You will want to give them all that you have; he will wish to do the same.Nothing more natural, dear me! And you will find the law against you.How many times have we seen heirs-at-law bringing a law-suit to recover the property from illegitimate children? Every court of law rings with such actions all over the world.You will create a fidei commissum perhaps; and if the trustee betrays your confidence, your children have no remedy against him; and they are ruined.So choose carefully.You see the perplexities of the position.In every possible way your children will be sacrificed of necessity to the fancies of your heart; they will have no recognised status.While they are little they will be charming; but, Lord! some day they will reproach you for thinking of no one but your two selves.We old gentlemen know all about it.Little boys grow up into men, and men are ungrateful beings.When I was in Germany, did I not hear young de Horn say, after supper, `If my mother had been an honest woman, I should be prince-regnant!' `IF?' We have spent our lives in hearing plebeians say IF.IF brought about the Revolution.When a man cannot lay the blame on his father or mother, he holds God responsible for his hard lot.In short, dear child, we are here to open your eyes.I will say all I have to say in a few words, on which you had better meditate: A woman ought never to put her husband in the right.""Uncle, so long as I cared for nobody, I could calculate; Ilooked at interests then, as you do; now, I can only feel.""But, my dear little girl," remonstrated the Vidame, "life is simply a complication of interests and feelings; to be happy, more particularly in your position, one must try to reconcile one's feelings with one's interests.A grisette may love according to her fancy, that is intelligible enough, but you have a pretty fortune, a family, a name and a place at Court, and you ought not to fling them out of the window.And what have we been asking you to do to keep them all?--To manoeuvre carefully instead of falling foul of social conventions.Lord! I shall very soon be eighty years old, and I cannot recollect, under any regime, a love worth the price that you are willing to pay for the love of this lucky young man."The Duchess silenced the Vidame with a look; if Montriveau could have seen that glance, he would have forgiven all.
"It would be very effective on the stage," remarked the Duc de Grandlieu, "but it all amounts to nothing when your jointure and position and independence is concerned.You are not grateful, my dear niece.You will not find many families where the relatives have courage enough to teach the wisdom gained by experience, and to make rash young heads listen to reason.Renounce your salvation in two minutes, if it pleases you to damn yourself;well and good; but reflect well beforehand when it comes to renouncing your income.I know of no confessor who remits the pains of poverty.I have a right, I think, to speak in this way to you; for if you are ruined, I am the one person who can offer you a refuge.I am almost an uncle to Langeais, and I alone have a right to put him in the wrong."The Duc de Navarreins roused himself from painful reflections.
"Since you speak of feeling, my child," he said, "let me remind you that a woman who bears your name ought to be moved by sentiments which do not touch ordinary people.Can you wish to give an advantage to the Liberals, to those Jesuits of Robespierre's that are doing all they can to vilify the noblesse?
Some things a Navarreins cannot do without failing in duty to his house.You would not be alone in your dishonour----""Come, come!" said the Princess."Dishonour? Do not make such a fuss about the journey of an empty carriage, children, and leave me alone with Antoinette.Ail three of you come and dine with me.I will undertake to arrange matters suitably.You men understand nothing; you are beginning to talk sourly already, and I have no wish to see a quarrel between you and my dear child.
Do me the pleasure to go."
The three gentlemen probably guessed the Princess's intentions;they took their leave.M.de Navarreins kissed his daughter on the forehead with, "Come, be good, dear child.It is not too late yet if you choose.""Couldn't we find some good fellow in the family to pick a quarrel with this Montriveau?" said the Vidame, as they went downstairs.
When the two women were alone, the Princess beckoned her niece to a little low chair by her side.
"My pearl," said she, "in this world below, I know nothing worse calumniated than God and the eighteenth century; for as Ilook back over my own young days, I do not recollect that a single duchess trampled the proprieties underfoot as you have just done.Novelists and scribblers brought the reign of Louis XV into disrepute.Do not believe them.The du Barry, my dear, was quite as good as the Widow Scarron, and the more agreeable woman of the two.In my time a woman could keep her dignity among her gallantries.Indiscretion was the ruin of us, and the beginning of all the mischief.The philosophists--the nobodies whom we admitted into our salons--had no more gratitude or sense of decency than to make an inventory of our hearts, to traduce us one and all, and to rail against the age by way of a return for our kindness.The people are not in a position to judge of anything whatsoever; they looked at the facts, not at the form.