CHAPTER XIV

A SUDDEN JOURNEY

At the end of the Promenade des Anglais, on the pleasant road bordered with tamarind-trees, stands, amid a grove of cork-oaks and eucalypti, a charming white villa with pink shutters.  A Russian lady, the Countess Woreseff, had it built five years ago, and occupied it one winter.  Then, tired of the monotonous noise of the waves beating on the terrace and the brightness of the calm blue sky, she longed for the mists of her native country, and suddenly started for St. Petersburg, leaving that charming residence to be let.

It was there, amid rhododendrons and strawberry-trees in full bloom, that Micheline and Serge had taken up their abode.  Until that day the Princess had scarcely travelled.  Her mother, always occupied in commercial pursuits, had never left Paris.  Micheline had remained with her.  During this long journey, accomplished in most luxurious style, she had behaved like a child astonished at everything, and pleased at the least thing.  With her face close to the window she saw through the transparent darkness of a lovely winter’s night, villages and forests gliding past like phantoms.  Afar off, in the depths of the country, she caught sight of a light glimmering, and she loved to picture a family gathered by the fire, the children asleep and the mother working in the silence.

Children!  She often thought of them, and never without a sigh of regret rising to her lips.  She had been married for some months, and her dreams of becoming a mother had not been realized.  How happy she would have been to have a baby, with fair hair, to fondle and kiss!  Then the idea of a child reminded her of her own mother.  She thought of the deep love one must feel for a child.  And the image of the mistress, sad and alone, in the large house of the Rue Saint-Dominique, came to her mind.  A vague remorse seized her heart.  She felt she had behaved badly.  She said to herself:  “If, to punish me, Heaven will not grant me a child!” She wept, and soon her grief and trouble vanished with her tears.  Sleep overpowered her, and when she awoke it was broad daylight and they were in Provence.

From that moment everything was dazzling.  The arrival at Marseilles; the journey along the coast, the approach to Nice, were all matters of ecstacy to Micheline.  But it was when the carriage, which was waiting for them at the railway station, stopped at the gates of the villa, that she broke into raptures.  She could not feast her eyes enough on the scene which was before her.  The blue sea, the sky without a cloud, the white houses rising on the hill amid the dark foliage, and in the distance the mountaintops covered with snow, and tinged with pink under the brilliant rays of the sun.  All this vigorous and slightly wild nature surprised the Parisienne.  It was a new experience.  Dazzled by the light and intoxicated with the perfumes, a sort of languor came over her.  She soon recovered and became quite strong—­something altogether new for her, and she felt thoroughly happy.