Love stories; Nobility -- Great Britain -- Fiction; Switzerland -- Fiction
“Do not be frightened, Monsieur. I shall never become a Roman
Catholic. But all the same I think the Roman Catholics very good
people, and that their faith is as well as another, at any rate for
those who believe it.”
Then he made an excuse to slip away, leaving the Pasteur puzzled.
“He is wrong,” he said to himself, “most wrong, but all the
same, let it be admitted that the boy has a big mind, and
intelligent—yes, intelligent.”
It is certain that those who search with sufficient earnestness end in
finding something, though the discovered path may run in the wrong
direction, or prove impassable, or wind through caverns, or along the
edge of precipices, down which sooner or later the traveller falls, or
lead at length to some _cul-de-sac_. The axiom was not varied in
Godfrey’s case, and the path he found was named—Miss Ogilvy.
On the first Sunday after his arrival at Kleindorf a fine carriage and
pair drew up at the shrubbery gate, just as the family were returning
from the morning service in the little church where the Pasteur
ministered. Madame sighed when she saw it, for she would have loved
dearly to possess such an equipage, as indeed, she had done at one
period in her career, before an obscure series of circumstances led to
her strange union with Monsieur Boiset.
“What beautiful horses,” exclaimed Juliette, her hazel eyes
sparkling. “Oh! that tenth Commandment, who can keep it? And why
should some people have fine horses and others not even a pony? _Ma
mère_, why were you not able to keep that carriage of which you have
spoken to me so often?”
Madame bit her lip, and with a whispered “hold your tongue,”
plunged into conversation about Miss Ogilvy. Then Godfrey entered the
carriage and was whirled away in style, looking like the prince in a
fairy book, as Juliette remarked, while the Pasteur tried to explain to
her how much happier she was without the temptation of such earthly
vanities.
Miss Ogilvy’s house was a beautiful dwelling of its sort, standing in
gardens of its own that ran down to the lake, and commanding fine views
of all the glorious scenery which surrounds Lucerne. The rooms were
large and lofty, with parquet floors, and in some of them were really
good pictures that their owner had inherited, also collections of
beautiful old French furniture. In short, it was a stately and refined
abode, such as is sometimes to be found abroad in the possession of
Americans or English people of wealth, who for their health’s sake or
other reasons, make their homes upon the Continent.
On hearing the carriage arrive, Miss Ogilvy, who was dressed in a
simple, but charming grey gown and, as Godfrey noticed at once, wore
round her neck the old Gnostic talisman which he had given her, came
from a saloon to meet him in the large, square hall.
“I _am_ glad to see you, Godfrey,” she said in her soft,
cultivated voice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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