“You are my brother, and I am ashamed to acknowledge you. I was willing to give my last sou, to sell my belongings, to take from the poor to help you—until you defamed a good man. You cannot make me believe,” she cried, unheeding the color that surged into her cheeks, “you cannot make me believe that he would use this money. You cannot make me believe it.”
“Let us do him the credit of thinking that he means to repay it,” said Auguste.
Antoinette's eyes filled with tears,—tears of pride, of humiliation, ay, and of an anger of which I had not thought her capable. She was indeed a superb creature then, a personage I had not imagined. Gathering up her gown, she passed Auguste and turned on him swiftly.
“If you were to bring that to him,” she said, pointing to the bag in my hand, “he would not so much as touch it. To-morrow I shall go to the Ursulines, and I thank God I shall never see you again. I thank God I shall no longer be your sister. Give Monsieur the bundle,” she said to the frightened André, who still stood by the hedge; “he may need food and clothes for his journey.”
She left us. We stood watching her until her gown had disappeared amongst the foliage. André came forward and held out the bundle to Auguste, who took it mechanically. Then Madame La Vicomtesse motioned to André to leave, and gave me a glance, and it was part of the deep understanding of her I had that I took its meaning. I had my forebodings at what this last conversation with Auguste might bring forth, and I wished heartily that we were rid of him.
“Monsieur de St. Gré,” I said, “I understood you to say that a ship is lying at the English Turn some five leagues below us, on which you are to take passage at once.”
He turned and glared at me, some devilish retort on his lips which he held back. Suddenly he became suave.
“I shall want two thousand livres Monsieur; it was the sum I asked for.”
“It is not a question of what you asked for,” I answered.
“Since when did Monsieur assume this intimate position in my family?” he said, glancing at the Vicomtesse.