|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 63
"You are just as cross as you can be, you know?"
"Probably I am; but I have just spent there a few minutes so very
painful."
"I pity you with all my heart," said Julia, dryly.
She threw off her vail in the vestibule, and returned to the parlor.
The Baroness de Pers, who was to leave early the next day, had already
retired. Julia performed some four-handed pieces on the piano with her
mother. Monsieur de Lucan took the place of the "dummy" at the whist
table, and the evening ended quietly.
CHAPTER VII.
VICTORY AND DEFEAT.
The next morning, Clotilde was preparing to accompany her mother to the
station in the carriage; Monsieur de Lucan, detained at the chateau by a
business appointment, was present to take leave of his mother-in-law. He
remarked the thoughtful countenance of the baroness; she was silent, much
against her habit, and she cast embarrassed looks upon him; she approached
him several times with a constrained smile and confidential manner, but
confined herself to addressing to him a few commonplace words. Availing
herself at last of a moment when Clotilde was giving some orders, she
leaned out of the carriage-window, and, pressing significantly Monsieur de
Lucan's hand:
"Be true and faithful to her, sir!" she said.
The carriage started almost immediately, but not before he had had time to
notice that her eyes were filled with tears.
The matter that was engrossing Monsieur de Lucan's attention at the time,
and on the subject of which he had had a long conversation that very
morning with his lawyer and his advocate, who had come over from Caen
during the night, was an old family law-suit which the mayor of Vastville,
an ambitious personage and restless busy-body, had taken pride in bringing
to light again. The question at issue was a claim for some public property
the effect of which would have been to strip Monsieur de Lucan of a
portion of his timbered lands and to curtail materially his patrimonial
estate. He had gained his suit in the lower court, but an appeal was soon
to be heard, and he was not without fears as to the final result. He had
no difficulty in using that pretext, to account during the next few days,
to the eyes of the inhabitants of the chateau, for a severity of
physiognomy, a briefness of language, and a fondness for solitude, which
concealed perhaps graver cares. That pretext, however, soon failed him. A
telegram informed him, early the following week, that the suit had been
finally decided in his favor, and he was compelled to manifest on this
occasion an apparent joy that was far indeed from his heart.
He resumed from that moment the usual routine of family life to which
Julia continued to impart the movement of her active imagination. However,
he ceased to lend himself with the same affectionate familiarity to the
caprices of his step-daughter. She noticed it; but she was not the only
one who did. Lucan detected surprise in the eyes of Monsieur de Moras,
reproaches in those of Clotilde. A new danger appeared before him; he was
acting in a manner which it was equally impossible, equally perilous to
explain or to allow being interpreted.
With time, however, the frightful light that had flashed across his brain
in a recent circumstance was growing gradually fainter; it had ceased to
fill his mind with the same convincing force. He conceived doubts; he
accused himself at times on a veritable aberration; he charged the
baroness with cruel and guilty prejudices; he thought, in a word, that, at
all events, the wisest course was to avoid believing in the drama, and
giving it life by taking a serious part in it. Unfortunately Julia's
disposition, full of surprises and unforeseen whims, scarcely admitted of
any regular plan of conduct toward her.
One beautiful afternoon, the guests of the chateau accompanied by a few of
the neighbors, had gone on a horseback excursion to the extremity of Cape
La Hague. On the return home, and when they had come about half-way,
Julia, who had been remarkably quiet all day, left the principal group of
riders, and, casting aside to Monsieur de Lucan an expressive glance, she
urged her horse slightly forward. He overtook her almost immediately. She
cast upon him again an oblique glance, and abruptly, with her bitterest
and most incisive accent:
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|