Part 27 (2/2)
”Tell him I must see him--I must speak to him. Tell him to fix the place and the hour.”
”And you a prisoner?”
”Yes--but how did you get in? That way I can get out--Riette--Riette!”
”Precisely. Adieu! they are calling me.”
The child was gone. Helene, standing in the deep recess in the window, now came forward and looked round wonderingly. The old tapestried walls surrounded her; ancient scenes of hunting and dancing which at first had troubled her sleep. There was no visible exit from the room, except the locked door. But Riette was gone, and the message with her. Was she a real child, or only a comforting dream?
CHAPTER XVI
HOW ANGELOT PLAYED THE PART OF AN OWL IN AN IVY-BUSH
That night, while Helene sat alone and in disgrace, her lover was dancing.
After dinner Riette persuaded her father to walk across with her to La Mariniere, where they found Monsieur Urbain, his wife and son, spending the evening in their usual sober fas.h.i.+on; he, deep in vintage matters, still studying his friend De Serres, and arguing various points with Angelot whose day had been pa.s.sed with Joubard in the vineyards; she, working at her frame, where a very rococo shepherd and shepherdess under a tree had almost reached perfection.
Madame de la Mariniere had views of her own about little girls, and considered Riette by no means a model. She had tried to impress her ideas on Monsieur Joseph, but though he smiled and listened admiringly, he spoiled Riette all the more. So her Aunt Anne reluctantly gave her up. But still, in her rather severe way, she was kind to the child, and Riette, though a little shy and on her good behaviour, was not afraid of her. There was always a basket beside Aunt Anne, of clothes she was making for the poor, for her tapestry was only an evening amus.e.m.e.nt. In this basket there was a little white cap such as the peasant children wore, partly embroidered in white thread. This was Riette's special work, whenever she came to La Mariniere. Sitting on a footstool beside her aunt, she st.i.tched away at ”le bonnet de la pet.i.te Lise.” At her rate of progress, however, as her aunt pointed out with a melancholy smile, Lise would be a grown-up woman before the cap was finished.
And on this special evening the st.i.tches were both few and crooked.
Riette paid no attention to her work, but sat staring and smiling at Angelot across the room, and he, instead of talking to his father and uncle, watched her keenly under his eyelids. Presently he came and stood near his mother's chair while she asked Riette a few questions about her lessons that day. It appeared that all had been satisfactory.
”A good little woman, Mademoiselle Moineau,” said Riette, softly, smiling at Angelot, who felt the colour mounting to his hair. ”I like her very much. She pretends to scold, but there is no malice in it, you know. I don't think she is very clever. Quite clever enough for Sophie and Lucie, who are most amiable, poor dear children, but stupid--ah!”
”They are older than you, I believe, Henriette,” said her aunt, reprovingly.
”Yes, dear aunt, in years, but not in experience. I have lived, I know life”--she nodded gently--”while those poor girls--Ah, how charming! May I have a little dance with Ange, Aunt Anne?”
”I suppose so. Lise will not have her cap yet, it seems,” said Madame de la Mariniere, smiling in spite of herself.
Monsieur Joseph had sat down to the piano and was playing a lively polka. Angelot started up, seized his little cousin, and whirled her off down the room. In a minute or two Urbain took off his spectacles, shut the _Theatre d'Agriculture_ with a sharp clap, walked up to Anne and held out his hands with a smiling bow.
”I can't resist Joseph's music, if you can, my little lady!”
”It seems we must follow the children,” she said. ”Riette has just been pointing out that she, at least, is wiser than her elders.”
Angelot and his father jumped their light partners up and down with all the merry energy of France and a new world. After a few turns, Angelot waltzed Riette out into the hall, and they stood still for a few moments under the porch, while she whispered Helene's message into his ear.
”Mon Dieu! But how can she meet me? It must be at night, or they will see us. And if she is locked into her room?”
”She can get out of her room, mon pet.i.t! She knows there is a way, though I have not shown it to her. Then there is the secret staircase in the chapel wall.”
”You are right, glorious child that you are. She will find me in the moat, close to the little door. Nothing can be safer, provided that no one misses her.”
”At what time?”
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