Chapter One.

Monsieur Raoul.

Monsieur Raoul, in his carriage, was making the round of the estates. To a certain extent, this was a frequent custom, but there were times when it was attended by a more deliberate ceremony and purpose, and such was the case this morning. The carriage went slowly, as if on a tour of inspection. When it passed men, they gave a ready “Good-day.” Where the white-capped women were not at work, they came smiling to their doorways on hearing the familiar noise of wheels, sometimes holding up their children that they, too, might look at M. Raoul. Evidently he was a great personage, although you might not have guessed it.

As for the estate, to the eye it was all that could be desired. The land, it was true, was flat, but so rich and so highly cultivated that, except the meadows, not a foot but appeared to grow crops. Vineyards caught the hot sun on ripening grapes; apple orchards surrounded cottages; the beauty was glowing, tranquil, a little substantial. Through the heart of the country flowed a broad river, offering excellent fishing, and in places bordered with orderly poplars; on one side was a high bank; the only hill was insignificant, and rose behind the château. It was possible to conceive an ugly air of desolation abroad in winter, but in autumn, and autumn as yet untouched by decay, there was a delightful fresh gaiety in the bounty of the land. At one spot where the carriage arrived in sight of the river, M. Raoul craned his neck forward, but made no remark.

The tour of the cottages accomplished, the carriage turned homeward. When it reached a point where a narrow path broke away, M. Raoul waved his hand in that direction.

“There!” he said, determinedly.

The carriage came to a stand-still. The driver turned doubtfully and scratched his head.

“But, monsieur—” he remonstrated.

M. Raoul interrupted him in a still more peremptory tone.

“There!”

“But monsieur remembers that Madame de Beaudrillart especially said—”

For the third time the one word shot out:

“There!”

Jean scratched his head again, looked round helplessly, and then stared at the sky. Finding no suggestion for extricating himself from the dilemma, he ended by submitting to M. Raoul’s order, and, with a sigh of perplexity, turned in the direction indicated. He had lived long enough at Poissy to have learned that it was often difficult to reconcile opposing wills, and that, as they were strong, there was always the risk of being crushed by them. Moreover, he was not without hope. The way they had taken was scarcely wide enough for the carriage—branches whipped their faces, and they were bumped relentlessly over the rough ground. Jean groaned loudly, and glanced back at his master to see how he liked it. But M. Raoul showed no sign of discomfiture; he sat erect, smiling, and now and then flourishing something which he held tightly grasped in his hand. Presently they reached a grassy opening enclosed with trees. The carriage halted, and Jean advanced towards it, reins in hand.

“Monsieur sees for himself that we can go no farther.”

M. Raoul did not give him time to reach him. Before Jean could realise what he was doing, he had slipped out of the carriage on the opposite side, and plunged into an undergrowth of bushes which clothed a steep bank, and crept down to the river. Jean made an ineffectual effort to follow and stop him, but the small pony, excited by M. Raoul’s triumphant cry, began to back and kick and show signs of bolting, so that his driver was forced, to return to his head. Jean was a person slow to make up his mind, and with a strong objection to responsibilities. He had remarked that they generally brought one into trouble. If Mme. de Beaudrillart, or either of the young ladies, madame’s daughters, happened to be walking in the grounds, as was too likely, and met the carriage and pony without a driver, it was impossible to say what might not happen; and as it was out of the question to keep both the carriage and M. Raoul in view, and he had unbounded confidence in M. Raoul’s capabilities, Jean resolved to stick to the carriage. But though occasionally stupid, he was not a fool, and he recognised the need of letting some one know of M. Raoul’s vagaries. He therefore pushed the pony as quickly as possible through the tangled path, and when he found himself again in a wider road, set off at a fast trot towards the château, hoping quickly to meet his father or another of the gardeners. Unfortunately, however, the first person he encountered was the last to whom he would have desired to tell his story.

Mlle. Claire de Beaudrillart was the younger of the two sisters who lived with their mother, her son and his wife, at the château. Both sisters were some years older than their brother, and Mlle. Claire would never again see her thirty-seventh birthday. Not so handsome as her mother, she was still a striking-looking woman, tall, thin, and carrying herself well. Like all the Beaudrillarts, she was dark; like them, too, her chin was strongly moulded, her nose straight. Once when there were tableaux at Poissy, and old dresses had been drawn from a great armoire, it might have been supposed that the very Claire of two centuries back had stepped out of her frame in the picture-gallery. She was invariably exquisitely neat even in the house, and if her temper was quick, it seldom placed her at a disadvantage. Yet, when Jean caught sight of her, he looked from side to side with helpless longing to escape, and finding it impossible, an ugly, sullen expression gathered in his face, which up to this point had only displayed embarrassment. Mlle. Claire detected the look in a moment, and stopped, him by a sign.

“Where have you been, Jean?”

She used the “you” contemptuously.

“Round the estate, mademoiselle.”

“Alone?”

He brought out M. Raoul’s name.

“You should have said so at once. And where is Monsieur Raoul?”

This was exactly the question which Jean would have been glad to answer to himself; but his face only became more stolid as he replied:

“Mademoiselle must know that he has gone down to the river.”

“To the river! With Monsieur de Beaudrillart?”

He hung his head.

“With Madame Léon! No! With whom, then?” As he remained silent, she added, quickly, “You do not tell me that he is alone?”

Jean burst out with “Mademoiselle—” and stopped helplessly.

“Well?”

“Mademoiselle will comprehend that when monsieur says he will go—”

She looked at him from head to foot, and said in a low voice, perfectly modulated, yet which cut like a whip:

“I have always maintained that you, Jean Charpentier, were untrustworthy, and now I am absolutely convinced of it. It was your duty not to let Monsieur Raoul out of your sight, and you have suffered him to go alone to the river—to the river! It is a case of gross neglect, and I shall consult with Monsieur de Beaudrillart about your dismissal.”

The boy stood staring at her, open-mouthed, water beginning to gather in his round eyes. He, whose family for generations past had lived and died at Poissy; he, whose pride was to continue in the service, and whom the other lads regarded with envy—he to be condemned as untrustworthy, and threatened with dismissal! And he had done his best. It was not his fault if he could not carry out the impossible. All this was slowly heaving in his mind, when a second unwelcome personage came along the path.

She was a young lady of some four or five and twenty, tall, fair, and almost childlike in the soft lines of her face. Her hair was reddish-brown, the colour which painters love; her eyes clear, hazel, frank, steady, and true; her mouth firm, but a little large; her throat delicately white. She looked healthy, and carried a hat in her hand, as if she courted sun and air, and she was walking quickly; but on seeing Mlle. Claire, hesitated, fearful of interrupting. The next moment another impulse brought her to her side, and she, too, cried eagerly to Jean:

“But where is Monsieur Raoul?”

He was silent, and Claire answered:

“I have told Jean that, since he is not to be trusted, I shall take care that he is not permitted to drive Monsieur Raoul any more.”

“Not to be trusted!” The new-comer had grown pale, her eyes wandered questioningly from one face to the other, and when she repeated her question it was in a faltering voice. “But where is he?”

“Apparently he has gone to the river.”

“To the river! Not alone?”

Mlle. Claire said, frigidly:

“Yes, it is inexcusable; but you may leave me to arrange matters. Take the carriage to the stables, Jean, without loitering by the way, and wait there until you are sent for. Come, Nathalie, we will go and look for him.”

Young Mme. de Beaudrillart, who had stood motionless for a moment, raised her hand and checked Jean as he was moving off.

“Pardon, Claire, that is not the best plan; for neither you nor I know anything. If you will be good enough to take charge of the carriage, the boy shall go with me and point out exactly where he lost sight of him. Come, Jean, at once.” And before her sister-in-law had time to recover from the amazement into which this unusual self-assertion had thrown her, she had walked rapidly away, followed by the reluctant Jean. He, too, was bewildered. In the storm of difficulty and reproach which he foresaw, the last person by whom he wished to find himself was Mme. Léon. If she were even disposed to befriend him, she would be ineffective. He had always been tacitly encouraged to disregard her orders, and under other circumstances would not have hesitated to do so now. But something strangely imperative in her tone, something so unexpected that it had discomfited even Mlle. Claire, completed his degradation, and compelled him against his will to follow. He wept, as much for shame as fear, as he stumbled along behind the quick, firm steps of his young mistress, and more than once when she flung him a question as to M. Raoul’s disappearance answered so helplessly that she turned upon him at last with sharp impatience.

“For Heaven’s sake, Jean, don’t be a fool! Show me the path, and cry when there is nothing else to be done. Was it here?”

“No, madame,” murmured Jean, astonished into obedience; “the next.”

She quickened her steps almost to a run.

“And how could you allow him to go alone? You knew, did you not, that he was put into your charge?”

He hesitated.

“Madame sees that when Monsieur Raoul jumped out there was the pony and the carriage to see to; and the pony began to be wicked, as he sometimes is. Madame de Beaudrillart would have been very much displeased if anything had happened to the pony, and I was going as fast as I could to fetch some one when I met Mademoiselle Claire, who stopped me to inquire, and would hear it all—”

“Yes, I understand,” said Nathalie, curbing her anguish by an effort, though still hastening along. “I understand perfectly, and I do not think you were to blame.” But under her breath Jean heard her cry, “Oh, Raoul, Raoul!”

The boy had a sudden impulse.

“If I were madame,” he said, shyly, “I should have no fear. Monsieur Raoul is so clever, he will find his way.”

He would not have ventured to offer consolation to any other of the family, but no one stood upon ceremony with Mme. Léon, and his momentary awe was subsiding. She was no longer angry, but she did not answer, and he made no further remark until he indicated a spot on their right.

“It was there that Monsieur Raoul went down.”

Where he pointed, the shrubs, which all along grew wildly and untrimmed, presented a still more tangled mass of underwood, so thickly matted together that Mme. Léon had to thrust the branches aside with her strong young hands, pushing them to right and left, as she plunged into their midst, Jean clipping down after her. A soft rush of sound, which for some time had been in their ears, resolved itself now into the cool flow of running water, and the ground, still densely wooded, fell precipitously, evidently forming the high bank of the stream. Nathalie was active and light in movement; she scarcely hesitated, though often forced to swing by the help of flexible branches, or to scramble, as best she could, down sandy slopes. At the foot of the bank ran a narrow grassy strip, fringed with a thick growth of water-plants and broad burdock leave beyond which raced a broad river, broken here and there by pebbly shoals, but in other places flowing deep and strong. The first breath of autumn was carried in the air; it was all fresh, vigorous, and a little keen, but the beauty passed unnoticed by Mme. Léon. She stood still, and, shading her eyes with her hand, looked eagerly on either side. Jean clambered to a little height. “Do you see him?” she called, anxiously.

“No, madame. But madame will recollect that monsieur was going that way”—pointing to his right—“to fish. Possibly he may be there.”

She thought for a moment.

“I will take that direction, and do you ran towards the bridge. Only make haste, and if you find him, do not leave him again, but bring him back at once; and call as you go.”

“If it were any one but Monsieur Raoul, now,” the boy said to himself as he went off, “she would not have ventured to give an order. Mademoiselle Claire stared finely when she found herself told to take care of the carriage. It was good! Madame Léon is twenty times better than Mademoiselle Claire, who speaks as if one were a pig; but, then, Mademoiselle Claire is one of the old Beaudrillarts, and has the right, while Madame Léon is bourgeoise. There’s the difference. Nobody would mind if she did speak. Monsieur Raoul! Hi, Monsieur Raoul!”

Nathalie, meanwhile, was walking swiftly in the opposite direction, her eyes devouring the bank and the unfeeling river, which gave her at all times an unconquerable dread. The ground was rough and broken, and she often stumbled where the long grass hid cracks and dips. A small out-jutting promontory for some time hid a bend of the river from her sight. It was covered with thin straggling bushes, which had the appearance of hurrying helter-skelter to dip their green branches in the water. It was necessary to push her way through them, and her dress would have been torn had not an unconscious instinct led her, even at this absorbed moment, to wrap it carefully round her, and avoid the jagged wood-splinters. When she had crossed these obstacles, she called to a fisherman at work some couple of hundred feet away. “Léon, Léon!” she cried, breathlessly.

He turned, nodded, and began deliberately to reel his line. Before he had finished his wife was by his side.

“Léon—Raoul! Have you seen Raoul!”

“I? No. Why should I have seen him?”

“Because he got out of the carriage and made his way down to the river—to the river—alone! Oh, Léon!”

“He will be all right; he has sense enough,” said her husband, easily. “What was that little imbecile Jean about?”

“Dear, I can’t blame him. What was he to do? He has been ordered never to leave the carriage.”

“Do? He might have done something. It is ridiculous to suppose that he could not have prevented it. Who gave him those orders?”

“Your mother.”

“Oh, well, of course it wouldn’t do for the pony to run wild. However, don’t worry yourself; depend upon it, it’s all right.” He began to hum an air. “I believe, after all, I will go with you, if only to keep you quiet. And besides the pleasure of seeing you, I am not sorry that you have come. Fishing is horribly stupid work all by one’s self. I was beginning to think I was sick of it, and from the relief I feel, I am sure. Stop! Where are you going?”

“Dear Léon, I am so uneasy! You can follow.”

“Heartless woman! But I don’t let you off so quietly. Haven’t I told you that my own society fatigues me? haven’t I welcomed your coming? and yet you have the unkindness to propose to leave me! Come, be reasonable. Help me with this detestable rod, which your fingers can manage twice as well as mine, and then we go together.”

But to his amazement his wife only turned her head.

“I cannot stay, Léon; I am too anxious. Come as quickly as you can.”

He stared after her as she hastened away, his face losing some of its easy expression. Dark, like the De Beaudrillarts, his features were small, and their lines rounded. He was of medium height, and broadly made about the shoulders; his eyes were brown, and the eyebrows straight. He laughed readily, yet occasionally a certain haggard look, curiously at variance with the roundness of his cheek, crept over his face and aged it. Now, after a momentary hesitation, he flung his rod and basket on the ground and ran after his wife.

“Women must always have their own way at once, of course,” he said, with a touch of petulance like a child’s. “You might have waited a minute.”

“Ah, forgive me, Léon! If it had been any other time!”

The ruffle had already passed. He smiled gayly.

“Yes, yes, that is what you all say. However, I will own that it is not often you are so unreasonable.”

She flung him a grateful look, and asked, with an effort:

“Have you caught many fish?”

“Only three, and those I gave to old Antoine as he went by. No one can be expected to fish with such a sun shining on the water. Just look at it!”

She looked and shuddered. By way of saying something, she remarked:

“Claire persists that old Antoine is a vaurien.”

“Probably. From what my mother remembers, I suspect his family has been worthless for so many generations as to deserve a reward for consistency, if for nothing else. Claire is dreadfully down upon poor sinners. Must we walk as if a mad dog were at our heels! These bushes scratch. They might as well be trimmed. Do you agree? But you are not attending.”

“Yes, indeed, Léon, I think with you. And with your rod—but where is your rod?”

“Left with my basket. Your fault—you would not wait.”

She half paused.

“Oh, but I am sorry, very sorry! Your new rod! Will it not be hurt?”

“It is extremely probable that old Antoine will find an excellent opportunity for exercising his hereditary inclinations.”

She slipped her hand in his and repeated, regretfully: “I am very sorry! It was so good of you to let everything go that you might come with me, for I am terribly frightened. Where can he have hidden himself?”

“My dear child, you are becoming fussy; and if you don’t check yourself, you will develop lines in your pretty face which I should find unendurable. Raoul is perfectly safe.”

“Do you think so! But—the river?”

“The river—bah!”