"Does Monsieur le baron know," he said to Canalis in a low voice, "that Monsieur the grand equerry is coming to Graville to get cured of the same illness which has brought Monsieur de La Briere and Monsieur le baron to the sea-shore?"
"What, the little Duc d'Herouville?"
"Yes, monsieur."
"Is he coming for Mademoiselle de La Bastie?" asked La Briere, coloring.
"So it appears, monsieur."
"We are cheated!" cried Canalis looking at La Briere.
"Ah!" retorted Ernest quickly, "that is the first time you have said, 'we' since we left Paris: it has been 'I' all along."
"You understood me," cried Canalis, with a burst of laughter. "But we are not in a position to struggle against a ducal coronet, nor the duke's title, nor against the waste lands which the Council of State have just granted, on my report, to the house of Herouville."
"His grace," said La Briere, with a spice of malice that was nevertheless serious, "will furnish you with compensation in the person of his sister."
At this instant, the Comte de La Bastie was announced; the two young men rose at once, and La Briere hastened forward to present Canalis.
"I wished to return the visit that you paid me in Paris," said the count to the young lawyer, "and I knew that by coming here I should have the double pleasure of greeting one of our great living poets."
"Great!--Monsieur," replied the poet, smiling, "no one can be great in a century prefaced by the reign of a Napoleon. We are a tribe of would-be great poets; besides, second-rate talent imitates genius nowadays, and renders real distinction impossible."
"Is that the reason why you have thrown yourself into politics?" asked the count.
"It is the same thing in that sphere," said the poet; "there are no statesmen in these days, only men who handle events more or less. Look at it, monsieur; under the system of government that we derive from the Charter, which makes a tax-list of more importance than a coat-of-
arms, there is absolutely nothing solid except that which you went to seek in China,--wealth."
Satisfied with himself and with the impression he was ****** on the prospective father-in-law, Canalis turned to Germain.
"Serve the coffee in the salon," he said, inviting Monsieur de La Bastie to leave the dining-room.
"I thank you for this visit, monsieur le comte," said La Briere; "it saves me from the embarrassment of presenting my friend to you in your own house. You have a heart, and you have also a quick mind."
"Bah! the ready wit of Provence, that is all," said Charles Mignon.
"Ah, do you come from Provence?" cried Canalis.
"You must pardon my friend," said La Briere; "he has not studied, as I
have, the history of La Bastie."
At the word FRIEND Canalis threw a searching glance at Ernest.
"If your health will allow," said the count to the poet, "I shall hope to receive you this evening under my roof; it will be a day to mark, as the old writer said 'albo notanda lapillo.' Though we cannot duly receive so great a fame in our little house, yet your visit will gratify my daughter, whose admiration for your poems has even led her to set them to music."
"You have something better than fame in your house," said Canalis;
"you have beauty, if I am to believe Ernest."
"Yes, a good daughter; but you will find her rather countrified," said Charles Mignon.
"A country girl sought by the Duc d'Herouville," remarked Canalis, dryly.
"Oh!" replied Monsieur Mignon, with the perfidious good-humor of a Southerner, "I leave my daughter free. Dukes, princes, commoners,--
they are all the same to me, even men of genius. I shall make no pledges, and whoever my Modeste chooses will be my son-in-law, or rather my son," he added, looking at La Briere. "It could not be otherwise. Madame de La Bastie is German. She has never adopted our etiquette, and I let my two women lead me their own way. I have always preferred to sit in the carriage rather than on the box. I can make a joke of all this at present, for we have not yet seen the Duc d'Herouville, and I do not believe in marriages arranged by proxy, any more than I believe in choosing my daughter's husband."
"That declaration is equally encouraging and discouraging to two young men who are searching for the philosopher's stone of happiness in marriage," said Canalis.
"Don't you consider it useful, necessary, and even politic to stipulate for perfect ******* of action for parents, daughters, and suitors?" asked Charles Mignon.
Canalis, at a sign from La Briere, kept silence. The conversation presently became unimportant, and after a few turns round the garden the count retired, urging the visit of the two friends.
"That's our dismissal," cried Canalis; "you saw it as plainly as I
did. Well, in his place, I should not hesitate between the grand equerry and either of us, charming as we are."
"I don't think so," said La Briere. "I believe that frank soldier came here to satisfy his desire to see you, and to warn us of his neutrality while receiving us in his house. Modeste, in love with your fame, and misled by my person, stands, as it were, between the real and the ideal, between poetry and prose. I am, unfortunately, the prose."
"Germain," said Canalis to the valet, who came to take away the coffee, "order the carriage in half an hour. We will take a drive before we go to the Chalet."