The marchioness greeted Maurice with enthusiastic cordiality. It struck her, on seeing him, that she might broach the desired topic through his aid; and she said, with the most charmingly innocent air, as though the thought had just occurred to her,--
"Shall I see you, M. de Gramont, at the grand fancy ball which Madame Orlowski gives next week? I hear it will be the _fete_ of the season."
"I have not the honor of Madame Orlowski"s acquaintance," replied Maurice.
"What a pity! But I can easily procure you an invitation, and you will have time enough to arrange about a costume. I have not determined upon mine yet. I want something very original. I am quite puzzled what to decide upon. I am perfectly haunted with visions of dresses that float through my brain. I have imagined myself attired as nymphs, and heathen deities, and ladies of ancient courts, and heroines of books; but I cannot make a choice."
Madame de Fleury did not venture to look toward Madeleine, and the latter made no observation. Maurice rejoined,--
"My father"s state of health forbids my availing myself of your amiable offer."
Madame de Fleury was slightly discomfited. It was difficult to keep up the subject which seemed to have dropped naturally; but for the sake of reviving it, and trying to draw some suggestion from the Queen of Taste, she even condescended to address her foe; and, turning to Mrs. Gilmer with a false smile, asked,--
"_You_ are going, of course? Have you determined upon the character you mean to a.s.sume?"
Mrs. Gilmer was flattered by finding her attire a matter of acknowledged importance to her rival, and replied, with a simper,--
"Not altogether,--my costume is under discussion,--I shall decide _presently_."
A significant glance intimated that she meant shortly to proceed upstairs, to the exhibition-rooms of "Mademoiselle Melanie."
Madame de Fleury grew desperate, and was resolved not to be baffled in her attempt; she now launched into a dissertation upon different styles of fancy dresses. Madeleine turned to Maurice to make inquiries about his father. Poor Maurice! as he noted the unruffled composure of her bearing, the quietude of her tone, the frank ease with which she addressed him, his hopes began to die away, and tormenting spirits whispered that Ronald"s mother had certainly come to an erroneous conclusion.
Madame de Fleury, finding that her little artifices were thrown away upon Madeleine, took her leave; Mrs. Gilmer lingered for a few moments, then also made her exit, closely copying the graceful courtesy and floating, sweeping step of her rival.
"Thank Heaven! they are gone!" exclaimed Maurice. "I have so much to say to you, Madeleine, every moment they staid appeared to me an hour."
He could proceed no further, for the door opened, and Ruth Thornton entered with sketches of costumes in her hand, and said, hesitatingly,--
"I am sure you will pardon me, Mademoiselle Madeleine; Madame de Fleury insisted; she fairly, or rather _unfairly_ forced me to seek you with these sketches; she seems resolved to secure your advice about her costume."
Madeleine knew how to rebuke impertinence in spite of her natural gentleness, and the very mildness of her manner made the reproof more severe. She had thoroughly comprehended Madame de Fleury"s tactics, and had determined to make her understand that when she visited Mademoiselle de Gramont, the visit was paid to an equal, not to the mantua-maker upon whose time the public had a claim.
"Say to Madame de Fleury that I leave all affairs of this nature in your hands, and that I have perfect reliance on your good taste."
Ruth withdrew.
"Let us go to your boudoir, Madeleine," said Maurice.
Madeleine, as she complied, remarked,--
"You are troubled to-day, Maurice; two bright spots are burning upon your cheeks; you look excited; what has happened?"
"Much or little, as it may prove," replied Maurice, taking a seat beside her. "In the first place, my grandmother has concluded to leave Washington in a week, and, after she reaches New York, take the first steamer to Havre."
Maurice had given this intelligence so suddenly that Madeleine was off her guard, and the rapid varying of her color, the heaving breast, the look of anguish, the broken voice in which she exclaimed, "So soon? so very soon?" rekindled his expiring hopes.
"This has been but a brief meeting, Madeleine, after the separation of those long, sorrowful years. The future is all uncertain, I cannot fix a time, after I have said adieu, when I may clasp this dear hand again."
"But," faltered Madeleine, "your profession,--you will not abandon that?
You will return to Charleston?"
"It is my earnest desire to do so."
"Then you _will_ return! You will return soon?"
Maurice must have been the dullest of lovers if he could not distinguish the intonation of joy in Madeleine"s voice.
"If my own advancement is the only incentive to my return, circ.u.mstances may interfere; my father"s health, for instance, the necessity of attending to his affairs, or other considerations."
Madeleine did not reply.
"Madeleine, I shall offend you, perhaps, for I am about to transgress.
At all hazards, I must touch upon a subject which you have banished from our conversation."
For a moment Madeleine looked disturbed, but this warning enabled her to collect herself; she soon said, with composure,--
"Even if you do not spare _me_, Maurice, do not touch on any theme which must give pain to yourself."
"I have not yet quite decided," returned he, "how much pain it may cost me. I will only ask you to answer me a few questions. As I am a lawyer, cross-examination, you know, is my vocation, and you must indulge me.
Nearly five years ago you declared that you had bestowed your heart irrevocably. You were very young then,--you had had few opportunities of seeing gentlemen; yet you have remained constant to this mysterious lover? You have never repented that you loved him?"
"Never!" answered Madeleine, with fervor.
"And you believe that he loves you?"
Madeleine bowed her head.
"And you have loved him long? Perhaps you loved him early in your girlhood; perhaps you loved him from the time you first met?"
Madeleine bowed her head again.
"Even as _he did you_?"
"I do not know," she answered, in a low voice.
"That is strange; men are apt to boast of the length as well as of the strength of their pa.s.sion," remarked Maurice. "Your lover must be an exception. But perhaps he is unaware that he is blest by your love?"
Without suspicion Madeleine fell into that snare, well-laid by the young lawyer, for she answered, thinking that it would calm the jealous pangs to which Maurice might be subjected,--
"You are right; he is _not_ aware that I love him."
Had her eyes not been downcast, had she looked up for an instant into the face of Maurice, she would have known by its look of radiant ecstasy that she had betrayed herself.
In a tone which emotion rendered unsteady, he went on,--
"You would cast your lot with his, Madeleine? If he were poor, you would share his poverty? You would even abandon your dream of earning a fortune for yourself,--and I know how dear that dream is to your heart,--for his sake? You would do this were there no barrier to the avowal of your love,--no barrier to your union with him?"