In furthest Ind

by Sydney C. Grier

And the next evening I supped with the ladies as before, but we had no singing, for Madam Heliodora was silent and very thoughtful, and sat by herself in the window without speaking. But I, remembering a certain proverb of Mr Martin’s, that ran, Many kisse the child for the nurse’s sake, did resolve to follow the counsel given therein, though turning it contrariwise, and so paid my court to Madam Heliodora through her cousin Mad. de Chesnac. This lady was of so merry and sportive a humour that she could not endure dulness nor melancholy about her, and engaged me speedily in a war of words touching the differences betwixt our two nations. And upon my making confession that I had always believed the ladies of France to be of a light and frivolous constitution, until I had the happiness to become acquainted with Madam Heliodora and herself, and so prove them to be both discreet and at the same time gracious, she did laugh mightily, and would have had my lady hear this fine jest. But seeing her still sit pensive at the window, she inclined her head toward me and saith very low—

“You must not take mademoiselle as a fair pattern of the ladies of France, sir. She is more than half a Hugonot by nature, and they are wellnigh as much English as yourself. ’Tis from her grandmother she hath it, my lord marquis his mother.”

“But sure my lord an’t inclined to Hugonotry?” said I.

“Nay, he was took while very young out of his mother’s charge, and his father had him bred up at a Jesuit college. Then he came under the notice of my lord the old cardinal,^[96] who interested him in these Indian adventures, and after his patron’s death he lived in Paris in the manner of other persons of his rank until his patrimony was gone, and his majesty was induced to use his experience in Eastern matters by naming him viceroy.”

And after this did Mad. de Chesnac tell me much more touching my lord marquis, which it would be tedious to set down, and also concerning my lady his wife, and then touching herself, how that she, being a young kinswoman of my lady of Tourvel, had espoused an elderly gentleman of my lord marquis his following, that so she might continue near her patroness.

“My husband was slain in a brawl,” says she, “before I had been wed a month, and I continued with my cousin, and since her death, with mademoiselle her daughter. Now you perceive, sir, how it is that in my old age I follow this young lady all over the world.”

“Ah, madam,” cried I, “would that I were in your place!”

“What a fine compliment!” cries she, mightily diverted. “My cousin, you must hear this—I insist on’t,” and she repeated what I had said.

“Mr Carlyon can’t know what a troublesome and whimsical creature I am, since he says that,” says Madam Heliodora, coming back into the saloon, and leaving me blushing and ashamed that she should hear my hasty words.

For several nights thereafter we did spend the time before supper in singing and talking, and it seemed to me that my love was prospering, so that my heart grew more and more light, for I observed that Madam Heliodora was wont to fall into long fits of musing, reddening and paling again when she was disturbed, and this again, say our authors, is a sure sign of love. And I reading it so, was wont to feel as though treading upon air the while I made my rounds with Colonel Laborde, singing meantime in a low voice snatches of the songs that had been sung. He looked at me often, and smiled as though knowing what was in my mind, and I don’t doubt he could have told me something had he so desired it. I can’t determine now whether he was willing that another should suffer as he had done, or whether he judged that I should resent his speaking to me on such a topic (as was, indeed, most probable); but he did but shrug his great shoulders (he was a sturdy fellow from that part of France which they call Bretaigne or Little Britain), and said naught, and I likewise.