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

that by establishing herself there she would be mistress of the
l.rsealle should not at once take her part,
or should hint at the possibility of a reconciliation In
'
. slic
prepared some magnificent appeals to the
I'.iHi'.T, some veliem te against again cxpos-
i in Hie brutal neglect of her unworthy husband, and
.aralion that though noble blood might not flow in their
m IK iv \v;is as dear to them as to any aristorrat in France, and
>r one, would never be trodden uuder foot by the great
ii the earth. It was all very fine. She paced up and down
i. spouting these sentences, and they sounded well
in her own ears.
me not aware that two dark, wild-looking eyes were star-
lier through the foliage. They were Bcnoile's, who kept
ni>- the red faced, plump, excited little woman, as she
would have done an angry turkey-cock. People were to her
like 1'iirious animals, and she hoped that if Monsieur came back,
;:ld see .Mise gesticulate, and stump up and down, talking
as i'a>t us the rooks up in the CVITLKIH oaks. Exit she instinctively
kept out of her way, and this was prudent, for Thereson
had not prepossessed Madame Lescalle in her favor.
Early in the morning this lady was seated in the little drawingroom
in an expectant attitude. She had studied her dress, prepared
her altitudes, and again rehearsed her speeches. The
chief difficulty was to know whether to treat the de Vedelles,
when they arrived, as friends or foes. If they did comply With
her summons, especially if they and her husband arrived together,
it would not be possible to receive them as enemies.
After a long and weary lapse of time, at last, late in the after-
noon, the sound of a carriage in the lane was heard, and the
parly from Draiiuignan came in sight. The Comtcsse de Ve-
:mxiety had gone on increasing all the way, and when on
arriving she saw neither George nor Rose, but only Madame
le, who was looking grave and consequential, her heart
sank within her.
" "
Where are our children? she asked, with emotion.
" Ah, where are they, indeed! Madame la Comtesse," was the
answer. "My daughter is with her aunt, Mademoiselle Lescalle;
as to your son, God only knows where he is."
" (lood heavens! what has happened? " Not only did Madame
de Vedelles ejaculate these words, but the Count and Jacques
similar exclamations, and M. Lescalle said
" Good God, madame! what has become of him? "
" Be seated," Madame Lescalle answered in a solemn manner;
" there is no reason to suppose that anything has happened to
of Hie two fathers expressed different, but strong, sentiments of
indignation. M. de Vedelles said
I cannot condemn my son without a hearing. If he has
acted as you describe, madame, I will disown and disinherit him.
But, for God's sake,
one know where he is? "
is there no clue to his movements? Does no
\\liy did not Rose let you know at once that he had
left her?" M. Lescalle asked. "Did my sister know of his
departure? "
"
All I can tell you is that your sister carried off Rose with
i en lay morning. I have neither seen nor heard from them
-me ilays."
There was a pause. Poor Madame de Vedelles seemed stunned.
night George so incapable of taking care of himself that
it made her tremble to think of him alone and amongst strangers.
She turned and looked out of the window with a mournful, wist-
ful expression; remorse nnd grief were brimming up in her heart
ling t with bitterness. The old Count had no remorse,
but kept saying to himself that this von of his, onca the joy and
THE NOTARY'S DAULIHTKK.
pride of his heart, hnd become a source of endless misery.
felt exasperated against Madnrne Lescalle, whose every word
wounded him to the quick, and yet he was too just and too much
afraid that there might be grounds for her resentment, to give
way to his own.
M. Lescalle had listened to his wife's denunciations with anx-
iety, and I'd I at a loss what to say or what part to take on the
subject.
The silence lasted for a few minutes, and then Madame,
J.esralle, gathering up nil her energy, again recapitulated her
charges against George, and, raising her voice, s-nid that under
no circumstances and in no case she solemnly declared it in the
presence of M. Lescalle, who, if he had any sense, honor, or
right feeling, would support her, and in that of the Comte and
Comtesse de Vedelles whose rank and position in no way
abashed her she should not consent to her daughter remaining
with a husband who spurned and despised her. She should
take her back to her paternal home, not an aristocratic one,
indeed, but where, under her mother's protection, she would be
shielded from insult and ill-usage.
M. Lescalle ventured to interrupt his wife's flow of Ian
by observing
that Rose would have to be consulted on the sul -
ject. This remark roused all Madame Lescalle's ire, and she
burst forth again into a fresh torrent of accusations B
George, which made the Countess look every moment moi
erable, the Count more exasperated, M. Lescalle more disir
The only person m the room who did not seem at all IK'
was Jacques. He listened to this flow of words with great com-
posure. It was in his nature to take a very sanguine view