Education * 
 
 Jacqueline 
 
 By Claire de Pratz
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE
 
 THE EDUCATION OF 
 JACQUELINE 
 
 BY 
 
 CLAIRE DE PRATZ 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 DUFFIELD AND COMPANY 
 1910
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1910, 
 DUFFIELD & COMPANY
 
 Je de'die ce tivre 
 
 V 
 
 a 
 
 Lady Grove 
 
 dont j' admire le talent 
 
 et dont je cherts Vamitie 
 
 2137773
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 FRANCOISE REVILLE was crooning her fatherless 
 daughter to sleep in the dimly lighted room. Her 
 voice sounded soft and rang with sadness as she re- 
 peated the familiar lullaby: 
 
 Do do, bebe do, 
 L'enfant dormira tantot. 
 
 Francoise looked at the child's peaceful little face 
 and once more noticed with delight the likeness of 
 Jacqueline to her father. Although the child lay rest- 
 fully in its tiny cot, the mother swayed her body back- 
 wards and forwards as she sang, moving with the 
 rhythm of the ticking clock on the mantelpiece of 
 the darkened room. 
 
 Do do, bebe do, 
 L'enfant dormira tantot. 
 
 A softly-shaded lamp shed its rosy radiance over 
 the writing-desk between the two tall windows open- 
 ing on to the quiet provincial street that was deserted 
 every evening after seven o'clock. An intense calm 
 reigned around, which was broken only now and again 
 by the noise of crockery being washed in the kitchen. 
 
 Franchise turned from the contemplation of her
 
 4 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 child and gazed round the room with its high luxu- 
 rious bed draped with silken hangings with its lofty 
 mirrored wardrobe of polished walnut wood that 
 matched the bed with its portieres of silk, like those 
 of the huge bed, half covering a doorway that led to 
 a smaller dressing-room beyond. This room had been 
 hers during the five years of her married life with 
 her dear husband, Adrien Reville, whom death had 
 claimed suddenly, imperatively, without warning, less 
 than a month ago. Here her little girl her four- 
 year-old baby Jacqueline had been born, and here 
 she had prayed by the side of her husband's dead 
 body before they had placed him in his coffin. In 
 this room she had lived the intensest years of her life. 
 
 When Adrien had brought her to her new home in 
 Rouen only a few hours after the wedding ceremony 
 at Vitre, she had been a young girl of twenty-two 
 as totally ignorant of life, of the mysteries of life 
 and of marriage, as only a young French girl can be. 
 Brought up by careful parents in view of a husband 
 who would demand not only an innocent but also an 
 ignorant wife, her convent education had but empha- 
 sized her home training. The good nuns had taught 
 her her Catechism, the Lives of the Saints and les 
 bonnes manures, besides sufficient French grammar 
 and syntax to enable her to write a stilted conven- 
 tional letter. Her mother had taught her to sew, to 
 embroider and to cook. But of the realities of life 
 or of human nature, she knew nothing. 
 
 And now she was a widow, not thirty years of age, 
 alone in the world with her daughter, a child of four,
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 3 
 
 without a single relation, with very few friends and 
 with the entire responsibility of shaping two lives, 
 henceforth upon her shoulders. 
 
 Jacqueline! her little child! her only darling the 
 one thing she now had in the world to love ! And she 
 gazed upon the child with hungry eyes. Shortly they 
 would be leaving this roof together she and Jacque- 
 line leaving this home, this room, this refuge to go 
 forth alone in a strange city, among new surroundings 
 and in very reduced circumstances. 
 
 Even now Franchise could hardly realize what had 
 happened to her during the last month. Events had 
 rushed so quickly since the evening when Adrien had 
 returned from a short business visit to Paris and com- 
 plained of having caught a chill in the train on the 
 return journey. Two days later the doctor had in- 
 formed Frangoise that there was very little hope of 
 saving him and three days later Adrien was dead. 
 Her love, her husband, the father of her little Jac- 
 queline and the one creature who was her very law ! 
 Yes; he was dead! 
 
 Then had followed terrible days when she had been 
 forced to turn from all her regrets for Adrien and 
 repress her tears to think only of practical issues 
 for there was no one to turn to for help or even for 
 advice. She had lost both her parents during the first 
 three years of her wifehood, and Adrien's had both 
 died before she had met him. There was Pomm, of 
 course, her husband's great friend; but he was not 
 much good for practical things, and besides he was 
 away in China upon his naval duties. Francpise, who
 
 6 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 Had never thought for herself, who had been as a 
 child in the hands of Aldrien, who had never acted in 
 any way except under his direction and with his ad- 
 yice or sanction, was now forced to rely upon her- 
 self, and herself alone to think, to plan, to decide, 
 and to defend her own interests as well as those of 
 her daughter. 
 
 In the midst of her sad musings, the sleeping child 
 murmured fretfully and stirred upon her pillows, and 
 mechanically Franchise chasing away harrowing 
 thoughts, though her heart was heavy as lead, mur- 
 mured once more the soothing lullaby: 
 
 Do do, bebe do. 
 
 Like all French mothers of her generation, Fran- 
 c.oise allowed no hireling to tend her child. It was 
 she who bathed and put her to bed every night of her 
 life and sang her to sleep holding her hand. There is 
 little other method or system of education in the 
 French mother's mind for very little children but just 
 the tender ministering from mother to child which 
 creates a link between them that lasts for ever, and 
 that no divergence of opinion or of tastes in after life 
 can ever entirely destroy. 
 
 As the child lost consciousness once more and 
 silence again engulfed the room, the gaze of Fran- 
 Qoise penetrating the gloom seemed to see once more 
 before her the form of her beloved. At the foot of 
 the wide bed, between the writing-desk and the white 
 lace-covered dressing-table whence the polished tor-
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 7 
 
 toise-shell and crystal ornaments shot forth scintil- 
 lating touches through the darkness, she saw Adrien's 
 tall frame as she had seen him living, the night be- 
 fore he had left her for the fatal journey his eyes 
 tender and loving, his white teeth gleaming through 
 his smile. 
 
 He left her that last evening so gay and joyous, 
 as if the short journey to Paris were a keen delight 
 to him. She had always been somewhat pained by 
 his evident eagerness to leave Rouen and to take his 
 regular small trips to Paris the city of charm and 
 allurement. That he was separated from her and 
 from his child during these trips did not seem 
 to affect him, though Franchise's own tender heart 
 always felt a pang each time he left them both so 
 merrily. On this last journey how she had implored 
 him to take her with him just this once for a 
 change. But he, smilingly, had put her off as always, 
 saying that a mother's place was with her child ; that, 
 besides, it would be absurd to take one's wife with 
 one to business appointments at the Ministry of Fi- 
 nance. 
 
 For after their marriage five years before Adrien 
 Reville, who had been an attache at the Min- 
 istry of War for many years, had been appointed 
 Percepteur that is to say, an officer of the Inland 
 Revenue at Rouen, two hours from Paris. And 
 here the young couple had lived, in a charming little 
 house with a large garden on the outskirts of the 
 town, some distance from the office of Adrien's Per- 
 ception. Here little fair-haired and dark-eyed Jac-
 
 8 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 queline had been born. All through the five years of 
 his residence in Rouen, Adrien had been forced to go 
 up to Paris about once a week to the Ministry of 
 Finance. But he never allowed his wife to accompany 
 him, notwithstanding her entreaties. His opinion, he 
 explained, was that a young wife does better to keep 
 to the simpler ways and customs of the provinces. 
 Frequent visits to Paris were always demoralising for 
 young married women, and the sight of the luxuries 
 of Paris life might suggest tastes that were not seemly 
 in an economical provincial wife. And of course 
 Franchise had been subservient to Aklrien's judgment. 
 For her, Adrien was always right. 
 
 As she dwelt upon these memories of the past, that 
 were still so near her, she stopped crooning her song, 
 and the spoilt babe, already so unconsciously used to 
 its mother's soothing voice as it slumbered, burst out 
 again into an angry cry, as if in protestation. So 
 Franchise let her vision fade away and took up her 
 singing once more. 
 
 Do do, bebe do. 
 
 And again the child slept. 
 
 Then Franchise, rising softly so as not to rouse the 
 sleeping child, left the side of the cot and turned again 
 to the writing desk at which she had sat most of the 
 afternoon, sorting old letters, arranging and classing 
 together paid bills, etc., for, leaving the house in a 
 short time, she was anxious to put all her affairs as 
 well as those of her late husband in order. The new;
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 9 
 
 occupants of the house were to settle into it in about 
 a fortnight. The wife of Adrien's successor had 
 visited the villa from basement to garret and had de- 
 clared herself satisfied with her inspection. Her hus- 
 band had therefore taken on the remaining part of 
 the lease, and Franchise had already been up to Paris 
 to seek a new abiding-place for herself and her child. 
 She had signed the lease, for three years, of a flat 
 near the Place Wagram. She had also arranged to 
 sell the larger part of her furniture to the new occu- 
 pants of her present house. The rest she was to take 
 with her to Paris. 
 
 The bureau of her dead husband was of a solid 
 Henri II. design, the top forming a large square 
 writing-table. From the floor at the two sides rose 
 thick square columns that each held six drawers. Each 
 separate drawer was fitted with a strong lock. Fran- 
 Qoise had never touched this bureau during her hus- 
 band's lifetime. He had told her that the most im- 
 portant papers which concerned the Perception were 
 kept there and that its contents were officially pri- 
 vate. 
 
 In the strong iron safe in the left-hand corner of 
 the room close to the writing-desk he kept under 
 lock and key the various sums collected at the Per- 
 ception, which he paid in to the Ministry at only stated 
 intervals. According to French law, this safe, as 
 well as all the other pieces of household furniture pro- 
 vided with locks and keys had been sealed up by the 
 local authorities after Adrien's death. But when 
 these formalities were over, Francpise had
 
 io THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 taken into her possession the bunch of keys upon 
 which were those that opened not only the safe but 
 also the drawers of the bureau. During the whole 
 the preceding afternoon she had been clearing out the 
 drawers. She had completely finished arranging those 
 of the right hand with the exception of the very last 
 one. She turned to this one now, and opened it list- 
 lessly. The task of arranging and sorting official 
 papers was not congenial to her and she looked for- 
 ward with some eagerness to finishing the entire right- 
 hand column of small drawers before retiring to bed. 
 She intended working upon the drawers of the left- 
 hand column the following day. She therefore in- 
 serted the keys into the lock of the last drawer, and 
 pulled the drawer out wide. 
 
 Inside, there were three large packets of letters, 
 each neatly packed together and tied with a faded 
 mauve ribbon. The ribbon had been tied twice across 
 each packet and fastened into a bow. Each bow was 
 securely fixed with a large sealing-wax seal. She 
 took up the largest packet which lay in front of the 
 drawer. The top envelope was addressed to her hus- 
 band at the Perception in a woman's handwriting. 
 She noticed that the seal that secured the ribbon bow 
 had been sealed with Adrien's own signet ring. 
 Franchise recognised the design of the two interlaced 
 letters A. R. only to well. It had been a present 
 from herself to her husband on the first anniversary 
 of their wedding. 
 
 There were a goodly number of letters in each' 
 packet, and perhaps a hundred letters in all. Most
 
 of the envelopes were mauve in colour. Fran- 
 c.oise looked again at the handwriting on the 
 top envelope, and then, pressing back several envel- 
 opes, saw that the handwriting on each envelope was 
 the same as that on the top one. She inspected the 
 other packets and discovered that the letters they con- 
 tained were all addressed in the same handwriting. 
 She turned round the parcels in her hands and was 
 just about to break open the seal of the largest when 
 she noticed a small slip of white paper that had been 
 passed through the ribbon at the side of the packet. 
 On this was written in Adrien's own writing, very 
 clearly and distinctly, " All the letters in this drawer 
 are to be burned unopened at my death." !A!nd it 
 was signed "Adrien Reville" in the handwriting 
 Franchise knew so well. Dropping them hurriedly, 
 she thrust the packets back into the drawer. The 
 habit of implicit obedience to her husband's orders 
 was so strong that it almost seemed to her as if 
 Adrien stood there now behind her chair and in his 
 quiet, even voice gentle as that of an indulgent par- 
 ent speaking to a child had told her to leave the 
 letters alone. . ... . Then a sense of the reality 
 of things stole over her once more and she found 
 herself looking down upon the open drawer with 
 wide, startled eyes. 
 
 She took up the larger packet of letters once more 
 almost mechanically, and again examined the hand- 
 writing of the address. Yes it was certainly a 
 woman's writing. . . . But the letters were ad- 
 dressed to the Perception so they were evidently
 
 12 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 connected with some question of over-taxation. Pro- 
 testations were often made to the Percepteur of 
 the district by ratepayers, and so many of 
 these came from women. For the French female 
 householder is an eminently thrifty and economical 
 person who does not accept overcharges without pro- 
 testing. 
 
 But and the thought thrust itself into Franchise's 
 mind once more with blinding swiftness why were 
 there so many letters? It seemed incredible that one 
 woman should have so much to say upon the sub- 
 ject. . . . And why had Adrien written the super- 
 scription ordering their destruction without perusal 
 in case of his own death? That was strange indeed! 
 
 One after the other, she took up the packets of 
 letters once more and examined the postmarks. Curi- 
 ously enough most of the letters had been posted in 
 Paris at the post-office of the Rue Jouffroy. The top 
 one of the largest packet evidently the last received 
 of all bore, quite distinctly, the date of the day before 
 Adrien's journey to Paris that journey which had 
 ended so fatally. . E . Ah, yes! she was beginning 
 to remember now . . . clearly. That day before 
 Adrien had left Rouen, she had gone to fetch her 
 husband at the Perception, and just as they were leav- 
 ing to go home together, the six o'clock evening post 
 had come in. Adrien had taken it from the postman's 
 hands himself and from among several other letters 
 he had drawn out one in a pale mauve envelope, and 
 had put in into his pocket without reading it. As he 
 often did likewise with those letters received at his
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 13 
 
 Perception with which he wished to deal personally, 
 Franchise had not been greatly astonished at the time. 
 But she remembered the incident now quite clearly. 
 . . . The top letter of the packet was that very 
 letter! Yes . . . then he must have classed it, at 
 once, that very evening with its fellows before leav- 
 ing for Paris the next morning. For after his re- 
 turn from that last journey he had never touched the 
 drawers of his bureau again. 
 
 Suddenly a curious, obscure and nameless dread 
 began to grow upon her, and her heart began to beat 
 tumultuously as if it were already conscious of some 
 sudden deep emotion that had not yet reached her 
 brain. . . . 
 
 She felt strangely perturbed, all her sensibility 
 was suddenly aroused. The memory of the inci- 
 dents of that last walk back from the Percep- 
 tion with her husband had evoked so many things 
 in her mind. . . . She looked round the room 
 now, and gazed again over to the spot where her 
 child was sleeping as if trying to confirm the reality 
 of her own being . . .for so many confused 
 thoughts seemed to be whirling through her brain at 
 the same moment. . : . . The regular breathing 
 of the child in the warm atmosphere of the room af- 
 forded her some reassuring calm. She turned again 
 to the drawer and yet once more picked up the let- 
 ters. Should she break the seal and open them? Yet 
 Adrien's instructions were most explicit " to be 
 burned unopened at my death." . . . Franchise 
 was undecided. She was suddenly fired with a strange
 
 i 4 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 curiosity yet long years of obedient submission had 
 forged their enslaving chains around her. 
 She could not have said what she experienced. It 
 was not yet conscious fear or foreboding and yet it 
 was a deep emotion. She had had such unquestioning 
 belief in her husband that she had always implicitly 
 obeyed his slightest injunctions. ... If he 
 wished the letters to be burned, he must have his rea- 
 sons and in the opinion of Franchise, Adrien's reasons 
 had always been excellent. 
 
 So she put the packet down once more inside the 
 drawer, and as she did so, there was suddenly a ring 
 at the door of the house. Momentarily Franchise 
 forgot the letters as she listened to the tinkling sound, 
 muffled in the distance, which she knew to be the 
 postman's ring. Clemence the maid who had been 
 with her since her marriage and who was to remain 
 on with her now as the sole bonne-a-tout faire in her 
 new home entered the room softly and offered her 
 two letters on a salver. One of them, marked Per- 
 sonnelle, had been to the office of the Perception and 
 re-directed to his predecessor's private address by the 
 new Percepteur, who was already settled in at the 
 'Perception. 
 
 Franchise took the two letters mechanically with- 
 out glancing at them while Clemence went on tiptoe 
 toward the small cot. 
 
 "Elle dort?" she inquired in a whisper with all 
 the ease and freedom of a faithful servant who has 
 become part of the family. 
 
 "Yes," murmured Franchise gently, as she moved
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 15 
 
 aside to let Clemence get a glimpse of the sleeping 
 child. 
 
 But the sadness of Franchise's voice struck keenly 
 on the ear of the faithful servant. 
 
 " Voyons, madame, voyons. . . . You must 
 not let your spirits run down like that. Isn't she a 
 comfort to you?" and she pointed to the child. 
 " Isn't she a great comfort the darling child, the 
 blessed angel ! " and Clemence's eyes glistened with 
 pride and love as she looked at the sleeping child. 
 
 " Yes, Clemence, she is indeed," said Franchise, 
 laying her hand gently on the kind creature's arm. 
 " But it is a hard thing when one is widowed and 
 alone at my age." 
 
 Clemence looked straight at her mistress. She did 
 not wish to show her any personal emotion or ten- 
 derness. She did not mind showing her love for the 
 child, but she thought it wiser not to humour the 
 Patronne. 
 
 " But you are not alone yet, madame! You've 
 baby bless her heart and me and Monsieur Pomm. 
 Besides, you are young, and . . ." But Clem- 
 ence left the room, the rest of her sentence unspoken. 
 Her own eyes were bright with tears which she stead- 
 fastly strove to hide from her mistress. 
 
 Franchise remained some moments by the side of 
 the cot contemplating her sleeping child. And as she 
 stood there smiling the adoring smile of the young 
 mother, she represented a fine type of French woman- 
 hood. Dark, yet luminious eyes, soft brown hair in 
 great masses coiled up in the shape of a huge eight
 
 16 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 on the top of her head, as was the fashion of her 
 day, delicate, narrow waist, wide hips, full-curved 
 bosom. She was indeed good to look at. She 
 resumed her seat at the bureau, placing the lamp at 
 her right elbow, and slowly and listlessly began to 
 open the two letters brought by the evening's post. 
 
 The first she opened was from Pomm Adrien's 
 best and, indeed, only friend. As she conjured up 
 her vision of this dear friend of her dead husband, 
 she sighed and tears arose in her eyes. What a blow 
 the news of Adrien's death must have been to the 
 old naval officer who had been as father, mother and 
 brother in one to Adrien Reville from his early youth 
 upwards! How well she remembered the first time 
 she had met him! It was on the very evening that 
 Adrien had been presented to her by her parents as a 
 possible fiance. Alfter she had left the convent-school, 
 her father and mother who adored her for she was 
 their only child and upon her they had centred all 
 their hopes had sought a husband for her as is the 
 duty of all self-respecting French parents. Through 
 the intermediary of old personal friends Monsieur 
 and Madame Dumont Adrien Reville had been sug- 
 gested as a possible suitor for the hand of Franchise 
 de Belval. A small party had been given at the house 
 of their friends in order to bring about a meeting. 
 Though Adrien Reville's father had been a great 
 friend of theirs formerly, the Dumonts knew little 
 or nothing of the young man himself. But they had 
 ascertained that he was a " jeune homme d'avenir," 
 and though he possessed no fortune of his own, they
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 17 
 
 recognised his right in seeking a wife to demand 
 a dowry which would enable him to provide the nec- 
 essary " cautionnement " which went with the nomin- 
 ation to a post in the Finance department. 
 
 When first the young and upright Adrien had bowed 
 before Mademoiselle de Belval, she had been imme- 
 diately struck by his good looks, his easy gracious 
 manner, his charming voice and his long curling 
 moustache. As for Adrien's great friend Jean 
 Pommeret who accompanied him, he had been sym- 
 pathetic to the young girl immediately. Instinctively 
 and at once she had felt his goodness and his reliabil- 
 ity. Pommeret or rather Pomm, as Adrien when 
 still a child had affectionately rechristened him was 
 in appearance as in character everything that Adrien 
 was not. He had no good looks, no elegance, no 
 grace; but he was loyal and true to the core and he 
 looked upon Adrien as his son. He possessed no re- 
 lations in the world and to him Adrien was every- 
 thing and his indulgence for the young man's faults 
 was limitless. 
 
 As she opened his letter now Franchise trembled 
 at the thought of the sad brokenhearted words she 
 was about to read. She knew that Pomm's one 
 dream was to retire from the Navy in a few years' 
 time, then freed from all duties, to settle down in his 
 beloved Paris and among his beloved books his 
 unique passion in the tiny flat he rented near the 
 Luxembourg gardens, and to spend nearly all his 
 week-ends with his friends at Rouen. Pomm had 
 been away in Indo-China when she had telegraphed
 
 18 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 him the terrible news of Adrien's sudden death and 
 this was his first letter after reception of the news. 
 
 The plain, simple missive was characteristic of the 
 man. He was incapable of expressing the depth of 
 his feeling, although his love for Adrien and for his 
 wife and child was the deepest affection of his kind 
 old heart. The news he had just received had quite 
 broken him down ; yet he could not express his misery 
 in words. 
 
 " My dear Madame Francpise," he wrote, " I can- 
 not tell you what a blow your telegram deals me. I 
 can hardly believe the truth of the sad news ! I send 
 you the deepest expression of my condolence. But I 
 know that you have a brave heart, and that the 
 thought of your young child who needs your care and 
 devotion will help you to bear this great blow. You 
 have Faith too and I am sure that you will find 
 help and consolation in God. I shall be back in Eu- 
 rope in six months. Rely on my help if I can be of 
 any use to you, and let me have more details of the 
 death of my poor Adrien, and hear of all your new 
 plans. 
 
 "Your respectful and affectionate friend, 
 
 "JEAN POMMERET." 
 
 Francpise brushed away her tears, and, so as not 
 to dwell too long upon her sad thoughts, and to brace 
 herself up against a too-depressing sorrow, she turned 
 her attention to the second letter. She held it in her 
 hand and looked at the lilac envelope. At first sight 
 her thoughts still intent upon Pomm's missive she
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 19 
 
 gazed at it vacantly, and did not recognize the writ- 
 ing. The new Percepteur had drawn a thick line in 
 blue pencil through the name and address, and had 
 re-directed it in his own heavy writing to Madame 
 Reville. But through the strong blue lines Franchise 
 could still read the address of the Perception and the 
 handwriting seemed not unknown to her. It was a 
 gently sloped feminine hand. The envelope bore the 
 Paris postmark. 
 
 Several times she turned it over, dwelling lovingly 
 on the name inscribed on it, " Monsieur Adrien Re- 
 yille," and reflecting on the irony of a letter being 
 addressed to a dead man. A slightly trembling " Per- 
 sonnelle" was written on the top left-hand corner of 
 the envelope, which explained its having been for- 
 warded to Monsieur Reville's personal address. A 
 faint perfume of violets arose from it. 
 
 Again and again Franchise turned it over and gazed 
 upon it, and then by degrees the conviction was 
 borne into her mind that the handwriting was famil- 
 iar. But still, for some unaccountable reason, she did 
 not recognise it. She broke open the seal. As she 
 drew out the letter, again a faint odour of violets came 
 forth. She straightened out the folded sheet and read 
 the first line : 
 
 "Mon bien aime my best beloved " 
 
 Immediately she stopped reading and picked up the 
 envelope again to realize more completely whether or 
 not it were really addressed to Adrien. But the writ- 
 ing on the envelope was unmistakable. It was the
 
 same as that of the letter, and it distinctly blazoned 
 forth the name " Monsieur Adrien Reville." 
 
 Franchise, not understanding in the least what the 
 letter meant, proceeded to read it : 
 
 " Mon bien aime, Notwithstanding the terrible risk 
 I run in writing to you again, I cannot refrain from 
 doing so, for I am so terribly anxious about you. What 
 can have happened? Since I saw you off at the St. 
 Lazare Station last month I have not had a line from 
 you. Are you ill, my beloved one? I am distraught 
 with fear. Surely you have not ceased to care for 
 me suddenly after all our years of faithful love and 
 devotion? especially so soon after the two days we 
 spent together last month in such delirious delight? 
 . when the dear early days of our passion 
 seemed renewed once more re-created? No, you 
 cannot have ceased to love me, for you cannot for- 
 get our past and all that I have been to you. Not- 
 withstanding your marriage and my own fetters I 
 feel that I must go to you, if you do not answer my 
 repeated appeals. But I dare not ; though if I knew that 
 you were ill and in danger, then I would fling all our 
 patient years of prudence to the winds and go to 
 you, my Beloved! 
 
 " I am wondering whether you have written, and if 
 the letters have been intercepted? Perhaps she the 
 woman who, alas ! has rights over you has begun to 
 suspect something as my husband began to suspect 
 until we quieted his fears with the announcement of 
 your marriage five years ago. Beloved Beloved
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 21 
 
 what can I do? I am half mad with fear and anx- 
 iety. And yet, have you not been more than good to 
 her? Have you not more than repaid her for the 
 service she did you when she gave you her dowry for 
 your cautionnementf Alas! I have done all in my 
 power to quell jealousy of her in my tortured heart. 
 O, dearest, there are moments when I wonder whether 
 you do not love her now yes, love her the woman 
 to whom I gave you, and who is now the mother of 
 your child. . 
 
 " Darling, darling, answer me. Forgive me the folly 
 of writing thus. My mind is distraught. I am 
 broken-hearted ! I am dying for news of you. If you 
 are ill, find some means of letting me know. For 
 pity's sake for our love's sake put me out of this 
 overwhelming this insupportable suspense. 
 " Yours ever and ever 
 
 "GECILE." 
 
 Franchise read through this letter to the end as if 
 she read some book or play. It seemed in no way 
 to concern her. At first she was as if petrified. All 
 thought, all reflection, all power of reasoning, seemed 
 crushed out of her. Then slowly she began to realize 
 what this revelation meant to her, and in her dismay 
 and surprise it seemed before she could coherently 
 grasp the entire meaning of it that her own inner 
 and more vital self were withering away. It was 
 as if life itself were leaving her. . . . 
 
 But she made an effort to overcome a nauseating 
 feeling of horror and pull herself together. Un-
 
 22 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 consciously her swooning eyes gazed towards the 
 darkest corner of the room where it had seemed a 
 few moments ago she saw the spectre of her husband 
 Adrien the well-beloved. . . . And this time, 
 as she looked, she seemed to see him again. But in 
 the dark shadows, as she gazed at him, his features 
 seemed distorted into a ghastly grin. . . . 
 
 And slowly, as Franchise looked upon that hideous 
 image, her gaze became dispassionate and she began 
 slowly very, very slowly to understand that her 
 conception of Adrien had never been real, and that 
 even the ghost of that false conception was now 
 crumbling to the dust. Her entire understanding of 
 his character had been false from the first. He was 
 not the superior, almost impeccable, being she had 
 believed him to be, but an entirely different person 
 whom she had never known at all whose real life 
 had indeed been unsuspected by her till now. 
 
 A terrible fear assailed her heart, and her blood 
 seemed frozen in her veins for love dies hard, and 
 what dies harder still is our own erring human con- 
 ception of life and things. But she was forced to 
 admit to herself, nevertheless, that the man she had 
 loved with all the intensity of a first young passion 
 had never really been hers! He had given what 
 he possessed of heart and soul to the woman who had 
 written this letter. . . . His attitude to her 
 his wife had been but a part he had played with a 
 special end in view, clearly stated the obtaining of 
 the necessary cautionnement for his post and the set- 
 tling of his future on the firm basis of a secure per-
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 23 
 
 sonal income. Incidentally, he had gained a wife, but, 
 though he had been kind to her, he had never really 
 loved her. She had been to him but as an adjunct to 
 his post. His actions had always been self-cen- 
 tred. . . . She remembered now numberless small 
 details of their every-day life. He had never 
 thought of anything but his own material interests, 
 and she, Franchise, had only been taken into consid- 
 eration by him insomuch as she served these inter- 
 ests. 
 
 In that hour of her realization of the true Adrien, 
 Franchise could feel nothing but a baffled feeling of 
 impotence; and the passion as well as the affectionate 
 tenderness she had cherished for her husband, to- 
 gether with all her former erroneous conception of 
 his character, fell from her as a heavy cloak falls 
 from the shoulders of its wearer. But it left her 
 with her heart emptied of all tender feeling, of all 
 sweetness. She had been deceived tricked cruelly 
 misled. In a sickening revulsion of feeling, life ap- 
 peared to her now only as a callous farce not worth 
 the living. . . . And immediately beginning to 
 generalize without measure or discernment, she asked 
 herself, if all men were false, and measured their af- 
 fections by the measure of mere material interests 
 then what was marriage what was love? 
 
 As if in response to her bitter question, she sud- 
 denly seemed to hear a whisper in her brain that 
 was its answer. "Maternity," it breathed. And 
 Franchise suddenly rose with a spring and hastened 
 across the room towards her child's cot. Jacqueline
 
 24 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 her child! . . . But his child too the child 
 of the liar, of the faithless husband. . . . And 
 gazing at her own sleeping babe she saw the mark of 
 him upon her; his very features were hers! In her 
 blind fury, she leaned forward almost as if to strike, 
 upon the face of the sleeping child, the likeness of its 
 father. . . . But the babe smiled sweetly in her 
 sleep, and Franchise, all her passion suddenly spent, 
 gazed upon her, with love and smiled back in answer. 
 Ah yes! Jacqueline was hers and hers alone 
 now. No one should tear her from her hungry arms. 
 She at least was real and true! And notwith- 
 standing her likeness to her father, she was Fran- 
 poise's alone. No one could ever take her child 
 from her to make her unreal whom she had brought 
 into the world, bone of her bone, flesh of her flesh, 
 in pain and travail. So life yet held hope for her, 
 since it held Jacqueline. And Franchise, suddenly 
 falling down by the side of the cot that held the sleep- 
 ing child, burst into tears and wept wept wept. 
 
 About an hour later she rose from her knees that 
 were stiff and bent beneath the burden of her own 
 weight. There was more peace in her heart now 
 though she was still conscious that something dread- 
 ful had happened that had altered the whole course 
 of her life, and had robbed her of almost all that had 
 made life possible. She moved again across the room 
 where the lamp shed its rosy glow on the table, and 
 mechanically she turned up the wick, which had burnt 
 low. Her listless glance fell again, not on the letter
 
 she had just read, but upon its envelope. 
 
 " Monsieur Adrien Reville "... she read the 
 
 name as if it were that of a stranger. 
 
 Suddenly, with incontrovertible clearness, a new 
 conviction thrust itself into her mind. The writing on 
 the envelope before her it was the same as that upon 
 the packets of letters she had found in the drawer 
 . . . ! How extraordinary it now seemed to her 
 that she should not have noticed it before! 
 
 She sank down into her chair, and, stooping, drew 
 forth the three packets of letters from their resting- 
 place. Upon the table, right beneath the clear light 
 of the lamp again she compared the writing of the 
 top envelope with that of the newly-received letter. 
 There could be no possible doubt. The writer of the 
 packets of letters which Adrien had decreed should 
 be burnt at his death was the same " Cecile " who 
 had signed the letter she had just read. 
 
 She tore away the slip of white paper that held her 
 husband's last order to her. . . . For the first 
 time she disobeyed him! She looked again at 
 Adrien's writing, "To be burnt unopened at my 
 death." . . . She smiled, somewhat ironically, 
 certainly cruelly. Her determination was quickly 
 taken. She would show her contempt for Adrien's 
 last mute message to her and read every single one of 
 the letters now, since his well-guarded secret was 
 hers. She broke the seal and tore away the binding 
 ribbon. The whole packet of letters fell in a loose un- 
 bound sheaf upon the table. 
 
 Settling herself in her chair, she began to read.
 
 26 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 The very first letters were dated ten years back. 
 The last had been written on the day which had 
 preceded his departure for the last fateful journey to 
 Paris. He had kept it in his pocket while he walked 
 back from the Perception to the house with his wife. 
 Franchise remembered their conversation during that 
 walk together. They had been planning together a 
 holiday at the sea, which would be beneficial to their 
 little Jacqueline. Once home and in the privacy of 
 his study, Adrien had probably torn it open and read 
 it, and later on surreptitiously gone to his room and 
 locked it away with the others while his wife was 
 putting Jacqueline to bed. And, when he had left 
 for Paris early the next morning in answer to Cecile's 
 unexpected summons, announcing that her husband 
 had been called into the provinces on urgent business 
 and that she would have two whole days' complete 
 freedom, he had kissed his wife tenderly on the 
 lips with the tender, loving kiss of devoted lovers 
 who part for a short time. Pah! Franchise wiped 
 her chill mouth now with her handkerchief as if to 
 obliterate that Judas kiss. . . . And probably 
 his " Cecile " had met him at the station on his ar- 
 rival in Paris, and to her, too, he had given the long, 
 deep kiss of lovers who after being parted are at last 
 reunited. . . . Franchise trembled with disgust 
 and horror, and settled herself again to read the 
 letters from beginning to end in order and sequence 
 from the first one of ten years ago, till the last of 
 to-night's post. She was determined to know the 
 whole wretched story.
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 27 
 
 But as she read, and the minutes of the night grew 
 into hours, a curious change of feeling and of impres- 
 sion grew slowly upon her. . . . Though her 
 disgust with Adrien almost seemed to increase with 
 every moment, her first instinctive feeling of loathing 
 against the woman who had written these letters be- 
 gan to decrease and give way to another feeling 
 which, if it held no sympathy, was yet of commisera- 
 tion and pity. Franchise paused for a moment and 
 reflected. ... It was strange that she should 
 feel thus, but she was forced to admit to herself that 
 her feelings were roused by the woman who had 
 written the letters she held. . . . What treas- 
 ures of deep devoted love, what abnegation of self 
 in the service of the beloved one, Franchise read here! 
 What passion, too, was expressed. How pale, col- 
 ourless, almost absurd, did Franchise's own girlish 
 love for her husband seem beside this glowing emo- 
 tion how fade, how insipid ! Yes, indeed, the whole 
 real life of Adrien as she had never known it was 
 now revealed to her! Through all the five years of her 
 marriage she had been but a young and inexperienced 
 child, to whom Adrien had appeared as a god of wis- 
 dom. But to this woman, older and wiser in the 
 ways of the world than he was, he had seemed only 
 as a very young and inexperienced man, who, having 
 no family ties or affections, was lonely and needed her 
 care and affection. She had directed, advised, educated 
 him, helped him to succeed. Yes ; truly this Cecile had 
 loved him almost as a mother! What tenderness, 
 what adoration there was in her heart for this young,
 
 28 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 seductive, and ambitious man! He had evidently 
 revealed to her his loathing for poverty and for medi- 
 ocrity, and finally, after many struggles with her- 
 self and her own love, it had been she, herself, who 
 had suggested obtaining for him a provincial post in 
 the Finances which should satisfy his material am- 
 bitions though it took him away from herself and 
 gave him to another. . . . In her letters she al- 
 luded constantly to her husband and spoke not only 
 of his friendship for the young man but of his will- 
 ingness to help Adrien with his influence. Then 
 there were other letters in which the writer showed 
 some fear of discovery on the part of her too-con- 
 fiding husband. . . . And gradually the advis- 
 ability of a marriage de raison for Adrien had been 
 deliberately broached between the lovers as the only 
 possible means of appeasing her husband's now fully 
 aroused suspicions and at the same time of putting 
 Adrien into the position he desired. . . . There 
 were letters at that epoch which betrayed deep wounds 
 in the woman's heart, and many small allusions which 
 suggested her great unexpressed hope that Adrien 
 would refuse not only her husband's help but also her 
 own sacrifice. . . . But he had not refused. 
 Later letters from him had presumably acquainted 
 Madame Ducastel with the negotiations concerning 
 his first interview with Franchise herself, for he had 
 evidently alluded to his fiancee as an " amiable petite 
 sotte." And it was Cecile generous-hearted Cecile 
 who pointed out to him all that he would owe to the
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 29 
 
 "petite sotte " and begged him to be kind and con- 
 siderate to the poor child. 
 
 As she read, Franchise felt that by degrees all the 
 old shackles of her education were loosening around 
 her heart and falling away. She was surprised to 
 find herself feeling sentiments which had never been 
 dictated to her by others sentiments, in fact, which 
 others would certainly have condemned in her. For 
 now she was beginning to feel sympathy for this 
 Cecile for her husband's mistress, for an erring 
 wife she, the impeccable, untried Franchise, whom 
 neither sorrow nor life yet had touched! The pas- 
 sionate devotion, the selflessness which breathed in 
 her letters revealed Cecile to her rival as a tender, 
 loving, and touchingly sincere creature. 
 The writer spoke often of the misunderstanding be- 
 tween herself and her husband. He had been a bad 
 husband faithless from the first neglecting her 
 and leaving her in loneliness. . . . And she 
 had had no child, though her heart yearned with 
 warm maternal love. ... So all her devo- 
 tion, tenderness and love she had given to the young, 
 lonely and beautiful boy that Adrien once had been. 
 
 And Franchise understood her gift of herself, 
 and, understanding, could not accuse. She could 
 not even find it in her heart to condemn when she 
 learnt that even after Adrien's marriage and even 
 after her own renouncement Cecile had not had the 
 courage to resist her lover's supplications and had 
 yielded again.
 
 30 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 Franchise was not even astonished to find herself 
 thus sympathizing with the woman who had so long 
 held her own husband's heart. For the first time in 
 her young, guarded and conventional life, Franchise 
 had begun to think and feel for herself and found 
 that she had acquired a broader, more generous and 
 more human outlook. 
 
 By the time she had read through a few of the 
 letters, Franchise had realised who the "Cecile" of 
 the letters must be. One or two had been written 
 upon notepaper with an address engraved on the top 
 of the front page, and the address 220 Place Males- 
 herbes was not unknown to her. It was the Paris 
 address of the rich and influential Deputy, Sebastian 
 Ducastel. 
 
 Franchise therefore understood that the writer of 
 the letters was Cecile Ducastel, the Deputy's wife.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE influence of the shock produced on Franchise 
 Reville's mind by the revelations contained in Ma- 
 dame Ducastel's letters would have resulted in a serious 
 perturbation of the brain had she not been particu- 
 larly strong and healthy, with nerves in a condition 
 which enabled her to resist her sorrow with firmness. 
 
 She lay awake all through the long hours of the 
 night, trying to realize in what manner her discovery 
 was going to affect her future actions. She knew it 
 to be the downfall of all the joy and hope she had 
 built up for her own store in life. Her whole edu- 
 cation had prepared her to be a victim. And now 
 she knew that she had not only been a victim but had 
 also been a dupe, and that if in herself she could find 
 the strength to resist the blow, at least she would 
 never be able to re-educate herself. 
 
 Ah, how well Adrien had befooled her and made 
 her his willing tool to gain his own ends! For how 
 well he had counterfeited love! . . . How truly 
 sincere he had seemed at times! How tender! How 
 careful he had been of her before Jacqueline's birth, 
 and how loving, how more devoted than ever, he 
 had been afterwards! 
 
 Now that her brain was clear, now that for the 
 first time in her life, emerging from the guidance 
 of other minds, she was awakened to the reality of 
 
 31
 
 conscious existence herself, she sought within her 
 brain to reconstitute Adrien's moral self as he had 
 revealed himself to her through the five years of her 
 married life. His attitude towards her had always 
 seemed perfect. But what means had she possessed 
 of judging what was perfect and what was not so in 
 a man's conduct towards his wife? Her parents had 
 prepared her only for one thing, subservience to her 
 husband. He was not only to be the " Prince Charm- 
 ing" but also the teacher, the initiator, who would 
 reveal life to her. Had Adrien then failed in this? 
 No, not entirely. In the first hours of her married 
 life he had been tender, though passionate, but not 
 so vehement as to appear brutal to the young and in- 
 nocent girl that Franchise was at the time of her 
 marriage. The heart of the bewildered young bride 
 had soon been won by the husband, and soon she had 
 fallen deeply in love with him. 
 
 The honeymoon had been spent in Italy, where 
 for four weeks they wandered from town to 
 town, and here Franchise was much less taken 
 up with the art treasures of the museums than 
 with" her husband. He was pre-eminently the 
 lover the subtle, tender lover which a French- 
 man can be at will when a charming and very 
 young girl is given to him for a wife. But in these 
 early days Franchise was unable to respond to his 
 caresses as he desired. His somewhat too passionate 
 entreaties at first frightened her. She was too young, 
 too inexperienced to realize that Adrien was in love 
 merely with love and not with herself. But as his
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 33 
 
 taste for her had slowly exhausted itself, her own 
 tenderness for her husband had increased, and at 
 times her more conscious and growing passion had 
 warmed Adrien to a semblance of love, which she in 
 her ignorance believed to be the true responding light 
 to her own flame. 
 
 Alfter these first few weeks of marital happiness, 
 the young man's ardour had somewhat subsided. 
 Franchise, taking up her new role as a young matron, 
 most enthusiastically had allowed her mind to be 
 much occupied by thoughts of arranging the home and 
 attending to her new duties. She had scarcely noticed 
 the lessening tenderness of her husband, for he had 
 ever showed himself solicitous of her health and com- 
 fort. 
 
 Anxious to teach her many things concerning her 
 social and home duties, he appeared more in the 
 light of a friendly guide than an amorous husband. 
 He suggested to her how she must dress to please 
 him, and how to receive his friends in his own house. 
 He told her what visits she must make to the ladies 
 of the town wives of his various colleagues in the 
 State Administrations explaining to her how use- 
 fully a wife could serve her husband's ambitions by 
 the graciousness of her social manners. He guided 
 her taste in all things, and she loved him as a teacher 
 as well as a husband. When at times the ardour of 
 their first married weeks seemed to return to him, she 
 found in him again the lover, and was perfectly happy 
 and content. 
 
 During their life together never for a moment had
 
 34 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 Franchise doubted her husband's love for her, and 
 even his sincere affection for their little daughter 
 seemed to have increased his feeling of tender solici- 
 tude for his wife. But now she knew that she had 
 been living in a fool's paradise all the years of her mar- 
 riage, and that her temple of love was crumbled in 
 the dust! 
 
 From the effects of the stunning blow of sudden 
 knowledge Franchise's mind emerged from its chrys- 
 alid state of artificial modesty, of artificial virtue* 
 and of artificial ideals which had been the result of 
 her conventional training. She found her own soul 
 for the first time, and stood revealed to herself. She 
 felt that henceforth she should resolve the problems 
 of life with her own judgment, and no longer with 
 the atrophied judgment of others, given to her brain 
 second hand with its true essence altered. She realized 
 that she must now do away entirely with the false 
 education of life which her parents, in the fond hope 
 of defending her against evil, had built up for her. 
 Her natural intelligence now asserted itself com- 
 pletely, bursting through the new-born outward husk 
 of convention. 
 
 At first she was astonished to find that she was 
 thinking her own individual thoughts, and was almost 
 bewildered at her own audacity. But once the move- 
 ment was set in action, she knew that she was going 
 to find in herself a new individuality her real self 
 which her convent education, her parents, her sur- 
 roundings, and finally her husband, had all helped to 
 suppress. She learned in a flash that she did possess
 
 THE EDUCATION OE JACQUELINE 35 
 
 an individuality of her very own though she had 
 never suspected its existence until now. Making this 
 discovery almost instantaneously, fresh thoughts be- 
 gan at once to force themselves into her brain, crush- 
 ing out all her old effete convictions. 
 
 After the terrible hours of that first night of knowl- 
 edge she was never the same creature again. What 
 proved her complete transformation to herself was 
 the fact that she found herself instinctively making 
 a supreme effort in the midst of her suffering and 
 desolation to examine the situation dispassionately 
 without personal prejudice, even without resentment, 
 setting aside her own feelings and trying to judge 
 with calm reason and forbearance. She thrust aside 
 personal jealousy with valiant endeavour to try to 
 understand the soul, the promptings, and the conse- 
 quent misery of such a woman as Cecile Ducastel. 
 
 From Madame Ducastel's letters, Franchise had 
 gathered all that Adrien had represented in this un- 
 happy woman's life. The tone of sincerity in these 
 long missives had convinced her. She had veered 
 round in her appreciation of Cecile by putting her- 
 self in imagination in Cecile's place, and judging her 
 as she would have wished to be judged herself that 
 is to say, not only without harshness, but with some 
 commiseration. Yes, Cecile, wrong though she was, 
 had sincerely loved Adrien loved him, not for her- 
 self, but for himself loved him, not for her good, 
 her own happiness, but for his. That was the 
 truth that touched Franchise, because by comparison 
 it taught her how thoughtless, how childish, and how
 
 36 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 egotistical her own love for Adrien had been, and 
 therefore how much weaker, more trivial a thing. 
 
 Cecile had done much for Adrien. She had given 
 him herself, but she had also been his adviser, his 
 comrade, his true friend. By means of her womanly 
 knowledge and wider experience, she had helped him 
 to build up his social and economic position. And 
 then later she had sacrificed herself, nobly, willingly, 
 to his material interests. It was not merely to 
 dupe her husband that she had manoeuvred and 
 planned to obtain for him the post that he occupied. 
 That was quite clear to understand in all her letters. 
 It was really because she knew it was for Adrien's 
 benefit. Franchise realized all these things now and 
 her freed intelligence confirmed her instinctive con- 
 victions. 
 
 When Adrien had married, Cecile had really 
 renounced him. That had been quite evident. Her 
 letter of farewell had been heartbreaking, and its 
 ring of sincerity unmistakeably true. If she had 
 found no strength left in her when Adrien had im- 
 plored her to give herself back after his first visit to 
 Paris when he had settled down in Rouen, Cecile's 
 new guilt had filled her with remorse, and all through 
 the letters which followed one another at short in- 
 tervals during this period Franchise had been able 
 to trace the various phases of suffering through 
 which the miserable woman had passed. Alterna- 
 tives of frenzied passion, of frozen despair, of bitter, 
 cruel remorse and regret, succeeded one ano'ther. 
 And yet through all this there was the often-ex-
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 37 
 
 pressed wish that Adrien should act fairly, decently, 
 honourably, to his young wife. Franchise understood 
 that at times Adrien must have rebelled against his 
 legal chains and with the lack of reticence and re- 
 serve which characterised him in his most intimate 
 relations, confided his revolt to Cecile. For her 
 letters were full of exhortations to patience, to kind- 
 ness, to consideration for the mother of his child. 
 And Frangoise dimly realized now that much of 
 Adrien's forbearance with what must have often 
 seemed to him her own childish petulant ignorance 
 had been the result of Cecile's gentle influence over 
 him. Truly a disenchanting discovery for any young 
 wife to make, and sufficient in itself to crush out any 
 lingering feeling of tenderness for a husband's 
 memory ! 
 
 And what excuse could be conscientiously found 
 for Adrien? None. Though Franchise herself, had 
 been carefully prepared by her mother for her sub- 
 servient role as a wife, she had joyfully accepted the 
 suitor her parents offered her, and had hoped that 
 marriage would bring, not only love and passion, but 
 also the realisation of her dreams. Now she knew 
 that the very foundation of her union with Adrien 
 Reville had been laid upon a misunderstanding. But 
 if, in her girlish ignorance of life, she had expected 
 love and passion in marriage, what Adrien had sought 
 was the forgetting of passion, and the calm affection 
 one has for a comrade. She had entered upon the 
 contract with the hope of beginning her experience 
 and he with the intention of closing his. Adrien rea-
 
 38 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 soned, like most young men of his time, and, as Fran- 
 Qoise now realized, the man of Latin races does not 
 marry for love, but to put an end to what has often 
 been a passionate youth, to settle down to make a 
 home and found a family. Aind when he does this, 
 he preferably seeks appointment to some secure and 
 reliable post in the State system for these posts con- 
 fer upon their holders a social standing and a dignity 
 to which all Frenchmen alike aspire, once they have 
 sown their wild oats. But Government posts having 
 comparatively small salaries attached to them, can- 
 didates must seek a wife whose dowry represents not 
 only her own share in the community, but more also, 
 so as to supplement the salary of her husband and 
 pay for the luxuries which the husband's position de- 
 mands. 
 
 Franchise knew all these things. She knew that 
 most legal unions in her country were social arrange- 
 ments by means of which the importance of the hus- 
 band's position justified the demanding of a certain 
 figure for his wife's dowry. 
 
 She had heard such alliances discussed often among 
 her friends and acquaintances during her married 
 life. But because she had not realized it at the time, 
 there was no reason why Adrien's own marriage 
 should have been differently arranged. Once 
 her education finished, her parents had sought and 
 found her a husband exactly on the same principle 
 as other parents. They had relied upon the informa- 
 tion gathered from intermediates, for they knew 
 nothing more about Adrien than what the Dumonts
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 39 
 
 had told them. But tfiey had faith in the judgment of 
 their old friends, who had known Adrien's father long 
 before the birth of Adrien himself. Franchise knew 
 that as a matter of course her parents had presented 
 Adrien Reville as a possible suitor only after they had 
 entirely satisfied themselves as to his honourableness 
 and social position. Of his character, his tempera- 
 ment, his tastes and inclinations, they of course knew 
 nothing, nor could they learn anything from the Du- 
 monts, who had only seen Adrien himself twice. 
 
 But in their opinion it would be their daughter's 
 duty to discover these tendencies after she had mar- 
 ried him, and to adapt herself to them. That was the 
 reason of her education in entire passivity, for Fran- 
 poise's own education, like that of all her young 
 companions, had been but a long preparation for mar- 
 riage and for a husband's guidance. Her parents had 
 told her that she must study his tastes exclusively, 
 and obey him in all things. She had done so, and he 
 had exercised the same moral tutelage over her heart 
 and brain that her parents had exercised since her 
 babyhood. And until now she had found no fault in 
 him, had discovered no flaw in his character. He 
 was to her the master who must be loved and obeyed. 
 
 But with her new soul a stern judgment had arisen 
 strong within her. And this so-well hidden liaison 
 proved not only his deep hypocritical treachery to her- 
 self but also to Cecile. For there had been hours in 
 her married life that Franchise now remembered in 
 which Adrien's passion for herself had been indubi- 
 table. Certain abandons cannot be feigned, and even
 
 40 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 the most innocent woman recognises true passion in 
 its hour. His twofold insincerity now revealed him 
 completely to his wife and she was able to judge him 
 calmly, passionlessly, mercilessly. But and it was 
 not vacillation but a stern resolve to be just and im- 
 partial in her judgment of Adrien were not all 
 young men brought up to believe that they had a 
 right to take the love of women when it was offered 
 to them? While she herself and so many others had 
 been reared in total ignorance of life, and prepared 
 like lambs for the slaughter and for the selfishness of 
 men, were not young men themselves allowed all 
 licence ? 
 
 Thus did she come to see that the true cause of 
 this tragedy must be sought and found in her own 
 ignorance. Therein lay the great, the unpardonable 
 error. Though she was twenty-two years of age, she 
 had known nothing of life when she married. And 
 Adrien had chosen her perhaps from among many 
 others precisely because of her complete ignorance. 
 She understood why now. It was because he knew 
 that she would be the easier to deceive. And this 
 amazing, truth-revealing discovery she had just made 
 was largely the result of her own innocence and ignor- 
 ance. 
 
 That night was Franchise's Gethsemane. In her 
 long, lonely vigil she found in herself certain mental 
 qualities she had never supposed that she possessed. 
 She discovered that she had decision, for which she 
 had hitherto had no use since others had directed her 
 life, her thoughts, and her actions. And through the
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 41 
 
 process of her own awakening, she realized that now 
 in her heart there were pity and commiseration for 
 other women above all, for the one woman who, 
 though guilty, had been so entirely sincere in her love 
 for the man whom she must have known only too 
 well, and to whose egotism she had yet sacrificed her- 
 self. 
 
 But after her sudden comprehension of the truth, 
 Franchise understood, too, that although she had 
 gained knowledge she had lost all hope of personal 
 happiness for ever. 
 
 Though she had found in herself the strength to 
 look at facts face to face, and accept them as they 
 were, she knew that she would not be able to find the 
 necessary power of recuperation to build up for her- 
 self any new dream of happiness. Though the sap- 
 ping forces of her false education had not so 
 completely exhausted the strength of her vitality as 
 to prevent her re-creating a new conscience for her- 
 self, they had at least frustrated all possibility of her 
 forging for herself a new soul, with strong, ardent 
 beliefs and eager aspirations. If mentally she was 
 still capable of accepting other and new convictions 
 and of living up to them so that they might help 
 her to build up new ideals, she felt herself for ever 
 incapable of feeling new emotions. The very springs 
 of passion in her had been suddenly dried up. 
 
 She had been a betrayed wife, and such she would 
 ever remain. To this she was now resigned. She 
 knew she would never find in herself the power to 
 believe in love again. . . . AJ1 chances of per-
 
 sonal felicity for her were for ever destroyed. She 
 would live on and perhaps find a certain quiet pleas- 
 ure in the living of each new day in freedom but 
 the only real joy she could ever feel now would come 
 to her from her child. . . . Jacqueline at least 
 should not fail her. Above all, Jacqueline should not 
 be deluded and betrayed as her mother had been. 
 Whatever character her child might develop later on, 
 her mother would not allow her to become the victim 
 of such false ethics as those upon which she herself 
 had been reared. All the conventional fabric of her 
 own false education should be thrust deliberately out 
 of her own mind so that Jacqueline's mind should 
 not be tainted with it. The very foundations of her 
 own convictions should be overthrown and she would 
 build up for herself the temple of a new and personal 
 philosophy which she would teach Jacqueline, so that 
 her daughter might defend herself when the need 
 should come to her for self-defence. The education 
 of Jacqueline should be diametrically opposed to the 
 education which she had herself received. The girl 
 should be allowed to acquire knowledge scientific and 
 practical so that she might form her own judgments 
 and base them upon true facts. The mysteries of life 
 should be explained to her clearly and cleanly. She 
 should not be duped into learning them when too late 
 to avoid the responsibilities they brought with them. 
 Her daughter should not be trained to become that 
 artificial product of a decadent civilisation la jeune 
 Kile bien elevee as she herself had been, and which 
 had been the parental ideal of her time. Jacqueline
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 43 
 
 should be forewarned, therefore forearmed, and so 
 would be able to defend herself. She should know 
 and understand men, so as not to be their victim. 
 She should be taught to see them as they are with 
 all their bad, as well as their good qualities. And to 
 that end Franchise promised herself that even from 
 Jacqueline's very girlhood she would encourage 
 her daughter's friendships with young men. She 
 should be free and independent, and should be enabled 
 to form her own judgment of facts so as to possess 
 not only the mere reflection of the judgments of oth- 
 ers. She would teach her daughter to see life as it is, 
 would encourage enquiry, instead of repelling it or 
 falsely contenting it with specious lies. Above all she 
 would educate her child's brain, perhaps even at the 
 expense of her heart, rather than allow her to become 
 a victim of her own false sentimentality. And Fran- 
 goise vowed to herself as she listened to the babe's 
 regular breathing that Jacqueline should never be the 
 credulous victim of an unscrupulous husband as she 
 herself had been. 
 
 A!s the dawn filtered through the curtains, Fran- 
 goise arose. She was a new creature her mind fully 
 alert, her convictions re-built. She almost forgot her 
 sorrow in the proud, conscious knowledge of her 
 newly-awakened soul. 
 
 She bent over the rails of the cot, and looked at 
 her sleeping child. Yes, Jacqueline was like her 
 father! But now Frangoise no longer rejoiced in the 
 fact. On the contrary, all her faith in Adrien and all 
 her regard for his character having disappeared at
 
 44 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 once, she feared that similarity of feature would in- 
 dicate similarity of character. She trembled with ap- 
 prehension as she looked at Jacqueline and wondered 
 what the child's future would be. As she knelt by the 
 side of the cot, instinctively her eyes were lifted to the 
 white ivory crucifix above the babe's head. And 
 gazing upon it at first vacantly there came into her 
 eyes a look of wonder, of doubt, of incomprehension. 
 ,. . . For the first time in her life, as she gazed 
 upon the Divine image, her heart was unappeased and 
 held no reverence, no awe, only a strange and angry 
 revolt. Having lost her faith in humanity, was she 
 about to lose her faith in Divinity too? For had 
 not Christ founded the Church, and had not the 
 Church enforced submission? Had not the whole 
 of her false feminine education been built upon the 
 dogma of that Catholic Faith which enforces sub- 
 mission and subservience upon woman ? Had not her 
 education, built upon the foundation of the (Catholic 
 Faith, made of her a dupe and a victim? And was 
 even the consolation of the Church to be only a hol- 
 low mockery for her now that her dreams of love and 
 faith had faded ? And yet another thought came into 
 her mind. Ought she to teach Jacqueline that doc- 
 trine of submission, of blind self-sacrifice? No a 
 thousand times, no! prompted the fierce revolt in her 
 heart, in answer to her mute question to herself. . . 
 She closed her eyes, and bitter hot tears fell from 
 beneath her eyelids. Must she lose everything at the 
 same time, and with all her hopes even the deep 
 comfort pf her religious faith ? Yet, when she looked
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 45 
 
 on the figure of the Divine Crucified, she felt neither 
 comfort nor solace. She tried to pray, but she could 
 not. Though all her soul was uplifted in the divine 
 exaltation which in itself is prayer, she dared not 
 frame the words of Christian humility which are 
 those of the Church. Though she tried again and 
 again to murmur an invocation of supreme appeal 
 that was not the prayer of dogma, no words came 
 welling up from her heart. She opened her eyes wide 
 as if seeking to find Truth itself incarnate, and, lifting 
 her head, her gaze fell once more upon the gleaming 
 cross. Rapidly and without reflection, acting only 
 upon her impulses, she thrust forth an impious hand 
 and tore it down from the wall. 
 
 At the roughness of her cruel gesture, the babe 
 turned and murmured in her sleep, as if in protest. 
 For a few awful moments Franchise gazed upon her 
 child in frenzied terror! Had some Divine power 
 urged her little one to oppose her mother's action in 
 that moment of her supreme rebellion? Or in her 
 great stress had her own poor feverish brain become 
 demented? She recoiled with horror of her own ac- 
 tion, and bending her face penitently over the sacred 
 image, as the cold chill of its ivory touched her burn- 
 ing cheeks she felt suddenly subdued, soothed, com- 
 forted, and her fingers closed over it with tenderness 
 and reverence once more. 
 
 And then she knew that her habit of piety and 
 worship was still stronger in her even than her new- 
 born will and revolt. For her veneration was con- 
 scious now, and therefore more true, more real.
 
 46 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 She bent over the crucifix and gently, religiously, 
 kissed the pallid image which had meant so much to 
 her in former days, and still meant so much, though 
 she had tried to tear it from her heart. Then gently 
 and reverentially she placed it back again in its place 
 over the child's cot. No, she would not destroy her 
 faith willingly. She would not allow her rebellion 
 against her own fate to kill it. For her own sake and 
 for Jacqueline's sake she would retain at least that 
 one precious gift of her early education. For to Jac- 
 queline should not be denied the consolation of Faith 
 in the Divine, if later on she felt the need of it. The 
 mother would teach her child to love and to adore 
 the Divine Master. . . . 
 
 And Francois once more threw herself upon her 
 knees, and, closing her eyes, now allowed eager words 
 of prayer to gush forth from her tortured heart. For 
 hours she remained there, imploring Christ to inspire 
 her with the courage to renounce .all human passion 
 for ever, so that she might save all her strength for 
 her devotion to her child, and so be able to bring up 
 her Jacqueline to a safer and more conscious happi- 
 ness than her own had been. 
 
 And all through the night Frangoise prayed 
 prayed prayed.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 WHEN Franchise rose from her knees her limbs 
 were cold and stiff, and her face pale and deter- 
 mined. Her new resolves were strong within her. 
 She put all disquieting thoughts resolutely aside and 
 as she dressed herself she settled in her mind what her 
 day's work was to be. There were many things to 
 be attended to the packing and arranging of furni- 
 ture and clothes, the classing and sorting of old let- 
 ters, which was not yet quite finished, and the making 
 of her final preparations for her departure from 
 Rouen. 
 
 Franchise had decided to take the train up to Paris 
 that same afternoon to choose the papers for the flat 
 she had taken near the Place Wagram, where she 
 intended settling with Jacqueline and Clemence in 
 about a fortnight's time. All through the days which 
 had followed her husband's death, she had bitterly 
 regretted that Pomm was not in France, near her, to 
 help her with his advice. But, alone with her new 
 conscience now, she rejoiced that she was able to act 
 independently. The fact of being obliged by circum- 
 stances to make her own decisions increased her 
 vigour of mind. 
 
 When baby Jacqueline awoke, Franchise lifted her 
 from her cot, and proceeded to wash and dress her, 
 and after she had spent two hours in performing her 
 
 47
 
 48 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 household duties and tending her child, she sat down 
 once more at the writing-desk in her room. While 
 Jacqueline played on the floor beside her, she drew all 
 Madame Ducastel's letters out of the drawer they 
 filled, including the one which had arrived by post the 
 night before, and, carrying the three packets they 
 formed to the grate of the room, she set fire to them. 
 At least half of her dead husband's instructions would 
 thus have been executed. 
 
 The great mass of paper made a huge bonfire in 
 the grate and Jacqueline, attracted by the glow of the 
 sparks, left her playthings and came and stood by her 
 mother's side as Franchise knelt by the grate. 
 
 " Joli joli!" murmured the child as she held out 
 her tiny palms to the warmth of the fire. 
 
 But Franchise, in silence watching the red flames 
 lick around each violet envelope in turn, paid no heed 
 to her daughter's remarks, though she had instinct- 
 ively thrown her arm around the little tottering fig- 
 ure to save it from a too dangerous proximity to the 
 blaze. Several letters were unbound and the 
 words written incisively on their blackened pages 
 stood out in red relief. Here and there whole sen- 
 tences could be clearly read. The words " Mon bien 
 aime" occurred often, and seemed to mock at Fran- 
 c.oise as she gazed. . . . 
 
 " Le joli feu! le joli feu!" murmured the child 
 again and her glee made the mother shiver as the 
 crimson incandescent words glowed and paled among 
 the charred cinders "Mon bien aime mon bien
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 49 
 
 "Ah! Maman, regard? le beau feu!" persisted 
 Jacqueline in her sweet lisping tones, astonished at 
 her mother's lack of sympathy. 
 
 The leaping, burning tongues had spent their pas- 
 sion on the senseless paper ashes now and yet Fran- 
 c,oise was silent. 
 
 When the last flames had died away, Jacqueline 
 turned to her mother, a note of regret in her piping 
 voice. " Oh! Maman, le beau feu . . . U est 
 mort!" 
 
 Suddenly Franchise turned fiercely towards her 
 child, and, catching up the soft warm little body, 
 strained her to her heart. 
 
 " Yes, my darling . . . the fire is dead, dead 
 dead! And everything else too is dead now dead 
 quite dead except you my precious sweet ! " 
 And, kissing the child passionately, she set her back 
 on to her feet. 
 
 After the last shreds of paper had been consumed, 
 Franchise still sat patiently gazing by the side of the 
 grate, though Jacqueline had taken up her toys again 
 and was playing at the other end of the room. She 
 began once more to think of Cecile Ducastel. . . . 
 What sort of woman was this, she asked herself, 
 whose last cry of appeal and despair had had such 
 power to rouse her own slumbering heart and soul? 
 For Franchise was bound to admit to herself now 
 after her night of profound perplexity and final real- 
 ization of self that she felt far less resentment to- 
 wards Cecile than towards Adrien. For Cecile had 
 had claims that were prior even to her own; she
 
 'SO THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 therefore merited both her respect and her considera- 
 tion. 
 
 She had begun to understand all that this woman, 
 who had known and loved Adrien for so long, must; 
 be suffering now in her suspense and fear. For 
 Frangoise, enriched by her newer, conscious knowl- 
 edge, had reached the depths of humility and frankly 
 owned to herself that the mistress's love had been 
 far greater than hers and of a nobler kind. Long 
 ago Cecile must have measured the meanness of 
 Adrien's shallow soul, and yet she had continued 
 giving him royally of her love and generous 
 devotion. Such tenderness was a far greater thing 
 than her own ignorant feeling for her husband, born 
 merely of the promptings of her own youth. . . . 
 Yes, Cecile ought to be told of Adrien's death and 
 told gently and with consideration. That thought 
 thrust itself into Franchise's mind most convincingly. 
 Madame Ducastel must no longer be left in cruel igno- 
 rance and suspense. And again and again Franchise 
 asked herself how was she to be told? 
 
 Franchise's first impulse was to write to her, but 
 she soon relinquished that idea. If the letter were 
 delivered to Madame Ducastel in the presence of her 
 husband, she might, in the shock of learning the ter- 
 rible news, betray her emotion before him, and so 
 in a moment ruin the whole edifice of her deception 
 so carefully and so successfully manoeuvred for ten 
 years. 
 
 Not that Franchise approved Madame Ducastel's 
 conduct in deceiving her husband. The prejudices of
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 51 
 
 the petite bourgeoise were dying hard within her, and 
 her recoil from the unfaithful wife was still very 
 strong. But all her ideas and sentiments had been so 
 violently upheaved within the past twenty-four hours 
 that at this moment her sense of pity was almost out 
 of proportion to any other even her sense of recti- 
 tude. Indeed, the rude overthrowing of her own 
 ideals had left her with so softened a heart that mo- 
 mentarily her ideas of right and wrong were blunted. 
 She was determined to spare the poor woman the 
 cruel blow of learning the truth in so brusque a man- 
 ner as by means of a letter. Someone must tell her 
 gently, with feeling, with some care and some pity. 
 She must not be brutally informed of an event which 
 would mean so much to her. But who could go to 
 Madame Ducastel for her? There was no one she 
 could send. 
 
 And then suddenly it came to her that she herself 
 Franchise should go and see her and acquaint her 
 with the truth, telling her gently and kindly, as one 
 woman who has suffered can speak to another who has 
 gone through deep tribulation. The idea that she, so 
 used to the domination of others, would dare to do so 
 unusual a thing as to go and acquaint the mistress 
 of her own husband with the news of his death, at 
 first appalled her by its audacity. But it gradually 
 grew upon her. Who could tell what had first sug- 
 gested this thought ? Was it merely the natural curi- 
 osity which a woman feels to see the woman who is 
 her rival in her husband's affections? Hardly that, 
 for Franchise had already travelled far beyond mere
 
 52 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 physical jealousy, and she could not feel moral jeal- 
 ousy since she now realized that she had never been 
 her husband's true companion, and had never even 
 shared his thoughts! Then if the almost irresistible 
 feeling, which prompted her to go herself to see 
 Cecile, and to speak with her, was based upon neither 
 curiosity nor jealousy, what was the strange appeal 
 that the thought of Madame Ducastel's distress made 
 to her heart? . . . Was it an impulse of divine 
 generosity that led her to sympathize with the miser- 
 able woman, or was it merely her sense of human jus- 
 tice? She would not have been able to define exactly 
 what she felt for Cecile, but at least she was able 
 to persuade herself that she had no feeling of 
 either rivalry or jealousy against the woman who had 
 loved Adrien long before she herself had known him 
 and, long too after she Cecile had realised his 
 baseness. 
 
 She soon made up her mind to take this uncon- 
 ventional step; and her decision was irrevocable. No 
 one could have deterred her or persuaded her from 
 doing what she wished. By her deep search into her 
 own motives, and by the convictions concerning her 
 own heart and soul that she had acquired in her pro- 
 cess of enquiry, Franchise was by degrees becoming 
 acquainted with the unknown individuality in herself 
 hitherto entirely unsuspected by her. 
 
 At the time of her marriage, Franchise had often 
 heard Adrien speak of the Ducastels. But she had 
 never seen them and indeed had never heard of them 
 since those days. For Adrien had been careful to
 
 THE EDUCATION OE JACQUELINE 53 
 
 avoid reference to them so as not to arouse his young 
 wife's suspicions. He had mentioned the fact to her 
 some time after his marrage and quite casually 
 that his appointment at the Perception had been ob- 
 tained by Monsieur Ducastel, and that afterwards 
 the Deputy and his wife had left Paris to live in the 
 south of France. This had disposed of them easily. 
 
 Franchise therefore, ignoring their address, had 
 not sent them the formal intimation of her husband's 
 death. To her mind, until now, both husband and 
 wife were merely people Adrien had known when 
 in Paris, and with whom he had been sufficiently 
 friendly for Ducastel to wish to further his interests. 
 But the engraved heading of some of the letters 
 within recent date showed Franchise that Cecile Du- 
 castel still occupied the same hotel irt the Place 
 Malesherbes which Adrien had mentioned to her as 
 the former residence of his friends. 
 
 So she decided to go there this very afternoon af- 
 ter she had accomplished her business in Paris. In 
 taking this resolution, she firmly believed that there 
 was no other thought in her mind but that of acting 
 charitably towards Madame Ducastel, who, like her- 
 self, was a victim of Adrien's most selfish interests. 
 She felt no resentment against her no hatred no 
 contempt. She was not even consciously actuated by 
 any natural curiosity to see "the other woman" in 
 the life of the man she had loved. 
 
 For she no longer loved Adrien. Her tenderness 
 for him, based upon a false conception of his char- 
 acter, had fallen from her heart. She only felt now
 
 54 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 that divine quality of sympathy which teaches love and 
 urges forgiveness, and which cannot exist in company 
 with hatred or jealousy, or even vulgar curiosity. 
 She had made a stupendous effort to put away any 
 harsh or severe judgment, and she had now succeeded, 
 since she was able to view the situation from its lof- 
 tiest and most philosophical standpoint. She in- 
 tended to go to Madame Ducastel, to tell her the truth 
 gently, to comfort her if necessary, but never to reveal 
 to her that she knew her so long guarded secret. 
 
 But before she started on the way to perform her 
 errand of mercy, she thought of the effect it might 
 have in all its aspects in the mind of both Madame 
 Ducastel and her husband. What excuse was she go- 
 ing to give to explain her visit to two people whom 
 she had never seen? And then the memory of Mon- 
 sieur Ducastel's former kindness to Adrien came to 
 her aid. It would be quite natural that the young 
 widow of Adrien Reville, discovering the address of 
 her husband's old friends among his papers a month 
 after his death, should go and see them herself and 
 tell them the sad news. Indeed, outwardly she owed 
 some consideration to the man who had obtained 
 Adrien's post for him. 
 
 It was half-past two when Franchise rang the bell 
 at the door of Number 220 Place Malesherbes. 
 
 She chose this hour because she knew that 
 Monsieur Ducastel, being an important member of the 
 Chamber of Deputies, would be at his duty in the 
 House at this moment, and that thus her interview 
 with Cecile would be undisturbed. Madame Ducastel
 
 THE EDUCATION OE JACQUELINE 55 
 
 could explain the visit to her husband afterwards as 
 she liked. 
 
 A man servant answered her ring. To her inquiry, 
 he replied that Madame Ducastel was at home, though 
 she was just dressing to go out and he could not af- 
 firm that she would "receive." Franchise explained 
 that she came on urgent business, and wrote her name 
 on a slip of paper which the man offered her, for she 
 had purposely not brought her visiting-card, which 
 was deeply edged with black, according to the custom 
 of French widows. A few moments later the servant 
 returned and said that Madame would receive her, 
 and Franchise was shown into a small salon on the 
 ground floor that communicated with a larger salon 
 by means of a wide double door that was now closed. 
 
 As she entered the room, her glance fell at once 
 upon a photograph of her husband. It was framed in 
 a small enamel frame and set upon the diminutive 
 bureau that occupied one corner of the room. Fran- 
 Qoise stood before it and gazed at it for several mo- 
 ments. She had never seen this particular picture be- 
 fore. It was an old portrait, and represented a much 
 younger-looking Adrien than she had ever known, 
 with an immature countenance and a budding mous- 
 tache. The expression was smiling and winning. It 
 was the face of a man who would attract many 
 women and be greatly beloved by one or two. Fran- 
 c,oise sighed as she looked at it. It seemed to her as 
 if it were the picture of a stranger or of a person 
 whom she had not seen for years and had almost for- 
 gotten. She had travelled so far along the road of
 
 knowledge and experience since the day before, that 
 she felt aloof from all that had been part and par- 
 cel of her late husband. Yet she felt some emotion, 
 here in this small room with its dim soft light and 
 luxurious furnishing, as one always feels when one 
 stands upon the spot where a great love has passed 
 by. ... 
 
 Here Adrien and Cecile had evidently often met, 
 and loved, and vowed the eternal vow of all lovers. 
 It seemed strange to her yet Franchise could not 
 throw off a feeling of personal detachment, and it 
 seemed to her almost as if she were trespassing here 
 in this warm boudoir. Wide and luxurious divans 
 stretched along the walls, bibelots of silver and china 
 were dispersed everywhere, alternating with fancy 
 frames containing the photographs of friends, 
 amongst which was the picture of Adrien. 
 
 A soft rustling sound caused Franchise to look 
 round. Cecile Ducastel stood in the doorway. She 
 was a much older woman than Franchise had expected 
 to see, and her face looked haggard and drawn, as 
 if anxiety and weeping had greatly altered its natural 
 charm. 
 
 She made a visible effort to look impassible but to 
 one who knew the anxiety at her heart, the signs of 
 her deep emotion were evident in the only half -sub- 
 dued quivering of her delicate nostrils and the trem- 
 bling of her mobile lips. She was a tall, lithe creature, 
 slim yet not too thin. Her coiffure was somewhat 
 elaborate and conventional, but her fair hair was 
 still luxuriant, although many silver threads ran
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 57 
 
 through it. Her large blue-grey eyes were beautiful 
 and clear, but held so deep an expression of baffled 
 hope of sad, yet tender memories that Franchise's 
 heart was drawn to her in still greater sympathy than 
 before. But she remained immobile, and waited for 
 Madame Ducastel to speak first. 
 
 Cecile paused on the threshold as she entered, 
 paused because of the sudden terror at her heart, for, 
 seeing Franchise dressed in the deep pointed shawl 
 and long black crape veil of French widows, she had 
 received a terrible shock. Yet she dared not tell her- 
 self what was the fear that clutched at her heart. So 
 she stood motionless, gazing vacantly, yet with a 
 nameless terror filling her eyes as she looked upon 
 her visitor and driving away the natural delicate tints 
 of her face, leaving her ghastly white. Franchise in 
 her shrouding garments stood motionless too wait- 
 ing. 
 
 Then Madame Ducastel, urging aside all her fears, 
 made a tremendous effort and advanced towards her 
 with the outstretched hand and conventional smile of 
 the society hostess suddenly achieved. 
 
 " Chere madame! to what good fortune do I owe 
 the pleasure of this unexpected visit?" 
 
 Franchise pressed the hand held out to her, and did 
 not relinquish it immediately. She was very pale, 
 and her face wore no smile, though her eyes were 
 soft 
 
 " Hclas, madame! it is no good fortune but bad 
 fortune which brings me to you." 
 
 " What is it ? " gasped Cecile. She understood now
 
 58 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 and strong 1 agony gripped her heart, followed im- 
 mediately by a supreme instinctive effort to hide her 
 feelings from her visitor. She knew what Franchise's 
 next words would be before she uttered them, but 
 was in terror at the thought of hearing them ex- 
 pressed. She closed her eyes instinctively, as with a 
 gesture of invitation she motioned to Franchise to 
 sit down on the divan beside her conscious only of 
 the one fact that Franchise was Adrien's wife, and 
 that she must not betray herself. She bent her head 
 and motioned again to Frangoise to continue speaking. 
 And Franchise, putting her hand gently upon Cecile's" 
 wrist, spoke. 
 
 " My husband died a month ago, madame. I have 
 come to tell you this sad news myself because I 
 know what affection you and your husband once had 
 for him as he had for you." 
 
 For a few seconds, which seemed aeons of time, 
 there was silence between the two women. Cecile 
 was battling against her emotion, yet was making a 
 valiant effort to hide her feelings from Frangoise. 
 She tried to simulate the attitude of an old friend 
 who learns of the death of a young man to whom 
 she has been attached as a friend, and nothing more. 
 She strove with all her might to stave back the in- 
 effable agony which strained her bosom, bidding her- 
 self wait until in the solitude of her closed room she 
 might give way to her despair. 
 
 Frangoise meanwhile sat by her side, apparently 
 unmoved, though in reality deeply touched. She 
 knew at once by her attitude that Cecile believed her
 
 to be entirely ignorant of her own relations with 
 Adrien. 
 
 " You must excuse me, madame, but this is a great 
 shock to me," said Cecile at last, pressing Franchise's 
 hand which still lay on her arm. " I knew your poor 
 husband when he was almost a lad. I had been in- 
 terested in his career for many years. . . . Sud- 
 den death is always so tragic. . . ." And Cecile 
 let the tears unrepressed flow down her cheeks. 
 
 " Yes, madame, I know, I know," said Franchise, 
 and she drew nearer and threw her arms around 
 Madame Ducastel's shoulders, pressing her to her 
 heart as if to comfort the miserable woman in her 
 despair. "Adrien often spoke to me of you and your 
 husband with affection and gratitude, and I wanted 
 to tell you the dreadful news myself so that it should 
 not come to you unexpectedly by letter." 
 
 Cecile again bowed her head, and bade her heart 
 stand still. Then she spoke, but she hardly recog- 
 nised her own voice. 
 
 "How did it happen?" 
 
 "He caught a chill on his way Home from Paris 
 last month when he came up to see the Minister," 
 replied Franchise. 
 
 She was determined to betray none of her knowl- 
 edge to Cecile, and repeated Adrien's oft-told conven- 
 tional lie herself as if she really believed it. 
 
 Cecile reflected. Then he had died only a few 
 days after he had last left her ! 
 
 She closed her eyes once more. 
 
 Then suddenly she turned and looked at Franchise.
 
 60 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 She remembered that she was Adrien's widow, and 
 again she resolved to put away her own sorrow as if 
 forgetting it entirely, letting it bide its time. She in 
 her turn put her hand impulsively on Franchise's 
 shoulder and looked her straight in the face. 
 
 "You poor, poor girl! What will you do alone 
 in the world with your child now ? " 
 
 For she had heard much about Franchise through 
 Adrien, who had told her that his wife had been most 
 carefully and conventionally trained, and that she 
 was incapable of managing her own affairs. 
 
 " I hope I shall have enough strength and fortitude 
 to do my duty and to bring up my daughter alone," 
 she replied with some dignity. 
 
 Cecile was astonished to find Franchise so different 
 from what Adrien had represented her to be. She 
 could not guess the tragedy which had suddenly trans- 
 formed the woman before her, and Franchise was 
 determined to make every effort that she should never 
 know. 
 
 " Poor, poor Adrien ! " murmured Cecile. Her 
 mind had reverted again to her sorrow against her 
 will. "He was so young so full of life and of 
 the joy of life!" 
 
 She restrained her tears and, pointing to the por- 
 trait of Adrien which Frangoise had first noticed: 
 " There is his portrait, when we first knew him. He 
 was about twenty-five then. Such a beautiful crea- 
 ture, full of vitality and eagerness to live and to be 
 happy ! " 
 
 Franchise made no reply. She gazed upon the
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 61 
 
 portrait in silence. But no tears came to her eyes, 
 and Cecile, looking upon her impassibility, said to 
 herself that Adrien had been quite right when he 
 had told her that his wife was not a woman of 
 feeling. 
 
 Then Franchise rose to go. There was no more 
 to be said between them. She understood the con- 
 straint that Cecile was putting upon herself and 
 longed to get away and leave the wretched woman 
 alone. 
 
 "Then what have you decided to do?" asked 
 Cecile again, as she rose also and stood before 
 Franchise. She framed the words mechanically for 
 mere politeness' sake, because inwardly she was 
 hoping desperately that this mute widow would 
 go and leave her alone, so that she might give her- 
 self up to her tears. 
 
 " I am going to take a small flat in Paris and live 
 with my daughter, madame. I have no relations, 
 no friends. Will you please give my regards to 
 Monsieur Ducastel, and 1 tell him that I came myself 
 to tell you the sad news, because I knew that Adrien 
 owed so much to him?" 
 
 As Cecile, half dazed by the sorrow against which 
 she fought so hard, made no answer, Franchise con- 
 tinued : " I must now take my train back to Rouen. 
 Good-bye, madame." 
 
 "But can't I do anything for you you poor 
 child?" urged Madame Ducastel again, forcing her- 
 self to speak. " My husband is very powerful. He 
 might be able to be of use to you in some way. There
 
 62 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 are certain privileges for which the widows of high 
 functionaries may apply to the State if necessary. 
 . You must surely need some help or some 
 advice, even if you do not require pecuniary 
 aid. ..." 
 
 "Oh, no no no, madams! Do not speak so, 
 I beg you. I could not accept anything morally or 
 materially from anyone," cried Franchise with such 
 sudden fervour that Cecile Ducastel stepped back 
 imperceptibly and looked at her visitor in surprise. 
 And Franchise added with more self possession: 
 " You are very kind, but I want nothing and shall 
 not ask for any help from the Administration. I 
 have sufficient means of my own. My own dowry 
 brings me in an income that will be ample for me t r 
 live on. It is good of you to suggest helping me. 
 But I can accept no assistance." 
 
 The dignity and the proud attitude of Franchise 
 at once impressed Cecile with a respect she never 
 thought she would feel for the characterless girl whom 
 she had formerly advised her lover to marry, only 
 because of her large dowry. 
 
 And Franchise, not waiting for Madame Ducastel 
 lo ring for the servant, pressed Cecile's hand again 
 with sympathy and passed lightly out of the room 
 alone and through the hall, closing the street-door 
 gently behind her.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 ON Jacqueline's seventh birthday, Pomm, who had 
 now taken his pension and was definitively settled in 
 Paris, came to lunch, to celebrate the event, at the 
 small flat where Franchise and her daughter had been 
 living for the past three years. To-day was a doubly 
 interesting occasion, for that morning, for the first 
 time, Jacqueline had solemnly entered the portals of 
 the Lycee Racine as a pupil. 
 
 "Seven years old! It is the age of reason, my 
 dear," said old Pomm affectionately, as Jacqueline 
 came up to him to be kissed and congratulated. She 
 lifted her flowerlike face to his with spontaneous 
 affection, and her golden curls were merged for an 
 instant into the silver of his grey beard. 
 
 "Oh, I'm sure I'm very reasonable, as Maman 
 will tell you, Uncle Pomm. Am I not ? " she said, 
 turning to her mother, who, smiling, nodded a rather 
 dubious answer. 
 
 " I went to the Lycee this morning," volunteered 
 Jacqueline to Pomm. " It was rather amusing. 
 There are thirty girls in my class, and the mistress 
 is very kind and not a bit strict. . . ." 
 
 " What lessons did you do this morning, my dear ? " 
 asked Pomm. 
 
 " We learned some English. I recited ' Twinkle, 
 twinkle, little star' better than any of the others. 
 They all pronounce English very badly in my class ! " 
 
 63
 
 64 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 " Indeed ! " said Pomm. " But it's not astonishing 
 if you speak better English than most of your com- 
 panions. . . . You must not forget that I 
 taught you to recite and sing English nursery rhymes 
 when you were almost a baby." 
 
 "Yes, that's true," answered Jacqueline simply. 
 She spoke correctly and precisely, selecting her words 
 carefully and more like a grown-up person than like 
 a child. 
 
 She was standing in front of Pomm, with her face 
 towards his, and, resting her hands upon his parted 
 knees, she amused herself by raising herself up 
 and down several times. Suddenly her bobbing head 
 struck a sharp blow underneath Pomm's chin. 
 
 The old mariner rubbed the sore spot ruefully, but 
 said nothing. The child had stopped her acrobatic 
 movements and stood waiting to see if he would speak. 
 
 " You've hurt Pomm, you naughty monkey ! " said 
 Franchise rising hurriedly, and going towards her 
 little daughter. " See, you've hurt him very much 
 with your romping. But he is too good to say so." 
 
 " Oh, a little knock like that won't hurt him, Maman 
 cherie" quoth Jacqueline. " He's a man ; he can bear 
 it." 
 
 Botfi Pomm and Franchise looked at Jacqueline, 
 trying to appear severe. But both were doing their 
 utmost to refrain from laughing. 
 
 "You might at least apologize to Uncle Pomm," 
 said Franchise at last. 
 
 "Oh, certainly," said Jacqueline, and she moved 
 towards Pomm, and, stroking his hand, kissed him
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 65 
 
 gently on one cheek. " Poor old Pomm ! I didn't 
 hurt you really, did I?" 
 
 " No, not much," said Pomm. And he smiled and 
 kissed her back again. 
 
 " There, you see ! " said Jacqueline triumphantly 
 to her mother. " I told you he didn't mind." Al- 
 though it was Franchise's aim to suppress in her child's 
 heart all over-sensibility that might be the means of 
 suffering for her later on in life, there were times when 
 she was almost appalled at her own handiwork, and 
 Jacqueline's incipient heartlessness terrified her. She 
 looked at the child almost with terror. But faithful 
 to her resolved principles, she allowed a sterner reason 
 to get the better of her more natural instincts and she 
 did not chide Jacqueline for her lack of feeling. 
 
 Having got the best of her mother, which she nearly 
 always did on such occasions, Jacqueline turned her 
 attention once more to Pomm and said sweetly: 
 " What have you got for my birthday, Uncle Pomm 
 
 _r, " 
 
 enr 
 
 "If you go out into the hall, and fetcH a parcel 
 that is lying by the side of my hat and coat, you will 
 see," said Pomm. 
 
 Abd Jacqueline flew. 
 
 "You see what she is like, mon ami/' said Fran- 
 cpise to Pomm. " I can never get the better of her, 
 and yet, even when she knows she is in the wrong, 
 she disarms me at once with her wilful charm. She is 
 terribly like her father in some ways. I am appalled 
 at times, yet I feel powerless to prevent it." 
 
 " Why should you try to prevent it, dear friend ? "
 
 66 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 "Because I do so hope that Jacqueline will be up- 
 right, straightforward, and sincere. I have suffered 
 so much retrospectively, when I have thought of 
 Adrien's charm and remembered how fie used to put 
 it to the service of his most selfish desires when he 
 wished to gain some benefit. He knew the power 
 of his winning ways, and he used them consciously 
 as a weapon to his own ends. I see signs of the same 
 characteristic traits in Jacqueline, and they appal me. 
 You see how she wheedled you just now!" 
 
 "Yes, she is a winsome sprite," said Pomm, smil- 
 ing. Pomm's philosophy led him to accept character 
 as it was, and not to try and amend it in any way. " I 
 should not trouble about those childish little ruses if 
 I were you. You cannot educate a creature merely 
 with reason. Let her develop along her own lines, 
 and correct what you think absolutely wrong as you 
 go along. The best educationalist cannot do more 
 than that." 
 
 " Yes, but she frightens me sometimes with her 
 hard common-sense too," said Franchise. " Only the 
 other day I was giving her a music lesson, and she 
 would not pay attention. So I left her alone in the 
 drawing-room, telling her that I should not come back 
 to her until she had made up her mind to give all her 
 energies to her work. Thereupon systematically she 
 set up a dismal howling, which she would not stop. 
 After about a quarter of an hour of such exercise, 
 I opened the door and said to her : ' It is perfectly 
 useless to go on howling like that, Jacqueline. You 
 know very well that it does not appeal to me at all.'
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 67 
 
 Thereupon she suddenly stopped. 'Doesn't it move 
 you, then ? ' she asked. ' Not in the least/ I an- 
 swered. Then she took out her pocket-handkerchief 
 and dried her eyes. And quite calmly she said: 
 ' Well, as it doesn't affect you, I need not go on.' " 
 
 Pomm laughed immoderately at this story. 
 
 " Oh, don't laugh, Pomm please don't," said 
 Frangoise with some vexation. "Do tell me what 
 I ought to do when she says such things." 
 
 "Well, what did you say in this particular in- 
 stance ? " 
 
 "Nothing. I left the room and closed the door, 
 trying hard not to laugh. But in reality I was ter- 
 ribly vexed with myself." 
 
 " My dear friend ! You may be educating Jacque- 
 line, and I am sure that you are doing your best. 
 But what is certainly achieved so far, is that Jacque- 
 line is educating you!" 
 
 "What is the use of your friendship, Pomm, if 
 you can't say more useful things than that?" began 
 Frangoise hotly, when Jacqueline came skipping back 
 into the room with a new doll which she had managed 
 to extricate from the parcel that Pomm had brought 
 her. It was dressed as a sailor-boy. 
 
 " I'm glad it's a boy-doll," said Jacqueline. " I've 
 got three lady-dolls and they'll keep him in order 
 like Maman and I do you," she said, turning to 
 Pomm. 
 
 This was her only mode of thanks. 
 
 " Didn't you find anything else besides the doll in 
 that parcel, Jacqueline?" asked Pomm.
 
 68 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 "Oh, yes," replied Jacqueline casually. "Yes, I 
 found an old dirty book too. But I left it in the 
 hall . . . I thought it was for Maman" She 
 ran out into the hall again, and returned shortly 
 with the book in her hand. " There ! " she said, 
 giving it to her mother. " It's hardly worth having. 
 It's so old and nasty." 
 
 Franchise opened it, glanced at it, and saw that 
 it was a work on the Education of Woman by Greard. 
 
 "I found that on the quay for six sous as I was 
 coming here," explained Pomm. 
 
 Franchise smiled. Pomm, who by this time had 
 almost entirely rilled up his flat with secondhand 
 books, now took every opportunity of bringing her 
 his latest bargains. Soon, if she did not take care, 
 she foresaw that her own flat would be the prey of 
 Pomm's hobby too. But she thanked her old friend, 
 and presently Clemence came in to say that lunch 
 was served. 
 
 Jacqueline flew to her to show her the boy-doll. 
 
 " He's a sailor-boy. He used to be one of the crew 
 on Pomm's ship," she explained to the maid, who 
 was hurrying her off to wash her hands before the 
 meal. For the child had a wonderful imagination, and 
 was always inventing romantic explanations of the 
 most ordinary things. 
 
 Five minutes later she entered the dining-room 
 where her mother and Pomm were already seated at 
 the table, with hair fresh-brushed, and hands pink 
 and damp from a recent vigorous ablution. Instead 
 of taking her place quietly, she took a short run
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 69 
 
 and leapt into it like a boy, and her skirts, flying up 
 round her, disclosed her bare legs and her rosy 
 knees. 
 
 " Jacqueline ! " said her mother in a tone of re- 
 proof, " where have you learnt such boyish man- 
 ners?" 
 
 " I saw the little boy in the concierge's loge do 
 that," said Jacqueline unabashed. " I can do it almost 
 as well as he can now ! " 
 
 Her mother was dumfounded, and found no im- 
 mediate answer. 
 
 But this time Pomm intervened. He believed it 
 to be his duty sometimes to collaborate with her 
 mother in the undertaking of Jacqueline's education. 
 
 "If you jump about like that and show your legs, 
 you'll never get a husband later on, Jacqueline ! Men 
 don't like tomboy girls who show their legs." 
 
 " I can't help that," said Jacqueline, philosophically. 
 " The man who marries me must take me as I am, 
 or he wonlt get me at all." 
 
 So saying, she picked up her spoon daintily, and 
 began breaking the shell of a boiled egg. 
 
 And both Franchise and Pomm realized that in this 
 particular argument Jacqueline had once more got the 
 better of them. 
 
 iFrangoise Reville, after settling down in Paris 
 with Jacqueline and Clemence, had very gradually 
 but very apparently altered. The sudden revolution 
 which had been brought about in her mental and 
 spiritual self after the discovery of her husband's 
 true character had affected her outwardly as well as
 
 70 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 inwardly. Her face never regained the frank loolc 
 of ingenuous belief which had been its chief charac- 
 teristic, and which had proved to the outside world 
 that she was genuinely delighted with it, and quite 
 willing to take it at its own exaggerated valuation, 
 as an excellent and most kindly thing. But what 
 her expression had lost of innocent youth, it had 
 gained in sweetness and depth. Though her eyes and 
 mouth smiled less spontaneously, they had a deeper 
 and softer serenity which was the result of her ac- 
 quaintance with sorrow. And this lent a great charm 
 to her face. 
 
 Paris, too, did for her what it does for most 
 women, foreigners and provincials, who come to her 
 in the full bloom of their womanhood. It gave her a 
 subtle comprehension of her own femininity. It gave 
 her even more. The life she led after she had 
 definitely settled down in the capital was entirely 
 different from the life she had led with Adrian at 
 Rouen. There she had been the submissive, loving, 
 tender wife, who allowed herself to be as wax in the 
 hands of her husband. When he had married her, he 
 had wished Franchise to give herself up entirely to 
 the material comfort of his home and of himself. 
 He had done as he had intended to do before his mar- 
 riage and had moulded his wife to his own ideas. 
 With the restricting influences of her husband's 
 narrow view, and of the equally limited ideals of 
 provincial society, Franchise had allowed her brain 
 to stagnate, just as it had stagnated in her early 
 youth at the convent. The poor girl had indeed
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 71 
 
 begun to believe that all effort towards the acquiring 
 of a clearer or more cultured mentality was abso- 
 lutely wrong, and she had finally abandoned herself 
 entirely and without resistance to Adrien's training. 
 But Paris had awakened her intellectually as well 
 as morally at least as far as she was capable. 
 After she had first settled there, she had made 
 several acquaintances by the help of a few friends 
 of her husband's who had received him into 
 their houses when he was a young man alone in the 
 city. These acquaintances now came to her in sym- 
 pathy and friendship, and this led to the making of 
 others. By degrees she collected quite a pleasant 
 circle around her. And with careful selection her 
 chosen companions were those who were interesting in 
 themselves -writers, painters, professors of both 
 sexes, and a few political men and their wives. Fran- 
 c,oise was fond of reading, and now she was free 
 to read what she chose, being no longer in any lead- 
 ing-strings. With Pomm's help who lent or bought 
 her all the books she required she rapidly became a 
 well-read woman, deeply interested in all forms of 
 thought and action of her time, and well versed in 
 artistic, literary, and even political, matters. Jac- 
 queline now did not take up all her time, al- 
 though she was devoted to her and watched over her 
 child most carefully. But she no longer tended 
 ker as she formerly had done. She taught her now 
 to look after herself. She wished to develop in her 
 at an early age, and concerning the most material and 
 ordinary things, a spirit of self-dependence and of per-
 
 72 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 sonal initiative. 'And though she still made all Jac- 
 queline's clothes, when the child began to go to the 
 Lycee, there were many more hours of freedom at 
 Franchise's disposal. 
 
 It was about this time that she began to take more 
 interest in herself, too, and in her own person. Her 
 Parisian women friends initiating her into the mys- 
 teries of the toilet, she learned many small secrets 
 which were helpful to her. She had been a simple, 
 serious girl, strong and healthy and inclined to be 
 fond of pretty clothes, but she had never been told 
 that she was good-looking, and had never given her 
 personal appearance much thought. Now, in contact 
 with other women who were dainty Parisiennes with 
 the subtle, acquired charm of their species, Franchise 
 was urged to pay more attention to herself, and by 
 degrees the quiet, reserved, and somewhat colourless 
 young woman had blossomed out into a consciously 
 charming creature. But, though Franchise took great 
 pains to improve her personal appearance and had 
 gained more skill in the choosing of her gowns, she 
 took an interest in her physical self merely for the 
 genuine pleasure of pleasing her friends. She had no 
 thought of sex-conquest. All love-interest seemed for 
 ever to have been crushed out of her. There was, as 
 it were, a numbness in her brain concerning the oppo- 
 site sex that was most strange. 
 
 This was not wholly the result of her conscious 
 will, but largely of her primary education. Although 
 she now rebelled mentally against the ethics of self- 
 immolation which had been the basis of her upbring- 
 ing, most of the early teachings she had received were
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 73 
 
 too deeply rooted to be eradicated even by the force 
 of her will. She had assimilated a habit of supine 
 resignation by internal as well as by external persua- 
 sion, and it had become so completely a part of her 
 nature that she could no longer find in herself the 
 moral strength by means of which she might have 
 freed herself from its urgings. After her one great 
 and supreme act of decision born of a sudden sym- 
 pathy and understanding for a woman whom she con- 
 sidered still more unfortunate than herself, which de- 
 cision had resulted in her visit to Madame Ducastel 
 all energy for fresh and spontaneous actions individ- 
 ually thought out had left her and she had fallen 
 back once more into her acquired passivity. Indeed, 
 it had so entirely sapped her virile force that it had de- 
 prived her spirit of all self-reliance, of all belief in 
 self. Self-abnegation once more now formed so in- 
 trinsic a part of herself that it debarred her from all 
 hope of recreating her own personality. But her in- 
 tuition, which had only been repressed and not entirely 
 stamped out, was still sufficiently unimpaired to guide 
 her consciously in the task of educating her daughter 
 on a totally different system from that of her own 
 education. 
 
 All capacity for love, passion, and devotion she now 
 had left in her, was centred upon her child. It was 
 more than mere motherly affection which she gave 
 to Jacqueline. There was in her love for her daughter 
 all the eager hope of the woman who has not lived 
 her own life, and who, having been cheated out of her 
 own legitimate share of happiness, wishes to get even 
 with destiny in the person of her child. She was de-
 
 74 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 termined that Jacqueline should be all that she her- 
 self could never be indeed, could never have been. 
 Franchise wished to help the development in her 
 daughter of all the natural human hopes, desires, 
 yearnings and urgings which had been so wilfully 
 suppressed in herself and which, unchecked, might 
 have led her to wish to taste more deeply of the knowl- 
 edge of life. And though she knew that this spirit, 
 once developed in Jacqueline, might teach her child 
 many keen sorrows from which her own forced re- 
 pression had sheltered her, at least she was determined 
 that Jacqueline should not suffer the unsatisfying, 
 savourless sorrows of the women of a former genera- 
 tion, who were systematically trained to accept the 
 false for the real, and denied their lawful inheritance 
 of human joy. She had also fearlessly considered the 
 possibility of Jacqueline's natural tenderness being 
 restrained perhaps even destroyed by over develop- 
 ment of her intellect and will. But she was prepared 
 to accept even this contingency, rather than allow 
 her child to become over sentimentalised as she her- 
 self had been. 
 
 Franchise was genuinely fond of her friends and 
 liked to please them. But the only man she received 
 in intimacy was Pomm, for his perfect devotion was 
 above all suspicion. He was now an old man, 
 though he was as nimble and as interested in his own 
 life as ever. He had retired from the Navy almost 
 directly after Ajdrien's death and the second-hand 
 bookstalls were still his greatest joy his single pas- 
 sion. Indeed he had almost entirely filled the four
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 75 
 
 rooms of his flat full of his purchases. From floor to 
 ceiling they rose in serried lines, not a space between, 
 and not a single inch of wall visible. His bedroom 
 and his dining-room were similarly decorated and 
 even his desk was crowded up by two tall piles of 
 books on either side of his writing-pad. The strange 
 thing was that though he continued collecting rare old 
 editions and of musty volumes on heterogeneous sub- 
 jects for so many years, he never read the books he 
 bought. He was so taken up with his long walks 
 through the streets of Paris, looking into shop-win- 
 dows, poring over the book -boxes of the Quays, and 
 attending the lectures at the Sorbonne, or College de 
 France or various private institutions of the same 
 kind in which Paris abounds for the delight of the 
 student that he never found time even to look into 
 the volumes which crowded up his home. Whenever 
 Franchise asked him why he purchased so many books 
 and never read them, he invariably made the same 
 answer: "You see I shall find them very useful to 
 look into, when I get old, and have to stay indoors on 
 rainy days. . . ." 
 
 'As Pomm was already over sixty-five, Franchise 
 often wondered when it would be that he would con- 
 sider it advisable to remain indoors on rainy days. 
 
 But if his devotion to the finding of frowsy old 
 books was touching, his devotion to the widow and 
 the daughter of his old friend was equally so. He 
 was an excellent English scholar and long ago had 
 undertaken the task of Jacqueline's instruction 5n 
 English. His accent left much to be desired, but his
 
 76 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 real knowledge of the language might have put many 
 a free-born British subject to shame. He taught Jac- 
 queline the English of the Bible, of Shakespeare, and 
 of Milton, but he was powerless to teach her modern 
 slang, ignoring its very existence himself. He had 
 met many Englishmen during his travels, but had 
 never been in England and believed that the English 
 of Steele and Addison was the language spoken in 
 the streets of London to-day. 
 
 To Pomm alone was allowed the privilege of tak- 
 ing Franchise Reville to the theatre a pastime in 
 which he delighted as much as Franchise did herself. 
 Just as formerly Pomm had arranged to meet Adrien 
 somewhere in Paris and go with him to some first- 
 night performance, so he now arranged with Franchise 
 to fetch her at seven o'clock, taking her to a restau- 
 rant to dinner and then on to a play. For he was 
 the only cavalier Franchise could allow herself to be 
 seen constantly with in Paris where women may 
 be adored though not always respected and where a 
 lady still young in years is for ever compromised 
 if she is seen often in company of a man of her own 
 age. Pomm's white hair and silver beard were proof 
 against all evil tongues, as well as his well-known re- 
 spectful affection for the widow of his best and indeed 
 only friend. So that Franchise never hesitated to go 
 everywhere with him. 
 
 Franchise rarely alluded to Adrien in her con- 
 versations with Pomm, who was still so faithful to 
 his friend's memory though he blamed many of his 
 actions. This unreasoning tenderness of the old man
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 77 
 
 for Adrian's name touched Franchise so greatly that 
 she never strove to destroy it. Though she had ex- 
 plained to him that Adrien's insincere charm had been 
 the cause of much pain to her she never told him of 
 the discovery she had made after her husband's death 
 nor of the change which that discovery had wrought 
 in her own feelings. 
 
 Notwithstanding the distance that now separated her 
 from the day when she had first learned that she had 
 been betrayed, she herself had not altered her opinion 
 of her dead husband. She could not bring herself to 
 find any excuse for him. Her love had died in one 
 moment, and she would never have allowed it to re- 
 vive and urge her by specious promptings to 
 find any excuse for him. He was inexcusable. His 
 had been an inferior soul altogether and could 
 not be judged from her present standpoint without 
 complete condemnation. He had acted as the lowest 
 of Don Juans. In her appreciation there was no 
 difference between him and the most fallen, most de- 
 praved of men. He had professed to love two women 
 simultaneously, so that he might reap material bene- 
 fits from each. Such an action was indefensible, and 
 therefore Franchise strove to forget that he had ever 
 lived or had been anything to her. 
 
 She realized fully that had she herself been at the 
 time of her marriage the creature that she now was 
 and not the soul-stunted artificial production that her 
 education had made of her, she never could have re- 
 garded him as worthy of her consideration at all. 
 When her memory carried her back to other days,
 
 ;8 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 she wondered how she could ever have accepted him 
 as a leader, as a master. His commonplace ideas, 
 his narrow judgment, his very limited intelligence- 
 all these were clearly apparent to her now that she 
 had cast off her own shackles and had allowed her 
 intellect to expand and to reach its own heights. The 
 few friends she now had around her were of so differ- 
 ent an intellectual calibre that they had helped her not 
 only to realize her own mental self by contact with 
 them, but also to judge equably the vulgarity of mind 
 of the commonplace bourgeois who had married her 
 because of her own ignorance and innocence, in the 
 hope that she would never be able to fathom his own 
 shallowness. 
 
 The flat in which Franchise and Jacqueline lived 
 was a small one on the second floor, in a short street 
 near the Place Wagram. Behind the house was a 
 large space of ground which had been cultivated for 
 many years as a garden, and possessed some fine trees 
 and some small pieces of lawn. The landlord of the 
 house had divided this into four small, even-sized 
 plots by means of green trellis work partitions, and 
 each plot of ground was allotted to corresponding flats 
 in the house. The plot which belonged to the second 
 floor was one of the sunniest, so that Franchise was 
 able to let Jacqueline play there during the fine days 
 of summer while she herself sat reading in a wicker 
 chair near the child. 
 
 The flat was composed of four rooms and a kitchen. 
 One was a very large and airy bedroom with a fine 
 southern aspect over the garden, and this was the
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 79 
 
 room which Franchise occupied with her child. When 
 she had arranged to make over the remainder of her 
 lease to the newcomers at the Perception on leaving 
 Rouen, Franchise had also decided to sell most of the 
 larger pieces of furniture that adorned the house. 
 But she had reserved all the furnishing of her bed- 
 room and of the drawing-room, as well as part of 
 her husband's study, for herself and intended bring- 
 ing it to her new home. But, the day before she left, 
 the new Percepteur's wife had suddenly made her an 
 offer for the rest of the furniture too, and Franchise, 
 only too eager at this juncture to separate herself from 
 all past memories, had gladly let it go at a mere nom- 
 inal sum. She sold it all the wide, two-panelled 
 armoire-a-glace, the dressing-table, the chairs, and the 
 broad bed that matched the armoire, the heavy silken 
 hangings that had adorned the bed, the doors and win- 
 dows which had been the pride and delight of her 
 bridal days. And with them she had sold Adrien's 
 writing-desk in which she had found the letters of 
 Madame Ducastel. All had gone and Franchise had 
 wished at the time that all the memories they repre- 
 sented to her could have departed with them. . . . 
 Franchise's new room was furnished very simply 
 and had draperies of white spotted muslin at the bed 
 and the two windows. The two doors of the room 
 one of which had access to the small hall and the other 
 which led to the salon beyond were uncovered and 
 painted a creamy white. Her small and narrow bed 
 was merely a spring mattress supported by four short 
 legs set on rollers. At the head and foot of this, two
 
 80 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 boards were nailed, forming a head and a foot rest. 
 These boards were covered with flowery cretonne in 
 a charming Louis XVI. design, and a covering of 
 the same cretonne formed the bedspread. Over this 
 improvised bed, a large brass ring was fixed to the 
 ceiling, and through this the simple curtains of 
 frilled muslin were drawn and fell across the top and 
 bottom of the bed. Jacqueline's small white-painted 
 cot which was set close to her mother's bed was 
 entirely adorned with white, and had curtains of 
 spotless muslin treated in the same way. The walls 
 were papered with a very light blue paper striped with 
 a slightly darker tone. All the furniture armoire, 
 dressing-table and chairs was of plain white-painted 
 wood, and there was a wide lounge chair of wicker- 
 work made comfortable with many fancy cushions, 
 where Franchise often sat and read at night while 
 Jacqueline slept. For Franchise was essentially a 
 French mother, even if she was determined to give a 
 free and independent education to her daughter. She 
 humoured and spoilt her child in many ways, and one 
 of the ways of Jacqueline was that she insisted upon 
 the presence of her mother when she went to sleep. 
 
 Many of Franchise's methods of education were 
 still old-fashioned, though she strove by every means 
 to be a modern educationist. Thus she always con- 
 sulted the child before making any decision concern- 
 ing her. 
 
 " Do you want to go out now, cherief " " Do you 
 want to eat?" " Do you want to sleep? " were ques- 
 tions she was for ever addressing to Jacqueline. She
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 81 
 
 believed that by thus educating her child to follow 
 her own individual tastes, she was allowing her to 
 develop rightly along her own lines. As the little 
 girl was consulted in every way, by degrees it was 
 Jacqueline, and Jacqueline alone, who ruled the 
 household. Even old Clemence who had been in 
 Franchise's service before the child's birth, though 
 she managed the material part of the household en- 
 tirely and would hardly allow her mistress to give her 
 an order was the slave of Jacqueline. Like most 
 French servants she always did what the child wished 
 because, as she said : " The little one is only a bebe; 
 she does not know any better. She must be hu- 
 moured." 
 
 So between those two adoring women, Jacqueline 
 was allowed to go to bed when she liked, to eat 
 what she liked, and to do entirely as she liked in 
 every way, with the result that, although she was a 
 most intelligent and interesting child, strangers some- 
 times found her inclined to be trying. 
 
 Although Franchise had determined to allow her 
 daughter the free development of all her natural ten- 
 dencies, she did not at first realise that an education 
 cannot be achieved without a deft mingling of re- 
 pression, and that if the good qualities of a child must 
 be allowed to develop, the bad ones must be sternly 
 reproved. Like many parents, she thought that be- 
 cause Nature had made her a mother, Nature had also 
 by that same virtue made her an educationist. . . '. 
 However, as Jacqueline's education proceeded, Fran- 
 Qoise found that she had attempted a task which was
 
 82 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 far more difficult than she had at first supposed it to 
 be. But if it be true, as some wise savants declare, 
 that heredity is but an imitation by the child of the 
 parents' idiosyncrasies, then perhaps she was well in- 
 spired in allowing Jacqueline the full development of 
 all her more dominating personal instincts, since her 
 own self-repression was the very quality she most 
 wished to avoid imparting to her daughter. For Jac- 
 queline was so much in her mother's society that she 
 could not have failed to imitate her instinctive self- 
 abnegation unconsciously, had not Franchise herself, 
 by developing in her daughter habits of almost excess- 
 ive self-assertion, thus given her the best safeguard 
 against the annihilation of her personality. 
 
 After she had passed her fourteenth birthday, Jac- 
 queline was for her age a much-developed individual- 
 ity. She chose her own clothes, ordered her own 
 meals, and even decided what her studies should be. 
 Luckily for her, she was a comparatively reasonable 
 creature, and in most things showed a well-balanced 
 mind, which she had probably inherited from her 
 mother's forebears. For although she was the living 
 image of her father, she had so far shown but few 
 of his characteristics. Of these her love of coquetry 
 and her winning charm were the strongest.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 ONE bright afternoon about two o'clock, while Jac- 
 queline was at the Lycee, Franchise was alone in the 
 salon of her flat, embroidering some strips of batiste 
 that were destined to adorn a blouse for Jacqueline. 
 Jacqueline herself could not embroider. She was of 
 the generation that learns Latin and mathematics and 
 disdains the art of the needle. But as she was a very 
 fastidious young person and liked beautiful raiment, 
 she was delighted that her mother could do fine 
 stitching to trim her clothes while she herself attended 
 lectures on Higher Education. 
 
 As Franchise was about to begin on a fifth strip of 
 batiste, the front bell rang. Clemence, before open- 
 ing the hall door, came hurriedly into the salon, tying 
 on a white apron over her blue linen one. She was 
 concocting some wonderful entremets to please Jac- 
 queline at dinner time and hated being disturbed to 
 answer bells when engaged upon so delicate a task. 
 Almost angrily, though in a subdued whisper, she 
 asked her mistress: 
 
 " Madame regoit-elle? " 
 
 " Certainly, Clemence." 
 
 And Clemence made for the hall door like a shot 
 from a gun. She found a servant-girl neatly gowned 
 in black with a letter to deliver to Madame Reville, 
 marked " Personnelle " and " Urgent." 
 
 Franchise held the missive in her hand one moment. 
 83
 
 84 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 The handwriting, weak and straggling, reminded her 
 of the fateful letter she had also received from Cle- 
 mence's hand one evening long ago. She broke open 
 the seal and read : 
 
 " MADAME, 
 
 " I have no claim to your pity, but I am dying and 
 would much like to see you. I am almost your neigh- 
 bour. Will you come to me? Do not refuse my re- 
 quest. It is perhaps the last I shall make on earth." 
 
 The letter was signed in bolder writing, as if the 
 writer had made an effort to write her name quite 
 clearly : 
 
 "CECILE DUCASTEL." 
 
 Franchise felt a pang at her heart. After all these 
 years, what could Madame Ducastel have to say to 
 her? She had learnt through Pomm who himself 
 had read the announcement in a paper of the death 
 of Monsieur Ducastel, which had taken place about 
 five years before. He had left Cecile only a small 
 portion of his wealth. She was his second wife, and 
 he had four children by his first marriage who had 
 inherited the greater part of his fortune. Madame 
 Ducastel had left the sumptuous abode where Fran- 
 Qoise had once visited her, and had taken a flat in a 
 street not far from Madame Reville. She had fur- 
 nished it well with some of the furniture of her former 
 home. 
 
 Franchise and Madame Ducastel had never met
 
 85 
 
 since the day of their first and only interview. But 
 Franchise did not hesitate long now. She sat down to 
 her writing-table and wrote a few lines to Madame 
 Ducastel, telling her that she would be 'with her 
 shortly, and sent the black-robed maid back with the 
 note. 
 
 Then she went and dressed herself to go out. 
 
 After she had been kept waiting for several min- 
 utes in a small salon which showed traces of the lack 
 of a mistress's superintendence and proved to Fran- 
 goise that Madame Ducastel's illness must have lasted 
 some time, she was shown into Cecile's bedroom. 
 
 At first Frangoise did not even recognize the woman 
 in the wide bed. When she had first seen her, 
 Madame Ducastel in the full maturity of her years 
 had been still a handsome and attractive woman. 
 Though she was then past forty-five, she had evi- 
 dently made a great resistance against the growing 
 years, for her entire person, though no longer en- 
 dowed with the freshness of youth, had been still ex- 
 tremely well-preserved. But now! 
 
 She lay back on her white pillows whiter indeed 
 than they. Her once golden hair, so well ondulee and 
 carefully-dressed, was now greyish-white, and was 
 pushed back from her forehead in long straight wisps 
 without a care for appearances. One felt that she 
 had already travelled far beyond the point where a 
 woman, even though she may be old, may still wish 
 to charm. The skin of her face, without powder or 
 rouge, was ashen-grey, and the network of wrinkles 
 around the tired blue eyes with their creased lids
 
 transformed the once triumphant beauty into an aged 
 woman. 
 
 Her pallid lips moved tremulously as she saw Fran- 
 Qoise's eyes, almost against her will, taking note of 
 the ravages of time, thus betraying the fact that she 
 was almost unrecognisable. She held out her slim, 
 wasted hand. 
 
 " I am altered, am I not ? Oh, it is not worth 
 while denying it! I am past all vanity, all coquetry. 
 I have no longer any strength any desire to live. 
 . . . But death is not only the lover of beauty 
 and of youth." 
 
 And then as there was a pause, during which Fran- 
 Qoise stroked the thin hand with tender reassuring 
 touch, Cecile went on: 
 
 " Thank you so much for coming. How good you 
 are! ... I have often thought of you often 
 and wondered . . . wondered . . ." She 
 broke off, as if afraid of expressing her thoughts. 
 
 And Franchise herself was silent and waited, mean- 
 while insistently and gently caressing the fragile hand 
 she still held. 
 
 "When a woman is dying, she sees all the things 
 of life differently from another plane, as it were, 
 and in their true relation to one another. . . ." 
 pursued Cecile in her weary voice. . . . "I 
 want to confess to you and to receive your pardon 
 . if you can give it me. For I need it. I 
 have not been a good woman, perhaps . . . 
 but I have suffered suffered terribly ... so 
 terribly ! " And the tired lids fell again, closing
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 87 
 
 the weary, sorrowful eyes, and the broken voice sank 
 almost to a whisper. 
 
 "I know . . ." breathed Franchise softly, as 
 she looked compassionately at the pale face on the 
 pillows. 
 
 Cecile Ducastel opened her eyes once more and 
 gazed at Frangoise. There was neither human fear 
 nor jealousy nor curiosity in the glance. It was the 
 look of a woman already beyond earthly things. She 
 understood what was in Franchise's mind. 
 
 " Oh ! you know . . . then ? " And then, af- 
 ter another pause " I have often wondered whether 
 you did." 
 
 "Yes" softly "Yes . . . I know all." 
 
 Silence fell again between them. The dying woman 
 seemed exhausted, but she rallied her courage to ask 
 the next question, as if it touched a still vital spot 
 in her heart. 
 
 "When did you know?" Cecile spoke as if a sud- 
 den flame of life had re-arisen in her soul and had 
 awakened her to memory of self and of her once great 
 passion. 
 
 " I learned the whole story a month after his death 
 when you sent that letter to the Perception. I read 
 all your other letters afterwards though he had 
 written injunctions on them that they were to be 
 burnt in the event of his death. I thought that I had 
 the right to know all them." 
 
 Cecile made no sound for a few moments. Then 
 the faint voice spoke again. 
 
 " I always wondered what had become of that last
 
 88 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 letter I wrote. I tried to trace through the post 
 whether it had been delivered or not. ... I 
 never found out." 
 
 " It was marked personnelle, so the new Percepteur 
 sent it on to our private address." 
 
 " So you read all the other letters ? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " I am glad > " and Cecile's sad voice seemed a 
 little stronger now " I am glad that you did, because 
 you would understand better then . . ." And she 
 added somewhat anxiously: "You did understand 
 didn't you?" 
 
 " Yes I understood." 
 
 Cecile's chill fingers clung almost affectionately to 
 those of Franchise. She closed her eyes again. And 
 then suddenly a new thought thrust itself into her 
 fading brain. 
 
 ".When you came to see me in the Place Males- 
 herbes . . . ten years ago . . . was it 
 not? . . . did you know then ?" 
 
 Yes I knew then." 
 
 "Yet you did not reproach me! . . . you 
 said nothing! " 
 
 " What was there to say ? I pitied you you had 
 loved him deeply probably far more than I had 
 . and you were so unhappy. What would 
 have been the use of reproaches ? " 
 
 " Ah, you understood. And to understand sorrow 
 is to forgive . . . everything . . . " 
 
 Franchise made no reply. Cecile's eyelids fell again 
 and Franchise, standing by the side of the bed hold-
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 89 
 
 ing her hand, looked upon the half-conscious woman 
 with pitiful sweetness. Then slowly very slowly 
 from beneath the closed lids two chill tears fell and 
 coursed down the wrinkled cheeks . . . tears of 
 the dying, arising from an almost frozen source. 
 
 Franchise remained silent still, but she lifted a 
 small cambric handkerchief from the table near the 
 bed, and then very gently and with infinite pity she 
 wiped away the tears of the dying woman. 
 
 Cecile, opening her eyes wide once more, looked 
 long and deeply at Franchise, and at last she saw with 
 entire clearness the heart of the woman revealed. 
 
 " You are a great and noble woman, Franchise Re- 
 ville I wish I had known you more. . . . You 
 have a rare and generous soul. Women like you make 
 the world a better abiding-place . . ." And then, 
 after a moment's pause, she added again for it was 
 evident that her thoughts reverted constantly to the 
 memory of the man she had loved. ., . " Did 
 you love him too?" 
 
 " Perhaps I did," replied Franchise hesitatingly. 
 " Perhaps I did . . . but only with the unreas- 
 oning love of a very young girl. It could not have 
 been a great love since it died so easily. 
 For when I learnt what you had been to him you, 
 who had loved him knowing his baseness his trivial, 
 mean baseness my love for him died immediately. 
 It was so small a thing compared to yours ! >. i.. . 
 I understood that ! " 
 
 "Dear Adrien!" murmured the dying woman 
 softly, "dear Adrien . . ." as if claiming indul-
 
 9 o THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 gence for his faults even now. Then suddenly re- 
 membering Franchise's rights, she tried to explain to 
 Adrien's widow the unlawful love she had felt for 
 him. 
 
 " He was so young, so lonely, when I first knew 
 him. . . . He had never known his mother 
 and his father had never been greatly attached to him. 
 He had only his one friend Pomm in the world, 
 and Pomm was so often far away. . . . He 
 wanted a woman's loving care and tenderness. . . . 
 I was so much older than he was. ... I had 
 never had a child, and I had never loved my husband, 
 though I had tried to. Adrien seemed to me to be 
 everything I had missed in life. . . . I wanted 
 to make someone happy to get away from myself 
 and from my own misery. So I gave him my whole 
 life all my thoughts my entire devotion. I helped 
 him to make a success of his life I wanted his hap- 
 piness above all things, even at the expense of my 
 own. I rejoiced in the thought that I was useful 
 even necessary to him." 
 
 " Yet you knew his selfishness his personal in- 
 feriority?" 
 
 " Yes, but I loved him maternally, perhaps even he- 
 roically. When a woman is no longer very young, 
 what she loves in a man is her own dreams for his 
 future, and above all his need of her. The more ex- 
 perienced women love like that. The very young do 
 not. They expect more for themselves and are less 
 generous. . . . Perhaps you have found that 
 out since?"
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 91 
 
 "No, after Adrian's death I put all thoughts of 
 love out of my life for ever." 
 
 "Then, my dear, you have never known life 
 for human love is human life." 
 
 " Perhaps not but I have known maternal love 
 which is almost love Divine." 
 
 "Ah, yes! you are right. . , . The love I 
 had for Adrien was almost that." 
 
 " But, caring for him as you did . . . how 
 could you advise him to marry me?" asked Franchise 
 gently. 
 
 " Ah ! my dear, I deluded myself with the hope, as 
 do so many women who have sacrificed themselves as 
 I did that the nobler part of his love would always 
 be mine." 
 
 "And I," said Franchise sadly, "I too thought 
 that! Before I knew about you, I supposed that he 
 had perhaps had other or lesser loves in his life be- 
 fore he had met me. But I believed that I his wife 
 held the nobler part of his faith." 
 
 Over Cecile's wan face a sad smile flitted. It was 
 the smile of the woman who had learnt to see where 
 the shallows of life lie. 
 
 " Every woman who herself loves ideally thinks 
 
 that she holds the nobler part of her lover's love. 
 
 . We both thought the same of Adrien. 
 
 Now we both know that there was no nobler spirit 
 
 in him. . . ." 
 
 Franchise bent her head and made no reply. The 
 sick woman's breath came more laboriously. Fran- 
 c.oise hung wistfully over her, wishing that her last
 
 thoughts would not dwell on such sad reminiscences. 
 But Cecile's spiritless voice rose once more in tones 
 of exceeding pity. 
 
 "Poor Franchise!" 
 
 But Franchise's face glowed with an irradiating 
 smile. 
 
 " No, I was not poor. . . . You see, I had the 
 child. The child brought me comfort." 
 
 " Yes, but you were young ... so young ! " 
 said Cecile with the insistance of a woman for whom 
 love and passion have been the great things of life, 
 and who values them above all other human joys. 
 . . "You might have sought and found love 
 once more. I had already come to the end of my 
 life as a woman who can charm and please when I 
 lost my lover. : . ; ., ,. But you you are so 
 young!" 
 
 " When I discovered that Adrien had never cared 
 for me then all idea of love for ever died in my heart. 
 I gladly resigned myself to a loveless life for I had 
 Jacqueline, my daughter. . . . I willingly sac- 
 rificed all thoughts of passion and of marriage to 
 her." 
 
 " Ah, yes ! . . . That is true you had the child. 
 That was your comfort ... I had nothing." 
 
 Again for many moments no word was spoken be- 
 tween the two women the living and the dying 
 who had both loved the same man, and who now held 
 one another's hands in true sympathy. The long 
 shadows of the wintry afternoon were invading the 
 room, chasing out the light of the sun and covering 
 all things with its grey, misty shroud.
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 93 
 
 Then Cecile spoke again more falteringly for 
 her strength was decreasing rapidly. 
 
 " I must tell you another reason why I sent for 
 you to-day. ... I have no children no rela- 
 tions of my own, and I have quarrelled with Monsieur 
 Ducastel's family. I am quite alone in the world. I 
 want you to allow me to leave the little fortune I still 
 possess to your daughter to Adrien's daughter. 
 
 . Don't speak yet " as Franchise made 
 
 an instinctive gesture of refusal. ..." Don't 
 say ' No ' yet. . . . Understand this you who 
 understand all things of the human heart so well. To 
 me it will seem some small reparation, and I shall die 
 more easily. I think that I could be comparatively 
 happy now, if I could believe that my small fortune 
 could be of use to her ... to his child. . . ." 
 
 "But, madame " 
 
 " Please, dear, kind and generous woman do not 
 refuse my last request! Be charitable to the end. 
 . Let her accept from me what may perhaps 
 be her independence. ... I know your own cir- 
 cumstances. Your dowry was a comparatively large 
 one for the provinces, but I am sure that you have 
 found it difficult to live comfortably and educate your 
 daughter on your income. I know that Adrien left 
 nothing. . . . Please let me do this. 
 Be as merciful as you have ever been. Grant me this 
 last desire. Let me leave what I have to her. . . . 
 In a few days perhaps in a few hours I shall be 
 dead. ... Do not refuse my last request!" 
 
 Franchise was battling against her tears, but she 
 was vanquished. She answered gently:
 
 94 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 " I will not refuse. It shall be as you wish." 
 
 The dying woman pressed her hand and gave a 
 small sigh of satisfaction. Then Franchise, drying 
 her eyes and speaking in a tender voice, urged : 
 
 "Now you must rest. Is there anything I can do 
 for you ? " 
 
 "Don't leave me," pleaded Cecile. . .. 
 " Don't leave me. Stay with me to the end. It's so 
 terrible to die alone. . : . . There is no one to 
 come to me no relation no friend ! " 
 
 " I will not leave you. I will stay with you, since 
 you wish it. Is there anything you want?" 
 
 "Nothing now > . only your forgiveness." 
 
 Franchise bent forward and kissed Cecile on the 
 brow. 
 
 " Do not let us speak' of forgiveness. . . . There 
 can be no such word between us." 
 
 Cecile pressed Madame Reville's hand once more. 
 
 Franchise sent a note round to Clemence, telling 
 her not to expect her home that evening and to take 
 special care of Jacqueline, who had never slept a single 
 night away from her mother since her babyhood. 
 
 The following day she returned home for a few 
 hours to put some things together and to explain her 
 absence to Jacqueline. During Franchise's absence 
 from her bedside, Madame Ducastel was able to see 
 her lawyer and give him her last instructions concern- 
 ing the disposition of her property. 
 
 Jacqueline was both astonished and dismayed to 
 hear that her mother was to leave her again, and as 
 she was ignorant of Madame Ducastel's very exist-
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 95 
 
 ence, Franchise told her that she had suddenly been 
 called to the deathbed of an old school friend from 
 whom she had not heard for many years, and gave 
 her no further explanation. Jacqueline then consented 
 to remain alone with Clemence, and Franchise went 
 back to tend her husband's mistress till the end. 
 
 A week later Cecile Ducastel died in Franchise's 
 arms. Franchise and Jacqueline were the only mourn- 
 ers to follow her coffin to its last resting-place.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 BY the time that Jacqueline was a tall girl, with' Half- 
 long skirts and a blond pigtail doubled up twice and 
 held with a wide velvet bow, Francpise had gathered 
 around her a circle of charming and interesting ac- 
 quaintances; and Jacqueline, who from the age of 
 twelve had served tea on her mother's at-home days, 
 had become inured to society and social conversation 
 at an early age. She was a most precocious and in- 
 telligent girl, and as her studies at the Lycee pro- 
 gressed and she became possessed of more knowledge, 
 it was quite natural that, brought up as she had been, 
 she should have an exaggerated idea of her own im- 
 portance. Franchise of course realized that this self- 
 sufficiency was the weak point in the moral armour 
 she had wished to give her child. But she condoned 
 these faults in Jacqueline because of the opposite 
 virtues they implied. 
 
 'On a toujours les 'dcfauts de ses qualites. If Jac- 
 queline was self-assertive, headstrong and wilful, she 
 was frank, self-reliant and proud too. And as she 
 was accustomed to lead at home, she became also ac- 
 customed to lead at the Lycee. Her young compan- 
 ions were all subservient to her. She appeared to 
 them as an infallible oracle; they relied upon her 
 judgment, and, admiring her greatly, always sought 
 her advice. This adulation on all sides only served 
 
 96
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 97 
 
 to increase Her opinion of her own value, and though 
 she was never offensively conceited in manner, yet she 
 was convinced that she was an exceptional girl. In 
 a sense she judged rightly. She had far more social 
 and moral experience, far more savoir-faire, than 
 most maidens of her age. She had always been al- 
 lowed so much liberty by her mother that she never 
 could have supported the restrictions imposed upon 
 her young comrades by their parents or guardians, 
 neither could she have lent herself to the spirit of 
 ruse which was taught them, and only too well as- 
 similated. As she did not hesitate to declare her in- 
 dependent ideas, she was often an element of revolt 
 among her schoolmates, and many parents warned 
 their daughters to avoid her companionship. 
 
 But these things mattered little to Jacqueline. She 
 had her own life, her own ambitions, and her own 
 ideals, which were different from those of most girls 
 of her age. Her companions in their own homes 
 were mostly educated on the principles which had 
 formed the minds and brains of their own mothers 
 women of the same generation as Madame Reville 
 although the system of actual learning was improved 
 upon by the curriculum at the Lycee. Most mothers 
 of Franchise's generation wished their daughters to 
 acquire superior knowledge, yet they desired them 
 to conform to that artificial ideal of maidenhood 
 which preserves the girl, in total ignorance of 
 life until her marriage. With a broader, wider 
 culture, that ideal was forcibly disappearing in reality ; 
 but outwardly their parents wished the girls to appear
 
 98 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 as ignorant and innocent as ever for such was the 
 kind of education that still pleased the marrying man. 
 
 A deeper knowledge being incompatible with so re- 
 stricted an ideal, the presumed ignorance of the Lycee 
 trained girls was but an artificial production, hypo- 
 critically achieved by the advice of wily mothers. The 
 affected innocence was only assumed when in the 
 presence of men, and all these feigned qualities were 
 but as a mark easily thrown aside when the girls were 
 in the company of other girls. Jacqueline, for all her 
 impulsive outspokenness, her wilful personality, and 
 even her self-conceit, was yet a far more healthy 
 product than her companions, for at least she said 
 what she thought and thought what she said. Indeed, 
 the inevitable duplicity of her companions appalled 
 her, and debarred her from any real friendship among 
 her school companions. She was on terms of good 
 comradeship with one and all, but on terms of in- 
 timacy with none. This was not the result of her 
 mother's advice, but of an instinctive selection on the 
 part of the child. And Franchise, realising what a 
 broader education had done for her daughter on this 
 behalf, rejoiced in the result attained. 
 
 Yet there were times when she fell a prey to doubt, 
 and asked herself whether she had done right in al- 
 lowing the headstrong girl the upperhand. These 
 were the days when she was appalled at her daughter's 
 irrepressible spirit of domination. In these moments 
 of doubt she tried to remonstrate with Jacqueline. 
 But Jacqueline was not only tenacious, but believed 
 herself to be impeccable, like all young and inexperi-
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 99 
 
 enced creatures of her age and was the more diffi- 
 cult to manage. 
 
 One day she silenced her mother for ever on this 
 subject by remarking: 
 
 " Maman cherie, it is useless to oppose your supe- 
 rior experience to mine. . ... ,. I am in reality 
 nearly thirty years older than you, for all children of 
 my generation are more experienced than their par- 
 ents/* 
 
 " How's th'at . . " began Franchise,, 
 
 But Jacqueline proceeded to explain her theories 
 without leaving her mother time to finish her sen- 
 tence. 
 
 " You see, maman 'cherie, that as I was b'orn thirty 
 years after you, I am in reality thirty years older than 
 you. For I came into a world that had progressed 
 thirty years since your own birth, and therefore had 
 thirty years' more experience itself. To those more 
 perfected years I have added my own twenty years 
 of acquired knowledge and learning, such' as 
 was never given to you, and this has given me a sys- 
 tem of opinions and an erudition which you can never 
 acquire now. ; . : ; .i >.: Don't you see, maman, what 
 I mean ? " 
 
 But Frangoise was neither appalled nor silenced. 
 
 "I understand what you mean to infer, my dear. 
 But I also understand something which all your brain 
 culture cannot teach you. And that is, alas ! that now, 
 nothing can modify your personality from outside. 
 You will learn the only real lesson of life, my dar- 
 ling, from within your own heart for it can only be
 
 ioo THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 taught you by your individual suffering. I can neither 
 guide you nor guard you now." 
 
 At the age of eighteen, Jacqueline was a tall, slim 
 creature with a bright and healthy complexion, glossy 
 hair, and a fine, lissom, pliable figure. And though 
 she was far ahead of her companions in her reason- 
 ings and in her practical knowledge of life, her ignor- 
 ance concerning the passions and the attractions of 
 her sex was so far absolutely complete. 
 
 She had already obtained both her diplomas, bril- 
 liantly, the Brevet Simple and the Brevet Superieur, 
 and now the time had come for her to make a choice 
 and specialize if she wished to compete for a degree 
 at the Sorbonne. 
 
 She told her mother one day that she had decided 
 to attend the Literature lectures at the University, and 
 to prepare her Licence es lettres, for she was par- 
 ticularly fond of the subject and her literary taste 
 was already greatly formed. 
 
 " You see, maman cherie," she said, " I have no 
 particular taste or gift for art of any kind, though I 
 might perhaps by dint of hard work transform myself 
 into a mediocre pianist, or a second-rate painter. But 
 I prefer to aim at something I can do really well. 
 As you have always wished me to obtain some di- 
 ploma or degree which can enable me to follow some 
 career later on, if necessary, and in case I do not 
 marry, I think I could with some effort make a good 
 professor of Belles Lettres. Or I might devote my- 
 self to writing some day. So I shall go in for that." 
 
 " Do as you like, of course, ma cherie."
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 101 
 
 " Don't I always ? " said Jacqueline, laughing, as 
 she rose and went off into her own bedroom to dress 
 to go out. For the fourth room of the small flat had 
 now been turned into a bedroom for Jacqueline. It 
 had been repapered and painted and newly furnished 
 for her, and old Clemence though Franchise had 
 found it useful to have her near at night-time during 
 Jacqueline's early childhood had now been relegated 
 to her room in the servants' quarters on the sixth 
 floor of the house. 
 
 Jacqueline soon emerged again with her hat and 
 cloak, for she was leaving for the Lycee. This was 
 her last term, and she did not wish to miss a single 
 lesson. She was punctual, earnest and methodical in 
 her work. 
 
 Her mother looked after her with some pride, but 
 stifled a small sigh. As Jacqueline was about to leave 
 the room, she noticed Franchise's wistful gaze, and 
 came back towards her. 
 
 "What is the matter, maman cherie?" 
 
 "Nothing, dearest," said Franchise, turning away 
 her head. 
 
 "Si, si there is something, maman" insisted Jac- 
 queline. "Don't think you can hide anything from 
 me your soul is as clear as crystal ! Now then, dear, 
 out with it ! " 
 
 The tall, graceful girl had taken her mother by 
 the shoulder, and was peering down into her face. 
 
 "What is it? Tell me!" she demanded peremp- 
 torily. 
 
 " Well," said Franchise, hesitating and somewhat
 
 102 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 shame- facedly, "if you will have it, I was sighing, 
 my dearest, because, in spite of your brilliancy and 
 in spite of your cleverness and all your knowledge, I 
 wish sometimes you were a little tenderer a little 
 gentler towards me. . . . That's all, dear." 
 
 Jacqueline remained in contemplation of her 
 mother for a few moments in silence. She noticed 
 for the first time the pallor of her mother's gentle, 
 saddened face, and the threads of silver in the still 
 luxuriant hair. She saw the heavy tears in her 
 mother's eyes, and Jacqueline's heart, which still slum- 
 bered but which nevertheless was capable of a keen 
 awakening, went out to her. In sudden self-abase- 
 ment she threw herself at Franchise's knees and 
 folded her in her strong young ams. 
 
 "Poor little maman cherie! You see what has 
 happened! You wanted a free, independent, clever 
 daughter, and you've got her, haven't you? But one 
 must sacrifice something to brilliancy, Maman cherie, 
 as you must know ! Perhaps, in evolving a brain, I've 
 suppressed my heart and with it the tenderer emotions. 
 And you, maman cherie, you who have trained me to 
 be what I am, are my first victim! 'Que veux-tu, 
 maman? .., -., ... C'est la loi de la nature!" But 
 Jacqueline kissed her mother with far more real ten- 
 derness than she had ever shown before. 
 
 Luckily for the peace of Franchise's spirit, the 
 gentleness of her child's filial caresses belied the cyni- 
 cism of her words and took away their sting. 
 
 And Jacqueline, bending over her mother once more 
 folded her yet once again to her heart, kissing her
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 103 
 
 fervently not with the tendresse recueillie of the 
 woman who has suffered and become herself sweeter 
 in the process, but with the still unthinking caress of 
 the strong, vital creature whose soul sorrow has not 
 yet been either impoverished or enriched.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 JACQUELINE had been attending the lectures at the 
 Sorbonne for over a year now. She was very much 
 interested in her work, and thoroughly appreciated 
 the entire liberty her mother not only allowed, but 
 encouraged, her to enjoy as a student in the quarter. 
 As the girl had nearly reached her twentieth birthday, 
 Franchise was very happy to let her go to and from 
 the Sorbonne alone, without the hired attendant who, 
 in default of a mother, usually accompanies unmarried 
 French girls of Jacqueline's age, for she considered 
 that the experience Jacqueline would thus gain of 
 the manner in which defenceless women are treated 
 when alone in the streets would be most beneficial to 
 her. 
 
 As they still occupied their flat near the Place 
 Wagram, Jacqueline had to take two omnibuses to 
 get to the Rue des Ecoles. She was very fond of 
 walking, and usually took an omnibus or a tramway 
 as far as the Madeleine, and when the weather was 
 fine proceeded on foot from the Madeleine to the 
 Sorbonne, down the Rue Royale, across the Place de 
 la Concorde, and along the Boulevard St. Germain 
 as far as the Boulevard St. Michel. This was a long 
 distance for a girl to walk alone in Paris, and though 
 Jacqueline was stamped as a student at first sight 
 because of the leather portfolio containing her books 
 of notes and reference under her arm, her tall and 
 
 104
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 105 
 
 rather striking appearance always attracted attention, 
 and often caused her some annoyance. 
 
 But long ago when she was quite a child her mother 
 had taught her what attitude was necessary for a 
 woman alone in the Paris streets. Because a young 
 Frenchman has more admiration though less real re- 
 spect for women than an Englishman of his age, and 
 because as a rule young French girls of the upper 
 middle classes do not walk out alone, the girl who, 
 like Jacqueline, thus violates conventional social rules 
 and goes out unattended, must resign herself to be 
 subjected to all sorts of petty annoyances, whatever 
 her own behaviour may be. 
 
 Nearly every day Jacqueline was followed by some 
 enterprising young swain who tried in vain to make 
 acquaintance with her, though after pursuing her 
 down several streets he would find that she gave no 
 response, and usually abandoned the game. Jacque- 
 line, nevertheless, found it most irritating and she 
 understood that the repeated advice of her mother 
 to maintain a strict appearance of severity in the 
 streets was not without foundation. This attitude 
 of men towards her had a curious effect upon Jacque- 
 line. It not only wearied and displeased her, but it 
 inspired her with a profound disdain for the male 
 sex altogether. She felt shocked and humiliated by 
 these anonymous attentions, and though by degrees 
 she became more or less accustomed to them she 
 never became entirely inured. 
 
 One day she had been followed all along the Boule- 
 vard St. Germain and down the Boulevard St. Michel
 
 106 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 by a young rapin who tried to get into conversation 
 with her at various crossings where the traffic some- 
 times held them both up and he was afforded an 
 opportunity of being quite close to his quarry. He 
 was a pathetically ridiculous sight with his small, 
 shrunken figure clad in clothes that appeared several 
 sizes too large for him wide, baggy trousers, and 
 a coat with flowing tails. His hat was of the wide- 
 brimmed, slouching kind, and his necktie was quite 
 the most phenomenally large of its species, being tied 
 in a bow of black crepe-de-chine with long loops that 
 stood out across his shoulders, so that he looked as 
 if he were composed of merely a touzled head sur- 
 mounted by a wide sombrero and supported by a large 
 black bow. 
 
 His appearance was so truly absurd that Jacqueline 
 had some difficulty in refraining from showing her 
 amusement at the sight of him, and some irony 
 mingled with the vexation she felt at being thus 
 pursued. When she had nearly reached the Rue des 
 Ecoles, another crossing brought her pursuer close 
 to her elbow, and this time he made the most of his 
 opportunity, and addressed her with a medley of most 
 fulsome compliments. 
 
 His persistence in annoying Jacqueline had been 
 noticed by a young English girl a fellow-student of 
 Jacqueline's at the Sorbonne and a pupil at the same 
 cours who had been walking behind for some time 
 and had noticed Jacqueline on in front. She had 
 never spoken to Mademoiselle Reville at the Sorbonne 
 but had noticed her often among the other students.
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 107 
 
 When she saw the absurd rapin trying to speak to 
 Jacqueline against her will, guessing what had hap- 
 pened, she stepped briskly up to her side and addressed 
 her in a low tone. 
 
 "Is he annoying you? " 
 
 " Yes, horribly! I can't shake him off," replied 
 Jacqueline, recognizing her would-be protector at a 
 glance. 
 
 " Le vilain petit crapaudf" said the English girl. 
 And then as the rapin sidled up towards the two girls : 
 "I advise you to be off sharp, you ridiculous little 
 monkey ! " she said to the man in English, which of 
 course he did not understand. But in answer he 
 stood grinning at both the girls, who had some diffi- 
 culty in refraining from laughter at the little creature's 
 absurd presumption. But Jacqueline, truly most 
 vexed, looked haughty and was pale with disgust, 
 while her English companion was scarlet with rage at 
 what she called the imp's impertinence. 
 
 " What makes me so particularly angry is that, 
 socially, the kind of person who dares to follow one 
 in the streets would have to walk up the back stair- 
 case and enter by the servants' entrance, if he ever 
 had any reason to come to one's own house at all!" 
 she exclaimed. And she stuck close to Jacqueline's 
 side. 
 
 At this moment the English girl caught sight of 
 a man seated at one of the tables in front of the Cafe 
 Vachette, and she immediately called out to him in 
 a shrill treble. 
 
 " Oh, Oliver! Do come here a moment! "
 
 io8 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 As the man rose immediately and came towards her, 
 she explained to him. 
 
 "There's a beastly little whippersnapper, an inso- 
 lent monkey who has been following this young lady 
 for some time and annoying her with his persistent 
 and most unwelcome attentions. She's a fellow- 
 student of mine at the Sorbonne. Do come and shake 
 him off." 
 
 And then, turning to Jacqueline : " This is my 
 brother, mademoiselle. You may rely on him to 
 defend you." 
 
 The young fellow addressed as Oliver put down a 
 fifty-centime piece in the saucer of his bock and im- 
 mediately left the cafe in company with the two girls. 
 
 " I'll come with you as far as the Sorbonne," he 
 said and promptly went and stood on the other side 
 of Jacqueline, who was still pale with annoyance and 
 trembling in all her limbs. " Don't be afraid, made- 
 moiselle; if that little cad dares to annoy you in my 
 presence, I think he'll rue it ! " 
 
 Jacqueline raised a glance of gratitude that met 
 the straightforward blue eyes of the big, tall English- 
 man, and felt reassured at once. But beyond mur- 
 muring her thanks she said nothing, and in a few 
 moments the trio arrived at the door of the University. 
 Meanwhile the " ridiculous monkey " had prudently 
 Disappeared. For such is the courage of the street 
 admirer. 
 
 But the incident led to a friendship between Jac- 
 queline and the English girl, whose name was Nelly 
 Brent. She was exactly the same age as Jacqueline,
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 109 
 
 and was spending three years in Paris with her aunt 
 and brother, in order to acquire the French language. 
 Oliver Brent, nearly eight years older than his sister, 
 was a painter. He had lived in Paris for the last ten 
 years and had studied at the various art schools of 
 the Q uar tier and at the Beaux-Arts, and was now an 
 exhibitor of more than great promise at the Salon 
 des Artistes Frangais as well as at the Royal Academy 
 in London. He had his studio in a small street near 
 the Observatoire, but he lived en famille with his aunt 
 and sister in their apartment on the Boulevard Raspail. 
 
 Oliver and Nelly Brent were orphans, and Nelly 
 had lived with her aunt since her father's death when 
 she was ten years old. Oliver, who was then eighteen, 
 settled in Paris as an art student. Now that Nelly's 
 education was drawing to a close, Mrs. John Brent, 
 who was a widow in comfortable circumstances, had 
 let her house in London furnished for three years, 
 so as to be able to go and live in Paris with her 
 niece during the time of her education abroad. When 
 his aunt and sister settled in Paris, Oliver, who until 
 then had lived with a French family, came to live at 
 the flat in the Boulevard Raspail. 
 
 With that spontaneous hospitality that character- 
 izes English people both at home and abroad, and 
 always fills French people, when they meet it, with 
 such great admiration, Nelly Brent, who had conceived 
 a sudden but real affection for Jacqueline after the 
 incident of the "ridiculous monkey," asked her to 
 come to her house to have tea one Thursday after- 
 noon. It was Mrs. Brent's at-home day, upon which
 
 no THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 occasion the aunt and niece received their English 
 and American friends of the Quartier. For the Brents 
 belonged to that section of Anglo-American residents 
 in the Quartier which forms a set entirely apart in 
 Paris, ignoring Parisians and by Parisians ignored. 
 
 After Jacqueline had been two or three times to 
 tea at the Brents' house, she was one evening invited 
 by them to dinner, and as Franchise did not wish her 
 daughter to be out late at night alone, she decided to 
 fetch Jacqueline home herself, and so make the ac- 
 quaintance of these new friends. 
 
 Mrs. Brent, a kind, motherly English matron of 
 the sort who looks upon the children of a rising gener- 
 ation as if they were creatures of another world, and 
 too far above her for her to attempt to understand 
 still less control them, was delighted with Madame 
 Reville, the only Frenchwoman whose acquaintance 
 she had ever made. She had been persuaded until 
 now and a good many honest English wives and 
 mothers safe at home in virtuous England still share 
 her erroneous belief that all Frenchwomen, like the 
 heroines of most French novels, are unfaithful wives 
 and bad, though indulgent, mothers. But Frangoise's 
 quiet, reserved charm and maternal devotion quite 
 won good Mrs. Brent's affection, and as their acquaint- 
 ance progressed helped to dispel this conviction. 
 
 Nelly Brent was a tall, lanky girl with pale, honey- 
 coloured hair, light blue eyes, with fair lashes and 
 eyebrows, large white prominent teeth and full red 
 lips. She had the flat shapeless figure and long, flex- 
 ible hands with knotted joints which certain fortune-
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE in 
 
 tellers declare show a tendency towards the possession 
 of a philosophical mind. In summertime she nearly 
 always wore a brown straw mushroom-shaped hat 
 with a flopping Liberty silk scarf tied around the 
 crown, and a skirt and coat of Liberty green serge. 
 In winter she was dressed in the same way, except 
 that her straw hat was replaced by a felt one of the 
 same colour. She was a good, kind, hoydenish girl 
 with a certain amount of brain culture which she had 
 not quite assimilated but had stored up in her mind as 
 one stores useless furniture in a boxroom. She was 
 troubled neither with nerves nor taste nor subtlety. 
 But she was a staunch and true friend, and had a 
 genuine liking for Jacqueline that rapidly grew into 
 real friendship as the months went by. 
 
 Though Nelly was a thorough Brent, Oliver, her 
 brother, was entirely different. It was astonishing 
 that a man with such artistic tendencies, with such an 
 enthusiastic love of beauty, should come from the 
 Brent stock, for, admirable folk though they were, 
 the Brents were yet bourgeois of the bourgeois, and 
 had no conception of art in any form. Perhaps, how- 
 ever, one might have sought and found the explana- 
 tion of Oliver's artistic tendencies in the fact that his 
 father, Charles Brent, a City solicitor, had met, loved, 
 wooed and married a French girl, the daughter of a 
 painter of some talent whose acquaintance he had 
 made when over in Paris on business. But after 
 Suzanne Lefort had married Charles Brent, she did 
 what so many French women of spirit do when they 
 go to live in England : she became more entichee of
 
 112 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 the manners and customs of English people than any 
 British female born on English soil can ever be. 
 She was continually comparing the virtues of the 
 English with the weaknesses and faults of the French. 
 She rarely made her comparisons with real discern- 
 ment, for she was so grateful to Charles Brent for 
 having married her without a dot that she was apt 
 to be somewhat biassed in her judgments. 
 
 But all her adoration for her new patrie did not 
 prevent the fact that her son Oliver was more like a 
 French boy in his instinctive love of beauty and of 
 form than an English lad; and when at an early age 
 he developed a decided love and talent for drawing 
 and painting, Suzanne was obliged to admit much 
 to her sorrow that he had inherited the gifts of her 
 own artistic family rather than the more stolid char- 
 acteristics of the good Brents. Oliver was eight 
 years old when Nelly was born, but the poor mother 
 had little time to rejoice in the possession of a daugh- 
 ter whom she intended to bring up d I'anglaise, for 
 her own short life had almost come to an end. Had 
 the young French mother lived, she would have 
 revelled in the fact that Nelly was as English a girl 
 as could be desired. She was the image of her fair- 
 haired, genial father, and had none of the dreaminess, 
 none of the artistic imagination, of her brother. Un- 
 fortunately for both Nelly and Oliver, their father 
 died ten years after the loss of his beloved French 
 wife. Oliver, already destined for art, was sent to 
 Paris to study, by an assembly of grave Brent uncles 
 who represented the entire family council for Su-
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 113 
 
 zanne had no near relations of her own while Nelly 
 was taken into the home of Mrs. John Brent, who 
 had means and no children of her own. She had sent 
 Nelly to a good high school, and when the girl 
 was eighteen Mrs. Brent had decided that her niece's 
 education should be finished in Paris, where Oliver 
 still lived in the French family distant connections 
 of his own mother of which he had been a member 
 for the last eight years. 
 
 His dual education had made of Oliver Brent rather 
 a complex individuality in spite of his uncompromis- 
 ingly British appearance. Though he had the bright 
 golden hair, the clear blue eyes, and fresh complexion 
 of the true Brents, he had much in him of his French 
 forebears too. But he was not entirely French. For 
 he had received his earliest education in England, and 
 there is nothing more uncomprisingly indelible than 
 the strong moral training of the Anglo-Saxon. It 
 imbued Oliver with a sound ethical judgment, and 
 equipped him with an armour of invincible character 
 that no demoralising external force, however insidi- 
 ous, could ever pierce through. But as it tended to 
 develop neither his taste nor his intellect, it could 
 neither influence nor aid the progress of his innate 
 artistic yearnings. 
 
 From his babyhood his mother had spoken French 
 to him, so that although he learned English from his 
 father and from his nurses, he was quite familiar with 
 French too. 
 
 When he went, at the age of eighteen, to live in 
 France entirely, he was already prepared through
 
 114 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 his knowledge of the language, as well as by his own 
 partially French nature, to assimilate what most ap- 
 pealed to him in French life. At the time when he 
 met Madame Reville and her daughter, he had evolved 
 a curiously dual personality. All that early education 
 can achieve in the moulding of an individual, in the 
 influencing of his morals and convictions, and in the 
 fashioning of his reason, had brought out in Oliver 
 his most British tendencies. But all the suggestions 
 of his impulses and instincts as well as his artistic 
 tastes were entirely French. Being an artist and 
 living in Paris, the French element in him neces- 
 sarily predominated until he was brought face to face 
 with some moral dilemma and then the whole force 
 of his British convictions at once affirmed itself vic- 
 torious in him. It was a strange mixture as of two 
 individualities within one soul which gained him var- 
 ious and varied sympathies among many strongly con- 
 flicting individuals. 
 
 Oliver Brent was an artist to his finger tips. He 
 was enthusiastically and passionately attached to his 
 art. He had large ambitions and was determined to 
 be one of the great painters of the day. That he 
 would ultimately attain his end was almost certain, 
 for he had already set his foot upon the road that 
 leads to glory. He was a tall, strong fellow, not 
 oppressively athletic, but lithe, supple, and nervous. 
 His sister's noisy and somewhat overpowering vivacity 
 often wearied him, but he was completely devoted to 
 her nevertheless. He was reserved and proud, though 
 not a bit of a poseur, and was thoroughly liked by all
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 115 
 
 his companions in the 'Quartier. But his tempera- 
 ment, compared with the exuberance of his sister, 
 appeared somewhat cold and restrained. His enthu- 
 siasms were deep, lasting, and patient. He was an 
 excellent and most reliable fellow, and was looked 
 up to by his aunt with that rather plaintive and 
 touching awe of some Englishwomen for all males 
 of their families, whether fathers, husbands or sons. 
 
 Everything Oliver did or said was for her always 
 right. His word was indeed her law, and if anyone 
 could inspire the buoyant Nelly too with a subduing 
 respect, it was her brother Oliver. They were great 
 companions, and there was nothing that Oliver en- 
 joyed more than to take Nelly out with him to the 
 museums of Paris and endeavour to interest her in 
 the pictures and sculptures he explained to her. Nelly, 
 however, possessed no artistic tastes, and visits to the 
 Louvre or the Luxembourg Gallery did not appeal to 
 her very much. However, when her friend Jacqueline 
 could be persuaded to join them, there was no happier 
 trio of friends in Paris than Oliver, Nelly and Jac- 
 queline. 
 
 Jacqueline was as analytical and as over-sexed as 
 Nelly was the reverse. And yet the girls became 
 .devoted friends. As she had grown older, Jacqueline 
 had somewhat frightened her mother by her excessive 
 spirit of coquetry. It had developed almost uncon- 
 sciously at first, but now it was one of her chief 
 characteristics. In spite of her mental culture, her 
 scientific knowledge and philosophical understanding, 
 her innate femininity was stronger even than her will,
 
 n6 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 and Franchise was bound to admit herself unable to 
 cope with it because of its instinctive force. As soon 
 as she had become aware of this powerful element in 
 her young daughter which was a characteristic in- 
 herited from her father Franchise had endeavoured 
 to crush it out by repeated appeals to her reason and 
 intelligence. But the training of her brain had only 
 seemed to intensify it, and, being now consciously 
 awakened, her coquetry became far more dangerous 
 than if it had remained merely instinctive. 
 
 Franchise therefore hailed with joy Jacqueline's 
 friendship with Nelly, whose blatant good spirits, 
 boyish love of fun, and entire lack of sex-interest 
 made her an excellent companion for Jacqueline. She 
 restrained Jacqueline's temperament, without even 
 being conscious of it herself. By her ridicule 
 of them, she belittled sentimentality and charm and 
 all those feminine artifices by means of which even 
 very young girls seek to attract men, and her sound 
 common-sense, as well as her healthy boyishness, had 
 an excellently subduing effect upon her young French 
 friend. 
 
 The rather proud beauty of Jacqueline, and the 
 quiet reserve and gentleness of Franchise, in com- 
 parison with his sister's boisterousness and his aunt's 
 naive and voluble affection, appealed greatly to Oliver. 
 As an artist, he could not but admire the beauty of Jac- 
 queline. Her tall slimness, her golden hair, her dark 
 eyes so winning in their expression her firm, de- 
 cided lips, and her vibrant yet proud little nose, made 
 so attractive an ensemble that Oliver, soon after his
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 117 
 
 family had made the acquaintance of Madame Reville 
 and her daughter, began to realize that he had lost 
 his heart to the fair young French girl. 
 
 For some months there was much pleasant inter- 
 course between the two families. The well-meaning 
 Mrs. Brent seemed as fond of Franchise as " Noll and 
 Nell," as she quaintly called her nephew and niece, 
 were of Jacqueline, and the comparisons they could 
 establish between English and French family customs 
 were always a great source of interest to both Mrs. 
 Brent and Madame Reville. Mrs. Brent was agreeably 
 astonished to see how Madame Reville had brought 
 up her daughter. The good lady was for ever lament- 
 ing the destiny of the "poor young French girls," 
 who are never allowed any individuality of their own. 
 But, when compared to Nelly's, Jacqueline's inde- 
 pendence was but a rudimentary thing even yet. 
 
 As the friendly relations of the Revilles and the 
 Brents were beginning to ripen into real friendship, 
 there were times when the pleasant harmony that 
 existed between the two families was threatened with 
 destruction by the attitude of Jacqueline towards 
 Oliver. At times her " cursed femininity," as he 
 called it, and her love of coquetry, would get the 
 better of Jacqueline, who, to amuse herself, would 
 treat Oliver abominably. She soon perceived the at- 
 traction she exercised over him, and it amused her to 
 test the extent of her powers. Notwithstanding his 
 partially French temperament and education, the hon- 
 est matter-of-factness of his English training in his 
 relations with women still survived. He never entirely
 
 u8 THE EDUCATION OF. JACQUELINE 
 
 assimilated during his residence in France the methods 
 of light galanterie in which the young Frenchman ex- 
 cels. He therefore failed to understand the motives of 
 such fine play as Jacqueline's subtle flirtation and was 
 often at a loss to discover the meaning of her deceptive 
 smiles. Yet there were times when he shrewdly dis- 
 trusted her and began to understand faintly that the 
 young lady was only amusing herself. He therefore 
 assumed an attitude of courteous indifference, which, 
 however, was not devoid of a certain susceptibility 
 to her blandishments. This posture goaded Jacqueline 
 to renewed attacks of her wiles, and when, having 
 once more entrapped Oliver in her net, she again 
 mocked and jeered, the young man lost his temper. 
 Then there were fiery quarrels between them. 
 
 In these instances peace was often restored by the 
 kind-hearted Nelly, who generally succeeded in being 
 blamed by both of them, but who good-naturedly 
 accepted all reproaches, provided she could get them 
 both back into friendly relations once more.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 ONE day Mrs. Brent came to call upon Franchise 
 Reville. Jacqueline and Nelly being together at the 
 Sorbonne, and therefore well out of the way, Mrs. 
 Brent felt herself relieved from the strain which the 
 cold, discerning eye of her up-to-date niece always 
 put upon her. She thawed considerably, and in her 
 confidences to Franchise when quite alone, she did not 
 try to conceal her delight in her freedom from re- 
 straint. For Mrs. Brent was afraid equally of her 
 Nell and her Noll, though she adored them both. She 
 was really only her natural self when out of their 
 presence. She was so convinced of their superiority 
 of herself both in the knowledge that was gained in 
 the world, and the knowledge contained in books, that 
 she feared their fathoming scrutiny beyond all things. 
 
 She confided to Franchise as soon as she arrived in 
 her dainty salon and was seated comfortably in an 
 armchair of red leather close to a glowing fire of 
 burning logs, that she had called to-day with the in- 
 tention of making a suggestion. 
 
 " Wait until you are nicely settled first," said Fran- 
 goise. "Untie your bonnet strings, take off your 
 gloves, loosen your cloak at the throat, and then when 
 you have drunk this cup of tea that I have ready for 
 you, you can tell me your news." 
 
 Mrs. Brent did as she was told. She always did. 
 119
 
 120 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 She allowed herself to subside into the wide chair 
 and suffered Franchise to untie her veil, draw off 
 her gloves, and settle her comfortably with hot tea 
 and toasted brioche. 
 
 It was a fair April afternoon. The sun was shining 
 with sufficient brightness to remind human beings that 
 it would be capable of still more ardour when the com- 
 pleteness of the season should have come. Outside in 
 Franchise's little garden over which the three windows 
 of the salon enjoyed a glorious view, the leaves of 
 the chestnut trees were bursting their varnished pods, 
 showing a pretty display of tender vernal green. 
 
 "I think the fine weather will be with us soon, my 
 dear," said good Mrs. John Brent to Franchise. " Sum- 
 mer time is coming. Nelly's cours at the Sorbonne 
 as she calls them : she forbids me to call the Sorbonne 
 a school though after all that's what it is, only the 
 pupils are all grown-ups will soon be at an end, and 
 we shall have to be thinking about holidays." 
 
 " It's rather early yet to speak of holidays, is it 
 not ? " said Franchise. 
 
 "It's not too early to discuss my plan anyway," 
 said Mrs. Brent. " In fact, it's just the right time to 
 speak of it." 
 
 " Well," said Franchise, smiling, " I can see you are 
 dying to tell me ; so begin ! " 
 
 "Well, now, tell me," began Mrs. Brent radiantly, 
 " when the holidays do begin, how are you going to 
 live without us? By its I mean myself and Nell and 
 Noll." 
 
 " Well, I'm sure I do not know," said Franchise,
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 121 
 
 laughing. " I've never thought about it. Don't think 
 me unkind, but I have never yet faced that terrible 
 eventuality ! But, of course, if the holidays do separ- 
 ate us, it will be a great loss to me and Jacqueline." 
 
 "I don't intend that the holidays should separate 
 us then ! What I propose is this. Instead of you and 
 Jacqueline going to the seaside or to Switzerland or 
 anywhere else, why should you not join us in taking 
 a small furnished house for the season somewhere 
 near Paris St. Germain, or Versailles, or Vaucres- 
 son?" 
 
 Franchise was silent for a moment. Then, as the 
 idea commended itself to her, she replied: 
 
 "Yes if Jacqueline approves of the idea I don't 
 at all see why we should not put it into execution. Of 
 course I should not be able to decide without her." 
 
 "Of course not, my dear nor I without the appro- 
 bation of Nell and Noll. Indeed, these modern chil- 
 dren decide everything for us, don't they? When I 
 was young, I did as my parents told me . 
 Now it's just the reverse. I do what my niece and 
 nephew tell me. But all the same, even they can't 
 prevent me from having ideas of my own, and I think 
 this is a good one." 
 
 "Yes," said Franchise, "I must admit that it ap- 
 peals to me. I am happy to see the friendship between 
 Jacqueline and Nelly progressing so steadily and 
 surely." Mrs. Brent's smile of satisfaction was radi- 
 ant. She was always happy to know that her Nelly 
 was appreciated. " Your niece's example and influence 
 are excellent for Jacqueline. Your Nelly restrains my
 
 122 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 Jacqueline's superabundant femininity with her bois- 
 terous common-sense." 
 
 " And Jacqueline is a good companion, too, for 
 Nelly. She can help her to be more womanly, more 
 gentle, and more considerate." 
 
 "Oh!" laughed Francoise, "you must not expect 
 the girls of our time to have consideration for any- 
 one. They live and act to please themselves not to 
 please others! And I'm not sure that they are not 
 right. We of our generation, at least in France, were 
 brought up to be always dominated by the tastes, 
 desires and wills of others. The consequence is 
 that we are never really ourselves all our lives long. 
 After I was no longer subservient to my husband, 
 I became subservient to my daughter as you are to 
 both your niece and nephew. No, my dear, let us 
 the women of a past generation recognise the truth 
 and resign ourselves unconditionally to expecting but 
 scant deference from those of the younger generation. 
 We ourselves do not go the right way to enforce it." 
 
 " Perhaps not," acquiesced Mrs. Brent reluctantly. 
 " But do think over my plan, I beg of you, and do 
 your utmost to influence Jacqueline's determination 
 nevertheless. It would be so charming to spend the 
 summer together in some nice old house with a large 
 garden in the country!" 
 
 " I agree with you, so far as my own tastes are 
 concerned," replied Franchise. " But there is Jacque- 
 line to be considered first of all with me. I'll 
 suggest it to her and let you know." 
 
 " I'ye heard of a charming spot near Louveciennes,"
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 123 
 
 pursued Mrs. Brent, still intent upon her idea. " It's 
 within a fine walk of the old historic spot of Marly, 
 with its beautiful old forest. How I should love to 
 spend the summer there with you all! Oliver would 
 have loads of sketching to do. And we two old 
 fogies could rest under the trees in the garden all 
 the afternoon when the young people were out to- 
 gether excursioning." 
 
 " It sounds delightful ! " said Franchise, smiling 
 with amusement at hearing herself described as an 
 " old fogey. " But I'll let you know later what Jac- 
 queline says." 
 
 The proposition made by Mrs. Brent met not only 
 with general approbation but with enthusiasm from 
 all concerned. Nelly and Oliver were both delighted 
 at the thought of spending a holiday with Jacqueline, 
 and Jacqueline herself was charmed with the idea. It 
 was decided that on the Sunday after Easter, which 
 fell in mid-April that year, the two "mothers," as 
 the younger ones called them, should go on a voyage 
 of exploration on the St. Lazare line to find the 
 coveted summer residence. 
 
 It was found eventually at the lovely spot, midway 
 between La-Celle-St.-Cloud and Louveciennes, of 
 which Mrs. Brent had spoken. It was within half an 
 hour's walk of the Marly forest, and close to a railway 
 station. The house, which was formed of two old 
 cottages knocked into one, was sufficiently spacious 
 to accommodate them all comfortably, and yet had 
 a spare room for any visitor they should choose to 
 invite. The garden was a lovely wilderness of mossy
 
 124 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 lawn, of old lime and poplar trees and thick straggling 
 rose trees, many of which had remained so long un- 
 tended that they had reverted to their former wild 
 state and yielded deliciously fragrant and cuplike 
 dog-roses, creamy- white and pink. At the end of 
 the garden was a red brick tower, half covered with 
 ivy, at the top of which was a room about four yards 
 square, with a window in each wall, which could be 
 arranged as a studio for Oliver. 
 
 When the young people went down to inspect the 
 old house they declared themselves delighted with it. 
 It was furnished simply, but quite charmingly, with 
 old Norman and Breton benches and armoires, tables 
 and chairs, and a few choice bits of old brass-work. 
 The bedrooms were simple and gay with pitch-pine 
 furniture and cretonne hangings. It was clean and 
 dainty, if not luxurious. Already in early June, Mrs. 
 Brent and Franchise had been able to run down several 
 times to prepare the new abode, and by the middle 
 of the month Mrs. Brent with Nelly and Oliver, and 
 Franchise with Jacqueline and Clemence, were settled 
 there. 
 
 And then a charming life began for all concerned. 
 Oliver closed his Paris studio and brought down all 
 his painting materials, and a large new canvas on 
 which to paint Jacqueline's portrait an undertaking 
 which had been decided upon many months before. 
 Jacqueline had provided herself with many new or 
 favourite old books, while Nelly busied herself exclu- 
 sively with the getting together of tennis racquets 
 and balls, cricket and cricket implements, besides
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 125 
 
 hammock and deck chairs for lounging around in the 
 garden. 
 
 The weather being very fine, life at Les PeupUers 
 promised to be idyllic. 
 
 As soon as they were settled in the house, the 
 young people began to arrange their own special and 
 individual comforts. Oliver, taking up all his painting 
 apparatus into the tower, fixed up his studio to his 
 liking, and prepared himself for hard work every 
 morning. The tower consisted of three small rooms 
 one on the top of another, and a fine square terrace on 
 the top of all, surrounded by a balustrade. From here 
 a fine comprehensive view of the surrounding coun- 
 try could be obtained. To the left on the dim horizon 
 one could see the straight line of the famous terrace 
 of St. Germain, and beyond that a still fainter blue 
 suggestion of yet more distant regions. On the right, 
 rose wooded hills culminating in a beautiful sloping 
 sward on which was set the Chateau de Beauregard 
 one of the finest country seats near Paris, which 
 was originally built by Napoleon III. for his English 
 favourite, Miss Howard, the mother of the Comte de 
 Beauregard. Right in front of the tower terrace, on 
 the wooded heights of La-Celle-St-Cloud, rose another 
 fine building, La Chataigneraie, the residence of Mon- 
 sieur Blanc of Monte Carlo fame. And in the opposite 
 direction behind the tower was yet another fine coun- 
 try dwelling known as the Chateau du Camp. Indeed, 
 the delightful country abounded in famous chateaux, 
 historical and modern, for the neighbourhood is one of 
 the most picturesque near Paris. The former resi-
 
 126 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 dence of La Dubarry was in a still almost perfect state 
 of preservation at Louveciennes, and the castle of La- 
 Celle-St.-Cloud, which had been inhabited by Madame 
 de Pompadour, almost faced the tower on the western 
 side. 
 
 Oliver was delighted with the idea of sketching fine 
 views and landscapes as backgrounds for several por- 
 traits for which he had been commissioned. Nelly 
 and Jacqueline were also charmed with the spot, Jac- 
 queline because of its many historical souvenirs and 
 beautiful walks, and Nelly because of the opportunities 
 the garden afforded her for her favourite games. At 
 the end of the first week and with the devoted help 
 of a young gardener in the village she had turned the 
 flat, green lawn into a very presentable tennis-ground. 
 A croquet set was installed farther down near to the 
 tower and between every couple of trees that grew 
 near together, hammocks were slung ready for lazy 
 occupants. When Nelly could not persuade Oliver 
 or Jacqueline to join her in a game, she called in the 
 gamins of the village and greatly to their delight initi- 
 ated them into the mysteries of cricket and lawn- 
 tennis. 
 
 But a new companion had now come into Nelly's 
 life to gladden it still more, in the person of a young 
 fox-terrier pup which had been presented to her one 
 morning by her rustic admirer the young gardener. 
 Rip an uneducated youngster who looked as if he 
 were made of gutta-percha so loose and flexible were 
 all his limbs was now a great feature in the life of 
 Les Peupliers. He uprooted all the flowers which
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 127 
 
 Nelly planted with such diligent care in the garden in 
 order to add to his vegetable diet and demolished all 
 the boots and shoes of the community with undis- 
 criminating unpartiality. Above all he showed a de- 
 cided predilection for the taste of Oliver's paint- 
 brushes. But he was a great favourite with all the 
 household in spite of his bad behaviour. 
 
 The days at Les Peupliers were thus arranged. Ev- 
 ery morning each inhabitant of the Villa was free to 
 do as he or she liked, and generally the early hours 
 of the day were devoted to letter-writing, newspaper- 
 reading, etc. Oliver remained shut up in his studio 
 the whole of the morning. In the afternoon, after 
 lunch, the three young people and Rip went for 
 long walks in the environs, which they thoroughly 
 explored in every direction, while the " mothers " 
 rested in the garden in the comfortable deck chairs 
 or hammocks, embroidering, or reading, or dozing. 
 It was a thorough rest for all the inhabitants of the 
 old house. 
 
 One day Oliver suggested to Jacqueline that the 
 studio was quite ready for her, and it was decided 
 between them that she should sit to him every morn- 
 ing from ten to twelve. Sometimes, though rarely, 
 Nelly joined them in the studio, to read the paper 
 aloud to them both, but more often they were left 
 alone, and Oliver for hours together rejoiced in the 
 exclusive possession of Jacqueline. He had decided 
 to paint her full-size, standing against the bare white 
 wall of the studio. He insisted that she should be 
 dressed for her portrait as she was dressed every day
 
 128 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 in the country, with a short pleated skirt of dark blue 
 serge and a blouse of linen batiste with a turned-down 
 collar and cuffs of simple embroidery. It was Jacque- 
 line in her most modern incarnation and, as far as 
 was possible, divested of all her femininity. Jacque- 
 line had at first wished to be painted in a ball gown 
 with a fan coquettishly unfurled and roses in her hair, 
 in full attire for conquest. But Oliver, who knew how 
 to show great determination in connection with all 
 things pertaining to his art, insisted upon the particu- 
 larly up-to-date modern character of his sitter, which 
 he wished to interpret according to his own inspira- 
 tion. And partly because the idea claimed her artistic 
 taste, and partly also because it appealed to her " mod- 
 ernism," Jacqueline yielded to his persuasion. 
 
 She made a suggestive picture as she stood upright 
 against the bare wall of the studio in her short sim- 
 ple gown, perfectly made and perfectly fitting, show- 
 ing the slim lines of her very modern, energetic figure. 
 The skirt was cut short a couple of inches from the 
 ground, revealing a very feminine, though character- 
 istic, foot and ankle, covered with black silk stock- 
 ings, and neat, though serviceable, leather shoes. The 
 regular pleats of her finely-tucked blouse were drawn 
 down tightly into a broad band of tan leather, clasped 
 at the waist with a golden buckle, defining the firm, 
 yet delicate lines of her shoulders and bust and 
 straight, supple back. The soft rolled-back collar and 
 upturned cuffs revealed the perfect whiteness of her 
 throat and wrists. At her neck the collar was tied 
 with a soft bow of black crepe-de-chine. Her hair
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 129 
 
 was dressed higH in its shining curled coils, and her 
 wide-brimmed Panama straw hat, trimmed with a 
 scarf of white muslin, was held in her right hand. 
 Her left hand rested on her hip in rather a boyish 
 curve, her chin was lifted at an angle that suggested 
 some impertinence, and there was an air of free de- 
 fiance in her whole demeanour which Oliver had ren- 
 dered admirably. Altogether, Jacqueline in her atti- 
 tude on the canvas presented a very fair type of the 
 independent young lady of her time. 
 
 " I shall call this picture * The Portrait of a modern 
 young French girl' when it is finished," said Oliver, 
 smiling, once during the long solemn hours of a sit- 
 ting. 
 
 Jacqueline smiled too, but made no response. She 
 left the pose and came towards the painter, looking at 
 her own portrait from behind his shoulder. 
 
 " Yes, it might be called that," she acquiesced, but 
 made no further remark. 
 
 She was thinking to herself how interesting it was 
 to see one's self through the eyes of another. That 
 the presentment of herself, seen through Oliver's eyes, 
 should be this self-reliant, wilful creature in such evi- 
 dent rebellion against all authority and all conventional 
 ideas, amused her greatly. And, by means of his pre- 
 sentment of her character, Jacqueline was able to see 
 more clearly into Oliver's own personality. Hitherto 
 she had believed that he perceived only the feminine 
 side of herself, since she had wilfully revealed only 
 that side to him. That he should have discovered an- 
 other self in her beyond that more evident and aggres-
 
 130 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 sive self, and have represented, not only her better 
 self, but also her more intellectual and thoughtful char- 
 acter, pleased and surprised her. The fact that he 
 should have been capable of looking deeper beyond her 
 more playful and coquettish femininity did not touch 
 her heart, but appealed greatly to her brain, and al- 
 though she made no remark, and indeed expressed no 
 admiration of the work, she respected Oliver's instinct, 
 and from that hour began to judge him in a new 
 light. 
 
 During these long seances, while Oliver worked 
 and Jacqueline sat motionless, much of the man's 
 character was unconsciously revealed to Jacqueline, 
 and each further revelation came as a pleasant sur- 
 prise. Hitherto she had regarded him as merely 
 a rather sympathetic young man, with whom she 
 could flirt and amuse herself. So far Jacqueline had 
 been inclined to treat all men as mere passetemps. 
 " Give me women for true friendship and men for 
 diverting episodes " she had said once to Nelly, who 
 did not re-echo her thoughts, being far too masculine 
 herself and finding that the attentions of young men 
 were superfluous and most unnecessarily futile. . . . 
 In order to paint her better self, Jacqueline knew that 
 Oliver had been forced to seek deep down in herself 
 for its expression, and as she had only just begun to 
 realize herself, she became still more conscious of her- 
 self by the help of Oliver's picture. Consequently her 
 approval of his insight strengthened her regard for 
 his opinions, and if she was not yet subservient to 
 them, at least they claimed her respect.
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 131 
 
 One day during the sitting they launched into a 
 conversation upon the history of Art, and Jacqueline 
 always inclined to believe herself a little superior to 
 everyone else because she had learned many things 
 which few people learn was astonished to find Oliver 
 not only responsive to her ideas but still fuller of 
 knowledge and personal opinions upon the subject 
 than herself. Again she was as delighted as she was 
 astonished, and when the conversation had drifted 
 into other channels, she found that her mind even 
 against her will was reverting once more to certain 
 new presentations of thought which Oliver's conver- 
 sation had suggested to her. She began now to dis- 
 cern Oliver's true personality which he had hitherto 
 concealed beneath his extreme reserve of manner. 
 Thus there grew up between Jacqueline and Oliver a 
 new and more intellectual friendship that was based 
 entirely upon their common mental interests. When 
 Oliver began to talk of Art, then Jacqueline, for all 
 her culture, was obliged to take up the attitude of 
 pupil, for it was very evident in these discussions that 
 Oliver was not only a clever and original-minded 
 man, but also an artist of individual views as well as 
 great talent, with an assured future before him. 
 
 " How is it, Jacqueline," asked Oliver one morning 
 as they were together in the studio and had been dis- 
 cussing many things pertaining to life as well as to 
 Art, " that you manage your mother so completely ? 
 She is a bright and clever woman herself, and yet she 
 seems to have no will but yours." 
 
 " It is simply because of the stupid, stultifying edu-
 
 132 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 cation she received in her own youth. . . . You 
 see, she was trained to obey to obey only and never 
 to take any personal initiative in anything, even in 
 opinions. My father, to whom, Clemence has often 
 told me she was devoted, directed all her actions, even 
 her very thoughts, until his death released her from 
 his dominion. Afterwards, when I was a baby and 
 she was alone with me, momentarily she raised her 
 courage by the mere force of circumstances, and took 
 things in hand herself. But only for a time, until I 
 cultivated a will of my own. Since then she has al- 
 ways let me lead. She not only did this systematically, 
 wishing to give me an education that should be dia- 
 metrically opposed to her own and so develop my own 
 personal initiative, but also because she had no real 
 will in her to oppose to mine. And ever since I have 
 taken the lead, she has followed." 
 
 " Do you remember your father, Jacqueline ? " 
 "Very little. I was only four years 'old when he 
 died. But, strange to say, I can never get my mother 
 to speak to me about him. Notwithstanding her gen- 
 tleness and my repeated insistance, she refuses all al- 
 lusion to him indeed, she seems numbed whenever I 
 question her about him. So I've given it up. Some 
 day she will perhaps tell me something. But even I 
 cannot drive her to it. Her force of inertia on that 
 particular subject is absolute." 
 
 " There is perhaps some sadness connected with 
 your father's memory which she does not wish to 
 reveal to you. It would be more merciful perhaps not 
 to insist," suggested Oliver.
 
 133 
 
 "Yes, I have often thought that," replied Jacque- 
 line in a dreamy tone. 
 
 "You do right, Jacqueline, to leave the subject 
 alone, if it is painful to her. Don't you think so?" 
 
 " Pauvre petite maman!" murmured Jacqueline. 
 And Oliver saw in her for one rapid instant a deeper 
 tenderness than he had ever thought Jacqueline could 
 feel. 
 
 A few minutes later Nelly came up the small wind- 
 ing staircase that led to the top of the tower. She 
 appeared as a herald announcing the arrival of the 
 " two mothers," who had been bidden by Oliver to 
 view the picture for the first time. There had already 
 been about twenty sittings since the picture had been 
 begun, and it was now nearing completion. From the 
 first it had been understood between Oliver and Jac- 
 queline that the "mothers" should neither of them 
 be allowed to see the picture before it was consider- 
 ably advanced. " You know the saying Children and 
 fools should never be allowed to see half-finished 
 work," Jacqueline had said sententiously to her 
 mother when Franchise had begged to be allowed to 
 see the first sketch which Oliver made in charcoal on 
 the immaculate canvas. "I don't mean by that to 
 suggest that you are either a child or a fool, maman 
 cherie I would never be so impertinent. But what 
 I do mean is that one requires an artistic training that 
 you have never had to realize what a picture may 
 promise to the initiated, during its early stages. So 
 you shall not be allowed to see it until it is nearly 
 done."
 
 i 3 4 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 Though Frangoise protested, Jacqueline was ob- 
 durate, and declared she would not sit at all if the 
 picture was to be seen by anyone. Oliver upheld 
 her in this, and insisted that she was right, for he 
 wished to compose his own work without any outside 
 influence or suggestions. Thus had he painted Jac- 
 queline as the " modern maiden of France " entirely 
 from his own inspiration and exactly as he had con- 
 ceived his idea of her, in practical every-day dress 
 without finery or " prettiness," yet with all the char- 
 acter of feminine decision, self-reliance and self-con- 
 fidence which the contemplation of Jacqueline sug- 
 gested to him. But he put into the picture something 
 more besides which the girl herself had not yet per- 
 ceived because she was not yet prepared to perceive 
 it. 
 
 When Frangoise arrived in the studio, followed up 
 the winding stairs by Mrs. Brent, she sank down upon 
 the small green divan which stretched along the south- 
 ern wall with a feeling of keen curiosity. For a long 
 time she gazed at the picture without speaking a 
 word. Quite ten minutes elapsed before she opened 
 her lips. 
 
 " So that is how you see my daughter ! " she said 
 slowly, turning to Oliver, " and that is she as she 
 will appear to the world at large." For a few mo- 
 ments Frangoise stood silent again. " Yes. I am sat- 
 isfied. You have shown her just as I wanted her to 
 be. A proud, self-reliant female creature,, with all 
 the real feminine qualities existent in her but still 
 veiled or hidden by her rather boyish exterior. The
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 13$ 
 
 practical, simple dress comfortable rather than ele- 
 gant the energetic, capable-looking hands, the de- 
 fiant set of the head and shoulders yes . . ." 
 As she spoke she gazed upon the picture with a ten- 
 der expression. " Yes, but it is still my baby Jacque- 
 line's face though, with its soft brown eyes, now so 
 conscious of the value of her own self, with the sweet 
 baby mouth now so firm and set with human con- 
 scious will with the fair baby curls that used to be 
 so rebellious, now conquered into order and made 
 submissive to hairpins and combs. . . . And yet ! 
 beneath that outward presentment of modern con- 
 scious womanhood, the soul of my baby Jacqueline 
 still lives!" 
 
 Franchise had tears in her eyes as she spoke. She 
 drew Jacqueline near to her. But Jacqueline, with 
 false shame and fearing the mockery of Nelly who 
 ridiculed all sentiment, did not dare show any of the 
 sudden new tenderness towards her mother which her 
 recent conversation with Oliver had evoked. 
 
 She eluded her mother's caress. 
 
 " But, maman cherie, I am what I am ! I am my- 
 self. I am entirely modern! You wished me to be 
 so you wished me to rise in revolt at all coercion; 
 you wished me to have a mind and a will of my own. 
 You did not intend that I should build up my soul 
 upon the basis of meek humility. You wished the 
 spirit of the conqueror, not of the conquered to in- 
 spire me! Am I not the complete achievemenr of the 
 education you have given me?" 
 
 "Yes, Jacqueline, you are the living epitome of
 
 136 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 my own revolt and, in looking upon your picture now, 
 I see before me the result of my own work." There 
 was a slight pause and Franchise, her gaze still fixed 
 upon the picture, as if she were apostrophising it, 
 continued : " Above all, I wanted you otherwise than 
 I am. That is why I made your upbringing the very 
 antithesis of my own. I am not yet sure whether 
 your independence will make your happiness. But I 
 sincerely hope that it will. I wanted to make you 
 capable of defending yourself and your own rights. 
 I wished you to develop your own individuality. I 
 trained you not to be a victim of others. And if, in 
 gaining self-reliance and self-development, you have 
 won neither patience, nor tenderness, nor resignation 
 I alone am the one to blame if blame there be 
 and not you, my darling, not you!" 
 
 Jacqueline was silent, but she looked at Franchise 
 in astonishment. She had never believed her mother 
 to be anything of a psychologist, and such words as 
 these, coming from Franchise were a revelation to her 
 daughter. 
 
 Mrs. Brent and Oliver and Nelly looked upon this 
 unusual scene and listened to this strange outburst 
 of Franchise in silence, Oliver alone understanding 
 what it signified. 
 
 " But I am not only the product of your training, 
 mother. I am also the result of the teachings of my 
 own times. No one can avoid being touched by the 
 spirit of one's own generation. The women of to- 
 day wish to live their own lives, to seek out and find 
 their own happiness for themselves. They are not
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 137 
 
 content to accept the destiny that others have ordained 
 for them, as did the women of your day." 
 
 "You are right, Jacqueline. We were taught a 
 resignation which you do not know." 
 
 " Nor wish to know, mother since it would dimin- 
 ish our own individuality. But we have developed 
 a sense of personal responsibility which you never 
 dreamt of." 
 
 Franchise smiled the deep, sad smile of the woman 
 who has learnt life not in books, but from cruel ex- 
 perience. 
 
 " There is one thing you miss so far, you modern 
 girls, my Jacqueline, and that is the true knowledge 
 which is acquired by testing life. That, alas! is only 
 gained by experience! You will all of you, alas! yet 
 have to bow your heads in sorrow before you will 
 have quite understood the lesson that only life itself 
 can teach. . . . You will find, as you grow older, 
 that you will not always be able to subject circum- 
 stances to your own individual will." 
 
 " I shall always do what I will, mother. The 
 strong coerce circumstances. Only the weak are 
 crushed by them." 
 
 "Not always, Jacqueline not always. You think 
 that now because you are very young and untried. 
 You will not always do what you will* but what you 
 can. Believe me, dearest. I am older than you. I 
 possess knowledge which no books and no teacher 
 can ever impart to you only life itself." 
 
 " It is by continually opposing them with their su- 
 perior experience that so many mothers destroy all
 
 I 3 8 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 spirit of initiative in their children's minds and so 
 paralyse all their efforts towards individual action," 
 replied Jacqueline mercilessly. "I have noticed that 
 so often among the mothers of my schoolmates at the 
 Lycee." 
 
 " At least you cannot reproach me for having acted 
 so, Jacqueline ? " 
 
 " Oh, no, maman cherie! At least not entirely! " 
 
 Franchise smiled again, but her eyes never left the 
 picture as she spoke. Again she appeared to address 
 herself rather to the epitomized Jacqueline which 
 Oliver's brush had painted than to the living Jacque- 
 line at her side. 
 
 "You will see, Jacqueline, you will see later on 
 for yourself, and then you will admit that personal 
 proof and test are alone of real value in solving the 
 larger problems of life. . . . God knows that 
 I do not desire sorrow for you. But when it comes 
 to you, alas ! my dear, for you will not escape it we 
 none of us do! then you will understand what I 
 mean when I tell you now that it is invaluable." 
 
 " Well ! " broke in Nelly here with some petulance, 
 " when you have done talking, you two, and furnish- 
 ing divers comparisons between the old education and 
 the new, perhaps Madame Reville will deign to tell 
 Oliver what she thinks of his work! " 
 
 " Oliver knows what I think. Haven't I been tell- 
 ing him all this time?" said Franchise, looking up 
 and meeting Oliver's blue eyes. "Oliver knows my 
 opinion quite well. Don't you, Oliver?" 
 "Yes, madame, I understand all your criticisms
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 139 
 
 and they are a delight to me. Thank you," he re- 
 plied gravely, as his eyes rested a moment on hers. 
 "Come, let us all go in to dejeuner." And he set 
 aside his brushes and palette and rose to leave the 
 studio. 
 
 "But I've not said my say yet," broke in Mrs. 
 Brent in an aggrieved tone. 
 
 "No, poor dear aunt," said Oliver, patting the 
 lady on her broad back. "No, poor aunt, that's 
 true. Well, well, say it now ! " 
 
 " Well," said Mrs. Brent, rising from the divan 
 where she had fallen panting after the walk up the 
 steep stairs, " well, I like the picture very much in- 
 deed, and the way you have painted the embroidery 
 at the wrists is quite wonderful. The hat is most 
 lifelike too!" 
 
 Oliver laughed outright, and Jacqueline and Nelly 
 joined in the laugh unrestrainedly. 
 
 "Dear aunt," said Oliver, patting her affection- 
 ately on the back again, "you are the best and kind- 
 est of all critics. You say the very nicest things, and 
 you at least do not worry yourself with moot ques- 
 tions of education or character, or anything else. 
 You are quite right, dear auntie. The hat is life- 
 like, and now " tucking his arm in his aunt's and 
 pushing her gently forward, "go down all of you to 
 lunch. I heard Clemence crying out that sacred sen- 
 tence ' Le dejeuner est servi' long ago." 
 
 Then the two girls and Mrs. Brent began descend- 
 ing the twisted stairs once more, though Oliver re- 
 mained behind to put away his things, while Fran-
 
 140 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 cpise lingered a moment longer in front of Jacque- 
 line's picture. 
 
 When they were alone together and Franchise had 
 remained some time before the canvas in silent con- 
 templation, she turned to Oliver. 
 
 "My dear boy," she said, "I am deeply touched 
 < more indeed than I can tell you. You have pre- 
 sented to us more than the outward epitome of Jac- 
 queline's mind and character. For, not only have 
 you shown me here the girl who is the result of my 
 training, but . . ." and Franchise looked again 
 at the face of the picture and heaved a sigh. 
 
 Oliver came up towards her, and affectionately, rev- 
 erently, laid his hand on her arm and then forced 
 her to look up and meet his glance. 
 
 "But what?" 
 
 " Ah, you know well what I mean, Oliver, dear 
 boy! Before the others, before Jacqueline herself I 
 did not wish to say all that your portrait of my child 
 suggested to me . . ." 
 
 "Say what you think now nevertheless, dear ma- 
 dame," Oliver pleaded encouragingly. 
 
 "You have done more than shown her personality 
 and her character. You have put into her glance 
 what is not yet there," said Franchise. " Though 
 there is all her evasive, whimsical femininity on her 
 smiling lips and in her palpitating nostrils, there is 
 more than that. Into her eyes you have put the truer, 
 deeper soul of her womanhood. . . . Alas ! will 
 it ever come to her?"
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 141 
 
 Oliver was silent a moment as Franchise and he 
 stood together side by side before the picture. 
 
 "It may come to her," said Oliver at last, speak- 
 ing very slowly with emphasis and as if weighing 
 his words. " It may come to her ... I hope it 
 will. But, as you suggested just now, like the neces- 
 sary knowledge and understanding of life, it can only 
 be wrung out of human tears. ... I am afraid 
 you have made her too happy. You have kept all 
 knowledge of sorrow and of pain from her. You have 
 cultivated her mind alone perhaps even at the ex- 
 pense of her heart. . . . Who can say whether 
 you have been right? The future itself alone will 
 decide that. . . . The truth is, she is not awake 
 yet, and in my picture I have shown her as she will 
 be when she is awake. Don't you see, dear Madame 
 Reville?" 
 
 Franchise's eyes were filled with tears. 
 
 " Yes, dear Oliver, I see that you understand her 
 even as I do." 
 
 "That," said Oliver, gently and gravely, "that 
 is because I love her too." 
 
 Franchise made no answer, but dried her tears. 
 Then she put her hand on Oliver's shoulder and to- 
 gether they turned and went down the winding stairs 
 to join the others.
 
 THAT same afternoon Oliver proposed that they 
 should go for a picnic in the forest of Marly. 
 
 At first the "mothers" demurred. 
 
 "It would be so difficult to arrange," said Fran- 
 goise. 
 
 "And it would be such a lot of trouble," quoth 
 Mrs. Brent. 
 
 " And you'll all get rheumatism after sitting down 
 on the damp grass and I should have to nurse you ! " 
 wailed Clemence, who was present. The truth was 
 that the lazy old woman did not like the trouble of 
 packing the picnic basket. 
 
 " Oh, nothing of the kind ! " cried Jacqueline, while 
 Nelly dismissed Clemence's objections with a shrug 
 of her shoulders. 
 
 Of course the young people won the day. 
 
 " Instead of having tea at five o'clock and a regu- 
 lar meat meal at eight, we'll combine the two," said 
 Jacqueline. 
 
 " Then we'd better take my tea-basket and call it 
 a high tea," proposed Nelly. 
 
 So Jacqueline and Nelly, with the grumbling help 
 of Clemence, filled the wickerwork receptacle with a 
 luxurious and plentiful meal of cold roast beef, ham, 
 hard-boiled eggs, fruit and cheese, and an excellent 
 salad which they packed ready-dressed into a deep 
 
 142
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 143 
 
 stone pot. They filled a similar jar with a compote 
 of raspberries and currants, and filled the milk bottle, 
 the sugar-box, and the tea-box. Then they declared 
 themselves ready to confront the wildest pangs of 
 hunger. 
 
 " We can get some water to make the tea from the 
 first keeper at the Grille Royale," said Oliver. 
 
 " Or from the spring in the park, which will be 
 better still," put in Jacqueline, drawing on her gloves. 
 
 At last all was ready, and the younger people of the 
 community and Rip in attendance left " Les Peu- 
 pliers" at five o'clock with the basket. It was ar- 
 ranged that Oliver should carry it while the girls took 
 charge of the rugs. 
 
 It was a gloriously beautiful afternoon as they 
 passed along the Route du Camp which skirts the 
 green glades of the Bois Brule. The hawthorn hedges 
 edging the road on one side were mingled with odor- 
 ous honeysuckle now in full bloom, and the wild rose 
 bushes ran in intricate confusion along the outskirts 
 of the wood on the other side. 
 
 They tarried awhile in the golden cornfield that sepa- 
 rates the Versailles from the Louveciennes road, for 
 Oliver to rest, and soon they found themselves at the 
 Grille Royale of the park of Marly. Here, alas ! they 
 perceived the first dilapidations of this formerly mag- 
 nificent domain that had once held the fairest jewel 
 among the Eighteenth Century castles of France. 
 Built together with the castle itself in 1676, the Grille 
 Royale, surmounted by vases sculptured by Jouvenet, 
 had been furnished with magnificent iron gates, the
 
 144 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 design of which was as delicate as lacework. But 
 the aperture of the Grille itself had been narrowed 
 and the gates replaced by common wooden doors. 
 Luckily, some compassionate hand had planted a 
 climbing rose-tree over the dilapidated stonework of 
 the portals, and this somewhat hid the ravages 
 wrought by the eager, ruthless hands of man and of 
 time. 
 
 Rarely in history has there been so sad a destiny 
 as that of the Chateau of Marly, for of all its beauty, 
 luxury and art, nothing now remains but a few lichen- 
 covered stones. The wide, semi-circular space beyond 
 the entrance that was once a noble Cour d'Honneur 
 was now transformed into a prosperous farmyard 
 wherein ducks and geese strutted about in proud pos- 
 session of the lawns that royal feet once had trod. 
 At the left side of the gate, between two fine old trees, 
 a swing had been put up for the farmer's children, 
 who were now enjoying themselves swinging high to 
 and fro on the very spot where the Garde d'Honneur 
 had once presented arms to the royal cortege of " le 
 Roi Soleil" 
 
 It is evident that the infuriated populace of the 
 Revolution, must have taken a savage joy in not only 
 destroying but in actually defacing both the architect- 
 ural and artistic treasures of the royal domain, for 
 even the broken remains of gateways, terraces, and 
 fountains have been wilfully crushed and ground 
 into humility to the earth. It is pitiful to contem- 
 plate the ruins and utter desolation of what was 
 once so fair, so brilliant a spot. But Nature her-
 
 145 
 
 self, less cruel than Humanity, has shown here some 
 tender pity. For over the ruined remains of the fine 
 porches or gateways of proud pilasters and lofty ter- 
 races which are still to be found in almost every spot 
 of the royal grounds, she has mercifully thrown her 
 fairylike mantle of leaf and flower and fern and 
 grass, thus covering the shame of man's ruthless 
 handiwork. 
 
 From the Grille Royale our group of young people, 
 well content with themselves though awed into si- 
 lence by the splendid sadness of the ruined beauty 
 around them, followed the wide, stone-flagged road 
 that led to the remains of the old castle walls, be- 
 tween the crumbling skeletons of once proud and 
 high terraces, now clothed with flowering brambles 
 and wild clematis. 
 
 Soon they arrived on the site of the castle, which 
 formerly stood a fine mass forty-two metres square 
 on the spot through which the road now passes. The 
 bare of its wide walls is still distinguishable, forming 
 a ridge about a foot high that rises from the thick soft 
 grass. Jacqueline, who was walking on a little in 
 front of her friends suddenly recognizing the spot 
 she had been reading the history of Marly quite 
 recently begged that the famous site should be 
 chosen for the spreading of their picnic meal. 
 
 The view was so beautiful from where they stood 
 and the day so peaceful and bright that Jacqueline, 
 physically tired and full of memories of the histor- 
 ical spot upon which their feet were now set, let Nelly 
 busy herself with the tea-basket and sank down upon
 
 146 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 the broad ridge of the crumbling walls. She could 
 not refrain from allowing her thoughts to wander 
 back to olden times, imagining to herself what this 
 particular spot had been like when the three succes- 
 sive and brilliant courts and three consecutives Kings 
 of France had lived here in splendour. She saw pass 
 before her in imagination along the grassy sward 
 that now covered the wide lofty terraces whose fine 
 proportions were still undisguised, the graceful forms 
 of the dainty Madame de Pompadour, the frivolous 
 Madame du Barry, the practical-minded Madame de 
 Maintenon, who from this spot had superintended the 
 building of her famous aristocratic college for Women 
 at St. Cyr close by. She evoked, too, the image of 
 that most ill-fated of all the Marly beauties Queen 
 Marie Antoinette who last of all had gazed through 
 the high windows of the great Salon d'Honneur, dec- 
 orated with the finest paintings and sculptures of the 
 time and had watched the sun go down in the sky 
 in the blue distances of St. Germain beyond, that lay 
 stretched out in the valley of the Seine before the 
 castle, as she herself Jacqueline Reville was now 
 doing. 
 
 Jacqueline, still as if in a dream, lived for a few 
 minutes back in the past. In imagination she peopled 
 the fine avenue around with dainty court ladies at- 
 tended by their be-je welled and be-laced cavaliers, 
 walking beneath the deep shadows of the leafage. It 
 was hard to believe that once in the wide empty grass- 
 covered spaces that now flank the ruins of the castle 
 rose on both sides six pavilions twelve in all which
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 147 
 
 were devoted to the use of the courtiers and attend- 
 ants of the King, and were as richly adorned as the 
 castle itself. 
 
 "O, Jacqueline, do leave off your dreaming and 
 come and help us with the tea ! " cried Nelly's petulant 
 voice at last breaking ruthlessly in upon Jacqueline's 
 reverie, and Jacqueline, reluctantly allowing her dream 
 of splendour to fade away, turned her attention to the 
 tea-basket at her feet, from which cups, forks, spoons 
 and plates had been extracted without order and placed 
 along the crumbling stonework of the old walls. 
 
 Then they spread out the feast on a table-cloth 
 which had been folded over the top of the basket just 
 beneath the lid, and, using the low ruined walls as 
 temporary shelves for their pots and dishes, set to 
 making the tea on the spirit lamp set on the spot that 
 had once been the threshold of the grand salon d'hon- 
 nenr. For the "mothers" now hove in sight. They 
 were carefully descending the steep stone-flagged 
 slope that led from the Grille Royale Mrs. Brent 
 walking with mincing, careful steps, and Franchise 
 with her light and graceful tread. 
 
 When the " mothers " were at last installed on the 
 low walls with rugs doubled beneath them as cushions, 
 the young folk stretched themselves around them on 
 the grass, and the merry meal began. The table-cloth 
 was held down with four stones taken from the crum- 
 bling ruins, and in the centre Nelly, who was de- 
 termined to decorate the meal as befitted the occasion, 
 had stuck a bunch of bramble and bluebells into one 
 of the water bottles and placed it in the centre of the
 
 148 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 cloth. Jacqueline and Oliver seated at the corner 
 furthest removed from the wall, could not refrain 
 from gazing with delight upon the fair view before 
 them. From time to time they paused in their meal 
 to contemplate some passing train rushing like an ani- 
 mated black snake across the lace-like iron railway 
 bridge that spanned the distant valley, a puff of blue 
 smoke seemingly issuing forth from its head. Right 
 in front of them and immediately at their feet, 
 stretched the hollow plain which once had been the 
 famous artificial lake and where now amid its numer- 
 our grass-covered depressions where formerly bright 
 fountains and minor ponds had shone in the bright 
 sunlight a single tiny pool of still blue water alone re- 
 mained as a witness to the once magnificent aquatic 
 display that had made the grounds of Marly so fa- 
 mous. Now alas! on its edges were two village 
 women washing their family linen while around them 
 grazing peacefully in the early evening's light were 
 a few horses and donkeys. 
 
 But Jacqueline and Oliver had been forced to re- 
 linquish their day-dreaming contemplation of the 
 suggestive scene before them, by Nelly's reiteration. 
 
 " You might at least communicate some of your 
 knowledge of this place to us benighted and ignorant 
 folk," she said as she waved a great slice of bread 
 and jam that she had been munching with her des- 
 sert, in the direction of the grassy hollows beyond. 
 
 " Certainly," said Jacqueline. " I am quite willing 
 to tell you all I know myself. The long, broad walk 
 there," pointing to the sward at their feet, " was once 
 the principal terrace. From it there were wide mar-
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 149 
 
 ble steps that led to another lower terrace, you can 
 see its long level surface there," and she pointed with 
 her fruit-fork to the second straight lawn that lay 
 beneath the abrupt slope where once the marble steps 
 had been. At each end of this, was a perfectly circu- 
 lar depression that looked like a basin scooped out of 
 the turf. 
 
 "Those hollows as well as those further on on 
 the third terrace must have held the four fountains 
 known as the Quatre Gerbes. In the larger, deeper 
 hollows further on still were the famous Grand Jet, 
 Nappe and Grosse Gerbe. The spring of water that 
 fed them is still in existence under the trees yonder 
 to the right." And she pointed again. 
 
 Nelly rose and went to the edge of the first ter- 
 race, peering intently down over the steep declivity 
 that led to the second. The modern authorities of 
 the commune of Marly had prudently though un- 
 picturesquely railed in the edges of each terrace with 
 wire netting to prevent accidents. 
 
 " In the far distance, beyond the large square de- 
 pression where the women are washing, I can discern 
 a sort of grey stone construction. What is that?" 
 called out Nelly. 
 
 Jacqueline rose, too, now with her table napkin 
 in her hand and joined her friend on the green lawn 
 of the terrace. Oliver followed in her wake. 
 
 " That's the ' abreuvoir ' or horse pond. I say is 
 because of all the edifices of Marly that is all that now 
 remains almost intact. It's a pity we can't see it well 
 from here. I've been shown a picture of it and it's 
 quite worth a special visit. Another day we can go
 
 150 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 down through the Alice du Coeur Volant which runs 
 from just outside the Grille Royale to the edge of 
 the ' abreuvoir ' and inspect it for ourselves. . 
 It is built of grey stone considerably mellowed down 
 with lichen growth and the patina of age." 
 
 " Have the Chevaux de Marly that stand on the top 
 of the Champs Elysees the Place de la Concorde 
 anything to do with this particular spot of Marly?" 
 asked Oliver, speaking almost for the first time. He 
 too was profoundly interested in the history of this 
 beautiful spot. 
 
 " Of course," said Jacqueline, smiling. " I thought 
 all Parisians knew that! They formed the group 
 of horses sculptured by Costou to stand at the top of 
 the ' abreuvoir! . . . It is said that the infuriated 
 population of Marly were about to demolish that fine 
 work of art too, but luckily it was saved by- the Revo- 
 lutionary Committee itself, who gave orders that the 
 whole piece of sculpture should be effectually pro- 
 tected by a strong wooden case nailed down over it. 
 It was thus removed to Paris, and afterwards the 
 groups of horses were placed on either side of the 
 great avenue." 
 
 " How interesting all this is ! And how clever you 
 are to know it all so well ! " exclaimed Nelly for once 
 subdued and awed into comparative attention. Then 
 turning 1 right round in the opposite direction she 
 asked : 
 
 " What is that deep slope of lawn right behind the 
 castle surrounded on both sides by thick rows of 
 trees?"
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 151 
 
 " I think that that must be where the old cascade 
 formerly was," replied Jacqueline. " It was described 
 as being close to the castle. There were about sixty 
 red marble polished slabs set in gradation down the 
 slope over which the water fell ' en chute.' But even 
 in the time of Louis XVI. and some years before the 
 Revolution, the expense of bringing the water to feed 
 the cascade was so great that the politicans of the 
 time refused the necessary credit to the King's 
 budget. So the waterfall was suppressed and the 
 slabs of marble carried away to Paris where they 
 were utilised to repair the nave of the Church of St. 
 
 Sulpice." 
 
 Here Oliver interrupted Jacqueline's explanations. 
 
 " I see the ' mothers ' making frantic signs to us 
 to go back and boil up some fresh tea ! " And as the 
 two girls and young man turned back to cross the ter- 
 race he slipped his arm affectionately and fraternally 
 through Jacqueline's and remarked in tender mock- 
 ery: 
 
 " My dear friend, I am so happy to think that we 
 need have no fears for your future. . . . It is 
 quite provided for. ... All other things failing, 
 you'll make an excellent guide!" 
 
 Jacqueline smiled but made no answer. 
 
 And the three settled down once more at the feet 
 of the " mothers." As the second brew of tea was in 
 progress which Nelly laughingly declared must serve 
 them for cafe noir, a cyclist passed by behind them 
 on the road. 
 
 "Hulloa!" cried Oliver, "I seem to know that
 
 152 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 figure. . . . Yes! I thought so! Why it's 
 Jerome d'Ablis!" 
 
 "Jerome d'Ablis!" cried Nelly, her eyes in the 
 direction of the speeding figure " so it is ! Call out 
 to him, Oliver, and tell him to come and join us. It 
 will be sport ! " 
 
 As Oliver, who had risen abruptly, was running 
 across the grass towards his friend, Mrs. Brent ex- 
 plained to Franchise and her daughter that Jerome 
 was a great friend of Oliver's, whom he had known 
 almost from boyhood, when Oliver had lived with the 
 Lerouge family. He was an amateur artist, as well 
 as an attache at the Foreign Affairs, and had a studio 
 next door to Oliver's in the Quartier. 
 
 It was only when Oliver was close up to him that 
 his friend recognized him. 
 
 " Tiens! Brent! En voila une bonne surprise!" 
 and the young man, jumping lightly off his bicycle, 
 came towards the merry group, cap in hand. 
 
 " Let me introduce my friend, Jerome d'Ablis, to 
 you," said Oliver, leading him toward Frangoise after 
 the young man had been cordially welcomed by Mrs. 
 John Brent and Nelly. "Madame Reville and her 
 daughter are very dear friends of ours. We are shar- 
 ing a cottage here together for the summer," he 
 added, addressing himself to Jerome. 
 
 Jerome bowed with stiff and rather ceremonious 
 grace as Oliver introduced him. He was a fine-look- 
 ing young man with dark curly hair and brown-green- 
 ish eyes. His even white teeth gleamed beneath a 
 very carefully trimmed moustache each time he smiled,
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 153 
 
 which was often for he looked merry and good- 
 natured, and had the graceful, social manners of the 
 young Frenchman of his class and education. 
 
 " And what are you doing out here? " asked Oliver. 
 He of course now spoke in French. 
 
 " Well, to tell you the truth, mon cher, I was hav- 
 ing a solitary ride on my bicycle and have got lost! 
 I was making for Marly to get a meal and take the 
 train back to Paris." 
 
 "Why, it's nearly eight o'clock now!" chimed in 
 good Mrs. Brent in her atrocious but often pictur- 
 esque French. "Poor lad! He must be hungry if 
 he's been on his wheel all the afternoon. Haven't you 
 something left in that basket, Nelly?" 
 
 Jerome looked longingly at the basket and at the 
 remains of the meal spread out in confusion on the 
 white cloth. But with characteristic French discre- 
 tion, which does not understand the spontaneous sim- 
 plicity of English people when they ask a passing 
 friend to share a meal, he excused himself. 
 
 " O, madame, you are too kind ! I do not wish 
 to trespass on your goodness." 
 
 " Nonsense nonsense, you do not trespass at all ! " 
 said Nelly. ""On the contrary, there's still plenty to 
 eat and you are most welcome. Look here ! " and she 
 held up the articles as she spoke, " herefe a fine 
 slice of ham, some beef, some bread and cheese, and 
 one hard egg, besides a little fruit. With a cup of 
 hot tea, that might do duty for a meal, if you will ac- 
 cept it." 
 
 "Do duty for a meal!" echoed Jerome. "Why,
 
 154 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 Sardanapalus himself couldn't have wished for a 
 better!" 
 
 " Then come along, Jerome/' cried Oliver, thrusting 
 his arm through that of his friend. "You must be 
 tired. Sit down here," and he pushed Jerome down 
 on the grass at the feet of Madame Reville and Mrs. 
 Brent. 
 
 " The tea's just ready," cried Nelly. 
 
 So Jerome, his bicycle lying on the curb beside him, 
 was added to the merry party. 
 
 Jacqueline, who had hardly spoken to the young 
 man, now helped her friend Nelly in plying him with 
 all the dainty remnants that were still in the basket. 
 It was she who drew a whole large spoonful of the 
 tomato salad from the depths of the stone jar. This 
 was turned out on to Jerome's plate, and he ate up 
 everything they gave him heartily. Soon the tea was 
 finished and the basket, now quite empty, repacked, 
 and the two young men drew out their cigarettes, 
 while the fuller-toned colours faded in the evening 
 sky. Bright blue became faint turquoise, and red- 
 gold a rosy lemon, while deep violet merged into a 
 more misty amethyst. Night was beginning to fall. 
 The women of the party put on their light summer 
 cloaks, and all began reluctantly to think of going 
 home. 
 
 On the way back, Jerome, who accompanied them, 
 rolling his bicycle along as he walked, explained that 
 his parents, with whom he lived, were at the present 
 season at their chateau in Touraine, so that he was 
 therefore alone in Paris. He had been forced to re-
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 155 
 
 main behind alone for another month to attend to 
 some business at the Foreign Affairs Ministry. 
 
 "Then come and spend the rest of your time of 
 loneliness down here with us," cried Mrs. Brent spon- 
 taneously turning towards Madame Reville, for a 
 confirmation of her invitation which Franchise could 
 not refuse. " We've got a spare room at Les Peuplicrs, 
 and I am sure Paris is stifling now. We are so near 
 to St. Lazare that you can run in to town whenever 
 you like." 
 
 Again Jerome was puzzled, !though touched, by 
 such kind hospitality. But he answered hesitatingly. 
 
 " Je suis confus, I do not know what to answer 
 
 you. I am afraid of being in the way " He 
 
 stopped hesitatingly once more, and his eyes fell and 
 rested on Jacqueline with bewilderment. 
 
 " Answer ' Yes,' " said! good Mrs. Brent, " and 
 you'll please us all. Won't he ? " she said, addressing 
 herself to the rest of the company. 
 
 " Yes yes ! " cried Nelly. 
 
 Franchise and Jacqueline were less boisterous in their 
 insistence, but, realizing that Jerome d'Ablis was evi- 
 dently a great and intimate friend of the Brents, 
 they both graciously begged him to stay. 
 
 " You are such an old very old friend of Oliver's 
 . Why you've known one another since you 
 were almost boys," pursued Mrs. Brent, addressing 
 Jerome again. " Your parents are far away, and you 
 are alone. It will be far better for you to be with 
 us than to go cycling around Paris all alone in a fresh 
 direction each day and then get lost ! "
 
 TS6 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 (C 
 
 'Allans, est-ce entendu?" queried Nelly. 
 
 "I am really more grateful than I can say," began 
 Jerome, still hesitating and looking towards Oliver. 
 
 For though Oliver liked Jerome personally and 
 found him a most entertaining companion, he had 
 added but a weak insistence to his aunt's and sister's 
 kindly urgings. He knew that Jerome was unaccus- 
 tomed to the society of young girls and though the 
 hoyden Nelly had nothing to fear from the young 
 Frenchman, he wondered whether Madame Reville 
 had she known Jerome better would have cared to 
 have him for any lengthy period in close touch with 
 her daughter. But alas! he felt himself powerless to 
 resist the current of events and it was impossible 
 for him, being the only man of the party, not to 
 confirm his aunt's invitation. Above all he was 
 prompted by the instinctive British loathing of ap- 
 pearing inhospitable. So he answered his friend's 
 mute appeal resolutely : 
 
 "Of course you must agree to come" he said. 
 " Now that's enough, that's enough, mon vieux," he 
 added as Jerome proceeded to thank Mrs. Brent in 
 polite and flowery language. "Now it's understood. 
 You come to us to-morrow evening with your valise 
 and your bicycle. Your room will be quite ready for 
 you. As you are good at games, you'll be the special 
 delight of my sister, who is always in want of a new 
 partner/* 
 
 So it was arranged. And Jerome d'Ablis was 
 added to the party at Les Peupliers.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 JEROME D'ABLIS, a charming young fils de famille of 
 about thirty, was at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 
 awaiting with laudable resignation his future appoint- 
 ment to some diplomatic post. The sole ambition 
 of his wealthy parents was that their son should enter 
 La Carriere, as the Diplomatic Service is called in 
 France. But so far his nomination had been a diffi- 
 cult thing to obtain, for the d'Ablis family was old 
 and aristocratic, and had only lately been converted 
 to Republicanism. Formerly La Carriere was re- 
 cruited almost exclusively from among the families 
 of the old French aristocracy. But since the sons 
 of Republicans had begun to enter the ranks of can- 
 didates, it had become more difficult for descendants 
 of the old French noblesse to obtain appointments, 
 even to the lesser posts in this Administration d'Etdt. 
 
 Jerome, who was a most accomplished and distin- 
 guished type of the young society man of Paris, had 
 been waiting patiently, contenting himself with his 
 small unremunerated post at the Ministry of Foreign 
 Affairs in the hope that some day influential friends 
 of his father's would be able to secure him a billet. 
 Lately a new Minister had come into power who was 
 less drastic in his dealings with the members of the 
 older nobility, and some hope was now entertained of 
 a possible ending to Jerome's long probation. 
 
 But meanwhile the young man had found the
 
 158 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 pleasures whicH Paris offers to the attractive and 
 distinguished bachelor most alluring. The period of 
 his waiting had been anything but dull. Society host- 
 esses of all classes welcomed him with effusion. He 
 was a favourite anywhere in the restricted social 
 circles of the Faubourg as well as in the Republican 
 officialdom. He was not only extremely goodlooking, 
 but he was most entertaining and useful to hostesses 
 of all classes, being an excellent leader of cotillons 
 as well as a brilliant conversationalist. He was an 
 amateur musician too and at times dabbled in litera- 
 ture, for now and again he wrote short, rather insipid, 
 but very finely polished articles in the Figaro or in 
 one of the monthly reviews. Above all, he had a 
 decided taste for painting. In order to work more 
 seriously at Art he had taken some years before 
 while Oliver still lived with the Lerouge family a 
 studio not only in the same block as Oliver's, but 
 actually next door to it, so that only a thin wall 
 divided them. By such close neighbourhood he hoped 
 to reap many advantages from Oliver's superior 
 guidance. Jerome himself had a pretty talent, but 
 was a sincere admirer of Oliver's and was proud to 
 call himself Oliver's great friend. Ofteft Jerome* 
 would rap on the dividing wall, and call out to his 
 friend to invite him to lunch or to beg him to come 
 into his studio and criticize his work. Oliver, who 
 was a far more serious-minded person, was often 
 amused by Jerome's absurd and childish gaiety, and 
 found him a clever as well as a most entertaining 
 companion, although the light frivolity of Jerome's
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 159 
 
 mind precluded all possibility of any very deep friend- 
 ship between the two men. 
 
 But though Jerome was on familiar terms with 
 Oliver, he never invited him to the house of his 
 parents, and indeed he never introduced Oliver to 
 his father and mother at all. Like many young 
 Frenchmen of his class and education, he kept his 
 family relations entirely separate from his external 
 and social life. His friends even the most intimate 
 met him at his club or at various cafes, or called 
 to see him in his studio, and though he lived at home, 
 his parents knew but few of his friends and acquaint- 
 ances. At times Jerome, after a long night's carous- 
 ing at various cafes or at his club did not return to 
 the parental roof at all. He would then go to sleep 
 at his studio, which was provided with a divan bed 
 that was always made and ready for occupation, be- 
 neath its sumptuous draperies or oriental embroid- 
 eries. The concierge of the building acted as sort 
 of general servant to all the occupants of the studios 
 very few of which were inhabited as living rooms 
 so that on those evenings when Jerome repaired to 
 his studio to finish up the night, the concierge brought 
 him up his coffee ready made from the loge in the 
 morning. It happened occasionally that Jerome was 
 not alone when he thus returned to his studio for the 
 night and was accompanied by some charming com- 
 panion, to whom the concierge would act as femnte 
 de chambrc in the morning. But this occurred rarely. 
 His feminine acquaintances were mostly of a higher 
 social order. They generally came in the afternoon,
 
 160 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 between five and seven, darkly gowned and closely 
 veiled, stepping furtively from a closed cab with 
 drawn blinds, and gliding quickly down the long cor- 
 ridor upon which the doors of the studio opened. 
 
 The proximity of his friend's studio might at times 
 have been an annoyance to Jerome had he been really 
 concerned about keeping the fair names of the ladies 
 who called at his studio entirely untarnished. But 
 Jerome, alas! was very careless of these reputations, 
 treating them too lightly in Oliver's more austere 
 opinion. 
 
 When he was discussing with Oliver one day, much 
 against Brent's own taste for he disliked Jerome's 
 confidences and generally managed to avoid them 
 the visit of an Italian Princess of great and renowned 
 family the previous afternoon, Oliver stopped him 
 with a gesture of reproach and impatience, and asked 
 him if he were not ashamed of compromising so un- 
 blemished a prestige. 
 
 " Bah ! " said Jerome lightly, as he brushed up- 
 wards the shining points of his bronze-coloured mous- 
 tache. " Bah ! Let them defend themselves ! The 
 dear things, they know what they risk when they 
 come to my studio . . ." 
 
 Oliver was silent. A dull red flush spread over 
 his face. 
 
 " I do not look at these things as you do, evidently," 
 he began. 
 
 " Angliche pudibond, va!" interjected Jerome. 
 
 " But among them all, these women who have com- 
 promised themselves for you, has there never been
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 161 
 
 one for whom you truly cared, and whom you con- 
 sider worthy of your respect and chivalry?" 
 
 Jerome shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " One owes neither respect nor chivalry to women 
 who accept such assignations as mine. They know 
 I'm not in earnest, and they are not in earnest them- 
 selves. Besides, one owes respect to but one woman 
 in one's life one's own wife. None of the others 
 count!" 
 
 "We evidently don't feel the same way in these 
 matters," said Oliver stiffly. 
 
 Jerome carelessly shrugged his shoulders o'nce more 
 and muttered something more about English prudery. 
 
 "It seems to me that whatever women do, they 
 ought to be treated with consideration and more 
 especially still by the very man who ruins them. For 
 women have the worst of it in every way, and 
 always." 
 
 "Oh, mon cher," said Jerome impatiently, "you've 
 missed your vocation! You ought not to have been 
 an artist, but a Protestant parson. That was your 
 bent, my friend." And Jerome, laughing at Oliver's 
 serious face, lit another cigarette, and turned the con- 
 versation to other subjects. 
 
 Yet Oliver, for all his austere disproval of Jerome's 
 ways with women, had a genuine liking for the young 
 Frenchman. At an early stage of their acquaintance 
 and this was long before he had any knowledge of 
 Jerome's promiscuous lovemaking among society 
 ladies Brent had invited his friend to his aunt's 
 house. Here Jerome had become a great favourite.
 
 162 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 Nelly amused him greatly. She appealed to him as 
 if she were a bright young boy companion not a 
 woman at all. And Nelly, healthy-minded and full 
 of genuine fun, though she liked Jerome, to a cer- 
 tain extent, yet dften ma.de him 1 the butt of her 
 raillery and teasing. What she termed his "namby- 
 pamby ways" caused her much merriment. Though 
 brave in many ways, for he would not have hesitated 
 an instant to go out upon le terrain, had he been 
 called out by one of the husbands of the veiled and 
 furtive- footed ladies who sometimes visited his studio, 
 yet he nearly fainted with horror at the sight of a 
 mouse, and he could not bear bodily discomfort of 
 any kind without complaining like a child. One day 
 Nelly nearly forced Jerome into a thorough exhibition 
 of temper, when she put one of her pink-eyed white 
 mice on his shoulder. The shriek of horror which 
 he gave upon that occasion was treasured up by Nelly, 
 who repeated it in mockery each time she wished to 
 try his patience to the utmost. 
 
 And now at Les Peupliers there were four young 
 people to go out for long walks together. To Jerome 
 who, being brought up in the most approved French 
 fashion, had many men friends but had never been 
 brought into contact with a young girl before 
 Jacqueline was destined to be a revelation. He 
 had always wondered what an unmarried girl was 
 like. He had met a few in his mother's salon, and 
 they had seemed to him mysterious, inexplicable and 
 silent creatures whose own reserve built an impene- 
 trable barrier around them. For him, they were
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 163 
 
 forbidden fruit. One must not approach them except 
 with matrimonal intentions, and, as he had not begun 
 to contemplate marriage yet, any friendship or com- 
 panionship with them was of course impossible. In 
 Jerome's opinion, a woman was only a woman once she 
 was married, and a jeune fille was a strange hybrid 
 creature he did not understand at all and was inclined 
 rather to fear. Thus the easy and kindly hospitality 
 of the Brents had been the means of putting him 
 for the first time in his life, in touch with that curi- 
 ous, tantalising and hitherto unknown mystery, a 
 male jeune fille. This for a young Frenchman of 
 Jerome's class and education was indeed an almost 
 unhoped-for interest. He was at last not only able 
 to meet but to be in daily contact with one of those 
 perplexing, ambiguous creatures who had always 
 possessed the attraction of the enigmatic for him. 
 
 How interesting it was going to be to be allowed 
 to be near one at last to be able to touch her, to 
 breathe the same air as she did! Were they as im- 
 maculately innocent as they were supposed to be 
 these jeunes filles even under the guarding wing and 
 vigilant eye of their mothers, separated by customs, 
 habits and conventions from all male humanity, pre- 
 served untouched for the exclusive delight and owner- 
 ship of one lucky man the husband, the initiator of 
 all knowledge? Nelly Brent, with her frank, open, 
 'unconventional freedom of speech and action, as 
 well as her lack of coquetry and of mystery, had 
 never appealed to Jerome with the charm of the 
 jeune fille. She seemed to him no more than a young
 
 164 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 lad full of spirits, fun, and exuberance. But this 
 quiet, reserved, languid-eyed Jacqueline, so troublante 
 with golden hair, fresh mouth and its elusive, caress- 
 ing smile attracted him in an inexplicable manner! 
 
 For the first few days of his visit, Jerome d'Ablis 
 was ill at ease in her presence. He did not know 
 to use his own expression " sur quel pied danser " 
 on which foot to dance. He was afraid of making 
 mistakes, of frightening, and so of offending, her, 
 and of alienating her interest entirely. His attentions 
 were therefore tentative, and most measured and he 
 was most careful of his speech, fearing that he might 
 displease or hurt her. But by degrees the ice thawed 
 between them, and seeing Jacqueline's simple friendly 
 attitude with Oliver, Jerome felt reassured and be- 
 came more confident. Then he made a few advances, 
 and mustered up sufficient courage to speak to her, 
 and when he did he was astonished to find that she 
 answered him either quite simply or perhaps even 
 coquettishly, just like any other woman. So by 
 degrees, the diffidence she had inspired him with 
 diminished and finally disappeared, and they became 
 great friends, on the same footing as she was with 
 Oliver. As his company did not seem to displease 
 her, he arranged to be her own special companion 
 during their long walks. He soon discovered what 
 were the subjects that interested her most, and a 
 clever and brilliant causeur he kept to them, taking 
 every opportunity of charming her with his witty 
 sallies. 
 
 But as the days progressed Jacqueline surprised
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 16$ 
 
 Jerome. He had not expected to find a jeune Me 
 who knew so much, who could converse upon almost 
 every subject whether it were art, literature, history, 
 politics, or even sociology. Were all jeunes titles 
 alike, he wondered, or was Mademoiselle Reville a 
 most exceptional one? Certainly he had never been 
 given to understand that the jeunes filles of to-day 
 were so competent in the art of conversation. Jerome 
 was more and more bewildered, and his amazement 
 grew into deeper admiration, and his admiration into 
 a yet greater desire to please, and finally his own 
 desire to please into a love-interest of which he would 
 have thought himself incapable a few weeks before. 
 
 Jacqueline herself soon became aware of the at- 
 traction she had for him and, flattered and amused 
 by his evident admiration, now allowed all her in- 
 stincts of coquetry to rise rampant once more. 
 
 Since she had been sitting to Oliver for her por- 
 trait, her attitude towards the young painter had 
 somewhat veered round. Before this period she had 
 looked upon Oliver as a simple young Englishman 
 slightly gauche in his dealings with women, and as 
 a bon camarade when she was in her best moods, 
 though she found him difficult to flirt with at all 
 times. But since the long tete-a-tetes in the studio 
 and the conversations upon so many subjects of inter- 
 est to both painter and model, Oliver had shown her 
 many new sides of his character and his mentality 
 which had revealed him in quite a new light before 
 the critical tribunal of her exacting mind. They had 
 become close, and even very dear friends, for Jac-
 
 queline's .heart could only be toudied through the 
 medium of her brain. She had been so intellectually 
 trained that she considered mental culture as the 
 highest of all attributes that might claim to attract 
 her. Not even perfect beauty appealed to her yet so 
 completely as brilliancy of the intellect. T And be- 
 neath his cold and reserved demeanour Oliver had 
 proved to her the unquestionable superiority of his 
 mind. 
 
 Oliver had never yet betrayed his love to Jacque- 
 line, and although he felt that he had won her 
 friendship he dared not yet hope that he had reached 
 the tenderer feelings of her heart. And he neither 
 reasoned out his conduct nor laid plans, but allowed 
 matters to drift as they would, trusting in the days 
 to come when Jacqueline would awake to love. He 
 had hoped that the expression he had painted in 
 her portrait would have revealed her to herself. But 
 though her mother, in her ever-vigilant tenderness, 
 had discovered the dawn of true womanhood in the 
 eyes of the picture and knew what message they told 
 of Oliver's love for his model, Jacqueline herself, if 
 she had perceived any revelation, had not yet under- 
 stood its significance. She admired the picture, and 
 she felt deference and respect for Oliver for having 
 been able to summarize her own extrinsic personality 
 so well, but she had not been able to read the supreme 
 message of Oliver's love which the portrait itself 
 conveyed. 
 
 But now with Jerome's advent her interest was by 
 degrees drawn away from Oliver and new emotions
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 167 
 
 were forcing themselves, almost against her will, into 
 her youthful sensibility. And he Jerome perceiv- 
 ing her feelings, long before she had entirely realized 
 them herself, determined to lose no time in storming 
 the citadel of her heart. For Jerome's motto in his 
 dealings with women was " lose no time." He was 
 at this particular moment free from all intrigue. 
 His latest passion the Italian princess had returned 
 to her castle in Tuscany, leaving him free and as 
 heart-whole as ever. 
 
 The days at Les Peupllers would Have seemed long 
 and empty to him, had not Jacqueline been there, for 
 he did not care for any of the childish games that 
 Nelly suggested, and he had always distrusted that 
 young lady's playful jokes since the episode of the 
 white mouse. But the strange young girl who was 
 so different from all his preconceived ideas concern- 
 ing the jeune fille, interested him enormously, and 
 made him accept the somewhat dull pleasures of Les 
 Peupliers almost with enthusiasm. 
 
 At first he spent most of his mornings in the studio 
 watching the progress of Oliver's pictures, but Oliver 
 soon discovered that his presence disturbed the sittings 
 and altered the expression of his model, and though 
 Jerome amused Jacqueline indeed, precisely because 
 he amused her Oliver forbade him the entrance to 
 the tower. 
 
 As Jerome was unable to make love to Jacqueline 
 in the mornings, he determined to get even with Oliver 
 during the long walks in the afternoons. He re- 
 mained always close to Jacqueline upon these occa-
 
 1 68 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 sions, and soon the charm of his attractive personality 
 began to work more definitely upon her emotions. By 
 degrees she ceased to be merely coquettish with him, 
 being captivated in her turn, and finally to her aston- 
 ishment discovered that she had been caught in the 
 meshes of her own deftly-spread net. 
 
 Jacqueline, theoretically aware of most things in 
 life, had never yet been in love. Like many young 
 girls who have developed on the mental rather than 
 upon the emotional plane, she believed herself to be 
 incapable of feeling the tender passion. But Jerome 
 had determined now to awaken her. The slim, nerv- 
 ous creature, hitherto so conscious of self, with her 
 quick perceptive brain and cultured mind, had a tan- 
 tilising charm for him. It seemed to him a delightful 
 task to bring into those gay and mocking eyes the 
 shadow of that womanly tenderness which Oliver's 
 picture suggested but which Oliver himself " I'Ang- 
 liche pudibond!" as Jerome always disdainfully 
 called him had failed to evoke in reality. And 
 though Jerome set himself deliberately to gain Jac- 
 queline's love, yet it was with a certain amount of 
 involuntary personal emotion. By her terrible co- 
 quetry, she had unconsciously aroused a genuine 
 passion in Jerome's heart. Because of her alert in- 
 telligence, he believed her to be more fully possessed 
 of knowledge and experience of life than she really 
 was, while her beguilements, though consciously willed 
 and directed by her, were yet unconscious of their 
 own powers. They were in reality quite innocent 
 and childlike and totally ignorant of their own mean-
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 169 
 
 ing. The girl did not even know what fires she was 
 lighting with her winning smiles. While Jerome be- 
 lieved her to be a fully-developed and conscious 
 coquette, she was in reality as a child playing with 
 forces which would finally assail and overwhelm it. 
 Neither did Jerome for a moment suppose that he 
 was the first with whom she had measured her steel. 
 Because of her obvious knowledge and intelligence 
 he took her to be a thoroughly practised flirt. He 
 never realized that though her mind had been culti- 
 vated, her emotions were still completely undeveloped, 
 and she herself was incapable of explaining this to 
 him since she was ignorant of the depth and meaning 
 of those new emotions. He never dreamt that the 
 game between them was unequal at the start, or un- 
 derstood her immaturity since she had the outward ap- 
 pearance of the skilled coquette. 
 
 At the same time, Jerome himself never stopped to 
 consider what might be the end of this holiday idyll. 
 Although he knew that Jacqueline Reville was a lady 
 by birth and education, he believed that she had little 
 or no fortune and that she would never be accepted 
 as a daughter-in-law by his own father and mother 
 for that reason. Therefore not for one moment did it 
 enter his mind to ask her hand in marriage. To his 
 idea she offered the chance of a pleasant episode 
 that was all. 
 
 That he was forced to conceal this flirtation from his 
 host and hostesses at Les Peupliers seemed to him quite 
 natural. Was he not always forced to play a part in 
 all his affaires de coeur in view of the legitimate wrath
 
 170 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 of irate husbands? He therefore instinctively and 
 more particularly hid his courtship from Madame 
 Reville and Oliver. By this attitude he might have 
 brought disturbance into the mind of Jacqueline, had 
 not she herself, for the first time in her life, lost her 
 head. Yet the fact of Jerome's clever concealment 
 of his emotions before her mother and friends some- 
 what alarmed her in those moments when her vision 
 was clear. She was too proud to ask an explanation 
 of it from Jerome himself, yet too unsophisticated in 
 matters of love to dream of any arriere-pensee in his 
 mind. It is true that each time they were alone he 
 made violent protestations of his love for her, and 
 extolled her charms in delightful and poetic terms. 
 But of marriage he made no mention, and poor Jac- 
 queline was now so deeply disturbed that she took 
 but little notice of this omission. 
 
 She lived thus in an emotional torpor. Oliver 
 had now nearly finished the portrait, indeed there 
 had been but five or six sittings necessary after Je- 
 rome's arrival at Les Peupliers. So, while Oliver was 
 beginning a new picture in his tower and Nelly was 
 amusing herself in the garden with " Rip," and trying 
 to improve his education, Jacqueline and Jerome 
 would wander off into the woods at the back of the 
 house on plea of seeking wild flowers to adorn the 
 table at luncheon; and during these warm sunny 
 mornings Jerome made the most of his opportunities, 
 and Jacqueline allowed herself to be courted. 
 
 Suddenly Oliver became uneasy. Once at table 
 he had seen Jerome's glance set on Jacqueline, and
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 171 
 
 the girl's eyes respond to his. Oliver experienced 
 such pain at the revelation of their expression that 
 all the latent brute that slumbers in the heart of every 
 Anglo-Saxon arose fierce within him, and his first 
 instinct was to kick Jerome out of the house. When 
 he heard his kindly aunt renew her invitation once 
 more to Jerome, pressing him to remain as their guest 
 a few days more till the end of the month, his heart 
 sank within him. 
 
 And yet another pair of anxious eyes watched the 
 small tragedy that was being enacted during the peace- 
 ful holidays at* Les Peupliers. Franchise, observing 
 her daughter, saw that some deep emotion was astir in 
 the heart of her darling. She even saw the look that 
 Oliver had painted in Jacqueline's depicted eyes, be- 
 ginning to dawn in the face of her beloved child; 
 and she set herself to watch to watch with keen 
 vigilance. 
 
 One evening towards the end of the holidays, when 
 the long, hot summer day was at an end and the moon 
 was full in the sky, Nelly proposed a walk after 
 dinner through the secluded alleys of the lovely woods 
 behind the house, where Jacqueline and Jerome had 
 been flower-hunting in the morning. It was the last 
 day of Jerome's stay, for he was leaving for Touraine 
 the following evening. They all started off in pairs, 
 the two "mothers" Mrs. Brent and Madame Re- 
 ville Nelly and Oliver, followed by Rip in quest of 
 stones to be thrown along the road for him to run 
 after, and Jerome and Jacqueline lingering a long 
 way behind, apart from the others and evidently keen
 
 172 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 to enjoy total solitude. But at a pause in a dell 
 where the first two couples were resting to view the 
 moonlight scene, Franchise drew Jacqueline aside 
 and almost for the first time in her life, chided her 
 gently. 
 
 "My dearest, you should not stay so far behind 
 with Monsieur d'Ablis and for so long a time. It is 
 not convendble." 
 
 " Convenable! dearest maman" exclaimed Jacque- 
 line, smiling indulgently upon her parent. " You 
 did not bring me up to consider les convenances at 
 every turn did you? I have always done just as I 
 liked, and I have always walked out alone for years. 
 Why not now? Surely I can take care of myself! 
 IWhy this sudden reversion to the old bogies of your 
 own education? ' Les convenances!' But, my dearest 
 mother, it's the first time that I have heard you in- 
 voke them! 
 
 " Surely if I like to walk alone with Monsieur Je- 
 rome to enjoy his conversation exclusively, you cannot 
 try to oppose me now ! It's too late, sweet mother ! " 
 
 And seeing that Franchise in the weakness of her 
 love was ready to relent at once, Jacqueline continued : 
 
 "Don't worry about me, maman cherie. You 
 know that I am always capable of taking care of 
 myself!" 
 
 So saying she kissed her mother lightly on the 
 cheek, and went off gaily back along the path to meet 
 Jerome, who was coming to claim her once more. 
 
 The memory of that evening was to remain for 
 many months in Jacqueline's mind for Jerome dared
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 173 
 
 to plead with her as he had never dared to plead 
 before. 
 
 " I leave here to-morrow, sweet Jacqueline, and shall 
 not see you again till you all return to Paris. I've 
 spent these adorable four weeks here with you and 
 now my parents want me to finish up my holiday with 
 them in Touraine. In less than three weeks' time, 
 you will be back in Paris again. Won't you promise 
 me now, that you will come and see me one day at 
 my studio ? " 
 
 Jacqueline was troublee but strangely flattered at 
 this invitation. She hesitated some moments before 
 replying, partly because of her innate coquetry which 
 urged her to make the gift of her promise more 
 precious by a seeming refusal, and partly because 
 her instinctive fear was aroused. Despite the fact 
 that she had almost lost her head she was still con- 
 scious that the careful secrecy of Jerome's lovemaking 
 implied that something was reprehensible. Yet so 
 profoundly moved was she that she stifled the nascent 
 distrust in her heart, allowing herself to be lulled 
 into a quiescent delight in the man's mere nearness, 
 and would not let herself to be persuaded by her 
 better judgment. 
 
 " Well ! Jacqueline ! Won't you say ' yes * ? " 
 Jacqueline still demurred, her surer intuition mo- 
 mentarily gaining the upper hand in her mind. 
 " I might perhaps go with Nelly, of course . . ." 
 " No . . . no. . . . Don't bring Nelly, 
 dearest. . . . We don't want that bouncing tom- 
 boy between us ! No come to me alone, my Jacque-
 
 line, and let me feel myself in solitude with you in 
 the heart of the world! " 
 
 "Dear Monsieur Jerome, you know that that is 
 almost impossible. I go out alone only to the Sor- 
 bonne." 
 
 " Then come one day when you are supposed to be 
 at the Sorbonne!" 
 
 And observing her persistent hesitation, he added, 
 drawing her arm caressingly through his and feeling 
 her slim body quiver at his touch : " Dearest, dearest 
 Jacqueline, you are not an ignorant child! We are 
 neither of us children. We know life. We find pleas- 
 ure in one another's company, do we not? Then 
 what harm is there in our meeting together at my 
 studio? We are here together alone and constantly, 
 are we not ? " 
 
 " Yes . . > " said Jacqueline, trembling in all 
 her limbs as she felt her power of resistance aban- 
 doning her, " but . . ." 
 
 "Don't say 'but/ dearest Jacqueline! I want to 
 feel you near me with me out of reach of all. 
 Here I cannot speak to you without fear of being in- 
 terrupted either by your mother or the estimable but 
 rather dull Oliver, or that good Nelly yonder ! " 
 
 "But what have you to say that is so secret?" 
 laughed Jacqueline, all her instinctive coquetry aroused 
 and dominant in her eyes. 
 
 Jerome drew still nearer to her, and gently slid his 
 arm round her waist. They were alone in the won- 
 derful moonlight, in the fragrant night under the 
 gentle swaying of the trees, lulled by the song of the 
 breezes. All his youth went out to her and met her
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 175 
 
 youth. He bent his head over hers, till his lips almost 
 touched the gold of her hair. Into his deep embrace 
 he folded her yielding, supple figure as he whispered 
 or rather breathed into her too willing ear: 
 
 " You know what I have to say to you, my Jacque- 
 line ! What does a young man ever want to say. to 
 a young and beautiful woman? I want to tell you 
 how much I love you Jacqueline " 
 
 And Jacqueline closing her eyes gently let Jerome's 
 soft words sink down deep into her heart, permeating 
 her very soul with their irresistible sweetness. . . . 
 Her tremulous lips were parted in a half smile. Her 
 delicate nostrils palpitated with emotion. 
 
 Alas ! Jacqueline was awakened now ! There was 
 no willed coquetry in her heart any longer only sub- 
 mission to true emotion to love, the great, the al- 
 mighty conqueror ! Into her eyes now rose again that 
 marvelling wonder which had transformed her in 
 Oliver's picture. 
 
 Gently Jerome drew her face upward to his, and 
 then softly reverently, too he laid his lips upon 
 her closed eyelids. . . . 
 
 "You will come?" he murmured passionately. 
 
 " Yes," she whispered in reply, with an almost im- 
 perceptible pressure of her hand upon his arm. 
 
 Then Nelly's voice broke ruthlessly through the 
 hallowed music of the silence which had seemed to 
 surround them together in the moonlit spaces. 
 
 " Come, you two loiterers! We're all going home. 
 Where are you?" 
 
 The spell was broken. Jacqueline and Jerome re- 
 turned back once more into reality.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 IT was the end of October. The Brents had long be- 
 fore returned to their flat in the Boulevard Raspail 
 and Franchise and her daughter had also taken up 
 their winter quarters once more. Jacqueline, who 
 intended going in for a Licence in two years' time, 
 had resumed her studies and followed several of the 
 cours de litterature at the Sorbonne most assiduously. 
 Yet she still saw the Brents almost every day, both 
 Oliver and Nelly. As for Mrs. Brent, who could 
 never find any occupation to keep her at home, she 
 would cross Paris in two omnibuses to arrive at 
 Franchise's flat about three o'clock in the afternoon 
 and would sit with her until five or six o'clock, while 
 Framboise sewed by the side of the fire. Jacqueline, 
 with her various cours at the Sorbonne, and her pri- 
 vate lessons with a Lycee professor with whom she 
 was preparing the programme of special subjects 
 selected for the Licence that year, was often away 
 from home. Like most students who are in process of 
 preparation for a degree, she went diligently through 
 the entire course of study each year as if she herself 
 were to be among the candidates so as to gain some 
 knowledge of what her future ordeal was to be. Fran- 
 c,oise was now quite used to her daughter's long ab- 
 sences, but she kept a careful note of her daughter's 
 time-table and was always terribly anxious whenever 
 she was two or three minutes late after the cours of 
 the day was over. 
 
 176
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 177 
 
 At present she was delighted to see Jacqueline so 
 greatly interested in her work, apparently only think- 
 ing of her Licence. She supposed that her daughter's 
 flirtation with Jerome d'Ablis had therefore come to 
 nothing, and she was happy in that conviction. But 
 in reality, Jacqueline's spirits were buoyed up only 
 with the thought of seeing Jerome again soon. She 
 had not yet summoned up the courage to keep her 
 promise to go to see him at his studio. At least she 
 did not dare to go of her own free will. Yet the 
 thought of Jerome never left her. She had not seen 
 him now for more than six weeks, nor had she news 
 of him. But her passion had grown rather than de- 
 creased during this period of separation. Twenty 
 times a day she found herself obsessed with his mem- 
 ory. Now that love had come to her, it had come 
 complete. She was a girl no longer. She was a 
 woman. All the energy which had ripened in her 
 hitherto and made of her the self-willed, assertive 
 creature that she was, was transformed now into the 
 force which nourished her love for Jerome. She was 
 as completely, as absolutely whole-hearted at present 
 in her passion as she had been whole-hearted before 
 in her studies. All her being now was emotion. She 
 was no longer a creature of intellect or of reason. 
 The deep sources of feeling in her heart, that so far 
 had never been touched, were now so profoundly up- 
 heaved that she herself hardly realized or understood 
 the turmoil which was going on within her. She per- 
 formed all her duties concerning her studies perfunc- 
 torily, almost without any brainwork at all. In order
 
 178 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 to conceal her secret from the careful watching eyes 
 of her mother, she practised the most subtle deceit, 
 feigning a devotion to her work which was the re- 
 verse of the truth. Often when Franchise believed 
 her to be safe at some cours at the Sorbonne, she was 
 in reality walking about in her dreamland amid the 
 flowery paths of the Luxembourg Gardens. At home, 
 while Franchise believed her to be poring over her 
 books in the privacy of her own room, she was in 
 reality lounging in an armchair close to the fire, gaz- 
 ing into the ruddy glow, thinking over the last days 
 of her sejour at Les Peupliers and of Jerome's charm- 
 ing love-making. 
 
 Yet there were hours when Franchise's vigilant 
 love began to arise in fear and obscure forebodings. 
 Her devotion to Jacqueline was so great that she her- 
 self almost unconsciously felt the emotions that were 
 assailing her child. But strive as she might, she could 
 detect no fact which might lead her to understand 
 what was taking place in Jacqueline's heart. So she 
 allowed her vague and nameless fears to be lulled into 
 quietude, even against her intuition, by Jacqueline's 
 evident devotion to her studies. 
 
 The Brents once more received their friends and ac- 
 quaintances of the Quartier every Sunday evening, and 
 Franchise and Jacqueline attended most of these 
 weekly receptions, at the hospitable home of the 
 Boulevard Raspail. As was to be expected, one fate- 
 ful Sunday, Jerome d'Ablis was there, so the hour 
 for which Jacqueline had so long hoped came at last. 
 It was evident that it was a genuine pleasure for him
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 179 
 
 to see Franchise and her daughter again. Neverthe- 
 less, during the six weeks which had just elapsed he 
 had made many wise resolutions, regarding his in- 
 tentions concerning Jacqueline, and had determined 
 to discontinue his attentions entirely, yet during the 
 few minutes' private conversation he had been able 
 to have with her while tea was being served in the 
 Brents' dining-room, all her former charm for him 
 was renewed, and before he could stop himself he 
 had reminded her of her promise to come and see him 
 at his studio. At the very first sight of her in Mrs. 
 Brent's salon, Jerome had realized that all his good 
 intentions would count for nothing, and that he was 
 more than ever epris, for Jacqueline seemed more than 
 ever alluring. In her pale blue silk gown, cut in a 
 point at the neck, showing to perfection her long, lily- 
 white throat, she was indeed a charming apparition. 
 Her bright curls lifted onto the crown of her head, 
 and held there with small pearl combs, her long, slim 
 waist, her beautiful languid movements, all made up 
 an ensemble of such grace, that Jerome's renewed in- 
 fatuation was only too easy to understand. But what 
 made him lose his head completely was the tender look 
 that came in Jacqueline's velvety eyes whenever they 
 met his. What could be more touching, more en- 
 thralling than that glance? Was it not sufficient to 
 turn any man's head? Yet Jerome, mindful of his 
 worldly interests above all other considerations, 
 when he had felt himself far from Jacqueline's en- 
 chanting presence had spent most of the time which 
 had passed since his return from Les Peupliers in
 
 i8o THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 making various inquiries as to Mademoiselle Reville's 
 fortune. He knew that many rich heiresses were 
 brought up in comparative simplicity. Madame Re- 
 ville's " train de vie " was modest and unpretentious, 
 that was true, but it might be that Mademoiselle Jac- 
 queline had some rich aunts or uncles with " esper- 
 ances" There might just be the chance of some 
 great inheritance coming to her, and certainly she 
 was of all the jeune filles he had ever met, the 
 most desirable one for a wife. What a charming 
 companion she would be ; and what a wife for a diplo- 
 matist! He might perhaps some day if fortune fa- 
 voured him be an ambassador ! What a gracious am- 
 bassadrice she would make! But before speaking to 
 his parents, he had assiduously sought to discover all 
 information concerning Madame Reville's financial 
 position, and to his dismay he learnt that Jacqueline's 
 mother was not rich. An income of about twelve 
 thousand francs was all she had, and she lived with 
 comparative economy. It is true that someone who 
 professed to know some distant relations of Fran- 
 c,oise Reville's had told him that Jacqueline had in- 
 herited a fortune independently of her mother. This 
 knowledge gave him some hope, and he saw future 
 visions of delight in which Jacqueline, magnifi- 
 cently dowered, had suddenly become the very fiancee 
 whom his mother herself had so often dreamed of 
 for her son's wife. But after some investigation he 
 had been assured that even that fortune amounted 
 but to about two hundred thousand francs quite an 
 inadequate sum. For what was such a dowry com-
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 181 
 
 pared to the million francs which his parents consid- 
 ered themselves entitled to demand, when his pend- 
 ing diplomatic appointment should have become an 
 accomplished thing ? So Jerome had weighed all pros 
 and cons during these weeks of reflection, and re- 
 luctantly had come to the conclusion that he could 
 never marry Jacqueline, not even broach the subject 
 of a marriage with her to his parents. For they would 
 never consent to receive so impecunious a bride to 
 bear their name, and to share the brilliant fortunes of 
 their son. For later on, after their death, Jerome 
 himself would inherit their own considerable property. 
 
 No; Jacqueline was not for him, at least legiti- 
 mately. He had even resigned himself to try and for- 
 get her, when fortune had led him up once more to 
 the Brents' hospitable dining-room. He had intended 
 allowing some considerable time to elapse before meet- 
 ing his hosts of Les Peupliers again. But Mrs. Brent, 
 returning from a walk, had met him on the Boulevard 
 St. Michel almost at her own door, and insisted on 
 his appearance at her next reception. So Jerome 
 told himself that Fate held him in her web, when he 
 found himself looking into the luminous depths of 
 Jacqueline's love-lit eyes again, and wishing madly 
 that he might have the right of kissing her soft eye- 
 lids once more. 
 
 "You will come Jacqueline won't you? You 
 know you promised me in the wood, in the moonlight. 
 Didn't you? Surely you would not go back upon 
 that sacred promise given in our dear woods. 
 Would you?" . . .
 
 i82 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 "Yes," murmured Jacqueline, white to the lips. 
 " Yes I know I promised. But," . . . and she 
 lingered over words . . . "but, it is not right 
 you know . . . it is not right ..." 
 
 " But are you not free ? Can you not do as you 
 wish?" he insisted. "What does your independence 
 mean to you if you cannot use it when you will? " 
 
 " Jerome . . . dearest . . ,.; I am afraid. 
 . . . I never thought I should say such a thing. 
 But it is true ... I am afraid. . . . " 
 
 "Afraid? 1 Of what? Not of me, ma bien-aimee?" 
 he murmured gently as he breathed over her hair. 
 She sat in the dim shadow of a palm-tree that almost 
 him them from view beneath its swaying branches. 
 
 "No . . . not of you . . . but of both 
 of us . . . Jerome . . . " and her voice lin- 
 gered loving over his name. 
 
 Jerome caught her hand and made a motion as if 
 to draw her to him, but he gently released her and 
 stood upright at once seeing Oliver approach them 
 from afar with a look of disturbed concern on his 
 face. 
 
 " Remember, I have your promise " he managed 
 to whisper, as Oliver drew near. " I shall expect you 
 on Wednesday about three . . > remember, you 
 have promised. . . . " 
 
 As Oliver approached them, something in Jacque- 
 line's attitude struck a chill in his heart. He was 
 very grave when he spoke to her. 
 
 " Jacqueline, you mother is asking for you. I think 
 she has a headache and wants to go home."
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 183 
 
 Jacqueline hurriedly said good-bye to the two young 
 men, and sped over to her mother's side. 
 
 "What a pity I can't marry her," murmured 
 Jerome to himself as he watched Jacqueline moving 
 across the room. " Quel dommage!" 
 
 Oliver looked at Jerome intently, and for a few 
 minutes he was silent. He seemed to be trying to 
 probe the young man's brain. 
 
 "Well, Oliver! Why that scowl?" asked Jerome, 
 laughing, as he turned towards him and met his 
 gaze. 
 
 " Oh ! Did I scowl ! " said Oliver casually. And 
 without any further excuse and turning his back upon 
 his friend, he went out into the hall to help Fran- 
 Qoise and Jacqueline to put on their cloaks. 
 
 "HI thought you were blackguard enough to mean 
 any harm to Jacqueline, I'd thrash you like a hound," 
 Oliver said to himself as he turned his back on 
 Jerome. 
 
 And he resolved to watch over Jacqueline and over 
 Jerome too. 
 
 On the following Wednesday afternoon, Oliver was 
 painting in his studio. Presumably Jerome d'Ablis 
 was likewise engaged next door. When Oliver had 
 returned to his work after lunch, he had met Jerome 
 in the corridor, who passed by him with a nod, and 
 entered his own studio carrying divers small parcels. 
 Now whenever Oliver saw Jerome laden with white 
 paper daintily tied-up parcels, he knew that these 
 contained cakes and fruit, and that therefore Jerome 
 was expecting some special visitor to tea during the
 
 184 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 afternoon. But the two men had exchanged no 
 words. For some subtle yet inexplicable reason, 
 Oliver did not feel well disposed towards Jerome at 
 this moment, and Jerome himself did not seem to pay 
 any attention to Oliver's silence. He knew Oliver to 
 be a dfole d'Angliche and given to moods. The 
 two men had therefore locked themselves up each in 
 his own studio. 
 
 As the weather became rather dark towards three 
 o'clock, Oliver, who had been hard at work ever since 
 he had returned from lunch, crossed to the window 
 to pull up the blinds. As he stood there he saw a 
 closed cab draw up to the door, and a woman, thickly 
 veiled, get out. 
 
 " Doubtless Jerome's visitor," he muttered to him- 
 self angrily, shrugging his shoulders in disgust. He 
 was about to leave the window and return to his easel, 
 when the lady who had occupied the cab turned 
 round to pay the cabman. Something familiar in her 
 silhouette struck him at once. She was dressed in a 
 dark blue coat and skirt and wore a wide-brimmed 
 felt hat to match. Over this was closely tied a very 
 thick black veil. The driver having received his fare 
 the lady walked into the building. There was no mis- 
 taking the carriage and " allure " of that figure. It 
 was Jacqueline Reville ! 
 
 At first Oliver could not repress a movement of 
 delight. It was evident that Jacqueline was coming 
 to see him, to bring some message from her mother 
 probably. . . . Yet! . . . That was un- 
 likely . . ! Madame Reville would hardly
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 185 
 
 send Jacqueline alone to his studio and, besides, he 
 knew that the young girl usually attended a lecture 
 with Nelly every Wednesday from half-past two to 
 half-past three o'clock. But then why was Jacque- 
 line coming into the house? For it was certain that 
 she was coming in. . . . There was her light 
 step on the stair . ; . .. almost at his thresh- 
 old. . . . 
 
 He sprang towards the entrance and waited for her 
 knock. . . . But she brushed past. 
 Close up against the door-post he could hear her 
 furtive movements, and the swish of her skirts quite 
 distinctly. . . . But was he not dreaming? . . . 
 Was not the door of the studio next to his being 
 opened gently . . . stealthily . ? Ah! 
 
 another had watched her arrival too! . . . Yet 
 for one more instant the mad hope held him that she 
 had made a mistake . . . would discover her er- 
 ror and return to his studio. . . . But no! 
 Oliver had heard Jerome's door open wider and more 
 cautiously and then close suddenly again. And a 
 swift rushing noise of skirts over the threshold in- 
 dicated that Jacqueline had passed into the next room. 
 
 "Great God!" 
 
 So the scoundrel had inveighled even her to his 
 lair where so many others light women and unfaith- 
 ful wives had gone before ! . . . Was no woman 
 sacred to him then? She was there Jacqueline 
 talking to Jerome d'Ablis, standing close to him, per- 
 haps clasped in his arms allowing him to caress her 
 even ! Paugh ! The mere thought drove Oliver mad
 
 186 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 and flinging all sense of delicacy to the winds, in his 
 wild instinct he sprang towards the thin partition that 
 divided the studios. But almost as suddenly he 
 sprang back again to the middle of the room, 
 ashamed at the thought of playing the spy! . . . 
 But he could not help straining every nerve to catch 
 the slightest sounds from the next room. . . . He 
 listened again in anguish. There was no sound. . . . 
 All was silent, terribly silent. Yet, Jacqueline and 
 Jerome were there together and alone! Ah! God! 
 To be so helpless! . 
 
 Poor Oliver sank down into the chair before his 
 easel and almost moaned aloud in his despair ! . 
 
 When Jacqueline arrived at Jerome's door the 
 fourth door on the right of the corridor for long 
 before he had explained that to her so she could make 
 no mistake when she came to him, she has not even 
 to knock, for Jerome, as Oliver had surmised, had 
 seen her drive up in her cab and was waiting for her 
 behind the door, which he opened gently and myste- 
 riously as she was about to strike for admittance. She 
 entered furtively and found herself suddenly drawn 
 into a very deep, dark embrace, and before she could 
 extricate herself from its delicious softness which 
 was so tenderly enthralling that she could not resist it 
 a warm, moist mouth was pressed to hers and a 
 gentle hand laid across her eyes, that seemed instantly 
 to blot out all the realities of life. Deeply and exquis- 
 itely she felt herself falling into an abyss of delight, 
 and after a few tremulous moments of virginal fear, 
 allowed her own lips to respond eagerly to that burn-
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 187 
 
 ing kiss which seemed to draw her heart out from her 
 body. All the secret wonder of life had become sud- 
 denly divulged to her made vividly clear at once. 
 Jacqueline was never the same girl after that hour. 
 She had touched the depths of human bliss and the 
 mystic mystery of human love and sorrow were re- 
 vealed to her. . .. . 
 
 Slowly and reluctantly Jerome separated his lips 
 from hers, and then removing his hand from her eyes, 
 allowed her to see the light again and to come back 
 to the reality of existence. But she was bewildered 
 and trembling still with fear of the new emotions that 
 had arisen within her. Tears sprang to her eyes, but 
 though she smiled faintly, as if to reassure him, she 
 yet remained speechless with marvelling joy. 
 
 And Jerome, seeing her standing thus before him, 
 desemparee and ignorant as a child of the real signifi- 
 cance of the emotions which were troubling her, 
 looked into her wondering eyes and realized the crime 
 he was committing. Alas! . . . This indeed 
 was no practised flirt adding yet another victory to 
 a long list of coquetries. No. Here was in truth a 
 pure young girl whose lips had never been touched 
 by other mortal lips, and whose body and soul alike 
 were unimpaired. . . . Ah! the joy of being 
 loved thus by so fresh, young and innocent a creature ! 
 Yet to have decided implacably, relentlessly in 
 one's own mind that one must not marry her, because 
 of her lack of money! For one rapid instant Jerome 
 admitted to himself what a cad he was! But a furi- 
 ous instinct overthrew his moral reasoning once more
 
 188 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 and a blinding desire to gain his end assailed him. 
 He argued with himself. Was he not young too? 
 Was he not in the full strength of his youth, and had 
 he not a right to love and to live? Had he not the 
 right to take this precious gift which almost offered 
 itself to him . . . ? 
 
 For Jerome read Jacqueline better than she could 
 read herself, and knew that in the sudden mysterious 
 awakening to the realization of emotion in her, she 
 was at that moment entirely at his mercy. He had 
 but to ask for her to give. . . . All the instinc- 
 tive, almost childish coquetry with which at first she 
 had almost unconsciously beguiled him, had gone 
 now, had disappeared like the mist before the morn- 
 ing sun. She was his victim his willing, happy vic- 
 tim. . . . 
 
 Jacqueline was still standing where she stood when 
 he had folded her to his heart. She was panting a 
 little, and half dazed, and was resting her hand upon 
 a small table, as if for support against her too riotous 
 emotions. Jerome found no words to say to her, so 
 he folded her once more unresisting into his arms. 
 But this time he did not attempt to kiss her. He lifted 
 her face to his, and looked into her eyes deeply so 
 deeply that Jacqueline's awed gaze fell before his 
 and as his kiss had drawn to him all the passion of 
 her young body, so did his insistent, penetrating gaze 
 draw to him all the passion of her young soul. Then 
 slowly, gently, tenderly, as if to ask forgiveness for 
 his too passionate caresses, he pressed her closed eye- 
 lids with his lips again. In the delicious darkness,
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 189 
 
 Jacqueline felt that she was passing into anotHer more 
 ecstatic state. 
 
 " Pardon pardon!" he murmured softly. Then, 
 as if to allow her to recover herself, he gently pushed 
 her into an armchair and knelt at her feet. 
 
 " Say you have forgiven me, mon cher amour. 
 . . . Say so, please." 
 
 "Forgiven you?" murmurs Jacqueline wonder- 
 ingly. "Forgiven you! Why?" And her hand 
 wandered lovingly, eternally, over the rings of dark 
 hair that lay on his forehead. "Forgiven you, Je- 
 rome! Why?" 
 
 " Ah, Jacqueline you divine child ! " he murmured 
 shame-facedly, as he bent his head again, and kissed 
 her gloved hands. . 
 
 Then making a great effort to dissipate the too 
 voluptuous atmosphere that encircled them both he 
 rose, and drawing Jacqueline up to her feet said more 
 lightly: 
 
 " Allans! Get up and take off your things and let 
 us have tea. See, I've prepared everything . . ." 
 And he pointed to a small table at the other end of 
 the room upon which he had prepared all sorts of 
 dainty cakes and biscuits and the crystallised fruits 
 and sweetmeats of all kinds, which were contained 
 in the parcels that Oliver had seen him carry to his 
 studio. 
 
 " See, there is tea and wine, and all sorts of good 
 things to eat. Let me give you a tiny glass of this 
 Vin de Muscat. It will do you good. Will you?" 
 And as Jacqueline made no reply and had sunk back
 
 190 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 again into her chair after having removed her hat, 
 cloak and gloves and placed them on the small smok- 
 ing-table close to the divan, Jerome poured out a 
 glassful of the delicate fluid and falling upon one knee 
 again he offered it to her: 
 
 " Do drink this, cherie" And in a still more ten- 
 der tone he added "to please me." : . . . His 
 voice sounded as music to Jacqueline, who was still 
 dazed and trembling. 
 
 She allowed him to put the glass to her lips, and 
 drank the golden, rosy liquid. 
 
 Instead of going to her head, the wine seemed to 
 have suddenly .steadied her nerves. She laughed a 
 little. 
 
 " Ah ! That has done me good. ... . . Now show 
 
 me your pictures." And as she spoke she rose from 
 her chair and smoothed and patted her hair, straight- 
 ening out the laces of her blouse also. She swayed a 
 little giddily as she spoke. 
 
 " Isn't it rather warm here ? I feel better though 1 
 without my cloak. . . " 
 
 " Is the light too strong? Perhaps you have a 
 slight head-ache?" suggested Jerome. 
 
 " Yes, I think perhaps, I have. . . . " 
 
 And Jerome crossing the room dropped a crimson 
 silken curtain over the lower panes of the window, 
 leaving his studio in a warm half-shadow. It was a 
 very dull wintry day, and the light was already fail- 
 ing. But the bright wood fire threw out its own red 
 glow and so illumined the room. 
 
 Jerome, to woo Jacqueline, took a mandolin from 
 the wall and began to play softly
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 191 
 
 " Hier comme aujourd'hui, 
 Ce soir, comme demain, 
 
 Je t 'adore ..." 
 
 The notes fell gently on the silence, and the room 
 was filled with the music of his rather sweet baritone 
 voice. 
 
 Oliver in the next room was in agony, though the 
 sound of the music reassured him somewhat. Oh ! to 
 feel that the woman he loved was in that room alone 
 with the man next door, who had lured so many 
 women there during his long, idle afternoons. . . . 
 For how many had he not enticed to their destruction 
 with those dulcet notes? Oliver knew that Jerome's 
 voice and guitar were two of his most convincing 
 weapons. Jerome had often boasted to him that 
 few women who came as far as his studio could re- 
 sist them. Of course those other women knew well 
 what they were doing when they accepted the invita- 
 tions of Jerome d'Ablis. They were practised co- 
 quettes, amused at the idea of a small intrigue with 
 a popular, handsome fellow, the leader of all the 
 smart cotillons of the season. But Jacqueline! His 
 innocent, sweet love, who believes herself to be so 
 worldly-wise because she has learnt about life in books 
 but who in reality is so ignorant, so innocent ! 
 
 "... Nos antes pour toufours sont unies. 
 Nous avons cpele le livre des amours infinies. 
 Et je ne vois plus rien, que I 'eclair de tes yeux, 
 
 pleins de fievres! 
 Viens! Je veux soupirer les dernier s aveux, sur tes 
 
 levres . ."
 
 192 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 Jerome's soft, sweet voice was trembling with emo- 
 tion. Oliver could hear its vibrations and Jacqueline 
 was listening too, and perhaps allowing herself to be 
 convinced by the specious words. . 
 
 Then suddenly the music ceased and Oliver could 
 hear nothing more. . : . . Yet in a terror of sus- 
 pense he strained his ear to catch any sound, waiting 
 attentively . . . breathlessly. ,.. .. . He had 
 momentarily forgotten that he was almost eaves- 
 dropping. He could only think of Jacqueline's dan- 
 ger. So eager was he to catch even the slightest 
 sound from the next room, that with difficulty he re- 
 strained himself from bounding over again to the par- 
 tition to press his ear to it! He crouched down be- 
 fore his easel, his head in his hands, rooted to the 
 spot with firm will. . ; . . 
 
 "I ought to go away, I know I ought to leave the 
 building . . . and not stay here listening. . . . 
 But I can't leave her in there alone with that scoun- 
 drel. ... I must deliver her," he told himself a 
 thousand times, torn between his fear for her and his 
 sense of honour. 
 
 A sweat of agony broke out on his forehead. What 
 could he do to save her? In her terrible danger he 
 felt himself so powerless to help. Could he really 
 do nothing! It was not only jealousy he felt, but 
 agonised fear for her safety. He must find some 
 means of freeing her from the trap that had been set 
 for her guilelessness. Suddenly a low laugh could 
 be heard ringing distinctly, sonorously through the 
 thin partition. It was the low, yet light laugh of
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 193 
 
 happy lovers and was followed by a long alas ! too 
 eloquent silence! This seemed to drive Oliver mad. 
 He felt that no force could prevent him from rising 
 and striking the wall with his impotent fists and curs- 
 ing the cruel seducer. . . . But to stifle his own 
 cry of distress he had pressed his clenched teeth to 
 his own knuckles. . . . Yet he must save her 
 . . . now . . . at once! Yet by what means ? 
 
 Then suddenly an idea came to him ! It took hold 
 of his mind instantaneously and held it fast. Almost 
 in the same breath and without a single moment's re- 
 flection or doubt, he determined to put it into execu- 
 tion. He lost not an instant, but catching up his coat, 
 his hat, and his walking-stick in a thrice and open- 
 ing the door of his studio softly, he drew it as softly 
 to, and then noiselessly glided down the long corridor 
 and the single flight of stairs. Luck came to his aid 
 for as he reached the door he saw an empty cab pass- 
 ing in the street. He hailed it at once, and bidding 
 the driver wait outside for him, leapt back up the 
 stairs and down the corridor in haste, as if greatly 
 hurried and heedless now of the noise he was making. 
 Then he stopped abruptly before the door of Jerome's 
 studio, and lifted his stick to strike for admittance. 
 
 After Jerome had sung his song to Jacqueline, she 
 smilingly thanked him and then rising from the divan 
 where she had been half reclining among the cush- 
 ions, began to examine the pictures upon the walls of 
 the studio. As she stood before him, gazing upwards, 
 her head raised, her slim throat outstretched, the nape 
 of her neck under its shining mass of upraised hair
 
 194 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 rose above the laces of her net blouse. It was cov- 
 ered with tiny tendrils of golden hair, and Jerome 
 looking at her back turned erect thus before him, lost 
 his head, and in an instant rushed to her and before 
 she could see him or even realize that he was near 
 her, he had drawn her into his embrace, had entwined 
 his arms around her supple waist and madly, passion- 
 ately was kissing the back of her neck just where the 
 tiny rings of hair were so alluringly golden. She, 
 suddenly frightened at being drawn off her feet un- 
 awares, tried to struggle; but in vain. She had lost 
 her balance so unexpectedly that he had been able to 
 draw her back on to the divan among the numerous 
 soft cushions before she could even protest in self- 
 defence. He did not speak, but seemed suddenly 
 bereft of his senses and began kissing her ruthlessly, 
 passionately, biting her hair and frantically crushing 
 her breast with his fierce lithe hands. She was ter- 
 ribly frightened and suddenly proudly revolted. She 
 was no longer in his power as she had been in the brief 
 delicious emotion of his first kiss. With all her 
 might she strove to get free. He had managed to 
 twist around her slight body and had lost all control 
 over himself as he mercilessly crushed her to him, his 
 fierce strength overpowering her. He made a desper- 
 ate effort to catch up her lips with his and mean- 
 while as she had so far successfully evaded him he 
 murmured mad, passionate words to her. 
 
 " Jacqueline . . . my love . . . my darl- 
 ing . . . mon amour . . . Give yourself 
 to me. I love you and you love me too. Though we
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 195 
 
 cannot marry, we can love. We have a right to hap- 
 piness. We are both young and ardent. Why should 
 we not be happy together? Oh! Jacqueline! You 
 are so wise, so clever, so superior to other girls 
 surely you have none of their conventional prejudices? 
 We can be all in all to each other, Jacqueline! No 
 one need ever know our secret. Cherie. 
 Listen to me ... to your lover . . . " 
 
 But Jacqueline, still terrified, was quivering now, 
 not only with fear but with sudden recoil and disgust. 
 The man's passionate fury was too horrible, too 
 brutal! She struggled wildly. Her love, her emo- 
 tion, her tenderness all were instantaneously trans- 
 formed into a sickening repulsion, a desperate hate! 
 In her clear mind, even at this moment, she saw vividly 
 what was Jerome's plan. And she despised him at 
 once. 
 
 " Let me go . ... ,. let me go . . . " she 
 cried furiously. "I do not love you. I hate you. 
 : . . . I loathe you. . . . You coward ! " 
 
 In her impotent yet gallant defence of herself she 
 appeared even more desirable to him than before. He 
 had lost all sense of shame and was determined to 
 gain his end. 
 
 " Jacqueline . . . Je t 'adore . . . " he im- 
 plored. . . . "I will do anything you wish, if 
 you will only consent . . . only yield to me 
 ma cherie." 
 
 But Jacqueline was now infuriated. She gathered 
 together all her forces of mind and of muscle and 
 managed to rise from the divan. Even in her blind
 
 196 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 ignorance of men, she realized that Jerome would 
 indeed have .sacrificed her to one instant of self- 
 gratification ; with all her strength she battled against 
 him. Her hair was unbound, dishevelled ; her bodice 
 torn; one of the sleeves of her net corsage was 
 rent in two; and yet she fought desperately, regard- 
 less of all save her determination. In a moment of 
 aberration, as if to force her against herself to do 
 his will, Jerome, winding his arm tightly around her 
 slim waist, made an effort to throw her off her feet 
 once more. But she, equally maddened, seized hold 
 blindly of the first weapon at hand, which happened 
 to be one of the long hat-pins stuck into her hat that 
 lay on the small smoking-table near the divan, and 
 scarcely conscious of her own act drove it with blind 
 and ruthless fury and with all the fierceness of a 
 young tigress into the flesh of Jerome's arm that 
 encircled her. 
 
 Strangely enough, he, in his paroxysm, felt no pain ; 
 he did not release his hold upon her, but drew her 
 closer still. Then in despair, as she could not free 
 herself, she cried out aloud in her anguish, instinct- 
 ively to that supreme human help that never yet had 
 failed her: 
 
 "Maman! . . . Maman!" 
 
 And immediately, as if in response to her cry of 
 anguish, there was a loud knock at the door. At the 
 sound Jerome suddenly liberated Jacqueline and, sway- 
 ing from side to side like a drunken man, remained 
 by her side silent, panting, but nevertheless making a 
 desperate effort to regain some calm. The knock was
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 197 
 
 again repeated and he listened to it in breathless 
 terror. 
 
 Jacqueline, too, was motionless speechless with 
 fear. She was half-fainting with emotion, disgust, 
 horror. Jerome motioned to her to hide herself in 
 the small dressing-room at the back of the studio be- 
 fore he answered the summons, but she with similar 
 mimic refused to do this and the breathless silence 
 between them was unbroken. Again another knock 
 sounded upon the door, this time louder and more 
 determined. 
 
 " Jerome ! " called out Oliver's voice in a clear 
 though subdued whisper, as if the speaker did not 
 wish to call the attention of the other tenants of the 
 building. "Jerome, are you there?" 
 
 A sigh of relief burst from Jacqueline. 
 
 " What do you want ? " cried out Jerome impa- 
 tiently, angrily. He too was relieved to hear that the 
 intruder was only Oliver Brent. Miraculously, his 
 own voice was level. 
 
 "I am looking everywhere for Mademoiselle Re- 
 ville. Do you happen to know where she is. Her 
 mother is very ill and is asking for her." 
 
 A stifled scream from Jacqueline came in imme- 
 diate answer. It was an almost unearthly sound. As 
 Oliver heard it, he silently rejoiced, but nevertheless 
 he continued: 
 
 "I have been looking for her everywhere. She is 
 not at the Sorbonne. Do come out and help me with 
 the search. . . ... Madame Reville may be dy- 
 ing. . . .."
 
 198 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 Another half-strangled shriek from Jacqueline 
 struck Oliver's ear, but he kept his own voice well un- 
 der control, and simulated the necessary expression : 
 
 " Be quick, Jerome. Open the door. . . . " 
 
 There was another pause, during which Jerome 
 made frantic signs to Jacqueline to go and hide be- 
 fore he opened. But she had forgotten everything 
 in the world except that her mother was ill and wanted 
 her. In that one supreme moment she had measured 
 her filial love and found it strong. Blindly she 
 rushed towards the door. Jerome tried to intercept 
 her movements, but she avoided his touch, and pushed 
 him aside with almost surpassing strength. Then she 
 flung the door wide open and stood breathless on the 
 threshold before Oliver, regardless of her dishevelled 
 hair, of her torn clothes, of everything, and cried out 
 to him: 
 
 "What has happened? Tell me quickly. Take me 
 to her at once." 
 
 "I don't know exactly. . . . A fit, I think. 
 Come along. . . . She is asking for you. . . .-. 
 Every second is of importance." 
 
 And while Jerome stood by, gazing at them both 
 almost stupidly as if not understanding what was 
 taking place, Oliver rapidly helped Jacqueline on with 
 her cloak and hat, and collected her gloves, her um- 
 brella and muff while she tied the thick veil once more 
 over her head. Together they passed out of the 
 studio leaving Jerome standing breathless, mute, and 
 half dazed.
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 199 
 
 Not a word had been spoken between the two men 
 since Jacqueline had opened the door. 
 
 Oliver put Jacqueline into the cab that was wait- 
 ing downstairs and stepped in after her, calling out 
 the address to the driver. As he closed the door 
 quickly, a sigh of relief escaped him and the cab 
 rolled off at a rapid pace. Jacqueline leant back 
 against the cushions of the fiacre. She was almost 
 unrecognisable. Her features were distorted, and she 
 was as white as death itself. 
 
 " Can't you tell me what has happened to mamari?" 
 
 " I don't know. Wait till you get to her." Oliver 
 answered rather curtly, if not roughly. Now that he 
 held her safe he allowed his anger to get the better of 
 him. But as Jacqueline's sobs broke forth, he some- 
 what relented. 
 
 "Calm yourself, pray. She would be more upset 
 still to see you in that state." He looked at her and 
 for the first time she saw that he had noticed the dis- 
 order of her toilette, of which she herself had been 
 momentarily unconscious. She pushed up the hang- 
 ing strands of her hair beneath her hat as best she 
 could, for she had no hairpins left in her coiffure; 
 and untying the thicker veil fastened on the thinner 
 one which was rolled up in her muff over her hat. 
 This she securely pinned on to her head. She at- 
 tempted to fasten up her blouse which had been partly 
 torn open and smoothed down the tattered laces to 
 hide them beneath the revers of her coat. She had 
 wiped her face with her handkerchief and there would
 
 200 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 have been no traces left of her recent tears, were it 
 not for her swollen eyelids and tear-blistered cheeks. 
 
 Oliver tried to soothe her, but made not the slight- 
 est allusion to the fact of having found her in Jerome's 
 studio. 
 
 And more slowly now the cab rolled down the 
 Alice de 1'Observatoire, the Boulevard St. Michel, 
 and over the bridge of the same name to the busy 
 streets of the right bank, before Oliver spoke again. 
 Jacqueline had recovered some of her natural calm 
 and was breathing more regularly. Her thoughts 
 dwelt exclusively upon her anxiety for her mother. 
 Momentarily she had forgotten her terrible experi- 
 ence in the studio. 
 
 But now Oliver turned towards her, and taking her 
 two trembling hands in his, addressed her in a voice 
 in which emotion was successfully controlled. 
 
 "Jacqueline, you quite believe I am your true 
 friend, do you not? " 
 
 " Certainly, I do," replied Jacqueline, somewhat be- 
 wildered by this unexpected question. 
 
 "Then you must forgive me, for I have taken a 
 great liberty with you. But I had no other means of 
 accomplishing what I considered it was my duty to 
 accomplish." Oliver paused for a moment, and flush- 
 ing slightly, resumed. " I told you a lie, just now. 
 . Your mother is not ill, she never has 
 been ill at all. . . . She is quite well and is 
 probably awaiting your return now and making tea 
 in your salon at home, ready for you after your 
 lecture at the Sorbonne."
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 201 
 
 Oliver paused an instant, but as Jacqueline was too 
 stunned to make any remark or even to understand 
 completely what he was saying, he proceeded: 
 
 " For you are supposed to have been all the after- 
 noon at the Sorbonne. Don't forget that. It is likely 
 that your mother is now beginning to be anxious, for 
 the lecture was over two hours ago, and she always 
 keeps count of your time. But you have apparently 
 not thought of that. Compose yourself, my dear," 
 he said with a little more warmth, seeing Jacque- 
 line's look of utter imcomprehension. "Compose 
 yourself, and let your mother think that you have 
 been detained all this afternoon at the Sorbonne, for 
 some reason or another." 
 
 During the whole of Oliver's speech Jacqueline 
 had remained dumfounded with astonishment. It 
 seemed to her that she doubted the very evidence of 
 her own ears. For yet a few moments she was speech- 
 less. When she did at last realize what Oliver had 
 done, and why he had done it, her very first instinct 
 was anger blind, furious, instinctive anger. And 
 she was the more infuriated because she felt herself 
 in the wrong and knew that she deserved his implied 
 condemnation. But she struggled valiantly against 
 her personal mortification before she would allow a 
 word to pass her lips. Yet, even then it burst forth 
 against her will in violent revolt, at the mere thought 
 that some one had dared to direct her actions to in- 
 terfere with her supreme independence even though 
 she were in the wrong. 
 
 "You have dared to do this, Oliver?" she ex-
 
 202 THE EDUCATION OF. JACQUELINE 
 
 claimed at last. . . . "You have dared to tell 
 me this lie ! . . . And such a lie ! " 
 
 "Yes," he said, looking her straight in the face 
 and proudly acknowledging his falsehood. "Yes." 
 
 There was a moment's silence during which Jac- 
 queline and Oliver looked at one another like two 
 enemies. But it was Jacqueline's eyes that fell the 
 first with shame and humiliation. 
 
 "Yes, Jacqueline; I have dared this intervention 
 in your affairs, and I have told you a deliberate lie. 
 I would do so again, were it necessary." 
 
 " You acted from pure disinterested motives, I sup- 
 pose?" Her very tone was a taunt. 
 
 " I acted as I did because I considered it my duty 
 to save you. . . . " 
 
 " Indeed ! Your duty ! . . . And to save me. 
 
 . How very generous! . . . No. You 
 
 deliberately interfered in matters that did not concern 
 
 you in the least, because you were jealous! That is 
 
 why! . . . Deny it if you can ! ..." 
 
 Oliver bit his lip and forced himself into silence. A 
 dull crimson stain spread over his features. 
 
 For a few moments Jacqueline was inarticulate 
 with revolt, anger and outraged pride. 
 
 "Please understand, that I shall never . 
 never forgive you, for your impertinent interfer- 
 ence." 
 
 "I am sorry if that is so but now that I have 
 saved you, I shall not claim your forgiveness. I am 
 neither repentant nor ashamed. . .. . And as I
 
 have already told you, I would do the same thing 
 again, were it necessary. . . . " 
 
 " I too should do the same again, if I chose to! " 
 burst forth Jacqueline angrily, furiously. 
 " How dare you judge my actions and interfere in my 
 affairs ? I go where I please when I please and as 
 I please. . , . I should act again in just the same 
 way to-morrow ... if I wished ! " 
 
 " No, you would not, Jacqueline," retorted Oliver 
 bluntly. " You would not because you do not wish to 
 break your mother's heart. Did you not call out for 
 her just now, in your dire distress? She has only 
 you in the world. She has given her whole life to 
 you, and has founded all her hopes on you alone. 
 . . . You surely would not wish to kill her ! " 
 
 Jacqueline made no answer. Before Oliver's calm 
 authority, his serene sense of responsibility, she was 
 cowed. Yet so strong was her spirit of revolted in- 
 dependence, that a few moments later she burst forth 
 again in a passion of still more concentrated fury 
 than before, seeking to wound Oliver as deeply as 
 she could: 
 
 "I thought that an Englishman would scorn to 
 tell a lie!" She was still struggling with all her 
 force against her stupendous anger, but her accents 
 were haughtily contemptuous. Again Oliver's fair 
 face was suffused with scarlet, but he still held his 
 own, though Jacqueline's words hurt like a knife 
 cleaving through healthy flesh. 
 
 " An Englishman lies when a lie can save another
 
 204 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 human being! There are certain lies that are 
 noble." 
 
 "A lie is always despicable!" retorted Jacqueline. 
 "I despise a man who resorts to such means, what- 
 ever his object may be! Besides, you played the 
 eavesdropper too! You must have listened at the 
 keyhole . . . !" 
 
 This time Oliver winced and blushed. 
 
 " I did not listen voluntarily. ... I could 
 not help knowing you were there ! " 
 
 "... You ought to have gone away . . . 
 out of the house . . .if you could not help 
 hearing. . . . To listen complacently was to 
 act like a cad. . . .1 despise you, and I refuse 
 my friendship henceforth to an eavesdropper and a 
 liar!" 
 
 She spoke bitterly, scornfully, and sat up straight 
 in the cab, drawing her clothes away from Oliver's 
 contact with a shrinking gesture. 
 
 Oliver was deathly pale now. He made no reply, 
 but very deliberately he lowered the sash-window of 
 the cab and motioned to the driver to stop. Raising 
 his hat he stepped out of the vehicle on to the pave- 
 ment near the Louvre, and said to Jacqueline: 
 
 " Then I will relieve you of my distasteful presence. 
 You shall not see me again." As he closed the door, 
 he repeated: 
 
 " Still do not think that I regret what I have done. 
 ... . .. I would consider myself justified in having 
 
 taken any means to save you or indeed any other 
 girl from a bad man's clutches. Good-bye."
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 205 
 
 Jacqueline did not speak, neither did she acknowl- 
 edge his bow. Her burning shame and anger almost 
 seemed to stifle her. 
 
 Oliver, having paid the cabman, told him to drive 
 on and the cab pursued its course across the Place 
 du Theatre Frangais, down the Avenue de 1'Opera 
 and so on towards the Place Wagram.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 JACQUELINE got out of the cab with a quick, hurried 
 movement, closing the door carefully after her, and 
 turned at once into the wide doorway of the house. 
 She felt that she could not even bear the scrutiny of 
 the driver at that moment. He had seen her enter 
 the cab with Oliver, who had almost bundled her into 
 its refuge at the door of the studio, when she was so 
 unshapely a mass of hastily thrown-on cloak, hat and 
 veil, that he would hardly have recognised her now, 
 comparatively trim and tidy. For, by the help of the 
 small mirror fixed into the front wall of the cab, she 
 had managed to restore some sort of order into her 
 toilette. Her hat at least was now pinned on straight 
 and her coat was no longer awry, nor her hair hang- 
 ing in long wispy strands. But as a matter of fact, 
 Oliver having paid the fare when he had left the cab, 
 the driver took not the slightest interest in his female 
 passenger, and whipping up his horse disappeared 
 round the corner of the street almost before Jacque- 
 line had entered the doorway. Her intention was to 
 slip in quietly with her latch-key, to her own room 
 and to change her blouse and dress her hair afresh 
 before appearing before her mother in the salon. Un- 
 fortunately she had forgotten the hour, and had not 
 reckoned upon her mother's anxiety. 
 
 Franchise had spent the afternoon indoors writing 
 206
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 207 
 
 letters and making a new blouse for her daughter. 
 But about the middle of the afternoon, urged to som- 
 nolence by the warmth of the room, she had fallen 
 asleep in the wide leather armchair which was her 
 special corner at the side of the hearth. Strangely 
 enough, at about five o'clock probably at the very 
 moment when Jacqueline had been in her great dis- 
 tress for maternity has these divine promptings 
 Frangoise had been suddenly awakened out of her 
 slumbers by a curious sound like a cry. She fancied 
 she recognised Jacqueline's voice crying: " Maman! 
 Maman!" When she had awakened completely out 
 of her sleep and was once more in the full possession 
 of her senses, she had persuaded herself that it was 
 but a dream. Yet the unpleasant sensation of that 
 strenuous call still remained with her, and she could 
 not shake it off. She rose from her chair and in order 
 to chase all morbid thoughts from her mind, set to 
 preparing the tea for Jacqueline's return. As the 
 minutes became hours and Jacqueline did not appear, 
 Frangoise became really anxious. Had her dream 
 anything to do with the truth ? She repelled the idea 
 as absurd and again sat down, and took up her work 
 once more. But in vain. She could not proceed with 
 it. Neither quietude nor repose would come to her. 
 She felt nervous, agitated and worried. If only Jac- 
 queline would come back! What could possibly be 
 the reason of her tardiness? 
 
 Since Jacqueline had taken the habit of walking 
 to and from the Sorbonne, Frangoise had experienced 
 many such torments of terror. But never before had
 
 208 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 she had to grapple with so implacable an instinct of 
 danger befalling Jacqueline. In imagination she 
 saw her run over by a passing motor or by a runaway 
 horse, or having twisted her ankle as she crossed the 
 road. All the terrors that beset those who wait anx- 
 iously for the return of their beloved ones, beset her 
 now. Her nerves, strung up to a high pitch aided 
 her imagination to evoke in her fevered brain all the 
 worst horrors that may befall a young girl, out alone 
 in the dusk, in the streets of Paris. She remembered 
 when Jacqueline had begun to go out alone, that still 
 more terrible fears had assailed her then. Though 
 she had practically conquered them by enforced habit, 
 she could not rid her mind of their horrors at this 
 moment. She remembered too, the day that Jacque- 
 line had told her she wanted to have her own latch- 
 key like her friend Nelly. Franchise had yielded to 
 Jacqueline's pleadings, for she could refuse her dar- 
 ling nothing, but it had been entirely against her will. 
 
 " You don't trust me, then ? " Jacqueline had asked, 
 when her mother had at first refused. 
 
 "Oh yes, my darling, I trust you implicitly; but 
 why take a key out with you, when you know that 
 Clemence or myself are always at home when you re- 
 turn, and at whatever hour you come ? " 
 
 " I want to have it even if as only a symbol of my 
 true independence of movement," Jacqueline had 
 replied. "No harm can come of it. I want to feel 
 myself free free as Nelly is to come in and to 
 go out of the house." Of course Franchise had im- 
 plicit faith in Jacqueline as she had said. Moreover,
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 209 
 
 the fact of her being late to-day had nothing in the 
 least to do with her possession of the latch-key. How 
 silly of her to be so nervous as this ! Franchise argued 
 or rather tried in vain to argue with herself! But 
 if only Jacqueline would come back! What could 
 have kept her? Franchise in her agony of suspense 
 went to seek Clemence in the kitchen and questioned 
 her. " Did Mademoiselle Jacqueline tell you that she 
 would be back later than usual to-night ? " she asked 
 the faithful servant. 
 
 "No, madame. Or I should have told ma'dame 
 myself, long before now. Madame may well imagine 
 that I understand her anxiety." 
 
 "Then what can be keeping her?" She addressed 
 the words rather to herself than to Clemence; but 
 Clemence answered them nevertheless. 
 
 " I cannot say, madame; unless mademoiselle has 
 gone on to tea with Miss Nelly." 
 
 "Perhaps ... she has . . ." replied 
 Franchise, trying to lure herself into believing that 
 it might be so. 
 
 Franchise left Clemence to her cooking, and open- 
 ing the hall-door went out on to the landing. She 
 leaned over the banisters as if she hoped to see Jac- 
 queline coming upstairs. But the staircase was empty. 
 Then she went back to the sitting-room, and in her 
 agony of suspense began pacing the floor, backwards 
 and forwards like a tiger in its cage. 
 
 At last there was a sound of wheels upon the road, 
 right at the entrance of the small street that opened 
 on to the Boulevard Malesherbe-s. .With her hearing
 
 2io THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 strained to the utmost, Franchise heard it approaching. 
 How slowly it seemed to come! At last it seemed 
 to be drawing nearer. . . . The driver was evi- 
 dently holding in his horse. Was it going to stop at 
 the house? Yes! it had stopped now. But even be- 
 fore there was time for the door of the cab to be 
 flung open, Franchise was out on the landing again 
 leaning over the banisters. She waited breathlessly 
 for a few moments that seemed to be hours. Then, 
 after a little pause, the door at the bottom of the stairs 
 opened . . . Some one then came in with a rush 
 closed the door gently, carefully, as if to make no 
 noise. . . . Some one yes, it was a woman for 
 she heard a swish of skirts came slowly, very slowly, 
 up the stairs. By leaning far over the top of the ban- 
 isters, Franchise could just see the top of the last 
 flight of stairs. She waited again for some minutes 
 that seemed to her aeons of time. Then, at last, she 
 caught sight of Jacqueline's blue hat! 
 
 But as soon as her eye rested on her daughter's 
 form, instinctively, instantaneously Franchise reined 
 in all her personal emotions. : . . . Jacqueline's 
 face was half -buried in her muff as she slowly and 
 cautiously mounted the next flight, and Franchise from 
 above noted the very evident restraint she was putting 
 upon herself not to allow her steps to resound through 
 the high vault of the staircase. More slowly still 
 she ascended, her steps seemingly weighed down by 
 her thoughts. All her mind was concentrated upon 
 the one point of gaining her room before she could be
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 211 
 
 discovered. Franchise saw her take tier latch-key 
 from her pocket as she drew nearer. This was un- 
 usual, for although Jacqueline rejoiced in this symbol 
 of her independence, she never used it. Franchise 
 understood by this that Jacqueline intended coming 
 in unnoticed. She had therefore something to conceal 
 from her mother she, whose actions were always 
 so spontaneously transparent. 
 
 At this discovery, Franchise's first movement was 
 to withdraw into the shadow of the hall, to close the 
 door noiselessly, and so allow Jacqueline to do as she 
 pleased. But the light of the stair-lamp struck full 
 upon Jacqueline's face as she turned upon the second 
 landing, revealing to Franchise a mask of such pa- 
 thetic pain upon her darling's face, that instinctively 
 she took a step forward to meet her half-way. And 
 immediately she abandoned all wish to question Jac- 
 queline. A sudden conviction came to her that fresh 
 demands were yet about to be made upon her fund 
 of maternal tenderness, and that if she were about 
 to suffer new wounds, she must again bear their pain 
 in silence and resignation. For it was evident from 
 her expression of almost tragic grief that Jacqueline 
 was in great need of maternal tenderness, love and 
 pity. Franchise at once determined that Jacqueline 
 should never guess' her own anxiety on her account. 
 So, as she began to mount the third flight of stairs, 
 the daughter heard her mother's voice call to her, 
 with quite a natural intonation: 
 
 " Ah, Jacqueline ! At last! Come in and have your
 
 212 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 tea at once, darling. I've not had mine yet ; I've been 
 waiting for you." 
 
 As she uttered no word of reproof or even of 
 astonishment at seeing Jacqueline return at half-past 
 five instead of four o'clock, the tone of her mother's 
 voice reassured Jacqueline at once. She hurried her 
 steps and ran up the stairs more quickly. And though 
 she did not raise her face because of the strong light 
 on the stairs that might reveal the agony upon her 
 features, she called out to Franchise as naturally as 
 she could: 
 
 "Yes, I'm badly in want of it. I've walked back 
 the whole way." 
 
 The lie came spontaneously to her lips. Fran- 
 c.oise trembled with renewed fear. But she thrust 
 back all disquieting thoughts and went forward to 
 welcome her child at the top of the stairs. And 
 Jacqueline, who still kept her face hidden, was obliged 
 nevertheless to renounce all thought of a quiet mo- 
 ment of restoration in her own room. 
 
 Francoise flung her arm round Jacqueline's shoulder, 
 and making no remark either upon her appearance 
 or upon her shame-faced mien, led her into the bright 
 sitting-room. And here Jacqueline felt she had at 
 last reached a haven of rest! The warmth, the sub- 
 dued light, the merry sound of the ever-boiling kettle, 
 the luxurious depth of the wide divan and their cosy 
 cushions, and above all the presence of her mother 
 her dear mother well and in perfect health whom 
 she had believed to be dying only a few moments 
 ago all these things struck her sensibility with such
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 213 
 
 intensity of emotion that had Franchise's own atti- 
 tude not been one that suggested that her mind was 
 entirely unruffled, she would have thrown herself into 
 her mother's arms at once. But Franchise, anxious 
 to put Jacqueline at her ease, affected the most blind 
 inobservance. Nothing in Jacqueline's attitude or ap- 
 pearance was natural neither the hour at which she 
 had returned, nor the lie she had told her so spon- 
 taneously and so unnecessarily. But Franchise had 
 resolved to pretend that she noticed nothing that was 
 unusual, for above all she was determined not to 
 alarm Jacqueline nor increase her present emotions 
 by useless questions. Jacqueline herself seemed sud- 
 denly struck dumb. Standing before her mother now, 
 in the full view of her scrutiny she would have found 
 it impo*ssible to lie to her as she had done on the 
 stairs with averted face. But she offered no explan- 
 ation of her conduct, no excuse either, and Franchise 
 asked her none. She sank into a chair by the table 
 and begged her mother to pour her out a cup of tea. 
 She drank it thirstily, and then began pulling off her 
 gloves. The heat of the room struck her as intense, 
 but she dared not take off her cloak because of the 
 dilapidation of her blouse beneath it. 
 
 " I think I will go into my room and take off my 
 things now," she said after a few moments of strange 
 silence between the two women. 
 
 " Let me help you off with your cloak," said Fran- 
 c,oise, as she moved towards her, and held out her 
 hands to pull the garment from her daughter's shoul- 
 ders. And before Jacqueline could stop or offer any
 
 214 THE EDUCATION OE JACQUELINE 
 
 resistence, Framboise had drawn her cloak from her 
 and revealed the torn and crushed blouse, with one of 
 its sleeves rent in two and its lace ruffles hanging in 
 tattered rags. She observed all these details in per- 
 fect silence, steadfastly refraining from all comment. 
 Now that her darling was safe within the shelter of 
 her home, nothing else mattered, and she was still 
 firmly determined not to annoy her or increase her 
 evident emotion by her own insistence. The really 
 important thing was that she was restored to her. She 
 drew out the long, jewelled pins from Jacqueline's 
 hat, and as she removed it, the girl's hair fell down 
 about her shoulders, released from its protection, the 
 long strands from which the hair-pins had disappeared, 
 unrolled to their full length. 
 
 And still Franchise made no comment. 
 
 Holding Jacqueline's discarded things, she followed 
 her across the salon, and beyond the hall to the door 
 of her daughter's room. She noticed the listless, 
 weary movements of Jacqueline's body and still she 
 was mute. But once within the shelter of her own 
 room and with closed doors, Jacqueline, as if her 
 secret were indeed too heavy to bear alone suddenly 
 allowed her nerves to relax their tension. With 
 a cry of utter desolation, of such poignant and re- 
 morseful anguish that it re-echoed in her mother's 
 heart and brain like the appeal she had heard in her 
 dream Jacqueline, unable to restrain her grief any 
 longer, threw herself upon her mother's heart, weep- 
 ing the bitterest tears of her life. 
 
 " Mamari! . . . Maman, cheriel . . . "
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 215 
 
 And Franchise, without a word of reproach or in- 
 quiry folded her to her heart leaned over her, gath- 
 ered her deeper and deeper into the bosom that had 
 borne her, and crooned over her as when she was an 
 innocent babe. For a very long time they remained 
 thus, their tears mingling, locked in one another's 
 arms, mother and daughter in perfect love in perfect 
 grief. Then Franchise murmured gently, soothingly, 
 to the child she adored: 
 
 "Ma fille cherie, adoree, give me your sorrow, and 
 I will bear it for you. Put your burden upon my 
 shoulders. I will take it from you. It shall become 
 mine alone. I have sworn that your happiness shall 
 be more to me than anything in the world. It has 
 been the cult of my whole existence. It will be so to 
 the end." 
 
 "Alas, mother! . . . You wanted me to be 
 free, independent and experienced! I have gained 
 my knowledge to-day. And if that be the crown of 
 my freedom and independence, perhaps it has not 
 been a good thing for me to have it at all ! . . 
 For I have not used it well!" 
 
 Then, seated on her bed, her mother's arms round 
 her, her mother's lips upon her brow, Jacqueline told 
 her all. Her attraction towards Jerome in the coun- 
 try, her promise to go to his studio; her visit there; 
 its result, and her delivery from the den of danger by 
 Oliver. And lastly, her blind anger at his interference. 
 
 " You see, mother, I was wrong all round. But 
 although I have behaved like a fool and am ashamed 
 of my own lack of sense and judgment, yet I can't for-
 
 2i6 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 give indeed I feel that I shall never forgive 
 Oliver for his impertirient and humiliating rescue. 
 . . . I am a worthless creature, maman cherie! 
 My pride is broken! My cleverness? Pshaw! In 
 what has it helped me? I have behaved like the stu- 
 pidest lovesick village girl. I merit no one's pity or 
 love." 
 
 " Ah, my sweetest," replied Franchise, " you de- 
 serve all pity, all love. And you have them here in 
 my heart After all, nothing really matters now, so 
 long as I hold you here, close to the breast that bore 
 you." 
 
 Jacqueline turned to her mother with sudden fierce 
 tenderness, and muttered half to herself: 
 
 " And to think, darling maman, to think, for sev- 
 eral agonised moments I believed you to be dying 
 far away from me at that hour! Oh!" and Jacque- 
 line's sobs rose almost to a shriek at the recollection 
 of her past agony, " that was the worst of all the bit- 
 terness of this most distressful day! But at least it 
 has had one happy result. For I discovered then 
 my heart's beloved what you were to me! Nothing 
 was so truly tragic as my anguish on your account. 
 Neither Jerome's base love nor Oliver's knowledge 
 of my secret seemed to count at all! For I was 
 frenzied with terror! Nothing in the world could be 
 so awful as to lose the divine comfort of you! No," 
 she repeated, as Franchise kissed away her tears once 
 more, "no, never, never shall I forgive Oliver the 
 cruelty the wicked, inhuman cruelty of that lie ! " 
 
 "Poor Oliver! He was so anxious to save you,
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 217 
 
 darling. He was probably beside himself with terror 
 at the thought of your danger. I can quite under- 
 stand that. After all, he was bound to find some 
 reason for invading Jerome's studio and carrying you 
 off at once ! You must forgive him, dear, because of 
 his love for you." 
 
 " Oh love ! " said Jacqueline with disdain. " Do 
 not speak to me ever again of love! I've finished and 
 done with it for ever. Oh, maman! " she cried again 
 as she buried her scarlet face in the warm safeness 
 of her mother's bosom once more. " If you only knew 
 how horrible, how abominable that struggle was! It 
 will remain as a hideous nightmare in my memory 
 all my life. How odious, how repugnant Jerome 
 appeared to me then! If that is love, mother, then 
 never speak to me of such a feeling again! " 
 
 Frangoise soothed and kissed her, and softly 
 caressed her hair with her hand. But she said noth- 
 ing. She knew that no words could comfort her 
 darling; only patient tenderness and love could bring 
 solace. Notwithstanding her distress at Jacqueline's 
 story, it seemed to her now that her daughter had be- 
 come her baby once more her helpless, petulant baby. 
 And Franchise's quiet restrained comforting soothed 
 Jacqueline's nerves more than any expressed sympa- 
 thy. For a long space of time and in silence again, 
 they remained locked in one another's arms. Then 
 gradually Jacqueline's sobs subsided, Franchise kissed 
 her upturned, tear-stained face again and again, and 
 by gentle degrees a quiet peace was restored to Jac- 
 queline's heart.
 
 2i8 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 She sat up and looked at her mother, her arms still 
 around her. 
 
 "Tell me, maman cherie, tell me. How is it that 
 you are so calm, so forbearing, so tranquil ? How is 
 it that this terrible experience of mine, which seems 
 to me so great, appears to affect you as a compara- 
 tively small thing ? Why have you no revolt- -no hate 
 no words of revilement? Why?" 
 
 " Because, dearest, long before to-day, I myself 
 went through my own trial of love suddenly trans- 
 formed into hate, and, in one single moment realized 
 the downfall of my most cherished hopes and dreams. 
 Those who have passed through such an ordeal have 
 gained a knowledge, that gives a great calmness to 
 the soul, after its purification by many tears. To each 
 one of us our own experience seems the most dread- 
 ful thing of all. To each of us, the remembrance 
 of it remains as a horrible dream that makes us trem- 
 ble with fear and anguish. . . . But once hav- 
 ing passed through that process, the soul is purged 
 forever . . . " 
 
 "Mother! You never told me this before! Never 
 hinted even at a personal experience of sorrow. I 
 thought your youth had been guarded most care- 
 fully by your parents, who had defended you against 
 all possible errors! Your conventional education 
 must forcibly have prevented such experiences as this. 
 If you had no freedom allowed you, at least you could 
 put it to no wrong use." 
 
 " My dear, my experience did not come to me in 
 my maiden days. . . . But afterwards . . ."
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 219 
 
 Then fearing to have said too much, Franchise stopped 
 short. 
 
 " Tell me, mother mine. . . . Tell me." Jac- 
 queline leaned forward again and took Franchise's 
 hand in hers. "Tell me, dearest. I want to 
 know. . . " 
 
 " Jacqueline . . . I once swore to myself that 
 you should never know. If I tell you my secret I 
 shall destroy still further faiths in you, which I have 
 no right to destroy. I may make you still more un- 
 happy than you are now." 
 
 "Nothing can hurt me more than to know you 
 have a sorrow I cannot share, maman cherie. It will 
 lessen my own burden if I may be allowed to bear 
 yours." 
 
 And then Franchise, anxious to wean Jacqueline's 
 thoughts away from her own trouble, told her for the 
 first time all the story of the discovery she had made 
 after her husband's death, and of the way in which 
 she had been defrauded of all memories of love and 
 happiness. 
 
 " You see, my sweet one almost every woman 
 must go through the ordeal of sorrow, at some time 
 or another. But the baptism of tears is like the bap- 
 tism of fire; it purifies. . . . When you have 
 recovered from this shock, when you have realized 
 the forces in you that are still strongly vital, when 
 you have opened your own eyes again to the realities 
 of life then you will find that however painful this 
 experience may have been to you, it will have given 
 you knowledge. And knowledge will make you
 
 220 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 strong stronger still than you have been. My own 
 experience was useless to me, because when it came 
 to me, my soul was already morally fettered. I could 
 do nothing more with my life. The knowledge I had 
 gained frustrated all hope in my heart. I could not 
 build up any new ideals." 
 
 "But why not, mother? You had every right to 
 do so!" 
 
 "Ah, my child! I could not! Because I had been 
 trained to yield to circumstances, just as you were 
 trained to dominate them . . . ! After the dis- 
 covery I made, I found that my soul had been weak- 
 ened by long repression that it no longer possessed in 
 itself the vitality of reaction. All that was left of 
 strength in me I gave to you, my sweet. And your 
 education has been the direct result of mine. It was 
 my own rebellion against the false ethics which had 
 been taught me. I may have exaggerated the degree of 
 liberty I gave you, because I acted in such fierce revolt 
 when I decided what your training should be ... 
 But though I have never dared to hope that I could 
 keep sorrow from you, at least I made every effort to 
 shield you from the humiliating pain that I had 
 known. I determined that even if you were to suffer 
 at least it should be actively, not passively it should 
 be through your own fault, not through that of 
 others. Do you understand?" 
 
 Jacqueline stood up straight and kissed her mother 
 again. 
 
 " Yes, sweetest, I understand. I understand every- 
 thing. And it makes my own sorrow seem a very
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 221 
 
 small thing beside yours. Oh, my darling mother, if 
 I had only known ! If I had only realized before now 
 what your martyrdom has been . . . !" 
 
 ' You could not have understood before to-day, 
 Jacqueline. If I had told you of my story before, 
 it would only have wearied you, or have seemed in- 
 comprehensible to your young mind." 
 
 Jacqueline- silently stroked Franchise's cheek. She 
 looked upon her for the first time in her life with new 
 eyes. The whole soul of the mother was revealed to 
 the daughter in a new light. Jacqueline now knew 
 that with the thoughtlessness of the young, who be- 
 lieve themselves to be so wise, she had misjudged 
 her mother entirely, and she was confused with a 
 sense of remorseful shame because she had not un- 
 derstood her better and loved her more. For the 
 first time in her life, she saw into her mother's soul 
 and the revelation of Franchise's moral fortitude not 
 only brought comfort to her, and stood as a noble 
 example to her, but also made her understand all that 
 she owed to her. It seemed to her now that the whole 
 of her life would not be long enough to atone to her 
 mother for her own thoughtless and selfish youth. 
 
 "Dearest maman! How you have comforted me! 
 How small and unimportant you have made my own 
 disappointment seem in comparison with yours! Oh, 
 darling, how happy I am that it is not too late to 
 prove to you how much and how well I can love you ! 
 My sorrow has become yours, maman cherie, but 
 your sorrow has become mine too. If you have 
 lessened my burden, I, too, can lessen yours."
 
 " Ah, my darling, I cannot substitute my experience 
 for yours ; but at least if mine has helped you to bear 
 with your own, then it has not been in vain, and I 
 shall cherish it as a good thing." 
 
 " But oh ! most mute and most wonderful of mothers 
 from what source of self-immolation, from what 
 deep renouncement has your high wisdom been 
 wrought? From what tears have you wrung your 
 patience, your serene pity? Never have you let me 
 even guess the store there was of unwearing indulgence 
 and comprehension in your gentle heart." 
 
 " Only to-day, dearest, was it necessary for you to 
 know. Only to-day was there any need for my own 
 grief to come forth from its hiding-place in my heart 
 to assuage and to comfort yours." 
 
 " And now that you have revealed yourself to me, 
 mother, I realize my own blindness and ignorance! I 
 believed myself so superior because I had learnt life 
 in books! While you, maman cherie, were so endur- 
 ing and so wise when you were confronted with my 
 childish ignorance, my stupid petulance, my absurd 
 and pretentious vanity! . . . What a vainglori- 
 ous child I must have seemed to you ! How irrational, 
 and how absurd ! " 
 
 "Jacqueline, you are my child, and I am your 
 mother and in that statement lies the whole explana- 
 tion of myself. If I am able to comfort you to-day, 
 remember you have brought me great consolation too, 
 as well as much joy. . . . You may yet bring me 
 deeper grief, for in your hands alone lies all possi- 
 bility of happiness or of despair for me ; but what-
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 223 
 
 ever burden you give me to bear, I shall bear will- 
 ingly. I can never judge you unkindly, my darling! 
 You do not yet know what a mother's heart is if you 
 do not understand that mine is for you, absolute and 
 everlasting understanding." 
 
 Jacqueline kissed her mother tenderly, reverently 
 once more. And then she added: 
 
 "But darling, let me be entirely frank with you 
 now. Though I admire you more than I can say, I 
 cannot imitate your noble example. I do not possess 
 either your resignation or your patient spirit of sacri- 
 fice. I shall not say to myself that my whole life is 
 lost because of this one mistake. I shall gather my- 
 self together greatly by your help, my dearest and 
 I shall go forth again into the fray, all the stronger 
 because of my deeper knowledge. It will have taught 
 me much, but it will not have crushed out my hope." 
 
 "Ah dearest! How glad I am to hear you speak 
 so," burst forth Franchise impetuously. "This is my 
 true reward, for it is exactly what I have wished for, 
 my dear daughter. I want your hope to survive, 
 whatever your momentary despair may be. If I have 
 helped you to accomplish that, then I have been able 
 to do more for you than I have ever been able to do 
 for myself. And I shall not have lived In vain." 
 
 As Franchise spoke, Jacqueline looked at her criti- 
 cally, as her eyes had never yet dwelled on her. She 
 saw her mother for the first time in her life as a 
 woman as a woman who could please, attract, charm, 
 and be beloved of men. For her gentleness, her sweet- 
 ness and her attractiveness had all remained youth-
 
 224 THE EDUCATION OE JACQUELINE 
 
 ful, so youthful that Jacqueline saw in her mother to- 
 day a freshness of the spirit which even she herself 
 no longer possessed. It was the unrepressed vitality of 
 a woman who has accepted fate resignedly, that burst 
 forth now with a new brilliance. In spite of her usual 
 serenity, the telling of her own story to her daughter, 
 the remembrance of her old, yet unforgotten wrongs 
 and the passion which their memory aroused once 
 more in her, and awakened in her a renewed youth. It 
 was evident that the joy of feeling herself at last in 
 perfect harmony of understanding with her adored 
 child had given her a new spiritual strength, and with 
 It a fresher charm and fervour. Perhaps also the emo- 
 tions of Jacqueline had stirred her own femininity, 
 'for momentarily she was transfigured. The placid 
 expression of her beautiful countenance had disap- 
 peared, giving place to an elasticity of feature and 
 movement that denoted the resurrection of warmer 
 feelings within her. At the moment she appeared to 
 Jacqueline not only as a mother, but as a woman. 
 
 "Dearest and sweetest one," said Jacqueline. 
 "How beautiful you are! How bewitching! Only 
 now do I realize what you are! Only now do I un- 
 derstand the adorable woman-heart you have sacri- 
 ficed on the altar of maternity." 
 
 And Jacqueline rose, and taking her mother into 
 her arms, pressed her to her breast, at last understand- 
 ing all there was of nobility in her complete love and 
 devotion. 
 
 "At last, dear mother. At last, now, I under- 
 stand ."
 
 THE EDUCATION OE JACQUELINE 225 
 
 And she kissed Franchise not only fervently and 
 reverently, but maternally too. For in this strange 
 conversation, her own womanhood had been revealed 
 to her. It had suddenly blossomed and put forth its 
 fruit, which is maternal love that instinct which is 
 almost divine in the heart of woman.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE day following this enlightening conversation 
 between mother and daughter, Jacqueline started at 
 the usual hour for the Sorbonne, leaving Franchise 
 alone again in the salon where she always worked, 
 spending nearly all the day with her needle. To-day, 
 while Clemence was out marketing, Frangoise had 
 drawn Jacqueline's torn blouse from the hiding-place 
 into which she had thrust it out of the reach of the 
 servant's keen eyes- the evening before, and quickly 
 mended it before Clemence could return. Then she 
 carried it back to Jacqueline's room and folding it 
 carefully, laid it back in its drawer, feeling as she 
 did so that she was laying to rest forever, the last 
 token of Jacqueline's terrible experience. 
 
 Jacqueline felt almost as another being after the 
 revelations of the day before. But it was not the 
 scene in the studio that remained fixed indelibly in 
 her memory; it was the story of her mother's life. 
 This had shown her so new an aspect of her mother, 
 that for the moment she was almost bewildered. It 
 seemed to her as if she had only just begun to know 
 her. Certainly she had never understood her before. 
 The rather sweet and gentle creature who hitherto 
 had been entirely wrapped up in her daughter's ex- 
 istence, who seemed to have no life apart from hers, 
 now appeared to her in quite a new light. Inclined 
 
 226
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 227 
 
 to over-value her own intellect and its acquirements, 
 Jacqueline had been equally disposed to underrate 
 her mother's character. She knew that Frangoise be- 
 longed to the generation of women whose moral train- 
 ing had been more stringent than that of their 
 daughters', but whose mental education had been 
 neither as complete nor as solid. Frangoise had but 
 a very small smattering of the knowledge that is 
 acquired in books, and which was in truth the only 
 knowledge that Jacqueline possessed at all. So far, 
 Jacqueline had been inclined to think somewhat arro- 
 gantly that her own culture was all-sufficient for the 
 battle of life. Now she perceived that it had im- 
 parted but little true knowledge of life, and had not 
 even taught her how to read the character even 
 superficially of the one human being who was so 
 near and so dear to her. Indeed now, Franchise ap- 
 peared to her daughter almost in the light of a heroine 
 of romance. The personal decision, the wide and un- 
 derstanding sympathy, the grand generosity she had 
 shown in her relations with the woman whom a less 
 noble creature would have treated with contumely 
 appealed greatly to Jacqueline's admiration, indicat- 
 ing, as it did, a spiritual strength of personality which 
 commanded the daughter's complete respect. And 
 what claimed this modern girl's approval so strongly 
 was not only the power of renunciation that Fran- 
 Qoise had shown in putting aside all thoughts of per- 
 sonal happiness after her spiritual awakening, but the 
 tenacity and endurance of that resolution through- 
 out the long years which had elapsed since. What
 
 228 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 mental fortitude, what self-restraint she had proved 
 that she possessed! The daughter paid high tribute 
 to these superior moral qualities that forced her to 
 acknowledge her mother's greater and nobler char- 
 acter notwithstanding her imperfect culture. 
 
 Jacqueline admitted to herself as she walked along 
 down the Boulevard St. Germain towards the Rue 
 des Ecoles, that among the numerous friends that 
 had made up their intimate circle, during the years 
 of their residence in Paris, Franchise Reville might 
 surely have met and probably more than once some 
 man who might have attracted her and tempted her 
 to break her vow to herself. The forces in her nature 
 were capable of renewal like those of all human 
 beings, and there was no reason because she had vol- 
 untarily killed her love for Adrien and even all mem- 
 ory of it, that subsequently she should not have built 
 up in her heart a new temple of belief. For 
 Jacqueline, with her more modern conception of 
 femininity and its claims, would not admit that be- 
 cause a woman had been mistaken or befooled once, 
 she should not wipe out all unpleasant memories from 
 her mind, and wander forth once more into the 
 regions of passion, in search of that personal happiness 
 to which every human individual had a right. It 
 seemed astonishing to her that her mother should 
 have so definitely renounced the natural and legiti- 
 mate joys of the wife and of the amoureuse. 
 
 Meanwhile, during these reflections of Jacqueline 
 on her way to the cours de Utterature, Franchise her- 
 self still ensconced in her favourite chair, was talk-
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 229 
 
 ing to Pomm, who had just called to see her. He 
 knew that he was always sure of finding her at home 
 at this hour, and had come straight on after his 
 lunch at a restaurant on the Boulevard Montparnesse 
 to pay her one of his conventional visits. For 
 Pomm, who had never known the relaxing atmos- 
 phere of a home, who had always lived among 
 strangers, and whose social soul had been fashioned 
 only by the etiquette of naval officers though he 
 knew Franchise Reville so well, was always most 
 ceremonious in his relations with her. At the in- 
 stigation of Franchise, he had now acquired 
 the habit of leaving his hat, coat, and stick in the 
 hall, though had he followed his own impulsion he 
 would have come into the salon with his hat and 
 stick in one hand, and with his other hand falling 
 straight at his side while he made the conventional 
 bow which it is correct for all Frenchmen to make 
 to ladies. But long ago Franchise had smilingly asked 
 Pomm to leave his company manners with his hat in 
 the anti-chamber so that now he came forward into 
 the room divested not only of his coat, hat and stick, 
 but also of his stiff, conventional attitude. But he 
 was not empty-handed. For having successfully 
 filled to overflowing most of the living space of his 
 own abode with useless books, he was now endeavour- 
 ing to accomplish the same task in the home of his 
 two only friends. He had many excuses for bring- 
 ing literature to Jacqueline, for in the preparation of 
 her Licence, there were numerous volumes, besides 
 those designated in the programme of special studies,
 
 230 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 whicH might be helpful to her. Since he Had been 
 informed of her intention of competing for her 
 degree, he had made a point of hunting up for her 
 all the mustiest works he could discover within the 
 boxes of the quay book-sellers. He never arrived 
 at Franchise's flat without several new volumes to 
 distribute. There were half a dozen books at least 
 always concealed about his person destined for pre- 
 sentation either to mother or daughter or to both. 
 He not only carried parcels of these in his arms, but 
 also in all his pockets. His overcoat was entirely 
 shapeless owing to the weights he inserted into them ; 
 even the side pockets of his jacket sagged most pain- 
 fully. 
 
 To-day, as he entered, He carried three old volumes, 
 the works of Joachim du Bellay for Jacqueline, and 
 two volumes of a novel by Madame de Lafayette for 
 Franchise. In the pockets, of course, there were 
 various phamphlets, and among these the printed 
 speech of an early Republican Minister of Public 
 Education of 1848, which touched upon the question 
 of woman's education which he always considered 
 to be the special hobby of Madame Reville. He de- 
 posited the books carefully on the table before he 
 greeted his friend. Then without accepting, or even 
 heeding the chair which Franchise offered him, he 
 stood before her on the hearthrug and burst forth 
 into explanations concerning these excellent volumes, 
 which he was delighted to have discovered on the 
 quays for a few sous, pointing out to Franchise the 
 immense interest which the works of du Bellay could
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 231 
 
 offer to Jacqueline, and extolling the charm of Ma- 
 dame de Lafayette's prose, which he deemed above 
 all praise. Franchise listened patiently with her quiet 
 resigned smile. She knew Pomm's idiosyncrasies and 
 always humoured them. She knew that for him, life 
 had no personal attractions, and that he was really 
 only vividly interested in the life to be found 
 in printed matter. This alone was real to him. 
 Life itself was not. And the only two human 
 beings whom Pomm could possibly allow to claim his 
 attention, were Franchise and her daughter. Each 
 time he arrived at Franchise's flat, he invariably 
 plunged immediately into the particular subject which 
 interested him the most at the moment, keen to ex- 
 plain all he had read since his last visit and regard- 
 less at least for the moment of the personal inter- 
 ests of his two friends. To-day he expatiated even 
 more lengthily than usual upon the great merits of 
 the volumes he had brought with him, so that even 
 the patient Franchise felt as if she must soon lose 
 her temper. 
 
 But when at last forced to pause for want of breath 
 he sat down opposite to her, then it was that she 
 began to talk. Halting at times with strong emotion, 
 she told him the whole story of the incident at 
 the studio the previous day, though she made no 
 allusion to the conversation she had had with Jac- 
 queline subsequently, deeming it too private and too 
 sacred even for Pomm's ears. When the meaning 
 of Jerome's infamy was clear to him, Pomm was 
 not only astonished, but deeply indignant. He rarely
 
 2-32 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 lost his temper, but wh'en He did so, it was a serious 
 business. As Franchise's story progressed, his anger 
 against Jerome d'Ablis increased to furious rage. 
 But though he was incapable of expressing what he 
 felt, by the time Franchise had finished, he was deeply 
 affected, not only by his sympathy for Jacqueline and 
 Franchise, but with a personal feeling of violent re- 
 sentment against Jerome. His profoundest feelings 
 were hidden in his heart, but all his warm paternal 
 love for Adrien's child awoke in him and clamoured 
 for vengeance. However he said nothing to Franchise 
 because he could not explain what emotions he felt. 
 He was the more silent, being the more touched. In- 
 deed to Franchise he seemed almost indifferent. After 
 a few moments, as he made no remark, Franchise 
 asked him: 
 
 "Well, what do you think of Monsieur Jerome 
 d'Ablis?" 
 
 " I don't know, I'm sure," replied Pomm. 
 
 " Don't you think that he deserves a severe punish- 
 ment, to have so betrayed our hospitality at Les Peu- 
 pliers?" 
 
 "Yes . -., ." reluctantly, ". . . I suppose 
 so. But young men will be young men ! " 
 
 Franchise shrugged her shoulders. She was in- 
 censed at Pomm's apparent lack of sympathy. 
 
 " What a stupid remark to make ! " she exclaimed. 
 
 "If you will insist upon giving free education to 
 a French girl you must not be astonished when these 
 things happen," he pursued, not heeding her inter- 
 ruption. "Young men in France are not prepared
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 233 
 
 for young girls to have such liberty as Jacqueline is 
 accustomed to enjoy." 
 
 It was Pomm's habit, in viewing a situation, never 
 to give his own opinion, but to use the very argu- 
 ments of depreciation which would infallibly be ad- 
 vanced by the severest and most unsympathetic judges. 
 
 But to-day, the gentle Franchise was truly hurt, 
 by his apparently apathetic tone. To her mind it 
 indicated a culpable lack of interest. 
 
 " How odious you are, Pomm ! Why, you almost 
 seem to suggest ' that Jerome's conduct is entirely 
 justified! In my opinion he ought to have the 
 soundest thrashing that can be given him! If I 
 were Jacqueline's father or brother, instead of her 
 mother, I'd go and give it to him myself! . . ." 
 
 Pomm made no answer. He was reflecting deeply 
 upon a sudden thought that had taken root in his 
 mind. But his features remained in complete repose 
 and no one could have guessed what he pondered. 
 
 After a few moments' total silence, he consulted 
 his watch. Then he rose suddenly with a jerk as 
 if a spring had opened inside him. He had taken 
 an abrupt resolution, though nothing in the expres- 
 sion of his face revealed the fact. Franchise, whose 
 own feelings had been somewhat soothed by her out- 
 burst, being used to Pomm's peculiar ways, went on 
 with her stitching unconcernedly. 
 
 " Good-bye, madame" said Pomm, suddenly stand- 
 ing up before her once more and holding out his hand 
 awkwardly. 
 
 "What, are you going already?" asked Francpise.
 
 234 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 " I expect Jacqueline home in a few minutes. Won't 
 you wait to see her?" 
 
 " No, I can't wait to-day," he murmured indis- 
 tinctly. "I have something to do that is most im- 
 portant, and I have an appointment on the quay at 
 four o'clock. ... So kindly beg her to excuse 
 me. . . . Don't trouble to move," he added as 
 Franchise was rising to go to the door with him. " I 
 know my way. Good-bye." 
 
 And Frangoise, smiling at the old man's eccentric 
 manner, to which she had never become entirely ac- 
 customed, let him go. 
 
 "A bientot!" cried Pomm. 
 
 In the anti-chamber, Pomm took up his hat, looked 
 at it to be sure he was putting it on front side fore- 
 most, then put it on and taking down his coat with 
 much awkwardness scrambled into it. Then he took 
 his folded muffler from a peg, and deliberately wound 
 it three times round his neck. Lastly he picked up his 
 walking stick of thick, sound, solid wood and provided 
 with a crook handle. He contemplated this imple- 
 ment, inspecting it critically for a few moments, turn- 
 ing it round and round in his hand and weighing it 
 carefully. Ultimately it seemed to commend itself 
 to him and to meet with his entire approval. Then 
 he consulted his watch once more. 
 
 "I shall just have time," he murmured to himself 
 as he opened the hall-door and let himself out gently. 
 . . . "Yes, I shall just have time. But dear 
 me! I must take a cab, for the man said that he 
 would have that third volume at four o'clock sharp
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 235 
 
 and there's always such a rush for those books. . . . 
 Dear me ! dear me ! I do hope I shall not miss that 
 appointment ! " 
 
 He hailed a passing cab and with clear precision 
 gave an address to the driver. It was the address 
 of the buildings where Oliver Brent and Jerome 
 d'Ablis had their studios. 
 
 Jerome d'Ablis was in his studio. He was feeling 
 rather abject. Not that he felt remorse for his be- 
 haviour of the day before but as he had entered the 
 house a few moments before he had come face to 
 face with Oliver Brent in the corridor. When Jerome 
 saw Oliver he put out his hand to greet him as usual, 
 believing it to be more tactful to ignore their last 
 meeting altogether. But Oliver looked him straight 
 in the face, and putting his two hands deliberately 
 behind his back, refused Jerome's proffered hand- 
 shake. 
 
 " Henceforth, we are no longer friends," said 
 Oliver, opening the door of his own apartment. " I 
 have no further explanation to give you. You will 
 understand, I forbid you to speak to me or to recog- 
 nize me in any way, wherever, and whenever we may 
 meet. You understand ? " 
 
 "But . . ." began Jerome in explanation. 
 
 Oliver interrupted him. " Nothing more need be 
 said. I regret that I have not the right to call you 
 out on le terrain and put a bullet through that rotten 
 skull of yours, though a sound hiding would be more 
 what you deserve a clean bullet would be contam- 
 inated by your contact. Unfortunately for me, and
 
 236 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 luckily for you, I might do more harm than good if 
 I interfered. You understand?" 
 
 Jerome made no answer. He flushed crimson and, 
 unlocking his own door, passed out of Oliver's sight. 
 Jerome had ever been somewhat afraid of Oliver 
 Brent and, besides, he was not prepared to take even 
 a salutary chastisement for les beaux yeux of Made- 
 moiselle Reville. Oliver on the other hand, knew 
 enough of French customs to realize that he could not 
 punish Jerome without compromising Jacqueline irre- 
 vocably. So for her sake he swallowed his unmiti- 
 gated disgust. 
 
 As* he entered, Jerome looked around his studio. 
 The genius that presided at the concierge's lodge had 
 tidied it up and swept it out that very morning. There 
 was no trace of Jacqueline's presence there on the 
 previous day. The divan, which contained the always 
 ready-made bed beneath its covering of Algerian em- 
 broidery, looked neat and inviting. Jerome threw 
 himself upon it nonchalantly in a sudden fit of ill- 
 temper against everybody and everything, but against 
 Oliver and Jacqueline in particular, and began to 
 think over the situation. Yes, it would be most in- 
 convenient to be in such proximity to Brent now. 
 He must give up his studio and seek another in the 
 'Quartier, if they still tarried about his appointment at 
 the Foreign Office. What a nuisance it was! And 
 what a nuisance women were too! It was always 
 through them that a man met with all his worries ! For 
 Jerome's resentment against Jacqueline was so great 
 now, that he found some comfort again in the con-
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 237 
 
 viction that she was a mere vulgar flirt, playing one 
 man against another. It was very evident to him now 
 that she had told Oliver of her intended visit yester- 
 day ! Perhaps even, she had begged him to interfere. 
 Yes, of course, his intervention had been concerted be- 
 tween them ! Pshaw ! Well, this was the last time he 
 would be caught flirting with an up-to-date modern 
 girl, who had been educated at a Lycee and attended 
 the Sorbonne lectures. No more of these for him, 
 thank you! after yesterday's experience. He would 
 confine his interests to the ladies of the demi-monde 
 or the unfaithful wives of his friends, after this. It 
 would be a lesson to him! With them at least you 
 always knew where you were. They were bound not 
 to kick up a row because they had their own husbands 
 to reckon with. ... It was so difficult to know 
 how to deal with this new generation of so-called 
 jeunes filles. . . . Impertinent, vain creatures 
 who knew as much Latin and mathematics as any man 
 of their own age, who competed with men at the 
 University and elsewhere and yet who provoked 
 men's attentions to the top of their bent, with their 
 feminine wiles and coquetries! Cette petite Jacque- 
 line Reville ! Who would have thought that she could 
 have been such a prude! After the way she had be- 
 haved in the country ? She had never even pretended 
 to be innocent, like the jeune fille bien elevee of a 
 former generation who could never leave her 
 mother's wing. She went out alone. She must 
 know life. She must know how men behave with 
 attractive women when they are alone with them!
 
 238 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 She had evidently fooled others before just as she 
 had fooled him! How she and Oliver must be 
 laughing in their sleeves at him now! How com- 
 pletely he had been tricked by them both ! Pah ! He 
 was sick with disgust and horror of the whole thing. 
 Yes, he would get another studio as soon as possible 
 and move in his things at once, even if he had to 
 sacrifice a quarter's rent. It was worth it, not to be 
 meeting that sanctimonious, hypocritical Angliche 
 next door at every turn ! . . . 
 
 And Jerome, thoroughly dissatisfied with himself 
 and with things in general, gave a vigorous kick or 
 two at the numerous soft cushions of his divan 
 and sent them flying half-way across the room. 
 
 In the midst of these reflections he heard a knock 
 at the door. He got up and went to open. 
 
 On the threshold stood an old gentleman with a 
 closely cropped, pointed silver beard, and a very 
 long nose. He wore a soft crushed felt hat and an 
 overcoat that sagged very much at the pockets. In 
 the buttonhole of his coat was the rosette of the 
 Legion of Honour. 
 
 "Monsieur Jerome d'Ablis?" he inquired politely. 
 
 "Yes, monsieur, I am Jerome d'Ablis. At your 
 service." 
 
 " I have something to say to you, monsieur" 
 
 " Certainly, monsieur. But," and he looked at the 
 old gentleman's face, " I do not remember whether 
 I have the honour of your acquaintance. ,. ; ,.. . ? " 
 He hesitated courteously. 
 
 "Excuse me, if you please; let me give you my 
 card." And Pomm, for Pomm it was who thus called
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 239 
 
 upon Jerome d'Ablis, began in his awkward fashion 
 to fumble in all his inner pockets for his card-case. 
 
 The open window of Jerome's studio was just 
 opposite to the door. A sudden sharp current of air 
 blew across the two men's shoulders. 
 
 "Please come in, monsieur. We are standing in 
 a draught." Jerome was always terribly afraid of 
 catching a cold. He closed the door behind the old 
 sailor quickly. 
 
 "That's exactly what I wanted, young man, if you 
 only knew it," chuckled Pomm to himself as he still 
 sought the depths of his multitudinous pockets for 
 his card-case. At last he drew out a pasteboard and 
 offered it to Jerome. 
 
 " Void, monsieur" 
 
 And Jerome read: 
 
 "MONSIEUR JEAN POMMERET, 
 " Capitaine de Fregate en Retraite." 
 
 Jerome raised his eyes inquiringly to Pomm's im- 
 passive face. 
 
 " But, are you not mistaken, monsieur? I am 
 afraid that I have not the honour of knowing your 
 name. . . ." 
 
 " Then I must introduce myself," said Pomm in 
 a more resolute tone than he had used till now, and 
 assuming a firm look. "I was the most intimate 
 friend of the late Monsieur Adrien Reville. I am the 
 oldest friend of Madame Adrien Reville and her 
 daughter. Perhaps you now understand, what brings 
 me here to-day, monsieur?"
 
 240 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 And so saying, while Jerome still stood before him 
 in surprise, he suddenly shuffled out of his old coat, 
 his black muffler and felt hat. Advancing towards 
 Jerome, before even that astute young man was aware 
 of his intention, he had thrust three nervous fingers of 
 his left hand between the back of Jerome's collar and 
 the nape of his soft white neck. And before Jerome 
 could remonstrate and still less expostulate, he had 
 twisted him deftly round and with his knotted stick 
 was belabouring his supple back and thighs with re- 
 peatedly well-aimed and particularly cruel blows. The 
 strokes fell with precision and regularity, and Jerome 
 was so surprised by the sudden attack that for the 
 first two minutes he did not utter a sound. Then sud- 
 denly his cries rang out his cries for mercy. Ludi- 
 crously childish they were, at first; pitiful and im- 
 ploring they grew at last. But Pomm was inexorable. 
 He intended to administer a thorough punishment, 
 and that thorough punishment Jerome d'Ablis should 
 receive. Not one stroke should be spared the young 
 man, and no flinching or relaxing of his firm grasp 
 upon Jerome's collar would Pomm allow himself. 
 The old sailor had come here to perform a necessary 
 though unpleasant duty, and he would perform it to 
 the utmost. 
 
 The thick knotted stick whirred through the air as 
 it rose and fell with unerring, well-timed precision. 
 
 "Pardon . . . pardon . . . monsieur!" 
 cried Jerome, who was literally weeping with pain 
 of the stinging blows. 
 
 " Attendes, . . . cher monsieur
 
 wait! I have not finished yet," answered Pomm, in 
 almost a genial tone. For though he was breathless 
 with the strong exercise of chatisement, he was deter- 
 mined to be polite and moderate in his language. " A 
 few more strokes and I shall have done with you," 
 he added reassuringly, and indeed the final blows were 
 administered with redoubled energy and accuracy. 
 
 At last Pomm's vengeance was satisfied. He lifted 
 up Jerome, now supine as a dead rabbit, off his feet 
 entirely and ceasing the execution of the punishment, 
 threw his victim in a listless heap on to the soft 
 cushions of the divan. So bewildered with physical 
 pain was Jerome that he lay there prone, his face 
 buried in the soft pillows, weeping and crying out 
 in the intolerable smart of the weals upon his body. 
 
 " Vous m'aves tue! You've killed me ! " he cried 
 out in sobbing remonstrance, his words alternating 
 with painful moans. 
 
 But Pomm paid no more attention to the sufferer 
 than if he had been an extra cushion on the divan. He 
 quietly and peacefully proceeded with all his dressing 
 arrangements once more, and with his rather awkward 
 though composed movements, picked up his hat, look- 
 ing at it again to see if he were putting it on straight 
 folded his muffler round his throat, got clumsily 
 into his coat, and picking up the useful knotted stick, 
 opened the studio door, and then closing it again care- 
 fully after him, stepped lightly down the corridor 
 with a satisfied feeling of having performed an impor- 
 tant though distasteful duty. Meanwhile Jerome re- 
 mained sobbing his face still buried in the cushions.
 
 Next door Oliver Brent, who had seen Pomm go 
 into the studio and had heard the well-administered 
 chatisement in progress, smiled grimly to himself a 
 smile of deep satisfaction. 
 
 " He has killed me ! He has killed me ! " moaned 
 Jerome distressfully, as he rubbed his smarting 
 shapely legs. 
 
 " You won't be much loss to society, if he has you 
 abominable cad," muttered Oliver to himself as he lis- 
 tened to his neighbour's wail of agony. 
 
 And he went on imperturbably with his work, 
 softly whistling the " Marseillaise "... 
 
 Pomm hurried onwards in the direction of the 
 Quai Voltaire and arrived there puffing and much out 
 of breath. He was only just in the nick of time to 
 secure the precious treasure upon which his heart 
 was set, for almost before he held the coveted book 
 in his hand, he perceived a much hated rival collector 
 appearing upon the scene. But with an elated sense 
 of victory, Pomm trotted off home with his new ac- 
 quisition tucked safely into his left-hand pocket, just 
 beneath his heart, rejoicing in the gratifying convic- 
 tion that this afternoon he had accomplished both 
 a difficult and unpleasant duty, but, conscious that at 
 least his virtue had met with a fitting and consoling 
 reward.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 JACQUELINE now devoted far more hours of the day 
 to her mother and to her home. The whole tone of 
 the conversation between mother and daughter since 
 the day of their understanding was entirely altered. 
 Franchise treated Jacqueline now not as a child, but 
 as a full-grown woman not as a daughter, but as a 
 friend. And Jacqueline herself began to understand 
 that there were many things in life for her yet to 
 learn. She knew that hitherto she had lived and acted 
 but as a child, and in a chastened and more humble 
 spirit she set herself to acquire a new attitude towards 
 life. 
 
 When, some months before at her coming of age, 
 she had been informed by her mother that she had 
 an independent fortune of her own, Jacqueline had 
 not much questioned its source. Frangoise had told 
 her that it had been left to her by an old school- fellow 
 of her own, who had been charmed with Jacqueline 
 when a baby, and Jacqueline herself had accepted this 
 explanation quite simply. Now that Jacqueline had be- 
 gun to approach all things and events* in a new spirit 
 of investigation, she manifested her surprise at this in- 
 heritance, and wished to understand the better how 
 it was that this money had been left to her independ- 
 ently of her mother. 
 
 " Tell me, maman cherie," she said one day a few 
 243
 
 244 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 weeks after their friendship had become to both of 
 them so real a thing she was sitting at her mother's 
 feet, while Franchise pursued her everlasting 1 em- 
 broidery by the fireside " how is it that I am the 
 possessor of two hundred thousand francs which have 
 nothing to do with your own fortune? And even if 
 the money is mine, why have you not had the use of 
 it first, since the Madame Ducastel who left it to me 
 was your old friend?" 
 
 Franchise looked at her daughter for an instant. 
 She had always resolved to tell Jacqueline of the 
 origin of this money when it seemed necessary to do 
 so. She perceived that the moment for a full explan- 
 ation to Jacqueline had now come. 
 
 " That money was left to you by Madame Ducastel, 
 the widow of the once famous Sebastien Ducastel, the 
 Deputy. She was not on old friend of mine, my 
 dearest. She was a widow with no children. She 
 left you all she possessed." Franchise suddenly 
 halted in her explanations. She found it more diffi- 
 cult to speak of Cecile to her daughter than she had 
 anticipated. 
 
 " That I have already gathered, maman. But who 
 was Madame Ducastel? I have never heard you 
 speak of her except in connection with my money, 
 and only then once. Tell me who she was," Jacque- 
 line persisted. 
 
 " Dearest," Franchise began again, and then leaned 
 over towards her daughter to take her hand. " Dear- 
 est, I want you to try and understand my motives 
 with all that is best and most generous in your heart."
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 245 
 
 Franchise realized that though Jacqueline was acquir- 
 ing a wider knowledge of life by leaps and bounds, 
 that nevertheless it would require a very broad com- 
 prehension for her to understand why her own mother 
 had accepted Cecile Ducastel's gift to her child. 
 
 "Dearest, listen and try to be quite unprejudiced. 
 The other day, when I told you about your father and 
 the woman who had loved him before I had ever met 
 him, I did not tell you her name. It was Cecile 
 Ducastel. . . ." 
 
 For a few moments Jacqueline was silent. Her 
 face was very pale. She was too dumfounded to 
 speak 
 
 " . .: . Mother!" there was a world of as- 
 tonishment in her voice. " Mother, I understand still 
 less now ! " she exclaimed, flushing now to the roots of 
 her hair. " I should never presume, knowing what 
 I do now of your character, to question your wisdom 
 or your judgment. But how is it that you allowed 
 my father's . . . friend . . ." she said 
 the word with a choking voice ; " how is it that you 
 allowed that . . . lady to dower me your 
 child ? I cannot understand, try as I may ! " 
 
 " My dearest, she was dying and she implored my 
 consent ... she even begged my forgiveness. 
 . But there could be no question of that be- 
 tween us. ... Forgiveness implies judgment, 
 and I had not the right to judge Cecile. . . . 
 We both had been victims. We both had erred she 
 through love and I through ignorance. . . . And 
 besides! ., . . Can any human being ever for-
 
 246 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 give another? Only God can truly pardon. . 
 But ... I realized how truly great and noble 
 her love had been. I pitied her, Jacqueline. I almost 
 think that in those last sad hours, I loved her . . . 
 poor, poor woman! And I could not refuse her last 
 request. . . ." 
 
 Jacqueline silently watched her mother's face as 
 she spoke and saw the tears she shed for the woman 
 who had so deeply loved her own husband. 
 
 "What an angel of goodness and of mercy you 
 are, mother, I feel that never shall I entirely sound 
 the depths of your heart!" 
 
 Franchise made no reply save a sweet protesting 
 smile. She wiped her eyes and quietly resumed her 
 embroidery. 
 
 "But why did she leave me her money and not 
 you ? I still do not understand," persisted Jacqueline. 
 
 "She loved you, dear, yes loved you. I am sure 
 of that . ,. . because you were the child of the 
 man whom she had so adored." 
 
 For a few moments Jacqueline was again silenced 
 and lost in thought. 
 
 "I am trying to understand, dear mother, and to 
 assimilate your own divine and sympathetic compre- 
 hension. But it will take me some time yet to reach 
 your perfection. Tell me more about this Madame 
 Ducastel. After all ! if you could forgive her, surely 
 I ought to do so too ! " 
 
 Franchise smiled again at her daughter. 
 
 " Do you remember, Jacqueline, one day when you 
 were thirteen or fourteen years old and were still a
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 247 
 
 pupil at the Lycee, I once left you alone for three days 
 in the care of our good Clemence? I told you then 
 that I was obliged to remain with a dying friend." 
 
 " Yes . . . yes ..." said Jacqueline, sud- 
 denly remembering and following her memory back 
 along those nine or ten years. "Yes, I know now. 
 . . . When she died, you and I alone together at- 
 tended the funeral. I wore a black frock and you 
 gave me a sheaf of beautiful white lilies to place on 
 the coffin. You prayed with me at the side of the 
 grave. . . . Yes . . . Yes ... I 
 remember." 
 
 "Well, dearest, it was Cecile Ducastel's hearse we 
 followed." 
 
 " Tell me more about this woman, mother ..." 
 
 " She left you her money, though at first I protested, 
 as an atonement. Could I refuse her that poor com- 
 fort when she was dying ? . . . Could I ? " 
 
 Jacqueline pressed her mother's hand in reply and 
 looked up at her adoringly from her seat at her feet. 
 Burying her face in Franchise's lap she kissed her 
 knees. But she made no other reply and Franchise 
 continued speaking: 
 
 " She loved your father, my Jacqueline, indeed she 
 did sincerely, completely. And strange though ft 
 might appear to many people, she loved you too, be- 
 cause you were his, though you were my child and 
 not hers. As she lay dying, she told me that she had 
 often followed you when you were a tiny child, and 
 I or Clemence took you to play in the Pare Monceau. 
 She never let us see her watch, but she used to gaze
 
 248 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 at you for hours together while you made mud pies 
 or played with your dolls. . . . You were the 
 child of the man she had loved! Was that not pa- 
 thetic, darling? I admit that it touched me 
 greatly. . . . " 
 
 " But, mother mine. ... I still don't like tak- 
 ing that money. . . " 
 
 " Ah ! don't say that, dearest. . . . She died 
 so happy in the thought that it might atone . 
 even a little. . . . Try to forgive her too. Be- 
 lieve me though this is a cruel thing for me to have 
 to confess to my daughter she loved your father far 
 better than ever I did ! For she continued to love him 
 even ofter she had known his unfaithfulness both 
 to herself and to me ! When a woman loves like that, 
 Jacqueline, her love is either a very noble or a very 
 base thing. Hers was noble. Many might judge her 
 harshly, but her memory compels the respect or at 
 least indulgence of those who understand. She was 
 greatly to be pitied." 
 
 " Dear mother, I cannot say that I entirely agree 
 with you yet, but that only proves how inferior I am 
 to you. . . . You are supremely good and wise 
 in all your judgments." 
 
 And Jacqueline once more threw herself into her 
 mother's arms, and kissed her affectionately. She 
 was determined henceforth to allow her own opinions 
 to be largely influenced by Franchise's superior ex- 
 perience. 
 
 Suddenly she sprang to her feet as she looked at 
 the clock.
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 249 
 
 " Goodness ! I must be off to the cours. And 
 you've not been out for days, maman! Do come 
 with me to the door of the Sorbonne and walk back 
 through the Luxembourg Gardens. It will do you 
 such good. It's such a lovely day." And Franchise 
 agreeing to accompany her daughter they started off 
 together, arm in arm, like two companions of the 
 same age. For Jacqueline instinctively, without rea- 
 soning out her conduct during the last few weeks had 
 avoided her friend Nelly. 1 Not that she felt in any 
 way that she cared for her less, but since the episode 
 of the studio and the part Oliver had played in her 
 destiny, she instinctively felt that she neither wished 
 to see him nor anyone belonging to him again. So 
 the innocent Nelly was ungenerously sacrificed. They 
 met every day at the Sorbonne, as a matter of course, 
 but Jacqueline always found a fresh excuse to elude 
 the further companionship of her friend. Nelly re- 
 minded her too much of her brother, and Oliver re- 
 minded her too intensely of her most bitter experi- 
 ence. Moreover she could not yet reconcile herself 
 to the thought of forgiving him. Though his inter- 
 ference had been timely and useful, it was interfer- 
 ence ; and that the proud and haughty Jacqueline could 
 not find it in her heart to forgive, even now. She 
 wished to punish him for his audacity in taking that 
 responsibility of defending her against herself, and 
 she experienced a sort of cruel delight in making him 
 feel her anger. She knew that the best way to punish 
 him was to deny him the joy of seeing her. 
 
 During their close friendship, while the painting of
 
 250 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 the portrait had been in process, the minds of Jacque- 
 line and Oliver had very closely come into contact and 
 their hearts had been drawn together by a commun- 
 ity of feelings. But throughout this friendship Jac- 
 queline had been conscious of Oliver's respectful ad- 
 miration, and had appreciated it as one of her most 
 cherished possessions. She had wished above all 
 things to retain it and in her inmost heart could not 
 forgive herself for having lost it by her own fault. It 
 was the very basis upon which his feeling for her had 
 been built. It was therefore most bitter, most humili- 
 ating for her to be reminded by seeing Oliver, that 
 she had lost this respect, and to feel that the pedestal 
 upon which he had placed her had been overthrown 
 by her own actions and the tender and deferential 
 consideration she once had inspired in him forever 
 destroyed. 
 
 She was vexed with herself and her pride made her 
 still more vexed with Oliver because she felt that he 
 understood her humiliation. Although she had been 
 momentarily turned from her intellectual interest in 
 Oliver by her passionate love for Jerome, she had 
 always appreciated Oliver's opinions most highly after 
 the long conversations during the hours of her sit- 
 tings, when so many ideas in common had made them 
 such close friends. Strange to say she had never 
 troubled to think whether Jerome was intellectually a 
 companion for her or not. She only knew that she 
 felt happy in his presence, with all her instincts 
 aroused in full activity. Though Oliver had never 
 made her pulses beat, he could probe her mind, and
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 251 
 
 fathom her moral and psychological being far better 
 than anyone else, even excepting her dear mother. 
 During all the weeks and months when her anger 
 against Oliver was at white heat almost, every day, 
 she was astonished to discover how much she missed 
 him and his friendship. She now began to understand 
 all that Oliver's companionship had meant to her 
 being conscious of the void his absence made in her 
 life. When she read a book, or saw a picture, or 
 went to a play, that thrilled her with intellectual in- 
 terest, she found herself continually regretting the 
 fact that she had no friend or companion with whom 
 she might exchange her impressions and opinions. 
 For in such moments she found her maman cherie 
 sadly deficient. And Franchise herself was well aware 
 of the fact that she could not sympathize with her 
 daughter on an intellectual plane. Her early educa- 
 tion had never developed in her any taste for attain- 
 ments of the mind. She had never been able and 
 never would be able, to follow her daughter's intel- 
 lectual pursuits. In the domain of the heart and of 
 the feelings and in all that related to human senti- 
 ments, Franchise had gone far beyond the point of 
 understanding which her daughter had only just 
 reached. And in all things concerning the philosophy 
 of life, Jacqueline now recognised her mother's supe- 
 riority. Hers was the supremacy of character over 
 learning. But it could not compare with mental cul- 
 ture nor replace it, and there came moments when 
 Jacqueline bitterly regretted her feud with Oliver, for 
 no one of her entourage had ever been so near to her-
 
 252 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 self in all processes of mental conception as he had 
 been. The days went by, and the months had 
 already grown nearly into a year, and she began more 
 and more to appreciate the precious thing she had lost 
 in losing Oliver. And as her passion for Jerome had 
 shown itself to be but a perishable and impermanent 
 thing that had had no real rest in her heart, since it 
 had been scorched out of existence by her fiery resent- 
 ment, then she began more slowly still to understand 
 the greater relative importance of intellectual sympa- 
 thy as compared to mere instinctive selection. Thus 
 she began to recognize a great, incontrovertible 
 truth. But her pride still reigned supreme, and her 
 haughty spirit was conscious only of its own smart, 
 forbidding her yet to own that truth even to herself. 
 After Franchise had left Jacqueline at the door of 
 the Sorbonne she proceeded to return home, walking 
 through the Luxembourg Gardens in compliance with 
 Jacqueline's wishes. In all these smaller details of 
 life Jacqueline still advised and Franchise obeyed. 
 She had become used to that habit during the years 
 of her daughter's petulant childhood, and her child's 
 guidance of her life in the smaller issues had been 
 but the continuation of her husband's guidance. For 
 Franchise's moral training had taught her to obey 
 the decision of another will stronger than her 
 own because of its sway over her heart. About 
 half-way through the Luxembourg Franchise, feel- 
 ing somewhat tired, sank down to rest upon one 
 of the stone benches that surround the lake 
 in the centre of the grounds. Around here were
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 253 
 
 many good and earnest mothers of the bourgeolse, per- 
 forming their self-imposed duties of nursemaid, as 
 Franchise herself had done years before in the 
 Pare Monceau. Her gaze swept around the beautiful 
 gardens. Students in their velvet berets were passing 
 to and fro between the gates on the right and on the 
 left, and mothers and nurses accompanying small 
 children who played among the shaded alleys as Jac- 
 queline had done of yore, were attending to their 
 charges. Scholarly-looking men probably professors 
 at the Sorbonne, at the College de France, or at one 
 of the larger Lycees near by, were hurrying to their 
 own lectures. Short-sighted spectacled girls and of 
 untidy appearance and fervent features with heavy 
 portfolios of books carried in their frail arms, were 
 speeding likewise towards some cours or another in 
 preparation for some examination. 
 
 Within the last twenty years, since French women 
 have been admitted to the various degrees of the Sor- 
 bonne, a new type of French maiden has sprung up, 
 the etudiante, or female student, that constitutes a 
 species of French girlhood apart from all others. The 
 etudiante is not so masculine as the similar English 
 type, nor so unsexed; but she is distinctly a creature 
 apart, not to be measured by the same standards as 
 other jeunes filles. She presents similar idiosyncra- 
 sies to those of her corresponding type in England, 
 showing nevertheless a better choice in the selection 
 of her clothes. Her hair is untidy, her footgear is 
 slipshod, but she has yet retained her femininity in 
 her eyes and in the expression of her mouth. She is
 
 254 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 still pre-eminently a woman, though she is so very 
 different to the other women of her nation. She is 
 not yet a third sex, but forms a separate class of her 
 own among women. One can see that she is thus be- 
 cause she herself has not voluntarily chosen her fate, 
 but has been forced by circumstances to accept it. In- 
 deed, at first, she has struggled hard against it, for it 
 is quite certain she would have preferred to have been 
 a wife and mother. But her prudent and far-seeing 
 parents, knowing they have no dowry to give her and 
 consequently no husband to offer her, have directed 
 her somewhat unwilling footsteps into the paths and 
 highways of superior culture, in the hope that there 
 she may find her salvation and her livelihood. So she 
 has followed the road that leads to the clash between 
 the sexes, and by degrees she has lost the more ap- 
 parent qualifications of womanhood. But this has 
 been wholly involuntary on her side, and all her 
 crushed and repressed womanhood still lives rebel- 
 lious yet in her sorrowful eyes, and would be ready 
 to leap up and extinguish all the lesser fires of her 
 over-cultured mentality at the very first call of love 
 claiming her as his own. 
 
 As Franchise looked upon these frustrated types 
 of womanhood pressing onwards towards the Sor- 
 bonne she compared them in her own mind with Jac- 
 queline and she realized better still what her own 
 daughter was and how more complete was the devel- 
 opment of her child who possessed all the intellectual- 
 ity of these passing etudiantes and still retained all 
 the compelling feminine appeal of the more strongly- 
 sexed woman.
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 255 
 
 In the midst of these musings she was astonished 
 to hear her name called and looking up she saw Oliver 
 Brent, tall and fair, with bared head standing before 
 her. He had walked quickly through the gardens be- 
 fore he had caught sight of Franchise, and the exer- 
 cise had brought a colour to his face. His eyes were 
 suddenly aglow with his spontaneous delight at the 
 meeting, and the pallid sun of the winter afternoon lit 
 up his bright close-cropped head with a golden glow. 
 Frangoise looking upon him thought what a comely 
 man he was, and sighed at the thought of Jacqueline's 
 persistent and invincible anger. 
 
 " I am so pleased to see you, chere madame," said 
 Oliver in response to Franchise's greeting. "I was 
 afraid I should never see you again." He blushed 
 shame-facedly as he spoke, and stopped suddenly 
 short. He did not know whether Frangoise was 
 aware of the reasons that separated him from Jacque- 
 line. But Franchise, anxious to hear what explana- 
 tion he would give her, rushed blindly into the fray. 
 
 " You never come to see us now ! " she said re- 
 proachfully. " You have not been near me for 
 months ! " 
 
 Oliver sat down by Franchise's side and put on his 
 hat again. He was somewhat puzzled as to what an- 
 swer he could make, for he ignored what explanations 
 Jacqueline had given to her mother. But seeing his 
 painful confusion, Frangoise added with spontaneous 
 sympathy. . . . " Alas ! I know why you have 
 not been near us, you dear boy. . . . Yet I thank 
 you from the bottom of my heart for what you did
 
 256 THE EDUCATION OE JACQUELINE 
 
 / at least shall never be grateful enough, believe me." 
 Oliver bent over Franchise's hands and kissed them. 
 His heart was very full, and he could not speak. But 
 he made an effort and gathered himself together like 
 the strong man that he was. 
 
 " I love her so ! " he muttered to himself. 
 
 "I know you do," said Framboise tenderly. "And 
 I am happy that you do. There is no one whose love 
 'for her I appreciate so highly." Oliver was silent. 
 Again he pressed Franchise's hand. 
 
 "Oliver, believe me, I am truly sorry that Jacque- 
 line's pride false pride it is too, and she knows it is, 
 though she will not admit it has led to your estrange- 
 ment. . . . " 
 
 "Ah! Jacqueline is obdurate then? I was afraid 
 slie would be ! " he said sadly. 
 
 "Alas! I think so; at least for the present," re- 
 plied Franchise. 
 
 " It is becoming a very long ' present ' ! " said 
 Oliver sadly. 
 
 Then after a moment's pause, Franchise began: 
 
 "You see, dear, Jacqueline is very, very proud. 
 And her pride has been deeply very deeply wounded. 
 Her sense of humiliation is very great." 
 
 "But I don't regret what I did I would do it 
 again if it were necessary. I told her so," interrupted 
 Oliver harshly. A deep flush stained his fair skin 
 again and he drew his brows together angrily with 
 fierce determination. 
 
 " I know I know. She told me
 
 all about your quarrel too. I think that she told me 
 everything, Oliver, everything." 
 
 "Everything?" queried Oliver, unconvinced. 
 
 " Yes, everything. Her attraction towards Jerome, 
 his asking her to the studio, his behaviour to her 
 there, and finally your intervention which saved her. 
 Dear Oliver! I her mother who adores her shall 
 never be able to thank you enough for what you did 
 then, even though you wounded her pride horribly. 
 ... I admit that." 
 
 "You see," said Oliver, "it was so simple. It 
 seemed my absolute duty. I would have done any- 
 thing to get her out of that den. I did what I did, 
 cruel though it was, because I love her." 
 
 " I know that and I am glad that it is so. Can I 
 say more? There is no man to whom I would trust 
 
 her so willingly " said Franchise in a grave and 
 
 gentle voice. 
 
 Oliver turned towards Franchise on the bench and 
 again he looked straight at her. She met his direct 
 gaze, and there were tears in her eyes. 
 
 " You mean that, Madame Reville ? " 
 
 "I do mean it, Oliver." 
 
 The moisture of tears welled up in Oliver's eyes, 
 but he was too thoroughly English-bred to allow 
 his emotions to master him. He bent his head over 
 Franchise's hands and kissed them reverently once 
 more. 
 
 " Thank you," he said gently. " I do not know 
 whether my hopes will ever be realized, but I shall be
 
 258 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 eternally grateful to you for your trust in me." Fran- 
 c,oise leaned towards him. 
 
 " Oliver," she said slowly and wistfully, " I should 
 dearly love to have you for my son . . . some 
 day." 
 
 Oliver still held her hands tightly on his. He 
 looked long at her once more, and smiling at her. 
 
 " Maman cherie!" he murmured gently and with 
 great tenderness. Then after a few minutes' very 
 tense silence that was heavy with many unshed tears, 
 Oliver whispered : " It's the first time since my own 
 dear mother died that I have pronounced that word." 
 
 Francoise pressed his hand again, but did not 
 speak, and after a few more moments of silence she 
 spoke : 
 
 " She is fond of you at least she was until the 
 day that you tried to manage her affairs." 
 
 " And then she broke away like a restive young 
 horse." 
 
 " Yes," and Franchise smiled, " but I know my 
 daughter. She will perhaps be angry with you for a 
 very long time. But in the end she will get over her 
 temper. For it is her pride and her vanity that are 
 wounded not her heart. . . . She is in reality 
 more angry with herself than with you. . . . 
 And she is angry with you because she is angry with 
 herself. Do you see?" 
 
 "Yes, I understand. But what a sweet winsome 
 creature she is ! And what a sweet woman she would 
 make for a wife." 
 
 " She must suffer still a little more till her wicked
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 259 
 
 pride has given in. To such natures as Jacqueline's, 
 sorrow is the only true education. It will teach her 
 to uplift her soul to a higher conception of love and 
 of life." 
 
 " Are you not rather cruel to her, chere maman? " 
 urged Oliver gently. 
 
 " No, I am not cruel. But I see her as she is and 
 not through the eyes of a lover. . . .. Poor 
 child . . . ! I alone am to blame, for it is my 
 fault that she is so wayward. I have always adored 
 her since her babyhood. She has been my whole life. 
 I was determined that she should have every chance, 
 so I gave her the best of educations, of mental train- 
 ings. But she is still too inexperienced to understand 
 the relative value of things. She is still too much in- 
 clined to believe in the sole supremacy of brains, 
 though she has begun to discover now that outside 
 things can resist her, and that she is powerless to force 
 them to conform to her individual will. When she 
 has suffered still more and matured in the discovering 
 of life, she will be a delightfully complete crea- 
 ture. She is elaborating a new soul now. In the proc- 
 ess of cultivating her brain she has allowed her heart 
 to stagnate a little. But she does possess a heart. Be- 
 lieve me. And she is a woman too ! And such a ter- 
 ribly feminine one, the dear child!" for Franchise's 
 mind had reverted to the etudiantes she had just been 
 observing. " She is full of sex, though she does not 
 yet realize the divinity of it in herself. But Oliver, 
 be gentle and above all patient. She will find out 
 some day that it is you and you alone she must love.
 
 2<5o THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 I am sure of that. She is already beginning to dis- 
 cover that she misses you. You are the only man 
 in fact the only person whose brain she respects and 
 admires. That is your greatest claim upon her, and 
 with a girl of Jacqueline's mental capacities that is a 
 very strong claim. Though I am not an intellectual 
 woman myself, I quite understand that. . . . " 
 
 " But if she never lets me see her?" 
 
 "A time will come when she will. Be hopeful and 
 keep up your courage. She will feel the need of you 
 terribly some day, when she discovers that she cannot 
 do without her friend, her comrade. She will suffer 
 from your absence and will find out that she misses 
 you. But be patient; wait and hope." 
 
 Oliver pressed Franchise's hand. 
 
 "Dear maman cherie! You have done me so 
 much good. You have given me hope. And hope is 
 life. Thank you again." 
 
 Franchise rose from her seat. It was time to be 
 going homewards. 
 
 " Good-bye, my dear son. You may tell dear Mrs. 
 Brent and Nelly that you have seen me, and give them 
 my love. The good, kind creatures ! They must think 
 it strange that we have so suddenly abandoned them ! 
 But we cannot explain can we?" 
 
 " They think it strange, that is certain. But I 
 have given them to understand that I've quarrelled 
 with Jacqueline. They are both loyal and patient. 
 They quite understand, and are just waiting . . . 
 like myself. . . . " 
 
 "You are all dear people! You dear, dependable,
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 261 
 
 faithful English friends. I do appreciate you well. 
 At least be sure of that. And now good-bye. . . . 
 Of course I shall not tell Jacqueline that we have 
 met. She would accuse me of heinous disloyalty to 
 herself." 
 
 "Yes I know " murmured Oliver sadly. 
 
 And Franchise left him standing bareheaded in 
 the late sunshine in the midst of the delights of the 
 old gardens. The sun had fallen in a dull red glow 
 behind the intricate lacework of the leafless trees. 
 Mothers and nursemaids with their charges were pre- 
 paring to depart, as the wintry twilight was prepar- 
 ing to enshroud all Paris. 
 
 Franchise reached home just in time to prepare 
 Jacqueline's tea.
 
 THE long winter was past. Th'ere was a new breath" 
 of spring in the air. Franchise's small salon looked 
 gay and festive, for to-day was her at-home day. 
 There was no fire in the grate, for this year's balmy 
 mid-April precluded all thoughts of artificial warmth 
 indoors. The air was indeed so summer-like to-day, 
 that Franchise had left open one of the three win- 
 dows that had a view over the garden at the back 
 of the house. In the deep recess made by the wide- 
 flung sashes, a small settee was ensconced which of- 
 fered comfortable accommodation for those causeurs 
 who preferred a tete-a-tete to general conver- 
 sation. The room was provided with plenty of extra 
 chairs in hope of many visitors, and vases filled with 
 bright spring flowers purple and creamy irises pre- 
 dominating made masses of colour in every corner. 
 It was a free day for Jacqueline at the Sorbonne. She 
 was very keen upon competing for the Licence the 
 following year, and in consequence was working as- 
 siduously and not missing a single cours, so that her 
 presence at one of her mother's " at homes " was a 
 rare thing. Clemence had decorated the small dining- 
 room, aided and directed by Jacqueline herself, that 
 morning and between them they had made the room, 
 papered with a creamy paper, and furnished with old 
 dark oaken furniture, bright with many golden daf- 
 
 262
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 263 
 
 fodils and much light greenery that Jacqueline had 
 collected in the garden. The table was decorated with' 
 lace d'oyleys around a wide embroidered centre-piece 
 the work of Franchise's clever fingers ; the teacups 
 were arranged in a circle, and various plates of cake 
 and petits fours were tastefully set to offer the guests. 
 It was so very seldom that Jacqueline was able to as- 
 sist her mother at these informal monthly festivities 
 when Madame Reville received and entertained her 
 friends and acquaintances, that Franchise had insisted 
 upon this being considered a special occasion, and had 
 made extra preparations in consequence. Among her 
 friends Franchise numbered several artists, clever 
 amateur or professional performers on the piano or 
 violin, or singers of renown and ability. Some good 
 music had been promised to the guests who arrived 
 in numbers at about five o'clock. After tea had been 
 served in the dining-room, all the visitors trooped back 
 into the cool and charming salon with its three gay 
 views upon the lovely budding garden, to listen to 
 the recitals of a clever actor from the Comedie Fran- 
 gaise, to the playing of a young pupil of the Conserva- 
 toire, and above all to applaud Eve Norris, the cele- 
 brated English cantatrice from the Opera Comique, 
 who was an old acquaintance of Franchise and Jac- 
 queline, an'd whose name alone was sufficient to call 
 together all the music-lovers of Paris. Jacqueline, 
 who during most of the winter had been somewhat 
 listless and inclined to sit by the fire in the evenings 
 instead of accepting Pomm's invitation to the theatre 
 or attending evening gatherings at the houses of
 
 264 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 various friends of her mother's, had to-day decided 
 to put off her more sombre thoughts and join Fran- 
 Qoise in the pleasure of receiving her guests. With 
 her shrewd observation, Franchise had noticed that 
 by degrees youth was getting the better of Jacque- 
 line's disappointment and sorrow, and that soon her 
 dear one would be emerging from her voluntary re- 
 trait e and be as actively engaged upon enjoying her- 
 self as before. 
 
 She had gone with much eagerness with Franchise 
 to the dressmaker's to help her to choose a new spring 
 gown for herself, and in her draperies of pale blue 
 voile de soie she looked a very charming picture. Per- 
 haps because a more conscious womanhood was grow- 
 ing within her, Jacqueline's very beauty was altering, 
 and softening wonderfully. The firm lines of her 
 mouth had somewhat relaxed, and had become 
 sweeter. Her eyes, black and heavily fringed beneath 
 her rather prominent though finely pencilled brows 
 were less sparkling perhaps, but had a more tender 
 expression. She still wore her bright rebellious hair 
 massed up high upon the top of her small head like a 
 royal crown of gold. Though she was tall and very 
 slim, the angles of her body, perceptible only when she 
 moved, seemed also to have softened down too and to 
 have become more flexible. There was a more femi- 
 nine grace about her than before, and less of the 
 springing joyousness of the hoyden. When she smiled, 
 there was a chastened melancholy in her smile that 
 had lost its rather supercilious superiority of former 
 days. She helped her mother to do the honours of
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 265 
 
 the table with deliberate charm and distinction. She 
 was polite and gracious to each and every one, and 
 the former buoyancy of her rather assertive self-re- 
 liance seemed to have given way to a more conscious 
 reserve, and to a certain gravity of tone and gesture 
 that was most perceptible to those of her friends who 
 knew her very well. But the change in Jacqueline 
 had been so gradual and was so subtle that it was not 
 evident to mere superficial observers, though it was 
 like a new radiance shining from within her. Alone 
 her mother understood its full and real significance. 
 
 All through the long days of the past winter when 
 the thoughts of both Franchise and her daughter had 
 been so intimately wedded, the name of the Brents 
 had rarely been pronounced between them. If at 
 times Jacqueline spoke of Nelly, it was as one speaks 
 of a friend one has had in one's youth, and of whom 
 one has retained kind memories without any wish of 
 meeting again. In her present mood, Jacqueline's 
 mind was entirely introspective and the only other 
 creature in the world who interested her just now, 
 besides herself, was her mother. Although all com- 
 panionship upon an intellectual basis was impossible 
 between them because of Jacqueline's more varied at- 
 tainments, yet for the moment Jacqueline found the 
 study of her own emotions and those which her 
 mother spoke of so often to her now, all-important 
 for the present. Even the books and studies which 
 had occupied her mind solely hitherto, seemed mo- 
 mentarily savourless to her, for she had been 
 roused suddenly to an interest in human nature itself
 
 266 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 and the mere pleasures of the human intellect no 
 longer appealed to her with the same keen force. 
 
 It was this upheaval in the preoccupation of her 
 mind which had burst through the outward semblance 
 of the young girl and which permeating her spirit had 
 altered her appearance in so elusive yet complicated 
 a manner. Since the day of her explanation with her 
 mother, with a great effort of will she had tried to 
 put all dreams, all thoughts of Jerome from her mind. 
 But though there were rare hours when he was as 
 but a memory to her, that did not prevent her from 
 often thinking of him still. Love's young dreams die 
 hard ; and Jerome d'Ablis had made a great impression 
 upon her youthful heart and brain because he had been 
 the first man who had dared to pierce the outward 
 armour of her rather farouche and maidenly reserve, 
 and to make a direct appeal to her heart. She was still 
 too young to realize this fully, for she was at least 
 conscious of the remorseful pain she felt when she 
 allowed her memory to dwell once more retrospect- 
 ively upon her charm and fascination. Even now, the 
 memory of their moonlight walk in the woods of 
 Marly, and of the first kiss they had exchanged upon 
 the threshold of his studio as he had drawn her into 
 his embrace, had the power to thrill her passionately. 
 Many nights when Franchise had believed her to be 
 asleep, Jacqueline lay stretched upon her narrow bed, 
 her face pressed downwards into the pillows so as to 
 stifle the noise of her sobs, weeping her heart out in 
 agony. Had Franchise known of these dark hours 
 she would have suffered bitterly herself, for there was
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 267 
 
 no greater grief for Her than the knowledge that she 
 could not entirely share the sorrow of her best-be- 
 loved one. But Jacqueline possessed the temperament 
 of the amour euse which her mother, having not, could 
 not understand. Franchise's brain could only com- 
 pass the impulses that were prompted from the heart, 
 not those urged by the senses. And as tenderness 
 alone could raise her to great heights of comprehen- 
 sion, she was powerless to judge her daughter's urg- 
 ings towards warmer feelings. As she neither felt, nor 
 understood passion herself, she was apt to underrate 
 its strength, and she never quite conceived what forces 
 Jacqueline had to contend with. She did not com- 
 prehend that from her father, her child had inherited 
 deep emotional powers which were promptings which 
 had nothing in common with her own more placid 
 and better-disciplined impulses. She did not entirely 
 realize similar, that though their two souls might 
 unite on a basis of affectionate understanding, yet the 
 hearts of mother and child could never really be as 
 one, because of the essential difference in their natures. 
 Though Jacqueline judged Jerome most severely 
 and was determined never to meet him again, for she 
 now saw clearly through his vile calculations, yet the 
 passion in her young heart yearned towards him still 
 as it probably never might again yearn towards any 
 man. For Jacqueline, though she did not understand 
 it yet herself and might perhaps not understand it for 
 many years to come was not a passive female crea- 
 ture like her mother. She was a creature of active 
 temperament, and even if she had never had the free
 
 268 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 upbringing which Franchise had decided to give her, 
 she was essentially of the race of those who are capa- 
 ble of breaking down all barriers to gain the gratifica- 
 tion of their own instincts. Fortunately for Jacque- 
 line, her training had built around her soul the strong 
 fortress of her will, so that she could curb and restrain 
 her restive spirit by the severe discipline of her deter- 
 mination even though she could not destroy it com- 
 pletely. But the spiritual effort which this necessitated 
 cost her far more vitality than her mother could ever 
 have understood. So not only was Jacqueline forced 
 to uphold this struggle alone, but she was obliged 
 to conceal it from her mother's uncomprehending 
 eyes. 
 
 As Franchise herself was essentially the type of the 
 passive woman that artificial product of centuries 
 of hereditary repression, her own temperament had 
 been crushed out by her education as Jacqueline's had 
 been accrued and almost over-developed by hers. 
 Notwithstanding all her acquired experience, all her 
 sympathy and all her love, Franchise never under- 
 stood the violent promptings of Jacqueline's blood. 
 And Jacqueline, realizing this incomprehension of her 
 mother's, concealed from her watchful loving eyes the 
 hours of her bitterest anguish. 
 
 After the famous actor had given his recitations 
 from the classics, the lady from the Conservatoire 
 had played the violin and at last Eve Norris' magnif- 
 icant enthralling voice had conquered the hearts and 
 nerves of the assembled guests. Again and again the 
 famous singer had generously complied with the
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 269 
 
 wishes of Frangoise and had sung several songs for 
 the delight of the assembly; yet the hours were slip- 
 ping by and after the last song most of the guests, 
 still under the charm of that wonderful music, had 
 reluctantly risen to depart. Jacqueline, whose soul 
 had been uplifted into the regions of dreams by the 
 majestic beauty of sound, seemed to return to earth 
 as she rose with her mother to receive the thanks 
 and the parting greetings of their friends. For a few 
 moments longer the great prima donna lingered in 
 the almost deserted salon with Franchise and her 
 daughter, delighted with the delight she herself 
 had created. And then, with handshakes and af- 
 fectionate greetings, she had left them to go and dress 
 for the evening performance with a promise to sing 
 for them again soon at another party. After her de- 
 parture the salon suddenly seemed entirely emptied 
 when mother and daughter returned to it once more. 
 As the late spring afternoon had now become chilly, 
 Jacqueline closing the open windows prepared to re- 
 arrange the chairs of the room in their natural order, 
 once more, when suddenly there was a ring at the 
 bell. As it was nearly seven o'clock, both Franchise 
 and Jacqueline were somewhat surprised at the ar- 
 rival of so belated a visitor. 
 
 " Perhaps it's Pomm ! " exclaimed Jacqueline in 
 answer to her mother's interrogatory look. 
 
 " I'm sure it isn't. You know he never comes near 
 us on our at-home days. He hates meeting peo- 
 ple. . . ." 
 
 "That's true," said Jacqueline smiling as she re-
 
 270 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 membered Pomm's avoidance of new acquaintances. 
 "Then who can it be?" 
 
 She was soon answered. Clemence entered the 
 room and announced Mrs. Brent. 
 
 At the mere name, Jacqueline's face froze and be- 
 came quite white. She rose from her chair with a 
 spring, and before Franchise could stop her had turned 
 and left the salon by the door which communicated 
 with her mother's room. At the same moment Mrs. 
 Brent entered breathless and diffident by the other 
 door. 
 
 " Dear Madame Reville ! I felt I must come. Do 
 forgive me if I am not welcome. . . ." said the 
 good woman as she held out her hand. The expres- 
 sion of her kindly countenance was most appealing. 
 There were tears too in her bright blue eyes, and the 
 loose lips of her expansive mouth were trembling. 
 
 " Dear Mrs. Brent ! " said Franchise as she grasped 
 the outstretched hand gloved in a wrinkled black 
 suede glove. " Of course you are welcome and of 
 course I am delighted to see you ! " 
 
 "That's just what I said to Nelly before I came," 
 exclaimed Mrs. Brent, triumphantly, immediately re- 
 assured by Franchise's words. " * I can't stay away 
 from Madame Reville any longer,' I said, 'and so 
 whatever you do I am going to see her. I know 
 she likes me, and even if you young people have had 
 a tiff, there's no reason why we old fogies should not 
 be friendly. . . .' " 
 
 Whenever Mrs. Brent alluded to her as art "old 
 fogey," Franchise could not refrain from amusement.
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 271 
 
 She burst into irrepressible laughter now at once. 
 "You are quite right, Mrs. Brent. There is no 
 reason why you should not come to see me if you 
 want to. I assure you that my personal feelings 
 towards all of you have never undergone any change. 
 
 " Dear Madame Reville, I am so glad to hear you 
 say that," said Mrs. Brent as she subsided into a low 
 cushioned divan, from the depths of which her curly 
 white head alone seemed to emerge, crowned with 
 a small bonnet of red roses that bobbed up and down 
 looking like a gaily painted buoy carrying a crimson 
 flag, ever triumphant on the waves of a stormy sea. 
 
 " You see, my dear," continued the good lady as 
 she patted Frangoise's hand, and looked at her with' 
 affection, "I know there's been a misunderstanding 
 between Oliver and Jacqueline, and though Nelly and 
 I do not know what it has been about nor do we wish 
 to pry into Oliver's affairs to find out yet we quite 
 understand that Jacqueline does not like to come to 
 our house for fear of meeting Oliver. Yet notwith- 
 standing that I am quite determined that I shall come 
 to see you sometimes since you are not opposed to my 
 visits. . . ." 
 
 " Of course I am not, dear Mrs. Brent. Now tell 
 me how are Nelly and Oliver?" she added, hesitat- 
 ingly, as she offered her visitor some tea. 
 
 "Oh, they are both as well as possible, though 
 Oliver is a bit stern and silent, and at times looks pale 
 and rather miserable. 
 
 Franchise made no answer. She knew that it was 
 true that Mrs. Brent was totally ignorant as to what
 
 272 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 had caused the estrangement between Oliver and her 
 daughter, and she neither wished to enlighten her, nor 
 indeed to allude to the subject more than was possi- 
 ble. She did not mention the fact of her having met 
 Oliver in the Luxembourg Gardens, knowing also 
 that Oliver himself would not have spoken of it to 
 his aunt and sister. 
 
 " Listen, dear Madame Reville," said the excellent 
 woman. " I've come to make another proposition. 
 . Not the same one as last year. But it's 
 quite as nice an idea, I can tell you!" 
 
 " Well," said Franchise, for she was always amused 
 at the good lady's exuberance, " I'm waiting to hear 
 what it is. Your proposals have generally something 
 soundly good in them ! " 
 
 "Well, you know that Nelly's three years of study 
 in Paris will be terminated in June. I had let my 
 house in Kensington, furnished for three years; but 
 now the lease is up, and the Americans who had it 
 are going back to their native shores at the end of 
 May. So I am going to give up the lease of my flat 
 in the Boulevard Raspail at the same date and return 
 home with Nelly. Oliver will of course remain 
 here because of his work. He has decided to make 
 Paris always his home, though he will often come 
 for months together to England to stay with 
 us. He has taken Jerome d'Ablis' empty studio next 
 door to his own for I suppose you've heard that 
 Jerome has been appointed somewhere in South 
 America and is on his way there now." 
 
 Mrs. Brent paused for breath, but as Franchise
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 273 
 
 made no comment, she resumed : " Oliver has opened 
 a door between the two rooms so that one will serve 
 him for a bedroom. He will lunch and dine at a res- 
 taurant. Of course as I tell him that is not a good 
 way of living for a man of his age. But I hope that 
 he'll marry some day and have a home of his own. 
 He is coining money literally, and as he is not entirely 
 impecunious on his father's side, we shall see him a 
 rich and fashionable painter yet." 
 
 Franchise had not spoken during Mrs. Brent's long 
 harangue. 
 
 " Well ! I suppose you have come to say good-bye 
 to us then ? " Franchise now remarked sadly, " and we 
 shall not see you again. . . ." 
 
 " Not at all," put in Mrs. Brent vivaciously, and the 
 very roses of her bonnet shook with a spirit of nega- 
 tion, " not at all ! I have not said all I have to say 
 yet ! What I am going to propose is that you should 
 come and spend the summer with us in London. . . . 
 There now ! " as Franchise's features suddenly became 
 blank . . " It's out at last, and can't be helped ! 
 I want you to consider my proposal most seriously, 
 even if it does surprise you a little at first. You can't 
 possibly include Nelly and me in your quarrel with 
 Oliver, can you? We've nothing to do with it, have 
 we? And we shall be so lonely at first without any 
 of our French friends and without Oliver, who can't 
 possibly come over till the autumn. You two would 
 do us more good than anyone ! Surely you still love 
 Nelly and me?" 
 
 " Certainly we do, we love you dearly," said Fran-
 
 274 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 qoise reassuringly. " Indeed it is most kind of you 
 to invite us, and I greatly appreciate your generosity 
 in understanding and accepting the situation so frankly. 
 
 But -" and she stopped hesitatingly. " There is 
 
 Jacqueline to be consulted, of course . . . and 
 even if she is willing which I greatly doubt I am 
 obliged to confess to you sincerely that a journey to 
 England seems a great undertaking for me! You 
 know I am one of those old-fashioned French women 
 whom the very thought of travelling terrifies!" 
 
 " Oh, a trip to London from Paris is nothing ! I 
 am sure Jacqueline would enjoy it. She will induce 
 you. . . ." 
 
 " I certainly will ! " said a bright voice at the open 
 door of Franchise's bedroom, and Jacqueline walked 
 into the room. As she had sat alone in the next room 
 she had made a sudden determination to vanquish the 
 strange feeling of shame that she felt at the mere 
 mention of the Brents' name, and had resolved to con- 
 quer all her fears instantly. Opening the door of her 
 mother's room, she had heard Mrs. Brent's last words. 
 
 " Then you will come, I am sure," said Mrs. Brent 
 as she kissed Jacqueline's pale cheek, " for you always 
 manage your mother so well ! " 
 
 "To the best of my ability at least," replied Jac- 
 queline laughing. " I am most anxious to visit Eng- 
 land and shall be delighted to see Nelly again. How 
 is she, by-the-bye?" 
 
 " Very well, my dear ; and she'll be crazy with de- 
 light at the thought of having you at Rose Lodge." 
 
 " That's very good of her. I appreciate her mag-
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 273 
 
 nanimity, dear Mrs. Brent, for I've been an ungrate- 
 ful beast to Nelly. I see that now. But I can't see 
 Oliver yet I assure you," she said after a moment's 
 reflection, for she thought it better to break into the 
 subject at once. " Later on I may perhaps be able 
 to feel friendly towards him again, but not yet. I 
 can't. He has been too impertinent ,. . . I can't. 
 . . . I can't!" 
 
 She had almost forgotten the presence of Oliver's 
 aunt and her own mother in her feeling of sudden, 
 renewed resentment at Oliver. 
 
 " Oh, Jacqueline ! . . ." began Mrs. Brent, most 
 distressed at this unexpected outburst. But Fran- 
 Qoise had laid her hand gently on the kind lady's arm 
 and stopped all further speech- 
 
 " Don't let us ever discuss Jacqueline's and Oliver's 
 affairs, dear friend. They must right themselves, 
 without our interference." And then in a lighter tone 
 she added: 
 
 " We shall be delighted to go and stay with you and 
 Nelly, since you have so kindly so generously for- 
 given our long silence and invited us to go to you 
 . . ." Then she turned to Jacqueline and said 
 whimsically : 
 
 " Do you really think I shall be able to stand that 
 odious sea passage to Dover, Jacqueline?" 
 
 " Of course you will, darling," said Jacqueline, who 
 having gathered herself together, smiled at her mother 
 and spoke in her old domineering way, " for shan't I 
 be there to look after you ? " 
 
 At Jacqueline's tone the three women began to
 
 276 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 laugh, and the strain was at once relieved, for it 
 seemed that with her old wilful and commanding 
 spirit Jacqueline's equanimity had suddenly returned 
 to her once more. 
 
 And all was well again in Franchise's tender, loving 
 heart.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 So one bright morning in May, Franchise and Jacque- 
 line, accompanied by the faithful Clemence, closed up 
 the flat in Paris and leaving it in charge of the con- 
 cierge, who kept the key of it and promised to go 
 up twice a week to dust it took the train at the Gare 
 du Nord for Calais. They were to cross by the Calais- 
 Dover boat in the daytime, for Franchise, who, as 
 she had herself declared, was quite an old-fashioned 
 type of Frenchwoman in the matter of travelling, 
 feared a passage across the Channel in the darkness. 
 They lunched in the train leaving Clemence to look 
 after their bags in the first-class compartment while 
 they went into the restaurant car. Clemence, with 
 the thriftiness that characterises the women of her 
 class, and which sometimes, though very rarely in 
 these modern days, they bring to bear upon the in- 
 terests of their employers, had scorned the idea of 
 allowing madame to pay five francs for her luncheon. ' 
 
 " Que madame et mademoiselle dejeunent dans le 
 train, c'est bien . . . mais pas moi . . .'!" 
 
 "But you must have lunch too!" Jacqueline had 
 objected. 
 
 "Oui but I'll manage. Mademoiselle need not 
 worry about me. I'll take care of myself." 
 
 So while Franchise and her daughter had left the 
 carriage, leaving Clemence alone, the worthy woman 
 who had never travelled since she had left her own 
 
 277
 
 278 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 Vosgian village twenty-five years before, drew the 
 substantial repast which she had prepared for herself 
 out of a canvas bag, that had never left her hand 
 since she had departed from home that morning. 
 Upon several occasions Jacqueline had laughingly 
 asked her what she carried in the mysterious recep- 
 tacle, but Clemence had always put her off with 
 evasive air: 
 
 " Ca, c'est des affaires a moi . . . %a n'interesse 
 pas mademoiselle." And she had refused to gratify 
 the curiosity of the girl any further. 
 
 The bag had been made by Clemence herself in her 
 spare hours, in view of her London trip. It was of 
 coarse unbleached linen canvas made in the shape of 
 an elongated sausage slit along the top, the aper- 
 ture being bound round with scarlet braid and afford- 
 ing a view of a scarlet twill lining. The side seams 
 were also bound round with the red braid and the two 
 handles made of strong thick twine were covered with 
 twill like the lining. There were Clemence's initials, 
 " C. S" worked in cross-stitching in scarlet cotton on 
 the front of the bag. Into this trusty repository Clem- 
 ence had amassed all her treasures, besides the lusty 
 meal she had prepared for the journey, there were 
 several toilet articles, including a small mirror and a 
 bottle of Eau de Melisse in view of the possible 
 horrors of sea-sickness. There were three or four 
 large, thick linen handkerchiefs, embroidered also in 
 red cotton cross-stitching " C. S." and there was a 
 small livre de Messe, with an image de Saintete serv- 
 ing as a book-mark at the page upon which the prayers
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 279 
 
 for tHe dying were set. For Clemence as she stepped 
 upon the steamboat that would carry her to England, 
 was resolved to be ready to meet even death itself if 
 necessary stoically and like a good Catholic. The 
 entire bottom of the bag was lined with half-pound 
 packets of Menier's chocolate. 
 
 The long railway journey, not to mention the sea- 
 passage, constituted in Clemence's mind a very big 
 undertaking, which necessitated a great deal of moral 
 and material sustainment that could only be obtained in 
 her opinion from a large and hearty meal. Three hard- 
 boiled eggs seasoned with some salt from a small pa- 
 per cornucopia and accompanied by a pound of crisp, 
 golden-crusted bread, formed a substantial ground- 
 work as an hors d'oeuvre. A thick piece of cold 
 beefsteak was next consumed, and Clemence, having 
 brought a small kitchen plate of white china with her, 
 was able to cut it up into large square chunks which 
 she washed down at intervals with a litre of strong 
 red wine. Next came a fine slice of gruyere cheese, fol- 
 lowed by a small phial of excellent black coffee, well- 
 sweetened, which she had wrapped in a flannel to keep 
 warm. To Clemence as to all French servants, her 
 food was the item of greatest importance in her ex- 
 istence. She could be most devoted to her mistress 
 at times, and in illness specially she was a veritable 
 treasure; but to no creature on earth, and to no 
 exterior or interior consideration would Clem- 
 ence have sacrificed the plenitude of her repast. 
 If she was forced to live " chez les autres," that was 
 to be regretted indeed, but was not that precisely one
 
 280 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 of the reasons why she should be well fed ? she asked. 
 iWas not that her chief compensation, since she was 
 forced to live in the " houses of others ? " And accord- 
 ing to Clemence no one was well fed who did not 
 consume a pound of bread, and a bottle of red wine 
 at each meal besides other items, both at midday and 
 at seven o'clock in the evening, like all good Chris- 
 tians! When Franchise had told Clemence that in 
 England, with Mrs. Brent's servants, she would prob- 
 ably enjoy a more solid breakfast than she was 
 accustomed to in France, but that she would have no 
 evening dinner of meat, she was aghast. 
 
 " Comment! On est des sauvages en : Angleterre, 
 dors?" 
 
 "Not exactly," replied Franchise laughing. "But 
 Mrs. Brent tells me that English people do not give 
 their servants late dinner." 
 
 After having declared that she hated England and 
 all things English, and that nothing would induce her 
 to put her foot upon English soil, Clemence had never- 
 theless been influenced by Jacqueline's description of 
 English life, and now was really keen to go to Eng- 
 land. But she could not reconcile herself to the idea 
 of an English menu. 
 
 "Des sauvages, quoi!" 
 
 Nothing else could be got from her but that appre- 
 ciation of English customs. But at the bottom of 
 her uncouth canvas bag she had concealed not only 
 several pounds of Menier's chocolate, but also two 
 very long rolls of saucisson de Lyon, as well as three 
 boxes of sardines. " Comme qa, I shall lack nothing
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 281 
 
 in the land of the sanvages, if they try to make me 
 die of hunger," she had muttered to herself as she 
 packed it carefully, wrapping parchment paper around 
 the saucisson to keep it fresh. And though even Fran- 
 goise herself, puzzled by the appearance of Clemence's 
 wonderful travelling kit, made endeavours at repeated 
 intervals to discover what she might be hiding, Clem- 
 ence always refused to tell. 
 
 " C'est des affaires d moi" she replied invariably, 
 putting her hand over the opening of the bag and 
 drawing it close to her, as though she feared that her 
 patronne would inspect its contents by force. 
 
 On the boat Franchise in terror of sea-sickness, went 
 down into the ladies' cabin with Clemence, and stretch- 
 ing herself out on the comfortable thintz-covered 
 berth, resigned herself to her fate, with a bottle of 
 smelling salts in one hand and a handkerchief satu- 
 rated with eau de Cologne in the other. Jacqueline, 
 intending to remain on deck during the short passage, 
 went down to settle her mother and the old servant 
 comfortably, and then tying a wide motor veil over 
 her close grey toque went up on board. Pacing the 
 deck she met two young English girls who were doing 
 likewise. As Jacqueline went to lean up against the 
 side of the deck railing the two girls followed her, and 
 the younger one smilingly addressed her. 
 
 " Are you a good sailor?" she asked. 
 
 " Yes, I think so," said Jacqueline bravely. ;< This 
 is the first time I've crossed, but I don't mind the 
 shaking. It's more invigorating than otherwise," she 
 added as the turbine trembled a little.
 
 " We are just returning from our first trip to Paris," 
 volunteered the young English girl. 
 
 " Oh ! " said Jacqueline, interested at once. " I am 
 just about to pay my first visit to London ! " 
 
 " I wonder how you will like London after Paris ? " 
 said the young girl again. "You will find it very 
 different indeed." 
 
 "How did you like Paris?" inquired Jacqueline. 
 
 "Like Paris! We adored it," said the girl, "but 
 we were so sorry not to be able to meet any French 
 people inhabitants of Paris I mean. We stayed in a 
 hotel in the rue Caumartin and were all the time 
 among English people." 
 
 " Parisians do not live at hotels, an'd of course you 
 would never meet them there," said Jacqueline. " Did 
 you not have any letters of introduction when you 
 arrived? The only way to meet French people, and 
 to see them as they are, is to be received into their 
 own homes." 
 
 " Is it difficult for English people to know the French 
 in their intimate life?" asked the elder of the two 
 girls, a young woman of about twenty-six. 
 
 "Yes," said Jacqueline, who having met English 
 hospitality at the house of the Brents knew the differ- 
 ence between the two nations in family customs. 
 " You see the home in France is far more closed to 
 strangers than the English home. French people do 
 not admit strangers into their intimacy as quickly or 
 as easily as the English do." 
 
 "I am glad that English hospitality is what it is,"
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 283 
 
 said the elder girl proudly. "But tell me why the 
 French family is so closed?" 
 
 " Oh, for a multitude of reasons. But first of all 
 because of the manner in which young girls and young 
 men are brought up. The average French mother 
 does not allow her daughter to meet any young men 
 before her own marriage, and would fight shy of ad- 
 mitting English girls into the intimacy of her own 
 daughters because she would be afraid of their learn- 
 ing too much independence from the young woman so 
 liberally trained." 
 
 And then Jacqueline told tHem of Her friendship 
 with Nelly Brent and explained how her friend's in- 
 dependence had influenced her own. 
 
 "Very few French girls have been brought up as 
 freely as I have been," she told the two sisters. " Most 
 mothers disapprove of the liberty which my mother 
 has always given me. What we call I'education 
 a I'anglaise is only just beginning to be admitted in 
 French society. It is coming though. Great strides 
 have been made already and many others will follow." 
 
 The conversation thus engaged proceeded almost 
 during the whole of the crossing. As the outlines of 
 the English coast were becoming visible in the dis- 
 tance, the elder girl turned to Jacqueline and asked 
 simply: 
 
 " Where are you going to stop in London ? " 
 
 " At a place called Kensington." 
 
 " Oh ! we live not far from there ! " exclaimed the 
 younger of the two girls, whom Jacqueline had heard
 
 284 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 addressed as Janet. " We live at Netting Hill, close 
 by." 
 
 " Heel Nottingue," repeated Jacqueline slowly, with 
 her pretty accent. "I will try to remember that 
 name." 
 
 The older girl addressed Jacqueline awkwardly. 
 
 "I wonder," she said with a blush, "I wonder if 
 you would come and see us while you are in London? " 
 
 Jacqueline was not astonished at the sudden invita- 
 tion from the two strangers. She understood that 
 both the girls were genuinely interested in her. 
 
 " I should be very pleased," she said, " you are very 
 kind. My name is Jacqueline Reville, and I am going 
 to stay with my friend, Mrs. Brent." 
 
 "Oh! the Brents? Do you know them?" Janet 
 broke in impetuously with a smile on her face. " I 
 used to go to school with Nelly Brent. Yes. And 
 now I remember, she lives at Kensington." 
 
 "I've known them a long time. I met Nelly at 
 the Sorbonne, where we were both studying. She 
 lived in Paris three years with her aunt. We became 
 great friends and I used to speak English with her 
 nearly always." 
 
 "And what has become of her brother, Oliver? I've 
 heard that he's a great artist. The papers announced 
 that his picture at this year's Academy was a great 
 success." 
 
 Jacqueline blushed to the roots of her hair. 
 
 " Mr. Brent lives in Paris. He is an artist of some 
 repute there. His Academy picture is my portrait,"
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 285 
 
 she said with some embarrassment. "You will be 
 sure to recognize it." 
 
 And anxious to avoid any further reference to 
 Oliver she turned to the elder girl again. 
 
 "Won't you tell me your name?" 
 
 " Oh, certainly ! I am Elsie Thornton, and this is 
 my sister Janet Thornton. We were both educated 
 at a high school and later on in Germany and 
 Brussels. We live with our father and mother. We've 
 got a brother who is in business in the city. . . . " 
 
 "You'll discover after you have been in England 
 some time that most young Englishmen of our class 
 are 'something in the city/ when they don't go out 
 to the Colonies," interrupted Janet laughing. 
 
 " I think that's about all there is to know about us," 
 pursued Elsie, undisturbed by her sister's remark. 
 " Here's our address, on one of mother's cards," and 
 she held out a card with an address written upon it 
 in ink. 
 
 "Be sure you come to see us, and let us know if 
 there is anything we can do for you in London. We 
 shall be delighted to be of use to you." 
 
 Jacqueline thanked them warmly, and as the coast 
 of England was now in sight, she went down to her 
 mother in the cabin below. 
 
 "Well, and how's the sea been treating you, 
 mother?" she inquired gently, as she bent over the 
 prostrate lady. 
 
 Franchise replied in a low voice. 
 
 " I feel that so long as I do not budge an inch, I
 
 286 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 shall not be ill. But please don't make me get up till 
 we are in the harbour, dearest." 
 
 "All right, mother. We've really had a beautiful 
 passage," and then spying Clemence stretched full- 
 length and face downwards in a berth nearby groan- 
 ing, and bending over a receptacle which she tried in 
 vain to hide from Jacqueline's alert gaze : 
 
 "Eh bien, ma bonne Clemence! And how are you 
 faring? " She placed her cool hand with a comforting 
 gesture on the forehead of the good woman as she 
 spoke. 
 
 "Ah, mademoiselle'! 'Quels sauvages que ces 'An- 
 glais d" avoir invent e une mer pareille!" 
 
 "But it is not the fault of the English if the sea 
 is a little rough and you've been sick, Clemence ! You 
 really ought not to make them responsible for it," 
 said Jacqueline smiling. 
 
 " Fraif C'est pas leur faute?" 
 
 "I assure you it isn't," replied Jacqueline, now 
 laughing outright. "Allans, cheer up, Clemence! 
 We've just got into the harbour. The rolling has 
 ceased. Be your own brave self again, and help me 
 to look after maman" 
 
 A galooned official now came around to inspect all 
 the hand-baggage on board. Clemence, ill though she 
 was, pulled herself together at the sight of him and 
 rose from her recumbent position just in time to 
 snatch her beloved bag from his grasp. 
 
 " Qu'est ce qu'il veut, cet imbecile? " she inquired 
 of Jacqueline. " Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu!" she mur- 
 mured to herself, as the inspector put out his hand to
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 287 
 
 take the bag. She was most anxious that Jacqueline 
 should not know of her store of chocolate, which ac- 
 cording to her belief was to save her from complete 
 starvation in the land of the sauvages. But Jacqueline 
 guessed what she had there and took a keen delight 
 in teasing the good woman. 
 
 "You must show it, you know, Clemence. And I 
 suppose you understand that you will be immediately 
 marched off to the nearest English prison if they find 
 any such things as French chocolate or sauclsson or 
 even gruyere cheese in your possession. The king of 
 England does not allow such things to enter his do- 
 minions.'* And Jacqueline put on a very serious 
 expression. 
 
 Clemence turned more livid than even seasickness 
 could make her. 
 
 "C'est-il vraif Mademoiselle, c'est-il vraif" she 
 gasped in terror. 
 
 " Yes, it's quite true, isn't it ? " said Jacqueline, 
 turning to the Customs House officer for reference. 
 
 " Yes," answered that official smiling, and appre- 
 ciating the joke. But seeing Clemence's look of real 
 terror, he added consolingly : 
 
 " But we'll let the lady off this time if she has any 
 of these articles in her possession, as it is her first 
 visit to England." 
 
 He made a polite bow to Clemence and smiled at 
 Jacqueline as he passed on to examine another bag. 
 
 " Dleu soit lone!" whispered Clemence to Jacque- 
 line as she watched his retreating form. "II est tout 
 de meme amiable, cet imbecile! She was so relieved
 
 288 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 at having spared her bag from the man's investigation 
 that she confessed her provision of edibles at once. 
 "To tell you the truth, mademoiselle, I am so afraid 
 of dying of hunger in the house of Madame Brent, 
 among those sauvages of English servants, that I have 
 brought a few tablets of chocolate from Paris with 
 me to appease my hunger if necessary." 
 
 "A few tablets!" laughed Jacqueline, lifting the 
 bag and weighing it on her strong arm. "A few 
 tablets, indeed! A fine consignment, Clemence, to 
 judge by the weight of your bag! You monster, 
 Clemence! I should say there is at least a thousand 
 francs duty on this. What would King Edward say 
 if he only knew it! " 
 
 " Ah, but he doesn't know it ! " cried Clemence 
 victoriously, as if she had scored a triumph over His 
 Majesty of England. Jacqueline's shoulders shook 
 with silent mirth. 
 
 " Quel pays de sauvages, tout de meme!" muttered 
 the old servant again to herself as she tied an echarpe 
 that Jacqueline had given her firmly over her black 
 hat and hastened to help her mistress to rise. 
 
 But Clemence's troubles among the "sauvages" had 
 only just begun. For the next few weeks she had but 
 one word ever upon her lips, with which she freely 
 addressed all porters, tradespeople, waiters and cab- 
 men indiscriminately, and that was the word "im- 
 becile." She was delighted to learn from Jacqueline 
 that such a word was not often used in English and 
 was not understood when uttered by a foreigner. So
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 289 
 
 she pronounced it upon every conceivable occasion, 
 and it greatly eased her mind when she did. 
 
 After they had landed in England, Jacqueline was 
 obliged to take the entire direction of the small party 
 of French travellers in hand, neither Franchise nor 
 Clemence being able to speak a single word of Eng- 
 lish. 
 
 At Dover Franchise wanted a tea-basket, and 
 Jacqueline was obliged for the first time to speak in 
 English, to pay the waiter and to count the change 
 of an English sovereign with which she had paid for 
 th|e tea. She found shillings and pence most be- 
 wildering, and Clemence, in a perpetual state of ill- 
 temper with everything in England, declared that 
 surely the " vilains sauvages" had cheated mademoi- 
 selle. Jacqueline's English, acquired first in Paris 
 from the academical Pomm and then at the Lycee, 
 and finally broadened out afterwards by her conversa- 
 tions with the most modern of English maidens in 
 the person of Nelly Brent, was amusing to say the 
 least. It was a curious composition of very literary 
 expressions culled from Shakespeare and the older 
 poets, and very up-to-date modern forms of English 
 school slang, carefully inoculated by Nelly, whose 
 great delight was to hear Jacqueline use words she 
 did not understand in the least. 
 
 At Victoria they found Nelly and Mrs. Brent on the 
 platform waiting for them. 
 
 " Jacqueline ! " cried Nelly with delight as soon as 
 she caught sight of Jacqueline's tall, slim figure in
 
 290 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 the carriage as she reached upwards for the umbrellas 
 in the rack. 
 
 " Voila Nelly ! " cried Jacqueline to her mother in 
 her turn. And as she flew into her friend's arms on 
 the platform she greatly shocked an old gentleman 
 who had travelled up in the same carriage with them 
 from Dover, and had been greatly admiring the 
 young French girl's good manners on the way, by 
 exclaiming : 
 
 " Here we are, dear old chappie ! " 
 
 After some delay at the Customs, which once again 
 forced Clemence into injurious language concerning 
 savages and imbeciles, their luggage was put on 
 to a barrow and taken to the District Railway by a 
 porter, en route for Kensington. As they left the 
 station and passed into the open air, Franchise and 
 Jacqueline were both immediately struck with the 
 sight of the busy streets beyond and would willingly 
 have sauntered out for a walk of inspection there and 
 then. But Nelly and Mrs. Brent hurried them along 
 with Clemence in tow already freely using abusive 
 language to those people in the street who pushed up 
 against her and threatened to knock her bag with its 
 supposed fraudulent freight of chocolate and saucisson 
 out of her hand. 
 
 Soon they found themselves in a train on the Dis- 
 trict Railway bound for Kensington. Jacqueline 
 ensconced herself at once in a corner of the carriage 
 and opened her eyes wide as she passed all the Dis- 
 trict Railway stations Victoria, Sloane Square and 
 Gloucester Road in succession.
 
 " Well, Jacqueline ! " said Nelly, sitting close beside 
 her and amused to see her friend so interested in the 
 waiting crowds assembled upon the platforms, 
 " Well, what is your first impression of England and 
 the English?" 
 
 " Most of your people appear to me to be so sad 
 at least to-day they do," said Jacqueline, "and I 
 don't suppose they have put on that expression only 
 for us, so I surmise that it is their usual one. But 
 are they always like that? And is your city always 
 as gloomy and dull ? What a thick atmosphere ! " 
 
 " Do you think so ? " said Nelly reflectively. 
 "Yes; I suppose the people must strike you as dull 
 as their own climate, after the gay Parisian crowd." 
 
 " They have no expressions at all upon their faces," 
 said Jacqueline. " They look as if life held no hope 
 at all for them. At least that's how they impress 
 me at first sight. How do you account for that, 
 Nelly?" 
 
 "I don't know," said Nelly, leaving her seat and 
 taking the empty place opposite to Jacqueline by the 
 side of the window. "Unless it's the effect of the 
 climate, which is most depressing here in the winter 
 time. . . ." 
 
 " But now it is spring," said Jacqueline laughing. 
 
 "Yes. But they remember the winter, you see!" 
 said Nelly, joining in her friend's infectious laughter. 
 
 " I think, Nelly," said Jacqueline with mock grav- 
 ity, "I think indeed I am afraid that you are 
 growing into a philosopher." 
 
 "Gracious me!" put in good Mrs. Brent here,
 
 292 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 shaking the yellow cowslips on her bonnet threaten- 
 ingly at Jacqueline as she spoke. "Gracious me! 
 You've hardly yet set your foot upon English soil 
 and you are already calling Nelly bad names!" 
 
 At which remark the girls gave way to an up- 
 roarious fit of laughter, in which the "mothers" 
 joined. 
 
 "What fun we are going to have here together," 
 said Mrs. Brent, when she had regained some com- 
 posure. "Why, it will be like our dear Peupliers 
 days all over again." 
 
 At the mention of Les Peupliers, Franchise, looking 
 at her daughter, noted that not the slightest quiver- 
 ing moved her features. She understood that Jacque- 
 line's sad memories were indeed fading into total ob- 
 livion, and her heart was full of joy. 
 
 When the merry party reached Kensington, their 
 luggage was again hoisted on to a barrow and 
 wheeled away by a railroad porter, while Mrs. Brent 
 and Nelly conducted their friends on foot to Rose 
 Lodge, which was only a few yards away. 
 
 As soon as they got into the dimly-lighted, warm- 
 aired hall, their impression of England was trans- 
 formed at once. If outside in the streets many 
 things had struck them as ugly, unfinished, here at 
 least it seemed that luxury, comfort and good taste 
 were combined to charm and to attract the incoming 
 stranger. 
 
 " Welcome to England, and to Rose Lodge ! " cried 
 Mrs. Brent as they entered. And she kissed Fran- 
 again heartily and folded Jacqueline once more
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 293 
 
 into the depths of her embrace, her wide, old-fash- 
 ioned black cloth cape flapping backwards and for- 
 wards and keeping company with the long loose 
 strings of her small, high-perched bonnet. "Wel- 
 come, dear friends; we are so happy to have you in 
 our English home at last!" 
 
 " So glad to have you here, old girl ! " said Nelly 
 to Jacqueline, shaking her by the hand. 
 
 To the right of the hall a flight of stairs carpeted 
 with a warm carpeting of pale-blue felt covered with 
 white linen druggeting in the centre, led up to the 
 bedrooms.. Here Franchise and Jacqueline were 
 immediately installed in two small, charming rooms 
 side by side, each provided with two wide bay-shaped 
 windows that gave a fine view of the smooth lawn 
 and of the garden beyond. This contained beds of 
 many old-fashioned flowers mingling in happy har- 
 mony with currant bushes and strawberry plants. 
 Fine trees surrounded it on all sides, closing it in 
 from the view of other old gardens beyond, which 
 formed the grounds of an old Catholic Convent 
 where peaceful nuns chanted hymns as they walked 
 along the gravel paths, and the tinkling bell of their 
 chapel called them into their evening meal. 
 
 Rose Lodge stood in its own grounds. It was an 
 old-fashioned house, built in the early years of the 
 nineteenth century when the fine architectural lines 
 of the later eighteenth century still haunted the 
 dreams of English architects. The broad windows 
 of the dining- and drawing-rooms on the ground floor 
 were slightly bow-shaped and gave a generous view
 
 294 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 of tfie fine velvety lawn, springy to the touch of the 
 foot, as only an old English lawn can be. The gar- 
 den delighted Franchise and Jacqueline specially, and 
 appeared to them as a fine example of the triumphant 
 Anglo-Saxon spirit that successfully coerces even re- 
 bellious Nature herself; for it is precisely in England, 
 where the climate is so unsympathetic to outdoor en- 
 joyments, that foreigners do not expect to find de- 
 lightful and entrancing pleasaunces. 
 
 The house itself also was characteristically sug- 
 gestive of the better class of English bourgeois with 
 its numerous small bedrooms so necessary to the love 
 of individual privacy of each member of a large 
 family. On the ground floor was a .spacious drawing- 
 room, out of which one could pass into a small con- 
 servatory beyond, where a vine, the pride of Mrs. 
 Brent's heart, when laboriously tended yielded 
 two or three bunches of grapes each year. The din- 
 ing-room, next to the drawing-room, was a wide, low- 
 ceilinged room, with a bow-window, and was fur- 
 nished with old Chippendale furniture. On the left 
 of the hall was a small library, which formerly had 
 been the sanctum of the late Mr. John Brent when he 
 retired from the company of his gushing spouse, to 
 smoke a peaceful and solitary pipe alone. 
 
 Two white-capped, white-aproned, black-gowned 
 female servants formed the whole of Mrs. Brent's 
 retinue. To these, eyeing them with deep suspicion, 
 Clemence was introduced with due formality, and by 
 them, her bag still grasped in her right hand, she was 
 led downstairs to the region of the kitchen. They
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 295 
 
 immediately offered her the national solace of a cup 
 of tea. But it was brewed so strong that Clemence, 
 with more celerity than politeness put it back on the 
 kitchen table by the side of a plate of bread and butter 
 which had accompanied it, murmuring to herself " sale 
 medednel" 
 
 However, as soon as the cook's bade was turned 
 and the house-parlour maid began to lay the cloth for 
 the dinner upstairs, Clemence, turning to the faithful 
 bag which had never left her side a single moment 
 since her departure from Paris, thrust a hasty but 
 deft hand into its open aperture, and extracting from 
 its depths a tablet of chocolate began to munch it 
 with evident relish, alternating with large bites out 
 of a slice of bread and butter. 
 
 The next morning Clemence, with tired eyes and a 
 rueful countenance, brought Madame Reville's 
 breakfast to her on a tray. 
 
 " Eh Uen, Clemence" she asked, " Comment avez- 
 vous dor mi?" 
 
 "Ah!" sighed Clemence, rubbing her shins rue- 
 fully, " ces miserable*! Surely the mattress of my 
 bed must have been stuffed with peach-stones, for I 
 am black and blue all over me this morning!" 
 
 For another national prejudice which Clemence 
 shared with most of her class was her great predi- 
 lection for soft bedding. Evidently she had found 
 the flat English mattress so hard that she could not 
 sleep all night long. 
 
 " You'll get used to it soon, Clemence," said Fran- 
 c.oise, trying to comfort and persuade her at the same
 
 296 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 time. "To-night your bed will seem softer to you, 
 and the next night softer still, and then after that 
 you won't notice any difference at all between the 
 bed upstairs and your own at home." 
 
 " 'Ah! que si, madame! " insisted Clemence. " C'est 
 pas des gens possibles, les Anglais, que je vous dis! 
 If I can't get any sleep to-night, then I return to Paris 
 to-morrow. I warn madame!" And with that 
 threat Clemence bounced out of the room. 
 
 " I think I'll mix a sleeping powder with her choc- 
 olate if she still persists in getting no sleep to-night," 
 said Jacqueline, who had entered the room during 
 this conversation. " We shall have her deserting us 
 the next day, to return to a more civilized land, if 
 something is not done to appease her ! " 
 
 "Well, if she's unhappy here, of course she may 
 go home," said Frangoise. 
 
 " Oh, she'll be all right in a day or two," laughed 
 Jacqueline.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 Now began for Franchise and Jacqueline a series of 
 outings and sightseeings which delighted them 
 greatly. 
 
 This being their first visit to England they had 
 much to see and to interest them. They were taken 
 to the National Gallery and to the National Portrait 
 Gallery the day after their arrival. And then fol- 
 lowed in succession all the sights of London, begin- 
 ning by the South Kensington Museum and ending 
 up with the Tower. But what interested them even 
 more indeed far more than the museums and 
 sights of London, were the people in the streets and 
 the whole life of the country as it revealed itself out- 
 wardly to their fresh, unimpaired observation. It 
 seemed almost incredible to them that a country so 
 near to them could yet be so far by reason of its cus- 
 toms, traditions and mentality. They began now to 
 see England through English eyes. The British na- 
 tion appeared to them a totally different thing when 
 viewed from the inside than when observed from 
 without. Because the faults of the English are 
 faults of manner, rather than of heart, their worst 
 characteristics appear on the surface and, as their best 
 are not at once apparent, the uninitiated foreigner, 
 therefore, sees them first at a disadvantage. But now 
 all the narrower or more superficial prejudices against 
 
 297
 
 298 THE EDUCATION OE JACQUELINE 
 
 the English, which Franchise and Jacqueline had ac- 
 quired against their will, began to drop away from 
 them one by one. What they had once termed Eng- 
 lish hypocrisy they now understood better, realizing 
 that it stood for a great good, and that it was ow- 
 ing to it that women and girls were respected 
 throughout England and the national dignity thus 
 upheld. What once they had considered as la 
 morgue Brltannique they now understood to be but a 
 very timid reserve the reserve of a shy and self-con- 
 scious people who are afraid to give way to their own 
 emotions. 
 
 Of the improbity which' Napoleon thrust upon 
 England as her greatest fault, when he apostrophied 
 her as perfide Albion, Madame Reville and her 
 daughter found not a trace among their new friends. 
 On the contrary, they soon discovered that English 
 friends were true and loyal to the core, and that the 
 excellent libel laws of England did much to suppress 
 in English social relations the habits of "potins" 
 which are so disturbing to friendly intercourse in 
 France. 
 
 By mixing freely with English girls and young men 
 of her own age, Jacqueline, taking every advantage of 
 the wide hospitality that is shown to strangers in 
 England, veered round entirely away from her old 
 standard of opinions gathered abroad concerning the 
 English, which are as generally erroneous as are the 
 corresponding opinions of the majority of the Eng- 
 lish concerning their foreign neighbours. 
 
 As soon as they had arrived at Rose Lodge,
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 299 
 
 Jacqueline had told Nelly about the meeting with the 
 Thornton girls, and found that Nelly remembered 
 them quite well. She had not seen them since she 
 had left the High School, but declared that she would 
 be delighted to see them again. So Jacqueline wrote 
 a polite little note to Elsie Thornton asking her to 
 come to tea at Rose Lodge with her sister. 
 
 After a first visit, the Thorntons became their in- 
 separable companions on all their sightseeing expedi- 
 tions. The sisters were simple, healthy creatures, 
 without temperament or artistic tastes, but they pos- 
 sessed sterling common sense and kindly hearts, and 
 Jacqueline found their insular point of view most 
 enlightening to her in many ways, revealing insights 
 into the British character which she would not other- 
 wise have had the opportunity of judging, at least 
 with such equity. 
 
 Their brother, Robert Thornton, who held a small 
 post in a large business house in the city, was above 
 all a fervent cricketer, golfer and footballer, and 
 he devoted every possible holiday to his favourite 
 games. In fact the days upon which he went to a 
 match were to him the most important days of the 
 week. He was far more interested in all sports 
 than he was in his office work, which he performed 
 merely perfunctorily and as a simple matter of neces- 
 sity. He was a typical young Englishman of his na- 
 tion and class. Stolid, unobservant, unintellecrual 
 and uncultured, but sterlingly loyal, kindly and gen- 
 erous. He soon too became an habitue at Rose 
 Lodge, where with his sisters he was invited to play
 
 300 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 tennis with Nelly and Jacqueline. Both his sisters 
 were devoted to him, and looked up to what they con- 
 sidered to be his superior opinion in all things, based 
 solely upon the fact that he was a man. Of real 
 mental value he had none, but he was eminently 
 trustworthy. He was typically British in his love 
 for all those kinds of outdoor games at which he was 
 most proficient, and he was also devoted to animals. 
 The great cricket matches at Lord's were his one 
 great passion ; he took no interest in politics, literature 
 or the drama. He discharged his duties in the city 
 punctiliously to the best of his ability, and as con- 
 scientiously as he could. But, nevertheless, his office- 
 work was a mere function which made no real de- 
 mands upon him. Because of their community of 
 interests, Robert Thornton and Nelly Brent quickly 
 became friends, and in order to discuss questions of 
 great import together on matters of cricket, which 
 was their common passion, they often left the others 
 and wandered off into the more secluded parts of the 
 garden together. Soon it became customary for 
 Robert to come and fetch Nelly on half holidays to 
 take her off to some great match that called thou- 
 sands of spectators to Lord's cricket grounds. In- 
 deed so congenial did the two young people appear 
 to be, that Mrs. Brent confided one day to Franchise 
 that she would not be surprised if such devotion did 
 not " end in a match that certainly would not be cele- 
 brated at Lord's." 
 
 To Jacqueline, Robert Thornton was a source of 
 great interest. To her critical sense he appeared
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 301 
 
 as a fine specimen of the splendid uncouth barbarian 
 a big, raw-boned fellow provided with the kind- 
 liest of hearts and the smallest of brains. His fair, 
 flushed pink face with his almost white eyelashes and 
 eye-brows, his pale, colourless eyes, his silver-fair 
 hair brushed down straight and sleek close to his 
 rather flat skull, all combined to emphasise his resem- 
 blance to a salmon. By observing Robert, Jacqueline 
 learnt to understand more of the indomitable British 
 character and to admire it more than she had ever 
 thought to admire. Robert Thornton's fine moral 
 courage, although curiously mingled with the most 
 blunted faculties of perception, his equitable rectitude 
 and integrity, even though often it accompanied the 
 most crass ignorance of facts, made of him an excel- 
 lent specimen of manhood. She contrasted him fa- 
 vourably with many of the young fortune hunters of 
 her own country, who, though they might excel in 
 the art of making wonderfully poetical compliments 
 to ladies, were mostly incapable of sacrificing a single 
 one of their cherished material interests to any 
 woman. 
 
 Robert's dogged conviction was that the English 
 could never be beaten, either because an Englishman 
 never knew when he was worsted, or he would not 
 acknowledge it if he were, or again, because in the 
 end whatever happened the Briton always came out 
 victorious. And these opinions of Robert's indicated 
 the true British spirit which in itself was a revelation 
 to Jacqueline's French-trained mind. Though hith- 
 erto her emotional and affective qualities could only
 
 302 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 be aroused by her intellectual admiration, she was 
 now forced, nevertheless, into a great respect for 
 Robert because of the soundness of his moral char- 
 acter. She began to discover that there was some- 
 thing more to be sought in a man than charm or even 
 culture, and though he would have been astonished 
 to have learnt it, Robert Thornton helped consider- 
 ably to draw Jacqueline's opinion upon men in gen- 
 eral to a higher plane. Henceforth she greatly val- 
 ued such ethical qualities as were revealed to her 
 through the medium of this very commonplace Brit- 
 ish lad. Unconsciously he had offered her a new 
 point of view, from which now she could test those 
 moral and ethical qualities which formerly she had 
 been inclined to underrate in her admiration for in- 
 tellectual supremacy. 
 
 Robert was totally unused to the society of ladies, 
 and was at first particularly shy with Franchise and 
 her daughter. He declared to his friend Nelly that 
 "most ladies were bad enough, but French ladies 
 were a bit too much" for him! Jacqueline's exces- 
 sive daintiness appeared to him as " fussy," and as 
 for Franchise, he declared that he was always afraid 
 of " seeing her break into bits! " 
 
 " But you are the kind of girl for me ! " Robert 
 had added, addressing his first compliment to Nelly 
 herself. "What you don't know about games and 
 pets is not worth knowing ! " 
 
 After this declaration the camaraderie between 
 Nelly and Robert grew apace, as simple and as unaf- 
 fected as the camaraderie of two boys. No emotional
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 303 
 
 thoughts troubled them, no intellectual interests ap- 
 pealed to them. They were like two healthy, young 
 animals, amused with games as a young puppy is 
 amused with running after a ball. They became in- 
 separable companions and their difference of sex, 
 
 which counted for so little in both of them, created no 
 barrier between them. 
 
 During their stay in London, Franchise was de- 
 lighted to see how well Jacqueline was taking to Eng- 
 lish ways and customs, behaving exactly as a young 
 English girl of her age. By degrees her coquetry 
 was disappearing, for she found no scope for its de- 
 velopment. She seemed now to the vigilant eyes of 
 her mother to have forgotten, not only Jerome, but 
 also her resentment against Oliver, and probably even 
 Oliver himself. She appeared to be in process of 
 reconstructing her own soul upon a newer, simpler 
 basis, and meanwhile was enjoying her stay in Eng- 
 land to the utmost. Almost daily she went out shop- 
 ping and sightseeing alone, or with Nelly and the 
 Thornton girls, sometimes even with Robert alone. 
 
 One evening Robert announced that he had two 
 seats for a play. He would greatly have preferred 
 asking Nelly to accompany him, as he told her 
 himself, but Jacqueline was a foreigner and a visitor, 
 so he decided to invite her to go with him instead. 
 "In France a young man would never think of 
 asking a young girl out alone to the theatre," 
 said Jacqueline smilingly, "but as I am able to 
 fly in the face of all French convention here, I shall 
 be only too pleased to accept your kind offer."
 
 304 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 And she went off gaily with Robert, who fetched 
 her at Rose Lodge in the evening at half-past seven 
 after a somewhat hurried meal. They went up 
 by the District Railway from Kensington sta- 
 tion to Charing Cross and then walked to the 
 theatre. Jacqueline amused herself by comparing the 
 attitude of Robert with that of a young Frenchman 
 of his years. This tall, rather shy young man of 
 twenty-seven, in great contrast to the young French- 
 men of his age, was awkward with women, and not 
 being interested in any other subject than that of 
 sport, found that he had very few subjects upon 
 which he could talk to Jacqueline. But Jacqueline 
 took the initiative, and managed to draw him out of 
 his shell, and to get him to talk about various Eng- 
 lish out-door games, comparing them with some of 
 the older games of the kind known in France. 
 Grateful for her sympathy, he somewhat expanded 
 and at one of the stations leaning out of the win- 
 dow he called to a newsboy to bring him an evening 
 paper to show her. Greatly to Jacqueline's satisfac- 
 tion he explained to her the meaning of the posters 
 of the various evening papers, heralding the cricket 
 scores at the more famous sporting centres. To her 
 these items of interest, which she had seen every 
 afternoon in the streets of London printed in large 
 letters on wide sheets of pink paper flapping in the 
 wind as the shrieking news-vendors rushed along, had 
 been far more difficult than Greek to her understand- 
 ing. Hitherto she had not realized the importance of 
 these questions in the eyes of a nation almost exclu-
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 305 
 
 sively interested in sport. Robert, paper in hand, now 
 expounded to her in detail the mysteries of the sport- 
 ing news of the sheet so sacred to the British clerk. 
 And by the time they had arrived at the theatre, Rob- 
 ert told himself that for a "beastly foreigner," Jac- 
 queline was really a " good sort." 
 
 At the theatre, Jacqueline was amused by the audi- 
 ence in the stalls, where the better dressed people of 
 the theatre sat motionless and expressionless waiting 
 the rise of the curtain with forbearing patience. It 
 seemed to her that they were imbued with a terrible 
 earnestness, taking their pleasure at the theatre as a 
 thing of momentous issue. 
 
 " What a serious business their pleasure apparently 
 is to them," said Jacqueline. " If this were a French 
 theatre all the people would be chattering like mag- 
 pies." 
 
 "Would they?" said Robert, without mucli in- 
 terest. 
 
 He was neither observant nor introspective", and 
 the relative characteristics of English and French 
 audiences did not appeal to him. 
 
 The play was of the kind called a musical comedy. 
 Notwithstanding her knowledge of English, Jacque- 
 line followed the plot of the story with great diffi- 
 culty. There was a king who was not really a king, 
 and another man a very funny person who was 
 married to a very pompous and disagreeable lady. 
 The facetious gentleman was continually being offered 
 the post of king, though he himself was always 
 trying to avoid the responsibilities of kingship.
 
 Then there was a very pretty princess, the daughter 
 of the funny man. She loved the real king, who, 
 for some reason not made clear, was hiding. It was 
 very complicated and Jacqueline had to give up try- 
 ing to understand the plot, as the rest of the audi- 
 ence probably had to do also. But evidently that did 
 not prevent them from being interested in the play, 
 so Jacqueline followed their example and amused her- 
 self too by listening to the rather vapid music that 
 was a sort of pot-pourri of various well-known popu- 
 lar songs mixed with reminiscences of other operet- 
 tas. Sometimes and always when she least expected 
 him the funny man came on and staggered about 
 the stage quite meaninglessly, but amusingly because 
 of his very absurdity, banging his head against the 
 cardboard tree-trunks of the mise-en-scene in his 
 frenzied fear of being appointed king. Then he 
 went off and a chorus of short-skirted, large-hatted 
 village girls appeared waving bouquets of poppies 
 and wheat ears, though for no apparent reason. Then 
 they sang some songs, but what they were about no 
 one even tried to guess. A duet sung by the lovers 
 together then followed and, as soon as they disap- 
 peared, then the jocose man appeared once more. It 
 was all quite ridiculous, but funny, not with any wit 
 of its own but because of its wild, childish extrava- 
 gance. 
 
 Jacqueline laughed often, but not in the same places 
 nor for the same reasons as Robert, who kept re- 
 peating each time the funny man went off the stage : 
 
 "Isn't he clever! Isn't he clever!"
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 307 
 
 And though his cleverness was a mere trick for 
 buffoonery, he certainly kept the house in fits of 
 laughter, and appeared to be a great favourite. 
 
 Between the acts Jacqueline was amused to see 
 that the solemnity of the audience was at once re- 
 sumed. These good people, she told herself, were 
 evidently here to have quite a serious evening of 
 fun. . . . 
 
 Robert accompanied Jacqueline back to Rose Lodge 
 and helped her to unlock the door with the latchkey 
 with which Mrs. Brent had entrusted her before she 
 had left. As soon as she had got inside the door, 
 Robert bade her good-night and set forth for Notting 
 Hill on foot.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 WHEN Jacqueline had been two months in London, 
 she wrote a long letter to Pomm, with whom Fran- 
 c.oise had regularly corresponded during her London 
 visit, but who complained of never having received a 
 single letter from Jacqueline. 
 
 ROSE LODGE, KENSINGTON, LONDON. 
 MY DEAR POMM : 
 
 Maman cherie tells me that you wish me to write 
 you, to give you my impressions of England and the 
 English. Well, I am going to try to do so. So far 
 I have not been long enough in England to be capa- 
 ble of judging English people adequately. I can only 
 give you my impression of their ways and customs, 
 and tell you how they strike me as being so very dif- 
 ferent to our own compatriots. Yet I have gained so 
 many divers and even conflicting impressions that 
 although I have the greatest desire to be entirely 
 just, you must forgive me if at times I appear to be 
 somewhat obscure in my meaning. 
 
 To begin with, from the very first day I arrived, I 
 was particularly struck with the look of sadness, of 
 depression and even of unintelligence of the people 
 one meets in the street. I cannot exactly describe it 
 to you otherwise than by Nelly's word, " glum." (If 
 you don't know this word, look it up in the diction- 
 
 308
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 309 
 
 ary!) I can quite understand now why those Eng- 
 lish people of the middle classes who can afford it 
 make frequent trips to Paris to be cheered up at the 
 Moulin Rouge and those similar establishments 
 which are kept up solely for their benefit. I can 
 quite appreciate why it is that they enjoy the change 
 which Parisian naughtiness, however shocking, must 
 afford them. For however improper such entertain- 
 ments may be, they must at least provide them with 
 a healthy reaction against their own apparent stolid- 
 ity. I suppose, however, that this British dullness is 
 largely the result of the English climate. Indeed, 
 in the poorer quarters of London, the first few days 
 we were here, it so affected us that maman and I 
 were always looking out for the h'earse that we 
 thought must be ahead for all the people in the 
 streets looked as if they were attending a funeral. 
 Not only are faces expressionless and eyes melan- 
 choly, but a large number of the poorer London 
 crowd go about with their mouths open, which gives 
 them a silly look! 
 
 The poorer working classes seem to lack taste, for 
 their women are not only badly but, more often 
 inappropriately, dressed. The very poorest do not 
 have plain and serviceable clothes made for them- 
 selves, but generally wear out the old clothes of 
 richer people, which gives one the impression that 
 even in their grime they are most gorgeously over- 
 dressed. An old woman selling oranges in the streets 
 yesterday, near the entrance of the National Portrait 
 Gallery, wore an almost threadbare black velvet
 
 3 io THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 mantle trimmed with chenille fringe which must have 
 been made at least thirty years ago. The pile of the 
 velvet was almost entirely worn away and the warp 
 of the material was a dirty, rusty brown. The 
 trimming pulled off in parts hung in wisps where 
 it was still visible. Another woman I saw at the 
 door of Westminster Abbey holding a ragged child 
 of about four years of age by the hand, and an- 
 other baby of a few months on her arm, was 
 dressed in an old violet plush gown, and had a small 
 deerstalker's cap of brown tweed on her head! The 
 older child wore a dress of dirty white embroidery 
 and a Dutch bonnet of green velvet trimmed with 
 fur. And all these garments were thick with grime, 
 with filth and unnamable horrors, and hung literally 
 in tatters from their shivering bodies. So much for 
 the lower classes. Nevertheless they appear to wish 
 to be smart, and servant girls wear feathered hats 
 even when they have their aprons tied around their 
 waists and hanging from beneath their jackets. 
 
 The bourgoisie which here is called the middle class, 
 dress badly too, and have no sense of fitness either. 
 It amuses maman even more than it does me to see 
 hats of spangled tulle or of transparent gold net ob- 
 viously designed for evening wear only, worn in the 
 streets by ladies who are out on foot shopping or 
 calling at their fournisseurs, and large feathered hats, 
 suitable for carriage wear for some society function, 
 worn in omnibuses or in the Tube Railway. Yet, 
 though the ordinary people both men and women 
 one meets in the streets each day sometimes present
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 311 
 
 quite a ludicrous appearance in the eye of the foreign 
 beholder, they all seem blatantly satisfied with them- 
 selves. They either lack all sense of the grotesque or 
 are imbued with a complete imperviousness to mock- 
 ery, which seems astonishing to us who, as a nation, 
 are so sensitive to ridicule, and so keenly affected by 
 criticism. But I am bound to say that this attitude of 
 complete indifference to outside opinion gives the 
 English a certain personal and individual dignity 
 which is itself so forcible so compelling that it pre- 
 cludes all ideas of mockery on our part ; and we can- 
 not laugh at them. 
 
 It seems to me that there is no comparison what- 
 ever to be established between the upper and lower 
 classes in England. For instance, there is far less 
 essential difference between a Russian and a French- 
 man than between an English working man and an 
 English aristocrat. You would never think that both 
 were of the same race and of the same community. 
 There is all the difference between them that exists 
 between an ignorant, barbarous people and a super- 
 civilised, cultured race. We have met two or three 
 men here of patrician families who are interested 
 in Art or Learning who seem to be the perfection of 
 civilisation. Yet side by side with them in the same 
 nation are the strong, unintelligent and often coarse 
 individuals of the middle classes, and the debased 
 types of the lower classes! Surely the English are 
 the people of extremes! 
 
 But England is pre-eminently the country of aris- 
 tocrats, who so far form its classes dirigeantes.
 
 312 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 Though democracy is spoken of, there seems to be 
 no real democratic spirit as we understand it, and 
 even the fieriest democrat seems filled with respect at 
 the mere name of a lord ! I have not yet met a single 
 British-born subject who has not tried to persuade 
 me of his or her noble descent! Indeed, I should 
 think from all I can judge that democracy here is 
 rather the intellectual attitude of a certain thoughtful 
 set than the true inner conviction of the masses. 
 
 There is one thing that strikes one more than any- 
 thing about the English of all classes, and which ought 
 to endear them to the people of all nations, and that is 
 their extraordinary sense of hospitality. The saying 
 that, " the friends of our friends are our friends," 
 ought to be considered entirely English, for the most 
 open-hearted hospitality reigns here everywhere and 
 welcomes you from the very shores of Great Britain. 
 Once you have been introduced to an English family, 
 not only are you asked to dinner at once by them 
 and their friends, but it often happens that you are 
 invited to spend several days in the houses of people 
 you have seen but once or twice. You are brought 
 right into their homes immediately as you never 
 would be in France, for as you know, French people 
 rarely ask their friends to stay in their houses 
 unless they know them very well indeed. And that 
 brings me to the question of the English home. Al- 
 though the English have the word " home," they do 
 not seem to me to have the thing itself, at least not as 
 we understand it, for it does not correspond at all to
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 313 
 
 our word foyer. Perhaps it is because of their great 
 hospitality to outsiders that the inner sacredness of 
 the home is partially destroyed, although it is of 
 course most delightful for the stranger. Then again, 
 to us the English family seems more disbanded than 
 ours, each individual being a freer creature, having a 
 separate entity with personal interests outside. Fath- 
 ers and sons, mothers and daughters do not seem to 
 be bound together by such close family ties of exces- 
 sive affection as in France. Often the young men in 
 search of a livelihood leave the paternal roof when 
 quite young, and go to the uttermost ends of the 
 earth. This breaks up the home circle, and later on 
 in life, members of the same family do not seem here 
 to be as united as they are in France, nor as morally 
 bound to further one another's interests in life as is 
 the case with the various members of a French fam- 
 ily. As they do not help one another, each one of 
 them is independent of the others, and by degrees, 
 perhaps, independence leads to indifference. 
 
 There is one thing I notice particularly among 
 young Englishmen, which is that each man fends for 
 himself and makes his own career. There is very 
 little asking of protections or help or favour from 
 other people in a higher or better position, as there is 
 with us at least among the bourgeoisie. For in- 
 stance, one of the friends of Mrs. Brent is the owner 
 of a paper and a very influential man. But his own 
 sons and nephews have begun at the very foot of the 
 ladder in the office as mere clerks, just like all the other
 
 3 i4 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 employes, and they have not sought aid, moral or 
 material, either from their father or uncles or cousins 
 or friends, or friends' friends, or mere acquaintances. 
 
 You will perhaps wonder how it is that I have got 
 together so many observations concerning the customs 
 of the English in so short a time. But you must re- 
 member that precisely because of the hospitality of 
 this country, I have met not only quantities of people, 
 but many kinds of people friends of the Brents and 
 of the Thorntons, and many friends of their friends 
 too. We are invited everywhere with the greatest 
 kindness, and I think we are popular wherever we go 
 at least we seem to be well liked. Maman for the 
 sweetness and affability which you know characterizes 
 her, and I because I can speak English and tell them 
 all about my own country. 
 
 Maman begs me to tell you that slie is quite well 
 and is enjoying her stay here enormously. Clemence 
 still ipersists in occasionally calling English people, 
 " des sauvages," and cannot reconcile herself to Eng- 
 lish cooking. But she makes omelettes for the ser- 
 vants' supper in the kitchen now which have won her 
 the admiration and respect of the domestics here. 
 Also she has trimmed the housemaid a hat which has 
 been so great a success that all the housemaids of the 
 neighbourhood are imploring them to trim their Sun- 
 day headgear too! I tell her that she will be setting 
 up a milliner's establishment soon in Kensington 
 High street, but she looks at me with a roguish grin 
 and replies: 
 
 " Jamais de la vie! " And then in quite another
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 315 
 
 tone adds with a sigh : " Quand rentrons-nous d, 
 Paris, mademoiselle?" 
 
 Dear Pomm, we miss you very much. Mrs. Brent, 
 who is hospitality and kindness themselves combined, 
 says you must come over here too, and though there 
 are no book-stalls along the quays of the Thames, 
 there are plenty of nice second-hand book-shops in 
 London. Just think, Pomm! What undiscovered 
 bargains there are, perhaps, to be had here! 
 
 We all join in sending you our best love and re- 
 membrances, and hope that you will summon up 
 enough courage to reconsider your determination and 
 come over to fetch us back later on. 
 Your loving friend, 
 
 JACQUELINE.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 ONE day Nelly and Jacqueline arranged to go out 
 shopping together in the West End, and Madame 
 Reville and Mrs. Brent had agreed to meet them at 
 a quarter to four at a famous tea shop in Bond Street, 
 so that they might have the pleasure of all coming 
 back together in a taxicab to Rose Lodge. After 
 Jacqueline who was delighted with the relative 
 cheapness of such things in London, had purchased 
 unlimited quantities of ribbons, laces and dress ma- 
 terials, they arrived later laden with numerous small 
 parcels at the door of the tearoom, and met Mrs. 
 Brent and Franchise just as they were going in. As 
 it was comparatively early, they found as they entered 
 the principal room of the establishment that nearly 
 all the seats were free. They were just about to se- 
 lect one of the larger tables when Nelly caught sight 
 of a young man reading a paper, which nearly oblit- 
 erated him from view with its spreading pages. She 
 gave a cry of surprise. 
 
 "Why, there's Oliver!" 
 
 "Oliver in London?" cried Mrs. Brent. "You 
 are mad, Nelly ! " 
 
 "Not at all," cried Nelly. "It's Oliver. I saw 
 him peep from behind the paper." 
 
 And it was Oliver, who was forced to admit his 
 identity shame-facedly enough, when Nelly impetu- 
 
 316
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 317 
 
 ously tore down the sheet that concealed him. As 
 he had seen the four ladies enter the room, and 
 recognised them, he had instinctively raised the bar- 
 rier of the Illustrated News between himself and 
 Jacqueline. 
 
 "Now explain yourself, sir! and your infamy, 
 your treachery, your felony! What do you mean by 
 coming to London secretly in this way, taking 
 your tea alone in Bond Street and hiding from the 
 inmates of Rose Lodge ! " cried Mrs. Brent in almost 
 breathless anger. 
 
 ' Yes, we demand an explanation at once ! " broke 
 in Nelly. 
 
 " Your duplicity and base ingratitude are equally 
 abominable," continued Mrs. Brent. 
 
 " You ought to be hanged, drawn and quartered," 
 pursued Nelly with rage. 
 
 But Jacqueline, who hitherto had been silent and 
 had whitened to her lips as soon as she had seen Oli- 
 ver, now came forth as peacemaker and thrusting 
 herself between the two irate women and placing a 
 firm though tender hand upon Mrs. Brent's arm and 
 upon Nelly's shoulder she pulled them both away 
 from the unfortunate Oliver, thus saving him from 
 further expostulations that seemed likely to result in 
 actual blows. 
 
 "Gently, gently, my friends," she said smilingly. 
 " Let the poor fellow explain himself before you put 
 him to death ! " At which sally there was a general 
 laugh, and Mrs. Brent and Nelly fell each into a chair 
 on either side of Jacqueline.
 
 318 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 Jacqueline's words had had their effect. Oliver 
 had understood that even if her resentment towards 
 him had not entirely subsided, at least she was de- 
 termined to show no trace of it before others. This 
 put him somewhat at his ease for his instinctive 
 movement to hide himself behind the newspaper as 
 the party had entered the room, was to avoid Jacque- 
 line's confusion at seeing him. He made his ex- 
 planations to his aunt quite simply. 
 
 "My dear auntie, forgive me for treating you 
 thus. I arrived in London only this morning, having 
 travelled all night! And I return to Paris by this 
 evening's train. I went and had a wash up at my 
 club and now, having contracted my business here 
 came into this place for a quiet cup of tea." 
 
 " But why not come down to Rose Lodge ? " 
 
 " Because I must get back to-morrow," said Oliver 
 in a decided tone, that put an end to all attempts at 
 further inquiry. 
 
 " But at least tell us why you came," put in Nelly 
 tearfully. 
 
 "Ah! Voilh!" said Oliver mysteriously. And 
 looking towards Jacqueline he added shyly, " That 
 largely concerns Mademoiselle Jacqueline." 
 
 All eyes were turned towards Jacqueline in aston- 
 ishment. But none was more amazed than Jacque- 
 line herself. 
 
 " It concerns me! " exclaimed Jacqueline. " But 
 how? I cannot understand." 
 
 " This is how," said Oliver. " It appears that a 
 rich New Yorker, a certain Mr. Silas P. Van der 
 .Weyde! wants to buy, the portrait of 'the modern
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 319 
 
 French girl,' now in the Academy. He declares that 
 it is the living image of his only daughter, who died 
 last year ! He made several proposals to Hoskins, my 
 dealer, declaring that he must have it at any cost. 
 Hoskins wrote to me several times about it. But I 
 absolutely refused to sell. Unfortunately Hoskins 
 seems as keen to get Mr. Silas P. Van der Weyde for 
 a client as Mr. Van der Weyde is to buy my picture. 
 Van der Weyde offered him first one thousand, and 
 then two thousand pounds for the picture, and a big 
 commission besides. ... I am sorry I can't 
 let him have it ... but as he did not seem 
 inclined to take my refusal seriously I had to jump 
 into a train at once, so as to be here and prevent 
 Hoskins from being inveigled into selling against my 
 orders." 
 
 "But why won't you sell it?" cried Nelly impetu- 
 ously. 
 
 " Yes, why ? " queried Mrs. Brent. 
 
 Oliver made no answer, but his eyes sought Jacque- 
 line's face for a few seconds and seemed to ask a 
 mute question. 
 
 " Two thousand pounds ! " broke in Mrs. Brent, al- 
 most suffocated at the magnitude of the sum. " What 
 a price! " 
 
 " Why won't you accept the offer?" asked Jacque- 
 line, suddenly addressing Oliver. She spoke too al- 
 most eagerly. 
 
 Again Oliver did not answer at once. But he 
 looked straight at Jacqueline once more, and then 
 said in a low voice, with his eyes still on hers : 
 
 " You know that I would never sell that picture,
 
 320 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 Jacqueline. Besides I have not the right to do so, 
 even if I wished. I consider that it is your property." 
 
 A curious, mysterious smile of satisfaction hovered 
 around Jacqueline's mouth, but she made no answer. 
 Her mother, looking at her, could not be sure whether 
 her gratification came from the fact of Oliver's recog- 
 nition of her rights to the picture, or because of the 
 feeling in Oliver's heart, which his persistent refusal 
 of the offer indicated. 
 
 " And are you really not going to stay here a little, 
 Oliver?" asked Nelly as she sat down at the table 
 and threw off her coat and gloves, displaying her 
 usual lack of care of her things. 
 
 "Oh no! I could only afford the time to settle 
 with the greedy Hoskins." 
 
 " Oh, Oliver darling," said Mrs. Brent gently, re- 
 proachfully and with tears in her eyes. " Surely you 
 might stay a little longer." 
 
 " Perhaps I'm not wanted," he said with a fugitive 
 smile, looking at Jacqueline. 
 
 Jacqueline, having arranged her parcels carefully 
 on a chair, now turned towards a bewildered attend- 
 ant to give the order for the tea but as she did so 
 she raised her eyes to Oliver's and said gently, as if 
 in rebuke: 
 
 "Oh, I'm quite sure that everybody here wants 
 you ! " And Oliver's eyes acknowledged his gratitude 
 for her words. 
 
 And while she began with her mother's help to set- 
 tle the tea-things, Mrs. Brent and Nelly carried Oliver 
 off to the other end of the room and set to work to
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 321 
 
 convince him that he must come and stay for a few 
 days at Rose Lodge. In the end they won the day 
 though Jacqueline and Franchise both knew that he 
 had agreed to remain in London only because of 
 Jacqueline's implied permission. 
 
 So there were five of them to return to Kensington 
 in the taxi. 
 
 That evening the two Thornton girls and their 
 brother Robert came to dinner. They were intro- 
 duced to Oliver whose name they knew and whose 
 glory appeared a great thing to them. Both Elsie 
 and Janet were loud in their praise of his Academy 
 picture and its magnificent likeness to Jacqueline. 
 
 When Jacqueline came down to dinner, her mother 
 was surprised to see that she had put on a gown she 
 had been reserving as her best. It was of white 
 crepe de chine, inserted with fine lace and lined 
 throughout with rose-coloured silk which sent a warm 
 glow as of sunlight shining beneath the thin filmy 
 material. Through her hair, dressed high upon the 
 crown of her head, she had drawn a blue ribbon, the 
 colour of darkest lapis lazuli, and into her white satin 
 sash, at the waist, she had tucked a large pink rose. 
 Compared to the boyish and untidy Nelly and to the 
 two badly-dressed English girls, in their cheap, ready- 
 made blouses of white silk and dark skirts lined 
 with cotton linings, Jacqueline appeared like a fem- 
 inine being of another sphere. Oliver looked at her 
 admiringly as she came into the white panelled draw- 
 ing-room, tall, slim and stately. 
 
 But there was a look of maturity on her face which
 
 322 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 had not been there before, and a serious expression 
 in her eyes that he did not know. She was perfectly 
 natural in her bearing towards him, only her eyes 
 avoided his when they sipoke together upon subjects 
 of general interest at dinner with the others. Oliver 
 sat at the head of the table, and Franchise on his 
 right side. On his left was Elsie Thornton. During 
 the meal he conversed chiefly with his two neighbours, 
 and Jacqueline, from her seat lower down the table 
 by the side of Robert Thornton, caught herself look- 
 ing in Oliver's direction occasionally, and feeling un- 
 pleasantly disturbed when she saw him bending over 
 Elsie's bright golden head, though she did not ac- 
 knowledge that feeling of discomfort even to herself. 
 To prove her indifference, however, she laid herself 
 out to be charming to young Robert Thornton, nearly 
 causing that estimable young man to lose his head, 
 and making Nelly, who had hitherto considered Rob- 
 ert her special property, quite jealous. 
 
 After dinner, the evening was so cool and balmy 
 that Nelly suggested that they should all go into the 
 garden and take their coffee on the lawn. In the 
 soft darkness of the summer's night, Jacqueline was 
 curiously elated and yet strangely troubled. She 
 had felt a little hurt because all through the dinner 
 Oliver had not once addressed her directly, though 
 he had chatted unrestrainedly and in a most interest- 
 ing way with Elsie Thornton. Now Elsie Thornton's 
 ideas on art were most rudimentary and commonplace, 
 and Jacqueline felt strangely hurt to hear him explain 
 certain of his own theories to the girl as if her opinion
 
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 323 
 
 really mattered to him. And Jacqueline, who formerly 
 had taken so great an interest in these theories and had 
 discussed them with Oliver before their quarrel, felt 
 a sort of unaccountable jealousy now, to hear him 
 speak of his ideals of art with another woman. She 
 sat down in a garden chair that had been moved out 
 of the circle and stood apart. She did not take coffee. 
 But she remained quiet and silent, conscious only of 
 the soft balminess of the evening air and feeling oddly 
 content though still perturbed. The other young 
 people grouped around the coffee table, were chat- 
 tering like so many magpies. 
 
 Suddenly Jacqueline felt that someone standing up 
 beside her chair in the darkness was folding a soft 
 woollen shawl around her shoulders. She shivered 
 and looked up. But already she knew that it was 
 Oliver. 
 
 " I've brought you this shawl, Jacqueline, I know 
 you are ' frileuse ' and you might take cold. . . ." 
 He spoke in French and the use of another language 
 seemed to separate them still more from the group of 
 the others, who were talking in English. 
 
 " Thank you," said Jacqueline gently, as she drew 
 the soft warmth about her. 
 
 Oliver could not speak for a few moments, so 
 great was his emotion at Jacqueline's nearness. But 
 he still stood by her side, and taking advantage of 
 their isolation from the merry group beyond, he bent 
 over her chair and whispered gently, speaking once 
 more in French: 
 
 " Have you forgiven me, Jacqueline ? "
 
 3*4 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 For a breathless instant he waited for her answer. 
 " Yes, Oliver." And after a very slight hesitation 
 she added : " Thank you." 
 
 She spoke very gravely. But Oliver understood.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 THE following morning Jacqueline went to her 
 mother's room early, as she went each morning to 
 make her plans with Franchise for the day. Fran- 
 c.oise was combing out her long brown hair when Jac- 
 queline entered, and once again the daughter was 
 struck with the mother's youth fulness and charm. The 
 bright waving tresses softly brushed and shining, 
 framed her fine oval face delightfully and her regular 
 features had a youth and expression which struck 
 Jacqueline more particularly than ever it had done 
 hitherto. Since their full explanation some months 
 back, she had learned to look upon Franchise with a 
 more critical eye, and more and more each day she 
 found herself forced to admire the charm and beauty 
 of her mother. 
 
 " How girlish you look with your hair down, 
 maman cherie. You positively look younger than I 
 do. ... There's such innocence too in your 
 sweet expression." 
 
 And she took Franchise's face between her two 
 palms and contemplated it with love. 
 
 " There's not a wrinkle on your skin, and your 
 eyes are as bright as a little child's! Mother dar- 
 ling " she added in a deeper tone after a little pause. 
 " Mother darling, is it true that no man except my 
 
 325
 
 326 THE EDUCATION OE JACQUELINE 
 
 father has ever made love to you? You are so at- 
 tractive so adorable. w M It seems almost 
 impossible! " 
 
 Franchise blushed scarlet and strove to tear her- 
 self from Jacqueline's grasp. But Jacqueline held her 
 tightly. 
 
 " Tell me, mother darling ; confess to your child. 
 She will understand you only too well. 
 Alas!" 
 
 " But, my dearest, there's nothing to tell," said 
 Franchise. " Since your father's death I have never 
 had a single thought in the world but for you." 
 
 Jacqueline, silent, withdrew her hands from her 
 mother's face and allowed her to proceed with her 
 toilette. She stood by the side of the dressing-table 
 which stood in front of the window, and let her eyes 
 wander over the tree-tops in the garden beyond. 
 
 " Then it is a pity a thousand pities that it was 
 so, mother! Every human being has a right to try 
 for their own happiness. And you, more than most, 
 would have been entirely justified in building up the 
 joy of life for yourself again when you learnt that 
 you had been so deluded." 
 
 " But, my dearest, I had no wish to seek for a 
 new love. I had you! No man could be to me what 
 you were ! I would have given no stranger any right 
 over you, my precious one." 
 
 " But there are other demands than those of 
 motherhood in a woman's heart. And if she has been 
 mistaken in a first venture, she has the right to try 
 again for happiness." Jacqueline spoke with gravity
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 327 
 
 and with a personal conviction that showed that while 
 speaking of her mother's case, she was also alluding 
 to herself. 
 
 Franchise understood what Jacqueline's words im- 
 plied, but wilfully disregarding the personal note in 
 her daughter's remark, she pursued: 
 
 " My dearest, I never once contemplated a second 
 venture. I think that the springs of passion were 
 dried up in me. I had been educated to accept fate 
 passively. I had not the vitality in me to gather up 
 the fragments of my broken being once more and 
 seek love again. I resigned myself to being a failure 
 in matters of love. And I put all my passion into the 
 mothering of you." 
 
 Jacqueline bent over her mother and kissed the 
 long, unbound hair which still rested on her white 
 shoulders. 
 
 " You have at least a perfect genius for mothering, 
 maman cherie, I am bound to admit that," said Jac- 
 queline, kissing her once more. " But it is evident 
 that you were trained to be a victim, mother darling. 
 You were not of our present generation you see. We 
 apparently are made to victimize." 
 
 Franchise made no answer. iShe seemed suddenly 
 fired with a desire to get through her dressing quickly. 
 She wound up her long and wonderful hair and began 
 slipping into her gown. Jacqueline was looking out 
 over the tree-tops as if beyond the horizon she saw 
 the wraithes of other hopes arising in the dim future. 
 
 When Franchise was ready she spoke again. 
 
 " My darling, I want to ask you something."
 
 3 28 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 Jacqueline turned round with wide-open, surprised 
 eyes. 
 
 " Ask, mother mine. What is it ? " 
 
 " What do you intend doing with Oliver? " 
 
 Jacqueline made no immediate answer. A deep 
 flush spread over her face and she turned her gaze 
 away once more to the distant horizon. There was 
 no indication in her attitude to prove that she had 
 heard her mother's question. 
 
 There was a pause of a few moments. 
 
 " Eh ! " Frangoise questioned again. She seemed 
 wilfully determined to get an answer. 
 
 " Maman cherie, I cannot yet say what I shall do. 
 Besides, how do I know what he wants ? " 
 
 " He wants you to marry him, Jacqueline. I know 
 that." 
 
 Jacqueline was again silent for a few moments. 
 Then suddenly she turned and rushed over the space 
 that separated her from her mother's side, falling 
 into Franchise's open arms. 
 
 "Maman cherie I . . . Since you wish to 
 understand. . . . Let me tell you this. . . . 
 I do not know what I feel really. ... I cannot 
 say. I love Oliver with all that is best in me. That 
 at least I do know. . . . He is in a way indis- 
 pensable to my intellectual self. I have found that 
 out now. But the affection, and the sympathy, and 
 even the tenderness I have for him lack the magic 
 that would make it real love. . . . Oh mother. 
 . . . the magic of love! . . ." and her 
 thoughts dwelt for a rapid instant on the memory of
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 329 
 
 Jerome's words under the moonlight in the wood of 
 La-Celle-St.-Cloud, and of his kiss on the thresh- 
 old of the studio. "O mother! Must I let my 
 reason, my brain, and all that my education has de- 
 veloped in me, alone guide me? May I not listen to 
 the divine inspiration of the physical being in me 
 that calls for the magic that is held in human love 
 in a human kiss?" 
 
 "Of course you may, my sweetest." For a few 
 moments Franchise, holding her child to her, seemed 
 to be collecting her thoughts. " But listen to me and 
 let my experience guide you if it can. In so many 
 things you are far wiser than I, my daughter. But in 
 others, in spite of all that you may know theoretically, 
 I know better than you, because I have lived life while 
 you, so far, have only dreamed it. It is not always 
 the better man who can inspire that magic, my Jacque- 
 line. It is more often the worse man. You may think 
 I exaggerate, but alas ! what I tell you is unfortunately 
 the exact truth." 
 
 " I believe you, mother ; indeed I do. Because I will 
 believe you. . . ." 
 
 " It is the man who has the most experience of 
 many women who is often the more attractive, the 
 more perfect and the more subtle lover, my dearest. 
 It is the man who has practised the art of love often 
 and with many different women who has become 
 skilled. And it is just because he has become so pro- 
 ficient in the art and has made of love a mere pastime, 
 that he is precisely the man who cannot be depended 
 upon morally."
 
 330 THE EDUCATION OE JACQUELINE 
 
 "I understand . . . mother. ... I un- 
 derstand." 
 
 " The man who feels deeply, sincerely, is often less 
 convincing because the very intensity of his own emo- 
 tions forbids him the more elaborate expression of 
 them. He is moved too deeply to be capable of fine 
 words and subtle imagery. . . . So it is with 
 Oliver. That is why he lacks the magic for you. 
 Do you understand that?" 
 
 " Yes, mother, you are right. I feel that your ex- 
 planation is entirely wise. But let me explain to you 
 all that I feel. Be my sweet, my dear confessor be- 
 fore whom I may bare my entire heart . . . 
 without fear of severe criticism. Understand me bet- 
 ter even than I understand myself." 
 
 "Dearest, I understand you only too well, I am 
 your mother and you are my child bone of my bone, 
 flesh of my flesh. I bore you into the world with in- 
 effable pain, and I have been both father and mother 
 to you. Try to learn your lesson through the experi- 
 ence of my own tortured heart. That magic for which 
 you yearn and which I understand so well is pre- 
 cisely the kind of attraction which I felt towards your 
 father, and which every very young woman feels for 
 the man the first time she loves. I was quite young, 
 untried and inexperienced when I was married to 
 your father, and although he never loved me and 
 therefore never lost his head himself, he made me 
 love him because of the careful and artistic technique 
 (I can find no other word to express myself better) 
 of his methods."
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 331 
 
 ' Yes, yes ! " cried Jacqueline, her burning face 
 buried still deeper in her mother's breast. 
 
 She thought of Jerome's subtle love-making which 
 appealed only to the senses, and not to the soul com- 
 pared to Oliver's direct and sincere appeal to her 
 heart. 
 
 "The truth is," pursued Franchise in her soft, 
 even voice, her warm breath sweeping through Jac- 
 queline's hair, " the truth is, darling, that when a 
 man makes a woman love him in such a way, he 
 makes her love love itself, and not the lover. Don't 
 you see, darling?" Franchise's voice trembled and 
 broke. " Your father had been the lover of so many 
 women before I married him, that love-making had 
 become as a mere amusement for him. And I was 
 young, fresh and desirable as you are now. But he 
 made me in love with love only. Perhaps that is why 
 my love for him faded so quickly and disappeared 
 almost as if it had never been." Franchise bent still 
 lower over Jacqueline's bowed head as she whispered 
 to her : " And that was precisely the feeling that 
 Jerome aroused in your young heart, my sweetest, 
 was it not ? " 
 
 " Yes, mother, yes," Jacqueline whispered in reply. 
 And then pressing her face still deeper into the divine 
 refuge of her mother's breast as if to conceal the re- 
 morse and shame of her words, she added : 
 
 " Such men are not the best, perhaps. But they 
 make a woman . . . want to live. . . ." 
 
 Franchise was silenced. She kissed the bowed 
 head on her breast and then gently stroked Jacque-
 
 332 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 line's golden hair as if to soothe the pain of conflict- 
 ing thought in her child's mind. 
 
 " Listen, sweet," she whispered once more. " If I 
 could rejoice in anything that has hurt you, I would 
 rejoice that experience has come to you now, before 
 it is too late to build up your life definitely. Knowl- 
 edge might have come to you after marriage only, as 
 it did to me ! It is lucky that it came before anything 
 irrevocable, is it not? For you will be a better and 
 a wiser woman now. You will know the right 
 from the wrong love. You will understand that 
 a woman cannot, must not, build up her whole life of 
 happiness on the evanescent, perishable fabric of that 
 splendid but deceptive magic of which you speak 
 but upon the conscious knowledge of a man's true 
 character. . . ." 
 
 Jacqueline lifted up her head and dried her eyes. 
 
 " Oh mother! For all your apparent youth, how 
 wise, how terribly wise you are! You are in yourself 
 an education! " 
 
 Franchise smiled tenderly, and kissed her softly. 
 Then she definitely finished her toilette and together 
 they turned to go downstairs. 
 
 " Be kind to Oliver, darling. He is so devoted 
 to you. Promise me you will be kind. . . ." 
 
 "Oh, maman cherie," said Jacqueline, smiling, 
 "you are but a wicked. matchmaker after all, I fear! " 
 
 " But you will be kind to the poor fellow, Jacque- 
 line? Promise me!" insisted Franchise. 
 
 " Yes, I will go as far as that. I will be kind, I 
 promise no more.**
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 AFTER the evening of Oliver's arrival and his short 
 conversation in the garden, the old camaraderie was 
 resumed between him and Jacqueline, and progressed 
 afterwards as if there had never been a break. Oliver 
 yielding to the entreaties of his aunt and sister and 
 rejoicing in Jacqueline's newly returned graciousness, 
 decided to spend the rest of the summer at Rose 
 Lodge. 
 
 In a sense he was quite the lion of the season, for 
 the success of his picture had suddenly placed him 
 among the foremost English painters of the day. But 
 although the bewildered dealer had received orders 
 from his patron to increase the price offered to a 
 still higher figure, so determined was Silas Van der 
 Weyde to secure the " Modern French Girl," Oliver 
 was still as equally determined not to sell. 
 
 After several personal interviews with Mr. Van 
 der Weyde, who still allowed his offer to remain 
 open, should the young painter change his mind later, 
 Oliver abandoned all thought of his profession for 
 the time being and gave himself up with great zest to 
 the expeditions of sightseeing with his sister, and 
 Madame Reville and her daughter. Mrs. Brent de- 
 clared herself too old and too lazy to visit museums, 
 picture galleries and churches. She remained at 
 Rose Lodge reading novels all day, lying in the peace 
 
 333
 
 334 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 of the shady garden, concocting with her cook strange 
 menus which she fondly imagined to be the acme of 
 French cuisine for the delectation of her guests. No 
 amount of sojourns in foreign lands could alter or 
 even affect Mrs. John Brent's British philistine soul. 
 But as she was kindness and hospitality incarnate, 
 even her ever-recurring lack of tact as well as her 
 vain endeavours to acquire knowledge of French 
 cooking, were very easily condoned faults. 
 
 One day, towards the end of June, Oliver asked 
 Jacqueline if she had been to the Academy to see her 
 own picture. She was obliged shamefacedly to ad- 
 mit that she had not done so. For some reason, inex- 
 plicable to herself, though it had been quite clear to 
 her mother, Jacqueline had not been able to summon 
 up the courage to go and look at the picture Oliver 
 had painted of herself. In her present state of mind 
 she was instinctively afraid to face the soul which she 
 knew looked out of her own eyes in Oliver's picture. 
 She felt unconsciously that she could not confront 
 that expression of herself just yet. But she could 
 not explain her curious aversion to Oliver, and for 
 the first time in her life was too shy to seek for an 
 excuse. Again Franchise, ever vigilant, came to her 
 daughter's aid. 
 
 " You see, dear Oliver, Jacqueline has been so 
 much taken up with the collections of old paintings, 
 and with other things of newer interest in London, 
 that she has not found time yet for modern pic- 
 tures." 
 
 " I understand," said Oliver. But though he felt
 
 335 
 
 pained, and showed that he was hurt, he yet was con- 
 scious of a strange inner elation which he concealed. 
 However, at his expression of disappointment Fran- 
 c,oise made another effort to comfort him. 
 
 " Perhaps," she said, " perhaps we all dimly felt 
 you would come over at some time or other, dear 
 Oliver. And so Jacqueline waited for you to escort 
 her." 
 
 Jacqueline, who also had noticed Oliver's look of 
 painful surprise and had understood it, but felt in- 
 capable of any consolation, shot a glance of gratitude 
 at her mother. Franchise and Jacqueline now un- 
 derstood one another so well that no words were 
 ever necessary between them to explain their almost 
 simultaneous emotional comprehensions. 
 
 "Well," said Oliver turning to Jacqueline, "if 
 that is so, then I propose taking you to visit the Acad- 
 emy and your own picture myself." 
 
 " Can we go down on the top of an omnibus ? " 
 asked Jacqueline with a return of her old archness. 
 At which remark an immediate fit of laughter burst 
 forth from Nelly, Robert and the two Thornton girls 
 who were present, that immediately dispersed all trace 
 of conflicting emotions between herself and Oliver. 
 For Jacqueline's love for London omnibuses had be- 
 come a regular mania with her, and was treated as a 
 standing joke among them all. But she had won the 
 laughter of her friends with intention, having sought 
 by her tone of levity to disperse the feeling of con- 
 straint between herself and Oliver. 
 
 " Yes, of course we can."
 
 336 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 Arrangements being hurriedly made, Oliver imme- 
 diately after lunch piloted Jacqueline down to the red 
 omnibus which plies for hire between Kensington and 
 Piccadilly. There were only two vacant seats on the 
 top, wljich they eagerly seized upon. 
 
 On the way down they had another long conver- 
 sation concerning modern art in France and England. 
 When Jacqueline's admiration of Oliver's mind had 
 been forced upon her, during the painting of her por- 
 trait, she had been obliged also to admit to herself 
 that no other human being's conversation pleased her 
 as did Oliver's. It was astonishing how sympathetic 
 his ideas were to her, and now she delighted in the 
 thought that she had made friends with him again. 
 For he had entirely taken up his position of friend, 
 philosopher and intellectual comrade once mere. The 
 old confidence was now resumed between them as be- 
 fore. The Oliver whom Jacqueline had discovered dur- 
 ing their stay at Les Peupliers was not only necessary 
 to her intellectual development, but he had also made 
 himself very dear to her heart. Indeed, before Jerome 
 d'Ablis had arrived, and with his compelling charm 
 drawn Jacqueline's thoughts away from the young 
 painter, Jacqueline had almost been in love with 
 Oliver. Frangoise, with her material perspicacity, 
 had seen the mysterious change in her child's feel- 
 ings from the very beginning of Jerome's visit, but 
 had been powerless to defend her. And now that the 
 danger had been averted, she devoutly hoped that 
 Oliver would be able to win Jacqueline back to him 
 once more by his sterling merits, both moral and
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 337 
 
 mental. Though she was unable herself to satisfy 
 Jacqueline's demands for intellectual companionship, 
 yet she realized the immense force that could be 
 wielded over Jacqueline's mind by those who could 
 respond to those claims. She made herself the con- 
 scious ally of Oliver, and in so far as she was capable 
 of influencing her child and her influence on Jac- 
 queline's feelings was greater now even than the 
 girl herself knew she taught her daughter to un- 
 derstand the generous greatness of Oliver's love. 
 
 During those long summer evenings when it was 
 too chilly to sit out in the garden at Rose Lodge, Jac- 
 queline and Oliver read books together, which they 
 discussed, sometimes with much warmth. Often they 
 went to a play and were indeed much alone and 
 thrown into one another's society, 'for about this 
 period it was observable that Nelly was becoming 
 more and more interested in Robert Thornton, and 
 these circumstances seemed to combine to bring them 
 more than ever together. To the great amusement of 
 Franchise and also of Jacqueline, Nelly and her sport- 
 loving young admirer seemed now to have more than 
 a mere predilection for one another's company, and 
 appeared to have developed a continual craving for 
 one another's presence. Not only did they go regu- 
 larly to Lord's to attend the great cricket matches to- 
 gether, but often on Saturday afternoons, Robert 
 would take Nelly down to the river and row her about 
 for many hours together. During these long tete-d- 
 tetes, there was often complete silence between them. 
 Robert was not a loquacious lover, but his face, as he -
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 gazed upon the lady of his choice, was a study in it- 
 self, insomuch as it could not conceal his feelings. 
 One day, as their boat lay supine on the softly lap- 
 ping water near a green bank of the river, Robert, 
 who had been silent for over an hour, gazing amor- 
 ously upon Nelly, leaned towards her as she lay on 
 the boat cushions patterned with Union Jacks. 
 
 "What a ripping girl you are, Nell! I wonder if 
 you could put up with a duffer likg me for a hus- 
 band?" 
 
 And Nelly, blushing crimson, looked at him 'from 
 beneath the shadow of her broad-brimmed, flapping 
 hat, and buried her face deeper into the flag of her 
 country. 
 
 " Perhaps I could, Bob," she murmured. 
 
 And so they returned to Rose Lodge that evening 
 an engaged couple. 
 
 They made no immediate confidence to Mrs. Brent, 
 but the aunt, who adored her niece, observing the two 
 young people when they returned from the afternoon's 
 expedition, remarked to Franchise when they were 
 alone together that she would not be surprised if the 
 " match " between her niece and Robert Thornton 
 would " not be long now in being made ! " And Fran- 
 c.oise, smiling indulgently over her everlasting em- 
 broidery, replied that if it were so, she would all her 
 life regret not having been present at Robert's pro- 
 posal! 
 
 When Jacqueline and Oliver arrived at Burlington 
 House, they went straight through the crowd to the 
 room where Jacqueline's portrait was hanging. There 
 was a thick agglomeration of admiring visitors
 
 around it, so tHat at first the young painter and his 
 model could get nowhere near to the canvas. But 
 as the crowds moved away they were able to approach 
 more closely, and soon the proud, rebellious face of 
 Jacqueline could be seen from afar towering over the 
 heads of the nearer gazers. Oliver drew her back- 
 wards into a freed space and called h'er renewed 
 critical attention upon it. 
 
 Turning suddenly towards her He looked at her in- 
 tently, comparing her features with those of the pic- 
 ture. 
 
 " Can you see now what I wanted to suggest to 
 you? But I put it in because I felt, I knew, that it 
 would come. It lives there now, Jacqueline." 
 
 " Perhaps," said Jacqueline slowly and with averted 
 gaze. . . . " I do not know. . . ." And 
 then after a silence she burst out: 
 
 "Oh Oliver, I'm afraid that womanly expression 
 of tenderness exists only in your imagination. Have 
 I really ever had it? Shall I ever have it?" 
 
 " Yes. You did not have it then. But you have it 
 now, dominant there at present. It is the expression 
 of your soul itself." And Oliver gazed upon Jac- 
 queline again with all his own ardent love in his eyes. 
 And Jacqueline, looking back at him, unfaltering this 
 time, saw that the tenderness he cherished for her 
 was of the same quality as that of her mother. At 
 the very instant in which she conceived the truth she 
 felt suddenly that a strange and serene comfort had 
 come to her restless soul. 
 
 The numbers of the crowd had decreased, so by de- 
 grees Oliver and Jacqueline drew nearer still to the
 
 340 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 picture, and now they were close to it, were almost 
 touching its frame. They spoke in a low, tense whis- 
 per, both entirely oblivious of the moving crowd 
 around them. They had almost forgotten that they 
 were not standing alone together in the middle of the 
 world. 
 
 " I knew that you only lacked that expression to 
 make of you the finest of feminine creatures, Jacque- 
 line dearest," whispered Oliver again, his eyes on 
 hers. " So I put your soul there even before it awoke, 
 knowing that it would awake." 
 
 And then, after a pause he added in a low, more 
 intense voice: 
 
 " To be frank with you, I must say that I had 
 hoped to bring it there myself, Jacqueline. But I 
 failed! I failed miserably . . . notwithstanding 
 all my love for you. . . . Probably because, in 
 spite of my own passion for you, I was not inspired 
 with the necessary magic. Alas ! " 
 
 At Oliver's words Jacqueline's heart was thrilled. 
 He had spoken almost the very words she herself had 
 said to her mother! There was something myste- 
 rious, marvellous in his divination of herself and of 
 her inmost thoughts. 
 
 "Ah! The magic! Then you realize that too, 
 Oliver? You understand that it must exist in love, 
 if love is to be complete?" 
 
 And she turned towards him and gazed at him for 
 a long time in wonder. She had never looked upon 
 him, or upon any human being with such eyes before. 
 And gradually, as if a great mystery was slowly be-
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 341 
 
 ing revealed to her, she saw Oliver in another aspect 
 and he appeared to her as another man ... as 
 the only true lover worthy of her nobler self. And 
 then at last, gently and languorously, her eyelids fell, 
 covering her eyes from his ardent gaze and a sweet 
 and tremulous shame took possession of her. 
 
 '* Yes, I understand it only too well, Jacqueline. 
 ... I bitterly regret that I was not the first to in- 
 spire such magic in your heart . . . but . . ." 
 And he hesitated as if in fear. 
 
 " But what, Oliver ? Please speak all your thoughts. 
 I value your frankness above all things. . . ." 
 
 "But . . ." resumed Oliver, laying stress 
 upon his words, " If I have not been able to have 
 the first love of your heart, I will hope for something 
 higher still, Jacqueline. I will hope for the best love 
 that your heart can ever give. ... I do not 
 love even Love itself, dear Jacqueline, so much as I 
 love you. . . ." Jacqueline was silent. Her 
 bosom heaved and tears rose in her eyes. 
 
 "If I cannot have the better part of you, Jacque- 
 line," pursued Oliver, " then I will renounce you alto- 
 gether. . . ." 
 
 This was the first time that any reference had been 
 made between them concerning the episode of which 
 Jerome d'Ablis had been the grievous hero. Jacque- 
 line was deeply stirred when Oliver alluded to it, but 
 she made no remark, and save for a tremulous move- 
 ment of her lips Oliver might have thought that she 
 had not even noticed his allusion. Persistently, he 
 continued.
 
 342 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 " THat first love of yours was certainly not the 
 best you had to give, Jacqueline. Some day you will 
 know that." 
 
 "Perhaps," said Jacqueline, with a sweet, fugitive 
 smile, which showed Oliver that he might continue on 
 this perilous subject and yet be forgiven. " Perhaps 
 . . . I know that even . . . now . . ." 
 
 " It was a will o' the wisp, Jacqueline, unworthy of 
 your nobler self which is of your brain, and of your 
 diviner self, which is of your heart." 
 
 "But it was dieep ... It was very deep in- 
 deed. . . . You must understand that . . . 
 please, dear Oliver. . . . There is keen comfort 
 for me in the possibility of being frank and sincere 
 with you; and much solace in the knowledge that my 
 sincerity is understood and appreciated by you. I 
 assure you that my plain speaking deserves your re- 
 spect, for it costs me much to own my folly. . . ." 
 
 " Yes . . . yes ... Be quite candid 
 with me. I love you the more for your truth. . . . 
 Bfot, believe me, the love you felt was deep in the 
 senses perhaps . . . but not in the soul." 
 
 "You think so, Oliver?" 
 
 " I am sure of that." 
 
 " But why are you sure ? " 
 
 " Because I love you, Jacqueline. . . . And I 
 realize that because I love with the best of myself, it 
 is only the best of yourself that could have evoked 
 that response in me." 
 
 " But how can you trust a woman who tells you 
 frankly that she has loved another man so pro- 
 foundly?"
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 343 
 
 "That love for another taught you suffering, Jac- 
 queline ; and I love you the more because of your suf- 
 fering." 
 
 " But why, Oliver, why?" 
 
 " Because it has made you a better woman, Jacque- 
 line. Understand this, dearest. ... I love you 
 not for what you were then before you mistook the 
 false for the real and followed the will o' the wisp. 
 But I love you for what you are now." 
 
 " Dear Oliver. ... I am too self-willed . . . 
 too headstrong . . . too much of a spoilt child. 
 I could never be a submissive wife." 
 
 " You are the woman I love, Jacqueline." 
 
 " And you want me, even as I am ? " 
 
 " I want you exactly as you are, neither more 
 nor less." 
 
 Jacqueline was silent. Then suddenly she was con- 
 scious of the fact that they were in a public place and 
 that the visitors to the Academy were walking round 
 and crowding about them to catch a sight of Oliver's 
 picture the great picture of the year. She threw 
 one look at Oliver, a look which thrilled him to the 
 heart because it held much promise, though it did 
 not give her soul to his yet. And after a moment's 
 pause, suddenly leaving the paths of sentiment, she 
 reined in her emotions and spoke in a more level 
 voice, though now her eyes sparkled again with mis- 
 chief : 
 
 " Have you quite decided that you are not going to 
 sell that picture, Oliver ? " 
 
 But Oliver, who could not travel from one mood to 
 another with the same rapidity as Jacqueline, an-
 
 344 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 swered in the same troubled voice in which he had 
 spoken before: 
 
 " No, I can't ... I can't. ... It would be like 
 selling my own heart, even if you say that I may. I 
 have the best of you there in that picture, Jacqueline. 
 It is the woman that my love itself created ... I 
 can't let her go." 
 
 "Two thousand pounds is a great deal of money 
 for you, Oliver," insisted Jacqueline temptingly. 
 
 " I know it is, but then my Jacqueline is far more 
 precious to me." And he looked up at the picture 
 again with the love in his face that had transfigured 
 him in her eyes a few minutes before. 
 
 Then Jacqueline suddenly and spontaneously 
 slipped her hand within his arm. He pressed it 
 gently, but his eyes still remained fixed on the picture 
 as if in adoration. 
 
 " But," ventured Jacqueline, breaking the new si- 
 lence hesitatingly, her eyes demurely cast down. 
 " But Oliver ... if ... if you had the real Jac- 
 queline the original of that picture for your very 
 own!" 
 
 At first Oliver did not seem to understand Jacque- 
 line's words, and then, as their meaning dawned upon 
 him, he suddenly looked down upon her face with 
 so fierce an expression of almost delirious delight 
 mixed with painful doubt, that Jacqueline lowered her 
 eyes again to avoid the fire of his glance. 
 
 "Do you mean that, Jacqueline?" he breathed 
 hoarsely. " Do you really mean that ? Or is it your 
 infernal coquetry prompting you again?" His
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 34$ 
 
 breath came in short gasps. All his spirit rose in 
 tension against his will to curb his passion. " Don't 
 play with me," he whispered angrily, almost fiercely, 
 as Jacqueline remained silent. " Do you really mean 
 what you have just said?" 
 
 But Jacqueline, unheeding his strong language, and 
 the violence of his tone, and still pressing her hand 
 gently upon his arm, though she avoided his glance 
 and kept her eyes lowered, continued quite calmly and 
 serenely : 
 
 "We could furnish a delightful flat in Paris with 
 two thousand pounds, Oliver; large enough to take 
 in you and me and maman as well, couldn't 
 we?" 
 
 "Jacqueline, don't tempt me. . . . Don't play with 
 me ... don't be cruel. . . . Don't be a coquette. 
 ... It is too serious." Oliver's whispered voice 
 was terrible and Jacqueline feared that their secret 
 confabulation might reach the ears of the people 
 around. Still standing close to him, she waited for 
 a breathless second and then drew yet nearer still and 
 whispered gently in his ear: 
 
 " I think, dear Oliver, that the true magic has come 
 into my heart now to stay for good." 
 
 Oliver was too moved to speak. But his glance 
 searchingly met Jacqueline's eyes that now were 
 turned frankly and fearlessly up to his. 
 
 What he saw there quieted and reassured him at 
 once. 
 
 The unconscious crowd in its admiration of Oli- 
 ver's genius, jostled around them utterly heedless
 
 346 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 
 
 of their emotion. . . . But the two people in front of 
 the picture understood one another at last, and Oliver, 
 lifting 1 his right hand, closed it over Jacqueline's 
 trembling fingers that lay on his left arm. With 
 that gesture of love and protection he took possession 
 of her for ever. 
 
 They drove home in a hansom cab in a delicious 
 solitude a deux, and hardly a word was spoken be- 
 tween them. 
 
 Then, with mute accord, they went quietly in to tell 
 their story to Franchise. 
 
 They found her alone, with her embroidery in the 
 drawing-room. 
 
 " Maman cherie!" said Jacqueline triumphantly, 
 as she entered the room : " As I have often told you, 
 you have a perfect genius for mothering. So I have 
 brought you another child to care for. . . . He's 
 rather big and grown up for a little maman like 
 you perhaps; but probably you'll find that even he 
 will need your comforting sometimes, when I've a 
 teasing fit on. ... For I won't promise you even 
 now that I shall ever entirely renounce what you are 
 pleased to call my ' infernal coquetry ' ! " she said, 
 turning a radiant face to Oliver again. 
 
 "My darling," murmured Franchise as she gath- 
 ered Jacqueline to her heart. "How very deeply 
 happy you have made me. ..." 
 
 "Maman cherie," said Oliver with deep emotion, 
 though he made an effort to join in with Jacqueline's 
 more playful mood, "Maman cherie, I have the 
 honour to ask you for the hand of your daughter,
 
 THE EDUCATION OF JACQUELINE 347 
 
 Jacqueline, with your consent to continue her educa- 
 tion. It needs careful supervision, even now. . . ." 
 
 " I give her to you with joy, Oliver, for I know 
 you alone will make her happy." And turning to 
 Jacqueline : 
 
 "Then you are content, my darling?" 
 
 "Yes, maman cherie . . . !" cried Jacqueline, 
 throwing herself once more upon her mother's breast, 
 and now letting her happy tears fall unchecked. 
 
 "The magic has come to me at last, mother! I 
 found it in Oliver's heart ! " 
 
 THE END