“They are to you, Madame, an oppression, a weariness, a——”
“M. Jouffroy, I have never spoken to you about these things. I cannot see how you are in a position to judge.”
“Ah, but I know. Have I not heard cette chère Madame Bertaux describe the life of an English village? And have I not seen——?”
“Seen what?”
“Cette dame. I have seen her at your apartment this afternoon. Do not annihilate me, Madame; I mean not to offend you. The lady has come from England on purpose to entrap you; she came last night, and she stays at the Hotel du Louvre. She spoke to me of you.” Jouffroy raised his hands to heaven. “Ha! then I understood, and I fled hither to save you.”
“Tell me, tell me quickly, Monsieur, has she fair hair and large grey eyes. Is she tall?”
No, the lady was small, with dark hair, and brown, clever eyes.
“A lady, elegant, well-dressed, but, ah! a woman to destroy the soul of an artist merely by her presence. I told her that you had decided to remain in France, to adopt it as your country, for it was the country of your soul!”
“Good heavens!” exclaimed Hadria, unable to repress a little burst of laughter, in spite of her disappointment and foreboding.
“I told her that your friends would not let you go back to England, to the land of fogs, the land of the bourgeois. The lady seemed astonished, even indignant,” continued Jouffroy, waving his hands excitedly, “and she endeavoured to make me silent, but she did not have success, I promise you. I appealed to her. I pointed out to her your unique power. I reminded her that such power is a gift supreme to the world, which the world must not lose. For the making of little ones and the care of the ménage, there were other women, but you—you were a priestess in the temple of art, you were without prejudice, without the bourgeois conscience, grâce au ciel! you had the religion of the artist, and your worship was paid at the shrine of Apollo. Enfin, I counselled this elegant lady to return to England and to leave you in peace. Always with a perfect politeness,” added Jouffroy, panting from excess of emotion. Hadria tried in vain to gather the object of this sudden visit on the part of Henriette (for Henriette the elegant lady must certainly be).