Orphans of the Storm Part 5

Robespierre was pawing at the pock-marked one's coat, and finally succeeded in yanking him around. The broad back of the giant being turned to her, our little sparrow of a Henriette noiselessly departed--to the evident disappointment of the big man who looked yet again and found her place empty!

The big man had run across Chevalier de Vaudrey also, and the two had struck up a friends.h.i.+p. Moved by the pitiful sight of a starveling crowd gazing into a bakery, Maurice had rushed in and bought an armful of loaves which he distributed, adding gold louis for the wretched mothers of families. The pock-marked one had been a spectator. He stopped the Chevalier, shook his hand warmly, and remarked: "If more of the aristocrats were like _you_, things would be different!"

From these scenes of low life, let the reader pa.s.s for a few moments to the Salon de la Paix at Versailles, where King Louis XVI received pet.i.tioners.

We in America who have no awe of royalty perceive that the luckless King was simply a square peg in a round hole. He loved locksmithy, hunting, and home; would have been a successful inventor, pioneer, or bourgeois parent. In the chair of State, on this day of pet.i.tions, his head and hand busied themselves with a wonderful new doorlock he had devised.

"Sire," said the suppliant de Linieres, "in the matter of the grand alliance betwixt my nephew Chevalier de Vaudrey and your ward Princesse de Acquitaine--"

The monarch nodded absentmindedly.

"Oh, yes, yes! Of course. As you say--" With a courtly wave of the hand, the monarch indicated the waiting heiress on his right. She curtsied low in acceptance of the royal command.

"Let the young man marry her, and accept a place in my royal entourage--But now that this little matter is settled," continued the King with a return to his former animation, "I invite you to examine my latest invention, an unpickable lock, which I have here!"

The grave comedy of eulogy on the royal locksmithing was played by the delighted suppliant according to all the rules.

CHAPTER VIII

THE HONOR OF THE FAMILY

Daily the young Chevalier developed a warmer interest in the sweet and pure young girl at the faubourg lodgings. Always his visits brought a little delicious heart-flutter to Henriette, though not unmixed with mourning o'er lost sister. And as a result of these idyllic meetings, ambitious plans appeared to him abhorrent.

About this time the Countess de Linieres, calling one day at her husband's ministerial offices, learned of his purposes.

"I was about to come to you," said the Count, "but you have antic.i.p.ated me. I desire to speak with you on the subject of your nephew, the Chevalier de Vaudrey, and to ask you to prepare him for the marriage which the King--"

"Wishes to impose on him," interrupted the Countess bitterly.

"Impose on him?" repeated de Linieres. "It is a magnificent alliance, which will complete the measure of the distinguished honors with which His Majesty deigns to favor us."

"Have you spoken to the Chevalier yet?"

"No, but I am expecting him every moment, and I wished to talk with him in your presence."

As if this conversation had some influence over him, de Vaudrey entered at this moment.

"Ah, Chevalier!" exclaimed the Count. "I am glad to see you. The Countess and myself have an important communication to make to you."

De Vaudrey looked at his uncle in surprise. The latter was positively beaming. Big with the prospective grandeur of his house, he hesitated momentarily over the manner of delivering it.

"My dear Maurice," said the Count finally, "the King did me the honor to receive me yesterday, and he spoke of you."

"Of me?" asked de Vaudrey in surprise.

"He takes a great interest in you," continued de Linieres, now speaking quickly. "He wishes you to accept a position at court, and desires at the same time that you should marry."

"Marry?" asked de Vaudrey, as though he could not believe his uncle really meant what he said.

The Countess waited as anxiously for de Vaudrey's answer as did her husband, though for a different reason. She loved the young man before her, and his happiness and well-being were very dear to her.

"My dear nephew," she said kindly, "I see that this news surprises you. Yet there is no fear that the King's choice will do violence to your feelings. The lady whom His Majesty has chosen, has youth, beauty and fortune."

"In proof of which I have only to tell you that his choice is Princesse--" the Count attempted to say, but was interrupted by the Chevalier.

"Do not name her," he said excitedly.

"Why not?" asked his uncle in astonishment.

"Because I refuse to marry!"

The effect of these momentous words was quite diverse upon the uncle and the aunt of the young man.

For the moment the haughty n.o.bleman could not understand why his nephew-by-marriage should reject the flattering proposal, such an easy and agreeable road to place and fortune. Soon rising anger got the better of his surprise, and minding Picard's reports on the Chevalier's conduct, his thought was:

"Ah, that's the secret--he prefers his libertine courses to a.s.sured fortune!"

But the Aunt, with a woman's ready wit, understood there could be but one reason to such a decided refusal, and knew that he must be already in love.

Countess de Linieres loved the Chevalier as if he were her own son.

Quickly she shot the youth a warning look to prevent if possible a verbal pa.s.sage of arms. But it was already too late.

"You dare to disobey the King--" thundered Count de Linieres, in righteous wrath, backed (as the others well knew) by the triple authority of household, police and royal cachet.

"My sword is my King's," flashed the handsome youth resolutely, "but my will must remain my own!

"I will go to His Majesty," he continued pa.s.sionately. "I will thank him for his goodness, place my services at his disposal. My devotion, my life are his, but my affections are my own, and I wish to remain--free!"

"Free!" exclaimed the Count scornfully. "Free to lead a life of dissipation which you may not always be able to hide from the world."

These words, which implied so much, stung the n.o.ble-hearted de Vaudrey more than any words of anger or reproach could have done.

"There is nothing in my life to hide," he said proudly but impatiently, "nothing for which I have reason to blush."

"Are you sure of that, Chevalier?" asked the Count, in a tone that plainly said the speaker knew differently. Conscious of his own uprightness, this doubt cast upon his word was more than the Chevalier could bear, and he advanced toward his uncle with a menacing air.

"Monsieur!" he began, boldly, "I cannot--"

"Maurice! my husband!" exclaimed the Countess, as she stepped between the two men to prevent those words being spoken which would have led to an encounter. "Defer the conversation for the present. Permit me to speak to Maurice."

"Very well," said de Linieres sternly. Then turning to the Chevalier he said, in a voice which he had never before used to his nephew: "We will return to this another time. You will remember that as head of the family its honor is confided to my care, and I will not suffer any one to sully it with a stain."