“Proté helped you, I know she did. Tell me, Proté, did you not aid Mademoiselle to go to the De Soignés’ to see the ball?”
Denise, to do her justice, would not have kept up with the subject had their mother, the comtesse, been with them, but none of them were very much in awe of Madame le Pont. There was no need for Marie Josephine to reply for Proté clasped her hands and exclaimed:
“Heaven be with us! I meant no harm. It was so wrong for Little Mademoiselle to have none of the pleasure!”
All eyes were turned toward Madame le Pont who, to their unbounded surprise, did not seem in any way as horrified as they had expected! She looked at Marie Josephine and then at the others and said:
“After all, now that so many things are happening, what does it matter!”
Could it be true! Their governess saying, “What does it matter!” Madame le Pont, who, in spite of her being more indulgent than the governesses of their friends, had always been so fond of the conventions! She did not even seem to realize what Marie Josephine had done, and she said nothing at all to Proté, who sat looking the picture of fright and despair! Denise was so surprised at the attitude of the governess that she whispered to Cécile under cover of the rumbling of the coach:
“Le Pont is in a dream, surely, but I am glad. I was excited and didn’t realize what a scrape they would be in!”
Le Pont
Years later Marie Josephine remembered the incident; in fact she never really forgot it. There were times when she could shut her eyes and see, in that uncanny way in which we do see long-ago things, the old coach, the faded coat of arms that had not been regilded that summer, the old blue lining, the warm August sun streaming in, bringing with it the odor of freshly cut hay and oats, thin rows of poplars rising against the startling blue of the sky, and the peasant women bending over their work in the field beyond. She could see Denise’s astonished gaze, from under her lace hood. She always remembered the words and the whole incident because it was the beginning of the great change. Madame le Pont was right. Things that had mattered so much were beginning to be not so important. There would be a time when they would not matter at all.