“I want to inquire about a young woman who, I understand, was one of your pupils here.”
“Which young woman would that be?”
“Her name is Leonie Dousett.”
A slight alarm went off in the mother superior’s head. She had spent a great deal of time years before trying to find something of Leonie’s history, all to no avail. Though two years had passed since the young lady had left the convent, she still kept in close contact with her. The woman’s protective instinct arose. “Why are you interested, may I ask?”
Mignon hesitated. “I understand you can’t give information about your pupils to anyone who walks in here.” He grinned. “Especially to a rough-looking fellow like me.”
“It’s our policy to be very cautious about giving out information.”
“Very commendable, Reverend Mother, but you may rest assured I mean the girl no harm.”
“I’m afraid I’ll have to have a little more assurance than that, Monsieur.”
“Of course. I understand completely.” Mignon leaned forward. His eyes were almost hooded, yet there was a glitter in them of intelligence and even audacity. “I was not always as you see me now. Many years ago I was a man rising in my profession—the law, if you can believe it—but misfortune overtook me.” He hesitated for a moment, then said, “I have been in prison. You probably guessed that.”
“I’m sorry to hear it, sir.”
“So am I,” Mignon said almost solemnly. Then he managed a grin. “Like all the others, I was totally innocent.”
The mother superior didn’t respond.
Mignon said, “I cannot give you the name of the family I worked for, but I think you would know it if I did.” He leaned forward and clasped his hands together. “I have reason to believe that the young woman that you know as Leonie Dousett is the daughter of a very wealthy, indeed, a noble family.”
“You astonish me, sir!”
“I would give you more details, but let me ask you, Reverend Mother, were there any clues to the infant’s identity when she came to this place?”
“Sir, there was very little. I found the child myself.”
“You did? Where?”
The mother superior decided there could be no danger in revealing the details of Leonie’s arrival. “It was very early in the morning, when I left to go to the village. A basket was on the doorstep and an infant was in it.”
“And the basket, was there anything in it that would lead to the child’s identity?”
“Only a locket and a book.”
“No names? No letter explaining the infant’s arrival?”
“Nothing like that.”
“No doubt. Well, what about the locket?”
“It had a man’s picture in it. It was an expensive locket.”
“Could I see it?”
“I do not have it, sir. I gave it to Leonie on her twelfth birthday. It was all she had of her family.”
“The picture inside—had you ever seen the individual?”
“It was perhaps the child’s father—but who could say?”
“I must see this young woman, Reverend Mother. If I am right, and she is who I think she is, she will be very fortunate indeed. She would be an heiress to a very large fortune.”
“Of which you would expect a liberal reward, Monsieur?”
Blaise Mignon laughed. “You are right indeed. But I will do all things aboveboard. The crime for which I was sent to Devil’s Island was not theft but violence. I killed the wrong man in a duel. He was very prominent. But I will not rob the girl. You yourself will know all the details as soon as I discover them myself.”
The mother superior said, “Let me see your face. Look me in the eye.”
Mignon lifted his head, his eyes open wide. He did not speak, and for a long moment the two were totally silent. “There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face,” Mignon said. “I believe that comes from Macbeth, and he was right. Some of the most angelic-looking men I’ve ever seen were villains at heart. You can tell nothing by my face.”
“I do not agree, but I cannot ignore your request. Monsieur, return tomorrow at this same time.”
“Ah,” Mignon said with a smile. “That means she is in New Orleans or very close. You wish to contact her and tell her about her odd-looking benefactor.”
Ignoring Mignon’s words, the mother superior nodded a dismissal. “You may come back tomorrow at this same hour.”
Mignon rose, bowed, and left without another word. As soon as he was gone, the mother superior got up and began to pace the floor. She was excited but at the same time cautious. What can the man want? It could not be money, at least not from Leonie, because she has none. If he’s telling the truth, I have no right to withhold it from her. She walked to the door, opened it, and called out, “Sister Agnes, have someone take word to Leonie that I wish to see her immediately.”
As soon as Leonie entered the mother superior’s office, she saw that the older woman was nervous. “Is something wrong?”
“I’m not sure. Sit down. I want to talk with you.”
Leonie sat down at once and felt a tension growing. The mother superior was usually a calm woman who showed little strain.
“A man came to see me yesterday, Leonie. His name is Blaise Mignon. Have you ever heard the name?”
“Why, no. Never.”
“I didn’t think so—nor have I. He had a very strange claim.” The mother superior fixed her eyes on the young girl. “He said that he knew something about your background.”
“My background? Is he related to me?”
“Don’t get excited. It may all come to nothing. No, he’s not related to you.”
“Well, who is he then? What does he want? How does he know about me?”
The mother superior slowly explained every detail of Mignon’s visit. She saw that Leonie was pale and paused to warn her. “He spoke of your family as being wealthy and prominent, but why would a wealthy, prominent family abandon a baby?”
“Perhaps—perhaps I was stolen.”
“That sounds like a fairy tale or a romance novel.”
Leonie looked down at the floor for a moment, and her voice was almost inaudible. “I’ve always longed to know who my family was and why they gave me up. I assumed it was because they were poor and couldn’t take care of me.”
“Leonie, I must beg you not to build your hopes on this. The man may be a scoundrel. Indeed, he appears to be one, at least to the eye.”
“That may be, Reverend Mother, but I must talk to him! I would do anything to find out who my parents were and if I had brothers and sisters.”
“I thought you might say that, and in fact, I would say the same thing myself. Very well, Leonie. I will give the man your address, but I must caution you, child: be very careful. You are young and innocent, and this man has a terrible background. I ask you to come and see me as soon as you have talked with him. Perhaps I can give you some counsel.”
“Oh, I will, Reverend Mother. Will you tell him to come as quickly as you can?”
“I assure you, child, he will be knocking on your door almost by the time you get home. He made no secret of the fact that he expects to be well paid if he’s the agent of reuniting you with your family.”
“That would be only fair.”
“Come and see me immediately after you have met the man.”
“I will. I promise.”
As soon as Leonie walked out, the mother superior shook her head and murmured, “I hope I’ve done the right thing. But who is to know about things like this?”
Chapter seven
Leonie’s heart beat more rapidly as the man who called himself Blaise Mignon stood before her. She had been waiting for him, and when he appeared at her door, she escorted him to the parlor that she shared with her employer.
“Madam Honore is working in the shop,” she explained. “Will you have a seat, sir?”
“Thank you, Mademoiselle.” Mignon took his seat and kept hi
s eyes fixed on the young woman. “It was kind of you to agree to see me. I know Reverend Mother warned you that I was not particularly presentable.”
Leonie smiled. “I am not particularly interested in fashionable clothes. What I am interested in is what you told Reverend Mother— that you may know something about my parents.”
“Perhaps you need to know something about me first. I know my appearance is against me. I was at Devil’s Island for many years. I was only relieved a year ago.”
“I’ve heard about that place. It must be terrible.”
“It is indeed, Mademoiselle, and as I told the mother superior, I was not sent there because I stole but because I killed a man. Oh, it was in a duel, in a fair fight, and he was a very wealthy, prominent man—a nobleman, as a matter of fact—and I was only a lawyer.”
“What was the duel about?”
“Foolishness, as they always are. I wasted my life because of a moment’s anger.”
Mignon’s face changed, and she saw a sadness there. He was shabby, and she could tell that he had been drinking, but there was a hope in her as she looked at the man. “Would you please tell me why you think I am related to a noble family?”
“I served a family called Augustine. Sir Ancel Augustine was my employer. He’s dead now, I’m sorry to say.”
The three canaries that Madam Honore kept were singing, and the sun was streaming in through the windows. The cheerfulness of the scene contrasted with the tension in Leonie. She waited patiently for Mignon to continue.
He began to speak again. “Sir Ancel and his wife, Maria, had a son named Ives. They were very proud of him. He was the male heir, and he was the only child, and they had great expectations, of course. But as such things sometimes happen, Ives Augustine fell in love with a woman who was unacceptable to the family.” He paused to look at Leonie and said, “Her name was Lila Moran.”
The sound of people passing on the street below came faintly into the drawing room, but Leonie shut them out. “I have never heard the name.”
“Likely not. She was a beautiful woman. I met her only once. It was a rather painful scene. Sir Ancel met with his son, Ives, who had brought Miss Moran in to meet his parents. They wanted to be married, but Sir Ancel wouldn’t hear of it. Sir Ancel was a hard man. He told his son that if he married the woman, he would be cut off forever and not even allowed to come back to the house.”
“What did his wife say?”
“A good question. She tried to take the woman’s part, but Sir Ancel was a headstrong man. He always was, so he had his way about it.”
“Did they get married?”
“They did. I heard about it indirectly.”
“How did you find me, Monsieur?
“A trick of fate, I think. I was walking down the street and saw a painting in the window of a run-down shop. I recognized it as the woman that Ives fell in love with. Naturally I went into the shop and inquired about the painting.” He shook his head, adding, “The owner told me that his father had bought the painting years ago.”
“Did he say who sold it to his father?”
“Better than that, Miss Dousett: he found the slip that gave the name and the date of the sale. The woman who sold the painting was named Zuri Vidette.”
“What a strange name. I don’t recognize the origin of it.”
“She’s a gypsy. She owned a boardinghouse years ago, but she’s fallen on hard times. I found her in a workhouse. I think you should go with me and listen to her story.”
“Yes, Monsieur, let us go at once!”
As Mignon led Leonie up the steps, he warned her, “She’s a gypsy, as I told you. Looks like one, too, and rather a foul old woman, so you’ll have to be prepared.”
The two entered the house and were greeted at once by a slatternly woman who appeared not to have bathed for years. “We’d like to see Zuri Vidette, Madam.”
“What for?”
“I think I’ll keep that to myself, if you don’t mind. Where is she?”
“Out in the back.”
“Thank you for your kindness.”
Mignon led the way through the house, which had terrible odors and seemed to be held up mostly by dirt. “Do your best to bear it, my dear,” he said. They went out onto a wide porch that circled the house, and Mignon murmured, “There she is over there.” He led the way over to where a tiny figure was seated in a chair. She had snow-white hair, and when she turned to face them, her dark eyes were alive though the rest of her was shriveled up, and her voice was a shrill cackle. “Well, the lawyer man is back.”
“Yes, Zuri, I am, and I brought a guest. This is Miss Dousett.”
Zuri Vidette locked her dark eyes on Leonie but spoke to the lawyer. “What do you want now?”
“I want you to tell this young woman the story you told me.”
“You’ll have to pay again.”
“I’ll pay. Don’t worry.”
“The same amount?”
“Yes. The same amount. Now, you tell Miss Dousett your story.”
The old woman turned to face Leonie. “Be careful of this one. He’s got the devil in him.”
“I’d like to hear the story, Miss Vidette.”
“Ah, she’s got manners, this one! Not like some I could mention.” Zuri gave a malevolent glance at the lawyer. “Like I told the lawyer here, a young woman came to me for a room. She was expecting very soon, and she had almost no money. She had a little jewelry and a painting. She stayed with me until the child was born. She pawned everything, including the painting.”
Leonie leaned forward. “Did she ever tell you anything about herself?”
“Not much, but I knew a lot. She talked about her husband. Not by name, of course, not to me. And I found out.”
“What did you find out?” Leonie demanded.
“I found out his family didn’t want him to marry her. She wrote letters to someone. I posted them.”
“Letters to whom?”
“I don’t know. I can’t read.”
“What was the woman like?”
“Well, she was a good one, I’ll have to say. Of course it’s been a long time. You could tell she had seen better days. She was sick when she came to me, and she didn’t get no better.”
Leonie took in every word as Zuri rambled. She got off the subject often, but then Mignon drew her back to speak of the young woman.
“And finally the baby came. Born right in her room, it was. She had a hard time, and she was dying.” The old woman’s eyes glittered like a bird’s. “She made me promise to take her baby to the holy sisters. I took her out to the convent early the next morning and left her there.”
Mignon stood to one side listening as Leonie asked many questions about the young woman who had died and left her baby in Zuri’s care. Finally the old woman grew sullen. “Give me my money. That’s all I’m saying for now.”
Mignon reached into his pocket, pulled out several coins, and handed them to her. “We’d best be going, Miss Dousett.” After saying good-bye to the old woman, Mignon gently guided Leonie out of the house. “I have something to show you, but it’s in my lodgings. I can bring it by tomorrow or later today even.”
“Couldn’t we go by now?”
“I don’t live in the most respectable part of town, but we can go if you’d like. You’ll be safe enough.”
“Yes. I’d like to go now.”
Leonie got into the carriage that had waited for them, and all the way to Mignon’s quarters she was thinking about the old woman and the strange story that she had told.
“Are you convinced?” Mignon quickly asked, breaking into her thoughts.
“There’s not enough evidence.”
“Not yet.”
They spoke no more until they got to his quarters. She got out of the carriage, and Mignon told the driver to wait. He led her inside and asked her to sit down in the drawing room that all of the boarders used. No one was there at that time, and he left her for a moment. When he came back, he
was carrying what she had expected, a painting. Without comment he handed it to her.
Taking the picture, Leonie examined it. It was a portrait of a woman. Leonie stared at the features. “She’s very beautiful. She couldn’t be my mother.” Leonie could not take her eyes off the picture. “She seems so—so gentle.”
“She was. I liked her very much.”
Leonie pulled out a locket out from where it hung next to her flesh. She removed it and unsnapped it and handed it to Mignon without comment. He looked at it and said, “This is Ives Augustine, your father. I see the resemblance.”
“There was also this. I brought it to show you.” She pulled out a small book and handed it to him. He looked at the title: The Imitation of Christ.
“It was in the basket with you when you were found?”
“Yes.”
He opened up the book and stared at the writing that filled the white spaces around the print. He fluttered through the pages. “All we have to do is match this handwriting with a sample of your father’s.”
The words “your father” sent a sudden thrill through Leonie. “You really think it is my father’s book?”
“I think there’s no doubt of it, my dear.” He gave her the book back and said, “I have learned that your father died at very nearly the same time as your mother did. They both were very ill. And now, your grandfather is dead, but your grandmother, Maria Augustine, is alive. She would have to receive you as part of the family. You would, in fact, be an heiress, for you are the only child of Ives Augustine.”
“There were no other children?”
“No. There are two cousins, a man and a woman, children of Ancel’s dead brother.”
“What do we do now, sir?”
“I think it’s time for us to present you to your family.”
Suddenly Leonie looked at the man and asked, “Why are you doing this?”
“For two reasons,” Mignon said. “When I was arrested, your father did his best to help me. He did everything in his power, but it was hopeless. But he tried, and I always admired and liked him.”
“And the other reason?”
“We’ve already talked about that. If we come into a fortune, I would expect to be rewarded for my efforts.”
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