the fourth week of athénaïse’s stay in the city was drawing to a close. keeping in view the intention which she had of finding some suitable and agreeable employment, she had made a few tentatives in that direction. but with the exception of two little girls who had promised to take piano lessons at a price that would be embarrassing to mention, these attempts had been fruitless. moreover, the homesickness kept coming back, and gouvernail was not always there to drive it away.
she spent much of her time weeding and pottering among the flowers down in the courtyard. she tried to take an interest in the black cat, and a mockingbird that hung in a cage outside the kitchen door, and a disreputable parrot that belonged to the cook next door, and swore hoarsely all day long in bad french.
96beside, she was not well; she was not herself, as she told sylvie. the climate of new orleans did not agree with her. sylvie was distressed to learn this, as she felt in some measure responsible for the health and well-being of monsieur miché’s sister; and she made it her duty to inquire closely into the nature and character of athénaïse’s malaise.
sylvie was very wise, and athénaïse was very ignorant. the extent of her ignorance and the depth of her subsequent enlightenment were bewildering. she stayed a long, long time quite still, quite stunned, after her interview with sylvie, except for the short, uneven breathing that ruffled her bosom. her whole being was steeped in a wave of ecstasy. when she finally arose from the chair in which she had been seated, and looked at herself in the mirror, a face met hers which she seemed to see for the first time, so transfigured was it with wonder and rapture.
one mood quickly followed another, in this new turmoil of her senses, and the need of action became uppermost. her mother must know at once, and her mother must tell montéclin. and cazeau must know. as she 97thought of him, the first purely sensuous tremor of her life swept over her. she half whispered his name, and the sound of it brought red blotches into her cheeks. she spoke it over and over, as if it were some new, sweet sound born out of darkness and confusion, and reaching her for the first time. she was impatient to be with him. her whole passionate nature was aroused as if by a miracle.
she seated herself to write to her husband. the letter he would get in the morning, and she would be with him at night. what would he say? how would he act? she knew that he would forgive her, for had he not written a letter?—and a pang of resentment toward montéclin shot through her. what did he mean by withholding that letter? how dared he not have sent it?
athénaïse attired herself for the street, and went out to post the letter which she had penned with a single thought, a spontaneous impulse. it would have seemed incoherent to most people, but cazeau would understand.
she walked along the street as if she had fallen heir to some magnificent inheritance. on her face was a look of pride and satisfaction 98that passers-by noticed and admired. she wanted to talk to some one, to tell some person; and she stopped at the corner and told the oyster-woman, who was irish, and who god-blessed her, and wished prosperity to the race of cazeaus for generations to come. she held the oyster-woman’s fat, dirty little baby in her arms and scanned it curiously and observingly, as if a baby were a phenomenon that she encountered for the first time in life. she even kissed it!
then what a relief it was to athénaïse to walk the streets without dread of being seen and recognized by some chance acquaintance from red river! no one could have said now that she did not know her own mind.
she went directly from the oyster-woman’s to the office of harding & offdean, her husband’s merchants; and it was with such an air of partnership, almost proprietorship, that she demanded a sum of money on her husband’s account, they gave it to her as unhesitatingly as they would have handed it over to cazeau himself. when mr. harding, who knew her, asked politely after her health, she turned so rosy and looked so conscious, he thought it a 99great pity for so pretty a woman to be such a little goose.
athénaïse entered a dry-goods store and bought all manner of things,—little presents for nearly everybody she knew. she bought whole bolts of sheerest, softest, downiest white stuff; and when the clerk, in trying to meet her wishes, asked if she intended it for infant’s use, she could have sunk through the floor, and wondered how he might have suspected it.
as it was montéclin who had taken her away from her husband, she wanted it to be montéclin who should take her back to him. so she wrote him a very curt note,—in fact it was a postal card,—asking that he meet her at the train on the evening following. she felt convinced that after what had gone before, cazeau would await her at their own home; and she preferred it so.
then there was the agreeable excitement of getting ready to leave, of packing up her things. pousette kept coming and going, coming and going; and each time that she quitted the room it was with something that athénaïse had given her,—a handkerchief, a petticoat, a pair of stockings with two tiny 100holes at the toes, some broken prayer-beads, and finally a silver dollar.
next it was sylvie who came along bearing a gift of what she called “a set of pattern’,”—things of complicated design which never could have been obtained in any new-fangled bazaar or pattern-store, that sylvie had acquired of a foreign lady of distinction whom she had nursed years before at the st. charles hotel. athénaïse accepted and handled them with reverence, fully sensible of the great compliment and favor, and laid them religiously away in the trunk which she had lately acquired.
she was greatly fatigued after the day of unusual exertion, and went early to bed and to sleep. all day long she had not once thought of gouvernail, and only did think of him when aroused for a brief instant by the sound of his foot-falls on the gallery, as he passed in going to his room. he had hoped to find her up, waiting for him.
but the next morning he knew. some one must have told him. there was no subject known to her which sylvie hesitated to discuss 101in detail with any man of suitable years and discretion.
athénaïse found gouvernail waiting with a carriage to convey her to the railway station. a momentary pang visited her for having forgotten him so completely, when he said to her, “sylvie tells me you are going away this morning.”
he was kind, attentive, and amiable, as usual, but respected to the utmost the new dignity and reserve that her manner had developed since yesterday. she kept looking from the carriage window, silent, and embarrassed as eve after losing her ignorance. he talked of the muddy streets and the murky morning, and of montéclin. he hoped she would find everything comfortable and pleasant in the country, and trusted she would inform him whenever she came to visit the city again. he talked as if afraid or mistrustful of silence and himself.
at the station she handed him her purse, and he bought her ticket, secured for her a comfortable section, checked her trunk, and got all the bundles and things safely aboard the train. she felt very grateful. he pressed her hand 102warmly, lifted his hat, and left her. he was a man of intelligence, and took defeat gracefully; that was all. but as he made his way back to the carriage, he was thinking, “by heaven, it hurts, it hurts!”
