between Mlle. de Beaumesnil and yourself."
"A marriage!" cried Gerald, bounding out of his chair.
"Yes, a marriage – with the richest heiress in France," replied Madame de Senneterre.
Then, without making any effort to conceal her uneasiness, she continued:
"If it were not for your conduct, we should have every chance in our favour, though suitors and rivals will soon be pouring in on every side. There will be a hard struggle for the prize, and Heaven knows even the truth will be terribly damaging to you. Ah, if with your name, your talents, and your face you were a model of virtue and propriety like that excellent M. de Macreuse, for example – "
"But are you really thinking seriously of this marriage, mother?" asked Gerald, more and more astonished.
"Am I thinking of it seriously? You ask me that?"
"My dear mother, I am infinitely grateful to you for your kind intentions, but I repeat that I have no desire to marry."
"What is that you say?"
"I say, my dear mother, that I have no intention of marrying anybody."
"Mon Dieu! he is mad!" cried Madame de Senneterre. "He refuses the richest heiress in France!"
"Listen, mother," said Gerald, gravely, but tenderly; "I am an honest man, and being such, I confess that I love pleasure above all things, consequently I should make a detestable husband, even for the richest heiress in France."
"A colossal fortune – an unheard-of fortune!" faltered Madame de Senneterre, stupefied by this refusal on the part of her son. "An income of over three million francs! Think of it!"
"But I love pleasure and my liberty more!"
"What you say is abominable!" cried Madame de Senneterre, almost beside herself. "Why, you are an idiot, and worse than an idiot!"
"But, my dear mother, I love independence, and gay suppers and good times, generally, – in short, the life of a bachelor. I still have six years of such joyous existence before me, and I wouldn't sacrifice them for all the money in the world; besides," added Gerald, more seriously, "I really couldn't be mean enough to make a poor girl I had married for her money as miserable as she was ridiculous. Besides, mother, you know very well that I absolutely refused to buy a substitute to go and be killed in my stead, so you can not wonder that I refuse to sell myself for any woman's millions."
"But, my son – "
"My dear mother, it is just this. Your M. de Macreuse, – and if you really have any regard for him, don't hold him up to me again as a model, or I shall break all the canes I possess over his back, – your M. de Macreuse, who is so devout, would probably not have the same scruples that I, a mere pagan, have. But such as I am, such I shall remain, and love you even more than ever, my dear mother," added Gerald, kissing the hand of the duchess respectfully.
There are strange coincidences in this life of ours.
Gerald had scarcely uttered M. de Macreuse's name before a servant rapped at the door, and, on being told to enter, announced that M. de Macreuse wished to see the duchess in regard to a very important matter.
"Did you tell him that I was at home?" asked Madame de Senneterre.
"Madame la duchesse gave no order to the contrary."
"Very well, – ask M. de Macreuse to wait a moment."
Then turning to her son, she said, no longer with severity, but with deep sadness:
"Your incomprehensible refusal grieves and disappoints me more than I can express, so I beg and implore that you will remain here. I will return almost immediately. Ah, my son, my dear son, you can not imagine the terrible chagrin you are causing me."
"Pray, mother, do not say that," pleaded Gerald, touched by his mother's grief. "You know how much I love you."
"You are always saying that, Gerald. I wish I could believe it."
"Then send that brute of a Macreuse away, and let me try to convince you that my conduct is at least loyal and honest. What, you insist upon going?" he added, seeing his mother moving towards the door.
"M. de Macreuse is waiting for me," replied the duchess.
"Then let me send him word to take himself off. There is no necessity of bothering with him."
But as M. de Senneterre started towards the bell with the evident intention of giving the order, his mother checked him by saying:
"Really, Gerald, another of my great annoyances is the intense aversion – I will not say jealousy – you seem to entertain for a worthy young man whose exemplary life, modesty, and piety ought to be an example to you. Ah, would to Heaven that you had his principles and virtues! If that were the case, you would not prefer low company and a life of dissipation to a brilliant marriage which would assure your happiness and mine."
With this parting thrust Madame de Senneterre went to join M. de Macreuse, leaving her son alone, but not without making him promise that he would wait for her return.
CHAPTER XVII
PRESUMPTION AND INDIGNATION
When the duchess returned to her son, her cheeks were flushed, and intense indignation was depicted on her visage.
"Who ever would have believed it? Did any one ever hear of such audacity?" she exclaimed, on entering the room.
"What is the matter, mother?"
"M. de Macreuse is a scoundrel, – a vile scoundrel!" cried Madame de Senneterre, in a tempest of wrath.
Gerald could not help bursting into a hearty laugh, despite his mother's agitation; then, regretting this unseemly hilarity, he said:
"Forgive me, mother, but this revulsion of feeling is so sudden and so very remarkable! But tell me, has this man failed in respect to you?" demanded Gerald, very seriously, this time.
"Such a person as he is never forgets his manners," answered the duchess, spitefully.
"Then what is the meaning of this anger? You were swearing by your M. de Macreuse a minute ago!"
"Don't call him my M. de Macreuse, if you please," cried Madame de Senneterre, interrupting her son, impetuously. "Do you know the object of his visit? He came to ask me to say all I could in his praise, – in his praise, indeed!"
"But to whom, and for what purpose?"
"Did any one ever hear of such audacity!"
"But tell me his object in making this request, mother."
"His object! Why, the man wants to marry Mlle. de Beaumesnil!"
"He!"
"Did any one ever hear of such presumption?"
"Macreuse?"
"A mere nobody! A common vagrant!" cried the duchess. "Really, it is hard to imagine who could have had the audacity to introduce a creature like that into our circle."
"But how did he happen to reveal his projects to you?"
"Because I have always treated him with consideration, I suppose; because, like so many other fools I took him up, without knowing why, until the fellow thought he had a right to come and say to me that, by reason of the friendly interest I had always taken in him, and the eulogiums I had lavished upon him, he really felt it his duty to confide to me, under the pledge of secrecy, his intentions with regard to Mlle. de Beaumesnil; not doubting, he had the audacity to remark that I would say a few words in his favour to that young lady, adding that he would trust to – to my friendly interest. I do believe he had the impudence to say – to find an opportunity to do him this favour at the earliest possible moment. Really, effrontery is no name for assurance like his!"
"But really, my dear mother, you must confess that it is your own fault. Haven't I heard you praise and flatter this Macreuse in the most outrageous manner, again and again?"
"Praise him – flatter him!" exclaimed Madame de Senneterre, naïvely. "Did I suppose then that he would have the impudence to take it into his head to