Joseph Balsamo (8 page)

The baron raised his light to endeavor to discover the unlucky wight who had, by this piece of information,

JOSEPH BALSAMO. 55

been the cause of the unwelcome visit. Balsamo also looked around for his guide, but he had retired.

” And do you know the name of the young man who pointed out my chateau ? ” asked the Baron de Taverney, as if he wanted to return him thanks.

” Gilbert, I think, is his name.”

“Ha! Gilbert. I scarcely thought him fit even for that an idle dog a philosopher, you must know, sir.”

The threatening tone in which these epithets were uttered showed that there was little sympathy between the lord and his vassal.

” However, sir,” said the baron, after a moment’s silence, as expressive as his words, ” will you be good enough to enter ? “

” Allow me first, sir, to see after my carriage, which contains some very valuable articles.”

” La Brie ! ” cried the baron, ” La Brie ! get some assistance, and put the gentleman’s carriage under the shed in the yard ; there are still some laths of a roof there. I can’t answer for your horses, however, getting a good feed, but as they are not yours, but the postmaster’s, you need not care very much.”

” In truth, sir,” said the traveler, beginning to get impatient, ” I fear that I am giving you quite too much trouble.”

“Not at all, sir not at all no trouble to me ; but you will be rather poorly lodged, I warn you.”

” Sir, I assure you I feel exceedingly grateful.”

” Pray do not deceive yourself as to what we can do for you,” said the baron, raising his candle so as to throw its rays in the direction where Balsamo was assisting La Brie to wheel his carriage under the shed, and elevating his voice in proportion as his guest retreated ; ” pray do not deceive yourself. Taverney is a dull abode, a wretched place. “

The traveler was too busy to reply ; he chose the best-covered part of the shed to shelter the carriage, and hav-ing pointed it out to La Brie, slipped a louis d’or into his hand, and returned to the baron.

56 JOSEPH BALSAMO.

La Brie put the louis in his pocket, supposing it only a crown, and thanking heaven for his good fortune.

” Heaven forbid I should think ill of your chateau as you speak of it,” said Balsamo, bowing to the baron, who, as the only proof of the truth of his assertion, shook his head, and led the guest through a wide antechamber, grumbling as he proceeded :

” Oh, all very good ; but I know what I am saying I know, unfortunately, my own means, and I assure you they are very limited. If you are a Frenchman, sir but your German accent shows you are not, and yet your name is Italian, but that is no matter if you are a Frenchman, I repeat the name of Taverney may recall some recollections of splendor it was once called Taverney the rich ! “

Balsamo expected a sigh at this conclusion, but there was none. “Philosophy!” thought he.

“This way, this way !” cried the baron, opening the dining-room door. ” Hola ! Maitre La Brie ! wait at supper now as if you were yourself a hundred footmen in one.”

La Brie bustled about in obedience to this command.

” 1 have no servant but this, sir,” said Taverney ; “he is a very bad one, but I have not the means of getting a better. The fool has been with me twenty years without getting a penny of wages. I feed him about as well as he waits on me. He is an ass, you see ‘

Balsamo continued to study this character. ” No heart,” thought he ; ” yet, perhaps all this is merely affectation.”

The baron shut the door of the dining-room, and then, as he held his light high above his head, the traveler saw distinctly its size and its furniture.

It was a large, low hall, which had formerly been the principal apartment of a small farmhouse, raised by its owner to the rank of a chateau. It was so scantily furnished, that, at the first glance, it appeared empty. Straw chairs, with carved backs, some engravings from the battle-pieces of Lebrun, framed in black varnished wood, and a large oak cupboard, dark with age and smoke,

JOSEPH BALSAMO. 57

were all its ornaments. In the middle stood a little round table on which was a dish of partridges and cabbage. The wine was in a stone jar, and the plate, unpolished, worn, and battered, consisted of three covers, one tankard, and one salt-cellar but this last article was very massive, exquisitely chased, and looked like a diamond among worthless pebbles.

” There, sir, there !” said the baron, offering a seat to his guest, whose scrutinizing look on all around did not escape him. ” Oh, you are looking at my salt-cellar. You admire it. Good taste and very polite, too, for you fix on the only thing here worth looking at. I assure you, sir, I am particularly obliged. But, no, I forget I have one other valuable commodity my daughter ! “

” Mademoiselle Andre ?” said Balsamo.

” Faith, yes, Mademoiselle Andre ! ” said the host, surprised that his guest was so well informed. “I shall present you to her. Andre, Andre ! come hither, child don’t be afraid.”

“I am not afraid, father,” answered a sweet and clear voice ; and a tall and beautiful girl entered the room, in a manner perfectly unembarrassed, and yet quite free from forwardness.

Joseph Balsamo, though, as we have seen, perfectly master of himself, could not prevent an involuntary bow at sight of all-powerful beauty like hers. Andre de Tavcr-ney seemed indeed sent to adorn and brighten all around her. She had dark, auburn hair, of a rather lighter shade at her temples and neck, black eyes clear, with dilated pupils and a steady and majestic look like that of an eagle, yet the mildness of that look was inexpressible. Her small mouth, formed like Apollo’s bow, was brilliant as coral ; her tapering hands were antique in form, as were her arms, and dazzlingly fair. Her figure, flexible and firm, was like that of the statue of some pagan goddess to which a miracle had given life. Her foot might bear a comparison with that of the huntress Diana, and it seemed only by a miracle that it could support the weight of her body. Her dress was of the simplest fashion, yet

58 JOSEPH BALSAMO.

suited her so vell that it seemed as if one from the wardrobe of a queen would not have been so elegant or so rich.

All these details were perceived by Balsamo in the first glance, as the young lady passed from the door to the table. On his side, the baron had not lost a single impression produced on the mind of his guest by the rare union of perfections in his daughter.

” You were right,” whispered Balsamo, turning to his host, ” Mademoiselle Andre is perfection.”

” Do not natter poor Andre,” said the baron, carelessly ; “she has just returned home from her convent, and she will believe all you say not that I am afraid of her coque-try on the contrary, the dear child is not enough of a coquette, but, like a good father, I am cultivating in her that first and most important quality for a woman.”

Andre looked down and blushed ; although she tried to avoid listening, she could not but overhear her father’s words.

“Did they tell mademoiselle that at the convent ?” asked Joseph Balsamo, laughing ; ” and was that precept part of the instructions of the nuns ?”

” Sir ‘ replied the baron, ” I have my own way of thinking on particular subjects, as you may see.”

This was so self-evident that Balsamo merely bowed in assent.

” No,” continued he ; ” I do not imitate those fathers who say to their daughters, ‘ Be prudes, be rigid, be blind ; think of nothing but honor, delicacy, devotion Fools ! It is as if the fathers of the knights of old had sent those champions into the lists after having taken off all their armor to fight an adversary armed cap-a-pie. Pardieu ! that is not the way I shall bring up my daughter Andre, though she be brought up in this miserable den.”

Although Balsamo perfectly agreed with the baron as to the propriety of this last epithet, yet he deemed it polite to contradict it.

” Oh, all very well ! ” resumed the old man ; ” but I know the place, I tell you ; yet, though now so far from

JOSEPH BALSAMO. 59

the sun of Versailles, my daughter shall know the world which I formerly knew so well myself ; and if she enter it, it shall be with an arsenal of weapons forged by my experience arrd my recollections. But I must confess, sir, the convent has ruined all my plans. As if that was what I wanted, my daughter was the first boarder who really practised the precepts there taught, and followed the letter of the gospel. Corbleu ! was not that being prettily served ? “

” Mademoiselle is an angel ! ” replied Balsarno, ‘ and in truth, sir, what you say does not surprise me.”

Andre bowed her thanks for this compliment, and sat down in obedience to a look from her father.

” Be seated, baron ‘ said the host, ” and if you are hungry, eat. What a horrible ragout that fool La Brie has given us ! “

“Partridges! Do yon call that horrible?” said the guest, smiling. ‘ You slander your supper. Partridges in May ! Are they from your own estates ? “

” My estates ? It is long since I had one. My respectable father left me some land, indeed, but it was eaten and digested long enough ago. Oh, Heaven be praised ! I have not an inch of ground. That good-for-nothing Gilbert, who can only read and dream, must have stolen a gun, powder, and shot from some one or other, and he kills birds, poaching on the estates of my neighbors. He will be caught and sent to the galleys some day, and certainly I shall not interfere it will be a good riddance ; but Andre likes game, so I am obliged to overlook Monsieur Gilbert’s freaks.”

Balsamo watched Andre’s lovely face, as this was said ; but not a change, not the slightest blush disturbed it.

He was seated at table between her and the baron, and she helped him, without appearing in the least annoyed at the scantiness of the repast, to a portion of the dish procured by Gilbert and cooked by La Brie, and so heartily abused by the baron. During this time poor La Brie, who heard all the eulogiums passed on himself and Gilbert, handed the plates with a deprecating air, which became

50 JOSEPH BALSAMO.

quite triumphant at each word of praise the guest bestowed on his cookery.

” He has not even salted this abominable ragout ! ” cried the baron, after he had devoured two wings of a partridge, which his daughter had placed before him on a tempting layer of cabbage, ” Andre, pass the salt-cellar to the Baron Balsamo.”

Andre obeyed, extending her arm with exquisite grace.

” All, you are admiring the salt-cellar again ! ” said the host.

” No, sir ; you are wrong this time,” replied Balsamo ; ” I was admiring mademoiselle’s hand.”

“Ah! very good, indeed a perfect Eichelieu. But since you have the salt-cellar in your hand, examine it ; it was made for the regent by the goldsmith Lucas. It represents the loves of the satyrs and bacchantes a little free, but pretty.”

Balsamo saw that the little figures so admirably executed were something worse than free, and he could not but admire the unconsciousness with which Andre had offered him the salt-cellar.

But as if the baron had determined to put to the proof that innocence which carries with it such a charm, he began to point out in detail the beauties of his favorite piece of plate, in spite of all Balsamo’s efforts to change the conversation.

” Come, eat, baron ! ” said Taverney, “for I warn you there is no other dish. Perhaps you are expecting the roast and other removes ; if so, great will be your disappointment.”

” Pardon me, sir,” said Andre, in her usual calm manner ; “but if Nicole has rightly understood me, we shall have another dish. I have given her the recipe for one.”

” The recipe ? You have given a recipe to your maid ? Thefemme de chambre turned cook ! It only requires one step more turn cook yourself, I beg you ! Did the Duchess de Chateaurouxor the Marchioness de Pompadour

JOSEPH BALSAMO. 61

ever cook for the king ? Oil the contrary, it was he who dressed omelets for them. Jour de Dieu ! have I lived to see women cooking in my house ? Baron, excuse my daughter, I beseech you.”

” But, father, we must eat,” said Andre, quietly. ” Well, Legay,” added she in a louder tone, ” is it done ? “

“Yes, mademoiselle ‘ replied the maid, bringing in “a dish of a very tempting odor.

” I know one, at least, who will not eat of that dish,” said the baron, furious, and breaking his plate as he spoke.

” Perhaps you will eat some, sir ? ” said Andre, coldly ; then turning to her father, ” You know, sir, we have now only seven plates of that set which my mother left me ; ” and so saying, she proceeded to carve the smoking viands which Mile. Legay, the pretty waiting-maid, had just placed on the table.

CHAPTER VI.

AXDREE DE TAVEKXEY.

THE searching intellect of Balsamo found ample food for study in each detail of the strange and isolated life led by this family in a corner of Lorraine.

The salt-cellar alone revealed to him one phase of the baron’s character, or, rather, his character in all its bearings. He called up all his penetration, therefore, as he scrutinized the features of Andre, while she handed him that salt-cellar.

At length, Avhether moved by curiosity or some deeper feeling, Balsamo gazed on Andre so fixedly, that two or three times, in less than ten minutes, the eyes of the young girl met his. At first she bore his look without confusion, but its intensity became by degrees so great that a feverish impatience, which made the blood mount to her cheeks, took possession of her. Then, feeling that this look had something supernatural in its power,

62 JOSEPH BALSAMO.

she tried to brave it, and, in her turn, she gazed at the baron with her large, limpid, dilated eyes. But this time again she was obliged to yield ; and, filled with the magnetic fluid which flowed in streams from his flaming orbs, her eyelids weighed down, sunk timidly, no longer to be raised but with hesitation.

While this silent struggle went on between the young girl and the mysterious traveler, the baron grumbled, laughed, and found fault, and swore like a true country gentleman, and pinched La Brie whenever he was within his reach, feeling that he must vent his spleen on some one. He was going to do the same to Nicole, when his eyes, for the first time, no doubt, rested on the hands of the young waiting-maid. The baron was an adorer of fine hands all his youthful follies might be attributed to the power of a fine hand over him.