DUTY.
Rodin, retreating slowly before the fire of Dagobert's angry looks, walked backwards to the door, casting oblique but piercing glances at the orphans, who were visibly affected by the servant's intentional indiscretion.(Dagobert had ordered him not to speak before the girls of the illness of their governess, and that was quite enough to induce the simpleton to take the first opportunity of doing so.)
Rose hastily approached the soldier, and said to him: "Is it true--is it really true that poor Madame Augustine has been attacked with the cholera?"
"No--I do not know--I cannot tell," replied the soldier, hesitating;
"besides, what is it to you?"
"Dagobert, you would conceal from us a calamity," said Blanche."I remember now your embarrassment, when we spoke to you of our governess."
"If she is ill, we ought not to abandon her.She had pity on our sorrows; we ought to pity her sufferings."
"Come, sister; come to her room," said Blanche, advancing towards the door, where Rodin had stopped short, and stood listening with growing attention to this unexpected scene, which seemed to give him ample food for thought.
"You will not leave this room," said the soldier, sternly, addressing the two sisters.
"Dagobert," replied Rose, firmly, "it is a sacred duty, and it would be cowardice not to fulfil it."
"I tell you that you shall not leave the room," said the soldier, stamping his foot with impatience.
"Dagobert," replied Blanche, with as resolute an air as her sister's, and with a kind of enthusiasm which brought the blood to her fair cheek, "our father, when he left us, give us an admirable example of devotion and duty.He would not forgive us were we to forget the lesson."
"What," cried Dagobert, in a rage, and advancing towards the sisters to prevent their quitting the apartment; "you think that if your governess had the cholera, I would let you go to her under the pretext of duty?--
Your duty is to live, to live happy, for your father's sake--and for mine into the bargain--so not a word more of such folly!"
"We can run no danger by going to our governess in her room," said Rose.
"And if there were danger," added Blanche, "we ought not to hesitate.
So, Dagobert, be good! and let us pass."
Rodin, who had listened to what precedes, with sustained attention, suddenly started, as if a thought had struck him; his eye shone brightly, and an expression of fatal joy illumined his countenance.
"Dagobert, do not refuse!" said Blanche."You would do for us what you reproach us with wishing to do for another."
Dagobert had as it were, till now stood in the path of the Jesuit and the twins by keeping close to the door; but, after a moments reflection, he shrugged his shoulders, stepped to one side, and said calmly: "I was an old fool.Come, young ladies; if you find Madame Augustine in the house, I will allow you to remain with her."
Surprised at these words, the girls stood motionless and irresolute.
"If our governess is not here, where is she, then?" said Rose.
"You think, perhaps, that I am going to tell you in the excitement in which you are!"
"She is dead!" cried Rose growing pale.
"No, no--be calm," said the soldier, hastily; "I swear to you, by your father's honor, that she is not dead.At the first appearance of the disorder, she begged to be removed from the house, fearing the contagion for those in it."
"Good and courageous woman!" said Rose tenderly, "And you will not allow us--"
"I will not allow you to go out, even if I have to lock you up in your room," cried the soldier, again stamping with rage; then, remembering that the blunderhead's indiscretion was the sole cause of this unfortunate incident, he added, with concentrated fury: "Oh! I will break my stick upon that rascal's back."
So saying, he turned towards the door, where Rodin still stood, silent and attentive, dissembling with habitual impassibility the fatal hopes he had just conceived in his brain.The girls, no longer doubting the removal of their governess, and convinced that Dagobert would not tell them whither they had conveyed her, remained pensive and sad.
At sight of the priest, whom he had forgotten for the moment, the soldier's rage increased, and he said to him abruptly: "Are you still there?"
"I would merely observe to you, my dear sir," said Rodin, with that air of perfect good nature which he knew so well how to assume, "that you were standing before the door, which naturally prevented me from going out."
Well, now nothing prevents you--so file off!"
"Certainly, I will file off, if you wish it, my dear sir though I think I have some reason to be surprised at such a reception."
"It is no reception at all--so begone!"
"I had come, my dear sir to speak to you--"
"I have no time for talking."
"Upon business of great importance."
"I have no other business of importance than to remain with these children."
"Very good, my dear sir," said Rodin, pausing on the threshold."I will not disturb you any longer; excuse my indiscretion.The bearer of excellent news from Marshal Simon, I came--"
"News from our father!" cried Rose, drawing nearer to Rodin.
"Oh, speak, speak, sir!" added Blanche.
"You have news of the marshal!" said Dagobert, glancing suspiciously at Rodin."Pray, what is this news?"
But Rodin, without immediately answering the question, returned from the threshold into the room, and, contemplating Rose and Blanche by turns with admiration, he resumed: "What happiness for me, to be able to bring some pleasure to these dear young ladies.They are even as I left them graceful, and fair, and charming--only less sad than on the day when I fetched them from the gloomy convent in which they were kept prisoners, to restore them to the arms of their glorious father!"
"That was their place, and this is not yours," said Dagobert, harshly, still holding the door open behind Rodin.
