I
Athรฉnaรฏse went away in the morning to make a visit to her parents, ten miles back on rigolet de Bon Dieu. She did not return in the evening, and Cazeau, her husband, fretted not a little. He did not worry much about Athรฉnaรฏse, who, he suspected, was resting only too content in the bosom of her family; his chief solicitude was manifestly for the pony she
had ridden. He felt sure those โlazy pigs,โ her brothers, were capable of neglecting it seriously. This misgiving
Cazeau communicated to his servant, old Fรฉlicitรฉ, who waited upon him at supper.
His voice was low pitched, and even softer than Fรฉlicitรฉโs. He was tall, sinewy, swarthy, and altogether
severe looking. His thick black hair waved, and it gleamed
like the breast of a crow. The sweep of his mustache, which was not so black, outlined the broad contour of the mouth. Beneath the under lip grew a small tuft which he was much given to twisting, and which he permitted to grow,
apparently for no other purpose. Cazeauโs eyes were dark blue, narrow and overshadowed. His hands were coarse
and stiff from close acquaintance with farming tools and implements, and he handled his fork and knife clumsily. But he was distinguished looking, and succeeded in
commanding a good deal of respect, and even fear sometimes.
He ate his supper alone, by the light of a single coal-oil lamp that but faintly illuminated the big room, with its bare floor and huge rafters, and its heavy pieces of furniture
that loomed dimly in the gloom of the apartment. Fรฉlicitรฉ, ministering to his wants, hovered about the table like a little, bent, restless shadow.
She served him with a dish of sunfish fried crisp and brown. There was nothing else set before him beside the bread and butter and the bottle of red wine which she
locked carefully in the buffet after he had poured his second glass. She was occupied with her mistressโs
absence, and kept reverting to it after he had expressed his solicitude about the pony.
โDat beat me! onโy marry two montโ, anโ got de head turnโ aโready to go โbroad. Cโest pas Chrรฉtien, tenez!โ
Cazeau shrugged his shoulders for answer, after he had drained his glass and pushed aside his plate. Fรฉlicitรฉโs
opinion of the unchristianlike behavior of his wife in leaving him thus alone after two months of marriage weighed little with him. He was used to solitude, and did not mind a day or a night or two of it. He had lived alone ten years, since his first wife died, and Fรฉlicitรฉ might have known better
than to suppose that he cared. He told her she was a fool. It sounded like a compliment in his modulated, caressing voice. She grumbled to herself as she set about clearing the table, and Cazeau arose and walked outside on the gallery; his spur, which he had not removed upon entering the house, jangled at every step.
The night was beginning to deepen, and to gather black about the clusters of trees and shrubs that were grouped in the yard. In the beam of light from the open kitchen door a black boy stood feeding a brace of snarling, hungry dogs;
further away, on the steps of a cabin, some one was playing the accordion; and in still another direction a little negro
baby was crying lustily. Cazeau walked around to the front of the house, which was square, squat and one-story.
A belated wagon was driving in at the gate, and the
impatient driver was swearing hoarsely at his jaded oxen.
Fรฉlicitรฉ stepped out on the gallery, glass and polishing
towel in hand, to investigate, and to wonder, too, who could be singing out on the river. It was a party of young people
paddling around, waiting for the moon to rise, and they were singing Juanita, their voices coming tempered and melodious through the distance and the night.
Cazeauโs horse was waiting, saddled, ready to be mounted, for Cazeau had many things to attend to before bed-time; so many things that there was not left to him a moment in which to think of Athรฉnaรฏse. He felt her absence, though, like a dull, insistent pain.
However, before he slept that night he was visited by the thought of her, and by a vision of her fair young face with its drooping lips and sullen and averted eyes. The
marriage had been a blunder; he had only to look into her eyes to feel that, to discover her growing aversion. But it was a thing not by any possibility to be undone. He was
quite prepared to make the best of it, and expected no less than a like effort on her part. The less she revisited the rigolet, the better. He would find means to keep her at
home hereafter.
These unpleasant reflections kept Cazeau awake far into the night, notwithstanding the craving of his whole
body for rest and sleep. The moon was shining, and its pale effulgence reached dimly into the room, and with it a touch of the cool breath of the spring night. There was an
unusual stillness abroad; no sound to be heard save the distant, tireless, plaintive notes of the accordion.
II
Athรฉnaรฏse did not return the following day, even though her husband sent her word to do so by her brother, Montรฉclin, who passed on his way to the village early in the morning.
On the third day Cazeau saddled his horse and went
himself in search of her. She had sent no word, no message, explaining her absence, and he felt that he had good cause to be offended. It was rather awkward to have to leave his work, even though late in the afternoon,โCazeau had always so much to do; but among the many urgent calls
upon him, the task of bringing his wife back to a sense of her duty seemed to him for the moment paramount.
The Michรฉs, Athรฉnaรฏseโs parents, lived on the old Gotrain place. It did not belong to them; they were
โrunningโ it for a merchant in Alexandria. The house was far too big for their use. One of the lower rooms served for the storing of wood and tools; the person โoccupyingโ the
place before Michรฉ having pulled up the flooring in despair of being able to patch it. Upstairs, the rooms were so large, so bare, that they offered a constant temptation to lovers of the dance, whose importunities Madame Michรฉ was
accustomed to meet with amiable indulgence. A dance at Michรฉsโ and a plate of Madame Michรฉโs gumbo filรฉ at
midnight were pleasures not to be neglected or despised, unless by such serious souls as Cazeau.
Long before Cazeau reached the house his approach had been observed, for there was nothing to obstruct the
view of the outer road; vegetation was not yet abundantly advanced, and there was but a patchy, straggling stand of cotton and corn in Michรฉโs field.
Madame Michรฉ, who had been seated on the gallery in a rocking-chair, stood up to greet him as he drew near. She was short and fat, and wore a black skirt and loose muslin sack fastened at the throat with a hair brooch. Her own hair, brown and glossy, showed but a few threads of silver.
Her round pink face was cheery, and her eyes were bright
and good humored. But she was plainly perturbed and ill at ease as Cazeau advanced.
Montรฉclin, who was there too, was not ill at ease, and made no attempt to disguise the dislike with which his brother-in-law inspired him. He was a slim, wiry fellow of
twenty-five, short of stature like his mother, and resembling her in feature. He was in shirt-sleeves, half leaning, half sitting, on the insecure railing of the gallery, and fanning
himself with his broad-rimmed felt hat.
โCochon!โ he muttered under his breath as Cazeau mounted the stairs,โโsacrรฉ cochon!โ
โCochonโ had sufficiently characterized the man who had once on a time declined to lend Montรฉclin money. But when this same man had had the presumption to propose marriage to his well-beloved sister, Athรฉnaรฏse, and the honor to be accepted by her, Montรฉclin felt that a
qualifying epithet was needed fully to express his estimate of Cazeau.
Michรฉ and his oldest son were absent. They both
esteemed Cazeau highly, and talked much of his qualities of
head and heart, and thought much of his excellent standing with city merchants.
Athรฉnaรฏse had shut herself up in her room. Cazeau had seen her rise and enter the house at perceiving him. He
was a good deal mystified, but no one could have guessed it when he shook hands with Madame Michรฉ. He had only
nodded to Montรฉclin, with a muttered โComment รงa va?โ
โTiens! something tole me you were coming to-day!โ exclaimed Madame Michรฉ, with a little blustering
appearance of being cordial and at ease, as she offered Cazeau a chair.
He ventured a short laugh as he seated himself.
โYou know, nothing would do,โ she went on, with much gesture of her small, plump hands, โnothing would do but Athรฉnaรฏse musโ stay lasโ night foโ a liโle dance. The boys wouldnโ year to their sister leaving.โ
Cazeau shrugged his shoulders significantly, telling as plainly as words that he knew nothing about it.
โComment! Montรฉclin didnโ tell you we were going to keep Athรฉnaรฏse?โ Montรฉclin had evidently told nothing.
โAnโ how about the night befoโ,โ questioned Cazeau, โanโ lasโ night? It isnโt possible you dance every night out yere on the Bon Dieu!โ
Madame Michรฉ laughed, with amiable appreciation of
the sarcasm; and turning to her son, โMontรฉclin, my boy, go tell yoโ sister that Monsieur Cazeau is yere.โ
Montรฉclin did not stir except to shift his position and settle himself more securely on the railing.
โDid you year me, Montรฉclin?โ
โOh yes, I yeard you plain enough,โ responded her son, โbut you know as well as me itโs no use to tell โThรฉnaรฏse anything. You been talkinโ to her yoโseโf since Monday; anโ paโs preached himseโf hoaโse on the subject; anโ you even
had uncle Achille down yere yesterday to reason with her. Wโen โThรฉnaรฏse said she wasnโ goinโ to set her foot back in Cazeauโs house, she meant it.โ
This speech, which Montรฉclin delivered with thorough unconcern, threw his mother into a condition of painful but dumb embarrassment. It brought two fiery red spots to Cazeauโs cheeks, and for the space of a moment he looked wicked.
What Montรฉclin had spoken was quite true, though his taste in the manner and choice of time and place in saying it were not of the best. Athรฉnaรฏse, upon the first day of her arrival, had announced that she came to stay, having no
intention of returning under Cazeauโs roof. The
announcement had scattered consternation, as she knew it would. She had been implored, scolded, entreated, stormed at, until she felt herself like a dragging sail that all the winds of heaven had beaten upon. Why in the name of God had she married Cazeau? Her father had lashed her with
the question a dozen times. Why indeed? It was difficult now for her to understand why, unless because she
supposed it was customary for girls to marry when the
right opportunity came. Cazeau, she knew, would make life more comfortable for her; and again, she had liked him,
and had even been rather flustered when he pressed her hands and kissed them, and kissed her lips and cheeks and eyes, when she accepted him.
Montรฉclin himself had taken her aside to talk the thing over. The turn of affairs was delighting him.
โCome, now, โThรฉnaรฏse, you musโ explain to me all about it, so we can settle on a good cause, anโ secuโ a
separation foโ you. Has he been mistreating anโ abusing you, the sacrรฉ cochon?โ They were alone together in her room, whither she had taken refuge from the angry domestic elements.
โYou please to reserve yoโ disgusting expressions, Montรฉclin. No, he has not abused me in any way that I can think.โ
โDoes he drink? Come โThรฉnaรฏse, think well over it.
Does he ever get drunk?โ
โDrunk! Oh, mercy, no,โCazeau never gets drunk.โ
โI see; itโs jusโ simply you feel like me; you hate him.โ โNo, I donโt hate him,โ she returned reflectively; adding
with a sudden impulse, โItโs jusโ being married that I detesโ anโ despise. I hate being Mrs. Cazeau, anโ would want to be Athรฉnaรฏse Michรฉ again. I canโt stanโ to live with a man; to
have him always there; his coats anโ pantaloons hanging in my room; his ugly bare feetโwashing them in my tub, befoโ my very eyes, ugh!โ She shuddered with recollections, and resumed, with a sigh that was almost a sob: โMon Dieu,
mon Dieu! Sister Marie Angรฉlique knew wโat she was saying; she knew me better than myseโf wโen she said God had sent me a vocation anโ I was turning deaf ears. Wโen I think of a blessed life in the convent, at peace! Oh, wโat was I dreaming of!โ and then the tears came.
Montรฉclin felt disconcerted and greatly disappointed at having obtained evidence that would carry no weight with a
court of justice. The day had not come when a young
woman might ask the courtโs permission to return to her mamma on the sweeping ground of a constitutional
disinclination for marriage. But if there was no way of
untying this Gordian knot of marriage, there was surely a way of cutting it.
โWell, โThรฉnaรฏse, Iโm mighty durn sorry you got no better grounโs โan wโat you say. But you can count on me to stanโ by you wโatever you do. God knows I donโ blame you foโ not wantinโ to live with Cazeau.โ
And now there was Cazeau himself, with the red spots flaming in his swarthy cheeks, looking and feeling as if he wanted to thrash Montรฉclin into some semblance of
decency. He arose abruptly, and approaching the room
which he had seen his wife enter, thrust open the door after a hasty preliminary knock. Athรฉnaรฏse, who was standing
erect at a far window, turned at his entrance.
She appeared neither angry nor frightened, but
thoroughly unhappy, with an appeal in her soft dark eyes
and a tremor on her lips that seemed to him expressions of unjust reproach, that wounded and maddened him at once.
But whatever he might feel, Cazeau knew only one way to act toward a woman.
โAthรฉnaรฏse, you are not ready?โ he asked in his quiet tones. โItโs getting late; we havnโ any time to lose.โ
She knew that Montรฉclin had spoken out, and she had hoped for a wordy interview, a stormy scene, in which she might have held her own as she had held it for the past
three days against her family, with Montรฉclinโs aid. But she had no weapon with which to combat subtlety. Her husbandโs looks, his tones, his mere presence, brought to
her a sudden sense of hopelessness, an instinctive
realization of the futility of rebellion against a social and sacred institution.
Cazeau said nothing further, but stood waiting in the doorway. Madame Michรฉ had walked to the far end of the gallery, and pretended to be occupied with having a
chicken driven from her parterre. Montรฉclin stood by, exasperated, fuming, ready to burst out.
Athรฉnaรฏse went and reached for her riding skirt that hung against the wall. She was rather tall, with a figure which, though not robust, seemed perfect in its fine proportions. โLa fille de son pรฉre,โ she was often called, which was a great compliment to Michรฉ. Her brown hair was brushed all fluffily back from her temples and low
forehead, and about her features and expression lurked a softness, a prettiness, a dewiness, that were perhaps too childlike, that savored of immaturity.
She slipped the riding-skirt, which was of black alpaca, over her head, and with impatient fingers hooked it at the waist over her pink linen-lawn. Then she fastened on her
white sunbonnet and reached for her gloves on the mantelpiece.
โIf you donโ wanโ to go, you know wโat you got to do,
โThรฉnaรฏse,โ fumed Montรฉclin. โYou donโ set yoโ feet back on Cane River, by God, unless you want to,โnot wโile Iโm
alive.โ
Cazeau looked at him as if he were a monkey whose antics fell short of being amusing.
Athรฉnaรฏse still made no reply, said not a word. She
walked rapidly past her husband, past her brother; bidding good-bye to no one, not even to her mother. She descended
the stairs, and without assistance from any one mounted
the pony, which Cazeau had ordered to be saddled upon his arrival. In this way she obtained a fair start of her husband, whose departure was far more leisurely, and for the greater part of the way she managed to keep an appreciable gap
between them. She rode almost madly at first, with the
wind inflating her skirt balloon-like about her knees, and her sunbonnet falling back between her shoulders.
At no time did Cazeau make an effort to overtake her until traversing an old fallow meadow that was level and
hard as a table. The sight of a great solitary oak-tree, with its seemingly immutable outlines, that had been a landmark for agesโor was it the odor of elderberry stealing up from
the gully to the south? or what was it that brought vividly back to Cazeau, by some association of ideas, a scene of
many years ago? He had passed that old live-oak hundreds of times, but it was only now that the memory of one day
came back to him. He was a very small boy that day, seated before his father on horse-back. They were proceeding
slowly, and Black Gabe was moving on before them at a little dog-trot. Black Gabe had run away, and had been discovered back in the Gotrain swamp. They had halted
beneath this big oak to enable the negro to take breath; for Cazeauโs father was a kind and considerate master, and
every one had agreed at the time that Black Gabe was a fool, a great idiot indeed, for wanting to run away from him.
The whole impression was for some reason hideous,
and to dispel it Cazeau spurred his horse to a swift gallop. Overtaking his wife, he rode the remainder of the way at her side in silence.
It was late when they reached home. Fรฉlicitรฉ was
standing on the grassy edge of the road, in the moonlight,
waiting for them.
Cazeau once more ate his supper alone; for Athรฉnaรฏse went to her room, and there she was crying again.
III
Athรฉnaรฏse was not one to accept the inevitable with patient resignation, a talent born in the souls of many women; neither was she the one to accept it with
philosophical resignation, like her husband. Her sensibilities were alive and keen and responsive. She met
the pleasurable things of life with frank, open appreciation, and against distasteful conditions she rebelled.
Dissimulation was as foreign to her nature as guile to the
breast of a babe, and her rebellious outbreaks, by no means rare, had hitherto been quite open and aboveboard. People often said that Athรฉnaรฏse would know her own mind some
day, which was equivalent to saying that she was at present unacquainted with it. If she ever came to such knowledge,
it would be by no intellectual research, by no subtle analyses or tracing the motives of actions to their source. It would come to her as the song to the bird, the perfume and color to the flower.
Her parents had hopedโnot without reason and justice
โthat marriage would bring the poise, the desirable pose, so glaringly lacking in Athรฉnaรฏseโs character. Marriage they knew to be a wonderful and powerful agent in the
development and formation of a womanโs character; they had seen its effect too often to doubt it.
โAnd if this marriage does nothing else,โ exclaimed
Michรฉ in an outburst of sudden exasperation, โit will rid us
of Athรฉnaรฏse; for I am at the end of my patience with her!
You have never had the firmness to manage her,โโhe was
speaking to his wife,โโI have not had the time, the leisure, to devote to her training; and what good we might have accomplished, that maudit MontรฉclinโWell, Cazeau is the one! It takes just such a steady hand to guide a disposition like Athรฉnaรฏseโs, a master hand, a strong will that compels obedience.โ
And now, when they had hoped for so much, here was Athรฉnaรฏse, with gathered and fierce vehemence, beside
which her former outbursts appeared mild, declaring that she would not, and she would not, and she would not
continue to enact the role of wife to Cazeau. If she had had a reason! as Madame Michรฉ lamented; but it could not be
discovered that she had any sane one. He had never scolded, or called names, or deprived her of comforts, or been guilty of any of the many reprehensible acts
commonly attributed to objectionable husbands. He did not slight nor neglect her. Indeed, Cazeauโs chief offense
seemed to be that he loved her, and Athรฉnaรฏse was not the woman to be loved against her will. She called marriage a trap set for the feet of unwary and unsuspecting girls, and in round, unmeasured terms reproached her mother with
treachery and deceit.
โI told you Cazeau was the man,โ chuckled Michรฉ,
when his wife had related the scene that had accompanied and influenced Athรฉnaรฏseโs departure.
Athรฉnaรฏse again hoped, in the morning, that Cazeau would scold or make some sort of a scene, but he
apparently did not dream of it. It was exasperating that he should take her acquiescence so for granted. It is true he
had been up and over the fields and across the river and back long before she was out of bed, and he may have been
thinking of something else, which was no excuse, which was even in some sense an aggravation. But he did say to her at breakfast, โThat brother of yoโs, that Montรฉclin, is unbearable.โ
โMontรฉclin? Par exemple!โ
Athรฉnaรฏse, seated opposite to her husband, was attired in a white morning wrapper. She wore a somewhat abused,
long face, it is true,โan expression of countenance familiar to some husbands,โbut the expression was not sufficiently pronounced to mar the charm of her youthful freshness.
She had little heart to eat, only playing with the food before her, and she felt a pang of resentment at her husbandโs
healthy appetite.
โYes, Montรฉclin,โ he reasserted. โHeโs developed into a firsโ-class nuisance; anโ you better tell him, Athรฉnaรฏse,โ unless you want me to tell him,โto confine his energies after this to matters that concern him. I have no use foโ him or foโ his interference in wโat regards you anโ me alone.โ
This was said with unusual asperity. It was the little breach that Athรฉnaรฏse had been watching for, and she
charged rapidly: โItโs strange, if you detesโ Montรฉclin so heartily, that you would desire to marry his sister.โ She
knew it was a silly thing to say, and was not surprised when he told her so. It gave her a little foothold for further attack, however. โI donโt see, anyhow, wโat reason you had to marry me, wโen there were so many others,โ she complained, as if accusing him of persecution and injury.
โThere was Marianne running after you foโ the lasโ five years till it was disgraceful; anโ any one of the Dortrand girls would have been glad to marry you. But no, nothing would do; you musโ come out on the rigolet foโ me.โ Her
complaint was pathetic, and at the same time so amusing that Cazeau was forced to smile.
โI canโt see wโat the Dortrand girls or Marianne have to do with it,โ he rejoined; adding, with no trace of amusement, โI married you because I loved you; because
you were the woman I wanted to marry, anโ the only one. I
reckon I tole you that befoโ. I thoughtโof coโse I was a fool foโ taking things foโ grantedโbut I did think that I might
make you happy in making things easier anโ moโ
comfortable foโ you. I expectedโI was even that big a fool
โI believed that yoโ coming yere to me would be like the sun shining out of the clouds, anโ that our days would be
like wโat the story-books promise after the wedding. I was mistaken. But I canโt imagine wโat induced you to marry me. Wโatever it was, I reckon you founโ out you made a mistake, too. I donโ see anything to do but make the best of a bad bargain, anโ shake hanโs over it.โ He had arisen from the table, and, approaching, held out his hand to her. What he had said was commonplace enough, but it was
significant, coming from Cazeau, who was not often so unreserved in expressing himself.
Athรฉnaรฏse ignored the hand held out to her. She was resting her chin in her palm, and kept her eyes fixed
moodily upon the table. He rested his hand, that she would not touch, upon her head for an instant, and walked away
out of the room.
She heard him giving orders to workmen who had been waiting for him out on the gallery, and she heard him
mount his horse and ride away. A hundred things would
distract him and engage his attention during the day. She
felt that he had perhaps put her and her grievance from his thoughts when he crossed the threshold; whilst sheโ
Old Fรฉlicitรฉ was standing there holding a shining tin pail, asking for flour and lard and eggs from the storeroom, and meal for the chicks.
Athรฉnaรฏse seized the bunch of keys which hung from her belt and flung them at Fรฉlicitรฉโs feet.
โTiens! tu vas les garder comme tu as jadis fait. Je ne veux plus de ce train lร , moi!โ
The old woman stooped and picked up the keys from the floor. It was really all one to her that her mistress
returned them to her keeping, and refused to take further account of the mรฉnage.
IV
It seemed now to Athรฉnaรฏse that Montรฉclin was the only friend left to her in the world. Her father and mother had
turned from her in what appeared to be her hour of need.
Her friends laughed at her, and refused to take seriously
the hints which she threw out,โfeeling her way to discover if marriage were as distasteful to other women as to
herself. Montรฉclin alone understood her. He alone had always been ready to act for her and with her, to comfort
and solace her with his sympathy and his support. Her only hope for rescue from her hateful surroundings lay in Montรฉclin. Of herself she felt powerless to plan, to act,
even to conceive a way out of this pitfall into which the whole world seemed to have conspired to thrust her.
She had a great desire to see her brother, and wrote
asking him to come to her. But it better suited Montรฉclinโs
spirit of adventure to appoint a meeting-place at the turn of the lane, where Athรฉnaรฏse might appear to be walking
leisurely for health and recreation, and where he might
seem to be riding along, bent on some errand of business or pleasure.
There had been a shower, a sudden downpour, short as it was sudden, that had laid the dust in the road. It had
freshened the pointed leaves of the live-oaks, and
brightened up the big fields of cotton on either side of the
lane till they seemed carpeted with green, glittering gems.
Athรฉnaรฏse walked along the grassy edge of the road, lifting her crisp skirts with one hand, and with the other
twirling a gay sunshade over her bare head. The scent of the fields after the rain was delicious. She inhaled long breaths of their freshness and perfume, that soothed and quieted her for the moment. There were birds splashing and spluttering in the pools, pluming themselves on the
fence-rails, and sending out little sharp cries, twitters, and shrill rhapsodies of delight.
She saw Montรฉclin approaching from a great distance,
โalmost as far away as the turn of the woods. But she could not feel sure it was he; it appeared too tall for Montรฉclin, but that was because he was riding a large
horse. She waved her parasol to him; she was so glad to see him. She had never been so glad to see Montรฉclin
before; not even the day when he had taken her out of the convent, against her parentsโ wishes, because she had
expressed a desire to remain there no longer. He seemed to her, as he drew near, the embodiment of kindness, of
bravery, of chivalry, even of wisdom; for she had never known Montรฉclin at a loss to extricate himself from a disagreeable situation.
He dismounted, and, leading his horse by the bridle, started to walk beside her, after he had kissed her
affectionately and asked her what she was crying about. She protested that she was not crying, for she was laughing, though drying her eyes at the same time on her handkerchief, rolled in a soft mop for the purpose.
She took Montรฉclinโs arm, and they strolled slowly down the lane; they could not seat themselves for a
comfortable chat, as they would have liked, with the grass all sparkling and bristling wet.
Yes, she was quite as wretched as ever, she told him. The week which had gone by since she saw him had in no wise lightened the burden of her discontent. There had
even been some additional provocations laid upon her, and she told Montรฉclin all about them,โabout the keys, for instance, which in a fit of temper she had returned to Fรฉlicitรฉโs keeping; and she told how Cazeau had brought
them back to her as if they were something she had
accidentally lost, and he had recovered; and how he had said, in that aggravating tone of his, that it was not the
custom on Cane river for the negro servants to carry the keys, when there was a mistress at the head of the household.
But Athรฉnaรฏse could not tell Montรฉclin anything to
increase the disrespect which he already entertained for his brother-in-law; and it was then he unfolded to her a
plan which he had conceived and worked out for her deliverance from this galling matrimonial yoke.
It was not a plan which met with instant favor, which
she was at once ready to accept, for it involved secrecy and dissimulation, hateful alternatives, both of them. But she was filled with admiration for Montรฉclinโs resources and
wonderful talent for contrivance. She accepted the plan;
not with the immediate determination to act upon it, rather with the intention to sleep and to dream upon it.
Three days later she wrote to Montรฉclin that she had abandoned herself to his counsel. Displeasing as it might be to her sense of honesty, it would yet be less trying than
to live on with a soul full of bitterness and revolt, as she had done for the past two months.
V
When Cazeau awoke, one morning at his usual very
early hour, it was to find the place at his side vacant. This
did not surprise him until he discovered that Athรฉnaรฏse was not in the adjoining room, where he had often found her
sleeping in the morning on the lounge. She had perhaps
gone out for an early stroll, he reflected, for her jacket and hat were not on the rack where she had hung them the
night before. But there were other things absent,โa gown or two from the armoire; and there was a great gap in the piles of lingerie on the shelf; and her traveling-bag was missing, and so were her bits of jewelry from the toilet tray
โand Athรฉnaรฏse was gone!
But the absurdity of going during the night, as if she had been a prisoner, and he the keeper of a dungeon! So
much secrecy and mystery, to go sojourning out on the Bon Dieu! Well, the Michรฉs might keep their daughter after this.
For the companionship of no woman on earth would he
again undergo the humiliating sensation of baseness that
had overtaken him in passing the old oak-tree in the fallow meadow.
But a terrible sense of loss overwhelmed Cazeau. It was not new or sudden; he had felt it for weeks growing upon him, and it seemed to culminate with Athรฉnaรฏseโs flight
from home. He knew that he could again compel her return as he had done once before,โcompel her to return to the shelter of his roof, compel her cold and unwilling
submission to his love and passionate transports; but the
loss of self-respect seemed to him too dear a price to pay for a wife.
He could not comprehend why she had seemed to prefer him above others; why she had attracted him with eyes, with voice, with a hundred womanly ways, and finally distracted him with love which she seemed, in her timid,
maidenly fashion, to return. The great sense of loss came from the realization of having missed a chance for
happiness,โa chance that would come his way again only
through a miracle. He could not think of himself loving any other woman, and could not think of Athรฉnaรฏse everโeven at some remote dateโcaring for him.
He wrote her a letter, in which he disclaimed any further intention of forcing his commands upon her. He did not desire her presence ever again in his home unless she came of her free will, uninfluenced by family or friends; unless she could be the companion he had hoped for in
marrying her, and in some measure return affection and
respect for the love which he continued and would always
continue to feel for her. This letter he sent out to the rigolet by a messenger early in the day. But she was not out on the rigolet, and had not been there.
The family turned instinctively to Montรฉclin, and almost literally fell upon him for an explanation; he had been
absent from home all night. There was much mystification in his answers, and a plain desire to mislead in his assurances of ignorance and innocence.
But with Cazeau there was no doubt or speculation
when he accosted the young fellow. โMontรฉclin, wโat have you done with Athรฉnaรฏse?โ he questioned bluntly. They had met in the open road on horseback, just as Cazeau
ascended the river bank before his house.
โWโat have you done to Athรฉnaรฏse?โ returned Montรฉclin for answer.
โI donโt reckon youโve considered yoโ conduct by any light of decency anโ propriety in encouraging yoโ sister to such an action, but let me tell youโโ
โVoyons! you can let me alone with yoโ decency anโ morality anโ fiddlesticks. I know you musโ โaโ done
Athรฉnaรฏse pretty mean that she canโt live with you; anโ foโ my part, Iโm mighty durn glad she had the spirit to quit
you.โ
โI ainโt in the humor to take any notice of yoโ impertinence, Montรฉclin; but let me remine you that
Athรฉnaรฏse is nothing but a chile in character; besides that, sheโs my wife, anโ I hole you responsible foโ her safety anโ welfare. If any harm of any description happens to her, Iโll strangle you, by God, like a rat, and fling you in Cane river,
if I have to hang foโ it!โ He had not lifted his voice. The only sign of anger was a savage gleam in his eyes.
โI reckon you better keep yoโ big talk foโ the women, Cazeau,โ replied Montรฉclin, riding away.
But he went doubly armed after that, and intimated
that the precaution was not needless, in view of the threats and menaces that were abroad touching his personal safety.
VI
Athรฉnaรฏse reached her destination sound of skin and limb, but a good deal flustered, a little frightened, and altogether excited and interested by her unusual experiences.
Her destination was the house of Sylvie, on Dauphine Street, in New Orleans,โa three-story gray brick, standing directly on the banquette, with three broad stone steps
leading to the deep front entrance. From the second-story balcony swung a small sign, conveying to passers-by the
intelligence that within were โchambres garnies.โ
It was one morning in the last week of April that
Athรฉnaรฏse presented herself at the Dauphine Street house. Sylvie was expecting her, and introduced her at once to her apartment, which was in the second story of the back ell,
and accessible by an open, outside gallery. There was a
yard below, paved with broad stone flagging; many fragrant flowering shrubs and plants grew in a bed along the side of the opposite wall, and others were distributed about in tubs and green boxes.
It was a plain but large enough room into which
Athรฉnaรฏse was ushered, with matting on the floor, green shades and Nottingham-lace curtains at the windows that looked out on the gallery, and furnished with a cheap
walnut suit. But everything looked exquisitely clean, and the whole place smelled of cleanliness.
Athรฉnaรฏse at once fell into the rocking-chair, with the air of exhaustion and intense relief of one who has come to
the end of her troubles. Sylvie, entering behind her, laid the big traveling-bag on the floor and deposited the jacket on
the bed.
She was a portly quadroon of fifty or there-about, clad in an ampleย volanteย of the old-fashioned purple calico so much affected by her class. She wore large golden hoop- earrings, and her hair was combed plainly, with every
appearance of effort to smooth out the kinks. She had broad, coarse features, with a nose that turned up,
exposing the wide nostrils, and that seemed to emphasize the loftiness and command of her bearing,โa dignity that in the presence of white people assumed a character of respectfulness, but never of obsequiousness. Sylvie
believed firmly in maintaining the color line, and would not suffer a white person, even a child, to call her โMadame
Sylvie,โโa title which she exacted religiously, however, from those of her own race.
โI hope you be pleaseโ wid yoโ room, madame,โ she
observed amiably. โDatโs de same room wโat yoโ brother, Mโsieur Michรฉ, all time like wโen he come to New Orleanโ. He well, Mโsieur Michรฉ? I receiveโ his letter lasโ week, anโ dat same day a gentโman want I give โim dat room. I say, โNo, dat room already ingageโ.โ Ev-body like dat room on
โcount it so quite (quiet). Mโsieur Gouvernail, dere in naxโ room, you canโt pay โim! He been stay tโree yearโ in dat room; but all fixโ up fine wid his own furnโture anโ books,
โtel you canโt see! I say to โim plenty timeโ, โMโsieur Gouvernail, wโy you donโt take dat tโree-story front, now, long itโs empty?โ He tells me, โLeave me โlone, Sylvie; I know a good room wโen I fine it, me.โ โ
She had been moving slowly and majestically about the apartment, straightening and smoothing down bed and pillows, peering into ewer and basin, evidently casting an
eye around to make sure that everything was as it should be.
โI senโ you some fresh water, madame,โ she offered
upon retiring from the room. โAnโ wโen you want anโtโing,
you jusโ go out on de gallโry anโ call Pousette: she year you plain,โshe right down dere in de kitchen.โ
Athรฉnaรฏse was really not so exhausted as she had every reason to be after that interminable and circuitous way by
which Montรฉclin had seen fit to have her conveyed to the city.
Would she ever forget that dark and truly dangerous
midnight ride along the โcoastโ to the mouth of Cane river!
There Montรฉclin had parted with her, after seeing her
aboard the St. Louis and Shreveport packet which he knew would pass there before dawn. She had received instructions to disembark at the mouth of Red river, and
there transfer to the first south-bound steamer for New Orleans; all of which instructions she had followed
implicitly, even to making her way at once to Sylvieโs upon her arrival in the city. Montรฉclin had enjoined secrecy and much caution; the clandestine nature of the affair gave it a savor of adventure which was highly pleasing to him.
Eloping with his sister was only a little less engaging than eloping with someone elseโs sister.
But Montรฉclin did not do theย grand seigneurย by halves.
He had paid Sylvie a whole month in advance for Athรฉnaรฏseโs board and lodging. Part of the sum he had been forced to borrow, it is true, but he was not niggardly.
Athรฉnaรฏse was to take her meals in the house, which
none of the other lodgers did; the one exception being that Mr. Gouvernail was served with breakfast on Sunday mornings.
Sylvieโs clientรจle came chiefly from the southern parishes; for the most part, people spending but a few days in the city. She prided herself upon the quality and highly
respectable character of her patrons, who came and went unobtrusively.
The large parlor opening upon the front balcony was
seldom used. Her guests were permitted to entertain in this
sanctuary of elegance,โbut they never did. She often
rented it for the night to parties of respectable and discreet gentlemen desiring to enjoy a quiet game of cards outside
the bosom of their families. The second-story hall also led by a long window out on the balcony. And Sylvie advised Athรฉnaรฏse, when she grew weary of her back room, to go and sit on the front balcony, which was shady in the afternoon, and where she might find diversion in the sounds and sights of the street below.
Athรฉnaรฏse refreshed herself with a bath, and was soon unpacking her few belongings, which she ranged neatly
away in the bureau drawers and the armoire.
She had revolved certain plans in her mind during the past hour or so. Her present intention was to live on
indefinitely in this big, cool, clean back room on Dauphine street. She had thought seriously, for moments, of the convent, with all readiness to embrace the vows of poverty and chastity; but what about obedience? Later, she intended, in some roundabout way, to give her parents and her husband the assurance of her safety and welfare;
reserving the right to remain unmolested and lost to them.
To live on at the expense of Montรฉclinโs generosity was wholly out of the question, and Athรฉnaรฏse meant to look about for some suitable and agreeable employment.
The imperative thing to be done at present, however, was to go out in search of material for an inexpensive gown or two; for she found herself in the painful predicament of a young woman having almost literally nothing to wear. She
decided upon pure white for one, and some sort of sprigged muslin for the other.
VII
On Sunday morning, two days after Athรฉnaรฏseโs arrival in the city, she went in to breakfast somewhat later than usual, to find two covers laid at table instead of the one to which she was accustomed. She had been to mass, and did not remove her hat, but put her fan, parasol, and prayer- book aside. The dining-room was situated just beneath her own apartment, and, like all rooms of the house, was large and airy; the floor was covered with a glistening oil-cloth.
The small, round table, immaculately set, was drawn near the open window. There were some tall plants in boxes on the gallery outside; and Pousette, a little, old, intensely black woman, was splashing and dashing buckets of water
on the flagging, and talking loud in her Creole patois to no one in particular.
A dish piled with delicate river-shrimps and crushed ice was on the table; a caraffe of crystal-clear water, a fewย bors dโลuvres,ย beside a small golden-brown crusty loaf of
French bread at each plate. A half-bottle of wine and the morning paper were set at the place opposite Athรฉnaรฏse.
She had almost completed her breakfast when
Gouvernail came in and seated himself at table. He felt annoyed at finding his cherished privacy invaded. Sylvie
was removing the remains of a mutton-chop from before Athรฉnaรฏse, and serving her with a cup of cafรฉ au lait.
โMโsieur Gouvernail,โ offered Sylvie in her most
insinuating and impressive manner, โyou please leave me make you acquaintโ wid Madame Cazeau. Datโs Mโsieur Michรฉโs sister; you meet โim two tโree timeโ, you recโlecโ, anโ been one day to de race wid โim. Madame Cazeau, you please leave me make you acquaintโ wid Mโsieur
Gouvernail.โ
Gouvernail expressed himself greatly pleased to meet the sister of Monsieur Michรฉ, of whom he had not the
slightest recollection. He inquired after Monsieur Michรฉโs health, and politely offered Athรฉnaรฏse a part of his newspaper,โthe part which contained the Womanโs Page and the social gossip.
Athรฉnaรฏse faintly remembered that Sylvie had spoken of a Monsieur Gouvernail occupying the room adjoining hers,
living amid luxurious surroundings and a multitude of books. She had not thought of him further than to picture him a stout, middle-aged gentleman, with a bushy beard
turning gray, wearing large gold-rimmed spectacles, and stooping somewhat from much bending over books and writing material. She had confused him in her mind with the likeness of some literary celebrity that she had run across in the advertising pages of a magazine.
Gouvernailโs appearance was, in truth, in no sense striking. He looked older than thirty and younger than forty, was of medium height and weight, with a quiet,
unobtrusive manner which seemed to ask that he be let alone. His hair was light brown, brushed carefully and
parted in the middle. His mustache was brown, and so were his eyes, which had a mild, penetrating quality. He was
neatly dressed in the fashion of the day; and his hands
seemed to Athรฉnaรฏse remarkably white and soft for a manโs.
He had been buried in the contents of his newspaper,
when he suddenly realized that some further little attention might be due to Michรฉโs sister. He started to offer her a glass of wine, when he was surprised and relieved to find
that she had quietly slipped away while he was absorbed in his own editorial on Corrupt Legislation.
Gouvernail finished his paper and smoked his cigar out on the gallery. He lounged about, gathered a rose for his buttonhole, and had his regular Sunday-morning confab
with Pousette, to whom he paid a weekly stipend for
brushing his shoes and clothing. He made a great pretense of haggling over the transaction, only to enjoy her uneasiness and garrulous excitement.
He worked or read in his room for a few hours, and
when he quitted the house, at three in the afternoon, it was to return no more till late at night. It was his almost
invariable custom to spend Sunday evenings out in the American quarter, among a congenial set of men and women,โdes esprits forts,ย all of them, whose lives were
irreproachable, yet whose opinions would startle even the traditional โsapeur,โ for whom โnothing is sacred.โ But for all his โadvancedโ opinions, Gouvernail was a liberal-
minded fellow; a man or woman lost nothing of his respect by being married.
When he left the house in the afternoon. Athรฉnaรฏse had already ensconced herself on the front balcony. He could
see her through the jalousies when he passed on his way to the front entrance. She had not yet grown lonesome or homesick; the newness of her surroundings made them
sufficiently entertaining. She found it diverting to sit there on the front balcony watching people pass by, even though there was no one to talk to. And then the comforting,
comfortable sense of not being married!
She watched Gouvernail walk down the street, and could find no fault with his bearing. He could hear the
sound of her rockers for some little distance. He wondered what the โpoor little thingโ was doing in the city, and meant to ask Sylvie about her when he should happen to think of it.
VIII
The following morning, towards noon, when Gouvernail quitted his room, he was confronted by Athรฉnaรฏse,
exhibiting some confusion and trepidation at being forced to request a favor of him at so early a stage of their acquaintance. She stood in her doorway, and had evidently been sewing, as the thimble on her finger testified, as well as a long-threaded needle thrust in the bosom of her gown. She held a stamped but unaddressed letter in her hand.
And would Mr. Gouvernail be so kind as to address the letter to her brother, Mr. Montรฉclin Michรฉ? She would hate to detain him with explanations this morning,โanother time, perhaps,โbut now she begged that he would give
himself the trouble.
He assured her that it made no difference, that it was no trouble whatever; and he drew a fountain pen from his pocket and addressed the letter at her dictation, resting it on the inverted rim of his straw hat. She wondered a little at a man of his supposed erudition stumbling over the
spelling of โMontรฉclinโ and โMichรฉ.โ
She demurred at overwhelming him with the additional trouble of posting it, but he succeeded in convincing her
that so simple a task as the posting of a letter would not
add an iota to the burden of the day. Moreover, he promised to carry it in his hand, and thus avoid any possible risk of
forgetting it in his pocket.
After that, and after a second repetition of the favor, when she had told him that she had had a letter from
Montรฉclin, and looked as if she wanted to tell him more, he
felt that he knew her better. He felt that he knew her well enough to join her out on the balcony, one night, when he found her sitting there alone. He was not one who
deliberately sought the society of women, but he was not wholly a bear. A little commiseration for Athรฉnaรฏseโs aloneness, perhaps some curiosity to know further what
manner of woman she was, and the natural influence of her feminine charm were equal unconfessed factors in turning his steps towards the balcony when he discovered the shimmer of her white gown through the open hall window.
It was already quite late, but the day had been
intensely hot, and neighboring balconies and doorways
were occupied by chattering groups of humanity, loath to
abandon the grateful freshness of the outer air. The voices about her served to reveal to Athรฉnaรฏse the feeling of loneliness that was gradually coming over her.
Notwithstanding certain dormant impulses, she craved human sympathy and companionship.
She shook hands impulsively with Gouvernail, and told him how glad she was to see him. He was not prepared for such an admission, but it pleased him immensely, detecting as he did that the expression was as sincere as it was outspoken. He drew a chair up within comfortable
conversational distance of Athรฉnaรฏse, though he had no intention of talking more than was barely necessary to
encourage MadameโHe had actually forgotten her name!
He leaned an elbow on the balcony rail, and would have offered an opening remark about the oppressive heat of the day, but Athรฉnaรฏse did not give him the opportunity. How
glad she was to talk to some one, and how she talked!
An hour later she had gone to her room, and Gouvernail stayed smoking on the balcony. He knew her quite well
after that hourโs talk. It was not so much what she had said as what her half saying had revealed to his quick intelligence. He knew that she adored Montรฉclin, and he
suspected that she adored Cazeau without being herself aware of it. He had gathered that she was self-willed,
impulsive, innocent, ignorant, unsatisfied, dissatisfied; for had she not complained that things seemed all wrongly
arranged in this world, and no one was permitted to be happy in his own way? And he told her he was sorry she
had discovered that primordial fact of existence so early in life.
He commiserated her loneliness, and scanned his bookshelves next morning for something to lend her to read, rejecting everything that offered itself to his view.
Philosophy was out of the question, and so was poetry; that is, such poetry as he possessed. He had not sounded her
literary tastes, and strongly suspected she had none; that she would have rejected The Duchess as readily as Mrs.
Humphry Ward. He compromised on a magazine.
It had entertained her passably, she admitted, upon
returning it. A New England story had puzzled her, it was true, and a Creole tale had offended her, but the pictures
had pleased her greatly, especially one which had reminded her so strongly of Montรฉclin after a hard dayโs ride that she was loath to give it up. It was one of Remingtonโs Cowboys, and Gouvernail insisted upon her keeping it,โkeeping the magazine.
He spoke to her daily after that, and was always eager to render her some service or to do something towards her entertainment.
One afternoon he took her out to the lake end. She had been there once, some years before, but in winter, so the
trip was comparatively new and strange to her. The large
expanse of water studded with pleasure-boats, the sight of children playing merrily along the grassy palisades, the music, all enchanted her. Gouvernail thought her the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Even her gownโthe
sprigged muslinโappeared to him the most charming one imaginable. Nor could anything be more becoming than the arrangement of her brown hair under the white sailor hat,
all rolled back in a soft puff from her radiant face. And she carried her parasol and lifted her skirts and used her fan in ways that seemed quite unique and peculiar to herself, and which he considered almost worthy of study and imitation.
They did not dine out there at the waterโs edge, as they might have done, but returned early to the city to avoid the crowd. Athรฉnaรฏse wanted to go home, for she said Sylvie
would have dinner prepared and would be expecting her.
But it was not difficult to persuade her to dine instead in
the quiet little restaurant that he knew and liked, with its sanded floor, its secluded atmosphere, its delicious menu, and its obsequious waiter wanting to know what he might have the honor of serving to โmonsieur et madame.โ No wonder he made the mistake, with Gouvernail assuming
such an air of proprietorship! But Athรฉnaรฏse was very tired after it all; the sparkle went out of her face, and she hung draggingly on his arm in walking home.
He was reluctant to part from her when she bade him good-night at her door and thanked him for the agreeable evening. He had hoped she would sit outside until it was
time for him to regain the newspaper office. He knew that she would undress and get into her peignoir and lie upon her bed; and what he wanted to do, what he would have
given much to do, was to go and sit beside her, read to her something restful, soothe her, do her bidding, whatever it might be. Of course there was no use in thinking of that.
But he was surprised at his growing desire to be serving her. She gave him an opportunity sooner than he looked for.
โMr. Gouvernail,โ she called from her room, โwill you
be so kine as to call Pousette anโ tell her she foโgot to bring my ice-water?โ
He was indignant at Pousetteโs negligence, and called
severely to her over the banisters. He was sitting before his own door, smoking. He knew that Athรฉnaรฏse had gone to bed, for her room was dark, and she had opened the slats
of the door and windows. Her bed was near a window.
Pousette came flopping up with the ice-water, and with a hundred excuses: โMo pa oua vou ร tab cโte lanuite, mo
cri vou pรฉ gagni dรฉja lร -bas; parole! Vou pas cri contรฉ รงa
Madame Sylvie?โ She had not seen Athรฉnaรฏse at table, and thought she was gone. She swore to this, and hoped
Madame Sylvie would not be informed of her remissness.
A little later Athรฉnaรฏse lifted her voice again: โMr.
Gouvernail, did you remark that young man sitting on the opposite side from us, coming in, with a gray coat anโ a
blue banโ arounโ his hat?โ
Of course Gouvernail had not noticed any such individual, but he assured Athรฉnaรฏse that he had observed the young fellow particularly.
โDonโt you think he looked something,โnot very much, of coโse,โbut donโt you think he had a little faux-air of
Montรฉclin?โ
โI think he looked strikingly like Montรฉclin,โ asserted Gouvernail, with the one idea of prolonging the conversation. โI meant to call your attention to the resemblance, and something drove it out of my head.โ
โThe same with me,โ returned Athรฉnaรฏse. โAh, my dear Montรฉclin! I wonder wโat he is doing now?โ
โDid you receive any news, any letter from him to-day?โ asked Gouvernail, determined that if the conversation
ceased it should not be through lack of effort on his part to sustain it.
โNot to-day, but yesterday. He tells me that maman was so distracted with uneasiness that finally, to pacify her, he was foโced to confess that he knew wโere I was, but that he was bounโ by a vow of secrecy not to reveal it. But Cazeau has not noticed him or spoken to him since he threatenโ to throw poโ Montรฉclin in Cane river. You know Cazeau wrote me a letter the morning I lefโ, thinking I had gone to the rigolet. Anโ maman opened it, anโ said it was full of the mosโ noble sentiments, anโ she wanted Montรฉclin to senโ it to me; but Montรฉclin refuseโ poinโ blank, so he wrote to
me.โ
Gouvernail preferred to talk of Montรฉclin. He pictured Cazeau as unbearable, and did not like to think of him.
A little later Athรฉnaรฏse called out, โGood-night, Mr.
Gouvernail.โ
โGood-night,โ he returned reluctantly. And when he
thought that she was sleeping, he got up and went away to the midnight pandemonium of his newspaper office.
IX
Athรฉnaรฏse could not have held out through the month had it not been for Gouvernail. With the need of caution
and secrecy always uppermost in her mind, she made no
new acquaintances, and she did not seek out persons already known to her; however, she knew so few, it
required little effort to keep out of their way. As for Sylvie, almost every moment of her time was occupied in looking after her house; and, moreover, her deferential attitude
towards her lodgers forbade anything like the gossipy chats in which Athรฉnaรฏse might have condescended sometimes to indulge with her land-lady. The transient lodgers, who came and went, she never had occasion to meet. Hence she was
entirely dependent upon Gouvernail for company.
He appreciated the situation fully; and every moment that he could spare from his work he devoted to her entertainment. She liked to be out of doors, and they
strolled together in the summer twilight through the mazes of the old French quarter. They went again to the lake end, and stayed for hours on the water; returning so late that
the streets through which they passed were silent and deserted. On Sunday morning he arose at an
unconscionable hour to take her to the French market,
knowing that the sights and sounds there would interest her. And he did not join the intellectual coterie in the afternoon, as he usually did, but placed himself all day at the disposition and service of Athรฉnaรฏse.
Notwithstanding all, his manner toward her was tactful, and evinced intelligence and a deep knowledge of her character, surprising upon so brief an acquaintance. For
the time he was everything to her that she would have him; he replaced home and friends. Sometimes she wondered if he had ever loved a woman. She could not fancy him loving any one passionately, rudely, offensively, as Cazeau loved her. Once she was so naรฏve as to ask him outright if he had ever been in love, and he assured her promptly that he had not. She thought it an admirable trait in his character, and esteemed him greatly therefor.
He found her crying one night, not openly or violently.
She was leaning over the gallery rail, watching the toads that hopped about in the moonlight, down on the damp flagstones of the courtyard. There was an oppressively
sweet odor rising from the cape jessamine. Pousette was
down there, mumbling and quarreling with some one, and seeming to be having it all her own way,โas well she might, when her companion was only a black cat that had come in from a neighboring yard to keep her company.
Athรฉnaรฏse did admit feeling heart-sick, body-sick, when he questioned her; she supposed it was nothing but homesick. A letter from Montรฉclin had stirred her all up.
She longed for her mother, for Montรฉclin; she was sick for a sight of the cotton-fields, the scent of the ploughed earth, for the dim, mysterious charm of the woods, and the old
tumble-down home on the Bon Dieu.
As Gouvernail listened to her, a wave of pity and tenderness swept through him. He took her hands and pressed them against him. He wondered what would
happen if he were to put his arms around her.
He was hardly prepared for what happened, but he
stood it courageously. She twined her arms around his neck and wept outright on his shoulder; the hot tears scalding
his cheek and neck, and her whole body shaken in his arms.
The impulse was powerful to strain her to him; the
temptation was fierce to seek her lips; but he did neither.
He understood a thousand times better than she herself understood it that he was acting as substitute for Montรฉclin. Bitter as the conviction was, he accepted it. He was patient; he could wait. He hoped some day to hold her with a loverโs arms. That she was married made no particle
of difference to Gouvernail. He could not conceive or dream
of it making a difference. When the time came that she
wanted him,โas he hoped and believed it would come,โhe felt he would have a right to her. So long as she did not
want him, he had no right to her,โno more than her
husband had. It was very hard to feel her warm breath and tears upon his cheek, and her struggling bosom pressed
against him and her soft arms clinging to him and his whole body and soul aching for her, and yet to make no sign.
He tried to think what Montรฉclin would have said and done, and to act accordingly. He stroked her hair, and held her in a gentle embrace, until the tears dried and the sobs ended. Before releasing herself she kissed him against the neck; she had to love somebody in her own way! Even that he endured like a stoic. But it was well he left her, to
plunge into the thick of rapid, breathless, exacting work till nearly dawn.
Athรฉnaรฏse was greatly soothed, and slept well. The
touch of friendly hands and caressing arms had been very grateful. Henceforward she would not be lonely and
unhappy, with Gouvernail there to comfort her.
X
The fourth week of Athรฉnaรฏseโs stay in the city was
drawing to a close. Keeping in view the intention which she had of finding some suitable and agreeable employment,
she had made a few tentatives in that direction. But with the exception of two little girls who had promised to take piano lessons at a price that would be embarrassing to
mention, these attempts had been fruitless. Moreover, the homesickness kept coming back, and Gouvernail was not always there to drive it away.
She spent much of her time weeding and pottering
among the flowers down in the courtyard. She tried to take an interest in the black cat, and a mockingbird that hung in a cage outside the kitchen door, and a disreputable parrot
that belonged to the cook next door, and swore hoarsely all day long in bad French.
Beside, she was not well; she was not herself, as she
told Sylvie. The climate of New Orleans did not agree with her. Sylvie was distressed to learn this, as she felt in some measure responsible for the health and well-being of Monsieur Michรฉโs sister; and she made it her duty to
inquire closely into the nature and character of Athรฉnaรฏseโs malaise.
Sylvie was very wise, and Athรฉnaรฏse was very ignorant.
The extent of her ignorance and the depth of her
subsequent enlightenment were bewildering. She stayed a long, long time quite still, quite stunned, after her interview with Sylvie, except for the short, uneven
breathing that ru๏ฌed her bosom. Her whole being was
steeped in a wave of ecstasy. When she finally arose from the chair in which she had been seated, and looked at
herself in the mirror, a face met hers which she seemed to see for the first time, so transfigured was it with wonder
and rapture.
One mood quickly followed another, in this new turmoil of her senses, and the need of action became uppermost.
Her mother must know at once, and her mother must tell Montรฉclin. And Cazeau must know. As she thought of him, the first purely sensuous tremor of her life swept over her.
She half whispered his name, and the sound of it brought
red blotches into her cheeks. She spoke it over and over, as if it were some new, sweet sound born out of darkness and confusion, and reaching her for the first time. She was
impatient to be with him. Her whole passionate nature was aroused as if by a miracle.
She seated herself to write to her husband. The letter
he would get in the morning, and she would be with him at night. What would he say? How would he act? She knew
that he would forgive her, for had he not written a letter?โ and a pang of resentment toward Montรฉclin shot through her. What did he mean by withholding that letter? How
dared he not have sent it?
Athรฉnaรฏse attired herself for the street, and went out to post the letter which she had penned with a single thought, a spontaneous impulse. It would have seemed incoherent to most people, but Cazeau would understand.
She walked along the street as if she had fallen heir to some magnificent inheritance. On her face was a look of
pride and satisfaction that passers-by noticed and admired.
She wanted to talk to some one, to tell some person; and
she stopped at the corner and told the oyster-woman, who was Irish, and who God-blessed her, and wished prosperity to the race of Cazeaus for generations to come. She held
the oyster-womanโs fat, dirty little baby in her arms and scanned it curiously and observingly, as if a baby were a
phenomenon that she encountered for the first time in life. She even kissed it!
Then what a relief it was to Athรฉnaรฏse to walk the streets without dread of being seen and recognized by
some chance acquaintance from Red river! No one could have said now that she did not know her own mind.
She went directly from the oyster-womanโs to the office of Harding & Offdean, her husbandโs merchants; and it was with such an air of partnership, almost proprietorship, that
she demanded a sum of money on her husbandโs account, they gave it to her as unhesitatingly as they would have
handed it over to Cazeau himself. When Mr. Harding, who knew her, asked politely after her health, she turned so
rosy and looked so conscious, he thought it a great pity for so pretty a woman to be such a little goose.
Athรฉnaรฏse entered a dry-goods store and bought all manner of things,โlittle presents for nearly everybody she knew. She bought whole bolts of sheerest, softest, downiest white stuff; and when the clerk, in trying to meet her wishes, asked if she intended it for infantโs use, she could
have sunk through the floor, and wondered how he might have suspected it.
As it was Montรฉclin who had taken her away from her husband, she wanted it to be Montรฉclin who should take her back to him. So she wrote him a very curt note,โin fact it was a postal card,โasking that he meet her at the train
on the evening following. She felt convinced that after what had gone before, Cazeau would await her at their own home; and she preferred it so.
Then there was the agreeable excitement of getting ready to leave, of packing up her things. Pousette kept
coming and going, coming and going; and each time that
she quitted the room it was with something that Athรฉnaรฏse had given her,โa handkerchief, a petticoat, a pair of stockings with two tiny holes at the toes, some broken prayer-beads, and finally a silver dollar.
Next it was Sylvie who came along bearing a gift of
what she called โa set of patternโ,โโthings of complicated design which never could have been obtained in any new-
fangled bazaar or pattern-store, that Sylvie had acquired of a foreign lady of distinction whom she had nursed years
before at the St. Charles hotel. Athรฉnaรฏse accepted and handled them with reverence, fully sensible of the great
compliment and favor, and laid them religiously away in the trunk which she had lately acquired.
She was greatly fatigued after the day of unusual exertion, and went early to bed and to sleep. All day long
she had not once thought of Gouvernail, and only did think of him when aroused for a brief instant by the sound of his foot-falls on the gallery, as he passed in going to his room. He had hoped to find her up, waiting for him.
But the next morning he knew. Some one must have
told him. There was no subject known to her which Sylvie
hesitated to discuss in detail with any man of suitable years and discretion.
Athรฉnaรฏse found Gouvernail waiting with a carriage to convey her to the railway station. A momentary pang
visited her for having forgotten him so completely, when he said to her, โSylvie tells me you are going away this
morning.โ
He was kind, attentive, and amiable, as usual, but
respected to the utmost the new dignity and reserve that her manner had developed since yesterday. She kept
looking from the carriage window, silent, and embarrassed as Eve after losing her ignorance. He talked of the muddy streets and the murky morning, and of Montรฉclin. He
hoped she would find everything comfortable and pleasant in the country, and trusted she would inform him whenever she came to visit the city again. He talked as if afraid or
mistrustful of silence and himself.
At the station she handed him her purse, and he bought her ticket, secured for her a comfortable section, checked
her trunk, and got all the bundles and things safely aboard the train. She felt very grateful. He pressed her hand
warmly, lifted his hat, and left her. He was a man of intelligence, and took defeat gracefully; that was all. But as he made his way back to the carriage, he was thinking, โBy heaven, it hurts, it hurts!โ
XI
Athรฉnaรฏse spent a day of supreme happiness and
expectancy. The fair sight of the country unfolding itself
before her was balm to her vision and to her soul. She was charmed with the rather unfamiliar, broad, clean sweep of the sugar plantations, with their monster sugar-houses, their rows of neat cabins like little villages of a single street, and their impressive homes standing apart amid clusters of trees. There were sudden glimpses of a bayou
curling between sunny, grassy banks, or creeping
sluggishly out from a tangled growth of wood, and brush, and fern, and poison-vines, and palmettos. And passing
through the long stretches of monotonous woodlands, she would close her eyes and taste in anticipation the moment of her meeting with Cazeau. She could think of nothing but him.
It was night when she reached her station. There was Montรฉclin, as she had expected, waiting for her with a two- seated buggy, to which he had hitched his own swift-footed, spirited pony. It was good, he felt, to have her back on any terms; and he had no fault to find since she came of her
own choice. He more than suspected the cause of her coming; her eyes and her voice and her foolish little manner went far in revealing the secret that was brimming over in her heart. But after he had deposited her at her
own gate, and as he continued his way toward the rigolet, he could not help feeling that the affair had taken a very
disappointing, an ordinary, a most commonplace turn, after all. He left her in Cazeauโs keeping.
Her husband lifted her out of the buggy, and neither
said a word until they stood together within the shelter of the gallery. Even then they did not speak at first. But
Athรฉnaรฏse turned to him with an appealing gesture. As he clasped her in his arms, he felt the yielding of her whole
body against him. He felt her lips for the first time respond to the passion of his own.
The country night was dark and warm and still, save for the distant notes of an accordion which some one was
playing in a cabin away off. A little negro baby was crying somewhere. As Athรฉnaรฏse withdrew from her husbandโs embrace, the sound arrested her.
โListen, Cazeau! How Julietteโs baby is crying! Pauvre ti chou, I wonder wโat is the matter with it?โ
