“Then I must take Lisette, I suppose, with me to Grenoble, for when you flatter her she is good tempered, and I own I am afraid of Caliste.”
“Lisette will not, I think, leave Salency whilst she is Rosiere,” replied her sister. “She could not make up her mind, I fear, to give up her crown, thorny as it appears to others.”
“I will ask her,” replied D’Elsac, “but I acknowledge to you, Victorine, I rather hope a refusal. If you will not return with me, I prefer the hired labour of a stranger.”
Dorsain then sought Lisette to learn her mind. He found her deep in consultation about the only subject that now occupied her; and, as Victorine expected, she refused at once the invitation, scarcely deigning to clothe her answer in courteous terms.
“Well, I am heartily glad of it,” thought her uncle. “She has no pity for her sister’s disappointment; she thinks of nothing but herself. What peace could I have hoped for in my family with an inmate so fearfully selfish?”
D’Elsac was thus, as it were, forced to think of Caliste; but it was with such repugnance
that he could not make up his mind to offer to her the situation he had offered her sisters. He had never seen her brow unclouded; never seen that beautiful lip divested of its scorn never heard one expression from her that did not betray a mind full of vexation, jealousy, and passion. To her, therefore, he would not address himself, though he watched her with great anxiety, allowing the days to pass till the 8th of June, the morning of the fête of St. Medard.
What a beautiful and lovely morning was that in Salency, and how eagerly did the eyes of all the family of Durocher regard the weather, though very different were their feelings on the subject! Lisette had been kept awake by the thought of her approaching triumph; Caliste, too, had not slept; but her pale countenance and hollow eye told a tale of sorrow and dejection.
Scarcely was a word spoken at the morning’s meal, save by Valmont, his wife, and Lisette. Caliste refused to eat, but, urged by Victorine, she drank some coffee, though she would not, or could not, taste any food. D’Elsac regarded her with grief, for he feared he knew not what by her manner.
The repast being over, and their parents