III
They went to see the kind Mademoiselle Duphot, and this visit seemed momentous to Mary. She gazed with something almost like awe at the woman who had had the teaching of Stephen.
“Oh, but yes,” smiled Mademoiselle Duphot, “I teached her. She was terribly naughty over her dictée; she would write remarks about the poor Henri—très impertinente she would be about Henri! Stévenne was a queer little child and naughty—but so dear, so dear—I could never scold her. With me she done everything her own way.”
“Please tell me about that time,” coaxed Mary.
So Mademoiselle Duphot sat down beside Mary and patted her hand: “Like me, you love her. Well now let me recall—She would sometimes get angry, very angry, and then she would go to the stables and talk to her horse. But when she fence it was marvellous—she fence like a man, and she only a baby but extrémement strong. And then. …” The memories went on and on, such a store she possessed, the kind Mademoiselle Duphot.
As she talked her heart went out to the girl, for she felt a great tenderness towards young things: “I am glad that you come to live with our Stévenne now that Mademoiselle Puddle is at Morton. Stévenne would be desolate in the big house. It is charming for both of you this new arrangement. While she work you look after the ménage; is it not so? You take care of Stévenne, she take care of you. Oui, oui, I am glad you have come to Paris.”
Julie stroked Mary’s smooth young cheek, then her arm, for she wished to observe through her fingers. She smiled: “Very young, also very kind. I like so much the feel of your kindness—it gives me a warm and so happy sensation, because with all kindness there must be much good.”
Was she quite blind after all, the poor Julie?
And hearing her Stephen flushed with pleasure, and her eyes that could see turned and rested on Mary with a gentle and very profound expression in their depths—at that moment they were calmly thoughtful, as though brooding upon the mystery of life—one might almost have said the eyes of a mother.
A happy and pleasant visit it had been; they talked about it all through the evening.