His dinner dress set him off to a fine advantage. It was much in the old French fashion--the long waistcoat of flowered satin and velvet with its jeweled b.u.t.tons; the ruffled shirt front, the high stock, the lace cuffs about the hand, the silken small clothes and stockings. And when he was dressed in furs with fringed deerskin leggings and a beaver cap above the waving brown hair, with his snowy beard and pink cheeks, and his blue eyes, he was a goodly picture as well.
The priest"s house was easily found. The streets were full of people in the early evening, for in this pleasant weather it was much more refreshing out of door than in. The smells of furs and skins lingered in the atmosphere, and a few days of good strong wind was a G.o.dsend. The doorways were full, women caressing their babies and chanting low lullabies; while elsewhere a pretty young girl hung over the lower half of the door and laughed with an admirer while her mother sat drowsing just within.
A tidy old woman, in coif and white ap.r.o.n over her black gown, bowed her head as she answered his question. The good father was in. Would the stranger walk this way?
Pere Rameau was crossing the hall. In the dim light, a stone basin holding oil after the fashion of a Greek lamp, the wick floating on top, the priest glanced up at his visitor. Both had pa.s.sed each other in the street and hardly needed an introduction.
"I hope I have not disturbed you in any way," began M. St. Armand in an attractive tone that gained a listener at once. "I have come to talk over a matter that has a curious interest for me, and I am told you have the key, if not to the mystery exactly, to some of the links. I hope you will not consider me intrusive."
"I shall be glad to give you any information that is possible. I am not a politician, Monsieur, and have been trained not to speak evil of those appointed to rule over us."
He was a tall, spare man with a face that even in the wrinkles and thinness of age, and perhaps a little asceticism, was sweet and calm, and the brown eyes were soft, entreating. Clean shaven, the chin showed narrow, but the mouth redeemed it. He wore the black ca.s.sock of the Recollets, the waist girded by a cord from which was suspended a cross and a book of devotions.
"Then if it is a serious talk, come hither. There may be a little smoke in the air--"
"I am a smoker myself," said St. Armand cordially.
"Then you may not object to a pipe. I have some most excellent tobacco.
I bethink me sometimes that it is not a habit of self-sacrifice, but the fragrance is delightful and it soothes the nerves."
The room was rather long, and somewhat narrow. At the far end there was a small altar and a _prie dieu_. A candle was burning and its light defined the ivory crucifix above. In the corner a curtained something that might be a confessional. Indeed, not a few startling confessions had been breathed there. An escritoire with some shelves above, curiously carved, that bespoke its journey across the sea, took a great wall s.p.a.ce and seemed almost to divide the room. The window in the front end was quite wide, and the shutters were thrown open for air, though a coa.r.s.e curtain fell in straight folds from the top. Here was a commodious desk accommodating papers and books, a small table with pipes and tobacco, two wooden chairs and a more comfortable one which the priest proffered to the guest.
"Shall we have a light? Marcel, bring a candle."
"Nay," protested the visitor, "I enjoy this dimness. One seems more inclined to talk, though I think I have heard a most excellent reason educed for such a course;" and a mirthful twinkle shone in his eyes.
The priest laughed softly. "It is hardly applicable here. I sat thinking. The sun has been so brilliant for days that the night brings comfort. You are a stranger here, Monsieur?"
"Yes, though it is not my first visit to Detroit. I have gone from New York to Michilimackinac several times, to Montreal, Quebec, to France and back, though I was born there. I am the guest of Monsieur Fleury."
The priest made an approving inclination of the head.
"One sees many strange things. You have a conglomerate, Pere Rameau. And now a new--shall I say ruler?"
"That is the word, Monsieur. And I hope it may last as long as the English reign. We cannot pray for the success of La Belle France any more."
"France has her own hard battles to fight. Yet it makes one a little sad to think of the splendid heritage that has slipped from her hands, for which her own discoverers and priests gave up their lives. Still, she has been proved unworthy of her great trust. I, as a Frenchman, say it with sorrow."
"You are a churchman, Monsieur?"
"A Christian, I hope. For several generations we have been on the other side. But I am not unmindful of good works or good lives."
Pere Rameau bowed his head.
"What I wished to talk about was a little girl," St. Armand began, after a pause. "Jeanne Angelot, I have heard her called."
"Ah, Monsieur, you know something about her, then?" returned the priest, eagerly.
"No, I wish I did. I have crossed her path a time or two, though I can"t tell just why she interests me. She is bright, vivacious, but curiously ignorant. Why does she live with this Indian woman and run wild?"
"I cannot tell any further than it seems M. Bellestre"s strange whim.
All I know of the child is Pani"s story. The De Longueils went to France and the Bellestres took their house. Pani had been given her freedom, but remained with the new owners. She was a very useful woman, but subject to curious spells of longing for her olden friends. Sometimes she would disappear for days, spending the time among the Indian squaws outside the stockade. She was there one evening when this child was dropped in her lap by a young Indian woman. Touchas, the woman she was staying with, corroborates the story. The child was two years or more old, and talked French; cried at first for her "maman." Madame Bellestre insisted that Pani should bring the child to her. She had lost a little one by death about the same age. She supposed at first that some one would claim it, but no one ever did. Then she brought the child to me and had it christened by the name on the card, Jeanne Angelot. Madame had a longing for the ministrations of the Church, but her husband was opposed. In her last illness he consented. He loved her very dearly. I think he was afraid of the influence of a priest, but he need not have been. She gave me all the things belonging to the child, and I promised to yield them up to the one who claimed her, or Jeanne herself when she was eighteen, or on her wedding day when she was married. Her husband promised to provide for the child as long as she needed it. He was very fond of her, too."
"And was there no suspicion?" St. Armand hesitated.
The pale face betrayed a little warmth and the slim fingers clasped each other.
"I understand, Monsieur. There was and I told him of it. With his hand on G.o.d"s word he declared that he knew no more about her than Pani"s story, and that he had loved his wife too well for his thoughts ever to stray elsewhere. He was an honest, upright man and I believe him. He planned at first to take the child to New Orleans, but Mademoiselle, who was about fourteen, objected strenuously. She _was_ jealous of her father"s love for the child. M. Bellestre was a large, fair man with auburn hair and hazel eyes, generous, kindly, good-tempered. The child is dark, and has a pa.s.sionate nature, beats her playmates if they offend her, though it is generally through some cruel thing they have done. She has n.o.ble qualities but there never has been any training. Yet every one has a good word for her and a warm side. I do not think the child would tell a lie or take what did not belong to her. She would give all she had sooner."
"You interest me greatly. But would it not be wiser for her to have a better home and different training? Does M. Bellestre consent to have her grow up in ignorance?"
"I have proposed she and Pani should come to the Recollet house. We have cla.s.ses, you know, and there are orphan children. Several times we have coaxed her in, but it was disastrous. She set our cla.s.ses in an uproar.
The sister put her in a room by herself and she jumped out of the window and threatened to run away to the woods if she were sent again. M.
Bellestre thinks to come to Detroit sometime, when it will be settled no doubt. His daughter is married now. He may take Jeanne back with him."
"That would be a blessing. But she has an eager mind and now we are learning that a broader education is necessary. It seems a pity--"
"Monsieur, there are only two lines that seem important for a woman. One is the training to make her a good wife and mother, and in new countries this is much needed. It is simplicity and not worldly arrogance, obedience and not caviling; first as a daughter, then as a wife. To guide the house, prepare the meals, teach her children the holy truths of the Church, and this is all G.o.d will require of her. The other is to devote her whole life to G.o.d"s work, but not every one has this gift.
And she who bears children obeys G.o.d"s mandate and will have her reward."
"Whether the world is round or square," thought the Sieur St. Armand, but he was too courteous even to smile. Jeanne Angelot would need a wider life than this, and, if unduly narrowed, would spring over the traces.
"You think M. Bellestre means to come?"
"He has put it off to next year now. There is so much unrest and uncertainty all over the country, that at present he cannot leave his business."
St. Armand sighed softly, thinking of Jeanne.
"Would you show the clothes and the trinkets?"
"O yes, Monsieur, to a person like you, but not to the idly curious.
Indeed, for that matter, they have been mostly forgotten. So many things have happened to distract attention."
He rose and went to the old escritoire. Unlocking a drawer he took out a parcel folded in a piece of cloth.
"The clothes she wore," he said, "even to the little shoes of deerskin.
There is nothing special about them to denote that she was the child of a rich person."
That was very true, St. Armand saw, except that the little stockings were fine and bore the mark of imported goods. He mused over them.
The priest opened a small, oblong box that still had the scent of snuff about it. On it was the name of Bellestre. So that was no clew.
"Here is the necklet and the little ring and the paper with her name.
Madame Bellestre placed these in my hand some time before she died."
The chain was slender and of gold, the locket small; inside two painted miniatures but very diminutive, and both of them young. One would hardly be able to identify a middle aged person from them. There was no mark or initials, save an undecipherable monogram.
"It is a pity there are no more chances of identification," St. Armand said. "This and the stockings come from France. And if the poor mother was dead--"