M. de Ballaise was only
nineteen, but although not so tall as my father or brother, he had
already that grand military bearing which is only acquired in the
French service, and no wonder, or he had been three years in the
Regiment de Conde, and had already seen two battles and three sieges
in Savoy, and now had only leave of absence for the winter before
rejoining his regiment in the Low Countries.
Yet he looked as bashful as a maiden. It was true that, as my father
said, his bashfulness was as great as an Englishman's. Indeed, he
had been bred up at his great uncle's chateau in Anjou, under a
strict abbe who had gone with him to the war, and from whom he was
only now to be set free upon his marriage. He had scarcely ever
spoken to any lady but his old aunt--his parents had long been dead--
and he had only two or three times seen his little sister through the
grating of her convent. So, as he afterwards confessed, nothing but
his military drill and training bore him through the affair. He
stood upright as a dart, bowed at the right place, and in due time
signed his name to the contract, and I had to do the same. Then
there ensued a great state dinner, where he and I sat together, but
neither of us spoke to the other; and when, as I was trying to see
the viscount under my eyelashes, I caught his eyes trying to do the
same by me, I remember my cheeks flaming all over, and I think his
must have done the same, for my father burst suddenly out into a
laugh without apparent cause, though he tried to check himself when
he saw my mother's vexation.
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