Part 10 (1/2)
Afterwards in the salon the ”_jeunes filles_” were sent to talk at the other side of the room, supervised by ”the Tug,” who did not dine, but was in waiting. If you had heard their conversation, Mamma! It was worse than the day the two came to breakfast. Just one endless string of questions to Victorine about the Marquis, with giggles over possibilities of their own _fiancailles!_ It is so extraordinary that they can ever turn into witty, fascinating women like Heloise and the Marquise. Of course, these are just provincial n.o.bodies, whom Heloise would not dream of knowing in Paris; perhaps the girls there are better.
[Sidenote: _A Cure for a Fit_]
Victorine told them the Marquis was ”Beau comme l'Archange Michel,” and had for her ”une brlante devotion!” What will she say if after all he refuses to come to the scratch! Jean is to accompany Agnes and me up to Paris to-morrow to see us safely off to Dieppe. I hope he won't have another fit in the train, I shall tell Agnes to take plenty of salts and brandy in her bag, and a bottle of soda water, because I have always heard that a sudden shock is best for people in fits, and one could pop the soda water over him if the worst came to the worst.--Now, good-night, dear Mamma, your affectionate daughter, Elizabeth.
_P.S._--An awful wind is blowing. I hope I shan't be drowned crossing the Channel.--E.
Chateau de Croixmare,
_Thursday night_.
[Sidenote: _The Emotion of the Marquis_]
Dearest Mamma,--I hope you got the telegram all right to-day saying I would not leave. The storm became really so fearful they would not hear of my starting, and as it has turned out I am very glad, for to-night we dined at Tournelle to celebrate the Baronne's birthday, and we had such an amusing time. All the usual lot were there, as well as those two officers who came to the _Foire_ with us, and about three or four more people from Paris, so we were quite a large party. Everybody gave the Baronne a present, and _such_ baskets of flowers as she had in the salon! ”a.s.sez pour tourner la tete,” as Hippolyte said.
The Baronne was dressed in pale mauve and looked lovely, only such a funny thing happened at dinner. The Vicomte, who sat next to her, made her laugh dreadfully, just as she was eating her soup, and she choked, and suddenly one cheek quite fell in, while the other stuck out as if a potato was in it. One could not _think_ what had happened; but it appears that she wears ”plumpers,” of a kind of red guttapercha, to keep her face nice and round, and in choking the right cheek's one got jerked across into the left cheek, and that is how she got the toothachy look. Mustn't it be a bother, Mamma, to have to do all that?
but the Baronne is such a dear that one did not even laugh.
The Marquis had to sit by Victorine, and I saw him looking at the pink rosebuds in her hair with a cautious eye; and he sat up as straight as anything in case she should get caught in him again.
But it is all right, he means to go through with it--the Baronne told Heloise directly we got there. So I thought, as it was finally settled, there would be no harm in talking to him a little. He looked at me at dinner, I smiled, and it was so quaint, Mamma, his whole face seemed to flush until his forehead was even pink, with the veins showing at the side. He lifted his champagne gla.s.s and kissed the edge of it, and bowed to me, and no one saw but the Comte, and he went into a chuckle of laughter, as he whispered to me that if Victorine had seen she would certainly tear my eyes out on the way home.
[Sidenote: _Elizabeth Sandwiched_]
Afterwards, in the salon, the Vicomte managed to stand behind me while I was talking to the old Baron, and he said in a low voice: Why had I come back? He was at peace waiting till his day came, and here I had upset everything, and he should have to go through endless more restless nights! I said that I was sorry the storm had prevented my starting, especially as I was unwelcome. So he threw prudence to the winds, and said out loud before the Baron that I knew it was not that, and he looked so devoted and distressed that the dear old Baron patted him on the back, and turning away said, ”Mon brave Gaston, moi aussi j'etais jeune une fois.” And he left us alone by the window, while he stood a sort of sentry in front.
The Vicomte did whisper a lot of things; he said just for one evening I might make him happy and pretend I loved him, and let him call me ”_cherie_.” So I said ”all right;” I did not think it _could_ matter, as I am coming home to-morrow, Mamma, and shall probably never see him again, and you said one ought always to be kind-hearted and do little things for people. When I said ”all right,” his forehead got pink, and the veins showed just like the Marquis's had done at dinner, and he said, ”_Cherie--ma cherie, ma bien-aimee_” in such a voice! It made me feel quite as if I wanted to listen to some more, only, unfortunately at that moment, G.o.dmamma came up; she brushed the Baron aside, and said I should certainly catch cold by the window, and must come with her, while she annihilated the Vicomte with a look.
There I was, taken off to a sofa at the other side of the room, and stuffed down between G.o.dmamma and the Marquis's mother. You can think I was cross. However, I paid her out, for I just looked at the Marquis, who was seated by his Victorine almost silent and like a dummy (they are allowed to talk together now, as long as they are not alone in the room). It made him fidget so, he could not attend to what she was saying. And when finally he got up and came over to us and said, had I seen the new ”Nattier” the Comte had just bought, which was in the other salon, and would I come and look at it?--I think G.o.dmamma wished she had left me safe with the Vicomte. She could not say anything, as half the party had already gone to look at the picture, so I got up at once and went with him. His mother is years older than the Baronne, and not a bit gay like her. I saw them--her and G.o.dmamma--nodding their heads anxiously as we left; no doubt they were deploring the bad bringing-up of the English.
[Sidenote: _The Fiances Together_]
The Marquis said it was awful what he was going through; and when the dancing began presently would I give him the first valse? I said Certainly, and by that time we were in the other salon, and beside the Marquise. She smiled her dear little smile, which always seems to mock at everything, and put her tongue into her gap and whispered: ”Quelle comedie! c'est bien pet.i.te espiegle, amusez-vous!” _And so I did!_ I can't tell you what fun it was, Mamma. I was in wild spirits, and the Marquis answered back, and we were as gay as larks, until I overheard the Marquis's mother, who had followed us, say to him, in an acid voice, that he seemed to have forgotten that it was arranged for him to give Victorine the engagement ring that evening and say a few appropriate words to her, and he must take her to see the flowers in the conservatory, and get it over there. So off he had to go, looking black and peevish, and supervised by the two mothers--who stood at the risk of catching their deaths of cold by the door--he and Victorine went arm-in-arm into the conservatory, and disappeared behind some pots of palms.
It appears Mme. de Vermandoise and the Comte were in there too, and saw what happened, and she told Heloise and me afterwards. The _fiances_ came and stood quite close to them, with only a bank of flowers between; and they said the palms were pretty and were growing very tall, and the Marquis coughed, and Victorine began scrabbling with her toes on the marble floor in that irritating way she has, and they neither of them spoke. At last the Marquis dashed at it, and said, as she already knew, their parents had arranged they should marry, and he hoped he would make her happy. At that moment the piano struck up very loud in the salon, and prevented Victorine from quite catching what he said; he got very red and repeated it again, but he mumbled so she still was not sure, and had to say ”_Pardon?_” for the second time.
That upset the Marquis to such a point that he said ”d.a.m.n,” which is the only English word he knows, and when Victorine looked horribly surprised, he dived into his waistcoat pocket and fished out the ring.
Then he took her hand, pulled off her glove backwards, and pushed it on to the first finger he came to, which happened to be the middle one! He just said he hoped she would wear it for his sake; and when she exclaimed, ”Mais, monsieur! ce n'est pas sur ce doigt que vous devez mettre la bague!” he hardly waited to apologise or put it right before he dragged her back to the salon and deposited her with the anxious mothers!
[Sidenote: _The Baronne's Diplomacy_]
Mme. de Vermandoise said she and the Comte nearly had a fit to keep themselves from laughing out loud. Wasn't it too comic, Mamma? How I should hate to be betrothed like that! However, Victorine seems to think half a loaf is better than no bread, for she kept her glove off all the rest of the evening, and looked at her ring with conscious pride. It is a very nice one, a ruby and a pearl heart connected by a diamond Marquis's coronet. They ought to have added a money-bag representing the dot, and then the symbol would have been complete.
We had begun to dance when they got back, and, as the Marquis had not been there to claim me, I was valsing with Jean. The Baronne kept the Vicomte close to her side all the rest of the evening--she told me, as she kissed me in saying good-bye, that she had done it for peace sake, as she knew he and the Marquis would have had a quarrel otherwise, they were both so madly in love with me. ”Pet.i.te embrouillante d'heureuses familles va!” she said--”Mais je t'aime bien quand meme!”--She is a darling, the Baronne! The Marquis stood there glowering, and never offered to dance with Victorine; she must have been cross!
We had another farewell all round when the valse was over--G.o.dmamma would not stay for another, and even ”Antoine” seemed sorry to say ”_Adieu._” ”Depechez-vous de vous marier,” he said, ”et ensuite revenez aupres de nous. J'ai envie de vous faire la cour, mais vous etes beaucoup trop dangereuse pour le moment.”
”ca, c'est vrai!” said the Comte and Jean together, and every one laughed.
Now that the betrothal ring is really on Victorine's finger, and Heloise knows she will be got off, she does not mind a bit about the Marquis looking at me. She kept laughing to herself over it all the way home; she really detests Victorine. G.o.dmamma and the bride-elect hardly spoke a word, and I am sure if a perfect hurricane blows to-morrow, they won't suggest my waiting another day, so I shall be glad to be off.