Ringfield Part 12

"So it seems," said the other drily, and would have continued his lecture had not the two ladies, who had been in the hall laughing and smiling around the bar door, now appeared boldly on the scene, and Ringfield made his escape, not before he had promised to look in that evening during an improvised concert at which Miss Sadie Cordova would dance, and Miss Clairville act and sing.

CHAPTER XIII

A SICK SEIGNEUR

"He sits alone On stormy waters in a little boat That holds but him and can contain no more!"

Meanwhile the house of Clairville was undergoing drastic changes at the hands of Mme. Poussette. The patient, propped up in his ancient and tattered bed, was now strong enough to look at books; many hours he pa.s.sed in this way while madame roamed over the doleful house, setting in order and cleaning as well as she could. Her strength, patience and endurance were remarkable; she could dust, sweep, scrub, hammer, all day long and never experience fatigue; walls were rubbed down, windows opened and washed, furniture drawn forth from dusty armoires and cupboards raked out--and still the work went on, each day bringing to light some dark, unfamiliar nook, some unexplored room or closet. At Poussette's she never worked at all; sensitiveness to strangers and fear of the servants mastered her; at Clairville she worked incessantly, and when her nursing was done, entered upon her labours in this Augean house with steady pa.s.sionless activity.

Clairville was badly pitted and every remnant of good looks had left him, yet on the first day that he could put his feet to the floor he would have sent madame into the front room, saying:--

"Bring me the suit of clothes you will see hanging on a nail in the wall".

She stared at him, knowing his weakness of body better than he knew it himself.

"What for, m'sieu?"

"What for? What are clothes for, idiot of a woman! To put on, to wear. I shall habit myself as a gentleman. Faith--it is time, too!"

"But, m'sieu----!"

"Bring me that suit, I say."

Madame hesitated, because she had removed the suit in question a week before to an old trunk in an empty room--she was not very clear which one--and it would take her some minutes to find it.

"If m'sieu will get back into his bed----"

"I will do nothing so foolish. I was thinking of getting up. I _am_ up and should be holding a levee-- How do you do, my Lord Marquis?--pray enter. M. le Chevalier de Repentigny; open there for my friend, the Intendant! Gentlemen, I greet you. You perceive me at my toilet--but these lackeys are too slow! Fetch me my clothes, I say!

Ah--misery! I cannot stand! I cannot--cannot even sit! Help me to bed, you woman there--help me, quick!"

And madame, instead of running for the suit of Court clothes, managed to lay Henry Clairville down again before he fainted. However, the next day he was slightly stronger and the next and the next, so that on the fifth day he was nearly as well as ever, and again demanding the suit, she went to the room upstairs and hunted for it. Its colour was a faded claret, and lacings of dingy silver appeared on the front and round the stiffened skirt that stood out from the waist--a kind of cut to make even a meagre man look well among his fellows; a three-cornered hat went with it, and into this relic of strenuous days, madame soon a.s.sisted her charge.

"How does it fit?" he inquired anxiously

"It is without doubt large at present for m'sieu, but m'sieu has been ill. After a while it will fit better."

"And how do you think I look in it?" he continued, gazing with fringeless expressionless eyes on her vacant but concerned countenance.

"You see, to meet these gentlemen I must at least try to appear as well as they do. A Sieur de Clairville must guard the appearance at all costs! Where is my sister, Pauline-Archange--why does she not come and a.s.sist me in the entertainment of the Court? Of the Court, do I say?"

Here Clairville drew himself up as well as he could, and winking at his nurse gravely informed her that the most Christian King, Louis of France, being in North America for the good of his health, might call at the manor to see its master at any moment.

"If you will be very secret, my good woman, I will tell you this further, but it must be between us only--His Most Christian Majesty of France is just recovering from the 'Pic'. But do not alarm yourself; I have not been with him much. Fear not, madame, neither for yourself nor me."

Madame clasped her hands and looked upwards; she seemed to be crying, and yet she shed no tears. She knew there was something wrong. _She_ was wrong. The Sieur de Clairville was wrong. The old habit of prayer, fervid, poetic, Catholic prayer, a.s.serted itself and accordingly the mystic rosary of Our Lady returned to her.

"_Priez pour nous, sainte Mere de Dieu. Mere aimable, priez pour nous.

Mere adorable, priez pour nous. Vierge puissante, priez! Vierge fidele, priez pour nous. Rose mysterieuse, priez pour nous. Maison d'or, Etoile du matin, priez pour nous. Sante des infirmes, priez pour nous._"

Henry Clairville listened. Gradually he sank into the chair, and the tears, the slow, painful, smarting tears of weak mind and middle age--coursed down his thin, pitted cheeks. Madame sat down too and sobbed.

"Oh, have I offended you, m'sieu? Why did I pray? What makes us pray at all? Is there One who hears a poor woman like me? But she might hear you, m'sieu, a grand gentleman like you--and so I prayed."

"A grand gentleman! Thank you--madame, thank you," said he, trembling.

"I believe I am that, or I was once. I have been very ill, I see. You must not take any notice if I go a little out of my head; it is nothing; Pauline is well accustomed to it, and so may you be if you remain here long. Only be lively with me, be always lively and pray aloud no more. I do not like these prayers. But why are you here?

Where are my servants--Maman Archambault, Antoine, and the rest?"

"The servants of m'sieu left when m'sieu was taken sick."

"And you are doing their work?"

"As well as I can, m'sieu, when I can leave you. Just a little work I do, to amuse me, keep me from thinking."

Clairville trembled again and could not lift his eyes to this afflicted patient creature.

"I recollect now," he murmured, "you were always a kind woman. It was you who took the child away?"

"It was I, m'sieu."

"Eight years ago, was it not?"

"Nine, m'sieu."

"Nine, then. It was the year of the great snow. Does she--does my sister ever go to see it?"

"I cannot tell, m'sieu. She is not in St. Ignace often, and m'sieu knows that when ma'amselle goes abroad it is to Montreal and to the theatre."

"But you--you know about it, if it lives, if it is well, and has--has its mind?"

"It lives--yes, truly, m'sieu--it is never ill and it has its mind!"

"Mon Dieu!" muttered Henry Clairville. "_That_ has its mind and I--I am sometimes bereft of mine. And you--you----" he pointed to madame, and though innocent and unoffending she quailed before the seigneurial finger. "You even--you woman there--you have not always your mind!

Oh--it is dreadful to think of it! I would be ill again and forget.

Tell me--is there, is there any resemblance? Say no, madame, say no!"

"I never go to Hawthorne, m'sieu, I cannot tell you. But I do not think so. I have never heard. They are nearly all English in that parish; they would not concern themselves much about that--the poor _bebe_, the poor Angele. G.o.d made her too, m'sieu. Perhaps some day she will be taken away by mademoiselle to a place where such children are cared for. That is why Mademoiselle Pauline works so hard at the theatre to make much money."

"She would need to!" burst from Henry Clairville. "What she does with the money she makes I do not know, it never comes this way! I cannot make money. She ought to remember me sometimes, so that I could establish this place afresh, find new servants, for example.

Alas--what shall I do without them?"

He raised his voice and the old peevish tone rang out.

"Be tranquil, m'sieu. It is I--I myself, nursing you, who shall do all that is required."

He sighed heavily, then a sudden fire leapt into his eyes. "Let us see how far I can walk. Open that door, I wish to see if I can cross the hall."