CHAPTER XLI

A CONVERSATION

But little accustomed to her husband's attentions, Bertha was doubly surprised at receiving this gift of flowers, coming as it did after the scene of the preceding night, in which M. de Brévannes had exhibited a more than ordinary brutality.

Nor was she less astonished at the air of gentleness and contrition he thought proper to assume. She was, however, totally unable to assign any other cause for it than real regret for the past, and, as such, received with all simplicity and kindness the amiable expression which, for the time being, softened the usually harsh features of M. de Brévannes.

Although she had done her utmost to avoid going to the Hôtel Lambert, in the dread of meeting M. de Hansfeld there, yet the heart of Bertha reproached her with having concealed from her husband the interviews that had already taken place between herself and Arnold at the house of her father, and each kind or conciliating word or look on the part of M. de Brévannes appeared to aggravate her guilt and exaggerate his merits.

It was, therefore, with a confused and fluttered manner she thanked him for the flowers he had sent her.

"You are too good, Charles," said she; "you are, indeed! You positively spoil me! The bouquet was magnificent, and the camelias really splendid! too much so, indeed, for me!"

"You say rightly, my love, you require no ornament to render you irresistibly charming! Still I could not deny myself the pleasure of sending you those needless, useless helps to ordinary beauty; but I am delighted the flowers pleased you, and that so small an attention on my part has been deemed worthy of notice by you. Alas! I have but too many faults to atone for!"

"Nay, Charles!"

"Stop me not--for I must speak. Was I not only yesterday cruel and unkind? did I not do all in my power to make you hate and detest me? But husbands are a sad set--there is no denying it."

"I assure you, Charles, I had entirely forgotten all that had occurred."

"Because your good and generous nature is incapable of feeling ill-will towards any one. Truly there are times when I seriously ask myself how I have been able so long to undervalue so many rare and precious qualities as are contained within your breast."

"Charles, you pain me. I beseech you----"

"No, I say again, I cannot tell where could have been my judgment, my discrimination. Yet that accounts, too, for the almost blind confidence I have ever reposed in you, always excepting those foolish, groundless fits of jealousy which have from time to time ruffled my repose; and you can scarcely believe how greatly our yesterday's conversation has increased the confidence I previously entertained."

"Charles!"

"At first, I will candidly confess, the candour with which you stated your fears did render me somewhat uneasy, but, upon subsequent reflection, I found in all you had said the most satisfactory assurances of your future truth and honour, as well as a fresh proof of the exemplary good principle which regulates your every action."

"I entreat of you," said Bertha, with a degree of confusion, which did not escape the searching eye of her husband, "I entreat of you not to allude further to so painful a subject."

"On the contrary, let it be my punishment to speak much and constantly of a scene in which I confess I acted like a fool and a brute,--like an idiot. I was offended with your candour and perfect ingenuousness: why should not modesty be as regular an accompaniment to honour as it is to talent? Suppose I had requested you to sing before a numerous audience, would you have said, willingly, for I feel assured of acquitting myself admirably? Oh, no, on the contrary, you would have expressed all manner of fears; and yet it is no flattery to say your talents are unrivalled. Now in the same spirit of modesty did you reply to my expressed wish that you should exhibit yourself more frequently, mix more in the great and the gay world, you then sensibly remarked, 'I wish to remain faithful to all the duties belonging to my station, but I dread the perils and temptations by which a young person like myself is ordinarily beset, and I had much rather fly from such dangers than attempt to combat them.'"

"Again!" said Bertha, deeply and unaffectedly touched by her husband's mild and tolerant language, "let me implore as a favour that you will revert no more to the past."

"Nay, nay," answered De Brévannes gaily, "you shall not induce me to give up my point! I am determined to prove to you that I am as indefatigable in the pursuit of good as evil, and that my frankness equals your uprightness, which is not awarding a very slender compliment to myself; and you shall to-day learn what my evil temper of yesterday made me keep concealed from you."

"What was it?"

"You know I but seldom trouble you with my affairs. This time you will, perhaps, excuse me if I go into some particulars which may prove wearisome to your patience!"

"I beseech you proceed!"

"A relation of the Princess de Hansfeld holds a high and influential post in Austria, and might serve me materially by obtaining important privileges for a company now forming in Vienna, and in which I have embarked considerable sums. Now, in obtaining an introduction to the princess, and in supplicating of you to endeavour to conciliate her favour, I confess I am influenced by motives of pure interest. Still it is a mutual interest, since it tends to the augmentation of our common wealth."

"And why did you not state this yesterday?"

"I probably should have done so had I not been carried away by displeasure at your firm refusal to be presented to Madame de Hansfeld. I plead guilty to having a very ungovernable temper, and yesterday I positively lost all command over myself. We parted mutually dissatisfied with each other, and I lost the opportunity of telling you what I wished you to know."

"If such be your reasons, Charles, rely upon my doing all in my power to render myself agreeable to the princess. Now that I know your interests are involved in the matter, I shall have an aim, a purpose to gain in visiting Madame de Hansfeld, and I shall view with far less dread the perils my too great vanity led me to fear."

"Thanks, my good girl! See what it is to have a right understanding on a subject! how every difficulty seems smoothed by an absence of all mystery and disguise. How greatly I reproach myself for the impetuosity I betrayed last night! When one is carried away by passion, it is so very unlikely we should be able to state our real reasons with calmness and accuracy. And now that we have found the sweets, as well as the advantages, of reposing unlimited confidence, allow me to open my whole heart to you."

"Oh, yes! I pray of you do so! If you only knew how much my heart feels touched and gratified by language so new and unusual on your part!"

"And I, too, am wholly at a loss to understand the novel feelings I myself entertain towards you."

"I know not what you mean, Charles!"

After a brief silence, M. de Brévannes resumed by saying,--

"Listen to me! There are two ways of regarding one's wife--either as a mistress passionately adored, or as a highly valued friend. For a long while my heart cherished you as the former of these endearing relations; faults on my part, I will not attempt to deny, have deprived me of the inestimable privilege of ranking as your lover, leaving me but the cold shadow of my former happiness under the title of your friend. To pass from the ardent lover to the sober reality of friendship is a bitter struggle, when she we love, though bound by wedded ties, is charming and captivating as a mistress."

"Let me beseech you----"

"But, great as it is, I have made the sacrifice. I have bowed to the stern commands which bid me hope no more; and it is to my true, faithful, and sincere friend I now address myself!"

So perfect was the dissimulation with which M. de Brévannes covered his guilty designs, and so natural and affecting was the tone of his voice while speaking, that a tear of regret filled the eye of Bertha, while a full confession of her own disingenuousness trembled on her lips.

"And be assured," said she at length, "that your _friend_ will study henceforward to deserve that title, and to be worthy of----"

"Enough, enough!" said M. de Brévannes, hastily interrupting Bertha. "I know your exceeding goodness, and that your delicate mind is ever sensitively alive to the wishes and happiness of others. Permit me, however, to finish what I was about to say. As there are two ways of loving a wife, so are there two distinct modes of entertaining jealousy."

"Now, indeed, I am at a loss to comprehend you!"

"I fear, indeed, you experience some difficulty on this head, more especially after some expressions I made use of yesterday, and which you may probably have wrongly interpreted."

"What can you mean?"

"Oh, it is more than likely for you to have done so. Unfortunately our discussion of yesterday assumed so high a tone that all things wore an air of exaggeration. When I spoke of the many shades of difference which existed between jealousy, love, and self-love, I merely meant to say that the species of jealousy felt for one towards whom our sentiments are but those of friendship is widely dissimilar to that raging torrent which sweeps all before it at the bare idea of being superseded in the affections of a wife who possesses our _love_. In the first instance the heart alone suffers; in the second, a whirlwind of mighty passions tears our very vitals, our brain totters beneath the agonising dread of losing the beloved object, and, unfortunately, wounded pride shuts out from the jealous man the many attempts of awakened tenderness to calm and heal the smarting of his wounds. Do you understand me?"

"But----"

"I see you do not. Well, then, I will speak to you more plainly still. I only fear not being able distinctly to state my sentiments, and probably shocking you by their imperfect display."

"Speak on, and fear nothing!"

"Then listen to me. You have long ceased to excite in my breast any feelings beyond those of friendship. Still, at two-and-twenty you may well fear the temptations you mentioned yesterday, and, alas! no one is more exposed to them than yourself, for with shame and sorrow I confess that my conduct towards you, if it be not capable of authorising, is at least perfectly calculated to extenuate, your faults."

"Can you for an instant suppose----"

"Give me leave to complete what I was saying. If I have still the right of being (as I confess I am) horribly jealous as far as my pride is concerned, that is to say, of all external appearances, all outward demonstrations of regard for another, I am aware I have unfortunately lost all claim to restrain or govern the impulses of your heart. My own infidelity and unkindness have naturally chilled your affections towards myself, and I have no claim even to inquire who is the fortunate object who engrosses them. Nothing could be at once more positively unjust, as well as absurd, than for me to hope or expect that, at your young age, your heart should remain dead and insensible to love."

Bertha gazed on her husband with stupor.

"The only stipulation I consider myself entitled to make," continued he, "and that is one I should most rigidly exact, is that my dear _friend_ will, in every outward attention to decorum, most scrupulously respect the honour of my name, as she could possibly do were we linked together in the bonds of the most tender love. In fact, I consider that your public life is my affair, inasmuch as you are known and recognised as my wife. The career of your heart is henceforward a sealed book for me, since I have forfeited all right or control over it. You appear astonished at my words, but reflect a little, recall our yesterday's conversation, and you will find that I then expressed myself in almost similar terms, differing merely in tone and manner, the _matter_ precisely the same. But, to finish our present discourse, understand me, that from the present day you will enjoy the most perfect and uncontrolled liberty--be your own mistress in every respect--we are henceforward, if not legally, at least virtually, separated. But for the very reason that this absolute and unrestricted freedom must naturally lead you to the very extreme limit of propriety, so much the more scrupulous must you be not to transgress any outward duty; for I tell you again, in the same proportion as I shall be tolerant and indulgent where merely the heart is concerned, so will you find me rigid and mercilessly severe as regards all the acknowledged _convenances_ of society. And now, my dear, I will leave you to meditate on what you have heard--from this day forward our relative positions are distinctly defined. It is most probable that I should have required this mutual forbearance as regards the affections of the heart long before yourself. However, this is not the time to divulge the secrets we may possibly each be fancying secure within the recesses of our own bosoms, and I shall shortly claim the indulgent hearing of my kind _friend_ while I unfold a little _tendresse_ of my own. By the way, talking of indulgences, that reminds me that I have to beg leave not only to absent myself, but also your pardon for leaving you quite alone. In a few days' time I shall depart on a short but most important journey."

"You going, Charles, and at the present time?"

"I shall be absent but a very short period, a fortnight at the longest, and, as I before said, upon most urgent business; but in the meanwhile I intrust you with the affair for which I am anxious to engage the interest of Madame de Hansfeld, fully persuaded it could not be in safer or surer hands. So fare ye well for the present. Mind and call up all your beauty as you mingle in the gay world, for, if I have lost the insatiate vanity of the lover, I still retain that of the husband!"

So saying M. de Brévannes touched the forehead of Bertha with his lips and went out. He had restrained himself long enough, and too long for his patience. When alone he gave full vent to the rage and fury which knew no bounds. The varied emotions so legibly depicted on the ingenuous countenance of Bertha while her husband was speaking, the sort of involuntary joy (of which she seemed almost instantly ashamed, though unable to conceal it) with which she heard the announcement of her future independence, her vague apprehensions, her hopes by turns awakened and restrained, all served to enlighten M. de Brévannes as to the state of Bertha's heart.

He could not be mistaken--she loved. He was far too experienced in such matters to entertain the least doubt on the subject.

He had, then, a rival, and his wife was deceiving him.

It was therefore with a species of satisfaction, at once savage and revengeful, he thought of the profound security and blind confidence in which he had left Madame de Brévannes.