Jacqueline -- Volume 2

have very different ways of counting hours, and we know from our own experience that some are as short as a minute, and others as long as a century. Th

ient forever! She idolized her son too much to be resigned to living without him; she felt that he was hers no longer. Either he was at sea or at Toulon, where she could very rarely join him, being detained at Lizerolles by the necessity of looking after their property. With what eagerness she awaited his promotion, which she did not doubt was all the Nailles waited for to give their consent to the marriage; of their happy half-consent she hastened to remind them in

ths which were made shorter by the encouragement forwarded to him by his mother, who was careful to send him everything she could find out that seemed to be, or that she imagined might be, in his favor; she underlined such things and commented upon them, so as to make the faintest hypothesis seem a certainty. Some

he could only have had, so near the beginning of his career, any opportunity of distinguishing himself! No brilliant deed would have been too hard for him. He would have scaled the very skies. Alas! he had had no chance to win distinction, he had only had to fol

ink that I shall be willing to go on living- if you can call it living!-all alone and in continual apprehension? Why do you let him keep on in uncertainty? You know his worth, and you know that with him Jacqueline would be happy. Instead of that-instead of saying once for all to this young man, who is more in lov

eads a life like that!" said M. de Naill

won't open his eyes? My poor friend, just look for on

to music," said her f

r heart thought he

that might exhaust a man, but at least it was energetic and noble-but for superfluous wealth, for vanity, for luxury, which, for his ow

n that crowd of Slavs and Yankees, people of no position probably in their own countries, with whom you permit her to associate? People nowadays are so imprudent about acquaintances! To be a foreigner is a passport into society. Just think what her poor mother would have said to the bad manners she is adopting

hese remarks, "I make no opposition-quite the contrary-I have s

she say ag

w as well as I do. But those childish attachmen

er known more than that in marriage. "My poor Fred has enthusiasm and all that, enough for two.

f if you can; but Jacqueline has

y, though the ideas of M. de N

has become like an unbroken colt, and those two, who were once all in all to each other, are now seldom of one mind. How

ill calm down of her own accord. Her mother's daughter must be good at heart. All will come right when she is removed from a circle which is doing her no good; it is injuring her in people's opinion already, you must know. And how will it be by-and-bye? I hear people saying everywhere: 'How can the Nailles let that young girl associate so much with foreigners?' You say they are old school-fellows, they went to the 'cours'

y has led a life so very worldly ever since she was a child, so madly fast and lively, that suitors are afraid of her. Jacquel

nly because her stepmother is bored by them. But with that exception it seems to me she is allowed to do anything. I don't see the

w much I ought to value your advice, and an alliance

rich as he was, had had some trouble in capturing for Berthe a fellow of no account in the Faubourg St. Germain, and the prize was not much to be envied. He was a young man without brains and without a sou, who enjoyed

ut the world on a wrong scent; whether, in other words, Madame de Villegry did not talk everywhere about M. de Cymier's attentions to Mademoiselle de Nailles in order to conceal his relations to herself? Madame de Villegry indeed cared little about standing well in public opinion, but rather the contrary; she would not, however, for the world have been willing, by too openly favoring one man among her admirers, to run the risk of putting the rest to flight. No doubt M. de Cymier was most assiduous in his attendance on the rec

d the danger that awaited her. She gave him no chance of speaking alone with her. She was friendly-nay, sometimes affectionate when other people were near them, but more commonly she teased him, bewildered him, excited him.

e. Besides her, he had no one who could receive his confidences, who would bear with his perplexities, who could assist in delivering him f

given every fortnight by Madame de Naill

quadrille,"

d, as soon as she had taken his arm: "We w

ily. "We are not here to talk; I can almost

ad been called the young girls' corner years ago. He stood before her

ed what I wanted to s

father to do your commission? It is so horribly

d. I should think it ought to be very agreeable to pronounce

uld be essential to anybody's happin

n. You are indis

Fred, much relieved that it was over, for he

," said Jacqueline, no longer smiling, but looking down fi

ddenly. Her fa

ow to explain t

"all I ask is Yes, nothing more.

y and haughtily, yet her

Then, no! No!" she repeated,

o had seemed so gay shortly before and whose face now showed an an

repeated in a lower voice, holding

se?" he asked, throug

examine attentively the pink landsc

think so? I wi

free? Is a wo

r head, as if expre

of the world," she said, "to ch

ad nothing in common with the flight of that mystic dove upon wh

said Fred, who held fast to his i

whom I liked-not more, but differently from the way

ons are too sub

of a person who has had large experience. "I have loved once-a long time ago, a very long time ago, a thousand years and more. Yes, I lo

ish! At y

like to see the man I once loved?" asked Jacqueline, impelled by a juvenile desire to exhibit her experience, and also aware instinctivel

rows, were wandering all round the salon, she poi

smiled at beauty collectively, which was well represented that evening in Madame de Nailles's salon. Youn

no longer in Savonarola, having obtained, thanks to his picture, the medal

e laughing at m

imply th

caused the painter to turn his eyes t

ing of you," s

hat they were saying. With humility which had in it

do than to talk good or evil of a po

cried Fred, "a man who has just been electe

icking pins into the heart of a waxen figure of her enemy. She nev

ing to repeat in his presence. The thing has lost its importance now tha

s saying and that he resented the humiliating avowal from

re, "I can put up with my former rival, and I pass a sponge over all that has happened in your long past

e, but he did not see

like the other!"

e Madame de Villegry, leaning back in her armchair, and Gerard de Cymier, o

with him," cried Jacqueline, frightened

use. I shall go out t

u are not

s. At this very moment I know a man w

lish little girl like me, who is very, very fond of yo

nquin, but I must have new interest

almost tender, almost suppliant. "Your mother! Thi

ed the poor fellow, clinging in despair to the very smallest hope, as a drowning man catches at a straw, "if

place within her breast. But to certain temperaments there is

much your friend

mier came toward them w

get that you promised

et anything," she

an instant, sayi

have an answer. I never shall speak to you again of my sor

Fred," said Jacqueline,

show itself unless you are in need of friendship, and then only wi

m to end their conversation, had obligingly turned his attent

away into the dance with M. de Cymier. It was over, she had flung to the winds her chance for happiness, and wounded a heart more cruelly than Hubert Marien had ever wounded hers. The most horrible thing in this unending warfare w