"Madame Fleury--Monsieur sent me for a letter lying on his desk," Jeanne said in a half hesitating manner.
The servant stepped into the room to consult her mistress. Then she said to Jeanne:--
"Walk in here, Mademoiselle."
The room was much more richly appointed than the hall, though the polished floor was quite bare. A great high-backed settee with a carved top was covered with some flowered stuff in which golden threads shimmered; there was a tall escritoire going nearly up to the ceiling, the bottom with drawers that had curious bra.s.s handles, rings spouting out of a dragon"s mouth. There were gla.s.s doors above and books and strange ornaments and minerals on the shelves. On the high mantel, and very few houses could boast them, stood bra.s.s candlesticks and vases of colored gla.s.s that had come from Venice. There were some quaint portraits, family heirlooms ranged round the wall, and chairs with carved legs and stuffed backs and seats.
On a worktable lay a book and a piece of lace work over a cushion full of pins. By it sat a young lady in musing mood.
She, too, said, "What is it?" but her voice had a soft, lingering cadence.
Jeanne explained meeting M. Fleury and his message, but her manner was shy and hesitating.
"Oh, then you are Jeanne Angelot, I suppose?" half a.s.sertion, half inquiry.
"Yes, Mademoiselle," and she folded her hands.
"I think I remember you as a little child. You lived with an Indian woman and were a"--no, she could not say "foundling" to this beautiful girl, who might have been born to the purple, so fine was her figure, her air, the very atmosphere surrounding her.
"I was given to her--Pani. My mother had died," she replied, simply.
"Yes--a letter. Let me see." She rose and went through a wide open doorway. Jeanne"s eyes followed her. The walls seemed full of arms and hunting trophies and fishing tackle, and in the center of the room a sort of table with drawers down one side.
"Yes, here. "Mademoiselle Jeanne Angelot."" She seemed to study the writing. She was quite pretty, Jeanne thought, though rather pale, and her silken gown looped up at the side with a great bow of ribbon, fell at the back in a long train. Her movements were so soft and gliding that the girl was half enchanted.
"You still live with--with the woman?"
"M. Bellestre gave her the house. It is small, but big enough for us two. Yes, Mademoiselle. Thank you," as she placed the letter in Jeanne"s hand, and received in return an enchanting smile. With a courtesy she left the room, and walked slowly down the path, trying to think. Some girl, for there was gossip even in those days, had said that Mam"selle"s lover had proved false to her, and married some one else in one of the southern cities. Jeanne felt sorry for her.
Lisa Fleury wondered why so much beauty had been given to a girl who could make no use of it.
Jeanne hugged her letter to her heart. It had been so long, so long that she felt afraid she would never hear again. She wanted to run every step of the way, last summer she would have. She almost forgot Wenonah and the silk, then laughed at herself, and outside of the palisades she did run.
"You are so good," Wenonah said. "Look at this embroidery,--is it not grand? And that I used to color threads where now I can use beautiful silk. It shines like the sun. The white people have wonderful ways."
Jeanne laughed and opened her letter. She could wait no longer. Oh, delightful news! She laughed again in sheer delight, soft, rippling notes.
"What is it pleases thee so, Mam"selle?"
"It is my friend who comes back, the grand Monsieur with the beautiful white beard, for whose sake I learned to write. I am glad I have learned so many things. By another spring he will be here!"
Then Jeanne forgot the somber garment of womanhood that shadowed her last night, and danced in the very gladness of her heart. Wenonah smiled and then sighed. What if this man of so many years should want to marry the child? Such things had been. And there was that fine young De Ber just come home. But then, a year was a good while.
"I must go and tell Pani," and she was off like a bird.
Oh, what a glad day it was! The maypole and the dancing were as nothing to it. After she had told over her news and they had partaken of a simple meal, she dragged the Indian woman off to her favorite haunt in the woods, where three great tree boles made a pretty shelter and where Pani always fell asleep.
Bees were out buzzing, their curious accompaniment to their work. Or were they scolding because flowers were not sweeter? Yellow b.u.t.terflies made a dazzle in the air, that was transparent to-day. The white birches were scattering their last year"s garments, and she gathered quite a roll. Ah, what a wonderful thing it was to live and breathe this fragrant air! It exhilarated her with joy as drinking wine might another. The mighty spirit of nature penetrated every pulse.
From a little farther up she could see the blue waters, and the distant horizon seemed to bound the lake. Would she ever visit the grand places of the world? What was a great city such as Quebec like? Would she stay here for years and years and grow old like Pani? For somehow she could not fancy herself in a home with a husband like Marie Beeson, or Madelon Freche, or several of the girls a little older than herself. The commonplaces of life, the monotonous work, the continual admiration and approval of one man who seemed in no way admirable would be slow death.
"Which is a warning that I must not get married," she thought, and her gay laugh rippled under the trees in soft echoes.
She felt more certain of her resolve that evening when Pierre came.
"Where were you all the afternoon?" he said, almost crossly. "I was here twice. I felt sure you would expect me."
Jeanne flushed guiltily. She knew she had gone to escape such an infliction, and she was secretly glad, yet somehow her heart p.r.i.c.ked her.
"Oh, you surely have not forgotten that I live half the time in the woods;" glancing up mischievously.
"Haven"t you outgrown that? There was enough of it yesterday," he said.
"You ought not to complain. What a welcome you had, and what a triumph, too!"
"Oh, that was not much. You should see the leaping and the wrestling up north. And the great bounds with the pole! That"s the thing when one has a long journey. And the snowshoes--ah, that is the sport!"
"You liked it up there?"
"I was desperately homesick at first. I had half a mind to run away. But when I once got really used to the people and the life--it was the making of me, Jeanne."
He stretched up proudly and swelled up his broad chest, enjoying his manhood.
"You will go back?" she asked, tentatively.
"Well--that depends. Father wants me to stay. He begins to see that I am worth something. But pouf! how do people live in this crowded up town in the winter! It is dirtier than ever. The Americans have not improved it much. You see there is Rose and Angelique, before Baptiste, and he is rather puny, and father is getting old. Then, I could go up north every two or three years. Well, one finds out your worth when you go away."
He gave a loud, rather exultant laugh that jarred on Jeanne. Why were these rough characteristics so repellant to her? She had lived with them all her short life. From whence came the other side of her nature that longed for refinement, cultivated speech, and manners? And people of real education, not merely the business faculty, the figuring and bargain making, were more to her taste. M. Fleury was a gentleman, like M. St. Armand.
Pierre stretched out his long legs and crossed his feet, then slipped his hands into his pockets. He seemed to take up half the room.
"What have you been doing all the time I was away?" he said, when the awkwardness of the silence began to oppress him.
Jeanne made a little crease in her forehead, and a curl came to the rose red lip.
"I went to school until Christmas, then there was no teacher for a while. And when spring was coming I decided not to go back. I read at home. I have some books, and I write to improve myself. I can do it quite well in English. Then there is some one at the Fort, a sort of minister, who has a cla.s.s down in the town, St. Louis street, and I go there."
"Is the minister a Catholic?"
"No," she answered, briefly.
"That is bad." He shook his head disapprovingly. "But you go to church?"
"There is a little chapel and I like the talk and the singing. I know two girls who go there. Sometimes I go with Pani to St. Anne"s."
"But you should go all the time, Jeanne. Religion is especially for women. They have the children to bring up and to pray for their husbands, when they are on voyages or in dangers."
Pierre delivered this with an unpleasant air of masculine authority which Jeanne resented in her inmost soul. So she exclaimed rather curtly:--