No one looking at them would have judged them to be contemporaries in age, for the years that had been spent by Nigel Maxwell in fighting with the sin and misery of an East London parish, and that had broken down his health for a time, and made his hair whiter than it need have been, had passed lightly over the Vicomte, who, nevertheless, had done his duty nobly in his own way, and was known by all the peasants on his large estates as a model landlord and a kind and just master.
‘Yes, my friend,’ he was saying in perfect English, ‘I am glad for your sake that the Bishop has insisted on filling up your place in Bethnal Green, and is sending you down to rusticate for a year or two in that seaside parish in Cornwall. He is a wise man your Bishop, and knows what he is doing. In a year or two you will be as strong and well as ever you were, and fit to take up work in the city again if you still wish to do so. And for the present, a couple of months’ idleness at the Château de Choisigny will do you no end of good before you take up your new work of preaching to the fisherfolks!’
Nigel Maxwell smiled, and shook his head with a sigh. No one but himself knew what a trial this enforced idleness was, or what a wrench it had been to him to leave his London parish and the poor people there who had learned to love and trust him, and whose lives had been brighter and better because of his presence among them.
‘You know how I am enjoying my visit, Arnauld,’ he said. ‘I have not seen so much of you since the old Oxford days. Indeed, I have never had such a lazy time since then; but I have run too long in harness to take kindly to an idle life, so you must excuse me if sometimes I seem a little restless.’
The Vicomte shrugged his shoulders and laughed a good-natured, cheerful laugh.
‘Thou wilt learn, mon ami; thou wilt learn,’ he said. ‘Already I begin to see in you traces of an idleness which I would not have suspected a month ago. For instance, I noted that you did not open a book this whole morning, but sat and smoked, with your hands folded. The veriest loafer in the world could not have been worse.’
‘It was the lovely scenery that tempted me,’ replied his friend. ‘If there was one thing I used to long for in Bethnal Green it was to see green fields and a blue sky, undimmed and unclouded by dirt or smoke.’
‘Ah, if it is scenery you want, wait until the new auto comes,’ said his companion. ‘Then I shall take you about, and let you see my country. What say you to a run through Brittany and down the Loire? We need not go too quickly; we could rest where we liked.’
Just then a servant came along the terrace. It was evident that he had some news to tell, for ill-concealed eagerness was written on his face, and he was hurrying as much as was compatible with the dignity of a well-trained servant.
‘Ha, Jacques!’ said the Vicomte, turning to him and speaking in rapid French, ‘hast thou come to tell us that the car has come? If it left Carhaix, as it ought to have done, this morning, it has had plenty of time to have arrived by now.’