Part 31 (1/2)

”Well. He _is_ all that you say. A very fine young man, he seems. I like him. Well, I will make inquiries.”

”Not on my account, I intreat, Judge Selwyn,”--said I, interrupting him eagerly.

”Mademoiselle Valerie de Chatenoeuf,” he said drily, though half in jest, ”my head is an old one, yours a very young one. I know young folks are apt to think old heads good for nothing.”

”I do not, I am sure,” interrupted I, again. ”I do not, indeed.”

”Nor I, Valerie,”--he answered, interrupting me in his turn, with a good-natured smile. ”So you shall let me have my way in this matter.

But, to relieve you, my dear, permit me to observe that I have two daughters of my own, and one young son, besides Charles, who is old enough to take care of himself; and, though I am very glad to ask a young man to dine in my house who has, as you observe, very good manners, and is neither a fool nor a c.o.xcomb, I am not at all willing that he should become what you call an _habitue_, until I know something of his character and principles. And now, as the dressing-bell has rung these ten minutes, and it will take you at least half-an-hour to beautify your little person, I advise you to make the most of your time.

And by all means, Valerie, stick to your resolution--never marry, my dear, never marry; for all men are tyrants.”

One might be very sure that I profited by this dismissal, and ran across the lawn as fast as I could, glad to escape the far-sighted experience of the shrewd old lawyer.

”He has seen it, then,” I thought to myself. ”He has observed it even in this little s.p.a.ce; even in this one interview, and he has read it, even as I read it. I wonder if he has read my heart, too. No, no,” I continued, communing with myself, ”that he cannot have done, for I know not yet myself how to interpret it.”

Little thought I then, that whenever our feelings are deeply interested, or when strong pa.s.sions are at work, even in embryo, we are for the most part the last persons who discover the secrets which are transparent enough, Heaven knows, to all persons but ourselves.

I do not know, nor did I inquire whether the Judge pursued his inquiries concerning the Count as he had promised to do; much less did I learn what was their result. But I do know that the following morning the young gentleman called again at the gate with a led horse for my brother; but did not ask if we were at home, merely sending his compliments to the ladies, and requesting Monsieur de Chatenoeuf to accompany him for a ride.

Lionel was absent in the city on business; so that Auguste and the Count rode out alone, and did not return until it was growing dark, when there was scarcely time to dress for dinner, the latter again sending in an apology for detaining my brother so long, and retiring without getting off his horse.

This gave me, I confess, more pleasure than it would have done to see him, though that would have given me pleasure, too; for I saw in it a proof of something more than mere tact, of mental delicacy, I mean; and an anxiety not to obtrude either upon the hospitality of the Selwyns, or upon my feelings.

Auguste, on his return, was in amazing spirits, and did nothing all dinner-time, but expatiate upon the companionable and amiable qualities of de Chavannes, whom he already liked, he said, more than any person he had ever seen for so short a time--so clever, so high-spirited, so gallant. Everything, in a word, that a man could desire for a friend, or a lady for a lover.

”Heyday!” said the Judge, laughing at this tirade. ”This fine Count with his black moustaches seems to have made one conquest mighty quickly. I hope it will not run in the company, or we shall have more elopements,”--with a sly glance at Caroline. ”Mademoiselle Valerie here,” he continued, ”is a terrible person for promoting elopements, too. But we must have none from my house.”

We continued to be very gay all dinner-time. After dinner we had some music, and the Judge was just pressing me to sing, when Lionel's servant came into the room, having hurried down from London, in pursuit of his master, in consequence of the sudden arrival of a large package of letters from Paris, endorsed ”immediate, and to be delivered with all speed.”

This incident broke up the party for the moment; and indeed threw a chill over us all for the whole evening, when it appeared that the princ.i.p.al letter was one to my brother from the Commandant of Paris, of which city his regiment formed a part of the garrison, reluctantly revoking his leave of absence, in consequence of some expected _emeute_, and intimating that his presence would be expected at head-quarters on or before the third day of June; an order which it was, of course, impossible to think of neglecting or disobeying, while it would leave him at the furthest but a single week to give to us in London.

It was a bitter disappointment to be separated after so brief a communion, but we consoled ourselves by the recollection that the Straits of Dover are not the Pacific Ocean, and that Paris and London are not a thousand leagues asunder.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

There never was a finer morning in the world than that appointed for the review. It was just the end of May, and all the scenery, even in the very suburbs of the great city, was brilliant with all the characteristic beauty of an English landscape.

The fine horse-chestnut trees and the thick hawthorn hedges were all in full bloom, and the air was perfectly scented with perfumes from the innumerable nursery grounds which hedge in that side of London with a belt of flowers.

The parks, and the suburban roads were crowded with neatly-dressed, modest-looking nurses and nursery-maids, leading whole troops of rosy-cheeked, brown-curled, merry boys and girls to enjoy the fresh morning air; and Auguste was never tired, as we drove along, of admiring everything that met his eyes in quick succession.

The trees, the flowery hedges, the gay parterres, the glimpses of the n.o.ble Thames white with the sails of innumerable craft, the beautiful villas with their small highly cultivated pleasure-grounds, the pretty nursery-maids, and happy English children, all came in for a share of his rapturous admiration; and so vivacious and original were his comments on all that he saw, that he in some sort communicated the infection of his merry humour to us also, and we were all as gay and joyous as the season and the scene.

When we came to the ground destined for the review, my brother was silent, and I saw his cheek turn pale for a moment; but his eye brightened and flashed as it ran over the splendid lines of the cavalry, which, at the moment we came upon the ground, were parading past the royal personage in honour of whom the review was given, and who was on horseback, by the side of a somewhat slender elderly gentleman, dressed in the uniform of a _field-marshal_, whose eagle eye and aquiline nose announced him, at a glance, the _vainqueur du vainqueur de la terre_.

”_Magnifique, mais c'est vraiment magnifique_,” muttered my brother to himself, as the superb life-guards swept along with their polished steel helmets and breast-plates glittering like silver in the suns.h.i.+ne, and their plumes and guidons flas.h.i.+ng and twinkling in the breeze. ”_Dieu de dieu! qu'ils sont geants les cavaliers, qu'ils sont colossaux les chevaux. Et les allures si lestes, si gracieuses, comme s'ils n'etaient que des juments. Mais c'est un spectacle magnifique_!”

A moment afterwards, a regiment of lancers pa.s.sed at a trot, with their pennons fluttering in the breeze, and their lance-heads glimmering like stars above the clouds of dust which rose from under their horses'