Page:All the Year Round - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/489

Charles Dickens] cannot play sick nurse in a lace mantilla. I must give up my poor or my silks, my finery or my flannel." And she allowed him to see that she carried under her shawl a roll of the latter material, together with an empty soup-jug. The colonel volunteered to relieve her of the interesting burden, but this she would not allow.

They became great friends in that short walk. Mrs. Magniac was enthusiastic in her admiration of the kind neighbours who had hastened, from all sides, to cheer her solitude, and, with a clever and graceful compliment to the beauty of Miss Fonnereau, sealed her conquest of the colonel's goodwill. At parting, it was agreed that Mon Port and Mon Désir should henceforth live in close alliance; and the colonel, as he trotted homeward, resolved to do battle with his daughter's prejudice, and overcome all her hesitations, as he had his own.

In this he partially succeeded. Geraldine loved her father too fondly to offer persistent opposition to anything he might desire. Moreover, though possessing a rather high and haughty spirit, she was frank and generous by nature; and, acknowledging to herself that her repugnance towards Mrs. Magniac had, as yet, no rational foundation, concealed, if she could not discard it.

Intercourse now became frequent, the colonel and his daughter riding over, and dropping anchor in Mon Port for hours together. Wealth, and a refined taste, were plainly traceable in all the appointments of that charming residence, while its sweet and simple mistress was fascination itself. Her delight in Geraldine's beauty was almost infantine. She would gaze upon her, as if spell-bound. Her manner, always graceful and cordial, became absolutely fond, and poor Geraldine had many a twinge of conscience, in remembering that her mistrust and aversion, in relation to the Lady of the Sea, had not abated one atom.

On one occasion, Mon Port having to undergo some necessary repairs, Mrs. Magniac, at the instance of the colonel, seconded, with less entreaty, by his daughter, passed several days at Mon Désir. She was accompanied by her remarkable attendant, La Pareuse.

The attachment of this creature to her mistress knew no bounds. It resembled a monomania. She appeared never to be happy, never commonly at ease, out of her presence. It was with difficulty she was prevented, while at Mon Désir, bivouacking at night outside her lady's chamber door. In a word, this strange woman, as singular in aspect as in mind (for she was in all respects, except in colour, a genuine negro, her complexion being of a ghastly bluish white), had, to all appearance, no voluntary being, her thought, will, conscience, aims, being thoroughly absorbed in, and yielded up to, that world—her mistress. But her great delight was the latter's toilette. La Pareuse would dress and deck her, as if the very lives of both depended on the final result. Mrs. Magniac had to apologise for the time expended in this manner, and for the foible of her maid.

"I am nothing but a great big doll, am I?" she would say, blushing and smiling, as she swam into the drawing-room, perfected to a hair.

It would have been idle to deny that art had a good deal to do with the matter. La Pareuse was of unsocial disposition, and, in the absence of her mistress from the house, generally locked herself up in her own room. Grinding, splashing, and gurgling had been heard within, and it was rumoured in the kitchen that the white nigger was concocting mysterious washes, &c., for the enhancement and perpetuation of the beauty she held so dear.

This was no time of tranquillity to Geraldine. She saw, with bitter regret—saw far more distinctly than the colonel himself—the tendency of Melusina's wiles, and their growing influence upon his mind. In proportion as the possibility of her father's union with this woman became more defined, so did her distrust and detestation become more difficult to veil. More than once, in conversation with the siren, she had suffered words to escape her which should have betrayed to the latter the dread of such a result. The Lady of the Sea only redoubled her smiles and caresses, and but that Geraldine detected and captured a telltale glance of confident triumph, she might have brought herself to believe Mrs. Magniac guiltless of any ulterior aim. This one fatal look sufficed. Nor did it express only the exultation of success. There was in it entire consciousness of the antagonism with which she had to deal.

Overcome with her misgivings, Miss Fonnereau resolved to sound her father on the subject, hoping yet to stem the current of his fancy.

To her unspeakable comfort, the colonel laughed heartily, and, pinching her cheek, requested her to banish all suspicion that Mon Désir was to receive any other mistress than herself.