Meeting by chance in the tiny hall between their two apartments in the old house in Paris, it was Julie who had first made the advances. It was Julie who had done more for Marguerite’s happiness and comfort than the older girl had done for her. Instinctively Julie had recognized that while Marguerite was beautiful and gentle, she was not strong and needed some one to care for her. And Julie had always cared for her father; after his death her strong, clever, but misguided nature had really required some one upon whom she could lavish her affection.
In her friendship with Marguerite Arnot, Julie’s dreams of the future, absurd and fanciful as dreams often are, were always for Marguerite’s future and not for her own. Believing Marguerite beautiful and charming enough for the most fortunate experience, and yet without the ability to fight for herself, Julie had come to regard herself in the light of Marguerite’s fairy godmother. As soon as possible she must manage to rescue her from the hardships of her present life. Marguerite was nineteen and sufficiently old for a change in her fortune. Yet Julie’s romantic promptings toward arranging for her friend’s future were of the vaguest character, until her visit in Miss Patricia’s home and her meeting with David Hale.
She had not dared speak of her dream openly to any one, least of all to Marguerite Arnot. Yet daily as she sat at her sewing Julie had entertained herself with the thought of Marguerite and David Hale learning to care for each other and the happy future they might spend together.
There had been no foundation for her fancy beyond the fact that David had seemed interested to talk to Marguerite and had admired her beauty and gentle manners. However, Julie knew nothing of the frank and friendly attitude which is a matter of course between young people in the United States. Her only annoyance was, that David Hale appeared equally interested in Bettina Graham.
After reading Bettina’s note, instantly Julie decided that Bettina and David Hale must not visit the Queen’s garden unless Marguerite Arnot accompanied them. The fact that Marguerite had not been invited might have appeared as an obstacle to most persons, but not to Julie.
Her plan was conceived at once undeterred by the necessity for falsehood. She would go and tell Marguerite Arnot that Bettina and David Hale desired her to join them for the afternoon’s expedition to the Queen’s secret garden at Versailles.
Julie Arnot was a student of human nature. Discovering that Marguerite believed herself to have been invited and was eager for the pleasure, neither Bettina nor David would be sufficiently unkind to reveal the truth.
CHAPTER XVIII
One Afternoon
In her surmise as to what would actually occur as the result of her design, Julie Dupont was not far from the truth.
First Marguerite accepted the reality of her invitation, which Julie explained she had been asked to deliver, with openly revealed pleasure. Expressing her thanks to Bettina, Bettina received the impression that Mrs. Burton must have asked Marguerite, having decided that four would make a pleasanter number for their expedition than three. Mentioning the same fact to Mrs. Burton, her presumption was that either David Hale or Bettina had included Marguerite in the invitation.