The Halo Part 41

"Anything new to show me, _chere_ Madame Chalumeau?" he asked briskly.

"Yes; some coloured tablecloths, very pretty, at one franc seventy-five--and--some other things. But, Desire, you were saying about living alone--that you thought Josephine would be glad----"

"I did not say she would be glad, Madame Chalumeau. My wife was never _glad_ about anything. I said--in fact, I may as well be quite frank,"

he continued, turning to her, "I am a lonely man, and I am--greatly attracted to you, dear friend. But as I have told you before, I--I cannot quite make up my mind as to whether I should be happier if I married you."

"I could make you very comfortable, Desire, and I, too, am lonely.

Besides, your accounts are very confused, and I could save you much money in that way."

A shrewd woman, this, but greatly mistaken in her methods. A useless, lazy, coquettish woman would have married the man years before, but poor Bathilde's very frankness was her undoing.

"Yes, yes," he returned impatiently, "I know all that, and my affection for you is great. But as to marriage--I cannot yet make up my mind. And in the meantime I must leave you, dear friend, for it is late. A thousand thanks for the delicious breakfast----" and he was gone.

CHAPTER TWO

The tragedy of M. Bouillard's indecision was very real to Madame Chalumeau, but it was also one to which the good woman was thoroughly accustomed. For over three years M. Bouillard had twice yearly, on the fifth of March and the fifth of September, tried to bring himself to make up his mind, but he had always failed, and after his attempts things had continued as before.

Every morning he breakfasted with her, every Sunday and Feast-day he accompanied her to Ma.s.s, and occasionally he took her to drink a gla.s.s of Hydromel at the Cafe du Musee. He was a prosperous man in a small way, and considered attractive by the widows and elderly maidens of Falaise; but no one dreamed of disputing Madame Chalumeau's sway over his heart. In time, Falaise thought, the two excellent people would become one. But time is long.

So Bathilde, that fifth of September, felt a little sad as she worked in her neat little shop. And so it is that Love is a troublesome little vagabond, who ought to have his wings clipped and his bow broken.

There were few customers, for although her wools and silks were of excellent quality, and her baby-linen most practical, the Rue Dessous l'Arche is, after all, not the Rue d'Argentin. A little girl with a bandage round her face came and bought six needles, and a Young Person, whom Madame Chalumeau did not approve, spent several moments selecting a pair of red stockings. Otherwise the shopkeeper's solitude remained undisturbed until towards noon, when the door opened and a short, brown-faced man, carrying a long whip, came in with a good deal of noise, and waked her as she dozed over her knitting.

"_Bonjour_, Thildette! Frightened you, did I?"

"Oh, Colibris, it is you! And what brings you? You will breakfast with me? But I am glad to see you, dear brother? How is Marie?"

"Ta, ta, ta, ta!" laughed M. Colibris, who looked like nothing in the world less than he looked like a humming-bird, "so many questions, my excellent Thildette! Yes, I will breakfast--a cheese omelet, my dear, and a gla.s.s of cider--and Marie is as well as one could expect. Ah, these children, these children! It is a boy, of course. A boy with fists as big as his head."

Madame Chalumeau had risen, and had led her guest through the sitting-room into her immaculate kitchen.

"And you have seen papa and maman?" she asked.

"Yes, I come from there. Papa is much pleased that it is a boy. His eleventh great-grandson! One would think," continued the good man garrulously, "that it was his own son. Maman is looking much better, _pas_?"

"Mama is quite wonderful. But amazing! And the preparations are something splendid. I suppose this new boy will contribute his share to the wedding ring for maman?"

"But certainly. It is lucky there are no more of us men to contribute, or we should have had to have the ring studded with diamonds. A fine sight it will be, Bathilde. Think of papa and mama married at St.

Gervais by the same cure that married them fifty years ago! And twenty grandchildren, to say nothing of their seven children, and counting this boy of my Marie's, sixteen great-grandchildren. Falaise has certainly much to be proud of."

Madame Chalumeau flopped her omelet again, slid it to a platter and set a carafe of cider on the table.

"_La!_ Now eat, Colibris, and tell me more. How is Louis? And Henriette?"

"All well, all well," returned her brother-in-law, who was apparently full of the quality, the name of which is so often abused by English people, _joie-de-vivre_. "Henriette has new upper teeth, and looks ten years younger. Louis is as usual very silent, but otherwise is well. I am curious to see Victor. It was a misfortune, my being away when he was here last. He must have been greatly disappointed. He has always been very fond of me, you will remember. Even as boys, we had much in common."

Madame Chalumeau's eyes twinkled as she nodded. Colibris' harmless vanity always amused her.

"Yes, yes, I know. He inquired very particularly for you. A great man, Victor."

"Yes, yes. I remember once when we were boys a man came who felt the skull and read the character. He said to Victor, 'You have great talent, my little one,' and to me he said, 'You are going to be a very great man, Colibris.' But I did not care to develop my talents. I was always very modest and domestic. The cure at home always says, 'Now, Jacques Colibris--_there's_ a man who is a model husband and father.'" He drank a deep draught of cider.

"They arrive to-morrow," interpolated Madame Chalumeau hastily, with a hunted expression, "Victor and Felicite and Theodore. Also Theo's _fiancee_, an English girl. I have a letter from Victor--I will read it to you."

Taking the letter from her pocket, and ruthlessly interrupting his remarks on the English as viewed by himself, she began to read:

"My dear Sister--On Tuesday we shall arrive, I, my wife, our boy, and his _fiancee_, Lady Brigit Mead. She is a very beautiful and charming young lady, and I am sure you will all admire her. Felicite, who is very wise, fears that she, Lady Brigit, may not care for Falaise, for she is, my dear sister, the daughter of a Count. But I, who am even wiser, know that she will. Dear Falaise, to me always the most beautiful town in the world, who could help loving thee? Now, my good Bathilde, I wish you to go to Berton of the Chevreuil d'Or and engage rooms for Lady Brigit. Two rooms, one without a bed, for a _salon_. Tell him they must be very nice, and you, I know, will see that they are clean. We, of course, will lodge in the Rue Victor Hugo with the old people. My affectionate salutations to you all, my dear sister, from your devoted brother, "Victor."

"He is a charming personality, isn't he, Colibris?" asked Madame Chalumeau, folding the letter and beaming with satisfaction. "I am curious to see this lady. The daughter of a Count, _fichtre_! And very beautiful. That must please Victor; he has an eye for beauty."

"Yes, yes," returned Jacques Colibris absently, filling his gla.s.s with cider, "it is an excellent thing. I, too, have it, the eye for beauty.

Only the other day, looking at the new blue wash I have put on the walls, old Madame Thibaut was saying----"

"What an eye for beauty you have!" cut short Madame Chalumeau ruthlessly. "Well, Jacques, I must now make myself presentable and go to the Rue d'Argentin. Berton will no doubt be very proud to have a lady in his inn--although many English people stop there. It is curious," she added, putting her plate on his and carrying them to a distant table, "what an interest _ces Anglais_ take in le Conquerant. As an enemy, one who conquered their country, one would think they would dislike his memory, but they do not. Very generous of them, I always think."

CHAPTER THREE

Joyselle's party arrived at Falaise the next evening, and leaving Brigit at the inn in the Rue d'Argentin, the others drove on to old M.

Joyselle's house in the Rue Victor Hugo.

Brigit was very tired and glad to rest, for the day's journey had been long, and Joyselle's interest in her interest in his country had taken the form of a restless desire to have her see everything possible from both sides of the compartment. For hours, therefore, she had been springing from one window to another, admiring everything to which he pointed, in a mad attempt to satisfy his pride in _ici-bas_.

Her coming at all had been entirely his idea, and her faint refusals he had laughed to scorn, easily enlisting Theo, and, with a trifle more difficulty, his wife, to his cause.

"Of course you will go with us," he had cried, beaming with joy and tossing Papillon nearly to the ceiling as some outlet for his feelings, "and it will be glorious; and think of the ecstasy of my old people and the rest!"

"Remember, Victor--they are simple people," Felicite had ventured, but he had laughed again.

"And so is she! They are peasants, and she is a great lady. _ca se comprend._ But extremes meet, and Brigit has none of the British middle-cla.s.s sn.o.bbism. It is well that she should see the people from whom we come. She shall go with us."

And she had come.

Things had gone very well of late, and as she lay on her narrow bed resting and waiting for Theo to fetch her, she reviewed the events that had occurred since her great quarrel with Victor, and drew a deep breath of satisfaction at the state of affairs.

She and Joyselle, both of them remembering the horror of the quarrel, had been exceptionally gentle to each other, and as so often happens when a situation is apparently unbearable, it had suddenly become quite smooth and pleasant. Restraining himself from demonstrativeness, Joyselle had been able to keep his emotions well in hand, and the tacit avoidance of _tetes-a-tete_ had also proved most helpful.

Felicite's innocent interpretation of their feelings had gone far, too, towards quieting those feelings almost to her conception of them. There were times, Brigit had seen, not without amus.e.m.e.nt, when Victor had nearly felt for her the paternal solicitude his wife believed him to feel, and even though she smiled at this susceptibility to impression in him, the girl more than once caught herself semi-unconsciously playing the _role_ of youthful hero-worshipper cast for her by the older woman.

The position should have been untenable, but it was not. As yet no remorse had come to Brigit regarding Felicite, although she frequently experienced a pang of self-loathing on meeting Theo's honest and trusting eyes. Her upbringing had been such that she really believed herself to be as yet quite guiltless of anything more than an almost inevitable deceit, and even when she did regret the deceit, the thought that she was going to marry Theo gave her instant comfort, as though she were contemplating some n.o.ble act of atonement.