when cazeau awoke, one morning at his usual very early hour, it was to find the place at his side vacant. this did not surprise him until he discovered that athénaïse was not in the adjoining room, where he had often found her sleeping in the morning on the lounge. she had perhaps gone out for an early stroll, he reflected, for her jacket and hat were not on the rack where she had hung them the night before. but there were other things absent,—a gown or two from the armoire; and there was a great gap in the piles of lingerie on the 67shelf; and her traveling-bag was missing, and so were her bits of jewelry from the toilet tray—and athénaïse was gone!
but the absurdity of going during the night, as if she had been a prisoner, and he the keeper of a dungeon! so much secrecy and mystery, to go sojourning out on the bon dieu? well, the michés might keep their daughter after this. for the companionship of no woman on earth would he again undergo the humiliating sensation of baseness that had overtaken him in passing the old oak-tree in the fallow meadow.
but a terrible sense of loss overwhelmed cazeau. it was not new or sudden; he had felt it for weeks growing upon him, and it seemed to culminate with athénaïse’s flight from home. he knew that he could again compel her return as he had done once before,—compel her to return to the shelter of his roof, compel her cold and unwilling submission to his love and passionate transports; but the loss of self-respect seemed to him too dear a price to pay for a wife.
he could not comprehend why she had seemed to prefer him above others; why she 68had attracted him with eyes, with voice, with a hundred womanly ways, and finally distracted him with love which she seemed, in her timid, maidenly fashion, to return. the great sense of loss came from the realization of having missed a chance for happiness,—a chance that would come his way again only through a miracle. he could not think of himself loving any other woman, and could not think of athénaïse ever—even at some remote date—caring for him.
he wrote her a letter, in which he disclaimed any further intention of forcing his commands upon her. he did not desire her presence ever again in his home unless she came of her free will, uninfluenced by family or friends; unless she could be the companion he had hoped for in marrying her, and in some measure return affection and respect for the love which he continued and would always continue to feel for her. this letter he sent out to the rigolet by a messenger early in the day. but she was not out on the rigolet, and had not been there.
the family turned instinctively to montéclin, and almost literally fell upon him for an 69explanation; he had been absent from home all night. there was much mystification in his answers, and a plain desire to mislead in his assurances of ignorance and innocence.
but with cazeau there was no doubt or speculation when he accosted the young fellow. “montéclin, w’at have you done with athénaïse?” he questioned bluntly. they had met in the open road on horseback, just as cazeau ascended the river bank before his house.
“w’at have you done to athénaïse?” returned montéclin for answer.
“i don’t reckon you’ve considered yo’ conduct by any light of decency an’ propriety in encouraging yo’ sister to such an action, but let me tell you”—
“voyons! you can let me alone with yo’ decency an’ morality an’ fiddlesticks. i know you mus’ ’a’ done athénaïse pretty mean that she can’t live with you; an’ fo’ my part, i’m mighty durn glad she had the spirit to quit you.”
“i ain’t in the humor to take any notice of yo’ impertinence, montéclin; but let me remine you that athénaïse is nothing but a chile in character; besides that, she’s my wife, an’ 70i hole you responsible fo’ her safety an’ welfare. if any harm of any description happens to her, i’ll strangle you, by god, like a rat, and fling you in cane river, if i have to hang fo’ it!” he had not lifted his voice. the only sign of anger was a savage gleam in his eyes.
“i reckon you better keep yo’ big talk fo’ the women, cazeau,” replied montéclin, riding away.
but he went doubly armed after that, and intimated that the precaution was not needless, in view of the threats and menaces that were abroad touching his personal safety.
