"You heard that he was killed in a duel, you say?" persevered Salome.
"Yes; the news of his treachery, and the news of his death at the hands of the Duke of Hereward reached me at the same moment in this convent, where I was then pa.s.sing the first year of mourning for my parents. It was that news which decided me to take the vail and devote my life and fortune to the service of the Lord," said the lady, reverently bending her head.
Salome sat staring stonily as one petrified. She was absolutely speechless and motionless from amazement for the s.p.a.ce of a minute or more. Then suddenly recovering her powers, she exclaimed:
"Mother! Mother Genevieve! For Heaven"s sake! Did I understand you? From _whose_ hand did you hear Count Waldemar received his death in a duel?"
"From the hand of the deeply injured husband, of course."
"But--who was he? Who? You mentioned a name!" wildly exclaimed Salome.
"Did I mention a name? Ah! what inadvertence! I never intended to let that name slip out. I am very sorry to have done so. _Mea Culpa! Mea Culpa! Mea maxima culpa!_" muttered the abbess, bending her head and smiting her bosom.
"Mother Genevieve! Oh, do not trifle with me! _do_ not torture me!
I heard a name! Did I hear aright? Oh, I hope I did not! What name did you murmur? Tell me! tell me! WHO met Count Waldemar in a duel?" demanded Salome.
"I have no choice but to tell you now, though I would willingly have kept the fact from you. It _was_ the Duke of Hereward, the late duke of course, the deeply-wronged lover of that fair woman, who met, and, as I heard, killed Count Waldemar de Volaski. But there were wrongs on both sides, deep, deadly wrongs on every side!" moaned the lady, clasping her hands convulsively and lowering her eyes.
"The Duke of Hereward! Heaven of heavens! the Duke of Hereward! Yes!
I heard aright the first time; but I could not believe my own ears! The father of my betrothed!" murmured Salome, sinking back in her seat.
The abbess gravely bent her head.
"What of the frail woman? She was not--oh! no, she _could not_ have been the mother of the present duke?"
"No," murmured the abbess, in a low voice.
"Mother Genevieve!" exclaimed Salome, suddenly, "will you tell me all you know of this terrible story?"
"My daughter, my past is dead and buried these many years; so I would leave it until the last great day of the Resurrection. Nevertheless, as the story of my life is interwoven with that of the princely line in whom you feel so deep an interest, I will relate it."
"Thanks, good mother," said Salome, nestling to her side and preparing to listen.
"Not here, and not now, my child, can I enter upon the long, sorrowful, shameful story--a story of pride, despotism and cruelty on one side; of pa.s.sion, wilfulness and recklessness on the other; of selfishness, sin and ruin on all sides! Daughter, in almost every tale of sin and suffering you will find that there has always been sin on _one_ side and suffering on the _other_; but in this story _all_ sinned deeply, all suffered fearfully!"
"Except yourself, sweet mother. You never sinned," said Salome, taking the thin, pale hand of the lady and pressing it to her lips.
"_Mea culpa!_ I sin every hour of my life!" cried the abbess, crossing herself.
"We all do; but you did not sin _there_," said the girl.
"I had no part--no active part, I mean--in that tale of guilt and woe.
I was a pupil here in this convent then, waiting to be brought out and married to my betrothed. No, I had no part in that tragedy."
"Except the pa.s.sive part of suffering."
"Ay, except the pa.s.sive part of suffering; but hark, my child! the vesper bell is ringing; it calls us to our evening worship: let us go to the choir, and there forget all our earthly cares and seek the peace of Heaven," said the pale lady, slowly rising from her seat.
"When will you tell me the story, good mother?" pleaded Salome, in a low and deprecating tone.
"The vesper bell is ringing. The rules of the house must not be disturbed by your individual necessities. After the evening service comes the evening meal. Then, for me, my hour of rest in my cell; and for you, the duty of seeing your infant charge put to bed. When all these matters have been properly attended to, come to me in my cell. You will find me there.
We shall be uninterrupted until the midnight ma.s.s; and in the interim I will tell you the story of a life that "was lost, but is found, was dead, but is alive"--_Benedicite_, my daughter!" said the abbess, spreading her hands upon the bowed head of the girl, and solemnly blessing her.
Then she glided away.
Salome soon followed her, and joined the procession of nuns to the chapel.
As soon as she took her seat in the choir, she looked through the screen over the congregation below, to see if the strangers were in the chapel; but she saw them not.
When the vesper service was over, she took her tea with the nuns in their refectory; and then returned to the play-room in the Infants" Asylum.
The nurses were engaged in giving the little ones their supper, and putting them to bed.
Salome took up her own little Marie Perdue, to undress her.
As she divested the child of her little slip, something rolled out of its bosom and dropped upon the floor.
One of the nurses picked it up and handed it to Salome.
It was a small, hard substance, wrapped in tissue paper.
Salome unrolled it and found a ring, set with a large solitaire diamond.
With a cry of surprise and pain, she recognized the jewel. It was her late father"s ring! While she gazed upon it in a trance of wonder, the paper in which it had been wrapped, caught by a breeze from the open window, fluttered under her eyes. She saw that there was writing on the paper, and she took it up and read it.
"The ring must be sold for the benefit of the child and of the house that has protected her. She must be educated to become a nun."
There was no signature to this paper.
Salome rolled it around the ring again, and put it in her bosom, then she sent one of the nurses to call Sister Francoise.
When the old nun came into her presence, she inquired:
"Sister Francoise, you showed a lady and gentleman through the asylum, this afternoon; they came into this room; they stopped and noticed little Marie Perdue particularly. Did they ask any questions or make any remarks concerning her? I have an especial reason for asking."
"Oh, yes, sister! they did ask many questions--when she came, how long she had been, who took care of her, what was her name, and many more; and as I answered them to the best of my knowledge, I could not help seeing that they knew more about the child than I did," answered the nun, nodding her head.
"Did the gentleman or lady give anything to the child?"
"Not that _I_ saw, which I thought unkind of them, considering all the interest they showed in _words_; for, as I say of all the fine ladies who come here and fondle the infants, what"s the use of all the fondling if they never put a sou out, or a st.i.tch in?"
"That will do, sister; I only wanted to know," answered the young lady, as she determined to keep her own counsel, and confide the news of the surrept.i.tiously offered ring to the abbess only.
When she had rocked her child to sleep, laid it on its little cot, and placed two novices on duty to watch over the slumbers of the children, she left the dormitory by the rectangular pa.s.sage that led to the nuns"
house, and repaired at once to the cell occupied by the abbess.
It was a plain little den, in no respect better than those tenanted by her humble nuns, twelve feet long, by nine broad, with bare walls, and bare floor, and a small grated window at the farther end, opposite the narrow, grated door by which the cell was entered. It was furnished poorly with a narrow cot bed, a wooden stool, and a small stand, upon which lay the office-book of the abbess, and above which hung the crucifix.
As Salome entered the cell, the abbess arose from her knees and signed for her visitor to be seated.