CHAPTER XIX
THE WAY OF NEMESIS
"Spring is dead,
And summer is dead.
Oh! my heart,
And, oh! my head!"
It had always been understood that after the summer Haidee was to go back to Paris to finish her education at the Versailles Lycée, while Val and Bran put in another healthy, if desolate winter at Mascaret. Now the latter part of the plan was impossible. The place was haunted, for Val, by poor Sacha's ghost. She knew not where to go except it were back to Paris. Bran was older now and his health established. Perhaps if she could find a governess for him he would get along all right while she worked! The need for work was imperative. Funds were down to zero. She knew not where to turn for money, except where nothing but the prospect of starvation for Bran would let her turn--to the Credit Lyonnais where lay the accumulating quarterly sums from Westenra.
So when the time came for Haidee to make her entrance at the Lycée, Bran and Val returned to Paris as well: the latter having written and re-engaged her old studio which was to let furnished.
Haidee was a changed girl. She seemed to have grown years older and hard as a stone. She had withdrawn herself from all intimacy with Val, and was even cold and harsh in her manner to Bran, who could not understand and was always saying wistfully:
"Don't you love me any more, Haidee?"
"Of course I do," she would answer impatiently.
"Then why do you look at me as if you 'd like to spank me on my tailie?"
"Oh, don't worry me, Bran. You make me tired!"