Part 28 (1/2)
”I am not telling you anything new,” he added to Albert when they were alone. ”You know as well as I do that the Duke is in love with Esperance. We all know it here.”
Albert agreed with a rather sad smile that he did know it.
”Now that my cousin is your fiancee, he is too much of a gentleman to seek her, but he certainly wants to be near her, to talk to her, in short to flirt with her.”
”You believe that he would dare?”
”My dear cousin,” said Maurice, half jestingly, half serious. ”I believe him capable of anything, but he knows that you are here ... and perhaps is afraid to take liberties.”
”To put an end to his manoeuvrings we must somehow make him look ridiculous, and expose his folly. The fete, I think, will give us our chance.”
Albert said, ”I will follow your advice, Maurice.”
”Very good. I will give you particulars of my plans. By the way, I have brought all your invitations. I will go and deliver them.” So they went to seek the others, and Maurice gave each one a card with a personal invitation for the twentieth of September. Genevieve blushed.
”I am invited as well,” she said.
”Of course; and I believe the amiable d.u.c.h.ess intends to ask you to recite the poem she has written. It is very touching. I will find it for you to-morrow. Ah! yes, you have made a great impression on that delightful lady. She talked about you to me all the time. You would have supposed she was doing it to please me.”
Genevieve became purple. It was the first time Maurice had expressed himself so frankly. When they left the table she led Esperance aside and kissed her until she almost stifled her.
”Oh! how happy I am, and how I love him!”
Maurice and Jean pa.s.sed by talking so busily that they did not see the girls.
”You are sure?”
”Absolutely. Since I have been away for four whole days I am convinced more than ever that I adore that girl and shall not be happy without her.”
”You have written to your father?”
”Not yet. I must first of all talk to Genevieve.”
”You are not afraid of what she will say? Of her answer?”
Maurice smiled.
”I want first to tell her of my future plans, and to have a confidential chat with her about everything.”
”You will be my best man, old fellow,” he went on, clapping Jean on the shoulder. ”You have chosen the role of actor, with the temperament of a spectator; strange lover!”
”Like any other man I follow my Destiny. You were born for happiness, Maurice, one has only to look at you to be convinced of it. You breathe forth life, you love, you conquer. Youth radiates from you. I have asked myself a hundred times why I have chosen this career, and I am persuaded that I must live, if at all, the life of others.”
”Are you very upset--unhappy?” asked Maurice.
”No, oh no; I don't suffer much, but of course I am a little disturbed. I am like a reflection. Esperance's happiness elates, her sorrow depresses me. I love her purely as an idealist. I would like Count Albert to look like the Duke de Morlay-La-Branche, and still keep the n.o.ble soul that we know he possesses. If your cousin should die, I truly believe that I would die. My life would be without aim, without soul; bereft of light, the reflection would vanish.”