Renée

“ Then she bethought herself.
“The child,” she said, awakening to the more generous flow of sympathy that love for the time had overwhelmed. “The poor little Renée! She has looked forward every hour to meeting him again, and the disappointment will be bitter. It is more like a woman’s love than a child’s, though she is innocent of the deeper strivings of maidenhood. Come, let us go to her.”
Mère Lunde had to give the young wife a warm welcome. The tears of joy filled her faded eyes.
Renée lay on the settle, sobbing. Wawataysee bent over and would have taken her hand. ”

“ You are supremely beautiful, Renee, and your beauty is of the statuesque and regal type, on which time leaves but little impression. No doubt the love of husband and wife depends less on outward beauty than on graces of character, which are yours also in perfection; still, let me say that the certainty of having your unchanging beauty, on which to feast my eyes, gives me a joy that grows with every glance. There is a grace and dignity in the lines of your face, expressive of the noble soul within, and breathing of purity beneath the vivid coloring. ”

“ Renée rose suddenly and stretched up her full height.
“Then he did mean— André said he was only pretending. I should hate him still more if he could do that! But if he thinks I care for him and would go away with him to the fairest spot in the world—oh, you do not want me to!” and she threw herself into his arms, sobbing vehemently.
“Renée, child, there is no harm done. He was very gentlemanly. He asked for your hand as an honest man should. And we cannot blame him altogether,” a spice of humor in his tone. “He fancied you cared for him. Men occasionally make mistakes.” ”

“ Renee, my fair saint, the happiness of my own life pulls me for ever back to you. I feel that I can be more to you than ever before, you are so dear to me! I have studied your wedded life closely in the light of my own opening chapters; and you seem to me to come out of the scrutiny so great, so noble, so splendid in your goodness, that I here declare myself your inferior and humble admirer, as well as your friend. When I think what marriage has been to me, it seems to me that I should have died, had it turned out otherwise. And you live! ”

“ Renée had never glowed bewildered under absurdities of praise. If only as an isolated experience, this mad blitheness is curiously good for character. Afterwards a woman knows—is sympathetically inside the circle of things—seeing the dramas of others, not like a child staring starved at a food shop, but as one who has already had her fill of cakes with the best of them.
[Pg 262] All her life Renée remained the hungry child who sees others overfed on the sweets denied to her. Small wonder, in consequence, that she hated the ways of frivolity, and was slow in advances of friendship. ”

“ A fortune was not so easily won, after all. Fate was playing at cross-purposes. Renée and Wawataysee were skimming over the lake in an ice boat. If he had guessed that he might have walked home with her in the twilight.
Renée was brilliant with the bloom of the frosty air as she came in, and her eyes were like stars. A pang went to Gaspard’s heart. Ought she not take her place on a higher round than this little town of traders and trappers and farmers, many of them scarcely knowing how to read? There might be beautiful, satisfactory years before her—years with educated, refined people. ”

“ No outside woman existed in the intimate agitation of private affairs. Renée was simply dropped like some acquaintance grown needless, and husband, wife, and the baby, whose mouth Renée had described as so incredibly small, practically withdrew from her existence. ”

“ It is to those left on earth to whom they are precious,” she returned, with a little longing in her tone. She had been waiting for Renée’s marriage to take her out of his life. Why should the child have so much?
“I think they know, those blessed ones. Ah, madame, if you had been dying, instead of your husband, and leaving the little one, would you not have pleaded with the very angels that some one might be raised up to care for her? And if that had been one to whom she would be doubly dear! So the child in one sense has been like my own.”
And always her rival, Barbe Gardepier felt. ”

“ It is good to have something to stir up the town now and then,” Renée returned brightly.
“Yes. The trappers were growing very impatient. And I think there will be a good trade, an excellent thing for you and me,” with a grateful expression in her beautiful eyes. “Renée, I wonder if M. Denys ever realizes all that he has done for François, and good Mère Lunde nursed him through all his long illness. Men’s regard for each other has such a strong, true quality in it. And, then, M’sieu André—oh, Renée, what would we have done without him? ”

“ He had been so long used to a man’s liberty that he did not care to enchain himself with matrimony. And surely he would give Renée no rival to her children.
It was a gorgeous day and the fleet of boats glided out with music and many a “Bon voyage!” The little girl had vanished, but Renée remembered the first night she came, when in the bend of the river they passed the old ruined heap, and the old French post-house going to decay. Was it in some other life? She still had Uncle Denys, and she was glad. What a wonderful thing it was to love a woman’s memory all these years! ”

“ For the first time in my life, my dear Renee, I have been alone and crying. I was sitting under a willow, on a wooden bench by the side of the long Chantepleurs marsh. The view there is charming, but it needs some merry children to complete it, and I wait for you. I have been married nearly three years, and no child! ”

“ And here was the Chouteau house, a great white mound, the dormer windows in the roof like some curious eyes. The throng thinned out. Renée and André turned up their own street.
“And did you like those newcomers very much?” he began, as if they were continuing a conversation.
“They were nice dancers—yes, elegant dancers.”
“They’re much interested in the king’s ball. Renée, if you draw a bean, who shall you choose?”
“Oh, how can I tell? The handsomest man.”
“The handsomest are not always the worthiest.”
“That sounds like a grandam. Why should one care for a night? One dances for the pleasure.” ”

“ But already Renée was neatly tucking into a corner of the wardrobe her warm, comfy slippers and was hanging her nightgown upon a hook, so, although Patricia had opened her lips to utter a protest, she closed them, suddenly ashamed.
Over their breakfast Aunt Pen and Pat made the plans for the day. It must be like a holiday to celebrate Renée's coming! She must be taken about the city and shown every spot of interest.
"It will seem stupid to you after Paris," declared Pat.
Renée smiled. "Oh, it couldn't! Paris is beautiful but--this is America! Always my mother told us stories of America. ”

“ I don't know everything, but I knew that, and I arrived here just as you entered this room, and the moment you sat down to the piano I stole in on tip-toe, and stood behind you."
Renée opened her large eyes with mingled astonishment and awe, and paused in thought.
"Will you always love me, Henri? Even when I am old and wrinkled?" she suddenly exclaimed, as if the thought of possessing him was too good to be true.
"To the eyes of real love, dear, the loved one never becomes old or wrinkled," he replied gravely. ”

“ Renée still slept. She went to the flap of the wigwam and raised it. The rain was pouring in torrents. There at her feet lay a body, the leggings and deer-skin breeches ploughed by a curious zigzag streak, scorched and torn, and the blanket shrivelled to fragments. Some figures were moving about like wraiths in the dusky light. It was a weird picture. She was not at all afraid. She was used to forest storms. ”

“ Renée shuddered. "Oh, I can't--not like that!" she cried vehemently.
"Would you rather not be a scout?" demanded Pat. "You never get anything without trying for it and I guess I'm not going to let one failure discourage me!" In the pleasant shelter of the Quinn kitchen she felt very brave! But a threat of tears in Renée's eyes softened her. "Don't worry, Ren, we'll find something! Maybe," she hesitated, "maybe we'd better consult Aunt Pen!"
"Oh, I wish you would!" Renée cried eagerly. Pat's adventurous spirit frightened her a little. ”

“ Now only a mighty ruin remains to recall its former greatness."
"Oh, yes," said Renée, "I remember I read about it in Tennyson's Daisy."
"Why, Renée, what a memory you have!"
"Not at all, Henri. You see I knew I was going to the Riviera, so I read up all I could about the place; and now the places seem like old friends."
"That is the way to travel, it is the only way to enjoy the scenery."
"Where are we going when the rest of the party returns?" asked Renée. ”

“ Renée laughed. Sophie always flew from one point to another, and delighted in attire.
“Wawataysee is coming to see what will be most suitable,” returned Renée.
“And shall I have to wear the old white silk Cousin Guion gave me? It has been washed, but mother has pressed it like new. And one of the young men is very handsome. I saw him as I passed the court-house. Laflamme I believe he is called, and I predict he will set all the girls’ hearts in a flame if he dances anything as he looks. I hope we all get a chance. And oh, what fun the king’s ball will be! I just hope I shall be a queen!” ”

“ Renée chattered so much, asked him so many questions, and made him talk over people and places he had seen that it had given him a readiness to talk to women. Men could always find enough to say to each other, or enjoy silence over their pipes.
She seemed to grow brighter instead of showing fatigue, and her voice had musical cadences in it very sweet to hear. The touch of her hand on his arm or his shoulder in the dance did give him a peculiar sort of thrill. She was a very sweet, pretty girl. He was glad not to have her wasted on Alphonse Maurice. ”

“ With so many true friends and playmates the shyness had gradually disappeared from her manner; contrasted with Pat's dynamic spirits Renée would always seem quiet, but her will was strong and often, in her gentle way, she was a leader among the young people. With a character that had been moulded and guarded by a simple life, she had in her a rare beauty and purity of thought that seemed to shine in her pretty face and clear eyes. Happiness and healthy living were dispelling the shadows from her young life; she could talk of Susette and the old cottage without a quivering of the lips ”

“ It was Elsbeth, the queer old servant who lived with Mrs. Forrester. At sight of Renée she turned a face white with distress.
"Oh, Miss Renny, Miss Renny, she's took again! Mis' Lee sent me to fetch you! You must come!"
"What do you mean, Elsbeth--Mrs. Forrester? I'll go with you at once!"
"I think that's mean, Renée! We were going to plan my costume--you know it!" protested Pat.
"Oh, Pat!" Renée's voice pleaded from the depths of the hall closet where she was hunting for her warm coat. "Oh, Pat--you wouldn't want me not to go! The poor thing!" ”

“ In what terms would a man like that express his love? For he does love me. To be loved, adored in secret; to know that in this house, where all the great men of Paris were collected, there was one entirely devoted to me, unknown to everybody! Ah! Renee, now I understand the life of Paris, its balls, and its gaieties. It all flashed on me in the true light. When we love, we must have society, were it only to sacrifice it to our love. ”

“ But if there be aught in me, in my lightest thought or deed, which jars on your wishes or conception of me, I implore you to tell me, to say what it is. It will be a joy to me to hear you and to take your eyes as the guiding-stars of my life. Renee has frightened me, for she is a true friend. ”

“ Love has given to Renée what money couldn't--she has been well educated, I believe! Her mother taught her, she says, and after her mother's death she went to a communal school near St. Cloud. She will help our Pat a great deal! ”

“ Ought there to be some woman different from Mère Lunde—bah! it would be years before Renée was grown up. And the little one wanted no one to share his love. He was glad—that would always be an excuse to himself. He never could put any one in the place he had hoped to set Renée Freneau. ”

“ So I am in Paris, thanks to you, my love! Dear Renee, could you have seen me the day I found myself parted from you, well might you have gloried in the deep impression you had made on so youthful a bosom. We had lived so constantly together, sharing our dreams and letting our fancy roam together, that I verily believe our souls had become welded together, like those two Hungarian girls, whose death we heard about from M. Beauvisage—poor misnamed being! Never surely was man better cut out by nature for the post of convent physician! ”

“ Yet Renée had a kind of misgiving that she had thrown at Monsieur Laflamme some of those radiant looks that might mean much or little, according to one’s way of translating them. She put the thought of marriage far away from her. Some time a delightful, devoted man, like M. Marchand, might cross her path. He was so strong and yet so gentle. He was always thinking of what would please Wawataysee. ”

“ Her father had been rich in them, but the self-willed spirit of her mother, Anne, was more noticeable in the character of her second daughter than the paternal trait. To have lived with Renée would undoubtedly have rendered affection difficult. But to know her without the irritation of daily intercourse, as a perplexed, mistaken, blundering, wistful, and unloved woman, is to be drawn into a reluctant sympathy. She was, to begin with, ugly, and there is nothing in its consequences more pathetic than a woman’s ugliness. ”