Part 15 (2/2)
”Oh! I suppose you have been to the Bazaar--the famous Charity Fair! You must have made a sensation there on your return, for I am told that the gentlemen who are expected to spend the most are likely to send their money, and not to show themselves. There are many complaints of it.”
”There were plenty of men round certain persons,” replied Fred, dryly.
”Madame de Villegry's table was literally besieged.”
”Really! What, hers! You surprise me! So it was the good things she gave you that make you despise my poor chocolate,” said Giselle, rising on her elbow, to receive the smoking cup that a servant brought her on a little silver salver.
”I didn't take much at her table,” said Fred, ready to enter on his grievances. ”If you wish to know the reason why, I was too indignant to eat or drink.”
”Indignant?”
”Yes, the word is not at all too strong. When one has pa.s.sed whole months away from what is unwholesome and artificial, such things as make up life in Paris, one becomes a little like Alceste, Moliere's misanthrope, when one gets back to them. It is ridiculous at my age, and yet if I were to tell you--”
”What?--you puzzle me. What can there be that is unwholesome in selling things for the poor?”
”The poor! A pretty pretext! Was it to benefit the poor that that odious Countess Strahlberg made all those disreputable grimaces? I have seen kermesses got up by actresses, and, upon my word, they were good form in comparison.”
”Oh! Countess Strahlberg! People have heard about her doings until they are tired of them,” said Giselle, with that air of knowing everything a.s.sumed by a young wife whose husband has told her all the current scandals, as a sort of initiation.
”And her sister seems likely to be as bad as herself before long.”
”Poor Colette! She has been so badly brought up. It is not her fault.”
”But there's Jacqueline,” cried Fred, in a sudden outburst, and already feeling better because he could mention her name.
”Allons, donc! You don't mean to say anything against Jacqueline?” cried Giselle, clasping her hands with an air of astonishment. ”What can she have done to scandalize you--poor little dear?”
Fred paused for half a minute, then he drew the stool in the form of an X, on which he was sitting, a little nearer to Giselle's sofa, and, lowering his voice, told her how Jacqueline had acted under his very eyes. As he went on, watching as he spoke the effect his words produced upon Giselle, who listened as if slightly amused by his indignation, the case seemed not nearly so bad as he had supposed, and a delicious sense of relief crept over him when she to whom he told his wrongs after hearing him quietly to the end, said, smiling:
”And what then? There is no great harm in all that. Would you have had her refuse to go with the gentleman Madame de Villegry had sent to fetch her? And why, may I ask, should she not have done her best to help by pouring out champagne? An air put on to please is indispensable to a woman, if she wishes to sell anything. Good Heavens! I don't approve any more than you do of all these worldly forms of charity, but this kind of thing is considered right; it has come into fas.h.i.+on. Jacqueline had the permission of her parents, and I really can't see any good reason why you should complain of her. Unless--why not tell me the whole truth, Fred? I know it--don't we always know what concerns the people that we care for? And I might possibly some day be of use to you. Say! don't you think you are--a little bit jealous?”
Less encouragement than this would have sufficed to make him open his heart to Giselle. He was delighted that some woman was willing he should confide in her. And what was more, he was glad to have it proved that he had been all wrong. A quarter of an hour later Giselle had comforted him, happy herself that it had been in her power to undertake a task of consolation, a work in which, with sweet humility, she felt herself at ease. On the great stage of life she knew now she should never play any important part, any that would bring her greatly into view. But she felt that she was made to be a confidant, one of those perfect confidants who never attempt to interfere rashly with the course of events, but who wait upon the ways of Providence, removing stones, and briers and thorns, and making everything turn out for the best in the end.
Jacqueline, she said, was so young! A little wild, perhaps, but what a treasure! She was all heart! She would need a husband worthy of her, such a man as Fred. Madame d'Argy, she knew, had already said something on the subject to her father. But it would have to be the Baroness that Fred must bring over to their views; the Baroness was acquiring more and more influence over her husband, who seemed to be growing older every day. M. de Nailles had evidently much, very much upon his mind. It was said in business circles that he had for some time past been given to speculation. Oscar said so. If that were the case, many of Jacqueline's suitors might withdraw. Not all men were so disinterested as Fred.
”Oh! As to her dot--what do I care for her dot?” cried the young man. ”I have enough for two, if she would only be satisfied to live quietly at Lizerolles!”
”Yes,” said the judicious little matron, nodding her head, ”but who would like to marry a mids.h.i.+pman? Make haste and be a lieutenant, or an ensign.”
She smiled at herself for having made the reward depend upon exertion, with a sort of maternal instinct. It was the same instinct that would lead her in the future to promise Enguerrand a sugar-plum if he said his lesson. ”n.o.body will steal your Jacqueline till you are ready to carry her off. Besides, if there were any danger I could give you timely warning.”
”Ah! Giselle, if she only had your kind heart--your good sense.”
”Do you think I am better and more reasonable than other people? In what way? I have done as so many other girls do; I have married without knowing well what I was doing.”
She stopped short, fearing she might have said too much, and indeed Fred looked at her anxiously.
”You don't regret it, do you?”
”You must ask Monsieur de Talbrun if he regrets it,” she said, with a laugh. ”It must be hard on him to have a sick wife, who knows little of what is pa.s.sing outside of her own chamber, who is living on her reserve fund of resources--a very poor little reserve fund it is, too!”
Then, as if she thought that Fred had been with her long enough, she said: ”I would ask you to stay and see Monsieur de Talbrun, but he won't be in, he dines at his club. He is going to see a new play tonight which they say promises to be very good.”
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