Everything went exactly as usual the next morning, the absence of the
mistress of the house not making the faintest difference. Jeanne and
Isabelle went through their usual domestic ritual in exactly the same
order, whether Madame told them or not. Indeed, whatever she might tell
them, they changed no slightest tittle of what they did, as she had long
ago found out. Jeanne brought in the breakfast tray, and did Marise's
hair as usual, and although not a soul had stepped into the salon since
the day before, Isabelle was skating back and forth on the waxed floor,
woolen cloths on her feet, when Marise passed the door. Outside it was a
breathless still day, with a hazy sun, very hot for so early in the
spring.
As they crossed the Adour, Marise caught the first whiff of its summer
smell, compounded of decaying sea-weed, tar and stale fish. She and
Jeanne said little, although they had wordlessly made up their tiff the
evening before, and had gone to sleep after exchanging their usual
hearty good-night kisses. Their quarrels although frequent never lasted
long.
Everybody at school was dull, too, from the first heat. The hours seemed
very long, with little in them. Marise felt listless and rather cross,
and dreaded the exertion of taking her music lesson, although she
usually looked forward eagerly to those hours with Mlle. Hasparren, the
best and happiest of her days.
At four o'clock the music-teacher called to take her home. She also was
hot and tired and fearfully nervous, she said, after a terribly trying
day in her class-room, with her forty-five squirming little Basques. As
a rule she and Marise had a good deal to say to each other, because
Mlle. Hasparren was the only person Marise knew who had any interest in
America. The rest never spoke of it, or if by chance they did, they only
asked about buffaloes and Indians, and evidently didn't believe her when
she said she'd never seen either. But Mlle. Hasparren knew better, and
loved to talk about it, and actually knew the difference between the
Civil War and the Revolution, and had heard of Abraham Lincoln and
thought he was a greater man than _Napoleon_! Marise, who was reading a
great deal of Victor Hugo, hardly knew whether to agree with this
startling idea or not, but she felt when she was with Mlle. Hasparren,
that it was safe to open many doors which she usually kept locked, and
to talk with her about things she never dreamed of mentioning to anybody
else. Which did not, of course, at all prevent her from wishing to
goodness Mlle. Hasparren didn't wear such fearful hats, and that her
skirts would hang better.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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