"Because it is a weed which grows apace, and terribly interferes with the growth of better plants. Besides, its pleasures soon wither, and leave a very bitter taste behind them. But whither are you going?-to England?" "Oh no, not yet. I think General Fairfax intends to spend another year or more abroad before we go to England. I don't know whither we are going yet. We were thinking of Switzerland; but Walter thinks it is too early in the year for that." "Quite too early, I should think; but I have a suggestion to make to you on the subject, if you have not settled any plans. We are going to the south of France for a few weeks at least, and I should like it so very much if you would go with us. Do you think General Fairfax would consent?" "He would go anywhere I like," I exclaimed, "and I should like it very much." "Then do talk to him about it; and perhaps afterwards, if we find each other good company, we might go to Switzerland together. Colonel Lowther does not care about being in England until quite late in the autumn, and we should not stay in the south all the summer. I should like very much to have you with me," she added, with something very like a sigh. "And Walter would like me to be with you, I know. You do not know what a profound respect he has for you. It is very well I am not jealous, Mrs. Lowther." "Ah, Kate, if all women had as little cause. " she said. There would be a good many happier ones in the world. There are not many men, even among the list of really good husbands, who are so devoted to their wives as your husband is to you. Guard his love well, child; it is a treasure, the full value of which you will never know unless you lose it." The earnestness of her tone pointed her words, though then I only half suspected the truth;-that her husband, though not systematically unkind, was careless and neglectful of her; just such a husband, that the thought of having us with them, and being thereby not thrown upon him for companionship, was rather a relief to her than otherwise. Little Madame de Martigny was in despair when she heard of the arrangement. "Ah, my dear Mrs. Fairfax, why did you settle it so? I wanted you and the General to come with us to our château for a long visit." "I should have liked it very much," I replied, "but we have settled all our plans." "But you can unsettle them again. I shall talk to the General." "No, indeed, we cannot," I replied, "for Colonel and Mrs. Lowther have altered theirs to suit ours." Then I am miserable; it is too cruel. I shall hate the gloomy old château now; and it would have seemed so bright if you had been there. But do you really like to go with Mrs. Lowther?" "Yes, indeed I do; why not?" "Do you like her so very much?" "Very much indeed. Do not you?" "Yes, I like her; but she is just a little triste, you know; she makes me feel sad when I am with her, and I cannot bear to feel sad. Do you know," she added, with a grave look coming over her bright face, "I sometimes think the holy Virgin must have looked like her. I thought of it first one day when she would insist on seeing my little Alphonse, and I sent for him. She took him on her knee, and looked at him with oh, such a look! --so sweet, but so sad! I could hardly keep from crying, and I thought then the blessed Virgin must have looked just like that when she looked at the holy Child, and that she must have had just the same pure, sad face. Don't you think so, Mrs. Fairfax?" Before I could answer, one of her numerous admirers entered, and the merry little coquette was chattering and laughing again in moment, as if a solemn thought had never flitted across her mind in her life. The idea impressed itself strongly on my mind nevertheless. The lively, thoughtless little Frenchwoman had hit the truth by accident. Mrs. Lowther's was a Madonna face, though not possessing the physical beauty generally belonging to such faces. It was the inner life that gave the beauty to her ordinary features, and of which they were such a faithful portrait,-that life of quiet faith and holy resignation which she had reached by such a fiery path. I felt the effect then: I can understand the cause now. I could not but feel, even then-much as I liked Madame de Martigny-how true Mrs. Lowther's remarks about her had been; when even I could understand-better than she, herself a mother, had done-the feelings with which Mrs. Lowther had caressed her child. We started for the south of France the following week; and though my regrets were somewhat modified by going with the "I thought of it first one day when she would insist on seeing my little Alphonse, and I sent for him. She took him on her knee, and looked at him with oh, such a look !-so sweet, but so sad!"-Page 452. Lowthers, I still turned my back upon Paris and its gaieties with a sigh. The prospect of so quiet a life as ours seemed likely to be for the next six weeks at least, was not so attractive now as it would have been a few months since. The time passed very pleasantly, however. We were a merry party, though so small a one. Mrs. Lowther never intruded her private sorrows on any one, and would never have been a drawback on any merriment. As I saw more of Colonel Lowther, I sometimes wondered she could be so cheerful, doomed to spend her life with such a man, and without loving him, which I was certain she did not do. He was pleasant enough as an ordinary acquaintance, but his selfish neglect of her wishes and feelings, and cool indifference to her love, were very apparent in the familiar intercourse of every-day life. Why such a man had ever married I could not imagine. I suppose he looked upon a wife as a sort of necessary appendage to his establishment. But I could not help thinking sometimes, that keen as the suffering had been which the loss of her child had caused her, it was perhaps less wearying than the unceasing daily trial his life might have proved. What a contrast between her fate and mine! I sometimes could almost have wished General Fairfax had been a little less thoughtful for me; it seemed as if the contrast must make her own position seem more dark. Why should she have had such a husband as Colonel Lowther, and General Fairfax such a wife as I was? I know not. I suppose the answer must lie hidden in the full development of the parable of the tares and wheat. Mrs. Lowther and I spent many long days together, while General Fairfax and Colonel Lowther were away on expeditions too long for our powers of walking. It was on one of these occasions that she suddenly startled me by saying,— Kate, I want you to answer me a question." What is it?" I asked. "I am very curious to know how your marriage with General Fairfax came about. It seems so strange to me that he should have been proof against matrimony so long, and then have ended by marrying so young a girl." I was rather puzzled how to answer the question. I had no inclination to tell even her how the marriage had really come to pass; and after a moment's hesitation I said, "He married me because he could not help it." |