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Parents, on a plea of tenderness, keep them at home, where they get spoiled among grown people, when they had much better have the same kind of education that has succeeded so well with Giselle; bolts on the garden-gates, wholesome seclusion, the company of girls of their own age, a great regularity of life, nothing which stimulates either vanity or imagination.
She entered into his feelings far better than Jacqueline, who had been his first confidante Jacqueline, to whom he had confided his purposes, his ambition, and his day-dreams. He thought Jacqueline was selfish. She seemed to care only for herself. And yet, selfish or not selfish, she pleased him better than all the other girls he knew a thousand times more than gentle, sweet Giselle.
By the time he had debarked Fred had made up his mind to let his mother choose a wife for him, a daughter-in-law suited to herself, who would give her the delight of grandchildren, who would bring them up well, and who would not weary of Lizerolles. But a week later the idea of this kind of marriage had gone out of his head, and this change of feeling was partly owing to Giselle.
He only bowed when she said again: "At four o'clock: Madame d'Argy will be prepared to see you. Thank you, Monsieur l'Abbe." And then, as she descended the staircase, he bestowed upon her silently his most earnest benediction, before returning to the cold cutlet that was on his breakfast table. Giselle did not breakfast much better than he.
"Oh!" cried the sick woman in her excitement, "you must kiss your old playfellow!" Giselle blushed a little, and Fred, more embarrassed than she, lightly touched with his lips her pretty smooth hair which shone upon her head like a helmet of gold.
Then, seizing her friend's hand, she forcibly raised it to her lips: "Ah! what can anything matter to me," she cried, "if only you remain my friend; and he has never doubted me!" "Women like you can always find defenders," said Giselle, tearing her hand from her cousin's grasp. Giselle was not herself at that moment.
The comings and going of Mademoiselle de Nailles have long ceased to have the slightest interest for me." "They have for Fred at any rate; he has just proved it, I should say," replied Giselle. By this time the others were as much embarrassed as Giselle. She saw it, and went on quickly: "Their names are together in everybody's mouth; you can not hinder it."
She had expected much curiosity on the part of Giselle, and had resolved beforehand to give her no answers; but Giselle only sighed, and said, softly: "Ah my poor darling! I, too, am very unhappy. If you only knew " "How? Good heavens! what can have happened to you here?" "Here? oh! nothing, of course; but this year I am to leave the convent and I think I can guess what will then be before me."
She was ready to admit that most men marry women who have not particularly enchanted them, and she had brought up Giselle with all those passive qualities, which, together with a large fortune, usually suit best with a 'mariage de convenance'.
His mother stretched out her trembling arms, gave a great cry, and fainted away. "Don't be alarmed; it is only joy," said Giselle, in her soft voice. And when Madame d'Argy proved her to be right by recovering very quickly, overwhelming her son with rapid questions and covering him with kisses, Giselle held out her hand to him and said: "I, too, am very glad you have come home."
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