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Page 50
"Come, Pylades, speak to me of Orestes!" she would say.
After having spent the whole winter season and part of the spring in
Italy, Monsieur and Madame de Moras visited Switzerland, announcing their
intention of sojourning there until the middle of summer. The thought
occurred to Monsieur and Madame de Lucan to go and join them there, and
thus abruptly bring about a reconciliation that seemed henceforth to be
but a mere matter of form. Clotilde was preparing to submit that project
to her daughter when she received, one beautiful May morning, the
following letter dated from Paris:
"BELOVED MOTHER:--'No more Switzerland!' too much Switzerland! Here I am;
don't disturb yourself. I know how much you are enjoying yourself at
Vastville. We'll go and join you there one of these fine mornings, and
we'll all come home together in the autumn. I only ask of you a few days
to look after our future establishment here.
"We are at the Grand Hotel. I did not choose to stop at your house, for
all sorts of reasons, nor at my grandmother's, who, however, insisted very
kindly upon our doing so:
"'Oh! mon Dieu! my dear children--that must not be--in a hotel! why, that
is not proper. You cannot remain in a hotel! come and stay with me. mon
Dieu! you'll be very uncomfortable. You'll be camping out, as it were. I
don't even know how I'll manage to give you anything to eat, for my cook
is sick abed, and that stupid coachman of mine, by the way, has a stye on
his eye! But why not let people know you were coming? You fall upon me
like two flower-pots from a window! It's incredible! You are in good
health, my friend? I need not ask you. It shows plainly enough. And you,
my beautiful pet? Why! it is the sun; the sun itself. Hide yourself--you
are dazzling my eyes! Have you any luggage? Well, we'll just put it in the
parlor; it can't be helped. And as to yourselves, I'll give you my own
room. I'll engage a housekeeper and hire a driver from some livery stable.
You'll not be in my way at all, not at all, not at all!'
"In short, we did not accept.
"But the explanation of this sudden return! Here it is:
"'Are you not tired of Switzerland, my dear?' I asked of my husband.
"'I am tired of Switzerland,' replied that faithful echo.
"'Suppose we go away, then?'
"And away we went.
"Glad and moved to the bottom of my soul at the thought of soon kissing
you,
JULIA.
"P.S.--I beg Monsieur de Lucan not to intimidate me."
The days that followed were delightfully busy for Clotilde. She herself
unpacked the parcels that constantly kept coming, and put the contents
away with her own maternal hands. She unfolded and folded again, she
caressed those skirts, those waists of fine and perfumed linen, which were
already to her like a part of her daughter's person. Lucan, a little
jealous, surprised her meditating lovingly over these pretty things. She
went to the stables to see Julia's horse, which had followed soon after
the boxes; she gave him lumps of sugar and chatted with him. She filled
with flowers and verdant foliage the apartments set apart for the young
couple.
This fever of happiness soon came to its happy termination. About a week
after her arrival in Paris, Julia wrote to her mother that they expected,
her husband and herself, to leave that evening, and that they would be in
Cherbourg the next morning. Clotilde prepared, of course, to go and meet
them with her carriage. Monsieur de Lucan, after duly conferring with her
on the subject, thought best not to accompany her. He feared that he might
interfere with the first emotions of the return, and yet, not wishing that
Julia should attribute his absence to a lack of attention, he resolved to
go and meet the travelers on horseback.
CHAPTER V.
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