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Weighed down by his good-sense and kindness, Josephine resisted no longer in words. She just lifted her hands in despair and began to cry. It was so piteous, Aubertin was ready to yield in turn, and consent to any imprudence, when he met with an unexpected ally. "Promise," said Rose, doggedly. Josephine looked at her calmly through her tears.
He whispered to himself, "And I am afraid it is too late to go away to-night." He went softly into the saloon. Nobody was there but Rose and Aubertin. At sight of him Rose got up and left the room. But I suppose she went to Josephine; for she returned in a few minutes, and rang the bell, and ordered some supper to be brought up for Colonel Dujardin.
The doctor smiled coldly. Mivart added, "If you had come an hour sooner, you might have seen Mademoiselle Rose; she was in the town." "Mademoiselle Rose? who is that?" "Why, Madame Aubertin's sister." At this Dr. Aubertin looked first very puzzled, then very grave. "Hum!" said he, after a little reflection, "where do these paragons live?"
Oh, joy! joy! joy!" "Mother!" shrieked Josephine. "Mad woman that I am, I am too boisterous. Help me, Rose! she is going to faint; her lips are white." Dr. Aubertin and Rose brought a chair. They forced Josephine into it. She was not the least faint; yet her body obeyed their hands just like a dead body. The baroness melted into tears; tears streamed from Rose's eyes.
At the next something seemed to snap asunder in the great heart, and the worn body that heart had held up so long, rolled like a dead log upon the ground with a tremendous fall. The baroness and Aubertin were just getting out of their carriage, when suddenly they heard shrieks of terror in the Pleasaunce. They came with quaking hearts as fast as their old limbs would carry them.
"Not to let Josephine go to Frejus?" said Rose hastily. "Oh, yes! I promise." "You are a good girl," said Aubertin. "You have a will of your own. But you can submit to age and experience." The doctor then kissed her, and bade her farewell. "I leave for Paris at six in the morning," he said. "I will not try your patience or hers unnecessarily.
This endless deceit burns my heart. Shall I tell my husband? It will be but one pang more, one blush more for me. But my mother!" and, thus appealed to, Dr. Aubertin felt, for the first time, all the difficulty of the situation he had undertaken to cure. He hesitated, he was embarrassed. "Ah," said Josephine, "you see."
Then a new torture came. He must not be dead but unfaithful. At this all the pride of her race was fired in her. The struggle between love and ire was almost too much for nature: violently gay and moody by turns she alarmed both her mother and the good Dr. Aubertin.
"Madame the baroness, and you Monsieur Aubertin, who honor me with your esteem, and you Mademoiselle de Beaurepaire, whom I adore, and you Mademoiselle Rose, whom I hoped to be permitted you have this day done me the honor to admit me as your adviser. I am here to lay my plans before you.
When they had all eaten a little, a discussion was observed to be going on between Rose and her sister. At last Aubertin caught these words, "It will be in vain; even you have not influence enough for that, Rose." "We shall see," was the reply, and Rose put the wing of a partridge on a plate and rose calmly from her chair. She took the plate and put it on a little work-table by her mother's side.
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