CHAPTER VI Versailles
On an afternoon in February, two months later, two girls were walkingtogether in the most beautiful and perhaps the most historically romanticgarden in the world, the garden of Versailles.
They had followed the long avenues known as the "Avenues of the Seasons"and in French, as Allee de l'Ete, Allee de l'Automme, Allee de l'Hiverand Allee du Printemps, and were now seated on a small bench at the endof the Allee du Printemps, facing a fountain.
The fountain was not playing at the present time, and yet it must havebeen in action not long before. A little fringe of ice appeared at theedges of the great basin, while the clumps of reeds, from which the sprayusually issued, were encrusted with tiny jewels of frost.
"Do you really prefer going home without me, Sally? I don't feel I shouldallow you to go alone and yet you look tired. I suppose we should nothave walked so far. I have promised to wait near the Little Trianon untilPeggy and Ralph Marshall join us. This is Ralph's first visit toVersailles and I am afraid if we are not there when he and Peggy arrivethey will wait on indefinitely, expecting us to appear. You will take thetram just as I explained to you and go directly home. I should haveremembered you had been ill."
The younger of the two American girls shook her head impatiently.
"Please give up that fallacy, Bettina; I have not been ill, I have neverbeen seriously ill in my life. I simply spent six weeks in the country tosatisfy Aunt Patricia and to enjoy being as lazy as I wished. Some dayperhaps I may tell you what made me unhappy after our retreat to Paris,but not now. At present I am going to desert you not so much because I amtired as because Peggy Webster and Ralph Marshall in their presentengaged state bore me. Goodby, I know the way to our new home perfectlyand will have no difficulty in reaching there alone. If you are late Iwill make your peace with Tante. It is enough that we should have oneinvalid in the family!"
And with a wave of her hand Sally Ashton departed, walking toward one ofthe nearby gates which led from the great park into the town ofVersailles.
Delayed in Paris longer than she had anticipated, it was only ten daysbefore that Miss Patricia Lord had managed to move the Camp Fire girlsand Mrs. Burton from their pension in Paris to her furnished house atVersailles. But no one of them had regretted the delay, having in theinterval witnessed President Wilson's brilliant welcome by the city ofParis and the opening of the Allied Peace Conference.
Yet this afternoon, as Bettina waited in the famous garden for the comingof her friends, she was glad to have escaped from the turmoil andexcitement of Paris into the comparative quiet of Versailles.
All her life, except for the few persons to whom she gave her devotedaffection, Bettina had cared more for books than for human beings, whichmay have partly explained her lack of interest in the social life ofWashington to which her parents' positions entitled her.
At this moment she opened a book she had brought with her, a history ofQueen Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI. Down the long avenue she could seethe outlines of the stately palace, which had been started as a huntingbox for Louis XIII, transformed into its present magnificence by thegreat Louis XIV, and been the home of the last days of the ill-fatedLouis XVI and his Queen.
Closer to where Bettina was at present seated was the Little Trianon, thepleasure palace presented to Marie Antoinette by the King, and it washere under a group of the famous Louisiana cypress trees that Bettina hadagreed to meet Peggy and Ralph.
She did not wish to be late for her appointment; only a few days beforeRalph had arrived in Paris on his way home to the United States and thiswas his first visit to the park at Versailles. No one could say how longhe would remain in France before his orders to sail, but at least he andPeggy had the satisfaction of having their engagement formallyacknowledged, although their marriage, because of Peggy's youth, wasstill indefinitely postponed.
Bettina did not share Sally's attitude toward her friends. Since herearliest girlhood she and Peggy had been singularly devoted to eachother, and although she did not believe the old friendship could continueafter Peggy's marriage with the same degree of sympathy and affection,nevertheless she meant to make the best of a three-cornered friendship.
It was still too early for her engagement, yet Bettina, after readingonly a few chapters, closed her book and got up. It was growing a littlecold and she would walk on toward the Little Trianon and wait in somemore sheltered place for Ralph's and Peggy's arrival.
As she had plenty of time she strolled along down the Avenue de Trianon,studying the details of her surroundings with even more interest thanusual.
A little path led away from the avenue to a high stone wall.
Never before had Bettina seen either the path or the wall in her frequentwanderings about the great Park of Versailles. A little aimlessly she nowfollowed the path, discovering that the wall was about six feet in heightand oval in shape with long tendrils of winter vines partly hiding it.Strange that she had never noticed this particular wall which mightconceal some place of special interest! Yet the Park was so immense andheld so many objects of beauty and value that one might spend half alifetime without seeing all its treasures.
Circling the stone wall Bettina noticed a narrow opening just largeenough to permit one person to enter.
There was no one near. At the present time no visitors were allowed toexplore the great Park at Versailles without a special permit from theFrench authorities. The Camp Fire girls owed their privilege to thekindness of Monsieur Georges Duval, the French Senator who was Mrs.Burton's friend.
Bettina stepped up to the opening in the wall and glanced in. Inside wasan enclosed garden. In the winter time one could see that the garden wasan old and carefully tended one, which in the spring or summer would be aplace of rare loveliness.
This was probably a portion of the English garden of Queen MarieAntoinette, about which Bettina had read. It must have also been a secretgarden, for the opening in the wall was scarcely a gateway, a narrowsection of stone had been removed, which could be restored and leave nosign.
Without reflecting or considering whether she possessed the right togratify her curiosity, Bettina slipped inside the little garden.
The grass was still green, the paths carefully tended and free fromweeds. In the large flower beds the plants were covered from the winterfrosts.
The garden held a remarkable variety of shrubs and trees.
Overhead branches of the trees intertwined like long bare arms. Heavyvines of roses formed dim canopies above white pergolas, which with thecoming of spring and summer would be bowers of flowers.
Close against the oval stone wall were carefully trimmed evergreen trees,their eternal green a restful background for the riot of color which thegarden must offer in its seasons of blooming.
Bettina wandered farther along the footpaths which led deeper and deeperinside the enclosure. The garden was larger than she had first believedand more fascinating.
Finally she entered a maze, made of closely trimmed box hedge which shehad never seen in France. Some of the designs were squares, others ovalor triangular in shape. At last she came to the central design, where thehedge had been so trimmed that the grass enclosure was in the shape of alarge heart.
Smiling Bettina stopped at this point. How romantic the little gardenappeared, shut away from the outside world of long tumult and strife!
Then suddenly she appreciated that it was growing late for her engagementand she must cease from her romantic dreaming.
Bettina now turned and began to retrace her steps with the idea ofleaving the secret garden as soon as possible.
So absorbed had she been by her unexpected discoveries and her ownreflections that she had evidently remained longer than she intended.Even now Peggy and Ralph were probably awaiting her. However, they wouldprobably not mind being alone for a little longer time.
On some other occasion, if she were allowed, Bettina felt she would liketo show them this tiny, e
nchanted garden. How strange to recall thatMarie Antoinette had often wandered in these same paths! And also thatwith the execution of Queen Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI, Francehad begun her long struggle for liberty and equality, a struggle whichthe great European war had only continued on a more worldwide scale.
But Bettina now discovered that she was not making her way out of thelabyrinth so easily as she had entered it. Twice she found that she hadwandered through the maze only to arrive again at the heart-shaped designin the center.
Nearly a quarter of an hour Bettina expended before she reached the pathwhich led to the opening in the stone wall through which she had enteredinto the secret garden.
Yet at the end of this path, Bettina decided that she must have made asecond mistake. The path led directly to the wall, yet there was noopening to be seen, no sign of any gateway.
Retracing her steps she followed another path, but with the same result.Finally she attempted to walk around the entire wall inside the garden,searching for an opening in every available space.
It was impossible to climb the wall, the surface was too smooth andsteep, nevertheless, several times Bettina made futile attempts. Then shetried calling for help, although recognizing the difficulty of attractingany one's attention.
The winter twilight was beginning to close in and in ordinary timestourists were not permitted inside the Park after dark. Whoever hadcharge of the little garden must have closed the gate and gone away forthe night.
Finally Bettina concluded that she must expect to remain inside thesecret garden for the night. There was nothing to do save to accept thesituation philosophically. She would be cold and hungry and lonely, butmany persons had lived through far greater misfortunes. The worst of herpresent situation was the anxiety her failure to return home wouldoccasion her friends.
During the long hours before morning she must amuse herself by peoplingthe little garden with the picturesque ghosts of its past.
A little after eight o'clock, having by this time decided that she couldnot hope for rescue until the next day, Bettina searched until she foundthe best possible shelter for the night on a little bench within a clumpof evergreens.