He did not wish this creature to stand betwixt a mother and her babes? Surely not. The suspicion was unworthy of a true wife, and banished as soon as formed. There was a mistake somewhere. The woman meant well, but was officious. Clovis occupy himself about such domestic details! Why, he rarely took notice of the children at all, unless worried into doing so. Why should he show interest now--since the arrival of this person? Pondering over this problem in confused pain between the alleys of the moated garden, the marquise endeavoured to reassure herself. Could she be so foolish as to be growing jealous of a stranger who, it could not be denied, was acting for the best? It was perfectly true that the marquise knew nothing of the subjects that were being taught by Aglaé, and it was genuinely kind of her not to let the cherubs see that their erudition overtopped their mother's.
And yet--the hireling had been sadly rude to the mother in the presence of the darlings.
"You are agitated, sweet sister?" whispered the abbé, coming softly up behind across the grass--his soft hands in a dainty muff, for it was chilly--and beaming down on her. "Do you know that I've been following these five minutes without obtaining a hearing?"
He looked so kind, had behaved with such discretion since his mistake, that her chilled heart warmed to him. Her lips trembled, and she burst into a flood of tears. His fingers clutched within the muff (oh! how like the vulture's talons!) as though he would have clasped her to his breast and held her there; but with a supreme effort he restrained the impulse. "Not yet; not yet," he murmured to himself, as hearkening to her artless tale with anxious mien he gazed in silence across the swiftly-flowing Loire.
"I fear your suspicion is well founded, and that Clovis wishes it," he murmured shortly, when she had finished; then, taking her cold hand in his, he led her through the postern to a spot which overlooked the cherubic sanctuary.
Clovis sat by the spinet, beating time with a roll of music--the divine afflatus heavy on him--while the pair of angels played.
"She got rid of you on purpose; drove you out, to be untrammelled in her intercourse with him!" whispered the abbé with compassion.
"My children!" moaned the chatelaine, aghast. "Why can it be his wish that she should take them from me, their mother?"