withhold nothing from his friend.
Duhamel's face grew dark as the young man spoke, and his eyes became sad and very thoughtful.
'Alas!' he sighed, when La Boulaye had ended. 'What shall I say to you, my friend? The time is not yet for such as we—you and I—to speak of love for a daughter of the Seigneurie. It is coming, I doubt it not. All things have their climax, and France is tending swiftly to the climax of her serfdom. Very soon we shall have the crisis, this fire that is already smouldering, will leap into a great blaze, that shall lick the old regime as completely from the face of history as though it had never been. A new condition of things will spring up, of that I am convinced. Does not history afford us many instances? And what is history but the repetition of events under similar circumstances with different peoples. It will come in France, and it will come soon, for it is very direly needed.'
'I know, I know, old master,' broke in La Boulaye; 'but how shall all this help me? For all that I have the welfare of France at heart, it weighs little with me at the moment by comparison with my own affairs. What am I to do, Duhamel? How am I to take payment for this?' And he pressed his finger to his seared cheek.
'Wait,' said the old man impressively. 'That is the moral you might have drawn from what I have said. Be patient. I promise you your patience shall not be overtaxed. To-day they say that you presume; that you are not one of them—although, by my soul, you have as good an air as any nobleman in France.' And he eyed the lean height of the secretary with a glance of such pride as a father might take in a well-grown son.
Elegant of figure, La Boulaye was no less elegant in dress, for all that, from head to foot—saving the silver buckles on his shoes and the unpretentious lace at throat and wrists—he was dressed in the black that his office demanded. His countenance, too, though cast in a mould of thoughtfulness that bordered on the melancholy, bore a lofty stamp that might have passed for birth and breeding, and this was enhanced by the careful dressing of his black unpowdered hair, gathered into a club by a broad ribbon of black silk.
'But what shall waiting avail me?' cried the young man, with some impatience. 'What am I to do in the meantime?'
'Go to Amiens,' said the other. 'You have learning, you have eloquence, you have a presence and an excellent address. For success no better attributes could be yours.' He approached the secretary, and instinctively lowered his voice. 'We have a little club there—a sort of succursal to the Jacobins. We are numerous, but we have no very shining member yet. Come with me, and I will nominate you. Beginning thus, I promise you that you shall presently become a man of prominence in Picardy. Anon we may send you to Paris to represent us in the States- General. Then, when the change comes, who shall say to what heights it may not be yours to leap?'
'I will think of it,' answered La Boulaye cordially, 'and not a doubt of it but that I will come. I did not know that you had gone so far—'
'Sh! You know now. Let that suffice. It is not good to talk of these things just yet.'
'But in the meantime,' La Boulaye persisted, 'what of this?' And again he pointed to his cheek.
'Why, let it heal, boy.'
'I promised the Marquis that I would demand satisfaction of his son, and I am tempted to do so and risk the consequences.'
'I am afraid the consequences will be the only satisfaction that you will get. In fact, they will be anticipations rather than consequences, for they'll never let you near the boy.'
'I know not that,' he answered. 'The lad is more generous than his sire, and if I were to send him word that I have been affronted, he might consent to meet me. For the rest, I could kill him blindfolded,' he added, with a shrug.
'Bloodthirsty animal!' rejoined Duhamel. 'Unnatural tutor! Do you forget that you were the boy's preceptor?'
With that Duhamel carried the argument into new fields, and showed La Boulaye that to avenge upon the young Vicomte the insults received at the hands of the old Marquis was hardly a worthy method of taking vengeance. At last he won him to his way, and it was settled that on the morrow La Boulaye should journey with him to Amiens.
'But, Caron, we are forgetting our friend Charlot and his bride,' he broke off suddenly. 'Come, boy; the ceremony will be at an end by this.'
He took La Boulaye by the arm, and led him out and down the street to the open space opposite St. Ildefonse. The wedding-party was streaming out through the door of the little church into the warm sunshine of that April morning. In the churchyard they formed into a procession of happy be-ribboned and nosegayed men and women—the young preceding, the old following, the bridal couple. Two by two they came, and the air rang with their laughter and joyous chatter. Then another sound arose, and if the secretary and the pedagogue could have guessed of what that beating of hoofs was to be the prelude, they had scarce smiled so easily as they watched the approaching cortege.
From a side street there now emerged a gaily apparelled cavalcade. At its head rode the Marquis de Bellecour, the Vicomte, and a half-dozen other gentlemen, followed by, perhaps, a dozen lacqueys. It was a hunting party that was making its way across the village to the open country beyond. The bridal procession crossing their path caused them to draw rein, and to wait until it should have passed—which argued a very condescending humour, for it would not have been out of keeping with their habits to have ridden headlong through it. Their presence cast a restraint upon the peasants. The jests were silenced, the laughter hushed, and like a flight of pigeons under the eye of the hawk, they scurried past the Seigneurie, and some of them prayed God that they might be suffered to pass indeed.
Bellecour eyed them in cold disdain, until presently Charlot and his bride were abreast of him. Then his eye seemed to take life and his sallow face to kindle into expression. He leant lightly from the saddle.
'Stay!' he commanded coldly, and as they came to a halt, daring not to disobey him—'approach, girl,' he added.
Charlot's brows grew black. He looked up at the Marquis, but if his glance was sullen and threatening, it was also not free from fear. Marie obeyed, with eyes downcast and a heightened colour. If she conjectured at all why they had been stopped, it was but to conclude that M. le Marquis was about to offer her some mark of appreciation. Uneasiness, in her dear innocence, she knew none.
'What is your name, child?' inquired the Marquis more gently.
'It was Marie Michelin, Monseigneur,' she made answer timidly. 'But it has just been changed to Marie Tardivet.'
'You have just been wed, eh?'
'We are on our way from church, Monseigneur.'
'C'est ca,' he murmured, as if to himself, and his eyes taking such stock of her as made Charlot burn to tear him from his horse. Then, in a kindly, fatherly voice, he added: 'My felicitations, Marie; may you be a happy wife and a happier mother.'
'Merci, Monseigneur,' she murmured, with crimson cheeks, whilst Charlot breathed once more, and from his heart gave thanks to Heaven, believing the interview at an end. But he went too fast.
'Do you know, Marie, that you are a very comely child?' quoth the Marquis, in tones which made the bridegroom's blood run cold.
Some in that noble company nudged one another, and one there was who burst into a loud guffaw.
'Charlot has often told me so,' she laughed, all unsuspicious.
The Marquis moved on his horse that he might bend lower. With his forefinger he uptilted her chin, and now, as she met his glance thus at close quarters, an unaccountable fear took possession of her, and the colour died out of her plump cheeks.
'Yes,' said Bellecour, with a smile, 'this Tardivet has good taste. My congratulations, to him. We must find you a wedding gift, little woman,' he continued more briskly. 'It is an ancient and honoured custom that is falling somewhat into neglect. Go up to the Chateau with Blaise and Jean there. This good Tardivet must curb his impatience until to-morrow.'
He turned in his saddle, and beckoning the two servants he had named, he bade Marie to mount behind Blaise.
She drew back now, her cheeks white as those of the dead. With a wild terror in her eyes she turned to Charlot, who stood the very picture of anguish and impotent rage. In the cortege, where but a few moments ago all had been laughter, a sob or two sounded now from some of the women.
