Fabiola : or, The church of the catacombs - Digital Repository Services

8 THE NOTARY'S DAUGHTER.
two mothers. She even ventured to remark upon the beauty of
the flowers, and Jacques tried to keep up the conversation.
'I suppose, mademoiselle," he said, "that La Pinede is one
of the prettiest places 111 this neighborhood? "
She shook her head and answered: " La Tour and Fond Saint
are also very nice country houses. The views are not so fine,
but then the gardens are much more neatly kept. You do not
see in them those straggling vines which hang on all the trees
here."
" You do not like them? "
" They destroy the trees, and prevent them from bearing fruit.
And only look how those caper-bushes are springing up in every
direction. My father says nothing injures a place so much
When once they take possession of the soil there is no getting
rid of them."
"And why should they be got rid of?" George asked; "the
lilac flowers of the caper-bush are lovely, with their long pistils
which look like plumes."
" Yes, they are very pretty, but still you ought to have them
pulled up."
"Why?"
"
Because you could plant that hill-side with lucerne. It
would grow as you have water here, and be a profitable crop.
Lucerne sells very well in this country where there is so little
hay."
"O worthy daughter
mentally
of the house of Lescalle," Jacques
exclaimed.
"M. le Comte means, I suppose, to cultivate all this land?"
"I hope not, indeed," George hastily rejoined; "they can
make a kitchen garden somewhere out of sight."
Rose opened her large blue eyes very wide, and "
said, Would
you really not wish to improve this property? "
George made no answer, and Jacques laughingly said that he
meant to plant a great many rose-bushes about the place, and
then Mdlle. Lescalle, when she came to La Pinede, would find
herself surrounded by her namesakes.
This rather stupid compliment did not seem to displease the
young lady, who blushed and smiled, and iu so doing showed a
row of the whitest little teeth.
Before the visitors left, the whole party sat down for a mo-
ment on the terrace. Madame Lescalle caught sight
of the
acacia branch which had pushed its way into George's bedroom.
" Dear, me," she exclaimed, " did they really make over the
house to you in this dreadful state? That horrid tree has quite
spoilt the window. I could send you a carpenter this very evening,
Madame la Comtesse, to saw off that abominable branch and
mend the casement."
"Do not take that trouble, madame," Jacques said. "It is
into my brother's room that the branch trespasses, and George
will not hear of cutting it down."
"
Oh, what an extraordinary idea!"
"
It is a fancy of his."
"
But the effect is so bad. It spoils the symmetry of this side
of the house, and it just happens that it is the only side of La
Pinede which is at all symmetrical. What a pity it is that the
windows are so badly placed otherwise it would be a handsome
house. In those old times they had no idea how to build."
At that moment M. Lescalle's reappearance put an end to the
discussion, and soon afterwards the visitors departed.
As they walked down the avenue, the notary and his family
met a carriage, the dusty appearance of which betokened that it
camu from a distance. Madame Lescalle's eager curiosity could
only discern that it contained an elderly gentleman and a lady
with a black veil on. "Who are those people?" she inquired
CHAPTER IV.
MORE VISITORS.
MDLLE. DENTSE DE LA PINEDE was still in deep mourning for
her father. Her plain black traveling-dress, made like a ridinghabit,
became her tall thin figure. Round her neck she wore a
simple white muslin collar, and on her head a large black felt
hat like those worn by the peasant women in Provence. Her
regular features, large dark eyes, delicately white complexion,
and the masses of black hair on each side of her face, were in
keeping with the simplicity of her dress and the mild, serious
expression of her countenance. She looked the high-born lady
that she was.
M. Legrand, her guardian, was a singularly commonplace in-
dividual. The most remarkable thing about him were his gold
spectacles and an imperturbable self-complacent manner.
Whilst they waited for Madame de Vedelles, he seated himself
in an arm-chair and read the newspaper. Denise stood iu the
middle of the room and looked about her. After the lapse of
sixteen years, she was gazing again on that once familiar scene!
on that room where she used to plav about near her mother's
couch, at the arm-chair her father used to sit in when he came
home from shooting. Nothing was changed in that drawingroom.
Each piece of furniture was iu its old place. The buhl
clock was ticking with the sound she so well remembered.
Flowers filled the old vases in the corners of the room. All
looked the same; but sixteen years had elapsed. Both her father
and her mother were dead La Pinede sold. Here she was as a
visitor in the house where she had been born and had begun
what seemed such a bright existence !
It was a strange feeling, a wonderful change! She looked
at everything with that sad, curious attention with which the
eye rests on once familiar scenes, and as the past rose before
her with overpowering intensity, the orphan girl felt more
deeply than she had ever done before the yearning pain of
bereavement, the utter loneliness of her position. Her heart
swelled with this consciousness, and silent tears coursed down
her pale, beautiful face. She did not perceive that there was
some one looking at her. George de Vedelles had been standing
for some minutes at the door, entranced, absorbed in a state of
intense wondering admiration.
The Comte and Comtesse's entrance interrupted George's
ecstasy, Denise's contemplation, and M. Legrand's perusal of
the Journal des Dclats.
Mdlle. de la Pinede made a strong effort over herself, wiped
her eyes, and hastening towards Madame de Vedelles, said to
her in a low, tremulous voice, "I am sure, dear Madame de
Vedelles, that you understand the feelings of a poor girl who,
after so many years, sees again the home of her childhood, and
that with your usual kindness you sympathize with her."
The Countess took the hands of her young friend in hers and
pressed them affectionately. After a few words of sympathy
and interest had been uttered and answered, Mdlle. de la Pinede
explained that the Comic de Vedelles having
written to her
guardian to ask for the list of the family pictures and the things
that had belonged to the late Madame de la Pinede, and not
been included in the sale of the house as it stood by the express
desire of Count Honore, who had foreseen the possibility of his
daughter's selling the place she had it thought better to come
herself from Toulon, where she was spending some weeks with
an aunt of hers, in order to point out herself what these excep-
tions were, and to arrange the matter with her kind friends.
of her husband. "They are not any of the neighbors."
"I don't know them by sight," M. Lescalle said, after glancing
at the vehicle which passed them Denise had such a pleasant voice, and such a charming way
rapidly. It stopped at the
door of the chateau just as the notary and his family were going
out of the gate of the park.
Vincent came forward, and the old gentleman said, "Will you
tell Madame la Comtesse de Vedelles that Mdlle. Denise de la
Pinede and her guardian have called to see her."
of
speaking, everything she said was so courteous and so well expressed,
that even the old Count, who would naturally have been
disputatious and inclined to stand on his rights, fell completely
under the charm, and hastened to say that Mdlle. Pinede had but
to go through the rooms and point out whatever she wished to be
sent to her, and her directions would be immediately complied