Not a word of personal tenderness. Not an expression which
would betray any of their secrets. With no address or signature,
they are full only in directions. He is called for a length of time
to Lagunitas, to put the estate in "general order."
Removed from the sway of Hardin, Natalie relies upon herself. Her
buoyant wings bear her on in society. Recognized as an opponent
of the North, she meets those lingering Southern sympathizers who
have little side coteries yet in glittering Paris.
Adulation of her beauty and sparkling wit fires her genius. Her
French is classic. The sealed book of her youth gives no hint of
where her fine idiom came from. Merrily Marie Berard recounts to
the luxurious social star the efforts of sly dames and soft-voiced
messieurs to fathom the "De Santos'" past.
Marie Berard is irreproachable; never presuming. She can wait.
Madame Natalie's stormy past has taught her to trust no one. It
is her rule from the first that no one shall see Isabel Valois,
the pet of the Sacred Heart Convent, but herself. Little remains
in a month or two, with either child, of its cradle memories. The
months spent by the two girls in mastering a new language are final
extinguishers of the past.
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