Part 5 (2/2)

Marien had shown her pictures of the beauties of 1840, painted by Dubufe, and she had decided on a white gauze embroidered with gold, in which, on that memorable evening, she had captured more than one heart, and which had had its influence on the life and destiny of Marien. This might have been seen in the vague glance of indignation with which he now regarded it.

”Never,” he thought, ”was it half so pretty when worn by Madame de Nailles as by her stepdaughter.”

Jacqueline meantime went on talking.

”You must know--I was rather perplexed what to do--almost all mamma's gowns made me look horribly too old. Modeste tried them on me one after another. We burst out laughing, they seemed so absurd. And then we were afraid mamma might chance to want the one I took. This old thing it was not likely she would ask for. She had worn it only once, and then put it away. The gauze is a little yellow from lying by, don't you think so?

But we asked my father, who said it was all right, that I should look less dark in it, and that the dress was of no particular date, which was always an advantage. These Grecian dresses are always in the fas.h.i.+on.

Ah! four years ago mamma was much more slender than she is now. But we have taken it in--oh! we took it in a great deal under the arms, but we had to let it down. Would you believe it?--I am taller than mamma--but you can hardly see the seam, it is concealed by the gold embroidery.”

”No matter for that. We shall only take a three-quarters' length,” said Marien.

”Oh, what a pity! No one will see I have a long skirt on. But I shall be 'decolletee', at any rate. I shall wear a comb. No one would know the picture for me--n.o.body!--You yourself hardly knew me--did you?”

”Not at first sight. You are much altered.”

”Mamma will be amazed,” said Jacqueline, clasping her hands. ”It was a good idea!”

”Amazed, I do not doubt,” said Marien, somewhat anxiously. ”But suppose we take our pose--Stay!--keep just as you are. Your hands before you, hanging down--so. Your fingers loosely clasped--that's it. Turn your head a little. What a lovely neck!--how well her head is set upon it!”

he cried, involuntarily.

Jacqueline glanced at Fraulein Schult, who was at the farther end of the studio, busy with her crochet. ”You see,” said the look, ”that he has found out I am pretty--that I am worth something--all the rest will soon happen.”

And, while Marien was sketching in the graceful figure that posed before him, Jacqueline's imagination was investing it with the white robe of a bride. She had a vision of the painter growing more and more resolved to ask her hand in marriage as the portrait grew beneath his brush; of course, her father would say at first: ”You are mad--you must wait.

I shall not let Jacqueline marry till she is seventeen.” But long engagements, she had heard, had great delights, though in France they are not the fas.h.i.+on. At last, after being long entreated, she was sure that M. and Madame de Nailles would end by giving their consent--they were so fond of Marien. Standing there, dreaming this dream, which gave her face an expression of extreme happiness, Jacqueline made a most admirable model. She had not felt in the least fatigued when Marien at last said to her, apologetically: ”You must be ready to drop--I forgot you were not made of wood; we will go on to-morrow.”

Jacqueline, having put on her gray jacket with as much contempt for it as Cinderella may have felt for her rags after her successes at the ball, departed with the delightful sensation of having made a bold first step, and being eager to make another.

Thus it was with all her sittings, though some left her anxious and unhappy, as for instance when Marien, absorbed in his work, had not paused, except to say, ”Turn your head a little--you are losing the pose.” Or else, ”Now you may rest for today.”

On such occasions she would watch him anxiously as he painted swiftly, his brush making great splashes on the canvas, his dark features wearing a scowl, his chin on his breast, a deep frown upon his forehead, on which the hair grew low. It was evident that at such times he had no thought of pleasing her. Little did she suspect that he was saying to himself: ”Fool that I am!--A man of my age to take pleasure in seeing that little head filled with follies and fancies of which I am the object. But can one--let one be ever so old--always act--or think reasonably? You are mad, Marien! A child of fourteen! Bah!--they make her out to be fourteen--but she is fifteen--and was not that the age of Juliet? But, you old graybeard, you are not Romeo!--'Ma foi'! I am in a pretty sc.r.a.pe. It ought to teach me not to play with fire at my age.”

Those words ”at my age” were the refrain to all the reflections of Hubert Marien. He had seen enough in his relations with women to have no doubt about Jacqueline's feelings, of which indeed he had watched the rise and progress from the time she had first begun to conceive a pa.s.sion for him, with a mixture of amus.e.m.e.nt and conceit. The most cautious of men are not insensible to flattery, whatever form it may take. To be fallen in love with by a child was no doubt absurd--a thing to be laughed at--but Jacqueline seemed no longer a child, since for him she had uncovered her young shoulders and arranged her dark hair on her head with the effect of a queenly diadem. Not only had her dawning loveliness been revealed to him alone, but to him it seemed that he had helped to make her lovely. The innocent tenderness she felt for him had accomplished this miracle. Why should he refuse to inhale an incense so pure, so genuine? How could he help being sensible to its fragrance?

Would it not be in his power to put an end to the whole affair whenever he pleased? But till then might he not bask in it, as one does in a warm ray of spring suns.h.i.+ne? He put aside, therefore, all scruples. And when he did this Jacqueline with rapture saw the painter's face, no longer with its scowl, but softened by some secret influence, the lines smoothed from his brow, while the beautiful smile which had fascinated so many women pa.s.sed like a ray of light over his expressive mobile features; then she would once more fancy that he was making love to her, and indeed he said many things, which, without rousing in himself any scruples of conscience, or alarming the propriety of Fraulein Schult, were well calculated to delude a girl who had had no experience, and who was charmed by the illusions of a love-affair, as she might have been by a fairy-story.

It is true that sometimes, when he fancied he might have gone too far, Marien would grow sarcastic, or stay silent for a time. But this change of behavior produced on Jacqueline only the same effect that the caprices of a coquette produce upon a very young admirer. She grew anxious, she wanted to find out the reason, and finally found some explanation or excuse for him that coincided with her fancies.

The thing that rea.s.sured her in such cases was her picture. If she could seem to him as beautiful as he had made her look on canvas she was sure that he must love her.

”Is this really I? Are you sure?” she said to Marien with a laugh of delight. ”It seems to me that you have made me too handsome.”

”I have hardly done you justice,” he replied. ”It is not my fault if you are more beautiful than seems natural, like the beauties in the keepsakes. By the way, I hold those English things in horror. What do you say of them?”

Then Jacqueline undertook to defend the keepsake beauties with animation, declaring that no one but a hopelessly realistic painter would refuse to do justice to those charming monstrosities.

”Good heavens!” thought Marien, ”if she is adding a quick wit to her other charms--that will put the finis.h.i.+ng stroke to me.”

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