"It is--well, it is Brother St. Ernest-Martyr, mother."
Dropping her embroidery, Bridget contemplated her daughter with extreme astonishment. Hena, however, proceeded with a candid smile:
"Does that astonish you, mother? I am, myself, a good deal more astonished."
Hena uttered these words with such ingenuousness, her handsome face, clear as her soul, turned to her mother with such trustfulness, that Bridget, at once uneasy and confident--uneasy, by reason of the revelation; confident, by reason of Hena"s innocent a.s.surance--said to her after a short pause:
"Indeed, dear daughter, I am astonished at what I learn from you. You saw, it seems to me, Brother St. Ernest-Martyr only two or three times at our friend Mary La Catelle"s, before that unhappy affair of the other evening on the bridge."
"Yes, mother. And that is just the extraordinary thing about it. Since day before yesterday I constantly think of Brother St. Ernest-Martyr.
And that is not all. Last night I dreamt of him!"
"Dreamt of him!" exclaimed Bridget.
So far from evading her mother"s gaze, Hena"s only answer was two affirmative nods of the head, which she gave, opening wide her beautiful blue eyes, in which the childlike and charming astonishment, that her own sentiments caused her, was depicted.
"Yes, mother; I dreamt of him. I saw him picking up at the door of a church a poor child that shook with cold. I saw him pick up the child, hold it in his arms, warm it with his breath, and contemplate it with so pitying and tender an air, that the tears forced themselves to my eyes.
I was so moved that I woke up with a start--and I really wept!"
"That dream is singular, my daughter!"
"Singular? No! The dream is explainable enough. Day before yesterday Herve was telling me of the charitable nature of Brother St.
Ernest-Martyr. That same evening we saw the poor monk carried into our house with his face bleeding. That I should have been deeply impressed, and should have dreamt of him, I understand. But what I do not understand is that when I am awake, wide awake, I should still think of him. Look, even now, when I shut my eyes"--and, smiling, Hena suited the action to the words--"I still see him as if he stood there, with that kind face of his that he turns upon the little children."
"But, my dear daughter, when you think of Brother St. Ernest-Martyr, what is the nature of your thoughts?"
Hena pondered for an instant, and then answered:
"I would not know how to explain it to you, mother. When I think of him I say to myself: "How good, how generous, how brave is Brother St.
Ernest-Martyr! Day before yesterday he braved the sword to defend Mary La Catelle; another day, on the Notre Dame Bridge, he leaped into the water to save an unhappy man who was drowning; he picks up little deserted children, or gives them instruction with so much interest and affection that their own father could not display more solicitude in them.""
"Thinking over it, dear child, there is nothing in all that but what is perfectly natural. The brother is an upright man. Your thoughts turn upon his good deeds. That"s quite simple."
"No, mother, it is not quite so simple as you put it! Are not you all that is best in this world? Is not my father as upright a man as Brother St. Ernest-Martyr? Are not you two my beloved and venerated parents? And yet--that is what puzzles me, how comes it that I oftener think of him than of either of you?"
And after a pause the young maid added in an accent of adorable candor:
"I tell you, mother, it is truly extraordinary!"
Several impatient raps, given at the street door interrupted the conversation. Bridget said to her daughter:
"Open the window, and see who it is that knocks. Probably it is your brother."
"Yes, mother; it is he; it is Herve," said Hena, opening the window.
She descended to the floor below.
"My G.o.d!" thought Bridget to herself in no slight agitation. "How am I to interpret the confidence of Hena? Her soul is incapable of dissimulation. She has told me the whole truth, without being aware of the sentiments the young monk awakens in her. I can hardly wait to inform Christian of this strange discovery!"
The sound of Herve"s steps hurriedly ascending the stairs drew Bridget from her brown study. She saw her son rush in, followed by his sister.
As he stepped into the room he cried with a troubled countenance:
"Oh, mother! mother!" and embracing her tenderly he added: "Oh, mother!
What sad news I bring you!"
"Dear child, what is it?"
"Our poor Mary La Catelle--"
"What has happened to her?"
"This evening, as I was about to leave the printing shop, father asked me to accompany him part of the way. He was going to a friend"s, with whom he was to take supper this evening. Father said: "La Catelle"s house is on our way, we shall drop in and inquire whether she is still suffering from her painful experience of the other evening"--"
"Yesterday morning," Bridget broke in, "after I took her home with your sister, we left Mary calm and at ease. She is a brave woman."
"Notwithstanding her firm nature and her self-control, she succ.u.mbed to the reaction of that night"s excitement. Last night she was seized with a high fever. She was bled twice to-day. A minute ago we found her in a desperate state. A fatal end is apprehended."
"Poor Mary!" exclaimed Hena, clasping her hands in despair, and her eyes filling with tears. "What a misfortune! This news overwhelms me with sorrow!"
"Unhappily her sister-in-law left yesterday for Meaux with her husband,"
remarked Herve. "La Catelle, at death"s door, is left at this moment to the care of a servant."
"Hena, quick, my cloak!" said Bridget rising precipitately from her seat. "I can not leave that worthy friend to the care of mercenary hands. I shall run to her help."
"Good, dear mother, you but forestall father"s wishes," observed Herve, as his sister hurried to take Bridget"s cloak out of a trunk. "Father told me to hurry and notify you of this misfortune. He said he knew how attached you were to our friend, and that you would wish to spend the night at her bed, and render her the care she stands in need of."
Wrapping herself in her cloak, Bridget was about to leave the house.
"Mother," said Hena, "will you not take me with you?"
"How can you think of such a thing, child, at this hour of night!"
"Sister, it is for me to escort mother," put in Herve; and, with a tender voice, accompanied with the offer of his forehead for Bridget to kiss, the hypocrite added:
"Is it not the sweetest of my duties to watch over you, good mother?"
"Oh," said Bridget, moved, and kissing her son"s forehead, "I recognize you again, my son!" With this pa.s.sing allusion to the painful incidents of the last few days, which she had already forgiven, the unsuspecting mother proceeded: "A woman of my age runs no risk on the street, my son; besides, I do not wish your sister to remain alone in the house."
"I am not afraid, mother," Hena responded. "I shall bolt the door from within. I shall feel easier that way than to have you go out without company at this hour of night. Why, mother, remember what happened to La Catelle night before last! Let Herve go with you."
"Mother," put in Herve, "you hear what my dear sister says."
"Children, we are losing precious time. Let us not forget that, at this hour, our friend may be expiring in the hands of a stranger. Good-bye!"
"How unlucky that just to-day our uncle should have gone to St. Denis!"
put in Herve with a sigh. But seeming to be struck with an idea he added: "Mother, why could not both Hena and I accompany you?"
"Oh, darling brother, you deserve an embrace, twenty embraces, for that bright thought," said the young girl, throwing her arms around Herve"s neck. "It is agreed, mother, we shall all three go together."