"M. le marquis has never been a victim to the Chinese craze, madame,"
was the reply. "He likes hunting much better. It was his great-grandfather who had this house built, because it was the fashion at that time, that is all."
Marie could not help shrugging her shoulders the least bit in the world, and exchanging a half-smile with her son, who seemed to become more and more thoughtful as he followed his mother, to whom the doctor had offered his arm to conduct her along a winding path leading from the winter-garden to a rocky grotto, lighted by large, lens-shaped pieces of blue gla.s.s inserted in the rocks, which imparted to this subterranean chamber, ornamented with beautiful sea-sh.e.l.ls and coral, a pale light similar to that which pervades the depths of the ocean.
"We are going to the home of the water-nymphs now, are we not?" asked Madame Bastien, gaily, as she began the descent. "Isn"t some mermaid coming to welcome us upon the threshold of her watery empire?"
"Nothing of the kind," replied the doctor. "This subterranean pa.s.sage, carpeted, as you see, and always kept warm during the winter, leads to the chateau; for you must have noticed that all the different buildings we have seen are connected by covered pa.s.sages, so in winter one can go from one to the other without fearing rain or cold."
In fact, this grotto was connected, by a spiral staircase, with the end of a long gallery called the Guards" Hall, and which in years gone by had probably served for that purpose. Ten windows of stained gla.s.s, with the Pont Brillant coat-of-arms emblazoned upon them, lighted this immense room finished in richly carved oak, with a sky ceiling divided by heavy groins of carved oak.
Ten figures in complete suits of armour, helmet on head, visor down, halberd in hand, sword at side, were ranged in line on the other side of the gallery, facing, and directly opposite the ten windows, where the reflection from the stained gla.s.s cast prismatic lights upon the steel armour, making it stand out in vivid relief against the dark woodwork.
In the middle of this hall, upon a pedestal, was a knight, also in a complete suit of armour, mounted upon a battle-steed hewn out of wood, which was entirely hidden by its steel bards and long, richly emblazoned trappings. The knight"s armour, which was heavily embossed with gold, was a marvel of the goldsmith"s art and of elaborate ornamentation, and M. le chef of the conservatories, pausing in front of the figure, said with a certain amount of family pride:
"This suit of armour was worn by Raoul IV., Sire de Pont Brillant, during the First Crusade, which proves beyond a doubt that the n.o.bility of M. le marquis is of no recent date."
Just then an elderly man, dressed in black, having opened one of the ma.s.sive doors of the hall, M. Dutilleul remarked to Doctor Dufour:
"Ah, doctor, here is M. Legris, the keeper of the silver. He is a friend of mine. I will ask him to show you about. He will prove a much better guide than I should be."
And advancing toward the old man, M. Dutilleul said:
"My dear Legris, here are some friends of mine who would like to see the castle. I am going to hand them over to you, and in return, whenever any of your acquaintances wish to inspect the hothouses--"
"Our friends" friends are our friends, Dutilleul," replied the keeper of the silver, rather, peremptorily; then, with a rather familiar gesture, he motioned the visitors to follow him into the apartments which a large corps of servants had just finished putting in order.
It would take entirely too long to enumerate all the splendid adornments of this castle, or rather, palace, from the library, which many a large town might have envied, to a superb picture gallery, containing many of the finest specimens of both the old and the modern school of art, upon which the visitors could only cast a hasty glance, for, in spite of the obliging promise made to M. Dutilleul, the keeper of the castle silver seemed rather impatient to get rid of his charges.
The first floor, as M. Dufour had said, consisted of an extensive suite of apartments, each of which might have served as an ill.u.s.tration of some particular epoch in interior decoration between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries; in short, it was a veritable museum, though of an essentially private character, by reason of the many family portraits and the valuable relics of every sort and kind which had belonged to different members of this great and ancient house.
In one of the wings on the second floor were the apartments of the dowager Marquise de Pont Brillant. In spite of that lady"s advanced age, these rooms had been newly fitted up in the daintiest, most coquettish style imaginable. There was a profusion of lace and gilding and costly brocades, as well as of elaborately carved rosewood furniture, and superb ornaments of Sevres and Dresden china. The bedchamber, hung with pink and white brocade, with a canopied bedstead decorated with big bunches of white ostrich feathers, was especially charming. The dressing-room was really a ravishing boudoir hung with pale blue satin, studded with marguerites. In the middle of this room, furnished in gilded rosewood, like the adjoining bedchamber, was a magnificent dressing-table, draped with costly lace caught back with knots of ribbon, and covered with toilet articles, some of wrought gold, others of sky-blue Sevres.
Our three friends had just entered this apartment when a haughty, arrogant-looking man appeared in the doorway. This personage, who wore a bit of red ribbon in the b.u.t.tonhole of his long frock coat, was nothing more or less than my lord steward of the castle and surrounding domain.
On seeing the three strangers, this high and mighty personage frowned with an intensely surprised and displeased air.
"What are you doing here?" he demanded, imperiously, of his subordinate, M. Legris. "Why are you not attending to your silver? Who are these people?"
On hearing these discourteous words, Madame Bastien turned scarlet with confusion, the little doctor straightened himself up to his full height, and Frederick rashly muttered, under his breath, "Insolent creature!" as he stepped a little closer to his mother.
Madame Bastien gave her son"s hand a warning pressure, as she slightly shrugged her shoulder as if to show her disdain.
"They are some friends of Dutilleul"s, M. Desmazures," replied M.
Legris, humbly. "He asked me to take them through the chateau, and--and I thought--"
"Why, this is outrageous!" exclaimed the steward, interrupting him. "I never heard of such a.s.surance. Such a thing wouldn"t be allowed in the house of a tradesman on the Rue St. Denis! The idea of taking the first person that comes along into the apartments of madame la marquise, in this fashion."
"Monsieur," said Doctor Dufour, firmly, walking toward the steward, "Madame Bastien, her son, and myself, who am M. Dutilleul"s physician, thought we were committing no indiscretion--nor were we--in accepting an offer to show us the chateau. I have visited several royal residences, monsieur, and think it well to inform you that I have always been politely treated by the person in charge of them."
"That is very possible, monsieur," answered the steward, dryly, "but you doubtless applied to some person who was authorised to give it, for permission to visit these royal residences. You should have addressed a written application to me, the steward, and the sole master here in M.
le marquis"s absence."
"We must beg monsieur to kindly pardon our ignorance of these formalities," said Madame Bastien, with a mocking smile, as if to show her son how little she minded this pompous functionary"s discourtesy.
She took Frederick"s arm as she spoke.
"If I had been more familiar with the usages of monsieur"s administration," added the doctor, with a sarcastic smile, "monsieur would have received a respectful request that in his omnipotent goodness he would kindly grant us permission to inspect the chateau."
"Is that intended as a jest, monsieur?" demanded the steward, angrily.
"Somewhat, monsieur," replied the little doctor.
The irascible functionary took a step forward.
"In order not to close this conversation with a jest, monsieur,"
interposed Madame Bastien, turning to the steward, "permit me to say in all seriousness, monsieur, that I have often read that the house of any great n.o.bleman could always be recognised by the urbanity of his hirelings."
"Well, madame?"
"Well, monsieur, it seems to me that you must desire to prove this rule--by the exception."
It is impossible to describe the perfect dignity with which Marie Bastien gave this well-deserved lesson to the arrogant hireling, who bit his lip with rage, unable to utter a word, whereupon Marie, taking the doctor"s arm, gaily remarked to her companions:
"You should not manifest so much surprise. Don"t you know that one often meets with evil spirits in enchanted countries? It is a satisfaction to know that they are nearly always of an inferior order. Let us hasten away with recollections of these wonders which the evil genius cannot spoil."
A few minutes afterward Madame Bastien, Frederick, and the doctor left the castle. Marie, out of consideration for the doctor, who seemed greatly pained at this contretemps, as well as by reason of her natural good nature, bore her share of their mutual discomfiture cheerfully, even gaily, and laughed not a little at the absurdly important airs the steward had given himself. M. Dufour, who cared nothing about the man"s rudeness except so far as it might affect Madame Bastien, soon recovered his natural good spirits when he saw how little importance his fair companion seemed to attach to the affair.
A quarter of an hour afterward the three friends were sitting in the shade of a clump of gigantic oaks, enjoying their lunch. Frederick, though he manifested some little constraint of manner, seemed to share his companions" high spirits, but Marie, too clear-sighted not to notice that her son was not exactly himself, fancied she could divine the cause of his preoccupation, and teased him a little about the importance he seemed to attach to the steward"s impertinence.
"Come, come, my handsome Cid, my valiant cavalier," she said, gaily, "keep your anger and your trusty blade for an adversary worthy of you.
The doctor and I both gave the ill-bred fellow a good lesson. Now let us think only of ending the day as pleasantly as possible, and of the pleasure it will give us for weeks to come to talk of the treasures of every kind that we have seen."
Then, with a laugh, the young mother added:
"Say, Frederick, don"t forget to-morrow morning to tell old Andre, M. le chef of our open-air garden, not to forget to bring us a bouquet of lilies of the valley and violets."
"Yes, mother," answered Frederick, smiling.
"And I wish you would also have the goodness to tell M. le chef of our stables to harness our venerable white horse in the afternoon, as we must go to the village to do some shopping."
"And I, madame," exclaimed the doctor, with his mouth full of cake, "take great pleasure in a.s.suring you, or, rather, I should say, in proving to you that your old Marguerite, the chef of your culinary department, is a none-such, so far as cake-making is concerned,--for this cake is certainly--"
But the good doctor did not finish the sentence, as he choked badly in his effort to talk and eat at the same time.
So with gay jests and laughter the meal went on, and Frederick tried his best to share his companions" hilarity; but the lad"s mirth was constrained, he was conscious of a strange and increasing feeling of annoyance. As certain vague and inexplicable symptoms presage the invasion of a still latent malady, so certain vague and inexplicable sentiments seemed to be germinating in Frederick"s heart. The nature of these sentiments, though as yet not very clearly defined, caused him a feeling of instinctive shame, so much so, in fact, that he, who had always been so confiding with his mother, now dreaded her penetration for the first time in his life, and deliberately set to work to deceive her by feigning all the rest of the day a gaiety that he was far from feeling.