"What do you want?"
"Doctor Dufour is here, madame. He just arrived on horseback."
"Light a fire in the sitting-room and ask the doctor to wait for me there. I will be down in a moment."
Then, recollecting that she would be obliged to leave her son, Madame Bastien recalled the servant, and said:
"I have changed my mind. I will see the doctor here in my room. Show him up at once."
Almost immediately the doctor appeared, preceded by Marguerite.
"Good Heavens! what is the matter with you?" exclaimed M. Dufour on seeing Marie.
"Nothing, doctor--"
"Nothing!" repeated the physician, scrutinising Marie with evident surprise, so terrible was the change which the events of the previous evening had wrought in her appearance. "Nothing?"
"Ah, yes, I know," replied Madame Bastien, with a heart-broken smile, reading the doctor"s thoughts from the expression of his face.
Then placing a finger on her lips, she added, in a low tone, with a meaning glance toward the door of Frederick"s chamber:
"We must be very careful, my dear doctor, my son is in there asleep. He has had a terrible experience this evening. I was about to write to you and ask you to come to-morrow. It was Heaven that sent you."
"As my coming seems so opportune, I shall not have to apologise for coming at such an unseasonable hour. I wished to talk with you about a matter that would brook no delay, so I ventured to come almost in the middle of the night and at the risk of disturbing you."
"My G.o.d! what is it?"
"Your son is asleep, is he not?"
"I think so."
"But he might hear us if he is not, so let us go to the other end of the room and speak low, for it is a matter that concerns him."
CHAPTER XVII.
"I wish to speak to you in regard to the mental and physical change which you have noticed in your son, and which is giving you such grave uneasiness."
"Grave indeed, doctor."
"There is a possibility of curing him, I think."
"You really think you can, my dear doctor."
"I? No."
"What do you mean?"
"Have the goodness to read this, madame," said the doctor, drawing a letter from his pocket and handing it to Madame Bastien, who, greatly astonished, took it, and read as follows:
""MY DEAR PIERRE:--The diligence stops here for an hour and I take advantage of the opportunity thus afforded to write to you.
""After leaving you last evening the subject of our last conversation engrossed my thoughts to the exclusion of all other subjects, for what I had seen and heard could not fail to make a deep impression upon me.
""Last night, and this morning as well, I have been unable to drive that poor boy of Madame Bastien"s out of my mind. You know, Pierre, that I am rarely deceived in the deductions I draw from certain physiognomies, and what I saw yesterday and what occurred during the pa.s.sing of the hunting party alike convince me that Madame Bastien"s son feels a deadly hatred for the young Marquis de Pont Brillant.""
Marie, astonished by the justice of this observation, and overcome by her recollection of the terrors of the evening, buried her face in her hands, and began to sob wildly.
"Great Heavens! what is the matter?" cried the doctor.
"Ah, that is only too true. It is hatred, an implacable hatred, that he feels. But who wrote this letter?"
"My best friend, the most generous and n.o.ble-hearted man in the world.
You remember meeting a stranger at my house on St. Hubert"s Day, do you not?"
"The gentleman my son treated so rudely?"
"The same; but pray go on with the letter."
""I have not endeavoured to discover the cause of this animosity, but daily a.s.sociation with Frederick would undoubtedly enable a patient and sagacious person to make a discovery which is indispensable if he would effect a cure. Confident that an implacable animosity has already taken deep root in Frederick"s heart, I ask myself by what strange anomaly he can be a prey to such a deplorable weakness.""
"But who is this man who seems to know my son better than I do myself,--this man whose penetration frightens me; for it has proved more correct, much more correct than you suppose."
"This man," replied the doctor, sadly, "is a man who has suffered much, seen much, and observed much. That is the secret of his remarkable penetration."
Madame Bastien resumed her reading of the letter.
""You have told me, my friend, that Frederick has arrived at what you call the transition period, an epoch of life which is often extremely critical and accompanied with grave physical disturbances.
""Frederick may be strongly affected by these conditions and consequently a prey to feelings which are the more powerful by reason of their very novelty, on account of his mother"s close supervision and the salutary influence she has exerted over him up to this time. And how could even Madame Bastien"s affection and prudence guard against a danger which neither she nor her son apprehended? She must have been quite as unprepared as her son for the violent pa.s.sion which seems to have taken possession of him.
No, even this judicious and devoted mother has no more cause for regret than if her child had been attacked with measles or some other childish disease.""
"Don"t you entirely agree with my friend in this?" inquired the doctor, "I mean in relation to not blaming yourself for the present state of affairs."
"Yes," replied Madame Bastien, thoughtfully, "I shall show no mock modesty with you, my dear doctor. I am conscious of having performed my duties as a mother to the very best of my ability, and I recognise the fact that it was not within the limits of human possibility for any one to foresee or prevent the misfortune which has overtaken my son."
"One word more, my dear doctor," continued Marie, after a moment"s silence. "Your friend saw Frederick for only a few minutes, but long enough, alas! to be treated with inexcusable rudeness. A generous-minded person feels only indulgence and compa.s.sion for a poor sick child, I know, but there is a wide difference between this compa.s.sion and the profound interest which your friend manifests in Frederick. What has my son done to deserve this interest?"
"The latter part of this letter will explain, I think, but I will say this much by way of explanation. My friend had a brother very much younger than himself, of whom he had entire charge after his father"s death. My friend idolised this brother, who was about Frederick"s age.
Like him, he was extremely handsome; like him, he was pa.s.sionately loved, not by a mother, but by the tenderest of brothers."
"And what became of him?" inquired Marie, with interest.
"My friend lost this brother six years ago."
"Ah, now I understand," cried Marie, deeply moved. Then even more thoughtfully she resumed the reading of the letter: