"You are newly come to Geneva?" she said, gazing at him.
"I arrived yesterday."
"Yes, yes, of course," she answered. She spoke quickly and nervously.
"Yes, you told me so." And she turned to her daughter and laid her hand on hers as if she talked more easily so. "Your father, Monsieur Mercier," with an obvious effort, "is well, I hope?"
"Perfectly, and he begged me to convey his grateful remembrances. Those of my mother also," the young man added warmly.
"Yes, he was a good man! I remember when, when he was ill, and M.
Chausse--the pastor, you know"--the reminiscence appeared to agitate her--"was ill also----"
The girl leant over her quickly. "Monsieur Mercier has brought something for you, mother," she said.
"Ah?"
"His grateful remembrances and this letter," Claude murmured with a blush. He knew that the letter contained no more than he had already said; compliments, and the hope that Madame Royaume might be able to receive the son as she had received the father.
"Ah!" Madame Royaume repeated, taking the letter with fingers that shook a little.
"You shall read it when Monsieur Mercier is gone," her daughter said.
With that she looked across at the young man. Her eyes commanded him to take his leave.
But he was resolute. "My father expresses the hope," he said, "that you will grant me the same privilege of living under your roof, Madame, which was so highly prized by him."
"Of course, of course," she answered eagerly, her eyes lighting up. "I am not myself, sir, able to overlook the house--but, Anne, you will see to--to this being done?"
"My dear mother, we have no room!" the girl replied; and stooping, hid her face while she whispered in her mother"s ear. Then aloud, "We are so full, so--it goes so well," she continued gaily. "We never have any room. I am sure, sir,"--again she faced him across the bed--"it is a disappointment to my mother, but it cannot be helped."
"Dear, dear, it is unfortunate!" Madame Royaume exclaimed; and then with a fond look at her daughter, "Anne manages so well!"
"Yet if there be a room at any time vacant?"
"You shall a.s.suredly have it."
"But, mother dear," the girl cried, "M. Grio and M. Basterga are permanent on the floor below. And Esau and Louis are now with us, and have but just entered on their course at college. And you know," she continued softly, "no one ever leaves your house before they are obliged to leave it, mother dear!"
The mother patted the daughter"s hand. "No," she said proudly. "It is true. And we cannot turn any one away. And yet," looking up at Anne, "the son of Messer Mercier? You do not think--do you think that we could put him----"
"A closet however small!" Claude cried.
"Unfortunately the room beyond this can only be entered through this one."
"It is out of the question!" the girl responded quickly; and for the first time her tone rang a little hard. The next instant she seemed to repent of her petulance; she stooped and kissed the thin face sunk in the pillow"s softness. Then, rising, "I am sorry," she continued stiffly and decidedly. "But it is impossible!"
"Still--if a vacancy should occur?" he pleaded.
Her eyes met his defiantly. "We will inform you," she said.
"Thank you," he answered humbly. "Perhaps I am fatiguing your mother?"
"I think you are a little tired, dear," the girl said, stooping over her. "A little fatigues you."
Madame"s cheeks were flushed; her eyes shone brightly, even feverishly.
Claude saw this, and having pushed his plea and his suit as far as he dared, he hastened to take his leave. His thoughts had been busy with his chances all the time, his eyes with the woman"s face; yet he bore away with him a curiously vivid picture of the room, of the bow-pot blooming in the farther dormer, of the bra.s.s skillet beside the green boughs which filled the hearth, of the spinning wheel in the middle of the floor, and the great Bible on the linen chest beside the bed, of the sloping roof, and a queer triangular cupboard which filled one corner.
At the time, as he followed the girl downstairs, he thought of none of these things. He only asked himself what mystery lay in the bosom of this quiet house, and what he should say when he stood in the room below at bay before her. Of one thing he was still sure--sure, ay and surer, since he had seen her with her mother,
The sky might fall, fish fly, and sheep pursue The tawny monarch of the Libyan strand!
but he lodged here. The mention of his adversary of last night, which had not escaped his ear, had only hardened him in his resolution. The room of Esau--or was it Louis" room--must be his! He must be Jacob the Supplanter.
She did not speak as she preceded him down the stairs, and before they emerged one after the other into the living-room, which was still unoccupied, he had formed his plan. When she moved towards the outer door to open it he refused to follow: he stood still. "Pardon me," he said, "would you mind giving me the name of the young man who admitted me?"
"I do not see----"
"I only want his name."
"Esau Tissot."
"And his room? Which was it?"
Grudgingly she pointed to the nearer of the two closets, that of which the door stood open.
"That one?"
"Yes."
He stepped quickly into it, and surveyed it carefully. Then he laid his cap on the low truckle-bed. "Very good," he said, raising his voice and speaking through the open door, "I will take it." And he came out again.
The girl"s eyes sparkled. "If you think," she cried, her temper showing in her face, "that that will do you any good----"
"I don"t think," he said, cutting her short, "I take it. Your mother undertook that I should have the first vacant room. Tissot resigned this room this morning. I take it. I consider myself fortunate--most fortunate."
Her colour came and went. "If you were a boor," she cried, "you could not behave worse!"
"Then I am a boor!"
"But you will find," she continued, "that you cannot force your way into a house like this. You will find that such things are not done in Geneva. I will have you put out!"
"Why?" he asked, craftily resorting to argument. "When I ask only to remain and be quiet? Why, when you have, or to-night will have, an empty room? Why, when you lodged Tissot, will you not lodge me? In what am I worse than Tissot or Grio," he continued, "or--I forget the other"s name? Have I the plague, or the falling sickness? Am I Papist or Arian?
What have I done that I may not lie in Geneva, may not lie in your house? Tell me, give me a reason, show me the cause, and I will go."
Her anger had died down while he spoke and while she listened. Instead, the lowness of heart to which she had yielded when she thought herself alone before the hearth showed in every line of her figure. "You do not know what you are doing," she said sadly. And she turned and looked through the cas.e.m.e.nt. "You do not know what you are asking, or to what you are coming."
"Did Tissot know when he came?"
"You are not Tissot," she answered in a low tone, "and may fare worse."
"Or better," he answered gaily. "And at worst----"