Marriage first. After that, the secret. It is a MASTER STROKE.
Hortense Duval thinks only of her own child. She cares nothing
for the dead Confederate under the Georgia pines. Gentle Dolores
is sleeping in the chapel grounds at Lagunitas. Isabel Valois has
not a friend in the world!
But, Marie Berard must be won and controlled. Why not? It is
fortune for her to be true to her liberal mistress. Berard knows
Paris and has friends. She will see them. If the maid be discharged,
Hortense loses her only witness against Hardin; her only safeguard.
As Madame de Santos is ushered to her rooms, she decides to act
at once, and drop forever her past. But Marie?
Marie Berard wonders at the obscure hotel. Her brain finds no
reason for this isolation. "Ah! les modes de Paris." Madame will
soon emerge as a lovely vision.
In the years of her service with Hortense Duval, Marie has quietly
enriched herself. She knows the day of parting comes in all unlawful
connections. Time and fading charms, coldness and the lassitude of
habit, eat away the golden chain till it drops off. "On se range
enfin."
The "femme de chambre" knows too much to ever think of imposing
on Judge Hardin. He is too sly. It is from Madame de Santos the
golden stream must flow.
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