a stranger whom they would like to intimidate and send about his +business. Manette Sejournant, who was always talking about going, still +remained in the chateau, and was evidently exerting her influence to keep +her son also with her. The fawning duplicity of this woman was +unbearable to Julien; he had not the energy necessary either to subdue +her, or to send her away, and she appeared every morning before him with +a string of hypocritical grievances, and opposing his orders with steady, +irritating inertia. It seemed as if she were endeavoring to render his +life at Vivey hateful to him, so that he would be compelled finally to +beat a retreat. + +One morning in November he had reached such a state of moral fatigue and +depression that, as he sat listlessly before the library fire, the +question arose in his mind whether it would not be better to rent the +chateau, place the property in the hands of a manager, and take himself +and his belongings back to Nancy, to his little room in the Rue +Stanislaus, where, at any rate, he could read, meditate, or make plans +for the future without being every moment tormented by miserable, petty +annoyances. His temper was becoming soured, his nerves were unstrung, +and his mind was so disturbed that he fancied he had none but enemies +around him. A cloudy melancholy seemed to invade his brain; he was +seized with a sudden fear that he was about to have an attack of +persecution-phobia, and began to feel his pulse and interrogate his +sensations to see whether he could detect any of the premonitory +symptoms. + +While he was immersing himself in this unwholesome atmosphere of +hypochondria, the sound of a door opening and shutting made him start; +he turned quickly around, saw a young woman approaching and smiling at +him, and at last recognized Reine Vincart. + +She wore the crimped linen cap and the monk's hood in use among the +peasants of the richer class. Her wavy, brown hair, simply parted in +front, fell in rebellious curls from under the border of her cap, of +which the only decoration was a bow of black ribbon; the end floating +gracefully over her shoulders. The sharp November air had imparted a +delicate rose tint to her pale complexion, and additional vivacity to her +luminous, dark eyes. + +"Good-morning, Monsieur de Buxieres," said she, in her clear, pleasantly +modulated voice; "I think you may remember me? It is not so long since +we saw each other at the farm." + +"Mademoiselle Vincart!" exclaimed Julien. "Why, certainly I remember +you!" + +He drew a chair toward the fire, and offered it to her. This charming +apparition of his cordial hostess at La Thuiliere evoked the one pleasant +remembrance in his mind since his arrival in Vivey. It shot, like a ray +of sunlight, across the heavy fog of despair which had enveloped the new +master of the chateau. It was, therefore, with real sincerity that he +repeated: + +"I both know you and am delighted to see you. I ought to have called +upon you before now, to thank you for your kind hospitality, but I have +had so much to do, and," his face clouding over, "so many annoyances!" + +"Really?" said she, softly, gazing pityingly at him; "you must not take +offence, but, it is easy to see you have been worried! Your features are +drawn and you have an anxious look. Is it that the air of Vivey does not +agree with you?" + +"It is not the air," replied Julien, in an irritated tone, "it is the +people who do not agree with me. And, indeed," sighed he, "I do not +think I agree any better with them. But I need not annoy other persons +merely because I am annoyed myself! Mademoiselle Vincart, what can I do +to be of service to you? Have you anything to ask me?" + +"Not at all!" exclaimed Reine, with a frank smile; "I not only have +nothing to ask from you, but I have brought something for you--six +hundred francs for wood we had bought from the late Monsieur de Buxieres, +during the sale of the Ronces forest." She drew from under her cloak a +little bag of gray linen, containing gold, five-franc pieces and bank- +notes. "Will you be good enough to verify the amount?" continued she, +emptying the bag upon the table; "I think it is correct. You must have +somewhere a memorandum of the transaction in writing." + +Julien began to look through the papers, but he got bewildered with the +number of rough notes jotted down on various slips of paper, until at +last, in an impatient fit of vexation, he flung the whole bundle away, +scattering the loose sheets all over the floor. + +"Who can find anything in such a chaos?" he exclaimed. "I can't see my +way through it, and when I try to get information from the people here, +they seem to have an understanding among themselves to leave me under a +wrong impression, or even to make my uncertainties still greater! Ah! +Mademoiselle Reine, you were right! I do not understand the ways of your +country folk. Every now and then I am tempted to leave everything just +as it stands, and get away from this village, where the people mistrust +me and treat me like an enemy!" + +Reine gazed at him with a look of compassionate surprise. Stooping +quietly down, she picked up the scattered papers, and while putting them +in order on the table, she happened to see the one relating to her own +business. + +"Here, Monsieur de Buxieres," said she, "here is the very note you were +looking for. You seem to be somewhat impatient. Our country folk are +not so bad as you think; only they do not yield easily to new influences. +The beginning is always difficult for them. I know something about it +myself. When I returned from Dijon to take charge of the affairs at La +Thuiliere, I had no more experience than you, Monsieur, and I had great +difficulty in accomplishing anything. Where should we be now, if I had +suffered myself to be discouraged, like you, at the very outset?" + +Julien raised his eyes toward the speaker, coloring with embarrassment to +hear himself lectured by this young peasant girl, whose ideas, however, +had much more virility than his own. + +"You reason like a man, Mademoiselle Vincart," remarked he, admiringly, +"pray, how old are you?" + +"Twenty-two years; and you, Monsieur de Buxieres?" + +"I shall soon be twenty-eight." + +"There is not much difference between us; still, you are the older, and +what I have done, you can do also." + +"Oh!" sighed he, "you have a love of action. I have a love of repose-- +I do not like to act." + +"So much the worse!" replied Reine, very decidedly. "A man ought to +show more energy. Come now, Monsieur de Buxieres, will you allow me to +speak frankly to you? If you wish people to come to you, you must first +get out of yourself and go to seek them; if you expect your neighbor to +show confidence and good-will toward you, you must be open and good- +natured toward him." + +"That plan has not yet succeeded with two persons around here," replied +Julien, shaking his head. + +"Which persons?" + +"The Sejournants, mother and son. I tried to be pleasant with Claudet, +and received from both only rebuffs and insolence." + +"Oh! as to Claudet," resumed she, impulsively, "he is excusable. You +can not expect he will be very gracious in his reception of the person +who has supplanted him--" + +"Supplanted?--I do not understand." + +"What!" exclaimed Reine, "have they not told you anything, then? +That is wrong. Well, at the risk of meddling in what does not concern +me, I think it is better to put you in possession of the facts: Your +deceased cousin never was married, but he had a child all the same-- +Claudet is his son, and he intended that he should be his heir also. +Every one around the country knows that, for Monsieur de Buxieres made no +secret of it " + +"Claudet, the son of Claude de Buxieres?" ejaculated Julien, with +amazement. + +"Yes; and if the deceased had had the time to make his will, you would +not be here now. But," added the young girl, coloring, "don't tell +Claudet I have spoken to you about it. I have been talking here too +long. Monsieur de Buxieres, will you have the goodness to reckon up your +money and give me a receipt?" + +She had risen, and Julien gazed wonderingly at the pretty country girl +who had shown herself so sensible, so resolute, and so sincere. He bent +his head, collected the money on the table, scribbled hastily a receipt +and handed it to Reine. + +"Thank you, Mademoiselle," said he, "you are the first person who has +been frank with me, and I am grateful to you for it." + +"Au revoir, Monsieur de Buxieres." + +She had already gained the door while he made an awkward attempt to +follow her. She turned toward him with a smile on her lips and in her +eyes. + +"Come, take courage!" she added, and then vanished. + +Julien went back dreamily, and sat down again before the hearth. The +revelation made by Reine Vincart had completely astounded him. Such was +his happy inexperience of life, that he had not for a moment suspected +the real position of Manette and her son at the chateau. And it was this +young girl who had opened his eyes to the fact! He experienced a certain +degree of humiliation in having had so little perception. Now that +Reine's explanation enabled him to view the matter from a different +standpoint, he found Claudet's attitude toward him both intelligible and +excusable. In fact, the lad was acting in accordance with a very +legitimate feeling of mingled pride and anger. After all, he really was +Claude de Buxieres's son--a natural son, certainly, but one who had been +implicitly acknowledged both in private and in public by his father. If +the latter had had time to draw up the incomplete will which had been +found, he would, to all appearances, have made Claudet his heir. +Therefore, the fortune of which Julien had become possessed, he owed to +some unexpected occurrence, a mere chance. Public opinion throughout the +entire village tacitly recognized and accepted the 'grand chasserot' as +son of the deceased, and if this recognition had been made legally, he +would have been rightful owner of half the property. + +"Now that I have been made acquainted with this position of affairs, +what is my duty?" asked Julien of himself. Devout in feeling and in +practice, he was also very scrupulous in all matters of conscience, and +the reply was not long in coming: that both religion and uprightness +commanded him to indemnify Claudet for the wrong caused to him by the +carelessness of Claude de Buxieres. Reine had simply told him the facts +without attempting to give him any advice, but it was evident that, +according to her loyal and energetic way of thinking, there was injustice +to be repaired. Julien was conscious that by acting to that effect he +would certainly gain the esteem and approbation of his amiable hostess of +La Thuiliere, and he felt a secret satisfaction in the idea. He rose +suddenly, and, leaving the library, went to the kitchen, where Manette +Sejournant was busy preparing the breakfast. + +"Where is your son?" said he. "I wish to speak with him." + +Manette looked inquiringly at him. + +"My son," she replied, "is in the garden, fixing up a box to take away +his little belongings in--he doesn't want to stay any longer at other +peoples' expense. And, by the way, Monsieur de Buxieres, have the +goodness to provide yourself with a servant to take my place; we shall +not finish the week here." + +Without making any reply, Julien went out by the door, leading to the +garden, and discovered Claudet really occupied in putting together the +sides of a packing-case. Although the latter saw the heir of the de +Buxieres family approaching, he continued driving in the nails without +appearing to notice his presence. + +"Monsieur Claudet," said Julien, "can you spare me a few minutes? I +should like to talk to you." + +Claudet raised his head, hesitated for a moment, then, throwing away his +hammer and putting on his loose jacket, muttered: + +"I am at your service." + +They left the outhouse together, and entered an avenue of leafy lime- +trees, which skirted the banks of the stream. + +"Monsieur," said Julien, stopping in the middle of the walk, "excuse me +if I venture on a delicate subject--but I must do so--now that I know +all." + +"Beg pardon--what do you know?" demanded Claudet, reddening. + +"I know that you are the son of my cousin de Buxieres," replied the young +man with considerable emotion. + +The 'grand chasserot' knitted his brows. + +"Ah!" said he, bitterly, "my mother's tongue has been too long, or else +that blind magpie of a notary has been gossiping, notwithstanding my +instructions." + +"No; neither your mother nor Maitre Arbillot has been speaking to me. +What I know I have learned from a stranger, and I know also that you +would be master here if Claude de Buxieres had taken the precaution to +write out his will. His negligence on that point has been a wrong to +you, which it is my duty to repair." + +"What's that!" exclaimed Claudet. Then he muttered between his teeth: +"You owe me nothing. The law is on your side." + +"I am not in the habit of consulting the law when it is a question of +duty. Besides, Monsieur de Buxieres treated you openly as his son; if he +had done what he ought, made a legal acknowledgment, you would have the +right, even in default of a will, to one half of his patrimony. This +half I come to offer to you, and beg of you to accept it." + +Claudet was astonished, and opened his great, fierce brown eyes with +amazement. The proposal seemed so incredible that he thought he must be +dreaming, and mistrusted what he heard. + +"What! You offer me half the inheritance?" faltered he. + +"Yes; and I am ready to give you a certified deed of relinquishment as +soon as you wish--" + +Claudet interrupted him with a violent shrug of the shoulders. + +"I make but one condition," pursued Julien. + +"What is it?" asked Claudet, still on the defensive. + +"That you will continue to live here, with me, as in your father's time." + +Claudet was nearly overcome by this last suggestion, but a lingering +feeling of doubt and a kind of innate pride prevented him from giving +way, and arrested the expression of gratitude upon his lips. + +"What you propose is very generous, Monsieur," said he, "but you have not +thought much about it, and later you might regret it. If I were to stay +here, I should be a restraint upon you--" + +"On the contrary, you would be rendering me a service, for I feel myself +incapable of managing the property," replied Julien, earnestly. Then, +becoming more confidential as his conscience was relieved of its burden, +he continued, pleasantly: "You see I am not vain about admitting the +fact. Come, cousin, don't be more proud than I am. Accept freely what I +offer with hearty goodwill!" + +As he concluded these words, he felt his hand seized, and affectionately +pressed in a strong, robust grip. + +"You are a true de Buxieres!" exclaimed Claudet, choking with emotion. +"I accept--thanks--but, what have I to give you in exchange?--nothing but +my friendship; but that will be as firm as my grip, and will last all my +life." + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Amusements they offered were either wearisome or repugnant +Dreaded the monotonous regularity of conjugal life +Fawning duplicity +Had not been spoiled by Fortune's gifts +Hypocritical grievances +I am not in the habit of consulting the law +It does not mend matters to give way like that +Opposing his orders with steady, irritating inertia +There are some men who never have had any childhood +To make a will is to put one foot into the grave +Toast and white wine (for breakfast) +Vague hope came over him that all would come right + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of A Woodland Queen, v1 +by Andre Theuriet + diff --git a/3935.zip b/3935.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b2b76dd --- /dev/null +++ b/3935.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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