Rose stroked her head. "Warm-hearted child,--and also loyal. Our Lord rewards such devotion. Nothing is lost. Your precious tears remind me of those I once shed."
Bidiane did not recover herself. She was tired, excited, profoundly touched by Rose"s beauty and "sweet gravity of soul," and her perfect resignation to her lot. "But you are not happy," she exclaimed at last, dashing away her tears; "you cannot be. It is not right. I love to read in novels, when Mr. Nimmo allows me, of the divine right of pa.s.sion. I asked him one day what it meant, and he explained. I did not know that it gave him pain,--that his heart must be aching. He is so quiet,--no one would dream that he is unhappy; yet his mother knows that he is, and when she gets too worried, she talks to me, although she is not one-half as fond of me as she is of Narcisse."
A great wave of color came over Rose"s face at the mention of her child.
She would like to speak of him at once, yet she restrained herself.
"Dear little girl," she said, in her low, soothing voice, "you are so young, so delightfully young. See, I have just been explaining to you, yet you do not listen. You will have to learn for yourself. The experience of one woman does not help another. Yet let me read to you, who think it so painful a thing to be denied anything that one wants, a few sentences from our good archbishop."
Bidiane sprang lightly to her feet, and Rose went to a bookcase, and, taking out a small volume bound in green and gold, read to her: ""Marriage is a high and holy state, and intended for the vast majority of mankind, but those who expand and merge human love in the divine, espousing their souls to G.o.d in a life of celibacy, tread a higher and holier path, and are better fitted to do n.o.bler service for G.o.d in the cause of suffering humanity.""
"Those are good words," said Bidiane, with twitching lips.
"It is of course a Catholic view," said Rose; "you are a Protestant, and you may not agree perfectly with it, yet I wish only to convince you that if one is denied the companionship of one that is beloved, it is not well to say, "Everything is at an end. I am of no use in the world.""
"I think you are the best and the sweetest woman that I ever saw," said Bidiane, impulsively.
"No, no; not the best," said Rose, in accents of painful humility. "Do not say it,--I feel myself the greatest of sinners. I read my books of devotion, I feel myself guilty of all,--even the blackest of crimes. It seems that there is nothing I have not sinned in my thoughts. I have been blameless in nothing, except that I have not neglected the baptism of children in infancy."
"You--a sinner!" said Bidiane, in profound scepticism. "I do not believe it."
"None are pure in the sight of our spotless Lord," said Rose, in agitation; "none, none. We can only try to be so. Let me repeat to you one more line from our archbishop. It is a poem telling of the struggle of souls, of the search for happiness that is not to be found in the world. This short line is always with me. I cannot reach up to it, I can only admire it. Listen, dear child, and remember it is this only that is important, and both Protestant and Catholic can accept it--"Walking on earth, but living with G.o.d.""
Bidiane flung her arms about her neck. "Teach me to be good like you and Mr. Nimmo. I a.s.sure you I am very bad and impatient."
"My dear girl, my sister," murmured Rose, tenderly, "you are a gift and I accept you. Now will you not tell me something of your life in Paris?
Many things were not related in your letters."
CHAPTER III.
TAKEN UNAWARES.
"Who can speak The mingled pa.s.sions that surprised his heart?"
THOMSON.
Bidiane nothing loath, broke into a vivacious narrative. "Ah, that Mr.
Nimmo, I just idolize him. How much he has done for me! Just figure to yourself what a spectacle I must have been when he first saw me. I was ignorant,--as ignorant as a little pig. I knew nothing. He asked me if I would go down the Bay to a convent. I said, quite violently, "No, I will not." Then he went home to Boston, but he did not give me up. I soon received a message. Would I go to France with him and his mother, for it had been decided that a voyage would be good for the little Narcisse?
That dazzled me, and I said "yes." I left the Bay, but just fancy how utterly stupid, how frightfully from out of the woods I was. I will give one instance: When my uncle put me on the steamer at Yarmouth it was late, he had to hurry ash.o.r.e. He did not show me the stateroom prepared for me, and I, dazed owl, sat on the deck shivering and drawing my cloak about me. I thought I had paid for that one tiny piece of the steamer and I must not move from it. Then a kind woman came and took me below."
"But you were young, you had never travelled, mademoiselle."
"Don"t say mademoiselle, say Bidiane,--please do, I would love it."
"Very well, Bidiane,--dear little Bidiane."
The girl leaned forward, and was again about to embrace her hostess with fervent arms, but suddenly paused to exclaim, "I think I hear wheels!"
She ran to one of the open windows. "Who drives a black buggy,--no, a white horse with a long tail?"
"Agapit LeNoir," said Rose, coming to stand beside her.
"Oh, how is he? I hate to see him. I used to be so rude, but I suppose he has forgiven me. Mrs. Nimmo says he is very good, still I do not think Mr. Nimmo cares much for him."
Rose sighed. That was the one stain on the character of the otherwise perfect Vesper. He had never forgiven Agapit for striking him.
"Why he looks quite smart," Bidiane rattled on. "Does he get on well with his law practice?"
"Very well; but he works hard--too hard. This horse is his only luxury."
"I detest white horses. Why didn"t he get a dark one?"
"I think this one was cheaper."
"Is he poor?"
"Not now, but he is economical. He saves his money."
"Oh, he is a screw, a miser."
"No, not that,--he gives away a good deal. He has had a hard life, has my poor cousin, and now he understands the trials of others."
"Poverty is tiresome, but it is sometimes good for one," said Bidiane, wisely.
Rose"s white teeth gleamed in sudden amus.e.m.e.nt. "Ah, the dear little parrot, she has been well trained."
Bidiane leaned out the window. There was Agapit, peering eagerly forward from the hood of his carriage, and staring up with some of the old apprehensiveness with which he used to approach her.
"What a dreadful child I was," reflected Bidiane, with a blush of shame.
"He is yet afraid of me."
Agapit, with difficulty averting his eyes from her round, childish face and its tangle of reddish hair, sprang from his seat and fastened his horse to the post sunk in the gra.s.s at the edge of the lawn, while Rose, followed by Bidiane, went out to meet him.
"How do you do, Rose," he murmured, taking her hand in his own, while his eyes ran behind to the waiting Bidiane.
The girl, ladylike and modest, and full of contrition for her former misdeeds, was yet possessed by a mischievous impulse to find out whether her power over the burly, youthful, excitable Agapit extended to this thinner, more serious-looking man, with the big black mustache and the shining eye-gla.s.ses.
"Ah, fanatic, Acadien imbecile," she said, coolly extending her fingers, "I am glad to see you again."
Though her tone was rea.s.suring, Agapit still seemed to be overcome by some emotion, and for a few seconds did not recover himself. Then he smiled, looked relieved, and, taking a step nearer her, bowed profoundly. "When did you arrive, mademoiselle?"
"But you knew I was here," she said, gaily, "I saw it in your face when you first appeared."
Agapit dropped his eyes nervously. "He is certainly terribly afraid of me," reflected Bidiane again; then she listened to what he was saying.
"The Bay whispers and chatters, mademoiselle; the little waves that kiss the sh.o.r.es of Sleeping Water take her secrets from her and carry them up to the mouth of the Weymouth River--"