I laughed. I was sure that I was neither doing nor intending any
harm; I thought the whole a mere ebullition of spite on the duenna's
part to torment and frighten her emancipated victim, and I treated
all as a joke to reassure Cecile, and even laughed at the Abbe for
treating the matter more seriously, and saying it was always perilous
to go out of a beaten track.
'I thought the beaten track and wide road were the dangerous ones,' I
said, with more lightness, perhaps, than suited the subject.
'Ah, Madame,' he returned gravely, 'you have there the truth; but
there may be danger in this world in the narrow path.'
The most effectual consolation that I could invent for Cecile was
that if her husband thought me bad company for her, he could not but
fetch her to her proper home with him, as soon as peace was made.
Did I really think so? The little thing grew radiant with the hope.
Days went on, we heard nothing, and I was persuaded that the whole
had been, as I told Cecile, a mere figment of Mademoiselle de
Gringrimeau's.
I had written to beg my mother, with my brother and sister, to come
and join us, and I as already beginning to arrange a suite of rooms
for them, my heart bounding as it only can do at the thought of
meeting those nearest and dearest of one's own blood.
I remember that I was busy giving orders that the linen should be
aired, and overlooking the store of sheets, when Gaspard and
Armantine from the window called out: 'Horses, horses, mamma! fine
cavaliers!'
I rushed to the window and recognized the Solivet colours.
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