the marchioness slept little. her impatience for the morrow almost stifled her. want of sleep took away her spirits. she viewed everything on its dark side, and expected to find the whole a delusion; but when caroline brought in her correspondence, there was a letter from the duchess that transported her with joy. "my friend," said madame de dunières, "here is a change of scene like those at the opera. it is the case of your eldest son that demands attention. i talked with diana when she awoke this morning. i did not asperse the duke, but my religion obliged me not to hide from her any of the truth. she replied that i had said all this before, in speaking of the marquis, that i had nothing to tell her which she had not already considered, and that on mature reflection, she had become equally interested in the two brothers, whose friendship was such a beautiful thing, and that, in thinking over the position of the duke, she had found it more meritorious to have borne the burden of gratitude nobly than to have rendered a service exacted by duty." she added that, "since i had counselled her to bestow happiness and wealth on some worthy man, she felt herself drawn toward him who pleased her best. in fine, the irresistible graces of your good-for-nothing son have done the rest. and then i must not be mistaken about diana. she judges that the title of duchess will suit her queenly figure best: she is inclined to be fond of society; and when, not long ago, some one, i know not who, told her that the marquis did not like it at all, i saw she was uneasy, though i did not know the reason. now she has confessed all. she has said to me that as a brother the marquis would be all she could desire, but that as a husband the duke would show her the gayest life. in short, my dear, she seems so determined that i have only to serve you all i can in this unforeseen contingency as i should have done in the other case.
"i will bring my daughter to you to-morrow morning, and as diana will be with us, you can see her without appearing to suspect anything; but you will succeed in charming her completely, i am very sure."
while the marchioness and the duke were giving themselves up to their happiness, caroline was left a little more alone; for the son and the mother held long conversations every day in which her presence was naturally undesired, and during which she practised music or wrote her own letters in the drawing-room, always deserted until five o'clock. there she disturbed no one, and held herself in readiness to answer the least summons of the marchioness.
one day the marquis came in with a book, and seating himself at the same table where she was writing, with an air strangely calm and resolved, asked her permission to work in this room, where it was easier to breathe than in his little chamber. "that is, on condition," said he, "that i don't drive you away, for i see quite clearly that you have avoided me for some days past; don't deny it!" added he, seeing she was about to reply. "you have reasons for this which i respect, but which are not well grounded. in speaking of myself as i ventured to do at the jardin des plantes i startled the delicacy of your conscience. you thought i was going to make you my confidante in some personal project likely to disturb the peace of my family, and you were unwilling to become even a passive accomplice in my rebellion."
"exactly so," replied caroline, "you have divined my feeling perfectly."
"now let my words become as if they had never been said," continued urbain, calmly and with a firmness that commanded, respect; "i will not tell you to forget them, but do not dwell on them in any way, i beg, and never fear my bringing your attachment for my mother into collision with the generous friendship you have deigned to accord me."
caroline felt constrained to yield to the power of this frankness. she did not comprehend all that was passing through the mind of the marquis, all that was suppressed behind his words. she thought she must have been mistaken, that she had felt too much alarm at a fancy he had already conquered. in her own mind she accepted her friend's promise as a formal reparation for having caused her a moment of troubled thought, and thenceforth she found anew the full charm and security of friendship.
they saw each other, then, every day, and even sometimes for long hours together, in the drawing-room, almost under the eyes of the marchioness, who rejoiced to see that caroline continued to aid the marquis in his labors. in fact, she assisted him now only with her memory: having arranged his documents in the country, he wrote his third and last volume with admirable swiftness and readiness. caroline's presence gave him enthusiasm and inspiration. by her side, he no longer suffered from doubt or weariness. she had become so indispensable to him that he confessed his lack of interest in anything when alone. he was pleased to have her talk to him even in the midst of his work. far from disturbing him this dearly loved voice preserved the harmony of his thought and the elevation of his style. he challenged her to disturb him, he begged her to read music at the piano, without fear of causing him the least annoyance. on the contrary, all that made him sensible of her presence fell on his soul like a pleasant warmth; for she was to him, not another person moving about near him, but his own mind which he could see and feel alive before him.
her respect for his work, over which she was enthusiastic, bound caroline to a certain respect for him personally. she made it a sacred duty, as it were, not, in any way, to disturb the balance needful to a mind so finely organized. she refused to think of herself any longer. she no longer asked herself whether she was not running some risk on her own score, or whether, at a given time, she would be strong enough to give up this intimacy which was becoming the groundwork of her own life.
the matrimonial alliance between the duke d'aléria and mlle de xaintrailles progressed with encouraging rapidity. the beautiful diana was seriously in love and would not hear a word against gaëtan. the duchess de dunières, having herself made a love-match with a veteran lady-killer, who had reformed on the strength of it and now rendered her perfectly happy, took the part of her god-daughter, and pleaded her cause so well that her guardians and the legal advisers of the family had to give way before the known will of the heiress.
the latter told her betrothed, even before he had expressed any wish to this effect, that she intended to pay off his indebtedness to the marquis, and the marquis had to accept the promise of a reparation which this high-minded young girl made one condition of the marriage. all the marquis could obtain was that they should not restore to him the share in his mother's property which he had resigned when madame de villemer had been obliged to pay the debts of her eldest son for the first time. according to the marquis, his mother had a right to dispose of her own fortune during her lifetime; and he regarded himself as entirely indemnified since the marchioness was to live henceforth at the hôtel de xaintrailles and in the castles of her daughter-in-law, far more splendid than the little manor of séval and much nearer paris, thus living no longer at his expense.
in these family arrangements all parties showed the most exquisite delicacy and the most honorable generosity. caroline directed the attention of the marquis to this fact in order to make him insist, in his book, upon certain just reservations in favor of families where the true idea of nobility still served as the basis of real virtues.
in fact, here each one did his duty: mlle de xaintrailles would have no marriage-contract which, in protecting her fortune from her husband's lavish expenditures, should contain any clauses likely to wound his pride; while the duke, on the other hand, insisted that the right of dowry should bind the wings of his magnificent improvidence. so it was specified with considerable flourish in the document that this stipulation was introduced at the request of the future bridegroom, and in compliance with his express wishes.
everything being thus settled, the marchioness found herself a sharer in a most generous style of living; and although she had declared herself satisfied with a simple promise and willing to rely on the discretion of her children, a very handsome income had been secured to her by the same contract in which the future bride had done so many other liberal and considerate things; the marquis, on his side, became repossessed of capital enough to represent an ample competence. it is needless to state that he took the recovery of this fortune as calmly as he had borne the loss of it.
while the outfit of the bride was preparing, the duke busied himself about his presents for her, the funds for their purchase having been forced upon his acceptance by his brother, as a wedding gift. what an affair it was for the duke to choose diamonds and laces and cashmeres! he understood the lofty science of the toilet better than the most accomplished woman. he hardly found time to eat, passing his days in waiting upon his betrothed, consulting jewellers, merchants, and embroiderers, and telling his mother, who was equally excited over it all, the thousand incidents and even the surprising dramas connected with his marvellous acquisitions. into the midst of all this heavy fire, in which caroline and urbain took only a modest share, madame d'arglade glided, as if in her own despite.
a great event had overturned léonie's way of life and all her plans. at the beginning of the winter, her husband, twenty years her senior and for some time past an invalid, had succumbed to a chronic disease, leaving his affairs complicated enough; though she came out of her embarrassments in triumphant style, thanks to a lucky stroke at the bourse, for she had gambled in stocks a long time without the knowledge of m. d'arglade, and had at last laid hands on a fortunate number in the great lottery. so she found herself a widow, still young and handsome, and richer than she had ever been before, all which did not hinder her shedding so many and such big tears that people said of her with admiration, "this poor little woman was really attached to her duty, in spite of her frivolous ways! certainly m. d'arglade was not a husband to go distracted over, but she has such a warm heart that she is inconsolable." and thus she was pitied, and many took pains to amuse her: the marchioness, seriously interested, insisted that she should come and pass her solitary afternoons with her. nothing was more proper; it was not going into company, for the marchioness received no visitors until four or five o'clock; it was not even going out, for léonie could come in a cab without much of a toilet, and as if incognito. léonie allowed herself to be consoled and amused by watching the preparations for the wedding, and sometimes the duke would succeed in making her laugh outright; which did very well, because, passing from one kind of nervous excitement to another, she would immediately begin to sob, hiding her face in her handkerchief and saying, "how cruel you are to make me laugh! it does me so much harm."
through all her despair, léonie was contriving to win the intimate confidence of the marchioness so as insensibly to supplant caroline, who did not perceive this, and was a thousand leagues from suspecting her designs. now léonie's main project was this:—
as she saw the health of her disagreeable husband becoming impaired and her own private purse filling out round, madame d'arglade asked herself what kind of a successor she should give him, and, as she had not yet been confidentially informed of the marriage already arranged with mlle de xaintrailles, she had resolved to confer the right to the vacant living upon the duke d'aléria. she thought him "ineligible," on the conditions of fortune united to youth and rank, and said to herself, not without logic and plausibility, that the widow of a respectable and wealthy gentleman, without children, was the best match to which a penniless prodigal, reduced to going on foot and reckoning up accounts with his body-servant, could possibly aspire. léonie then had no doubt of her success, and while busying herself with much skill in the investment of her capital she said to herself in supreme calm, "now all is finished, i have plenty of money, i will speculate no more, i will intrigue no more. my ambition, satiated in this direction, must change its object. i must efface the birth-mark of plebeianism, which still incommodes me in society. i must have a title. that of duchess is well worth the trouble of some thought!"
she had indeed thought of it in time, but m. d'arglade died too late. she had scarcely laid aside her first mourning crapes, when, on her earliest visit to the marchioness, she learned that she must think of it no longer.
léonie then turned her batteries on the marquis de villemer. this was less brilliant and more difficult, but still it was satisfactory as a title, and, from her point of view, not impossible. the marchioness was extremely anxious about her son's bachelor state, the prospect of which as a permanency seemed to have new charms for him in his negligence. she opened her heart to madame d'arglade. "he really frightens me," said she, "with his tranquil air. i fear he may have some prejudice—i know not what—against marriage, perhaps against women in general. he is more than timid, he is unsociable, and yet he is charming when you succeed in winning him into familiarity. he needs to meet some woman who will fall in love with him herself first, and then have courage enough to make him love her in return."
léonie profited by these revelations. "ah! yes," replied she, giddily, "he needs a wife of higher position than mine, one who is not the widow of the best of men; but somebody who would still have my age, my wealth, and my disposition."
"your disposition is too impulsive for a man so reserved, my darling."
"and that is why a person of my character would save him. you know about extremes. if i could love any one, which now, alas! is totally impossible, i should certainly fancy a man who is serious and cold. dear me! alas! was not that the temperament of my poor husband? well, his gravity tempered my vivacity, and my liveliness let sunshine into his melancholy. that was his way of putting it, and how often he would mention it! he had never been in love before he met me, and he also had precisely this distaste for marriage. the first time he saw me, he was a little afraid of my frivolity; but all at once he saw that i was necessary to his life, because this apparent thoughtlessness, which you know does n't hinder one from having a good heart, passed into his soul like a light, like a balm. these were his very words, poor dear man! there! stop! let us not talk about people who marry. it makes me feel too keenly that i am alone forever!"
léonie found means to touch upon the subject so often and under so many different forms, with so much tact under an air of innocence, with so many civilities clothed in apparent indifference, that the idea entered the mind of the marchioness almost without her being conscious of it, and when madame d'arglade saw she was not disposed to reject it absolutely in the proper time and place, she began a direct attack on m. de villemer with the same cunning, the same charming heedlessness, the same silence of conjugal despair, the same frank insinuations, bringing about the whole and carrying it on before the eyes of caroline, about whom she did not trouble herself at all.
but the chatter of madame d'arglade was disagreeable to the marquis; and, if she had never found this out, it was only because she had never provoked him into taking any notice of her whatever. far from being the inexperienced savage he was supposed to be, he had a very fine tact with regard to women; so, at the first assault which léonie made, he understood her designs, perceived all her intrigues, and made her feel this so thoroughly that she was wounded to the very heart.
from that time she opened her eyes, and, in a thousand delicate indications detected the boundless love mlle de saint-geneix had inspired in the marquis. she rejoiced over this greatly: she thought it was in her power to revenge herself, and she waited for the right moment.
the marriage of the duke was appointed for one of the first days of january; but there were so many outcries in certain rigid drawing-rooms of the faubourg saint-germain against the readiness with which the duchess de dunières had welcomed the suit of this great sinner, that she determined to avoid the reproach of undue precipitation by delaying the happiness of the young pair for three months, and introducing her god-daughter into society. this postponement did not alarm the duke, but vexed the marchioness exceedingly, for she was eager to open a really grand drawing-room, on her own responsibility, with a charming daughter-in-law, who would attract young faces around her. madame d'arglade, under pretext of business, became less assiduous in her visits, and caroline resumed her duties.
she was much less impatient than the marchioness to live at the hôtel de xaintrailles and to change her habits. the marquis had not decided to accept an apartment at his brother's, and did not explain his own personal plans. caroline was alarmed at this, and yet she saw, in his indifference to being under the same roof with her, one proof of the calm regard she had exacted from him; but she had now reached that stage of affection when logic is often found at fault in the depths of the heart. she silently enjoyed her last happy days, and when spring came, for the first time in her life, she regretted winter.
mlle de xaintrailles had taken mlle de saint-geneix into high favor, and even into a close friendship; while, on the contrary, she felt a decided dislike for madame d'arglade, whom she met occasionally of a morning at the house of her future mother-in-law, where she herself made no formal visits, but only came with madame and mlle de dunières at hours when none but intimate friends were received. léonie pretended not to see this slight haughtiness in the beautiful diana. she thought she had a hold on her happiness also, and that she could revenge herself upon her and upon caroline at one and the same time.
she was not invited to the wedding festivities; her mourning, of course, preventing her appearance there. however, from regard to the marchioness, toward whom diana showed herself really perfect, a few brief words of regret, as to this deprivation, were said to her. that was all. caroline, on the other hand, was chosen as a bridesmaid, and loaded with gifts, by the future duchess d'aléria.
at last the great day arrived, and for the first time, after many years of sorrow and misery, mlle de saint-geneix, dressed in elegant taste, and even with a certain richness, through the gifts of the bride, appeared in all the splendor of her beauty and grace. she created a lively sensation, and every one inquired where this delightful unknown could have come from. diana replied, "she is a friend of mine, a very superior person who is under the care of my mother-in-law, and whom i am delighted to see established so near me."
the marquis danced with the bride and also with mlle de dunières, in order that he might afterwards dance with mlle de saint-geneix. caroline was so astonished at this that she could not help saying to him in a low voice, and with a smile, "how is this? after having stood by each other through the establishment of allodial rule and the enfranchisement of the lower classes, now we are going to dance a contra-dance!"
"yes," he replied, quickly, "and this will go much better, for i shall feel your hand in mine."
it was the first time the marquis had openly shown caroline an emotion in which the senses had any part. now she was sensible of his trembling hand and his eager eyes. she was frightened; but reminded herself that he had seemed to be in love with her once before and had triumphed over the ill-advised thought. with a man so pure and of such high morality ought she to feel afraid, even if he did forget himself for an instant! and besides, had she not herself experienced this vague intoxication of love even when her will was strong enough to subdue it at once! she could not help being aware of her own extraordinary beauty, for every eye told her of it. she eclipsed the bride herself in her diamonds, with her seventeen years, and her fine smile of fond triumph. the dowagers said to the duchess de dunières, "that poor orphan you have there is too pretty: it is disquieting!" the sons of the duchess herself, young men of dignity and great promise, looked at mlle de saint-geneix in a way that justified the apprehensions of these experienced matrons. the duke, touched by seeing that his generous wife had not thought of harboring the slightest jealous suspicion, and also appreciating caroline's considerate attitude toward him, showed her especial attention. the marchioness, not to spoil this delightful day, made a point of treating her more maternally than ever, and of dispelling every shadow of servitude. in short, she was in one of those moments of life, when, in spite of fortune's caprices, the power which intelligence, honor, and beauty naturally exert seem to reclaim its rights and to reconquer its place in the world.
but if caroline read her triumph on all faces, it was especially in the eyes of m. de villemer that she could assure herself of it. she also noticed how this mysterious man had altered since that first day when he had appeared so timid, so self-absorbed, as if obstinately bent on remaining in obscurity. he was now as elegant in his manners as his elder brother, with more true grace and real distinction; for the duke, in spite of his great knowledge of demeanor, had a little of that bearing, a shade too fine and slightly theatrical, which is characteristic of the spanish race. the marquis was of the french type in all its unaffected ease, in all its amiable kindliness, in that particular charm which does not impress but wins. he danced, that is, he walked through the contra-dance more simply than any one else; but the purity of his life had imparted to his motions, his countenance, his whole being, a perfume, as one might say, of extraordinary youth. he seemed, this evening, to be ten years younger than his brother, and a certain indescribable glow of hope gave his face the brightness of a beautiful life just commencing.
