Part 24 (1/2)

Armand for one's father! I have never cared for any girl's father, but M. St. Armand would be gentle and kind. I think, too, he could smooth away all the sort of cobweb things that haunt one's brain and the thoughts you cannot make take any shape but go floating like drifts in the sky, until you are lost in the clouds.”

Pani looked over toward the river. Like the master, the child's strange thoughts puzzled her, but she was afraid they were wrong. The master wished that she could be translated to some wider living.

It took Jeanne several days to answer her letter, but every hour was one of exultant joy. It gave her hardly less delight than the reception of his. Then it was to be sent to New York by Monsieur Fleury, who had dealings back and forth.

There had been a great wedding at the Fleury house. Madelon had married a t.i.tled French gentleman and gone to Montreal.

”Oh!” cried Jeanne to Monsieur Fleury, ”you will be very careful and not let it get lost. I took so much pains with it. And when it gets to New York--”

”A s.h.i.+p takes it to France. See, child, there is all this bundle to go, and there are many valuable papers in it. Do not fear;” and he smiled.

”But what has M. St. Armand to say to you?”

”Oh, many things about what I should learn. I have already studied much that he asked me to, and he will be very glad to hear that.”

M. Fleury smiled indulgently, and Jeanne with a proud step went down the paved walk bordered with flowers, a great innovation for that time. But his wife voiced his thoughts when she said:--

”Do you not think it rather foolish that Monsieur St. Armand should trouble his head about a child like that? No one knows to what sort of people she has belonged. And she will marry some habitan who cares little whether she can write a letter or not.”

”She will have quite a dowry. She ought to marry well. A little learning will not hurt her.”

”M. Bellestre must have known more than he confessed,” with suspicion in her voice.

M. Fleury nodded a.s.sentingly.

Jeanne had been quite taken into Madame De Ber's good graces again. The money had worked wonders with her, only she did not see the need of it being spent upon an education. There was Pierre, who would be about the right age, but would she want Pierre to have that kind of a wife?

Rose and Jeanne became very neighborly. Marie was a happy, commonplace wife, who really adored her rough husband, and was always extolling him. He had never learned to dance, but he was a swift skater, and could row with anybody in a match. Then there was a little son, not at all to Jeanne's liking, for he had a wide mouth and no nose to speak of.

”He is not as pretty as Aurel,” she said.

”He will grow prettier,” returned the proud grandmother, sharply.

That autumn the old schoolmaster did not come back. Some other schools had been started. M. Loisel sounded his charge as to whether she would not go to Montreal to school, but she decisively declined.

And now another spring had come, and Jeanne was a tall girl, but she would not put up her hair nor wear a coif. Father Rameau had been sent on a mission to St. Ignace. The new priest that came did not agree very well with Father Gilbert. He wanted to establish some Ursulines on a much stricter plan than the few sisters had been accustomed to, and there were bickerings and strained feelings. Beside, the Protestants were making some headway in the town.

”It is not to be wondered at,” said the new priest to many of his flock.

”One could hardly tell what you are. There must be better regulations.”

”But we pay our t.i.thes regularly. And Father Rameau--”

”I am tired of Father Rameau!” said the priest angrily. ”And the fiddling and the dancing!”

”I do not like the quarreling,” commented Jeanne. ”And in the little chapel they all agree. They wors.h.i.+p G.o.d, and not the Saints or the Virgin.”

”But the Virgin was a woman and is tender to us, and will intercede for us,” interposed Pani.

Jeanne went to the English school that winter but the children were not much to her mind.

And now it was May, and Jeanne suddenly decided that she was tired of school.