I was in my apartment one day. I remember it well—a hot August day when I was feeling listless and wishing the next few months would pass quickly, when there was a tap on my door.
I called for whoever was there to enter and a maid came in to say that there was a lady downstairs who was asking for me.
‘She has come a long way,’ said the girl. ‘And she has a child with her. She says she knows that you will see her.’
I went down at once and when I saw who was standing in the hall I gave a cry of joy and ran to her.
‘Lisette! You have come at last. I have tired so hard to find you. It is wonderful to see you.’
‘I knew you would say that,’ she answered, her lovely blue eyes glowing with affection. I had forgotten how pretty she was. Now she was rather soberly dressed, with her fair hair escaping from the pins which held it, so that it made little curling tendrils on her forehead and neck, and smiling half whimsically, half tenderly, and I could think of only one thing: my friend Lisette had come back to me.
‘I had to come,’ she said. ‘I had nowhere to go. I thought you would help me. I couldn’t face Tante Berthe.’
‘I’m glad you came. This is your little boy? I heard you had one.’
She laid her hand on the boy’s shoulder. He looked older than Charlot. ‘Louis Charles,’ she said, ‘take Madame’s hand as you know how.’
The boy took my hand and kissed it. I thought he was charming.
‘There is so much to tell you,’ said Lisette.
‘I long to hear it,’ I replied. ‘How have you travelled? Have you come far? Are you hungry?’
‘We came on horseback … Louis Charles riding with me. One of the men from my neighbour’s stables brought me here. I have left him in the stables. Perhaps they could give him a bed for the night. He will want to leave in the morning.’
‘Of course, of course,’ I said.
‘I have so much to tell you … but … could I wash first?’
‘Certainly, and eat too. I will tell them to prepare a room for you and your son.’
I called to the servants. Food must be prepared … a room and everything for her comfort; and the groom who had come with her must be lodged and fed.
I was delighted to have her back with me and could not wait to hear all her news as soon as she had washed and eaten and the boy was sleeping. I took her into one of the smaller rooms of the château where we could be quite alone while she told me her story.
Hers had not been a happy marriage. She had made a great mistake. When she and Tante Berthe had visited their relative she had been introduced to Farmer Dubois; he had fallen in love with her so completely that she had been quite flattered and in a mad moment had agreed to marry him.
‘It was a mistake,’ she said. ‘I could not be a farmer’s wife. It didn’t suit me at all. He adored me …but one gets a little tired of such devotion. I even played with the idea of running away. I thought I’d come to you and throw myself on your mercy.’
‘I wish you had,’ I said. ‘Oh, I have missed you so much, Lisette.’
‘But you are Madame de Tourville now. You have your beautiful château and your devoted husband.’
I lifted my shoulders and she studied me intently.
‘You are happy?’ she asked.
‘Oh yes … yes … quite happy.’
‘I am glad. I think the most awful thing a woman can suffer is an unhappy marriage.’
‘But at least your Monsieur Dubois adored you. Have you left him, Lisette?’
‘I am coming to that. He is dead. That is why I got away.’
‘Dead! Oh, Lisette.’
‘I know. He was a good man, but I was bored. I wanted to get away … though I didn’t want it to happen this way.’
‘Which way?’
‘Well, I was resigned. I had made my bed as they say, and I must lie on it. I tried to become a farmer’s wife. Lottie. I tried hard but I didn’t do it very well. Still, Jacques did not seem to mind and I had my little boy.’
‘He must have been a great consolation.’
‘He is indeed. I don’t think I should have had the courage to come here if it had not been for him.’
‘My dear Lisette, why? You know I should always be glad to see you.’
‘We had so many good times together, didn’t we? Remember the fortune-teller? That was where you first met your husband. I think he fell in love with you on sight. Poor Sophie, what a tragedy! But it made the way clear for you, didn’t it?’
‘I don’t see it like that. I often think of Sophie.’
‘She could have married him.’
‘I don’t think she would have been very happy if she had done so. I can only tell myself that it was her choice.’
‘At least you are happy.’
‘Yes, with the dearest little boy … And Lisette, I am to have another.’
‘Lottie! How wonderful. Is your husband pleased?’
‘Delighted—and so are my father and mother.’
‘That is good news. But I have to talk to you, Lottie. I have to talk very seriously … because I have nowhere to go.’
‘Nowhere to go! But you are here. You have come back. How can you say you have nowhere to go?’
