A Rich Man's Relatives Volume II Part 11

CHAPTER X.

ANNETTE.

"Poor Pierre!" was the natural burden of the conversation round the Misses Stanley's supper table that night.

"Did not think it was in him," said Considine. "A quiet, fat, soft-eyed, soft-spoken boy--just like some of my mulatto table-n.i.g.g.e.rs at home, in the old time. Never struck me there was man in him at all."

"He struck out splendidly," cried Gerald. "Straight from the shoulder--just one almighty drive, and the rowdy fell in his tracks--felled like an ox--without a struggle. Hope, for Pierre's sake, he has not killed him. He had not moved up to the time we left the ground. There could not have been a prettier stroke. We must not let him get into trouble about it. It would have gone roughly with me if he had not run in just then. One on either side, and I dared not hit out at the one, for laying myself open to the other."

"You did very well, Gerald. Your own man was not at all badly floored, though he recovered more quickly than the other. 'Pon honour, I felt my old blood warming at sight of the fray. I should have been at your side in another instant, when I saw that ruffian get on his feet again, with musket clubbed--walking stick, I should say--a rather ridiculous object, I fear; but the old war-horse, you know"--and he turned to Matilda as if he had made a happy quotation from the poets, and she responded with an approving smile as in duty bound--"p.r.i.c.ks up his ears at the noise of battle. However, the policeman appeared, and saved me from making a show of myself. That is one of the troubles of getting old. A man is more likely to get laughed at for showing his mettle than admired."

"n.o.body would have laughed, Mr. Considine," said Matilda. "It was kind of you to mean it. But about Pierre. I can think of nothing but poor Pierre being taken up for trying to protect Muriel from a gang of ruffians. How came he to be there? He might have dropped from the clouds, I was so surprised."

"There were some beef cattle at the farm," said Miss Penelope. "Pierre drove them into town. He was here in the afternoon. I gave him money to stay in town overnight and go home by the cars to-morrow. So that is explained."

"Mr. Considine, may we commission you to engage the very best advice for Pierre?" said Matilda. "Being our servant we should feel bound to help him out of a difficulty in any case; but when he was a.s.sisting to protect Muriel, we must do more still. Spare no expense. See Mr.

Jordan, or whomever you think the best. We would have sent word to Mr.

Jordan by Randolph to act for us, but Randolph has not come back here.

He will have walked home with Miss Rouget, I dare say. They seemed to enjoy each other's company immensely, which rather surprised me.

Adeline is a nice girl, but rather inanimate, and Randolph is a lazy fellow, who prefers to sit still and let a lady amuse him. So they struck me, when they went off together, as being not a well-a.s.sorted pair, and yet they seemed to hit it off together uncommonly well. In fact, I have quite come to the conclusion that in such cases one never knows."

"Jean Bruneau will be anxious about his boy if he does not get home by to-morrow evening," said Penelope; "but how to send him word? I need not write, for he never goes to the post-office, and a letter to him would lie there till the postmaster happened to see him in the village. Telegraphing is the same; the message might lie a week at the post-office."

"We are going home to-morrow, Betsey and I," said Mrs. Bunce. "Can we a.s.sist you, Miss Stanley?"

"Indeed you can, Mrs. Bunce; if it is not too much trouble. If you would walk out to Bruneau's cottage and explain to them the detention of their boy. Tell them how well he has behaved, how indebted we feel to him, and how willingly we will go to every expense to send him home as soon as possible. You will indeed do us a favour. We will write you to-morrow, after Mr. Considine has spoken to the magistrate, so as to give the very latest news."

The Rev. Dionysius had eaten his morning rasher, and was consuming his second plateful of buckwheat cakes and maple syrup--there is nothing like a copious breakfast for enabling one to resist the cold--and was basking in his regained domesticity. He had been dwelling alone for three or four weeks, and though at first he had plunged with enthusiasm into his books, secure of freedom from interruption, he soon found the unbroken stillness grow oppressive. He wanted to speak, but there was no one to listen. He had felt himself, like the psalmist's solitary sparrow on the housetop, desolate and forlorn, and now he enjoyed even his wife's wordy narrations with a zest which surprised himself as much as it gratified her.

She was pouring forth a continuous stream of ecclesiastical t.i.ttle tattle, about curates, choirs, congregations and preferments, which would have been idle talk and a sinful waste of time in her serious eyes if it had related to politics or the public offices, but seeing it was not the State which it remotely touched on, but the Church, she believed it both important and improving; for with her, Church, like charity, covered anything, and trans.m.u.ted even back-biting into holiness.

Dionysius listened and ate his cakes. Human speech of any sort was much, after three whole weeks of silence, broken only by the heavy foot of his domestic, or the clatter of delf-breaking in the kitchen.

Judith, again, was a good woman, he knew, and it was his duty to bear with her infirmities--and bear up under them, too, at times, which was a heavier task. Perhaps she was not in all respects as much to be admired and respected as he had persuaded himself when he married her, but at least he knew that she admired and respected _him_, which was much more important, and very soothing.

Miss Betsey had breakfasted, and being in haste to divulge her experiences of travel, gaiety, and _beaux_, had walked along the village street to the post-office in hopes of meeting a gossip. She now returned with the family letters.

"Here you are, uncle! Four letters for you, and one of them registered--that means money. And here is one for you, auntie; everybody is in luck but me."

"Did you expect a letter, my dear?"

"Well--yes, I kind of thought I should have heard;" and her colour deepened. Two nights before she had striven so hard to impress her address on the memory of her cavalier of the tobogganing. They had parted such good friends--on her side at least--that she had been promising herself a letter from him all the day before. It would come, however, sooner or later, she told herself, and thereby found strength to possess her soul in patience.

"My letter is from Penelope Stanley," said Mrs. Bunce. "Dionysius, can you drive me out to the Miss Stanley's place, in the cutter[1] to-day?

She asked me to deliver a message to their man, and he should get it to-day."

"I was not going in that direction to-day, but it does not matter. I will take you; but you must arrange either to stay a few minutes only, or else to wait a few hours, as I have an appointment elsewhere."

"Here is Bruneau's wife coming down the hill, auntie; carrying a fat goose and a pair of ducks. Be sure you make a trade with her for the ducks; I believe in roast duck."

"A _brace_ of ducks, my dear,"

"A pair of ducks, uncle. They're farmyard ducks. Think I went to Ellora Female College for nothing?"

"Call her in, Betsey, and let us take your erudition for granted."

"She won't come, auntie. Remember we're heretics. She wouldn't let herself be seen coming into a Protestant parson's house."

"Oh, yes, she will, if you ask her the price of her ducks. Money can do anything."

Annette Bruneau was called in as she pa.s.sed; and came, looking distrustfully to light and left. The parson beat a retreat, which augmented her confidence somewhat, but still she seemed not much at her ease. A question as to the price of ducks, however, rea.s.sured her.

Ducks were food for Christians, and it was the souls of men and the flesh of little children on which the nameless person she dreaded to see was believed to subsist. What price for the ducks? Oh, yes, she was herself at once, and did a very fair stroke of business, too, extracting some twelve or twenty cents more from the misbelievers than she would have had the a.s.surance to ask from the storekeeper for whom they had been destined.

"I have a letter from Miss Stanley this morning," said Mrs. Bunce.

"_Ah oui, madame?_ I hope she goes well."

"She is so pleased with your boy Pierre. Feels really indebted to him, and says he has behaved so well."

"But yes, madame? And is it upon the affairs of Mees Stanlee zat he is not of the return?"

"He was taken up by the police. He behaved--oh! remarkably well. Miss Stanley feels under the greatest obligations to him, and will do her very utmost to have him well defended and brought off."

"Police, madame? My Pierre _chez_ ze police!--_a la prison?_ But vy?

Is it as he have _ca.s.se la tete de personne?_ Ah! _le pauvre garcon_,"

and she wiped her eyes.

"I feel deeply indebted to him myself--under the very greatest obligations--which will console you, I hope. Mr. Bunce has many friends in town, and I shall make him use his influence with them; so calm yourself, my poor woman. I owe it to your boy and also to myself to console you. Take comfort. Your son has behaved extremely well.

Indeed, he has shown himself a fine manly youth; you may be proud of him, you may indeed, Mrs. Bruneau; and who knows but his arrest--the man he knocked down was still unconscious when Miss Stanley wrote. The inquiry was adjourned yesterday in case it should involve a charge of manslaughter. He must have struck a fearful blow!"

"Manslaughter? Meurtre, _a.s.sa.s.sinat?_ In_croyable!_--_My_ Pierre?" The tears ran down her quivering face, and she clasped her hands. "But perhaps I do not _comprend_, ze English is _dificille_. Say it again."

"Be comforted, my poor woman?" and Judith wiped her own eyes--she was sympathetic and even kind, after a sort, notwithstanding her absurdity. "We must submit, you know, to the dispensations of Providence; and who knows but, after all, your son's confinement may prove a precious blessing in disguise. He may have opportunities of coming in contact with the truth there. The jail chaplain is an admirable man, and I am sure will do his utmost to bring him to an appreciation of doctrinal truth, especially if Mr. Bunce were to write to him, as I shall see that he does. With a blessing that might induce the sweetest uses of adversity, as the hymn says--though, to be sure, you cannot be expected to understand that just yet--and when I come to think of it, the lad will be confined in the police cells at present, not the jail. However, I shall always feel bound to say a good word for your son, after his manly a.s.sistance to my nephew; and Gerald's father--Mr. Herkimer, you know--is bound to exert himself, and he has a great deal of influence. No; there can nothing happen to your son worse than a short detention. Keep up your heart, my friend," and she patted her gingerly on the shoulder.

"But I do not _comprend_, madame; you say Mistaire Herkimaire and M.

Gerald--I know him--vat say you of dem?"

"Why, you know--but, to be sure, you don't know, I have not had time to tell you anything yet. These interruptions make it so difficult for me to tell my story. You must know that two nights ago Mr. Gerald, my nephew, was attacked by a number of ruffians, and your son came gallantly to his a.s.sistance, and helped him to beat them off."

"Ah! mon brave. Ze good Pierre!"

"And one of the roughs seems to have been hurt; he was taken to the hospital, and is still unconscious. The police interfered, and I suppose it was necessary to make arrests. The roughs made their escape; it was proper to take some one into custody, so they took your son to found a prosecution upon, as I am told the proceedings they mean to inst.i.tute are called. They will found their prosecution, and then the truth will be found out--you see? Ingenious, is it not? and I have no hesitation in saying your son will he honourably acquitted; acquitted and, perhaps, even complimented by the bench. Think of that.

What an honour!"