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After the recital of Madame Riano's wrongs at the hands of the Kings of England, Spain and France for she had something against the last two as well as the first, and complained that they had all treated her as if she were of no more account than the drummer's cat the conversation turned on Francezka. Madame Riano heard from her regularly.
This sudden passion of Madame Riano for Scotland was very embarrassing for Mademoiselle Capello, because it would almost force her to seek the protection of a husband, as she had no intention of forsaking her home in Brabant. I do not think this decision of Madame Riano's seemed to trouble Gaston Cheverny very deeply, although he candidly admitted what the consequences would be.
I had often laughed behind Madame Riano's back at what she called presentiments, but this sudden waking, this seeing, all at once, a very present danger which had escaped everybody's notice, seemed to me uncomfortably like those supernatural warnings which Madame Riano was always talking about.
I think the attitude of her mind had something to do with Francezka's obstinate clinging to the belief that Gaston Cheverny was alive and would be found. Madame Riano's belief was superstitious, pure and simple. She actually believed that nobody married to a Kirkpatrick could be called out of this world without ceremony.
Madame Riano's greeting was kind, Francezka's more than kind. They were to be the guests of some great people at the fine mansion for which they were bound, during the remainder of the camp about a fortnight longer.
But when he appeared in traveling dress, at ten o'clock, he was smiling and polite as usual, and expressed great joy at being allowed to journey in Madame Riano's suite. Count Saxe was a prudent as well as a courageous man, and he never belittled his antagonists, least of all Madame Riano.
For all of Madame Riano's sharpness, she had not recognized the clothes as belonging to Gaston. Jacques Haret, however, replied with a grin: "I borrowed them, Madame, when I was last in Brabant from your old friend, the Bishop of Louvain. The old gentleman kept this costume for occasions when he goes to Brussels incog. and plays Harun-al-Rashid."
She had all of the new books sent her from Paris, Brussels and the Hague, including Monsieur Voltaire's, much to Madame Riano's horror. Likewise, she diligently studied the harpsichord, having masters from Brussels to instruct her.
I saw tears also in Madame Riano's handsome, intrepid, tawny eyes, and her usually loud and determined voice broke when she thanked Count Saxe for his goodness to Mademoiselle Capello. I was staggered at the sight of Regnard Cheverny, having thought him many hundreds of leagues away; but there he was, in the life, and as handsome and debonair a young gentleman as one would wish to see.
The poor foolish duke, who stuttered and stammered fearfully, replied to this: "M-m-m-madame, the king's orders are n-n-not to arrest anybody except p-persons of the f-f-first consequence, M-madame!" Fancy Madame Riano's rage! And the crowd actually cheered the duke, so we heard in Paris. This, however, drove Scotch Peg out of London.
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