Madeline bit her lip, pretended to arrange some stray locks of her hair, but said nothing.
‘Ma foi,’ continued the widow, ‘but you look charming; add this diamond and your toilette will be complete.’ As Madeline turned to face the widow, she started on seeing that she too wore evening dress.
Madame de Fontenay looked more motherly, more thoroughly saddened with respectability, than ever she had been before. She wore a dress of heavy widow’s mourning—composed of silk, crape, and jet; a widow’s cap, composed of three pretty folds, crowned her wavy masses of glittering grey hair.
‘Do you go with us to-night, Madame?’
‘Emile has done me the honour to ask me, and I have consented. I trust my presence will not be unpleasant to you, my child.’
For a moment Madeline did not reply. She disliked Madame de Fontenay, and yet she feared her. She knew that the widow had been instrumental in marrying her to Monsieur Belleisle, and, not content with that, had kept with them, watching as the hawk watches the dove the poor victim whom she had caught, and frequently preventing by her very presence, anything like a proper understanding between man and wife. And Madeline had a repulsion for the woman. She felt that she was the Frenchman’s evil genius, ready to pander to his passions, and counteract any inclination he might have towards nobility and goodness. Still the pale widow’s star was in the ascendant just then, and Madeline was powerless. She felt it would be unwise to make an open enemy of Madame; at any rate until she had won over her accomplice. So she parried the question politely, and fixed her eyes on the case which Madame held in her hand.
‘Diamonds, did you say, for me, Madame? I thought Monsieur Belleisle was poor?’
‘So he was a week ago, but now he gives you these—put them on, my child—and hurry down, for Emile is waiting;’ and without saying more she quitted the room.
Madeline opened the case which the widow had left behind her, and looked in surprise at the contents. Three diamond stones for the hair, a ruby band for the neck, and a fragile diamond bracelet for the arm.
She put them on, and, throwing a thin lace scarf over her shoulders, ran down stairs.