Jacqueline, vol 3 | Page 7

scented to be in good taste, and it was addressed to a lieutenant
of chasseurs with an aristocratic name, in a garrison at Fontainebleau.
Then Jacqueline began vaguely to comprehend that Madame Saville's
husband might have had serious reasons for commending his wife to
the surveillance of the nuns, and that there might have been some
excuse for their endeavoring to hinder all intimacy between herself and

the little blonde.
This office of messenger, thrust upon her without asking permission,
was not agreeable to Jacqueline, and she resolved as she dropped the
missive, which, even on the outside, looked compromising, into the
nearest post- box, to be more reserved in future. For which reason she
responded coldly to a sign Madame Saville made her when, in the
evening, she returned from giving her lessons.
Those lessons--those excursions which took her abroad in all weathers,
though with praiseworthy and serious motives, into the fashionable
parts of Paris, from which she had exiled herself by her own will--were
greatly enjoyed by Jacqueline. Everything amused her, being seen from
a point of view in which she had never before contemplated it. She
seemed to be at a play, all personal interests forgotten for the moment,
looking at the world of which she was no longer a part with a lively,
critical curiosity, without regrets but without cynicism. The world did
not seem to her bad--only man's higher instincts had little part in it.
Such, at least, was what she thought, so long as people praised her for
her courage, so long as the houses in which another Jacqueline de
Nailles had been once so brilliant, received her with affection as before,
though she had to leave in an anteroom her modest waterproof or wet
umbrella. They were even more kind and cordial to her than ever,
unless an exaggerated cordiality be one form of impertinence. But the
enthusiasm bestowed on splendid instances of energy in certain circles,
to which after all such energy is a reproach, is superficial, and not being
genuine is sure not to last long. Some people said that Jacqueline's staid
manners were put on for effect, and that she was only attempting to
play a difficult part to which she was not suited; others blamed her for
not being up to concert-pitch in matters of social interest. The first time
she felt the pang of exclusion was at Madame d'Avrigny's, who was at
the same moment overwhelming her with expressions of regard. In the
first place, she could see that the little family dinner to which she had
been so kindly invited was attended by so many guests that her deep
mourning seemed out of place among them. Then Madame d'Avrigny
would make whispered explanations, which Jacqueline was conscious
of, and which were very painful to her. Such words as: "Old friend of

the family;" "Is giving music lessons to my daughter;" fell more than
once upon her ear, followed by exclamations of "Poor thing!" "So
courageous!" "Chivalric sentiments!" Of course, everyone added that
they excused her toilette. Then when she tried to escape such remarks
by wearing a new gown, Dolly, who was always a little fool (there is no
cure for that infirmity) cried out in a tone such as she never would have
dared to use in the days when Jacqueline was a model of elegance: "Oh,
how fine you are!" Then again, Madame d'Avrigny, notwithstanding
the good manners on which she prided herself, could not conceal that
the obligation of sending home the recluse to the ends of the earth, at a
certain hour, made trouble with her servants, who were put out of their
way. Jacqueline seized on this pretext to propose to give up the
Monday music-lesson, and after some polite hesitation her offer was
accepted, evidently to Madame d'Avrigny's relief.
In this case she had the satisfaction of being the one to propose the
discontinuance of the lessons. At Madame Ray's she was simply
dismissed. About the close of winter she was told that as Isabelle was
soon to be married she would have no time for music till her wedding
was over, and about the same time the d'Etaples told her much the same
thing. This was not to be wondered at, for Mademoiselle Ray was
engaged to an officer of dragoons, the same Marcel d'Etaples who had
acted with her in Scylla and Charybdis, and Madame Ray, being a
watchful mother, was not long in perceiving that Marcel came to pay
court to Isabelle too frequently at the hour for her music-lesson.
Madame d'Etaples on her part had made a similar discovery, and both
judged that the presence of so beautiful a girl, in Jacqueline's position,
might not be desirable in these interviews between lovers.
When Giselle, as she was about to