caroline in her own despite commenced to find something galling in her situation. she had endeavored not to think at all about the species of domestic service which she had heroically accepted. no one, indeed, could have been less fitted for this complete surrender of the will. she felt shocked by the obstinate or affected attention paid her by the duke d'aléria, and she considered herself constrained to hide her impatience and disdain. "in my sister's house," she said to herself, "i should not be obliged to endure the compliments of this person. i should put an end to them with a single word. he would think me a prude, but that would make no difference. he would be sent off, and all would be said. here i must be sprightly and polite, like a lady of society, look upon the light side of everything, see nothing offensive in the gallantry of a libertine. i must guess the science of the women who are broken in to this kind of life. if i am as brusk with him as my frankness would lead me to be, the duke would get a spite at me; he would calumniate me to revenge himself, and perhaps to have me sent away. sent away! yes, in my position, one is liable to be surprised by any vile plot, and dismissed without more ceremony than is observed with the humblest servant. these are the dangers and the insults to which i am exposed. i did wrong to come here. madame d'arglade never told me about this duke, and i have been believing in an impossibility."
caroline was not of an irresolute spirit. from the moment that the thought of going away had occurred to her, she began to cast about in her mind for some other way of supporting her sister. she had received an advance from the marchioness, and it was necessary to find elsewhere another advance by which to return it, if the conduct of the duke should not permit of her remaining with his mother till the time paid for by the little sum sent to camille had been duly served. thus caroline came to think of the few hundreds of francs offered her by her nurse, whose letter received that morning was yet in her pocket. she now read that artless and motherly letter again, and, thinking how great a benefaction can go with the unpretending charity of the poor, she felt herself once more deeply touched and she wept.
the marquis entered and found her wiping her eyes. she folded up the letter again and put it unaffectedly back in her pocket, without attempting to conceal her emotion under an assumption of cheerfulness. nevertheless she remarked a shade of irony upon m. de villemer's face, which usually was so kind. she looked at him as if asking whom he wanted to ridicule, and he, becoming slightly embarrassed, hesitated for words, and ended by saying quite simply, "you were weeping?"
"yes," she replied, "but not from sorrow."
"you have received good news?"
"no, a proof of friendship."
"you ought to receive such things frequently."
"there are testimonies more or less sincere."
"you seem to be in a doubting mood to-day; you are not every day so mistrustful."
"no, not every day; i am not naturally distrustful. are you, m. de villemer?"
urbain was always a little startled when questioned directly about himself. it cost him an effort to interrogate others, and to be questioned in return caused him a species of trouble.
"i," he answered, after a moment's hesitation,—"i do not know. i should be very much at a loss how to tell you what i am—at this moment especially."
"yes, you appear to be preoccupied," rejoined caroline; "do not make an effort to speak to me, m. de villemer."
"pardon me, i want—i would like to speak with you; but it is a very delicate matter. i do not know how to begin."
"ah! indeed? you disquiet me a little. and yet it seems to me that it will be well for me to know what you are thinking about just now."
"well—yes, you are right. quick, then, for we may be interrupted at any moment. i shall not have to say much, i hope, to make you understand me. i love my brother; to-day especially i love him tenderly. i am certain of his sincerity; but his imagination is very lively,—you have just had evidence of that. in short, if he has been a little too persistent in his endeavor to change the unfavorable impression of him which perhaps you may not have at all, and which, in any case, he does not merit but to a certain degree, i would like to have you promise to speak of it to my mother and to my mother only. do not think it strange or impertinent in me to volunteer my advice. i have such a desire to see my mother happy, and i see so clearly that you already contribute largely to her happiness, the society of an intelligent and worthy person is so necessary to her, and it would probably be so impossible for her to replace you, that i would, knowing you to be happy and satisfied in your position, like to believe that you will always be with her. and now you know the only thing upon which i have been preoccupied."
"i thank you for this explanation, m. de villemer," replied caroline, "and i will confess i expected that your integrity would some day consent to give it."
"my integrity? but my whole explanation consists in this: my brother is light-hearted, amiable, and if his gayety has become painful to you, my mother, able to restrain him and possessing in that respect an ascendency over him which i cannot have, would on the one hand know how to reassure you, and how on the other, to keep my brother's vivacity of speech within proper bounds."
"yes, yes, we understand each other," rejoined caroline; "but we are not quite of the same opinion as to the means of curing the—the amiable sportiveness of his grace, the duke. you think that madame the marchioness will be able to preserve me from it; and i believe that between an adored son and a tender mother no one can or ought to carry complaints. before certain judges we are never right. i have been thinking exactly of this situation, and i foresaw with real sorrow that a moment might come when i should be compelled—"
"to go away from us, to leave my mother?" asked the marquis, with a sudden eagerness, which he repressed immediately. "that was exactly what i feared. if that idea has already entered your mind, i am very much distressed; but i do not believe it is well founded. be careful not to be unjust. my brother was very much excited today. a particular circumstance, a family matter having much to do with the feelings, had almost overcome him this morning. this evening he was happy, merry, and therefore impulsive. when you know him better—"
the bell was heard to ring. the marquis started. friends arrived. he was compelled to leave in suspense many things which he would have liked to say and not to say. he hastened to add, "now, in the name of heaven, in the name of my mother, do not be in a hurry to take a step which would be so sad, so grievous to her. if i dared, if i had the right, i would pray you to decide nothing without consulting me—"
"the respect to which your character gives you the right," replied caroline, "gives you also the right to counsel me, and i do not hesitate to promise you what you have been kind enough to ask."
the marquis had no time to express his gratitude. they were no longer alone in the drawing-room; but there was an extraordinary eloquence in his look, and caroline found again in it the confidence and affection which had appeared under a cloud at the commencement of their interview. the eyes of the marquis had that remarkable beauty which can spring only from an ardent soul joined to great purity of thought. they were the only expression of his inner nature which his timidity did not succeed in paralyzing. caroline understood him now, and nothing confused, nothing troubled her in the language of those clear eyes which she questioned frequently as the keepers of her conscience and the guides of her conduct.
caroline really had a veneration for this man, whose character every one appreciated, but whose intelligence and delicacy every one did not fathom or divine. in spite, however, of the satisfaction in which their conversation had just ended, she sought in going over it again to herself to understand it in all its bearings. she thought quickly, and, while going about the drawing-room to do the honors,—within the limits of the favor and reserve which had been imposed upon her, and whose exact lines she had easily observed from the first,—she demanded of herself why the marquis had seemed to waver among two or three successive ideas in speaking to her. at first he had appeared disposed to reproach her for believing in the flatteries of the duke, then he had given her a friendly warning against the continuance of these attacks, and finally, as soon as she had expressed her displeasure at them, he himself had hastened to allay it. she had never seen him irresolute, and, if his language was frequently timid, his convictions were never so. "it must be," she thought, "that in the first place he considered me imprudent, and his brother likely to take advantage of the fact; in the second place, it must be that i am really more necessary to his much-loved mother, already, than i could have believed. at all events, there is a hidden something in this which i cannot understand, and which i suppose he will explain to me hereafter. whatever it may be, i am free. five hundred francs will not bind me a day, an hour, in a humiliating position. i have not yet sent off my answer to justine."
we see how far the honest, clear conscience of mlle de saint-geneix was from seeking in the constrained silence of the marquis an unbecoming sentiment or an instinct of jealousy. if the marquis had been questioned at that moment, could he have answered with so much assurance, "with me it is only a respectful esteem and filial solicitude?"
at that moment, in point of fact, m. de villemer was by no means pleased with his brother, and listened to him with an impatience which was painful enough. the duke, having entered the drawing-room with his mother, had come and seated himself near him behind the piano, an isolated and protected place, which was a favorite with the marquis; here then the duke began the following conversation, speaking in a low voice but in a very lively manner:—
"well," he said, "you saw her alone just now; did you speak to her of me?"
"but," replied m. de villemer, "what singular persistency!"
"there is nothing singular about it," rejoined the duke, as if he were continuing the details of a confidential disclosure already made. "i am struck, touched, taken. i am in love if you will. yes, in love with her, upon my honor! it is no joke. are you going to reproach me, when for the first time in my life i make you my confidant? was that not agreed upon this morning? did we not swear to tell each other everything, and to be each other's best friend? i asked you whether you had any feeling for mlle de saint-geneix; you answered me 'no,' very seriously. do not, therefore, think it extraordinary that i ask you to serve me with her."
"my friend," replied the marquis, "i have done exactly the contrary of what you would have me to do. i told her to take nothing you said too seriously."
"ah, traitor!" cried the duke, with a gayety whose frankness was as a reparation for his former prejudices against his brother, "that is the way you serve your friends. trust in pylades! at the first call he resigns; he whistles at my dreams, and gives my hopes to the winds. but what do you suppose will become of me, if you abandon me in this fashion?"
"for that kind of service i have n't even common sense, you see very plainly."
"that's so; at the first difficulty you renounce it. well, but i am maddened. i have driven from my heart all that is not you, and none but you shall hear of my new flames."
"with regard to the present one at least, will you pledge me your honor?"
"ah! you are in great fear lest i compromise her?"
"that would give me serious pain."
"bah! come now, why?"
"because she is proud, sensitive perhaps, and would leave my mother, who dotes upon her,—have you not observed that?"
"yes, and it is that very thing which has turned my head. she must really be a girl of great cleverness and a deal of heart. our mother has such perfect tact. this evening, in taking me to task a little for what she considered my attempt at teasing, she held the sugarplum very high, saying, 'your conduct toward caroline was neither proper nor agreeable. she is a person of whom you are not permitted to think.' the deuce! a fellow always has the right to dream; that certainly harms no one. but see though how pretty she is; how alive in the midst of all those plastered women! one can look at the contour of her face in the nearest and most trying light; one will not see there those dull, sticky lines which make the others look like plaster casts. it is true she is too pretty to be any one's young-lady companion. my mother can never keep her; every one will fall in love with her, and if she continues to be well-behaved some one will want to marry her."
"then," rejoined the marquis, "you cannot think of her."
"why so, pray?" demanded the duke. "am i not to-day a poor devil with nothing in the world? is she not of good birth? is not her reputation spotless? i should like to know what my mother would find to say against it,—she who already calls the young lady her daughter, and who wishes us to respect her as if she were our own sister."
"you, sir, carry your enthusiasm or your joke to great lengths," said the marquis, stunned by what he heard.
"good," thought the duke, "he has forgotten his brotherly thee and thou; he calls me 'you, sir.'"
and he continued to maintain with astonishing seriousness that he was quite capable of marrying mlle de saint-geneix, if there were no other means of winning her. "i should prefer to run away with her," he added; "that would better accord with my usual way of doing things; but i no longer have the means with which to run away with her, and now my laundress herself would not trust herself to my hands. besides, it is time to break with my entire past. i have said it to you, and it is done, because i have said it. starting from to-day,—a complete reformation along the whole line. you are going to see a new man,—a man whom i myself do not know, and who indeed is going to astonish me; but that man, i feel now, is capable of all things, all, even to believe, to love, and to marry. so good evening, brother; those are my last words; if you do not repeat them to mlle de saint-geneix, it is because you wish to do nothing to aid me in my conversion."
the duke withdrew, leaving his brother stupefied,—divided between the necessity of believing him sincere in his momentary passion and the indignity of being solicited as an accomplice in a flagrant libertinism.
"but no," he said to himself, going to his own apartments; "that was all merely his gayety, his trifling, his folly,—or it was still the wine. nevertheless, this morning in the grove he interrogated me about caroline with a surprising insistence, and that, too, almost in the midst of my confidences concerning my past, which he received with genuine emotion, with tears in his eyes. what kind of a man then is this brother of mine? not twelve hours ago, he thought of killing himself. he hated me, he detested himself. then i believed i had won his heart. he sobbed in my arms. all day long it has been the extreme of impulse and devotion, winning tenderness and goodwill; and to-night i no longer know what it is. has his reason received some shock in the uncurbed life which he has hitherto led, or did he indeed make sport of me all the fore part of the day? am i the dupe of my need to love? shall i have cause for bitter repentance, or have i in fact taken upon myself the task of caring for a diseased brain?"
in his fright the marquis accepted this latter supposition as the less appalling; but another anguish was mingled with it. the marquis felt himself bruised and irritated by a sentiment which he did not avow to himself, and to which he would not so much as give a name. he set himself to work and worked badly. he went to bed and slept still worse.
as for the duke, he innocently rubbed his hands. "i have succeeded," said he to himself; "i have found the proper reaction against his despair. poor, dear brother! i have turned his head, i have aroused his feelings, i have excited his jealousy. he is in love. he will be cured, and he will live. for passion there is no remedy but passion. it is not my mother who would have found that out, and if she is opposed to so humble a match, she will forgive me for making it on the day when she shall know that my brother would have died of his regrets and of his constancy."
the duke was not perhaps mistaken, and a wiser man could have been less ingenious. he would have endeavored to lead the marquis back to an interest in life through the love of letters, through filial affection, through reason and duty,—things which were all excellent, but which the invalid himself had long since vainly called to his aid. now the duke, from his point of view, imagined that he had rescued everything, and did not foresee that with an exclusive nature like his brother's, the remedy might soon become worse than the disease. the duke, knowing human susceptibility through himself, believed in a general susceptibility in women, and admitted no exceptions. according to his ideas, caroline would not make any struggle at all; he believed her already quite disposed to love the marquis. "she is a good young woman," he said to himself; "not at all ambitious, and entirely disinterested. i judged her at the first glance, and my mother assures me that i am not mistaken. she will yield through her need to love some one, and through allurement, too, for my brother has great attractions for an intelligent woman. if she resists him awhile, it will be all the better; he will be so much the more attached to her. my mother will see nothing of this, and if she does see it, it will agitate her, it will occupy her too. she will be good, she will preach the requirements of caste, and yield to endearment. these little domestic emotions will rescue her from the tedium which is her greatest torment."
to these heartless calculations the duke gave himself up with perfect candor. he grew tender himself over this sort of puerility which oftentimes characterizes corruption as an exhaustion. he laughed to himself as he regarded the beautiful victim already immolated, in imagination to his projects; and if any one had questioned him on the subject, he would have answered with a laugh, that he was in the act of arranging a romance after the manner of florian, as a beginning to his contemplated life of sentiment and innocence.
he remained in the drawing-room the whole evening, and found the means to speak to caroline without being overheard. "my mother has been scolding me," he said. "it appears that i have been absurd with you. i did not suspect such a thing, i assure you, for i really wanted to prove to you my respect. in a word, my mother has made me pledge my honor that i will not think of making love to you, and i pledged it without hesitation. are you quieted now?"
"all the more that i have not thought of being disquieted."
"that's fortunate. since my mother forced me into the rudeness of saying to a woman what we never say, even when we think it, let us be good friends like two well-meaning people as we are, and let us be frank with each other to commence with. promise me, then, no longer to speak ill of me to my brother."
"no longer? when, pray, have i spoken ill of you to him?"
"you did not complain of my impertinence—there, this evening?"
"i said that i dreaded your raillery, and that, if it continued, i should go away; that is all."
"indeed," thought the duke, "they are already on better terms than i had hoped." he rejoined, "if you think of quitting my mother on my account, it will condemn me to go away from her myself."
"that could not be thought of. a son giving place to a stranger!"
"that nevertheless is what i have resolved to do, if i displease you and if i frighten you; but remain, and command me to be and do as you would wish. ought i never to see you, never speak to you, not even salute you?"
"i exact no affectation in any sense whatever. you are too clever and experienced not to have understood that i am not skilled enough in the artifices of speech to sustain any assault against you."
"you are too modest; but since you do not wish that the prescribed forms of admiration should mingle with those of respect, and since the attention, which it is so difficult for you not to awaken, alarms and afflicts you, be at ease; i consider it said and done: you will have no further cause, of complaint in me. i swear it by all that a man can hold sacred,—by my mother!"
after having thus made reparation for his fault and reassured caroline, whose going away would have foiled his plan, the duke began to speak to her of urbain with a veritable enthusiasm. upon this point he was so thoroughly sincere, that mlle de saint-geneix laid aside her prejudices. her mind became calm again, and she hastened to write to camille that everything was going well, that the duke was much better than his reputation, and that, at all events, he had engaged upon his honor not to disturb her.
during the month succeeding that day caroline saw very little of m. de villemer. he was obliged to be occupied with the details of settling his brother's debts; then he absented himself. he told his mother that he was going to normandy to see a certain historical castle whose plan was necessary for his work, and he set out in quite an opposite direction, confiding to the duke alone that he was going in the strictest incognito to see his son.
as for the duke himself, he was very busy with the change of his pecuniary position. he sold his horses, his furniture and personal property, discharged his lackeys, and came, at the request of his mother, to install himself provisionally, for economy's sake, in a suite of apartments between the ground floor and the first story of her hotel, which was going to be sold also, but with the reservation that the marquis should remain for ten years the principal tenant, and that nothing should be changed in the apartments of his mother.
urbain himself had ascended to the third story and piled up his books in a lodging more than modest, protesting that he had never been better off, and that he had a magnificent view of the champs-élysées. during his absence the preparations for the departure to the country were made, and mlle de saint-geneix wrote to her sister: "i am counting the days which separate us from the blissful time when i can at last walk to my heart's content, and breathe a pure air. i have enough of flowers which faint and die upon the mantels; i am thirsty for those which bloom in the open fields."
