After breakfast she would insist upon following Mary about through all her avocations. She possessed herself of a towel, and would wipe the teacups and saucers while Mary washed. She clinked the glasses and rattled the cups and spoons, and stepped about as briskly as if she had two or three breezes to carry her train; and chattered half-English and half-French, for the sake of bringing into Mary’s cheek the shy, slow dimples that she liked to watch. But still Mrs. Scudder was around, with an air as provident and forbidding as that of a setting hen who watches her nest; nor was it till after all things had been cleared away in the house, and Mary had gone up into her little attic to spin, that the opportunity long sought came, of diving to the bottom of this mystery.
‘Enfin, Marie, nous voilà! are you not going to tell me anything, when I have turned my heart out to you like a bag? Chère enfant! how happy you must be!’ she said, embracing her.
‘Yes, I am very happy,’ said Mary, with calm gravity.
‘Very happy!’ said Madame de Frontignac, mimicking her manner. ‘Is that the way you American girls show it when you are very happy? Come, come, ma belle, tell little Verginie something. Thou hast seen this hero, this wandering Ulysses. He has come back at last—the tapestry will not be quite as long as Penelope’s. Speak to me of him. Has he beautiful black eyes, and hair that curls like a grape-vine? Tell me, ma belle.’
‘I only saw him a little while,’ said Mary; ‘and I felt a great deal more than I saw. He could not have been any clearer to me than he always has been in my mind.’
‘But I think,’ said Madame de Frontignac, seating Mary as was her wont, and sitting down at her feet, ‘I think you are a little “triste” about this! Very likely you pity the poor priest! It is sad for him, but a good priest has the church for his bride, you know.’
‘You do not think,’ said Mary, speaking seriously, ‘that I shall break my promise, given before God, to this good man?’
‘Mon Dieu, mon enfant! You do not mean to marry the priest after all! Quelle idée!’
‘But I promised him,’ said Mary.