A CONSTANT LOVER

Monsieur Gerbault transmitted his daughter's reply to the two suitors who had asked for her hand. Young Anatole took his rebuff without any indication of emotion. He said simply:

"I am very thorry, becauth our two voitheth went very well together. I am thure that we would have thung beautifully, and I am tho fond of muthic that we thould have been very happy."

The Comte de la Beriniere did not accept Adolphine's refusal of his offer so philosophically.

"Upon my word, my dear Gerbault," he exclaimed, "I have bad luck with your daughters! One marries just when I am about to ask for her hand.

This one will have none of me; for I understand perfectly that her reply is simply a courteously disguised refusal. Well, I must make the best of it! I will take a trip into Italy, and try to console myself. The Italian women are not the equals of your daughters, but, at all events, they will distract my thoughts."

And, a few days later, the Comte de la Beriniere did, in fact, leave Paris.

But there was one person who was entirely unable to understand Adolphine's conduct: that was her sister f.a.n.n.y. Learning that she had refused to marry either Monsieur de Raincy or the count, she went to see her one morning.

"Can what father tells me be true? You have refused to marry, when two magnificent _partis_ have offered themselves? But, no, it can't be true; you haven't done that! or else you were sick at the time. Surely you didn't realize what you said, when you gave father that answer?"

"Indeed I did, my dear love," Adolphine replied, with a smile; "I knew perfectly well what I was saying; I had considered the matter fully when I refused to marry those gentlemen."

"Upon my word, I don't understand you! What reason, what motives, can have prompted your refusal? The Comte de la Beriniere has thirty thousand francs a year; and he would make you a countess. Just think of it--a countess! Isn't it perfectly bewildering to think of being called Madame la Comtesse?"

"It tempts me very little."

"To be sure, the count is no longer young; but, once married, if you knew, my dear girl, how little you think about your husband's age!

Auguste might be sixty years old, now, and it would be all the same to me."

"My ideas are not at all the same as yours, as I have already told you."

"But I have had experience now, and you ought to listen to me. Come, let us admit that you refused the count because you thought he was too old, which is the merest childishness--that reason doesn't apply in the case of Monsieur de Raincy; he is young, good-looking----"

"He has a stupid, self-sufficient manner."

"But what difference does that make? I have always heard it said that a stupid man makes an excellent husband. I should be glad enough if my husband was stupid! Then he wouldn't keep flinging little sarcastic remarks at me when I talk about the state of the market--of the rise or fall in railway shares. Auguste is clever--yes, very clever. But what good does it do me to have him clever and agreeable in society? In his own home, a husband never uses his wit except to make sport of his wife.

Monsieur Anatole de Raincy isn't as rich as the count, but he has a very good position in society. Where do you expect to find a better match?"

"I expect nothing."

"Why do you refuse these offers, then?"

"Because I do not love either of them."

"Ah! an excellent reason! How absurd you are, my poor Adolphine!

Happiness in wedlock does not consist in love, but in wealth, in luxury, in the power to buy whatever we please, to have magnificent dresses which drive other women mad, to go to b.a.l.l.s and parties every day, to have the best boxes at the theatre; not in having to sit sighing by your husband while you watch the soup-kettle."

"I have told you before that my tastes aren't the same as yours."

"Oh! you say that, but, in reality, you would be very glad to cut as fine a figure yourself. But you are romantic! perhaps you have a pa.s.sion hidden away in your heart. Oh! yes, to refuse two such chances as you have had, you must be in love with somebody!"

Adolphine blushed, but made haste to reply:

"No, you are mistaken. I never think of any man; it is not right of you to say that."

"Very well! then, my dear girl, I say again that it was perfectly absurd of you to refuse those two! Adieu! I am going to select some flowers for my head, for I am going to a large party to-night, and I propose to eclipse all the other women."

Some little time after this interview, Adolphine was alone, thinking of him whose image was always present in her mind; for she had not told her sister the truth when she said that she never thought of any man; but there are pa.s.sions which one does not choose to confide except to a heart capable of understanding them, and she was well aware that f.a.n.n.y would not understand hers.

Madeleine suddenly entered her mistress's room, and said:

"Mamzelle, a young man wants to speak to you."

"To me? He probably has business with my father."

"No, mamzelle; it was you he asked to see--and monsieur your father isn't at home, either."

"Very well! show him in."

Soon the door opened anew, and Gustave appeared before Adolphine. The girl uttered an exclamation, for she recognized him at once; and she was so disturbed that she had to lean upon a chair.

"What! is it you, Monsieur Gustave?" she murmured.

Madeleine retired, for she read in her mistress's eyes that the visit caused her no displeasure.

"Yes, Mademoiselle Adolphine," Gustave replied; "yes, my dear sister.

Ah! allow me to call you by that name still, as I used, for we have had no falling-out; you have not spurned me, and I venture to hope that you still feel for me a little of that sweet friendship which you seemed to feel in the old days."

Adolphine was so perturbed that she could hardly stammer:

"Of course--yes--I have no reason not to be the same as always with you.

But do sit down, Monsieur Gustave. Mon Dieu!--how strange it is!--it's only five months since we saw each other--and you seem changed---- Oh!

not for the worse--on the contrary--you have a more serious, more thoughtful, air than before. Is it the result of your travels?"

Adolphine was right; the five months which Gustave had pa.s.sed away from France had wrought a very considerable change in him, to his advantage; he had lost that bewildered, hare-brained look which people used to criticise in him; now he was a man--young, no doubt, but whose serious, sedate, sensible aspect indicated a person who was accustomed to think before speaking, and to reflect before acting. His face had gained vastly by the change; his manner was colder, perhaps, but you realized that you could rely on what he said. Lastly, the faintest shadow of melancholy that could still be detected on his brow gave an added charm to the gentle expression of his eyes and to the tone of his voice.

Adolphine saw all this at a glance: that is all a woman needs to draw a man's portrait. With trembling hand she pointed to a chair, and Gustave sat down beside her with an ease of manner which covered no hidden motive.

"I don't know whether my travels have changed me," said the young man; "they may, perhaps, have matured my mind somewhat; they have made me a better business man. I realize fully now that I did some things which lacked common-sense, and I shall not make such a fool of myself again!"

"Oh! you are cured of your love for f.a.n.n.y?" cried Adolphine, with an expression of delight which she could not restrain.

"No, dear Adolphine, no, that is not what I meant!" replied Gustave, sadly; "do what I will, I haven't yet been able to drive that love from my heart. But I meant simply that that unhappy pa.s.sion will not lead me into doing any more such absurd, unreasonable things as I once did. I have become a man; if I suffer, I can at least conceal my suffering. I have learned to respect the happiness of other people--the desire to disturb it is very far from my thoughts! I realize, in short, that I ought, above all things, to avoid the presence of her who cannot, should not, sympathize with the pain she causes me."

Adolphine turned her head away to conceal the tears which filled her eyes, murmuring:

"Mon Dieu! do you still love her as dearly as ever?"

"I don't know whether it is less or more--I don't know how much I love her; and I would give anything in the world to cease thinking of her!

But I cannot--do what I will, her image is always here. I forget that she flirted with me--that she pretended to love me, only to throw me over the next minute. I say to myself that all women try to please, and that they cannot love all the men they have fascinated. I say to myself that this Monsieur Auguste Monleard offered her a brilliant fortune, and all the pleasures, all the enjoyment, all the luxury, in which, to a young woman, the happiness of life consists.--I say all this to myself, and I understand perfectly how she could have refused the poor clerk's hand to accept that of the man who was wealthy and distinguished. So that, if I am unhappy, I can blame nothing but fortune--and f.a.n.n.y is so pretty, so fascinating, so well worthy to shine in society! She will never be mine, and yet I love her--yes, I still love her! They say that men don't know the meaning of constancy; but you see that that isn't true, Adolphine; you see that there are some who can love faithfully--and, unluckily, they are the ones who are not loved."

Adolphine did not reply for some time; she was suffocating, she could not keep back the tears which dimmed her sight. Gustave saw them; he seized her hand and pressed it, crying: