Part 56 (1/2)
The Acadien to whom she was talking happened to be, Agapit knew, a ne'er-do-weel. He shuffled away, when he caught sight of the young lawyer, but Bidiane ran delightedly towards him. ”Oh, Mr. LeNoir, you are as welcome as Mayflowers in April!”
Her face was flushed, there were faint dark circles around the light brown eyes that harmonized so much better with her red hair than blue ones would have done. The sun shone down into these eyes, emphasizing this harmony between them and the hair, and Agapit, looking deeply into them, forgot immediately the mentor's part that he was to act, and clasped her warmly and approvingly by the hand.
”Come in,” she said; but Agapit, who would never sit in the house if it were possible to stay out-of-doors, conducted her to one of the rustic seats by the croquet lawn. He sat down, and she perched in the hammock, sitting on one foot, swinging the other, and overwhelming him with questions about his visit to Halifax.
”And what have you been doing with yourself since I have been away?” he asked, with a hypocritical a.s.sumption of ignorance.
”You know very well what I have been doing,” she said, rapidly. ”Did not I see Rose driving in to call on you this morning? And you have come down to scold me. I understand you perfectly; you cannot deceive me.”
Agapit was silent, quite overcome by this mark of feminine insight.
”I will never do it again,” she went on, ”but I am going to see this through. It is such fun--'Claude,' said my aunt to her husband, when we first decided to make _bombance_, 'what politics do you belong to?' 'I am a Conservative,' he said; because, you know, my aunt has always told him to vote as the English people about him did. She has known nothing of politics. 'No, you are not,' she replied, 'you are a Liberal;' and Claudine and I nearly exploded with laughter to hear her trying to convince him that he must be a Liberal like our good French Premier, and that he must endeavor to drive the Conservative candidate out. Claude said, 'But we have always been Conservatives, and our house is to be their meeting-place on the day of election.' 'It is the meeting-place for the Liberals,' said my aunt. But Claude would not give in, so he and his party will have the laundry, while we will have the parlor; but I can tell you a secret,” and she leaned forward and whispered, ”Claude will vote for the Liberal man. Mirabelle Marie will see to that.”
”You say Liberal man,--there are two--”
”But one is going to retire.”
”And who will take his place?”
”Never mind,” she said, smiling provokingly. ”The Liberals are going to have a convention to-morrow evening in the Comeauville schoolhouse, and women are going. Then you will see--why there is Father Duvair. What does he wish?”
She sprang lightly from the hammock, and while she watched the priest, Agapit watched her, and saw that she grew first as pale as a lily, then red as a rose.
The parish priest was walking slowly towards the inn. He was a young man of tall, commanding presence, and being a priest ”out of France,” he had on a _soutane_ (ca.s.sock) and a three-cornered hat. On the Bay are Irish priests, Nova Scotian priests, Acadien priests, and French-Canadian priests, but only the priests ”out of France” hold to the strictly French customs of dress. The others dress as do the Halifax ecclesiastics, in tall silk or shovel hats and black broadcloth garments like those worn by clergymen of Protestant denominations.
”_Bon jour, mademoiselle_,” he said to Bidiane.
”_Bon jour, monsieur le cure_,” she replied, with deep respect.
”Is Madame Corbineau within?” he went on, after warmly greeting Agapit, who was an old favorite of his.
”Yes, _monsieur le cure_,--I will take you to her,” and she led the way to the house.
In a few minutes she came dejectedly back. ”You are in trouble,” said Agapit, tenderly; ”what is it?”
She glanced miserably at him from under her curling eyelashes. ”When Mirabelle Marie went into the parlor, Father Duvair said politely, so politely, 'I wish to buy a little rum, madame; can you sell me some?' My aunt looked at me, and I said, 'Yes, _monsieur le cure_,' for I knew if we set the priest against us we should have trouble,--and then we have not been quite right, I know that.”
”Where did you get the rum?” asked Agapit, kindly.
”From a schooner,--two weeks ago,--there were four casks. It is necessary, you know, to make _bombance_. Some men will not vote without.”
”And you have been bribing.”
”Not bribing,” she said, and she dropped her head; ”just coaxing.”
”Where did you get the money to buy it?”
For some reason or other she evaded a direct answer to this question, and after much deliberation murmured, in the lowest of voices, that Claudine had had some money.
”Bidiane, she is a poor woman.”