Little Saint Elizabeth and Other Stories — 02 - Little Saint Elizabeth Part 2
Less than two months from that time Elizabeth was living in the home of her Uncle Bertrand, in New York.
He had come to Normandy for her himself, and taken her back with him across the Atlantic.
She was richer than ever now, as a great deal of her Aunt Clotilde's money had been left to her, and Uncle Bertrand was her guardian.
He was a handsome, elegant, clever man, who, having lived long in America and being fond of American life, did not appear very much like a Frenchman--at least he did not appear so to Elizabeth, who had only seen the _curé_ and the doctor of the village.
Secretly he was very much embarrassed at the prospect of taking care of a little girl, but family pride, and the fact that such a very little girl, who was also such a very great heiress, _must_ be taken care of sustained him.
But when he first saw Elizabeth he could not restrain an exclamation of consternation.
[Illustration: It was Aunt Clotilde, who had sunk forward while kneeling at prayer.
] She entered the room, when she was sent for, clad in a strange little nun-like robe of black serge, made as like her-dead aunt's as possible.
At her small waist were the rosary and crucifix, and in her hand she held a missal she had forgotten in her agitation to lay down-- "But, my dear child," exclaimed Uncle Bertrand, staring at her aghast.
He managed to recover himself very quickly, and was, in his way, very kind to her; but the first thing he did was to send to Paris for a fashionable maid and fashionable mourning.
"Because, as you will see," he remarked to Alice, "we cannot travel as we are.
It is a costume for a convent or the stage."
Before she took off her little conventual robe, Elizabeth went to the village to visit all her poor.
The _curé_ went with her and shed tears himself when the people wept and kissed her little hand.
When the child returned, she went into the chapel and remained there for a long time.
She felt as if she was living in a dream when all the old life was left behind and she found herself in the big luxurious house in the gay New York street.
Nothing that could be done for her comfort had been left undone.
She had several beautiful rooms, a wonderful governess, different masters to teach her, her own retinue of servants as, indeed, has been already said.
But, secretly, she felt bewildered and almost terrified, everything was so new, so strange, so noisy, and so brilliant.
The dress she wore made her feel unlike herself; the books they gave her were full of pictures and stories of worldly things of which she knew nothing.
Her carriage was brought to the door and she went out with her governess, driving round and round the park with scores of other people who looked at her curiously, she did not know why.
The truth was that her refined little face was very beautiful indeed, and her soft dark eyes still wore the dreamy spiritual look which made her unlike the rest of the world.
"She looks like a little princess," she heard her uncle say one day.
"She will be some day a beautiful, an enchanting woman--her mother was so when she died at twenty, but she had been brought up differently.
This one is a little devotee.
I am afraid of her.
Her governess tells me she rises in the night to pray."
He said it with light laughter to some of his gay friends by whom he had wished the child to be seen.
He did not know that his gayety filled her with fear and pain.
She had been taught to believe gayety worldly and sinful, and his whole life was filled with it.
He had brilliant parties--he did not go to church--he had no pensioners--he seemed to think of nothing but pleasure.
Poor little Saint Elizabeth prayed for his soul many an hour when he was asleep after a grand dinner or supper party.
He could not possibly have dreamed that there was no one of whom she stood in such dread; her timidity increased tenfold in his presence.
When he sent for her and she went into the library to find him luxurious in his arm chair, a novel on his knee, a cigar in his white hand, a tolerant, half cynical smile on his handsome mouth, she could scarcely answer his questions, and could never find courage to tell what she so earnestly desired.
She had found out early that Aunt Clotilde and the _curé_ and the life they had led, had only aroused in his mind a half-pitying amusement.
It seemed to her that he did not understand and had strange sacrilegious thoughts about them--he did not believe in miracles--he smiled when she spoke of saints.
How could she tell him that she wished to spend all her money in building churches and giving alms to the poor?
That was what she wished to tell him--that she wanted money to send back to the village, that she wanted to give it to the poor people she saw in the streets, to those who lived in the miserable places.
But when she found herself face to face with him and he said some witty thing to her and seemed to find her only amusing, all her courage failed her.
Sometimes she thought she would throw herself upon her knees before him and beg him to send her back to Normandy--to let her live alone in the _château_ as her Aunt Clotilde had done.
One morning she arose very early, and knelt a long time before the little altar she had made for herself in her dressing room.
It was only a table with some black velvet thrown over it, a crucifix, a saintly image, and some flowers standing upon it.
She had put on, when she got up, the quaint black serge robe, because she felt more at home in it, and her heart was full of determination.
The night before she had received a letter from the _curé_ and it had contained sad news.
A fever had broken out in her beloved village, the vines had done badly, there was sickness among the cattle, there was already beginning to be suffering, and if something were not done for the people they would not know how to face the winter.
In the time of Mademoiselle de Rochemont they had always been made comfortable and happy at Christmas.
What was to be done?
The _curé_ ventured to write to Mademoiselle Elizabeth.
[Illustration: The villagers did not stand in awe of her.
] The poor child had scarcely slept at all.
Her dear village!
Her dear people!
The children would be hungry; the cows would die; there would be no fires to warm those who were old.
"I must go to uncle," she said, pale and trembling.
"I must ask him to give me money.
I am afraid, but it is right to mortify the spirit.
The martyrs went to the stake.
The holy Saint Elizabeth was ready to endure anything that she might do her duty and help the poor."
Because she had been called Elizabeth she had thought and read a great deal of the saint whose namesake she was--the saintly Elizabeth whose husband was so wicked and cruel, and who wished to prevent her from doing good deeds.
And oftenest of all she had read the legend which told that one day as Elizabeth went out with a basket of food to give to the poor and hungry, she had met her savage husband, who had demanded that she should tell him what she was carrying, and when she replied "Roses," and he tore the cover from the basket to see if she spoke the truth, a miracle had been performed, and the basket was filled with roses, so that she had been saved from her husband's cruelty, and also from telling an untruth.
To little Elizabeth this legend had been beautiful and quite real--it proved that if one were doing good, the saints would take care of one.
Since she had been in her new home, she had, half consciously, compared her Uncle Bertrand with the wicked Landgrave, though she was too gentle and just to think he was really cruel, as Saint Elizabeth's husband had been, only he did not care for the poor, and loved only the world--and surely that was wicked.
She had been taught that to care for the world at all was a fatal sin.
She did not eat any breakfast.
She thought she would fast until she had done what she intended to do.
It had been her Aunt Clotilde's habit to fast very often.
She waited anxiously to hear that her Uncle Bertrand had left his room.
He always rose late, and this morning he was later than usual as he had had a long gay dinner party the night before.
It was nearly twelve before she heard his door open.
Then she went quickly to the staircase.
Her heart was beating so fast that she put her little hand to her side and waited a moment to regain her breath.
She felt quite cold.
"Perhaps I must wait until he has eaten his breakfast," she said.
"Perhaps I must not disturb him yet.
It would, make him displeased.
I
will wait--yes, for a little while."
She did not return to her room, but waited upon the stairs.
It seemed to be a long time.
It appeared that a friend breakfasted with him.
She heard a gentleman come in and recognized his voice, which she had heard before.
She did not know what the gentleman's name was, but she had met him going in and out with her uncle once or twice, and had thought he had a kind face and kind eyes.
He had looked at her in an interested way when he spoke to her--even as if he were a little curious, and she had wondered why he did so.
When the door of the breakfast room opened and shut as the servants went in, she could hear the two laughing and talking.
They seemed to be enjoying themselves very much.
Once she heard an order given for the mail phaeton.
They were evidently going out as soon as the meal was over.
At last the door opened and they were coming out.
Elizabeth ran down the stairs and stood in a small reception room.
Her heart began to beat faster than ever.
"The blessed martyrs were not afraid," she whispered to herself.
"Uncle Bertrand!"
she said, as he approached, and she scarcely knew her own faint voice.
"Uncle Bertrand--" He turned, and seeing her, started, and exclaimed, rather impatiently--evidently he was at once amazed and displeased to see her.
He was in a hurry to get out, and the sight of her odd little figure, standing in its straight black robe between the _portières_, the slender hands clasped on the breast, the small pale face and great dark eyes uplifted, was certainly a surprise to him.
"Elizabeth!"
he said, "what do you wish?
Why do you come downstairs?
And that impossible dress!
Why do you wear it again?
It is not suitable."
"Uncle Bertrand," said the child, clasping her hands still more tightly, her eyes growing larger in her excitement and terror under his displeasure, "it is that I want money--a great deal.
I beg your pardon if I derange you.
It is for the poor.
Moreover, the _curé_ has written the people of the village are ill--the vineyards did not yield well.
They must have money.
I must send them some."
Uncle Bertrand shrugged his shoulders.
"That is the message of _monsieur le curé_, is it?"
he said.
"He wants money!
My dear Elizabeth, I must inquire further.
You have a fortune, but I cannot permit you to throw it away.
You are a child, and do not understand--" [Illustration: "UNCLE BERTRAND," SAID THE CHILD, CLASPING HER HANDS.
] "But," cried Elizabeth, trembling with agitation, "they are so poor when one does not help them: their vineyards are so little, and if the year is bad they must starve.
Aunt Clotilde gave to them every year--even in the good years.
She said they must be cared for like children."
"That was your Aunt Clotilde's charity," replied her uncle.
"Sometimes she was not so wise as she was devout.
I must know more of this.
I have no time at present, I am going out of town.
In a few days I will reflect upon it.
Tell your maid to give that hideous garment away.
Go out to drive--amuse yourself--you are too pale."
Elizabeth looked at his handsome, careless face in utter helplessness.
This was a matter of life and death to her; to him it meant nothing.
"But it is winter," she panted, breathlessly; "there is snow.
Soon it will be Christmas, and they will have nothing--no candles for the church, no little manger for the holy child, nothing for the poorest ones.
And the children--" "It shall be thought of later," said Uncle Bertrand.
"I am too busy now.
Be reasonable, my child, and run away.
You detain me."
He left her with a slight impatient shrug of his shoulders and the slight amused smile on his lips.
She heard him speak to his friend.
"She was brought up by one who had renounced the world," he said, "and she has already renounced it herself--_pauvre petite enfant_!
At eleven years she wishes to devote her fortune to the poor and herself to the Church."
Elizabeth sank back into the shadow of the _portières_.
Great burning tears filled her eyes and slipped down her cheeks, falling upon her breast.
