The Secret of Toni

by Molly Elliot Seawell

Toni remembered having once seen a lady faint in the park, and that some one fetched water from the fountain close by, and dashed it on her face, but he had nothing to fetch it in, having no hat on his head—a hat being a useless incumbrance which he only wore on those rare Sundays when his mother dragged him to church against his earnest protests. But there was Paul Verney’s hat. Toni scampered down the path and in two minutes had found Paul. Lucie was just leaving him, and Toni, mysteriously beckoning to him, whispered:

“Fill your cap with water and take it to Madame Ravenel. She is lying on the grass fainting like I saw a lady once, and somebody at that time threw water on the lady.”

Paul, with the true lover’s instinct to serve those loved by his adored one, ran to the fountain and filled his cap with water, and then flew as fast as his legs would carry him to the place where Madame Ravenel still lay. Most of the water was spilled over his white linen suit, but there was enough left to revive Madame Ravenel.

“Thank you, my boy,” said Captain Ravenel, as he dashed the water on Madame Ravenel’s face. Then she opened her eyes and tried to stand up. Paul ran for more water, and came back with about a tablespoonful left in his cap, while he himself was dripping like a water spaniel. But Madame Ravenel, by that time, was sitting up on the bench, pale, with her dark hair disheveled, and her hat still lying on the ground. Captain Ravenel was supporting her.

Paul Verney, being a gentleman at twelve years of age, felt instinctively that having done a service it was his place to retire. He received a tremulous “Thank you” from Madame Ravenel, who then asked anxiously of Captain Ravenel:

“Where is Lucie—what has become of the child?”

But Lucie at that moment appeared, and Paul, longing to remain and hear more interesting stories about grown people from Lucie’s cherry lips, still felt bound to retire, which he did.

Toni, on the contrary, making no pretensions to being a gentleman, had to see the whole thing played through. He concealed himself behind the shrubbery, and saw with pain, but with deep interest, Madame Ravenel weep a little—tears which Captain Ravenel tried to check. Then, in a moment, Harper appeared and Lucie went off, her usually sparkling, dimpling little face quite sorrowful; and then Madame Ravenel, leaning on Captain Ravenel’s arm, walked away.

Toni stood and pondered these things to himself. What queer creatures grown people were after all! Still they were very interesting if one got rid of all their scrapes and muddles. What did that dashing-looking officer want to put his arm around Madame Ravenel for? Toni, reflecting on these things, took Jacques out and asked him about them, but Jacques replied that he knew no more about them than Toni did.

That night Toni, not being made to go to bed at eight o’clock like Paul Verney and all other well-conducted boys, was prowling around the garden of the commandant’s house, of which the back was toward the little street in which Madame Marcel lived. The garden gate was open, and Toni sneaked in and seated himself on the grass, just outside the window on the ground floor which looked into a room that was Colonel Duquesne’s study.