by Nell Speed
CHAPTER VI.
LA MARQUISE.
"_La Marquise d'Ochte_ is attending _Madame Brune_ in the _salon aucinquieme etage_," announced a very excited little housemaid, who wassupposed to speak English for the benefit of the American pensionnairesat _Maison Pace_. "_Madame Pace_ is some time gone at the _boucher_, notexpecting callers at so early _heur_. _La Marquise_ demanded not _MadamePace_; but said very _distinctment 'Madame Brune et sa fille'_."
"Very well, Alphonsine, thank you so much. My daughter and I will comedown immediately," said Mrs. Brown, smiling at the agitation of thelittle maid. Mrs. Pace had evidently given her servants to understandthe importance her pension gained from the visits of a marchioness.
"Milly, Milly, how I have longed to see you," and the Marquise d'Ochterose from her seat and clasped her one-time friend and beloved cousin ina warm embrace. "And this is your daughter? Goodness, child, you looklike me,--at least, like me when I was young!"
Molly knew in the first second of greeting that she was going to likethis cousin, and Mrs. Brown was delighted to see in the marchioness thesame Sally Bolling of thirty years ago. She was like Molly in a way, butit was hard to realize that Molly could ever be quite so buxom as thismiddle-aged cousin. She was a very large woman with an excellent figurefor her weight, and hair a little darker than Molly's with no silverthreads showing so far.
"I pull 'em out if they dare to so much as show their noses. They sayforty will come in when you pull out one, but then I'll make my maidpull out forty, if it kills me in the pulling," she declared when Mrs.Brown remarked on it in the course of their inventory of each other. "MyJean declares he got caught in my hair and could not get away, and Imean still to keep him."
"I am afraid I would snatch myself bald-headed if I tried to pull all ofmy gray hairs out," laughed Mrs. Brown; "but, Sally, you are exactly thesame girl who left Kentucky ages ago; there is just a little more ofyou."
"A little more of me, indeed! There is about twice as much of me asthere used to be. But, Milly, you are exactly the same; there is noteven any more of you. You look much more like a member of the Frenchnobility than I do."
The marchioness did not look in the least French, but more like awell-groomed English woman. Her dark brown suit was very simple and wellmade, and her shoes bore the earmarks of an English boot maker, fittingher perfectly but with low heels, broad toes and heavy soles. Her hatwas the only French touch about her, and that could have been concoctedin no spot in the world but Paris, so perfectly did it blend with herhair and furs.
"Now tell me all about yourselves and what you are going to do with yourwinter, and we can 'reminisce' another time. We must hurry before HennyPace gets back from market. I came early so as to avoid her and see youa moment alone. She is a kind, good soul and I am really very fond ofher for auld lang syne, but you might as well try to hold a conversationwith a bumping bug in the room as Henrietta. Firstly, do you mean tostay here?"
Molly and her mother laughed outright at the bumping bug comparison. Itwas very apt.
"Why, Cousin Sally, we could not think of spending the winter beingcoerced at every turn," returned Molly. "We were hardly in the housebefore Mrs. Pace actually took Mother's clothes off and put her to bed,and last night at dinner she refused to let me have any coffee. She saidit would ruin my complexion!"
The marchioness roared with laughter. "How like old Henny that is! Shealways was a boss, but I don't blame you for objecting. I let her seemto boss me just for the fun of it. I have known her since first comingto Paris and understand how good she is at bottom, but wild horses couldnot drag me to spend a night in her house. I ask her to _la Roche Craie_every year and try to give her a rest, (she really works awfully hard,)but she is so busy there trying to change my housekeeper's methods andrearrange the linen presses that she gets very little rest after all.Jean cannot stand her, but my son Philippe sees the good in her that Ihave brought him up to see; and then he clings to any and everythingAmerican. I am anxious for you to know my husband and son and for themto meet you. Do you know French?"
"Mother speaks better French than I do in spite of my work at college,"confessed Molly.
"Well, I studied French with the old time method more as we study Latin,and while my accent is vile, my verbs are all right. I am going to tryto brace up in accent, and Molly and Judy are endeavoring to perfectthemselves in grammar. But you have not met our friend Judy, Miss JuliaKean," said Mrs. Brown.
"No, I have not, but from all the complaints Henny Pace has made of her,I know she must be charming. When Henny gives a boarder a goodcharacter, I know without meeting her that she is some spineless oldmaid who is afraid to call her soul her own, or that she is a hypocritelike me who wants peace at any price. Now she tells me that Miss Kean ishead-strong, self-willed, flippant, slangy, ill-bred, inconsiderate----"
"Oh, how could she tell such things?" interrupted Molly. "Why, CousinSally, Judy is splendid! She is independent and knows her own mind, andall of us are a little slangy, I am afraid; but she is very well-bredand Mother says the most considerate visitor she has ever had."
"Well, child, her report of your friend had no effect on me but to makeme want to meet the young lady, so I can judge for myself. I want youand your mother to come and dine with us this evening at six-thirty andto bring Miss Kean with you. We will go to the opera to hear _Louise_.It is wonderful and I know you will like it," and la Marquise d'Ochtesmiled on her young Kentucky cousin and pressed her hand, pleased to seehow she could speak up for her friend.
"We shall be delighted to come," said Mrs. Brown, "and I know Judy willappeal to you. She is a dear child and as free from affectation as youyourself. Now, Sally, tell me how we must go to work to find anapartment and where we should settle ourselves. We are far from affluentand want something inexpensive but, of course, respectable. Judy is tobe with us; also a Miss Elise O'Brien, whose acquaintance we made on thesteamer. You know so many persons, I wonder if you ever met her mother:she was a Miss Lizzie Peck, who married a young artist, George O'Brien,some twenty-five years ago here in Paris. At his death she married Mr.Huntington."
"Know Lizzie Peck? I should say I did,--the outrageous piece! You see,before Jean succeeded to the estate and before I had my windfall fromAunt Sarah Carmichael, we lived in a very small way and our principalsociety was in Bohemia. At that time Lizzie Peck was the beauty of theLatin Quarter. She was supposed to be studying art, and indeed she wasquite clever. But she was such a belle and so busy drawing young men toher, that she did not give much time to any other drawing. GeorgeO'Brien was much too good for her in every way. He was one of thewittiest men I ever knew and good nature itself. It is to be hoped thatthe daughter Elise inherited a disposition from him and not from theflirtatious Lizzie. Jean always insisted that there was an understandingbetween Tom Kinsella and Lizzie, but I hardly think a man as keen as Tomcould ever have been taken in by the likes of Lizzie," and themarchioness got up preparatory to making her departure.
"Why, Mother, to think of Cousin Sally's knowing Mr. Kinsella, too! Youliked him, didn't you, Cousin Sally?" asked Molly eagerly. "He was onour steamer and so kind to us."
"Yes, my dear, I liked him very much and should like to see him again,and so would my Jean. I fancy a great many persons are kind to my littlecousin," and she pinched Molly's blushing cheek. "Now, Milly, don'tworry for one moment about an apartment as I am almost sure I know of aplace that will just suit you. It is a studio apartment on the Rue Brea,just across the Luxembourg Garden from here. It belongs to an Americanartist named Bent. He and his wife are going to Italy for the winter andwould be delighted to rent it furnished, I am sure. It is very superiorto many of the studios in the Latin Quarter as it has a bathroom. But Iam not going to tell you any more about it until I find out if you canget it, what the price is, and just what sleeping accommodations it has.I have my limousine at the door and shall go immediately to the RueBrea, and to-night when you come to us for dinner I can tell you more._Au revoir_, then, my long lost cousin,
" and she kissed Mrs. Brown onboth cheeks.
"That is the first Frenchy thing she has done yet," thought Molly; andthen when the elevator had slowly descended out of hearing distance sheremarked to her mother: "How could anyone live in a foreign country foralmost thirty years and stay so exactly like 'home folks'? CousinSally's accent is much more southern than yours and mine. Did you noticeher 'sure' was almost 'sho' and she spoke of Lizzie Peck's dra-a-win'young men? I love her for keeping the same. And oh what fun to be goingthere to dinner! I can hardly wait for Judy to come home from the studioto tell her."
Mrs. Brown was equally pleased with her cousin's having remained sounaffected and looked forward with much pleasure to renewing thegirlhood intimacy, and also to meeting the Marquis d'Ochte, of whom hiswife spoke so enthusiastically as "my Jean," and the son Philippe. Shehad some misgivings about the son because the literature of the day doesnot paint a young Frenchman in particularly desirable colors as thecompanion of girls; but she hoped that the mother's innate good sensehad served to bring up the boy in the proper way. Then Molly and Judycould meet him as they would any young man from their own country, andhe would understand their easy freedom of manner and of speech,different, she well knew, from that of the unmarried French girl. Shedetermined to say nothing to the girls of the difference, as she did notwant them changed or embarrassed by self-consciousness, and she feltsure of their having breeding and _savoir faire_ to carry them throughany situation with flying colors.
As the marchioness had indicated, she had married before Jean hadsucceeded to the estates and indeed before he had any idea of being theheir presumptive. His uncle, the Marquis d'Ochte, was at the time acomparatively young man, a widower with a son of twelve; and everyoneexpected that he would marry again and perhaps have other sons. Jeand'Ochte, when she met him, was a rising young journalist, making,however, but a meager salary. His father was dead. His mother, Madamed'Ochte, was a very superior woman and recognized Sally Bolling's worthin spite of the fact that she had but a tiny dot to bestow at hermarriage. She saw her son's infatuation for the American girl and gaveher consent to the marriage, without which, as is the law in France,they could not have been wed. Sally's alliance gave her the _entree_into the most exclusive homes of the Faubourg St. Germain but she wasnot a whit impressed by it. She took her honors so simply and naturallythat she won the hearts of all her husband's connection and they endedby applauding the leniency of Madame d'Ochte in permitting the match,which they had formerly condemned as sentimental.
Jean and his wife spent their first married years living in the simpleststyle and Sally learned the economy for which the French are famous.Then came the windfall of fifty thousand dollars from Aunt SarahCarmichael, which reconciled the exclusive Faubourg more than ever tothe match; and then the death of the little cousin of Jean's, making himhis uncle's heir; and finally the death of the uncle, which gave Jeanthe title of Marquis d'Ochte. It meant giving up his profession, towhich he was much attached; but the estates had to be looked after andthe dignity of the title maintained; and now there was leisure for thereading and writing of plays, which had been his secret ambition.
Sally made a delightful marchioness. She had been accustomed to the bestsociety in Kentucky and she declared good society was the same all overthe world; as far as she could see the only way to get on was just to beyourself and not put on airs. She was very popular in the select circleto which the title of Marquise d'Ochte admitted her but she did notconfine herself to that circle; she knew all kinds and conditions ofpeople, and never forgot a friend, no matter how humble.
Judy was very much excited at the prospect of dining with a live memberof the old nobility, but her excitement was nothing to that of Mrs.Pace. That lady, when she received the message from Mrs. Brown tellingher they would not be at home for dinner as they would dine out,immediately climbed to the seventh story to find out where they were todine, and on being informed of their destination, she went off intotransports of delight. Her ardor was somewhat dampened when it wasdivulged that Judy was to be one of the party.
"Sally is very good natured but entirely too democratic for her positionas the wife of one of the very oldest of the nobility in France. Ofcourse she asked Miss Kean because of her friendship with yourdaughter," panted the irate dame, out of breath from her climb up twoflights.
"I don't believe that was the only reason," said Molly, rather glad togive Mrs. Pace a dig after her report of her darling Judy. "Cousin Sallysaid she had been anxious to meet Miss Kean from what you had told herof my friend; so you are really responsible for the pleasure in storefor her."
"Well, I only hope she appreciates the honor done her," spluttered Mrs.Pace. "What are you going to wear? A dinner in the Faubourg and theOpera afterward calls for the very best in your wardrobe."
"Perhaps you had better advise us about our clothes," said Mrs. Brownsweetly, remembering what her cousin had said of Mrs. Pace's kind heartand how she humored her by seeming to let her boss her. "I have a verypretty black crepe de Chine. I think I am too old to go decollete, but Iam sure this is suitable, especially as I have nothing else."
"It is perfectly suitable, and if you take my advice you will wear itand leave the neck exactly as it is with that lovely old lace finishingit off in a V. For pity sakes, don't tell Sally you are too old for lownecks as she is about your age and wears decollete gowns on everyoccasion where one is warranted," said Mrs. Pace, much pleased at beingtaken into anyone's confidence on the subject of clothes or anythingelse.
Molly, taking her cue from her mother, then got out her dress and showedit to the eager landlady.
"It is lovely and just your color. Sally used to be given to that bluewhen she was young, but she says now she is too big and red to wearanything but brown or black. You must have a taxi to go in. I willattend to it for you. I hope Miss Kean will not do herself up in anyfantastic, would-be artistic get-up, but will do you and your daughtercredit, to say nothing of me, after I have got her this invitation," andMrs. Pace bustled off, filled with importance.
Mrs. Brown and the girls, left alone at last, dressed themselves withthe greatest care for the occasion, realizing what it meant to dine withthe nobility and then go to the far-famed Opera.
"Only think, the tomb of Napoleon, dinner with a marquis and the Opera,all in one day! I almost wish we had put off the tomb until to-morrow.Our impressions are coming too fast," exclaimed Molly.