Volume Ii Part 30 (1/2)
”Oh, yes! they've been here for the last ten or twelve days----”
”Oh! I've seen the lady, I have,” said Poucette, coming forward; ”I've seen her several times--for the last three days you don't see anything but her riding by here on horseback. Anyone would think it was our house she wanted to see; she rides in front of it and behind it, and she looks over the garden wall; that's easy, on horseback!--She's got a fine blue cloth habit, with a long skirt that hides her horse's tail, and a man's round hat. You ought to see how well she sits on her horse! Oh! she ain't afraid, that lady ain't! you can see that right off.”
”Is she pretty?”
”Faith, mamzelle, you can't say that she ain't good-looking; but with her great black eyes, when she looks at you, you'd think she wanted to frighten everybody. She's got a bold, haughty way! for my part, I don't like such ways.”
”When you see this beautiful amazon again, Poucette, call me; I am curious to see her.”
”All right, mamzelle; I'll bet she'll ride by again to-day; for I tell you she always rides round the house and then comes back this way.”
”That's rather strange, don't you think so, Honorine?”
”For my part, I see nothing extraordinary about it, my dear girl; this lady comes to live in a part of the country that she isn't familiar with, and she goes out in the saddle; that's the best way of becoming acquainted with the neighborhood. If she looks at the houses, it's because she wants to know the people who live in them.”
”But why does she pa.s.s our house so often? why does she ride round it?”
”She pa.s.ses it, no doubt, because it's on her road when she goes out to ride. Poucette thinks that she rides round it; probably that is because it's her shortest way home.”
”You always think that everything's all right. Still, I am very curious to see this beautiful equestrian.”
”And I am not in the least, I a.s.sure you.--By the way, you don't mention the husband; doesn't he ride too?”
”Oh, no!” said the gardener; ”the husband don't know how to sit a horse very well, it seems; the first day Madame de Belleville went out to ride, her husband thought he'd go with her. So he took a horse, but he didn't look as if he was very comfortable on him. 'My dear love,' he sings out to his wife, 'please don't go so fast! I've got out of the habit of galloping.'--But whether his wife didn't hear him, or whether her horse wouldn't stop, she was off like a flash in an instant.
Monsieur de Belleville tried to overtake her, but _patatras_!--off he went, head over heels. He got up and went home, limping a little and swearing he'd never get on a horse again; but that don't prevent madame's going every day.”
”She has a servant follow her, of course?”
”No, she always goes alone. As Poucette says, she ain't afraid. It seems there's to be a dinner-party to-morrow, given by the owner of Goldfish Villa; all the bigwigs of the place are invited--the Droguets and Remplumes and Jarnouillards; you don't hear anybody talking about anything else. Perhaps it's to invite you that Madame de Belleville rides round your house the way she does.”
”Oh! no, Pere Ledrux; it can't be for that. In the first place, one doesn't go on horseback to pay a ceremonious visit; and in the second place, we are not bigwigs, and as this lady chooses to make friends of all the people who talk ill of us, it is probable that we shall never make friends with her. But if you hear any more gossip, Pere Ledrux, about Monsieur Edmond Didier's frequent visits to us, I authorize you to say that there is nothing surprising in the fact of a young man's paying court to the person he is to marry; for Monsieur Edmond and Agathe are engaged.”
”Well, well! I had a suspicion of that!” cried the gardener; ”I says to myself: 'That young man and that girl--hum! it might well be--they're both very good-looking!'--But, you understand, I just said that to myself, by way of reflection; for it don't concern me, it's none of my business.--I'll just go and take a look at your hens; it's as sure as can be that the black one fights with the others; if you don't eat her, I'll have to take her away; she makes the others too miserable.”
”We don't eat the hens whose eggs we have eaten; take her away, Pere Ledrux.”
”Well! you understand, it's in your interest; she'd spoil all the others.”
Pere Ledrux went off to the hencoop, and Honorine had returned to the house, when Poucette came running to Agathe, crying out:
”Mamzelle, here she is, she's coming this way.”
”Who? the amazon?”
”Yes, she's on the narrow road, at the end of the garden; you can see her nicely from the summer-house.”
”Let us go there then!”
Agathe was soon at the window of the summer-house, and Poucette, who had followed her, pointed to a lady on horseback, coming from Gournay, and riding her horse at a gallop, with a poise and boldness worthy of a circus rider.
Thelenie was dressed in a beautiful habit of light blue broadcloth; on her head was a man's hat, with a very broad brim, set a little on one side, and adorned with a waving ma.s.s of black ribbons. Her lovely black hair fell in corkscrew curls on each side of her face, and her great gleaming eyes shone with wonderful brilliancy beneath her hat-brim. She held in her right hand a dainty riding-crop, with which she lashed her horse vigorously when he showed signs of relaxing his pace.