“I hope you will not be too much disappointed,” he said, “but there is some important business on hand and he really cannot be spared. We made it an object for him to remain. Indeed, we should like him to take one of the head positions there. He is a fine, trusty fellow. He asked me to come and explain to you, lest you should think he had grown indifferent about old friends. But you need not fear that.”
“We had counted on seeing him, but duty is duty, and one ought not to run away from it for pleasure,” replied Denys, approvingly.
Renée was not going to give any one an opportunity to consider her a lovelorn maiden this time. She was gay and bright, joining the pleasure parties and dancing, ready for canoeing or rowing about on the old mill-pond in the races. She never summoned the young men to her side and bade them fetch and carry, as she used to André; she sent her admirers to this girl and that one, but somehow they always found their way back and gathered as bees about the sweetest flower. They would spend whole evenings with Denys for the sake of watching her as she sat so demurely beside the fire, now and then raising her soft brown eyes that the flame seemed to burnish with gold, or smiling vaguely at some conceit of her own instead of what the visitor said.
When they were alone on rare occasions she would bring Uncle Gaspard his flute and often sing dainty little songs in the sweetest voice imaginable. Then he would listen and dream of her mother, and it seemed as if she came and sat beside them. He could see her shadowy form, he believed he could touch her with his hand. There was no sin in loving her now, since she was free from the Count de Longueville.
Then came winter again. Should they go to the king’s ball?
“I’m too old,” said Uncle Gaspard. “I found a white hair in my beard this morning.”
“Oh, think of the fathers and grandfathers! And they dance, too. Old, indeed!”
She shook her slim finger at him.
“I’ve grown lazy. M. Marchand is such an excellent partner that I have very little to do.”
“Oh, and you were out skating a few days ago and distanced many of the younger men! I shall not go unless you do,” resolutely.