And is it come to this? the great old family to be turned adrift like beggars.My poor mistress! my pretty demoiselles that I played with and nursed ever since I was a child! (I was just six when Josephine was born) and that I shall love with my last breath"--She could say no more, but choked by the strong feeling so long pent up in her own bosom, fell to sobbing hysterically, and trembling like one in an ague.
The statesman, who had passed all his short life at school and college, was frightened, and took hold of her and pulled her, and cried, "Oh! don't, Jacintha; you will kill yourself, you will die;this is frightful: help here! help!" Jacintha put her hand to his mouth, and, without leaving off her hysterics, gasped out, "Ah!
don't expose me." So then he didn't know what to do; but he seized a tumbler and filled it with wine, and forced it between her lips.
All she did was to bite a piece out of the glass as clean as if a diamond had cut it.This did her a world of good: destruction of sacred household property gave her another turn."There, I've broke your glass now," she cried, with a marvellous change of tone; and she came-to and cried quietly like a reasonable person, with her apron to her eyes.
When Edouard saw she was better, he took her hand and said proudly, "Secret for secret.I choose this moment to confide to you that Ilove Mademoiselle Rose de Beaurepaire.Love her? I did love her;but now you tell me she is poor and in distress, I adore her." The effect of this declaration on Jacintha was magical, comical.Her apron came down from one eye, and that eye dried itself and sparkled with curiosity: the whole countenance speedily followed suit and beamed with sacred joy.What! an interesting love affair confided to her all in a moment! She lowered her voice to a whisper directly."Why, how did you manage? She never goes into company.""No; but she goes to church.Besides, I have met her eleven times out walking with her sister, and twice out of the eleven she smiled on me.O Jacintha! a smile such as angels smile; a smile to warm the heart and purify the soul and last forever in the mind.""Well, they say 'man is fire and woman tow:' but this beats all.
Ha! ha!"
"Oh! do not jest.I did not laugh at you.Jacintha, it is no laughing matter; I revere her as mortals revere the saints; I love her so that were I ever to lose all hope of her I would not live a day.And now that you have told me she is poor and in sorrow, and Ithink of her walking so calm and gentle--always in black, Jacintha,--and her low courtesy to me whenever we met, and her sweet smile to me though her heart must be sad, oh! my heart yearns for her.What can I do for her? How shall I surround her with myself unseen--make her feel that a man's love waits upon her feet every step she takes--that a man's love floats in the air round that lovely head?" Then descending to earth for a moment, "but I say, you promise not to betray me; come, secret for secret.""I will not tell a soul; on the honor of a woman," said Jacintha.
The form of protestation was quite new to Edouard, and not exactly the one his study of the ancient writers would have led him to select.But the tone was convincing: he trusted her.They parted sworn allies; and, at the very moment of parting, Jacintha, who had cast many a furtive glance at the dead game, told Edouard demurely, Mademoiselle Rose was very fond of roast partridge.On this he made her take the whole bag; and went home on wings.Jacintha's revelation roused all that was noble and forgiving in him.His understanding and his heart expanded from that hour, and his fancy spread its pinions to the sun of love.Ah! generous Youth, let who will betray thee; let who will sneer at thee; let me, though young no longer, smile on thee and joy in thee! She he loved was sad, was poor, was menaced by many ills; then she needed a champion.He would be her unseen friend, her guardian angel.A hundred wild schemes whirled in his beating heart and brain.He could not go in-doors, indeed, no room could contain him: he made for a green lane he knew at the back of the village, and there he walked up and down for hours.The sun set, and the night came, and the stars glittered; but still he walked alone, inspired, exalted, full of generous and loving schemes: of sweet and tender fancies: a heart on fire; and youth the fuel, and the flame vestal.
