"And we are to have such people for neighbours!" exclaimed the countess.
"An adventuress, and no doubt a Protestant, Monsieur le Cure!"
The abbe was very sore at heart, and, never doubting but that the new mistress of the castle would be no friend of his, he took his way homeward. In his imagination he saw this Madame Scott settled at the castle and despising his little Catholic church and all his simple services to the quiet village folk.
He was still brooding over the unhappy fate of Longueval when his G.o.dson, Jean Reynaud--son of his old friend Dr. Reynaud--to whom he had been as good as a father, and who was worthy of the old priest"s love, dismounted at his door. For Jean was now a lieutenant in the artillery stationed in the district, and much of his leisure was spent at the abbe"s house. Jean tried to console him by saying that even though this American, Madame Scott, were not a Catholic, she was known to be generous, and would no doubt give him money for the poor.
_II.--The New Parishioners_
The abbe and his G.o.dson were in the garden next day, when they heard a carriage stop at the gate. Two ladies alighted, dressed in simple travelling costumes. They came into the garden, and the elder of the two, who seemed to be no more than twenty-five, came up to the Abbe Constantin saying, with only the slightest foreign accent, "I am obliged to introduce myself, M. le Cure. I am Madame Scott, in whose name yesterday the castle and estate were bought, and if it is no inconvenience I should be glad to take five minutes of your time." Then, turning to her companion, she said, "This is my sister, Miss Bettina Percival, as you may have guessed."
Greatly agitated, the abbe bowed his respects, and led into his little vicarage the new mistress of Longueval and her sister. The cloth had been laid for the simple meal of the old priest and the lieutenant, and the ladies seemed charmed with the humble comfort of the place.
"Look now, Susie," said Miss Bettina, "isn"t this just the sort of vicarage you hoped it would be?"
"And the abbe also, if he will allow me to say so," said Madame Scott.
"For what did I say in the train this morning, Bettina, and only a little while ago in the carriage?"
"My sister said to me, M. le Cure," said Miss Percival, "that she desired, above all things, that the abbe should not be young, nor melancholy, nor severe, but that he should be white-haired and gentle and good."
"And that is you exactly, M. le Cure," said Madame Scott brightly. "I find you just as I had hoped, and I trust you may be as well pleased with your new parishioners."
"Parishioners!" exclaimed the abbe. "But then you are Catholics?"
"Certainly we are Catholics!" And noting the surprise of the old abbe, she went on to say, "Ah, I understand! Our name and our country made you expect we should be Protestants and unfriendly to you and your people.
But our mother was a Canadian and a Catholic, of French origin, and that is why my sister and I speak French with just a little foreign accent.
My husband is a Protestant, but he leaves me full liberty, and so my two children are being educated in my own faith. And that is why we have come to see you the first day we have arrived."
The good old priest was overwhelmed by the news, but his joy almost brought tears to his eyes when the ladies each presented him with a thousand francs, and promised five hundred francs a month for the poor.
He had never handled so much money in all his life before.
"Why, there will be no poor left in all the district!" he stammered.
"And we should be glad if that were so," said Madame Scott, "for we have plenty, and we could not do better with it."
Then followed the happiest little dinner party that had ever taken place beneath the abbe"s roof. Madame Scott explained how her husband had bought the chateau as a surprise for her, and that neither she nor her sister had seen it until that morning.
"Now, tell me," she suggested, "what they said about the new owner." The old priest blushed, and was at a loss to answer. "Well, you are a soldier," she continued, turning to Lieutenant Reynaud, "and you will tell me. Did they say that I had been a beggar?"
"Yes, I heard that said."
"And that I had been a performer in a travelling circus?"
"That also I heard said," he admitted.
"I thank you for your frankness; and now let me tell you that, while I can see nothing in either case that would be any disgrace to me, the story does not happen to be true. I have known what it is to be poor, for my parents died eight years ago, leaving us only a great lawsuit, but my father"s last wish was that we should fight it to the end. With the aid of the son of one of his old friends, now my husband, we fought and won. That is how I came into my fortune. The stories you have heard were invented by spiteful Paris journalists."
After the ladies had taken their departure for Paris, the Abbe Constantin was as happy as he had so lately been miserable. And as for Lieutenant Reynaud, the vision of their fresh and charming faces was with him all through the military manoeuvres in which he was now engaged. But as both of them were equally charming in his mind, he concluded he could not have fallen in love, or he would have known which he admired the more.
He did not know how many were the suitors in Paris for Miss Bettina, and possibly if he had seen the sisters among the fashionable people of that gay city he would never have given them a second thought, for he was a true son of the country, this healthy and manly young officer, whose tastes were as simple as the surroundings in which he had grown up demanded.
Miss Bettina, indeed, had only to say the word, and she might have been the Princess Romanelli. "And I should like to be a princess, for the name sounds well," she said to herself. "Oh, if I only loved him!" There were many men of rank and t.i.tle who would have been glad to have married the wealthy young American lady, but she found herself in love with none of them, and now she was looking forward to the fourteenth of June, when she and her sister were to leave Paris for Longueval. During their stay at the castle they were to entertain many friends, but for ten days they were to be free to roam the woods and fields, and forget the distractions of their fashionable life in the capital.
"But you forget," said Madame Scott, on their way to Longueval, "that we are to have two people to dinner to-night."
"Ah, but I shall be glad to welcome both of them--particularly the young lieutenant," Bettina confessed, with a touch of shyness.
_III.--Friendship Grows_
Great alterations had been made at the castle during the month that had elapsed. The rooms had been refurnished, the stables and coach-houses were stocked, the pleasure-grounds made trim and beautiful, and servants were busy everywhere. When the abbe and Jean arrived, they were ushered in by two tall and dignified footmen, but Madame Scott received them with all the frankness she had shown at the vicarage, and presented her son Harry and her daughter Bella, who were six and five years old. Then Miss Percival joined them, and presently they were all talking together like old friends. But the happiest of all was Abbe Constantin. He felt at home again--too much at home--and when coffee was served on the terrace in front of the chateau after dinner, he lost himself in an agreeable reverie. Then--terrible catastrophe!--he fell into his old habit, and sank into an after dinner doze, as he had so often done in the days of the marquise.
Jean and Bettina found much to say to each other, and as the ladies were looking forward to riding round the estates, Jean, who rode every day for exercise, promised to join them. It was quite clear that Miss Bettina was glad to see them both--"particularly the young lieutenant!"
And when Madame Scott and her sister walked up the avenue, after having accompanied Jean and the abbe to the gate, Bettina confessed that she expected to be scolded for being so friendly with Jean.
"But I shall not scold you," Madame Scott said, "for he has made a favourable impression on me from the first. He inspires me with confidence."
"That is just how I feel towards him," said Bettina quietly.
As for Jean, he talked so much to Paul about his visit that that gay young man accused him of having fallen in love, but, of course, that was mere nonsense! There was no fear of Jean falling in love! For a poor lieutenant could never dream of winning an heiress for his wife. When next he met Bettina they had a very long talk about their people, and it appeared that they were both descendants of French peasants. That was why Jean loved the country folk around Longueval. And when he had served his time in the army, he thought he would retire on half-pay--an old colonel, perhaps--and come back to live there.
"Always quite alone?" asked Bettina.
"Why, I hope not."
"Oh, then you intend to marry!"
"Well, one may think of that, though one need not always be seeking to marry."
"Yet there are some who look for it, I know, and I have heard that you might have married more than one girl with a handsome fortune if you had wished."
"And how do you know that?" asked Jean.
"Monsieur le Cure told me. I soon found that nothing makes your G.o.dfather happier than to talk of you, and in our morning walks he tells me your history. Tell me why you refused these good marriages."
"Simply because I thought it better not to marry at all than to marry without love," was Jean"s frank avowal.
"I think so, too," said Bettina.
She looked at him. He looked at her, and suddenly, to the great surprise of both, they found nothing more to say. Fortunately, at this moment Harry and Bella burst into the room with an invitation to see their ponies.
_IV.--Bettina"s Confession_
Three weeks, during which Longueval has been crowded with visitors, have pa.s.sed, and the time has come for Jean to take the road for the annual artillery practice. He will be away for twenty days, and, while he wishes to be off, he wonders how those twenty days will pa.s.s without a sight of Bettina, for now he frankly adores her. He is happy and he is miserable. He knows by every action and every word that she loves him as truly as he loves her. But he feels it his duty to fight against his own heart"s wish, lest the penniless lieutenant might be thought to covet the riches of the young heiress.