“Equipped, dear Cousin? Do you mean mentally or sartorially?”
I certainly did not mean mentally,” I retorted tartly.
“I was teasing, for I did not for one moment think you did. Oh, this tiresome matter of clothing ourselves! We have dressmakers in the castle. Ill swear. Cousin, that you have a good sense of dress. I can picture you’ again that gesture’ most excellently garbed. So you see there is nothing more to be settled.”
“I think there is a great deal,” I protested. I came here to act as Margot’s companion while she needed me. I thought I was to be employed”
“You are employed. But as a cousin instead of a companion.”
A sort of poor relation? “
That sounds sad. A relation, yes, and perhaps not so well endowed with riches as some of us . but we shall all be too well-mannered to remind you of that. “
Margot who had been quietly listening to this conversation suddenly burst out: “I must see Chariot some time.”
“Chariot?” said the Comte coldly.
“And who might Chariot be?”
“He is my baby,” said Margot quickly.
The Comte’s face hardened. Now he looked cruel. Le Diable indeed, I thought. “Have I not made it clear that that matter is over and not to be mentioned again?”
“Do you think I can stop thinking of my little baby?”
“You can certainly stop talking of it.”
“You say It. (… as though he is a … thing … nothing of importance, to be pushed aside because he has caused. inconvenience.”
“It-or he as you prefer to call it-has done just that.”
“Not to me. I want him. I love him.”
He looked from Margot to me, his expression one of exasperation.
“Perhaps I have been premature in congratulating you on the manner in which this unfortunate affair has been conducted.”
“I must see him sometimes,” said Margot sullenly. “Did you not hear me say that the matter is ended?J Cousin Minelle, take Marguerite to her room. She will show you yours. I believe they have put you next to her. I wish to hear no more of this folly.”
“Papa.” She ran to him and caught his hand. He threw he. off impatiently.
“Did you not hear me? Go. Take your cousin and show her her room and get over your foolishness out of my sight.
In that moment I hated him. He had brought his owl illegitimate son into his household but he had no sympathy for poor Margot. I went to her and put my arm about he “Come, Margot,” I said, ‘we will go and rest. We are tire from our journey. “
“Chariot…” she murmured.
“Chariot is in good hands, Margot,” I said gently.
“Cousin Minelle,” said the Comte, “I have given orders the child’s name is not to be mentioned. Pray remember that.”
Suddenly my feelings were too much for me. I was tired from the journey and he had begun by making me feel at a disadvantage by not allowing me to wash and change; and coming face to face with him and seeing him even more overpowering, even more menacing than he had been in my thoughts, was too much for me.
I burst out: “Have you no human feelings! This is a mother. She has recently borne a child who has been snatched from her.”
“Snatched! I did not know it had been snatched. My orders were that it should be quietly taken.”
“You know very well what I mean.”
“Oh,” he said, ‘melodrama! Snatched sounds so much more effective than quietly taken. You make it sound as though there had been a tug of war over this . bastard. I am surprised at you. Cousin. I had thought the English were restrained. Perhaps I have much to learn of them.”
“You will learn that this one hates cruelty.”
“And would you like to see my daughter’s hopes for the future ended because of a youthful folly? Let me tell you, I have gone to great trouble and expense to extricate her from this absurd affair. I employed you because I thought you were possessed of good sense. I am afraid you will have to let me see a little more of that necessary qualification if you are to remain in my service.”
“I am sure you will find me most unsuitable. In which case I had better leave your employ without delay, for if you expect me to silently stand by and condone your cruelty and injustice, I shall not please you, I assure you.”
“Hasty! Disobedient! Sentimental! None of these is a quality I admire.”
“I did not think I could possibly win your admiration. I shall leave as soon as it is possible. But you must allow me one night’s shelter which in the circumstances you owe me.”
“I agree to your night’s shelter most certainly. How is it that these auras are built round nations? English sang-fro id It is notorious.
What a misrepresentation . unless, of course, you are not typical of your race. “
Margot clung to me crying: “Minelle, you are not going t( leave me. I won’t let you go. Papa, she must stay with me, She turned to me.
“We’ll go away together. We’ll find Chariot, Then she was back to her father, pulling at his sleeve.
“You shall not rob me of my baby. I will not let him go.” He crying had turned to wild laughter and I was alarmed for her.
Then suddenly he struck her across the face.
For a moment there was a tense silence. Time seemed to stand still in the red salon and even the plump half-naked ladies who frolicked on the tapestry seemed to be waiting The Comte broke the silence.
“Cruel, you say,” he said looking at me.
“To strike my daughter! I believe it to be the treatment for this sort of hysteria. See, it has quietened her Go now. Talk to her. Explain to her why it has to happen this way. I rely on you. Cousin Minelle. We shall have mud to say to each other in the next few weeks.”
There was a singing in my ears. He was cancelling our conversation; he was ignoring my threat to leave.
But what I must think of now was Margot.
I took her arm and said: “Come, Margot, let us go. Show me your room and mine.”
She was lying on her bed recovering from the scene. I was ii my room washing in the cool water which I found in what knew to be from my studies a ruelle . a sort of alcove behind curtains where one could wash and dress away from the bedroom.
My bedroom was as elegant as I was sure was every room ii the castle.
The curtains were of a deep blue, as were the bed-hangings on the four-poster bed. An Aubusson carpe was on the floor. The furniture was delicate in the style of the last century when Louis XIV had encouraged such elegance and the influence of this had appeared throughout France.
There was a beautiful dressing-table with gilded cupid on either side of a mirror, holding candles; and a stool with a soft brocade seat pale blue with deep blue velvet stripes. could have revelled in such exquisite surroundings if I ha not felt so apprehensive, and my apprehension was entirely due to the lord of the castle. I had a growing conviction that he had some ulterior motive in bringing me here and this it was dishonourable I had no doubt.
The French were realists. They were far more cynical than we were. In England, of course, men took their mistresses and there were scandals now and then, but these were deplored, or there was a pretence that they were. Hypocrisy in a way; and yet this very quality did produce a more moral society. The Kings of France had taken their mistresses openly and mattresse en titre, the title given to the chief of them, was considered honourable. In England that could never be acceptable.
The present King of France had no mistresses, not because it would be considered wrong for him to take them, but because he had no inclination to do so. Even his flighty and frivolous wife Marie Antoinette took no lovers openly. There were whispers, of course, but who could say whether these were founded on fact or mere rumour? But this was because the King and Queen were different from those who had gone before. Noblemen of France still took mistresses as naturally as wives and none thought the worse of them.