"Ah, if you too hope so, we are saved," exclaimed his mother, joyfully.
"M. Dufour told me that this strange and distressing malady which has been troubling you often disappears as suddenly as it came, like a bad dream, and health returns as if by enchantment."
"A dream!" exclaimed Frederick, looking at his mother with a strange expression on his face; "yes, mother, you are right. It was a bad dream."
"What is the matter, my child? You seem greatly excited, but it is with pleasurable emotion. I know that by your face."
"Yes, mother, yes! If you knew--"
But Frederick did not have time to finish the sentence. A sound that was coming nearer and nearer, but that Marie and her son had not noticed before, made them both turn.
A few yards behind them was a man on horseback, holding Madame Bastien"s mantle in his hand.
Checking his horse, which a servant who was in attendance upon him hastened forward to hold, the rider sprang lightly to the ground, and with his hat in one hand and the mantle in the other he advanced toward Madame Bastien, and bowing low, said, with perfect grace and courtesy of manner:
"I saw this mantle slip from your shoulders, madame, and deem myself fortunate in being able to return it to you."
Then with another low bow, having the good taste to thus evade Madame Bastien"s thanks, the rider returned to his horse and vaulted into the saddle. As he pa.s.sed Madame Bastien he deviated considerably from his course, keeping near a hedge that bordered the field, as if fearing the close proximity of his horse might alarm the lady, then bowed again, and continued on his way at a brisk trot.
This young man, who was about Frederick"s age, and who had a remarkably handsome face and distinguished bearing, had evinced so much grace of manner and politeness, that Madame Bastien innocently remarked to her son:
"It is impossible to conceive of any one more polite or better bred, is it not, Frederick?"
Just as Madame Bastien asked her son this question, a small groom in livery, who was following the horse-man, and who, like his master, was mounted upon a superb blooded horse, pa.s.sed, the lad, who was evidently a strict observer of etiquette, having waited until his master was the prescribed twenty-five yards in advance of him before he moved from his place.
Madame Bastien motioned him to stop. He did so.
"Will you be kind enough to tell me your master"s name?" asked the young woman.
"M. le Marquis de Pont Brillant, madame," replied the groom, with a strong English accent.
Then seeing that his master had started on a brisk trot, the lad did the same.
"Did your hear that, Frederick?" asked Marie, turning to her son. "That was the young Marquis de Pont Brillant. Is he not charming? It is pleasant to see such a worthy representative of rank and fortune, is it not, my son? To be such a high and mighty personage, and so perfectly polite and well-bred, is certainly a charming combination. But why do you not answer me, Frederick? What is the matter, Frederick?" added Madame Bastien, suddenly becoming uneasy.
"There is nothing the matter with me, mother," was the cold reply.
"But there must be. Your face looks so different from what it did a moment ago. You must be suffering, and, great Heavens, how pale you are!"
"The sun has disappeared behind the clouds again, and I am cold!"
"Then let us hasten back,--let us hasten back at once! Heaven grant the improvement you spoke of just now may continue."
"I doubt it very much, mother."
"How despondently you speak."
"I speak as I feel."
"You are not feeling as well, then, my dear child?"
"Not nearly as well," the lad replied. Then added, with a sort of ferocious bitterness, "I have suffered a relapse, a complete relapse, but it is the cold that has caused it, probably."
And the unfortunate youth, who had always adored his mother, now experienced an almost savage delight in increasing his youthful parent"s anxiety, thus avenging the poignant suffering which his mother"s praises of Raoul de Pont Brillant had caused him.
Yes, for jealousy, a feeling as entirely unknown to Frederick as envy had been heretofore, now increased the resentment he already felt against the young marquis.
The mother and son wended their way homeward, Madame Bastien in inexpressible grief and disappointment, Frederick in gloomy silence, thinking with sullen rage that he had been on the point of confessing to his mother the shameful secret for which he blushed, and that at almost the very same moment that she was lavishing enthusiasm upon the object of his envy, the Marquis de Pont Brillant.
The unconscious comparison which his mother had made between the young marquis and himself, a comparison, alas! so unflattering to himself, changed the almost pa.s.sive dislike he had heretofore felt for Raoul de Pont Brillant into an intense and implacable hatred.
CHAPTER VII.
The little town of Pont Brillant is situated a few leagues from Blois, and not far from the Loire.
A promenade called the mall, shaded by lofty trees, bounds Pont Brillant on the south. A few houses stand on the left side of the boulevard, which also serves as a fair ground.
Doctor Dufour lived in one of these houses.
About a month had elapsed since the events we have just related.
Early in the month of November, on St. Hubert"s Day,--St. Hubert, the reader may or may not recollect, is the hunter"s patron saint,--the idlers of the little town had a.s.sembled on the mall about four o"clock in the afternoon to await the return of the young Marquis de Pont Brillant"s hunting party from the neighbouring forest.
The aforesaid idlers were beginning to become impatient at the long delay, when a clumsy cabriolet, drawn by an old work-horse in a dilapidated harness, tied up here and there with strings, drove up to the doctor"s door, and Frederick Bastien, stepping out of this extremely modest equipage, a.s.sisted his mother to alight.
The old horse, whose discretion and docility were established beyond all question, was left standing, with the lines upon his neck, close to the pavement in front of the doctor"s house, which Madame Bastien and her son immediately entered.
An old servant woman ushered them into the parlour, which was on the second floor, with windows overlooking the mall.
"Can the doctor see me?" inquired Madame Bastien.
"I think so, though he is with one of his friends who has been here for a few days but who leaves for Nantes this evening. I will go and tell him that you are here, though, madame."
Envy, aided by jealousy,--the reader probably has not forgotten the praises so innocently lavished upon the young marquis by Madame Bastien,--had made frightful ravages in Frederick"s heart during the past month, and the deterioration in his physical condition having been correspondingly great, one would scarcely have known him. His complexion was not only pale, but jaundiced and bilious, while his hollow cheeks, sunken eyes, which burned with a feverish light, and the bitter smile which was ever upon his lips, imparted an almost ferocious as well as unnatural expression to his face. His abrupt, nervous movements, and his curt, often impatient, voice, also made the contrast between the youth"s past and present condition all the more striking.
Marie Bastien seemed utterly disheartened and discouraged, but the gentle melancholy of her face only made her remarkable beauty still more touching in its character.
A cold reserve on Frederick"s part had succeeded the demonstrative affection that had formerly existed between mother and son. Marie, in despair, had nearly worn herself out in her efforts to discover the cause of this change in her child, and she was now beginning to fear that M. Dufour had been mistaken in his diagnosis of her son"s case. She had accordingly come to consult him again on the subject, not having seen him for some time, as the worthy doctor had been detained at home by the duties and pleasures of a friendly hospitality.
After having gazed sadly at her son for a moment, Marie said to him, almost timidly, as if afraid of irritating him:
"Frederick, as you have accompanied me to the house of our friend, Doctor Dufour, whom I wish to consult in regard to myself, we had better take advantage of the opportunity to speak to him about you."