Ravenel went home to Sophie and the two were almost gay over the result of the affair which had been so baneful to them in the beginning. It almost seemed to the two poor souls as if they had some friends left. That very afternoon, when taking their one solitary indulgence—their walk in the park—they passed the colonel, who bowed to Sophie quite in the old way, although he did not speak. The colonel was a widower with no daughters and, therefore, was quite safe in doing this, not having a domestic court of inquiry ahead of him.
CHAPTER V
Lucie had only four days more to remain in Bienville, but, except for the approaching parting from Sophie and Ravenel, they were indeed very happy days to her. The child’s active and aggressive little mind, which was part of her American inheritance, dwelt on that charming vision which Harper, with the usual indiscretion of servants and nursery governesses, had shown her—that vision of all the money she wished to spend, which would be hers at eighteen, with no one, not even Madame Bernard, to interfere.
Lucie enjoyed another stolen interview with Paul Verney, for this young lady, at ten years of age, was a well-developed flirt and romanticist. Not all her French training had been able to get the American out of her, and she had with it all the generous impulses and the happy daring with which the American child seems to be dowered.
Paul Verney, in his afternoon walks, had the pleasure of bowing twice to Captain and Madame Ravenel, but neither time was Lucie with them. On the afternoon before Lucie left Bienville, she was walking with the Ravenels, Harper, as usual, in the distance. Lucie, with the ingenuity peculiar to her age and sex, determined to go on a search for Paul Verney, and so arranged her plans with much art.
She asked Sophie if Harper could take her to the fountain in the park to see the little fishes swim in the basin. This reasonable proposal being agreed to, Harper took Lucie by the hand, and off they went. Once at the fountain, around which there were benches, Harper was sure to find some of her colleagues, and Lucie, providing she reported at the end of every ten minutes, was certain of an hour of liberty.
Lucie utilized her first ten minutes by finding Paul Verney. There he was, sitting on the same bench and reading the same English book as on the first afternoon that she had spoken to him. When Paul saw his lady-love approach he rose and blushed and smiled, and Lucie bowed and smiled, without blushing, however. Seating herself on the bench, and settling her fluffy white skirts around her, she said to Paul with a queenly air: