"Can"t you give a straightforward answer?" he exclaimed. "Have you come to say you will marry the girl or not?"
The man looked at his feet as though he expected to find advice there:
"If it"s as M"sieu l"cure says," he replied, "I"ll have her; but if it"s as M"sieu Julien says, I won"t."
"What did M. Julien tell you?"
"M"sieu Julien told me as how I should have fifteen hundred francs; but M"sieu l"cure told me as how I should "ave twenty thousand. I"ll have her for twenty thousand, but I won"t for fifteen hundred."
The baroness was tickled by the perplexed look on the yokel"s face and began to shake with laughter as she sat in her armchair. Her gayety surprised the peasant, who looked at her suspiciously out of the corner of his eye as he waited for an answer.
The baron cut short all this haggling.
"I have told M. le cure that you shall have the farm at Barville, which is worth twenty thousand francs, for life, and then it is to become the child"s. That is all I have to say on the matter, and I always keep my word. Now is your answer yes or no?"
A satisfied smile broke over the man"s face, and, with a sudden loquacity:
"Oh, then, I don"t say no," he replied. "That was the only thing that pulled me up. When M"sieu l"cure said somethin" to me about it in the first place, I said yes at once, "specially as it was to oblige M"sieu l"baron who"d be sure to pay me back for it, as I says to myself. Ain"t it always the way, and doesn"t one good turn always deserve another? But M"sieu Julien comes up and then it was only fifteen "undred francs. Then I says to myself, "I must find out the rights o" this and so I came "ere. In coorse I b"lieved your word, M"sieu l"baron, but I wanted to find out the rights o" the case. Short reck"nings make long friends, don"t they, M"sieu l"baron?"
He would have gone on like this till dinner-time if no one had interrupted him, so the baron broke in with:
"When will you marry her?"
The question aroused the peasant"s suspicions again directly.
"Couldn"t I have it put down in writin" first?" he asked in a halting way.
"Why bless my soul, isn"t the marriage-contract good enough for you?"
exclaimed the baron, angered by the man"s suspicious nature.
"But until I get that I should like it wrote down on paper," persisted the peasant. "Havin" it down on paper never does no harm."
"Give a plain answer, now at once," said the baron, rising to put an end to the interview. "If you don"t choose to marry the girl, say so. I know someone else who would be glad of the chance."
The idea of twenty thousand francs slipping from his hands into someone else"s, startled the peasant out of his cautiousness, and he at once decided to say "yes":
"Agreed, M"sieu l"baron!" he said, holding out his hand as if he were concluding the purchase of a cow. "It"s done, and there"s no going back from the bargain."
The baron took his hand and cried to the cook:
"Ludivine! Bring a bottle of wine."
The wine was drunk and then the peasant went away, feeling a great deal lighter-hearted than when he had come.
Nothing was said about this visit to Julien. The drawing up of the marriage-contract was kept a great secret; then the banns were published and Rosalie was married on the Monday morning. At the church a neighbor stood behind the bride and bridegroom with a child in her arms as an omen of good luck, and everyone thought Desire Lecoq very fortunate. "He was born with a caul," said the peasants with a smile.
When Julien heard of the marriage he had a violent quarrel with the baron and baroness and they decided to shorten their visit at Les Peuples. Jeanne was sorry but she did not grieve as before when her parents went away, for now all her hopes and thoughts were centered on her son.
IX
Now Jeanne was quite well again she thought she would like to return the Fourville"s visit, and also to call on the Couteliers. Julien had just bought another carriage at a sale, a phaeton. It only needed one horse, so they could go out twice a month, now, instead of once, and they used it for the first time one bright December morning.
After driving for two hours across the Normandy plains they began to go down to a little valley, whose sloping sides were covered with trees, while the level ground at the bottom was cultivated. The ploughed fields were followed by meadows, the meadows by a fen covered with tall reeds, which waved in the wind like yellow ribbons, and then the road took a sharp turn and the Chateau de la Vrillette came in sight. It was built between a wooded slope on the one side and a large lake on the other, the water stretching from the chateau wall to the tall fir-trees which covered the opposite acclivity.
The carriage had to pa.s.s over an old draw-bridge and under a vast Louis XIII. archway before it drew up in front of a handsome building of the same period as the archway, with brick frames round the windows and slated turrets. Julien pointed out all the different beauties of the mansion to Jeanne as if he were thoroughly acquainted with every nook and corner of it.
"Isn"t it a superb place?" he exclaimed. "Just look at that archway! On the other side of the house, which looks on to the lake, there is a magnificent flight of steps leading right down to the water. Four boats are moored at the bottom of the steps, two for the comte and two for the comtesse. The lake ends down there, on the right, where you can see that row of poplars, and there the river, which runs to Fecamp, rises. The place abounds in wild-fowl, and the comte pa.s.ses all his time shooting.
Ah! it is indeed a lordly residence."
The hall door opened and the fair-haired comtesse came to meet her visitors with a smile on her face. She wore a trailing dress like a chatelaine of the middle ages, and, exactly suited to the place in which she lived, she looked like some beautiful Lady of the Lake.
Four out of the eight drawing-room windows looked on to the lake, and the water looked dull and dismal, overshadowed as it was by the gloomy fir-trees which covered the opposite slope.
The comtesse took both Jeanne"s hands in hers as if she had known her for ages, placed her in a seat and then drew a low chair beside her for herself, while Julien, who had regained all his old refinement during the last five months, smiled and chatted in an easy, familiar way. The comtesse and he talked about the rides they had had together. She laughed a little at his bad horsemanship, and called him "The Tottering Knight," and he too laughed, calling her in return "The Amazon Queen."
A gun went off just under the window, and Jeanne gave a little cry. It was the comte shooting teal, and his wife called him in. There was the splash of oars, the grating of a boat against the stone steps and then the comte came in, followed by two dogs of a reddish hue, which lay down on the carpet before the door, while the water dripped from their s.h.a.ggy coats.
The comte seemed more at his ease in his own house, and was delighted to see the vicomte and Jeanne. He ordered the fire to be made up, and Madeira and biscuits to be brought.
"Of course you will dine with us," he exclaimed.
Jeanne refused the invitation, thinking of Paul; and as he pressed her to stay and she still persisted in her refusal, Julien made a movement of impatience. Then afraid of arousing her husband"s quarrelsome temper, she consented to stay, though the idea of not seeing Paul till the next day was torture to her.
They spent a delightful afternoon. First of all the visitors were taken to see the springs which flowed from the foot of a moss-covered rock into a crystal basin of water which bubbled as if it were boiling, and then they went in a boat among the dry reeds, where paths of water had been formed by cutting down the rushes.
The comte rowed (his two dogs sitting each side of him with their noses in the air) and each vigorous stroke of the oars lifted the boat half out of the water and sent it rapidly on its way. Jeanne let her hand trail in the water, enjoying the icy coolness, which seemed to soothe her, and Julien and the comtesse, well wrapped up in rugs, sat in smiling silence in the stern of the boat, as if they were too happy to talk.
The evening drew on, and with it the icy, northerly wind came over the withered reeds. The sun had disappeared behind the firs, and it made one cold only to look at the crimson sky, covered with tiny, red fantastically-shaped clouds.
They all went in to the big drawing-room where an enormous fire was blazing. The room seemed to be filled with an atmosphere of warmth and comfort, and the comte gayly took up his wife in his strong arms like a child, and gave her two hearty kisses on her cheeks.
Jeanne could not help smiling at this good-natured giant to whom his moustaches gave the appearance of an ogre. "What wrong impressions of people one forms every day," she thought; and, almost involuntarily, she glanced at Julien. He was standing in the doorway his eyes fixed on the comte and his face very pale. His expression frightened her and, going up to him, she asked:
"What is the matter? are you ill?"
"There"s nothing the matter with me," he answered, churlishly. "Leave me alone. I only feel cold."
Dinner was announced and the comte begged permission for his dogs to come into the dining-room. They came and sat one on each side of their master, who every minute threw them some sc.r.a.p of food. The animals stretched out their heads, and wagged their tails, quivering with pleasure as he drew their long silky ears through his fingers.
After dinner, when Jeanne and Julien began to say good-bye, the comte insisted on their staying to see some fishing by torchlight. They and the comtesse stood on the steps leading down to the lake, while the comte got into his boat with a servant carrying a lighted torch and a net. The torch cast strange trembling reflections over the water, its dancing glimmers even lighting up the firs beyond the reeds; and suddenly, as the boat turned round, an enormous fantastic shadow was thrown on the background of the illumined wood. It was the shadow of a man, but the head rose above the trees and was lost against the dark sky, while the feet seemed to be down in the lake. This huge creature raised its arms as if it would grasp the stars; the movement was a rapid one, and the spectators on the steps heard a little splash.
The boat tacked a little, and the gigantic shadow seemed to run along the wood, which was lighted up as the torch moved with the boat; then it was lost in the darkness, then reappeared on the chateau wall, smaller, but more distinct; and the loud voice of the comte was heard exclaiming:
"Gilberte, I have caught eight!"
The oars splashed, and the enormous shadow remained standing in the same place on the wall, but gradually it became thinner and shorter; the head seemed to sink lower and the body to get narrower, and when M. de Fourville came up the steps, followed by the servant carrying the torch, it was reduced to his exact proportions, and faithfully copied all his movements. In the net he had eight big fish which were still quivering.