“But I am greatly distressed, madame, that you should have had this anxiety, in addition to what I have caused.”
“If we had not cared for her, we should have had no anxiety; and as for yourself, my dear, you must not think we were troubled when le père Jean told us you were under his direction; and now that you have come back to us in safety, your long absence is atoned for. I did not know I could have missed any one so much who was outside of my own family.”
This unexpected tenderness from one I had respected rather than loved, for I had stood somewhat in awe of the usually unresponsive old lady, touched me more than I can tell, and gave me a sense of home and protection which I had long missed, and it was a pain to think I was forced to hide the true reason of my flight from her loyal heart.
The Sarennes house made one of a tower-like group of dwellings forming a little island, as it were, at the head of the Côte de la Montagne, round which swept the streets to zigzag down the long, steep hill, and join, after many turnings, at its foot. Fronting it stood the bishop's palace, a modest enough edifice, and from my window at the back I could look on the house of Philibert, popularly known as “Le Chien d'Or,” from the curious carving over the door, hinting at some tragedy of patient waiting and revenge.
Immediately above was a bright little cul-de-sac, dignified by the name of la rue du Parloir—the theatre of many of the social doings of Quebec; behind this, on the one side, rose the simple apse of the Cathedral, and on the other the white walls and glistening roofs of the Seminary.
It was not long before I learned the gossip of the town from Angélique, who had already made her first triumphs in society, in which she rejoiced so frankly that I felt like a girl again as she chattered of her pleasures.
“It might not seem much to you, Marguerite, after Paris, but to me it is splendid, and we have all sorts of men here.”
“No doubt, chérie. And you find them all charming?”
“Well, they all try to please me, even the bad ones.”
“You have bad ones too, ma mie?”