"It proved but a poor fortune to him," replied my cousin, frowning at me; "and you have suffered it somewhat to rust in the scabbard, methinks, Master Henry."
"At your own request for the last two years, my lord," I replied, "and it shall do so no longer."
I was going to add more, though I saw that the baron's mood was becoming every moment more and more fierce. But the eyes of both at that moment fell upon Louise, and we beheld the tears running through her long eyelashes and down her cheeks.
"Come, come, no more, no more," he said; "let us drop such subjects, and not make the evening bitter. Madam, I will show you your apartments. Supper, I hope, will soon be ready."
"And the baron in a better humour," said the lady, giving a sarcastic look round as she swept up the hall after him.
We left her lord and the attendants to show her the way; and the five who had tenanted the castle before her coming remained behind in the hall, gazing upon each other, while memory again drew a comparison between the present and the past, the most painful, the most bitter that it is possible to conceive. No one spoke; the sensations in the heart of every one were too dark and sad for us to give them utterance; and, before a word was uttered, the baron had returned.
How the cheerful meal of supper passed over that night in the chateau of Blancford may be easily conceived, for the same spirit which had marked the return of the lord of that castle to his dwelling pervaded the whole conversation. Why or how he had been induced to wed the woman whom he had brought thither might be difficult to say; but it was very evident that where there could never have been any esteem there now remained no affection. We were all silent but the lord and lady of the house, except when, from time to time, good Monsieur la Tour endeavoured to break the restraint by a word upon some ordinary subject, or when I replied to him, which act seemed not a little to create the baron's surprise that I should presume to converse in his presence.
When the meal was over, the lady declared she was fatigued, and retired speedily to rest. Louise followed; and, as there was now no cheerful circle gathered together in the evening to converse over the events of the day, I was about also to retire very soon; but the baron stopped me, saying he wished to speak to me, with a sort of dull, leaden look about his eyes, which he put on when he wanted to assume an air of despotic rule, and to announce his purpose in such a way as to admit of no reply.
The clergyman also stayed; and, turning to me, the baron said, "It is time, my fair cousin, if we may judge by the specimens which you have given us to-night of your conversational powers, that you should find yourself a new home."
"I am not only quite ready, my lord," I replied, "but fully determined to do so as speedily as may be."