"You say true,--you say true," replied the Duke; "and I thank you for the life you have preserved, as well as for the kindness and the courage which prompted and enabled you to preserve it." He paused for a moment thoughtfully, and then proceeded: "You have thought me cold, unkind, ungrateful, since I have recovered life and health; but it has not been so. I have felt all that you have done for me; I have seen all that you have felt for me; and I have a thousand times longed to thank you for the whole; but ever, when I was about to speak, all the horrible memories which are in your heart and in mine, have risen up before me, and compelled me to silence. I have scarcely had courage even to address you, much less to speak with you on subjects connected with the terrible past."
Such an explanation was more than sufficient, and the pain of it once over, all further difficulty or reserve between us was at an end. He spoke some time longer with me in the library; and though he alluded but vaguely and remotely to the past, yet he did speak of it more than once with that sort of lingering tendency which a man always has to return, in conversation with others, to any subject that occupies all his thoughts when alone. At length, taking a key from the table, he said, "I have a fearful task before me, but one which I promised to execute myself. Nevertheless, I confess my heart so plays the coward with me that I am afraid to enter those rooms alone. You must go with me, at least as far as the ante-room, and wait for me there till my task is concluded."
Although he did not mention what rooms he meant, yet as I had heard from the old major-domo that Father Ferdinand had, with his own hands, closed and sealed the apartments of Madame de Villardin immediately after his arrival at the château, I easily divined that it was to those chambers that the Duke now alluded. I instantly prepared to follow, but still ventured to ask whether he had not better desire the good Priest to accompany him in the sad duty he was about to perform.
He shook his head gloomily, and replied, "No, no, I must go alone;" and then, with a pale cheek and wavering steps, took his way up the great staircase. His hand shook so fearfully that he could scarcely remove the seal, and turn the key in the lock of Madame de Villardin's chamber door; and sitting down in the ante-room he paused for several minutes, in order to gain strength for the undertaking. At length he started up abruptly, exclaiming, "Now!" and entering her bed-room, which communicated with a dressing-room on the other side, he closed the door behind him. Full of sad thoughts, I stood gazing out of the lattice for some time; but at the end of about a quarter of an hour, I heard the ante-room door open, and turning my head round without any noise, perceived Madame Suzette stealing quietly in, and looking about her. As soon as she perceived me she halted; and, with as much abhorrence as ever I felt towards any loathsome reptile in my life, I walked forward, and taking her by the arm, turned her quietly but firmly towards the door.
Thinking, probably, that I was there alone, she seemed about to take some noisy notice of my unceremonious ejection of her pretty person; but, pointing sternly towards the bed-chamber, I whispered, "The Duke is there;" and, glad to get off unobserved, she tripped away as quietly and speedily as possible. I kept my silent and now undisturbed watch in the ante-room for nearly two hours, and all seemed so still and quiet within the chamber beyond, that I began at length to feel alarmed lest the excitement and agitation which Monsieur de Villardin had evidently experienced when he entered, should have overpowered him in the course of his undertaking.
He came forth, however, just as I was about to open the door, and was evidently calmer and more firm than when he had left me, though I should say that the expression of deep, stern grief, which had now become habitual to his countenance, was, if anything, a shade deeper than before.
"Did I not hear another step than yours about an hour ago?" were the first words he spoke. I replied in the affirmative, and told him at once who it was that had intruded. He looked at me for a moment or two with a sort of inquiring glance, as if he sought to read something in my heart ere he himself spoke.
"Suzette!" he said, thoughtfully; "I have been thinking of keeping her here to take charge of Laura."
My feelings burst forth whether I would or not, and I exclaimed, "What! give the care of the daughter to her who calumniated the mother!"
The retort was so sudden and so unexpected that the Duke started; and gazed at me for a moment, with a look in which I thought I could trace no slight anger at my rash exclamation. I had spoken the truth, however, though I had spoken it too boldly and unadvisedly, and I was not to be abashed while such a conviction was at my heart; but casting down my eyes, I waited calmly for the rebuke that I doubted not was to follow. But Monsieur de Villardin paused, and for several moments uttered not a word; till at length, grasping my arm, he said in a low, but emphatic tone,--