Volume I Part 35 (1/2)
”That's so, it would be hard; but Agathe is only my friend. I am a widow; I have no--I have no child of my own; we two are all alone.”
”Do you think of living here all the year round if you should buy the house?”
”Yes, to be sure, all the year; we shall settle down here.”
”Well, I tell you, that'll suit me. Two nice little women in the place--they brighten things up, and they're pleasant to look at.”
”Let us finish inspecting the house.”
On the ground floor there were, besides the salon, a beautiful dining-room, pantry, bath-room and kitchen.
On the first floor there were four pleasant bedrooms and two dressing-rooms; above that, two servants'-rooms and a loft.
The whole house was furnished very comfortably.
Agathe jumped for joy as they entered each room.
”Look,” she cried, ”this will be your room, Honorine; see how comfortable you will be here. There's a nice little dressing-room connected with it, and such a view! Oh! do come and look out of the window, my dear friend; it's magnificent! What a glorious panorama! how far you can see! and when everything is green, when these fields are studded with flowers, oh! how lovely it must be! Below us, on this side, there's a little yard, and beyond is the garden, isn't it, monsieur?”
”Yes, mamzelle, that's the garden, and a well-kept garden too, I flatter myself; and there'll be plenty of fruit this year! if we don't have a miserable frost during the April moon.”
”Well, let us go to see the garden,” said Honorine, ”so far, I like the house very much.”
They left the house at the rear by a door opening into a small yard.
There were the outhouses, the hencoop and the rabbit-hutches. A lattice separated the yard from the garden, which was about a third of an acre in extent and prettily laid out.
Agathe's joyous exclamations redoubled at each arbor, each clump of shrubbery, but her enthusiasm reached its height when, at the end of a path, she spied a mound on which was a pretty little summer-house, standing at a corner of the garden wall. The slope leading to the summer-house was bordered by eglantine and honeysuckle. The building had three windows from which there was an extensive view of the surrounding country; for, as we have said, Ch.e.l.les stood on a hill and overlooked its whole neighborhood.
”Oh! we'll come here very often!” cried Agathe; ”we'll sit at the window and work, won't we, Honorine?”
”Yes, I like this place extremely, I confess. What perfect tranquillity one must enjoy here!”
”And in addition it's sure to be very cool in summer, because of these tall lindens all about. It's a lovely place to come to indulge in a chat and to drink a gla.s.s with a friend.”
Honorine smiled as she replied:
”We shall hardly come here to drink a gla.s.s perhaps; but we may breakfast here sometimes and bring our work here very often. Yes, in two months I should think that this view would be very lovely.”
”Oh! in another month the lilacs and syringas will begin to put out leaves,” said Ledrux. ”And then by that time you'll be having lilies of the valley and violets and tulips and narcissus and hyacinths; there's plenty of them in the garden. You can smell 'em when you walk here.--On the whole, the house pleases you, don't it?”
”Yes, very much; and you too, eh, Agathe?”
”Oh! my dear friend, I am enchanted with it; I would like to stay here now, and not go back to Paris at all! This place seems like a little paradise.”
”I suppose they've told you the price Monsieur Courtivaux asks--twenty thousand francs?--But, bless me! very likely he'll take off a little something.”
”Yes, we saw his agent. We shall see him again to-morrow to close the bargain.”
”Oh! yes, my dear; we mustn't wait till the house is sold to someone else.”