young! A little wild, perhaps, but what a treasure!
She was all heart! She would need a husband worthy
of her, such a man as Fred. Madame d’Argy, she
knew, had already said something on the subject to
her father. But it would have to be the Baroness
that Fred must bring over to their views; the Baroness
was acquiring more and more influence over her husband,
who seemed to be growing older every day. M. de
Nailles had evidently much, very much upon his mind.
It was said in business circles that he had for some
time past been given to speculation. Oscar said
so. If that were the case, many of Jacqueline’s
suitors might withdraw. Not all men were so disinterested
as Fred.
“Oh! As to her dot—what do I
care for her dot?” cried the young man.
“I have enough for two, if she would only be
satisfied to live quietly at Lizerolles!”
“Yes,” said the judicious little matron,
nodding her head, “but who would like to marry
a midshipman? Make haste and be a lieutenant,
or an ensign.”
She smiled at herself for having made the reward depend
upon exertion, with a sort of maternal instinct.
It was the same instinct that would lead her in the
future to promise Enguerrand a sugar-plum if he said
his lesson. “Nobody will steal your Jacqueline
till you are ready to carry her off. Besides,
if there were any danger I could give you timely warning.”
“Ah! Giselle, if she only had your kind
heart—your good sense.”
“Do you think I am better and more reasonable
than other people? In what way? I have done
as so many other girls do; I have married without
knowing well what I was doing.”
She stopped short, fearing she might have said too
much, and indeed Fred looked at her anxiously.
“You don’t regret it, do you?”
“You must ask Monsieur de Talbrun if he regrets
it,” she said, with a laugh. “It
must be hard on him to have a sick wife, who knows
little of what is passing outside of her own chamber,
who is living on her reserve fund of resources—a
very poor little reserve fund it is, too!”
Then, as if she thought that Fred had been with her
long enough, she said: “I would ask you
to stay and see Monsieur de Talbrun, but he won’t
be in, he dines at his club. He is going to see
a new play tonight which they say promises to be very
good.”
“What! Will he leave you alone all the
evening?”
“Oh! I am very glad he should find amusement.
Just think how long it is that I have been pinned
down here! Poor Oscar!”
GISELLE’S CONSOLATION
The arrival of the expected Enguerrand hindered Giselle
from pleading Fred’s cause as soon as she could
have wished. Her life for twenty-four hours was
in great danger, and when the crisis was past, which
M. de Talbrun treated very indifferently, as a matter
of course, her first cry was “My baby!”
uttered in a tone of tender eagerness such as had never
been heard from her lips before.
