"Well, then, you have not heard," continued the old man, with a smile of evident satisfaction brightening up his features, "you have not heard that the marriage is delayed, and Lise declares she is sure it will not take place at all."
I thought I should have fallen down dead at his feet, so sudden was the change from despair to hope; and now, being more anxious than ever to hear him to an end uninterrupted, I beckoned him out of the gardens, and leading the way towards the grave of the Count de Mesnil, in which direction I knew Monsieur de Villardin would not venture, I besought him to tell me all that had occurred. He began his story with a long tirade against my rival, whose person and deportment seemed equally to have fallen under the old man's disapprobation. I cut short his details, however, concerning the Count de Laval, telling him that I knew him, and that he need not describe him; and he then went on to relate the events which had occurred within the last week.
"Just five days ago," he said, "when we all thought the marriage was to take place as yesterday, Mademoiselle--as many of us had fancied she would--fell ill; and several physicians were sent for from Rennes. The two who came, I hear from Lise, declared that she was ill in body because she was ill in mind; and that Monsieur de Villardin or Father Ferdinand must be her physicians, as they could do nothing for her. Both the Duke and the Priest went to her immediately, and Lise was sent away, so that she heard nothing more. At length, however, it seems that she obtained permission to see the Count himself, and to tell him all she felt, for he was admitted to her chamber, and, while Lise stood at one end of the room, held a long conversation with our young lady at the other. What it was all about Lise did not hear, though she very well guessed: but, as the Count was going away, he said aloud, 'As you desire it, madam, I will certainly speak with the good Father, though I do not think he can tell me anything which I do not know before. But, at all events, rest satisfied that, after the confidence you have placed in me, I will do nothing ungenerous.'"
"From all this Lise augured well; but, what between agitation, and terror, and fatigue, my young lady fainted seven or eight times within the hour, after the Count had left her; and at length Lise was obliged to call the Duke and other people to her assistance, as she could not bring Mademoiselle to herself again; and for some time every one thought she was dead. As soon as she had recovered, she was told that, at the desire of the Count himself, the marriage would be put off for a month; and from that moment she began to get better rapidly. The same evening, I saw the Count walking with Father Ferdinand for nearly three hours; and I always thought that news had been sent to you, for I know that a messenger was despatched that night to Dumont, without the knowledge of Monsieur de Villardin."
"He never came!" I exclaimed. "I never saw him! I never heard of his arrival!"
"That is very strange," said the old man, "for he certainly went, and as certainly returned early yesterday morning. However, yesterday, Mademoiselle was quite well again; but all the preparations for the marriage have been done away. The Count seems very respectful and kind to my young lady. Lise, who knows better about it than any one, appears more happy, and every one thinks that the marriage will not take place at all. To-day, all went out early, with the carriage and a few horsemen, but they have not returned yet, though Monseigneur said that he would be back before noon, and it is now nearly three o'clock."
The relief that all these tidings gave me was almost too great to bear with any degree of firmness. I could have wept for very joy; and yet so strange, so unexpected, was the whole, that I scarcely dared suffer myself to entertain the hopes which good old Jerome was so anxious to supply. "The marriage," I thought, "might indeed be delayed; Laura's entreaties and illness might have obtained for her some compassion; but if the character which I had heard of the Count de Laval were correct, he was not a man to yield easily the hand of the richest heiress in France, or to suffer what he would consider her childish passion for another ultimately to break through the positive engagements which her father had entered into with himself." Such thoughts, of course, tended to calm my joy, and to moderate my expectations; but still the flame of hope was again lighted in my bosom, and infinite, indeed, was the change which had taken place in all my feelings since I had left Dumont at break of day.
Numberless, however, were still the questions which I had to ask of the old man; for the slightest particular, the most accidental trait, in the events which had occurred, was of course calculated to raise up or cast down my new-found hopes, and was in itself interesting from its connexion with the fate and happiness of Laura de Villardin. Thus, with slow and interrupted steps, we were proceeding in the direction which I have mentioned, sometimes pausing to ask a question or to receive a reply, sometimes stopping short to think over all I had heard, and to try to discover what was really the state of the case from the broken information which Jerome could alone afford me, when suddenly, a little way ere we reached the spot where I had left my charger, the sound of a horse's feet, coming rapidly down the neighbouring avenue, made me hasten behind some thick hawthorn bushes, to avoid observation. Jerome, however, remained where he was, and I could hear, from my place of concealment, the horse stop when it reached him, some hasty conversation take place, and then the voice of the old man calling me, for God's sake, to come up. I did so at once; and as I emerged from the trees, was not a little surprised to perceive that the person conversing with the old major-domo was a woman dressed in the habit of a Bretonne paysanne, and mounted on a good horse, which she had not quitted, but was speaking as she sat, with all the eager gesticulation of passion and energy. The next moment she turned towards myself, and what was my astonishment as she did so, to behold Suzette, the former maid of Madame de Villardin, and the wife of Gaspard de Belleville.
[CHAPTER XXXVIII.]
My surprise at beholding Suzette in a place where she knew that nothing but abhorrence and contempt would attend her, made me pause for a single instant; but she remarked the delay, and exclaimed loudly, "Why do you delay?--Quick! quick! if you are the man you used to be--quick! and save them; or you may come too late."