That young girl watched both Herminie and the hunchback intently during the reading, evidently anxious to know if they would approve her motives.
All doubts on this subject were soon allayed, however, for touching and sympathetic exclamations speedily testified to the approval of both.
When the perusal was ended, the duchess, her eyes filled with tears of love and compassion, exclaimed:
"Ah, it is not friendship alone that I feel for you now, Ernestine, but respect and admiration. Great Heavens! how these frightful doubts must have tortured you! What an immense amount of courage it must have required to take such an important step alone--to face an ordeal from which even the bravest heart would have shrunk! Ah, I can at least offer you an affection which has been proved as disinterested as it is sincere. Thank God, I have been able to convince you beyond a doubt that you can and should be loved for yourself alone."
"Ah, yes, and it is this fact that makes your affection so precious to me," replied Ernestine, with effusion.
"Herminie is right. Your conduct has been worthy of all praise," said the marquis, who seemed deeply moved. "The few words you let drop on this subject night before last, at the ball, only partially enlightened me in regard to the real facts of the case. You are a noble girl."
But suddenly the duchess, remembering the promise Ernestine had made Olivier, exclaimed anxiously:
"But, Ernestine,--the promise you made M. Olivier yesterday, in my presence!"
"That promise I shall keep," replied Mlle. de Beaumesnil, quietly.
CHAPTER XIX.
ERNESTINE'S APPEAL.
On hearing Mlle. de Beaumesnil speak of a promise which she had made to M. Olivier, and which she intended to keep, M. de Maillefort seemed both surprised and uneasy, especially when the duchess repeated:
"What! the promise made to M. Olivier--"
"Yes, this promise, I repeat, I intend to keep, my dear Herminie. Did you not approve my acceptance of M. Olivier's offer? Did you not regard it as a sure guarantee of happiness to come? Did you not appreciate the great generosity of his offer as much as I did?"
"Yes, Ernestine, but it was to the little embroideress that this offer was made."
"Ah, well, why should M. Olivier's generosity seem less great and less noble now, my dear Herminie? Why should not the guarantee of happiness to come be just as certain?"
"I do not know how to answer you, Ernestine. I feel that you are right, and yet I am conscious of a vague uneasiness in spite of myself. But you must have no secrets from M. de Maillefort. You must tell him all."
"I will, and I am sure that M. de Maillefort will approve my decision."
The marquis had been listening silently but thoughtfully.
"Is this M. Olivier the young man who invited you to dance out of charity, and to whom frequent allusion is made in your journal?"
"Yes, M. de Maillefort."
"And it was M. Olivier's uncle that Ernestine saved from almost certain death the other day," added Herminie.
"His uncle?" exclaimed the hunchback, quickly.
Then, after a moment's reflection, he added:
"I understand. Gratitude, combined with another and more tender sentiment which had its birth at her first meeting with this young man at Madame Herbaut's house, led him to propose to Ernestine when he believed her to be poor and unprotected."
"And a brilliant match it seemed for one of my supposed position,"
remarked Mlle. de Beaumesnil, "for M. Olivier had just been made an officer, so it was an enviable social position as well as comparative affluence that he offered a penniless and obscure girl who laboured for her daily bread."
"Is his name Olivier Raymond?" exclaimed the hunchback, as if a new idea had suddenly occurred to him.
"That is his name. Do you know him, monsieur?" asked Ernestine.
"Olivier Raymond, formerly a non-commissioned officer of hussars, decorated in Africa, is it not?" continued the marquis.
"The same."
"Then it was for him, though not at his request, nor even with his knowledge, that I requested his promotion the other day in company with my dear young friend, Gerald de Senneterre, who loves the young man like a brother," added the hunchback, thoughtfully.
Then, turning to Ernestine, he continued:
"My child, it is your mother's devoted friend, almost a father, that speaks. All this seems very serious to me, and I tremble lest the natural generosity of your character should cause you to go too far.
Have you engaged yourself to Olivier Raymond?"
"Yes, monsieur."
"And do you love him?"
"As profoundly as I esteem him, my dear M. de Maillefort."
"I can very well understand, my dear child, why, after the shocking revelations at the ball, night before last, you should have felt the need of sincere and disinterested affection more than ever. I can understand, too, why you should find a wonderful charm, and even see a certain guarantee of future happiness, in M. Olivier Raymond's generous offer, but this should not have prevented you from exercising more prudence. Remember how short your acquaintance with M. Olivier has been!"
"That is true, monsieur, but it did not take me long, when my eyes had once been opened, to realise the fact that your heart was full of the tenderest solicitude for me, and that Herminie was the noblest creature that ever lived, so you may be sure that I am no more deceived in M.
Olivier."
"I hope you are right, my child, Heaven knows! This young man is Gerald de Senneterre's most intimate friend, which is a very strong recommendation, I must admit. Besides, before interesting myself in Gerald's protege, as I feared his affection for a former comrade might have blinded him somewhat, I made numerous inquiries about M. Olivier."
"Well?" exclaimed Ernestine and Herminie, in the same breath.
"Well, the best proof of my satisfaction at the result of these inquiries was the fact that I brought the full force of an influence I rarely exert to bear on M. Olivier's advancement."
"Then why should you feel any apprehensions, M. de Maillefort?" urged Ernestine. "How could I have made a better choice? M. Olivier's birth is honourable, his profession honoured. He is poor, but am I not, alas!
only too rich? And then think of my position as an heiress continually exposed to machinations like those you exposed and punished, night before last! Remember, too, that, in order to protect me from such shameless cupidity, you yourself aroused in me a distrust which has become well-nigh incurable. A prey henceforth to the dreadful thought that I am sought only for my wealth, whom can I trust? Is it strange that, under circumstances like these, I should appreciate disinterestedness and unselfishness? And where could I ever find greater disinterestedness than that of which M. Olivier has given convincing proof? For in the offer that he made me, when he believed me to be poor and unprotected, was it not he who had everything to give?"
There was a half smile on the lips of the marquis as he turned to Herminie and said:
"Your friend, the little embroideress, has quick wit and a ready tongue.
There is a good deal of sense and justice in what she says, I must admit, and I should find it very difficult to prove that she is wrong."
"I think so, too," replied Herminie, "for though I have been trying to discover some objections to her keeping her promise, I can find none."