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12
from whence she could sec the road. There she sat knitting,
eri.-Ji activity, a thick stocking for her charity
THE XVTAIIY'S DAUGHTER.
Mi.'do was then about seventy years of age. She was
tall, thin and as straight as an arrow; hor face rather long, her
luiline, her lips compressed, in consequence of the loss of
her front teeth. Her features indicated a great strength r>f will,
and would have been, perhaps, a little stern, if it had not been
for the sweet expression of her large, grey, and still very beautiful
Ilrr dress was half like that of a nun, half like that of a peasant
It consisted of a gown made of a thick, dark stuff; a round
white plaited cap, and a stiffly-starched handkerchief standing
out. iu projecting folds over her bosom.
Wlien Madame Lescalle's wonderful bonnet appeared in the
road, the old lady rose and went to meet her relatives.
"
Well, Virginie," she said, "are you pleased with your visit?"
Madame Lescalle shrugged her shoulders and answered, "Madame
de Vedelles was civil enough; but she is not particularly
agreeable. I think she is as stiff as a poker that woman."
"And the Count?"
"Upon my word, I
and that wa.s all."
hardly saw him. He just bowed to us
"My dear," M. Toussaint put in
me on business."
"the Count had to speak to
"
Oh, of course; but he might have said a few words to us."
" He sent his son to make acquaintance with you."
"Oh, yes! and a charming young man he is; so handsome and
tall, and conversable too, quite different from his parents."
" He is the eldest son.Jhe only one they call What do
they call him?" M. Lescalle asked.
"
M. Jacques," Rose said.
"Ah! you remember his name, mademoiselle," Madame Lescalle
laughingly remarked, and then added in a low voice to Aunt
Mode, " He looked a great deal at Rose, and he said something
complimentary about her complexion."
"She is not an ugly little thing," the aunt rejoined, kissing
one of Rose's blooming cheeks.
" But what is far belter than compliments, Aunt Mede," M.
Toussaint said, " is the certainty of being employed in the entire
nicut of the Count's affairs. He is tired of business, and
means in future to leave everything to me. This will necessitate
ing a great deal at La Pinede. I am going to breakfast
there to morrow. We have to talk about the lease of a farm.'
" How ancry the Arnoux will be," Madame Lescalle exclaimed.
"Oh! but you must not say anything about it, Virginie."
"
Why not?"
"
It is better M. Arnoux should suppose I go there as a friend.
It will have a better effect."
"My poor dear Toussaint," Aunt Mede exclaimed, " what a
foolish sort of vanity that is!"
"
My dear aunt, people value us according to the value we set
on ourselves. I learnt that in Paris. For one person who looks
into things, five hundred take them on trust, and believe you are
what you give yourself out to be."
"
I know of
" I do not like that principle," Aunt Mede said.
a better one, I think."
" What i.s it, Aunt Mede?"
"
It is better to be, than to seem, worthy of esteem."
"
Oh! that is a line sentence for a copy book, Mise Mede; but
high flights do not answer in real life. Come now, you
'limit that if they think me in the town on intimate terms
at the chateau, it will give me a sort of prestige. If 1 am simas
the factotum of the' old Count, it will not do
iod. Trust to mo, my dear aunt. I know
Veil' :
''
'r my little bark. It has made good way already, I
m influential person at the elections, and people
up to me in consequence the Richers on the one hand,
'lids on tin' oilier. lam not quite sure that the de
notions of that sort too. I am rather in-
it tin- future will show. JS'ow, let us go to
eat."
They
all went into the house, and then on the terrace, where
dinner was served amidst the onr \\ the place where the
view was most beautiful and extensive To the right rose the
crested walls and picturesque gateways of LaCiotat, surmounted
by the roofs of the houses. Further on a high rock, called the
Eagle's Beak, stood out in hold relief against the deep blue sky.
To the left a beautiful rang, of hills enfolded the bay in which
lies the port of Tou.on on the foreground, exactly opposite,
was the picturesque litt.e islet called 1'Ile Verte, and the sea
glittering like burnished gold in the broad sunshine.
It was just at the same hour that George de Vedelles was stand-
ing at his window, absently gazing on the magnificent landscape.
"Does not the sea look beautiful from my terrace, Rosette? "
Aunt Mede said to
"
her niece. We have taken away all the
palisades which used to surround it, little one, to prevent your
falling over the edge and nothing now impedes the view."
" Oh, Aunt Mede. it is indeed very beautiful," the young girl
said, and then for a moment remained in silent admiration. "I
never saw so bright a sunshine as that at St. Benoit, the walls
were so high." And then the conversation turned again on the
inhabitants of the chateau.
In the midst of Madame Lescalle's rather prosy descriptions,
Mise Mede said, Bu you only speak
"
thought the Countess had two sons?
of
,
one young man. I
"Yes, Aunt Mede," Rose answered, "there is another, the
youngest son, a pale, slight, strange looking 3'outh."
"No one pays any attention to him," Madame Lescalle rejoined.
" He is a funny sort of creature half-witted, I think. Between
ourselves, people say he is sifaila* and I dare say they are right."
" Who says so? " M. Lescalle asked.
"Oh, I don't know everybody. Gautier, the farmer at La
Pinede, who sometimes works in the garden, and Marion the
milk woman."
" What do they Know about it? "
"Marion says tha as she was walking in the night to Beausset
with her eon, they saw a ghost, as they thought, walking by the
seaside. They were dreadfully afraid at first, but as they camo
nearer, who should it have been but that young de Vedelles.
She said something to him, but he did not answer, and walked
away in another direction. She said he looked as pale as a
ghost, and stared at them ever so strangely."
'How can you listen to such foolish gossiping stories, Vir-
ginie?" the notary said.
Oh, I suppose you think, then, that there is nothing strange
in a man's mooning about the beach at three o'clock in the
morning, when he ought to have been in bed."
"I dare say it was some piece of nonsense. Perhaps he
meant to frighten the women going to market,"
"
Very likely indeed; but unless a man is a fa da, he does not
play suth tricks when he is no longer a school boy."
"
Perhaps if this poor young man is in the state you suppose,"
Aunt Mede said, " he may be restless and nervous. J-'niJun have
often delicate nerves, and are bad sleepers. Did the Countess
"
say anything about her son's health?
"No; but I think she seemed a little ashamed of him. She
looked quite distressed when he left Rose and me so suddenly."
" "
And the Count?
" He did not mention him at all," M. Lescalle answered. "I
do not think he likes him."
"
Poor youth! " "
Mise Mede said who would care for him if
;
his mother died?"
"Do not distress yourself
about that, my dear aunt," 51
calle answered. "His father is very rich, and it will not be dif-
ficult to find him a wife. When a man can give his son fifteen
thousand francs a year, there is no difficulty in getting some one
to look after him "
"Oh, father," Rose exclaimed, "who would marry a/