Part 24

“If he were of noble birth?”

“Pooh!”

“A Count.”

“And a sculptor?”

“He has no money.”

“And so he counts on that of Mademoiselle Hortense Hulot?” said the Baron ironically, with an inquisitorial look into his daughter’s eyes.

“This great artist, a Count and a sculptor, has just seen your daughter for the first time in his life, and for the space of five minutes, Monsieur le Baron,” Hortense calmly replied. “Yesterday, you must know, dear little father, while you were at the Chamber, mamma had a fainting fit. This, which she ascribed to a nervous attack, was the result of some worry that had to do with the failure of my marriage, for she told me that to get rid of me---”

“She is too fond of you to have used an expression----”

“So unparliamentary!” Hortense put in with a laugh. “No, she did not use those words; but I know that a girl old enough to marry and who does not find a husband is a heavy cross for respectable parents to bear.--Well, she thinks that if a man of energy and talent could be found, who would be satisfied with thirty thousand francs for my marriage portion, we might all be happy. In fact, she thought it advisable to prepare me for the modesty of my future lot, and to hinder me from indulging in too fervid dreams.--Which evidently meant an end to the intended marriage, and no settlements for me!”

“Your mother is a very good woman, noble, admirable!” replied the father, deeply humiliated, though not sorry to hear this confession.

“She told me yesterday that she had your permission to sell her diamonds so as to give me something to marry on; but I should like her to keep her jewels, and to find a husband myself. I think I have found the man, the possible husband, answering to mamma’s prospectus----”

“There?--in the Place du Carrousel?--and in one morning?”

“Oh, papa, the mischief lies deeper!” said she archly.

“Well, come, my child, tell the whole story to your good old father,” said he persuasively, and concealing his uneasiness.

Under promise of absolute secrecy, Hortense repeated the upshot of her various conversations with her Cousin Betty. Then, when they got home, she showed the much-talked-of-seal to her father in evidence of the sagacity of her views. The father, in the depth of his heart, wondered at the skill and acumen of girls who act on instinct, discerning the simplicity of the scheme which her idealized love had suggested in the course of a single night to his guileless daughter.

“You will see the masterpiece I have just bought; it is to be brought home, and that dear Wenceslas is to come with the dealer.--The man who made that group ought to make a fortune; only use your influence to get him an order for a statue, and rooms at the Institut----”

“How you run on!” cried her father. “Why, if you had your own way, you would be man and wife within the legal period--in eleven days----”

“Must we wait so long?” said she, laughing. “But I fell in love with him in five minutes, as you fell in love with mamma at first sight. And he loves me as if we had known each other for two years. Yes,” she said in reply to her father’s look, “I read ten volumes of love in his eyes. And will not you and mamma accept him as my husband when you see that he is a man of genius? Sculpture is the greatest of the Arts,” she cried, clapping her hands and jumping. “I will tell you everything----”

“What, is there more to come?” asked her father, smiling.

The child’s complete and effervescent innocence had restored her father’s peace of mind.

“A confession of the first importance,” said she. “I loved him without knowing him; and, for the last hour, since seeing him, I am crazy about him.”

“A little too crazy!” said the Baron, who was enjoying the sight of this guileless passion.

“Do not punish me for confiding in you,” replied she. “It is so delightful to say to my father’s heart, ‘I love him! I am so happy in loving him!’--You will see my Wenceslas! His brow is so sad. The sun of genius shines in his gray eyes--and what an air he has! What do you think of Livonia? Is it a fine country?--The idea of Cousin Betty’s marrying that young fellow! She might be his mother. It would be murder! I am quite jealous of all she has ever done for him. But I don’t think my marriage will please her.”

“See, my darling, we must hide nothing from your mother.”

“I should have to show her the seal, and I promised not to betray Cousin Lisbeth, who is afraid, she says, of mamma’s laughing at her,” said Hortense.

“You have scruples about the seal, and none about robbing your cousin of her lover.”

“I promised about the seal--I made no promise about the sculptor.”

This adventure, patriarchal in its simplicity, came admirably a propos to the unconfessed poverty of the family; the Baron, while praising his daughter for her candor, explained to her that she must now leave matters to the discretion of her parents.