Maurice replied to her vivacious remark with a laugh of a.s.sent, and, looking eagerly around, asked, "Where is Madeleine?"
"Madeleine is busy as usual," answered Bertha. "I warrant she is in some remote corner of the chateau, mysteriously employed. She does not know that you have arrived."
"And is she well? My father never once mentioned her in his letters. And has she kept you company in growing so much handsomer during the last year?"
"_Her_ beauty needed no heightening!" exclaimed Bertha, affectionately.
"But she develops new talents every day; she sings more delightfully than ever; and lately she has commenced drawing from nature with the most wonderful ease. You should see the flowers she first creates with her pencil and then copies with her needle! I really think her needle can paint almost as dexterously as the brush of any other artist."
The count exchanged a look with his mother, and whispered, "Do stop her!"
The latter turned quickly to her grandson, and said, "Are you and Bertha determined to spend the morning out of doors? Come, let us go in."
As they entered the drawing-room, the countess pointed to a seat beside her.
"Maurice, leave your chattering little cousin, and sit down and give us some account of yourself. What have you been doing? How have you been pa.s.sing your time?"
Maurice obeyed; Bertha placed herself on the other side of her aunt; the count took a chair opposite.
"Behold a most attentive and appreciating audience!" cried Bertha. "Now, Mr. Collegian and Traveller,--hero of the hour!--most n.o.ble representative of the house of de Gramont! hold forth! Let us hear how you have been occupying your valuable time."
"In the first place, I have been studying tolerably hard, little cousin.
It seems very improbable, does it not? The midnight oil has not yet paled my cheeks to the sickly and interesting hue that belongs to a student. Still the proof is that I have pa.s.sed my examination triumphantly. I will show you my prizes by and by, and they will speak for themselves. Next, I have joined a debating society of young students who are preparing to become lawyers. Our meetings have afforded me infinite pleasure. At our last reunion, I undertook to plead a cause, and achieved a wonderful success. I had no idea that language would flow so readily from my lips. I was astonished at my own thoughts, and the facility with which I formed them into words, and they say I made a capital argument. I received the most enthusiastic congratulations, and my a.s.sociates, in pressing my hand, addressed me, not as the Viscount de Gramont, but as the _able orator_. I really think that I could make an orator, and that I have sufficient talent to become a lawyer."
"A lawyer!" exclaimed the countess with supreme disdain. "What could introduce such a vulgar idea into your head? A lawyer! There is really something startling, something positively appalling in the vagaries of the rising generation! A lawyer! what an idea!"
"It is something more than an _idea_, my dear grandmother: it is a project which I have formed, and which I cherish very seriously,"
replied Maurice.
"A project,--a project! I like projects. Let us hear your sublime project, Mr. Advocate," cried Bertha.
"The project is simply to test the abilities which I am presumptuous enough to believe I have discovered in myself, and to study for the bar.
My father wrote me that he intended to become a director in a railway company, and descanted upon the advantage of embarking in the enterprise. He also confided to me, for the first time, the real state of our affairs,--in a word, the empty condition of our treasury. Why should my father occupy himself with business matters and I live in idleness? Once more, I repeat, I am convinced I have sufficient ability to make a position at the bar, and with my father"s consent, and yours, grandmother, I propose to commence my law studies at once."
"A pettifogger! impossible! I, for one, will never countenance a step so humiliating! It is not to be thought of!" replied his grandmother, in a tone of decision.
"No, Maurice, your project is futile," responded his father. "My joining this railroad a.s.sociation is quite a different matter. I shall in reality have nothing to do. It is only my name that is required; besides, America is so far off that n.o.body in Brittany will be aware of my connection with the company. Your becoming a lawyer would be a public matter. I cannot recall the name of a single n.o.bleman in the whole list of barristers"--
"So much the better for me! My t.i.tle may, _in this solitary instance_, prove of service to me. It may help to bring me clients. People will be enchanted to be defended by a viscount."
"You conjure up a picture that is absolutely revolting!" cried the countess, warmly. "_My grandson_ pleading to defend the rabble!"
"Why not, if the rabble should happen to stand in need of defence?"
"Why not?--because you should ignore their very existence! What have you and they in common?"
Maurice was about to reply somewhat emphatically, but noticing his grandmother"s knitted brow, and his father"s troubled expression, he checked himself.
The countess added, with an air of determination that forbade discussion, "Maurice, you will never obtain my consent, never!"
"But if I may not study for the bar, what am I to do?" asked the young man with spirit.
"Do?" questioned the countess, proudly. "What have the de Gramonts done for centuries past? Do nothing!"
"_Nothing?_ Thank you, grandmother, for your estimate of my capacities and of the sluggish manner in which my blood courses through my veins.
Doing _nothing_ was all very well in dead-alive, by-gone days, but it does not suit the present age of activity and progress. In our time everything that has heart and spirit feels that labor is a law of life.
Some men till the earth, some cultivate the minds of their fellow-men, some guard their country"s soil by fighting our battles; that is, some vocations enable us to live, some teach us how to live, and some render it glorious to die. Now, instead of adopting any of these pursuits, I only wish to"--
"To become a manufacturer of fine phrases, a vender of words!" replied the countess, disdainfully.
"An advantageous merchandise," answered Maurice,--"one which it costs nothing, to manufacture but which may be sold dear."
"Sold? You shock me more and more! Never has one who bore the name of de Gramont earned money!" replied the countess, with increased _hauteur_.
"Very true, and very unfortunate! We are now feeling the ill effects of the idleness of our ancestors. It is time that the new generation should reform their bad system," replied Maurice.
"Maurice"--began his father.
"My dear father, let me speak upon this subject, for I have it greatly at heart. I have an iron const.i.tution, buoyant spirits, a tolerably good head, a tolerably large heart, an ample stock of imagination, an unstinted amount of energy, and an admiration for genius; now, all these gifts--mind, heart, imagination, spirit, energy--cry out for action,--ask to vindicate their right to existence,--need to find vent!
_That_ is one ground upon which I plant my intention to become a lawyer.
Another is that a man of my temperament, liberal views, and tendencies to extravagance, also needs to have the command of means"--
"Have we ever restricted you, Maurice?" asked his father, reproachfully.
"No, it is only yourselves you have restricted. But do you suppose I am willing to expend what has been saved through your economy? Until lately I never knew the actual state of our finances. Now I see the necessity for exertion, that I may be enabled to live as my tastes and habits prompt."
"That you may obtain by making an advantageous marriage," remarked the countess, forgetting at the moment that Bertha was present.
"What! owe my privileges, my luxuries, my very position, to my wife?
Never! Every manly and independent impulse within me rises in arms against such a suggestion; while the emotion I experienced when I felt I could become something _of myself_,--that I had talents which I could employ,--that I had a future before me,--renown to win,--great deeds to achieve,--filled me with a strange joy hitherto unknown. I tell you, my father, there is a force and fire in my spirit that must have some outlet,--must leap into action,--_must_ and _will_!"
"It shall find an outlet," replied the countess, "without making you a hired declaimer of fine words,--a paid champion of the low mob. Let us hear no more of this absurd lawyer project. The matter is settled: you will never have your father"s consent, nor mine."
"Then I warn you," exclaimed Maurice, starting up, and speaking almost fiercely. "You will drive me into evil courses. I shall fall into all manner of vices for the sake of excitement. If I cannot have occupation, I must have amus.e.m.e.nt, I shall run in debt, I may gamble, I may become dissipated, I may commit offences against good taste and good morals, which will degrade me in reality; and all because you have nipped a pure intention in the bud. The root that bore it is too vigorous not to blossom out anew, and the chances are that it will bring forth some less creditable fruit. You will see! I do not jest; I know what is in me!"
"Content! we will run the risk!" replied the countess, trying to speak cheerfully.
The grave manner of Maurice and his impressive tone, as he stood before her with an air half-threatening, half-prophetic, made her experience a sensation of vague discomfort.
"We will trust you, for you are a de Gramont, and cannot commit a dishonorable action. Now, pray, go to your room and make your toilet. We are expecting guests to dinner."
Maurice turned away without uttering another word, without even heeding the hand which Bertha stretched in sympathy towards him; and, with a clouded brow and slow steps, ascended to his own apartment.
CHAPTER III.
MADELEINE.