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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/3970.txt b/3970.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3e2a2ae --- /dev/null +++ b/3970.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3128 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Jacqueline by Th. Bentzon (Mme. Blanc), v3 +#57 in our series The French Immortals Crowned by the French Academy +#3 in our series by Th. Bentzon (Mme. Blanc) + +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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BLANC) + + + +BOOK 3. + + +CHAPTER XIV + +BITTER DISILLUSION + +Some people in this world who turn round and round in a daily circle of +small things, like squirrels in a cage, have no idea of the pleasure a +young creature, conscious of courage, has in trying its strength; this +struggle with fortune loses its charm as it grows longer and longer and +more and more difficult, but at the beginning it is an almost certain +remedy for sorrow. + +To her resolve to make head against misfortune Jacqueline owed the fact +that she did not fall into those morbid reveries which might have +converted her passing fancy for a man who was simply a male flirt into +the importance of a lost love. Is there any human being conscious of +energy, and with faith in his or her own powers, who has not wished to +know something of adversity in order to rise to the occasion and confront +it? To say nothing of the pleasure there is in eating brown bread, when +one has been fed only on cake, or of the satisfaction that a child feels +when, after strict discipline, he is left to do as he likes, to say +nothing of the pleasure ladies boarding in nunneries are sure to feel on +reentering the world, at recovering their liberty, Jacqueline by nature +loved independence, and she was attracted by the novelty of her situation +as larks are attracted by a mirror. She was curious to know what life +held for her in reserve, and she was extremely anxious to repair the +error she had committed in giving way to a feeling of which she was now +ashamed. What could do this better than hard work? To owe everything to +herself, to her talents, to her efforts, to her industry, such was +Jacqueline's ideal of her future life. + +She had, before this, crowned her brilliant reputation in the 'cours' of +M. Regis by passing her preliminary examination at the Sorbonne; she was +confident of attaining the highest degree--the 'brevet superieur', and +while pursuing her own studies she hoped to give lessons in music and in +foreign languages, etc. Thus assured of making her own living, she could +afford to despise the discreditable happiness of Madame de Nailles, who, +she had no doubt, would shortly become Madame Marien; also the crooked +ways in which M. de Cymier might pursue his fortune-hunting. She said to +herself that she should never marry; that she had other objects of +interest; that marriage was for those who had nothing better before them; +and the world appeared to her under a new aspect, a sphere of useful +activity full of possibilities, of infinite variety, and abounding in +interests. Marriage might be all very well for rich girls, who unhappily +were objects of value to be bought and sold; her semi-poverty gave her +the right to break the chains that hampered the career of other well-born +women--she would make her own way in the world like a man. + +Thus, at eighteen, youth is ready to set sail in a light skiff on a rough +sea, having laid in a good store of imagination and of courage, of +childlike ignorance and self-esteem. + +No doubt she would meet with some difficulties; that thought did but +excite her ardor. No doubt Madame de Nailles would try to keep her with +her, and Jacqueline had provided herself beforehand with some double- +edged remarks by way of weapons, which she intended to use according to +circumstances. But all these preparations for defense or attack proved +unnecessary. When she told the Baroness of her plans she met with no +opposition. She had expected that her project of separation would highly +displease her stepmother; on the contrary, Madame de Nailles discussed +her projects quietly, affecting to consider them merely temporary, but +with no indication of dissatisfaction or resistance. In truth she was +not sorry that Jacqueline, whose companionship became more and more +embarrassing every day, had cut the knot of a difficult position by a +piece of wilfulness and perversity which seemed to put her in the wrong. +The necessity she would have been under of crushing such a girl, who was +now eighteen, would have been distasteful and unprofitable; she was very +glad to get rid of her stepdaughter, always provided it could be done +decently and without scandal. Those two, who had once so loved each +other and who were now sharers in the same sorrows, became enemies-- +two hostile parties, which only skilful strategy could ever again bring +together. They tacitly agreed to certain conditions: they would save +appearances; they would remain on outwardly good terms with each other +whatever happened, and above all they would avoid any explanation. This +programme was faithfully carried out, thanks to the great tact of Madame +de Nailles. + +No one could have been more watchful to appear ignorant of everything +which, if once brought to light, would have led to difficulties; for +instance, she feigned not to know that her stepdaughter was in possession +of a secret which, if the world knew, would forever make them strangers +to each other; nor would she seem aware that Hubert Marien, weary to +death of the tie that bound him to her, was restrained from breaking it +only by a scruple of honor. Thanks to this seeming ignorance, she parted +from Jacqueline without any open breach, as she had long hoped to do, and +she retained as a friend who supplied her wants a man who was only too +happy to be allowed at this price to escape the act of reparation which +Jacqueline, in her simplicity, had dreaded. + +All those who, having for years dined and danced under the roof of the +Nailles, were accounted their friends by society, formed themselves into +two parties, one of which lauded to the skies the dignity and resignation +of the Baroness, while the other admired the force of character in +Jacqueline. + +Visitors flocked to the convent which the young girl, by the advice of +Giselle, had chosen for her retreat because it was situated in a quiet +quarter. She who looked so beautiful in her crape garments, who showed +herself so satisfied in her little cell with hardly any furniture, who +was grateful for the services rendered her by the lay sisters, content +with having no salon but the convent parlor, who was passing examinations +to become a teacher, and who seemed to consider it a favor to be +sometimes allowed to hear the children in the convent school say their +lessons--was surely like a heroine in a novel. And indeed Jacqueline had +the agreeable sensation of considering herself one. Public admiration +was a great help to her, after she had passed through that crisis in her +grief during which she could feel nothing but the horror of knowing she +should never see her father again, when she had ceased to weep for him +incessantly, to pray for him, and to turn, like a wounded lioness, on +those who blamed his reckless conduct, though she herself had been its +chief victim. + +For three months she hardly left the convent, walking only in the grounds +and gardens, which were of considerable extent. From time to time +Giselle came for her and took her to drive in the Bois at that hour of +the day when few people were there. + +Enguerrand, who, thanks to his mother's care, was beginning to be an +intelligent and interesting child, though he was still painfully like +M. de Talbrun, was always with them in the coupe, kindhearted Giselle +thinking that nothing could be so likely to assuage grief as the prattle +of a child. She was astonished--she was touched to the heart, by what +she called naively the conversion of Jacqueline. It was true that the +young girl had no longer any whims or caprices. All the nuns seemed to +her amiable, her lodging was all she needed, her food was excellent; her +lessons gave her amusement. Possibly the excitement of the entire +change had much to do at first with this philosophy, and in fact at the +end of six months Jacqueline owned that she was growing tired of dining +at the table d'hote. + +There was a little knot of crooked old ladies who were righteous +overmuch, and several sour old maids whose only occupation seemed to be +to make remarks on any person who had anything different in dress, +manners, or appearance from what they considered the type of the +becoming. If it is not good that man should live alone, it is equally +true that women should not live together. Jacqueline found this out as +soon as her powers of observation came back to her. And about the same +time she discovered that she was not so free as she had flattered herself +she should be. The appearance of a lady, fair and with light hair, very +pretty and about her own age, gave her for the first time an inclination +to talk at table. She and this young woman met twice a day at their +meals, in the morning and in the evening; their rooms were next each +other, and at night Jacqueline could hear her through the thin partition +giving utterance to sighs, which showed that she was unhappy. Several +times, too, she came upon her in the garden looking earnestly at a place +where the wall had been broken, a spot whence it was said a Spanish +countess had been carried off by a bold adventurer. Jacqueline thought +there must be something romantic in the history of this newcomer, and +would have liked exceedingly to know what it might be. As a prelude to +acquaintance, she offered the young stranger some holy water when they +met in the chapel, a bow and a smile were interchanged, their fingers +touched. They seemed almost friends. After this, Jacqueline contrived +to change her seat at table to one next to this unknown person, so +prettily dressed, with her hair so nicely arranged, and, though her +expression was very sad, with a smile so very winning. She alone +represented the world, the world of Paris, among all those ladies, +some of whom were looking for places as companions, some having come up +from the provinces, and some being old ladies who had seen better days. +Her change of place was observed by the nun who presided at the table, +and a shade of displeasure passed over her face. It was slight, but it +portended trouble. And, indeed, when grace had been said, Mademoiselle +de Nailles was sent for by the Mother Superior, who gave her to +understand that, being so young, it was especially incumbent on her to be +circumspect in her choice of associates. Her place thenceforward was to +be between Madame de X-----, an old, deaf lady, and Mademoiselle J-----, +a former governess, as cold as ice and exceedingly respectable. As to +Madame Saville, she had been received in the convent for especial +reasons, arising out of circumstances which did not make her a fit +companion for inexperienced girls. The Superior hesitated a moment and +then said: "Her husband requested us to take charge of her," in a tone by +which Jacqueline quite understood that "take charge" was a synonym for +"keep a strict watch upon her." She was spied upon, she was persecuted-- +unjustly, no doubt. + +All this increased the interest that Jacqueline already felt in the lady +with the light hair. But she made a low curtsey to the Mother Superior +and returned no answer. Her intercourse with her neighbor was +thenceforward; however, sly and secret, which only made it more +interesting and exciting. They would exchange a few words when they met +upon the stairs, in the garden, or in the cloisters, when there was no +curious eye to spy them out; and the first time Jacqueline went out alone +Madame Saville was on the watch, and, without speaking, slipped a letter +into her hand. + +This first time Jacqueline went out was an epoch in her life, as small +events are sometimes in the annals of nations; it was the date of her +emancipation, it coincided with what she called her choice of a career. +Thinking herself sure of possessing a talent for teaching, she had spoken +of it to several friends who had come to see her, and who each and all +exclaimed that they would like some lessons, a delicate way of helping +her quite understood by Jacqueline. Pupils like Belle Ray and Yvonne +d'Etaples, who wanted her to come twice a week to play duets with them or +to read over new music, were not nearly so interesting as those in her +little class who had hardly more than learned their scales! Besides +this, Madame d'Avrigny begged her to come and dine with her, when there +would be only themselves, on Mondays, and then practise with Dolly, who +had not another moment in which she could take a lesson. She should be +sent home scrupulously before ten o'clock, that being the hour at the +convent when every one must be in. Jacqueline accepted all these +kindnesses gratefully. By Giselle's advice she hid her slight figure +under a loose cloak and put on her head a bonnet fit for a grandmother, +a closed hat with long strings, which, when she first put it on her head, +made her burst out laughing. She imagined herself to be going forth in +disguise. To walk the streets thus masked she thought would be amusing, +so amusing that the moment she set foot on the street pavement she felt +that the joy of living was yet strong in her. With a roll of music in +her hand, she walked on rather hesitatingly, a little afraid, like a bird +just escaped from the cage where it was born; her heart beat, but it was +with pleasure; she fancied every one was looking at her, and in fact one +old gentleman, not deceived by the cloak, did follow her till she got +into an omnibus for the first time in her life--a new experience and a +new pleasure. Once seated, and a little out of breath, she remembered +Madame Saville's letter, which she had slipped into her pocket. It was +sealed and had a stamp on it; it was too highly scented to be in good +taste, and it was addressed to a lieutenant of chasseurs with an +aristocratic name, in a garrison at Fontainebleau. + +Then Jacqueline began vaguely to comprehend that Madame Saville's husband +might have had serious reasons for commending his wife to the +surveillance of the nuns, and that there might have been some excuse for +their endeavoring to hinder all intimacy between herself and the little +blonde. + +This office of messenger, thrust upon her without asking permission, was +not agreeable to Jacqueline, and she resolved as she dropped the missive, +which, even on the outside, looked compromising, into the nearest post- +box, to be more reserved in future. For which reason she responded +coldly to a sign Madame Saville made her when, in the evening, she +returned from giving her lessons. + +Those lessons--those excursions which took her abroad in all weathers, +though with praiseworthy and serious motives, into the fashionable parts +of Paris, from which she had exiled herself by her own will--were greatly +enjoyed by Jacqueline. Everything amused her, being seen from a point of +view in which she had never before contemplated it. She seemed to be at +a play, all personal interests forgotten for the moment, looking at the +world of which she was no longer a part with a lively, critical +curiosity, without regrets but without cynicism. The world did not seem +to her bad--only man's higher instincts had little part in it. Such, +at least, was what she thought, so long as people praised her for her +courage, so long as the houses in which another Jacqueline de Nailles had +been once so brilliant, received her with affection as before, though she +had to leave in an anteroom her modest waterproof or wet umbrella. They +were even more kind and cordial to her than ever, unless an exaggerated +cordiality be one form of impertinence. But the enthusiasm bestowed on +splendid instances of energy in certain circles, to which after all such +energy is a reproach, is superficial, and not being genuine is sure not +to last long. Some people said that Jacqueline's staid manners were put +on for effect, and that she was only attempting to play a difficult part +to which she was not suited; others blamed her for not being up to +concert-pitch in matters of social interest. The first time she felt the +pang of exclusion was at Madame d'Avrigny's, who was at the same moment +overwhelming her with expressions of regard. In the first place, she +could see that the little family dinner to which she had been so kindly +invited was attended by so many guests that her deep mourning seemed out +of place among them. Then Madame d'Avrigny would make whispered +explanations, which Jacqueline was conscious of, and which were very +painful to her. Such words as: "Old friend of the family;" "Is giving +music lessons to my daughter;" fell more than once upon her ear, followed +by exclamations of "Poor thing!" "So courageous!" "Chivalric +sentiments!" Of course, everyone added that they excused her toilette. +Then when she tried to escape such remarks by wearing a new gown, Dolly, +who was always a little fool (there is no cure for that infirmity) cried +out in a tone such as she never would have dared to use in the days when +Jacqueline was a model of elegance: "Oh, how fine you are!" Then again, +Madame d'Avrigny, notwithstanding the good manners on which she prided +herself, could not conceal that the obligation of sending home the +recluse to the ends of the earth, at a certain hour, made trouble with +her servants, who were put out of their way. Jacqueline seized on this +pretext to propose to give up the Monday music-lesson, and after some +polite hesitation her offer was accepted, evidently to Madame d'Avrigny's +relief. + +In this case she had the satisfaction of being the one to propose the +discontinuance of the lessons. At Madame Ray's she was simply dismissed. +About the close of winter she was told that as Isabelle was soon to be +married she would have no time for music till her wedding was over, and +about the same time the d'Etaples told her much the same thing. This was +not to be wondered at, for Mademoiselle Ray was engaged to an officer of +dragoons, the same Marcel d'Etaples who had acted with her in Scylla and +Charybdis, and Madame Ray, being a watchful mother, was not long in +perceiving that Marcel came to pay court to Isabelle too frequently at +the hour for her music-lesson. Madame d'Etaples on her part had made a +similar discovery, and both judged that the presence of so beautiful a +girl, in Jacqueline's position, might not be desirable in these +interviews between lovers. + +When Giselle, as she was about to leave town for the country in July, +begged Jacqueline, who seemed run down and out of spirits, to come and +stay with her, the poor child was very glad to accept the invitation. +Her pupils were leaving her one after another, she could not understand +why, and she was bored to death in the convent, whose strict rules were +drawn tighter on her than before, for the nuns had begun to understand +her better, and to discover the real worldliness of her character. At +the same time, that retreat within these pious walls no longer seemed +like paradise to Jacqueline; her transition from the deepest crape to the +softer tints of half mourning, seemed to make her less of an angel in +their eyes. They said to each other that Mademoiselle de Nailles was +fanciful, and fancies are the very last things wanted in a convent, for +fancies can brave bolts, and make their escape beyond stone walls, +whatever means may be taken to clip their wings. + +"She does not seem like the same person," cried the good sisters, who had +been greatly edified at first by her behavior, and who were almost ready +now to be shocked at her. + +The course of things was coming back rapidly into its natural channel; +in obedience to the law which makes a tree, apparently dead, put forth +shoots in springtime. And that inevitable re-budding and reblossoming +was beautiful to see in this young human plant. M. de Talbrun, +Jacqueline's host, could not fail to perceive it. At first he had been +annoyed with Giselle for giving the invitation, having a habit of finding +fault with everything he had not ordered or suggested, by virtue of his +marital authority, and also because he hated above all things, as he +said, to have people in his house who were "wobegones." But in a week he +was quite reconciled to the idea of keeping Mademoiselle de Nailles all +the summer at the Chateau de Fresne. Never had Giselle known him to take +so much trouble to be amiable, and indeed Jacqueline saw him much more to +advantage at home than in Paris, where, as she had often said, he +diffused too strong an odor of the stables. At Fresne, it was more easy +to forgive him for talking always of his stud and of his kennel, and then +he was so obliging! Every day he proposed some new jaunt, an excursion +to see some view, to visit all the ruined chateaux or abbeys in the +neighborhood. And, with surprising delicacy, M. de Talbrun refrained +from inviting too many of his country neighbors, who might perhaps have +scared Jacqueline and arrested her gradual return to gayety. They might +also have interrupted his tete-a-tete with his wife's guest, for they had +many such conversations. Giselle was absorbed in the duty of teaching +her son his a, b, c. Besides, being very timid, she had never ridden on +horseback, and, naturally, riding was delightful to her cousin. +Jacqueline was never tired of it; while she paid as little attention to +the absurd remarks Oscar made to her between their gallops as a girl does +at a ball to the idle words of her partner. She supposed it was his +custom to talk in that manner--a sort of rough gallantry--but with the +best intentions. Jacqueline was disposed to look upon her life at Fresne +as a feast after a long famine. Everything was to her taste, the whole +appearance of this lordly chateau of the time of Louis XIII, the splendid +trees in the home park, the gardens laid out 'a la Francais', decorated +with art and kept up carefully. Everything, indeed, that pertained to +that high life which to Giselle had so little importance, was to her +delightful. Giselle's taste was so simple that it was a constant subject +of reproach from her husband. To be sure, it was with him a general rule +to find fault with her about everything. He did not spare her his +reproaches on a multitude of subjects; all day long he was worrying her +about small trifles with which he should have had nothing to do. It is +a mistake to suppose that a man can not be brutal and fussy at the same +time. M. de Talbrun was proof to the contrary. + +"You are too patient," said Jacqueline often to Giselle. "You ought to +answer him back--to defend yourself. I am sure if you did so you would +have him, by-and-bye, at your beck and call." + +"Perhaps so. I dare say you could have managed better than I do," +replied Giselle, with a sad smile, but without a spark of jealousy. +"Oh, you are in high favor. He gave up this week the races at Deauville, +the great race week from which he has never before been absent, since our +marriage. But you see my ambition has become limited; I am satisfied if +he lets me alone." Giselle spoke these words with emphasis, and then she +added: "and lets me bring up his son my own way. That is all I ask." + +Jacqueline thought in her heart that it was wrong to ask so little, +that poor Giselle did not know how to make the best of her husband, and, +curious to find out what line of conduct would serve best to subjugate M. +de Talbrun, she became herself--that is to say, a born coquette-- +venturing from one thing to another, like a child playing fearlessly with +a bulldog, who is gentle only with him, or a fly buzzing round a spider's +web, while the spider lies quietly within. + +She would tease him, contradict him, and make him listen to long pieces +of scientific music as she played them on the piano, when she knew he +always said that music to him was nothing but a disagreeable noise; she +would laugh at his thanks when a final chord, struck with her utmost +force, roused him from a brief slumber; in short, it amused her to prove +that this coarse, rough man was to her alone no object of fear. She +would have done better had she been afraid. + +Thus it came to pass that, as they rode together through some of the +prettiest roads in the most beautiful part of Normandy, M. de Talbrun +began to talk, with an ever-increasing vivacity, of the days when they +first met, at Treport, relating a thousand little incidents which +Jacqueline had forgotten, and from which it was easy to see that he had +watched her narrowly, though he was on the eve of his own marriage. With +unnecessary persistence, and stammering as he was apt to do when moved by +any emotion, he repeated over and over again, that from the first moment +he had seen her he had been struck by her--devilishly struck by her-- +he had been, indeed! And one day when she answered, in order not to +appear to attach any importance to this declaration, that she was very +glad of it, he took an opportunity, as their horses stopped side by side +before a beautiful sunset, to put his arm suddenly round her waist, and +give her a kiss, so abrupt, so violent, so outrageous, that she screamed +aloud. He did not remove his arm from her, his coarse, red face drew +near her own again with an expression that filled her with horror. She +struggled to free herself, her horse began to rear, she screamed for help +with all her might, but nothing answered her save an echo. The situation +seemed critical for Jacqueline. As to M. de Talbrun, he was quite at his +ease, as if he were accustomed to make love like a centaur; while the +girl felt herself in peril of being thrown at any moment, and trampled +under his horse's feet. At last she succeeded in striking her aggressor +a sharp blow across the face with her riding-whip. Blinded for a moment, +he let her go, and she took advantage of her release to put her horse to +its full speed. He galloped after her, beside himself with wrath and +agitation; it was a mad but silent race, until they reached the gate of +the Chateau de Fresne, which they entered at the same moment, their +horses covered with foam. + +"How foolish!" cried Giselle, coming to meet them. "Just see in what a +state you have brought home your poor horses." + +Jacqueline, pale and trembling, made no answer. M. de Talbrun, as he +helped her to dismount, whispered, savagely: "Not a word of this!" + +At dinner, his wife remarked that some branch must have struck him on the +cheek, there was a red mark right across his face like a blow. + +"We were riding through the woods," he answered, shortly. + +Then Giselle began to suspect something, and remarked that nobody was +talking that evening, asking, with a half-smile, whether they had been +quarrelling. + +"We did have a little difference," Oscar replied, quietly. + +"Oh, it did not amount to anything," he said, lighting his cigar; "let us +make friends again, won't you?" he added, holding out his hand to +Jacqueline. She was obliged to give him the tips of her fingers, as she +said in her turn, with audacity equal to his own: + +"Oh, it was less than nothing. Only, Giselle, I told your husband that I +had had some bad news, and shall have to go back to Paris, and he tried +to persuade me not to go." + +"I beg you not to go," said Oscar, vehemently. + +"Bad news?" repeated Giselle, "you did not say a word to me about it!" + +"I did not have a chance. My old Modeste is very ill and asks me to come +to her. I should never forgive myself if I did not go." + +"What, Modeste? So very ill? Is it really so serious? What a pity! +But you will come back again?" + +"If I can. But I must leave Fresne to-morrow morning." + +"Oh, I defy you to leave Fresne!" said M. de Talbrun. + +Jacqueline leaned toward him, and said firmly, but in a low voice: +"If you attempt to hinder me, I swear I will tell everything." + +All that evening she did not leave Giselle's side for a moment, and at +night she locked herself into her chamber and barricaded the door, as if +a mad dog or a murderer were at large in the chateau. + +Giselle came into her room at an early hour. + +"Is what you said yesterday the truth, Jacqueline? Is Modeste really +ill? Are you sure you have had no reason to complain of anybody in this +place?--of any one?" + +Then, after a pause, she added: + +"Oh, my darling, how hard it is to do good even to those whom we most +dearly love." + +"I don't understand you," said Jacqueline, with an effort. "Everybody +has been kind to me." + +They kissed each other with effusion, but M. de Talbrun's leave-taking +was icy in the extreme. Jacqueline had made a mortal enemy. + +The grand outline of the chateau, built of brick and stone with its wings +flanked by towers, the green turf of the great park in which it stood, +passed from her sight as she drove away, like some vision in a dream. + +"I shall never come back--never come back!" thought Jacqueline. She +felt as if she had been thrust out everywhere. For one moment she +thought of seeking refuge at Lizerolles, which was not very many miles +from the railroad station, and when there of telling Madame d'Argy of her +difficulties, and asking her advice; but false pride kept her from doing +so--the same false pride which had made her write coldly, in answer to +the letters full of feeling and sympathy Fred had written to her on +receiving news of her father's death. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +TREACHEROUS KINDNESS + +The experience through which Jacqueline had just passed was not +calculated to fortify her or to elevate her soul. She felt for the +first time that her unprotected situation and her poverty exposed her +to insult, for what other name could she give to the outrageous behavior +of M. de Talbrun, which had degraded her in her own eyes? + +What right had that man to treat her as his plaything? Her pride and all +her womanly instincts rose up in rebellion. Her nerves had been so +shaken that she sobbed behind her veil all the way to her destination. +Paris, when she reached it, offered her almost nothing that could comfort +or amuse her. That city is always empty and dull in August, more so than +at any other season. Even the poor occupation of teaching her little +class of music pupils had been taken away by the holidays. Her sole +resource was in Modeste's society. Modeste--who, by the way, had never +been ill, and who suffered from nothing but old age--was delighted to +receive her dear young lady in her little room far up under the roof, +where, though quite infirm, she lived comfortably, on her savings. +Jacqueline, sitting beside her as she sewed, was soothed by her old +nursery tales, or by anecdotes of former days. Her own relatives were +often the old woman's theme. She knew the history of Jacqueline's family +from beginning to end; but, wherever her story began, it invariably wound +up with: + +"If only your poor papa had not made away with all your money!" + +And Jacqueline always answered: + +"He was quite at liberty to do what he pleased with what belonged to +him." + +"Belonged to him! Yes, but what belonged to you? And how does it happen +that your stepmother seems so well off? Why doesn't some family council +interfere? My little pet, to think of your having to work for your +living. It's enough to kill me!" + +"Bah! Modeste, there are worse things than being poor." + +"Maybe so," answered the old nurse, doubtfully, "but when one has money +troubles along with the rest, the money troubles make other things harder +to bear; whereas, if you have money enough you can bear anything, and you +would have had enough, after all, if you had married Monsieur Fred." + +At which point Jacqueline insisted that Modeste should be silent, and +answered, resolutely: "I mean never to marry at all." + +To this Modeste made answer: "That's another of your notions. The worst +husband is always better than none; and I know, for I never married." + +"That's why you talk such nonsense, my poor dear Modeste! You know +nothing about it." + +One day, after one of these visits to the only friend, as she believed, +who remained to her in the world--for her intimacy with Giselle was +spoiled forever--she saw, as she walked with a heavy heart toward her +convent in a distant quarter, an open fiacre pull up, in obedience to a +sudden cry from a passenger who was sitting inside. The person sprang +out, and rushed toward Jacqueline with loud exclamations of joy. + +"Madame Strahlberg!" + +"Dear Jacqueline! What a pleasure to meet you!" And, the street being +nearly empty, Madame Strahlberg heartily embraced her friend. + +"I have thought of you so often, darling, for months past--they seem like +years, like centuries! Where have you been all that long time?" + +In point of fact, Jacqueline had no proof that the three Odinska ladies +had ever remembered her existence, but that might have been partly her +own fault, or rather the fault of Giselle, who had made her promise to +have as little as possible to do with such compromising personages. She +was seized with a kind of remorse when she found such warmth of +recognition from the amiable Wanda. Had she not shown herself ungrateful +and cowardly? People about whom the world talks, are they not sometimes +quite as good as those who have not lost their standing in society, like +M. de Talbrun? It seemed to her that, go where she would, she ran risks. + +The cynicism that is the result of sad experience was beginning to show +itself in Jacqueline. + +"Oh, forgive me!" she said, feeling, contrite. + +"Forgive you for what, you beautiful creature?" asked Madame Strahlberg, +with sincere astonishment. + +She had the excellent custom of never observing when people neglected +her, or at least, of never showing that she did so, partly because her +life was so full of varied interests that she cared little for such +trifles, and secondly because, having endured several affronts of that +nature, she had ceased to be very sensitive. + +"I knew, through the d'Avrignys," she said, "that you were still at the +convent. You are not going to take the veil there, are you? It would be +a great pity. No? You wish to lead the life of an intelligent woman who +is free and independent? That is well; but it was rather an odd idea to +begin by going into a cloister. Oh!--I see, public opinion?" And Madame +Strahlberg made a little face, expressive of her contempt for public +opinion. + +"It does not pay to consult other people's opinions--it is useless, +believe me. The more we sacrifice to public opinion, the more it asks of +us. I cut that matter short long ago. But how glad I am to hear that +you don't intend to hide that lovely face in a convent. You are looking +better than ever--a little too pale, still, perhaps--a little too +interesting. Colette will be so glad to see you, for you must let me +take you home with me. I shall carry you off, whether you will or not, +now I have caught you. We will have a little music just among ourselves, +as we had in the good old times--you know, our dear music; you will feel +like yourself again. Ah, art--there is nothing to compare with art in +this world, my darling!" + +Jacqueline yielded without hesitation, only too glad of the unhoped-for +good fortune which relieved her from her ennui and her depression. And +soon the hired victoria was on its way to that quarter of the city which +is made up of streets with geographical names, and seems as if it were +intended to lodge all the nations under heaven. It stopped in the Rue de +Naples, before a house that was somewhat showy, but which showed from its +outside, that it was not inhabited by high-bred people. There were pink +linings to lace curtains at the windows, and quantities of green vines +drooped from the balconies, as if to attract attention from the passers- +by. Madame Strahlberg, with her ostentatious and undulating walk, which +caused men to turn and notice her as she went by, went swiftly up the +stairs to the second story. She put one finger on the electric bell, +which caused two or three little dogs inside to begin barking, and pushed +Jacqueline in before her, crying: "Colette! Mamma! See whom I have +brought back to you!" Meantime doors were hurriedly opened, quick steps +resounded in the antechamber, and the newcomer found herself received +with a torrent of affectionate and delighted exclamations, pressed to the +ample bosom of Madame Odinska, covered with kisses by Colette, and fawned +upon by the three toy terriers, the most sociable of their kind in all +Paris, their mistresses declared. + +Jacqueline was passing through one of those moments when one is at the +mercy of chance, when the heart which has been closed by sorrow suddenly +revives, expands, and softens under the influence of a ray of sunshine. +Tears came into her eyes, and she murmured: + +"My friends--my kind friends!" + +"Yes, your friends, whatever happens, now and always," said Colette, +eagerly, though she had probably barely given a thought to Jacqueline for +eighteen months. Nevertheless, on seeing her, Colette really thought she +had not for a moment ceased to be fond of her. "How you have suffered, +you poor pussy! We must set to work and make you feel a little gay, at +any price. You see, it is our duty. How lucky you came to-day--" + +A sign from her sister stopped her. + +They carried Jacqueline into a large and handsome salon, full of dust and +without curtains, with all the furniture covered up as if the family were +on the eve of going to the country. Madame Strahlberg, nevertheless, was +not about to leave Paris, her habit being to remain there in the summer, +sometimes for months, picnicking as it were, in her own apartment. What +was curious, too, was that the chandelier and all the side-lights had +fresh wax candles, and seats were arranged as if in preparation for a +play, while near the grand piano was a sort of stage, shut off from the +rest of the room by screens. + +Colette sat down on one of the front row of chairs and cried: "I am the +audience--I am all ears." Her sister hurriedly explained all this to +Jacqueline, with out waiting to be questioned: "We have been giving some +little summer entertainments of late, of which you see the remains." She +went at once to the piano, and incited Jacqueline to sing by beginning +one of their favorite duets, and Jacqueline, once more in her native +element, followed her lead. They went on from one song to another, from +the light to the severe, from scientific music to mere tunes and airs, +turning over the old music-books together. + +"Yes, you are a little out of practice, but all you have to do is to rub +off the rust. Your voice is finer than ever--just like velvet." And +Madame Strahlberg pretended that she envied the fine mezzo-soprano, +speaking disparagingly of her own little thread of a voice, which, +however, she managed so skilfully. "What a shame to take up your time +teaching, with such a voice as that!" she cried; "you are out of your +senses, my dear, you are raving mad. It would be sinful to keep your +gifts to yourself! I am very sorry to discourage you, but you have none +of the requisites for a teacher. The stage would be best for you-- +'Mon Dieu! why not? You will see La Rochette this evening; she is a +person who would give you good advice. I wish she could hear you!" + +"But my dear friend, I can not stay," murmured Jacqueline, for those +unexpected words "the stage, why not?" rang in her head, made her heart +beat fast, and made lights dance before her eyes. "They are expecting me +to dine at home." + +"At your convent? I beg your pardon, I'll take care of that. Don't you +know me? My claws seldom let go of a prize, especially when that prize +is worth the keeping. A little telegram has already been sent, with your +excuses. The telegraph is good for that, if not for anything else: it +facilitates 'impromptus'." + +"Long live impromptus," cried out Colette, "there is nothing like them +for fun!" And while Jacqueline was trying to get away, not knowing +exactly what she was saying, but frightened, pleased, and much excited, +Colette went on: "Oh! I am so glad, so glad you came to-day; now you can +see the pantomime! I dreamed, wasn't it odd, only last night, that you +were acting it with us. How can one help believing in presentiments? +Mine are always delightful--and yours?" + +"The pantomime?" repeated Jacqueline in bewilderment, "but I thought +your sister told me you were all alone." + +"How could we have anything like company in August?" said Madame +Strahlberg, interrupting her; "why, it would be impossible, there are not +four cats in Paris. No, no, we sha'n't have anybody. A few friends +possibly may drop in--people passing through Paris--in their travelling- +dresses. Nothing that need alarm you. The pantomime Colette talks about +is only a pretext that they may hear Monsieur Szmera." + +And who was M. Szmera? + +Jacqueline soon learned that he was a Hungarian, second half-cousin of a +friend of Kossuth, the most wonderful violinist of the day, who had +apparently superseded the famous Polish pianist in these ladies' interest +and esteem. As for the latter, they had almost forgotten his name, he +had behaved so badly. + +"But," said Jacqueline, anxiously, "you know I am obliged to be home by +ten o'clock." + +"Ah! that's like Cinderella," laughed Wanda. "Will the stroke of the +clock change all the carriages in Paris into pumpkins? One can get +'fiacres' at any hour." + +"But it is a fixed rule: I must be in," repeated Jacqueline, growing very +uneasy. + +"Must you really? Madame Saville says it is very easy to manage those +nuns--" + +"What? Do you know Madame Saville, who was boarding at the convent last +winter?" + +"Yes, indeed; she is a countrywoman of ours, a friend, the most charming +of women. You will see her here this evening. She has gained her +divorce suit--" + +"You are mistaken," said Colette, "she has lost it. But that makes no +difference. She has got tired of her husband. Come, say 'Yes,' +Jacqueline--a nice, dear 'Yes'--you will stay, will you not? Oh, you +darling!" + +They dined without much ceremony, on the pretext that the cook had been +turned off that morning for impertinence, but immediately after dinner +there was a procession of boys from a restaurant, bringing whipped +creams, iced drinks, fruits, sweetmeats, and champagne--more than would +have been wanted at the buffet of a ball. The Prince, they said, had +sent these things. What Prince? + +As Jacqueline was asking this question, a gentleman came in whose age it +would have been impossible to guess, so disguised was he by his black +wig, his dyed whiskers, and the soft bloom on his cheeks, all of which +were entirely out of keeping with those parts of his face that he could +not change. In one of his eyes was stuck a monocle. He was bedizened +with several orders, he bowed with military stiffness, and kissed with +much devotion the ladies' hands, calling them by titles, whether they had +them or not. His foreign accent made it as hard to detect his +nationality as it was to know his age. Two or three other gentlemen, +not less decorated and not less foreign, afterward came in. Colette +named them in a whisper to Jacqueline, but their names were too hard for +her to pronounce, much less to remember. One of them, a man of handsome +presence, came accompanied by a sort of female ruin, an old lady leaning +on a cane, whose head, every time she moved, glittered with jewels, +placed in a very lofty erection of curled hair. + +"That gentleman's mother is awfully ugly," Jacqueline could not help +saying. + +"His mother? What, the Countess? She is neither his mother nor his +wife. He is her gentleman-in-waiting-that's all. Don't you understand? +Well, imagine a man who is a sort of "gentleman-companion"; he keeps her +accounts, he escorts her to the theatre, he gives her his arm. It is a +very satisfactory arrangement." + +"The gentleman receives a salary, in such a case?" inquired Jacqueline, +much amused. + +"Why, what do you find in it so extraordinary?" said Colette. "She +adores cards, and there he is, always ready to be her partner. Oh, here +comes dear Madame Saville!" + +There were fresh cries of welcome, fresh exchanges of affectionate +diminutives and kisses, which seemed to make the Prince's mouth water. +Jacqueline discovered, to her great surprise, that she, too, was a dear +friend of Madame Saville's, who called her her good angel, in reference, +no doubt, to the letter she had secretly put into the post. At last she +said, trying to make her escape from the party: "But it must be nine +o'clock." + +"Oh! but--you must hear Szmera." + +A handsome young fellow, stoutly built, with heavy eyebrows, a hooked +nose, a quantity of hair growing low upon his forehead, and lips that +were too red, the perfect type of a Hungarian gypsy, began a piece of his +own composition, which had all the ardor of a mild 'galopade' and a +Satanic hunt, with intervals of dying sweetness, during which the painted +skeleton they called the Countess declared that she certainly heard a +nightingale warbling in the moonlight. + +This charming speech was forthwith repeated by her "umbra" in all parts +of the room, which was now nearly filled with people, a mixed multitude, +some of whom were frantic about music, others frantic about Wanda +Strahlberg. There were artists and amateurs present, and even +respectable women, for Madame d'Avrigny, attracted by the odor of a +species of Bohemianism, had come to breathe it with delight, under cover +of a wish to glean ideas for her next winter's receptions. + +Then again there were women who had been dropped out of society, like +Madame de Versanne, who, with her sunken eyes and faded face, was not +likely again to pick up in the street a bracelet worth ten thousand +francs. There was a literary woman who signed herself Fraisiline, and +wrote papers on fashion--she was so painted and bedizened that some one +remarked that the principal establishments she praised in print probably +paid her in their merchandise. There was a dowager whose aristocratic +name appeared daily on the fourth page of the newspapers, attesting the +merits of some kind of quack medicine; and a retired opera-singer, who, +having been called Zenaide Rochet till she grew up in Montmartre, where +she was born, had had a brilliant career as a star in Italy under the +name of Zina Rochette. La Rochette's name, alas! is unknown to the +present generation. + +In all, there were about twenty persons, who made more noise with their +applause than a hundred ordinary guests, for enthusiasm was exacted by +Madame Strahlberg. Profiting by the ovation to the Hungarian musician, +Jacqueline made a movement toward the door, but just as she reached it +she had the misfortune of falling in with her old acquaintance, Nora +Sparks, who was at that moment entering with her father. She was forced +to sit down again and hear all about Kate's marriage. Kate had gone back +to New York, her husband being an American, but Nora said she had made up +her mind not to leave Europe till she had found a satisfactory match. + +"You had better make haste about it, if you expect to keep me here," said +Mr. Sparks, with a peculiar expression in his eye. He was eager to get +home, having important business to attend to in the West. + +"Oh, papa, be quiet! I shall find somebody at Bellagio. Why, darling, +are you still in mourning?" + +She had forgotten that Jacqueline had lost her father. Probably she +would not have thought it necessary to wear black so long for Mr. Sparks. +Meantime, Madame Strahlberg and her sister had left the room. + +"When are they coming back?" said Jacqueline, growing very nervous. +"It seems to me this clock must be wrong. It says half-past nine. I am +sure it must be later than that." + +"Half-past nine!--why, it is past eleven," replied Miss Nora, with a +giggle. "Do you suppose they pay any attention to clocks in this house? +Everything here is topsy-turvy." + +"Oh! what shall I do?" sighed poor Jacqueline, on the verge of tears. + +"Why, do they keep you such a prisoner as that? Can't you come in a +little late--" + +"They wouldn't open the doors--they never open the doors on any pretext +after ten o'clock," cried Jacqueline, beside herself. + +"Then your nuns must be savages? You should teach them better." + +"Don't be worried, dear little one, you can sleep on this sofa," said +Madame Odinska, kindly. + +To whom had she not offered that useful sofa? Wanda and Colette were +just as ready to propose that others should spend the night with them as, +on the smallest pretext, to accept the same hospitality from others. +Wanda, indeed, always slept curled up like a cat on a divan, in a fur +wrapper, which she put on early in the evening when she wanted to smoke +cigarettes. She went to sleep at no regular hour. A bear's skin was +placed always within her reach, so that if she were cold she could draw +it over her. Jacqueline, not being accustomed to these Polish fashions, +did not seem to be much attracted by the offer of the sofa. She blamed +herself bitterly for her own folly in having got herself into a scrape +which might lead to serious consequences. + +But this was neither time nor place for expressions of anxiety; it would +be absurd to trouble every one present with her regrets. Besides, the +harm was done--it was irreparable--and while she was turning over in her +mind in what manner she could explain to the Mother Superior that the +mistake about the hour had been no fault of hers--and the Mother +Superior, alas! would be sure to make inquiries as to the friends whom +she had visited--the magic violin of M. Szmera played its first notes, +accompanied by Madame Odinska on the piano, and by a delicious little +flute. They played an overture, the dreamy sweetness of which extorted +cries of admiration from all the women. + +Suddenly, the screens parted, and upon the little platform that +represented a stage bounded a sort of anomalous being, supple and +charming, in the traditional dress of Pierrot, whom the English vulgarize +and call Harlequin. He had white camellias instead of buttons on his +loose white jacket, and the bright eyes of Wanda shone out from his red- +and-white face. He held a mandolin, and imitated the most charming of +serenades, before a make-believe window, which, being opened by a white, +round arm, revealed Colette, dressed as Colombine. + +The little pantomime piece was called 'Pierrot in Love'. It consisted of +a series of dainty coquetries, sudden quarrels, fits of jealousy, and +tender reconciliations, played by the two sisters. Colette with her +beauty, Wanda with her talent, her impishness, her graceful and +voluptuous attitudes, electrified the spectators, especially in a long +monologue, in which Pierrot contemplated suicide, made more effective by +the passionate and heart-piercing strains of the Hungarian's violin, so +that old Rochette cried out: "What a pity such a wonder should not be +upon the stage!" La Rochette, now retired into private life, wearing an +old dress, with her gray hair and her black eyes, like those of a +watchful crocodile, took the pleasure in the pantomime that all actors do +to the very last in everything connected with the theatre. She cried +'brava' in tones that might reach Italy; she blew kisses to the actors in +default of flowers. + +Madame d'Avrigny was also transported to the sixth heaven, but +Jacqueline's presence somewhat marred her pleasure. When she first +perceived her she had shown great surprise. "You here, my dear?" she +cried, "I thought you safe with our own excellent Giselle." + +"Safe, Madame? It seems to me one can be safe anywhere," Jacqueline +answered, though she was tempted to say "safe nowhere;" but instead she +inquired for Dolly. + +Dolly's mother bit her lips and then replied: "You see I have not brought +her. Oh, yes, this house is very amusing--but rather too much so. +The play was very pretty, and I am sorry it would not do at my house. +It is too--too 'risque', you know;" and she rehearsed her usual speech +about the great difficulties encountered by a lady who wished to give +entertainments and provide amusement for her friends. + +Meantime Pierrot, or rather Madame Strahlberg, had leaped over an +imaginary barrier and came dancing toward the company, shaking her large +sleeves and settling her little snake-like head in her large quilled +collar, dragging after her the Hungarian, who seemed not very willing. +She presented him to Madame d'Avrigny, hoping that so fashionable a woman +might want him to play at her receptions during the winter, and to a +journalist who promised to give him a notice in his paper, provided-- +and here he whispered something to Pierrot, who, smiling, answered +neither yes nor no. The sisters kept on their costumes; Colette was +enchanting with her bare neck, her long-waisted black velvet corsage, +her very short skirt, and a sort of three-cornered hat upon her head. +All the men paid court to her, and she accepted their homage, becoming +gayer and gayer at every compliment, laughing loudly, possibly that her +laugh might exhibit her beautiful teeth. + +Wanda, as Pierrot, sang, with her hands in her pockets, a Russian village +song: "Ah! Dounai-li moy Dounai" ("Oh! thou, my Danube"). Then she +imperiously called Jacqueline to the piano: --"It is your turn now," she +said, "most humble violet." + +Up to that moment, Jacqueline's deep mourning had kept the gentlemen +present from addressing her, though she had been much stared at. +Although she did not wish to sing, for her heart was heavy as she thought +of the troubles that awaited her the next day at the convent, she sang +what was asked of her without resistance or pretension. Then, for the +first time, she experienced the pride of triumph. Szmera, though he was +furious at not being the sole lion of the evening, complimented her, +bowing almost to the ground, with one hand on his heart; Madame Rochette +assured her that she had a fortune in her throat whenever she chose to +seek it; persons she had never seen and who did not know her name, +pressed her hands fervently, saying that her singing was adorable. +All cried "Encore," "Encore!" and, yielding to the pleasure of applause, +she thought no more of the flight of time. Dawn was peeping through the +windows when the party broke up. + +"What kind people!" thought the debutante, whom they had encouraged and +applauded; "some perhaps are a little odd, but how much cordiality and +warmth there is among them! It is catching. This is the sort of +atmosphere in which talent should live." + +Being very much fatigued, she fell asleep upon the offered sofa, half- +pleased, half-frightened, but with two prominent convictions: one, that +she was beginning to return to life; the other, that she stood on the +edge of a precipice. In her dreams old Rochette appeared to her, her +face like that of an affable frog, her dress the dress of Pierrot, and +she croaked out, in a variety of tones: "The stage! Why not? Applauded +every night--it would be glorious!" Then she seemed in her dream to be +falling, falling down from a great height, as one falls from fairyland +into stern reality. She opened her eyes: it was noon. Madame Odinska +was waiting for her: she intended herself to take her to the convent, +and for that purpose had assumed the imposing air of a noble matron. + +Alas! it was in vain! Jacqueline, was made to understand that such an +infraction of the rules could not be overlooked. To pass the night +without leave out of the convent, and not with her own family, was cause +for expulsion. Neither the prayers nor the anger of Madame Odinska had +any power to change the sentence. While the Mother Superior calmly +pronounced her decree, she was taking the measure of this stout foreigner +who appeared in behalf of Jacqueline, a woman overdressed, yet at the +same time shabby, who had a far from well-bred or aristocratic air. +"Out of consideration for Madame de Talbrun," she said, "the convent +consents to keep Mademoiselle de Nailles a few days longer--a few weeks +perhaps, until she can find some other place to go. That is all we can +do for her." + +Jacqueline listened to this sentence as she might have watched a game of +dice when her fate hung on the result, but she showed no emotion. +"Now," she thought, "my fate has been decided; respectable people will +have nothing more to do with me. I will go with the others, who, +perhaps, after all are not worse, and who most certainly are more +amusing." + +A fortnight after this, Madame de Nailles, having come back to Paris, +from some watering-place, was telling Marien that Jacqueline had started +for Bellagio with Mr. and Miss Sparks, the latter having taken a notion +that she wanted that kind of chaperon who is called a companion in +England and America. + +"But they are of the same age," said Marien. + +"That is just what Miss Sparks wants. She does not wish to be hampered +by an elderly chaperon, but to be accompanied, as she would have been by +her sister." + +"Jacqueline will be exposed to see strange things; how could you have +consented--" + +"Consented? As if she cared for my consent! And then she manages to say +such irritating things as soon as one attempts to blame her or advise +her. For example, this is one of them: 'Don't you suppose,' she said to +me, 'that every one will take the most agreeable chance that offers for a +visit to Italy?' What do you think of that allusion? It closed my lips +absolutely." + +"Perhaps she did not mean what you think she meant." + +"Do you think so? And when I warned her against Madame Strahlberg, +saying that she might set her a very bad example, she answered: 'I may +have had worse.' I suppose that was not meant for impertinence either!" + +"I don't know," said Hubert Marien, biting his lips doubtfully, "but--" + +He was silent a few moments, his head drooped on his breast, he was in +some painful reverie. + +"Go on. What are you thinking about?" asked Madame de Nailles, +impatiently. + +"I beg your pardon. I was only thinking that a certain responsibility +might rest on those who have made that young girl what she is." + +"I don't understand you," said the stepmother, with an impatient gesture. +"Who can do anything to counteract a bad disposition? You don't deny +that hers is bad? She is a very devil for pride and obstinacy--she has +no affection--she has proved it. I have no inclination to get myself +wounded by trying to control her." + +"Then you prefer to let her ruin herself?" + +"I should prefer not to give the world a chance to talk, by coming to an +open rupture with her, which would certainly be the case if I tried to +contradict her. After all, the Sparks and Madame Odinska are not yet put +out of the pale of good society, and she knew them long ago. An early +intimacy may be a good explanation if people blame her for going too +far--" + +"So be it, then; if you are satisfied it is not for me to say anything," +replied Marien, coldly. + +"Satisfied? I am not satisfied with anything or anybody," said Madame de +Nailles, indignantly. "How could I be satisfied; I never have met with +anything but ingratitude." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE SAILOR'S RETURN + +Madame D'Argy did not leave her son in ignorance of all the freaks and +follies of Jacqueline. He knew every particular of the wrong-doings and +the imprudences of his early friend, and even the additions made to them +by calumny, ever since the fit of in dependence which, after her father's +death, had led her to throw off all control. She told of her sudden +departure from Fresne, where she might have found so safe a refuge with +her friend and cousin. Then had not her own imprudence and coquetry led +to a rupture with the families of d'Etaples and Ray? She told of the +scandalous intimacy with Madame Strahlberg; of her expulsion from the +convent, where they had discovered, even before she left, that she had +been in the habit of visiting undesirable persons; and finally she +informed him that Jacqueline had gone to Italy with an old Yankee and his +daughter--he being a man, it was said, who had laid the foundation of his +colossal fortune by keeping a bar-room in a mining camp in California. +This last was no fiction, the cut of Mr. Sparks's beard and his +unpolished manners left no doubt on the subject; and she wound up by +saying that Madame d'Avrigny, whom no one could accuse of ill-nature, +had been grieved at meeting this unhappy girl in very improper company, +among which she seemed quite in her element, like a fish in water. +It was said also that she was thinking of studying for the stage with +La Rochette--M. de Talbrun had heard it talked about in the foyer of the +Opera by an old Prince from some foreign country--she could not remember +his name, but he was praising Madame Strahlberg without any reserve as +the most delightful of Parisiennes. Thereupon Talbrun had naturally +forbidden his wife to have anything to do with Jacqueline, or even to +write to her. Fat Oscar, though he was not all that he ought to be +himself, had some very strict notions of propriety. No one was more +particular about family relations, and really in this case no one could +blame him; but Giselle had been very unhappy, and to the very last had +tried to stand up for her unhappy friend. Having told him all this, she +added, she would say no more on the subject. + +Giselle was a model woman in everything, in tact, in goodness, in good +sense, and she was very attentive to the poor old mother of Fred, who but +for her must have died long ago of loneliness and sorrow. Thereupon +ensued the poor lady's usual lamentations over the long, long absence of +her beloved son; as usual, she told him she did not think she should live +to see him back again; she gave him a full account of her maladies, +caused, or at least aggravated, by her mortal, constant, incurable +sorrow; and she told how Giselle had been nursing her with all the +patience and devotion of a Sister of Charity. Through all Madame +d'Argy's letters at this period the angelic figure of Giselle was +contrasted with the very different one of that young and incorrigible +little devil of a Jacqueline. + +Fred at first believed his mother's stories were all exaggeration, but +the facts were there, corroborated by the continued silence of the person +concerned. He knew his mother to be too good wilfully to blacken the +character of one whom for years she had hoped would be her daughter-in- +law, the only child of her best friend, the early love of her son. But +by degrees he fancied that the love so long living at the bottom of his +heart was slowly dying, that it had been extinguished, that nothing +remained of it but remembrance, such remembrance as we retain for dead +things, a remembrance without hope, whose weight added to the +homesickness which with him was increasing every day. + +There was no active service to enable him to endure exile. The heroic +period of the war had passed. Since a treaty of peace had been signed +with China, the fleet, which had distinguished itself in so many small +engagements and bombardments, had had nothing to do but to mount guard, +as it were, along a conquered coast. All round it in the bay, where it +lay at anchor, rose mountains of strange shapes, which seemed to shut it +into a kind of prison. This feeling of nothing to be done--of nothing +likely to be done, worked in Fred's head like a nightmare. The only +thing he thought of was how he could escape, when could he once more kiss +the faded cheeks of his mother, who often, when he slept or lay wakeful +during the long hours of the siesta, he saw beside him in tears. Hers +was the only face that he recalled distinctly; to her and to her only +were devoted his long reveries when on watch; that time when he formerly +composed his love verses, tender or angry, or full of despair. That was +all over! A sort of mournful resignation had succeeded his bursts of +excited feeling, his revolt against his fate. + +This was Fred's state of mind when he received orders to return home-- +orders as unexpected as everything seems to be in the life of a naval +man. "I am going back to her!" he cried. Her was his mother, her was +France. All the rest had disappeared as if into a fog. Jacqueline was a +phantom of the past; so many things had happened since the old times when +he had loved her. He had crossed the Indian Ocean and the China Sea; he +had seen long stretches of interminable coast-line; he had beheld misery, +and glory, and all the painful scenes that wait on warfare; he had seen +pestilence, and death in every shape, and all this had wrought in him a +sort of stoicism, the result of long acquaintance with solitude and +danger. He remembered his old love as a flower he had once admired as he +passed it, a treacherous flower, with thorns that had wounded him. There +are flowers that are beneficent, and flowers that are poisonous, and the +last are sometimes the most beautiful. They should not be blamed, he +thought; it was their nature to be hurtful; but it was well to pass them +by and not to gather them. + +By the time he had debarked Fred had made up his mind to let his mother +choose a wife for him, a daughter-in-law suited to herself, who would +give her the delight of grandchildren, who would bring them up well, and +who would not weary of Lizerolles. But a week later the idea of this +kind of marriage had gone out of his head, and this change of feeling was +partly owing to Giselle. Giselle gave him a smile of welcome that went +to his heart, for that poor heart, after all, was only waiting for a +chance again to give itself away. She was with Madame d'Argy, who had +not been well enough to go to the sea-coast to meet her son, and he saw +at the same moment the pale and aged face which had visited him at +Tonquin in his dreams, and a fair face that he had never before thought +so beautiful, more oval than he remembered it, with blue eyes soft and +tender, and a mouth with a sweet infantine expression of sincerity and +goodness. His mother stretched out her trembling arms, gave a great cry, +and fainted away. + +"Don't be alarmed; it is only joy," said Giselle, in her soft voice. + +And when Madame d'Argy proved her to be right by recovering very quickly, +overwhelming her son with rapid questions and covering him with kisses, +Giselle held out her hand to him and said: + +"I, too, am very glad you have come home." + +"Oh!" cried the sick woman in her excitement, "you must kiss your old +playfellow!" + +Giselle blushed a little, and Fred, more embarrassed than she, lightly +touched with his lips her pretty smooth hair which shone upon her head +like a helmet of gold. Perhaps it was this new style of hairdressing +which made her seem so much more beautiful than he remembered her, but it +seemed to him he saw her for the first time; while, with the greatest +eagerness, notwithstanding Giselle's attempts to interrupt her, Madame +d'Argy repeated to her son all she owed to that dear friend "her own +daughter, the best of daughters, the most patient, the most devoted of +daughters, could not have done more! Ah! if there only could be found +another one like her!" + +Whereupon the object of all these praises made her escape, disclaiming +everything. + +Why, after this, should she have hesitated to come back to Lizerolles +every day, as of late had been her custom? Men know so little about +taking care of sick people. So she came, and was present at all the +rejoicings and all the talks that followed Fred's return. She took her +part in the discussions about Fred's future. "Help me, my pet," said +Madame d'Argy, "help me to find a wife for him: all we ask is that she +should be like you." + +In answer to which Fred declared, half-laughing and half-seriously, that +that was his ideal. + +She did not believe much of this, but, following her natural instinct, +she assumed the dangerous task of consolation, until, as Madame d'Argy +grew better, she discontinued her daily visits, and Fred, in his turn, +took a habit of going over to Fresne without being invited, and spending +there a good deal of his time. + +"Don't send me away. You who are always charitable," he said. "If you +only knew what a pleasure a Parisian conversation is after coming from +Tonquin!" + +"But I am so little of a Parisienne, or at least what you mean by that +term, and my conversation is not worth coming for," objected Giselle. + +In her extreme modesty she did not realize how much she had gained in +intellectual culture. Women left to themselves have time to read, and +Giselle had done this all the more because she had considered it a duty. +Must she not know enough to instruct and superintend the education of her +son? With much strong feeling, yet with much simplicity, she spoke to +Fred of this great task, which sometimes frightened her; he gave her his +advice, and both discussed together the things that make up a good man. +Giselle brought up frequently the subject of heredity: she named no one, +but Fred could see that she had a secret terror lest Enguerrand, who in +person was very like his father, might also inherit his character. Fears +on this subject, however, appeared unfounded. There was nothing about +the child that was not good; his tastes were those of his mother. He was +passionately fond of Fred, climbing on his lap as soon as the latter +arrived and always maintaining that he, too, wanted a pretty red ribbon +to wear in his buttonhole, a ribbon only to be got by sailing far away +over the seas, like sailors. + +"A sailor! Heaven forbid!" cried Madame de Talbrun. + +"Oh! sailors come back again. He has come back. Couldn't he take me +away with him soon? I have some stories about cabin-boys who were not +much older than I." + +"Let us hope that your friend Fred won't go away," said Giselle. "But +why do you wish to be a cabinboy?" + +"Because I want to go away with him, if he does not stay here--because I +like him," answered Enguerrand in a tone of decision. + +Hereupon Giselle kissed her boy with more than usual tenderness. He +would not take to the hunting-field, she thought, the boulevard, and the +corps de ballet. She would not lose him. "But, oh, Fred!" she cried, +"it is not to be wondered at that he is so fond of you! You spoil him! +You will be a devoted father some day; your vocation is evidently for +marriage." + +She thought, in thus speaking, that she was saying what Madame d'Argy +would like her to say. + +"In the matter of children, I think your son is enough for me," he said, +one day; "and as for marriage, you would not believe how all women-- +I mean all the young girls among whom I should have to make a choice-- +are indifferent to me. My feeling almost amounts to antipathy." + +For the first time she ventured to say: "Do you still care for +Jacqueline?" + +"About as much as she cares for me," he answered, dryly. "No, I made a +mistake once, and that has made me cautious for the future." + +Another day he said: + +"I know now who was the woman I ought to have loved." + +Giselle did not look up; she was devoting all her attention to +Enguerrand. + +Fred held certain theories which he used to talk about. He believed in a +high, spiritual, disinterested affection which would raise a man above +himself, making him more noble, inspiring a disgust for all ignoble +pleasures. The woman willing to accept such homage might do anything she +pleased with a heart that would be hers alone. She would be the lady who +presided over his life, for whose sake all good deeds and generous +actions would be done, the idol, higher than a wife or any object of +earthly passion, the White Angel whom poets have sung. + +Giselle pretended that she did not understand him, but she was divinely +happy. This, then, was the reward of her spotless life! She was the +object of a worship no less tender than respectful. Fred spoke of the +woman he ought to have loved as if he meant to say, "I love you;" he +pressed his lips on the auburn curls of little Enguerrand where his +mother had just kissed him. Day after day he seemed more attracted to +that salon where, dressed with more care than she had ever dressed +before, she expected him. Then awoke in her the wish to please, and she +was beautiful with that beauty which is not the insipid beauty of +St. Agnes, but that which, superior to all other, is seen when the face +reflects the soul. All that winter there was a new Giselle--a Giselle +who passed away again among the shadows, a Giselle of whom everybody +said, even her husband, "Ma foi! but she is beautiful!" Oscar de +Talbrun, as he made this remark, never thought of wondering why she was +more beautiful. He was ready to take offense and was jealous by nature, +but he was perfectly sure of his wife, as he had often said. As to Fred, +the idea of being jealous of him would never have entered his mind. +Fred was a relative and was admitted to all the privileges of a cousin +or a brother; besides, he was a fellow of no consequence in any way. + +While this platonic attachment grew stronger and stronger between Fred +and Giselle, assisted by the innocent complicity of little Enguerrand, +Jacqueline was discovering how hard it is for a girl of good birth, if +she is poor, to carry out her plans of honest independence. Possibly she +had allowed herself to be too easily misled by the title of "companion," +which, apparently more cordial than that of 'demoiselle de compagnie', +means in reality the same thing--a sort of half-servile position. + +Money is a touchstone which influences all social relations, especially +when on one side there is a somewhat morbid susceptibility, and on the +other a lack of good breeding and education. The Sparks, father and +daughter, Americans of the lower class, though willing to spend any +number of dollars for their own pleasure, expected that every penny they +disbursed should receive its full equivalent in service; the place +therefore offered so gracefully and spontaneously to Mademoiselle de +Nailles was far from being a sinecure. Jacqueline received her salary on +the same footing as Justine, the Parisian maid, received her wages, for, +although her position was apparently one of much greater importance and +consideration than Justine's, she was really at the beck and call of a +girl who, while she called her "darling," gave her orders and paid her +for her services. Very often Miss Nora asked her to sew, on the plea +that she was as skilful with her fingers as a fairy, but in reality that +her employer might feel the superiority of her own position. + +Hitherto Miss Nora had been delighted to meet at watering-places a friend +of whom she could say proudly, "She is a representative of the old +nobility of France" (which was not true, by the way, for the title of +Baron borne by M. de Nailles went no farther back than the days of Louis +XVIII); and she was still more proud to think that she was now waited on +by this same daughter of a nobleman, when her own father had kept a +drinking-saloon. She did not acknowledge this feeling to herself, and +would certainly have maintained that she never had had such an idea, but +it existed all the same, and she was under its influence, being very vain +and rather foolish. And, indeed, Jacqueline, would have been very +willing to plan trimmings and alter finery from morning to night in her +own chamber in a hotel, exactly as Mademoiselle Justine did, if she could +by this means have escaped the special duties of her difficult position, +which duties were to follow Miss Nora everywhere, like her own shadow, to +be her confidant and to act sometimes as her screen, or even as her +accomplice, in matters that occasionally involved risks, and were never +to her liking. + +The young American girl had already said to her father, when he asked her +to give up her search for an entirely satisfactory European suitor, which +search he feared might drag on forever without any results: "Oh! I shall +be sure to find him at Bellagio!" And she made up her mind that there he +was to be sought and found at any price. Hotel life offered her +opportunities to exercise her instincts for flirtation, for there she met +many specimens of men she called chic, with a funny little foreign +accent, which seemed to put new life into the wornout word. Twenty times +a day she baited her hook, and twenty times a day some fish would bite, +or at least nibble, according as he was a fortune-hunter or a dilettante. +Miss Nora, being incapable of knowing the difference, was ready to +capture good or bad, and went about dragging her slaves at her chariot- +wheels. Sometimes she took them rowing, with the Stars and Stripes +floating over her boat, by moonlight; sometimes she drove them recklessly +in a drag through roads bordered by olive-groves and vineyards; all these +expeditions being undertaken under-pretence of admiring the romantic +scenery. Her father was not disposed to interfere with what he called "a +little harmless dissipation." He was confident his daughter's +"companion" must know what was proper, she being, as he said, accustomed +to good society. Were not all Italian ladies attended by gentlemen? Who +could blame a young girl for amusing herself? Meantime Mr. Sparks amused +himself after his own fashion, which was to sit comfortably, with his +feet up on the piazza rail of the hotel, imbibing strong iced drinks +through straws. But in reality Jacqueline had no power whatever to +preserve propriety, and only compromised herself by her associations, +though her own conduct was irreproachable. Indeed she was considered +quite prudish, and the rest of the mad crowd laughed at her for having +the manners of a governess. In vain she tried to say words of warning to +Nora; what she said was laughed at or resented in a tone that told her +that a paid companion had not the right to speak as frankly as a friend. + +Her business, she was plainly told one day, was to be on the spot in case +any impertinent suitor should venture too far in a tete-a-tete, but short +of that she was not to "spoilsport." "I am not doing anything wrong; +it is allowable in America," was Miss Nora's regular speech on such +occasions, and Jacqueline could not dispute the double argument. Nora's +conduct was not wicked, and in America such things might be allowed. Yet +Jacqueline tried to demonstrate that a young girl can not pass unscathed +through certain adventures, even if they are innocent in the strict sense +of the word; which made Nora cry out that all she said was subterfuge and +that she had no patience with prejudices. + +In vain her young companion pointed out to her charge that other +Americans at Bellagio seemed far from approving her conduct. American +ladies of a very different class, who were staying at the hotel, held +aloof from her, and treated her with marked coldness whenever they met; +declaring that her manners would be as objectionable in her own country, +in good society, as they were in Italy. + +But Miss Sparks was not to be put down by any argument. "Bah! they are +stuck-up Bostonians. And do you know, Jacqueline, you are getting very +tiresome? You were faster yourself than I when we were the Blue Band at +Treport." + +Nora's admirers, sometimes encouraged, sometimes snubbed, when treated +cavalierly by this young lady, would occasionally pay court to the +'demoiselle de compagnie', who indeed was well worth their pains; but, +to their surprise, the subordinate received their attentions with great +coldness. Having entered her protest against what was going on, and +having resisted the contagion of example, it was natural she should +somewhat exaggerate her prudery, for it is hard to hit just the right +point in such reaction. The result was, she made herself so disagreeable +to Miss Sparks that the latter determined on getting rid of her as +tactfully as possible. + +Their parting took place on the day after an excursion to the Villa +Sommariva, where Miss Sparks and her little court had behaved with their +usual noise and rudeness. They had gone there ostensibly to see the +pictures, about which none of them cared anything, for Nora, wherever she +was, never liked any one to pay attention to anybody or to look at +anything but her own noisy, all-pervading self. + +It so happened that at the most riotous moment of the picnic an old +gentleman passed near the lively crowd. He was quite inoffensive, +pleasant-mannered, and walked leaning on his cane, yet, had the statue of +the Commander in Don Juan suddenly appeared it could not have produced +such consternation as his presence did on Jacqueline, when, after a +moment's hesitation, he bowed to her. She recognized in him a friend of +Madame d'Argy, M. Martel, whom she had often met at her house in Paris +and at Lizerolles. When he recognized her, she fancied she had seen pass +over his face a look of painful surprise. He would surely tell how he +had met her; what would her old friends think of her? What would Fred? +For some time past she had thought more than ever before of what Fred +would think of her. The more she grew disgusted with the men she met, +the more she appreciated his good qualities, and the more she thought of +the honest, faithful love he had offered her--love that she had so madly +thrown away. She never should meet such love again, she thought. It was +the idea of how Fred would blame her when he heard what she pictured to +herself the old gentleman would say of her, that suddenly decided her to +leave Bellagio. + +She told Mr. Sparks that evening that she was not strong enough for such +duties as were required of a companion. + +He looked at her with pity and annoyance. + +"I should have thought you had more energy. How do you expect to live by +work if you are not strong enough for pleasure?" + +"Pleasure needs strength as well as labor," she said, smiling; "I would +rather work in the fields than go on amusing myself as I have been +doing." + +"My dear, you must not be so difficult to please. When people have to +earn their bread, it is a bad plan. I am afraid you will find out before +long that there are harder ways of making a living than lunching, +dancing, walking, and driving from morning to night in a pretty +country--" + +Here Mr. Sparks began to laugh as he thought of all he had had to do, +without making objections, in the Far West, in the heroic days of his +youthful vigor. He was rather fond of recalling how he had carried his +pick on his shoulder and his knife in his belt, with two Yankee sayings +in his head, and little besides for baggage: "Muscle and pluck!--Muscle +and pluck!" and "Go ahead for ever!" That was the sort of thing to be +done when a man or a woman had not a cent. + +And now, what was Jacqueline to do next? She reflected that in a very +short time she had attempted many things. It seemed to her that all she +could do now was to follow the advice which, when first given her by +Madame Strahlberg, had frightened her, though she had found it so +attractive. She would study with Madame Rochette; she would go to the +Milan Conservatory, and as soon as she came of age she would go upon the +stage, under a feigned name, of course, and in a foreign country. She +would prove to the world, she said to herself, that the career of an +actress is compatible with self-respect. This resolve that she would +never be found wanting in self-respect held a prominent place in all her +plans, as she began to understand better those dangers in life which are +for the most part unknown to young girls born in her social position. +Jacqueline's character, far from being injured by her trials and +experiences, had gained in strength. She grew firmer as she gained in +knowledge. Never had she been so worthy of regard and interest as at the +very time when her friends were saying sadly to themselves, "She is going +to the bad," and when, from all appearances, they were right in this +conclusion. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +TWIN DEVILS + +Jacqueline came to the conclusion that she had better seriously consult +Madame Strahlberg. She therefore stopped at Monaco, where this friend, +whom she intended to honor with the strange office of Mentor, was passing +the winter in a little villa in the Condamine quarter--a cottage +surrounded by roses and laurel-bushes, painted in soft colors and looking +like a plaything. + +Madame Strahlberg had already urged Jacqueline to come and make +acquaintance with her "paradise," without giving her any hint of the +delights of that paradise, from which that of gambling was not excluded, +for Madame Strahlberg was eager for any kind of excitement. Roulette now +occupied with her a large part of every night--indeed, her nights had +been rarely given to slumber, for her creed was that morning is the time +for sleep, for which reason they never took breakfast in the pink villa, +but tea, cakes, and confectionery were eaten instead at all hours until +the evening. Thus it happened very often that they had no dinner, and +guests had to accommodate themselves to the strange ways of the family. +Jacqueline, however, did not stay long enough to know much of those ways. + +She arrived, poor thing, with weary wing, like some bird, who, escaping +from the fowler's net, where it has left its feathers, flies straight to +the spot where a sportsman lies ready to shoot it. She was received with +the same cries of joy, the same kisses, the same demonstrations of +affection, as those which, the summer before, had welcomed her to the Rue +de Naples. They told her she could sleep on a sofa, exactly like the one +on which she had passed that terrible night which had resulted in her +expulsion from the convent; and it was decided that she must stay several +days, at least, before she went on to Paris, to begin the life of hard +study and courageous work which would make of her a great singer. + +Tired?--No, she was hardly tired at all. The journey over the enchanting +road of the Corniche had awakened in her a fervor of admiration which +prevented her from feeling any bodily needs, and now she seemed to have +reached fairyland, where the verdure of the tropics was like the hanging +gardens of Babylon, only those had never had a mirror to reflect back +their ancient, far-famed splendor, like that before her eyes, as she +looked down upon the Mediterranean, with the sun setting in the west in a +sky all crimson and gold. + +Notwithstanding the disorder of her travelling-dress, Jacqueline allowed +her friend to take her straight from the railway station to the Terrace +of Monte Carlo. She fell into ecstasies at sight of the African cacti, +the century plants, and the fig-trees of Barbary, covering the low walls +whence they looked down into the water; at the fragrance of the +evergreens that surrounded the beautiful palace with its balustrades, +dedicated to all the worst passions of the human race; with the sharp +rocky outline of Turbia; with an almost invisible speck on the horizon +which they said was Corsica; with everything, which, whether mirage or +reality, lifted her out of herself, and plunged her into that state of +excited happiness and indescribable sense of bodily comfort, which +exterior impressions so easily produce upon the young. + +After exhausting her vocabulary in exclamations and in questions, she +stood silent, watching the sun as it sank beneath the waters, thinking +that life is well worth living if it can give us such glorious +spectacles, notwithstanding all the difficulties that may have to be +passed through. Several minutes elapsed before she turned her radiant +face and dazzled eyes toward Wanda, or rather toward the spot where Wanda +had been standing beside her. "Oh! my dear--how beautiful!" she +murmured with a long sigh. + +The sigh was echoed by a man, who for a few moments had looked at her +with as much admiration as she had looked at the landscape. He answered +her by saying, in a low voice, the tones of which made her tremble from +head to foot: + +"Jacqueline!" + +"Monsieur de Cymier!" + +The words slipped through her lips as they suddenly turned pale. She had +an instinctive, sudden persuasion that she had been led into a snare. If +not, why was Madame Strahlberg now absorbed in conversation with three +other persons at some little distance. + +"Forgive me--you did not expect to see me--you seem quite startled," said +the young man, drawing near her. With an effort she commanded herself +and looked full in his face. Her anger rose. She had seen the same look +in the ugly, brutal face of Oscar de Talbrun. From the Terrace of Monte +Carlo her memory flew back to a country road in Normandy, and she +clenched her hand round an imaginary riding-whip. She needed coolness +and she needed courage. They came as if by miracle. + +"It is certain, Monsieur," she answered, slowly, "that I did not expect +to meet you here." + +"Chance has had pity on me," he replied, bowing low, as she had set him +the example of ceremony. + +But he had no idea of losing time in commonplace remarks--he wished to +take up their intimacy on the terms it had been formerly, to resume the +romance he himself had interrupted. + +"I knew," he said in the same low voice, full of persuasion, which gave +especial meaning to his words, "I knew that, after all, we should meet +again." + +"I did not expect it," said Jacqueline, haughtily. + +"Because you do not believe in the magnetism of a fixed desire." + +"No, I do not believe any such thing, when, opposed to such a desire, +there is a strong, firm will," said Jacqueline, her eyes burning. + +"Ah!" he murmured, and he might have been supposed to be really moved, +so much his look changed, "do not abuse your power over me--do not make +me wretched; if you could only understand--" + +She made a swift movement to rejoin Madame Strahlberg, but that lady was +already coming toward them with the same careless ease with which she had +left them together. + +"Well! you have each found an old acquaintance," she said, gayly. +"I beg your pardon, my loveliest, but I had to speak to some old friends, +and ask them to join us to-morrow evening. We shall sup at the +restaurant of the Grand Hotel, after the opera--for, I did not tell you +before, you will have the good luck to hear Patti. Monsieur de Cymier, +we shall expect you. Au revoir." + +He had been on the point of asking leave to walk home with them. But +there was something in Jacqueline's look, and in her stubborn silence, +that deterred him. He thought it best to leave a skilful advocate to +plead his cause before he continued a conversation which had not begun +satisfactorily. Not that Gerard de Cymier was discouraged by the +behavior of Jacqueline. He had expected her to be angry at his +defection, and that she would make him pay for it; but a little skill on +his part, and a little credulity on hers, backed by the intervention of a +third party, might set things right. + +One moment he lingered to look at her, admiring her as she stood in the +light of the dying sun, as beautiful in her plain dress and her indignant +paleness, while she looked far out to sea, that she might not be obliged +to look at him, as she had been when he had known her in prosperity. + +At that moment he knew she hated him, but it would be an additional +delight to overcome that feeling. + +The two women, when he left them, continued walking on the terrace side +by side, without a word. Wanda watched her companion out of the corners +of her eyes, and hummed an air to herself to break the silence. She saw +a storm gathering under Jacqueline's black eyebrows, and knew that sharp +arrows were likely to shoot forth from those lips which several times had +opened, though not a word had been uttered, probably through fear of +saying too little or too much. + +At last she made some trifling comment on the view, explaining something +about pigeon-shooting. + +"Wanda," interrupted Jacqueline, "did you not know what happened once?" + +"Happened, how? About what?" asked Madame Strahlberg, with an air of +innocence. + +"I am speaking of the way Monsieur de Cymier treated me." + +"Bah! He was in love with you. Who didn't know it? Every one could see +that. It was all the more reason why you should have been glad to meet +him." + +"He did not act as if he were much in love," said Jacqueline. + +"Because he went away when your family thought he was about to make his +formal proposal? Not all men are marrying men, my dear, nor have all +women that vocation. Men fall in love all the same." + +"Do you think, then, that when a man knows he has no intention of +marrying he should pay court to a young girl? I think I told you at the +time that he had paid court to me, and that he afterward--how shall I say +it?--basely deserted me." + +The sharp and thrilling tone in which Jacqueline said this amused Madame +Strahlberg. + +"What big words, my dear! No, I don't remember that you ever said +anything of the sort to me before. But you are wrong. As we grow older +we lay aside harsh judgments and sharp words. They do no good. In your +place I should be touched by the thought that a man so charming had been +faithful to me." + +"Faithful!" cried Jacqueline, her dark eyes flashing into the cat-like +eyes of Madame Strahlberg. + +Wanda looked down, and fastened a ribbon at her waist. + +"Ever since we have been here," she said, "he has been talking of you." + +"Really--for how long?" + +"Oh, if you must know, for the last two weeks." + +"It is just a fortnight since you wrote and asked me to stay with you," +said Jacqueline, coldly and reproachfully. + +"Oh, well--what's the harm? Suppose I did think your presence would +increase the attractions of Monaco?" + +"Why did you not tell me?" + +"Because I never write a word more than is necessary; you know how lazy +I am. And also because, I may as well confess, it might have scared you +off, you are so sensitive." + +"Then you meant to take me by surprise?" said Jacqueline, in the same +tone. + +"Oh! my dear, why do you try to quarrel with me?" replied Madame +Strahlberg, stopping suddenly and looking at her through her eyeglass. +"We may as well understand what you mean by a free and independent life." + +And thereupon ensued an address to which Jacqueline listened, leaning one +hand on a balustrade of that enchanted garden, while the voice of the +serpent, as she thought, was ringing in her ears. Her limbs shook under +her--her brain reeled. All her hopes of success as a singer on the stage +Madame Strahlberg swept away, as not worth a thought. She told her that, +in her position, had she meant to be too scrupulous, she should have +stayed in the convent. Everything to Jacqueline seemed to dance before +her eyes. The evening closed around them, the light died out, the +landscape, like her life, had lost its glow. She uttered a brief prayer +for help, such a prayer as she had prayed in infancy. She whispered it +in terror, like a cry in extreme danger. She was more frightened by +Wanda's wicked words than she had been by M. de Talbrun or by M. de +Cymier. She ceased to know what she was saying till the last words, "You +have good sense and you will think about it," met her ear. + +Jacqueline said not a word. + +Wanda took her arm. "You may be sure," she said, "that I am thinking +only of your good. Come! Would you like to go into the Casino and look +at the pictures? No, you are tired? You can see them some evening. +The ballroom holds a thousand persons. Yes, if you prefer, we will go +home. You can take a nap till dinner-time. We shall dine at eight +o'clock." + +Conversation languished till they reached the Villa Rosa. Notwithstanding +Jacqueline's efforts to appear natural, her own voice rang in her ears in +tones quite new to her, a laugh that she uttered without any occasion, +and which came near resulting in hysterics. Yet she had power enough +over her nerves to notice the surroundings as she entered the house. +At the door of the room in which she was to sleep, and which was on the +first story, Madame Strahlberg kissed her with one of those equivocal +smiles which so long had imposed on her simplicity. + +"Till eight o'clock, then." + +"Till eight o'clock," repeated Jacqueline, passively. + +But when eight o'clock came she sent word that she had a severe headache, +and would try to sleep it off. + +Suppose, she thought, M. de Cymier should have been asked to dinner; +suppose she should be placed next to him at table? Anything in that +house seemed possible now. + +They brought her a cup of tea. Up to a late hour she heard a confused +noise of music and laughter. She did not try to sleep. All her +faculties were on the alert, like those of a prisoner who is thinking of +escape. She knew what time the night trains left the station, and, +abandoning her trunk and everything else that she had with her, she +furtively--but ready, if need were, to fight for her liberty with the +strength of desperation--slipped down the broad stairs over their thick +carpet and pushed open a little glass door. Thank heaven! people came +in and went out of that house as if it had been a mill. No one +discovered her flight till the next morning, when she was far on her way +to Paris in an express train. Modeste, quite unprepared for her young +mistress's arrival, was amazed to see her drop down upon her, feverish +and excited, like some poor hunted animal, with strength exhausted. +Jacqueline flung herself into her nurse's arms as she used to do when, +as a little girl, she was in what she fancied some great trouble, and she +cried: "Oh, take me in--pray take me in! Keep me safe! Hide me!" And +then she told Modeste everything, speaking rapidly and disconnectedly, +thankful to have some one to whom she could open her heart. In default +of Modeste she would have spoken to stone walls. + +"And what will you do now, my poor darling?" asked the old nurse, as +soon as she understood that her young lady had come back to her, "with +weary foot and broken wing," from what she had assured her on her +departure would be a brilliant excursion. + +"Oh! I don't know," answered Jacqueline, in utter discouragement; "I am +too worn out to think or to do anything. Let me rest; that is all." + +"Why don't you go to see your stepmother?" + +"My stepmother? Oh, no! She is at the bottom of all that has happened +to me." + +"Or Madame d'Argy? Or Madame de Talbrun? Madame de Talbrun is the one +who would give you good advice." + +Jacqueline shook her head with a sad smile. + +"Let me stay here. Don't you remember--years ago--but it seems like +yesterday--all the rest is like a nightmare--how I used to hide myself +under your petticoats, and you would say, going on with your knitting: +'You see she is not here; I can't think where she can be.' Hide me now +just like that, dear old Modeste. Only hide me." + +And Modeste, full of heartfelt pity, promised to hide her "dear child" +from every one, which promise, however, did not prevent her, for she was +very self-willed, from going, without Jacqueline's knowledge, to see +Madame de Talbrun and tell her all that had taken place. She was hurt +and amazed at her reception by Giselle, and at her saying, without any +offer of help or words of sympathy, "She has only reaped what she has +sown." Giselle would have been more than woman had not Fred, and a +remembrance of the wrongs that he had suffered through Jacqueline, now +stood between them. For months he had been the prime object in her life; +her mission of comforter had brought her the greatest happiness she had +ever known. She tried to make him turn his attention to some serious +work in life; she wanted to keep him at home, for his mother's sake, +she thought; she fancied she had inspired him with a taste for home life. +If she had examined herself she might have discovered that the task she +had undertaken of doing good to this young man was not wholly for his +sake but partly for her own. She wanted to see him nearly every day and +to occupy a place in his life ever larger and larger. But for some time +past the conscientious Giselle had neglected the duty of strict self- +examination. She was thankful to be happy--and though Fred was a man +little given to self-flattery in his relations with women, he could not +but be pleased at the change produced in her by her intercourse with him. + +But while Fred and Giselle considered themselves as two friends trying to +console each other, people had begun to talk about them. Even Madame +d'Argy asked herself whether her son might not have escaped from the +cruel claws of a young coquette of the new school to fall into a worse +scrape with a married woman. She imagined what might happen if the +jealousy of "that wild boar of an Oscar de Talbrun" were aroused; the +dangers, far more terrible than the perils of the sea, that might in such +a case await her only son, the child for whose safety her mother-love +caused her to suffer perpetual torments. "O mothers! mothers!" she +often said to herself, "how much they are to be pitied. And they are +very blind. If Fred must get into danger and difficulty for any woman, +it should not have been for Giselle de Talbrun." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +"AN AFFAIR OF HONOR" + + A meeting took place yesterday at Vesinet between the Vicomte de + Cymier, secretary of Embassy at Vienna, and M. Frederic d'Argy, + ensign in the navy. The parties fought with swords. The seconds of + M. de Cymier were the Prince de Moelk and M. d'Etaples, captain in + the --th Hussars; those of M. d'Argy Hubert Marien, the painter. + M. d'Argy was wounded in the right arm, and for the present the + affair is terminated, but it is said it will be resumed on M. + d'Argy's recovery, although this seems hardly probable, considering + the very slight cause of the quarrel--an altercation at the Cercle + de la Rue Boissy d'Anglas, which took place over the card-table. + +Such was the announcement in a daily paper that met the eyes of +Jacqueline, as she lay hidden in Modeste's lodging, like a fawn in its +covert, her eyes and ears on the alert, watching for the least sign of +alarm, in fear and trembling. She expected something, she knew not what; +she felt that her sad adventure at Monaco could not fail to have its +epilogue; but this was one of which she never had dreamed. + +"Modeste, give me my hat! Get me a carriage! Quick! Oh, my God, it is +my fault!--I have killed him!" + +These incoherent cries came from her lips while Modeste, in alarm, picked +up the newspaper and adjusted her silver spectacles upon her nose to read +the paragraph. "Monsieur Fred wounded! Holy Virgin! His poor mother! +That is a new trouble fallen on her, to be sure. But this quarrel had +nothing to do with you, my pet; you see they say it was about cards." + +And folding up the Figaro, while Jacqueline in all haste was wrapping her +head in a veil, Modeste, with the best intentions, went on to say: +"Nobody ever dies of a sword-thrust in the arm." + +"But you see it says that they are going to fight all over again--don't +you understand? You are so stupid! What could they have had to quarrel +about but me? O God! Thou art just! This is indeed punishment--too +much punishment for me!" + +So saying, she ran down the many stairs that led up to Modeste's little +lodging in the roof, her feet hardly touching them as she ran, while +Modeste followed her more slowly, crying: "Wait for me! Wait for me, +Mademoiselle!" + +Calling a fiacre, Jacqueline, almost roughly, pushed the old woman into +it, and gave the coachman the address of Madame d'Argy, having, in her +excitement, first given him that of their old house in the Parc Monceau, +so much was she possessed by the idea that this was a repetition of that +dreadful day, when with Modeste, just as now, she went to meet an +irreparable loss. She seemed to see before her her dead father-- +he looked like Fred, and now, as before, Marien had his part in the +tragedy. Could he not have prevented the duel? Could he not have done +something to prevent Fred from exposing himself? The wound might be no +worse than it was said to be in the newspaper--but then a second meeting +was to take place. No!--it should not, she would stop it at any price! + +And yet, as the coach drew nearer to the Rue de Varenne, where Madame +d'Argy had her winter residence, a little calm, a little sense returned +to Jacqueline. She did not see how she could dare to enter that house, +where probably they cursed her very name. She would wait in the street +with the carriage-blinds pulled down, and Modeste should go in and ask +for information. Five minutes passed--ten minutes passed--they seemed +ages. How slow Modeste was, slow as a tortoise! How could she leave her +there when she knew she was so anxious? What could she be doing? All +she had to do was to ask news of M. Fred in just two words! + +At last, Jacqueline could bear suspense no longer. She opened the coach- +door and jumped out on the pavement. Just at that moment Modeste +appeared, brandishing the umbrella that she carried instead of a stick, +in a manner that meant something. It might be bad news, she would know +in a moment; anything was better than suspense. She sprang forward. + +"What did they say, Modeste? Speak!--Why have you been such a time?" + +"Because the servants had something else to do than to attend to me. +I wasn't the only person there--they were writing in a register. +Get back into the carriage, Mademoiselle, or somebody will see you-- +There are lots of people there who know you--Monsieur and Madame +d'Etaples--" + +"What do I care?--The truth! Tell me the truth--" + +"But didn't you understand my signals? He is going on well. It was only +a scratch--Ah! Madame that's only my way of talking. He will be laid up +for a fortnight. The doctor was there--he has some fever, but he is not +in any danger." + +"Oh! what a blessing! Kiss me, Modeste. We have a fortnight in which +we may interfere--But how--Oh, how?--Ah! there is Giselle! We will go to +Giselle at once!" + +And the 'fiacre' was ordered to go as fast as possible to the Rue Barbet- +de-Jouy. This time Jacqueline herself spoke to the concierge. + +"Madame la Comtesse is out." + +"But she never goes out at this hour. I wish to see her on important +business. I must see her." + +And Jacqueline passed the concierge, only to encounter another refusal +from a footman, who insisted that Madame la Comtesse was at home to no +one. + +"But me, she will see me. Go and tell her it is Mademoiselle de +Nailles." + +Moved by her persistence, the footman went in to inquire, and came back +immediately with the answer: + +"Madame la Comtesse can not see Mademoiselle." + +"Ah!" thought Jacqueline, "she, too, throws me off, and it is natural. +I have no friends left. No one will tell me anything!--I think it will +drive me mad?" + +She was half-mad already. She stopped at a newsstand and bought all the +evening journals; then, up in her garret, in her poor little nest under +the roof-which, as she felt bitterly, was her only refuge, she began to +look over those printed papers in which she might possibly find out the +true cause of the duel. Nearly all related the event in almost the exact +terms used by the Figaro. Ah!--here was a different one! A reporter who +knew something more added, in Gil Blas: "We have stated the cause of the +dispute as it has been given to the public, but in affairs of this nature +more than in any others, it is safe to remember the old proverb: 'Look +for the woman.' The woman could doubtless have been found enjoying +herself on the sunny shores of the Mediterranean, while men were drawing +swords in her defense." + +Jacqueline went on looking through the newspapers, crumpling up the +sheets as she laid them down. The last she opened had the reputation of +being a repository of scandals, never to be depended on, as she well +knew. Several times it had come to her hand and she had not opened it, +remembering what her father had always said of its reputation. But where +would she be more likely to find what she wanted than in the columns of a +journal whose reporters listened behind doors and peeped through +keyholes? Under the heading of 'Les Dessous Parisiens', she read on the +first page: + + "Two hens lived in peace; a cock came + And strife soon succeeded to joy; + E'en as love, they say, kindled the flame + That destroyed the proud city of Troy. + + "This quarrel was the outcome of a violent rupture between the two + hens in question, ending in the flight of one of them, a young and + tender pullet, whose voice we trust soon to hear warbling on the + boards at one of our theatres. This was the subject of conversation + in a low voice at the Cercle, at the hour when it is customary to + tell such little scandals. M. de C----- was enlarging on the + somewhat Bohemian character of the establishment of a lovely foreign + lady, who possesses the secret of being always surrounded by + delightful friends, young ladies who are self-emancipated, quasi- + widows who, by divorce suits, have regained their liberty, etc. + He was speaking of one of the beauties who are friends of his friend + Madame S----, as men speak of women who have proved themselves + careless of public opinion; when M. d'A----, in a loud voice, + interrupted him; the lie was given in terms that of course led to + the hostile meeting of which the press has spoken, attributing it to + a dispute about the Queen of Spades, when it really concerned the + Queen of Hearts." + +Then she had made no mistake; it had been her flight from Madame +Strahlberg's which had led to her being attacked by one man, and defended +by the other! Jacqueline found it hard to recognize herself in this +tissue of lies, insinuations, and half-truths. What did the paper mean +its readers to understand by its account? Was it a jealous rivalry +between herself and Madame Strahlberg?--Was M. de Cymier meant by the +cock? And Fred had heard all this--he had drawn his sword to refute the +calumny. Brave Fred! Alas! he had been prompted only by chivalric +generosity. Doubtless he, also, looked upon her as an adventuress. + +All night poor Jacqueline wept with such distress that she wished that +she might die. She was dropping off to sleep at last, overpowered by +fatigue, when a ring at the bell in the early morning roused her. Then +she heard whispering: + +"Do you think she is so unhappy?" + +It was the voice of Giselle. + +"Come in--come in quickly!" she cried, springing out of bed. Wrapped in +a dressing-gown, with bare feet, her face pale, her eyelids red, her +complexion clouded, she rushed to meet her friend, who was almost as much +disordered as herself. It seemed as if Madame de Talbrun might also have +passed a night of sleeplessness and tears. + +"You have come! Oh! you have come at last!" cried Jacqueline, throwing +her arms around her, but Giselle repelled her with a gesture so severe +that the poor child could not but understand its meaning. She murmured, +pointing to the pile of newspapers: "Is it possible?--Can you have +believed all those dreadful things?" + +"What things? I have read nothing," said Giselle, harshly. "I only know +that a man who was neither your husband nor your brother, and who +consequently was under no obligation to defend you, has been foolish +enough to be nearly killed for your sake. Is not that a proof of your +downfall? Don't you know it?" + +"Downfall?" repeated Jacqueline, as if she did not understand her. +Then, seizing her friend's hand, she forcibly raised it to her lips: +"Ah! what can anything matter to me," she cried, "if only you remain my +friend; and he has never doubted me!" + +"Women like you can always find defenders," said Giselle, tearing her +hand from her cousin's grasp. + +Giselle was not herself at that moment. "But, for your own sake, it +would have been better he should have abstained from such an act of +Quixotism." + +"Giselle! can it be that you think me guilty?" + +"Guilty!" cried Madame de Talbrun, her pale face aflame. "A little more +and Monsieur de Cymier's sword-point would have pierced his lungs." + +"Good heavens!" cried Jacqueline, hiding her face in her hands. "But I +have done nothing to--" + +"Nothing except to set two men against each other; to make them suffer, +or to make fools of them, and to be loved by them all the same." + +"I have not been a coquette," said Jacqueline, with indignation. + +"You must have been, to authorize the boasts of Monsieur de Cymier. He +had seen Fred so seldom, and Tonquin had so changed him that he spoke in +his presence--without supposing any one would interfere. I dare not tell +you what he said--" + +"Whatever spite or revenge suggested to him, no doubt," said Jacqueline. + +"Listen, Giselle--Oh, you must listen. I shall not be long." + +She forced her to sit down; she crouched on a foot stool at her feet, +holding her hands in hers so tightly that Giselle could not draw them +away, and began her story, with all its details, of what had happened to +her since she left Fresne. She told of her meeting with Wanda; of the +fatal evening which had resulted in her expulsion from the convent; +her disgust at the Sparks family; the snare prepared for her by Madame +Strahlberg. "And I can not tell you all," she added, "I can not tell you +what drove me away from my true friends, and threw me among these +people--" + +Giselle's sad smile seemed to answer, "No need--I am aware of it--I know +my husband." Encouraged by this, Jacqueline went on with her confession, +hiding nothing that was wrong, showing herself just as she had been, a +poor, proud child who had set out to battle for herself in a dangerous +world. At every step she had been more and more conscious of her own +imprudence, of her own weakness, and of an ever-increasing desire to be +done with independence; to submit to law, to be subject to any rules +which would deliver her from the necessity of obeying no will but her +own. + +"Ah!" she cried, "I am so disgusted with independence, with amusement, +and amusing people! Tell me what to do in future--I am weary of taking +charge of myself. I said so the other day to the Abbe Bardin. He is the +only person I have seen since my return. It seems to me I am coming back +to my old ideas--you remember how I once wished to end my days in the +cell of a Carmelite? You might love me again then, perhaps, and Fred and +poor Madame d'Argy, who must feel so bitterly against me since her son +was wounded, might forgive me. No one feels bitterly against the dead, +and it is the same as being dead to be a Carmelite nun. You would all +speak of me sometimes to each other as one who had been very unhappy, who +had been guilty of great foolishness, but who had repaired her faults as +best she could." + +Poor Jacqueline! She was no longer a girl of the period; in her grief +and humiliation she belonged to the past. Old-fashioned forms of +penitence attracted her. + +"And what did the Abbe Bardin tell you?" asked Giselle, with a slight +movement of her shoulders. + +"He only told me that he could not say at present whether that were my +vocation." + +"Nor can I," said Giselle. + +Jacqueline lifted up her face, wet with tears, which she had been leaning +on the lap of Giselle. + +"I do not see what else I can do, unless you would get me a place as +governess somewhere at the ends of the earth," she said. "I could teach +children their letters. I should not mind doing anything. I never +should complain. Ah! if you lived all by yourself, Giselle, how I +should implore you to take me to teach little Enguerrand!" + +"I think you might do better than that," said Giselle, wiping her +friend's eyes almost as a mother might have done, "if you would only +listen to Fred." + +Jacqueline's cheeks became crimson. + +"Don't mock me--it is cruel--I am too unworthy--it would pain me to see +him. Shame--regret--you understand! But I can tell you one thing, +Giselle--only you. You may tell it to him when he is quite old, when he +has been long married, and when everything concerning me is a thing of +the past. I never had loved any one with all my heart up to the moment +when I read in that paper that he had fought for me, that his blood had +flowed for me, that after all that had passed he still thought me worthy +of being defended by him." + +Her tears flowed fast, and she added: "I shall be proud of that all the +rest of my life! If only you, too, would forgive me." + +The heart of Giselle was melted by these words. + +"Forgive you, my dear little girl? Ah! you have been better than I. +I forgot our old friendship for a moment--I was harsh to you; and I have +so little right to blame you! But come! Providence may have arranged +all for the best, though one of us may have to suffer. Pray for that +some one. Good-by--'au revoir!" + +She kissed Jacqueline's forehead and was gone, before her cousin had +seized the meaning of her last words. But joy and peace came back to +Jacqueline. She had recovered her best friend, and had convinced her of +her innocence. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +GENTLE CONSPIRATORS + +Before Giselle went home to her own house she called on the Abbe Bardin, +whom a rather surly servant was not disposed to disturb, as he was just +eating his breakfast. The Abbe Bardin was Jacqueline's confessor, and he +held the same relation to a number of other young girls who were among +her particular friends. He was thoroughly acquainted with all that +concerned their delicate and generally childish little souls. He kept +them in the right way, had often a share in their marriages, and in +general kept an eye upon them all their lives. Even when they escaped +from him, as had happened in the case of Jacqueline, he did not give them +up. He commended them to God, and looked forward to the time of their +repentance with the patience of a father. The Abbe Bardin had never been +willing to exercise any function but that of catechist; he had grown old +in the humble rank of third assistant in a great parish, when, with a +little ambition, he might have been its rector. "Suffer little children +to come unto me," had been his motto. These words of his Divine Master +seemed more often than any others on his lips-lips so expressive of +loving kindness, though sometimes a shrewd smile would pass over them and +seem to say: "I know, I can divine." But when this smile, the result of +long experience, did not light up his features, the good Abbe Bardin +looked like an elderly child; he was short, his walk was a trot, his face +was round and ruddy, his eyes, which were short-sighted, were large, +wide-open, and blue, and his heavy crop of white hair, which curled and +crinkled above his forehead, made him look like a sixty-year-old angel, +crowned with a silvery aureole. + +Rubbing his hands affably, he came into the little parlor where Madame de +Talbrun was waiting for him. There was probably no ecclesiastic in all +Paris who had a salon so full of worked cushions, each of which was a +keepsake--a souvenir of some first communion. The Abbe did not know his +visitor, but the name Talbrun seemed to him connected with an honorable +and well-meaning family. The lady was probably a mother who had come to +put her child into his hands for religious instruction. He received +visits from dozens of such mothers, some of whom were a little tiresome, +from a wish to teach him what he knew better than they, and at one time +he had set apart Wednesday as his day for receiving such visits, that he +might not be too greatly disturbed, as seemed likely to happen to him +that day. Not that he cared very much whether he ate his cutlet hot or +cold, but his housekeeper cared a great deal. A man may be a very +experienced director, and yet be subject to direction in other ways. + +The youth of Giselle took him by surprise. + +"Monsieur l'Abbe," she said, without any preamble, while he begged her to +sit down, "I have come to speak to you of a person in whom you take an +interest, Jacqueline de Nailles." + +He passed the back of his hand over his brow and said, with a sigh: "Poor +little thing!" + +"She is even more to be pitied than you think. You have not seen her, +I believe, since last week." + +"Yes--she came. She has kept up, thank God, some of her religious +duties." + +"For all that, she has played a leading part in a recent scandal." + +The Abbe sprang up from his chair. + +"A duel has taken place because of her, and her name is in all men's +mouths--whispered, of course--but the quarrel took place at the Club. +You know what it is to be talked of at the Club." + +"The poison of asps," growled the Abbe; "oh! those clubs--think of all +the evil reports concocted in them, of which women are the victims!" + +"In the present case the evil report was pure calumny. It was taken up +by some one whom you also know--Frederic d'Argy." + +"I have had profound respect these many years for his excellent and pious +mother." + +"I thought so. In that case, Monsieur l'Abbe, you would not object to +going to Madame d'Argy's house and asking how her son is." + +"No, of course not; but--it is my duty to disapprove--" + +"You will tell her that when a young man has compromised a young girl by +defending her reputation in a manner too public, there is but one thing +he can do afterward-marry her." + +"Wait one moment," said the Abbe, who was greatly surprised; "it is +certain that a good marriage would be the best thing for Jacqueline. +I have been thinking of it. But I do not think I could so suddenly--so +soon after--" + +"Today at four o'clock, Monsieur l'Abbe. Time presses. You can add that +such a marriage is the only way to stop a second duel, which will +otherwise take place." + +"Is it possible?" + +"And it is also the only way to bring Frederic to decide on sending in +his resignation. Don't forget that--it is important." + +"But how do you know--" + +The poor Abbe stammered out his words, and counted on his fingers the +arguments he was desired to make use of. + +"And you will solemnly assure them that Jacqueline is innocent." + +"Oh! as to that, there are wolves in sheeps' clothing, as the Bible tells +us; but believe me, when such poor young things are in question, it is +more often the sheep which has put on the appearance of a wolf--to seem +in the fashion," added the Abbe, "just to seem in the fashion. Fashion +will authorize any kind of counterfeiting." + +"Well, you will say all that, will you not, to Madame d'Argy? It will be +very good of you if you will. She will make no difficulties about money. +All she wants is a quietly disposed daughter-in-law who will be willing +to pass nine months of the year at Lizerolles, and Jacqueline is quite +cured of her Paris fever." + +"A fever too often mortal," murmured the Abbe; "oh, for the simplicity of +nature! A priest whose lot is cast in the country is fortunate, Madame, +but we can not choose our vocation. We may do good anywhere, especially +in cities. Are you sure, however, that Jacqueline--" + +"She loves Monsieur d'Argy." + +"Well, if that is so, we are all right. The great misfortune with many +of these poor girls is that they have never learned to love anything; +they know nothing but agitations, excitements, curiosities, and fancies. +All that sort of thing runs through their heads." + +"You are speaking of a Jacqueline before the duel. I can assure you that +ever since yesterday, if not before, she has loved Monsieur d'Argy, who +on his part for a long time--a very long time--has been in love with +her." + +Giselle spoke eagerly, as if she forced herself to say the words that +cost her pain. Her cheeks were flushed under her veil. The Abbe, who +was keen-sighted, observed these signs. + +"But," continued Giselle, "if he is forced to forget her he may try to +expend elsewhere the affection he feels for her; he may trouble the peace +of others, while deceiving himself. He might make in the world one of +those attachments--Do not fail to represent all these dangers to Madame +d'Argy when you plead the cause of Jacqueline." + +"Humph! You are evidently much attached, Madame, to Mademoiselle de +Nailles." + +"Very much, indeed," she answered, bravely, "very much attached to her, +and still more to him; therefore you understand that this marriage must-- +absolutely must take place." + +She had risen and was folding her cloak round her, looking straight into +the Abbe's eyes. Small as she was, their height was almost the same; she +wanted him to understand thoroughly why this marriage must take place. + +He bowed. Up to that time he had not been quite sure that he had not to +do with one of those wolves dressed in fleece whose appearance is as +misleading as that of sheep disguised as wolves: now his opinion was +settled. + +"Mon Dieu! Madame," he said, "your reasons seem to me excellent--a duel +to be prevented, a son to be kept by the side of his sick mother, two +young people who love each other to be married, the saving, possibly, of +two souls--" + +"Say three souls, Monsieur l'Abbe!" + +He did not ask whose was the third, nor even why she had insisted that +this delicate commission must be executed that same day. He only bowed +when she said again: "At four o'clock: Madame d'Argy will be prepared to +see you. Thank you, Monsieur l'Abbe." And then, as she descended the +staircase, he bestowed upon her silently his most earnest benediction, +before returning to the cold cutlet that was on his breakfast table. + +Giselle did not breakfast much better than he. In truth, M. de Talbrun +being absent, she sat looking at her son, who was eating with a good +appetite, while she drank only a cup of tea; after which, she dressed +herself, with more than usual care, hiding by rice-powder the trace of +recent tears on her complexion, and arranging her fair hair in the way +that was most becoming to her, under a charming little bonnet covered +with gold net-work which corresponded with the embroidery on an entirely +new costume. + +When she went into the dining-room Enguerrand, who was there with his +nurse finishing his dessert, cried out: "Oh! mamma, how pretty you are!" +which went to her heart. She kissed him two or three times--one kiss +after another. + +"I try to be pretty for your sake, my darling." + +"Will you take me with you?" + +"No, but I will come back for you, and take you out." + +She walked a few steps, and then turned to give him such a kiss as +astonished him, for he said: + +"Is it really going to be long?" + +"What?" + +"Before you come back? You kiss me as if you were going for a long time, +far away." + +"I kissed you to give myself courage." + +Enguerrand, who, when he had a hard lesson to learn, always did the same +thing, appeared to understand her. + +"You are going to do some thing you don't like." + +"Yes, but I have to do it, because you see it is my duty." + +"Do grown people have duties?" + +"Even more than children." + +"But it isn't your duty to write a copy--your writing is so pretty. +Oh! that's what I hate most. And you always say it is my duty to write +my copy. I'll go and do it while you do your duty. So that will seem as +if we were both together doing something we don't like--won't it, mamma?" + +She kissed him again, even more passionately. + +"We shall be always together, we two, my love!" + +This word love struck the little ear of Enguerrand as having a new +accent, a new meaning, and, boy-like, he tried to turn this excess of +tenderness to advantage. + +"Since you love me so much, will you take me to see the puppet-show?" + +"Anywhere you like--when I come back. Goodby." + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +A CHIVALROUS SOUL + +Madame D'Argy sat knitting by the window in Fred's chamber, with that +resigned but saddened air that mothers wear when they are occupied in +repairing the consequences of some rash folly. Fred had seen her in his +boyhood knitting in the same way with the same, look on her face, when he +had been thrown from his pony, or had fallen from his velocipede. He +himself looked ill at ease and worried, as he lay on a sofa with his arm +in a sling. He was yawning and counting the hours. From time to time +his mother glanced at him. Her look was curious, and anxious, and +loving, all at the same time. He pretended to be asleep. He did not +like to see her watching him. His handsome masculine face, tanned that +pale brown which tropical climates give to fair complexions, looked odd +as it rose above a light-blue cape, a very feminine garment which, as it +had no sleeves, had been tied round his neck to keep him from being cold. +He felt himself, with some impatience, at the mercy of the most tender, +but the most sharp-eyed of nurses, a prisoner to her devotion, and made +conscious of her power every moment. Her attentions worried him; he knew +that they all meant "It is your own fault, my poor boy, that you are in +this state, and that your mother is so unhappy." He felt it. He knew as +well as if she had spoken that she was asking him to return to reason, to +marry, without more delay, their little neighbor in Normandy, +Mademoiselle d'Argeville, a niece of M. Martel, whom he persisted in not +thinking of as a wife, always calling her a "cider apple," in allusion to +her red cheeks. + +A servant came in, and said to Madame d'Argy that Madame de Talbrun was +in the salon. + +"I am coming," she said, rolling up her knitting. + +But Fred suddenly woke up: + +"Why not ask her to come here?" + +"Very good," said his mother, with hesitation. She was distracted +between her various anxieties; exasperated against the fatal influence of +Jacqueline, alarmed by the increasing intimacy with Giselle, desirous +that all such complications should be put an end to by his marriage, but +terribly afraid that her "cider apple" would not be sufficient to +accomplish it. + +"Beg Madame de Talbrun to come in here," she said, repeating the order +after her son; but she settled herself in her chair with an air more +patient, more resigned than ever, and her lips were firmly closed. + +Giselle entered in her charming new gown, and Fred's first words, like +those of Enguerrand, were: "How pretty you are! It is charity," he +added, smiling, "to present such a spectacle to the eyes of a sick man; +it is enough to set him up again." + +"Isn't it?" said Giselle, kissing Madame d'Argy on the forehead. The +poor mother had resumed her knitting with a sigh, hardly glancing at the +pretty walking-costume, nor at the bonnet with its network of gold. + +"Isn't it pretty?" repeated Giselle. "I am delighted with this costume. +It is made after one of Rejane's. Oscar fell in love with it at a first +representation of a vaudeville, and he gave me over into the hands of the +same dressmaker, who indeed was named in the play. That kind of +advertising seems very effective." + +She went on chattering thus to put off what she had really come to say. +Her heart was beating so fast that its throbs could be seen under the +embroidered front of the bodice which fitted her so smoothly. She +wondered how Madame d'Argy would receive the suggestion she was about to +make. + +She went on: "I dressed myself in my best to-day because I am so happy." + +Madame d'Argy's long tortoise-shell knitting-needles stopped. + +"I am glad to hear it, my dear," she said, coldly, "I am glad anybody can +be happy. There are so many of us who are sad." + +"But why are you pleased?" asked Fred, looking at her, as if by some +instinct he understood that he had something to do with it. + +"Our prodigal has returned," answered Giselle, with a little air of +satisfaction, very artificial, however, for she could hardly breathe, +so great was her fear and her emotion. "My house is in the garb of +rejoicing." + +"The prodigal? Do you mean your husband?" said Madame d'Argy, +maliciously. + +"Oh! I despair of him," replied Giselle, lightly. "No, I speak of a +prodigal who did not go far, and who made haste to repent. I am speaking +of Jacqueline." + +There was complete silence. The knitting-needles ticked rapidly, +a slight flush rose on the dark cheeks of Fred. + +"All I beg," said Madame d'Argy, "is that you will not ask me to eat the +fatted calf in her honor. The comings and going of Mademoiselle de +Nailles have long ceased to have the slightest interest for me." + +"They have for Fred at any rate; he has just proved it, I should say," +replied Giselle. + +By this time the others were as much embarrassed as Giselle. She saw it, +and went on quickly: + +"Their names are together in everybody's mouth; you can not hinder it." + +"I regret it deeply-and allow me to make one remark: it seems to me you +show a want of tact such as I should never have imagined in telling us--" + +Giselle read in Fred's eyes, which were steadily fixed on her, that he +was, on that point, of his mother's opinion. She went on, however, still +pretending to blunder. + +"Forgive me--but I have been so anxious about you ever since I heard +there was to be a second meeting--" + +"A second meeting!" screamed Madame d'Argy, who, as she read no paper +but the Gazette de France, or occasionally the Debats, knew nothing of +all the rumors that find their echo in the daily papers. + +"Oh, 'mon Dieu'! I thought you knew--" + +"You need not frighten my mother," said Fred, almost angrily; "Monsieur +de Cymier has written a letter which puts an end to our quarrel. It is +the letter of a man of honor apologizing for having spoken lightly, for +having repeated false rumors without verifying them--in short, retracting +all that he had said that reflected in any way on Mademoiselle de +Nailles, and authorizing me, if I think best, to make public his +retraction. After that we can have nothing more to say to each other." + +"He who makes himself the champion to defend a young girl's character," +said Madame d'Argy, sententiously, "injures her as much as those who have +spoken evil of her." + +"That is exactly what I think," said Giselle. "The self-constituted +champion has given the evil rumor circulation." + +There was again a painful silence. Then the intrepid little woman +resumed: "This step on the part of Monsieur de Cymier seems to have +rendered my errand unnecessary. I had thought of a way to end this sad +affair; a very simple way, much better, most certainly, than men cutting +their own throats or those of other people. But since peace has been +made over the ruins of Jacqueline's reputation, I had better say nothing +and go away." + +"No--no! Let us hear what you had to propose," said Fred, getting up +from his couch so quickly that he jarred his bandaged arm, and uttered a +cry of pain, which seemed very much like an oath, too. + +Giselle was silent. Standing before the hearth, she was warming her +small feet, watching, as she did so, Madame d'Argy's profile, which was +reflected in the mirror. It was severe--impenetrable. It was Fred who +spoke first. + +"In the first place," he said, hesitating, "are you sure that +Mademoiselle de Nailles has not just arrived from Monaco?" + +"I am certain that for a week she has been living quietly with Modeste, +and that, though she passed through Monaco, she did not stay there-- +twenty-four hours, finding that the air of that place did not agree with +her." + +"But what do you say to what Monsieur Martel saw with his own eyes, and +which is confirmed by public rumor?" cried Madame d'Argy, as if she were +giving a challenge. + +"Monsieur Martel saw Jacqueline in bad company. She was not there of her +own will. As to public rumor, we may feel sure that to make it as +flattering to her tomorrow as it is otherwise to-day only a marriage is +necessary. Yes, a marriage! That is the way I had thought of to settle +everything and make everybody happy." + +"What man would marry a girl who had compromised herself?" said Madame +d'Argy, indignantly. + +"He who has done his part to compromise her." + +"Then go and propose it to Monsieur de Cymier!" + +"No. It is not Monsieur de Cymier whom she loves." + +"Ah!" Madame d'Argy was on her feet at once. "Indeed, Giselle, you are +losing your senses. If I were not afraid of agitating Fred--" + +He was, in truth, greatly agitated. The only hand that he could use was +pulling and tearing at the little blue cape crossed on his breast, in +which his mother had wrapped him; and this unsuitable garment formed such +a queer contrast to the expression of his face that Giselle, in her +nervous excitement, burst out laughing, an explosion of merriment which +completed the exasperation of Madame d'Argy. + +"Never!" she cried, beside herself. "You hear me--never will I consent, +whatever happens!" + +At that moment the door was partly opened, and a servant announced +"Monsieur l'Abbe Bardin." + +Madame d'Argy made a gesture which was anything but reverential. + +"Well, to be sure--this is the right moment with a vengeance! What does +he want! Does he wish me to assist in some good work--or to undertake to +collect money, which I hate." + +"Above all, mother," cried Fred, "don't expose me to the fatigue of +receiving his visit. Go and see him yourself. Giselle will take care of +your patient while you are gone. Won't you, Giselle?" + +His voice was soft, and very affectionate. He evidently was not angry at +what she had dared to say, and she acknowledged this to herself with an +aching heart. + +"I don't exactly trust your kind of care," said Madame d'Argy, with a +smile that was not gay, and certainly not amiable. + +She went, however, because Fred repeated: + +"But go and see the Abbe Bardin." + +Hardly had she left the room when Fred got up from his sofa and +approached Giselle with passionate eagerness. + +"Are you sure I am not dreaming," said he. "Is it you--really you who +advise me to marry Jacqueline?" + +"Who else should it be?" she answered, very calm to all appearance. +"Who can know better than I? But first you must oblige me by lying down +again, or else I will not say one word more. That is right. Now keep +still. Your mother is furiously displeased with me--I am sorry--but she +will get over it. I know that in Jacqueline you would have a good wife-- +a wife far better than the Jacqueline you would have married formerly. +She has paid dearly for her experience of life, and has profited by its +lessons, so that she is now worthy of you, and sincerely repentant for +her childish peccadilloes." + +"Giselle," said Fred, "look me full in the face--yes, look into my eyes +frankly and hide nothing. Your eyes never told anything but the truth. +Why do you turn them away? Do you really and truly wish this marriage?" + +She looked at him steadily as long as he would, and let him hold her +hand, which was burning inside her glove, and which with a great effort +she prevented from trembling. Then her nerves gave way under his long +and silent gaze, which seemed to question her, and she laughed, a laugh +that sounded to herself very unnatural. + +"My poor, dear friend," she cried, "how easily you men are duped! You +are trying to find out, to discover whether, in case you decide upon an +honest act, a perfectly sensible act, to which you are strongly inclined +--don't tell me you are not--whether, in short, you marry Jacqueline, I +shall be really as glad of it as I pretend. But have you not found out +what I have aimed at all along? Do you think I did not know from the +very first what it was that made you seek me? + +"I was not the rope, but I had lived near the rose; I reminded you of her +continually. We two loved her; each of us felt we did. Even when you +said harm of her, I knew it was merely because you longed to utter her +name, and repeat to yourself her perfections. I laughed, yes, I laughed +to myself, and I was careful how I contradicted you. I tried to keep you +safe for her, to prevent your going elsewhere and forming attachments +which might have resulted in your forgetting her. I did my best--do me +justice--I did my best; perhaps sometimes I pushed things a little far +in her interest, in that of your mother, but in yours more than all; in +yours, for God knows I am all for you," said Giselle, with sudden and +involuntary fervor. + +"Yes, I am all yours as a friend, a faithful friend," she resumed, almost +frightened by the tones of her own voice; "but as to the slightest +feeling of love between us, love the most spiritual, the most platonic-- +yes, all men, I fancy, have a little of that kind of self-conceit. Dear +Fred, don't imagine it--Enguerrand would never have allowed it." + +She was smiling, half laughing, and he looked at her with astonishment, +asking himself whether he could believe what she was saying, when he +could recollect what seemed to him so many proofs to the contrary. Yet +in what she said there was no hesitation, no incoherence, no false note. +Pride, noble pride, upheld her to the end. The first falsehood of her +life was a masterpiece. + +"Ah, Giselle!" he said at last, not knowing what to think, "I adore you! +I revere you!" + +"Yes," she replied, with a smile, gracious, yet with a touch of sadness, +"I know you do. But her you love!" + +Might it not have been sweet to her had he answered "No, I loved her +once, and remembered that old love enough to risk my life for her, but in +reality I now love only you--all the more at this moment when I see you +love me more than yourself." But, instead, he murmured only, like a man. +and a lover: "And Jacqueline--do you think she loves me?" His anxiety, a +thrill that ran through all his frame, the light in his eyes, his sudden +pallor, told more than his words. + +If Giselle could have doubted his love for Jacqueline before, she would +have now been convinced of it. The conviction stabbed her to the heart. +Death is not that last sleep in which all our faculties, weakened and +exhausted, fail us; it is the blow which annihilates our supreme illusion +and leaves us disabused in a cold and empty world. People walk, talk, +and smile after this death--another ghost is added to the drama played on +the stage of the world; but the real self is dead. + +Giselle was too much of a woman, angelic as she was, to have any courage +left to say: "Yes, I know she loves you." + +She said instead, in a low voice: "That is a question you must ask of +her." + +Meantime, in the next room they could hear Madame d'Argy vehemently +repeating: "Never! No, I never will consent! Is it a plot between you?" + +They heard also a rumbling monotone preceding each of these vehement +interruptions. The Abbe Bardin was pointing out to her that, unmarried, +her son would return to Tonquin, that Lizerolles would be left deserted, +her house would be desolate without daughter-in-law or grandchildren; +and, as he drew these pictures, he came back, again and again, to his +main argument: + +"I will answer for their happiness: I will answer for the future." + +His authority as a priest gave weight to this assurance, at least Madame +d'Argy felt it so. She went on saying never, but less and less +emphatically, and apparently she ceased to say it at last, for three +months later the d'Etaples, the Rays, the d'Avrignys and the rest, +received two wedding announcements in these words: + +"Madame d'Argy has the honor to inform you of the marriage of her son, +M. Frederic d'Argy, Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, to Mademoiselle de +Nailles." + +The accompanying card ran thus: + + "The Baroness de Nailles has the honor to inform you of the + marriage of Mademoiselle Jacqueline de Nailles, her + stepdaughter, to M. Frederic d'Argy." + +Congratulations showered down on both mother and stepmother. A love- +match is nowadays so rare! It turned out that every one had always +wished all kinds of good fortune to young Madame d'Argy, and every one +seemed to take a sincere part in the joy that was expressed on the +occasion, even Dolly, who, it was said, had in secret set her heart on +Fred for herself; even Nora Sparks, who, not having carried out her +plans, had gone back to New York, whence she sent a superb wedding +present. Madame de Nailles apparently experienced at the wedding all the +emotions of a real mother. + +The roses at Lizerolles bloomed that year with unusual beauty, as if to +welcome the young pair. Modeste sang 'Nunc Dimittis'. The least +demonstrative of all those interested in the event was Giselle. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +As we grow older we lay aside harsh judgments and sharp words +Blow which annihilates our supreme illusion +Death is not that last sleep +Fool (there is no cure for that infirmity) +The worst husband is always better than none + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Jacqueline, v3 +by Therese Bentzon (Mme. 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