Volume Ii Part 5 (1/2)
Aglae looked at the marquis, whose face was dark as a thundercloud.
Gaining courage from a certainty of his support, she added, toying carelessly with a coffee-spoon--
”I have always done my duty by madame's children, whom she never looked after herself. I was engaged by M. le Marquis, who has expressed himself satisfied with my efforts.”
”Do I understand that mademoiselle declines to go?” enquired the solicitor. ”M. le Marquis is strangely silent. Shall I, to my infinite regret, be compelled to carry out my instructions in full?”
The stranger dared to threaten the Marquis de Gange!
Mademoiselle Brunelle glanced furtively at the abbe, who glared at her. She was bewildered, possessing no key to the puzzle.
”My instructions are,” pursued the solicitor, ”to see the dismissed person off the premises, within two hours. In the event of her refusing to go, M. le Marquis is to be informed, that I am to remove Madame la Marquise at once, and that, if she is detained it will be the painful duty of the Marechal de Breze to prosecute certain individuals, whom I need not designate, for conspiracy and cruelty.
The officers of law at Blois have their instructions. If the dismissed person does not present herself there within a given time to receive her wages, or if I do not arrive in the company of Madame la Marquise, the officers will come here and demand admittance to the premises belonging to the marechal. I am glad to be informed that madame is universally beloved. A whisper that she received cruel treatment would rouse the province, and this I need scarcely observe, is not the moment for a collision with the _tiers etat_.”
Excellently planned. The abbe, a good critic of such matters, was filled with appreciative admiration, although he was to be one of the sufferers. Aglae had been guilty of some prodigious blunder for which she was to be justly punished. That was well, for in acting independently of him, she had broken a solemn promise. He also, he admitted inwardly, had not displayed his usual astuteness. Doubtless her intense horror of him had helped to goad the victim to that which he had falsely judged she would never do. Then a sense that she had shaken herself free of him, aroused a new access of impotent fury in his breast. She had defied his hate as well as his love, and he s.h.i.+vered with malignant spite at the idea, that by claiming her father's protection she had baffled him.
Clovis felt more angry than ever in his life before. It was a revelation of an unpleasant kind to find himself in leading strings; the state of dependence of which the abbe hinted long ago, to be ordered like a lacquey, to be threatened and browbeaten in the presence of others--he, Marquis de Gange, above all, under the eyes of the affinity, and to be powerless to return blow for blow. To be so degraded and humiliated, and at the instance of his own wife! It was some moments ere he could control the whirlwind of emotions sufficiently to command his voice.
”Am I to gather,” he at length said, huskily, ”that Madame la Marquise requires a separation? I am surprised, for she has never spoken on the subject. What if I refuse, and claim my marital rights?”
”It is always such angels as she,” the solicitor observed sternly, ”who are doomed to earthly martyrdom at the hands of wicked men. Your rights! And what of hers? You have compelled her to dwell under one roof with a designing wanton. You have deprived her of access to her children. After that mere neglect may count for nothing. I am sorry to say that all madame demands is the dismissal of that woman, free access to the children, and a show of respect from you. So much being conceded, bygones are to be bygones. Her terms refused, she will leave your roof, her father will withdraw supplies from you, and give you notice to quit his property.”
Then the money was the old man's, and not the marquis's. Aglae hated everybody, herself included, at thought of how she had been duped.
”I will go when you will,” she said, preparing to withdraw, with a whimsical attempt to don a martyr's chaplet. ”I thank the marquis for his many kindnesses. May I have a moment to embrace the cherubs? I am glad to think that they will miss me more than anyone. As for madame, I can only pity her delusions, knowing that she will be sorry some day when she comes to know me better.”
At this juncture the door opened, and Gabrielle entered in her riding habit, pale but composed. Without noticing the others, she advanced quickly to the new-comer and held forth her hand.
”Dear M. Galland,” she said. ”My father!----”
”Was sorely troubled by what you wrote to him.”
”I feared it,” she replied dejectedly. ”But there were reasons.”
”Reasons!” cried the old gentleman with warmth. ”I can read the reasons in your saddened face. I am sorry to be unable to congratulate madame upon her blooming looks. She was wrong not to have spoken sooner.”
”I could not,” pleaded Gabrielle. ”It takes long for a loyal love to smoulder out of life. I could have borne all, if she there had not threatened to instil poison into a child's mind. Just think of it! My G.o.d! How monstrous!”
”She never did that,” Clovis put in hotly. ”Never, never! You may see the children yourself, sir, and question them. Such a calumny is atrocious!”
”Thanks! Oh--thanks for that!” murmured the deep tones of mademoiselle, as with theatrical gesture she hastily knelt and kissed his hand. ”When I have been chased away, it will be a comfort to remember that I never lost your confidence.”
”In this affair, I play a pretty part!” exclaimed the marquis, bitterly.
”Between us,” Gabrielle said mournfully, gazing at her husband's averted back as he crouched in his fauteuil, ”all is over. We are hopelessly divided. And yet, take comfort. In years to come, maybe, when Victor and Camille are man and woman, we may be joined again by them. Mademoiselle, I wish no harm to you--only that after this day we may never come face to face.”
Unaccustomed tears stood on the seamed cheeks of M. Galland. It was well that fiery old de Breze had not arrived in person. The visage of the white chatelaine told such a tale that bloodshed might have ensued which all would have deplored. The interview was painful, and it behoved him to cut it short.
”If the person intends to obey orders,” the solicitor said curtly, looking at his watch, ”she had better waste no time. Such clothes as she cannot pack quickly will be sent after her. I have messages from your father, marquise, that must not be delivered here. Might I ask the favour of being conducted to the nursery, that I may make faithful reports to my employer?”
Aglae bit her lips. This was a cunning stroke to present a theatrical display, _a la Medea_. Gabrielle consented gratefully, and led the way, leaving the marquis tingling with humbled vanity, and a reawakened remorse that would not be quieted.
His face was buried in his hands, and he was too absorbed in the contemplation of his own outraged self to attend to the woes of others.