Joseph Balsamo (15 page)
Nicole was afraid to proceed further in her investigation. Andre’s coolness she thought the height of dissimulation ; but she judged it best to give the conversation another turn.
” Mademoiselle was saying that she felt in pain ? “
” Yes, indeed, I feel in great pain and so weak, so low. I did nothing yesterday but what I do every day, yet I am so tired perhaps I am going to be ill.”
” It may be some sorrow which causes that feeling of weariness I have felt it myself.”
“Oh, you have sorrows, have you, Nicole ? “
This was said with a disdainful carelessness, which gave Nicole courage to speak more plainly.
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” Oh, yes, madame,” she replied ; ” yes, I have.”
Andre got slowly out of bed, and, while proceeding to undress, that she might dress again, she said :
” Well, let me hear them.”
” Indeed, I have just come to tell mademoiselle ” She
stopped.
” To tell what ? You look frightened, Nicole.”
” I look frightened, and mademoiselle looks tired ; so, doubtless, we are both suffering.”
This piece of familiarity displeased Andre. She frowned slightly, exclaiming, ” Oh I “
The intonation of her voice might have made Nicole reflect, but she was not to be daunted.
” Since mademoiselle wishes me to speak, I shall do so.”
” Well, go on.”
” I wish to get married, madame.”
” Oh ! Is that what you are thinking of ? Why, you are not seventeen yet.”
“Mademoiselle is only sixteen, and yet does she not sometimes think of marrying ? “
” What reason have you to suppose so ? ” asked Andre, severely.
Nicole was just opening her mouth to say something impertinent, but she knew that that would cut short the conversation, which she had no desire should end yet.
” I beg mademoiselle’s pardon ; I cannot certainly know her thoughts ; I am but a country-girl, I follow nature.”
” That is a strange expression.”
“Is it not natural for a woman to love, and to wish to be loved ? “
“Perhaps so. Well?”
” Well ; I am in love.”
” And the person you love loves you ? “
” I think so, madame” then, reflecting that this reply was not decided enough under the circumstances, she added: “Indeed, I am sure of it.”
“You are not wasting your time at Taverney, from your own account, Mademoiselle Nicole.”
HO JOSEPH BALSAMO.
“One must think of the future, madame ; you area lady, and doubtless some rich relation will leave you a fortune. I must do the best I can for myself.”
All this appeared natural enough, and forgetting Nicole’s little piece of impertinence, Andre’s goodness of heart began to resume the ascendency.
” Very true,” said she ; ” but I should like to know who is your choice.”
” Ah, you do know him, madame ! ” said Nicole, fixing her eyes on Andre.
” I know him ?”
” Yes, very well.”
” Who is it, then ? Do not keep me in suspense.”
“I am afraid mademoiselle will be displeased.”
” I displeased ? “
“Yes, mademoiselle.”
” Then it is some improper person whom you have chosen ? “
” I do not say that, madame.”
” Then tell it without fear. It is the duty of masters to take an interest in the welfare of their dependents who perform their duties satisfactorily and you know I am satisfied with you.”
” You are very kind, madame.”
” Well, tell me quickly, and finish lacing me.”
Nicole collected all her firmness, and all her powers of penetration, as she said :
Well, madame, it is Gilbert whom I have chosen.”
To her great surprise, Andre betrayed no emotion of any kind ; she only said :
” What, little Gilbert my nurse’s son ? “
” Yes, madame, the same.”
” And he loves you ? “
Now was the decisive moment.
” He has told me so twenty times.”
” Well, marry him,” replied Andre, calmly. ” I see nothing to prevent it. You have no relations he is an orphan you are each of you free from control.”
” Certainly,” stammered Nicole, quite amazed at the
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matter ending so differently from what she had expected. “Mademoiselle gives her permission, then ?”
” My full permission, only you are both very young yet.”
” We shall live longer together.”
” And you have neither one nor other any money.”
“We shall work.”
” What can he work at ? he is good for nothing.”
This dissimulation was too much for Nicole. She could not contain herself.
” Mademoiselle must allow me to say, that speaking so of poor Gilbert is treating him very ill.”
“It is treating him as he deserves ; he is a lazy fellow.”
” Oh, mademoiselle, he reads a great deal he wishes so to be well informed.’ 1
“He will not work.”
” For mademoiselle he does all that he can.”
“Forme?”
“Mademoiselle must know that, when she ordered him to procure game for her every day, and he does so.”
“I ordered him?”
” Yes ; and he often goes twenty miles for it.”
” Indeed ! I confess I never thought about it.”
” About the game ? ” asked Nicole, sarcastically.
” What does that witticism mean ? ” asked Andre, getting a little impatient, for she felt irritable and unwell.
” I have no wit, madame ; wit is for great ladies. I am a poor girl, and tell things plainly as they are,” replied Nicole, “and mademoiselle is unjust to Gilbert, who is so very attentive to all her wishes.”
” He only does his duty as a servant, if it be so.”
” But Gilbert is not a servant, madame ; he receives no
He is the son of aii old tenant ; he is kept, he is fed, and he does nothing in return. But why defend so warmly this lad, when he was not attacked ? “
” Oh, I knew very well that mademoiselle would not attack him.”
” More words that I do not understand.”
“Mademoiselle will not understand.”
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” Enough ! Explain this moment what you mean.”
” Mademoiselle must certainly have no difficulty to know what I mean.”
” I know nothing and I shall not take the trouble of finding out ; you ask my consent to your marriage ?”
” Yes; and I would beg of you, mademoiselle, not to be angry with Gilbert for loving me.”
” What can it matter to me whether he loves you or does not love you ? You are really very tiresome.”
” Perhaps mademoiselle has said the same to Gilbert ? “
” I ? Do I ever speak to your Gilbert ? You are crazy, I think.”
” If mademoiselle does not speak to him now, it is not very long since she did speak.”
Andre turned on her a look of ineffable scorn.
” You have been trying for an hour to let me hear some specimen of your impertinence ; say it at once I command you.”
” But ” began Nicole, a little alarmed.
” You say I have spoken to Gilbert ?”
” Yes, madame, I say so ! “
A thought flashed across Andre e’s mind, but it was so absurd that she burst into a fit of laughter. ” Heaven forgive me I ” she exclaimed. ” I do believe the poor girl is jealous. Be not uneasy, Legay, I know so little of your Gilbert, that I do not even know the color of his eyesj” And Andre felt quite prepared to pardon what she now thought not impertinence, but mere folly. But Nicole did not want to be pardoned, because she looked on herself as the injured person.
” It is not the way to know their color to look at them by night,” said she.
” Did you speak ? ” asked Andre, now beginning to understand, but scarcely willing to allow herself to entertain the thought.
” I said that if mademoiselle only speaks to Gilbert at night, she will not see very well what his features are.”
” Take care !” said Andre, turning pale, “and explain instantly what you mean.”
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t That is easily done. Last night I saw “
” Be silent ; some one calls me.”
In fact, a voice just then called from the court in front of the house, ” Andre ! Andre ! “
” It is the baron, madam e,” said Nicole, “with the strange gentleman.”
” Go down, and say that I cannot appear, that I am indisposed, and then return and let me know the end of this extraordinary history of yours.”
“Andre!” cried her father again, “it is merely the Baron Balsamo, who wishes to bid you goodmorning and inquire after your health.”
” Go, I tell you,” said she to Nicole, and she pointed to the door with the gesture of a queen.
But when Nicole was gone, Andre felt a strange sensation ; she had resolved not to appear, yet she was impelled by an irresistible power to the window left open by her waiting-maid. She saw Balsamo below ; he bowed, at the same time fixing his eyes steadily on her. She trembled, and held by the window to prevent herself from falling.
” Goodmorning, sir,” said she, in reply to his salutation ; and just as she pronounced the words, Nicole, whom she had sent to say she should not appear, advanced toward the gentleman, looking with open mouth at this instance of caprice at her mistress.
Andre had scarcely spoken when she sunk, deprived of strength, on a chair. Balsamo still continued to gaze on her.
CHAPTER XII.
THE MORNING.
THE traveler had risen early in order to look after his carriage and inquire how Althotas had got on. No one was up at that hour in the castle but Gilbert, who followed with his eyes every movement of the stranger. But he
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could discover little, as Balsamo closed the carriage door too carefully for his inquisitive looks to penetrate its mystery.
Seeing the baron’s abode by the clear light of a sunny morning. Balsamo was struck by the different impression it made on him from what it had done the preceding night. In fact the little white-and-red chateau for it was built of stone and brick made a pretty picture, surrounded as it was by a grove of sycamores and laburnums of a large size, the flowers of which hung on the roof of the low building and girt the towers with a crown of gold. In front of the court there was a small piece of water surrounded by a broad border of turf arid a hedge of acacias, on which the eye rested with pleasure, confined as the view was on this side by the tall chestnut and ash-trees of the avenue.
Balsamo turned along a broad walk on the left, and had scarcely advanced twenty paces when he found himself in the midst of a thick shrubbery of maples, palms, and lindens, among which the roses and syringas, steeped by the rain of the preceding night, sent forth a delicious perfume. Through the hedge of privet which bordered the walk peeped jasmine and honeysuckle, and in the distance could be seen a long alley lined with pink hawthorn and wild roses, leading to a wood.
Balsamo at last arrived at the extremity of the demesne. Here, on a slight elevation, stood the massive ruins of an ancient castle, one of the towers of which was still standing almost uninjured, and clothed from its base to its summit with luxuriant shoots of the ivy and wild vine. Viewed from this point, the demesne of Taverney, though but seven or eight acres in extent, wanted neither dignity nor elegance.
After having spent about an hour in examining the rains, Balsamo was returning toward the house, when he saw the baron leave it by a side-door, his slight frame buried in an Indian flowered dressing-gown, and proceed to prune and arrange his little parterre. He hastened to meet him, and now having still further sounded the poverty of his host,
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his politeness was more decided in its expression than it had been the night before.
” Allow me, sir,” said he, ” to offer you my excuses for the trouble I have given you, and, at the same time, my respectful thanks for your hospitality. I should not have ventured to come down before knowing that you were up, but the view of Taverney from my window was so charming that I could not resist my desire to revisit those impos-ing ruins, and to see your beautiful garden.”
” The ruins,” said the baron, after having politely wished the stranger goodmorning “the ruins, sir, are fine indeed the only thing that is fine at Taverney.”
” It was a large castle ?”
” Yes ; it was mine or, rather, my ancestors’. They called it Maison Eouge, which name has long been joined to Taverney indeed, our barony is Maison Rouge ; but, my dear guest, let us not talk of things no longer in being,”
Balsamo bowed his submission.
” Allow me, rather, to make my excuses to you for your poor accommodation here. I told you beforehand what my house was.”
” I have been delighted with it.”
” A dog-kennel ! a dog-kennel, sir ! A very favorite place with the rats, since the foxes, lizards, and adders drove them from the other castle. Ah, pardieu ! sir, you who are a sorcerer, or something very near it, you ought certainly to raise up, with a stroke of your wand, the old castle in its glory again above all, not forgetting the two thousand acres which formerly surrounded it. I’ll wager, however, that instead of thinking of doing me such a service, you have been so polite as to go to sleep in an execrable bed ! “
” Oh, sir “
” No no ; don’t attempt to say anything in its favor ! it’s an execrable bed it is my son’s.”
” You must permit me to say that such as the bed is, it appeared to me excellent. I cannot but feel ashamed of having intruded on you, and I am deeply indebted for the
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kindness with which you have received me. It would give me sincere pleasure to make a return, if it were in my power. “
” Well, there is an opportunity,” replied the old man, with a mocking smile, and pointing to La Brie who was coming with a glass of water on a splendid plate of Dresden china, “just turn this into Burgundy, Chambertin, or any other good wine, and you will do me a most essential service.”
Balsamo smiled ; the old man took the smile for a refusal, and at one draught swallowed the water presented to him.