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A free man again and with the citoyennes Élodie, Rose, and Julienne crowding round him, Desmahis looked at Philippe Dubois he did not like the man and suspected him of having played him a practical joke with a wry smile, and towering above him by a whole head: "Dubois," he told him, "if you call me Barbaroux again, I shall call you Brissot; he is a little fat man with a silly face, greasy hair, an oily skin and damp hands.
And he seemed to hear Élodie also saying in a gentle voice: "Hear me, beloved brother, while the Furies leave you master of your reason ..." And he thought: "And yet I am no parricide. Far from it, it is filial piety has made me shed the tainted blood of the enemies of my fatherland." There seemed no end to these trials for conspiracy in the prisons. Forty-nine accused crowded the tiers of seats.
"Much reading in military text-books has made him mad. A considerably less interesting fellow than Andrew, who, after all, has a modicum of brains, one Don Quixote, achieved immortality by proceeding along the same lunatic lines." Then Elodie flashed out. She understood nothing of the allusion, but she suspected a sneer. "If I were a man I should fight for France.
"Where is Élodie?" asked the citoyenne Chassagne. Jean Blaise shook his head; he did not know. He never did know; he made it a point of honour not to. Julie had come to take her friend with her to see Rose Thévenin at Monceaux, where the actress lived in a little house with an English garden.
Thenceforward the performance went without a hitch, to the attentive gratification of the audience. There was no uproarious demonstration; but they laughed in the right places and acclaimed satisfactorily his finale on the giant violin. They gave him a call, to which he responded, leading Elodie by the hand.
Being now convinced he knew the facts, he resolved to question Élodie, though without letting her know the circumstances that had led him to discover the culprit. As he was climbing the stairs to his lodgings, he perceived even on the lower landings a stifling smell of fruit, and on reaching the studio, found Élodie helping the citoyenne Gamelin to make quince preserve.
Andrew followed him to the booths of the Pari Mutuel, and betting his modest five franc piece, on each of the first two events, found Bakkus infallible. But on looking down the list of entries for the great race of the day he was startled to find a name which he had only once met with before and which he had all but forgotten. It was "Elodie."
There are also human beings for whom snakes have a natural affinity." Elodie shuddered. "Snakes! I prefer birds. Ah, le petit amour. Viens donc!" She had them all about her, on head and shoulders and arms, all unafraid, all content; then all fluttering with their clipped wings, about her lips, except a grey parrot who rubbed his beak against her ear.
"I love them in you." She smiled: "I should be assuming a heavy task, spite of the wigs black, blonde and red, that are the rage, if I undertook to be all women, all sorts of women, for you." "Élodie, I swear...." "What! oaths, citoyen Desmahis? Either you have a deal of simplicity, or you credit me with overmuch."
Monsieur Patou goes to join the English army." She was not going to make her sacrifice for nothing. To Bakkus Andrew confided the general charge of Elodie. "My dear fellow," said the cynic, "isn't it rather overdoing your saintly simplicity? Do you remember the farce 'Occupe-toi d'Amelie? Do I appeal to you as a squire of deserted dames, grass-widows endowed with plenty?
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