For three days longer Natalie would remain under her mother’s influence. So Madame Evangelista, though vanquished, had still a day before her, the last her child would spend with her mother. By a single word the Creole might color the lives of these two beings whose fate it was to walk hand in hand through the thickets and highways of Paris society—for Natalie had a blind belief in her mother. What far-reaching importance would a hint of advice have on a mind thus prepared! The whole future might be modified by a sentence. No code, no human constitution can forefend the moral crime of killing by a word. That is the weak point of social forms of justice. That is where the difference lies between the world of fashion and the people; these are outspoken, those are hypocrites; these snatch the knife, those use the poison of words and suggestions; these are punished with death, those sin with impunity.
At about noon next day, Madame Evangelista was half sitting, half reclining on Natalie’s bed. At this waking hour they were playing and petting each other with fond caresses, recalling the happy memories of their life together, during which no discord had troubled the harmony of their feelings, the agreement of their ideas, or the perfect union of their pleasures.
“Poor dear child,” said the mother, shedding genuine tears, “I cannot bear to think that, after having had your own way all your life, tomorrow evening you will be bound to a man whom you must obey!”
“Oh, my dear mother, as to obeying him!” said Natalie, with a little wilful nod expressive of pretty rebellion. “You laugh!” she went on, “but my father always indulged your fancies. And why? Because he loved you. Shall not I be loved?”
“Yes, Paul is in love with you. But if a married woman is not careful, nothing evaporates so quickly as conjugal affection. The influence a wife may preserve over her husband depends on the first steps in married life, and you will want good advice.”
“But you will be with us.”
“Perhaps, my dear child.—Last evening, during the ball, I very seriously considered the risks of our being together. If my presence were to be disadvantageous to you, if the little details by which you must gradually confirm your authority as a wife should be ascribed to my influence, your home would become a hell. At the first frown on your husband’s brow, should not I, so proud as I am, instantly quit the house? If I am to leave it sooner or later, in my opinion, I had better never enter it. I could not forgive your husband if he disunited us.
“On the other hand, when you are the mistress, when your husband is to you what your father was to me, there will be less fear of any such misfortune. Although such a policy must be painful to a heart so young and tender as yours, it is indispensable for your happiness that you should be the absolute sovereign of your home.”
“Why, then, dear mother, did you say I was to obey him?”
“Dear little girl, to enable a woman to command, she must seem always to do what her husband wishes. If you did not know that, you might wreck your future life by an untimely rebellion. Paul is a weak man; he might come under the influence of a friend, nay, he might fall under the control of a woman, and you would feel the effects of their influence. Forefend such misfortunes by being mistress yourself. Will it not be better that you should govern him than that anyone else should?”
“No doubt,” said Natalie. “I could only aim at his happiness.”
“And it certainly is my part, dear child, to think only of yours, and to endeavor that, in so serious a matter, you should not find yourself without a compass in the midst of the shoals you must navigate.”
“But, my darling mother, are we not both of us firm enough to remain together under his roof without provoking the frowns you seem so much to dread? Paul is fond of you, mamma.”
“Oh, he fears me more than he loves me. Watch him narrowly today when I tell him I shall leave you to go to Paris without me, and, however carefully he may try to conceal his feelings, you will see his secret satisfaction in his face.”
“But why?” said Natalie.
“Why, my child? I am like Saint John Chrysostom—I will tell him why, and before you.”
“But since I am marrying him on the express condition that you and I are not to part?” said Natalie.
“Our separation has become necessary,” Madame Evangelista replied. “Several considerations affect my future prospects. I am very poor. You will have a splendid life in Paris; I could not live with you suitably without exhausting the little possessions that remain to me; whereas, by living at Lanstrac, I can take care of your interests and reconstitute my own fortune by economy.”
“You, mother! you economize?” cried Natalie, laughing. “Come, do not be a grandmother yet.—What, would you part from me for such a reason as that?—Dear mother, Paul may seem to you just a little stupid, but at least he is perfectly disinterested—”
“Well,” replied Madame Evangelista, in a tone big with comment, which made Natalie’s heart beat, “the discussion of the contract had made me suspicious and suggested some doubts to my mind.—But do not be uneasy, dearest child,” she went on, putting her arm round the girl’s neck and clasping her closely, “I will not leave you alone for long. When my return to you can give him no umbrage, when Paul has learned to judge me truly, we will go back to our snug little
