"Let us hear these orders, aunt," replied Adrienne as, seated on the other side of the table, opposite to the princess, she leaned her small, dimpled chin in the hollow of her pretty hand, with an air of graceful mockery, charming to behold.
"From to-morrow forward," resumed the princess, "you will quit the summer-house which you at present inhabit, you will discharge your women, and come and occupy two rooms in this house, to which there will be no access except through my apartment.You will never go out alone.You will accompany me to the services of the church.Your emancipation terminates, in consequence of your prodigality duly proven.I will take charge of all your expenses, even to the ordering of your clothes, so that you may be properly and modestly dressed.Until your majority (which will be indefinitely postponed, by means of the intervention of a family-council), you will have no money at your own disposal.Such is my resolution."
"And certainly your resolution can only be applauded, madame," said Baron Tripeaud ; "we can but encourage you to show the greatest firmness, for such disorders must have an end."
"It is more than time to put a stop to such scandal," added the abbe.
"Eccentricity and exaltation of temperament--may excuse many things,"
ventured to observe the smooth-tongued doctor.
"No doubt," replied the princess dryly to Baleinier, who played his part to perfection; "but then, doctor, the requisite measures must be taken with such characters."
Madame de Saint-Dizier had expressed herself in a firm and precise manner; she appeared convinced of the possibility of putting her threats into execution.M.Tripeaud and D'Aigrigny had just now given their full consent to the words of the princess.Adrienne began to perceive that something very serious was in contemplation, and her gayety was at once replaced by an air of bitter irony and offended independence.
She rose abruptly, and colored a little; her rosy nostrils dilated, her eyes flashed fire, and, as she raised her head, she gently shook the fine, wavy golden hair, with a movement of pride that was natural to her.
After a moment's silence, she said to her aunt in a cutting tone: "You have spoken of the past, madame; I also will speak a few words concerning it, since you force me to do so, though I may regret the necessity.I quitted your dwelling, because it was impossible for me to live longer in this atmosphere of dark hypocrisy and black treachery."
"Madame," said D'Aigrigny, "such words are as violent as they are unreasonable."
"Since you interrupt me, sir," said Adrienne, hastily, as she fixed her eyes on the abbe, "tell me what examples did I meet with in my aunt's house?"
"Excellent, examples, madame."
"Excellent, sir? Was it because I saw there, every day, her conversion keep pace with your own?"
"Madame, you forget yourself!" cried the princess, becoming pale with rage.
"Madame, I do not forget--I remember, like other people; that is all.I had no relation of whom I could ask an asylum.I wished to live alone.
I wished to enjoy my revenues--because I chose rather to spend them myself, than to see them wasted by M.Tripeaud."
"Madame," cried the baron, "I cannot imagine how you can presume--"
"Sir!" said Adrienne, reducing him to silence by a gesture of overwhelming lordliness, "I speak of you--not to you.I wished to spend my income," she continued, "according to my own tastes.I embellished the retreat that I had chosen.Instead of ugly, ill-taught servants, I selected girls, pretty and well brought up, though poor.Their education forbade their being subjected to any humiliating servitude, though I have endeavored to make their situation easy and agreeable.They do not serve me, but render me service--I pay them, but I am obliged to them--nice distinctions that your highness will not understand, I know.Instead of seeing them badly or ungracefully dressed, I have given them clothes that suit their charming faces well, because I like whatever is young and fair.Whether I dress myself one way or the other, concerns only my looking-glass.I go out alone, because I like to follow my fancy.I do not go to mass--but, if I had still a mother, I would explain to her my devotions, and she would kiss me none the less tenderly.It is true, that I have raised a pagan altar to youth and beauty, because I adore God in all that He has made fair and good, noble and grand--because, morn and evening, my heart repeats the fervent and sincere prayer: `Thanks, my Creator! thanks!'--Your highness says that M.Baleinier has often found me in my solitude, a prey to a strange excitement: yes, it is true; for it is then that, escaping in thought from all that renders the present odious and painful to me, I find refuge in the future--it is then that magical horizons spread far before me--it is then that such splendid visions appear to me, as make me feel myself rapt in a sublime and heavenly ecstasy, as if I no longer appertained to earth!"
As Adrienne pronounced these last words with enthusiasm, her countenance appeared transfigured, so resplendent did it become.In that moment, she had lost sight of all that surrounded her.
"It is then," she resumed, with spirit soaring higher and higher, "that I breathe a pure air, reviving and free--yes, free--above all, free--and so salubrious, so grateful to the soul!--Yes, instead of seeing my sisters painfully submit to a selfish, humiliating, brutal dominion, which entails upon them the seductive vices of slavery, the graceful fraud, the enchanting perfidy, the caressing falsehood, the contemptuous resignation, the hateful obedience--I behold them, my noble sisters!