Maurice, who had been so deeply impressed by Ronald"s attributes and aims, quickly recognized the fountain-head from whence flowed the living waters he had drank, and, humbly bending to quaff at the same stream, became conscious that his whole being was vitalized and renewed. The great ends of existence, for the first time, became apparent to him; and as he learned to look upon the present and temporal as only of moment through their effect upon the future and eternal,--as he renounced a senseless belief in the very names of _chance_ and _accident_, and yielded to the conviction that the simplest as the gravest occurrences all tend to lay some stone in the great architectural edifice which every man is building for his own dwelling-place in the hereafter,--his trials, by some wondrous trans.m.u.tation, wore a holy aspect, and gently into his unfolding spirit stole the comforting a.s.surance that those very trials might be the fittest, the strongest, the _appointed_ instruments to hew out the pathway he panted to tread, and carve for him a future which could never have been wrought by such tools as the velvety hands of prosperity hold in their feeble grasp.
The morbid melancholy into which Maurice had fallen, and which deepened with his vain pondering over the mysterious fate of Madeleine, rolled from his spirit before the breath of hope,--hope breathed through sunshine, from the lips of a woman whose sympathetic voice, tender looks, and quick comprehension of his emotions insensibly melted away reserve, and drew out all his confidence. He could talk to Mrs. Walton of Madeleine with an absence of _reticence_, an unchecked gush of feeling, which would not have been possible when he conversed with Ronald, or with any one but a woman, _and such a woman_.
Far from advising him, as a worldly-wise counsellor would have done, to struggle against a pa.s.sion which did not promise to prove fortunate, she bade him cherish the image of the one he so ardently loved with perfect trust, that if that woman were indeed his _other self_,--that _separate half_ which makes man"s full complement,--he would, in spite of all adverse circ.u.mstances, be drawn to her, by mysterious and invisible cords, until their union was consummated.
Mrs. Walton entertained the not irrational belief that as "either s.e.x alone is _half_ itself," and "each fulfils defects in each," there was created for every male soul some feminine spirit, whose heart was capable of responding to the finest pulses of his; one who could meet his largest requirements; one who could alone render his being perfect, his true manhood complete; one whom he might never meet on earth, and yet who lived for him. This great truth (for as such he accepted it) was a glorious revelation to Maurice. He cast out the remembrance that Madeleine had said she loved another, or only recalled her declaration to feel certain that she had mistaken her own heart, or that he had misconstrued the language she had used. She became more vividly present than ever to his mind, and the constant thought that now confidently and happily wound itself about her seemed to him to annihilate material distances and bring their spirits into close communion.
Maurice pa.s.sed two delightful months beneath the hospitable roof of Mr.
and Mrs. Walton. The period which Ronald had allowed himself for a holiday drew to a close. The sense of unoccupied power had begun to render him restless, and it was with elation which might have appeared tinctured with ingrat.i.tude by those who did not comprehend the mysterious workings of his untranquil ambition, that he prepared for his return to that foreign land where he could enjoy advantages for the prosecution of his art-studies unattainable in a young country.
When Maurice embarked for America with Ronald, it was understood that they were to return to Europe together; but one morning, when the latter casually announced his intention of securing their pa.s.sage on board of a steamer about to sail from New York, Maurice turned to him and said abruptly,--
"Ronald, one berth will be sufficient."
"My dear fellow, what do you mean?" inquired Ronald, only half surprised.
"It is impossible for me," replied Maurice, "to return to my life of indolence and _supposed gayety_. A snake might more easily crawl back into his cast-off skin. I have breathed this free, exhilarating, vitalizing atmosphere, and the convention-laden air of Paris would stifle me. I have written to my father and announced that I propose remaining in Charleston. That is not all: he forbade my studying law in Paris, because his sapient Breton neighbors would have been scandalized by a viscount"s taking so sensible a step; but possibly I may prepare myself for the bar at this distance, without subjecting my father to the annoyance of their disapproval. The period required for study is shorter, and I shall have a wider field in which to practise. I cannot be prepared to enter upon the duties of my profession much before the time when, according to the laws of France, I shall reach my majority; meanwhile I study, we will say, _for amus.e.m.e.nt_. I study as other men hunt, fish, boat, skate. What do you think of my plan?"
Ronald grasped him warmly by the hand.
"It is just what I expected of you, Maurice! When we first met, and I was so strongly attracted to you, an internal prescience whispered that you had within you the very qualities which are a.s.serting their existence to-day."
"They might have been _in_ me, Ronald," answered Maurice with emotion; "but I fear they would never have been brought _out_ but for your agency. I never can be grateful enough that we have been thrown together! I never can sum up the good you have done me! I stood in such great need of just the influence you and your mother"--The voice of Maurice trembled, and he was unable to proceed.
Ronald broke the somewhat embarra.s.sing silence by saying,--
"In short, you have come to the conclusion that my mother is right in her faith, and whatever we actually need for our spiritual advancement is invariably sent, if we will but preserve ourselves in a state of reception. All that you still lack will be supplied in the same way, if you can but believe."
"_I do believe_," answered Maurice, in a tone of greater solemnity than the occasion seemed to demand; but there was a world of meaning in those three words. We should be obliged to employ many if we attempted to express a t.i.the of what he had recently learned to _believe_ through the instrumentality of a n.o.ble thinker.
A week later, Ronald folded his mother to his throbbing heart, and tenderly bade her adieu; but, without feeling that he should be parted from her by their material separation. Strange to say, his farewell to his father and Maurice was shadowed by a nearer approach to sadness and a more definite sense of sundering. Possibly their spirits had less power than his mother"s to annihilate s.p.a.ce and follow him whithersoever he went.
Maurice was induced to linger a few days longer as the guest of his new friends, and his presence prevented the void left by the departure of a beloved and only son from being too keenly felt. At the commencement of a new week the young viscount removed to Charleston. That city was only a few miles distant from the residence of Ronald"s parents. Mr. Walton had made his visitor acquainted with an eminent lawyer, who consented to receive Maurice de Gramont as a student.
Count Tristan at first violently opposed his son"s step, but he could not, with any show of reason, forbid his studying law as a _pastime_.
The count"s affairs became more and more entangled, and he grew more desirous than ever that his son should contract a wealthy marriage. The hope that Maurice might woo and win one of those numerous heiresses, who, Frenchmen imagine, abound in the Southern El Dorado, alone reconciled the haughty n.o.bleman to his son"s sojourn in America.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE ARISTOCRATS IN AMERICA.
While Maurice was applying himself to study with a zeal and sense of enjoyment wholly new to him, Bertha was pa.s.sing through various stages of ennui, and testing the patience, or rather the digestive powers, of that sorely discomforted _bon vivant_, her uncle. Day after day she grew more capricious, unreasonable, unmanageable.
The distressed marquis came to the conclusion that his disturbed animal economy could only be restored by an amicable separation from his niece.
But in vain he bestowed his smiles, and his _dinners_, upon the mult.i.tudinous suitors by whom the young heiress was besieged; her autocratic decree condemned him to the cruel duty of closing the sumptuous repasts by the _dessert_ of a dismissal to each lover in turn, without extending to any the faintest hope that his sentence might be reversed. Finally the marquis became a confirmed dyspeptic; the joy of his life was quenched when his appet.i.te failed, beyond the resuscitating influence of _absenthe_ and other fashionable stimulants; the glory of his festive board had departed, and he was haunted by the conviction that the unnatural conduct of his niece would bring his whitening hairs, through sorrow and indigestion, to the grave.
A small but dearly prized respite from his trials was granted him when Bertha paid her yearly visit, of four months, to her relatives in Brittany. Her stay, however, was never extended beyond the wonted period, for she found her sojourn at the Chateau de Gramont unmitigatedly dull. The reception of letters from Maurice, addressed to his father, alone relieved the tediousness of the hours; but these welcome messengers were infrequent, brief, and somewhat cold. They left Bertha so unsatisfied that before the close of the first year of her cousin"s absence she opened a correspondence with him herself. The initiative letter was suggested by pleasant tidings, which she hastened to send. It was written immediately after the eighteenth anniversary of her birthday, and communicated the agreeable intelligence that upon that day she had again received a token of remembrance from their beloved Madeleine.
A yearly gift, bearing the impress of those "fairy fingers," was the only sign Madeleine gave that she lived and remembered.
Three years pa.s.sed on, and upon each birthday, wherever Bertha chanced to be, in Bordeaux, in Paris, in Brittany, a small parcel was mysteriously left with the _concierge_ of the house where she was residing. The package was always addressed in Madeleine"s handwriting, and contained some exquisite piece of needle-work, but no letter, and it bore no mark of post or express. It was invariably delivered by private hand. At least, it rendered certain the consolatory facts, not only that Bertha was unforgotten, but that Madeleine was cognizant of all her movements.
No sooner had the heiress reached her majority than she prepared to carry into execution a plan which for a long period had been silently forming itself in her mind. Her earnest desire to visit America had been secretly, but systematically, strengthened by Count Tristan. He well knew that the Marquis de Merrivale would never be induced to become her escort; and, what was more likely than that she should seek the countenance and protection of her other relatives?
He played his cards so adroitly that Bertha, without once suspecting his machinations, wrote to him, on the very day that closed her twenty-first year, and invited the countess and himself to accompany her upon an American tour. She took care delicately to make a stipulation that the expenses of the projected trip should devolve upon her. The count concealed his exultation under an air of well-acted reluctance, and required much persuasion before he could be taught to look with favor upon this _unexpected_ and _sudden_ proposition.
There was no simulation in the dismay, the horror with which Bertha"s proposal was greeted by the countess. How was she to breathe in a land where hereditary claims to rank were unknown?--where distinctions of _brains_ not _blood_ were alone recognized?--where a man might rise to the highest position, as ruler of the realm, though his father chanced to be a mechanic, and his grandfather"s existence was untraceable? For a time, Bertha"s entreaties and the count"s representations were equally impotent; the countess was inexorable. But her son was not to be baffled; he found an avenue through which her heart could be reached, and her resolution undermined. It lay in the suggestion that Bertha"s strong inclination to visit America sprang from a desire again to behold Maurice, and that the result of their meeting, after so long a separation, might be in the highest degree felicitous. Bertha, he urged, during the absence of Maurice, had probably learned that he was dearer to her than she imagined; and, if Maurice had reason to believe that she crossed the ocean for the sake of rejoining him, could he remain insensible to such a proof of devotion? The countess bowed her haughty head to a sacrifice which vitally compromised her dignity.
One of the objects of the count"s visit to America was to learn something further of the railroad company with which he was connected.
For a time its operations had been suspended, owing to a financial crisis,--a sort of periodical American epidemic that, like cholera, sweeps over the land at intervals, making frightful ravage for a season, and departing as mysteriously as it came. The elastic nation, never long prostrate, had risen out of temporary difficulties and depression with a sudden bound, and prosperity walked in the very footprints of the late destroyer.
Mr. Hilson had lately announced to Count Tristan that the railway a.s.sociation was again in full activity, and that the mooted question of the direction which the road ought to take would, ere long, be decided.
He added that, according to his judgment, the left road was indubitably the more desirable. Should that road be chosen, it would pa.s.s through the property owned by the Viscount de Gramont. We have already alluded to the immense difference in the value of the estate which the advent of the railroad would insure.
Bertha had no difficulty in obtaining the Marquis de Merrivale"s approval of the contemplated trip.
Early in the spring the party embarked upon one of those superb steamers that sweep across the ocean like floating cities, pulsating with mult.i.tudinous life.
The pa.s.sage was so smooth that Bertha thoroughly enjoyed the strange, new existence, and found such ever-varying beauty in the gorgeous sunsets, and the resplendent moonlight, that she even forsook her berth to see "Aurora draw aside her crimson curtain of the dawn;" in short she was in an appreciating mood throughout the voyage, and her happy state allowed her to ignore all the _desagremens_ of the sea. The countess also, as she sat upon the deck in a comfortable arm-chair,--which she occupied as though it were a throne, and received the homage of fellow-pa.s.sengers, who were obviously struck and awed by her majestic deportment,--p.r.o.nounced the transit more endurable than she antic.i.p.ated.
Maurice had gone to New York to welcome the voyagers, and when the steamer neared the land he was the first person who bounded upon the deck. Bertha caught sight of him, and as she sprang forward and threw herself into his arms, weeping with joy and heartily returning his warm embrace, the countess and her son exchanged looks of exultation which showed that they had not reflected upon the vast distinction between the frank greeting of brother and sister, and the meeting of possible lovers.
A slight, irrepressible shadow pa.s.sed over the beaming countenance of Maurice as he turned from Bertha to welcome his father and grandmother.
The cloud flitted by in an instant, and only betrayed that the past was unforgotten; while the look of manly confidence and self-possession, by which it was replaced, told that the present and the future could not be subject to by-gone storms.
After the first salutations were over, the countess scanned Maurice from head to foot, to note what changes had been wrought by his residence in a country which she held in such supreme contempt. The slight curl and quivering of the lip, which accompanied her survey, bespoke that it was not entirely satisfactory. In the first place, his apparel displeased her. The care that he had once bestowed upon his toilet betrayed a slight leaning to the side of foppishness; _now_, his attire gave him the air of a man of business, rather than of mere pleasure. His bearing was more confident than in former days, his movements more rapid, his tone more animated and decisive, his whole manner more energetic. His face was slightly careworn, his brow had lost something of its unruffled smoothness, and the fresh carnation tints had faded out of his complexion; but the wealth of expression his countenance had gained might atone for heavier losses. In repose, his features wore a shade of habitual sadness; but that disappeared the moment he spoke, and was rather an air of reflection than of sorrow. Indeed, all gloom had vanished from his spirit soon after his arrival in America. The hope-inspiring ministry of Ronald"s mother, first and engrossing study, and ceaseless occupation next, had effectually medicined his growing melancholy. Maurice had not felt himself a homeless exile during his four years" sojourn in a foreign land. The Chateau de Gramont was less dear to him than the quiet, unpretentious, but affection-brightened home where he was always welcomed as a son.
When his stately grandmother, after so long a separation, once more appeared before him, the cold dignity, repelling hardness, and self-venerating pride of her demeanor struck him all the more painfully because it conjured up, in contrast, a vision of soft humility,--the gentle strength, the intellectual power, the refined tenderness of the lovely woman who realized his ideal of maternity.
It almost seemed as though the countess had some internal perception that Maurice weighed her in the balance of a new judgment, and found her wanting; for she shrank beneath his gaze, and turned from him with a sense of sickening disappointment.
Bertha, while she was struck by the marked alteration in Maurice, noted the change with undisguised admiration. To _her_ eyes he was a thousand times more attractive than ever, and she told him so without a shadow of bashful hesitation.
The young French demoiselle had made up her mind to be charmed with America, and little is required to satisfy those who are determined to be pleased. How much of her enthusiasm was legitimately excited, and how much was the spontaneous kindling of her own bright spirit, we will not attempt to describe. Be it enough to say, that she frequently declared her most sanguine expectations were far surpa.s.sed.
The countess, on the other hand, looked through a distorted medium which filled her with disgust. She was horrified at the publicity of hotel-life in New York. She could not tolerate the careless ease of the persons with whom she was thrown into accidental communication,--the confidence with which the very servants ventured to accost her. The absence of awe, the lack of head and knee bending, in her august presence, appeared a tacit insult. She was puzzled to reconcile the freedom with which she was constantly addressed with the great deference paid to her _s.e.x_. While her _rank_ was almost ignored, the mere fact of being _a woman_ commanded an amount of consideration unsurpa.s.sed by the veneration paid to t.i.tled womanhood in her own land. Nothing, however, shocked her more than the liberty accorded to young American maidens.
She found it impossible to comprehend that, educated as responsible beings, the strict _surveillance_ over girlhood"s most trivial actions, which is deemed indispensable in France, ceased to be a matter of necessity in America.
Immediately upon his arrival in New York the count had placed himself in communication with Mr. Hilson; and, a few days later, received a letter informing him that at a recent meeting of the managers of the ---- ---- Railway a.s.sociation a committee of nine had been chosen to decide upon the most suitable direction of the new road. The committee was to give in its decision at the end of a fortnight. Mr. Hilson regretted to add that he feared the majority were in favor of the road to the _right_. He concluded by suggesting that it might be well for the count to visit Washington, and exert over members of the committee any influence, that he could command, to secure a majority of votes in favor of the road which would prove so advantageous to his son"s property.
The count resolved to act at once upon Mr. Hilson"s suggestion. When he proposed to his mother and Bertha that they should start the very next day for Washington, the countess, for the first time since her arrival, expressed herself gratified. At the seat of government she would meet the French amba.s.sador and his wife (the Marquis and Marchioness de Fleury), and possibly, in the circle in which they moved, she might encounter foreigners with whom it would not be repugnant to a.s.sociate.
Bertha heard Count Tristan"s announcement with such bright gleamings of the eyes, such happy flushings of the cheeks, that the sudden radiance which overspread her countenance set Maurice wondering over the emotions that caused her to so warmly welcome this unantic.i.p.ated change of locality.
The revery into which he had fallen was broken by his father. The count launched into a discussion upon the management of property in America, then glided into the subject of the Maryland estate, and finally suggested that it would be advisable for his son to grant him a power of attorney which would place him in a situation to act as his representative in any case of emergency. Maurice unhesitatingly expressed his willingness to comply with this request, and the legal instrument was drawn up without delay. Upon receiving the doc.u.ment, the count a.s.sured his son that there was no probability that the power would be required, and voluntarily pledged himself not to make use of it without apprising Maurice.