In this way a week pa.s.sed by, and little by little a vague discomfort and restlessness began to characterize the att.i.tude of his mind towards her. He felt himself at once attracted by her beauty--as what man of his years would not?--and repelled by the likeness that made of the feeling a sacrilege. Meantime, whether he would or no, they were left together--much together. M. Mirande went abroad each day and seemed intent on public affairs. Each day, indeed, his look grew a trifle more austere, and the shade on his brow grew deeper; but though it was evident that the situation out-of-doors was growing more strained, the storms which were agitating Paris and desolating so many homes affected the little household in no other way. The Vicomte kept necessarily within, spending most of his time in reading. Mademoiselle Claire also went seldom abroad; and it followed that during the long July days when the sunshine flooded the second floor, in the early mornings when the sparrows perched on the open jalousies and twittered gaily, or in the grey evenings, when the night fell slowly, they met from time to time--met not infrequently. On such occasions the Vicomte noticed that Baudouin was never far distant. The secretary, as a rule, put in an appearance before the conversation had lasted ten minutes.
Bercy began to suspect the cause of this, and one day he happened upon a discovery. He was sitting in M. Mirande"s room, when the sound of a raised voice made him lay down his book and listen. The voice seemed to come from the parlour. Once he was a.s.sured of this, and that the speaker, whose anger was apparent, was not Mirande, he took his steps.
He stole out upon the lobby, and found the parlour door as he had suspected slightly ajar. Any scruples he might have entertained were dispelled by the certainty that the speaker was Baudouin and that the person whom he was addressing in harsh and vehement tones, was Mademoiselle Claire. The Vicomte drew himself up behind the door and listened.
"What would I have?" were the first words he caught. "Little enough, heaven knows! Little enough! What have I ever asked except to be allowed to serve? To gratify your least caprice. To be at your beck and call. To fetch and carry while another basked in your smiles. That is all I asked in the old days and I ask no more now. I am content to serve and wait and hope. But I will have--no stranger come between us. Not again! Not again!"
"You do not understand, M. Baudouin," the girl answered hurriedly.
"Do I not?" he cried. "Perhaps I did not understand last time. But this time I do. I do! It had been well for you had I known more then!"
"Spare me," she said faintly, overcome apparently by some hidden meaning in his words.
"That you may amuse yourself with this stranger?" he retorted. "No, I have given way enough. It had been better, as I say, if I had not, mademoiselle."
The stress he laid on the last word was unintelligible to the hidden listener, who knew only that it veiled an insult and drew nearer to the door. The girl remained silent and Baudouin presuming on this continued in a tone still more aggressive, "Times are changed, mademoiselle, changed in the last month. You, living out of the world, are ignorant of what is pa.s.sing, and your father is being left as completely behind.
Unless I make a mistake, in a little time you will need other and stronger protection than his."
"Not while he lives," the girl answered, in a low tone.
Baudouin laughed. "The pitcher goes often to the well, but it is broken at last," he said drily. "I would have you understand that, since you may stand in need of my help, you would do well not to try me too far."
"M. Baudouin," the girl said abruptly--and her tone was changed, and the listener, though he could not see her, could picture the challenge of her startled eyes--"you have never spoken to me in this way before. You have changed."
"So are the times. Those who were servants are now masters!"
"You will never be mine," the girl said firmly.
"We shall see!" he answered.
"We shall see!" cried an unexpected voice--that of the Vicomte, who could bear it no longer. His eyes stern, his colour high, he flung the door wide and entered. The secretary, startled, stepped back a pace. The girl, who had been standing close to the door, turned, and seeing who it was, uttered a low cry of thankfulness; in her relief she even stretched out her hands as if she would grasp the new-comer"s arm. The next instant she drew back, a strange expression in her eyes.
"Now, sir," the young Vicomte continued, harshly, "you have to deal with a man, and not with a woman whom you can terrify. I have overheard all, and I warn you that on his return I shall repeat it word for word to M.
Mirande, who will know how to deal with you."
He expected that the threat would produce its effect, and that the secretary taken in the act would resume his normal demeanour. But Baudouin, his first surprise over, merely smiled. "Who are you, I wonder," he replied grimly. "One in the Tallien-Barrere-Carnot conspiracy, that"s afoot, I suppose. If so, I need not----"
"You need suppose nothing!" the Vicomte retorted fiercely. "But leave the room without words, you dog!"
"Thank you," said the secretary, smiling contemptuously. "But I would have you remember that a living dog is better than a dead lion."
With that--and with little show of embarra.s.sment or dismay--he went out. As the door closed behind him a singular constraint fell upon the two who were left. The Vicomte, with a grave face, paused by the table, and stood listening to the sound of his retreating footsteps. The girl, who had withdrawn to the farther end of the room, kept her face averted.
The Vicomte looked at her doubtfully--looked at her more than once.
"Mademoiselle," he ventured at last, his voice low and agitated, "I am afraid he--I am afraid he means mischief."
"I fear so," she whispered without turning.
"Will you--shall I speak to your father?"
"It may be better," she answered--to the same tone.
He looked at her long at that, but she did not move; and with a gesture as of farewell he turned and went softly away. Safe in his own room, with the door shut, he stood in the middle of the floor thinking; thinking not of the secretary nor of the danger with which Baudouin"s enmity threatened the house, but of the strange look which the girl"s face had worn on his first appearance at her side, the look of relief and thankfulness which he had surprised in her eyes, the impulse of confidence which had made her move towards him! He recalled them all, and his brow grew hot, his hand trembled. He felt at once terror and shame. When he heard M. Mirande"s step on the stairs, he gave himself no time for thought, but went hurriedly out on the lobby and called him into the room. "M. Mirande," he said, "I have something to tell you. I have two things to tell you."
The Republican looked at him, his inscrutable eyes betraying no surprise. "What are they?" he asked, his tone almost phlegmatic.
"The man Baudouin has been here, addressing himself so rudely to your daughter that I felt myself obliged to--to interfere."
"That is unlucky."
"It may be that he has your confidence," the young Vicomte continued, "but, from the way in which he spoke of you, I doubt if you have his. He seemed to me--a dangerous man, M. Baudouin."
"Did he use threats?" the Republican asked, a slight shade of anxiety in his tone.
The Vicomte nodded.
"Did he mention any names?" M. Mirande continued, looking sharply at his watch.
"Yes. Those of Carnot, Barrere--and I think, Tallien."
"Ah!" For a moment M. Mirande"s impulse seemed to be to leave the room; to leave it hurriedly, to go back perhaps whence he had come. But he thought better of it, and after a pause he continued, "Had you not something else to tell me?"
"I had," the young man answered, betraying, by his agitation, that he had now come to the real purpose for which he had sought the interview.
"I wish to leave, M. Mirande. I wish to leave your house at once. I do not know," he continued hurriedly, before the elder man could utter the dry retort which was on his lips, "whether you had it in your mind to try me by leaving me with your daughter, or whether I have only my own weakness to thank. But I must go. I am ashamed of myself, I hate myself for it; but I cannot be with her and not feel what I ought not to feel.
Understand me," the young man continued, his cheeks pale; "it is not by reason of any charm of hers, but because she is so like--so like my wife--because she seems a dozen times a day to be my wife, that my memory is unfaithful to Corinne--that I dare not remain here another day!"
He stopped abruptly. M. Mirande coughed.
"This is a strange confession," he said, after a long pause. "You have said nothing to Claire?"
"Heaven forbid!"
"Then say nothing!" the Republican replied with curt decision. "As for leaving this place to-day, it is impossible. A crisis is at hand; this house is watched. You would be recognized and arrested before you pa.s.sed ten yards from the door. Moreover," he went on, seeming to ponder deeply as he spoke, "if you are right about Baudouin--and I doubt now whether I have been Wise to trust him--I see great and immediate danger before me. Therefore, if you would not desert the sinking ship, you must remain."
"I dare not," the young man muttered, shaking his head.
"What?" the old Girondin answered, his voice swelling, his eyes growing bright. "You a n.o.ble, and you dare not? You a n.o.ble, and you cannot govern yourself? Consider, M. le Vicomte! A few days may see me traverse the road so many traverse every day; the road of the guillotine. Then my daughter will be alone, defenceless, unprotected. I ask you--for I have no one else to whom I can turn--to be her brother and her guardian. Do you refuse?"
"You no longer distrust me?" the Vicomte muttered, his cheek hot.
"When you came to me a week ago," Mirande answered, "I did not foresee this crisis, nor the present danger. If I had, I might have received you differently. But, see you, what if this be the way in which I would try you?" he continued with energy. "What if this be the atonement heaven has a.s.signed to you? In that case, do you accept, or do you refuse?"
"I accept," the Vicomte answered solemnly, carried away by the other"s burst of feeling. "I accept the charge."
M. Mirande smiled, but only for a moment. Quickly the light died out of his face, leaving it stern and austere. His brow grew dark, and turning with a sigh to his table, he signed to his companion to leave him, and was presently immersed in figures and calculations.
The young man retired; on his side full of doubt and amazement, yet lifted by the other"s appeal to a higher level of will and purpose.
Confidence begets honour. Frankly as he had gone to the Girondin with his confession, so frankly had the other received it. Now he felt that it behoved him to deserve confidence. Henceforth Claire must be his sister. But he knew that merely to call her sister was not all. He knew enough of his own weakness to recognize the necessity of shunning temptation, and during the next three days he was careful to avoid conversation with the girl; who on her part seemed to observe nothing, but went to and fro about her household duties.
And yet she did not go about them as usual, a keen observer would have said. A subtle change had come over her. Alone in her room she sang to herself low crooning songs of happiness. Her eyes, so carefully lowered in the parlour, shone with a tender brightness, when no one saw them.