Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 11, 2025
A walk in company with his friend, Maxime de Brevan; a visit to the theatre, when a particularly fine piece was to be given; and two or three calls a week at Count Ville-Handry's house, these were his sole and certainly very harmless amusements. "A genuine old maid, that sailor is," said the concierge of the house.
Then the old man, looking at her half surprised, said, "What! after all you have seen of M. de Brevan, you have never suspected him of meditating your death?" "Why, yes! I sometimes thought so." "Well, this time you were right, madam. Ah! you do not know your enemies yet. But I know them, I; for I have had a chance of measuring the depth of their wickedness.
Your lodgings are ready for you, madam; and I am going, with your leave, to drive you there." She raised herself, and said, with a great effort, "Do so, sir!" M. de Brevan had already jumped into the carriage, which started at full gallop; and, while they were driving along, he explained to Henrietta how she would have to conduct herself in the house in which he had engaged a lodging for her.
Her intolerable sufferings would not extort a sigh from her that the countess did not hear on the other side of the partition, and delight in. She was thus harassing herself, when she suddenly remembered the letter which she had written to Daniel. If M. de Brevan was to have it that same day, there was not a moment to lose.
He could not accept Maxime's offer. "One word, I pray you," he said. "Suppose I lose my free will, and surrender absolutely; what will become of me?" Brevan looked at him with an air of pity, and said, "Not much will happen to you; only" And then he added with almost sternness, mixed with bitter sarcasm, "You ask me for your horoscope? Be it so. Have you a large fortune?"
He went down, therefore; and, while his carriage drove to his friend's house, he thought of the surprise he would cause Maxime. When he arrived there, he found M. de Brevan standing in his shirt- sleeves before an immense marble table, covered all over with pots and bottles, with brushes, combs, and sponges, with pincers, polishers, and files, making his toilet.
But Papa Ravinet shook his head, looking very wise, and said, "That is one explanation. I do not say no to it; but it is not the true one yet. Murder is so dangerous an expedient, that even the boldest criminals only resort to it in the last extremity, and generally very much against their inclination. Could not Brevan have possessed himself of M. Champcey's property without a murder?
"And no one inquires where they come from?" "From her sainted father's petroleum-wells, my dear fellow. Petroleum explains everything." Brevan seemed to feel a kind of savage delight in seeing Daniel's despair, and in explaining to him most minutely how solidly, and how skilfully Miss Sarah Brandon's position in the world had been established.
"It was at a fancy ball," he went on, "given by M. Planix, that Sarah Brandon, at that time still known as Ernestine Bergot, and Justin Chevassat, now Maxime de Brevan, met for the first time. He was completely overpowered by her marvellous beauty, and she she was strangely impressed by the peculiar expression in Maxime's face.
If she had but known it, if she had but had a single friend to advise her in her inexperience! But she had been faithful to her vow never to let her secret be known to a living soul; and the most terrible anguish had never torn from her a single complaint. M. de Brevan knew this full well; for he had continued his weekly visits with implacable regularity.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking