Lucile

“ LUVOIS. Indeed? but that question, milord, can it stir Such an interest in you, if your passion be o'er? ALFRED. Yes. Esteem may remain, although love be no more. Lucile ask'd me, this night, to my wife (understand, To MY WIFE!) to present her. I did so. Her hand Has clasp'd that of Matilda. We gentlemen owe Respect to the name that is ours: and, if so, To the woman that bears it a twofold respect. Answer, Duc de Luvois! Did Lucile then reject The proffer you made of your hand and your name? Or did you on her love then relinquish a claim Urged before? ”

“ He sought, with well-practised and delicate art, To surprise from Lucile the true state of her heart; But his efforts were vain, and the woman, as ever, More adroit than the man, baffled every endeavor. When he deem'd he had touch'd on some chord in her being, At the touch it dissolved, and was gone. Ever fleeing As ever he near it advanced, when he thought To have seized, and proceeded to analyze aught Of the moral existence, the absolute soul, Light as vapor the phantom escaped his control. ”

“ Lucile was talking to him, eagerly, repeating, as she always did, her words over and over again. He was, apparently, looking up at her, a smile on his lips. Morgraunt, so smart with the teasing blue feather in her hat, was looking across at them intent upon what Lucile was saying. He was apparently looking at Lucile, and yet his eyes were dead, sightless, like the eyes of a statue. In his hand he apparently held a cigarette, and yet his hand was of marble, no life ran through the veins. ”

“ True! women there are (self-named women of mind!) Who love rather liberty—liberty, yes! To choose and to leave—than the legalized stress Of the lovingest marriage. But she—is she so? I will not believe it. Lucile! O no, no! Not Lucile! "But the world? and, ah, what would it say? O the look of that man, and his laughter, to-day! The gossip's light question! the slanderous jest! She is right! no, we could not be happy. 'Tis best As it is. I will write to her—write, O my heart! And accept her farewell. OUR farewell! must we part— Part thus, then—forever, Lucile? ”

“ In light olive baskets, by window and door, Some hung from the ceiling, some crowding the floor, Rich wild flowers pluck'd by Lucile from the hill, Seem'd the room with their passionate presence to fill: Blue aconite, hid in white roses, reposed; The deep belladonna its vermeil disclosed; And the frail saponaire, and the tender blue-bell, And the purple valerian,—each child of the fell And the solitude flourish'd, fed fair from the source Of waters the huntsman scarce heeds in his course Where the chamois and izard, with delicate hoof, Pause or flit through the pinnacled silence aloof. ”

“ Lucile threw him a merry glance as the rest came up. “I suppose you may,” she mimicked.
A few minutes later they stepped out of the cab and onto a sun-flooded wharf, where confusion reigned supreme. An immense crowd of people stood upon the dock, talking, laughing and gesticulating excitedly, and every one seemed in the highest of spirits. And, indeed, how could they be anything else, thought Lucile, as she looked about her with dancing eyes; the world had never seemed so essentially a place to laugh in as it did on this glorious morning. ”

“ From anybody’s point of view, Lucile was good to look upon. Mischief sparkled in her eyes and bubbled over from lips always curved in a merry smile. “Just to look at Lucile is enough to chase away the blues,” Jessie had once declared in a loving eulogy on her friend. “But when you need sympathy, there is no one quicker to give it than Lucy.” From her mass of wind-blown curls to the tips of her neat little tennis shoes she was the spirit incarnate of the sport-loving, fun-seeking summer girl. ”

“ When Lucile went down into the dark pool she was not only conscious but very much alive, and acutely aware of the peril of her situation. Should that chasm close before she rose, or as she rose, she was doomed. ”

“ Wheeling about, Lucile found herself facing a beautiful lady, one of the most beautiful she had ever seen; black hair, full cheeks of wonderful color, and eyes of the deepest blue. Lucile took in all the beauty of her for the first time at a glance, and at the same moment cold terror struck to her heart. This was Miss Bruce, the head of the section, the one who could dismiss a salesgirl at a word. And she had just heard Lucile break the most rigid rule of the house! She had talked back to a customer! ”

“ For your eyes rest no more on the unquiet man, The wild star of whose course its pale orbit outran, Whom the formless indefinite future of youth, With its lying allurements, distracted. In truth I have wearily wander'd the world, and I feel That the least of your lovely regards, O Lucile, Is worth all the world can afford, and the dream Which, though follow'd forever, forever doth seem As fleeting, and distant, and dim, as of yore When it brooded in twilight, at dawn, on the shore Of life's untraversed ocean! ”

“ Alas! poor Lucile, in those weak days of yore, Had neglected herself, never heeding, or thinking (While the blossom and bloom of her beauty were shrinking) That sorrow can beautify only the heart— Not the face—of a woman; and can but impart Its endearment to one that has suffer'd. In truth Grief hath beauty for grief; but gay youth loves gay youth. IX. The woman that now met, unshrinking his gaze, Seem'd to bask in the silent but sumptuous haze Of that soft second summer, more ripe than the first, Which returns when the bud to the blossom hath burst In despite of the stormiest April. ”

“ And if, of a truth, I have fail'd to renew what I felt in my youth, I at least have been loyal to what I DO feel, Respect, duty, honor, affection. Lucile, I speak not of love now, nor love's long regret: I would not offend you, nor dare I forget The ties that are round me. But may there not be A friendship yet hallow'd between you and me? May we not be yet friends—friends the dearest?" "Alas!" She replied, "for one moment, perchance, did it pass Through my own heart, that dream which forever hath brought To those who indulge it in innocent thought So fatal an evil awaking! ”

“ She seated herself on the stairs and waited.
To Lucile’s tingling consciousness that short wait seemed an eternity. Her head ached with the flood of imagination that besieged it, her two hands grasped the banister to keep her rooted to the spot, while her feet tapped an impatient tattoo on the floor.
At last the longed-for summons came.
“Lucile,” called a low, unsteady voice, “will you come to me?”
Would she come? Lucile flew up the winding stairs and came to a standstill before Jeanette a trifle uncertainly, not quite sure what was expected of her. ”

“ I dare not put mere thoughts against your facts. I, who have lived so little, cannot in theory give the lie to you who have lived so much—"
"'For he who lives more lives than one, more lives than one must die.'"
From out of her pain, Lucile spoke the words of her pain, and Frona, throwing arms about her, sobbed on her breast in understanding. As for Lucile, the slight nervous ingathering of the brows above her eyes smoothed out, and she pressed the kiss of motherhood, lightly and secretly, on the other's hair. ”

“ This plaintive spectre rested for a moment on a stone, in the smiling solitude of Savigny: there were so many hearts there which would have joyfully received her! They would so gladly have restored her to a sweet reality of existence! But Lucile's heart could beat only in an atmosphere made expressly for her and never breathed by others. She swiftly devoured the days of the world apart in which Heaven had placed her. Why had God created a being only to suffer? What mysterious relation can there be between a long-suffering nature and an eternal principle? ”

“ My sister's concentration of mind gave birth to extraordinary intellectual effects: in her sleep, she dreamt prophetic dreams; waking, she seemed to read the future. A clock ticked upon a landing of the staircase in the main tower, and struck the hours amid the silence. Lucile, when unable to sleep, would go to sit upon a stair opposite the clock and watch its face by the light of her lamp placed upon the ground. When the two hands met at midnight and in their formidable conjunction engendered the hour of disorder and crime, Lucile heard sounds which revealed distant deaths to her. ”

“ A young woman’s face, a face of beauty and refinement, surrounded by a perfect circle of white. In the almost complete darkness of the place, that was all Lucile could see. And such a place for such a face—the far corner of the third floor of one of the largest department stores in the world. At that very moment, from somewhere out of the darkness, came the slow, deep, chiming notes of a great clock telling off the hour of ten. Two hours before midnight! And she, Lucile, was for a moment alone ”

“ Lucile's eyes twinkled amusedly.
"Why do you smile?" Frona asked.
"Look at me, Frona." Lucile stood up and her face blazed. "I am twenty-four. Not altogether a fright; not altogether a dunce. I have a heart. I have good red blood and warm. And I have loved. I do not remember the pay. I know only that I have paid."
"And in the paying were paid," Frona took up warmly. "The price was the reward. If love be fallible, yet you have loved; you have done, you have served. What more would you?"
"The whelpage love," Lucile sneered. ”

“ It was Lucile’s undying sense of humor that finally saved the day.
“I feel just like the Prince in the Prince and the Pauper, when the rat made a bed of him,” she said. “Things can’t be any worse, so it stands to reason they’ve got to get better.”
“Let’s hope so, anyway,” said Evelyn, halfway between laughter and tears. “I feel just now as though I’d like to hit somebody.”
“I guess it’s time we left, then,” laughed Lucile, and, suiting the action to the word, she opened the door and stepped outside, the others following.
“If I look the way I feel, I must be a sight,” moaned Jessie. ”

“ We arrived late, our launch having suffered a mishap to its engine, and passing into the brilliantly lighted reception hall were for the moment dazzled. There were men in summer garb and such an array of handsome women as may be seen nowhere outside of France, save in America. In one of these groups and facing us stood Lucile. A most astonishing thing happened. She did not advance to greet us as had become her custom; but stared direct at Lepard as if studying him. ”

“ With wildly beating heart Lucile stared at the panorama that was enacted before her. Powerless to aid, she saw Cordie, the innocent country girl, the center of a battle, snatched from hand to hand until it seemed the very life must be torn from her.
First she caught a glimpse of her fighting frantically but vainly in the grasp of a man. Lucile recognized him instantly.
“The hawk-eyed man!” she whispered. “The one who claimed to be her brother! Quick!” she exclaimed, gripping Laurie’s arm until her fingers cut into the very flesh. “Quick! They’re taking her to the auto. They’ll carry her away!” ”

“ Make only one sign That you know of Lucile de Nevers aught, in fine, For which, if your own virgin sister were by, From Lucile you would shield her acquaintance, and I And Matilda leave Ems on the morrow. XXXI. The Duke Hesitated and paused. He could tell, by the look Of the man at his side, that he meant what he said, And there flash'd in a moment these thoughts through his head: "Leave Ems! would that suit me? no! that were again To mar all. And besides, if I do not explain, She herself will... et puis, il a raison: on est Gentilhomme avant tout!" ”

“ Life's self, the immortal, immutable smile Of God, on the soul in the deep heart of Heaven Lives changeless, unchanged: and our morning and even Are earth's alternations, not Heaven's. XXXVII. While he yet Watched the skies, with this thought in his heart; while he set Thus unconsciously all his life forth in his mind, Summ'd it up, search'd it out, proved it vapor and wind, And embraced the new life which that hour had reveal'd,— Love's life, which earth's life had defaced and conceal'd; Lucile left the tent and stood by him. ”

“ That she had reached the limit of her resources, her power to reason and to endure, Lucile knew right well. To go on as she had been day after day, each day adding some new responsibility to her already overburdened shoulders, was to invite disaster. It was not fair to others. The set of Shakespeare, the volume of Portland charts, the hand-bound volume from the bindery and this book just taken from the summer home of the millionaire, were all for the moment in the hands of the old man and the child. How long would they remain there? No one could tell save the old man and perhaps the child. ”

“ Perchance She yet seeks to renew her youth's broken romance. When women begin to feel youth and their beauty Slip from them, they count it a sort of a duty To let nothing else slip away unsecured Which these, while they lasted, might once have procured. Lucile's a coquette to the end of her fingers, I will stake my last farthing. Perhaps the wish lingers To recall the once reckless, indifferent lover To the feet he has left ”

“ Thus does fortune, in the very hour of our despair, place in our hands the thing for which we have been so hopelessly searching. Even as her elbow touched the panel behind her there came a sharp click and before Lucile’s startled gaze a small, square door opened slowly and deliberately, trembled, seemed to hesitate, and then came to a full stop, leaving its shallow interior exposed to view. ”