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

to-morrow. He wants the East Farm for a client of his, and I
shall put our friend in a good humor by telling him that I have
made up my mind, for his sake,
to let Jean Benard have it."
"Bravo! I already see myself M. le Depute des Bouches du
Bhone, and my pretty sister-in-law installed at the chateau. We
shall then see, I suppose, the acacia branch cut at last. Poor,
dear George! It is really a capital plan, if only he falls into it."
" Of course he wfll," the Count answered. "We shall have to
tell him that Mdlle. Denise is as much out of his reach as the
moon, and once convinced of that, he will be enchanted to fall
back on the fair Rose we shall have provided for him. You
had better not say anything of all this to your mother at present;
she is overanxious about things."
To the disappointment of the Count and his eldest son, an
answer was sent to say that M, Lescalle was absent, and not ex-
TllK NOTARY'S DAUGHTER.
"Suppose that with one stone "
you could kill two 'birds.'
" What two birds? Speak out."
"Well, you know that M. Lcsculle holds the fate of the next
election ill completely his bands. This is the case, beyond a
doubt. lie has been, up to this time, playing off the Croixfonds
and the Bichers against one another. Now it appears that C'esaire
de Croixfords is out of the field.and the choice lies,between
M. Richer and me. Would not the excellent Toussaint like his
pretty daughter to be mudame la Baronne de Vedelles ? and you
would really have a very nice little daughter-in-law."
"I wonder if he would agree," the Count said, greatly ex-
"
cited. Of course it would secure your election at once. The
joke in the neighborhood has been that the representation of this
department is a part of Mdlle. Rose's marriage portion, and we
could go much farther and fare worse. The parents would bo
a great nuisance, but the girl is nice enough."
"
She is a charming little thing. Let us lose no time about it.
That gigantic swell, M. Artemon Richer de Montlouis, is said to
be very much fascinated by the notary's daughter, and they may
engage themselves beyond recovery if about anything
speedy measures to cut
him out are not taken."
"
I shall write at once to Lescalle and ask him to come here
since his illness, in helping to ornament the
altar.
On the following morning Madame de Vedelles, in her Bath
chair, and her husband and her eldest son on foot crossed ihe.
garden and entered the chapel. The Count went bce;i
would not have looked well in the eyes of his scrvunls and tenants
if he had not done so ; Jacques, because he did not like to
vex his mother by staying away. George had preceded il
of the family, and when they arrived wcs titling on one of the
benches with his head leaning on his hands. When ma s began
he knelt, but otherwise remained in the same position. Once,
just after the elevation, he raised his head, and then, in a little
tribune on one side of the chapel, which was readied by a i-ido
entrance, he caught sight of a face which at that moment, and
to life excited imagination, seemed a heavenly vision. The expression
of devotion in that upturned countenance was more
holy, more beautiful than anything he had ever seen or dreamed
of.
It was the face indeed \vhicb, from the first moment he had
beheld it, he had thought the most perfect ideal of pure, high,
and lofty womanly beauty. But never had it seemed to him,
during those many hours he had watched it, not even when it
bent in gentle sweetness over his mother's sick couch, half so
pected home for some days. Jacques put off again his departure
for Paris, wishing to keep up his father to the plan they had
formed, and to see the affair fairly started. In the meantime he
was assiduous in his attentions to those he looked upon as
his future constituents, and made himself very popular in the
neighborhood.
George looked every day more sad and dejected. There had
been no communication between Madame de Vedelles and Mdlle.
de hi Pinede since she had refused Jacques; but four or five days
after the one when he had spoken to his father of George's state
of mind, the Countess received a letter from Denise, inclosing
one from the vicar-general, announcing that a second priest had
been appointed at Les Trois Tours, and would begin saying mass
every day at the chapel in the grounds of La Pinede, as soon as
lie received notice of M. and Madame de Vedelles' wishes on the
subject. Denise had informed the vicar-general that the Countess
would answer his letter herself. She added kind and affec-
tionate expressions as to the health of Midame de Vedelles, but
said nothing as to their meeting again.
The last day of the month of May was fixed upon for the
opening of the chapel. It was to be a very simple function.
There had been plans for the formation of a choir under Denise's
direction, and the music for the occasion had been chosen during
her stay at La Pinede. But all this having fallen to the ground
since her departure and the unfortunate result of Jacques' visit
on the following day, the/e was now to be only a low mass at
beautiful or so angel-like as now, in the attitudu of ardent
prayer and adoring love. So holy was its look that it impressed
him with a feeling of awe. He dared not continue to gaze upon
it in that Sacred Presence he had always believed in, but which
that expression of fervent adoration seemed to impress upon
him more vividly than ever. He again covered his face with
his hands, a mute, silent, instinctive prayer rose from his heart,
which softened the dull, aching pain so long felt and never
spoken of.
When mass was nearly over he glanced again at the tribune,
but it was empty, and he asked himself if he had imagined or
seen a vision, whether Denise had really been in that spo' a moment
ago, or if it had been a mere illusion.
He walked home like a person in a dream, and never uttered a
single word during breakfast-time, and when his lather and his
brother had left the room, sat opposite to nis mother, still
plunged in a deep fit of musing.
"George," she gently said.
"
I have a message to give you."
" A message? " "
he said. I cannot think who can have any
message to send to me."
"
I have just been given a letter from Mdlle. de la Pinede."
A hectic red spot rose on George's pale cheeks.
"
She was in the chapel this morning. She says that she
had promised us to be present at the first mass that should be
said there, and that, though at present, it is better for all parties
that she should not come here, and of course it is, she telt that
she must keep her word, and that with all her heart she united
her prayers with ours; and then she adds, 'Will you tell M.
George that I kept my promise, and that I may some day claim
the fulfilment of his.'"
"Mother, what does it all mean? " George exclaimed, starting
"
to his feet. What has happened? What is changed? Why
does she stay away? "
Madame de Vedelles hesitated a moment, and then thought it
better to let him know the truth.
"
My dear boy, if you bad not been so absent, so unobservant,
you would have guessed what has taken place. Your brother
fell in love with Mdlle. de la Pinede, and the day after she left
us went to Toulon and proposed to her. I am sorry to say that
she refused him. It was a great disappointment to him and to
eight o'clock in the morning. A box containing all the things
she had worked for the altar, and another with all those she had
ordered, at Madame de Vedelles' request, from a shop at Marseilles,
arrived the day before that of the "Jacques? She refused him? Thank God!
opening.
George seemed excited at the sight of these cases, and when
his mother went to the chapel to see them unpacked and arranged,
and to meet the young priest from Les Trois Tours, hn
" he added in *o
low a voice that his mother did not hear those last words.
"
AriU she has sent me that message. She remembers my
vow."
He darted out of the
woods to the sea-shore.
room, and rushed through the olive
His head was aching wilh excitement,
and during the rest of the day he could follnwnri hpr thurp rmd HXerferi himself raorp than he had rlimp
ocly sit with
henH rpstino- nn hia hnnds. or wulk uii and down th;'
hi
us."
1U