The Ouroboros Cycle, Book One. G.D. Falksen
Читать онлайн книгу.
‘forbid it.’ What nonsense. Surely you are as concerned for Babette’s education as I am.”
“No, no, no,” James continued, for once in his life talking over his father’s voice. “I will not allow this! The social season is about to begin! Babette must be in Paris!”
They stood in the downstairs library, William freshly returned from his walk. James wore an informal day suit and a velvet robe de chambre, as he always did the day following a gathering.
William folded his hands and looked at his son sternly.
“James,” he said, “stop this foolishness at once.”
“Foolishness?” James cried, turning pale. “I seek to defend my daughter’s happiness against this madcap scheme of yours, and you call it foolishness?”
“Babette has a restless mind,” William said. “This has become quite clear to me. She is tossed about by the mad currents of intellect, swept from one new idea to the next.”
“All the more reason for her to be married! Why, her mother—”
“Babette is nothing like her mother, James,” William said flatly. “She will not be content with dresses and bows, Society and gossip! She delights in the intellect. If she is to have a contented home life, she must either be paired with a husband of intellect who is willing to indulge her, or she must be taught how to indulge the needs of her own keen mind without failing in her duties as a wife and a woman of means.”
James turned to walk away, then turned back toward William. He spun about in place a few times in this manner, cutting a ludicrous figure as he did so.
“This is all so incredible!” he cried. “I cannot believe this! Babette is no philosophe, Father. She wants what all young women want.”
“And what is that?” William demanded. “Marriage? Children? Parties, dresses, and miniature dogs?” He grabbed James by the arm and shook him, not violently but firmly enough to capture his son’s attention. “No James, she does not. Your daughter would like nothing more than to live the life of a monk: spiritual, contemplative, and chaste. Childless,” he added, putting great emphasis on the word.
James sank into a nearby chair as if he had been struck down.
“Oh God…” he moaned. “You’re right, of course, Father. Where did we go wrong? If only her mother were here.…”
William rather suspected that Babette’s mother would only have made things worse. He could scarcely imagine the horror of her and James both fussing Babette to death. It was the sort of thing that drove sane people to suicide or murder.
“Forget her mother, James,” William said. “It is up to us to manage this. The only solution is to teach Babette how to compromise between her love of intellect and her duties as a woman. By the grace of God, I have realized this now and not later. Babette is still young. She is sixteen. A year’s delay in her courtship will make no great difference.”
“A year?”
“A year,” William repeated. “A year for her to be tutored in science, art, and philosophy. A year for her to prove that she can still maintain her place in Society in spite of her studies.”
“Studies?” James cried. “You make it sound like she is to be sent to a university!”
Yes, William thought, what a horror that would be.
“I think this is all a dreadful mistake,” James said. “We should be restraining Babette, punishing her for these foolish lapses, not indulging them! What will the neighbors say?”
“If all goes according to plan, they shall have nothing to comment on,” William said. “Whereas, if we do nothing and simply ignore the problem, the neighbors—indeed, all of France—will have a great deal to speak of.”
“But we leave for Paris at the end of the week!”
“Indeed we do,” William said. “Babette will be introduced into Society. She will be presented to the Emperor and Empress. She will attend the major balls and functions this year. But in between, we will retire to this house where she will be allowed to indulge her intellect. I have even selected a tutor for her.”
“But—”
William grabbed his son by the shoulders and shook him.
“James, don’t you see? If we do nothing, Babette’s own natural instincts will lead her into scandal! Already she ignores protocol, she dismisses social position, she despises fashion, and she is given to wandering off to the library when guests are present! Do you think she will stop all that once she is married?”
James looked down at his hands. After a long while, he finally murmured, “No.…”
“There is but one solution, James,” William said. “The one that I have proposed. You know as well as I that it is the only means of preventing an eventual scandal.”
“But what of Paris?” James asked. “How can we hope to meet all of our social requirements while remaining here in the country?”
“James, my boy,” William said, “all things are possible in this modern age.”
“I’m not riding on one of those railroad machines!”
“Of course not,” William said, smiling.
“And we will attend all of the season’s social functions?” James asked.
“All the important ones, yes,” William said. The list was very short in his estimation.
James looked away, his expression conveying his many doubts and great uncertainty.
“What of this tutor?” he asked.
“Most suitable,” William said. “Most suitable.”
“But will Babette like him?” James asked. “You remember the disaster with Monsieur Laurant…?”
“I have interviewed him myself,” William said. “I have every confidence that the two of them will get on wonderfully.”
Chapter Five
Paris, France
The next few days were a confused blur for Babette as she was bustled about by Father, driven mad by the fussing of servants packing—including a trunk full of new gowns that she had no interest in wearing—and finally compounded into delirium by the hurried journey south to Paris.
Their rooms in the capital were spacious and charming, but Babette had scarcely enough time to familiarize herself with the surroundings before she was again uprooted, pulled out to visit jewelers and dressmakers for even more adornments—“for later in the season,” Father had said. She soon found herself forced into the company of French society and her fellow debutantes, people she had no inclination to like.
She was presented to the Emperor and Empress along with the other girls, a process that somehow managed to be both tedious and brief. The days that followed were filled with balls and luncheons, fine dinners and quiet salons. Day and night it was an unending chorus of music and trite conversation. There were no books.
It was unbearable.
* * * *
It was nearly two weeks before Babette saw Korbinian again. By that time, she had lost all thought of when she might encounter him next, though he had never left her mind. Far from it: she could scarcely think of anything else as the tedium of high society surrounded her, slowly choking away her will to live. She had not seen him in Paris since their arrival, not once. By the end of the second week, she had all but given up hope.
Which is why, when she saw him at Madame de Saint-Étienne’s soiree at the end of the second week, she nearly dropped her glass. For a moment she could not believe her eyes, and she stood