第26章

"We then agreed as to what I was to do that evening at Honorine's house,whither I presently returned.It was now August;the day had been hot and stormy,but the storm hung overhead,the sky was like copper;the scent of the flowers was heavy,I felt as if I were in an oven,and caught myself wishing that the Countess might have set out for the Indies;but she was sitting on a wooden bench shaped like a sofa,under an arbor,in a loose dress of white muslin fastened with blue bows,her hair unadorned in waving bands over her cheeks,her feet on a small wooden stool,and showing a little way beyond her skirt.She did not rise;she showed me with her hand to the seat by her side,saying:

"'Now,is not life at a deadlock for me?'

"'Life as you have made it,I replied.'But not the life I propose to make for you;for,if you choose,you may be very happy.'

"'How?'said she;her whole person was a question.

"'Your letter is in the Count's hands.'

"Honorine started like a frightened doe,sprang to a few paces off,walked down the garden,turned about,remained standing for some minutes,and finally went in to sit alone in the drawing-room,where Ijoined her,after giving her time to get accustomed to the pain of this poniard thrust.

"'You--a friend?Say rather a traitor!A spy,perhaps,sent by my husband.'

"Instinct in women is as strong as the perspicacity of great men.

"'You wanted an answer to your letter,did you not?And there was but one man in the world who could write it.You must read the reply,my dear Countess;and if after reading it you still find that your life is a deadlock,the spy will prove himself a friend;I will place you in a convent whence the Count's power cannot drag you.But,before going there,let us consider the other side of the question.There is a law,alike divine and human,which even hatred affects to obey,and which commands us not to condemn the accused without hearing his defence.Till now you have passed condemnation,as children do,with your ears stopped.The devotion of seven years has its claims.So you must read the answer your husband will send you.I have forwarded to him,through my uncle,a copy of your letter,and my uncle asked him what his reply would be if his wife wrote him a letter in such terms.

Thus you are not compromised.He will himself bring the Count's answer.In the presence of that saintly man,and in mine,out of respect for your own dignity,you must read it,or you will be no better than a wilful,passionate child.You must make this sacrifice to the world,to the law,and to God.'

"As she saw in this concession no attack on her womanly resolve,she consented.All the labor or four or five months had been building up to this moment.But do not the Pyramids end in a point on which a bird may perch?The Count had set all his hopes on this supreme instant,and he had reached it.

"In all my life I remember nothing more formidable than my uncle's entrance into that little Pompadour drawing-room,at ten that evening.

The fine head,with its silver hair thrown into relief by the entirely black dress,and the divinely calm face,had a magical effect on the Comtesse Honorine;she had the feeling of cool balm on her wounds,and beamed in the reflection of that virtue which gave light without knowing it.

"'Monsieur the Cure of the White Friars,'said old Gobain.

"'Are you come,uncle,with a message of happiness and peace?'said I.

"'Happiness and peace are always to be found in obedience to the precepts of the Church,'replied my uncle,and he handed the Countess the following letter:--"'MY DEAR HONORINE,--

"'If you had but done me the favor of trusting me,if you had read the letter I wrote to you five years since,you would have spared yourself five years of useless labor,and of privations which have grieved me deeply.In it I proposed an arrangement of which the stipulations will relieve all your fears,and make our domestic life possible.I have much to reproach myself with,and in seven years of sorrow I have discovered all my errors.I misunderstood marriage.Ifailed to scent danger when it threatened you.An angel was in the house.The Lord bid me guard it well!The Lord has punished me for my audacious confidence.

"'You cannot give yourself a single lash without striking me.Have mercy on me,my dear Honorine.I so fully appreciated your susceptibilities that I would not bring you back to the old house in the Rue Payenne,where I can live without you,but which I could not bear to see again with you.I am decorating,with great pleasure,another house,in the Faubourg Saint-Honore,to which,in hope,Iconduct not a wife whom I owe to her ignorance of life,and secured to me by law,but a sister who will allow me to press on her brow such a kiss as a father gives the daughter he blesses every day.

"'Will you bereave me of the right I have conquered from your despair --that of watching more closely over your needs,your pleasures,your life even?Women have one heart always on their side,always abounding in excuses--their mother's;you never knew any mother but my mother,who would have brought you back to me.But how is it that you never guessed that I had for you the heart of a mother,both of my mother and of your own?Yes,dear,my affection is neither mean nor grasping;it is one of those which will never let any annoyance last long enough to pucker the brow of the child it worships.What can you think of the companion of your childhood,Honorine,if you believe him capable of accepting kisses given in trembling,of living between delight and anxiety?Do not fear that you will be exposed to the laments of a suppliant passion;I would not want you back until I felt certain of my own strength to leave you in perfect freedom.