第37章 ALMOST A LADY(2)

At the time when the Duc de Bourbon came upon her in the Piccadilly stew the girl was probably no more than eighteen.If one may judge her character from the events of her subsequent career there was an outstanding resiliency and a resoluteness as main ingredients of her make- up, qualities which would go a long way to obviating any marks that might otherwise have been left on her by the ups and downs of a mere five years in the world.If, moreover, Mme Montagu's description of her is a true one it is clear that Sophie's good looks were not of the sort to make an all- round appeal.The ways in which attractiveness goes, both in men and in women, are infinite in their variety.The reader may recall, in this respect, what was said in the introductory chapter about Kate Webster and the instance of the bewhiskered 'Fina of the Spanish tavern.And since a look of innocence and the bloom of youth may, and very often do, appear on the faces of individuals who are far from being innocent or even young,it may well be that Sophie in 1810, servant-maid in a brothel though she was, still kept a look of country freshness and health, unjaded enough to whet the dulled appetence of a bagnio-haunting old rip.The odds are, at all events, that Sophie was much less artificial in her charms than the practised ladies of complacency upon whom she attended.With her odd good looks she very likely had just that subacid leaven for which, in the alchemy of attraction, the Duc was in search.

The Duc, however, was not the only one to whom Sophie looked desirable.Two English peers had an eye on her--the Earl of Winchilsea and the Duke of Kent.This is where the card affair comes in.The Duc either played whist with the two noblemen for sole rights in Sophie or, what is more likely, cut cards with them during a game.The Duc won.Whether his win may be regarded as lucky or not can be reckoned, according to the taste and fancy of the reader, from the sequelae of some twenty years.

With the placing of Sophie dans ses meubles by the Duc de Bourbon there began one of the most remarkable turns in her career.In 1811 he took a house for her in Gloucester Street, Queen's Square, with her mother as duenna, and arranged for the completion of her education.

As a light on her character hardly too much can be made of this stage in her development.It is more than likely that the teaching was begun at Sophie's own demand, and by the use she made of the opportunities given her you may measure the strength of her ambition.Here was no rich man's doxy lazily seeking a veneer of culture, enough to gloss the rough patches of speech and idea betraying humble origin.This fisherman's child, workhouse girl, ancilla of the bordels, with the thin smattering of the three R's she had acquired in the poor institution, set herself, with a wholehearted concentration which a Newnham `swot' might envy, to master modern languages, with Greek, Latin, and music.At the end of three years she was a good linguist, could play and sing well enough to entertain and not bore the most intelligent in the company the Duc kept, and to pass in that company --the French emigre set in London--as aperson of equal education.If, as it is said, Sophie, while she could read and write French faultlessly, never could speak it without an English accent, it is to be remembered that the flexibility of tongue and mind needed for native-sounding speech in French (or any other language) is so exceptional as to be practically non-existent among her compatriots to this day.The fault scarcely belittles her achievement.As well blame a one- legged man for hopping when trying to run.Consider the life Sophie had led, the sort of people with whom she had associated, and that temptation towards laissez-faire which conquers all but the rarest woman in the mode of life in which she was existing, and judge of the constancy of purpose that kept that little nose so steadfastly in Plutarch and Xenophon.

If in the year 1812 the Duc began to allow his little Sophie about L800 a year in francs as pin-money he was no more generous than Sophie deserved.The Duc was very rich, despite the fact that his father, the old Prince de Conde, was still alive, and so, of course, was enjoying the income from the family estates.

There is no room here to follow more than the barest outline of the Duc de Bourbon's history.Fully stated, it would be the history of France.He was a son of the Prince de Conde who collected that futile army beyond the borders of France in the royalist cause in the Revolution.Louis-Henri was wounded in the left arm while serving there, so badly wounded that the hand was practically useless.He came to England, where he lived until 1814, when he went back to France to make his unsuccessful attempt to raise the Vendee.Then he went to Spain.

At this time he intended breaking with Sophie, but when he got back to Paris in 1815 he found the lady waiting for him.It took Sophie some eighteen months to bring his Highness up to scratch again.During this time the Duc had another English fancy, a Miss Harris, whose reign in favour, however, did not withstand the manoeuvring of Sophie.

Sophie as a mistress in England was one thing, but Sophie unattached as a mistress in France was another.One wonders why the Duc should have been squeamish on this point.Perhaps it was that he thought it would look vulgar to take up a former mistress after so long.At all events, he was ready enough to resume the old relationship with Sophie,provided she could change her name by marriage.Sophie was nothing loth.The idea fell in with her plans.She let it get about that she was the natural daughter of the Duc, and soon had in tow one Adrien-Victor de Feucheres.He was an officer of the Royal Guard.Without enlarging on the all-round tawdriness of this contract it will suffice here to say that Sophie and Adrien were married in London in August of 1818, the Duc presenting the bride with a dowry of about L5600 in francs.Next year de Feucheres became a baron, and was made aide-de-camp to the Duc.